Lightning Bugby Dragonman461ChaptersPrologueChapter 1Chapter 2Prologue20 Years Ago Within the depths of what Equestria considered the "Undiscovered West," lay a lone city, buried into the side of a massive cliff. Within the massive steel walls, worked thousands upon thousands of busy citizens. These were not ponies, no, they were Changelings that flew the flag of Queen Silk. The city of Morphos, and its flag of lightning. In its streets gathered the populace of the Changeling city, the insect-like equines crowding beneath the largest steel tower in the city, their Queen's Residence. Queen Silk smiled as she looked over the gathering citizens from her position. They waited as she held up a bundle of cloth in her arms, hoisting its contents over her people. "My subjects," she announced from her balcony, "today is a great day to celebrate! For I have ushered into our great city, and heir to my throne!" The screeching cheers of her people was enough to shake all of the buildings within their city's walls. Once the cheering died down, Queen Silk smiled down onto them. "I thank you all for your loyalty not only to our crown, but to our glorious city. Alongside the news of my heir, I am glad to say that starting today, we will no longer have to fear any shortage of power in the near future! Professor Forewing, if you would," she said, ushering forth a Changeling with a brown mane and tail. He straightened his lab coat and cleared his throat before speaking to the crowd below. "Citizens of Morphos, no longer will we have to worry about our mining crews losing their lights, nor do we have to worry if our hospitals can sustain themselves! We've discovered a more efficient means of powering our city centers and operations with these!" he said, motioning to the large black panels that hung atop the tower. "They are the Mark-III Radiation Convertors, powered by Solar Transformers! So long as the Sun above shines, our city will no longer have to worry about another 'love' shortage again!" The crowd cheered yet again as they savored the innovation and its impact that it would have over their society. Queen silk smiled warmly as she watched her son reached out towards the crowd, giggling and cooing as nymphs did. She couldn't be happier if she tried. \\\////// Present Day \\\////// Twilight inhaled deeply as she looked over the expanse of undiscovered land that stretched out over the horizon. She took in the scent of the uncharted lands before her and smiled as she exhaled, thinking about how she and her friends were about to trek where nopony had before! She might stumble into ancient ruins that could answer questions about alicorns that not even Celestia and Luna were aware of, or maybe even find a whole new civilization! "Hey, Twi! You ready or what?" Twilight looked beside her to find her friends waiting with a hefty carriage filled with luggage. "Consarnit, Rares," Applejack said, "we were supposed ta pack lightly!" "Applejack, have you even read half of what we should expect in these forests?" Rarity argued. "Two words, darling; Spider Rain! Literally raining spiders due to high wind speeds during tropical storms! I'm packing enough repellent to keep an entire army of those... guegh! Spiders, at bay, should we encounter such a scenario." "For pony's sake, ya even know how often that happens?" "Often enough that the explorers that dared to roam far enough West decided to name an entire peninsula 'Spider Bay'." "I'm sure they're not that bad, Rarity," Fluttershy countered. "Most of them don't even survive the fall, and those that do are too disoriented to try and hunt for anything. Besides, I'm sure that I can talk our way out of most situations if we end up finding any dangerous little critters." Rarity sighed as she pulled out a hand-fan, waving it upwards to cool herself. "Twi, come on!" Rainbow said, slouching against the carriage. "We're never going to find anything if we don't get a move on!" "Sorry girls," Twilight said, "but I just wanted to take it all in one more time. We're going to be exploring a region of Equestria that's been uncharted for nearly 400 years! Isn't this exciting!?" "Be more exciting when we actually get going, egghead," Rainbow snarked. Twilight huffed with a pout. "Alright then, let's go." Chapter 1Twilight jolted upright as she heard something break a ways out from their camp. It had been ten whole days since she and her friends had began their journey West, and so far, it hadn't gone too well. Right off the bat, they had to abandon their carriage on the second day when they saw a Dragon swoop in and take it before unleashing fire over them. Before Twilight could stop it or Fluttershy could Stare it down, it flew off. This wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't been feeling the effects of the Western region weigh down on them heavily. Since the fifth day, Twilight and Rarity noticed that levitation and other spells that would normally be second-nature to them suddenly required much more focus and power, rendering their horns useless