Sleight the Mystifying and Extraordinary

by Bluecatcinema

Truth

The Changeling council was in an uproar. Mere minutes after Red Eclipse had beaten Sleight to within an inch of his life, they had gathered in the tower. They were the leaders of the various roles of the village (Char, as head of the guards, was amongst them), and they were frantically discussing their options. Chrysalis, flanked by Wizel, was overseeing the argument with dismay.

"What are we going to do?!" Slog, head of construction, asked. "If they could take down one of our buildings with just one blast, imagine what it could do to us!"

"We can't leave our home!" Dair, the nursery's top supervisor, despaired. "We were given this land by the princess herself! That monster has no right to kick us out of our home!"

"But we can't fight Red Eclipse!" Countered Vurp, the chief archivist. "He's too powerful!"

"Then we have to run away!" Gerrik, lead councilor, yelled.

"But where, though?!" Slog asked.

"I dunno, anywhere but here!" Gerrik declared. "We did it once before, we can do it again!"

"We can't, though!" Dair insisted. "The eggs are only just hatching, and there are still a bunch of growing larvae. We can't hope to escape with all the larvae intact in less than 72 hours!"

The others, along with Chrysalis and Wizel nodded in agreement... but Char stepped in.

"Well there'zzz a zzzolution to that: leaving the eggzzz behind." He said simply.

The other Changelings were shocked, especially Dair and Wizel.

"Leave the eggs?!" Dair gasped. "Char, you are suggesting that we leave those poor defenseless larvae behind!"

"What choice do we have, Dair?" Char asked. "Azzz of now, they are nothing more than dead weight!"

"Colonel Char, those 'dead weights' as you call them are our future!" Wizel said sternly. "To abandon them to die at the ends of those monsters is murder, and taking their lives away before they can even experience them!"

"Pleazzze!" Char snorted. "Our queen can eazzzily lay more of them! Thizzz is a dog-eat-dog world, old one, and only the strongezzzt zzzurvive!"

Chrysalis, not willing to listen to the thought of leaving her children to die, was about to intervene...

"You're wrong!"

The council turned to find Sazh standing before them, quite upset.

"Okay, who let the twerp in here?!" Char said mockingly.

"We are not leaving those larvae to their doom!" Sazh declared. "And we are most definitely not leaving this land! This is our home!"

"Sazh..." Chrysalis sighed.

"Chrysalis, allow me..." Wizel insisted. "Sazh, I know you are upset, but-"

"But nothing!" Sazh interrupted. "You guys seem to forget that we still have our wizard!"

"Wizard?!" Char snorted. "That pony wazzz no wizard! He juzzzt got hizzz flank handed to him on a zzzilver platter by the pony he wazzz zzzuppozzzed to defeat! He'zzz nothing but a fraud!"

"He was beat pretty bad..." Slog agreed.

"It was so hard to watch." Vurp grimaced.

"Sleight was just off his game!" Sazh claimed. "The next time, he'll-"

"There izzzn't going to be a next time!" Char roared. "The prophecy is worthlezzzzzz! The wizard in it, worthlezzzzzz! And do you know why? Becauzzze he'zzz a pony, and ponies are abzzzolutely worthlezzzzzz! Azzz are you, you pony-loving freak!"

"Now that's just uncalled for!" Sazh declared.

"Zzzhut up!" Char knocked him down.

"That's enough, Char." Chrysalis glared. "And I absolutely refuse to leave my children behind, Red Eclipse or not. And Sleight may still be able to save us."

"You too, my queen?" Char gasped. "Why are zzzo many ready to believe that a pony can be our zzzavior?"

"Sleight was just caught off-guard before." Wizel declared. "When Red Eclipse comes back, I assure you, he will be ready."

"Where is the wizard, anyway?" Vurp asked.

"...A very good question." Chrysalis mused.

Excusing themselves from the meeting, Chrysalis, Sazh, and Wizel searched the tower for Sleight. They eventually found him in his room (that was given to him the night before), packing his things up.

