A lovely canopy of leaves blanketed the teeming forest. The birds, rested from a long night, stretched their wings and sang a tune. Mice feasted on a cacophony of different seeds and brush. Ursa Majors and Minors alike slumbered, awaiting nightfall. The lizards and frogs found a cool, comfortable refuge in collecting puddles of dew.

Everything was peaceful, for now.

And Stinger hated everything about the place.

He had been to pony settlements a couple of times before, and he knew they had an abundance of plant life. He remembered being specifically warned that Equestria was "extremely natural", but clearly, he and Equestria had a very different definition of what "natural" meant.

Stinger suddenly stopped his trudge through the forest, the weight of the situation crashing down on him.

He had just been kicked out of the hive.

By ponies.

Ponies who had done.. something to almost every changeling.

He paused.

Was he doomed?

"No." He decided, after a while. He couldn't be. Ponies could and have been bested by changelings before him. They may seem imposing, even scary, but it was nothing that couldn't be overcome with changeling might.

But without his army, without the strength in numbers that had brought the olden changelings through tough times, Stinger wasn't so confident.

The hive wasn't even destroyed. It didn't even go with dignity; it completely surrendered. Stinger hated to admit it, but he had always hoped that, were they to fall, they would fall fighting.

But his queen had run like a coward, his armies had succumbed to a false promise of never going hungry, and of ALL THE CHANGELINGS IN THE ENTIRE HIVE, they had chosen Thorax to lead.

Stinger was sure that the hive would crumble under the weight of its own glaring weakness.

But if they somehow held themselves together, Stinger was sure that he could give them a helpful push.

But first, he needed a place to shelter. The sun wouldn't stay in the sky for long, and even with his training, he didn't want to face off against some sort of crazed wildlife. He doubted this was maulwarf territory, but who knew what magically charged wildlife Equestria held up its sleeve?

Stinger eyed the canopy. Could he fly through that?

"Probably not." He answered his own question. Still, it was worth a shot. Maybe he could find a nearby pony settlement, and stay somewhere warm for the night. He looked around for a place to take off. "Tree, tree, tree, rock, tree...' he listed locations aloud as he looked. 'tree, tree, big rock, tree- wait. Big rock?" A jagged boulder caught his eye. It looked like a good takeoff spot. Better yet, its presence discouraged the many, view blocking trees from growing near, creating the perfect, sunny hole for him to fly through. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn close. Stinger trotted over, briefly extending his wings in flight as he climbed atop the boulder.

He planted his hooves, and took off.

Being slapped with vines and branches as he went, Stinger aimed for the only open spot he could see throughout the sea of leaves, which, as mentioned before, was just above the boulder. He made it through easily, if not sustaining a few scratches, and looked above the trees. Dejectedly, he saw he still had a ways to go before the forest began to thin out, but he reasoned that it wouldn't take more than a couple hours, now that he was flying. And, much to his delight, he had found an amazing resting place: a city in the distance.

"Bingo."

He looked towards the sun, covering his eyes with his hooves as he did. About half the day was left. He would have to fly fast.

By near sunset, Stinger was exhausted. He had managed to rest on the odd branch, poking out of the canopy, but looking towards the sun for the time, he knew he had to keep going. Luckily, by now, he had reached the city. A train-track just outside the flashing lights of the pony settlement connected to an equally flashy train station, with an polished, steel sign reading, "WELCOME TO BALTIMARE! POPULATION: 565,239!" in a bold font. Stinger would've found the signs' precise metric impressive, if he didn't think that counting your populace was useless. Many different ponies bustled around the train-station, running late for this, and meeting up for that. It was a good thing the ponies had a strange fixation on plants and shrubs, otherwise, Stinger wouldn't have any cover. This place was clearly a tourist trap. That meant twice the annoying ponies, but also twice the inconspicuousness for him. Nocreature would bat an eye at anyone new.

