Living Mark of Courage

by Moowell

64?

CT1 did a quick scan of the cavern, only to confirm that 64 wasn't somewhere in the area hiding. She checked the bodies of the Soldiers to see if the wolf had inadvertently hit her with the sphere. CT1 gave a brief sigh of relief when her body was not found among the fallen. However, that meant she was somewhere out in the Hive. She could be scared and all alone, exploring forbidden areas, or worse: following the Soldiers taking that wolf to the Cells. With the Queen's order in effect, if she got caught, she would be executed on the spot!

The caretaker rushed outside and closed her eyes, projecting herself across the Hivemind in search of the little convert's mental signature. She found it after a moment of searching, but it was getting further away. She held her concentration and dashed in the direction of the connection. Thankfully, 64 hadn't gone too far. If she hurried, she would catch her before--

The connection vanished.

*****

Epona ducked into an empty room and put the drone mask in her inventory. "Phew. It feels good to be a pony again," she said with a stretch.

"I bet it feels even better now that you don't have a chain embedded in you."

"Don't remind me, Wisp... It hurts just thinking about it." She glanced back at the scars on opposite sides of her hind leg. "Ah'm just lucky CT1 had that healing spit. Hope Ah never get put in that position again." She peered around the corner. "Anyways, now that Ah'm free, we've got some work to do."

"I'd say. Escaping from a teeming changeling Hive isn't going to be easy."

"It'll be easier once we're together with Mirrors." Epona pulled out the ocarina and played her song, then waited. Several moments passed, and neither howl nor hoof step responded. "What's taking so long? She should've done something by now."

"Maybe they beat her," Wisp offered helpfully. "There were a lot of them, after all."

"No way. Mirrors is too strong to lose to a bunch of drones."

"And yet she's made no reply."

Epona began to get worried. Mirrors was strong enough to handle herself, but what if Wisp was right? It's possible that they had drones as strong or stronger than the one she had fought before being brought here. What if Mirrors hadn't responded because she couldn't? "Ah'm gonna try again. If she still doesn't respond, Ah'm going back for her." A few seconds after she began to play, she heard rapid hoof steps coming her way. "Mirrors?" She paused and poked her head out from behind the corner. "Not Mirrors!"

"A ssecond one?" the changeling muttered before its face contorted into a snarl. Its horn glowed until a shield of magic formed in front of its head. Epona leapt backward into the room just as the foe charged and crashed into the side of the entrance, leaving a sizable crater in the wall. She drew out her sword and shield and prepared to fight. The drone entered slowly and scanned the room. "Where iss sshe? What did you do with her?"

"Who?"

"There wass a little changeling that came here. I felt her pressencce enter thiss room jusst before it dissappeared. Where iss that changeling now?"

Epona lowered her weapon. "CT1?"

The drone wavered, but never dropped its guard. "You sseem to know me, but that dessignator doessn't exxisst outsside of the Hive. Who are you, how do you know my name, and where iss my convert?"

"Ya already know me, just not like this." Epona put her sword and shield away. The drone mask then appeared on her face, and she transformed back into a changeling with a small burst of green flame.

CT1's stared with wide eyes. 64's mental signature had been gone. Not dim, like if she had been unconscious or suppressed, but gone completely. There was no possible way that she could be alive. Now it was back in the Hivemind as though it had never left, and where a pony filly had stood, there now stood a small changeling with a nearly solid left foreleg. "I-Imposssible... What...?"

"CT1, mah name'ss Epona, but ya know me as 64."

"Are you really 64?"

"Ah am."

"But I felt the connection dissappear! That only happens when... when a changeling... I thought..."

"Ah'm sstill here, CT1." Epona took off the mask and reverted back to her pony form, severing the connection. "Just not the same as ya thought Ah was."

"Are you an enemy?"

Epona opened her mouth to speak, but she stopped herself. She had fought many changelings. It was the changelings that burned Fluttershy. It was the changelings that attacked her and the Apples. It was the changelings that captured and imprisoned her for who knows how long. The changelings were her enemies. Yet at the same time... "Ah'm not your enemy," she decided. "Ya were kind to me. Ya gave me food and shelter just because ya wanted to. Ya healed me after Ah injured mah leg. Ya protected me from the other converts, and even though the wolf was mah friend, ya tried to protect me because ya thought she was a threat."

