A wolf, as big as any adult pony, crouched in the bushes. His fur was a dark ash gray and his face was just a slightly lighter tint. His eyes were a faint red and his ears were long and swiveled about. His fangs were large and almost sparkled in the moonlight. He had massive dark paws, a barrel chest, and a long shaggy tail. Finally, he had four 3-inch thick screws jutting from his back. The screws straddled his spine; two between his shoulder blades, two in his lower back.
He was watching his next kill intently. Shadaico had just finished talking with Nash and thought he could get a bite before he ran off. He thought he was getting better at hunting and he did enjoy the kill. Shadaico found it fun when the blood of his victim went spraying everywhere. He knew he was supposed to be turning his life around, that he had a second chance and he shouldn’t waste it, but he couldn’t help it. When your whole life’s been filled with violence and the need to kill, it’s hard to change in such a short time. If killing intelligent creatures was wrong, what about non-intelligent? Shadaico figured that killing them wasn’t a sin, as long as he intended to eat them. Why not add in a little play while he ate though? As a result of that thinking, he could have fun while killing and then enjoy a healthy meal.
Shadaico had also been afraid that rabbits and deer wouldn't taste very good raw, but he was surprised when they tasted just as good, if not better. The rabbit he was hunting now was moving away slightly, getting closer and closer to the village. He knew from observations that the ponies were a developing society with magic capabilities and that put them off limits to hunting, but the stupid rabbit was heading that way. He didn’t need the ponies finding a bunch of animals ripped apart in the middle of town!
Shadaico made a quick decision and lunged out of the bush and pounced on the bunny. It had only enough time to stand tall and stare at its attacker before he had his powerful jaws around its head. In a quick motion, he snapped its neck, and then removed the head. Blood gushed from his mouth as he chomped away at the head, skull and all.
One bloody meal later and Shadaico got up to leave. His most recent feeding had been probably the least gruesome. Blood only covered the area where the rabbit had actually been when he attacked and ate it, not on every tree and bush for a hundred yards. Shadaico looked through the trees where a small stone bridge crossed a thin stream; beyond it was the main road through town. As much as he would have loved to just go prancing down the street, stealth was going to be key. He needed to get into that mindset as soon as possible.
Shadaico made his way along the outskirts of town, doing his best to stay low and walk quietly. Despite his size and lack of skill in this area, he was surprisingly good at moving quickly without making a sound. I’m just good at everything I do, he thought to himself. Shadaico was on the other side of town, ready to emerge from the trees and use the main road that led to the great white castle. Just before jumping out onto the road, he heard a flapping sound. He immediately ducked down behind a shrub and waited.
Out of the sky landed a gentle blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. She was accompanied by another pegasus, this one a male. He had a black coat and a striped mohawk. What stupid hairstyles, Shadaico thought. He was one for function, not appearance. The two were saying something as they walked into town. Although, it sounded more like the blue one was yelling at the black one. What are you two doing outside at this hour? Shadaico knew it was late, but when did a pegasus go to bed anyway?
The two continued into town and Shadaico claimed the road for himself. He made sure to stay near the edge so he could dive off the path quickly should anything come up. He didn’t like sneaking around, but he had no choice with the massive screws in his back sealing the majority of his magic away. Shadaico finally turned his attention to the platinum chain wrapped tightly around his neck. It was also a seal, but he wasn’t sure just how strong it was. Shadaico growled at the thing. He wished he could tare the thing from his body, but it was designed to be indestructible.
He turned his attention skyward again. The moon rose higher in the sky with each minute that passed. The stars were beautiful. He had come to love the night sky. Shadaico remembered sitting under the stars almost every night. Being the King of Evil was a lonely life, it was hard to find a partner who wouldn’t stab you in the back, die, or just run off. But, for some reason the stars always made him feel at peace. Like there was someone next to him to comfort him. Maybe it was because his mother died looking at the stars.
Shadaico stopped walking and looked down. He inhaled slowly and forced down his tears before continuing. If there was one thing he regretted more than the life style he chose, it was being too weak to save his own mother’s life. He wondered where she went. Was she a righteous woman? Did she go to heaven? Shadaico looked up again as he walked, his eyes were becoming moist. “Where did you go?” he whispered to the stars, but he wasn’t referring to his mother…but his father.
**********************************************************************
The dark goddess was kind enough to let him look at the pictures in the book while she worked. Most of the drawings were of completely ordinary things: famous buildings, battles, social unrest, among other things. The dark creature was so nice as to leave the pages till he was done looking at the pictures. There weren’t a lot, but every page had at least one thing he could look at.
As Nash had suspected, the pony’s written language was not the same as his own either. He had no hope of reading the bizarre symbols that dominated the pages. Nash wondered if he would have to struggle and learn a whole new language or if they might have some way to just magic him into understanding them. He didn’t know enough about magic to know if that was possible. But, they probably would have done it already if they could.
