//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Dark Pasts // Story: My Life as a Hybrid // by ChaosDoomscythe //------------------------------// My Life as a Hybrid By: ChaosDoomscythe/Doomscythe01 Zaleros Chapter 3: Dark Pasts “Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. You men to tell me that your soul took control of a newborn foals body…while their soul was still in it?” “Yeah, and to this day, it’s one of the things I regret the most.” Bones brought his hoof to his chin and began tapping it, obviously in thought about something. “Weird…” I blinked, having not expected that response. “Weird? What? My soul taking over a foal’s body? You find that weird?” “Yes, I do,” He looked up at me and began examining my features. He looked at my spiked back silver-grey mane and, my black fur coat, the scales hidden underneath said coat, my teal green eyes with their slit pupils that resembled both a dragon’s and a changeling’s, the fangs in my mouth, My larger than average wings, and finally, down towards my flank where he noted with surprise my lack of a cutie mark. Yup. Twenty-one years old and I still don’t have one. But I wasn’t focusing on what he was looking at. I was more focused on the fact that he found what I said was weird to him. “Really?” He looked me back in the eyes before he responded. “Yeah…” “You find that weird?” “Uh-huh…” “The living skeleton finds the fact that my soul took over another creature’s body… weird?” Bones huffed at that and crossed his forelegs, turning his head to the left. “Well, when you put it that way!” I couldn’t help myself and let out a snicker. Bones turned back towards me after a moment though. “But still, based on theories about souls and the limited magical spells we’ve developed, it should stand to reason that multiple souls cannot co-exist in one body, as they would threaten to tear it apart.” That caught me off guard, and my light laughter cut off abruptly. How the bloody hell-? For the first time since meeting him, I looked Bones over in detail. He had no horn. He hadn’t been a unicorn while he was alive. So I was a little stumped as to how he knew that. I decided to voice my opinion. “You aren’t a unicorn.” He was a little confused by my statement. “No… I’m not. I also don’t see how that has anything to do with what we’re talking about.” “Based on the typical pony stereotypes in this world, the unicorns are the scholars. So how the hell does an earth pony know anything about soul magic?” Truth be told, I, myself, knew quite a bit about it considering how I had been living up until I was thirteen. I had to, in order to make sure nothing bad happened to him. It’s one of my greatest regrets that something bad did happen to him. Something that, despite all the logic in my mind telling me otherwise, I still felt I could have done something for him. Anything. And losing him had hurt more than I care to think about. Bones Interrupted my inner pain but huffing indignantly. “I AM NOT AN EARTH PONY!” “Well, I don’t see a horn on your head, and there are no wings at your side so…oh.” I stopped because I watched as a small pile of bones sitting in a corner that I thought were from some random animal suddenly glow a dark red. Then they floated into the air and rearranged themselves before floating over and attaching themselves to the sides of Bones Skeleton, close to his back. They were his Pegasus wings. I was even more surprised when I saw a small horn surrounded by the same red glow dig itself up from out of the ground, fly over, and attach itself to his head seamlessly. For a few brief moments, I stared at him slack-jawed. I could feel the smugness radiating off of him at the fact he left me speechless. Shaking my head back and forth to reorient myself, I looked at the alicorn skeleton looking back at me and could only thing of one thing to say. “Huh… You’re an alicorn………… Huh.” His smugness didn’t deteriorate at all, and if anything, seemed to grow some based on my reaction. “The look on your face is absolutely priceless.” “Well, I’m gonna be honest. This answers why you knew at least something about Soul magic.” I began rubbing my chin with a hoof. “It also probably explains why you’re still alive despite being… you know… dead. I’m gonna wager your cutie mark had something to do with souls.” I felt the surprise coming from him. He must not have figured I’d get that on the first try. “Yeah… How did you know?” I shrugged. “Well, it kinda fits, you know? Your soul is obviously still attached to your body. And you know Soul Magic, so I just used common sense and thought about how that would work in a cutie mark driven society. Bam! Soul based cutie mark.” I then squinted at him, furrowing my brows. “But though that answers a few questions, now I have a lot more. You’re an alicorn, or at least, you used to be. So now I seriously want to know something.” He began shuffling nervously, proving to be uncomfortable under my piercing gaze, and I could feel the nervousness coming off of him. Hell, I