Corrupted life

Colgate ran as fast as her hooves would carry her, ignoring the crunching sound ahead. The pony-changeling ran somewhere ahead of her, far enough that she couldn’t see him. The only thing that showed he was still there was the occasional noise that came when he met a changeling ahead. His work appeared on the sides of the tunnels as she ran, changelings with their skulls crushed in. She didn’t know how he did it, but she was glad he wasn’t her enemy.

Soon she caught up to giver, panting loudly. She did her best to ignore the blood on his hooves.

"Now where?" The two had come to a fork in the road. Giver looked both ways, running down the left right back into the darkness. Colgate sighed, rushing forward again. She was unprepared for the body she smacked into.

"Back Back Back!!!" Giver had stopped in the middle of the tunnel and had run back into Colgate. When Colgate saw the horns of five changelings light up in front of them she spun around and ran followed close behind by giver.

"We’re cut off!! What do we do!?!" Changelings had cornered them, coming from both forks in the road and the way they had come from.

"Here!" Giver jumped towards the wall, seeming to vanish through it. Colgate followed. There was a crack in there that was just big enough for a thin pony to get through. Inside it was a door which giver had already opened and was beckoning Colgate into. She went in and was immediately blinded by a bright light. She blushed when she noticed it was just a small candle that had been lit. Giver held a lamp and he sat on a bed in the room after he had closed the door. Colgate sat on a chair.

"Were is this place?" She said looking about.

"One of the queen’s hideaway rooms. They're hidden all over the hive. They were made in secret when the hive was first built so only the queens children know about it."

"I thought the queen was the mother for all the changelings like an ant?" Giver let out a snort.

"Just because changelings look like bugs doesn’t mean they are. They are actually just like ponies aside from their outer shell, wings and they have different magic."

"Different magic? I thought there was only one kind. Also changelings eat love not pony food so their not that much alike."

"Actually changelings don’t eat love. We eat pony food; the love is just to power their magic. Changelings use their magic to constantly shift forms and so they eat the solid emotion that you saw on the walls to power it back up. If a changeling runs out of magic it dies slowly and painfully. But it still doesn't fill up their bellies. That’s why the attack was made on Canterlot. We don’t get any real food out here in the bad lands." Colgate pondered givers words for a moment before getting of the chair.

“We need to do something. We can’t stay in here forever you know." She began to look through the different drawers, looking for anything useful. Of course nothing showed up.

"So what do we do now Giver?"

“Don’t call me giver. My real name is Brushheart." Giver hopped off his bed, and opened the door.

“Can you use magic?"

“What?"

“I said can you use you're magic?" Brush questioned. Colgate let magic run through her horn, making it glow.

"Yep."

“Okay. I need you to teleport both of us to these specific coordinates? Can you do that?" He showed her a piece of paper with some numbers on it.

"Yeah Brush, but if were high up I won't be able to stop our fall while my magic recharges." Brush nodded his head, trotting over to stand next to Colgate.

"If I’m right we should appear about a foot above the ground. The worst that could happen is one of us could twist an ankle when we start running for our lives. Ready?" Colgate nodded, a brief burst of excitement fuelling her on. She let the magic channel through her horn, making it twirl into the simple formation of a teleportation around them. Her horn flashed a bright blue and both ponies disappeared.

"Keep moving ponies. We don’t want to be caught!"

The Doctor galloped silently beside his old friend as they followed the two changelings in front of them. Behind them the Doctor could hear the real Trixie panting for breath as she ran. He himself wasn’t breaking a sweat. He was used to running from the things that seemed to continuously chasing him.

The Doctor flapped his wings a bit to gain more speed, wincing at the pain that showed how weak they were.

“Be glad you’re not a unicorn. It stings quite a bit more than wings when under used." The Master chuckled before becoming a bit more serious.

“You haven’t been having anymore of those thoughts, have you? It’ll help you to talk about it so you don’t fall into Discords grip any farther."

The Doctor just grimaced."I’m fine Master. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve had jumbled emotions. Of course the pain of trying to keep out the negatives is another story." The Master smiled at him reassuringly, egging him to continue.

"Well, He speaks to me sometimes. Discord I mean. He taunts me, and he asks me stuff that I would not rather think of the answers to. Sometimes he just tells me stories of times with no one like me to save the day. Tales of chaos and destruction. Sometimes I just feel like..like..." The doctor closed his mouth abruptly, and gave a cold look at the master.

