The Journey

by Diamond Sparkle

The Escape

Longwing and Changefast made their way through the many twisting tunnels to the royal burrow. "I doubt you're really be allowed in to speak with the Queen, everyling knows that she is in a foul mood after the Canterlot invasion fiasco. She's even put this place on lockdown for a few days. Even if she does let you speak to her, there is zero chance that she'll move the entire Hive just based upon your vision." A single changeling slightly larger then most guarded the door, a spear fitted by a bracer to his arm.

"Hi Bighoof."

"Hello Changefast. It's good to see you again. Who is your friend?"

"Longwing, and he wants to see the Queen."

"What in Equestria does he want to do that for?" Bighoof asked.

Longwing replied, "There's a bad danger coming, and it's not good."

Changefast asked "Since when has he ever asked to speak to the Queen before?"

"Allright, I'll let him in, although I'll probebly have my love ration cut for this."

The three of them walked into the Royal Throne Room, where the Queen sat apon her throne sipping from a goblet filled with raw love. She glared at them. "What's your problem? If it's about the lockdown, that is ending in two days time. Then hopefully things can get back to normal around here."

"I had a vision of blood and death, there's a bad danger coming, a really bad danger, and we all need to...to leave the Hive and get out of here whilst we still can."

"Really? Abandon our nice hive that is so cool in the summer yet warm in the winter? Where would we go to? Equestria is on the lookout for our kind and no doubt has ways of finding us out by now. Griffonia is a place where it is a lot harder to gather love. There is a good reason why we don't target the griffins very often. There are other Hives in this country as you well know; whilst they all get along fine with each other most of the time, they would not look very kindly on a whole Hive of Changeling refugees, annd most certainly not on me, a Changeling Queen. It has not been unknown in the past for Queens to kill rival Queens in such circumstances. We are staying where we are and that's final. You are dismissed and I won't here another word about the matter."

Once they had left the throne room and were out of earshot of the Queen, Longwing said "I have never been as scared as I have now; I'm leaving the Hive even if I have to fight my way out. I know the dangers out there and I'm going anyway even if noling will go with me."

"I...I'll go with you then, and I know some other Changelings that would go as well. We'll go late at night, when the guards are most likely to be sleepy, through one of the side gates, and we'll take one of the cocooned ponies with us to provide a love source. Only one though, cocoons are heavy. We'll steal the one that hangs up in the officer's mess. I'm not taking love from the mouth of a grub or a little pupa, not even for you."

That night Changefast met up with a few other Changelings and explained the situation, and they sneaked into the officer's mess. Above the wooden table and chairs brought by infiltrators in Ponyville and smuggled out of Equestria long ago, was a glowing cocoon hanging from the ceiling with a purple earth pony deep inside, providing both a soft green light for the room and a souce of love for the officers to drink from whenever they felt like it. "If we're caught..." Lovelace, one of the Changelings said in fear...

"We'll all be in deep trouble for mutiny, but we have nothing to lose, and they'll soon replace their missing love source," Changefast replied. "We'll leave five minuites after the changing of the guard, through a small side door that I will be on watch other. I am the guard for that door and by the time the shift changes we will be long gone. Now, as you know, we all need love to change for very long;and in the area we are in, ruled by our own race rather then by ponies or griffins, it is safest to stay in our true forms. Otherwise we might be targeted by everyling in the area who would think we were food or a threat. Oh, and one more thing, once we leave the Hive we won't be welcome back again, as we will have disobeyed a direct royal order and breached a lockdown order for good measure, as well as stealing our officer's cocoon."

They waited until the bell ringing in the outer chambers signalled a guard change and then just walked out through the door that Changefast was supposed to be guarding, then were about to run into the trackless wastes of the Everfree Forest, when a Changeling landed in front of them. It was Captain Mirror. "You're all under arrest for breaking curfew, mutiny, and stealing a cocoon."

"Go, now, or we'll kill you," Changefast said, but behind her the other Changelings shrank back rather then leaping to the attack.

"It's you'll who be killed," repiled Captain Mirror, but suddenly another Changeling flew at him and knocked him to the ground.

"Bighoof!" exclaimed the Captain, and flew away with a whirring of wings.

"He won't be long coming back with the Housecarles," Bighoof said. "I decided that it would be worth coming with you. I've left the Housecarles."

They set off into the Everfree Forest. Whilst they did not fear it as much as the ponies did, they all knew that it had to be treated with respect. There was a rustling in the bushes, and the head of a large serpent poked out at the changelings, who all passed by well away from it. "It had just killed, I saw blood on it's lips," Lovelace exclaimed. "We're lucky that it had, or it might have been quicker," Longwing replied.

Comments

[Ollyizard]

I am liking this so far, you have a good idea coming along, 1 small complaint is that it doesn't feel like it has enough detail and comes off a little fast. But I am rather enjoying it keep it up.