Chapter 2
The Little Moments
I made my path up the river, watching carefully around me for any way to cross it if I needed to. The rushing of water and movement of trees were my only companions, until a loud snap broke the peace. I spun around, watching the spot where I was sure the twig snapped. There was only the orange leaves scattered on the ground and the shade cast from the setting sun against the trees. The brown trees turned darker against the sun and the leaves turned golden with the orange glow of the sunset.
Oh wait... the sun was setting. Great, now I needed to find someplace to sleep without being viciously mauled by anything that might be in this forest. I had yet to meet anything in this place that proves there aren't any giant wandering creatures that may either be hungry or bored. Those two traits were the deadliest of combinations. Hunger and boredom combined can create the weirdest kinds of food; that's why the Food Network was so deadly.
I raised my hoof to signal my stomach's cue to grumble. It didn't disappoint, and it went that extra mile to bring a short hunger pain. I examined the ground or more specifically, the leaves. I was technically a horse, so I should have been able to eat grass, right? There wasn't any grass around, but I had a hunch that I could eat the leaves on the ground. I leaned forward and bit a little nibble off of a large yellow leaf and spat it out in disgust. It tasted exactly like you would expect how a leaf tastes, crunchy and dry with no taste except for a smidgen of dirt. I made a small vow from that moment onward to never trust my hunches ever again.
My stomach roared in protest of being given inedible objects. I pondered my next step; I needed to find food and shelter, and I could accomplish no such thing while I meandered down this river. The only plausible shelters I thought I would be able find in this forest would be along the lines of a hollow tree or a rather large log; the food would have to be either grubs or, if I was lucky, some edible berries or plants. My lack of knowledge about which plants are good to eat, however, severely limited my options for food.
I mindlessly followed the river and dreaded a moment where I would realize that I have no food or shelter, and my days in Equestria were going to be very short-lived. I felt the warmth of the sun disappear behind my back as I listened to the sounds of the river. I would probably have just broken down right there, if I hadn't recalled something a hilarious, yet wise, comedy group once said. It was a saying I always kept to heart, no matter what event happened in my life this saying would be right there to pick me back up and send me off to fix everything that was wrong.
"Always look on the bright side of life." I sung quietly to myself. The buzz and whistles that emerged from my stupid facehole reminded me of my condition and I felt the reality of my situation settle in again. Stupid changeling-speak ruining a Monty Python moment for me. I walked for a little while in somber silence before I felt the urge to whistle the rest of the song.
To my immense joy, I was able to retain my ability to whistle the chorus. I started to whistle that timeless tune, then I took time to try the verses. I eventually felt hope to fill me again, and I even started to skip alongside the river. I sung the words in my head. I finished the song with a flourish, I stood up on my legs and gave a small jump. I spun a full circle before I landed with my arms - fore hooves, dammit - on either side of me and my right knee on the ground and my left hind hoof on the ground gracefully as I received applause for my stunning act.
Or, at least that's how I imagined it. In reality I tripped and fell flat on my face. I expected there to be the pain that one normally gets when try to crave a replica of your face into the dirt, but instead I was met with... well, no pain at all. Lifting my head up, I tapped my skull. Nothing happened, so I started to pound my hoof against my head. Nope. Nada. Zilch. No pain whatsoever. It took me a minute to recall that I'm a bug, so of course I should have a bug's exoskeleton. I smacked my forehead with a hoof, which was much less painful than it used to be. The discovery brought about a plethora of things I imagined I could do without the restrictions of a squishy body. My imagination made everything seem so cool, too.
I turned my attention from dwelling in the clouds to in front of me and beheld an oddity that one usually doesn't find in a forest. When I first saw it, I was immediately struck with the resemblance of a gopher hole. I mean, it was definitely a hole in the ground, but the hole was vertical. It was like someone took a small section of the ground, raised it to be about twice a pony's height, then cut a hole in the side of the newly-formed mound.
Odd? Yes. Natural? Most likely not. Put on your fedora and trenchcoat, kids, it's time to do some investigating! As I abandoned the river in favor for shelter, and perhaps a way to civilization, I noticed that feeling that someone was watching me again. I spun to my right, leaving the hole and the river behind me, and could distinctly make out the sounds of hooves crushing leaves and twigs in an effort to hide. I followed the sounds of movement to one particular tree and weighed my options carefully. If I let him/her follow me into the cave-like-thing, I could corner him/her more easily and he/she would have less of a chance to get away. I glanced behind me at the mouth of the passageway, and noticed how dark it was in there. I wouldn't be able to see the holes in my hooves, much less my follower.
