//------------------------------// // I wish the Changelings would take you away, right now // Story: Labyrinth of Chaos // by ADenter1 //------------------------------// Fluttershy was reciting the lines to one of her most favored books, something she had grown fond of doing, just on the outskirts of Ponyville near the Everfree Forest though she was careful not to go near. She herself had seen at one point of her life the true things that could live there, not just a beautiful tree. Her little white rabbit, Angel, hopped to her side beginning to tug on her pearl white dress. “What is it Angel?” the buttermilk colored Pegasus asked, her voice soft and soothing, gentle and almost melodic. The rabbit began pointing to the Ponyville Clock Tower that had been built only two months ago. The pony’s teal eyes that often shimmered under the light widened with horror. It was almost seven o’clock, and she was meant to be home and hour ago. “Oh no,” her ears lowered with sadness. Her Stepmother, Sapphire Sunlight, was not a pleasant mare. She was often far to strict, and had a zero tolerance for any mistakes that came from anyone. Fluttershy most of all. Fluttershy wished that her mother and father, Buttercup and Caramel Smooch, had not gotten a divorce. Then she would not have to deal with an evil stepmother or a baby brother who did nothing but cry. Dark clouds of gray covered the sky, thunder began rumbling in the distance, as the skies threatened to let rain fall. “Come on Angel,” she called to her little white rabbit. Both the Pegasus and the little white bunny began racing back to her cottage in Ponyville. Rain was falling, thunder was lightly echoing, and she knew she would be in trouble. An hour late and possibly soaking wet, Sapphire Sunlight would not be pleased. “Fluttershy!” two mares, a few of her friends though she was not always social, Pinkie Pie and Rarity called out to her. Without responding the Pegasus kept running, her rabbit behind her and she had not heard the questioning from the Unicorn or the Earth Pony. Upon reaching her cottage she was greeting with a slammed open door and a fuming stepmother. “I’m sorry...” she began, but was rather rudely interrupted. "I said six o'clock," Sapphire Sunlight's eyes were unforgiving. "I said I was sorry!” Fluttershy said, her eyes apologetic. "Well don’t just stand there getting wet get in here,” Sapphire ordered. "Fine, come on Angel,” "Not the rabbit,” her stepmother pointed a yellow hoof. “But it’s pouring!” Fluttershy’s eyes widened as the rabbit whimpered, uselessly shaking his fur. “Well let him go into a tree,” Sapphire rolled her bright blue eyes. “He’s not a squirrel or any animal that goes into a tree!” Fluttershy retorted, not feeling guilty. “Well let him go into the animal cottage then,” Sapphire’s impatience was growing. She could not care either way. “Fine, go on Angel. Into your cottage,” Fluttershy’s eyes were glazed with sadness and sympathy as the rabbit bounded off sadly. Angrily stomping her hooves she walked into the cottage, only to be greeted by her father holding her half-brother Dapper Sunlight. “Ah Fluttershy there you are,” she herself interrupted the cream colored stallion. “We were worried,” he added. “What did I do wrong!?” Fluttershy wailed, running up the stairs, slamming the door to her room. “I swear Buttercup, she treats me like a evil enchantress no matter what I do or say,” Sapphire Sunlight raised her nose angrily. “Now honey she’s a teenager, I am sure most teenage mares are naturally like that,” Buttercup spoke, still trying to calm the crying Dapper Sunlight. In her room Fluttershy was lying on her bed, her face planted into her arms angrily. In her head she was fuming, and her eyes said it all. “Fluttershy?” Buttercup lightly knocked onto the door. “Go away...” she murmured into her arms. “We’ve fed Dapper and he’s in bed,” Buttercup stated, but it only made the buttermilk mare more angry than before. "Better leave now. I’m sure you’d just love that wouldn’t you? Sapphire Sunlight must have everything perfect," she murmured softly, though mostly it was sadness. “We will be home by midnight,” she could hear Buttercup backing away from her door, either out of fear of dealing with a teenager or just to spend quality time with his true love as he said in his wedding vows. Ironically he said the same thing to his first wife. Midnight.... Fluttershy thought, looking to her closed window covered in rain. “Take as long as you want. Do whatever you want. That’s all Sapphire Sunlight does isn’t it?” she shook her head and blinked her eyes. Crying was coming from her father’s bedroom. So much for him being asleep... So many hours they’re going to do whatever they please, so many hours spent with a infant Pegasus colt. Fluttershy stood unto her bed, angrily flying off onto her floor. Looking around she saw the stuffed animals she liked to keep. A few were Timber wolves, though they were mythological and they were another reason ponies feared the Everfree forest, one was a Orthros, and more things that made her stepmother question her greatly. She found it irritating that nobody else enjoyed the life of the books, and the mythology of it. Having enough with the wailing coming from Dapper, she stormed out of her room and into her father’s. “What is it Dapper? You’ve been fed and changed, what is the problem now?” Fluttershy asked, sitting on the edge of her father and stepmother’s bed. The Pegasus baby wailed in response. “Do you want a story? Hmm?” an idea sparked in her mind. She flew to her room and grabbed the book she had been quoting earlier. "It's always a favorite I guess. Makes me feel better..." she sighed softly. It had been a gift from a special family member of hers. One she did not see anymore. “Once upon a time there was a sixteen year old Pegasus