Chapters Chapter 1: The Encounter
I knew I was special. I just was never truly sure how special. In my early days, I had always been superior in my magic class. I could conjure up a lightning storm the size of Canterlot in an instant, and my magic has gotten much stronger since then. I nearly destroyed my hometown, Fillydelphia, last summer. Even my little brother, Volt, had been appalled by the accident. Volt normally isn't surprised by things like that, but this time was an unusual instant. I don't live in Fillydelphia anymore. My family wasn't the type that liked the big city. We prefer a more kind of country life.
Just then, my mom burst in. "Surge! Did you finish the work you had to do! You know your dad wouldn't be pleased if you didn't finish!"
This morning, before my dad left for work, he told me that he wanted me to practice generating power for the house. Every so often, he wants me to practice something like this, just in case I need to take his place at his work. I don't have time to tell you where he works now, so I'll tell you later.
"Sorry mom, I haven't had time to do that yet. I'll get to it in about an hour."
"An HOUR? The house will lose power if it isn't charged in 15 minutes!"
"Look, can't you see I'm trying to do some paper work?"
"You won't be able to do that work if you don't charge the house now!"
Just then, the light that I was using started to flicker. I switched off the light, stretched, and got up to go to my basement. As I went down the stairs, I had noticed that the generator was much quieter than it usually was. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I walked towards the generator. The generator is cylinder-shaped, about 10 feet tall, and 5 feet in length. If you ever needed to, you could take it apart and transport it, which is what we did when we moved from Fillydelphia. I stopped in front of the generator antenna, and concentrated. SSSHHHHHHHKK. The electricity sparked off my horn in a blaze towards the antenna. When the electricity made contact, the generator immediately began to get louder. I had to be sure not to miss or redirect the electricity, or it could cause the generator to explode. When it was back to normal, I slowly stopped giving it power, and walked back upstairs.
As I walked up the stairs, I thought about when my dad would be home from his work. He works for the Equestrian Power Company. There are only 7 others that work next to him, and these 8 all help generate power for all of Equestria. They all have to be extremely experienced in their work area, and have to be able to make 200,000 watts of energy without getting tired. I could easily make up the same amount of energy, but it's nothing to brag about. I knew one day I would need to take his place as a generator, so I have to practice what he does every day. It really isn't a tough job now, but when I was younger, I never would have been able to do what I do now.
I went back to my room to finish my paper work, and when I got into my room, I turned on the light. Although, the light didn't turn on. I tried unplugging the power and plugging it back in, but that still didn't work. After a while, I was fed up with why the light wasn't working, so I went to the generator to see why it wasn't working. When I opened the door to the basement, I didn't hear the generator at all. All I heard was metal hitting the floor. I started to walk down the stairs when I heard someone say,
"SHHHH! Someone is coming!"
I had stopped walking entirely, and started to breath very slowly. The voice I heard was very raspy and high-pitched and didn't seem to be a Pony, Pegasus, or Unicorn. Heck, I hadn't heard anything quite like it. Then I heard another voice say,
"Don't worry, Grey, it's nothing. Just help me get this stuff off of here."
"B..b..but Blade, I swear... I thought I heard something this time."
"The family that lives here isn't supposed to return from their vacation for a while remember?"
"Maybe you're right, but what if they came home early?"
CLLAANNK.
"CAREFUL. If the Queen wants to use this machinery correctly it has to be intact. Just keep working. We need to take as little time as possible."
What did they need our generator for? How did they know that we had been on vacation? These questions didn't matter. I needed to deal with these guys. I started quietly walking down the stairs, and looked around the corner to see who or what it might be. I saw two figures that looked somewhat like swiss cheese monsters. They had large green eyes, and had holes in their hooves, wings, and horns. One was wearing a metal helmet and metal armor, so I suspected that he had more power than the other. They literally looked like overgrown insects. They were taking apart our generator, and loading it into some kind of saddlebag that clearly couldn't fit an entire generator. I started to charge my horn, nothing that would mortally hurt them, but merely stun them for a few hours.
