Life as a Secret Changeling Prince

James woke up with a startled gasp, having ice cold water dumped on him. Pain shot through his head, he reached up to feel a disgustingly warm spot... blood. Great he was injured, and he had no idea where he was.

He looked to his side and saw Odonata, being woken up the same way by a strange Changeling, they looked almost... sickly? Hell, James couldn’t even tell what their gender was, is this what happened to Changelings that feasted on love?

Odonata took a moment to stir awake, whimpering softly in pain. Then he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt (they had been put in ao dai dresses), being yanked up into a standing position.

He was shouted at in a strange language, it took James a bit to realize that it was Ancient Changeling Tongue. He managed to understand bits of what was being said: ‘on your hooves, maggot!’, ‘you’re a prisoner under our Queen’s order’, and ‘soon you’ll learn your lesson’.

‘What lesson?’ James thought to himself as the Changeling soldier left them alone in a strange room.

He observed his surroundings, the room was small, cold, and had weird green goop almost everywhere... hang on, he leaned over a sniffed a bit that was close and hissed in disgust. It was mucus, of course her soldiers were disgusting and didn’t try hiding the... embarrassing part of their species.

“J-James?” Odonata uttered, looking absolutely terrified.

He glanced at his friend and asked in an almost monotone voice, “how’s your wound?” Odonata glared in annoyance, “oh it’s just fine and dandy, of course it’s not okay!”

“I’m just asking, we have other things to be worried about,” James replied rather dully as he got on his hooves as well, trying to walk around the room.

There had to be some way to escape, even for Chrysalis’s soldiers in case of emergency. “Why aren’t you concerned?! They’re probably going to kill us!” Odonata shouted, stamping a hoof on the ground.

“I am in fact, scared for my life, however, one of us has to keep a level head in this situation,” James calmly explained as he knocked on walls, checking for hollow ones.

He ignored his friend’s swears in Thaydonese and focused on the problem at hoof, he was taught what to do in these sort of situations. Just keep important information to himself and share useless details that sound valuable, easy.... hopefully.

Odonata was panicking, “what are we going to do?!” He paced around as best as he could with an injured side, “they’re going to come in here, interrogate us like we’re soldiers and then kill us once they deem us useless!”

“Odonata, worse case scenario is that we’ll have to kill ourselves,” James easily explained, clearly not making it easier for his friend.

The older sputtered out, “J-James! For Gods sake can you give me some sort of reassurance?!”

“I just did, I said worse case scenario. It’s likely it won’t come to that point.”

His friend only began hyperventilating, tugging at his mane as he wailed, “we’re going to die!” And curled up into a ball.

James sighed, knowing that Odonata’s screaming might as well get them killed. So he walked over and sat next to him, putting a comforting hoof on his shoulder.

“Odonata, don’t worry. I’m the one who should be panicking, because I actually know military information. Anything you give them will be deemed invaluable information,” James whispered to comfort his friend.

“B-but, but...”

James shushed him, “just calm down, I’ll handle this and you stay quiet unless they ask you a question.”

Odonata nodded in understanding, keeping his head low.

The door opened and two Changeling soldiers came into the room, one of them was holding a clipboard. The other had a bundle of odd supplies on him, including a towel, a bucket of water, as well as a timer in his hoof.

The supplies reminded him of something he was told, but he couldn’t remember what they were used for. Then the one with the clipboard began speaking in Thaydonese, “If you think that you’re going to be tortured, you’d be correct, if you believe that we’ll kill you... you’re half-correct, such a thing will only happen if you don’t cooperate,” he smiled deviously, “so please behave, we just want to ask a few questions.”

James gulped, glancing over at Odonata, who was trembling in fear. He began to feel his own fear crawling throughout his body, he never expected to find himself on the receiving end of a real interrogation... those practice ones he did back then felt like nothing compared to this.

Without thinking he said, “wait! Leave him out of this, he’s just a bar-boy, he has nothing to do with the Equestrians.” Odonata glared at him, having to bite his tongue from saying something like ‘I quit that job!’, but James was desperate to keep him out of it.

“A Bar-boy, hmm? Well we might as well send him off to be questioned with the others we caught,” the Supplies Changeling suggested.

Clipboard Changeling smirked, “you’re absolutely right, Hornet!” Then he called out, “Springtail! We got another one!”

A slim female flew in, picking Odonata up like he was nothing, and dragging him out of the room as he kicked and screamed. James felt bad but he knew that if they realized he was a soldier, they were going to be even worse towards the both of them.

“What is your birth name, boy?” Clipboard Changeling asked, James considered making up a name but then realized, no one even knew who he was!

So he answered with his adoptive father’s surname, “Yang Jung-ho, sir.” Both the soldier’s noses scrunched up, looking very confused as they glanced at each other.

“Where are you from?”

“F-Fanggook, sir,” James answered, flushing green in embarrassment as he knew they didn’t believe him.

Hornet rolled his eyes, “do you really think we’re stupid, Yang?” James shook his head as he explained, “no, no! I don’t, I’m just really mixed!”

“State your parent’s names!”

