Chapters It's been years since peace has settled over all of Equestria. Most foals these days don't even know what it's like to have chaos show up one morning, or night instead of day, or even what a changeling can do. The desert hive just past the border of Equestria has watched all of this happen, and more. The Queen never interfered for her subjects' sake, unlike that Queen of green changelings with blue eyes.
Until she caught wind of the same foolish Queen attempting another invasion during this time of peace for most of the world. The first time she called on the warriors of her hive, every single changeling, young, old, it didn't matter, they all froze in fear and worry, the air heavy with the shared emotion.
I was among the very few who could guess what was going to happen.
"Axen, are those weapons ready yet?"
"Nearly!" I yell back, levitating the bundle of weapons over the half-wall between the extremely hot forge and the much cooler shop in the front. They clatter a bit when I set them on the table to be sorted out correctly, but I can barely hear everything else as I hammer out more spearheads and axeheads, fashioning tools of death in the middle of a buzzing pool full of life.
"Goran, hurry those things up! The warriors leave for the other hive soon, and the Queen wants them ready before they leave, not as they're marching out of the hive!"
"We're working on it! Axen's part of the group shading them, and he's gotta be gone well before them!"
"Just hurry up!"
"Axen??"
I click the last axehead into place, then levitate the last bundle out of the forge, dousing the fire at the same time as I step out of the forge part of the shop. "All done, Goran. I'm going to go get ready, and I've got the forge doused already."
"Good job, 'ling. Go on and get ready. First official scout assignment, eh?" Goran, one of the tallest regular changelings in our entire hive, gives me an amused smile and a strong feeling of smug amusement. In return, I let him feel a bit of my embarrassment that he's noticed my sneaking out at nights to follow the official scouts.
"Y-yeah, I suppose so, huh? The only patrol I'll have been on as far as they know. Hey, if something happens, make sure that Haxxon gets a chance in the scout training, would you? He's been asking me to do it for forever, but I haven't had the chance. It'd be easier for him to get in if they didn't already have an okay amount of scouts."
"You're really that willing to get him into the class that you'd let him take your place?"
Nodding, I slip on the bag I've heard ponies call saddlebags. Interesting name, but I won't argue. "Of course. He is the changeling I've been instructed to help out when possible. You know, like Cliffside for you."
Goran laughs a little at that. "Yeah, the only changeling with a slightly-pony-acceptable name is my buddy. It wasn't always the best thing to happen to you if you got a normal name, you know."
"I know, I know. He tells me that every time I have Haxxon over to study. As if sharing the cave with him wasn't enough." One last magical pull on the strap and I wave at Goran with one hoof. "I'll probably see you in a few months. Don't get into any trouble while I"m gone and let other 'lings help you out."
"Of course, I won't be so stubborn whenever someling wants to help out, but only so long as they're competent in forge work. Which is only you."
Sharing a feeling of amusement, I smile, shake my head, and walk out into the mess of other changelings walking, galloping, and flying around. The constant buzz of our insect-like wings will probably be the thing I miss most about being in the hive with everyling I've known all my life. But, taking a deep breath, I shake it off, shove all those anxious feelings below the surface so even I can't feel them, and take to the air, flying towards the scout lodgings.
The huge network of caves allows for our lodgings to be well hidden, and also to be nicely carved, if the right amount of work's been put into the design. Scout lodgings are an amazing example of desert changelings' carving skills. Ridges have been carved into the rock near the entrance, forming a smooth, curved opening to fly through, where guards posted in the hollowed-out ridges can magically check you. Then, further in just a bit, you come across the carved rendition of our hive's history. The oldest stories we know of, straight from the Queen herself, are at the very start of the long, uninterrupted stretch of hall, the most recent stories closer to the end. Even with the long history carved into the walls, there's still plenty more room for future tales of the heroes and villains of changelings. As I exit the hall, I take a moment to spin slowly in place, gazing at each intricately carved representation of some of the greatest changeling scouts in all history. They're lined up neatly, every scrap of detail lovingly carved into their likenesses, arching all the way up to the natural skylight. Looking down, into the chasm below, I know that, somewhere down there, sometime in my life, I want myself carved among these great and well-known heroes of the scout tales.
