I fidgeted the moment the strange mare raised a hoof towards me. The two guards beside me both glared at me. That was all the warning I needed. I exhaled, and closed my eyes. I felt a hoof on my chin, pushing my head up.
"Are there any signs of injury, Nurse Redheart?" Miss Sparkle asked. Nurse... It was one of their words for healer. I doubted this mare was truly a healer, but I was in no position to voice opinions.
"Nothing immediately visible, as you could tell." Redheart responded, tilting my head to the side. "Of course, I've never worked with a changeling before, so I couldn't tell you much."
I had to keep myself from snickering at the thought of a changeling in a pony's hospital. It almost made my stomach churn. Redheart tilted my head the other way, and made a ah noise. Her hoof left the side of my head, and I opened my eyes. She was a few steps away, digging around in a bag.
When Redheart turned around, she was holding some sort of device in her mouth; a mix of rubber and metal tubes, with a disc-shaped cup at one end, and two... Earpieces, perhaps, at the other. She maneuvered the earpieces into her ears, and raised the cup to my chest. It was uncomfortably cold to the touch, but I kept myself from flinching.
Redheart moved the cup to two different places for a moment, before she turned back and gave Miss Sparkle a shocked look. "I think I hear two heartbeats."
The room fell still. All the ponies traded confused or wonder-filled glances. Miss Sparkle dropped what she was doing and trotted over to Redheart. She glanced at me, then back to the mare.
"Are you sure?" She asked.
Redheart nodded, and gave Miss Sparkle her strange apparatus. Miss Sparkle listened for a moment, and shook her head.
"I don't believe this... Spike, prepare a letter to Princess Celestia! She has to hear about this, right away!"
And Spike scribbled furiously on a scroll of paper. A few moments later, Miss Sparkle took over for Spike and wrote herself, whilst Redheart continued to examine me on her own accord. She was surprisingly... Polite. But I assumed it must have been a habit in her line of work.
When it comes to a changeling, especially a drone or other highly-mobile subspecies, they'll tell you that their wings are one of their most important body parts. And especially sensitive, and frail, body parts. The thin membrane can easily be torn, and as such, the majority of our species is highly defensive about our wings, and anything involving them.
Redheart had made her way to my side, and the two guards stepped back to let her do whatever she had planned on doing. I wish they hadn't. The mare carefully lifted her hooves, and pulled my right wing out. I fidgeted slightly, but apparently not enough to draw the guards' attention. Redheart, at first, gently prodded at the membrane of my wing. Just enough for me to feel it. Her second prod was firmer. I winced, but didn't let out a sound. It was more of an unusual sensation than a painful one.
Her last jab was painful. I highly doubt she intentionally stabbed at my wings like she did, but I felt something tear. I jumped back and yelped in pain, slamming my side against a table. The sound of my sudden vocalization startled the entire room. Miss Sparkle dropped her paper and quill, Spike fell off the stool he sat on, Redheart stepped back, and the two guards both stumbled for a moment.
Of course, they gathered themselves quickly, and had thrown me back inside my cell before I could truly realize it.I sat on the floor for a moment, just waiting to register exactly what had happened. By the time I slowly managed to clamber to my hooves, the two guards were apparently checking if Miss Sparkle and Nurse Redheart were unharmed. A moment later, they escorted Nurse Redheart out.
I scowled as they left, and extended my wings to check myself. When I looked back, I was relieved beyond belief to see that the membrane wasn't torn, simply stressed. It would be back in proper shape in a day or two.When I turned back to the rest of the room, Miss Sparkle was standing at the glass wall, looking at me inquisitively.
"What was that all about?" she asked.
I huffed, and shook my head. "My wings are delicate. I would prefer if you refrain from touching them."
Afterwards, I found recluse hidden behind the shower curtains once again. With absolutely nothing else to keep my attention, I set my head against the wall and closed my eyes.
I felt a gentle nudge on my side."Wake up. Hey. Hey. Hey! Wake up!" The nudge turned to a hard shove. Before I knew it, I was face-first on the stone floor.
I rubbed the back of my head, and looked up to find a taller changeling, still just six or seven years old, like me, standing before me. The grin plastered on his face just irked me.
"Phalanx, you idiot..." I murmur, rising to my hooves. "That hurt, y'know."
Phalanx just rolled his eyes at me. "Oh, come on. It was a joke."
I gave a chuckle, "And so are you."
Phalanx gave me a playful shove, and waved his hoof. "That's the spirit. Now come on, something's going on down in the Nexus. There's a big crowd gathering." Before I had the chance to protest, Phalanx had taken off.
I sighed, and chased after him. We weaved through small groups, jumped over rocks, and occasionally bumped into others. Of course, we apologized, and for a few steps, walked as we were told. After that, we took off again. Looking back upon it now, it seemed like a stupid thing to do, but, we were young. We knew no better.
