“I’m still not convinced you aren’t planning to escape,” the drone said for the second time, as Earth Mover completed her latest creation: a boomerang. The two changelings had each gotten closer to their respective sides of the cell’s bars, and Earth Mover was contemplating whether she could reach through them fast enough to bounce her watcher’s head off them. Thanks to their chitin, it wouldn’t stun her captor for long, but it might be long enough for her to blast a bar or two out with her now fully recovered magic, and then slip away into the depths of the hive.
“I could try to convince you otherwise, but we both know that the first duty of a prisoner is to escape.”
“If you do escape, they’ll drain me completely.”
“Are things really that desperate that they’ll take all of your love as punishment?”
Here the young drone bristled, realizing she’d been lulled into giving up some information. “Look, I didn’t want this stupid job, all right? Mother wants us to take back what’s ours, and the price of failure is extermination!”
“Are you sure about that? From where I’m sitting, if you’d stayed hidden, you could have harvested all the love you wanted. We were happy with remaining in the schools and libraries of Equestria. I’m still puzzled about why the invasion was even attempted…”
The drone hesitated, reluctant to give up any more info than she already had. But, it was a chance to vent to someone who didn’t think that since she was young, she didn’t know what she was talking about.
“Look, I’m a first-year harvester, OK? I go where the infiltrators tell me, copy who I’m told to copy, or make up a disguise, and blend in. I had a good thing going in this suburb of Canterlot. It wasn’t love, but I had friends, and I brought in my quota every week. Then we get orders to report back, and take extra training from the soldiers. I ask why we’re changing what works, and do you know what my superior tells me? ‘Orders from the top’. Orders from the top? Why? Are we running, have we been discovered, what’s going on? Then they tell me we’re invading…”
It was here that Earth Mover noted several things: First, her captor had a problem with authority, and was venting to likely the worst possible person she could. Second, in the process of venting, she was getting emotional, causing what looked like a secondary disguise to begin to flicker. Thirdly, her captor was traumatized. Not a full-blown case of PTSD, but she was not as stable as she’d been pretending to be.
She's just a nymph, and they put her on the front lines? What was her Queen thinking?
“…And then the day comes. I’ve burned all my bridges, I’m on top of this big shield bubble, hammering at it with the rest, and then it hits me: ‘What am I doing here? I can’t fight, I’ve been barely trained how! And then we’re through, and it’s chaos. I never got even close to the center of the fighting, but I’ve got this one colt cornered, he’s maybe a couple years younger than me, and he actually attacks. Attacks something he thinks is scary! And then I see he’s protecting a foal. His little brother, probably, and then the horseshoe drops, and I’m airborne with the rest, hurled away so fast my wings shatter. And then it’s sky and ground…”
Here the drone stopped, realized her disguise was flickering, gave a sort of mental shake, and let it drop the rest of the way, revealing that her eyes were like Earth Mover’s, except for the coloration, a bluish green. The change also revealed shoulder-length teal hair, and a set of undersized wings, clearly regrowth.
“It must have been hard, to be swept up in something you have next to no control over,” the older changeling remarked.
Here the – clearly not drone, more proto-queen gave a bitter chuckle. “How often do you think a mother throws her own daughter into the fire? I was commanded to train as a drone would, and to not reveal myself. To be her eyes within the lower ranks. I accepted that I’d face everything they did. But none of us were ready for what we faced. The soldiers, maybe, they’re trained for it. But not us, not the foragers, harvesters, tenders, none of us had any idea how to invade anything. And so we were told to be as threatening as possible, that the ponies’ would submit. And now I’m probably in some kid’s nightmares”
It was clear that this changeling was feeling sorry for herself. But it was also clear she felt guilt for what she’d been a part of.
“Look, I can’t promise that I’ll take you with me or anything when my team comes for me, but, if you decide you need someplace to go, asking for asylum is always an option. You wouldn’t be the first, and likely won’t be the last.”
