I saw my human co workers slacking off and giggling up a storm like they were still in high school, even though they had graduated years ago. Meanwhile, I busted my ass and found myself having a hard time making ends meat.
A loud noise came from outside, with a man yelling into a megaphone about a way to have an easier life, for practically no effort. My co workers dropped the stuff they were supposed to be stocking and ran out the door. Although I wanted to just get back to work, I found myself outside with them, hearing the rallying cry of the next crazed person seeking a crowd.
Ponies were chained up, being marched up and systematically sorted out like life stock. I could swear I saw a thestral look up at me of his own accord, perfectly calm, before bringing his head back down with the others.
I was forced onto a stand where what looked like an upstanding guy came up to me and gave a smug grin of confidence. He gestured to the crowd he was stirring up, pointing to the Stargate like portal to Equestria.
"It's all ours for the taking." He put on a hat and an armband as a small mustache appeared on his face, becoming the splitting image of Hitler himself. "You just need to pull that trigger."
I looked down and saw a simple pistol in my hand. In front of the barrel was a frightened Fluttershy.
"Shoot it. They're in the way of our happiness."
I gave him a look of disgust and lowered the gun.
"They ain't people, son," I heard an old fashioned KKK leader speak to me in a tone akin to a preacher speaking to one of their disciples, only with twisted logic, "We're right to do what we need to do to spread god's word because we're god's chosen. How could we be wrong if we're us?"
A generic shaven headed white supremacist pointed his gun up to me while the KKK dragon pulled my arm with the gun back up to Fluttershy's face.
"Either you kill 'dis 'ding, or we kill you. Simple as 'dat."
"Now that isn't necessary, gentlemen," A rich man in a white suit stereotypical of an oil millionaire interjected. "Why kill 'em, when we can work em for all their worth? It might be a little slower, but ain't no laws against a man owning a pony. It would take a few decades to ensure they have none of them busybody animal rights hippies backing them, but soon enough we'll have a strong south again, ripe 'n full of slaves. Like it should be."
The KKK leader was still holding my arm as my hand went limp and did its best to pull the gun away from her, but failed.
"Her name is Fluttershy. She most definitely is a person and I don't care about having an easy life. I made my peace with that a long time ago. For all I care, you can all go to hell."
The KKK leader reached for the gun in my hand and I heard a loud bang.
Waking up with a start, I sat up in the tent that I was allotted and screamed. It wasn't the bang itself that startled me awake, but rather that I didn't know which gun the bang came from.
I took a few breaths to calm myself and realize it was just a dream then reached for the amulet next to my bedroll.
When I saw the fangs of a large bug gripping the amulet just inches from my hand, I jumped back in panic.
"Sweet-titty-fucking-mother-of-pearl!" I called out as I pulled my more recent memories together to recognize one of Mandible's kind passing me my translation amulet.
"Cec you have a bad dream?" he asked as I took the amulet and put it on.
With a nod I pressed my amulet and pulled myself out of my bedroll.
"Yea. A jumbled mess of old fears brought back to the surface, but I'll be fine."
I went about picking up the rest of my outfit. I had taken it off to better fit into my bedroll. Those furs were warm enough to keep me warm in the forest, but not warm enough to keep me warm in the desert night and having them and the bag was a bit too awkward to sleep. The amulet against my bare skin didn't help either.
With the firs back on and the water skins frozen and in place to counteract the excessive heat I'd strain under otherwise once the sun was high, I stepped out into the morning hustle and bustle of the camp.
I was quickly found by Tempest, who gestured me and the rest of the squad to follow her to a gathering point.
I spotted princess Twilight and a tall bearded pony, covered in a protective coal like glitter all over their body. They were administering the same treatment to the pony soldiers as well as the griffin mercenaries assigned to our group.
The rest of the princess's close friends were there too, likewise covered in the stuff. Fluttershy was so covered that none of her fur or mane showed through. It took me looking directly at her eyes to recognize her. Compliments of Discord, no doubt.
There were also a few new ponies I didn't recognize, carrying an assortment of odd items ranging from a shovel to a mask and even a banged up shield.
