//------------------------------// // Chapter 19 - Weevil // Story: To Be a Changeling // by PlagueRat //------------------------------// Around two hours earlier. Mingled among the School of Friendship’s student body was an unassuming pink furred unicorn filly. She had been attending since the beginning of the new semester and her grades had been moderate enough for her remain unobtrusive among her peers. During lessons she occasionally asked questions and raised her hoof to answer them. With group projects she did a satisfactory amount of work to keep her classmates happy but never enough to stand out above them. After all, a good infiltrator wouldn’t want it any other way. Her real name was Weevil and she was her queen’s eyes and ears, scouting within one of her most dangerous enemy’s strongholds. Or that’s how the juvenile changeling preferred to picture it, anyway. So far her day had been typical, though there was a rumor going around about a few students who accidently let a wild beast loose in their dorm room. However that all changed the moment she spotted what Ocellus was carrying in a pocket of her saddle bag. A changeling nymph and not the colorful dissenter kind. Weevil’s mind raced to come up with a scenario as to why the double-crosser changeling would have a poor helpless normal nymph in her possession, one that smelled similar to her queen too, and she could only come up with one answer. She. Stole. It. Then a pink eraser smacked her on the tip of her snout, snapping her out of her thoughts and to the displeased expression on the little nymphs face. Weevil wasn’t a dumb changeling but she did have a tendency to take things out of context. So, to her, the nymph was calling out for help and not just pelting her for staring too long. She felt bad for the little changeling’s predicament but she’d blow her cover if she just jumped in to save her right there and then; so she turned tail and ran off down the hall to the school’s library. Unobserved among the shelves she quickly transformed into a light sea green pegasus and flew out an open window into the clear sky above Ponyville. Using some clouds for cover, she made her way to the Everfree forest. When she spotted a twisted dead tree in the middle of a small clearing, she plunged downward. Her wings flared out to slow her decent once she passed the canopy and as soon as her hooves touched the soft grass she galloped off into the tree line. “Aphid! Are you there?” she hissed out in a loud whisper, “I have something important to tell you!” Something dropped down with a thud behind her and upon turning around she was muzzle to muzzle with an apricot colored pegasus mare. “I hope this is important Weevil,” the other pegasus said, “it’s been a very bad day at the hive and the queen has everyling searching for a-“ “A nymph!” Weevil interrupted. “What?” Aphid balked. “There is a changeling nymph at the school and not the bad kind!” spouted Weevil, “but she is in the clutches of the enemy and we need to save her!” “Come with me, we have to get back to the hive,” Aphid said as her features became deadly serious. One hour and fifteen minutes earlier. The hive was a swarm of chaos. Drones raced through the tunnels passing reports back to the throne room detailing extensive chamber by chamber searches. Two unconscious changeling mares had been placed on beds of moss near one corner of the throne room, carefully being tended to by a third changeling, and would periodically be wracked with spasming coughs. Odonate had placed himself in the center of the room, listening to the constantly incoming reports and barking out orders, as an infuriated queen Chrysalis paced across the chamber floor behind him. “Aphid! Weevil!” called out Odonate as the older changeling stomped up to them. “What do you know?” “She’s at the school.” Aphid panted, trying to catch her breath from the frenzied flight to get back as quickly as possible. With his eyes widening enough to stretch the scars on his face, Odonate stopped dead in his tracks. “She’s at the school,” Aphid repeated. “Weevil spotted her there with one of the traitor changelings.” “Are you sure?” he hissed, looking Weevil in the eyes. “Yes,” Weevil, who had been debriefed on the situation, nodded. “She’s looks and smells undeniably like the queen, it has to be her.” The old guard’s jaw worked like he was grinding up a mouth full of rocks as he took a second to think over the ramifications of the situation presented to him. Unfortunately for him it was interrupted a moment later. “My Queen!” shouted out Mosquito as she careened into the room, clutching an item against her chest. “I found something!” “So much for chain of command,” Odonate grumbled to himself before looking back at Aphid and Weevil. “Come with me.” Weevil followed the other two changelings as they quickly trotted up to Chrysalis who was using her magic to levitate a scroll before her. A feral scowl twisted the queen’s mouth as she read over the document and it felt like the air around them was being sapped of its warmth. The changeling matron’s eyes glowed so fiercely that Weevil thought the paper would spontaneously burst into flames. Once she finished reading it Chrysalis passed the scroll off to Odonate. “Where did you find this?” the queen asked Mosquito, hissing through her clenched teeth. “It was in Leeches room,” Mosquito answered, “hidden in a hollowed out stalagmite. I sort of just bumped into it and the cap fell right off.” “Find Leech NOW!” Chrysalis roared out causing the nearby changelings to wince and her voice to echo throughout the complex. Odonate exhaled loudly through his nostrils as he finished the scroll and rolled it back up. “Weevil, inform her highness what you’ve discovered,” he instructed, his tone grim. The weight of Chrysalis’s focus fell so fully on Weevil it almost caused her legs to buckle out from under her. The changelings mouth opened and closed like a gasping fish out of water and she almost flinched out of her chitin when Odonate placed a reassuring hoof on her withers. She took a deep breath and told the queen exactly what she witnessed back at the school. “Leech is gone,” Phasmid reported as he landed next to Odonate. “He was last seen early this morning flying northwest.” “I want the five of you to gather everyling in the hive,” Chrysalis instructed them. “Quickly.” Forty five minutes earlier. The entirety of the hive’s population had been gathered into the throne room. Odonate, Phasmid, and Weevil stood in rigid attention to the left of the throne while Aphid, Mosquito and a third changeling mirrored them on the right. Above them all stood Chrysalis. “As you all already know, there has been an attack on our hive,” the matron reported to her subjects, “W-what-” A brief wave of murmurs passed through the room when Chrysalis’s voice wavered and she took a moment to compose herself. “What many of you may not know is that this act was carried out by a coward,” she continued, her voice echoing out of sync, “against those who couldn’t defend themselves!” The gathering of changelings quieted fully. “Following instructions penned by Twilight Sparkle and in cooperation with Thorax, a changeling from our hive named Leech entered the nursery in the middle of the night. He used an unknown debilitating substance on Katydid and Lacewing, the two caretakers, who are still suffering from its effects. He then proceeded to… commit several acts of, carnage.” Weevil couldn’t help but cringe at the thought and noticed many others around her did as well. “However the filth spared one cocoon and left the hive with it in his possession,” the queen hissed. “He was last seen heading north in the direction of the pony settlement. Our enemies plan is to use the nymph as a bargaining chip for the surrender of our hive to Thorax.” A protest of angry hisses and complaints rose from the assembly and Chrysalis had to create a flash of magical green light from her horn to get them to quiet back down. She then nodded to Odonate who stepped forward in front of the throne to face the crowd. “While we can’t be one hundred percent certain, we have to assume the hives location is known to the Equestrians,” he stated, “and so we will have to evacuate to a new location. Half of you will gather up essentials, the eggs from the nursery and our disabled caretakers for transport to Rambling Rock Ridge. We know there have been sightings of diamond dogs in that area, but they tend to stay along the bottom of the canyon while we will be taking refuge in the caves on the cliff face. Still, remain vigilant.” Odonate motioned to the other five changelings to his left and right to step forward. “Phasmid, Weevil, Aphid, Mosquito, Vespid and myself will be escorting her highness in a strike assault on the princess’s school,” he continued briefing. “We have visual confirmation that the stolen nymph is currently in the possession of a representative from Thorax’s hive and we will be making an attempt to rescue her. The rest of you will be inserting yourselves, under disguise, among the local residents. We need you for the last part of our mission.”