//------------------------------// // [3-8] Liar // Story: Seattle Seapony // by dNihil //------------------------------// Cala flipped on the power switch. Static poured out. She flipped it off. Silence. She flicked it on again. Renée was sitting on one side of the bed, watching her. She was looking at one thing in particular, actually. “She's become a lot thinner, too.” Peyton, sitting next to Cala, blushed. “Yeah, it does seem that way...” “And you... you look like you just ate a six-course meal, for Pete's sake. Hmmm, maybe there's some sort of connection?” Renée said sarcastically. Peyton covered her face in shame, rolling over so Renée couldn't see her protruding belly. “Were you in the bathroom trying to regurgitate it?” “Shut up,” she grumbled. “Look,” Renée laughed, “I'm just trying to piece together what happened. Surely you can't blame me for being curious about it. I just want the best for you both, after all.” Cala flicked the radio in her hooves. Static. Off. Silence. “Would you care to tell me, though... have you developed a taste for caviar?” With an angry snarl, Peyton grabbed the radio from the hooves of the mare beside her and threw it at Renée. The zebra shrieked and ducked, causing it to bounce off the wall behind her and emit a sharp hiss of static. “Hey!” Cala said. “I was messing with that!” “Look, okay?!” Peyton shouted. “I gave her a blowjob! That's it!” “You gave her a what?!” Willy shouted, having just walked in the door. “Uh oh,” she said, then dove behind Cala. Cala narrowed her eyes at the mare. A moment passed. “Ugh, you people. Always getting so worked up over silly things.” “What do you know about sex?” Renée asked. “None of the details,” Cala said. “But my sister, Brooke, was always talking about that stuff. At least, in the last year or so. I know enough to know that all it does is cause drama.” “Did you give your consent when she did it?” Willy asked. “My what?” “Did you agree to let her do that to you?” “I was too confused at the time, I think. I don't know.” “That's technically rape,” Willy said. “Did she hurt you?” Renée asked. “Well... no. It was uncomfortable. I didn't like it.” Cala considered a moment. “But you know what? Peyton seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, and in the end it got me to open up my eyes. I think that's definitely worth it. Have you ever seen someone vanquish a demon that's possessed someone just by giving them a blowjob?” They both looked at her oddly. “That's what I thought. I don't even know what a ‘blowjob’ is.” Willy laughed and rubbed his temple with the tip of his hoof. “That is really confusing. I'm just trying to imagine how someone could give a blowjob to a female pony.” He walked over towards where the radio landed. Peyton sat back up and smiled sweetly and Cala. “Hey... I don't even care that you aren't returning my feelings anymore. That was really kind of you to defend me like that.” She laughed. “Fuck, now I'm getting all sappy, too.” “It doesn't matter,” Renée said. “Let's stop delaying and get this over with already.” Willy tossed the radio and paint on the bed in front of Cala. Cala set the radio in front of her. She found an empty spot on the case and brushed the dust off with a hoof. She took the paintbrush in her mouth and steeled herself up to— “Wait,” Willy said. “We should probably do this somewhere where Cala isn't going to get paint all over.” Everyone groaned. ↴ Now re-situated, Cala used the brush to create a simple image on the radio case. It was a curvy U-shape with a thin stroke crossing over and connecting near the two ends. “That's it?” Renée asked. “Mmm-hmm,” Cala said. Willy took the brush from her mouth. “It's close enough. There's three strings as well, but that'd be hard for me to do.” She turned it on. Silence. Then a staticky voice came from the speakers. “Oh. Hi. You did get me my lyre,” it said. A beat. “I'm surprised. You probably hate my guts right about now, don't you?” “You don't have the guts to fess up and face my wrath,” Cala said. “That's funny. I also don't have the heart to keep you from knowing the truth any longer. So what do you want to know?” “What I want to know,” Renée said, “is how you could torment such an innocent girl so much! What were you trying to do? Were you turning her into a monster? Because you succeeded pretty damn well at that!” It chuckled, or at least made some noises that sounded amused. “What, you haven't figured it out yet?” “No?” “Of course... you're intuitive, but you can't read minds. Otherwise you'd have seen me sooner.” It did something like clearing its throat. “In a word: ‘protection’. My name is Lyra Heartstrings, and I sent my soul to the human universe to protect my ancient ancestor.” “Ah-HA!” Cala said. “Your first lie revealed! You aren't Harper at all!” “I am, though,” it said. “That's just the name you decided to give to me.” “But, wait,” Renée said, “how do you mean, ‘protection’? Were you trying to protect poor Cala by making her afraid of water?” “Hey, hold up! Are you responsible for making our affair suck ass?” Peyton interjected. “I'm so confused,” Willy said. “Is this the ‘ghost’ that was apparently haunting Cala in the apartment?” “Stop! Are you going to let me tell my story from the beginning?” Harper said. Everyone begrudgingly quieted down. “Good. Let's start... ah, okay, I know. “I don't remember my own life from before I came here, but I do know some