as they went further into the jungles. Similar to their own magical problems, Rainbow and Fluttershy found themselves unable to fly as fast or as high as they used to. At that point, the yellow pegasus had insisted that they turn around. Twilight, however, insisted that they would be fine and that they should keep going. She showed them that she had packed emergency runes that they could use if they were in a life-or-death situation, which would take them all the way back to Canterlot if they needed to leave. After reassuring their safety, Twilight had led them down further into the Western world, eager to see what was next. Oh, how naive she was then. Twilight watched the shadows around her as she tried to calm her breathing, feeling her chest pounding from her higher heart-rate. She tuned out Rainbow's snores and Rarity's whinnies as she peered into the darkness that surrounded their camp. Only barely, she could make out some kind of movement coming from the tall grass. Twilight reached out over the sleeping bags and nudged Fluttershy's shoulder. "Fluttershy," she whispered. The pegasus slowly woke up and stretched in her bag, a strap of her gown flowing down her shoulder. "Twilight?" she yawned. "Wha... what's going on?" "I don't know," Twilight said, "I just heard something in the grass and now I think I see something moving." Fluttershy blinked away her sleep and slowly sat up before getting to her hooves. "H-hello little critters out there," she called, "we're just passing through, trying to sleep right now. We're sorry if we disturbed you, but we need to-" A screech penetrated the air as a black figure leaped towards Fluttershy. "Get down!" Twilight shouted as she tackled Fluttershy onto the ground. The other girls screamed and scrambled awake as they looked around for the source of the sound. They all turned to see a pony-like shape crawling on all fours as it hissed at them. Twilight illuminated her horn and saw that it was covered in chipped black chitin and stared at them with hateful blue eyes. "Changeling!" she cried out. More screeches reverberated through the forest around them as more and more shapes launched from the shadows. Their numbers and surprise attack overwhelmed the barely waking ponies, and began to pin down the former Element Bearers. Rainbow and Applejack tried to fight back but soon had too many Changelings covering them to even move. Rarity and Pinkie were held down similarly, Twilight and Fluttershy following suit soon after. The Changelings above them began to cackle and chitter, smiling devilishly as they began to tie the blankets and sleeping bags around them to use as makeshift prison wraps. Once they were tied up, the former Bearers were lined up on their knees in a row, the Changelings ransacking their belongings and ripping apart their bags. "Chrysalis is sure to give us plentiful rations for your capture, ponies," one Changeling muttered. Twilight tried to retort with anything, but the nullifying nature of the West world bore down heavily through her senses, and she couldn't muster the will to blast them, and barely enough to make a muffled sound through her gag. "Heh heh heh... looks like you were unlucky enough to get in our way. Saves us the trouble of tracking the other Hive that's out here, though. Now we can go back to our own Hive and ready to take down Equestria without having to worry about-" "Clear to engage! Repeat, Clear to engage!" a metallic voice interrupted. Before anyone could figure out what was happening, streaks of lightning burst from the shadows and cut through the Changelings. Crackling streaks of electricity struck Changeling after Changeling, striking without remorse. Those that were hit violently twitched about while the remaining Changelings tried to figure out where the shots were coming from. "Shit! They found us! Get out o-" a shock struck him in the back of the head, sending him down without resistance. Twilight and the girls panicked internally as they threw themselves to the ground, praying that they would avoid the sudden onslaught of lightning. 'Had a contingent of Royal Guards come after them for safety? Twilight thought. 'How did they even get thunderclouds to work at this level without hitting the trees? What about the humidity? There weren't any clouds in the sky earlier, how did-' Her thoughts stopped when she felt a solid mass impact near her head. She turned her gaze up to see a group of figures closing in on the clearing. They wore massive suits of armor, clad in deep black with bright yellow outlines. The plates of what she assumed were steel were cleanly cut and seemed to be far too thin to fit over anypony's arms, almost as if they were molded into their limbs. Their legs were similar, being far too thin to be covering a leg. They hefted up a box-like object in their hands, taking out a brick and replacing it with another. It leveled the end of it at a Changeling that was trying to crawl away before unleashing a jolt of lightning. Whoever these ponies were, they had limbs that were made