//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: And Then There Was 'Rage Be Gone' // Story: My Life as a Hybrid // by ChaosDoomscythe //------------------------------// My Life as a Hybrid By: ChaosDoomscythe/Doomscythe01 Chapter 9: And Then There Was 'Rage Be Gone' The ponies, and skeleton pony, all stared at me. I suppose they would when they noticed I stopped talking after the part where I blacked out and just continuously glared at Pinkie and her little demon pet. She did nothing but smile back at me, before suddenly giving me this most demonic look which made me recoil heavily. When the others turned to look back at Pinkie, she was all smiles again. I didn’t miss the hidden meaning in that stare. She just dared me to break another Pinkie Promise. Not happening. She may have gotten me in a pinkie promise, but I will loophole the shit out of it. Those humans aren’t safe from me yet. I let out a sigh, as I turned back to the others. “So yeah, Mantle beat the shi- um... snot out of me, and were it not for our resident animal caretaker over there, I wouldn’t be here right now.” Twilight was the first one to say anything, her scientific mind demanding answers from me. “Wait, the manticore that we have in the royal gardens right now is the same one that almost ate you? How is that possible? He looks nothing like what you just described him to look like. He looks like a regular manticore, with the exception of his slightly larger size.” “That, Twilight, is my own magic at work in his body.” The ponies looked confused. “Come again?” “Remember when I said he inhaled my magic and then used it against me? It is literally a part of him now. He can eat another ponies magic and gain any ability they possess. From me, he has gained the ability to transform himself into an average manticore, he can breathe and cloak himself in fire, he can turn invisible, teleport, cast a sound dampening spell, and he has telepathy which is how I can understand him.” “Tartarus King Mantalius, Greed Incarnate.” Everypony turned to Luna. My jaw had dropped. “…….How the bloody he-“ “It took my sister and I years after Discord was first sealed to corral all of his chaos spawn into one general area and seal them behind the gates of Tartarus. My question is how you managed to run into one of the most dangerous ones that literally took us several months just to track down. That is not to say how long it took to actually defeat it and then restrain it. How did it get loose? And how did you befriend it?” My jaw hadn’t picked itself up yet. The ponies were now looking at me as they tried to figure out how that thing became my pet. Pinkie hopped up to me and poked me in the side, successfully restarting my brain. “Yeah… Mantalius. That’s him. He got out when Cerberus left his post and Twilight took him back. A couple of other creatures got out too. Mantle had been hunting in the Everfree ever since, up until he found me.” Cadence asked the next question I’m sure was on all their minds. “And how exactly did he become your pet?” “Well, honestly,” I began, “It’s more like we’re friends, and he only portrays himself as my pet to make me look a little more bada- flank. Badflank. I mean, how many ponies can go around saying they have a manticore as their pet? Also, the only real reason he puts up with any of that is because he’s terrified of Fluttershy and her stare. Truthfully, I’m terrified of her stare, but for a different reason than he is. As for how we became friends... well, that's a story for another time.” “Even so, we cannot allow him to remain free.” Luna approached left side of the bed I was sitting on. “Sealing him in Tartarus removed all of the stolen powers he obtained before we captured him the first time, sealing him again should remove the ones he took from you.” She was about to address one of the guards in the room, but quickly turned back to me when she heard the venom in my voice. “I don’t care who you are, Princess of the Moon,” I seethed in barely restrained fury. “If you even so much attempt to try taking him from me, not only will I not stop him from the rampage he is sure to go on, I may even join him.” Luna actually backed away from my words and my glare. The shock in her eyes, and the eyes of the others at that comment must have stunned them. “That manticore is my best friend, and damn near family to me. I’ve lost enough friends and family already, whether I was torn away from them, or they from me. It will be a cold, frozen day in hell before I let you, or anyone else, take another one from me!” And then the fucking vest happened. That vest they made me, just started glowing an incredibly bright white with what looked like sparkling stars flowing out of it. Then it hit me like a bullet train moving