Amie went to her quarters after that, she needed to be alone to think. Her mission was obviously virtuous, but the odds against her seemed overwhelming. She couldn't turn to Equestria for help, the ponies thought they were monsters and wanted them dead. She couldn't retreat to her camp and organize a united front for survival, because camp wanted her dead too.
Then there was Ivy, who might find the key to sending everypony home, or might betray her directly to the princess on a whim. Bud might help them hunt, or call the guard to get rid of them when they got too troublesome.
It would all be so much easier if camp was filled with adults. Then she wouldn't have to burn herself with guilt every time she thought about having them help, or take risks. They could decide for themselves what was worth fighting for, instead of looking to Amie as their protector. If Equestria only knew who they were starving up in the mountains...
Amie spread her detailed map of camp on her table, circling slowly around it while she thought. Somewhere on those pages there had to be an answer, hidden in plain sight. All she had to do was take over from a much more experienced leader who surrounded himself with armed guards! What could be simpler?
Hoofsteps sounded on the balcony outside, heavy and familiar. She felt exhaustion through that door, someone just as overwhelmed as she was. Overwhelmed with real emotions.
Amie became a bat. The change was so easy for her she barely thought about it anymore, as mechanical as clipping the straps of her bra behind her back. Not easy exactly, but familiar. When the magic faded, her head was no longer high enough to see the map on the table.
The door slid open a few seconds later, and Tailslide stumbled in. He fumbled for the light switch with one hoof, not seeing her yet in the gloom. She waited by the table, silent until he flicked the switch.
The light briefly blinded her bat-eyes, making her bare her teeth for a second in instinctive fear. But it didn't last. Tailslide was back. "Hey!" She waved one wing in his direction. "Wondered when you would get back from work.
Tailslide froze, eyes wide. "You're—you're back already? Back from your diplomatic mission?"
Now that she wasn't going to startle him, Amie closed the distance in a few steps, so she was within reach. He didn't smell great, more of those awful forge chemicals. But he looked a lot healthier. Now that he had somewhere warm to sleep and enough to eat, he wasn't working to death. "Finished it. There was... more diplomacy to work through here."
He nodded weakly, then leaned forward and planted a kiss on her forehead. Magically speaking, the affection wasn't much. But for Amie, it restored more than any glamour could quantify.
He walked past her to the fridge, then flicked it open. It wasn't empty anymore, the stuff Wes usually stocked had all been moved. He took a large bowl of hearty-looking stew, then poured it into a pot. "Put the other one on too," Amie said, following him over. "I haven't eaten since breakfast, and I'm starving."
Tailslide shrugged, then obeyed. "Still doing that? I thought that might just be because I... wore you out."
Amie chuckled. Her face felt warm all over again, but now she was in private. There was no reason to feel shy. "In a way, I guess that's why. There's... a lot you don't know. Can we talk about it later? One of the luxuries of having a boyfriend is not needing to think. I'm ready to stop thinking for a while."
"Oh. Let me get cleaned up. You can tell me about your trip after."
Amie felt much better. She was back to aching all over, but it was the kind of pain that reminded her of why life was worth living. In her handful of previous boyfriends, none had ever been quite like Tailslide.
Amie didn't wear out the way she had the first time, either. So much emotion in one place refreshed her far faster than her strength naturally waned, and still left her far fuller than when she started. In the end, it wasn't Tailslide or herself wearing out that brought her back to reality—it was the hunger and amusement she felt through the wall.
Kaya's bugs might not be spying on her every second, but they were still here, watching and feeling everything. And if Wes noticed, she might just die of embarrassment. She couldn't have privacy here, not like the luxury of a little boat on the lake.
Good thing that strange desire to sleep didn't return, or else she might've had trouble with the weight of all her other responsibilities. She didn't have the time to rest.
For all his tiredness, Tailslide didn't either. He joined her at the table, settling onto his haunches beside her chair. "You were looking at the map before I got here. What is this?"
"Camp Stella Lacus," she answered, looking back at him. "Buck, I forget how much you don't know. Everything kinda turned upside-down during the trip. It's a mess, Tailslide. I'm not sure what to do."
"Maybe I can help." He leaned over the map, studying it carefully. "Your camp is bigger than I expected. It's bigger than some towns."
"A hundred cabins. Then this little neighborhood here, these houses are for the staff. Counselors live in cabins near the students. In busy years we sometimes have kids in military tents here. Thank God we didn't have the extra population."