out of metal, and carried strange objects that let them precisely shoot lightning in non-lethal doses. She felt something grab her bindings and lift her to her hooves before she felt her restraints loosen and fall from her arms. She pulled the gag out of her mouth and spit out a few stray fabrics and backed up. These ponies (if she could call them that) appeared to be made out of metal entirely, the exceptions being their smooth manes. "Are you six alright?" one of them asked with static in his voice. The girls were too stunned to respond. They had just survived a Changeling attack and now were being confronted with something straight out of a science-fiction novel. "Ma'am, are you alright?" one of them asked Twilight. "Are any of you injured?" Twilight shook herself out of her stupor and forced herself to say something. "Metal... you... bu..." she managed to say before promptly fainting. "Twilight!" the other five shouted as she collapsed. One of the metal ponies grabbed her before she could fall and hefted her arm over his shoulder. "I got her. Someone contact the Gate Patrol, tell them we've got six unknown civilians in need of medical attention and thirty Chrysalis loyalists inbound for the Detention Center." One of them began to talk to itself quietly as the five ponies stared in fear of their robotic savants. "Alright, who the fuck are you? And why are you here?" One of the metal ponies stepped forward, its head breaking apart and releasing a faint hiss. The plates pulled back and the girls gasped in shock. Underneath the metal plating was the face of a Changeling with eyes similar to that of Chrysalis, only yellow instead of green. "We're the Lightning Bugs of the Morphos Hive." Chapter 2Rainbow and Applejack rushed ahead of their friends and put their fists up as they glared at the strange Changelings. "You freaks better give her back, now!" Rainbow said. The Changeling holding Twilight raised one of his arms up and slowly approached them. "Alright, take it easy," he said with a distorted voice. "You can carry your friend if you want to, we just want to make sure you're all okay." Rainbow roughly pulled Twilight's limp form out of the Changeling's metal grasp and jumped back as she hefted the alicorn over her shoulder. "Big mistake trying to take us on, bugs," Rainbow grunted. The Changeling that had revealed his face placed the strange device onto its back before holding his hands up in front of him, signalling his non-violent approach. "Miss, please just calm down," he said. "There's no need for any violence." "Like hay there ain't!" Applejack said as she stepped between him and Rainbow. "Y'all varmints jus' tried ta kill us!" "Ma'am, I assure you, we weren't going to harm you or your friends. We were tracking the ones that attacked you. Please, just follow us, an-" "Piss off, Changeling!" Rainbow spat. "We don't need your help and we don't want any excuses! Get out of here before we kick your flanks!" The metal Changelings looked at each other before the unmasked one sighed. "We apologize if we've frightened you in any way-" "Shut up and get out of here already!" Rainbow shouted. "If you go back the way you came, you'd die!" he yelled. "Don't lie to us! We've been traveling through this forest for ten days without-" "Because they were trailing you," he said, pointing to the unconscious Changelings. "If you go back now without anyone watching over you, you'd get mauled out there." Applejack clenched her fists as she got into a fighting stance as she saw one of the Changelings in the back raise their strange weapons. "Sergeant, we've got movement half a click Southeast, approaching fast," she said. "Crap. Listen, I don't know why you're so hostile towards us, but if you want to make it home, follow us." "Yeah, follow a Changeling to safety," Rainbow snorted. "Think I'd rather take my chances wi-" "RRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIII!!!" The ponies all jumped at the sound, Fluttershy flinging herself into Pinkie's side. "Think you can handle that without flying?" the Changeling asked. Rainbow glared at the Changeling before she nearly fell over from a tremor. The ground quaked as whatever was after them began to charge closer to their position. "I don't think we have room to argue!" Rarity said. "It's not friendly!" Fluttershy cried as she held on to Pinkie. "Quick, get over here!" the Changeling called. The trees beyond them began to break and fall in the wake of the looming beast that stalked towards them. "Oh, fuck!" Rainbow shouted as she and the girls ran for the Changelings. The mares huddled together between the metal-fused creatures and watched with baited breath as the unseen beast lumbered close to the edge of the clearing. The creature stood at nearly twenty meters on six legs that were covered in dark green scales, its body short and wide with massive spines darting its back. It glared down at them with four glowing red eyes as its maw opened to reveal four rows of razor-sharp teeth. "Civilians secured, evac now!" the unmasked