The Blair Ling Project... I guess.
“Okay guys, is it ready?” Spiny asked.
The other changelings nodded before handing the recording device to him.
“Alright, now how exactly does this thing work?”
“Well, the guy said to press the red button that looks like a camera,” a green changeling said.
“Cricket, this thing I’m holding is a camera. Or at least that’s what all the ponies call it…”
They examined the glass screen that was attached to the camera. One of the buttons was a rectangle with a triangle on it. “I think it’s that one, Spiny,” a pink changeling, Thistle, pointed a hoof at the button.
“Um, okay.” He pressed the button and white letters that spelled ‘REC’ appeared on the top right corner of the screen, alongside a constantly blinking red dot.
“Okay, I think it’s working!” Spiny picked up the camera, turning it around so that it faced him and the other changelings. “Hello, viewers! As you all can see...” he turned the camera towards their surroundings. “We are in the middle of the woods. Close to Everfree but not exactly there, though we are quite the average distance from the sugary and diabetic town called ‘Ponyville’.”
The trees they were in weren’t all too thick. Whilst whoever was in these woods couldn’t see the town that well, they could somewhat see the lights or occasionally hear cheers. However, most of those problems would (hopefully) be solved when they went in deeper.
“Heheh. As for the Ponyville citizens, they are currently celebrating an unfamiliar holiday called ‘Nightmare Night’. I dunno what it’s about, but it surely sounds interesting—”
“Spiny, let me handle the camera! This is not meant to be another one of those stupid documentaries!” a blue changeling suddenly snagged the camera from him. This changeling was no other than fifteen-year-old Venom Stinger. “Eheheh… don’t mind Spiny, guys,” he spoke to the camera. “He’s a total geek.”
“Hey!” Spiny pouted.
“But yeah. It’s just me and my buddies, Spiny, Cricket, and Thistle, and we’re just takin’ a walk in the woods in the middle of the night.” Venom turned the camera to show the three changelings that were currently standing behind him.
“Actually, Venom, it’s only eight-thirty four PM—”
“Can it, Spiny!” Venom ignored the pouts and looked back at the camera as he and others began walking deeper into the woods. They looked around, pointing the camera away from the town and towards the tall and slender trees. From this angle, it looked like a truly dark forest that one would have to dare to step in.
“So guys, what do you all think of our little nightly trek so far?”
The green changeling, Cricket, merely muttered a bit.
“What was that, Cricks? Say it so they can hear you!” Venom turned the camera towards the changeling, going as far as to zoom in on him.
Cricket was blushing and flinching, clearly not liking this sort of attention. “I-I uh…”
“Yeah?”
“I-I was just talking about how creepy this place is!”
The others looked at each other blankly; they couldn’t tell if he was acting or genuinely scared. “Geez, Cricket, for someone who handles spiders and wasps for a living, you can be such a baby.” Venom chuckled teasingly.
“I am not!” Cricket folded his forelegs, huffing.
Venom chuckled and looked at the camera. “Looks like we’ve got a science geek and a ‘fraidy bug!”
“S-Shut up, Venom!” Spiny snapped.
“Guys, guys, guys.” Thistle stepped up, and Venom pointed the camera towards her. “Chill out.”
“Fine…”
“Okay…” Spiny looked down, muttering, “all the best found footage horror movies are documents… like the Mare Witch Project… got all the good scores on.”
“What?”
“Nothing!”
The group continued walking. “Is it just me or has it gotten darker now that we’re deeper in these woods?”
“Clearly, you’ve never heard of the concept of a forest. It’s supposed to get darker…” Venom rolled his eyes. “We’ve got a geek, a ‘fraidy bug, and a complete idiot…”
“Hey! Take that back!”
“Nope!” Venom held his head high.
“You little—” Thistle ran up and tackled the blue changeling, causing the camera to fly out of his grasp. As the two got into a small scuffle, Spiny walked over and picked it up off the ground.
