//------------------------------// // 15th: Unforgettable // Story: The Rule of King Cocoon of the Changelings // by Hooves Like Jagger //------------------------------// The Rule of King Cocoon of the Changelings Reality rushes back far too quickly. The nothingness and Discord are gone while I'm staring up at a sky full of changelings. There is buzzing and hissing resonating from all around me. I can hear scattered explosions rocking the ground. The voices of frightened ponies make me shudder and realize that the invasion has begun. My mind is still full of static and Discord's rhyme is rattling around my brain. I've got spiritual aches and emotional pains plaguing my heart that I can't explain. Alien yet vaguely familiar voices without faces or names fade in and out. I can't make out what they're saying because they're talking all at once. It's as if someone took the contents of my memories and scattered them onto the floor. I don't know what goes where or who goes when, but another force is gathering them back up and restoring order to my mind. When it’s clear and the racket of information ceases, the static still remains. I've got memories I didn't know I had before. "Hey, you're awake!" The current situation isn't going to give me a moment to reflect upon them, however. "What in all of Tartarus happened to you?" Chrysalis asks. I realize she's been sitting on my chest while I lie facing the sky. Two other changelings in Hive Mind armor are standing over me. I recognize them as Bragback and Hellwire, but I'm surprised I can considering all the things I still can't seem to remember. Everything since I woke up as King is clear and normal. My memories of life back on Earth up until I got sent here are bright as day, too. There are holes in my memories of just before being sent. Some of the details feel... wrong. I feel like I'm remembering things that never happened, but what's the reality in my past and what's fake? By far the most disturbing bit of haze lies just between the point of being sent and waking up. I sense a static between them, as if I have memories of some intermediate period between the two events, but that doesn't make any sense. I was sent and then I woke up. There should be nothing else in the chronology of my memories. "Hey, I asked if you're alright!" "What?" I say, finally sitting up. My body feels just fine, even if my head is a disorganized maze of missing documents and locked file cabinets. As much as I need and want to deal with all these thoughts and feelings, I have matters to attend to presently. "Did the invasion start? How're things going?" "Oh, they're going alright!" Chrysalis answers. The way she answered makes me think things aren't going so well, but looking around I can tell that isn't the case. Changelings blanket the sky and the ground. I can see pods of green gelatin with ponies suspended inside; they're stuck to every wall and hung from every pillar. Changelings hover through the streets, over guardsponies stuck in thick, green mucus like many slimey stalagmites. "We are encountering a bit of a problem, your majesty," Hellwire says. "Your plan has worked splendidly. Quarterholm didn't even see us coming and there was an astounding lack of guards in the city limits. We've secured every section of the city... except one." "Which one?" I realize just moments after asking what the problem must be, but my head is going in so many different directions that the little details are escaping me. "The vineyard," Bragback explains. "The concentration of guards is extremely high and they've got a heavily armored cavalry unit. A large number of townsponies have managed to flee there. We've been trying to take it, but their forces are proving too much for us." "Great... I'm really not feeling up to combat right now." I can groan about it, but I get to my feet anyway. There won't be any peace for me until the swarm is fed and out of Quarterholm. "Well, what needs to be done?" "We simply need to eliminate the forces guarding the vineyard. Both their ground and air support is formidable," Hellwire says. "So since you can't fly worth anything, you'll hit them on the ground!" Chrysalis says. She buzzes up and lands on my head, craning her head down to whisper right in my ear. "After all this is done, you've got a lot of explaining to do." "Whatever. To the vineyard then." No sooner have I said this than I raise my hands to weave my spell. "Teleportation, short or long distance, is a dangerous affair. The right energy resonance will bend and fold space, but your proximity to such raw power during teleporation makes the spell volatile. The energy must envelop targets, but not embrace or constrict them." My magic wraps around me and my passenger, cramming