Special thanks to Genbulein for his amazing drawing of Artemis.
'Spiiider-ling! Spiiider-ling. Friendly neighborhood spiiider-ling~~' I mentally sang as I walked up the fortress walls.
...
'Heheh, NEIGHborhood.'
I slapped myself.
Reaching an opening on the side of the ramparts, I took a quick peek over the edge, immediately ducking back as two ponies walked by, the light from their torch burning my eyes a bit.
In a way, I was also blind to some extent since I couldn't afford to look directly at any light source from too close due to my eyes being used to the darkness for too long.
'The irony when a source of light is what stops you from seeing at night,' I thought while blinking the tears away, looking over the ledge once more to confirm that the coast was clear.
Why they didn't have torches strewn about instead of walking around in groups with them, I couldn't understand. I was hoping it was either laziness or stupidity. Or both.
I jumped through the window with my trusty companion held in my mouth once I was sure it was safe, both from looking around and from trying to sense stray emotions. It was much harder to get accurate readings on the latter with the amount of ponies roaming around the fortress, however.
Now that I was inside, I had to find Lara.
'Where to start...' I pondered while climbing a wall to begin my search from the higher-than-normal ceiling.
I doubted that they'd think of looking up, especially when my own hooves were as silent as they were. I wouldn't be able to move as fast as I could while walking around this way, though. Gravity was working against me while I was upside-down like this since I had to keep at least one limb on the ceiling at all times, or else I'd lose my grip and fall.
I decided to go through the hallway on my left, carefully proceeding as I kept track of where I went and where I could go in case I'd somehow get spotted. After going through a couple turns while avoiding another set of guards, I could sense a large maelstrom of emotions concentrated in a general area nearby, likely due to a high number of beings in there.
It would be risky, but... I had to make sure whether or not my target was there.
Making my way down the tunnel towards the gathering, I could hear the sounds of chanting, the entire room up ahead completely lit up. I quickly peered inside—
'...NOPE.'
From the few seconds it took me to observe the entirety of what seemed to be a large gathering hall of some sort, I noticed a few things:
Lots of ponies.
Lots of sharp sticks.
And lots of golden rings at the top of the stairs at the other end of the room, stacked around a kind of pedestal, the largest ones planted at the bottom with increasingly smaller ones over them. However, a few were scattered around the pillar, most of them being much smaller than the rings set around the totem.
The big blue "leader" guy was also there, proudly standing next to the incomplete golden tower of rings, chest puffed out while having his head raised and his eyes closed, grinning as he took in all the adoration from the ponies which were repeatedly bowing and chanting... stuff.
I quickly made my way back to continue exploring since I didn't spot Lara anywhere in there. Which I was thankful for. There was absolutely no way I could fight right now and I only had one shot at this. Even if I escaped after getting seen, they'd just beef up the security and probably learn to look upwards as well. I wasn't even sure I actually could do anything to save her.
Again, IF she was still alive.
The next hallway I entered was littered with rooms on both sides, one of which had light emanating from it. The first room seemed to be part of their food storage, which was full of fruits and vegetables that I... couldn't find appetizing, no matter how I looked at them.
Letting go of my companion as I approached the food, examining an apple—or, at least, I hoped it was an apple. Looked pretty similar, different world and all—I took a bite out of it, only to find that it didn't have any noticeable taste.
Heck, my body was urging me to swallow the entire piece instead of chewing it first.
Which I did.
My eyes widened in panic and I expected myself to choke on the solid chunk of fruit I had practically inhaled, only to be confused when I felt it slide smoothly through my throat and into... someplace that I didn't think was my stomach. Or whatever went for my stomach as a changeling. I could've sworn I felt it somewhat dissolve near the end...
I ended up eating the entire apple, core and all, simply because I wanted to experience that strange sensation again. It was oddly pleasing and... filling, though it did nothing to placate my actual hunger. Now that I thought about it, Edge did say we made some sort of gel out of food we couldn't actually process.
I shook my head. 'Still have to find Lara. Will figure out how stuff works later,' I thought, picking up my silent sidekick and subsequently resorting to ceiling-walking once more.
The next room was empty, for some reason. The one after that was actually nothing more than a pit with water at the bottom, where I could see some fish lazily swim about. By the time I had discovered that the fourth area was probably a barracks due to being littered with empty beds with a few occupied ones, I could taste a new emotion in the air... and it wasn't a taste I was familiar with.
Normally I could tell what the feeling was, but I had to know what the emotion was first before I could connect it with the 'flavor', committing that knowledge to memory.
Approaching the only room which was actually closed with a door while light shined through the gaps, the taste of sweetness intensified. The kind of sweet that you just couldn't get enough of until you were completely stuffed, prompting you to get more and more until you reached that point.
The door itself didn't have any kind of handle, leading me to assume all I had to do was push it, which I was reluctant to do because I could feel someone on the other side. I could also feel a sort of energy on the door and the walls surrounding the room.
...In fact, now that I looked closely, the door was somewhat shimmering.
Deciding to take a risk once more, I pushed it open as carefully as I could, my hoof passing through some sort of force field as I did so.
...
I quickly used my 'grip' to close the door.
'S-so that's what it was,' I realized, feeling my face heat up in a blush that may or may not be visible due to my chitin.
The weird thing was that I couldn't hear anything from within until I actually passed through that ethereal barrier. The mare was... *cough* quite loud. Sound-proof magic?
I hadn't noticed I was still standing outside the door, practically clinging to it, until a while after as a kind of drunken euphoria was slowly taking hold of me.
"(Hey, do you see that?)" someone quietly said.
I jumped, startled out of my stupor by the two ponies squinting their eyes towards me from the end of the corridor I had come from while I wondered just how long it had been since I had apparently gone from the ceiling to the floor.