"Hey, Slip, daydreaming about being a statue again?" a joking voice calls out from across the Chamber of Greats. Spinning quickly, I spy the scoutmaster standing at the edge of the chasm, waiting for me to fly over. The tatters of his wings hang limply by his side as I hurry over, touching down lightly next to him. A hint of jealousy lightly brushes against my senses, but then it's squashed by the older changeling. "Well, anyways, it's about time you got here! We've been wondering if we should leave our prodigy behind after all!"
"Sorry, SkyBreak. I was finishing up at the forge with Goran. I had to finish up the weapons for the warriors to take along, remember? But I'm done now, and we can get going!"
He chuckles, this time letting his emotions slip through the barrier he always has up around the senior members. I sense strong amusement and faint happiness. "Nice to see you're still as enthusiastic as the day you joined the class, Little Prodigy. Everyling's waiting in the Room of Stories. Be there in ten."
"I'll be there in five, sir!" I say, giving him a quick salute and taking off for my section of lodging. Right now, I'm the only one there, but I don't mind. Just because I'm the only one out of my hatch-group that made it through preliminary training means that I'm better suited than all the others. It also means I don't have to stop and weave through anyling else as I head for my nest in the back of the cavern I call home during school. I dig through the small chest set near the top of my nest, and magically pull out my scout armor. Pulling it on in less than a minute is something everyling that's a scout has to be able to do, but I take several minutes examining it all carefully. It all seems good, so I pull it on in record time, then scoop up my small but thick book of maps and put it in my bag, pretty certain I wouldn't need it on a short trip to Queen Chrysalis's hive. How could I possibly get lost when following everyling else on such an important diplomatic trip? But, just to be sure, I pack in the compass I'd found on the ground in a pony town I'd recently stopped in during an unofficial outing. Map book and compass packed, I turn and fly as fast as I can to the Room of Stories, hoping I wasn't late.
"Aaaaaand there's our 'ling!"
As I land in a skid, I count all ten scouts sitting around, watching me as I struggle to stay upright. "I'm ready."
"And with a minute to spare. You really weren't kidding when you'd said you'd be here in five," SkyBreak says. Amusement wafts off all the scouts as their youngest recruit does something funny again. I can't help but feel a little left out of all of this. Maybe when I'm an official scout they'll let me join in on the jokes.
"Now, we all know why we're here, correct?"
A chorus of "Yes" echoes in the large cavern. My voice seems too high among all the fully-grown changelings.
"Good. We all know what it means to scout, so I expect you all to get out and do your duty to Queen Thistlebrush. Scout, return to her guards with any news she might need to know, even if it's as simple as a desert dog. She will need to be aware of everything, as the open desert can be deadly. Understood?"
"Yes, sir, SkyBreak!"
"Now go! Don't keep the warriors and the Queen waiting on you to tell them the coast's clear!"
With a rather loud hum, all eleven of us lift into the air, SkyBreak watching us go. I follow everyling out of the lodgings and out into the busy hive. The young hatchlings following their mothers stop and turn to watch the small band of armor-clad scouts leaving the hive. I know exactly what they're thinking, as I thought the same when I first saw SkyBreak, still able to fly, leading his group of twenty scouts out to battle desert dragons. Now, I'm part of the group leaving to help the hive, and SkyBreak is watching scouts fly away, while he's stuck on the ground. A stab of pity bursts my bubble of happiness at finally getting to go out of the hive on a real mission.
"Hey, Slip! Do you think you could fly around a bunch?"
I turn my head to look at the second-youngest scout, Upeck. His sandy brown fringe is split down the middle with a wedge shape, and his tail, too. His wings are a tan blur next to my own. "Well, yeah. I could fly for a long time."
"Good. You know about the runner, right?'
"The one that relays messages from the leader to the scattered scouts?"
"Right. D'you think you could do that for us? Noling else can do it, and you're the most energetic and youngest of us all."
