The cold winds of change grazed the rough island with a pink boring morning, the sky covered with a consistent blanket of gentle salmon clouds, one wouldn’t even know about the winds if it weren’t for them announcing themselves loudly with a whistle.
The atmosphere was as generic as one could possibly imagine, however things were different for two changelings and a Cerberus who were hiding behind the thick thorny tree trunks waiting for a pair of guard Cerberi to show themselves by the outer wooden wall of the camp.
Stan was going through the plan over and over again to make sure that they didn’t miss out on anything, the plan itself was pretty straightforward, they grab a pair of Cerberi guards, one is knocked out while the other one is taken over by Cynthia, Stan then transforms into the other Cerberus and the two go into the camp, to the leader’s tent where the key is located.
“So they key is?”
“Helmet” replied Banka
“Like a…. helmet helmet?”
“Yes, key is something magic from Equestria anything magic”
“I have so many questions right now, you said that it-
“No time, explain later”
Surely enough, a pair of three-headed Cerberi graced the area with their presence signifying the start of their plan.
Banka revealed himself from his cover, walking up to the two guards as if it were the most casual thing in the world, the guards were just about to demand answers as to how come he’s even alive but they never got the chance to as Banka grabbed the nearest one with a judo throw and slammed him onto the dry mud, Cynthia timing her shot perfectly so that it knocked out the guard before his body even hit the ground.
Before the second guard got to react, another blast hit him straight in the face, the blast weak enough to stun him momentarily while Banka grabbed him from behind to hold him steady for what’s next.
Cynthia approached the guard who was now writhing trying to shout something but Banka was making sure that no air was getting through his larynx as he was blocking it with a headlock and choke
Cynthia focused, she knew what to do, she had considerable practice in it but doing it in the field was a whole new thing.
Cynthia released a blast of manipulatory magic right at the guard.
Taking over a Cerberus it didn’t feel normal, it’s as if the consciousness was one but fragmented, no doubt an individual consciousness for each head and it was harder than Cynthia had anticipated it would be, it was like trying to take control of three beings at the exact same.
Eventually, the changeling felt the guard’s will slip away into a flabby mush.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” asked Cynthia
“No but if what Banka said was true we don’t have time for practice”
“Banka, stay here and keep an eye on Cynthia, she’ll need to use all her focus to make sure that everything is going smoothly, Banka let go of him and Cynthia, give the guard orders”
Banka wasn't sure of this but now wasn't the time for hesitation.
Banka slowly and gently released the guard from the headlock... after a moment of tension the guard did... nothing... he just stood there like a motionless robot idling for the next command from its master.
Cynthia turned her attention to the guard.
“Do your job, guard this one” Cynthia pointed at Stan “Protect him and make sure to let him into the tent so that he can steal the key”
Banka was confused.
“How he understand Female if he don’t speak language?”
“The orders are given through the mind in the form of ideas that’s how the one being controlled doesn’t know he’s being controlled, talking is a practice used by changelings to make it easier to give precise orders, things are clearer when you say them out loud”
“So insertion of idea?”
“Yeah, insertion of ideas, a sort of… inception”
“My bit is done, your turn Stan”
“Right, right…”
“Well?”
“Gimme a second, alright? I’m a little stressed here”
I’ll link everyone
“We’re linked, we can now hear each other from any distance”
“Change already! I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep controlling him”
“All right, all right!”
Try to imagine what it would feel to have the body of the one you’re trying to change into
“Ok, let’s see… large body, thick fur all over, claws, bad breath”
Stanley’s horn was being coated in green magic
This is going to hurt
“Wait, what?”
There’s nothing worse than being told that something will hurt just as it’s about to happen.
A symphony of cracks crunches and sounds of moist wet meat shifting played as Stan’s physique gradually changed, Stan himself barely holding back screams of pain.
A tortuous moment later, it was done.
