Halfling

by Dee Pad

Chapter 21 - Breaking Point

Halfling
By Dee Pad
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Chapter 21: Breaking Point

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It must have been late by now. It hadn't just felt like hours, but days since they had woken up that morning—or what had been assumed to be morning. Chamella and Winter were not just tired, but exhausted and sore. At least they weren't hungry or thirsty, they had that much. Right now, they wanted nothing more than to find a suitable place to sleep.

Their current location was not ideal.

The pegasus and the changeling found themselves carefully navigating a precarious ridge overlooking a narrow, but very deep ravine. The path ran along the left wall, but they only had about three feet of space to work with, so Chamella was taking the lead to light the way. The right wall was only around ten feet away from them, making the overall area rather cramped. The gorge they were walking alongside extended downward far enough that they couldn't see bottom, however, they could still hear the sound of rushing water coming up from the darkness, suggesting that they were still traveling with the river they had last rested at a few hours ago.

Even though the two of them had since dried off from their watery "excursions," neither one of them believed they'd be able to survive if they were to fall into the ravine. With how worn out and sleepy they were, Chamella and Winter both doubted they'd have the energy to fly out. They were desperately hoping that they would find someplace safe soon, though they'd been hoping that for hours now. They were starting to regret not turning in back at the waterfall.

Chamella turned her head slightly, not wanting to take her eyes off of the dangerous path, but curious about her companion following behind her. "You okay, Winter?" she asked softly.

The pegasus gave a slow nod. "Yeah, just... tired."

Pretty much the response Chamella was expecting. She just wanted to ask to ensure that Winter hadn't passed out from exhaustion and possibly fallen off.

"Probably no point in asking, but any idea if we're getting anywhere?" Winter asked.

Chamella breathed a remorseful sigh. "No idea, sorry."

Winter could hear in Chamella's tone that she was feeling pretty bad about this. There were multiple routes they could have taken after leaving the waterfall area, but they ended up in this one. "Try not to beat yourself up, Chamella. I know you wanted to be a guide, but there's no way anypony could memorize the layout of this place."

Chamella inhaled a quiet breath through her nose, smiling slightly. She still found it a little unbelievable that Winter had finally forgiven her transgressions, and to hear the pegasus trying to cheer her up was quite refreshing after everything they'd been through. "Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm just as exhausted as you is all."

The silence quickly encroached once more, but, not wanting the boredom to set in and possibly wear them out further, as well as simply pass the time, Winter decided to keep the conversation alive with whatever came to mind. "So, let's think ahead for a second here. What's the plan when—or if—we find Chrysalis? You seem pretty convinced that she'll be cooperative."

Chamella tilted her head slightly as she thought about it. "Um... That depends on the circumstances, I guess. I've said before that I think something's up with all of this, and I just want to know why this had to happen."

"And what if she says that she specifically wanted to get her hooves on Snowflake for whatever reason? Are we supposed to fight her for him?"

"That all depends on how you feel at the time, I suppose. Are you willing to go hoof to hoof with Queen Chrysalis?"

Winter hesitated for a second, looking conflicted. "I don't want to, but if I have to... Whether or not I could actually win is another story."

"If she's not going to let us take him back, then the best course of action would probably be to just run away and try to find him ourselves."

The pegasus breathed a sigh at the prospect. "That probably means we'd be here a lot longer. This is starting to seem like a hopeless effort. I mean, more hopeless than it already felt."

Chamella flashed a reassuring smile over her shoulder. "I still highly doubt that'll be the case. Maybe I'm just trying to be optimistic, but I think if we just talk to her, we might get somewhere."

Chamella's words of encouragement didn't do much to lift Winter's spirits. "Didn't Blight say he was let out of the dungeon specifically to kill us? Somepony had to give him that order, right?"

"Just another question we'll have to ask her," Chamella responded with a shrug. "It's probably best if we don't think too hard about all of this. The more we think about it, the harder it'll be to adapt if it doesn't go as planned."

"So, we're just going to wing it then? I guess we've survived this far doing that, but only barely."

Chamella kept her eyes trained forward. She knew coming here was going to be dangerous from the beginning, but they'd already had several life-threatening encounters. She would have said that they had simply gotten lucky, but the truth of the matter was that they had survived this long because they were together. That was a big form of motivation for Chamella; she was eager to save Snowflake not just because she was his aunt and godmother, but because she wanted to return home with a new friend. She didn't want Winter's forgiveness to go to waste. She wanted to strengthen that new, budding friendship.

Finally, after walking for ages in this cramped crevice, Chamella could see a wall in the distance. There was a brief moment where she was worried that it was simply going to be a dead end, but thankfully she could see that there was a passage that traveled into the wall.

"Looks like we can finally get out of here," Chamella said, her voice as peppy as she could manage.

"That's good news. But where are we gonna end up?"

The path into the wall was even more compact than the ravine. The two mares could barely squeeze through so they had to remove their saddlebags and carry them in their mouths. Chamella had a slightly easier time in the cramped quarters due to her more slender frame. Winter's wings were brushing up against the walls of the crevice, and her flanks were being uncomfortably squeezed in the tight space. The worry now was that this path lead nowhere, as there wasn't any room to turn around if they needed to head back. Admittedly, they were both feeling a touch claustrophobic.

Fortunately they only had to navigate the narrow passage for a few minutes before Chamella could see the exit up ahead. The changeling cautiously approached the exit, poking her head out to ensure there was no danger in the vicinity. Thankfully the coast was clear, with not a thing in sight except the larger space that seemed to lead even deeper into the hive.

Chamella slid out of what any person on the outside would think was just a random crack in the wall, emerging into the more open area beyond and dropping her bags. She had a quick look around while she waited for Winter to catch up. As luck would have it, the area was peppered with several paths leading in various directions. Anyone passing through this area might not have even noticed the crevice that Chamella had just come from as there were certainly more notable directions to choose from.

Chamella heard a strained grunt coming from behind her, and she turned around to see Winter had dropped her own bags and was struggling to get out of the crevice, her flanks being firmly gripped by the walls of the tight passage.

After several failed attempts to pull her caboose free, Winter groaned in defeat, staring at Chamella with a pleading look and an embarrassed blush. "A little help?" she requested sheepishly.

Chamella found it difficult to suppress an amused snicker. Even Winter knew how comical the situation must have looked, as she found herself with a small grin as well. The changeling grabbed Winter's front hooves. "Guess all the sweets are catching up to you."

Winter pouted in offense. "It's got nothing to do with diet. I'm still working off the baby weight."

"Tell yourself whatever you need to," Chamella said with a giggle.

"Just shut up and pull."

The changeling pulled on Winter's front legs, and the pegasus even planted her wings to either side of the crevice to get as much leverage as possible. She began to feel the crack's hold on her loosening as she started to wiggle herself free, though the rough stone was a little painful against her skin. Eventually, Winter popped loose from the crevice, the force applied by both mares causing her to fall forward suddenly with a surprised yelp, inadvertently knocking Chamella to the ground and falling on top of her.

Winter propped herself up with a pained groan, reaching a hoof back to rub her sore rump. She then remembered that Chamella was underneath her, and looked down at the changeling. Chamella was still trying to stifle her childish giggles, earning a furrowed brow from Winter, though the pegasus couldn't hide her own smile either.

"Don't you dare tell Shade about that," Winter ordered.

"Are you kidding? I'm telling the whole town."

