Chainwings Adventure

Chapter 4

Whats a Cutie Mark?

Chainwings POV

I landed on top the train car with a thud, then jumped down to the back of the car where the door was. I didn't see any windows on the back car so I flew up to the second to last car. There were windows here, and quite a few other ponies. I didn’t seem to find anypony that would be a good candidate for me to change into so I flew over to the next train car.

I looked inside hoping to see a pony I could disguise myself as, and what I saw was a reflection of myself as a pony. I mean, I know if a Changeling looks at a reflection while disguised, the reflection has a small chance to show the actual Changeling undisguised but… this was a reflection on a window, and I wasn’t disguised.

I took the form of the pony in the reflection and the only thing that felt different was I didn’t have wings. I grabbed onto the door so I wouldn’t fall off the very narrow walkway between the cars. I felt so confused, why was there a pony version of me in the reflection… Maybe it’s just an extremely rare thing, similar to how my short blade-like teeth are a rare feature among changelings.

I pushed the door open and saw what looked like a mostly empty carriage, so I walked slowly inside and sat down on one of the benches. When I looked out the window for a brief moment I saw some strange white material covering everything I looked at. Every building, tree, rock, mountain, everything was covered in this white substance. The sound of a door opening made me panic slightly, I wasn’t good at acting like a pony, I was afraid I would be caught.

Two ponies walked inside, one was a pegasus mare with a light blue fur coat and a silver mane. The other was an earth pony stallion who was half the size of the mare, having an almost tanned fur coat and a brown mane.

I averted my gaze away from the two ponies and tried to act natural. What would be classified as being ‘normal’? The little voice inside my head said as I looked out the window.

“Eh hem… Sir may we sit with you? If you don’t mind.” The pegasus mare said with a smile, there had been no other ponies on the train car but the two other ponies and myself so what the pegasus was asking didn’t make sense. But I honestly didn’t mind, if they were a couple I could subtly feed off their love when they weren’t looking.

“Why? We are on a mostly empty car aren’t we…? Why do you want to sit with this one-?” The stallion chimed then getting cut off mid-sentence by the mare shoving a hoof against his mouth stopping him from finishing.  The pegasus whispered something under her breath which I didn’t quite catch, the stallion rolled his eyes and lowered his head.

“Sure… I don’t mind” I said making a forced smile, this was highly suspicious behavior coming from that pony… Why did she want to sit with me? The stallion did seem to mind however, but before I could properly react or the stallion could speak the mare said something that made me seriously question the intelligence of ponies.

“You wouldn’t happen to be a changeling would you?! If so I won’t tell.” The mare said with a wide smile that seemed to extend past the limits of her face somehow. Also, say what now? Was she just a psychic or something?

“Sorry mister, you will have to excuse my little sister… She thinks every pony who sits alone is a changeling.”

“Oh… Well I am definitely NOT a changeling, I guarantee that- wait how are you his little sister when you're twice his size?” I asked the Pegasus mare. Her eyes were a sapphire blue, similar to a Changeling's eyes in a way.

“My doofus brother here walked into a flower patch of poison joke, it shrunk him down to half his size.”  The mare said with a giggle making the stallion mumble some words which I could only assume was him cursing.

“Poison, joke?”

“Yeah, it’s a flower that has random effects on the pony who touches it. The same effect will occur again if the pony touches the plant again though…” The stallion said pressing a hoof against his face from embarrassment. I felt the entire train car bounce into the air for a moment giving me a fright. Making the mare burst into laughter, likely due to my expression.

“You act like you never been on a train before, a changeling wouldn’t have been on a train before either… hmmm, you sure about that whole ‘I am not a changeling’ thingy?” The mare said looking at me dead square in my eyes and leaning forward towards me. I see/feel high levels of joy and excitement within her stare as though she wanted me to be changeling.

“What is with you and your obsession with changelings?” I said leaning my head back away from the pegasus.

The pegasus didn’t seem to have a response other than awkward silence. She hit her brother on top of his head as she was now the pony hiding her face from embarrassment.

“Ouch! Oh yeah, my sister thinks changelings are all noble warriors who will sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Which is wrong because if that was the case then why did they go and attempt to invade Canterlot.”

