Becoming a Monster

by Telgin

Chapter 3: Keep Your Enemies Close, and Your Family Closer

Fealty eased onto the floor next to me. “You're sure he's alright? Don't want me to take a look?”

“He's fine. His hearing has almost completely returned today. That's what he said anyway.” I'd spent the last twenty minutes relating to him our very unsettling encounter with the ponies the day before and our narrow escape from death. He listened while tending to a pot of something brewing over the magical coals in the center of the room, nodding on occasion but saying nothing until then.

“That's good.” He sprinkled some sugar into a cup and handed it to me before taking one for himself. I recognized now that it was tea, having somehow missed the scent while spewing out my story. He drank it through pure iron will or some other unknown method, but knew I couldn't stand it without at least a pinch of sweetness to it. Sugar, of course, was a luxury, so I didn't complain that it could have used a touch more. Instead I felt a bit guilty using up what he had. And questioning where he got it. He took a sip, straight-faced as usual and said, “I'm glad all of you are alright.” He chuckled. “Are we going to have to move closer together so I can come to your rescue? Or am I just going to have to teach you more?”

Both sounded great actually, but I knew I'd have to settle for the latter. “I've read through your spell book a few times, but without practice there's only so much you can learn.”

He nodded and frowned slightly. “It sounds like you're getting some practice though.” He sighed and set his cup aside. “What you're telling me does have me a bit, ah... concerned though.”

To my knowledge that was the first time he'd ever admitted to being worried, and I felt my own sliver of confidence about the situation evaporate like the water left in the pot. “We're still pretty far away,” I said, fishing for excuses or something to soothe my frayed nerves. “I don't think they'll come this deep into the mountains. Or this high up.”

“No, probably not. Not at first anyway.”

I wrapped my hands around my cup and let the warmth radiate through them as I thought. “The griffons already fly through here sometimes, and there will be pegasi now too. Not that many though.”

“I'm not too worried about that. I'm more worried about what will happen if the town gets very large. Grayfeather Roost is just through the canyon from there. Seems awfully intentional to me.” The griffon city had been here longer than I'd been alive, but aside from the occasional military patrol we didn't see much of them. I was beginning to connect the dots when he finished the job for me, saying, “I'm betting that they're going to be doing a lot of trading. The ponies and griffons get along pretty well, no reason not to.”

“And there will be a lot of traffic through the canyon...” I concluded.

He nodded. “I'm pretty far off the trail, but you're not.” Conflicting emotions washed over his face. “I really wish you'd reconsider moving closer.” He wrapped his arm around me and whispered, “Or here.”

We'd been through that a couple of times before, and I turned him down again. I didn't need any convincing to move in with him, but Zeal, Antic and Revelry made that very complicated. I wasn't going to up and abandon them, and even if it wasn't for the fact none of them seemed to be particularly fond of Fealty there was neither the room nor the hospitality for all four of us here.

He sighed again. “Alright. If you're not going to move out of the way of harm, maybe we really should get in a bit of practice? You weren't in a hurry to fly off, were you?”

And pass up an opportunity like that? I shook my head and smirked. “Not at all.”

“Alright then, how about we start small? Do you know the pain control spell? It's something you can try without needing an actual injury.”

He fetched a familiar book with his magic and set it between us. I snuggled up closer to him and set my cup aside. This should be interesting, and I never turned down an opportunity to learn a new spell.

---

After what happened the last time I visited Fealty, I'd learned my lesson and left well before dark to return home. The mountains were far less intimidating to fly through during the day, even alone, and when I got back home I could see the camouflaged entrance marked with familiar scrub. No sign of Revelry camping out in anticipation of my return to frighten me. After how shaken up she still was that morning, I doubted she'd have done it anyway.

As I headed down I could hear all three of them talking about something related to ponies, but their conversation was infuriatingly distorted by the echoes up the shaft. They didn't sound alarmed at least, but I could hear some agitation. Zeal's voice?

