Author's Note

Warning
Hey guys, just wanted to give you all a quick warning that his chapter is very dark and the series may or may not get darker from here. I may end up changing this story to Mature in future chapters so I'm giving you all the heads up right now.

I am glad you are enjoying this story and I am having a lot of fun writing this story as well. Have a wonderful day :)

Chapter 2: Solitude

Chapter Two: Solitude

Stirring from his slumber, Abzan opened his eyes, dazed and in pain as everything was a giant blur as his vision began to adjust. Despite having a throbbing pain across his face, he stood up as his vision began to adjust and the first thing he noticed was he was in a prison cell. Standing up, he attempted to trot forward towards the cell’s door, but was immediately stopped by something holding him down, looking down behind him, he noticed four large heavy balls of chains were attached to his hooves.

Growling he attempted to use his horn to blast the chains off, but nothing occurred until he gazed up and barely noticed that his horn had a magic suppressant cuff on his head. Whoever had imprisoned him had thought of everything to ensure his escape was impossible and before he could try to pull himself forward, he had heard the sounds of hooves clopping against the cold solid floor and out of the darkness appeared a Zebra standing before him in a lab coat, and one thing the changeling noticed about this zebra was the numerous amount of scars across his face and his eye colors were a solid dark brown.

“My, my, you must be… Changeling number 345 that was recently brought in… You are definitely more imposing than the last three we brought in recently. I was truly worried we wouldn’t be able to catch anymore of you due to the new alliance made.” He answered, giving Abzan a cynical smile as he leaned against his cell door. “However, I was honestly surprised that out of all the changelings from Chrysalis hive, that there would be another changeling who had defected from there. We wanted to have that Thorax fellow, but he had already befriended the Elements of Harmony before we could get to him.”

“Who the hell are you!?” Abzan demanded, snarling as the stallion gave a light chuckle.

“Hehehe… Well my name is Solitude and I’m one of the head researchers of this facility.”

“What do you want?”

“It’s simply really.” Solitude began, taking a few steps back from Abzan’s cell and immediately flipped a switch and revealed to the changeling’s horror the outer shell of a dead member of race, hanging on the wall with labels of each individual part. “Ever since the invasion of Canterlot, a client of ours had called us in to work in secret to learn everything we can about you… how to defeat you. See through your disguises and discover your weaknesses.”

“And do you think it’s wise to be telling me this you pretentious prick! Once the others get here, you’ll regret laying a hoof on my fellow changelings!!!” Abzan threatened, but the response he got from the zebra wasn’t what he had hoped for.

“HAHAHAHA!!! Do you honestly think they’ll come!? We’ve been doing this for almost a decade now, and not one changeling has ever escaped one of our facilities.” He declared, giving the changeling a smirk.

“Not. A. Single. ONE!”

“We’ll see about that won’t we?” Abzan stated plainly as he flared his wings in response, earning a soft chuckle from the zebra.

“We will indeed.” He replied. “I’ll be taking my leave for the time being. A few guards will be making their way here to escort you to a proper cell with your fellow changelings. Enjoy your new life as a lab rat.”

With that Solitude had exited the room, leaving the changeling alone with his thoughts as he began to hit the ground with his hooves in anger. Repeatedly hitting it again, and again, and again until the doors had opened once more and four ponies in armor entered the room, each of them smirking as each of them held batons with their magic as they lit up with electricity.

“Looks like we’ve got ourselves some fresh meat boys!” Guard 1# said, smirking as his horn glowed, lifting a pair of keys and began to unlock Abzan’s cell doors and the three guards rushed inside and began to beat the changeling.

One guard took a swing, shocking Abzan in the back before another guard struck him in the face with his hooves and he fell to the ground. The four guards then surrounded him and began to kick him with their hooves and hit him repeatedly with their batons. All of them laughing as Abzan, tried to push one of them away from him, only to get a swift kick to his face.

“Nice try bug!” Guard 2# said, spitting on Abzan’s face before continuing to beat him with his baton.

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” A mare’s voice shouted, the four guards halting before quickly lining up in place. Despite being injured, Abzan was still able to glance up to see the same Zebra he tried to rescue from before, but she was now wearing a lab coat and glasses.“You were ordered to escort this changeling to his cell, not beat him to death!”

“We understand ma’am, but this bug is-” Guard 2# tried to explain before receiving a quick jab to the face, sending him falling to the ground.

“I will not hear another word from you Clipper Shoe, I’ll be reporting your insolence to Solitude once we take our guest to his new cell. You are dismissed soldier.” She said, glaring at the fallen stallion before turning to the other three. “And as for you three, take this changeling to his cell and treat him with care, we can’t have him dying on us now right?”

