"Rarity, How much longer do we have to be in here? I-It's still scary," Fluttershy begged for Rarity to go back home.
"I'm sorry Fluttershy, but you were the only one that said they didn't have anything going on, and I really do need your help," Rarity explains, waning through the plants and trees, carefully looking at each to not step on anything identified as poisonous, Fluttershy doing the same.
"Wha-What about spike? He usually goes to great lengths to spe-spend time with you, no matter what!" Fluttershy asked, continuing to want to go back home, following the marshmallow coated pony.
"He had a cosplay thing he's doing with twilight. It's something like a...I don't really know. I didn't hear a lot," Rarity says, dismissing the idea of spike coming with her.
"Oh...Well Do you know what we are even looking for?" Fluttershy asked, seeing pegasi over the town in the distance.
"Darling, didn't I tell you, We are lookin-- wait...Do you hear that?" Rarity said as her ears perked up to hear...Music? The strum of a bass guitar was reverberating through the forest, almost like a magic spell inhabiting the woods. "It sounds like...Music? Who would be playing something out here?"
"Now that you mention it, I-I do hear something! Sounds like a guitar?" Fluttershy said, also confused, looking around for where the beginning of the noise could be.
Curiosity took over rarity and she just had to find the source. "Fluttershy! Hurry! We have to find it!" Rarity said as she ran through the flora of the everfree.
"Wait! What? Find what? and slow down!" Fluttershy started running, not as fast as the determined rarity though. But neither of them were expecting what they found, hidden deep into the forest, embodying sadness.
Malex Trachea.
The Changeling.
Drone 6242.
The only Changeling that had feelings.
The only changeling that left the hive forever.
He was not expecting what the outside world would be like. It was hostile to him. He knew why, but it still hurt that no one was giving him a chance. He hadn't eaten love for 2 months. He was starving, thinking that he was truly done for. He's the lonely changeling. He has no purpose outside, but he didn't want his purpose inside the hive. It disgusted him.
He wasn't sure why the hive-mind spell didn't affect him. Maybe it was because his mind was protected? Roll of the dice paid out in his favor? The queen just didn't care?
He was a wrong, and he can't be righted at this point. So all he does is sing away his sorrows. All alone, in the everfree forest. Nothing came to bother him, and he was okay with that. So he starts singing. He sings, not knowing what would happen after, and what would change everything.
The two ponies kept running, getting closer to the epicenter of the music, dashing through all of the nature, both alive and dead, present in the forest.
"Rarity! Please! Just slow down a little bit! I mean, If you want too, but please say yes!" Fluttershy asked, still being slower, but trying to keep up.
"No need darling! Look! We made it! Whatever's making this music should be right behind these vines!" Rarity said as Fluttershy arrived. They moved the vines enough to look through and saw...a changeling, but that wasn't the weird part. Some changelings do hide out in the everfree. No, what was weird was that he was...tuning a guitar?
"A changeling!" Fluttershy shouted quietly, only allowing for Rarity to hear.
"Darling, be quiet! Step back, we should be fine this far," Rarity explains, with flutters agreeing, stepping back to a reasonable distance to where the changeling couldn't hear them.
"What is a changeling doing here, playing a guitar?" Fluttershy, shaking a bit. Rarity quickly held onto her friend to calm her down.
"Let's just watch. I doubt he or she will see us," Rarity said to her friend, who nodded quickly, still scared at the prospect of a changeling so close to her. Before she could say anything else though, the song came.
Rarity and Fluttershy couldn't believe their eyes, much less their ears. This had to be a trick, right? There's no way a changeling could be like that. Almost every single changeling they've met has been the same. They have no remorse for what they do, but the way that the changeling played gave them slight confusion.
Sure, if he saw them and then played, it would be an open and shut case of pretending, but he started playing before they were ever close. Even if he used a locator spell to see where creatures were around him, which would be likely as it is the everfree, no basic locator spell reaches that far. It would have to be advanced at best, and rarity knows that unicorns like Twilight could learn how to do something that well. Not to mention the fact that changelings, especially most drones, wouldn't even care about a locator spell. They already have the hivemind in them, so they could tell where changelings are, and that would be all that they care about.
"I...I hope I can get a better life than this," The changeling said, before trotting off somewhere else that Rarity and Fluttershy couldn't see from their location. They looked at each other, and nodded, knowing what to do next.
Malex walked back to his stool. His bass on his back so he could sing his sorrows away again. It was the only good way to pass the time. What he wasn't expecting were two ponies standing next to his stool, seemingly looking around.
'What the- Why are they here?' He thought to himself,
"Where'd he go? He has to be around here, we both saw him strumming his bass guitar yesterday," Rarity said, looking at the pond nearby, thinking maybe she'd get an answer out of that. Weirdo.
"Maybe he ran off somewhere else?" Fluttershy proposed, with rarity admitting it was a possibility, but what came next changed life forever.
"Who are you and why are you here," He said without thinking. 'GAH! What am I doing!?' He thought.
"Oh there you are! We wanted to give you a chance to come live with us!" She said to him, as he was taken aback.
"Wha-What?" He was shocked by this, as any changeling would be.
"Yeah, we heard you a yestereay ago, and we wanted to help you!" Fluttershy said, gleefully.
"Wait, how can I trust you? For all I know, you could just be here to get me thrown into a prison or just publicly executed!" Malex stayed back, his eyes wide with paranoia, darting around in surprise and shock.
"Well...Uh," Rarity started, with Malex raising an eyebrow at the words exiting her mouth.
"We don't have anything to make you trust us, you just have to cause we're trying to help you," Fluttershy said.
"Well...If you can promise me you aren't trying to kill me, then I guess I can trust you," Malex said as fluttershy and rarity both nodded that they do promise.
Malex then knew that this was something new. Something amazing. He made something he never thought he would.
Peace.
Author's Note
What he made is in black at the bottom, It's hard to see, but it is there.