important details that were sent with me. The most important thing in my mind at that moment was that I was supposed to find a pony by the name Calamity, and protect her. I didn't find that pony, but what I did find was a human girl who went by the name Cala. So I stuck by her side for as long as I possibly could until she could help me find the pony I was looking for. “I'll have you know... it was an incredibly long time before I did! It took years, and despite what you might think, waiting is a lot harder than it seems. There was one particular adversary I faced that was as detrimental to my success as any one person can be. Every night, the sister of the girl I followed would vanquish me. At first, it was getting tossed out the window. You may have figured out that a soul will power an object and drive it to succeed in its purpose. The purpose of a toy is to entertain, and one of the best ways to stop that from happening is to lose it. So the power I got was to return to my former place without anyone noticing I had left. But Brooke was terrible. Even after forgetting that she had thrown me out the window, she knew that that wouldn't work, so the next time she did something more drastic. Threw me into a fire. Every time it was harder and harder for me to force myself back into position. After a month of that, Brooke finally had enough and gave up. What a relief! I had used so much energy and will to do that that my soul would surely perish if I attempted it much more. “Feeble as I was, though, young Cala had lost interest. It was such an unfortunate turn of events, and it irritated me to no end that fate would treat me so cruel. One night, though, I finally took fate into my own hands. The Event took place. Everyone disappeared from around me except for that one little girl, who began strangling in her bed. I saw my chance and took it. If there was any way that I could protect Cala now, I would have to directly interfere. “So, using the last of my energy, I broke free from the figurine that had housed me for so long. I went to Cala, who was struggling and confused, and took her power as my own to be able to set things right. I went into her horn, and — devoid of my own energy, as I was — I had to take what magical energy was given to Cala to perform a spell. I knew this spell, and others, naturally because it was a bit of the precious knowledge I had been granted. It's a spell that all oricorns must learn if they wish to survive on land: the air breathing spell. So basic to cast, so energy efficient, so it didn't use hardly any magic. She had calmed down, but hadn't woken up. I also needed to cast something else, because if she stayed there in her bed she would have likely died from dehydration. She hadn't gotten much... bodily reserves, you could say, from the transformation, and she desperately needed water. “What I did was I used the rest of her magic to cast a storm spell. What it does is causes a storm in the nearby area. I still have no idea how I knew this spell. What it would do was draw in nearby clouds and make it rain, hard. It conjures the most amount of water for the least magical cost, which would be perfect to help Cala survive for a while. I didn't realize, though, that the water wouldn't go inside of the building she was in. That was a mistake. All that ended up doing was waking Cala up, due to the thunder, and making her start trying to crawl to the bathroom. I didn't see the point at first, but then I realized... of course, there's water in the bathroom, and that's the perfect place to go in a situation like that. “I couldn't do anything as she went over there. I had spent all the magic on a worthless spell, and I could only watch as Cala helplessly stumbled her way into the bathtub. She turned the water on, and finally I relaxed. She had a strange whim, then, and got a spike of irritation that sparked her magic again. I used the opportunity to use a small dose of basic telekinesis to satisfy it, and she got what she wanted. Unfortunately, she did notice me casting it. I made a note to be more subtle after that so I wouldn't be found out. “She ended up sleeping in there the whole night, and in the meanwhile I built up my magic reserves. The storm spell went away after about an hour; there weren't that many clouds fueling it. I casted an illusion of the spell on the window. An illusion is incredibly cheap on magic, and what I wanted was for her to leave the building in the morning to get to somewhere more hospitable. If I was lucky, she'd find an ocean. It would help to lure her out of there so she got on that as soon as possible. “Well, that didn't end up going to plan. Right after waking up, she found she missed her mother incredibly much. I knew the truth, that everyone had disappeared. She didn't, though. She almost got caught up thinking about it, so I used some quick telekinesis to distract her; slamming a door closed. Didn't work. She went into her mother's bedroom and the thought caught her yet again. “I assure you, I hadn't wanted to do it. But I didn't want Cala to waste time thinking about her dead relatives. She would have time for that after she found a good place to be. So I tapped into her mind. I attempted to subdue her thoughts of her family and friends, and make sure that she would stay focused on her goal. “Well, it half-worked. I got her convinced that her family was just away for a while, and that