Word Count: 2,119

When Azrith woke, it was as if she was looking through muddy water. Something had happened, and-

She cut off her thoughts immediately. Someone, something, was telling her not to ask questions. It was easy, so she complied. She had to keep someone somewhere. She had to make them stay.

"Azrith?" a voice said, but it was blurry, like she was underwater. "How are you feeling? We'll have to go soon if we want to catch the prisoners."

That made everything snap into place. "Yes, let's go now!" she exclaimed, starting to run down the stone tunnels. She barely heard the sound of hoofsteps behind her. There was only one thought on her mind. The prisoners were bad, and they needed to be stopped.

The chirping of birds above distracted Azrith for a moment, the sound forcing its way through to her brain like a bullet. She stumbled for a second, but one glance to her comrades behind her made her snap out of it, and she continued to run.

They finally made their way to a ledge. In front of them were a purple unicorn and the original Princess, though she looked a little worse for wear. The three Changelings' eyes flashed dangerously, and Azrith's mouth curved up into a threatening smirk.

"You're not going anywhere," they said in unison, walking towards the frightened ponies menacingly. They had nearly reached them when the Princess pulled out a bouquet of flowers. Suddenly, all Azrith could think about was getting those flowers. She stopped moving and waited for the pink pony to throw it. When she did, she leapt to catch it, stumbling over her fellow Changelings in the process.

Azrith blinked, sitting up. How had she been able to distract them so easily?

"Hypnotism," Lenzin grumbled. Somewhere in Azrith's subconscious told her that the Changeling deserved it. "She hypnotized us!"

"Well, taste of your own medicine, eh, Lenzin," the army Changeling said, grinning.

"Oh, shut up," she snapped. "It's not like you've never brainwashed before."

"Actually, for the record I haven't!" he protested. After a moment, he took it back. "Okay, fine, just once. But that idiotic little dragon deserved it! And he wasn't even a proper dragon, all domesticated. He was on our land, stealing jewels."

"So, you wiped his memory of us," Lenzin mocked. "Well done."

As they were arguing, Azrith took the opportunity to slip away. The task was complete; she didn't know what else to do now. Something felt… off. She felt like she was walking in a dream. Using her military training (where she had even gotten training, she hadn't the foggiest), she retraced her steps to the trapdoor where she and the other two had entered. Azrith brushed away the vines in the way.

She quickly transformed into a rat again (a poor rat somewhere had just passed out) and crept through the hole…

…to come face to face with mass chaos.

She quickly changed back to avoid being squished underneath a pony hoof and began running. Where she was running to, she had no idea, but she knew that she had to get away. She dodged the Changelings still rocketing to the ground. She looked up at the castle, but before she knew it she was crashing into a very familiar white mare.

They both landed hard on the ground, rubbing their heads. The pony stared at the still disguised Changeling in disbelief.

"L-Lyra?" she stammered. "That's impossible! I was just talking to-"

Azrith stared at her in confusion as her face melted into realization.

"Oh, you're one of them, aren't you?" she snapped hatefully. "You're a Changeling! I was at the wedding when your lot invaded! You're all the same, every single one of you."

It was as if a bucket of water had been poured over Azrith's head. Her vision cleared and she looked at the pony she considered a friend remorsefully.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"What's that?" Bon Bon hissed.

"I'm sorry, Bon Bon," Azrith said, louder. "I made you think that I was your best friend for a whole month. I lied to you. I started to delude myself, thinking that maybe, justmaybe, we had become friends, but you just saw your friend that you had known for years. You didn't even suspect that it was me, a Changeling, in disguise." She sniffed, something wet pooling in her eyes. She wiped the foreign substance away. "Even with Doctor Hooves and Derpy. They thought I was something I wasn't. That was so wrong of me, and I'm-"

She was abruptly cut off by Bon Bon pushing her to the ground hard. She flinched and waited for her to start hitting, but the punches never came. Instead, a piece of debris came crashing down where they had both been sitting. It was close enough to clip her tail.

Azrith sat up slowly, heart pounding wildly. "Y-you… saved me," she said, looking at the mare in amazement. "You could've just left me there, but you saved me."

"Well, what are friends for?" she said, smiling wearily.

"B-but we're not friends; I lied to you-"

"You were kind," Bon Bon said. "And just now, you apologized to me. I'm not seeing anypony- sorry, any Changeling else doing that."

"So… you forgive me?" Azrith asked, a wide smile on her face.

"Of course I forgive you," she said warmly. She pulled the Changeling into a hug. "Tell you what, if you don't want to go back to the Changelings after all this, you can come stay with Lyra and me. In a different form, of course. I think one Lyra is enough." They both chuckled at that.

All of a sudden, they were ripped from their spot on the ground into the air. They both screamed, Bon Bon clutching to Azrith for dear life. They flew through the air faster than Azrith had seen the Pegasi fly, other Changelings surrounding them.

They landed in a large lake, sinking under the water. Azrith, who had been forced back into her original form, had no problem staying afloat. With all the holes in her body she had no problem staying above the water.

"Bon Bon?" she gasped, her stomach settling. When the pony didn't come up, Azrith panicked, diving under the water with her eyes open.