Changeling called to no one. The girls prepared to meet their gruesome end as the beast charged at them, mouth agape. The next moment, however, happened like a blink. A blue energy surrounded the Changelings and ponies, almost a pillar from the sky above them, and everything around them became a blinding light. The next moment, they felt the ground give way as the air became far cooler. The five mares dropped into a heap as the Changelings landed on their mechanical legs. Rarity and Pinkie were the first two to recover, and they paused as they examined where they were. Gone was the thick brush of the forest, replaced instead by white metal walls and black seats that lined the walls. In the center of the room were four stretchers with strange blocks of metal next to them. The Changelings began to stock their strange weapons onto a rack which receded into the walls. "Need a hand?" a different Changeling asked, holding a hand out to Rarity. The alabaster mare examined the form of the armored Changeling, now able to see under the room's lights. His arms and legs were completely replaced with mechanical parts, pistons and rotating parts moving and whirring underneath stretches of green plates of steel that began to shift into a white surface. Rarity looked up at the Changeling to see that he was still offering his hand as well as a smile. This one's mane and eyes, however, were differently colored than the first one and seemed to reflect like a gorgeous sapphire. A faint blush staining her cheeks, Rarity accepted the hand and was gently pulled onto her hooves, where the Changeling dusted off her shoulders. "Sorry about that, lift-tech can be a bit jarring to civilians," he apologized as he backed up. Pinkie stood up and looked around with a worried expression as she helped Fluttershy up to her hooves as well. Rainbow groaned as she struggled to lift herself and Twilight's unconscious form while Applejack rolled onto her front and pushed off the ground. "What in tarnation was that?" "The monster or the teleportation?" the first Changeling asked. "Both." "We don't have a term for each specific type of animal that lives in the forest, but we call that one Nidhogg. And the teleportation, well, that's just our way of getting out of there." The female Changeling walked up to a door and hit it twice. "Let's get a move on! Boss wants us back before next shift!" Someone on the other side knocked back, and the girls shouted as they felt the ground beneath them move. "Might want to hang on," she commented. "Gonna be a bumpy ride."
Prologue20 Years Ago Within the depths of what Equestria considered the "Undiscovered West," lay a lone city, buried into the side of a massive cliff. Within the massive steel walls, worked thousands upon thousands of busy citizens. These were not ponies, no, they were Changelings that flew the flag of Queen Silk. The city of Morphos, and its flag of lightning. In its streets gathered the populace of the Changeling city, the insect-like equines crowding beneath the largest steel tower in the city, their Queen's Residence. Queen Silk smiled as she looked over the gathering citizens from her position. They waited as she held up a bundle of cloth in her arms, hoisting its contents over her people. "My subjects," she announced from her balcony, "today is a great day to celebrate! For I have ushered into our great city, and heir to my throne!" The screeching cheers of her people was enough to shake all of the buildings within their city's walls. Once the cheering died down, Queen Silk smiled down onto them. "I thank you all for your loyalty not only to our crown, but to our glorious city. Alongside the news of my heir, I am glad to say that starting today, we will no longer have to fear any shortage of power in the near future! Professor Forewing, if you would," she said, ushering forth a Changeling with a brown mane and tail. He straightened his lab coat and cleared his throat before speaking to the crowd below. "Citizens of Morphos, no longer will we have to worry about our mining crews losing their lights, nor do we have to worry if our hospitals can sustain themselves! We've discovered a more efficient means of powering our city centers and operations with these!" he said, motioning to the large black panels that hung atop the tower. "They are the Mark-III Radiation Convertors, powered by Solar Transformers! So long as the Sun above shines, our city will no longer have to worry about another 'love' shortage again!" The crowd cheered yet again as they savored the innovation and its impact that it would have over their society. Queen silk smiled warmly as she watched her son reached out towards the crowd, giggling and cooing as nymphs did. She couldn't be happier if she tried. \\\////// Present Day \\\////// Twilight inhaled deeply as she looked over the expanse of undiscovered land that stretched out over the horizon. She took in the scent of the uncharted lands before her and smiled as she exhaled, thinking about how she and her friends were about to trek