I leaped around the corner, and in their surprise, I stunned the one without armor. I ran over to the armored one, tackled him, and threw him into the wall. He yelped in pain as he hit the wall, and he hissed at me. He left a huge dent in the wall, but nothing I couldn't fix. He tried to get back up, but was having trouble. Clearly in pain, he started to charge his horn. The glow around his horn began flickering, and he fainted. I walked over to him, and poked him to make sure I didn't need to stun him too. Neither of them expected anything, thanks to the armored guy that thought I was 'nothing'. I opened up the saddlebag, and found that all of the pieces to the generator they took apart were shrunk. As I took them out, they grew back to normal size. I put the generator back together and fixed the wall without any trouble from the mutant insects.
Once I was finished, I sat and thought about what I should do to these monsters. I had a few options; to turn them in to the authorities, hold them hostage and interrogate them, or take them to the nearby librarian to see if she knew what they were. If I took them to the authorities, I couldn't be sure if they could handle the power of these guys. If I held them hostage, they probably wouldn't tell me anything. It seemed like this wasn't in their plan. If I took them to the librarian, she could tell me what to do with them. So I decided just to take them to the librarian. I loaded the monsters into the infinite saddlebag and put the bag on my back. They were heavier than what I thought they would be, but that only fueled my curiosity even more. I ran upstairs and left my house to go to the Library.
Author's Note
This particular chapter took about a month to do, but I was also way too busy with school to write anything. I was finally able to finish this chapter about a week ago, and I am hoping that the rest of the story goes as planned. Stay tuned for chapter 2!
Chapter 2: The Request
We had no idea what was going to happen that day. Me and Grey knew each other well, and were room mates at the Changeling Academy. We had just been hanging out in our room when suddenly,
"Grey and Blade, report to the main office immediately."
We looked at each other in confusion. Neither of us were too sure as to why we were called to the office, and not some of the big-shot Changelings. We were just a couple of wimps that were never able to complete any of the training courses. One time, Grey kept hearing these noises that kept interfering with his flying, and it ended up causing him to crash into a wall so hard, he was in the hospital for weeks. I tried to analyze our situation, and then I figured it out. We were the least useful in our squadron, and this was our last chance to prove ourselves. If we went home now, we would be outcast to our section in the hive. That's just the way it was in this place; if you aren't honorable, you're pathetic and a disgrace. I hoped we would do well in this final test, or it could be the last time we saw the light of day.
We slowly walked over to the main office, wondering if this would decide our futures. Rocks and dirt were being thrown at us, and the bigger guys kept blocking our path and shoving us around.
"Hey shrimps! Gonna go to mop the floors for the principle?"
We finally were able to make our way into the main office and walked our way to the principle's office. I knocked on the door, and the double doors opened slowly.
"Come in."
As we walked in, the dome looked larger than I had ever seen it, and the portraits of former principles stared me down. I noticed that not only the principle was there, but the Queen was there too. What could possibly be so important that the Queen was here! We were about to find out. The Queen spoke in a slow and menacing kind of voice. You could tell she had some sort of plan and practiced what she was going to say because she hadn't stumbled over her words.
"You two are at the very bottom of your squadron. You must go on a quest in order to prove yourselves worthy of staying here. If you are not able to complete this quest, you will be sent back to your homes in disgrace. This quest requires that you must retrieve a generator that is essential for my plan to overthrow the Pony Princess and take the love from... Equestria."
Every time she mentioned something to do with ponies, she said it in disgust. In confusion, I asked,
"Your Highness, if you don't mind me asking, where exactly is this generator?"
"This generator is in a unicorn's house in a pony town called Ponyville. The family that lives in this house is supposedly on a vacation, so you should not have any trouble. You must be prepared for anything. Are you ready for the task at hand?"
Grey and I said in unison,
"Yes ma'am!"