Tailslide looked up from the map. "Commander Path thinks these are barracks. From the air, we can see obstacle courses, an archery range, and some other things. Before I met you, I believed him—thought it was training a changeling army."
Amie chuckled. "He doesn't have an army. A private police-force, maybe. But that's... that's what's bothering me. This isn't on you—if you don't want to hear any of it, I'll... I'm sure I'll figure this out. I just need to let the problem stew for a while longer. There has to be a solution here."
"What are you trying to do?" Tailslide asked. "Remember why I stayed in Agate. I didn't know if I would ever see you again, I just thought what Equestria was doing was wrong. I want to help the ones stuck on that mountain, I still do."
Every person she told just made the risk of information escaping worse. But Tailslide wasn't going to run to Albrecht. Betrayal from him was far less likely than the orange bugs. Not that she expected it from either. "The bugs in Stella Lacus aren't just in trouble from Equestria—they're in trouble because their leader doesn't know what he's doing. I saw how things are like—it's bad. Someone has to take his place. I wish it could be someone else, but..."
Tailslide reached over, and brushed a few strands of her mane away from her face. "You want to... take over? That doesn't seem like you, Amie."
She hopped down off her chair, spreading both wings in a brief glide to the floor. What she said next was far more dangerous than any threats against an unseen changeling that Tailslide had never met.
"I don't want to," she said flatly. "If there was another way—I wouldn't. But Albrecht doesn't understand Equestria, he doesn't understand magic, and he doesn't understand changelings. He would still... be really useful in a lot of ways. Organization, logistics, and camp leadership. He knows the place, he knows the people. But he doesn't know our new world."
"Can you teach him those things?" Tailslide suggested. He held up one wing, defensive. "I'm not telling you that you wouldn't make a great leader. But I... am a little worried about the future of that camp. If you go back there, you're going to get swept up in whatever's coming. I don't know how long Equestria just... sits here. Commander Path would have attacked already if he knew how vulnerable you are. When he realizes..."
Oh God. Amie could tell truth when she heard it. Of course the commander had never mentioned any of his future plans to her, or any time she was around. She was just a hired actor, convincing his daughter to leave so she wouldn't pursue a military life.
"There's another reason it has to be me." She walked past him, gently pulling the curtains closed at the corners. They were already shut, but that little bit of extra light around the edges was still too much to risk with what she was about to do. Nopony outside of that window knew what she was.
"I know you've already seen what I really look like," she continued. "And you're... still here, anyway. But since the last time we met, I've changed. I don't know why—even the other changelings I visited couldn't tell me. But it happened."
Tailslide followed her. "I'm not afraid, Amie. I know you can look however you want. I figured you came up with that mare because you knew I would like her."
"Uh... okay, yeah. I could tell which of my different bodies made you feel more..." She shook her head vigorously, until she got it out of her head. It wasn't easy, with the smells of the last few hours still around them. "Honestly, I think I like being a bat more than anything else I've been so far. And I like being pretty—but I'm something else underneath, and that's what changed. I'll show you."
She closed her eyes, focused for a few silent moments. The bat vanished, and a changeling nymph took her place.
Tailslide was tall even for a pegasus, but now she was looking at his chin instead of his breast. She was still leaner and narrower, but not by much. Most dramatic was probably still having a mane, though that wasn't what his attention settled on. He stared directly into her eyes.
Amie wasn't limited to his physical reaction, though she had enough time around ponies to read shock when she saw it. His mouth opened and shut again, along with his wings, without producing any useful sound.
"Will you be upset if I say you’re more intimidating this way? Drones are… smaller, less dangerous. Now you’re all pointy. Reminds me of the wanted posters of Queen Chrysalis. Are you like her?”
Amie faced him again. She didn't move, not when his feelings turned so dark. He was afraid, and a nudge too hard might push him over the edge. There were other feelings present too—their last few hours proved that. She just had to lean on it.
"Queen Chrysalis is a monster—the things she did are evil. I'm not her—I'm Amie Blythe. I wasn't on your world when Equestria was invaded. I've never hurt a pony."
Tailslide closed one wing, then the other. He kept standing, as though ready to flee if he had to. Of course that wouldn't happen—if he decided to run, Amie wouldn't have the heart to stop him, no matter the consequences. "Why did you change? If I could choose, I wouldn’t copy her."
"I didn’t choose. So... you know how I said that changelings had tribes, like ponies? We don't have princesses, we have queens—every tribe does. The green tribe living in Camp Stella Lacus didn't have a queen... but now they will. Me."
