Damaged…

”You dare question my orders!?…”

Queen Chrysalis said on her throne, looking down at a changeling drone that was bound in enchanted irons that would prevent unicorns from using magic. Chrysalis studied the look of the drone; It’s dark yellow eyes, dark black chitin, glossy green wings and a darkish silver mane. The drone was a category of males that were made to be ruthless and unwaveringly loyal to her but this single drone wasn’t unwaveringly loyal.

“M… my queen… I don’t think invading Equestria’s capital is a good idea… it will expose our kind to the entire world of Equis..!”

The drone said loudly, causing a few drones in the room to look at each other nervously and start to chat between themselves. Queen Chrysalis stomped her tough carapace hoof on the throne which caused some cracks to form from the impact before speaking loudly within the hivemind.

“Enough!”

Every changeling in the room went silent and refocused their gaze on her, Chrysalis looked around the rugged room and seeing a few dozen of workers and warriors staring at her with fear as a slight grin grew in Chrysalis’s muzzle. With a chuckle, Chrysalis spoke up with nothing but cold and emotionless seething anger.

“Drone 1-20056, I hereby banished you from the hive and hivemind!”

The small crowd of changelings gasp loudly as a lowly warrior drone was receiving a surely painful death. The drone looked at her, frowning slightly before speaking up to the horror of the others.

“The name is Ventral… My queen..”

Queen Chrysalis was furious, the drone that named itself Ventral had dared to disrespect her even further. Ventral was the name of her first love, they were robbed from their life by a very jealous warrior drone many moons ago.

Quickly standing up, Queen Chrysalis blasted the drone with a beam of magic. The rooms filled with screams of pain and pleas of mercy from the drone as soon as the spell was completed. The drone tried to stand up, only to fall down onto their face.

“W… what has happened to m… me..!?!”

The drone, Ventral, asked with hope in getting an understanding only to get their forelegs gripped by loyalists. Queen Chrysalis pointed toward the door before loudly announcing.

“To all traitors and those who seek to question my wisdom will banished from the hive. Never to return less they wish to die! Now escort this filth out of my sight and out of this hive!”

Before Ventral could ask what’s going on, something struck the back of their head and made them loose consciousness.

—Unknown amount of time later—

Slowly opening their eyes to a bright blue hazy sky, Ventral vision was blurry from the harsh blow to their head. Slowly getting up a sharp pain came from their back, looking backwards toward their abdomen and seeing a small trail of red ooze leaking from them. With a gasp, Ventral turned to face the pile of ooze on the floor that was their forced resting place. Ventral immediately realized that it was a mix of blood and torn wing fragments, another mark that traitors received to mark them as banished.

Looking forward ahead was a large towering spire of unknown material that still couldn’t be explained after many years of living in the hive. With a sigh, Ventral turned away from the spire before turning into a pony. The pony was a semi-large earth pony stallion, the mane was a short and soft lavender blue with a few streaks of silver, their coat was a nice onyx blue with a few spots of dark black burns on the hindquarters and finally there was a cutie mark in the shape of a single star with a silver ring around it. Looking down to the vast desert of the bandlands, seeing a few Quartz wolves in the distance fighting over a couple of mangled corpse of changeling traitors/ and or scouts, before taking a deep breath and exhaling loudly right before saying softly.

“New life… meet Obsidian star!”

Two years later

Obsidian Star, wielding a serrated knife in his maw, slashed the blade in a wide arch and catching the large wooden wolf’s head in half. Upon its defeat, the body of the wooden wolf collapsed into a heap of wood onto the lush forest floor along with the rest of its pack that tried to get an easy meal out of him. With a large sigh of relief, Obsidian opened his maw to allow the knife to fall from its owner and stab itself into the ground by the body of the dead wooden wolf.

“What a workout…! Phew… builds up an appetite!”

Obsidian said before reaching behind him and grasping a saddle bag before bringing it in front of his muzzle. Opening up the saddle bag, Obsidian noticed a foul odor that most of not all of his fruit and vegetables had spoiled. With a frown, Obsidian flipped the bag upside down to empty the contents of spoiled food before placing it back onto his back. Picking up the knife and examining it, Obsidian frowned at its condition before placing the knife back into its holster.

