CHAPTER TWENTY ONE:
LAMB
STARLIGHT GLIMMER
I didn't know how long I'd been here.
A changeling cocoon was a funny thing. Somehow -- probably through magic, though no pony or changeling has ever revealed exactly how -- it kept the entrapped individual alive, completely forgoing the need for food or water, and it quite literally suspended the captured victim in an awakened stasis of sorts. It was designed, of course, to allow a changeling to take the love from their victim, but the changeling that had put me in this cocoon did not intend to do anything of the sort.
She'd jumped me in Ponyville. She'd captured me. When I woke up somewhere, she had beat me savagely, to the point where I was certain I was going to perish if she kept it up. And right when I had reached my breaking point, she'd put me in a cocoon on a ceiling, told me her name was Melody, and assured me that I was going to be here for the rest of my life.
I had no idea where I was. I could not call for help. I could not move, and my body was far too weak to attempt any sort of escape (and would continue to be as the cocoon preserved my broken body exactly as she left it). It would be nigh impossible for anypony to find me, I assumed, and so I would be trapped in this cocoon until I finally died of old age.
Every day -- what I assumed had been a day, at least -- I chipped away at the cocoon with magic. There came a point during my imprisonment where I no longer even held a desire to escape, and the small beams of magic to break through the cocoon became more of a monotonous task to keep myself sane than an action with the goal of escaping in mind.
Until a part of the cocoon broke.
I don't even know if I realized it when it happened. I didn't think it ever would, as I couldn't exactly see what I was doing suspended upside down, but at one point I had noticed that my magical beam was hitting the ground and not the cocoon itself.
For the longest time, I didn't do anything, merely resigning myself to hang as I had been. After what I'd known to be at the least a month or two of capture, I'd convinced myself that I was destined to be trapped here for eternity in what was perhaps the weight of my past sins paying back my crimes a thousandfold.
But there it was. I couldn't see it, but it was there: a hole in the impenetrable changeling cocoon, a cell door cracked open ever so slightly as to invite an escape. Thankfully, the next part wouldn't be so hard, as the rest of the cocoon would go fairly easily now that I had an open area to work from.
My vision was still awash with green, but that would soon fade. With all the remaining might I had left, I cast a levitation spell across the entirety of the cocoon. It took a bit, but eventually, I could feel the grip I had over the whole of it, feeling the prison that had held me for so long.
I pulled.
It was as if you were having trouble opening a plastic bag. It's tough to remove when you first get it, but once you poke a hole in it, all you have to do is peel away the rest. It was considerably less effort with the same results, and after a few seconds, I peeled away the last remnants of my cell away and finally set my beaten body free.
Then, of course, came the next few seconds.
I'd spent many an idle day thinking about it. This changeling had put me up in this cocoon, but due to the slimy green that dominated my vision while I was held in it, I didn't know how high up it was: it could have been from a fatal height atop a five-story warehouse or it could have been a drop of mere inches. Since this all seemed prepared for me, my mind couldn't help but wonder about the possibility of spikes or some other forsaken trap to account for what I was doing, and so once the cocoon completely fell apart from around me, I shut my eyes and waited to see if I would still be alive.
There was good news and bad news. The good news was that the drop was not, in fact, fatal, and there were no spikes or traps of any sort to greet me when I hit the floor.
The bad news was that the drop was, in fact, of a decent height, and given that my body was essentially freshly cut and bruised, I was greeted with a violent jolt of pain throughout my entire body once I hit the ground with a thud. I could hear myself garble out noise as the air escaped my lungs on impact, and I found myself entirely unable to move upon hitting the floor.
Wood, I thought, waiting for the pain to take its course. The floor was made of wood -- at least the section I had fallen on was -- so I immediately thought of somewhere rural. After what was probably several minutes, I found the strength to get up, and the first thing I did was ignite a light spell so I could see my surroundings.
My guess wasn't far off. It was a cabin, and although it was what could be considered "complete", it was extraordinarily run down. There were various household utilities strewn about the one-story unit, and the kitchen I could see had a sink that had almost completed rusted over and draws that had fallen off if they weren't hanging open. I looked up to see that the changeling had put me at the very apex of the roof, which would have accounted for the pain I took during the fall. Looking quickly, I spotted the door at the far side, and I started to run before I realized that the action wouldn't be possible: with an audible wince, I opted to hobble instead, making my way to the door before grabbing the handle and throwing it open.