“Is that what you did?”
“Yes. My situation wasn’t anything like yours, but it worked out well enough.”
“Do your friends know what you are?”
Here Earth Mover hesitated. Cole knew. The sergeant knew, since they’d both been there on that first adventure. The Princess' knew, obviously. But some of her classmates didn’t. She hadn’t thought about it, but that could be a problem down the road…
“Some of them.”
“Is it worth it?”
“That’s something you’ll need to decide for yourself.”
In the warehouse, Cole took up one of the “L” shaped objects, which Princess Luna now knew to be an “Advanced Training Pistol”, and briefly demonstrated how to load the device’s magazine, and charge its gas reservoir. Next, he took up a stance, aimed at a paper target he had tacked to the far wall, inside a netted box, intended to trap spent pellets, and began to speak.
“OK Ma'am, this pistol is loaded with .45 gram BBs, and charged with Black Gas. I need some way of knowing how it will affect changeling chitin at this distance.”
“Your measurement systems are unfamiliar to me, but if I conjure up a replica of a typical drone, will tat suffice?”
“Yes, I think that will do nicely, thanks.”
After a moment’s concentration, the Princess thrust out one hand, and a haze of blue aether swirled around her fingertips. An instant later, a full size replica of a changeling drone faded into view. It stood motionless, as Cole squeezed the trigger, and sent several bursts into it. The construct didn’t react, but the Princess was able to assess what the bursts had done.
“It would seem your equipment will prove sufficient, Mr. Cole.” She began. “The impacts I detected against the construct would surely produce a painful reaction, but would not pierce a typical changeling’s outer chitin. A direct hit to an eye would be inadvisable, as from this distance, the force would crack, or even puncture the organ. You stated that with the current ammunition, a hit would raise a painful welt on an unprotected human, at range, and break the skin, producing a shallow wound at close range, and I suspect the same of a changeling. While their chitin is tough, it is mainly intended to reduce damage from blunt impact, not piercing impact.”
However, after a moment’s further deliberation, the Princess made her decision.
“Mister Cole.”
“Yes, you’re Highness?”
“I believe your current ammunition may be insufficient to safely stop a changeling soldier. Their natural armor would make these ‘plastic’ pellets only marginally effective, even with the amount of force behind them these weapons of yours are capable of producing.”
“You’d be right,” the human agreed, stroking his chin, as he contemplated the .45g BBs in front of him.
“Perhaps if her Highness were to imbue something like a lightning spell into them?” Sergeant Stormcloud supplied.
“Actually, do you have something that could transmit shock, heat, and pressure? Not enough to kill, but definitely enough to incapacitate?” Cole asked.
“Indeed, there are several spells which could suffice. Perhaps something like a standard heavy stun bolt?”
“That would work, yes,” the human agreed, rubbing his hands together.
And so, over the next few hours, the trio tested variations of the stun bolt spell on the BBs, a grenade, and even some slingshot ammo, reasoning that if the human’s more complex weapons were disabled, perhaps by changeling spit, that a simple muscle-powered weapon packing a spell-driven punch could still give them an advantage.
It was early in the morning when they finished, and the human member of the team was feeling exhausted.
“With your highness permission, I’d like to take a break before we proceed to the next phase. It’s fairly mechanically intensive, and I don’t want to make any mistakes.”
“Agreed, Mr. Cole.” The lunar princess replied. “I myself am finding this body is tired as well.”
With a silent confirmation from the sergeant, Cole led the two others to the corner of the warehouse he had set up as a sort of prep area, washing the accumulated grime from his hands and face, before removing camping mattresses and sheets for everyone. After demonstrating how to inflate the mattresses, everyone removed shoes, jackets, and pretty much dropped, the two ponies’ turned humans falling asleep surprisingly quickly. Cole remained awake for a few minutes, arming the warehouse security system, and placing a parts order from a spare phone, before placing his glasses to one side, and quickly dropping off to sleep as well.
