As the Bug pony landed behind us, I heard Candlelight, my mother, give a small scream and start to pull on my hoof to get me to move faster. As we tried to get away from it, I tripped from the slight increase in speed, and fell over, my hoof getting trapped under a trashcan that had gotten knocked over from my fall. I couldn’t get out. “Mom!” I shouted trying to get her attention.
She turned around and looked at me, then at the Bug Pony and yelled my name “Meadow!” She looked conflicted. She wanted to run but she didn’t want to leave me behind. All the while I could hear that Bug Pony walking up behind me. “Mom!” I shouted again. “Go mom! Run!” I didn’t want her to risk herself for me. And I could see that she was crying.
The Bug Pony was getting closer.
“Meadow! I’ll come back for you!” My mother had shouted back.
“Mom! Run!” I was crying now. And I saw her turn and rush down the alley, turning out into the street. Right As the Bug Pony sounded like it was right behind me.
I held my breath…not wanting to make a sound, just in case it didn’t see me. It had stopped behind me, probably waiting for me to drop my guard so that it could gobble me up.
I heard it start to move again, its hooves clopping on the ground as it walked around the over turned trashcan. I raised my hooves in front of my face, hoping he wouldn’t see me. As the Bug Pony walked around the trashcan, I looked up slightly to see it’s hole covered legs.
I let out a little squeak before shrinking back behind my hooves. It walked a little more, and I heard it come to a stop right in front of me. It was waiting for me to look at it, if I look at it, it will gobble me up. I was shaking so hard.
“Hey.” I heard it say, its voice was all strange sounding. Like a rubber band was twanging in the background. I kept myself hidden.
I heard a soft clunk, like it was laying down right in front of me. I can’t look at it…
“Hey.” It said again, softer this time. Almost as though it was trying to comfort me, the twanging sound in its voice was going away. It’s trying to trick me…don’t look at it…
“Hey kid…” It said again. All vibration in its voice gone, it sounded concerned. “How old are you?”
I was confused by the strange question. Why did this monster want to know my age? Did it only like little ponies when they were good and old? “I-I-I’m-m-m f-f-five…” I stuttered. I was still shaking from fear.
“Are you afraid of me?” The Bug Pony had asked it as though it was concerned again. I just nodded my head.
“Are you hurt?” The Bug Pony asked. It sounded genuinely concerned for me. I nodded again. And the Bug Pony stood up and walked next to me. I felt the trashcan move off of my leg, and I stopped shaking.
“Does it still hurt?”
I shook my head. I refused to stand up.
“What’s your name?”
“M-m-Mead-dow S-s-song.”
“Meadow Song?”
I nodded. I still refused to look up.
“Stand up for me…” The Bug Pony replied. I wasn’t going to until I heard it say “Please.” Monsters don’t say please.
I stood up, my eyes still foggy, as I looked at the hole filled hooves of the Bug Pony.
“Hey,” it said placing a cold hoof to my chin and lifted my head up to look at his face. “Don’t be afraid.” He looked different…his eye was…strange. One eye was solid blue, but the other was orange. I couldn’t tell you what it was. But it looked like he was in pain. I cleared my tears with my hoof.
Though his face quickly changed when his ears perked up and more of the Bug Ponies landed around us.
One of the larger ones walked up to the Bug Pony. “Great job Nymph.” It said with a pleased expression. “First a Royal Guard and now a filly? Keep this up and you’ll be one of the Queen’s Elites in no time.”
The Bug Pony gave the new arrivals a stern look. He didn’t look happy to see them.
“Excellent deception, you didn’t even have to disguise to get her to trust you. I’m impressed.” The big Bug Pony was looking at me. Almost like he was sizing me up. “Well she is your catch. So she’s yours.”
The big Bug Pony was looking at the Bug Pony expectantly. When nothing happened he looked back at me. “Are you going to-?”
“No. I can’t.” The Bug Pony said looking back to me.
“What do you mean Nymph? Of course you can.” The Big Bug Pony said catching me in his green magic and lifting me up to stare right into his blue eyes. “Here I’ll show you.”
The Big Bug Pony opened his mouth, staring right at me. But before he got a chance to do anything. The Bug Pony flicked the Big Bug Pony’s horn, forcing him to drop me.
