//------------------------------// // Prison Blues and Scenic Views // Story: The misadventures of some random person turned Manticore // by Cloverleaf //------------------------------// "Ok, seriously, where'd you get the harmonica, and how the heck are you playing it?" Well, to be fair, things the last few minutes were a blur. The guards took us off for holding in the nearby station, letting us sit there while we wait for What I'm assuming is something incredibly weird. What weirded me out more right now is the fact Clucky Von Lizardbutt not only snatched a harmonica within that few minutes, but was able to play it like a master blues artist. "Does it matter, we're not really going anywhere....." Clucky says, setting the magic noise stick down. "Besides, why do you care?" "Umm, considering you don't appear to have lips and all......" "Says the weirdo who hasn't got a clue how to be what he is." A smile curled up on her face. Again, lips, lack of, impossibility...... the impression this shouldn't be questioned comes forth. Different reality, different rules. If a cockatrice can exist, hey let it be able to and know how to play a harmonica. Clucky taps me again. "But if you really must know, heard tale some mare once hid harmonicas all over Equestria, for prison blues emergencies. Happened to find this one." Next thing I know my vision is obscured, and my face hurts. I'm not sure why, but upon hearing such a stupid idea, My face had subconsciously decided to have a speed date with the floor. I don't know if they'll see each other again. Grounds cold, flat, and gets walked all over, and my face is soft, sensitive, and gets hurt easy. We weren't in the there very long however. Well, as far as I know. I got turned to stone for about 2 hours after i kinda attacked Clucky in a mild rage. She only let me free when she heard a pony coming. Well, actually, two ponies and a certain evil mind painy freak of nature. I felt my mind slowly twisting again just seeing this guy. Course he's the one who's the first to say something. "Well hello, fancy meeting you here, just like last time....but oh look, yuo have a friend on the other side this time!" He slips a note to the guard, who upon seeing it, goes wide-eyed. Ok, what could get them to freak out? The big guy snaps his fingers, and something falls in my face. Picking it up, I look it over. "By Royal Decree, the Manticore known as Mark, currently being held in the Manehatten Police Dept., has been found not guilty of all charges put against him, with exception to the one count of prison break, from one Royal Canterlot Dungeons. By suggestion from His Lordship, Discord, Mark's sentence will be directed personally by Same. Mark is to be released into Discord's custody. HRH Princess Celestia P.S. Informally, to the guard, if Discord so much as causes an iota of destruction during his visit to Manehatten....." I stop there, and big, tall and ugly glares a bit. "Well, didn't expect an informal bit at the end there.....but you and I shall go get a bit more acquainted." He snaps his fingers again, causing the door to flip open. "Don't see a problem taking the cockatrice either." The guard seems a bit flabbergasted, though the other pony almost saw this coming from the looks of it. Without a word we all leave, though i do leave the gem from the armor aside on the counter on the way out. *** Walking through town is one thing. Walking through it as a manticore while ponies all around me give us weird looks is another. But I seriously draw the line when the snake like dufus decides I'm a couch! I've had to shake him off countless times, yet again and again he keeps hopping back on. It's perfect every time, how!? He's just smirking, poking his head into my vision every once in a while. "Relax, and quit knocking me off, this is part of your punishment. Now....ONWARD NOBLE STEED!" A collective sound of hooves smacking into faces surrounds us. I just move faster, and hope noone follows us. That other pony, the one that came in with the guard, and he who thinks he's a cowboy, kept staring at me. That look, seemed a bit....odd. Plus the fact he seemed recognizable. Green with a horn, and dark green hair with red streaks. *** Elsewhere, a certain alabaster unicorn shivered. She could almost sense, somewhere, out there, was a pony with horrid green hair. *** "Hey!" A voice says, from right behind my ear. Problem one, it didn't sound like snake butt. Problem two, I recognized it as somepony else. Turning, who's in my face but Cotton Candy again, this time.....ok seriously now that's trying too hard. Every color of the rainbow in a constant pattern down her body. "You made Rarity act all cold! What did I say in chapter three about doing stuff like that?" Wait, was she in my mane!? Sure enough, she's half sticking out of it. Which in all throws her previous method of transportation into question. So I'm standing there with my mouth open trying to catch flies, while freakshow slides off of me and huddles with Cotton Candy. "Pinkie, you can't reference chapters or anything related to story or the author despite how chaotically fun it is. Others just aren't ready yet. Remember what happened to Twilight when you showed her the season one dvd? Give it time though, they will be ready soon enough." "Aww ok Discy! But shouldn't your changeling buddy there let Mark know who he is yet?" "Wait, the green one's a changeling?" Discord says, swiveling his head like an owl to look. My head shakes, I know I heard changeling somewhere, but where....the guards outside the forest! My head turns to the green one, who looks at me at me like I've got something stuck in my teeth. "Bro, you got a bit of fur stuck on your fang." That voice....really, that voice. Again, my head shakes before I inch closer to him. "Seriously, it looks weird." "Just who are you? Cause in all truth, you and I barely know each other, we just met. I don't like you calling me bro." This point there's a snarl in my voice. Why This is so infuriating I'll never know, maybe it's cause he looks familiar, maybe it's cause he sounds like my brother......wait.. "Evan?" "In the fur Bro! Well, maybe not fur, but you'll see in a sec-Hey what the!?" Snake boy....no, I'll just call him whatever name the letter said, Discord had just shot up to us and grabbed Evan off his feet, err, hooves, whatever. "You said you were the brother, the other that slipped through unintentionally when I asked you. If you lied to me...oh so help me I'll-" Evan stops him right there, holding up the letter. Where'd