//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 (Re-write) 
// Story: To Change With the Moon 
// by DJ-LUN3RDA5H 
//------------------------------//

"I am Princess Celestia. Can you understand me?"

Her words were slowly paced and sounded clearly, as if she were talking to an infant. I looked at her, noticing that her eyes were searching me for something, but I couldn't quite grasp what it was. I sighed, it was probably better to cooperate with her, than end up in a far worse situation. The full realization of which quickly dawned on me. I was not simply trapped in a cell or dreaming. I had awoken in a different world, seemingly impossible yet so real.

Before I lost myself in thought, I remembered where I was. I gave a short bow of my head to show respect.  "Greetings, Princess Celestia. My name is John, and if you don't mind me asking, where am I and what I'm doing here?". There was a short pause after I spoke. She gazed - no, leered at me in such a fashion that caused me to lightly frown in return. 

"Good. You can speak. To answer your question, you are currently in a holding cell for questioning. So now that we are acquainted with each other,  let us begin. First off you will not speak until spoken to. Second you will do anything I say, and finally you will not ask any more questions unless you are given permission to. Am I Clear?" The sudden change in her mood surprised me a little, but I nodded to show that I was listening. "Good now tell me how and why you were in my sisters bed chambers."

I then understood why she was so serious and direct. I knew I wouldn't be nearly as gentle, if things where the other way around. I knew I had to say something as she was expecting an answer, but would she believe me? Throwing caution to the wind, I decided to answer truthfully...

"Well... I have no idea how I got there at all. Last thing I remember is going out drinking then I woke up in your sisters room."

"HA. So you forgot the entire night before because you were in a drunken stupor? What a sad excuse for a living being, tell me. What are you and where do you come from?" 

Willing myself to stay calm, and ignore how rude she was being I answered her question. "I am from Earth. There, the dominant race of intelligent beings are known as humans. There are other species that share the world , but none have been found yet that show the same level of intellect and complex thought process."

She opened her mouth to ask another question but was interrupted when my stomach sounded it's desire for food. She looks at me with a raised eyebrow as I smirked back. "Sorry, guess I'm kinda hungry."

"Hmph, Very well. I could do with a lunch break myself, but before we continue, please tell me what does 'human' diet usually consist of?"

"Humans are omnivorous, and we try to balance our diets between various fruits, vegetables, grains, meats, and dairy products." after some more thought I added, "Also, could I also get some water to drink, please. I'm rather thirsty." She gave me a nod and left the room, after the door locked. All sounds from outside the room where effectively cut off, leaving me once again to my own thoughts, and once again, alone.

I was used to being alone.  After my family was broken up I spent years never really connecting with anyone for long. I grew up with a large family, my father was a sort of "head of the house" so to speak. I always was treated nice. Then there were my many uncles. Most of them weren't really related to me by blood at all but our group was a close knit one so every one referred to each-other as family. I had many brothers and sisters there were about thirteen of us, I was the only child to my two parents, while every one else was a child from my uncles or were just adopted into the family. I was the third oldest of my generation, but due to my status as my fathers child I was to inherit his position as head of house. Something which I failed at miserably when it was thrust upon me suddenly. A shiver traveled down my spine, every time the memory washes over me. I absolutely hate myself for what happened.

I got up from the floor and moved over to the ill fitting bed to lay down. Due to my height I was unable to lay on the bed without one part of my body hanging off the edge. It was a small bed that was almost square, I figured that it wasn't built for me so it's shape and size would have been better suited for others that native to this land. Though what was confusing to me was that the princess was just a bit larger than me. So this bed would be even more uncomfortable to her. Did she give me a small bed on purpose, was she trying to torture me through minor inconveniences and tiny annoyances?

My answer came three hours later with my "lunch", the door to the room opened which aloud me to pick up the familiar sound of three different heartbeats.However when the door opened no one came inside the room, instead a tray was pushed inside the room and the door was shut and locked afterwards leaving me in silence once again and alone.

The meal wasn't bad by any standers it consisted of scrambled eggs which really didn't surprise me. How would they be able to make any other kind of eggs? Also there was one of the best apples I have ever eaten and a pitcher of water with a glass. The meal was basically made just to help me stave off my hunger for a few more hours so nothing fancy. After I was done with the meal I placed everything back on the tray and put it on the floor in front of the door. But I kept the cup still filled with one glass of water for myself. For the next two hours I took a nap... dreamless sleep. 

When I woke up, I just let myself lay there with my eyes open. Letting my mind wander over the past few hours of the day I had been having. I looked over to the door and noticed that they must have taken the used food tray with them. I turned my head and looked at the glass of water the glass with perfectly smooth sides, in a perfect cylinder shape, and I thought back to the fork I ate my eggs with. A though formed in my mind and I lay there completely confused as to how they would use those objects without any hands. All they had where hooves and wings. Maybe they could manipulate the glass or utensils with their wings but that would be very difficult. I sat up on the bed making a mental note to ask when the Princess comes back.

