//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 — Tastes of Anger // Story: In Sheep's Clothing // by Kydois //------------------------------// Nymph I brought my weapons up in guard as my opponent and I slowly circled one another, surrounded by a ring of guard trainees watching our every move.  The breeze whistled through my ears, but whatever effect the cool Canterlot air had was lost under the lining of sweat that I had accumulated under the training armor, and it was exhausting staying at constant attention. My opponent, a bulky earth pony wielding a shield large enough to cover one of his sides and a long spear, wasn’t faring much better, despite the innate durability of the earth ponies. My axe stayed ready to my right as my knife danced ahead of me, watching for any jabs from my opponent that I could parry. I may not have needed to be so focused. I knew I was in no real peril here. Both of our weapons were replaced with blunted versions, and enchantments on both the training armor and the weapons would prevent either from making direct contact with the other. I could swing as hard as I wanted and not be able to even touch my enemy. Even low-grade spells were deflected. It was as safe as duels could be. Still, as Crystal was quick to remind me, there might be a time where I would be in peril, and I would need to defend myself against any foe. And so, I found myself accepting the drill sergeant’s offer to spar a few of the trainees after he noticed me working constantly at the dummies. “Lunge from left. Parry right and strike at his exposed back. Wait for the tell.” Plus, having Crystal around, hidden in one of the pouches originally designed for the fumes, helped tremendously in learning technique. Lily, who was allowed in the barracks as long as I kept an eye on her, cheered me on from the sidelines between bites of a daisy sandwich from her saddlebags. I watched my opponent carefully, though I was keeping a closer eye on my empathy sense. If there was one thing I learned about combat, it was that nearly everypony had the same sort of emotional “tell”, especially if they were the one attacking. They’d be wary at first, but the closer they were to striking, the more that wariness shifted into resolution, of following through with their maneuver. A tinge of excitement also might mean an impending attack if they believe they’ve spotted a weakness in my defenses. It was harder for counter-attacking since a lot of those are split-second reactions, but shifts on the emotional level could tell the entire tale of a fight. I felt his emotions morph, coupled with a small movement of his right side backward, coiling up for the strike. He lunged, and I immediately caught the shaft of his spear on my knife’s crossguard and shoved it to my right. My axe swung in an arc behind me to the opposite side, straight towards his open flank. He retreated instantly with a quick dose of surprise, followed by an even deeper caution than before. The watching guards, though they were too tired to make any big noise, seemed to be holding their breaths, and even Lily had quieted down a bit. “Tch. Coward. See if you can pull his shield out of position.” I assumed the position I had earlier, but this time, I was on the offensive. I drew my dagger to his spear side. A feint, yet he still moved his shield to block. My axe shot forward, not directly at him, but to the outside edge of his shield, hooking it on the axe head. He saw my maneuver, and immediately tried to shove my weapon away. I pulled hard on the shield with my axe, using his own momentum against him. My knife pivoted to the opposite side and flew straight past the shield towards his head. The knife stopped completely dead a mere centimeter away from him with a burst of yellow sparks, and he disengaged from me with a curse. Lily let out a whoop of victory, and I couldn’t help but feel proud of my achievement, as small as it is. “Outstanding, corporal.” The drill sergeant nodded approvingly. “Looks like you finally learned which side of a weapon goes where.” “Thank you, sir.” I tugged at the end of my helmet and shook my damp mane out to catch some of the breeze. The stench from the inside of the helmet finally gave way to clean air, and I eagerly filled my lungs with it. “Of course. Thank you for showing my colts just how far they are from becoming real guards,” the sergeant said, before turning up his voice and addressing the rest of the trainees. “See here, privates? Back when this corporal first got through training, I could have sworn she was cursed by Celestia herself! Had the absolute worst fighting skills I had ever seen in a new graduate, and she just about won against half of you undignified lot!” I groaned to the amusement of the sergeant, who continued, “See? Even she knows I’m right, now come on! Back to sets! Maybe if you pitiful lot could handle a weapon better than your mom’s flower garden, you’d have