mare who was trapped,” Fluttershy began, picking Dapper up in on hoof, reading the book and sitting back on the edge of the bed.. “Trapped by her father who did not care about how his new wife treated the Pegasus, trapped by a wicked stepmother who continued tossing the words ‘You must do this and that,' straight to her face about her newborn baby brother. Trapped by the world around her, and absolutely nothing would set her free,” she continued, noticing how the crying was still there but it was lowering. But the storm was not. “But, though she did not know it, luckily for her there was a royal, a King, who was watching her suffer who had felt sympathy for the mare who was practically a slave to her stepmother and family. He had given her a gift,” she was quoting the book, though the pages she had been reciting before had been closer to the ending. “He had given her the gift to call upon his minions, the Changelings, who could take the form of anypony they pleased and do as he commanded, and if her heart truly desired it she could wish for the Changelings to take the child away. But the mare did know that if she called upon the Changelings and made that small request, the King of Chaos would turn him into a Changeling. A black little creature with wings, without pupils or irises and only blue eyes, with a horn that illuminated magic of a green aura and see through wings like a bug’s. And he would be no different than the Chaos King’s present minions,” Fluttershy felt as though something watching, but she kept reading. But, though she did not know it, there really was someone, the King was watching her as she read the book. The King sat on a tree branch outside her cottage, lightly perched as he watched through her window. Her reading the book and not realizing was would indeed happen, it was downright amusing to him. She was a beauty in his misshapen cinnamon. He chuckled to himself when she quoted the book she had been reciting and reading earlier, before the downpour storm. “Oh my dear, you read from the book you love so much, you love it all. But if only you knew...” he trailed off, lying unto the branch, his black cape covering his lizard’s tail, dragon leg and cloven hoof leg. “How much was true...” he inwardly chuckled. “Rhymes?” “Master...” one of the Changelings arrived, his eyes filled with curiosity as he dipped his head. “Hmm?” the King of Chaos paid no attention. He was to intent on the buttermilk colored Pegasus. She was unique in more ways than one in his opinion. She was beautiful indeed. Her perfectly shaded teal eyes, her coat that was the color of cream, and the perfect pink cotton candy colored mane of hers. Even her personality was wonderful to him. But the best part was the fact that she was quoting the book, not realizing it. The best part to him was that her love for the book and all the things she enjoyed was what allowed her to fall right into his trap. He felt entranced with her. “You should know... What are you staring at?” the Changeling tilted his head towards the window, trying to get a view. With his bird hand, the Chaos King pushed his head away, basking in the beauty of the Pegasus. “Is anyone else confused here?” the same Changeling whispered through gritted teeth, his companions behind him nodded. The King was not paying attention to his Changeling’s muttering behind him. He was truly intrigued with the Pegasus. Divine beauty. Beauty indeed. He tilted his gray head to the side, balanced his chin in his lion’s paw, confused for a moment. “When have I started thinking like this?” he muttered, fortunately silent enough so the Changeling’s ears merely twitched at the mutter not knowing what he truly said. “I should know what now?” he asked, though his eyes stayed to the storm inside the cottage. “She’s saying the words she’s saying it all. What if she says ‘I wish the Changelings would take you away, right now?’” the black creatures asked to him and among themselves. He slapped his own forehead, gritting his sharp teeth. “Are you really that foolish or are you just playing some foolish joke?” he asked, rhetorically, not caring either way. “Uhh...” the first Changeling looked to the others, and upon noticing this all of the others took off to the sky avoiding the question and being the one to answer. “Stupid...” the King shook his head irritably. “Chaos King, Chaos King, wherever you may be take this child as far away from me!” Fluttershy spoke, even though that was not the line, couldn't remember what the line really was. Though she did remember when her mother first read it to her. She was a filly herself, when she read the book on her own for the first time she panicked about her mother saying the real line. Caramel Smooch found it amusing. “Ack, where’d she get that pile of rubbish. Literally everybody knows it starts with ‘I wish’” one of the Changelings who fled shook his head, the others agreeing with him. Inside the cottage, Fluttershy saw that Dapper was close to falling asleep. "I have read this a thousand times, yet what was the line?" she asked, it was true that since reading towards the end that one little line was forgotten. “I wish the Changelings would come and take you away, right now, it’s that simple!” another slapped his wet head with a hoof. “I wish... I wish...” she murmured, her teal orbs focusing on blank space. “Did she say it?” another Changeling asked. “SHUT UP!” every Changeling whisper growled, one slapping a hoof on his mouth as well. She sighed, placing him back into his crib and covering him with his blankets. That made him snap his eyes open, he stood to his hooves howling at the top of his lungs. “Thunder... storms... if that’s why your crying, I am sorry there is nothing I can do about it,” Fluttershy shook her head, walking to the door. She looked from the lit candle back to