at top speed made out of adamantium. That’s what it felt like when the anger just disappeared from my system. I dropped like a two ton rock, panting and gasping for breath, struggling just to get my hooves under me to pick myself back up. My entire body felt like it had flown across the planet several hundred times. My muscles were so sore, I couldn’t help but grit my teeth in the agony I was in. And then just like that, it was over. The pain, the exhaustion, it was just all gone, and along with it, the glow from the vest. However, it still left me panting and gasping. I sat back up, and looked at the worried faces of the group around me, then down to the vest, then back at the ponies. My response was likely predictable. “What… the fuck… was… that?!” “Whatever that was,” Twilight, began as she approached me, “it wasn’t supposed to happen.” Her horn started glowing, and I felt her magic tingle over the portion of my body that the vest covered. As she concentrated, her face scrunched up slightly and she stuck the tip of her tongue out the side of her mouth. Absolutely adorkable. I heard Pinks snort, and cover her mouth to stifle her giggles. I glared at her while I managed to compose myself, still rather angry at her for what happened in the... *sigh* previous chapter. Stupid fourth wall preventing me from killing humans. Stupid pinkie promise. I managed a grin. You just wait, Pinks. Loopholes exist for a reason. She suddenly turned and glared at me, then pointed her hoof at her eyes, and then mine. Ignoring Pinkie, and managing to compose myself, I turned back to Twilight in time to see her blink while tilting her head in confusion. Seconds after, her magical aura increased and grew dense, while simultaneously, the light tingle I felt around the vest suddenly spread to consumer the entirety of my form. She was using a lot of magic now, and I could feel her analyzing me. For what, I knew not, but I had a feeling there was something wrong with this. After a few moments, Cadence asked, “Twilight? Twilight, what’s wrong?” She ignored her old foal-sitter and her magic grew a little denser around her horn, and then I started to feel uncomfortable. A couple of the others called out to her in askance, but none of them got a response. Figured I’d ask what was up too, just so I didn’t feel left out. “H-hey, Twilight? Whatever you’re doing, it feels really… wrong… W-what exactly are you d-doing to me? ” She ignored me too. Whatever she was concentrating on was apparently enough to gain the entirety of her attention. Her magical aura grew even denser, to the point where we almost couldn’t see her horn, and I noticed sweat falling down her face. My body began twitching and shuddering. “T-Twilight, stop.” Her magical output increased yet again, and we could no longer see her horn. I felt my twitches transform into sudden jerks, and it felt like my entire body was shaking. “Ah! Twilight, stop! STOP!” Twilight let out a gasp. “Oh, no.” Then her magic suddenly stopped, and she jumped back just in time for flames to shoot out of my body and completely torch the bed I was on. It turned to ash in seconds and I felt myself land on the floor where my bed used to be. My vest remained untouched, but the floor around me was covered in scorch marks. MY body shuddered violently before it calmed down, and I just laid there, eyes wide open as I looked to Twilight, who was lightly panting. “’Oh, no?’ Why ‘oh, no’? ‘Oh, no’ isn’t good. Why’d you say ‘oh, no,’ Twilight? YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SAY ‘OH, NO’! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU, MARE?! WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP WHEN I TOLD YOU TO?!?!” I had jumped up and grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her. With a burst of her purple-pinkish magic, she pushed me away. “Because I had to make sure my theory of why the vest hurt you like it did was right… and in a way, it was.” Rarity walked up to us. “Well, dear, tell us. What exactly is the problem? What just happened?” Twilight took a breath to calm herself down, and then began to explain. “While we took into account your resistance to magic and adjusted the numerous spells on the vest to compensate for it, your own body did something we didn’t expect it to do.” I raised a brow. “And that would be… what, exactly?” “Your body is resisting the effects of the vest in its entirety.” … … … ...