Chapters Canterlot is often described as the shining jewel of Equestria, home to the rich and powerful. Every detail carefully crafted to flow together in an elaborate display of grace and power. According to the history books, it was built after the Fall of Chaos as a place to house the newly re-unified nation of Equestria.
After the last two Alicorns had taken their stand against Discord, the three pony tribes flocked to them, praising the Alicorns as saviors and looking to them for leadership. With the remaining chaos magic being cleansed from the land, peace and prosperity settled far and wide. Ponies of all races worked together, resulting in the creation of Equestria. Over the next thousand years, the borders expanded, cultures intermingled, and society developed. Where there had once been nomadic tribes, there was a unified people. Where fear and distrust had reigned, there was now hope and friendship. What was once a time of destruction and war, had settled. Replaced by a comfortable peace, brought about through cooperation and understanding.
Or so says the history books.
Through the course of my life, I have grown accustomed to taking such stories with a grain of salt. After all, over such long expanses of time, things will become... Muddled. Details will eventually be lost. Events will be changed with every telling, and each new generation will interpret the story differently. I have found that the best accounts are rarely the popular ones that tend to be wrapped up in a neat little bow, leaving the audience feeling content. Rather, I find the accounts that choose to tell the truth without spinning a story to be the best. The ones that do not aim to entertain, but to teach. Some may think these stories disturbing or depressing, yet I find that they are the ones that fill me with hope. It is not from victory that we learn, but from hardship. Every day that ends in exhaustion, every gasp for breath, every push back against whatever force held us back. It is only through this struggle that we grow and become who we are meant to be.
I have been blessed in my life to have been close to some of the few beings whose lives have spanned the ages. Theirs are not the stories of conquering heroes, saving the day in the nick of time, or a happily ever after. Their stories are often those of crushing defeat. Of lost souls, and of arriving too late. However, that is not where their stories end, like so many others before them. After every loss, they had faced a choice. They could have given up, choosing to fade into obscurity, or they could push on. Not letting their burdens become a weight upon their back, slowing them into a standstill. Instead, they looked to them as a source of resolve, finding the determination to continue onward.
More important, however, is that their stories were not solely of themselves, but of those who were by their side. Those who were a source of strength, wisdom, or comfort in times of need. They told of those who had been with them through it all, and of those they had lost along the way. When I heard the stories from those ageless faces, they did not speak out of a search for glory, but rather out of a desire to pass on their friend's memories.
I have heard firsthoof accounts of the history of Equestria, and I have found it more inspiring than what is now taught in our schools. It is not the history of success and joy that the books claim it to be. It is a tale of struggle. Teaching a generation that had known nothing but the rule of Discord how to survive in a new world was not as simple a task as some claim it was. There were those who despised the Alicorns who had dethroned a god and wished to return the world to its chaotic state. When the nation had formed and the rule of law was brought to the land, there were those who sought to prey upon the weak for their own gain. There were wars, famines, and plagues. Times in which all hope seemed lost. It was in these times when they saw those who would stand out. The ones who would push through every hardship they faced and stood tall.
Oftentimes, many of these brave few would not survive to see the results of their victories. But when I heard their stories told, it was never about how they sat down and gave up. Even when speaking of their friends demise, I would see a fire inside the one telling their story. For it was in those figures deaths that they often showed who they really were. Day to day, they would not have seemed special. They were bakers, farmers, office clerks and wanderers. They were neighbors, and friends, and brothers, sisters, and children. But when it came down to it, they had shown a willingness to do what was necessary, not because they would obtain glory, but because it was not who they were to let another fight in their place.
Many would consider my life to have been an unfortunate one, and at one time, I may have entertained those thoughts myself. Yet, as I look back, I consider myself to be lucky. I have had the fortune to know figures of great conviction. To have seen great victories, and to have shared them with the ones that I consider to be my friends. My chosen path has taken me through the plains of Zebrica, to the vast deserts of Saddle Arabia, and through the many forests and cities of Equestria. I have known success and failure, seen great figures rise and fall, and I have lost the ones that I loved. But I had my friends by my side, offering me that strength, wisdom, and comfort that came from our shared bond.
It is for these friends that I now find myself drawn to tell of our story, both of the good and the bad.
The sun was out, ponies were walking with their noses in the air, and nopony was paying attention to the lone Pegasus walking between the market stalls. Pegasi were hardly rare in Canterlot, they made up a good third of the population. Why would they pay attention to this particular Pegasus? Because he's a thief. Not just any thief though, this thief was also a Changeling . Not the 'rip apart your family by brainwashing your hubby' Changeling, just a street trash, sleep in the gutter, steal food to survive kind of Changeling.
The Changeling in disguise strolled through the market, attempting to barter with stuck up vendors and taking note of where the most buyers were. You see, more buyers meant that less attention would be put on a single pony, but it also meant that there were more ponies who could notice something through their peripheral vision. As a thief, every consequence had to be weighed, and the associated risks compared. Deciding to go for one of the lesser populated edges of the market, he waited until one of the vendors wasn't looking so that he could quickly slide a few carrots into his saddlebag. He repeated this process a few times at different stalls without being noticed. Things were going well, until he sensed something behind him. Changelings had an innate ability to feel the emotions of those around them without having to focus too hard. When he felt a ping of confusion mixed with curiosity being directed towards him from behind, he decided that he was done for the day.
As the thief began to walk away from the market and down the street, he could sense the curious pony trailing behind him. 'Here we go' he thought as he ducked into a nearby alley, only for the ping of emotion to pick up speed towards him. He waited behind a trash can, hoping that the curious pony wouldn't see him and would leave. Having no such luck, the curious pony started to walk down the alleyway. He cursed silently at his rotten luck and started to search for some way that he could escape unnoticed.
"You are aware that theft is a crime in Canterlot, correct?" A mare's voice called out.
Just then, the changeling felt another ping of emotion farther down the alley behind him. 'Caution?' Just as quickly as the ping appeared, it was gone. Emotions only disappeared like that for three reasons; the Pony had immense willpower and mental control, somepony teleported, or the emotions were being blocked artificially. All three were extremely rare, usually only found in one type of Pony, 'She has a guard with her,' The changeling thought to himself, 'Who is this mare?' Royal Guard armor was enchanted to create an illusion around the guard, changing their appearance. The enchantment had an unintentional effect of helping hide the Guard from a Changeling's emotional senses. The effect wasn't very reliable, so an adept empath could still locate the Guard if they tried. After a moment of concentration the illusion was breached. A light scent of determination filled the alley, almost blocked by the mare still waiting for her answer. With his only escape route blocked by the hidden guard, the changeling's only option was to get around the mare and disappear into a crowd. He stepped out from behind the trash can so that he could get a good look at her. She was a unicorn with a light blue coat, with a near-black mane and turquoise eyes. She was only a couple feet away from him, and didn't seem to be very strong.
"Yes, I'm aware its a crime," he said, "Call off your friend behind me, I'll go peacefully."
"Friend? What friend?" the mare said with legitimate surprise, masking her shock.
"Oh you know," said the stallion, inching closer to the mare "Your guard friend blocking the alleyway."
The mare seemed taken aback for a moment before he pounced and shoved her to the side. Without looking back, the thief charged out of the alley and down the street. "Guards!" shouted the mare in the alley "After him!", but by the time that she got onto the street, the thief had already vanished into the crowds of Canterlot.
I sighed as I walked through the entrance to the crystal catacombs beneath Canterlot. Even after the invasion 16 years ago, the catacombs were still empty besides the vagrants that called it home. Walking past a few of the cavern's other inhabitants, I found my way to the pile of junk that I called home. The caves were far from comfortable, but I made due. As I closed the door to my makeshift house I dropped my disguise, revealing my black chitin and orange details. While most changelings had a blue or green hue to their eyes, mane, tail, and wings, mine were all orange. Several months after the invasion of Canterlot, a group of changelings, my parents included, broke off from the Queen and formed a new hive. I was born not long before the split. Shortly after, the new hive decided to change our colors to orange. My family had wanted to separate ourselves from The Swarm, Chrysalis' hive, and a long time ago color was the main way to separate hives. After everything that had happened to me, this difference was the only connection I had to my family.
"Out!" a stallions voice suddenly called out, "You are all on government property! Now leave before I have you all arrested for trespassing!" I peeked my head out of my shed and cursed. A group of Night Guards were walking through the cavern, weapons drawn, wading through the mass of homeless ponies they were kicking out. I disguised myself as a red pegasus, grabbed my saddlebags, and left my shed. This wasn't the first time I had been kicked out of a home, and it wasn't likely to be the last. I had only taken a few steps before I noticed that the blue mare from the market was among the Guards.
I immediately got back into my home, closing the door again. 'How did they find me?' I thought, I had spent an hour taking random routes and transforming into several disguises to ensure that I couldn't be tracked. I transformed again, this time to a brown unicorn before pulling a panel of wood from the back of my house and slipping out through the hole. I had spent time making multiple escape routes just in case I needed them. I knew that the Guards would be looking through the ponies leaving through the main entrance first, so I had a little bit of time to make my getaway.
The shantytown that had been built in the caverns wasn't to large, but the caverns themselves went deep into the mountain. If they managed to follow me deeper, then I could lose them in the abandoned mine shafts that snaked their way under the city streets. Changelings were naturally gifted, it seems, when it came to navigating our way through caves as I had been able to recognize paths fairly quickly once I started to explore my hideout. I felt a little bad about the next part of my getaway plan, however. A few shacks down from mine was a young, blue pegasus named Rain Puddle. I walked up to his door, but he opened it before I could knock. He looked like he had just woken up, and his confusion told me that he probably hadn't heard the Guards clearly.
"Hey, Puddle," I said, getting his attention, "There are ponies by the entrance were looking for you. They had a blue mare with them, maybe a relative or something"
He looked past me towards the mouth of the cavern, "I wonder what they could want with me? I'll go take a look. Thanks!" I nodded my acknowledgement towards him before turning and trotting away. I had been keeping my disguises similar to other ponies that lived around me whenever I was out thieving, that way I could make a quick distraction in case of this exact event. It was a dirty move to throw Rain Puddle at the Guards, but the worst that would happen to him was a few days in prison, whereas I would probably face a summary execution.
"You!" An uncomfortably familiar voice shouted from behind me, "Stop right there!"
I turned to look back, and saw the blue mare from before running towards me, brushing past Rain Puddle without a second glance. Putting that bit of information away for when I was safe, I bolted off into a nearby cave. I could hear the thunder of armored hooves turning into the cave, telling me that the Guards were also following.
'This is bad,' I thought 'I haven't eaten in to long, I don't think I can outrun them very long' Coming up to a fork in the cave, I opted to take the lower path, before diving into a flow-through ventilation shaft. I landed one level below my pursuers, and made a sharp right before sprinting down a corridor. Once I had run for a few minutes I slowed to a walk to catch my breath. Most of my life I had been near starved, having to rely on food for sustenance. While I could live like that, It didn't allow my body to build much strength naturally.
I tried to cast out my senses to find the Guards, but this deep into the mountain I couldn't feel much. I sat down for a moment, trying to listen for hoofsteps or any other signs of my pursuers. Hearing nothing, I thought back to when they found me. 'They didn't even notice Puddle, and I haven't used this disguise in awhile. They shouldn't be able to follow me, so how are they?' Before I could think any more about it, I heard more hoofsteps coming down the corridor. It only took a moment before I could hear the distinct sound of armor plates clanking around. With a desperate sigh, I continued running down the cave.
More sharp turns, long halls, and near escapes found me at my last idea to escape. A small tunnel going straight up through the mine coming out in an abandoned shack in the shantytown. Opening the hidden entrance, I shed my disguise before hovering up into the tunnel. My body was on the smaller side due to my lack of nutrition, but it was still a tight fit for me. A Royal Guard in armor wouldn't be able to follow me, even if they did manage to find the tunnel once I closed it up again. It took a few minutes, but eventually I emerged into the shack.
Exhausted, I applied a random disguise, opened the door, and stepped out. There was no one in sight, The Guards were still down in the caves and the vagrants had left before anyone else showed up to arrest them. After a deep breath, I began to make my way out of the caverns. I began thinking of a new place where I could rest, most likely in the lower levels of the city, When there was a soft pop behind me and a wave of frustration washing past my senses. I turned around to see that the blue mare was now standing behind me, glaring a hole through my head and panting slightly.
"Oh come on!" I shouted, dropping onto my haunches, "Why won't you just give up and leave me alone!?"
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "My Guards will be here in a few moments. Come with us peacefully, I only wish to talk."
I scoffed at her, before turning to run away again. This time, however, a large black object filled my vision before hitting my head with a Bang. After a flash of pain, everything went black.
One Hour Later
When I regained consciousness, I realized three things, I was tied to a chair, I was no longer disguised, and my face hurt. A lot.
"Oh Faust, what happened?" I asked out loud, flexing my jaw. Looking around I noticed that the room was empty, except for a table and another chair.
From behind me, I heard a shuffling noise and a door opening. My head was still fuzzy, and when someone spoke quietly, I couldn't make out the words. As I heard a door being closed I realized that I wasn't sensing anyone in the room with me, and after a moment of focusing I felt a small ring around my horn. 'Their blocking my magic' I began to panic, without my magic I couldn't feed off of emotions around me.
Before I could fall deeper into my panic, a white unicorn stallion in golden Royal Guard armor stepped into my field of vision. He was bigger than me, not that that was surprising, and his face screamed boredom.
"So what's your number?" He asked, taking a seat across from me. I made a face at that, not knowing what he meant. "Let's just keep this simple alright? I know that you're not going to tell me anything important, but they require me to get your drone number for our paperwork, so what are you? Six hundred thousand and something? I think that that was the last one that we got"
Now I was really confused, "What are you talking about?" I said. His ears perked up when I spoke, and entire posture changed. Now the Guard seemed totally alert.
He looked deep into my eyes, "You're not a drone?" He asked in what sounded like disbelief. I didn't even get to answer him when he began to smile. Normally that wouldn't mean much, but the way his eye were lighting up made a weight drop in my stomach. His magic grabbed my head, pulling it over the table towards him, "You aren't! Drones don't ask questions, you're an actual Changeling!"
"And you have eyes, congratulations!" I said back without thinking. His smile diminished slightly and my head slammed into the table. I tried to reel back, but his magic kept me in a firm grip.
The stallion pursed his lips before making a small noise of disapproval, "Well then, lets start this." He leaned back in his chair, "What is your mission here in Canterlot, and is there a larger cell in play?"
I looked up at him from the table, "What? I have no idea what you're talking about." He let out a sigh before standing up and walking around to my side of the table. "What are you doing?" I asked as he stopped next to my chair. He leaned back and kicked the side of the chair's back, breaking part of the metal off and slamming me chest first into the table. The air was knocked out of my lungs and left me gasping for breath through the pain.
"Oh no, the prisoner is trying to break his restraints" He yelled in a flat voice, "If he doesn't stop he might get hurt . Please, stop you're thrashing to much." It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was threatening me.
"That's what you're mother said last night" No one has ever claimed that I was a genius. With a telekinetic pull, the chair was flung back onto the ground, slamming my head into floor. The broken edge of the chair sliced across my wing and back, leaving a small gouge across both. I let out a cry of pain as the Guard kicked my chair over, slamming me face first into the floor. I could only moan out in pain as the Guard walked back around me.
Before the Guard could start talking again, the door to the room flung open and a new pony stomped into the room. From where I was all that I could see were dark blue hoofguards instead of the gold my interrogator was wearing.
"Sergeant, you were instructed to notify me the moment the prisoner woke up! What do you think you are doing!?" It was a mares voice for sure, familiar, but I couldn't place it at that moment. Everything was starting to get cloudy again, and I could feel multiple cracks along my face leaking blood.
"Ma'am, I asked a few basic questions when the prisoner began to struggle against its restraints-"
"If I believed that for a moment, we would be having a different conversation, Sergeant." Her voice was slow and filled with enough authority that if I wasn't bleeding out of my face I probably would have tried to stand at attention or something. "Now, go fetch a medic and report to my office. We will have words after this."
The guard snapped to attention, before departing the room in a huff. I heard the mare sigh, before my chair was lifted up in her magic and I was cut free from my restraints. I started to fall off of the chair, when I was also grabbed in the magic and gently laid down on the table. I could feel magic pulsing around my wounds, numbing the areas as the feeling spread.
"I am sorry for the Sergeant's actions. It most likely means little to you, but he was only supposed to keep watch and notify me of when you awoke." My vision was red thanks to the blood in my eyes, so I couldn't see her. Her voice, though, was a lot softer than when she addressed the Guard. "A medic will be here soon, and they will see to your injuries. Once you are better we will have our talk."
I looked up towards the sound of her voice, but my muscles gave out and I slumped back onto the table, darkness filling my vision. She was tending to me, and I felt her wipe some blood out of my eyes. I tried to look at her again, blinking away the darkness and the blood to see a midnight blue alicorn looking back at me with concern written across her face. At that point, my exhaustion and injuries caught up to me and the world went black.
My heart practically jumped out of my chest when I woke up, I didn't know where I was or how long I had been unconscious. I closed my eyes for a moment to calm down, taking several deep breaths before finally looking to my surroundings. Bland walls, a door on my left, and a barred window on my right. Definitely a pony building. The air smelled like antiseptic, and there was an EKG machine next to me, beeping quietly, and another machine I didn't recognize. Trying to sit up only revealed that my limbs were strapped to the sides of my bed. After a moment of confusion, the memories of my predicament came rushing back.
I started to struggle against my bonds, when a sharp pain flashed through me. I let out a pained cry and looked over to my injured wing to find it being held off of my body, covered in bandages. Somepony must have heard my cry, as the sound of jingling keys came from outside of the door. I looked frantically from side to side trying to find a way to escape, but the pain in my wing flared up with every movement. The door swung open to reveal two ponies, a Royal Guard and a doctor, standing in the doorway.