The winged unicorn put the first book away and brought out a second far smaller one. The first book and been several thousand wrinkly pages, this one was maybe two hundred nice smooth pages. It still looked dirty and old, but it was far better taken care of, or just less used. The first page got Nash interested. It was a picture of a monster that looked identical to him! Nash jumped forward to get a better look at it. The colors of the paper were long faded away, but it was still clear what it was. The pages to follow only added to his curiosity. Every photo was related to the beasts! But what are they? Nash mentally asked himself.
*****
Luna’s research was turning up little useful information. She had a parchment where she was jotting down notes on her findings regarding changeling activity. There were surprisingly numerous places they had shown up. Did this mean there were other hives? Not necessarily. Luna needed to know more about how changelings lived and worked. She brought out a second book that was smaller than the first. All the research in it was old, but so were changelings.
The small changeling that sat between her and the book watched with curiosity as she opened the new tome. The first picture in the book was of the classic changeling. He immediately got closer to the picture to see it more clearly. It was a basic diagram that labeled the different body parts; their wings, their legs, their horns, etc. Luna didn’t need this page, but she let him get his eyeful. She wondered why he found a picture of his own kind so fascinating. His actions had been so very curious to her all night.
He finally sat back and let her turn the page. Again, photos and sketches dominated the pages. Most of them were of changelings in various life stages. There were a few on later pages that showed certain changeling body parts in far greater detail and explained their functions. One such sketch of a changeling’s wings got the small one’s attention again. He approached the page to get a better look.
Luna was beginning to feel sleepy and looked over at her nightstand…the clock was still gone. Luna frowned, she broke her clock everyday so she always needed a new one. Luna would have to go down to the storage room and get a new one, or send a guard. Luna looked down at the changeling as he patiently waited for her to turn the page. The current one didn’t have anything he could look at. Luna obliged him and turned the page.
Luna let him look at the pictures while she stood up. Her legs and wings were stiff. She gave her body a quick stretch. Shaking her coat a little, she went to the door and asked for two things; she asked one guard to go down and get her a new clock, and the other to learn the current time. He ran down the hall and came back immediately. It was half an hour to lower the moon. Luna was surprised it was so late/early. Returning to her room, she knew her older sister was just waking up.
She began putting things away to the tiny changeling’s dismay. She left the books on the floor by the desk, but her parchment of notes went into her nightstand. The changeling went back in the jar. He looked very cross as she placed the jar on her desk, but he was going back in sooner or later. Then the new clock arrived. She quickly set it and prepared to raise the moon. Right on time, she felt her sister begin to raise the sun as she grabbed and lowered the moon.
It was time to get dinner. Luna put the barrier spells up again and left her room to get something to eat. Once again, she gave the guards the order to kill any that tried to enter her room without her there. She wondered just how many guards even knew of the changeling and just how prepared she and Celestia were to keep him a secret.
Celestia was already at breakfast waiting for Luna. Her meal was a stack of large fluffy pancakes topped with blueberries, syrup, and a slice of butter. She didn’t want to start eating until Luna arrived, but the aroma wafting up into her nose was hard to resist. Luckily for her, Luna arrived just as she was about to bury her muzzle into the mountain of deliciousness. Luna took her seat at the long white table right next to her sister. A waiter was there in a flash and she ordered a fried zucchini plant with steamed vegetables and a salad on the side. Luna had a taste for exotic foods, a taste the chefs enjoyed trying to quench.
Celestia looked at her for moment before beginning, “how was last night?”
“It was fine,” Luna said simply as though nothing had happened.
“What did you do?” Celestia asked awkwardly. The table was devoid of any other occupants.
“I looked into the history of changelings.”
“Did you learn anything?” Celestia seemed hopeful.
“I found that changelings are well-traveled,” she offered somewhat shyly.
Celestia looked saddened by her answer, “what about the--“
“He was quiet,” she interrupted.
“Do you want me to take him?” Celestia’s tone clearly said she didn’t actually want to.
“I have something else I want to do with him today actually. If we can’t just cast a spell on him, I want to try teaching him our language the old fashion way.”
“That’s a good idea,” Celestia began to eat as though they were done talking.
“Do you feel any better?”
Celestia swallowed a large bite, “yes.”
“You didn’t permanently hurt him.”
“I know.”
“He’s not afraid of me,” Luna was trying to cheer her older sister up.
“Can we talk about something else?”
“Do any of the guards know about the changeling?” Luna thought it was important to bring that up.
“The guards who know about him have already been told to keep it a secret. Please, can we eat in silence?” Celestia gave Luna a begging look. Luna let the conversation die as she waited for her food.
