"*Sigh* Another routine day in the Hive....I'm so hungry. But so are my brothers and sisters...." I was walking to the central chamber for the daily announcement. "I bet it's the usual stuff....*sigh.*" The whole of the hive was there to hear the announcement from.....Queen Chrysalis?! "I guess this is special after all!"
I might be getting ahead here. Hi I'm Match the changeling, Twilight told me she was interested to know about my life before Ezekiel found me. So she gave me a journal to write everything down. Now that the introductions are over, let's continue.
The Queen spoke. "My children! I have a special announcement for you all!" There was excited buzzing and murmurs from the more confused changelings, myself included. "We will be invading Canterlot The capital of Equestria!" The central chamber was filled even more then the first time with buzzing. "You will have two days to prepare! Counting today! And remember if we do this we will never go hungry again!!" After she said that we all started cheering, stomping and buzzing. This was great! No more hunger!
We were dismissed and were given the next couple days of from work...well most of us. The ones that weren't ready to take on something as big as an invasion had to stay behind and work while the rest of us prepared. I didn't want to invade Canterlot but the hunger is so unbearable that I had no other choice but to go along with it. Today was going to be rest and mental preparation day, tomorrow physical fitness, and then the invasion. I went to the barracks that I was ordered to go to and found an empty bed. I was lucky that one of my friends was assighed to the same one as me.
"Hey what's up Match? You staying here to?"
"Yeah....."
"Are you as excited as I am! Man this is going to be awesome!"
"I don't know....I don't want to do this but I have to...if I can help end the hunger of my brethren then I'll do."
"That's the spirit! And can you believe it? We got the whole day off!"
"Yeah that was nice of the Queen to do that."
"She has a good reason though."
"Yeah, she does. I wouldn't want my soldiers to be tired on the big day. But if I wasn't so tired of working in the mines and in the nursery and if we weren't starving, I would have volunteered to stay here..."
"Not me. I want this!"
"You were always the trouble maker." I chuckled.
"Yeah but I would have gotten into more trouble if not for you Match."
We chatted for alittle while longer before she left to go do whatever she does to prepare herself. I just stayed in the barracks and tried to prepare myself for the upcoming event.
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I fell asleep, and I woke up to one of the sergeants yelling in my face. Physical fitness day was here and oh how much I hate training. We were given a schedule of the exercises we were going to be doing. First up was running, next were push ups, then wing training, and then lunch and then we get to sit through hearing the invasion plans. Oh joy...
The drill sergeant told us to line up along the track and we did. "Alright maggots! What your going to do is three laps around this track! Oh I almost forgot, there obstacles. You will jump over, crawl under or charge through every obstacle that is in your way! Understood?!?!"
"Yes Sir!" We all exclaimed at the same time.
"Good! Now get your sorry flanks moving!"
"Sir yes Sir!!" We lined ourselves up on the track and began running.
He wasn't kidding about the obstacles, within the first minute of running on popped up and nearly hit me. He could have atleast mentioned the were pop ups, sheesh! Then there were the standard hurdles and after that there was a wooden plank with a target painted on it telling you to charge and break it. After three laps of that pretty much all of us were beat. Now for the push ups.
"You will do fifty push up and I will not have any complaining about your legs hurting! Understood!?"
"Sir yes Sir!"
Well it could be a lot worse, he could have said a hundred push ups. Or maybe I spoke to soon, after all of that running my legs were killing me. And from looks of it I wasn't the only one. After that we did the wing training, which was pretty much push ups with your wings. But changeling wings are a little more fragile than pegasus wings, so we weren't told to do very much. Only about twenty.
"Well well well! You maggots did pretty well pretty good! now go get some food we need to go over the plans for tomorrow. dimissed." We all filed out and went toward the cafeteria.
I sat down next to my friend which looked really hungry and very tired.
"Sheesh he whooped us good huh?" Said she.
"Yeah, man I'm beat!" I looked over at her. "I don't understand how you can be hungry after all that Ganger." Her full name is is Doppelganger but it's easier to say Ganger, plus she likes that better anyway.
"And I don't understand how you aren't after that."
"Honestly I feel a little sick."
"It'll pass don't worry. Here drink some water."
"Thanks."
"So you still not psyched for tomorrow?"
"Not really."
"Aw come on really?"
"Yeah..."
"Why not?"
"I just have a bad feeling about it but maybe that's just me."
"Maybe. Don't worry so much and eat before lunch is over."
"Yeah I suppose you're right."
We chatted some more while we ate and the when we finished we were called into the central chamber.
"Hello my fellow changelings, I trust that you all had a nice lunch?" It was the high general
"Yes Sir!" We all said in unison.
"Good. As you know tomorrow is the big day, and I would like to go over the plans for the invasion." He waited for anyone to say anything and continued when no one did. "I have been informed the there is a wedding tomorrow. Our Queen has chose this opportunity to impersonate the bride and has already left. Tomorrow we will fly over Canterlot and when we receive the signal we will begin the invasion. Now, it seems that the princesses know something because there is a shield encasing the whole city. We will have to break through that barrier it would seem, and that my fellow changelings is why I had you do that harsh training. The Queen will send a telepathic message to us when we should fly over to Canterlot, she will also send a message when we should break through the shield. Everyone understand?"