“Thanks for the camera, guys!”
The two looked up. “Hey! Give that back!” Venom snapped.
“Relax, I’ll give you a turn after we walk a little further into the—”
A loud scream rang throughout the area. A deep, masculine, throaty scream for that matter.
“What the heck was that?!” Thistle looked around, climbing off of Venom.
“I don’t think I wanna know…” Cricket squeaked.
“Make that two ‘fraidy bugs,” Venom muttered.
“Hey!” Cricket and Thistle said in unison as they glared.
Venom chuckled and looked at Spiny. “Alright, now gimme the camera.”
“What?! I only had two and a half minutes with this thing!”
“Well, you’re gonna bore everyone to death with your mindless documentary-themed ramblings!”
“But-But—”
“We can’t have a dead audience, Spiny. Give me the camera.”
“...No.”
Venom growled in defeat, folding his forelegs. Spiny cleared his throat, before looking into the camera. “Okay, where were we—”
“Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”
“What the buck?!” Spiny pointed the camera over.
A red changeling had leapt out of the nearby bushes. One who was wearing a poorly-assembled monster costume. The group paused, not really knowing what to do or how to react.
Venom held back the urge to facehoof. “Worst timing EVER,” he said as Spiny pointed the camera towards the red changeling, Scorch. The changeling blushed a bit, backing up until he fell right back into the shrubs.
“Just so you know, I am not refilming the entire walk back…” Venom said, huffing.
“We probably don’t need to!” Spiny turned the device in Venom’s direction.
“What do you mean?”
“We can just refilm this one section!”
“Um… okay?”
“Okay Scorch, we’re ready! Do it again!”
Scorch peeked out from behind the shrubs. “Like, right now?” he asked unsurely.
“Yes, now!”
“Um… okay then. Here goes…”
They waited a few seconds. Then he lunged, but as he hit the ground, his ‘mask’ fell off.
“CUT!”
Scorch grunted and picked the mask up. “Hmph. It’s better than what any of you guys would’ve done.”
“Hey!” Venom snapped, folding his forelegs.
Scorch picked his mask up and walked back to the shrubbery. The others blinked, looking at each other.
“Okay, now that I think about it… did we even go over the point of this scene, Venom?” Spiny asked with a roll of her eyes.
Venom shrugged. “I thought it was obvious? Don’t all of these films have insane crazy jumpscares that make you fall out of your seat?”
“I mean, you’re not wrong but—”
Scorch jumped out for the third time… landing right onto Spiny.
“Oof! Hey!” the changeling shouted in a muffled voice under his muscular brother’s weight.
The sound of Venom’s facehoof echoed through the woods. “Ughhh!”
“Is the camera okay?! Tell me the camera’s okay!” Venom asked as soon as Scorch got off of Spiny.
“First of all, rude to be worrying more about a recording device than your own flesh and blood. To answer your question about the camera,thankfully, the boulder didn’t crush it.” Spiny folded his forelegs and looked at his oldest brother.
Scorch gasped. “B-Boulder?!”
“What? It’s true! You were heavy as all heck!”
“Oh so you’re saying I’m fat then?!”
“And if I am?!”
“Guys, will you cut that out?!” Venom spat at his squabbling brothers. “We’re wasting the battery of this thing!”
The two stopped, but not without blowing raspberries at each other before stomping back to their positions.
“Okay, that’s it, we’re moving on,” Venom said to the camera as the group continued trekking in the woods.
“Where next?” Cricket asked as they walked.
“Wherever this path takes us!”
“That’s probably not a great idea…”
“Who says?”
“Um…” Cricket looked at the others, hoping they’d back him up.
“Exactly! Onward, fellow er… changelings!”
They rolled their eyes and followed behind.
The group walked for a few minutes. They walked and walked and walked, until they eventually heard a few beeps from the camera, signaling the battery was around halfway depleted.