“Because the changelings feed off of love! Their leader probably thought that if they controlled one of the cities their subjects could never go hungry again, they tried to invade Canterlot because they want to survive.”  Wow, I am honestly rendered speechless here, this Pegasus seems to be very, very passionate about this topic. But why would she be… For what reason does she believe this.

“If I could interrupt, what are your names?” I said feeling myself make a sheepish grin. The two ponies both halted their argument for a brief moment as they looked to me.

“You may call me Silver Sky, and this is my bro Chestnut Hammersmith, or just Chestnut for short.” The pegasus- no Silver Sky said blinking with only one of her eyes for a brief moment.

“What’s your name- also what’s with your non-existent cutie mark? Chestnut you see this right?”

Silver Sky said with a smirk pointing to something, what was a cutie mark! I turned my head to where Silver Sky was pointing, it was my rear end. Lovely… The name the ponies chose for the symbol on their flanks was… Cutie Mark … just wow, they couldn’t have chosen a more girly sounding name eh?

“One question at a time Silver, sir what is your name?” Chestnut said pulling Silver’s hoof so she was no longer pointing. I noticed that Silver Sky, had a image of a brown book lit on fire, green fire at that. And Chestnut had a symbol of an anvil with a hammer next to it actually, sorta made sense that a pony named ‘Chestnut Hammersmith’ would have an image of an anvil but… An image of a book on fire… How did-

I was cut off mid thought by the entire train car bouncing up for a moment giving me a fright. I looked the two ponies over and feeling as though my heart had jumped out of my throat said “Chainwing.”

Silver Skies eyes lit up with joy “did you just admit you were a changeling!” Silver Sky said beginning to hover in the air an inch away from my muzzle.

“Chainwing- not Changeling although very similar sounding word ain’t it.” I said with a smile then using a hoof to push Silver Sky back away from me. Her eyes seemed to indicate disappointment, I am honestly getting worried with how she would react to finding I actually am a changeling.

I felt my ears twitch as I heard two strange objects hit the roof of the train car we were in. OH GREAT! Just my luck ain’t it! Before Silver sky could have said anything, six razor sharp black claws dug into the roof of the train car, one of the dragons from earlier I assumed.

Silver Sky and Chestnut both looked in shock and awe as the claws tore a hole into the roof, and a large fierce looking wolf hopped inside with us. It was breathing heavily as though it had been running for miles and didn’t even bother to notice the three of us. All three of us crouched underneath the seats to avoid the creature seeing us.

The large predator whimpered as it held its right arm, a strange red liquid seemed to be staining the creature’s fur where its claw covered. It took a moment for me to realize it was the creature’s blood and the creature seemed to be in immense pain.

The creature then lay down in one of the seats and looked as though it was trying to hide, I then heard why this creature was likely hiding. A massive dragon with white scales and blue claws flew aside the train and letting out a terrifyingly loud roar. Chestnut and Silver Sky stayed quiet as they could, the large wolf was also trying its best to stay silent, and it seemed like everything around me was muted if not for the dragon roaring.

I felt my heart begin to beat out of rhythm as the door to the carriage where I spotted so many ponies in before, looked completely empty. They were likely hiding down as well to avoid being seen. The dragon flew off luckily for us.

The large wolf let out a hurt wine seeing the dragon leave, then it noticed us and I noticed its ears perk back. I felt Silver Sky squeeze me as though I was a huggable shield. I have no idea why other than maybe just something to hold onto for support.

“I mean no harm-” the large wolf said in an almost gravelly voice but sounding more like a ponies’ than anything, then winced as the red spot on his arm turned to a darker shade of red. Silver Sky let go of me immediately and stood up, she began to timidly approach the large wolf as though she wasn’t just afraid of it and nodded her head for me and Chestnut to get out as well.

“What happened to you?” Chestnut asked, do ponies’ just forget about fear when something is hurt?

“I scraped my arm on a tree branch while trying to get away from that dragon. There was a pony riding atop the dragon, looking for changelings. I don’t know why or what a changeling even is. Mind explaining?” The large wolf asked, with each pause taking a deep breath. I felt as though my heart would stop beating. That dragon was after me! Worse than that it was after the other changelings too!

