How to NOT Become a Changeling

by WolfTheWyvern

Chapter 3

I was in absolute bliss when I woke up. It was warm, the air smelled sweet, and who knew that stone could be just so comfortable? I was loathe to move. I had to take a minute of luxury and just lay there a moment and enjoy it. I opened my eyes to the crystal clear vista in front of me: a smooth stone wall.

It was then my brain decided to kick back into gear. I was in the changeling hive. I was a captive, and wait… I could see? I stood up. I felt… different. A wave of lightheadedness rushed over me and I had to sit down.

“How do you feel?” I heard May ask.

“A little lightheaded,” I said. “Why?”

“I’ll say that it was a success then,” May said pridefully. “I actually thought that you would be a little more upset about it.”

The lightheadedness subsided and I looked out of the cell clearly for the first time. “What being able to see clearly for the first time in my lif…” Wait, something wasn’t right. There was something new in my mouth. My heart gave a flutter as I reached up to my mouth and found two, long fangs. I looked down me muzzle. It was grey, too dark a grey to be my own coat. My heart started pounding. I was not the same. I looked at my hooves, and saw through them. I shot up, hyperventilating. No no, no, no, no, this was not right. My wings resembled those of a mutated beetle; my back was covered in a hard blue casing. Luna, this would be a good time to step in and stop this nightmare. I reached up to my face again: one muzzle, good; two eyes, great; and a horn. A horn? I prodded it. Sweet dear Celestia, I had a horn.
Fear and despair began to feed a far greater fire of anger. “What did you do to me?” I looked at May for the first time with clear eyes. She looked like a monster straight from a nightmare.
“Steady, you need to listen-“
“I am not going to listen to you. How dare you-” May slapped me across the face.
“Shut up and listen,” Her voice was as cold and hard as steel. “Now I did the only thing I could think of to save your life. Yes, you are a changeling, but you have about five days to be changed back. Then you can just go back to your library, but now there are greater plans afoot, and more lives at risk than just yours. So yeah, be angry with me, but we have Equestria to save first, and we do not have the time to argue over ethics,” The fear carried in her last sentence brought me into reality. “The invasion force is gathering as we speak.”
Fire turned into ice as those last words seeped in, “Sorry. It’s just too much for me to take in,” my head started to hurt.
“It’s okay, your systems are still in flux,” May looked at me and smiled. “I still think you’re taking it well,” Her smile faded as she continued. “Now we have a couple of hours at most so we need to get to work.”
I took a deep breath, and nodded. “Okay what’s first for me? Are you going to teach me how to, um, change? Is there a book?” I gave May an excited smile.
May sighed and looked a little exasperated, “Yes there is a book, but no. There’s no time. First, how do you take to a new language?”

I was grinning like an idiot, “Oh, better than anypony! I am fluent in thirteen different languages from ancient to modern. Are you going to teach me some Changeling?” I found myself hovering and clopping my forehooves together like a filly.

May facehoofed, “You are worse than a drone on love day.”

I contained myself and put my hooves back on the ground, “Okay what is it?”

May made a noise that sounded like the combination of crickets, a blender, and some dubstep.

“Whaa…”

It took me about half an hour to replicate the sounds to May’s satisfaction. “I still think I’d do better if I had a book,” I said. She had gotten more agitated. I think something had gone wrong outside; I could just feel the hive preparing to move.

“I believe in you, Steady,” with a flash, May’s hoof-holes changed and she stuck her leg out of the cell. With a click, the cell’s bars retracted into the floor and we both stepped put.

Now came my part. I grabbed one of the many small metallic bands on the wall and put it around May’s horn; there was something in the metal so she couldn’t transform herself. Then we leisurely walked to the end of the hallway; I was escorting May like a guard. With luck the changeling at the end would be sleeping, and we could just walk out and be on our merry way, but he was awake. My heart sank.

The guard said something; I guessed that it would be something that the proper response would be: I am escorting this prisoner to Queen Chrysalis’ throne room; our mighty queen wishes to see her face first thing when she returns to tell of her glorious victory!

In the middle of my line, May punched the guard. He fell like a sack of apples.

“What was that for?” I was more than surprised.

“Well you were telling him about the greatness of the Peach Empire, and he wasn’t buying it,” I made a small ‘O’ with my mouth. “Now get this thing off of me!” I pulled the ring off her horn.

“Well now what?” I asked, a little confused and frightened about the situation.

“Now we run,” May gave me a smile that made me think she might like having her life in peril. I was doing all I could to keep myself from panicking. We turned a corner just to run straight into a group of four changelings, and they were far from happy. I guessed that they were guards.

“About face!” May shouted. She spun and darted down a dark tunnel, and I was hot on her hooves, and some guards were hot on mine. We ran through a myriad of indistinctive tunnels, but I could tell that we were heading up, and out. However, May was gaining and I was losing ground to the guards. I pushed my new legs harder, but I couldn’t keep up with her. Suddenly, my legs were no longer under me. A guard grabbed me and I kicked away from him.

