Life for the Data

Chapter – 3

Bug Slayer

Lunamon’s eyes opened lazily. She sat up a, and looked at her surroundings. She was in some sort of wooden hut, the walls were slanted naturally and in the center of the room, there was an empty cauldron. So no, it was not a dream. This complicated things.

What was that striped horses name again?

Ah yes, “Zecora!” she yelled.

No response. Lunamon tried again, the results were the exact same. No response with the sound of animals going about their daily business, right, she was also in a forest that wanted her head. Great.

Lunamon jumped from the cot and began searching the room; it was a little spacier and a lot less scary in the light. The walls were bright enough, the cauldron no longer had a menacing feel to it and the masks almost set it off as pleasant. She looked around a little more, finding some potions and concoctions of some sort stored in various cupboards and shelves. Some glowed in neon hues, while others were masked behind paper covers. Each had a small label on them, in a language she couldn’t understand.

Wait, did they write in a different language than they spoke, or was this just some different dialect? She looked the room over again, and then spotted a note stuck just above her cot. She walked over to it, snatching the paper off the nail and began to read another language, this one much more understandable.

Dear Lunamon, I have gone to town, but do not frown, I have included a map, so you do not get stuck in an animal’s trap.

She lowered the note, noticing another piece of paper stuck to the same nail. She grabbed it, turning it around to reveal it was indeed a map. It looked as if Zecora had drawn it herself, which she probably did, simply having a dotted line leading to a building with the words Ponyville underneath it.

“Huh,” Lunamon said to herself, “so she was visiting a town called Ponyville, might as well join her.”

She replaced the note on her cot before moving out of the home/brewery. She closed the door behind her, looking over the forest before her. It had changed since last night. The trees were shorter and they no longer had faces, each looked absolutely normal. The sun just barely rippled through the leaves, but it got through enough to light the forest, giving it an almost glowing effect. She liked it.

Lunamon smiled, and began skipping through the woods. She would look at the crude map occasionally, but it was obsolete, there was a slightly worn path ahead of her, making the trip much easier. She continued her skipping and soaked in her surroundings, the ever green forest making her sights light up, melodies of the song birds mixing in to give it a magical feel. She liked it more.

She hopped around a small bend, finding an opening just ahead, spilling the sunlight into the dimmer forest. She smiled wider, this was it, not far now.

Her skip stopped, becoming a light walk, light beginning to blind her as her eyes adjusted to the new intensity.

She heard her footsteps change from their swishing rhythm to a crunching sound and she began feeling dirt beneath her feet. Her eyes began to adjust more properly, allowing the sight of a cottage to be seen, just to her right, to her left, a path and the tops of building in the distance. The bloom on the edge of her vision became non-existent, letting her eyes to work without burden.

There was a gasp to her immediate right. She turned to see a butter yellow winged horse beside her.

“Oh… oh my, aren’t you pretty. Who made that little dress for you? Was it Rarity, she never told me she was making animal dresses, oh how cute. But what kind of animal are you, I haven’t seen a white and purple rabbit with four ears before.” the pink maned horse said in a voice soft as silk.

Lunamon looked over her apparel, “This, it sort of came with my form, no on made it for me, and my name is Lunamon, not four eared rabbit. Is that all you horses could come up with? Rabbit this and rabbit that, I mean come on, think of something like, oh I don’t know, purple hopper at least.”

At first the winged horse stopped moving, then it just started to stutter, then it began to sweat. Had she done something wrong?

“Uhm, sorry if I offended you, but I’m new here and probably need an update on your customs.”

The winged pony fluttered a little, “N-No, you just talked though, and bunnies, even if they have four ears, don’t talk.”

Lunamon blinked, she was going to have to explain this to everyone wasn’t she?

“I’m not a rabbit, my form is based off one, I used to be a Digimon, but now I’m just Lunamon. Nice to meet you…”

The on smiled weakly, hiding behind a curtain of pink hair, “I’m…Fluttershy…”

Lunamon easily picked up on her name, four ears have their advantages.

“Well Fluttershy, where were you headed?” Lunamon asked.

