//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Fly on the Wall // by RattPitt //------------------------------// All of the other ponies look up. The unicorns look at Ihanet. The pegasus looks at me. He’s mouthing something, but I can’t tell what. “Your aura is green!” Ihanet shouts. He flips the table then dives at me. My head slams against the concrete floor and bounces off it once. I feel a hoof connect with my face. Something takes him off me. I look up to see the pegasus punching Ihanet. “Get out of here!” The pegasus shouts at me. Ihanet takes the chance to punch the pegasus in the throat. “Take care of him. I’ve got this stallion thing.” Ihanet says to the unicorns. They start to beat on the pegasus. Ihanet gallops towards me. I turn around and buck him in the face. I can feel something in his face break. When I turn back to him, his nose is bleeding. Ihanet has a look of surprise on his face. I jump at him and tackle him to the floor. I punch him repeatedly. A unicorn notices and gallops towards me. I’m not fast enough to counter, so he tackles me. I kick him off. He lands on his horn. His shriek of pain is earsplitting. I’m surprised he survived. A hit like that to the horn usually kills, at least on changelings. “Enough of this.” Ihanet says. He grabs a bottle and smashes it. “I’m going to gut you like a fish.” “That’s dark for an herbivore.” “Are you implying that you aren’t one?” He says with a smile. “It’s not an implication, bitch.” I drop the form. Ihanet looks seriously surprised. The unicorn and pegasus do, too. The other unicorn is still in too much pain to notice. “What in Jabhir’s name are you?” He mutters. He doesn’t wait for an answer and instead charges me. I notice that the pegasus takes the distraction as a chance to punch the unicorn in the throat. Unfortunately, noticing this distracted me from the threat. He headbutts me and I fall to the floor with a splitting headache. “I don’t know what you are, you insectoid abomination. I’ll send you back to whatever hell you came from!” He slashes me with the bottle. It only hits my front foreleg, but it hurts a lot. Ihanet suddenly falls to the floor. I open my eyes to see the pegasus standing on top of him. “We can’t let these ponies live.” He says. He steps off Ihanet and walks over to the unicorn that hit his horn. He’s writhing on the floor in pain. “Sorry about this.” The pegasus snaps his neck. A sickening crunch echoes through the room. The only thing that keeps me from throwing up is my biology. The pegasus notices my flinching. To spare me from having to hear that again, he simply stomps on the neck of the other unicorn. The unicorn spits out blood. “Is that any better?” The pegasus asks. I shake my head. With a sigh, I stand up and turn to the door. I gesture with my head to make him follow me. I take the form of Ihanet. “Watch out!” The pegasus shouts. I turn around to see Ihanet about to stab me. The pegasus gets in the way and takes the broken bottle to the face. He falls to the floor with it stuck still in him. I don’t have to be a doctor to know that it killed him instantly. “You bastard!” I shout at Ihanet. He’s close enough for me to attack. I bite his throat as hard as I can. Blood pours out of the wound, past my teeth, and into my mouth. It’s terribly bitter and salty. I want to pull away and spit out the blood, but I can’t. Ihanet would call for guards and I would be discovered. I can’t let that happen. My grip on his throat tightens. More of his blood pours into my mouth. Almost too much for me to breath. To make sure I still can, I’m forced to swallow the blood. It’s disgusting enough for me to almost spit it out. Eventually, and I do mean eventually, I release my grip. I spit out some of the blood. He looks at me with a startled look for a second, then drops to the floor. He claws at his neck. Ihanet stays on the ground. He’s twitching and trying to stop the blood from pouring out his neck. With every breath he takes, he coughs up blood. As much as I want to look away, I can’t. I can’t tell if the fear I sense is coming from the pony or me. Eventually, the pony stops moving. This isn’t like the ponies from Canterlot. I actually feel something. When I killed the Equestrians, I didn’t feel anything. Not a single emotion. Now? I feel guilt. Maybe it was because of how brutally I killed this pony. I won’t kill Toma like this. “I’m sorry.” I say to the fresh corpse. I close his eyes. It’s not reviving him, but it shows respect. Sure, he did try to kill me. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t a living creature. What’s the difference between Ihanet and the 15 ponies I killed in Canterlot? Maybe it’s because I know this one’s name. I did just witness him killing somepony that saved my life. I feel remorse for this bitch, but not the ponies from before. I haven’t felt any worse in my life before. I feel a tap on my hoof. “Changeling…” The pegasus says. “Toma Jabhir is here in Maredina. He’s in the castle to the north, just outside city lines.” I’m amazed he’s still alive. “Why are you telling me this?” He shifts what part of his mouth he has left into a smile. “A friend told me a changeling would need help.” He spits out some blood. “Tell Rainbow Dash about what happened. Tell her that Shooting Star died while saving a friend.” He coughs again. “I wish I could tell her goodbye myself. I didn’t get to before I came here.” “I will, Shooting Star.” I don’t know anypony named Rainbow Dash. I’m certain Princess Luna and her sister do. “Get out of here before anypony else tries to kill you.” He commands. I hesitate to. I wait for Shooting Star to force me to. I can’t feel any emotions coming from him anymore. Witnessing his death is easily worse than causing Ihanet’s death. I walk out of the room. I’ve always been skilled at hiding my emotions, but this time is harder than every other time I’ve had to. I just witnessed four brutal deaths and caused one of them. Why am I feeling like this now and not during the invasion of Canterlot? Maybe my time in training was to make me act and feel more like them. If it is, I underestimated them. “Are you okay, Mister Ihanet?” One of the guards in the room I just entered asks. I’m still too disoriented from the fight to say anything. I nod instead. “Are you sure? You’re bleeding.” “Do you think I didn’t notice that?” I shoot at him. The guard jumps back. This stallion is a terrible guard. Being a dick is in Ihanet’s character. It’s also just how I want to act right now. Toma Jabhir is the cause of these four ponies’ deaths. He won’t be the cause of anymore. “Sorry, sir. It’s just that-” “Quiet. Get me to the castle to the north. I have a friend to meet.” My mind is swimming in an ocean of pain. Standing itself is difficult. I’m surprised I haven’t passed out yet. I follow some guards to a chariot outside the building. They offer me medical assistance, but I wordlessly refuse. I step on the chariot. A pegasus guard I haven’t seen yet is the pilot. He take me to the castle. I order him to fly with a low altitude. “Why, Mister Ihanet?” The pegasus that’s flying me asks. He’s filled with curiosity. “Don’t question my orders.” I say. The chariot lands at the front of the castle. I step off and the chariot takes off. When I know I’m not in anypony’s sight, I pull out the picture Princess Luna gave to me of Malak Uzma, Toma Jabhir’s wife. I take her form. The guards at the front of the building open the door without a word. I walk into the building. I don’t know exactly where Toma’s room is. I’ll find it eventually. I start off the blind tour of the building by heading upstairs. Leaders of countries like to be in higher areas, at least in their own castles. I’m certain that this isn’t Toma’s own castle. I can sense some emotions through the doors. Several different emotions, ranging from the sickening pure hatred to a spicy lust to the amazing feeling of love itself. The love is only mild. I can tell it’s not the kind of love a Saddle Arabian stallion would feel to his wife. This love that I’m feeling is more like the kind of love a stallion would feel to a cheap 10 bit whore. At the top of the castle, I feel a large increase of love. I stop by the door. This is the love a husband would feel to his wife. Toma is in there. I can feel Toma practically bleeding a river of love from inside the room. It’s enough love to visibly heal my wounds. I could probably live off of the love he’s released in the past few minutes alone. If my knowledge about the customs of Saddle Arabia is correct, it’s a monogamistic country. Each and every pony has only one mate, unlike Equestria and how the stallions can legally have six mares in a relationship. If I’m right, then I’ll be getting more love from Toma. Mental love, like what I’ve been getting, and physical. I’ve been a mare in that situation before, so I’m used to it. I open the door and enter the room. Toma, currently shaving with a straight razor, turns to me. When he sees me, a smile forms on his face. Even if I wasn’t disguised as his wife, I would still smile. “My love, you are home early!” Toma says.