//------------------------------// // Act 2 - The Strip // Story: The Locust Hive: Viva Las Pegasus // by Petro Beherha //------------------------------// By the time they made it above the city, the three scouting parties, still disguised as seagulls, separated to explore its different areas. Chitin and his team searched for an out-of-the-way area to land on, where they can shift into pony forms and blend with the city folk. There! Chitin exclaimed when he found a deep alley scrunched among its many tall buildings, we'll go down there and check on that space in between the buildings. If it's clear, we'll make a landing in there so we can blend in with the locals. Do you copy? Yep. Copy that, boss! Roger! Okay, Chitin finished. Let's go. They banked down and circled over the alley to check for any intelligent creature that might live there. When they saw that it was all clear, they went ahead and entered. Upon landing, they found the place to be dimly lit, dank and smelly from the dumpsters. They landed in front of these dumpsters and they shapeshifted back into their original forms. Scratt looked around to see the trash around the alley was very similar to that back at the shore. "At least now we know where it came from." "I'll say," Cilia agreed. "Let's not waste any time," Chitin reminded them. "We need to get into our pony forms right now." "Okay," everypony replied. The team closed their eyes and, in an orange flash, they all transformed into their own pony forms. Chitin's pony form was a pegasus whose colors were inverse of his changeling form. His black exoskeleton became burnished orange fur, and his mane and tail, which still retained the same downy styles as before, were black with dark grey streaks. Aside from the obvious change from hues to having solid whites, his eyes stayed the same orange color. His cutie mark was a pair of locust wings. Scratt's form was also an orange-colored pegasus, but his short mane was yellow rather than black, his eyes were blue and had a cutie mark of a trio of gnats. Apis became an Earth pony whose coat was yellow with a hint of orange, a well-combed bluish-black mane, green eyes, and a cutie mark of a bee. Gaster was also an Earth pony with a green coat, a short red-orange mane, light blue eyes, and a cutie mark of two black ants. And finally Cilia's form was a soft blue unicorn with darker navy blue hair and reddish pink eyes, and her cutie mark was a purple butterfly. Chitin evaluated on his team and nodded once, and told them, "Let's head out of here and head to the city, and as always we must keep a low profile so nopony suspects us." Everypony agreed, and they followed him out the alley. When they came out, they were almost overwhelmed when they saw the city was alive with a dense traffic of ponies and carriages. Lights of many colors flashed and danced in the many extravagant signposts and buildings, herds of gamblers and tourists moved in and out of these buildings, and their chatter nearly drowned out the loud, distant songs from the background. "Wow," Scratt was impressed. "Who knew these ponies can be so... flashy?" "Yeah," Gaster agreed as they observed their surroundings. "I wonder why they're into that sort of thing?" "I don't know, but we are not here to go sightseeing," Chitin reminded the team. "We need to find food and water for our hive. The longer we wait, the worse our situation gets." They continued on and joined the crowd of ponies along the sidewalk. Chitin searched both sides of the street for anything vaguely resembling where food was abundant, all thanks to his tall height poking over most of the crowd. But because the urban environment was new to them, for the first few times of his life he wasn't able to find anything obvious. But one thing was certain, this part of Las Pegasus was still showy to a fault. Everywhere they looked, the changelings found buildings and exhibits that were wildly expressive in design, not unlike peacocks in mating season. Such extravagant hotels and casinos included Saddle Arabian Nights, the Castillo, the Super Circus, the Golden Nugget, and Planet Applewood were among them. In spite of all the glamour and glitter, the changelings started feeling doubtful and nervous as, although enormous fountains were abundant, there was no obvious source of food. There was also something not right about this place; they sensed a vast reservoir of desire in the city. Not love, desire. The love present in the city was scarce and fleeting, and any impurities that existed were overshadowed by the air of frivolity. Aside from that were worse energies: loss, pain, addiction, and most of all, greed. And ponies were supposed to be peaceful. But it wasn't all bad, since there was at least enough worldly joy to make it tolerable. "I dunno about you guys," Gaster said with a sigh. "But I don't see anything that says food." "Yeah, me neither." Scratt agreed. "Maybe we should move to another part of the city and find some food there?" "Not yet," Chitin declined as he reasoned. "These ponies have to get their food from somewhere, so to find it we'll need to track them and follow them." "How are we gonna do that?" Apis prompted. "There's just so many ponies walking around we can barely see the ground!" Chitin again skimmed over the flow of traffic as he