It was day time, to my shock, so when my eyes finished adjusting after the numerous days in darkness, I took in surroundings that I knew all too well.
This is the Everfree.
The trees that spanned forever and the wild grass were enough to let me know, but I had certainly never been to this area of the forest before. I'd only been in this place twice: once to go camping (Twilight was a brilliant mare, but I don't think I'll ever let her live that one down) and once in an attempt to find Silverstream when she had gone missing. This appeared to be deep in the forest, and once I turned around out front to see the cabin I'd been held in, I reasoned that anypony insane enough to try and live here probably left long ago.
I'd escaped, but an obstacle far greater than any spikes or spells had sprawled out before me.
I was damaged and lost in one of the most dangerous places in the world, and as I couldn't teleport out (I didn't know where I was, so the possible massive distance was too much to risk), I would have to somehow find my way out of Equestria's infamous maze.
You've gotten this far, Starlight, I told myself, once again beginning to hobble forward. Get farther.
Of course, there was no path in the Everfree Forest, so I set on my way through a clearing of trees. I reasoned that if there was a cabin here, it had to be somewhat close to Ponyville: the matter at hand was figuring out where I was, and what direction I needed to go to get out of here.
Can't get to high ground. No landmarks of note, but Ponyville is most likely downhill. Finding a river or a stream is the other option.
I started walking.
It was cold. I hadn't realized it when I'd first stepped out, but as I got moving, it hit me in full force. Hearths Warming Day had been two months away when I'd last been captured, and there wasn't any snow coming down at the moment, so I wagered we must have been around a month away and the weather pegasi were rolling in the cold weather ever-so-slowly before they'd start bringing the flurry of snow.
One month.
What had the changeling done in a month? Had she gone to Canterlot in my skin? Had she gone as someone else? Did she hurt my friends? Did they defeat her? Did she even care about them at all? I had no way to know, but I could only hope that everypony was okay as I trampled twigs under my hooves.
The Everfree had earned its frightening reputation, of course, but I had ever only gone at nighttime. In the daytime like this, it was hauntingly beautiful, the sunlight from outside only barely bleeding into the forest to illuminate the various exotic flora it had to offer. I was in a better position to appreciate it, too, because most of the creatures that had a penchant for killing only preyed during the evening.
Most of them.
It didn't take long before I found a stream. It wasn't so picturesque as the Whitetail Woods could often be, but the water was still crystal clear, and it was deep enough to where I would probably not be able to swim out of it if I were to somehow fall in it. Cautiously, I limped along the left side of the stream, desperately hoping it led to somewhere I could find help.
The first pony I thought of was Trixie.
It's funny. My mind didn't start with the worry that she could have been attacked, or if she was safe and sound somewhere. The first thing that came to mind was the fact that I had come here to help her kick off the first leg of her Equestrian tour, and that she was probably wondering where I was when she was preparing for her first trick. I smiled for what I knew was the first time in a while, because Trixie and I both knew the truth: she never really needed my help with her tricks, but despite all of our ups and downs, I was happy to see her off on her tour simply to hang out with her. and support her.
If it's really been a month, she'll be back in Canterlot, I mused, wincing as a stick brushed up against one of my many cuts as I hobbled along. I hope.
The scenery blurred into a composite. The rows and rows of trees looked like they'd been copied and pasted like those computers in Sunset's dimension could do (I guess this was her dimension now, really), and I almost felt as if I'd been walking over and over again through the same clearing of the forest. For all I knew, I could have been going deeper into it, and this was some sort of forest magic that messed with ponies' minds or something.
That was until I saw the cabin.
Not my cabin. A different one, one that was much bigger and in far better shape. The grass around it somewhat nicely kept, and there was a rocking chair out front that looked as if it had only been placed there recently. Unlike the one I'd been held in, this one hadn't been abandoned: no, this cabin was very much inhabited, and it seemed as if the stream had led me right to it.
I'd only taken a step towards it with glee when I heard it.
It started with one howl, piercing through the air like a shot. And then a second, and a third, and a fourth and a fifth and far too many more echoing it, all of which had to have been mere feet from the source of the original call. My stomach turned as I heard the sickening sound, and by the time the creatures that had come crawling out to face me, I'd long known what they were.
It seemed like everypony in Twilight's circle of friends had at least one encounter with timberwolves, as they stalked the Ponyville area from here to the Whitetail Woods. I hadn't lived in Ponyville for too long, of course, but I had always been fortunate that I had never encountered them during my time here.
That was about to change.