“Ugh! Already?!” Venom groaned loudly.
“Relax! It’s only at fifty percent! We can still get a few more shots!” Spiny reassured from behind.
Crack!
WHUMP!
“Oof!”
They all jumped and turned around to see a lavender-colored, purple-eyed nymph, whose purple mane was done in pigtails. They blinked, watching her land on the ground from some trees, and they saw an unreformed green-eyed changeling fall right next to her. Both changelings, like Scorch, were wearing poorly created monster costumes.
“Um… where in the name of Chrysalis did you two come from?” Thistle uttered. “You weren’t supposed to come down until one of us got dragged away by Scorch…”
“That tree…” the unreformed changeling, Cryonix, stated with an upward point of his hole-infested hoof.
“What he means is…” the nymph, Flutterwings, got up from the dirty ground. “I was sitting by myself in a tree branch when Cryonix decided to plop his butt down next to me, and the branch broke!”
“Hey! I’m not that fat!” he snapped, standing up as well and dusting himself off.
“And they say I’m the boulder,” Scorch muttered audibly as he poked his head out of a nearby cluster of bushes.
“You still are…” Spiny mumbled under his breath.
“Oh for crying out loud.” Venom rolled his eyes and turned the camera towards his changeling peers. “If you guys keep arguing like this, then you’re all gonna be playing the role of a boulder! Literally!”
They blinked. “Um… what?” Cryonix uttered.
Venom furrowed his brow with a sigh of defeat. “Just pretend to be intimidating…”
They nodded and the three “monsters” stepped back into the bushes.
“As I was saying…” the “protagonists” kept following their path for about a minute or two.
“Okay then?” Thistle replied, tilting her head slightly as she looked to the side, at the many columns of trees and bushes. “Is something about to happen or…”
Venom shrugged. “Well, I was thinking one of the monsters would maul Cricket but—”
“Reeeeeeeeeeeee!”
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”
The group jumped immediately. They looked over to see Flutterwings tackling a realistically screaming Cricket. Venom took this opportunity and pointed the camera over.
“AAAAAH! AHHHHAHA! WhyareyouguysstandingthereHELPMEAAAAAAHHH!” After a moment of screaming, he took out what appeared to be a ketchup bottle and started squirting its contents all over himself and onto the ground.
Even with how faked it looked, the scream really sold it.
“Alright! Perfect!” Venom said with a grin as he kept filming. It was also at this point they noticed that Flutterwings’ costume looked really real, especially when it’s covered in fake blood. Eventually, Cricket did a very good dead body impression. That is, until he started coughing.
“Great job guys!” Venom walked over with the camera, before looking at the green changeling. “Uh… Cricket, you can stop coughing, you’re supposed to be dead.”
He coughed for a moment longer, sputtering and gagging a bit.
“Cricket? Cricket, are you okay?!”
He eventually spat out a red glob. “I’m… fine,” he croaked out with a gasp of air.
They looked at the red. “Um… is that… you know what, let’s make sure we don't scream too hard from now on…” Spiny said.
“Seriously guys, this ketchup tastes awful! Did it go bad or something?!” Cricket looked at the bottle he held, which felt considerably lighter due to how much he had used.
The others sighed with relief upon hearing it wasn’t blood, but then frowned.
“Wait, can ketchup even go bad?” Let me see this…” he picked up the bottle and read the contents. “Ruby Bloodstone… Acrylic Paint?!” His eyes immediately widened, and he looked at Venom.
“What?”
“Dude, we agreed to use ketchup for blood!” Cryonix said.
Venom chuckled sheepishly, trying to think of an excuse. “And why am I to blame for this…?”
“Because we put you in charge of getting it!”
“I’m allergic to ketchup, okay?! And just be glad the Acrylic Paint we have is non-toxic!”
“First of all, since when?! Second, it doesn’t matter if it’s non-toxic or not! It’s still paint!”