"Somepony alert the princess!" The guard shouted behind him, "The prisoner is awake!" The doctor rushed to my side, as I was still trying to loosen my restraints.
"Please stop struggling," he said, switching between me, my wing, and the monitors around my bed, "You could damage yourself even further! I've never worked on a Changeling before, and I'm not sure how you're reacting to our treatment." He shined a flashlight in my eyes, taking note of something. "Now then, your head trauma doesn't seem to bad, so there probably isn't any brain damage. How are you feeling?"
"How am I feeling?" I asked sarcastically, 'Wait that's a good question, how am I feeling?' After quickly taking stock, I realized that I actually felt pretty good. Unless I moved I didn't hurt as much as I probably should have, my vision was clear, but I wasn't moving as fast as my body wanted to. Every blink felt as if it was taking twice as long as it used too. 'They drugged me?' I thought. "You drugged me?" That wasn't supposed to be out loud too.
"Yes!" The doctor seemed a little too excited about that, "You took quite the injury for somepony your size, so we decided to administer a mild anesthetic in case-"
"What the fuck is wrong with you!?"
The doctor recoiled back at my outburst, clearly shocked. Ponies in the hallway outside my door start to back away down the hall they came from. The guard, however, stepped into the room and took an aggressive stance. "Oh, and what are you going to do, hit me?" I shouted to the guard, "Come on, you lot seem to enjoy beating tied up prisoners."
"Though I can understand your feelings, they are not called for at this moment." The blue alicorn from before stepped into my room, "You may leave us." The Guard looked at her confused, but made no argument as he left the room. The doctor kept his eyes on me as he backed out through the door, before closing it, leaving me alone with a demigod. She looked me over, her eyes dropping when they reached my wing, but eventually she looked up to meet my heated glare. I could tell that I still had an inhibitor ring on, I no longer felt the constant flow of emotions coursing around me. But I could still read her, at least a little bit. She seemed remorseful in her gaze, but maintained an air of confidence in the way she walked to the side of my bed. Regardless of my own feelings, she gave off an aura of control, like she was in command and would not be questioned. It cooled my anger slightly, leaving me curious at what game she was going to play.
"The doctor was correct when he said that it was a small dose," She said, stepping towards the EKG and inspecting it. "Barely enough numb you, let alone cause damage to your physiology." I started to object when she cut me off, "And yes, we were aware of how it would react to you. It is unfortunately rare that we are able to treat the changelings that we find, but a few have required medical attention."
I looked at the EKG as well, unable to understand the readings, "So what, you knew how much to give me after your experiments ?"
"After we gave potentially life saving aid to wounded beings." She turned to look me in the eye, "It seems that most of your kindred are unwilling to allow capture, even after we save their life."
"Now," she asked as she sat down, "How are you feeling?"
"Oh I sure do feel swell thanks for asking," I said in the most upbeat, cheerful voice I could manage, my face deadpan. "I wish I visited the castle sooner! Best hospitality I've ever had. Five stars, really."
She seemed unimpressed with me. "Perhaps you don not understand the position you find yourself in? Though I do regret what has happened to you since we... met. You are still my prisoner. Whether your confinement will be pleasant or not relies on your level of cooperation. I wish for our relationship to be cordial, however, it is well within my rights to declare you a prisoner of war and have you sent to the dungeons."
I shrugged, "So do it." Her eyebrow perked up, "You have me. I'm restrained, cut off from magic, and you control my only source of food. Whatever you're going to do, you're going to do. In the meantime I'm not going to play you're game."
She pursed her lips and squinted, "So perhaps you do understand. Yet, at this point the few changelings we have managed to capture either began to hurl insults or attempt some form of escape. You don't wish to try these methods?"
I starred into her eyes for a moment before lazily tugging at my restraints, "Nope. What would the point of that be? You're a Princess, what chance would I have anyway?" I laid back in my bed, "I mean, I can try the insults if you want. I'm sure I could think up a real zinger if you give me a minute."
"Do you wish to go to a prisoner of war camp?"
"Well I don't know, I've never been to one. Can't really make an informed choice uninformed right?" We starred at each other, unblinking. One of her eyebrows raised slowly as if to say 'Try me.'
"Ugh, fine. What do you want?"
She leaned back, pleased with herself, "For the moment, simple answers to even simpler questions. How are you feeling?"
"I'm sore, tired, and annoyed."
"As to be expected from your treatment, you do have my apologies for that, by the way." She seemed sincere, but without my magic, I had no way to know for sure, "It may not mean much to you right now, but the Guard responsible is being punished. Changeling or not, it is against our laws to mistreat prisoners and he will see the full penalty for breaking those laws. Is there anything that I can do to make you more comfortable right now?"
"Well being set free would be nice," She shot me an annoyed look, "But being fed would be good too. Although not food, I need emotions right now."
"You can survive on physical food, can you not?" I nodded, "Then you simply do not trust anything that we would give you to be untainted."
"I mean you drugged me once already."
"True. My guess is that you also want to read my emotions during our conversation, so that you can be sure of what I say."
I nodded again, "I can survive on food, but I'll never feel full without emotional energy. And you're right, I don't trust you, any of you. I don't know if you've noticed, but, ah," I looked both ways while leaning in towards her. I whispered "Our kinds kinda hate each other." I shook my restraints lightly as I laid back down.
She looked me over, regarding my request. I expected to be shut down immediately, but this pony was slowly making a habit of not following my expectations. It was good to know, at least, that I would probably be provided with food at some point. Changelings could use physical food to sustain our physical bodies, but not our magical energy. Deprived of emotional sustenance, we would start to wither away, until we became mindless drones. the thought of it sent a shiver down my spine.
"I am afraid, that just as you cannot trust me, I cannot trust you. You have behaved differently than expected, but I have no way to know that you will not cause harm to yourself or others." And my expectations were met, I was going to say something when she cut me off, "However, I do have a way where you could feel my emotions, and I can decide whether or not to trust you. I would ask your permission prior to doing it though."
"I don't really have a choice, do I?"
"You always have a choice, however in this case it seems to be the only expeditious way through our impasse." She was right, I didn't know what she was talking about, but it was either her route or a dungeon for me. I gave a curt nod, and her horn lit up. The room around us seemed to fade away into a distant darkness. I melted through the bed beneath me, leaving me on my hooves next to the princess, and the ring around my horn faded as well. For a moment it was just the two of us in a void, before beads of light appeared around us. There weren't many, and most of them were distant from us, but in each bead I could see scenes playing out. Some were normal, every day things, but a few were just strange, giant cupcakes, earth ponies flying through the sky, and one very intimate scene that I looked away from immediately.
"Where are we?" I asked, looking around at the strange scenes playing out around us.
Her horn continued to glow for a moment, "Welcome to the dream realm, young one. It is my duty as Princess of the Night to travel this realm and protect ponies from nightmares and the dangerous creatures that spawn from them. However, this is not our destination. For both of us to learn what we want, we will enter your own mind. From there, I can learn what kind of being you truly are. Also, while we are there, you will be able to sense more about me than you have likely ever sensed from somepony."
I was taken aback, I knew that the Princesses were powerful, but she was talking about an entirely different level of magic. One that I was certainly not comfortable with. Before I could voice my objections, her horn lit up again, and the realm around me shot away into the distance.
Although feeling the most disoriented I had ever felt, I lacked any physical reaction. The urge to vomit fought with the fact that my body wasn't trying to. I was standing in a hallway filled with doors and paintings, looking up at a painting of Manehatten was Princess Luna.
"Strange," She said, not looking away from the painting, "Most minds have a visual representation for memories, like these doors and paintings, however I do not believe that I have ever seen a mind with two types of gateways." She turned to look down the hallway, all of the doors were on one side with the paintings on the other. "Most unusual."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, trotting over to her as she started to walk down the hallway, "There is no way that you're serious. This can't be my mind."
She shot me a sideways glance before looking back at the paintings, "Of course it is, you can see for yourself. Focus on me, and you will feel your magical senses returned and more."
I did as she said, focusing on the area around us first, I could feel the current of emotions coming from her. Usually there was a small stream. Just the bits that leaked out. But now, it was as though I had dunked my head into a lake. She was completely open. There was determination, focusing on the paintings and the mindscape around her, she wouldn't stop until she found her answers. She was confused at the mixture of images around her, she had truly never seen the combination of portals and it worried her greatly. She was used to knowing what was happening and not knowing the answers was grinding on her nerves. Her sense of control of the situation was hurt, though not entirely gone, and underneath it all, there was a sliver of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of losing her control, and just a little bit of a fear of me. In the middle of her emotions, she had a strong, but thin, line of hope directed at me. Curious, I honed in on that thread. She wanted to know more about me, her scholarly side wanted to learn about my different coloration, she wanted to know more about me, to learn as much as she could. More than just hope about me, she was hopeful for me. She had a goal, and she wanted to believe that I could help her achieve it.
I tried to push farther into that feeling when my vision flashed, I saw an office with a large desk covered with reports. I saw an argument with Celestia, a large Griffin walking into a throne room, and a line of caskets draped with flags. Just as quickly as they came, the images vanished, leaving me staggering to the side.
"Are you alright?" I looked up to see that Luna had stopped walking down the hallway, and was looking at me with concern.
"What the hell is going on?!" I was getting too stressed out from all of this, impossible chases, asshole Guards, confusing immortals, and apparently mind magic was well beyond my concept of a normal day. "What the hell is happening and what the everlasting fuck do you want with me?!?" My emotions were flaring again, deep down I could tell that they were, but at the moment I didn't care.
Luna took a step back, taken aback at my outburst, "All questions will be answered in time, but you need to calm down. Your feelings are being amplified while we are inside your mind, and that can be dangerous for us both. I need you to calm down."
"And I need you to tell me whats going on!" The hallway around us darkened, the walls seemed to close in as the hallway stretched out before us.
"You are confused and angry, I understand. But you must calm yourself, if you do not reign in your emotions, then things will begin to manifest here, things that can harm you in the physical realm as well." She was trying to explain things slowly, and I understood that.
Emotional outbursts were dangerous for Changelings, they could cause our magic to flare up. But she had said that they could create things here. Perhaps that meant that I could create things here. I took a slow, deep breath, and started to test out my theory, I focused on our environment. Almost instantly the hallway began to rumble and walls appeared, blocking off the farther sections of the corridor. Luna looked to the walls and back to me, curious about what I was doing, but still cautious of the situation. There was a sense of joy that she tried to bury. I continued my tests, the lights around us turned blue, then green, then finally yellow. The wallpaper changed into different patterns, swirls and polka dots appearing at random intervals. Turning my gaze to Luna, I had an unusual idea. I had a lot of power here, and though I was starting to calm down I still didn't trust her. With a flex of my magic, Luna was suddenly wearing long striped socks, a tight saddle with straps going around her body up to a bridle.
It took her a second to notice the change, but when she did she was furious. Her mouth opened in outrage, and her cheeks blushed just slightly. Before she could say anything, I flexed my magic again and she was suddenly in a small cage against the wall, her hooves shackled to the ground. The light in the hallway was manipulated to make me appear larger, more threatening.
"Now, you are going to tell me what I want to know, or I swear to Faust I will-" The cage suddenly exploded outward, throwing me against the far wall. I looked up to where Luna was, only to see a cloud of smoke with a blue fire slowly spreading out beneath it. From inside the flames came Luna, the lingerie burning off of her as she grew taller and her coat grew darker. Her eyes turned turquoise and morphed into dragon-like slits.
She stepped out towards me and laughed softly, genuinely amused, "So you think that you can dominate me here? I commend the effort however You need to remember that it is I that brought you here, and I am far more powerful that you will ever be." She spread her leathery wings out and donned a long, predatory smile revealing rows of sharpened teeth. If I was still in my physical body, I may have needed to clean the floor where I was slumped. Everything that I had changed was slowly turning into something else, creating an aura of nightmarish quality. Every fiber of my being shook as she stepped towards me, and I closed my eyes as she lifted her hoof which was now covered in the blue flame she had emerged from. I had thought myself momentarily above a demigod, and now she would crush me like the hatchling that I was.
...
...
...
I was still waiting for my pain and doom when I felt a small tap on my nose. I cracked an eye open to see a blue, non-flaming hoof gently touching by nose.
"Boop." Both of my eyes opened and I stared up at Luna in confusion. Everything had returned to normal, Luna was herself, the hallway wasn't doom central, and I felt my emotions returning to me instead of the induced fright that had come over me.
"What the fuck?" was all that I could muster in response to Luna's softly smiling face.
"What the fuck??? "
"This may be your mind, young one, but I am infinitely more versed in the mental magics. I apologize for that, but you were starting to flail your emotions about and I find that a soft reset is the best cure while in the mindscape." She lowered her hoof and sat down across from me. "Now if we can both calm down and act like rational beings, we can have that talk that I promised you." I remained seated where I had fallen, looking her in the eyes. I could feel her emotions again, though I was cautious not to probe to deep this time, and I didn't feel any hostile intent in her. Instead she seemed happy.
Deciding, for the moment, that going along with her was my best option, I nodded, "Okay, let's talk."
She gave me a genuine smile, "Now then, you should be aware that if you lie to me here I will know, just as you will if I lie. Everything here can be manipulated, with two exceptions." Her hoof pointed at herself and then me, "We may be able to manipulate our appearance, but we cannot manipulate our true selves or each other. The doors and paintings around us represent portals to the depths of your mind, memories and lessons from your past. Here in the entryway we would find these events that made you who you are today. My intention is to view them, to learn who you are and to discover your motivations. Nothing can be truly hidden here in the mindscape. This will allow us to talk and learn, as equals." My eyes widened, there was a lot of power in the doors around us, and I did not have many memories that I wanted to revisit. "I shall start this off with one question; why are you in Canterlot, what is your goal?"
"My only goal is to survive. That's all that I have." It was actually kind of sad once I said it out loud, but I didn't have anyone or anything in my life.
"What of your fellow changelings?"
"I don't care about them, I... I don't have any connection to them." I cringed inwardly, knowing where this line of questions would end.
Her eyes narrowed for a second, "You are lying to me. Partially. But which part?"
"I'm on my own, okay? I'm not a member of The Swarm, and I don't want to hurt anypony." Those weren't technically lies.
"I accept that. I was under the impression that all Changelings were subservient to Chrysalis."
"Ya, well I guess that I'm the exception. Maybe you don't know as much about Changelings as you thought." I could feel my emotions stirring again, I really didn't want to continue this line of questions.
"What led you to abandon your hive?" That one lit a spark in me.
"I didn't abandon anyone!" I had to reign myself in and try to redirect her.
"Then what led to you being on your own?"
"You did! You ponies ruined everything!" Oh Faust I didn't want to say that.
"Are you referring to Canterlot? Do you blame us for defeating Chrysalis?"
"I don't give a fuck about that old hag! Chrysalis, you ponies, you're the same! You just wanting more and more, and you don't care about anyone else!" The hallway began to shake, and a door behind me was rattling at its hinges, "You all say so much about how you know what's best, about how everything will be fine if you get your way. Why am I alone? Well it's because you two destroyed everything that I've ever had. My home , my family , they're all gone because of you!" With a final Crash the door behind me flew open, and blinding white light absorbed us both.
Mirror Image paced in front of the entrance to her hive. "This isn't good," she said to orange changeling waiting along with her, "Foreshadow should have returned by now! It never takes her this long to go into town" Mirror started to pick up her pace in front of the doorway. The hive was located in a cave system just outside of Manehatten, so that the changelings could make trips to gather emotional energy from the city.
"Calm down honey, I'm sure she just got caught up looking through some music shop." Translucence said to his wife, "You know how she gets around instruments, that mare is obsessed". He motioned towards the bundle next to him, "Come over here, our son is falling asleep." Mirror Image trotted over towards her family, she had known Translucence since they were hatchlings in their old hive. Five years ago they had decided that they wanted an egg of their own, and later that year, young Snapshot had been born. Mirror reached the bench and looked down at her son. He had barely been a year old when they had to flee the old hive to become Outcasts.
Snapshot was resting peacefully wrapped up in a blanket when Mirror picked him up. "Wake up sleepyhead!" Mirror said, raising Snapshot in the air, "You want to be awake for the hatching later don't you?".
"I don't care!" Snapshot said, struggling in his mother's grip, "I'm tired now! Why should I care about some stupid egg? I want to sleep." Snapshot yawned, proving his point.
"You know why, Snapshot," Mirror said, placing him onto the ground, "A hatching is a time of celebration for us changelings, it symbolizes new life and hope. There was a party when you were hatched too, you know." She poked his chest, "The fact that our hive is so small makes this an even bigger event. Fifty changelings is barely enough to keep this hive going." Suddenly, all three of the changelings' heads perked up and turned towards the gate.
Snapshot
My head perked up as I felt a presence enter the hive-mind. Since we were such a small group of changelings, the network connecting our minds didn't extend far beyond the boundary of the hive itself. A flood of information entered my mind that I couldn't quite decipher, while I was born with the ability to tap into the hive-mind, understanding most of the information passed through it was a talent I had yet to acquire. Until I learned how to decipher the information myself, an older changeling would have to magically transfer it from the network into me. That's how changelings have passed memories and abilities through the generations. Learning how to decipher the hive-mind, however, could not be transferred. I could still pick up emotions though, and this presence was very, very , worried.
The gate in front of me opened, revealing Foreshadow, a friend of my parents. She was returning from a scouting mission for the hive, and when she entered the hive-mind, whatever she learned was transferred to every changeling in the hive who could read it. I waved my hoof at her, still wishing I could just sleep.
"Foreshadow, what happened?" my mom asked, walking towards her friend.
"I don't know Mirror," Foreshadow said, "I tried to evade them, but they managed to track me farther than they should have. We need to get everyone together and decide what to do." I had no idea what they were talking about, but it didn't sound good. Translucence picked me up and placed me on his back.
"Come on everyone, we need to get the hub" He said, before walking over towards one of the caves that led into the hive proper. The hub was the center of the hive, physically and communally. It was a large chamber connected to almost every tunnel in the cave system. It was also where the Hatching was supposed to be held that evening.
