//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Lone Soldier // Story: How to be Cruel // by Erisn //------------------------------// Fluttershy walked through the Everfree Forest at night, holding a knife in her mouth. It was an uncomfortable block of wood, hard and painful to hold. Small wounds from the handle’s friction filled Fluttershy’s mouth with the acrid tang of blood. Yet she did not taste it. The ground beneath her hooves was hard and rocky; an untamed piece of land. Twigs and low-hanging branches grabbed at Fluttershy’s mane. The night’s wind chilled her to the bone. Yet she felt none of it. The rustling of the wind through the trees filled the world, yet Fluttershy did not hear it. The rich scent of the soil mixed with the sweet, heavy scent in the air, predicting rain, yet Fluttershy did not smell it. She did not hear, smell, feel, or taste anything. Had it not been for her eyes, Fluttershy would have believed she was in a world of emptiness. But her eyes were her one link to the world. In the dark shadows of the forest, between the silver patches of moonlight a shape hopped along in front of her. It was small and white, a small ghost in an empty forest. It was the only brightness in a world devoid of brilliance. Occasionally, it would stop and peer at the ground, and then continue on, unceasing; following a path Fluttershy could not see. And she followed the shape. Her mind did not actively think about it – it was something her body did without any input from her brain. Her consciousness was flipped off and hiding, leaving only Fluttershy’s instincts to follow the single point of guidance she had. On she walked, tripping over tree roots, walking into bushes, a sleeper trapped in a wake body, following Angel as he crossed through the forest. The rest of Fluttershy was not completely asleep, however. Parts of her were still awake. They argued and fought in Fluttershy’s mind, disturbing the silence of the forest. They screamed words such as ‘mercy’ and ‘forgiveness’ just as other parts of her soul screamed out ‘murder’ and ‘killer’. These words came not from Fluttershy’s normal mind, but somewhere darker, deeper, something deep in her heart that had been only a shadow until now. But it grew and rose until it threatened to take over her entire being. Over time, the path Angel followed became easier to follow. At first, it was just footprints in the dirt, a snapped branch to mark the way. But then the trail was marked with blood. And bodies. Fluttershy’s eyes recorded it all, although her legs never faltered. A sparrow was torn in two at the base of a tree; a nest and the eggs lying broken and shattered beside it. A beaver was missing its tail and it’s head. A family of mice had been killed, and only the tails and their blood remained. This is what Fluttershy saw, but she still moved on, engraving each scene in her heart as she did. The voices in Fluttershy cried and screamed as they saw each sight, but while the ones crying out for forgiveness weakened, the other voices grew and rose with each body. They filled Fluttershy’s ears until all she heard was the beating of blood, and saw only the dead lying before her. But something else was in her heart, and it was fear. The piercing dagger of fear twisted in her even as parts of her raged to do what the rest of her was unable to imagine. And it was this fear that grew stronger, growing alongside the other, unnamed emotion rising within her. They threatened to consume her, such emotions. And Fluttershy found it harder and harder to ignore them, for while kindness is a warm, gentle emotion, it is nevertheless easily drowned out by darker desires. A raindrop hit Fluttershy on the head, startling her out of her reverie and sending her jumping up into the air out of fright. She landed sheepishly and looked up. The first drizzle of rain was beginning to fall; a light layer of storm clouds obscuring most of the sky save for where the moon shone through. What a shame, Fluttershy would have said if her mouth were not full of knife. Even a small amount of rain would make it hard, if not impossible to track the mystery killer. It would also dampen any scents in the air, making it hard in turn for the monster to find its way back to Fluttershy’s home. Fluttershy turned to share this thought with Angel when she realized that he had stopped. He was looking at something through the trees and standing completely still, the stillness of a small animal who has seen a predator. Fluttershy’s heart started to pound wildly. She might have started to hyperventilate again, but fear made her take only the shallowest of breaths as she crept towards Angel. Suddenly, she could feel every grain and knot on the knife’s hilt in her mouth. Her heartbeat was the only sound in a too-quiet world. Slowly, Fluttershy