//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Uninvited Guests // Story: Becoming a Monster // by Telgin //------------------------------// Rain was something I didn't get to see too much of. The clouds that brought it often hovered overhead, but most of the rain fell on the far side of the mountain range we called home. Farther on this side of the peaks, desert stretched on for as far as you could see. That was as good a reason as any for me to never venture out there. Supposedly the pegasi, and maybe the griffons, were able to influence the weather directly. Whatever they chose to deprive of rain and bake in the unforgiving sun was something I didn't want to meet. But, as luck would have it the overcast of the day before brought a pleasant drizzle overnight that was still pattering away at the rocky slopes outside. The main chamber of Fealty's cave was fortunately situated above its entrance, so we weren't sitting ankle deep in water. It was a bit clammy inside though. He'd noticed me trying to stifle a shiver and disappeared into another room to fetch something that would help with that. He knew I had a spell that could fix it, and I'd reminded him, but he insisted. He strode back into the chamber with a blanket rolled up in a sheath of green magic. “Here we are, just a moment.” The blanket unfurled, revealing an elaborate tapestry of yellows and pinks, then draped around me. It was a lot cozier than magical warmth, that I couldn't deny. I offered thanks and tightened the blanket around me, wondering for a moment where he'd gotten it-no, I didn't want to start down that road. I already wondered too much about that when I read through the spell book he lent me, which was now sitting on a shelf off to the side of the room. It was a convenient excuse to come see Fealty, even if I didn't need him to fix my wing. It was also worrisome: inside was enough pony writing to know where it came from. I just hoped how he got it didn't come back to hurt him later. Ponies weren't likely to simply misplace something like that. “And thank you for bringing that back,” he said, following my eyes to the book. He lowered himself to the floor next to me, catching the glint from the magical lamps around the room in his copper scales. “I take it you're done with it then? Did you learn much?” “The simple stuff at least. I've used it to heal a few scratches.” And a ripped wing. “Haven't had many chances to practice, thankfully.” He nodded. “How are the others, by the way?” he asked, reaching out with his magic to drag a large metal pot closer. “Oh, the same as always,” I said with a small chuckle. “Good, good.” He lifted the lid, and immediately the rich smell of fish swirled into my nostrils. “Are you hungry? I caught a lot more than I could eat yesterday.” There was no way I was going to turn that down, and before I knew it I had a piece in my hands. It was lightly smoked but kept a fantastic and rich flavor. The bones didn't even have any snap to them. Meat tended to run away, the ponies never had any with them and only rarely did the griffons, so that meant that it was a rare treat that I ever got any. That Fealty was sharing his with me really meant something. I was vaguely aware I was leaning against him. He smiled and slurped down his fish. “Are you alright? Something seems to be bothering you.” “Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine.” I finished my food. “Why do you say that?” “I don't know, you just seem a bit quiet.” “I just had something in my mouth. Unless you'd prefer I lose my manners...” He chuckled and handed me another fish. “No, no. It... I don't know, it seems like something's on your mind though.” The silence that fell told him everything he needed to know, so I had to say something at that point. He could always read me like a book. I swapped the fish between hands a few times, considering what to say. “I've just been thinking a lot lately. About the future.” “Really? Like what?” Where to begin? “I don't know, a lot of things. For one, I just keep wondering, you know, how long our luck will hold out?” Fealty cocked an eyebrow at me and stopped chewing. I shrugged. “Yesterday Zeal and I almost got killed by griffons. That's probably only going to happen more often.” Fealty choked on his food. “What? When? Where?” He calmed down when I explained that it wasn't near either of our caves, but that didn't stop him from immediately examining my wing and grumbling something about not being able to fix the scar. When he released me, I went on, “I... I just sometimes wonder. Wonder if there's a point in doing anything past living day-to-day. To, you know. Plan for the future.” Fealty wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close. “Hey now, none of that.” He tapped