15 Minutes Later
The hub was bustling with changelings. From the amount of chatter both in the room and in the hivemind I could tell that something was going on, but no one would tell me what. When I asked my parents all they would say was that 'It's going to be alright', whatever that meant. The hub was decorated with light crystals and had a stage in the center of the room. Along one of the walls was a few niches blocked with bars. I could see a couple suits of grey armor and weapons inside them.
A signal went through the hivemind, silencing the chatter in the room as everyone looked towards the stage. The feeling of nervousness and worry were prominent throughout the crowd, it seemed as though some changelings were on the verge of panic. Foreshadow stepped forward from our group onto the stage. My parents placed me back onto the floor and huddled close to each other, almost smothering me.
"Everyone," Foreshadow said, projecting throughout the room, "As you know, there was an altercation on my excursion into Manehatten. During my trip to the harbor, I was discovered by the local guard unit." There was a visible shudder in the room, "I don't know what they saw, but they found me even though I was disguised. I was able to avoid capture, but they followed me outside of the city. I'm certain that I shook off my tails, however, they will be on alert for us. It may be time to move our hive to a less populated area." This caused an uproar from some of the changelings around the stage, the idea of leaving clearly not being popular.
"We can't leave!" One changeling shouted, "What about our contacts in Manehatten!"
"And what about the work we've put into this hive?" Another shouted, "It would take months to build a new one, even if we could find a suitable area!"
"We barely have enough energy to support ourselves where we are now," The changeling next to me shouted, "If we move we would run out of energy before we could find a new home!" This cry got a few shouts of support. I didn't understand anything that was being said, I barely grasped what 'a suitable area' meant.
"Have you all forgotten why we're here?" Foreshadow said, looking into the faces around her, "Chrysalis has spies everywhere, and when she hears about an outcast changeling being discovered here, she will find us!" I suddenly felt very cold as everyone's emotions turned to fear. The mere mention of Chrysalis ending any argument in the hive. "We need to move," Foreshadow begged with the crowd, "Even if the guard doesn't find us on their own, The Swarm will surely-"
Foreshadow's speech was cut off with the loud BOOM of an explosion from the direction my family had come from. There was a brief moment of silence until everyone in the room moved at once. My father grabbed me and followed my mom as she ran towards one of the barred sections in the wall. Most changelings were running away from the direction of the explosion, but I saw Foreshadow, Mom, and six other changelings stopping to open up the gates around the armor stashed in the hub.
"How did they find us already?" Foreshadow said, grabbing a helmet off a shelf.
"Maybe they followed you back from the city?" Translucence asked, helping my mother put armored plates on the front of her legs.
"No way," Foreshadow replied, "I covered my tracks, there's no way that they followed me, they shouldn't have been able to see me after I left the city. Why would they come here this fast? They've never been this zealous."
"It doesn't matter," Mirror said, pulling an armored vest over her chest and midsection, "They're here, so we have to delay them long enough to get everyone out." I had no idea what was going on, why my mom was putting on armor, or what that explosion was, but the hivemind was going crazy. Focusing on it hurt my head. I looked at my dad, who was helping put armor on Mirror's flanks.
"How long do you think it will take to evacuate?" Translucence asked, stepping back from mom, now fully clad in armor.
"Hopefully not long," Mirror replied, putting a helmet on her head, "Everyone knows the plan, we'll meet back up in the woods." She kissed Translucence, before whispering "I love you" which he returned. She turned her head towards me, "You stay with your father, Snapshot."
"What's going on mom?" I asked her, a look of sympathy in her eyes, "Why's everyone so scared, and what was that noise?"
Mirror Image looked down at me, "Don't worry little one, everything will be alright." She pulled me into a hug before I could reply and kissed my forehead, "I love you, Snapshot." She put me back down and turned to my father, who was loading something into the metal part of the long wooden thing I was told not to play with. She took it from my dad before giving him a hug as well. She whispered something in his ear, before running off with the other armored changelings.
"Come on, Snapshot," my dad said, putting me on his back before running down one of the passages in the hub, "We have to catch up with the others."
"What's going on dad?" I asked, starting to cry from the mass of emotions being given off throughout the hive, it seemed like everyone was in a full panic, and it was taking its toll on the hivemind. "Where did mom go?"
"Don't worry Snapshot, everything will be fine," My dad replied, racing past the hive living quarters. "It's like a game of hide and seek. Mommy just went to make sure we have enough time to hide, and she'll meet us at our new hiding spot."
There was a loud series of Bangs down the passage we had just run through, before something happened in the hivemind. It was different from the normal input I usually felt, it was like someone passed the edge of the hivemind, but suddenly, rather than fading out. My father stopped running and looked back down the passage. "No" I heard him whisper, before he started running faster down the passageway.
"What was that dad?" I said, my voice wavering.
"Ignore that Snapshot! Just keep your head down and try to stay on me!" My dad shouted at me, panting as his pace increased. Why wouldn't he tell me what was happening? I clung to my father's back, hoping that if I closed my eyes tight enough, I would wake up in my room. No loud noises causing panic, no strange feelings in the hivemind, and no changelings trotting off with weapons and armor. If I could just wake up, everything would be normal.
After 10 minutes of running through the corridors that made up my home, my dad stopped. The hive had lost three more signals, I still wasn't sure what it meant, and Dad still wouldn't answer me. I opened my eyes to see him standing in front of a narrow, long staircase. "Alright, Snapshot," He said, starting to walk up the stairs, "I know that you haven't been outside the hive since we came to this one, But we're going to have to go above ground. It's not safe here anymore."
"But dad," I said, "We aren't supposed to leave the hive! You always said that it's to dangerous."
"I know," he replied, "But it's not safe inside the hive anymore either. We're prepared for this though, once we get out of this stairwell, we'll be inside a forest. Remember the memories I showed you about the forest? Trees as far as the eye can see. Well once we enter the forest, we have to meet with everyone else a few miles to the south. We have a camp set up there, we'll wait for the ones who are still inside the hive, and we'll build a new hive, somewhere else." We walked up to a wooden door, as my dad opened it, there was a gust of wind blew into the stairwell. We walked outside into the sunlight. I had seen it before in the memories I had been shown, but when we left the old hive, it was nighttime. I had never felt the suns warm rays on my chitin, the hive's temperature was kept constant by some magic that I hadn't grasped yet. I wished that I didn't have to leave the hive, but feeling the sun on my body for the first time was something I would never forget.
My father and I were waiting with the other changelings. Dad was being very quiet, and would not look me in the eyes. I guess this was all a big shock for him too. Because we were outside the hive, we had all donned disguises . At that moment, I was a small blue colt with no cutie mark, and my mane and eyes were grey. We were all still waiting for the changelings who stayed inside the hive while we left. Everyone was quiet, but it was a tense quiet that made me uncomfortable. Something snapped in the forest, everyone stopped and looked in the direction the noise had come form. A green mare wearing dark grey armor walked out of the forest into our camp before dropping her disguise, it was Foreshadow. She motioned her hoof towards the bushes she had emerged from, and three other armored changelings appeared, They were all covered in scratches, and two of them were being dragged on stretchers, blood-soaked bandages covering their chitin.
A few changelings rushed forward to help the injured. As they were taken away, other changelings were asking Foreshadow about what had happened. I heard none of this though, as I was scanning these new arrivals for Mirror Image. I couldn't find her, so I turned to my dad. "Where's mom? I can't see her."
Translucence's head dropped upon hearing my question. "...She...She's... I'm sorry Snapshot."
This confused me even more, my father was never one to be evasive, he was always serious, "Sorry about what dad? Mom should have been with Foreshadow right?"
My father starred at the ground for a moment, before looking back up at Foreshadow, who was organizing changelings to start packing up the camp. "Mirror," He said, his voice trembling, "Isn't coming back, Snapshot. Something happened when she went to stop the intruders. She's not coming back son." I saw tears forming in his eye as he looked back to me. "Mom is gone, Snapshot." he said quietly, before wrapping me into a hug.
I froze, "What?" I asked, shocked, "What are you talking about? Mom can't be gone Dad! She can't!" I was starting to cry. It was all to much.
"I'm sorry Snapshot," Dad said, "She's not coming back. She wanted to give us time to run... And she isn't come back."
I pushed myself away from my father, who wasn't hiding his tears anymore, "What do you mean?" I asked, crying almost as hard as my dad, "What's going on?"
My father was silent for a moment, before looking down at me, "We're being hunted, Snapshot. Because of who we choose to be, a lot of bad ponies and changelings are looking for us. And if they find us, they'll to do bad things to us. When Foreshadow went into the city, she was found out by some of them found her. Now they're here and we need to run." My father was trying to be strong, I could tell that much, but without Mirror Image some of his will was gone. I knew he was telling the truth about mom, too, no matter how much I wished I couldn't. Why would anyone want to chase us? We lived in a cave! My body was trembling in my father's embrace, from the incredible shock this day had given us all, my sorrow at discovering my mother's death, and the intense emotions welling up in my chest.
Crack!
My father jerked. Everything was starting to happen fast, changelings were screaming, and running in all directions and hiding behind trees and rocks. The hivemind was losing signals again. My father, however, slumped over where he was sitting, green blood leaking out of a large hole in his chest. "Dad?" I yelled, pushing him, trying to make him move, "Dad what's wrong?" I kept pushing, but he wouldn't move. I looked around, seeing bright flashes in the trees and bushes around us. Changelings were slumped over on the ground like Dad was, while others were running frantically. One of the changelings in armor lifted his wooden stick and it flashed, letting loose a long series of bangs . He only stopped when there was another crack , and the back of his head exploded into a green mist. He dropped his stick and fell over.
I couldn't move, everything was to intense. I could feel the hivemind cracking from the panic and signals disappearing. I was suddenly yanked up from behind. I turned in the stranger's grasp, flailing my limbs, and screaming at the top of my lungs. It was all to much, I couldn't think. "Snapshot!" I heard a voice say, "We have to go!" I looked into the face of the one who picked me up, it was Foreshadow.
"But Dad!" I yelled, tears still pouring down my face. I reached out to him, why wouldn't he move?
"I'm sorry Snapshot," Foreshadow said as she started to run towards the forest, with me on her back. Everybody kept saying that to me, that they were sorry.
We had just reached the edge of the clearing we were in when there was a sudden jerk, and I was thrown to the ground. Foreshadow yelled out as she hit the ground, she rolled onto her back and a sent a stream of flashes into the bushes around us. As I looked back towards her, I could see all of the bodies in the clearing. Some were moving, but most were still, green blood coating the ground around them. There were still a few changelings standing up, one of the armored changelings and a few unarmored ones were huddled behind a fallen tree. I saw a small green thing fly into the middle of them. The changelings panicked, I could feel the cold fear flowing through them.
There was a flash. Followed by a loud Kaboom , and pain coursed through my head. It was hard to hold my head up, it was too much. Everything hurt. I didn't need to see the changelings, I couldn't feel them anymore.
"Snapshot!" Foreshadow shouted at me again, crawling towards me, "Snapshot, listen to me. You need to run! Okay?" I could tell she was in incredible pain, but I managed to nod my head. "Go Snapshot! Don't worry about us, we'll be fine. You just need to keep running!" I slowly got up onto my legs, and started to run away from Foreshadow.
As I ran, I could hear the noises back in the clearing start to slow down. There was another loud kaboom! and one last signal dropped from the hivemind. With a sharp pain, my mind plunged into darkness, the usual feeling of being interconnected fell away from me. I was alone, and so very cold.
There was another flash of light, before I was once again standing inside the hallway filled with doors. My lungs burned as I gulped in breath after breath. I shivered and rubbed my sides, trying to warm up. Everything was cold. The Princess was on the floor next to me, drenched in sweat and catching her breathe as well.
"What happened?" I asked, gulping down a mouthful of air, "What was that?"
She looked up at me, pity and sympathy clear on her face, "That... The was a memory. One of your memories." She glanced at the door that had opened, "Your emotional outburst must have triggered it. Instead of watching it from outside, we were drawn into it."
We were both silent for a moment, taking in what had just happened. I looked up at her, I could feel the waves of emotion around her again. Sorrow, anger, empathy. That last one surprised me, true empathy was less common than most ponies seemed to think. It wasn't rare by any means, but fully immersing yourself in someone else's situation and opening up to all of the pain that it entails is beyond what most ponies can bring themselves to do. I was used to pity. Misguided or not, pity was a common occurrence. But the princess was devoid of it.
She let out a small breath, "I... I am truly sorry. Nopony should have to go through something like that, especially at such a young age." I didn't respond. Why was I still so cold? I couldn't seem to warm up, no matter how much I tried. "If it is any consolation, I can safely say that you are not associated with Chrysalis. That should ease some of the tension regarding your presence."
I looked up into her eyes, reading her emotions carefully. She meant it, the sorrow was as real as her other emotions. "It's not like it matters," I muttered, "They're still dead." I turned away from her. All of my energy was spent, I was so tired.
"Princess, what are you planning on doing with me?"
She looked troubled with my question, "I do not really know," She said, her eyebrows scrunching, "You are clearly not associated with Chrysalis, but at the same time, changelings are regarded as the enemies of Equestria. You are presenting quite the conundrum." She regarded me carefully, "When did this take place?"
"I was... Uhh," I tried to think of when it had taken place through the fog that was starting to cloud my mind, "It was... Eleven years ago. I think." I laid down on the ground, sitting up took to much energy.
"That was six years before Canterlot? Before the invasion?"
"Yeah, Princess. I was, uhh, four?" I rolled onto my back and looked at her. The Princess had her hoof on her muzzle, deep in thought.
"Princess..." I slurred, talking was to much too. I wanted to sleep again.
"Yes?" She said, looking up at me.
"M' hungry." My head fell onto the floor, colored filled my vision.
"Snapshot!" Her voice called out from a mile away as everything faded to black.
"Your mother is a Diamond Dog, and your father smells like old fruit!" I shouted at the guards in the courtyard below my window. It had been two and a half weeks since Princess Luna had entered my mind and seen the destruction of my hive. In that time, I hadn't seen hide nor hoof of the strange Princess of the Night. The wound in my wing, as well as my cracked chitin, had mostly healed. I wouldn't be flying for a little while, but then again; I was trapped in a cell. The straps keeping me on my bed had been undone, and I was free to move about the now empty room. I learned very quickly that there isn't much to do inside an empty cell other than sleep, daydream, and taunt the guards beyond my barred door and window.
"Shut it!" one of the guards at my door shouted. It was strange, they were pretty dry the last two days. Usually there would be a threat or some form of bragging. It didn't worry me when they would make threats though, we all knew they were empty. The princess had ordered the guards to not harm me until she could figure out what to do.
My taunting of the guards had less appeal every day. Sure, it was fun to annoy the ponies that had been hunting my kind as long as I had been alive, but ever since my... experience... with the princess, something had been off. Instead of the burning anger that I usually felt towards the Royal Guard, I was just frustrated. Something about the princess' behavior before she left bugged me. 'Something does not feel right here, Snapshot' , I shuddered. I had gone by many names since I was left on my own; 'Tussle', 'Hickory Smoke', 'Sleetfall', and 'That Apple Thievin' Varmit!' were among my favorites, but that name. The name that only my hive had known me by was one that I had not expected to ever hear again. Snapshot. That was who I was, but it was foreign to hear it from another's lips.
My thoughts were interrupted by my cell door opening behind me, I turned to see Princess Luna standing in the doorway levitating a couple apples around her. "Snapshot," She said, making me cringe, "You and I have much to discuss."
"Oh ya?" I asked, "More socks you want to try on for me?" Her eyes hardened and her cheeks flushed at m
"No, you may want to take this seriously. I came here to make an offer that would see you free." She levitated one of the apples over to me. I bit it out of the air, being sure to bar my fangs in the process. "Against all better judgement, and the suggestions of my guards, I am going to let you leave this cell." That caused my ears to perk up, "You will, however, remain chained and the inhibitor shall also remain on your horn. I feel that I must remind you that while I do have sympathy for your situation, my guards will not hesitate to destroy you should you attempt anything." She levitated in a pair of manacles. "What do you say?"
I paused for a moment, something was definitely off. Her demeanor was more official than it had been in our other encounters, but I had no reason to trust her. Even if she had seen the memories of what her soldiers had done, she was the co-ruler of Equestria, and she would have to follow her pony's wishes. "Why should I?" I asked, "Why should I believe that you want to help me? For all I know, the only thing outside of this cell for me, is a blindfold and a firing squad." I crossed my hooves and sat down on my bunk.
The Princess looked distraught at my response. "Look," she said, putting the manacles down and stepping towards me, her voice growing quiet, "I swear by the moon in the sky that I am not leading you towards an execution. I cannot talk about it here, for it is not safe, but from what we saw in your memory, I believe that we are both being deceived" She had a look in her eyes that told me she was telling the truth. I was really tired of having to read ponies by sight. I was naturally good at it, but using passive magic to read everypony was so much easier.
I just sat there for a moment, something definitely was off since I saw that memory, but she was still a pony! I had no reason to believe anything that she said. Then again, my only chance at escaping would be outside of my cell. I looked back at her before hopping off my bed, "Sure Princess," I said, "Lets see what you found." She smiled at me and placed the manacles on my hooves. With a nod to the guards, the door was opened again, and we walked out. I noticed something off about the guards at the door. I couldn't tell what, but when you live having to watch everything carefully, you learn to spot things no one else sees. The guards glared at me and started to follow us.
"That will not be necessary," Luna said to the guards, making them stop and look at each other in confusion, "I am more than capable of handling one changeling." She kept walking away from the cell, "Feel free to go to the mess hall and get something to eat" With that, we turned a corner and started off down the labyrinth of corridors that made up Canterlot Castle.
As we walked in silence, I couldn't help but stare at the fancy tapestries and artwork covering the walls. "Quite the impressive collection," The princess said without turning around, "Would you not agree?"
