• Published 28th Feb 2014
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Tales of the Oppressed - Terran34



Follow the journey of a young cynical man as his world is turned upside down. Without anywhere to turn, can he learn to set aside his preconceptions and learn to accept friendship for what it truly is?

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52. Searching for Friends

I am so goddamn pissed right now. I feel like breaking something. I just feel so damn powerless it's frustrating. After all that effort we put into defeating her, Chrysalis gets away the moment we take our eyes off of her. All because we assumed all of her changelings took part in the attack.

“We must track her down! The populace will be in an uproar if the one responsible for this mess gets away!” Luna growls. She looks like she's about to start blowing the place up, hoping to find Chrysalis that way. She obviously doesn't do that. Instead, she settles for incinerating the dead changeling with her magic, as a way to take out her frustration.

Celestia is kneeling down next to the dead guard, her eyes gazing upon his body with unconcealed sorrow. “I'm sorry,” Celestia whispers to him, even though he can't hear her anymore. “This is my fault. I only hope that wherever you are, you can forgive me.”

A pall of silence and despair hangs over us as each of us think about the possible consequences of this occurrence. To me, Chrysalis seems like the kind of creature that would hold a terrible grudge. She's definitely going to strike back at some point.

“Sister! We must send out search parties at once!” Luna urges, breaking the silence. “I won't let her escape!”

“Don't bother. She's gone,” I interrupt, crossing my arms. Luna glares at me. She probably hoped I'd side with her, since I'd been with her for the final battle. “Think about it. She can look like anyone or anything. She has the advantage right now and she knows it. She can dance circles around us, and lead us right into a trap.”

“Seth is right,” Celestia says somberly, lifting the body of the guard with her magic. “I don't like it, but Chrysalis has outwitted us once more. It's clear she saw the possibility of capture, and installed her spies within the guard as a countermeasure.”

“I cannot accept this,” Luna growls, stomping the ground with a hoof. I also notice she's dropping the pluralisms again. I think I'm starting to see a pattern in why she does that. “I will not sit around idly while that thing plots to enslave our subjects! Sister, give me control of the Stealth Corps.”

Hold on, the what now? I don't remember hearing about a Stealth Corps...and now that I think about it, maybe that's the point. Celestia is staring at her sister with a pensive expression. And while this whole exchange is going on, Rainbow and Twilight are standing there awkwardly, unable to really contribute to this discussion.

“Luna, if I give you command over them, what will you do with them?” Celestia asks at last. “You are angry, and I understand that. But I cannot permit you to put the lives of other ponies in danger because of that.”

Luna looks livid for a few seconds, before she forces herself to calm down with a few deep breaths. “Dost thou intend to do nothing, then?” she questions in a dangerously soft voice.

“Of course not. I agree with you wholeheartedly that something needs to be done. I merely wish to go about this in a sensible and methodical way,” Celestia assures her. You know...this whole exchange shows me that a diarchy can be way more effective than I thought. If it had just been Luna in charge, chances are she would be charging off looking for Chrysalis right now. Damn, this country really couldn't be in better hands...er...hooves. “In fact, I wish to have a course of action ready before I address the public with a full report, if only to assuage their fears. But first, we need to organize the search effort.”

“I...see. Then I shalt trust thy judgment.” Luna relents with a sigh, having calmed down enough to recognize the truth in her sister's words.

“I will give this poor soldier an honorable burial myself,” Celestia expresses, gazing at the dead soldier she's carrying with magic. “In the meantime, Twilight, would you do something for me?”

“Oh, of course!” Twilight responds, no doubt eager to get away from a situation like this. I'm with her. The battle may have ended, but it doesn't feel like it's over. “What do you need, Princess?”

“I would like you to go to the Science Tower, and give Dr. Forward a message for me,” Celestia commands. Dr. Forward. That's a fucking name. What even. “Tell him to begin work on developing a way to detect changelings while they are transformed.”

“Oh, smart. That way Chrysalis can't keep tabs on us,” I comment. That's some pretty good foresight on her part. Celestia nods, agreeing with my statement.

“I'll do that right away. I'll be back!” Twilight exclaims, and then she gallops back the way we came...only to poke her head back around the corner sheepishly a few seconds later. “Um...how do I get out of here?”

I can't help but facepalm. Though since Celestia isn't a total dick like I am, she gives Twilight the directions she asked for after a simple chuckle. With a nod, Twilight is gone, moving as fast as she can to carry out the directive given to her.

