//------------------------------// // Something about Us // Story: The Changeling That Bugged My Heart // by sIDsleeper //------------------------------// Chapter 5. - Something About Us Lantern woke up to the smell of food. When he opened his eyes, he thought he was still dreaming. A cheery little fire was crackling away in the pit, and next to it lay a moderate sized pile of mushrooms. Above the fire, on a makeshift skewer, was a fish being roasted. Archive was busy doing something with her back turned to him while gently humming a cute little tune to herself. With her in the way, he couldn’t see what she was working on. As he began to rise, Archive turned around to see that he was awake now. “Good morning, sleepyhead!” chirped Archive in an upbeat tone. “Good morning to you as well, Archive. Whatcha’ got there, and more importantly, why is there a dead fish above the fire?” Archive grinned at him and said, “Remember yesterday, when I showed you how I brought you water? Well, I thought that wouldn’t be the best way to go about it every time you needed to drink. Taking you to the pool would take too long, so I’ve made you a little bowl from my resin, which is why I needed the fish. I told you how I only needed to eat solid food if I wanted to make more resin. Also, after I’ve eaten the fish, I could make a proper casts for your legs. That should make it a bit easier for you to move around.” Lantern thought back to the previous day and seemed to recall her saying something like that. “Oh yeah, I do remember that.” As the pegasus stood up, he suddenly felt a pressure in his lower body. A very distinct feeling that told him his bladder was in need of evacuating its contents, and quite urgently at that. With a flustered face, he looked around for a good place to do his business, and thanks to the light of the fire, he spotted a large pile of stones that could provide him sufficient cover for taking a leak. “Erm, I’ll be right back.” he said as he started to make his way towards the stone pile with careful steps. “Need help?” asked Archive, still smiling. “W-what?” stammered Lantern. “I asked if you needed any help pissing.” Archive giggled at him with an amused look plastered on her face. Lantern’s naturally blue-grey colored face turned bright red, not unlike the ripe apples that came up to Canterlot by train with the end of every applebucking season. “I-Icanmanagethanks.” he said quickly, turning away from her to hide his embarrassment and speeding up his steps a little. Archive looked after him as he went and kept trying to stifle her laughter when she called after the hobbling pegasus. “Try not to trip or get yourself wet! I’d hate to have to keep you warm at night while you smell like urine.” When Lantern returned from relieving himself, Archive was happily munching on the roasted fish by the fire.He looked her over, she seemed to be in better shape, and in high spirits. Lantern lied down in his spot. “Feeling better?” inquired Lantern. “Thanks to you. I’m already feeling my shell starting to get a little tight around my barrel,” said Archive as she finished up her fish. She ate the whole thing, not even leaving a bone to pick her tooth with. “Tight? What do you mean? Are you getting fat?” asked Lantern jokingly. “No, silly. I’m healing. A new shell is developing under my current one. I suspect by nightfall I’m gonna at least start to shed the old shell. It’s a shame, I really liked this one. Hopefully the new one will be even better.” “How does that work? I mean, is it the same as us pegasi shedding our feathers, or when we grow our winter coats?” “Well, something like that, but instead of slowly replacing parts of our shell, we changelings moult our whole shell at the same time. I might even need some help from you to get out of my battered shell, it’s kind of awkward doing it on my own.” “I can hardly even imagine what it would feel like having to get rid of all my fur or feathers at the same time.” “Naked, exposed, vulnerable.” Archive told Lantern in a flat tone that left him feeling very uncomfortable. He suddenly felt like the changeling was getting farther away from him. Her eyes looked so distant as she stared into the flames. “This silence is terrible, I feel like I’m the last living thing in this world. Not hearing all my brothers and sisters quietly humming in my head, I’m alone.” A tear slowly rolled down her cheek. “You’re not alone!” Lantern half shouted at her. She looked up to him, her eyes focusing on his gleaming green orbs, in which she could see an entirely different flame roaring. “I-I’m here for you, and I’m sure you’re not the only changeling who survived the blast. I can help you, and together we’re going to leave this cozy little cave. So enough of this negativity, I’m sure your siblings are just as worried for you, as you are for them. They’re probably looking for you right now. All we have to do is survive until they find us, or we can leave on our own.” Archive sighed and closed her eyes to calm down. She stayed like that for a minute, and Lantern was about to say something when she suddenly popped her eyes open again and gave him a toothy grin. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. As long as you’re with me, there’s hope we can get out of here. Would...would you do me a favor?” asked Archive uncertainly. “Anything, as long as it makes you feel better,” answered Lantern without a moment of hesitation. “It’s kinda weird being alone in my head, being severed from the hivemind. Could you keep talking to me? Without my magic, I can’t even feel your presence, and that would help me to be a bit more at ease.” “Sure, but, what should I say?” “Anything at all. If you want, you can ask me anything, or how about you tell me a little about yourself, like, do you have a family back in Canterlot?” “You know what? Let’s make it interesting. After I answer, I’ll ask and then it’ll be your turn to ask again.” “Okay then. While you talk, I’ll make those casts for you. After you have your breakfast, we could do a little exploring and test the casts out.” “Sounds good to me.” smiled Lantern. Archive scooted a little closer to him and listened intently. “So, I’m from a big family. I have an older sister in Canterlot, who is also in the Guard like me. Back in Cloudsdale I have a twin brother and two younger sisters, my mother and father.” “Wow, it’s like a hive of your own.” Archive said, mocking the pegasus jokingly. Their definition of ‘big family’ is obviously different. “Yeah, and sometimes my mom acts like a Queen, too!” laughed Lantern while Archive took his foreleg and broke the splint with a careful push, then spit a globule of green goo onto it and started to spread it across the injured limb with her tongue. “Dear Celestia, that is disturbing and feels so weird.” Lantern flinched away from the nymph who was idly licking his leg to form a cast over it. Archive giggled at his reaction as she finished up the first cast. As she put his leg down gently, the resin was already starting to harden on it. “So, what would you like to ask me?” “Hmmm, you said the changelings had five Queens so far, but you only mentioned the first two by name.” “You’re actually wrong, I mentioned Mother-Queen Arathea,Change-Queen Csillag and the current one, Nectar-Queen Lilith. The third was Hive-Queen Teshya. She was a bit of an oddball. She was the only Queen to be born without the Gift, but since Csillag was very old and had no successor, she decided to give her crown to the most talented and smart nymph. She was trained to be a Queen and Csillag had high hopes for her, but when the time came, she was afraid she would fail her mother. Csillag had an idea to help her, she asked her Guards to wake Arathea from her slumber. The three of them spent days in a sealed part of the hive talking. When they finally emerged from the cave, Teshya had her Gift. One that she had crafted with her own hooves. A spell that would link every changeling to her mind telepathically, essentially giving birth to what later would become the hivemind.” “The fourth Queen, Seera, was the one to give us the ability to fly, hence her title as Fly-Queen. Her time as Queen was short compared her predecessors, but the hive thrived under her rule. Her Gift opened up the possibility for us to reach pegasi territories and successfully imitate them to harvest their emotions.” “Lastly, Queen Lilith, the Nectar-Queen, gave us the ability to produce nectar, a substance that would allow us to store the harvested emotions for later usage. If she’s still alive, she is the rightful ruler of all changelings.” Lantern saw Archive’s expression turning sour for a second and decided to speak up before she could think too much about her Queen. “It’s your turn. What do you want to know?” asked Lantern, comically wiggling his eyebrows. “Feeling confident now, are you? Then how about…” Archive flashed a predatory smile and her eyes glinted dangerously in the dark as she fired her next question. “Do you have a special somepony?” Lantern visibly flinched