*You spot a typo/error? You got a question (not about the future of the plot)? You have a criticism or a suggestion? Let me know in the comments down below!
*This chapter plays with perspectives a little bit and it switches often enough that you don’t have to back up the scene to understand.
The desert stretched for over 5,000 miles in every direction! The sand was a depressing gray that seemed to suck the life from the very air. Every few hundred feet there were huge black boulders that lumbered above the surface like great monoliths. The sky was choked by thick dark ash clouds. Lighting danced between swells in the black cotton ever few seconds.
Upon one of the flatter black boulders in the sea of gray, scurried an albino bald rat. The rat’s solid red beady eyes examined the boulder for potential food. His mucus stuffed nose whiffed at the air for traces of rotting flesh that the wind could carry great distances. His mangled jagged claws dug into the mountainous surface of the rock as he skulked about. His rotting teeth failed to prevent his toxic breath and putrid saliva from dribbling everywhere he went. His pale bald skin was more wrinkled then the deepest canyon and his fat body was slick with sweat from his constant running. He was truly of creature of vile.
The rat stood on his back legs and sniffed the air with his revolting nose. He could smell a rotting corpse on the wind and gave a little squeal. He was going to eat well tonight! Then he froze. The wind was making a high pitched whistling noise, but his ears were picking up something else. He couldn’t seem to pin down the source. His little rat brain tightened his claws to the rock he stood on so he could continue to track the noise. It was repeating over and over in regular intervals. But then it stopped. The whistling in the wind seemed to intensify. What was that noise?
A massive golden boot came out of the sky and splattered the rat across the rock! His blood and internal organs seeped out from under the shoe and ran down the gorges of the boulder to the sand below where it was absorbed. The boot added insult to injury and began twisting back and forth as it ground his remains into utter pulp. The golden shoe, made of a strong metallic material, rose up again with rat guts stretching between its treads and the rock, refusing to pick which one it wanted to stick to. The boot slammed back down and squirted blood in all directions.
The owner of the boot was a seven foot humanoid creature. His form was concealed in three layers of long tarp like cloaks. The robes' long tails stretched far away from him as they flapped in the wind. His head was heavily wrapped in the poorly trimmed sheets. The “man” had a much thinner cloth bandana over his mouth to keep the sand out and covered his eyes in wide black goggles. Behind those goggles were a pair of golden eyes. He looked down on the repulsive thing he had smashed into slime with bitterness.
“Repulsive little abomination,” he rumbled fiercely over the light wind. His eyes turned upward from the dead rat. In the distance was a mountain range made of the black rock. Through a thin pass in the range was the only way to Soul-Shatter Prison, the most secure location in the world. Even if a prisoner somehow escaped, he had nowhere to go. He was a 1,000 miles from nowhere and he still had to figure a way out of the prison’s addition outdoor security force. If the prison was complete and utterly taken over by the prisoners, they had a nasty surprise waiting for them buried deep underneath the prison. A bomb capable of creating a crater ten miles across that could be detonated from virtually anywhere on the planet! As long as the message got out that the prison was taken, the inmates would be blown sky high.
“Soul-Shatter,” he croaked underneath his bandana. “Shadaico, I’m coming for you,” he declared menacingly. “When I get my hands on you, you've got some explaining to do. Or I'm going to kick your ass..."
*************************************************************************************
“And I’m telling you for the last time, it couldn’t have been a changeling!” Bee told the large earth pony Crash.
“I know what I saw! It was a tiny, normal bug sized changeling!” Crash told her again.
The red unicorn rolled her eyes, “What makes you think it will even still be there?”
“Nothing. I tried to tell you to come yesterday, but you were to busy,” he snapped back.
“You came to me claiming you saw one of the things that attacked Canterlot that was only an inch tall! And I told you that even a newly hatched changeling is at least five times that size.”
“We know what we saw, right honey?” he turned to the bright yellow pegasus mare for support.
“I don’t know, maybe it was something else,” she offered shyly.
“I don’t believe this! I’m the only one worried that Canterlot could be under attack! Or even worse, the changelings are spying on us,” he berated them for their lack of concern.
Bee rolled her eyes again, “changelings have always been spying on us. They need to be among us to feed, remember?”
“Yes, but now they are our enemy.” He narrowed his eyes with cold determination.
