Caught! (Private)

[Dialga]

The Battle of Canterlot, as it was known, was a disaster for the Changeling Hive by any standard of measurement. Not merely a defeat, where routed forces can regroup and organize a counterattack. Not losing a battle of attrition, where resources are largely depleted but infrastructure was largely intact. No, this was a calamity. Destruction, and complete and total annihilation. An utter, bona-fide, unequivocal disaster.

Carina wasn't even present at the Battle of Canterlot, having used her expertise to create the resins and cocoons that would be used to capture ponies throughout the battle, but she was unsuitable for a battlefield. While many shamed her for cowardice, staying behind, her expertise in alchemical creations were sorely needed as the 'brave' ones limped home. Someling had to mend their broken exoskeletons, with no shortage of smug satisfaction. It came as a shock to Carina when, in the middle of a routine day in her ad-hoc hospital, she was called upon to infiltrate pony civilization and collect love.

Perhaps ironically, the love-harvests have never been more bountiful. Which was sorely needed, as there were no shortage of heavily wounded changelings. Those healthy enough to were tasked with infiltrating Equestria, not to sabotage, simply to collect the love so desperately needed to recoup their losses. Even if they lacked any infiltration experience whatsoever.

Infiltrators spend years honing the art of disguising, mimicry, and infiltration. Carina and others were given what could only be described as a crash-course in infiltration. After which she was uncermoniously booted from the Hive, with express instructions not to return without as much love as they could gather.

After several days' travel, while flying disguised as a bird, her eyes set upon a clearing in the woods, a very, very large and secluded house, not far from the north. Carina grinned at her fortune. Perhaps there lived a family, one of whom she could capture, drain and replace. Without having to worry about other ponies in a non-existent town, it reduced the risk of being caught immensely! Even if this was the summer home of some rich noble, and was largely empty save for a skeleton-crew of servants, it'd still make an ideal base of operations if she played her cards right.

She fell upon the house. Now any skilled infiltrator would scope out the house, disguise themselves as some forest critter and try to discern the presence of anyone inside using animal disguises. Changeling empathy-sense was extremely useful at sensing the presence of others, through their emotions, even if they couldn't see them. They would then stake out the house for days, discerning their schedules, and noting subtle tells and mannerisms before they would even consider beginning an infiltration.

Sadly Carina was not a skilled infiltrator.

She saw that the basement was dark, through one of the lower windows. Working the hatch from the other side using her changeling magic, she slipped the window open, and slid down into the basement. With any luck, this would be an easy mission as she cast a light spell from her horn, trying to discern her surroundings.

[CalmlyEccentric]

Siru was a monster, but not the kind that struck fear in the hearts of many with their presence alone. No, instead he was a monster that simply was something that stood out among everything and everyone else because of how different he looked. Gryphons were one thing, but he was something completely different. Body in a mix of dull red and gray feathers, black scaly forelegs and feet, large dully glowing yellow eyes... He looked like some sort of harpy with his bipedal stance and large wing-arms. This is something that no one with a lick of sense were used to seeing.

It had been quite a while since Siru had managed to get anywhere near civilizations. Many had thought he was some sort of malicious monster at first glance. This had made many keep their distance and keep communications to a low. It didn't take too long for him to find out and distance himself as well. Having felt like some sort of social outcast had lead to the creature deciding it would be best to stay away from those who expressed any fear.

But survival outside of civilization wasn't exactly all that fun, especially when it came to the weather being less than friendly. So eventually, Siru had taken the time to find shelter. Trees were too small, and caves tended to get awfully cold. When hope seemed to be a little less than present, he eventually had found an old, abandoned house. Perfect, that is all he could describe it as.

And so, he continued to live his life in there, rarely ever stepping outside. He had thought everything would be calm and fine and that maybe he would head out another day. That day would be quite a while though... But it did not seem like he was going to get to make the choice of going out there again. Instead, someone, or something, had come to him. He could hear it from the first floor, the sound of one of the many creaky windows in the basement below being pushed open.

Siru was unsure of what to feel. At first, it was curiosity, maybe some little creature got lost? Then it was fear, what if a pony or something else a lot more dangerous had made their way inside? This was less than ideal... But Siru wasn't going to let his new home be taken away. This lead to anger, and that anger did not leave. Immediately, he began to make his way to the basement, and he did not make his approach quiet by any means. Despite his relatively light weight, he could make quite a bit of noise in this house thanks to its age.

