A Nurse in Disguise

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8

Prologue

Within the mountains far out in the Undiscovered West, a Changeling hive was bustling with activity. At all hours of the day the hive was filled with drones going about their daily tasks: soldiers patrolling the hive's perimeter and countless tunnels, workers building and maintaining those tunnels, preparing for a new expansion that was planned soon. Meanwhile deep in the bowels of the hive, the young nymphs that were the future of the hive were kept, safe and secure, under the care of the Nursery Drones.

Within the nursery, Nephila, the sole member of the night watch began her shift, same as any other evening. As her fellow nursery drones from the previous shift filed out through the single entry to the rest of the hive, she looked over the nymphs and larvae - the future of her glorious hive - all cuddled together snugly as they rested after a day of playing and education. It was one of the most adorable displays Nephila had seen, and one that she never grew tired of, even after 20 years of service to her hive. She had cared for countless numbers of grubs, many of which she now called colleagues, and was sure that she would care for countless more before her time was done. After all, there was no danger that could possibly reach her here in the nursery, the most heavily guarded section of the hive!

Queen Vevnith was barely three decades into her rule of the Hive she shared a name with - a scant time compared to the tens of centuries her mother had ruled for. She still felt unused to the weight of expectations from her hive crushing down on her. A weight that bore down particularly hard as she had listened to her envoys reports of other Hives seemingly disappearing over the last few years and that her spies had stopped returning from.

At first these disappearances did not seem cause for worry. Hives would occasionally need to go into hiding if their activities gained attention from a large group of ponies - a threat that had only grown since Equestria had become a true country early into her mother's rule - or occasionally even be destroyed entirely if a wandering dragon decided to make their mountain its home, turning their tunnels into an ideal place for it to store its hoard. Yet these things were random. Sporadic. Not at all like the sweeping quiet that had been spreading like a wave.

A wave that - if the loss of contact with her scouts and more distant harvesters was anything to go by - had now reached the borders of her own territory.

As Queen Vevnith dismissed the administrative drones that had just finished relaying their reports, she looked over to the drone she had made into her personal adjutant. "Arachni, would you please review the hive's food stores?" Her multi-layered voice seemingly reverberated within itself, "While you are at it order the harvesters to bring in as much meat as possible, and inform the soldiers to go on high alert. Whatever is out there, we must be prepared for it."

She looked down at Arachni with a smile yet her smile felt fake even to herself, and she knew Arachni would feel her concern anyway, but appearances must be maintained after all. Hopefully sending Arachni to deal directly with her orders would prevent that worry from infesting the rest of the Hive Mind.

"O-Of course my Queen, I will see to it immediately" Arachni said before hurriedly flying off to see to the tasks she had been given.

With her departure, Queen Vevnith was left with her thoughts in the suddenly lonely hall. Something is very wrong...my children should not simply vanish like this. What could be taking them from me before I can even feel them? It's like they simply ceased to exist! I don't know what to do…

Her thoughts trailed off into nothing before she shook herself from them. A Changeling Queen's duties did not end even with an empty court, and she steeled herself before refocusing on the Hive Mind, her own voice was the strongest among the chorus and was truly focused on spreading the order and sense of duty that ensured the entire Hive continued to function as a cohesive whole.

Eventually, Queen Vevnith's attention was pulled back into herself with the sounds of Arachni returning to the throne room.

"My Queen, the guards have increased postings all around the perimeter, and the last of the harvesters should be returning soon," Arachni began her update "and the storage halls report food enough for six months - slightly over a year if we rationed carefully." Arachni positively radiated the satisfaction of a drone that knew it had served its Queen well.
"Thank you Arachni, I hope it will be sufficient."

The Queen's response surprised Arachni, who had hoped the news she brought would help assuage her Queen's worries. But instead they only seemed to be returning stronger than before.

"My Queen?" She asked with quiet sincerity "is something wrong?"

Queen Vevnith looked to her loyal servant a moment before responding, "No, Arachni, there is nothing for you to be concerned about."

It was true, after all, Arachni was intelligent, dutiful, and loyal beyond compare. She was truly the ideal drone, but the vagaries of worrying about the future, and fears that there may be a long siege coming, were beyond her. She was still a drone, after all.

No, such things were concerns for the Queen and the Queen alone, no matter how lost and out of her depths she felt.

Arachni felt the honesty in her words - albeit not the technicality that made them so - and nodded before taking her leave of the throne room. Content that her Queen had everything under control, and ready to spread that surety throughout the Hive.

Unbeknownst to the Hive, only a few valleys and ridges away, the nameless drones of Queen Atheria disposed of the body of one of Vevnith's scouts. They were at the very edge of where Vevnith's Hive Mind could reach, but their own Hive Mind rang with the experience of previous conquests. Bringing the knowledge to hit these scouts hard and fast - before they even knew they were in danger - to ensure that no clear warning of their arrival would proceed the army's arrival.

Queen Atheria herself smiled down at the battle plans before her. Hive Vevnith's warriors had never been defeated in battle, and so they were the greatest threat to her grand plans of the mass unification of all of the Hives, unified under her name. For that alone, they would be snuffed out tonight. Every last drone was to be eradicated. For Hive Atheria was flush with the conquest of numerous Hives, a sea of warriors were on standby, they were assimilated by Atheria via many means, whether it had been guile, wit, or open warfare. Now Hive Vevnith, for all their strength, stood alone.

"General Spinder!" she cried out, her authority crackling along the Hive Mind along with the confidence in her voice "We strike tonight. Your horde will surround the mountain and prevent any from escaping. Pen them into their holes so they might die with their Hive. For the rest of you!" She turned to the other gathered Generals. These Generals were the few amongst her Hive that had proven themselves not only capable of command, but worthy of a name as well "You will swarm the entrances as soon as Spinder's encirclement is complete. They are likely prepared for a long siege, so we will bury them with our bodies instead! Their warriors are strong, but they will not stand before our numbers. Kill everyling inside that hive, down to the very last grub!"

Her Generals bowed to her before dispersing to bring her orders to their commands. Unlike the drones that would soon be swarming Hive Vevnith, they themselves were veterans of previous conquests and knew their business.

Queen Atheria turned back to her map and her smile grew into a mad grin. With most other Hives she might try a decapitation strike, kill the Queen and take those proud warriors for herself. But their individuality meant that plan would be...less than effective. They would be shaken by the loss, but would continue to stand and fight to the end. So instead her drones would scour the deepest reaches of Hive Vevnith first. Clear out anywhere they might try to make a stand against her numbers before they had a chance to organize. Then the rest would fall, attacked from all sides, above and below with nowhere to run.

She was so close, finally her victory was truly within her grasp! "Say goodbye to your precious Hive, Vevnith," she crowed "It dies tonight!" Her vicious cry descended into a wild laugh as her plans went into motion all around her.