“U-umm...” james hadn’t been prepared for questions like this, and he barely knew about traditional Thaydonese names!

Then Clipboard Changeling turned to his partner, “just as I suspected, he’s a spy of some sort. Get the punishment ready, won’t you.”

Hornet grinned madly, as if he had been waiting for this opportunity all day. He used his magic to form the disgusting goo that covered the wall to pin James’ back hooves down, this wasn’t good...

James gasped out as he was pinned back, his head being yanked up as a towel was placed over his face, memories flooded back from his first few weeks of training, and he finally understood what the supplies were for: waterboarding.

He finally felt the panic he held back earlier beginning to set in, he heard how torturous waterboarding was, but even he wasn’t prepared for when the bucket poured some of the water on him. He could barely breathe, the soaked towel suddenly felt so heavy on him and his heart rate was going up.

He couldn’t even fight back, as his hooves were pinned down, supposedly by the other Changeling in the room. One thing he learned about Royal Changelings over the year was that they were naturally weaker than the average male, as they were meant to be living extravagant lives in a palace, being pampered by servants, and even being treated like Gods...

Clearly James wasn’t getting that treatment right now.

He could feel some of the water go up his nostrils, he almost starting crying immediately from the terrifying rush of fear he got. His gag reflex was activated and he nearly vomited in his mouth, then the towel was finally removed from his face.

He coughed out violently, his chest burned as he finally got oxygen into his lungs. “Alright now, answer the question, why did Femina send one of her own sons here? Was it to be a spy, or perhaps you’re a runaway.”

James desperately shook his head, “no! You don’t understand, I’m not one of her sons, I’m not even from Vietrot!”

“Then explain yourself,” Hornet hissed.

He knew he had no choice, he didn’t want to go through what he just endured again, “please believe me... I’m an illegitimate child, my father is Danh Van Tranh—“

“The stripper?” Clipboard Changeling questioned, looking surprised.

Hornet looked slightly jealous as he grumbled, “of course you would know that, Nepidae.”

Nepidae rolled his eyes as he placed the tip of his hoof on Hornet’s lips, “you hush,” then he looked back at James, “and your mother?”

James knew he wouldn’t be able to lie, so he honestly answered, “the Neighonese Empress, Tsubaki Mamekagane...” it wasn’t like she didn’t possibly have dozens of illegitimate children... right?

The two soldiers went silent for a moment, then without warning the towel was shoved back onto James’ face, and the rest of the water was slowly poured on him. His screams and sobs were muffled, so the soldiers began to speak to each other in Equinish.

“My love, do you think he’s really telling the truth? Tsubaki was said to be careful with her affairs, even when it came to Seo-jun,” Hornet asked, looking unsure.

Nepidae sighed, “I can’t be sure, but we must report this to the Queen.”

Then Hornet leaned forward to peck his lips, “as you wish, my dear.”

They then both glanced down at the young teenager, who was shaking and sobbing hysterically. Nepidae snorted, as if he found the teen’s terror entertaining, “he’s being a bit of a third wheel right, I say we wrap this up now.”

Hornet giggled before he winked, saying in Thaydonese, “are we finally having private time?” His lover mumbled, “yeah sure, let’s just take this kid outside.”

The towel was removed from James’ face, being thrown to the side as Nepidae began dragging him out of the room. On the way, Hornet continued to flirt with Nepidae, even sneaking in a few dirty phrases that genuinely made James uncomfortable as he heard them be said.

And then finally, James could see daylight again. He thought it would be comforting but his heart sank as he saw what was happening outside, his friend was tied to a wooden pillar, three other bar-boys were tied with him.

The four of them were crying and pleading for mercy, James was confused at first, then he glanced towards the ground, gasping out loud. Their legs were covered in an obviously sweet substance (maybe honey?), because there was an army of ants crawling all over them, biting and eating at their legs.

A tall female and a shorter male were standing on each side of the pillar, swearing at and taunting them in Thaydonese. Then the female lifted Odonata’s chin up, leaning forward to slowly lick up his neck, making him sob even louder as she began kissing under his jaw.

“Oh come on, Grasshopper, give them at least a day or two before you violate them,” the male teased, absolutely disgusting James as he watched this.

He was reminded of Stonefly, which in itself almost made him gag.

Grasshopper stuck her tongue out at him, “you’re no fun, weevil!” Then she called out to another Changeling, who was holding a water hose, “you can spray them off now!”

The four were roughly hosed off, which clearly wasn’t helping them at all. Odonata whimpered as he was untied, being thrown to the ground and being called a ‘me-my’.

James wanted to run towards him, but knew that he’d probably be hit if he tried. So he had to watch Odonata struggle to walk towards him, ignoring the catcalls from several soldiers, from males and females.

He fell into James’ arms, breathing heavily, his voice was raspy from all his screaming. Then he looked up at James, uttering in a weak voice, “w-we’re going to be rescued... r-right?”

The teenager’s lip quivered, thinking about the massacre he witnessed not too long ago. His fellow soldiers had completely turned against his own species, and because of this, he only had one answer.

“I... I don’t know.”