There was a moment of silence, but instead of reprimanding Chamella, the two of them simply broke out into laughter as Winter rolled off the changeling and onto her back next to her. Really, they needed a little laughter; something to brighten the dreary mood that came naturally in this place. After everything they've had to deal with, having even a little fun was a novelty.

After the light laughter died down, Winter sat up and had a look around, taking note of all the passages surrounding them. Where there were now reminded her of the last major junction they'd found themselves in that eventually lead them here. "So, what's the plan from here?"

Chamella stayed on the ground, taking the opportunity to stretch. "Well, junctions like this means that there's probably something around here."

"That's good, right?" Winter said with a hint of optimism.

Chamella nodded. "Probably. I think we ended up off the beaten path, so it's at least a little relieving to know we could be back on track. I have a feeling we're even getting close to the throne room."

Winter almost couldn't believe that. "Seriously?"

"I'm not guaranteeing anything. But I'm going to leave the decision to you: do you want to keep going?"

Winter paused for a moment, biting her lip hesitantly. "If we are close, then it's definitely tempting. But if you're not absolutely sure, then it's probably too risky to keep going in the state we're in."

Chamella nodded in agreement, rolling over onto her side lazily. "I don't really want to keep looking for a better place to rest. I say we just stop here and get some sleep. We can think about which way to go when we wake up."

The pegasus stretched her legs, back and wings herself before letting herself flop over backwards. At this point, the cold, uncomfortable, stone floor was the least of their concerns. Both of them felt exhausted enough to just drift off at the drop of a hat, and that was what they planned to do. They only slid their saddlebags under their heads to act as makeshift pillows for at least a modicum of comfort before closing their eyes for the night. Hopefully this was the last night they'd have to spend in this unforgiving place.

***** ***** *****

Glory let out a long yawn as she started to wake up from her night's rest. She'd slept surprisingly well. She couldn't explain why, but she already felt like she was in a good mood, even though she'd just woken up.

She was about to stand up and stretch her legs, but felt some weight on her right front leg. Looking down, she found a tiny foal laying against her, his little head and front hooves draped over her leg as he continued dozing.

Glory stared for a moment, a little confused, but quickly remembered. She'd almost forgotten that she was put in charge of the tyke. Had they really spent the whole night lying together? Glory had peered into Snowflake's memories a few times, and she'd seen multiple instances of the foal crying in the middle of the night and seemingly causing much frustration for his parents. As such, she was fully expecting to have to deal with the same thing, but for some reason he hadn't made a peep.

As peaceful as Snowflake looked snoozing away on her leg, Glory had things she wanted to do; namely, finding some breakfast. She gently nudged the foal with her free hoof. "Hey, get up."

The prodding only prompted Snowflake to moan in his sleep and hold onto Glory's leg tighter. The changeling rolled her eyes with a groan and made another attempt to wake him up. Again, she got no positive response. Not having the patience to deal with this right now, Glory resorted to lifting Snowflake carefully with her magic. No longer having another warm body against his, Snowflake's beady, green eyes finally cracked open, accompanied by a cranky and sleepy pout. He stared grumpily at Glory, who stared back sternly.

"Nap time's over," she informed flatly.

Snowflake obviously didn't understand what Glory said, but he seemed to react to her tone, struggling a little in her magical grasp. Glory set the foal down, letting him get his bearings as he shook off his sleepiness with a yawn.

Glory finally stood up and got her stretching in. Snowflake was staring up at her somewhat expectantly, and she had a feeling she knew what it was he wanted. He was hungry, too, no doubt. It was just as well; Glory was planning on making a food run anyway, and now that she knew the small pony liked the mushrooms that grew in the caves, she wouldn't have to go far to find them a meal.

"Just sit tight for a few minutes. I'll be back with something to eat soon," Glory told him in a soft voice.

Snowflake sat still as he watched Glory disappear from sight, letting out a lonely whimper as he was left by his lonesome. Glory didn't pay it much heed; she knew she was only going to be gone ten minutes at most.

Glory knew of a nearby area where those mushrooms grew, so it didn't take long for her to get there and gather up a healthy amount of food for herself and the halfling. But even the short trek gave her the time to think about her circumstances. She wasn't expecting her days to be particularly eventful from here on out. Based on what she knew from Snowflake's memories, he had the potential to be quite a nuisance. So far, aside from the incessant bawling, he'd been relatively well behaved. At least, as far as she knew. She hadn't bothered to learn what her predecessor had to deal with aside from the screeching. She simply inferred that he didn't have any idea of how to take care of the tyke, just putting food in front of him in the hopes that he'd shut up.

But what was going to happen from here? Glory was irked by the fact that she didn't fully know what the plan was for the halfling. Whatever it was, she had made it abundantly clear that she believed it was a waste of effort. And what of Shade and the other intruders? She could very well be helping in the soldiers' efforts to rid the hive of them, but even if they did, would she still be relegated to foalsitting duty until the child was old enough to fend for himself? She wasn't finding the task to be difficult as of yet, but she found herself questioning whether or not Snowflake could even survive in the hive long term.

Glory shook her head in frustration. There was nothing she hated more than being plagued by questions for which she could get no answers. The only thing she could do was attempt to put them out of her mind for the time being. Perhaps she'd be made privy to such information in due time; that's what she hoped.

Glory paused for a moment as she made her way back to the soldiers' quarters, detecting the now familiar sound of crying echoing through the caves. With about two dozen small mushrooms in tow with her magic, Glory hurried her pace back to her post to see what was the matter. Surely Snowflake wasn't simply lonely; she'd been gone for several hours yesterday and all he did was sniffle and sob quietly.

She skidded to a stop at the entrance, stepping inside to see what the problem was. As it turned out Snowflake wasn't alone. Along with the foal crying fearfully on the floor, there was also another changeling soldier present, baring his fangs aggressively at the small pony.

"Get away from him," Glory commanded with a hiss.

At the sound of Glory's voice, Snowflake's crying simmered down to quiet sobbing and hiccups.

The armored soldier cast a glance over his shoulder at Glory, sneering derisively. "And whose gonna make me? The nanny?" he scoffed condescendingly.

Glory narrowed her eyes. Even when staring her right in the face, the soldiers gave her no respect, and it was starting to irritate her. "I shouldn't have to remind you that I was put in charge of his well-being. If you plan to hurt him, then I reserve the right to hurt you."

The soldier looked hesitant to continue with the threats, but still glowered at Glory. "Why do you care? I've heard you complain to Wraith about how pointless this kid is. If we just kill it, we won't have to take care of it anymore."

"You say 'we' as if this is your problem, too. I'm the one who was told to look after him. But if you want to ignore orders, fine. You'll just incur the consequences."

The soldier simply smirked. "Sounds good to me. After all, you're the one whose gonna get the flak for it, being his caretaker and all."

Glory wasn't about to give him the chance to threaten Snowflake, stepping in between him and the foal. Snowflake held onto her hind leg, attempting to shield himself from the stranger.

The other changeling stared her down, but didn't make a move. Regardless of her current status, Glory was recently one of the highest ranking soldiers in the colony. So instead of confronting her, he simply gave her a disrespectful glare and turned toward the exit. He cast a quick glance at the foal from the corner of his eye, smirking slightly. Wanting to get just a little enjoyment out of this, he spun back around, stomping his hooves and hissing loudly at the foal. Snowflake jumped with a start and immediately began bawling in fright.

The soldier was barely able to get a quick chuckle out before he felt Glory's hoof connect squarely with his jaw, knocking him to the ground. Shaken, he held a hoof to his cheek, looking back up at Glory in shock of the sudden assault. Glory was glaring down at him with absolute disdain in her hazel eyes.