bent her head to peer through the foliage where Angel stood. Beyond her, in a small clearing of trees was a clearing, a small outlet of grass, gleaming in the moonlight and the drizzle. And in that clearing was a pony. Fluttershy had to squint to see the figure, but it was there, and unmistakable. A pony’s silhouette stood out among the gently illuminated clearing, head bend down towards the grass. Fluttershy frowned as she heard something. There was a low, squishing sound, even a slight grinding noise coming from the clearing. It was coming from where the pony was standing, but she couldn’t see— The pony reached down and pulled a red string of something off of the ground and Fluttershy realized in one horrific moment what was happening. The pony was eating an animal. Fluttershy was too stunned to act for five seconds, but then she tried to run at the pony. Only Angel seizing one of her legs stopped Fluttershy. She tried to prize him free, silently, but he hung on just as firmly, refusing to budge. All Fluttershy knew was that she had to stop this pony, one of her fellow Equestrians, from committing any more heinous acts. Fluttershy was just about to call out to the pony, and Angel was trying just as desperately to hold her mouth shut when the pony rose from its meal. And then it stepped closer, into the light of the moon and Fluttershy felt the icy shock of recognition freeze every muscle in her body. Fluttershy had thought she had seen a pony’s silhouette in the darkness of the night. But was it came closer, she realized her mistake. The darkness of the pony’s body was no shadow or trick of the light, but its true coat. And in fact, it wasn’t a coat of hair the pony had, but rather a layer of black exoskeleton that shone dully in the moonlight. And that meant the ‘pony’ wasn’t really a pony at all. In fact, that meant it was— A changeling stepped into the center of the clearing, a killer walking. Instead of a pony’s soft skin, the changeling had the armor of insects, shiny and black. Where its legs rested, Fluttershy could see gaping holes in each leg, as if something had carved a neat oval out of its body. The changeling had a horn and wings, yet not the beautiful, straight horns of unicorns but a twisted spike, meant only for violence. And their wings were not made of feathers, but some kind of insect’s membrane. It was a twisted, dark mockery of a pony, but that wasn’t the changeling’s most terrifying feature, no. The changeling had sharp, pointed teeth. The teeth of a predator, a killer. And they were red with blood. And the blood was fresh. Fluttershy was lost in horror, and so far into shock that she didn’t even feel Angel drop off her leg and dash behind a tree. She couldn’t have moved if her life depended on it, and fortunately for her, her life was protected by the screen of leaves and branches between her and the changeling. Nevertheless, one thing caught her eye. As the changeling turned back towards what remained of its food, Fluttershy saw its back hoof seemed…cracked. Something green was oozing from beneath the chitinous armor, and she also saw that one of its wings was twisted the wrong was round. The changeling limped rather than walked, and Fluttershy saw its expression contort in pain or rage. In a flash of insight, Fluttershy understood more about what had truly happened as all the pieces fell into place. When the magic of Shining Armor and Cadence’s spell had blasted the changeling army and Chrysalis out of Canterlot, it hadn’t killed them or disintegrated them, merely thrown them far away. Every pony had assumed they had been thrown out of Equesteria, but there’s always the exception. And here it was, the changeling that hadn’t been thrown far enough and had landed just outside of Ponyville. One soldier. One lone soldier left behind enemy lines, wounded, angry, and determined to take down as many of the enemy as possible. Not a threat to a nation, but a dagger to Ponyville’s heart and death itself for Fluttershy and her friends. Fluttershy felt the knife in her mouth and suddenly she was completely conscious of how awkwardly it fit in her mouth, the small cuts it had opened, and the heavy weight of it. It did not belong, nor should she have taken it. It was a mistake. What had she been thinking? She hadn’t, that was the answer. A knife was certainly dangerous, it is true, but what had possessed her to take it? Angel clearly believed in its efficacy, but Fluttershy should have known better. Against any monster in the Everfree forest, a knife would be as useless as a sneeze. A changeling was better than a manticore, but that didn’t really matter because the person who would be fighting changeling or manticore was Fluttershy. Aside from her aversion to violence and pacifistic nature, she had all the combat experience of a