It wasn’t the masters business what he felt like. Maybe it was one of his schemes to get in his head. You couldn’t trust anyone. The doctor was about to tell the master to mind his own business, but was interrupted by the changelings ahead.

"Everyone slow down. Were coming to the back entrance for invaders to come through. The problem is its going to come out in the sewers of Ponyville so we will probably be spotted and taken away quickly. That and there’s guards." The doctor watched the two changelings carefully as they tried to make a plan with the master.

The larger one was the changeling who put them into the prison in the first place. The other one the doctor had never seen before then. What he couldn’t decide was to trust these changelings or kill them. The larger one would be easily taken out with speed, but the smaller one would be more difficult. He could always... The Doctor suddenly noticed that three sets of eyes were on him, and his hoof just happened to randomly be in the position for him to knock out the smaller changeling. He slowly lowered his hoof, his already pale face losing a bit more color.

"As I was saying," The larger changeling growled, “We could all combine our magic and set up a large enough illusion spell to disguise all of us. I can direct the spell so it will be as if we are simply shifting forms. We won’t notice the change, but anyone who looks at you will see a completely different pony. From there we can find a good hiding place to make a better long term plan." All the ponies other than the Doctor verbally agreed to the plan and made a circle, their horns touching in the middle.

"Excuse me, but I’m still curious as to why you’re trying to help us escape?" The Doctor looked at the larger changeling that he had addressed the question to accusingly. The changeling lifted his horn out of the circle in the middle, looking straight at the Doctor.

“Did you want to go into a place where thousands of starving and imprisoned changelings suck you dry until all that left is your carcass which is eaten while you’re still alive?" The Doctor shook his head and the changeling scoffed. “I didn't think so. I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemies, especially those who did nothing wrong." The changeling proceeded to lower his horn back to the circle and let his horn began to glow. The other three began to let magic seep through their horns as well. The different colored magic twirled around each other. The twist spun through the air, surrounding the ponies and two changelings. It suddenly gave off a flash of light, making the Doctor close his eyes as he felt himself being lifted off the ground. His hooves clopped back onto the stone floor after a second.

"Lets go!" the larger changeling ordered, galloping up the steps to the sewer opening. The Doctor just grumbled and began to flap his wings again. Once at the top the changeling carefully opened the sewer top and climbed out, signaling for the rest of them to follow. The Doctor gave a large flap of his wings and leapt out of the tunnel and into the fresh night air.

The five of them seemed to be in a back alleyway, empty but for a few storage boxes up against a store.

"Come on everyone. I know someone who will help us." the Master motioned everyone to follow as he began walking down the street. The Doctor noted how the streets were empty of ponies and most shops were closed down, large red and black flags covering the entrances. Clouds covered the sky, and wind sliced into the doctor’s coat. If any pony saw them they didn’t acknowledge their presence. The Doctor trotted behind the others next to Trixie. Looking at her now, she seemed to be tired and a bit withered.

"Why does she travel with you?" Trixie's voice was dry, but strong, and her eyes bold as she turned to the Doctor.

"Who do you mean?" he growled slightly, annoyed with the sound of voices.

“Colgate. Why does she travel with you? I can tell she gets scared to death, and I know she is constantly put in danger, so why?"

Trixie looked onto the Doctor expecting an answer. Her question earned a loud sigh. “I don’t like when she’s put in danger. She travels with me I guess because she... I...don’t know. Could be because she enjoys it, or she doesn’t want me to be in danger. It may even be because she doesn’t have a choice and I unconsciously drag her into it one way or another. why does it matter." he spat the last bit out, emotion slicing through him ragingly for no apparent reason as it had for the last couple weeks.

“I have something that you deserve to know." the Doctor sensed the nervousness in Trixie’s voice and began to wonder if she was in fact a changeling. “I am Colgate's mother."

PLOP

"Doctor! Master come here! He fainted!"

The ponies and changelings continued their walk, now with a limp Doctor hanging above them in a magic hold. Soon they came upon a little cottage. Behind it sat a forest and all around animals of all shape and size ran. They dropped the illusion spell and the Master gave the door a slight knock and waited for the butterscotch yellow Pegasus with a pink mane and tail open the door. When she did her eyes opened wide at the ponies outside her door.

"Fluttershy, we need your help."

PLOP

"Not again."