Teaser for next Firefly chapter · 8:08pm Apr 13th, 2022
Tentatively titled “Duels and Dilemmas”, I’ve already got 7k words written and am now aiming for a Sunday morning release. It’s time to introduce, or reintroduce, a previously seen character that was the creation of great Denim_Blue (peace be upon him), Gentlemanverse author and master of Changeling lore. So without further ado, here’s a brief teaser, as told from Rock Biter’s perspective:
Harness Hill
Town Square
Twenty miles southwest of Maresk, astride the road to Detrot
September 5th, 1139 AC
1055 hours
After the Lieutenant Colonel Sand Dune’s departure, methinks I got only around forty minutes of peace and additional planning before another orderly approached at a full gallop, skidding to a stop before me. “Sir! An unfamiliar earth pony soldier stallion has approached our picket line and is requesting to see you, saying he has urgent information about an impending gryphon attack. He’s quite agitated and covered in swamp muck. We’re holding him at the base of the hill.”
“Unfamiliar?” I said suspiciously, knowing the Ravens were known to magically disguise themselves as ponies in order to get close to their targets. “Has he been—?”
“He scans clean, Colonel,” a teleporting Errant Arrow answered as she appeared before me. She was my replacement operations officer, elevated from platoon leadership to replace the loss; despite her name, I was told by her compatriots that she was both a skilled caster and deadly accurate with a bow. “I scanned him myself—no mind control gems or other magics detected. He says he’s seen where the Imperials are massing and knows where and when they will strike next.”
Despite the newcomer being provably a pony, ‘twas certain that his claim only made me more suspicious given that such information sounded far too convenient—an attempt to lure us away from where the actual attack would fall or at least keep us looking in the wrong direction. ‘Twas a tactic even gryphon raider groups had been known to indulge in, using false claims of attack to divert Corps and Army forces away from their intended target. And how would a single earth pony soldier have come across such information in the first place?
Nevertheless, I ordered him brought to me under guard so I could interview him, once he’d been stripped of his weapons—which, oddly enough, included a longbow, which few earth ponies could wield.
Stripped of his arms but not the mud and swamp grasses caking his legs and torso, he recognized my rank and saluted me crisply, obeying orders to keep at least twelve paces away lest he detonate some hidden bomb on his body—we had reports that had been one means of assassination that mind-controlled drones in Canterlot had used to slay their targets.
I returned the salute perfunctorily. To my eyes, he looked like a fairly ordinary and nondescript earth pony, possessing a ruddy brown coat with fog-gray eyes, wearing not armor but an Equestrian Army day uniform that suggested he’d been caught away from the front when gryphons attacked. That, or he was fleeing and trying to speed his journey by discarding his armor, which would weigh him down and slow his escape.
“Where is your unit, soldier?” I asked him. “And why are you out of armor in a combat zone?”
He fidgeted slightly, which didn’t help my suspicious mood. “M-my apologies, sir. I was on leave in Coltucky when the war broke out and was trying to reach my border unit, only to learn it was destroyed. This is as far as I could get.”
I stared at him for a moment before replying. “You traveled all the way here from Coltucky in five days an attempt to reach your border unit?” I exchanged a disbelieving look with my aides, then my eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Well, methinks I—”
“Well, nothing. Methinks it far more likely you deserted that unit and discarded your armor, attempting to masquerade as a civilian but were caught trying to slip unnoticed down the Harness Highway. Unable to do so, you perchance hoped could make it through the Heron Marshes only to find them impassable. So now you come to me with some unlikely tale meant to save your own hide?” I suggested coldly; ‘tis worth noting that I had already received a few such reports of deserting soldiers attempting to pass my sentries.
‘Tis also worth noting that I was more than willing to order the instant execution of such ponies, even then. For cowardice was a contagion, and unharmonious though the idea may be to modern ponies, ‘twas simply best to cut it off at the source.
“No!” he insisted with wide eyes; mayhap he knew what I was indirectly threatening him with. “Colonel, please! I have not the time to explain how I got here or how I know this, but I am Corporal Bramble Tracker, soldier of the 4th, Division, 1st pathfinder battalion! Methinks you can have the Army look me up and confirm I was on leave in Coltucky if you wish, but ‘tis certain it has to wait! For the gryphons are about to strike again much further west! If you don’t act immediately, ‘tis certain your entire force will be cut off and killed along with the rest of the Equestrian Army at Maresk!”
Bramble Tracker was DB’s character; a changeling infiltrator drone trained to help Equestria as an embedded soldier, where he could both fight as a pony and secretly receive Changeling-origin intelligence to pass to higher command. You can look back to previous Changeling chapters to get his story. Since DB is no longer with us (sigh), it falls to me to complete his story and the tale of the hive he left behind. I intend to finish the battle chapter regarding the evacuation of his hive next, which will be a chore since I don’t actually know what DB was planning.
Nevertheless, I’ll do my best to do it justice when the time comes. In the meantime, this chapter will likely be draft complete tomorrow and go live on Sunday. Be looking for it, but the publish date may slip if I can’t get the battle graphics done in time. And after this, it’ll be onto a new chapter of Eros followed by Harmonic Resonance again.
It is always a task and a half to continue the story of characters created by friends no longer with us. I've had to do it a few times, and while I do not envy the task before you, I know you are likely up to it and no matter what you deliver will be of excellent quality.
That's the thing with changeling characters, you never know when you might have been reading about one all along.
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I appreciate the vote of confidence, believe me. I’ll do my best, but DB did have a unique writing style with nuances I lack. Of course, if he had his way, everything would be a soft romance or romantic humor story. That’s what he loved and where he thrived. *sigh* if only he stayed and was able to do that Art of Warmance spoof chapter of Firefly I once asked him write as an April Fool’s joke.
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Exactly. And the Changelings will yet appear over in Feathered Hearts, too.
Man that's kind of sad, but I have great confidence in your abilities!