Sombra approached with a menacing sneer. "What powerful blasts you've been firing, stallion. I could see your horn flashing from across the field."
Stallion? To hear himself referred as something other than a colt by an enemy was new and confusing. He hunched a little even as Tumble rushed to get between the two. "Is this what she would have wanted? Is this what you want for Radian--"
A sudden wave of darkness sent Silver flying, spinning backwards and landing flat on his back. The shiny helmet of a fallen guard showed the face that looked back at him was different than the Silver he knew. He really was a stallion, grown, even aged a little. Had he not gotten an age-regression in that world?
"You're not worthy of even speaking her name," growled Sombra in his slow advance. Tumble suddenly slammed a hoof into the side of his face. His expression was that of triumph before Sombra leveled an unamused glare at the stallion and began staring deep into his eyes. "Pathetic worm. Wait your... turn." His horn flashed with dark purples and greens as Tumble was tossed away, rolling across the ground. "Now where were we--"
Everything suddenly faded.
Silver was seated at a table. Celestia, Twilight, and Luna were seated as well, and they were talking and sharing cookies. Nothing was wrong with... It was a dream. Had he been knocked unconscious in the battle?
"Something wrong?" Twilight tilted her head at him. "Oh, maybe it's time for some private study?" He felt her wing reaching under the table in a soft brushing of his bare leg. Bare?
Silver glanced down and saw he was human, least, dreaming he was human. He focused his mind and became Silver Watch suddenly.
This surprised all three mares. Luna tilted her head. "Well, if you prefer to be a stallion, who are we to argue." She rose and presented her rump. "I am certain you will give us quite the ride."
Silver blinked softly. That was too much. What sort of dream was this? He tried clawing mentally towards wakefulness, and it came suddenly.
He fluttered open his eyes in a green pod. He could see a window in front of him in the liquid chamber and reached for it, only to see that he had a hand to do so with, not a hoof. He really was a human! It wasn't a dream anymore, that much he was certain.
None of it made any sense at all... If Twilight and Starlight's conflict had created a change, fine, but twice? How could that be? He should be in whatever the end result is, right? Maybe? Either way, he was in that pod and he didn't like it one bit, to say nothing of being human again after he had so long accepted and thrived on being a pony.
He banged on the pod, but it only made low muffled thuds. Despite breathing in the gunk, he didn't feel like he was drowning, so at least there was that. Leaning in closer, he peered outside to see a vast changeling hive, filled with busy changelings of many sizes and varieties.
One of those many changelings came towards his pod with a slight tilt to its head. It reared up and tapped at the window. "Are you awake?" it asked with a soft buzz. "Go back to sleep. You'll be happier that way, promise."
"No." Silver gave an impotent kick at the side of the pod, doing little but bruising a toe in the process, What were those things made of? "Let me out!"
"I can't do that." The changeling tilted its head left and right. "I'll get a leader to decide." Its wings extended sharply and it lifted into the air, buzzing away to join the heavy traffic of the hive.
Would the leader be salvation, or damnation? Silver frowned at the thought, but couldn't see any way to bust out of the pod he was in. Robbed of the magic he had become so reliant on, he felt naked and helpless, which, on thinking about it, he kind of was, minus being awake and all.
He pushed to the side of the pod and it wobbled ever so faintly. Maybe... He began bouncing back and forth, rocking the pod with his motions more and more with every push until, with a muffled snap, the pod fell with Silver to the floor. The goop around him absorbed much of the shock, even if he bounced off the bottom and was left dizzy a moment. He did it! He... was on the ground instead of hanging. That was... something?
He snapped his fingers with a sudden idea and got to pushing again, rolling the pod like a barrel from the inside.
He was falling. Was there a ledge that close? Silver panicked as the acceleration seemed to be constant. He would splatter nicely on whatever he struck.
The motion suddenly began to slow and he could hear buzzing. The pod touched down upright as a figure stepped closer. She looked familiar...
"Meal, you're supposed to dream about happy things."
That voice... "Fast Change?"
