What Would Really Happen

by Z-A-C

Day Five: A Break From The Hatred

~Day Five: A Break From The Hatred AKA Not A Bad Day~
"Sometimes, I get a bit strange. Not mad, but not calm either."-Me

---

We couldn't find a good place to to sleep last night. We made camp by the nearby forest. Since we had no tents, or anything similar, we ended up using Aura's blanket as a mattress and slept together to stay warm. The pillows were nice though. And no we didn't "get closer". The food we packed is pretty much gone. We weren't able to take much. And I don't know about Aura, but, I've never hunted. Not sure I could. Guess we'll find out. I sighed and sat up for the third time. I haven't been able to get much sleep last night. Aura woke up awhile ago. Not sure where she is, though.

Luckily, where chose to lay down for the night was currently under the shade of the trees. I looked around for the food rationed out to me, but it was gone. I scowled at the empty "cocoon". Yeah I wasn't sure about it either, but it's surprisingly sterile. At least the day was nice. That's really not a consolation, but, it's something. I guess. I stood up and stretched. "What to do today?" I thought out loud. "We could try to build a shelter? Maybe devote this day to food gathering?" I yawned. "Not a damn clue..." I heard rustling from the bushes, and looked over. I could see the tip of insectiod wings. Knowing what and who it was, I sat back down. "What were you doing?"

Aura emerged from the bushes. "Trying to find food."

"No luck?" I asked.

"Well... Unless you want fungi, tree bark, and grass. No."

"Dammit." I said, looking at the ground. "We need to find something soon. I've ate like, once yesterday."

"I know. I'm trying..."

"Oh, I know. I'm not mad. At you at least. I just know that, if they want us out, then, they stay the hell away. I ain't afraid to kill a fucker."

"Calm down. I'll go again soon."

"I'll go too. No sense in you doing all of the work."

"Works for me." She shrugged.

"Hey I was wondering, you were staying upstairs, right?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Yes."

"How did your things end up in the basement?" I asked slowly.

"Teleportation spell." She said as if it was a common fact.

"Okay, then why did you go into the basement in the first place?"

"I wanted to tell the Queen what was going on in person."

"Ah, okay." I said nodded my head. "More respectful that way."

"Yep, and as one...of the...last changelings, I want as much time to connect with Mother as I can."

"Wait wait wait, what!?" I exclaimed in shock.

"She's my mother. I didn't know until yesterday."

"So... You're royalty?"

"I guess so." She said with a shrug. "I won't change though. I'll make sure of it."

I nodded. "That's good. As long as I don't have to start bowing to you." She shook her head. I stretched and stood up. "Should we get going? I know it's only been a minute or two but..."

She nodded. "Yeah, we might be in there awhile."

"Okay. Following you." I gestured her to lead. She started toward the forest, and I followed.

---

I sighed. "This is pointless. We've been looking for an hour!" My stomach growled. "Oh, shut up you fuckin'....ugh!"

"So you can still speak!" Aura said. "I thought you've gone mute."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I get quiet when I'm concentrating on stuff." I grumbled. "Still nothing on your end?"

She sighed. "No..."

I shook my head. "Fuck it then. Let's just go back."

"...okay." She started walking and I followed her again. I have a feeling we took a wrong turn at some point, but I'm choosing to be optimistic. May have been a mistake though. Oh well, I guess.

Turns out, I was right about taking a wrong turn. But I think we're getting closer to camp. After a few minutes, we heard some noise coming from our right. It sounded like voices. "Ponies..." Then I remembered something. "Shit! My iPod!" Since we didn't have any food, that was my main concern at the moment. Then I took the possibility of them taking our bedding into consideration, and took off. I could hear Aura close behind me. I reached the treeline, and burst out from it. "What are you doing here!?"

Instead of a group of grown ponies messing up our stuff, there were three young foals. Scared out of they're minds. There is a white unicorn, an orange pegasus, and a yellow-ish earth pony. The unicorn was crying. Her friends recovered from their scared states and were now standing in front of her in a defensive pose. The unicorn looked familiar and it didn't take long to remember why. "Oh man, sorry! Um... I don't remember your name, but uh don't cry. Please?" She started to sniffle and after a few seconds, she stopped.

Her earth pony friend glared at me. "That was mean!" What a cute little accent.

"Yeah! Why are you hiding in the bushes!" The pegasus spoke up.

I held me hands up. "I wasn't hiding in the bushes."

"Guys?" Rarity's sister said. They looked at her with raised eyebrows. "It's okay."

"What do you mean 'it's okay'. He scared us!"

"Well I didn't mean to." I said

"Uh-huh." The country pony said. "Sure ya didn't."

