Being Late Never Killed Anyone....Yet(2)
'Almost there. They may not even notice I wasn't there if I'm lucky.' Mantis thought hopefully, for a second that is, 'Oh who am I kidding? They'll find out and then they'll make me work quadruple shifts or work the worst job all alone! I'll never be able to play with June again and she's gonna go out and get herself hurt and I won't be there...' Mantis' mental rant was starting to interfere with his sneaking performance. Before he knew it, he rammed face first into someling, causing him to stumble for a bit.
“Hey, watch it, yo-” His words died in his mouth when he saw that he had ran face first into Queen Chrysalis' flanks. The Queen! The insult on his tongue came out as a strangled, “Erpk!” As she turned to face him, Mantis unsucessfully tried to bury himself and die from sheer embarrasment. It's called solid rock for a reason.
The Queen said something, but Mantis was too embarrassed to comprehend it. “Um, what?” 'Way to make a first impression, idiot!' Mantis thought to himself. It was at that moment that he noticed the two guards behind her and the drone that supervised his work, the latter scowling at him the most. As if his day couldn't get any worse!
“I said, 'Why are you in such a hurry, my little drone?'” the Queen asked in a firm tone.
“Oh, well, I-uh, was late to work.” A deeper scowl from his supervisor forced him to add, “Very late, your majesty.”
“I see.” Chrysalis said, “And why is that?” Her tone was like a mother knowing that her children did wrong and that they had better give her a good reason not to ground them.
Mantis gulped, “I was trying to get my sister back to the pods and she kept wanting to play in the unregistered tunnels.” He tried to shink even more when the Queen bent her head closer to his.
“I hope you know that those tunnels can be quite dangerous.” she said scoldingly, “We are already few enough in numbers. I'd rather not lose any more. Speaking of which, why were your parents not watching her?”
Mantis looked away, “They're....missing. I don't even know if thy're still alive or not.”
Chrysalis' eyes softened, along with her voice, “I'm sorry. I pray that you find them one day.”
“So do I.” Mantis murmured under his breath. Out of the corner of his eye, the Queen raised her head and cleared her throat.
“While we sorrow for your loss, there is work to be done and we need every changeling available. Move along to your post.” she said regally. Mantis scurried along with a quick “Yes, your majesty.” and was almost home free when he stopped and turned back towards the queen.
“Um, excuse me, your majesty?” he said. 'Mantis, what are you doing?' he scolded himself, 'You were almost in the clear and now you just had to go back to the sap trap! What could possibly be so important that you have to bug the Queen again in the span of five minutes?'
Chrysalis regarded him with a curious look tinged with anger, “Yes? You have something to say?” she asked curtly.
Mantis fumbled for a second before speaking, still nervous about talking to the Queen herself, “Um, i-it's just that the place that my sister ran into...I believe that it needs to be looked into soon. I found animal bones down there.” he finished with a shudder, “They looked old, but I don't know if there's anything still living down there.”
The Queen hmmed then looked to her two guards, “Go inspect this place and report on any findings.” she turned to Mantis, “Give them directions and then be on your way. I don't want to have to increase your workload on account of your tardiness.”
Mantis nodded furiously. He quickly gave the guards the directions before running full tilt towards the tunnels he was assigned to.
*****
“Jeez, how far down does this thing go?” one of the guards asked, “I think we're below sea level at this point.”
“Who cares, Aphid?” the other guard said gruffly, “We just need to investigate this place and make sure there's no surprises for the Hive.”
“I was only thinking out loud, Moth Wing. No need to jam that stick further up your ass.” Aphid grumbled.
“Just shut up and keep moving.” Moth Wing finished. The two of them had been traveling the tunnels for the past hour trying to find the cavern the drone spoke of earlier. Much longer than it should have taken.
“...You're still mad that I got us lost aren't you?” Aphid guessed, “Not my fault the drone can't give good directions.”
Moth Wing's face was the epitemy of rage, “How hard is it to follow four turns?! FOUR!” he bellowed.
Aphid had the decency to look shameful, “I barely passed my orienteering lessons in training.”
Moth Wing rubbed his head, feeling a migraine coming on. “Just...follow me and don't do anything stupid.” On that note, he steadily trotted down the path leading to their objective. After a few more minutes the tunnel opened up into a massive cavern. Moth Wing knew it was the right one from the changeling tracks nearby. “Alright, let's go find this 'animal'.” he said, flittering his wings and flying across the room to some random point. Aphid followed his lead and went to another side of the room.
Due to the cavern's size the search took quite a while, especially when looking for traces of any recent life among the ancient walls. Moth Wing picked up a sizeable stone, “Hey, Aphid, you find anything yet?” he called out, slightly eager to break the opressing silence.
“Other than several species of moss and algae, no. I did find a few good stones for my rock collection.” Aphid said casually.
“You don't have a rock collection.” Moth deadpanned as he set the stone in his hooves down to give Aphid a flat look.
