Alex and Last Breath ran as fast as they could through the twisting halls of the changeling hive, not stopping until they reached the relative safety of Alex’s room. Both gasped for air, desperately struggling to catch their breaths.
“I can’t… believe… you did that,” Last Breath wheezed out, referring to the way Alex had recklessly stood up to Chrysalis down below. “What happened to the coward I saw this morning?”
Alex just shook his head, leaning his shoulder against the wall. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Something just rose up in me, I guess. I don’t know how to describe it, but it was like I was riding a wave of emotion. There was just something about that room, you know? Something that I could feel deep within me.”
The changeling gave him a funny look, having finally managed to steady his breathing. “That makes sense,” he mused.
Alex picked up on the changeling’s muttered response and gave him a suspicious glare. “What makes sense?”
“You didn’t notice? Well, you’ll figure it out.”
“Oh, come ON!” Alex threw his hands up in the air, finally fed up with the entire situation. “I’ve had just about enough of this. Every time I ask a question, you either dodge it or deflect it. When am I going to get some real answers?”
“I don’t know,” Last Breath admitted, awkwardly rubbing a hoof into the stone floor. “I only know what Her Majesty tells me.” In truth, Last Breath felt conflicted. He knew exactly what Chrysalis wanted Alex to know, but was under orders to not tell him until the appropriate time. But Alex had called him a friend, down there in that room.
While Alex’s heart may have been affected by the residual magic that still lingered in that special room from the original makers, it couldn’t force anyone to say something they disagreed with. Friend. To a changeling, a friend was something rarer than gold, more valuable than love, without price, without compare.
He needed some time to think about this.
“Anyways, I bet the Queen is pretty mad at you. You should try and get some sleep, and I’ll see you in the morning.”
“What?” Alex was confused. It couldn’t be that late, could it? “Wait, no, it’s still early afterno-” The rest of his sentence was left unsaid as Last Breath turned towards him, the changeling’s horn flashing brightly.
“Sleep.”
“GOOD MORRRRRNING!”
“GAH!”
Alex felt a hoof shove hard into his side, pushing him off the pod and onto the hard ground below. Grumbling slightly as he peered over his now empty bed into the cheerful face of Last Breath, the changeling’s face sharply outlined by the light cast from his glowing horn.
“This is going to be a thing with you, I can tell.” Alex complained.
Last Breath grinned unrepentantly, the changeling’s fangs flashing brightly in the green light. “Wake up on the wrong side of the pod, did we?” he asked, his teasing voice reverberating slightly in the small room.
“And whose fault is that?” Alex grumbled as he climbed to his feet, but the changeling’s grin only broadened.
“Aw, don’t be like that. Here, maybe this’ll make you feel better.” From behind the changeling floated a flattened rock covered in sliced and roasted mushrooms. Alex’s irritation faded away at the sight of the plate of food, as he realized he hadn’t eaten anything since his arrival two days ago. “I made you breakfast.”
Grabbing the rock and resting it on his legs as he sat on the pod, Alex grabbed a handful of the mushrooms and shovelled them into his mouth. The taste exploded in his mouth, and he nearly choked on it before forcing himself to swallow. “My god…” he whispered, “this is delicious!” Grabbing a smaller handful, he turned to his companion, who was watching him eat with interest. “You made this? It’s amazing! How are you such a good cook? I thought changelings didn’t eat anything but love?”
“It’s not that special,” Last Breath said demurely as Alex devoured the mushrooms. “Most changelings are good cooks. We don’t cook for ourselves, but for others. ‘The fastest way to their heart is through their stomach,’ my old teacher used to tell me, and… Are you finished already?”
Grinning bashfully, Alex held out the empty plate. “Seconds?” he asked hopefully.
Several minutes and three more plates of food later, Alex was finally satisfied. Dropping the flat rock on the floor, he patted his full belly. “That was great,” he sincerely complimented. “I never had anything like this back where I came from. If all changelings can cook like this, you guys should open up a restaurant chain or something because sheesh, that stuff is good.”
Last Breath smiled in amusement, pushing the rock to the side of the room. “Who would eat at a restaurant run by a changeling? Everypony would think we put some sort of poison in the food or something.” His wings buzzed at his sides before he stilled them, his large multifaceted eyes sizing the human up. “You know, this is the first time you’ve mentioned the place where you come from. What was it like?”
Alex hesitated, not sure of how much he could safely reveal. If the changelings ever invaded his world, he didn’t want them to know what sort of defences the humans had. Instead, he decided to talk about his family. The conversation drifted, as it always did whenever he talked about his family, to his baby sister. She was only eight years younger than he was, but she would always be his baby sister to him.