Silver Skies POV

This was very very bad. A pony had managed to befriend a massive dragon and was on the hunt for changelings. I was hoping ‘Chainwing’ wasn’t actually a changeling now. Also his name doesn’t make sense for a unicorn who doesn’t have wings.

“Changelings are insectoid pony like beings, superior in every way possible to us. Being capable of supposedly lifting three times their own weight and can all use magic and flight. The ultimate beings. Also, according to reports from ponies in Fillydelphia, could regenerate their limbs and their exoskeleton at a fast rate.” I said being honest, I turned to Chainwing expecting to see some form of recognition like yup all true changelings are the best but instead Chainwing had a look across his muzzle which indicated he thought I was wrong. Maybe he isn’t a changeling after all.

I felt my jaw almost drop as Chainwing bit into the wall on the train car and ripped the wallpaper off it. Then using his levitation magic to wrap the wallpaper around the diamond dogs wound without a word. Almost as though he refused to speak.

“Uh… Thank you pony.” The diamond dog said whose coat looked to have the same color pallet as a husky. Chainwing smiled and nodded again not saying a word. I noticed while we were talking earlier he wouldn’t speak too often and would be consumed in thought. But this was strange.

The train car door to the other carriage was shut by a gust of wind. The snow which was nice and beautiful a moment ago now seemed to become a blizzard. Before I could even react properly Chainwing collapsed onto his face for no reason. Chestnut backed away from Chainwing slowly, and then I saw why the two of them were so scared. A spider, a little tiny spider. Looks like my brother and Chainwing both have arachnophobia, great.

The diamond dog walked over to the spider, lifted it up and then began to laugh “ponies are afraid of this little thing?” The diamond dog said laughing a little more then dropping the spider back down.

“No, Just these two apparently.” I said beginning to laugh a little too. Chainwing pulled his head up and aimed his horn at the spider then began charging it up.

I felt myself burst into laughter as Chainwing fell to his side as the spider leaped onto the bridge of his muzzle, Chestnut walked behind both me and the diamond dog for protection. I looked to Chainwing’s eyes and saw a good sign of him being a changeling! A flash of green flame went across his eyes and for a brief moment I saw a changeling's eyes replace his normal light blue eyes. That was either some form of spell or he was losing concentration and would soon revert to a changeling form, yes!

Chainwing shook his head violently and the spider got flicked at a wall, Chainwing now teleported everypony- and dog, and used us all for protection, from a spider.

“Why are you scared of such a little creature? That would be like a dragon being afraid of a mouse.” The diamond dog said then moved to one of the seats then sat down, I looked to his arm and it looked like it was tensing up, not allowing him to bend it in any way or form.

Chainwing sat beside the diamond dog and me and Chestnut sat paralell to them. The diamond dog looked to be exhausted, it curled up on the bench and began to sleep. Chainwing looked out the window and his jaw hung wide open.

I looked outside too and saw the castle of friendship. It was decorated with all the Hearths Warming Eve decorations and looked very pretty. Hearths Warming had happened early this morning. I felt a warm feeling inside when I looked to Chainwing’s reflection in the window. It was a changeling clear as the setting sun behind the castle. But Chainwing didn’t seem to care for his reflection. He was taking in all the beauty of Equestria and since he was a changeling it was likely for the first time so I stayed quiet and let him enjoy it. Chestnut saw the reflection and looked to me with a wide eyed expression. I grinned then pointed to the sun setting then whispered “just let him enjoy it.” And Chestnut nodded.

I let out a deep sigh looking over Chainwing’s reflection. He looked similar to other changelings but different. His teeth were short and gave him a cute appearance. I looked back to Chainwing;s pony form and saw many similarities, his horn length, his eye color, his fur color, everything was similar, which made me more curious about Chainwing.

The blizzard seemed to have disappeared during the spider incident And no snow had seeped in through the massive gap in the ceiling to my surprise. I noticed the diamond dog was sleeping through the beautiful sight so I woke up the large predator who was just chased by a dragon. Not a smart move on my part. Chainwing fell backwards when the diamond dog snarled at me “why did you wake me.” The diamond dog growled, I simply pointed a hoof to the window and watched the angry expression turn to one of awe. I offered Chainwing a hoof to help him up but he got up by himself and looked back outside.

