//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Why me? // Story: Hybrid // by BAR0SS //------------------------------// Chapter 6 "Princess! Get away from that thing!" I swiftly turned my head around to see what yelled out and blew away any possibility of peace with the princess only to be tackled by someone with enough force to take out a small car. We rolled to a stop and I ended up being on my back with a pony on top of me. I had never been caught off guard before. This was entirely new to me, so time to fix it. I opened my eyes. "You?" I shouted. "You!" he growled back. The pony that was standing over me was the same one that tried to get me to surrender back when I was woken up four days ago. He seemed to be very angry about me being here. "You are under arrest!" He shouted. "I would read you your rights, but as you are not a member of this nation, you have none!" "That's a bit harsh don't you think?" I asked but was rewarded with a hoof to the face. My head did snap to the side, but I didn't feel any pain. I looked back to him slowly and saw that he was smirking. "Oh, you find hitting my in the head funny? Then how... about... THIS!" I yelled as I placed my hind paws on his stomach and kicked up with all I had. He went sailing straight up into the roof of the throne room. My guess says that it was about 50 metres up. And when he collided with the roof, he left an indentation of his body shape in the roof. "Iron Defence!?" Someone yelled. So that must be his name. As he started to come back down, I rolled onto my paws and dived out of the way. I expected him to come land where I had kicked him from, but as I look up, I saw that he had been caught by to pegasi. I concentrated my power and and tried to teleport away, at least for now. Only, I didn't go anywhere. "Don't try and teleport. We have already place a spell around the castle so you cant do that again" Said Iron Defence as he was gently placed back onto the ground by his allies. 'Shit. They can do that? Fine' I said to myself. "That don't mean I can't just walk out" I said as I threw off the saddlebags before I activated my force field and got into a ready stance. I had never even thought about training in close combat as a quadruped before, so I really had no idea what I was doing. Then a thought came to me. If he found me, what's to stop him from doing it again. I needed to know how he did it so I can avoid what I did wrong in future. "Before we do this, I need to know. How was it that you found me here after I lost you last time?" I asked. "Simple. When you teleported, you displayed your magic to us which left an energy for a unicorn to follow. Normally, this is quite difficult to track, but your energy seems rather powerful and stands out and all we had to do was follow it. It led us to the town between Equestria, the gryphon domain and zebra's home land. There, we found gryphon's that looked like they had just been through a war and lost. They said something about a hairless monkey changing into a dragon and not only beating the hay out of the, but also kidnapping the son of their ruler. Later you were spotted flying in the direction of this town. SO here we are now" he explained. "How very smart of you" I commented. The way I see it, if I get away, they can easily find me again. "Thank you. Now if you please, surrender" he said with his tone getting dangerous towards the end. "Sorry Iron. But I will NOT simply keel over and bend to the wishes of others as if I am some sort of pet. I am going to leave now. If you want me, You're going to have to find a way to stop me" I said as I began to walk away but I was stopped when I saw many guards of multiple types standing in the doorway. "Captain Shining Armour sir. Do you think that you can form a bubble spell around this thing to capture it?" Iron defence asked the pony that shouted at the laughing guard before. "I think I can" He said as his horn began to light up purple. Then a purple bubble formed around me and tried to hold me. I could feel me force field fluctuate slightly but it held. With my force field activated, they couldn't touch me. I walked forwards through the purple light with ease. "I-I can't do it. He is shielding himself from my magic somehow. Magic seems to have little effect to him!" yelled Shining Armour. "Yep. A simple psychokinesis force field" I said with pride. "Guard's, stand down" the princess Celestia ordered. We all looked to her and she was walking to me. "If this human truly has psychokinesis, nopony aside from the elements of harmony stand a chance. Twilight, you and your friends go and retrieve the elements. I will keep him occupied." "Keep me occupied? How do you plan to-" I was cut off when she fired a magic bolt at me and it hit me square in the chest. I slid back about 10 metres, but did not fall. I was more worried about the fact that my field had actually shattered before re-activating. "Shit! I did not expect that" I said while panting. "You would be wise to keep your concentration on me" she warned. I had a bit of a problem. I had to defeat this princess, that seemed to be very powerful, quickly. But I couldn't bring myself to kill her. I won't do that. She charged at me and hit me in the face quicker that I could blink and I was slammed into the wall at the back of the throne room. I actually felt that. And it actually hurt. "What's the matter human. Your predecessors put up a better challenge than this. Or do you want to give up?" she asked. I put a paw to my face and rubbed my jaw. I felt something wet so I moved my paw away and saw I had blood on it. "That's it. No more games! Just remember, YOU asked for this!" I shouted. Celestia fired another blast of magic at me, but I