he get a copy? "Cool your jets Discord, Don't wanna make Celestia mad. Second, I said I was, I just never said this is what I came through looking as. Now, If you don't mind." Discord glares at him for a few seconds, before setting him down. "Fine, but let's be off, shall we?" With a snap he's gone....and I suddenly feel heavier. Oh look, he's on my back again. With a sigh we head on our way again, leaving a rainbow colored crazy mare to watch us, not moving an inch *** One last heave, and we're inside my brother's temporary pad. I collapse on the floor, panting, wheezing, feeling like I ran a marathon with a weight on my back....which in fact I did, cause Discord insisted on the scenic route, and going as fast as possible. Ok yeah the bit with the jet engine he turned into was fun, but the rest sucked! "Well, that was refreshing." Oh now the fucking serpent decides I don't need to bear his weight. Who put this idiot in charge of my sentencing? Wait, right, the princess, and this bozo's a lord. I look up just in time to see him snap that eagle claw, and bam, suddenly the room's dark and I'm sitting in a chair with a bright light in my face. "What is this, an interrogation?" Enough times at the movies and you start expecting things before they happen. "No. What gave you that idea? I figured you needed a tan." Another snap and it's now all turned into a bounce house. I dig my tail into the floor, trying to keep myself from flying everywhere. It doesn't help. "Stop, stop it! I can't take it!" Curiousity makes me wonder just how much he actually heard as I zipped by his line of sight from bouncing so much. Another snap, everything returns to normal, except suddenly there's a legband on my left foreleg. "W-what the heck is this?" "While you're under your sentencing you'll take the form I choose for you. The legband will keep that going without me needing to concentrate. At least, that's how it was explained...." *** the previous day *** "Hello Twilight!" Discord said, letting himself into her private lab in the ponyville library basement. Already he was floating over her. "What is it now Discord?" She was poking and prodding at a small legband she was working on, charging bits and pieces with magic. "I'm busy putting the finishing touches on this." "Oh and what might that be?" Something piqued his curiosity, let's not startle the draconeques. A silent shush was put in the air towards a wall. "Who are you shushing?" "Oh nopony." "Well, anyway, it's a legband designed to constantly maintain whatever spell put in it and constantly cast it on the wearer. Cloudwalking spell, transformation, levitation, wing spell, you name it." "Fascinating...." He smirks, a bright idea hitting him. "Princesswholetsmefieldtestitsayswhat!" "What?" "THANK YOU!" He snatches it up and promptly disappears. Twilight looks back at where he was, then to the table, and back and forth a couple times until Her mane bursts into flames and she roars out. "DISCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORD!" *** With that another snap, and suddenyl I feel, wrong. A mirror sprouts out of the ground. The image it portrays is horrifying. I was a pony, but not a normal one. I look like I'd been dipped in acid, and my skin settled in horrible ways. It also looked like I had a pipboy, but it was held on by stretches of more skin attached to it. Lastly, every time I breathed out, there was a little puff of pink smoke. "Hmm, doesn't seem chaotic enough to me." Evan pipes up then. "Discord are you nuts? Well, nuttier than normal!? You can't make him into one of those. That cloud he's breathing out alone is deadly toxic!" "Hmm, suppose you're right." Another snap, I was swapped to a mouse. "No, too small." Snap. A lavender colored unicorn stallion....with pegasus wings. "No, too rule sixty three." Snap. An octopus. "Too hentai." Snap. Back to manticore. "Perfect" "He started as that....." Evan just facepalms, facehoof's, didn't I question which it'd be earlier? "Hmm.....AHA!" One final snap, and what greets me now is one of those batwinged ponies. Only I kept the extra long mane, and my tail was scorpion like still. That and the fangs were more pronounced. "Just take one part away and boom, perfect!" Gotta say, I looked kinda nice, for a freak of nature. "Ok, ok, so that's out of the way, now what, and where have you been Evan?" All this time, getting easily sidetracked from finding him, and now that I found him, I realized how little I tried. "Well, Mark, you remember that buggy looking pony in the forest back when you first woke up here? That umm, was me." The next thing I know, he's consumed in green fire, leaving me jumping back and falling on my ass. The fires drop, and there's the buggy pony. "I kinda came through as a Changeling. I thought I told you about these guys." "Yeah well I didn't exactly expect a little girl's show to be based on reality! So cut me some freaking slack." "Ahem." We both whirl towards Discord. "If you two are quite finished, there's a few other matters we need to go over, but first." He pops away to the window, slaps it open and pulls a pony through. It's Cotton Candy, still covered in rainbow paint. "Pinkie, I believe something is due finally." The widest smile I've ever seen spreads across her face, and she literally starts vibrating in the middle of the room, chips of paint falling away until it's all gone, leaving a pink colored pony in it's wake. Well, there goes my guess, her name wasn't Cotton Candy. That fact has little time to register before I realize she suddenly has a cannon pointed at my face. Before I can scream, she fires it off, and i'm coated in a combination of streamers, confetti, cake, and other various decorations and party favors. A banner now hangs over me, saying, 'Welcome to Equestria Mark and Evan.' Well, a party, I can live with that. But one things bother me. "Uhh, Pinkie, how long were you sitting out there?" "Since you left for the scenic route." The most innocent smile on her face, no way she's lying. I pop over to the window, look out, sure enough, the same road we left her on. "So you mean, the whole time, this place was right around the corner?" She nods to me, and well, the next few minutes I don't recall, though Evan explained to me that I tried to murder Discord with any object I could get my hooves on. And so the party wiled away, with me eventually sitting in the corner, tied up in a straight jacket and muzzled, glaring daggers at Discord as he became one with the dancefloor, which was quite literally on a few occasions.