1. Living to serve the queen
Chapter 1. Living to serve the queen
Frosty ran as fast as she could through the chaos, her legs ached and her lungs felt as if they were burning. She could not tell if the changelings were still chasing her, she was only focused on searching for a hiding place. The confusion reached her.
They just came out of nowhere. Frosty thought
Those shape-shifters. They began to take them as prisoners, separating them into groups.
The Canterlot Royal Guard was overnumbered, the Changeling Army was at least 10 times bigger
These creatures were certainly unique, they could disguise as anypony, their chitin was almost as hard as a rock, their ability to eat the magic contained in the feelings, or even their compound eyes, they seemed to have no soul. No one could tell what or who they were looking at, and of course, their legs, had holes that cut through these completely, they were the worst part, they seemed like some kind of scar, so big you can even see through them, they looked as if they were caused by the worst spell Somepony could cast.
They were the scariest thing anypony would see.
Gena walked through the train station. She had been assigned to the vigilance group. Due to her young age, she and her group were in charge of guarding and preventing ponies from escaping. in a way, it was the safest task, the chances of a pony escaping, once they have already been captured were low, however, she could not take this lightly, if somepony escaped and brought reinforcements, this mission would fail and she along with all her siblings would starve in the Tartarus for the rest of their lives.
Guarding the train station with her siblings wasn't her favorite thing. The other 9 changelings that were accompanying her were not comfortable working with each other either, in the hive they would spend most of the time trying to improve their illusion and Magic skills or doing their assigned tasks. Even though they were all the same age, they had never interacted that much with each other.
Their mission was to prevent someone from taking the train and escaping Canterlot, even if they already took the capital, the principal cities in Equestria had enough military forces to start a war with the changelings.
The queen spoke through the hive mind
"Change of plans, the new priority of everyone is to catch the bearers of the elements, even for the younglings," The queen announced through the hive mind.
"We split into two groups, Gena, Clypeus, Glossa, Gaster, and Tibia will stay at the train station, the other ones are coming with me," Someone said from behind as the second group started to follow him and leave.
It was Labrum, the one in charge, Gena couldn't imagine any reason why her brood mother would choose him over her, he was self-centered and bossy.
He doesn't even have good magic skills, he's just a narcissist changeling. Gena thought
There was a silent moment.
This was all weird to Gena, the plan was to make a non-victim attack, there had to be something wrong with the plan. The more Gena thought about it, the more she panicked.
“Who’s in charge now that we split up?” She asked.
“Probably the older changeling, duh!” Tibia said.
"Well, I guess I'm in charge now," Gaster said in a low tone.
"Okay then," Gena replied almost instantly, while she explored the train station.
Of all the changelings, Gaster was the one she liked the most, even though he hesitates a lot when making a decision, she would prefer him before Clypeus, even though he was the most emotional-sensitive changeling and probably the most magic skilled, he was bossy and apathetic when he was in charge, something ironic if you asked Gena, not to mention that he's been acting weird since the attack started.
"Are you sure that you want him as a leader? He doesn't know how to make decisions." Glossa said from behind.
"Come on, it will only be for today, there is no reason to fight," Gena replied, trying to defend her position.
"Ugh… Fine" Glossa replied with a resigned tone.
"Okay then, it's decided, now we should focus on the mission," Clypeus said, who, until now, had not said a word.
"What's eating you, Clypeus? You have been acting weird since we got here" Tibia said with her irritatingly high-pitched voice.
"It's nothing, I just… want this to end soon," He said.
"Oh no, you are not scared, are you?" Tibia replied with a mocking tone.
"It's not that! I just want this to be over soon, this place is making me fee–"
"Clypeus?" when Gena asked she looked at his face, and Clypeus' gaze went to the ticket office.
"I think… I just saw somepony at the ticket office," he replied.
“You sure? It wouldn’t make sense for a pony to hide there,” she answered
“Totally sure, I can barely taste its fear but there it is,” Clypeus said.
"Gena, you are the most stealthy, could you go check?" Gaster said.
"Sure," Gena said.
Why would he bother asking me? He is in charge, if I refuse I would receive punishment for insubordination, Gena thought.