"Really, I didn't. I thought you were grown up ponies that were messing with our stuff."

"Our?" They all said in unison. I raised an eyebrow and looked around. Aura was nowhere to be seen.

Probably still in the bushes. "Yeah." I nodded. "Come out Aura. It's fine." I heard rustling behind me.

The trio gasped. "Hi?" Aura said.

"A changeling!" They all yelled.

"Shh! don't be so loud! She wont hurt you." Aura shook her head. "I'm Zane by the way. What are your names?"

"Applebloom."

"Scootaloo."

Sweetie Belle!" The unicorn smiled and walked up to me. Her friends didn't seem to like that. "Are you wearing the clothes my sister made?"

I sat down and patted her head. "Yep. She did a fine job too! Though...I was kicked out of town before I could wash my other clothes..."

"Kicked out?" Applebloom said. "Why?"

I shrugged. "It's complicated."

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you grown ups always say that! Just because we're young, doesn't mean we wont understand!"

I smiled and shook my head. "It isn't because you three are young. I just don't want to explain everything." They all raised an eyebrow. I chuckled at that. "Hey, why don't you talk to Aura for a bit? I'll by right back." I stood up and looked them all. All four of them looked unsure. "Unless that's not okay with everyone."

"No it's fine." Aura said. "You just caught me off guard."

"Okay then. I'll only be a minute anyway." And then I walked into the forest to take a piss. You don't need details.

---

~Two hours later~
"When I was younger, I went through a hippie phase. Some of it stuck with me."-Me

---

Aura said that the conversation with the girls went well. After the initial nervousness, that is. She said that it got a little easier after they realized that neither had no ill intent, and that they were all unsure about the respective opposite party. I was glad to hear that. At least we have someone on our side. The only downfall to that, was that they were children. I mean I know we're in Twilight's and friends favor, but obviously that doesn't mean anything. I should really stop dwelling on this...

We were out looking for food again. We've been at for maybe twenty minutes. Or that's what it feels like, at least. Either way, we weren't having any luck. But it was different in here. Not really a good thing though. We seemed to have gained the interest of the wild life. If there were wolves in here that would be bad.

"I think I found something we can eat!" Yelled Aura. We split up to cover more ground. It's really what we should have done in the first place, but you know, hindsight.

I rushed over to her. "Really!?" I said excitedly. "Whatcha find?"

"Not much," My smile dropped. "But I think these mushrooms are safe to eat."

I sighed. "At least it's something... Find anything else?"

"Some onions, a few berries and a small carrot patch. If we get thirsty, there's a creek near by."

"Really?" She nodded. "Wow. Not bad."

She smiled. "Thank you." She levitated the "cocoons" up and began walking to our little "camp site". "Now, we will have to rations these." She said in a serious tone. "If we do it right, we have enough for lunch and dinner tonight. And maybe breakfast tomorrow."

"Okay, so, basically Don't eat like pigs?" I asked while following her. She nodded again. "Got it." It was relatively quiet on the way back. I did notice the feeling of being watched. We might have to keep an eye out for the rest our stay. Now that I think about it, having my iPod playing music probably didn't help.

Now back at where we're staying, Aura rationed the food, and I gathered firewood. Not for right now, of course, but we might need it for dinner. And obviously for keeping warm. I laid back and just looked up at the sky. Despite everything that's happened. I smiled. It was just peaceful. Kinda like a calm before the storm feeling, actually. I just hope there wasn't a reason for a storm to happen. Unless it's nature, then there doesn't have to be one. It just sort of happens. I swear, I don't do drugs.

All of a sudden Aura's face blocked the sky. "What up?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay?" She asked slowly.

"Yes I am. Just having a peaceful moment, care to join?"

She looked around. "S-sure." She laid down next to me. "What now?"

I chuckled. "Just relax. That's all." She laid out on her back to look up at the sky with me. "Feels nice, doesn't it?"

"It's...different."

"That it is." I nodded. "I had an epiphany shortly before I came to this world. Care to hear me out?"

"Okay?"

"Everything is amazing."

She turned her head and looked at me. "What?" She said flatly.

"Everything is amazing. Wonderful even. Be it the sky, what's in it, or anything on the ground. Your species, the ponies, magic, animals, and lights."

She furrowed her brows. "Lights?"

"Oh, especially lights." I nodded sagely. "Lights are fucking awesome." She just kept staring. "Be it the technology, the bulb, or the light it self. It's amazing. You want to see in the dark? Light switch," I did the motion of turning a light switch on. "Ping! Lights on. I mean, how did they see in the dark before light was properly utilized? They didn't. People don't think about it these days."