duck. She had survived the changeling invasion of Cantelot by ducking, running away, and letting her friends do all the fighting. She had only picked up the knife because a part of her had been filled with…rage. But now that emotion was dead, and Fluttershy realized just how foolish she had been. She could never defeat a changeling, not by herself. That was suicide, plain and simple. Maybe she could have scared off a bear cub, or a timberwolf or a dragon the size of…Spike, but not this. It wasn’t cowardice – well, it wasn’t just cowardice, but plain facts. Whatever emotion Fluttershy had had in her was now completely overwhelmed by the sheer need for self-preservation that was telling her to retreat. The changeling was standing over its meal again. Fluttershy tried to look away, but her eyes were drawn to that patch of red ground again. With every sign of enjoyment, the changeling bent its head and ripped another piece of flesh out of the body. It threw the scrap of meat up in the air and swallowed in a single snap. Fluttershy’s eyes followed the changeling’s head as it went down again, swiftly, tearing again at whatever it was eating. Whomever it was eating. An animal, no doubt. One of Fluttershy’s friends. Something in Fluttershy’s chest started to writhe and twist as she watched the changeling eat. It shouted something in her mind, but she couldn’t understand it. Her body felt…hot, and Fluttershy found her breath coming too fast for comfort. But she couldn’t do anything, right? She couldn’t do anything, and that was that. Still, Fluttershy’s eyes were locked on the changeling. A tugging on her leg made Fluttershy look down. Angel was tugging her, pointing back the way they had come into the forest. Whatever anger or act of bravery had propelled him this far had clearly turned back into fear at the sight of the changeling, and his eye were wide with terror once more. Fluttershy felt reluctant to leave for some reason. She turned back to look at the changeling. She couldn’t do anything, but seeing him eat one of her friends felt wrong. She didn’t like it. She didn’t want it. She wanted to stop it, but she couldn’t, could she? Angel was right, they should leave and wait for help in the morning. Fluttershy took one slow step back, and then another, her eyes still fixed on the changeling. She didn’t want to let it leave her sight, as the small part of her still screamed at her to do…something. That was probably why Fluttershy didn’t see the large twig until her back hoof stepped on it firmly, snapping it with a crack that went round the clearing. The changeling’s head went up and Fluttershy’s heart went up into her throat. It looked around suspiciously, blood dripping from its mouth as it scanned the clearing. Fluttershy saw its eyes coming her way and then they were on her, looking directly at her— The changeling lowered its head, disinterested. Fluttershy let out the breath she had been holding with Angel and sighed in relief. The rain picked up again, and Fluttershy backed up once more, confident that it would disguise any more accidental sounds. One of Fluttershy’s hooves landed on a wet leaf and it went out from under her. Fluttershy landed with a crash on the ground, just barely managing to avoid skewering herself with the knife in her mouth. The changeling looked up from its grisly meal, and saw Fluttershy. Their eyes met. Fluttershy froze in panic as her heart stopped in her chest, but the changeling hesitated only for a second. Then it was up and charging at her, roaring with a voice that was half-buzz, half-shout. It was this that brought Fluttershy out of a reverie and made her react. Fluttershy screamed and dropped the knife. She turned to run just as part of her told her to fight, but it was too late. The changeling sprang at her, both hooves extended. She shrieked in panic as something heavy bore her to the ground and felt the hard, cold carapace of the changeling against her skin. Then its teeth found Fluttershy and there was pain. Tearing pain. Ripping pain. Pain Fluttershy had no idea even existed. This wasn’t the pain of stubbing a hoof or breaking a wing or even slashing open the side of your face. This was true pain, as Fluttershy felt the changeling’s teeth rip part of the skin of her back away and felt the agony reach into her mind and bring her into a world of suffering. The changeling was eating her. Alive. Fluttershy’s reaction was unconscious and immediate. Ducking down, she pushed her front hooves into the muddy ground and kicked backwards and up in the defensive move that was innate to every pony in existence. She felt her hooves connect hard with the changeling’s body and felt it fly away and land with a thump on the ground. Even a small, weak pony like Fluttershy had enough muscle to lift her own body off the ground, and