//------------------------------// // Dinner // Story: Folk Tale // by Balkanboy //------------------------------// Dinner William walked alongside Queen Chrysalis, holding up one of the torches from the altar. Thanks to his magic dulling abilities, she couldn’t create any light or levitate the torches, so he had to carry them. For the entire journey he thought. About what his family must have been doing. About how long it would be before he got home. About whether this was real. He really hoped that his sister wouldn’t fret too much over his disappearance, but he was almost sure she would. It made him quite sad to think that he ruined her big day by not being there. Okay, that, the changeling queen had ruined, but it was his presence being missed, not hers. Hopefully this experience would be over soon. -Chrysalis- Chrysalis had no idea it would be that easy to trick him into helping them. Granted, there was the incentive of going home, but she hadn’t expected him to fall for the lie about the unsummoning. It was easy enough, just sacrifice another being. But she wasn’t about to do that. Not until she had gotten what she wanted. The lack of bloodlust had been a bit of a let down, but that wasn’t why she needed him so it didn’t really matter. It was probably better this way. He wasn’t putting up much of a fight, and he hadn’t tried to kill them, so it wouldn't be too hard to bend him to her will. She glanced over to him. His face gave away his unhappiness. “Did I pull you away from something important?” she said. “Just my sister’s wedding.” “Ah, yes... a wedding.” He didn’t seem to notice her slightly odd reaction. “I hope it was going well?” “It was. Though don’t know how it’s going now that 200 people just witnessed a man disappear.” His voice had a sharp edge to it. She didn’t have enough energy left in her to do anything about it so she let it go. -William- As far as he could see, snow covered the land. The treetops of a forest could barely be seen on the horizon as snow started to fall in greater amounts. William assumed that the village would be there as it seemed to be the only part of the landscape that offered protection from the gale force winds that were now threatening to topple him over. His assumption turned out to be right as they left the gaping maw that was the entrance to the caverns and marched straight towards it, William now lagging behind as he forced his way through the snow. Every now and again they would stop to allow him to catch up, the queen looking quite impatient but never saying anything. He had a feeling it was because she was worried he would leave them should she offend him, which he probably wouldn’t since there was nowhere else to go. He thought he noticed something moving across the sky to his right, and when he looked it turned out there was a silhouette of something in the distance flying across the horizon. “Hey uh, Queen Chrysalis. What is that?” he said, pointing to the object in question. She gave it a glance, but didn’t stop. “That? It’s just a dragon.” Wait, dragons? Of course, why not dragons? First magic then changelings, now there were dragons as well! Who knew what next! Maybe there were faeries, hell maybe there were even hydras! To the changelings he appeared to be taking all of it quite well. The truth was that his mind was in the process of melting as it tried to process all of the new information he had been greeted with. He had asked very few questions and accepted a lot without hesitation not because he was okay with all of it, but because he was not okay with it, not at all. His mind was still processing everything that had been done and said, and all that was still happening. If he stopped to consider all these things in their entirety he was sure he would pass out. When they made it to the forest he found the wind died down considerably. He wasn’t so cold anymore, but he still shook, his arms folded to keep them warm. “Why are you so cold? I thought humans loved the cold,” the queen said, raising an eyebrow. He would have to ask about these legends soon. He was wondering how much they had gotten wrong. “Not really. If I had a jacket or something, I’d be better,’ he said. Chrysalis turned to one of the changelings that was carrying a saddlebag and nodded. Another one walked over to it and looked around inside, eventually pulling out a small yellow scarf then walking over to William and holding it out for him. “Will this do?” she asked. “Yeah, uh, perfect,” he said. He thanked the changeling as he took it from... it and wrapped the wool round his neck. Already it felt better not having his neck exposed, though his ears still stung. They continued on their trek for a good hour until she stopped to tell two changelings to go