"Is that every creature?" The princess called out to the area as I closed the distance between us, "I know we're the ones who are mission critical, but I value all of your lives and have energy to spare. There's no need to be shy, I can grant every creature a body buffer."
She looked directly at the dragons as she said this, all of whom were untouched by her spell. They probably did out of pride or spite looking at the glares they were giving. Garble was not present and instead there seemed to be an older and more seasoned dragon—not quite as powerful or as big as Garble but still clearly the most dominant among those present—leading them instead.
I approached her and pressed on my amulet again.
"Body buffer?" I asked her somewhat quietly, "Is that what you're calling it?"
She gave me the same death glare that she had given her rainbow maned friend in the past. I met that glare with an equally strong deadpan "I'm calling bullshit" face.
Finally, when I could feel that she got the point, I broke contact, sighed and pulled out my wand. Pointing it up into the air, I pushed a bit of extra effort to up cast the spell an extra level. The spell Starlight taught me the night before I left.
"Corpus pulvinus!" I spoke in a bitter voice as a spray of the same coal like glitter flew out of my wand and attached itself to me like iron filings to a magnet. It was a little denser than most of the others, but still nowhere near as dense as the one covering Fluttershy.
I knew the spell's real name, how it worked and the school of magic it belonged to. It was called false life. It was designed to give a buffer made of a crude imitation of life that would take damage in your stead when you got hurt. It was a spell that sat squarely just inside the outer edges of necromancy. My version wasn't able to target anyone but myself, but apparently it was one of the many spells they had adapted and tweaked. There was no way the princess wouldn't know what this spell really was.
I wasn't upset with her using it, just a little frizzled with her fudging the name to hide the true nature of the spell. Pretending something useful wasn't also potentially dangerous was a good way to get someone hurt by not taking it seriously. In my mind, the benefits just didn't out weigh the risks, at least ninety nine percent of the time.
"OK, listen up!" Tempest called out to the entire area, "The rest of the forces under prince Shining Armor's command have taken the bulk of the load for us, clearing a path and will be securing the area around the rift within the hour. We need to simply protect the rift specialists, the pillars of light, the element bearers and the package..."
She paused, closed her eyes and pursed her lips bitterly. "...That is to say, Moss, from any potential enemies left in the area as we make our way behind and meet up with the main force at the rift."
Tempest gave the order to move out, looked at the wand in my hand and the coal like glitter on my person.
With a properly upset tone, she looked at me. "Stop wasting your energy. We need you to put out as much as you can once we get there. Your shape shifting and zero spells only. That's an order, Moss."
As she turned to march, I called out to her, "They're called cantrips," loud enough to know she heard me before slinging my shield on my back and following behind.
* * *
As we walked, the forces guarding us would occasionally take out the stray zombie that the other forces had missed, but we were mostly just marching without difficulty. Meanwhile, the princess and the bearded unicorn seemed to be producing a field that kept our "body buffers" from wearing off in an hours time, like mine normally would.
While we marched, the dark colored bug from the day before came up to me. He had a few good scrapes and burn marks over his body, but was still in fighting condition.
"So you're alright. I guess that means you won the fight?"
He nodded in a cold manner. It wasn't a bitter expression like with Tempest, just cold. "Yes. I gained authority over the nest and put Wild Storm back in charge."
With that he turned to me and cocked his head in curiosity. "And I've heard of you. You're a shape shiftier, like us, right?"
I looked at him with a bit of surprise. "Like you?" I asked in curiosity.
With a smirk, a green flame engulfed him for just a second, before suddenly finding myself looking at my own mug.
With a few steps, he lost his balance and changed back with another wave of green flame.
I stopped marching for a moment as my mind put the pieces together, ultimately having to catch up when Tempest yelled for me.
"You're the same species as that creature I met in the forest. I didn't really recognize you without the..."
I looked up at his head and noticed a small set of horns along with their unicorn like horn. "Without the horns being so pronounced. Come to think of it, you share a lot of traits with that guy that I don't see others of your kind have."