Both Chainwing and the diamond dog’s reactions were uncannily similar, but diamond dogs lived underground and changelings may possibly have went underground to avoid being seen so their reactions would be similar.

Everyone on the train car seemed to take in the beautiful view, I overheard ponies from the other carriages admiring the sight then realized if any of them walked into this car, there would be chaos.

*** *** ***

“Next stop, Ponyville.” The train conductor shouted waking me from a comfortable sleep, I don’t remember how or when I fell asleep but I did. I held back a snicker as I saw Chainwing sleeping on his back upside down from the seat.

The diamond dog was gone however Chestnut was also asleep until the train came to a screeching halt abruptly waking Chainwing and Chestnut. Chainwing’s reaction made me think he was having a nightmare he couldn’t wake from. He looked around rapidly, then to me and let out a major sigh of relief then collapsed face first into the ground.

I crouched down beside Chainwing and poked at his head “What’s wrong Chainwing?” I asked not expecting the train car to jolt upwards on a bump knocking both Chestnut and Chainwing into the air for a moment.

“Nothing, it’s nothing… It’s nothing, it wasn’t real… It wasn’t real…” Chainwing said looking as though he was about to cry.

“That is bull right there, complete bull.” Chestnut said with a small grumble.

Chainwing made a clearly forced smile and stood up “It was nothing, I swear.” Chainwing said as his pupils dilated and he tried to act as though he was fine which he wasn’t.

I was concerned about the diamond dog that seemed to have just vanished but he likely just left seeing a gem in the side of a mountain. I was more concerned of what Chainwing was hiding.

Chainwings POV

I had a dream… That can only be described as torture. Listen if you have the nerve.

Dream Beginning

Everything was black, I looked down and saw no ground, nothing but my insectoid hooves.

I made my horn glow a bright blue and give light within the darkness.

I saw another light from a distance. Soon three lights became visible then began charging at me. It was the fire glowing within three separate dragons’ stomachs, they each let out a blast of fire at me.

I avoided the blasts then felt myself fly into something. The white scaled dragon from before was flying in midair inches away from my face. A cloaked pony was standing atop of its snout.

The pony had a large crystal sticking out from his head where a unicorn’s horn should be.

The pony began to strike the three dragons down in midair using electricity which seemed to come from its crystal horn. Then the pony removed the cloak, the pony had strange markings across its body which glowed a bright luminescent blue.

Below me blue fires began to start revealing cages which hung over a bright luminescent blue pool which gave me bad memories of the changelings being exploded over the Everfree.

“Your kin have died by the hooves of two royal figures. They killed your kin without remorse. Look at the pool. The ponies call it the mirror pool.” A strange voice began saying. The voice of the pony.

I looked down at the pool and the voice spoke again “A pool filled with blood of your fellow changelings mixed with natural water. If a pony enters it a copy of that pony is created. Ponies enter this pool without examining the properties of it. They bathe in the blood of your family!”

I watched as a pink pony appeared from the darkness. Pinkie Pie if Scootaloo was right. She jumped into the pool and a copy of herself emerged with her from the pool. I cringed as I watched her continue to copy herself until there was a hypothetical army of the same pony.

“Now look to the cages…” The voice said as the pink ponies all faded away into black smoke. I took a closer look at the cages and immediately hoped this was just a bad, bad, bad dream.

Each of the cages held four changelings Each of the four having a vast number of cuts and wounds making them lose blood at a rapid rate, but they weren’t dying. I felt as though the world was becoming a living hell as metal structures appeared in the darkness. A red glow lighting the structures up from the inside.

Each metal structure was connected with metal bridges, catwalks I believed was the term. I noticed a conveyor belt carrying the empty husks of dead changelings into the lava and I wanted this nightmare to end!

I was thrown by an unseen force into one of the catwalks. I looked up to the see the pair. Dragon and pony fly in between the massive three structures which seemed to be the center of this nightmare factory.

I felt myself want to cry as I spotted the empty husk of Chrysalis on the conveyor belt, I heard something swoop down and land on the catwalk behind me but I was too drawn towards the terrifying sight to care. Were the ponies’ behind this?! Where they extracting the blood of changelings just to make that one pool look nice!

