Chapter 2
Gone with the Wind
It had only been a week and the changeling population within Ponyville had increased by five. Ghost, Rook, and Zulu had been searching around the town, and the surrounding forests of Everfree and White Tail. It wasn't hard searching the forests since the changelings were free to be normal and use their calls consisting of clicks and buzzes.
Zulu was feeling good about their progress, but there was just something wrong with all of this. Usually changelings communicated with each other via a telepathic link. It was usually a way for the Queen and the hive's highest officials to relay orders to everyling. But the two weeks after the invasion was silent in that channel. It was like that world just vanished.
She understood why the others weren't alert of that fact, given that the grunts -as they were called- were only contacted through that manner when there was an immediate order to be carried out. Only ranked officials were using it constantly. That channel was some kind of secret that only the higher-ups knew how to use. The only time grunts like herself could talk through the channel was when an official commanding them opened some sort of private line.
The mareling didn't understand how it worked, and questioned why the officials were the only ones allowed to initiate channel conversations. It didn't make any sense. What if a grunt found something important and needed someling's immediate attention? What if someling was alone and dying, and the closest changeling was just behind a wall? There was a hundred reasons on top of the mareling's head why it was a bad idea to limit the channel's usage.
Because she was too distracted with thinking, Zulu didn't notice the tree in front of her until she ultimately ran face-first into it. She landed on her rump with a yelp which echoed throughout the Everfree forest.
"Hey, are you alright?" A male changeling behind her helped her up.
"Yeah, thank you, Jellybean." Zulu smirked at the changeling.
"I told you, my name's not-"
"Break it up you two! We're already late as it is." A third changeling pulled up beside the two, another male.
Zulu nodded and together the three of them silently walked down the path. The two changelings with her were one of the new additions to the group. Jellybean was from squad 8. They found him near White Tail.
A little filly was struggling with a jar of jellybeans. She tried so hard to open it until she finally gave up and tossed the jar away in disgust. When Rook and Zulu went to check the jar, they were surprised to see a changeling transforming from it, which earned him that nickname.
The other changeling was Runner, from squad 4. Rook was happy to see an old buddy. Runner lived up to his name by being the fastest flier and runner in his squad, and because of his skills, he was appointed as the messenger. He strayed into Ponyville as a rabbit to score an easy meal. What's with squad 4 and rabbits anyway? It seemed to Zulu that they specialized in being rabbits.
"The cave should be around here, right?" Zulu turned to Runner.
"Just behind these vines, I think... Jackpot!" Runner opened the curtain of vines to reveal the mouth of a cave. It was dark and the air was stale, not to mention it was eerily cold. "Come on, the others should be here already."
Zulu reluctantly entered the cave. She was never really good at dealing with tight spaces, which was why she opted for scouting since all she had to do was turn into a bird and fly around. Luckily the cave wasn't that cramped. Actually, it was quite spacious which helped relieve her claustrophobia, even by a little bit.
The only source of light in that cave were the faint illumination of the changelings' horns.
"This place could do with some torches. Can hardly see in front of m- YOUCH!" Jellybean rammed straight into a stalactite, causing him to yelp in pain. "Stupid cave."
Seeing that the only thing harmed was Jellybean's pride, the trio continued onwards to their meeting spot, with the other two giggling at Jellybean's expense. After what felt like hours, they finally see a dim light at the far end of the cave accompanied by buzzing voices. They galloped towards the rest of the group.
"One, two, three. Okay, so I guess were not the last one's to get here" Zulu said enthusiastically as the three of them joined the others around a glowing, organic sac.
"Actually, you are the last ones here. Ghost and Rook got bored of waiting and decided to explore that part of the cave." Siren, the only other mareling in the group said, pointing to a small exit just behind her.
Siren was a hive drone, the changeling equivalent of pony architects and nurses. Their jobs were to keep the hive in one piece, build hive outposts, stockpiling supplies, taking care of the young, and at times, create cocoons to hold their captives and wounded changelings, caring for the latter and the former.
