James and Fluttershy walked down the dirt road in town, Fluttershy had a small smile on her face as she walked, all while James was glancing all around sweating.
His eyes were wide as he looked at each and every pony around him, he soon discovered that he needed to focus on the form he was in to stay in it, it was easy at first until they got into town. Now all he could see were different types of ponies walking around.
He was struggling greatly to focus on his pony form, but there were so many different ponies all over, each one he saw he felt his body almost change to look like them. It was even worse when he saw a Unicorn or Pegasus, when he saw their horns or wings he almost gained them.
"H-hey Fluttershy c-can we please hurry?...k-kinda struggling to stay in this form" he said with a nervous chuckle as he walked behind her.
"Oh yes of course" Fluttershy said as she picked up the pace before she was stopped by an earth pony.
"Hey Fluttershy, I wanted to say thanks again for taking care of my pet ferret while I was out of town, it means a lot" the blue earth pony said to Fluttershy.
"Oh you`re very welcome, the little guy was so well behaved while you were gone" Fluttershy said with a warm smile
James' eye twitched as he now had wings because he had just spotted Derpy.
The blue earth pony glanced at James "is your friend alright?" He asked Fluttershy.
"Oh yes she's just feeling a little under the weather, I'm taking her to one of my friends for some help" Fluttershy explained.
"Oh that's goo-wait weren't you just a pegasus?" The blue earth pony asked James a little shocked.
"Huh?" James looked at his back to find it bare now, he then glanced up to find a horn, he chuckled nervously once more "um...nope...m-must have been seeing things" he was hopping hoof to hoof, he was feeling extremely uncomfortable and itchy now.
"Ummm....ok..." The blue earth pony said confused and glance back at Fluttershy and whispered "you sure she's ok?...she seems...odd" he glanced at James and his eyes widened "I thought you were unicorn?!".
James looked up to find no horn, he then looked at his back to find no wings, he then chuckled and slowly looked back at the pony "hehe nope...j-just seeing things...maybe you should head home and lay down buddy".
The blue earth pony squinted at him suspiciously, he then closed his eyes and opened them, they instantly went wide "y-your...what?...I...ahhh!!!" He ran away screaming.
James looked at himself to find a horn and wings on his body "hey Flutters? Can we head to Twilights now?".
"Um yeah we should probably go" Fluttershy said looking at James before quickly galloping towards Twilights, she was fallowed by James who was trying to make his horn go away.
Eventually, after some running, the two got there and James was able to get the horn to disappear finally.
"Whew...thank god...I'm glad no one saw that" James said as he took one step forward, his nose twitched and sneezed, he felt his flames wash over his body when he sneezed.
He then heard ponies all around him gasp "...oh no..." He said and he glanced around in fear.
All around him were ponies looking at him their expressions differing from fear to anger, James whipped his head around to look at all of them, his won fear was increasing with each face he saw, he couldn't help it when he accidentally changed into one of them.
"Hey, it's trying to pretend to be a pony!" One yelled.
"To late freak we already saw what you really looked like!" A unicorn yelled.
"Let's chase it out of town, no one wants one of those things around here!" An earth pony yelled.
All the other ponies yelled in agreement as they started slowly getting closer.
"W-wait n-no..I'm not gonna hurt anyone! I swear!" James yelled as he backed away from them helplessly.
He kept changing between the ponies in the crowd uncontrollably.
None of the ponies were listening to his please as they marched closer to him, unicorns then started firing spells at him.
James was able to dodge them but just barely, he quickly ran as fast as he could away from the crowd of ponies.
The crowd chased after him with fury in their eyes, James ran as fast as his legs could, he ran out of the town and towards the woods but he didn't stop.
He kept running until he couldn't hear hooves hitting the ground, he ran through bushes and branches getting scratches and small cuts in doing so, he eventually had to stop from exhaustion.
James was panting and keeping his head down at the ground.
He glanced around and his eyes widened, his head shot up with a terrifying realization, he ran straight into the Everfree Forest, he was now was absolutely lost.
"O-ok don't panic...don't panic" he told himself as he slowly started backing up "Just walk backwards and you'll make it back out, simple as tha-eep!" Something touched him from behind, he jumped and started running while screaming, what he didn't know was what poked him was a small stick.
James ran around in the forest screaming his head off, the ponies in town could hear the screaming and it sent shivers down each and every one of their spines as they heard it.
James ran until he tripped on a small rock and stumbled before hitting the ground rolling and slamming into a tree "...why...does...this place.....hate me?..." He groaned laying on the ground, he sat up and looked around "no creepy dangerous animals good...good good good...ok..." He slowly stood up and walked very slowly.
His head shot in the direction of each sound he'd hear, if it's either a bird or a cricket "j-just relax...just relax" he told himself as he walked.
