//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: One Day Very, Very Soon // Story: Metamorphoses // by Orkus //------------------------------// Chapter 9: One Day Very, Very Soon "I didn't mean to have that breakdown, Petra. And I'm sorry I made you leave the show," Thoraxis apologized, as the two left Skia's room in an otherwise quiet manner. "It's not your fault," she replied, using her tail to close the door behind them. "I guess I... shouldn't have taken you in the first place. Your daughter is more important." "Yes, finding Skia is important, but what you did was the right thing," he said back. "To tell you the truth, I was going to watch the show like you wanted, but I thought the show was being run by... changelings. My darn paranoia got the best of me..." "You thought that the actors were other changelings?" Petra inquired. "Why didn't you tell me?" "I didn't think... that you'd believe me..." he mumbled back, hesitantly. She only smiled and silently chuckled to herself. "If you were sure of it, I would have have tried my darndest to help," she spoke. "Thoraxis, I don't think you're crazy. I think you're just a changeling that's worked himself to utter exhaustion." They both walked to the area close to the front door, before Thoraxis stopped and sighed deeply. "Petra... I want to tell you that I'm sorry... about something else," the changeling began again. Petra shot a confused look to him. "What do you mean?" she asked. Thoraxis lowered his head and exhaled another breath of air. "I've done so much in my effort to find Skia... I've put you through so much because of it, and... and you've stayed by my side throughout all of it," he replied in a somewhat guilty voice. "I love you, Petra Whitescales." The wyvern looked back at him with an affectionate, touched, and very heartfelt expression. "I love you too, Thoraxis." As they both leaned in for a gentle, warm hug, the two simultaneously turned to the sound of multiple hoofsteps approaching from he other side of the front door, as well as three voices coming from behind it. "...I'm all over this idea uncle, but I just hope that we don't give him a heart attack or something when he gets here," the first voice, which sounded young and feminine, started. "I didn't say we were going to jump out and yell "surprise" as we do it, did I? He'll be fine," another voice spoke, in a much more familiar, masculine tone. "I still cannot wait to see his face when he gets back from the show, though." "Ur ye sure we cannae surprise heem, Longinus? Ah loove makin' surprises," the third, female voice spoke, in an accent Petra recognized almost immediately. The door creaked open, and three figures emerged from behind it, stopping both their conversation and movement when they spied who was standing inside the abode. The first was Longinus, his tall frame covered in a cloak. The second shape, a female figure garbed in a red dress, with a non-pony, but still equine face, Petra concluded was the strange being from a few nights before that gave her the flyer for the show. The third, which took Thoraxis a second to recognize, was a young changeling with green-tinted eyes. The moment the two looked at each other, time seemed to stop. Things had become so silent the second the three arrived, all that could be heard was the sound of the clock on the wall as its hands ticked. To say that Thoraxis looked as if he was seeing a ghost was even less than an understatement. His jaw was hung agape, an eye was twitching, and he felt as though he was about to faint. Behind him, Petra stood with her claws held over her mouth in surprise. "Sk... Sk... Sk..." Thoraxis tried to say, stuttering before falling silent. "H-hi, Dad," Skia greeted in an awkward tone. She slowly walked closer to him, and was within a meager four feet of him in the span of a dozen seconds. To Thoraxis though, it felt as though a week was passing with every step she took in his direction. Unable to wait any longer, he dashed up to her before she could react, and tackled her in an enormous hug as the others could only watch. "Skia... my Skia..." he wept happily, as he held her head close to his. "Y-you're here! A-and y-you're all... g-grown up!" "Yep... I am, Dad," she responded with nearly as much gusto, as she buried her cheek against his neck, lovingly. "Y-you're... not a hallucination, right?" he asked, pleading with all he could in his mind that this wasn't some cruel illusion. "I'm the real thing, Dad," she answered, tenderly. "And I'm here with you now... I'm here..." After a few more minutes had passed, they finally separated enough to look into each other's eyes, shaky but strong grins of euphoria stretching from webbed ear, to webbed ear on either of their faces. Thoraxis, noticing something out of the corner of his tear-filled eye, suddenly caught sight of her damaged hind leg. "Y-your leg..." he gasped, looking down to the scarred appendage. "I got that a while ago, Dad. I learned to adapt," Skia quickly spoke. "Uncle Longinus told me about how you've been since I've been gone. You don't have to be bothered by what's happened to me. Not anymore." "Y-you'd better bet I'm going to be bothered, young lady," Thoraxis tried to laugh, in an attempt to recite what he usually said to her when she got into trouble with something as a nymph. Skia chuckled, the long-lost nostalgic memories of being called by that title returning to her head. "Thoraxis, she had been traveling with the Theatre," Longinus spoke up from behind. "That egg Discord gave you when you first arrived here belonged to her hive. I'm not sure how he got his claws on it, but..." "Her hive?" he questioned. "Yes," the alicorn went on. "They go around Equestria under the visage of the "normal" actors and actresses we both saw performing, and get love from the shows they put on." "I... guess you were right about them being changelings, dear," Petra said, placing a claw on his shoulder, her red eyes still glued on the young changeling in front of him in a more-than happy way, with the knowledge that her partner's troubles were finally over at long last easing her mind more than it had been for the last few days. What truly gave off the excitement she was feeling was her stinger tail that wagged back-and-forth behind her. "So... you're my Dad's girlfriend, huh?" Skia asked the albino creature with a mischievous smirk, turning to her. "That I am," Petra responded. Skia stretched out a hoof to her in a friendly manner. "Yesterday, you knew me as "Pharsalia." My name's Skia, and it's a pleasure to finally meet you at last, Petra." The show had ended over an hour before, and the crowd watching it had finally, fully dispersed. As Odyssia walked on a dirt path from the stage