Chapter 51 - Great. Now I’m a Pet
I really do hate being teleported. I have no idea why I keep on agreeing to it; I always end up falling from some ridiculous height to the ground below, nearly dying on impact. Murphy’s Law has always been a big part in my life here in Equestria, and he’s not giving up without a fight, I can tell you that much. I’m like a rock with wings, no grace at all, a plaything for gravity; just pick me up and throw me off a cliff, best fun anyone can have. I’m forced to watch the clouds to ever larger the closer I come to them, I really do hope this enchantment wor-.
My train of thought is disrupted as I smack face first into a rooftop of a building, a building made out of clouds I might add...
“G-Guess the enchantment works...” I lay there, not knowing how to react, I would’ve expected to fall straight through the clouds, but nope.
“Hey buddy! Mind telling me what you’re doing on top of this house?” I look up to see a oddly colored pegasus hovering in front of me.
I take a second to fully seize up the weird pegasus, a stallion with a pink coat and a purple mane and tail with a yellow stripe going down the middle.
“Wait, where’s your wings? You do have wings, don’t ya?” I get to my feet and tail thinks two steps ahead and hides my medallion in my pocket, thankfully the enchant still works.
“I don’t.” The pegasus just stares at me in confusion.
I jump off the roof and down onto the cloud streets below. I land and stumbled over, landing face first in the cloud street, feels as if someone just smacked me with a feather pillow. I’m off balance as the uneven surface of the clouds seem to be confusing my inner ears, sending mixed signals to my brain. I can feel the unwanted eyes of the nearby town folks staring at me.
“You’re a strange creature, thingy, or whatever you are.” Tail pulls my head out of the clouds and I see the same pegasus standing in front of me.
“Man was not supposed to walk on the clouds, the moon; sure, the clouds; no.” This earns me mixed expressions from the strangely colored pegasus.
“You’ve walked on the moon?! How’s that even possible?” I try to stand up on my legs again, but quickly fall backwards.
“Possibly, I can’t remember. My species has. It was a grand milestone for my kind.” I try once more, tail wags back and forth trying to counteract my confused inner ear. But to no avail, I fall over again, but land on all fours.
“You drunk or something, buddy?” I’m at least able stand on all fours without falling over on my face, tail continues to wag back and forth for, still trying to counteract my balancing issues.
“I wish, an alcoholic beverage would do my spirits some good right about now.” I take a step forward, my limbs tremble but I manage to keep myself upright.
“Then what’s the matter then? You act as if you’ve never walked on clouds before.” I look around to see a small crowd of pegasi and a few gryphons staring at us.
“First time walking on actual clouds I’m afraid... I don’t like it one bit, my sto-.” My stomach knots up, I start to gag, I close my mouth to make sure I don’t lose my lunch.
“You don’t look so good buddy. In fact, you look a little woozy.” I shake my head in agreement, but it doesn’t help my current situation.
“Ha! I like you, you’re an odd one indeed. Come, I know of a pony who can help you with your nausea.” He trots off and I follow, taking baby steps along the way, walking on clouds scares the living tar out of me.
“We’re almost there buddy! Just a little bit longer.” We walk into a nearby alleyway and I notice a few gryphons following us.
“Were we heading, anyways?” He turns the next corner without answering.
I turn to see a mare standing in front of me, the stallion is nowhere to be seen. She has the exact color scheme as the stallion, was she his sister by chance?
“Why you follow me, creep?” Creep? What? I’m so confused.
“W-Where did that stallion from before run off to?” She laughs in response, the gryphons from before keep their distance and stay hidden around the corner; I can smell their crappy scent a mile away.
“Who, Phantom Shadow? He’s around, but why you following me, creep?”
“I-I wasn't, I was following Phantom Shadow... Or I thought at least... He was taking me somewhere bu-.” My stomach knots up again and I find the nearest trashcan.
“Strange, why would Phantom have a creep like you following him is beyond me. But come, I know where he was taking you.” She turns around and continues to walk through the dark alleyways.
I spit out the rest of my bile and quickly catch up with the strange pegasus. The gryphons keep their space from us and hang back, their really bad at tailing someone I can tell you that. The mysterious mare trots up to a gryphon standing outside a store and she pushes him out of the way and opens the door and walks in; I crawl past and the gryphon doesn’t stop me.
“Hey Gramps! You around old timer?!” She yells out, I’m instantly assaulted by the scent of fabric and cigar smoke.
A older stallion trots out from behind several bolts of fabric with a cigar in his mouth; to my surprise he’s fairly well dressed, a nice looking white suit with a long skinny tie around his neck. A yellow tape measure hangs around his neck and a few pins rest in his suit pocket.