a cheerleader too!” I peeled off the rest of the sweat-soaked training armor and trotted off to find a cool place to rest as the trainees resumed drills, Lily following closely behind me. I gathered enough about Overwatch to know that the sergeant wasn’t completely wrong. Overwatch had excellent general athleticism and sharpshooting, but she specialized a little too hard. She was good enough at close quarters to pass the benchmark, but she had to ride on her exceptional talents elsewhere. Admittedly, I wasn’t really fighting as Overwatch had. If anything, I was physically weaker than my pony self and my magic repertoire wasn’t nearly as extensive, but I had my empathy sense and Crystal was a wellspring of useful information. “Cahn’t believe ‘ow well you’ve done, luv!” Lily exclaimed as we broke earshot of anypony else. “I agree. Steady improvement, considering that you have only been practicing with an axe for a few days. You are no Gale, of course, but hopefully, you will never need to be that good.” I slumped down against one of the barracks in the shade, still trying to catch my breath. “Gale?” “Ahh, I forget how little the myths of old survive today,” Crystal thought with a disapproving hum. “Gale, the Tempest Warlord of the Griffons. Though the axe was originally a minotaur weapon, it was Gale who took it to its greatest potential, though it pains me to say that most of his techniques were lost to the ages.” She scoffed, before mumbling, “Foals swinging axes around as if they were mere woodcutting tools. Pathetic.” I snorted, though the effect was lost between my heavy breaths. “Doesn’t sound like he lived very long with his famed skill.” “His myth, like many others, was not one of heroism. Betrayal and vengeance led to his early downfall. Fortunately though, I do remember many of his techniques, some of which I have very graciously bequeathed unto you.” Lily brought a hoof up to rub at her chin. “‘Ow’d you remember ‘is techniques if they were lost to the ages?” “Personal witness, and I will not tolerate any quips on my age,” Crystal said with a haughty harrumph, and Lily shut her half-open mouth with a pout. “Gale’s skill with an axe was not solely in overpowering defenses as with the minotaurs, but in sheer speed and precision strikes, combining the strengths of the griffons with the power of the axe swing to bypass defenses entirely. Am I wrong in thinking it is one much better suited to you than techniques based on strength?” A sigh escaped me. Crystal was right, though it didn’t take the bite off of the reminders that I was still inadequate. I was very much aware of my shortcomings already. I shifted, feeling the reassuring weight of my harnesses. I was still shoring those weak spots up, I reminded myself. I would pull through this, like I always do. Like I’ve always done. I massaged my forehead against a sudden headache. Might be getting a little dehydrated. I’ve been out in the sun all day, and my dark coat wasn’t doing me any favors keeping me cool. I shook my head. “You’re not wrong,” I thought. “Though at the moment, I think I’ll take a break before we continu—” Two faint pings sounded on my hive link, a water drop and a crashing wave, as if from a long distance away, much farther than anything I had really experienced back at the hive. Though I was sensitive enough to hear them, I had my doubts that I was strong enough to get a return ping back to them. I pursed my lips. “Scratch that, it sounds like we need to get back to the condo.” “You received a ping?” I groaned as I got up, carefully removing my harnesses and stuffing them into Lily’s saddlebags. “Dexter and Sinister. Sounded like they were in the direction of my condo,” I thought, checking that Crystal was still snug in her pouch before securing the bag closed. “Impressive that you can sense that if they really were at your home.” I sighed and began trotting towards the front entrance of the barracks. Lily sped up a little to keep pace with me, her head looking in all sorts of directions except forward. “Yes,” I groaned, “and I really don’t want to meet them. Dexter is nice enough, but Sinister’s…” “Yes, quite a character, he is,” she said, her voice dripping with disdain. “And it always seems like I’m being scrutinized or that I’m in trouble when I meet with them.” My ears drooped a little, and I hung my head a little lower. “I wish I hadn’t revealed my true self to them.” Lily clapped me over the back, and I let out a squeak as she pulled me into her. “Oh, don’chu worry ‘bout those two none! You’ll hear loads of buggers tryin’ t’ criticize you. ‘Lily, don’t do this. Lily, don’t do that. Lily, that isn’t prooopeer!’” She stuck out her tongue. “Point is, mum, you just gotta worry ‘bout yourself! You’ve already been workin’ on gettin’ better at stuff, ain’tcha?” I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, but it still doesn’t mean I’m good at them. I’m a nymph, not an adult.” Lily