Drones are the backbone of the whole hive. They had the innate ability to produce certain types of sacs. The organic sac in the middle of the cave giving off light was an example. How they make it was their secret.
The other two remained quiet, still a bit tired with their run-in with an ursa the day prior.
The first one, Coal, was scrawnier than the average-sized changeling, and had distinct scratch marks on his chitin. He was an overaggressive fighter. A bit twitchy and quick to jump in at the first sign of trouble.
The other one, Brutus, resembled someling who stayed too long in the gym. He was the muscle of his squad, apparently. In comparison to Coal, Brutus -or "Brute" as he was known- was a little more reserved and had a calm mind, despite his nickname.
Both of them belonged to the 10th squad, and formed something close to a brotherhood. Even as the two of them were flung out of Canterlot, they were never separated for long.
"How long were they gone for?" asked Zulu.
"Just about twenty minutes or so." Siren shrugged. "So what took you?"
=====
"How much farther does this tunnel go? We've been walking for hours!" Rook whined.
"We've only been walking for ten minutes." Ghost replied with a chill of annoyance in his voice.
"Well it feels like five hours."
"Get a grip and keep that light alive. We don't want to fall down any holes."
Rook and Ghost had left three changelings at the meeting spot so the two of them could look around the cave. Who knows? Maybe there might be something special about it. Though Ghost had other motives for snooping around. If things were going well and there were still other changelings out there, this cave would be a suitable HQ for them.
He didn't know what good would come out of turning this cave into an HQ, other than a place to stay at night, but he was sure it could amount to something. Maybe a hive outpost? A place for other changelings to seek refuge? That would be a plausible purpose.
The path was winding and narrow and it was awfully dark, and the air was even staler than at the site. It became increasingly compressed as they moved along. Rook wasn't by his side. Ghost shrugged, declaring that he must be behind him.
"Hey, check this out!" Rook called out. He was a few meters ahead of the commander.
Wait, when did he get over there? Ghost was confused but trotted closer to where a ray of light pierced through the floor.
"Isn't that the meeting site?" Rook said, looking at the hole in the floor.
Curious, Ghost took a peek at the hole. "It is." He confirmed. "Look, Zulu and the others just arrived."
The two of them could hear the others talking from up there. "We shouldn't keep them waiting." Ghost said, turning for the exit.
"Right behind you Bo- AAAAaaa!" Rook suddenly screamed as the ground crumbled beneath him, landing on top of the pile of rock and dirt with a thump. The startled gasps of the fellows in the room followed, along with rushing hoof falls.
Ghost rushed over to the enlarged hole to see a dizzy Rook being aided by the other changelings. The commander changeling fluttered down gently beside the group. "You okay Rook?"
"Aft pft ah?" was Rook's groggy reply.
"He's fine. Let's get on to business."
The group of eight changelings gathered around the organic torch and settled down, their eyes on their appointed leader.
"As you know," Ghost started, "we haven't been contacted by anyling after the invasion."
The disheartened nods from the changelings confirmed Ghost's statement.
"I've been trying to contact my fellow officers and squad mates, but no dice. Now I know what you're all thinking, but I'm sure that it's only because we're out of range."
"Did you try contacting our squad mates?" Zulu chimed in, backed up by questioning stares of the others.
"It's not that easy." Ghost responded. "To successfully contact another changeling, you have to know their designation, their rank, squad, how they look, and... basically who they are. So it's either you met them beforehoof, or someling gave you details about the changeling in question. Because of that I can only get in touch with my squad and other officers. It's a bit complicated."
"So does that mean you can contact us now that we've met?" Coal, the changeling with the scratched chitin spoke up.
"Yeah." Ghost let out a sigh. It didn't sound like a sigh of disappointment, or relief. It sounded like a sigh from someone who knew that he was going to regret something he was about to do.
"Gather 'round, everyling." There was a short pause. He had second thoughts about it, but decided it was for the best. "We're cut off from the others with no idea where the closest cluster is." He paused again, diverting his eyes from looking directly at the group. "We have to break a few rules if we want to stay together as a group. So I'm going to teach you how to use the channel."