"Then go. You must not waste time. Since Equestria seems to have the most love, it would seem useful to take this love, and use it for our own needs."
Here in the hive, we use 'love' as our life source. It may sound a little vicious, but normally, we obtain love by stunning our enemy, and using a special spell that reaches the part of the enemy's brain that has feeling. The spell drains all of the energy from that part of the brain, and transfers it to a part in our bodies that we call the 'chatoms'. The 'chatoms' takes the energy and uses it to power the body for about a week. Extra energy is storable in a separate part of the body, allowing us to gain as much energy as we can store. A normal Changeling's limit is about 10 creature's love. As for the enemy that is attacked, the creature loses all feeling, and if it is very lucky, it can regain the feeling. Surprisingly, it has only been recorded once that an attacked creature regains feeling. Recently, we have had to scavenge after what is around us, and that isn't too successful. If we are able to take the love from Equestria, we would be able to survive for a millennia.
Grey and I walked back to our dorm room and got ready for our assignment. When we returned to our dorm, we rushed to get ready.
"Blade, do you think it would be a good idea to take the infinite saddlebag with us?"
"Why would you need something like that?"
"Well, how would we be able to get an entire generator back here?"
I stopped to consider this for a moment. He had a point.
"What if the generator isn't as big as we think it is?"
"What if it's huge?"
"Under those circumstances, take it just in case."
Packing for Grey was easy because all he needed was his infinite saddle bag and a map. I didn't need that much either, but it was a lot heavier than what he needed. I needed to wear armor, because I was a higher rank than Grey was. I needed helmet and body armor; the helmet weighs about 3 lbs., and the body armor weighs about 9 lbs. I took a quick glance around the room to make sure we didn't need anything else.
"I think we're ready. Let's go."
We left our dorm and left the facility. Honestly, I think we were both very happy to leave the academy for some time. It wasn't a place that anyone would like too much if you were in our place. As we made our way to the hive exit, we passed by many shops and homes. It brought back memories when I was small and would walk along with my parents through the streets. Memories that I sometimes wish that I could forget entirely.
Once we exited the hive, Grey and I understood that Ponyville would be a long travel, but we had an advantage that a lot of the Changelings in our hive didn't have. We each had wings. We started our journey immediately, and reached our destination with ease. The winds were a little turbulent, but that normally wasn't too much of a problem. We landed outside the home and didn't have any trouble getting inside. Teleportation had always been an easy skill for both Grey and me. Once we were inside, we analyzed how we were going to take apart the generator. It seemed to already be in sections, held together by screws, making the job a little bit easier for us. The generator, in our surprise, was much taller and larger than what we expected, so we even had to fly up and check out the top of it. Suddenly, Grey thought he was hearing things again.
"SHHHH! Someone is coming!"
"Don't worry, Grey, it's nothing. Just help me get this stuff off of here."
"B..b..but Blade, I swear... I thought I heard something this time."
"The family that lives here isn't supposed to return from their vacation for a while remember?"
"Maybe you're right, but what if they came home early?"
CLLAANNK.
"CAREFUL. If the Queen wants to use this machinery correctly it has to be intact. Just keep working. We need to take as little time as possible."
What happened next wasn't expected, and could cost us our places in the hive. A Unicorn a bit bigger than me jumped around the corner where the stairs were and shot Grey with some sort of beam. He then charged towards me, tackled me, and threw me against the wall. When I hit the wall, the wind got hit out of me. I hit the ground and I tried to stand. I charged my horn to attempt to counter attack, but everything went black.
Author's Note
For this chapter, I considered between continuing the story for Surge, but I felt like that wouldn't have explained why the Changelings were there... So, this chapter is here to explain where they came from. Enjoy and stay tuned!