bumped me with her flank, bubbling up with her musical giggle. “And ain’t that another thing, luv? You gotta give it some time, let yourself fill into those horseshoes! Worry less ‘bout what you should be and worry more ‘bout how you’re gonna get there! Cahn’t be a Songstress without tankin’ your throat a couple times, mum. Jus’ keep at it!” I snorted, but I still put on a little smile. “Th-thanks,” I said, before taking a closer look at Lily. “Lily, I don’t think I’ve asked before, but… how old are you?” “Come to think of it, I do not believe I have asked such a question either.” “Sixteen winters!” Lily replied with a wide smile, though it was quickly replaced by a thoughtful pout. “Or was it seventeen…” I blinked. “Sweet Celestia, she’s older than I am.” I shook my head. “Hold up.” I turned and stared up at Lily, who was half a head taller than I was. “You ran away from home at that age?” She only winked and stuck her tongue out at me. “All I’m sayin’ is, you ain’t done much betta!” Lily said as we trotted through the gate into my apartment complex. “You’re here all alone, and you’re even younger than me!” “Not by choice!” I shot back as we rounded the corner. Candlelight and Card were already there, sitting in front of my condo, and Card called out to us. “Took long enough for you to get back. We were about to go scouring the city for you. Where’ve you been?” I rolled my eyes as I trotted past them up to the door, pulling a key out from Lily’s bags. “I was at the guard barracks beside the castle when you pinged.” He took a tentative sniff before wrinkling his nose and nodding. “Yeah, I can smell that.” Candlelight rubbed his chin thoughtfully with a hoof. “You got our ping all the way from the castle?” “Err… yes?” I twisted the key in the lock and pushed the door open. “It was pretty faint over the hivemind, but it wasn’t that hard.” Candlelight exchanged a quick glance with Card, though I ignored both of them and simply trotted inside. “So, why’d you ping me?” “Ahh, right. Just got some news from the other infiltrator pods here as well as a possible lead,” Candlelight said as he wiped his hooves and trotted in after me. He looked quizzically at Lily, who showed no signs of surprise at any of the ongoing conversation and even gave him a little smile and a wave. “You sure she’s okay? Talking a bit openly in the presence of somepony who isn’t in the hive.” “Trust me, if she’s been replaced, I’d know,” I said. After all, it’d be pretty obvious if Crystal no longer needed to cast anything to turn Lily into an earth pony. “Still, it’d probably be better if we kept what information we had on the down low,” Candlelight murmured. I levitated the saddlebags off of Lily, and nodded my head to her. “Lily, would you mind giving us a little privacy?” Lily snapped off a salute. “Course, mum!” she said before she turned to leave. I rolled my eyes when she left without closing the door again, though I sent a quick thought to Crystal. “Can you hear them if they communicate through the hivemind?” “Potentially, should I connect with your hivemind at large rather than just to you, but that might enable them to detect me. You may simply transmit any hivemind discussions to me directly, should they decide to converse in such a way.” I pulled my scarf out of the saddlebags and made a face. Still too sweaty to put it on. “So, onto business?” Candlelight smirked. “Right, of course,” he said, taking a seat at the table. “So, turns out that hunch we had last time might’ve been true.” Card pulled out his map of Canterlot and spread it across the table. This time, a few more red marks populated the map, and some of the original red numbers over the guardhouses were crossed out and replaced with another, smaller number. “A large number of our infiltrators in the guard went dark, and the others reported sudden attacks from unknown assailants in isolated locations, away from the stray witness,” Card said, grimacing. “Might have to keep a closer eye on Nymph, in case they decide to hit her too.” I shuddered. Candlelight’s lips pulled into a tight line. “We’ll have to see. We still have infiltrators in the guard, but we’ll have to be cautious, and we’ll have to trust that Nymph can hold her own. We can’t constantly keep an eye on her.” Card snorted in contempt and rolled his eyes. I aimed a glare at him, which he gladly returned. Candle looked between us two carefully before continuing. “Still, we do have something we might be able to use as a basis for later action,” he said, drawing our attention to the map. He pointed at one of the larger mansions circled in bright red on the outskirts of the Solar District near the castle. “There’s been a lot of talk around a big party hosted by Sir Fancy Pants, and he’s invited a whole lot of the upper crust to his estate.” “Oooh yeah, I’ve heard of ‘im,” Card Sharp said. “Big hotshot. Still young and he’s already made a big name for himself amongst