"I warned you. Leave. Now!"

Without wasting a moment, the soldier scrambled clumsily to his hooves and ran out of the room.

Glory let her rage die down with a long sigh before turning back to the weeping foal clinging fearfully to her leg. Glory suddenly felt something in her chest, as though she'd been hurt. She found herself staring sympathetically at the foal. He was crying, but it wasn't because he was lonely, or hungry, or tired, but because he was scared. Glory didn't know how to explain it, but somehow she could tell this was different from the way he'd cried before, even without reading his memories.

"Alright, he's gone now," Glory said soothingly, leaning down to the crying foal on her leg.

Snowflake opened his eyes, looking up at his caretaker with tearful eyes and sniffles. Again, Glory felt a sudden pain in her chest as the tyke gazed pitiably at her. Snowflake released her hind leg and crawled over to her front leg and grabbed onto it instead.

Glory sat down, quietly letting the foal calm himself down. She still didn't understand it. Why was this foal seemingly so comfortable around her, but other changelings terrified him? Not only that, but she also couldn't explain what was going through her head when that soldier frightened him. She attacked without a moment's thought or hesitation, and the odd part was that it didn't have anything to do with her job. She lashed out because Snowflake had been threatened, and now she found herself thinking about the soldier's words: why did she care?

Glory looked down at the little pony as he cuddled into her leg for comfort, finding herself with that tight pain in her chest again. She knew he didn't belong here, but she was starting to wonder if he wasn't the only one.

***** ***** *****

Chamella felt herself returning to consciousness. It was nice to get a little escape from the issues that they were having to deal with, if only briefly during sleep. Chamella couldn't particularly remember if she had had any dreams during the night, but she felt like she must have considering it took a few seconds to realize where she was.

She did feel reasonably rested at least, probably on account of just how exhausted she and Winter were the previous night. She must have conked out the moment she closed her eyes. Chamella may have felt rested, but she still felt sore in some areas. Her legs were still feeling a little weak, and she could feel the stone floor digging into some of her bruises.

However, at the moment, it was the rumbling in her stomach that garnered the majority of her attention. A little breakfast would hit the spot right now, but she wasn't craving anything in particular. Seemed just as well to browse what was left in her bag.

Chamella finally lifted her head off of her saddlebags, which she was using as pillows, and rolled her neck and flittered her wings a little to loosen herself up. She hoisted her bags up and flipped one open to have a look inside.

But something was off. Not the food, but something else. Chamella felt like something was wrong, and she soon realized what.

She turned to where Winter had been sleeping to wake her up, only to find that Winter was not there. Chamella quickly rose to her hooves in panic. Winter was gone, but her bags were still there, right where she had left them. It was possible she had already woken up and had simply gone to look for a place to use the bathroom.

"Winter?" Chamella called out, hoping the pegasus was within earshot.

She received no response, heightening Chamella's panic. Certainly if Winter needed to relieve herself, she'd pick a place relatively close by, which probably meant that something had happened.

Chamella looked at the many paths diverging from her current location. If Winter had gone anywhere, then that meant she could literally have gone anywhere. How was she supposed to track her down?

"Winter!" she tried calling out again, but louder.

All she got in return was her own voice echoing back at her in the spacious caves, which, again, only served to worry her further.

Amidst her panicked looking around, Chamella paused for a moment when she smelled something. She was all too familiar with that scent. Blood, no doubt about it. After a quick look around on the floor, she spotted a stain of red alarmingly close to where Winter had been sleeping. Chamella attempted to keep her cool and prevent her mind from assuming the worst.

Leaning down, she inspected the blood closely. It was still fresh, that much she could tell. That at least gave her hope that, whatever had happened, she could figure it out and find Winter before it was too late. And as luck would have it, Chamella spied more small pools of blood leading away from her location and down one of the many connecting tunnels.

Chamella didn't want to waste anymore time. In the event that they didn't end up coming back this way—assuming she found Winter—she threw her saddlebags onto her back and took Winter's with her mouth before hurrying off in the direction that the blood trail was leading.

***** ***** *****

Winter's heart was beating like a jackhammer and beads of fearful sweat dripped down her forehead. She wanted to scream, but she could not. She wanted to struggle, but she could not. All she could do was whimper pathetically.

Her mouth was covered by the ebony chitin of a changeling's hoof, preventing her from calling out as she was not lucky enough for her assailant to give her access to one of his leg's many holes. What made it worse was that the leg was covered in bloody cuts and gashes, and the foul taste of blood was violating her lips and tongue. She was being dragged backwards, her withers scrapping against the coarse, rocky floor and only adding to her pain and discomfort.

Winter let out a muffled cry as she felt a particularly sharp rock dig into her backside as she was dragged over it. Her captor obviously had no regard for her well being, but considering she knew who it was, that wasn't surprising.

"That's it, keep screaming, sweetie. It only makes this more fun," her captor breathed next to her ear in a disgustingly perverted tone.

His voice only made this situation all the more distressing. That familiar voice sent chills down her spine, especially since she was at his mercy with nopony around to help her this time.

This was how Winter woke up; being dragged through the caves by a bloodthirsty psychopath. She'd been so exhausted from her travels the day before that she didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. Even now she could do nothing. He'd already told her that if she were to struggle, he'd kill her right then and there. A part of her was tempted to try anyway, as he appeared to be quite injured. But even so, this was Blight, back again after having a wing torn off, thrown into a ravine, horn snapped off, and dashed about the rocks in a raging river. His pain tolerance must have been incredibly high. Winter had hoped he'd been carried far away by the river, but apparently not far enough. He'd somehow managed to not only survive the rapids, but track them down again, as well.

Winter couldn't even tell how far she'd been dragged. It already felt like an eternity as her fear wracked her mind. And the putrid scent and taste of Blight's blood on top of his sickening voice only made the situation that much more dreadful.

Before Winter could concern herself with her whereabouts any further, she found herself being thrown violently to the floor on her back. Finally, Blight had removed his hoof from her mouth and Winter had a chance to get her bearings. Although it was very dark, Winter could at least make out enough to tell that she'd been taken to an empty chamber somewhere, likely out of the way so that it would be harder for somepony to find them. The room was a dead end, but heavily calcified, giving the walls and many large stalactites and stalagmites of the cavern a dirty, off-white coloring, which at least helped Winter identify her surroundings in the pitch blackness.

Winter flinched when Blight stomped a hoof to the right side of her head. He was hovering over her, staring down at her with that same psychotic grin. Winter had known it was him that had dragged her away, but even so, seeing his face again somehow unsettled her even more. The pupils of his silver eyes were narrow like needles, and along with the delight in his expression, there was also a mixture of his usual sadism and suppressed rage, the latter evident by how his normally sky blue sclera were quite bloodshot.

Despite his wide, toothy grin, Blight looked to be in considerably bad shape, even more so than Winter had assumed. His white mohawk still looked wet from his dip in the river, drooping flat against his head. His body was covered in bloody gouges that were still oozing even now. His right hind leg looked like it was hanging by a thread, the holes in the appendage brutally cut and torn, leaving very little to hold it together; Winter had to wonder how he was able to walk on it.

Blight chuckled darkly as he gazed uncomfortably into Winter's fear-filled, amber eyes. "You and your little friend have caused me quite a deal of trouble. I'm usually a 'live-in-the-moment' kinda guy, but after all of this, I'm actually worried about how I'm going to get along from here."

