Being eyeballed by every changeling that he passed along the way was extremely unnerving for Sandbar. The darkness of the tunnels and the slowly drying slime that clung to his fur also wasn’t helping him feel any better at all.
“Um, any chance I could take a quick bath?” he asked the changeling, Tsetse, who was walking so awkwardly close to him that their barrels often touched.
“No,” she said. “Besides, you smell better this way.”
Thinking he currently smelled like fruit that was just starting to go bad, Sandbar disagreed.
“The room with the games is over there,” Pupa said, pointing to a dark opening in the stone just up ahead.
Another pair of changelings came trotting around the corner and paused at the small precession. As Sandbar passed them they hissed softly and flickered their long forked tongues at him, thus causing the colt to flinch to the side and bump up against Tsetse.
“Watch it,” the changeling grunted at him.
“Why are you acting so scared?” the changeling nymph stopped to ask him and seemed a little mad at him for it too.
“Um, well,” he started to stammer, trying to think up the best way to explain how unpleasant he felt without angering his chaperone.
“Princess, it’s because he’s a pony among changelings,” Tsetse said. “It’s like he’s a mouse among snakes. Also, most ponies tend to be frightened of any creature different from them.”
“Well, it’s uncomfortable to be stared at by every pony, er everyling, that walks by,” muttered Sandbar.
“Yeah, I don’t like getting stared at either,” Pupa admitted and nodded her head down the tunnel. “Let’s hurry up and get the games so we can go back to my room.”
The trio entered the darkened chamber and Sandbar immediately stumbled over something he couldn’t see. Ether out of pity or irritation, Tsetse lit up her horn, bathing the room with a soft green glow and revealing piles of haphazardly placed junk. Pots and pans mingled with mishandled books. Wrinkled clothing lay draped over bottles that were both empty and filled with unknown liquids. Even some unopened boxes of snack foods had been left among a pile of stuffed toys.
“Are these the games princess?” the changeling asked Pupa.
“Yes, but look at this,” the nymph replied, pointing her hoof at a few pink boxes.
Tsetse nudged Sandbar along as she trotted over to Pupa.
“Princess, why would you need that?” the changeling asked, tilting her head slightly.
“Not for me, for Sandbar,” explained the nymph, who began to whisper the rest of her sentence.
Using the slight distraction, Sandbar took a box of animal crackers and stuffed his mouth with them as quickly as he could. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since he was captured and he was rather hungry. Once he finished the first box he began eating from another until he heard the rasping chuckles from Tsetse and paused in his impromptu meal.
“Yes your highness,” the changeling said, looking over to Sandbar with an ominous grin, “that might work and make our ‘guest’ feel more at home among us.”
Tsetse used her magic to levitate both the boxes of board games and a couple of pink boxes into the air.
“Looks like you’re going to get a bath after all,” she chuckled darkly.
After being ushered out of the changeling’s storage room, Sandbar was steered back up the tunnel and into a different chamber. Here a strange bio-luminescent fungus grew along the walls, their light reflected off the surface of a small pool of water and faintly cast the room in a pale blue light. Two changelings had been playfully splashing each other but stopped the moment they noticed his presence.
“Hi Katydid, Hi Lacewing!” Pupa chirped to the duo as she trotted around Sandbar’s legs.
“Princess Pupa?” one of them asked, with a sweet girlish voice, before hopping from the water.
“Oh, it’s so nice to finally see you!” said the other, her voice also feminine, who followed the first one from the pool.
“You look so much like her highness,” said the first, inspecting the little nymph. “I wish we could have been there for your emergence…”
“We’re so sorry about…” the second changeling began but trailed off, appearing a little upset.
The four changelings went quiet for a moment and Sandbar nervously shuffled on his hooves, unintentionally attracting their attention back on him.
“Why do you have a pony with you?” the first one asked, studying him predatorily.
“The princess wishes to have a play-date with this one,” Tsetse said with mirth and placed a hole ridden hoof on Sandbar’s withers, “and since he is oh so very ‘shy’ to be around our kind, she had an idea to help make him fit in.”
“Oh?” said the first changeling with a grin growing on her muzzle.
“How so?” said the second and it was almost as if she was finishing the first ones sentences.
Tsetse motioned for the two changelings to come closer and then whispered conspiratorially to them once they had. The poor colt looked over at Pupa for any clues about the discussion but the nymph only smiled reassuringly; or that’s what he at least hopped her fang filled grin meant.
“Well if that’s the plan, we have to clean him first,” the second changeling said.
“Into the bath with you!” giggled the first as she scooped up Sandbar by his barrel and dropped him unceremoniously into the pool. “Hand me that brush Katydid.”
The second changeling, Katydid, tossed the mentioned brush to the first, who now loomed over the sputtering pony.
“Make sure you scrub behind his ears now Lacewing,” Katydid tittered.
Lacewing caught the brush in her magic and went right to work on the colt, vigorously scrubbing his coat and mane clean of any hint of his time in the slimy changeling pod. He was then pulled from the makeshift tub and doused repeatedly with clean water. Once they finished, the changelings minus Pupa, who was opening one of the pink boxes, all used their buzzing wings to speed along the drying of his fur.
“Ready for your makeover sweetie?” Katydid purred to him as she levitated the bottle filled with a black liquid that the nymph had removed from the package.
“Don’t worry,” Lacewing breathed into his ear, making him squirm, “we’ll be gentle.”
The changeling mares gingerly appraised the fidgeting Sandbar. Where once stood a pale spring green colt now stood one with ash black fur. His messy light cyan mane had been re-colored a dark grey, and was now styled reminiscently of a changeling’s crest. Lastly one of the changelings fashioned a false horn, from Celestia knows what, and had stuck it to the center of his forehead.
“See? Now you’re a changeling too,” Pupa said, her little voice squeaking with excitement as she trotted in place.
“He makes a cute little drone doesn’t he?” Lacewing chuckled while she prowled around him.
“I still think we should trim his ears,” said Tsetse, causing the colt to lower his ears and back away.
“Oh stop saying that,” Katydid nudged Tsetse and giggled. “You’ll give him a heart attack.”
“Fine, fine, we’ll leave his ears alone,” Tsetse said.
“We’ll have to find him a pair of wings if we want to finish the look.” Katydid pointed out.
“But we have to get going,” said Lacewing, “it’s almost time for us to get back to the nursery.”
“You’re welcome to visit there whenever you wish your highness,” Katydid said to the nymph.
“Yes, and the larva will be hatching any time now,” Lacewing said, “so please stop by.”
“Okay,” Pupa said and lifted up slightly into the air on her buzzing wings.
Lacewing and Katydid said their goodbyes to Tsetse and Pupa, then started to walk toward the chambers exit. As they sauntered by Sandbar, each on an opposite side of the colt, they purposely pressed him between them as they brushed past and used their tails to lightly bop him on the sides of his muzzle.
“Bye sweetie,” they both purred in unison to the flustered colt.
“Well Princess,” said Tsetse, “let’s introduce the newest member of the hive to the Queen.”