Tears of a Changeling

by Monsieur-Flatterer

Doubt

“What are you thinking about Flash?”

“I’m thinking we’re stuck here and this place smells awful.”

“Yes, thanks, I really needed a confirmation of the obvious. besides, the odor is kind of our fault mainly. I was just wondering if you had any escape plans or… or anything!”

“Escape plan? Are you serious? If you’re strong enough to bend these bars then I might have an escape plan, which includes going straight from point A to point B, point A being this horrible place and point B being the hive!”

“Alright, alright, chill out… We’ll probably have to wait for Chrysalis to come get us.”

“Stark… Chrys… Uh, nevermind. Hope! Wake up!”

With a grunt and a slight buzz of his wings the red-eyed Changeling rolled onto his side. One of his hooves made a little twitch before he properly stood up. “What happened?” He muttered, seeing Stark and Flash sit at the bars, looking about and examining the lab. Flash peeked at him over his shoulder.

“You got a little too cozy when we were sharing our warmth and you fell asleep again.” He answered, looking back out into the lab.

“We’ve been looking around here in mean time.” Stark added, before sighing and turning around with a shrug. “We don’t see an immediate way out, but don’t give we’re not giving up hope yet.”

“I might hope not.” Hope answered, going to the bars and glancing out sleepily. And there couldn’t have been a better timing, as the heavy metallic door opened right then and there, showing a purple unicorn who immediately curled her nose at the smell coming from inside. She held a hoof in front of her nose and sighed.

“Shoulda thought of a waste disposal…” She muttered as her horn showed a faint purple glow, bringing a few mops and buckets filled with water and soap in action. The equipment started cleaning up the mess the Changelings had made immediately. Once it was all spick and span again, Twilight just emptied one of the buckets and slid it into the cage. “There, do your business in that, not… In THAT.” She stated, pointing at the food tray.

The trio had found nothing better to do during the clean-up than to continuously glare at their captor. Stark had a look on his face that could cut like a blade, his features stern and aggressive as always. Flash was baring his teeth to come out as aggressive, the fangs gleaming in the light of the laboratory. Hope was less successful in seeming ticked off, his facial features were a lot more soft and the red eyes made him exceptional, it was more like he was just staring at Twilight, not glaring.

Once all that fuss was over and the Changelings still hadn’t said a word in some sort of silent protest, Twilight was getting the metallic bed in the middle of the room ready. She had a clipboard floating next to her, and was even slipping on a surgically mask. Flash got nervous seeing this, and his teeth were covered by his lips again. Hope effectively backed up a little, but Stark seemed unphased. Or at least pretended he was unphased.

“So for today…” She started as she approached the cage.

“...You’re going to force-feed ridiculous stuff to us again.” Stark interrupted. Both his comrades pulled wide eyes at him.

“No… To-”

“Because really, how stupid of an experiment was that? What were you hoping to conduct out of it? How much rotten food I need to have my stomach implode?”

“Stark, don’t engage her!” Flash hissed on the side. The self-proclaimed leader of the bunch turned his head to Flash.

“I’m asking because I want to know.” Stark said, turning his head to Twilight again. “So why are you doing this exactly huh? I thought you ponies were supposed to be peaceful.”

“Stark, cut it out! Don’t piss her off!” Flash yelled, while Hope was just following the conversation, sunk back in the background. He noticed how Twilight was noting things down, not even interfering.

“What is she going to do, put us in a smaller cage?” Stark asked. “Feed us broccoli?”

“She might put you down because you’re a nuisance, yeah!” Flash answered, until the purple one finally interrupted them.

“So, today’s a medical examination.” She finally said, looking between Flash and Stark, before settling her eyes on Hope. “Starting with you.”

“W-Woah… Why me?” Hope asked.

“Because you’re special.” She answered, the contraption hanging from the ceiling behind her springing to life, as well as the camera in the corner. Three metallic arms reached towards the cage as the door opened, two of them holding Stark and Flash down, while the third one gripped Hope around the neck, starting to pull him out. In struggle, the red-eyed Changeling buzzed his wings and dragged his hooves over the floor. He found, however, that doing that caused the arm to grip tighter, closing his air pipe. Hope was quick to give up the struggle, not wanting to choke. His friends, however, were unaware of this.