“I was, um, just heading into town…”

Lunamon mentally smacked herself in the face, she had just walked out of the forest, nearly insulted an inhabitant and then asked her where she was headed like a stalker.

“Sorry for being so snoopy, but I need to find Zecora, or at least someone willing to take care of me.”

Fluttershy perked up instantly, as if she had never been afraid, “Oh, I could take care of you, I have so many other animals as well, I’m sure that you’ll all get along just fine! Uhm, if that’s okay with you…”

Luna smiled warmly in return, “That would be great! I might even be able to help around your place.”

Lunamon turned back to the town in the distance, “But I still need to find Zecora, just to tell her I’m leaving, that forest gives me the willies…” Lunamon shuddered from the memories; the Timberwolves fangs still dripping with sappy saliva filled her head.

“Eugh, I never want to go back in there.”

“Oh, okay then. I was just going to head back to Ponyville so I could get some extra carrots for Angel, my pet rabbit, I would be happy to help you find Zecora.” said Fluttershy, voice quiet as ever. Lunamon wondered if she was the only one who could hear her.

“That would be nice, especially since I know nothing of Ponyville.” Lunamon looked again to the town, were all the creatures here so kind? It was a lot nicer than the Digital World, thrice as many times as the woods in this world.

Fluttershy smiled warmly, “Okay then, let’s get going. If that’s alright with you…”

Lunamon nodded, “Yep, all ready.”

Fluttershy nodded as well, and then began walking towards Ponyville. Lunamon joined her, in much higher spirits as well. Finding a nice person other that someone who lived a solitary life in the scariest place she’d been was a welcome change. They began to march for the town, which was much closer that she expected, nearly as soon as they began, the building had become noticeable closer, odd.

She ignored the oddity, taking it as just another difference compared to the Digital World. They didn’t chat, just walked forward, sights set on the small inhabitation.

Lunamon decided to break the silence, “So, what can you tell me about Ponyville before hand?”

“Oh, so many things!” Fluttershy nearly exclaimed, “All the ponies are really nice, there are plenty of shops and parks for everypony to enjoy. I have a few friends there, each one is pretty important too. Rainbow Dash runs most of the weather schedules here, Rarity owns a shop for all sorts of beautiful dresses, and Pinkie has parties for every pony on every occasion, even if it is a little silly.”

She paused, making sure that she wasn’t boring Lunamon. After confirming she was still intrigued, Fluttershy continued.

“Then there’s Applejack, she helps run Sweet Apple Acres with her brother and grandmother, Big Mac and Granny Smith. And finally, there is Twilight, she runs the library in town and is also the student of Princess Celestia.” Fluttershy finished with a smile, remembering her friends always made her smile.

Lunamon just smiled smugly, “Hey now Fluttershy, is that bragging I hear?” she teased.

Fluttershy instantly blushed, “Oh no no no, not at all, it’s just that when I remember my friends… eep.” She then continued to hide her face behind her hair, more or less.

Lunamon giggled at her reaction, “I’m just kidding Fluttershy, and they all sound real nice. I think I would like to meet them.” She said wholeheartedly.

Fluttershy came out from behind her hair, “O-okay, if you really want to. Maybe we’ll find Zecora along the way.”

Lunamon smiled, “Great, I can’t wait, let get going! Where to first?”

Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin, “Well I suppose Pinkie will come and meet us, so Twilight’s place is closest.”

Lunamon raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean, she’ll meet us? She doesn’t even know were here ye-”

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSPP!!!” came an unknown voice.

Lunamon looked ahead to see a shadow, she followed it up to see a pink pony frozen in mid-air.

“Oh, hi Pinkie.” said Fluttershy.

Pinkie landed rather quickly and proceeded to look over Lunamon, “I haven’t seen you before, did you get that dress from Rarity? GASP! That means you were here before! I might have missed somepony else!”

With that, the pink physic killer left in a blur of motion, not even leaving a dust trail, just seemably flying away.

Lunamon stood mouth agape, “What just happened?”

Fluttershy smiled sheepishly in her shy way, “That’s just Pinkie Pie, you’ll get used to it.”

Lunamon wasn’t so sure, something that could do all that in a real world must have been a Digimon in disguise, nothing else could break so many laws of physics.