us into a tiny space. Energy extends outward to our destination and then drags it right next to us while punching a tiny hole to travel through. "Exiting a teleporation spell is tricky as well. There would be no need to minimize the mass of the teleporting target if this wasn't the case. Displacing a smaller amount of matter is always preferable. A quick exit is always a safe one." In reality, we move just the smallest amount. All at once, space expands and we expand. Our true displacement becomes apparent as we find ourselves standing in front of the vineyard. "Wha-howdidyou-youcan't-butyou're-WHAT?" Chrysalis jumps off my head and latches herself into my face. All I can see are her bewildered eyes staring into mine. "You teleported us!" "Yeah, can't you do teleporation?" I ask. I specifically remember hearing... no... seeing Chrysalis teleport Twilight Sparkle under Canterlot. "I can displace myself, objects, and ponies through matter by using lots and lots of energy, but I can't teleport! How did you do that?" I peel Chrysalis off my face, but I have to contemplate the answer to her question. I did know how to teleport. I didn't just "get the idea" of teleporting, I understood how to use magic to achieve teleportation. I remembered how to do it. I remember because I figured out... no... learned? I... I can't remember. There's static where the answer should be. "Let's deal with the problem in front of us first, alright?" Chrysalis doesn't protest any further. I've only been to the vineyard once before, but it barely looks like what I remember it looking like. The fields are utterly destroyed and the winery on the property is protected by a spherical barrier. Changelings are trying to approach it from every angle on the ground and the air, but it's no use. Unicorns behind the barrier blast back any of our soldiers that get close while pegasi in the air keep dive-bombing them, preventing any changelings from hitting home. What I don't see—even though I’ve been expecting it--is a rhino. I guess I'll be crossing that bridge later. "Okay, so first we need to get that barrier down." I'm a ways away from the winery, but at this distance I should be able to fire off a shot and hit it. Like any other day of the week, I loose a bolt of green lighting at the barrier. The shot gets through, but the results were not impressive. If I threw a rock and missed, it would have been just as productive. I try again, but this time I give it more oomph. My efforts are met with even more nothing. "Knock it off, Cocoon!" Chrysalis yells at me. "You're going to need a physical force to crack the barrier! You managed to break those barriers during the battle over the Hive, right? Stop messing around and go tear it apart!" I only wish it were that simple. There are too many unicorns blasting away in the safety of the barrier. I could try dropping a rock or a chunk of concrete on the barrier, but the unicorns would probably blast that too. I need something they can't blast to pieces if it gets too close, and I need to be able to deliver it without getting too close myself. "Conjuring clouds is useful for economic and agricultural needs, but they're always temporary and powered down. A conjured storm cloud will never produce a lethal bolt of lighting. Can lethal, powerful lighting be conjured? The answer is no, it cannot be conjured. A unicorn can, however, harness the power of lighting with magic." I extend my hand towards the barrier. Magic can be used to disrupt the natural order of things. I agitate the air around my hand with an electric charge, but at the same time I keep it from discharging. My hand tingles with anticipation. "If you know how lighting works, you can replicate it with magic. Call upon the physical, scientific forces you want with your magic and simply cause the event; however, this is the realm of magic we're talking about. Since we’ve used magic to get this far, why not use a little more?" I let my energy flow and mingle with the increasingly agitated electric charge. The total energy goes up, and I can see blue arcs of electricity prematurely jumping around my hand. I put out more of my own energy, but this time to shield myself from what's to come. I fix my gaze on the barrier. "When you go beyond what nature can do using magic, you've stumbled upon the realm of the Arcane. Arcane Lighting is just one of many possibilities, but I believe the ponies of the court will find its effects more profound." There is only a flash of the electrical discharge connecting my hand to the barrier. Once my vision is all white, I hear the deafening boom of thunder. To hold, for an ephemeral moment, such raw power in my hand is exhilarating. With the practiced motion of a martial artist, I