The three of them stood there in stunned silence as the muffled sounds of shoes impacting wood and then gravel continued off into the distance, ended by the roar of Kind's beast and flinging gravel as they left in a hurry. I tapped my forehooves together again experimentally, finding that my hoof hardening spell was indeed a permanent addition to them. I tried my hindhooves as well, and found the same thing to be true. I began running my hooves all over my body to where ever they could reach, and found that the hoof hardening spell had become a body hardening spell. I tried smacking my forehoof onto my other leg and produced a respectably loud crackle of magic.
"Blue!?" Rough blurted, their attention finally free of Kind's speedy get away.
"I think I'm understanding more and more about this body, Rough." I explained, holding onto the sides of the cocoon by pressing my hindhooves onto the bottom of it, allowing my forehooves to move me around inside by pressing up against both sides. Sort of like crawling around... but through fluid... and vertically.
"You think your cocoon is gonna stop growing any time soon? It's pretty massive." Soft worried from their position next to Rough, an arm draped over their brother's shoulder.
"Hey Blue, if you're ever going to come out of that thing you should let me know! I want to record the whole process and tweak around with my videos a bit. I'll probably have to delete that other one and think of a different title." Timid summarized, opening their camera once again and pointing it towards me.
I moved a hoof across my face, finding that it had become longer and more angular, yet hardened and slightly sharp; Somewhat like cut stone. "I think I should be able to break free from this easily, though I don't really know what will happen with all the fluids in here."
"Eugh, yeah... That's going to be nasty." Rough complained, backing away from my cocoon.
"That just gave me an idea!" Soft blurted, quickly moving past Rough to sprint up the staircase.
"Where are you goin'?" Rough called after them.
"Towels!" Soft yelled back, refraining from explaining further.
Rough sighed, "Well, at least she has a plan."
I pressed my right forehoof against the semi-transparent cocoon wall, finding it very solid. "Should I wait for Soft?" I asked the two that remained.
"I'd say yes. I don't think we can explain away a giant stain on the carpet and a cocoon husk and an alien." Timid replied.
What would I even do when I got out of this cocoon? I couldn't shape-shift into a dog anymore as I was far too large... I could dig, perhaps. Give myself a place to sleep that would be somewhat secluded? I doubt that I could stay in Soft's room forever, especially with my growth.
I heard the steady thudding of feet on carpet running down the staircase. "Alright, got em!" Soft called, a large pile of white towels in their arms. They moved awkwardly past Rough and threw the blob of fabric down at the base of the cocoon. "Okay, here's my plan: A whole bunch of we don't know is gonna come out of that cocoon, right? So, we use all these towels to soak everything up and then we use the steam cleaner from the garage to clean up anything that's left!"
"Uh, you two can be on cleaning duty. I have a documentary to film!" Timid replied, focusing their camera on my cocoon again.
"Yeah, alright." Rough grumbled, turning around and chucking blanket after blanket onto the couch. "I was overheatin' anyway."
After a few moments, Soft and Rough had arranged a circle around the base of the cocoon. "Are you ready?" I asked, pressing my hoof lightly against the wall of my temporary prison.
"Ready as I'll ever be." Rough replied cautiously. "Just don't melt us with acid or nothin'."
"I'm ready Blue, go for it!" Soft cheered. Timid readied their camera as well, taking a few steps back.
The single hoof I had pressed against the wall of the cocoon was forced further into it, crackling with magic as the body hardening spell fought against the resin-based chrysalis. I placed another hoof on the edge, causing even more crackles and a blue colored light display from within.
"Hey, this could make for a heck of an Intro video!" Timid commented, backing up again and into the wall behind them.
Rough and Soft had taken cover behind a few blankets that had fallen to the ground. I used the magic from my horn to amplify the spell further, causing cracks to appear in the wall.
"Come on Blue, you've got this!" Soft said in support from behind their wall of fabric.
"This is so pretty!" Timid blurted.