where nopony had before! She might stumble into ancient ruins that could answer questions about alicorns that not even Celestia and Luna were aware of, or maybe even find a whole new civilization! "Hey, Twi! You ready or what?" Twilight looked beside her to find her friends waiting with a hefty carriage filled with luggage. "Consarnit, Rares," Applejack said, "we were supposed ta pack lightly!" "Applejack, have you even read half of what we should expect in these forests?" Rarity argued. "Two words, darling; Spider Rain! Literally raining spiders due to high wind speeds during tropical storms! I'm packing enough repellent to keep an entire army of those... guegh! Spiders, at bay, should we encounter such a scenario." "For pony's sake, ya even know how often that happens?" "Often enough that the explorers that dared to roam far enough West decided to name an entire peninsula 'Spider Bay'." "I'm sure they're not that bad, Rarity," Fluttershy countered. "Most of them don't even survive the fall, and those that do are too disoriented to try and hunt for anything. Besides, I'm sure that I can talk our way out of most situations if we end up finding any dangerous little critters." Rarity sighed as she pulled out a hand-fan, waving it upwards to cool herself. "Twi, come on!" Rainbow said, slouching against the carriage. "We're never going to find anything if we don't get a move on!" "Sorry girls," Twilight said, "but I just wanted to take it all in one more time. We're going to be exploring a region of Equestria that's been uncharted for nearly 400 years! Isn't this exciting!?" "Be more exciting when we actually get going, egghead," Rainbow snarked. Twilight huffed with a pout. "Alright then, let's go."
Chapter 1Twilight jolted upright as she heard something break a ways out from their camp. It had been ten whole days since she and her friends had began their journey West, and so far, it hadn't gone too well. Right off the bat, they had to abandon their carriage on the second day when they saw a Dragon swoop in and take it before unleashing fire over them. Before Twilight could stop it or Fluttershy could Stare it down, it flew off. This wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't been feeling the effects of the Western region weigh down on them heavily. Since the fifth day, Twilight and Rarity noticed that levitation and other spells that would normally be second-nature to them suddenly required much more focus and power, rendering their horns useless as they went further into the jungles. Similar to their own magical problems, Rainbow and Fluttershy found themselves unable to fly as fast or as high as they used to. At that point, the yellow pegasus had insisted that they turn around. Twilight, however, insisted that they would be fine and that they should keep going. She showed them that she had packed emergency runes that they could use if they were in a life-or-death situation, which would take them all the way back to Canterlot if they needed to leave. After reassuring their safety, Twilight had led them down further into the Western world, eager to see what was next. Oh, how naive she was then. Twilight watched the shadows around her as she tried to calm her breathing, feeling her chest pounding from her higher heart-rate. She tuned out Rainbow's snores and Rarity's whinnies as she peered into the darkness that surrounded their camp. Only barely, she could make out some kind of movement coming from the tall grass. Twilight reached out over the sleeping bags and nudged Fluttershy's shoulder. "Fluttershy," she whispered. The pegasus slowly woke up and stretched in her bag, a strap of her gown flowing down her shoulder. "Twilight?" she yawned. "Wha... what's going on?" "I don't know," Twilight said, "I just heard something in the grass and now I think I see something moving." Fluttershy blinked away her sleep and slowly sat up before getting to her hooves. "H-hello little critters out there," she called, "we're just passing through, trying to sleep right now. We're sorry if we disturbed you, but we need to-" A screech penetrated the air as a black figure leaped towards Fluttershy. "Get down!" Twilight shouted as she tackled Fluttershy onto the ground. The other girls screamed and scrambled awake as they looked around for the source of the sound. They all turned to see a pony-like shape crawling on all fours as it hissed at them. Twilight illuminated her horn and saw that it was covered in chipped black chitin and stared at them with hateful blue eyes. "Changeling!" she cried out. More screeches reverberated through the forest around them as more and more shapes launched from the shadows. Their numbers and surprise attack overwhelmed the barely waking ponies, and began to pin down the former Element Bearers. Rainbow and Applejack tried to fight back but soon had too many Changelings covering them to even move. Rarity and Pinkie were held down similarly, Twilight and Fluttershy following suit soon after. The Changelings above them began to cackle and chitter, smiling