I don't know what I was expecting to see when I entered the main chamber, but what I ran into wasn't it. I nearly leaped out of my scales when I stumbled into the hindquarters of a gray pony, and I fell backward onto the ground with a shriek.

“Huh?” The pony spun to face me. “Oh, Cantrip, you're back?”

It knew my name! I scrabbled backward and flattened myself against the wall, wracking my brain on what to do. Why weren't Revelry and Zeal doing anything!? What were they doing before? I snapped my eyes back and forth between the three creatures in the room, all but ready to teleport us outside. The pony swished his black tail and grinned. Wait... I recognized that grin...

Revelry snickered. “Hey Antic, I think that proves the illusion is good enough.”

“Don't look at me,” Zeal said with a snort. “I kept telling them this is a terrible idea.”

I stepped away from the wall and held a hand to my chest, trying to still my heart. I'd had enough near heart attacks for two days, thank you very much! “Antic?” I questioned, visually dissecting the pony stallion. The illusion was perfect...

“Yep!” he quipped. “I had this idea a little while ago, see. I thought that I could make myself look like a pony, so I could go down and take another look at the town. I might learn a thing or two without them, you know, screaming and trying to shoot me with a crossbow.”

Revelry crossed her arms and lifted into the air. “He wanted to go as a mare. Can you believe it?” Yes, I could.

“Couldn't get the voice right,” he said, shrugging. Wow, that looked really awkward for a pony.

“Uh... you're kidding right?” I asked. “There's no way you'll pull it off.”

Zeal threw his hand into the air and flopped back onto his cot. “Thank you! I've been telling them that for fifteen minutes now.”

“Hey, you fell for it,” Antic said, pointing a hoof at me. Everything about his body language was just wrong.

“I'm not a pony,” I pointed out. “They're going to notice, and what are you going to do then, huh? For that matter, what kind of story were you going to try to give them? They're probably not expecting new ponies.”

“I dunno, tell them I'm lost and just found the place?”

“You're going to need more than that...” I moaned. “What name are you going to give them? Where are you from? What are you doing out here?” I slapped my hand against my forehead and sank to the ground. “Come on, you can't think this is going to work!”

“Hey, it's not that bad. Antic works as a pony name, doesn't it?” I had no idea. Dirk and Yari were the only pony names I could remember. “And I'll just make the rest of it up as I go. Trust me.”

Revelry floated around and tapped a claw to his forehead. “Hey, only the unicorns can do magic, right? Might want to fix this just in case you need to use some magic.”

“Oh, right.” A tiny flash and pop later and he had a horn jutting from his forehead. “There we go.” Great, the 'plan' was falling apart already.

I shook my head. “No. No, please, you're going to get yourself killed Antic.” Zeal grumbled something in agreement. “You do remember yesterday, don't you? They're probably watching and waiting for anything strange to happen.”

Antic sat heavily and let out an exasperated sigh. “What if Revelry comes with me? I can keep both of us changed for a long time.”

“No!” I exclaimed, standing again and swishing my tail. “No, if both of you go the odds of something going wrong are even worse!” I looked between him and Revelry. “Please... don't do this. Look, I'm all for spying on the ponies if it's safe, but walking among them and talking to them? That's the least safe thing we could do!”

“See?” Zeal agreed.

The pony shimmered and another flash filled the room, revealing Antic as it faded. “Fine...” he said in a dejected tone. “Fine... I'll think of something else.”

“Thank you...” I flopped onto my own cot, letting some of the tension flow out with each breath. I'd nearly been killed or lost one of them to the ponies yesterday. I didn't need to be worrying about that again right now.

Revelry took Antic by the arm and led him toward the back room. “Come on, let's go rethink this plan.”

I rolled my eyes at Zeal and turned over to fetch my newest spell book from the floor. Maybe now I could study it some with a bit of peace of mind and make yesterday more worth it. 'S-c-a-r-l-e-t-S-w-i-r-l' was what was written at the top of the cover. Was that the owner? An interesting name for a pony. I flipped it open and lost myself in the symbols. I'd deal with the pony writing later when I had more energy.

