The Monster of Canterlot

by drnkntst

Chapter 33

Two days. Two days they kept me awake. Awake and hungry. All I was given was a few slices of bread and what I can only hope was water. The working theory was; if I was weak enough, I wouldn’t be able to resist their strange magic. I kept telling them, well, yelling them that that wouldn’t work, but they weren’t listening.

Their theory and practice was working to their advantage in one major way; if I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t contact Luna and Celestia. If I couldn’t contact them, I wouldn’t have any hope of escaping on my own.

At least I had some company. In another cell, across from mine, was a unicorn mare with blue fur and two-tone blue mane and tail. She called herself Trixie. I recognized the name, but couldn’t place it. Either way, I felt incredibly sad for her.

Both days, at intervals of four or five hours, a changeling would slip into the cell next to hers and change into a unicorn stallion with dark fur. She would wake from her slumber, induced by having the love drained from her, to find the ‘stallion’ also ‘waking’.

Oh, he put on a show too. He would moan and pretend to be weak. He would even yell at the guards sometimes, demanding better treatment for one as great beautiful as Trixie. And she would eat it up. It was making me sick. Or maybe that was the ‘water’.

“You know it’s all a farce, right?” I yelled at her while he put on his show. “He’s one of them!”

“How could you say that?” Trixie glared at me. “Can’t you see he’s suffered? Or are you too blinded by your own jealousy to see that, Monster?”

“Yeah, I’m the one that’s blinded.” I could tell there was nothing I could do to convince her otherwise, so I decided to lay back and try to get some rest.

I was interrupted by a series of clicks and a splash of cold water. I was getting pretty tired of this.

“No, Sister, I have not seen him, heard from him, nor have I felt his dreams in days. I too am starting to grow concerned.”

Celestia was pacing the throne room, just as she had been since their last dreamwalk had been interrupted. She also wasn’t seeing anypony, except in the most extreme of emergencies, which nopony’s qualified for since Discorde started to straighten up and fly right.

“He wouldn’t have simply run off! …Again. He has to be somewhere!” She stomped over to the tray that had been refilled for the third time that day and made another cake disappear. “I phwon’t reft ‘til he’ph ‘ome again!”

Luna wiped crumbs from her face. “Nor will I, Sister.” Luna walked over to where Bunny was sitting with Cotton held close. Iron Hammer was sitting next them, nuzzling them every so often. “There is nothing else for you to do here today. You may as well go home.”

“If it’s all the same to you, Princess, we’d like to stay.”

Luna couldn’t help but smile at the support for her family. Sadly, that happiness was short lived. “He’s gonna be okay, isn’t he, Mommy? There gonna find him, right?”

Bunny squeezed her daughter a little tighter. “Yes, Honey, he’ll be fine.” Cotton was being held so close, that she couldn’t see her mother crying.

Day three. I had just been brought my daily rations of bread and water. Trixie had just finished her visit and passed out from exhaustion. That normally would have been the extent of my entertainment for the day, but today was different.

“Let go of me!” a female voice came from the entrance to the cells.

“I know that voice,” I said to myself.

“You can’t treat ponies like th-” Willow was cut off due to her being thrown into the cell next to mine.

“Willow!” I rushed to the bars. “Willow, are you alright?”

“Unh… Chris? Is that you?” Willow crawled over to the bars and fed her hoof through them.

I took her hoof in my hands and gently squeezed. “Yeah, it’s me. I’ve been here for three days now.”

“Really?” She looked around and found that there were no windows. “How can you tell?”

I pulled the alicorn feathers out from under my shirt and rubbed them between my fingers. “Just a trick I picked up from my mother.”

“Wow, those are pretty. Who gave them to you?”

I held up Twilight’s and Cadence’s feathers, “these are from my cousins,” Luna’s feather, “my aunt,” and then Celestia’s, “and finally, my mother.”

“Wait, you’re not a pony. How can your mother have feathers?”

“Well… I was adopted… by Celestia.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on. If Celestia is your mother, then your aunt must be Luna, but… who’s your cousins?”

‘Oh, Cadence and Twilight Sparkle. I tell you what, when Mom finds out what’s happened,… well, I might actually feel sorry for the changelings. When we get out of here I’ll…”

“Oh, this is bad. Badbadbadbadbadbad… ” Willow repeated over and over as she ran out of her unlocked cell and galloped away, all the while changing into one of those bugs.

“That’s it! I’m done with mares for good!”

 
“Celestia’s son you say?” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow at what her youngling had just told her. “Interesting.”

“My queen, we have to release him. You said yourself that we could not feed from him. What good is he to us?”

Chrysalis studied her youngling. This was one of her favorites, even though she would never admit to having any. This youngling was skilled and smart. She was the best at infiltration and adaptation. But she also had a tendency to feel sympathy for their prey, and that could be dangerous.

