*Thanks goes to thenodpony for giving me the name for the OC changeling that is introduced in this chapter! Also, just to state the obvious, this chapter is in Ronin's POV. Enjoy!
When the white light faded away, I found myself in the middle of some forest. Looking around, I couldn't find trace of either Raiden or Nicholas anywhere.
I cupped my hands to my mouth and yelled: "Raaaaadien! Niiiiiiiick!" However, all I got back in response was the sounds of birds chirping and bugs buzzing.
Where the hell could they be? I thought as I got a better look of my surroundings. There was multitudes of bushes and ferns along with the obvious note of trees. Yet the forest had this... depressed look to it. Like the forest knew it was scary and couldn't do anything about it.
My gaze stopped on a black and yellow colored handle poking out of a bush.
"No way!" I said as I walked over and pulled my sword out of the bush. I looked at it with glee as I decided to see if it was still sharp. I turned and slashed four times into the bush. It split four ways flawlessly.
"Hehehe, looks like all that training with grandpa Brim worked out." I chuckled as a distant memory resurfaced.
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10 years ago
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I fell on my knees drenched in sweat as the training sword I'd been holding fell beside me with an audible THUMP. Panting hard, I looked up at my grandfather as he laughed softly and held out his hand.
"Your getting better, my boy!" he exclaimed as he pulled me up and passed me my sword back. "You were able to hold your own against your wee old man for nearly 5 minutes that time! I cannae believe how much ye've grown!"
I looked at him in shock. "That was only five minutes!" I said as he nodded. I threw down the sword in frustration and sat down in the grass with my arms crossed. My grandfather smiled and came and sat next to me.
"Whats that look for, laddie?" He asked. I turned to him and huffed slightly.
"I'm never going to be as good as you, Grandpa Brim." I groaned as I looked at the training sword. "Why do you have me do this stuff anyway? It's cool and all, but I'm just no good at it."
He simply laughed and got up and beckoned me to follow him into the house. After walking into the living room he pulled an old chest out of his closet and ooened it up. Inside was a sheath decorated with yellow amd black markings. He turned around and showed me the blade inside of it.
"See this, laddie." he said as he pointed to the edge of the blade. It had an engraving on it that said Lang may yer lum reek. That is an oath to a long life. Ye shouldn't let little things like this keep ye down." He put the sword back. "Now, why don't we try again, huh?"
I looked up and smiled. "Ok, Grandpa." I ran off as he turned and looked out the window. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocketwatch with a sun emblem on it.
"Oh, how I wish ye could see how well these kids have grown, my shining sunrise." He said quietly with a tear to his eye.
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Present day
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I smiled at the memory. If he wouldn't had motivated me that day, I would have given up on blade wielding years ago.
I was torn from my thoughts as I heard a screech from deeper in the woods. What the hell? I thought as I ran towards the source of the screech. I came into a small clearing to see two of the weirdest things I have ever seen.
The first was some odd wolf, yet it seemed to be completely made out of wood. the second one was fully black coated. It had hooves, but its legs had holes in them. It also had wings with sharp edges to them. Its eyes were a full shade of yellow, and it had sharp teeth pointing out its mouth. Not to mention the weird horn sticking out of its head.
What is going on? I thought just as the wolf lunged towards the black thing.
"HEY!!!" I yelled at it. it stopped on a dime and turned to face me. The thing was waaay bigger up close. It decided to rush me immediately.
I sidestepped and slashed downwards on his neck area. with a whimper his head came clean off with a horrific SHLICK! sound. I turned torwards the weird animal thing.
"Hey, are you.....ok?" I asked slowly as it got up and looked at me, seemingly studying me as if he had never seen a human before. To be fair, I would've done the same if I was in his shoes.
"Why did you........ save me?" It asked. from its tone, I could tell it was a he. I also realized it was just a kid due to the squeaky way his voice went as he growled. "Nothing has ever cared enough to save our kind before."