“Will you guys SHUT UP?!”
They blinked and jumped, looking over at a fuming Spiny. They backed up slightly.
“Uh… Spiny…”
“What?” he uttered through gritted teeth. They backed up again.
Cryonix looked down, his ears drooping. Venom flinched as he braced himself for any possible attacks.
Spiny took a breath. “Give. Me. That. Camera.”
Venom passed it over, quickly jumping back and scurrying behind Cryonix.
“Dude! He’s your brother! You’re in front of me!” Cryonix whisper-shouted, pushing Venom in front of him.
“You get in front! You started it!”
“SHUT UP!” Spiny yelled again. The two squeaked and hid behind Scorch. “Now let’s just move on…”
The others merely nodded.
“Well… what next?” Thistle asked.
“Hm… let’s see…” Spiny cheeked the camera battery. “Thirty-five percent.”
“How many scenes can we shoot with that?”
“Not sure,” he sighed heavily.
“How about one more? One to really sell it off?”
“Like what though? We can’t really do anything much with such crappy costumes!”
“Um… how about… uh…” Thistle tried to think.
“Wait…” Flutterwings looked down at her costume. “Why do we need costumes again?”
“Pardon?”
“She’s right, guys!” Cryonix exclaimed. “We’re changelings! We don’t need costumes!”
Again, a few more facehoofs echoed through the woods.
“We’re a couple of idiots now, aren’t we?” Thistle muttered.
“Yeah…” they all agreed, sighing heavily.
“Well, we may as well make these last bits of battery count…”
“Say no more,” Cryonix said as he took a breath and lit his horn up.
“What are you—”
There was a flash of a changeling transformation. They looked up at the creature Cryonix had transformed to. He had a red armadillo-like shell, with a soft tan underbelly, as well as a lizard tail and an almost wolf/armadillo head with sharp blood sucking fangs. He’d become a Bloodsucker. A dangerous creature that preyed on changelings.
Perfect.
“Whohohoa!” Venom gaped at the creature. “How’d you even do that?!”
“Dude, have you not realized we’re changelings?” Cryonix replied. “Also, Bloodsuckers prowl around all outside the hive. There could be one watching us right now and we wouldn’t know it.”
“Of course I knew that! What I meant was—wait, what?”
“Well, they can do this.” Cryonix stood perfectly still, and soon he became transparent. “Neat, huh?”
The others stared in amazement, whilst Cricket began looking around.
“T-There’s not here, is there?” he asked as he began shuddering.
“Pfft. Nah. What would they even come to Ponyville for? They feast on us changelings, not ponies.”
“I guess that makes sense…”
“Now hurry up you two!” Cryonix said as he turned to Scorch and Flutterwings. “Take those off and shapeshift!”
They nodded eagerly and threw off the costumes, shapeshifting into Bloodsuckers. They looked at their new forms, toothy grins filling their faces.
The other four began complimenting their forms.
“Wow!”
“Incredible!”
“Outstanding!”
“Um… guys?” Flutterwings spoke in her monstrous form. “This is the part where you run.”
“Oh. Right…” The group hightailed it out of there, screaming their lungs out.
“You know what to do!” Scorch exclaimed.
“Yeah!” Cryonix and Flutterwings cheered at the same time.
The chase was on. The “monsters” each tackled their “victims” one-by-one. Scorch took down Thistle, while Flutterwings dragged Cricket away by the back legs, leaving only Venom and Spiny to flee for their lives.
“I’d hate to leave Cricket and Thistle behind, but I think I know a way out!” Venom said as he panted.
“Where?!” Spiny yelled.
“We—Aaaaaaaa!” Venom screamed as Cryonix leapt onto him while doing his best monster growl, and the camera flew out of the blue changeling’s hooves and onto the ground next to Spiny’s.
“Venom! NOOOOOOO!” the younger changeling yelled. He gasped when he heard the monster snarl with hunger, and so he took the camera from his limp brother’s hooves and galloped further into the woods.