She decided that thinking about it was a bad idea, and so she began to follow Fluttershy to Twilight’s house.

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┗┻┻┻┻┛ (Congrats if you know what this is, and it’s no ordinary fist either. The binary will return shortly. Also, the binary is actual binary if you must know, it says something.)

Something stirred in the woods, a huge creature rose from its brief slumber. It couldn’t see, that was new, though it could make out everything around it perfectly. Suddenly greatly increased hearing and smell swarmed its mind, no, it was a male now. Nonetheless, he could smell and hear everything in his immediate area, allowing for a perfect 360 degree ‘view’. It was a good replacement, if a little bland. He opened the large shield like carapace off it’s back, revealing four huge wings. He began to flap them in rapid motions, creating a massive buzzing sound. He began to rise above the tree line and point itself to its desired destination, he smelled the same Lunamon here, and he wanted a good revenge meal, so it would do. He clicked the massive mandible in front of his face, sharp enough to cut stone like paper. His jaw opened and released a devastating roar, sending all life in the area scurrying.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH” he screamed, more feral than in rage.

He tilted itself forward, massive wings carrying its red bulk to where it wanted to be, and if any of those other smells interfered, they would make a nice snack.

01110011 01100011 01100101 01101110 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100001 01101110 01100111 01100101 (That’s a bit long, the prior will do.)

Twilight moved a book back into its place, Spike being asleep from the reshelving and staying awake last night worrying about her. She smiled, he acted so tough just keeping his cool, but deep down, he cared about everypony like they were family. She placed the final book in its rightful place and backed up to make sure everything was in place.

“Let’s see, Starswirls guide to magic… check, and then on this side secretly hollow book containing the Elements of Harmony… check. Everything in between… check. Great! Everything is sin place, now I can relax a little, where did I put those study papers…”

She began rummaging through a stack of papers on her desk; it pained her she couldn’t just call for Spike as he was asleep. Princess Luna had sent a message saying that she wanted every bit of info on four eared rabbits, the Canterlot library had none but there was a chance that her library had something. In all factuality, she had found a book written by the libraries old owner, but he was known as mad. She doubted the unpublished script held any real info, but it was something.

“Ah ha!” she quickly slapped a hoof over her mouth, listening for any signs of an awoken dragon. After none came, she breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked over her notes that were relevant towards the four eared rabbit.

Apparently, it was very elusive, had terrifying power and could become more powerful if it was charged with energy in a

time of need, so much so that it could take control of the moon. She highly doubted the last part, but the elusiveness would have explained why any of them only really got glimpses. Obviously, becoming more powerful if charged with energy was plausible, but they probably only did it in a time of need, if at all. The old stallion had probably just wrote that t make this creature sound more cryptic, like it was some kind of hero.

She looked over the rag tag book one last time, flipping through its pages with haste; Princess Luna would be here soon to collect the report. Why she wasn’t just asking for it to be sent via dragon was odd, but there wasn’t really arguing with a princess.

Just then, she heard the door clink open, she had since put a bell above the door to see if she could catch Pinkie sneaking. Of course, it didn’t work so it was just there for effect now. She turned around to see a pleasant sight.

“Oh, Fluttershy! Good to see you again, how have you been? Or are you here for a book?” she began.

Fluttershy smiled sheepishly, “Hi Twilight, I just came here to introduce Lunamon to you, she was rather eager to meet all of my friends in fact.”

Twilight raised a brow, “Lunamon? That’s an odd name for a pony.”

Fluttershy shook her head, “She’s not a pony, say hello Lunamon.”

Twilight watched anxiously as a shadow appeared. She watched it grow until something stepped into her doorway, something she definitely wasn’t expecting.

There it was, the four eared rabbit. It stood two legs tall, (Leg=foot) with four ears and a large antennae. She walked in rather politely, if you could tell, she was wearing a dress! A four eared rabbit wearing a dress! What was Rarity thinking?

“Uh, hello Twilight, nice place you have here.” she said, voice like strands of moonlight. Well maybe that’s a hyperbole, but it was nice.