“Is that you, Rough Shadow?”
“Yeah, it’s me, Gramps. This creep was following Phantom, or he was leading him here, I don’t know. But, Creepo here isn't feeling too well, got any of that ginseng tea of yours?” The old timer tilts his head and looks at me for a few seconds before turning around and heading into the back of the store.
He comes back with a tarnished silver tray in his mouth with three tea cups resting upon it. He sets the tray down on a nearby table and Rough Shadow trots over to it and grabs one of the cups of tea, I crawl over to it and tail is kind enough to grab one of the cups for me and I start to sip on the hot tea. The tea takes the edge off of my natheness, it’s warmth quickly spreads through my body and the old pegasus just sits studying me. Rough downs her tea as if it was a Apple Bomb shot.
“Where are my manners? Everypony calls me Gramps, what’s your story, youngster?”
“Nice to meet you, Gramps. I’m Demon, I’m new to these parts.” I finish my tea and the raging storm in my stomach dies down.
“Well Demon, where are you from?” He takes another sip of from his tea, enjoying it slowly.
“Unyasi, the zebra nation.” He raises an eyebrow and sets down his cup.
“You don’t say...” I let out a long drawn out yawn, guess the tea was a little too soothing.
“Yeah, came to Equestria looking for work. Heard there might be some up here in Cloudsdale, whole reason why I came here in the first place.” Gramps picks up his tea and takes another sip.
“I’m guessing you have some kind of zebra enchantment on you?” I’m stunned by his investigation skills.
“With age comes great wisdom, youngster.” He chuckles. My eyes start to feel slightly heavy and I yawn once more.
“Yeah, Ceasar enchanted me, so I can walk on clouds without wings.”
“There’s one problem, Creepo. How do you expect to get down without wings?” I nearly fall over as I now realize this one tiny little problem.
“Rough does have a good point, Demon.” Both of them share a laugh together.
“Yeah, having no wings is a problem for sure... Gravity and I never really got along to begin with, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.” Tail points its tip at Rough’s wings and then my back, I just sigh and shake my head.
“Yeah I know buddy, we’re boned...” The two of them stop laughing and stare at tail.
“You’re talking to your own tail, Creepo? You just keep on getting weirder and weirder.”
“Yeah, this little guy has gotten me in and out of “dirty” situations. But we’re getting off topic, whom should I go speak with about earning some bits? I’m fairly skilled in many things: stealth, deception, melee combat, and much more. Know anyone who might need someone of my talents?” Gramps stands up and trots behind his counter and retrieves something.
“Yes, I might know somepony who needs some muscle. Rough, mind showing our guest to our employer? And when you do, please give him my regards and this.” The old stallion hands Rough a parchment and she tucks it under her wing.
“Sure thing, Gramps. Come on Creepo, let’s go!” She kicks the door open and marches outside, I simply follow, my steps become faltered, I’m so very sleepy now.
“Hey Rough...” My eyes water up as I let out another yawn.
“Is it just me, or does that tea seem to be a little potent.” Then it dawns on me, both Gramps and Rough seem to be unaffected by the tea.
“D-Did the old timer poison m-.”
“Jeez, you’re still up? You’re a stubborn one, aren't you? Oh well, come on out, boys!” She yells out, the gryphons that been tailing us step out from their hiding place.
“This is how you want to go? So be it, let’s g-.” Before I can finish, one of the gryphons jumps me, my body moves sluggishly but tail swipes him out from the air.
“27, why not use your new power and show these gryphons why it’s a bad idea to ambush you.” Fade whispers in my mind.
I smile and call upon my new powers from the merging, the water vapor in the clouds freeze, turning the clouds into an icy surface. I get to my two feet as more clouds freezes over, one of the gryphons loses his footing and slips on the ice. The poison that I ingested courses through my system and my body becomes heavy and refuses to work.
“Either fight me or withdraw, the c-choice is yours!” My vision becomes blurred, the gryphons don’t back down.
“Just go down already!” Rough yells out, it’s hard for me to even stay awake as the other gryphons charge at me.
Tail smacks one of them down from the air, I dodge one of their talons and upper cut one of them. I struggle to stay up as the poison rampages through my system. The gryphon is knocked out cold as I send him flying, another tackles me, wrapping his talons around my neck but tail grabs him and rips him off of me; his talons scraping across my neck, drawing blood. Another gryphon goes down as tail him against the icy surface, his body skidding across the surface and comes to a stop as hits the side of a building. My vision starts to fade as a gryphon rakes his talons across my back, I turn and quickly jab my flatten hand into his throat. He goes down squirming in pain, fighting for air, grasping his throat with his talons.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing to my Horror?!” A familiar voice yells out, I look up to see Silver hovering over us.
