"Well, it's better then what I had,"
This story takes place before the Wedding episodes and ponies do know a bit about Changelings if only the guard and Princesses.
This is my first work and took me awhile to make. May you enjoy.
I sighed in my attempt and failure to calm myself. “Okay, no need to get worked up over this, it’s not like he’s going to down right kill me,” I said to no one but myself as I walked down to my Commanders office. I have never been able to take failure very well.
It doesn't take long to get to my officers door and I stand there for a moment as to build up the courage to face him. “#2-27 I know you’re there, now get in here already!” A voice from the other side said, causing me to flinch but enter regardless. He does not look happy.
“You know this won’t end well, don’t you?” His tone is even and the glare he gives me isn't pleasant.
“Yes, sir,”
The ‘failure’ I refer to is simple really, I got a bunch of us killed. About 20 eggs, 9 changelings, 12 cocooned ponies and the safe house were lost ‘cause of me. My disguise flickered and I let my eyes flash and the next day from my outing the guard came busting through the door. Fighting is not my strong suit, I’m a much faster flyer, so I ran, which was not a good idea and caught the eye of a guard and as he took a swipe at me I dodged the head of his spear and got the pole instead. Got hit hard enough to crack my forehead all the way up to my horn.
“Then I’ll skip the part where I yell a whole bunch at a dead mare,”
“D-Dead mare?” I didn't like the sound of that. My Commander usually does a lot a screaming and yelling, you can hear it pretty far from his office.
“Yep, new orders came in, just for you” Please don’t be what I think it is. “It’s a suicide mission. You must have seen this coming,”
“Y-Yes, sir” In truth, I really did see it coming I just needed to grab some of my things. I maybe a coward but I’m no fool.
“If you did, why did you bother coming back? You would have been better off. No matter, take this.”
“Yes, sir t-thank you, sir,” I stammered out before grabbing the folder he hoofed over to me. After the meeting with my officer I went back to my sleeping cell to dig around under the mat- never liked the thing, always preferred pony beds -for the key to my locker. Most changelings have a habit of stealing from each other, at least in the lower ranks, so I hid most of my stuff in a locker out in the field.
It doesn't take me long to find my key, I had it just under the dirt right where the head of the mat was and hide it in my cheek so no one saw that I had it. With the key in tow, I read through the folder, apparently I was supposed to rescue an agent by making a good distraction that ended with me dead and him free and back at the Hive. I didn't read the ‘how’ just the ‘where’. After I read through it I tossed it aside to rot in the dirt and made for the exit. It won’t take long since I live on the upper levels of the hive.
The upper levels aren't as dark as the lower parts of the Hive, because it’s just high enough that the glowy mushrooms will grow, but that also means that it stinks, but at least I can see where I’m going without a personal light source. The smooth, tan cave walls made of sandstone are turned green here and blue there because of the mushrooms. The mushrooms themselves are usually eaten by the workers once they grow big enough and start to dim.
Once I’m out of the Hive and on the surface I changed out my black chitin for a sandy coat -my preferred color- but otherwise keeping my insect like form so I’m less noticeable. The Badlands is not a nice place to stand out in, if the Stonewolves don’t kill you, the Dragons here tend to enslave you, or try to at least. As long as I stay close to the ground I should be fine.
The Badlands do have a few oasis like areas, but the Ponies will never be able to come close enough to ever see them. The closest the Ponies have ever come would be Appleloosa. The hive has one such oasis, hidden just under the ground, how else were we supposed to survive out here. Contrary to the popular belief the Ponies seem to paint us in, we need ‘real’ food and water too, but, it’s would be meaningless if we don’t have love as well. We need both.
The trip through the Badlands was uneventful, but that’s likely to change once I’m in pony territory.
I’m getting close to Appleloosa now so I should don a disguise. My orders said to use Braeburn but he’s a little too well known, but the restaurant owner Miss Platter isn't. A small, thin built unicorn.