"These have to be worth a pretty bit." I said, amazed at the extravagance of the castle, "Good to know that you princesses know what to spend your kingdom's money on."
"These were mostly gifts actually." She said, pausing for a moment to inspect a vase, "It was originally intended for the castle to be simple, but the nobility deemed that Celestia should live in majesty." She snorted and continued to walk down the hall, "I was... Unavailable... at the time, and had no say in how to decorate the castle."
"Something to do with you going crazy right?"
She stumbled when I said that, and turned to look me in the eyes. "If you would rather live out your life in a cell," She said, her voice ice cold, "By all means, continue. I wish to help you, please do not make me regret that decision." She turned back around and started off down the hall at a quick pace.
That added to my confusion. She shouldn't have had a use for me, she already knew that the other changelings wouldn't accept me. She also knew that I had no desire to aid Equestria. I decided to keep quiet until I found out what was going on. I didn't have much choice either way, I couldn't escape with these restraints on. Besides, she was a literal goddess, I wouldn't have stood much chance in a fight against her.
15 Minutes Later
The rest of the trip had been spent in silence, until we came to a large wooden door. "This," the Princess said, stopping in front of the door, "Is the Archives. Contained inside is every file, report, and order ever issued by the Equestria Military and Guard." She pushed the door open to reveal a large room, stacked with row upon row of bookcases, which were packed with folders and envelopes. Glowing gems dotted the walls, providing light throughout the massive room. Luna entered the room and led me through the corridors of information.
"Why would you bring me here?" I ask, looking around at all of the papers.
"I brought you here to show you who is directly responsible for your hives death, so that we may give them the justice they deserve." Luna said, stopping at a desk that was stacked with folders and papers. "But before I do that, I ask that you answer two of my questions." She sat down at the desk and folded her hooves, waiting for my answer.
"What?" I asked, incredulously, "I already know who killed them, your fucking soldiers killed them!" I didn't know what game she was playing, but I didn't like it. "Besides, we both know that if anything, they would have been rewarded for destroying a hive."
There was a glint in her eyes, as if I had made the wrong move in a game of chess. "What would you say if I told you that I am willing to release you, and give you the names of those responsible for your torment, in exchange for two small answers." She said, with an almost unnoticeable smirk. Something was up, she wasn't telling me something important, but if she was true to her word, then I only stood to gain.
I sat down on the ground, calming myself for a moment so that I could think. She had already been inside of my mind, who was to say she couldn't do it again. Besides, she would know that I didn't have any information on The Swarm, Chrysalis' changelings. If I didn't tell her anything, then she could just take it from me another way. As much as I hated the idea of helping her, I had nothing to gain by resisting her. I looked back at her, waiting patiently for my answer.
"Fine," I said, "Two questions. What do you want to know?"
She smiled a genuine, happy smile. "First, how did you sense my guard back in that alley? He should have been invisible to your magic with his armor's enchantments."
Now it was my turn to smile, "It was pretty simple, your magic-proof enchantments aren't completely magic-proof." She looked curious as to what I meant. I waved my hoof in the air, trying to think of a simple way to explain what I said. "Think of it," I said, "As a forcefield. When a guard wears the full set of armor, the enchantments in it create a shield around him, that doesn't let my passive magic in to feed off of his emotions-" I waved my hooves around me like a bubble "- And for most occasions this would work, and I wouldn't be able to sense him. However, It has a weakness for unicorns. In order for a unicorn to cast magic, he needs to cast the spell outwards from his horn-" I motioned my hoof away from my horn "-But the shield around him would usually block his magic the same as it would mine." I tapped my hooves together, creating an 'X', "So whoever designed the enchantment made a loophole, literally. When a unicorn guard casts his spell, the shield opens up for a moment to allow his magic through. While this allows his magic to go undisturbed, my magic is constantly poking around looking for emotions, so it allows my magic through for a moment in order to detect him." I shrugged, before setting my hooves back down. "Or at least, that's what I think it is. I didn't have someone around to teach me the ins and outs of unicorn magic" I said sourly.
I could barely contain my smirk as Luna pushed her jaw back up from where it had dropped. "So, what was your second question?" I asked.
Luna scratched a note on her parchment before regarding me again. "I want to know a bit more about you Snapshot, you were only two years old when you were left on your own. How did you survive?"
Once again it was my turn for confusion, "What? That's what you want to know? Nothing about Chrysalis and the Swarm, or about why I came to Canterlot?"
"I dare say that we may know more about Chrysalis than you do Snapshot. Though I must ask what do you mean by 'The Swarm'?" Luna cocked her head to the side.
"The Swarm is how the Outcasts referred to Chrysalis and her followers. We held on to the belief that they were the separatist group and that we followed the old ways. Besides, Chrysalis prefers to hold her soldiers under mind-control, so they really are more like insects." I told her with a sour note. Even thinking about that bitch made me mad.
Luna nodded her head, "Alright then. So tell me about how you sur-"
"Nope."
"Excuse me?"
"I said 'nope'. I don't have to tell you about how I survived. I answered two of your questions, now give me names." I stomped my hoof.
"But! You- I- ugh." Luna sighed, "Fine. The names of all of the guards in Manehatten, January, 2072, are in this folder." She floated a folder over to me.
I grabbed the folder from her magic and opened it on the table. I flipped through a few pages of paperwork, until I found a cover page that said 'Personnel'. With a deep breath I flipped the page, only to find it blank. I looked up at Luna, who was lifting two books off of the table, and flipped through the pages left in the folder, finding them all blank. In a fit of rage, I swiped the folder, and a few other papers, off of the table. "We had a deal!"
"Yes we did, and it is a deal that I have honored"
"Honored?" I picked up the discarded folder, "This is empty! You owe me names!"
"There are no names, Snapshot." Luna placed the two books in front of me, "Look through these books, one contains the records of troop movements over the years. From September 2071 until March 2072, there was no Royal guard presence in Manehatten. The city was being protected by a local Militia of 30 ponies, who had no access to the weapons necessary to destroy your hive." I pulled the book over to me and began to flip through the pages. Sure enough, September 2071 through March 2072, the Manehatten 6th Royal Guard Division was on loan to the newly found Crystal Empire. "This book," Luna said, pushing the other book towards me, "Is the logbook for that year. There was no mention of Changelings until three months afterward." I looked through that book too. True to her word, there were no recorded sightings. Everything pointed away from the guards, but that couldn't have been right. If there were no guards in the area, then they couldn't have attacked us.
"You know something doesn't add up Snapshot," Luna said, leaning over in her seat, "Turn back to January, read the last three reports in the log." I turned the pages back, and looked at the final entries for that month.
'27-1-72: Three members of the 1st Manehatten Militia, Pvt. Spyglass, Pvt. Adobe, and Cpl. Turbulence, fail to report in after checkpoint shift.'
'29-1-72: Pvt. Spyglass, Pvt. Adobe, and Cpl. Turbulence declared AWOL for failure to report for duty, and not contacting superior officers.'
'31-1-72: After investigation into Private's Spyglass, Adobe, and Corporal Turbulence, records and identities declared false. Royal Investigative Service has been notified. All three are suspected to be spies working against Their Majesties, The Princesses.'
I continued to stare at the page in front of me, unsure of what to do with the new information. "Do you not understand?" Luna said, making me look up at her, "Think upon the details leading up to your family's demise. You never actually saw the perpetrators of the attack, and none of those around you ever stated that it was, in fact, the Royal Guard that was responsible"
She was right, of course, but it couldn't have been anyone else except the Equestrians, it just had to have been them!
"Furthermore, your fellow Outcast, Foreshadow, was discovered at a new checkpoint, but a member of the Militia would have reported the sighting to his commander."
It couldn't be true, all of my life, these ponies had been hunting me. Always on my tail, always forcing me to be on the run.
"These suspected spies went missing during their checkpoint duties, which may have been where Foreshadow was discovered." Luna unlocked my manacles and removed them from my hooves, "Snapshot, I believe that it was this 'Swarm' that committed the atrocity upon you, not the Royal Guard. All of the evidence points to them, rather than us."
"No..." I whispered, "No, I refuse to believe that."
"Search yourself, Snapshot, you know that it does not add up, something has always been wrong with what happened."
"What's wrong with this is that it's your fault anyway!" I took a step towards her, "Its because of you that we had to hide in a hole! We had to stay hidden because you all wanted to kill changelings, when all we wanted was to live in peace!"
Luna didn't back down, for the first time since I saw her, she seemed to stand taller, and spoke with a touch of righteousness in her voice, "I know that Equestria has its share of the blame for your loss, and I intend to rectify that." Her horn lit up, and in a rush I felt my magic return to my body. I could sense her emotions once more; pity, anger, and hope. "Join me Snapshot, if you will let me do so, I intend to make right the wrong that has been done upon you. With your help, I believe that we can stop those responsible for your, and so many others, pain." She reached her hoof out to me, "What do you say?"
I stared at her for a moment, before lashing out with my magic, throwing her 10 meters back against a bookcase. Before she had the chance to recover, I ran out of the Archives, and disguised myself as a Castle Maid.
20 minutes later
1635, 18 August, 2085
I wondered through the halls that made up Canterlot Castle, every one looking the same as the one before it. I had no idea where I was, but eventually there should have been a sign or something to point me the right way. I had to get away from this place, it may have seemed welcoming, but I couldn't trust anything that I saw here.
'I don't care what those records say,' I thought to myself, 'Luna has to be trying to trick me. It had to have been the Royal Guard that did it. It had to have been! So what if I didn't see any Guards during the attack, I didn't see any members of the Swarm either. I mean, it would make sense for the Swarm to attack us, they would consider us traitors, but wouldn't the Guard want to kill us too?' I shook my head. I needed too stop thinking about that. I could worry once I was safe and out of Canterlot.
I rounded a corner and ran into a wall of metal in front of me. I looked up, and saw that there were two Guards staring at me. It took me a moment, but I recognized them as the ones who were outside of my cell door barely an hour ago.
"Oh I'm terribly sorry" I said to the guards, making myself look meek, "I wasn't watching where I was going"
The guards looked at each other and smiled before regarding me again, "It's no problem miss, where are you headed off too in such a hurry?"
"Oh! I'm supposed to be heading down to the market to pick up supplies for the chef!" I lied quickly, the Guards would probably know their way around the castle, if I could get them to guide me, I'd be in the clear!
"Well you seem a little lost, why don't we help you get there" The guards beamed at me. They turned around and started to walk down the hall. I couldn't help but smirk, Guards, especially the male ones, were too easy to trick sometimes.
We turned and twisted our way through the castle, with only occasional small talk when there was a bout of silence. Until, we finally came up to a small wooden door.
"Alright miss, this is one of the back entrances" One of the guards said, motioning to the door, "Just go through here, and you'll only be a few blocks from the Market District."
I walked up to the door and put my hoof on it, "Thank you ever so much for your help, this castle is just so confusing sometimes." I pushed the door open and couldn't see inside because it was so dark.
"Yeah," I heard the guard say, "You never know who you'll run into in these halls." I took a step forward, but there was a Thunk as something collided with my head, knocking me down. I rolled over on the ground to look at whatever hit me, to see the guards walking towards me slowly, malicious smiles on their faces. "Oh come on now," the one from before said, his voice more distorted, "You really think we can't see through a disguise? Just go ahead and drop it Outcast." He spat out the word 'Outcast' like it was a piece of rotten fruit. I tried to crawl back away from the Guards, but I ran into a wall. I turned around, my eyes more adjusted to the dark, to see that I was inside a broom closet, not a hallway.
I turned around to look at the guards again, "So what happens now? You take me back to my cell?"
The second Guard, a unicorn, started chuckling as he used his magic to close the door behind him. My magic rushed into the gap in his enchantment to scan him. The shock I felt at what I found inside him must have shown on my face.
"You figured it out them?" The second Guard said, his voice also sounding distorted, "It took you long enough" there were two flashes of green fire, and the guards before me were gone. In their place, was two Changelings wearing loose Guard armor. I stared into their bright green eyes for a moment, panic welling up inside my mind. I lashed out with my magic, hoping to strike them like I had Luna, but my magic dissipated before it made contact.
"Oh how cute," The closest changeling said, his voice now sounding similar to mine, "It thinks it can fight us!" Faster than I could see, the changeling came up to me and struck my face again, making me drop my disguise and forming light cracks in my chitin. "To answer your question; No. We are not going to capture you" He struck me again, deepening the cracks. I tried to defend myself, but every attempt was met with more strikes to my face and legs. "To be honest, we thought all of you were dead-" a kick to my stomach "-after that raid on your hive-" another punch to my face "-But I guess we missed some of you." He stomped on my leg with a Crunch .
I screamed out in misery, and held onto my now-broken leg. Tears were coming down my face, I couldn't think clearly through the haze of pain. The changeling grabbed me by the neck and lifted me up until I was eye level with him, and pressed me into the wall. "I was there you know." He said, slowly putting pressure on my throat, "When we found you. It wasn't even that hard, almost all of you ran away when we showed up-" He punched my in my stomach "-A few of you stayed behind though, tried to put up a fight. Even managed to kill a couple of us before we slaughtered them" My lungs were burning, screaming for air that wouldn't come, "Hell, I remember this one female who tried to fight, wow was she angry at us. She kept on screaming at us until we put a bullet in her head. Shut her up pretty good." My vision was starting to turn black. I couldn't even lift up a hoof to try and fight him. I was going to die, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The last of the Outcasts: strangled to death in a broom closet. Seemed like a poor ending to our story. "Hell," The changeling said, his voice sounding so far away, "We might get a promotion for killing him, might help with our covers."
I heard the second changeling start to say something when the door burst open behind him, flooding the room with light. The changelings both turned around, dropping me as I took in huge gulps of air. There was a silhouette in the doorway holding what looked like a pistol. Pfft Pfft , The gun fired twice and both of the changelings fell to the ground with a Thump . My vision was starting to return to normal as air returned to my body.
A shadow fell over me, and I saw a hoof reach down to help me up. I looked at the hoof's owner; it was a pony, that much was certain, only it was clad in dark grey armor, instead of gold or purple. Small metal plates covered a large portion of its body, with its stomach covered in what looked like thick fabric, and a lighter version of the same fabric covering it's body that wasn't covered by the plates. A metal helmet sat on top of its head, with a large, black visor covering its face, and two plates of metal going down the side of its muzzle. I took the hoof cautiously, and I was lifted up onto my hooves. I flinched as I put pressure on my broken hoof and held it in the air to stop the pain. I was led out of the closet to see three more of the strange armor-clad ponied standing in the hallway.
"Target secured" I heard one of them say, "Hostiles are knocked out and the package is safe, Princess." I looked around, and saw Princess Luna walking towards me.
"How are you feeling Snapshot?" She said as she reached me and started looking at my wounds.
I looked away from her. If what that changeling had said was true... "Look, Princess..." I said, not sure of what to say, "I apologize for throwing you into a bookcase."
"Think nothing of it, I was unharmed. I am more concerned as to your condition, what happened?" She cast a spell on me, once again numbing my pain a bit. One of the armored ponies came up and started to put bandages on my wounds.
"It was changelings Ma'am," The pony who saved me said, "They were impersonating two of our Guards." I looked over to the door and saw the changelings being dragged out. There were needles sticking out of their neck. "We tranquilized them, and will interrogate them once they wake up." The pony gave Luna a salute, which she returned, before walking away with the changelings.
"They even have spies here" Luna said, defeat in her voice.
"So, how did you find me so fast?" I asked, holding my hoof in the air for the medical pony to place a splint of it, before covering it in more bandages.
"A tracking spell of mine," Luna said, "It has been on you since we met in the alleyway, I was disguised though, so you probably did not recognize me."
I turned to look at her, she seemed sad, "So I guess that explains how you found me in the caverns so quickly too"
There was a tense silence between the two of us."A zebra." I said.
"Excuse me?" Luna cocked her head to the side.
"After I ran away from my hive. I kept going for a couple days, until I collapsed on a road just outside the forest. I was hungry, dehydrated, and had no means to gather emotions. I would have died if a zebra hadn't found me." I looked into Luna's eyes, "That's how I survived. She took care of me, fed me, and gave me water. She didn't care that I was a changeling. She must have known something about changeling culture, because she kept telling me that she knew what it was like to be judged based on your colors. She took me in as her own for a couple years, helped me to grow in my magical abilities, and she became like family to me."
Luna's eyes softened, "What happened? Why are you not still with her?"
"We were separated. After three years in her care, she was taking me back to her home. She had been away for some time, and kept me hidden until I was big enough to handle the journey. On the way, we were attacked by this big, freaky monster, a Manticore I think. We were separated in the fight, and I fell into a river. I'm pretty sure she's dead now too. By the time that I got out of the river, I had no idea where I was, or where she was. So I left, I went out on my own to try and survive among ponies."
Luna was once again silent. She put a hoof on my back, and I flinched away. She kept her hoof in the air until I nodded, and she put it back on me. "Why tell me this now?" she asked.
I looked at the closet door, "Because... You were right." Luna looked confused, but let me continue, "About my hive. It wasn't ponies that did it. One of the changelings was bragging about it to me. About how they killed all of us, he said that he was there when it happened."
Luna looked back at the closet as well. "I wish it had not come to this. I am very sorry Snapshot". The medic had finished bandaging me, and I managed to stand up, without putting much pressure on my broken leg.
"I'll do it Princess" I turned to her, "I'll help you put an end to them."
The Princess looked at me, I could feel that she was happy, but concerned. "I am pleased that you have come to this decision. If you are sure, then there is much to do before we begin." She pointed at my wounds, "First, you must heal once more. Then we may begin training."
"What kind of training?"
"These ponies around us represent a special part of the Equestrian military. Known as the Lunar Rangers, they specialize in stopping threats before they cause damage to Equestria. Only the best are accepted into the training, and many of those chosen will wash out" she turned to me, "If you really do wish to join me, then you will be prepared for the course, before joining the next group of trainees in four weeks time."
