Clipper's story

``` Clipper buzzed her way from the hive, her insect like wings flapping madly in the light breeze to carry her at speed to new and unexplored places. She was a changeling, a warped version of a pony with hard black chitin covering squishy insides and muscles that were working so very hard to drive her wings, which in turn drove her towards her destination

Where was she going? She had only a rough idea, she was a scout, light and built to be fast. Her job was to find patches of fruit or food and lay down a scent marker before carrying as much as she could back to the hive. So she was going wherever there was food.

She felt the cold wind trying to chill her through her hard casing as her wings drove her over the tops of the trees at breakneck speeds, she let her body do most of the work while her keen orange pupils searched for any food below.

Come to think of it, when was the last time she had seen a pony? It had not been for the longest of times. She knew she looked like a warped version of a pony, but how did she know what a pony looked like? Ponies would destroy her hive if they knew where it was, which was why they had built it so far from civilisation.

It was also why she was keeping low, which was also the reasons she clipped the top of a tree with a wing and was suddenly thrown off course, plummeting towards the ground at breakneck speeds that her wings had worked so hard to gain.

She crossed her hooves over her head, the chitin armour would hopefully provide enough protection to stop her splattering into paste. Her hooves had holes in them like all of her species, but they would not really make much of a difference to-

Her thoughts were thrown off when she smashed into a hedge, all that speed driving her deep into the hedge as branches scratched at her chitin armour. Her hooves protected her eyes, and the chitin protected the rest of her.

That was until she smashed into the ground beneath the hedge, making her rebound and get launched back out of the hedge, landing on her back on the top of the hedge, looking up at a bunch of berries.

Well, she had done her job. She flopped about, attempting to flip herself onto her hooves. She was a little sore, but did not appear to be too badly damaged. She looked around the small grove that she had landed in. It had a lot of different plants scattered around the grove, a lot of them appeared to be edible.

Even though she had crashed, she had still managed to do her job. She was so good at it. She flopped onto her back in the middle of the clearing. It might have seemed like a strange and random thing to do, but she had her reasons. She had a slightly thicker patch of orange chitin just behind her wings, it was kind of like a saddle, and it was used for placing scent markers and for putting out other scents to help other changelings identify her.

Once she was satisfied with how strong the scent was, she rolled to her feet. Scouts were good at navigation and were built to be jack-of-all-trades, able to survive in tough environments and fill in for jobs where other changelings were unavailable. Other changelings were more specialised to their jobs.

The problem with this was that the workers, while being strong, and able to repair or build everything a hive needed, were really not good at navigation. They needed to be guided directly to their destination using scent markers, and then needed to be guided back to the hive in the same fashion. They could carry far more then she could however.

But enough about them, now that she had laid out the marker, she could begin harvesting. She trotted over to the largest bunch of berries she could find, beginning to munch them down into a sweet tasting paste, before gulping it down.

She would eat as much as she was able, which was the fun part, then fly all the way back to the hive stuffed full of food, which was the not so fun part, before regurgitating it as a spacial paste made using a special gland. It was a lot of special really not fun stuff that really sucked.

There was a sudden rustle from behind her, distracting her from her thoughts and making every muscle in her body tense, her delicate fly-like wings hugging tight to her sides. Her eye slowly moved to scan the edge of her version, but it was not enough to see what had made the noise.

It could have been a timber wolf, here to tear her into tiny bits, or any number of other horrors that inhabited the Everfree forest where the hive was built. Well, if she was going to die, she would at least like to go down fighting. She turned suddenly, wings opening ready to carry her away if it turned out to be something too dangerous to fight.

She was ready for anything, but she was faced with something that managed to surprise even her. It had two emerald green eyes, gray fur, and… a mane and tail like darkest charcoal.

It was a male pony, a really thin, malnourished looking pony in a battered black top hat with bits of the cardboard beneath the fabric showing, and a long coat that had managed to keep its deep crimson colour despite the tattered state it was in, loose threads poking out everywhere and little rips and tears, mainly around the joins in the fabric.

She noticed all of this in the space of just a few seconds, her mouth hanging open and flapping uselessly as she stared at the pony. It looked back at her and sneezed, making her stumble backwards into a hedge in sudden shock, flopping about on her back as she attempted to get back on her hooves.