so what hit the changeling was the equivalent of a bear punching it in the chest. Unfortunately, Fluttershy had never kicked anything in her life and even her unconscious self-defense was not meant to harm so much as get rid of the changeling, so it was more like a small, baby bear that hit the changeling. It still sent the changeling flying, but the downside to this was that while the changeling wasn’t seriously hurt, it was hurt. And angry. Fluttershy looked over her shoulder as the she fled, and saw the changeling rising to it its hooves, hissing with rage. She ran five steps, trying to look over her shoulder and run at the same time and tripped. Fluttershy’s face came five inches away from the ground and more importantly, the knife as she flapped her wings desperately for balance. It glinted wetly, covered in mud and rain in the dirt, but Fluttershy’s mind made it gleam with a brightness that was terrifying to look at. A knife. Fluttershy looked over her shoulder again and saw the changeling running at her, snarling. It was a terrible enemy, a born predator with more sharp edges on one hoof than Fluttershy had on her entire body. It was a killer, and it would kill her too unless…Fluttershy looked down. The knife glinted at her. It would catch her that Fluttershy knew. She wasn’t a quick pony, nor one with anything resembling stamina. And if it caught her, it would kill her. She couldn’t defend herself, not without something to even the odds. Like a knife. The changeling was getting closer. Fluttershy’s mind overclocked itself, but one thought got through and she bent down and picked the knife up with her mouth. It was dirty, and tasted of…dirt, but Fluttershy didn’t notice. Resolutely, she turned to face the changeling, holding the knife at the ready. It hesitated for a moment, and Fluttershy felt a surge of triumph in her heart. Then the changeling’s expression twisted from doubt to furious hate again and it charged her, screaming. Fluttershy didn’t expect that, and froze up again. But as the changeling neared she desperately swung her head, trying to connect with the knife. Too late, she realized that she really should have held the knife in a hoof, or strapped it to her somehow, because a head has no reach or flexibility. Amazingly, Fluttershy still connected and she felt the briefest moment of hope. Then the knife and what felt like several of Fluttershy’s teeth were wrenched out of her mouth as the changeling collided with her full-force. Fluttershy felt the wind go out of her as she landed on the ground. Nevertheless, she managed to stand with the sheer force of adrenaline and turned. She met a hoof coming straight at her and it smashed her head to one side. Something blinding and white-hot erupted on Fluttershy’s temple and she staggered. Blindly, she flailed out, but her hooves met only air. The changeling’s hoof on the other hand met Fluttershy’s face and this time her eye. Fluttershy screamed at pain seared across her face and half of her world went completely black. Another hoof hit her on the back, hard enough to tear her skin. Fluttershy didn’t even try to fight back this time but ran blindly. And tripped over the knife again. This time, it was a bad trip that sent her tumbling into the knife. Fluttershy felt a white-hot gash open up on her flank, but that was only a part of the rest of the pain she felt. Half-blind, she desperately groped around in the mud and the rain until her hoof touched the knife’s blade. She picked it up. With one eye left, Fluttershy could barely see. The other one was a blurred mess, but in truth her ‘good’ eye wasn’t much better. Fluttershy’s eyes ran with tears and the rain and there was mud and blood in there was well. On a dark and rainy night, her visibility was practically nil. Yet, the dark shape of the changeling was unmistakable, as was its gaping, fanged mouth as it leapt at her again. Time slowed as Fluttershy saw the changing jump. Its body was one long arc of death, a black streak with hooves extended, aiming right for Fluttershy. Her breath thundered in her ears, but her body was cold. In slow motion, she raised the hoof holding the knife. It seemed to swim through the air. The changeling was leaping at her. Fluttershy saw the curve of its arc as it came towards her. She waited, counting each racing heartbeat slowly, feeling each drop of rain as it hit the ground. Now. Fluttershy swung the knife with all of her might. It cut through the air, silver death, and struck the changeling in its chest. Fluttershy saw the blade hit the outer chitin layer, digging deep in a search for the changeling’s heart. She felt it cut deep into the exoskeleton, and then shudder, bent, twist. The knife snapped. Fluttershy saw the main body of the blade break off and go spinning into the night. She felt the