//------------------------------//
// CHAPTER 9 (AKA: Minesweeper) 
// Story: A thing or two about changelings and their habits saga 
// by Young discord 
//------------------------------//

It was such a pleasant day today, not a slightest breeze to poke the senses, as if the air were practically stale with immobility, a perfect room temperature where one doesn't know where their body ends and the surrounding begins.
Stanley was outside, some sort of savannah and he and her were taking a pleasant stroll and chatting, he had never had much of an opportunity to talk to her before and now was the chance.
„I have GOT to stop doing reckless things” Began Stanley as if striking a conversation with her were the most normal everyday thing imaginable
“When will you learn?” she asked
“Never, I presume” Answered Stanley, stepping on that landmine was such a dumb thing to do
“Oh, come on now don’t be so harsh on yourself dad, I’ve also done some pretty stupid things when I was young”
“You’re right…” Stanley couldn't remember her name, this was embarassing
“...Pacifica”
“Pacifica, right… wait! but I don’t have a-“
Stan woke up.
You’re finally awake I see
“Wha-“
Just which part of survive do you not understand?
Stan wasn’t listening, he was far too confused, the last thing he remembered was being caught by the Cerberi and now he’s in this strangely familiar place.
“Oh no…”
The place was familiar to Stanley because it was the Doctor’s tent.
HEY! KNOB! YA LISTENING TO ME!
The voice ringed in the changeling’s head.
“Yes! Yes I do! Why the hell are you shouting!”
The voice didn’t seem too pleased with Stan.
Because what you just did in that minefield was the single stupidest, most dangerous and damn craziest thing anypony would ever come up with! you’re damn ballsy for somepony like yourself you know that? The next time just do as you’re-
“Oh, shut up already, it was crazy, it worked”
Barely
Stan had run out of patience, it was him that risked his own life, it was him that came up with the plan and then there’s this voice that’s complaining about it all.
“Shut up, you have no say in this, I came up with something, you did not, I get to complain, you do not, next time if you want to complain, come up with a damn plan instead of being totally useless”
...
“Don’t feel like apologizing I see…”
You’re still alive so I suppose the plan sort of worked…
“Sort of, sort of???”
Well, you didn’t exactly get away
“Fine, I’ll give you that one" its not as if Stan was going to get anything better than that from the voice
"how long have I been out?”
A day or so, and while you’ve been passed out I haven’t been standing idly by, I’ve been thinking and I know how we can get off this island
“Really? How?”
It won’t be easy
“I don’t do easy anymore, I’m here to train after all”
Now you’re thinking, all right, for this we’re going to have to first of all escape but not only, we’ll also need to kidnap a Cerberus, after all, we have questions, and the Cerberi have answers
“Well we can’t just plain ask them, we can’t even interrogate them, I don’t understand a single thing they say”
That’s all right, I’ll teach you intention reading
“What the hell is intention reading”
Time and place Stanley, time and place... first let's focus on getting a cerberus
Stan began to ponder on what would be the best thing to do... all the cerberi seemed so aggresive huge and intimidating, they would all be a handful to deal with in captivity, and for that matter, how would they even kidnap one? those things could overpower a changeling in no time... and then, it hit him.
“Let’s kidnap the Doctor, he seems to be one who’d be the most cooperative of the lot”
Agreed
“The real question is how are we going to escape this time”
First, we contact Cynthia and let her in on all of this, we’ll need her help
“Oh sure, let me just give her a shout… she’s probably at the other end of the island and even if she’d be somewhere nearby there’s no way she would be within earshot.
It’s all right, in case you’ve forgotten you wield a magical item, I’ve never told you its ability.
“I assumed that you talking to me is your ability”
No, this item’s ability is communication.
“Communication? But I thought you couldn’t translate the Cerberus’s language?”
Not translation, communication, your item is a communication device used to communicate between any number of beings over any given distance, a sort of super-phone if you will.
“So I can talk to anypony I wish right now?”
Yes
“And you didn’t think this would have been handy a while ago?”