Celestia beckons us with a hoof, and we head back the way we came as well. I guess I'm just waiting for orders at this point. I'm practically a construction worker for her, but I don't really mind. As much as I hate work, I've never really had the chance to skip out like I used to do back in my time, so it's not as harrowing as it used to be. Not to mention if I'm working hard, it'll keep my mind off of the deaths I've caused. I think Celestia should have punished me harder. Damn her forgiving nature.

“Seth, this is what I'd like you to do for now,” Celestia says to me as we pass into the streets, where the guards and rushing to and fro, some carrying injured civilians or guards, and others working to remove debris from a wrecked building to get at the victims inside. It's both a heartwarming and tragic sight, if such a thing is even possible. “Report to Commander Iron, and tell him I sent you to work under him in the search for survivors.”

“Okay, I guess,” I respond listlessly. I can already tell that actually being there and helping with survivors is going to be a lot worse than just watching from afar. I'll have to handle the consequences of my actions up close. God, I remember just two days ago, I thought that having to go to a wedding was the worst of my troubles. I don't think I've ever been so wrong in my life. Fuck, now that the city is saved, I can't stop thinking about it.

All my life I've told myself that I didn't care about whether or not people lived or died. But now that I'm directly responsible for those deaths, it hurts me, and I don't know why. They're just ponies. I shouldn't care...but I can't help it. How many families have lost loved ones from this conflict?

My inner conflict seems to have shown or something, because once again Rainbow is pressing up against my side. And this is the dumbest part. I'm taking comfort from a fucking multicolored pony. As much as I care about her, looking at it from an outside perspective makes it look a little absurd. And fuck, it really sucks having to care about somepony.

“Rainbow, I'd like you to...” Celestia continues, turning her gaze away from an assembly line of workers to look at Rainbow. She cuts off when she sees Rainbow and I walking so close together. Rainbow, upon meeting Celestia's gaze, looks somewhat embarrassed. She fidgets a bit, like she wants to move, but she remains where she is. Celestia's eyes soften for some reason, smiling despite the situation. “...stay with Seth, and work with the Commander as well. No doubt Iron will need all the help he can get.”

“Hold on a minute, what? You said back at the...now non-existent wedding hall that you wanted her to fly with the Pegasus Corps,” I question, wondering what the hell this is all about. Celestia isn't usually one to contradict her own decisions, so what the fuck? “What changed?”

“Oh, nothing major,” Celestia responds with a coy expression. “Captain Spitfire can handle the situation in the air without her. Instead, we could use her strength to help clear debris.”

“I'm cool with that,” Rainbow agrees, a bit too quickly in my opinion. Celestia, what in the hell are you trying to pull? I mean...I'd much rather Rainbow be with me, but...oh fuck it, I don't care anymore.

“Very good. Now that everything has been settled, it's time to get moving,” Celestia says with satisfaction. “I know you all are tired, but if you can give it your best until dawn, I'll send somepony to relieve you so you can eat and get some sleep.”

“Shit, I am tired,” I admit, realizing for the first time that I haven't slept since I left Ponyville. What with the whole situation with Chrysalis and the non-stop battling, sleep really took a backseat in my mind. How the fuck am I still standing?

“Don't worry about me. I can go for hours!” Rainbow boasts...only to yawn a second later, which earns a chuckle from me and a blush from her.

“We shalt take our leave,” Luna declares, her wings splaying out with a flap. “Fluttershy must be told of our victory.”

Shit, I completely forgot about Fluttershy. That bitch really had it easy, sitting in that cave and looking after those fillies. Whatever. Anyway, Luna takes to the air after some parting words from Celestia.

“I must lay this soldier to rest,” Celestia reminds us, splitting off from us. “You can find me tending to the wounded if you need me.”

Now Rainbow and I are walking together down the street, an awkward silence between us. It's not because of anything Rainbow did though. I'm mostly just staring at the destruction wrought by the battle...which just gets me all torn up inside again. This could have all been avoided if I'd just told Celestia about Chrysalis. Instead, Canterlot is in ruins.

I remember watching a lot of animes with situations similar to mine. Though how the hell do those characters get over it? A simple pick-me-up by a friend doesn't erase something like this.

“Hey, so...” Rainbow finally says, looking up at me. “Are you okay? You don't look so good. You're all pale.”