As Hope was dragged by them, both grabbed hold of one of Hope’s hooves and started pulling desperately. Hope felt the metal grip around his throat tighten up, and he let out a gagging sound once his air pipe was closed off again. Nonetheless, Flash and Stark didn’t give up their hold on Hope. The captured Changeling couldn’t say a thing or warn them. Twilight, however, corked a brow.

“You might want to stop that…” She told the two, who just glared at her.

“We’re not letting you experiment on him!” Stark yelled, giving Hope a good tug back, causing another gagging sound to come from him. Flash, however, heard the gagging and found it strange that Hope hadn’t said a thing since that han grabbed him. So, he let him go.

“Stark, let him go!” He yelled to the other, but Stark shook his head and kept holding Hope. “You’re choking him you idiot!” Flash yelled, kicking at Stark. Stark was hit by a hoof and a moment of realization as he looked up and noticed that Hope was starting to stop moving, as well as some tears dripping down his face. The Changeling immediately let go, letting the arm take Hope out of the cage.

Twilight just stood there watching and noting things down.

With a smack Hope landed on the metallic table, the arm releasing its grip on his throat. The Changeling gasped for air, writhing around slightly. The other two were let go as well, and the cage door shut and locked. Flash and Stark just sat down and looked at Hope through the bars.

“Alright, sit up.” Twilight said to Hope. The bug did so, slowly. He had bruises lining around his neck, it was a pretty close situation. His chest was going up and down as he gasped for breath, his throat feeling sore. Escape, or desperate attempts at flying away didn’t even strike his mind, he felt too weak and he didn’t trust that camera filming every little movement. He was sure Twilight wouldn’t be the only obstacle to get out of here.

Before Hope had fully recovered from the experience a tongue depressor was shoved into his mouth, pushing his tongue down while a torch was aimed into it. Twilight checked out his teeth, tongue, and anything oral. After that happened the depressor was pulled back; and Hope let out a few coughs. A thermometer was the next thing to be placed in Hope’s mouth, it’s at that point it struck him that this was probably going to be nothing more than a simple doctor visit.

He twitched away when something was pressed onto his ear. He frowned and looked at Twilight from the corner of his eyes. She was squinting while checking out his ears and was soon to switch to the other one. After all this happened in silence, she decided to break that silence when she removed the thermometer.

“So, what’s your name again?” She asked, placing the thermometer aside while she shined a light right into Hope’s eye, which made him wince and squint a little. His other eye was soon to fall victim to that handling.

“Uh… Hope…” He answered, shuffling back on the metallic table while Twilight noted a few things down on the clipboard.

“That’s… A surprisingly nice name for a Changeling.” She commented, wrapping something around Hope’s arm. He frowned at it while it started tightening up, the wrap connected to some sort of small device. Instead of questioning the statement ‘for a Changeling’, he decided to just explain things a little.

“Well, I was actually called ‘Bug-Eye’ when I hatched…” He muttered. “My friends just called me Hope to lighten my mood…” He told her. There was a grunt of surprise from Twilight, a grunt of disapprovement from Stark and a grunt of pain from Flash, who had stubbed his hoof against one of the bars. Hope recognized that grunt from Stark, and decided to shut up.

The wrap around his arm loosened up again and was removed, however he let out a gasp when something cold pressed onto his chest. Twilight had put on a stethoscope, and was placing the other end all over Hope’s chest, asking him to take deep breaths. Not wanting any further trouble, Hope just did as told.

Once that was over, Hope was asked to stand. He hopped off the table, but the contraptions on the ceiling came to life again, to be used as a failsafe if Hope would make an attempt to flee. The Changeling saw measuring tape float across and over, taking his measurements, and he was then nudged onto a scale to take his weight.

Last was an eye test. Twilight pointed to a board at the other end of the room, containing various letters ranging from big to really small. Hope managed to read out all of them, showing that his eyes were in perfect condition, despite being red.

Not wanting an unfortunate event with the metallic arms like last time, Hope returned to his cage without a fuss. He sighed in relief once he was in, no horrible experiments this time around. Twilight pointed at Flash next. Of course, he resisted at first, but when he saw the arms coming he pinned his ears down and neatly walked out of the cage, to the table. Stark had to be held down again, or he would have certainly stirred up trouble.

