//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Fly on the Wall // by RattPitt //------------------------------// “Are you ready?” Princess Luna asks me. Her sister isn’t around. Good. “I’ve been ready all day.” I reply, still in the form I was in back at the Fermented Apple. “I’ll need the picture of Toma.” A picture surrounded by Luna’s aura floats over to me. I catch it in my mouth and place it in my saddlebags. “Before you go, remember that you must travel south of the castle after the deed is done. Not north. Not east. Not west. South. Remember that.” “Right, south after I kill Toma. Anything else?” “Yes. Once you are 2 kilometers south of Toma’s castle, send up a flare via magic. After that, head west. There will be a small town 4 kilometers away.” “Why do you want me to send up a flare?” “We have allies placed in the town. With the flare, they will know the mission was successful. They will assist you in your escape. Good luck, Changeling.” Something’s been on my mind. “Where’s Pavlov? I want to ask him something.” Luna nods. “We have enough time for you to talk briefly. Follow me, Changeling.” I follow the princess that actually deserves her title to the castle. We walk deep into the bowels of the castle. We stop at a door. “Do you wish for me to join you?” “No.” I say, leaving it at that. I know Luna knows what I’m about to do. She must know what the bastard doctor did. Luna knocks on the door. She opens it with her magic. Pavlov is in the room by himself. “Oh, hello Princess Luna and Changeling. What can I do for you two?” I walk into the room. “Luna, close the door, please.” She does without any hesitation. I walk out of the room. My breathing is heavy. “You’re going to need a cleaner.” I say to Princess Luna. “Don’t worry, he’s still alive. He’ll need a doctor.” “You’re covered in blood. What did you do?” She asks. There’s strength in the last sentence. “You know what happened. If you want to know exactly what I did, look in the room.” I say. “It’s not pretty. Not at all.” I sense a lot of fear and anger in Princess Luna. She doesn’t need to open the door to know what happened. “...Try to hold back on Toma.” For a second, I thought she was going to call off the mission. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not that she didn’t. “I can’t promise anything.” Luna sighs. “I won’t be able to do anything to stop you. I have something that you will need to gain entrance to the party. With help from our allies in Saddle Arabia, I have forged an invitation. I have cast a spell on it that will change information depending on your form.” A scroll of paper floats to me. I open it. It doesn’t have anything. This is probably the invitation. To see if it is, I take Luna’s form. The paper changes. A picture of Luna appears, along with text in Arabic. “Thank you, Luna.” I say. She recoils a bit at hearing her voice. I can sense her emotion shifting to severe discomfort. “You do not have to thank me for what was necessary. And please… Don’t use my form around me.” I smile at that. I drop her form. She starts to feel more comfortable. It’s not exactly love, but this is a relief to me. I’m sick of being surrounded by ponies feeling bad. “There is another thing you may need during your mission.” She summons a small rectangular sheet of paper. A picture of a mare. “This is Malak Uzma. She is the bride of Toma Jabhir. You likely won’t be meeting her on your journey. The real Malak is in Mareitania as we speak. She will stay there for several more days.” Princess Luna sends me to Saddle Arabia. To make sure I don’t die, I had to be in my real form during the teleportation. The process of teleportation is incredibly nauseating, likely because I’m not a pony and just equinoid. By nauseating, I don’t just mean I came close to vomiting. I mean I felt like my entire stomach turned inside-out. My stomach and its contents manage to stay in place. I wait a few seconds for my vision to clear. I’m just outside a large city with architecture completely different from Canterlot. I know just by this that I’m in Saddle Arabia. The city is Maredina. A sign, fortunately translated into Equestrian, says so. I recall that this is where the party is. Fortunately, instead of being teleported out in the open, I’m in between buildings. A unicorn stallion walks by me. I quickly take his form. I let him go with his consciousness intact. I check my invitation to make sure it works. It does. After the pony leaves my sight, I move to the gate and get inside the city without any trouble. I can see where the party is going on from the gates of the city. The lights are bright enough to block out half of the stars in the sky. I walk to the location of the party. It’s in a large building. It’s probably half the size of Ponyville itself. The guard at the entrance stops me from entering. “Do you have your invitation?” He says in Arabic. I levitate it into his field of view. The guard steps out of the way and gestures for me to walk in. He