Simply pressing on the wall wasn't working. I decided to be a bit more aggressive and treat it like any other dirt, rock or debris in my way, hammering it with my hooves. Left, right. Left, right. Left, right.
"Holy crap, Blue! That's some racket you're makin' in there!" Rough yelled, covering their ears. I glanced and saw Soft doing the same, and Timid trying to use their shoulder to awkwardly block off their left ear as well.
This was beginning to annoy me. I should have broken free of this cocoon easily! I charged my horn again, attempting a different approach. Perhaps I could simply blast it with magic? A high pitched whining noise emitted from my horn, steadily increasing in volume and... vibration?
"Blue, what are you doing!?" Rough hollered with their eyes shut against the noise.
I tried a combination of sonic vibration and hoof hammering. After only a few short moments, the cocoon began chipping away and rupturing!
"We've sprung a leak, captain!" Timid cheered, a giddy smile on their face.
I pushed myself away from the cracks in the cocoon, floating towards the other side. I was somehow able to maneuver my hooves behind my back, somewhat like a spider, and launch myself off of the cocoon's inner wall. I faced all four of my hooves towards the crack and charged my horn with all the might I could give it.
A nearly deafening crunch accompanied my impact into the cocoon, soon followed by the glugging of ooze and other liquids from the side. My hooves had broken free of the cocoon, but I was now stuck. "A little help?" I asked as the messy liquid drained past me.
"Try wiggling!" Rough suggested, pinching their nose now. "Good god does this stuff smell rank!"
"I'm not even going to invoke the swear jar on that. This is god awful!" Soft agreed, pinching their nose as well. Timid was not so fortunate.
Timid kneeled over onto the ground, still pointing their camera at me, and vomited onto the flooring.
"Come on, Karol!" Soft complained with a nasally voice. "It's just Ooze of Blue!"
Wiggling was proving to be effective, as I had pulled one of my angular hooves free from the cocoon. This freed up more space, and I was soon standing within the cocoon in a small pool of ooze that had failed to drain. The wall of the cocoon was something like a blueish stained glass. It must have changed colors while I was... re-forming.
"Hey Blue!" Rough waved.
"Hello, Rough." I waved back.
Rough squinted at me through the cocoon wall, trying to make out details. "Well, I can tell you're a lot taller now if that's you just standing."
"Should I continue to break free?" I asked politely.
"Yeah, sure. Lemme move back a bit though."
When Rough had retreated, I took to hammering out the edges of the hole. After a few minutes of this constant effort, I was able to poke my head through.
"So, how do I look?"
Timid, Rough and Soft all looked between each other with mixed expressions of either fear, intrigue or intense worry. They then all looked to me.
"Blue. Don't take this the wrong way, but you got even freakier." Timid explained.
"You're bending your neck to poke out of that hole right now, aren't you?" Rough asked.
"Yes? How does that make me freaky?"
"Well, that's head height. Our head's height, which makes you even taller than we are!" Rough explained with nervous energy.
"Well, I still need to free myself of this cocoon, regardless of my height." I explained, beginning my task of hammering against the cocoon once more.
...
...
After a final strike, Timid, Soft and Rough all cheered, a piece of the cocoon flying past their heads.
"Finally! Blue is free!" Soft sighed in relief.
"Hold on, I'm fixing my camera! Don't come out yet!" Timid begged, fiddling with their contraption.
"Think we got a fog machine around anywhere?" Rough asked of Soft.
"What would we need a fog machine for?"
"To make Blue's New Groove a bit more dramatic, of course." Rough replied jokingly, smirking at Soft's eye rolling.
"Okay, got it!" Timid announced. "Camera is rolling, proceed with Alien-ness!"
"So I walk out now?" I asked uncertainly.
"Yes, Blue... way to kill the suspense!" Timid chided.