With a nod that almost upsets my balance, I say, "Yeah, of course I could do that. Besides, at least I'll know where the Queen is all the time, unlike with normal runners."
"Yep! I'll go tell Gradeen that you said you could do it!" With that, Upeck speeds up to talk with the scout in charge of organizing all of us.
Noling else comes to talk to me, not even when we all slow down, nodding to the warriors gathered on the ground below the upward climb to the hot surface. Every single warrior looks anxious as we stop. Upeck is sending us up in pairs. I wait for everyling else to partner up, wanting to be the last one out, even though I'll be alone for my first daytime desert adventure.
"Come on up, Slip," I hear called down from the top. Taking a deep breath, I brace myself for blinding sunlight and a ridiculous amount of heat, which is probably much worse than the slight bit sinking down to burn my nose.
Popping my head out of the hive for the first time, I squint against the sun on the sand, and instantly feel uncomfortable in the heat. It's a different heat than in the forge, but not much hotter, just more... there , I guess.
"Now, everyling split up and start scouting, keep an ear and an eye out for danger, and for each other. Slip will be our runner, so make sure to keep another eye out for the little bugger."
There's some laughter. The mood's lifted and I feel less stifled.
"Let's get going! We've go the warriors and--"
Upeck is cut short by his lower half getting bit clean off by a sand snake.
Still half-in, half-out of the hive tunnel, I drop down as the sand snake, one of the creatures most dangerous to us changelings out in the open, whips its head back and forth at the stings the fiery spells the older scouts throw at it, hitting Upeck's upper half towards me. I barely manage not to get my head taken off as Upeck slams into the tunnel behind me, his entrails hanging from what's left of his body. I try not to gag, seeing someling killed before my eyes for the first time. Steeling myself, I shoot forward to catch the falling half-body before it can fall into the sight of the changelings going about their business in the rather busy hive below.
Three or four warriors charge past me, either having sensed the immediate and unpredicted change in emotion from all the scouts (most likely my own, though, being the closest to them) or they saw me working to keep the insides of Upeck from dripping all over and down to where hatchlings will see, even though it leaves me quite open to an attack from above. The slamming sounds I hear soon after they pass makes me think they felt the emotions change and decided to head up to help. The second-oldest changeling of the group, the next scout after Gradeen , Yemar, zips down to help me hold Upeck together. So far, noling except the warriors have spotted the blood dripping from above, which is okay with me. Until Yemar starts struggling to keep aloft, as well.
"We're just going to have to drop down, and hope noling sees us," he tells me, struggling just as much as I am, despite him being stronger than I.
"But then what are we going to do about what falls out while we fall down?"
"We're going to have to go down on top of him, unpleasant as that may seem, to keep most of him inside where it belongs."
I'm already covered in more orangey-red blood than I'm comfortable with, so I just nod, maneuvering myself so that when I stopped flying, Upeck would be beneath me. As well as all his squishy things. I can't help but shudder at that, Yemar with me. He gives me a nod, and I nod back. After a few seconds, we drop. Even through my hard, sandy-colored carapace, I can feel the innards tickling at my stomach and chest, and the warm wetness that I know is blood, being pushed up my face by the wind our fall is making. The bottom of the cave is drawing ever closer, and I close my eyes, not wanting to see what might happen when Yemar and I land on the already-squishy squishiness that used to be Upeck.
But I hear it. Upeck is lucky he died when that sand snake bit most of him off. Just the sound of our impact, which manages to crack the carapace of my left foreleg a bit, makes me wish I wasn't there to hear it. Cracking open an eye, I quickly scramble off of the mess below me, backing away, shaking my legs and wings out, trying to shake off at least a little of the blood and-- is that-- Something that should stay inside the body is draped across my back, and I hurriedly shake it off, trying not to throw up whatever's in my stomach.
"W-we should get up there and see if there's anything left to do to that thing," Yemar tells me, shaking himself out. He managed to stay free of any entrails, probably because he was closer to Upeck's head, and not the open end like I was.
"Yeah, okay." Several warriors are making their way over to us, probably to collect the mess that was once a well-respected changeling. "I'm good with that."