Stinger backed farther into the bushes, keeping quiet as he did. He had neglected to disguise himself while flying towards the city, opting instead for the superior, bug-like wings of a changeling over the slow, bird-like appendages of a winged pony. However, Stinger had forgotten how flashy transforming was.

"Ah, it'll probably be fine."

A green Unicorn colt sat at the train-station, awaiting his dad, who had gone into the train gift shop. They were on vacation to Baltimare. A city which, in the Colts eyes, was totally boring. He knew the real reason his dad was here was the up and coming buck-ball game. But his dad tried his best to hype him up for the trip, sharing random historical knowledge, pointed with vigor at the landmarks, even taking him to one of the museums, which was sort of fun.

Overall, however, the trip was, and had been, very boring.

FLASH!

The colt nearly jumped from his seat. The bush he had been staring wistfully at for the past half an hour suddenly flashed with a muffled light. He didn't think anypony else noticed it. Just as the poor colt was about to get up to tell the train man, a pony emerged from the bush. "A Unicorn." Was the first thought that popped into his head, but the stallion that had emerged from the bush was a Pegasus. He had a pastel blue coat, a vibrant yellow mane, and a cutie mark that consisted of a single cloud. The Unicorn scowled at him with vigorous suspicion.

The Pegasus, who was now paying attention to him, scowled back. The colt, without his dad, felt a little scared of the Pegasus, who was now looking at him like he was the weird one. The mystery stallion took his hoof, raised it to his neck, and made a quick slashing motion, directed towards the colt. The boy had never been so obviously threatened by an adult. The Pegasus gave him a small once over, before trotting away quietly.

The colt started, dazed, at the spot the Pegasus had been.

He maintained that Baltimare wasn't cool; but he couldn't say it wasn't exciting.

The colt walked into the gift shop where his dad was. His father was rummaging through various nick-nacks. Decorative mugs, sarcastic t-shirts... all the normal gift shop stuff. He soon found his preferred object, a cheesy, cheap hat, that read, "BALTIMARE CRABBING." with a Unicorn and an Earth Pony holding a crab cage.

"Hey, Emmy.' His dad smiled at him. He liked giving the colt stupid nicknames, with only some of them relating to his actual name, "Emerald Blaze." His dad smiled at him. "Find anything you like?" The kid looked around the counter briefly, before picking out a weird, plush wiener dog. "This, please."

"Sure, Ems. Do you wanna pay with your Bit-purse?"

Emerald nodded furiously. "It's Outside." The colt responded quietly.

Emerald fully intended on buying it himself, like his mom taught him too. Unfortunately, when Emerald and his dad walked towards the bench outside, his Bit-purse had mysteriously disappeared. He still got the wiener dog, however, and he learned a lesson: don't leave bags of money with shady strangers.

Stinger had been walking through the streets of Baltimare, disguised as a Pegasus, for a while now, and it was starting to get annoying. He was looking for an inn to stay in, but unfortunately for him, his written Ponish wasn't the best. But on the upside, he had... "found" some bits at the train station. He assumed it was enough to pay for a one night stay, but it was equally as possible that he had stolen an amount of money closer to a lollipops price than a hotel room. But when he saw the Ponish word for "stay", and a bed shaped logo on one of the many buildings, he was given new hope for a pleasant rest. And luckily for him, the mare at the counter happily took his bag of bits.

In light of recent events, Stinger knew he had some cleaning up to do. He had to clean up the hive, he had to clean up the ponies, he had to clean up the changelings.. but right now, he was pleased to have a place to sleep. "Say what you will about ponies, they know how to make a bed comfortable.' Had he been less tired, he would've performed a spell to keep his disguise on throughout the night, just in case, but he figured it would be fine. He deserved a little break. He blew out the candle next to the bed, and drifted off with relief.

Author's Note

I got a little tangent-y with that random Unicorn, but I needed a way to give Stinger some bits. Sorry, Emerald.