I felt a hoof against my spine and I let out a long deep sigh I didn’t realize I was holding in. My eyelids got heavy and it felt as though everything around me was getting colder. I turned and opened my eyes to see a pony with the wings of a pegasus and a long horn of a unicorn. An alicorn pony.

I instinctively wanted to flee, but something wasn’t letting me move. The alicorn had a dark, dark blue fur coat and a dark blue mane which seemed to not obey gravity. It just floated in the air. The pony also had bright blue eyes and a shade of blue for the white of her eyes. Something about this pony indicated she liked blue. Don’t know what.

I looked around frantically as the metallic structures seemed to fade away into the darkness. The alicorn had tears streaming down her face as she looked at me. It felt real which was the scary part. Everything that had happened made me feel pain and sympathy , and I was feeling things I shouldn’t be able to feel in a dream. Right?

“It is alright little one. Your nightmare is over for now, everything you saw is not real.” The alicorn said making me think it actually was but something about the pony’s voice made me quickly doubt myself. I found I couldn’t speak. Because if I could I would have been praising this pony as though she was a queen.

“When you wake you must promise to head straight to Ponyville. There you will have a higher chances of surviving.” The alicorn said with a smile. Luckily I was already heading towards Ponyville so it would be easy to get to safety.

I made the terrible choice of looking back down. There was the white scaled dragon flying toward me and the alicorn at a breakneck speed coming from essentially nowhere. I made the choice to push the alicorn away and out of the chomping range. The dragon clamped its mouth shut with me inside and that’s when I woke up.

End of the Dream.

I awoke with a major headache. I looked to my hooves and saw that I was still a pony thankfully.  I wasn’t keen on seeing Silver Skies reaction to me as a changeling just yet. Or any ponies for that matter.

“Bad dream?” Chestnut asked tilting his head. “Yes. Very, very bad dream.” I replied immediately. I didn’t want to talk about what the dream was about, I just wanted to get to Ponyville. A mere five seconds after I had spoken I noticed something off about the sky. It was almost completely black!

The hole the diamond dog had torn into the ceiling made for a nice skylight to the sky above. White dots covered the sky and one massive white circle floated in the sky among the other objects.

“What? Have you never seen the night sky before? Or the moon and stars.” Silver Sky asked nudging a hoof against my chest. Night time? I was witnessing the night for the first time in person that is. Back in the hive I remembered reading stories which would mention the night but I never imagined it to look like this!

“Nope… I… I am not from around here…” I said flatly, my jaw hung open from the beautiful sight. First the sunset now this? I am distracted by the beauty of the sky yet again. I heard a loud whistle go off which made me cringe and cover my ears to the best of my abilities.

“All ponies departing in Ponyville please exit the train now.” A male pony shouted. I was surprised as both Silver Sky and Chestnut got off the train with me. And both a little relieved that two somewhat familiar faces would be near.

I was extremely glad it was dark out and not many ponies would be active, hopefully at least. And I was glad mostly because it felt as though I was going collapse of exhaustion again which I did. The last thing I remember seeing was a vast number of cottages made from what looked to be hay and limestone lining the path ahead. Then I fell into a deep sleep again.

The world around me was gone, similar to the nightmare I had before but now it was just empty. I didn’t feel tired or sleepy, I just... As though I was dead in a way, having no feeling and just floating in darkness for what felt like an eternity.

I felt my eyes open and a familiar cyan coated pegasus with a rainbow mane hovered in the air shining a lamp light into my eyes. I felt myself snarl as I struggled to move a hoof to cover the light, but found my hoof was full of holes, I was undisguised in front of Rainbow Bash? Think that was it.

My hearing kicked in as though I had been knocked unconscious and I winced at what I heard.

“Changelings are all evil…” The pegasus said, a part of the sentence she was saying before was cut out but it was likely her just saying you changelings are all evil And I only missed out on the ‘you’ part.

Before I could respond the pegasus jumped backwards in surprise “wow, shining a light into the poor critters eyes actually worked, ya’ll happy now rainbow?” A pony with a southern accent said who was just outside of my view.

Rainbow made the mistake of giving me space, I made my wings buzz and attempted to fly off, only to find I was tied down to some sort of crystal chair?

