Breathe…

It all begins with the breath…

Breathe in…

I remember how frail she looked… I knew I loved her, but I also knew there was nothing I could say to make things better…

Breathe out…

And then, one day, she didn’t move anymore…

… She was still and lifeless… And I saw that and couldn’t take it… I couldn’t take the pain, and so I burned it! I burned it to the ground, and left!

… Then, I was alone…

I was all by myself, and wandered through the fields…

I know I live north of the Everfree, and I know I was walking towards Cloudsdayle, but I don’t know where I met her…

The changeling who would become my new mother…

I open my eyes to see the roof of my room, inside the hive…

I know it was two years ago, but it’s a pain that just never goes away…

I stare up at the greenish-blue polyps of the ceiling and think to myself that that used to be bluer!

Suddenly, the fleshy door to my room dissipates to reveal a bluish-white creature there, with many horns on her head, and a kind, albeit alien look in her wisteria purple eyes… “Good morning, my precious Binky!”

I stare up at her, from the soft gooey mattress region of my room, “Good morning, mom!”

“I need an extra big dose this morning, cause there’s more egg laying to do here in the spring!” She states, as she trots into the room, and the fleshy mass closes behind her…

“One extra heavy dose of love, coming right up!” I say as I roll off to the left of my bed, and land on the carapace floor, with a clank of my hooves, to begin trotting towards her…

As I become enveloped in her loving forehooves, I return the affection, and smile in happiness…

“How could I not love you, mom? You saved me!”

“I’m happy to hear that Binky! Because there’s something important I needed to speak to you about!”

I stay in her loving legs, “What’s that?”

“Ugh!” She grunts before giving me a tight and loving squeeze and then lets me go, to land on her hooves, and smile at me, “Well, it’s about the new Changeling Exchange Program, at Ponyville Elementary!”

I frown, “Changeling Exchange Program?”

<*****>

The changeling widens his pale orchid eyes, inside the lightergreen carapace, frowns his insectoid mouth, and says “I don’t know?” to the dark green changeling, before turning to the other yellowish-green changeling of the crew, “Do you wanna go by Cara, instead of Carapace?”

“Uh, um, yes please!” The other changeling says, as he shirks back, and his blue eyes grow wide…

His light green leg comes to his face, as his eyes narrow, “Ugh! You’re such a wuss!”

Cara frowns, while the light green changeling in the center finally speaks, “Um, does anyone know where we’re supposed to go? They just told us this address!”

I finally clear my throat from 10 feet away, “Uh, we should probably go see the receptionist?”

The first changeling stares at me, wide-eyed, “Holy crap! That actually makes sense!”

The yellowish-green changeling widens his gaze at me, “Oh, you’re the foal that Chrysalis adopted, that time before we were born!” and smiles, “Yeah, my name is Bumble!” he points at that lighter changeling, “That’s Pincer!” and then at the jungle green changeling, “He’s Carapace!”

Carapace smiles at me, “Um, you can just call me Cara, please!” before staring to the side and blushing…

“Such a wuss!”

I smile warmly, “I use to feed love to all three of you, when you were larvae!” when I remember that changeling formative years are a bit different and faster than ponies…

Bumble frowns at me, “It’s the Life-Giver!”

Pincer enlarges his gaze to me, “The Life-Giver’s going to school with us! Cool!”

Cara looks at Bumble, “Life-Giver?”

Bumble stares at Cara, “Yeah, she fed us love for so long, while mommy was building her hive, remember?”

“Well, yeah! I know that! But you two have been calling her the Life-Giver? When did that start?”

Pincer adds, “You’d probably know that, if you actually talked to us?”

“Wait! You changelings call me the Life-Giver?”

Cara looks at me, “Well, they have, apparently… “

“Ahem!” Cherilee clears her throat at the center of the podium, at the front of the class, and raises her voice, “Greetings, changeling class! You’ve been assembled here because you’re being introduced to pony society, and the school has seen fit to give you special classes for the first week, before school starts after summer!” before lowering her voice, “And because I need money, after not working for two months!”

Pincer says, “See? We’re just a paycheck!”

Cara says, “Wait! Our time is worth money?”

Bumble replies, “Duh!”

Cherilee speaks up, “QUIET CLASS!”

All the changelings, and I raise our gaze towards the front desk, as the magenta earth pony clears her throat again, “Will you please take your seats class, so we can begin?”

The changelings head towards the desk area of the classroom, while I say to Cherilee, “Wait! This is the Changeling Exchange Program, right? Why am I even here? I’m a pony, remember?”

