The changeling hive was dark, wet and smelly.
A single changeling hesitantly trotted through it, having just been called by his queen for a reason he didn’t know. All he knew was that it was urgent.
It probably had something to do with the failed attempt at taking over Equestria just a few days prior. His flank still hurt from being thrown out by that love-shield-thing. Luckily, it hadn’t taken the changelings long to regroup after that, but the damage was already done.
He scurried on to the throne room where Queen Chrysalis sat. She didn’t look very pleased.
“Ah, you must be number 37 of the royal guard,” the queen said, more a statement than a question.
Changelings didn’t have names; they merely had a number and an occupation. He was number 37 of the queen’s royal guard, the very last number. Coincidentally, he was also ranked number 37.
He nodded meekly. “Yes, my queen.”
“Do you know why I called you here?” Queen Chrysalis stood up from her throne, which looked more like a glorified pile of rocks to the little changeling, and paced about.
“No, my queen.”
“It’s because you’re to blame for our failure in Canterlot,” she stated matter-of-factly.
He was silent for a few seconds. “Huh?” he sputtered out. “B-but, I was on guard, the only ponies I let through were those six Element-y types, and you told us they weren’t worth bothering!”
“Exactly. One of them helped the pink princess, one of those foalish lovebirds, escape, and you didn’t do anything about it. What do you have to say for yourself?” The Queen stopped pacing about and cast a short glance at him.
He was cowering like a little hatchling; being called by the queen herself because you made a mistake meant you were going to get some severe punishment. Even if it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t even do anything, he thought, it’s your fault as well. He was about to voice his thoughts, but reminded himself that Queen Chrysalis probably had enough power to flatten him like a pancake. Or worse. “I didn’t... I mean, I was just... uh.” He tried fumbling his way to a presentable excuse, but he couldn’t come up with anything.
The tall and slender queen raised a brow. “Nothing?” She raised a hoof and cast a bored look through its holes. “Then I suppose you will require punishment.”
The changeling flinched, but didn’t say anything.
She sat down on her throne again. “For disrupting our efforts to take over Equestria, and thus taking away a great source of nourishment for the entire hive, you are hereby banished.” She stated shortly.
“Banished?!” He cried out. “That’s...” he wanted to say impossible, but being the queen of all changelings, she probably had the power to throw him out of the hive. Figuratively or literally. “I’m sorry! It wasn’t my fault! I’ll do better next time, I promise, just please give me another chance!”
The queen tsked. “A traitor, reduced to pleading? How sad. Any last words before you leave?”
He sat frozen. He couldn’t think of anything. Nor did he particularly want to move from that spot.
“Very well then, I’ll throw you out myself.”
Before he could react, he was picked up in queen Chrysalis’ magical grip, and hoisted out of the cave. On the way out, several changelings stared at him, some waved at him and some snickered.
As he was levitated out of the hive, he pondered what he would do. He didn’t have the foggiest idea. After he got set down, he’d probably find some place nearby the hive to live, in case they wanted him back.
However, that plan was cut short, as for the second time in a few days, he was flung through the air, towards an unknown destination. Apparently, the queen wanted him far away.
Very, very far away, he noticed as he hurtled through the sky. He saw a forest pass by below him, followed by some grasslands, then a village, a lake and so on. He was vaguely aware of some loud noise.
Oh yeah, he was screaming. That sort of happened when involuntarily flying at high speeds, he remembered.
After a while, he had to stop screaming, in part because he was out of breath, in part because his throat was becoming as dry as sandpaper. Luckily, he had started to slow down and lose altitude a bit.
Well, that was depending on his definition of lucky; he was still going pretty fast, and he saw some mountains coming up in the distance. He hoped fervently that he wouldn’t hit them. High-speed projectiles and hard walls didn’t mix very well.
He was getting closer to the ground now. He seemed to be heading straight for some wild-looking forest, which seemed excellent. There were enough trees and bushes to cushion his fall, so he wouldn’t have too many injuries. He swore he could even see a small village nearby.
He was going at a fairly manageable speed now, and was within a hoof’s reach of the trees. He grabbed one, and with more whiplash than he would have liked, managed to get a branch through one of the holes in his hooves.
Sometimes, great changeling philosophers and biologists pondered the seemingly useless holes in the legs of changelings.
Now he knew; they were excellent for hanging onto branches. It was just too bad he didn’t have a way to let go of the branch.
He fidgeted around, but found he couldn’t dislodge the branch from his hoof. “Uh, someling help? I’m kind of stuck here,” he said to the empty forest while dangling from the branch.
There wasn’t a living thing in sight. Would there even be animals in a forest like this? Maybe there were predators. He panicked as he realized he probably shouldn’t have called out. There probably weren’t changelings around here. The only things that would come to this forest were fierce predators, who would see him as a tasty piñata, and ponies, who would see him as a piñata to take some sweet revenge on.
He swung himself about, trying to get his hoof off of the branch it was stuck on. As he stopped to catch his breath, he could hear a sound from above... A grumble? The beginning of a roar?
It sounded suspiciously like cracking wood. He cast a glance up and saw the branch breaking off right where he held onto it. “Oh, crud,” was all he managed to say before the branch broke, sending him hurtling through the air once more.
This time, however, it took him only a short time to reach safe ground, although not before he had managed to fall headfirst due to his flailing. He hit the ground with a hard thud, taking some dirt with him.
He dizzily stood up and stumbled about a bit, his eyes rolling in their sockets. He could see stars. Was it night? No, it was only morning. Maybe afternoon. Silly #37, there aren’t any stars during the day, he thought to himself. He shook the dizziness off him, and spat out the huge clump of dirt that had apparently collected in his mouth.
Surrounding him were trees, bushes, a few flowers, and other things that couldn’t talk, or feel, or communicate otherwise.
He let out a short sigh. “What am I going to do now?” Having few other options aside from ‘Sit here and starve’, he decided to walk in the direction of the little village he had seen. With some luck, he could find some unsuspecting pony couple to feed on.
He was, after all, a changeling. They only took love to survive, and they could eat other foods, but those wouldn’t satisfy. He remembered sneaking away a slice of cake at the royal wedding. It was delicious, even though it didn’t still his hunger.
He found himself thinking about the queen’s accusation. It couldn’t have been his fault that she failed in her plan to take over Equestria. While those ponies had been doing whatever it was that made them win, the queen had been busy gloating about her ‘victory’.
He snorted. Stupid ponies. Stupid wedding. Stupid queen. “We’ll defeat you with the power of love, because we’re namby-pamby ponies, whee!” he mused in a high-pitched voice. “How ridiculous,” he continued in a deeper, somewhat feminine voice, “I’m going to let you continue what you’re doing because I’m stupid.”
At least mocking those ponies and his queen-- ex-queen, he realized, since he was thrown out of the hive-- made him feel a little better.
It wasn’t long before he made it out of the forest. The walk had been easy and calm, but he certainly didn’t want to go through the same forest at night. Not that he was afraid of the dark or anything. He was an incredibly brave changeling, so what if he was a bit jumpy?
He had arrived at a stream of water at the edge of the forest. A little bit ahead was a bridge, and on the other side, lo and behold, a village.
“Excellent,” he muttered to himself, licking his lips. “Now I just need a disguise...”