saw some of the ponies enter or exit many of its buildings, but he still could not tell anything obvious as they were covered in concrete with lit but narrow windows. Then Scratt sniffed loudly. "Hey," he called over. "I smell something!" Everypony turned and glanced over to him, some with hope, and others assuming he was just distracted from the mission as usual. "What is it, Scratt?" Gaster asked. "Oh, don't pay attention to him, Gaster." Cilia told him dismissively, "he's probably just smelling some garbage somewhere." "Drones, listen." Chitin intervened, "he might be on to something." The two drones stood back by his orders, while Scratt kept sniffing the air. "I think I smell something." He said, and he started licking his lips. "Something... delicious," a promising sign. Following his nose, he slowly turned around until he simply faced the opposite direction. "Found it!" He chimed. "That was fast," Apis commented. Cilia and Gaster exchanged confused glances as they wondered about what Scratt found. Apis continued, "let's see what that was, ehh?" They all turned in Scratt's direction, and were astonished at what they saw. They realized that one of the casinos stood right behind them. Peering through two layers of wide glass doors at the entrance, the floor was lined with an elaborately patterned carpet that provided roads for sections of machines, which were bunched together in rows from side-to-side. Above them, a green neon sign read "Grizzly Bear Casino - Hotel & Grill," and it featured a neon picture of the eponymous animal leaning smugly against the lowercase "L" in "grill" and holding stacks of coins in its free paw. "O-o-okay, I take it back." Cilia admitted. Amazed, Gaster turned his head to Scratt. "Wha-? Ho-? How were you doing that?" "The nose knows," Scratt grinned as he held his nose up proudly, only for something to cross his mind. "Why haven't we thought of this earlier?" "Great work, Scratt." Chitin congratulated him on the success, and then faced the door. "Now is to go inside and investigate." "It's about time, Chitin." Gaster licked his own lips, "I'm hungry!" "Gaster," Apis said, "you're always hungry!" "I know that." The five disguised changelings eagerly breached the wide entrance to the casino. After passing through two sets of glass double-doors, they were again taken aback by a whole slew of things that flooded their senses. A classy jazz band performed music from a nearby platform, the pungent and ashy smell of cigar smoke, and indistinct chatter from the round tables where games were played. But the most defining features were the rows upon rows of mechanical props that some ponies sat in front of, where they watched simple images scroll down and stop at the pull of the levers. After some initial browsing around, Scratt took a look at the slot machines and was immediately mesmerized by their mechanical glamour - especially when he saw a vacant seat. "Hey! That game with the spinning wheels looks like fun, I wanna try that!" Scratt was about to dive in to the nearest slot machine when suddenly Chitin zoomed in front of him and blocked him. "No, Scratt!" He said sternly. "We've come here to examine the area for anything to feed the hive, not to sit around and play games." "Aww, c'mon!" Scratt pleaded, "just this once?" "No," Chitin repeated. "Even if we are not facing extinction, I still don't think we should. Look at these ponies, Scratt." Scratt checked the ponies using the slot machines, and after a few moments he felt disturbed to see their pink, unblinking eyes as they stared at the machines and habitually pulled the levers. Their ripe hides stank from staying around for hours and hours sitting in the same spot without doing anything else. Their faces were robotic and devoid of emotion, and whenever there was emotion, it was either frustration for getting some bad score or anticipation in hopes of scoring big. "Do you see how they look, or how long they might've been doing this?" He warned, "we don't want to get distracted from our mission here!" He knelt down and lowered his voice, "and remember we have to keep a low profile." "Oka-a-ay, fine!" Scratt responded, also whispering. "Geez." And with that the scouting party resumed their observations. They kept searching for the food source that was supposedly inside the building, but due to the miasma of the smoke, any smell of food was masked and difficult to track. They felt their hopes die down. They still did not find any food, not yet. Wait... hold a moment... that smell again? Where did that come from? The disguised changelings looked around and they saw a long line of ponies waiting in front of a door guarded by a bulky, brown-colored stallion with sunglasses and facial hair. After one pony dropped some coins in the guard's hoof, she was allowed through the door. As soon as he closed it behind her, the smell quickly disappeared, any traces that remained were masked by the cigar smell. "That smell again," Scratt turned and craned his head to face the door. The other four followed suit. "The food smell?" Cilia asked. "Yeah," he assured. "It must be from behind that door." He turned to Chitin, "what d'ya think, Chi? Should we check it out?" "If that is our only chance, then we'll take it. Lead the way." "Okay!" The little drone proudly