//------------------------------// // Chapter III - Where the Heart May Lie (I) // Story: Inventing Happiness // by Octorocktopus //------------------------------// It was around midnight when it finally hit me: I was in Equestria. I had made it. Yet I had just done something utterly illegal that could very well get me kicked out if I was caught. I wasn't sure what to blame: my greed, or my sudden surge of emotion. But whatever it was, I needed to put it out of my head for now. The rocky terrain of the western borderlands was starting to give way to complete desert. Even with a beautiful moon hovering over us (one that seemed to be significantly brighter than I remembered at home: probably due to all the lighting), I still felt a shiver down my spine when I glanced at my surroundings. For all I knew, my changeling friend and I were all that there was for a thousand miles... and I had no idea where I was going. I had decided to stay off the beaten path for the sake of keeping my little secret safe; however, that was now coming to bite me in the butt. Nevertheless, I had to keep optimistic. I still had a spare tank of sunflower oil for my walker's combustion engine, and I knew that if I kept heading east eventually I'd find the more fertile lands of this nation eventually. All your geeking out and reading about Equestria might have been worth it after all! I had checked up on my changeling companion occasionally, but he seemed to be ignoring me for the most part. I guess I couldn't blame him: I had convinced him to do something stupid when he was in an emotional state. Come on... it's not like every job in Equestria will be checking papers. That's probably just a government job. This place is supposed to be a Utopia, after all! I smiled to myself slightly. I hadn't seen any border patrol guards yet, perhaps it was safe to let him out? I opened the compartment, staring down at the tiny figure laying at the bottom of it. "Hey..." I said. "How are you holding up?" He glanced up at me with a blank expression. "Alright, I guess... I'm feeling a little hungry, that's all." "I have plenty of food," I shrugged. "What do changelings eat, anyway?" He blinked, glancing away from me. I threw him a look. "What's up?" "You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you," he muttered. I blinked, putting on a guilty frown. "S-Sorry, if this is about earlier - I'm not skeptical about everything..." "No, it's alright," he sighed. "It's just - no science can explain how my food source works. It just... happens. I don't feed off plants, animals, or even weird stuff like gems. I feed on something much stranger." "Errr," I gulped, the worst case scenario playing through my mind. My stomach churned at the thought. He was technically a bug... and bugs had... some strange dining habits. "It's nothing like - really nasty right?" I asked hopefully. "I mean- not that there's anything wrong with that, heh." "No, it's nothing gross: just weird - mystical even. I feed on a particular emotion," he sighed. "A concept, even." He then actually smiled slightly. "I feed on love." I furrowed my brow in confusion. "By love - do you mean... like certain pheromones or chemicals released by the body when that emotion is felt?" "I don't know," he shrugged. "But it's weird - I can actually see love floating through the air. Love towards me is more delicious, yet stray love... isn't as filling. I can even forcefully extract it if I need to..." I shook my head incredulously. This sounded too strange to be true. How could one feed on something that was supposed to stay within? It must have to do to do with some sort of special ability, such as what unicorns have. Though how evolution would give them a route like this was... something to ponder. Still, taking this changeling was definitely a worthy investment! I could make a huge profit if I can somehow artificially create what they feed on! It'd probably be much easier than the alternative- Then, it hit me like a brick. My ponderous smile twisted into a guilty frown. Yet... he says he's hungry now? It was right then when I realized how little I knew about my travelling companion. I felt sympathy for him earlier, and viewed him as a means to an end (a friend, you could say), yet... that wasn't what he needed. The changeling glanced at me curiously. "Something wrong?" "It's... nothing," I whispered., closing my eyes. "It's just - I'd like to say that I'm sorry." He glanced downward, taking a deep breath. "It's alright. I'm sorry for giving you the cold shoulder. In fact - I'm starting to have trouble remembering what I was mad at you about. I guess I'm just going a little stir crazy in here..." I put on a sheepish grin, trying my best to think of something to cheer him up. "Well hey- look on the bright side." He raised an eyebrow. "Huh?" "You look totally cute pint-sized!" I peeped. He rolled his eyes. "Thanks, I guess..." "H-Heh, sorry," I