extend my other hand where I have been inadvertently preparing another crackling, charged bolt. The second leaps from my hand with all the heart-pounding light and sound of the first and strikes the barrier in the center of aa now splintering spiderweb of cracks across its surface. Compared to my assault, the resulting dissipation of the barrier is anti-climactic. The unicorn guards are rushing to re-erect their magic shield, but the swarm dives in close and crosses the defensive line. Putting up a barrier now would mean sealing in changelings. Our offensive heightens while their defense falters, prompting me to start walking towards the winery. “But the best offense is a good defense, and the best defense preserves both you and your opponent. Assail their senses and leave them without a trail to follow. Just as with any other element, call upon nature to roll in fog while you call upon your own power to turn it into a mystifying miasma.” Water is gathering around my hands, condensing and cooling into mist. It gathers around me like a second cloak while it rolls along the ground towards the winery ahead of me. It grows exponentially, wrapping around fence posts and walls and flowing fluidly into windows. “As the caster, I have complete control over who feels and sees what, so allow me to give the members of the audience a demonstration of this spell’s capabilities. You may now find yourself asking where the pony sitting on either side of you has gone. You can all see me clearly, but now my voice sounds as if it is coming from behind you. This is nothing but illusion at its finest.” The fog hangs all around the air of the vineyard. It isn’t thick or heavy, but the magic inside it tinges it a sickly green. The guards inhale it, and it makes their eyes grow wide. The changelings are suddenly all about them. Their eyes perceive escape beyond the walls of the vineyard. Each pony in the fog is clamoring to get to what they believe is safety. They think their walls are breached and the changelings are just on their tails, but the reality of the situation is much more dismal. Ponies run out of the building before me, but they are blind to my presence. I wait until there isn’t a living soul in the fog, but one remains behind. A wild, untamed being is still with me in the fog. The thing here with me is not afraid of the changelings swarming in. I can feel it struggling against the phantasms it is seeing. I find it. It is a berserk, wild, horned beast. The rhinoceros is barreling towards me, chasing some ghost in the fog. Its horn and armor glisten green with moist changeling blood and its eyes burn red with animalistic rage. If I don’t stop it, I’ll be gored. “A beast’s mind is very malleable. Ponies have an innate resistance to anything that tries to directly control them, but that is something only they exclusively possess. Now, it is within our ability to halt rampaging monsters with force or tame their minds into an illusion of calm, but those methods are tedious and energy-consuming. If my lovely assistant would be kind enough to release our captive, I will demonstrate the simplest way to pacify a beast.” As the magic weaves through the fingers of my right hand, I am almost muttering the instructions out loud to myself. The rhinoceros is still charging, but I have more than enough time to finish my spell. “Critters and beasts, unlike monsters, are peaceful at their core. If they are agitated on the surface, simply turn them inside out and slip them into the most peaceful of states!” I extend my charged hand. Playful wisps of green energy move like liquid around my fingers and down through my palm. I bring my middle finger and my thumb together, and with one snap the energy flashes once before fizzling out like a birthday candle. The rhino skids to a halt. It wobbles on its feet a little, but it slowly lowers itself onto the ground. It lolls onto its side with a metallic clank of its armor coming down. The massive chest of the beast heaves up and down as it silently sleeps. I can hear the applause of stamping ponies. “Thank you, thank you!” I know it’s in my head, but the sounds around me sound muffled now. The scene around me is surreal. It’s like my eyes are windows and I am a small child, standing behind them looking out at the rain. There is a big, bad world out there. I emerge from my own fog and walk into the street. “Magic promises prosperity! I’ve only shown you the tip of the iceberg here tonight. If we work together to cultivate our magic, imagine what we could achieve! We could bring the citizenry into a golden age!” The streets are lined with suffering. Ponies run without escape and beg mercy into unhearing ears. There is destruction written on the side of every building