“No...but if I did, I would totally collect them.” Aphid said, poking his little stone pile. Noticing that several of them were rather flat, he looked towards the pool in the back of the cave and a grin sprouted on his face. The stones were surrounded in the changelings magic and floated alongside Aphid as he trotted to the pool. Aphid grabbed one out of his magic and with a mark of a self proclaimed master stone skipper (sticking one's tounge out while squinting and holding the stone oddly in hoof) he chucked the stone and counted the skips, or more accurately, the plop of contact.
Hearing the sudden noise, Moth Wing swung his head around, “What was that?”
Aphid grinned sheepishly, “Nothing. Just skipping stones.”
Moth blinked, “...Why?”
“Why not?” Aphid countered, “It's just a habit I picked up from one of the times I went out among the ponies.” He swung again, this time making two skips.
Moth shook his head and turned away, “Just don't fall in. I'm not in the mood to go fly fishing.”
“Give me some credit, Moth. I'm not that-AHH!” SPLASH!
“Dumbass.” Moth muttered as he heard his fellow soldier splash a few more times before stopping. 'That ought to shut him up for a while.' Moth thought. He quickly finished up his corner of the cave in silence. “Well, looks like there's nothing here.” he said, “What about you, Aphid?”
Silence.
“Aphid?” Moth asked now turning around. 'He's never this quiet.' Moth thought suspiciously.
Silence.
Moth was starting to get irritated, “Come on Aphid, I'm in no mood for you trying to surprise me or anything, not like you could. We need to get back to the Queen with our report.”
Silence still reigned.
Moth arched an eyebrow. “Aphid?” he asked cautiously. Still suspicious, he trotted over to the pool where his buddy last was. Nothing was strange here. Just a pile of smooth rocks, lapped upon by the green tainted water. A few foot prints of the changeling all mashed around and covered in water from the splashes. Warning bells went off in Moth Wing's head but he couldn't figure out why. Looking back over the clues more carefully, he found out with wide eyed realization.
The green in the water wasn't algae.
It was changeling blood.
Moth Wing reeled back in horror, cowering as the tentacled eldritch abomination he expected rose from the depths to come and claim the souls off all mortal ponies and some such cliché idea. Moth Wing peeked an eye towards the deceptively calm cistern to see that no such thing had actually happened. He scowled, “Damn ponies, making those stupid movies about that crap. Stupid fake marefriend for liking them.” he grumbled under his breath.
Once he had calmed down and assured himself that there were no horrors of the deep out to get him, he edged toward the water to try to get a better look at what might have killed Aphid. After all, from the drownings he'd done in his time, he knew that there's no blood unless you cut the victim first and unless those water smoothed rocks are a lot sharper than they look, then something in the water must have done it. The question was what?
Using his magic, Moth cleared the blood out of the way, allowing him a crystal clear view to the very bottom of the pool. A view that revealed nothing. Now, the first thing that most ponies disregard is the chance that predators are camouflaged. However, Moth Wing has been trained and camouflaged creatures were the first thing he looked for once he saw nothing immediately.
“What in Tartarus?” he muttered. He was about to investigate further when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. “Who's there?” Moth said, lighting his horn up with a stun spell at the ready. He could have use a lethal spell, but those took more energy and despite being a soldier, he had as much energy as the average drone due to the recent rationing.
Moth slowly circled around, scanning the area but no further movement was spotted. 'Maybe I'm just jumpy...' he tought to reassure himself. It didn't work.
A shimmer to the side.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Moth huffed as he fired off spell one after another. 'Okay, I know I saw something that time! Whipping his head about as he searched for the hidden adversary, Moth started to panic. 'I...I have to get out of here. I need to warn the Queen and the others!' In his search, the entrance came into view, which also meant the exit to this horror show. Moth Wing zipped over as fast as he could and almost crash landed. Terrified as he was, he wasn't so stupid as to leave his back open for the monster to catch him. That's always what happened in the movies and he was not going to fall for it, so help him Chrysalis.
His eyes scanned the cave warily, searching for the same shimmering movement as before. His breathing sounded like thunder in his ears and his heart a frantic drum beat.
Rock clatter. BLAM!
“Alright, ya freak! Show yourself!” He shouted, all the while backing up the slope slowly. His heart raced with each step and he had to force himself not to run away.
Rock clatter. BLAM!
That one was much closer than before. It was getting confident. At that point, Moth Wing went all out, firing stun spells every which way and hoping one of them would hit. “DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!” he screeched. After what seemed like an hour, the spells faded and Moth Wing only had enough energy to crawl up the slope. His ears perked, he heard nothing shifting around, no sound of movement. He sighed in relief and began his journey back up.
Moth Wing took a step and suddenly found himself pinned to the ground. “Shit!” he wheezed out. 'Why did I let my guard down?' He turned his head to try to get a look at his soon-to-be killer, but saw nothing. He felt the weight pressing him into the floor, but he couldn't see it.
'Oh Makers, it's invisible!' he thought before his world went black.
*****
“More tea?” Fluttershy asked politely.
“But of course,” the god of chaos responded, holding out a ten gallon hat (not-so-courtesy of a certain farm pony), “I hope you have some wasabi, or some good strawberry sauce.”