I sat down next to it, placing my sword in the dirt next to me. "Your kind?" I asked. "You mean to tell me your species... whatever they are, aren't the main people around here?"
He looked up at me and shook his head. "No, for centuries, our kind has been humiliated and forced into hiding by the other sentient species in equestria. Especially ponies." He spat the last part venomously. This was starting to sound very similar to issues back home.
"Why?" I asked him. He looked up at me in suprise.
"Why do you care so much?" he responded. "Nothing cares about us changelings, ask any species that knows of us. They would have us squashed like the commen housefly." He stamped his hoof in anger. It was honestly heartbreaking to see a kid say things like that. I mean, he may not be the prettiest dude on the block, but no species should be targeted like that.
I put a hand on his shoulder. At first he tensed at the motion, then relaxed. "I care because nobody should have to grow up with such a cruel mindset. What does your kind do that's so bad anyway?"
He looked away as he responded. "Promise you won't judge me?" He asked, slight fear in his voice.
"I promise." I said with confidence. I mean, what's the worst they could do to something?
He took a deep breath and began. "Our kind has to get its nutrients from a source that no other species can get sustenance from. We feed off of emotion. Love is the strongest one for us." He looked at me, eyeing my face carefully.
I raised an eyebrow. "Is that all you do in order to eat?" he nods. "Does it kill or injure them?" He shakes his head.
I had heard enough. I stood up and faced him. "Your telling me your entire species is isolated due to how you act and feed as individuals! Without it even being lethal to those you feed off of?" I growled. He took a step back, but nodded his head.
This only angered me more. I quckly grabbed my sword and cut up several bushes standing around me. each one now a perfect X shape. The changeling looked at me with a mixed expression of awe and fear.
"Who are you?" he said. I turned to face him and smiled.
"My names Ronin. what's yours" I said as I extended my free hand.
He looked at it for a second before reaching out and shaking it. "My name is Tak. might i ask what kind of species you are?"
They definitely don't have humans here, wherever here is. I thought with a bit of sorrow leaking into my mind. But I pushed it aside as I answered my new buddy.
"My kind are called humans. we are a species of great intellect, but great consequence as well." he raised a brow in confusion at that. I sighed, already prepared to answer the question coming.
"By great consequence? whatever do you mean by that?" He asked.
"My kind are a survivalist species. If some of our kind hogs land or resources, we fight for it. Hell, if they don't hog it, we tend to fight for it anyway. but we aren't all bad. We have used our creative mindsets to save millions of lives through medicene and other cures. We became top of the food chain for a reason after all." I said as his jaw slowly dropped to the floor.
"Your kind sounds so powerful... but I feel a lot of anger coming from you on this topic as well." he stated as I turned from him.
"Thing is, humans cant seem to agree with each other ever. For a long time, a group of us who thought they were better than us enslaved all those who simply had a different color skin tone or religious background. Lets just say I turned my back on humanity long ago."
He nodded sadly in understanding. "Thats why you have so much anger from hearing of our woes." I nodded.
He turned quickly and started walking. "Come, Ronin. I must take you to the queen. You might just be the boost we need in order to rally my people."
I walked alongside him, suddenly intrigued. "Your queen, huh? What she like?" I noticed he got very giddy about this topic, as the walk in his step seemed way more enthusiastic.
"The queen, mother of all changelings, is the one who will lead us to victory against our pony persecutors! She is the strongest and most capable of all of us." He said with a boatload of pride in his voice.
"Sounds like one dynamite gal." I said with a smirk. He looked at me with a confused face. "Sorry, line from a movie I saw once."
He looked like he wanted to say more on the topic, but shrugged it off with a question. "Wherever your from, you obviously aren't from around here. where is your home at?" he asked me.
"Well, Its obvious this isn't earth, so I think I'm from another planet." I said as he completely stopped.
"Would you ever want to return?" he asked.
"Honestly, no. I didn't really like it to begin with, especially after I lost my grandad. So there isnt much to return to. Any remaining family I have there is dead to me anyway." He looked away at that.