and despair etched into the face of each mare, stallion, and foal. “Come with me into the next era of magic, where each cup will overflow!” Changelings feed without regard for life. Ponies who resist are knocked to the ground and jabbed with curved horns. Love is taken from them forcefully by poisoning their minds with desperation, false promises, and just a dash of sadness. When the feeding is done, they are left clinging to life on the pavement. “Where ponies sleep safely in their beds!” The changelings are everywhere, drowning the city in a tidal wave of black hunger. Neither a sun or moon hangs in the sky, but in their place hang a million ravenous eyes. This new sky hangs so close it is tinged red with the fires burning below. “Where there is a solution for every problem!” Behind me lies the most fantastic scene of terror. The city’s final stronghold has changelings going in and out of every opening. Guards brave enough to attempt to stem this tide are swept aside, but kept alive so their love can be harvested. Groups of changelings drag ponies kicking and screaming from windows. They are being torn apart. “Where ponies live in harmony!” Friends are torn from friends. “Where the children’s futures are ever brighter!” Mothers are torn from their foals. “Where love abounds!” Husbands are torn from wives. “We’ll do it together!” This whole city has been torn to shreds. For all of the violence, I am strangely serene. I stand alone as the ever silent king on the chessboard, who nearly stands completely apart from his war when he is in no danger. My brain is all horror and chaos, but I can almost see the almost comically mortified look on my face. Once again, like someone turning on a radio in my head, I hear that distant, familiar voice speaking. “For the Princess, we will forge a brighter future. Magic will make it possible, my friends. I promise you all, I will never lead our herd astray.” I can bear being here no longer. “Hey! Stop! Stoooop!” Chrysalis calls after me. Four or five other changelings are buzzing after me, but that’s just a guess. I won’t look back towards Quaterholm. I won’t even venture a glance. I just run like a fool into the night. “Cocoon! Get back here!” “Leave me alone! That’s an order!” I shout. I don’t know where I’m going. I didn’t even take time to choose a direction. Before I realize what I was doing, I’d already run past the city limits. I can’t remember how long I’ve been running and I don’t know how far I am. Everything about me is a mess right now. To accent that point, I trip. “Your majesty!” All five of the changelings approach to pick me off the floor. One grabs my arm, but I jerk it free and lash out. My hand catches him across the face, knocking his helmet right off. “I said get away!” I half shout and half growl, getting back onto my feet without a helping hoof. I shoot a glance at the changeling who tried to help me. “Forgive me, your majesty,” Bloodbuzz says, lowering his head in submission. Another changeling catches my attention. “What in all of Tartarus is wrong with you?!” Chrysalis gets right into my face. I reach out and grab her around her tiny body. A small section of my brain warns me not to crush her, but I don’t intend to. There is fear in her eyes as she looks at me. It’s a look I haven’t seen from her, not genuinely. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” I tell her. “I’m hearing voices in my head. I can do all this crazy magic. All my memories are fuzzy. You tell me what’s wrong with me!” I feel Chrysalis shrinking in my grip. “Look, Cocoon, just calm down.” “No! Not this time!” I release her. I shove past Swerve and Plundergrub before me and trudge onwards. The whole group continues to follow me. “Where are you going, your majesty?” Hellwire asks from behind me. I open my mouth to answer. I have the answer. It’s right here in my mind and right on the tip of my tongue. “I have to go… to… go to…” There is nothing but static here, but still I forge ahead. “I can’t stay here, alright?” “You mean Quarterholm, your majesty?” Bragback asks. “No. I mean here, with the swarm,” I answer plainly. No one has a response this time. I hear their hooves stop while I continue forward. “So that’s it? You’re abandoning us?” I stop and turn around. The five lesser changelings have parted. Chrysalis stands beyond them, staring me down with a severe expression. “What do you even need me for?” I ask. “You fed. You’ll rebuild. I have personal matters to attend to.” “So you’re abandoning us?” she asks again. “Yes, Chrysalis, I am. I am abandoning you all. Is that what you want to hear?” I ask right back. “It’s odd, but I’m starting to fully realize the messed-up-ed-ness of my time spent here. I’d like to avoid more feeding, more