//------------------------------//
// CH 38 (the small group of 'lings) 
// Story: Accepting Change 
// by drFraud 
//------------------------------//

Patchwork

 

“I can’t believe we didn’t think of this before,” Silent Drop screeched near my ear. It didn’t hurt but it was uncomfortable.

I wanted to originally fly over the rest of the forest, but I was assured by both Drop and Mantis that flying over the Everfree can be extremely dangerous; so a gigantic wolf was the decision.

I made the body powerful enough that I had no reason to jump over smaller obstacles and I just smashed through everything else. There were a few patches of poison joke that I had to fully avoid, but other than that, in two hours we were out of the forest.

“Patch we are out, you can stop now,” Mantis spoke up directly into my ear and I grinned.

“Nah, I think I’ll keep going. I’m not even winded,” I growled out (talking normally isn’t easy with this kind of mouth). “Drop which way to Macintosh Hills?”

“Why Macintosh Hills?” She shouted to be heard over the wind.

“I wanna meet the changelings there before we enter the Badlands. Seems only right to make sure they are okay.”

“I could also see if my sister is doing fine as well, so why not,” I could hear Mantis speak up.

“Okay, okay, fine. But you need to stop Patch, I can’t look at the map like this.”

Digging my paws into the dirt I forced myself to a sharp stop, and my reward was two colorful curses as both Mantis and Drop flew over my head. They barely got their bearings with a buzz and a flap, but it was a close call. I snickered and it grew into a full belly laugh at the looks they gave me.

Continuing to curse in a language I didn’t understand Drop took out her map and the compass while I shifted into myself again. Mantis landed next to me with a buzz of his wings.

I took this time to look around me after shifting back into myself.

While there were still trees in this area, most of the actual land surrounding us is flat, grassy fields with various shrubbery, while berry bushes were the majority providing me with a quick snack.

Taking a few bites out of a bush that I recognized as raspberry, I continued to look over the rest of the area. I did spot what looked like a deer with a strange vest looking at us through the trees, and a quick ping with my sense revealed nothing but curiosity.

Looking away for a moment to Drop then looking back, I noticed that the deer turned around and galloped back into the forest making me shrug.

I saw that Mantis was plucking some of the berry bushes clean and placing all of the fruits in a bag, sealing it, and stuffing it in the saddlebags. Probably a good idea, I honestly didn’t know how much food he was carrying in the first place.

“All right, I have our heading,” Drop got our attention, “mind you I don’t know exactly WHERE these changelings are…”

“I do,” Mantis buzzed his wings, “Or at least I know the general location of it.”

“Good,” I shook off my bags and raised my head, “Then let’s get to it,” Jumping into the air I gathered a significant portion of my resin transforming into a dark brown Roc. Both of their jaws hit the floor at my size and I trilled, laughing at their stunned faces.

Landing I could see Mantis shaking his head before picking up my bags and flying up, landing on my back with a buzz of his wings.

Drop flew up to my face tilting her head left then right before sighing and landing on my head.

“You’ll probably be faster than me anyway,” She muttered.

After giving me the direction and Mantis telling me what to look out for, I spread my mighty wings and after a few wobbly flaps I blasted off.

Modifying my eyesight so I can see farther I turned my head around trying to spot Ponyville the moment I gained high enough altitude. We were on the other side of the forest but… there. Improving my eyesight even further and feeling the strain on my brain to process it all, I got my first sight of Ponyville.

I couldn’t see much, both from the forest and the cloud cover, but I did spot several houses as well as what looked like the bell tower. I also spotted a building mid-construction that looked like the town hall. Other than a few tiny spots of color I wasn’t able to actually see, let alone recognize anyone but that was fine by me. Most of the ponies I knew about weren’t even born yet.

Mentally shrugging I flapped my wings harder turning my head towards the horizon.

…

“Over there!” Mantis shouted in my ear making me flinch.

I couldn’t see where he was pointing but I started slowing myself down to a stop.

The moment I started flapping in place I could feel both of them jumping off of me giving me a chance to shift back into myself. I grabbed my stuff from Mantis’s magic and with him as the guide we made our dive. It wasn’t easy with all the wind at this height but we managed.

