“Today we will cover disguises,” Infiltrator Sclerite addressed the class.
‘Finally!’
Apparently this part is really easy to changelings, so it’s saved for the end, right before expeditions out begin for the infiltrator class. Seems like allocating the least amount of time for the most important lesson to me but considering it takes extra energy to maintain a disguise, the teacher probably just wants to make sure that no energy is wasted on changelings that cannot perform the rest of the required lessons.
Case in point, the class had been reduced by a bit at that point. It started out with twenty two changelings and now it’s down to fifteen. The class seemed easy enough to me but then again I was juggling it along with five or so other subjects every day. I was focused entirely on education, whereas most changelings had work or were unprepared for classwork.
“First, you must feel your connection to the Weave. Even outside of the hive, you have to understand on an intimate level how you are entwined into the Great Tapestry. The String, or Thread as some say, of Change must be known to you.”
The infiltrator was using the Weave to help us feel the thread.
I literally grasped onto the knowledge she was trying to give us and held onto it. Already, I felt heat building up in my horn. The changelings around me, the five members of my new inner circle, found the task of grasping the thread that much easier due to my efforts.
“Now, your first disguise will be an earth pony with a black coat, white mane, green eyes, average build. The Cutie Mark will be a red question mark. Picture the pony with your mind’s eye. Then, while still holding onto the String of Change, push your mana through your horn.”
I watched as many changelings vanished into a curtain of green flames that crept up their body. In their place were the disguised ponies.
Focusing, I channeled the mana while picturing the disguise. I kept in mind the different lessons on body proportions, average mane length, and so on while creating my disguise. My vision was briefly obscured as orange flames rose up from my hooves and rapidly spread across my body, eventually covering my eyes.
When the flames receded, I didn’t feel any different. Lifting a hoof to inspect it revealed a dull black hoof rather than a glossy black hoof. I was covered in fur, rather than chitin.
Looking to my immediate class members, I saw the same pony disguises. We all varied on height and muscle sizes, but for the most part we looked like normal ponies.
‘At least, I assume we do. I’ve never seen a pony.’
In just a few moments, there were no changelings left in the classroom. Slowly, Sclerite walked between each student, checking their disguises.
“Your legs are too thin. Your eyes are still blue. Ponies don’t have holes in their legs, how could you forget that?!”
Most changelings she passed by with no comment. As she passed by my area, she glared at Thorax’s disguise. “Ponies have manes, not fins, Thorax.”
“Right. I remember that,” Thorax said, adjusting his disguise with more green flames.
“You’re too big, Oestridae. Most ponies are not that muscley, and you don’t want to stick out.”
After she checked all of our disguises, she returned to the front of the classroom and spoke loudly to the class.
“Good. Now, drop your disguises. To do this, grab back onto the String of Change and channel mana without picturing a disguise. The raw mana will disrupt your current disguise. With practice you will get a better feeling of just how much mana is needed to disrupt it.”
A wave of green flames with a small island of orange ones washed across the room as each changeling discarded their disguises
“Next, I want you all to create your own disguise, complete with a cutie mark.”
‘Oh no, originality! My one weakness!’
“And you need to get used to creating one under pressure, it’s not always the case where you will have time to think out a clever disguise. You have five seconds.”
Quickly, I pictured a tall pony with dark blue fur, a two-toned faded purple and light black mane and tail, and a cutie mark that was the greek letter μ.
‘No Phasma, don’t make the obvious OC joke here.’
Once again, Infiltrator Sclerite walked between the changelings and judged our disguises. A hooffull didn’t think of a disguise in time and stayed changelings after they were enveloped in green flames, a few had errors with their disguises still, but most accomplished the task just fine. Not one of us had bright colors for a coat.
This time, Sclerite, disguised as a white pegasus with a green mane and red question mark on her flanks, spoke to me as she passed.
“Prince Phasma, your eyes are still orange. And ponies don’t have random scribbles for their disguise.”
I blinked. I hastily fixed my mistake and imagined purple irises on my disguise, channeling again.
With orange flames fixing my error, I said, “It’s the letter Mu, not scribbles.”
Sclerite looked at me questioningly but did not press further. She moved onto the rest of the class behind me.
“Now we will cover unicorn disguises. As you recall from earlier lessons, their horns possess a different shape than changeling horns…”
“That’s it for today. You all will receive a single extra portion of rations to make up for the energy loss. Don’t let this privilege get to your heads, next class we will be combining lessons, so be prepared!”
As the class broke, my inner circle formed a hexagon. I mean you could call it a circle, but there are six of us and hexagons are cooler than circles. Lacewing and Coxa started rubbing their horns. Taking the form of a pegasus had been especially tiring, with each changeling having to imagine each individual feather on both wings in order to get a complete disguise.
“You’d think she’d cut us nymphs some slack,” Coxa whined.