"No, no, no, no, no... " I chanted, backing up slightly. I saw the green eyes first, piercing my soul from within the brush with enough brightness in the daytime to make me wince, and they all filed out one by one with a furious growl. I counted seven, which wasn't the largest pack of timberwolves on record, but it was more than enough to put me down in the weakened state I was in.
They pranced forward a bit before stopping dead, staring at me quiver as I looked around. I made sure to be wary of the stream behind me, and I stopped right before my back hooves were about to spill in. It was far too wide to jump across, but thankfully, I had magic for that: teleporting across it would be quite a bit more difficult than peeling off the cocoon even at this short of a distance, but this was a matter of life and death, and if possible, I would have much preferred to continue with the former.
One of the timberwolves reared themselves back, and the rest quickly followed suit. I didn't need a hint to figure out what that meant, and just as the pack had launched themselves in the air to pounce on me, I closed my eyes and fired off the teleportation spell.
Thankfully, the timberwolves were not, in fact, able to kill me just yet. I had ended up on the other side of the stream, and when I opened my eyes again, I was greeted to the sight of the pack warily looking at the water as they continued to growl. The teleportation spell had exhausted my magic even a bit more than I had expected, and I knew I'd extinguished every method of self-defense I had as one of the timberwolves looked up to me with a snarl. Timberwolves weren't massive fans of water, but unfortunately, I knew the stream wouldn't cause them too much of a problem.
They can make that jump, I thought to myself, scrambling to get up and head towards the cabin. And it won't take them long to realize it.
I limped over to the front of the cabin, practically crawling up the stairs as I collapsed onto the porch. Without hesitation, I began to furiously knock on the front door, screaming as loud as I could all the while.
"HELP ME! I'M BEING HUNTED BY TIMBERWOLVES! I'M INJURED, I NEED HELP! PLEASE BE IN THERE!" I briefly stopped the knocking to look back at the group, and I was horrified to see that one of the timberwolves was once again rearing back on its hindlegs, having figured out that they could easily cover the length of the stream with their horizontal distance.
"THEY'RE COMING, PLEASE HELP ME! COME ON, COME ON, COME ON -- "
I could feel my stomach drop as I heard a brush of grass behind me. I didn't see it, but I knew that one of them had successfully completed the jump, and it would only be mere seconds before it pounced upon me and devoured me.
I rolled over to my left and hugged the wall, tucking my face in and shielding it with my forehooves. I could feel a few tears drop from my eyes as the loud pats of the timberwolves running towards me burned into my brain. There was simply nothing left to do, and with a body already broken down, I simply waited for what I knew would be a painful, painful demise.
Couldn't have written it better, Starlight. You get jumped, captured and beaten by a changeling, escape her cocoon, make your way to the only civilization in this damn forest and then get offed by timberwolves before you can knock on the door.
Death never came.
The door to my left swung open wildly. The first timberwolf had been about a foot away and ready to pounce on me before I felt a magical blast sear my fur and collide with it, shattering it into a billion pieces. Some of those pieces launched themselves in my skin to splinter me, but that fate was far nicer than what had been about to occur.
My eyes grew wide with shock, and I pulled down my hooves to watch the bolts take out every consecutive timberwolf. It was far too quick for them to react: the lime green levins collided with every timberwolf as they advanced towards me, one bolt for each of them enough to turn them into piles of shavings. Whoever was firing them was lightning fast, and I could only watch in awe as the last one exploded into shivers.
I felt a rush of emotions. There was the shock and terror from the near-death experience, of course, but a flood of elation and relief hit me like a tsunami at the fact that somepony was not only here, but had saved me from a situation that was only moments away from ending my life. I felt a wide beam shoot across my face as I looked up to my savior.
"Celestia, I can't even begin to thank-- "
The figure stood gauntly tall, even from the floor. Holes littered her black body, and set of tattered wings rested at her sides. Her eyes were massive and bulging as they stared, and the horn on her head that almost seemed as tall as she was looked as if it had been chipped away at with a sculptor's pick. The wide smile I'd held for only a second dropped to a trembling horror as she stared, the "crown" atop her head swaying gently in a breeze that had just flown in.
Upon studying me, though, Queen Chrysalis looked almost just as shocked as I was. She continued to stare at me with widened eyes, scanning me for what felt like an eternity before she finally spoke.
"Of course the first good deed I do in ages saves you," she said, looking back into her cabin. "Do you drink tea? I have quite a few questions."