"(Well, yeah, it's the master's panther, I think. Looks like it caught something too,)" replied the other pony, both of them having difficulty distinguishing my features from the meager amount of light provided by the room I was next to and the distance they were from me.
'Crap!' I panicked as they began approaching. I scrambled to run in the opposite direction, stumbling a couple times from not being used to running as opposed to trotting.
"(But isn't it bigger—)"
I got far enough that I couldn't hear the rest of what he was saying, my rapid heartbeat throbbing in my ears as I struggled to calm myself down.
'That was way too close,' I sighed, still troubled by how easily I got distracted from my main objective. At this rate, I'd really have to put a lid on this body's instincts.
...Though that was a nice little snack, even if it only barely did anything to satisfy my hunger.
Taking notice of my new surroundings, I spotted stairs leading towards a lower level of the fortress. If this place had a jail or any kind of 'dungeon', I assumed they'd at least be smart enough to place it deeper within the complex, making it harder for any captives to escape. I hoped they didn't, though; Would make it harder to get Lara out of this place.
It was then that I realized I had a new enemy:
Stairs.
No matter how I looked at it or how I thought about going down them, I just couldn't figure it out. Made me wish I actually looked at how dogs and cats did it so that I'd have an idea how. It would probably be easier if I was bigger, thus had longer legs, but as it currently stood, each step was almost as big as my body.
Of course I just wall-walked my way down, but in the event of getting caught and having to escape, I'd have to figure out 'how to stairs' ASAP otherwise it'd prove to be too time-consuming, likely ending with them catching up to me.
'Oh, who am I kidding? If I get seen I'm not outrunning anyone. Not with these stubby little hooves...' I grumpily thought, waving a foreleg in front of my muzzle.
Yup, that little black hoof covered in chitin and riddled with holes was now a part of me. Just like the rest of this bug-like, equine body. It looked nothing like my human self. It was doing things humans couldn't do. It wasn't human.
I wasn't a human.
I... was a changeling.
...
.....It just, never really sank in completely, you know? Circumstances so far had forced me to act on the spot, barely leaving me time to actually stop and really look at myself and... pretty much everything else around me.
Looking back on everything that's happened so far, my time spent in the egg simply felt like a long dream. My life as a human felt distant, as if it had happened ages ago, though at the same time I could recall certain past things as if I had lived them yesterday. My hatching and the events following it, on the other... hoof?... well... I wasn't sure what to make of it. This entire experience felt absolutely surreal now that I was up and about.
I mean, here I was in an alien body which I actually felt like I had owned for my entire life, sneaking around some pyramid fortress filled with sapient talking ponies wielding spears and bows, whom were led by a sapient... w-whatever that guy was, all the while trying to rescue a PEGASUS mare whom I barely knew. Alone. A mere day after hatching. Not to mention that I fed on EMOTIONS of all things, which I could FEEL from others. Then include the fact that MAGIC seemed to actually be a real thing here, in this new WORLD. And THEN, as if all of that wasn't enough, I would apparently be able to SHAPE-SHIFT once I learned how to.
I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, setting Sir Quackerton on the floor.
'Is all of this real?!?'
Recalling my last moments as a human—or at the very least trying to—I remembered the stormy night... I was walking outside... a flash of light followed by... something... was it pain? That part was really foggy, I just couldn't properly remember...
'Maybe I'm actually in a coma after some sort of accident and this is all some kind of super vivid dream? Though, this has been going on for quite a while...'
...
...You can't feel pain in dreams, right?
I smacked the side of my muzzle as hard as I could with my right forehoof. Didn't feel a thing.
'Hmmmmm...'
...
...
...
I smacked my horn as hard as I could with my ri—
"ARGH! OH GOD THAT HURTS!! HNNNNGH!!" I whimpered, crying in pain while I writhed on the stone floor as Sir Quackerton stood to the side, looking at me with his typical unfaltering joyous grin.
It felt much worse than getting solidly kicked in the nads. Way, way worse, and I was of course speaking from experience. Not only that but the agony kind of spread throughout my entire little body.
It actually took a few minutes for the pain to subside to tolerable levels, enough for me to be able to stand back on all fours, albeit very shakily, blinking and attempting to wipe my tears off with a foreleg as I did so.
'Okay... okay...' I thought, panting as the rest of the pain steadily ebbed away from my system. 'This is... somehow real... No more hitting the thing on my forehead...'
The implications of that realization reverberated within my mind.
I'm not human anymore.
I'm a changeling.
I'm really a changeling now.
This is real.
I looked around myself at the stone walls covered in hieroglyphic symbols, feeling the saturated cloud of emotions from every being nearby as if I had just finally noticed it and my surroundings for the first time. Why was I even here, in the heart of this emotionally-disgusting place where my life was potentially at risk?!
Lara was real.
She really protected me from the cold of the night.
She really cared for me, despite barely knowing me.
She really got captured while protecting me.
And so, after a moment of pondering, I picked up my small insensitive friend, determination set on my little equine face as I made my way to the ceiling once more, though this time with renewed purpose.
She helped me.
But now she needs my help.
I will find her.
I WILL save her.
...
...
'And she will LOVE ME!' I childishly added as a happy afterthought.
==============================================
*THUNK THUNK THUNK!*
Celestia groaned in frustration, yawning before frowning towards the door.
And she was JUST about to begin getting her much needed sleep on her luxurious princess-sized bed after an especially tiring day of court, too.
"Unless it has anything to do with an emergency, please return tomo—"
*BOOM!*
"CELESTIA!"
The aforementioned alicorn merely glanced at the obliterated doors to her room, broken pieces of it littering the entire area around her spell-protected possessions, finally spotting the two guards whom were supposed to prevent anypony (or anybody, for that matter) from entering without permission. Currently, they were quivering away from the visually distraught Alicorn of Love, whose horn was smoking.
"Why—"
"Something's wrong with Shining Armor!" quickly interrupted Cadance once more.
