Cynthia’s head was going through the motions that day, it’s been a while since she had such a vivid dream about anything, the whole issue with Stanley was getting to her, she hated him, he was the exact opposite of what she was looking for in a partner, she just couldn’t get along with him, he was the exact type of changeling of which she and her friends used to make fun of back in school, those with no life at all.
And then that falling feeling.
Not even a split second passed and Cynthia’s body alerted her that this wasn’t a part of the dream, she was indeed falling.
Cynthia did her best to get her bearings in time but one can only do so much and the ground was too close this time.
Cynthia thumped her left rump on the rough igneous soil.
Thankfully the fall wasn’t big enough to deal any significant damage, Cynthia checked her rump, she was just going to be a little sore later on.
The next thing that caught her attention was where she was.
She stood on some sort of black igneous beach-like soil, full of small and somewhat larger rough edged rocks and pebbles, the light slope on which she was located led to a far off beach with a sea of red that melted into the swirly blood sky emanating a gentle glow and littered with dark swirling storm clouds.
The whole place was bizarre, as if it were a different world entirely, the place didn't even have a sun, everything seemed to be illuminated by the entire glowing sky making it next to impossible to determine what time of day or night it was let alone get one's bearing regarding direction.
North east south and west had no power here... and neither did the changelings.
The smell hit Cynthia's nostrils, it was a strong smell, one she had never experienced before but one that the back of her head knew well, it was the smell of death violence and danger.
It was bizarre, every part of Cynthia’s body was telling her that she needs to get out of here as soon as possible because someone or something is going to get her yet she couldn’t sense any emotions whatsoever, it’s as if this place was devoid of life yet full of something else.
“Are you all right?”
Just now Cynthia noticed the little addition to the scenery that Stanley was.
“What… were…”
“I’m as surprised as you are”
“Where are we?”
“Let me know when you find out because I’d like to know that too”
Count on Stan to be useless.
“Well… do you at least know how we got here?”
“Yeah but I don’t think you’ll like it”
“Just shut up and talk”
“Well, you remember your grandfather? He brought us here”
“What for?”
“All he told me was for us to come back alive”
“So you’re tellin me that my grandfather just throw us in here and put us in danger?”
“Basically”
“Bullshit”
“No, really I’m telling you, that’s what happened”
Cynthia's blood boiled, this motherfucker had the balls to talk smack about her granddaddy
“You know I put up a lot with you recently but I’m not going to put up with this crap, what the fuck do you want form me?”
“Want? Why would I want something from you?”
“Cut the bullshit, ever since I met you, you’ve done nothing but make my life a living hell and now we might actually BE in hell because of you and you've got the nerve to blame my grandfather for it!”
“I swear it was him! Why would I lie? and you know what? It’s not like this was easy for me you know, all you think of is yourself, always you, you, you! all you’ve been doing since I met you was complain, I wonder how you’d feel if I’d complain days on end about you in front of you! My life was shattered but no, you don’t care about that, what’s important is that I’m not what you expected me to be, for once in your miserable life try acting your damn age and think about someone else besides yourself”
“You want me to think about someone else? Fine, if I’m such a bother then you’re not going to see me again!”
“Really?”
“Yes, now go fuck yourself!”
Stan rolled his eyes, as usual, she was making things harder
“Don’t you think this is a bit stupid? Out of all the times you could have decided to do this, you decide that NOW is the best time to be completely on your own? look around you! neither of us know where the hell we are and if you have any sense or maturity or common sense in that head of yours you’ll suck it up and stick together until we get out of here”
“I’ll stay when hell freezes over”
“Well I can’t force yo-“
Cynthia gave Stan one last left hook and took but this time, to Cynthia's surprise, he had enough of her crap and blocked it.
The two changelings shared a hateful look, not a second later Stan violently threw her hoof aside telling her to back off because he is not playing around this time.
Cynthia puffed up, turned around and and angrily trotted away.
“Well, that went exactly as I thought it would be”
So what now?
“Now we go home”
And how are you going to achieve that?
“Well, first I need to know where I am, do you know?”
Of course.
“Care to tell me?”
I won’t
“What? Why?”
If I do everything for you it defeats the purpose of you two coming here in the first place
“Just cut the you two stuff, it’s just me and you right now, she’s gone for good”
Not if you want to get out of here, you won’t manage on your own
“But you’ve seen what she’s like! There’s no way she’ll ever do anything she doesn’t feel like, she’s like a 4 year old princess”
She’ll come around eventually, that’s why she’s here
“Oh yeah? And why am I here?”
You've got to learn to fight and survive
“I was doing that back there”
Only life can prepare you for itself, knowing what to do and actually doing it when the time comes are two different things
So that's how its going to be then, thought Stan... this is a major pain in the flank
“Oh I see, so you’re not going to help me at all then?”
Of course I will, you need to learn how to use your item properly, consider us as… brothers... I’ll help you but only when you can’t handle it on your own… so what’s the plan?
“Well if you’re not going to tell me where we are, I’m going to have to find out for myself”
And how are you going to achieve that?
Stanley looked up in the sky, it was windy as all hell
“Well, we’re on a hill, normally I’d just fly high and see where we are but it seems like it’s pretty windy up there, plus I don’t think I’ll fly anytime soon given my current condition, all I can do right now is go uphill and then just have a look around the place, maybe find the highest point within sight and see where that takes me”
Stan got his wits together and began to climb up the slope leading to a large hill.