[Dialga]

Someone was coming to the basement! How could this be, Carina was as quiet as a mouse! Or...at least her impression of what a quiet mouse was. Thinking quickly, she flew into the air and ducked behind some boxes, not wanting to get caught when she hasn't even begun infiltrating for her first minute.

In retrospect, maybe shapeshifting into a box, herself, might have been the wiser move. Too late now, as she could hear the door opening and the shapeshifting flames were very bright. Fortunately she was smart enough to turn off her light spell.

[CalmlyEccentric]

Heading down the stairs, and trying not the break them, Siru eventually found himself in a rather dark place. The basement used to have a light, but what had happened to it was probably lost to the ages. Siru didn't mind though as seeing in the dark was hardly a problem. This thought, however, didn't stop him from being on edge down there.

Siru was starting to think maybe it was the wind, but... The window was still open, and if there was one thing Siru knew about windows, it was that they wind usually didn't have enough power to move them on its own. At least on calm days anyways. So this only made him more suspicious. Just to check, he decided to speak out, but in a friendly manner.

"Hello?" He said. His voice was somewhat high pitched and somewhat scratchy and actually sounded like it coming out of a radio of sorts. Almost like some sassy robot who was being sarcastic. Then he decided to add, "I know you're there. Coming out would be appreciated." In reality, he didn't know if anyone was there, he was just saying that in hopes of maybe tricking someone to lower their guard.

[Dialga]

Carina was too scared to answer even if she wanted to, but she knew better than to blow her cover voluntarily. Nevertheless the voice did not sound like a pony’s at all, and a part of her was curious. She leaned out slightly, however snapping back into concealment she realized she accidentally scratched her hoof against the floor absentmindedly, hoping who, or what ever that was didn’t hear her.

[CalmlyEccentric]

Siru wasn't deaf, very far from it. The amount of silence in the basement was thicker the air that was full of dust. It was almost like it was on his side and completely trying to give her away, which it certainly did.

Siru had gone in the direction of which he heard the sound from. Once he came upon the pile of boxes, he considered how he should approach things. Being aggressive may work, but if he has to catch something that ran, he certainly wasn't going to enjoy that. Maybe being gentle would be more ideal? That sounded a lot better.

Crouching down a little bit, he eventually stuck his head right around the area she was hiding in. His eye was closed though, so she would only see a dark figure looming over her, if she was looking anyways. A moment later though and Siru opened his eyes and it was like she suddenly had a spot light on her.

[Dialga]

When Siru opened his eyes, he could see large teal ones staring wide-eyed, back at him. The changeling sat there, not daring to move a muscle, perhaps out of vain hope his vision was based on movement. After several seconds, she was surrounded by a brief flash of cerulean flame, and where she was, sat a crate. It’s resemblance to other crates was uncanny, save for the fact that crates didn’t fidget.

[CalmlyEccentric]

Staring into the eyes that stared back at him had made Siru think about what, or who, this could be. Never had he seen something with large eyes like that... Or something that could suddenly change shape after lighting itself on fire... That was certainly strange on several levels for several reasons.

He wasn't scared though, for some reason. Whether that was due to naive curiosity or just the fact that Carina was far more frightened didn't matter. Siru was still going to try to do something about it, but this time he wasn't considering being rough with her.

Gently moving one of the boxes out of the way to allow for more space, he said, "Y'know, I thought you were something a little scarier." After he had moved the box out of the way, he could see Carina looked something close to a pony, but... She certainly looked different from one. Definitely not something Siru had seen before, at least not frequently enough to remember it a great deal.

Wanting her to calm down at the moment, Siru reached out and tried to touch her, although it was hard to specify where he would be touching her given that she changed into a box.

[Dialga]

Y-you should be careful.” A feminine voice can be heard from the box itself. “Changelings are scary and r-really dangerous! Just, um...” her unconvincing bravado suddenly got quiet. “Don’t tell anyling-er, anypony you saw me, okay? Please?”

[CalmlyEccentric]

Siru didn't seem to really care about the whole scary thing. "Scary? Tch, a box that's all shaky and probably about to pass out in fear is telling me that it's scary?" He said in a mocking tone and seemed to roll his eyes, although it was hard to tell seeing how they only had one color in them entirely. "If anyone knows about people being scared of them, it would be me..." He muttered.

"Anyway, why shouldn't I tell people I've found you? I don't exactly know what you are, but I'm pretty sure I can be more on their side if I gave you away to them." He said with a chuckle.