Meadow Dawn nodded approvingly as she looked over her schedule for the next year in this version of Equestria, different than the one she had come from. She had finally managed to master more of her school lessons and her physical training was geared for maintenance more than buildup. Self-defense lessons were in the roster twice a week, and cooking with Pound Cake was her continued hobby she stuck with since starting them a few years ago just before her metamorphosis. Magic was on hold till she got training back home, the rules being so different, it was a larger drain to use what wasnt naturally her world's skills.
She still smiled at the outcome of those events. Sure, that explosion would have killed a regular pony and almost killed her as a princess, but here she was, in the palace gardens, enjoying how her youngest pony daughter, Spring Dew, was mucking about in the garden with one of her nymph siblings, playing a strange kind of hide and go seek tag. The dark green foal squealed and ignored any amount of dirt in her coat and continued to look around for the brown furred, green chitined nymph hybrid that was her playmate. The two were almost lost to the casual eye by playing below the flower and bush line, but to them it was all in good fun, a veritable jungle gym all its own.
‘Legate, I got the caves in your Equestria scouted out for you. I’ve got some concerns about the location, it’s too insecure for a hive.’ Xeris, a drone of her mother’s hive, reported over the hive-link.
‘Thank you Xeris.’ Dawn relayed by thought, accepting their security concerns for creating a hive in the mountains east of Van Hoover as they made their full report and breakdown of the location.
Dawn was a princess and a changeling queen, quite by accident. It was six years ago, or nearly that long, when she first met these denizens of an alternate version of Equestria, was adopted by a now ‘good’ Chrysalis for her strength of will, and accidentally inherited some changeling traits when they had a symbolic cocooning for a hatch day. Her minor changeling traits, just gaining some chitin on her lower back near the tail and minor shapeshifting within her same general size and shape, were enhanced further after the attempt on her life. The purists inadvertently caused Dawn to require such extensive care that she was cocooned and came out half changeling and half alicorn, having absorbed more traits from the changeling ‘tribe.’
Dawn reveled in having so many little voices reaching out to her over the last few years since she started laying, calling her mother and just as odd as her inside and out. Sure, it took some getting used to, having hundreds of little foals that looked like regular foals till a pony saw a grub-like pack on their hind end, but it seemed to accelerate their growth. She couldn’t speak for the other versions of Equestria that no doubt existed, but she was proud every one of them produced their own love for their caretakers and each other. Naturally, Chrysalis was very proud of this achievement for what it meant for the future of her race.
Dawn’s hybrid nature was unprecedented, even for her world and this one where she was an ambassador. Naturally there were countless other Equestrias, each with different rules and outcomes where that might not be true, but for what they experienced, she was unique by having adopted traits unique to both sides.
She was still growing, only slightly taller than an average pony, one hoof more than her husband at least. Her lime green fur coat covered much of her front half of her body, a dark green set of chitin covered her hooves and down her spine where her mane started all the way to her hindquarters and through her hind legs. A single eye showed the slit characteristic of changeling queens, both of them being a vivid green with yellow tints highlighting the irises. She still had her pegasi like wings, though with yellow tips.
Dawn stretched out her wings, feeling them itch mildly and used a spell to float a snack from her bag to nibble on. Despite having the ability, she never felt much need to shapeshift outside of for fun and this world had no need for Equestrian changelings to go around disguised. Unlike the changelings of this world, she had to study a subject to imitate it. The greater the size difference, the greater the love energy drain. It often left her not bothering outside of going from four legs to two for exercises.
Dawn’s foals were clearly a mixed bag, just waiting to find out more about their talents as they grow older. Her oldest three were regular ponies… mostly. Morning Rise and Hearty Beacon were still in her womb when she was cocooned, and seemed to shift between the pony tribes and two-legged versions of themselves, but never took on a different pony’s look or could be alicorns, at least yet. Her youngest foal, Spring Dew, was carried by her husband thanks to a spell making it possible, and she showed no aptitude or desire for shapeshifting so far. The rest of the foals Dawn had tried to have were laid as eggs, growing up to be nymphs of her growing hive, all of whom sharing in her part-fur part-chitin natural form.
After deliberation, Dawn was just about to respond to Xeris’ report and chase down her daughters that were going too far away from her in the gardens when a rush of wind began pulling her backward.
Dawn tried to stand her ground as only earth ponies normally could. Peeking behind her revealed a dark hole she knew from her lessons was a precursor to a displacement. She was about to end up in another world, again!
‘Mom! Xeris! Displacement is imminent!’ She tried to send off the warning as the pull from the hole grew stronger by the second. She was glad in that moment she wasn’t laying eggs and could control it, having decided instead to wait as they tried to figure out the overall development and needs of her first three years’ worth of foal-lings before expanding herself further.
She began to lose her footing, even as she could sense her adoptive mother and nearby drones mobilizing to secure the area. Despite their wishes and instincts, there was little they could do but call out as she was sucked away from her foals, who were scooped up by a nearby soldier drone to safety. She felt their instinctual urge to rush for Dawn herself, but the hole to her family closed behind her and all too soon, she could see and feel nothing.