The Macintosh Hills are a sort of a barrier between Equestria, the Badlands, and the San Palomino Desert spreading in a fashion that made it almost look like a painter just took a measuring stick and drew a straight line between the three biomes.

Mind you, the hills themselves barely reached the desert, but the way they were formed encircled the Badlands making sure that at least some protection was offered against the elements. It wasn’t much mind you, but enough that instead of sand, rocks and stone ruled over the area. We weren’t entering the Badlands yet though, and we passed over the area that will once be the little town of Appleloosa. I even saw what I think was a herd of buffalo stampeding around.

After a few minutes, Mantis got our attention and pointed at what was a part of the mountain range that served as further protection of the Badlands region.

Stopping and lifting my right claw to shield my eyes from the sun I tried to figure out what he was pointing at, but I gave up quickly, and buzzing my wings harder I caught up to Mantis and Drop.

Flying side by side, we didn’t talk much and both of them seem to focus on keeping an eye on things while I enjoyed the new location as much as I could.

I felt a sudden strike of inspiration and focusing my senses to the maximum I sent out a ping powerful enough to make Mantis wobble a bit.

At first, nothing came back to me, making me wonder if we were lied to. Gathering up my magic and trying to extend the range of my sense I readied another ping in hopes of feeling at least one changeling but I stopped halfway.

It was faint, only one, small blip… like a light at the end of a long tunnel. There was a feeling of void, and then there was a bit of a shift, and suddenly I was assaulted by a wave of pings. There weren’t many of them, maybe a hundred, but these were my first changelings.

Turning my head to the side, I saw Mantis grin at me before he closed the third eyelid and sped forward in a burst of fire with Drop trailing behind him without much effort. I closed my own eyelid, gulping loudly out of nervousness, and I made my own way after them.

…

Rage.

Rage and cold fury were rattling around in my head making my horn crackle.

Mantis told me to wait a bit further away while he and Drop went ahead. Something about how my appearance may spook the others.

Then the lings started popping out from various crevices, armed with spears and swords, except I wasn’t even paying much attention to their weapons.

Every single one of those lings looked completely starved, with holes riddling their bodies. Even some of the smaller ones looked just as starved as the adults making me grind my teeth.

“Patch… Patch… Patchwork!”

“What!?” I snapped at what I recognized was Dicty.

“Are you alright?” Her voice was soft, without any of the challenge it usually carried.

“I’m fine,” I grumbled taking a step forward.

“Patchwork…” She moved in front of me blocking my way forward. I wasn’t that tall but I was still tall enough to look down at her with a frown. To her credit, she didn’t even flinch, “You being pissed off isn’t going to fix things, and they don’t need to see you like this. They are scared as it is. Calm. Down.”

She was right… she was right and it took a few deep breaths setting down my boiling emotions into something I would happily use later. Preferably to cave the mad queen’s skull in.

Seeing that I was able to get control over myself, Dicty moved to the side, following slightly behind me.

“Do you have ANY food for them?” I opened my wings and lifted myself up.

“It’s getting harder,” I heard her own wing buzz, “but we are managing. The few pony guards that are here with us are keeping us fed, but even they are starting to feel the strain at this point.”

“Do you think I could help?” Turning my head to look behind me, I spotted a few small holes on her foreleg chitin. It only made my frown deepen.

The fact that it took her over a minute to say something didn’t bode well, but by that point, we arrived landing in front of a group of about twenty lings. Some of them placed their weapons next to them while others kept them loosely held in their magic. Not one of them looked very pleased to see me.

“Yes, I think you can…” She approached the group and turned to me, “Patch, this is Incus, he is the de-facto leader of this group.” Incus had a deep frown on his face.

Incus was… older, I think… maybe a bit older than Dicty. I did not have a form of reference for his age as Dicty and Mantis were the only lings I ever spent time with. Nevertheless, he looked strong, with powerful muscles and thick chitin that was riddled with chips and cracks that I assumed came from combat. He held a strange-looking blade in his magic that looked like it was made wholly from obsidian. A falchion came to mind when I tried to place it into something familiar.

Ever since Mantis started getting fed properly he grew quite a bit, and I considered him to be a fairly tall changeling. Incus was almost a head taller and was just about able to look me in the eyes.