No, it wouldn’t have made any difference
Mark's rage boiled
“It would have made all the difference! I could have called Cynthia instead of looking for her, I could have-“
-What, called for help? Before you’re given any form of power you first need to be ready for the responsibility that comes with it, do you remember what happened when dragons were incorporated too quickly into ponykind?
“What has the united Equestrian revolution have to do with any of this?”
There is no better teacher than the past of your own land, the point is that neither the dragons nor united Equestria were ready for such radical changes, which resulted in a near catastrophe for the whole world
“Oh come on, we’re talking about a pendant, not an entire species!”
You seem to underestimate the importance that your actions bear in this world
“Whatever, look just show me how to get in touch with Cynthia, or better yet, the old stallion that put us here in the first place”
That is simple, you need to focus your magic on the pendant and think about those with whom you would like to converse with
Stan focused at Cynthia’s grandfather, he will surely know what to do.
Nothing.
“Hey why isn’t this working?”
You focused your magic on the pendant?
“Yes”
You thought of Cynthia?
“No, I thought of her grandfather, he would know what to do in this situation”
Ah, well therein lies the problem
“Oh, so now you’re telling me that I can contact ANYPONY except the grandfather”
No, you can contact him, however it is far more complex to contact one outside this world than one within, it will take considerably more practice to achieve that than to contact somepony on this island
Stan let out a heavy sigh, he was already used to things not going the way he wanted them to.
“Cynthia it is…”
Stan focused on Cynthia and zapped the pendant with magic
Something popped in his ears as if a new channel was being opened
"Cynthia?" asked Stan
"Stanley? you're alive? thank god! how did you survive? where are you?"
"I don't have the time to tell you everything, all you need to know is that I am back at the Cerberus camp, I'm going to need help with escaping"
"Wait a second, how can I hear you from all the way over there?"
"My item, look that's not important right now, I need to get out of here and I have a plan, but first I need to rest for a bit and feed, in the meantime look for me and I will explain everything to you"





The island’s winds danced among each other like a group of hellish ferrets in heat, and right in the middle of it all, Cynthia was trying to get her bearings, this goddamn place was impossible to navigate through
It was hard enough not to get swept away by the winds but Cynthia still had to juggle one other thing.
She focused her magic and activated her item.
The world all around her lighted up in a yellow-orange hue, all shapes and forms of energy were now visible to her, all around, the whole island, nothing could escape her vision.
Cynthia had used the item before, in fact she was quite used to how difficult it was to handle but this was on a whole new level, she had to locate the camp and the exact position of Stanley whilst keeping an eye on every single Cerberus and maneuvering through the sky.
Cynthia began her search, it was like a sea of sensory overload, the deafening whistle of the wind wasn't helping either, however what was helping was the barren lifeless island, making those golden outlines of cerberi and Stan all the more visible as they popped out from the lifeless slate island.
“There you are!”
A small cluster of dots lay in one of the distant tents, seemingly no different than any other dots but Cynthia had enough experience to tell the difference between each form of energy in the way it moved and behaved, the Cerberi’s energy was more calm and flowed like a small river in their bodies however in the case of Stan or any other being that uses magic, the life energy within was more erratic, pulsing with magic and there was also something... else... the life energy of his item?
There was no time to wonder about weird stuff because now that Stanley was located, it was time for a diversion.
Cynthia flew close enough to be sure she would hit her target, a tent, devoid of any life energy but far enough not to be noticed by the enemy.
“Are you there?” Asked Cynthia making sure the communication link between them was still there
“Yes, are you ready?”
“That should be my line but yes, I’m ready”
“Let’s get started then”
Cynthia sent an incendious magical bullet towards the tent that caught on fire instantly.
The winds were in their favour, the flames were infecting other tents nearby and the constantly changing wind was helping them spread across the entire area.
The flow of energy in each Cerberus had increased, this meant that they caught onto what was happening and were now doing everything they could to minimize the damage and salvage as many things they could, buckets of water were being collected and the contents thrown onto the problem areas.
