Brad slowly opens his eyes. The blurry vision gives way to a very peculiar sight. It was like a never ending sea of fog that he was somehow lying upon. He got to his feet. The soft and slightly bouncy floor made of fog was a bit disorienting but he managed to find his bearings.
He looked around and saw a child. From his position, he was unable to determine if the child was a boy or a girl since it was curled up in a fetal position and turned away from him. He walked toward it. It was definitely human, or at least as far as he could tell, and was crying.
As he approached, the child morphed into a strange being that was easily taller than himself. A quadruped with many holes throughout its body. It turned toward him with sad, gloomy eyes. The eyes were filled with such an void of depression, he felt like he could physically fall into it if he was not careful.
This being had a crown on it’s head along with a long, crooked horn accompanied by membranous wings attached to its back. It looked like a giant bug that was in need of a hug.
It’s distinctively feminine stature told Brad that he was dealing with a female bug who was possibly a queen. She bared her teeth at him as he took another step forward. The disheartened look in her eyes as she attempted to look menacing told the human that she had an ego she was trying to maintain.
Brad wrapped his arms around the creature, feelings of compassion flowed through him. The Bug-horse sighed, trembling in his grasp. He was unsure if she could understand him but nonetheless, he began shushing her to calm her down.
Suddenly she burst into a literal waterfall of tears and wrapped her holey hooves around him. She then spoke, but Brad felt like he was not the intended recipient of the message. “I’m so sorry dear sisters.”
“so you can speak.” Brad said in a calm voice. The queen had rested her head on his shoulder, making his bandages wet with her tears, his pants soaked up the rest. “Who are you? and why are you crying?” He asked with concern.
“I am just reliving the events of that fateful day again. The day my two sisters banished me here. to this faust-awful plane of existence. My name is Gaia. Or, at least it was. Everypony knows me by the name of Chrysalis. Queen of the Changelings.” She said the last part with a bit of spite. “Forced into an unknown body by the embodiment of chaos. Forced to live in the shadows in fear of persecution.” She sighed before crying again, a single tear dripping down from her left eye. Brad wiped it away and looked her in the eyes.
“I’m sorry for what has happened to you, I wish that I could help you, but I don’t know how.” He glanced at Chrysalis. “I was brought here to do something. To find something. Some type of scepter, but that is all that I know.”
Chrysalis looked up at him with surprise. “A scepter? That wouldn’t happen to be the Scepter of Harmony... would it?”
The name rung a bell for Brad but he was unsure of why. “It could be. Earlier I found a strange glowing gem. It was Yellow.” The Changeling Queen immediately looked thoughtful.
“The Element of Kindness? Perhaps? But how? My sisters used them to imprison me here. They’d never let them fall into the hooves of evil, much less out of their sight.” The two stayed quiet for a while, The tears from the queen had stopped, her thoughts on the matter were obviously obscuring the forced reliving of her sisters’ betrayal. After a few more minutes, her thoughtful expression relaxed into a comforted one. “Thank you. You helped me.”
This confused Brad. What had he done exactly? “What do you mean? I’ve done nothing to help.”
“You have given me hope. Your Quest had brought you to me, which not only tells me that the gods haven’t forgotten about me, but your quest gives me the chance and opportunity to leave my unjustified prison.” Her speech ignited a spark in his heart, The blue gem shard from the element of kindness appeared in his hand and began pulsing, getting faster and brighter with each pulse. “Before you leave, I offer you a gift.” She looks at the gem and smiles. “It won’t take you until you are completely ready. It just means that you have passed it’s trial and are the one ready for it’s gift, or my gift.” Her horn glows a brilliant emerald and Brad find himself floating upward. A small part of his soul detaching from him, all five yellow element shards follow it, spinning around the orb of his soul. The orb began to grow bigger and before shooting back to his chest, the five element shards collapsed back upon the essence of his soul encasing it like an apple, with his soul being the seeds and the gemstones being the innards and skin of the apple. There was then a brilliant flash of light and he found that the ethereal world had dissolved, leaving him back in the waking world.
He picked himself up off of the grass and he check his body, noticing that the intense itching he had felt was gone completely. All of his wounds were gone! He unwrapped the makeshift bandaging and found only small scars in the places of the wounds.
Looking upward, he found it to be day time. Apparently early in the morning, or late in the evening. It was difficult to tell since he was unsure which direction was west and which was east, but that did not let him falter. Thinking back, he remembered the fire. He looked around himself under the light of day and saw that it was still the same clearing, yet looked very different. He took off once again in the direction of the fire he saw.
Minutes later, having sprinted another mile, he came to the crest of a hill, overlooking a settlement. There were multiple buildings, and all of them were now billowing smoke out of the chimneys. A sign in the distance said in really big letters “Welcome to Ponyville!” Below it were smaller words, too small to identify from his current location. He took a step forward and began his trek to the town, hoping to make a good impression.
I give you the blessing of Kindness. the insectoid queen muttered from the aether.