Changelings and Trainees

"Again? If I had known how many customers I was going to get I wouldn't have let Lance off", Silver mumbled as she walked towards the sales room to check who was causing the proximity sensors to go off this time. Six ponies in three hours was a lot for her, and especially her always low magic reserves. Even if it was a small request, she wouldn't be able to do it right away because she was simply depleted. Well, apart from a rest that she kept to be able to control the artifacts in her shop.

When she reached the sales room she reached out with her sight and found three familiar signatures, as well as one she hadn't seen before lying on Scintillance' back. Probably that changeling Shadowstrike talked about. With a quick mental command she opened the front door for them.

As they got closer, Sil already began to study whoever Lance was carrying. She quickly saw the illusion, remarcably still stable while the caster was unconscious, and what lay underneath... actually looked pretty much like a pony. Yes, there were a few unusual differences, especially behind the shoulders and along the back. Probably changeling wings. Shade did mention that it was only a half-changeling.

The door to the sales room opened, and the quartett entered. "Hello again, Shadowstrike", she said amusedly. "When I told you to bring the changeling here if you believe she won't compromise my secrecy, I didn't mean to knock her unconscious."

"I'm innocent, she did that to herself", Shade responded with the best innocent look she could do, holding her hooves up in defense.

"I'm innocent, It wasn't my idea this time." with the quantum flash incident fresh in his mind, Scint had to add to shade's sentence, and held his hooves up in defense.

"I'm guilty, my good looks and amazing accent distracted her to much." He said as he entered.

"My first request though, is can you use any of that fancy magic of yours to make that changeling stop making advances towards me. I like attention, but not when I'm half-arsed!" He said happily, as he took a seat.

Star started snoring innocently, having dreams about her mother and the songs they sang together, and murmured, "I love you," Unbeknownst that they could all hear her.

Sil laughed as the changeling apparently even hit on him even in her sleep. "There are ways to do that, but none of them appropriate", Sil replied to Scrapper, and pushed some of the pillows lying around together to provide a comfortable sleeping place. "Well, seems this is a wake-up room now. Just put her down here. We'll talk in the back." She then led the group into the large, round foyer behind the sales room.

"Thanks for letting me borrow this. May I have my knife back?" Shade said as she followed, levitating the healing artifact to Sil.

"Of course. Take a seat, I'll be back in a moment", the marchant said and took the artifact in her mouth, taking it through the first door on the right. Sitting accomodations were present in plenty for the small group, some with tables, and some without. Shade quickly headed to a nearby park bench that has been taken from whatever park it used to belong to and then made more comfortable by throwing pillows on it. On the other side of the belonging table were two old and worn sofas.

"So, codewords. Everypony takes a different one, as random as possible. I'll take 'stardust'."

"pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. it's a word." Lance spent no second nor had a reason to second guess his choice.

"One simple and one overly hard to remember. I think I'll go in between." He said as he thought of things.

"La Li Lu Le Lo." He said after some silence.

Shade let her expression tell Scintillance "What?", but waited for Scrapper before commenting on it. "With 'as random as possible' I didn't mean 'complicated'. I already can't fully recall what that word was, and I have to be able to identify it without a doubt. Simple is usually best."

She had no objections to Scrapper's choice and spent a moment commiting the order of vowels in Scrapper's codeword securely to memory. "Make sure you get that completely right. I promise you that I'll knock you out if you don't."

Silver came back, the artifact in her mouth being replaced by Shade's combat knife, which quickly found itself floating back under its owner's cloak. "I suppose you want to know how far I've come so far?", Sil said, now that her mouth was free.

"Yes, but one moment please. Finishing up provisional changeling countermeasures."

"yep, and I'm gonna have to change my word to 'Aquaduct.' Now as a matter of concern, how are these code-words gonna work? If we just say them out loud each time we greet each other Star's gonna notice if she's disguised. if we ask each other for the code words and star's disguised, she could just ask us to say our code words. What do you have in mind?" Lance took a slightly different seat, leaning his back against the wall with his front hooves cushioning his head,

"Codeword exchange is to be done silently and inconspicuously. Go for a hug and whisper it, as long as it seems natural. If you want to check, say your codeword to one of us, and we respond with our own. If we don't, we're not ourselves. But don't directly ask for codewords", Shade quickly explained. "Also, was that spelling error intentional, or do you mean 'aqueduct'?"