chuckled nervously. "Just trying to lighten the mood. Seriously though, it might be safe for you to come out soon - I think we're about thirty miles in. I don't think we're going to get stopped-" "Attention: unknown vehicle. Please halt for inspection!" Nope. I winced slightly, grinning sheepishly at the now-smirking changeling as I quietly closed the compartment. When I glanced up, I found three sets of glowing eyes looking at me from the darkness. MONSTERS! "EEP!" I cried, scrunching against the back of my seat. "Please - I don't have much and probably taste bad! Stay back!" There were a series of groans, as three, strange, bat-winged pegasi stepped into my headlights, their eyes glowing a bright yellow. "Ugh... relax," one of them groaned, a definite male. "We're just night-guards. We're not bandits, monsters, demons, chupacabra, blah blah blah, you get it." "You gotta admit, though," another said, another male. "We do look kind of creepy with the glowing eyes and stuff." The third grinned, a female. "Dawwww, but you can't say it is kind of funny! The looks on people's faces are hilarious! 'OOOH NO, MONSTERS!'" "Yeah, the first three nights we started doing this, maybe," the first muttered, most likely the leader: he was the only one wearing black armor. He then finally turned his attention to me. "Sorry about that, it's just we've had to chase three travelers down when they ran from us tonight. Thanks for being more calm, I guess." "Y-You're welcome," I gulped, still glancing at the trio nervously. "Um - but yes - I'm new around here. If you don't mind me asking, um - what exactly... are you? You don't look like normal pegasi." My eyes widened. "I mean - not that you're weird or anything! Normal is a matter of perspective-" The trio let loose a chuckle. "Easy, miss. It's alright. Not many ponies know about us. We only come out deep into the night." "TOOO FEEEASST OONNNN SOULS!" the girl bat-pony grinned. I squeaked slightly at that, shivering. "Well... the souls of berries and stuff, I guess," she said, smiling apologetically. She then turned towards one of her partners. "Wait - berries have souls, right, Shadow Sentry?" "Maybe berry bushes," the male shrugged. "I dunno about individual berries. That'd be like saying an arm has a soul or something. They're just part of the plant." Her eyes widened as if a lightbulb were popping above her head. "Woooooaaaah - what if they DO! Like - if I lose an arm, there could be an arm soul floating up to the gates!" "Oh my gosh! Sometimes I think you should be a spiritual scientist or something!" the male guard beamed. "Or write a book! Your ideas are so wild!" The leader... facepalmed. "Have you two been smoking the Red Weed we confiscated?" he groaned. The two quickly shook their heads. "R-Red Weed?" I asked. "Mhmmm, that's what we're looking for, mainly," he nodded, turning back towards me. "It's an invasive species native to Ares. The refugees from there brought some with them: and then someone decided - 'hey, what would happen if I smoked this alien stuff?' And yeah... you can guess what happened next. It's illegal in Equestria, so a lot of drug runners come through these parts." He then chuckled slightly. "Though I've never seen a goblin smuggle anything, before. Haven't seen one of your kind in Equestria for a minute..." "I-I'm not smuggling Red Weed!" I cried. "Easy there - I'm not accusing you of anything." He then furrowed his brow. "Just need to check your- your- what the heck is that thing, anyway?" "It looks like a crab!" the female guard beamed. "Very observant, Moon Dancer..." the leader sighed. "Well um - it's kind of my own invention," I said, smiling slightly. "I call it the Crab-Like Locomotive Device." "A wah?" Shadow Sentry blinked. "That's kind of a weird name, no offense. Why not just call it..." He tapped his forehead. "Mmmm... call it-" "A Crab Walker!" Moon Dancer beamed, fluttering in the air slightly. I winced at that. Son of a Gnarm... "Woah - nice name!" Shadow Sentry grinned, before glancing at me. "Are you like- an inventor or something? Cus if you are, you should totally go into business with my friend here!" "You make stuff, I'll name it," she smiled brightly. I shot her an amused smile. "I'll uh- heh - keep that in mind." The leader rolled his eyes. "Alright, come on - let's not waste any more of the lady's time." He then furrowed his brow my way, before stating in a bored tone: "If you have any weaponry, illegal drugs, illegal immigrants, forged documents, counterfeit bits, illegal magic artifacts and texts, or tombs specifically directed towards summoning demons, windigo, or felhounds, please state so now..." I shivered slightly, wincing, and I knew they saw this. They had no flashlights or anything on them: they could probably see very well in the dark when they needed to... For that brief second, I hoped my headlights were giving them a hard time