//------------------------------// // FlutterFly // Story: Monstrous Metamorphosis // by DreamCatcher //------------------------------// FlutterFly She nearly screamed but an oddly flattened paw slapped around her muzzle, sealing it up like a slab of tape. Twilight gave a muffled sound of protest, bucking her head to try to get the miniturized draconeqeous off of her head. "Look," Discord hissed tersely. "I realized I just dumped a lot on you at once but we don't exactly have the luxury of time right now. If you want to save your friends, much less Equestria, calm down and listen to me." The mare breathed heavily, desperately trying to calm herself. Her heart raced as her eyes darted around the hive trying to process all of what had happened. "Now listen, I can help you find your little friends and snap them out of it like I did you, on one condition." Twilight felt the paw slip away from her mouth, finally letting her speak. She took a couple deep breathes before attempting to look at the tiny lizard like creature on her head. "Wh- what condition is that?" she asked quietly, backing up further into her corner. "The first one you have to save is-..." Discord frowned a bit, clearing his throat. "You save Fluttershy first, got it? I'll tell you where she is, you snap her out of it, I help you save the others. Now snap to it." "F-Fluttershy? Where is she? I-" the mare shook her head, glaring at the top of her head. "How do I know this isn't just some elaborate prank of yours?" She heard a loud indignant scoff then saw a brief flash of light as Discord teleported in front of her. "You wound me dear Twilight," he pressed a handkerchief to his forehead, clutching at his heart. "Do you really think this looks like my work? Honestly, look at it! So dark and dull, not a single pie to be seen! Why would I make such a boring reality? Please, I have standards." The spirit huffed a bit, zapping back atop her head and curling around her horn. "Besides, even if you don't know if it's a 'prank' or not, can you really afford to take that chance, hmm?" he said in a half mocking, half hissing tone. "I..." No, she really couldn't. Even if she had no way of knowing any of this was real, if it was real she had to act, and either way if she was stuck in this horrid place she was going to have to find her friends if they had any chance of fixing this. "Where is Fluttershy?" she asked. "Oh, so you finally decided to be smart? Here I was all ready to curl up with a good book given how long you were taking," Discord sighed and though Twilight couldn't see he was, in fact, curled up with book that had taken on the flexibility of a blanket. "Now then..." Twilight felt one of Discord's bird talons tap the top of her forehead and images flashed through her mind. She saw, as if she was running through the 'building', the way to Fluttershy. It felt like she was disembodied, flying through the twisted, gnarled tunnels of the hive, through holes and into a large chamber filled with huge, wriggling larvae where a single changeling with a pale pink mane- "Ah-!" Twilight shook her head, the images leaving her. "Good, now that you know where she is, get going," Discord snapped, impatient. "I- wait a minute, Discord, if you want this done couldn't you just do it yourself? I mean, you know...just snap your fingers? You could do that to make Equestria turn into pure chaos but you can't make everything normal?" Twilight frowned. "Oh well I suppose I could do that, if it wasn't for your precious princess slapping a leash on me, no thanks to you." "What? What are you talking about? How did any of this even happen? I-" "Oh for the love of-! Look, I'm not saying another word to you until you get to Flutters, all right? We can play twenty questions later, so for now, get moving and I'm zipping my lips!" Discord scoffed and then finished by literally zipping his mouth up. Twilight gritted her teeth, resisting the temptation to buck him off. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right though, first priority was finding her friends. She took off at a gallop, trying to ignore the weird way the air moved through the holes in her legs as she made her way down the tunnels as she had been shown. Several times she stopped to hide from passing changelings. Some of them looked like the ones that had attacked at her brother's wedding, some of them had some shape and color to their manes and eyes. "Discord why are they different?" she whispered, trying to ignore the feeling she already knew. "Why don't I look like those normal ones? Shouldn't-" A small, disembodied Discord arm showed up in front of her snout holding a sign that read 'Shut up and get going', along with some sarcastic expletives which Twilight decided to ignore for then. The entire way there was like a nightmare, recognizing the halls of the castle- what was once the castle, turned into a twisted hive of monsters. Her heart kept pounding and she tried desperately to keep herself calm, trying to ignore her racing thoughts. Where was her brother? Her parents? The princesses? The rest of her friends? How had all of this happened? She couldn't remember what happened before this, how it had happened... Then she finally found the chamber, peeking inside. It was a hatchery of sorts, that much was obvious. Strange wriggling black grubs hatched from holes in the wall, crawled along the ground. They were bloated, with tiny wings, multiple legs and now eyes to speak of but large, gaping maws. That in itself was horrifying enough without seeing what had happened to Fluttershy. Like Twilight, she still retained some aspects of her pink mane, despite its paleness and the mottled holes in the 'hair', as well as the blue eyes. However, her eyes were...blank, glazed, she walked around mindlessly, with the larvae, caring for them. The 'caring' itself was horrific,Fluttershy would lick the horrid creatures clean of slime with her tongue, bring green globs of- Twilight wasn't sure- over to the larvae which would dig into it greedily. They would gobble up and then excrete a foul smelling slime which Fluttershy simply lowered her head and ate up, cleaning up after them. It was as horrific as it was disgusting, even despite Twilight knowing that that sort of behavior was common for insects that were 'nursing' the young... "This is...h- how do I snap her out of it? My memory spell? Will that work?" she whispered. There was a muffled sound followed by a quick unzipping one, Discord taking a deep breath. "Sorry about that, forgot I had zipped up; as for your question yes that was the plan," Discord said, leaning against her ear. "I'll need to give you a hand as well though, it's a bit more difficult then simply warping their personality. I only managed with you because you have a lot more magic power than the average pony. Now then, I suggest sneaking up on her, get her from behind and then I'll join in." Twilight hesitated, scanning her changeling-ed friend. There was no one else around, it shouldn't be too difficult, right? It was Fluttershy, changeling or not it would be very odd if she were not the passive mare she knew...still, she would be careful, just in case. Twilight took a deep breath then entered the chamber while Fluttershy's back was turned, creeping along best she could while trying not to step on any of the wriggling larvae. She finally got close enough, preparing to spring on the mare and pin her before she could fly away- Suddenly, Fluttershy turned, locking eyes with Twilight. Twilight froze, staring back at her. "What is it?" Fluttershy asked in a flat monotone, seemingly unaffected by her presence. Twilight fidgeted, hesitating. "Don't you recognize me?" she asked slowly. "Recognize? No," Fluttershy responded flatly. "Did you need something?" The first mare frowned. "It's me, Twilight, don't you remember me Fluttershy?" Fluttershy stared at her blankly, the barest twitch of her wings. A dim green glow entered her eyes- "No no no! You stupid pony!" She heard Discord shout. "You've given yourself away-!" Before Twilight could register what had happened, Fluttershy, gentle, demure Fluttershy, had lunged at her, tackling her to the ground. She opened her mouth wide, showing cruel fangs as she hissed down into her face with a demonic roar. Twilight half expected to wake up in her bed, panting from a nightmare.