It’s been a week now since the issue with Discord. I’m walking along the streets of Ponyville, it seems the ponies have gotten used to me, as I’m not even turning any heads. Speaking of, the ponies don’t look as happy as they usually are. Some look depressed, others look worn out. They aren’t exactly sluggish, but there’s a distinct lack of energy from them. Strange.
I head down the road, and come to a few ponies who don’t seem too affected. I wave to them, but they just ignore me. The ponies are usually a little more friendly. I mean, I’m not a pony, but come on!
I decide to visit Cotton Cloudy. At least she likes me. I head to the hospital and ask to see Cotton. The doctor looks puzzled. “Wait, is she still here?” He flips through some papers. “That’s strange. She’s been listed as healthy since two days ago, but nopony’s come to pick her up...”
That pushes a button in my head. “Take me to her.”
The secretary, looking concerned, nods. “Uh, s- sure.”
Given his reaction, I’m probably glowing. I look at my arm, yep, glowing. I’m too riled up to care though. I can’t imagine such an irresponsible parent!
I walk in and see Cotton Cloudy reading a book. It’s Daring Do, of course. “Come on Cotton, put down that drivel. I’m takin’ you home.”
“Anthony!” There, that’s exactly what I needed, someone happy to see me. I feel a ton better.
The doctor in the room interjects. “I’m sorry, but unless you are a legal guardian of hers, I can’t let you take her.”
“But how do we find her mom, then?” I ask, pissed that I can’t be trusted with her even after saving her life.
“I don’t know, but those are the rules. We can’t let someone take home a foal unless they are registered as their legal guardian.”
“I am not a foal! I’m six!” Cotton says, rather put off.
“Perhaps she would prefer to be referred to as a vertically-challenged young mare.” I suggest.
Cotton obviously doesn’t understand what some of the words mean, but the doctor just gives me a strange look. “Yes, well either way, I cannot allow this filly into your custody. She must wait for her mother.”
I cover Cotton’s ears with my hands. “That’s a load of bullshit!”
Despite my attempts to prevent my language from affecting the kid, I am ejected from the hospital anyways. I need to find her mom and smack some sense into the bitch. Town hall. That’s where I need to go to fix this. I approach the grey-haired mayor, and at least she greets me in the usual way. A bit of a shock, but eventually smiles. “Hello there, is there anything I can do for you?”
“Yes, it’s a rather pressing matter.” I hate politics and the like more than anything else, but this is the only way.
She gives a rather cursory glance at me. “And what is this matter?”
“I need help locating the residence of a negligent parent.” I say, keeping my ‘professional and legal’ tone of voice despite my anger.
The words ‘negligent’ and ‘parent’ combined seems to throw the mare through a loop of confusion and worry. Guess it’s not that common in pony society. “Oh my. W-what is the name of this parent?”
“I don’t know, but I know the child’s name.” I admit, my tone faltering a bit.
Her brows furrow. “I see, and what is the manner of this negligence?”
“One week ago, a pegasus filly named Cotton Cloudy was admitted to the hospital after an incident where she nearly drowned. She was listed as healthy two days ago, and yet her mother has yet to retrieve said filly.”
Brows unfurrow, and return to ‘concerned’. “Oh dear. I will see what I can do.” she immediately begins to open drawers of her desk and rifles through them.
“If only to assure me that this matter is being addressed, I request that I be involved.” I say, trying to keep my foot in the metaphorical door of the issue.
She nods. “Well, I suppose it couldn’t hurt.” No it won’t hurt. Not the mayor or public at least. Can’t say for this bitch of a mom when I beat her face in...
Eventually she pulls out a folder, handing it to me. I open the folder and take a look. I see two pictures. One of Cotton Cloudy. The other shows a mare. Her name is Lightning Bolt. Her coat is white and her mane is a light shade of blue. Definitely genetically related, if genetics work the same way in this place, that is.
Anyway, I copy down the address and excuse myself, thanking the mayor for her help. The address is odd though. No numbering system, it’s just basic ‘left or right’ instructions from the fountain by Town Hall which seems to be the town’s center. Really weird set-up.
I make my way through Ponyville and after a while, I find the house. Compared to the other houses of Ponyville, it’s rather nondescript. Usual thatch roof, brown wood siding, all that junk. But it’s definitely the house, if the address I have is accurate.
I knock on the door. There’s no answer.
I knock again. No answer.
I’m getting angry. I knock harder. Still nothing. That’s it, I’ve had enough. I prepare to ram my shoulder into the door, to knock it down- actually, hold up. Let’s go for a more subtle approach. Yeah, subtle now, pummel later. Agreed.
Once I make sure the door is locked, I pull out some coal, pushing some of the dust into the keyhole. I then have the dust expand and solidify, making a it fit the exact shape of the lock, shoving the tumblers into place. I grin at my little trick as I turn my custom-made key, unlocking the door. I search through the house, and eventually I realize that there’s nobody here. I turn off all the lights and close the window shutters so it’s dark, then place a chair pointing toward the door and sit down once I’ve re-locked the door.