Yeah, I broke orders, but come on, they sent me to me death do you think I’m going to keep them?
I can use Miss Platter to get my old stuff and cause a distraction. How? you may ask, well Poison Joke takes overnight to effect a pony when they touch it, so how long would it take if they ate it? I don’t intend to find out but that’s what I’m doing.
First things first, I need my stuff which, includes my Poison Joke vials.
As I walk through Appleloosa sure enough nopony seems to pay any attention to me as I trot around the sheriff's office to the back. In the foundation behind the rocks under the stairs to the back door is where I hide it. Of course this isn't all of it no, it’s just some Bits, the vials, and a few Arrows. By the look of them the Arrows didn't survive the last few years. A shame, I’ll have to make more.
‘I’ll take the Bits and Vials and leave the Arrows to their fate.’ I thought to myself.
I wandered over to the restaurant where I’ll use the Poison ‘I’m thinking, in the deep frier, maybe the soup pot,’, with my mind set on a target I wandered towards the back door to the kitchen and opened it like I owned it.
“Sorry but you’re not supapapa-” Miss Platter stammered out.
“What? not used to seeing yourself, have you never looked in a mirror?” The fake Platter said.
“B-but how?” Miss Platter said, frightened and confused.
“Sorry but you need to wake up now. you slipped and fell on some oil and the others are getting concerned,” said in a worried tone of voice.
“W-what do you mean?” Miss Platter, still even more confused.
“It’s okay, I know how to wake us up,” as I looked at the pots and pans.
“Wait, I-I’m asleep right now?” no longer frightened.
“Not for long,” I grabbed a pan before she could say any more and hit her in the side of her head, hard, knocking her out. “Right, that was easy… now for the easier part,” Grinning as I levitated two vials from just outside. One vial goes to the frier and the other goes in the three soup pots.
“Now to set the sce- WAIT, I should steal her Bits first,” I nabbed her Saddlebag and dumped it out and shoved what I don’t want or need in a cupboard then tossed it out the door “Okay, now I can set the scene,” I dribbled oil by the burners flipped the mare over so the bruise is down then changed out for a random and cuter Alicorn mare as I went for the door, I poked my head back in and levitated a pan off the stove and up to the ceiling, and dropped it quickly shutting the door before the *Clang* I cringed at the sound ‘I hope I didn't hit her again,’ I flashed the horn away afterwards so I looked like a Pegasus.
I grabbed my new Saddlebag and reached for the mirror to check on my disguise ‘Pony eyes, no fangs-’ I looked down ‘-no holes, right looks like I’m good to go, Guess I’ll go wait for the next train,’ I shoved my stuff in the bag left.
… Waiting for the train is boring.
With the clickety clack of the rails to sooth me I went to the back car where there would be only few or hopefully no Ponies to bother me. When I opened the door only a few Ponies greeted me and they were near the front so I went to the back and sat with me back to them, using the seat to obscure their view of me.
I took the mirror out again to fix my uh… mane, sort ‘ah speak. I looked in the mirror and a pair of green eye stared back, this is going to be me from now on so I want to like what I look like, so I changed the green for a pair of light blue, my coat was fine being a sandy tan color- again my preferred color- and lastly my mane was black and white… ‘Ick! Contrast,’ I lightened up the black to a dark gray and darkened the white to a light gray, ‘Much better,’.
With nothing left to do I stretched out my legs on my lonely seat, ready to become a time pirate and rob whole planets of their treasure, in other words I’m going to take a nap.
I was oh so gently awoken by the train slamming on the brakes, throwing me out of my seat with my bag landing on my head.
‘Stupid conductor. Good thing I didn't have the vials anymore, or I would have been in trouble,’ I checked to make sure I didn't break the mirror. I don’t need any omens.
After making sure the conductor hasn't broken anything -not that it’s even mine- and I wasn't robbed while I slept, I lugged myself off the train and started my way to the Celestial Bank. As I pass the many shops here I notice that most of them are restaurants, there’s not really that many actual shops as this town is clearly lacking a few things. The place must rely on exports a lot.