She swam all the way to the bottom (about four feet) before she spotted her friend lying unconscious in the mud. Struggling to stay down, she grasped at Bon Bon's hooves with her own. She ended up hoisting her over her back and swimming, painfully slowly, to the surface. Thankfully, the edge of the water was near, and Azrith flopped down with Bon Bon onto the gritty sand, exhausted.

Minutes later, Bon Bon woke up, coughing. Despite the fact that every part of her was hurting, Azrith leapt to her feet and hovered over the white Earth pony.

"Bon Bon? Can you hear me?" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah," she rasped hoarsely. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure myself," Azrith muttered. "We were blasted out of Equestria, but I don't know how it happened. You almost drowned."

Bon Bon opened her mouth to reply when they both heard hoofsteps behind them. Azrith turned around to see Queen Chrysalis approaching.

"Ah, young Azrith. I see you have taken a prisoner from Equestria. How wise of you," the Queen hissed. "We can feast on her love, though she's a small little thing."

Azrith stood up, eying the Queen warily. "She's not a prisoner," she said, voice quiet at first but quickly growing stronger. "She's my friend."

"A… friend?" Queen Chrysalis said incredulously. "Changelings do not have friends, much less with a less than superior race like hers."

"With all due respect, ma'am," Azrith said with gritted teeth. "I've learned why I didn't become weak, like you or Lenzin. Both of you saw it as a job, to stay in Equestria. You looked at the ponies, and you saw only a feast. But they are so much more. I fed off their love, but not by force, not by invading. I made friends, and they willingly gave me love. I feel stronger than I have my whole life."

The Queen gave a short laugh. "Love is a weakness," she spat. "And if you're too corrupted by these ponies to see that, then you might as well be burned and given to the hatchlings. We cannot have weakness in our kingdom."

"I'm sorry, your Majesty. But I won't be coming back to the Kingdom," Azrith said, looking back at Bon Bon. "I made a promise to my friend that I would come to Equestria with her."

"Well then, if that's how you feel…" the royal Changeling trailed off. "Trezin?"

Azrith felt her heart sink as her old nichemate stepped around from behind the Queen. His eyes were glazed over and were emitting a green glow. Though he looked dazed, he walked smoothly. He approached Azrith and Bon Bon slowly.

"Trezin," she whispered. "What have they done to you?"

"You are a traitor to the Changeling Kingdom," he said in a monotone voice, not even blinking. "You will come with us willingly to be incinerated, or we will kill both you and your pony companion."

Azrith gulped as she watched his horn glow green. "Trezin," she said, mouth dry. "Snap out of it! I was the closest thing to your friend back home. Remember when I brought that seapony home? Remember?"

The liquid substance that she had felt in her eyes before came back as she spoke, voice cracking. "You loved it. Don't you remember? But y-you couldn't k-keep it alive."

"You will refrain from speaking," he snapped.

Azrith backed up, standing in front of Bon Bon. "We're not coming with you," she said. "I'm sorry, Trezin. I'm so sorry for what they've done to you. But we can't."

"You are just as useful dead," he hissed, and his horn glowed brighter. Azrith closed her eyes as if she was giving up, when really she was working on teleporting. She'd never done it before. It wasn't mandatory for her studies, so she hadn't bothered learning. But she knew people who had learned it, and she had looked at the instructions once before. It seemed simple.

She pictured the apartment in Equestria, and felt all the sights, the smells, the feeling of home. She could do it. She wanted to go home so very badly. She grabbed onto Bon Bon's hoof just as she felt a horrible sensation of being sucked out into space. When they landed, her stomach lurched, but she managed to keep everything down.

Azrith opened her eyes, and they were in a different place. Not the apartment, but she could see the grand Equestrian castle in the distance. She turned around to see Bon Bon cowering on the ground.

"Bon Bon," she said, nudging the mare with her hoof. "Bon Bon, we're safe!"

The Earth pony looked up, eyes wide. She let out a shaky laugh, which Azrith joined in on.

"How did you do it?" she asked in amazement.

"I tried to get us to the apartment, but this was my first time teleporting," she explained. "I got us as close as I could."

"What about that other Changeling?" Bon Bon asked. "Didn't you say his name was Trezin? How do you know him?"

Azrith' smile faded a fraction. "He… was something of a friend," she said quietly. "He was my nichemate. But now I see that some friends change. And there's nothing you can do about it once they're gone. Your true friends might come later, but they will always stay by your side."

Bon Bon smiled. "Well, we've got a pretty long walk ahead of us," she said, getting to her feet. "Might as well start now."

The two friends got up and began to walk, knowing that the journey home would be difficult, but that they would get through it. As they walked, they really talked for the first time. They talked about their childhoods, and the society that they grew up in. Bon Bon told her friend about the fiasco of the dinner party the previous night, and Azrith laughed when she heard that Doctor Whooves had thrown all the pears in their fruit bowl out the window.

Although Azrith worried that she wouldn't be accepted in the pony society because of what she was, she knew that she would get through it. She would always have Bon Bon. And no matter what they went through, she knew that she would be okay. Her friends would always have her back.

And really, Azrith thought. Friendship is more than any amount of aura she could have.

Total Word Count: 10,471