“Holy Molestia did that hurt! What the name of Tartarus was that? I thought we transform in just a flash, lies all lies I tell you”
We do, it’s just the first time one transforms the body needs to adapt its physiology to the transformations
“Only the first time’s like that, I thought you knew that” Butted in Cynthia
“Gee, thanks for telling me now, Cynthia”
“Don’t blame me for not knowing common knowledge”
“How the Rus am I supposed to-“
“Stop conflict!”
“You know Banka’s right, we haven’t got time for this, let’s just get on with what we’re supposed to do, you stay here, we’ll go into the leader’s tent and get the key”
“He has name”
“Who?”
“Our, leader Rangu”
Cynthia gave the order to the guard to do what he was told to do whilst Stan followed after him.
Banka and Cynthia retreated further away from the wall to keep watch on the overall situation, Cynthia activated her item, her vision bursting to a phonebook of new visual stimuli, an A-Z of things to see, movement, heat, magic you name it.
“How are you holding up?” whispered Stan as he was getting close to the entrance with the guard
“Somehow…”
“Somehow… What?”
She can barely talk that’s how, let her concentrate
“Hey I’m just worried”
“I’m… OK”
“Banka?”
“All, right”
“Sure?”
“Yes”
They were through the entrance, the place writhing with Swiss organisation, full of things to do, not a single Cerberus was still, there were no slow ones, there were simply fast, and faster individuals.
Keep moving at their pace if you want to blend in, don’t flinch for even a moment
The guard was leading the way, he was the only one besides Banka who knew the whereabouts of the main tent.
For the first time, Stan actually paid attention to how the camp looked like, he never had the opportunity to have a calm and collected look on the whole thing.
The structure of the camp was rather interesting, though at first it seemed chaotic, everything had a reason for why it was in the place it was in, the weapon stands were strategically placed next to each tent but none were close to the entrance of the camp, the tent where wounded patients are treated is in the very middle of the camp so that the patients are close to anything they need but at the same time if the camp is attacked the tent with the wounded is protected by the entire camp.
The tent in which all the operations are decided and where the leader resides in is no different than any other tent so that if one would ever want to assault the leader or infiltrate the tent they would have trouble finding it.
The wooden walls themselves were at 50 degree angle facing outwards, this was a characteristic for Cerberi camps, the walls are at an angle so that if the camp is under attack from outside the Cerberi can just run up the walls into any direction they need to instead of having to squeeze through one common gate making them easy and predictable targets for attack.
The fabric the tents were made of was an entirely different story, the tents were all white but with a pattern of overlapping horizontal and vertical thin black lines, the overall effect was overwhelming, because of the pattern it was hard to figure out at which point a tent ended and another started, it was next to impossible to find where the turns were however as Stanley noticed every Cerberus moving was looking down at an angle to not be effected by the pattern as they focused ont he ground in front of them, clearly every Cerberus in the camp has memorized every conceivable path as no one looked far ahead, if it weren’t for the guard, Stan would have ran into one of the tents long ago.
Left, right, left, right, right, left, it’s as if they were trying to put in a videogame code, in reality there weren’t many tents in this camp however they were all tightly packed together in all sorts of random combinations which made the illusion that the camp was much bigger than it actually was.
Over a solid minute of walking later, they finally reached the tent, it was not being guarded by anyone outside which was bizarre to Stan but he was sure there was a good reason for that, and he found out that reason once he entered inside.
Inside the tent stood the leader of the camp Rangu, the one he saw once before, it had never occurred to him until just how big he actually was.
If one is so big, strong, massive and intimidating there’s no need for guards to protect him.
“What now?” Banka questioned but the guard answered that for him.
The guard’s orders were simple, protect Stan and let him steal the key that was somewhere in this tent, and the leader was in the way.
Without a thought the guard intercepted the Leader but the leader was the big boss for a reason.
The guard was smaller in stature but Cerberi tend to focus on speed and endurance over power.
