When Celestia arrived it seemed as if the atmosphere in the corridor shifted. For the better? Maybe, if you couldn't read into the aura she was giving off as she stomped over to where the two guards were. Their dumbfounded and surprised expressions quickly shifting and whatever training they had kicked in. Their hooves flying upwards in a salute before doing the usual "at ease" or whatever thing before they started telling her what happened.
Which was funny from my point of view. Seeing as I'm the one who single handed clapped Chrysalis's chee- yeah. Hold up. That doesn't sound right.
I paused in my musings and completely tuned out what was happening in front of me any further and thought about what I just said to myself.
Hm. I mean, I'm not exaggerating. It was true that I absolutely demolished her. But that's such a childish and really left field thing to say... which made it entirely reasonable for me to refer to it as that. Who was I to doubt myself?
..
..
Screw it.
I absolutely Clapped Chrysalis's cheeks, and her sist-- Oh yeah! I forgot about that. That means that I'm currently 2-0 when it came to the changelings.
Well, technically 1.5-0 since it was an effort between Spitfire and I to take her down. But in most cases assists count as kills and I'm fully taking advantage of that virtue -- 2-0!
'Suck on that bug bitch!' I mentally shouted to Chrysalis limp form being examined by the two shaken up guards. Along with her little creepy children too.
Well. I guess her little children didn't really deserve punishment as harsh as I subjected them to. Hopefully I didn't kill them, because if everything was found out and it was made known that I took out both groups. I'd have no doubt that there would be this whole debacle of whether or not I'm sane and whatever nonsense like that.
Well. I-- ah fuck.
I just realized. I stabbed Chrysalis somewhere in the thigh pretty deep and the femoral artery could've been punctured.. if anatomy worked similarly with horses and bug horses. Then that could be troublesome and dangerous.
'Well. That's fucking great.' I said while mentally sighing. Something else I'm gonna have to deal with!
.....
I looked over to where the two guards were originally talking to Celestia and noticed they'd disappeared. Making me blink back into reality as I turn my gaze towards my peripheral and looked up at the abrupt appearance.
'Oh. There she is.' I mentally muttered in surprise as I noticed her now in front of us and talking to mother. Which further proved how deep I could fall into thought and not notice when someone walks over and starts talking to the person that is holding onto me. Jeez.
I took a bit to actually get a good look at her enormous and apparently majestic form. Which might've been exaggerated, because sure, she's tall and has both parts of a pegasus and unicorn. Other than that, she's just a physics defying horse with a Jocasta comple- mm. I take that back. That's too mean and derisive of a description.
Whatever. The ideology behind the princesses doesn't really affect me like a normal person would be affected in this world.
I decided to listen back in to what was happening to distract myself.
"I'm terribly sorry my little ponies. You two weren't harmed in the attack hopefully?" Were the only words I bothered to pay attention to as she spoke to mother. Playing the part and giving her a small smile, my naturally drooped ears pressing even further against my head to just drive the effect furthe-
-Wait. Is it normal for my ears to be droopy? I mean, I've never really said anything about it because I thought it was normal. But now that I question myself about it, I find it sort of weird. Huh. I guess I'll have to think about that later.
I turned my attention back to what was happening and looked upwards.
Giving me a hint of satisfaction as her expression fell for just long enough for little old me to notice. Forcing me to bite back the urge to let my tongue slip out and grin smugly, it would just bring up more questions I would inevitably be asked.
Well. That's if I let her actually get to ask the questions. Just like in the dream where both of them dared to walk the path of the Star and approached me. Luckily I had my trusty lightsaber there and cleaved their heads off then and there.
'That still means that I have the privilege of being the only "little kid" to have one over on the princesses.' Which was another thing I couldn't wait to hold over their heads for as long as I could get away with it.
Though in all seriousness. I didn't have an actual lightsaber at my disposal, and this was sort of real life. Where things had causes and effects, I had to play my cards right.
