“Why me?” I complain, continuing to run away from the insect things.
“Get back here!” A male voice calls out.
“Never!” I shout, grabbing a rock quickly and throwing it at them, hearing the rock hit the ground again. “Why are you chasing me!?”
“You are in Changeling Territory!” A ‘changeling’ answers.
“For fuck sakes…” I groan. “Just leave me alone alright?”
“Can we at least talk for a second?” A female changeling asks.
“No! The last time someone ‘talked’ to me they insulted food!” I shout, continuing to run away through the wastelands.
“The hell is he talking about?” A changeling asks curiously before I stop and turn around, the changelings stopping rather quickly as well.
“What do you consider food?” I ask the weird and kind of sickly looking bug horses.
“We feed off of love.” A changeling said.
“No no, I mean food, not just a random emotion you feed off of to sustain your magic.” I frown, only to have the changelings look between each other.
“We’ve...never actually been outside of the Badlands so...we don’t know.” The changeling says with a shrug.
“Oh my sweet christ…” I groan loudly. “What are your names?”
“Drone numbe-”
“What’s your genders?” I ask, swiftly ruining the changelings attempt at ‘naming’.
“Uh...I’m a male.” One of the changelings says.
“Me as well.” The other nods.
“I’m female.” The changeling that looks exactly the fucking same as the others said, but her voice sounding distinctly feminine.
“John,” I say, pointing to the male changeling on the right. “Anna,” I say to the feminine sounding changeling. “And George.”
“Why are you giving us these...names?” John asks curiously.
“Because having to call you a number is stupid, demeaning, and by the looks of it, makes sure you are nothing more than a worthless pile of crap if you don’t do your job or just be useful in anyway shape or form.” I explain to the three, making them all look worriedly towards each other.
“Uh...our queen cares about us.” George the changeling says worriedly.
“Then why do you look like you're starving, have about as many holes in you as swiss cheese, and have the aura of three people who are trying their damndest not to fall over right now?” I ask with a frown, causing them to flinch at the last part.
“H-how did he know?” Anna whispers, and sadly for her I could still hear her.
“It’s obvious to tell your weak and on the brink of starving.” I state. “Jesus christ, what kind of torture is your queen putting you through?”
“What torture?” The changelings all ask at the same time.
“Feeding you just enough to stay on your feet and not die, but keep you away your strength and make you feel the pain of starvation.” I state, seeing the three changelings eyes widen in shock.
“Th-that can’t be true!” Anna shouts.
“You’re lying!” John shouts, taking a step forward and the obvious sign his leg was feeling weak evident even though he’s trying to put up a strong front.
“Where’s your queen?” I frown.
“Why would we tell you?” George growls, trying to charge his horn but wincing a bit.
“Tell me now so you three don’t hurt yourselves.” I state, the changelings sensing my emotions and feeling my honest care and worry about the three who were on the brink of starving.
“Why do you care?” Anna asks bitterly.
“If you were to see a starving child ask you for food, what would you do?” Simon asks.
“We would…” Anna says, thinking a moment about her answer. “We would…”
“Would you help the child? Or would you just tell the poor kid to go away?” I ask.
“What does this have to do with us?” John asks.
“I see three starving children trying to act strong when they can barely stand as is.” I say. “Just you three trying to follow me alone tired you all out.” I sigh out before picking them all up, just from picking them up and already telling how malnourished they are. “Christ...practically just skin and bone.” I shake my head while carrying all three of the bug horses a little awkwardly.
“What the hell are you doing?” Anna frowns.
“Helping.” I state, continuing my trek through the badlands. “Given that you look like insects and you have a queen...where’s your hive?” I ask.
“You’ll find a giant black building about a mile from here. It’ll be just an extra two miles after that to get to it proper.” John sighs out.
“Thank you.” I nod, making sure John and George were being held in my arms and Anna was holding onto my back. “Hold on tight.” Simon says while starting to run off towards the hive, the changelings holding on for dear life as I ran through the place with a decent amount of speed as to not hurt the three. Ten minutes of running later I skidded to a halt and was about a hundred meters away from the massive black monolith that they called a ‘hive’. “Shit…” I mutter to myself, honestly amazed to see such a giant thing in the middle of nowhere.