=====
"WHY THE BUCK DID I TEACH THEM HOW TO USE THE CHANNEL?!" It had only been a day, and Ghost already regretted that lesson in the cave.
"This is so cool!"
"Hey can ya hear me?"
"I can see you from here, Zulu!"
"Anyone seen Jellybean?"
"Told you my name's not Jell-"
"CHRYSALIS! Watch were you're going, Rook!"
"Watch out for that tree!"
"WOULD EVERYLING JUST SHUT UP?" Ghost screamed through, but his calls fell on deaf ears.
"Ha ha! Nice crash Rook!"
I can see why this thing was officer-exclusive. The channel traffic had, so far, only served as way to get a horrible headache for the commander. Maybe it would have been better if he only taught them how to link a private line.
"Hey guys! Siren here, and I think I found something. It looks like an old ruin or something." The mareling's serious tone was like a cue for silence, much to Ghost's relief. "Meet me there."
=====
It only took a couple of minutes before everyling was at the ruined entrance of what looked like a former castle. The craftsmanship of the standing pillars stood the test of time... mostly anyway. But they were not there to admire pony craftsmanship.
The place was like a candle attracting a swarm of moths. It was almost eerie, and the clouded night sky didn't help at all at making the scene any more welcoming.
Nonetheless, the group cantered through the hallway towards a throne room Siren had described beforehoof.
"Siren?" Rook's voice echoed throughout the large throne room. "No time for games, Siren! Come out, come out where ever you are!" But only echos of his voice filled the still night air.
"Shh! Keep quiet for a second." Ghost looked around and saw no sign of the changeling anywhere. The place was quiet. He felt a chill run down his shell. No place should be this quiet, even if it was an abandoned ruin in the middle of a forest. "Something's not right here. Everyling, buddy up and scramble. Look for any clues."
The changelings paired up with their buddies except Ghost. He headed behind the thrones. If it was anything like the hive, surely there would be something hidden there. He scrutinized every brick on the walls and floor for any signs of some loose or movable doodads. Every ancient castle had that, right?
Finding nothing on that part of the wall, he moved to inspect another, then another, until found himself facing a door, cleverly hidden behind the remnants of once-bright red curtains. What do we have here?
=====
Rook paired up with Runner and the two of them opted to backtrack and make sure they didn't miss anything after they rushed towards the throne room. Surely enough, they found... nothing. Well, they did find a neat sculpture of gears on one part of the wall, but that didn't really give them any ideas where the missing mareling was. Still, it was nice to look at, if you were the gear nerd type of changeling.
Runner went up to that sculpture and tried turning the large gear, just to humor himself. "This one's stuck." He said with a grin. "Well, there's nothing here. Want to go search someplace else? Uhh, Rook?"
He looked around, but couldn't find his squad mate. Great, another missing changeling. "Rook? Where are ya? This isn't funny, Rook!"
"Hey, over here!" A voice beckoned from out of nowhere. It was barely audible, let alone recognizable.
"That you, Rook?"
"Behind the curtains! I found something."
Shrugging, Runner sheepishly approached the tapestry across from where he was. Careful not to rip the rotting fibers, the changeling ducked under it and what he saw surprised him. Not! It was wall. A dead end crawling with moss and bugs.
"Quit playing Rook." Just out of his view, a hoof reached out behind him, slowly inching it's way to his shoulder. "This is serious, we need to find Siren and- GAH!" Runner suddenly jumped, and in a split second found himself fixed on the ceiling, using claws to keep a grip on the stone surface.
"Runner, where'd ya run off to?" Rook said, coming out of the shadows of a hidden passage. His head was full of cobwebs and he clawed at his own face to clear his view. "Stupid webs." In hindsight, perhaps it would have been best if he used his horn to illuminate the passage before blindly treading the darkness.
Once the webs were out of his eyes, he looked left, right, and finally above, where he saw a stiff figure of a clawed changeling hanging upside-down with his whole body shaking violently and his teeth clattering. "Runner? What are you doing up there?"
