Prologue Part 2.
SMASH! Coast didn’t have time to move more than a flinch before the strange form came barreling through the window. It knocked him back, underneath Tides desk, shards of glass showering his pelt. The beast moved faster than the teacher could react, dashing, agilely between desks, to avoid any obstacles on its way to its target.
“HEL-!” The teacher’s distress call was silenced and replaced by a low gurgling noise. The beast removed its jagged horn from the pony’s throat and turned back to the class with no readable emotion on its dark-furred face. The teacher’s body slowly slumped into the armchair behind the desk, a soft thud, cushioned by the cotton padding could be heard, almost echoing in the now scared silent classroom.
“Puh.” The teacher let out her final noise, forcing herself to finish her last word before her eyelids closed to rest upon her tearstained cheeks. It was just like her really, she finished her students sentences for them all the time; it was only correct of her to finish her own.
The foreign creature by the desk bellowed out a high pitch roar, reminiscent of a thousand crickets chirping as one. Most of the foals snapped out of their state of shock and ran towards the door as more beasts and bugs slowly crawled their way through the broken window called by their leader.
Coast struggled back to his hoofs, just as a warm liquid splashing onto his face blinded him. Jumping out of reflex in the opposite direction he shook the liquid off of him. Opening his eyes again, his vision was stained red.
In front of him was the most frightening and confusing scenario he had ever witness. At his hooves was a body, the body of the cute filly that had sat in front of him all year. She was lying on her side; staring at him with her large blue eyes, fur soaking up a pool of fresh blood. But, Looking up from the girl on the floor, standing in front of him over the body, was the same young mare! The same cute filly! Her blue eyes, her mane, her coat, all the same. Even the same blood was soaking into her coat.
Coast, backing away towards the classroom door, couldn’t comprehend what had happened. At least until he heard the familiar voice of his brother shoat to him, “Coast, they’re changelings! Run!” Quickly understanding the situation, they had just learned about Chrysalis’s attempt at dethroning Celestia in class the week before, he surveyed the situation while running to the only exit.
Every other pony in the room had glowing eyes, was cornered, or was motionless. He couldn’t, and didn’t, want to know rather or not the immobile ones were breathing, and most of all he knew he did not want to cross paths with the ponies with glowing eyes.
The thirty or so feet to his brother, waiting almost loyally to a fault for him just outside of the doorway, was longer than he could imagine. The adrenaline pumping through his veins seemed to slow down time as he hobbled as fast as he could on his three strong hoofs towards safety.
Taxon’s senses ignited as he saw, out of the corner of his eye, an easy target. The young changeling thanked the Queen for blessing him with such a simple task; it was not the squad’s goal to maim the young, in fact that actually went against their orders, he was just to join he herd and that was the only direction he, personally, was given, and he was commanded in person by the Queen herself. Seeing all the wounded and dead ponies around the room he felt a notion of shame for his enlisted partners.
His target was moving slowly on three legs; as if another changeling injured it to make sure all of the squad had a subject to swap places with. Regardless, Taxon approached cautiously, making sure not to further startle his target, for doing so might result in further injury. But he had to make his move soon; all the other foals were ether targets of the other many young changelings in his squad, or had fled the room already.
Just as the colt he was following got to the door Taxon leapt, taking carful aim to land in a way to block the doorway. Suddenly a voice blurted from behind him, “COAST, WATCH OUT!” he flipped around just in time to see a sand colored shape barreling towards him from outside the room. With a thud he was knocked onto his side. Whatever, or whoever, bumped into him was sprawled out on top of him. Taxon closed his eyes, ignited his horn and slammed the door shut with his magic.
He was too late, when he opened his eyes back up his leader, the changeling in charge that murdered the teacher, was standing by the door, holding it shut with his magic. Damn it, he thought to himself, He got away! But then he Taxon saw him; through the small window in the middle of the door was the colt he was stalking through the class. The pony had an extremely frightened look on his face and was staring at him yelling something franticly. Wait a minute; the colt wasn’t looking at him, it was looking at what was on his back.
It was moving! Taxon bucked and tossed the creature on his back to the floor, causing various insects to scurry out of the way of the falling body. Perfect, another colt put himself at risk to save a friend. Using his magic to hold the pony still against the ground, Taxon asked it, “What’s your name?” The only reply he received was a glare that failed to hide how scared the colt actually was.
He took his time examining the incompliant colt’s body. Taxon had never transformed into a pony before, he never had a reference in his colony and he needed to make sure that everything was correct when he completed the process.
First he got the light purple mane that slowly darkened as it neared its roots. Then the shape of the face, the width of the hooves, the sandy fur and blue eyes, and last, and he was told most important, the mark on the colt’s hip.
Coast watched in horror as the changeling that his brother saved him from slowly morphed into its new shape. He began to buck wildly at the door to break it open but it was no use, all he could do was crack the wood, he wasn’t strong enough to break the door or the changeling’s magic.