“Yea, I can see why a lot of changelings usually don’t pass this class!” Lacewing added.
Tarsus shrugged, “Seemed pretty easy to me.”
“That’s because you have the mana pool of an adult, Tarsus,” I said while rolling my eyes.
“Oh, and you’re fine, Phasma?”
I sighed. “I am now. I have lessons after this, and I won’t be fine after those.”
“You have more lessons? Don’t you also have lessons before this class, too?”
“Yea.”
Lacewing shook her head, “I can’t imagine that much classwork. When do you get to relax?”
Coxa added, “And what do you even do to relax?”
I absentmindedly rubbed my chin in thought. “Well… I… Uh…. Study?”
“That’s not relaxing,” Oestridae pointed out.
“I sleep for a few hours each day.”
“That’s not relaxing, either.”
I threw my hooves up with a shrug, “Then I don’t.”
“Prince Phasma,” Chamberlain Eucharis called from the doorway.
“You’re here too early, come back in five minutes!” I yelled back to him.
He responded by tapping his hoof impatiently.
“... Damn it, looks like I have to go already.”
“By the Great Weaver, I don’t envy you, Phasma,” Thorax whispered.
“We don’t get to choose our lot in life. For the good of the hive, and all that.”
Coxa, Lacewing, Tarsus, and Thorax all raised their eyebrows at that last comment. Oestridae was too distracted by Lacewing’s tail, which was slowly swishing back and forth.
I stood up and walked over to the buzz-kill.
“Chamberlain Eucharis. Is there a reason you’re especially on time today, or can you just not wait to see me?”
“I do enjoy our walks, My Prince, but I am indeed here early for a reason. We are headed to the North-East Main Exit, rather than the royal chambers.”
I looked behind him and sure enough, there were four royal guards waiting in the hallway.
“I’m… leaving the hive?”
He nodded, “Yes. Today we will begin your flying lessons. We won’t be going far, just sticking close to the hive.”
“I’m actually leaving the hive?”
“You already asked that, My Prince.”
‘Holy shit.’
I heard the clopping of hooves and looked to my right and saw Tarsus walking up.
“Prince Phasma,” he began with my title, “I couldn’t help but overhear. I’d like to come with you, if you would have me.”
“...You may.”
Eucharis butted in, “Your Highness, these private lessons are-”
“-Are occurring at my discretion,” I cut off Eucharis. “If I say he can come, then he can.”
As we walked out of the hive with our escort, Chamberlain Eucharis was giving me the rundown on flying lessons.
“Now, since you will be exercising a whole new muscle group, what we’re going to start with is simply buzzing your wings. First, move them out of your wing coverings, your elytra.”
I moved my elytra up and out of the way, and my unused wings rose partially from my back.
“Good, My Prince. Now comes the hard part, you have to vibrate your wings.”
That, I could not do. Moving a leg was as easy as moving my leg or arm as a human. Adjusting my elytra was as easy as moving my shoulder around. Moving my wings on the other hoof, was another matter entirely.
‘On the other hand. How many of these have I missed?’
Tarsus seemed to notice my struggles and used his magic to lightly push my wings up and down.
‘Oh that feels so weird.’
Tarsus stopped pushing on my wings now that I felt the alien muscle group. I gave him a nod of thanks and focused on my wings. I imagined the muscles twitching, focusing on where I felt Tarsus’s movement meet my back. Thankfully, it was just that easy to get them to twitch on their own.
“Well done. Keep getting them to twitch, getting faster and faster, until the wings start buzzing.”
Vibrating a part of my body took practice, so much so that by the time I actually managed to move my wings at a speed above a grandma’s slow trudging, we had reached the exit of the hive.
It was a large pair of doors made of a solid black stone material. They were covered in etching similar to the pair of doors to the throne room, which I had by this point learned was the changeling creation myth, with the doors being mirror images of each other.
Each door had a changeling on the outer edge of the door, reaching towards the upper, inner corner. From said corner, a tapering tendril extended down to the center of the bottom edge of the door. The tendril seemed to have twists and turns within itself, seemingly at random.
It was the first changeling grasping onto the String of Together
‘Déjà vu. These changelings are very good at replicating art, the only difference I could see between this set of doors and the throne room doors was that the throne room doors were painted.’
‘…’
‘No. There was a dream…’
Eucharis ordered the guards at the gate to open the way. The guard on the left moved to a horizontal wheel I neglected to notice and started pushing it.
The doors slowly creaked and swung outwards. Sunlight from a setting sun blinded my eyes which had been accustomed to the dark of the hive.
‘Every damn time I walk through the Great Hall, this shit happens.’
“Come, My Prince, it’s time for you to fly.” Eucharis had stepped through the doors before they finished opening, the guard retinue and Tarsus sticking by me.
And so I stepped out of the hive for the first time in my life.