Twilight looked back to the book, then back to this ‘Lunamon’. The drawing and the figure in front of her were exact matches, or as close as the ‘drawing’ could, it looked like a baby Cake had drawn it.

“U-Uh hi, and thank you I guess, Spike and I keep this place as tidy as possible.” she replied, surprised by Lunamon’s kindness.

“Who’s Spike?” she asked bewildered.

Twilight blinked, “Oh, he’s my assistant, and a baby dragon. I hatched him from an egg when I was younger and we’ve been friends since.”

Lunamon looked a little disturbed, “So, you took his egg away from his family, forced open his egg and then raised him as your own?!”

“What, no, I just, well…” she looked upstairs, had she really? It seemed so simple the day his egg was carted in front of her, so much simpler when the princess had said she could keep him. Spike never seemed to mind, then again, he never knew his family…

“Lunamon that was rather rude, Twilight would never - ever - take a baby away from his family!” accused Fluttershy.

Lunamon was about to reply when an outbreak of screams was heard from outside. Twilight rushed to the door, finding a place among the low jaws at the sight of the huge red bug cutting apart everything.

“Oh no, it’s Kuwagamon! He must have found a way to follow me!” cried Lunamon.

Twilight looked down at Lunamon, “You know him?!”

Lunamon nodded, “Yes, he’s a virus attribute, insect type Digimon that loves to cut thing up before… well let’s just say he isn’t nice!”

Twilight looked to the massive creature; it rivaled a dragon in size, at least two stories tall. It had four arms and each was being used to cut and shred everything in its path.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” it cried with spite.

“We have to do something, or it’ll rip apart the town, and kill everything in it!” pointed out Lunamon.

“WHAT!?!” yelled both Twilight and Fluttershy in unison.

“Well, he’s a Digimon, so he’ll try and absorb everything, instead he end up killing everyone.” she stated overly calmly.

“You make this sound like an everyday occurrence.” snapped Twilight, “Which isn’t good in any of my books.”

Lunamon shrugged, “It’s pretty common place where I come from, a bigger Digimon comes in, deletes everybody and absorbs their data to become stronger. Of course, this is a real world, so he’ll just wind up killing everybody instead.”

Twilight felt an eye twitch, “Well good for you, but we really need to do something to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“Okay, I guess we could attack him.” said Lunamon.

Twilight looked at Lunamon like she was an idiot, “No, I think that we had better make a big bowl of bug stew, WHAT ELSE WOULD WE DO!”

“Whoa whoa whoa, okay, calm down Twilight. Well first, he’s Champion rank so my attacks aren’t going to do muck but make him angrier; I’ll need a power up of some kind…” Lunamon looked around a little, and then saw Twilight’s horn.

“What does that thing do exactly?” she asked, meanwhile another building was cut in half.

Twilight looked up, “My horn, it allows a unicorn to cast magic. Wait a second, I know! I read a little about you, given the pony who wrote it was crazy, but it said that if you power a four eared rabbit, then they gain more power!” she exclaimed, aiming her horn at Lunamon.

Lunamon’s eyes went wide, “Whoa now, no need to fire that thing at me, I’m just saying that we should test this in a safer environment before you blow me up.”

A strand of hair stood up in Twilights mane, “No time, power up, now!”

“Oh dear…” whispered Fluttershy as Twilight fired her horn at Lunamon.

“Wha- no- TwiliGH-” Lunamon never finished as the energy struck her, enveloping her in an aura of lavender energy.

Twilight smiled as the energy formed an egg shape over Lunamon, and began to grow, bit by bit.

The Kuwagamon seemed to sense this, moving towards them, smelling its target.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

Then, the egg stopped growing, it fell apart like bit of glass, revealing what it had incubated. What stood before them was no longer Lunamon, instead, she was replaced by a six foot tall rabbit thing, taking a fighter stance and wearing some kind of mask. And were those claws on her feet?

“Lekismon!” cried the newcomer.

“Wh-how…?”asked Twilight flabbergasted, she expected perhaps a size change, but not a total remake of Lunamon’s form, including her name.

Lekismon looked at her new form, “Well, that turned out for the better. Great, now we can do some damage!”