at the question and flushed in a second, suddenly feeling uncomfortably hot, sitting by the fire. ‘Bullseye,’ thought Archive. “N-no.” Confessed the pegasus, drooping his head a little. “I had my fair share of mares, but none of them worked out that way.” “Really? I thought a fine specimen like yourself would already be caught and tied to a bedpost by the hooves of a noblemare.” Lantern’s eyes widened as he looked up at her. “Wait, that was you?” he asked in a surprised tone. Archive froze for a second. “You have got to be shitting me!” She started to laugh so hard she rolled onto her back and flailed her hooves in the air. When she finally got herself under control she asked Lantern while still giggling. “Did that actually happen?” “Oh sweet Celestia, I don’t know how to keep my mouth shut.” groaned Lantern. “So it wasn’t you then?” “No...haha, no way, I’m not a Siren. I only ever had go out to gather emotions one time, and it wasn’t even in Canterlot.” Archive kept laughing. “But now that I know, you have to tell me the whole story. I’ll start on the other cast while you talk, just give me your leg.” Lantern obeyed and stretched his hind leg so Archive could begin working on it. “Goddesses, this is so embarrassing. Anyway, there’s this bunch of Night Guards of Luna’s. They call themselves Daywalkers or something like that. Me and Rusty usually go out to drink with them after our shift is over. One night their CO, a grumpy fellow by the name of Midnight Peril, invited us to a new bar in the upper city. It was a fancy place where we spent a quiet night, just drinking and talking. I got absolutely wasted and Peril took the chance to hook me up with a mare. She was beautiful, but the only thing I remember is waking up in a cheap motel room with a killer headache, chained to the bed, alone. It was the only time I ever heard Peril laughing, as he stood outside the brig I got locked up in. He has a twisted kind of humor I tell ya!” “That’s low, even from a friend.” chuckled Archive. Her chuckling turned into a hacking cough as she gasped for air. She started scraping at her chest with the sharp edge of the largest hole on her hoof. The glow in her eyes started to sporadically vibrate and dim as she was losing oxygen. She pushed herself to talk, but all she could force out of her mouth was “Lantern...air..”, then she thumped on her chest with her hoof and added “...break.” Panic gripped Lantern as he looked around for something to help Archive with. He was on his hooves before he could even realise it. His eyes were scanning the immediate area around them frantically, and finally, he spotted a piece of rock that had a decent size and a sharp edge. He grabbed at it, but by the time he turned back with the stone, Archive had collapsed to the floor on her back. Lantern jumped back beside her and lifted the stone above his head, angling the sharp part of the stone downwards in his hooves. He brought down the stone on her chest hard, but the angle was off, and the hit was deflected off her ring plates. He decided to try with the blunt side of the stone, and the second hit made a spiderweb shaped crack in the hard chitin. He dropped the stone and started to pry the plates away with his hooves. He went for the parts where Archive indicated, presuming that’s where her lungs were constricted by the outgrown shell. When Lantern dropped the broken pieces of chitin, he saw that she still wasn’t breathing. His mind was racing, adrenaline coursing through him from hooves to wingtips. Seconds ticked by feeling, like ages to him, when his training flashed before him and a thought formed in his overdriven mind. “CPR! Oh boy!” He tried to feel for Archive’s pulse, but he couldn’t tell from the hard chitin surrounding her inner body. A quickly pulsating green glow caught his eyes from the hole he made on her chest. “Her heart is still beating.” he said to himself. “Okay, I can do this.” He lowered his mouth to hers and tilted her head back to open it, then took a breath and locked his lips onto hers to begin CPR. He felt her sharp canines with his mouth. It was a bizarre feeling. Suddenly Archive grabbed his head, her forked tongue slipping into his mouth as the eerie green glow flooded her eyes completely. She was forcefully feeding on him. When she realised what was happening, she quickly pushed him away as both of them gasped for air. Her eyes returned to their usual glow and she sat up with a worried expression on her face. “Lantern! Are you alright? Did I hurt you?” she asked, shying away from him a bit. Lantern staggered back a little. He shook his dazed head. “N-no, I’m okay. Wow.” “Are you sure? You seem a little winded.” “Just,” his cheeks reddened as he recalled the feeling of her tongue caressing his’ “Just surprised is all. You scared me there.” he said. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to feed on you.” she looked down at her hooves in shame. “No, its not that, but I have to tell you, never have I been kissed like that before. My knees are still shaking.” joked Lantern with a relieved sigh. “Are you alright?” “I’m so sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose, it was a reflex.” Archive tried to explain. “Archive! Never mind that. Are you feeling alright?” Lantern asked her pointedly slowly. When Archive could see that he wasn’t upset about her drawing on his emotions, and that he was okay, she calmed down and said “Yeah, I can breath again. Thank you.” “Thank the Goddesses!” sighed Lantern. “Now we have to postpone the exploring.” Archive said. “What?” “Once my old shell is off, it’ll take a day before the new one hardens, and I’m able to move again. The soft shell wouldn’t be able to support my body weight.” “Are emotions that fattening?” asked Lantern with a snort. “Ha-ha! I’m cracking up over here.” said Archive sarcastically. “Don’t even mention ‘cracking’! The sound your carapace made when I broke it sent shivers down my back. Anyway, as long as you’re not dying, I’m completely fine with having to pass up on wandering a dark cave.” Lantern looked at the hole he made on her chest and lifted a hoof to point at it. “Doesn’t that hurt?” Archive looked down to where he was looking. “Oh, no. It’s already detached from the new rings under it. Nice job on breaking it though. Do you think you can help me remove the rest of it?” “Sure, just give me a minute to catch my breath.” It took most of the day for the two of them to get every piece of chitin armor off Archive’s body. Lantern helped where he could, braking up her carapace, but removing the plates and the delicate parts like the horn, or her broken wings, Archive wanted to do on her own. She slowly and carefully took off the last piece from her head, like taking a helmet off. When she was free of her old shell, Lantern looked her over. She really did look naked, just like she had mentioned before. The soft new shell was semi transparent, and had a foggy white color as the fire’s light shone on it, but the part that made her look truly bare, was the fact that he could literally see inside the changeling. Her organs were glowing with the same color as her eyes. Her whole body was glowing from the inside, and Lantern could see her heart beating, her blood flowing and her lungs extending with every breath she took. “The way I see it, we’re not so different as I first thought afterall.” mused Lantern as he thought back to his anatomy classes back when he was a colt. “Your organs are pretty much the same as anypony’s.” then he added “Well, except the for color of your blood, and the glow.” “And also the very obvious dietary difference, and of course our hearts.” Archive said matter of factly. “We are originated from the same ancient equestrians as you ponies are, but our family is a much younger branch of that lineage.” “So what’s the difference in our hearts?” Lantern asked with genuine curiosity. “First of all, stop staring! You’re not going to see it like this, and it’s embarrassing to be watched so intensely.” “Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean to do that.” apologised Lantern. “It’s okay. Anyway, the difference is that the heart of a changeling doubles as a second stomach, that’s capable of converting the gathered emotions into energy that our body uses as fuel. It is also responsible for producing our nectar. Should a changeling gather excess amounts of emotional energy, then we can store the nectar the same way as the bees store their honey.” “That’s kind of impressive. I guess that’s a much better way to handle overeating than what I usually do after Heart’s Warming dinner.” “Which is?” tilted her head Archive. “Barf!” stated Lantern proundly. “Eww, Lantern! Gross!” They started laughing, and when their laughs died down Archive yawned, which in turn made Lantern yawn. “How about we turn in for the day? I’m pretty tired, and I guess you’re even more exhausted than I am.” offered Lantern. “That sounds great.” said Archive drowsily. “Good night, Archive!” “G’night Lantern!” answered the nymph, already half asleep.