I held my head up high, "I'll do it" I didn't care much for protecting Equestria, but if these 'Lunar Rangers' would give me a chance at revenge, then I'd do whatever it took to become one of them.
Author's Note
Hey everyone, Sorry about the long wait between chapters I don't know how two months passed this fast. Things have been a bit hectic on my end. For more details, go to THIS , but long story short, there's going to be a 2-4 month wait before I can even start writing again. This extra wait will be because I am leaving next week for BMT with the Air Force. Like I said, there are more details in my blog. Please let me know if there is anything that I can do to make this story better. I'll see y'all on the other side!tranhdxrbntd , Seanchow806Napoleonic , and the beautiful Cakebomb for Favoriting my story!
1120, 2 September, 2085
"Alright then Mr. Snapshot," One of the pony sitting across from me said, "Are you ready to review all of the information we have gathered in the past couple weeks?" I cringed. Two whole weeks of nonstop interviews and medical procedures to inform the medical staff of what I would be able to take in the actual training. Countless blood samples, magical scans, and interviews about everything changeling. On the bright side, I was able to feed off of the magical energy from all of the tests they had been performing on me, so my wounds were almost completely healed, and I was feeling stronger than I had in a few years.
"Yeah, let's get this over with." I rested my head on my hoof, waiting to answer the questions that I had already answered six times.
"Good, so we'll start with your physical body. I know we have gone over this before, but as you know, we have never been able to perform these tests on a live changeling. We must ensure our records are correct." The doctor opened his folder to read along and make sure that nothing was missed.
I sighed, "My chitin is a solid exoskeleton made up of three layers. The outer layer is a series of brittle plates filled with prism-like cells that I can manipulate with magic to change my appearance. The plates can shift and change shape as well. The second layer contains a harder armor in the place of skin, it provides protection for my body and has numerous pores to allow the third layer to pass through. The third layer is a magically receptive, almost fluid-like substance that can be transformed into almost anything, allowing my body to have the consistency of fur, and my wings to grow feathers during a transformation. This substance is only found inside a changeling's body, and allows us to mold our bodies into whatever shape we wish. This substance is also what allows me to absorb magical and emotional energy, and use that energy to strengthen my magical power and my physical power. Beneath the chitin, my inner body is similar to a pony's, we share most of the same organs, with the exception that mine can be bolstered by magic." I really wished that I had learned how to transfer memories, like how I had learned all of that. It was extremely boring to recite all of this magical and physical mumbo jumbo.
The ponies sitting across the room from me were talking quietly among themselves and comparing notes. They were excited to finally be learning about changeling physiology. 'I guess they didn't get too much out of the bodies that they collected ' I thought sourly. I shook my head, I couldn't keep thinking like that; I may not be doing this to help the ponies, but I was going to have to work with them in order to get back at The Swarm.
The first pony looked back to me, "Thank you very much Mr. Snapshot. Now, I believe that we should move on to your dietary habits. Please give your overview of them as well".
I took a deep breath, it was going to take a lot to put up with these ponies, at least I had gotten more used to hearing my name being said throughout the testing. "For the twelfth time, my dietary habits are barely any different from a pony's habits. I can eat hay, apples, flowers, bread, and sugar the same as you. The only difference is that I am able to consume latent magical and emotional energy to make myself more powerful. The magical energy is absorbed from the aftermath of spells, or found naturally in gems or crystals. I can also gather emotional energy from living creatures. The different emotions give me different levels of power. Positive emotions, like love and happiness, will give me longer lasting power, enhance my magic, and help to sustain my body. Neutral emotions, like curiosity and confusion, give me more information than power, they can also be used to heighten my senses. Negative emotions, hate and fear, vary depending on the emotion. Hate will give me more strength and help me to fight better, but can damage my body over long periods of time. Emotions like fear will help my body to move faster and allow my mind to rely on instinct more than thought." I couldn't believe that I had to sit here and repeat the same things over and over. 'I wonder if the other candidates have to do this' I thought. Either way, the sooner that I got through my training, the sooner that I would be able to actually get things done.
"Thank you very much for your cooperation Snapshot, we're going to take a quick break. When we return, we will have to go over more of your magical abilities" I facehoofed, I was getting way to tired of talking to doctors.
"Actually," A familiar voice said from behind me, "I am afraid that we will not have time for that" I turned around to see Princess Luna standing in the doorway. "Snapshot and I have a few things to discuss ourselves, and then he will be leaving with me" I cheered on the inside; finally, I was free of the medical center!
"Bu- But- But!" The doctor stammered, "We still have so much to learn! You're taking the first changeling speciman that we have ever seen!"
"Oh no, whatever will we do." I said, hopping out of my chair, "You'll just have to go back to examining corpses. Shame." I followed out the door with the princess, leaving the doctors muttering among themselves. "Thanks for that," I said once we had made some distance from the doorway, "I was about to either kill myself, them, or both."
"I am well aware how taxing the medical group here can be," Luna replied, "But it is unfortunately necessary, even after all this time, we still have very little information on changelings. However, it should be over for now."
"Good, so where are we going now?"
"You need to sign some more paperwork, including your contract, which will officially start you in ranger training. Then you will join your fellow candidates and see a physical trainer, he will begin to strengthen your body for the coming course." She took me throw a labyrinth of halls and doors until we found the facility's legal office.
"Great, I suppose that I'll have to maintain a disguise throughout this entire thing?" I asked, sitting down at a desk.
"Actually, no," She replied, giving me a quill and a stack of papers, "You will only have to hold your physical disguise until we begin the official course. The Rangers accept candidates from every race, so the others will be notified that you are a changeling. Regrettably, there is occasionally violence between the candidates, but the instructors of the course will treat you the same as any other candidate." Luna separated the documents in front of me, pointing to one, "Now then, once you sign these, you will create your signature, and officially be an Equestrian citizen. You will also be signing your contract with the Equestrian Army, and the Ranger's. During training, you will receive 700 bits per month, and be provided housing, medical treatment, and food. Upon your graduation, if you graduate, you will hold the rank of Corporal, and your pay shall be increased to 1300 bits per month." She pointed out the lines where I had to sign, so I just started making a swirl pattern on each one. 'This can't be to bad,' I thought, 'How long can it take to sign paperwork?'
3 Hours Later
1430, September 2, 2085
3 hours...
It took 3 hours to sign the paperwork necessary for a changeling to join the Equestrian Military. As impossible as it seemed, my magic was sore. I didn't even know that magic could feel sore, but it was. Now, I was trudging along behind a humming Princess Luna to join my fellow Ranger candidates. 'How can she enjoy paperwork that much?' I thought to myself, She had giggled once I signed the last paper, and she saw how massive the pile was. 'Oh well, to each their own I guess'
I was currently disguised as a green and brown pegasus, with a camera cutie mark. Luna had thought that it would be better for the other candidates to learn me by my real name before dropping my true identity on them. As we arrived at our destination, I saw the other 120 candidates gathered inside of the building's gym. There were other ponies around too, a good number dressed in guard armor, there were a few griffons and even a minotaur in the room. I gulped out of reflex, I was somehow still not used to being around so many members of the military and guard. The other ponies and the candidates were talking among each other, shaking hooves, and some embracing as if they were close friends.
"They are the other candidate's sponsors," Luna said, seeming as though she read my mind, "Every candidate needs somepony to vouch for them in order to enter Ranger training. Sometimes it is their commander, if they are in the guard, or a current Ranger who thinks they are worthy."
"So who's my sponsor then? I don't think I'm on very good terms with most of the ponies in the guard..." I trailed off. I didn't think there was a single guard I had left a good impression on in the past two weeks. Not that I had tried to, of course.
Luna snorted, "That would be me," one of the guardsponies in the room noticed the Princess and shouted something I couldn't understand. Suddenly, every guard and Ranger in the room turned toward us, snapped to attention and saluted, which Luna returned. "At ease," Luna said, dropping her salute and turning back towards me, everypony else in the room returned to their conversations. "As I was saying, Snapshot, I will be your sponsor into Ranger training. Regrettably, it may put you in a bit of a spotlight with the other candidates, but I think that you shall be able to cope. I will not be seeing you again until you complete the indoctrination course, so I want to tell you; do not forget why you chose to do this. Everything that you will experience in the coming weeks will be specifically designed to break you down, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I believe that you can make it through the struggles, but I need you to remember, you do not have to go through it alone. All of the other candidates will be going through the same thing as you. Embrace that, and use that commonality to strengthen each others resolve. I know that you are a loner, and do not want to rely on others for help, but if you want to succeed, you will have to. I wish you the best of luck, Snapshot. You will need it." She bowed her head to me, which I returned since I was technically one of her subjects now, and she turned to leave. It was a very odd feeling being a citizen.
Luna trotted out of the room, and the other sponsors started to follow suit, many of them saying a last goodbye to their candidate; 'Good luck soldier', 'See you in a few', and a strange 'Caw'ing sound was all that I could understand from the mass of noise. As their sponsors left, the candidates began to circle around a small stage near the front of the room. I made my way carefully into the group, avoiding eye contact with the others. I didn't care if we were all going to go through training together, the only one I had to worry about was myself.
After a few minutes, the crowd began to quiet down, as a grey pony strode up onto the stage. He had an air of authority around him, and I could see a coldness in his eyes. As if he was sizing up the group for a fight. "Alright now everypony," He said, just loud enough to be heard in the back of the group, "I bet you think you're all hot shit now that you're here right?" There was a few hoof stomps and quiet cheers throughout the crowd, "Well I can tell you right now, that you aren't. By the end of today, at least ten of you will be going home," The crowd grew silent, "By the time that the real training begins, there will be thirty less of you here in this room." He started to walk up and down the stage, looking into random ponies eye. A few flinched away from him. "Hmph. My name is Master Sergeant Blitz. I served fifteen years in the Rangers, and have been running the pre-training course for another six. It is your job to get through me into the actual course, and it is my job to weed out those of you who wouldn't stand a chance against Indoc." His gaze landed on me, in the middle of the pack, and I could have sworn I saw a snarl on his face, "Let's just get down to it then. The first thing we'll do is a physical evaluation. If you can't even hit the standards for a royal guard, then I will kick you the fuck out of my gym. Everypony, grab a partner and meet me on the push up pad."
I dropped my head, I really didn't want to have to team up with anyone, I was much better at doing things on my own. I was about to raise my head and start looking for somepony who at least seemed quiet, when there was a weight put on my back, knocking me down. I looked up to see a large white pegasus, with a grey bandanna on his head leaning on my back. "Well hey there kid," He said, "Aren't you a bit young to be here?" He got up off of my back, and held a hoof out to help me up.
I shoved his hoof away and stood up, "Aren't you a bit clumsy to be here?" I replied, dusting myself off. The pegasus had a short cropped blue mane beneath his bandanna, and a similarly fashioned tail. From my angle, it looked like his cutie mark was a few sharp snowflakes flying in a gust. He gave off an air of playfulness that I didn't really appreciate.
The new pony laughed, "Well," he smiled, "at least you've got a sense of humor. The name's Snowstorm, how'd you like to partner up?"
I didn't want to be his partner, but before I could argue, the instructor shouted at us, "Hey! Hurry the fuck up you lazy sacks of shit! What's taking so long?" I sighed.
"Fine," I said, "I'll be your partner for the exercise."
"Great!" Snowstorm said, "You know who I am, how about you? What's your name?"
I rolled my eyes. I had to get away from that imbecile, "My name is Snapshot" I said curtly. It would be easy enough to get away from him, especially once he found out that I was a changeling. I sighed, I was likely to be ostracized here as well. Not that I minded, it was what I was used to; but it sucked nonetheless.
Snowstorm
Snapshot turned and walked off towards the push up pad. I quickly followed after him. 'He doesn't seem like much,' I thought, 'But if he was escorted here by Princess Luna herself, then he has to be special somehow' .
Once all of the candidates had paired up and gotten onto the pad, Sergeant Blitz spoke up, "Sweet Faust, how long does it fucking take to get a partner? If y'all are as slow as this, then nopony will make it through Indoc. I swear, they give me worse and worse candidates each time..." He scowled, and hopped up onto another podium, so that we could all see him, "Anyway, today's events will start with a standard Guard fitness test: two minutes to do as many push ups as you can, two minutes to do as many sit ups as you can, no time limit to do your max pull ups, a timed mile and a half run, a timed half mile swim, for pegasi and griffons, a timed 5 mile flight, and a wing power test, for the unicorns, a maximum weight levitation test, and a power level test. After the testing is complete, anypony who doesn't meet the minimum standards will go home, as will the team with the lowest composite score." There was some murmuring around the room, It didn't quite seem fair that somepony who could meet the standard would be denied, "HEY! " Blitz shouted, making everypony snap to attention, "Quit your fucking bellyaching! We don't have to let anypony through into the Indoc course, so count yourself lucky that we relaxed the standard! It used to be the bottom five who got the axe." The room was dead silent.
Everypony got into position on the pad, two lines facing each other. Magical counters appearing over our heads to count our correct repetitions. "On my mark," Blitz said, "You will begin your test. After two minutes, the counters will stop and I will check your scores" He walked in a slow circle around the pad, sizing up the smaller candidates. "One. Two. Go!" Everypony started performing military style pushups. After the first minute, my muscles were starting to burn, but I kept pushing through it. If I made it through today, there would be much worse pain to go through.
Blitz was looking down at his stop watch, "10 seconds!" He shouted, I pushed myself harder to try and squeeze out as many push ups as I could. "Time! Everypony get your sorry asses up" Everypony stood up and looked at their counts. There was a bright blue '107' floating above my head. I smirked, I had done better before, but it was a pretty good score. Most ponies I saw had scores in the 80's and 90's, so I stood out already. I turned to look at Snapshot, who was hunched over and panting. I looked above him and saw a number that made my jaw drop.
Above my partner's head was a bright blue '57', barely above the passing minimum. Snapshot raised his head with a hopeful look in his eyes, until he saw his score. I could see the panic in his eyes. "Hey," I said quietly, "It's above passing, that's all that matters." I gave him what I hoped to be a reassuring smile.
Snapshot glanced up at my score and dropped his gaze. "Easy for you to say" he murmured.
"Hey, just because push ups ain't your thing, doesn't mean you're gunna fail. There's still plenty more tests, I'm sure you'll do great." I kept up my smile. I felt for the kid, I really did. Blitz walked past us, glancing at my score and doing a double take at Snapshot's. He looked at Snapshot, who was avoiding his eyes, and scoffed, before he moved on. "You'll do great" I said.
30 minutes later
Apparently I was wrong. While he hadn't been failing, Snapshot was barely passing the minimums for the test. His run had passed by 11 seconds, and he had almost drowned on the swim test. I, on the other hoof, was near the top of the leader board in most categories. Our team score was tied for last place, with only two tests left. Since we were both pegasi, we both had to do the 5 mile timed flight and a wing power test, which would be taken in the final stretch of the flight. After every test before this, Snapshot had become more and more angry, he tried to hide it, but I could see his disappointment whenever he saw the scores.
We had a couple minutes to stretch out before the flight, so I sat down next to Snapshot. "Look, I know that it's been going a bit... rough for you so far, but I think that you can pull this one off, all we have to do is get one more point than the other guys." I put my hoof on his shoulder, which he immediately swiped away.
"Can it alright?" He said, his eyes on fire, "I get it, I'm bringing your score down, and it's going to be my fault if you don't make it in. It was your choice to be my partner anyway, so just back off." He looked away, I could see him shaking a bit.
"Snapshot," I said, in a more stern voice, "Look at me." His looked up into my eyes, His eyes taking a bit of an orange tone to them, making him look more threatening than he had all day. "I don't give two shits if you are bringing my score down, I wouldn't be a very good friend if I got pissed of at you for not being as strong as me"
Snapshot
Friend? That didn't make any sense, I had just met the stallion. Even then, we had barely said two words to each other, but emotions don't lie. I felt a surge of warmth flow over me that I hadn't felt since I was young in my hive. 'He... He really thinks of me as a friend?' I thought, 'What in Tartarus is wrong with this pony?'
"What do you mean," I said hesitantly, "Why do you think that we're friends?"
"Well," He said, a look of amusement on his face, "We're going to be going through a pretty tough version of Tartarus in the next few months here. I figure it's best to find friends fast."
That wave of warmth was slowly seeping into my body, I could feel it strengthening my body. I found myself at an impasse, I didn't want any friends, but without this boost he was giving me, I would never make it through this test, let alone training. 'Maybe I can use him' I thought, 'Its not like he'll want to stay that way once he finds out that I'm a changeling, but if I can get this much power from him, I suppose he could be of use' .
"That... Makes sense. I guess," I said, "This course is going to be difficult enough, might as well let you make it easier for me."
"That's the spirit!" Snowstorm said with a wide smile, "...Kinda"
After ten minutes of stretch and rest, We had all lined up at the beginning of the race track. All pegasi were to fly as hard and as fast as they could through the five mile course, until the last stretch, which was where a wing-power test was placed. It was designed to read a flyer's power and endurance if they could push themselves the entire way. Snowstorm and I were standing next to each other, watching Blitz count off before the test began.
"On my mark," Blitz said, "One, two, go!" All of the pegasi and griffons took off into the air. I was quickly passed by almost every flyer, as they all sped off ahead of me. As was usual, I was near the rear of the group by the end of the first lap. The only difference was that this time, Snowstorm was right there with me.
"What are you doing?" I asked, "go on ahead, I know you can fly faster than this"
"Ya, I can," He said, a cocky smile on his face, "but so can you."
I scoffed, "Ya right, we both know that I'm drag our score down, just go ahead and get your points. That's the only way that we'll make it through this test"
"Can't say that I agree with you there, Snapshot. I'm going to stay right here with you, if you want to pass, then show me!"