"Wha—"
"The doctors just can't figure out what's wrong! He's really sick!"
"Wher—"
"He's in the royal infirmary, room forty-two!"
Celestia quickly got up from her comfortable bed, already missing the warm embrace of her fluffy blankets. She had more important things to worry about at that moment, though. Quickly donning her usual regalia with a flash, she teleported both herself and her niece just outside the room housing Shining Armor, magically scanning the area beforehoof to make sure it was safe to do so.
The sight which greeted her upon entering the hospital room consisted of a nurse and doctor frantically trying to restrain a thrashing Captain of the Royal Guard who was decidedly looking paler than normal on the sweat-soaked bed, grunting incoherently as his unfocused gaze flew around the room.
She quickly cast a fast-acting calming spell on the stallion, turning to face the present medics as the patient's flailing considerably diminished.
"Report!"
"He has a fever that will soon reach critical stages, seems to be suffering from early phases of delirium and is not even conscious at this very moment. None of the conventional methods seem to do anything to help him, whether it's medicine or magic!" informed the worried Doctor.
"His last coherent requests were all about the same meal, over and over again, yet he kept demanding more whenever we decided to give in to his demands," finished the nurse who finally got a hold of his hind legs despite his flailing and strapped them to the bed with restraints, grunting in effort.
Celestia's eyes widened in realization, quickly disappearing in a flash of light before returning a few seconds later with a bubbling drink.
Promptly opening Shining Armor's muzzle once the medical staff moved to the side, she steadily dumped the vial's contents within it, forcing him to swallow something he unfortunately wouldn't ever forget the taste of for the rest of his life, as shown by his face becoming increasingly green, his wide-awake eyes widening in unadulterated horror.
"Keep it in. Drink it all," Celestia sternly ordered once she noticed that he was about to throw up what little he had drunk.
The only thing that stopped him from expelling the foul concoction from his stomach was the desperate, pleading expression of a teary-eyed Cadance who stood next to the bed, gently setting a pink hoof on his shoulder.
Realizing he was just barely managing to hold the liquid in, Celestia quickly conjured a glass of water which he immediately began gulping down at a rapid rate.
"S-Shiny? How are you feeling?" carefully asked the pink Alicorn as the stallion gasped for breath.
"I... I don't know... I feel, weird..." he grunted, clutching his head with his forelegs while the doctor approached to check his status.
"Your fever is still present, though it is receding rapidly. Heartbeat rate seems to be returning to normal levels as well. Are you feeling anything out of the ordinary at the moment? Any nausea, dizziness, voices in your head telling you things or an unrealistically intense desire for... what was it? Chimicherrychangas?"
His cheeks bulged for a moment as he showed an uneasy expression, gulping. "With whatever it was that you gave me, I think nausea is a given. I don't know how long I can resist throwing up... and please don't mention that dish ever again. Ever. Just the thought of food right now... Eurgh..."
The doctor turned to face Celestia. "Your Highness, if I may ask, what exactly was that cure? Everything we've tried on the Captain had no effect on his illness! Is it something we could use on other patients?" he asked while the nurse tended to Shining Armor.
"I am afraid not. This was a special case, one that won't happen again," she affirmed, thinking back to earlier in the day when she had gone to satisfy her curiosity despite knowing that she most likely wouldn't like what she would learn. "... And you absolutely do not want to know what was in it." She managed to hide her shudder.
"Please don't s-scare me like that again..." Cadance whispered to Shining Armor, nuzzling her love's muzzle tenderly, wrapping his body in a hug which he weakly returned.
Seeing that the emergency was for the most part resolved, Celestia excused herself from her present company, leaving the afflicted stallion in good hooves as she herself went to inform doctor Lab Coat about running a few tests in the morning to make sure nothing wrong remained.
However, nopony managed to take notice of the fact that Shining Armor's pupils had taken a practically unnoticeable green tint around the edges.
==============================================
'I don't even want to know what that thing is used for.' I shuddered.
This 'basement' was deserted it seemed, despite the number of rooms that I walked by. Whoever made this place must've had an obsession with levers or something, because nearly every single one of these cells had one inside, as well as various different styles of shackles. Some to merely restrain someone on a table, others were apparently there to keep you stuck to the wall...
And that was before mentioning the suspicious holes, either concealed or in plain sight, located in every single one of those cells, whether they were on the wall, floor, or even the ceiling at times. I certainly wasn't even going to go into details about the other things I've seen in some of those rooms. If anything, this place seemed more like the fortress's 'torture chambers'. The thought that Lara could be down here seriously worried me.
I finally spotted light reflecting off the walls up ahead, my emotion-sense telling me that there were beings around the corner. Among the little cloud of feelings, the mix of sadness and worry was what really stood out from everything else that I had felt so far in this entire fortress. It was downright bordering on depression.
Taking a careful peek around the corner, I saw two of those tribal ponies standing guard in front of the only occupied cell on the side of this entire hallway, staring straight ahead towards a blank wall.
...Well, one of them was staring straight ahead, still as a statue. The other guy?
"(—and then she said 'Oatmeal? Are you CRAZY!?')" the pony said as if delivering the punch line of a joke, laughing by himself.
He just kept talking and speaking and blabbering without end.
"(Oh! Did I tell you about the time I found a coconut on a beach?)"
"(YES! YES YOU DID! NOW PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF LUNA, STOP TALKING!)"
Hey! That was Lara's voice!
"(But I promise it's a different one!)"
And somehow, I was glad that I had no idea what he was going on about.
I realized these two ponies were the same ones that were present during Lara's capture. The silent one felt... weird though; as if his emotions were somewhat muted. Nevertheless, my friend was in there and I had to find a way to get them away from the entryway long enough for me to enter.
After a moment, I came to a decision.
'It appears that this is where we must part ways, Sir Quackerton.' I hung on the ceiling with my hind legs alone so I could grapple the rubber ducky with my forehooves. 'Your valiant sacrifice shall forever be remembered.'