the nobles, thanks to his shrewd business sense and huge fortune. Now that he’s officially head of his noble house, he’s going to host a big party and really get his name on every pair of lips up there.” Candlelight nodded in acknowledgment. “Not to mention recently engaged to a popular model. At this point, the only house he’s under is the Blueblood family.” Card grinned, showing off plenty of teeth. “There’s going to be a lot of juicy information up there, I bet, surrounded by everypony worth knowing in this city, and it’ll be the cherry on top if we can replace one of the nobles up there too.” “Don’t get too excited. We still gotta watch ourselves up there,” Candle said before turning to me to explain. “The guard is providing the security, and it’ll be hard to tell how many of them are actually enemy agents.” Card rolled his eyes. “It’s neutral ground. We might not be able to replace a lot of nobles up there, but it’s not like they can either, not without alerting the stallion hosting the party on his own estate. Fancy’s huge. There’s rumors he’s even deep with Celestia herself. No way anyling’s getting anywhere near him without a buckton of support. We’ll just be there to pick up as much information as we can, maybe pick up a few secrets we can manipulate to our advantage, and then split.” I raised an eyebrow. “It sounds like you already have a way in.” Candle nodded. “Yep, managed to hit two of the servants, surprisingly enough. Most of the servants for Fancy live on his estate somewhere, but we managed to tag a couple who still chose to live in the city.” I bit my lip. “You… hit them?” “Yep. Podded and all. It’ll only be for that one night though, so we'll have to slip them back into bed the next morning with some innocuous memories and an empty bottle or two. Can’t risk staying in that sort of position too long.” “Ahh, right,” I said, my stomach twisting uncomfortably. “So… what about me?” Candlelight paused, and the silence hung in the air for a moment before he cleared his throat. “Ahh, about that. There’s no way we can sneak you in since you can’t disguise yourself, and we can’t risk you being recognized by anyling there.” Card smirked. “You’ll just stay outside, hide somewhere, watch for anything suspicious. Let the grown-ups handle the actual infiltration duties.” I puffed up my chest, narrowing my eyes and scowling at the stupid, smug expression on Sinister’s dumb face. My mouth opened to speak, but Candle cut in quickly. “Quit it, Sinister, you’re not here to antagonize your teammates,” he said. Card turned a hard gaze to his partner. “Dexter, she’s a liability. She’s a big fat weak link in any infiltration operation we undergo that the enemy can exploit. If it were up to me, she wouldn’t even be a teammate.” I hissed at him, lowering my stance. “I don’t want to work with you either, but I’m still stuck here anyway, so suck it up!” “Big talk for a mere nymph,” he snapped, standing up out of his seat. “We might both be working for the hive, but I’m not going to let your failures bring me down, child.” “Enough.” Candlelight took in a deep breath before turning to me. “You’ll have to scout out the area yourself. We’ll just draw unnecessary attention since we can’t hide our emotional signature. The party is happening next Saturday, so be prepared. Never know when we might need a good exit strategy.” I grit my teeth and let out a low breath. “Understood, sir.” He raised an eyebrow at that, but he soon motioned with his head towards Sinister. “Come. We have work to do ourselves.” The two picked up their map and trudged out my door, but I paid them no attention. I closed my eyes, and I took a deep, calming breath. “For the hive,” I muttered to myself, still carefully controlling my breathing. “I do what I must for the hive and for my queen, for they are paramount to all. I must never betray or harm the hive. I will get past this, like I always do.” Like I’ve always done. I opened my eyes. “Are you alright, Overwatch?” “I… I am. We’ll scout the Fancy Pants estate later, under the cover of night.” I took a deep breath. “For now though, let’s go find Lily. Sinister’s left his emotional stench all over my condo and I need an air freshener.” Crystal I sat quietly in my pouch as Nymph made her way up the walls of Fancy’s estate under the waning gibbous moon in the dead of night. Though Nymph could not perfectly remember the location of the estate, it was impossible to miss it with how grand it was, not to mention the expansive lawn and the tall walls enclosing it. We had passed by the golden gates at the front, getting a glimpse of the statues and the central fountain inside as well as the generous spread of hedges and trees, and made our way to the back of the property. The wall was smooth with no good hoofholds, but that was no impediment to a changeling. Nymph was disoriented at first, but she was soon making her way up the wall at a steady pace. It was