Fluttershy, having put up with the draconequus for months now, expected something random and had begun buying foods that she normally wouldn't for their weekly get-togethers. She nodded, “Oh, yes. I just bought some strawberry sauce the other day. Let me go get it.” She got up and trotted to the pantry to retrieve the condiment.
Discord smirked as he poured the tea into his ear. 'Ah, this is quite nice actually.' he thought, 'Maybe I should hold off on the chaos more often.....Nah. He chuckled inwardly. One of the reasons he put up with these little socials is because of its proximity to the Everfree Forest. Discord thrived on the natural, chaotic energies of the forest, using the tea parties as a recharging time for his powers. Of course, it didn't always recharge him or it may be completely unnecessary. Otherwise it would be, ugh, orderly.
Discord was about to drink his new gummi-bear mug while contemplating the effects that affect the effects of an affectionate pony named Special Effects, when he suddenly felt something itch behind his ear. He frowned, “That's odd.” A normal pony would scratch it out of instinct, but Discord isn't a pony, or normal by any standard.
“Now why would I be itching?” he mused. Itching meant two things: he needed a bath or some chaos was about to happen. He ruled the first one out from the recent water pranks from Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. Now the question was what kind of chaos was going down and where. He wanted to be there when it happened if he could. Drawing on his powers, he tried to trace it back to its source using his antlers and horn as dowsing rods and antennas respectively.
“Now to see what this chaos is about.” he muttered. Using his antlers, he moved around until he picked up on the general direction of the source. “The Everfree, eh? Now what could possibly be happening there?” As chaotic as the forest's magic could be, there were never any fluctuations unless there was an event or a creature causing it. Discord snapped his fingers, causing the antlers to return to his head, along with a little extra to allow him more time to work.
“Huh? Where'd the sauce go? I'm sure I had it here.” he heard Fluttershy say in the next room.
“Try checking the basement pantry.” Discord called out, “You might have put it there.”
“Oh. Maybe. I'll go check.” As soon as he heard the door close, Discord returned to his work, now scanning the direction with his horn.
“Where are you, you little bugger?” he muttered. Whatever was out there, it was faint. Most likely it was either something small or it was distant, but his curiosity wouldn't be sated until he found out what it was. His magic moved deeper into the forest, steadily making it's way towards the source. Before he knew it, he found where the trickle of energy appeared and conjured up a telescope with a full space pirate costume.
“Yarr, what be this?” he said as peered through the spyglass. “Seems t' be a migh'y mountain thar. Methinks th' swag be below decks.” Discord snapped his fingers, now holding up a periscope and wearing a submarine officer's uniform.
“Chaos detected captain.” he said, adjusting the sights to look below the mountian, “It's on the edge of our range. Can't get a fix on it.” The last was actually true. He couldn't see what was causing the chaos for some reason. Frowning, he pressed more of his magic into that area but he still couldn't see what it was. “What are you?” he mused.
Taking a look at the chaos that it was emitting, he gathered some and examined it. However, as soon as he touched it, he felt something heavy press down on him. He recoiled, “What?” he said flabbergasted. He tried to touch it again, but the chaos vanished, as if it moved on. Not surprising since it is chaos after all, but now Discord had to search for it again.
He shifted himself to several poses, costumes and accessories to get a better signal, but before he could finish, Fluttershy came back in with the strawberry sauce under her wing.
“Here you go, Discord. Fresh strawberry sauce for your-” She paused as she took in the site of Discord doing what looked like a walrus performing ballet. “W-what are you doing?” she asked. Honestly, she shouldn't be so surprised, but Discord was always managed to confound her when she left him to his own devices for a few minutes.
“Hm? Oh, I was-uh just practicing for the biannual Chaos Olympics.” he said smoothly as he settled down into his chair again. Fluttershy seemed to accept the lie and began to serve the tea. He inwardly cursed her timing as it interrupted his search. These things take concentration, and Discord isn't the most focused being around, unless you count focus into chaos. He'll have to look later, but now he had to find out what that thing was after the feeling he got from touching it.
It felt...wrong.
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i love you for making this story!
Almost think the image should be seananners with a blindfold, he is the best hidden ever after all.
In comes Nanners!
Have you seen the Nanner-man?!
Edit: Well, technically the Hidden, a.k.a. Subject 617, is a genetically modified human who has the power to bend light around his body.
Edit2.0: Although... He does have unstable DNA...
every one is going to die
HEHEEHheheehehehhehehe
2998245 Don't forget his Dolphin Laugh!!!
Wow... lotsa comment related to Nanners.
Nanners best hidden.
0.0
hidden + ponies = must read.
wouldn't it be hilarious if the hidden mentioned nanners as an old rival?
I'm also very curious as to how discord will react to the hidden.
That's always what happened in the movies? Since when did changelings have electricity?
is the hidden a predator.. (thinks for a second) no the cloaks turn of when they are in water or when they attack but am I right?
5675039 Nope. The Hidden is a genetically modified human being, with immense strength and near super-natural abilities, such as clinging to any surface, jumping or pouncing with immense force, seeing other beings through walls, and also being able to kill something in one hit with a powerful stab from his Kabar. He also is able to make pipe bombs by hands and feed off corpses to heal damage done to him.