“Am I? I'm not fucking surprised. Please, tell me how I can be okay in the middle of something like this?” I snap at her, a hint of sarcasm in my voice. “Do you know what's worse? All the dead that I keep seeing would be alive right now, if I hadn't been a dumb fuck.”

Rainbow winces, but she does try to look somewhat sympathetic. Though I don't think it's an expression she wears that often. Then, she looks determined, and she she stops walking. “Come here,” she tells me, walking in front of me and over to an alleyway between two houses.

“Uh, what are you doing? Celestia said we should be getting to Iron,” I demand, irritated.

“He can wait. Come here!” Rainbow insists. Ugh, what the hell is her deal? I'd like to get to work now, so I can stop thinking so much, but now she's holding me back for whatever dumb reason. Well, she's pretty stubborn, so I guess I should just see what she wants. Though why it has to be done in an alley is beyond me.

“Fine,” I grunt, joining her in the alley. I lean up against a wall, the stone feeling cold against my bare back. Right, I need to get a shirt some time soon, since mine was fucking sliced to pieces, and then incinerated for good measure. “The hell do you want? And why do we need to be in an alley?”

“Because I don't want other ponies listening in on a private conversation,.” Rainbow answers. “But I wanted to tell you that you shouldn't blame yourself.”

“What!? Are you an idiot? Who else is to blame? If I had just fucking told Celestia in the first place, Chrysalis would be dust right now, and there wouldn't have been a battle,” I shoot back, slamming my fist into the wall in anger. “No, I was a dumb fuck, and that cost ponies their lives.”

“You can't know what would have happened if you'd made another decision,” Rainbow corrects me. “It's easy to say after the fact that you should have done something differently. But it's impossible to know how things would have turned out even if you did.”

“Oh? Since you seem to know so much, tell me all about how Chrysalis could have defeated Celestia in a fair fight,” I remark sarcastically.

“I'm not talking about that. Chrysalis is evil, but she's really smart. She's managed to outwit Celestia not once, but twice now. If you'd tried to alert Celestia, what would stop Chrysalis from killing you quickly and then blaming your death on the hidden assassin threat?” Rainbow suggests, which gets me to pause. Now that I know Chrysalis's strength, it would make sense that if I'd raised my power, she'd have simply killed me. But that's a weak defense, coming entirely from supposition. “That's not the point though. What I'm trying to say is...it's over now. You can't change what's already happened.”

“I know that! But...you all have been treating me way too nicely for this. You're acting like nothing happened at all, and all Celestia did was fucking give me the equivalent of community service...for causing a goddamn changeling invasion!” I retort, crossing my arms. “That doesn't make any sense.”

“Seth, you're talking like you wanted to get banished,” Rainbow observes, looking worried. She squints at me suspiciously. “Did you want to get banished?”

“Of course not! Where would I go?” I snap. Like seriously, if I got banished, I probably would have found a more creative way to kill myself. “But that's not the point. Banishing me would have made sense. Instead, she's letting me stay.”

“I'm glad she is! I wouldn't want you to go,” Rainbow admits, and then her ears flatten slightly wen she realizes what she just said. I raise an eyebrow at her.

“Really? That makes me a bit curious. What would you have done if Celestia did decide to banish me?” I ask, honestly interested in hearing the answer.

“I wouldn't have let her banish you,” Rainbow asserts, which earns a shake of the head from me.

“Right, like you could really stop her. Seriously though, answer the question,” I return. I've pretty much come to accept that going against Celestia is near impossible. Rainbow is strong, but I can't see her going that far for me. She's not that stupid.

“Well...um...if you were to leave...” Rainbow seems to be thinking hard about the question. She wrinkles her brow, deep in thought. A minute passes, as it seems to be a difficult question for her to answer. Well, whatever she says, it better be honest. Finally, she lifts her head and looks me in the eye. “...I think I'd go with you.”

“What!?” I gasp, looking at her incredulously. Out of everything I was expecting, I did not expect an answer as stupid as that one. “Don't be stupid. You have friends here that you've been living with just fine before I showed up. Not to mention I'm sure you have a family. Coming with me would mean giving all of that up, and no friend is worth that.”

“You think so? Then why did you do that very same thing for me?” Rainbow shoots back, and I'm left speechless. She's right, I really did give up everything I just detailed for her. “Reciprocation is a thing, you know. If you could do that for me, I would do it for you...though to be fair, I could always visit home.”