His elytra were violet, and upon opening for a quick buzz I almost did a double take at the two pairs of wings, with the second pair being barely even half that size. I privately considered that he could be a candidate for ascension in the future.

“Incus,” Dicty pointed a hoof at me, “this is Patchwork, the ascendant I told you about.”

Incus took two steps towards me, while some other lings took a step back. Raising his hoof he started poking and prodding at me with my chitin ‘straps’ on my chest and my antennae being his biggest interest.

“You a prince?” He finally spoke standing in front of me. His voice was surprisingly soft and tender.

“So I have been told,” I tilted my head to the side.

“Are you or aren’t you?” He raised his voice. I saw that the other lings started tensing up. Out of the corner of my eyes, I spotted Drop and Mantis exiting an almost hidden cave.

“That depends on you, Incus. If you need a prince, I’ll be the prince. If not ill happily leave you all be…” I tilted my head to the other side, “That is after I make sure that changelings have a better future and a certain Queen is taught a lesson.”

That got him to lower his head and squint at me, “So you think you can take her on?” That got everyone to perk their ears even higher.

“I was doubtful a few days ago…” I hummed to myself, looking over all of them and the small audience that started popping up from the cave, “But looking at your state now… I WILL take her down.”

I put every ounce of conviction I had into that statement and the relief on their faces was immediately visible. Incus as well, had a large grin splitting his face. The fear didn’t leave them, but at least it made me feel better that they didn’t flee at the sight of me.

…

I was panting heavily having my mana nearly fully drained. I felt weak and sore, and my horn was burning, but… they had food. They said that it tasted strange but palatable.

“That should hold us for a week, gives the pony guards time to recover,” Incus spoke up while approaching me.

I was lying down on my legs fairly deep within a cave system that was dug out to facilitate these hundred-or-so lings. They slept mostly in groups and there were two pairs of guards (both couples), rotating every month, making sure that if the ‘hive’ were discovered by someone else they would be protected according to equestrian law. The same guards have been keeping them extra fed over the last week (the new delivery of love was every two weeks) but since the food stores in Canterlot were raided several days ago they had to give more.

I could feel my mana slowly returning but for today we were stuck here. No way am I entering the Badlands without being as ready as I can be.

“Good, I told Drop to send a message to Celestia. Hopefully, she will be able to send some extra help,” I watched as Incus laid down next to me. Mantis and Dicty were assisting with gathering love while Drop was talking with the Princess. I have considered calling Celestia ‘mom’ for a while now, but it just doesn’t feel right… yet.

“Thank you,” he mumbled, “we were starting to consider… podding the guards just to make due. I’m glad we didn’t, they are good ponies, they don’t deserve to be podded.”

Looking at him I could see genuine concern on his face for the ponies and that made me feel happy for the future of changelings. It would seem that centuries of starvation made changelings able to hold tremendous control over their emotional state. There was still a haze there, as I was told by Mantis, but some lings were able to see through it. Incus was one of them.

Most of the other lings kept to themselves, away from pony guards, but so far I was able to spot at least ten that spent their time with them, talking, learning… The lings stayed away from me as much as possible though, acting as though I would lash out at the tiniest provocation.

Hopefully, when the Queen is taken down, and everyone properly fed, things would settle into something approaching normalcy.

“I’m glad you didn’t’. It wouldn’t harm the relations… much, but this way you at least have a group of guards that would happily accept changelings once the dust settles.”

“Are you sure that ponies would just... accept us?” I could see him tilt his head questioningly from the corner of my eye.

Turning my head to face him I spoke with conviction, “I am not giving up until they do. Both I and the pony princess managed to lay some decent foundation for changeling acceptance but it’s still in its infancy.” Standing up, I shook myself off, wobbling slightly, and made my way out of the small room of the cave. Incus followed shortly after speeding up to catch up to me.

“You need to understand Incus,” we entered a fairly large room where quite a few lings were gathered in groups chatting, “up until a few weeks ago only a small number of ponies knew about changelings in the first place, and most of them do not have a good opinion of them. Hopefully, the last big chat I had with Equestria’s journalists would convince the other part of the populace that you are all just… doing your best to survive. And that you need help.”

Walking over to an empty area of the room I sat down, with Incus following suit, and observed the lings and their interactions.

