Chapter Six: The Other Side of the Coin
~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~
“No no no! Try it again!” Luna yelled at me. We had been practicing for what seemed like hours. I was supposed to learn how to cast the shield spell that Celestia and Luna know. It hasn’t been going well.
“I can’t do it!” I cried. “It’s too hard.” Gasping for breath, I got to my hooves. Luna let out a sigh of frustration.
“We’ll try again tomorrow. Perhaps you should study up on it before you sleep. Or whatever it is you Changelings do.” She trotted out the door of the training hall and, with a loud bang, slammed it shut. I let out a sigh and walked over to my bed. Activating my light spell, I grabbed a book and opened it. Luna said that I also had to master the light beam spell that Celestia uses. I don’t know how I’ll ever manage that though, it’s hard enough for me to do a shield spell. I propped the book up against another small stack. Getting to my hooves, I focused my changing magic. Green fire ran across my body. White fur began to appear. My hooves turned solid and little slippers formed on the ends of them. My legs grew longer. My insectoid wings turned feathery. My black horn turned white and doubled in length. I grew a rainbow mane that seemed to blow in some nonexistent wind. I looked myself over. I was a perfect copy of the Sun Princess.
“Not bad,” a very regal voice spoke from behind me. I turned to face none other than Celestia herself. With a bright green flash, I shed my disguise and fell into a bow. “You needn’t bow to me, little one. I am not your queen.” She stopped a few feet in front of my bed. “Luna tells me you’ve been having some trouble materializing a shield?” I nodded and laid down in my bed. “Well, It seems you are a lucky… mare?” I nodded again. “Luna is busy, what with the war and all, and she asked me to be your tutor. Are you ready?”
“Yes, I am.” I got to my hooves. “Your highness” I added hastily. She chuckled and motioned for me to follow her. We trotted down a hallway for a couple minutes until we came to a very large room. Support pillars ran along both sides, leaving room for a wide, red carpet in the center that lead to a multicolor door that was embellished with gold.. A ruby, a sapphire, and an emerald were in the wall on both sides of the door
“This is Canterlot Tower. Where the Elements of Harmony are kept safely locked away by a spell only I can break.” Celestia spoke while looking at the door on the far side of the room. “That is where they are stored.” My eyes widened in awe. The very same Elements that defeated Discord and Nightmare moon sat before me. “Although, I doubt that the current bearers will ever be able to use them again. This war has gotten the best of everypony. I fear that we will have to find new bearers to win this war.” Celestia let out a dejected sigh. “I never wanted this war in the first place.” She slid a hoof across the door that kept the Elements safe. “Which is why we’re training you to pretend to be me and go onto the battlefield. Hopefully, seeing me- err, I mean you disguised as me out on the warfront, the zebras will consider opening up peaceful negotiations. Return to your bed. We shall begin tomorrow.” Celestia teleported away with a bright white flash, leaving me alone with the Elements.
“Well, this is gonna suck.” I mused to myself. Turning around, I left Canterlot Tower and went back to the library to get some rest.
~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~
The sound of my heart thumping in my chest made me clutch my head in agony. “Oooowwwwwww, never… again…” I rolled over and hit my head against the wall. Pain shot through my already throbbing head. “Rose… if you’re there… please kill me…” I groaned and shoved my head underneath the pillow. Wait, pillow? I removed my head from beneath the pillow and looked around the room. We were back in the hotel room Rose and I had rented. Rose’s bed was empty. I huffed and laid back down on the pillow. I cringed in pain when my head connected with something solid. Tossing the pillow in frustration, I saw a bottle of Sparkle Cola - RAD lying down in all its glowie goodness. I popped the top off and gulped it down. The lukewarm liquid cooled my slightly raw throat. My Pipbuck clickity-clicked, indicating I was absorbing radiation. I didn’t care, but I looked at it anyway. The little bar indicating my energy levels was slightly under half empty. My eyes widened in horror, remembering Rose’s pale, bleeding neck from two days ago. I shuddered in terror.
“What the hay happened last night?” I whispered under my breath. I heard the door behind me creak open. I craned my head, slightly flinching from the pain in my brain, and saw Rose standing outside in the hallway. “What the hay happened last night?” I repeated, for Rose’s ears this time.
