//------------------------------// // Lesson 11: Return to Mortality // Story: Cloudwalker Chronicles // by krafty //------------------------------// A day passed before Copper Head and Soul Glow reached their destination. As acres of trees and plowed fields flew by in glances, they found themselves traveling deeper and deeper into a more arid landscape. Lush forests turned to grasslands which turned to dusty trails with patches of shrubbery amongst rocks and crags. Copper Head had never heard of, or seen anything of the sort before. “Do you know where we are, Soul Glow?” “I do not,” the alicorn replied almost immediately, “I was just wondering that myself. I don’t think I’ve traveled so far away from Cloudwalker Kingdom before.” Soul glow quickly descended and alighted on an isolated plateau. “I need to rest for a moment. We’re close to where your body is, but there might be trouble when we get there.” Copper Head nodded in agreement, hopped off, and surveyed the scenery. There was not much to the place. Just rocks, bushes, and dirt as far as the eye could see. There were a few animals like lizards and rodents, but other than that there didn’t seem to be other forms of life. The beacon of light that supposedly marked Copper Head’s body came out of a large canyon not even a mile away. He was anxious to be reunited with his physical form. The strange nuances of being dead were starting to wear on his mind. The feeling of being immaterial was strange to him, it would be strange to anypony. In the distance, a flapping sound caught his attention. He searched for the source and spotted what looked like three pegasi flying in a “V” formation directly behind them. In fact, it seemed like they were approaching them. Soul Glow noticed as well and turned to face them. As they closed in on their location, the pair were able to get a better look at the pegasi. They looked decent enough, but one would wonder what they were doing out there alone. The pegasi landed and stared at Soul Glow for some time, probably trying to get a reading on what species she was. One of them, an absurdly skinny stallion, spoke first, “Are you alright miss? It’s dangerous to be out here alone. Perhaps me and my company would be of assistance to you.“ “I’m very capable of taking care of myself, thank you. Now, I must kindly ask you to leave.” Soul Glow glared. Copper Head was shocked. The Soul Glow’s sudden hostility came out of nowhere. “You don’t have to say it so angrily,” Copper Head replied. No one heard him. “We couldn’t possibly do that!” This time a dark mare spoke, “You look so very tired, and we just wanna help you! There’s nothing wrong with accepting help.” Soul Glow chuckled, “You must take me for some naive little filly.” She casually got up from her sitting posture. “You don’t want to help me. In fact, you would rather do the opposite.” “What are you saying missy?” The last one, a very large stallion, growled. “Are you accusing us of being bandits or something?” “I admit, you all are very good at acting; but I can see past your acade. Here, let me get rid of those ridiculous costumes.” Soul Glow’s horn flashed a bright green and a wall of the same luminescent green emanated in a wave from the tip or her horn. As the wave ran over the pegasi, their skin shattered like glass and fell away like feathers. Standing in their place were three identical changelings. The changelings jumped at their own sudden “untransformation”. They quickly examined themselves and hissed in unison. “What did you do?!?” They bared their fangs and lunged at the mare. Soul Glow shielded herself with magic and pushed the three away. Copper Head jumped in front of her and growled, “Hey! Only lowlifes would attack a lady. Fight me instead!” The changelings took no notice of him. Instead they split up and tried to attack Soul Glow from different sides. Copper Head tried to tackle one of them, but he ended up going straight through him. In his haste, Copper Head forgot that he couldn’t interact with the living. Now he wouldn’t be able to help Soul Glow, but from the looks of things it seemed like she could take care of herself. One of the changelings took to the air while the other two rushed the alicorn from the ground. Soul Glow put up another barrier, but this time one of the changelings broke through. He bit into her side with his sharp fangs. The creature drew blood and withdrew his fangs to take another bite. Soul Glow tried to buck him off, but he managed to hold on despite having no good grip. The other two took advantage of this and piled on top of the alicorn. “Soul Glow! Is there anything I can do?” Copper Head yelled through the din of the scuffle. She didn’t respond. Either she couldn’t hear him or she was unable to speak. Copper Head tried to push them off of her, but his ethereal form kept him from doing anything. “What do we do with her?” One of the changelings inquired of his cohorts as he held down Soul Glow. “Take her to the queen obviously. She’ll know what to do.” “She’s been acting weird lately though. Ever since that weird pony showed up, she’s not been