I began swinging myself, building momentum before finally giving the toy a squeeze, making it squeak as I threw it as hard as I could towards an adjacent corridor.
...Surprisingly, it flew much further than I thought it would, hitting the wall within a faraway cell hard enough to squeak a second time along with a somewhat audible *Thud*, catching the attention of the blabbering pony whom finally went silent, if only for a split second.
"(Did you hear that?)" he asked his calm companion, not waiting for a response as he foolishly wandered towards the sound without a light source to accompany him. Unfortunately, the quiet pony had remained in place, not giving any reaction to anything that just occurred, even when he was left to guard alone.
As the stallion went further into the 'darkness', I was trying to quickly find a way past the remaining guard, whom was staying still by the door with a torch next to him.
'It's always the campers...'
I accidentally miscalculated my footing, letting go of the ceiling and landing on the ground. Well, more like crashed on the ground since I couldn't manage to land on my hooves instead of my back. I swiftly turned to look at him in panic, thinking he might've noticed the sounds I had made and see me, but he didn't even react to the relatively quiet 'thud'. I got up and silently approached while sticking to the wall since he wasn't looking my way, walking on the tip of my hooves, until I finally realized why he hadn't reacted during this entire time.
"zzzzz..."
He had painted eyes on his eyelids in an amazingly convincing manner, giving the impression that he was actually awake when in fact, he was sleeping. The tiny ear-buds he had placed in his ears told me that he most likely knew about his annoying partner's tendencies, preparing himself in advance for what would've been a long night of enduring endless chatter.
I ra— galloped the rest of the way, painlessly smacking my muzzle on the stony floor as I tripped once I was inside since I didn't know how to stop myself yet.
And there she was, each of her hooves chained to a different corner of the wall at the other end of the small room. They left her wings unbound, for some reason. She seemed to be relatively okay, if only slightly dirty from last morning's scuffle, though her hooves had chafed wherever metal met flesh, showing that she had struggled to free herself for some time.
Lara must've heard me when I tripped because she then brought her downcast eyes back up to look at my overjoyed expression.
She slowly blinked.
My ears drooped slightly as my wide smile faltered.
'Huh, I thought she'd be happy to see me...'
"(Great, now I'm hallucinating that she's here,)" she sadly muttered to herself, averting her eyes from me, gazing at the stone floor once more.
I noticed that each of the chains had locks where the metal was bound to her hooves, keyholes requesting to be filled so that she may be set free.
"(Should've just kept flying. Just had to get her to Canterlot...)"
But where were the keys? The guards couldn't have them, they didn't have anything to carry them around with!
"(Now she's out there in the jungle, defenseless, maybe even waiting for me, all alone, thinking her 'mother' would return to her...)"
I quickly scanned the rest of the room, my gaze eventually setting on a ring of keys, hanging by a pin up on the wall right next to me.
'...Is this some kind of taunting, letting her know the keys to her salvation are right there out of her reach?'
"(I... I didn't even give her any food! She must be starving by now! I-I'd make a t-terrible mother...)" she continued in a defeated voice, the chains holding her rattling as she weakly attempted to free her limbs once more.
I had wall-climbed towards the keys, almost reaching them, when I turned my neck around in confusion on hearing Lara sniff, her sorrow reaching an all-time high for some reason I couldn't fathom.
"...What's wrong with you?? I'm here to help!" I quietly chittered.
She brought her head back up, looking around the room before spotting me half-way up the wall, observing my puzzled expression.
Then she chuckled. The kind of mirthless, sad laugh you do when you're emotionally broken. "(And, and now she's walking on walls!)"
I tilted my head in incomprehension, worriedly watching her odd behavior. Couldn't she see that I was in the process of getting her out of here? Why was she so sad?!
I shrugged, reaching out with my muzzle to grab the—'blegh'—rusty ring of keys in my mouth, making a jingling noise as the dozens of keys jangled. The moment it made a sound, Lara suddenly got quiet, intently gazing at me with wide eyes, emotionally leaking confusion and a bit of hope.
"(Ar... Artemis? Is that really you? A-are you really here!?)" she whispered disbelievingly.
'Oh, so now she's somewhat happy? Hmph, what did she think I was doing?'
*Squeak*
I froze, my ears automatically swiveling towards the general direction of the sound.
*Squeaky-squeak*
Shit, the guard found Sir Quackerton!
*Squeaking intensifies*
And he seemed to be REALLY happy about it, if the elation I sensed meant anything.
However, as I made my way across the wall to Lara's chained forelegs at a more hurried pace, I also sensed someone else approaching from afar.
Reaching the first lock while taking note of her supremely relieved and happy face, I unfortunately realized how difficult this formerly simple task was.
Have you ever tried to insert a key into a key-hole with fists, without letting go of it? It was as hard as trying to isolate a single key among the dozen ones on the ring! I missed my fingers...
"(What are you doing away from your post!?)" growled a familiar voice.
'Oh shit!' I panicked, quickly trying to insert a random key while hoping it was the right one. Based on Lara's expression, she also heard and knew who was coming.
"(Master! Look what I found!)"
*Squee*
"(Hurry, hurry, hurry!)" frantically whispered Lara, torn between watching the entryway and my pathetic attempts as I struggled with the lock.
'Hrrg! Okay, not that one...' I fumbled to try a different key, though the feeling of impending doom really didn't help matters at all.
"(Answer the question!)" the booming voice barked angrily.
"(Well, you see, I was telling my friend the story of this one magical fruit I had found on the beach of this one cursed island. I was about to get to the part with the zomponies and the pike-filled forests; you know, that one place that is filled with rainbows and unicorns and—)"
The new arrival growled in a dangerously deep tone, giving me the shivers with the raw anger that I felt coming from his general direction.