"What is this?" Chrysalis asked.

"What does it look like?" Sleight shot back. "I'm getting out of here!"

"You can't just leave!" Chrysalis declared. "We had an agreement!"

"Nopony told me that I would be facing down a stallion twice the size of me, and a freakin' cannon!" Sleight yelped. "That's some information I could've used before!"

"You can't just leave!" Sazh protested, "We need our wizard!"

"No, you need a real wizard! Better yet, a general!" Sleight rebutted.

"But you're all we've got!" Chrysalis protested, "You cannot just leave when everypony is depending on you!"

"Why not?" Sleight asked, taking a gulp from his hip flask. "I've already proven how useless I am against that psycho. My dad always said I was worthless. I betcha that bum is laughing it up right now!"

"Sleight, this isn't helping..." Wizel tried to calm him down.

"Exactly!" Sleight pointed. "I can't help anyone! I've failed at everything I've ever done. I had this marefriend once, the prettiest, most lovely girl around, and what did I do? I messed things up, just like always! I lost her to another stallion, a better stallion then I could ever hope to be."

"Running away won't solve anything." Wizel declared.

"It's worked okay for me so far." Sleight huffed.

"Is that what Trixie would want you to do?" Chrysalis asked. "To run away?"

Sleight stopped in his tracks.

"How did you-" He asked.

Chrysalis held up the picture of the two, which had fallen out of Sleight's bag during his frenzied packing.

"Such lovely gams." Wizel leered. "I see why you liked her so much."

"Trixie would no doubt be ashamed of you if you just gave up." Chrysalis remarked.

"ENOUGH!!" Sleight exploded. "I'm no hero! I'm no savior! I'm nothing more than a fraud and a coward, and will never amount to anything. My dad was a pitiful drunk, and even he knew that! Every night, he'd down his mead, and take out his own lousy life on me! It was because of him… that when Trixie told me she wanted to settle down and start a family with me, I had to deny her that, because I knew I'd become just like him! She of all ponies didn't deserve that!"

"That's not true!" Sazh protested.

"Yes, it is." Sleight took another gulp from his flask, before showing it to them. "See? I'm already down the path! I can barely go a week without emptying this cursed thing!"

Sleight stole another gulp from his flask.

"I'm just some two-bit sideshow pony." He admitted.

"Sleight..." Wizel said firmly.

"A selfish, greedy, skirt-chasing jerk..." Sleight continued.

"Sleight..." Wizel repeated, perturbed.

"A waste of space, and magic." Sleight sighed.

"That's enough." Wizel growled, irriated.

"Trust me, you, the Changelings, and everypony else, is better off without me!" Sleight despaired, taking another gulp from his flask.

"That's enough!" Wizel roared. He knocked the flask from Sleight's hoof and stomped it into pieces.

"Wizel?!" Chrysalis and Sazh gasped.

Then Wizel punched Sleight right in his already-bruised snout.

"GAH! Why the buck did you do that?!" Sleight growled, rubbing his snout.

"I am sick and tired of your confounded 'poor me' act!" Wizel growled back. "You are a wizard, Sleight, act like it!"

"No, I'm not!" Sleight spat. "You and Chrysalis said so yourself! I'm not the wizard from the prophecy-"

"For Faust's sake, I made it up!" Wizel admitted.

The room went silent, as the three glanced at him in shock.

"...What?" Sleight gasped.

"Wizel? What you mean you made it up?" Chrysalis asked.

"I mean..." Wizel sighed. "...the prophecy never existed. I made it up off the top of my head."

"Are you kidding me?" Sazh whispered.

"Wizel, why would you do that?" Chrysalis asked angrily. "Lying to the Changelings?! Lying to me?! Lying to Sleight?!"

"I didn't think that you would all take it so seriously." Wizel retorted. "I was only trying to give them a glimmer of hope... something that you hadn't been doing for a long time!"

