Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth slightly, trying to keep calm. Her chest felt like it was on fire though, and the two ponies that were carrying her weren't making it any easier. Mentally, she was cursing herself for getting so careless. Sure, adjusting her armour in a moment of calm always seemed like a good idea at the time, but rushing to get it on had left her exposed and her mobility impaired, something that that bulky changeling had managed to take advantage of. If Aurora hadn't been there...The thought was shaken from her mind as she was set down on her right side, the feeling of hooves working at removing her armour and helmet coming through.

Something was wrong about all this. She'd experienced more than her fair share of major injuries from her adventures both as an Element of Harmony and a solider, she knew what most of them tended to feel like. She could feel how far the bite had gone into her chest, lucky that for the force behind it, the position meant the fangs had been stopped by her ribs. Her lungs and heart were unaffected too. By all rights, pain should have been all there was. Yet she was uncomfortably warm, her head felt like it wasn't sitting still for a moment and her wounds were unbearably itchy. Everything was dark around her too, though that was down to keeping her eyes clenched shut. As her helmet was removed and the stale, but welcome feeling of air surrounded her head again, she cracked an eye open to check was happening.

Her vision swam for several seconds, a figure hovering over her. Rainbow blinked several times and opened her other eye, just about able to make out Aurora over her, a look of concern on his face. He was saying something to her but her ears didn't seem to be working fast enough to hear it clearly. The feeling of being carefully pulled from her armour was welcome too, letting her legs twitch as much as they needed to, though she couldn't see who was responsible for that. Aurora looked behind him and said something else, his voice starting to come through now.

"-ot good. I think there's more than the bite."

"Ok. Try not to panic, Aurora. Let me do my work and she'll be fine."

That was Healing Wave's voice. Almost as soon as Rainbow realised that, the mare herself came into view. She hoped, she couldn't really tell with both armour-clad unicorns in view and her head spinning. Rainbow tried to relax as she was examined, though it was still hard to think straight. She could feel something moving on her rear left leg and raised her head to look. Expecting to see a hoof of one of the others there, what she actually saw froze her blood.

Sitting halfway up her hind leg was a changeling, approximately the size of a lemon. Amazingly, or terrifyingly, the size wasn't the most distinctive thing about it. It lacked the usual four legs attached to the underside of its body like its kind typically had, instead sporting three sets of legs that protruded from the sides of its and had a joint to angle downwards. The normally dreary tail was gone too, replaced by a series of seven bulbous segments that raised up and curled over its back, ending in a small white point. The whole thing looked like a freakish cross between a changeling and a scorpion, one that was aimlessly skittering around on her leg.

Rainbow gasped loudly and used the strength she could still feel to wave at the hybrid. It scattered out of her reach and reappeared on her back. Before she could react, another one appeared on her stomach, hissing at the first one. She tensed further at feeling another on her head and finally couldn't take anymore, franticly using the rest of her focus to try and swat them away. She couldn't think why the others weren't helping her with them. A small part of her could only wonder what they were even thinking about everything that had happened in the past few minutes...

"What the hell happened out there?" Cipher asked as he got to his hooves, watching Aurora and Bulwark carrying Rainbow Dash into their makeshift camp. Flash Sentry was already waking Healing Wave and the commotion was bringing Water Flare round as well. Things had escalated fast.

"We got jumped," Aurora started to explain as he lowered his friend down and started to work on opening up her armour fully, hoping to get the third layer off to make things easier. "Changelings, two of them. We...I...I killed one of them when it attacked Rainbow, the other fled before I could do anything."

"That's worrying, but it'll have to wait. Stable!" Bulwark glanced up to check Wave was coming as he worked on getting Rainbow's helmet off for her. As soon as he had the mouthplate undone he was able to pull the helmet off and moved to hold the armour in place as Aurora carefully lifted Rainbow from it, leaving her in just the lower two layers for now. Getting her out of those two layers was more complicated in this position so they would have to make do for now.