Now it’s been awhile since I've been in Ponyville so I’ll need to ask for directions, and who’s the first Pony that catches my eye? The one that’s staring at me, I half thought I my fangs popped out while I slept, but they didn't.
“Is this the part of the story where I come in?”
“What?”
“What?”
“I said, is this the part of the story where I come in?”
“Yes, Pinkie. This is the part of the story where you come in,”
“YAY!”
“Pinkie what did we agree you would do?”
“Uh… be quite?”
“And what are you doing?”
“talking?… sorry,”
I sighed in frustration, that had been the fifth or sixth time she interrupted me. “It’s fine, Pinkie. After you gasped at me and ran I asked the mare with the blue and pink swirled mane where the bank was,”
“That was Bon Bon,”
“Right. So I got my stuff from the bank,” I tilted to the side to show the bow sticking out. “Now I have you yammering on about… Party’s, or friends, or something,”
“Oh, I wanted to know who your family was because I've never seen or heard about you before and I know everyone in Ponyville, so when I sa-Mhmhhmhm,”
I had to cover her mouth or my head would've exploded. “Pinkie, as much as I would love to hear you ramble, I need to go see the mayor about a house,”
She poked her head out of my arms and said “Mr Naily’s moving out and he lives super close to the library, why don’t you go see him?”
“So this… Mr Naily is willing to sell his house?” ‘I hope I have enough, if it’s close to the library probably a little pricey,’
“Of course lets go!” At that Pinkie grabs me and we’re off to see Mr Naily.
Once we’re at his house pinkie lets go finally to go knock on the door, I looked behind us in awe of the dust cloud Pinkie kicked up. The sound of Pinkie calling for me -at least I think it was me- brought me out of my stupor. “Hey Miss gloomy this is Mr Naily,”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr Naily,” I reach out to shake his hoof.
“Oh please, enough formalities. so you’re Pinkie’s newest friend eh?”
“Well I wouldn't say ‘friend’ seeing as she’s yet to ask me my name,”
“Yea, Pinkie can get a little caught up at times. Why don’t you let me ask for her?” the old stallion said with a chuckle.
“Oh, uh. It’s, Tattered Ribbon,” Pinkie oood at my name like she was impressed but otherwise stayed quite.
“Well then, Miss Ribbon, Pinkie said you wanted to buy my house since I’m moving out. I’ll tell you what, you can have the place as is and we’ll talk price later once I've moved and settled in,”
“Just like that? I was expecting to have a hard time getting a house here. There’s no damage to the house is there?” To say I was surprised would say little, then again ponies seem to do that a lot for me.
“No no, I just wanted to move with my son over to Fillydelphia,”
“Oh, when are you leaving then? if you don’t mind me asking,”
“Today. You got real lucky catching me miss, I was just about to leave,”
‘Queen’s right I’m lucky,’ “So, when could I move in if you’re leaving?”
“Right now, I don’t care. I’ll send for my things later I need to get going. Bye pinkie,”
“Bye, Mr, Naily… So, should we see you new house?” ‘Now I’m sure there’s something wrong with the place,’
“Wait, Pinkie he didn't give me the key,” ‘Locked out of my new home before I even step inside. Great,’ I would have sighed if not for what, Pinkie said next.
“I GOT IT!” To which she kick over one of the hundreds of rocks, showing it to be a fake.
“How did you know it was there?”
“I lived on a rock farm, silly,” ‘Ponies have rock farms?’. After, Pinkie let us in I explored the house looking for places to stash stuff and any damage to the house, too which there was none that I could see. It was an okay two story house. I returned to see, Pinkie setting up a banner that said ‘Welcome to Ponyville/Housewarming party’ on it. When she turned around she said “How is the place?”
“Well, It’s better than what I had,” I said with a smile.