His fiancé tried to take his side, “I’m worried about Equestria!”
“You’re not acting like it,” he condoned her coldly.
There was an awkward silence as the three walked along the trails of the mountain. Crash was a large earth pony with a slight tint of gray to his otherwise white coat and he had a bright sky blue mane. His fiancé, Butter, was a bright yellow pegasus with a grassy green mane. She liked to curl her mane, but not her tale. And then there was the newest addition, Bee. She had a hot red coat and a sparkling orange mane behind her horn. She was pretty tomboyish and had a habit of leaving her mane and tale wild. Bedhead was her normal hair style. Crash was the only one with an accessory, his ugly brown leather saddlebags.
Butter spoke up to end the silence, “uh, Bee?” She grunted in response. “How do you know how big a changeling should be?”
Crash answered for her, “it’s her job to know. I told you, she’s a friend from preschool. She was always fascinated with bugs and turned it into a career.”
“Proved to him I could make something out of that interested!” Bee added with a smirk. The three of them were in a lightly forested area now. “So where was your ‘scary bug’ encounter?”
“Hmm,” Crash began pondering.
“Typical.”
“What!”
“You dragged me out here just to make fun of me!” she accused Crash.
Butter tried to stop them, “but I saw it-“
“You calling us liars?!”
“I don’t know what you saw, but it couldn’t have been a changeling!”
“And what if it is?! We have a duty to Equestria to capture it and bring it to the Princess!”
Butter suddenly realized how serious this could be and began to shake, “m-m-maybe we should get the guards th-then.”
“Imagine how famous we’ll be if we catch it. Maybe Celestia will even give us a reward,” he tried to convince his fiancé.
“There is no changeling and no threat to Equestria Crash! Now find this stupid tree so I can go home already.” Bee started rubbing her temple as the headache began.
“I really think we should just let the guards handle this. What if it attacks us?”
“If it attacks, we’ll just squish it!” Crash asserted.
“If it’s even here anymore,” Bee mumbled.
“THAT ONE!” Crash suddenly yelled as he pointed at a tree. Next thing Butter and Bee knew, they were chasing Crash to the designated tree.
“Is this really the tree?” Bee asked bored and unimpressed.
“I-I think so,” Butter was afraid it could fly down at any moment and blast them.
“Now let’s take this sucker down!” Crash got ready to kick the tree down.
Bee stopped him with her magic, “I didn’t follow you out here to watch you pursue your career as a lumberjack.”
“Yeah, we don’t want to make it mad,” Butter added nervously.
“How else are we going to get it out of the tree?” he complained.
“There’s nothing even up there Crash!” Bee glared at him.
“You just watch!” Crash turned toward the tree and began to approach. Bee shook her head at how stupid she thought he was. Before Crash got into position, he dropped his saddlebags.
Butter began to panic, “be careful!” Crash turned his back legs toward the tree and gave it a massive kick! The tree looked like it was in the middle of an earthquake.
*****
The three pony creatures were standing near his tree, arguing it seemed. One of them was what a normal pony should look like, but the other two were breaking some rules. Sure he’d heard of the legendary pegasus, heck there was said to be whole tribes of pegasi riders in the mountains…back home. He just never thought they had a pony version, as his mind finally understood that's what she was. He also had to mentally slap himself for having missed the wings last time he saw her. Then there was the unicorn. Unicorns had been said to wander the forests of the Eastern Kingdom back home. Again, he’d never seen one or heard of the pony version.
Nash stood rather close to the edge of the branch as the normal one made a final statement before approaching the tree. The pegasus clearly warned him about something before he made it. Nash’s eyes went wide when he realized what the pony was doing. They weren’t potential allies, they were coming after him! And they were going to get him out of the tree by shaking it till he fell. Nash had to get back to his hole!
Just as Nash turned, a massive earthquake threatened to topple the tree. Nash went flying through the air. “This isn’t good!” he screamed as he flew out of the sky. It appeared he was going to fall out of the tree! Nash reached for the branch he had been perched on before. But he knew he didn’t have hands, what was he going to do? Nash did the only thing he could think of, he used his fangs again.