The Kuwagamon wasted no time trying to get the first strike. “SCISSOR CLAWS!”

The Kuwagamon’s hands began to glow before striking with lightning speed, directly at Lekismon.

“Luna-Lekismon!” cried Twilight with concern.

But where the Kuwagamon struck, there was nothing. She looked in the opposite direction, expecting there to be a hole in somepony’s wall.

“Moon Night Bomb!”

A burst of dark water like energy came from the air, striking the Kuwagamon on his dome like head. He cried out in anger, shaking off the drowsiness and looking up to see Lekismon making her decent.

“TRAP SCISSORS”

The Kuwagamon cried, trying to grab its prey with its huge pincers. He was bested by Lekismon’s speed again as she made another counter attack.

“Tear Arrow!” she yelled, seemingly forming a bow from nothingness and firing a pole from her back.

It struck Kuwagamon in his chest, making him stumble backwards and miss. As she landed she continued to fire a volley of arrows his direction, some were more of a distraction so others could make it to their target. But her luck could only last so long.

Kuwagamon lashed out randomly, it senses scattered in the volley of arrows. He struck rabbit.

“Gah!” Lekismon cried out in pain, feeling the Kuwagamon’s claws easily cut through her armor and skin. She landed against a building with an audible thump, cracking the wall.

“POWER GUILITOINE”

Lekismon felt the Kuwagamon’s strong razor pincers entrap her, lifting her up into the air before beginning to squeeze.

Lekismon felt the blades cut through her skin like a warm knife through near melted butter, slowly making gashes appear. She began screaming in pain, the pincers moving it as slow as possible to prolong her pain.

“I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER! YOU TOOK MY EYE’S, MY HOME AND MY NEXT MEAL, ALL AT ONCE!” Kuwagamon yelled in rage.

Dark spots began to fill Lekismon’s vision, marking the beginning of a headache to join her pain. She felt herself getting light headed, she was losing blood, that was something else you had to watch when you were alive.

When she thought it was over, a beam of blue energy fired from the air, landing a blow on the Kuwagamon’s left pincer.

“GAAAAH!” it bellowed with rage, green blood trickling out of the newly formed gash. What the Kuwagamon failed to notice was the fact that Lekismon was now free, and she had made up her mind on her next move.

She jumped onto the undamaged mandible of the Kuwagamon, firing herself into the air.

“MOON NIGHT KICK!” she yelled into the noon air, a little ironic that it this move she was using, but it was her best.

She fell more like a beam of light than a rabbit, landing her foot in the very center of the Kuwagamon’s head with martial art accuracy. The resulting crack told her it worked, as a sliver of the Kuwagamon’s carapace broke off and jutted into his small brain.

It didn’t even respond; simply fell to the earth, already dead.

Once it hit the ground, Lekismon was hasty to get away from the now bleeding skull, given, it wasn’t much blood, but it was still enough to stain her.

But when she hit the ground, she knew something wasn’t right, why? Because the ground saw it fit to sucker punch her is why. She felt her strength wane, form return to Lunamon and watched as the light began to fade… what a pretty new pony, she was all blue and sparkly, ooh, it looked like she liked moons too. Oh well, they could meet later, she was tired.

And it all faded to black.

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“FINALLY!” yelled Coronamon as he fell behind a rock, they had been travelling through the desert for a good ten hours now, and he was exhausted.

Chrysalis huffed at his actions, “I have been carrying you for the past ten hours, so you have nothing to complain about!”

Coronamon rolled onto his back, facing the queen, “I know, but I shielded you from the cold and had to survive all the bumps without water for all ten hours.”

Chrysalis joined him by the rock, “I know, but there is an oasis nearby, a very large one at that. And don’t you get power from the heat?”

He nodded a yes.

“Then why are you behind a rock?” she asked, almost concerned.

He sighed, “I don’t know anymore, at first I was with Lunamon finding a rock, then I’m suddenly here, next thing I know I’m stuck in a desert without most of my power and a weakness to the sun!”

He threw his arms into the air, “I used to feed off the sun, and my kind was made from solar data! It’s disgusting… I’m disgusting.” He said, rolling away from the queen.