After another hour and a half or so... I'm just guessing at this point it has to have been the greater part of a day since I first woke up, maybe its even been two days. I was unable to tell time at all, there are no windows, no clock, no sound to hear any outside activities. Its just past, present, and uncertain future to me at this point. I decided it was best for me to attempt to sleep again. I lay down on the bed and drift off into sleep.

I "dreamt" of the past once again.


~{T}~{C}~{W}~{t}~{M}~

I was in my room, Upstairs in the east wing of the house. With me were two of my younger siblings and my elder brother. The the first shot rang out, it was loud, but muffled by the thick walls of the estate. I'd heard a gunshot before, back when my father took me and my brothers out shooting to show me how to shoot a gun and how to react if someone pulls one on me. So this was no new noise to me, but this... this was different this wasn't shot outside, in our woods or on a range this was in our house, my home.

Another shot rang out, and at that I found myself on my feet racing toward the source of the sound at speeds I normally refrained from. When I made it to the balcony of the main hall, I saw that our large front doors where wide open and as I looked over the railing I saw my Uncle Peter crouching on the floor next to my fathers body that was surrounded in a pool of blood. His normally white shirt was stained red with blood. I saw my uncle clutching onto his gun, but I gathered myself tried to keep myself calm and analyze the situation, like my father taught me to.

One glance was all I needed to confirm that my uncle was not the one to blame in this situation. No, in his hands was a 9mm Beretta, a favorite of his. But looking at my father told me that he had been shot with a shotgun it was the only thing that could make a spread like that. Gathering myself with a deep breath I leaped over the railing and landed on the ground floor only to be joined seconds later by my eldest brother who seemed to have followed me slightly after I left the room. Hearing the sound of us landing my uncle spun around with gun in hand but upon seeing who it was he quickly lowered it. That was the first day in my entire life I saw any of my uncles cry, as a single tear rolled down his cheek he quickly summed up what I assumed from the beginning and confirmed my fears.

"I'm so sorry John. Your father... Is dead" he said through his heavy Scottish accent.

"Yes uncle, but now I need you to tell me what happened" I said in a calm collected tone. Yes I wanted to freak out, yes I was angry, yes I even wanted to cry, but now was not the time for that. It wouldn't bring my father back to me anyway.

My uncle recounted about how he answered the door and one of the members from one of the other packs was at the door asking to have a quick word with my father. Naturally my uncle retrieved my father and set about back to what he was doing before he answered the door. Later he heard yelling and went to go investigate. Halfway through his walk  back however he heard the first shot. After that he pulled his own gun and when he got to the main hall he saw the man that was at the door, standing over my father with a shotgun in hand, when the man saw my uncle with his pistol and turned to run. My uncle, an excellent marksman pegged him in his right arm in the ball and socket joint effectively shattering it and causing him to drop his gun before he was out of sight. My father had been shot with silver buckshot, he was dead before my uncle even got into the room.

"They will be back before the end of the night," One of my other uncles said aloud.

My uncle Peter, my eldest brother, and I had just finished explaining the events that had happened earlier that day to the rest of the family, excluding my youngest siblings, they had no need to know the truth as of now nor did they have to know what was going to happen next. My mother, two of my aunts, and the rest of my siblings were escorted to a secure area of the house while the rest of us armed up and prepared for the up coming battle. To others it might have made more sense to leave but we were being watched. If we attempted an escape we would certainly die, however if we held up here we had a slim chance of survival one that we needed to take.The battle started shortly after the sun was completely hidden from view by the horizon it started slow with snipers firing from both sides. We held the upper hand for a while due to our knowledge of the surrounding area but we were out gunned and It was none to long before gunfire was heard in the west wing. They had gotten in one of the side entrances and were making their way through the house.

My family fell one by one till It was only my siblings, my mother, my aunts, and myself. We knelt there in our own house, in our own home tied up powerless... weak. Then the leader of the other family walked in, the one that demanded our full "extermination" as he put it. He killed my aunts first, one shot to each of their heads he forced the children and I to watch it happen. Next was my mother, he planted a dagger straight into her heart and sliced her head off with a large sword. He told us that since she was my fathers wife she had to die a special way. He then turned on my eldest brother, claimed him to be my fathers blood son. I wanted to scream out, to try and do something.

I watched as the silver blade plunged through my bothers back and out through his chest. I watched the life leave his eyes as crimson blood dripped of the end of the blade, pooling around him. The rest of the children and myself were shot indiscriminately, no particular order or place. He just shot without aiming and left us there as he walked out with while my family lay there dead and dying. I closed my eyes at the scene that had been replayed so many times before. Opening them to a red haze of stinging smoke and heat, while my lungs burned with an intensity of pain I had never experienced before...

~{T}~{C}~{W}~{t}~{M}~

I screamed, bolting myself upright as the trauma washed over me. The cold chill of sweat running down my neck bringing me back to the world I had found myself in. I stretched my arms and legs as I got up from the bed, my face as pale as the white walls of the room I was in, a cold sweat on my face, I looked around the room and recognized my surroundings. I was alive. I made It out of the fire. I was the only survivor, and I'm more alone now then I ever have been.