A Change of Heart

by ChaoticHarmony

Oil and Water

She woke up screaming. That seemed to be the only thing she did anymore besides crying. She had long given up calling out Needle’s name. Her voice was still recovering from her desperate screeches. Of course, her screaming every time she woke up from her fitful sleep didn’t help her throat recover. She still remembered that changeling’s visit, as if it happened mere minutes before she fell into her fitful rest.

He had appeared before her in a flash of fire, momentarily lighting her cell with green light. She had grown to fear that fire. It may not have been used to hurt her, but they always put her to sleep, back into the world of nightmares. She scrambled back from the changeling as he stood up from his sitting position. He walked up to her, an evil smile painting his face. It was a smile filled with hatred, a smile that sent chills down whatever it was directed at.

“Hello my little pony.” His voice sounded deeper than Needle’s, like rocks clashing together again and again. “I DO hope you are enjoying your stay here. I mean, it would be a terrible occurrence if you left us before my dear brother gets here.” Noticing her look of blankness, he sighed and said, “I believe you know him as Needle Wings, no?” Seeing the look on her face was recognition enough and he laughed evily.

“What did you do to him?” Cherish asked weakly, shaking in her hooves. She was terrified to see this monster in front of her, but thinking of Needle gave her strength.

“I didn’t do anything my dear. At least,” He added with a sly grin, “not yet. When he gets here, I’ll show him true pain, more wounding than any physical wound could ever be. You see Cherish,” He leaned closer to her to whisper in her ear, “I’m going to take away the one he loves.” He laughed again as she fell to the floor. “I suppose the least I could do is send you to that world of dreaming again.”

She didn’t even get the chance to scream as green flames enveloped her vision.

Now she sat in the dark, weeping after her screams died down. All that was there were the echoes of her sobs and the pressing darkness.

He woke up to the feel of a cold cloth on his face, just like that day long ago when he first really met Cherish.  Sitting up suddenly, he startled the pony that was cooling his head, hearing the cloth drop to the ground as the pony gasped.  His eyes darted around for the portal stone, hoping against hope that it was there.  It was still on the ground where he had left it, miraculously unscathed by the fire, unlike the rest of the clearing.

He turned to the pony that had been taking care of him.  His horn flared with a green fire fueled by rage after he recognized who it was.  “You.” Hatred coated that one word, hatred beyond any other.  The pegasus shrugged non-concernedly, looking almost surprised at his hate.  Rage awakened by this pegasus’ attitude, Needle leapt at him, snarling.  Blue magic gripped him and turned him away from the pegasus.

Struggling futilely, Needle’s eyes were brought to look into Bright’s own.  In those amber eyes, he saw her “big sister” attitude surfacing.  He knew that there was more to the argument than he knew.  He shut off the flow of magic to his horn, calming his rage to a slow burn.  Bright snorted as she cut the magic from around his body.  Needle began to glare daggers at the pegasus, who returned them.  Bright sighed and stepped between them, stamping a hoof in the soot-caked dirt to get their attention.  

“Now listen you two, if we are going to save my sister, you can kill each other later!”  She stamped another hoof into the dirt.  “We will not get ANYTHING done fighting!”  She sighed in exasperation as they leaned to glare at each other around her.  Needle knew it was childish, and so did the pegasus, mirth lighting in his eyes as she stamped repeatedly into the ground.

Pain lashed across Needle’s head and his vision filled with dots.  A groan from across the space told him the pegasus got the same.  Man, that unicorn takes the “Big Sister” thing a little too far sometimes…  After Bright had slapped some sense into them, she huffed angrily.

“If you two are done screwing around, we have my sister to save!”  Ashamed, they looked at Bright expectantly.  “All right, first off, we have introductions.”  She moved back so the two could look at each other.  “Needle Wings, this is Phoenix Wings.  Phoenix, this is Needle.”  She waited expectantly, so the sighed and shook hooves.  Needle was surprised at the heat that came off Phoenix.  He was almost as hot as the rage he still felt.

Needle flashed a flare of green fire out after he moved away from Phoenix.  “We don’t have time for this Bright.”  He shook his head dejectedly, “We have to get to Cherish soon, or she will be gone.  She won’t be dead, but she might as well be if we delay another day.”  He stumbled on the word dead, on the verge of tears.  “I need to open that portal now.  My very world drains the emotion from a pony, although a lot slower.”  He felt his eyes betray his inner emotions.  Tears dripped onto the forest floor.

Drying his tears, he turned to the stone, lying as if forgotten on the forest floor.  Needle knew that he had to save Cherish within mere hours.  Flames leapt from his horn, and he leaned to touch it to the stone.  Though it glowed green, no evil-green portal opened like it was supposed to.  Needle kneeled down on the stone, shivering with despair.  “I…I…can’t do it.”  Tears began to build up again.  “I’m not strong enough anymore.”  The tears began to flow down his face.  “I can’t save Cherish.”  The first drops fell onto the stone that was as black as midnight.

Through his closed lids, Needle felt the change of temperature.  He felt the wave of evil that poured into this world from his.  Opening his eyes slowly, he looked at the source of the green light.  There in front of him, in place of the stone, was a portal of evil-green color.  His heart swelled to see it.  Turning back to the group, he placed a small smile on his face. 

“It’s time to leave.”  He looked at both his companions.  “If you don’t want to come, I won’t force you.”  As they both opened their mouths, he held up a hoof.  “I will tell you about my home before we go, to dissuade you from any illusions.”  Needle settled back on his haunches as his eyes looked inward to his memories.

“My world is a place of pain.  It is the very opposite of yours.  Your world here is a place of good and kindness.  These words are meaningless in my world.  You have grass, plants, and life here.  My world has none of this.  Being there will drain you, as if your will to live is being drained away from you.  That is how you will feel.  Cherish has been there almost 3 days and nights.  There is no guarantee that she will be like she was.”  Needle began to stumble on his words.  “She….she might be a shell when we go there.”  He wiped away the brief spell of tears.  “Also, do not try to fight the ponies there.  They will end you quickly, and then move on to us.  Being without emotions is something that I can imagine you two would not like to experience.”  He turned away from them.  “If you want to leave now, I can’t say I blame you.”  He felt a hoof on either of his shoulders, one warm and the other soft.

“There’s no way I’d leave Cherish to a bunch of monsters like you!”  Obviously this was Phoenix, attempting and succeeding to irritate him.

“My sister is my life; I would die before I left her.”  The fierceness in Bright’s voice ignited the inner fire of Needle.

Without a word, they all turned to the portal.  It was big enough for all of them to enter it together.  Silent, they trotted into the deathly-green light.