ahead and scout. They ran off into the woods, much faster than he could sprint he was sure. He was glad for the stop because it allowed him to rest. He wasn’t used to anything beyond a short walk to the shops. An hour of walking through the snow was hell for his legs. “They have wings, why don’t they just fly?” She looked at him like he was some kind of idiot. “Because of the dragon.” That didn’t really answer his question. “But it was so far away, why would it care?” She sighed. “You don’t have dragons where you come from do you?” He shook his head. “They’re extremely protective of their air space. They also have very, very fine eyesight. If we tried to fly it would spot us easily, even in this weather.” He decided there was no point in asking any more questions. She obviously knew what she was doing so he left it at that. When the scouts eventually came back they reported a settlement. This seemed to please Chrysalis a fair bit, and she informed the group that they would be eating soon. Eating what, though? He didn’t ask but he really hoped she didn’t mean the inhabitants of the village. After some more walking they made it to what he was told was the outskirts of the village. He couldn’t see the town, but he could definitely hear it. Chrysalis turned to him. “Human-” “My name’s William,” he interrupted. She didn’t look happy. “Sorry, it’s just annoying to be called ‘human’ all the time.” “William, then, you stay here while the changelings and I go get some food,” she said. He just nodded. All of the changelings closed their eyes and... nothing happened. He watched them, waiting for them to get a move on. When they opened their eyes they seemed to be frustrated, by what he couldn’t tell. They did it again and still nothing happened. One of the changelings addressed Queen Chrysalis. “Your majesty, I think I know what the problem is. The human is affecting our shape shifting abilities.” ‘Oh my god I’m an idiot,’ he thought. They were changelings. The clue was in the name and he still hadn’t gotten it. To be fair, his mind wasn’t very stable at that moment, but he still chastised himself for it. “William, leave us, please,” she asked flatly. “We’ll be back soon, just don’t go too far.” He nodded and started walking away from the village until he was a good 50 metres away from them, his view of them obscured by the trees, then, brushing the snow off, sat down on a rock. A white fox emerged from behind a tree and padded up to him, unsure of what he was and whether or not it should be scared. He watched it, fascinated. It wasn’t very often you got to see a wild animal up close, even if it was just a fox. His rumbling stomach scared the fox away. When he realised what had happened he laughed, first softly, then progressively louder and with more force. Soon he was in a fit, lying on the ground trying but failing to calm himself down. At first it had been about the fox, but then as he thought more and more about the day’s events he had found it so insane and fantastical that he couldn’t stop himself. Eventually he stopped and wiped a tear from his eye. His sudden outburst surprised him but he felt a lot better now. He didn’t have the same sense of dread that he had been feeling before when he was told that he couldn’t be returned home. His stomach rumbled again. When were they going to get back? “These tracks, I’ve never seen anything like this before...” said White. She knelt down next to the print. “Is this some kind of shoe?” Snow Storm moved beside her and looked down. “Probably. Maybe an Equestrian tourist? I hear they have all kindsa’ fancy clothing there,’ he said, removing his snow goggles to get a better look. “Snow, Equestria’s borders are at least a 100 miles from here across the sea. Why would they come all the way out here?” He shrugged. She had also noticed the hoof-prints alongside them. “What about these Snow. Pony or changeling?” He squinted at them. “I can’t rightly tell White. They’re too similar to ours. Don’t you know some kind of spell for these things?” She shook her head grinning. “Magic can’t solve everything. I do know how we can find out though.” She got up and started following the tracks. “They’re quite faint. With this weather that means they probably aren’t too far ahead.” “Do you seriously want to follow these? It’s getting late, soon there won’t be any light,” he said. She pointed towards where the prints led off to. “These are headed towards the village.” The grey pegasus stallion sighed. “We may as well then. Stay alert. If these tracks belong to changelings we're in for a fight.” She nodded and began moving. It had been an hour now.  The sun was low and the changelings still weren't back.  