Every changeling in the hive could hear it. A cry – a manly cry. The cry of a creature fearing for its life. If you listened closely, you could hear an even higher pitched cry. This one wasn't of a grown stallion, but of young foal. If you listened even more closely, you could hear the cries weren't of fear but of joy and excitement.

Thiemo used all his strength to hold himself onto the neck of the changeling princess, his legs angled at her sides so as to not disturb her. Aura did the same with him, just that she held her head high out of joy and satisfaction. She squeaked and laughed as they passed the levels of the living area. Amaryllis flew through another tunnel that Thiemo had used when he entered. Except in this case, she went much higher and thus closer to the exit. But what really astonished him was Amaryllis stopping and landing.

“What's going on? We have to keep going!” he screamed as if he had to still fight the wind.

“What? Why?” Amaryllis looked around and behind her passengers before she saw her mother and the soldiers approaching.

“That's why!” Instinctively, Thiemo kick her in the sides, resulting in her starting to run and fly again. Beneath them, the moss glowed, lit by the princess' horn. Thiemo thought of telling her to stop that, but with this speed, they might hit the next wall like flies smashing into windshields without it. Furthermore, Chrysalis wasn't stupid. She probably knew that they were trying to get outside.

They kept flying through one corridor after another, so quickly that only the pilot could know where they were. They were chased by the ever present buzzing of hundreds of wings and the green light of moving changelings. With all the turning, they managed to win some distance. “How far until we reach an exit?” he screamed against the wind into her ear.

“Exit?” Amaryllis slowed down and looked back. “I thought my room would be a better place to hide until mother calms down...” On the one hand, Thiemo wanted to tear her a new one; on the other hand, he could understand her. Her mother had always taken care of her, more or less, and in less than a second, she had been banished. It was clear that she wasn’t thinking too rationally at the moment.

“Exit, now!” She nodded and took the first turn, leading into a corridor that descended again. Soon, he recognized where they were – the other side of the landing bay. The door in front of them opened at the last second, and they now were in the middle of the great hall, where Chrysalis greeted him. Hundreds of changelings stared at them.

“They don't know that they are supposed to capture us, do they?” Thiemo carefully asked as some started to growl.

“Mother was probably loud enough...” Amaryllis’ theory turned out to be right. The drones and soldiers got into the air and swooshed down towards them. Thiemo felt the princess' tension and gave her another slap to get her back into reality. He almost fell off her back as she dashed away towards the exit with a small cry. The changelings pursued them again, but the princess was significantly faster. What Thiemo really was astonished about was Chrysalis. She had to be quite as fast, but she stayed in the mass of her people. Did she want her daughter to escape? Probably, which raised the question of what she wanted to do with him now. It seemed that he was very valuable for her, more than Thiemo had thought at first. After all, he had killed her children and yet she wanted him alive. Maybe for torture, maybe not.

They flew through the door at the end of the landing bay and into the next corridor that had to lead to the crack. The air almost immediately freshened up, and he then saw it. Without any problems, they ascended towards the night sky, far over the ground. Contrary to his instincts which told to hold on for his life, he looked down to see the crack from above. It was exactly between two dunes. Even in daylight, it was almost invisible. He knew that from experience.

A dark cloud of changelings, all with glowing horns and eyes, ascended from it. Thiemo knew that they were very visible. Amaryllis was fast, that was not in question, but sooner or later she'd need a break. In front of them were the open plains – no possibility to hide. “Careful, I'll give us a boost!” Aura tightened her grip since she knew what that meant, but Amaryllis didn't. He awakened the sapphire.

The only thing Amaryllis felt was panic. The situation was too much for her, and all she could do was follow her instincts. Mother had banished her within a heartbeat, not even hesitating to declare her daughter no longer wanted. Even the human seemed more important to her. She knew the rules, and yet it hit her unexpectedly. Amaryllis always kind of knew that she would have to leave at some point, but this never seemed real. Even in the situation they now found themselves in, a part of her mind continually tried to make sense of all that had happened, yet it kept slipping out of its grasp.

The human called something out, but it was just noise that her overactive mind paid little attention to. Suddenly, she was catapulted forward. It wasn't wind but the object on her back pushing her forward. She cried out in pain as her wings bent backwards and the wind hit her face like a wall. This took just a few seconds, then the sudden boost faded, and she began to dip in and out of consciousness. The human called out something again. She shook her head but could not understand a thing. Moreover was this aching for salvation from the pain caused by her wings and fatigue. The combination of factors ensured that it wasn’t long before she began to falter and then fall. That was the last she felt before the wind hit her face again. They accelerated again, just this time she was pulled, not pushed. But again the velocity died, and gravity kicked in again. She clearly saw the ground coming closer but couldn't do anything about it, her wings beating tiredly at her side. Just before they hit the ground, there was another boost, and moments later they actually hit the dirt. She flipped over, felt the other bodies sliding across the ground with her, and finally crashed into something and stopped. Then she lost consciousness, dimly thankful for the respite from her troubled thoughts.