pranced in that direction, and the rest followed. However, it wasn't long before he was blocked by a hoof to the face. "Hey!" The guard stared down over the scouting party, "only paid members get inside!" "Hey wait a minute! Paid?" Apis repeated as they stared at each other. "Yeah! Didn't ya read the sign?" The guard pointed at the counter, which had three long, dense lines of ponies waiting to be paid. "It's fifty bits a pony, get in line if you want to head in!" The five changelings exchanged glances uncertain of what to do, since this is a new thing for them. Because they spent most of the time in the wilderness, the Locust Hive had almost no contact with civilization of any sorts for several centuries. Their only knowledge of it comes from experiences passed down across generations, and much more recent encounters of a civilized species, like griffons and diamond dogs. As a result, they did not even know what money was, let alone have any. "Well, what are ya waiting for?" The guard demanded, "are you gonna get in or leave?" Finally, Scratt broke the silence. "What are bits?" The guard growled at them threateningly, while Scratt grinned nervously and the others inched back a little. The next thing they knew, they were literally kicked out with a single buck, and then the guard slammed the door without saying a word. The changelings groaned painfully as they got up and rubbed their behinds. When they got back up to brush the dirt off of themselves, Cilia commented snidely as she faced the door, "hit a lady, why don't ya?" "Nice going, Scratt!" Apis and the others glared at him, "you got us kicked out!" "Hey, I was just asking, okay?" Scratt reasoned. "How are we gonna know what we need if we are to get in there?" "Well one thing's for sure," Gaster said. "It's a thing we don't have." "Then we'll need to move on and find out how the ponies get their food here," Chitin concluded. "These buildings don't look easy for us to get into." "Hey chump!" They were interrupted when they heard a gruff male voice yell out from a distance, "why don't ya give us the bits already?!" They looked around for the source of the voice, but all they saw were more ponies walking along the sidewalk. "Yeah, give us the bits!" A different voice was heard from the same source, but this time it was higher-pitched and much more raspy. "Where's it coming from?" Scratt asked confusedly. "How should I know?" Apis responded, he was still clearly resentful with him. "It could come from anywhere!" Did those ponies say "bits"? Chitin was roused up. They may have the answers we need to get anywhere here. Soon he too tried looking around, and eventually traced the voices to another alley just one block from the casino. "There!" He pointed while the rest of the group paid attention to him. "We might find what we need there." "Yes sir!" Scratt saluted to him stiff-hoovedly. Everypony else agreed, and they once again followed him along the sidewalk, the crowds glanced at them apprehensively as they hurried by and bumped into them. "Excuse us! Pardon me!" "Oh my!" "Comin' through!" "Hey, watch it kid!" "What's the rush?" After passing through the ponies, they made it to the alley and then quietly sneaked inside. Right away they saw that the path elbowed to the right, where they saw shadows of ponies and a bipedal figure, which were elongated and slanted by the sun. "Well? What's it gonna be?" The voice demanded again, this time it was definitely from past the corner. When the disguised changelings eavesdropped across it, they found a gang of three ponies and one diamond dog, who surrounded a scrawny unicorn who backed himself against the wall at the end of the alley. The leader up front was a red-colored, lanky pegasus who was almost at Chitin's size. He had a black, well-combed mane and wore a dark purple trench coat and sunglasses. The second member was a gigantic, morbidly obese earth pony with over-sized muscles and a bloated belly to match. His greasy coat was dark green in color, his orange mane was long enough to completely cover his eyes, and his tail was so short that it was more like a tuft of hair. A single blunt tooth jutted from his broad, thin lower lip. And on his flabby flank was a cutie mark of a cheeseburger. The third one was almost the opposite of the second in that even though he was almost an adult earth pony, he was just barely taller than a little foal. His coat was reddish-brown, and his dark brown mane was swept forward from his head. His eyes were yellow and he had a cutie mark of a baseball with the bat. Finally, the diamond dog was lanky with coarse tan fur, yellow eyes with slitted pupils, and large, pointed ears. When he stood on his hind legs, he was just tall enough to meet fat one's shoulders. "B-b-but-but I don't have anything! H-h-honest!" The scrawny unicorn pony stammered in a squeaky Manehattan accent. He was lavender-colored with a darker purple mane and tail, teal eyes, and wore filthy, patchy clothes. "Oh yeah?" The gang leader craned his head to him and scowled, "then what's on your back?" "Uhh..." As the unicorn fearfully stepped back, the small member stealthily stalked up to his side without his notice. "Wagh!" The pony jerked back when the small one tried unsuccessfully to snag something off his back. But as he backed