The capital city of the hive was truly a sight to behold. Not only was it the largest concentration of changelings within the mountains, but it was located in the deepest and largest cavern. The subterranean city was almost completely built into the connection of a massive stalagmite and stalactite like structure. This was known as the Spire.

The royal palace, the very heart of the city was located at the center of the Spire, a place very few were permitted access to before Queen Cicadia had taken the thrown as her sister's successor. Now though, it was populated by many soldiers and civilians, each doing a job to make sure the fading city could last another day.

Surrounding the Spire were stalagmites that grew out from the ground, each challenging the tallest structures built by the ponies who dwelled on the surface. Each of these was mirrored by stalactites of the same scale. It was within and attached to that the changelings built their homes, businesses, and other buildings.

Around everything, was a wall. It was actually more like five walls, each being about thirty yards apart in order to form different lines of defense and buffer zones into which any defender would be able to retreat and regroup in the case of an overwhelming attack. The walls were very tall as well as numerous. They easily stood fifty feet tall with watch towers of even greater height. Despite their aw inducing size, the walls were ancient and crumbling in many places. They had been built thousands of years ago in order to protect the city during long forgotten struggles.

Switchback was describing this location to the party as they walked on through the caves, pausing to point them in which direction to go every so often when they came across intersections before continuing. He had only ever been to the capital city once before in order to deliver a message back when things truly began to get bad for the changelings. It was at that time that he had met others who planned to leave the hive and joined in. It was also during that time that he had met one of the best friends he had ever had, although he left this detail out. It was best to keep that off the mind at the time.

"I don't see how you keep track of how to get around this place," August commented. "Everything looks the same. There's no land marks or signs to help distinguish anything. How do you remember the way back?"

"This was the way I came when I was leaving the hive," Switchback answered. "I started at the capital when I first decided to leave so from there I was able to remember where to go."

"That's impressive," Talisman complimented, "that you'd be able to remember the way after so much time."

"Before I left, I was a messenger," Switchback explained. "It was nothing special though. I wasn't a royal courier or anything. I just delivered messages between towns. Remembering routes kind of became a special skill of mine, but so much has changed since I did that. Last time I was here, that town wasn't even there. It was just a empty cavern."

"I take it that it was much safer to travel back then," Talisman said.

"For a time it was," Switchback confirmed. "The tunnels between towns were much better lit and there was actually quite a bit of traffic, but after the famine began the roads began to get dangerous and I quickly found myself going out less and less. I guess I got out before thing really hit the fan." "No, I got out right as everything hit the fan." he thought to himself, not feeling any less guilty with each step that he took. He should have done this sooner. He wondered how many had died because he got distracted.

"I take it that they didn't just let you walk out," Jackpot chimed in, extracting a glare from Talisman as he did.

"W-what makes you say that?" Switchback asked, sounding a little nervous.

"Oh come on, Switchback, don't play dumb," Jackpot challenged casually, trying not to make his advances too intimidating. "You can tell us. We're here to help you remember?"

"I left the hive with a few others," Switchback answered, lying. "One day I just took off with a few others, but after leaving, I was the only one who kept going. I guess the others didn't really believe that there was hope. That or they lost it too soon to stick to our plan."

"What plan would that be?" August asked, now genuinely curious. Little did he know that he had just thrown a wrench in Jackpot's own plans by injecting himself into the conversation.

"Get out of the hive, find a pony town, and make some friends. That part shouldn't have been too hard," Switchback explained. "I mean, we're changelings after all. Blending in is what we do. From there we would build up trust until we felt that it was safe to reveal ourselves. Now that I'm looking back at it, I wonder if we should have just caused some minor trouble, gotten captured, and then begged for help. Would've gotten your attention must faster."

"I can see why you didn't," Rampart said. "That would have been risky. There's no telling what could have happened to you if you rushed in without being careful like that."

"Yeah," Switchback agreed. "We didn't even know if you guys knew we existed or how you would react to something that could take the form of a pony." He sighed, knowing that he had been so close to accomplishing what he wanted at one point. "I was almost able to do it too, but then the hive invaded, and well... you know the rest."

"You cant blame yourself, Switchback," Twilight assured him. "You had every reason to be scared after what happened in Canterlot."

"I know," Switchback said sorrowfully, hanging his head low. He smiled for a second. "It's funny. If it hadn't been for Pinkie Pie, I probably would have gone insane."

Twilight smiled as she too remembered the first time she had met the crazy party pony. "Yeah, she has that effect on people. If it wasn't for her, I probably would have never stayed in Ponyville and ended up as a social recluse somewhere in Canterlot."