“Well, when you passed out the first time, you revealed your true self. Nopony seemed to pay any mind to it, so I just went along with it. After a few minutes, Tankard came back over to us and I guess he didn‘t see you asleep on the stool next to me. He asked me where you went and I pointed to you in your true form. He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t seem too upset by a changeling. After that, I asked why he wasn’t bothered by a changeling. He said and I quote ‘Shit girl, have you even seen a Hellhound? A changeling is the least of our worries. Plus, if your friend wanted to hurt us, I’m sure she would have already done it by now.’” She walked inside and closed the door. “You woke up about an hour later and ordered another drink. A couple ponies wanted to play some pool and, after a couple of games, they claimed that you were using the holes in your hooves to cheat.“ I grinned, wondering how else I could use the holes in my hooves. “After that, we left the bar and came back here. When we got back, you climbed into bed with me.”
“I did?” I asked, blushing slightly. She nodded.
“Yeah, you also… kissed me.” She looked at the ground, blushing furiously. If changelings could blush, I swear my whole body would have turned red.
“I did?” my voice barely above a whisper. She nodded, her face still flushed. “I’m sorry, It’ll never happen again. I was drunk. I‘m so so so so so sorry.” My head was still hung low. I felt a hoof on my chin. My head moved to look Rose in the eyes.
“It’s alright, I know you were.” She set her hoof back on the ground. “No harm done.” Rose smiled gently at me. With a heavy sigh, I sat down on my bed. Rose grabbed her saddlebags and slung them across her back. “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know. The only thing anyone does when they see me in my true form is try to kill me, so you’ll forgive me if I’m not prancing about town.” I said sarcastically. “I vote we lay low for a few days.”
“Yeah, sounds like a plan.” Rose replied. I was about to say something when a loud, low growling noise interrupted me.
“What was that?” I asked, head darting around the room. “That sounded fierce.” I caught Rose’s face blushing slightly. “Was that you?”
“I… I haven’t eaten since yesterday. That was my stomach.” Rose replied sheepishly. I collapsed onto my bed with a loud sigh. Rose’s face flushed a deeper shade of red.
“Let’s go get something to eat.” I said while hopping off of the bed. With a bright green flash, I donned my disguise once more and scooped my weapons and gear up.
“I’m so hungry I could eat a dragon.” Rose sighed and trotted out the door to our room. ‘This is gonna be a loooooong day,’ I thought.
* ** ** ** *
My eyes were nearly scrunched shut to keep that bastard of a sun’s rays out of my eyes. I trotted out the front door of the inn a second time. The first time I was blinded by the low-hanging, morning sun. “Never… again…” I muttered to myself. Rose pulled the door closed behind me with a loud ‘wham’. I flinched in pain and Rose hastily apologized.
“Oh gosh, I’m sorry. I forgot about your hangover.” Rose said sheepishly. She gave me a one-hoofed hug.
“No problem, just try to keep the noise to a minimum. Got any sunglasses?” I replied, clutching my head in pain. “Maybe some Med-X too?”
“Fresh out of Med-X, but I do have these.” She spoke while holding a pair of aviator sunglasses by the arm. I grabbed them with my magic and floated them onto my head. The sun dulled by a lot and it no longer hurt to have my eyes open. I flashed a grin at Rose.
“Come on, I think the bar serves food.” I said softly, trying to avoid aggravating my hangover.
“Lets go.” Rose said a little too loudly, causing me to cringe.
“Ugh, by the Queen, I hate these hangovers.” I groaned. Rose and I trotted towards the bar, and I found myself with a sudden hate of alcohol.
A couple minutes later we found ourselves at the door to Fill ‘Em Up. I opened the door with an agonizing ‘click’, and we walked inside. Once we were inside, I eased the door shut. ‘CLICK’ I collapsed, clutching my head.
“Never… again… never… ever… again…” I whispered. A small unicorn colt trotted up to me and looked at me with bright, lavender eyes. He took a deep breath and I covered my ears in preparation for what would happen next.
“ARE YOU OKAY MISS?” The colt screamed at me. Even though I had my ears covered, It still felt like daggers were being shoved into my brain. I yelled, my head consumed by agony.
“Oooooowwwww! Kid, what are you thinking!?” I screamed at the colt. I tried to stand back up, but collapsed before I got to my hooves. "Anyone got a Med-X?” I writhed in anguish until Rose trotted up to me with a needle in her mouth.
“Here, this’ll help.” Rose said as she dropped the needle next to me. I grabbed it up in my magic and stabbed it into my foreleg. After a few seconds, the searing pain in my head faded to a dull throbbing. I looked up and caught the colt shining a flashlight into my eyes.
“Gaaaaaah, what the fuck is wrong with you, kid!?” I screamed at him. He just snickered and retreated behind the bar. Writing on the floor, I wailed in pain. “This is worse than the torture spell!” Green flames appeared all over my body. Parts of my disguise fell away, exposing bits of black carapace. Over my agonized screaming, I heard a few gasps of surprise and a couple of screams. After a couple minutes, the pain died down to a manageable level. I still had about half of my disguise on, green flames streaking across my body. Gasping for breath, I shakily got to my hooves.