seeing, but if they were, why were they standing in them? The lead-guard raised a suspicion eyebrow, though quickly withdrew it. "If you could exit the vehicle miss and empty your pockets," he said, a neutral expression now on him. "Um - yeah," I giggled sheepishly. "Sorry... I'm coming." So I stepped off the mecha, and began to do just that. Luckily, I really wasn't carrying anything illegal, save for blueprints, and I left my theoretical doomsday doomsday device ones (not that I'd ever build them: I just thought of them for fun) at home. However, there was one small little problem in my glove compartment... After I emptied my pockets, the guards didn't even bother to search me further. I supposed, being bat-like and all, they were using some form of echo-location? I'm not sure. Or perhaps they just felt I seemed trustworthy - I guess they didn't know much about goblins. And now you're going to shatter the trust Equestria gave you... "What are these?" Shadow Sentry asked, glancing at the pile of blueprints. "Oh um -" I squeaked. "Blueprints. The top one is for a new type of internal combustion engine, the other for a special component for circuit breakers-" Shadow Sentry and Moon Dancer glanced at each other, raising their eye brows. I giggled nervously. "Oh um - it's goblin-like technology. The combustion engine is what propels my crab-walker. The circuit breaker helps keep power chords from overloading electronics-" "I have no idea what the second one means, but it sounds awesome!" Moon Dancer grinned. "Are you sure you don't need my naming skills?!" "Heh," I said, rubbing a claw through my hair. "Well um - I'm sure you'd be good at it, but I don't have the money to pay you-" "Oh, relax," she giggled. "I'm just playing with you. Thanks for being nice, though. What's your name?" "Um - Tinker Gearclank," I smiled, holding out a claw. She glanced at it for a second, before shaking it. "Nice to meet you?" She's thinking you're awkward she's thinking you're awkward she's thinking you're awkward... "Tinker Gearclank?" she said, nodding. "Hah! That sound soooo...." "Inventorish?" Shadow Sentry shrugged. "Yeah!" "That's not a word..." the leader groaned, currently busy searching through every nook and crevice of my walker... and he was quickly growing near where I didn't want him to. "And can one of you slackers get over here and help me?" "I will," Shadow Sentry sighed. "Sorry, Sergeant Necrospear..." He fluttered his wings, before landing upon the walker. "Um - where have you already searched?" he asked. "Right side." "Your right or-" "Your right..." They continued searching, as Moon Dancer knelt down and began looking at my blueprints. "Woah... these look so, um- what's the word? Intricate!" "T-Thanks," I squeaked, sweating bullets as they continued their sweep. After a while, I was beginning to think they had missed my changeling friend's compartment. I sighed in relief at this, though Moon Walker seemed to be too intrigued by my blueprints to notice. That was until: "Hey sarge?" "What?" "Have you searched this compartment yet?" Shadow Sentry pointed towards it. My eyes widened in horror. My throat clenched up. This is it! This is it - You are so screwed. How are you going to face your family after you just stormed off like you did?! That is if you aren't thrown in jail for harboring an illegal immigrant... "Eeeeep!" Moon Dancer suddenly squealed. Her fellow guards turned towards her, raising eyebrows. "What is it?" She was glancing at something in the distance, but whatever it was, it had disappeared. "T-Thought I saw somethng," she peeped, shaking her head. "Looked like a Felhound. God I hate the desert: even at night!" "You probably just saw a fox or something," the leader shrugged, before glancing back at Shadow Sentry. "Hey, what did you just ask me, again?" He furrowed his brow in thought, before wincing in confusion. "Um - I can't remember." I blinked in disbelief, taking deep breaths. Had fate given me a few free points? "Oh right," the sergeant nodded. "The compartment? No, I haven't checked. Just give it a look-through." "Righto," he nodded. Yeah... you're still screwed. I began panting, though Moon Dancer was now gazing off into the distance. Finally, after I had nearly chewed my claws down to the skin, Shadow Sentry announced: "Well well well - what do we have here?" The sergeant raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Find something?" My heart dropped, and I closed my eyes, waiting for his shameful words to come. "- Yeah, the biggest friggin' spider I've ever seen! Make that the two biggest spiders I've ever seen!" My jaw nearly hit the floor. I wish I had just thought it, but I couldn't control my voice as I blurted out: "What?!" "Yeah, looks like you got a few stowaways, miss!?" Shadow Sentry laughed. "Hey sarge, want me to run a sonar sweep? Could be a changeling like last time!" He's only joking he's only