Chapter 3: The Discovery
The journey to the library took much longer than I hoped... My house's location is exactly opposite to the library, but it doesn't take that long to walk across town. Normally, if you go the right way, it would take between 15 to 30 minutes. Today, everyone was on the streets. The townspeople were everywhere; Berry Punch's store was full of customers, Bon Bon's business was booming, and Sugar Cube Corner was packed with ponies. When I got to the library, I knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. I waited for 30 seconds, and knocked again. Why wasn't anyone answering? I totally forgot; it's a public library. No one is going to answer the door, and no one is going to scold me for walking in without permission.
I opened the door, and the smell of new and old books flowed towards me. The smell isn't a bad smell, but nothing that I would like to smell every day. I looked around in search of where anypony could be, but no one seemed to be there. I called out to see if anyone was in the building.
"Hello?"
Just then, I noticed a pile of books in the corner, and it was slowly moving up and down. It seemed to be alive, but that didn't seem legitimate, so I checked it out. As I got closer, I heard a snoring, and it sounded like a pony. When I got to the pile of books, I levitated them away to reveal the librarian, Twilight, was sleeping there. I poked here a few times with one of the books I was levitating to wake her. Suddenly, she screamed, and she scared the living daylights out of me.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I must've dozed off after my studies. Is there anything I can do to help you?"
"Umm... Yes, I need a favor of you. Do you happen to have any knowledge in identifying strange creatures?"
"I could see if I have a book on that..."
She started to madly pull out and levitate the books on her shelves, piling them into stacks next to her if it wasn't what she was looking for. Finally, she seemed to have found a book that was titled, "Outlandish Creatures And Their Origins, A Guide To Creatures Outside Of Equestria" She dropped all of the books that were still levitating and focused all of her attention on the one book.
"Here is the book you may be looking for. Why do you need a book like this, if you don't mind me asking?"
I pulled off my saddlebag and opened it. I flipped the bag over and the two insects flopped out, still unconscious. Twilight backed up, clearly not expecting to see two large animals that she had never seen before. She looked up at me in confusion, and looked back at the insects.
"What are they?" I asked.
"They definitely are not from here and they seem to have a similar body shape as us, meaning they might be a cousin to the Equestrian kind. For some reason they seem to be able to survive with all of these holes in their bodies and seem to be some form of an insect-pony hybrid. I am not too sure what these things are. Where did you find them?"
"They were in my basement, taking apart my family's generator for some reason."
"Do you know why they were taking apart your generator?"
"I didn't have any time to ask, and they did not seem to be friendly."
"Hmmm.... Let me see if there is anything about them in this book."
She started to flip through the book, searching for an entry that described these insects. I was surprised; she was flipping too fast through the book to be able to read it. The only possibility of this 'reading' to be possible is if she had been reading books since she was a filly. This was actually a very likely possibility because I had been devoted to electricity my entire life, so she must be devoted to learning.
"Aha! I found something. 'Changelings, a being that lives far outside the boundaries of Equestria and feeds off of other creature's love to survive. A Changeling has bulging eyes, holes in their feet, and sometimes appear to have a horn, wings, both, or neither. Changelings live in hives and live very similarly to bees and wasps. Changelings have workers, warriors, and a Queen to lead them all. Singularly, they are simple and easy to fight, but together, they are a force to be reckoned with.' They must have ventured from their hive to get that generator of yours, although, I'm not too sure what they would need a generator for if they live off of love. This doesn't make any sense... Why--"
She was cut off when the Changeling without armor started to stir.
"You need to get these Changelings out of here. I do not think they are too much of a threat because you were clearly able to take care of these two. If you encounter any others, tell me, and I will write a letter to Princess Celestia notifying her that we have a problem. Do you have any idea how to get rid of these Changelings?"
"I have no clue, does the book say anything?"
"It doesn't have anything else here, so I would suggest just to take them to the Everfree Forest and release them there."
Twilight helped me pack up the Changelings, and even she seemed to have trouble lifting them.
"Thank you for all the help, see you later."
"No problem. If you need any help, just find me."