As the guard ran up to striking distance, instead of taking Rangu on, he first fell to all fours instantly, mobility over a pair of free paws... the guard could not defeat Rangu with power so he had to defeat him with agility and control of the field.
The guard power slid under Rangu, grabbed his left leg and tug it to go along with his body’s momentum in order to throw Rangu off-balance but Rangu was ready, just as his leg was about to go he kicked it in the opposite direction with all his might.
The guard’s hand flew with the leg, the rest of his body followed by making a sharp 180 degree turn.
Rangu attempted to stab the guard’s back with his claws at full force to snap his spine or at least damage it but the guard was too fast as he rolled to the side.
Rangu’s hand dug itself wrist-deep into the fabric covered dirt.
Look for the key!
Stan snapped out of it
“R-right”
Thankfully, Rangu was too busy with the guard to take notice of Stan but everything came at a price, the insane brawl threw the tent’s contents into an utter state of flux and chaos.
“Helmet, helmet… ah found it!”
Stan picked up a golden plated Cerberus helmet that was lying next to a makeshift shelf
You sure it’s this one?
“What?”
There are at least 5 more helmets lying all over the place here
Stan looked around, the voice was totally right on that one.
“Banka, what does the helmet look like?”
The fight between the guard and Rangu was still very much alive, the noise must have interested some of the Cerberi from outside by now, Stanley had to hurry if they were to have a slither of a chance at this.
“Banka?... Banka!”
Not answering?
Stan dodged the two entangled Cerberi, this time Rangu noticed Stan and gestured for him to do something.
Stan freaked and ran out of the tent with the golden-plated cerberus helmet in one of his paws.
What are you doing!
“He saw me, we need to get out of here!”
So what if he saw you
“So what? so what?!? he just saw a changeling in the tent!”
IN DISGUISE
It took a few seconds for Stan to realize what the voice meant and then, his thoughts became heavy with the realization of what he had done.
Stanley stopped the helmet at once to grab his head and squat in shame
“Ohhhhhh, no… nononononooooo…”
STOP BEING A WHINY BITCH, NOW THEY KNOW WHAT YOU’RE AFTER, RUN!
The voice, as usual was spot on, Rangu was charging from inside of the tent and the changeling was in his way.
Stan grabbed the helmet and bolted.
As Stanley began to run, he realized just how different and bizarre everything felt when he was in a different form.
The body of a changeling felt... well, normal to him but this was much different, he noticed that his body had much more weight to it given all the muscle mass and sheer size in comparison to the size of a changeling, that however gave him considerably more momentum, one would think that the body being heavier would make it harder to manouver but much to Stanley's surprise, the muscles made up for their weight with the sheer power they offered, it was as if he always was a jalopy and now he is a supercar, massive, powerful and nimble and his entire body felt tightly packed in its skin as he ran.
Stan had just barely mastered the run in this new body and he was already being tested to his limits, but he’d rather take his chances with running rather than with Rangu, the only problem was, he couldn’t remember his way back through this maze of tents.
“Cynthia, what’s the way out?”
Left, right, to the end of the alleyway of tents, right again but no sign that he was getting anywhere close to the exit, there was just no telling and the tent’s patterns were just adding to the confusion as he couldn’t look straight ahead without getting a headache and losing awareness.
“Cynthia, a way out, now please!”
We have a problem.
“Why isn’t anyone answering me? Cynthia, Banka!”
Cynthia’s out I can barely feel her
“What? why!”
And Banka’s… WATCH OUT!
From behind the closest tent corner a hairy giant menacing fist came right at Stan who had barely enough time for his reflexes to kick in, he tried to shield himself with his arms and the helmet but the punch was packed with a megaton of pain that travelled right innto the helmet that instantly turned into a projectile smashing into the changeling’s face.
Stan heard a jaw breaking crunch, a green flash announcing the end of his transformation and a thump on the muddy ground.
It took a moment for the nerves to kick in, the first thing Stan felt was pain in the form of hot exhaled breath that stung his nostrils and then the rest of the pain slowly coming in like an increasingly screeching sound as blood pumped through his skull.