"I think those mushrooms were bad..." She chuckled and shook her head.

"I haven't eaten any yet." I shook my head. "This is me. More or less the real me. Not the constantly angry prick that I've shown myself to be. Yes, I'm a bit of a cynic. But I'm not out right hateful and violent. They just pushed me to that point. And To be honest, I hate being like that."

"So, you want me to believe that you're relaxed all of the time?"

"No. I'm not relaxed all the time, believe you, me. This is just what happens when I am. But anyway, back to what I was saying."

"Hold on." I stopped. "You said my species was amazing?"

My smile fell slightly. "Yes?" I said.

"How so?"

I smiled again. "Well, think about from my perspective. At first, in my eyes you were a bug-like thing shaped like a pony. With the scary fangs and everything. I assume that's what the ponies see as well. But the difference here is: I tried to look passed it. And succeeded, which doesn't always happen." She looked like she was trying to understand. "You might think this is creepy, but, I studied you. N-nothing intrusive, of course." I added quickly. "When you thought I was ignoring you, I was actually watching you." She had a slightly creeped out look on her face. "Nothing stalker-ish, no. Just when we were in the same room. I watched your mannerisms, the way you interacted with Spike and Twilight, the way you carry yourself. And you know what I saw?"

"What?"

"Someone as scared as I am. I mean, we're in a town that hates us, can't get home, and are stuck. Except in your case, your mom is here, but I'm alone."

"What does this have to do with changelings being amazing?"

I scratched the side of my head. "Sorry, I was following a different train of thought." I cleared my throat. "Changelings are amazing, to me, because they can change their form. Yes, It's kinda weird, and you may not be able to tell if a pony is one or not. But looking past that and any other concern, It's pretty cool. I bet a normal unicorn would have to spend years to master a spell like that. You guys, no problem, you just do it. Like it's nothing. And that, to me, is amazing."

She seemed to think about that. "Y-yeah. I think I see your point."

I looked at her with a big grin on my face. "But you know what?" She slowly shook her head. "It still doesn't beat lights."

She snorted with laughter. Mission accomplished!

---

I spent a few more minutes explaining the wonders of my universe. She didn't seem to fully understand, but no one really does. I don't blame her, though. Sometimes I don't understand either. Right now though, we were eating. Carrots, mushrooms, and berries don't really do much for the human body. And then there's the onions. Never had a raw onion before, never want to again either.

Our lunch was interrupted by the sound of hoof steps. I looked at Aura, and she nodded. We went on like we didn't hear anything, it would help to catch them off guard. The hoof steps stopped suddenly. Which concerned me, because that meant it was either a unicorn or an pegasus. From my understanding, unicorns have range. And from experience, pegasi have stealth. I didn't feel like getting sniped, or snuck up on. Again.

The hoof steps started again, and I relaxed a bit. The pony was getting closer and Aura began to light up her horn. The pony started walking slower and that's when Aura cast the spell. There was a squeak from the pony and Aura and I turned around. The pony was in a cocoon, much like the ones the held our food. And the pony happened to be one of the ponies that "captured" me.

I looked the pony over. It seemed to be a earth stallion. I glared at him. "You are either brave or stupid to come here. What do you want?" I said in a low voice.

The looked to be panicking. I told Aura to let him go, and she did. She kept his hooves secured I noticed. Clever girl. "I-I-I um..."

"We're listening."

"I-I came here to tell you something."

I rolled my eyes. "And that would be?"

"Some of the ponies in town didn't like the uh...display, Xavier put on. I didn't either, he got carried away..." He shook his head. "An-anyway, a few ponies and I are starting a group."

"Ha! Okay, what's the goal? To have us be the 'whipping boys' for the town? Fuck outta here with that!"

"N-no! N-nothing like that! Wait...'us'?"

I glared at him intensely. "You've said enough. Leave."

"B-but-"

"You came here to tell me good news. Me. Which is great, don't get me wrong. But you think I'm just going to leave Aura behind? You guys are idiots."

"W-well we just thought..."

"Well what thought was, it was wrong." I sighed. "You can have your group, it'd be nice to have some allies. But first," I looked at Aura. "What the lie detector spell say?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I don't know that spell. But judging by his emotions, he's telling the truth."

"Well then," I looked back at the pony. "I believe we're good now. Just don't forget: Aura is to be included into whatever protests you guys make. We clear?"

"Y-yes."

"Good." I stretched and yawned. "Let 'em go, and we can continue with lunch." Aura let his feet go. "Oh, one more thing before you leave. Do not fuck us over on this. Or I will make good on my promise. Got it?" He nodded rapidly. "Good. Thanks for the good news bud. See ya around." His face gained a confused look on the sudden politeness in my tone and left. I shook my head. "Well, that could have been worse."