allows me to keep the invitation. Once I’m in, a few guards start patting me down for weapons. They don’t find any and let me in. It’s not like I need a weapon to kill Toma. I move deeper inside the building. The room where the dance is at is massive. It reminds me of the ballroom of the castle in Canterlot, where the Grand Galloping Gala was. There are more ponies here than I’ve ever been with in such a small area. I feel like I’m starting to develop claustrophobia. I head to a staircase with two levels. I climb the few steps and scan the ponies. One of them catches my eye. A stallion unicorn with a dull brown coat, blonde mane, cutie mark of a constellation I don’t know by name, and wearing a tuxedo complete with a top hat and monocle. I keep the appearance of this stallion in my mind while I make my way towards a bathroom. I enter a stall and take the stallion’s appearance, then look at the invitation. The stallion’s name that I took the form of is Eren Göker. He’s a skilled unicorn mage and the leader of a country called Poney to the north of Saddle Arabia. Most of the population of Poney see Göker as a god, like how the Equestrians see Princess Luna and her bitch sister. I exit the bathroom. “Ah, Mister Göker!” A voice with a thick Ponish behind me says. “It has been far too long.” I turn to the voice. A golden colored unicorn with a jet black mane and a diamond for a cutie mark. “You may have forgotten my name. I excuse you for that. You have no need to know the names of others, correct?” He laughs like he just heard a joke. I laugh too with him. “My name is Taş Ihanet. I own the diamond mine just outside Constantineighple.” “Ah, yes. I remember.” I say. My vision, because of the speaking, is briefly hit by noise. It’s nothing major, but I know that I shouldn’t talk much more. Ihanet seems truly surprised. He chuckles slightly after a second. “Oh? I did not expect that, Mr. Göker. You have an impressive memory, my friend.” A mare with a tray full of drinks walks past us. Ihanet takes one with his magic. He takes a drink and sets the empty glass on another passing mare’s tray. “Might I request that you follow me? We have something to do, my friend.” Dammit. Saying ‘no’ would trigger suspicion. Saying ‘yes’ would mean that I have to. If I do, I might lose track of Toma. Not answering would also raise suspicion. So I just throw out an answer. “Yes.” Ihanet smiles. “Good, good. Please, follow me.” I follow the unicorn to the ground floor. We come dangerously close to passing the real Eren Göker. Luckily, he doesn’t seem to notice us. Ihanet doesn’t seem to notice him, either. I follow Ihanet to a different room. There aren’t many ponies in here. Ihanet makes a gesture with his head. A few ponies with weapons herd the others outside of the room. I don’t like where this is going. “There’s no need to worry, Mister Göker. We’ve played poker many times at these parties.” He walks through another door and down a hall. I follow him. The ponies with weapons stay in the room. I keep myself from letting out a sigh of relief. “Yes, I know. It’s been some time since I’ve last played.” I don’t know if these guys play poker to show dominance or something. If so, it’s a shame the Equestrians didn’t teach me how to play. Ihanet laughs. “Yes, yes. I haven’t played in a few months, either.” He opens another door. Inside the room is a poker table. Three ponies surround it. Two reddish brown colored unicorns. One dark blue pegasus. There’s a bar in the back of the room. Ihanet takes a seat and I take the empty one. We play a few games of poker. I struggle to keep up the form of Eren Göker. “Eren, why aren’t you holding your cards with your magic?” One of the other unicorns say. “My magic isn’t very strong.” I say. My voice is slightly weaker than usual. The ponies don’t seem to notice. “I’m not Twilight Sparkle.” “Who’s Twilight Sparkle?” The unicorn asks. Damn. Did I just blow my cover? “She’s the Element of Magic.” The other unicorn says. “She’s pretty cute, too. You’d like her, Diğer.” “I’ll be the judge of that.” The first unicorn says with a laugh. I’m not a fan of Twilight Sparkle, but I don’t like what these stallions are implying. The pegasus is suddenly pissed off at these two. He doesn’t show it, though. “But seriously, Eren, you should use your magic." “Yeah.” “Agreed.” Ihanet says. He seems to be staring at me, almost like he knows I’m not the real Eren Göker. He’s loaded with suspicion. I can’t tell what the others are feeling. “I say leave him alone.” The pegasus speaks up for the first time. He has an Equestrian accent. “He clearly doesn’t want to and I don’t see a reason for him.” “Shut it, pegasus.” Ihanet shoots at the pegasus. He jumps slightly at it. “Mister Göker had better use his magic if he knows what’s good for him. “Alright, I’ll use my magic.” I say with a sigh. I drop the cards. I catch them with my magic. “Happy?” Ihanet nods. “There we go. Now, back to the game.” He says, but keeps looking at me. “Wait…”