killing, and more changeling shenanigans in general.” “That’s it? You’re through?” Chrysalis starts chuckling a bit for some reason. I guess it is kind of funny in some sick way. “Nopony made you feed or kill, Cocoon. Don’t think that running from us means you get away from those things! You want to survive, so you feed and kill. That’s how it works. You’re a changeling!” “But I’m not!” I shout. Two small gouts of flame burst in my open palms. The fire is gone in a flash, but I find myself staring down at my alien digits. “I’m human, Chrysalis. All this magic… it isn’t something I just suddenly picked up. I’ve been able to do it since I woke up, I’m sure of it… I’m so sure of it. I can just see the truth more clearly… or less clearly, but more fully. I don’t know how to explain it! I’m not a changeling, not at heart at least. I’m not your king, so just forget about me.” Chrysalis won’t stop glaring at me. She shakes her head, no doubt disappointed that I won’t do as she says anymore. The rest of them don’t say anything. They’re probably too stupid to figure out what’s going on anyway. “You can’t back those claims up,” Chrysalis says. “You can’t prove you’re different. You can’t prove you have some kind of remorse. You can’t prove there is any more to your situation than you can sense.” “Yeah, but this isn’t about having proof.” I turn my back on them for the last time. “This is about finding proof.” The old king is wandering the countryside. I try and keep myself from thinking too much because I’m afraid I’ll start hearing voices again. I don’t dare dwell on the voice either, especially not on how familiar that voice sounded. There is no need to use magic or spend energy. I just have to walk forward. Without any ponies or changelings around, Equestria could be mistaken for Earth in a place such as this. Earth or Equestria, nothing beats these rolling, grassy knolls that I grew up around. It’s good to remember something that is certain. I know my childhood. I remember my childhood home. The face of my mother and my father are clear in my mind. The people I’ve met, the places I’ve been, and the things I’ve done while on Earth are clear. I sense static. There it is, in the months before I left Earth. It’s a piece of the puzzle that doesn’t actually fit. It’s a bit of paint peeling off the wall. It’s finding the blinds open when you know you closed them. I can almost see what’s wrong, but just almost. It hurts how much I want to remember. Thinking about that won’t get me anywhere. I turn my attention to something else: Discord’s riddle. To be honest, I haven’t got a clue what that crazy mismatch of a creature was trying to tell me to do. There is also no guarantee that listening to him will actually be helpful. He could be setting me up for a deathtrap. It would be just like him. “It would be just like him…” That thought isn’t mine. It is, was or will be, someone else’s. It belongs to someone I know or knew. I can’t put the voice to a face or name, but I can predict its rises and falls perfectly. This is someone I know intimately. This is someone who when they spoke, I listened closely. Once more, my mind is bubbling with static. I need a distraction right about now. I don’t want to deal with all of this right now. I need it in easy doses, or at least smaller doses. It’s imperative I find a way to step back. There has to be some sort of starting point, something to go off of. I’m never going to find it if I spend all my time drowning in all these conflicting signals. Any distraction would be fine right about now. I’m suddenly aware of a low humming overhead. At first, I pass it off as an airplane, but then I remember that there are no airplanes in Equestria. I wonder if it’s the swarm coming to bring me back, but then again I figure if they were going to try that they would have done it already. Out of guesses, I stop and turn myself around. There is an airship looming a mere hundred yards behind me, but that’s not where the humming is coming from. Armored pegasus after armored pegasus are pouring out of the sides of the dirigible. They fall into a v-formation with the practice of an elite fighting force. They aren’t just heading in my direction, they’re coming right at me. It occurs to me that I am still King Cocoon of the Changelings in the eyes of the law. It is time to run. I curse my wings for being unable to grant me the gift of flight, but even if I could fly I don’t know if I could outrun this military outfit. Part of me hopes the voices in my head will speak up and tell me how to magically fly away. I could try teleporting, but I’m too panicked to recall exactly how it’s supposed to be done. I know I have the knowledge, but I’m too focused on my pursuers to muddle