Chapter 39
For Spirit and Sparrow the walk back to base was a difficult one. The changelings' chitin was cracked in several places and her energy was running dangerously low. By the halfway point Spirit could no longer walk on her own four hooves, leaving Sparrow to carry her on his back instead.
The changelings' wings buzzed in annoyance briefly as she was hoisted onto the larger pegasus’s back before it turned into a low hum as her body remembered who it was carrying her, to begin with. If Sparrow didn’t know any better he would have mistaken the vibrations and hums for that of a cat having decided his back was a particularly comfortable place for a nap. The Pegasus smiled briefly when he looked back at the smiling face of Spirit.
“If only we could stay like this, I wouldn’t mind using your back as my new pillow.” Spoke Spirit with a relaxed sigh as Sparrow felt her press into the crook of his neck.
“I know, but we’re almost there. Can you disguise yourself? I don’t want them to hurt you.” Asked Sparrow as he somewhat worriedly looked towards the approaching rescue camp.
“I can’t, I don’t have the energy…We could just tell them the truth, I… I knew it would only be a matter of time since I signed up before I would be discovered. I just hoped it wouldn’t be like this.”
“Are you sure you want to take that risk? I won’t…I won’t be able to protect you in there. You’ll be thrown into a cell and interrogated after this” He gestured to the destroyed buildings that surrounded them.” They’re not going to be the most amicable of hosts.”
The changeling looked towards his worried features and smiled. “I’ve dealt with worse during my time in the Hive.”
Sparrow stared at her a few moments longer before sighing. “Fine just…be careful okay? I’ll do what I can to keep you safe but I’m not Six. I can’t take on the entire military.”
Spirit gave a small peck on Sparrow’s cheek and smiled. The pegasus returned the gesture before steeling himself with a deep breath and continuing towards the base.
It didn’t take long for him to be spotted in the moonlight as a small patrol came out to greet him, oblivious of the passenger he was carrying. Spirits pitch-black chitin and ripped black and white urban camo hiding her from view from that distance.
“Hey, Sparrow! Wasn’t expecting you back till morning, finally find what you’ve been…looking…for…” The guard trailed off as he witnessed the compound blue eyes of a changeling looking back at him from Sparrow's back. Tattered and ripped remnants of Noble squads' uniform hung around the injured changelings' form. The lightly luminescent green glow of changeling blood stained the underside of the creature's broken armor.
All together the guards raised their weapons.
“Put your weapons down or I swear to Celestia, I will turn you all to paste!” Yelled Sparrow towards the readied guards
“But, Sir-“
“Don’t ‘But Sir’ me soldier. Put your weapons down, if she wanted to hurt anyone you would all already be dead. The changeling here is Spirit so I demand you treat her like you would any other member of Noble Squad. Changeling or not.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far.” Spoke Spirit quietly into Sparrow's ear.
“I can’t believe it-“ Whispered one of the guards to themselves, but just before the lead guard was about to speak again another voice cut through the darkness.
“What in Luna’s name is up with all the shouting?! I’m trying to get some shuteye over here!”
Everyone looked up towards the source of the annoyed voice of none other than the Wonderbolts captain accompanied by the leader of the LSTS Midnight. Both looked no worse for wear with only the pegasus looking like she had just rolled face first, out of bed.
“Well?!” Shouted out Spitfire once again impatiently as she waited for an answer to her question. Sparrow was the first to speak up as the two senior officers closed the distance.
“I was able to locate M.I.A Spartan Spirit and she requires medical attention.”
“I am not in the mood for jokes Sparrow, that's a changeling on your back. So you best choose your next words *very* carefully.” Began Spitfire with a threatening aura that would have made Six proud.
“Look, everypony, can we move this inside? I don’t want to interrupt your discussion on who Sparrow says I am and who you think I impersonated but I think I’m about to pass out and I would prefer not to die out here with the information I am willing to share.”
Multiple sets of surprised eyes stared at the annoyed changeling who, like she said she was, looked to be on the brink of unconsciousness as the struggle to keep their eyes open was outwardly visible.
Midnight laughed, breaking the silence and causing everyone present to stare at her incredulously, “She has us there.”
A look from the tired Spitfire silenced her laughter but the grin she wore remained.
“Fine, you three escort them to the hospital, I'll have some Bolts join you on the way there, they are both not to leave your sight, got it? Best make it worth our time changeling, or I escort you personally to the gates of Tartarus for what you did to my Bolts.”