away, he unwittingly bumped into the large and bulbous member, who then picked him up with his front hooves. The victim struggled to shake himself free. "Hey! P-put me down! I-" When fat one shook his body furiously, something finally fell off his body and dropped to the floor. It was a ragged leather purse with small, frayed holes on the bottom. But when the little one held it up, metallic chinking noises is heard from inside it. "Hey!" The unicorn yelled, "give it back!" "Look at 'dis, Ace! Lookie here!" The small one held up the purse and shook it in the air, "it's an old mare's purse!" The gangsters laughed mockingly as the victim struggled to grab it back. Meanwhile, Chitin and his search party watched the whole scene from behind the corner. Though changelings normally do not sympathize with those not of their own, especially not to ponies, the mere thought of the stronger among a species harassing a weaker one made them retch inside. Apis commented quietly, "that has got to be the worst behavior I've ever come across." "Shh!" Chitin hushed as the group returned to watch. "Now, let's see what's in that thing, ehh?" Ace, the gang leader, queried smugly. "Now gimme that, Lil' Pitch!" He snatched the purse from his smaller comrade's hooves, turned around to unzip it and look into its contents. Inside the changelings could catch a glimpse of small metallic pieces similar to the ones they saw back in the Grizzly Bear Casino. Ace grinned widely and chuckled at the metal pieces he saw. "Well well well, this guy's got some cash! We must've hit the jackpot with this guy! It's a wonder why he keeps it around." "Durrh," the fat one slurred. "What'th in it, bossth?" Ace replied casually without glancing away from the purse. "At least fifty bits or so. Enough to buy us a decent meal, or two." "'Bits.'" Chitin whispered, "that must be the thing we need. If we can grab it from those ponies, we could use them to get inside that building and find that food source." "What about that unicorn they're messing with?" Apis questioned, "maybe he could show us how this place works. We've been getting lost quite often here." "You sure?" Cilia intervened, "how would he think of strangers coming up to him to tell us about the city? He'd think we're weird and take off." "Hmm." Chitin rubbed his chin in thought, and then smirked. "I have an idea." Back in the alley, Ace set the purse by his back as he turned to his gang. "Well boys. Thanks to our little friend here, we got ourselves a little fortune." "Ooh! You mean we could get gemsss?" The diamond dog rubbed his paws excitedly at the thought, only for Ace to bop his nose to set him straight. "Not like that, ya twit!" Ace scolded him. "Sorry," the diamond dog rubbed his nose as he cowed down timidly. "Willy," he called over to the fat one. "You can put him down now." Willy simply dropped the unicorn, who crashed to the ground. "C'mon, ya guys! Let's bust out and-" He habitually checked his person for the stolen purse... but it's not there. The young pegasus was vexed when he discovered that the purse was missing. "W-what the-! Hold on." Ace searched frantically for the missing item, oblivious to the rest of his gang staring in terror at something. "I-I just had it! Who? How?" When he saw the others, he grew impatient. "What? What are you all staring at?" When he turned to what they're facing, Ace flinched at what he saw. There was a group of five more ponies standing in the way out of the alley, with the largest of them - also a unicorn - holding the purse with his magic. "I believe you were looking for this?" Chitin asked smugly at Ace. Ace's expression turned into a furious glare through his sunglasses, and he and his gang inched toward them. "Look, ya freaks! I don't know who you are or how you snuck up on us, but nopony, and I mean nopony disses with guys like us! Now cop up our bits so nopony gets hurt!" "Yeah, cough 'em up!" The diamond dog exclaimed, but then he turned to Ace. "What were we gonna do wit' it, again?" Ace smacked the diamond dog's face with one of his wings. "Sorry, boss." "We'll see about that." Chitin replied. "But if you want the bits back, you'll have to go through us. If you win, we'll bring them back to you and find some other way around. If we win, we'll keep the bits and you leave the unicorn be. Do we have an agreement?" "Ohh, so it's a fight ya want?" He and his fellow gangsters glared at them while the diamond dog punched a fist into a paw. "Alrighty then, bring it!" The four gangsters immediately charged forth at the changelings, who responded by taking evasive maneuvers. Soon different combatants from each team were fighting their particular opponents. Apis deftly dodged the diamond dog trying to catch him, and he grumbled in between attacks, "Hold sstill... you... sscampering... meddling... thieving... pony!" Apis then proceeded to buck him in the privates, causing him to yelp in pain. "Blaaagghh!!" Willy roared as he tried to grapple both Gaster and Cilia together, but he did not notice Cilia magically setting an empty can in front of him. "Willy go beat tiny-" The fat one slipped on the can, causing him to crash to the floor. While he was down, Gaster leaped forward and pinned the dazed Willy with a head-grab. "Hey!" Lil' Pitch saw the odds his team was facing