As Gena started walking towards the ticket office, she remembered she was disguised as an adult changeling, that way she would intimidate ponies, but at that moment that was useless. So she undid her illusion spell, lowering her disguise, undoing the curse. In a way, it was better to be in her real form. The spells that the changelings cast inflicted terrible pain on them for as long as they performed them, and besides, being smaller would help her to go unnoticed. As she entered the office a feeling of being watched invaded her, it was empty. She examined the place but found nothing.
Clypeus must be going nuts, there's nothing here.
Just a moment before she started leaving, a loud bang echoed at the end of the office. Gena quickly disguised as an adult changeling again, the pain returned quickly, it felt like little needles that slowly passed through her chitin, reaching her skin.
She went deep inside to investigate. There was a basement at the end of the ticket office.
She went downstairs, it was dark, Gena decided to light up her horn, it caused pain to her, but it was better than getting ambushed by ponies. She looked at the basement, it seemed that they kept large amounts of Coal in there, perhaps it was in case the train ran out of fuel before reaching the refueling station, however, as time passed, a question became bigger, what if that sound was a pony? Could she kill a pony? She was told to do so if it's necessary, but, that's not right, it goes against the original plan, a perfect plan.
As she neared the bottom of the cellar, her footsteps creaked louder on the deteriorated wooden floor.
"Stop right there!" A voice interrupted her thoughts.
Gena froze, that sudden scream took her by surprise, she didn't know what to do, they never told her what to do in situations like these. She was just a worker changeling, she was supposed to take care of the hive, not to go outside and attack a city like Canterlot. Back in the hive, when the changelings were preparing for the attack, they just told her to keep themselves in their disguise, that they'd look intimidating enough to keep the ponies away from her.
She turned around to see where the voice was coming from, it was just a white unicorn filly.
She could be my age, Gena thought.
It looked like she was charging her horn with a blast spell. Gena was about to say something when the filly panicked and apparently, released her spell.
A long pink wave pushed her back.
"Ouch... h… how did you do that?” Gena asked with Fear.
Gena heard her voice, instead of an adult's voice, it was her real voice, she inspected herself and noticed that her transformation spell was off. She panicked, she had heard that ponies could release powerful spells, stronger than a changeling's.
Fear invaded them both. They stayed in different corners, Gena had the advantage, that filly was completely scared, and the rest of the group would come soon, however, Frosty was on the exit side and Gena had no idea what that filly could do. They remained silent in different corners of the room. Gena did not know how to counteract Frosty's magic, the simple act of casting a spell already cost her reserves of love magic, which meant every spell she cast brought her one step closer to starvation, and an unimaginable pain in her body, however, Frosty was scared too, it was convenient for Gena to stay that way, that way, she would not try casting any spell.
Why are the other ones taking so long? They must have noticed by now that I haven't been back with them. Gena started to panic
She heard some hoofsteps.
They finally came, Gena thought
Both fillies turned to see where the sound came from. Gena was anxious to get out of there. Unfortunately, Her corner was not next to the exit.
Frosty went upstairs so she could see who was approaching, peeking from the basement.
She looked out and to her surprise, Gena's hive-mates were not there, instead, she saw two royal guards and a pink dome in the sky.
confusion and fear slowly took over Gena, she could only see the shadows of what was outside, she could see the shadow of those royal guards approaching, something went bad, something went really really bad.
Frosty recognized that dome in the sky, it was the prince’s protection spell.
It was over.
Frosty ran as fast as she could through the chaos, her legs ached and her lungs felt as if they were burning. She hadn't even seen if the changelings were still chasing her, but she knew something, if she couldn't escape, she would be trapped in a dungeon with all the ponies in the city, with changelings watching them, or worse. in some kind of giant hive where they live, or in some kind of giant anthill… or linghill?
Wait! This is not the time to think about it.
She was almost there, she could see the train station, and… yes! Some ponies were waiting there too! Wait, no.
No, Frosty saw this as if life was laughing at her, fear began to take control of her as she discovered that those were not ponies.
She quickly hid in the ticket office, and for her luck, there was a basement where they kept fuel for the train, lots of coal.
Probably the changelings saw her, probably not, she was not sure at all.
She heard some hoofsteps. A changeling walked into the office. She was in trouble, at least it was not as tall as the other ones. She could tell that she was even smaller than her.
Frosty quickly hid inside the basement, there was a big shovel at the bottom and some empty bags. Perhaps they used the shovel to move the coal from the basement to the train.