"If you had just—"

"Shut up!"

Winter winced in fear as Blight snapped aggressively. The grin dropped from his face in an instant, the pegasus's voice roiling untold anger within him. He brought his face alarmingly close to hers, his vile breath making Winter want to gag.

"You don't get to talk anymore," he whispered with a hiss. "If you say another word, I'll tear out your vocal chords. The only sounds your allowed to make are your terrified and agonized screams."

As much as it pained her to do so, Winter heeded his warning, but did her best not to satiate his sadistic desires by choking back her frightened whimpers. She hated being at his mercy. As easy at it might have looked to overpower him in his injured state, Winter simply feared that one little slip up and Blight would not hesitate to take her life.

Blight's grin returned, watching with sadistic glee as Winter clenched her eyes shut, squeezing out the tears that were starting to form. "I know what you're thinking, but I assure you that I'm not going to kill you as long as you're a good little pony. See, even though I was released with the sole purpose of killing you and your adorable friend, I want to relish it. All I wanted to do was have a little fun until I got bored with you."

His grin faded once more and he glared vindictively at Winter. "But that didn't exactly go how I wanted, did it? Because you and your friend had to be incessant buzz-kills. So, now, here I am, flightless and without magic because my prey decided to fight back. It's not just frustrating, it's humiliating! This was supposed to be fun, but now you've gone and made it personal."

Once again, he curled his fanged mouth into a psychotic smile. "But I just have to look at the bright side. The more my urge to just tear your throat out rises, the most satisfying it'll be in the end. After all, pleasure is greatest when it's denied. So for all the suffering I've had to deal with because of you two, I'm going to make sure you suffer in kind."

He leaned down slowly and menacingly, his eyes full of rage and excitement as he breathed in the cowering pegasus's face. "I. Am going. To break you. Physically and emotionally. I don't want to spoil what I'm going to do exactly—the surprise is part of the fun. But I'm going to do my best to keep you alive through as much of it as I can so I can savor your agony. Then, when you've got nothing left to give me, I'll do the same to your friend."

Blight licked his lips eagerly, then slowly ran his tongue up Winter's neck, making sure his fangs brushed against her coat. Winter wanted to wretch at the gross sensation of his vile tongue against her fur and skin. She closed her eyes tight; she didn't even want to think about what sick, depraved things he was planning to do to her, much less see them.

The changeling pulled away, taking a moment to watch his prey's tears run down her cheeks. He knew this was going to be enjoyable, but he wanted to make sure it was perfect, and it just wasn't going to be quite as fun if he couldn't see the emotion in her eyes. He placed a hoof under Winter's chin, making sure to apply enough pressure to her neck to indicate the threat.

"I'm gonna need you to open those pretty eyes of yours."

Fearing for her life, Winter did as she was told and opened her tear-filled eyes again. The more she had to stare into his maniacal, silver irises, the harder it became to keep her composure. She just wanted to scream, but knew that that would only encourage him.

Blight chuckled at his obedient victim. "That's it. You don't want to miss out on the fun either, do you?"

With that, Blight let out a long, throaty hiss as he opened his mouth and bared his fangs. As he leaned down to begin the torment, he paused. He noticed something odd. Winter's pupils, which had until now been narrow like pins in her fear, widened slightly, if only for the briefest of moments. Moreover, he caught her eyes glancing very quickly to his right. Had he not been so focused on her eyes at that moment, it might have slipped past him. He knew it wasn't just a random twitch. He knew what that split-second glance meant. And the clincher was the barely noticeable green light in the reflection of her eyes.

But before he had a chance to assess what he believed to be the situation, Blight suddenly felt something large, heavy and solid strike him in the center of his back. A barely audible crack could be heard, followed by the loud clattering of the rock that had been dropped on him and Blight's own chilling scream of agony. The changeling's hind legs went limp underneath him, and he collapsed on top of Winter, shaking in shock and pain.

Winter finally found her opportunity, not wasting a second in pushing the psychopath off of her, quickly getting back to her hooves and hurrying over to where her savor was standing. Chamella had arrived in the nick of time, and Winter threw herself at her with a grateful hug.

Winter wept openly into her shoulder, holding Chamella tightly. "I have never been so happy to see you in my life. Thank you." She pulled away, wiping the moisture from her eyes. "Alright, let's... Let's just get out of here."

The pegasus picked up her saddlebags that Chamella had brought with her and had laid on the ground nearby. Chamella was about to do the same, but paused, looking back over her shoulder.

Blight was still laying on the ground, unable to stand up and clearly suffering from a great deal of pain and panic. He was shaking and grunting in pain through tightly clenched teeth. He even appeared to be desperately holding back tears.

Chamella turned back and started walking toward Blight.

Winter looked back, confused and a little concerned. "Chamella? What are you doing? We need to get out of here."

Chamella ignored her, stepping up to the severely injured psychopath. When Blight noticed she'd approached him, his response was very different than either of the mares would have assumed. Blight drew back, cowering like an injured puppy beneath the female changeling's apathetic glare.

"Stop chasing us," Chamella insisted, her voice eliciting a frightened wince from Blight. "This only happened because you wouldn't leave us alone. So, please, just... stop."

Blight didn't respond, merely trembling in fear and unable to tear his eyes away from Chamella's authoritative gaze.

Chamella breathed a sigh. Even if he wanted to keep coming after them, he was certainly in no shape to do so anymore. Chances were he would end up dying here eventually, whether it be from bleeding out from his many wounds, or starving to death. Chamella felt no need to say any more, turning back to join Winter and leaving the pitiable maniac to his fate.

The moment Chamella turned away, Blight's pupils narrowed once more, clenching his teeth not in pain, but in unbridled anger. Using every ounce of strength he had left in his mutilated body, Blight leapt up with his front legs and grabbed onto Chamella's hindquarters, abruptly dragging her down to the ground with his weight. Chamella was only barely able to get a surprised yelp out before Blight opened his mouth wide and chomped down on her left flank with his long, pointed fangs.

Chamella shrieked in shock and pain as the fangs dug down into her chitinous skin and through her muscles until they were forced to a hard stop against her pelvic bone.

Finally, Blight was able to taste blood. The feeling of pure ecstasy as Chamella's blood splashed onto his tongue and down his throat was beyond satisfying after everything he'd gone through to get it, and Chamella's agonized cries were the spice that made it even tastier. Even if he was only able to get his fangs halfway into her flesh, after how much his bloodlust had been fermenting, it was more than enough.

However, Blight wasn't able to enjoy it for long. After only a few seconds of indulgence, he was suddenly tackled from his right, forcibly having his blood-soaked fangs removed from his prey. He was violently pinned to the ground by the ivory pegasus after rolling several feet away from Chamella, reversing the situation they'd been in just a few minutes ago. And conversely to their previous exchange, Winter's face was not full of fear, but incensed rage.

Before Blight could even think about fighting back, Winter delivered a painful punch down onto his face with her right hoof, followed by another with her left, alternating back and forth as she continued her violent, repeated assault.

Now free from Blight, Chamella managed to rise shakily back to her hooves, but found it painful to put any pressure on her left hind leg thanks to the deep wounds Blight had inflicted. But that wasn't quite what was concerning her at the moment. She could only watch in bewildered awe as her friend brutally attacked Blight, delivering blow after blow, grunting loudly and aggressively with each punch to the psycho's face.

"Winter?"

Chamella's voice went unheard as the pegasus continued her vicious pummeling.

"Winter," she repeated, raising her concerned voice.