that lead to a small part of the Everfree Forest by herself, deciding to get some fresh air away from a crowd, she couldn't help but smile in self-pride at how much the townsponies loved the show. It went off without a hitch, her subjects were fed, and preparations for the event next week were already underway. She looked up to the moonlit sky, and took in a deep, relaxed breath of air, her worries now over. When she was sure she was alone with nopony watching her, she shifted into her real form, revealing her chitinous body and transparent, butterfly-like wings. As she passed by a pond on her happy walk, Odyssia couldn't help but stop and stare at its still, mirror-like water that reflected the countless thousands of stars above. The moonlight that showed over the water also illuminated her surroundings a fair bit, showing her the forest that surrounded the pond. The trees looked fairly mystical at this time of night, especially with how the moonlight from the water combined with the true moonlight to make the nonthreatening plants cast terrifically complex shadows. "Madam Odyssia Metamorphoses," a deep, gruff voice suddenly spoke from behind, interrupting her pleasant thoughts. Startled, she turned around and saw a wide figure, dressed in a heavy-looking coat, fedora, and scarf, standing in front of her. "Who are you?" she asked, in a very fearful tone since she was not in her disguise at the moment. The stranger shed his attire as she spoke, throwing away his scarf, tossing away his hat, and peeling off his jacket to reveal a changeling, clad in intimidating, heavy-looking, razor-covered armor. "My name is Beetle, and I'm here to cause your demise," he spoke as he walked up to Odyssia, his armor clinking as it rattled together. Instead of running, Odyssia stood where she was, keeping her cool. "Are you an assassin? Or are you just some random murderer?" she asked, as he brow curled downward. "I was assigned to kill you," Beetle spoke, as a pair of wristblades suddenly activated from his left hoof armor. "I was told you were a threat to the hive of my queen, Chrysalis." Odyssia's demeanor held unflinchingly. "You have a choice," she said. "No matter what she tells you, you always have a choice. I also sense something is holding you back from doing your job..." "I know," he replied, as he finished walking up to her, hoof raised, slowly letting the tip of his weapon get closer to her throat until it touched the heart-shaped gem encrusted in the locket around her neck with a small, but solid "tink" noise. "I saw your show. It was beautiful. So beautiful in fact, that the gears in my head have been turning a different direction for the first time in a while." "If that's a compliment then thanks," the princess spoke again, through a neutral tone and expression. "If I may ask, why would you even want to kill me? What reward would be worth such a thing, I wonder?" "Because I was told to by Queen Chrysalais. And that is the only reason I need," he replied, pulling his bladed leg away. "Why do you wish to serve her? I could understand if she treated you and your hivemates with respect and passion, but from what I've heard of her nature..." "All my life I served the queen and hive," he started again, his bright teal eyes blinking from behind his helmet. "Not out of fear. Not out of the hatred and pressure others gave me for my unique condition of not being able to shift forms. Not out of stupidity-induced blindness. But out of loyalty." "If that's the direction you want to take, then know that I will defend myself," Odyssia spoke, with a defiant glare on her green eyes, as her long horn began to emit a glow of the same color. Beetle chuckled. "You don't get it... I've done all this for my queen, and I am more than ready to fulfill my objective for her... yet, I know I have failed anyway because I got the wrong assignment." "What?" Odyssia asked, dumbfounded. The light on her horn disappeared in surprise. "Because I got the wrong assignment," he repeated, instantly retracting his wristblades, turning his back to her, and walking forward a few feet until he was facing over the pond. "I was told to execute you because first off; you were a threat to our food supply, and second; your hive was in general to a danger to ours. Do you wish to know why my assignment was wrong?" "Alright then. Sure," the changeling princess agreed, her demeanor slightly shaken by the assassin's sudden turn in personality. "I found the loophole!" he cheered childishly, looking back to her once more. "You're not a threat to our food supply because you don't utterly milk ponies of their emotion to death, and your hive isn't made for warfare, therefore isn't a threat to my hive in the physical sense. Since I'm "afraid" I'll be committing a crime against Queen Chrysalis due to lack of knowing first-hoof what she thinks she or I am up against, and since I'm unable to return after she personally told me that I'll be executed if I don't come back with your head over my shoulder, I have no choice but to self-exile myself out of shame." "That sounds... overly complicated," Odyssia said in a perplexed tone. Beetle nodded his head in response. "I may be an idiot, but I'm not stupid," he quipped. "And now since I, the humble Beetle, have no hive to call my own, I must struggle to find another hive that will dare to accept an outcast like me, or else live a dangerous life of solitude until the day I finally perish on my own..." "My hive is always open to the weary changeling in need of a new home," Odyssia suggested. "Well then, I accept your terms!" Beetle replied with a smile, taking off his large helmet with both his hooves, revealing his webbed mane and scarred face before kneeling over in a bow. "...My queen." "You don't have to go that far, if you wish," she spoke, readjusting her glasses with a smile, suppressing the urge to let out a nervous laugh at this turn of events. "Very well," he said cheerfully, standing back up and putting his helmet back on. ""Madam."" After Odyssia motioned for Beetle to follow her with a hoof, the two started on the path that headed back to town and the theater. After thinking of what to say next, Odyssia cleared her throat. "Besides what I presume to be combat, what else are you good at?" the young princess decided to ask. Beetle chuckled to himself before replying. "The funny thing is, if you take away the fact that I have the inability to change forms, I've always wanted to try out acting. Maybe even narration, or something," he replied. "We have costumes and makeup artists," she said. "With a few dabs of face paint here, and hat and cowl there, we could have you looking like a pony in no time." "Interesting..." he hummed in a joyful tune.