//------------------------------//
// The Lost One- part 10 
// Story: The Changed One 
// by peacevic 
//------------------------------//

The Lost One part 10

"Get in there!"
A shove, and Twilight, Derpy, the Doctor, and I suddenly found ourselves in the presence of the red-and-black warlord of the Wasteland, who was sitting at his desk. On his left was, I assumed, his right hand griffin.
He affected a slight smile at our less than graceful entrance. "I would say 'welcome', but that seems inappropriate- seeing as you four are trespassers. Never the less, I shall introduce myself. My name is Red Eye, and this is Stern."
"Uglier than I imagined..." I muttered under my breath.
"What did you say?!" Stern demanded, rising to my bait.
"I didn't say anything."
Her eyes narrowed. "I heard you."
"Are you sure? You might be hearing things." I gestured vaguely towards the outside. "Like maybe a mouse in a field somewhere."
"Wow. Racist, much?" Stern fumed.
"I'm not racist, I just hate evil people."
"We're not evil, not really," Red Eye interjected. "If you knew what we are trying to accomplish-"
"Oh, I do know. And I still find you despicable."
"Who told you our plans?" Red Eyes demanded.
"You did."
"What?"
"What?" I parroted.
Red Eye didn't find it amusing. "That is really irritating."
"Your face is irritating," I asserted.
Red Eye groaned in exasperation. "And so mature..."
"Your face is mature," I shot back, cleverly.
"Verdant!" Derpy hissed. "What are you doing?!"
I smirked, throwing every ounce of asininity I could muster at the pony behind the desk, then nonchalantly answered her. "Jim Butcher rule number one: always snark at anybody holding you captive, as much as you can."
"That's fine in theory, but this is reality and we aren't exactly in what you'd call a favorable position," the Doctor said, pointing toward the armed guards at the door.
"I find myself agreeing with your friend... Verdant, was it? Such a stratagem would only have merit if you had some chance of escape. Which you don't."
"Oh, but we do," I countered in a voice that was meant to sound spooky, but probably just came off as aggravating. Which was the point.
"Really? Do tell."
I shook my head. "I can't tell you, it's a surprise. You're gonna be really pissed when it happens, though."
"Am I now?" He arched a brow.
"Yep. Positively livid."
Red Eye tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps I should just have you shot, then, before that happens. Save me some stress."
"Anytime now, Twilight," I urged.
"Huh? Oh!" Twilight's horn glowed and we were gone before the guards could raise their guns.

We popped back into being somewhere in the open air portion of the compound.
"You could've clued me in sooner!" Twilight sputtered.
"Oh yeah, that makes sense. 'Hey Twilight, get ready to teleport us away. Don't tell that Red Eye bastard, though. He's not supposed to know'." I snorted and turned to the Doctor. "Start scanning for the source of that energy signature. We don't have long before they trigger the alarm."
The Doctor nodded and whipped out his sonic. While he waved the buzzing screwdriver around I kept an eye out for any roving guard patrols, assuming Twilight and Derpy were doing the same. The waiting was almost unbearable, though I knew only moments were passing.
Then the sonic screwdriver chirped and we all headed in the direction it was indicating, not getting more than twenty or thirty feet before the city's sirens started blaring. We crouched low, and slowed to a more surreptitious speed, but beyond that we didn't pay them much heed.
"This is it," the Doctor said as the four of us came to a small storage shed. "Whatever it is, it's in here."
"Can you teleport us inside, Twilight?"
"Make sure you check for wards first," I cautioned, adding my two cents to Derpy's question.
Twilight frowned at me as her horn lit up, casting an all-too-bright glow. "I'm aware of the dangers of warding spells, thank you. There doesn't seem to be any, though... So, to answer your question Derpy, yes. Yes I can."
"I guess that makes sense. Red Eye always seems to be forgetting what ponies with horns can do. Just like he does latter with Littlepip."
Maybe a little less comparing fact with your fiction, eh?" The Doctor looked around nervously. "They're bound to have started a sweep for us."
"Yeah... Alright Twilight, do it."
Another flash and we were in. By now, all of our eyes were used to quickly transitioning to and from extremely bright light, but the same could not be said for the lone guard that stood in the middle of the room. He blinked and rubbed them to try to clear the spots out of his vision. Before the earth pony had a chance to, though, a swift straight right solved that problem for him. And my problem of his being conscious.
"That was kind of harsh, don't you think?"
"I'm sorry, Twilight. Next time I'll knock him out gently," I sneered. I actually could, but she didn't really need to know that.
Twilight stomped in frustration. "Why do you have to be so-"
"Um, excuse me?" the Doctor interrupted. When we turned toward him, he was holding up a softball-sized, pure black sphere of some kind. "I found the source of the signature."
"What is it?" I asked, reminded that now was not the time to get into it with the Princess.
"I'm not quite sure, really. Never seen anything like it. Oh, it's always so exciting when I get to say that!"
Derpy groaned. "Doctor, maybe we should wait until we make it back to the Tardis before we get too excited."
As if to punctuate her concerns, the door flew open and a squad of Red Eye's guards stormed in. Just as they were leveling their guns the world flashed, and I was suddenly looking at them from the other side. All four of us bolted, Derpy carrying the sphere as she flew.
"Really?!" I shouted at Twilight. "Right behind them?!"
"I panicked, alright?!"
"Fire!" I heard a gruff voice command.
A flaming streak passed me and hit a wall up ahead. Before I even had time to react, the concussive force reached us and everything went black.