All three guards saluted in the affirmative with Sparrow just nodding and Spirit weakly attempting to salute from Sparrow's back. She was only barely able to lift her holed hoof to her forehead before she fell limp with her eyelids becoming exponentially heavier.
“I think that's your cue to hurry it up, Spartan.” Spoke Midnight as she flew down to hover next to the changeling upon the pegasi’s back. The Thestral inspected the weak changelings form as Sparrow began to make his way towards the hospital. She made sure to keep a reasonable distance just in case, changelings were, after all, tricksters by nature.
The first thing she took a closer look at was the armor they wore, an unusual design. Yet again its designer and commissioner were equally unusual so no problem there. But it's the fact that as far as she knew, and she knew a lot about what went on to the other squads above and below her, only four sets of this armor were made. And the materials Six requested this armor be made of were in equally low stock, with the metals needed to be specially ordered from outside of Canterlot. Needless to say, it was impossible for the changelings to recreate such armor without some flags being raised.
This narrowed down the possible time Spirit (if this was the changeling who had been impersonating her for Celestia knows how long) had been replaced for. Midnights eyes roamed to the damaged sections of the uniform as Sparrow turned another corner. Cuts and rips stained with green luminescent blood turned the strange camouflage useless but there was something about the damage that marred the changelings black chitin.
Small dual puncture wounds with spider-web like cracks spreading outwards, dark green burn-marks that still radiated ever so slightly with green mana. Wounds that couldn‘t have been inflicted by ponies, no…these wounds could have only been inflicted by other changelings.
“Well, would you look at that…” Midnight began whispering quietly to herself as she watched a group of Wonderbolts join their little convoy, unaware that Midnights little *laughing* fit had already called a further squad of LSTS to watch the group from the shadows. Being able to make and hear sounds outside of a normal ponies hearing range was one of the perks she loved about being born a Thestral.
Minutes later they had reached their destination with word already having reached the hospital of their new unique patient. A gurney was already waiting outside for them with doctors and nurses on standby. Without hesitation, Sparrow placed the injured changeling upon the gurney and followed the doctors inside. He didn’t make it far however as he was prevented from entering the trauma room they had wheeled the changeling to.
A guard clad in gold and black armor stood in the corner of the room, horn glowing a light blue as Sparrow watched his beloved’s hooves, horn, and wings be covered in the same magical aura. The pegasus couldn’t stand seeing such treatment towards a creature that had almost died for them but there was little he could do now. Until they realized who the changeling was they would both have to put up with it.
Sparrow felt a tap against his side grabbing his attention. Turning around he was met with Captain Midnight looking back at him, two ponies clad in pitch-black armor he had never seen before flanking her.
“We’re going to have to ask for you to come with us”
“Let’s start from the top. When did you first meet Spirit?” Asked the pony sitting across from him in the interrogation room.
“When I first took part and managed to make it through Six’s test, before then we had never met before.”
“Never? Not even stationed in the same base?”
“No, that was the first time we had met.”
“Did you harbor any suspicions?”
“Why should I? I was there in Las Pegasus, I watched Six turn an entire swarm into green paste without a scratch. And everypony knows what she did. And if we did, the changelings most definitely did as well, so why should I believe that a changeling would wish to willingly go through hell to work under them.”
The interrogator hummed as their partner, Sparrow thought, just watched from the corner of the room, their face unreadable. The Spartan continued.
“So no, I did not harbor any suspicions about any of the ponies that survived that exercise least of all Spirit.”
“Why is that?”
“She seemed too shy and nonconfrontational to be the spying type.”
“I see… let's fast forward a bit then. You say that the changeling you brought in is in fact Spirit and not an impersonator.”
“That is correct, that changeling is and always has been, Spirit.”
“How can you be so sure? You could have been influenced by her magic.”
“No, Spirit revealed herself to me willingly when the attack started, if she were a spy she would have used that opportunity to kill me. We may not be as dangerous as Six herself but I doubt the changelings would want to take that risk and let us live.”
“So you're telling me she willingly dropped her disguise?”
“To save me, yes”
“Why?”
“Why else? You never leave a soldier behind.”
The pony hummed and glanced towards the other standing in the corner. The pony gestured with a nod towards the door.
“Well, I think we are done here for today.” The pony moved to leave but before he could Sparrow spoke up
“Wait, can I see her?”
His questioner looked back and stared at the large pegasus for several seconds before saying a single word.
“Maybe.”