hilt drop from one hoof, and stared eye-to-eye with the changeling as it completed its leap. And then it was on her and bore her to the ground. ---- Something was biting Fluttershy. Something was tearing her skin. Something was eating her. It came randomly, first rapidly, and then at odd intervals, with short breaks between each one. She would feel nothing but the screaming agony of her body, and then the teeth, yes the teeth would come and render unto her another world of incredible pain. Then, they would withdraw, taking with it part of Fluttershy and she would hear the wet, sickening crunching before the teeth came back. This was Fluttershy’s world, and it filled her mind, not even granting her the mercy of unconsciousness or death. She would have screamed, but the pain was too great. Instead, Fluttershy could only stay on her back, waiting for the teeth to return. Her eyes were only focused on the dark figure on top of her, weighing her down, holding her helpless. The changeling. The teeth came, and Fluttershy felt a strip of flesh being torn from one of her legs. Reflexively, she tried to scream, but her throat wasn’t working. The pain was so intense that Fluttershy tried to black out, but the pain kept her awake as well. Her mind began to wander instead, running away from the pain, from reality. Fluttershy thought of her friends, and what they would say when they found her dead in the woods. Or maybe when they only found her bones, or never found her at all. Would they suspect the changeling, or would it pick off ponies one by one until it was found and caught? How would anypony know she was gone? They might assume she was with her friends until they found the blood. What would Twilight say, Applejack? Dash would be crushed, thinking she had failed to be there to protect Fluttershy. Rarity…she’d have to find some other pony to go to the spa with every week. Would Pinkie Pie throw a ‘Best Friend Died’ party or would it be an ‘Element of Harmony Gone’ party? Would there be any cherry pie? Would— The teeth came back and Fluttershy did scream this time as they tore out more hair than skin this time. That didn’t sound like it was painful, but having a few hundred hairs pulled out by the roots with skin attached was amazingly painful. In the darkness of Fluttershy’s mind, she wondered what that new emotion had been that had filled her. It had been so vivid, so strong. It was an emotion she had never felt before, she was sure. And yet, it wasn’t completely unknown to her. It had a name, she was sure of it. And it came to her when she had seen the butchery of her friends, the fear on Angel’s face. The changeling. Its teeth found her again and Fluttershy screamed as it tore something away from her wing. Feathers, and flesh. Bone would be next, yet she couldn’t imagine that giving the changeling’s powerful jaws any trouble. What was she thinking about? Oh, yes. She felt it even as she looked up at it. She felt it every time it tore another part off of her. She felt it just knowing it was there. What was it? She was sure this was something with a name. What was it…? The changeling’s teeth found her again and tore something away from her neck. Ah, yes. She felt it again, that strange feeling that came to her at the sight of her dead friends. The thing that rose in her chest even as the changeling tore at her flesh. Yes, she had never thought about it before. But there was a name for an emotion she had never felt, yet she knew. She had always wondered what it must feel like, and now perhaps…yes. Maybe it was that. This emotion in her, maybe… Maybe it was hatred. That was it, Fluttershy realized dreamily as the teeth tore at her, ripping hair and flesh away. It was hatred. Well, that was good. Good to know that was what she was feeling. She had always wondered and now she knew. And it was good that she knew now, because— Because she was going to die. Soon, as the sharp teeth returned, claiming more of her skin, coming closer to her heart. Yes, good to know what this feeling was, and better still to die with that knowledge. For Fluttershy would not wish to feel this emotion towards anything. Not this. It would drive any pony to murder, to the most horrible of acts in the name of vengeance. If she kept it inside her, Fluttershy was sure it would change her, and that was a terrible thing. No, it was better to die, to pass away and leave everything behind. She saw the bloodstained jaws open one last time, to claim her life once and for all. But even as they came for her throat, a flash of white lit up Fluttershy’s world. A flash of brilliance; a descent of something pure into this dark landscape. It looked like a pegasus, but Fluttershy knew of no pegasus this brilliantly white. Rather, it looked like some other kind of life from another world, a messenger