The queen watched him a little while, he reminded her of herself when she lived the life of a pony too long. Afterwards, her point of view would change and she would see herself as a monster. It had happened to other Changelings before, and some had broken down from it. Just because they had the ability to change their shape and feed off love, doesn’t mean that they were immune to mind games. They had yet to evolve a trait for that.

Actually, thought Chrysalis, that would be called semi-sentience…

What was she doing…Oh yes, a responsibility of a friend is to be there for your other friends.

“You aren’t that bad, I mean, we change all the time. You are just beginning to change, it’s not bad really. It comes with quite a few advantages.” She hoped that would do, she wasn’t good at comforting others.

Coronamon rolled to see her again, “I know, it’s just that I’m not a Changeling, I shouldn’t be changing. Unless that weird rock had anything to do with it, I doubt it though, this is all probably one big freak accident.”

Chrysalis raised a brow, “What odd rock, I’ve wanted to know for some time now, but I just hoped you would mention it.”

Coronamon shrugged, “I don’t know, it was an old rock that changed when we touched it, from rainbow symbols to fiery red to dark blue. It was the neatest thing I’ve ever found, it even copied attack types, like when I touched it with fire, it began to heat everything up, including Lunamon. She tried putting it out, and then it began to spray water like a fountain and nearly drowned us both.”

Chrysalis raised a hoof to her chitin chin, “Can’t say I’ve ever heard of a stone like that, then again, my knowledge only comes from reports and the occasional book found during missions. I’m also only a couple centuries old, Celestia and Luna’s age’s range in the thousands, maybe they can help.”

She looked from behind the rock, seeing her other Changelings hiding likewise, and looking beyond the sun lied Equestria. Too far to see, but memory served her well and they were near, at least another hour or so of flight and they would see the beginning of a plain. Beyond that the Everfree lied, and beyond that even, Canterlot, their - or at least Coronamon’s - destination.

“We’d better get moving soon, the sun will be too high for us to reach the oasis at this rate.” She said, “Up you get, not much time left now.”

He nodded, jumping onto Chrysalis’ back. They had just taken off when he chose to speak again.

“Oh and Chrysalis…”

She looked back to him, “Yes, Coronamon?”

He smiled lightly, “Thanks for trying to cheer me up back there - it didn’t work - but thanks. It’s the thought that counts.”

She smiled, “Your welcome, I was never good at helping lift others spirits, so don’t expect many of those moments from me.”

Coronamon chuckled, “That’s almost a good thing.” he said smugly.

Chrysalis wore a face to rival a me gusta meme, he loved those meme’s.

“Ha, sorry. But really,” he said, voice suddenly serious, “thank you, it really helped afterward.”

Chrysalis smiled, the feeling of friendship flowing more freely from Coronamon. She wondered, was she just following an old animal instinct to get love from him, or was she really making a friend. Well, currently she would pick one of her subjects over him, but that might change. Emphasis on might.

Don’t take her wrong, he’s a nice guy, but perhaps a little too nice. He might not totally agree with some of their… tactics on getting love if no spot is available. Sure, kidnapping a princess, alright that was bad, but there used to be an entire town full of Changelings, the entire populace. None knew their next door neighbor was a Changeling. Until one day, a single one admitted it, then another, and so on.

Now, you might think that means that they could love one another, but let me tell you why the town eventually died off. Because they were feeding off the love left behind by the prior inhabitants, who were all… dealt with. Once that ran out, the town slowly starved, a pity really, it was a great hub for information and a rather great example of what Changelings could do - until it died, in which case it became a signal of what was to come. She missed that town; of course, this was before they were hunted down to extinction.

When the princess sister war was over, three centuries before Chrysalis was born, Changelings were hunted for their chitin, some maniacs and scarred ponies from the war believing it to hold the ability to change their form if they brewed it right. Unfortunately, it was more like stabbing urban Changelings down, some of her predecessors’ children. She never understood how her ancestors worked out a relationship with Equestria, it was shaky at best, they were tolerated, not loved. Celestia was tired from her time fighting Luna, or Nightmare Moon, and so she just watched and covered everything up.