Then came the moaning, Stan would scream if he could but his broken jaw wouldn’t let him so instead he moaned like some comical novelty cow.
Once the pain subsided enough to let Stan open his eyes, he found the perpetrator of the wallop pointing at him trying to say something but the Cerberi around him surrounded the perpetrator and threw him to the ground next to Stan, it was Banka.
About a million things were going off in Stan’s mind right now, he couldn’t even figure out how to prioritize them let alone deal with them.
“Y..youuu whyyyyy???”
“Apology, need talk”
Stan’s anger erupted, He didn’t know Banka for a very long time but he never thought that he would have betrayed them like that, him, a changeling, one who can sense emotions, something that was once even compared to mind reading, didn’t see this coming.
Stan, Cynthia…
But Stan was too angry to even listen, this was their chance and it was just thrown away for no reason at all
A group of Cerberi grabbed and immobilized both Banka and Stan, each Cerberus grabbing each limb.
She’s dying.
“Need talk!”
Are you listening? She’s dying.
“They put to us to pieces”
There was so much clutter, so much noise and no time.
Stan needed time.
He needed peace at least for a second.
The Cerberi started with Banka, who was writhing in desperation, he saw others being dismembered before and it wasn’t pretty.
“Get away, I need-“
Use your magic, you need to use-
“Magic, yes”
Kill them
But Stanley had something else in mind, he needed to get away, him and Cynthia… and Banka, he needed some questions answered before Stan dealt with him.
“No, teleport”
Kill them now!
“We go home, NOW”
No! you don’t know how! If you do that-
Electric sparks filled the area, Cerberi began to float up in the air, for a normal changeling it would be impossible to teleport over long distances let alone across worlds but for a changeling with Stanley’s condition…
Listen to me! don’t do this!
Gravity gave way to the magic.
The Cerberi were trying to grip air, attempting not to float into the unknown, Stanley’s eyes flashed as the powerful magic in the form of a wind began to blow away every tent in its wake.
The changeling ascended high up into the air, above the Cerberi who were looking up at him from down below as if they were witnessing a deity.
His gaze wandered across the nearby land, looking for Cynthia.
There she was in some obscure ditch lying motionlessly.
“Cynthia”
Her body just picked itself up with Changeling magic and floated to Stan like a cheap ragdoll her head slouched downwards, her face obscured by her head.
Stan flipped her on her back to see what was wrong, her limbs and neck bent back as if she were a doll, Her eyes rolled back, stained red by a nosebleed that was dripping from her head.
Stan used his magic to squeeze her slightly, she twitched with a bare moan.
She was alive, barely.
Don’t do this I-
“Shut up, and you…”
Banka felt a thunderous pain initiate from every part of his body at the exact same time as he floated up to Stan’s eye level.
The Cerberus really wanted to say something, he had a damn good reason for doing what he did but the shifting of his guts in his body and his jaw biting in on itself simply wouldn’t let him.
Things went quiet for the both of them, their minds simply blocked out all unnecessary things in this world, that is, everything, apart from the changeling and the Cerberus.
Banka was expecting something violent, shouting, screaming, anything but Stan smiled, exhaled, lowered his head and shook it in disappointment, he was past angry, he was just disappointed but that was fine, he learned his lesson, Cynthia nearly died.
Stan had to try, his best wasn’t going to cut it this time.
DON’T
“Shut up”
DO
“Silence”
THIS
“No”
Stan thought about the best place for Cynthia, a hospital, home.
A ball of energy came from within Stan’s horn and engulfed him, it began to eat up all of space.
I WILL NOT ALLOW FOR THIS
The sphere engulfed the entire camp and kept on expanding all manner of animals trying to pointlessly flee from the wave of fear.
And then, nothing.
Tick
Tick
Tick
T
The contraption sighed its last breath in unison with the age old changeling.
TO BE CONTINUED