A Change in Strategy

Bellum cried out in pain as she was launched across the small training room. She felt the chitin of her leg crunch beneath her as she landed wrong and tumbled onto the floor.

A disappointed sigh echoed from the other side of the hall, "Seems initial strength values are even less than we'd hoped for..."

Bellum winced as she forced herself to her hooves, her front right leg ached as she limped on it.

She stood in a square box, about twenty feet on all sides. At the far end from her stood a gaggle of Automi, as well as her current tutor. She'd already had many tutors, and there was still much to learn. This one was Spymaster Leer, recently returned from scouting out her alibi. He had been assigned to teach her to defend herself out while in the field. So far all she felt like she was learning was how to get her flank kicked in any given scenario.

To his credit, Spymaster Leer, who was not a large changeling by any standard, turned to the scientist who had made the remark and stared at the being until they quietly left the room in discomfort.

He turned back. Leer was missing an eye, and instead the hollow socket was filled with a magical globe of green fire. Apparently he usually just wore a patch, but today he wanted to set an example.

"Bellum," he said, his scratchy voice carrying easily to her, "again."

The young changeling gritted her teeth. Her Love reserves were running dangerously low already, but she knew that Leer would not let her rest until she'd used everything she had. She had been surprised with him when their lessons had started. He did not want to make her a great warrior, nor did he want her to earn renown as a great assassin.

"The only thing you need to do," he had said to her when they first met, "Is escape. Escape, survive, and lie. Those are your three commandments while on mission. If you live, you succeed. You only sacrifice your life if there is no other way."

Now, he did the part she hated most. He Changed. His form shifted, melding and expanding until he was a large red unicorn, dressed in the regalia of the Canterlot Guard. Leer leveled a shining white and gold spear at her, shouting, "Halt! Trespasser!"

Bellum hated this lesson. She hated Leer for making her do this in public, for exposing her failures for all the other Automi to record and study. How was she even supposed to-

Breathe, she told herself, and she focused on the guard before her.

"P-please, sir!" She cried plaintively, "I think my leg is broken! Help!"

She watched the chromatic bubble around Leer shift and change, mutable as he was. He hid his true emotions incredibly well, but those of his face were easy to read. The guard was worried. He did not know what she was, she could see that in his eyes.

Escape, she mused as she began to limp forward, tears streaming down her face and her body wracked with sobs, how do I escape?

What else was he telling her? What had she missed in the last encounter with this guard? She-

The guardspony lunged at her, thrusting the spear forward with immaculate precision. He poked her right in the leg, above the hoof.

"OW!" She yelped, jumping back, "Son of a larva-sucking, mud chewing-"

"And, you're dead," Leer said, morphing back to his usual chitinous self, "you want to take a break, kiddo?"

Kiddo, she snorted to herself, his time with the ponies has made him go native.

It is foolish to deny his wisdom, a voice spoke in her head. The voice of her Creator, whom the others all called Proxima Chitis, after all, you must go as native as any of us ever have if you are to survive this mission.

"Yes ma'am," Bellum muttered under her breath. Then she sighed, still favoring her injured leg. She looked back up at Leer, "One more time. I want to see if I can figure him out."

Leer looked skeptical, but nodded and Changed again. That same damned guard that she'd been fighting all day. If she ever saw this stallion once she was outside the Hive...

She circled him from a distance, taking in every piece of information she could about him. He smelled clean, no trace of drugs or alcohol, so his senses were sharp and keen. He was on high alert, having seen her outside her disguise. He was... he was standing weird.

Yes, she thought she had imagined it but the crimson pony stood awkwardly, like he was trying to... to protect the automi.

It clicked. Bellum bounded forward, her hooves scraping the stone with the force she put into her leap. That seemed to take Leer genuinely by surprise, and he braced with the butt of his spear planted firmly into the ground. Her eyes never left his as her wings shot out, changing her trajectory mid-flight, and causing her to bowl right into an Automi that had stepped a little too close to get a better view of the fight.

