//------------------------------//
// The Changeling 
// Story: Red Velvet and the Red Dawn 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

	Deep in the Canterlot dungeons, below the stone streets of Canterlot Castle, were dozens upon dozens of jail cells that all sorts of criminals were housed in. Guarded by a series of numerous twists and turns so if any of the inmates ever escaped from their cells they would be lost for hours on end. Only the Guards and the Princesses themselves knew the exact layout of the dungeon and the tunnels, giving them the advantage over the inmates.

One of those inmates was a recently wounded Changeling, one who had been shot through her side by the annoying hunter known as Lady Artemis. She was irritated, she had been on a mission for her hive and she had been caught by the Canterlot hounds along the way to her destination. She was a scout, one trained to run fast and get the intelligence she needed so she could report to the higher ups, but that wasn't going to happen now.

And Faust damn it her side was burning again.

"Could I get an aspirin and some damn water please?" she whined, her side itching and it was bugging the living Tartarus out of her, "My side is bucking killing me."

"Shut up already," a guard shouted, banging the iron door before returning to his post, "You've dealt with the pain for the last few days and you can deal with it until your executed."

"Oh come on, I'm asking politely," she continued to whine, "and I've only been able to deal with the pain since I've been given as aspirin every now and then. Seriously, this wound of mine is killing me."

"And I said to shut up," the guard, who turned out to be a unicorn, shouted as he brought her up against the bars forcefully, "You were given aspirin for three days and the would has healed up by now. Get over your 'wound' and return to being what you truly are, a prisoner locked deep beneath Canterlot Castle."

"She's just trying to hypnotize you," the other guard said, not even bothering to look at his partner, "Leave her and her 'wound' alone. We've got bigger prisoners to worry about."

The Changeling curled up in the corner of her cell and closed her eyes. Sometimes she wondered if the ponies she wanted to be around weren't so different than her Queen, mean and annoying to everypony else. Before she knew it she drifted off into sleep, as deep of a sleep as she could with the throbbing ache from her wound.

~Four hours later~

The hours had passed slowly for the Changeling, so slowly that she had drifted in and out of sleep several times while waiting for somepony to come talk to her. She had been waiting in the dungeons for days now and still not one pony, other than the guards themselves, had talked to her. The guards were supposed to give her an aspirin every now and then, but they had opted to ignore her and their duty to her...why was there a shadow in the doorway to her cell?

"Good, I see your awake at last," the pony said, though by the tone of the voice she recognized the pony as a stallion, "That wound must be troubling you still. I will have my agents bring an aspirin and some water right away."

"You have no right to give her anything," one of the guards, the same one from earlier, shouted as he entered the cell, "She is a prisoner who deserves nothing. I shall have you detained immediately."

Before either the Changeling or the guard could react the stallion tossed the guard against the wall, pinning him to the wall with magic.

"I have been ordered by Princess Celestia to talk to this young Changeling," the stallion countered calmly, another pony entering the cell carrying a cup of water and a pill, "I cannot do that while she's in pain and cannot focus her mind. Your lucky if I don't report your actions to the Princess and have you two transferred to another department, saw bathroom cleaning for the next several years.

Now get out before I 'have you detained.'"

The Changeling gave the stallion a small smile as the guards shuffled out of the cell, leaving her with the two mysterious ponies. The stallion nodded and the other pony gave her the pill and water, giving her some relief from the wound on her side. The second pony returned to the outside of the cell and waited there, apparently watching for anymore guards and the like.

The stallion was wearing a black cloak and an eye patch over his left eye, meaning he had served in the Royal Guard at some point and had lost his eye at some point during his service. He was also bald, which meant that he had done away with his mane in favor of speed and the like.

"Your eyes are energized," the stallion commented, "Let us start at the beginning. My name is Fury, I am the Director of a network known as the Nexus. The pony you just met is one of my agents. We serve Princess Celestia from the shadows, never being seen by those we wish to hide from. Now, what can you tell me about yourself?"

"Umm...not too much really," the Changeling replied, shaking her head to the side, "In my mind I like to think I'm on a mission for the hive, but in reality I'm just a Changeling that has left her hive behind. I'm an ex-scout, just a nobody in the hive that the Queen loves to torment every now and then. I have no name, no rank, and barely enough love to last me until my execution date. I'll be dead before that day happens."

"You must have some sort of name," Fury questioned, "like the name of the form you take the most often or the one you hold in the highest regard."

"There was one form I used a few years back," she answered, "I was lost and was taken in by a mare by the name of Bonbon, who treated me and helped me heal some of my wounds. I had been wandering through the Everfree Forest before I had met her, so you could imagine what types of wounds I could accumulate from being there. I was disguised as a simple light green coated unicorn with a cherry colored mane and tail. My cutie mark was supposed to resemble cherry taffy, something I made while I stayed with her. Wild Cherry I was called, a sister of Bonbon's from out of town."

"Would you feel comfortable taking the form again?"

She stared the stallion in the eyes and wondered if he was actually going to let her take the old form. It could have been a trick, but without much to go on she decided it was worth a shot. She closed her eyes and let her magic take over, changing her from a black coated Changeling into a light green coated unicorn. Seconds later her mane and tail, cherry colored, sprung to life as her cutie mark returned to her flank. The only similarity between her forms was her light blue eyes, the one thing that she took from one form to another.

"So, you go by the name of Wild Cherry in this form?" the stallion asked, receiving a nod from the already scared Changeling, "I took a look through Bonbon's family records a few weeks ago and found a mention of one unicorn by that name, which was odd since there isn't much on the pony anywhere else. She included you in her family tree, which meant she literally thought of you as her sister. I regret to inform you that somepony kidnapped her a week or two ago and we have yet to find her since. We believe that she, and the other kidnapped ponies, are already dead and we don't know whose next."

"Somepony killed Bonbon?" Cherry asked, receiving a nod from the stallion, "What about Lyra? Is she still okay?"

"Lyra Heartstrings is fine," Fury answered, "After Bonbon went missing she took over the candy shop and has been running it ever since. I take it you would like to see her again?"

"I would love to." Cherry replied, "But I want to help you guys track down the one whose been kidnapping ponies. Do you have any suspects?"

"I will pull some strings to get you out of here, but we do have one suspect," Fury said, "If you are released you will help us find and bring him to justice. After that your free to live your life as you see fit. The suspects name is Red Velvet."