The Big Bug Pony didn’t look too happy about that, “What in the Hive are you doing Nymph?”
“It isn’t that I can’t drain her. I won’t drain her.”
“And why not?” The Big Bug Pony asked.
“Oh for the love of…Look at Her Spine!” The Bug Pony nearly shouted. “She is just a child!”
“I can see that Nymph.” The Big Bug Pony, or Spine replied. “Which means she is full of Love…sweet…unconditional love.”
“You want to know what is holding me back? Morals. Soldiers? Fine. Civilians? I would prefer not to. But Children?” Nymph seemed very serious about these morals he had. Why weren’t all the Bug Ponies like him? “I refuse to seriously injure a child. Under any circumstance.”
“Sadly Nymph,” Spine replied. “We don’t have those morals. We serve to better the hive. If you would stand in the way of that, then you are an enemy.”
The other Bug Ponies started to lower themselves down, almost as if ready to pounce on us. The two of us backed up towards a nearby wall. The other Bug Ponies encircled us. Nymph kept me behind him the entire time. When we almost ran out of room, he talked to me while keeping his eyes on the incoming Bug Ponies.
“Meadow…I need you to do something very important alright?”
“Uh-huh”
“Climb onto my back. And hold on…don’t let go…no matter what. Got it?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Alright climb on…” He ducked down to let me climb onto his back. I wrapped my hooves around his neck, and held on tight.
“Ready?” He asked.
“Mm-hm” I replied.
“Good” Nymph said, his horn glowing green, before he placed it on the ground and dragged it in a half circle around us. Where his horn touched, green fire erupted out of the ground. “Hold on!” He spread his insect wings and took off. They flapped so fast. And made a nice buzzing sound.
After Shade took off, Meadow Song clinging to his back, he immediately tried to fly towards where he saw her mother go earlier. Though he would not voice it to the little…Filly? Yeah filly. He wasn’t sure whether he was going to be able to find her mother, especially with all this chaos. The only thing he could hope for is that no other Changelings would question why he had a filly attached to his back… In fact the only Changeling he really wanted to meet was…
“Hey Snake Eye!”
Speak of the devil…
Darkblaze was flying down to where Shade was quickly flying to try and get away from Spine.
“Uh…Snake-Eye? You know that there’s-?”
“Yes I noticed Jack Ass!” Shade was not about to deal with Darkblaze being a joker while he was running from a Changeling who had more experience in the body than he did. Whether he had more combat experience was debatable.
“Hey I was just asking.” Darkblaze looked at Shade. “What’s gotten you so wound up?”
“Is it really that obvious?”
“Yeah well…you aren’t exactly trying to dampen your emotions are you?”
Crap… Shade had to focus really quick on that, one of the basic techniques, made so you couldn’t just be found via your emotions.
“There you go. Now uhh….where did you pick up the filly?”
Shade sighed. “Do you believe in the Hive fully?”
“Meaning what?” Darkblaze asked.
“Are you willing to harm a filly if it can be avoided?”
Darkblaze was tapping his chin with his hoof, thinking about it. “If it could be fully avoided I wouldn’t. Why?”
“Spine wanted to ‘drain’ her. I wasn’t going to let that happen.” Shade said. Then turning to Darkblaze he saw the look of shock. Whether this is because of what Shade did or what Spine did was up to debate.
“You’re sure it was Spine?” Darkblaze asked.
“Oh yeah.” Shade replied. Looking over his shoulder. “Ask him yourself.”
Darkblaze looked behind them and saw Spine and his little patrol of Changelings following them. Spine was eyeing Shade specifically. “Yikes…He’s a bit…different.”
“Yeah see-ya…gotta lose ‘em.” Shade said as he made a 90 degree turn facing up to the sky. “Close your eyes kid.” He was lucky that his draconic eye was easily adjusting to this…otherwise this would end very badly. After he was well above the limits of the city, he closed his wings and turned to face the ground. Swiftly changing from flying to falling. He had to be sure that he didn’t mess this part up…
As he hurtled towards the ground, he tried to think about the green missiles he saw in his dreams… hopefully this works…
When he looked at his body, he noticed the green shield had formed around it. Now he just needed…
CRACK
He had managed to hit Spine right in the chest. Sending both of them careening towards the ground. “KID HOLD ON!” He shouted as he grabbed Meadow with his hooves and tightly wrapped her in front of him, hoping that his back would take most of the fall.