from another land. It looked like… An Angel. It hurtled out of the night and struck the changeling in the face, sending it rearing back in pain. Fluttershy watched in a daze as the white figure jumped at the changeling again, striking it with its entire body, screaming in a voice filled with panic and desperation. But it was too small, too light to do any real damage, and the changeling was snarling, backing up, turning to strike. It knocked the Angel out of the sky and onto the ground and held it there with one hoof, growling and opening its mouth to bite. To take a life. The life of an Angel. And suddenly Fluttershy felt her strength return. It came back, all of her energy and more, a ceaseless torrent of life from somewhere beyond. It filled her and gave her the courage to stand, the power to move. The changeling’s head was descending, his mouth open. The Angel made not a sound, but watched as the jaws slowly closed. But before they could take the Angel away from the world, Fluttershy had grabbed the changeling’s head with both hooves and threw the changeling away. It flew and hit a tree several feet away. It was surprisingly light, and Fluttershy barely felt the effort. But she had no eyes for the changeling. Instead, she picked up the small figure at her feet and lifted him up with a smile. His eyes were wide as they stared at Fluttershy, but she just smiled wider still. Carefully, she placed him on the ground to the side, and turned to face the changeling. It was howling with rage, scrabbling to get up, to face her. It charged, horn lowered, a lance of bone aiming straight for Fluttershy’s heart. Fluttershy turned back to smile one more time at Angel. His eyes were full of fear and panic, but they shone in the darkness all the same. They were all Fluttershy needed; the source of her light. And so she turned to face the changeling, filled with the light from those eyes and the hatred in her soul, and charged as well. It did not expect that, and faltered before meeting Fluttershy in a clash that echoed through the forest. Its horn slashed down Fluttershy’s side, but she just lowered her head and ran faster, pressing into the changeling’s body and pushing it off its feet. The changeling was before her, in front of her, against her, but Fluttershy did not slow down. Instead she pushed even harder, carrying not just her own body but the changeling’s as well in a headlong rush that only got faster. She felt the changeling snapping at her, biting her mane, but unable to reach her neck, off balance, carried through the air with her. A tree was ahead of Fluttershy, it’s broad trunk sweeping up and out of sight into the canopy of leaves above her. It was an old tree, marked through centuries of growth by moss and lichen, a towering giant wider than Fluttershy. She ran towards it, pushing the changeling before her. And now it knew what she intending, and it fought to regain its footing, hooves pushing against the wet ground for traction that never came. The tree was less than ten feet away and filled Fluttershy’s sight, but she just ran faster. Her heart was beating out of her chest, a symphony of drums that echoed the thunder of the rain. Her blood burned through her veins; her lungs exploded in her chest. But still Fluttershy ran on, faster than she had ever run in her life. In the Everfree forest, a single, misshapen figure ran towards an ancient elm tree. It was in fact two figures; one a dark shape of something half-pony, half-insect. The other was a pegasus, her fair coat covered in grime and blood, her mane a mess of hair and yet she charged, pushing the changeling before her. In the forest, the endless patter of the rain was broken by only one sound, a terrible crunching crash as both figures hit the tree. The young pegasus hadn’t stopped, hadn’t even turned at the last, and so she and the changeling had collided with the at a speed unmatched. Anyone else would have tried to stop, to mitigate the impact. But she only ran faster, and so they hit the tree at a speed where bone snapped like twigs and flesh was torn away. In the darkness of Everfree forest, the light of the moon reemerged from behind the clouds, and with it, the rainfall stopped. The moon shone down on a dark and quiet forest once again, but only for a short while. The sun was about to rise, and the moon sunk beneath the horizon. With its last light, it illuminated a small part of the forest; just a tangle of shapes beneath a large elm tree. And running towards it, a small white shape, looking for all the world like an Angel in the night. And in time, the sun rose and brought light to the world. And to Fluttershy where she lay among the leaves, the changeling crushed between her and the tree as an insect dies. And she lay there, sleeping, until she woke to the light of the day.