While he was talking, Alex noticed Last Breath giving him an odd look. Odd for a changeling, even. “Something wrong?” he asked, cutting his own story off.
Last Breath rubbed at his ear, playing at the hole in it. He looked uncomfortable, like he was trying to hide a great secret. “It’s… nothing. Don’t worry about it. You wouldn’t like it anyway.”
Alex gently slapped the changeling on the back of the head. “Well, now I have to know.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and smiling encouragingly. “Don’t worry, I won’t get mad.”
Rubbing at the back of his head, Last Breath looked up at Alex. “Well…” he hesitated before sighing in defeat. “Alright. It’s just that listening to you talk is a little strange, that’s all.”
“Strange?” Alex repeated, tilting his head curiously. “How so?”
“How can I say this…?” Last Breath muttered, rubbing awkwardly at his ear again. “I’m just used to sensing emotions from creatures when I talk to them. Regardless of what they are, I can still sense what they’re feeling. But with you, I don’t feel you at all. Even though I hear the love for your family in your voice, I can’t feel it at all. It’s like you’re not even there.” He gave his head a little shake. “It’s freaky.”
“Mmm,” Alex grunted, not really sure how to respond. Hearing that a creature that looked like a pony crossed with a bug found him weird was a strange feeling. “Well, um…” he cast around, trying to change the conversation. There wasn’t much on the empty room, but his eyes landed on the murals that were carved onto every space of the surrounding walls. “Hey, that’s right,” he said, standing up and walking over to the carvings. “I never did get a good look at these.” Under the light coming from Last Breath’s horn, he was finally able to see the carvings that he had been unable to see when he had first woken up. A single image was shown, even though it took up the entire room.
The mural was divided into two halves, with a large blank space between the two. Despite this, they were undoubtedly connected. On the right side, there was a large group of horse-like creatures with both wings and horns. Some of them were walking while others were flying, but they were all headed in the same direction. Their heads down and expressions of sorrow on their faces, one and all they were headed for the far right of the mural.
The only exception was the one at the back of the herd. Larger than any of the others, it was also posed differently. One hoof was raised for a step towards the right of the mural, but her head was turned around so she was looking towards the left side. The expression on its face was filled with sorrow, as if it was taking one final look at what lay on the left half before following after the others. There was a small crack in her eye, and it was through this crack that the water that Alex had drunk from flowed through. Despite the constantly running water, there were no signs of erosion on any part of the carving. How many years had the figure been crying?
“What is this?” Alex asked, walking over to look at the left side of the carving. Unlike the right side with its several dozen figures, this side only had two. Both of them had wings and horns, and they were curled up next to each other. Their eyes were closed and the seemed to be leaning against each other. Something about the way they were carved made them look like they were younger than the ones walking away. A carving of an egg lay beneath the two, oddly patterned with spots and stripes.
“I don’t know,” Last Breath admitted, walking up beside Alex. “The Queen is the only one who knows, and she won’t explain. It was like this when we first got here a few weeks ago.”
Alex blinked, glancing down at his shorter companion “Huh? I thought this place was an ancient changeling hive or something. At least, that’s what Chrysalis said.”
Shrugging uncomfortably, Last Breath brushed against Alex’s leg with his wing. “That’s what she says, but I had never heard of this place before we arrived. Heck, if we hadn’t been launched here after the wedding, we probably would never have found this cave. There was no mention of it in the records back in the old hive, and we’ve always kept records of every hive in existence as well as their eventual fate. Trust me, my old teacher made me read through ever one of those records until I could recite them perfectly with my eyes closed. Unfortunately, we had to leave all our records behind when we escaped from the gryphons, or I could show you.”
The two silently looked at the carving for several minutes in silence, as if they could make it reveal its secrets through intense staring.
A few hours later, the pair were once again outside in the morning sunlight. The carving had remained stubbornly silent, and they had eventually given up on it. Alex passed the time by shadowboxing, stripped bare to the waist, while Last Breath lay sprawled out on a nearby rock with his wings spread wide and his hooves curled up on his chest. Eventually tiring of the exercise, Alex picked up his shirt and used it to wipe the sweat off his brow as he walked over to his lounging companion. “You look like you’re having fun.”
“There’s not much sun underground,” Last Breath said without opening his eyes. “I want to enjoy these moments of peace while I still can.”
Alex hesitated, his shirt frozen in the moment of dabbing against his temple. “What do you mean ‘while you still can?’ Breath, what are you hiding from me?”
Last Breath flinched slightly, knowing he had revealed too much. “I’m sorry Alex, but I can’t tell you yet. Please, just trust me for now.”
