Chapter 1- Life in the Badlands
I yawn and stretch, waking from my restless slumber. If it can even be called that. I stand weakly, the cold stone under my hooves reminding me of the very unhappy existence I live. My hooves clack on the stone of my holding cell, guarded by no bars and no guards. Isn't much of a holding cell. I crack my neck and spread my wings to stretch out my sore and weak wing muscles. I feel my feathers spread slightly at the extension like they always do.
I look back at my unused and currently useless wings. I stare at the floor where the smoother stone has been worn down from the 18 years of me sleeping there. I sigh and look to the much larger smoothed out area a few hoofsteps from where I'm standing. I let out another sigh and close my eyes. It's been three weeks since he left, still no sign of his return. I look at the light scratches, 20 little tallies marking the gray wall. I scratch in another one with a little rock, holding it tightly between my teeth. 21 days since Stitch Heart told me he was going out to fetch the Fireberries from the dying bushes across the Red Desert.
I drop my little stone, hearing it smack onto the carved out cave. I trot through my cell until I reach the entrance onto the swirling ramp. My cave being one of the closest to the mountain's entrance, I have to be one of the first ones to leave their cell to make it down to the unofficial mess hall in the lowest cave. I peep over the side of the ramp, checking for more creatures heading down early. Seeing none, I trot confidently down the ramp. My confidence, though, is soon interrupted when the entire swarm of Changelings and their queen exit their holding cell. It's their new nest, but they've informed me they are only one colony; I can't imagine what every colony combined would be like. I don't think anypony would be able to stop them.
Fidget, my closest friend, trots out shyly behind the swarm of Changelings flying quickly and viciously down the ramp. He is the only Changeling in his swarm that wasn't born with wings. He's always catching his face in the holes in his hooves, and I couldn't ask for a more love-consuming friend. Just like me, he's the oddball. He's also grounded.
"Hi, Fidget!" I call to him and gallop awkwardly down the ramp to catch up with him. I skid to a stop, spreading my wings to help me slow down. "Heading down to the mess hall?" I feel bad when I talk to him sometimes, I have a voice that echoes around in the caves when I shout; his shouts leave the smallest echo one could hear in such a sound-repelling room. All this sound bouncing off the walls, and such a small voice!
A loud buzz coming from the lowest cave tells me I probably woke up late, along with the entire Changeling swarm. I shove Fidget back into his cell and gallop back up to mine, careful not to trip on any imperfections in the stone. These creatures aren't known for their kindness to other ponies, actually quite the opposite.
I make it to my cavern just in time, a loud, echoing herd of creatures barrels past the entrance. I let out a heavy sigh and look back at my tallies. I promised myself that today would be the day I go out looking for him. Maybe Fidget would look like to come with, Chrysalis doesn't often let him out unless he has an escort. She's probably just afraid he'll get picked up by the other monstrous creatures that like to roam around outside. Personally, I haven't been outside once, Stitch Heart would never let me. That ends today. I'm going to see the Red Desert today. I'm going to see the Gap in the Stone! I'm going to see it all today, and there is nopony stopping me!
I peek around the corner for any slackers in the group of charging inmates. Seeing none either way, I trot down back down the ramp to the changeling nest. Covered in icky and slimy goo from ceiling to floor, the changeling nest is definitely a notable cavern in this mountain. I trot in cautiously because these changelings know I have a strong friendship with Fidget, but they still don't have the guts to attack when Chrysalis is in the room. I had made a deal with her that I could feed her smallest subject, Fidget, in return for the changelings not attacking me, so I get to hang out with Fidget and feed him at the same time because he's the only one who knows how to eat without killing and the only one that doesn't get to eat.
I trot halfway through and stop when I see Chrysalis and notice Fidget standing meekly in front of her. I'm close enough to hear that she's shouting at him ferociously. I couldn't quite understand what she was saying, she was speaking in a sort of buzz or hiss that only changelings can understand. The look of disdain on her face, however, told me that Fidget had done something wrong. She pointed her holey hoof at him angrily and I decided now would be a good time to get him away from the swarm.