The door closed behind him leaving the Pegasus alone in the interrogation booth once again, left to contemplate on what he had just gotten himself into.
The moon princess watched apprehensively through the one-way glass window unsure of what to think. She didn‘t know the Pegasus very well, in fact, it was fair to say she didn‘t know him at all apart from his status as one of Six‘s Spartans. She knew the basic information, of course, his personnel file told her all she needed. But the pony behind the document, behind the beaming commendations and reports of the original Spartan? She had no information at all.
She had been called down by a member of her LSTS whilst she was in the middle of her daily visit to her sister's bedside when the news came. That one of Six’s Spartans had come with a changeling he claimed to be the MIA Spartan known as Spirit.
This news naturally confused and highly interested the now one-eyed princess, prompting her to oversee the investigation and interrogation of everypony involved herself. But the changeling, that is what interested her the most.
During the initial attack during her niece's wedding, once the dust had settled, casualties from both sides were, naturally, recovered. But whenever her ponies found and attempted to help any changeling left behind when their queen was ejected they would just…die. Their breathing would cease and their hearts would stop regardless of the severity of their injuries.
So being able to catch a live one, one that said they were willing to give up sensitive information… That was something a princess would not allow to fall out of her hooves. But until the changeling was well enough for questioning, the debriefing of Sparrow had to come first.
The door to her side opened, grabbing the princess's attention, as the SMILE agent assigned to this case cantered inside.
“How fares the interrogation thus far, my agent?” Questioned Luna in her regal speech.
“Well, compared to the first ‘Spartan’ I’ve questioned, having a willing participant feels like heaven.”
Luna grinned playfully, “I imagine so, but pray tell, what have you learned thus far?”
The pony grabbed a nearby clipboard and quickly scribbled something down before turning to face the princess once again. “Well after extensive and discreet magical scans we can confirm that he is most definitely not under any changeling control.”
“Changeling mind magic is still a great unknown to us agent, I would not be so hasty in your conclusion.”
“I was getting to that princess, with everything he is saying I don’t doubt that for one minute that his words are genuine. According to him, quite vehemently I might add, the changeling is, and always has been, his fellow ‘Spartan’ Spirit. That there is no deception afoot here and that she is actually here to help us.”
“A tall tale for certain…” Luna stood in thought for several moments before a memory came to the front of her mind. “Agent, return Sparrow to his barracks in an hour, I must prepare something that will give us the answers we need.” Ordered the lunar princess as she made her way out the door.
“As you wish, princess.” Could be faintly heard behind the alicorn on a mission but it meant little to her now. She had a spell to prepare. After all, if it worked on the original, why wouldn’t it on their underling?
Two hours later and Luna floated through the dream-realm waiting, searching for the dream her spell had created. And after minutes of looking, she had found it but she did not enter it right away. She stopped just before it, her hoof partially outstretched before her.
Should she really do this, she thought. Against Six the risks were negligible, her physical body is second to none and her mind was honed to perfection. Last time the spell was only barely able to take hold and even when it did Luna was basically along for the ride. The princess only able to subtly influence the direction Six’s mind was traveling to learn all she could from the Spartans memories.
Against Sparrow simply willing a memory to appear would do the trick with how easily the magic took hold. The object it took as its form must have held a serious significance to Sparrow then.
Lighting her horn, Luna inspected the spell's imitation matrix in order to find out what the object in question was. It appeared to be a black shell of some sort, one side glowing slightly in a luminescent green and the other as black as Luna’s darkest nights. Luna didn’t have to be several thousand-year-old alicorn to recognize a shard of changeling chitin when she saw one.
Luna’s confusion spiked and she swore several dream bubbles around her turned into question marks as well for the briefest of moments. Why in the name of her sister's sun was a shard of broken and cracked changeling chitin so important to the Spartan?
Luna needed to find out now and so with her hesitation banished she extended her hoof and entered Sparrow’s mind, her own mind focused and figuring out just how far this rabbit hole went.
“My Venator, I bring news!”
Mobius looked up from his seat, and away from the pony, he had been feeding off of. They were a zebra cocooned in the light green changeling resin that housed their…rations. They wore the decaying remnants of the gold and black armor of the ponies ‘Horizon Squad’. Its metal having been turned to ribbons by the Venators blade when he personally went to capture him during their attack.