“That… wasn’t… funny…” my voice sounded deadly serious because most of my head and neck were uncovered. The colt poked his head up from behind the bar, eyes widened in terror. I tried to don my disguise once more, but it wouldn’t go and eventually died out completely. I brought my Pipbuck to my face. The energy meter read ‘20%’.
“That’s not good.,” I said weakly, collapsing to my haunches.
“What’s not good?” Rose whispered in my ear. I raised my Pipbuck for Rose to see. She gasped and took a few steps back.
“What do we do?” I asked Rose, my carapace paling to a dark shade of grey. “I can’t… you know… on you again so soon.” I stomped a hoof and immediately regretted it. Pain shot through my head and I cried out in agony once more. Rose pulled me into a hug. I looked up at the other bar patrons. Some faces were stricken with worry, others with fear. Fear for their lives or mine, I didn’t know. ‘I have to get out of here. I have to leave.’ My thoughts rang out like a bell of truth. I shakily picked up the sunglasses in my magic and set them atop my snout. Throwing the door open, I ran out and down the street as fast as my legs could carry me, which was at best a brisk trot. Rose came sprinting up to me just as I passed through the front gate. Several ponies were walking past us, giving me confused and fearful looks. I flinched away from them, tears welling up in my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Rose asked, stepping in front of me.
“I can’t do this anymore!” I sobbed and beat a hoof on the ground. “Just when everything is going smoothly, something happens to fuck it up.” A noticeable crack was forming in the asphalt where my hoof was striking it. I screamed in frustration and then continued crying.
“I need to be alone for a while. Go back to the bar and grab something to eat. I’ll be back in a couple hours or so.” I said while trotting away from Rose. She was giving me a pleading look, but I turned away and continued walking.
* ** ** ** *
‘PFFFT’ The bullet caught the raider in the horn, destroying the appendage and sending her sprawling to the ground. I slowly walked over to the frightened mare and grinned maliciously. The raider wailed in pain as I sank my fangs into her neck. She kicked her hooves furiously as I drained her of her emotions. The negative feelings that raiders harbor, while not as effective as love or happiness, get the job done in larger quantities. I released my maw from the mare’s neck and checked my Pipbuck. The bat was a little under half full.
“Ugh, it’s still not enough!” I screamed , smashing the dead mare’s skull with my hoof. The skull cracked and brain matter oozed out onto the ground. I gazed around the small collection of rusty huts that these raiders called home. Having previously ‘subdued’ and drained ten raiders prior to the mare with the caved in skull, the raiders didn’t seem eager to engage the incredibly hungry and pissed off changeling. I trotted toward a collection of huts I haven’t explored yet, but stopped when I heard some strange music. It sounded like trumpets and drums. I loud, static-filled pop sounded out and the music cut off. A small, metal orb with stubby wings floated into view from behind one of the huts. I aimed Thorn at it and fired a shot. The orb dived and avoided the shot. I was lining up another shot, when the orb spoke.
“Whoa, whoa! Hold your fire.” a deep, mechanical voice came from the floating orb. I froze. “That’s better. Now, you mind telling me what you’re doing to these raiders?”
“I’m feeding on them. Ya know, like draining their emotions?” I said to the orb, slightly doubting that I was having a conversation with a hunk of metal.
“And why are you doing this?” He asked me irately. I sighed with resignation.
“Do you know what a changeling is?” I asked the metal orb.
“All too well.” the orb replied.
“Well, then you probably know what we have to do to survive.” The orb bobbed up and down in what I assumed was a nod. I was about to continue, when a gunshot rang out followed by a loud metallic ping. The floating orb thingy was laying on the ground with a smoking hole in it. I grasped Thorn in my telekinesis and turned to face a red unicorn buck holding a gun, presumably lining up another shot. I raised my gun and fired two shots. One hit the door where his head was, the second went into the wall and I was rewarded with a cry of pain. I fluttered my wings over to the door where the buck fell. I stopped when I heard what sounded like a small child crying. Just inside the door, a colt was crying on the buck I had shot. I felt a pang of guilt and pulled out a healing potion. The colt backed away, terror in his eyes. I fed the potion to the wounded buck. He coughed some of it out, but drank most of the potion. His wound closed and he shakily got to his hooves.
“Why’d you save me? Better yet, why’d you shoot me?” He asked, chuckling slightly.
“You shot me first, and we are in raider territory. And I couldn’t stand to make someone an orphan.” I said, hanging my head. “What are your names?”