Hearing his friend's voice, Runner stiffly turned his head to where the other stood and let out a nervous laugh. He wasn't ready to let go of the ceiling just yet, his muscles were still tense. The same couldn't be said for the ceiling though, as it crumbled from age plus the constant vibrations from the scared fixture.
It was only a matter of seconds before the crumbling stone gave way, and with it a spectacular rain of changeling and rubble.
"DAMMIT! D-Don't scare me like th-that!" was the first thing Runner screamed when he got back to his hooves.
Rook shrank under Runner's twitching eye as he said his apologies, though completely unaware of what he did. "So anyway, I found a secret passage. I accidentally leaned back on a loose brick and this part of the wall-" he gestured to where he came out of earlier. "-just slid open. There's some really neat stuff in here. Come on, I'll show you."
Not waiting for a reply, Rook dragged his partner through the tight hallway with only their horns lighting the walls. "Watch your step," he cautioned.
The path introduced a set of stairs which lead downward. It wasn't long until they stumbled upon a rectangular room which was surprisingly well lighted, and Rook pointed out why.
He trotted over to a corner and planted his hoof on a very familiar object. A glowing sac, just like the one at the cave before. "Know what this means?" Rook asked. He was clearly beaming from his find. "Someling's been here. And we know Siren could make this kind of sac."
"Good find." Runner was visibly impressed and didn't waste time contacting the others. "Runner here. Rook found a light sac, or torch sac, or whatever you guys call it, in a hidden room. Looks like Siren's been busy looking around. Anyling tried contacting her yet?"
"She doesn't answer." Ghost reported. "Been trying to contact her, but she's silent. Though I can say for sure she's here. I can feel it. Just can't pinpoint where exactly."
"Let me guess, an officer's secret?" Coal poked. He sounded annoyed, probably because he didn't like others hiding things from him.
"Watch your tone Coal. Not my fault the hive has these rules. Just know that I basically exiled myself from the hive by teaching you how to use the channel. Arguments aside, keep up the search. She has to be here somewhere. And the sooner we find her, the sooner we can get out of this place. I can't shake the feeling that someone's watching us. I might just be imagining things, but double time it. Any luck on your end Zulu?"
=====
"None so far. Jellybean and I have been wandering around these rooms for quite a while now. Nothing but dust and broken furniture." The mareling reported.
"I told you, my name is not- GAH! Forget it." Jellybean didn't even bother saying it through the channel. He'd probably get cut off again. Might as well let the name grow on him. At least it didn't sound as corny as his real name, and he started to like it to be honest.
"There, there, Jellybean." Zulu said with mocked pity.
The changeling just snickered as he moved to the edge of the room to resume his search. So far the only thing the pair found was jewelry, utensils, broken mugs, and the occasional jumping spider, which preferred to jump on the mareling rather than Jellybean himself.
It was entertaining for him to watch Zulu suddenly cry out and throw herself at the end of the room in less than a second. It was like she had legs made of springs or something.
"Well I got nothing." Jellybean slammed the drawer shut. Just like the other rooms before, this one held nothing but useless junk and a ridiculous amount of dust. The two changelings even fashioned a type of filter over their faces, but they still sneezed once in a while. "Lets move on before my head explodes from sneezing."
They opened the door to another room and found that it was surprisingly empty. "There has to be something here!" Jellybean declared. "I mean a big empty room with absolutely nothing inside. Yeah, spells 'nothing here', right? And that's exactly what they want us to think! They're hiding something here, I can just smell it."
Zulu couldn't help but tear up trying to hold back her laugh at Jellybean's ridiculous claims. "Wait, who's they?"
"They. You know, who ever made this place. I bet there's even some booby traps here."
"Hey, watch were you step. The whole ceiling might fall down and crush us. Heh heh."
Jellybean boldly marched into the room with his head held high. "Ha-ha. Want to bet we'll find something h-" His train of though halted abruptly as his senses indicated that the brick he just stepped on felt a little loose. A spine-chilling click followed. "Uhhh... I win?"