could taste it. I never did like the taste of nervousness too much. Probably why I turned off my changeling senses whenever I was around Flutttershy. She reeked of nervousness and fear. Can’t blame her though, it’s just how she is. “If you’re an Alicorn, why the hell are you in here?” The nervousness turned to sadness and rejection in an instant, and I could feel something coming from him I knew all too well. Regret. My eyes widened at that one. “Bones...” I began hesitantly, “What did you do?” He backed himself into a corner, and I began to hear rattling. His bones were shaking so much they were clicking against each other rather audibly. His bony wings tightened up at his sides. I almost didn’t hear the fearful whisper over their clacking. “Please…. Please don’t ask me that…. Please don’t make me relive what I did…” I jumped up and rushed towards him, nearly tripping because I forgot I was wearing shackles on my hooves, the chains on said shackles preventing my legs from moving more than a foot away from each other. I placed a hoof on his shoulder and tried to ease his worries. He flinched heavily when he felt my hoof. “Whoa, whoa, calm down! It’s alright. I won’t ask if it makes you that uncomfortable. I’m sorry, just calm down. It’ll be okay, man. It’s alright. “ After a few moments, he seemed to calm down enough. Once I made sure he would be alright, I hobbled my way back to my corner of the room, cursing the cuffs as I did so. I thought back to earlier in our conversation. “You’re right by the way.” The red glowing dots in his eyes faded out and back in quickly. Yep, he must be blinking when he does that. “About what?” I looked out our little barred window at the waning day. The sun was almost under the horizon, meaning Luna’s moon would soon grace the majestic art that was her night sky. ………Okay, yes, I love the night, deal with it. In case you're wondering, i also love thunder, lightning, darkness, chaos, and rain. So there. Oh yeah, and fighting. Absolutely love fighting. ....Ima get back on track here. “You were right when you said two souls cannot exist in one body.” He could detect the melancholy and sadness in my voice. I left it at that. I assumed he knew what I meant when I felt the sorrow and pity coming from him. I let out a rather loud yawn, and my eyes started getting drowsy. I was tired, for more than one reason. My magic had been depleted in the fight against Celestia and her guards, not to mention the damage I caused to the castle as collateral. I was fairly certain I would be interrogated tomorrow at some point after they all made sure old sun-butt was alright. I scowled at that, and tried to get Celestia off my mind by looking towards the window. I could see the moon just beginning its ascent, meaning the Princess of the night was awake and doing her duty. That’s when I got an idea. I seriously hoped it would work. “Hey, Bones?” He turned and looked at me when I addressed him. “Can you still use magic?” He rubbed his chin in thought for a moment, before his red eye dots disappeared completely. After a moment, I saw his horn glow blood red, followed by the same aura appearing around me, but flickering in and out. I said nothing, but I smirked, figuring whatever he was about to do was going to fail due to my high magic resistance. Imagine my shock when suddenly the flickering aura stopped flickering and I suddenly shot towards the roof, smashing my head in it with a rather audible thud. Then the aura disappeared, resulting in gravity doing its job. The dirt floor was just as comfortable as it’s always been. After I picked myself back up, I looked to see Bones with another smug look on his face. “You have a rather impressive level of resistance against magic, friend.” I groaned, rubbing my head. “Yeah, and it’s helped me out a lot, just about as much as it's hindered me.” I shook my head to once again reorient myself. “I am willing to let that… incident… slide without repercussions, however, if you help me with something though.” “Oh, and what would that be?” “I need you to help me send a message. These hoof cuffs are seriously dampening my magic. But I only need a small amount to do what I need. So would you be so kind as to loan me some of yours? All I need is a small telepathy spell.” “You know telepathy?” He sounded shocked. “Not many ponies know how to do that. Despite it being a generally low level spell, most unicorns don’t have the mental capability or focus to perform it because they can’t find an inner sanctum within themselves.” “Yeah, well, I’ve had plenty of practice looking into my mind. And my mom taught me the spell. Truthfully, I only know like…maybe five or six spells altogether.” “Really? Why?” “Mostly because I didn’t really want to learn anymore. I only learned a few that I knew would help me in daily life. I didn’t need that much. My Mom forced me to learn two spells though, telepathy being one of them.” Okay, that was a partial lie. True, I only know six spells: Levitation, Teleportation, Telepathy, Invisibility (god I love sneaking up on people), a Silencing spell, and a Soul Connecting spell. But with that last one, I developed or rediscovered a bunch of other spells in order to make sure that the other soul that inhabited this body at one time would sand a much better chance of surviving until I could find a way to throw my own soul into something else that was suitable. I failed. And I will carry that with me until the day I die. “I see. Well, alright. I guess I can help.” Bones walked over to me and placed his horn on my forehead. “I’m going to link our magical auras together, and you can use mine to send your message alright. But be careful, I don’t know how the cuffs will affect you.” “Thanks.” That was the last thing I said before he activated his magic and connected us. I activated the telepathy spell, my eyes taking on the blood red glow of his magic. I hadn’t expected a searing pain to flow into my mind though, and I nearly collapsed from it. Bones supported me, and kept me upright as I tried to focus through the pain, but it wasn’t easy. After several minutes of trying, My spell managed to get through, and I felt myself connect to another conscious. I had to hurry, though, because the spell only lasts as long as your focus does, and I wouldn’t be able to focus for much longer. ‘Princess Luna! If…If you c-can hear me… Please! Enter my d-dreams tonight! I-I need to show you-!’ That was it. I lost my concentration, the pain becoming too much. I collapsed to the ground unable to even move. I saw Bones above me, and I realized he was saying something, but I couldn’t even hear him. My vision was going black. Bones started shaking me. Despite his efforts, consciousness left me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I was floating in a void. Not your typical void, mind you. Most of the time, when people (or ponies in this world) think of a void they imagine a vast expanse of darkness all around them. Personally, I would prefer that. Instead, I get a void of rainbows. Now that’s not to say I dislike rainbows. Shit, Rainbow Dash is my favorite pony. But, come on! A rainbow colored void? Fuck rainbows! Belatedly, I realized I wasn’t alone in the void this night. I could feel her without even looking. Mostly because of the hatred I felt coming from her. Couldn’t really blame her for that, though, considering what I did. But I was glad my message got through to her. “Nice to see you again, Princess Luna.” Despite the anger and the rage I could feel from her, she still responded in a civil manner. “I cannot say the same.” “And I can’t blame you for that, considering what I did to your sister.” Her anger flared. “Nice to see you’re getting better at speaking modern Equestrian, though.” Her anger waned slightly. Note to self: give compliments if you want to keep living. “Thank you. I am trying to improve, though We- I… still slip up sometimes.” She caught herself. She is getting better. “Tell me, Princess… Who was going to interrogate me tomorrow?” “I was.” I paused for a moment, before I calmed myself. “Well, not that surprising. But that’s why I called you here.” I turned around and looked right at her. Her Eyes were boring holes in mine, and she was looking right into my soul. I could not look away from that piercing gaze. And I didn’t want to. I wanted her to see. I was going to make her see. Everything. “Prin…. Luna-“ “You will address me as Princess. You have lost the right to call me by name. “ That actually hurt me when she said that, and I think she could tell based on how the void suddenly shifter to a rainbow of blue and purple hues. “Princess… I appreciate you not frying me the moment you got here.” “I decided to give you a chance. You have been an excellent worker at the castle and have always been there for us and others when they needed help or assistance. Despite your recent actions, even I can see the good in your heart.” She then suddenly glared at me. She opened her mouth to continue, but I beat her to the punch. “Which is why you want to know why I did what I did?” She closed her mouth and nodded, her glare not receding in the slightest. “That’s why I wanted you here. To show you Instead of you wasting your time with an interrogation. It’s so much easier than me wasting my breath for hours talking to you, and here, I can create no lies. In here, I can simply show you my memories, and you will know that it is the truth. And because I’m part Changeling, I can use my empathic abilities to make you feel what I felt during these memories, these moments of my past. I’m going to show you, Lu-... Princess.. I’m going to show you my life, everything I’ve had to endure, the thing I’ve become. I’m going to show you why I tried to kill your sister. You’re going to experience it all. And when we’re done…. I’m going to finish what I started… And your sister will die by my hoof.” I didn’t even give her time to respond before the entirety of the void shifted, and the two of us were thrown into darkness. Into my memories.