the same.” They continued to argue for a while until they picked up Soul Glow and took off towards the light that could be seen from the plateau. Copper Head followed them as closely as possible, but the rocky terrain was still troublesome even in his ghostly form. When the changelings flew into the gorge where the light emanated, Copper Head peered over the precipice as opposed to jumping right in. What Copper Head saw amazed him, but he flinched at the sudden blast of noise. It quickly subsided as he backed away from the edge. The buzzing of the hundreds of changelings in the gorge was enough to disorient anypony not used to the noise. The strange acoustics of the hive made it so that one only heard the noise if they were already inside the gorge. After getting accustomed to the noise, Copper Head was able to properly survey the changeling hive. The sides of the gorge were covered by a strange mucous-like substance. Copper Head guessed they were the egg sacks since most of the changelings were buzzing about maintaining them. He noticed the three changelings that captured Soul Glow flying toward the deepest part of the chasm, which was also where the beacon originated. Copper Head wondered how he was supposed to get down there, until it dawned on him. Since he’s dead, he can’t get hurt from falls. He took a few steps back and drew a deep breath. He took off at a run without another thought and jumped as far as he could towards the light. He plummeted down, but he didn’t feel like he was falling. He couldn’t feel the strange feeling in his stomach that occurs during a fall. He saw quick glimpses of different happenings around the hive. Changelings tending to eggs, sleeping, and he even saw what he thought were piles of something dead. It didn’t take him long to get to the bottom, and his landing was just as strange as the fall. He could feel the impact of hitting the earth at terminal velocity, but without any of the pain. “Look who it is!” Copper Head jumped. He was still shaking off the dizzying fall when he was startled by a loud voice. “Good work my children. Good work indeed.” Following the source of the now hushed voices, Copper Head set off into a dark tunnel. Strangely enough, the tunnel made Copper Head remember the mines back home. These caves however, were littered with discarded husks of changelings and assorted bones of their victims. Once he reached the end of the tunnel, he encountered a set of doors that were flung wide open. The low crackle of a fire masked the conversation that was taking place in the room. Copper Head peeked in, even though he wouldn’t have been seen. He spied Soul Glow tied up in a corner of the room, but in his ethereal form he had no way to set her free. Instead he turned his attention to the three changelings who had captured her. They were bowing down in front of a much larger changeling. The queen. “Your queen is very pleased with this offering you have given me,” The queen cooed, “Your love for me must be great, my children.” She kissed each on the head in turn. “Now back to your duties. I have some business I need to take care of.” The trio happily trotted out of the room as a child does when their parents have told them how proud they are. Copper Head slipped into the room after they left. The queen was greedily smiling at her prize which was Soul Glow. The queen called out to her from her throne, “I hope you will forgive my rudeness, Queen Soul Glow. In better times, I would have just fed off of you instead of incarcerating you, but somepony is willing to pay to get you back.” “How do you know who I am?” Soul Glow spat from the corner that she was heaped into, “Are you working with Krafty?” The changeling queen raised her eyebrow. Her wings buzzed as she got up from her throne, “I do not know a Krafty, but I can tell you that we’ve been planning for your arrival. Not even a few days ago, a young pony came to us from out of nowhere. Of course, we tried to subdue him at first, but imagine my surprise when the pony could speak in the changeling tongue! Surely, no pony would have even known we had our own language, but I digress.” The queen walked elegantly on her long spindly legs to a door on the right hoof side of her throne. The door flew open on its own, and out stepped a rust colored pony. Copper Head stared in amazement and confusion as his own body walked out to the middle of the room. The queen leaned on the stallion almost lovingly. “This stallion here told me that you would be coming. So I sent regular patrols to make sure I caught you. Now you’re…” The one occupying Copper Head’s body motioned for her to be silent. “What is it?” Copper Head’s body silently trotted up to Soul Glow. He looked over her once with cold unforgiving eyes. “Queen Atropa, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” “What? This is MY hive! You can’t just…” “Go! Before I crack open your carapace and feed your insides to the buzzards!” Copper Head’s threat came through loud and clear. Without another word, Queen Atropa left the room out of the door the real Copper Head had come