//------------------------------// // Chapter 16 // Story: Displaced // by Seven Fates //------------------------------// Scootaloo turned slowly to face the source of the growl. It made her heart leap to her throat because it was a sound she knew all too well; she had heard that same sound from her own stomach many times. Staring at Goldenrod’s unmoving form, she thought she caught sight of a slight movement of his lips. Hesitantly, the pegasus filly returned to her friend’s side. It hit her that in her panicked sorrow, she hadn’t thought to listen for his heartbeat. When she placed her ear firmly against his chest, she was rewarded with a faint but steady tattoo from his heart. This in turn caused her own heart to skip a beat. A sharp intake of breath from the unconscious human caused her to leap back in surprise. It was as though somepony had punctured a balloon in reverse. The sudden intake of breath was followed by a series of coughs. His eyes wrenched open with a start, and as he grew more aware that he was conscious, he even brought one hand up to cover his mouth. “Goldenrod, you’re alive!” she nearly screeched. In spite of her earlier belief that she had no tears left to shed, a single tear of joy spilled down her cheek. “I-I thought you died; I thought I was too late!” With a dazed look in his eyes, he wiped a line of saliva from his chin on the back of his hand. “I almost did... I think.” he wheezed, seeming to gain some idea of where he was. “This body is in really rough shape because of that transformation. Nothing works as well as it should. Between my hunger and the way this body is stretched out, it’s a wonder I didn’t kick the bucket.” Unappreciative of his nonchalance with his mortality, Scootaloo stared uneasily at him. She needed to tell him now. “Um... Goldenrod?” she said, pausing just long enough to be sure he was paying attention. “You probably shouldn’t use magic anymore... Twilight says that it is slowly killing you. Something about your life-force and magic being the same.” He squinted at her through his eyeglasses, as though he were unsure what to think. With one hand, he removed his glasses, before massaging his closed eyes and the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Twilight actually said that to you?” he asked grimly. “What the heck is wrong with her?” “Um... she didn’t, not really.” she muttered, blushing. “I kinda was supposed to be in the farmhouse, not spying.” Goldenrod opened his eyes, one eyebrow half-raised, and gave her an appraising smile. “I guess that explains why you didn’t stay back at the farm with Mac like I asked you to.” He shook his head; she couldn’t tell if it was mirth or disbelief. “Oh the troubles that plague my life. I’ve got a body that could quit at any minute because it can’t handle being stretched to this size, a little sister who can’t keep her butt out of trouble, and now apparently every time I use magic I’m one step closer to the edge, and I’m about to break.” “Well... if it helps, we are sitting in a grove full of zap apples,” she offered meekly, still somewhat caught off-guard by his sister comment. “Do you really see me like a sister?” Goldenrod didn’t speak. Instead, he glanced around at the grove before tucking his glasses, which had still been in one of his hands, into the neckline of his shirt. “Well... I suppose things ain’t all bad.” he said with a self-deprecating laugh. He jumped to his feet and stretched. “My eyes are well enough that I can make out things now. Just... don’t ask me to read when I don’t have the glasses on.” He added a sly wink to punctuate that point. “Well...” Scootaloo felt a pang of guilt, remembering the very moment she’d first met him. She felt compelled to say something, but couldn’t think of anything worthwhile. “That’s...convenient?” The growl of his stomach was the only answer he seemed to have to that question. Staring up at the zap apples in the large tree directly above him, he clapped his hands together. “So, who wants lunch?” He sounded a lot cheerier thinking about food, but she supposed being told he would die if he used too much magic would make him take delight in a lot of the little things. “What did you call them, Zack apples?” “Zap apples.” Goldenrod gave her a goofy grin, and jumped up in the air, seizing a tree-branch in his hands. He swung himself back and forth in a manner that reminded Scootaloo of a friendly monkey that Fluttershy had once introduced the Crusaders to. With an exaggerated grunt, the human swung his legs up to a thicker adjacent branch, wrapping them firmly around it. From there, she watched as he arched his back and reached one arm towards another branch above him, righting himself on the branch he was perched upon. She couldn’t make out the expression on his face, but he seemed to be amused by something. “So,” he