He had taken to drawing in the snow with a stick, looking up once in a while to check if they had come back yet. At one point he was sure he had seen something moving in the distance but chalked it up to his hunger. He took a moment to admire his masterpiece; a stick man eating a badly drawn hamburger.  He wrote the name ‘William’ under it and nodded his head in agreement with himself.   Then he turned round and walked back towards the village.  It would make it easier for them to find him if he was closer. -White- “What’s it supposed to be?” whispered Snow, craning his neck, at the same time trying to stay low.   “I think it’s supposed to be that monster... eating something?” White looked back up at the beast as it walked further away, then back down.  “Yeah, definitely eating something.”   Snow shuffled closer. “That kind of looks like a... pony...”  They looked at each other.  Then up at the monster, taking note of his direction.  Then back at each other. Snow was the first to get up.  Before she could protest, he was off. His heart was pumping fast as he neared his target.  It pumped faster when his wings failed him.  -William- The sound of snow crunching behind him was evident to William.  He spun round to see what it was. Oh, just a... pegasus.  It was lying face on its stomach, face in the snow.  It had crashed, as evidenced by the trail he had left behind him.  It was groaning and muttered something, its words muffled in the snow. “Hey buddy, you okay?” Immediately the pegasus shot up and then froze when it saw him.  He noticed that there was blood trickling down its nose. “Damn, how fast were you travelling?”  He started moving closer to it.  “You could’ve killed y-  Hey wait!”   At the mention of the word kill it panicked, screamed then turned and broke out into a sprint, managing to put some distance between them, still looking at William.  As a result it smacked itself against a tree.  The impact knocked it out, and more blood started pouring out of his nose. Well that was certainly interesting. He took a step forward towards where the pegasus lay. “Stop!” a  feminine voice called out.  He complied. A unicorn emerged from a bush to his left, pointing her horn at him.  Obviously he was supposed to be scared by this but it just looked a bit odd to him.  She moved over to what he now assumed was her friend and gasped. “What did you do to him?” she demanded with a horrified expression.  “N-nothing.” “You’re lying.”  Her horn started to glow.  “Tell me what you did!” “Nothing, I swear!  He hit his head on the floor then ran into a tree!”  That had sounded better in his mind. She seemed shocked, but that quickly turned to anger as she let off a bolt of energy at him.  He shut his eyes waiting for the hit... but it never came.  He opened them to see that she was, once more, shocked.  Again she fired, then again and again, but each time it fizzed out when it got close enough to him. He smiled and started moving closer.  The closer he came, the dimmer her horn got. “Look, I don’t want to hurt you.  If you just let me help-” “Snow, get up!” She shook the pegasus, waking him almost instantly. “W-wha?  What happened?” The stallion, as William now realized, said.  The mare grabbed him by the fore-hoof and pulled him up. “Snow, run!  It’s coming!” Snow looked round and saw that the human was walking towards them at a leisurely pace, hands raised up. “Guys come on.  I don’t want to-” They didn’t listen to him.  Instead they ran off into the forest not even pausing to look back.  If this was how all the ponies were going to treat him, it was probably for the best he stuck with the changelings.  At least they didn’t try to kill him. --- The man warmed his hands against a fire he had managed to start with a lighter he’d forgotten he’d had. “I’ll never take warmth for granted again...” he said to himself. The moon was up now and the changelings had yet to show their faces.  He was wondering if they’d ever come back. “William.”  He almost jumped.  Chrysalis was suddenly next to him.  “I see you’ve already got the fire going.  You like your meat cooked then?”  He raised his eyebrow. “Usually, yeah...” What was she getting at? He looked up at her.  “Why, do you have any?” A changeling appeared out of a bush holding a sack in one of its hooves. It laid it down in front of him carefully. “Yes, as a matter of fact I do.” Oh wow.  Maybe Chrysalis wasn't so bad after all.. “What, uh, what kind of meat is it?”  She smiled and walked round the small camp fire. “It’s a surprise, one I’m sure you’ll enjoy.” The suspense was getting to him.  He started undoing the rope that was keeping it shut.  Please let it be beef, please let it be beef, please let it be- The sack opened up to reveal... ...a shivering filly, her head in her hooves. Oh you have got to be kidding.