they might come back later. I calmed her down and convinced her to eat something. She then went on her merry way, got distracted by the cat, and ended up eating... what, debatedly, may or may not have been that good for her. After a while she ended up getting the brilliant idea to try out the pool. I had completely forgotten that there was a pool, but regardless it was a pretty nifty idea. She went and did a couple things that I'm not sure were necessary, then finally dove in. “I was happy for her. It might not have been the end goal I expected, but she ended up finding something that could satisfy her until she was ready to leave. Of course, it was too much to wish for. I still have no idea what actually went down back there, but the water in pools aren't normal. There's something in them that seapony physiology just didn't cotton well to. She had a layer of slime coating her whole body, but that water just... dissolved it! All of it! And then she had the bright idea to breathe it in. Not only did the chemicals in the water start gnawing at her lungs, but — have I mentioned? The spell I used to turn her gills into lungs? It only works one way. Cala lacked the focus to be able to do anything but thrash at that point, as in pain as she was. I had to use up her magical reserves, yet again, to teleport her out. I didn't do it as fast as I would have liked. She still ended up with dry scales all over her body, and her lungs had been... irreparably damaged. I did what I could to keep her lungs intact, waking her from unconsciousness to eject the poisonous water, but then I discovered that teleporting her had made her too nauseous to think. I tried to hold her attention. I did much better that time than previously at getting into her mind, and I reprimanded her for not knowing how bad the pool water was. It was no use. I had inadvertently gotten her to think about her sister. I don't know how or why; maybe I was trying to rub off some of my own pain on her to make her feel bad. She ended up passing out again, and I was out of magic so I was unable to do anything after that. “After the first day, things had changed. Cala had developed a crippling sense of hydrophobia and I didn't really know how to take it. The storm illusion was still on all the windows. I had put it on every window she went near, just to be sure. Now they were having the opposite effect. They scared her. They made it so she was trapped inside, rather than what I wanted, which was for her to leave. I think over the month that she was in there, I changed my mind about how I wanted to protect her. She became addicted to pain medication, taking much higher doses than the highest recommendation for a human. They took away the massive amounts of pain that she inflicted upon her body by sliding and bouncing around. They also made her sleep much, much more. She was sleeping as much as she could, staying awake only a quarter of the day to wait for the storm to disappear. It never did, because I left it there, making her stay inside. “The day came that she finally couldn't take it any longer. It was hot inside and she needed to leave that place. At that point, I was actually encouraging her fear of water. I had gotten much better at illusion, so I put terrifying images in her mind. She couldn't leave, because the rain would tear through her body. It would rip her up and eat her. But it wasn't enough, and Cala broke through it. Every last illusion I had set up fell away and she left that place. She discovered the truth. She figured out that she had been lied to. So she broke down out there, letting out all of her pain and misery. “She drew the attention of ravenous dogs. They charged toward her, merciless, stopping at nothing for a chance to taste sweet meat again. I did the kind thing and I held them back. I told Cala that I was being generous helping her like that, even though she didn't deserve it for voiding my protection. I cast another casual seapony land-dwelling spell, one that required a bit more energy to use. It created a pair of legs for Cala. It was the first time she had seapony legs, so they were at their weakest, but with a little adrenaline rush even those skimpy things can gallop. “So, with my magic spent, the dogs were unleashed on her and she darted away like a bullet. There would be no stopping her, and even those dogs were unable to keep up and got lost looking for her. It was at that point that I decided my job was done. I let myself leave Cala's mind, and I remained dwelling in her horn. I was still there, so the changes to Cala's mind didn't go away, but I stopped messing with her mind and allowed her to take her own path from then on. “I simply observed as another pony found her, and a new group of people took over the responsibility of protecting her. It wasn't until Peyton decided to tamper with Cala's biology that I came back. I felt I needed to teach Cala that it's not okay to have sex with other ponies, but I didn't get the chance since I was forcefully ejected from Cala's skull. “Are there any questions before I move on to the next part of my story?” The four ponies gathered around the radio were stupefied, staring in silence at the object in question. Cala was the exception. Rather than staring stupidly, she just glared at it. Willy was the first one to speak up. “This is officially the craziest thing I have ever seen.” ...I said, do you have any questions?