“Change for me.”

“My queen?”

“Change for me, youngling.” The smaller changeling did as she was told and turned into Desert Willow. “This is your favorite form, is it not?” Willow nodded. “And what good would it be to us if this form was known to the world to be that of a changeling?” Willow looked to the floor. Chrysalis was right, her favorite guise was no good to the hive anymore. True, she could always use a different one, but even changelings felt attached to a certain look. It was as close to individuality as they could hope to get.

“It would be no good at all, my queen. I was just worried that, if the princesses found out, she would retaliate against us. I fear for our well-being is all. I don’t think we would be able to hold off an attack by somepony so powerful.”

“Hmm… I see. You feel that Celestia will be too powerful for me to handle and therefore you and your siblings might not survive. Am I correct?” Willow nodded shamefully. “Then that leaves only one option to us.” Willow looked up at her queen and mother with hope. Hope that she may set her new captive free. It was not to be. “We shall simply have to dispose of him once we are done draining every last bit of love from his body.”

While all this was going on, I had managed to finally get some sleep, thanks to all the confusion caused by that damn Willow.

The clatter of a bucket hitting the floor was drowned out by the angry clicking. I stood up and walked to the bars to confront my jailer. “When I get out of here, I’m going to hurt you.”

“Sister!” Luna yelled as she galloped into the throne room. “Sister, Christopher has made contact!”

“He has!? Where is he? Is he alright? Tell me!”

“He has been captured by changelings, but he does not know where. He was able to tell me he was in a cave before he was woken. Sister, Christopher told me he was scared.”

Celestia didn’t even respond. Her wings shot open to their full span and she was gone in an instant, flying at a velocity only bested by Rainbow Dash at top speed.

Luna watched her sister fly away for a brief moment before turning away to address the situation in a more constructive manner. “GUARDS!” A half-dozen armored ponies rushed into the chamber and fell into formation before her. “Your prince is in grave danger.” Luna pointed to each guard in turn as she gave out orders. “I need for you to contact King Gurfon of the Griffin Kingdom and request assistance in the search. I need for you to inform Twilight Sparkle and her friends of the situation and ask for their help. You, send a message to Princess Cadence for the same reason. Tell the Captain that all leave is canceled. Gather whatever and whomever you need in order to move the entire force to Appleoosa. We well establish a search from there. Now move out!” The guards saluted and began to carry out their orders. “One other thing,” they all stopped and looked back, “if any of you fail in your duties, my anger shall only be bested by my sister’s. Am I understood?”

“Y-yes, y-y-your highness!” They galloped out of the throne room as fast as their hooves would let them.

“I only pray that will not be necessary,” Luna said to herself before she followed after Celestia.

I sat in my cell, munching on my daily rations. There wasn’t much I could do right now, except wait and hope. I managed to get ahold of Luna, and she no doubt told Celestia. If I knew my family, I could almost expect the desert to be flipped upside down, literally.

The door opened and in walked a changeling. It was about time for their little performance on Trixie. I may as well try something.

“Ugh… hey, uh, you, I need help. I’m in so much pain~…” The changeling looked at me for only a moment or two, then started to head into his cell. “Ugnh… please…” I clutched at my stomach and fell to my knees, groaning in ‘pain’.

That did it. He came closer for an inspection. As soon as he was within reach, I reached out and grabbed his crooked horn. I dragged it, and him along with it, to the bars. His snout had slid between two vertical bars and his chin rested on a horizontal one.

“Now that I have your attention, open the cells,” I growled in his face. He clicked and glared at me, but it didn’t sound like he was very willing. I raised a fist and hammered it down on his snout. The horizontal bar didn’t allow his face to move with the blow, therefore causing his skull to absorb to entire impact. “Let’s try this again. Open. The. Cells.” The changeling didn’t look like he was very willing to cooperate, so I raised my fist again. His eyes bulged and the cells opened. “There, was that so hard?”

I stepped out of my cell and kept a close eye on my jailer. I went over to Trixie’s cell and tried to wake her. She didn’t respond. I checked on my new friend, he was still rubbing his snout and clicking angrily. I scooped up my fellow captive and slung her over my shoulder. I made my way over to the door, but decided to make good on a promise before I did.

I went over to the changeling on sitting on the ground. When he looked up at me, I said to him, “I told you I’d hurt you when I got out.” Did you know male changelings keep their ‘equipment’ in the same location as stallions? Neither did I.

I stalked down the endless corridors trying to find a way out while also trying my best not to be seen. It’s not easy when you’re carrying so much dead weight. At least it seemed to be going okay, up until I rounded my sixth or seventh corner. I had bumped into an old friend, quite literally.