I started to pump my wings harder and harder, my breathing getting into a steady pace. I slowly started to pick up speed, but not by much. "I can't," I said, "I can't fly fast, just go on ahead, We'll fail if you stay back here!" Yet Snowstorm didn't say anything, he just kept flying half of a meter ahead of me, slowly getting further and further away. I kept pushing my wings as hard as they would go, when that warmth of emotion flooded over me, I felt my soreness go away, and my muscles tense up like they were ready for anything. It started out slowly, but with every beat of my wings, I closed the gap between Snowstorm and I.
He looked back to see me flying right behind him, a determined look on my face. Sweat was pouring down my neck as my team slowly made our way through the group of flyers, one by one, they started to fall behind us. We were coming up on the last stretch of the test, the final sprint. "Come on Snapshot, push it out! This is where we make it!" Snowstorm said as he took off ahead of me. I strained my wings, pushing as hard as I could. I was still pretty far back in the group, but something was rising up inside of me, I kept pushing harder and harder, until I felt it come out.
There was an orange flash behind me as I shot forward through the group, I quickly weaved in and out past the other candidates. This was the fastest that I had ever flown before, and I had caught up to Snowstorm as we passed the finish line.
Snowstorm, the other candidates, and myself all stood around Blitz as he tallied up the team scores, to decide which team would not be allowed to enter the Indoc course. I was a nervous wreck, but I did my best not to show it. I refused to look even weaker in front of everyone.
"Alright then fillies," Blitz said, "The scores are all together. I, for one, am ashamed of your pitiful scores. When I came through here, your highest score would have barely passed. Anyway, everyone met the minimums... barely" He cast a glance towards me, "So then, the team with the lowest score is getting the ax outta here. So then lets see who are winner is. With an average score of 78 points, Summer Stone and Blazing Gizmo will not be joining all of you in Ranger training. You two will be given the choice of leaving, or you can try again with the next course, which do you want?"
Two ponies stepped out from the crowd, "We'll come back next time sir!" One of them shouted.
"Good, do yourselves a favor and work out more for next time eh? Now get out of my gym!" Blitz pointed towards the exit, making the two ponies glare at him as the left. "As for the rest of you, you will be staying here in the barracks. Go there, get something to eat, and rest up. Starting tomorrow, you will be in a world of hurt."
The other candidates began to talk among themselves as they dispersed towards the barracks, Snowstorm came up to me and patted me on the back. "See? I told you that we could do it, and we made it. C'mon, lets get some grub and hit the sack. The fun is just starting" He started walking towards the exit with everyone else.
I shook my head and started walking after him. I sure am going to miss that cheerfulness when he finds out about me' I thought, 'Cheer always was tasty' .
Author's Note
Hey Y'all! I'm back, not dead, and would like to thank Esca and KaitonC for favoriting this story. Also a humongous thank you to Esca for pre-reading this story. As always, feedback is always appreciated and welcomed.this
Unknown Date
I ducked underneath a tree branch as I ran through the woods, my armor weighing me down as I sprinted. There were only four of us left, Snowstorm, an earth pony named Stone Quarry, a Unicorn named Bright Flash, and myself. It was our first operation, and things had gone wrong immediately. Now, instead of moving to secure our objective, we were running for our lives, doing anything that we could to evade capture. Despite his size, Snowstorm was in the front of our group, leading us through the thick brush, and away from where the rest of our team had been slaughtered.
There was a loud Crack and Stone Quarry, who was in the rear, fell to the ground in a hump. Bright Flash slowed for a moment to look back at his fallen comrade. There was another Crack , and I didn't need to turn around to know that they were both done for. We had been misinformed, we were supposed to be moving against a simple target, lightly defended, and relatively easy to take. Instead, we were heavily outgunned by a foe who seemed to melt into the terrain around us. I dodged around another tree, running straight into a clearing. I swerved to the side, trying to make my way back into the tree cover, when I heard a Bang Bang Bang .
I dropped to the ground as my front right leg gave out beneath me. As fast and low as I could, I made my way over to a boulder, trying to keep myself hidden from the gunfire. I peeked my head out from cover, trying to get a bead on where the enemy was. I saw Snowstorm in a similar position across the clearing. We made eye contact and he nodded to me. I nodded back, and leaned out to spray the treeline with bullets. Once I started, Snowstorm broke cover and sprinted over to me. When he was almost to me, there was a loud burst of gunfire, and I saw three red plumes explode across his chest. Snowstorm hit the ground hard, skidding to a stop near my boulder. I stared at him, before turning to return fire on where I thought the enemy was.
When my magazine ran dry, I heard a Snap behind me, and I turned to address the intruder, when my weapon was hit from my hooves. I reached for my sidearm, but my assailant pinned it to my body, hitting me with a series of blows to the chest, knocking the air out of me. I slumped against the rock that was supposed to protect me, and I looked up at my attacker. All I saw, however, was the barrel of his rifle pressed against my forehead.
Two and a half Hours Earlier
0947, 23 September, 2085
I stepped off of the airship with the remaining candidates. It had only been a week, and there was already a noticeable drop in the amount of Ranger hopefuls. After Blitz's training camp, there was only a hundred and seven candidates out of the original hundred and twenty. By the end of the first week, there was only ninety-one of us left, and more were sure to leave. During that terrible week, we had all gotten as used to the rhythm of training as we could, but it was difficult. Every day was different from the next. The first day had been expected, they were making sure that we had everything that we needed to begin training, but after that... It seemed as though the instructors couldn't decide on what to do. One moment we would be at the firing range, training with our rifles, the next, we would be running obstacle courses. Then there was cleaning the buildings, studying the organization of the Ranger Units, a touch of hoof-to-hoof combatives, and learning basic, large unit tactics. They had been pounding us with the strategies of large troop movements, but gave little to no information on smaller units like platoons or squads. Even when we had a rare chance to sit, we were constantly doing something, not a single second was wasted. My stress was at an all time high, and I could feel that most of my class was feeling the same.
It didn't help that we were about to embark on our first exercise. We had been dropped off in the Everfree Forest, loaded with armor, three days of food rations, and our rifles. Our ammo, however, was made up of simulation rounds. When they impacted on target, they would burst, not breaking the skin, but giving off a paralysis magic so that the affected body part couldn't be used. If you were hit in the chest or head, then it would paralyze your entire body, simulating a kill. We had been briefed about our mission before we left base. We were to move into the forest and secure a package inside castle that lied within. The instructors had told us that there was a light enemy presence defending the castle, so we figured that it would be a cakewalk for us. The moment that I stepped up to the candidates who were taking charge, however, I knew that it wouldn't be as easy.
"I don't care what you think, I'm not going to follow somepony who's never seen real combat!" one of the griffins shouted at the three other 'leaders'.
"And I'm telling you," A pony said, getting very frustrated with the griffin, "That we have to think before we act, we don't even know how many-"
"Enough!" a minotaur said, tossing his helmet aside, "It's clear that the Instructors will never respect us if we appear weak, we need to strike hard and fast! I agree with Talon" apparently Talon was the griffin's name.
"Hey," I said, trying to speed things up, "I don't care what we do, but we have our balls hanging out, out here. I'd suggest moving into the forest at least, might as well try and get some cover, someone will have heard the airships taking off" all three candidates turned to look at me. The pony didn't trust me, but he didn't seem to disagree with me. The minotaur snorted and turned back around, not bothering to address me.
The griffin, however, looked furious, "Does it look like I care what you think, Grub?" the instructor's nickname for me had carried over to the candidates, and it annoyed me to no end. "I suggest that you get out of my sight before I put you down myself" he flexed his talons menacingly towards me. I rolled my eyes and walked away. The few times that I had actually tried to be productive and step up, I was shot down because I was a changeling. So far the only pony who even listened to what I had to say, was Snowstorm, who had run up to me and started walking alongside me.
"So," he said, "What's the plan?" I stopped, looking down the line of candidates, who were hunched down in a defensive line where the airship had dropped us off.
"I don't know, our esteemed leaders are bickering like children. Honestly, I'm about to just move into the forest myself, maybe try to sneak in and scope out the castle before we all get shot" as I was about to start walking, three ponies and a griffin walked up to me.
"Hey, changeling," the pony who was arguing with Talon said, the few candidates who didn't call me 'grub' simply called me by my species, "First off, I don't trust you," shocker, "But you made a point back there, we need to move, and no one's coming up with a good plan. Since nopony has the balls to take charge, I figured that I'd grab a few ponies and do it myself. Are you in?" I was surprised that he had even thought to include me. Then again, I was surprised that I hadn't been shot in the back the moment that the airships had left the area.
"Ya," Snowstorm said, "We were thinking the same thing. We could probably make our way to the objective faster in a small group, rather than moving as a whole unit. My name's Snowstorm by the way, the kid here is Snapshot. How about y'all?" The charismatic pony never ceased to amaze me. Even after a week of getting the crap beat out of us, and standing exposed in a field, he was still looking to be sociable.
The pony looked at me for a second, "Pleasure. My name is Bright Flash. The griffin is Alexi Stormfeather, the earth pony is Stone Quarry, the pegasus is-" Bright Flash was cut off as the Crack of a rifle rang out through the clearing. I whipped around, weapon ready, searching for the source. I saw a pony on the ground, a large red mark on his helmet.
"Sniper!" someone shouted, and the clearing rang out with a hail of gunfire. Candidates were dropping one by one with well placed shots, while we couldn't even see our attackers in the dense forest.
"We need to move!" Snowstorm shouted, scanning the treeline for muzzle flashes. I looked around, there was incoming fire from our front and right flank, only our rear and left were clear. As I scanned, I saw a couple candidates run away from the firefight, out towards our rear. As they approached an opening in the treeline, however, I saw them get gunned down in a hail of bullets. We were surrounded, and our numbers were dwindling quickly. I searched for a weak spot in the attack, when I saw an area where there weren't many flashes.
"This way! Follow me!" I shouted, and took off running towards the opening. Dirt was being kicked up around my hooves as I was attracting fire. I fired blindly towards the flashes of gunfire, seeing one of them cease. I heard someone shout something behind me, and there was a roar of hooves stomping across the clearing. As I reached the treeline, I turned for a moment and saw the macabre scene behind me. Candidates were laying out in the open, some dragging themselves away from the trees, others taking cover behind their 'dead' comrades. I saw a candidate stand up, and immediately his chest exploded in the red mist of a simulation round.
I froze. Memories were coming back to me, Outcast changelings pinned down in a clearing, blood and bullet holes coating the trees, I saw a group of changelings running towards me, some falling as they were shot, others running past me into the forest. One changeling stopped in front of me, "Snapshot!" It shouted, "What are you doing? Run!" I saw an image of a changeling on her back, her leg bleeding profusely, screaming at me to run away.
Something collided with my face, and my vision returned to normal. The changeling was gone, in its place was Snowstorm, holding his hoof up, ready to hit me again. "What the fuck, Snapshot, run!" I shook my head for a moment, before turning and running back into the forest, leaving a scene of simulated carnage behind me.
One and a Half Hours Later
I stopped running, having caught up with the remaining candidates. After the first ambush, we had been constantly hounded by our foes. It was obvious that they knew the forest like the back of their hooves. We were all panting and leaning against trees. I looked around, seeing only sixteen candidates around me. "Is this it?" Snowstorm said, looking around the small gathering. One of the candidates looked up and nodded at him in confirmation. I took a look around, and noticed that several of those in the clearing had been wounded during our long trek through the forest.
I walked through the group, constantly keeping a lookout on the trees around us. As I looked at each of the candidates, most were looking down at the ground or at the trees as well. Some were checking their rifles, and a few were looking at a map, trying to plan our next move. I walked up to the ponies with the map, and they suddenly went silent.
"What do you want?" one of them asked, covering the map.
"Well I was hoping to find out what we're going to do next, you know, so we don't all get shot again." I was tired of all of the mistrust being thrown at me. I understood that they didn't like my kind, but I had been nominated for the Ranger program by the freaking Princess. I had hoped that that would get me some credit, but as it turned out, I was very wrong.
"Now that's no way to treat the one who saved our asses, now is it?" a new voice said. I turned around to see Bright Flash standing behind me, "If he hadn't found that opening, then we all would’a been shot back at the LZ."
"What? You trust the changeling now, Bright Flash?" I could taste the venom in the air around this pony.
"I don't quite trust him yet," Bright Flash said, "But the fact remains that he's the one who got us out of that tight spot back there." I was shocked, I didn't sense trust from the unicorn, but for once, the animosity I had been surrounded by wasn't showing up. Another pony besides Snowstorm was actually standing up for me. There was some murmuring throughout the clearing, no one seemed to believe that somepony was taking my side. Heads were turning to watch the argument with interest. I didn't sense that any of their opinions had changed towards me, but the fact that they weren't jumping on me too was a good sign.
"So what if he found a way out? It just means that he was running away first!" The pony said, squaring off against Bright Flash.
"If he was trying to save his own hide, would he have yelled for us to follow him?" Bright Flash wasn't backing down from the angry pony. I found myself being in an uncomfortable position as the center of an argument. It was something that I couldn't remember happening for a long time.
"Look, we should just keep on moving, we don't know where the enemy might be hiding" Snowstorm said, getting between the two ponies.
"Fine," The angry pony said, turning away from us, "Just keep that thing away from me." With that, he walked off through the crowd of candidates.
"Thanks for helping out," I said to Bright Flash, "But really, I'm used to that stuff. There's no need to get on their bad side for me"
"It shouldn't matter," Bright Flash said, his head tilted to the side, "We're all here for some reason or another, if the Rangers trust you enough to let you be trained... Then I guess that I'll just have to trust you too" He held his hoof out in front of him. It took me a moment, and a nudge from Snowstorm, to realize that it was a hoof-bump. I pressed my hoof against his, and I felt a similar emotion to that of Snowstorm trickle into me. He didn't fully trust me yet, and he was a bit apprehensive about befriending a Changeling, but I could tell that he was being honest.
"Well ain't that something, kid?" Snowstorm said behind from behind me, "I told you that not everypony hates your guts. Only most of them!" I turned to stare at Snowstorm, I could see a large smile through his helmet visor.
"Okay then," Bright Flash said, breaking the silence that had fallen while I just stared at Snowstorm's overly happy smile, "I'm going to try and get everypony organized, they seem to have left us alone for now, and we should capitalize on that"
"I agree," I said, looking around the clearing, "If we can convince everyone to make a steady push towards the objective, then we might still stand a chance" Bright Flash nodded, and walked off towards one of the groups in the clearing. I was about to follow him, when Snowstorm stopped me.
"Hey, Snapshot. While we have a moment, do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Sure, I like to think that I'm a fairly open book."
"Why did you hesitate back there at the edge of the LZ?"
I froze. Memories flashed through my mind of changeling corpses scattered all over the ground. Some dragging themselves away from their dead friends. My family. "It's... My... I...." I sighed, looking down, "I lost focus, and I'm sorry, I should have had a better reign on my emotions."
"That's good and all, but I didn't want to hear what you shoulda done, I want to know why you did it." Snowstorm was not wavering in his request.
"... It reminded me of my family," Snowstorm was silent, waiting to hear the rest of my story, "When I was very young, my Hive was attacked. Until recently, I thought that it was the Equestrian Guard that did it, but with the Princess' help, I now think that it was The Swarm that is responsible. They destroyed my home, chased me and my father out of it, before killing him and the rest of my family in front of me. As far as I know, I'm the only one who survived. I should have had a better lid on my feelings, but when I saw everyone getting gunned down in that clearing... I felt like a hatchling again. Weak. Pathetic. Unable to do or change anything." There were a few tears flowing down my face. Before I knew what was going on, Snowstorm had wrapped his hooves around me in a quick hug.
He released me, and put a hoof on my shoulder, "Well that's why we're here now right? So that we never have to be weak again. I'm sorry to hear about your family, but right here," He pointed at the ground, "Right here is where we start to build a new family. You just saw a few minutes ago that eventually, ponies will start to ignore the fact that you're different. Right here and right now is where we build our new family, and we'll be able to make sure that no one has to go through what you went through. Ever." There was a sternness in his voice, mixed with the warmth of friendship and passion that I felt from him. I felt like I could take on the entire Swarm single-hoofed.
'But now, I don't have to' I thought with a smile. "Thanks," I said, holding my head up high, "You know, if this whole Ranger thing doesn't work out, you should try writing speeches. With a little work, you might be half decent at it" I smirked, until Snowstorm's hoof collided with the back of my helmet.
"Way to ruin the moment, kid." Snowstorm smiled at me and walked away to help Bright Flash rally the remaining candidates. I couldn't help but smile too, I had a feeling that we would pull through on this exercise.
After the end of that first exercise, we had learned that the instructors had been stacking things against us. They had better gear, more ponies, and they knew the area well. As we were brought back to our barracks, things resumed their rushed pace. Without a moment to rest, we were brought into another Unit Tactics class, this time focusing on slightly smaller units than before. Now we were being instructed on how to operate on a company basis, which would generally have slightly more numbers than we still had in training. After another week, we were dropped back into the forest, this time with a set leader and a rough plan. We moved into the forest as quickly as we could, and had managed to make it within fifteen kilometers of the objective before we were ambushed again.
Once again, however, things had fallen apart once the fighting began. The instructors had made a hole in our line and scattered us, causing panic and rash decisions throughout the unit. With the same result as the first exercise, we were brought back to our barracks, beaten, bruised, with our heads hanging. The next day, it began again. They broke us into three groups, and taught us how to conduct operations on a smaller scale. We began to see how the different parts of the unit could work together, while operating separate from each other.
The cycle continued, after a week of training in smaller units, they dropped us into the forest again. We used everything that they had taught us, moving through the underbrush as quickly and quietly as we could. We made our way towards the castle, until we were attacked again, this time in a direct, frontal assault. The first platoon had collapsed immediately, while the second and third moved in to help them. As they moved up, however, they were caught in the rear by another attack. We had all held together, to the displeasure of some candidates near me, and repelled the first attack. As we tried to move closer to the castle, coming within sight of it, we discovered how against us the odds really were. Waiting inside the castle was the remaining instructors. As we took cover from the defenders, the group that ambushed us in the forest had moved behind us and hit us again, trapping us in our cover.