He just barely managed to correct himself, turning so he crashed through one of the large buildings with his back while keeping Meadow safe. However he did not plan for the second impact.
When he hit the hard stone floor, his grip faltered and he dropped Meadow to skid along the ground. And then Shade heard two things…neither of them good. The first was a very noticeable cracking sound, which turned out to be his Carapace gaining a rather large fracture, the second was the sound of shattering glass as it fell on top of him, scattering over his body. Luckily he didn’t hear anything squish, so hopefully Meadow is okay.
He struggled to stand up but found that he couldn’t place any pressure on his back left leg. Apparently that is where the fracture was located. This caused him to limp heavily. Oh and apparently he had something caught on his horn.
He moved a hoof to grab it and found that it was actually a sheath, with a rather large knife inside of it. Granted it was probably at most only 10 inches, but that was all he needed. He slung it around his back and pulled the belt strap with his teeth. Which was very strange.
“Meadow?” He shouted out. “Meadow? Meadow Song? Where are you?”
Shadow could hear a small whimpering sound coming from a nearby fallen tapestry. Shade limped over and began trying to move the tapestry. “Meadow? Are you alright?”
“I’m…fine…” Shade let out a small sigh. Sure he had a broken leg and probably a few other injuries he didn’t feel at the time. But on the bright side, he could probably still fly, he had no new holes in his wing, and his only real disguise was a pegasi, so he wasn’t too torn up over his leg, and now he had something that he was familiar with…but aside from that, the fact that Meadow is fine was all Shade needed to hear right now.
After he managed to get all of the tapestry off of Meadow, the little filly looked up at him and practically shrieked. “Can we do that again?”
Shade couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Not right now… Maybe later. Now hop on…” Shade lowered himself down, being very careful not to put any pressure on his left leg. “Now try not to move around too much.” Shade said as Meadow wrapped her hooves around his neck. “My leg took quite a beating in that fall.”
“Alright Mr. Nymph.” The Little Filly said with a slight giggle.
“My name isn’t Nymph, Meadow.” Shade said happily as he walked through the hole that was probably broken through by a Changeling. He had been looking at Meadow on his back and not paying attention when he walked out of the building. “It’s-“
“Changeling!” said a white unicorn in golden armor as Shade walked out of the building. Almost instantly, he was met with at least five spear heads pointing at his throat.
“Crap…” Shade mumbled, knowing there was no way out of his current situation without putting either his own or Meadow’s life in danger. So he just stood there, not wanting to move for fear it would be taken as an aggressive act.
“Meadow?” Came a familiar voice…Shade heard it before…but…
“Mom?” Meadow had replied.
“Meadow!” A cream colored unicorn was shouting over the heads of the soldiers. It was the same one that he saw earlier but his attention was more geared towards the castle. His left eye was picking up something strange, the building was glowing with a bright pink fire, and every one of his senses was telling him this was bad.
“Meadow...” Shade was whispering to her. “Hold on tight…do not let go…”
“But my mom…” Shade saw the pink fire; it was getting brighter, almost like staring at a sun.
“Meadow…hold on…” Shade was mumbling as the spearheads got closer. But Shade was more focused on the nova forming around the castle. Which was now looking like it was… oh no…
“MEADOW! HOLD ON!”
From the castle, a large ball of pink energy was growing out from the castle, like some kind of spell, or shield…it was growing quickly. And Shade could see the Changelings being blasted back by it, and he was not too far away…
The blast hit Shade like an oncoming truck. Lifting him up into the air, along with Meadow, and launching them over the walls of the city. Shade could barely make out the cream colored unicorn shouting “MEADOW! THAT’S MY DAUGHTER!” While Meadow was shouting “MOM!”
While all Shade could hear was screaming. Whether it was his or Meadow’s he couldn’t tell. What he could tell was that both of them were being flung through the air very fast and they were also spinning, so that wasn’t very helpful in determining which direction they were flying, but he suddenly realized they were losing altitude. And there appeared to be a rather large stretch of forest. Please land somewhere soft…
“MEADOW!” was all he managed to say, right before everything turned black…