"It seems we are both outsiders of our homeworlds." He said with a sigh.
"Indeed we are, Tak. Indeed we are." I said as we came upon some kind of cave. Except this one had more exits on it. And it seemed vertical than the usual downward entrance to a cave. That, and there were guards outside it that looked like more changelings.
Tak looked at the place with a mix of pride and sorrow. "Welcome to the Haven, Tak. Welcome, to one of our only remaining hives."
I looked at him with shock. His people were an endangered species by his own confession. And here he was, allowing some guy he'd met in one day straight to the final home for his people. It honestly brought a tear to my eye as I realized just how broken these guys must be to need to stoop to such levels.
"HALT!!!!" one of the guards screeched as he flew towards us, with at least 10 more close behind. "Step away from the prince immediately or die!" he said with a growl.
I simply growled back and put my hand on my sword when Tak suddenly jumped between us.
"Enough!" He yelled. "This man saved my life from a timberwolf while the guards you assigned to me deserted me on the spot, captain!" He spat in a rage. "He shall be treated as one of us and granted an audience with the queen immediately!"
The captain shrank back in fear as I looked at the boy in suprise. Prince, huh? I thought. Explains the attitude and emotion he had when he talked about his people. I stuck my tongue out at the captain as we were escorted in.
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12 minutes later
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It took a bit to get to the center of their....hive? that's what he said this was? Meh, It looks like a big old frat house to me. When we did reach the center, a changeling appeared and cleared his throat.
"Her majesty, Queen chrysalis, will now see you two." he said and left the room. I looked and got a good look at the queen.
Other than being a few heads taller than Tak and most of the others, her looks alone definitely sticked out. although she had the same black fur coat with holey legs and hooves, her hair came down almost all the way to the ground. her horn was bigger by a mile. And even the smallest parts of her body seemed more... sophisticated. She also sported a little crown on her head, although it seemed to offput the whole queen thing she had going on, making her look cuter than necessary.
She walked up to me and Tak slowly, Eyeing me up and down. I honestly felt fear right then and there, this being the first time I had felt like something, or someone rather, would actually eat me if necessary. Hell, even if she wanted to she could have me gutted and no one would ever know.
"Well, my son. what do we have here?" She said to Tak, yet here eyes never left me.
"Well, mother. This being is from another planet. And he saved my life while some of our own just happened to disappear." Tak said with a frown.
She looked extremely pissed at that. "THEY LEFT MY SON AND HEIR TO DIE OUT THERE ALONE!!!" She yelled. If there were windows, they would've broke by how loud it was. She recovered quickly from the outburst, though, and turned back to me.
"Another planet, you say?" She grinned at that. "Well, you saved my son, so by our law, that grants 1 favor of your choice." She said quite reluctantly. She obviously wasn't the type that liked to give away stuff, even if it was well deserved.
I thought about this for a minute. I could ask for a ton of things. food, weapons, this worlds currency. But then I looked at Tak and realized something. This guy was only a kid, and while we walked down here, I didnt see too many of his people in this place. These guys are in a rough spot, and honestly, I think I know how to help them.
I looked the queen in the eye. "You said that Tak was your heir, right." She nodded. "And your people have recently sucked in protecting him as well?" She nodded again, although this time she looked more bored.
"Get to the point, hairless ape" she growled.
Shrugging off the insult, I continued. "Then allow me to become your heirs bodyguard. In return for a place to stay while I serve him." She looked at Tak.
"It is your decision." She told him, though she clearly didn't like the idea.
"Mother, I trust him this man. I approve." He said with confidence. She simply rolled her eyes and turned around.
"Very well. for the time being, you shall work as Tak's personal bodyguard. Dismissed!" She ordered as Tak led me out of the room into a hallway.
"I cannot wait to teach you all about our kind! There is so much for you to learn..." He went on as my mind wandered off.
I'll start looking for you guys soon. I've just got to help a friend get out of a jam first. I thought as Tak rattled on. Heh, I could get used to this.