The fire had now spread across most of the camp, the doctor was in the middle of treating a minor wound for one of his patients when it had happened.
The Doctor panicked, what if the tent the captured being was in caught on fire? He could not escape and if he’d die, the opportunity of a lifetime would be wasted.
He could not let this slide, that black thing was going to turn him into the doctor of the century and will help him advance medicine a few decades further in the span of a few years.
The fire raged on, digesting whatever it came across.
This was the chance Stanley needed, he still had enough energy left to set himself free from the chains now that he had rested for a while and eaten on the emotions of all these Cerberi that surrounded him constantly.
Stan blasted away his chains, the metal they were made out of was resilient but eventually gave way but not before exhausting the changeling first.
Are you all right?
“I’m fine, I’ll get to eat soon enough anyway”
Stan sat up, his body just as achy as it had been the last time he was here, his wounds restitched.
As soon as Stan set his hooves on the ground, he felt a pain deep in the bones of his left hind quarter that stepped on the mine earlier that day, it had received the majority of the blast, possibly cracking some of the bones he had there.
"It's livable" said Stan to himself
What is
Stanley just realized that he had just said that out loud
"No, nothing, just talking to myself"
Now all he had to do was to find the doctor and lure him into the woods.
Stan exited from the tent to be met with a scene of total chaos and nobody in it paid any attention to him whatsoever, they had far more important things to deal with
“Cynthia!”
“Yes?”
“I’m out but I still need to lure the doctor to the woods, stall for a few more minutes”
“I’ll try”
Cynthia kept on shooting incendiary magic shots into every flammable crevice and corner, this time flying much too high for any of the cerberi to reach her with any net or throwable object... wings were a godsend to Cynthia right now.
Despite the plan working surprisingly well and without a hitch, it was exceptionally hard for Cynthia to keep this up, her brain couldn’t handle this sensory overload for such a long time, in fact it wasn’t designed to handle an extra sense in the first place, if she keeps this up, the damage might…
Cynthia cringed and sucked it up, she couldn’t quit now, Stan was relying on her.
Cynthia stopped for a second.
Since when did she start caring for Stanley anyway? She didn’t like him, in fact she left him to fend for himself, so why was she going this far just to help him?
A sharp nail of pain had struck through her mind, reminding her that now was the time to act, not think, the quicker this is done the better for the both of them.
“Hey, Cynthia, where’s the doctor?”
“Find him yourself, I’m not a map!” Whipped back Cynthia, must she do everything?
“Hey, I-“
“I’m too busy doing my part, you do yours!”
“Fine, sheesh!”
But as Stan’s luck would have it, the doctor was already on his way and as Stan was about to make his way to find him, he bumped into the Doctor.
The two stood in front of each other for a second sharing a stare which was to determine what action each side was to take.
The two looked at each other, neither of them could figure out where the other side stood, will he attack? Or are they both on the same side here?
After some hesitation, Stan decided to be the one to dictate their relationship as he dashed under the Doctor’s legs.
The doctor wasn't going to let him go just like that.
“Found him! And he’s following me, just a few more minutes of stalling!”
Each gallop thumped the pain of the hind left quarter with the added bonus of the screaming of his other wounds.
“Hurry!” screamed Cynthia as the pain was growing in Cynthia’s head, she was pushing all of her evolutionary traits to the absolute limits.
Stan dashed as close to the edge of the camp using the confusion and running panicking cerberi to his advantage, and it was working, the doctor was not very far behind, Stan was afraid that he’d alert the rest which he was trying however his shouts drowned in a sea of screams and orders that everyone else was throwing around in order to save their camp.
Not a second later Stan was already within the woods, the doctor chasing after him, he was smaller and weaker than the other Cerberi so he wasn’t catching up fast.
There it is! Up ahead!
Stan looked up front and noticed the crater from a recently exploded mine, they were where they needed to be.