joking he's only joking... "Na, I think that was a one time deal," the sergeant shrugged. And I let loose the deepest sigh of relief in the history of goblins. Thank you Gringot thank you Gringot thank you Gringot!.!.! I'll never misplace or accidentally set fire to your book again! The two guards hopped off the Crab Walker, smiling brightly at me. I don't know why - but they seemed happy that they didn't have to bust anyone. Still, I made a vow that I would recite something from the Gringot's Book of Acquisition every morning for the rest of my life. "Whelp, you're all clear, miss," Necrospear nodded. "Sorry about the stop, and the long wait..." Shadow Sentry smiled sheepishly, screwing a guilty hoof into the sand. "Want us to take care of those spiders for you?" he asked. I quickly shook my head, a bit of sweat pooling on my forehead again. "Hehe, no, it's fine!" "Huh - do you like keeping them as pets?" Moon Dancer asked. My mind went haywire. Whatever you do: do not tell them what you're thinking. Do NOT tell them what you're thinking! "Well, eh - hehe," I chuckled nervously. "In uh- the Goblin Alliance... let's just say spiders make good... appetizers." Ewww... friggin' weirdo... The three raised their eyebrows. "Well uh-" one of them coughed. "Whatever floats your boat." Necrospear gave me a nod. "Well, then, miss - we need to get going. Gotta check out that 'Felhound' that Moon Dancer here stated. But before we leave, do you need any assistance from us in any way?" "Um - yeah!" I coughed. Fate really was smiling on me. "Can you point me to the nearest town?" "Heh, you're actually heading towards it," Moon Dancer smiled, before pointing forward. "About two miles that way: you won't see it til you're right on top of it because of the dunes. The town is called Heatwave, but damn do they have an awesome night scene!" I smiled at her. "Thank you so much - I've been lost for miles..." "Easy for that to happen out here," Sergeant Necrospear nodded, before turning to his subordinates. "Alright, then, Sandstorm Squadron, let's get a move on!" "By the Will of the Night, Sir!" "Now that is professionalism!" he grinned, before narrowing his eyes. "Let's hunt us some beastie." And he took off into the night, the two others in tow. "Finally some action!" "See you Tinker!" "Bye!" I waved. Did they actually.... like me? They seemed so... cool, though. How the heck could they? At that, I walked over to the Crab Walker, opening the compartment with the little changeling in it. However, all I saw were two spiders... "Hey um- are you there?" I called. Suddenly, there was a flash of green light, and one of the spiders became a changeling. "Woah!" I cried. "Heh, sorry -" he said, smiling cheerfully. His mood had apparently completely turned around from earlier. He's not angry at me anymore? "As weird as it sounds: insects are one of the hardest things to morph into. You really need a reference to do it for long. Luckily, I've been chillin' with my friend I found in here." "You're- you're friends with that spider?" I blinked, surprised that he hadn't been eaten by it. The changeling nodded. "Yeah, she's pretty cool. Changelings can talk to insects pretty easily, you see." The spider actually made a few clicks, as I nearly "What's that?" the changeling asked, before glancing up at me and raising an eyebrow. "Though uh - could you stop looking at her like that? It's kind of freaking her out." I held back the temptation to lick my lips, a disappointed look coming upon me. You just had to go make friends with my snack... how the heck does a spider even have the brainpower for sapient speech?! I really needed to make a list of all the weird things I was discovering around here that needed explanations. "But yeah - think it's safe for me to come out, now?" he asked. I quickly nodded. "I think we're good. There's a town right up ahead! I don't think they'll bother doing random checks there." "You're sure?" he said, lowering his eyebrows. "Well uh- sorry, I didn't mean to ask you to take an unnecessary risk-" He let loose a chuckle, before waving the spider goodbye, fluttering out, and swiftly growing to his normal size. "There you are being self-conscious again," he smiled, patting me on the back. "It's cool - seriously." "W-What's that for?" I asked. His smile didn't falter. "Because you didn't give me up. You could of and you didn't, risking everything!" His look grew warmer and warmer... emotional - filled with gratitude. "You took a chance for me: I... I really appreciate it. Not many would stick up for changelings like that. Thank you." I didn't know what to say at first, though as I started up the Walker, it finally came to me. Simple and sweet: "You're-you're welcome." Though most surprising thing of all came to me later, as I tread across the sea of dunes. It never even crossed my mind to give him up, did it? And the guilt I had been feeling lessened.