through the static and find it. Shadows fall over me. Running won’t do me any good now, so I skid to a halt and prepare to fight. I raise a hand to fire some spell into the air, but I hesitate. The pegasi are so dense as they circle the air around me that there is no way I’d miss, but I still hesitate. I can’t do it, or rather I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to hurt them. Even with all my power, I find myself powerless. A chain lasso finds its way around my outstretched hand. A tug from the other end tightens it around my wrist and almost lifts me into the air. I pull back with my arm and reach up with my free hand to keep them from dragging me off. Another lasso wraps around both my wrists. I keep pulling, but another lasso falls around my shoulders. It tightens, pinning my arms to my sides and my wings to my back. I struggle, but my feet leave the ground. The pegasi get closer. They lasso my legs together before I can kick them away. While I’m distracted, another pegasus drops down right in front of my face. I recognize him. “Here you go. I’ve got a present from Louise!” Summitplunge shouts before he slaps an iron around my neck like a collar. I hear it clamp behind my neck like a normal iron, but once it’s secure I can feel that this isn’t a normal restraint. A jolt runs down my spine and through my arms, numbing me for a frightening moment. “And here’s a present from me!” The burly pegasus punches me across the face, leaving a smarting cut on my left cheek. “Shrimp, Plunger! Is that all you’ve got?” I ask him, still struggling against the restraints the best I can. I try using magic or transforming to break free, but there is no response. Something tells me this collar isn’t just to make my neck uncomfortable. Unable to resist capture, I’m lifted up, up and away. “Lucky for you, that is all.” Summitplunge whistles up to the pegasi carrying me and motions to move towards the airship. “We’ve got orders to capture you alive.” “What? Did Celestia decide I’d make a nice statue in the garden?” I meant that as a joke, but I realize that’s a frightening prospect. “We might be capturing you alive, but don’t think that means we’ll be keeping you alive.” I don’t know why his statement surprises me. It’s not like being captured is a good thing. I’m in the jailhouse now. Well, this isn’t the jailhouse, but the ship’s hold is close enough. The good news is I’m not overburdened with chains anymore, but the bad news is my hands are tied behind my back with a rope and the silencing collar is still around my neck. I expected Lou to come down here and give me an earful, but after some careful consideration I realized that wouldn’t be her style. It’s like this: she probably isn’t happy that I’m being taken alive. That mare wants to ride into Canterlot with my head on a spike. That’s a gruesome exaggeration, but you get the idea. She won’t come down here and acknowledge that there is some purpose in keeping me alive. If I wait, I bet I’ll see her at my execution. I’m sure she’ll be ticked if she isn’t the one carrying it out. At least, that’s what I think. I’ve had plenty of time to think down here. I was thinking about escaping, but that’s decidedly impossible right now. I started thinking about how to appeal to my captors. I’ve come to two conclusions: 1) nopony around here is going to sympathize with me and 2) Lou and Plunger should totally get together. Yeah, I ship that. Together, they can have psychotic little foals. I can’t get this image of the two of them as old ponies sitting together by the fire with my head fixed over the mantle out of my head. “Hey! You’ve got a visitor!” A guard is looking at me from outside my cell. I thought for a second he was talking to somepony else, but I’m currently the only thing incarcerated down here. I assume it’s Plunger or maybe even Lou come down to poke some fun at me, but the truth is far more shocking. “Y’all ‘aven’t changed much.” It’s Sweet Tea. What else can I say? It’s friggen’ Sweet Tea standing outside my cell. It’s not exactly the proper response, but I start laughing when the irony of the situation sinks in. “Oh, how the tables have turned! How have you been, little lady? How’s Quickdraw? Last time I saw him he was trapped under a couch.” “Still think yer right?” she asks me. This version of Sweet Tea is such a big contrast to the one I first met. She looks tired and strained. There is no life behind her eyes, just anger. I guess it’s my fault. “Yeah, I’m still right.” I assume she’s talking about my desire to send all the humans home. I’m still right. I’ve been right all along. Yeah… I’ve been right all along. I’ve been right since… since… I can’t remember. There is static. There is static all around some