'Come on, come ON!' That's two keys that didn't work. Only twenty more keys approximately left to try! And that guy was going to be here any moment now!! I mean, no pressure, right? I totally wasn't jittery from nervousness by then.
fear "(I-Iheardasoundandcameoverheretolookarounda-andthenIfoundthis!)"
...
...
*Squee*
'Please work please work please work,' I mentally chanted, attempting to insert key number three—
"(DARING DO!!)"
"Eek!" I squeaked, turning to look at the room's only exit in fear as I heard and felt a rapid series of loud *Thuds* approaching. It didn't occur to me at that very moment that my mouth was the only thing holding the set of keys, accidentally letting go of it.
I also completely missed Lara unfurling one of her wings as the key ring fell, swiftly catching it before bringing her feathery appendage back against her body, the keys hidden from sight.
And then the big blue leader guy showed up, completely blocking the exit with his massive frame.
"(WHAT DO YOU Think you— huh?!)"
I quickly ran up to him as Lara somehow broke free of her bindings, delivering a swift kick to his precious family jewels before my friend grabbed me and flew at sonic-fast speeds, quickly getting us out of the fortress where I then guided her to her bags and we went on our merry way, eventually running into my family who promptly cocooned Lara so she could stay with us forever and ever.
...I mean, that's what would've happened ideally. Perhaps not exactly on that very last part, though...
What really happened? Well...
He stared at me in confusion.
I stared at him in horror.
Lara stared at him much like a kid pathetically trying to hide something he did wrong from his parent's accusing glares would. So... pretty much in horror.
It was an awkward three seconds of silence. More or less.
Then the giant lunged towards me.
"GAME OVER MAN! GAME OVER!!" I screeched, leaping off the wall in order to fall to the ground, narrowly avoiding one of his hands from grabbing me. I quickly ran under him, sprinting as fast as my tiny legs could towards the exit—
"Urk!"
Unfortunately, I had forgotten that he also had a hand at the tip of his tail. It was large enough to grab my entire body, leaving nothing but my little face peeking out of his grasp as I struggled uselessly against his iron grip.
"(Well well well! What have we here, hmm?)" he said, bringing me awfully close to his terrifying face as he studied my little equine head.
"Let me go! I have a family! I'm just a baby! I taste awful!—" I tried to plead while I kept trying to free myself, even though I knew all he would hear would be a bunch of chittering, chirps and hisses.
"(This is very convenient,)" he stated, turning to look at Lara. "(My Deity had been asking for a sacrifice for quite some time now. I believe that this little one will do nicely— SHUT. UP!)" he shouted at me when I continued to rant, shaking the hand holding me and simultaneously squeezing me tighter, to the point where it was actually starting to hurt.
I couldn't help myself but let out a whimper of pain, ceasing any and all resistance once I almost couldn't breathe.
"(s-STOP! Don't hurt her!)"
He slowly swiveled his neck back towards Lara, releasing a bit of the pressure he had on me while he did so. Now I knew how those little animals felt like when a human grabbed them back on Earth. I had unwillingly taken the role of the insignificant little creature, and my entire life was literally in the hands of that giant whom was holding me. Even more terrifying was the fact that I had no idea what he wanted from me or what he would do to begin with.
"(And why shouldn't I, Miss Do?)"
"(Be... b-because...)" Lara trailed off, biting her lips, panicking as if she was looking for something to say, her gaze rapidly travelling between him and my genuinely terrified expression.
He frowned after a few tense seconds of silence, squeezing me once more to which I quickly responded naturally with another pained cry.
"(B-because she's the last changeling queen alive!)" Lara blurted out.
His hold on me slackened considerably, finally allowing me to breathe freely. He looked really surprised at whatever she had said.
And then his surprised face steadily morphed into a smile as he slowly turned to look at me.
"(Changeling... Queen, you say?)" he rhetorically asked, showcasing his sharp teeth as he grinned in my direction.
Not knowing what to do but still feeling the need to do something, I fearfully hissed in a more nervous tone as I moved my head as far away from him as I could, his creepy expression making me feel very uneasy.
"(Uh, I, well, I meant—!)"
"(Then perhaps I may have just found my very own acolyte instead!)" he interrupted, turning away to leave the cell. "(And who knows? Maybe even something... more... eheh, haHAhah, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!)"
The last I saw of Lara before we went around the corner was her horrified face as she looked into my own desperate one. Yet, oddly enough, I then felt her worry and panic dissolve, instead turning into determination.
But what could she do? I couldn't even open one of the locks, never mind the fact that we were now both captured!
They probably took the keys away, too...
I continuously squirmed and struggled all the way, attempting to somehow break myself free, but the only thing that would break if I continued trying would be the entirety of my newborn body since this guy really didn't take kindly to my efforts. All he had to do to stop me was a simple and painful squeeze that had enough strength behind it to probably snap my spine in two if my body wasn't covered in this protective chitin, and I finally, although with great reluctance, gave up fighting when he shot a hateful glare towards me once he grew frustrated enough.
He dragged me up the staircase and through a few hallways I hadn't gone through yet, eventually reaching the gathering hall I had stumbled upon earlier from a different side, stopping next to the incomplete totem surrounded with rings that I had glimpsed. Now that I was pretty much next to it, however, I could sense something wrong from it... something dark and malicious contained within each and every single ring, the energy they emitted reminding me of fire, oddly enough. The only thing that was missing then was an ominous and creepy voice whispering beautiful things that only I would be able to hear.
Though there were a few ponies here and there, the place was pretty much deserted compared to before. That is, until he whistled loudly, my sensitive ears folding themselves on my head as I hissed in pain.
Every pony in the room suddenly ran up and stood at attention, cleanly forming row upon rows of 'soldiers' in front of him as guards poured from every entrance, quickly filling the area with what I assumed was the entirety of his followers.