“Reciprocation, huh. Sounds like something Amaryllis would say,” I muse aloud, recalling my life back in my time. I realize a moment later what I'd just said, but it doesn't give me the heart attack it did before, because I've already told Rainbow about her, and what she meant to me. “Anyway, the whole point I was trying to get across is...why the hell am I being treated so leniently? Hell, in my time, if I'd done something like this, I'd likely get executed.”

“Executed!? Here's a better question; why would they treat you so harshly for a situation like this?” Rainbow exclaims, horrified. Suddenly, it's starting to make sense. Judging by that reaction, executions don't really happen all that often. Which probably means the methods of punishment between the human world and the pony world are culturally different. “You could have had your family back. To...be honest, I don't think I could have done any differently than you. I'd do anything for my friends, but...family...”

“Bullshit. You're the Element of Loyalty or whatever. I feel you'd have busted Chrysalis in an instant,” I say flatly.

“Maybe,” Rainbow admits, ducking her head. “But still, it was a really difficult decision you had to make. Either way, you lost something...and I can't even imagine how that must have felt.”

“Yeah...it sucked,” I remark. I lost practically whole night's worth of sleep because of that. And I might lose some more. Who knows.

Rainbow looks slightly shy as she says this next bit. “I'm just glad that in the end, you chose us...chose me,” she whispers, looking at me with a strange expression. What the hell is that look supposed to mean? “All of these ponies that you see walking around are alive because of you, Seth. I'm alive...because of you. That's why Celestia didn't banish you. That's why I'm grateful even despite what you did.”

Shit. Technically if I hadn't had a change of heart when I did, the Elements would be dead now. And without the Elements, there would be no plan, and the city would still be in the hooves of Chrysalis. So...Rainbow is right. Ponies are dead because of me, but ponies are alive because of me as well....and...shit, why the hell do I have to deal with so many complicated emotions!? Sometimes I'd rather just be back in college, focusing entirely on my schoolwork and saying fuck you to almost all of my emotions. Fucking ponies. This is what you do to me.

“I guess you have a point,” I admit grudgingly. Rainbow smiles at me, happy to see that she's gotten through to me. “Whatever. Can we get going now? I'd like to not be here when Celestia comes looking.”

“Yeah, sure, let's go!” Rainbow says, seeming much happier than before. We move back towards the street, but Rainbow slows down just before we leave. Ugh, what the hell is her problem now? “Hey...so, before we go back out there...I wanted to ask. Did you mean what you said before? About me...being your reason to live?”

Fuck...I did say something like that, didn't I? Goddammit, I thought we were all going to die back there. Way to go, Seth, just blurt out whatever's on your fucking mind just because things got a bit dicey. Well...more than a bit. Still, this is an embarrassing thing to admit to.

“I'm not saying it again, and if you tell anypony I said that, I will deny it with every fiber of my being,” I express vehemently, though my words pretty much tell Rainbow exactly what I'm feeling. Rainbow grins and emits a fucking squee (and this is the first goddamn time I've heard her do that), and then blushes slightly. “And stop blushing! I was just telling the truth!”

“I...I'm not blushing! Shut up...stupid Seth,” Rainbow emits, covering her face with her hooves in a frankly adorable manner. I can't help but grin at that. “Let's go. Iron's waiting for us, remember?”

With that, Rainbow and I are back on our way down the wrecked street to find Iron. It sucks to see all this devastation, but it isn't crippling me like it was before. Now, the only thing I'm angry about is that the one responsible was never brought to justice. Damn you, Chrysalis. I hope Celestia finds out where you are and obliterates your entire fucking hive.

After speaking to a guard for directions, we finally find Iron standing by the ruins of a broken down building...which I realize with a start is the hotel Rainbow, Vinyl, and I had once stayed in. Fuck, it's a real mess now. The roof's caved in and the walls are shattered, to the point where I can see into some of the rooms from down here on the streets. Most of them are covered in slime, which means the changelings probably targeted here, knowing that they'd find a great deal of victims here.

Iron is barking commands at his troops, who have formed an assembly line to help remove the debris from the entrance. Some pegasi are helping out as well, flying up to the upper rooms, where they attempt to remove the slime from the upper rooms. It doesn't seem to be going well for them, however. Iron spots us as we approach, and he walks to meet us.