Chapter 1

Nephila's quiet shift was nearly at an end. Even though she couldn't feel it deep in the dark under the mountain, she knew the first rays of light would soon be reaching the mountain's peak. Soon, the quiet murmur of the nighttime Hive Mind would grow from a few hundred voices into the thousands! Bustling with voices as the Hive began its day.

However her quiet contemplation of the dawn that would soon be coming was interrupted by a sense of unease from the outer sentries. Normally, she would not be able to feel anything so mild, but with so few voices adding to the Mind any irregularity stood out. Out of curiosity, she turned her mind towards the voice, wondering what could be the cause o- ALARM! ALARM! ATTACKERS ATTACK-

Nephila staggered under the sudden weight of the sentries' cries! It felt like the entire perimeter was shouting as one before falling silent just as suddenly. She hoped from the guards being simply too busy dealing with this threat - whatever it was - to continue their warnings, but....she feared there was another reason.

This sudden, oppressive silence did not last long. Her fears soon doubled as the entire mountain - from root to peak - was rocked by a series of explosions. Down in the depths it was scarcely more than a series of dull 'thumps' through the rock. But for her to even feel it at all-! Higher up it must be devastating!

Her growing terror and the panic of a hundred other Changelings soon filled that terrifying vacuum in the Hive Mind. Quickly, more and more voices began to join in, woken by the shock of both the initial cry and the blasts.

More wordless fear. More warnings. More queries. More. More! More! Until the Hive Mind - normally a calm, quiet chorus of unity - was true bedlam! Nephila felt the entire hive dissolve into chaos as the panic of every Changeling within it built upon itself over and over again.
Nephila did notice some voices trying to reign in the chaos. Various commanders of the guard tried to organize their troops, get them out of their quarters, and into the growing fight. Yet they weren’t but a faint echo amongst the cacophony of chaotic noise.

Queen Vevnith was having slightly more success organizing all those unskilled in fighting, organizing them into ad hoc militias and evacuation parties, leaving the main battle to her experienced commanders. Nephila felt her Queen as a reassuring presence amongst the chaos, her presence taking the edges off of the jagged terror still echoing through the Hivemind. It was too much for even the Queen to truly quell, but it was enough that Nephila was able to think once again.

As her individuality reasserted itself, Nephila grew more aware of the wails of the nymphs around her. Their minds were still developing, and were practically open to the Hive Mind pressing in on them. So she blocked out the roaring chaos as best she could and focused on her own duties. She might not be able to help the fighting up above, but she could help here inside this room.

So she set about caring for her charges in the nursery. Using touch to bring nymphs back into themselves, soothing them despite the panic pounding at their minds. She focused on doing what she could for her charges, even as the shouts from above became audible through the air instead of just through the Hive Mind. Even as the explosions drew ever closer.

Soon, the explosions and sounds of fighting became far too much to ignore. Cracks were beginning to spider web across the ceiling as rock gave way to the constant jackhammer of blasts. Nephila gathered all of the soft grubs into what sheltered alcoves were available as the dust shaking off of the ceiling changed to rubble falling down and bouncing off of her carapace.
The clangor of desperate fighting sounded like it was right on top of her! Oh and the buzzing. Oh Queen the buzzing of a thousand wings from what must have been a massive swarm bearing down right! At! Her!

The escape tunnel! The thought burst through her mind. I need to take all the young into the escape tunnel! I'll have to have the older nymphs help carry the grubs but we should be able to-

Nephila's thoughts of escape were brought to a sudden halt when a massive blast - the closest one yet - dislodged a shower of stones from above as the ceiling threatened to give way entirely. Her last coherent thoughts were spent trying to shout at the nymphs through the Hive Mind to hide even as a stone crashed directly onto her head, leaving her a heap on the floor of the nursery she loved.

Chapter 2

It was impossible to say how long Nephila lay on the ground. One moment she was trying to save the nymphs. The next she was on her side, limbs spasming sporadically as she tried to keep doing her duty to her charges, even while her thoughts tried to reassert themselves.
As her mind cleared and she was able to take note of her surroundings, she realized it couldn't have been too long since she could still hear fighting. But...But the sounds were much quieter. Had this invader - whoever they were - been pushed back at the last moment?

As she breathed in, she was smacked with an overwhelming stench of death and ichor. The smell of a hard fought battle. Nephila fought down a gag and tried to breathe in more deeply through her mouth instead, but her attempts were stymied by the realization that something was pressing down heavily on her side, keeping her from taking a full breath and pinning her to the ground.

She slowly tried to look around, blinking away the dust and grime that clouded her vision. From her position on the ground, she could not see much of the room, but was able to determine that she was trapped by a part of the ceiling that had given way. She started to thank the Queen for her luck in not being crushed, only to realize that instead she would be stuck here for however long the battle went on...possibly even longer as the workers would need to clear a way through the rubble and bodies higher up first.

Panic welled up inside her once again, before she forced it back down with determination. If help wouldn't reach her in time then she'd have to rescue herself! She had her magic still, and at least some movement in her legs. She would have to figure something out - at least give herself space to breathe!

Testing the slab above her, careful to not move it in a way that would make it shift and crush her for good, Nephila found she could lift it juuuust barely if she pushed with her magic and her body. However she couldn't move from that position. She searched around again, desperation once again clawing at the back of her mind, trying to find anything that would help her.

Her eyes fell on a large stone resting nearby. Idly wondering if it was the same rock that had knocked her out in the first place, she pulled it close with her magic. Pushing the slab up once again, she was able to wedge the large rock underneath it, and keep it from coming down quite as far when she released it.

It wasn't much, but it would be enough.

Carefully. Slowly. Nephila worked her way out from underneath the slab. Barely moving an inch at a time, only able to wiggle her way forwards when she exhaled. She fought every inch of her way to freedom before - with a triumphant cry! - she pulled herself fully out from underneath it and stood up - taking in her first full breath since waking up!

She had lived! And saved herself! Now she needed to take stock of the little ones. Some of them were likely hurt by the same collapse, and any that she could save would need immediate help!

Only…

Nephila collapsed against the wall. Unable to hold herself up.

Dimly, she realized why she hadn't heard any cries of pain or fear from the nymphs.

The guards hadn't beaten back the enemy.

As she looked around her nursery, the throbbing in her head that had been there since she woke up began to pound, and her breaths came short and fast as she found it harder to breath now than when she had been under the slab of rock.

Her nursery had become an abattoir.

Nymphs were slain all around the room where they had tried to run from their attackers. Grubs that she had taken such care to make safe from the same rubble that eventually knocked her out were smashed where she'd laid them. She searched through the bodies, barely able to see through her tears or breathe through her sobbing. Hoping that even one of them had survived, but no. Dimly, she realized that she was the only thing left alive in that room. And she needed to get out of there now. She couldn't bear to stay in this room of death any longer.

There was still fighting up above, far away, so far away now, but still blocking her exit that way. She knew there was still the escape tunnel, but through the pounding in her head and her grief she couldn't remember where it was hidden.