An hour passed easily and there was a clear difference in the already subtle flora, a sign of a different height, what was once an occasional thorny tree with individual large waxy white leaves was now replaced with smaller shrubs.
Stan was nearly at the peak, just a few more minutes but as he was getting higher, so was his worry, it had been over an hour of trotting and he STILL couldn’t sense any emotions apart from an occasional tiny little flicker here and there probably caused by some small local burrowing animals.
This spelled trouble for Stan, he was a changeling he had to live off of something, something living, something that feels, perhaps if he were a pony Pegasus or any other animal that feeds on actual physical food he might be fine with the vegetation as food but for a changeling this place might as well be a desert.
Finally the changeling had reached the peak of the hill, the top was solid rock, perhaps a dormant volcano? Who knew.
Stan now had the full opportunity to have a 360 degree panoramic view of the place.
Sea
Sea
Sea
Sea
Wherever he looked he could just see the sea, this was worse than he had anticipated, they were stranded on an island.
“Great, this is just perfect… no food, over an hour wasted and what’s worse, on an island and stuck with the one changeling I’d decide NOT to take with me, I feel like a punch line in
A distasteful joke”
It’s not as bad as you think The voice intervened
“Really? And how is that?”
Well, you have food
“Where? You mean those tiny little rodents I sensed on the way? Each one of them is like a single hay fry, I’d have to catch about a hundred and keep them locked up just to make the bare essentials!”
I was referring to the campsite below to your left
At last, some good news.
Stanley looked around and indeed, down below in Celestia knows what direction there was whjat seemed to be a local primitive wooden settlement
“All right! Now that’s something I can work with, I'm sure whoever lives there will be able to tell us a thing or two about this place!”
Stan headed straight to the settlement.
As Stan neared the settlement he began to realize that it wasn't a settlement as much as it was a campsite and once he was within 50 feet of the place, he was able to finally make out what was going on, despite the place looking quite small from afar, up close it was teeming with life.
The creatures living there were none other than cerberi, some had only two heads whilst others had the classic three, some even had as few as just one head, all of whom had humanoid bipedal bodies, walking on their hind legs.
I’d recommend being cautious
Stan hid in some nearby bushes
“I know, I’m thinking what to do right now, I have a few options”
Which are?
“1: I just go in and downright ask them where I am and if they could help”
That would be the stupidest thing to do
Stan gave a discreet chuckle
“Don’t worry, I’m not Cynthia, 2: I creep up quietly, assess the situation and then when I think it’s safe to go in, I go in... and that's the safer option which I think I will go with”
I don’t think that’s a safe bet either
“Why not? I can’t sense much danger from them”
Listening to your instincts is important but living by them is reckless, instincts are good when you don’t have time to asses the situation but when you do, you need to use your head, look at them and tell me what do you see
“Well, they walk on two legs”
This means they must use their arms often, maybe rely heavily on tools... or even weapons perhaps?
“They have up to three heads”
Increased audiovisual and nasal senses multiple times, an evolutionary trait developed through eons, perhaps for hunting. What else?
“I don’t know, they’re some type of dogs?”
And dogs are?
“Ummm… cute?”
What do dogs eat?
“How am I supposed to know that?”
Look, ponies are herbivores and dogs are….
“Carnivores”
Exactly, what does that mean?
“Well, that means that they eat meat”
And you’re made of?
Stan sighed and facepalmed, how the heck did he not get that, it must have been some sort of brain fart
“You reckon they might eat me? we don't know for sure”
True, and I don’t think they necessarily will either, they seem too advanced to just eat anything that moves but that does pose a problem for you
“And what would that be exactly?”
Their entire bodies were designed to kill, big sharp teeth, ears and noses sensitive to the slightest sound or smell… I wouldn’t risk exposing myself for the chance that they MIGHT be friendly, and even if they are, might be stuck on this island for a while so there’s no guarantee that they won’t change their mind and if they do you’ll have a horde of highly skilled killers on your tail
“Catching rodents it is then”
It doesn’t matter now
“Why?”
Because they’ve spotted you, RUN!
Stan didn’t notice this earlier but every single Cerberus in the camp were slowly and inconspicuously coming closer to the shrubs were Stan was hiding, if it weren’t for the voice, he had been done for.
Stan jumped out of the bushes and at once the whole camp just went haywire, a multitude of voices all shouting commands in a foreign language but Stan didn’t have to understand the language to know what they were shouting at this point.
The voice was right, those Cerberi were fast as hell, he had no chance against them despite being an equine, his horsepower was no match to theirs.
They’ll catch you at this rate! Use your wings!
“Agreed!”
Stan just hoped that his wings will be able to do their job this time, screw their state, he’d give those wings away for free if it meant making it out of this alive.
The changeling bit one end of his bandages around his back and with one swift whip of his neck he flicked away the bandages and began flapping away.
It was still very painful but he was finally flying after all this time.
He was going to make it.
One of the cerberi down below revealed a net which he threw towards his prey.
Watch out!
But Stan found out what the voice meant the hard way, the rest of the horde grabbed whichever part of the net was closest to them and pulled Stan back down.
Stan was hyperventilating, this was it, he can’t talk himself out of this, he can’t fight them either and he doesn’t have any time left to come up with a plan.