Unsurprisingly, when Pyrite and I next exited the Everfree forest, we seemed to have missed a good half of a day, as the sun was high in the sky, heralding the middle of a cycle that we had skipped to. We stopped briefly for Pyrite to eat a bite or two from some food she had packed in her saddlebags, which left to my thoughts while she did so.
Through the entire trip back through the Everfree, I had felt Parasite’s hunger at the edge of my mind, and in the depths of my stomach. It wasn’t anywhere near as strong as I had felt when it had been part of its previous owner, but that was almost certainly due to the effort I had put into suppressing it. It had apparently taken the hint that I didn’t want it, and that it wasn’t a part of me. But it stayed at the precipice of my conscious, lurking and waiting like the albino changeling I had taken it from.
I briefly glanced at Pyrite and was unable to suppress a slight rising of my lip and an almost inaudible snarl. I shook my head and growled to myself, pushing back ravenous urges that I was sure would only grow worse once we reached Ponyville.
Pyrite finished her food in short order, and we continued back home in silence. Neither of us were eager to discuss what we had seen or experienced in the Everdeep Castle, not to mention that Pyrite was likely upset that the entire trip had been a veritable waste of time, as we were returning empty-hooved.
We arrived in Ponyville without fanfare, the ponies that milled about unaware that one of their own and a changeling hiding among them had just ended a threat to their lives before it could touch any of them.
Or… most of them.
As we came to Pyrite’s house, a seven-pony group stood outside to meet us. Rather, six ponies, and one dragon.
The seven wore various expressions of anger and hatred, except for a vanilla-colored pegasus that was cowering behind her compatriots. I recognized a few of the ponies from my previous experience in Ponyville: Applejack, whose leg was now fully healed and free of bandages, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and the small dragon who I was still convinced was an overgrown lizard. Three other ponies were complete strangers to me.
The first was a blue pegasus with a rainbow-like mane and tail, which I found odd even for a pony. The second was a white unicorn that stuck out like a gem among rocks, but several repulsive stenches drifted off of her, the foremost of which was undoubtedly gratuitous amounts of perfume. Last was the cowering pegasus, which made me snicker despite the obvious tension. The contrast was simply too strange to not be funny.
Twilight Sparkle stepped forward and spoke. “Night Wing,” she began, sounding like she was winding up for a speech. “After your harsh rebuttal, I had my doubts as to whether I justly suspected you of being a changeling. But after meeting with my friends, I have come to an irrefutable truth.” She pointed a hoof at me. “All evidence points to it: you are a changeling! For crimes against Equestria and her ponies, and by the authority invested in me by Princess Celestia herself, I hereby place you under arrest!”
Pyrite and I looked at each other for a moment, blank and bored expressions quickly turning to snickers and cackles. The group of ponies stood as they were, content to simply wait until we replied.
Pyrite recovered first, and stepped towards Twilight, a serious expression replacing her smile. “And exactly what evidence do you have?”
Sparkle motioned to her friends. Applejack stepped next to her, a look of disgust written on her face.
“Ah saw ya doin yer little shapeshiftin’ thing when you were buckin’ apples,” she said. I rolled my eyes, still smiling.
“Trick of the light,” I said, waving my hoof in dismissal. I noticed a few ponies around us were coming closer to watch the confrontation. I grinned to myself. This would be a perfect opportunity to turn Ponyville against Twilight Sparkle and her friends.
Next, the cowering pegasus stepped out to inch forward, only slightly looking at me from underneath her pink mane. She couldn’t even make eye contact.
“Um, I saw you turn into a changeling, just outside the forest…I didn’t mean to spy on you, but, oh…”She covered her head with her hooves. “Pleasedonthurtme!”
At this, I felt a slight bit of sympathy. “So now what, Sparkle, you force timid pegasi to tattle for you?” I asked, smirking. Pyrite flashed me a grin of her own.
The rainbow-maned pegasus flew over the other ponies and came right up to me. “Don’t pick on my friends, you stupid bug!” she shouted. “Fluttershy told us you turned into a black changeling, and I’m pretty sure I saw you fighting her!” She pointed her hoof at Pyrite, who took a step back in surprise.
“Wha…what?” She asked in surprise. “I never fought Night Wing!”
Twilight smiled confidently and pointed to her. “Ah-ha! Changelings can erase and change memories! He altered your memory to think he was a friend!”
I frowned. Twilight was turning this situation around, fast. Neither I nor Pyrite had an immediate response to her accusation. I had to be careful to keep my cover.