---

Things settled down after the two disappeared into the back room to discuss another suicidal scheme for a while. Antic returned and slumped onto his cot some time ago, facing the wall and not saying a word to any of us. Revelry did similarly, but laid on her back to face the ceiling with a vacant stare on her face. I could only guess that whatever they tried to come up with didn't pan out, and overcome with a surge of common sense they accepted that I was right and didn't want to admit it.

An awkward silence fell, so I looked to my new book for a distraction. I was thumbing through it only to find it was less interesting than I'd hoped for. I already knew most of the spells inside, though there were a few new ones I hadn't deciphered yet. The pony who owned it had very neat writing, but even still trying to read what he or she had written was turning out to be frustrating due to their fascination with big words. One spell was something about a sentry, which sounded interesting. There were a lot of warnings written in pony I couldn't figure out though, and I'd need Antic's help to read it. He was busy still sulking on his cot, of course, so that would have to wait until later.

I was just considering a chance to catch a short nap myself to get some relief from the silence and boredom when something unexpected presented itself. Zeal rolled over to face me and said, “Hey, Cantrip... you got a second?”

“What is it?” I closed the book and set it aside. Whatever he wanted, I was done with it for the moment.

He lifted the chanfron up from beside his cot. “Think you could fix this for me?”

“Sure.” It would only take a second. I reached out with my magic to sift through the stacks of magical tomes to find the one detailing the spell, and a thought struck me. “Actually... I'll do better than that. Why don't I show you how to do it?”

Judging by the confused expression he shot me he wasn't so enthusiastic about it, but he shrugged and sat up. “Fine, if you want.” I flashed him a smile and hopped off of my cot. If he wanted something, he could work a little toward it, right?

We set down in the middle of the main chamber to give plenty of room on all sides, and I spread the book between us. It was one of the oldest books I owned and not one I poked through often, meaning a surprising amount of dust was liberated while I paged through it. Zeal rotated the helmet around in his hands while I worked, nodding once as he spotted something unspoken that he approved of. I finally located the spell in question, fixing a crease in the page and repositioning the book so he could get a good look. “Alright, let's see now...”

The spell went about like I remembered, though I was glad to have the reference since there were a few details I'd forgotten. I began relating to him how to adjust the size and shape of the chanfron, which he seemed to take to well enough. “Once you've got it surrounded with the mana, you can twist and pull on it. You can do a lot that way, but shrinking and expanding things is probably the easiest.”

“Right...” He set it on the bare stone in front of him and raised a hand over it. I could feel the magic flowing around it, and while it was a bit sloppy he was pretty close. The fields contracted and... too fast! A poof of light and sound later, and the helmet was the size of his fist. “Uh... this can be fixed, right?” He gingerly lifted it and shock played across his face. “It's really heavy.”

“Yeah, interesting thing about that. Uh, I don't know how to really describe it, but the weight doesn't change. Bigger or smaller, it stays the same.” I tapped it. “Go on, see if you can fix it.”

He snorted and cocked a frown. Magic swirled around it again and slowly it began to expand. Once he was satisfied with its size, he slipped it over his head. It fit much better, but the shape was still a bit off, evidenced by his ears sticking straight up through the provided holes and the bridge riding well above his snout.

“Good, see? That wasn't so hard.” I closed the book and smiled at him, feeling a bit triumphant at passing the little mote of knowledge on. “Think you can adjust the fit?”

Turned out that he could. The magic to alter the helmet seemed to come pretty naturally to him, and he twisted the ear holes and visor enough to fit his head surprisingly well with a minimum of fuss. He grinned, something I had almost forgotten he was able to do, and said, “Perfect. Oh, wait.” The sword floated past us and rested in his hand. Once again I was reminded of just how enormous pony weapons were, and it took both of his hands to grip the hilt well enough to keep it upright. He tested the weight a bit, and I felt magic swirl around it like with the helmet. The entire weapon narrowed and lengthened to the point of being almost as long as he was tall. He slouched and tried to catch his breath as he set the blade aside. “That's tiring...”