“Hail, Seth. Do you have some business with me?” Iron says officially. Come to think of it, I've never seen this guy show any emotion. Whatever. I actually prefer that. It'll make dealing with him much easier for the both of us.

“Yeah. Rainbow and I were sent to assist you by Celestia,” I reply simply. Iron nods and remains silent, probably thinking about what to do with us. “So just give me something to do, and I'll do it.”

“Very well. I believe I can put you to use. If I recall correctly, you both are capable of flight?” Iron questions us. Rainbow gives him a frankly hilarious look while flaring her wings. Yeah, she's a pegasi, so it's obvious. I assume his question was mostly directed at me. I nod wordlessly to give him his answer. “Good. In that case, I'd like you both to fly to the upper levels and assist the Pegasus Corps in breaking through the slime barrier. It appears to be resisting their efforts.”

“Makes sense. If it were easy to break through that slime, evolution wouldn't have given it to the changelings to begin with,” I reason. I tap into my magic once again, such that my vision turns green again. “Let's go, Rainbow.”

“You got it! I'll smash through that barrier in no time!” Rainbow boasts, and then the two of us take to the air.

“Once you succeed, search the interior for survivors,” Iron commands us, just before we pass out of earshot.

“Um, there's more than one barrier. Which one do we break?” Rainbow observes, staring at the building.

She has a point. There aren't that many rooms visible from out here, and the ones that I can see are covered in slime. The pegasi here, led by Fleetfoot of the Wonderbolts, are doing their best to break through the slime, but to no avail.

Without answering Rainbow, I fly closer to see exactly what they're doing that isn't working. Hm,a s far as I can see, the pegasi are just ramming into the slime with their hooves, hopping to shatter it. Now, if the slime was a rigid structure, that might actually work, but the slime is actually bending beneath their efforts, distributing the force of impact along several thick strands located inside the rooms. Huh. Say what you will about the changelings, but they're too goddamn smart.

“Let's just pick one,” I decide, flying closer to the hotel, so that the other pegasi can see me. Rainbow follows close behind. When I get close to the Wonderbolt, I call out, “Fleetfoot! I'm here to help.”

“Ah, Seth! Good, maybe you can do better than we can,” Fleetfoot responds readily, beckoning us closer. “That slime resists our every effort. I rammed it at top speed, and even then I just rebounded off.”

“Oh? Then I guess we'd better try harder. I'll hit that slime with a Sonic Rainboom! Let's see how it can stand up to that!” Rainbow declares, flexing her muscles.

“How about you don't do that? As far as I can tell, these barriers are impervious to physical efforts from the outside,” I explain, lifting a darkness covered fist. “If I'm right, only magic can break through it, because it's magical in nature.”

“Huh. That explains why it's so high up. If you're right, then the changelings must have known the unicorns wouldn't be able to hit something so far up,” Fleetfoot conjectures. “Pick a barrier and give it your best shot. If it works, we'll head in through there.”

Well, I guess it's up to me. I consider using my long ranged rifle, but decide against it. If I give it too much force, I might harm any ponies that might be trapped inside, especially if they're also trapped in slime.

Without another word, I soar over to one of the barriers. As I get closer, I can see through the slime to the room beyond...and the first thing I notice are the ponies trapped in slime on the other side. Fuck, there's a family in there. There's a stallion, a mare, and a little filly, all trapped together in a large blob of slime. It's a good thing I didn't use my rifle then.

With a grunt, I slam my fist into the barrier. As I expected, the magic tears into the slime like a knife through warm butter, but only where the darkness touches it. The force behind my attack does absolutely nothing to the barrier. Fair enough. For my next attempt, I raise both hands, cover them in magic, and hook my fingers into the barrier and form a hole in it by stretching outwards. From there, it's easy to peel away the rest of the slime.

“That did it! All right ponies, let's get in there!” Fleetfoot orders the other pegasi (all five of them. Sheesh) once she notices my success. I do the smart thing and back off the moment I get the hole open, so that Fleetfoot and the other pegasi can surge inside. “Dear Celestia. All right pegasi, help me free these poor ponies.”

“Seems like you've got things handled here. I'm going further in,” I tell Fleetfoot, even as she's prying apart the slime holding the civilian family with her hooves.

