Endurance

The barest hint of the sun was beginning to poke over the horizon, casting its' light over the Everfree forest. In particular, a single changeling laying on a makeshift platform, high up in a large tree, grumbled as a ray of sunshine landed on her face.

Black Wisp opened a single eye, and immediately closed it and rolled over.

"Stupid pony Alicorn, raising the sun..." She grumbled, "Can't she just decide to keep it at noon or midnight?"

The changeling curled up beneath her thin blanket, attempting to get some more rest. But sleep did not come to her, no matter how many times she rolled around, trying to find a comfortable position.

After a short time, Wisp grew frustrated and threw her covers off, standing up and looking out at the forest. The view would have been considered beautiful, but Wisp merely grumbled and started stretching her wings. She did not consider herself a Morning Changeling, one of those perpetually happy bastards who ran around talking while she was focused on sleeping.

Her tired mind devoted a total of ten minutes to fantasize about throwing the changelings like that in her unit off of a cliff, which brought back more memories - specifically, those of the invasion.

There was no question that their short-term takeover of Canterlot had been just that: Short. Thanks to the shield popping back into place, the lucky ones such as her were merely flung away. She had actually seen one of the drones from another unit crushed against a wall, and she didn't want to know if the shield had extended to the teams that had been sweeping the sewers. If they did... Not a single survivor from those missions could have been expected.

And then there was the battle for the city itself. While Chrysalis had distracted around half of the Royal Guard with a skirmish to the south, the other half, well over two thousand ponies, still resided in the city itself.

The Changeling Army had started with somewhere in the realm of 20,000 drones and 1,600 'normal' changelings - and the drones were nearly worthless except as a rush, being that most of them were barely smart enough to take orders.

It was very likely that only a few hundred of the Changeling Army had survived. She could still remember her first - and last - battle with the Royal Guard...

"Hold the line!"

Black Wisp could hear the shouts of the Royal Guard officer over the low din of battle. As far as she had seen, most of the battles bad been over very quickly, but in a limited number of places they had managed to form a defense.

"All drones, take to the air and drop in on them!" Wisp shouted, prompting an immediate response from the twelve minor changeling behind her. Wisp couldn't have flown well enough if she tried: Her armor restricted her movement far too much for that.

Instead, holding a short sword she had grabbed from another dead Royal Guard in her telekinetic grip, she charged forward, sliding between the gaps that seemed to form and close at a moment's notice in the ranks of changelings.

She emerged from the tight cluster of drones to find herself in front of a loose formation of Royal Guards, holding the Changeling advance behind her up with jabs of their spears.

Just then, a green streak of fire, followed by several more, crashed into the formation as her drones stepped into play. Moving quickly, Wisp used her short sword to deflect one spear thrust at her before using her telekinesis to shoot it forward, the blade deflecting off of the armor at an angle, creating a large gash in it.

Wisp charged forward as she tacked the guard, slamming him into the ground  and incapacitating him with a hoof to the skull.

The changeling had just neatly sidestepped the next spear that was thrust at her before a massive pink wall slammed into her, lifting her into the air...

Black Wisp shook her head, dispelling the old memories that had risen. While it was always a good idea to keep the past in mind, there was nothing she could do to change it.

Today would be a... Unbusy day. The unicorn would return with the crystal tomorrow. Until then, she had all day to do precisely nothing.

"Well... I could always practice something." The mare said after a moment of thought. The first and foremost that came to her mind was transformation, a species-wide, innate trait that all changelings possessed.

In the invasion, and in her small travels beforehand, she had seen hundreds - nay, thousands of ponies. She brought up the mental image of one of them and willed herself to change.

Green fire consumed her form for only a moment before fading away, and in her place was a Pegasus stallion, with a bright green coat and a faded orange mane. S/he glanced down at his/her new form, noting the exactness of the transformation, before bring up another image in her mind.

Five successful transformations later, her last disguise, that of a unicorn mare, was burned away by green fire to reveal her. Disguising may be innate, but that didn't mean that she had to like doing it. Well, sometimes she did, but that was beside the point.

Having used up a total of three more minutes of time, Wisp decided to explore her area. Even if it was the Everfree forest, it was not as if she would get attacked five feet from her tree.

Forty-five minutes later, and Wisp was running - nay, sprinting - through the forest, a pack of somewhere in the realm of forty Timberwolves just forty feet.

The changeling ducked under a half-fallen tree and around a series of trees, the obstacles slowing both her and the predators behind her down.

She found herself crossing a footpath just in front of a trio armor-clad Royal Guards, who looked surprised to see her.

"Changeling!" She heard one of them shout behind her.

"Timberwolves!" Another shouted.

The changeling glanced behind her and saw the Royal guards running as well, actually going faster than she was.

"Just great." Wisp remarked with a snarl, "Because my day was already so exciting when it was just Timberwolves chasing me."

In due time, one of the Royal Guards got to within a few feet behind her, and Wisp willed her legs to move faster.

"Surrender yourself, Changeling!" The Royal Guard shouted.