"(My dear minions!)" he exclaimed happily once everyone gathered, pacing back and forth much like a drill instructor at boot camp would while I tried to make myself as small as possible when most of them noticed me in his grasp. "(Tonight is a wondrous night, for our gods have sent us a unique creature! One that managed to reach our prisoner with nary a single one of you noticing!)" A few of them looked nervous at that, perhaps detecting some sort of hidden meaning.
"(This little demon—)" he quickly brought me in front of him to display me to the assembled ponies as I uncomfortably made myself as small as I could, "(—was found next to Daring Do, attempting to free her from her bindings! If this foal was able to get that far, either it is worthy and has the potential to be my future apprentice...)" his grin immediately turned into a scowl, "(...or You Are ALL WORTHLESS, INCOMPETENT MORONS!!)"
He let whatever he had said sink in for a moment or two, watching most of the ponies squirm and shift on their hooves fearfully before he continued.
"(I will go on the assumption that both are correct and as such, you will spend the rest of the night meditating in this hall on your failure! EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU, WITHOUT EXCEPTION! The next time anything like this happens, there WILL be ponies sleeping with the piranhas!" He turned to leave before stopping at the threshold of an entryway. "(Unless you prefer being fed to my pets! I am generous enough to let you decide your fate, after all.)"
About four ponies immediately dropped to their knees, bowing and chanting much like I had seen them do before. The rest of the armed company took this as their cue to do so as well, quickly filling the room with incomprehensive 'prayers' or something of the sort. Not that I could comprehend their language to begin with.
Giving a somewhat satisfied grunt, Mr. Blue left the hall with me in tow, apparently headed towards that one corridor where I almost got caught initially. He stopped in front of the room with the door—which wasn't shimmering anymore—slamming it open without a care in the world.
Now that I could actually take a proper look around, this room was much more decorated than all the other ones I had seen around the place. Trinkets, bottles and things you'd expect some sort of shaman to have were littered on the numerous shelves on the walls while the mare from earlier—the only other female I had seen in the entire fortress—was currently snoozing away on the only bed on the far side of the room.
"(Orfa Se'tid!)" he called, rousing the pony from her slee— Oh, she's a unicorn.
"(Ye... yes, great one?) she answered, yawning.
To which he responded by literally dumping me on the floor in front of her.
"(Your vision was correct, there was indeed an unexpected encounter in the dungeons. You will be taking care of that foal until she becomes of age,)" he declared, gesturing towards me. "(If she behaves, she may even one day have the honor of becoming my mate. In the meantime, you will teach her our ways during the day so that she may begin serving the cult as soon as possible.)"
And he left, just like that, leaving no time at all for the unicorn to reply as she stared at the door, confused and still half-asleep.
I quickly dashed towards the exit while she slowly rubbed her eyes, barely making it out when all of a sudden I just couldn't move! All four of my legs were flailing in mid-air— Wait, what?
"(I don't have time for this right now...)" the mare tiredly said with sleepy half-lidded eyes as I somehow flew back into the room against my will, a miniature iron cage surrounded by some mystical grey aura floating out of a closet before I was placed inside it, enclosed once more as it somehow locked itself closed.
She sat back down on the bed afterwards, studying me as I kicked and bit and struggled with the iron bars uselessly until I eventually slumped down, wondering just what happened right then and there. I was so close! I had even made it out of the room! How did she stop me?!
"(What exactly are you?)" she muttered to herself.
'Is... is this what my life is going to be? Living as some sort of pet for a bunch of ponies in the middle of some random jungle, never to see my family?' I thought, looking at my captor with what was no doubt a defeated, tearful expression as I laid down on the cold metal, ears folded against my head as I felt the beginning of tears forming.
She shook her head, apathetically turning away from me, laying down on her warm bed as she pulled the covers over herself to comfortably fall asleep.
Now it was my turn to feel kind of depressed. Not only had I failed to rescue Lara, but I got captured myself. Considering I hadn't felt a shred of love in this entire fortress—other than that bit of lust I had fed on—I knew I would only last a couple days longer at most. With no way to properly communicate with these ponies, I wouldn't be able to make them realize that I fed on emotions, nor would they ever even think about that being possible, especially considering my species was seemingly, for the most part, unknown to the world.
As I wallowed in sorrow and loneliness within the confines of my tiny prison, I absently noted that the cloud of emotions from the general direction of the main hall had mainly shifted into surprise and shock.
Fate also thought it was an appropriate moment to remind me that I was living on borrowed time, making my hunger show itself by means of stomach rumbling.
"Maybe... maybe if I do what they ask of me, they'd start loving me like Lara had begun doing...?" I quietly chittered to myself. Regardless of whatever would happen, I had to figure out a way to get these ponies to love me until I could find a way to escape out of this accursed place... with or without Lara.
The mare stirred, sighing as she turned her body around to face me, the cage somehow opening itself before I again felt that odd energy surround me. I found myself suspended in mid-air immediately afterwards once more, my body floating across the room until I landed next to her on the bed despite my efforts to resist whatever was going on while the door to the room closed itself with a locking sound.
By then, the emotions I could sense from the hall were for the most part muted, anger quickly overtaking all other emotions for some reason...
While I awkwardly shuffled to sit on my haunches, the unicorn looked at me expectantly as she showed me her belly.
...
...
"Uh... you... want a belly rub?" I chirped uncertainly, tilting my head.
She blinked in confusion at my inaction after a couple seconds, gesturing towards her barrel with a foreleg.
I got back on all fours and approached hesitantly, wondering how I was going to go about giving her this little impromptu massage she apparently wanted in the middle of the night. Judging by her completely bewildered look as I began rubbing her chest, I figured I was doing something wrong...
She facehoofed before I was floated a bit further down, closer to her hind legs.
Right in front of her teats.
'Ooooooohhhhh.' It finally dawned on me that she was trying to feed me. Or, rather, do the equivalent of breast-feeding. She probably heard my stomach rumbling and thought I had asked for food...
