Heart Beats

by Colt Bolt


Chapter 6: Spikes and leather couches

Some people will never learn anything, because they understand everything too soon.

- Alexander Pope

Two young fillies chased one another up and down the train’s corridors. They were no older than four or five years of age. Their laughter brought me back to a pitiful reality. My eyes opened to white overhanging lights. I blinked with a straight face, adjusting to the brightness. I didn’t know how to react. Happy, that I could confirm the road ahead was no longer dangerous or grief, that what I had done will forever be down in history.
I stretched my stiff back and wings, giving off a few cracks. Still tired, hungry and confused, I was about to grab another swig of my bottle of love. One of the fillies tripped over my saddle bag which was lying against my seat.
“Oooff, sworry miwster.” She apologised giving me ‘puppy eyes’ as my only source of food rolled out of my bag. It was picked up into the hooves of the second little blond haired filly.
She held it up to her gleaming eyes, just like I did when I found it. “Ahh,” she said in the most curious high pitched voice, “what kind of strawberry milk is this?”
My breathing stoped for a second. I had the impression that a few eyes were watching me. Grabbing the bottle back, my actions where a little too hostile, accidentally slapping her hoof. I shoved it back into my bags before anypony had a good look.
The blond filly started to weep out a few decibels and before you could say Equestria, she started to brawl out tears. I laid my ears down both because of the shrill shrieking wails of the little filly. When they reached pitches and decibels of this intensity, it makes it rather painful for those of us who enjoy hearing. Tartarus! I could even feel myself grinding my teeth, and I wasn't doing it intentionally!  Before, I thought I had a few eyes watching me. Now, I was certain that everypony’s eyes were watching at me.
“Oh, no no no no,” I held out my hooves trying to stop her from crying, “Shhhhh.” A bitter taste lingered in my mouth as my gut felt heavy.
When nothing could stop her from gathering more eyes towards me, I resorted to the action I mainly take. Walking away. I grabbed my belongings and keeping my head low, began to trot to next carriage ahead. I moved into a small lavatory and with the slam of the door, locked it.
Facing a mirror above a sink, my eyes connected to my reflection’s eyes.
“Sigh,” I closed my eyes touching my head against the mirror; “I’m Smoulder, right? When I open my eyes…” My breath shattered. “I’m still Smoulder, aren’t I? And what if I’m not Smoulder? If I’m not me, then how do I find myself? The real me, that is. And then that begs the question: If I’m not me, then why did I fabricate ‘this’ me?”
I opened my eyes still looking into the mirror, only to be startled by another changeling holding a knife behind me. “Oh, not again, not again!”
I assumed it was going to be the mysterious voice again attempting to hijack my mind once more. But this time I could feel fur striking me at the back of my head. Hitting my head on the toilet seat, I fell to the floor barely conscious.
The changeling pounced onto my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. If I didn’t use my normal voice and changed back into my original form in another second I probably would have been as dead as a doornail.
“Wait! Grey Thorn, it’s me, Smoulder!” I barely got the sentence out with the amount of oxygen left in my lungs and with a throbbing head.
“Smoulder?” He tilted his head in confusion but then realised who he was on top. “Hey! Smoulder, how’s it going?”
“Grey Thorn” I hopelessly tugged his hooves off, “a-airrr.”
“Oh, sorry.”
I gasped, coughing out pain. Giving me a hoof up, Grey wrapped his hooves around me as if his life depended on it. “You don’t know how many years I’ve been waiting for someling to escape the Bad Lands.”
“Grey-”
He kept on babbling on a hundred words per second, “I had almost given up hope, but then you came.”
“Grey, stop ... suffocating … me-e-e.”
“Sorry, sorry.” He released his grip, but held his hooves on my shoulders. “It’s just that I’ve never expected for this day to come. How’s everyling doing back home?”
I trace of thought, when he asked that question. “I-is it ok if we talk about that in a bigger and more private room?” I asked, discovering that I had developed a mild sense of claustrophobia.
Grey nodded his head. A green flame morphed his black fur to white. His eyes gained depth. His wings shrank while his horn was enclosed by a white coating. And as a final touch, he wore a blue train conductor uniform that he grabbed from the vents above. I switch to my pony disguise.
Grey gave an unsatisfied look, “Really?”
“What?”
“Out of all the colors you could have chosen,” He rolled his eyes, “yellow, purple, orange, red, it had to be blue and green.” He pretended to gag.
“Hey! I kind of actually like this form.” I argued, brushing the fur on my chest.
He patted me on the back, “Just kidding with you, Smoulder.”
I chuckled shaking my head, forgetting my phobia, “You haven’t changed a bit, have you?”
He unlocked the door leading the way. Whilst we walked through the corridors and foals who were racing down the aisle unsupervised and undisciplined creating a racket; I asked how his life has been so far.
He responded with the usual, “you know,” (which I don’t) ,“doing what changelings do best. Blending in with the background, getting a steady life style as a train conductor in Equestrian Rails and so far unsuccessful at finding a lover to feed off.”