Of all the individuals present at that time, only Switchback had ever heard Twilight's story of how she had first come to Ponyville and made all of her friends. Seeing as they were almost completely surrounded by darkness, and none of them were entirely sure if they had entered the husklands yet, none of the guards cared to ask Twilight to elaborate on her point about Pinkie Pie, instead focusing on keeping their guard up.

"What do you mean?" Scratch that, August cared.

"Well," Twilight began," when I first came to Ponyville I didn't really care about making friends, but she threw me a big welcome party. I didn't really make an effort to enjoy the party and I kind of behaved like a jerk though," she admitted. "Her positive energy really helped be bond with my other friends on our way to stop Nightmare Moon."

The group suddenly stopped as Rampart gave a signal for everypony to stop and keep quiet.

"What is it Cap?" Talisman whispered to Rampart.

"There," Rampart responded while pointing ahead of the group, further into the darkness.

About fifty feet out stood a silhouetted figure. The figure appeared to be admiring as small floating light. It was faint and glowed a golden color, comparable to that of a lightning bug. The figure walked slowly around it, only being visible by the light that was cast on it.

"Looks like I'm up again?" Switchback asked. The only reply he received was a nod from Rampart. He quickly headed out toward the figure. It's shape easily gave it away as a changeling. As Switchback got closer, the features of the other changeling came into clear view.

The figure was indeed a changeling, a little smaller than most, but the truly weird trait he possessed was his color. Instead of the dark and smooth black shell that all changelings had, this one was a more grey color. It was flaky and seemed to be shedding much like a snake shed its skin. No, exactly like a snake shed it skin. There were small, little shreds of thin translucent flakes falling to the floor with every step that the changeling took. Changelings did not do this. How could this one be shedding? That's not supposed to be possible.

He must have heard Switchback walking because his attention was quickly diverted to his fellow changeling. He looked on at the cautious Switchback through grey tented eyes that flickered with the standard blue color every few seconds like a broken neon sign.

All of this almost startled Switchback who only continued to notice more abnormalities as time passed. One of these included what appeared to be a deep wound on the side of his neck, where dried blood was visibly plastered to his shell.

"Um, hi," Switchback tried, doing his best to sound friendly.

The other, very odd changeling, who also seemed somewhat malnourished, responded to this with a few slow steps forward. He opened his mouth as if to begin speaking, but no voice ever came. He just stood there with his mouth hanging open, tilting his head sideways before closing his mouth and sitting down where he was. He proceeded to scratch himself behind the ear like a dog would, causing a greater shower of flakes.

As he returned his rear hoof down to the ground, it was noticed that a great deal of blood had accumulated upon it. It became apparent that this was a result of his scratching when blood began to drip from behind his ear.

"Uh... are you okay?" Switchback asked nervously.

The other changeling only stared curiously at Switchback for a few moments before circling him, eyeing him down with even more curiosity. Eventually, the changeling just sat down again in front of Switchback again and just watched him. Switchback wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but after several long minutes, the rest of the group was called out of hiding.

The strange changeling seemed to take great interest in the other ponies, especially their shiny reflective armor. He even rubbed his hoof up against the helmet that sat atop Jackpot's head. He didn't take to kindly to this, drawing his sword instinctively. "Back off!" Jackpot shouted, scaring the changeling away where he coward behind Switchback.

"I don't think he meant anything by it Jackpot. Calm down," Talisman said.

"You can't be too careful around these things," Jackpot scolded as he put his sword away.

August just rolled his eyes before trying to approach the changeling. "It's alright, we're not going to hurt you."

"Something seems off about him," Twilight pointed out. "I mean look at him. Is this what happens to changelings when they begin to starve?"

"I've never seen anything like this," Switchback answered. "If so, I can understand all his physical differences, but his behavior is just..." He couldn't really find the word. The changeling didn't talk, he didn't seem to be making any indications that he was trying to communicate. He just wandered, curiously admiring them. "It's like he's broken or something.

Rampart took a few steps toward the changeling, trying to get him to stand still so he could bandage his wound. "Here, let me help you. You're wounded."

The changeling took a few steps back as Rampart advanced, but stopped and calmed himself as he felt Rampart cleaning away the blue, sticky blood away with a canteen of water and a towel from his pack.

"Are you sure you want to waste all that, Cap?" Jackpot asked. "Even if you do patch him up, he's obviously not in a state favorable to his survival. Just sayin'."

"Wow, JJ," August said. "That's harsh."

"Survival is harsh," Jackpot responded. "Survival of the fittest and all that jazz. My point is, we cant go helping out every stranger in need. We were sent here for a very specific task, and it would be foolish to deviate from that. Also, don't call me JJ."