"I know you're there." I yelled before remembered that I can only make incoherent noises in the language I had dubbed 'Buglish'. I probably spooked my follower even more, and he/she would be looking for the nearest chance to bolt--
"You are not from here," said who/whatever was behind the tree.
"What." I whispered to myself.
A sleek black horn emerged, slowly at first. Then the rest of the head with two oceans of blue offsetting the dark exoskeleton, followed by legs with holes and bug wings, poised for flight at any given moment.
I raised my voice slightly louder, "What?"
"I am Drone 473 of the hive Theta. You are an unfamiliar drone in this hive; state your business." The changeling lowered her, for it was an unmistakable feminine voice that I heard, head and growled menacingly.
To be fair, I thought I did a very good impression of David Tennant when I shouted the third, "WHAT?!"
After the initial shock wore off, my mind started to race faster than the Roadrunner after a coffee chugging competition. My first thoughts were along the lies of "Holy crap I could understand what she said in Buglish." When she spoke, I could hear the chirps and buzzes that I had come to associate with the Buglish language, but my mind had conveniently translated that into English in my head. The second thought was shorter and more precise. I suspected that the unnatural entrance was one that, if I was able to navigate through it correctly, would lead me into the hive she was talking about. Once that thought had finished the rest simmered down to a steady stream of constant information and I had immediately put my hands up in the (hopefully) universal sign of surrender.
The changeling tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. Well, as close to raising an eyebrow in curiosity as a changeling can get with no eyebrows. I guess imitating ponies perfectly meant you had to copy their mannerisms as well.
"What are you doing?" the changeling responded. OK, so it wasn't a sign of surrender here, but it also didn't mean 'I'm a bad guy, please kill me.' In my book, that's a plus. I looked into the changeling's eyes and she gave a small gasp. She tried to hide it by asking me questions, but I saw it.
"What's your number, your hive, and your ruler?" She stomped a hoof on the ground to help enunciate her point. The last part seemed out of place, but I filed that tidbit away for thought at a later point.
This time my thoughts were more coherent and I was able to think my actions through a little faster. Though, eleven seconds to answer a question doesn't seem like a short amount of time to answer for normal people. My Ent side took over the conversation from there, and I thought about every word I'd have to say very carefully. If I missed my chance, I could be stuck out here to starve, or suffer whatever punishment changelings give to trespassers. If I did this correctly, I could find myself with shelter, food, and knowledge of this area. Hell, I might even get some benefits that I hadn't yet considered.
I had said it took me eleven seconds to answer, and I filled that time physically by slowly moving my front legs down from the apparently-not-universal sign of peace and placing them on the ground, then staring into the azure eyes of the opposing changeling for the next six seconds. Not much was going on there, right?
What I did mentally during those ten seconds was a whole different story. I thought about all the possible ways I could make this work. I could tell her the truth outright, say I'm not a changeling of this hive or I'm not a changeling at all. That would probably be the worst move I could make, and either end with punishment for trespassing or left to starve out here. On the other hand, she could be curious as to why a non-changeling who looks exactly like one would be here. She might let me in and feed me and maybe give me information, but she also would ask questions about me. That's a road I wouldn't want to go down, either.
If I bluffed my way through, I might have a clear shot of having a temporary home and get more knowledge about the place. The key word was 'temporary.' Keeping up lies wasn't easy, and if you make up more lies to keep up your original lie you eventually get caught with your pants down. There was always little tidbits of information that those who were busy thinking up quick ways to explain something miss or ignore, anyways. But still, if you can pull off a bluff just right, you may end up winning with a bad hand.
I remembered that small gasp she made after I locked eyes with her. Why did she do it? By now I was on all fours, so I once again stared into the eyes of the changeling not thirty meters from me and waited to see if she reacted again. As luck would have it, she did. Her left foreleg took a small step back before she placed it forward in its original position. Why? Why is it only when I meet her gaze does she react? And she had reacted as if she were afraid. I wasn't able to read her emotions through her eye, they didn't seem as expressive as human eyes, I thought. Her expression was one of challenge, waiting for me to answer her questions and deliver whatever action would be necessary in response.