calm, and that only let my mind wander. Instructing Nymph on various life skills and fighting strategies had been… distracting. They were not unwelcome distractions, as she was very receptive and a fast learner, but they did well in keeping my mind off of unraveling the implications around her memory spell. I kept going back to that moment in the Pit, as I wove and unraveled the spell that landed her in Canterlot, and my core recognized the spell even though my memory failed to tell me where I recognized it from. More importantly, however, was that it prompted me to review the information I already knew. I knew about the various memory spells, but as an accomplished mage, capable of creating new spells from nothing and manipulating the aether, that was no surprise. The fact that I knew the changeling memory spells in addition to the pony versions led me to believe that I was originally a changeling myself in my old life. That was obvious enough by just how much knowledge I could impart onto Nymph on being a proper infiltrator. What struck me was that a lot of this knowledge was not readily available to me when I was still stranded at the bottom of Horseshoe Bay, as if I had forgotten that I even knew, but focusing my efforts into Nymph have caused some of these pieces of information to bubble up to the surface. And then I saw her memory spell, and while it set me aboil, I had nothing to show for it. No new knowledge or memory came to me, but I could not deny the resonance between my core and the spell hanging on her horn. The memory spells… I knew that some of those spells were only taught to the rangers, but as I thought more about the rangers and their skill set, a skill set that Nymph embodied the best of, despite her weaknesses in other areas, I realized that rangers as an anti-changeling unit were only utilized by one hive in my entire experience. That I knew so much about them pointed clearly to my next realization. The only way that I could know so much about the rangers was if I was in the hive that the rangers were a part of. Changelings were notoriously difficult to track and learning about other hives to the extent I knew about the rangers was nearly impossible. I remembered the feelings of betrayal as I sat in my watery prison. I remembered that I had been a ruler, once in my life, though I had not known what I was a ruler of. Perhaps, in my old life, I was a vital part of Nymph’s hive. It was all conjecture. I had little substantial evidence to prove any of my feelings, as vague as they are, drawn up from the murky bog of amnesia, but somewhere in me, I felt it too coincidental to be mere happenstance. Facts and isolated tidbits of knowledge were lining up, connected by a thin, tenuous thread. It was all I had, but I refused to let it go. So why had I not asked Nymph about her hive yet? She pulled herself up over the edge with a grunt and sat down on the edge in relief, giving us a good view of the estate’s backyard. “Looks similar to what we saw at the front, save for the swimming pool and the tennis court.” Overwatch nodded. “We’re still a good distance away from the mansion. The hedges and topiary could be good cover, but there’s still too much open space, especially around the pool.” “I agree. It will be difficult to get across without being spotted by a changeling’s empathy sense, and if Dexter and Sinister need to exfiltrate in a hurry, they would get picked off very easily, no matter which direction they go.” She rubbed her forehead in exasperation. “As useful as this sense is, it’s annoying to deal with other changelings having it.” The disguised unicorn huffed. “Maybe there’s a way to get around it?” “Well, one of the reasons rangers became so scarce was because ponies began to live too densely. It was impossible to tell one pony from another from far away, and it was even more difficult from inside a city.” Overwatch rolled her eyes. “I can still distinguish between ponies perfectly fine if I concentrate a little.” “You are also more sensitive to differences in emotion than other changelings, perhaps significantly so since you are subject to episodes of sympathetic empathy.” She snorted, but did seem to put the idea to thought. “So maybe if we can overload their empathy senses, we can provide some sort of cover that way. There’s enough obstacles to block line of sight from the mansion, but how do we…” Overwatch trailed off, and I soon realized just what exactly she was thinking about. “Hey, do you think that—” “Very likely, but we would have to play it very carefully.” She hummed in contemplation. “Should we wait for—” “It might give us a better chance of succeeding, but—” “But there’d be too many other potential eavesdroppers there to make that sort of deal.” Overwatch narrowed her eyes. “We have until the Saturday after. There’s time.” “There is a lot of time.” She grinned eagerly, almost hungrily, and we made our way back down the wall.