"Ok, I'm here. How bad is it?" Wave asked as she reached them, taking her helmet off so she could see clearly. Aurora swallowed his nerves again and checked Rainbow's wounds. Her eyes were open again but she looked very disorientated. Her body was twitching every so often. The two puncture wounds were the worst of it though, still bleeding, though the rate had slowed somewhat. They shouldn't be doing this much to her though, at least he thought so with his limited medical knowledge.

"It's not good, I think there's more than the bite." He replied, struggling to keep his voice level as he opened Wave's bags and let her focus on examining Rainbow while he got her supplies out.

"Okay. Try not to panic, Aurora. Let me do my work and she'll be fine." She replied, trying to sound reassuring as she picked her supplies up in her magic and started on trying to check within the bites and stop the bleeding first.

Aurora nodded, looking down at Rainbow again. Worryingly, she seemed to be getting worse. As Bulwark moved round to give Wave some space, his leg brushed against the stricken mare's. Rainbow raised her head at that and gave a loud gasp. Everypony watched as she brought her hoof up and scratched at the spot he'd touched, her breathing getting heavier. After a few seconds she tensed up completely and started franticly waving her hoof over her stomach and back.

"Wh-what's going on?" Flare asked with deep concern, leaning back slightly.

"There's something still in the wound," Wave commented, gritting her teeth slightly as Rainbow's flailing got worse. "I need your help here, hold her down!"

"What?" Aurora asked in surprise, looking down at her friend.

"Whatever's in there needs to come out completely, that's going to be hard enough when she's completely still. Now, on her back and everypony help me here!"

Everypony immediately came in to help as Rainbow was moved onto her back. Aurora held her head in place, Cipher kept her front left leg down, Flash her front right. Bulwark took both hind legs while Flare secured her lower body and wings in place, leaving Wave free to keep working. Completely pinned in place, Rainbow's eyes shot about in panic, a stressed cry escaping her lips. The fact it was a cry of fear rather than pain caused a few shared looks of concern between the others, but they had no idea what was going through her head.

For Rainbow Dash, things couldn't be worse. She couldn't focus, couldn't really see with all the shadows around her, could barely breathe through the intensity of her fears, and those scorpiling things were still clambering on her. More of them had appeared now, a half dozen of them snapping at each other or exploring the confines of her body. One of them had clambered up on her head and stopped in place, its tail lowered to the point that she could feel the stinger brushing against her cheek. Her inability to move now was the worst part, the sense of helplessness on top of all the other symptoms was close to crushing even her resilient willpower.

"Get them off!" She gasped, any further comments being halted as a fresh fire was lit within her chest at the same time as Wave's horn lit up, forcing her to bite her lip in an attempt to stop any further cries.

"We can't," Aurora replied, leaning over Rainbow and looking her in the eye. "Just a minute longer and it'll stop, I promise."

Nothing else was said between them, Rainbow quivering in place, not believing his words as her eyes went to Healing Wave. The medic was completely focused on her work for now, the end of her tongue poking out the right corner of her mouth. Her eyes narrowed for several seconds before the pain in Rainbow's chest spiked to a new high. It wasn't quite the same as having her cutie mark removed, nothing matched the feeling of her very essence being torn apart, but this sensation was a close second. As bad as it was, it only lasted for a few moments before she felt a sense of freezing calm wash over her.

"Extraction complete," Wave said as she lifted a pea-sized orb of...something, out of the left fang wound with her magic and placed it behind her. "Just hold a few more seconds while I close her up."

"Guys...?" Rainbow asked through gritted teeth, the shock of the removal not being helped by the familiar stinging sensation of healing magic at work. "Why can't you see them?"

"What? See what?" Water Flare asked from her position,sounding rather antsy at having to watch a pony she respected so much suffering like that.

"The scorpion things."

"Hmmm, hallucinations. Possibly a side effect, it's not like anypony has been able to test it before," Wave commented as she finished with her magic, currently placing patches of gauze over the wounds and taping them down. "Okay, you can let go. Thanks everypony."

"Well done, Stable," Cipher said as he let go of Rainbow's leg, the others doing the same with their body parts. "What'd you recommend now?"

