A Near Miss

The next morning, Near Miss was the last of the three to stumble out of the caravan. It had been bitterly cold the previous night, below -10 Celestigrade, and Near had needed to get up a few times in the night to magically re-heat the liquid metal space heater. Outside, Spleens and Long Shot were waiting for her, the former bright and awake, the latter flatly fixing Near with an unending early-morning-stare.

Spleens had already unfolded their map and was excitedly wagging her thin, membranous tail by the time Near had sat down at the picnic table. "I was looking at the map and saw that in 35 kilotrots, this road passes right by the hive I'm from! Can we stop by so I can say hi to everyling?"

Near looked at Long who just shrugged. "I don't see why not, do you think they would let us spend the night?"

At this Long finally perked up, "If we have somewhere nice and warm to spend the night, then I'd be all for it," she said before looking at Spleens expectantly.

"I'm not certain, but I don't think it would be too much trouble to find a few spare beds," Spleens answered, suddenly somewhat less sure of herself.

"Good enough for me," Near said before pointing a hoof at Spleens, "It's your turn to pull today anyway."

Several hours later, they finally spotted the hive. Unlike Jackie's Holes, this hive was above ground, and brightly colored changelings could be seen buzzing about every which way, and it wasn't long before two of them, a large dark blue male and a smaller yellow-green female, made their way over to greet the newcomers.

"Spleens? Is that you?" The larger of the two changelings shouted as they approached the weary travelers.

"Langy!" Spleens called out as she jumped into the air and hug-slammed the approaching changeling, the two of them spinning around a few times before they finally let each other go and landed next to Near and Long.

Spleens flared her wings as she spun around to face Near and Long, "Gals, meet Islets of Langerhans, my best friend from when I was little."

"Spleens, it's been too long, I haven't seen you since the changeling reformation!" Exclaimed Langerhans as he briefly pranced in place before hug tackling Spleens again.

"Langy, these are my friends, Near Miss and Long Shot," Spleens said as she pointed a hoof at her friends in turn. "We're on a quest to deliver a magical artifact to Princess Twilight Sparkle's first student!"

At this point Near Miss prodded Spleens in the side and whispered into her ear, "Ask them if we can stay the night."

"Oh, Yeah," Spleens responded before facing the two changelings before her. "Do you have an inn or somewhere we could pay to stay the night indoors?"

Islets of Langerhans was about to respond when the green female changeling silenced him with a wing to his snout before proudly striding forward and bowing towards Spleens, "Ma'am, it would be our honor to accommodate you and your friends in anyway we can. Please allow me to introduce myself, I am Captain T. Lymphocytis, or T. Cell, if you like, Captain of the hive guard." She finished before standing back up from her bow.

At this point Langerhans cut in, "We all just call her Tessy, for short."

If looks could kill, Langerhans's children's children (had he ever had any children to start with) would have dropped dead.

Failing the ability to kill via sight, Tessy simply shouted, "Guards!"