When this bitch gets home, I want her to know she’s fucked up big time and exactly who she’s pissed off.
My mind races, thinking about what I’m going to do to this mare. I’m so angry I might do anything. I could give her a flaming bitch-slap. I could pluck the feathers out of her wings, and see if a pegasus can still fly like that. As I sit here alone in the dark, I’m so angry it feels like my silent rage is seeping into the room itself, surrounding me in my own anger. The metaphorical sauna of hate makes me think of more awful things to do. Set her on fire and watch her writhe until she turns to ash. I could slice open a major artery and see how long it takes for her to bleed out. But another part of my mind stops me. With each new form of torture my sick mind designs, I imagine how Cotton Cloudy would react. I can imagine her crying over her mother’s lifeless body, the mare’s blood on my hands. No matter how bad of a mother she may be, I’m sure her child loves her all the same.
I can’t do it. I can’t hurt this mare no matter how much I want to. I want to kill this bitch for how little she cares for her daughter, but... it’s that daughter that prevents me from deciding to follow through. I yell as I hold my head. Too much confliction. My sense of justice demands this mare face her comeuppance, but my conscience demand I let her go for Cotton’s sake. I can’t separate a mare from her daughter but I want to make this mare pay... my inner demons and angels in a struggle match, trying to wrestle for my mind.
Suddenly, the mare walks in the door. I’m acting without thinking, as if I’m just watching from the sidelines as I walk towards Lightning Bolt. Tears cloud my vision as I lift her above my head by her neck, squeezing hard. There’s an odd, cool sensation on the back of my head, then everything goes black.
It’s dark and my head is pounding, much like my first day here in Equestria. How long has it been since I blacked out? I don’t know. I feel floaty, but tight. I realize I’m restricted. I hate being restricted. I spark up and ignite, flames engulfing me, fueled by my anger.
Whatever is holding me goes from hard to soft quickly, then gives. It’s like when wax warms, really, and I fall to the floor, a flood of some kind of fluid pouring out around me, and I cough and hack as my body informs me I’d had that in my lungs this whole time.
And what the hell am I lying on? It feels smooth, a bit like plastic, or frozen wax. It’s dark, and warm in here, though that might be because I just flash-boiled my way out of... I’m still not actually sure. The fluids sticking to my clothes is beginning to congeal, and it’s gross, and I try to burn it off with moderate success.
Suddenly I see a pair of blue glowing eyes staring at me. Then more eyes open. Ten, twenty, fifty, several hundreds of glowing, pupiless eyes surround me, unblinking. The hissing noise I’m hearing is probably the creatures. Ah, the lights came on too quickly! Taking a moment to adjust I... oh shit. There have to be thousands of the strangest creatures I’ve seen thus far. They resemble ponies, but dark, chitinous armor replaces coats of fur and they have a strange frill as opposed to manes. Sharp, curved horns protrude from their foreheads, and insectoid wings sprout from their backs. They hiss at me like reptiles through their long, menacing fangs, and their wings buzz occasionally like a nervous tic.
“What the hell?” As soon as the words leave my mouth, they all swarm me.
I feel pain as their fangs sink into my skin, cutting me. I’m not going to go down like this. I swing at one of the creatures, knocking it back. I summon some coal from my pouch and make myself a buckler like before. I block a creature as it lunges at me, and use the buckler to knock back a pair who were advancing from the left. I decide to pull a Captain America and toss the shield, using my manipulative power to control its flight. I set it ablaze, spinning it around me, making the monsters back off. Unfortunately I leave my torso open, and I’m tackled by a diving strike. I lose focus and I mentally drop the coal. I don’t know where it went. Shit, now I’m out of tools.
“Fine, you wanna be that way!?” I shout as I Spark up. I decide now would be a good chance to try something new. I focus on increasing my speed, but not in my legs. My fists are steel-blue blurs as I throw punch after punch after punch. I leap from creature to creature, hardly pausing as I smash my fists into their heads, hearing wet squelching sounds as their chitin pops open under the blows. I pick up one of them and start swinging it around like a weapon, ending it by smashing it’s spine over my knee.
Another tries to divebomb me, but I turn intangible. He flies straight through my body, headfirst into the ground, where I curbstomp his neck, snapping it in two. I ignite and surround myself in a blazing inferno, making the creatures hiss at the bright light. I kick the head of my latest victim like a soccer ball at another, knocking my target over, slamming it into two more behind it.
Nobody takes me down without a serious fight.
Then they bunch up into a wall and all charge at me at once, horns alight with green energy. I do the same in scarlet, my body becoming a flaming meteor as I rush forward, my charging strike smashing through a chunk of the living wall. I continue my freeflow, blazing fists and feet smashing bodies and launching creatures in every direction, no finesse, only power. After a while, there’s one left. It tries to scamper away. No. Nobody runs. Nobody makes it out alive.
I blaze forward, running through him and grabbing him by his midsection. With an angry shout, I tear the thing’s body in half and hold his head in my hand, immolating it in fire until it crumbles to ash.