a claw to my lip. “I've lived here ten years, and I don't intend for that to change any time soon. Things aren't any worse now than they've ever been. Maybe even a bit better.” He rubbed my side. “You weren't planning on leaving me now, were you?” I let a tiny smile form. “No.” My siblings and I had lived here for four years now and grown rather fond of our home. I didn't want to go anywhere. I leaned into Fealty. Especially not without him. The intention was to just drop by Fealty's home to return his book and catch up with each other, but as it turned out I spent almost the entire day with him. It was very late that night when I got back to our cave, but at least I didn't see any ponies or griffons on the way there. Traveling at night seemed to come natural to my three siblings, but I hated it. I must have been night blind, but everything always managed to get the drop on me in the dark. Imagine how I felt then flying alone back to our cave, trying to keep as low to the ground as I could to avoid being spotted. At least there wasn't anything to fly into Even I wasn't blind enough to fly into a cliff face. I made it back in one piece and without flying into anything more harmful than a moth, which was what the rational part of my brain expected all along. The irrational part had begged me to get Fealty to fly back with me, but I managed to bury it under a bit of reason and pride. So it was just me trotting up to the illusion covering the entrance. I wasn't about to try flying through it at night. The illusory rocks were right where I expected. I stretched out my hand to feel for- “Welcome home.” I nearly leaped out of my scales. The next thing I remembered I was lying on my back and staring up into the golden eyes of my sister. She was nigh invisible, perched atop the mouth of the cave as she was. Her charcoal scales were black as the night around her, but the faint moonlight picked out her eyes. She grinned. It picked out her teeth too, apparently. “Sorry about that, I didn't mean to scare you.” “S-Sure you didn't!” I spat, rolling over onto my hands and knees. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I tried to slow my breathing to calm it a bit. “Just like the last three times, huh!?” She hopped into the air and glided down to my side. “Okay, you're right. I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to scare you that bad.” “Yeah,” I huffed, running my claws through my hair. “Why are you out here anyway? Isn't it Zeal's turn to keep watch?” “Oh, the boys are off looking for you,” she replied. “Well, that's what they said anyway. Since you said you'd be back by lunch.” I groaned lightly. “Right, uh, I didn't mean to be gone that long.” “Don't worry about it, they'll be back soon I'm sure.” Revelry shrugged and floated through the fake stones. “We weren't really worried, we know how it is.” They 'knew how it was,' huh? There wasn't much more to be said for it, really, but she'd scuffed my scales now and I wasn't letting her off that easily. I fumbled my way through after her and down the descending and irritatingly dark path into the main chamber. Finally there was something I could do about the pervasive darkness, and with a swipe of my hand the enchanted stones set into the ceiling flickered to life, bathing the room in a warm glow. “So, what was that supposed to mean?” Revelry inverted in the air to face me, still grinning. “Oh, come on, you don't have to be shy about it. We know you and Fealty are intimate. Nobody can spend that much time together just practicing spells.” Her grin widened to an almost impressive amount. “Nothing to be ashamed of.” Sometimes that smile of hers made me a bit nauseated, but I just rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. They'd have had to have been pretty dense to not know. And so what? She was right. What did it matter? I mounted my cot and got into a comfortable position. “You know, I just wonder why you and the boys don't seem to care about meeting someone. It's... well, it's indescribable really.” She shrugged. “They're interested alright. Or, well, Antic is. I don't talk to Zeal all that much but I'm sure he is too. There's just not a lot of options. How many other draconequuses have we met out here anyway? Two other than Fealty? And both of them seemed to be as afraid of us as they were of the ponies and griffons.” That was a good point, to which I replied with a sigh. Meeting Fealty had been a freak chance revolving around me lusting after the tomes of a pony magical archive. I never managed to build the courage to try and break into the elaborate stone building on the edge of the pony town, and spent many days simply sitting off in the distance and admiring it, wondering what secrets it held. Fealty had the