Flash underwent the exact same treatment as Hope, getting everything checked and measured. He was asked his name and he answered honestly, but other than that didn’t say much. He showed the same results as Hope, even though he seemed to be somewhat lighter than his red-eyed friend. Twilight also discovered that Flash couldn’t read; because the eye test was an absolute disaster. Either that, or he was blind, which she doubted.

Without much of a hassle Flash was let back into the cage. Next up was Stark. Twilight made sure the arm was holding him at all times. This didn’t stop Stark from being the most difficult of the three, however. When she put the thermometer in his mouth, he spat it out and broke it. When she wanted to check his ears, he jerked his head away. He also ignored every question asked, and purposely read every single letter on the eye test wrong.

After some struggle, Stark was promptly thrown back into the cage. The door was quickly shut and locked again, as Stark was charging for it. He slammed into the cold metal bars, groaning out.

“Good, I think that’ll be it for today, I need to examine this data and research it. Your lunch will be brought in about one hour.” Twilight said, walking out of the room. The metal arms folded up and the camera deactivated, the three Changelings were left alone again. There was a silence between the three, until Stark spoke up.

“None of this makes sense… Her methods are all confused…” He muttered.

“No offense but… you’re no doctor, what do you know?” Flash spoke in, looking over at Stark.

“I don’t need to be a doctor to know that I wouldn’t pick Hope first because he’s special. If all, he should be picked last to see if he differs from normal Changelings other than the eye color.” Stark explained. “I also don’t need to be a doctor to know that force feeding someone disgusting crap BEFORE a medical check-up is a stupid idea! Something just isn’t right!”

The only responses were two sighs. Hope lay back down and shut his eyes for a nap. Stark examined the room around him some more, desperate for answers and escape routes. Flash was sat in the corner, muttering things to himself. He had a frown on his face, a concerned one.

After an hour of no words told to one another the door to the lab opened again. Twilight slid in with the lunch, which consisted out of a loaf of bread and a single bottle of water. She carefully slid it into the cage, looking at the Changelings without a word. It was only when she turned around that Stark spoke up again.

“Hey. HEY!” He yelled at her, Twilight turning around to look at him. “Do you really think what you’re doing here is ethical, huh? Trapping three beings in a cage and using them for experiments?” He asked.

“I do it for Equestria.” Twilight answered, Stark squinting at her. But Hope spoke up this time around.

“And Equestria approves of this?” He asked. Twilight’s gaze changed to Hope; and Hope found something… sad in that gaze.

“You don’t know what it’s like up there.” Twilight promptly answered, before heading out. Those words struck all three with confusion, and Stark yelled at her again.

“Hey, what does that mean? DON’T RUN AWAY!” He yelled, smacking his hoof against the bars once the door closed behind Twilight. Flash stared at Stark, his jaw dropped slightly.

“Stark… What happened after we got knocked out?”

Author's Note:

Hello and welcome y'all.

I know it's been more than a year and a half since the last chapter and I know most of you deemed this thing dead. I've had a lot of issues since the making (and believe it or not, BECAUSE of the making) of this fanfic. I will be trying my best to finish this now, because I hate to leave it unfinished. I can't tell you at which speed I will throw chapters out. I can't tell you when they're coming out either. I'll write and publish when I have the time. I thank you for being patient with me.

Fond regards,
Mr. F.

Comments

[Seether00]

What is going on out there?

[Luna Secret Stallion]

Almost two freaking years!

[Monsieur-Flatterer]

5101792

Next chapter won't take two years! Probably...

[Luna Secret Stallion]

5105304

[BlabideeblahMLP]

Random Bitch: Ermagerd Twiiiliieeett is OOC!!!!!

...To quote the great retard who wrote this song:

I DON'T CARE!
I LOVE IT!

Holy balls, this story rocks.

What's ironic is that I just started a new story and the main character is a red-eyed Changeling.

[Sejen]

5100640
(Head canon)
Following the wedding, the rebuilding work cost way more than was expected.

To pay for this, ideas were put forward. One of these was "science-porn", changeling prisoners (the ones who were so low down in the ranks they were considered "disposable") would be experimented on and the footage would be sold through certain outlets to certain rich parties.

Twilight has no idea what's going on, she thinks she's following orders for science purposes not porn creation.