began with a laugh, tossing down a pair of apples. “I can’t be the only one to imagine that Applejack and Rainbow Dash had something to do with these things coming into the world, can I?” “No...” Scootaloo responded, ducking as four more apples dropped down. “Granny Smith found a grove of zap apples in the Everfree when she wasn’t much older than Applejack. There are even some zap apple trees up at Sweet Apple Acres-” “I... Never mind,” he said with a sigh. Without warning, he tilted sideways, hanging upside down from the tree-branch. He looked downright silly, hanging there with his part of his shirt hanging down at his armpit while he clutched a piece of rainbow fruit in each hand. Eagerly, he stuffed a piece of fruit into his mouth and used his free hand to grab the tree branch. When he finally jumped down from the tree, he had already finished eating the first apple, core and all. By the time he had the second one half eaten, she said, “Hungry?” “Mmm, yes.” Goldenrod said through a mouthful of apple. “Haven’t eaten since yesterday morning. These are delicious. They make my lips all tingly. Go on! You eat up too, so you can be nice and strong like Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo knew that he was probably right; she hadn’t eaten anything this morning either, and she had to admit that she was hungry as well. Too often, she found herself not eating properly as a result of living on her own. While she was able to have a proper meal when her friends’ families would have her, it just wasn’t the same. With great vigor, she grabbed the apple in the crux of her hoof. Just as she was about to bite into her own apple, Goldenrod dropped his and fell to the ground, convulsing. She watched in horror as his flesh began to bulge beneath his clothes, as though somepony had hooked him up to a helium pump like some sort of grotesque flesh balloon. Just as suddenly as it began, it ended. His swollen flesh began to retreat back into itself. When this horrifying turn of events was finished, she was astonished to see that, while he was still lean, he no longer looked as though his flesh was stretched beneath a skeleton. Pushing himself up into a sitting position, he groaned and rubbed his head with one hand. “Well...” he said, flexing and examining his other hand in front of his face. “That just happened.” “W-what just happened?” Scootaloo inquired, confused. “You’re not skinny any more!” Goldenrod sat and mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I’m still new to magic, but this stand of trees was dead when I got here...since I’m practically bleeding magic, and plants seem to have a mind of their own around me when I’m not paying attention...” He broke off his thought, and furrowed his brow. “Twilight would probably say something like ‘The Draconequus magic embedded in the fruit interacted with the interrupted spell cast by Morrigan, temporarily reactivating it, drawing energies from the fruit to create extra muscle and bone mass.’” He waved his hand idly. “I’m sure it’ll have no effect on you, but all the same, better safe than sorry.” He rose to his feet again, and frowned. “Now, lets get you back to the farm.” The look on his face told her that he was dead serious. “Oh, don’t give me that look. I know you want to help, but I don’t want to see you h-uhhh... Aaaah...” Goldenrod turned away and began sneezing violently away from the filly. Each time he sneezed, a gout of pale mist shot forth from his nose and mouth. Instead of dissipating, however, it began to coalesce into a solid white shape. Scootaloo didn’t know what this thing was, other than the fact that it looked as though it was made of bone. The look on Goldenrod’s face told her that he knew vaguely what it was, and did not like it one bit. When he finally did stop sneezing, they both heard a voice. “Oh I think that’s enough tomfoolery out of you, Mr. Ashland.” The voice was cold and cruel, the owner sounding most bored. “My sister would very much like to get her magic back from you before you end up killing yourself and wasting it all.” - - - The angry mob made its presence known long before they came came into sight on the road to the farm; shouts of “Give us back our foals!” and “We know you’re working with the monsters!” could be heard well ahead of them. Even having faced down dragons, manticores, and hydras, Twilight found facing down a mob of ponies she knew no less daunting. What made it worse was the fact that she spoke with most of these ponies on a daily basis, and the thought of having to defend herself against them scared her most of all. Finally the mob came into sight, and the gravity of situation began to sink in. Everypony in Ponyville had gathered, even those who hadn’t any foals of their own. At the front of the herd were the Cakes, brandishing rolling-pins. Close to the front, she could make out Bon-Bon bearing a torch. Riding the crowd not far from Bon-Bon was Lyra, holding up a sign that bore the words ‘Give me his hands!’ Twilight turned to her friends. “Alright, it’s like we discussed.” She nodded to Princess Luna. “The Princess and I shall attempt to speak reason with them. Obviously, if Morrigan has influenced them, it will be a diversionary tactic at best. Meanwhile, you four head north and then loop around west. We’ll meet you on the edge of the Everfree.” As Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash ran off to the north in the direction of the burned section of the orchard, Twilight Sparkle marched anxiously behind Princess Luna towards the advancing mob. She envied the bravado the Princess was able to show in light of what they faced. She knew that, sadly, the Princess of the Night was used to such treatment since her return; even after earning popularity on that fateful Nightmare Night, her subjects still treated her as an outsider. Being treated like a traitor was surely no different. The Princess stopped suddenly, fanning out her wings and spacing her hooves evenly. If Twilight had been paying attention to the mob instead of the Moon Princess, she would have run straight into the royal flank. Peering beneath the Princess’s wing, she saw the mass of angry ponies cease their forward advance. They looked warily at the threatening display put on by the royal Alicorn. “Citizens of Ponyville, return to your homes!” Luna shouted in the Royal Canterlot Voice. “You have been deceived!” “Don’t lie to us!” Mrs. Cake replied, shaking her rolling pin at the Princess. This drew a murmur of assent from the crowd behind her. “We know you’re hiding the monsters that took our babies!” “You tell her, honeybun!” Mr. Cake added in. “Everypony, please!” Twilight pleaded to the group, stepping beneath Luna’s wing to make herself seen as she did so. “We’re telling you the truth. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were taken too! How could we be hiding the ones that took them? How would you even know whether or not we had anything to do with this?” The mob seemed to take this question seriously for a moment. She could make out murmurs of ‘Who told you, anyway?’ and ‘She has a point!’ among them. Even the Cakes, angry at the foalnapping of their toddler twins, seemed unsure now. The crowd seemed all too ready to disperse. Then it happened; somepony in the crowd screamed, “She’s a witch; you can’t trust her! Remember how she attempted to sabotage the crops during that winter wrap-up!” A chorus of ‘Oh yeah!’ rang out among the crowd. “Burn her! Burn the witch!” All at once, torches and miscellaneous objects were hurled towards Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna. If not for her innate talent for magic, and lessons from her brother in casting a barrier spell, she might not have been able to protect herself. Rolling pins, pitchforks, and even a sofa were just among a few of the objects that bounced harmlessly off of Twilight’s magical protective shell. Once the initial barrage of objects subsided, the Alicorn, using her mouth, grabbed Twilight roughly by her tail, and swung her onto her back. “Twilight Sparkle, please hang on. I am not used to flying with a passenger, so this may be rough,” the Princess shouted as she took flight. Without pause, they were barreling south at breakneck speed, a cloud of pegasi hot on their tails. As the Ponyville Dam—the landmark that marked the end of the available cover—came into sight, Princess Luna quickly dove beneath the treeline. Instead of continuing on this course, the Moon Princess veered off west, towards the Everfree forest. Once they were free of the orchard and their pursuers, they flew north, where their friends surely waited. - - - “Oh sure, Discord. I’ll come right along with you. I was hoping to hear from one of you anyway.” Warren said nonchalantly. “Just two things.” “Oh?” the Draconequus spoke through the human skeleton, thoroughly unamused. “And what might those be?” Warren folded his forearms in front of himself, watching as the skeleton paced back and forth. He wasn’t sure, due to the lack of eyes in the skeleton, but he thought it was eying up Scootaloo. “Firstly, before I come with you, let me return Scootaloo to the farm.” He turned his head just enough to give the school-filly a sidelong glance. She looked like she was going to object, but catching his gaze, she thought better of it. “Secondly... Why a skeleton... Why out of my nose?” The skeleton shrugged, and held its hands palm up at its sides. “What is it you humans say?” Discord’s voice resounded from within the skeletal maw. “‘When you sneeze, it’s your skeleton trying to escape your body’?” “Even if you weren’t wrong—it’s the soul, not skeleton by the way—it’s still goddamn stupid.”  