“Understood. Thanks for the help. Stay close, in case we need you again,” Fleetfoot responds. Well, now that that's out of the way, I gesture for Rainbow to follow me and we leave that room, stepping through the broken remains of the door and into the hallway.

“Christ,” I emit, noticing all of the ponies trapped in slime in the hallways. The whole place looks like something out a nightmare. Like, there's slimed ponies hanging from the ceiling, and strands of slime stretching from wall to wall like some kind of twisted green spiderweb. “I guess we'd better start freeing them, huh?”

“Yeah...this is horrible,” Rainbow agrees, immediately moving over to one of the ponies hanging from the ceiling and cutting it down with a sweep of her hoof. “I'll get this one free. You work on one of the others.

“Right...I just hope I don't have to comfort them. I'm not doing that,” I grunt, tearing a pony down from the ceiling as well. “Actually, come to think of it, we should just take these cocoons to Fleetfoot, and have her take care of them. That way we don't have a bunch of panicked civilians running around.”

“While that sounds like a good idea, it seems like you just don't want to deal with them,” Rainbow accuses me disapprovingly.

“So what? If the logic is sound, who cares what my reason are?” I point out with a slight smirk. Rainbow sighs as I pick up the slimed pony and move back towards the room where Fleetfoot is. Judging by the anguished cries I hear from within, she's already made progress in freeing some of the civilians. Upon walking through the door, I'm greeted with the sight of Fleetfoot comforting the freed family. The stallion is holding the mare and filly close, despite his own traumatized expression. “Fleetfoot. I've brought another.”

Fleetfoot looks over and starts at the sight of me holding the slimed up pony. “What the...why didn't you free her?” she demands.

“Because then we'd have a bunch of traumatized ponies running around like chickens with their heads cut off,” I state flatly. Fleetfoot winces at my metaphor, but she's nodding, so I guess she understands my point. “Basically, I'm going to bring all of the ponies I find to you. Though you should probably wait to free them unless they're pegasi.”

“Why would their race matter?” Fleetfoot inquires. Fucking...ugh, you'd think a soldier like her would have thought of this before hand. Sheesh.

“Because pegasi can fly down. In case you hadn't noticed, this room is about five stories high, and the only other way out is clogged by debris. If you want to deal with a bunch of crazed ponies trying to get out, be my guest,” I retort. Fleetfoot frowns at my seeming lack of concern for the civilians, but she does seem to get the point.

“That does make sense. All right. Gather all of the ponies you can find,” Fleetfoot admits with a sigh, indicating a spot for me to place the slimed pony down. I do so, hating the feel of the hardened slime rubbing against my skin. Damn, I really need a shirt. “Cumulus, fly down and tell Iron that he needs to hurry his tail up. There's more ponies than I bargained for up here, and we can only fly down so many at a time.”

“Yes, ma'am!” Cumulus returns with a salute, and then she jumps out the window, spreading her wings.

“You know,” Rainbow says, turning to me with a wry expression as we leave the room again. “You have a knack for coming up with logical excuses when you don't want to do something.”

“Well excuse me, Rainbow, for not wanting to deal with crazy crying ponies,” I retort, searching the hallway for more ponies to grab. “That's the last thing I want.”

“You can't blame them for being scared,” Rainbow chastises me.

“I'm not blaming them for being scared. I'm blaming them for being annoying,” I shoot back. “Yeah, it sucks to be in a situation like this, but I'm just not the kind of guy that can comfort them.”

“Eh, I suppose. Anyway, we should probably split up to cover more ground,” Rainbow suggests. She then rears up and slams both of her front hooves into one of the doors, breaking through the flimsy barrier of slime that had been covering it. “I'll check this room. You check the next.”

“Sure, whatever,” I say with a shrug, and then I too break into one of the blocked hotel rooms. I'll skip describing this next bit, since literally all we do is grab every pony we see and carry them to the other pegasi. Though in one rather humorous case, I had decided to roll one of the cocoons there, which had gotten Fleetfoot particularly mad. Though I thought it was funny. They're unconscious, so what do they care?

Finally, I step into one of the rooms on the far end of the hallway, near the collapsed staircase to the fourth floor. Holy shit, this place is a mess. The bed seems to have been over turned, though it was done purposefully, because there's black marks all over the back of it, suggesting that it was used for cover. Interesting...so the pony in this room tried to put up a fight. This room is fucking covered in slime, so I suppose the changelings had been kept at bay a while.