“I’ll need a replacement for the knife. Hopefully a town is nearby..”

Obsidian said in their head before continuing his journey forward. Obsidian, although banished, had felt slightly hopeless before making his journey away from the badlands and while making his way towards equestria. Having met and lost companions along the way had brought a new sense of dread with him. The souls of his friends seem to follow him everywhere without pause to torment his dreams and waking hours. Obsidian couldn’t help but feel like a coward everyday, even if his companions told him to save himself despite the situation. The days got longer and much less colorful with every step ever since of his cornea’s damage from an ambush of thieves that caused most of his friend’s deaths the past couple of months. Many of them knew what he was, and accepted that he wasn’t an evil monster like the paper had written, and even found love with him.

Shaking his head, obsidian screamed in anger while letting his disguise fall.

“Get out of my head!!!! ITS NOT MY FAULT!!!!! I TRIED TOO SAVE HER!!!!!”

A trio of soft gasps brought obsidian out of his self loathing session which caused him to look for the scream of a trio. His eyes fell upon a small group of fillies that were a mix of unicorn, earth pony and Pegasus wearing a small cape of red, blue and gold. Gulping loudly, obsidian backed up slightly in hopes to not scare them anymore.

Cutie mark Crusaders POV:

—Five minutes before meeting—

Apple Bloom Sweetiebell and Scootaloo were slowly walking through the Everfree forest in an attempt to earn a cutie mark in tracking and it was midday when Sweetiebell spoke up.

“Girls I don’t think it’s working.. we spent all morning trying to find any tracks.”

Applebloom nodded before speaking up in Sweetiebell’s defense.

“I agree Sweetiebell.. we should have at least seen a bunny track or even our hoof tracks… we should go home..”

Scootaloo groaned, speeding up before turning around to face the two before responding.

“If we don’t find our cutie marks then we’ll be the laughing stock of the town..! I will not let that happen!”

Applebloom looked away a bit before speaking.

“I just think..-“

“AROOOOOOO!

The trio yelp in fear as the loud howls of nearby Timberwolf’s hunting bring the CMC’s into a terrified huddle. They dare not say a single word in the hopes that the danger would leave. Suddenly hearing a stallion shouting and the howls, of the hunting timberwolves, began to die out.

Without thinking, the trio silently rushed to the voice of the pony and upon reaching the clearing they would hear the enraged screams of a changeling.

“Get out of my head!!!! ITS NOT MY FAULT!!!!! I TRIED TOO SAVE HER!!!!!”

The trio gasp softly, seeing a changeling in the middle of a bunch of dead timberwolves. Their eyes widened in fear when the changeling stared at them. The moment the changeling took a step back the trio bolted in the other direction, screaming in terror as the changeling soon followed.

—several long minutes of chasing later—

A small group of traveling ponies, with two retired royal guards accompanying them, have come far and wide to visit the tranquil town that is Ponyville, looking in the far distance as a train approached the ponyville station. Their gaze turned towards the forest when a trio of fillies burst out of the Everfree forest in cuts and bruises followed shortly by a semi large changeling, hearing it speak.

“I’m not going to hurt you…! Please stop running..!”

The two retired royal guards, older and less powerful than the younger generation, intervene and block the changeling from continuing chase. The changeling skidded to a halt before the two as the small group began taking photos of the situation.

—Train station—

After returning from the Crystal Empire, Twilight and her friends began to slowly walk back to town. After dealing with freezing temperatures for a portion of the trip back a simple but well deserved spa day was on the agenda. The group stopped when they heard Rainbow Dash, the egomaniac jock, point out in the distance.

“Look there’s a changeling attacking that group of travelers!”

The mane six looked to where their friend was pointing at, they gasp loudly when they see the changeling defeat two ponies at once causing Twilight to take charge.

“Come on girls! Let’s stop this evil creature!”

The girls nodded, galloping towards the group as hero’s should be doing..

(To be continued..)