Spiny had to admit, Venom was really good at playing dead.
Spiny breathed heavily as he stopped at a large tree and looked at the camera he had. “Looks like I lost them—”
A roar echoed from behind, causing him to freeze in place.
“...No I didn’t!” he said quickly before continuing to run while screaming. He saw one of the creatures running after him, fangs ready to pierce his neck. “AHHHH!”
He soon noticed the speed difference between him and the monster. He knew he had no choice but to continue running. And he continued running. And running. And running.
Overtime, he grew more and more tired, and his running started getting slower. “I don’t know how long I’ve been fleeing for, nor do I know how long I can keep doing it for…”
He needed somewhere to hide. And fast. Because it was about to catch up with him. He soon noticed a house off in the distance. It looked vacant. “Alright, they’re still chasing me, and I’m obviously runnin’ out of energy so I have no choice but to hide inside this conveniently located house!” he spoke to the camera as he headed inside. He breathed heavily as he shut the door behind him, then he looked out of the window to see the Bloodsucker shaking its head.
“Dude… uncool…” the Bloodsucker, Cryonix, muttered, before stalking away.
“Woah… did you hear it talk?” Spiny spoke to the camera he was still holding, which was on twenty-five percent. “Maybe a… demonic presence hunts these woods…” Spiny lied, trying not to expose the fakeness. Although to be fair, he didn’t believe a single word coming out of his own mouth.
He walked through a nearby door into another room, and after sniffing the air, he gagged and put a hoof over his nose.
“Ugh… what is that smell…? Am I in…”
He looked around, trying to find the source of the smell, or at least a source of light. He eventually found an oil lamp, brand new in fact, and he set down the camera on a shelf—in between what appeared to be two neatly folded bathtowels—as he went to inspect it. “Interesting… I haven’t seen one of these since I was back in Chrysalis’ hive! Maybe I could—”
Suddenly, the lights flicked on, and Spiny froze in his position. His eyes skimmed his surroundings, and he realized that out of all the possible environments he could’ve hid in, he was in somepony’s bathroom.
He was about to turn around when a throaty female voice yelled from behind him;
“WHO ARE YOU?! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!”
Spiny screamed louder than ever as he ran out the front door of the house even faster than he did when he was fleeing the “monsters”. The others eventually found him running past.
“Spiny! Where you going?!” Flutterwings called, stopping the changeling in his tracks.
Spiny was panting heavily, turning to see Flutterwings, Scorch, and Cryonix—who had changed back to their regular changeling forms—along with the other four changelings. “Did… did I lose her?!”
“Who’s her?” Scorch asked.
“Some crazy fat earth pony mare wearing a bathrobe that barely fits, that’s who!”
“Wait, what? What the heck happened in there?!” Thistle uttered.
Spiny took a breath. “Well… I hid from Cryonix in a house I thought was empty… turns out it wasn’t empty, aaaand I was chased out!” He then put a hoof to his chin. “I mean… to be fair, I wouldn’t want to see some fourteen-year-old changeling in my bathroom when I’m about to take a shower either… but on the other hoof, I wouldn’t wanna still be in there with a showering mare.”
The others exchanged glances for a moment. “Spiny…” Venom spoke. “When you were running out of the bathroom and out of the house…”
“...Yes?”
“You remembered to take the camera with you, didn’t you?”
“Of course, I—” Spiny froze, and he felt the blood drain from his face. “U-Um… I-I… it was—” His mouth worked wordlessly as he tried to come up with an explanation as to why he came out of the house empty-hoofed.
Venom looked equally as panicked. “Don’t tell me you left it inside…” he said in a flat tone.
“Um… I uh… bye!” He immediately bolted off towards the forest entrance/exit.
“Hold on a second!” Scorch grabbed his brother before he could succeed in his escape plan. “You’re gonna get it back!”