"Yes Sir!"
"Good you are dismissed. Rest up my fellow changelings we have a big day tomorrow."
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Well today's the day, the day of the invasion. I have my doubts obviously but if there is indeed a chance that we can stop our starvation, I have to at least try. We were woken up in the morning for exercise to wake us up and to further prepare for today. It was the same as yesterday just in a smaller dose.
"Alright that's enough, I don't want you worn out before the invasion even begins. Go but to your barracks, when you receive the first signal gather in the central chamber and then the invasion will begin."
I began walking towards the barracks I was staying at. It wasn't that far away, about five to ten minutes. I looked over and Ganger was walking next to me. Which surprised me because she wasn't here a minutes ago.
"W...when did you get here!"
"Only a second ago. Why are you so surprised? You wont last long if you get surprised that easily, you know."
"Yeah...I was just looking in your direction though and you weren't there...it just caught me of guard is all."
"Yeah yeah I've heard it before. Just be on your guard out ok? I don't want to lose you."
"Don't worry Ganger I'll be careful."
"Good."
"So you still excited?
"Ha! You bet! I can't wait! How about you still don't want to do this?"
"Yeah I've tried psyching myself up but it doesn't seem to work."
"Your just nervous. It'll be alright Match, as long as your careful."
"I hope so.
We reached the barracks and I went and sat on my bed and closed my eyes to try and meditate and further mentally prepare myself. I didn't let myself fall asleep but I still had some kind of dream. I was flying, no I was falling. Falling down after something went wrong but what was it? The invasion? Or exhaustion from flying to far? I couldn't tell, but something was definitely wrong. I came out of it and I noticed that some of the others were starring at me. Ganger came up to me.
"Uh...Match you ok?"
"Yeah just had a bad dream or vision or...whatever you would call it."
"You going to be ok?"
"Yeah I should be."
"Ok...as long as your sure."
I didn't close my eyes again, instead I just spaced out. But after a few minutes we received the signal.
"BEGIN"
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"Ok, ok form up!" We got into formation. "Alright Remember! Pay attention to your surrounding and to your brethren! There's no telling what the princesses are capable of, never mind the other ponies unless you run into the Elements of Harmony but we don't know what they look like so stay sharp."
"Yes Sir!"
"Alright. MOVE OUT!!"
There was a mass of buzzing and we lifted off and began to fly.
"FOLLOW ME!" The High General shouted and we started toward Canterlot.
I flew up to the second in command. "How far is Canterlot Sir?!" I yelled so he could hear me.
"About forty-five minutes!"
I flew back into position and shook my head. "Forty-five minutes," I thought to myself. "you've got to be kidding me..." I really didn't want to do this now but it was to late. On the more positive side the scenery is...somewhat alright but looking ahead I could see it was going to get better.
We should be about half way there by now, I can see a few villages and what looks like a forest with a house next to it off in the distance but I didn't concentrate on that to much. I can see Canterlot now but it was still kinda far away and was indeed covered in a shield.
"We're almost there! Keep up, don't fall behind!"
"Yes Sir!"
We're about there now and I'm getting nervous. I hope we don't hurt any of the ponies, they did nothing to us. I know I wont hurt any.
"Ok! We can stop here." We were above Canterlot now. All we had to do is wait for the second signal. We were hovering over Canterlot and I could see colorful little dots moving around. They were the ponies of the city I assumed because what else would they be?
"BRING DOWN THE SHIELD!!"
The High General perked up. "Alright that's second signal!" After he said that some of us started to try to break the shield. After several minutes of ramming the shield cracks began to appear. "Double the effort its starting to give!" One other group rammed into it, and then another, and then soon enough all of us came down on it and it shattered.
"Yeah! We got it!" I heard Ganger cheer.
"Ok my fellow changelings! Remember, be careful!"
"Yes Sir!"
The invasion has begun.
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We were split up into groups, sadly me and Ganger weren't in the same one. But I'm not sure if I wanted to see what chaos she could and probably would wreak. My group began to move and I looked down to see where we were headed and I saw a ton of panicking ponies, I begrudgingly followed. It kind of hurt me that this is what we had to do to get food but for now that was all the motivation I needed to not turn around and leave. We flew over and landed by a huge group of other changelings circling six ponies. They were fighting some of my brethren and I fell victim to the groups mentality and joined in. I turned into the purple one and acted like I was fighting along side the orange one. We fought off a few of my brethren and went back-to-back and as soon as I felt her back touch mine I turned around and changed back into my real form and attacked her but she was able to hold me off for a little while but I over came her in the end and pinned her down while other changelings piled up onto us. I changed into her while still holding her down, not sure why and it had little effect on her. Soon there were beams of purple magic flying over head and soon we were hit and knocked out.
When I came to, I looked around and I was the only one awake in my group. Those six ponies were gone and the street were in chaos. From the look of things it seemed like we won, but something didn't feel right. I flew up into the air and looked around to see if I could see anything wrong but there was nothing. I looked over at the castle and I saw a bright pinkish purple flash followed by a shock wave. "I bucking knew it!" Was all I was able to say before the shock wave reached me and sent me and the rest of my fellow changelings of into the distance.
I'm hoping for a soft landing.