We had found ourselves staring at the backside of a rather large crowd gathered in the Nexus, a sort of meeting hall in the nest. By the time I had caught up with him, Phalanx was already scanning the wall in an attempt to find a perch. He waved a hoof, and took flight towards a cubby in the upper level of the wall. I landed just a moment behind him.
"Look, over there..." Phalanx said, staring out into the sea of faces.
In the middle of the crowd, I could make out the shapes of the Praetorians, the Queen's personal guard. It took a moment, but I found Queen Chrysalis, surrounded by a batch of Praetorians, simply looking out among the crowd. After what seemed like an eternity, Chrysalis' gaze fell onto us.
Phalanx and I both froze. The Queen's gaze eventually turned elsewhere.
"Phalanx?" I asked. "You saw that too, right?"
"Yes..." He replied. "The queen just looked right at us..."
We both just stared at each other for a moment. After that, Phalanx bolted, heading back the direction we came. I followed him quickly.
I felt a sudden jolt as I awoke. For a moment, my breathing was heavy and sporadic. I ran my hooves along my forelegs to calm myself, and eventually rose up to my hooves. Though I couldn't see outside, I had a feeling that it was evening. I could hear muffled chatter from outside. Not bothering to be subtle about it, I pushed through the curtain and stepped out into the rest of my cell.
Miss Sparkle had two guests; the rainbow-maned pegasus and the pink earth pony. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, their names were. My sudden activity seemed to startle the ponies, and I kept myself from laughing. For some reason, the sight of a startled pony is just so amusing.
Within the first few seconds of my appearance, Pinkie Pie had positioned herself right in front of the glass wall. She reared up and placed her fore-hooves on the glass with an ever-growing smile.
"Ooh, can you do that trick? You know, the changing thing?" She asked.
I blinked. It hadn't occurred to me to try changing form. Of course, in any other given situation, if any creature other than the queen herself asked me to change form for their amusement, I would've told them to go get eaten by a hydra. But this situation was... Different.
I planted all four hooves solidly on the tiled floor, clenched my eyes shut, and focused. I felt a familiar tingle over my body, for a moment. In the next second, the tingle fizzled away, replaced by a piercing pain in my neck. A moment later, the piercing was replaced again by a painful buzz, all over my body.
I fell to my knees, attempting to resist whatever had happened. I failed horribly. The last sight I can recall was Miss Sparkle staring through the glass with an almost shocked look on her face.
When I finally came to, I only had the faintest memory of what was happening. Something about a pink pony, morphing, and this damnable collar. Around me, the three ponies, and dragon, had gathered, and I was outside the cell. Miss Sparkle had a hoof on my throat... Checking for a pulse, it seemed. I was in no mood for it.
"Get your hooves off me!" I gasped out, struggling to roll onto my stomach. "I won't be touched by your kind!"
The group that formed around me scattered, most of them seemed to move towards the stairs. Miss Sparkle was the exception. When he noticed her standing there, Spike stood at her side, tugging at her hoof.
"Twilight! Let the guards handle it!" Spike pleaded, still unable to move the lavender mare.
Miss Sparkle seemed to not hear him. She just stared at me. I couldn't make out her scent. It took a moment to register that she had found a way to magically mask her scent. Which completely tore away any advantage I had.
Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash soon stood beside Miss Sparkle and Spike. Rainbow Dash had a look on her face that indicated her eagerness to fight. Pinkie Pie stood with a grin that seemed to not fit the moment.
I backed myself against the wall, lowered my head, and bared my fangs. I instinctively vocalized. Undoubtedly, the sound of my call drew the guards' attention. I could hear the clatter of their hooves on the stairs.
At that moment, with my fangs still bared, I faced a decision. Stand and fight a battle I'll surely lose, or revert to a passive posture and pray to the Great Beyond I came out unscathed.
I'm not exactly sure what compelled me to do so, but I chose the latter. Just a moment after I made my choice, I felt a blow to the side of the head. It wasn't quite painful, but the shock of an unexpected blow stunned me. It gave the two guards all the time they needed to pin me on the ground.
"No, don't be so rough with him!" Miss Sparkle scolded. Her words shocked me as much as it did the guards. For a moment, I saw a trace look of regret come over her face. Regret of what, I was not sure. The look disappeared as quickly as it came. "... I need a compliant subject to study, and hurting him won't help the matter."
"Yes ma'am." One of the guards replied. Both of them clambered to their hooves, and yanked me up as well.
They 'escorted' me to my cell, and slammed the door behind me. I heard the clack of the lock, and I just stared at the wall for a moment, trying to take in everything that had just happened. I made a move for the cover behind the curtain, but before I did, I noticed something in the corner of my eye... Miss Sparkle stood there, giving me the strangest look I had ever seen.