"We're not deviating from the plan," Rampart insured as he applied a layer of gauze to the changeling's neck wound. "I have a spare canteen and plenty of bandages to go around, plus the ones that we are each carrying. Don't forget that we made sure to be more than prepared for this as far as supplies go."

Jackpot rolled his eyes. "I still don't like this. What if he's baiting a trap."

"That's a bit far fetched," Talisman pointed out. "Nothing about this screams trap. Just look at the guy. He's helpless."

"How do we know that he's not carrying some contagious disease?" Jackpot challenged.

The changeling raised an eyebrow, the first real sign of some kind of communication. It was if he was offended for being called diseased.

"Changelings actually have a pretty strong resistance to disease," Switchback countered. "It's kind of just like one of those adaptation kind of things. You know, like you said. Survival of the fittest."

Jackpot sighed, defeated. Looks like the little coward really did have some wit. Still, he couldn't get over the weird feeling that he got around this changeling. Something about him just rubbed him the wrong way.

Rampart finished bandaging the changeling, before stuffing what remained of his stockpile of supplies back in his pack. The changeling took a few seconds to feel the new, soft material adorning his neck. He smiled happily, showing off the sharp teeth other than his already protruding fangs. What he did next, caught everypony off guard. He licked Rampart, much like puppy licks someone he is glad to see.

"Aww," Twilight said, even though she was a little creeped out by what the changeling had just done. "He's like a puppy. A um... really sketchy and kind of depressing puppy."

Rampart glared at the changeling disapprovingly as he wiped the slobber from his face before walking off. "Come on, everyone. We need to keep moving." All the others began following him, each walking passed the changeling who just stood there and stared at the group of ponies with further curiosity.

"Um, good luck," Brisk said as he passed, "I guess."

The changeling just kept watching the group, kept watching as they walked away, further down into the hive. He looked back over his shoulder in the direction that lead out of the dark and eerie caves. Then he looked back at the group that had helped him. His eyes lit up into a soft blue color before he found himself taking steps toward the ponies.

Apple Jack opened her eyes slowly, only about halfway before pain assaulted her head and she was forced to close her aching eyelids. Her head throbbed with pain and her muscles were tight. Every joint screamed in a way that she had never quite experienced and she felt as if her body was being torn apart from the inside. It was also cold. Dear Celestia is was cold. It was absolutely freezing!

Ice crystals hung from her body, accompanied by long sickles of ice that would fall upward when she tried to move on occasion. It was the seemingly inverted gravity, mixed with the dizziness and all around nausea that she was feeling that made it apparent to her that she was hanging upside down. The blood that covered her neck and slowly leaked from a deep bite there was mostly frozen, probably being the only thing that prevented her from bleeding out.

Where was she? What had happened? Were those changelings that she and her brother had seen just before everything went black? That would have made things so much simpler, but she knew that that couldn't have been the case. Changelings didn't have claws. Whatever had come at here and Big Mac had had long sharp claws and teeth. Oh Celestia those teeth! Changelings had two long fangs and mildly sharp teeth which from Switchback she had learned were actually for getting through the hard shells of subterranean fruits that the changelings grew, but these... things. They were different. The fangs were absent and in their place was row after row of razor sharp teeth. They were like great white land sharks, except jet black.

AJ shook violently, not knowing if it was from her adrenaline and the shear amount of fear she was experiencing at the time or if it was just from how freakin cold she was. She looked around frantically, trying to get her bearings while also trying to prevent panic from setting in. She managed to stay calm and steady her breathing. With this it was much easier to get a grip of her situation.

She twisted and turned her body, fighting off the pain as she tried to figure out where in Equestria she was. As she did this, flakes of frost fell from her coat and landed on the floor below her. She couldn't really tell how high up she was because of the darkness, but it couldn't be that far down she figured. She hoped.

AJ was pretty well secured to the ceiling, but she knew she had to get her legs free if she was going to get anywhere, therefore she began twisting and turning with even more effort, doing her best to struggle against the dark green goo that locked her in place. With every twist she could feel herself becoming looser and looser until finally one of her rear hooves was mostly free. All she had to do was free the other and gravity would do the rest.

Thankfully, years of hard work on the farm had left her with enough strength to hoist herself up and push off the ceiling with all four of her hooves. The goo that trapped her stretched and buckled under the force before finally giving way.

AJ suddenly plummeted down, staying in the air frighteningly longer than expected, before finally she came down hard on the floor below her, landing on her back. There was a loud, terrifying crack as her body made contact with the stone and pain yet again rushed through her body. She tensed up, she wanted to scream in agony from the pain, but only found that the wind had been knocked from her lungs and she was now choking on whatever air she could grasp. She desperately tried to catch her breath but only continued to choke, until finally she gasped and coughed violently. Tears began to run down the side of her face from the pain.