It was covered with an illusion, but where was it? She had already searched all over the nursery hoping to find life, now she searched again hoping to find freedom. Growing more and more desperate to escape as the weight of the entire mountain above felt to be crushing her down once again.

"Think, Nephila, think!" She shouted to herself. It was too much. She needed to calm herself down before she worked herself into a panic once more. She stopped in a corner that stank of death a little less than the rest of the nursery, and slumped up against the wall to catch her breath…

..only to fall straight through the illusion and crash onto her side.

Found it, she dizzily thought.

Picking herself up off the ground once again, she began walking down the tunnel. It went on seemingly forever in front of her. On and on through twists and turns, only continuing to move through with sheer determination and the realization that every step she took the air got cleaner and fresher.

Finally, she came to the end of the tunnel. She readied herself to take to the air and escape for good, looking through the trees that concealed the mouth of the tunnel when - for the first time since she'd awoken - a feeling from the Hive Mind broke through and caught her attention.

It was defeat.

In shock she looked back at her Hive through a gap in the trees and could see what looked like a last desperate attempt to break free from the attack and escape. A mass of her hivemates flying out in one last gamble to save the Queen...and Nephila's shock turned to horror as her hivemates were swarmed by the massive hive attacking them. One by one they were brought down. Even at this distance, the Hive Mind grew quieter and quieter as fewer and fewer members remained.

The tears came when she felt her Queen's voice disappear from the Mind. With her loss, the retreat of her hivemates fell apart for good. Each individual desperately tried to scatter and find their own path to freedom, but each and every one of them ran into hundreds of the attacking drones. Every death was like another knife to Nephila's heart. They were so few in number that she could hear the individual voices, hear their last moments before they too were snuffed out. Until finally...there was silence.

Nephila had thought that the quiet after the first alarm had been oppressive, but it was nothing. Nothing compared to the silence she felt now.

It was way too much. She had watched her world end right in front of her, unable to even move. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. She collapsed down one final time and lay there. Sobbing, and whimpering to herself and only herself under the cover of the trees. For the first time in her life she felt truly and utterly alone.

Chapter 3

3 days had passed till all the Changeling warriors finally left her ruined and desecrated hive, leaving Nephila alone to wander the broken halls of her once great home. For an entire day she absent mindedly wandered around the hives countless tunnels and chambers. After countless hours her wandering turned to searching, searching for survivors. She knew it was a useless endeavor when she began as the hivemind was deathly still, however she still tried to find someone, praying to herself she'd find a survivor so she could prove to herself that the hivemind was wrong and that she truly wasn't alone.

Her searching however was for nought, finding nothing but corpses and husks of her former brethren. After a while she had decided it was time to leave her home, she needed to find somewhere safe to reside that wasn't this graveyard. She decided that before she'd find somewhere, she'd need to gather food, so she went down to the food stores of the hive and gathered what she could. The once great food stores were pillaged by the invaders leaving nothing but scraps for her. She could barely even scrape up anything more than a loaf of bread! She was lucky enough however to find a few ration crystals which could probably last her a few weeks if she used a minimum amount of magic, however that loaf of bread would only last her a month with the preservation magic applied meaning she'd have to thoroughly ration her food.

Now that Nephila had gathered what food she could, she had a moment to stop and think of where to go next, with no queen and with the knowledge her queen had given her hive about the loss of contact with their allies, she could only assume said allies met the same fate. So she was left rather stumped on where she should attempt to go till the one place her hivemates and herself were informed to never go came into her head. Equestria, a land where food was practically everywhere! Ponies lived all over Equestria where they were constantly radiating their love for eachother! It was perfect!

However she knew this idea would be filled with trouble from the start, it was a good 3 weeks travel on hoof or 2 weeks by flight that alone she could have handled with the rations and supplies at her disposal, however the biggest problem would be the countless amounts of hostile predators that would be roaming about! The infiltrators that went to Equestria to collect love specifically went in groups no smaller than 5 because of how dangerous the trip was! She knew the enemy Changelings wouldn't dare patrol the way to Equestria as they knew it was a deathtrap for both ponies and lings.

Nephila sat down upon her haunches for a moment and began a small breathing exercise to calm herself before she began speaking to herself out loud, "Alright… I'm going to go to Equestria, but I'll need a disguise… That will certainly be a problem, I'll need to personally make one since I have nothing to refer to…" Nephila looked around a bit trying to see if she could gather some inspiration for a disguise before a light bulb went off in her head. "Wait, what if I just disguised myself as a Pony version of myself! I can easily make such a disguise! All I'd have to do is remove my wings, fix my horn and my eyes, then I'd fit right in!" She said to herself almost giddy at the prospect of finding a disguise that would work for herself.

Nephila then stood back up on all four hooves and took a deep breath before casting her illusion spell, this spell often drained Changelings who weren't trained specifically for the task, which she definitely was not trained for. As the spell began to be cast a red flickering flame slowly inched its way from the bottom of her hooves to the very tip of her curved horn. As the flame trailed across her body, her body changed with it. As the crimson flame went across her chitin, her chitin turned to an ashy gray coat with her wings vanishing under the illusion of her new form, her eyes which once consisted of a slitted pupil and crimson irises, shifted to that of a Pony's eye. Her mane and tail shifted slightly to become more maintained and proper; however keeping the beautiful red it contained, her flank was now properly marked with a cutie mark of her own design. The cutie mark in question consisted of the pink hollowed out cross with symbols consisting of both hearts and foal toys which she designed to show that her specialty pertained to pediatrics, essentially the medical care of foals. She had hoped that if she managed to make it to Equestria she could take up a life not so dissimilar from her last, however now caring not for the future of her hive, but for the future of the ponies she'd live amongst. It was what her instincts required her to do after all, care for the young as they made up the countless future generations of both her hive and the world around her.

Nephila took one last look behind her at her former home, it was a husk of its former self, once bustling with the activity of thousands of drones was left with an eerie stillness and silence. After she got her final look at her former home, she made sure that her disguise was donned and the sword and belt she had acquired from a corpse was tied firmly to her barrel, she also made sure the saddlebags filled with both a map and her rations was fastened tightly as well. After all her preparations were thoroughly checked, she began her march across what felt like an endless sea of trees. She marched on now to her new life and future, a future she hoped would be better than her last.