Folding his legs beneath him, Alex sat heavily next to the changeling. “Fine, but my patience is wearing thin. You better tell me soon.”
“Don’t worry. As soon as the Queen allows it, I intend to tell you everything I can.”
Alex glanced down at Last Breath, catching on to what the changeling hadn’t quite said. That, for whatever reason, Chrysalis didn’t want him to know this secret. And that there was another secret that she refused to tell him until he learned this one. Urgh. What a headache the whole situation was. Alex massaged at his temples. “Alright, so is there anything else about the changelings you can tell me?”
“Well, there is one thing that might interest you. You know how tough our carapaces are? Actually, it’s easier to just show you.” Rolling to his hooves, he held out a single hole-riddled foreleg in front of Alex. “Here. Pull this.”
“Alright…” Not sure what the changeling was getting at, but willing to play along, Alex grabbed the leg firmly and gave it a sharp tug.
“Harder.”
Bracing himself against the ground, Alex yanked on the leg as hard as he could while still sitting down.
“Harder!”
Climbing to his feet, Alex jerked on the leg again, putting a little more force into the pull.
“HARDER!”
Putting his full body weight into it, Alex wrenched at the leg as hard as he could. A horrible ripping sound filled the air, and Alex suddenly found himself crashing to the ground as all resistance vanished. Slightly dazed from the impact, he looked at the leg still held in his grip before his sluggish mind realized what had happened. Horrified, he looked over at Last Breath, where the changeling was writhing on the ground.
“Arrgh!” the changeling screamed, clutching at the stump where his leg had been. “Too hard! You pulled too hard!”
“Last Breath!” Alex shouted, throwing the torn-off leg aside and rushing to the changeling’s side. “I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry! I didn’t- Is there anything I can do?”
“Well…” Without warning, he flashed his fangs up at Alex in an undeniable smile, his green eyes twinkling merrily. “Could you give me a hand?”
“What.”
Last Breath laughed openly at the expression on Alex’s face. “Haha. I’m kidding. Alright, I’ll go get it.” Leaving the somewhat shocked human behind, Last Breath flew down to where his leg had landed. Grabbing it in his mouth, his fangs helping to hold it, he flew back up to where Alex waited.
Alex’s mouth worked at the air as he saw the changeling buzzing up to him, unable to say anything until he finally managed to squeeze a single word out. “What?”
Spitting the leg out onto the ground to free his mouth, Last Breath brandished his leg stump at the human, a small amount of green ichor starting to drip from the wound. “You remember when I told you changelings were creatures of magic? Well, I meant it literally. You see?” Last Breath wiped away at the leaking ooze, revealing nothing but more ooze underneath. “No skeleton.”
“Guh.” Alex replied unintelligently, still trying to wrap his mind around what had just happened.
Taking his response as acceptance, Last Breath picked up his leg and tried to slot it back into place. “You probably figured that much out already, since it would be impossible for our bodies to have a skeletal structure like most animals with these holes getting in the way. If it wasn’t for our innate magic holding us together, we’d probably just collapse into heaps on the ground, even with our exoskeletons and-”
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?” Alex had finally mastered his tongue, and was ready to take out all his rage and confusion on the changeling in front of him. Last Breath fumbled from the force of the human’s exclamation, dropping his leg in the dirt.
“What?” Last Breath stared at Alex in shock. He genuinely hadn’t expected such a strong reaction from the human. Slight annoyance at being made the butt of a joke, sure, but this was completely unexpected. “It was just a joke. You know? Haha?”
“It wasn’t funny.” Alex turned away from Last Breath, showing his back to the changeling. “You scared me. You really did.”
“I…” Last Breath didn’t know what to say. Any changeling would have seen through it instantly, and nobody he had ever met would have cared the slightest about his changeling form. He could only say what he thought. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”
Alex glared back at the changeling, an earnestly contrite expression on Last Breath’s face. Looks like he means it. “I’ll forgive you if you promise never to scare me like that again.”
“I…” Last Breath hesitated, trying to figure out how to word his statement, since he didn’t want to lie anymore than he had to. “I promise to never scare you like that for a joke again.”
Alex flashed his teeth in a smile, letting Last Breath know his apology was accepted before turning his body around so he was facing the changeling. “Alright, then go ahead.”
“Huh?” Last Breath was caught flat-hooved by the sudden apparent change of topic, but Alex just waved for him to continue.
“The lesson, the lesson. What you got me to tear your leg off in the first place for.” Alex reached down picked up the discarded leg on the ground, passing it off to its rightful owner.
“Oh! Right. Um…” Last Breath cast his mind back as he accepted his leg back, trying to remember what he had said last. “When we transform, our magic automatically makes us into a perfect replication of the creature we’re copying. Our carapace turns into flesh, and bones and internal organs form on their own.”