As we were brought back towards our airships to return to the base, I had taken a look around and noticed how many of the 'enemy' had been lost in their attack on us. More and more candidates noticed it, and as we returned to our barracks that night, the mood was different from the previous weeks. We were still beaten halfway to Tartarus, but our heads were held high. That ragtag group that had been wiped out in the first exercise, was starting to become formidable against the mighty Rangers.
Every day was a flurry of classes, grueling physical training, repetition after repetition of the skills we were learning, and constant harassment from our instructors. When it came time for us to enter the forest again, there was a general feeling of hope for the coming exercise, everyone was more confident in our abilities. We had been taught how to operate in every unit from a Battalion with support, down to a fireteam, how to clear buildings, basic combat medical aid, been issued upgraded helmets with a functioning radio and HUD system that could display basic tactical information and communicate with almost anyone in the area of operations, there wasn't a candidate who had qualified below a Markspony level with their rifle, and everyone had passed through the other weapons qualifications. We felt ready for anything.
As we entered our airships to begin the exercise, I sat next to the other members of my fireteam; Snowstorm and Bright Flash. As per usual, we were near the ramp, so that we could be the first to sweep the LZ for enemy contacts. Though some of the candidates actively distrusted me, most had taken a passive attitude towards me. The new leaders of our group had questioned me about the extent of my sensing abilities, and decided that I would be of the most use scouting ahead of the main group. With help, I had chosen the candidates that were best qualified for recon, and organized them into fireteams. Though I hadn't realized it immediately, I had been given a command of my own.
We waited near the ramp as our airship flew towards the LZ. Each exercise began at a new location, but the end goal was always the same: make our way to the castle, capture the package waiting inside the throne room, and make our way back to the extraction point alive. When I looked around the interior of our ship, some candidates were checking their equipment, looking over a rough map that we had been given, or going over our new approach to getting towards the objective. The three platoons of candidates would be spread out over an area about one hundred meters around, with six fireteams sixty meters out from the formation in a hexagon pattern, with mine at the tip of the spear. If any of the recon teams, dubbed 'Specter' teams, made contact with the instructors, they would report in to the leaders of the unit, given the callsign 'Warrior'. Depending on the size of the enemy force, the Specter team would engage the enemy, fall back to the main group and wait to engage, or keep track of the enemy as the main group made their way around them. It wasn't a perfect plan, but with our limited numbers and lack of experience, it was the best that we could do.
Because we were separated from the main group, the Specter teams were to be issued heavier weapons. I had kept my rifle and sidearm, while Bright Flash had traded his sidearm for a backup shotgun, and Snowstorm was carrying a Light Machine Gun. If we did have to engage, then we would be able to hold our own until help arrived. Some squads were given heavier weaponry as well, bulking up our firepower as a whole. This time around, we had been issued magical stun grenades to simulate an actual explosive. It would feel like you were being electrocuted when it went off, and it would shut down your armor, making you 'dead'.
We were given a warning over the radio that we were approaching the LZ, and everyone began to get ready. Packs were rustling as maps were stowed away, and the 'Slap Clack' of magazines being loaded rang through the cabin. A red light turned on above the ramp, and a voice came over our radios, "Thirty seconds to drop zone!" we all stood up and formed a line in front of the ramp.
"Twenty seconds!"
"Ten seconds!"
The ramp fell from in front of me with a 'Thud' and we all streamed out into the field, taking cover behind a nearby berm. The radio channels were alive with chatter as the squads all got organized to form our defense. Candidates were checking fields of fire all around us, scanning the treeline ahead of us for any sign of movement. After the last candidates exited, the airships closed their ramps and took off through the air, filling the field with silence as the rumble of engines faded away.
For a few minutes, no one moved, we were all waiting for the trees to explode with gunfire. When none came, I keyed my radio, "All Specter callsigns, Specter Zero-One. Move out, advise when in position"
I was answered by five voices saying "Roger" before the teams broke off from the group and moved slowly towards the trees. It was only twenty meters from my position, but I felt so exposed. When I made it into the trees, I began to weave my way forward until I was at my set position ahead of the group. I radioed in confirming my position, and reached out with my magic, searching for any signs of the enemy. In the past weeks my magical prowess had been increased as I was constantly being pushed to my limits. During a few of the combat lessons, an instructor had worked with me on enhancing my sensing abilities. Together, we had found a way to bypass the anti-changeling wards placed on most Equestrian armor. My understanding prior to undergoing training was that the ward was to block me out entirely, but it seemed that its intended purpose was to stop me from feeding from the armor's user. It hid them pretty well, but with enough training, I was able to feel them out.
The other Specter teams had confirmed their positions, and we were all on our way towards our objective. Bright Flash and Snowstorm were keeping an eye out around us, while I was scanning for anything ahead that would be a threat. 'This is gunna be a long day' I thought to myself.
The last few weeks had broken me down and pushed me to my limits time and again. But somehow, I had never felt better. Every time that I passed through a course, or when another candidate would acknowledge me as something other than an enemy, I felt something new swell up inside me. It reminded me of when I had first seen sunlight outside of my hive. Things were changing, and I was changing with them, not because I had to, but because I wanted to. I had realized that I was no longer just trying to survive, but that I was striving to succeed. Every challenge thrown my way, I wanted to conquer it. Every time that an instructor told me that I wasn't good enough, I wanted to shove it in his face and prove him wrong, and it was showing. I was already so different from that weak pegasus on the first day of pre-training struggling to do a push up, and some of the other candidates had noticed it too. It started out with them not wanting to be shown up by me, but as the tests grew harder, and we were all forced to rely on each other more and more, they had begun to outgrow their old views and work with me. Though the majority was still neutral towards me, almost a third of the candidates were openly accepting of me. They would work with me, and I would work with them. For the first time that I could remember, it seemed like I belonged. And I would do anything to keep it that way.
We had been moving through the forest for an hour and a half at a steady pace without any contact, and a light rain had started to fall through the trees. Snowstorm and Bright Flash would occasionally make comments back and forth, but I was too focused on my magic. Even though I had improved dramatically over the past weeks, it was still strenuous for me to focus on such a large area for so long. It didn't take much for me to cover a small area, but to actively search over a large area was draining me. I pushed onward though. I wasn't going to show any weakness.
I was becoming nervous at the lack of contact with our 'enemy'. While they hadn't outright attacked us during the last few exercises, they would have normally hit us by this point. Suddenly, I sensed something. Holding a hoof up to motion my team to stop, I focused on the disturbance. About forty meters ahead of us and seemingly in a tree, I could feel two ponies. They weren't nearly as nervous as I was, but I could tell that they were paying a lot of attention to the area around them, searching for something. I was confident that this was going to be the first contact we would have.
I keyed up my radio, "All Specters, Specter Zero-One. Hold position" after the confirmed that they heard me, I switched over to the Unit Command Channel, "Warrior Actual, Specter Zero-One, halt progress"
After a moment, a male voice came over my radio "Specter Zero-One, Warrior Actual. Progress is halted. What do you have?"
"Warrior Actual, Specter Zero-One. I have two potential hostiles forty meters out from my position, request permission to engage"
"Specter Zero-One, Warrior Actual. Confirm hostiles first, then engage at your discretion. Keep us updated."
"Warrior Actual, Specter Zero-One. Confirm then engage, Roger Wilco" I motioned for my team to follow after me, before slowly moving through the underbrush towards the two ponies. When we got close enough to see where they were, I could feel them out much more clearly. It became obvious that we had run into another recon team, but we were able to see them first. Snowstorm set up so that he could pepper them with fire from his LMG, while Bright Flash and I prepared so that we could rush to the tree and confirm that they were taken out. With a nod from me, Snowstorm opened up with a deep Rat-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta as Bright Flash and I made our way towards the tree, weapons at the ready. Once Snowstorm had ceased fire, I hopped into the air and started buzzing my wings to fly up to the perch. I landed in front of the two instructors, who were covered in multiple red marks where the training rounds had hit them.
I could hear a muffled sigh from one of them through his helmet, "You're the changeling aren't you?"
"Yes, sir," I said, before turning to address my team, "We're clear. Bright Flash, radio in to the group, Snowstorm get up here and help me sort through their stuff"
"I don't believe you were given permission to do that, grub!" the muffled voice said again as I started sorting through his gear.
"I'm sorry sir, but it was also never forbidden" I replied as Snowstorm joined me on the small platform.
I heard him whistle as he saw how many marks there were on the instructors. "Damn, I mighta gone a bit overboard with that" he said as he started to sort through the other instructor's gear. It was mostly useless for our purposes, however, near the bottom of my pack, I found a map of the forest. It was similar to the ones that we were given, except it had more markings on it. From what I could recognize, the positions of other instructor scouts were marked, and it went into better detail about the surrounding terrain.
"This looks pretty interesting" I said, showing the map to Snowstorm, who held up a similar map. "We should show these to the commander" Snowstorm voiced his agreement and we both glided down from the platform.
One Hour Later
Thanks to the captured maps, we had managed to get to the castle much faster than originally planned. We had set up a defensive perimeter in the treeline looking over the castle. In order to get to it, we would have to go over twenty meters of open group, cross a gorge, and get across another sixty meters uphill until we could reach the castle. From past experience, we knew that it would be well defended, and once the fight started, the defenders would most likely call in the scouting teams to hit us from behind. It was a difficult challenge, but I supposed that that was the point.
The current plan called for a three pronged assault, each platoon would move in from a different side. Anyone not capable of magic or flight would lay down suppressing fire on the castle, while the rest would move forward and erect makeshift bridges to get across the gorge. After that, sharpshooters would stay back and try to keep the defenders pinned down while the rest of us made a dash for castle. There was a large amount of rubble around the building itself, so once we got there, we would regroup and split into fireteams to enter the castle from wherever we could. The inside was thick with boobytraps, so it would be tricky to make our way through it. The most resistance, however, was expected in the throne room, where the objective was. After the objective was secured, we would pull back and make our way to an evacuation site a few kilometers away.
We were all waiting for the word to come down and begin the assault. The Specter teams had broken down into the platoons. My team had joined the first platoon attacking the south side, we had the most ground to cover, but once we got to the castle, it would be a straight shot to the throne room. It was silent in the forest around us. I could feel that everyone was riding high on adrenaline, it gave off a certain smell in their emotions. You could just feel the apprehension. I saw the platoon leader, Steel Hammer, the minotaur from the first exercise, nod his head before turning to look at the castle.
His deep voice came over the radio, "The assault is about to begin! You all know your jobs, so get to it!" there was a pause as we all got ready to run, "Now! Go! Go! Go!" the treeline lit up with gunfire as I charged forward, holding a rolled up rope bridge on my back. I could see the training rounds flying over my head as the instructors were starting to return fire. I got to the edge of the gorge and dropped my bridge, slamming the first set of stakes into the ground, before taking flight over to the other side ten meters away. I saw a pegasus near me get shot mid-flight and fall into the gorge, being caught by a safety net down below. I slammed the stakes into the ground on the other side, pulling the ropes taut, before taking cover behind a nearby rock and firing at the defenders in the castle.
After what seemed like forever, candidates started to cross the bridges and move forward to the castle. I had gotten about halfway there, when I used my wings to propel myself over another rock. I was jerked out of my temporary flight, however, when a round slammed into my wing, throwing me back, and making the limb go numb. Cursing, I pulled out a med-kit and placed a small bandage over it to show that I was wounded. Then I took out a small cord from my pack and strapped my wing to my side to keep it from moving, before I continued my assault. As a result, I made it to the rubble surrounding the castle with the last few candidates.
Snowstorm came over, dropping into cover next to me, "You're still with us huh? I thought I saw you take a round" he said, keeping his eyes on the castle.
"They caught me in the wing," I said, motioning to my 'injured' limb, "Hurt like a son of a bitch"
"Well at least you can still walk then," Snowstorm said, "There's not many of us left who can" I glanced back towards the field I had cleared. Sure enough, a third of the platoon was laying out there waiting to be picked up after the exercise.
Bright Flash came up to us, making our fireteam complete again. As the last candidate passed into the rubble, everyone broke off and made our way into the fortifications. We covered each other as we made our way through the halls. Since we had come from the front, there was only a few routes to the throne room. I snapped around a corner on my knees, with Snowstorm peeking out above my head, both of us firing on the first targets that we saw. We could see the throne room at the far end of the hall, behind a small barricade. More candidates started to stream through the halls, and eventually the barricade was overrun. As I entered the throne room, I could see that the other entrances were being assaulted as well. I moved behind a pillar, to begin firing on the remaining defenders, who had defenses set up throughout the room. It was a good feeling to be on the winning side of a fight for once.
I should have paid more attention to my surroundings, however, as I didn't notice how far I was from the rest of my team. As I drew a bead on another defender, I felt a large weight slam into my side, knocking me over and landing on top of me. I turned in time to see an instructor swinging a purple glowing, enchanted knife towards me. I shot to the side as fast as I could and pushed him off of me. I knew that the knife wouldn't do any real damage to me, but I didn't want to test it. I drew my pistol and tried to get a shot off, but I was hit with a wave of magic, pushing me back, and knocking away my gun. I barely had time to react as the instructor swung at me again, this time to my throat. I pulled back, the blade barely missing me, and I charged forward into him. I was pretty small, so he shook me off easily, before stabbing at me again. I sidestepped away from the knife and swung my hoof at his face, making him reel back.
Wanting to push my advantage, I moved forward, throwing more punches, most of which were blocked. As I swung at him, he deflected my hoof and hit me in the face, before grabbing me and throwing me to the ground. I was dazed long enough for him to swing with his knife again, making to stab me in the chest. I caught his hoof mid-swing, and we struggled for a moment, both sides trying to overpower the other. He was a lot stronger than me, and the knife started to move down towards me. Pushing myself to the side, I brought his hoof down just to the side of my body, before swinging my entire leg into his face. I reached over and grabbed the hoof holding the knife and twisted it, making his grip loosen. As he was bringing his head back around, I grabbed the knife and swung it towards his throat, slashing across it. There was a bright purple streak where the knife had contacted him. As the enchantment took effect, he dropped down on top of me.
I dropped the knife and started to push him off of me. Damn he's heavy, I thought. The weight was taken off of me as Bright Flash pulled the fallen instructor off of me and helped me up. I was tired from the scuffle, but as I looked around, I noticed that the gunfire had silenced.
"Did we win?" I asked, looking for my rifle.
"Ya, we won, they're grabbing the package now," Bright Flash said, looking down at the instructor who I had fought, "Did you do this? Damn, you got some serious fight in you, I'll give you that"
I chuckled and started to check all of my gear, picking up what had fallen during my fight. We had cleared the throne room, and taken down most of the defenders in the building, but there wasn't many of us left. While we had started the exercise with eighty two candidates, we were down to only nineteen. Once the objective, a small briefcase, was secured, we moved back to the front entrance of the castle, and moved back into the forest.
We were only a kilometer away from the evacuation site when I forced the group to stop.
"What's wrong?" Snowstorm said, scanning the forest around us.
"There's a small group to our left, thirty meters," I said over the radio, "A large one is trailing behind us by about seventy meters. What's left of the Specters can stay here and hold them off while the rest of you make a run for the evac site"
"Are you sure?" Steel Hammer said
"If we get bogged down here, they'll roll right through us all. We can distract them long enough to let you get away" there was only four Specters left besides my fireteam, and they were already setting up for an ambush.
"Ya," Bright Flash chimed in, "Just let us know when you're almost there so that we can peel off and rejoin you"
"Hmph," Steel Hammer grunted, "Very well. Say hello for us" at that, the rest of the group started moving through the forest towards the evac site.
It was silent in the forest again, as I felt the instructors getting closer to us. I could tell that all of us were accepting the fact that we would not be able to fight our way out of this ambush. It still felt pretty good to know that we had gotten this far though.
After a few moments, the first instructor came into sight. Before he had a chance to see us, we opened fire. There was no pause before the instructors returned fire on us, and a fierce firefight began. The ground around us was being torn up as rounds were streaking in towards us. Bushes and trees were being torn up by the sheer amount of fire both coming from us, and being directed towards us.
I don't know how long it lasted before the fire started to wear down, but it felt like hours. There were only two of us left, Snowstorm and I. Bright Flash had been shot in the side of the head during the fight, and the others had fallen one by one. We were still fighting, though, back to back. Every time that a shot rang out from the trees, we would answer in kind.
It didn't last much longer, though, before Steel Hammer's voice came over our radio, "Specter! I don't know how many of you are left, but we are at the evac site, and we can't stay much longer! If you're still there, they must have gone around you!"
"Leave! Get the package out of here. We need to win this for once" I said into my radio. Truthfully, I didn't know what would happen after the airship left. We had never gotten this far before. I turned to my side, "We need to leave, Snowstorm"
"Sounds like a plan to me!" He said, before we both stood up and charged out of our cover, narrowly dodging the shots coming at us. I didn't feel any of the instructors following us, since there wasn't many of them left anyway. As we continued running through the forest, we saw an airship take off, and start to make its way back to the base. We slowed down, before deciding to go around the evac site and whatever instructors were still there.
Three Hours Later
We had been walking through the forest towards the Ranger base for hours. While we hadn't encountered any instructors, I could feel that the local fauna were starting to take an interest. We couldn't fly above the trees due to my numbed wing, I wouldn't be able to use it until one of the medics at the base undid the spell. Until then, we had to continue walking there.
"Are you sure that you can't fly?" Snowstorm asked for the fifth time.
"Ugh, Yes I'm sure. How could I fly, if I can't even move one wing?"
"Well I could try carrying you!"
"With all of our armor and gear? I doubt it." We were both getting impatient after walking for so long. We were starting to run low on water, and we had lost our food rations during the fight. Suddenly, there was a loud Crash ahead of us. We both snapped our weapons up, looking for the cause. I sensed a pony running towards us, and whoever it was was clearly panicking.