We both take off, our wings buzzing as we accelerate to leave the hive behind. When our heads pop up over the edge, we can see that, no, there isn't anything left to do to the sand snake and, yes, the other scouts managed not to be killed, now just hovering around the corpse of the sand snake. Thankfully the corpse was all in one piece.
"There you two are! We were beginning to wonder if the snake had gotten you, too. Upeck?" Gradeen asks, flying over to us, genuine concern emanating from him in waves far stronger than the desert heat. He glances at the blood all over our carapaces, but there's still a sliver of hope in there somewhere.
"No. There's no way he would have made it with just half a body, and he was dead before Slip and I got him. Warriors down there are taking care of him," Yemar says, glancing back down the tunnel to the hidden hive. Then he shakes himself. "Anyways, we should get going. I know we just lost a great scout, but I'm thinking we shouldn't stay here. The Queen is expecting the all-clear so that she can move out with the guards."
Gradeen nods. "RIght. Everyling! Spread out! We've got to make sure nothing will harm our Queen during this journey! Go!"
The seven other scouts fly off, instantly disappearing into the desert sand, camouflaged perfectly. As I start to take off, Gradeen puts a hoof on my shoulder. "Don't go just yet. We need you to run a message down to the Queen when the reports come back. Yemar will take Upeck's place for now."
Yemar nods and takes off, sending a string of sympathy towards me. He's seen many deaths before, and he probably knows what's going through my head right about now.
"Gonna be okay, 'ling?"
"Y-yeah, I'll be okay in a little bit. It's just.... I've known Upeck since I was hatched. Then, first time out of the hive, I see him bit in half and dead, got his blood all over me.... Does this happen a lot? Scouts getting killed before they even get a hoof away from the hive?"
The older changeling sighs and nods. "Sadly, yes. We can't keep the predators away from us, only protect against. I'm afraid you'll see far more deaths before we reach the other hive."
"Oh.... I was kind of hoping I would be able to go through my first mission without anyling dying.... I guess not...."
Gradeen smiles a little bit, and I feel a teeny bit of amusement bubble up in him. "Well, at least noling's been maimed, yet."
"The others aren't even back yet, we can't say 'noling's been maimed, yet.'"
"Ah, sharp as those weapons you make. Glad we'll be able to call you part of the team, soon."
Something sends up a spray of sand behind where I'm standing, and I turn, fully expecting to see something deadly. I don't.
"Hey, we've got plenty of safe ground to the east, which is pretty much the direction the Queen's travelling," Tumbleweed says, nodding at my reaction. "Good, swift turn, Slip. Guess being as slippery as you are is good out here on the sand."
"Ha, ha, very funny," I retort, rolling my orange eyes. Gradeen stifles a chuckle behind me. "Anyways, is everyling else coming back, now?"
"Looks like it, here come the rest."
Sure enough, the other seven scouts land in a spray of sand. They all say the same thing, that the coast is plenty clear for an easy flight today. I hop back down into the hive to tell the Queen that we're good to go.
She's waiting for the all-clear, so all I do is nod, and all fifteen warriors form a protective shield around her, and take off all at once, in perfect unison. I've heard that the warriors have some kind of telepathy thing going on in their groups. I'm pretty sure they do, since they're so creepily in tune with each other.
Gradeen's voice echoes down the tunnel as he speaks with the Queen, but I can't clearly hear it from beneath all of the warriors blocking my way back up. All I can tell is that their progress speeds up exponentially and I can rejoin the scouts. The sun is reaching its peak in the sky when I glance back. I can't see the hive entrance anymore, and I know that today, I'm unofficially an official scout.
It's been a week since we left the only home I've ever known. Every few days, us scouts gather around as the Queen gives us just barely enough emotional energy to last just long enough. Peytrol was taken by a sand dragon the fifth day, right before a desert dog ravaged Asillion, leaving behind nothing but orangey-red blood and a few scraps of the poor scout's wings, probably the first to go. There's little time for rest, to soak up the heat the sun piles upon us, but I manage to find time to sunbathe just a bit in between runs. Noling seems to mind, sometimes joining me if their report was dull and unimportant. On about the seventh or eighth day of dangerous desert travel, we come upon some green things quite unlike the cacti we usually see, even though they're usually more pale and definitely not as soft and yielding as the green I found.