concentrated my entire force field to my right fore leg and reared up before I backhanded the bolt away and charged her. Her eyes widened greatly before I slammed into her and pinned her to the ground. Her horn began to light up again so I put my paw onto her throat. "Don't even try it" I said in a low voice. I saw every guard begin to run towards us. But just before they reached us, I let out a telekinetic shock wave that pushed all of them back and holding them all in the air. They were helpless to do anything. "What do you think you are going to do now? If you kill me, every nation will be out to get you. But if you wait, the elements will be along soon and you WILL be defeated" said the princess below me. "Orion don't do this!" Dee shouted running up to me. "Please, let her go. You don't need to do this." "Why not. It's not like I can win anyway" I said applying slightly more pressure. "But you can show them what mercy looks like. If you do that, they will feel regret" Dee said touching my paw that was pressed to the princesses neck. "I-I can't" I said as my composure began to break. "Please Orion. For me" she pleaded. "RRRRAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!" I shouted before I ripped my paw away from the princesses neck while dropping all of the guards and sat down a few feet away from them. Dee walked up to me and pulled me into a hug. "I do believe it's my turn to tell you that you're going to be fine" she said. I put a foreleg around her to return the embrace. We sat like that for a few minutes. That is until the six ponies that we met yesterday burst into the throne room. They were all wearing necklaces, except for Twilight who had a tiara upon her head. "Ready girls?" Twilight asked her friends. And they all answered with a "YEAH!" Their necklaces all began to glow as they were levitated off the ground. Twilight tiara then began to glow before she opened her eyes, only they were pure white. Next thing I know is a giant rainbow beam shot up into the air before curving and coming back down towards Dee and I. Time seemed to slow down in an instant. As the beam came toward us, I reacted by grabbing Dee and throwing her to the side so she was safe. I looked back to the beam and concentrated all of my willpower into a force field over my tail. I saw that the beam was going to land on the ground in front of me so I spun around, slamming my shielded tail into the beam with an extreme amount of force. And I was rewarded with the beam changing direction from me and out through a wall, over the city and off into the distance. I could not believe what I just did. Those elements were supposed to be the strongest thing in existence. And I had just showed it otherwise. I smiled at my great achievement. But that smile was soon turned to a frown. The ponies were shouting something to each other in a painced tone. something about them being doomed for the strongest magical items not working, but I began to feel this tingle in my tail and my concentration was on that. Said tingle began to grow rapidly, in both size and pain. Within a few second, it felt as it someone was trying to pull my tail through a superheated pipe. "ARGH!!!" I yelled as the pain spread to my legs and torso, forcing me to the ground. I looked back to my tail and saw that it was no longer there. My upper legs were back to their normal human look, and the conversion was spreading. As far as I could tell, something was forcing me to revert back to a human, very very painfully. I began to thrash on the ground, trying to do anything to make it stop. It was way to much, I had never felt anything so painful before. It felt as if my scales were being ripper off with a pair of pliers while my skin was coming off with dry ice. "Orion, NOOO!!!" Dee shouted while she ran back over to me before she slid on the ground and began to cradle my head in her forelegs. Some of the guards began to approach me while I was on the ground in pain, but Ceylon flew up and landed between us and them. "Stay back!" he warned them. "What in the all of Terra are you two doing!?" shouted Celestia. Dee and Ceylon both began to argue with Celestia, but I was still writhing on the ground in pain, not listening. Soon, the reversion of my body reached my head. I could feel my facial structure being shattered in my head before being reconstructed and the pain began to get to me. As I started to black out, I was able to hear Dee shouting out my name over the sounds of my head snapping and cracking back to it's human shape. But when my eyesight faded, The sounds of the world started to drown out. It didn't take long for me to pass out. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My body slowly began to come back to it's working condition. I felt weak again. I couldn't move any of my limbs or even open my eyes. But at least my hearing was back. I could hear the sound of hoofsteps coming towards me. "Any news on him?" I heard someone ask. "Sorry your highness. He hasn't shown any brain activity since this happened to him. And I am beginning to think that he never will" Someone else said. "Do not say that!" Yelled this apparent princess. "My sister fought this human and believes that he is different from the human we know. She also believes that he could make a great ally to us after she was convinced by Miss Do and the gryphon Black Wing.Rare Artifact and Twilight Sparkle also wish to study him." 