Having the second in command of the ponies' most secretive squads (thought only to be rumors among the agents of VOPS until yesterday) would be a great gift for the Queen and a massive boon for the spooks back in the Hive. Much to Mobius's chagrin however the Zebra’s armor would not survive the trip with its structure being broken down by the slightly acidic fluid the pony found themselves floating in. It seems the trophy case at VOPS Headquarters would have to remain one armor set lighter for the time being.
“What is it?”
“I’ve had my drones undergo a headcount as ordered, and you were correct my Venator. We found a discrepancy and upon further investigation, we found one dead and one wounded drone on the southern border of the camp. The injuries inflicted to them were changeling in origin and the survivor says he cannot remember his own name.”
“I knew it.” The Venator turned around fully to look the Praetorian in the eye, “Get the priest, if this is the work of the same hiveless as encountered during the attack we must find them and eliminate them. If my hunch is correct they have aligned themselves with the ponies.”
“Aligned themselves with our food?”
“Memory loss can only mean one thing, Praetorian. Our little traitor has taken those drones' memories for themselves. Redouble your search efforts, and find that hiveless before the Queen hears of this. If the ponies find the location of the hive all will be lost so move it!“
The praetorian hastily nodded and left in a hurry as the Venator watched them leave. Once the Venator was alone once again the familiar voice of Redfang resonated behind him.
‘Hiveless here, hiveless there. Why would anyling dare, for the Empress's light is for all. And those that don’t heed it, fall.’
“Speaking in riddles now? To what? Toy with me for allowing this to happen?”
‘A poem actually, and no this situation just…reminded me of something long ago.’
Turning around Mobius followed the voice of the enigmatic Redfang to find their ghostly form lying atop the Zebra’s cocoon. Her transparent red eyes stared into the sky, unfocused as if recalling some time long past or a memory yet barely forgotten.
Mobius paid it no mind, just another one of this entity's strange quirks he would sometimes catch the ghost doing. From staring into space and inspecting objects as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. Cryptic doesn’t even begin to fully describe the consciousness he now had to live with.
“Mind sharing what's on your mind? Or, heh, armor?”
‘Ha, ha.’ She laughed dryly. ‘Very funny.’ Mobius grinned at the exacerbated expression Redfang wore.
“Humor never really was one of my strong suits, that's why I’ve got you.”
It took a moment as the words sunk in before Redfang gave a proper laugh of her own. ‘Empress, dammit.’ She managed to get out through her fit of giggles.
“Okay, okay break times over now, we’ve got a hiveless to catch and I for one would not like to be the Venator that served when the hive was exposed.” Finished Mobius as he drew and inspected his sword once again.
‘Yes, you're right.’ Responded Redfang from behind before she suddenly reappeared in the reflection on Mobius’s sword. ‘Now let's go, I’ve already repaired and reformed what we lost in the attack. We’re good as new again, with perhaps a few minor improvements.’
Mobius nodded and smiled slightly in thanks towards the reflection before the sword returned to his back where the recovered shield already lay. “Good, now let's go find ourselves a traitor, shall we?”
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I noticed the top right and left Changelings in the cover picture are twin brothers in motion and look the same
Don't worry Spirit, Sparrow will fight anyone to protect you.
The only traitor i see is the Leader of the Hive. She murdered their own kind and slaughtered their future of mutual benefishal gain. A leader degenerating a proud and strong race into Parasites that lost what made Changelings themself... Adaptation to their surroundings and positive Symbiotic relationship for both. The Farmer keeps his lifestock save, content and feed. In return the Lifestock keeps feeding the Farmer and it's population growth allows for positiv overflow in food.
-Chicken make Eggs.
-Cows give milk.
-Pigs dispose of overflow and provide meat.
-Lamas and Sheep give raw Fur.
-Humans give cuddles, snuggels and boops on the snoot.
The perfect balanced and profitable lifestock.
Just watch out for humans have a tendenz to breed like Rabbits
Spirit abilitys:
-Fighting
-Looking good
-Purring/Vibrations like a content cat
Military and entertainment importants? Ultimate!♡
Send out the Spartans! We can not lose this asset!
Bugwaifu can not be lost or all will be lost!
camo.fimfiction.net/HGKOVNTrPh_dQIegq-4XQTTfq37sBPSPcGN3_7ZAMFg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fderpicdn.net%2Fimg%2Fview%2F2014%2F7%2F10%2F671941.gif
11232820
Huh
Slightly surprised Spirit didn't feed at least a little. Remarkable self control.
Redfang seems to be hinting at something, but is it traitorous or mere reversion?
Clock is ticking!
Lol