the colt. “I wish the Changelings would come to take you away, right now,” Fluttershy quoted the book as she blew out the candle, finally remembering the line, and walked out the door. At that moment she realized that as the thunder roared like a manticore once more that Dapper had stopped crying. “Dapper?” she turned her head slightly, slowly. No response, not a sniffle, not a wail, absolutely nothing. “Dapper?” she repeated, slowly walking back to the door. Fluttershy had no idea how to feel at that moment. Scared? That’d be natural. Confused. That’d be obvious. She felt both. Pushing the door open with her hoof she noticed that the blankets in his bed were completely still. “Dapper Sunlight?” she asked, slightly trembling, unaware of the hundreds upon thousands of eyes watching her. Almost all the eyes were blue, except for the misshapen cinnamon ones that continued watching from that same exact tree. “She said the words... why’s she fussing?” one Changeling whispered to another. “She said it?” the same one who asked if she had done so questioned. “Shut up!” all the others whispered yelled, again, as he himself slapped his own mouth to keep quiet. Slowly walking to the crib, Fluttershy stood on her hind hooves and pulled the blanket. Dapper was gone. Thunder roared as a tapping took place on the bedroom window. She gasped as she heard a rustling in the bedroom and some kind of sick twisted maniacal laughter from the corner. Thunder kept rumbling, rain kept falling, noises and giggles were moving all around in the room and finally the window burst open and something flew into the room. Fluttershy covered her head with her hooves and covered her hooves with her wings, she felt her heart racing faster than Rainbow Dash could even fly, her fear was through the roof. Against the reflected light a large shadow was taking place. Moving her wings and her hooves from her head teal eyes met misshape cinnamon ones. The Pegasus felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest at any split second. He was just like the book had described him. Made of different animals pieces. A lion’s paw and arm, a bird’s claw, hand, and arm, with a dragon leg, a smaller lizard’s tail, a cloven hoof, with the gray head of a pony. He had a deer’s antler and a light blue horn, or antler, with a large sharp tooth sticking out of his mouth. He was wearing a completely black suit, with a sparkling black cape. “It’s you...” she whispered, but by the movement of his ears she knew he heard her. “The Chaos King...” she did not ask, she knew. “Please... I need my brother back...” her eyes glistened. “What’s said is said?” the Chaos King put his hands together behind his back. “But... I did not mean it...” she felt like pleading. “Oh you didn’t?” one of his white eyebrows lifted slightly, almost mockingly. Fluttershy felt scared. She knew what would happen if she did not get him back. The Chaos King would turn him into a Changeling, and he’d become one of his little minions. “I’ve brought you a gift,” he snapped her out of her trance. “What?” she asked out of confusion. He took his lion paw from behind his back, leaving the bird one though, and began twisting and turning his fingers and his wrist rather calmly and gingerly. In his hand appeared a clear crystal. “It’s a crystal. Nothing more,” he stated, still moving it around in his fingers. “Do you want it?” he asked, still swishing it around. “You can see your dreams, the good, the better, and the grandest of them all.” “Please... I appreciate it but... I need my brother back... Please...” she was now pleading, her whites turning a lighter shade of pink than her hair as they glistened with tears. “Fluttershy...” the Chaos King began again. The crystal turned into a small snake curled around his fingers. Taking his bird hand he moved it into a straight line. “Don’t defy me,” he stated, lightly flicking his wrist sending it around her neck. Tossing the snake off, flying from the floor, she noticed it turn into a small Changeling once it hit the floor. It began hissing whilst giggling, and more giggles took place. “You’re no match for me Fluttershy,” he looked at his black gloved fingers. “Please... I need to have my brother back...” she begged. The King walked to her, his hoof and foot tapping the floor. Pointing with his bird hand he gestured outside the window. “He’s there. In the castle,” he stated. Looking to the window she saw it. Quite a distance, but she knew she had to do it. The sky was no longer raining or thundering. It was orange and dark gray with dawn. “Is that the castle beyond the Chaos city?” she asked, feeling the wind in her mane and tail. “Do you still want the brat?” he asked. “Turn back Fluttershy, turn back now, I offer you this chance,” the King stated. “I can’t... Don’t you understand that I can’t?” she asked. He pointed to a Grandfather clock. “Pity, but you have thirteen hours to solve the Labyrinth of Chaos before your precious Dapper Sunlight becomes a Changeling...” he was fading away, a smirk plastered on his face. “Forever...” he added before disappearing alongside the grandfather clock, and she swore she heard him add the words ‘Such a pity’ though it was distant now. Fluttershy looked back to the labyrinth from where she was standing on the sandy hill, the wind still blowing her mane. “If only I had Rainbow Dash’s flight. I could fly through the entire labyrinth,” she sighed softly, wishing her friends were with her now even if they had not spoken for quite a while. Curtsy of Sapphire Sunlight. “Well, come on feet,” she began walking to the labyrinth, completely unaware of what lay ahead inside the King of Chao’s sleeve.......................................................................................................................................................................