“Chris? You got out?”

“Willow,” with my free hand, I grabbed a handful of her mane and shoved her head to the floor. “Give me one good reason not to show you what King Gurfon taught me.”

“Because…” she grunted, “I can… get you out… of here.” I let off the pressure on her head.

“Why would you help me?”

“Believe it or not, I don’t want to see you dead.”

“Dead?” I let her stand up completely.

“When the queen found out who you were, she decided to drain you and then kill you.” Willow looked forlorn. “I don’t want to do this anymore. I would have left a long time ago, but, no changeling can stay away from their queen for long.”

I wasn’t exactly pleased with her, but I could tell she was being frank. “Alright, lead the way.”

And so she did. Quietly and swiftly, we made our way toward the exit. Willow, who had gone back to her natural form to avoid suspicion if caught. Fortunately, Willow knew how to keep out of sight. It wasn’t too long until we were almost out, thought it felt like it was forever.

“Huh, what’s going on?” Trixie had woken up. “Where’s my little snuggle bear?”

I set her down on her hooves. “He, uh, he got out already.” What? He may have. I can’t keep track of all these changelings.

“Really? Good.” Trixie let out a sigh of relief. “Now what about us?”

“There is a buffalo camp not far to the north from here,” Willow, who had changed once again, said. “As soon as we breach the tunnel, we need to make a mad dash for it.”

“Sounds like a pla-” I was cut off by a guttural roar from somewhere deep in the cave. “I think we need to move the plan ahead a little. Run!”

One thing that will always be a con to being human, the slower speed. Trixie didn’t even look back as she galloped ahead. Willow at least was allowing me to keep pace. Unfortunately, that didn’t matter for long.

We breached the cave. “That way! Go!” Willow yelled as she pointed to the north. But Trixie was already gone, and that was fine by me.

I had only seen the sky long enough to see that is was full of pegasi and griffins before I was tackled to the ground by a horde of changelings and dragged back into the cave. This time they were more cautious, they bound my hands behind my back and my ankles together. They had dragged me, kicking and screaming, into a large hall in, what I could only assume, was the middle of the hive.

I also wasn’t alone. Willow had been dragged along with me. I was scared, I don’t mind admitting, but Willow was shaking. I could see her doing it and I wasn’t even close to her. What could scare her so much?

“Oh, Chris, you almost made it. Too bad.” Chrysalis stepped out of the shadows. It seemed to be her signature, bad-guy move. “You know, I was going to take my time with you. I mean, a one of a kind creature, unknown to most of Equus. Who could ask for a better way to challenge their shifting abilities?” Chrysalis approached me and was then surrounded by a ring of green flame. When the flame dissipated, she still had the same back legs, head and wings, but her barrel and forelegs had been altered to more closely resemble my own. She started to admire herself. “Hmm… not bad. Maybe with more time, I could perfect a little more. Oh well, I guess we’ll never know for sure.”

“What are you gonna do to us?” I demanded.

“Well, I despise losing a youngling, so this one,” she held Willow’s chin in her hand, “we’ll have to be re-educated.” Chrysalis thrust Willow’s chin as she released it. “You on the otherhoof, you I’m going to kill.”

Willow was dragged away by her own kin to be ‘re-educated’, whatever that meant. She was wailing and I wanted to help, but I had other things to worry about. Well, one other thing. And she was getting closer.

Fortunately, thanks to my hands being behind my back, a certain birthday gift was within reach. I had already drew it and had been cutting at the goo holding my arms. I was also almost through.

“It seems that poor mommy dearest will just have to find a new charity case.” A changeling had given Chrysalis a spear. She hefted it from one hand to the next. “Such a shame.”

She drew it back and I saw my opportunity. I lunged forward, having only one chance due to my feet still being bound. Thanks to my training, I only needed the one. The blade found purchase in her mid-section. A lot of it.

Too bad it wasn’t enough. Chrysalis’ exoskeleton was thick enough to protect her from the blade’s vengeance. It missed everything vital.

“Why you little monster!” Chrysalis pulled the dagger from her belly. A small trickle of green blood followed. It made me feel a little better about myself before I got murdered. The spear was raised and then brought down.

At first, I didn’t feel a thing. Then I looked down. There was five feet of wood sticking out of my chest that wasn’t supposed to be there. That was when I started to feel… cold. It started off slow, but it spread quickly.

The dark room was getting darker. I could see Chrysalis standing over me. It looked like she was laughing, but I couldn’t hear anything anymore. Soon, the only things I was aware of was the sound of my heart beating slower and slower, and the room getting darker.

Suddenly, the room got much brighter as a hole was ripped through the ceiling. The last thing I got to see was Celestia floating down from the light of her own sun.

There are far worse things to see as you die.