“You sure you know where the mines are hidden?” Asked Stan
Yes! Now do it! replied the voice
Stan halted at once, The doctor was sue he had him but in fact it was the other way around.
This was going to be a first for Stan he had never done this before as back at home this was considered a crime of the highest level that went in par with murder.
The doctor got ready to grab him but was smacked in the face with Stan’s magic that drained every bit of emotional energy the doctor had… Stan couldn’t hold back, not this time.
The doctor fell to the ground, emotionally knocked out in a near vegetable state
The changeling didn’t have much time left, he had to hurry and climb a tree but first he had to conceal the Doctor.
Stan dragged the body to the nearest tree, laid it on the ground and covered it with nearby leaves and branches, it wasn’t a perfect camouflage but it’ll do.
Now came the tree.
You sure you can’t fly?
“My wings are beyond hope at this point”
Stan used the newly obtained energy to cast a gravity altering spell so that he could just walk up a tree trunk without a problem.
He sat down a branch high up and looked down upon the chessboard that he will be using in a moment.
The mines seem like they were put up fairly recently so they’re visible from a high position
It was as the voice had told him, the mines were visible from a higher angle, they were small patches of grass and other plants that were a bit shorter than all the other flora around, not visible from ground floor but from a more aerial point of view it seemed obvious
Stan was now full, and ready for the next part of the plan.
“Cynthia, I’m ready, bring them in!”
“Bout goddamn time!”
Cynthia gave a loud whistle to attract the attention of all the Cerberi down below.
The whole camp turned towards her who was producing a few more blasts to aggravate the enemy.
Now all she had to do was to lure them to the minefield.
A pack of around 10 cerberi or so came together with abnormal efficiency as if they had been practicing for this very purpose every day and was after Cynthia, one of the Cerberi up front of the pack acting as the eyes and steering wheel for the rest.
Cynthia with all that she could muster zapped towards the woods, where Stan was located, now on top of dealing with everything she had to so far she also had the additional bonus of having various sharp objects thrown her way.
The Cerberi weren’t going to let her get away this time, they came pre-
The Cerberus leading the pack was hit with draining magic and KO’d instantly, not a moment later he was shot with a concussive blast, the thing sliced right through the chest like butter, his body jetted in midair towards a mine that exploded at once, leaving but a crater and a rain of body parts all over.
The pack was ambushed, they fell into the trap.
What came next was a massacre, both Cynthia and Stanley cooperating with deadly precision, doing what they had been born to do, ripping emotions away from each enemy, and transforming that emotional energy into magic used to throw the enemies onto mines one by one.
The pack had no chance, Cynthia was alternating her position, sniping away and the best thing about it all was that they could go on like this for hours, what they used in magic they instantly made up with a quick meal from the next victim.
The explosions shaking the nearby land and trees as if a stomping giant was about to make an appearance, the warm crimson mist of blood expanding, plastering the air with a metallic rusty taste and smell pinching the nostrils of everybody in sight.
It didn’t take long for the enemy to wisen up and cut their losses, they were at a tactical disadvantage, the objective to kill was overcome with the need to survive.
The decimated pack ran with quite literally their tails in between their legs.
You did it, congratulations
But Stan didn’t feel like being congratulated he had just killed over a dozen of living beings and was bathed in their blood, the mist had clung to his skin making it sticky like one’s hands after eating a chocolate bar on a hot day.
The murder scene was unrecognizable, the nearby trees decorated with body parts like some sort of sick tinsel on a Christmas tree, sharp bone parts half buried in the ground and trunks here and there, this part of the woods will surely become haunted soon enough.
Though Stan’s psyche was now in shreds he was at least full and the one great thing about feeding off of emotions is that one doesn’t have a stomach’s contents to present to the outside world in such a situation.
Stan came down the tree back on the ground hot from the constant explosions and body heat from all the guts.
Cynthia also landed, she could instantly tell that this was a first for Stan.
“Are you all right?”
You will be, eventually
Stan just nodded quietly, he wasn’t in the state to think much so it was up to Cynthia to do the next move.
