//------------------------------// // Prelude: Okay, I'm here. Now what? // Story: Changeling See, Changeling D'OH! (Comment-Driven Story) // by Kersey475 //------------------------------// It was a dark and stormy night... In Baltimare yesterday as it is now cloudy over there with a 24% chance of rain (due to the Weather Pegasi drinking so much at a post-work party yesterday that they may forget they already made it rain the day before), but that's all irrelevant as it is currently a clear sunny day in the Everfree Forest. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the trees are... photosynthesize.. ing? Gah! Enough setup, time for story! We see a changeling lying unconscious on a flowerbed *1. Suddenly, a branch breaks from a nearby tree, exposing the changeling to sunlight that causes him to stir. "Ohhhhh..." you groan as you slowly open your eyes. You get up shakily as you start to look around. "How did I get here?" you ask noling in particular. You try to remember how you got here, but all you can remember clearly is being a part of your Queen's assault on Eqeustria's capital before being launched by a powerful bubble of love energy. Everything else before then is either a blur or in fragments. "So I have blunt-force amnesia... Great. That's story-time cliche number one out of the way." You start to brush leaves and flowers out of your limb holes as you comment, "At least I can still remember my rank and drone number; Specialist 815." Deciding that you could get a better view of where you are from above, you start to buzz your wings only to feel a sharp flash of pain. You grit your teeth as you sarcastically grumble, "Guess flight's not an option. Just when I thought my wings couldn't get any better..." You sigh at the fact that due to an abnormality in your wing tendons, you could only fly short distances at most. "Might as well run a full systems check." you mutter to yourself, "Magic..." Your horn glows as you telekinetically lift up a stick and a stone. "Check..." you confirm as you drop them, "Disguise." With that, you briefly get engulfed in green fire and standing in your place is a red unicorn with a yellow mane & tail and a black jacket. "Chec- Ow!" You feel another flash of pain in your head as your disguise fails. "Uncheck..." you groan, "Must have banged my skull harder than I thought… Changelings?" You focus your senses as you start sweeping in a circle trying to sense members of your Hive, but you can not sense even the tiniest trace of other changelings. "Also uncheck... Or would that be an 'X' or a blank or... Gah, Focus bug!" After giving up on finding others from the Hive, you summarize, "Okay... Flight, disguises, and reinforcements are out, but I can still use magic and walk and chew bubblegum at the same time." After turning your head to get another sweep of the area you think, "Better get moving. I'm sure I can get an idea where I am eventually." With that said, you begin walking through this dense forest... ONE HOUR LATER "Okay... This forest is bigger than I thought, but I WILL get an idea as to where I am." A FEW HOURS LATER "Okay, maybe I only have a slight idea where I am, but that doesn't mean I'm los-" A FEW MORE HOURS LATER Equestria girls. We're pony-fabulous. Fast, fine, fierce. We trot till we dro-*trip WHAM* "Ow..." HALF AN HOUR LATER "Buck it. I'm lost." you say to yourself as you continue to make your way through the forest. In your solitude, your mind can't help but wander. Feels weird being by myself for so long. Sure, I've been sent on missions before, but other changelings were never that far behind. Now that I can't feel or sense them, it feels... weird, but not in the bad way oddly enough... As you walk further into the forest, you begin to think more about the structure of your Hive. Because you were all bugs that looked the same and could disguise themselves as almost anypony, there wasn't much need for what ponies would call a "personality". It was just more convenient to just do your job as another loyal faceless drone while letting the Queen do most of the thinking. But now that you're so far away from your Hive, you can't help but feel like you want to act and think independently more instead of just being another mindless drone. As far as you can recall ("Stupid amnesia..."), there are at least 4 traits that have helped set you apart from other changelings back in the Hive (*2); One; As a hatchling, you were always good at "hide and seek" (one of the few games not frowned upon, but actually encouraged in the Hive as it improves stealth and tracking skills) and even as a grown bug, you've had a knack for evasion. Great for standard missions... Not so great when you're ordered to go along with a head-on assault on the bearers of "The Elements of Harmony". You shudder and ache as you remember you were one of the few changelings who managed to get hit by all 6 of those powerhouse mares (*3), "Mere civilians" my flank. Note to Self: Find out who's job it was to gather the intel on the Elements of Harmony and smack that moron upside the head. you think in annoyance. Two; You LOVE going to the theater. Applewood blockbusters about costumed superheroes, animated fairy tale musicals, grand sci-fi adventures involving time travel, animated Neighponese serials about spiky-maned characters declaring their fancy attacks as they hurl them at each other, even sitcom serials about mismatched roommates; you love watching them, you love referencing/quoting them, you just love them period. Not to mention that Romance movies are a great place to collect and consume love... if you can put up with the formulaic sappy writing. "Seriously, more romance movies need to be like Shauna of the Dead or The Prince Groom..." you mutter to yourself. Three; You always were a bit of a Smartass. A snarky sense of humor comes in hoofy for helping you stay calm(er) in missions and for dealing with incompetent squadmates. Although your mouth has gotten you into quite a bit of slime... Four;- Suddenly you trip over a small rock and slam face-first into a tree... Again. ...You were never exactly always in Fortuna's favor (which is a fancy-pants way of saying you're prone to bad luck). As you rub your aching face, you think, It would REALLY help if I could just figure out where the hay I am. Hay, just knowing the current date-*smack* Your thoughts are interrupted when the wind smacks you in the face with a newspaper. After you take the newspaper off your face you notice that it looks recent so you read it and it says... WHAT DO YOU SEE/DO?