Cutie Mark Changelings: Chapter One
POV:Sweetie Belle
"I can't believe I let you two get me to do this!" Sweetie Belle's sappy green eyes were tinted with both the fear of death and the utter confusion of why she was there. Around her waist was a brown backpack that held what would save her life. And, above all (literally), the Cutie Mark Crusaders were at the peak of Death Cliff, which had rocky spikes and water rapids underneath its reach. Fitting name, really.
Scootaloo turned her head to face her unicorn friend and shouted over the high-speed winds, "Don't worry! You still got your parachute, right?" Her purple mane was blowing around wildly, just like hers and Apple Bloom's. Who, by the way, was leaning over the edge with an excited look plastered on her cheeks. No wonder her friends considered her the insane one.
Without warning, or waiting for her answer for that matter, Scootaloo shoved Sweetie toward the edge and said, "You go first!" The ecstatic filly tried to force herself away from the ledge, knowing that Scootaloo was probably wanting to kill her. How in Equestria would jumping off Death Cliff earn them their cutie marks? Sweetie wanted one desperately, but this was just insane.
"I am not doing this!" squeaked Sweetie, hopping to her hooves and whipping around to face Scootaloo. Apple Bloom looked over at them.
"Ain't ya gonna do it with us?
"No way!"
Scootaloo thought this was the perfect moment while she was distracted to shove Sweetie off the edge. The filly felt the earth slip away under her hooves and squirmed around, screaming like a banshee.
Apple Bloom called to her "Use yer parachute!" before springing down with her. Well, weren't things going swimmingly? All of Sweetie's friends would die today.
With no hesitation, Scootaloo jumped as well. Screaming. But instead of screams of terror, like Sweetie's, they were screams of joy.
Of course, they forgot one thing: hooves aren't able to pull the string in order to activate the parachute. If they had the 'hands' that their friend Lyra always talks about, this wouldn't be a problem. No, instead they were going to die from just the curiosity of finding out what would happen.
When Apple Bloom and Scootaloo remembered this, they began screaming in terror as well.
After what seemed like forever, the crusaders landed on the ground, the water washing over them and their bodies missing the spikes by only a few frightening inches. In fact, Apple Bloom's bow had completely ripped on one of the pointed rocks. At least she didn't go any further.
"Well, that was an utter fail," Scootaloo said, sitting up and dusting off her miniature wings.
Apple Bloom shook her head to get rid of the dust and replied in a pitiful tone, "Hey, at least it's not 'n entire failure. We didn't die."
Sweetie, still sure she had died anyways, rolled onto her back and moaned. "Did we get our cutie marks?" she asked, taking a glance at her flank. White and bare, just like it always is. And probably will be. The other two checked as well and sighed in unison. Nothing.
This was their, what, fiftieth attempt for a cutie mark? And they all had ended up like what had just happened. Whether it was getting yelled at by Apple Bloom's brother or being both emotionally and physically embarrassed in front of most of Ponyville, it ended badly. They should give up soon and live as blank-flanks forever at this rate.
Sweetie's sister, Rarity, had always encouraged her to try harder. She could even remember one time that stood out amongst the rest.
"I can see this didn't end well." Rarity watched a mud-soaked Sweetie sloth into the boutique and throw herself onto the couch. She would have ordered her to get off, but the filly looked too upset at the moment.
Sweetie glared at her as she was levitated a pink towel. "Uh, no."
Rarity shook her head and sat next to her younger sister on the sofa and asked, "Darling, I think all this... crusading has to end at some point. I don't think it's working."
"It ends only when we get our cutie marks." Sweetie cleaned herself off and chucked her towel across the house.
Biting her lip for a second, Rarity thought of what she would say next, which took a few more seconds than expected, then questioned, "What if you tried doing what you like to do? That's how I got mine."
"You mean having your horn taking you to a dumb rock?"
"No, dear. See, I had always loved doing fashion designs," Rarity began slowly. "But my horn showed me that there's more to a big rock than being... dumb. That there's beauty in anything."
Sweetie absorbed this new information. She hadn't been told this version of the story. All she had learned was that her horn had lead her to the middle of nowhere with just a rock. But nothing about gems inside of it. She sat up and said, "Well, I could try..."
Her sister smiled. "That's the spirit. Now how about you go find your friends, dear?" Rarity could feel her heart warm up.
Sweetie nodded and galloped away, hoping to find her cutie mark. And hopefully an adventure as well.
Looking back, all Sweetie got was the mental whooping from most of Ponyville and a big feathery hat. but it was still worth it. After all, Cheerilee had told her that she had "reporter's instincts". Blame it on her.
The three crusaders got as clean as possible without hurting themselves and trudged back through the forest, which was unfortunately the Everfree Forest. If that wasn't bad luck, then what is? They would get torn to shreds for sure. And Sweetie definitely didn't want any more injuries that Rarity would have to worry about.