Scint shone a light smirk, then leaned forward. "Intentional. I hid near an Aqueduct for a while before running into you. long story short, I had a chat with some passerby that corrected me about saying "aqueduct" wrong. Doubt you'd care to hear the whole story.

"I lost interest at the stupid smirk you made. Anyway, it could be a good idea to make phrases connect that sound like casual conversation or simply questions. Like for you las, it would be something liiiiiike, 'Who was that mare that stopped you in the street the other day?' or something like that." He said after dozing off.

"That's only useful for temporary use", Shade declined Scrapper's suggestion. "We'd have to change the phrase every time we use it, and often we'll have to adapt it to the situation to not raise suspicion. We'll make up phrases we can use loudly once we expect to need them."

"Finished then?" Silvern asked, to which Shade responded with a nod. "Then let's talk about the changeling out there. Since she's a hybrid, her magic isn't completely what I'm used to from changelings, which might make it difficult to create a detector with her aid alone. But it definitely is a good start, especially if she's willing to cooperate. How much do you trust her?"

Shade was about to explain just how careless Star was, but caught herself and redirected the question to Lance. "She's your cousin."

Lance blinked at Shade upon being prompted. He squinted his eyes slightly and stared at the floor in front of him. "A lot, I think. but the better question is what we trust her with. I'm pretty sure her loyalty lies with us, and if it wasn't, I know she doesn't hold much love for griffons. But, she's careless, maybe worse, and is a heck of a trickster." Lance stopped, seeing more of himself in the changeling than he realized. "It's funny. I think we can trust her about as much as we can trust me, emphasis on the stupid things I've done lately, and on the fact I'm on our side. but a lot more emphasis on the stupid things I've done lately."

"I see", Sil said disappointedly. "I was hoping that maybe we could use her as spy, but now that doesn't sound like a good idea."

"Aye, she wouldn't be able to keep her cover", Shade agreed casually. "Though, with how flirty she is, she might be able to get some information with seduction. With the little problem that griffons aren't necessarily attracted to ponies, and still lacking training."

"How do you train somepony in seduction?"

Shade shrugged. "Don't ask me, not my field. I'm just for sneaking around and poking things."

"I can do that! I think, maybe... Possibly." Scrapper called out. Though it was probably still the drink talking.

"Lance can back me up on that though, he's just lucky he got me to play mane stylist with him instead!" he said with and audible *Hic*, still the drink talking.

Still with no memory of that fateful night, Lance had no idea what Scrapper's talking about. "I have... no idea what you're talking about. wait you got a makeover the same I did..." more eye squinting. "OK, Scrapper, we're gonna have to have a talk about that later. Anyway, Twilight wasn't born a princess, Shade wasn't born an assassin and obviously, neither did Star. Shade, if she's lacking training, what makes it a bad idea for you to train her? just get her in line about keeping her yapper shut about important things while she makes other open theirs, and teach her as much as she needs to know about staying out of sight? Heh, Celestia knows she needs the later."

Shade looked at Lance incredulously, needing a short while to formulate her answer. She hadn't considered that mentioning training would come back at her in such a way, and the thought didn't sit right with her. She didn't want to share any secrets with the changeling, and training her involved exactly that. Not to mention that every bit of distance between her and Scrapper was probably a good thing. "I'd rather not have her around more than necessary. With her attention span she'll be a constant bother and show little results. Besides, why exactly do you think I'd be a good teacher?"

"I can back him up a little there, Las!" He said unnecessarily loud, probably to get their attention.

"You've learned everything you know from actually doing it, and handling the mistakes, right? You've got all the knowledge you need to train that dog in there to be good." He said, nodding towards the general direction Star would be in.
"Though whether that'll be good for my health is something that I question..." He said afterwards.