skill and mental steel to both try and succeed. Bumping into him as he flew off with three of the most fascinating magical books I'd ever read in tow was a most fortuitous coincidence. Similar interests and the ability to talk without thinking one was out to completely screw the other meant a friendship was almost inevitable. Another frustrated sigh passed my lips as I noted not for the first time that the best parts of my life seemed to revolve around stealing things from the ponies and griffons. I wish it didn't have to be that way, but up to that point that's simply how it had been. At that point I realized I'd been wandering far from my original thought and I snapped back to the conversation with, “I guess you're right.” I glanced over to her. “You didn't say you were interested though.” She pursed her lips and reclined against nothingness in the air. “Maybe I'm not?” “Come on, you can't mean that.” I cocked an eyebrow at her. “You've never had even the slightest little bit of... desire? To maybe, you know, even have a clutch of eggs your own?” An unexpected and energetic fit of laughter followed. “Oh, oh, no. No, no, no, no. Whelps? What would I do with a bunch of whelps? I'm not the mother type.” She twirled over herself in the air again, resting on her stomach and peering over folded arms at me. “But you want some, then?” “Sometimes.” Thinking about it brought forth a lot of conflicting emotions, most of which I'd spilled all over Fealty earlier that day. “Sometimes, I think so. Sometimes, I think I'm crazy.” “There's probably no bigger responsibility,” she said. Yep, that's probably the main reason she didn't want any. “And besides, is this really the kind of world you want to bring whelps into?” And... that would be the main reservation I had and talked about with Fealty. I turned a hand about casually to inspect my claws. “It makes me wonder what mom was thinking,” I said, not really considering what I was saying. An intensely awkward and unsettling silence fell, and I didn't dare look at Revelry. Instead, I tried to recover with, “I mean, we turned out alright, didn't we?” The silence lingered for a bit. “Yeah. I think so.” She didn't need to say anything more. I knew what she was thinking, and I didn't want to think about it. I shouldn't have ever brought it up. More silence, and I finally glanced over. Revelry was staring into the floor. I tried to think of something to change the subject with, but all of the straws I could grasp out felt too hollow to even dignify with an attempt. Things were pretty quiet until Zeal and Antic got home. The next morning was a somber affair, but for entirely different reasons. I didn't really think Zeal and Antic were out looking for me all day, and I still don't know what they were actually doing. But whatever it was, they found something disturbing at the other end of the valley. The ponies were building a new town there. So, as it was I was feeling a distinctly familiar sensation as the four of us crept along the edge of canyon, moving from cover to cover along the way and chancing the occasional glance down at the stream running below. No sign of anything larger than a rabbit, which was just how I liked it. Antic assured us that were getting close though, and that had my nerves on edge. For a moment I questioned again why all four of us came along. One might be spotted. Four probably would. Then I remembered the argument and Antic bemoaning how whenever I never trusted him or Revelry to do this sort of thing. I kind of didn't. The two hadn't given me much reason to trust them in these matters, but the last time Zeal and I went off alone I almost got killed, and there was no denying that the two of them were better at this than us. So to keep him happy and hush him up, I caved. This wasn't the first time we'd done something like this before, of course, but having him along would help. When we reached the end of the canyon, we found the pony town sitting in a clearing in the forest that receded from the mountains. It was pleasant looking, I had to give the ponies that. The stream made it a natural location to set up, and there was more than enough wood. And stone, if they got really ambitious. Antic was ready, and while we peeked out at the ponies milling around far below, he cast his spell. The four of us shimmered and vanished from sight, cloaked in a veil of illusory magic. A second spell later and we could again see the world. Funny thing about invisibility: if the light goes through your eyes you can't see. It took a second spell to let you see afterward, and the colors of everything looked distorted and washed out. Antic didn't really know how to convey how it worked, but he was absolutely gifted with similar magic. He could keep both going