“Y-Yes ma’am!” Guard 1# soluted to the zebra as he started to unlock Abzan’s chains around his hooves and one of the other guards began to place a chain brace around his neck, hooked to a long chain. “Come on worm! You're lucky we’re giving you a break right now since you're new. If you think we’re bad, just wait till you see your new neighbors.”

Abzan was quickly lifted to his hooves before being tugged by the long chain from one of the guards. However, he couldn’t help but look over to Clipper Shoe, seeing him glare at him as the stallion rubbed his cheek in response. He then looked at the mare who had possibly saved his life and noticed a slight smug look on her face that made him have a shiver down his spine before he was now out the door heading down the long dark hallway with flickering lights to another door down the end of the hall.

“Can’t believe we have to be the ones looking after these stupid changelings.” Guard 3# said, not caring that Abzan was listening to everything they were saying. “Honestly, we’re wasting our time watching them. It’d be better for us to just put them down ourselves then waste time and bits finding a way to kill them, when we could just use our spears, swords or even hooves to crush them.”

“Yeah, it’d be so simple!” Guard 4# agreed with the third guard and just as he was about to growl at them. He heard a cough from the first guard.

“Be quiet, you two simpletons, you whimper like little fillies over something as simple as our job. All we have to do is watch them and keep them in line, and if you two dunderheads can’t even do that, then I suggest hanging up your helmets.” Guard 1# stated, glaring at the two beside Abzan, shaking their heads rapidly.

“N-No, no need for that sir!”

“Good.” He muttered, opening the door and beyond that point, Abzan couldn’t help but look in horror as he saw hundreds of cages with hundreds of changelings inside them. He wanted to try and help, but was quickly tugged by the chain from the first guard. “Let’s go!”

They continued to go down one row of cell doors before stopping in front of one and began to unlock it, throwing Abzan in there before locking him up there. “If you want to stay alive bug, then I suggest you stay out of trouble, that inhibitor on your horn can not be removed unless you have a special key which only high ranking officers have. And if you try to remove it yourself, it’ll automatically send a bolt of electricity flowing through your body to the point of paralyzing you and leaving you in agonizing pain.”

“So long as you behave, you might get some special treatment like a good dog.” He explained, spitting at the floor before trotting off with the other guards.

“B-Bastards…” Abzan muttered before falling to the ground in excruciating pain.

“A-Are you okay?” He heard, turning to see a fellow changeling seating atop of a bed above. She was female and her body was paler compared to his jet black skin.

“Yeah… Just got some welcoming committee is all… W-who are you?” He asked, sitting up straight on the floor.

“My name's Winter, I’m from the northern hive of King Marshal.” She replied in a soft gentle tone that made the changeling’s heart skip a beat for a moment. “And you are?”

“I’m Abzan, I was once apart of Queen Chrysalis Hive in the badlands, at least until I was banished. However my hive recently had a change in leadership as the queen was dethroned and abandoned us… They all changed so I left to find the missing changelings from my old hive as a last act of kindness and well… here I am.” He explained, licking his arm from all the bruises.

“I’m sorry to hear that…” She said.

“It’s fine, but what’s going on here though?” He asked, hoping that Winter had some kind of answer that could give him a clue.

“As far as any of us know, we’re all guinea pigs for the ponies and zebras… they have us digging in the mines in search of gems. Treating us like diamond dogs and those that fall ill, or that rebel against them, they are taken away and… they have their wings torn off as punishment.” She explained, almost wanting to cry, but she held it in as she continued on. “And, I don’t know, as far as I know if you don’t follow their rules, they’ll kill you and have your corpse dissected and used for tools.”

“How many of us are here?” He asked.

“There are at least five hundred if not more and more are coming tomorrow morning from what we’ve been hearing.” She responded, surprising him as he jumped to his hooves, almost wanting to shout, but held it in so he didn’t get the two of them in trouble.

“S-Seriously? Just how many hives have they taken from?”

“They’ve kidnapped changelings from my hive, yours, the eastern hive, and the aquatic hive beside the east hive. I would tell you more, but it’s going to be lights out in a few. You should get some rest while you still can, tomorrow they are going to work everyone to the bone.”

“Yeah… okay. Thank you Winter, glad to meet at least one decent person here.” He replied, giving her a smile that made her blush slightly.

“Y-Yeah of course, we should probably get some sleep now.” She said, turning away from him as she covered herself in her blanket as Abzan rested in the bottom bunk below hers, and began to start drifting off to sleep.