"I've a feeling it'll be fine," Scint added. " If it comes to it, she might come to respect your relationship the more she learns. Heck, I did..." Lance almost drooped at that notion, remembering his childish outburst. he rebounded as quick as he could, " at the very least she'd find herself forced to respect you as a teacher if you keep a tight leash on her, and her apparent eagerness to stick with us will probably keep her that way. Not that I'm a sociologist or anything, but I think I just became one. and you, Shade, would probably be a very good teacher, considering how you're so careful with what you say and everything. just stick to what needs to be taught, don't only give long lectures, and actually physically do a lot. last I checked that's the best way to teach ponies with short attention spans."

Shade glared at Scrapper for agreeing with Lance on the topic of giving Shade an annoying appendage, but listened to what Lance had to say. She didn't immediately answer, so Sil opted for adding her opinion. "If my vote counts, I'm for you training her."

Shade groaned and lowered her face between her hooves. "Not helping."

"Sorry, but we really need capable spies", Sil answered smirkingly.

"Fine" Shade's head shot up again and looked demandingly at Scintillance. "Lance, you talk to her about this. If she comes asking me to train her and is being serious with it, I'll see what I can make out of her. I won't take her if I get the impression that she doesn't really want it, or hasn't thought about what it entails."

Lance saluted overdramatically "Make my cousin be serious. this is indeed a difficult task, but by my invisible beard I shall see it be happen." He then dropped the act as he did with his hoof and chuckled "pretty sure I can at least teach her how to pretend to be serious. Might be enough to get her into the habit.

Star murmured into her sleep as her dreams got more vivid and horrifying with every minute gone by. She suddenly shot up and snapped awake as she witnessed her mother being slowly cut into little pieces, and then forced to eat them. Star shuddered violently, and swallowed some bile back down, her body covered in sweat, and tears trickling down her cheeks. Looking around, she sighed softly, unfamiliar with her surroundings and wondering where the barnacles she was. She then perked up ears, as she overheard voices coming from the room next door, and tip-toed her way to the door. She placed her ear against said door, and started to eavesdrop on the group of ponies, to find out what the baloney was going on. So my plan worked, yay! she thought enthusiastically to herself.

"She has just woken up", Sil informed the group as soon as she noticed movement in the sales room. "And I think she's trying to spy on us." Shade simply motioned to Lance to take care of it.

after nodding to Shade in acknowledgement, Lance stood up and simply trotted towards the door, casually saying, Star you're a terrible ninja, He opened the door with a glow of magic, pushed Star away from the door with an even glow-ier conjuration of his Aegis. with the changeling out of the way, Scint stepped through the door and close it with his mouth because he totally could've just used more magic but didn't, and finished his sentence. "But lucky for you, I have an offer you don't want to refuse."

Scrapper stayed where he was, tempted to follow Lance and make fun of him some more but that'd be over-doing it a little.
Though still under the influence of his drink, he had some rational thought left in him. "I'm a little paranoid now, what if she actually heard some of the stuff we discussed? We might have to make back-up code's." He said with absolutely no hint of concern in his voice at all.
"But then again, my breath right now would be enough to make her pass out again. That's always an option!" He said cheerfully.

Star sighed as she was caught out, and curled up into a small ball after being called an awful ninja. "B-But.... How!? How did you know?" She groaned, and curled up even tighter. "Jerk." Shaking slightly, she got back up, and cast her decoy into the room that Lance appeared from. She ordered it to say, "Hi! I'm awful at sneaking! Do I get an award now?" In a childish voice. She then had it trot behind Lance, her eyes lighting up at the prospect of a deal. "Wai-wai-wait.... What kind of deal? I can sacrifice a foreleg and a hindleg!"

Scint smirked. simple. if you promise you can learn to keep a metaphorical leash on yourself and be serious when you have to, I know some pony who'd be willing to take you under her wing, teach you how to stay out of sight and out of trouble, and how to use your time unseen wisely. but only on the condition that you can prove to her that you're able to be serious, at least serious when the time calls for it. Scint spoke by example, of course; he was in the rare state of presenting a serious expression, calm and boldly presenting the opportunity for Star.

Star thought about what Lance said for a moment, and pursed her lips. "Lemme guess. By your description..... You want Shade of all ponies to be my mentor? She'd sooner swear fealty to the griffons than to deal with me...." Star said, her face a perfect canvas of confusion. She composed herself and destroyed the illusion she made. "Well, if this isn't some big prank, then sure. I'll try to be serious... I guess."