“The only entrance is through Changeling magic. All other magics in this world can’t get past it’s anti-magic field.” Anna the changeling says to me.
“That’s not how anti-magic fields work but whatever.” I frown, putting down the three changelings and checking his little ‘armory’ just to make sure he could use it, and he soon grabbed a double sided knife that seemed to reverberate in the air. “Cool….but I have a feeling I’m gonna need a little extra…” I mutter, putting the blade in its sheath and putting it at my side, pulling out a great sword that looked like it was made out of some form of rock that rested on his back comfortably, and he pulled out two fingerless leather gloves that he put on his hands. “Right then. I think I’m set.”
“How in the world?” The changeling’s all said simultaneously, dumbstruck at seeing someone using magic so close to their hive and in the field, as well as seeing the weapons that seemed so obviously coated in magic still working that it was almost like these weapons were designed from gods.
“What? Never heard of enchantments before?” I ask curiously.
“What?” Anna asks with a raised eyebrow.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Simon nods. “So...do I just punch through the door or do I get a door?”
“Oh, hold on.” George said before charging his horn, the changeling taking a deep breath before a magical door appeared for the four of us.
“Want to come in?” I ask, the changelings still feeling how much I cared about their safety that they were starting to feel just a little bit better.
“Yes, no need for you to be running around blindly in there.” Anna nods.
“Us to.” George and John said as well, making me nod and thinking they just wanted to help, when in reality they were staying around me to feed off of the ambient care I had for the three that they wanted to just keep secretly feeding just so they could gather their strength.
“Well let’s head on in.” I nod, the four of us starting our adventure into the dark abyss that this hive was. Once the magical door was gone and the sun stopped lighting up the place barely I noticed the place looked...a little bit Xenomorph-ish for some reason. “They know we’re here right?” I ask in a deadpanned voice.
“With how you literally wear your emotions on your sleeves then yes.” Anna nods.
“Hmm…” I hum to myself. “Can you three stop ‘sensing’ emotions?” I ask curiously.
“FOOOOOD~!” The word echoes throughout the hive.
“Uh...why?” I ask with a worried frown.
“Remember when you said we only ‘eat emotions to sustain our magic’?” Anna asks.
“Yes…” I nod, not liking where this is going.
“Emotions are literally our food supply.” John frowns.
“I hate everything.” I groan, before taking a deep breath, fixing my weapons, tightening my gloves...and running. “Nope!” I shout before bolting in a random direction, the changelings suddenly tasting licorice.
“Never was a fan of licorice…” John mutters, before the three rush off to try and find me as I was suddenly out of sight.
“CAPTURE THE INTRUDER!” A voice rings out throughout the hive. And as soon as I heard that I started to hear a fuck load of buzzing, hissing, and licking noises.
“NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE!” I scream repeatedly.
“Delicious~! He tastes so good!” A voice rings out from one of the holes in the wall.
“I’M KEEPING MY VIRGINITY DAMN IT!” I shout.
“The fuck!?!” A collective amount of voices shouted at the same time, not believing what I just said.
“That’s sick. What kind of monster are you. We’re just going to feed on your emotions like a battery. We’re civilized here meatsack.” Another voice calls out.
“THAT’S WHAT ALL SUCCUBI SAY BEFORE THEY STEAL YOUR SOUL THROUGH YOUR JUNK!” I scream, only confusing them more.
“I’ll have you know my mother is a saint!” Another voice calls out.
“Wait what?” I ask, now honestly confused by that. “Then why do you all work on Succubi logic?”
“It’s not succubus logic. It’s fae knowledge you fool. We feed on emotions. Besides no amount of what size of your junk would ever be enough.” Another voice cries out resoundly male in tone.
I couldn’t help but laugh at hearing the man. “Wow dude! I can’t believe a guy just shouted that!” I laugh at the implications.
“Hey! We accept all kinds here. Keep your opinions to yourself!” Another voice calls out sounding female.
“It’s called ‘timing’ woman!” I shout.
“His happiness is so delicious~” Another low voice calls out…creepily.