He grabbed a key from the pockets of his uniform, unlocking a door. I stepped in first onto the velvety red carpet.  Inside there was everything a pony would need to live. Fancy fine dining, a small overhanging chandelier, weird electronics and leather couches. Of course, most of these things were useless to me since I was a changeli-
“Wait, leather couches!!” I halted in my tracks as Grey walked past me.   
He sat on one of them inviting me to join him.
“Err, Grey, leather comes from cows, right?” I questioned pointing to one of them.
He nods, “Mmhm.”
“Doesn’t that shock you?”
“Elaborate.”  He raised one of his eyebrows.
“I thought ponies where… herbivores.”
For a few seconds he gave me a blank stare, but then knocked his head back as if I threw a brick at him.
“Ohhh!” He giggled making me think that for a moment he was loco in the coco. “Just because a species is herbivore doesn’t mean they can’t eat meat. And also this leather is imported from the griffon’s kingdom where all they do is moo and eat grass.”
My eyelids blinked at him. I probably needed somewhere to sit, for six months, trying to process all of the information.  He laughed hysterically, falling off the couch, rolling on the carpet.
After completely flattering the carpet, his laughter died down. He wiped the tears out of his eyes and then pats me on the back again. “Don’t worry, I had a hard time believing it too.” He sat back onto the couch, patting the cushion next to him. “Come on, it’s better than a rock pillow.”
Sitting down, I wiggled my plot trying to find my ‘comfy’ spot. I tilted right, left, up and down but it felt like I was sitting on a pile of spikes. The seats in the first carriage weren’t very different from rocks being so cheap, but this couch, it was a fabric I’ve never had felt before.
Giving up on my attempt, Grey spoke out first. “So how’s everyling doing back in the Bad Lands?”
I swallowed hard. The ‘spikes’ in the couch disappeared. I gave a long sigh staring at the carpet, thinking of how I could break this down slowly. In the end, there was no way to say it softly. “E-everyling is dead, Grey.” I muttered out as the atmosphere turned dark.
“Come on, Smoulder.” He softly punches my shoulder. “You know that joking about death isn’t funny.”
I looked at him with the same facial expression.
“Oh,” he bit his tongue. “What happened?”
I stooped my head low, too ashamed to say it in his face. “Everyling just disappeared like that.” I clicked my hooves. “Nicolas, Cage, Rebeca, Black and even the queen, th-they’re all dead.” I clasp my head with my hooves. Drip by drip of tears flowed down my muzzle to the tip of my nose.
It took another ten minutes to explain about the dragon colony, how I was able to avenge the swam by bringing the wall down with hundreds of ponies. I only left out the part where an ominous voice hijacked my whole body and actually caused all of the actions.
I wiped the water off my eyes. His head slowly nodded while his lips showed no signs of emotion. He didn’t even draw a tear. It was as if nothing had happened. The only word he managed to whisper out was, ‘ok’.
“O-ok? OK!!?” I stood up on all fours, getting a height ‘advantage’ over him. I slammed my hoof against the couch.  “What do you mean by ok!? Almost all of our species have been wiped out and you’re saying that it’s… OK!?”
“Smoulder,” He replied lowering his chin. His low civil tone made it as if I was talking to another changeling. “I was one of the lucky few, if not only you and me, who was able to live and keep living in Equestrian society. It was only a matter time until there wasn’t a singleling left in the Bad Lands.”
“But we did try to escape! We sent full force att-”
He also stood up also slamming him hoof on the couch. “And do you think it worked!? The ponies of Equestria have kept a record on how many changeling casualties there are each week and reports them to the daily newspapers! Do you know what I see!?  Waves after waves of changelings who died in vain!” He pointed to the direction of the Bad Lands. “Wake up, Smoulder! No pony, griffon or dragon cares about us! They’ve condemned us! They’ve attempted to hunt us down to extinction! You know just as well as I do that if I didn’t ditch the colony alone, I would be filled with even more holes!”
“But- We- They-” I pressured myself to get another vowel out but, with a heavy heart, I sighed and sat down with my hooves over my bowed down head. “Y-your right Grey Thorn. I’m sorry.”
He breathed in deeply though his nose and then out his mouth. Switching back on his ‘gullible’ voice, he cuddled closer to me, “Come on, cheer up. The queen wouldn’t like us to act like this.”
I lifted my head up, “Thank you, Grey.”
He smiled at me.
There was a knock on the door. A blue pegasus mare stepped in. Her brown and yellow mane made it almost impossible for her uniform’s hat to stay on. Around her neck was an attendance’s scarf. And her cutiemark was of three cards of faces with the middle one winking.
She clenched her teeth. “Err…”
“…”
“…”
The blue mare broke the silence. “Am I interrupting something, sir?”
“No no,” Grey shook his hoof, “What’s up?”
The pegasus moved into the room. “We’re about to reach Manehattan soon. You’re needed at the front, sir.”
“Ok, just give me a few minutes.” And with the nod of her head she left the room, closing the door behind.
I placed on a smirk. “I knew you were working for Equestrian Rails but I didn’t think you would be so high that you would be called sir.”
“Well,” he moved his eyes up, “having the advantage of shape shifting does give you its benefits.”
I snorted.
He got off his seat. “Meet me at the top of the train when we reach Manhattan. There’s something I want to give you.”
I nodded as he moved to the door. “See you soon.”
I sighed with relief having a ton of worries off my back. I laid down all of my body on the couch. “Ow ow ow ow, dam spike couch.”