Chapter 4

6 whole weeks have passed, the trip was longer for her due to her being inexperienced with the journey and having poorly miscalculated the time it would take. Surprisingly the journey had very little in the way of trouble for Nephila, however she couldn't shake the feeling that something had been following her for several days now, stalking her from a distance, just out of sight. She knew that she was only an hours walk away from the equestrian border at this point as she had been following the trail that the infiltrators had made by marking the trees with their pheromones, often times inside said trees were messages stating the distance from the border and how much longer it would be, other times there was little aid packages inside often consisting of things such as equestrian currency, which resulted in her having quite a hefty sum of bits in her saddle bags. She had hoped she could make it to the border before whatever was stalking her had the chance to catch up to her, but she was horribly wrong. As after a while a loud roar was heard from the trees startling both her and countless birds resting amongst the trees, the roar came from behind her then immediately after a series of loud thumping caused by the large paws of whatever was stalking her echoed loudly across the forest, the ground also shook with each paw that struck the ground. The combination of these sounds caused the exhausted Nephila to go into a full gallop from sheer terror. She didn't know what it was that was making those sounds, but it scared her half to death. So she decided to keep running as she heard the sounds of branches and twigs snapping behind her. The sounds of whatever beast that chased after her was growing louder with each passing second. As she ran she decided to break a major rule when running from something and turned to look behind her, behind her was some kind of wooden beast covered in scorch marks from magical burns and had arrows and bolts jutting out of its wooden hide, it also was covered in moss and what she could only assume was some kind of dried sap, the scariest thing she noticed was around it's wooden maw was old dried blood from the creatures former prey, she did not want to end up like them. So she turned her attention back to what was in front of her and screamed and cried out for help, hoping that someone would come and save her. She knew it was a useless endeavor to even try because what Pony or Changeling in their right mind would be this far from the border! However this thought process was rudely interrupted with the sound of the beast roaring again as it slammed into a nearby tree hard enough to force the tree it struck to collapse under the beasts weight, the beast got back up and charged again at Nephila before what Nephila saw as a green magical beam slammed into it again this time taking it down to the ground as several ponies rushed in from the treeline, they were clad in some kind of armor she has never seen before as they began attacking this creature with magic, crossbows, and spears, most of which were clearly just pissing the creature off. That didn’t change until a unicorn mare came from the treeline slamming some kind of spell into the creature that at first looked like it did nothing, but slightly singed the wooden hide of the beast. That was the case until suddenly the creature violently exploded into fragments of wood and dust. The spell that was casted caused the creature to self-destruct in a rather violent manner, that same unicorn mare approached Nephila and said, "What the buck are you doing all the way out here! That thing could have killed you! Don't you civilians know that you can't be traveling in these woods!"

Nephila at first was stunned at the fact she watched the creature oh so violently meet its demise before being snapped back to reality when this soldier of some kind began yelling at her. It was then she noticed the guard, she wore beautiful silver armor with golden accents and some gems embedded in the chest piece, the armor was something akin to proper combat armor that a medieval knight would wear, it wasn’t what she expected to be worn by the soldiers of Equestria. Nephila only knew of the guards in canterlot with their ceremonial gear as the few infiltrators she raised had told her of their journey’s in the Equestrian capital. Her helmet was off and Nephila could see what she could only assume was a rather beautiful mare by Pony standards, she had a nice beige colored coat with a silky mane matching her armor, it was a beautiful golden color with highlights of silver and white. The highlights showing through the golden mane as if to show how the stress of the job had aged her slightly. Nephila shook her head and said to the mare in front of her,"W-Wha? O-Oh! S-Sorry Ma'am I'm just a foreigner from out west! I was traveling through these woods as I was told that this was the fastest way to get to Equestria!" Nephila said, speaking the introduction she had rehearsed a hundred times during her travels in the case such a situation occurred.

"A foreigner… We don't usually get ponies from out west, heck I don't think we have ever gotten a foreigner from out west! We didn't even know there were ponies that lived out there! Regardless, we need you to come with us back to the border, we need to get you out of these woods before something else tries to kill you."

Nephila nodded to the guard in front of her as the guard whistled and slammed her spear into the ground once which grabbed the attention of all the other guards who immediately rushed over to her, getting in some form of formation around Nephila as they began walking her back to the border outpost they came from. Nephila looked over the guards and asked, "Why were you all the way out here? I didn't think anyPony would be patrolling so far from the border."

The guard smirked and replied saying, "Usually we don't, but we have been hunting that timberwolf for a while as it attacked one of the last two Pony patrols we sent out into the woods outside our outpost, it ate one of my guards so I personally gathered a hunting party to take the damned beast down. Thanks to your screaming we were able to finally find it and kill it for good."

"O-Oh… Well Um… What's your name?" Nephila asked the guard a bit nervously. The guard kindly smiled and said, "Gleaming Arrow at your service miss… what was your name?" Nephila blushed a bit and said, "Oh sorry! Um my name is Nephila! I was a nurse where I came from, I hoped to travel and live in Equestria and live a safe and happy life." She had said with an innocent smile as she walked with the guards. The guards had been looking Nephila over as they walked and had kept up with some rather hushed discussions about her and the concept of there being civilized ponies out to the the wastes in the west, Nephila decided it wasn’t a bad idea to warn the ponies of the Changeling empire forming out there as well and said, “Well Gleaming I am leaving because my town was destroyed by a Changeling empire out there, it formed from dozens of hives being conquered.”

“Changeling? What the buck is a Changeling?” One of the guards to her left asked and Gleaming gave Nephila a confused look as she also commented saying, “That’s a good question, we’ve never heard of a Changeling before, what is it?” This caused Nephila to look shocked, Changelings have been coming and going to Equestria for centuries and no one here has heard of them!? She gulped and said, “A Changeling is an insectoid creature that feasts on love, they can eat meat as well if they need to, but they don’t have the same digestive system a Pony does and harvest emotions mostly. The empire that’s from where I came from will likely come out to Equestria when they become strong enough, I recommend you shore up defenses in case that happens. Oh also Changelings can shape shift to look like any creature or object.” She said the last bit with a noticeable shiver to try and get the point across that Changelings creeped her out, all around her she could feel the emotions of worry, sympathy, and anxiety, the emotions made her sick as two of those emotions were borderline toxic for her kind.

The rest of the trip towards the border outpost was silent, the ponies were stuck thinking about everything she told them, Gleaming for example knew she had one hell of a report to file to her higher ups back in Canterlot, she just didn’t know if those pompous nobles would actually give a damn about such a threat. Slowly they arrived at the outpost when the sun was beginning to set, the tall gates to what was essentially a small wooden fort opened up with each of the guards entering the safety of the walls with an audible sigh as if a weight was lifted off their backs. Nephila could feel the anxiety slowly fade, rapidly being replaced with contentment and comfort as they made their way inside. Nephila looked around at the fort around her, it was filled with dozens of large wooden structures that could hold the entire garrison if needed, there were buildings she could only assume were a barracks, an armory, and some sort of building meant for food as she could smell all sorts of delicious meals emanating from the building, the faint smell alone making her mouth water. She would look around further and notice every guard in the outpost was equipped similarly to Gleaming, they all wore the same armor without the golden accents and were either resting or patrolling the tall wooden walls of the outpost, there was a few sitting around a large fire in the center of the fort, there was a few cleaning their weapons as they chatted about something she couldn’t hear. The guards had all sorts of weapons, the most common she saw was a spear that she instantly recognized due to the gem on the spear tip that was capable of firing a concentrated blast of magic at whoever the user aimed it at, something similar that her own hivemates used to use to defend their sacred home, she smiled for a moment remembering some of the hivemates of her she raised. The moment she thought of that her mind began to wander, she thought of how happy they were in their positions, the proud warriors, the gentle nursery drones, the loyal tunnelers, the cunning infiltrators, the stories they all told her on a day to day basis, oh how she was going to miss the times they’d tell her of their adventures. To the many nymphs Nephila was like a second mother for them, and she always viewed them the same way, she treated the many young as if she spawned them herself.