“My name is Hardware, and my son’s name is Caramel Corn.” He said gesturing to himself and his Earth Pony colt respectively. I magicked up my disguise.
“Vice Versa. Just call me Vice for short.”
“What were you doing to those raiders?” Hardware asked. I flinched away from him and sighed.
“I was feeding on them, draining their emotions.” I said, my head hung low.
“That’s horrible!” Hardware said with disgust.
“You think I don’t fucking know that!?” I screamed back at him. “I have to! It’s them or me!” Hardware and Caramel were backing away in fear. I groaned and buried my hear in my fetlocks. “Sorry, I’ve just been under a lot of stress lately. What, with being kicked out of two, possibly three towns and costing the only friend I have in the wasteland the only home she has.” Not to mention feeding off of her. I cried into my hooves. Hardware tried to hug me, but I waved him off. “Get out of here, both of you. Before I accidentally hurt you.”
“But you need help,” he said. “If I can-”
“I said go!” I yelled, stomping a hoof into the wood floor, cracking a floorboard in the process. The two of them fled out the door and out of sight. I wiped my eyes and stomped out the door. A gunshot rang out and the bullet clipped a few hairs from my mane. I turned to face a unicorn mare fiddling with a pistol that looked like it was made of rust. I raised Thorn and put a round through the rusty pistol. It exploded, peppering the mare’s face and eyes with shards of metal. I trotted over to the writhing pony. I shed my disguise and buried my fangs into the mare’s neck. She wailed in agony and tried to break free from my clutches. She sobbed softly as the last of her life force left her. The once golden mare was now a dull yellow. She twitched once, then laid still. I walked away from her body and back along the road that lead to Dodge.
* ** ** ** *
About an hour later, I finally reached the front gate to Dodge city. It was nearly dusk and Celestia’s sun was dipping below the clouds. I passed through the front gate and found my way to the bar. I got some weird looks from a few ponies along the way, but was otherwise left alone. No sooner than I got five feet into the bar was I tackled by a purple and white blur.
“Oh, Celestia! Where have you been!? You’ve been gone all day!” Rose whined, giving me a bone-crushing hug. She reeked of alcohol and seemed to have trouble standing.
“Have you been drinking?” I asked redundantly. She nodded and almost fell sideways. I caught her before she hit the bar. “How much have you been drinking?” I scolded. She shrugged. I was about to say something, but the barmare beat me to it.
“I cut her off half an hour ago. She drank every drop of my Wild P and my vodka. She’s way too young to be drinking that much.” the barmare said then resumed serving drinks.
“Why did you drink that much? It could have killed you!” I reprimanded. She shrugged.
“What? Can’t a girl get wasted once in a while for no reason?” Rose slurred and took a swig of a Sparkle Cola. With a sigh, I grabbed Rose in my magic and carried her out the door. We got about halfway across the street before she piped up.
“Where did you go? What the hay have you been doing all day!?” Rose bawled. I was taken aback by her sudden outburst.
“None of your concern, we need to get you into bed.” I retorted. She huffed and crossed her forelegs.
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me where you went and what you did!” Rose shouted. She grabbed my right foreleg and looked at my Pipbuck. “You fed! On what?” She looked at me menacingly.
“Raiders.” I said exasperatedly. Her expression lightened considerably.
“How many?” she inquired.
“A dozen. They aren’t very appetizing.” I mused. “We should get you to bed. Come on.” Rose nodded sleepily and followed me into the hotel. She collapsed into a slumber halfway through the door. I picked her up in my magic and started up the stairs.
“Take it easy on your marefriend, she’s had a little too much.” the buck that was on duty said to us. I disregarded him. There were more pressing concerns at hand. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, I set Rose onto my back. I unlocked the door and set Rose gently onto her bed. Tossing my armor, guns, and saddlebags onto the floor, I shed my disguise and collapsed onto the bed, wondering what tomorrow would bring.
Level up! Level Four!
The Need to Feed (Rank 2): Feeding on certain individuals affects your attitude. Feeding on an evil aligned character gives you a temporary +1 to Endurance and -1 to Charisma in addition to making you more irritable and easier to anger. Doing so on a good aligned character gives you a temporary +2 to Charisma in addition to making you more likely to let people off easily. You are also less prone to violence.
Giving and Taking (Rank 1): In cases of extreme pain, your energy level depletes at five times its normal rate. However, whenever you sleep, you gain energy at a rate of one percent per 30 minutes of sleep.
Current Sub-Perk: Power of the Sun: When in direct sunlight, you gain +2 to your Strength, Endurance, and Perception. When in clouded sunlight, these benefits are cut in half.