Changeling's way

Badlands, early morning, date unknown

Among the grey sands of Changeling Badlands, on a southern border of Equestria, something unusual was happening. In lowlands, between three unassuming dunes, a lone changeling stallion quietly slumbered. With a soft thump of a falling canvas bag, grey insectoid turned on his right side.

He was trying to find a comfortable position for his sleep, and, while trying to cuddle into now nonexistent mattress, took a deep breath of coarse sand.

"AUGHHH...*cough!*...*cough!*...BWAH" Coughing harshly, Stas jumped to all fours and desperately tried to get all the dust out of his lungs, as his gaze was blinded by tears. Loose sand shook underneath him, flying in every direction under the weight of his large form.

"БЛЯТЬ, why is there SAND in my fucking bedroom!?" Something was clearly wrong with his mattress, but right now, he couldnt care less. After spending last 20 minutes of his life vomiting sand from his lungs, he finally managed to take a painful but steady breath as tears no longer blinded him.

The very first thing he noticed was his surroundings - grey sand-dunes towered over him on every side, as sun gazed upon him from above. The second thing he noticed was something light-grey right below his eyes.

"Where am i? What the hell is going on?!" trying to assess the situation, he swiftly reached his hand to remove whatever was blocking his vision, only to feel a strong dull pain as he hit himself on a snout with his own hoof.

"OW!" Tears once again shrouded his sight, holding onto his head in pain, he realized he can no longer feel his fingers. Slowly, he raised his hands in front of his face, afraid of what he was about to see. After a moment of silent confusion, he realised he was looking on a pair of light-grey chitinous hooves. Something clicked in his mind and he realised what a thing which interfered with his vision was his own snout.

"This is not real, it's all a figment of my imagination..." A nervous laughter rang out among the sands, he knew what that was a lie, and yet, he refused to accept the bitter truth as it was.

"I was probably kidnapper a-and drugged by s-someone!" In attempt to take his thoughts off this improbable situation, Stas took a look around, trying in vain to ignore his chitinous form. Right beside his legs there was his canvas bag lying on a floor.

He took a deep calming breath, still nervous but now calmer than before. Stas reached for the sling of the bag, only to realise he can't possibly grab it with his blunt hoof. He decided to ignore it and hold his bag with his hoof as it was still an arm, surprisingly enough, it worked without any issue.

Sitting down on the ground, he held the bag in both of his ~~hooves~~ HANDS. The old canvas bag was way heavier than he remembered, not to mention what it was filled to the brim with items. He opened his bags side pocket and stumbled upon another unpleasant fact - his passport and wallet were gone and so was his phone. In their place lay several dry energy biscuit bars from his emergency kit. Second side pocket held yet another item from his emergency case - a dressing kit.

"What kind of psycho kidnaps people just to drop them in the middle of nowhere with they own supplies?" opening the zipper, he reached for the bag's main compartment, there he found four cans of kola and an energy drink, together with a small bag of hard persimmons from his fridge. On top of those meager supplies laid his scramasax. Absurdity of this situation made his eyelid twitch.

Finally, feeling something hard in the next compartment, he went for the last zipper. Multiple books were there. As he lifted those books in his hands, he could only stare in bewilderment at the sight before him. His edgy teenage phase stared back.

"Art of necromancy, Elemental treatise of occult science and all three tomes of King Solomon's Key..." at this point, he could not help himself but be completely dumbfounded. All of that seemed like a fever dream to him and yet he felt completely fine.

"How could anyone know about these? Who looked through my stuff? Why is it in my bag? What is going on?" That, and many more questions ran through his head as he tried to comprehend the situation without panicking.

"Okay, okay Stas, calm down!" Stallion harshly told himself, taking his breath under control and running through calming breathing exercise once again. He placed everything he had on him back in the bag and threw it over his left shoulder.

"Alright, what was it my drill instructor told me back in the forces? If you lost your way in unknown territory - make sure you are safe, calm down and think of your next step..." Deciding what it was the best course of action, Stas began to examine himself for any injuries, taking a close look at his brand-new body in a process.

He was standing on all fours and yet, quadrupedal stance seemed surprisingly comfortable to him . His entire body was covered in a flexible light-grey chitin, which, save for it's unique shine, was almost indistinguishable from leather one would use to make a cloak. His entire torso, back of his neck and joints were protected by thick segmented plates of dark-grey chitin. A pair of grey elytra rested on his back, using his hoof, Stas nudged them aside to take a peek at pair of insectoid wings. Tail, which looked more like a ragged towel than an actual tail, was just as colourless and boring as the rest of his body.

"Wait a minute." Reaching into his bag, Stas unsheathed his knife to use it as a mirror. Staring at his reflection, he saw a pair of colourless insectoid eyes, toothy maw and a fang-shaped gnarled horn. At that, a sudden realization hit him.

He was a changeling from My Little Pony. The MOST boring changeling to ever exist, he looked like someone made a 3D model of a changeling for a game and forgot to add any colours and details whatsoever. He even lacked a crest on his head and hole-riddled legs changelings was famous for.

"I... I guess that happened." at least his voice was the same and he had no visible injuries.

"So, is that supposed to be Badlands?" At very least he hoped so, if he was truly stuck in the world of MLP, maybe, he will be able to at least find the changeling hive before he ran out of supplies. Stas never was a social type, but he hated to be alone, especially in the middle of wilderness.

He had no idea what year or timeline he even ended up at and that was worrying him more than he would like to admit. Understanding that there is no other options, he steadily made his way up, hoping he will be able to find any landmarks. Stas realised very quickly that he had no problems walking on all fours, and he was able to rise up the dune with ease.

What he saw before his eyes did nothing to soothe his heart, everywhere he looked, endless grey desert stretched to the horizon covered by countless barkhans, indistinguishable from one other. Gentle dry wind blew over the desert, shifting sand in it's wake. Rarely, a wind-breathed mountains peaked over the horizon, keeping their silent vigil over dunes. The sun reached its zenith in the cloudless sky.

"Пиздец..." His situation was truly grim, despite the heat of desert no longer bothered him so much, he was hopelessly lost. Loudly swallowing his fear, Stas decided to make his path to the foot of nearest mountain.