Keth and Harbinger had taken another portal to a large chamber, filled with... more portals. Here however, each portal had a label and picture next to it. They were apparently grouped by city name, and each portal had a drone standing next to it.

Keth entered the chamber, eyes drinking in the sight. The massive, cylindrical obsidian room was glossy black, and perfectly circular. Keth and Harbinger walked to the center, and around them, paths spread towards portals. They took a side path labelled "Manehatten" and it too spread into multiple paths. As each path intersected the wall, Keth realized that the wall was covered with a portal, large enough for him to walk through, and linked to different locations in the first area of "Manehatten". Harbinger led him to a portal, one of the multiple branches of Manehatten.

Harbinger stopped, and turned to face Keth, his expression nearly unreadable, but lined with apprehension. "This is where I am to show you how badly we are treated. Please, follow me, and do NOT stop for any reason. You may become angry with the ponies for their reaction to you, but I must ask you not to respond with violence, although they may." Without another word, Harbinger turned and stepped into the portal. Keth, after a moment's hesitation, stepped in after him.

And was subsequently transported to some sort of storage room. Keth examined his surroundings, noting the crates full of oddities around him. Harbinger stepped forwards, heading towards a door, while Keth continued his examination of the contents in storage.

"You looking for something, eh?" Harbinger's voice called as he realized that Keth was not following.

"Kinda, I'll be right there." Some things here seemed very familiar... Many seemed to be unusable without hands, and as he opened some crates too look inside, he found a very curious item. It was a golden icosahedron. Kneeling, he picked it up, and rolled it around in his palms. Upon it's surface, a twining pattern of runes were inlaid, winding their way around the entire thing, forming an endless pattern. As he turned it over his hands, he noticed that a single face was not covered by this pattern. Instead of twining lines, it was stamped with a single, circular, rune. Intrigued by it, he placed it inside his pocket.

"Alright, I'm ready, let's go."

Harbinger opened the door, and they were greeted by the sun. Stepping outside, Keth put his hand to his brow, shading his eyes, and looked out into the center of a square. All around it, ponies milled about, moving from stand to stand, purchasing goods, chatting up a storm. Harbinger stepped out beside him.

"Alright, friend. You are about to see exactly what type of discrimination we face. Ready?" Harbinger looked apprehensive about this. "If this gets violent, which it may, I want you to head back here and take the portal back. Do not hesitate, and do not try to save me. IF it gets violent, I don't want you to get hurt, and more importantly, I don't want you to hurt one of them. Our image is already bad enough as it is, we don't need it any worse."

Keth looked at him, for a moment, but the clearly nervous changeling didn't look back. There was something... off. Why did he keep bringing up the violence. It couldn't be THAT bad.

"Alright. Let's go."

The pair began walking forwards, heading to the center of the square. The undisguised changeling and the biped both moved forwards. Keth looked around them, noticing the expressions of the ponies around him. Heads turned as the ponies began to notice them, and a hush fell on the crowd. As the two reached the center of the square, the changeling turned to the biped.

"It seems as if we have their attention, no?"

Keth looked around them, meeting the gaze of several ponies, all who met his stare with a mixture of shock, fear, and even some anger and hate, their attention drawn to the pair of non-ponies in the center of their city.

"Yes. Yes it does." He replied.

Then all hell broke loose. Ponies screamed as they began to scramble away from the two creatures. Their natural prey instinct taking charge, they stampeded away as fast as they could. Through the gaps in the crowd, Keth caught flashes of bright white and shiny gold. As he watched, a platoon of pony guards, all white and decked in gold trimmed armor, pushed their way through the crowds, entering the square.

Keth loosened the wraps around his arms as the guards circled them and boxed them in.

"Well, that was a rather quick reaction..." He spoke to the changeling next to him.

Harbinger's fear was visible. He gulped, and turned to Keth. "...Yep..."

A single guard advanced, his spear held aloft next to him in a levitational field. He spoke in a loud and clear voice. "Changeling scum. You are under arrest. Come with us now, or we will attack." Beside him, two other unicorns advanced, horns lit up.

Harbinger seemed to settle, his face regaining composure and his fear leaving him. A flash of anger crossed his face, and Keth seemed to hear another voice along with his. "No. NO. YOU HAVE PERSECUTED US LONG ENOUGH, I WILL NOT COME QUIETLY! Come and GET ME, PONIES!" The last words, he hissed out, as pieces of his carapace extended and folded over each other, forming a set of blades along his legs and wings, along with a chitin armor. He turned back to Keth, regret in his eyes.

"Go. Go back to the queen. Tell her what happened."

Keth was shocked. How could simply the appearance of a changeling warrant an arrest? This wasn't discrimination, this was persecution! He stood still as the pair of unicorns advanced on Harbinger, and watched as they fired blasts of... energy at him. He deflected them to the side and charged forwards, advancing on the ponies.

Keth didn't stay to watch. He turned towards the warehouse they arrived in, and found his way blocked by a pair of ponies with wings, pegasi.

"You there, biped. You are also under arrest. Come quietly and we won't harm you." The one on the left spoke, threatening him with a spear.

Keth lowered his arms, bandages loosening entirely, falling to the ground. The ponies looked at him for a moment, but that was all they had. He whipped his arms up, the bandages brought to life, and they snaked around the wings of the pegasi. With a grunt, Keth pulled them tight, the bandages cocooning the pair's wings, and they dropped to the ground. He took off, leaping over their heads and willing the bandages to loosen once again. The bandages followed his airborne body as he dashed towards the warehouse, away from the fight. The guards, stunned at the sudden actions, turned back towards the more immediate threat, the changeling.

Harbinger neared the unicorn, and as it's horn flashed, he brought up his leg. The spell deflected off of his plating, and he continued the motion, falling with his strike. His blade sliced through the left foreleg of the unicorn, and it grunted in pain. Passing by it, Harbinger extended his left back leg, and caught it once again in another leg. As the unicorn fell, he rolled back to his feet and moved for it's partner.

The other unicorn conjured a blade in the air, and held it in a defensive stance. Not slowing, Harbinger continued his charge, and ducked under the wickedly sharp blade aimed for his throat. As the unicorn reversed it, he side-stepped, and battered the unicorn with a holed, translucent wing. As it stumbled, Harbinger twirled around on his back legs, fore-legs extended, and caught it above the brow, opening it's skin. Harbinger's face hardened as the pony stumbled, and he stopped for a moment. Before the pony could recover, he turned on his forelegs and bucked the unicorn in the chest with an exoskeleton-enhanced blow. He felt bones give way beneath the skin, and he turned to face his foe. The unicorn was on the ground, groaning and covering it's chest with both forelegs. Turning once again, he faced the leader of the platoon, whose horn was charged. Harbinger knew his orders. He made a move to dodge the spell, but 'stumbled' into the path of the attack, allowing it to hit him directly. His eyes grew fuzzy as he fell to the ground, the stun spell beginning to take effect. He vaguely saw another pair of unicorns advance to his form, and then felt the shock of another stun spell. His vision darkened and he faded into unconsciousness, mind filled with a single thought.

My death is for my people, I live forever within the Hive.

Author's Note

So, I'm going to try and write a bunch over the next few weeks, as I have so many ideas and want to write them.
Enjoy XD