devilishly as they began to tie the blankets and sleeping bags around them to use as makeshift prison wraps. Once they were tied up, the former Bearers were lined up on their knees in a row, the Changelings ransacking their belongings and ripping apart their bags. "Chrysalis is sure to give us plentiful rations for your capture, ponies," one Changeling muttered. Twilight tried to retort with anything, but the nullifying nature of the West world bore down heavily through her senses, and she couldn't muster the will to blast them, and barely enough to make a muffled sound through her gag. "Heh heh heh... looks like you were unlucky enough to get in our way. Saves us the trouble of tracking the other Hive that's out here, though. Now we can go back to our own Hive and ready to take down Equestria without having to worry about-" "Clear to engage! Repeat, Clear to engage!" a metallic voice interrupted. Before anyone could figure out what was happening, streaks of lightning burst from the shadows and cut through the Changelings. Crackling streaks of electricity struck Changeling after Changeling, striking without remorse. Those that were hit violently twitched about while the remaining Changelings tried to figure out where the shots were coming from. "Shit! They found us! Get out o-" a shock struck him in the back of the head, sending him down without resistance. Twilight and the girls panicked internally as they threw themselves to the ground, praying that they would avoid the sudden onslaught of lightning. 'Had a contingent of Royal Guards come after them for safety? Twilight thought. 'How did they even get thunderclouds to work at this level without hitting the trees? What about the humidity? There weren't any clouds in the sky earlier, how did-' Her thoughts stopped when she felt a solid mass impact near her head. She turned her gaze up to see a group of figures closing in on the clearing. They wore massive suits of armor, clad in deep black with bright yellow outlines. The plates of what she assumed were steel were cleanly cut and seemed to be far too thin to fit over anypony's arms, almost as if they were molded into their limbs. Their legs were similar, being far too thin to be covering a leg. They hefted up a box-like object in their hands, taking out a brick and replacing it with another. It leveled the end of it at a Changeling that was trying to crawl away before unleashing a jolt of lightning. Whoever these ponies were, they had limbs that were made out of metal, and carried strange objects that let them precisely shoot lightning in non-lethal doses. She felt something grab her bindings and lift her to her hooves before she felt her restraints loosen and fall from her arms. She pulled the gag out of her mouth and spit out a few stray fabrics and backed up. These ponies (if she could call them that) appeared to be made out of metal entirely, the exceptions being their smooth manes. "Are you six alright?" one of them asked with static in his voice. The girls were too stunned to respond. They had just survived a Changeling attack and now were being confronted with something straight out of a science-fiction novel. "Ma'am, are you alright?" one of them asked Twilight. "Are any of you injured?" Twilight shook herself out of her stupor and forced herself to say something. "Metal... you... bu..." she managed to say before promptly fainting. "Twilight!" the other five shouted as she collapsed. One of the metal ponies grabbed her before she could fall and hefted her arm over his shoulder. "I got her. Someone contact the Gate Patrol, tell them we've got six unknown civilians in need of medical attention and thirty Chrysalis loyalists inbound for the Detention Center." One of them began to talk to itself quietly as the five ponies stared in fear of their robotic savants. "Alright, who the fuck are you? And why are you here?" One of the metal ponies stepped forward, its head breaking apart and releasing a faint hiss. The plates pulled back and the girls gasped in shock. Underneath the metal plating was the face of a Changeling with eyes similar to that of Chrysalis, only yellow instead of green. "We're the Lightning Bugs of the Morphos Hive."
Chapter 2Rainbow and Applejack rushed ahead of their friends and put their fists up as they glared at the strange Changelings. "You freaks better give her back, now!" Rainbow said. The Changeling holding Twilight raised one of his arms up and slowly approached them. "Alright, take it easy," he said with a distorted voice. "You can carry your friend if you want to, we just want to make sure you're all okay." Rainbow roughly pulled Twilight's limp form out of the Changeling's metal grasp and jumped back as she hefted the alicorn over her shoulder. "Big mistake trying to take us on, bugs," Rainbow grunted. The Changeling that had revealed his face placed the strange device onto its back before holding his hands up in front of him, signalling his non-violent approach. "Miss, please just calm down," he said. "There's no need for any