I left as fast as I could. I had to get rid of these guys. I knew if I needed to, I could take them on again. I'm not too sure if it would go quite in my favor this time now that they know what to expect. I ran into the Everfree Forest and its thick foliage, being careful that I didn't take any wrong turns. I made sure to run past the little tree hut to ensure that the zebra that lived there wouldn't be bothered by these Changelings. About 300 yards after I ran past the little tree hut, the saddlebag began to jump up and down. I skidded to a stop, and the saddlebag burst open. The two Changelings flew out of the bag like a cannon, and landed in front of me. There I was again, face to face with the Changelings.
"You two must leave this place now, and never return."
"We have not finished our mission, we must retrieve the generator." Said the armored Changeling.
"You can't have that generator, that generator is a one-of-a-kind and powers my house."
"We will get that generator at all costs."
The armored one ran towards me and tried to tackle me, but I whipped my hind legs around and kicked him in the face. He flew into the air and hit against a tree, but this time when he got up, it looked like he had surrendered.
"Perhaps we don't need that generator. C'mon Grey, lets get out of here."
"B..b..but Blade... The Queen will--"
"Let's go Grey."
The two Changelings flew off into the sky, and I never saw them again. The journey out of the Everfree Forest wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I expected to be chased by some Timberwolves or some other strange creature, but I didn't see a single animal. I sure heard some animals though. The howls and screeches of the animals that lived there creeped me out; I had only been in the forest a few times. Once I exited the Everfree Forest, the sun shined down on me and it relieved me to have gotten out alive. It wasn't usual that you never got out, but you still had to be careful.
As I walked through town, I noticed that it wasn't quite as busy as it was when I had first traveled through. A few of the shops had even closed early for the day, probably because they ran out of stuff to sell. I had finally reached the corner where my house was, and I noticed that my dad was home. I ran inside and looked for him, and couldn't find him at first. I looked in my mom and dad's room, and there he was laying on the bed. He didn't look too good, but didn't seem to be hurt badly.
"Dad? You okay?"
My dad opened his eyes and looked at me.
"Your time to take my place at work is approaching."
Author's Note
For Chapter 3, it was interesting to get Twilight into the Fic. I had to be able to take her personality and match it as well as possible, and I think I did pretty well. Enjoy!
Chapter 4 is a work in progress, and I'll try to get it out by the end of the week. If not, it won't be out for a while thanks to a camp I'm going to next week. :/
Chapter 4: The Master Plan
Grey and I woke up in the infinite bag, and I was confused. The infinite bag was not quite as large as I had pictured it to be from the inside. I think that the bag only adjusts to the size of the contents, and judging the size of Grey and I, it wouldn't have given us much space. I then noticed that we were moving, and fast. We must be on that Unicorn's back or something.
"Grey, we have to get out of here. If we are able to get the saddlebag flap open, we can escape."
"And..... You expect to do this, how exactly?"
"Hit the top of the bag repeatedly, and if we work together and are very lucky, we could escape."
Grey and I started to pound ourselves against the flap as hard as we could to get the flap open, and eventually, the flap gave way. It felt nice to not be in the bag anymore, because I had started to get claustrophobic in there. I landed on the opposite side of the Unicorn, and was ready to fight. We needed that generator no matter what.
"You two must leave this place now, and never return."
"We have not finished our mission, we must retrieve the generator."
"You can't have that generator, that generator is a one-of-a-kind and powers my house."
"We will get that generator at all costs."
I tried to tackle the Unicorn, but he brought his hind legs around to face me and kicked me in the face. Totally out of my control, I flew into the air and hit against a tree. I tried to get back up and counter attack, but it was too hard. I only had enough energy to get back up, and it would've been crazy to try to fight back. I had already fought this unicorn once, and I wanted to make it home alive. I had to make a tough decision.
"Perhaps we don't need that generator. C'mon Grey, lets get out of here."
"B..b..but Blade... The Queen will--"
"Let's go Grey."
We flew off in the direction of the hive, and we both knew what was ahead of us. Shame and disrespect. At least, that's what we had thought.