His fangs tore into the bark with horrible pain as his hooves ground against the bark to help slow him down. Nash moaned in horrible agony as his teeth screamed. He had to remember to see a dentist when this was all over, because his fangs were taking a beating. As Nash went at climbing back onto the branch, he heard one of the ponies whisper something. The normal pony seemed to respond to her by yelling something, again, in their weird pony language.
Nash’s method of climbing back up was awkward and painful. He’d push upwards with his hooves and lift his fangs out of the bark. Then he’d quickly slam his fangs back into the wood higher up. Luckily, he only had two normal sized inches to climb before he’d be able to pull himself up with his hooves. By the time he was back on the branch the three had begun talking again. He wasn’t interested in anything they were talking about at the moment. Even if they spoke the same language, he’d still be running away.
*****
Bee’s eyes went huge when a tiny black creature tumbled out of the tree. It was only barely able to keep itself up by digging its fangs into the wood. Crash looked up and then at her, a smile on his face. Butter was left speechless and Bee couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It looked just like a changeling, but the distance and size of the creature was making it hard to be sure. It was just missing the wings that clearly would have made it a changeling.
“I don’t believe it,” she whispered to herself.
“Told you!” Crash pointed a hoof at her while his smug grin only grew.
“It certainly looks like a changeling, but where are its wings and why is it still here?”
Butter came up with an explanation, “maybe it was injured and couldn’t leave. Maybe it’s trapped up there.”
“Of course! Without its wings, it can’t get down!”
Crash added, “So how long could it have been up there for?”
“Not sure, a week, maybe two if it got a good meal just before,” she watched it disappear onto the branch again.
“Now we just got to get it down!” Crash grunted as he kicked the tree again. But there was no result. He growled and kicked the tree a third time.
Bee stopped him before he cracked the tree in half, “you’re wasting your energy Crash! He knows were here and he’s taking precautions.”
“Like an ambush?”
“Uh, no. I mean he’s bunkering down so it will be harder for us to get him.” Bee seemed to be absorbing Crash’s determined attitude now. “Well need a new strategy.”
“Can you fly up and grab him Butter?” Crash asked her unexpectedly.
“What?! Why can’t we just leave him alone? He hasn’t hurt anypony.”
“Not anypony we know!” Crash corrected.
Bee tried to comfort her, “what are you afraid of?”
“If Chrysalis finds out we came after one of her children, she might come after us personally. Then she’s going to suck out our insides, wrap us in cocoons, and then mount our corpses on her walls!”
Crash looked at Bee, “do changelings really do that?”
She ignored the question, “don’t worry about Chrysalis. The Princesses aren’t about to let that ugly creature anywhere near us.”
“O-okay, I’ll try.”
“That’s my girl,” Crash gave her a strong hug before he went over to his saddlebags and pulled out a jar. “Try to put him in this.”
“So that’s what you brought.” Bee was impressed that he was so well prepared for this.
“Well I knew what I saw after all.” That won him a glare from Bee.
*****
Just as Nash got back up, the pony kicked the tree again! He went flying through the air but managed to stay on the branch. He made a run for his hole down the branch as another kick rocked the tree. Nash tumbled forward and rolled into his makeshift home again. Nash was content to stay put until they gave up. They couldn’t just keep kicking the tree after all.
After a short few seconds, he realized they were talking down below. Nash couldn’t help himself, he had to see what was happening. Nash inched out of the hole slowly and leaned over the edge. The pony just gave the pegasus a hug. Nash wondered what about this situation had led to more romance. Then Nash tensed up. The pony reached into a bag and pulled out a jar. “You’ve got to be kidding,” Nash whimpered as he handed the jar to the pegasus. Nash got even colder. The pegasus was going to fly up and stuff him in a jar!
As the pegasus came up to his branch, Nash was already bolting for his safe haven. He had to get back before they tried to stuff him in that jar; who knew what they would do to him once they had him. The pegasus was easily 70 feet tall, and she was the shortest one there! Her hooves were eight feet across and her hair was like rope dangling from her head. Her eyes were easily three times as big as him, and her head was like a moving building. Just the gusts from her wings were making it hard to run. When she landed on the branch far behind him, he felt a shockwave vibrate the branch.