"Did you really have to be so mean to him?" Aura asked with concern in her voice.

"Probably not." I shrugged. We both turned back to our food and continued to eat.

---

~A Few Hours Later~
"I don't know. Why are you asking me?"-Me

---

The day was nearing the end, but we still a few more good hours of sunlight. We've had a few visits from the members of that one group. They still didn't have a name, though. Actually, that was one of the visits purpose. I suggested "The group for the fair treatment of the freaks." But Aura didn't seem so sure about the name. Not sure why, though.

Speaking of ponies from the group. Here comes another one. I just stood there with my arms crossed and tapping my foot with an annoyed look on my face. This was a new pony. It looked to be a stallion. A unicorn with a short black mane. He had sun glasses on, so I couldn't see his eye color. I didn't see what his cutie mark was. He looked apprehensive for a few seconds but shook his head and continued on. "So, what do you want?" I asked when he got close enough.

"I-I-uh," He regained his composer. "Me or the group?"

"Well, you. But if the group has something then, I want to hear that as well."

"Ah well, I don't want anything from you in particular. The group, however, sent me with news."

"Okay." I nodded my head. "Go on then."

"We have the mayor's backing." I gestured him to go on. "And some of the townsponies are willing to change their minds."

I sighed. From the way he said it, I knew there was a catch. "What do they want us to do for them?"

He glanced to the side for a moment. He doesn't want to tell me, I can see it. "Well... They want you two to go into the forest and-" I stopped him.

"No. I am not going into there, and neither is she." Ugh, they are not smart, are they?

"But I haven't told you what they wanted."

I shook my head and shrugged. "Doesn't matter. She told me whats in there! Timber wolves, normal wolves, manticores, and other things. Not going to happen."

"But-"

That's it. I bent down to eye level and look him straight in the eye. "Alright look. They obviously want us to go on a suicide mission. I'd much rather take my bat and hit myself in the shin until it breaks. We're not going in there and you can tell them to think of something else or get fucked. " I growled. He rapidly nodded and ran away. I looked back at Aura and even she was scared. Great. "I'm fine now, Aura. I'm sorry."

"O-o-okay." She said hesitantly. Fuck me...

I sat down and rubbed my temples. "Was it that bad?" She nodded. " Sheesh, I didn't mean to scare you, or him. Dammit." I sighed. "I just feel like I'm their leader or something, with the way these ponies are walking out here and everything. I hate that. I'm not a leader, it's just too...stressful I guess. I mean, I feel like, at some point, I'll have to be telling them what to do, and I don't want that, ya know?"

Aura nodded. "I do know, actually. I was a platoon sergeant during the invasion."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, no one wanted to be charged with that."

"I have an idea of how it can be with our military. How bad was it for you?" She just kinda looked at me like I asked the stupidest question ever. "Okay, never mind." She didn't say anything back...

A few minutes passed and, to my surprise the stallion came back. I held out my hand for hand/hoof bump. He looked at my hand and looked at me with a cautious expression. "Really?" Was all he said.

I took back my hand and scratched the back of my head. "Yeeeaaah I'm really sorry, man. I didn't mean to yell at you, I just don't know what to think about everything, ya know?"

"Whatever, we can deal with that later. Right now, we need to address that problem of yours." He waited for a response, but a stayed quiet. "I know some ways to help relieve you of your anger." He paused in thought. "Healthy and productive ways, I should say. I know it wasn't anything personal but you should watch it. If we want the town to let you back in, you need to cool it down a little."

"I getcha." He nodded. "Still though, I am sorry."

"I'm willing to let it slide. But please watch your temper."

"No problem uh... What's your name?"

"Spooky Venture. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Likewise."

He turned around. "Oh, and don't worry about leading us. That's my job."

Aura and looked at each other, and slowly back to him. "H-how...did...?"

"I have good hearing is all. I'll see you two later. Til then." He said politely.

I just watched him leave. Blinking every few seconds with a confused look on my face. "What?"

Aura shook her head. "I don't know. I just don't even..." She trailed off.

"Hey did he give you a weird feeling?" She slowly nodded her head. "Yeah... Glad he's on our side."

"Me too..."

---

"What do you think about the group?" Aura asked before taking a bite of a carrot. It was dinner time and we were having roasted carrots and onions. We decided to save the mushrooms for later.

"I thought I already told you?" I said as I put an onion on a stick.

"Now that you aren't worried about being the leader."