“Fuck this!” I say, now completely done before turning around and bringing out my great sword. “Ground Dasher!” I shout, flipping it around and stabbing it into the ground, the floor in front of me and ten meters away cracked open, rocks suddenly shooting up and smacking the changelings in rapid succession before I pulled out my sword and kept running. ”Okay so these fuckers feed off of emotions...shit...need to just calm down and relax, I can’t be frantic…” I think to myself, trying to calm myself down and let the made up sound of water flowing be my guide to not feeling.
“All food should be like tofu and not be flavored at all that’s the only way they should taste!!” A voice calls out.
I stop for a moment and raise my great sword. “Stalagmite!” I shout, before a massive coned rock shot up and somehow hit the person who just screamed heresy!
“HE’S OVER THERE!!” Another voice cries out.
“MEDIC!” The hurt voice calls out.
“MEDICS CAN’T SAVE YOU NOW YOU FUCKING HERETIC!” I scream, the stalagmite lowering before punching into the fucker again.
Several changelings stayed out of sight feeding on my emotions…several dozens. “A little spicy now but still good.”
“Cripe…” I mutter, taking a deep breath and feeling a tad...weaker somehow. ”Shit! Bad things are happening, go back to being calm...relax...remember your training…”
“Women shouldn’t have rights!” Another voice calls out this one female.
“Hypocrite.” I state calmly. “A female just told me ‘we don’t discriminate’, yet you just saod women shouldn’t have rights...also you have a queen...so hypocrite.” I state calmly, my emotions starting to simmer down.
“5463 I told you that didn’t work before and why did you have to do that now?” Another drone calls out.
“It worked on that one unicorn we had. He was really stupid. Heck this guy here walked straight into a hive because he thought he knew better than he really did 4923.” The drone known as 5463 answered.
“Then insult his dick size or say something about how the only people who ever will love him have to be drawn on paper to even be worth his while. Jeez we can’t always think that PC flame posts will make them freak out.” 4923 answered.
I carefully waited, my emotions starting to drop off quicker as I calmly, and politely waited for them to stop ranting at each other.
“Don’t forget how his taste buds seem to be wrong since he thinks that being calm makes him not feedable. Ha! What a riot. It tastes very creamy.” 4923 creepily licked his lips.
“Listen while I accept gay people and all that jazz, I’d rather not know how much you like to taste my cream alright?” I ask, not believing he just said that.
“But I’m a woman…” She frowns as her ear fins droop down. She then flies off crying.
“And this is why I try not to care.” I sigh out. “Too many people talking, too many people trying to get my attention…” I say, rubbing my temple just a little.
A magic beam fires out hitting my leg. “This isn’t working just blast him!” A male voice calls out.
“Ow…” I mutter before running off again, my leg hurting from the hit but thankfully it wasn’t broken.
Another changeling rushes out and bites my other leg.
“Ow!” I yelp, swiftly kicking the Changeling’s head and making him get off my leg. ”Shit...this is bad...very bad…” I think to myself, trying to find my center in this frantic hell just so I could stop feeling and get an upper hand here.
Another jumps from the ceiling hole and onto my shoulders biting into it. I rammed my fist into the changeling on my shoulder and get him off as I tried running again, my vision starting to blur from everything. ”That’s either because of emotion draining...or an agent from their bite...fuck...can’t feel my hurt leg now…” I think to myself, forcing myself to continue moving as the river in my head kept going on, seeming to not get me any closer to the ‘no emotion’ pond I’m mentally looking for.
Another three jumped for my limbs biting into them leaving my hurt leg from being bit as well. “Huh…?” I mutter, looking at the biting changelings and not feeling anything. “Oh...haven’t felt like this in long time…” I mutter to myself, wondering if I’m only staying up because of the changelings or my body forcing me to stay up.
“Nostalgia tastes a bit like soup…thanks for the meal.” A changeling looks me in the eye before headbutting me into unconsciousness.
(third person)
“Oh no…” Anna mutters, having seen the entire thing and how hard he tried to stop them even through words and his emotions, and he seemed close to not feeling any emotion at all.
“Crap...we better hurry.” John says while leading his two fellow changelings to the throne room, the three having fed more and felt stronger because of both the ambient emotions they were feeding on and before he entered with how genuine his emotions were.
