A New World, a Fearful Way

by Votederpycausemufins


ch. 10 anger

“Wow! How much longer until we reach your place?” Shielded Wish asked.
“Not much longer.” Caddi told him. “Just a block left.”
Lea couldn’t wait to get back to the pokemon. She was ready to collapse from how long she had been awake too.
“Here we are!” Caddi told their new friends.
“This place?” Ben asked her, looking at the run down building. “But this place is so…”
“Old? It just looks like that on the outside.” Lea explained to him. “It’s much better on the inside.”
“What was that?” Wish asked Ben.
The spell Citrus had used on Matrix and Lea had worn off. They didn’t want her to cast it again and Wish didn’t know the spell well enough to cast it. Ben could still be understood because an officer that did know the spell had enchanted a wristband for him.
“Nothing of importance Wish. Let’s go inside.”
Lea led them to the entrance. It was still hidden from when she first made it, so the group helped to uncover the entry way. Eventually the path was clear and they walked into the building. Lea was the first in and she called out into the building. “Hey everymon! We’re back from our outing!”
This brought a large group of small pokemon running to the door. Many of them jumped onto Lea and Matrix, with a few climbing onto Caddi. After a few moments, a few of the younger and more timid pokemon noticed the new arrivals. A couple of them ran away before Lea reassured them it was fine.
Finally, Lea asked Citrus if she could cast the spells again for her and Matrix. Citrus cast the spell and Lea started the group on a tour.
“So, this would be the room the pokemon who come here stay. We have another room for them as well but it’s more of a play area. Please try to stay away from the hole in the middle though.”
“Why is there a hole?” Wish asked.
“It was there when I first found the place, but we put it to use. It leads to the sewers and we used them as a path to move around the city without having the chance of being seen. We also used it for bringing pokemon here if we couldn’t use the streets.
“Next we have the kitchen. We have a bunch of food that Caddi got for us and…”
“Wait wait wait! It has been bugging me this whole time! You’ve been calling her...” Wish pointed his hoof at Caddi. “Caddi, but I’ve seen her in the center of town and she introduces herself as Kiwi Lime.”
The group exchanged looks at their mistake.
“Well?”
“Well, that’s because Caddi is my real name.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Listen, before I show you, I’ve done as much wrong as Lea has, which as we saw was, like, nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…” Caddi started as she changed to normal. “I’m a changeling. And if Lea has enough courage to talk to you guys, then I have enough courage to tell you about this.”
Wish gave more of a reaction then Ben did, which was reasonable seeing as he didn’t know about the invasion of the changelings in Canterlot.
“You, you… how… wha-?”
“Why would we think you’ve done anything wrong?” Ben asked her.
Caddi was shocked by Ben’s statement before remembering exactly who and what he was.
“Well, a while ago, I forget exactly how long ago, there was a wedding in Canterlot and a group of changelings decided to attack. Needless to say the changeling who planned it was punished and stripped of her title by our ruler, who, by the way, is currently one of the rulers listed as being at the world summit.”
Ben looked towards Wish. “Really? They’re thought to be criminals for the actions of a few?”
Wish didn’t have a reply, he just stood there looking at the ground.
“You can’t blame him.” Caddi spoke up. “That was really the first full scale changeling encounter ponies had had. It also doesn’t help how we really look. Green and black are normally not seen as good colors, just like red and black. When you want to make a villain or something evil, you go with those colors. It’s also had to trust someone who can change how they look on will.”
“Okay…” Ben rubbed the back of his head. “I can understand that from experience.”
“Eh… it’s fine, I don’t expect anything else. I kinda became a self reliant changeling after the whole Canterlot deal. I personally like it.”
Caddi started to walk off. Before she left the room she turned back to say, “I just told four, well, three ponies and a pokemon my biggest secret in less than 24 hours! I feel invigorated! I’m going to go jump off the back of this building and fly back up at the last second! By the way, can someone take Lea up to the bedroom? Thanks!”
After a few moments, the group stopped looking where Caddi had been standing and turned to look at Lea who had fallen asleep with many of the small pokemon cuddling around her. Wish and Ben said they would be going, but not before telling the group that they would be back tomorrow to give a report on what happened on their job and see if they could help them get acquainted with the town.
“Good luck with that Caddi mare too. You’ll need it.” Wish added
“Yeah, thanks! I have no idea how I’ll live with her.”