The scientist squawked as the smaller Bellum wrapped an iron hard leg around his throat, taking him to the ground and positioning him between her and the guard.

"If I see one spark out of that horn," she snarled, "he dies."

Apparently her act was convincing. A lot of the Automi around her backed up a few paces, and she could taste, smell, and see their Fear radiating around them.

Leer smiled, dropping the guise, "Very well done, Bellum. You've learned how to take a hostage."

She smiled back at her teacher, heart brimming with pride at his praise.

The automi she was holding tapped her foreleg, "Um... can I get up, please?"

Bellum sat in her room, writing in her journal. Her Creator had told her to keep a journal, and said it was the most precious thing one could own. Well, Bellum didn't own much, so she intended for all of her things to be precious.

The room was nice, by changeling standards. A fairly large sleeping alcove, a desk for writing, a training dummy, some rocks to lift. No decorations of course, but there were hardly any in the whole Hive. She was being taught that, too. Decorations and fashion, frivolous pony things.

Changelings have no need for frivolity! she thought patriotically, even though she still remembered how artfully her birthing chamber had been crafted by the Builders from long ago.

There was a soft knock on the door, and Bellum knew it was her Creator on the other side.

"Come in!" she said, and the door creaked open.

Proxima Chitis entered the room, ducking to fit in the small doorway, and was followed in by a dazed looking pony being led on a chain. The poor creature was practically radiating Love and nothing else. It wasn't the pure kind of Love, not like the kind ponies gave to each other, but it was enough to satisfy the appetite of an Automi.

Chitis smiled at her creation, sitting down across the small writing table from Bellum and attaching the Love harvester's chain to a niche in the wall.

"Hello, my gorgeous little experiment! How was training today?"

Bellum looked at Chitis flatly, "You literally talked into my head during it."

Chitis did not choose to reply to this comment, and instead looked at Bellum expectantly.

Bellum smiled, and said, "Leer taught me how to take hostages today!"

Chitis arched an eyebrow, "Really? And how did he teach you that?"

Bellum blinked. This was not one of the questions she had been asked before on previous days. What was this? Another test? Her eyes immediately scanned the room for any hidden assailants.

"Why do you ask?" she replied carefully, getting up from the table as if to fetch some water from a naturally pooling basin in the corner of the room.

"Because," Chitis said, watching as Bellum went over to the watering hole, "often the way the lesson is taught is as important as the lesson itself."

Bellum relaxed. That was the Chitis she knew. Leer wouldn't have made something like that up, he didn't know Chitis well enough to copy her mannerisms so precisely. Still, the paranoia that she wasn't actually talking to her Creator was hard to ignore.

Bellum sat back down and took a big gulp from her stone mug, "Well, he played the role of a guard," she began, "he had a weapon, I didn't, so overpowering him wasn't an option. He was a unicorn, so magic was basically off the table, and he was standing so that it would look like he was protecting the scientists."

"And what did you do?" Chitis asked, taking a sip from the harvester. The Love he gave off had an acrid tang to it, but one could ignore that. Especially when hungry enough.

Bellum did likewise, allowing the warm sensation to fill her, clearing her mind and erasing some of her fatigue, "Well... I made him think I was still attacking him head-on. He thought I was making a mistake, but I did the right thing."

"And how did you know it was the right thing to do?" Chitis asked pointedly. There was something she was getting at, here.

"I... I uh..." Bellum thought hard, but she couldn't grasp what her mentor was getting at, "I don't know. It just was."

Chitis smiled, "That's alright. You should think on it, though. You will need it on your mission."

Bellum quirked her head, "Why?"

Taking another sip of the harvester, who shuddered blissfully in the corner, Chitis replied, "Leer has a... unique view of the world. To him, everyone is an enemy, and he treats each being he encounters as a threat until he knows fully what they are capable of. He has planned many ways to eliminate you, me, and perhaps even the Queen. It is what makes him so good at his job."

Bellum blinked, "But... you and the Queen created me."

Chitis' eyes narrowed at her young experiment, "And it is from your Creators that you should always expect the greatest betrayals."