She sagged onto her haunches, staring at the floor. Her wings spread limply to either side, betraying just how defeated she felt. How much pressure could one girl take before she exploded?
Not much more, surely. "We haven't been together long. If you're scared—I understand. I just ask if you're going to run that you not do anything that will hurt the bugs up in Stella Lacus. They're just kids, like Rick and Beth. They don't deserve to die."
Tailslide was silent for a long time. She had already felt pressure like this once, when Bud was deciding the survival chances of her changelings. Amie didn't really think he was capable of hurting the innocent bugs up at camp, but he could hurt her. It wouldn't take much.
"So you're the queen of your kind—the green tribe," he said. She couldn't read his feelings anymore—either he was keeping his emotions disciplined, or Amie's own confused them too much. She was definitely crying, so that didn't help. "You plan on taking over the camp?"
Amie closed her eyes again, then changed. Becoming the bat would probably be smarter, but the form just wouldn't come. She settled on another—the pegasus she'd designed weeks ago, when she tried to imagine what a pony version of Amie would have looked like. The version of herself she should've been here in Equestria, who could be welcomed by the ponies and probably helped to find a way home.
It was definitely easier for Tailslide to be near her this way. Some small part of him was still disgusted by the way changelings looked. That disgust came with shame, but it was still there. When she changed, only the shame remained.
"I have to," she said. Her voice was easier on him too, now that the strange reverberation of a bug's throat was gone from it. "Kids are starving up there. Albrecht doesn't know how to care for them, he doesn't know how to feed them. I have to—I can't let them starve."
So Amie chose to tell her boyfriend about the potentially bloody upcoming power struggle and her queenly status before her pregnancy. I found this low-key hilarious.
Tailslide has been really unwaveringly on the side of helping changelings survive after he met Amie, even to great detriment to his own livelihood. I have few doubts that he will continue to support Amie, even if he's got a lot to take in with what Amie told him and is yet to tell him.
Amie really needs to start using protection. She's already made a big mistake making assumptions that interspecies pregnancies couldn't work. I get that from the biology lessons she's used to, she's not gonna think she can get even more pregnant, but who knows with weird alien magic bug reproduction.
I already kinda imagined that the commander at least drew up plans to pre-emptively invade the containment zone. It's not that big of a stretch. If Amy was wiser, she maybe would've tried snooping around in his office a bit more. If she wasn't pressured for time right now, then maybe she still could. I don't imagine he would suspect a fly on the wall.
I believe the story is already completed, but I still hope we get to see Amie and Tailslide freaking out over getting baby stuff before the first hatch
"that wasn't a no...... But there's something else I need to tell you....." 😏
Let's see if the sense of duty factors in.
At least she has managed to tel someone and maybe Tailslide can help.
It will fade in time, if he truly loves her. It will overcome and replace the physical disgust in time. And if it doesn’t than his love is not pure/true/deep
"Oh, and also, I'm pregnant. They're yours. And they are many."
The day was coming when she'll have to tell him everything and it came. Don't know which way Tailslide will go but I don't doubt he'll at least keep the secret of the changelings to himself.
A battle isn't going to solve anything for any side no matter which way it goes. Amie would lose support of her pony allies and Path still wouldn't stop a changeling infiltration. There has to be a way to stop or delay an attack and it'll probably involve the new changeling taskforce being deployed by SMILE.
I could feel he'll honor this request at least.
If only this was the hardest challenge for her but there's many more yet to come.
I get the feeling that Milk might be on the shopping list in the future.
…Yeah, I’m disappointed in myself for that joke too.
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With how frayed his nerves are before that bomb
He's probably in need of a pack of cigs from the corner store
Poor Amie, she's so stressed...
I wonder if Amie can just mentally drive in and take over Albrecht like she had done for some of the other kids.
Oh crap, that makes a lot of sense. Especially to a pony who's barely capable of imagining any opposing force outside of another conventional military. Of course aerial scouting of a summer camp would reveal a lot of details that could be construed as such.
This is poor opsec, but it's good emotional catharsis. Amie doesn't need another agent right now, she needs a friend (and a lover doesn't hurt either.) Good on Tailslide. Let's just hope neither of them comes to regret this degree of trust.
I got chills reading that.
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Truer words have never been spoken.
There's no way Tailslide doesn't support her all the way, at this point - he has sacrificed too much to help her. He's in it for the long-haul.