Nash glanced back just as he reach his hole to see she was trying to balance on the branch as her wings retracted. She was somehow holding the jar in her right hoof. “How is she doing that?” Nash quickly looked at his hoof as though it would answer his question. When he looked up again, her face was at the entrance. He jumped back despite the fact that there was nowhere to jump back to. She said something and her minty fresh breath filled the tiny room. She had obviously brushed her teeth before coming here, it was morning after all. That fact gave Nash little comfort at the moment.
The ponies down below said something else to her, like a command. Nash couldn’t be sure, but he knew she was trying to capture him. When her hoof came towards the hole, Nash couldn’t help but smile. Her hoof was too big to fit. The hole was so small that even Nash had to duck down to get in, and her hoof was twice as big as him! There was no way she was getting him with that. When the hoof pressed against the hole and shook around desperately trying to squeeze through, Nash laughed. The pony just didn’t seem to get that her hoof wouldn’t fit. It was just so obvious it wouldn’t work.
The surface of the hoof was only three feet away, but Nash relaxed considerably knowing that she was the smallest of the three, and if her hooves were too big, then there was a good chance all theirs were. She finally picked up on that as she called down to her friends. There was a brief exchange before she thoroughly gave up and jumped down to her friends. Nash’s smile only seemed to intensify as he grew more confident he was safe.
*****
Butter was apprehensive but she didn’t want to let Crash down. She flew up into the tree with the jar between her hooves. She spotted the branch they had seen the changeling emerge from and quickly positioned herself to land on it. As she touched down, she spotted the creature running as fast as its legs could carry it towards a hole in the tree. As she landed on the branch, she had to slowly retract her wings to keep her balance on the thin surface.
She realized only a second later that the changeling had retreated not into some kind of tunnel, but just a small space in the trunk. She left the jar as she crouched down to look into the hole. She was still afraid it would attack at any second, but it seemed more concerned with maintaining distance. The small creature pressed itself as far away from her as possible and cowered. Butter thought it was simple enough, grab the bug, put him in the jar.
“Do I have to touch it?” she asked without looking down to her friends.
“Just get it and go!” Crash yelled at her impatiently.
Butter tried to put her hoof through the minuscule opening and quickly realized it was just too small. Not wanting Crash to think she didn’t at least try, she made a show of trying to stuff her hoof through the hole. She pressed her hoof against the entrance and slid it around as though she was trying to find the right angle that would allow her access.
“Do you have it yet?” Crash asked hopefully.
“The hole is too small. I can’t get my hoof in.”
“Ugh. Come back down so we can come up with something else.”
Butter gratefully retrieved her hoof. Just before jumping down she glanced at the changeling who had large white eyes. He was smiling as he waved at her. He was waving goodbye! Butter couldn’t help but giggle. Her fear of the 'scary bug' vanished. He wasn't some monster bent on hurting them, he was just a small cocky little insect trying to stay away from them. All they had done so far was inflate his ego. As Butter touched down again, she hoped that they wouldn't catch him.
“Now what?” Crash snarled as he sat by his bag.
“Maybe we should leave him alone now,” Butter suggested hopefully.
“No way!” Bee jumped towards her. “We started this war, and we’re going to finish it!”
“That’s it!” Crash almost launched himself into the tree.
“What?” Bee asked.
“Bee, can you grab him with your magic and pull him out?”
“I can’t grab what I can’t see.” Bee sighed.
“Then Butter could fly you up there!”
“But why are we picking on the poor helpless-“
“That should work Crash! Butter let’s go!” Butter sighed as she gave Bee the jar and wrapped her hooves around Bee’s waist.
*****
Nash was sure they were out of plans when the pegasus started to fly back up with the unicorn in her grasp. “Now what are they up to?” Nash asked himself unconcerned. The pegasus brought the unicorn to the branch in front of his hole and set her down. Nash couldn’t help but laugh a bit evilly. They were going to try grabbing him again. “Idiots!” he called out. “You’re hooves won’t fit!” They’re plan was stupid and flawed. These ponies weren’t as smart as he had thought. What could this unicorn do to him as long as he stayed in his hole?
When the unicorn’s horn started to glow and the jar began floating, Nash’s grin vanished. The lid of the jar came off by itself and floated off a little bit. The jar came closer to his home as the unicorn got closer and crouched. Her horn began to grow brighter as Nash felt a gripping sensation around his torso! “Damn..."