She started to get impatient around the eight second mark - she was patient compared to the average human. They usually started to lose their cool after five seconds of silence or so. Her mouth turned downwards in a frown, her blue eyes narrowed to slits and... wait... blue eyes. I thought back to when I was examining my body, the first things I noticed was how green my eyes were, especially around the pupils. I have green eyes, she had blue eyes... and from what I recalled of changelings, the only one that had green eyes was... I allowed a small grin to myself as everything started to click together. As a famous puzzle solver once said, 'Critical thinking is the key to success.'
"I've been sent directly from Chrysalis herself. I'm to investigate the hive to assess all the drones abilities before we make another move on Equestria. As for my number, I was never assigned one. As you have noticed, I'm not an ordinary drone, but part of the elite guard that Chrysalis created to prevent loose ends from ruining her plans after the disaster at Canterlot." My grin only grew a little bit, and it took all of my willpower not to spread my smile from ear to ear. It was, after all, a rather ingenious idea to become a part of the queen's personal guard.
"Canterlot? Disaster? What are you talking about?" Oh... dammit, that was a major oversight! This must be before the invasion of Canterlot, hell, maybe I'm at the beginning of the second season. It would certainly explain the existence of Discord on Earth. Humans must be ahead by about a year, give or take about three months, from Equestria. The Professor would be ashamed that the solution was not correct. I can hear him now, 'Frankly, I'm ashamed.'
I debated the next step very carefully. "Alright, you caught me. I was sneaking out so I can take a look over the edge. It's just something I like to do, ya know? Look at the huge sky that stretches out all the way above and below you."
The changeling had to blink for a few times as she mulled over what I said. She looked down the river to where it eventually ended in the waterfall down to the open sky. She turned back to me and replied, "But... that's the ocean, not the sky.
Now it was my turn to frown in confusion. If it was a perfectly still ocean, then I guess that would make sense, but oceans weren't exactly known for being a stagnant body of water. "How could that be the ocean? There's no waves or anything. If it were an ocean, it wouldn't be able to reflect the sky so perfectly."
We stood there, trying to wrap our heads around each other's logic. It's one of those moments where nobody knew what was going on and the only thing anyone could do was process what the other said in order to make sense of it but ultimately fail because they're on different wavelengths than you. There should be a word for it; I'd call it, 'confoundsion.'
She eventually said, in that slow tone one uses when speaking with a child who doesn't understand something, "But... there aren't any pegasi around... how could there be waves without pegasi there to create them?"
Everyone, gather around for the collective 'oh' of realization. "Ooooooooooooooooooh," I said while I nodded my head in understanding. Of course, waves are created by the wind. There's no natural wind, so only the pegasi can make waves. I should have known... but the only reason I've been slipping up this entire encounter is because I'm in another world, cut me some slack! And if I learned anything from that encounter it would have been, 'when you wake up in a whole new area that you have no experience dealing with, try not to bluff your way through.' At least there was only one changeling, if there were more here I'd probably be too freaked out in order to do anything progressive.
As soon as I thought it I knew I was screwed. Right on cue, two more changelings flew up behind Ms. It's-An-Ocean. One of them walked right up to me with curiosity and a challenge in his expression. I half expected him to parrot the same questions the little miss asked. I was a little stunned when he completely ignored me and turned back to face Changeling 42 or whatever her number was.
I expected an actual conversation between the three, but I got none. Instead, they all looked between one another, sometimes making a small chirp or buzz that my newfound translating powers of awesome couldn't catch. After a few seconds they apparently finished and as one they turned to me.
When their attention suddenly shifted towards me, I seized up, unable to move, much less talk. It was a three on one staring competition; I looked into each of their eyes and tried to think of some way to talk my way out of it, but my mind was blank. I could only stand there and rove over the three changelings. I silently thanked whoever designed changelings to have an exoskeleton. Having no sweat glands was probably the best thing ever, even if I had to endure hot days without a natural way of cooling down.
The staring competition continued for what seemed like ages. None of us wanted to break the silence, but I probably looked scared of both the silence and the impending conversation that was soon to follow. The changeling to my right nudged the middle one, the female, I thought, and nodded his head toward me.
All three then jumped into the air at the same time, as they created a buzzing noise with their wings and flew towards me. The whole world lurched as I was picked up from the waist and carried away and I watched everything fly away from me. Then everything grew dark as the changelings flew down what I assumed to be the unnatural hole. Stale wind flew past me as I took in a huge lungful of air let a high pitched buzz loose. After everything that's happened in the past few hours, I should have been allowed to scream like a babe, right?
I kept screaming as they dragged me deeper into the darkness. I felt a warm glow, which kinda hurt, by the way, against the back of my head and I promptly embraced unconsciousness.