Again, Winter tuned her out, mercilessly hammering away on Blight with no indication of letting up.

"Winter! Stop!"

With that shout, Winter froze mid-swing. The fury left her instantly, leaving the pegasus sitting atop Blight looking a little uncertain, as if she'd been snapped out of a trance. Coming back to her senses, she gazed down upon the changeling underneath her.

Blight's face had quickly become bruised and swollen. Several teeth, including his two long fangs, had been broken or knocked out, and blood splattered his face and the ground around his head. Moreover, he'd stopped moving, laying completely motionless on the floor.

Winter sat equally still on top of him, her hoof still raised as if she were unable to move from her position. She waited for some sort of reaction from Blight, for him to lunge back at her violently, but received none. The cavern had gone dead quiet. She couldn't hear Blight breathing, nor could she feel his chest heaving, or his heart beating.

Winter finally lowered her hoof slowly. She was finally able to tear her eyes away from Blight when she saw her hoof. Both hooves had had their alabaster fur stained and splattered red with Blight's blood, the dark liquid soaking into her coat.

Winter staggered backward off of Blight in the shock of the realization of what she'd done, her body trembling and her breaths shaky. She felt her stomach tighten and knot up as if something was trying to claw its way up her throat. Unable to fight it back, Winter could only turn away from the bloodied and broken body of Blight before vomiting in disgust.

Chamella stood by silently, turning away as Winter emptied the contents of her stomach onto the ground. She wanted to get back on track as soon as possible and put this ugliness behind them, but she allowed the pegasus a moment to hopefully compose herself.

Finishing with a few loud coughs, Winter wiped her mouth clean against the fur of her leg, avoiding any bloodstains that were already soiling her coat. She sat still for a few moments longer, catching her breath.

Chamella stared sympathetically, but knew they had to keep moving. "Winter?" she said quietly. "We should go."

There was a brief silence at first, but then Winter nodded her head. She stood up and walked toward the exit, grabbing her saddlebags along the way. She made no eye contact with Chamella as she passed by.

The changeling hobbled up alongside Winter as they exited the calcified chamber and back into the tunnels to return to the junction where they had spent the night. Chamella still kept a respectful distance, however; Winter was obviously in a very fragile place right now. The pegasus was walking fairly slowly, but Chamella didn't know if that was because Winter was taking her injury into account, or that she was simply burdened by her thoughts. All things considered, it was probably the latter. Winter was staring at the floor in front of her as she walked, clearly not paying attention to where she was actually going, and her ears were folded back and her face was a mixture of worry, shame, guilt, and even fear.

Finally, after about ten minutes of walking, Chamella felt the need to break the silence. She cast a sympathetic look over to her distressed companion. "Winter? You okay?"

"No. No, I'm not okay," Winter replied without looking up. "I... I killed him... I never thought when I came out here that I'd ever kill somepony."

"Well, not somepony..." Chamella corrected in an attempt to alleviate some of the guilt.

"It doesn't matter. I killed a person. It doesn't matter if it was a pony, or a changeling, or whatever. I still..."

Chamella watched as Winter's emotional state only seemed to be worsening. She wanted to do something to help. "You didn't really have a choice, right? You didn't just do it for me, you did it for both of us. If we had left him alive, I wouldn't have been surprised if he found some way to track us down again."

"That's not the point! I have to live with the fact that I took a person's life! That image is gonna be stuck in my head forever!"

"Well... Just try not to think about it too much. We've gotta focus on what's important, right?"

"That's easy for you to say! You're a changeling! You've killed plenty of things!"

Chamella was taken aback at the unexpected accusation. Even though she knew that the only things she'd ever killed were small animals, she still couldn't help but feel a little guilty when Winter put it that way, her ears flattening down and turning away from Winter.

The pegasus suddenly realized what she'd said, looking apologetically at Chamella. "Sorry. I-I didn't mean to bring you into it. I'm just..."

"It's okay, I get it."

"No, you don't. I... I don't even know what happened. He jumped you, bit you, you screamed, and something in my head just... snapped."

Winter slowed to a halt. Chamella stared at her worriedly as tears started to form in the pegasus's eyes.

"After all the crap we've had to deal with, all the worry and fear and anger and... everything. I..." Winter fell back onto her haunches, breaking down completely as the tears flowed openly down her cheeks. "I can't take any more of this. I-I don't want to be here anymore. I just want to find Snowflake and go home," she sobbed, a noticeable hitch in her voice as her tears dripped onto the cold, stone floor. "I want this nightmare to be over..."

Chamella let Winter cry herself out for a short time, unsure of what to say or do from here. "Um... O-On the bright side, we know for sure we won't see him again." She realized almost immediately that that probably wasn't the best thing to say right now, but she had no idea what else to do.

Winter's weeping eventually died down and she wiped the moisture from her eyes, adding to the other stains of blood and vomit on her fur. Chamella tried to sit down beside her in an attempt to be comforting, but inhaled sharply as a pain shot through her flank, standing back up to take the pressure off of her wound. The pegasus lifted her head when she heard the sound, quickly getting back to her hooves.

"Oh, shoot! I-I'm sorry! You're hurt, w-we need to do something about that," the pegasus insisted, trying to overcome her own emotions to focus on the more immediate problem.

Chamella looked back at the bite Blight had given her. It wasn't bleeding incredibly heavily, but a trail of the crimson liquid still ran down her left hind leg. "I don't think we're far from the junction. I can't walk very well right now, but we can probably fly there pretty quickly."

Winter nodded in agreement. "Alright, let's hurry then."

The two mares made haste for their day's starting point, finding themselves back there in just over a minute by flight. Feeling a little more comfortable there as opposed to some random tunnel, Winter and Chamella touched down to address Chamella's wound.

"Um..." Winter hesitated for a moment as she looked at the bleeding wounds. "I'm starting to realize that I didn't pack any medical supplies. I don't suppose you did."

Chamella frowned and gave a shake of her head.

Winter thought for a little longer before coming up with an idea. "Okay..." She hastily threw off her saddlebags, dumping out their contents onto the ground. She then simply held the bags themselves against the wounds to absorb the blood and hopefully at least slow the bleeding.

Chamella hissed in pain as Winter held her makeshift bandage against her flank, and the pegasus reduced the pressure she was applying.

"Sorry."

"It's fine," Chamella assured with a grateful, albeit pained, smile, still wincing with one eye closed.

There was a bit of an awkward silence as the two of them simply stood there, Chamella standing, unmoving, while Winter sat beside her and held the bags in place as they were gradually stained red.

"Guess we didn't really think this through, huh?" Winter said ashamedly. "I don't know how long it'll take before it's good enough for us to keep moving."

"I think we both need a little time after that anyway, so it's just as well."

Winter glanced at Chamella's face curiously. "You know, you seem to be taking this pretty well. Does it hurt much?"

The changeling grinned awkwardly. "Honestly, it hurts like crazy. It's taking everything I have to just fight back tears right now."

Winter couldn't help but smile at Chamella's sheer willpower. "I guess it could be worse. You're pretty skinny, so there wasn't as much flesh to go through. I'd probably be in much worse shape if he'd bitten me."

"I think he hit the bone, too. I'm not really sure if that's a good thing though."

"I hope it doesn't get infected. Blight's breath was pretty rank. I can't imagine a bite from him is very clean. Like being bitten by a rabid animal."

"That's probably more accurate than we realize. At least he's gone now." Chamella looked back at Winter, again, unsure if she should have said that. "Are you holding up okay?"