“May!” I pleaded for her help, but she was too far to hear me. Two of the guards kept going, presumably to keep up with May, leaving me with only a two versus one. I crouched low, it seemed to be a reasonable thing to do, and they both lunged at me. I tried to scamper under them, but a hoof smacked me in the back of the head. I tumbled into a dark tunnel. I fought dizziness and panic and realized that the two guards didn’t see me fall into the tunnel. I screwed my eyes shut and prayed to Celestia that if I could see my library again, I would never pester her about another rare book, ever again.

I heard the two guards talking to each other, just feet away from me. I didn’t even breathe. They started to walk down my tunnel. They could’ve kicked me when I heard something slip a small distance away. May did hear me! The guards ran of the search for the sound. I waited a moment and stepped out into the main passage again.

“May?” I whispered. I waited a moment for the response. “May?” I whispered a little louder. “They’re gone now May,” But the stone walls gave no reply. Icy fear and burning panic began to seep into me. I was lost and alone, in some Celestia-only-knows-where hive, and I was being hunted by nightmares given form. I gave into the emotions flowing through me, but only found self-pity.

I looked at my new hoof again. It had a large arch that split the bottom of my hoof right down the middle, and above and a little to the front of that, a complete hole in my leg; farther up and on the back of my leg was another large arch that cut into my leg. It looked like it couldn’t hold up a foal, much less a full grown pony. I just wanted my leg back, my whole body, my life as it was… only two days ago? Only a day had separated me from everything I had known. Now that day was going to kill me in the bottom of a changeling hive.

At the very bottom… “No” I said to the walls. I felt something new take form in my chest. I was fed up with this. They took my life from me, and I was the only one who could get it back. I stood up, determined to climb out of this hole and get back to Canterlot in time to save it, and my old life.

I struck out at a full gallop up the tunnel. It twisted and curved, but it still led up, and I stayed on it. Doubt came back to me, telling me that getting out couldn’t be as easy as following a path up, but I brushed it aside. I felt that this was the right path. I could see a green light ahead of me. I buzzed my wings, gaining more speed. I took one last bend at breakneck speed, and screeched to a halt. The view in front of me took my breath away.

In short: it was a city. Buildings were molded from solid rock, and every street was aglow with green lamps. It was centered around a beautifully sculpted crystalline palace that radiated a green glow. The thing was in a massive cavern that was well over a hundred feet tall, and I was near the top. I was standing in one of thousands of smaller caves that split off from the main cavern.
Below me was a large square, it looked almost like a market, but it was filled with ordered ranks of changelings. Something told me that I had just found the invasion force. I looked for a way down, but a hoof grabbed me and pulled me down. The guards had found me. One of them pinned me down and punched me in the face. I tried to grab for anything, tried to kick him off of me, but there was nothing I could do. I looked at the anger and hatred in the eyes of the guard as he punched me again, but then it turned to sheer surprise.
Suddenly there was a bright green blinding flash, and I was falling through a blue sky. My wings righted me and I tried to get bearing s on what just happened. My eyes adjusted to the sunlight and I could’ve sworn that I knew that valley below me. Then I turned and knew the city under its pink bubble below me. I felt all the blood drain from my face as it dawned on me that I had just become part of the invasion force that I had tried to stop.
Then hoof landed hard against the back of my skull.

Author's Note:

I just wanted to wish everypony a happy Hearths' Warming! As always, thanks for reading.
-WHK

Comments

[Morphy]

Owch, why do cliffhangers always end on pain?

[King of Kings]

Are there any plans to complete this story? I ask because I am going to favorite this because the plot behind it sounds interesting. HOWEVER, until it is completed, I am going to give it a thumbs down. Because while I may approve of the plot behind the story, I DO NOT approve of the fact that it has been 1 years, 2 weeks, and 3 days since the last update. I mean, I understand that greatness can't be rushed, but needing 382 days in order to update the next chapter means one of three things. A: You've given up on the book (this is the most likely scenario). B: You’re too busy to write any more (this is understandable). Or C: You're dead (this is a scenario with a 50% probability chance, seeing as how people die every day.) If option C makes you feel uncomfortable than that means two things. You are obviously not dead, and I am sorry for having that as one of the three possibilities. Also, don’t give up! Your fans deserve better! I, of course, meant that in the best and most encouraging possible way.

[WolfTheWyvern]

5483776 Good news! I'm not dead! Thanks for the encouragement. I've been planning to rewrite this story for awhile now, but I've been giving priority to my other story, and it's taken up most of my writing time (and school work). However, I am ready to re-write this story, and might get to work on it soon.

[King of Kings]

5490455
Thank you for being one of the few (recently that is) that have actually decided to take this the way that it was supposed to be taken, as a motivational comment. And yes, that is indeed good news! Both that you are not dead, and that you will be working on this story soon! For the acknowledgement of the fact that that comment was supposed to be a motivational comment, and the news that you will be working on this story soon, you get an honorary thumbs up.