“The quicker we get out of here the better, come on, let’s go”
The two were so focused at figuring out a way to escape that it didn’t occur to them that they’d have to find shelter.
Cynthia looked uphill at the rocky area of the woods, perhaps there was some sort of cave up there.
“Come on, maybe we’ll find a cave up there where we can rest”
Te duo picked up the Doctor’s limp body and began the climb but Cynthia was in a worse state than she had anticipated, her body was fine but her mind was now a goopy mess, she flopped to the ground without a warning leaving Stan with all that muscley weight of the Cerberus that strained his stitches to their limits
Stan’s knees bent but with one powerful push he flipped the knocked out Doctor onto the grassy floor and came up to Cynthia.
“Cynthia, Cynthia!”
She passed out, I had a feeling this might have happened
“This? How come? She was fine!”
Her body, yes, but her mind…
“What about her mind, tell me about her mind!”
Stan was freaking out once again, it was all supposed to be fine now, this shouldn’t happen, not now.
Its her item
“It did that to her?”
In a way, her item gives her and extra sense and a superb vision of things one can’t normally see however this comes at a cost, her body was never designed for such a large sensory input, her mind couldn’t quite handle it
“But that was never an issue before!”
True but the winds here seem quite fickle, my guess is that flying in this area, shooting with precision, keeping hidden and on top of it all having to process all that vision was too much for her, I’m surprised that she managed to hold on on so well for so long
“Why didn’t you tell me, we could have-“
Could have what? there was no other way! If I had told you about this then you might have refused to go through with this!
“Damn right I would have!”
And you would have died!
“You don’t know that!”
In the best case scenario you would have been tortured again
“Well then I would-“
You still need to get your shit together ya knob, what you witnessed before wasn’t torture, it was foreplay, torture takes hours, days, you are still not ready for that
“Oh and you would know better than I about what I can handle”
Yes
“You’re by far the most arrogant…”
Don’t you dare underestimate my capabilities, I have the knowledge of a thousand beings
“Sure you do”
I don’t expect you to understand, not yet at least, this is just the beginning of everything, the well is much deeper than you could possibly ever imagine
“Great, ANOTHER secret, something else you can’t tell me, you’re more trouble than you’re help”
You’re lucky we’re on the same side
“Oh look! he's doing me favors!”
A two year old baby doesn’t comprehend the sacrifice that the baby sitter makes for them
“Just shut up, I’ve had enough for today, I just became a murderer, I’m never going to be able to fly again, I’m in some unknown place or universe for all I fucking know, Cynthia just passed out and I need to find some shelter that’s obviously uphill… it’s a good thing I’m good with magic”
You think you can handle The doctor and Cynthia both at the same time?
“Handle?”
Stan smirked
“I’ve handled stuff way bigger than that in my past, I was even picked on in school for my abnormally strong magic”
Who’s the one showing off now
Stan used his magic to float both of the bodies with ease as if they weighed less than a feather.
“I was born with a condition, it’s called hypermagica, it’s a rare case where my body overamplifies its magical properties”
Stan began the climb
I heard of it, its pretty rare
“Most ponies think that it’s a blessing but it’s actually quite obnoxious it’s like its nearly impossible to hold back, right now I’m doing my best from stopping my magic from crushing their bones”
You’ve must’ve been quite a handful as a foal
“You have no idea, because of my troublesome childhood my parents became quite skilled at magic… they had to I guess, it’s why I never use magic, because every time I do, I’m afraid I might hurt someone”
I think you should use that to your advantage
“Don’t you even start with the it’s a gift you should use crap, do you have any idea how many times I've heard that? The answer is no, I only use it in life threatening situations”
In that case I suggest you start practicing because with the life you’ve chosen you’re going to need it
“I just can’t OK? I don’t wanna talk about it”
The voice didn’t know what it was like, what he went through as a foal, it was… it… Stanley didn’t want to think about it.
Stan stopped, he had found the perfect place to stay, a cozy cave, now he just had to make sure that whatever was living in there was out.