A pony! A pony here, right in front of her! What was she going to do? She could not let the pony get away back to the other ponies, they would surely search the whole forest and wipe out the hive.

The pony trotted over and sniffed between her legs suddenly, making her squeak and kick the pony in the face with both hind leg, making him stumble back with a whine. She jumped back to her hooves, blushing softly because he had sniffed her privates.

The pony had stumbled back a few feet, giving her room to decide what to do next. The pony just looked at her in a confused fashion, as if slightly shocked that she had kicked him. He looked down at the floor sadly, as if he was a puppy that had done something wrong and was unsure of what that was. It made her heart slowly sink in her chest.

Then the pony’s lip started to wobble slowly, before he let out a heart wrenching sob, tears beginning to roll down his cheeks as he looked up to her, his face looking so heart broken that it did just that, breaking her heart into a million pieces.

She moved over to the pony, shushing him slowly. There was no way she could stay mad at such a simple creature. She moved over and hugged him tightly, holding him close like a small nymph as he sobbed in her ear. She pat the pony’s back softly and kept shushing him. He slowly calmed down and stopped sobbing, one of his hooves moving out and holding her back.

She moved away from him slowly, petting his head. She really could not see this pony destroying her hive, but now he had seen a changeling in the forest he could go and warn the other ponies. They would be able to find the hive and destroy it. She had a niggling suspicion that she was being overly dramatic in order to bring the pony back to her hive, but she could not just leave him out here. There was far too many dangers to a creature like him.

Meanwhile, the pony was sniffing at her chitin in a confused fashion, clearly trying to make sense of what she was. She looked into those green eyes, and he stared into her orange ones. Then he suddenly retched and bent over, vomiting up a gross mix of berries and not-foods that even changelings could not digest.

She had of course leapt far out the way before this had happened, avoiding the vomit. She looked back up to the pony, who was looking unwell, staring at the food as if he did not understand why it had jumped from his mouth and made his tummy icky.

She knew if she left him, this pony would be dead within a few days, he clearly had no survival skills. She had to take him with her. He looked up to her, moving around the vomit to nuzzle at her neck. The breath currently smelt horrible, but she knew that he did not mean it.

“Hey, you wanna’ come with me boy?” She asked him in a voice one would use to speak to an animal. The pony looked up to her, his eyes shimmering out from under his top hat, as if he was trying extremely hardest to understand her words.

Finally, he reached up with a hoof and plucked the hat from his head, placing it in the inside of his coat. He then smiled up at her, as if approving of what she had just said. Clipper gave a comforting grin, flapping her still slightly sore wings and flying over to the pony, hooking all four of her hooves around him as she slowly begin to take off.

Her rear hoof was pressing against something warm, hard and slightly moist. She tried to pretend it was something else as her wings went into overdrive, lifting the pony from the ground and up through the treeline. Her wings buzzed softly as she carried him over the treetops, the pony staring in amazement as the floor got smaller and smaller, his hooves softly kicking against the air.

His little friend down below seemed to enjoy it to, throbbing happily against her hoof as a dark blush overtook her face. Just ignore it. Just focus on something else. He was beginning to softly buck against her hooves, whimpering happily.

She really did not want to adjust her grip on him for fear of sending him plummeting to the ground beneath, so she tried to bare with it, trying not to hear those happy whimpers or feel the bucking of his hips. As they approached the hive, she realised that his whimpering, and just the fact that he was here was starting to draw attention. Changelings buzzing about and watching from a distance, muttering amongst themselves.

The changeling hivemind was not enough to transmit orders over, but it could put out general feelings, and she felt as it shifted from its normal happy state, to one of unease. As she did finally approach the black form of her hive, two guards flew up to meet her.

Guards were the biggest, strongest and meanest changelings in the hive, and also one of the least common. They had much thicker muscle and chitin then a stranded changeling, as well as rows of razor sharp teeth long enough to punch through the thickest chitin.

“What are you doing with that pony?” The right guard hissed, fixing her a glare. “Ponies are dangerous. Give him to us and we will dispatch him.” The left guard growled threateningly. Clipper knew this technique, they were just trying to scare her by talking like that and using threatening tones.