"It's the edge of the Equestrian borders, Slip. The short stuff you're standing on is grass, and the stuff up there, on the brown stuff? Leaves. Really green ones. With the brown stuff, which is a trunk, the leaves make a tree. Lots of animals live in the branches. Why don't you take the next couple of days to explore, and I'll have Kaerson take over running duties?"
"Y-yes, sir, Gradeen!
Of course, that was a few hours ago, and I'm thoroughly lost in all the towering greenness around me. Out in the desert, at least, you could see for miles in any direction. Here, I'm stuck sitting in a tree, waiting to see if I can spot a fellow changeling. So far, I've only seen small flashes of blue and yellow, some pink, and little things I assume are bugs with really big and really pretty wings. Below, I've seen several brown and gray animals moving around, but I don't dare go down, just in case they think that changeling is a tasty thing to have for dinner.
After a few minutes, I hear a small whirring sound, different from the sound my wings make in flight, but similar. I glance down at myself and realize that my desert coloring stands out very well in this green stuff. That makes me a much easier target, but I can't use illusionary magic in a place I've never been in before. Not even SkyBreak can do that! He needs to be really familiar with the place before he does, and he encourages us to do so, too.
So I close my eyes and hope for the better, that whatever it is that's coming will pass below me and not look up, or go above me and not look down, but I dread the worst, that it passes on the same level as me and decides to eat me up.
"Hey, you look lost, and you're obviously not from around here...."
Opening my eyes, I see a changeling with very different coloring than myself. I stiffen. This is one of Chrysalis's hive, no doubt. He has the exact color pattern that Gradeen told us to watch out for when we started this crazy adventure. "R-right...."
A smirk crosses his fanged mouth. "Midget."
"Hey! I'm just not fully grown yet!"
"They let hatchlings out of the hive alone? What kind of Queen do you have? That's ridiculous!"
I stand and flap my wings, becoming airborne a second before I run out of branch to stalk towards the other changeling on. "Well, at least mine doesn't order to attack Canterlot, lose, and hope to still take over Equestria with a meager force of whatever changelings she has."
"Sliiiiip! There you are!" Gradeen says, careening out of a curtain of leaves and coming to a stop in between me and the other changeling. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd gotten lost out here. Come on, we'd best get back to camp."
"But--"
"Slip."
The sting of authority touches me, and I bow my head a little. "Okay...."
Gradeen makes some excuse to the changeling and leads me away, while I follow dejectedly. I was really looking forward to see if those self-defense classes I'd taken back at the hive had paid off. Or maybe it was just to wipe the smugness, arrogance, and obvious pride from that changeling's emotions. I could have drowned myself in them and still had plenty left to drown the other scouts, maybe a few warriors, too. I mean, what did his Queen do to him to make him so smug???
"Slip. Let it go. He didn't even try to start a fight, it was all you."
"Yeah, but at least my Queen wasn't idiotic enough to show the whole of Equestria that changelings exist. Now it's so much harder for the gatherers, especially the ones in Equestria!" I reply, shaking myself slightly. Gradeen had felt the enmity flowing from me in waves, most likely. That changeling probably did, too, but he hadn't shown a reaction in the slightest.
"Well, Thistlebrush is going to speak with Chrysalis about her actions in the past, but she also has to discuss the future as well. Remember the whole reason we came out here in the first place? We'd heard of some other plan she has for Equestria. Now, just relax and keep an ear out for anything that might be a problem, okay?"
Sighing, I nod. "Fine. But I really don't think I want to see that hive they're living in right now. Can you imagine what it must be like to live somewhere so damp??" I shudder at the thought of having to stave off so much water from invading the hive and the nests.
"Well, this area suited Chrysalis fine, so this is where she decided to make her hive, remember?"