"Hello!" I say cheerfully, pretending I didn't hear her obvious shouts. "I was wondering if I could take Fidge off your hooves?" I smile at the both of them. She turns and looks at me like I'm the biggest idiot she's ever met, which, I guess I am. She's only known to associate with the smartest ponies and creatures here.
Fidget turns to look at me, his bug like eyes blink at different times. I love it when he does that! It's so changeling like! Chrysalis blinks at me a few times before speaking in her changeling voice. I raise my eyebrows at her and she catches herself. "Sorry," her voice is like a hiss. "I was saying I wouldn't mind if you take him with you, just be careful. Please." I knew it, Fidget is her soft spot.
I smile and nod up at her, making sure I am showing her the utmost respect. Fidget trots down bashfully to stand with me and we both bow out. We turn the corner and nearly crash into somepony, but we apologize and continue on our way. He turns, instinctfully, towards my cave, but I grab his hoof and keep walking. He looks at me in startled shyness.
As I make my way out the cave entrance, he stops. "Where are we going?" he asks in a voice even more buzzed and hiss-like than Chrysalis's voice. I grab his hoof encouragingly and lead him towards the exit.
"We're going into the Red Desert!" I say excitedly to him. I can feel the rush of energy sweep through me as I say it out loud. "We're going to the Gap in the Stone! We're going to see what Dead Mountain looks like from the outside. We'll see the sun, Fidge! We'll see everything out there! You know all those myths about everything beyond the Gap being more desert? We'll see if they're true! Aren't you curious?"
"Well, maybe," he tripped on his words, "just a little. I've seen the sun, but I wasn't old enough to remember what any of that stuff looks like." He mumbles on and on about Chrysalis, the bigger monsters here, the myth about guard patrolling the Red Desert. I put a hoof to his mouth to stop his hissing whining.
"Just live for once!" I grin at him. I felt it this time, I felt it switch. It's like getting a sudden burst of motivation. Usually it's triggered like now, but sometimes it just happens. I might go from my happy, understanding self to my aggressive but motivated side, like now. "Think about it! You'll know what's true! You'll know everything there is to know about it all! Do the guards patrol? Is the myth about the gap being a reflector true?"
I take his hoof and pull him out the entrance. For the first few seconds all I see is white and I think I've stepped into an abyss. I'm about to turn back, but I see a towering, scraggly rock becoming more clear in my view. Suddenly I can see clearly, unless I look into the sun, and everything around is red and dusty. We trot down the mountain, and the first steps into the burning sands of the Red Desert are magnificent. Then they just start getting painful as we continue our walk.
I walk a bit faster than Fidget, knowing somewhere along the way to the Gap in the Stone is a cooler stone path. I let out a sigh of relief as my hoof finally comes into contact with the cool stone path and I follow it to the Gap, dodging the heavy footsteps of the much larger inhabitants of this red wasteland we call home. I trot closer and closer to the gap, a shimmering image of myself coming towards me. It's just a mirror image of what's here. I can't help wondering what would happen if I tried to walk into it.
Stitch Heart raised me to always experiment things I was unsure of, so I keep trotting when Fidget stops. I feel a sharp pain in my gut as I walk through a wavering field type thing that spreads a ripple away from me. I hear the horrified gasp of my friend from the other side. I look at the Gap, which is a shimmering image of the Red Desert with Dead Mountain in the background. The only difference is that from this side there is heavy security patrolling the edge of the mountain. No ramp leading into the desert, no stone path for burning hooves.
I poke my head back through the field, and extend my hoof to Fidget. He stares at me in horrified amazement as pain sears through me, giving me a feeling of my stitches snapping and my body slowly falling apart. I impatiently grab Fidget's hoof and pull him through. I see his glowing insect-like eyes shut tightly as the pain moves through him too.
I finally turn, with him, to the scene beyond the field. I finally look at the world we just entered. It's green. There's green everywhere. There's green under our feet, in the air, hanging at the ends of long brown poles jutting out from the ground. There's blue above us, not like the gray tinted red air in the desert we just left. There's pink things poking from the ground, blue ones, purple, yellow, white. There's small creatures scurrying back and forth just inside the densely packed area of poles. I can't imagine the names for these things, and it'd probably take all my brain power to figure it out without asking somepony first.