Cherilee smiles at me, while staring at me with loving blue eyes, “Yes, I understand that Binky, but you’ve been through a lot of trauma, and after two years of time with Chrysalis, they said you needed to be reintegrated into pony society, and since the program was starting soon anyway, it seemed like a good way to begin!”

“It wasn’t that bad!”

She frowns, “Binky, you saw your own mother die, slowly and horribly in front of you! Don’t you believe you should work on that?”

I gaze at this pony as I frown in suspicion… “What kind of class is this?”

“A integration course! Nothing more!”

I squint my eyes as I walk towards the desks…

I see Pincer in the back, Bumble near the center, and Cara up front…

“Take your seat Binky, and we can begin!”

I sigh, and decide to sit in the desk next to me, somewhere between the first two changelings, and stare forward…

<*****>

I trot behind the three changelings, on our trek back north to our hive, in the Everfree…

I find myself lost in thought…

I keep thinking this is about more than just integration?

If it is, is that a bad thing?

Well, that depends! What is their goals?

“Hey! I heard your mommy died! I bet you cry about it a lot, right?” I hear a feminine voice yell behind me…

“Poor baby!” I hear a slightly lower pitch voice say…

I turn around and narrow my eyes, to see a pink earth filly, with a white mane, sporting baby blue highlights, and to her left, a gray filly with a white mane, and stylish blue temple-less glasses… “Who are you two?”

The pink filly struts forward to say to me, “Oh, just somepony who just feels so bad for you!” before snickering as she approaches me…

Pincer steps out from behind me, to get between us, “Hey, Binky’s been through a lot! Leave her alone!”

The pink filly stops and lowers her view, “Oh, who’s gonna stop me? You, bug boy?”

Pincer sneers, “Your move, bleach pone!”

I sigh, and begin trotting to brush Pincer to the right as I approach the pink foal, shoot my right forehoof to her throat, and rush my forehead towards her snout, to make contact, to throw her off my hoof, and I trot forward with same hoof, to bring my off-hoof into her jaw, making a visible bruise below her mouth, and she turns to gallop away!

“This isn’t over!” I hear her shout as she runs away, with her gray friend!

“Come back, so I can hurt you some more!” I shout at her, as I continue walking forward!*

Eventually, I see pale verdant mandible go over my body, to force me to stop walking, as I hear Pincer say, “You proved your point! Let her go… “

I stand in my tracks, as I frown as the pink foal running away in the distance…

I feel liquid exiting my eyes again…

I feel the fluid reaching my snout, to go around my mouth as I say, “I’m fine! You three uh, just go ahead! I’ll be by soon!”

I feel the mandible leave my body, as he says, “That’s fine, Binky! But we’re your brothers! You need to let us in, sometimes… “ before I see a green bug moving away from me, after passing my right…

“I’m fine!” I shout at the changeling…

As he continues to trot away…

“Ugh!” I roll my eyes, and trot to follow, as more liquid falls to the ground, from my face…

I eventually stop, to use my hoof to wipe my face, and I note the changeling continuing to trot slowly, away from me…

“Hey, wait up!” I shout, as I run forward…

I decide I don’t want to be alone, so I pull up to his left, as he turns his face to me, “Ready to talk about it, yet?”

I look at him, “Talk about what?”

He sighs, and nods, “Have it your way!” before turning to stare forward…

… I’m starting to suspect this is all some kind of setup?

I finally turn back to stare forward, myself…

Who was that punk?

And how did she know about my mother?

<*****>

I see the three changeling brothers trotting into the hive, from the fleshy membrane up front, and so I hurriedly trot towards that direction, in the boring hive…

“Where’s Binky”

Pincer looks at me, “She’s coming! Uh, something happened?”

Suddenly, I notice, a pink filly, with a horn on her head, and disheveled purple mane trotting through the cover, and so I trot towards her, and embrace her in a loving hug!

“What’s wrong, my precious Binky?”

“Nothing’s wrong! I’m fine! Totally well! Yeah!” She says before slowly returning the hug…

I begin to feel that rush again…

“That’s not what I heard, Binky! It’s okay! I’m here for you!” I say, while keeping the wonderful child, in my forelegs…

Binky finally sighs… “Can I have a snack, before I tell you about my day?”

I eventually release the foal, and turn to trot away, “Alright, Binky! I shall fetch you some berries! But you will tell me about your day!” and head towards the storeroom, in back of the hive…

I can almost feel a gulp going down the filly’s throat, as I look to find berries, in the vast room…

(To be continued… )

Author's Note

*There it is again! My rage!