"I only did thosse thingss becausse I thought you were a changeling!"

"The Collectors thought I was a changeling too. They were cruel anyways, but ya've been kind ever since we met." Epona lowered her head and giggled a little bit. "Ah've only had one other pony truly care for me like ya have. Ah dunno if ya reported me like ya did with Mirrors, but after everything ya've done for me 'til now, Ah'll still see ya as a friend. No matter what happens next."

CT1 didn't have long to think about what Epona just told her, because just a short moment later, another swarm of Soldiers appeared and flooded the room. One stepped forward and patted CT1 on the shoulder. "Thank you for sstalling the intruder, Caretaker 1. I will take care of it from here."

"What are you going to do with her, Collector?" CT1 asked, her body unusually tense.

"Come now, Caretaker," the Collector smirked as he wrapped his hoof around her shoulder. "You as former CSF sshould know SStandard Protocol. SShe will be immediately placced in a Cell and drained of every sscrap of love sshe hass in her. When sshe iss nothing but a lovelesss, lifelesss hussk, sshe will be left outsside for the desert to play with. That iss, if sshe comess quietly." The Collector shrugged. "If sshe doessn't, well... who knowss what will happen before she makess it into a Cell?"

"That'ss what I thought you were going to ssay." CT1 suddenly grabbed his leg and whirled, swinging and throwing the Collector into the swarm. She then strode forward and stood next to Epona. "I refusse to let that happen."

The Collector glared up at the pair. "Are you inssane, Caretaker? Thiss iss treasson!"

"Throwing you issn't treasson. Neither iss preventing anything from happening on the way to the Cellss." Epona felt two sharp pricks on the back of her neck.

*****

CT1 pulled out her fangs and watched as the filly's eyes changed from orange to a glowing green. "Don't you think it'ss better thiss way, Collector? Now you won't have to worry about another intruder wiping the floor with your troopss."

The Collector stood up and brushed himself off. "Thank you for your continued ssupport, Caretaker," he replied with venom in his tone. "However, I'm ssure my droness could have handled thiss ssituation on their own."

"Like they did with the wolf?"

"Wolvess are wolvess, not Earth Pony filliess." He turned to his drones. "Squads 1 and 2, return to your posts. You, Intruder, follow Squad 3 to the Cells." He stood off to the side and allowed the pony to join the drones as they dispersed into their respective groups. However, when CT1 started to follow them out, he stepped in the way. "Why don't I esscort you back to your cavern? I sstill have to enssure that your removal effortss were effective." CT1 scowled, but since she had no argument to prevent him from doing his Queen-assigned job, she simply nodded and walked past.

As they walked through the halls toward her Cavern, her thoughts dwelt on 64. She thought back to the time when they first met. All the fear that she had felt from the little convert at the beginning had slowly transformed into a sort of associative comfort and finally into... not quite happiness, but perhaps contentment. She remembered the first time 64 had accepted love from her hoof and the joy that welled in her heart. Up until the end, their relationship had only gotten better, their bond becoming closer and stronger than she had allowed herself to form with any of the others. Then this morning happened, and 64 vanished, replaced by the filly Epona.

"Bleh, ssomething tastess terrible. Are thosse wonderfully bitter emotionss coming from you, Caretaker?" For some reason, CT1 felt her heart start to hurt. It was an uncomfortable feeling, and she didn't like it. As she searched herself for the cause, her thoughts fell on a single subject: Was everything 64 had been just a lie? Were all the times when she felt joy and pain fake? Was that Epona pony simply taking advantage of her? "Well, here we-- By the Queen, Caretaker!" The exclamation snapped her back to reality. She and the Collector were back in her Cavern. Everything was the way she had left it when she started her search for 64.

CT1's hooves were suddenly sealed in placed by four mounds of solidifying goo. "Collector, what iss the meaning of thiss?!"

"I came perssonally to ssee the efficienccy of your removal effortss, only to find a wall filled by living convertss!" He walked slowly past her and glanced back with a dark grin. "Here, why don't I help you with that?"

CT1 fought and struggled to free herself as the Collector laughed his way toward the converts.

Comments

[dartagnan401]

wow no comments? hmm first i guess...anyway great chapter cant wait for the next one
is ct1 gonna be importent later