Heart Beats

by Colt Bolt

Chapter 4:A Ton of Bricks

Author's note: Any sentence that is in italics and has "quotation marks" around it is a thought.

As the sun was long gone on the other side of the horizon and Luna’s pearl was glimmering high in the sky, I shivered in the arctic atmosphere while my teeth rapidly chattered. The whispering night wind scraped past my ears and through my hooves. Each whisper reminded me of the voices of my brothers and sisters, back before our kind was highly ‘despised’.

With my head low I heavily sighed out, “What happened to those times?”

I tiredly marched on to the exit of the Bad Lands, getting ever closer to where the dragons sheltered. I was close enough to hear them triumphantly celebrating with all of the barbaric cheering and screaming.

Ducking behind a boulder, being about a hundred feet away from them, I poked my head out only to be slapped with the extreme radiated heat. With my right hoof shielding my eyes, my head scouted the expanse.

Pulling my head up, the air was crowded with a variety of dragons pulling off a stunt or two with most colliding into each other or plummeting to the ground for no reason at all. Looking left then right, it seemed like the party stretched from one side of the Bad Lands to the other. Walking around it would take up the whole night but flying over them was a death sentence.

I gritted my teeth “Ponyfeathers, come on Smoulder, think, any ideas? Dig under them? What!? How am I even supposed to do that with the ground as hard as na-”

“Heeyyyyyyy,*hic* wacha doing *hic* here?” A voice slurred out. My irises shrank to pinpricks, as I turned around; to meet a medium built purple dragon’s lightly red blushed face and eyes barely visible through his overhanging blond hair. I gulped.

“Whyyyy aren’t you *hic* with us at the partyyy?” He poked a claw to my chest. His breath smelled like his tongue was rotting from the inside and his body gently swayed one way to the other barely being able to stand up right. “I know you’re a little *hic* young for alcohol, buuuuut I think you’re a big enough*hic* dragon for it.”

I sat there. Paralysed, not knowing that he probably couldn’t hit the back of a barn with a claw full of rice being so intoxicated. Then I thought about what he said. “Wait, dragon? What the hay is he talking about?”

The drunk droopy dragon picked me up from my shoulders and with me tucked under his armpit, kicking and squirming, he flew, swerving in random directions like he was flying blind. I did everything I could possible do to escape. Even biting him with my razor sharp fangs didn’t get a single reaction out of him. Probably why scales were harder than teeth.

Bring me down into one of the craters, he landed like a cross eyed pegasus and started walking, still firmly griping me. The blasting sounds of upbeat music from a stereo filled the zone with energy. Feeling my tongue straightaway go dry and numb, I could just barely handle the heat from a gushing flow of red hot scorching lava coming from a crack on the wall forming an equestrian games sized swimming pool, not so far away.

Looking around, there were mountain sized piles of every kind of gem you could think of. From rubies to emeralds and even diamonds. With each dragon being able to ‘safely’ verse each other in king of the hoard and tail wrestling, it wasn’t really crowded.

“Hey Garble” The dragon gripping me boisterously called out, waving to a group of teenage dragon all having the same drunken expression on their faces. “Hey, look who I found!” he held me up by the armpits like a new born dragon.

The red dragon walked up to me and tightly squished my cheeks “Aww *hic*, well ain’t he a cute changeling.” Shifting my head away, with no prevail; I started to sweat bullets as Garble knew what I was.

“Whatcha talking ab- *hic* about? He’s one of us.” The purple dragon poked his friend expressing his words. “Hesa no good dragon who *hic* gets paid cider by the royal guards to wipe out an *hic* an entire species.”

“WHAT!” My eyes lids widened. The fires in my eyes burned with a fuel that was indescribable. “What’s their bucking problem!? Grr, that’s it!. I’ll burn every last bucking one of them to ashes! See if they like to roast to death like my brothers and sisters.”

“NO! He’s *hic* a changeling!” the dragon with the red scales argued pushing his purple friend.