“Alright miss, let's get you a warm meal.” The Earth Pony guard stated interrupting her thoughts, thus drawing her attention to the stallion infront of her. Nephilia nodded as she proceeded to follow him to a decently large wooden structure inside the fort that was the mess hall. Once she made it inside she could feel her hunger set in as she realized just how hungry she got without food for weeks, she ran out of her bread rations and the love crystals weeks ago. She walked over to a long self serve mess line that had many different forms of hay based meals and a couple fish based meat products reserved for the Pegasi in the fort, two of which were in the mess hall at the time and were looking at her with curiosity and amusement as she had grabbed one of their dishes. It was something akin to fish sticks and some hay fries. She promptly walked over to a table and sat there as her mouth watered at the sight of the fish sticks, she gave it a few sniffs and picked a piece up with a fork held with her magic. She slowly moved the fish stick to her muzzle and took a bite, her eyes shooting open wide causing the Pegasi to laugh thinking she was shocked it was meat, but were themselves shocked to see her let out a content sigh as she began eating more of the fish. The Pegasi had never seen a unicorn willingly eat meat, especially a meal that was so widely known to be a Pegasus only meal since they were the only one of the three tribes to eat fish. They just sat there and watched her in awe as she ate her fishsticks then went back for more, her escort was just as shocked as the Pegasi, but in a manner where he was thoroughly disgusted with it. “How can you eat that?” the Earth Pony asked and Nephila without missing a beat said, “Fishing village, it was easier to catch fish than grow crops. Fish is so delicious, this breading is a wonderful combination with it too, I wonder, do you happen to have any custard to go with it?” She immediately took another bite when she was done talking and melted all over again from the flavor, she hasn’t tasted physical food this good ever in her life, it was simply divine!

After a little while she finished her dinner after going back several more times making sure she had enough food in her system to last her the rest of the journey, she was promptly escorted by a thoroughly confused and disgusted Earth Pony to the barracks where she took the time to set up her rack and fall asleep in it making sure to keep her disguise spell running. Which was something she had been practicing with during the whole journey to the border by keeping her disguise up for entire days and nights, thankfully it caused a very low magic drain due to how simple the disguise was so she could theoretically keep it up for weeks or months at a time. Regardless, she slowly drifted into a deep sleep.

Chapter 5

Nephila woke up in a cold sweat, her heart pounding in her chest.

It was the same nightmare she had been having for weeks. Forced to relive the events of that dreaded night over and over again, the screams, the crying, the death, hell even the fear and the terror she could taste in the air. She could still smell the sulfur from the flames and the smell of burning carapaces as she roamed the halls of the destroyed hive. The sounds of the terror of the nymphs as she was knocked unconscious echoed through her mind causing her stomach to twist and turn, the countless cries of her hivemates begging for their lives in the hivemind in their final moments haunted her to no end. She felt so helpless reliving the events over and over again, the what ifs constantly coursing through her mind. She kept thinking about what she could have done to save her young ones. Could she have truly saved them?

She was torn from her thoughts by the blaring of reveille, she’d sit up sharply in the bed to look around while panting heavily. There she’d see half the damn barracks looking at her in concern, then she tasted it, the worry, the sympathy, even the sorrow. These ponies felt bad for her and they couldn’t begin to imagine what she went through, all they knew is it was bad enough to make her whimper and cry in her sleep. Regardless she was brought down to earth as a Pony placed a hoof to her shoulder and rubbed her back, she’d look up and noticed it was Gleaming trying to comfort her, she smiled softly as she rubbed the tears from her eyes resulting in Gleaming shooing the ponies away getting them to get to their respective duties, there was another emotion that Nephila was gathering from Gleaming, compassion. It warmed her up and she fed lightly off the emotion with a sweet smile. “Thank you Gleaming, I-I’m sorry for getting so choked up-” she was interrupted by Gleaming who placed her hoof to Nephila’s muzzle to shush her, after she did that she told Nephila, “It’s quite alright, losing your town was no doubt traumatic… How about this, you need a place to stay correct? There's a small town being built due east of here, about a few days journey, we usually get our supplies from the guard depot that was propped up in the town, I’m sure they’ll be willing to let you stay and work there in the town, you can probably get a nice house for cheap and work at the hospital they built there, given that you are a nurse after all.” She said with a sweet smile as she gave her a comforting hug and released her, “Come along, let’s get you on the supply run, I’ll have my troops take you there, all you have to do is rest on the wagon, it looks like you could use some extra sleep.”

Nephila nodded to Gleaming and got up off the bed and stretched a bit trying to get some of the knots out of her back that the bed gave her, she wasn’t quite used to sleeping on Equestrian beds, she was used to the soft hammock like beddings that were built into the walls of the hives, the nursery drones always got the better bedding and she truly missed it in this moment. She pulled herself from her wandering thoughts and cracked her back a little before she began walking with Gleaming. As Gleaming led Nephila to the wagons in the center of the fort she said, “Hey Nephi I hope you don’t mind, but you’ll be eating on the way to town.” Nephila looked at her surprised about the new nickname, “Nephi?” She had said in confusion which in turn caused Gleaming to giggle then promptly laugh, “What you never had a nickname before Nephi?” She exclaimed between her small giggle fits. “N-No I’ve never had a nickname before.” Nephila said shyly, causing Gleaming to look at her in shock before asking, “Are you joking?”. Nephila responded with a shake of the head causing both mares to stand there in silence for a few moments before Gleaming went back to showing Nephila to the wagon she is supposed to rest in during the trip.

It was filled with some items to trade with the town including some building supplies such as stone and wood as well as some broken weapons that were to be sent to the depot in town for replacement. There was also a single passenger wagon that was set up in the middle of the wagon train that Gleaming led her to, that’s at least what she thought it was till she entered it and saw a weird contraption that was set up on a rotating tripod, it was a system that had a crank upon the side and eight of the magic casting spears attached to a cylinder in the middle, “What is this Gleaming?” She asked with confusion as Gleaming looked into the wagon and said, “Oh! That’s a new weapon that’s issued to wagon trains and forts on the borders of Equestria, some egg heads in Canterlot designed it, it’s a rapid fire weapon that rotates the spears in a clockwise fashion when the crank is turned causing the spears to fire a beam of offensive magic everytime a spear hits the 12 o’clock position. We have four in the fort at each corner, and one for each wagon train, try not to activate the weapon as you rest in here alright?”