“Coast!” a familiar voice came from far over his shoulder. He glanced away from the door for just a moment to see the principal trotting swiftly in his direction. “The school is under attack!” the principle panted on his way over, “We need to leave quickly, me and some of the other staff have rounded up as many students as we can, where is your brother? Grab him and we’ll head to the others in the cafeteria.”
Crack! The door burst open and Tides body flew out of the room to smack against the hallway wall along with many large slinters of wood. “Coast?” his brother yelled, looking at him with an almost confused look upon his face. “We need to run!” Tide struggled to his hooved unsteadily as he spoke.
“Tide, so glad you are ok, we must leave now!” the principal voiced as he leapt behind the two boys and pushed them in the cafeteria’s direction.
The sound of their hooves echoed off the walls as they sped through the hallways. It was dead silent in every classroom they passed, giving an eerie feeling to the whole learning center. Not a single classroom they pass had lights on inside and a few door windows were broken out. One window had what look with a glance like a pony’s limp bleeding hoof sticking through.
The tiled floor was littered with ants and millipedes in front of the cafeteria doors. Various flying bugs tried to flew around the doorway’s cracks trying to find a way in. the principal knocked on the door seven times before another teacher slowly cracked it open. “Oh, you’ve returned.” A soft female voice sounded from behind the door. She stepped back from the door on the other side, and could be heard shoving objects out of the way to let the door swing open.
The three males pushed their way through the open door and slammed it closed when on the other side. Teachers and students already in the cafeteria started to barricade the door with items like bags of flour and shelving units stolen from the kitchens.
“Yes of course I have returned. And I stumbled, just my amazing luck, upon these two brothers!” the principal replied to the mare that let them in.
“Good, good.” She paused with a sigh, “We can’t imagine why they are attacking, or why they seem to be targeting the school no less, but we found a way to escape safely… we think. And we decided it would be safest for those we have collected to not go out to search for more survivors.”
“Mrs. Petal, hush, don’t say survivors, you make it sound like some ponies have died!”
“Some have! And you know it!” She snapped back.
The principal made a growling noise in his throat. “Yes I know… but we don’t want to frighten the foals more, now do we?”
“No, but I’m just telling it as it is.” She then continued with the plans she promised earlier, “We will, as a whole group, leave through the kitchens emergency exits, a pair of double door in the back room. Opening these doors will set off the fire alarm and hopefully distract the changelings. From there, we will head strait out to the next town over, the emergency exits face the edge of Dodge City, and away from the approaching swarm. We will move to the newly formed village at Rambling Rock Ridge and settle there for a while.”
“Why would the fire alarm possible cause a distraction? It’s just a noise! If anything they’ll look for the source, which is, in this case, the doors!”
“Cause, we have nothing else going for us!” Mrs. Petal snarled back, “And it sounds believable if you don’t think into it! Just trying to sound a bit more positive, as you just told me too ten seconds ago!”
“Fine, then lets just get going.” The principal stepped up on a table and cleared his throat. “PONIES, PONIES, I NEED YOUR ATTTENTION!” His piercing voice rang out across the tables. “We have a plan! Please follow Mrs. Petal and me through the emergency exits in the kitchen, we will move wounded out first. Mr. Cord,” he called to a stallion at a back table, “Stay in the back and make sure everypony follows please. Now, there are about a hundred and a half of us here so please try to be orderly and compliant when the alarm starts, we should be in the next town over by dusk.”
Finally outside again, Taxon inhaled a large breath of clean air. He did not expect to be put in this situation; he was to receive the briefing on the second part of the mission directly after his squad had all transformed, but instead, his target bucked him in the chest and directly through the solid wood door behind him.
In all cases, he was stuck. If he revealed his true form now he would be in an even more dangerous situation. Sure he could potentially fly away, but he was too scared to risk it.
He had a few things going for him however. He knew his new name, he would go by Tide from now on, it wasn’t a hard name to remember, and he kind of liked it. Second, he had someone to potentially rely on for information, and a direct way to help him fit in, his new brother Coast. However, Coast could also be a liability; Coast could be suspicious of him, after all, Coast watched him transform; it was only his quick thinking that kept him out of harm from the colt and the principal when he burst through the classroom door. Also he knew almost nothing of his new body or Tide’s past, which will probably, eventually, put him in a sticky situation, but that’s future Taxon’s problem. Third, the male adult in the group seemed to know Tide, perhaps Taxon could sneak some information about who he now was out of him, and fourth he was about the same age as his new body, as expected of course, that was one reason they hit a school, but still, it will defiantly help him appear to act his age.
Coast stared at the figure walking beside him. “Hey Trotter.” He called his brothers second name, just like his teacher would in class.
Tide didn’t respond.
He called again, “Hey Trotter!” And he waited for a second.
Still no response…
He gave it one final effort, "Trotter?"
Nothing.
Coast released a wavering sigh, trying not to choke up as he confirmed his fears.
I will get my brother back from you monsters.