"N-no thanks, I'm fine," I nervously chittered as I stumbled backwards, having no desire for physical food of any kind. Especially not from... that.
She audibly groaned, rolling her eyes as she forced me closer against my will.
'Hrrgh! NO!'
Every being at the hall save for one had their emotions "muted" by now.
'I don't want your milk! Do NOT want!' I struggled harder, flailing wildly as I tried to hold my ground.
The being moved away from the gathering at a very fast pace, rapidly approaching the hallway I was currently held at, worry and determination flowing in droves.
"Nnnngh!... MOMMY!" I ended up screeching despite myself, the mound practically in my face by then as I closed my eyes and fought to divert my muzzle to the side.
*Thunk*
Whatever energy was affecting me immediately dissipated as the unicorn was startled by the hit the locked door took.
*THUNK*
I quietly moved away from the mare as she got up and positioned herself in some sort of crouched battle stance, pointing her horn towards the door.
*BOOM*
The door then literally exploded into multiple pieces which now littered the insides of the room, a single tan-colored hoof sitting in its place before it quickly retreated while the dust cleared, revealing—
"L-Lara!?" I chirped disbelievingly.
Her entire coat seemed to be soaked in sweat as she shakily stood there in the entryway, most likely running on adrenaline from what I could tell. What really worried me, however, was the various cuts and scrapes she had all over her body, her fur stained with blood on multiple spots. She looked like she had gone through hell and back. And then back again.
Oh. She also looked pissed for some reason.
Despite her obvious fatigue, she immediately rushed the unicorn...
...only to suddenly be surrounded by that same grey aura I had seen earlier, completely freezing mid-jump.
With a flick of her head, the unicorn somehow sent Lara speeding towards a wall, smashing her against it with a loud *THUD*, making the pegasus cry out in pain.
Making the pegasus cry out in pain.
Pegasus cry out in pain.
Cry out in pain.
Something in me snapped.
I quickly noticed the unicorn's horn was glowing with the same aura which was currently affecting my friend and savior. I crouched, muscles tensing as I positioned myself much like I had with the bunny from yesterday while Lara was floated back towards the center of the room, looking dazed and slightly more limp than before. The unicorn was getting ready to send her crashing to the same wall once more...
Until I finally pounced from the side, wrapping all of my hooves around her face as I bit down on her horn. As. HARD. As. I. Could.
Her entire body spasmed as if afflicted by a mini-seizure, her eyes briefly going cross-eyed before she then fell to the floor, wailing and screeching in pain, flailing her limbs erratically in a vain effort to throw me off.
I don't know how long I stayed like that. Eventually, someone else was trying to pry me off of the unicorn. The voice was saying something, maybe even shouting at me; I didn't know, I couldn't hear it. My entire focus was on this pony that had dared to hurt Lara.
My grip eventually failed, at which point I got separated from the unicorn which was still rolling over on the ground in complete agony. I continued to struggle against whomever was holding me back with the full intent of continuing my assault, my mind seemingly clouded to the point where I never realized what I had said then.
"NOBODY HURTS MY FAMILY!" I loudly hissed, flailing my hooves in an attempt to escape the grasp of whomever was holding me. "NOBODY—!!"
My entire vision was abruptly filled with sweaty, warm and partially blood-soaked tan-colored fur, yet I continued thrashing as I was being firmly held, until a shushing noise very slowly began calming me down while I felt a hoof run gently and softly through my hair.
When rational thought finally returned to me, I looked up to the calming voice, my gaze meeting Lara's exhausted face as she then brought her head down to nuzzle my own.
I buried my face into her chest, hugging her as hard as I could, adding tears to the mix of liquids soaking her fur as I sobbed.
E-everything was going to be alright.
Lara was here.
Here!
Sh-she came back for me! I wasn't a-alone anymore!
I felt like nothing could take away that moment. There no longer was a fortress filled with evil heartless ponies around us. There no longer was a terrifying blue monster roaming around, holding my life in his hands. There no longer was a unicorn to keep me caged in that claustrophobic little metal prison while I slowly awaited death by starvation.
It was just Lara and me, comforting each other. Nothing else mattered, nothing else existed. The flow of love I felt from her was now comparable to a flowing river, much like the average brother or sister which had come to feed me back in my time at the hive, only she didn't actually need to be forcefully drained like whomever we had cocooned.
We stayed like that for a while, embracing each other, but all things eventually had to come to an end. We were still in hostile territory, after all. I wiped my eyes and turned to look at the unicorn mare, who was by then quietly whimpering pitifully on the floor, laying on her side, not moving at all except for the occasional twitch of her body as tears of agony flowed from her eyes.
I flinched on noticing that her horn had cracked where I bit her.
I already knew just how painful a simple hit to the horn was. Though what I did to her seemed to be extreme, I couldn't help but wonder if she actually deserved such torment...
The image of Lara being flung towards a wall before letting out a cry of pain flashed through my mind.
'She deserved it,' I firmly decided, not regretting my actions in the slightest as my anger returned, though not as intense as before.
Lara managed to set me on her back despite her fatigue before she calmly began walking through the maze of hallways, both confusing and worrying me. Wasn't she afraid of all those guards which were roaming all over the place?
I eventually got my answer once we reached the gathering hall.
It was like the aftermath of a war.
Every. Single. Guard. Was. Knocked. Out. Some were bleeding from the muzzle, most of them had bruises that were beginning to visually form and some even had their legs bending in ways I'm pretty sure they weren't meant to...
...It was then that I realized how Lara had gotten injured and why she looked so tired, dragging her hooves on the floor as she trotted up towards the small tower of golden rings.
"(Getting too close to completing the set...)" she whispered worriedly. "(Well, let's fix that.)"
She grabbed the smallest ring she could find, which was still larger than me, wearing it on her neck as if it were a necklace before she tensed while crouching, breathing deeply.