“I captured this pony. He is my prisoner and I plan to take him with me.” Clipper responded, keeping a firm look on her face as Hatter squirmed softly in her hooves, looking uncomfortably at the two guards like he knew that he had done a bad thing, but did not understand what that bad thing was.

The two guards looked to each other, then back to her. “Take him to see the queen.” They said, before flitting away to deal with their other duties.

Then the stallion stopped squirming and did something that made even her jump and almost drop him, he spoke, his voice like silk and sand paper “Scary bad ponies! Go ‘way!”

The one good thing about this, was the fact that the ‘scary bad ponies’ had managed to frighten him enough that that erection went away, retreating into its sheath as if hiding from the guards. She drifted down, dropping him onto an outcrop as she readjusted her grip, speaking down to the stallion.

“You need to be good now, we are going to see a…” She had to put this in words he could understand, “We are going to see an important scary pony, you need to be a good pony for me, OK?” She said softly. The stallion blinked slowly, then nodded “Hatter be good for nice pony!” He said, grinning up at her as she went to talk off again.

Hatter, huh? Clipper always thought pony’s names were weird, but she guessed that made sense considering that he had a hat. She picked him up, moving through the hive slowly. The hive was built out of a dark black materiel, lined with a glowing orange gunk that only builder could make. It needed to be replaced every few weeks to keep the hive lit up, so the builder changelings were busy working on it, not even caring as she carried the pony through the middle of them.

The layout would have confused anybody else that went into the hive, but she could tell where she was going from the scent marks that had been laid out, unique only to her hive. The scent of her queen was easy to pick out, working down the winding tunnels as Hatter looked around in amazement, smiling at the pretty channellings that buzzed about, doing the various important jobs that needed doing.

Soon she landed in the central hive, putting Hatter down and nuzzling his neck to keep him calm. There was a lot of guards here, and the ceiling was higher then any other room, dozens of tunnels leading into it to store eggs. In most hives, the queen was the only one that laid eggs. In her species however, everyone was capable of making eggs, other then the workers. The Queen was the only one who could make those, and she could lay far more eggs then anyone else in the hive, and as such, she was still a very important part of the hive.

She and Hatter moved down the middle of the room, pilers went up to the ceiling, coated in the softly glowing gunk. In between these, the guards stood, about two dozen of them, and most of them cast dark looks towards Clipper and Hatter. She was not bothered by this, but Hatter had his head down low and was sticking close to her, his ears flopped down flat against his head. His horn glowed pulling his hat from his jacket, this caused every guard in the room to hiss, showing their fangs and stepping threateningly towards him, in case it was some dangerous pony weapon.

He squealed in shock, dropping the hat and clinging tight to her leg, shaking in fear. Her queen, who was sat on a glowing orange throne at the end of the room, looked towards them. She looked mildly annoyed, but not at them. “I do not think this pony is a threat, and if he is, he is better assassin then you are going to be able to beat. Back off.” The guards tossed a glance to her, then backed off to their posts.

The queen begin to flap her bug-like wings, she was a much bigger pony then her or Hatter, easily twice as big and twice as long as them. As such, it was hard for her to fly gracefully, but she managed it, flitting up and flying over to meet them halfway to her throne. She landed on the floor and smiled, showing her fangs, yet it did not look threatening.

She held out a large hoof that was filled with holes, speaking in a sweet voice “Come out, I don’t want to hurt you little one.” Hatter shrank back a little more, then realised that this was a nice pony. He slowly stepped out and took her hoof, smiling softly. “That’s it, you are a very handsome pony you know that?” She said, before turning towards Clipper “I don’t see a problem with him staying here, although I detect he is under the effects of a memory wiping spell, that could wear off, so just promise you will keep an eye on him,” She regally spoke.

Clipper nodded “Of course I will! And a memory spell? His own kind did this to him?” Her Queen nodded slowly, far more regally then Clipper “Most likely, I do want the other changelings to study him, we could learn a lot from him.” She gave a further nod, “Of course!” Before giving a hiss “Hatter! Bad, stop that!” She said, the Queen looking back to find Hatter was humping her leg rapidly, having taken quite the fancy to it.

Instead of getting angry, her face creased up in laughter, throwing her head back to send it echoing around the room as she softly tried to pull her leg free from his grasp. ```