I jerked back into consciousness, my mind sluggishly racing to remember who and where I was, as well as what was happening. There was something important going on, but for the life of me I couldn't put a finger on it. I lifted a hoof to try and massage the throbbing in my temple away.
Wait, hoof? Why did I have hooves?
Then it all came flooding back. A bunch of murderous pony assholes were after me, and Twilight, and Derpy, and the Doctor. I looked around and found them all sprawled out beside me. Another quick glance confirmed that a group of guards were jogging our way. The blast must've only knocked me out for a second or two.
I hauled myself to a vertical position and tried to shake my nearby pegasus friend awake. "Get up, Derpy. Come on, we gotta go. Derpy! Derpy, get up!"
She didn't so much as stir. A nasty gash was bleeding freely on the side of her head, and when I saw it I cursed. A bit of wall had to have hit her. She wasn't getting up anytime soon.
I wrapped my forelegs around on of hers and tried to load her onto my back, but my stupid, useless hooves slipped and I fell backwards. The guards were getting closer.
"Twilight, get up! Doctor!" I tried again to lift Derpy, only to fail once more. "Get up! Help me!"
It was no use. They weren't waking up. I couldn't grab anything with these hooves, and even if I could I wouldn't be able to drag all three of them. I needed a miracle.
I needed magic.
Closing my eyes, I focused everything I had on wrapping the others in my power, like Twilight had shown me with the rock. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead and I felt my horn warm slightly. I opened my eyes hopefully.
And saw nothing. Not even a hint of my pink aura.
"God Damn It!" I screamed. "I'm not going to die here because I can't do simple magic! I!" I punched the ground with a hoof. "Am!" Another strike. "A!" A third. "Unicorn!"
I heard a snap beside me.
"You're a dead unicorn, you bastard," an unfamiliar voice growled. I turned and saw the group of guards arrive. Multiple safeties clicked off. I raised a hoof lamely to protect myself from the hail of bullets about to be unleashed. No, no, no, no, no, no,! Everything went pure white, and I thought that was it.
Then I blinked.
Some of the white went away, so I blinked some more. Eventually, my vision came back and I saw the dome of bubblegum interposed between the guards and my team.
"Ha! Magic shield, you jerks!" I crowed.
Reveling in my accomplishment, I set to waking the Princess up. Luckily, Twilight was simply a deep sleeper, and not more seriously injured like Derpy. With a scowl at the angry-looking ponies outside my shield, all of whom bolted when the rags of her dress fell away and revealed that she had wings as well as a horn, the Princess teleported everypony to the Tardis.
The Doctor was equally easy to revive and, since he actually had some medical knowledge, he went right to work on Derpy. A few bandages, some smelling salts, and an examination later, he declared that she would be fine shortly.
I sighed in relief. "Oh, thank Celestia."
"What?"
I turned to the Princess, her head was tilted quizzically, and a look around showed me that the other two seemed to be similarly confused. "What's wrong, everypony?"
"Are you... are you ok, Verdant?" Derpy asked.
"This from the mare with the bandages..." I flashed a smile, but it went away when nopony returned it. My chest felt a little tight.
"You said 'thank Celestia'."
"Yeah, so? It's a pretty common saying, Derpy." I replied. Why couldn't I breathe properly, and why did it feel like I had something in my throat? My eyes blurred.
"Wait a minute, Derpy's right," the Doctor agreed. "Don't you mean 'thank God'?"
I started hyperventilating. "I just- I- I think I need to-"
"Verdant, what's the matter?" Twilight's voice was full of concern, never mind her problems with my... previous behavior.
I lurched away, rushing to the comfort of my quarters, and when I got there I collapsed onto my bed, hoof over my heart. It hurt. I winced and asked myself, "Who's God...?"
Everything went black again.