"Well, other than relieved, I think it can be a good thing." I answered, putting the onion over the fire. "If everything goes right, we can move back into town and hopefully the ponies won't be as bad. That might be looking at it a bit too optimistically, but that's what it could turn out like."

"What about for me?"

I had to think about that for a bit. They have more reason to hate her because of the invasion. And then there's what Chrysalis told us. The burning onion took me back to reality before I could think about it. "Uh well... Not real sure." I rotated the onion.

"Oh..." She looked at the ground.

I took the onion of a fire, and looked at her. "Hey, don't worry about it. I got you, and so does Twilight. We might even be in the princess' favor as well. There's not a damn thing they can do."

"I don't believe that." She said with sadness in her voice.

"Well, without horrible consequences, that is." I added before taking a bite. "They hurt you, they have a shit storm headed their way. There's me, the Twilight, and god forbid they hurt her but if they do, they have the Rulers coming down on their asses." I scooted closer to her and smiled. "We may not be untouchable, but we have allies. Powerful ones. We'll be fine."

She faintly smiled and leaned her head against me. "And if they hurt you, they will see what a changeling is really capable of." I froze. She doesn't think there's something weird going on does she? "We have to protect each other if we're going to survive." Doesn't look like it.

"Yes we do." I stretched. "But enough about that. What are we going to do after we finish dinner?"

"Well we can't go into the forest. And the town is a definite no."

I nodded. "Obviously."

"Not much, really. Finish eating and go to sleep."

"Boring." I then yawned. "Okay maybe not so much, but still." I grabbed a mushroom and ate it.

"Those are for tomorrow!"

"But I wanted a mushroom." I said innocently. She shook her head and levitated an onion of her own over the fire. Not wanting to get yelled at again, I grabbed a carrot. Unfortunately, we reached our cut off point for today. If we wanted to eat tomorrow this was it. Two carrots and an onion. Minus a mushroom for me tomorrow. Damn.

"Hey Zane?"

"Yeah?"

"I haven't been able to figure you out yet..."

I snorted in laughter. It was odd, yes, but it was still funny to me. "Not many people can, but how do you mean?"

She tried to think of a way to explain it. "You're like a reversed pony." I raised an eyebrow but let her continue. "And your emotions are all over the place. It's like one minute you're happy, then you're sad, then you're angry. I can't lock on. The only thing I can lock on to, is loneliness. And that's slowly fading away. I know you are human, but, what are you? Who are you?"

"My name is Viktor Reznov! And I shall have. My. Revenge!!"

She shook her head and blinked. "What?"

I shrugged. "No idea, anyway. I am Zane. I have many nicknames, and can't be bothered to tell you any of them. I am a human. That's about it." I shrugged. "The only special thing about me, is the fact that I'm here."

"I'm...not sure that answered my question." She had a weird look on face. "But I think I should take it." I just nodded my head. After a few seconds she spoke up again. "I have another question."

"Shoot."

"Why did you chose to be here for me."

That threw me off guard. "Not sure I'm tracking?"

"Even after Twilight rescued me, she still didn't trust me. You, however, had little hesitation with trusting me. Why?"

"Oh, no, you have it wrong." She raised an eyebrow. "I didn't trust you at first, I felt sorry for you." She seemed taken back by that. "I know it sounds bad, but that's what I saw at first. Then I saw how the ponies treated you. They treated you a lot like me. And I didn't like seeing it. And then you told me your story."

"And that made you trust me?"

I shook my head. "No. I haven't started trusting you til earlier today."

"What? Then why did you bring me a long?"

"They were planning on doing something with you, and it wouldn't be good. Twilight probably couldn't stop them. That, and you looked like you needed someone in the same situation. And with your Queen wanting to remain incognito, I was the other option." She remained silent. "What's wrong?"

"Am I to believe you took me along to protect me, even if you didn't trust me?"

I held my chin in thought. "I...guess so? Is that a problem?"

"No. It's just...not heard of often in the hive."

"I see. So you're confused." She nodded her head. "Well don't think about it to much. It happened and here we are." I looked at the fire. "Do not question the form, what's important is the soul."

"What does that mean?"

"Don't think about what someone looks like, concentrate on what kind of person they are."

"That's...pretty good. Who came up with that?"

"I did. Just now. Didn't expect it, didja?" She shook her head. "Are you finished eating?"

"Yes."

"Okay." I laid down and watched the fire.

"Today was nice, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. A few things happened but overall, it wasn't bad." Aura laid down underneath the blanket, and soon after fell asleep. I joined her under the blanket but sleep did not come easily for me. About about an hour, the fire died down and sleep finally found me.

Author's Note:

I know it took awhile, but here you go. I hope it has the quality you are looking for. If you find any mistakes let me know.