Scint smiled, and put a hoof on Star, "now that's my cousin. think of it as school; you never wanna look bad in front of your teachers. I want to to ask Shade in there, openly, seriously, and honestly, to teach you her way of surviving. of course I'm only sugar-coating these "ways" as best as I can. and this isn't a joke; you and I both know Shade's not one for pulling any good pranks. He the magicked the door open like any normal unicorn, and entered the room. "Fillies, Gentlecolts and drunk Scrappers, unless we're interrupting anything I'm not supposed to no about, Scint winked. of course meant anything Star wasn't supposed to know about too. He continued, " We've something of an announcement to make."

"Don't worry, Scrapper. I would have warned you earlier if there had been a risk" Sil assured that Star hadn't heard anything.

"That was fast. I was hoping she'd at least think about it before jumping in", Shade muttered when way too quickly the door to the sales room opened again. Though she turned her attention to the changeling, she didn't bother to look interested.

"Don't say it, don't you dare! If you say it I will fight you on the side of the street!" Scrapper said just as Lance finished speaking, a mix of seriousness and drunkness in his voice. So it might just be a joke.
Might be.

Scint looked at Scrapper dead in the eye, and paused for a few momens. ...It. he then instantly broke eye contact and danced his way back to his earlier sit-spot, yet still standing, while chiming, "And Shade believe me there's few honesty that can match that of a pony being presented with a situation without practice and with little prior warning. Isn't that right star?" he addressed his cousin who he had pretty much set up into his own trap; If she were to fake being serious, he knew Shade would notice. If star really wanted to get that much closer to the group, really wanted to learn from Shade, it had to be real. He hoped he'd find the opportunity to explain his methods to her later.

"Uh-huh." Star nodded, having been put into those kind of situations plenty of times before. Sighing, she rubbed her forehead with a hoof, being flooded with images of her mother. She shuddered lightly, and then stared at the group broodily.

Shade looked in confusion at Star's ridculous expression for a moment, before bursting out laughing. "Thank Luna!" she said after a few moments, clearly elated.  "I already thought I'd actually have to bother with training you, but if you don't even understand what it means to take something seriously, that's definitely not worth the trouble. I'll pass."

Scrapper chuckled alongside Shade's laughter, "Aaaand secretly she's happy that nobody will be flirting with me every second she has her back turned."

"Not that she'd need to worry in the first place, I'm too loyal for that." He said a moment later.

Scint's confidence just reversed on itself. He actually though, or rather hoped, that this would work, and it... obviously didn't. his ears drooped, upset because he didn't just overestimate his cousin; he assumed, and leapt into the unknown the same way he'd always gotten himself into trouble. normally he'd have been able to deal with the trouble, but... this time it's his cousin in it. "Well, at least Shade's laughing. not too bad an outcome after all." Scint wanted to laugh too, but this time it wasn't his place to laugh, even if it was the rare event of Shade actually laughing. As always, he improvised.

"Nah, just give her a bit more time. really the announcement's just that star's gonna try to be serious. figured that was good enough news to be excited about. Didn't say she was going to ask you now." Scint pulled the best confidence-face he could muster. and pulled a side note, Also as long as she doesn't have a reason to respect Shade as a teacher or something she's likely to keep flirting with Scrapper with her back turned so I question your comment, Scraps."

Star curled up into a ball, a tear trickling down from her left eye. More tears busted out from her as the force of the backlash of her spell hit her. She started to repeat five words over and over, in a low voice, rocking back and forth. "Why couldn't I save them...." She shivered while she did so, picturing hauntingly vivid scenes of her mother and sister burning to death.

The last of her chuckles died when Shade heard the words Star was muttering. She looked at the changeling and bacame thoughtful. She knew the pain Star was in. Her own friends had died because Shade hadn't been there. They had died because of her own carelessness. Had something similar happened to Star?