Darkness pulled at the edges of her vision as she felt herself slipping from consciousness. She was dead. She just knew it. This was how she died. Alone, in pain, and in the dark. Worst of all, she was scared. It was a fear born of an uncertainty that she had not experienced in a long time. She was not only scared for herself, but for Big Mac and Fluttershy who were probably going through the same thing right now.

Despite how hard she raged and fought against it, AJ couldn't help but give into the darkness that grabbed at her. She was just too tired and weak. With one final breath, she closed her eyes as a deep and frigid sleep came over her. And just like that, she was out.

The air seemed only to grow warmer as the group of ponies advanced through the darkened tunnels. Thankfully for them, there was actual lighting where they currently walked, all in the form of glowing fungus and sometimes crystals that jutted out from the walls and ceiling like knives being pushed through from the outside.

The caves were still dark in most places, with long shadows being cast as they walked. They were not alone either. They were being followed.

"We're still being followed," Talisman pointed out to Rampart who was now taking point.

The group stopped yet again, each of them looking back. Standing there, about fifty yards away was the strange changeling that they had encountered only minutes ago. He stood there, not moving, only staring at them curiously, just as he had before. He only took a step forward when the ponies did, and never stepped back unless they did the same. He always remained at the same distance.

"Permission to handle this joker, Captain?" Jackpot asked, growing frustrated by the changeling's persistence.

"Negative," Rampart answered, much to Jackpot's dismay, before turning to the other changeling in the cave. "Switchback," he addressed, "what do you make of this?"

Switchback blinked, not entirely believing that he was actually being called upon for advice. I... uh." He stuttered on his words, not entirely sure what to say. This time, it was best to tell the truth though. "I don't know," he said. "He doesn't seem all that bad." He looked over at the strange figure before taking a few steps in his direction.

The other changeling did not move, only standing there. He tilted his head to the side as Switchback slowly made his advance. The changeling took a few hesitant steps forward, letting his hoof linger in the air at first, before letting it fall to the ground. Eventually, he had made his way all the way back to the group.

"I think he wants to come with us, maybe," August guessed.

"Absolutely not," Jackpot protested, only to be shot down by the look that Rampart was shooting him. It was not at all his decision to make and he would do well to remember this in the future.

"It would be your call Princess," Rampart said to Twilight.

"Well," she hesitated, not entirely sure how to handle this situation. On one hoof, it was dangerous to just let anyone from the hive follow them around. There was no telling what their intentions could be. For all they knew, he was some kind of spy for a group crazies that mugged ponies and changelings on the street. On the other hoof, this changeling was so much different than anything any of them had ever seen. He was strange, even to Switchback. What if he was just lost? What if he just needed help?

Twilight looked to Switchback who was still fixated on the other changeling with a worried look. "What do you think, Switchback?"

Switchback just stood there and stared at the other changeling. He stared right into his greyed out eyes that seemed to see nothing, until suddenly, his eyes flickered to a more natural light blue hue, as if they had been filled with life for a brief instant. This was a strange phenomenon that none of them quite understood yet, but had happened a few times since he had appeared.

Switchback's eyes widened and he looked at Twilight quickly. "I think we should help him," he said in a way that almost conveyed urgency.

Jackpot wanted to protest. He wanted to step in and end this madness. They couldn't just let another changeling into their group. He could be dangerous. Twilight had called him a puppy, but he was more of a stray dog, and it would only be a matter of time before he bit them. He wanted to do something, but knew their was no good in wasting his breath, so he remained silent.

"Are you sure about this?" Rampart asked. "There is an amount of risk taking this changeling with us."

"Yes Captain, I'm sure," Switchback answered, still staring into the now blue eyes of the other changeling, "and his name is Glosser," he added before the eyes that he was looking into flickered, like a dying lightbulb until once again they were a pale grey color.

Everypony looked at Switchback in a confused manner.

"Glosser?" August questioned.

Glosser smiled wide at the mention of his name.

"Wait a minute," Talisman began. "How do you know that all of a sudden?"

Switchback's own expression twisted into one of confusion, as if he had just woken from a strange dream. He looked around at the other ponies around him before finding his voice. "I... I don't know."

Author's Note

No, AJ isn't dead. We'll see more of her, Big Mac, and Fluttershy later. Right now, this is all you get though. Also, I think I've finally figured out how I want to connect the current events to the next major plot point. It just needs a little further refinement.

Apologies for the long wait. Life has been going on. I finally got a good job so that's awesome. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed reading this. Thanks for all the support and favorites. I'm really glad to see people like what I'm putting out.