for twenty times as long as I could, which would give us plenty of time to scope the development out. As we drew close it became increasingly obvious that that was all it was. There weren't any buildings to speak of so much as a few framed foundations and some tents. The ponies must have gotten here recently. There were probably two dozen of them trotting back and forth, assembling stacks of wooden planks, organizing barrels of something, knocking over the barrels and stacks and generally getting in the way of each other. It looked to be about an even distribution of the three kinds. The earth ponies and pegasi didn't worry me much, but you never knew what a unicorn might be hiding. We swooped down to get a better look. Before we set off I told them to just do a flyover, since I didn't want to risk running into one of the unicorns or really letting the ponies even think we might be here. The descent went without a hitch, and I found myself admiring the landscape. There were more trees than I could count slipping past us, of every variety I could imagine. No, there were more kinds of trees than I could count out here. Not to mention the vines, shrubs, flowers and more interspersed between them. The scent of fresh cut vegetation was almost overpowering, but it was a distraction from the familiar earthy smells we lived in. It really was beautiful, and I mused that if we ever had to relocate this would be an excellent place. Aside from the ponies of course. The flyover went without incident, aside from the heart skipping moment when a mud colored pegasus mare flew past me close enough to touch her. She paused above me, looking around with a perplexed expression plastered on her face. Had she heard us flapping our wings? Or felt the gusts of wind? Next time we'd need to muffle our sounds too. Fortunately, she shrugged it off and soared higher into the sky, leaving us to keep inspecting what the ponies were doing. I was hoping that they weren't working to set up a permanent establishment, whatever alternative I clung to vainly, but that was precisely what it looked like. Two large earth pony stallions of a green that blended in with the scenery were busy hacking down a tree while a quartet of mares were balancing a smaller log on a platform with a wicked looking saw. Based on the amount of wooden planks around I had a good hunch of what that was for, and that much cut wood meant they were planning on building a lot. As if the pegasi and earth ponies erecting a wall didn't give that away. It was still too early to begin guessing what it would turn out to be, so I had plenty of time to fret over that in the coming days and weeks. It was right about then that I realized I was the only one still in the air. A flare of panic filled me and I searched around me frantically. The panic tripled when I saw Antic crawling around on the piles of cut planks below. And there was Revelry snooping around the barrels, and Zeal looking lost in the center of the clearing. Idiots! They were going to get themselves all killed! I flailed my arms at them and gestured with my whole body for them to stop being stupid and get up here now, but if they saw me they were ignoring me. I screamed internally and searched for a vacant spot. I set down closest to Revelry, already fantasizing about strangling her and Antic for being so stupid. Zeal was just down here to protect them, like me. I lifted from the ground under the power of my magic and floated for the stack of barrels. Walking or flying the old fashioned way would make too much noise, despite the risk of startling Revelry from my silence. She deserved it a dozen times, but now wasn't the time to be eliciting startled shrieks from my sister. For a moment I considered just setting the barrels on fire. The ponies seemed to be fond of highly alcoholic drink that burned rather nicely, and that would provide us with a fantastic distraction to escape under, keep Revelry from taking any of it, and maybe even damage enough to convince the ponies to leave. Revelry would get away in time. I was halfway through conjuring a spark of flame at the base of the pile when I saw it: a bag of books sitting next to a wagon of other supplies. Could it be? I froze in place, questioning myself. Did I dare to look? I'm not proud of what I did next, but the other three were busy picking over the pony supplies and generally ignoring their common sense. Wasn't I permitted to do the same once in a long while? And a spell book could be so much more valuable than a stolen barrel of wine! The wine would just get you drunk for a while, but a learned spell was useful forever! I abandoned the spell. My heart fluttered as I grasped the first book in my hands. It was a spell book! I couldn't read the cover