“What?” “You know how it felt like my magic was invading your very being?” I nodded. “That what the vest we made for you does. In order to counteract your magical resistance, we designed the magic in the vest to bypass your body entirely and effect the magical core of your being. That way, not only would it ignore your body’s defense against magic, but it would also be more effective in sealing your negative emotions. “The problem is that we didn’t expect the core of your body to resist magic as well.” Luna herself raised a brow at that and looked at me with a critical eye. I watched as her horn began glowing a midnight blue, before I felt her magic invade me much like Twlight’s did, but after several moments, she stopped. I’m guessing she confirmed what Twilight said. “The very core of your being also actively resists magic, which is what I was testing with you. I kept trying to flood your core with some of my own magic, but not only was it resisting me, but it was pushing my magic back out as well. I had to keep pushing more and more into you, but the more I pushed, the stronger you resisted against me. Eventually it got to the point where your body simply lashed out in an effort to stop it, hence the now disintegrated bed.” "Okay. I can understand all of that.” I felt a twitch in my wing. Was I getting aggravated at this? “What I don’t understand is why the vest feels like it just pulled out half my life when it removed my rage.” Luna took the opportunity to speak up this time. “The vest is designed to restrain and suppress the negative emotions in your body, most specifically anger, hate, and rage. If it fails to do so, and you end up having a burst of your inner wrath reach the surface, the vest is supposed to drain it out of your body harmlessly until you have calmed down, and will continue to remain active until all traces of your wrath has vanished. As Twilight said, the vest does so by penetrating to your core to bypass your body’s natural resistance to magic. But if your core resists it as well, and even goes so far as to fight back against it, then the vest’s inner magic most likely recognized what would happen, and decided to forgo subtleties.” “So it, quite literally, ripped my rage right out of me? That’s what you’re saying?” Luna and Twilight shared a look, before they both nodded. I face-hoofed and sighed. “Dag-nabbit. Now I have to explain some things…” Twilight sat on her haunches while rubbing her chin with a hoof, as serious expression on her face as she did so. “This makes no sense though. Your magical core shouldn’t resist magic at all. A pony’s magical core absorbs the ambient magic in the air to help replenish us, along with food and rest, even more so when we’re tired. You don’t absorb magic at all, which makes me wonder how you have any magic to use in the first place.” “Princess Luna, could you do me a favor?” She looked at me, waiting for me to elaborate on my request. “Would you kindly knock us all the buck out? What I’m going to explain will make sense after I show you something.” The night princess nodded, and her horn began glowing brightly. I decided I would make things a little easier, and my own eyes began glowing as my telepathy spell kicked in. Everypony’s eyes began glowing shortly after, right before numerous magical bolts flew out of Luna’s horn and impacted our skulls. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The ponies were surprised to have already found themselves within the confines of my void. And, as always: Rainbows! Rainbows everywhere! Fucking rainbows. “So, Twilight, to answer your question of how I still have magic, has anyone ever noticed that every two weeks I’ll disappear for roughly three days?” Rarity, Twilight, Dash and Luna nodded. “The reason is because of my changeling physiology. Because of that, I am only required to sleep once every two weeks in three day periods. It’s during those periods, the spell I placed upon myself kicks in, and my body and magical core, actively stop resisting magic and they start to absorb it instead. Massive amounts of it. I’m sure, Twilight and Rarity, that you two have noticed that when I disappear, your magic somehow seems somewhat weaker, or a little more difficult to maintain, right?” They both nodded, although somewhat hesitantly. “When I sleep, my body absorbs magic in an incredibly wide radius. That’s why I’m usually at Zecora’s when I have to. I absorb so much magical energy that unicorns can usually feel it, and it sometimes interferes in their spell casting. “I also absorb magic when my magical core begins to be depleted, I succumb to magical exhaustion, or I’m placed under a sleep spell. Though, luckily, I don’t absorb nearly as much, especially if my core isn’t drained any.” Twilight now looked confused. “Wait… so you knew your magical core resisted magic? You placed a spell on yourself that causes that? Why?” I looked at her with a deadpan stare. Pretty sure no one expected the next thing that came out of my mouth. “Because my Aunt Chysalis is a total bitch.” And then the void shifted for another trip down memory lane.