Changelings Together

by Oviraptor_Pony

Soaring through the air like a crashing plane

The group of five changelings went soaring through the air huddling together for protection. They were all screaming their heads off except for Termite who was as calm as he’s ever been.

“Ok everyone we need to reposition ourselves for landing.” Ordered the old changeling. “Maggot your infront, Firefly your next, then me, then Mayfly and last Aphid.”

“What! Why do I have to be the one to koshen everyones fall!” Screamed Maggot as he moved into position.

“Your warrior class Maggot your made to survive heavy impacts.” Screamed Aphid from the back of the groupe.

Maggot could see the rapidly approaching ground and only got a few words out of his mouth before impact “ I hate my life.” Then all went dark for the five of the changeling.

Maggot woke up with a major headache, It felt as if he had gotten into a headbutting  contest with a manticore who was wearing a helmet. His vision was blurred and he could not tell where he was. Then he noticed the pain in his right foreleg. “Wow there hatchling don't move so much we had quite the fall.” Maggot recognized the voice as Termite and as sone as his vision returned he realized that they were both in a bush and his foreleg was bandaged. “Question number 1, why are we in a bush? Question number 2, why am I bandaged up. Question number 3, where are the others? And question number 4, and this is an important one, did you happen to bring along one of those muffins?” asked the wounded changeling.

“Nice to see the fall hasn't caused any brain damage. In order of your questions, were hiding because we're still in equestria. As for the bandages, since you didn't fill up on love during the invasion your natural healing abilities are at their weakest,and you broke both a leg and one of your wings in the crash. The others are hiding in another bush trying to calm Mayfly down. Finally for your last question yes i had a muffin but Mayfly is eating it right now.”

“Wait if you saved that muffin for me then why did you give it to her?”

The older changeling looked at the wounded one and stared at him as he said. “Maggot we've been cut off.”

Maggot quickly checked the back of his mind for any sign of the rest of the swarm in the hive mind but the only thoughts he could hear were those of the group. “What why did they cut us off from the rest of the swarm?”

“Standard procedure, if you don't respond within the first 24 hours of a failed invasion your considered dead or captured.”Termite looked away from Maggot again and simply continued scanning the area for signs of movement.

“So im guessing Mayfly is taking things badly?”

“She wasn't trained to deal with the chance of being separated from the hive. So yes she is taking it badly.”

Suddenly a voice came over the hive mind it was Mayfly “I'm fine now guys don't worry too much about me.”

“Good. Everyone the coast seems clear so we can regroup at the crash site.”Upon saying this  Termite left the bush.

“Thanks for leaving your wounded friend in a bush!”Called out Maggot. He received no response. So he resorted to the hive mind, “hello wounded friend in bush calling. Need help getting to crash site.”

“Maggot you're already at the Crash site just look outside of the bush.” called Aphid

Maggot proceeded to poke his head out of the bush to see his four friends standing in front of a giant crater. “Wow, how did the ponies miss that?!”

“They didn't, luckily Termite woke up before they arrived and hid all of us.” Stated Firefly.

“They didn't check the bushes?”Asked Maggot

“They didn't have too. I impersonated a first responder, and told the canterlot guards that i saw the crashed Changelings run into the forest.” Said Termite who was still on the lookout for any ponies.

“So what do we do now?” Asked a very traumatized looking Mayfly.

“Well since Maggot is wounded and we are cut off from the hive. We need to find a source  of love to heal Maggot and fuel our magic so we can use the hive mind to  guide us back home.”This came from Aphid who was hovering over the group.

“That should not be too hard we're actually close to a small town called Ponyville.”Termite pointed out while changing into his custom form and old  white coated black maned, unicorn stallion still in good physical shape with a black shield cutie mark, he still had the scare over his eye some things the natural changeling shapeshifting can't cover up.

The others changed it to their customs forms as well. Aphid was a red pegasus foal with a dark brown mane and no cutie mark. Firefly was a yellow unicorn with a dark blue mane and a telescope cutie mark. Finally Maggot was a black Pegasus with a blood red mane and a mace shaped cutie mark. the only one who did not change was Mayfly who just stared at her friends as they changed.

Firefly was the first to notice. “O that is right you don't have a custom form Mayfly.”

“So what do I do to get one?” asked the worried Caretaker.

Aphid took charge in the explanation. “Its very easy actually. Just do what you would do when impersonating a pony except you have to make one up inside your head. it is easier to do if you pick something close to your personality.”