The first thing she felt when she awoke was pain, then the sun that, though weakened by the shade of a tree, still burned over her body. She moaned, freed one of her legs that was slightly twisted under her body, and looked around. Their crash landing had left a clear trench in something that seemed to be an apple orchard. Next to her was the human, unconscious like the foal in his arms. Apparently he took most of the fall for her. Amaryllis tried to stretch, but another wave of pain made her wince. When it stopped, she tried to look at the source of the pain: her back. Her wing roots to be precise. What she saw took her breath away. Her wings were...gone, ripped off. The only thing that gave a hint that they had even existed was the small trail of blood in her black fur. Tears ran down her cheek.

The pain, the memories of why she was lying here, the uncertainty as to what would happen now was just too much for her. Her wings would regrow, but her home, her brothers and sisters, her mother wouldn't. For the first time, she actually realized why this was the gravest sentence for a changeling. All she knew was the security of the hive, and that was gone now.

“This is all your fault!” she cried at the human, though he couldn't hear it. “Why did you have to turn up? In a week or two, the eggs would have hatched, and we would be long gone. Why just now, why?” She wanted to hurt him, damage him, and smashed her hoof on his leg. She wanted to do more, but she couldn't move.

“You done?” Frightened, she pulled her hoof back and looked at the human. He didn't meet her look but looked at the foal and sighed in relief as he saw that she was unharmed. Just like her, he stretched and rubbed his back. “Man, what a landing....” His eyes suddenly widened, and he pulled the bag from his back which had been stuck between him and the tree until now. He quickly looked through it and smashed his fist into the ground. “God fucking dammit!” He took out some strange-looking plates which seemed to be broken. He looked at them for a minute, held them against the sunlight, and put them back again. Now he really looked at Amaryllis. “Are you alright?” He tried to stand up. He stumbled and leaned against the tree but managed to keep upright.

Amaryllis said nothing, just wept and wiped the tears off her face, though more were quick to take their place. How could he be so calm right now? Then again, it wasn't his life he ruined. The urge to hurt him flared again, but she still did nothing to act upon it. “Nothing's right! My family banished me!”

“That wasn't my intention, but for me, my family comes first.” He pointed at the sleeping foal in his arms. “But we have the same problem now. Heading this direction are thousands of pissed changelings that neither of us wants to meet now.” Amaryllis knew what he meant, at least in her case. Despite that, she glared at him, a look meant to convey the despair and bitterness that she had towards the human at that moment.

“We greeted you with open arms. Why did you refuse to be part of our family?” She couldn't think of a reason to not be part of a whole. It was all she was and every changeling embodied. To her, the way he had completely rejected that ideal came across as callous.

“Maybe I didn’t want to hook up with an insect queen?” He checked to see if his words had woken the foal. “Maybe I like my freedom? Maybe I don't want to be executed for a mistake I might make?” Amaryllis shrugged with every sentence. It wasn't news for her that other creatures were repulsed by her appearance. It was the last two points that made her stumble. Freedom, she always dreamed of it. Not that she felt imprisoned, but she wanted to see the world. About the last point she talked with her nurse once. She was old, almost as old as her mother, and she had even known her grandmother, Echidna. She described her as a generous queen, who reigned differently than her mother. No banishing, no sentences, just love and warmth that she gave to her children. It was Chrysalis who had introduced the new rules when she took over thousands of years ago. Only a few changelings were old enough to remember it.

“But what will happen to me now? I have nothing! Nothing!” As the realization sunk in, fear began to tighten its grip on her.

The human thought for a second. “You said your father was a pony.” She nodded weakly as tears began to leak out of her clenched eyes. “How about you go to him? Until then, you can tag along. One more or less makes no difference. I'm out of money anyway.” With that, he plucked some apples and threw one in front of her before he took one himself.

“You have no problem with stealing but complain about my kind?” She opened her eyes, inspected the apple, and took a bite. “And this won't sate my hunger.”