-----
Dawn groaned, her throat sore as she laid on her side on some grass. She moved to get up, fully intending to ask herself out loud “What happened?” but found her throat wouldn’t work the way she wanted and let out an awkward coughing fit instead.
She heard braying and a few snorts from somewhat nearby, opening her eyes as she tried to look around. She blinked as she saw horses, not ponies, a good fifty yards to her right as she slowly got up. From what she could tell from the agitated ear and tail flicks, they didn’t know what to think of the newcomer and weren’t sure if they wanted to bolt or not, despite the newcomer being only half their height.
Dawn’s displacement lessons kicked in, and she looked around further, anything that could help her blend in or stay out of trouble until help arrived would increase her chances significantly. To her dismay, she found only green plains, horse-height sturdy wood fencing that stood almost as tall as she did, and a ranch-like home a bit beyond the fencing.
Dawn looked to the horses, noting their dreary colors and decided copying one of them would be best until she found out more. There was no place to hide and it might guarantee at least a certain level of survival by blending in if the world allowed it. She focused on the form she wished to take, felt the familiar swish of changeling magic adjusting her form and took stock of herself. She frowned as everything felt off about what just happened, not sensing a loss of love energy, but ignored it to assess her status again.
She was no longer a slightly above average height pony. Now she was just a few hands shorter than the smallest horses present, and still somehow retained her lime green pelt, cutie mark, and dual colored mane. She quickly tried to correct it, knowing this would make her stick out like a sore thumb, but her shapeshifting wouldn’t budge, saying it was the right form and disguise. She tried using illusion magic, only to feel the spell short circuit and send a sharp shock from her forehead down her spine. Though she could still somewhat feel magic, no amount of love could be sensed, or other emotions for that matter.
A small sense of dread started to sweep her at their predicament and turned to look around, spotted a house, a door having just closed, and a figure started walking their way.
‘Well… buck.’ Dawn thought to herself.
----------
Erin woke up early that morning, feeling a sense of excitement. She couldn’t quite place what it was that she liked about today. Any day was a good day when she could take some time to care for her family’s horses and sneak a ride in, but today felt special.
She got up, brushing out her light brown hair out of her hazel eyes, got dressed, and left the house in her usual worn clothes for spending time with the animals, walking over to the fields where the herd should be resting or grazing. She noticed something was wrong as she walked toward the field, noticing that most of them were clumped together and further away than usual.
She blinked as she drew closer. She swore she saw something a lighter green in front of her vision, between her and the other horses, but she wasn’t sure until she saw it move to the side, toward one of the fences.
“A green horse?” She blinked. She had seen a lot of horses since she was little, and handled plenty even outside of her family’s occasional training courses for people to learn how to ride a horse, but a green horse wasn’t possible as far as she knew. It must be dyed. “Where’d you come from fella?”
She continued to approach slowly, taking her time and watching the horse carefully. There wasn’t anything more dangerous than an animal who felt cornered, but a frightened one was still up there.
Dawn watched as she held the attention of the mildly tanned young girl. ‘Great… of course I’m the first thing she sees… do I try to make friends? Act dumb? Acting dumb probably will include panicking and judging by the enclosure, that’d get nowhere.’ She thought, noticing how the girl was only fifty feet away and standing there. She snorted and moved away a couple steps and continued deliberating, ‘Let’s see what she does.’
“Hey there girl.” The girl said gently as she got a better look at what the horse was, their voice floating over the air toward Dawn, “Where’d you come from? How’d you get here?”
Dawn turned her head toward them and kept their attention to them, flicking her ears as she listened to her closely. This human was not speaking up at all despite the distance.
“Easy girl, I’m not gonna hurt you, just wanna say hi.” The girl said, making very slow movements toward the unfamiliar horse. She knew what she was doing was risky, but this had to be what made her day special. She believed in fate, among other things, and she was positive this was related to it!
Dawn gave a sigh, wincing at the noise she heard out of her muzzle. It looked like befriending them was probably the best way to move forward. The entire area was fenced in in a way she wasn’t sure she could manage to escape reliably. The girl had closed the gate behind her, though there seemed to be movement beyond it now anyway. ‘Time to make a good impression!’ she thought to herself as she turned mostly toward the girl, watching her closely.
“That’s it, just me… nothing to be afraid of.” The girl cooed, stepping forward slowly, keeping herself relatively small so the new horse wouldn’t think she’s being threatening.
‘Girl… if you knew just how much power I had under my horn, you’d realize I’m not at all scared of you if I had it available.’ Dawn thought. She debated approaching the girl, and heard the sound of a motor. ‘Great… if there’s motors, there’ probably guns or other dangerous tech. let’s see how naive this girl is and if I can make a quick friend to avoid being shot.’
Erin gave a near silent gasp as the horse tentatively took a step toward her, then another, looking between her and her father approaching on his cart to get to the hay bales.