“But whyyyyyah?! I’m not getting beat up over a cameraaaaa!” Spiny whined.
“...You know, you’re starting to take after Venom Stinger…”
Spiny rolled his eyes and Venom’s eyes widened. “Fine…” the teal changeling turned around. “I left it in the bathroom, so I’ll get it…”
“Good luck then.”
The six changelings waited for what felt like an eternity. After that “eternity”, Spiny returned, holding the camera.
“Well…?” Cryonix raised an eyebrow.
“I transformed into a housefly and crept inside. I had to wait until after she was done showering to change back and get the camera out…” Spiny explained. “She’s probably in bed now.”
“Yeah, yeah, is the camera okay?” Venom asked.
“Yes, yes, the camera is dandy… Good news is that she wasn’t able to find it sitting on one of her shelves. And we still have fifteen percent battery left!”
“And the bad news?” Thistle questioned.
“Well… the camera managed to catch six minutes of a naked showering mare… maybe even more than that.”
Their eyes widened. “Oh dear Chrysalis no...” Venom uttered in disbelief.
“Should we… should we watch it?” Flutterwings uttered monotonously.
Scorch trotted closer to the camera. “Well… a little peek wouldn’t hurt… right…?”
They’d, by now, finished the whole scene. Most of them had wide eyes and jaws that reached the floor.
Surprisingly, Cricket was the first to say something;
“What. Did we. Just. Watch?”
“I have no idea…” Cryonix responded.
“Well, at least we could probably make some money off this one scene,” Flutterwings said.
Everyone looked at her, and she shrugged in response.
Spiny shook his head. “There’s still time, guys! We just have to delete six-to-seven minutes of footage and then we could—”
Just then, another changeling leapt out of the nearby bushes, getting the others’ attention.
“What the?!” Venom turned to the sudden newcomer. The group stared at the changeling. “Dagger, is that you?”
The changeling, dressed as the killer from the Nightmare Night movies, removed his white mask with a brown mane. “Yeah, it’s me.”
“What in the world kind of outfit is that?!” Cryonix uttered, pointing a hoof at Dagger.
“I’m the killer from the Nightmare Night movies! You know, the guy with the blue suit and white mask who carries around a kitchen knife? Do any of you watch movies?!” Dagger asked.
“Don’t mind Cryonix here. He’s an uncultured swine.” Venom said, deciding to properly demonstrate those last two words by briefly shapeshifting into a pig.
“Hey!” Cryonix snapped.
“What’s going on with you lot anyway?” Dagger asked.
“Eh, not much. We were trying to film a found-footage movie here in these woods and—” Venom replied.
“I’m pretty sure even found-footage films don’t have any explicit six-minute scenes of naked ponies in the shower…” Scorch sighed in frustration.
Dagger, however, sighed in disappointment. “Stupid rating systems… give me something explicit, like— wait a sec, what?”
“Spiny ran inside some random pony’s house with the camera and left it inside her bathroom when he was chased out…” the red changeling explained.
“Oh?” Dagger said, ears perking slightly as a small grin formed on his face.
“Uh-oh…” Flutterwings uttered as she watched the changeling’s grin take up about half of his face.
“Now you’ve done it, Scorch…” Venom said, his grip on the camera noticeably getting tighter.
“What? I just told him what—”
“Venom… give me the camera…”
“Heck no! We bought… or rented, this with our money! I’m not giving it up!” Venom spat.
Dagger chuckled. “Well, the old way is better anyway.” He teleported away.
The blue changeling blinked. “...Where’d he go—”
“Yoink!” Dagger snatched the camera from behind Venom and took off running.
“Oh no you’re NOT!” Spiny stepped into his path and tried tugging the object out of his grasp.
“Spiny pleeeeease…” Dagger grinned like a maniac. “I need those six minutes!”
“You have six minutes to let go or else!”