Shade stood up, and took a few slow steps towards the crying changeling. She was hesitant, unsure whether she should act on her own sympathy. To the outside she often seemed cold and even heartless, but she had learned that ignoring her emotions completely only served to fuel the flames she was trying to contain. Star needed to learn how to survive in this hell of a world and, more importantly, protect those important to her. If Shade refused her... Star would most likely end up weighing on her conscience. But could somepony like Star be trained? Trained to not raise attention? So far, it seemed unlikely. It seemed like trying to teach a tortoise to run. Unless she was really willing to work on herself, there wouldn't be any result. And Shade was not going to waste time and effort on a fruitless endeavor. Her expression turned stony again as she looked down at the changeling before her. "I'll give you a task. If you can do it, I'll train you", she said to catch Star's attention. "But it's not an easy task."

Star shook slightly as Shade talked to her, and she looked up at her, her eyes all puffy from crying. She wiped her tears from her face with a hoof, and tried to compose herself. "A-after what I've been through, I can handle a-anything you can throw at me..." Her voice wavering. She stood up, her face set with a hard, determined expression. Under her breath, she whispered, " I'll be strong for you, mum, and for you, sis.... "

Shade took a few steps back, still facing Star without a hint of emotion on her face. Thinking a list time about the task she was going to give, she had to fight a little to not show a slight smirk. This was going to be interesting.
"Kill me."

Scint could barely figure out what was happening here. Star was apparently crying over the floor; he knew she lost almost all of her family like him but he was starting to think he might be a ver, very special case of ponykind that doesn't react so badly to that. ten shade was actually showing compassion to a pony that isn't Scrapper, so that was strange too. and now Shade's asking Star to kill her and Scint just blinked cluelessly. 'she must be joking. he thought. he knew she was joking. but he handed (hoofed?) Scrapper a platinum baseball bat just in case.

Scrapper was almost able to contain is laughter, audibly trying to keep it in but not well. "The only enemy you'd be worried about killing you, would be me! And I'm not even your enemy!"

Scrapper took the bat Lance passed to him, not sure where he got it from to be honest. He guessed it was for hitting Star, if she was somehow successful in some regard. He wanted to ask anyway though, he whispered to Lance."What exactly do you want me to do with this mate?"

"Aaaalllrighty then. Uhh... Just, find me a kettle. Filled with boiling water, to be preferred. Uhh.. And then hop in, and sizzle for an hour, OH, and remove your skeleton, eyes, and other disgusting organs. To make the perfect stew! pony flesh doesn't taste bad with garlic seasoning... " Star said, licking her lips. she can't possibly be serious...Or is she? Totally a test. I can smell it....mmmm....Garlic...

Lance whispered back to Scrapper, ""I was hoping you would know. But something's very weird here, nonetheless."

Shade showed herself unimpressed. "You'll need more than silly suggestions to actually do i", she said dryly. "I'm not gonna fall over laughing and suffocate."

Sil meanwhile, after her surprise from the unusual test Shade was giving had waned a bit, just watched on curiously. She already had an idea what the assassin was doing, and it would certainly be interesting to see how determined and creative Star was.

"Now, now, Shade. What would drive me to kill you? And even if I wanted to, why? So I can kill one of the few ponies in this entire bloody city who can teach me how to, y'know, stay outta sight. And survive. And stop bringing attention to myself." Star said, using reasonable logic to not having to kill anypony, especially such a kind and dear friend.

"Well, seems you fail the test." Shade still didn't let an eye off Star. "Either you show you can do it, or you have to make do without my training. No third choice."

Star hung her head down low, and said, "I won't do it. I won't kill you. I couldn't. I wouldn't. And I shouldn't." She turned and trotted away slowly. "So don't teach me. That's alright. I probably wouldn't be a good student anyway." Suddenly she got a small headache, which grew with every step. The little voice in her head told her, What are you doing? Giving up? Just like that? C'mon, where's the Star I know? Star stopped moving, and looked around, spotting a chair. Her horn lit ablaze with yellow light, and she charged Shade with it, stopping dead in her tracks as the chair hung mid-air, the two forces of determination and pacifism battling throughout her consciousness.

Even before the chair came to a halt, Shade was already moving. The distance wasn't large, and within a short moment the unicorn was right in front of the changeling, pressing Shadowfang's edge against Star's neck. "You're dead", she pointed out. "Even if you hadn't hesitated, you'd still be dead. If you're dead, so are your loved ones." She withdrew the blade and took a safety distance again. "You may try again."