'Even after I blacked out Dee and Ceylon still tried to help me?' I thought to myself. That thought made me smile. "Doctor! Look! he smiled!" shouted who I heard was named Luna. I then began to hear the sound a unicorn makes when their horns light up and I could feel a tingling inside my head. "He's awake. His brain activity has returned and is looking strong" said the doctor. I began to try to lift my hand, but I found that I couldn't and my smile dropped. It felt as if I had a restraint around my wrist, holding me down, but I could not feel any restraint. So I did the only thing I could think of. I began to pull at it, hopeing it would come free. "No! Stop! You could risk further injury" the doctor pleaded. I stopped trying to get my arm free and began to try to open my eyes. It proved to be a much harder job that I thought it could be, but I did eventually manage to crack open my right eye. Looking around with said eye, my gaze fell to a unicorn stallion wearing a white lab coat and glasses. He had a brown coat with a blue mane. He was looking at me with a stern glare before he looked away. "He is awake now. If you wish to talk to him, you may now princess" He said. I followed his gaze with my own and saw another alicorn. This one was definitely smaller than her sister. She had a a very dark blue coat and a transparent sapphire blue mane that seemed to have white specs in it and blew in a nonexistent wind. It looked kind of cool. "Thank you doctor Cardio. Could you please inform Twilight Sparkle and Rare Artifact that this human is awake and he too may come and see him?" she asked. "Yes princess" he said before he turned and left the room. I looked to the smaller princess and she was smiling at me. I closed my eye and rolled my eyes beneath their lids. "What is the matter human?" she asked but I didn't answer. I instead tried to focus on transforming so I could try to bust out of here. Only I couldn't. I tried harder to transform only for the same thing to happen. Absolutely nothing. I opened my eyes in shock. My abilities were gone. In desperation, and not caring about any possible injury, I concentrated on a small tray on a table on the other side of the room and tried to get it to levitate. Nope. I began to panic. I, for the first time since I was 17 years old, felt... exposed. And noticing my panic, Luna came closer to me. "Human, what's the matter?" she asked, placing a hoof on the bed and causing me to jump at the contact. I just wanted to curl up into a ball and just be alone, but I still had the restraints on my wrists. I just sighed in defeat. A few minutes of Luna trying to get me to talk later, the door opened and in walked Twilight and that grey unicorn with the brown mane that accused me of being a dumb animal when I was first discovered. They bowed to Luna before they walked over to me. "So it look's like our paths have crossed again hmm?" asked who I presumed was Rare Artifact. I just glared at him and looked to the other side of my bed to find Twilight there with a large grin on her face. So I just looked back up to the roof and closed my eyes. "Don't worry Orion... or was it Halex? Either way, that would be a good place to start. What's your name?" asked Twilight. I didn't answer. I just continued to lay there with my eyes closed. I felt a nudge to my right side ribs. "Look human. Don't be like this. If you just cooperate, we can get through this quickly and it will be all over" said Rare Artifact. "Even if I did give you what you want to know, then what. Kill me and preserve my body to put on display?" I asked and he recoiled in shock. "Besides, I only give to not only those who deserve what they want, but also give themselves to get it." He looked down in defeat before Twilight spoke up again. "So what would we need to do?" she asked. "You have to figure that out for yourself" I said as I closed my eyes again. "Come you two. It is late and you need your rest. I will have a lunar guard posted here so we will know if he try's anything" Luna said as she began to walk out of the room. Twilight and the grey unicorn looked to each other and shrugged their shoulders before following the princess out and closing the door behind them. 'Finally. I can have some alone time to try to figure out what's up with my abilities' I said to myself in relief. These ponies man, these ponies. I began to try and feel in my mind for any trace of my power's, but I was interrupted buy the door opening again. I groaned before I looked to see who it was this time. And I did not expect to see that on what I did. A pony wearing dark blue armour walked into the room. I saw that she had a grey coat and a deep blue tail. I presumed her mane was the same colour, but She had a helmet on and I could not see the colour. She also seemed to have the wings of a... bat? Instead of normal feathered pegasus wings. She looked up to me and I saw her eyes. They were Cyan in colour, but they were like cat eyes, like the eyes of my Hybrid form. Oh, and she also had fangs. 'Was she a vampire? What would you even call that? A vampire pony? A pony vampire? How about a vampony?' As I was contemplating this in my head, she walked over to the side of the bed and stood facing the door, completely unmoving. "So what's your name?" I asked. only to get no response. I looked at her and she just stood there at attention. 'Jeez, she's not even looking around' I said to myself. As I looked her over, I had to admit, she was probably the most bad ass guard I have seen in this place. "Helooo? You can talk you know" I said but she just remained still. "Don't make me do it" I warned her with a grin. She just continued to ignore me. "Ok, your fault then." I cracked my neck from side to side. I was about to pull an allnighter so I needed to 'feel' ready. Phase one of crack plan, clear throat. "EHHRRRRMMMM!" Phase one complete. Begin phase two. "Row row row your boat, gently down the stream" I began to sing. It was going to be a long night, but even longer for this poor guard.