Ugh. This is gonna give me a headache. Especially with how drained I feel from stopping time more than a handful of times in short time spans.
Whatever. I'll figure it out as I go. Let's just tune back into whatever's happening around me.
"-thankfully some of your guards were able to save us from whatever those changelings had in mind." Mother finished with a sigh of relief. The tension leaving her body as the idea of any more danger threatening us lessened. Which I would've agreed with, if not for something bugging me. Get it?
...
"Yes. Thankfully they were stopped before you or your ChiLd could be harmed." She paused and let out a small sigh "again, I am so so sorry that this has happened. I should've been more prepared and conscious of the idea of the changelings getting passed Canterlot's defenses once more." She finished lowly. Giving off the effect that she felt immensely responsible and apologetic about this that most would play off as sympathetic given the situation, but just the way that she said it sort of rubbed me the wrong way.
I have no idea why. Just feels weird how she's using her wording and tone of voice to sway the way it would be perceived. Well, actually I do know why I'm thinking like this. One, because I'm generally a conscious person and two, because I'm living in a world where sentient beings can shapeshift and unwittingly make you think you're talking to someone you're really not talking to.
Wait a second.
I blinked a few times before looking back at my shifted surroundings. I was now sitting atop mothers back instead of when I was being smothered in her feathers earlier and it looks as if we were following princess Celestia further down the hallway. Presumably to her study or whatever. Since that was the original plan when the two guards were the ones leading us there before Chrysalis came out all high and mighty.
But since that was done with, I could instead worry on whether or not my assumption was correct. Adjusting myself on mothers back so that both of my legs were hanging on either side of of her back an- I'll save the unnecessary description and just say that I was sitting on my butt and looking around her shoulder to see the princess walking just in front of us. I kept my gaze unmoving before looking up and down at her to see if anything was out of the ordinary but quickly realize that in my position I wasn't going to be able to do anything of the sorts. Unless I stopped time again. But I didn't immediately do that in the beginning because I wasn't sure where exactly my limit was in that area and me already feeling a bit drained didn't leave a good enough impression to outright try and do one of those bullet time things again.
Because it would be extremely weird and concerning if your son just suddenly went from being alright to suddenly locking up and falling limp on your back, especially with how things were happening at the moment. But if my earlier suspicions were true than I could be making a big mistake without taking that risk and seeing whether or not I'm right.
'Ugh. Screw it. I'll take the risk.' I mentally agreed and rolled my eyes. I'm taking the fattest nap ever when I get done and over with this shit.
I brought a hoof to my face and whispered out "stop". Which immediately sent a jolt of pain through my head, but didn't completely incapacitate me like last time. Which was great but now it was time to get to work.
So without much fuss I spread my wings and floated up into the air and over mothers frozen form. Coming to a stop in the space the two of them left between each other while walking, I landed back down and walked forwards. Inspecting the frozen form of the princess as i-
"Damn." I said unintentionally as I caught a glimpse of something I wasn't supposed to see. Snapping my gaze away from it a few seconds after I notice what I was doing and coughed. Focusing back onto what I was doing and walked around the front of the princess. But taking a moment to think about it I quickly dismissed it and shook my head, flapping my wings again and getting up to eye level, which took a second because I completely forgot that she was like six feet tall.
Well, in pony measurements. I'm not sure what the comparison to a human and pony would be, since ponies are like at knee level in reality. Though technically, like I said before. Celestia is technically a regular horse in a world filled with miniature horses, except a sheer difference in appearance and demeanor.
--whatever, I'm getting to deep into things. I gotta hurry up and check to see if this is the real Celestia and not some sort of fake out that the other changeling Queen tried to do. Before I end up reverting time and falling under paralysis again. I could feel the further parts of my head starting to lightly send little jolts of pain whenever I moved my head around faster than usual.
