Fall of the Changelings

by Dream Whisper

FOTC: Chapter 3 - Just an accident

Silver Coil slowly fell down almost as if in slow motion. After the initial shock had passed, I galloped towards him. He was still breathing. A sigh of relief slipped my lips. I only now noticed that I had held my breath for the entire time. My breathing was heavy and discontinuous. I had nearly killed him! Holy horse apples! This was not a state to experiment on. This was not simply a sick joke. This was above what should be handled by one pony. This was dangerous.

A terrific noise startled me. It sounded like a mixture of chalk on a blackboard and two cogs trying to turn into opposite directions. It took me a moment to process the whole situation. What I had just heard had not been a terrible accident outside, but instead the bell of this godforsaken house. I already wanted to open the door, when Silver Coil flew down the stairs in a hurry I had never seen before. He literally jumped down from the top of the stairs, landing just in front of the door, while almost toppling over and breaking all of his bones. Yet, he managed to avoid a catastrophe and opened the door with such a force that it almost flew off the hinges. He sure was excited. His visitor, however, had a resigned expression, almost expecting Silver Coil to act like that. Maybe I didn't really know Silver Coil as much as I had thought - It was quite uncommon for him to be so electrified. Then again, we are speaking about the creator of the theory of supra-interaction of magic and the genius of our generation. His theory was the biggest breakthrough at that time, almost like the discovery of fire once again.

Star Swirl slowly trotted through the small entrance, being embraced by the rhythmical buzzing and whirring of machines. Something I was already quite used to, but might seem strange to new visitors. Silver Coil was always testing new inventions, always creating machines that might come in handy some day. He loved every single machine. That is something you cannot really say about every inventor. It was almost morbid to see him caring more about his machines than his social life. Maybe his obsession with his inventions was what stopped him from ever having a special somepony.

As Star Swirl looked around, he managed to get a glimpse of me. I will probably never forget the look on his face: A bit of repulsion, a bit of fear and a lot of forbidden interest. He knew he should be utterly disgusted or cringing in horror, but he was not. Instead, his eyes were rejoicing in utter interest in what had happened to me. I definitely felt awkward being searched by his eyes almost as if he was trying to find something on my body. I tried to hide myself from the gazing eyes and stepped a few steps back, just enough to let the doorway cover my feet. Why did he have to stare like that? Even now his calculating eyes were making out every detail of my horn. It was mostly uncomfortable to say the least. However, I had to endure this if I wanted him to create a cure. He was probably my only help right now. Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity of just awkward silence, he began to speak:

“My my. What a peculiar situation. I had not expected this when you alarmed me. A pony with holes in his legs and a deformed horn. Both showing astounding similarities to the physical composition of insects. A hard basis, covered with what seems to be cohesive chitinous plates. We will have to start testing right along.”

My stomach wanted to turn around as Star Swirl the Bearded slowly trotted towards me with that look on his face. I knew it was only scientific interest, yet I hated - HATED - him to look at me like that. It felt almost like he was trying to see what was under my skin. I shuddered at that thought, which Star Swirl instantly interpreted as a sign of some sorts.

“For the record: The subjects shows a lack of social behaviour. Those effects should be investigated later on.”

Star Swirl hovered his backpack in front of him, pulling out a quill and a piece of paper. He wrote down a couple of sentences, then resuming to the conversation.

“Does the subject agree on being tested by the order of SCAO paragraph five to sixteen and thirty five?”

What exactly...? Scao? From the corner of my eyes I could make out a slow nodding movement of Silver Coil’s head. I could not agree to something I didn’t know, could I? Then again it was my only hope. There was in fact no pony with more knowledge than Star Swirl. I took a deep breath before releasing it for my answer:

“Yes.”

The grumpy miene of Star Swirl instantly changed to a happy smile, almost like a kid who had just been given some toy to play with. I didn’t like the idea of being his toy to play with. A mad scientist doing some crazy experiments on you? Hay no! The only reason for me not aborting the whole idea was my desperation. Desperation combined with initial shock drives you to do the most stupid things. I should have told my wife, should have gone to a doctor and should have tried to get over it as a family. Now I was stuck here with mister madmachine and mister weirdbeard.

Star Swirl actually told me to go have a bit of free time on the couch, while they would prepare everything. “Prepare everything” sounded more like a horror movie than anything else. When the mad doctor wants to murder his patients or do some crazy experiment on them, they also prepare everything. I am overreacting. I know. How am I supposed to deal with it? While my thoughts kept on turbulating, I finally had some rest on the couch. To my great dissatisfaction, Star Swirl came back after a couple of minutes already.