Nephila nodded to Gleaming and she laid down in the back of the wagon and said, “I hope to see you again Gleaming, please come and visit! Oh also do you happen to have a book or something that can help me kill time?” Nephila lit up when Gleaming used her magic to float over a small crate and placed it next to Nephila before saying, “This has everything you’d want, a couple books, grabbed a few medical ones that I hoped you’d like, and there’s a few things the colts that fancied you donated.” She said the last one with a wink as she turned to walk away causing Nephila to blush not understanding how to properly react to that, she never had anypony find her attractive before, she was just left there completely speechless and very quickly decided to open the box and found what was inside, there was several books like Gleaming had told her, as well as there being some chocolates, a small lunch box that had some fish sticks and a tuna fish sandwich, and a small bundle of flowers with a name of the Pegasus guards, and finally a small bag of bits that had a note on it with the name of half the guards on it that said, “Hopefully this can help you start your new life”. It seemed that most of the gifts had come from the Pegasus guards that had met her in the mess hall, the rest seemed to just be from random guards, probably ones she assumed had heard her tale of woe and saw how she was when she woke up. She went and grabbed a medical book going over pony anatomy and the like as well as one of the bars of chocolate and began slowly eating the really bitter and waxy ration chocolate that had the name “D Ration Bar” on the cover of the box it was inside of, as she ate the chocolate she began reading through the book, as she read she quickly learned how accurate the knowledge she was given over the years about caring for injured ponies was. Something she knew would come in very useful in her new life.

Author's Note

Hope y'all enjoy the story so far, chapter 6 is coming along nicely!

Chapter 6

After many hours of travel the wagon train came to an abrupt halt startling Nephila causing her to drop her book in surprise, she then poked her head out of the wagon and looked around a bit and spotted a guard walking by, she then spoke to him, “Hey why did we stop?”. The guard looked at her in surprise, having completely forgotten that she was even in the convoy due to how silent she had been and said, “Sorry Ma’am, we are currently stopping to rest and eat, we are about halfway there and we’ll continue when the sun rises in the morning.” she just looked at him a bit confused and said, “O-Oh… Well guess that means I can eat these fish sticks.” She then opened up the small lunchbox showing the still warm fish sticks perfectly preserved inside, apparently the lunch box was designed to preserve whatever was inside of it to the condition it was in prior to being placed inside. Examining the lunch box made her wish they had these back in the hive, would have made preserving the meats for the hive much easier. She softly shook her head in an attempt to pull herself from her thoughts before her mind could begin to wander and make her relive her hive's final moments. She promptly began eating the fish sticks slowly while humming softly.

She knew she really didn’t need to eat at the moment, but the process of eating seemed to soothe her greatly. She never really was a foodie before her hive fell, only eating when necessary, but going without food for as long as she did made her learn to savor and enjoy food. Afterall she was greatly paranoid about going without food again. Without the harvesters and the love collectors of her hive to make sure she had a dedicated supply of food she was constantly on edge about when her next meal would be so she was enjoying this luxury while she had it.

As she finished eating the fish sticks a unicorn guard opened the back flap to the wagon and floated a bowl of stew to her, the stew was something the rest of the guards had been eating, it was a simple vegetable stew with some meat substitutes added in for the Pegasi to enjoy it better, she almost greedily grabbed the bowl slightly burning her hooves in the process saying, “Thank you so much, this smells simply divine!~” She then grabbed a spoon from the lunch box with her magic and began slowly eating the stew, letting out and adorable noise of immense satisfaction as the stew had touched her tongue, the flavor was as good as the smell in her opinion, there was a perfect amount of seasoning and the meat substitutes were so soft that they practically melted on the tongue. She practically devoured it, eating the stew so quickly it startled the guard who watched in awe at her. The guard then slowly floated the bowl from her hooves and took it back with him saying. “Get some rest, we got a long trip ahead of us.” Nephila nodded and laid her head down upon the bench she had been resting upon and drifted off to sleep, reawakening the next morning when the wagon cart had begun moving causing her to fall over onto the floor of the wagon with a resounding thud, “Owww, that hurt…” She said as she rubbed her forehead in pain as she looked around the wagon seeing the morning light seep into the gap in the wagon flaps, she went over to the crate and grabbed a canteen of water and drank it slowly to quench her intense thirst. She was quite happy that for the first time since her hive fell she didn’t have a nightmare, probably due to being comfortable and feeling safe inside the heavily armed wagon train.

She looked over at the crate again and went back to reading her medical books, taking notes on the things she needed to, she focused the most of her knowledge on the study of foals, she realized just how many similarities nymphs and pony foals had, the only real differences she noticed is that the changeling nymphs were told their roles from the moment they hatched compared to pony foals finding their way in life as they grew up. They both acted similarly she thought, they were kids after all. As a matter of fact after she took over the nursery as the lead caretaker she made sure that changeling nymphs and larvae got to play as much as they wanted in between their lessons. She remembered fondly how due to those changes the little ones when all grown up told her just how much they viewed her as a mother figure. She also remembered how she encouraged individuality amongst them which resulted in the little ones ending up with unique personalities that really ended up helping the hive a lot in the long run, the one larvae that ended up making her the proudest was the queen's advisor Arachni who she personally raised to fit her role, she truly hoped Arachni made it out of the hive alive, she really hoped she wasn’t the only one left, things will get so lonely if that is the case.

She was eventually pulled from her thoughts when the wagon pulled to a stop again, she was curious and looked outside to see it was nighttime again, she apparently had zoned out and was thinking the entire time they were going. The same guard from the night before opened the flap and gave her a ration kit this time around, it was a dinner pack this time around, it had some fancy blue coloring with the word “Dinner Ration Type K” on it.

She opened up the cardboard box with curiosity and poured the contents out and found canned meals, one was a can of mystery meat for Pegasi, then there was a can filled with crackers and two candy chocolate disks, and a coco powdered beverage mix. Then the final can had some kind of applesauce inside of it, she never heard of applesauce before and was curious about it, she moved her attention to the other objects inside the ration kit and opened it up finding one smaller box with all sorts of stuff like gum, a box of cigarettes, matches, sugar, coffee powder, and some disposable silverware for the meal, she immediately got to work opening the meal, using the can opener provided to open the mystery meat first and got to work eating it, savoring the meat that came with the meal. It honestly wasn’t that great as it was made to last in preservation after all, but she still enjoyed the meal since it was technically the first thing she ate all day.

She spent the next few hours eating the various parts of the ration and making the hot cocoa and coffee mixing it together to make a mocha, something she heard the infiltrators she raised talk about, one in particular raved about a white chocolate mocha they had during their time in Manehattan and wouldn’t stop talking about how good it was. She tried this makeshift beverage and learned how terrible the ration coffee was, the chocolate powder barely made it bearable, it was so strong and bitter that it almost made her want to spit it out.

She bared with it and drank the beverage so she could try and enjoy the dessert that came with her meal, eating the chocolate disks and the crackers, she loved the chocolate disks big time and when a passing guard smell it tried to get her to trade his entire meal for the disks which made her giggle like a little filly to think about. She did give him one of them so she could have another pack of cocoa powder to make the coffee less bitter.