“It can be. You don't practice your magic much, so I'm surprised you could do that much.” My eyes rested on the length of deadly steel dividing us and I asked, “So, what are you planning to do with that?”

He stood and took a deep breath before retrieving the sword. “Remember what I said earlier?” He gripped it with both hands in the same way I'd seen some griffons wield their titanic greatswords. “The next pony that looks at me funny?” He swung wide, slashing through the air with a deep whoosh, and grinned again. “They'll be getting a taste of this.”

Revelry flicked her tail and glanced over. Whatever she was planning to say, I was going to beat her to it by reiterating that looking for a fight with a pony was going to get him killed. That is, until he swung the weapon again and drew a shrill cry from something in the room with us.

Zeal and I jumped or fell backward while Revelry leaped out of her cot to scrabble on the floor behind us. Zeal whipped his sword up again, and I could see fresh blood running down the blade to spill onto his hands. The three of us searched frantically around us for the source, and I wracked my brain for a spell to reveal the intruder. It wasn't necessary.

“Ow... owwwww...” a male voice moaned pitifully. I noticed an instant later that Antic hadn't even flinched, and the reason why became clear. A gray pony with a black mane and tail flickered into view, sprawled on the floor and awkwardly pawing at a long gash leaking blood on the side of his neck. “Oh... it hurts...” he wailed again, clenching his eyes shut and tightening into a ball.

The sword clattered to the floor, and we rushed to help our wounded brother.

---

Antic sniffled and rubbed at the scar on his neck, propped against the cave wall with only a few of our cleaner sheets behind him to offer any comfort. He was unbelievably lucky, if you could consider getting hit with a sword while invisible lucky in the first place, as the blade missed everything important. A little closer to the front and the big vein in his throat might have been cut. Much further back and the hit might have broken his neck. Or if Zeal had really swung, it might have killed him anyway. He sucked in a breath of air and groaned lightly again, looking away from the rest of us. Especially me.

Revelry was sitting on her cot again, balled up and making an occasional small noise I couldn't identify. She'd helped mastermind this little charade by providing the illusion that Antic was still in his cot the whole time, and I guess she was feeling more than a little guilt for Antic getting hurt. Good. I wanted all of them to understand what happened when we tried to do anything to the ponies or griffons, and when we did things behind each others' backs.

Zeal was off behind us, standing in the corner and trying not to look at Antic too much. He'd spewed enough apologies by now maybe he just didn't know what to do anymore, other than stare at the blood still soaking the floor and the sword he'd hurled into the back of the chamber.

As such, it was just me sitting across from Antic at the moment. All of us jumped to help him after what happened, but it quickly became apparent I was the only one who could really do anything for him. Once again I'd had to use my healing magic to save one of us, and it wasn't helping my frayed nerves at all. I was getting a bit better at it, as little consolation as that was. The scar should have been a lot worse than it was, and I even managed to clean most of the blood from his scales with the spell.

He rubbed his face and finally looked up at me with pink, tearful eyes. “Thanks.” He looked back down and sniffled again. “And... s-sorry.”

I frowned and sighed. I was angry at him and Revelry, that much I wouldn't deny. But how angry can you be at your brother after he nearly has his head cut off right in front of you? “Why, Antic? Why did you go down there after I told you not to?”

He shrugged. “I-I don't know?” Yeah, even he knew that wasn't going to fly. “I... I just thought that if I... if I talked to the ponies and showed you...”

“Showed me what? That you could trick the ponies? What were you planning to do then?” I didn't have to say what I was really getting at. If he and Revelry thought they could just walk among the ponies, they'd try to rob them blind.

Antic said nothing for a little while, just sniffling and glancing anywhere but to me. “...that maybe we could be friends?”