"Given what I know from this, fluids and rest more than anything. We'll see how she's feeling after she gets some sleep."

With that decided, Flash and Flare carefully carried Rainbow to the back of their encampment and started on making sure she was able to get some water in her. The others relaxed slightly in the moment, seeing that their teammate wasn't in danger anymore. Rainbow's chest was a mess and likely to be sore for some time, but all of them had the feeling that she would be alright with time. Wave picked up the small orb she had recovered and studied it in her magic for several seconds. It looked like some kind of mucus, a sickly green in colour and darkened slightly by the blood on it.

"Changeling venom?" Bulwark commented as he saw it properly for the first time. "Very adhesive and used to make their containment pods...Soul, was there any sign of it on the changelings fangs when you were fighting?"

"No, they were completely clean," Aurora replied after a moment's thought, his ears folding back slightly as he took a calming breath. "I did take it by surprise after it had bitten her though, maybe it injected it by accident then."

"Huh, I'd always wondered how they made the goo," Cipher added. "I'm even more impressed you managed to get it out in one piece."

"I'm more worried about its effects," Wave looked back at Rainbow, who by now was dropping into an exhausted sleep. "Nothing in the Medical Corps records suggests that we've ever seen how the goo might react inside a pony. It's mere presence seemed to be causing fever symptoms. The hallucinations were what worried me the most though, for a pony like her to be terrified like that...I'll keep a close watch on her."

"So, what now, sir?" Bulwark asked Cipher, who looked over at the others for a moment before shaking his head slightly.

"For now, we hunker down, wait for Crash to wake up and see what her condition is then. If she's fit to move, we're pulling out of the mountain and Soul calls for extraction. We've seen enough to know the changelings are here. Alright team, settle in and stay on guard."

The next few hours passed with a sense of unending tension. Most of the team stayed on guard, with Healing Wave watching over Rainbow Dash and the other five rotating out to rest one by one. None of them knew exactly how long they were waiting, silently awaiting news one way or the other. Eventually, the sounds of a stirring pegasus drew their attention, Wave perking up as she watched Rainbow awaken. All things considered, she looked in better condition than many ponies would in such a scenario.

"I'd have been very annoyed if you'd died on me," Wave told Rainbow, a gentle smirk on her face as she checked the gauze patches. "How're you feeling?"

"Like I got smacked in chest by a minotaur." Rainbow replied, looking down to see food had already been readied for her. The sight was very welcome and she made a start on it.

"Well, glad to see it hasn't affected your appetite. Now this might sound weird but, do you see any scorpions?"

"I...No. I don't actually feel as bad as I should either."

"Fascinating, I'll have to make notes on this for study in Canterlot." Wave commented as she took the goo out her bag and showed it to Rainbow, explaining what it had done to her.

The others began to relax as they heard the news and went over to see for themselves, leaving Flash Sentry and Aurora on guard. Though things were calmer now, the unicorn didn't seem to be any more at ease. He kept shifting in place and tapping his hoof on the ground. After a few minutes of this, Flash looked over and put a hoof on his shoulder.

"The first one's always the worst, especially when it's a sapient being." He said gently, snapping Aurora back to focus.

"First what's the what?" He asked quickly, looking at the more experienced pegasus.

"Everypony goes through the same thing the first time they have to kill. They react differently too. Some are capable of bearing the weight it brings down on them, others just collapse under the feeling. Your reaction, it's completely normal to feel guilt."

"I just, think about what could have happened differently. What ponies will think, the son of the princess of love killing in anger."

"I'm pretty sure I know why you acted how you did," Flash looked back at Rainbow Dash, who by now was seeing how steady she was on her hooves. From the looks of it, she was actually doing well. "Having such motivation to protect your friends from danger, it's a good thing to have."

Aurora nodded, looking round to reply when he stopped. His ears twitched and he looked toward the tunnels deeper into the mountain. Everypony else slowly did the same. They all silently hoped that sound wasn't coming closer, but there was no mistaking it. The buzz of changeling wings.

Lots of them.

Author's Note

It's Sunday where I am, so technically I'm not breaking my schedule.