“Okay. Follow me…”

Really, this was getting out of hand. I felt more and more like an animal that was being observed. Couldn’t they at least act as if I was still a pony? I am still a pony! Or not? I slowly followed Star Swirl down a steep staircase, leading into the secret basement of Silver Coil. This was his experimenting cellar, where most of his inventions happened. This was the center of his creativity and it filled me with pride to finally being able to see it. I was probably the second pony seeing this place, after Star Swirl of course. Silver Coil would have done anything for that grumpy old professor and I have no idea why. For him, Star Swirl seemed like the ideal of a scientist. I couldn’t fault him for that, - Star Swirl was the best scientist - but did he have to be so obsessive about him?

The room was filled with hundreds of clicking and clacking inventions, gears turning and electricity buzzing. It was crazy. Every single wall was covered with an arsenal of mechanical complexity that you have never seen before. Each wheel and each and every gear had some purpose. Thousands of screws and bolts and nuts covered the walls. It almost looked like the walls themselves were moving. The middle of the room was comparatively clean, only a steel table and a couple of spare parts lying around. The table had obviously just been cleaned up, which made me feel even worse. Now they would take out handcuffs and shackle me to the table, then pulling out some crazy machines and cutting my body open. I knew it was all nonsense, but the thought didn’t leave my mind. I breathed in deeply once again, trying to convince myself that everything would be fine.

I was ordered to sit down on the table, which I did after a short time of hesitation. I forced myself to endure this and to ignore what sick ideas my mind was creating. As I heard the metallic clacking of handcuffs, I jumped up into the air, turning around and running for my life. However, a magical wall held me back from escaping.

“The subject seems to be extremely nervous and we are going to have to use item 3 of paragraph 7 in the SCAO. This Scientific Collaboration and Associated Orders paragraph allows us to use of anesthetics if the subject is too nervous.”

Anesthetics? Hell No! My worst imaginations seemed to have manifested in this very moment. The way outside was cut off, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t fight. I turned around and tried to conjure a bolt of fire. What came out was nothing but a couple of sparks and a lot of hot air. Nonono! Not now! Damned chitinous plating! With this … thing on my head I was clearly inferior to the combined power of the most innovative pony in Equestria and the master of all forms of magic. I would have to surprise them or their knowledge would doom me to fail. I looked around, trying to find anything that could help me in my trouble. While Star Swirl stood still with his eyes drilling into my skin, Silver Coil slowly compassed me. The gears! Maybe if I could throw something into all those gears covering the walls, I would distract them just long enough for me to escape this madness. My breathing was fast and rhythmic, my body was all tensed up and I could hear the blood rushing through my veins. It almost felt as if my body was ready for this. I found myself a suitable object: A screwdriver which had been thrown carelessly onto the floor. Now I would only have to…

A sudden feeling warned me of incoming danger. The expression of Star Swirl’s face had only changed by a bit, and yet that had been enough of a message for my brain to warn me about an incoming attack. I just blindly jumped towards the screwdriver, just barely evading the sharp ending of a syringe Silver Coil had just pulled out. My hoof slid far enough to reach the screwdriver and gave it just a little nudge. I was watching the screwdriver slowly rolling towards the wall, almost as if watching a slow motion movie. His own momentum had betrayed Silver Coil and had caused him to fall over. However, Star Swirl reacted without hesitation. He used his magic to stop the screwdriver from causing a chain reaction. At that point, I had almost wanted to take my hoof and throw it into my face. Seriously, why had I not thought of that? I guess using magic isn’t the most reflexive reaction. Then, I remembered that using magic would not have worked anyway as my horn seemed to be very dysfunctional.

After my initial plan failing horribly, I decided to think of a plan B. A bit late of course, but better late than never. While my mind was rumbling to find a solution for my situation, both of my enemies seemed to be way more prepared. Star Swirl used a magical surge of direct electricity. For a second or two I did not feel anything but the pain. A fire burning inside of my body, cramping all of my muscles together and finally causing my mind to just shut off as the pain became unbearable. It is actually strange how that all works: Weren't you supposed to be conscious in such dangerous situations? Being knocked unconscious doesn’t seem like the kind of response you would expect when dealing with massive pain. I guess it could be less of a self-defense mechanism and more of an unwanted side effect or something like that.