After two centuries of extermination though, Celestia had seen enough, from that day forth she had every law and by-law reshaped to embrace love and tolerance. In a way, the Changelings were responsible for the way Equestria was, but they suffered heavily. Less than 400 Changelings remained, not enough to repopulate properly you say? Nonsense! A Changeling Queen has about a hundred children alone at the beginning of her cycle, Chrysalis had had hers. The Changelings had the ability to breed themselves, but with only a single one every now and again. A Changeling child born among the serfs is something celebrated by the hives queen herself.

One other thing factored into this equation, after the love and tolerance laws were in place, and all Changelings had fled back into their elusive homeland, all ponies that had killed or were in deals within the illegal killing of Changelings, were exiled to the Badlands. Guess were the Changeling homeland was, the Badlands. Celestia never looked that way again, believing I to be full of nothing but bandits and madponies, after a while, it was believed that nearly all Changelings had been hunted, and all that remained was the occasional straggler. Of course, Chrysalis wished to change this, after losing contact with a hive not far to the east, she began sending scouts north, looking for a new hive.

They came back with tales of a land ripe and full of love, a perfect place to make a hive. She gathered her best, and had a backup squadron readied in case they needed to force themselves in. She ended up nearly drugged with love and used the backup squadron to try and conquer all of Equestria. She had little time there, reading the occasional book from the royal library, and even getting a little information from Cadence while she was imprisoned. What really set her over the edge was finding lost files in Celestia’s room going back to the Changeling holocaust. She brought this up to Celestia, who said that the Changelings were a dead race, and what happened should be left to rest with them.

Now here she was, flying to an oasis so she could last the rest of the trip to ask for a second chance. And maybe, just maybe, a place to truly call home.

“Um, Chrysalis, you’re doing it again…” stated Coronamon.

Chrysalis was lifted from her mind by the common voice of Coronamon, only to find herself getting very close to a palm tree.

“Oh, thank you Coronamon.” she said, buzzing around the tree.

She looked down, and found the perfect place to land, right next to one of the many pools that dotted this oasis.

She landed gracefully, lowering herself to let her passenger off board; he was gone in less time than it took the pink pony to shoot five Changelings with her magical, tail ran Gatling Twilight.

He didn’t even really stop when he got to the water, just slid for couple legs and stopped knee deep before drinking as much as possible. Obviously, the water skins they scavenged from an old raiding party were going to come in handy.

“Fill the skins my subject, our key piece requires them.” she ordered.

The Changeling carrying a pack of four water skins nodded, wading into the water himself. He uncapped the skins one-by-one and filled them to the brim, corking them shut again once the task was complete. Chrysalis looked between the thick palm trees, finding the sun to be nearing its zenith.

“Quickly now my children, even the oasis water will not save us from direct sunlight in this place, to the thicker bushes!” she hissed.

Each nodded, following her orders and trotting deeper into the bush like oasis.

As Coronamon left the pool, he had to ask, “Why is this oasis so big, I thought they were like small pools of water supporting a tree or two.”

Chrysalis nodded, “They usually are, but this specific one has many pools, it was a bit bigger years ago but time has regressed this one further.”

Coronamon nodded in complaisance, following the small army of Changelings into the deeper parts of the refuge. He watched the sun get dimmer and the air get a little cooler, giving effective relief to the weary travelers.

Some Changelings were already setting up a camp, others getting more resources; I occurred to Coronamon that they were going to be travelling by night for some time now. He sighed, this trip was boring; his were literal adventures which included him going to places none had been or few returned from. This was one big permanent vacation to another country, just a well-known trip.

Oh well, he thought, At least were away from the bandits.

Coronamon sat down beside a pile of gathering wood, what was soon to become their night fire, as he did so a patch of bushes from behind rustled. He thought of it as just some Changelings going for more materials, but there was something else nearby.

A pegasus with a bandana wrapped around his head smirked, “Oh how the boss is gonna like this!” he said before fluttering towards a small mound of sand. Any others eyes would have seen at as a common dune, he saw it as base.

He flipped the cover off the camouflaged cubby, “Oh how he is gonna like this indeed.”