Winter closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. "I'm not comfortable, if that means anything." As she continued to hold the bags in place, she stared at the blood that stained her trembling hooves. "I don't know if I'll get over this. I'm still shaking a little. I'm going to have to live the rest of my life with the knowledge that I took another person's life."

Chamella furrowed her brow resolutely. "Well, I don't know how much it means coming from me, but I don't think you did anything wrong. Whatever you're telling yourself, I'm not judging you for what you did. You helped me, and I'm extremely grateful. Especially because it only happened because I showed him pity."

"Don't go turning this around on yourself. It's not your fault. I didn't have to—I mean, I could've just got him off you and left him, but like I said, I snapped. All the pressure, the emotions... It all came to a head, and I took it out on him..."

The two went silent again. Winter pulled the bags away from Chamella to check the status of the wound. The bleeding seemed to have slowed, but the wounds were obviously still open. It was probably dangerous to keep going without treating it properly. Unfortunately, they had no real way to do that.

Winter looked at her bloodstained saddlebags with a revolted grimace. She had enough blood on her hooves that she didn't want to deal with any more. She turned back to all the remaining supplies she'd dumped onto the ground. There were only a few usable things left—some food preserved in plastic wrap and a few bottles of water—everything else was mostly empty, plastic containers. Given the circumstances, she wouldn't feel bad about leaving behind a few containers if it meant lightening the load. And that thought gave her an idea.

"Well, since we can't really do anything about your wound, the least I can do is take some of the strain off."

Winter took Chamella's saddlebags off of her back and proceeded to remove any empty containers and used up plastic wrap and tin foil. She then started stuffing her remaining provisions into the changeling's bags and tossed her own blood-soaked bags aside. Thankfully, everything managed to fit in well enough, though she had a little difficulty fastening the clasps on the flaps.

The pegasus flashed Chamella a considerate smile. "Since you're probably going to have to fly from here on out, I think it'll be better if you don't have to deal with the extra weight. So I'll carry our stuff."

Chamella grinned gratefully. She wanted to argue against it, but had a feeling Winter wasn't taking no for answer in this instance. "You'd really do that? Thanks. I appreciate it."

Winter started glancing around at the many tunnels that surrounded them. "Hmm... I guess we've got another dilemma to deal with. What way should we go?"

"I think we must be getting close now. I say we just keep going the way we were—"

Chamella suddenly went silent, her ears perking up. Curious, Winter listened intently, too. They could hear something. Voices. Multiple voices coming from one of the nearby tunnels. Both of them turned towards the path that they believed the voices were coming from. Surprisingly, it wasn't just voices that they noticed, but shining out of the darkness further down they could see a trio of lights moving around.

Winter and Chamella stood motionless, frozen in disbelief as the voices became more clear. More familiar.

And then there was a loud burp.

"Would it kill you to say excuse me?" came a sophisticated sounding voice.

"Why? Who am I gonna offend in here?" replied a fairly high-pitched, yet somewhat raspy sounding voice.

"Me, for one. Honestly, it's like you were raised by pigs."

"Actually, I know some pretty well mannered pigs," a quieter, softer voice chimed in.

"So she's worse than pigs. To say she was raised by pigs is an insult to pigs."

"Don't you think you're being just a little over-dramatic? It was just a burp. Are you saying you've never burped after having something to drink?"

"While I admit to nothing, I would at least have the common decency to excuse myself. It certainly doesn't help that you chugged that can of soda so hastily."

Winter and Chamella could only stare in shock as the familiar voices soon became familiar faces as they got closer. Approaching them were three mares wearing what appeared to be mining helmets, too caught up in their own conversation to notice the two staring in disbelief at them.

Chamella felt her chest nearly burst with shock, confusion, and overwhelming joy when she recognized the approaching mares. "Rarity?!"

The three mares all stopped in their tracks and their chat was brought to an abrupt end. They shone their lights forward, illuminating the ivory pegasus and the changeling.

Rarity gasped in shock. "Chamella! Winter!"

"Holy crap! We actually found them!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed in joyous surprise.

The three mares quickly hurried over to the pair, Rarity wasting no time giving the changeling a relieved hug.

Fluttershy breathed a deep sigh of relief and smiled. "Thank goodness. I was so worried something horrible had happened to you two."

Chamella was still bewildered by the sudden appearance of their friends, glancing between them repeatedly and trying to discern whether or not this was real. "Wh-What are you guys doing here?!"

"Why, we came to find you, of course," Rarity clarified with a wide grin.

"How—? How did you know we were here?" asked Winter.

Rarity turned her attention to Chamella with an apologetic frown. "Sweetie Belle told us what happened. Please don't be mad at her, Chamella. She wanted to keep your secret, but we forced it out of her. If you're going to be upset with anypony, be upset with me."

Chamella sighed with a grin. "I'm not mad. Actually, I'm relieved she wound up telling you."

"Yeah, considering the stuff we've had to deal with since we got here, we pretty much regretted not asking for help from the get-go," Winter admitted with an embarrassed chuckle.

Rainbow Dash looked over the ivory pegasus with a grimace, noting the dirt, grime, and unidentifiable stains in her coat. "Yeah, looks like you've been through the wringer. Uh, is that blood?"

Having pointed it out, Rarity and Fluttershy both turned their attention to the deep red stains on Winter's front hooves and fetlocks, looking worriedly at her.

Winter turned away, her ears folding back in remorse as her mind went back to what she'd done. "It's, um... not mine..."

It took a moment, but seeing the deep regret upon Winter's face, Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy quickly came to their own conclusions.

Rarity hesitated a moment, unsure of what to say. "Oh..."

"Damn," was all Rainbow Dash could manage in response.

Fluttershy, in an attempt to cut the tension, tried to get things back on course. "Well, a-at least you're not hurt. That's what counts."

Winter awkwardly inhaled through her teeth and pointed to Chamella. "Uh, actually..."

Curious, Fluttershy shone her headlamp onto Chamella, the light reflecting off of the crimson liquid running down her slightly elevated hind leg. The timid pegasus gasped loudly. "Oh, my goodness! Chamella, what happened?!"

"I was, uh, bitten by another changeling," Chamella explained. She turned to the side, giving the other mares a clearer view of the wounds.

Rainbow Dash winced at the sight of it. "Yikes. That looks pretty nasty."

"Gracious me!" Rarity exclaimed in deep worry, her face suddenly becoming paler than it already was at the sight of the blood. "Are you alright, dear?! How bad is it?!"

"I-I don't think it's as bad as it looks," Chamella answered, though with a notable lack of confidence.

Fluttershy threw off her saddlebags immediately and started rifling through them. "Lie down," she ordered firmly.

There was a moment of hesitation, but Chamella followed the request and laid down on the ground with her hind legs out to the side. Fluttershy sat down alongside her and removed a small first-aid kit and some bandages from her bag.

"How long since you've been bitten?" Fluttershy asked quickly, but rather calmly.

"Um... Probably twenty minutes at most."

Fluttershy nodded, looking a little relieved. "Good. Not long ago. Let me get this cleaned up and I'll disinfect and dress it for you."

"Geez, you girls really did have a rough time, huh? We haven't seen a single changeling since we got in these caves," Rainbow Dash said with a hint of envy.

"Luckily enough," added Rarity. She turned her attention back to Winter—particularly the state of her soiled coat—and grimaced. "I'm not going to ask about the origins of those stains, but I can only imagine how tough it's going to be to clean that all off."

