A Mentally Unstable and Powerful Changeling...Yeah

by Taken-By-Insanity


Chapter 20

”It’s kind of crazy how long we’ve been able to hold on for.” ‘Shade’ mused to herself as she took a seat on her bed. ”It’s been about a year or so now, right? By now, Flurry Heart has been born and after a few months a ‘crystalling’ will now happen within the next day or so.” She tapped her chin in thought before moving her hoof to comb through her mane, which sported a new pink bow. ”I wonder if something will happen when the Crystal Heart shatters or is put back together. It had a pretty bad effect on Paranoia when it first activated.”

She recalled the event quite vividly. “He was in a lot of pain and had to recover for a few days. I wonder why it reacted like that? Sure, he probably wouldn’t be liked by the forces of love and friendship, but being outright hurt by it doesn’t seem right. That’s not its style.”

”What if it was Eros?” A female voice said in her mind. ”The Crystal Heart is said to be a conduit of his power and will and he is said to be cruel to those that don’t embrace love.”

“Hmm, possibly, possibly.” ‘Shade’ replied. “Paranoia isn’t someone who loves a lot or embraces his feelings. But, surely Faust wouldn’t allow the Crystal Heart to harm. Its ability to give a glimpse of destiny would surely mean she had a say in what it could do.”

”Yes, but it’s a Heart, not a Book.” A quiet male voice spoke up in her head. ”Eros likely had the most jurisdiction over its abilities. Faust only had a little because of the glimpses of the future she would provide.”

“There’s also the chance that the power just didn’t agree with the body. Maybe all the love was too much and Paranoia took the excess energy?” ‘Shade’ sighed. “We will just see what happens when we get there, I guess.”


Shade, the true Shade, was still wrapped in chains, kept in a dreamless sleep in a forgotten corner of the throne room. She was seated on no throne, but a modern chair. A dark cloud loomed over her head, a faint echo of sounds coming out of it. A ringing phone, keyboard typing, a train horn, millions upon millions of spoken words in multiple voices, and many more. It was a headache to hear any of it, but its volume can make it tolerable.

A child crying, shattered glass, thunder.

The body shifted, dreamless sleep disturbed. But the lull of rest quickly drew them back.

A young pegasus filly giggled as they watched the chained body from her throne. It was like a yellow balloon. No, a bounce house shaped like a throne would be a better descriptor. The filly was covered in peach fur and had a yellow mane and tail that faded to bright pink. She wore a black headband with a darker pink star on it. She watched the sleeping creature with her blue-sky eyes, full of innocent mirth. She bounced on her throne like a trampoline, doing cartwheels in the air as she went up and back down. On the throne’s back was a simple smiley face.

“I love this throne!” The filly yelled, the other residents of the room flinching at the volume.

“Yes, we know you love it,” Depression replied, his throne, unfortunately, next to the energetic filly’s. “You’ve told us a total of fifteen times in the past hour.”

“Why can’t she just shut up?” Fury asked, his question muffled by having his face in his hooves.

“Mania is an energetic filly.” Paranoia cooly replied. “She needs to let out energy somehow and noise is one such method. Unless you want her to play tag or hide and seek again.”

The red one shuddered at the thought. “By the name of Banshee, please, no.” Fury groaned. “I can’t go through that again.”

“I don’t see what all the fuss is about.” The green pegasus, Disgust, shrugged. “It isn’t that bad playing with her.”

“She goes easy on you!” Fury snapped, glaring at the pegasus from his throne.

“To be honest, she kinda does.” Depression agreed. “Probably because she still has it in her head that you’re sick and that she needs to go easy to make it all fair.”

“I can hear you!” The small filly yelled out, before bursting into a fit of giggles. She hopped off her throne and landed on the arm of Depression’s throne. She then tapped his head. “Tag! You’re it!” She then zoomed off, a yellow blur passing the doors to the throne room and going out to the halls.

Depression sighed and stood up from his throne. He walked at a leisurely pace after her. “Let’s see where she went.” He mumbled to himself.

He left the throne room, one of his appendages, pulling the door closed behind him. “Hm.” His eyes scanned his left and right. “She went this way.” He turned to his right and started to walk down the hall.

As he walked, the walls steadily became more brightly colored. Scenery painted started dotting the wall, illuminated by the windows before the wall was soon painted over. Splashes of bright colors and rainbows started to cover the wall and spilled paint covered the floor and stained the carpet as Depression kept walking.

“Where is that void that is my sister?” Depression asked himself as he stopped at a crossroads. He had three directions to go. He looked them over carefully. “The world, even this part of the mindscape, has sadness in it.” He said to himself. “Mania, on the other hand, doesn’t have a drop of sadness in her.” He decided to turn left and started to head down that path. “If I sense the lack of sadness, then I sense her.”

Depression slowed his already leisurely pace as he came upon a corner before stopping. His appendages extended before pushing him into the air. The spike on the end of each ‘bone’ stabbed into the roof with no sound to be heard. They started to move him around the corner as he looked at the ground. Sitting against the wall at the corner was the pegasus filly, trying her best to stay quiet as she giggled.

He slowly lowered down, hovering just above the ground, before patting her head. “Tag.” He said.

The filly jumped with a small scream. She quickly recovered and stood up with a playful frown. “Hey! Not fair.” She crossed her arms and puffed up her cheeks.

Depression shrugged. “You never said I couldn’t use my wings.”