argument for sending humans home, some knowledge I had but lost. I feel dread sinking into my gut. It’s important. It’s terribly, awfully, cataclysmically important. I need to remember. It’s the whole reason he... and I… the reason we… we? “No point in arguin’ with you,” Sweet Tea says, almost to herself. I guess I can understand her sentiment: why argue with the loser? “Ah’m goin’ back to Appleloosa with Quickdraw. We’ll live happily, an’ there ain’t nothin’ you kin do about it.” “Yeah… seems that way,” I say, pulling a bit against my manacles. “You know, you could at least thank me.” “What do Ah ‘ave to thank you fer?” she asks. “I didn’t do to Appleloosa what I did to Quarterholm,” I tell her. “I was just there for you, but I could’ve been a bit more cruel with how I handled that.” Sweet Tea’s expression changes, but it’s to one of confusion as she cocks her head and raises an eyebrow. Surely, she has to know about Quarterholm. This ship looked like it was coming from the direction of Quarterholm, so it has to know. “Ah don’t know what yer talkin’ about,” Sweet Tea says. She’s not lying. There isn’t any reason for her to lie. She doesn’t know about Quarterholm. “I attacked Quarterholm. Last time I saw it, the population was being drained of their love and then left for dead. You must know about it!” There are a few moments of silence. Sweet Tea exchanges a concerned glance with the guard outside my cell. This ship has to know about Quaterholm. Sompony has to know. If nopony knows, the citizens of Quarterholm could be dying without one bit of help from the outside. If nopony helps them, the feeding I ordered turns into the massacre I ordered. “You’re bluffing,” Sweet Tea says at last. “Just like with Ponyville.” “No, no, no! You don’t understand!” I yell, standing up in my cell. I get close to the bars and look her directly in the eyes. “Quaterholm needs help. You’ve got to get them to turn this tub around and go back!” “Ah ain’t gonna fall fer that.” Sweet Tea turns to leave. I can’t think of anything else to say. I have no credibility. Nopony on this ship is crazy enough, or the right kind of crazy, to listen to me. “Hey! Where is this ship coming from?” I ask the guard through the bars. He regards me momentarily through the corner of his eye. He takes his time deciding if my question is worth an answer. “Ponyville.” “What was it doing there?” “None of your business.” The guard doesn’t say a word more, even after I ask him a few more times. I may as well be talking to my cell bars. I can’t say I didn’t warn them about Quarterholm. It doesn’t absolve me of my crimes, but it’s fun imagining Sweet Tea’s face when word finally gets out. I wonder if she’ll feel guilty or foolish. If it confuses her about the nature of my character, that would be an added bonus. Thinking about that keeps me entertained for another five minutes or so, but after that I’m left to ruminate about whatever else. I still can’t remember a lot of important things. There really isn’t anything I can do about that. There isn’t anything I will be able to do about it. This is the endgame. This is the walk to the scaffold. *creak* The entire airship makes a sound airships shouldn’t be making. If I were on an airplane, this would be the part where the pilot comes on and tries to play it off as turbulence to keep everybody from panicking. The ship lurches violently again, right before I feel myself start to slide towards one side of my cell. We’re going down. The guard has already booked it out of here, but luckily he left the door out of here open. There are still cell bars between me and that exit, but the reason I’m happy he neglected to close the door is the fact that I can hear what’s going on now. “-get everypony to the escape balloons!” “We need more stallions to hold it off!” “Keep it from flying too close, watch out for the head!” “Don’t let the rig catch on fire!” “Everypony evacuate! Dragon off the portside!” This could either be really good or really bad for me. I try to imagine scenarios where the dragon rends my bars open and I’m able to escape, but that seems unlikely. The more plausible scenario is the one where the airship crashes, catches on fire, and then I get barbequed, so this is actually really bad for me. Shrimp… Other than the dragon screeching outside, it gets really quiet on board the ship. I can still feel it going down, but I think the evacuation was successful. That’s great for everypony else, but crappy for me. The best I can do to preserve myself is roll under the pony-sized cot and brace for impact. The crash is loud, bumpy, and all-around terrifying. It lasts a long time too: over a minute. It all ends with one, final, screeching impact. I keep still for another five minutes, just