Winter solemnly stared down at her fetlocks again. "It's going to take more than soap and hot water to wash this away, trust me..."

"I don't doubt it," said Rarity with a nod.

Chamella inhaled sharply as Fluttershy applied disinfectant around her cleaned wound, clenching her teeth as the stinging pain shot through her. The yellow pegasus briefly glanced up. "I've got some strong shampoo at home that I use to clean up my animals. Some of those critters get really filthy, so I need strong stuff to make sure they're coats, or feathers, or what-have-you are spic and span."

"I know all too well the struggle of maintaining a pristine, white coat," Rarity said sympathetically. "Everything shows on white. You can't really hide any sort of stains."

"What about mayo?" Rainbow Dash chimed in.

"Or liquid paper?" added Fluttershy.

"Or glue?"

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Yes, you're all quite intelligent individuals," she groaned sarcastically. "In any case, blood in particular is quite difficult to deal with."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "When do you get blood on yourself?"

"I'm a seamstress, darling. I work with needles."

"Yeah, but don't you, like, use your magic to handle them?"

"Trust me, it happens from time to time. When you're in 'the zone,' as they say, sometimes you can get a tad absentminded. Right, Chamella?"

Chamella looked up in confusion, surprised that she'd been dragged into the conversation. "Huh? Oh, uh, actually that's never happened to me."

Rarity scowled and let out a defeated groan. "Anyway, the point I'm trying to get to is that I've had to deal with stubborn, unsightly stains before. When we return home, I'll help you get cleaned up."

Even though Rarity obviously wasn't grasping the emotional implications of the stains, Winter still smiled gratefully. "Thanks. I appreciate it, Rarity."

Fluttershy finished dressing Chamella's wounds, applying a patch of gauze to the area to absorb the blood and wrapping medical bandages around the stifle of her left hind leg. "There you go. It should heal up in time, but you should probably avoid doing anything strenuous so you don't hurt yourself."

"I can't really make any promises," Chamella responded as she stood up again, moving her leg around slightly to make sure the bandages were fastened tightly enough. "We still need to find Snowflake after all."

Rarity's ears perked up at the mention of the name. "Oh, that's right! I don't suppose the two of you have any leads as to the poor child's whereabouts, do you?"

Winter lowered her head. "No. Nothing."

"We've been trying to find the throne room so we can ask Queen Chrysalis," Chamella elaborated.

"That's what we figured," said Fluttershy. "So I guess we just go from here until we get there, right?"

Chamella nodded. "I was saying to Winter before you girls got here that I think we have to be getting close by now."

"Hey, maybe if we're lucky we'll meet up with the others on the way," said Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, I've been meaning ask about that," Winter interjected. "Where are the others? Did you guys get separated?"

"We split up early on to cover more ground," Fluttershy explained.

"Was that a good idea?" Chamella asked with an unsure and concerned look. "How are you supposed to find each other again?"

Rarity chuckled in amusement. "Oh, Chamella, darling. Do you honestly believe that Twilight, of all ponies, would agree to split up in this labyrinth without some sort of plan? She and I are connected via a magic tether spell. All I have to do is trigger the spell and a trail will lead us right to them."

There was a glimmer of hope in both Winter and Chamella's eyes upon hearing that.

"Really? So we could go find them right now?" Winter inquired enthusiastically.

"I suppose we could, although it depends on where they are in relation to us," Rarity said. "Let's check, shall we?"

Rarity lit up her horn with her powder blue aura. Within moments, a trail of blue magic swirled up from her horn before extending down one of the many passages surrounding them. The path that it pointed to happened to be on the opposite side of the crack in the wall from which Winter and Chamella had originally emerged.

Chamella was pleasantly surprised by the fortunate happenstance. "Oh, that's the way I was going to suggest we go anyway."

Winter quirked an eyebrow. "Wait, does that mean Twilight and the others are ahead of us?"

"Not necessarily," Rarity corrected. "It just means that this is the quickest route to meet up with them. It probably means we're at least keeping pace with one another. And it's even more convenient considering this means we don't have to backtrack."

"So we might run into them after all," Dash said with a reassuring grin. "And if we're really lucky, they might've already found Shade, too."

Winter and Chamella turned to the pegasus with shocked and confused expressions.

"Shade?" Winter echoed. She suddenly became more tense and worried as the implications struck her. "Wait, you're saying Shade's here?!"

Rarity frowned with a disappointed sigh. "We assume so. Apparently he snuck out of the hospital."

"Since he wasn't home, the only logical conclusion we could come to was that he went to the Changeling Kingdom, too," Fluttershy added.

Winter fell to her haunches, craning her neck back and staring at the ceiling with a long groan. "Great... As if we didn't have enough to worry about."

Rainbow Dash gave Winter a somewhat judgmental glare. "You're not exactly in any position to be giving any lectures. You two ran off without telling anypony, too. I mean, except Sweetie Belle."

The ivory pegasus gave the three other ponies a deeply apologetic look. "Yeah, I know. And I just want to apologize for the way I've been acting. I promise I'm going to straighten up and do things right when we get home."

Rarity gave her a sympathetic smile and a pat on the shoulder. "Don't fret over it, darling. We need to focus on what's important right now."

"So are we gonna get a move on, or what?" Rainbow Dash asked, practically ready to get going down their designated path.

"Actually, can we hold off a little longer?" Chamella requested, glancing back at the bandages around her flank. "I'd like for the pain to die down a little before we keep moving. Plus, I don't know about you girls, but I haven't had anything to eat since I woke up."

Winter breathed a deep sigh as her gaze was once more directed to the stains on her hooves. "Honestly, I don't really have much of an appetite, but I guess it would be better to get some food in me now rather than stopping later."

The request was met by accommodating smiles from the other three mares, and they removed their saddlebags and all sat down.

"That's not unreasonable. I could go for a light snack," said Rarity.

"Do you two have much food left?" asked Fluttershy.

"I think we have enough to last us, assuming that we are close to the throne room and this is the last day we're going to have to spend here," Winter answered.

Rainbow Dash waved off the answer dismissively. "Whatever, we brought plenty if you wanna share."

Winter and Chamella gave grateful smiles.

"We appreciate that," Winter said. "And thank you guys so much for coming all the way out here to help us. It means the world to us."

"We couldn't just stand by when our friends are in danger," Fluttershy responded with a grin. "And especially poor, little Snowflake."

"We're gonna find him," Rainbow Dash stated with a resolute expression. "I don't care how much changeling butt we gotta kick, we're bringing him home safe and sound."

Feeling more than a little reassured, Winter and Chamella took the time to fill their bellies in preparation for the path ahead. While learning that Shade had come the Changeling Kingdom was indeed worrying, knowing that they had reliable friends to help them out filled them with newfound confidence that they hadn't felt since their arrival.

***** ***** *****

"Did you hear what happened to the squad they sent after the deserter?"

The male changeling soldier glanced to the armored female sitting beside him. He quirked a curious eyebrow as he chewed on the flesh of a small rat he'd recently caught. "Why? What happened?"

"They got roasted. Hard," she told him with a mildly amused giggle, taking a bite of a particularly large, glowing mushroom.

The male's eyes widened in surprise as he swallowed a chunk of rat meat. "Seriously? By one guy?"

The female shook her head. "Nope. Apparently some of his pony friends showed up and kicked their butts. Wish I coulda seen that," she snickered.

"Didn't Captain Wraith go after him, too? What happened with him?"