“Nooouuu!” the purple dragon raised his claw, carelessly dropping me on the hard rocky ground grazing my chin, “He’s a baby Dragon!” shooting back with his own shove.

Seeing my chance to escape I slowly crept out, trying not to get any attention. Looking at my rear, my only path to freedom was a clear trail through the party’s crowd behind the blond haired dragon.

“ Ooooh!” Garble said in a sarcastically tone as his friends behind him constantly repeated the word fight, each time getting faster and louder. “Fighting for the *hic* alpha spot eh?” He this time rammed with all his might with his shoulder.

It wasn’t long before it came down on me like a ton of bricks. They both plummeted to the ground landing on my back.

“ACK!” I yelped getting the wind knocked out of me, gasping for air and franticly flailing my limbs up and down. If it wasn’t for the cushioning of my saddle bag I probably would have been pancaked.

The two dragons threw fists into their opponent, each throw getting swifter and more brutal. Then they grabbed each other’s shoulders and they rolled off of me.

I gasped feeling like I’d been under water for years. With no time to loose I got up onto my hooves and dashed away with my wings. Every dragon was too drunk or hyped to notice I was there but I did have to swerve away from a few dragons that were recklessly flying drunk.

The sound of the upbeat music eventually became softer and softer until all that I could hear was the air going through my throat as I heavily panted and the howling wind drifting across the atmosphere. With my energy reserves depleted and my wings about to give up on me, I stopped next to a boulder wiping the sweat off my forehead.

Taking a seat on the ground, I stared up to the glittery night sky and I questioned to myself. “Why? Don’t the royal guards know we have families and friends too? Just… why?” A bevy of negative emotions began to swell up in my head and before I knew it, I was crying. A tear painfully rolled down the side of my head to my chin and in a few seconds more followed creating a blob of water that gravity took hold of. Taking a deep breath in and out, I rested for a few more minutes until I was ready to continue.

“At least the worst is over.”

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. But when life gives you a ton of bricks you build your life’s foundations out of them. Looking out with sweat gripping onto my forehead, while my wings ached in pain from an hour of non-stop flapping, a faint yellow glow pulsed at the horizon.

One of my eyebrows rose suspiciously “Is it morning already?” I shook my head, “No, it can’t be.”

I’ve only been moving for about four hours and there should of had been a few more until the first signs of light from Celestia’s ball of fire had arrived. Plus, Dodge junction shouldn’t be in sight till the red baron terrain ended. Dropping down, I decided to trot the rest of the way, giving my about-to-fall-off wings a well-deserved break.

As the yellow light pulsed brighter as I walked towards it, a straight path made out of chunks of light gray sandstone and rows of wooden poles with electrical lights perched on the sides, came into my view.

I scratched my head “Strange, I don’t remember this path being here.” I brought out my compass only to see the trail pointing directly north.
Following the side of the track, walking in the shadows, the sound of a pony’s clippity clopping of horseshoes and rattling of armor could be heard from a distance. Jumping behind a boulder, for the uncountable time in my life, I peeked over.

I could just make an outline of a black unicorn royal guard in his early thirty’s with his projectile weapon and equipment strapped on his belt. As he leant under one of the lights, he brought out a small silver rectangular box. He flipped the top half of the box and it beamed out a bright blue light easily penetrating through the night’s darkness.

The unicorn held it up to his ear and waited. The device made several low pitch beepings until another voice began to talk. Both of my eye brows rose as my jaw dropped in awe.

“What do you want?” a mare’s voice came from the device.

The stallion responded in a serious tone “Operation ‘White Wash’ is a success. All of the changelings are exterminated.”

“Ahh, well done. Expect a bonus check for doing it so swiftly when you return.”

The station took a deep breath in “ Roger tha- wait you know what. NO!” His tone started to rise into a rage “I don’t want your bloody pay checks. I’m sick doing all of your bucking dirty work! I just wiped out an entire race for two lives! When will you give me my two sons back?!” His normal breathing turned into shallow snorts.

The mare on the other side replied in a calm and collective manner “Now now, Mr Silver Hoof, you’ll receive your sons back when we are satisfied with your service. And may I remind you, any attempt to reveal us or escape from us will result in the demise of your sons. Do you understand?”