Dagger smirked and pulled out a flashbang, about to throw it down. “Tough friggin’ luck, mate.”
Spiny growled, pulling harder and harder until he fell backwards, with the camera still in his grasp. Without doing anything else, he took to the night sky. He looked behind him to see Dagger following behind.
“Come on guys, after ‘em!”
Once again, the chase was on.
Spiny landed directly in the midst of Ponyville and continued on from there. He seemed to have lost Dagger for the time being, so he took some time to catch his breath. For the sake of having nothing else to do for the moment, he hit the record button on the camera. “Whew… what is wrong with that guy?” he said directly to it.
“Just about everything,” an all too familiar voice reminded him.
“AAAAAAAA!” Spiny scurried away. Dagger followed behind, laughing maniacally.
The two constantly ran around the area, shoving past many costumed ponies along the way.
“Come on, Spinyyyyy! You can’t run foreverrrrr!”
The teal changeling’s eyes widened as soon as he heard Dagger’s tone and voice when he said that line. It sounded perfect.
He had an idea.
Dagger looked around for Spiny as he galloped through the crowds of ponies. “Come on, kid! I fell off a cliff for your country!” He switched on his Instinct, looking around for the reformed changeling’s green outline amongst all the white pony outlines. “Can’t run awaaaaay!”
“Do you hear that?!” Spiny said to the camera as he fled the changeling. “That, my audience, is the sound of some crazy serial killer running after me with a knife!”
“Come on, kiiiiid! Aaaand now I sound like a weirdo… hey, buck you Spiny!”
“Buck yourself!”
“Gladly!”
Spiny’s eyes widened slightly, and he kept fleeing the changeling. “This is serious business, guys! I don’t know this masked killer’s name, but he really wants to jack off to my camera footage—I-I mean he WANTS TO KILL ME!”
Dagger sighed and teleported away again. He reappeared right in front of Spiny’s path.
The teal changeling tried skidding to a stop once he saw this, but he ended up crashing into Dagger, causing the two to tumble downhill.
“Oof!” Dagger and Spiny grunted in unison as they ended up hitting the bottom of the hill, which was a pumpkin patch, and the camera flew right out of Spiny’s hooves.
Dagger rose up, looking around. “Ugh… where the heck is that camera?” He switched on his Instinct, looking for the camera.
“Ngh… ow.” Spiny muttered as he lifted his head up. He looked around, trying to see where he even was.
“Spiny! Spiny!” a faint voice called up from high above; so high that it was almost silent.
“Guys?! Guys, where are you?!” He rolled onto his front and looked up the hill to see his six fellow changelings—and they weren’t alone. He blinked, trying to see who else was with them. “Guys?”
They waved and called to him, mostly trying to see if he was alright or injured. Then he realized the Fangs were there, too. He blinked, wondering where they came from. “What are you guys doing here?” he called to them as he shakingly tried to make his way back up the hill.
“Eh, Dagger ran off a while back. We were trying to find him,” Brokenwing said.
The closer Spiny got, the more he was able to make out who was there and what they were wearing.
Blue Fang was in his Spec Ops gear, Broken was a Bloodsucker, Mitchell was a spider, Kydra was a Wonderbolt (but with black instead of blue), Mantis was in his tank pilot uniform, Stinger was in his doctor uniform, Zenex was a kitten, and Hivehunter, Pharynx, and Hero were soldiers.
“Wow… everyone is here,” Spiny heard himself say aloud as he finally reached the top. “Why though? I mean, I know you were looking for Dagger, but how’d you know to look here? We were running so fast!”
Hero chuckled. “Thanks Wolf.” He motioned to the grey wolf standing next to where Spiny stood.
“I see…”
“Yep,” Broken said. “Well, that, and we smelt Dagger’s lust. Or at least, Mantis did.”
“I’ll take that.” Mantis took the recording device from his boyfriend’s hooves as soon as he reached the hilltop.