through. Alone with just the fake and Soul Glow, the real Copper Head made his move. “Hey! Give me my body back!” Copper Head burst from the shadows and tackled his body, still forgetting that he would go through living things. He spun around and growled at the doppleganger. The fake smirked, “Aww, you’re angry. I suppose being killed would make anypony hostile.” Copper Head took another lunge. The fake laughed, “How about I give you a real target to aim at?” He pointed up. Copper Head followed and what he saw almost terrified him. Hanging upside down from the ceiling was a large insect-like creature. Its grotesque shell was covered in slime and tens of sickle-like protrusions jutted out from its body. At the ends of these sickles was a thin luminous thread that was almost impossible to notice. These threads ran down to Copper Head’s body and was what the creature used to manipulate his limbs. Its mandibles slowly opened and closed as its many eyes were trained on Copper Head. The stallion was left speechless. “Oh, don’t remember me? I suppose you wouldn’t.” The creature spoke to Copper Head by manipulating the stallion’s body, its many limbs working in a flurry to move all the necessary muscles. “I am the Aberration.” Copper Head gasped. “You’re the changeling from Cloudwalker Kingdom!” “You’re not as dumb as you look… or maybe you are.” The Aberration ungrasped the ceiling and made his way down to the floor. “Do you know why you were killed, Copper Head? I mean, surely it would have been obvious. The king’s brother sends you to detention where you would have to fight a creature you would stand no chance against. Then, you show up right here where you’re expected. You might just really be as dumb as you look.” “Sh-shut up! So what if I’m not as smart as everypony else! If you want to fight, then let’s just fight!” Copper Head attempted to kick the Aberration, but the insect retreated upwards and came back down swing the large scythe-like appendage on the front of its body. The scythe cut deep into Copper Head’s back. “Gah!” The pony hopped away from the creature and inspected his wound. There was no bleeding, but a large section of his body was simply gone. As if a chunk of his soul had been cut off. “How were you able to do that?” “Your tiny mind wouldn’t be able to comprehend it.” “Stop with the jokes!” Copper Head lunged. This time keeping the scythes in sight. In response, the Aberration stuck his secondary limbs out like a pincushion. Copper Head collided with him and was impaled by its sharp limbs. The Aberration dropped him on the floor and hovered over him. “I was engineered for this. You can’t beat me. My mind was created to make billions of calculations per second. I know what your move is the moment you go to make it. My claws have been sharpened to the point that they can slice open the soul.” The creature raised his sharp scythe-like appendages and brought them down upon Copper Head. Just before the Aberration was about to obliterate his soul, the insect’s horn starting glowing. It retreated to the ceiling and started to scuttle through the door it had entered through earlier. It stopped at the threshold of the door before turning to say, “You are lucky this time. My master beckons me home because we have what we need, and tells me to leave your body for you. I do not know why he spares your life, but it is not my place to question him.” Without another word, the creature scuttled away without a trace. Copper Head got up shakily and examined himself. He felt weary and he looked like swiss cheese, but otherwise he was fine. Being just a spirit wasn’t all that bad, especially since he didn’t feel much pain. He approached his body which was now lying limp on the floor. While Copper Head was wondering how to get back in his body, he could see that parts of his soul was returning to the body. After only a few seconds, Copper Head regained control of his body. The feeling of being alive was familiar, yet strange to him. He remembered Soul Glow and rushed over to her, unwrapping her bindings in the process. Soul Glow stood up and heaved a sigh of relief, “I really thought you were a goner. That thing could have destroyed your soul, and when that happens you vanish from existence. Count yourself lucky, Copper Head.” “Believe me, I do.” He replied. “I wonder why he left though. No doubt that he is working for King Krafty, but he said he got what he needed. Do you have any idea what that means?” Soul Glow shook her head, “I have no idea. I’ve been trapped in prison for such a long time. However, knowing what Krafty was able to do to my husband, what he has in store is treacherous. For now though, we need to get you back to Cloudwalker Kingdom. I’m sure your friends will need you.” “My friends…” Copper Head realized he hadn’t seen them in months. They probably didn’t know he had died and he wondered what the Aberration might have done to them in his absence. Soul Glow motioned for him to follow, and together, they stealthily escaped the hive and headed back to Cloudwalker Kingdom. Back to Spot, Grand Prix, and Shadowstorm.