“Hang on,” Alex interrupted. “You don’t have any internal organs either? But then how do you breathe if you don’t have lungs? And couldn’t you eat normal food when you’re transformed?”
Last Breath fumbled with his leg as he tried to answer. “We don’t actually need to breathe when we’re in our normal forms. Our scientists and philosophers think that it’s just an ingrained memory back from when the changelings were first created. And our bodies just reject any sort of normal food, no matter what form we’re in.” He smiled to himself as his leg slipped into place. “There we go, I- no, no that’s not right.”
“Huh.” Alex stroked at his chin, noticing he was starting to develop a bit of a beard, until another question occurred to him. “So changelings can only copy other creatures? You can’t… I dunno… just free-form it?”
“Oh for- Now it’s upside down. Hmm? Oh, more experienced changelings are able to mix traits of creatures that they have copied before.” He smiled wistfully. “I remember one of my old friends used to love parading around as an orange minotaur with a dragon’s tail and teeny-tiny pegasus wings. When I once asked him why he did that, he told me; ‘because everyling always does a double-take whenever they see me.’”
Alex laughed with Last Breath, the sheer ridiculousness of the image coming up sharp and vivid in his mind’s eye. “Sounds like a real character. Where is he now?”
Last Breath sobered up immediately, the changeling’s fond smile being replaced by a tiny sad frown. “He… died. About a week ago.” Alex didn’t know how to respond to the changeling’s wistful tone, and the pair sat in awkward silence until Last Breath finally managed to slip his leg into place.
“Ah, that’s it.” Lowering his face down to the crack in his leg, Last Breath opened his mouth as wide as he could. Alex watched in revolted fascination as green slime leaked from the changeling’s mouth, covering the broken leg within seconds.
Bringing his teeth together with an audible ‘clack,’ Last Breath bit off the trail of slime and swallowed down the ooze that had been left in his mouth. Wiping the leftover slime from his chin with his uninjured forehoof, Last Breath patted down the gunk on his leg and wiped away the excess.
“Um… ew.” Alex said, wrinkling his nose.
Glancing up, Last Breath smirked at the disgusted expression on Alex’s face. “Knowledge isn’t pretty, is it?” he asked teasingly. Carefully cradling his incapacitated leg, Last Breath lay back down on the rock shelf, stretching out in the warm sunlight. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I want to enjoy the sun.”
A few hours later, the sun had started to dip behind the mountains, and Last Breath finally climbed back to his hooves. His leg had already healed, but he gave it a slight shake to test it before he was willing to put any weight on it. Satisfied that it was secure, he walked over to where Alex was dozing and jabbed the human just under his ribcage with the pointed horn that adorned his forehead.
“HEY!”
“Come on, bright-eyes, you can’t sleep out here.” Turning, Last Breath heading for the entrance to the changeling hive, knowing Alex would follow him. “It gets ridiculously cold at night. Let’s go inside.” Both of them yawning, they stumbled their way into the caverns. Last’s Breath’s horn flared, once again lighting up the dark catacombs.
The pair made their way towards Alex’s room in silence until Alex spoke up. “Hey Breath?”
“Yeah?”
“Have you ever thought about what you’re going to do later? Like, in the future?” Alex asked, his hand pressing lightly against the changeling’s back.
Last Breath glanced up at the taller human, noting the unusual display of friendliness. Assuming humans must be similar to ponies in their need for physical contact, he gently beat his wings, brushing them against Alex’s leg like he had done for the Queen the day before. “…I haven’t,” he admitted. “I’ve… never really put any thought into what I’m going to do in the future. I guess it never really seemed important. Why?”
Turning down another passageway, the duo saw the entrance to Alex’s room ahead of them. “Because,” Alex said as they went inside, “one day, I hope to return home. But I don’t know how to get there. I was wondering, if it’d be alright with you, I mean, if you could maybe come with me. To find a way to get me home.”
Watching the human lie down on the collection pod, Last Breath stared at him in disbelief. “I… do you really mean that? You would want me to come along” At Alex’s nod, Last Breath gave him a single sad smile. “In that case, nothing would make me happier.”
“Then I’ll be looking forward to it.” After saying that, Alex’s breath slowed and evened out, until he was deeply asleep. Last Breath’s horn flickered out, and the changeling quietly walked to the doorway.
Turning back once he reached the exit, Last Breath looked back into the room, his changeling eyes able to see the sleeping human even in the complete darkness. Rubbing his tongue against one of his fangs, he smiled slightly, looking forward to how the words he was about to say would taste on his tongue.
“Sleep well, my friend.”