violence." "Like hay there ain't!" Applejack said as she stepped between him and Rainbow. "Y'all varmints jus' tried ta kill us!" "Ma'am, I assure you, we weren't going to harm you or your friends. We were tracking the ones that attacked you. Please, just follow us, an-" "Piss off, Changeling!" Rainbow spat. "We don't need your help and we don't want any excuses! Get out of here before we kick your flanks!" The metal Changelings looked at each other before the unmasked one sighed. "We apologize if we've frightened you in any way-" "Shut up and get out of here already!" Rainbow shouted. "If you go back the way you came, you'd die!" he yelled. "Don't lie to us! We've been traveling through this forest for ten days without-" "Because they were trailing you," he said, pointing to the unconscious Changelings. "If you go back now without anyone watching over you, you'd get mauled out there." Applejack clenched her fists as she got into a fighting stance as she saw one of the Changelings in the back raise their strange weapons. "Sergeant, we've got movement half a click Southeast, approaching fast," she said. "Crap. Listen, I don't know why you're so hostile towards us, but if you want to make it home, follow us." "Yeah, follow a Changeling to safety," Rainbow snorted. "Think I'd rather take my chances wi-" "RRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIII!!!" The ponies all jumped at the sound, Fluttershy flinging herself into Pinkie's side. "Think you can handle that without flying?" the Changeling asked. Rainbow glared at the Changeling before she nearly fell over from a tremor. The ground quaked as whatever was after them began to charge closer to their position. "I don't think we have room to argue!" Rarity said. "It's not friendly!" Fluttershy cried as she held on to Pinkie. "Quick, get over here!" the Changeling called. The trees beyond them began to break and fall in the wake of the looming beast that stalked towards them. "Oh, fuck!" Rainbow shouted as she and the girls ran for the Changelings. The mares huddled together between the metal-fused creatures and watched with baited breath as the unseen beast lumbered close to the edge of the clearing. The creature stood at nearly twenty meters on six legs that were covered in dark green scales, its body short and wide with massive spines darting its back. It glared down at them with four glowing red eyes as its maw opened to reveal four rows of razor-sharp teeth. "Civilians secured, evac now!" the unmasked Changeling called to no one. The girls prepared to meet their gruesome end as the beast charged at them, mouth agape. The next moment, however, happened like a blink. A blue energy surrounded the Changelings and ponies, almost a pillar from the sky above them, and everything around them became a blinding light. The next moment, they felt the ground give way as the air became far cooler. The five mares dropped into a heap as the Changelings landed on their mechanical legs. Rarity and Pinkie were the first two to recover, and they paused as they examined where they were. Gone was the thick brush of the forest, replaced instead by white metal walls and black seats that lined the walls. In the center of the room were four stretchers with strange blocks of metal next to them. The Changelings began to stock their strange weapons onto a rack which receded into the walls. "Need a hand?" a different Changeling asked, holding a hand out to Rarity. The alabaster mare examined the form of the armored Changeling, now able to see under the room's lights. His arms and legs were completely replaced with mechanical parts, pistons and rotating parts moving and whirring underneath stretches of green plates of steel that began to shift into a white surface. Rarity looked up at the Changeling to see that he was still offering his hand as well as a smile. This one's mane and eyes, however, were differently colored than the first one and seemed to reflect like a gorgeous sapphire. A faint blush staining her cheeks, Rarity accepted the hand and was gently pulled onto her hooves, where the Changeling dusted off her shoulders. "Sorry about that, lift-tech can be a bit jarring to civilians," he apologized as he backed up. Pinkie stood up and looked around with a worried expression as she helped Fluttershy up to her hooves as well. Rainbow groaned as she struggled to lift herself and Twilight's unconscious form while Applejack rolled onto her front and pushed off the ground. "What in tarnation was that?" "The monster or the teleportation?" the first Changeling asked. "Both." "We don't have a term for each specific type of animal that lives in the forest, but we call that one Nidhogg. And the teleportation, well, that's just our way of getting out of there." The female Changeling walked up to a door and hit it twice. "Let's get a move on! Boss wants us back before next shift!" Someone on the other side knocked back, and the girls shouted as they felt the ground beneath them move. "Might want to hang on," she commented. "Gonna be a bumpy ride."