Next, the white unicorn came forward. Her head was turned slightly upwards, trying to maintain an image of sophistication and nobility. “While you may be able to alter the minds of pony-folk, you cannot alter records. I inquired a few associates, and you are not registered in any town or city in Equestria. And I imagine an alicorn would have some position of importance, so I find this to be quite incriminating.”
Again, Pyrite and I failed to come up with a response. I gritted my teeth in frustration, an act that didn’t go unnoticed by Twilight, who smiled as though she had already turned Ponyville against me. I brief look around revealed that there was a crowd gathering, watching as Twilight and her friends tried to expose me.
Pinkie Pie approached me, but rather than walk, her entire body shook as she vibrated for no apparent reason. I raised an eyebrow in confusion, but everyling else had expressions of shock and awe. Pyrite gave me a look that spoke volumes about how bad the situation was becoming. I gritted my teeth.
“None of that proves anything,” I said. “All I’ve heard so far is ‘I saw’, and ‘I heard’. And I don’t even know what Pinkie’s shaking was supposed to accomplish. You’ve got nothing on me. Accept it. I’m not a changeling.”
I smirked as the townsponies muttered amongst themselves, sharing doubts and questions. Twilight glared at me. Her horn lit up, but I knew she wouldn’t dare atta-
A purple beam of magic shot out from her horn and went over my entire body, leaving a warm tingling and slight dizziness in its wake. A chorus of gasps sounded around me, coming from every pony except those in Twilight’s gang.
“Revenant…” Pyrite whispered, so softly only I could hear her. I looked down at myself, in complete shock.
My disguise had vanished, exposing me for what I really was. Ponies around me bore expressions of pure shock, Pyrite included. I looked at her in desperation. I trusted her to get me out of this. She had to.
“Pyrite…” I whispered pleadingly. “Let’s get out of here…”
The mare’s eyes looked me over once, twice. Her lower lip trembled. I could see a tear form at the corner of her eye.
“I…” A feeling of dread came over me. I knew what was next, but I desperately hoped she wouldn’t choose…
“I’m sorry…”
She chose them.
Her kind.
Over me.
Her… friend.
Pyrite sent a bolt of amber magic at me, which I easily dodged. All of my panic vanished, anger replaced the void. I snarled and lunged at Pyrite, but another bolt of purple magic crashed into my side, sending me into the crowd of townsponies, who quickly went into panic and scrambled away from me. The hunger inside me retched at their terror and hate, becoming more noticeable now that I was occupied.
I growled and stood back up, only to be greeted by a charging Applejack. She slammed into me and carried me quite a ways until she crushed me between her body and the equally unyielding side of a house. I felt the air being driven from my lungs on impact, followed by a short relief of pressure before a solid buck connected with my side, sending me into another wall. Miraculously, there was no snapping sound from my ribs, so I assumed nothing was broken.
I struggled to get up, coming face-to-face with the white unicorn, who held a thin blade suspended in a light blue aura by her side. I chuckled despite the situation. “I didn’t think ponies used weapons.”
The unicorn huffed and twirled the blade. “It’s a rapier, I’ll have you know. And dueling is particularly trendy this year.”
I immediately formed a blade of magic from my horn, suddenly extremely conscious of my dwindling magic reserves. It wasn’t a problem yet, but it could soon be.
With only a moment’s pause, I charged at the unicorn. I brought my blade in a downwards swipe that she parried off to the side, following up with a thrust that I stepped away from. I tried another swipe, this time horizontal, but the unicorn’ blade levitated over the concentrated magic and immediately stabbed downwards, cutting a gash on my side that disrupted my focus enough for my blade to flicker and vanish. I hissed in pain and quickly healed the wound, severed chitin brought together and repaired in a moment.
Ignoring her rapier, I lunged at the mare and punched her in the jaw, sending her sprawling to the ground, unconscious. I hissed triumphantly, but a cry of anger refocused my attention. The pegasus, Fluttershy? Fluttershy was glaring at me, having gone from cowardice to rage in a split second. We locked eyes, and I immediately felt her mind crash against mine. It was like what I had done to Parasite, except I was on the losing end, and there were no memories meshed and confused.
Fluttershy drew nearer, her mouth shouting scoldings that I didn’t hear, but shrank from all the same. But as she came closer, I could feel her concern for her friends underneath her anger. Concern and caring that Parasite’s hunger leaped at, breaking through the hold the pegasus had on me. I flew towards Fluttershy, fully aware of the act but unable to control it.
For the third time, something connected with my ribs to send me flying away, the only difference being that I was sent careening into a strange blue tube, my head becoming firmly stuck inside. I growled and tried to extract myself, but it was no use. I stood where I was for a moment, humiliated.