Mania sighed. “Fine. You got ten seconds.” She put her hands over her eyes and started to count. “One, two, three,-“

Depression hoisted himself back up to the roof before a hole opened up above him. He crawled into the hole before it closed.

“Seven, eight, nine, ten! Ready or not, here I come!” She looked at her surroundings first before putting a hoof to her chin in thought. “Where could he have gone?” She pondered for a few moments before a lightbulb lit up above her head. “Aha! To the dungeon!” She became a blur as she ran through the castle halls. They shook as she passed, the windows cracking before quickly repairing themselves.

Mania skidded to a stop in front of a birch door with silver hinges and a silver door handle. The filly grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. Well, she tried to. The door got ripped off its hinges after using a bit of force to open it. “Whoops.” She chuckled. “It’s a push on this side, not a pull.” She set the door next to the doorway before entering the dark room.

Inside was a large chamber lit up with candles. Each of the candles held a grey flame, instead of the expected oranges or reds. Along the walls on all sides were the occasional cell that could easily hold a dozen prisoners of pony size, perhaps even a couple more than that. In the middle of the room was a wooden table with shackles attached. A unicorn skeleton was in the shackles and had dim glowing blue orbs in its eye sockets. The orbs moved to watch Mania as she cheerfully walked down the set of stairs that led into the room from above.

“I know you’re in here big bro!” She loudly proclaimed as she walked to one of the cells. She opened the door to the empty cell and peered in, making sure to check the roof. Nada, not even a bed or bathroom. “Maybe you’re in the next cell.” She left the cell and went to the next one as the skeleton silently continued to watch her.

“Nope! Not here either.” She turned away from the second cell and walked to the middle of the room while humming in thought. The skeleton’s eye sockets quickly became empty again before she could notice them. “Hmm.” Mania squinted at the skeleton and poked its horn. “Aha!” She cheered. “I know you’re the skeleton!”

The skeleton sighed before it disappeared in a puff of smoke. Depression was sitting in its place once the smoke dissipated. “Welp, you win.” He said as he hopped off the table. “I’m going back to the throne room now.” He told her before turning to the stairs. “The more eyes on those three the better.” He mumbled.

“Aw, can we play just one more game?” Mania asked. “Please, please, please, please?” She got in front of Depression and her eyes widened and became teary. Depression stared into her puppy eyes for a few moments.

He sighed. “Fine. What’s the game?”

“Yay!” She clapped her hands. “I want to play a game of…Hmm.” She crossed her arms and looked up at the ceiling as she thought about it. “Oh, Poker!”

“Neither of us knows how to play Poker.” Depression deadpanned.

“Uhhh, a drinking game!”

“With?” Depression raised a brow.

“Apple juice, duh.” Mania rolled her eyes. “That spicy stuff adults drink is gross.”

“I’m not going to get myself sick from apple juice. Too much sugar.”

“Uhhh, ummm.” Mania tapped her hoof against the ground in thought. “Bobbing apples?” Her mind was empty of ideas.

“Seriously?” Depression raised a brow.

“Yep!” Mania cheerfully replied.

Depression sighed, putting his face in his hoof before slowly sliding it off. “Fine. Where are we going to bob for these apples?”

“Outside, of course! Where else would we do it?” Mania said as she started up the stairs that led out of the dungeon.

A shake reverberated through the room, almost knocking the pegasus filly off balance. “What was that?” Mania asked, somehow excited despite how worrisome a shake like that would usually be.

“Probably the Crystal Heart shattering. Are we going to go apple bobbing or what?” Depression questioned, steering the filly’s attention to the original topic.

“Yeah, we are!” She disappeared in a sudden dust cloud as she ran the rest of the way up the stairs and out of the dungeon. Depression followed in a walk.

“This filly is impossible to keep occupied now that she’s dead.” He muttered to himself. “At least her energy was limited when she was alive.” He yawned.


“Why can’t I manifest? I should have enough energy for it.” The unicorn asked herself as she stared into a mirror, standing in a black void. The mare had a white coat and wore a simple black cloak that covered most of her features. Her eyes were empty voids of black, with a small glowing dot working as her pupils.

She lowered her hood, revealing her white mane. She placed a hoof against the mirror. “Show me the group of souls that must go to rest.” She commanded.

The mirror’s reflection turned white before fading, showing a pony walking through the streets of the Crystal Empire. The mare flinched at the sight before taking her hoof off the mirror. “So many souls in one body. Why did we even allow this strain of changelings to come into existence?”

She placed her hoof on the mirror again. “Show me why I cannot manifest near them.” She took the hoof off the mirror and it turned white again before fading. The mare shivered as she felt the power radiating off the image. “How in the world?”

A dark shadow took up space in a white void, staring at the pony through the mirror. A white smile was plastered on the shadow’s face, with white dots showing its eyes. Its face was flat, it had no hooves, no horns, or wings, and it stood like a bipedal.

“Explain to me in writing.” The unicorn commanded, not bothering to touch the mirror this time. The image faded and white writing appeared in its place, taking up the black background it gave itself.

“The power over death is at a stalemate. The foreign soul has immeasurable power over everything it does and does not desire.” She placed her hoof on her head with a sad frown. “Only the power of all the Spirits could possibly overcome this force, even if for a moment.” She sighed and turned away from the mirror.

“Notify the other Spirits.” She said as she raised her hood. “May the Originals keep us safe.” She mumbled to herself as she walked into the void, quickly disappearing into the darkness.