“Let’s hope we can help him, that much Changeling Venom could kill him…” George mutters worriedly.
“BRING THE INTRUDER BEFORE ME!” Chrysalis yells to the masses of changelings. An unconscious Simon was already being wrapped in a cocoon for easy storage.
“Not good…” Anna mutters, the three moving faster to help their new friend
“Fellow changelings! You have done well to capture the intruder and bring us our new food source. Once I bite him he will be in his most fondest fantasies forever living out things that bring out the most love. We shall have our vengeance on Canterlot!” Chrysalis bends down biting into Simon’s arm. Chrysalis felt...nothing.
“WHERE IS HE!” Chrysalis cried out as several changelings start to fly around searching for him.
Anna, George and John were carrying the unconscious Simon as fast as they could. “Thank god I could teleport him…” Anna mutters.
“OVER HERE!” Several poof sounds resound out as several changelings warped in.
“Oh god damn it!” George shouted.
“Got it!” The changeling said while charging his horn and firing a bolt at one of the changelings, smacking them dead in the chest and charging for another one.
“ENOUGH!” Chrysalis warped in firing bolt after bolt of magic at the traitors. The changelings quickly leapt out of the way, George taking all of Simon’s weight on his back while the three started running away quickly, taking a sharp right into one of the thousands of identical corridors and continuing to run
Chrysalis kept warping around using the ambient magic to keep track of the fleeing changelings while coordinating them to block off passages. The hive was alive and it obeyed Chrysalis to the letter of her will.
“Not good not good…” George muttered, the three using every branching path, ceiling hole, and literally every hallway and crevice they could to get away from them or at least wait till Simon woke up from.
A beam shot from the floor hitting Anna. Chrysalis crawled up looking like a wall crawling spider twisting her head back into place. “Anna!” John yelped, quickly moving over to the female Changeling and picking her up and putting her on his back. “This isn’t good.” He mutters, charging his magic and firing a bolt at Chrysalis in hopes to distract her.
Chrysalis charged in dodging the bolt and biting George on the horn injecting her neurotoxin directly into his brain. “Gah!” George shouts before falling over instantly.
“George!” John shouts before magicking over both Simon and George and charging his magic to put a green bubble around them all, protecting them with all the emotions he was given and fed off of from Simon.
“Come into my web said the spider to the fly. Buzzing around sadly because he was about to die. Traitors come and go to this very day. But you will never escape and have your happy way.” Chrysalis rhymed out while she used her horn to pop the shield as if it wasn’t there. “I’ve been taking your emotions since I felt you. I had a sad feeling my children would be seduced by one of those horrid stick figures who destroyed the badlands once long ago.”
“W-what?” John asks, blinking at hearing such a thing. “But...how?”
“A figure known as Marco decided we were nothing more than bugs. Enjoying squishing us…squishing mother…ripping her neck off. We will not let them do that again. Out of all the children three survived. We will not let that happen again. Now move you fool before he gets up and destroys us all.” Chrysalis shoved John out of the way bending down to bite Simon.
“Wait!” John shouts, only for something either miraculous...or horrifying happened. As John was about to plead for Simon’s life Chrysalis flew into a wall hard. John looked over at Simon who’s fist was up in the air, balled up into a fist, which probably was what made Chrysalis fly up. “S-simon?” John asks worriedly.
“Defend…” Simon mutters, getting up quickly and mindlessly brushing himself off, John seeing Simon’s eyes and seeing they were hollow, like he was still unconscious but somehow still moving.
“Simon?” John repeats, his worry growing as he feels nothing from the stick figure but a horrid feeling ran up his spine, the changeling sensing absolute nothing radiating from Simon.
“Protect.” He says, his words echoing from the walls as he kneeled down and checked both Anna and George to see if they were okay, somehow knowing they were there when he was completely unconscious.
“Chrysalis...what’s going on?” John asks worriedly, not understanding the feeling he was getting and why he was checking to see if his friends were okay even though he wasn’t there to begin with.
“Stick figures are notorious for being willing to kill at a heartbeat to solve their problems. This one has fully embraced his sociopathic nature. Get him out of here before he kills the entire changeling race with his emotions. Now!” Chrysalis snarls out as several of the changelings swarmed away from Simon.