quickly, of course, but I recognized the symbols. I flicked through the pages, seeing a lot of spells I knew already but a few I didn't. I couldn't contain the grin that followed. I also didn't notice the pony gawking at the book floating around and paging through itself. She took a step closer. “Wh-what?” she mumbled, and I finally looked up to see the garish purple earth pony staring with wide eyes. I stifled a panicked scream and pulled the book to my chest. What to do!? My vision flashed and shimmered, and that question answered itself. The look of horror on her face when the invisibility spell vanished is something I would never forget, nor would I ever forget her desperate plea, “Help! A monster!” I swore volubly and spun around to find my siblings. Antic was lying on the ground amidst a knot of shocked ponies, rubbing his head and groaning weakly. Two ponies were carrying planks of wood on their backs, and I already knew how he got on the ground and why the invisibility spell broke. I panicked again. “Monster!” “What is it!?” “Help!” “There's another over here!” “There's three of them! No, four!” “Dirk! Yari!” Most of the ponies either broke and fled at that, or began backing away amidst frightened murmurs. We had to leave. Now. I hit the ground and ran for Antic, ready to scoop him up with my magic and escape while the ponies were still confused. Where were Revelry and Zeal!? A white unicorn stallion covered in bronze armor broke into the clearing. His eyes flew open when he saw us. “Prancing princesses! Draconequuses!” His horn lit up and the scabbard at his side was sheathed in blue. “My sword!” Zeal crashed to the ground between him and Antic, brandishing the weapon and swiping at the pony clumsily. “Get back!” Antic was back on his hooves and staring at the disaster unfolding. “I've got him,” a mare said. A snapping twinge filled the air and an arrow smashed against his magical shield. I traced it back to its source to see a stony gray pegasus mare leveling a crossbow at my brother. She swore and fished for another bolt from her quiver. “No. I've got him,” the stallion said. His horn flickered blue again, and the world exploded. I was on the ground and in serious pain. For all the world it felt like someone had hurled one of those wooden planks at my head, and it took several seconds of stumbling around in the grass before I realized how quiet everything was. What little I could hear was drowned out by an insipid ringing that would not end, and I groaned too quietly to hear. When I was finally upright and stable, I noted that most of the ponies were likewise covering their ears or mouthing moans. There was one thing I could hear though: muffled screams. My head felt like it was going to explode from the pain, but that all stopped mattering when I saw the source. Zeal was still lying on the ground, curled up and clasping his hands to the sides of his head. He was right in front of the unicorn when the spell went off! I staggered toward him, feeling another pang of urgency as he knotted up tighter and wailed again, just barely audible through the ringing. He seemed so far away. I'd never reach him in time, and the unicorn had already drawn a dagger with his magic. Worse still, from the corner of my eye I saw that pegasus had readied her crossbow. She mouthed something through apparent pain and took aim at Zeal. My limbs locked in place, unable to channel a spell to save his life. The crossbow discharged, and much to my shock the pegasus reeled and dropped the weapon. She stumbled back two steps with a panicked expression, and I saw the bolt jutting from the bronze plate across her chest. How... Revelry zipped from behind her, hands wreathed in a blue glow. I then realized the mare never dropped her weapon; Revelry had twisted it back at the last possible instant. She took the oversized weapon in her hands and looked it over, clearly baffled at how it worked. I didn't have a clue either, and had more pressing concerns. Turning back to Zeal, I was relieved to see the unicorn covering his eyes and stumbling backward. My hearing was beginning to return, so I could just make out him shouting something about being blind before Zeal's cry of agony suffocated it. I darted for him again, realizing on the way that Antic was flying over the unicorn, and snatched him up in my arms. He was astonishingly heavy and his size made him awkward to hold, but that was irrelevant. I spread my wings and hefted him into the air, ignoring everything around me. Antic and Revelry were safe now. We flew for several tense seconds, but no more bolts speared the air around us. I was beginning to relax when I realized he was trembling in my arms. His shrieks of pain had died down to nonstop whimpering at least, but