I look around for any sign of the slimed pony. However, the first thing I notice is a large cart, filled with...are those mixing tables? Hold on a minute...shit.

Sure enough, I recognize everything in this cart. This is Vinyl's stuff. Which means she was in the city when the changelings attacked. Fuck! She better be around here somewhere. Please let her be okay. This whole fight had nothing to do with her. Shit, how did I forget she was here?

I look around behind the bed, and much to my relief, Vinyl is there, trapped in a slimy cocoon much like the other residents I've found. She's been completely encapsulated, so she has no way of knowing that I'm even here. She looks terrified. I would have been too, really.

Next to her is the form of a fallen changeling. Which means she'd managed to take one out before she was taken out herself. Still, I'd better get her free. But before I do that...

“Rainbow!” I yell, sticking my head out into the hallway. “I found Vinyl! I'm at the end of the hall!”

Almost immediately, I can hear Rainbow galloping down the hall, having heard my cry and rightfully deciding that Vinyl is more important than random strangers. “Are you serious? Vinyl's in this hotel?” Rainbow demands, appearing in the doorway, having given it her all to get here quickly. “Where?”

“Behind this bed. She managed to kill a changeling before she got slimed,” I tell her, beckoning to her. “I'm setting her free. I thought you might want to be here when I did.”

“You thought right. Wow, how many was she fighting? This place is coated in slime,” Rainbow says in awe as she joins me by the slimed Vinyl. Rainbow peers at her face and blanches. “Hurry and set her free. I don't like seeing her like this.”

“I'm working on it,” I respond tersely, my hands already digging into the slime. “Fucking changelings, running around, tossing their slime everywhere...”

Rainbow watches with bated breath as I tear globs of slime away from Vinyl's body, until finally I peel a sheet away from Vinyl's face. Unlike some of the others, Vinyl doesn't wake up immediately, her eyes closing instead. “Huh. Guess I gotta get the rest of this off of her as well. Lend me a ha...er, hoof,” I reason. Rainbow nods and starts tugging at the slime on the other end of Vinyl.

Soon, we've got her free, to the point where the slime no longer holds her upright. Vinyl collapses limply on me. I cup my arms around her back out of reflex, so that I'm holding her up now. “Whoa there. Try and watch where you fall, you dick,” I grunt, even though I know I'm speaking to somepony who's unconscious. I let her down gently, so that she's lying on her side. “Now what? I expected her to be awake when we freed her.”

“I guess we wait for her to...wait,” Rainbow begins, only to stop when we hear Vinyl breathe in sharply, her eyes opening wide. Vinyl lurches head up, her horn lighting up brightly with magic. I don't think she knows where she is...and that's compounded when she starts firing beams of magic in all directions.

“Stay back! I swear I'll hurt you!” Vinyl shrieks, looking around widely. I was just going to wait for her to settle down, but once one of her beams hits me in the chest, singeing my skin, I decide to put a stop to it myself.

“Okay, no. Fucking sit still!” I grunt, reaching forward and grabbing Vinyl's shoulders so that I can stare into her eyes. Vinyl stares at me for a good five seconds before she realizes who she's looking at.

“...Seth? What are you...what's going on?” Vinyl asks, the panic slowly starting to fade from her eyes. “Where am I? Where are those monsters?”

“It's over, Vinyl. There are no more monsters,” Rainbow assures her friend, stepping forward so that she can be seen as well. “You can relax.”

“No more? Oh good...I need to relax...” Vinyl utters...just before she fucking passes out again, slumping forward so that her head is over my shoulder.

“And she's gone,” I say with a sigh. Seriously, though, that was nuts. It's like she didn't even recognize us at first.

But at least she's okay.

Author's Note:

Fuck, I barely got this one out on time, thanks to both writer's block and a dumb test that came from nowhere in one of my classes. Sheesh. It also didn't help that my mind blanked on what kind of music to put here.

Also, I've made a major decision, thanks to this chapter. I can't talk about it, otherwise you'll know what I'm talking about and therefore have it spoiled for you. Which leads me to ask myself why I bothered typing this. Whatever. At least you know I'm thinking ahead? I don't know.

Finally, my story has been mentioned on TVtropes! I don't have a page there, but I noticed this morning that several viewers were directed here from that site, which galvanized me into getting this chapter complete tonight.

Anyway, you know the drill. Leave dem comments and let me know what you all are thinking!

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