When I actually regained my consciousness, it was already too late. I found myself shackled to the steel table in the middle of the room. I tried to move my legs, but each one of them was held by a single chain. My horn wasn’t much of a help right now either. I still tried to magically remove the chains - to no avail of course. From the corner of my eyes I could make out Star Swirl, slowly approaching the table. My mind, although still a bit jumbled, instantaneously filled with hundreds of questions: What is he going to do to me? What does he have in his hooves? Is he going to use magic again? Where is Silver Coil? What is their evil plan? How can I escape? I tried to move but the thick chains kept me down. It was impossible to gain more than one inch, even with greatest effort. He stopped right in front of the table, doing something with his hooves. I tried to lean over to get a glimpse of what was happening, but the chains were relentless. My struggle actually caught his attention and he shook his head disapprovingly.

“Just calm down. We are not going to do anything to you. We just have to make sure you won’t attack us again. No more aggression towards us, do you understand?”

Calm down? Was he kidding me? He was holding me on a table with thick steel chains and he expected me to calm down? And that promise: “We are not going to do anything to you”. That is what the bad guys always say before ripping their victims apart. If he thought that I would take that bait, I would have to reconsider my opinion about the state of his mind. And what about the part of “attacking them again”. Was he kidding? I had not attacked them. They had attacked me!

“What are you talking about?! You attacked me! I am the one shackled to a bucking table, not you.”

At first, Star Swirl seemed slightly confused, but then his expression changed. Slightly amused, he replied:

“So Silver Coil electrocuted himself, huh?”

He couldn’t be serious! That had been an accident. Silver Coil should have told him it had been one. Then again, he would never object against anything Star Swirl said.

“It was an accident!”

Star Swirl just laughed and I realized, how stupid that sentence had been. Anypony would say that, especially those who had planned it. Star Swirl hovered something into the air. It took me a second to process what I saw: A giant serrated blade reflected the light of the lamp above my head. No! No! NO! I don’t care what that pony had said about “not going to do anything to me”. This pony was obviously insane and not to be trusted with giant blades.

I tried to escape the chains but steel is actually much stronger than a pony. There was only one thing that could possibly help me out here: Magic. This time, I put everything into it. My heart was beating like a crazy colt testing out his new drums. A simple spell to take apart the chains by an inner force. To my great surprise it actually worked. Although, to be completely honest with you at this point, it did not quite work as I had expected. Instead of simply taking the chains apart and allowing me to escape, the whole room started to turn into some fiery hell.

Within seconds my entire field of vision turned into a bright mixture of orange and yellow. Every breath of mine turned into another fire inside of my lungs. My skin turned into an outer layer consisting of nothing but pain. My body instinctively tried to flee from the source of the pain. I threw myself to either the right or left, I don’t even remember anymore. All I wanted to do is to escape. To my surprise it actually worked. I dropped down from the table, landing in a pit of burning wood. My body screamed in pain, but my lungs were so burnt that I could not bring out a sound. Somehow I began moving again. I don’t even know how I took the power to do that. Step after step I made my way through the wall of fire. It was impossible to see where I was going, but soon I arrived in front of a giant cog. I remembered it being part of the wall right next to the staircase and decided to turn left. The smoke started to fill out my lungs, leaving me no air to breath. I started panting for air but it seemed as if there was no oxygen to breath. However, before I reached the stairs, Star Swirl suddenly appeared from the smoke. He laughed while the fires of hell were burning right behind him. My brain seemed unable to cope with what was happening and I stumbled further. Then, my memories seem to fade. I can’t tell you what exactly happened that day down there as I cannot remember. The last image I can remember is the image of a laughing Star Swirl in front of a wall of fire, casting a spell that would change my life.

---

---

It was a dark and rainy day. Usually I would have stayed inside of his small, cozy home, but this was an occasion I could not miss. I had been called a couple of hours earlier by the hospital. They had said that Star Swirl had finally awoken from the coma.

For a couple of days now, I had been wondering what had happened down in his own basement. I had been upstairs getting the test tubes which should have allowed us to test for acidic solutions, when I saw the smoke coming from downstairs. I just dropped the tubes and jumped down the stairs. I turned right and saw him lying there. Star Swirl seemed to be heavily wounded but his chest still went up and down rhythmically. That brought me to a very serious question: If there was a fire in the basement, what had happened to Ethereal Tear? Star Swirl had told me to get everything ready right after he had shocked Ethereal Tear. I still don’t know why he had been overreacting like that, but I guess seeing my friend like that must have scared him.