"Maybe I can find Zecora...hehe....please?" He begged to whatever gods were out there, he decided to try and focus on something else besides the horrible death forest he was in "ok ok...um...I wonder...um...what Elizabeth would do in this situation...probably just mess with people...hehe yeah she`d totally be changing into the princesses and just act like a wack job..." He chuckled lightly at imagining it.
"Yes Twilight, my new student is now Pinkie Pie, I'm planing on making her an alicorn as well" James said in a Celestia voice. He laughed at his own joke "Oh, I totally could mess with people too, just pretend to be a princess walk around, and feed off all the love the ponies in town have towards Celestia. It'd be just so muc-did I just say feed off love?" That made him stop in his tracks, he did say that, he said with almost no second thought.
He was scared, he would never do that, it would be just evil, that's something Chrysalis would do! It's something she has done though a little different, still he just said something the monster queen would.
Why would he think of saying that? It made no sense, he didn't even know how to eat love, and yet, he said it like he's done it before, none of this made any sense. Was staying in this body messing with his mind? That was an even scarier thought, what if he loses his mind being in this body.
James looked around, realizing he hadn't been paying attention to where he's been walking this whole time.
He was standing by a small pond, he walked over to it and looked at his reflection, he didn't recognize it at all, it didn't have his brown hair or his green eyes.
This thing he was looking at had a long sharp horn and fangs, this thing was a hideous monster, but it looked sad, he looked sad.
He laid down by the pond looking at his reflection, he missed his old self, when he looked normal and wasn't a freak or monster.
He sighed then turned away from the pond "My life's ruined....I`ll never see my family or friends...or...Elizabeth...i`ll never see any of them...i`ll just have disappeared or died on Earth...but here...ill just be attacked and wanted dead, chased around or yelled at..." tears accumulated in his eyes and he began sobbing at the life he'd lost, everything he'd ever loved now gone and out of reach "..why did this happen to me?" He asked through his sobs.
~~~~~~~~~~<>~~~~~~~~~~
Hours passed since James realized he lost his entire life, he was laying on the cold ground in the dark forest, the moon was hanging in the sky.
James sniffled, tears still streamed down his face but less then a few hours ago.
He didn't know what to do, he didn't know where to go, he lost everything, it was darker and colder with everything he's lost, he felt empty inside.
He heard a twig snap nearby, but he didn't care, if some animal wanted to come eat him he didn't care. What was the point in living? He'd lost everything and was trapped in this monsters body, he gave up.
The sound of footsteps got closer and closer till they stopped behind James.
"Is she alive?" A male reverberating voice asked.
"I can't tell, I can't hear her through the hive mind" another male voice said, they sounded almost exactly the same.
"...poke her" the first one said.
"What no you poke her" the second defended.
"I told you to do it first" the first whispered aggressively.
"Well...um...you just do it" the second said.
'These two are like little kids...' James thought as he listened.
"No you do it!" The first yelled.
"You!" The seconded yelled back.
"No you!"
"No you!"
"No you!"
"No you!"
"SHUT UP!!!" James yelled as he stood up glaring at the two, he saw they were both changelings.
They both jumped back before getting down on the ground with there heads to the ground.
"S-sorry q-queen..." The one on the right said.
"Y-yes sorry we didn't mean to anger you, your highness" the one on the left said.
"Stop kissing ass..." The one on the right whispered and shoved the other one.
"You're the kiss ass" the left one shoved back, then the right one tackled him, they were rolling on the ground in a black ball of legs and wings.
'God these two are annoying...though kinda funny to watch, wait did they say queen? Hmm...oh I got the ideas' he chuckled in his mind, before he then cleared his throat "both of you stop!" He did his best royal sounding voice.
They both stopped and got back into Boeing positions "Good, now tell me why are you both here?" James asked with a raised brow.
"W-we were ordered by Queen Chrysalis to find you, we've been looking everywhere, b-but we couldn't find you". The right one said.
"W-we're sorry Queen, we beg you not to punish us" the left one pleaded.
"Hmm...I'll spare you both...for now...as long as you two stop annoying me" James glared at them making them flinch.
"O-of course" they both said simultaneously.
"Great, now tell me what were Chrysalis's exact orders?" James asked.
"We were ordered to locate you and escort you back to hive" the left one explained quickly.
'Hmm...either these two don't know that Chrysalis wants me dead, or they're still scared of me even though they know that.
Or these two are just dumb' he was leaning towards a mixture of dumb and not knowing "Okay I will come with you both".
"Alright, follow us your highness" the right one said while they started walking, James followed them, he noticed both of them were very, very nervous.
James poked them both making them jump, he chuckled at them. The two changelings chuckled nervously and continued walking, James kinda felt bad, he just scared these two who were already scared "Sorry about that you two..." He rubbed the back of his neck.
"No need to apologize my queen" the right one said.
"Yeah we're fine" the left one said.