"I wonder what we'll do next, Crusaders!" Scootaloo said, jumping and facing Apple Bloom and Sweetie. "Maybe we'll do shark hunting! Or dune surfing! Or-"
Apple Bloom shoved her hoof in Scootaloo's mouth. "Ah don't wanna think about it, Scoots," she half-growled. Scootaloo lowered down some and spat out her now spitty hoof.
"Oh... then I guess we'll keep going and try something else later." Scootaloo gave one of her signature sheepish smiles and they continued on their way through the darkened forest, not realizing the danger they were in.
Three black, Swiss-cheese looking figures watched the fillies from above in the tree-tops. Their wings buzzed like angry bees and their eyes were glazed with the hunger for love. Teeth glistened in the darkness.
"I'm sure these three little ponies have love," the first one said, licking his lips. "Obviously fillies would have the most; besides, I can smell it from here."
"Especially that pink-and-purple haired one." A female glanced at the two and smiled evilly. "She looks so... vulnerable."
The third one, a much more husky male, answered, "The Queen will be so proud of us!"
They crept along the branches, silencing their wings to where nothing could be heard from them. The only thing on their minds now was sucking up their love from them, and maybe having some fun with them, as well.
The first changeling signaled to the male and female with his holey hoof, then at the crusaders. Then they attacked.
Scootaloo was suddenly tackled to the ground with a loud thud. They all began screaming, but hooves were shoved in their faces shut them up. "Don't start that," the female hissed. "We don't want others coming to help you, now do we, flower girls?"
The unicorn took in a quick breath and recognized the trio. At Shining Armor and Cadance's wedding; they had been offered the job to be flower fillies. But they had ran off just as the changelings started their feast. Of course they had gotten trapped in green goo as well, but you couldn't tell when you were knocked out first. "You're changelings, aren't you?" Sweetie's voice cracked, sending a few birds soaring.
Hearing her high voice, the leader twisted around to face her and chuckled under his rotten breath. "Wow," he growled. "I think we got ourselves a slow one." Sweetie felt insulted but was too angry and shocked to say anything else.
The other changelings brought down Apple Bloom and Sweetie with one hoof, knocking the air out of them. "You two don't get to escape either," the deep-voiced male laughed. It sounded distorted and strange, which was enough the make them all cry again.
"Great." The mare huffed. "We can't get love if they don't have any at the moment." She sniffed Sweetie. "The weak one is even crying." She snapped her jaws at her, making her jump. "Shut up, you little brat!" Sweetie froze, but continued her small whimpers.
"Let go of us, motherbuckers!" Apple Bloom barked at the bigger changeling that held her down. She attempted to shimmy her way out of the stallion's grasp, and that only ended in her panting and kicking pitifully.
The male shook his head. "Tsk tsk; what a dirty mouth. I'll have to clean it out with soap once we get you back to the hive."
Scootaloo's eyes widened. "Y-you're kidding, right?"
"I swear on the Queen's crown." The leader, beginning to shake with laughter, brought his fangs close to Scootaloo's face and grinned. The orange pony shuttered.
The mare put her other hoof up to her own chest. "Now, we know that all the other idiotic ponies in Ponyville will wonder where you are, so we're going to take your places. No matter how much of a nightmare that will be."
Apple Bloom stopped moving. "Wait, who's going to be me?"
"Me," the larger changeling replied menacingly.
They all started wailing again.
Without even trying to make them stop, the bug-like creatures used a rope from the female's satchel and tied them together, making sure that they were nice and tight. They didn't even care if one of them couldn't breathe correctly; it had happened many times before, and did they come back alive?
Possibly.
The leader strapped them to his waist. "Let's take them to the Queen and eat on the way," he ordered and started flapping his annoying wings, along with the others. He grunted, "And while we're there, loose some pounds. Geez..."
Sweetie watched as the ground moved under her and opened her mouth to let out a squeal before something stirred inside her. It was either vomit from the high altitude or her feelings be converted into... food? She stared over at the mare, who sighed in relief and smacked her lips.
She felt something inside her switch and her eyes turned dark green. Her hair and body darkened before her head slumped over to the side, her eyelids slowly closing. Around her, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had the same happen to them, but nopony else noticed.
"Long live the Queen..." the three changelings cackled quietly before letting their laughter ring out in the forest. Yet no living soul could hear them.
The smell of rotting flesh is what woke Sweetie up; something she didn't want to wake up by. It hung in the air like dirty laundry, literally. She wriggled around before realizing that she was still tied up and most of her body was asleep and tingling with numbness. Then she looked at her surroundings.
Millions of changelings were darting around, all busy with something. Some carried food, others had dirt or rocks in their jaws that seemed to hinge like snakes. Sweetie was really hoping this was a dream. She would have liked somepony to pinch her but her friends were ,basically, temporarily dead and she didn't want some strange creature biting into her skin. So she'd just consider it was real, sadly.
Sweetie grabbed the knot of the rope with her teeth and began messing with it. She was thankful for Applejack's lessons in rope-tying, because in about ten seconds flat she had undone it. As she began to tug at Apple Bloom's, she had the feeling of somepony- or something- watching her. Hot breath misted down her neck and made her shiver. She slowly turned and regretted it.
