Bittersweet Legacy

The door closed behind the silver unicorn, the morning light shining off her tightly bound mane and tail, though it glittered off the morning dew of the plants under the window of the apartment complex where she lodged.

She took a moment to inhale the scent of the new day as a cool breeze lifted a stray strand of hair from her eyes of a rare maroon color set behind framed glasses of the same color. She blinked slowly before she turned, a small bag of papers hefted in an aura of magic coming from her horn moving with her body.

The sun had already risen yet other ponies were barely even awake yet, mostly the market stalls would only have just the traders setting up for the day. She pointedly circumvented a puddle from the previous nights rainfall as she made her way down the cobbled path. Short, trimmed bushes with yellow flowers beginning to awaken ran along nestled at the edge of the path.

“Ah, Wea, good morning to you.” Came a voice as she approached the first staller.

“Good morning, Applecore,” came her response, allowing her eyes to linger on one of the apples in a barrel of cold rainwater.

With a chuckle, the tan Earth pony tossed an apple her way, with nary a drop left on it.

It was caught and enveloped in a radiant burst of magic before being floated over for a juicy and crisp bite was taken by Wea as she focused continuing on her path. Applecore turned with a beaming smile, thinking he had finally worn her down, only to spot the bit of money on his stand. He shook his head, thinking back and never once noticing her leave the coin for payment. With a shrug and a final glimpse at the rear of the pony he returned to his work.

“Ah, and then he says to me, ‘Naw, but your sister certainly screamed my name last night.’”

“Oof, what happened?” The short and thin pony asked as he adjusted his sailors cap. He and the minotaur had taken a break after having unloaded the vessel and his new companion had decided to regale him with a story that had him blushing faintly at this recent revelation.

“Why I punched him and said, ‘Not as loud as yer mother did ya small,”

“Clover!” Barked a feminine voice.

Before the sailor pony knew it, his companion had nearly yelped in fear and jumped to his feet faster than the sailor pony had been aware of.

“Yes, Miss Shekel?”

“Why are you not working?”

“I beg your pardon, Miss; I was just taking a short break since my new friend and I here already finished unloading the boat.” The minotaur fretted under the level gaze of the unicorn pony.

The sailor, Salt Peter, raised a brow as he watched his formerly brazen companion fret before such a small pony with strange maroon eyes staring coldly behind a pair of equally colored glasses.

Slowly her head turned toward the stacks of wooden crates and a few bags, before she turned back.

“See to it that your break does not exceed the equestrian law. And please be sure to bring those bags in first, I don’t want any water from last nights rain to ruin our precious cargo.”

“Y-Yes Miss, right away.” He said before turning and trudging over to the bags and hefting them up. He turned about to speak when he caught Salt Peter waltzing up to Wea Shekel. “Oh no,” was all he could utter to himself before the pony appeared to whisper something in her ear.

A flick of said ear and a slight frown at the corner of her mouth was the only movement he caught before Wea sent Salt Peter backwards, head over tail.

“Ow, what was that for?” He asked rubbing his backside.

“There will be none of that kind of talk here. We may be in a different continent than Equestria, but this is still an Equestrian Port, and thus her laws are to still be upheld.”

Clover moved to silence Salt Peter before he could make things worse, “I beg your pardon Miss, Salt Peter isn’t originally from Equestria. Oh, and before I further forget, you have a visitor from the mainland.”

She inquired tersely, only for Clover to point to the currently docked ship.

At that moment, as if summoned by the minotaur, a strange ash colored pony appeared at the ships gangplank and glanced around, a similar look upon his face much like that of Wea. A look that seemed to say they had no time for anyone else.

There was a brief unnoticed glimmer in the other ponies’ eyes before Wea looked back and fished a piece of paper out of her bag. “I had feared as much. Please see to it that Ravenclaw receives this, I have urgent business to attend to.”

“Yes miss.”

The door shut, but before the Ash colored pony could speak, he was quickly motioned to remain silent.

Wea moved over to a small closet and removed a false bottom before taking out a small dark looking candle and set it in the middle of the room and lit it with a spark of magic.

Instantly they were surrounded by a purple hazy ball of magic.

“Ah, of course, precautions that don’t require use of your own magic consumption.” The Ash pony reasoned.

“What is Queen Nepidae’s command?”

“There is something she has come to seek and wishes you to appraise it. If found worthy, you are to shape it.”

“What?” Wea asked as the Ash colored pony stuck a hoof against the wall of the field, they were in. There was a brief acrid smell as his hoof turned black, a portion of his disguise fell.

“Hmm, this seems to hold a way of weakening our magic as much as theirs.” He noted.

Shaking her head, the unicorn dropped her disguise of the silver and gold pony to reveal the black chitinous changeling.

“I do not understand the Queens orders.”

“Hmm, and you were said to be the brightest infiltrator she had.” He said dryly, as if offering up disapproval.

He moved to step around the smaller changeling, his own pony disguise dropping, before reigniting to show the disguise she just had seconds ago.

“You,” he, or now she began to explain, “are to return to the nest. There has been something that has been on the Queen’s mind as of late. A new type of creature she wishes to… Well that part doesn’t matter to you as you will soon find out.” The disguised changeling coaxed, the voice and mannerisms becoming uncanny.

The only thing Skitter could tell was off was a feeling of unease and something almost sinister from this new changeling.

At any rate, she had her new orders, as she was obviously being removed from this front and repositioned back to the hive.

“Have I gained the Queen’s ire?” Skitter inquired.

“Oh, far from it, this is a task which she hopes for you to truly prove yourself with.” Wea Shekel explained as she blew out the candle.

With a quick gasp, Skitter changed herself into the Ash colored stallion. She took a breath before focusing again, if she slipped even for a second then her disguise would falter.

Her generation of changeling wasn’t supposed to be advanced enough to use gender opposite of their own born but skitter had been an exception. Something the Queen saw as useful and trained her for infiltration. Now, she was about to head home.

Some small part of her reveled in being a part of the hive again, as she missed the sound of the drones and the commands of the Queen in her mind, yet a smaller part that seemed to grow with each heartbeat seemed to be filled with something she was unfamiliar with.

In her disguise, Skitter made her way back to the docks and to the boat, avoiding as many passersby as she could until she felt safe heading back to her home.