in case something else terrible happens. I don’t know if this airship is going to explode or burn up, but I squirm out from under the cot and survey the damage to my cell. The roof above me has caved a bit, bending the bars out a little. The bars were already a bit wide, but now there is an opening just wide enough for a beanpole like me to slip out of. My head passes through easily, and the hardest part of getting out is keeping my balance while I try to pull my legs out. I end up falling onto my face, but once that happens I’m free. I get up and make my way out the door, which isn’t easy since the entire ship seems to be leaning to the side ever so slightly. I stumble up the stairs and out the door, which has been torn from its hinges. I make my way down a hallway and out another shattered door before I’m out on the deck. Once I’m outside, I realize why the crash was so magnificent. The front of the airship is crammed right into a cliff face that goes up quite a ways. All around are tall, leafy trees. One or two coniferous trunks jut out of the deck, piercing the ship like wooden spears. I’m glad one of those wasn’t positioned under me. Looking around, I catch my next break: a broken window. It’s an odd operation to perform, but I manage to lean forward and catch the rope binding my hands on a jagged edge of glass. After sawing at it for a minute or two, the rope is thin enough for me to snap by my own power. I remove the rest of the rope from around my wrists, returning all my motor functions to me. With one leap, I jump off the ship and flutter down to the forest floor. “It’s good to be free again!” I say to myself. I don’t expect an answer, but I swear I hear a muffled groan somewhere on my right. Curious, I venture over to see if some other, poor soul is on the forest floor with me. I have to push through some tall grass to get to the source of the noise, but I do indeed find somepony: Summitplunge sprawled out on his side. I lean down and examine his body. From what I can tell, he should be just fine. The fall couldn’t have hurt too bad since he’s wearing a helmet and body armor, but for whatever reason he appears to be unconscious and unresponsive. On a hunch, I reach my hand around and under his body where his other wing should be. His body twitches and he groans again. I’m no wing doctor, but I think he screwed his wing up. I poke my head up to see if there’s anypony around to help the poor guy. I know he’s been a total rump to me, but that’s no excuse to leave him to die out here. If he can’t fly, he can’t get out of here. Come to think of it, I can’t fly. I can’t get out either, save for walking. Before I can plan my exit from the forest, I see something in a glade beyond me. “Hello? Is anypony here?” I recognize the voice instantly. It’s none other than my mortal enemy, Lou. I really don’t want to deal with her, but she’d be happy to help Summitplunge out. I almost call out to her, but then I see she’s levitating a spear in front of her. I quickly duck back down into the safety of the long grass. Knowing Lou, she’ll spear me before I can direct her towards Summitplunge. Well, if she doesn’t recognize me she won’t spear me. All I have to do is morph into a different pony and grab her attention. The only problem with that is I still can’t use magic. This dumb collar is keeping me from using it. I reach up and feel around for some kind of latch or lock, but I can’t find anything. As a last ditch effort, I grab it and try to yank it apart. A little click reaches my ears as the circle comes apart. I remove the collar and just stare down at the easily removed contraption. Now that I think about it, a pony without magic wouldn’t have the ability to reach up and grip the collar to do that. Score one for fingers. Wanting not to waste time, I morph into Summitplunge. He’s probably the safest bet for not getting skewered. I clear my throat as I emerge from the grass. “Hey! Over here!” I call out to Lou, waving my hoof in the air. Lou spins around and locks eyes with me. She hesitates, which makes me wonder if I’m actually disguised or not. “S… Summit? …Summit!” Lou drops her spear and dashes towards me. I guess my disguise is working. Lou is running like Tartarus right at me, and as she gets closer I think I see a tear in her eye and a look of genuine distress on her face. I can’t help but feel that something is… off. “You’re okay!” Lou doesn’t stop until she rams right into me, wrapping her forehooves around my neck. She squeezes me, really tight. With all the red flags going up, I get a whiff of food. “Uh… Louise, I ne-” “Just call me Lou,” she says. That is all she says before she puts her hooves on my shoulders, leans in, and plants a big wet one right on my lips.