After she was done with her meal she laid down on the floor of the wagon instead of the seat and quickly drifted off to sleep, due to having a nice meal in her stomach and the safety of the guards all around her she felt comfortable enough to begin to sleep peacefully.

Author's Note

Chapter 6 is released! I took a small break from the story while I waited for the cover art to be finished, now I can finally get back to work on the story, a fun fact is I'm getting chapter art made, 2 to 3 drawings per a chapter if things will go as planned.

Chapter 7

Over the course of the slow and mundane trek to the small town of Red Springs, nothing of major interest occurred until the third day of the journey when they finally arrived and began unloading the wagons. Nephila let out a groan upon realizing she can finally get up and stretch her legs, however as she eagerly made her way to the back of the wagon she face planted after realizing too late that her legs had fallen asleep and had all the rigidity of a bowl of hive jelly.

After she was done stretching her legs she turned back to the cart and with her magic lifted the small box of supplies off the wagon. As she checked the box of supplies to see what was still left inside some of the guards came up to her and gave her some additional rations so she would have enough food for at least the next four days. After thanking the guards for the rations and for transporting her she waved goodbye and began her walk around town looking over the many small structures and the fairly large and obvious hospital in the distance, most of the buildings were a sort of adobe like material, using a mixture of mud bricks and magic infused fibers making the homes and businesses far more durable than simple mud and straw should allow. She figured it made sense they’d use buildings like these to deal with with the heat of the semi-arid region instead of the massive underground tunnel complexes her hive used since ponies obviously prefer sunlight and space, which befuddled her because who wouldn’t want the safe confines of a cozy tunnel.

She was yanked violently from her thoughts when she walked muzzle first into the front door of the hospital bouncing her back onto her plot with an audible thud. She groaned and gently rubbed her nose to make sure it wasn’t broken when one of the nurses at the front desk rushed out to check on her.

“Oh Celetstia, let me look at you!” The nurse moved Nephila’s hooves out of the way and looked her over, “You should really watch where you are going dear, you could have seriously hurt yourself.” While the nurse spoke Nephila looked up at the bronze coated mare, noting she has a cutie mark very similar to her own false one, but where the changeling had a toy train and rattle the pony only had pink hearts. “It’s gonna be sore, but you didn’t break it. Come inside and I’ll get you an ice pack. My name is Spearmint, by the way.” She said helping Nephila to her hooves and holding the door open. When the nurse noticed Nephila’s cutie mark she let out an adorable squee and practically pounced upon her while stating, “Oh sweet Celestia are you a nurse?! Please tell me you are! We really, really, really need more staff! Does your mark mean you only work with foals? We’re desperate for MedSurg but we’ll take anyone at this point! Please please please join us! There’s a really nice sign on bonus too!” Nephila honestly looked at her in surprise and alarm. She honestly thought Spearmint might burst into tears. Without really thinking about it she nodded nervously but excited at the prospect of finding a new job so soon, “I am needing a job… and a place to stay. What do I need to do?”

The nurse excitedly led Nephila inside and gave her a stack of forms to fill out for the application and her education and experience. Nephila explained to the nurse about how she had come from way out west and that she was a newly arrived immigrant to Equestria as she filled out the paperwork, making up most of her background information on the fly. Her tale caught Spearmint’s attention as she didn’t know of any pony settlements to the west of Equestria’s borders. As Nephila was talking to the nurse and filling out the various forms, she discovered that there was a rather complicated test on the last few pages to gauge her medical training. If it wasn’t for her decades of experience as a nursery drone she probably would have brutally failed the test, but to her luck she practically aced it thanks to her the requirement she be taught pony anatomy in case she ever had to help care for any captives. It didn’t hurt that one of the many infiltrators she raised ended up becoming an Equestrian nurse who would tell her all sorts of fascinating and absurd stories about working in the dreaded Emergency Room of Manehattan General Hospital.

After the nurse took the forms from her and literally galloped off to the Pony Resources Office she came back with a small box saying, “Here’s your new uniform and temporary badge, please make sure to wear it when you arrive tomorrow for your first shift. You’ll be on nights at least for a while, be here at eighteen-thirty, your shift starts at nineteen hundred.” Spearmint told her while loading more books and binder into her telekinetic field. “These are your employee handbook and proficiencies, your tax forms, insurance options, temporary schedule, lunch vouchers, the latest issue of Nursing Monthly, and Helping Hooves Regional Medical Center coffee mug.”

Nephila’s head spun as Spearmint piled on all the stuff she’d need as a new hire. “What? I’m already hired that fast?” She had to crane her neck to the side to see around her leaning tower of paperwork.

Spearmint nodded so quickly the changeling thought her head might pop off, “Yup! I can’t wait to work with you!” The nurse hugged her, “Thank you so, so much.” Wait, was she actually crying? Spearmint finally let her go and straightened her scrubs. “Sorry about that. It’s just we’ve been desperate for anypony for so long now.” She cleared her throat and wiped her nose before continuing, “Also since you now work for HHRMC we’ll get you set up with a place to stay nearby, but that might take a week or two. Or six months. In the meantime here’s a voucher for the hotel down the street.”

Nephila made her way outside the hospital a little bit too quickly as she needed to catch her breath from that crazy encounter, letting it sink in that she managed to get a freaking job at a hospital on her first day in the town, her mind was galloping a million miles a minute as she replayed the entire encounter over and over again trying to wrap her head around how it happened so quickly and if she had made a horrible mistake in accepting the offer.

She snapped from her thoughts when she realized she had been walking to the hotel without really looking where she was going. Now that it was evening and the sun was just starting to touch the horizon in the distance, the ponies in the town were starting to make their way either home or to the few bars and local hangouts Red Springs had to offer. She noticed there were a few thestrals and griffons getting out and about too.

Once again distracted and not paying attention to what’s in front of her she almost bumped into a door a second time and only just barely managing to stop herself. Her muzzle would never forgive her if she did it again so soon after all. She slowly opened the door and made her way inside pulling out the voucher when she walked up to the front desk where a silver coated unicorn mare with blue hair stared at her with a mix of surprise and curiosity.

“Why hello there! Welcome to Red Springs most popular hotel, are you here for a room?” The mare asked as Nephila nodded and handed the voucher for a free room for the week. The unicorn gave Nephila the keys to her room directions down the hall. Nephila nodded and said her thanks, then immediately made her way to the designated room and opened its door, rushed inside and placed everything down as she collapsed upon the bed with an exhausted sigh, “A bed! A real, actual bed! Oh how I missed you! Never again will I travel in a wagon without one!” she rejoiced, stretching out and rolling on the soft blanket. “It’s so comfy~” she said as she hugged the hugged nuzzling her face into the pillow, letting her disguise finally drop in a burst of magical flame for what felt like the first time in forever, her horn was aching from the overuse of the disguise spell and when she finally was able to be free it was like a vice had been removed from her skull. Sighing in contented relief she quickly drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

Author's Note

Hello everyone glad to release chapter 7, was able to knock it all out today with the help of my proof readers, now below is the link to the official server for A Nurse in Disguise! There you can find out about future updates, talk about the story, and see official chapter art before it's added to the story!

https://discord.com/invite/725453VKQv

Chapter 8

Nephila woke up slowly after the long nights sleep and got out of the bed stretching her dark form. She stumbled into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. For a moment she didn’t recognize the bug in the mirror for how dirty and disheveled she was.