A huge, misshapen labrat showed its gnarly teeth, or what was left of them, and growled deeply. This must have been the guard... rat. Sweetie held in her gasp. If she had let it out, she would have been a dead, love-absorbed filly.
Luckily, the rat had no brain what-so-ever and lugged off into one of the tunnels.
Sweetie wiped a hoof across her forehead and unwrapped her friends. Apple Bloom had already began to stir, while Scootaloo groaned and began rubbing her eyes to rid of the sleepiness. "A-are you my mommy?" she murmured, gazing up at Sweetie Belle.
"No. We're at the changeling hive." Sweetie nudged Apple Bloom awake while still looking at Scootaloo.
Immediately Scootaloo's eyes widened and she jumped to her hooves. "We have to-!" Sweetie gave her a 'shush' sign. "We have to get out of here!"
Apple Bloom shook her head and opened her bright amber eyes. "Are we captured? 'Cause Ah don't wanna be here," she whispered, as if she had heard the entire conversation. She may actually have.
They shakily rose to their hooves, still a bit numb from their love being sucked out like milk from a straw. But no matter how hard the changelings tried, they couldn't eat the friendship that they shared, which was the same as love, yet different. The crusaders shared a quiet three-way brohoof and started tiptoeing to a random tunnel to see where it would lead. Didn't they ever guard their prisoners?
Silently, Sweetie thought that just traveling around the hive until they found an exit was a dumb idea, and that they should make a plan before leaving, but like always she followed Apple Bloom and Scootaloo and usually didn't have a say in what happened. But she lurked behind anyways; maybe their plan could have been better than hers?
Not even close.
As they crept through the dark hallway, sticking up close to the wall when a creature came by, they could have sworn you could hear their heartbeats from a yard away. Blood ran through their veins, ice cold from fear. What if they couldn't escape or if they got found out and had far worse done to them?
"So, uh," Sweetie began, fixing her gaze on Apple Bloom. "Are you sure we'll come out, you know, alive?"
Apple Bloom turned to her as they jerked up against the cave's hard wall. "Of course we will," she reassured. "We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders, after all."
"I guess so." She sighed. "But we don't even know where we're going. This isn't safe."
"Perhaps. But it's worth a shot, right?"
Sweetie shrugged and they removed their bodies from the wall. Yes, it would be worth a shot; more like a cannonball shot. This was extremely risky, waltzing around the hive like they knew it just as well as the back of their hoof. Maybe they could get out safely, maybe not.
They were losing both luck and feeling in their hooves before Scootaloo lifted her hoof and pointed to the far distance. "Hey, look! A light!" Her whisper was sparkled with happiness, along with her lavender eyes. Sweetie and Apple Bloom gasped and began galloping toward it, keeping low to the ground and trying to make their steps as quiet as possible without hurting themselves from excitement.
But once they entered the room, it was just as dark as before. It was hard to distinguish a hatchling from an older changeling in the dimness. Sweetie frowned to herself, not like anypony else could see it anyways, and leaned against the walls. The sound of buzzing was louder than ever before, so it was obvious that this was an important room with many more changelings than in any other chamber.
"I wonder if any of them have noticed us here," Scootaloo asked, the smell of rot just as strong. She sounded as if she had stopped breathing through her nose altogether. Smart move.
Sweetie's nose stung as she answered, "I hope they haven't and told the Queen. We'd be in big trouble."
Apple Bloom looked over her shoulder at them. "If we can escape the ropes without them noticing," she remarked smoothly, "we can get out without the Queen knowing." She fixed her ripped bow (like it would help it at all) and stealthily peeked out from behind one of the shelves. Not anything interesting, if darkness was normal in the hive.
The other two crusaders didn't seem so sure about those words, but gave each other a confused glance and asked in unison, "Did you find anything?"
"Nope," answered Apple Bloom, sitting down on the squishy bark-covered ground. "But this floor's really comfy."
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "That isn't really helpful info," she grunted.
Curiously, Sweetie took a look as well, then said, "Hey, I think it' safe to move farther. C'mon." She beckoned them over with a hoof and army-crawled across the opening to the other side. There could be something more useful over there.
"It's starting to get a little brighter," Apple Bloom said. "And there's more buzzing sounds."
Scootaloo wearily glanced at her. "Uh, is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"A little bit o' both." She exhaled and tried to keep out the sound of wings.
Sweetie scooted closer to Apple Bloom and muttered, "Are you sure we should be here?"
She didn't answer. She was too busy looking at something else a few feet away from them. "What's wrong?" Scootaloo inquired, walking closer to her.
Still no answer. Whatever she was staring at must have been bad. Scootaloo and Sweetie turned toward her and waited for something to happen. Then a raspy voice echoed in the hive.
"Well, well, well! Look at what we have here; the three foals that Auora told me about. Trying to escape, are we?"