The royal guard gave a defeated sigh, softening his response “Understo-.” One of my hind hooves slipped on a loose rock causing a pebble to fall. *chit**chit**chit*

“I’ll be right back,” he finished closing his device and pocketing it. The guard grabbed out his weapon and pointed it to where the sound came from. “Alright, whoever is hiding behind the boulder, come out and you will not be shot”

The sound of his horseshoes clacking against the ground got closer and closer. Closing my eyes, I begged and begged for another miracle, but this time it never came. Facing reality, I looked up into the barrel of his weapon.

*click* I flinched thinking that he pulled the trigger when only he pulled the hammer of the weapon.
“Move.” He shoved my head.

With the stallion pointing the armament at my head with his brown aura, I shook like a leaf as I walked to the road under one of the lights. My breath stalled, fear clenched like a tight claw around my chest and tendrils of terror curled into my stomach.

“On your knees!” he ordered poking the barrel at the back of my head.

“Don’t. P-Please don’t,” he hastily pulled my mane, kicking my knees and pushing my front hooves behind my head into an uncomfortable posture.

“Shut up!” he yelled smashing the grip of his weapon against my head. The pain stung like Tartarus forcing me to collapse on the ground face first.

“Did I tell you to lie down?! Get back up!” The black unicorn strictly instructed giving me a few swift kicks to the stomach and already wounded head. Drowning in a pool of pain, I groaned getting back up into the posture he ordered me to be in.

He relaxed his volume to a comforting tone. “So tell me, what is your name?”

“S-Smoulder” I stuttered.

“And tell me Smoulder, why don’t you have a cutie mark?” Knowing the answer already, he started to walk around me with a smirk, always having the trigger ready for any sudden movements.

“B-Because,” I gulped down what felt like a rockmelon sized saliva, “Because I’m a changeling.”

“And do you know what we do to changelings?”

I kept my mouth shut, bitting my lip, not wanting to think of all the horrible ways to kill a changeling.

He shoved his nose right up against mine. “We buck them up and then put a bullet in their head to make sure they’re bucking dead.” He slowly moved his head back still having his aura on the trigger. “Do you know what this is?” He nudged the barrel between my eyes.

“Your c-crossbow.”

“RRRRRR, wrong.” He corrected, “It’s a gun or a Pfeifer Zeliska .600 Nitro Express to be more accurate. This baby could blow your head off before you could hear the sound of the gunpowder explode.” He gave me a few seconds to tauntingly think about it. He closed one of his eyes aiming for my head “Well it was nice talking to you. You might want to close your eyes. It’s gonna get messy.”

I closed my eyes once again as my lips began to quiver “So this is how it really ends? I’m…I’m sorry my queen. I’m so so sorry.” The pearl-shaped tears rolled down my cheeks from my wide luminous eyes. Then, just as I thought all was lost, I felt a small stinging spark appear inside me. As if something was just born. Something evil.

“NO!” a deep dark voice yelled from within my soul. “I did not just crawl out of a cave for you just so you can be KILLED!”

My teal eyes turned into a death red hungry for blood. My whole body, from hoof to ear, was immediately overtaken by the unknown voice. Everything in life, except for me, decelerated to a snail’s sprint.

I gave the unicorn a grin while knocking his gun to the floor. Pinning him to the pole, I took a snip at his neck, sinking my changeling fangs deeply into his meaty throat. His red juices poured into my mouth like a tap. I viciously swung my head left and right, shredding every muscle and skin. I heard every nerve in his system begging for mercy.

“Stop, stop, STOP!” I screamed at my soul. My eyes turn back to their normal teal color, time sped up to its normal state and I could feel my limbs again.
The voice slowly faded away back into my soul “Don’t worry you’ll thank me for this in the future.” It snickered, “Breakfast is served. Bon appetit”

I yanked out my fangs, disgustingly spitting out the pony’s thick blood as his body fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Sticking out my tongue, I coughed and gagged, getting the last few drops out. Looking back at the royal guard, his limbs went into a spasm. His blood sputtered out of his neck and mouth. My legs wanted to sprint off in terror but my eyes just stood there, staring deep into his eyes glaring right back at me. He choked on his own blood, trying to say something but was too inaudible for me to make out.