“Well ok, here i go.” Mayfly closed her eyes and created a pony that felt the most like her self. She turned into a black earth pony with a ghostly blue mane and a cutie mark of a lime green egg. “How do I look?” She asked while opening her eyes and giving a weak smile.

“Well you look like a pony and thats all that matters.” Said termite as he started to walk towards town.

“Yeah a pony that could easily pass for a changeling.” added Maggot as he lipped after the old changeling.

Termite came to a stop and turned to the rest of the group and announced “That reminds me where spliting up to avoid detection. Aphid you with Mayfly and Firefly you're with maggot. I’m going on my own.” Both Mayfly and Aphid nodded, both Firefly and maggot sighed.

When they arrived in town they all split up since they did not have enough energy to maintain the hive mind for very far they decide to refrain from using it  to conserve energy.

Aphid and Mayfly had both entered Ponyville and had just separated from the others when they came across a large cupcake like building.

“This place looks promising.” said Aphid as he walked towards the front door of the building. He turned as he noticed Mayfly was not following him. She stood there frozen in front of the building. Aphid sighed and grabbed her front hoof and aided her into the building.

“It won't be that bad Mayfly just act like a pony and let the love flow into you its not hard, and don't worry about the ponies they have a surplus of love so only a prolonged absorption will actually hurt them.” Said the small changeling as he opened the front door. He was greeted with the loudest gasp he had ever heard that was quickly followed by a pink blur the engulfed his vision.

“Hiimpinkiepieandiknoweveryoneinponyvilleandihaveneverseenyoutwobeforesoyoumustbenewandifyournewitmeansyouhaventmetanyoneyetsoimgoingtothrowyoua...” Pinkie Pie continued like this for a couple of minutes until she finally stopped to ask for their names.

Aphid seemed to be having trouble understanding what she was saying. But Mayfly on the other hand enjoyed the verbal assault on her ears. It had a calming affect on her due to the fact the rambling reminded her of the hivemind. So she decided to do what Aphid told her and acted like a pony. “Well i'm Mayfly and this is...”she paused for a moment to think of how to introduce the scout. “My son Aphid.” She instantly herd Aphid snap out of his stupor and scold her in the hivemind. “Mayfly you used our real names she will obviously figure us out now!!!”

“Well Mayfly and Aphid welcome to Ponyville!! Oh I Should start planning for your party but you can stay here at Sugarcube Corner if you want.” with that she dashed off into the kitchen.

“Well that went better than expected Mom. Lets go grab a seat and wait for the love to pour in.”

They sat in one of the booths and waited until some more ponies would enter the sweetshop.

Maggot and Firefly encountered a house shaped that was made out of a tree. “A Library perfect.” Stated Firefly as she approached the front door. “How do you know its a library just looks like a treehouse to me?” said Maggot as he lipped after her.

“I know its a Library due to the symbol on the the door. Most of my mission had me stationed at Trottingham University, so I spent a lot of time at their library.” explained the harvester as they entered the Tree house.

In the Library Twilight was giving Spike instruction. “Spike I need you to gather the others as quickly as possible and bring them here.”

“But Twilight we just got back from the wedding cant we put this off until tomorrow.” Complained the small dragon

“Spike this is important we don't know if all the changelings are actually out of equestria or if they plan on returning. We need a plan to protect Equestria and I believe my new invention could help.”  Spike left Shortly after that excusing himself as he passed the two changelings in disguise.

“Oh, Hello.” Said Twilight as she finally noticed the two “ponies”. “Sorry i didnt notice you there I have been so caught up in my work on the Anti-Changeling plans. Can I help you with anything.”

Maggot just stared  at her not knowing what to say. While FireFly calmly asked. “ Yes you can as you can see here my Pegasus Friend has hurt himself in a flying accident and has asked me to perform a healing spell on him to accelerate the recovery process. Would you happen to have a book on such spells.”

“O yes I do believe I keep the books on healing over here.” She said turning around to magically grab the books. When Firefly swiftly raised her hoof and knock the Librarien out.

“Why did you do that for?!” yelled the shocked warrior.

“She has a secret invention that could ruin our harvest for ever and without we would be unable to protect the colonie properly from other hives.” Explained Firefly as she stuffed the unconscious unicorn into a closet.

“Yeah but she sent that dragon to bring her friend here so won't they notice she is missing?”

“Thats why I will be replacing her while you search for the invention.” Said Firefly as she turned into the purple unicorn.

“O no you won't I'm going to impersonate her while you look for the invention I'm too wounded to look.” Said Maggot as he turned into the unicorn as well.