“Hey! No fair!” Dagger pouted, but Mantis firmly put a hoof to his mouth.
“Shush. We can have private time later. Now, apologize to Spiny for all the trouble you put him through. You could’ve gotten him injured and you know it.”
“Hmph… fine…” Dagger turned to Spiny. “I’m… M’sorry…”
“For?” Mantis narrowed his eyes.
“M’sorry for everything…”
“It’s alright. I guess.” Spiny sighed heavily. “What a night.”
“Mhm.” Hero took the camera. “Let’s see this horror film you made…” he began messing with it, rewinding it back to the beginning.
Everyone leaned in to watch. As they did, Hero shook his head.
“Jeez… you really need a script… and an editor… like, I could refilm this with toys and it’d probably look better,” Hero said. “Although, when the one leading the operation,” he pointed to Venom, “has the same IQ level as Pharynx, I’d expect nothing more or less.”
“Hey!” the aforementioned changeling said.
“Well, tell me I’m wrong. For Chrysalis’ sake, you colorbugs have no brains… also, what’s with the blood effect? Red paint?!” Hero facehoofed. “I haven’t seen something so lazy since that one kill in like, Predator and Prey! I’m pretty sure the only good thing here is how loud and realistic Cricket’s screams are!”
The green changeling blushed, smiling a little.
Hero turned to him and smiled back, nodding, before looking back at the film. “And, flame face, grape bug, and ticklebug, what’s with these awful costumes? We’re changelings for Chrysalis’ sa— you know what, no, I’m done! The only good thing about this movie is the run time and Cricket, case closed, door bolted, boards up—”
Then that one scene in the footage occurred. Hero looked at it, raising a brow. “Hm… interesting.”
The others walked up. “What?”
Hero showed them. “See for yourself.”
Everyone watched as the scene played out, and they all had… quite a variety of reactions. Most of them looked at the Change Gang as if they’d just murdered someone, whilst Hero and Dagger stared at the scene with great interest.
“Dude…” Hivehunter said, trying to resist the urge to vomit.
“Pft, weak,” Hero said. “It’s not even all that graphic.”
“Yeah! I risked my neck over this?!” Dagger asked. “And you guys are mortified?!”
“Yeah! Get tougher skin ya weaklings!” Hero shot as well.
The other Fangs glared.
“You guys are war veterans! Haven’t you seen worse?!”
“Shut up, Hero!” the Fangs spat, trying not to look embarrassed.
Venom took the camera back, looking at the battery. “Ten percent… I think I can do a little something with that.”
“Such as?”
“You’ll see.”
“Well, that was something…” Pharynx said to Blue and Hero as the three of them met at a food table.
“How so, Papa Pharynx?” Hero asked.
“I mean, the Fangs braving the Change Gang’s horrifyingly bad special effects… yet they are scared of pony nudity?”
“Eh, Chrysalis didn’t allow smut in the hive,” Hero replied. “But yeah, ponies walk around naked ninety percent of the time.”
Blue blushed. “Yeah, yeah, shut up... I didn’t need to see any pony rear. And it’s mostly Zenex we tried to protect from that… pass me the ketchup, will you?”
Hero slid it over after Pharynx squirted some on his fries. “Here. Don’t like it on my food ‘neither way,” Hero stated.
“Thanks.” After Blue squirted some on his hamburger, he and Pharynx took a bite of their respective foods, only to spit it out as soon as they tasted the “ketchup”.
Hero raised a brow. “Jeez, the heck happened to you two?”
“Ugh, this ketchup tastes awful! What is—” Pharynx read the bottle aloud. “Ruby Bloodstone… Acrylic Paint?!”
Within seconds, they heard the sound of a familiar blue changeling snickering. They turned to see said blue changeling behind a nearby shrub…
...with a camera in hoof.
“VENOM!”
Author's Note
Managed to get this out before Halloween, so... that’s a plus.