“Where’s...my first aid…?” He asks, his hollow words being strange when Chrysalis thought he was a monster.
Chrysalis teleported away with several of her drones. Her eyes were harsh before she fully disappeared as if she was looking back into the past about what happened so long ago.
“Simon…” John asks again, the stick figure getting a concerned look but still nothing was there. “Simon!” John shouted.
“Help…” Simon states to the changeling.
“Hold on…” He says while charging his horn and opening a door and helping him get the two outside.
I woke up...and the first thing to meet me is the harsh light of day. “Ho fuck that’s bright!” I shout, covering my eyes as the changeling suddenly felt his annoyance and shock suddenly.
“Simon what the hell was that!?” John shouted.
“Huh? Oh, hey John...why the hell are we outside?” I ask honestly.
“You...what happened?” John asks worriedly. “You were unconscious, but you were moving...what the hell?”
“I have..no idea.” I say with a frown, trying to remember what happened. “I was knocked out...but if memory serves, back from my world, it’s actually a condition from someone that’s either fought or trained too much. It’s like having animal instincts in a way, where they stop using their mind and only using their body…” I explain. “What did I say?”
“‘Defend’, ‘Protect’, and ‘Where’s my first aid?’.” John says, looking at his friends and seeing Anna groan and George still completely gone for right now.
“Well...that’s not good.” I say with a frown. “I hope someone can help you out...cause I’m gonna be moving on. I have a feeling someone here really hates me just for being a stick figure.” I say, not knowing why but sensing some extreme hate from here.
“I hope divine intervention exists…” John sighs out, Simon picking up George and Anna and heading off with John.
After a while of walking they finally got outside the anti magic barrier. “So, where are you going to take these two John?” I ask him curiously.
“I don’t know...we’re traitors to the queen, and everyone on this world hates us...George is probably never going to wake up and Anna’s hurt…” The lone, conscious changeling says sadly, just hoping for someone to help them out for once instead of shun them like monsters. “But...thank you for...caring Simon.”
“You’re welcome John.” I nod. “So...is that random thing that kicked me to a forest going to help out or no?” Simon asks, looking up at the sky for some help.
“I have a feeling he won’t.” John sighs out, the two continuing to walk for a while in the badlands.
“I’m gonna miss my Earth Sword...I worked hard on that thing.” I frown. “Had to get the right materials, had to find the right enchanter, everything! It cost me a fortune!” I complain, looking back and finally getting out of sight of the hive. “Let’s take a break.” I say while putting down the two changelings gently on the ground and stepping away from the two and sitting down as well.
“Yeah, it would be good to rest.” John agrees, sitting down and just relaxing after what happened. “Still can’t believe...a stick figure actually did all this…”
“Stick Figures can be assholes a lot of the time...but from what I’ve learned from this world is that my kind came here once upon a time, and good ones and bad ones came here...and only people remember the bad ones because they’re bad.” I sigh out. “Maybe one day I’ll be able to show them that I’m not like the person that hurt them all…”
“Chrysalis is stubborn, mean, and cruel...just be glad your not a living vegetable.” John shrugs.
“That...doesn’t sound good.” I frown. “By the way, where’s the closest town from here?”
“There isn’t a town for miles. It would probably take you a day or two to walk to one of the towns...but from your speed I’d say a day at least.” John says with a shrug, double checking his friends and finding that George was still out cold with a bite mark on his horn, thankfully still breathing while Anna was just resting after getting hit that hard.
After the rest and a bunch of talking the group decided to go their separate ways, John carrying his two friends on his back and moving carefully through the badlands as he wasn’t as physically fit as his friend George and Simon was just running across the badlands in hopes of finding some new place. “Hopefully we can get some help…” John mutters, trotting through the badlands and already out of sight from Simon.
“Why hello there… Let’s have a little chat.” A sinister voice spoke from nowhere as a three talons of a griffin pulled John, George, and Anna into a spatial rift. “We have plenty to discuss now.”
“Oh no…” He whimpers, scared of why he was suddenly pulled through a spatial rift by someone and the sinister voice just made him scared. “Don’t hurt us…”
The last thing he saw was yellow eyes will red pupils before blacking out from the fear.
To be continued...