The poison finally gets the best of me, my vision goes black and I collapse to the ground.
- - -
“27, I’ve been re-living your memories, and I’ve noticed something. Some of your memories seem tampered, warped if you may.” I come to in the Darkness and see Fade standing there with a contemplative look on her face.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, at first they really didn’t fit together correctly. I took another look at them and got the feeling that they were missing something... So I tried to piece some of them together and they didn’t quite add u-.”
“Ah ah ah, that’s enough of that Lass. Don’t go and spoil everything just yet, there’s work to be done, people to kill, things to destroy, places to corrupt. Warwick would be very displeased if I let someone ruin his plans.” Friend appears next to Fade and I.
“So Friend, tell me, was it you who’s been tampering with 27’s memories?” Friend just smiles and shakes his head.
“I, no. Memories are too tricky and too troublesome to tamper with. But don’t worry your pretty little head, Fade. Everything is coming along nicely.” Friend just grins before disappearing into the depths of the Darkness.
“Fade, can I ask you a favor?” She turns to face me with a smile on her face.
“Oh?”
“Keep on digging into my memories, find out what this Warwick Freeman character is planning. My gut is telling me something, better off not ignoring it.” She simply smiles and nods.
“Time to wake up, Horror.” A playful voice rings out, Fade giggles and pushes me out of the Darkness.
- - -
I wake up in a incredible soft bed, I look over to see I’m laying in a bed made completely out of clouds. I look back up to see a light blue canopy hanging above, the canopy is held up by four-poster cloud bed. I prop myself up in the bed, a soft jingle rings out around my neck, I look down to see a black leather collar with a gold bell around my neck. Silver flies into the bed and pushes me back down into it, the bell jungles as it rattles against my collar.
“Glad to see you’re finally awake, Horror.” She doesn’t smell like seawater anymore, but more like fresh rain.
“I’m glad that you’re okay, was worried that the guards might of captured you in Canterlot.”
“Nope, they were focused on capturing you after you tossed me into the air. So, tell me, how does it feel having your cloud cherry popped?” My mind stops working completely, I can’t think of anything to say.
“Ha! You weren't expecting that, were you?” She laughs joyfully.
She lays down ontop of me, she pokes at the bell that’s around my neck; the bell gives a soft jingle..
“So tell me, what’s with the collar you’ve put around my neck?” Silver lifts her head off my chest and looks up to me.
“It’s complicated.”
“We’ve got time, I’m interested in hearing on the reasoning behind this collar.”
“Well, I kinda told uncle that you’re my pet... Only way I could keep you from being thrown out of Cloudsdale.” I look at her in confusion, she just sighs and continues on explaining.
“I told him that you’ve helped me escape from Unyasi after my squad was wiped out. I also told him that you grew up in Unyasi and this is your first time in Equestria. I didn’t tell him what actually happened in Unyasi. Just that I’ve completed my mission with your help, and that you wanted to come work for the Family.”
“O-Okay... But that doesn’t explain this collar around my neck, last time I had one it was back in the facility and it was a slave collar...”
“Don’t worry, this one won’t explode. If you’re going to be playing the part of my pet, first you must look the part. And I thought it would look cute on you.” She sticks her tongue out at me.
“First?” She grins at me, I get the feeling that I’m not going to like what I hear next...
“If you’re going to be playing the part of my pet, you also must be obedient; which means when I give you an order, you must follow it.” Yeah, I knew I wasn’t going to like this one bit...
“Would you like it if I also called you Mistress as well?” I tease.
“I like the sound of that, Mistress Silver Wing. It does have a nice ring to it.” My smile is quickly replaced by a frown.
“I was merely joking! I-.” She gives me a fierce glare.
“Hush you! Your Mistress shall not be spoken to like that!” She manages to keep a straight face for a few seconds before bursting into laughter.
“I’m sorry, I couldn't help myself!” She rolls off of me, holding her sides as she continues to laugh.
“Good, you had me worried there for a second.” I roll over on top of Silver, she looks up to me with eagerness in her ruby red eyes.
“What has gotten into you, Horror?” She purrs.
“The same thing that’s about to get into you. I told you if you were a good girl I would show you a new trick, you ready?” She grabs me by the collar and pulls me closer to her.
Credits
Editor
frieD195
Characters - Phantom Shadow/Rough Shadow
garouken