He gave a small huff of dry confidence. "Of course you don't see the extra horns on other changelings. I'm a lesser royal. And for the record, if you were fighting me back then instead of King Thorax, my brother, you'd be dead."
He lifted his hoof to stop me from apologizing. "And you don't need to apologize. You didn't pick the fight, and you not only let him live, but gave him your valued healing water. For the given circumstances, that was above and beyond honorable in our eyes."
He had an awkward look on his face as he did his best to give me a genuine smile. "At the end of that fight, you opened my brother's eyes to how weak he was as a fighter and tactician. He's taken my lessons more seriously since then. So..."
He paused in thought as we marched, as if trying to put his words together or pulling something from a distant corner of his mind. "So as the ponies have been teaching us, 'thank you.'"
With this he started to walk away but I called out to him, "Wait!"
With his stoic face restored, he turned back to me again. "Was there something else?"
I nodded and glanced to his scrapes and burns. "So what happened between you and the dragon. The fight I mean?"
He furled his brow and thought for a moment. "If you are asking if ex commander Garble is alive, the answer is yes. That said though, he won't be moving from his bed any time soon. The slow set paralysis spell he got hit with when we first arrived slowed him enough to where I was able to take him out without killing him during the fight. Thanks to the long term effects of the spell prince Shining Armor taught me, he will be fully paralyzed throughout the entire time it will take for his wounds to heal. The ponies say the spell is easy enough to dispel, but due to his history of being uncooperative with both changelings and ponies, they've opted to not tell him that."
* * *
We were coming close to the end of our march when Speaks with Talons came up to me, both receiving and giving notable glares from the griffin mercenaries.
With his eyes not fully leaving his surroundings, he asked, "How are you fairing, battle brother?"
I gave a glance at the griffins then answered, "My feet are getting tired from the march, but I think I'm still fairing better than you seem to be. Will you be alright with them?"
He gave a barely audible growl as he answered. "Raven heads do not trust eagle heads because they are known for having no sense of honor. They in turn do not think very highly of the raven heads due to a reputation we have for the reverse."
He shook his head for a moment before taking another look around. "As long as they stay loyal to the ones filling their pockets and do not endanger our mission, nothing will come of it. Tempest says their leader keeps them in line, but we will see."
He finally broke his constant searching for potential trouble and gave me his full attention.
"I did not come to you to speak of my kinds inner politics. I am in conflict in another manner. I fear I must ask for your forgiveness."
I cocked my head at him. "For what?"
He closed his eyes for a brief moment. When he opened them again, beads of tears had started to form. "For the dual relationship I now face with you. Unlike today, when you aided the Fey, you did so of your own free will. We survived fights together that either of would have died in separately. Again, fights no creature forced you to be in. Fights you chose to aid in at your own peril, and of your own free will. When this happened, you became my battle brother in the eyes of the servants and in the eyes of my tribe."
The tears now flowed freely. "But now I am the representative of the Fey, and as such, they have ordered me..."
He took a gasp as he had trouble forming his words. Instead of forcing him to finish, I did it for him.
"They ordered you to take me out if I betray the mission."
He looked up at me and steadied his breathing. "If you fail to set the seed of the seal, yes."
He swiped a talon at the sand in anger, kicking up an impressive amount to the side. "What kind of creatures order a brave to kill their battle brother?"
I closed my eyes and calmly shook my head. Oddly, I wasn't surprised by this news. So I put a hand between his shoulders.
"The kind that are afraid for their very lives. And if I were to betray the mission like many of my kind might do, I'd have no right to be called anybody's battle brother. You'd be right to slay me then."
I could feel his muscles lose their tension as he processed this.
"In fact," I continued, "You were pretty stupid even bringing this up to me. I could have told you the fey were wrong to do so to try to turn you against-"
One of the griffon mercenaries shouted out. "Take cover!"
Hardly before I could react, I heard a loud voice mockingly cry "EX-TERM-I-NATE!" and Speaks with Talons was planting my head into the sand, with him mostly on top of me.
That didn't stop me from feeling the extreme heat of the fireball I heard exploding around us, burning right through my false life barrier.