I stand above hundreds -no, thousands- of them, all dead, littering the ground. I can see a blurry reflection of myself in a piece of the wall, polished by passage to a mirror shine. I look like a flaming warlord, standing on the burning, smashed bodies of my enemies, covered in a mixture of my blood and theirs, red and blue-green combining to make a sick, soupy brown mixture. The image disturbs me deeply. Did I seriously just do that? Jeez I’m scary... At least I didn’t start eating them.
I stop as another sound disturbs the heavy silence, looking quickly around and... wait, is that... clapping?
“Impressive. Very impressive.” The voice is feminine and a bit melodic, but has a noticeable hint of malevolence in it. “Not only did you manage to break free, but also take out a remarkable portion of my swarm.”
I see her. She looks like Celestia, or Luna, in size and stature but with similar appearance to the creatures. She has a bearing they share as well, that of one accustomed to rule and being obeyed, without question.
Her horn lights green, but before I can muster a response, a faint, cool sensation touches the back of my head... no, inside my head, and everything fades to black.
I’m resting on something soft. Too tired to open my eyes. Oh well, I’m comfortable and warm. I can rest easy. Wait... I feel a strange sensation in my head. A tingling. Like... magic. I sit up in an instant and look around. I see the large mare-creature from before.
“Who... are you?”
“Hmmm, you are quite demanding, aren’t you? I suppose there’s no harm in obliging you. I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings.” The now-named creature states.
“Changelings? You mean those things from earlier?” She nods serenely, answering my question silently. “I hate to disappoint you, but your subjects are pathetic.”
“Oh, don’t underestimate them.” she says, a sneer on her face. “They were hungry. They haven’t eaten in weeks.”
“Eaten in weeks?” How are they still alive if they haven’t eaten that long?
“Our species feeds on emotions.” she pauses dramatically. “Love, specifically.”
That raises so many red flags, there might as well be a shouting match done in semaphore. “And I’m here because...?”
“Normally we capture ponies and use them to feed, but you are... special.” she bows her head to one side, as if evading the question. “You are quite powerful.”
Yeah, the flags are going nuts making sure they’re seen in my hindbrain. “Yeah, I know, so why am I here? Where is this anyway?”
She chuckles. The melodic tone of her voice is... rather soothing. “You are in my private chambers. You are here because I have a proposal for you.”
“Would your proposal have to do with that spell you were using on me earlier?”
“Oh no, not at all.” she titters maliciously, something I never thought I’d hear outside of a kid’s movie. “I was just searching your mind. It’s quite the interesting place.”
“What were you searching for?” My eyes narrow in anger, the flags more ‘white hot’ than red at this point.
She waves a hoof dismissively, as if I’d calm down because of that. “Oh, I just wanted to get to know what and who you were, and you were in a practically comatose state.”
I am too tired for a fight. “So.” I flop down onto the bed, hands behind my head. “Why’d you bring me here?”
“I’ve never met anyone quite like you.” her sneer widens into a grin, and her eyes flash with intent. “You fascinate me.”
“And?”
“I was hoping you could... help us.” she moves closer, and I can smell her breath, which is strangely clear of the usual CO2 smell. “You see, my subjects are starving to death. Without love to feed on, we will all surely perish.”
“How could I help you?”
“Well, normally we rely on espionage- Is something funny?”
I stop laughing after a few moments. “I’m sorry but... spying? Your subjects don’t blend in too well with the general public.”
She grins. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that...” In a flash of green flames, suddenly I’m laying in front of Princess Celestia! Another wave of fire, now it’s Luna. Then Twilight. Then a whole bunch of ponies I’ve never seen. Mares, stallions, colts, fillies, unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies. Suddenly the name strikes me. “We are named Changelings for a reason, Anthony.” Chrysalis returned to her normal form and nodded with a smile. “You understand now. We cannot be accepted because of the way we look, so in order to be loved, we need to take the guise of others.”
I’ve never been a fan of racism, and this does seem unfair to make them starve... “So what would I do if I were to help?”
“You would be a leader. No more would we have to sneak around like thieving rats, we could be ourselves out in the open. A living formed from lies and deceit is not an honorable one, but it is the one we are forced to continue upholding.”
Well... that does sound more fair. “I see. And what would I gain from this?”
“...follow me.”
She takes me out to a balcony. I see a mass of the changelings, far too many to count. As soon as Chrysalis shows herself, they all stand up straight, frozen, waiting for a declaration. “They seem to respect you.”
“Unfortunately, they are brainless, mere pawns, and sentries. I lead them as their queen and they obey without question.”
“Hmmm...” Something seems off about that, but maybe I’m just too used to other races.
“So, I would like to appoint you as another leader.” she stares into my eyes, a bit eerily. “To give them direction. Give them orders as you see fit.”
“You want to make me a general for your troops?”
She chuckles again. I swear, that laugh is so... enticing, yet imposing. “Oh no my dear. Nothing like that.”
“Then what-”
“I want to make you my king.”