"Of course I remember. All of us remember that story, of how the changeling sisters all hid during the reign of Discord, eventually getting into a row and leaving each other. The two oldest sisters still talk with each other, that's our Queen and Queen Sliver of the Southern Ocean, but Chrysalis eventually became the bitter little sister."
Gradeen is proud to see how well I remembered the tale I was told as a bedtime story as a hatchling. I know better than that now, of course. I've even met Queen Sliver in person. It was amazing, being among the two eldest changelings in the world.... "You've still got your amazing memory, don't you, Slip? You might be slipping and sliding everywhere on the ground, but nothing slips your mind."
"Um, I think that was a complement, so thanks. Now, where did they decide to camp? Outside the green?"
"It's called a forest, and yes, thankfully. We're keeping to the sand, able to blend in more, until tomorrow. Queen Thistlebrush wants to be ready for anything, and anyling, so we're spending the rest of the time until dawn to plan and make guesses. She also doesn't want anyling sneaking off," he adds, glancing at me pointedly as we exit the gre-- no, the forest-- and land on the sand we blend into.
"I promise, I won't. Besides, I know nothing about 'forest' and anything to do with the animals that live in there." My wings flick back to indicate the forest. "The best thing to happen to me would be getting back home in alive, more or less."
Amusement just rolls off of my companion as we walk along, his small talk just making him more amused as he tries to come up with some reason I'd want to be home so soon after my first mission started and so long before it ends. "Oh, maybe there's a special someling you have waiting for you back at the hive? Is it Dew? Maybe Rishelle. Or Crest? Is it because she's expecting?? I wouldn't doubt you doing something like that."
I feel my face start to burn with embarrassment, and I know that the normally light colors of my face are slowly darkening, especially along my cheeks and across the top of my muzzle, close to the base. The blush is probably turning red when I manage to choke out a reply. "I-I- don't have a special someling at home, Gradeen. It's just me."
"Ooo, is it maybe a male? Perhaps it's Haxxon? You two do spend quite a lot of time together, even for the situation you're in. You don't have to admit it if you don't want to, it's perfectly alright for you to like a male, there's nothing wrong with that."
I stop and lay down, my face buried in the sand. The small slits on the back of my neck open up to let me breathe, despite my face being full of sand. Even though the sand has a cooling effect on us, my face still feels like it's been set alight, burning with the red flames of our magic. Gradeen just laughs. He can feel the embarrassment just as much as I can feel his amusement that I haven't said anything. "So it's true, then? I've heard rumors that maybe a couple of your age group have been turning up liking the same gender."
"Shut the buck up, Gradeen."
Still laughing, he pulls my face up out of the sand. "I know you're still just a bit young to start a family or anything, but you and Haxxon make a wonderful couple!" His hoof pokes my cheek. "And it seems you've been fairly heated up by the thought of your coltfriend."
I simply go limp and fall back into the sand. "Gradeeeeeeeen ," I whine into the sand. I really can't honestly say that I haven't occasionally had maybe a little bit of feeling toward Haxxon, but only just a little! It's not like he'd like me back or anything!
"Slip's got a coltfriend, Slip's got a coltfriend!" he replies in a singsong voice.
"Hey, Gradeen! What're you teasing him about so much he's got his face in the sand?" Several changelings touch down around us, and I can tell that they're some of the warriors, who fared the desert perils far better than the scouts.
"Oh, just the fact that he won't admit he's got a coltfriend."
The laughter is loud and happy, but I can feel the genuine curiosity seeping from the warriors. They're probably wondering if it's true, or if Gradeen's just being embarrassingly annoying again. "Well, I have to admit that he and Haxxon would be a good couple. They seem like they'd be great coltfriends.
"Yeah, imagine having several more Axens and Haxxons running around, but condensed into maybe two or three little changelings."
"What a nightmare. Remember how many pillars we're always fixing because Axen slips and slides everywhere?"
"Haha, yeah, my back's still aching from that last one he knocked over!"
I just bury my face further into the cool sand. Why do I have to be the youngest and easiest to tease in the whole expedition??
Author's Note
Haha, some friendly teasing from the rest of the expedition is always a great pick-me-up!
Sometimes.
Most of the time.