As everyone else said, the eggs are a surprise as well xD Congrats Tailslide, you are part of the Hive now, in your own way...
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This does remind me; after they escape, it'll be obvious to the Equestrians that most of the changelings are now infiltrators. They'll redouble anti-infiltration activity.
Feigning an attack is definitely a possible tactic, though I suspect Amie is only aiming to get a few of them out of the camp - at least for now. Honestly, it's a miracle the ponies haven't started pushing toward the mountain already. Maybe they have been?
Honestly, the one thing i'd suggest is that candles or fireworks may seem too obvious - ponies have fireworks too, they know what they are, so they'll be more than a little perplexed about why the changelings are sending them out. They may expect it to be some kind of distraction - but if their leadership was that smart, SMILE wouldn't be coming in to intervene, would they?
If Amie had more time, teaching the campers to shapeshift and then abandon the camp that way would probably be highly effective. But Equestria will probably make a move before then.
Assuming the fireworks plan won't work - the guards themselves have their base far from the SMILE base, and have been shown to be quite incompetent as far as keeping out infiltrators. Slipping a doctored scout report into their papers, suggesting higher activity near Agate in preparation for an attack may be effective in diverting their attention - but the risk associated with that is extreme.
I'm REALLY curious to see what Amie's gonna do with the SMILE contact-box. She has a way to communicate with Equestria now, beyond Luna messing with her dreams - but it's unlikely that'll bear fruit for quite some time...
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I mean, I don't know the geography of the situation. I suggested the fireworks plan with full awareness that the ponies would increase anti-infiltration.
What I was hoping is that Amie's hive would be able to spread thin across all of Equestria once a successful breakout occurs (and hopefully hide those jeeps in the forest somewhere). But all of that depends on the geography. The forest needs to be large enough to cover the evacuation for at least 10s of miles, and then the evacuees need to be prepared to scatter under disguise to all of Equestria's largest cities and disappear.
Basically my plan is counting on the changelings being able to reach some large settlement under disguise far away from Motherlode and Agate without being reacquired by any pursuing forces.
I considered that even if the terrain permits such a thing, distracting the existing patrols on the mountain is absolutely essential to get the initial headstart on the pursuers. And from there I got the fireworks at Motherlode idea.
Edit: Crap, the idea also depends on the terrain around Motherlode. If the "raiding" party is not on a suicide mission, they need some terrain to mask their retreat, meaning the forest needs to reach Motherlode. And I'm not sure it does. From what I remember when Amie dragged Tailslide back to Motherlode, there was a clear view of Motherlode from a decent distance away. That might indicate that there is a large clearing around the town, bad news for any retreating forces.
Maybe then the plan should be to launch fireworks/flares over Motherlode from a helicopter, then just fly away and hope the helicopter can outfly the pursuers.
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Talking about long term strategy, Amie's hive essentially needs to engage in information warfare. Defeating their enemies by physical force is obviously off the table, but Amie was able to convert 3 ponies to her cause.
Tailslide she helped when he was vulnerable and secured his trust that way. Bud she got by just subverting his expectations to such an extreme degree that he was forced to question the popular opinion on changelings. Ivy she got by first befriending her and then by using the power of technology.
I have a funny feeling that Rick and Beth have done something similar, given we seem to have established that true friendships yield an order of magnitude more than false ones, and the Sonoma lings seem not to have believed that two lings could produce so much propolis.
Also, Natane tasting the propolis and saying it takes of "curiosity, joy, and affection" seems to be another implication, more specifically the inclusion of "curiosity".
What we need is to somehow improve upon these friendship methods to acquire a much larger group of pony allies, maybe by leveraging the technology more to set up in a basement somewhere and invite curious ponies to movie nights or dance parties or game nights. Some kind of entertainment. Then when everypony's relaxed and enjoying themselves, send a changeling representative on stage to give a little speech begging for help.
Here we have an enormous population of ponies who have only ever read about changelings in the news or heard about them by word of mouth. Such kinds of people are highly susceptible to visual demonstrations.
Also, when people feel like they have a special privilege to secret information, they tend to believe said secrets more strongly. So ponies given a solid narrative in secret with visual demonstrations when all counter evidence is so weak are very unlikely to reject that narrative.
This plan requires:
1. A secluded location.
2. At least one TV for movies.
3. At least one computer for video games or otherwise just tabletop games.
4. At least one good speaker set for music and maybe speeches.
5. Lookouts and escape routes to be prepared for possible raids by the Guard.