Eventually, after a few frightening seconds, he stopped squirming and his chest didn’t rise with oxygen. I poked him with my hoof making sure that he was truly dead, not believing what I had done.

“It’s… it’s ok Smoulder.” I looked away and took a deep breath in and out, trying to flatten my panicked state. “He was trying to execute you and you fought back in self-defence by… killing him.”

I stared at his motionless body again as my stomach coincidently growled. “It would be a shameful waste if I didn’t harvest the love out him.”

Moving my mouth to his soul, I prepared my tastebuds. A gassy pink essence rose from his chest and landed on my tongue. Physically the sweet taste of his fresh love returned wonderful memories of the good old days when love was indulging and plentiful. But mentally, I’d never killed anypony for their love before. It was the fastest way to harvest it but I was never that serious for food. The flavour soothed my stomach with a warm touch but stung my head like a migraine.

The quantity of love was extensive but to shocking dismay I discovered why. After finishing up the last few sips, I started to scavenge anything on him. There wasn’t much on his utility belt. A black torch, a flask full of water, a sturdy walkie-talkie and a photo of him, his wife and… two… young… colts.
One of my hooves cupped my wide opened mouth. “What… have…. I… done?” I began to have second thought on massacring every royal guard. I… I knew what it is like to grow up losing your parents and siblings at a young age.

“Silver Hoof, Silver Hoof do you copy?” the intercom from his two-way radio spoke out.

Thinking quickly on my hooves, I changed my vocal cords to the same as Silver Hoof and pressed the button on the side. I’ve only heard a few ponies use this device before but with the knowledge I had I thought I might be able to pass through. “I copy, over.”

“It’s two a.m., your shift is over, return to The Wall, over.”

“Got it, over.” I released the button not being able to review on how fast I reacted. *whew*

“Hey, Silver Hoof!” the voice from the intercom shouted making me jump. “You forgot to say ‘over and out’ again!” He grumbled something about royal guards not knowing the protocols.

“Oh,” giving an unsteady laugh, “sorry, over and out.” I gave a final sigh of relief. “Wait , what’s ‘The Wall?’” I scanned my mind for anything I knew. Then, it fell onto me like a ton of bricks, even harder than when the dragons crushed me.

A short flashback flew into my head. A few months after the siege of Canterlot, the princesses agreed on blocking the exit of the Bad Lands with a solid concrete wall to stop mythical beast from attacking Dodge Junction and to quarantine the changeling colony. Any attempts to fly over the wall would result in being filled with thousands bullets. The only thing allowed in and out of the lands where the useless weekly food carts, highly trained researchers and any dragons during the great dragon migration. There wasn’t a single second where there wouldn’t be more than a thousand guards on post.

“Horseapple!” I furiously kicked a rock realising how stupid I was to forget about the wall. I went on for about a few minutes kicking rocks, applebucking poles and loudly cussing.

I brought my hoof to my chest as I breathed in and moving it away as I breathed out. “Calm down, Smoulder, don’t over react with this. Just think of something, anything… like you always have.”

In a flash of green flames, my body shifted. Black fur sprouted, gray hair grew, and my wings receded into my body. A hard coating covered the membrane of my horn. My fangs retracted, my muzzle shifted, all while my eyes gained pupils and reformed in color. When the transformation was complete I lifted my head. Opening my eyes, I expected to see a disfigured or discolored copy of Silver Hoof. But instead I was an exact reflection of him, without all of the blood coating his fur.

I smiled, praising myself “Still a professional after all these years.”

After washing, with the whole flask of water, the blood off from the armor and gearing it, I picked up the revolver from the floor, securing it tightly in my saddle bag. Closing my eyes, I rethought about my plan.

I snorted at myself, “Some plan I created.”