Maybe I should use the shovel to knock out the changeling.
It was a heavy one, she realized while lifting it.
-Bang!
The shovel slipped from her magical grip and an audible thump was heard from the back of the office. If that changeling didn't notice her before, now it surely did.
"I'm doomed," She said to herself as the changeling started to approach.
As Gena went downstairs, Frosty started to charge her horn with a flash spell,
Maybe if she thought it was a blast spell, she would let me go.
Gena was already in the basement, she had not yet noticed Frosty's presence.
Frosty could swear the changeling looked smaller from afar. She was approaching, she looked a lot bigger once she was in front of her. Despair invaded her, it was only a matter of time before that changeling noticed her presence.
"Stop right there," Frosty said, almost yelling.
She was trembling. She had never seen something like a changeling. They were like insects.
Gena's attention was dragged to Frosty, It seemed that her plan had worked since she scared the changeling.
Now, what am I supposed to do? I am not going to stay here forever, the other changelings are going to catch me before I could leave.
Even if Frosty managed to escape from the ticket office, the changelings from outside would notice her.
"Maybe I should release my spell and run away," Frosty said to herself
The changeling was going to say something when a pink wave sent her to the back of the basement.
"Ouch… ho… how did you do that?" Gena said. She tried to cast a blast spell, but couldn't.
Frosty noticed that the changeling had gotten smaller than before. She was as surprised as Gena, her spell was just an enlightenment spell, just basic magic to illuminate a dark area, there was no way that Frosty could cast that spell.
She was confused and didn't know what to say.
It wasn't her spell, something else caused the magical wave, but she couldn't tell her. That way the changeling would stop being afraid of her, but if she kept lying, the changeling would call for help and they would take her somewhere else, just like they did with her parents.
They remained in different corners. In silence.
Gena's size was now almost half of an adult pony.
She was my size now, probably even smaller. Frosty thought, still shocked.
some minutes passed. They only exchanged glances, sometimes. Gena kept an eye on her. Frosty was on the exit side, cringed, there were more changelings outside, there was no way she could escape.
Frosty heard hoofsteps, several more, it was over, she would be taken by the changelings to a dungeon in the caves. She came out of the basement to peek. Frosty's expression changed to one of confusion as she saw two Royal Guards approaching.
Gena saw the shadow of the royal guards, she was confused, she leaned out as much as she could without approaching Frosty, the protection spell was now active, the protection spell, the one that only Prince shining armor could cast, that could only mean that her hive had failed to capture Canterlot. She was alone now.
She had to think fast.
She used her illusion spell and disguised as a light gray filly.
Now she only had to intimidate that filly, so she wouldn't give her away.
Gena quickly pounced on her.
"If you give me away, my last action will be to eat you alive," Gena said, almost whispering.
Frosty wanted to cry, but she couldn't. She just felt a constant lump in her throat. Once Gena got off her and stood up, she offered her hoof to get up. A second later, both fillies saw a pair of royal guards coming in, the same pair of guards Gena saw before.
Frosty couldn't understand what was going on, the changelings took control of the city, this had to be their plan, just to make fun of her
"Hey, you shouldn't be here," The first guard said, with a stern tone.
"We… we're sorry, we were… hiding… from the changelings," Gena said, she seemed scared, but she seemed to take control of the situation.
"If that's the case then you can come out, all the changelings were kicked out by princess cadence and prince shining armor with a protection spell." the same guard replied.
So that pink wave was the Prince's protection spell, not that filly’s doing. Gena thought.
"Oh… I understand, we will leave for our home then." Gena said as she grabbed Frosty’s leg and headed out.
"Oh no, we will take you to one of our tents, where we take care of the injured ponies, your parents must be looking for you, there, they will find you easily." The second guard explained.
Gena's expression changed abruptly. but the guards didn't seem to notice that. Perhaps, her plan was not going as expected.
"Okay, we will escort you two, so that way you will get there without getting lost." The first guard replied.
"Is that necessary?" She asked.
"We must protect the citizens, little one, now we will escort you and your friend to the tent."
Frosty couldn't tell if they were changelings or not, they acted just like a pony would. Everything changed when they left, there, Frosty could see the pink dome over the city, protecting the city.