I suddenly heard what faintly sounded like Pinkie Pie’s voice, just before a torrent of paper impacted on my face and sent me flying into the sky, spinning and cursing as I clutched my face in pain.
My wings buzzed into action, allowing me a moment to get my bearings. My entire situation had gone from bad to worse. I was being bested by six ponies. They weren’t even creatures that would actually be a threat. I needed to get away from Ponyville, away from them, before things got any worse.
I quickly turned and sped towards the Everfree, my wings buzzing as fast as they could. I needed to get back to the Everdeep Castle. There, I could hopefully lay low until the ponies lowered their guard and I could infiltrate them again. But however fast I got there wouldn’t be fast enough.
Movement at the edge of my vision caught my attention. I looked next to me to see the rainbow-maned pegasus flying next to me. She glared at me and gritted her teeth before turning and slamming into me with enough force to knock me off course, away from the Everfree. I gritted my teeth and returned the gesture, but the pegasus darting upwards, letting me sail underneath her. She immediately descended, knocking me head-over-hooves to the ground as I tried and failed to stay level and airborne.
What buzzing my wings did managed to slow me descent to the point where it wasn’t that painful, but it still knocked the wind out of me for the second time that day. The pegasus came straight down towards me, and I only just avoided her hooves by rolling away as she impacted the ground. I sprung up and prepared a magic bolt, but my attention was refocused by an amethyst blast of magic that I barely ducked under.
I turned to see Twilight and her other friends approaching. The six of them formed a circle around me, cutting off any escape route. I growled and cursed. I was trapped.
The six ponies slowly came towards me, all of them determined to rid the world of one more changeling.
Thinking quickly, I buzzed into the air, just long enough to get over the circle of multi-colored doom, before touching back down and running with every ounce of speed I could muster. Two ponies, Applejack and the rainbow-maned pegasus, broke off from the circle and came after me.
Even with the edge being a changeling gave to my running speed, the two were gaining on me. The edge of the Everfree was in sight, however, and I was almost home free. I pushed my legs to move faster, desperately trying to get away from the pair of pursuers. I spared a glance behind me to see them speeding up even as I did, apparently realizing where I was going and trying to stop me from getting there.
Applejack quickly came up directly behind me, attempting one last lunge to try and catch me. I buzzed my wings, which gave me just enough of a boost to evade her. As soon as she had failed, the pegasus came down towards me and tried the same, but I slowed down for a split second, allowing her to over-shoot me and crash into the ground. Quickly accelerating to full speed once more, I cleared the last stretch to the Everfree, disappearing into the foliage and heading towards the Everdeep Castle as fast as I could.
***
I kept running until I entered the castle, slowing to a trot before stumbling and collapsing onto the floor of the entry hall, panting as I tried to recover from my frantic running. My mind was a jumble, and I couldn’t think straight. I laid on the floor for some time, not really caring how long I was there for.
Once my chest stopped heaving and my thoughts came back into focus, I stood up somewhat shakily and shook my head.
I couldn’t believe it. Pyrite had turned me in… and for what? I gritted my teeth and became suddenly aware of a weight on my back. I slid the saddlebags on my back off and onto the floor. I frowned as I looked them over. Pyrite… that pony had given them to me, along with the spellbooks inside. Even if she was gone, I would make use of her gifts.
Deciding that my few belongings would be safe where they were, sitting next to one of the emotion-filled barrels, I decided to search m-Parasite’s lair once more. Pyrite had found a healing potion previously, and I could almost say for certain that there would be some other useful things down there.
Heading down the stairs to Parasite’s lair, I looked around at the slabs of stone, trying to identify any more healing potions before I started looking more thoroughly. Sighing, I buzzed over to a random slab and started looking at the numerous racks of vials and beakers that rested on it. They were all colored differently, and even in the dim light provided by the chandelier, which had only grown dimmer since… she and I had last been down here, I could tell that no two were the same.
I slowly drifted from slab to slab, trying to determine which potions I should take. I frowned once I realized that Pyrite had left me in the dark once more. I turned to leave when a feeble whimper cut through the air. I turned to look at the one slab I had deliberately ignored.
As if sensing my attention, the mare chained to the stone whimpered some more, weakly trying for what was likely the umpteenth time to shake off her shackles. I walked over to her, once more assessing her condition. Her head rolled to look at me once I was close enough. Unfocused eyes watered and the mare’s lower lip trembled. Even without feeling what was left of her emotions, I could tell she was scared, hopeless.