With a sigh, I pressed a hoof against my face before focusing my gaze onto her eyes. Then moved on to the rest of her frozen face before glancing around at anything that looked out of place on her body, any inconsistencies, any things that would bring up a red flag. Anything at all that cou-
"Wait a second." I muttered to myself for like the umpteenth time as I backtracked and looked at her face again.
"Were your eyes always...?" I questioned while getting a better look, reaching out both of my hooves and grabbing onto her face as gently as I could and leaned in a bit closer. "There's no fucking way." I said in an exasperated tone as I let go of her face and floated backwards a bit so that I could throw my arms up into the air and let out a very loud noise of frustration.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me. I thought Spitfire snapped your neck or something the last time you showed up!" for real. I squash one bug and another one shows up with the same bug that I thought that I squashed! Why are these changelings like cockroaches.
"Can't you stay dead for like a good five.. maybe ten ye-!!" I paused as the jolts of pain grew in intensity. Eyes widening as I threw my head to look around at the hallways around me, all the grey was slowly regaining it's color and I wasn't able to do anything about it. I wasn't able to do anything about the sudden lack of feeling in my wings as my world shifted and I dropped onto my back with a thud. Gritting my teeth as I tried raising myself upwards, the feeling of cold numbness that started in my wings started slithering it's way into the rest of my body as I tried to fight against it.
The best I could manage was pushing my upper body upwards for about two seconds before it all caught up to me and I dropped face first onto the ground, aggravating the pain surging in my head even further as I wasn't able to do anything. Everything was picking up the pace and I could barely feel the presence of sound popping back in before the grayness completely receded and time resumed, the only thing I could find myself saying was 'Fuck.'
Because not only did it seem like I just suddenly dropped like a ragdoll in front Princess Celestia and mother, I just dropped limp in front of the worst fucking thing I could've dropped in front of! For like, the second time! GOD FU-
"---!! Speckl--" THUD
No.
I widened my eyes as mothers panicked voice was immediately silenced and I horrifically caught the brief motion of her whole body dropping onto the floor unconscious as I could only helplessly watch. Trying to jerk my body back to life as the shrill feeling of fear and anxiety built up inside of me, adding in a sense of anger into the mix as I couldn't do jack shit! I'm disabled because of a stupid fucking risk, mothe- 'UGH' -I felt like screaming! Bu- even though I couldn't feel anything. I still felt that chill run down my spine as the sudden deep feminine laughter echoed through the room.
Letting that sink in for a second before my vision was skewed once more and my sense of gravity was defiled by the familiar owner of the laughter, who I could assume was lifting me up by my tail before rotating me around so I could face her. Still in the form of Princess Celestia just so I could still feel the idiocy of my actions before she slowly erupted into red flames. Keeping eye contact with me the whole way until I was finally privy to her true hole filled buggy form in all it's demented glory.
I never stopped trying to move against my unresponsive body. I even tried speaking but still got nothing. I could only sit and watch as she manically reared her head back and laughed. Which could also be part of her downfall. Since we were still standing in the middle of the hallway and she was just laughing away than the guards were going to obviously hear, wait. Where were those two guards that were there just a minute ago?
How the hell did she get rid of them without me or mother noticing! How did she even disguise herself as the Princess? What type of convoluted plan did she and her sister make? Was it all planned for her to go psycho and get herself captur- wait a second! They didn't even do anything with Chrysalis and her little posse of rabid changelings! A-
"You see.. Speckles?" She called me out of my panicked stupor, referring to me by my name. Which would've made me recoil in disgust if I could. But I could only watch as she continued speaking. Her split tongue rolling out of her mouth and licking at her mismatched fangs, evidence of when she got absolutely knocked the hell out by Spitfire. Though it was still all the more worrying.
"You see? YOU see!" she said in a jovial tone. Almost too happy and deluded to be even considered sane.
She brought me closer to her face as her eyes creased before whispering out something that made me internally stop.
"You could never get away from me.." and then everything went dark.