"There's someone coming towards us" I said to Snowstorm as I hunkered down behind a tree. We were next to a small stream, so there wasn't much foliage around us, but we kept scanning the trees. As the sense of panic got closer, I picked up another sense. It was a predator, and a big one at that. The panicking pony had a good lead on the beast, but it wasn't stopping in its chase. Suddenly, a light blue unicorn mare with a yellow mane broke through the trees, running for her life. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Snowstorm and I, her golden eyes wide with fright.
Snowstorm lowered his weapon and stepped forward, "Wow, it's alright, we're friendly. What are you doing out here miss?" She was shaking in fear, and looking between Snowstorm and myself.
"I'm, uhh. I..." She was stumbling over her words, and turning her head from us to the trees behind her.
Snowstorm took off his helmet, "Just calm down, ma'am. We're with the military. My name is Snowstorm, what's yours?"
"Uhh, I- I'm... Escholtzia, uhh Esca" I always hated the taste of fear. It could help out in bad times, but I always felt dirty taking it in.
"That's a pretty name," Snowstorm said, getting closer to the poor mare, "Now what are you—" with a deafening Roar, a large manticore jumped through the trees. I hadn't seen one of the creatures since my second mother and I were attacked all those years ago. Esca screamed and jumped behind the tree with me, and Snowstorm jumped back in surprise.
There was a short moment as the beast squared off with Snowstorm and I, before we both brought our weapons back up and started firing at it. The clearing was filled with loud noises as the manticore roared, and our guns fired at full automatic. While one or two rounds would stop a pony in training armor, they had little effect of the beast's skin, other than annoying it.
"Why isn't it dead!" Esca screamed next to me.
"Because these aren't real bullets," I said, trying to keep a bead on the fast creature, "It'll take a lot of them to take it down!"
"Then shoot it more!"
"What do you think I'm trying to do? This is as fast as it shoots!" I yelled in anger. Snowstorm was flying around the clearing, keeping it occupied.
"I don't care! Shoot faster!" I glanced over at her. She was sitting next to me with her head down and her hooves covering her head.
I grunted and moved out into the clearing, eating through the last of my ammunition fast. "Catch!" Snowstorm shouted as he flew past me, throwing his LMG towards me. I caught it in my magic and put my rifle away.
"Get it to look at me!" I shouted at Snowstorm, who was flying in circles around the manticore. Almost as soon as I spoke, it reached up and swatted Snowstorm out of the air with a paw. He flew over my head before hitting the ground behind me.
I looked back to make sure that he was alright, "Well that wasn't what I meant" I turned back as the beast turned towards me. I brought up Snowstorm's LMG as the manticore opened its mouth to roar at me again. In the middle of its roar, however, I pulled the trigger and fired directly into its mouth. As it flinched and closed its mouth, I aimed for its eyes. When it reeled back to cover its face, I aimed for its genitals. With a high pitched shriek, it turned tail and ran back into the forest, leaving us alone.
I dropped the LMG and turned to check on Snowstorm, who was getting back up on shaky legs. He made an unintelligible, yet happy sound as he held his head up high.
Esca then hopped over the roots that she was huddled behind and walked into the clearing with a large smile on her face, "Well we sure showed that thing who's boss huh?" With a moan, Snowstorm fell face first into the mud beneath him. Esca looked down at him, before looking at me, maintaining her large smile. I facehoofed, and dropped my shoulders in defeat.
Author's Note
Because I forgot this last chapter, some of the major characters have a sort of theme song that helped me to develop their characters, here's Snowstorm's and Snapshot's
Also, I'm sorry about my absence on the site as of late, work has been kicking my ass and long-distance relationships are harder than I had anticipated. I'm planning on the training only taking another couple chapters and after that, it should jump into some more action.
Also, I'd like to thank SwirlingBlade for editing my story, hopefully with his help, I'll be able to produce a much better quality story for y'all to enjoy!
1545, 16 September, 2085
I was used to hardships. I had gone days without food, and sometimes had to mend my own injuries in a back alley. When it came to rough situations, I was well-adjusted. What was different about my current situation, however, was that this time there was no running. There was nothing to avoid, there was no way to escape and heal myself, and there was no way to cheat the system. This time, everything was closely monitored, every move that I made was watched to ensure that my body would gain and become more powerful. Under normal conditions, that would be pointless, as I could just transform into a more fit pony. In her infinite wisdom, Princess Luna had me only doing a partial transformation. Instead of changing my body completely, I was merely casting an illusion over my body to change my image. Every muscle being worked, strained, healed, and then worked more was one of my own. Needless to say that it was a first for me. Changelings don't have to lift weights or run laps to improve ourselves, we just do it!
It was for that very reason why my mood had been one of the most sour that I can remember. Even with that in mind, I was preparing myself for something much worse. My two weeks of practice were up, and by this time tomorrow I would be in the Ranger School. It would be the biggest lie that I had ever told to say that I wasn't nervous. Keep in mind that while saying that I would be pretending to be an entirely different species.
I stepped out of the shower room, and began to dry off my coat. It was yet another thing that I was not used to doing. When a Changeling transforms, our magic surrounds our bodies in a flame, cleansing our body of the illusion, a side-effect of that transformation was that it would clean our chitin. No dirt, sweat, rain, mud, nothing. I shuffled my way through the locker room, some ponies were celebrating the end of our pre-training, while others were just as nervous as I was. As everyone finished washing off our last session of training, we all made our way out into the courtyard outside of the barracks. Once I made my way out there, I saw Snowstorm again and walked up to him. The warm emotions rolling through my body, helping to heal my muscles faster. It was one of the bonuses of his 'friendship', since we were almost always near each other, extra energy was never far away. Because of that, my muscles would heal faster during and after a workout session. It helped me to gain more muscle in the past two weeks than a normal pony gets in a month.
"Hey kid," Snowstorm said as he noticed me, "You ready for this? We're finally headed out to the real stuff. Are ya nervous?" I chuckled a bit at his greeting. Snowstorm always had a ready-to-go attitude, and I would be lying to say that I wasn't going to miss it.
"Ya, we'll see how good this training was for us" I said, I was getting a sense of nervousness from him, though it was surprisingly less than most of the other candidates around us. Seeing as I was reluctant to talk much, Snowstorm would fill in some of our free time telling me a bit about himself. He was originally from Cloudsdale, but he had moved to Ponyville when his daughter was born. His wife died during childbirth, so he had raised his filly on his own, joining the Guard's Reserve for a bump in income. Now that his daughter had moved out of his house, he decided to join the active duty portion of the Equestrian Military, and in a desire to see how hard he could push himself, he had decided to join the Lunar Rangers. At the ripe old age of thirty nine, he was the second oldest in our group of candidates, after one of the griffons, who was forty two.
Out on the edge of the courtyard, was a string of transport carriages, they were fully armored, and painted with a black and dark grey camouflage pattern. In front of the carriages, there was a stage with a dozen ponies, three griffons, and a minotaur. All of them were dressed in what I recognized as Ranger battle-armor. Now that I wasn't bleeding, I was able to get a decent look at the armor, and I was impressed.
All of them were dressed in a set of fatigues with the same color scheme as the transports behind them. Not an inch of their bodies were exposed, minus their tails. On top of the fatigues on their chests was a black tactical vest with a zipper down the middle. When I looked closely, I could see that the vests were loaded with ammunition, and each of the Rangers was carrying a sidearm. On their flanks, wings, legs, and the minotaur's arms, there were small ceramic plates, some had painted designs, such as a flame, or a battle ax, but somewhere on all of their armor was the Lunar Ranger's emblem: a winged kite shield with a moon emblazoned on it, and a vertical sword behind the shield. Their helmet's were covering their entire heads, with a large, dark grey visor covering their faces, and plates coming down the sides of their jaws. All in all, they looked pretty badass.
I heard a whistle from next to me, I turned to see Snowstorm looking over the Rangers too, "Well they look pretty badass, don't they?" He said, his perpetual smile still on his face. I shook my head. Though I loathed to admit it, I was going to miss him.
I looked back to the stage, and I saw Sergeant Blitz walking up and talking quietly to one of the Rangers. On top of his head was a dark grey beret, with the Ranger emblem on the front. For the first time since I had been here, I saw him smile as he shook one of the Ranger's hooves. The smile soon vanished as he turned back to the group in front of the stage.
"Somehow not all of you have been booted out of the program yet, so I'm going to leave it to these people behind me to beat the shit out of you. These," He gestured to the Rangers behind him, "Will be your instructors for the foreseeable future. Before I turn you over to them, though. I have a few things to say." He stepped out across the stage, pacing back and forth, "The Lunar Rangers is the most elite fighting force that this world has ever known. That is not because of the intense training program, or our top of the line hardware, it is because we are made up of the best ponies, zebras, griffon, and minotaurs in the world. Each and every Ranger is a volunteer, no one has forced them to be a part of this unit. Every single one sought out this lifestyle, the same as you are attempting to do now. We come from all walks of life, farmer and banker, peasant and noble, soldiers and criminals, the Lunar Rangers do not discriminate those who seek us out. Some of you here may have been thieves, murderers, or rapists. Some of you may have been orphans, street urchins, or beggars. Some come from within the military, and some come from the noble houses. It makes no difference to us where you come from or who you are. we have equal respect for any who actually want to toil in the dirt and grime for a living. To constantly be in danger, to be shot, stabbed, burned, blown up, and keep on pushing because if you don't the Rangers alongside you will die."
"Just as we will accept where you may come from, we ask that you do the same. It doesn't matter if you are a unicorn-" I knew where he was going with this, "-Pegasus," A lump was growing in my stomach, "-Earth pony, donkey, griffon-" I was staring down at my hooves, "-Minotaur-" I closed my eyes, waiting for my time to come, "-Zebra-" This was the point where I was going to be alone again, "-Or a changeling. You can drop the disguise now." I hesitated a moment as everyone was looking through the crowd, murmuring between themselves, I felt hostility being thrown around as ponies were looking for the changeling.
With a bright orange flash, I dropped my disguise. There was a gasp from some of the candidates around me. I kept looking at my hooves, not caring to see the hate in their eyes. I sensed Snowstorm take a step away from me. 'Like I thought, there goes my-' My thought was interrupted with a Thud as I was hit in the side and fell to the ground. I looked up and saw most of the crown backing away from me, but there was two ponies slowly advancing on me. I stood back up, I was through letting people hit me. If they wanted to beat me, I was going to put up a fight. I tensed my muscles, waiting for another hit to come as I looked between the two candidates in front of me.
"What the fuck did I just say?" I heard Blitz shout over the crowd, I looked over towards the sound of his voice, and saw him slowly making his way down the steps. I realized that I had looked away from the ones threatening me, and whipped my head back around. Before I could see them again, there was another loud Thud . This time, there was no pain in my face, and as I turned around, I saw Snowstorm standing between me and the ponies. His hooves were up, blocking the punch that was being thrown at me.
"You heard the Sergeant," Snowstorm said, his voice almost at a growl, "That wasn't very accepting."
"What the fuck are you doing?" One of the ponies yelled, trying to take his hoof away, but Snowstorm wasn't letting go, "It's a changeling! We're at war with them!" The second pony took a step towards me and Snowstorm, but stopped as we all heard what sounded like a pistol being charged. Behind the second pony, a dark figure materialized out of nowhere, holding a handgun to the ponies head.
"What. The fuck. Do you think you're doing?" The Ranger said slowly. The pony turned around slowly, eyes growing wide as he saw the pistol.
"W-We...I...Uhh." The pony stammered, before backing away slowly. He didn't get very far until he bumped into another Ranger, who just stared at him. As I looked around, I saw that the Rangers who had been on the stage were now surrounding us. Some had weapons drawn, but all of them were staring at the offenders with their cold visors. The two ponies who had hit me were looking around the circle, eyes wide with terror, not saying anything.
Snowstorm released the first pony, and took a step back next to me. He snorted, "Cowards. What happened to that big talk?" The ponies looked at Snowstorm, then back to me. I could feel the fear in them, and for a moment, I thought that they were about to piss themselves. The Rangers lowered their weapons as Sergeant Blitz came into the circle.
"Apparently you two don't listen very well," He said, walking around the two ponies, "What part of 'We ask that you do the same' don't you understand?" His voice was dangerously neutral.
"S-Sir, W-W-we were...Uhh," One of the ponies said, visibly shaking, "It's a... uhh. It's a changeling, sir"
Blitz stopped barely an inch away from his face, "I'm aware that He is a changeling. Isn't that what I just said? What I asked was: What. Are. You. Doing?" I knew that he wasn't doing this on my behalf, but I felt real anger rising from the Sergeant.
"S-Sir, We-We're at war with the changelings. What's one of them doing here?"
Blitz looked back at me, "Well? do you want to answer him?"
I shook my head and stepped up next to him, speaking loud enough for everyone to hear me, "I'm here for the same reason as any of you. I want to be a part of the best, and to bring some pain down on The Swarm. That's Chrysalis' Changelings" I felt a mix of anger and confusion rising from almost all of the crowd. "Princess Luna found me in Canterlot, and she believed that I could be of use, so she introduced me to this program, and here I am." I looked around me, making eye contact with the ponies around me, "I am not, nor have I ever been affiliated with The Swarm. I probably have a better reason for wanting them dead than any of you." Most of the candidates gave me glares. Then I looked at Snowstorm. We held eye contact for a moment, before his trademark smile returned to his face.
"Well that explains a couple things doesn't it?" He said, the waves of warmth still coming off of him.
'W-What? He doesn't hate me? This pony has to crazy'
"Interruption aside," Blitz said to the crowd, "Before I turn you all over, remember one thing. Each and every one of you has a reason for being here. Even if you don't really know what it is yet, find it. Work for it, let it drive you as you move through this program. You're going to have to fight for every inch that you gain, remember what made you decide to join the Rangers and strive for it." He looked at me for a moment, I could have sworn that I saw him give me the slightest nod before walking away through the crowd.
"Alright, all of you!" One of the Rangers shouted, "Your asses are our's now! Get onto those transports!" There was a slight pause before we all sprinted for the carriages.
We all piled into the cramped transports, before they started rolling down the road towards our first real portion of training.
4 hours later
My carriage finally slowed to a stop outside of a long fence, topped with barbed wire. One of the new instructors stepped out in front of us, "This is the last friendly voice that you will hear until the end of training. Once you leave this carriage, you will form up in front of the gate. You will then pass through our ward gates to ensure no one is trying to smuggle anything inside of the compound, and you will all be led over to the supply building. There you will be issued your training uniform and armor. After that, you will be brought to your barracks and instructed on our basic methods for combat, understood?"
"Yes sir" We all said tiredly.
"I'm sorry," the instructor said, "I thought that I asked you all a question?"
"YES SIR!" We all shouted, much more together.
"Then what are you waiting for? Get the fuck off of this carriage!" He screamed at us, I could see the candidates on the other carriages pouring out and lining up outside. As fast as we all could, we stormed off of the carriage. We were the third group to make it to the fence, as the first group was starting to move through the gates. "What the fuck is taking so long?" One of the instructors yelled at us, "My niece moves faster than you idiots!" As we came to the front of the line, we slowly made our way through the gates. I could see instructors making their way through the crowd, screaming at everything they saw. I couldn't tell which instructor was which, due to their armor, and the fact that none had given us their names.
As I passed through the gate ,I was suddenly swarmed by three instructors and thrown to the muddy ground. "What are you doing down there grub?" one of them screamed at me. I tried to stand back up when I was kicked back down, "Did I fucking say that you could get up, grub? Now what the hell are you doing down there?" I started to get up again, when a hoof was planted on my back, forcing me back down into the mud.
"You knocked me down" I said, looking up at the Ranger.
"Oh did I?" He said, reaching a hoof down to me, "Well how about you get back up then?"
I stood up, waiting to be pushed back down. He moved forward until he was right in my face, "How about you get back in line grub?" I glared for another second before moving back into the line moving towards the supply building.
Once everyone was through the gate, we were ushered into the supply building, where they took our measurements and gave us the appropriate article of our uniform and armor in an assembly line fashion. The instructors were moving in and out of the lines, screaming, pushing, and tormenting the candidates. I saw one Griffin attempt to throw a punch at an instructor, but he was easily countered and thrown to the ground. Every time someone stepped out of line or did something slightly different from what we were told to do, the instructors were on them in a heartbeat to 'correct' them.
I donned my blue training uniform and armor and made my way outside of the building. We looked similar to the instructors, but were different enough so that you could tell the difference immediately. The main difference in our armor was that the visor in our helmets was clear plastic, and the armored plates on our legs were a shiny chrome.
As we left the building, one of the instructors told us that we were to run everywhere, the words 'walk' or 'jog' were no longer a part of our vocabularies. In a sloppy formation, we made our way over to the barracks that was to be our home for the foreseeable future. As we came close to the building, I saw one of the other Candidates reach out and trip me, sending me flying onto the ground again. the instructors swarmed me again.
"Get Up! Get Up! Get Up! Do you want to fucking die grub?" I shot back up and re-joined the formation, which was being closed up by the instructors who were surrounding us. We quickly entered our barracks and stood next to a random bunk. I chose on in the corner, as far from anyone that I could. As the last of the candidates were ushered into the building, I saw one move in front of the bunk next to mine. It took me a moment, but I recognized him as Snowstorm. He cast a glance towards me and flashed a quick smile before resuming his stoic look.
Over the next three hours, we were screamed at, forced to do push ups, screamed at some more, antagonized, occasionally beaten, and called every creative name that the instructors could throw at us. They showed us how they wanted us to stow our armor and uniforms, explained to us how we would be issued our training weapons the next morning, and what was going to happen over the next few days. It was a lot to take in, and everything had been happening so fast that I had lost track of time. My head was spinning from the information being constantly thrown at us, as well as the overwhelming amount of raw emotion being thrown around. The first night had me re-thinking why I had agreed to come here, but it was just beginning.