He was trying to act cool, but the sound of turning mechanisms just behind the walls quickly made him pale.
"What did you do?" Zulu inquired in a state of panic.
But Jellybean was frozen stiff. The sound of turning cogs and chains moved from one part of the wall to another. Every second feeling like a minute. Everything just slowed down from his perspective.
The door was shut with a loud bang.
Then suddenly, from the wall he was facing, large spikes shot out from the holes -taken for mere design before- and rapidly made their way towards the changelings.
Zulu barely managed to dive out of the way. She closed her eyes as the sound of Jellybean's screams and the sound of metal grinding into stone filled the room.
It became deathly silent. The rain began to pour. She didn't want to look. She didn't want to see her partner impaled on the wall. She just curled up into a ball and let the tears roll down her face. What a way to go.
"A... A l-little h-h-help, pl-please?"
"Jelly!" Zulu rose up and spun around to see her partner impaled on the wall, but not in the way she imagined it. The projectiles went strait through the holes of Jellybean's hooves. He looked like a pin cushion from where Zulu stood.
"Don't just stand there! Get me down from here!"
"I don't know. You look better like that to be honest."
"ZULU!"
=====
"What'cha got there Brute?" Coal asked from across the room.
They were in some kind of gallery. The paintings and portraits were rotting with age, just like everything else in this forsaken ruin. Critters were prancing about the hall like it was part of the forest itself. Well, the way it's looking now sure makes it look that way.
"A whole lot of rusted metal and broken glass." replied Brutus. "You know it's weird, it's like the glass was just broken a few moments ago. Doesn't really sit well with the old, broken down castle look."
"Really?" Coal trotted closer to his partner. "Hmm. Probably broke cause of these critters or a stray rock or something. Don't think too much about it, we have to focus on finding Siren."
"Hey guys, this is Zulu. Watch out for traps. Jellybean nearly got skewered. Other than that, still no luck finding any clues about Siren."
Coal sighed. As if a search wasn't wasting enough time, now they had to worry about booby traps? "Thanks Zulu. We'll keep our eyes peeled."
"Ponies wouldn't booby trap a gallery, would they?" Brute asked.
"If they did, it must have been fun for the janitor."
They resumed their vain search for clues, only to end up empty hoofed a few minutes later.
This whole search was pointless. Why did that drone go off by herself and waste our time? Coal was undoubtedly annoyed with the whole thing, because for one, he was geared for action, not sleuthing, and two, he could have cared less about that drone. If she decided to go into tight spaces and fall down a hole fifty feet deep then, served her right! Everyling knows better than to go off and get yourself killed. Then again, what could he expect from someling on the lowest rank of all changelings?
"You don't seem too upset about our missing mareling." Brutus cut through to Coal's train of thought.
"What'd you expect? She goes around getting lost, and now we have to waste our time finding her? She could have at least placed some markers where she went so we wouldn't have to blindly prod the darkness. And look! The rain just fell. Perfect."
"Oh, I see. It's because you had to skip out on that date of yours with that little filly?"
"What? Of course not! What do you take me for?"
"I don't know, I mean, you are the one who decided to masquerade as a young colt from out of town."
"Aw come on. It's the oldest trick in the scroll! Colts and fillies are easily loved by everypony."
"Oh I can see that. I'm pretty sure that grey filly with the blue-rimmed glasses found you rather dashing."
"Hey, shut it!" Coal started to walk away, but before he made some distance, the ground whole floor suddenly shook.
When the shaking and rumbling stopped just a few moments later, it was Rook's voice which came through the telepathic channel first. "I did not do that! I swear!"
Runner tuned in with an explanation. "He tripped on a lever on the wall and set off some kind of machine."
"I didn't do it on purpose!"
"Really now?" It was Ghost talking this time. "It's a shame. Who ever was responsible for that also opened a passage. Too bad, eh? I guess I'll take the credit for this find."
"What? That's not fair!"
"Alright everyling, double time it back to the throne room."