Zeal, Revelry and I all stared at him. “You're crazy,” Zeal said flatly. “They just want our heads on pikes for their lawns.”

Shaking my head, I said, “He's right. If they knew we were here, they'd be all over the place trying to kill us. It wouldn't be the first time.”

“You don't know that,” Antic said weakly. He looked up at Zeal, wincing from the neck motion. “They-they're not bad. They're just scared.” His eyes floated between us. “They're just scared of us.”

“Scared of us?” Zeal spat, sinking into his cot. “They've got us scared to even all sleep at the same time because one of them might wander up on us! We can't be friends with them!”

“You don't know that!” he insisted. “When have we ever tried to talk to a pony? Huh?”

I tried to avoid raising my voice as I replied, “That's awfully hard to do when they're shooting or stabbing at you on sight.”

He slapped a hand to his chest, warranting another tiny cringe, and said, “That's why I want to try this! If they give us a chance to talk, maybe things would be different! Just imagine: we could fly through their town and they wouldn't even care. We'd never have to move again! Maybe... maybe they'd even trade with us?” Surely even he realized how unreasonably idealistic that sounded, and he deflated a bit. “We won't know until we try...”

“Trying almost got you killed,” Zeal muttered.

“Not by the ponies,” Antic pointed out, much to Zeal's displeasure. He shifted into a more comfortable seated position and said, “I... I listened to them talking. They're not bad.”

Revelry pulled herself upright, braced against her cot with a single arm as she looked hopefully at him. “You... heard them talking? Did you talk to them?”

“Uh... no. I didn't want to risk it. I kinda stayed out of the way as much as I could. The pony illusion was just a backup plan if I got spotted.” He perked up. “Oh, but Yari is alive. She's not doing well, but she's alive.” That prompted a simultaneous snort and groan from Zeal and a look of intense relief from Revelry. I was having very mixed feelings. More than anything I just wanted nothing to do with the ponies, whether they lived, died or whatever. That way was simple and safe. Antic wasn't seeing that, and slapped his chest again. “I can do this! I can talk to them and let them know we aren't going to hurt them.” He raised his hand up to waist height from the floor. “They've got foals. I heard them talking about it. They're scared to even let them outside now. If they just knew we weren't going to hurt them, maybe everything would be okay!”

Zeal was starting to sound like a pig from all of his grunts, but Revelry was almost beaming. Now it was my turn to stifle a groan. Of course she'd be all over this. I just shook my head. “Please... don't do this Antic. You're going to get killed. That goes for you too,” I said, pointing a claw at Revelry.

“Cantrip, listen to me,” he insisted. “Just let me try! Just once!” He had that pleading look of a child on his face that he somehow managed to never grow out of. “That's all I'm asking!”

I sighed and looked down. “I wish it would work. Really, I do.” Who wouldn't accept peace? I didn't think it would work, but I wasn't stupid. “Any other time...”

“Cantrip...” Zeal almost growled. “You're not going to go along with this...?”

“No.” Antic and Revelry pouted and looked like they were going to plead even more, so I stopped them. “If the circumstances were different, I might think it was worth a try, but... not now, please.” Antic's mention of pony foals struck on a topic I hadn't yet brought up with them, but now was as good of a time as any. I rested my hand against my belly, feeling the small but unmistakable bulge. “I'm going to be a mother soon. I... I don't need this right now.”

Yep. That had exactly the reaction I expected. Stunned silence. I don't know how long we all sat or stood there like that, but Antic was the one to finally do something. He just hung his head and muttered, “Oh...”

“Look, can we... can we just forget this business for now? Get something to eat maybe?” I'd nearly been scared to death by my brother, nearly seen him killed, patched him up and then spilled to my siblings that I was about to be a mother. It had been a long day, I was tired and hungry. We could worry about this nonsense another time. Preferably years from now after my whelps hatched and Antic forgot about it.

I was still young and naïve. I could dream.