Warren replied grimly. The skeleton parted its jaw again, permitting the escape of an empty laugh. “Well, I thought it was amusing.” The voice lacked all humor. “At any rate, I will have to decline your terms. If the filly goes home, there will be no motivation for you to behave. I guess I will simply have to beat you into submission.” Discord hadn’t finished speaking when the skeleton launched itself at him. Caught off guard by the attack, Warren fell to the ground, the bony assailant atop him. Its clawed fingertips raked across the shoulders of his shirt, raising bruised welts across his flesh. He knew then, as he fought to pry the skeleton’s wrists away from his neck, that it had been an excellent idea to reinforce the material of his clothes. “Scootaloo, keep back, but be on your guard.” he growled, kicking the skeleton off of him. “There could be more of them.” In the time it took him to rise back to his feet, the skeleton was already bearing down on the orange filly. Warren didn’t even think. He reached out with his magic, and smashed the skeleton down into the ground. It was the first time he’d even tried non-plant magic in a few days, and he could feel the draining effects of it. Maybe Twilight’s right? Striding over the skeleton embedded in the ground, he gazed down at the Scootaloo. She’d seen him use magic, and was now crying. “Please, please! Don’t use magic any more!” she cried. “I don’t want you to die!” Kneeling down beside her, beneath the zap apple tree, he swept her bangs out of her face. “I know,” he whispered. “I just can’t save our friends without it. I just can’t stand idly by just because I don’t want to die.” She looked up into his eyes, and then looked past him. A look of terror crossed her face. Before he had the opportunity to turn and look, he felt the skeletal claws of his foe grip his shoulder and wrench him away from the little pegasus. He tumbled back a few feet away from the filly. Jumping to his feet, he immediately made to dive back at his attacker. By this time, the skeleton had already grabbed Scootaloo by her tail and now held her helplessly above its head. It held up one clawed finger, waggling it mockingly at him while swinging the filly down between them. “Tut, tut. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to your filly-friend, would you?” Warren stopped in his tracks, glaring at the Discord’s skeletal avatar. “You monster!” he mumbled under his breath. The Draconequus puppeteer knew that he would never harm the filly and aimed to exploit that fact. It just stood there beneath the tree, smugly using the filly as a shield. Wait... the tree! Taking a deep breath, the human slumped his shoulders, turned his back on the skeleton. “So you finally see that fighting my puppet is pointless?” Discord’s voice sounded relieved. “Good! I’m sure Morrigan will be most pleased to get her power back.” Ignoring the vitriolic words hammering into his ears, and drowning out all sound, Warren closed his eyes and focused; he would only have one chance at this and he had to make it work. In his mind’s eye, he pictured the surface of the tree becoming like thick tree sap. Mentally casting a stone into the tree, he imagined the stone sinking in and becoming stuck forever, like an insect in amber. Keeping his attention partially on this mental image, he began a buildup of telekinetic energy. At the very moment he began to feel weak, he wrenched his eyes open and swung around, locking his eyes on the skeleton. Discord’s skeletal puppet hadn’t even the time to react; the telekinetic blast discharged into the skeleton’s chest like a hammer fist, shattering its ribs and sending it flying backwards into the tree. Instead of shattering against the thick trunk, the skeleton sank like a stone in a pond, until only its grim visage and the hand clutching the filly were all that jutted from the tree. Releasing the spell on the tree, Warren collapsed to his knees and fell onto his side. His entire body felt drained, as though he’d just run the Indie 500 on foot. By now, he knew the sensation all too well: magical exhaustion. If he hadn’t been so concerned with the safety of Scootaloo, he might have found it amusing to ponder if this was what the author of Introduction to Unicorn Magic: Useful Cantrips for Fillies and Colts meant when they warned that it was incredibly dangerous for even the most experienced unicorns to operate multiple magical spells at once in dire situations. It was so incredibly taxing that he couldn’t move. Looking up at Scootaloo, he said, “You alright?” “Kinda...” the purple-maned filly responded. “You have no idea how much it hurts being held up by your tail.” “I can ima-” he moaned before noticing a large black minotaur had entered the clearing. “Damn it!” The minotaur had noticed them almost immediately. Warren’s stomach