I ran as fast as I could down the dark, winding back hallway of Miss Cryssy's School for Duplicitous Changelings. I beat my wings to speed myself up, even though flying was forbidden in the tunnels.

I was already late, and I had been late too many times before. Professor Kriga had told me more than once already that he'd eat me if I was late one more time.

So I ran, skittering across the worn-smooth floor and leaping off the ridged walls at the corners.

It wasn't my fault I was late. My broodmates always took too long to get ready, and because we lived too far from the main hive, we had to go above ground. Two of them were too young to have mastered their transformation spells yet, but were too old to leave hanging in their pupae while the rest of the family was out. That all meant that I had to pull them behind me, buried in a hay cart, in order to smuggle them from our house in the country to the main hive under Ponyville.

I could have resented that, maybe, if I had more time. But the passage was narrow and winding, the light crystals were dim, and I had to put every bit of my concentration into running if I hoped to make it to class on time.

Only a couple more turns and I would be there. I bounced off another wall, took a quick flight across the hall, and jumped off the opposite wall, right next to the light. The rebound took me through the next turning, and beyond that would be the hole into Professor Kriga's classroom.

As I flew across the next gap, though, there was a gasp.

I caught only the barest glimpse of a black shape before I slammed into another changeling. We both tumbled across the smooth floor, yelping as we went. Finally, we slid to a stop.

I'd ended up on top. When I looked down my jaw dropped open. A long, frilled mane-crest, a cute little snub nose, a neck longer and smoother than most... It was Flivvy! Her eyes, normally brilliant and clear, circled around in a daze.

She blinked and her eyes focused. They went wide when she saw me. We sat there, staring at each other, for a long moment. Then she shrieked.

She threw me off of her and shot up to her feet. In a flash, she grabbed her notebook from the floor and rushed toward the entrance to the classroom. When she reached the edge of the hole, though, she paused, looked back at me, and pursed her lips. “Buzzik?”

I stumbled to my hooves. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—”

She giggled, giving me a cute smile, then vanished into the hole in the floor.

What had that been about? None of the mare drones had ever shown me anything but disdain, being an outsider to the hive and all.

A deep gong rang out, reverberating strangely through the twisted tunnel. I was late!

As quick as I could, I darted over to the hole in the floor and dropped through, slowing my fall with my wings.

A horsewhip cracked against the desk. Queen Chrysalis sneered at me from across the teacher's desk, only barely out of reach. Strangely, she wore a loose, buttoned blouse above a tight pencil skirt. No one ever wore clothes in the hive... it stirred some strange feeling in me.

The whip cracked again. “Well well well. Buzzik, is it not? Since you've already mastered it enough to not bother showing up to class on time, perhaps you'd like to give the class a demonstration.”

Author's Note

Don't worry. Next chapter will have plenty of clopping fun.