Life as a Secret Changeling Prince

When they entered the city, James knew it would be very different to his village but, he didn’t expect for it to be so... crowded and loud.

Changelings were bustling around corners, talking to each other loudly in Thaydonese. He swore he could even see a couple prostitutes standing outside their brothels, practically sniffing out the Equestrian GI’s.

The practice was looked down upon but it would be quite clever, if they snagged one they could possibly get a one way ticket to Equestria! James could almost admire the workers for their determination, who didn’t want to leave for Equestria?

He glanced behind him to see a prostitute attempting to solicit Bright Mac, who looked incredibly uncomfortable. He could actually overhear an escort saying to another GI, “fifteen dollar each,” and pointing to the stallion and his friend.

“Fifteen each for this shit?!”

Gods have mercy.

James sighed and walked over, telling the worker that was talking to Bright Mac, “sorry, he’s married,” he grabbed Bright’s hoof and tried to dragged him away.

The escort protested with a, “she won’t even know!” But James shushed him and continued to lead Bright Mac away.

“Believe me, you should start getting used to offers like that—“

“Why are there so many out here?!” Bright asked incredulously, looking around them.

James snickered, “simple, there’s a war here that Equestrians are involved in. They’re trying to get out of here while they can, if an Equestrian soldier plans to marry a Changeling, they can go to Equestria once this is done.”

He looked to his other side and cocked an eyebrow, “hey where’s Burnt Oak?” Bright gestured behind them, what James saw made his jaw drop.

Burnt was openly flirting with an equally flustered escort, who was giggling at something he said. James would’ve let them be if they didn’t have somewhere to be, so he walked over and grabbed Burnt’s tail in his mouth, beginning to drag him away.

He looked annoyed at first but gave the escort a goofy smile as he said, “I’ll see you at the club, Odonata!”

Odonata blew him a farewell kiss as he was pulled back into the group. “The club?” James questioned, his friend nodded.

“Yeah! He said it’s called ‘Shangri-La’ or something like that.”

“That basically translates to paradise or utopia, nice to know that they’re using that phrase to describe a brothel.”

Burnt shrugged, “I’m sure it’s not all that bad!” James could only shake his head at him, knowing that Odonata’s kindness could be feigned.

Everyone here is trying to leave.

He then looked towards the General, asking, “where is the base exactly?” His answer was an ‘almost there’, how informative.

Unfortunately he wasn’t being truthful, as it took all of them almost two hours to get there on hoof. It didn’t help that they were being stopped every ten minutes either by a desperate Changeling attempting to bribe them out of a Immigrant Visa, or an escort trying to get their attention (funnily enough, it actually worked with quite a few soldiers).

The base was huge, which really fascinated James. He didn’t know much about Equestrians, and especially not about their military. For a species that builds itself on how peaceful and friendly it is, they built quite the base here.

They were all ordered to set their things away and report back to the General, which they followed obediently.

Unfortunately for James, since he wasn’t originally a soldier of Equestria, he didn’t have the supplies. He looked at the saddlebag he packed about a week ago, his moth plushie was still in it, as well as the rock he picked up days before.

Surely the items you need in the military...

Basic training started, which practically ruined everyone there. Many of the stallions there were out of shape, while James had different reasons for struggling. His real body was never built for intense physical training, even in his disguised state he could still feel the pain.

They were forced to do what felt like thirty push ups in a minute, every time they messed up they’d have to start all over again. Then they were ordered to run a full mile, which took about twenty minutes thanks to James’ side constantly cramping every few seconds.

They were also introduced to their Drill Instructor, who’s name was Hail Storm. He was as loud and brutal as the females DI’s were back in Fanggook, James knew because of the Female Cadets of course.

He walked up to each and everyone of them, either giving them a hard look or outright insulting them. The ones who weren’t yelled at looked relieved, and James figured that he had no reason to be yelled at.

That is until Storm stopped in front of him, asking, “what’s your name, scumbag?” James gulped before saying, “James Bridge, sir!”

He looked him up and down, inhaling sharply as if he already saw something wrong with him. “Where the hell are you from, private?”

James had to think quick, he barely knew a thing about Equestria. That is... until he thought about the place where Changeling immigrants went, Neigh York. That’s the first state that they would see and live in, it seemed like the only answer he could give.

“Neigh York, sir!”

“I should’ve guessed just by looking at you,” Storm commented with a sneer on his face, “looks like we’ve got a queer in my unit, I suggest you fellas don’t sleep without an eye open with this one around.”

It took James a minute to comprehend what he had just been told, after Storm walked away it hit him. “O-oh...” he mumbled to himself, not really knowing how to react.

He wanted to be angry but he couldn’t bring himself to summon the energy to be, he already was exhausted from not only the exercising, but from the fact he was holding his disguise for this long.

They were told the times they would be woken up each morning, which many stallions groaned at. They had to wake up at five am, which James didn’t mind really, he always woke up early to help work on the fields.

After what felt like forever, they were finally sent to sleep. He figured that he would finally get a good night’s rest when Burnt tapped him on the shoulder, whispering, “once the coast is clear, we’re going to sneak off.”

“Where to? Just go to sleep, Oak,” James grumbled.

“Shangri-La, remember? Let’s go, the guys were planning to go anyways. We’re gonna be joining them.”

James glared lightly at him before mumbling, “I’ll go only if you make Mac go too.”

Burnt grinned, “I’ll do just that!”

This was gonna be a long night...