The female looked up toward the ceiling of the corridor they were having their lunch in, humming in thought. "I dunno. I'm not sure if he even came back yet. Must've spent the night out there somewhere. That, or the ponies spanked him, too." She didn't laugh at that thought, finding the idea of Wraith being bested a little worrying.

"Tch, not likely," the male scoffed. "I'm not going to say that I'm any tougher than the soldiers that got beat up, but Wraith is on a whole other level. Have you heard if the deserter and the ponies are dead or not?"

"The ponies are alive, but I don't know about the deserter. One of the soldiers that went with the captain got out of there before they could whup him."

"That who you heard this from?" the male presumed.

She nodded. "Yep. And apparently the deserter bailed on his friends and Captain Wraith chased after him. No clue what happened to them after that."

The male let out a sigh. "Man, I hope they don't make me go after them. I'm not in any hurry to get blasted by that 'Element of Magic' chick, or whatever."

"Could be worse. We could've been put on foalsitting duty like Glory was," the female laughed. "Boy, I do not envy her. Have you heard that little freak cry? It's like metal scraping in your ears."

The male shuddered. "No kidding. I haven't even been to the soldier's quarters since Wraith brought it here, but I've heard it echoing through the halls. Sounds like an actual nightmare."

The female took another big bite of her mushroom lunch, leaning back casually against the stone wall. "I wonder what the point of it is. There must be some kinda plan for the thing, right?"

"The rumor I've been hearing is that it's going to be some kind of secret weapon to use against the ponies or something."

The female's ears perked up curiously. "Really? That's actually kinda cool."

The male shrugged dismissively. "Like I said, it's just a rumor. I don't think anyone except Wraith knows what's actually going to be done with it."

"Not even Queen Chrysalis?"

The male quirked an eyebrow at the question. "Uh, you haven't heard?"

The female blinked uncomprehendingly. "Heard what?"

"Captain Wraith had a little 'meeting' with the queen a couple of days ago. I guess not all of the soldiers've been informed yet."

"Informed of what?" the female asked with an annoyed glower. "Stop being so cryptic and just—"

She stopped herself short, her attention being diverted elsewhere. Curious, the male followed her gaze past where he sat and down the corridor they sat in.

As if summoned by their very conversation, Wraith himself was making his way towards them. He trotted with purposeful speed and the slight scowl upon his brow seemed to suggest that he was not in a good mood.

The two soldiers immediately stood at attention in the presence of their superior, not wanting to appear as though they were slacking despite the presence of their half-eaten meals.

As Wraith approached, the male addressed him with the question that had been brought up during their chat. "Captain Wraith, you're back. Did you find the..."

The pair of soldiers watched as their captain ignored them and simply walked by without so much as slowing down or even giving them a passing glance.

"...deserter? Uh, Sir? You okay?"

The changeling captain suddenly came to a stop, his ears standing up straight as though he had realized something. He looked back over his shoulder. The two soldiers flinched under his clearly displeased gaze, hoping that they hadn't done something to receive his ire. Wraith turned around fully, slowly walking back over to the pair. It was only now that the two of them noticed the blood around one of the holes in the captain's left front leg, as if he'd been cut by something, as well as a couple of small dents in his helmet.

"Would the two of you know anything about the release of a prisoner named Guise?" he asked tersely.

"Uh, n-no, sir," the male stammered nervously. "I've never actually been to the dungeon before."

"Same," added the female.

"Hmph." Wraith simply turned around and continued on his way, having expected that answer.

The two soldiers exchanged confused glances before following after the captain, hoping to get some sort of explanation for the seemingly random question, in addition to his sour mood.

"Is something going on?" the female asked as they followed behind Wraith. "What does this 'Guise' person have to do with anything?"

Wraith was silent for a moment, initially having no intention of engaging in inane conversation on the way to his destination. However, he elected to answer the question regardless. "On his own, nothing. However, he seems to have sided with Shade for some inexplicable reason, despite the history of animosity between the two."

"Is he a threat?" asked the smaller male.

"As I said, on his own he is nothing to be concerned with. But given recent developments, he may become a thorn if left to his own devices long enough," Wraith elaborated. "That being said, he is not my immediate concern."

"Then what is? Where are you going anyway, i-if I might ask," the female inquired.

"The issue that has arisen is to do with Guise's release. I ordered no such thing, which means another changeling is responsible."

"Is it that big a deal, though?" questioned the male. "I mean, didn't you let that Blight guy out? One of the soldiers probably just thought we could use a little extra help. They couldn't have known he was gonna side with the deserter."

Wraith shot a glower over his shoulder, eliciting a nervous gulp from the other male. "If I thought I needed his help, I would have released him myself. My grievance comes from one of my subordinates acting without my say so."

The two soldiers lowered their heads submissively. It sounded less like an answer to their question and more like a warning.

Wraith turned forward again, focusing once more on the path and his destination. However, he addressed the pair again. "Have either of you seen Glory recently?"

They were a little caught off guard by the question, especially considering the hint of venom in Wraith's voice.

"You made her the halfling's caretaker, didn't you?" said the male. "So shouldn't she be in the soldier's quarters with it?"

"Ideally, yes."

The two soldiers glanced at each other, unsure of what exactly that answer was supposed to mean. However, it did seem to answer the female's earlier question. They both knew now that they were actually headed for the soldiers' quarters. It made sense really; Glory had always been one of Wraith's more reliable subordinates, and with her bizarre "mind-reading" ability that was notorious amongst the soldiers, if anyone would know anything about Guise's release, it would be her.

Before long, the flickering, green flames that indicated the soldiers' quarters came into view. The initial reaction to their arrival there was confusion from the two soldiers accompanying the captain. The last time either of them had been in this area, they were inundated with the halfling's ear-splitting shrieking. However, now everything was quiet. The only sounds they could hear were the clomping of their hooves on the stone, and the crackling of the torches as they approached the entrance.

Wraith was the first to enter the rather small chamber, but stopped just as he passed the threshold. The two soldiers poked their heads in as well to see what the problem was.

The soldiers' quarters were completely empty. No Glory. No halfling. The only things that remained were a few scraps of half-eaten food and a soldier's dark blue helmet and chest plate laying on the floor.

The two soldiers cautiously chanced a glance at Wraith. The captain was completely motionless, save for his face, which contorted into an uncharacteristically furious scowl. He grit his fangs, his pupils narrowed, and he let out a low, contemptuous growl as he glared at the discarded armor.

Comments

[Grekoy]

Glory's running away with the kid, is she?

[Helljumper206]

Things are getting really interesting now. I wonder what is going to happen next.

[Masquerade_Malek]

Oh I do hope the next chapter does come soon. I am anxious to see what is of Glory's heart and mind. I did not expect that change of events at all. Very well done sir.

[Tigron]

8780998
...I just took a closer look And I realized. He takes a month or so for each chapter. That also explains why each one is at least 10,000 words long.

[Tigron]

8721272
This entire story is now 227 thousand words +
Maybe it's my first time actually seeing the number, but that seems unusually large.

[Dee Pad]

8782296
I've actually noticed that pattern myself. Purely coincidental, I assure you.

[Tigron]

I have a weird feeling Chrysalis is dead or mind controlled by Wraith...

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Hmm, does she run to the Queen?

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

8770099
https://imgur.com/PzqRWca

[Teraunce]

I was right. Glory is changing for the better. I guess she found her heart.

[Luckysweep]

With how many changelings are deciding to defect at the spur of the moment, I have to wonder if some did it before but either went into obscurity and never got caught or died before doing anything of note.