“Where am I? What do you want with me?” I managed to timidly ask as I saw a purple coated alicorn. She had the same appearance as Twilight Sparkle did if I recall. The alicorn whipped its head looking to me suddenly. She approached slowly as the pegasus flew backwards. She had an expression that indicated she was immensely scared.

“You, you’re in my castle. You were brought here after face planting on a sheet of ice. Are you feeling normal?” The alicorn asked seeming to examine my face for marks. I knew I collapsed but on a sheet of ice? How did that not wake me? Also what was ice and why does it come in sheets?

“As normal as it gets, why?” I asked tilting my head in confusion of what the alicorn meant.

“Well darling, it had looked as though your face had fractured like glass. Twilight here had cast a healing spell but it only works on ponies or so she thought at least.” A white coated unicorn said walking into view beside me. The pony would have given me a fright if not for, what’s the word? Highly educated accent?

It took me a moment to realize the pony who was just speaking was named Rarity. The pegasus was rainbow something, and the alicorn before me was actually Twilight Sparkle! Did that mean the other three ponies’ were here? If so just my luck to meet the ponies’ who took on most of the changeling army and won without a scratch... They had just been tired out.

“What’s a changeling doing in Ponyville anyways?” Twilight Sparkle questioned me in such a way it felt as if I lied I would explode. Twice. Is that possible? Probably.

“I was just wanting to admire this massive tree castle thingy. I wasn’t expecting to get inside.” I said making a sheepish grin, Twilight let out a sigh of relief along with what maybe five other ponies at the same time!?

“Okay good. But how do we know you’re telling the truth. Just need to ask a few simple questions for me, I mean us.” Rainbow Bash- still not sure on that name said grinning. I raised an eyebrow as everypony I could hear sighed or made some sound of annoyance. I wasn’t liking where this was going.

“First off, what is your name?” Twilight asked instead of Rainbow. Why, I have no idea.

“Chainwing”

“Chainwing!” Up to six voices shouted all in unison. I felt the rope that was keeping me tied to the chair break. I flew up quickly as Rainbow flew right at me seemingly fast as she could.

“Yeah that’s my name! No need to try and- do whatever you were about to do.” I said then found myself caught in a purple field of magic. Great. Twilight was holding me still in the air for a moment then Rainbow charged at me knocking me out of the air and pinned me against a wall.

“If you are Chainwing then… Uh…” Rainbow paused looking like she was trying to think of something only I would know even though she hasn’t met me before. This will be fun.

“What was Scootaloo’s Cutie Mark?”

Oh Great, I have to conjure up the image of a child's rear end. I hate you Rainbow Whatever your name is… Wait what was it even? A Shield? Yeah but what colours. It had colours I couldn’t make out so…

“Some multi colored shield-thing, I was more worried about getting us away from the dragons and timberwolves and anything else that wanted to eat or harm us.” I said rolling my eyes for a moment then attempted to push the Pegasus away from me. I failed miserably.

“Rainbow Dash! I think you’re going to crush him against the wall if you keep pushing” a high pitched voice called out but was cut off by the sound of a cracking sound. Luckily it was the crystal wall behind me that was cracking and not my actual back. Bash, Dash, eh I was close enough.

Me and Rainbow Dash fell backwards through the crumbling crystal wall and hit the ground, well she hit the ground. I landed chest first into a tree knocking the wind out of me. A completely random tree which I swear wasn’t here before. The pony I believed to be named Pinkie pie somehow managed to get up to the spot in the wall where me and Rainbow Dash had broken through and shouted something I didn’t quite hear.

I began to catch my breath, but stopped hearing two male voices say the following “Maybe you will never fly like us.” “If that’s the case then I guess you are a chicken pony” Then they laughed, I positioned my head so I could see what was going on and I saw three Pegasus stallions making fun of Scootaloo.

“Hey! Leave Scootaloo alone!” Rainbow Dash shouted at the three but they didn’t seem to hear her. I felt my body jolt up into the air as I saw one of them raise a hoof to hit Scootaloo!

Big mistake pal, big mistake! I could feel pure hatred and anger flowing through the air near this tree. It was coming from me and Rainbow Dash so it seemed we both had the same plans for those ponies if they hurt Scootaloo. The white substance that covered the ground would soon either be stained a bright blue from me, or a dark red… And it was more likely to be the dark red that spilled the ground.