sank as he saw a dismembered arm hanging from its neck like a grisly trophy: the lone survivor of the trio that had attacked the previous night. With a loud snort, the ebony beast stomped up to the tree, and grabbed the protruding skeleton arm, filly and all. Scootaloo screamed. It turned to Warren and grinned, its eyes glinting red in the light bleeding through the forest canopy. “You let her go, you son of a-” The minotaur booted him in the head. In the haze of his fading consciousness, Warren felt something thick and firm wrap around his leg. There was the vaguest impression that he was being dragged somewhere. Blackness enveloped all. - - - Scootaloo couldn’t believe what had happened. Goldenrod had tried so hard—risked so much—to protect her, and all his effort had gone to waste the instant the minotaur had showed up. It simply kicked him in the head and grabbed him and dragged them both through the woods. It had dragged them for hours through the forest. In the end, the minotaur had dragged the two of them across a rickety old rope-bridge and into a castle. She knew of the place—all of the Crusaders did—but had never been there before. It didn’t look nearly as old as she had expected; if anything the castle looked brand new. The corridor the minotaur dragged them down was pristine, with its macabre stained-glass art casting creepy light displays on the floor. It didn’t help calm her nerves when she saw candle holders made of pony skulls lining the corridor. The great beast didn’t make a sound as it lugged them both down a side corridor and down a flight of stairs. The room they emerged into a large dungeon. In the center of it was a massive dais, with bindings at either end. Along the far wall was a large cell marked by iron bars. Scootaloo’s heart sank as she saw that the cell was filled with ponies she knew, most of them her age or younger. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle peered out through the bars at her, the Cake foals nestled between them. Lumbering forward, the minotaur approached the dais and slammed Goldenrod down upon it. There was a scream from the unconscious human, but the ebony monster didn’t care, it just continued on towards towards the cell. When they reached the cell door, the bestial grunt of their captor was all the group of foals needed to hear to know to back off. Without warning, it spit a key into its massive palm, and opened the door with it. Unceremoniously tossing Scootaloo into the cell, the minotaur guard slammed the door and locked it, placing the key in its mouth when it was done. It returned to the giant stone slab and proceeded to strap the unconscious human firmly to the slab. It hit Scootaloo then that the straps on the slab matched Goldenrod’s form almost perfectly. Contented with its work, it left without a sound. “This is all your fault!” a malicious voice came from one corner of the cell. Scootaloo turned to see Diamond Tiara, her light pink form trembling in the corner with the gray filly that was unmistakably Silver Spoon. “This all happened because of you and your weird new blank-flank friend! Those Draconequus things said so! I promise; when my daddy comes and saves me, I’ll make sure he-” “Oh shut up!” Scootaloo shouted, tears streaming from her eyes. Her outburst startled everypony else in the cell. She was fuming; not only was that Draconequus likely to take all the life out of the only pony that treated her like she was truly family and not just a friend, but now she was stuck in a cell with the most insufferable filly in all of ponyville. “You're just a prissy pony whose only talent is spending her daddy’s money on stuff that doesn't even matter in the world! I’m surprised the minotaur doesn’t just eat you!” “How dare you speak to her like that!” Silver Spoon interjected. “You have no-” “No, you listen!” Scootaloo retorted, storming up to the stuck-up filly duet. “Unless the next words out of either of your mouths are a way to get out of here and get my friend off that slab, the both of you are going to have to ask Granny Smith...” She jabbed a hoof against Silver Spoon’s chest for emphasis. “... for advice on a good denture supplier!” Convinced that the two snobby fillies weren’t about to test Scootaloo’s resolve, she strode back to her two friends and the Cake siblings. Breathing heavily from her angry outburst, she sat down next to Apple Bloom and stared down at the ground. The last of her bravado crumbled away, and she began to sob. Without a word, Apple Bloom pulled Scootaloo into a close hug. “This is it, isn’t it?” she said, defeated. “Now that Draconequus is going to get her power back, Goldenrod is gonna die, and nopony is ever gonna find us!” A slight smile crossed Sweetie Belle’s pale face. “That isn’t true...” She pointed one hoof out through the bars at the stairs. “Look!”