Princess Luna awoke to the sound of low voices, and the faint clank of tools. The alicorn-turned-human sat up, and rubbed her eyes, taking in a deep breath, as she felt her mind and body come back from the dormancy of slumber. Her sleep had been dreamless, odd, but explainable, as she was not in Equestria at the moment.
Rising, the princess slipped on the shoes she had removed to rest, and folded up her blanket, placing it atop the mattress before making her way back into the main work area, where Cole and the Sergeant were working on the object that had been covered up the previous night.
It bore a very close resemblance to the previous vehicle, the Elantra, but was a metallic silver-tan, instead of the more agreeable (to her) deep blue of the previous machine. The dark tint, red stripe, and other small design choices were the same, though, and this machine was clearly bigger, and sat atop a mechanism that brought all four of its wheels of the warehouse floor, allowing greater access to its underside, which was where Cole was now, the human’s legs clearly visible, as bright lights shone on what he was currently mounting to the undercarriage. The entire vehicle was surrounded by tools, sitting neatly in their cases, and small groupings of supplies, or the remains of packaging for supplies.
“Good morning, your Highness,” Stormcloud began.
“Greetings, Sergeant,” the princess returned. “I trust all is well?”
“As well as can be expected. Cole is installing some “extras” that he thinks may be useful.”
“So far, I’ve got smoke bomblets in dispensers at the rear and the sides, the horn has been modified for extra loudness and range. We have a full-coverage laser dazzler array, and the headlamps are set up to be extra blinding. All the steel body panels were removed, and replaced with reaction bonded boron carbide plates, and all windows are tinted aluminum oxynitride. The frame has been reinforced with a titanium and carbon fiber weave, with the passenger and cargo restraints modified accordingly. The aluminum wheels are now a titanium alloy, with reinforced tires. All external lighting, mirrors, and optical heads are now lensed with sapphire. The engine features a triple-scroll turbo, with nitrous injection, and we have active suspension for superior ride quality. Sensors include FlIR, RADAR, LiDAR, and ultrasonic, for combined lightless imaging…”
Here Cole trailed off, as he realized neither of his two companions understood much of that.
“Long story short, it’s armored like a cragodile, and faster than a Pegasus.”
“Oh. Well, carry on, Mr. Cole.” The Princess said, mentally processing all of the features of the seemingly innocuous machine.
“Wait, how do you know what a cragodile is?” asked the Sergeant.
“I try to read up on any place I may find myself in the near future.” The human explained. “I’m surprised just how many monsters actually lurk in the Equestrian countryside, reminds me a bit of Australia.”
"Don't you mean Hosstralia - wait, right..."
It was here that the princess interrupted: “How soon until we can leave, Mr. Cole? We are doubtless running short of time, and I am not sure how much longer miss Earth Mover may have.”
“My thoughts exactly, your Highness. With any luck, I’ll be done here in an hour or two, less, if I have help.”
“Then let us assist you as we are able,” the Princess declared, rolling up her sleeves.
Over the next hour and a half, the trio worked diligently, finishing up the remaining work on the new vehicle’s suspension, steering, and safety systems. The moment when Cole first fired up the engine being a particular highlight.
When asked about its make and model, the human referred to it as an “Optima”. Not the fastest, or strongest of Earth’s vehicles, but common enough to escape notice, and with enough space within its frame and body to allow for extensive modifications not readily apparent from the outside, perfect for the human’s usual line of work.
When asked about the clearly exotic nature of the Optima’s protections, Cole would only reply that “some previous clients wanted to show their appreciation”, and then promptly change the subject.
Soon, it was time to leave, and after loading the gear, the trio boarded the Optima, and exited Cole’s warehouse. As he closed the main doors by remote, Cole looked back at his base in the rearview mirror, and sighed to himself. For a quick jaunt home, things had not gone slowly. He was grateful that all the supplied they’d needed had been things he kept around anyways, as taking his passengers shopping would have been an experience…