We arrived promptly outside the Changeling Academy, and arrived to something we had not expected. There were changelings bustling about more than usual. I mean, usually, everyone was in a rush, but this was different. They seemed to be getting ready for an invasion of some sort. The changelings were everywhere; putting on armor and hustling to dorm rooms. I hadn't seen anything like it. The queen landed hard directly next to Grey and I.
"We do not have much time, and we must find a place where we can privately talk."
The Queen studied us for a moment.
"I understand that you do not have the generator. You have failed your mission, and I understand I am supposed to kick you two out of here. However, this was not an entirely fair chance to redeem yourselves, because it looks like you two took a large amount of damage. I know just the thing you two can do, you can going to lead us in this momentous occasion the rest of the changelings are preparing for. Meet me in the main office of the Academy as soon as possible. Do you understand?"
"Yes ma'am!" We chimed in unison.
We both stood there, in confusion and in fear.
"Soooo, Blade. What're we gonna do?"
"I guess we're gonna have to go to the main office."
We walked, no, trudged to the main office. We were afraid that this was our last day in the hive. However, when we walked into the main office, only the Queen was there. No guards to help her send us away, no bags pre-packed with our belongings.
"Why did you want to see us?" I asked the Queen.
"As I had said earlier, you will be leading us in a momentus occasion. This occasion is to not be spoken of to anyone other than a changeling."
She turned around, and checked the windows to see if anyone was watching.
"You are the last changelings to know about this plan, but the first changelings to hear my entire plan. We will be invading Canterlot, and I will personally make sure that you will be leading the charge into this disgusting kingdom."
Suddenly, I didn't feel so afraid, and I'm sure Grey felt the same way. We both glanced at each other in happiness.
"I will be taking the form of the Princess Cadence, or as I will call myself, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. The real Princess Candence will be banished to the Crystal Caves below the kingdom, where no one will ever find her.In the meantime, the supposed Princess Cadence is having a wedding with the Captain of the Royal Guard, who controls the protection of Canterlot and Equestria. I will be casting spells on The Captain, and will be able to control him at my will later, effectively removing their lines of defense. Then, my right-hand man will be sending sending a threat to the Kingdom of Canterlot, causing them to raise a force field that will apparently protect them from the threat. This will not help them, considering the Captain controls the force field, and I control the Captain. If all goes according to plan, I will help take down the force field. You other changelings must try as hard as possible to get inside. Once we are inside, we will wreak havoc on the Kingdom, and we will feed on Canterlot and Equestria."
"B.. B... But ma'am, what about the generator you sent us to retrieve?"
"That generator is not necessary to complete this task. The plan I originally came up with was discarded anyway. The generator could help us in our victory, but we figured that it was not necessary, considering we have more than enough power to overtake the Canterlot Kingdom by a landslide. Are you prepared to lead our attack?"
"Yes ma'am! We will begin preparations right away!"
This moment in my history, was one of the best moments I have ever experienced, even though it did not end well. The Queen's plan worked out perfectly as far as I have heard, but there were complications. I did not hear of these problems until after we were launched a thousand miles away from Equestria, of course. The Queen had not accounted for one thing in her plan; if the Captain and Princess overcame her power by working together. This was not accounted for because she had been expecting to gain a large amount of power from the Captain. The only problem is that the Captain used most of his power on the force field, causing her only to gain enough to overpower Princess Celestia. The Captain and Princess Cadance joined powers and created another force field that managed to push us far away from Canterlot, and Equestria. Now, we sit, mulling over our next plan to try to take over Equestria in our hive. As for me and Grey? We were promoted to her right-hand men to assist her in her next evil plan to take over Equestria. So far, all we have are some plans to filly-nap some ponies on a once-in-a-millennia comet passing allowing us to gain untold power. The only problem is that we haven't had anything finalized yet, so I really shouldn't be saying any of this. I cannot continue saying any of this, or else I could be in trouble for telling classified information to unknown creatures... Until next time, Blade out.