I took only a single step before the three had a spike of fear. They didn't blurt out, however, so I continued. Another step, then another. Soon I had revealed my head and front half. I blinked the ooze from my eyes a few times, brushing off even more of the stuff from my limbs and buzzing the slime from my wings. I shook my hind legs as well, flicking even more of the goop from me. That was when I noticed that I now had a mane, and it was getting in my face.
I batted the thing away as it was covering one of my eyes. A stripe of white down the center with bright blue on either side of it in straight lines, somewhat styled like Queen Chrysalis' hair, albeit shorter in length. With my vision fully restored and my new mane out of the way, I proceeded forward. I squeezed the rest of my body free from the cocoon, my midsection freeing itself with a fleshy sucking noise while I pulled myself free with my forelegs marching along on the floor.
Eventually I had freed my wings, and a quick experimental buzz ended up flinging goop everywhere. For some reason there were no complaints about that, so I continued on with my freeing efforts. I wiggled, kicked, buzzed and hammered the last part of the cocoon away, finally freeing myself after minutes of effort that left me very tired.
I fell onto the ground on my side, taking deep breaths from lungs that literally dwarfed my old ones. After regaining my breath, I heaved myself upwards so that I could look at the three that remained silent.
Well, the four that remained silent. 'Mom' had come home.
"Ah..." Rough began hesitantly. "We can explain?"
The nearly blind 'Mom' raised an eyebrow at Rough. From their voice, I could identify them as Stern from last night."You can explain why there's a gigantic bug monster breathing heavily on the Living Room floor?" They scoffed in disbelief. "This is gonna be a laugh."
They then glanced at me, and I returned a curious look to them. "Hello?" I asked cautiously.
Stern took a deep breath and sighed. They then blinked, staring at me in a sort of resigned acceptance. "I should probably be surprised about this, shouldn't I?"
"You mean you're not?" Timid asked.
"Twenty-seven years on the force most of that as a Sheriff n' you see all kinds of strange things. Things they don't let the public know about for darned sure. Nothing like giant bug monsters that speak English, No, but weird stuff all the same. Maybe I'm just too old to freak out anymore? Maybe I'm just too tired to care."
I tried to stand up, my legs a bit wobbly from the exertion of before. Thankfully with some help from my wings, I was able to stand upright with only moderate difficulty. I held out each of my limbs as far as they would go, one at a time, in order to get a bearing on how far I was able to maneuver them. I raised my wings and moved them around in an experimental circle a few times, noting that they had become more solidified and large with my new body. Taking a deep breath and finding that I was perfectly intact once more, I looked to Stern. I then saw that they had been looking above me, and at that point I realized that my horn had been trying to spear itself through the ceiling this entire time. I turned my head awkwardly sideways for a moment and apologetically smiled at Stern. "Sorry?" I offered.
"I so need to measure you now!" Timid chimed in, drawing looks from Stern, Soft and Rough. "Okay, later then!"
Stern squinted at me, their clouded eyes looking into mine and searching for something. Out of some compulsion I returned the look to them. Then something caught my eye. A spark. Barely visible, but still there.
"How long have you been at the house?" Stern asked suddenly.
"A day? I'm not certain." I replied honestly.
"You planning on abducting my kids?"
"Uh... no?" I replied in confused honesty. "Why would I need to do that?"
Stern searched my eyes even more, the procedure going on for a few minutes at the least before they finally relented.
"Alright. I think you're a decent bug-monster alien-thing that just hatched in my living room. Call it mother's intuition, but if you had wanted to do any harm then you would've done it a long time ago, right?"
"Uh..." I blurted, not really knowing what to say.
Stern extended a hand towards me. I had seen ponies do something similar to this during my short stay in Ponyville. It was known as a Hoof-shake. I accepted the offer with my own hoof, thankful that the body hardening spell didn't activate. Perhaps it was based off of my will?
"Welcome to Earth, Bug-Alien thing." Stern said with a smile. The spark I saw in their eyes had become a flicker now. I looked to Rough, Soft and Timid, finding a spark in their eyes as well. It wasn't the spark of love, that much was certain. What was it, though?