against. "That's five-on-four, that ain't fair!" "Well, you've got the big guy over there." Scratt quipped from behind, jerking Pitch into looking, "doesn't that make us even?" "Ooohhh, you think you so clever, ehh?!" Offended, the little one crouched down and scraped the dirt with a front hoof. "I'ma gonna buck you so hard you won't even see you-self break!" He dashed furiously at Scratt. "Whoa!" Scratt strafed out of the way of Pitch, who nearly ran to a wall. Lil' Pitch looked around for his opponent, and found him to his right. When the two faced each other, they both stood up and readied fists like they were boxing. No sooner did they throw punches like an actual boxing match, and they exchanged quick jabs at each other. Finally, Chitin and Ace locked eyes to each other as they anticipated each others' next move. After a few seconds, Ace attacked first as he reared up and loosened a wide cross-punch. Chitin dodged and retaliated with an uppercut to the jaw, followed by a push-kick against the wall. After adjusting his sunglasses, Ace growled and immediately lunged forth with another jab. Chitin blocked the attack with both front hooves, but Ace successfully punch him with his free hoof, stunning him. He punched again. Before Ace could land a third punch, Chitin regained his focus, caught Ace's punch and then tossed him into the other side of the narrow alley. As the brawl went on, the unicorn who was mugged earlier watched on as he hoped and feared the outcome of the battle. If the new ones won against the perpetrators, will they just take off with his money or if they would return it to him, or what else they could do for him - or to him? "Tough guy, ehh?" Ace slowly got up before adjusting his sunglasses again. "Well how do ya like this?!" With a hard buck in the face, Ace sent Chitin stumbling back and then crashing onto a pile of trash. As the gang leader grinned at his apparent victory, there was a sudden orange flash around Chitin, who turned to his true form. "What the!" Ace flinched so much he nearly dropped his sunglasses, exposing his horrified green eyes. "Y-you're a changeling?!" Chitin shook the bits of garbage off himself and rubbed his head. When he saw his frightened opponent, Chitin saw himself in his real form and grinned at his new opportunity. Ace yelled out again, truly afraid. "You're actually a changeling?!" "Take a good guess." Chitin gestured to the others fighting Ace's gang. While the diamond dog still squirmed from the strike, Apis transformed as well, causing the diamond dog to leap up in fear. Willy, meanwhile, reared upwards in an uproar, easily freeing him from Gaster's head-lock. The fat one grabbed Gaster with both hooves and slammed him against the wall, only to see him shift in a flash of orange light. Willy also jumped in fear as he dropped him again, only to see another flash from Cilia and let out a high-pitched squeal. During the match between Lil' Pitch and Scratt, Pitch launched a strong punch at his cheek, stunning him. This only triggered the shapeshift into his real form, catching Pitch off-guard. With a confident grin and a cocky chuckle, Scratt lunged down to prepare an attack. As his opponent glanced in horror, Scratt loosened a powerful uppercut at Lil' Pitch, knocking him out with stars in his vision. The pony victim at the end of the alley also observed the transforming changelings. Instead of also panicking, he looked deeply intrigued by what was going on. Ace stammered and panicked as each of the opposing team revealed themselves. "But-! Wha-! Wait! They're all changelings!!" "Agh! The rumors! They're true!" The diamond dog tucked his ears tensely. "I heard they brainwash us and turn people into slaves - forever!!" "Wait a minute," Ace leader formulated a desperate idea to the rest of his gang. "Forget the freaks, we'll use the chump to get that money from them!" Following their master, the entire gang (minus Pitch) abandoned their fight against the Locust changelings and then charged to grab the unicorn. But with renewed confidence, yet another flash of light surrounded him, and his adversaries all screamed in unison. "I don't frickin' believe this!" Ace yelled out, "Every one of them is a changeling, and they're out for us! Let's beat it, boys!" And with that, the gangsters stumbled and bolted en masse out of the alley and into the streets outside. Lil' Pitch, who got up from his coma, realized he was lagging behind and called out after them. "Hey! Wait up! I don't wanna get brainwashed either!" The changeling search party giggled as they saw the gangsters run at seeing their true selves. "Whew! We taught them a lesson, ehh?" Scratt reenacted his amateur boxing, "nopony disses with us!" "Yeah," Chitin looked on to his troupe. He used his magic to lift the coin purse from his back and show it to them, "and we should be more than satisfied that we should now be able to finally get to that food source." "Uhh... thanks a lot, fellas." A nervous, though now somewhat distorted voice said from behind them. "Now can you hand my purse back?" When they turned around to meet what could have been the unicorn, they were shocked to see he was actually another changeling. Even more shocking was his hive color: purple. "What?" The other changeling raised his eyebrow, confused.