The next day, first thing in the morning, Midnight arrived at their door with Wish. When Lea asked if he wanted to be shown around and if Wish wanted to see the whole tour, they declined saying they had successfully found Ire and Quarry. Lea agreed to see the ponies, if only to finally have them listen to her.
The group left for the station. Citrus left them before they arrived to go talk to Specter. A few ponies came up to Lea apologizing for what had happened. Apparently after Quarry and Ire had been caught, the town police announced the mishap they had and many ponies felt ashamed at what had happened. Lea forgave them, saying it was her own fault too and she should have tried to help fix it earlier.
Upon arriving at the station, Copper greeted Lea, apologizing to her again and again. Lea finally got her to stop before telling her that she understood what she did under the circumstances she had been in.
Copper Star was asked to lead Lea and her friends to the cell that Quarry and Ire were being held in. Both the ponies were paying attention to something else when they arrived and didn’t notice the group until Copper spoke to them.
“Hey! You have some visitors.”
Lea, Matrix and Caddi were out of the view of the cell’s occupants when Copper spoke to them, so Ire spoke in a more cheerful tone, most likely thinking it was a friend who could get them out.
“Oh really? Someone here to clear up all the mistakes I suppose.”
“Oh yes!” Copper told her. “Was able to give us a first hoof experience at what happened. Or should I say first paw.”
At that, Ire’s face darkened, and Lea stepped into view. “She-she’s the real culprit! She’s the one who should be locked up!” Ire pointed at Lea as she spoke to Copper.
“Maybe it would be easier to believe if you actually treated me the same.” Lea shot at her.
Ire was shocked by the new voice to the conversation and looked around for the source. Finally she was able to figure out it was Lea speaking to her. “Wha- you can…”
“Of course I can talk! I’m not just some animal! Since you don’t remember, Arceus said we were just as smart as any citizen on this planet and some of us are even smarter. I can remember every day that you had me trapped in that… that… sorry I am not comfortable using some of the words I have to describe that place. But you almost starved me. You hurt me and left me to bleed. I was forced to continue fighting other creatures when we had both had enough. The only good thing I can say is that you never killed me and that none of the other animals died… in the ring at least.
“But what happened is done and over with. The ponies who attacked me because of your lies have been forgiven. Those who did the same but because they were frighten I have also forgiven.”
Quarry jumped in at this point, “Let me guess, you came all this way to forgive us because we deserve to be forgiven?” He gave Lea a smug look.
“No,” she replied to him, his look fading “That’s not how it works. You never forgive because someone deserves your forgiveness, you forgive because you deserve to be free from the anger they caused, and until you have payed for what you have done, and until I find a reason I should no longer be angry, I will never forgive you. Think about that while you’re here. Maybe then you’ll be able to change.”
Ire’s face was red. Before she could think about what she was doing, She blurted out her doom. “We should have let you die when we had the chance!”
She immediately regretted her statement. The instant she finished her statement, Ire clapped a hoof over her mouth.
“Thank you for confirming Lea’s statements to be true, Bright Ire.” Copper said to Ire.
Quarry looked angrily at Ire. “I told you not to say anything!”
As the group started to leave. Bright Ire lost it. “I AM NOT HAVING SOME… SOME DOG RUIN ME! I SHOULD HAVE FINISHED WHAT I STARTED!”
And with that, she brought her hooves smashing upon her horn with enough force to crack the ring that was around it. With another blow, the ring broke off. She immediately used her magic to bring Lea smashing into the bars. Lea’s nose started to bleed from the crash. Copper found an intercom to alert the other officers of what was happening. Ire had her arm around the bars and around Lea’s neck.
Lea was barely able to speak let alone breathe, but she was able to gasp out one thing before falling unconscious from the lack of oxygen. “Yawn.”
Matrix heard barely heard Lea and was able to follow her command. He used yawn on Ire. She quickly felt drowsy and loosened her grip on Lea. Within a few minutes, she was fully asleep on the ground. Other officers came to find the scene that was laid out for them: Both Lea and Ire unconscious. Matrix and Quarry over them respectively. Caddi talking to Copper Star nervously.
When an officer came over to the group, Caddi told her what had happened, but also asked where Midnight was, seeing how he had been overseeing all of this.
“Worked overtime yesterday to catch those two. We told ‘im he didn’t have to come in to work today at all, but he insisted on picking you up to come here.” The officer told her. “From what I could tell, he really wanted to see you again. Couldn’t stop talking about you… what was it? Kiwi Lime? Anywho, I think he’s takin’ a liking to you Miss.”
“Re-really?” Caddi blushed at the statement.
“Just my guess. Anyway, I need to take care of this. Think she’ll be alright?”
Matrix walked up to the officer and answered her. “She’ll be fine, thankfully.” The bleeding stopped and her breathing is steady. Also, don’t worry about Ire. All I did was put her to sleep with an attack called Yawn. If there’s any discrepancies about it being against any law, I believe you can put it along self defence as Lea gave me the order to do so. At least… that’s how it worked back home.”
“There were no problems with what you did. You didn’t harm Ire, and if you had, I would have understand with the given situation. It’s best you return to your home. You’ve had enough to do with these two to last a lifetime, I’d say.”
“Thank you. We should probably meet up again with our one friend now.” Caddi told the officer.
The group left, overhearing that Ire would be moved to solitary confinement. Matrix carried Lea on his back. When they reached their home, they found Citrus waiting for them. She was horrified after hearing what Ire had done to Lea. She also announced that she was going to start working at the pokemon center as a volunteer and was going to help in what ever ways she could to make it up to Earth standards just so everyone would come and be able to learn about the hardships that had happened to make it.
Matrix stopped her saying Lea would never want that to be the reason for anyone to come and she would probably never want to tell a story like that, but she’d like something that could make her think of a home.