James still felt bad as he followed them, he thought about how he was gonna lose these two, since he really didn't want to give Chrysalis the satisfaction of killing him.
How would he get away from them, he could run but they might find him again, he thought about it and came up with an idea "Hey you two, I order you both to run about three miles away from me...I...need some time alone to...think" he hoped this would work.
"Um..okay Queen we'll see you... I guess.." The left one said before he started running.
"Yeah..." The right one agreed as he ran after the left one.
"Wow...are all of them that easy?" He sighed in relief and started walking the opposite direction of the two "Okay now what should I do with my miserable self?.." He glanced around as he walked, still no sightings of a manticore or other dangerous animals "hmm, maybe it's because I'm a changeling Queen? It's plausible".
~~~~~~~~~~<>~~~~~~~~~~
After some hours of walking, the sun was rising, James looked extremely tired. He got no sleep the entire night.
"So tired...this stupid forest never ends..." He grumbled as he walked, he eventually saw a large tree with a large hole in the bottom, he walked over and looked in.
There were no animals or anything in it, he crawled in and laid down.
"Hmm...this is nice..." He smiled faintly and yawned "just gonna close my eyes for a bit" he closed them and was out instantly.
James opened his eyes to find he was once more in the black void with green stars "crap..." He looked around "Okay, here again..." This time he could actually walk though.
Chrysalis appeared with an annoyed look on her face "Do you never sleep or something? I've been having a very difficult time finding you".
James felt having a bit of fun with the bug queen to cheer himself up a bit "and you are?..." He asked with a confused expression.
Chrysalis's annoyed expression turn to one of confusion "What do you mean `who am i?` You know who I am!" She yelled.
"Hmm...wait wait let me guess... John?" He asked.
"No" She looked annoyed again.
"How about Bobby?".
"No..." She started gritting her teeth.
"Hmm, Chris?"
"Close" she almost smiled.
"I wanna say Harold".
"Arghhh!!! How can you go from Chris to Harold?! I said you were close now your further away!!!" She yelled looking absolutely pissed.
"Sorry Chrysalis, I thought I was hitting the target with that last one" James said with a smug smile.
Chrysalis's expression turned to realization "You little monkey...you were just messing with me?!".
"Eeyup" he smirked.
Chrysalis growled and she shot a green Magic blast at him, he was sent flying backwards from the hit.
"Ngh...yeah...maybe messing with her wasn't the best idea...nah totally worth it" he chuckled as he sat up holding his shoulder where he was hit.
Chrysalis walked over "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself monkey..." She growled as she stood in front of him.
"Hehe...thanks Bug face...it's always good to have a laugh from time to time.." He stood up.
"Hmm yes I think I'll have a good laugh. When I'm tearing your pathetic mind apart!" Chrysalis exclaimed as she started charging her horn.
"Before you go and do that...can you tell me why I'm here and why I'm in this body?.." James asked as he rubbed his injured shoulder.
"How should I know? I only just recently found out about you being in that body" Chrysalis said.
"Worth a shot...okay so what do you know about this body then?" He asked her, she must know something about this body.
"Oh I'll gladly enlighten you, monkey..." She smiled wickedly which creeped James out, her horn then sparked and she fired a magic blast into James head.
James stumbled back holding his head "Ahg! ...w-what did you do!?" His head was pounding greatly.
"Oh just giving you what that body has forgotten, enjoy monkey hehehe" she chuckled and disappeared.
"What the hell...is with all your ominous speeches!?...oh...oh crap..." He stumbled back before falling back into a completely black void.
~~~~~~~~~~<>~~~~~~~~~~
James groggily woke up, he rubbed his head, he had his hands, so that meant he was in the dream void still, he looked around the room he was in, the walls were grey and rocky, even odder, he was laying on a bed "what the hell?..." He stood up and walked around.
"We both know how dangerous it is to explore outside of the hive" the voice sounded like chrysalis but much younger.
"I know Chrysalis, but being stuck in here all day every day is getting annoying" another voice said, it sounded like a child too, but it was also familiar as well.
"There's also training for being a queen sister, it's not just sitting around playing with rocks, be happy that we have these powers" Chrysalis said, the voices were getting closer.
"I am very happy with them sister, but not suing them to their full extent is just foolish, we could be going around all over taking all the love we can with these powers.
Our race is dying and have become pathetic roaches, but imagine when we're ruling, all of Equestria will be ours, the princesses will be crushed under our hooves, they'll be no match at all for us together" the voices were right outside the room "we could have all those pathetic ponies in chains" the two walked in, James saw a young chrysalis walk in first but behind her is what really shocked James, he saw a younger version of the changeling he was.
"Hmm...I will agree with you on that sister" young Chrysalis said.
"Of course you do, it's a good plan" Chrysalis' sister said with a smile.
James jaw was on the ground at his realization, he was in the body of Chrysalis' sister.