what I saw worried me all the more. Tears were dripping down his cheeks. I'd never before seen him cry. Not even after what happened to mom. The pain he was in must have been incomprehensible. When he moved his hand for a moment, I could see blood smeared across the side of his head, and a bit in his ears. Oh no, he was hurt very badly. “Cantrip? Is he okay?” I glanced over and saw Antic on my right. “Need me to carry him?” “I-I don't know.” Maybe it wasn't so bad. Once we got somewhere safe I could check. I was quickly running out breath carrying him, so I said, “And yes, please.” Antic took Zeal in a field of magic, suspending him just in front of us. I nearly smacked myself. Why hadn't I done that? Then Revelry asked, “Are you okay? Out of mana?” “N-no.” The moment I let go of him I knew why. I was holding something else in my magic. A book. I floated my shame into my arms and pulled it close to my chest. She looked suitably shocked. “Oh.” I wanted to hurl the cursed thing into the trees below, but that would solve nothing at this point. I simply flew ahead, following our path back to the canyon. We didn't wait to get home to set down. The very first outcropping that looked like it provided at least a tiny bit of concealment wasn't far along the canyon, and we plopped down without a word. Zeal's condition hadn't changed, for better or worse, and I hadn't wasted any time discarding my stupid spell book to examine him. My meager knowledge of healing magic wasn't enough to diagnose just how badly hurt he was, so my only choice was to keep casting healing spells at pray for the best. As it turned out, a single casting was enough. I was relieved beyond words when the spray of golden light was all it took to to calm his trembling and get him back on his hooves. That was an hour ago by this point. Probably. I'd really lost track of time as we sat against the mountainside beneath an outcropping of stone. The wind whistling through the canyon was the only thing that any of us heard for the half hour after Zeal had stopped sniffling. Nobody had any idea what to say or do, so we just sat there. Processing what had just happened. All four of us came within a breath of dying again. Revelry was the first to pipe up, and about a similar subject. “I think I killed that pony,” she squeaked. “Huh?” Zeal asked. His hearing had returned, but not completely. I was hoping that was temporary. “I think I killed that pony,” she repeated. “The arrow? It went through her armor, didn't it? Hit her in the lung? Had to.” Zeal snorted and looked away. “I hope you did. We weren't hurting them. All we were doing was standing there.” He punched the ground. “Standing there! And they tried to kill us!” That wasn't the answer Revelry was looking for, and she sank further into the shadow. Antic leaned over to say something to her, but my attention was elsewhere. I dragged the spell book from my side and held it in my hands. “I'm sorry.” “What?” Zeal glanced over. His eyes rested on the book, then stared into mine. He glowered and looked away. “I don't think it would have made a difference if you were just standing there,” Antic said. “They were already freaking out when they saw me.” That didn't matter. I felt unbelievably dirty now. As much as I preached to them not to steal stuff from the ponies because it prompted retribution, here I was doing just that. I dropped the book and rested my face in my hands. I hadn't meant to steal it! I was just going to peek inside! I only grabbed it in the panic! “Whatever.” I heard metal scrape against stone. “I hope those ponies do come looking for us. I'm going to drive this right into that pony's ears.” I don't know who grabbed the sword, or why. Probably Antic. Not that it made me feel any better that someone else broke the 'rules.' “Are we going to move again?” That was Antic. Without a thought I answered, “No.” I uncovered my face to see three sets of eyes boring into me, and I fought to find an explanation. “I-I mean, they don't know where we live. They've got no idea. And the illusion protects us.” If it wasn't for Fealty I'd probably be a lot more behind the idea of relocating, but I couldn't get his words out of my head. 'You weren't planning on leaving me now, were you?' No, Fealty, I wasn't. “We didn't scare them off,” Zeal spat. “The ponies aren't going to stop until they find us.” He clenched his hand around the hilt of the pony sized sword, ponderous and awkward in his grip as it was, and bared his teeth. “Let them. I'm tired of running.” Things went silent again. Finally, Revelry broke the silence again. “C-Can we go? I don't-I don't want to be out here right now.” As one we rose. Antic gave Revelry a little hug, then we grabbed our ill-gotten gains and took to the air.