The Badlands, three days after Twilight’s awakening.
“Sergeant, report!” barked Shining Armor with authority.
“Oh let’s see, rocks… rocks and, oh! More rocks! Just like the last Celestia knows how many times you asked,” Longshot responded snidely, peering down the scope on his crossbow.
“Watch your tone soldier!”
“Oh come on cap, it’s the three of us in the middle of nowhere, can we cut the command structure crap?”
“He has a point…” Vladimir added.
“Not you too!” Shining stomped both forelegs.
“Well Shining, this mission is tedious enough as it is, no need to make it more so.”
“What we need is discipline, I would of thought the Captain of the Lunar Guard would understand that!”
“We have Princess Luna as a role model, have you seen half of what she gets up to at the castle? She puts most pranksters to shame with her collection of whoopee cushions.”
“Oh, I heard about that! I can only imagine the nobles' faces when Celestia sat down for court!” Longshot laughed.
“Yeah, actually Celestia can be just as bad sometimes,” Shining admitted. “Sibling rivalry is a hell of a thing.”
“We all heard what happened at the gala…” Vladimir added.
Longshot holstered his crossbow and turned to face Shining. “If the princesses can push all that ‘discipline’ to one side every now and then, I’m sure you can too.”
Shining looked between the adamant faces of his peers, before groaning in frustration. “Fine, have it your way.”
The three armoured stallions continued to make their way through the Badlands, a highly inhospitable place that was seemingly just sand and rock for miles and miles on end. Each of them had saddle bags filled to the brim with supplies, namely water to keep the most dangerous predator of the Badlands at bay, dehydration. They hadn’t spotted any signs of life at all within the last couple of days, not a single vulture, insect or any other animal, never mind changelings. The three trudged on for a few more hours in silence before anypony spoke again.
“So what’s with Commander Broad Sword anyway?” Vladimir asked Shining. “He hardly seemed the character to be put in charge of apprehending any infiltrators.”
“He acted out of line, but believe me when I say he’s a good pony. I’ve known him ever since I attended the academy, and he is dedicated to protecting the innocent, no matter the species. He may have been angry after the wedding, but I trust him to do his job in a professional manner, doing otherwise would be completely out of character for him."
“I hope you’re right, Shining Armor…”
Longshot let out a groan. “How could anypony survive out here?” he asked to nopony in particular.
The sun had begun to lower readying for the coming of the night. The twilight sky glistened above them.
“Changelings must have a way, though just what that way is stumps me,” Shining replied.
“Are you sure they are even out here, Captain? What if the Queen deliberately misled us?”
“That’s kind of the whole point of this expedition, to confirm whether the hive is out here or not.”
Vladimir held up a hoof to signal the others to stop. “We should rest here for the night.”
Shining nodded. “Agreed. Longshot, you’ve got first watch.”
“Sure,” Longshot half-heatedly saluted. “Heading to rock watching duty on the double.” Shining gave him a pointed look. Longshot rolled his eyes and stood to full attention. “I mean, reporting for first watch, sir.”
With Longshot on lookout Vladimir and Shining got to work, a small cooking fire was set up, sleeping bags rolled out and rations arranged for the night. As night finally rolled in they sat by the fire, enjoying the warmth as the heat of the day gave way to the unforgiving cold of the night.
“Huh, look what I found in the bag,” Vladimir chuckled as he pulled out a small plastic bag.
“Marshmallows? Longshot…” Shining sighed. “So much for essential items only.”
“He is quite a character that one, are all military ponies like this?”
“You always get the smart mouth or the ‘oddity’ of the group. Look at Pinkie Pie.”
“The Bearer of Laughter? Yes I have heard of her… quirks.”
“Considering she comes from a family of rock farmers.”
“Rock farmers? Now there’s a profession you don’t see much anymore. The Pie’s must be quite old fashioned.”
“They are.”
Vladimir looked down at the marshmallows with a slight smirk. “Well, since these are here it would be a shame to waste them. It’s also a shame that there seem to only be enough for two ponies.”
Tearing the packet the two carefully distributed the treats evenly, all while making sure the occupied Longshot didn’t take any notice. They cooked them on the open flame, Shining held his in his magical aura while Vladimir used one of Longshot’s spare crossbow bolts.
“Twilight and I used to do this…”
Vladimir looked up at Shining, who had a sad, faraway look in his eyes.
“When she was a filly we would go into the back garden of our family’s estate, pitch a tent and cook marshmallows on an open flame. Then, before we hit the hay, I would read her a story of her choosing; she would sit silently as sleep slowly took her. Even when I joined the guard and she became Celestia’s pupil we would still find the time to continue that age old tradition of ours, even if it became a rarity. Then she moved to Ponyville…”
“Well, maybe when we get her back, you should make reviving that tradition of yours a priority.”
“Yeah… perhaps we should.”
…
“They might be underground,” Vladimir said suddenly.
“Huh?” Shining threw him a confused look.
“The changelings, it might be possible for them to survive the harshness of this place by being underground. A cavern with an underground water supply, protection from the sun… it’s how I would do it. Hay, it’s how my kind used to live, except that was within a mountain, not a forsaken wasteland.”
Shining mused for a moment, before nodding his head. “It’s certainty plausible, though that makes finding them all the harder.”
“They must have an entrance somewhere, several even.”
“Vlad, don’t you think that a species relying on stealth, and remaining unseen, would hide their entrances? A perception filter for instance.”
“Yes… keep your eyes peeled as we travel.”
“For what?”
“If you see anything odd, notable, ignore it. But if you see something so ordinary, something that makes your senses scream to move on to something else, we may have just found a perception filter.”
“You realise we're in a wasteland right?”
“Yes, but you see all these rock formations popping out all around us. I’m talking about a patch of complete nothingness, just… empty, completely empty.”
“Huh, you certainly seem to be in the know about these things.”
Vladimir smirked. “Luna taught me a few things.”
“Captains!” Longshot called in an urgent whisper, causing both stallions to swivel round to the tense looking sergeant.
“Get over here!” he beckoned.
Both Shining and Vlad moved over to Longshot’s position, the pony in question was pointing at something while looking down his weapons scope.
“Changelings. Three of them.”
Shining peered over at the distant group, there appeared to be three individuals in what seemed to be explorer attire. Two of them appeared to be unicorns while the third had the unmistakable profile of a changeling, and one of the ‘unicorns’ seemed to be heavily berating the unfortunate drone.
“I spotted three unicorns in the distance,” Longshot started. “But after a moment one of their disguises failed, and it would seem his superior didn’t take too kindly to the blunder.”
“This is perfect!” Shining exclaimed, quietly. “They could lead us right back to their hive!”
“Agreed,” Vladimir said with a nod. “But we should proceed with caution.”
The three quietly moved back to their camp and quickly packed their things, making sure the changeling group didn’t move too far off into the distance.
As Longshot packed his bags he noticed something… off.
“Guys - Where are my marshmallows?”
A little bit away from the Equestrians another group of changelings in blue armour hid within a small ditch, watching the group as they finished packing and began to follow their targets.
“They’ve taken the bait,” one of them reported.
“Very good,” the Commander of the group acknowledged. “Beta Squad, you have the Equestrians right of your tail.”
“Understood Commander, we will act none the wiser.”
“Delta Squad, are you in position?”
“Affirmative, we are ready and waiting.”
“Excellent, they should reach you by morning.”
The Commander looked up from the ditch again to see the Equestrians moving off into the distance, he quickly motioned to the others to return to the hive and he quietly followed them. All the while Shining, Vladimir and Longshot all followed the other group as discreetly as possible, completely unaware of the trap awaiting them.