"(H-hold on,)" Lara quietly said while briefly turning her head around to face me, afterwards taking a deep breath and focusing her gaze on the ceiling.
"...What are youuaAHH!" I exclaimed, tightening my hold on her neck.
She had jumped, taking to the skies, flying through an opening I hadn't noticed on the ceiling right over the top of the pedestal.
We... we were flying. Flying! Sure, I was just a passenger at the moment, not contributing at all, but still! Flying without technology! This was practically one of my childhood dreams come true!
I would've continued grinning in awe and excitement, had I not realized just how much Lara was struggling. With all the injuries she had sustained, she was obviously in no condition to travel using this method. Deeply worried about how she was panting in exhaustion and how increasingly wobbly this flight was turning out to be, I knew she had to rest immediately.
"Hey!" I squeaked, hoping to get her attention.
She tiredly craned her neck around to look at me on the edge of her vision while she kept moving forward, at which point I made sure to show my concern for her wellbeing through my worried facial expression.
"(I... d-don't worry... about me... I'm, f-fine...)" she huffed, continuing onwards.
'This isn't the time to be stubborn and prideful, Lara! Ugh, what was that word she had used...?'
"No!" I exclaimed in her language after I barely felt something shift in my throat, hearing my own childish voice for the first time.
It was kind of freaky, as if two people were talking at the same time, one with a high pitch while the other spoke an octave lower.
My single word caused her to stutter in her flapping, falling a couple feet before she clumsily got over her surprise, hovering over the jungle canopy as she looked at me in shock, though this time I had reinforced my sad face with tears.
I... I tried to convince myself that they weren't genuine tears, that they were just leaking because I wanted to get my point across, but... seeing her this vulnerable, looking at her partially bloodied fur which had started to stain my chitin... I just, couldn't stand it. I didn't want her to hurt herself any more than she already had after what we had both gone through.
She kept her eyes on me for a few seconds, looking like she was about to pass out as her eyes drooped, losing a feet or two of altitude before she shook herself awake, hissing in pain at the motion since her adrenaline was no doubt leaving her system.
"(...A-alright,)" she whispered, purposely losing altitude as I held on, eventually landing on a large tree branch quite far off from the ground, splaying herself on it as she regained her breath.
Though most of her cuts were minor, a couple slightly larger wounds had reopened due to her straining herself, most likely from the flight. I didn't know how much blood she had lost already, but I didn't want her to lose any more if I could help it.
Recalling the bunny I had eaten, I remembered how the puncture wounds I had inflicted at the start had barely bled. Either my venom had a sort of coagulating effect, or my saliva had special properties.
I didn't really know what my venom could do in the long run and I certainly didn't want to bite Lara to find out, thus I licked one of her cuts—
"Gnyahh!" she hissed, her body tensing in pain. "(Artemis! What was that for!?)" she angrily asked, twisting her head around to look at me licking her fur clean of blood.
Fortunately, my theory seemed to be proven correct as the little gash then refused to bleed. As I moved over to the next blood-stained spot, she seemed to realize what I was doing, enduring whatever sting my licking of her injuries produced while I methodically continued cleaning her.
I really wasn't looking forward to the hairball I would no doubt end up coughing up later. Unless it actually got turned into gel? Hmm...
Thankfully, she hadn't gotten injured near her more... err... private parts. In the few minutes it took me to—
I froze.
'...Did... did I really just...?!'
Lara was breathing at a steady rhythm by then, also bewildered at the fact that I had cleaned her, though I didn't know at the time that it was for different reasons.
But I... I was just so tired from everything that had happened over the past twenty four hours to even bother questioning what I just did. Now that this entire ordeal was over, I finally felt like I could stop and rest; and so it was that I walked up to Lara's neck, snuggling up to her as she wrapped her forelegs and a wing around me without any hesitation whatsoever.
I gazed tiredly into her eyes, smiling happily at having her back while exhaustion quickly overtook me...
--------------------------------------------
Daring Do stared in wonder at the little changeling that had most likely saved her life, the little nymph cuddling against her, softly snoring peacefully without a care in the world.
The little foal had not only managed to escape detection in that one clearing, but she had somehow sneaked into the fortress, somehow gotten past the guards in front of her cell and somehow even gave her the keys she needed to escape.
Daring still vaguely remembered the rage she had felt when she had stumbled upon the fools that worshipped Ahuizotl. She knew he would try to convince the innocent foal to be like them, though nothing made her angrier than the fact that the monster wanted to claim Artemis as a potential mate.
She sighed.
...Well, at least this whole adventure would make one hay of an 'awesome' book.
She'd have to censor what Artemis did to that unicorn for the sake of her fans, though...
But then the little changeling gave her a bath of all things, using the method of the olden days. The only beings anypony would ever clean that way nowadays would be their... their own... family...
"I... I can't be your mother, Artemis. I just, can't..." she whispered sadly, idly running a hoof through the silky mane of the changeling whom leaned into her touch as she slept.
The memory of Artemis sobbing into her fur as she tried to calm the nymph down flashed through her mind.
She hugged the tiny changeling a little tighter.
'This is only temporary' she thought. 'We should be at Canterlot by the end of tomorrow, I'm only taking care of her until then...'
And, and then she... she would leave Artemis there, in the care of the Princesses.
...It was for her own good.
Daring took off her hat after a moment, pulling from it the final gift she had received from her father before he passed away while she was still nothing but a young filly with dreams of adventure.
"Can't believe that of all the things they had to take from my bags, they took you, Sir Quackerton," she muttered, thinking back to the guard she had excessively beaten up to retrieve the memento.
She stared at the toy for a few seconds, reminiscing about her childhood, eventually hiding it once more in her hat as she herself drifted off to sleep in the relative safety of the jungle canopy, subconsciously holding Artemis protectively.
Special thanks to Genbulein for his amazing drawing of Artemis.