The room itself was fairly large with some ‘rough’ edges around the walls. I wasn’t sure whether the lings made this or if it was natural, but at several locations around the room, there were blue crystals on resin pedestals emitting a soft light that colored everything in a soft blue hue.

The chatter was mostly hushed and it was primarily adults with occasional younger ling in the group. The nymphs were next room over (opposite where we entered) just in case something happened, then everyone else could react on time.

Every once in a while I would spot someone glance over at me or just flat out look at me both with fear and curiosity, but with their eyes constantly covered I wasn’t able to tell what was going on in their head at first glance.

I chatted with the burly ling next to me about what Canterlot was like, and what the current and some future plans were until two small nymphs approached us. I wasn’t immediately able to tell their gender but I figured it out fairly quickly.

Both of them were fillies, and both of them were black with only their eyes and elytra being blue. Both of them also had holes that made a fresh wave of anger start bubbling in me but didn’t let it show on my face. They were also very adorable.

“’Scuse me, sir,” I squeed internally, “are you like queen Chrystalis?” The left one asked with a barely noticeable lisp. The nymph next to her nodded her head vigorously.

I opened my mouth to respond but a changeling mare raced into the room. She frantically looked around before spotting the two nymphs in front of me. There was a string of emotions running through her face only to settle on abject horror. Something didn’t feel right here, and after she dashed pulling the wiggling nymphs away from me I had a distinct feeling that it was about me.

With a flash of my horn a barrier formed behind the mare forcing her to stop pulling back. It probably wasn’t a good idea as some of the lings around the room jumped to their hooves with fear on their faces, but I was getting my answers. Dicty wasn’t here to play mediator.

Not everyone looked terrified though, some of the lings I recognized from outside, and I could only see confusion there. It would seem that the queen made more damage to her own than I originally thought.

“Incus,” I turned to him seeing him flinch and standing up, “mind explaining to me why this mare and the rest of them are so terrified of me?”

I could see him chewing on his words, but I didn’t wish to wait. Every second longer made the mare look all the more terrified and that wouldn’t do. I should have talked to him about this earlier, but I was busy producing love for them. Incus still kept quiet.

“Ma’am? Madam, would you please look at me?” I stood up and made two steps towards her. She flinched back but after a moment she looked at me. The two nymphs only looked confused at what the adults were doing. “Now, what is your name, if I may ask?”

“Sh-sh-sh- Shelter… My name is Shelter,” her voice was quivering but something caught my attention that I didn’t immediately notice, her eyes were fully open.

‘I guess there are exceptions to everything,’ I thought removing the barrier behind her and taking another step forward. She didn’t take a step back but she did huddle over the nymphs shielding them.

“Let me guess, miss Shelter, the Queen takes the young nymphs to education or something like that?” I took another step forward which only made her huddle even more and ignite her horn. That made me raise an eyebrow, and in a flash of fire I was the size of a nymph which was very uncomfortable but I grit through it.

My new form got her to extinguish her horn blinking rapidly at me and the rest of the changelings looked very confused by my new look. Shrugging my shoulders I sat down.

“I don’t know what the Queen did to make you so afraid of lings like me, and frankly I do not care, but I would like to make things clear, miss Shelter: I will NOT take your nymphs nor am I here to harm any one of you,” Looking around some of the tension seems to leave them. “I am here only to see if any of you need help before I proceed to the Badlands and nothing more. I am on a mission to remove the queen from power before she turns the entire world against us… or worse.” Transforming back to myself I stood up and took one more step towards Shelter.

She wasn’t huddling anymore and the two nymphs had a look of awe on their faces, lowering my head I spoke directly to her.

“I am sorry for whatever you went through, and I will make sure it never happens again, you have my word.”

I was about to turn around to leave, but then I remembered something. Lowering my head further and looking at the two nymphs I chuckled.

“She is called Chrysalis and I would hope I look cooler than her,” giving them both a sly wink, which got them to giggle, I turned around and left the room looking for Dicty. I couldn’t get the frown that started to form on my face to disappear and my mood was slowly getting worse.

‘Maybe I could get a room away from everyone else? It probably won’t help my situation but it would seem things are worse than I thought.’