I jumped down further stairs until I reached the basement. Fire and smoke were coming from everywhere, trying to hold me back. Through the bright wall of combustion, I could make out a scheme of a pony lying on the ground. I took all my willpower together and jumped through it. I landed directly in front of Ethereal Tear, who seemed to have some sort of metal attached to him. I took him by his mane and pulled him through the burning debris. My whole body started aching under the pain and everything screamed to let him go, but I couldn’t just let him die down here! I pulled with all my power and yet I only moved him for a hoof or two. After what seemed like an eternity to me, I finally managed to get him to the staircase and out of the fiery hell down there.

I still don’t know why there was a fire in my basement or why Ethereal Tear had molten chains on his hooves. Today I hoped to find an answer.

The hospital doors were way too heavy. How should weak, wounded ponies get through them to acquire help? As most doctors were unicorns anyway, it did not really matter to them. Sometimes we forget to care about each other and may it be when doing such simple things as designing a door for a hospital. The warm air washed over my body, brushing off the cold air of the late night. My coat was still wet from the rain, but the warm air would dry it out soon enough. The receptionist was already expecting me as it was too late in the night for usual visitors.

“Are you Silver Coil?”

The receptionist had an incredibly deep voice, something you would not expect from such a flimsy unicorn.

“Yes.”

He smiled as he saw my wet coat, almost as if to rub that fact into my face. He seemed to enjoy the dissatisfaction of others, which was quite a strange characteristic for a receptionist from a hospital.

“Just follow along then. Usually we don’t have visitors in such late nights anymore, especially with that kind of weather outside. I hope you didn’t have to walk too far.”

Rubbing it into my face! I am calling it! He is doing that because he likes others being miserable.

“Actually I am from Neighengrade.”

To my great pleasure, his meine actually changed from that nasty grin to a considerate smile.

“I am sorry about that. I guess you really are a good friend, traveling so far and so late just to meet your friend.”

I decided to just say nothing. I didn’t know how to answer on that. The receptionist seemed to be not such a terrible pony after all. Or maybe he was just luring me into a trap. I snapped out of it as I knew where that was going. Somehow I tend to be very paranoid around hospitals. I just dislike the thought of other ponies cutting you open and staring into your body.

We walked for a couple of minutes. It seemed like this hospital was built as a maze. We climbed up long staircases, turned around four corners and suddenly stood in a completely different room, taking the next backdoor and suddenly having to climb down stairs again, just to arrive in unknown parts of the hospital. After a while I asked myself whether we were actually still in the city or the strange maze had led us to a different dimension. Just as I lost the hope of ever arriving, the receptionist suddenly stopped and turned towards me:

“Here you go! Room 22.5.4 in corridor 24§6.”

There was nothing to add to that statement. Did they seriously run out of numbers and used a bucking “paragraph” in the midst of their names? Or did they just dislike normal numbers? If somepony tells you that where you are is corridor 24 paragraph 6 and then leaves you standing in front of a small door, you know something is wrong in that hospital.

I opened the heavy door with a small window inside of it. The window was actually so opaque that it was impossible to take a glimpse of the inside of the room before entering. Why was there a window if it was opaque? That didn’t make much sense. The room was actually quite small. The first thing I noticed was the huge, comfortable looking bed with the old professor inside. Oh, what would I have given to have a bed right now? I had been traveling the whole day and now it was about midnight or possibly already early in the morning. A table, a pot with old flowers inside of it and a shelf with a couple of books on it. If you’d look up “spare” in the dictionary you’d find a picture of this room.
I trotted towards the bookshelf to look at the books they had prepared for Star Swirl. Childish lectures. The general theory of relativity by Albatross Einstein, a brief history of time by Stephen the Hawk, Philosophiae naturae of Isaac Neighton, and similar literature. Before I could take a book out, Star Swirl began speaking:

“I don’t know whether…”

He stopped there, leaving the sentence unfinished. Before I would ask him whatever he meant, I should probably greet him first. At least to give a bit of politeness to this conversation.

“Ahh. I see you have woken up, Star Swirl. Have you had a capable service? I hope that bed of yours is comfortable enough for your liking. I know how you always complain about the one at your home.”

Star Swirl stared at me for a second, completely confused about my attempt to make a nice conversation. I gave up on that end and just blatantly asked right out:

“So what happened down in my basement?”

Now, he was even more confused about the whole thing. He mumbled a few words into his beard before he finally make up his mind.

“I don’t know how to tell you… The whole situation got terribly out of hand. He attacked me and I had to use my newest spell…“

Author's Note:

Thank you SOOOO much for reading <3

Comments

[Debonair]

[Dream Whisper]

3465420

But... but... but its a Story?

Anyway, THANK YOU

Not everybrony would have taken their time to reply, especially not with a video. You are mostly welcome!!

[EnderBlaze]

When might another chapter come out?