The changeling, larger than the others, blinked with surprise. "How do you know my name?" She put a hoof to the opening in the pod, tapping on the clear... glass? "Hairless ape, have my drones been talking about me?"
"N-no! Fast Change, look..." Everything was different. Time was different... Did that mean... "You were a unicorn until not that long ago."
Fast raised a brow before a flash of green revealed her in her ruddy-red glory. "Like this? Hmmph, you really do love ponies." She pressed her face against the pod's opening. "But changelings are better. Why don't you accept our love? The ponies can't do anything to help you now. It's just a matter of days before we crush out the last of their pathetic 'resistance'."
Silver knocked on the clear opening. "Can we talk, face to face?" Not being in the pod would be a step in the right direction, or so he figured.
"Take him to processing node 52." Fast pointed in the desired direction and the pod lifted again. Looking out, Silver could see it was being carried along by several drones that whisked it along. The hive was just as busy as he had seen at first glance. Entire traffic lanes full of busy changelings rushed to and fro to whatever duties called to them.
He frowned with thought. Had the invasion of Canterlot gone exceedingly poorly? If so, Fast would have been snatched up in school, and her tenuous nature was brought to the surface perhaps? He raised a brow, wondering if Fast Change had avoided changelings entirely in the last timeline, with the war overwhelming everything. There was a good chance Fast was pressed to service instead of ever learning advanced shapeshifting magic. That would be--
His pod was set down in a largely white room and the drones flew away without looking back.
It was quiet in the room. The noise of the hive was silenced the moment the last changeling left and the orifice-like opening squeezed shut. Silver was alone with his thoughts. He scowled as he patted himself down. He wasn't just older, he was fatter. He must have been snatched right as he arrived, or so he figured. He was also... human. It felt so alien... The fact that it was alien bothered him a little. That intense sensation of being in the wrong body wound his mental gears tighter and tighter.
Why hadn't he felt this particularly awful when he had become a pony? The answer came easily to him. He had been surrounded by sympathetic people he trusted. Rough and Trixie, to be specific. Both were there at his side and took him in as their foal with open hooves and gentle smiles. They loved him. Love was a powerful thing, if it had eased the building pain deep in his stomach all that time ago.
The noise of the hive suddenly returned. Fast was stepping in from outside. "Now, how did you find out about me?" The portal sealed behind her, blocking the noise. "You're awfully clever for a meal."
Entreating her with whispers from another timeline felt like a good way to creep her out, but that was far from the goal. "Fast, do you know what I am?"
She raised a brow. "Not particularly. The one of your kind we kept for questioning said something about hew mans." She leaned forward with a dangerous expression. "Are you willing to reveal more to us then?"
Silver glanced around. "Perhaps, if you would let me the heck out of here."
Fast wobbled a hoof. "I could do that... but why? I hold all the cards here. You can stay quiet, if you prefer. I lose basically nothing."
"What if I want to be closer to you?"
Fast blinked at Silver owlishly before a laugh erupted from her. "The drones were right, you are a depraved little whatever you are." She waved at the pod and it suddenly split open, sending Silver to the floor in a heap. "I haven't fed in the old fashioned way in a while. Amuse me, meal."
Silver picked himself off the ground, standing awkwardly on two legs. He felt like he'd topple over at any moment. His fists remained balled up in loose approximation of hooves and... his butt kind of itched, perhaps where a tail should be. Everything was so incredibly wrong. "I know a lot about humans, their nature and makeup. Even where they come from."
"Is that so..." Fast strode towards him slowly. "You seem very... cooperative. Please, do go on."
Silver fell between worlds. Fast was gone, as was the hive. Even Silver felt like he was gone, but he felt the return of having a form coming. He was a pony again. He was sure of it from the gentle sway of his tail and the pricking twitching of his ears. Relief flowed thickly through him just before he suddenly woke up on a hard floor. The motion of his head raising made a chain rattle softly.
He looked off towards the sound and saw that he had a collar with a thick chain trailing off into the darkness. He seemed to be in some kind of bed chambers? Everything was dark and purple and quiet. Where, or when, had he landed?