“ You weren't wounded enough to walk all the way here and anyways your leg is broken and bandaged they will notice right away you're not her.”

“You don't think I can come up with an excuse.”

“Yes as a matter of fact I do, I'm harvester cast so ovecores I out rank a warrior like you in the stealth department.”

“Did you just call me out on class.”

Needless to say this argument would go on for awhile.

Termite entered the towns marketplace. He started to look browse the shops taking in the stray strands of love from the various ponies perusing the shops until he came across a certain flavor of love he recognized. He found the source of the familiar love it was coming from an apple stand that was run by an orange earth pony mare. He could tell that the Apple merchant was not the source of the love but the gray pegasus she was talking too. As he approached he instantly recognized Derpy by her cross eyed expression. As he approached he could hear her conversation with the merchant.

“No I don't think me and Dinky where being mind controlled.”Said the cross eyed mare. “ It was more like they were lazy and didn't want to join the fighting, and any ways i wasn't attracted to them in a give you all my love sort of way. It kind of just felt i was eating muffins with some friends.”

“Ah’ don’t if you were under some sort of magic or if  y’all managed to run into some nice changelings, as hard as that is to believe. But I’m sure of one thing the ones I met at the weddin were definitely not good.” Responded Applejack.

Watching the conversation go on, Termite came to think of the situation he was in. Well so far the mission is a success but there is still an issue that i need to take care of and I believe that Miss Hooves and her friend over there can help. With his internal decision making done he approached the two mares and prepared his introduction.

“Hello Miss Hooves a Pleasure to see you again!” The two mares looked to see the large unicorn who had approached them.

“Um, hello.” Said Derpy she seemed to be trying to remember where she had seen this unicorn before and was drawing a blank.

“Well Howdy, i'm Applejack proprietor a Sweet Apple Acres supplier of this here apple stand.” The earth pony simply beamed with pride about her work place.

Termite took her introduction to help the poor mailmare recognize him. “A pleasure to meet you Miss Applejack, I am Termite. A recent acquaintance with Miss Hooves.”

The blonde pegasus was instantly reminded of who this unicorn was. “Wait Termite what are you doing here. This isn't the safest place for you to be.”She said in a worried tone checking around to see if there were any royal guards around.

“Well the first reason I'm here is the fact that my group has been cut off from the others and Maggot was injured and need time to heal. As for the fact that I revealed myself to you and your friend Miss applejack is damage control. We would probably be found out within a week Mayfly is way too inexperienced for long and its only a matter of time until Maggot mess up something.” After Termites explanation Derpy turned to Applejack half expecting her to tackle the old changeling. But she wasn't moving except for glaring daggers at the white stallion.

“Applejack, are you ok?” asked Derpy

“She sadly can't respond to your question, I have temporarily frozen her in place the only thing she can move is her eyes.”explained Termite.

“Let her go Termite.”Now Derpy was Glaring at him “Let her go now.”

“I would love too but she has to promise not to bring attention or attack me.”

“Applejack blink twice if you Pinkie promise not to attack or bring attention to Termite.”Applejack rolled her eyes then blinked twice and was suddenly able to move again.

“Y’all better have a good excuse as to why i shouldn't hogtie y’ah right now monster.”

“The main reason is that you promised not too. But that is besides the point,The true reason is because my groupe means you no harm we are not what you would call the most hard working changelings and we should be out of your manes relatively soon.”

“How long is relatively soon?” Asked a suspicious Applejack.

“At the rate of passive collection I'm getting now 3 to 4 weeks.”

“3 TO 4 WEEKS.” yelled both mares.

“Voices down please, and yes collecting love thats not directly associated to you is not very inefficient and takes more time. Which is why I decided to fill you in Miss applejack. You are the element of harmonie applejack correct?”

“Yes I am, and what does that have to do with anything?”

“It means that the other elements of harmonie are here which would make you the most qualified to handle the situation.”

Applejack sighed she didn't want to believe it but what the changeling said to her kind of made sense. “I'll have to pass this by my friends first.”

“Of Course, you can organize to meet our group when ever you want we are only five so you outnumber us. There will be no need to worry I simply want to make this stay as quick and problem free as possible.”
“Don't’ Forget our deal Termite you and your friends owe me a lot of muffins.” Added Derpy

Suddenly a small purple scaled dragon game running to the stand. “Hey AJ, Twilight want you to go to the library for a meeting about the changelings. See you there i got to go find Pinkie pie now.” With that the little dragonling ran off.

“Well then it seems we can settle this matter sooner than i thought.” Said Termite as he followed Applejack to the library.