“If I had any money, I would pay, but like this, I have no choice,” he said between bites. “Moreover, I never did complain about the way you feed. I just don't like the idea of harming others for it. One or two apples won’t do any harm to anyone. But you're right, you need something to eat. I suppose you can't bypass this blockade?” She felt the emotions of the human: a mixture of pity and compunction but also contentment. They were very complex.

“I can feel your emotions, but...” She swallowed. Warm energy went through her body and she quickly reached for it. She needed power, and she was hungry.

“What's wrong?” The stream died and she released the energy, now well fed. Pity was not love, and weaker, but better than nothing, and after all what had happened, she was satisfied with anything.

“I could... I could feed myself on your pity,” she said, a bit confused herself. “Mother always said that it was impossible to feed from a human.”

“Nothing against your mother, but she didn't seem like the type one would voluntarily have feelings for. Except for that, maybe. Besides, you said yourself that it makes a difference whether you receive emotions or just take them. Maybe humans can just protect themselves from it.” They both thought about it for a second and just shrugged their shoulders. “So much for that. Do you have an idea where we are?”

Amaryllis had a hint. “If the stories of my brothers and sisters are right, then this is the apple farm of Appleloosa. Our hive is one, maybe two hours away from it.

“Are you telling me we are in Equestria?” She nodded. He slowly laid down the foal and started to dance with joy, which didn't last long before he held his back again and sat down. “God dammit. First my leg, now my back...”

Thiemo wasn't the only one in pain. He saw the shaking picture of misery that once was the princess. Her wings were missing, probably ripped out from the air pressure or the crash landing. One of her forelegs was swollen, given away by the fact that it was twice the size of the other. At least her tears had stopped when she was fed. It was a strange feeling, like water running down your skin but taking all the dirt with it. Not the best feeling in the world, but there were worse.

Since they were now in Equestria, they had new problems. Changelings were about as popular as him. “We have to disguise ourselves,” Thiemo thought aloud. To disguise himself as a diamond dog was why he grew his hair out. “Last thing we need is even more attention.” The princess nodded before she was surrounded by fire. Now she was the white pony with a purple mane again. Her horn straightened, but what instantly grabbed his attention were her wings. They now had feathers and were in a miserable condition. They hung there like they were broken, and many feathers seemed to be missing.

“Is this enough?” He nodded. Now, at least two out of three were disguised. Thiemo carefully put down Aura, got up again, and tightened his cloak, brushing his hair to a mess and bending over to look like he had a hump.

“Do I look like a diamond dog?” He waited an answer but didn’t get one. With one hand, he removed the hair from his face and saw the giggling princess.

“Not really. You look more like a yeti, but they have white fur.” And that was the end of that plan. “Why don’t you use magic? I could teach you our disguise spell.”

“I can’t cast magic since I’m a shaman. I use the given energy around me and form it the way I need it.” He showed her his right arm. “I use talismans in which I carve the spells.”

“Then why don’t you carve in this spell?” She might know something about magic, but shamanism was no magic, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. The spell had to fit the stones’ element like a chemical formula, else nothing would happen, or even worse, something unpredictable would happen.

“Putting the fact aside that I need the runes, I don’t have the right element. I doubt that your magic even has one.” He put his hand in his pocket and fondled the handle until his hand touched something else. He held the piece of chitin. “Hold it! Can you draw me the rune?” Amaryllis nodded and started to draw the rune in the ground with her healthy foreleg. In the meantime, Thiemo got out his tools and the biggest piece of chitin he had. Then he started to carve the rune in it.

Ten minutes later, he was finished, and then he noticed something. “Where is my staff?” He looked around and found it some meters away on the ground. According to the cut in the tree, it had smashed against it and lost the sword along the way. The sword was nowhere to be seen, but the piece of clothing was still wrapped around the staff. He took it off and went to Amaryllis. “Could you stand up for a second?” She split her weight between her three good legs. Thiemo wrapped the sweater around her body so the wings were now fixed beneath it. “No matter how well disguised we are, if we look like we just came out of a battle, we’ll still be the centre of attention.”

“Thanks...” She lied down again, looking slightly relieved at being able to take the weight off her injured body.

“Don’t mention it. It’s my fault anyway.” She didn’t say anything as he sat down in front of her. It was just as well. “Well then, let’s hope that your shell is more magical than my staff.” Thiemo placed the tip on the chitin and waited. The piece didn’t glow like the gems, so all he could do was wait.

“How long is this going to take?”

“That depends. How much magic does this spell need?” Why overcharge it when it didn’t need much?

“This spell is like an extra leg or a wing. It takes us little to no effort.” Thiemo thought about it for a second. The chitin had to be very responsive to this kind of magic.