“How awful, I need a sand bath, badly… OH MY VEVNITH! MY HAIR! This will not do, it must be cleaned.” She said to herself as she looked back over at the shower, “I guess a shower will have to do…” She used her magic to twist the knob, setting the water to boiling hot. She then walked herself into the small bathtub shower hybrid and began taking her nice long shower, letting the steaming hot water glide down her carapace, soothing the various sore muscles underneath it from the long journey, her horn throbbed from the overexertion of her disguise spell being used for so long.

She took her time to clean her hair and tail with the small shampoo and conditioner provided and made sure to scrub her carapace down with some body soap applied to a rag. Eventually she finished cleaning all the dirt and grime from her chitinous plates and she leaned against the shower wall to savor the feeling of the hot water upon her body. Finally dragging herself out of the shower, she violently shook her body before using a towel to finish drying off.

Wrapping a towel around her mane and tail as she stepped out of the bathroom she froze in place as her eyes landed on the alarm clock. It was only five minutes till her shift started. ‘Eeping’ in panic she set to work, quickly throwing on her disguise, followed soon after by her scrubs as she rushed out of the door, almost forgetting to lock it behind her. She ran like there was absolutely no tomorrow to the hospital panicking that she was going to be fired before her first shift had even started! She couldn’t believe she forgot to set the buzzing alarm of all things!

As she ran through the town, jumping over various bits of construction material lining the sidewalks of the developing town, she had to dodge and weave through dozens of ponies still out and about as the day drew to an end. Heck she almost toppled over a filly she didn’t see and could only let out a single, “SORRY!” as she juked around her, giving the little one quite a fright.

After her sprint across town she ran right into the door of the hospital all over again, having forgotten that it didn’t open automatically. She got off the floor with an audible groan and shook her throbbing muzzle and opened the door, pointedly ignoring the Nephila shaped smudge as she walked through. She made her way through the lobby and was almost immediately pounced upon by various ponies that were clearly the family of the patients asking, no demanding to know how their loved one was doing or demanding to know where certain things in the hospital were which she either couldn’t answer as she didn’t know or gave a random answer to get them to shut up, her head was hurting so badly as the various negative emotions were overwhelming her. It got so bad she quickly ran through a gap in the rest of the ponies and rushed quickly to the nurses station behind a pair of staff only doors just to get away.

Once at the nursing station she began dry heaving and softly whimpering as the small headache she had before was now intense and mind breaking. The pain was so bad that she felt that she was on the verge of throwing up which got the attention of the nurse that she was to be assigned to today who quickly rushed over and asked worriedly, “Are you okay Nephila? Sit down for a moment dear, would you like something for the nausea? Maybe some water?” The grey coated and tan maned mare trotted off.

Nephila looked up at her and nodded while still dry heaving; she could use the aid afterall. The Nurse rushed off and came back with a paper cup of water in her magic and a small shot glass sized potion bottle and gently hoofed it over to Nephila who began to drink them both very quickly. The Potion didn’t take long to take effect as the nausea almost immediately faded away and she stopped dry heaving. This just left her with a throbbing mind numbing headache as she looked up at her fellow Nurse and said, “More water… Please…”

The Nurse smiled at her and quickly left, then returned with a bottle of hospital branded water, “Here have a bottle, the hospital gives it to us for free, now sit there for a little while and I’ll come back in a few minutes to check in on you before we start rounds” The nurse then walked off after giving Nephila the water bottle which she didn’t take long to drink the whole thing. Nephila just sat there on her haunches as she tried to settle herself as her emotions were overwhelmed by the cacophony of emotions emanating from all around her from worried family members and miserable patients, it was times like these she hated being an empath. She could already feel the headache returning at the base of her horn. Being a nurse wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for all the sick ponies.

Eventually she settled her thoughts and got up off her haunches and just as she did the nurse arrived and smiled as she hugged Nephila with care, “Glad you’re feeling better, I remember just how overwhelming my first day was. You’re name’s Nephila right? I’m Fog Bank. Now come along dear, let’s get our shift started, lot’s of colts and fillies needing us tonight.” She said as compassion and a little amusement emanated off of her. “Plus I’m sure the day crew is ready to get the buck out of here. They hate waiting on us ghouls to get report.” She leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “Just between you and me, they sure like to take their sweet time in the morning, coming in with their fancy coffees and hot breakfasts.” Nephila’s muzzle scrunched from the sour taste of actual resentment from the mare. Fog Bank took her around the floor giving her a short and sweet tour before bringing her back to the main station and grabbing a clipboard and stack of folders in hoof.

They trotted over to one of the sub stations, looking to track down their day shift counterpart and begin taking their report. When they found the earth pony mare she was actively guiding a patient back to their room with the fakest smile Nephila had ever seen. She had a bandage across her swollen snout and aggravation was practically dripping off her even as she tucked her patient back into bed. When she saw Fog Bank and Nephila she gestured them over to an empty room. Fog was doing her best to suppress her mirth, “The Tartarus happened to you, Lemon?”

Nephila was taken aback when Lemon nearly snarled at them, “The little twat goblin in twelve fucking bucked me when I was giving him his suppository! You don’t have him do you?”

Fog Bank couldn’t hold back her giggles any longer, “Heheh, no we’ve got five, nine, ten, and thirteen tonight. Nephila, this is Lemon Sour, she’s one of our best nurses. Lemon, meet Nephi, she’s just starting today, but she’s got experience.”

Lemon fixed her with a cold, dead eye stare. “Bitch you better run, tear up your license, and find a job in accounting or giving sad hoofjobs to divorced stallions. These little bastards will break your back and put you in an early grave.” Nephila took a step back as the yellow mare’s eye twitched.

“Don’t mind her, Nephi,” Fog Bank rolled her eyes and flipped a page on her clipboard, “She just needs to get laid. Now give us report, my dodeca-spresso is getting cold.” Nephilia could only look between the two in amazement and horror as Lemon started running over the details of their four patients. These nurses were nothing like her sisters in the hive’s nursery. If this was what the first fifteen minutes were like, just what did the next twelve hours have in store for her? She desperately wished she could feel the hivemind, Queen Vevnith’s presence was always such a source of strength when she got overwhelmed… Oh buzz, don’t start crying, Nephilia she thought to herself, We can do this! I hope…

Author's Note

So sorry for the long wait everyling, we decided to split up what was chapter 8 into multiple parts, due to both how long and how difficult it is to write. Keep your eyes out for the next chapter!~ - Nephila