“It’s ok girl,” Erin encouraged from ten feet away, slowly raising her hand from her pocket and holding out a sugar cube, “Just my dad.”
‘Doesn’t change I don’t know anything about any of you and am about to trust myself to your care until the EDF rescues me…’ Dawn thought, flicking her ears and delaying her look to the girl before exaggerating her movements. She moved her head toward the cube, sniffing at it and shying away, then repeating the process as she got within reach of the hand. ‘I don’t want to risk biting her hand to get the sugar if I’m going to play the part of a pet to blend in…’
“That’s it, just a bit of sugar for you. I’ve got more if you keep being friendly.” She said cheerfully, though with a calculated quietness to her voice, holding the cube out with a flat palm.
Erin smiled more as the horse carefully seemed to lean in and nip at the cube, only looking up again as the mostly eaten cube was ignored and they looked at each other.
“You’re a friendly girl.” Erin smiled as her dad approached, “You get lost?”
Dawn stayed relatively still, shying away from the hand deliberately at first, but when the girl persisted, she stayed put, turning her attention to the vehicle coming toward them. It was odd, not being the human of the pair, feeling a small fragile hand on her rather oversized shoulders and muscles as they trailed their fingers through her coat.
“Erin!” A gruff voice called from a rugged kind of atv with a trailer attached to it, the man pulling out a gun from a slot along the body, “What the hell is that!”
“Whoah, Easy dad! Don’t shoot!” Erin yelled, standing in front of the green mare to block the way.
Dawn acted suitably scared by backing away, not quite half faking it either. She might still be an alicorn, since the world didn’t seem to mind her original form or force her out of it, but that didn’t mean she wanted her very early stages immortality tested! At this stage, all she could have was not dying of old age and being mildly healthier!
“I see my girl with a horse with a color I’ve never seen before and you want to tell me not to protect her!?” He asked, growing frustrated.
“Dad, she’s friendly!” Erin said, frowning as the horse seemed to shy away and move behind her.
The dad, a well-built tanned individual with a clean-shaven face continued to hold the gun in Dawn’s direction before sighing and putting it back, keeping an eye on them, “So how the hell did it get here?”
“I dunno, but I like her!” She said enthusiastically.
Dawn snorted despite herself, turning her head to look away and surveying her surroundings again, trying to see if there would be any way to safely get away from the man while unconsciously moving slowly away.
“Easy girl, easy…” Erin said, turning back to the new horse and petting their shoulder to calm them down.
‘Girl, you keep saying easy, and I’ll make this hard!’ Dawn thought, getting tired of the gentle talk already. She put up with it for the moment, slowing her movements and standing still for the girl while watching the dad.
The dad frowned, his own instincts speaking to him loud and clear. Something was just wrong about what he was seeing. He slowly got out of the ATV, watching his daughter dote on this strange horse. “Erin, you sure she’s tame?”
Dawn’s ear flicked as she registered the name she heard. She continued to debate if she should try to escape, risking hurting herself or allowing herself to play favorites with this girl. It didn’t seem like she was in control though, and that made escape look a lot better.
Erin kept a hand on the shoulder of the new horse, just as much to try and comfort as well as to make sure they knew where she was relative to them. She felt them shy away, moving backward and making small noises of annoyance.
“Dad.” Erin frowned, trying to give him a stern look.
The father misunderstood, swiftly moving forward with a hand outstretched, intent on grabbing his daughter and pulling her to safety.
Dawn took the extra space, sensing the father’s mounting fear, and bolted to the center of the field past them. She noticed the gate had been left open and her chance to escape was clear. She didn’t know this form’s limitations, but it was time to find out as she heard Erin’s voice yelling out in protest and the father giving a short bark.
Dawn grinned on the inside, happy she would be able to make it to escape.
A sudden yell from Erin made her instinctively swerve. A harsh grating sound of metal on metal made her ears wince and a sharp pain registered in her flank before the whooshing sound registered and helped her piece together what had happened. She grumbled as a brief glance confirmed a syringe sticking out of her side.
‘Dammit, just haaaad to make a run for it and act skittish… great damn thinking Dawn.’ She grumbled, noticing her sluggishness, ‘Okay, so tranquilizer, not a bullet. I don’t feel sleepy thanks to isolating the syrum, but I don’t want to be shot again, let’s play the part and see where this goes… oh buck no I’m not laying in their other animals’ stool… here’s a clean spot at least.’
Erin finished screaming at her dad in anger for causing them to panic, but the dad was having none of it. She watched in frustration as he nodded with satisfaction and pointed in the direction of the other horses with his now unloaded gun, still keeping from direct aim at any of them out of safety.
“You tell me that horse was doing no harm when we finally round up our startled horses and know they haven’t been contaminated by whatever that one had!” He said angrily. “After we get them in the stables, we put that one in quarantine and try to find out where the hell it came from.”
“Gah!” Erin growled in exasperation, throwing her hands up in the air before getting on the A.T.V. to join her dad in doing as he said.