“Then this should already be enough, at least for one use.” Luckily, he had taken several pieces with him. If this really worked, they would have one problem less to worry about in the upcoming weeks. “Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” He gulped and held the chitin in both hands while he sat there, cross-legged.

“Uhm... Thiemo, was it?”

“Yes?”

“You should take a position that comes close to the form you want to transform into, and this...” she pointed a hoof at his legs “...does not look healthy, neither for a pony nor a diamond dog.” He didn’t even think about that. What should he become? As a diamond dog, he would have the advantage of fingers, but they weren’t really popular, though from Thiemo’s experience, it wasn’t all that surprising. As a pony, he would have more freedom but would get problems when using his staff. Furthermore, a diamond dog who would enter a library to learn about magic would draw attention. A diamond dog simply approaching a library would already draw attention. The thing with learning magic would just be the cherry on top of the sundae. The ponies were weirdly sceptical.

“You have to picture it. That’s all.” Always easier said than done with this sort of thing. He didn’t know to what degree he had to picture his new form. Would form and color be enough, or did he have to get more into detail? Well, if he had been more careful with those experiments, then he wouldn’t have branded his thigh or broken his feet several times when he tried to move the earth. At least he took turns with the feet. With a shrug of his shoulders, he stood up and concentrated on the chitin in his hand. The energy reacted for a few seconds, but nothing happened. Then his hand burst into a green flame and quickly covered his forearms. Thiemo fought the reflex to drop it like it was hot, although it was actually cosily warm. Slowly, the fire reached up his arms and shoulders and covered his entire body.

“Dad! You’re on fire!” Aura screamed. She must have woken up. He tried to answer but couldn’t make a sound as his daughter stared at him, her eyes wide with fright.

“He is not on fire, child; he is casting a spell.” Apparently Amaryllis still didn’t understand that he couldn’t cast magic because he was a shaman. Wasn’t that big of a surprise since he had never finished his training.

“AH!!!! The changeling is still here!” Apparently it was only then that the small filly noticed the injured princess, and she scrambled back. Everything around Thiemo turned quiet, and he tried to concentrate again. Colour didn’t really matter to him if he was going to be a pony. A unicorn, so he had an excuse to ask about magic. He felt his body changing. His legs shortened and hair grew where it never had before and probably never should on a human. Then the flames were extinguished as quickly as they had come.

Puzzled by the new point of view, he blinked a few times and looked to Amaryllis. She had a similar puzzled look on her face. “Well, that is not exactly what I expected...” she said. Until now, it was Thiemo looking down on her, but now it was the other way around. She was probably five to ten centimetres taller than him now.

“Am I a poodle or what?” Frightened, he looked at the hoof in front of his snout when he heard his own voice. The hoof hit his face and he fell down. He wanted to hold his face with his other hoof but hit himself again. “Ow, shit...”

“Dad?” Thiemo saw Aura coming from behind the tree and looking for him. For him as human. “Dad? Where are you?”

“Here!” He waved his hoof. “Although I might not look the part.” He wrinkled his now very long nose to get the feeling of it, sadly without success. He stood up and saw Aura standing right in front of him, eye to eye. “What the fuck...?”

“Dad? Is that you?” Thiemo was still a bit drowsy but managed to nod. “You’re a pony!”

"That was the general idea of this operation. This way, we won’t draw so much attention in Equestria.”

“And you’re a foal!”

“What?!” He looked around, confused at the situation. The trees were taller, Aura was taller, and Amaryllis was taller. “How could this happen?” His thoughts went from false runes to his picture of a pony, which was imprecise. Then there was the medium, the chitin. It was from a nymph. The source of the malfunction was impossible to discern. He kicked a stone with his blue hoof. “Blue? I thought about something yellow or beige-ish.” With one hoof, he felt his forehead and, of course, did not find a horn, only white mane. “I think there is still lots of room for improvement,” he said to Amaryllis who still was giggling.

“This might be my fault,” she said, still smiling. “Out of habit, I gave you my version of the spell. It allows the caster to appear the way he’d look as a pony.” Thiemo couldn’t help but facehoof. This was better than nothing, or the alternatives.

Author's Notes:

And with that our little Group of main characters is complete. Tango Sierra, who has drawn the cover
for Chapter 1, has made pictures of our cast:

Thiemo the Shaman
The foal Aura
Princess Amaryllis

(4 acts = 1 Chapter) (He drew also the covers for chapter 2 and 3, but thats in the future.)

As always thanks to faktopus for proofreading.
A second time edited by JBL. Thanks buddy!