"Feel free to stop first!" She shouted back, laughing. "I don't plan to be timberwolf food! I think you have bigger problems than me anyway!"

"I'll find you at some point! You can't run forever!" The Guard replied.

"As long as these things are chasing me, I can and will run!" She replied. "Better luck next time! I'll be in Canterlot by the time you catch up with me!" A little bit of disinformation never hurt.

The pony fell behind as Wisp sprinted forward, searching for a way out of this chase. Before looking around the forest as she ran. She was still nearly one and a half miles from her 'home', and she doubted that she could sustain this pace forever.

The changeling looked behind herself, noting that of the Royal Guards, none of the three were pegasi.

"Let's hope this works..." She mumbled to herself, before stretching out her insect-like wings and flying upward, aiming for higher ground. She saw an ideal place and went for it, landing on a thick branch that was at least twenty feet off the ground.

"We'll get you later, changeling!" One of the Royal Guards yelled as he passed under her location.

"Yeah, yeah." She grumbled as a third of the pack, twelve of the Timberwolves in all, broke off and crowded underneath her branch. "I've got bigger problems than a bunch of ponies running from Timberwolves. Like Timberwolves."

She honestly had no idea how she was supposed to get out of this one. It wasn't her fault that she happened to come across nearly a hundred of the things. Or that it was a den. Or that she had gone in looking for something to take.

Yeah, it was kind of her fault. Too bad she couldn't convince them to go away...

"That's it!" She suddenly said, lighting up her horn. While magic that could alter the mind was only useful on a sapient creature when they were asleep, using it on anything of lower intelligence was far easier. The only problem in doing so was remaining within a short distance and hoping they didn't tear the user to shreds.

In her location, that was not a problem.

She  drew her mind towards the dim - but visible - emotions of the Timberwolves. It was simple enough; even if the only thing on their minds now was consuming her, that didn't mean that they couldn't be altered.

The barking below her stopped as she essentially put the Timberwolves under her control, linking their minds to hers. Cautiously, the changeling slowly flew down to the ground, the Timberwolves looking at her with blank expressions.

"Well... That was strange." Wisp said, "I don't think I've ever heard of anything else from the Swarm even remotely similar to this."

As if to prove her point, one of the Timberwolves walked up to her and tilted its' head, as if asking a question.

Black Wisp hesitantly gave a mental command for the predators to follow her, and started walking back towards her 'home', the twelve Timberwolves following shortly behind her.

"Now, what does one do with twelve wooden wolves?" The changeling asked herself rhetorically. Technically, she could do almost anything with them. Slowly, a plan formed in her head, one that would give her an edge in any potential conflict.

Forming a simple image in her head of a sword, simple enough for even them to understand, she 'gave' it to them and mentally ordered the Timberwolves - all of them - to retrieve one for her. In addition, she also added a mental image of a Royal Guard, and ordered them to bring one... Alive.

If she had a small group to lead, what was wrong with taking risks? It wasn't as if the Timberwolves could rat her out like a drone would. In all likelihood, the Timberwolves would probably accomplish what she had ordered: It was now hardwired into their brains, and even their animal instincts bowed before the mental manipulation Changelings could preform.

The twelve wooden wolves broke off once she was within sight of her little platform, leaving her alone in the clearing. The changeling looked back and forth, before spreading her wings and taking off, landing on the platform.

"Well..." Wisp said as she lay down on the blanket on her platform. "That was interesting."

It wasn't even noon, and she still had an entire day of waiting ahead of her.

Her quite contemplation of absolutely nothing was interrupted about four hours later by growling coming from the edge of the clearing.

"Back already?" She mumbled, standing up and looking out towards the edge of the clearing. Indeed, twelve Timberwolves were walking towards her home, with a pony in the center of them. However, there was something familiar about the pony...

Black Wisp jumped out of her platform and to the ground, narrowing her eyes at the Royal Guard her Timberwolves had. Standing in the center of the ground, missing most of his armor, and sporting nearly two dozen bruises and scraps, stood the unicorn. The one that had forced her into some twisted kind of dependency based around him, and currently at her mercy.

Once the wooden wolves reached her, they slowed to a halt, with the unicorn being forced to stop as well. One of the Timberwolves came around with a short sword held in its' teeth. Wisp took it with her magic, drawing it and taking a few experimental swings, before sheathing it and staring at her 'prisoner'.

"Well," She began, chuckling nervously. "I didn't expect to see you back here so soon."

"Neither did I expect you to have anything to do with them ambushing me, dragging me to the ground, and then forcing me to march half a dozen miles." The unicorn deadpanned. "I didn't know you were in the habit of attacking those who kept you alive."

"Hey, not like I expected them to bring you back." The changeling defended, "I just wanted a sword."

"It will be hard to explain how half of my armor lost in the forest." The unicorn said.

"Just say it was Timberwolves. A lot of you will be having that excuse today." Wisp said, "Though, now that you're here... There are a few things that we need to discuss..."

"Oh buck."