I looked the unicorn over, an idea coming to my head. She had been drained of her emotions, which made her almost as good as dead, but the barrels just above us held those very same things in them. It could almost be considered cannibalism, and I chuckled darkly at the thought. If that was the price this mare would have to pay to live, I was sure she wouldn’t mind.
Creating another horn-blade, I touched the magical edge to each of the chains, cutting through them without much effort. I levitated the unicorn onto my back, shifting her around none-too-gently, before heading back up the stairs, making sure to grab an empty vial on my way out.
Once we were back in the main hall, I practically flung the unicorn off my back, her limp form flopping to a halt just short of one of the barrels. I dipped the vial I had taken into the barrel, plunging it in before quickly drawing it back out, noting how the rainbow-like liquid inside was thick and viscous. I looked the vial over for a moment before shrugging and taking a small swig of the liquid.
It was tasteless, yet I felt a measure of energy come to me from it. It wasn’t like taking in love and friendship from ponies, there was no comparison in the strength it gave me. But it would do for the time being.
Refilling the vial, I brought it to the mare’s lips, levitating her head so the liquid would flow down her throat and she wouldn’t choke. I was going to use her, and a tool was no use broken. I waited for a moment before refiling the vial again and pouring the contents into her mouth once more. I repeated the process about ten times before I saw results.
The unicorn’s greyed-out mane and coat slowly bloomed with color, breathing life into an almost-dead pony. Her coat became much more vibrant, and even her mane gained a bit of blue to pair with the white that emerged from the grey. Her now somewhat-lively violet eyes closed as she fell asleep, the floor we were on likely much more comfortable than the stone she had been laying on for who knew how long.
Snarling slightly at the sight of the mare’s almost peaceful expression, I walked away from her and out of the castle. Once she woke up, I would have to make sure she didn’t get any ideas. I didn’t need any more ponies to make trouble for me. If the one who I had trusted, and I thought trusted me back, had turned on me, I could only imagine what the one I had ‘saved’ would do. I couldn’t trust anyling.
I couldn’t trust anyling…
I felt a slight throbbing in my head. Words and sounds flowed into my mind, and before long I felt my wings and hooves shapeshift of their own accord. I looked down to see my hooves… unchanged. The same applied to my wings as I turned my head to look at them. I was confused for a moment, before the throbbing in my head returned and I felt my wings and hooves move by themselves. But instead of the usual buzzing or clopping, out came… music.
And before I knew it, I began to sing.
"It’s getting pointless…
Trying to keep up this game…"
I bowed my head as I remembered walking around Ponyville as Night Wing. All the ponies had been so… accepting.
"Broken friendships…
Watching pleasure turn to pain…"
I remembered how that acceptance turned into fear and hatred when they found out what I really was.
"All around me…
Lines are being drawn between…"
I remembered how Pyrite and I were… friends…
"Can I believe them?
I thought that we were a team…"
I remembered how quickly she turned on me.
"I thought that there was something good to hold on to…
One simple thing that kept me hanging on, hanging on…"
I remembered the trust we had… how we beat Parasite with that trust.
"They’re out to break me down, to end my life, to kill my kind…
My days of friendship are gone!"
I remembered how that trust was tossed away like it was nothing.
"Now my life has turned to fear,
And it’s pretty goddam clear,
That I know I can’t trust anyling now!"
I couldn’t trust anyling now.
"I thought she helped me…
I thought she gave me everything…"
Pyrite gave me a home… books…
"But she betrayed me…
Whatever bitter end to bring…"
…And then took away the one thing everyling else gave: acceptance.
"It got harder…
She turned me in for her needs…"
She wanted to be a hero… ‘Savior of Ponyville’, I bet…
"Wake the buck up…
I was damn near on my knees!"
I had only gotten lucky when I escaped.
"I thought that there would be more to life than all my lies…
That place where I wasn’t all alone, all alone…"
And for a time… I had found it.
"But now I look around at what I’ve learned, to face the truth…
I know I’ll never find a home!"
I would have to wander Equestria for food soon enough… I wouldn’t be what Parasite was and kill ponies for food…
"Now the smiles have turned to tears, and it’s pretty goddam clear…
I know I can’t trust anyling now!"
Noling at all.
I stood outside the castle for a long while, the words of the song running through my head over and over again. I watched the sun as it traveled across the sky, only heading back into the castle when the moon began its own journey in the path of the sun.
I spared a glance at the still-sleeping unicorn as I came inside, disgust and hurt boiling up within me. Settling down across the room from her, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep, all too eager to put the day behind me.