*****
“So here we are…again.” Nash complained to himself as he sat alone in the jar. The dark pony had put him in the jar and run off to what he assumed was breakfast. Or dinner, considering she’d been up all night. Nash had nothing to entertain himself with. Even the clock sounded bored.
Suddenly, there was a familiar monstrous caw! Nash looked over at the balcony where an old friend was there to greet him. A black crow, with some of the feathers on his neck missing, glared daggers at him through the barrier. Nash couldn’t help but smile. It pecked at the shield as it desperately tried to get through and have another fight. Nash laughed at it. It only redoubled its efforts to get through, but the shield was way too strong for it.
Nash was amused for a while as the crow's attempts continued to fail. But at the back of his mind, it worried him. Crows were a symbol of bad luck, a foretelling of trouble. And a crow was trying to come after him, what did that mean? Nash didn’t like to admit it, but he had the horrible feeling trouble was going to come looking for him.
The dark goddess returned and she brought something new with her, a deck of cards. Nash watched the deck of cards land on the desk near him as the jar’s lid came off and floated away. He happened to notice the crow had left as the dark pony put him on the desk. She made more room on the table by placing the jar on the floor. The pony sat down in front of the table and opened the packet of cards. While she went through them and picked out the ones she wanted, Nash figured he should get comfortable.
When the pony had the five cards she wanted, the others were put away. Next, she showed Nash what was on the cards. They were simplistic sketches of three creatures and two body parts. They were basically just the outlines of a pony, a unicorn, a pegasus, a horn, and wings. He couldn’t help but frown. He didn’t want to have to learn a whole new language, because it sounded like a lot of work. Guess I should get started then, he thought unhappily.
As he suspected, she showed him one card at a time and said its name. Nash did his best to copy her each time, but the equine language was a hard thing for his throat to produce. Nash felt like an idiot trying to make the bizarre pony/horse sounds. Despite this, she smiled and nodded each time he got the pronunciations at least close to right.
*****
Luna had determined that five words would be relatively easy to learn each day, but enough that they’d actually be making progress. Though the changeling was having a hard time learning the five simple words she had picked to teach him. It wasn’t because he couldn’t remember them, rather he just couldn’t seem to get the pronunciations right. She went through the routine several times, keeping them in the same order until he finally started to get the sounds right.
Luna did her best to praise him when he got it right, and correct him when he got it wrong. She took note of his frustration whenever he failed, which was made worse when she scrambled the cards. Now he was not only fighting pronunciation, but remembering which went with which. After just over an hour of practice, he had it perfect. Luna was feeling tired and decided it was almost time for bed. Their lessons would continue tomorrow, first they’d review, and then she’d get five new cards to teach him. Luna put the cards away and prepared to go to sleep.
Just before removing her necklace and tiara, she realized he was right there watching her. It wasn’t like they wore a lot of clothing in the first place, but there was just something about having somepony of the opposite sex watch you get dressed or undressed that was embarrassing. Luna looked at him expectantly, to which he returned confused. Luna rolled her eyes and turned him around with magic.
*****
“What the--“ Nash was surprised when he suddenly did a 180 spin without moving his legs! Nash quickly tried to turn his head around, but she grabbed it with her magic and forced him to face the wall. He wanted to know what she was doing, who wouldn’t want to know what a 150 foot pony was doing right behind them? Sure she’d been nice and probably saved his life, but it was still nerve racking. Suddenly, a dark necklace and tiara crashed into the desk beside him.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Nash mumbled to himself. She didn’t wear much, but even so, she didn’t want him to see her undress? It’s just a necklace, a crown, and some shoes! It’s not like you’re changing your underwear. Nash was suddenly aware that he was blushing anyway. He’d never been in the same room as a girl changing before, no matter how small that change was. He’d had a girlfriend, but they hadn’t gone very far in the relationship before certain events took her away from him and landed him in prison.
Another thought suddenly smacked Nash at that moment too. A tiara was worn by royalty, and the creature behind him had been wearing it until a moment ago. Holy shit! I’m in the room of a princess! He was put back in his jar by a now naked dark pony princess. She had also undone the spell on her mane and it had returned to its realistic and normal look. Her eyes looked tired and her hoof falls were heavy as she waddled over to her bed. With a quick flick of magic, the alarm was set and the lamp was off.
Nash was left in the dark and thought it best to get some sleep as well. Who knew what trouble awaited him tomorrow…
Author’s Note:
I was going to include Shadaico’s attempt to break Nash out of the castle in this chapter, but I soon realized that I was up to over 6,000 words! That’s 1,000 over my established limit for each chapter and I was still going! As a result, the next chapter is pretty much written, but I still need a day or so to edit it. Plus, I’m not really good at building a tense sneaking scene. So it probably won’t be all that good when I do publish it.