"Excuse me?!" Chrysalis frowned.

"That's right, your majesty... I made the prophecy up, because you were so darn insistent that we didn't need Celestia's help, so blinded by your pride that you were about to lead us to certain doom... for the fourth time!" Wizel admonished her.

"W-what?" Chrysalis stuttered, caught off-guard.

"I'm sorry, Chrysalis... but you had made a lot of bad choices in your time as queen... and after the Canterlot Wedding, you had made us into the monsters that they had feared us to be!" Wizel recalled. "Changelings were dying, and I was left with the damage control... then you had the stupid idea of invading the Crystal Empire! And we were left even worse off! It was a miracle that Prince Paladin had finally talked some sense into you before you went and screwed us over for the third time!"

Chrysalis was stupefied, tears coming to her eyes.

"Whoa... that is harsh..." Sazh declared.

"W-wizel... I-I was only trying to..." Chrysalis muttered.

"I know you were, Chrysalis." Wizel said, calming down. "But you must understand, that I only made this prophecy so that the Changelings would have hope... I didn't want the legacy of Changeling matriarchs to end with you. Never in my wildest dreams did I think there would be a pony that could fulfill the prophecy..."

"So, not only was I not the wizard from the prophecy, the prophecy never existed... so I got throttled by a war-monger for nothing?!" Sleight snarled, outraged.

"I'm afraid so." Wizel nodded. "But I truly believe you can make a difference here, Sleight. So you're not the wizard we were hoping for. So you don't have the powers we figured you have. You are capable of more than you know, Sleight. Everything happens for a reason. You are here to serve a purpose. Do not flee from it."

Sleight glanced at the three Changelings… before drooping…

"I'm sorry… but all I am is a carnival magician… a con pony… I can't be the pony you all want me to be…" Sleight muttered, trying to stifle another tear.

"Look, we all had a long day. How about you just sleep on it?" Chrysalis suggested, wiping a tear from her eye. "We can figure out what to do then. Okay, Sleight?"

Sleight only gave a sad nod…

"Good." Chrysalis sighed. "Let us go…"

Wizel and Sazh acknowledged her with a nod, as the two gave Sleight sympathetic looks as they left. Chrysalis made to follow them…but just as she was about to close the door, she turned to Sleight "For all it's worth… I know there's more to you then what you think. There's a great stallion within you, just waiting to come out. I can feel it."

"That makes one of us." Sleight whispered as Chrysalis left.

Later that night, Sleight stood on the balcony of his room. He watched the moon, lost in thought.

"Sleight?" Sazh asked, as he walked to him.

"What is it, Sazh?" Sleight sighed.

"Do you... want to talk?" Sazh offered.

"No." Sleight answered. "But I think I need to."

"I can't believe the prophecy was all a lie." Sazh sighed. "I believed in it with all my heart and soul."

"Sorry about that, pal." Sleight sighed.

"So... was this Trixie pony really as wonderful as you said?" Sazh asked.

"No. She was better," Sleight smiled, "She meant the whole world to me… We first met when the travelling circus came by Baltimare. Back then, I just ran this dinky little booth, picking cards that "best expressed" the customers' characters. She came by, and asked for me to pick a card for her. She was so beautiful, I actually did it free of charge. I picked the queen of hearts, told her she had the looks of a queen. That really charmed her. I asked her if she wanted to go out some time. She said 'yes', and we went to the movies that very same night." Sleight smiled warmly. "I walked her home, and she asked if we could go out again. I said 'yes', of course, and for a few months, I was the happiest stallion in Equestria." His face fell. "Of course, then it all went sour. Trixie started wanting a 'commitment' from me, expecting me to propose. I couldn't do it, and I told her so. We decided to break up not long after, though we stayed friends. I still love her, y'know. Letting her go was the worst mistake of my life. Not a day went by that I didn't wish things were different and she and I were together. She even made me the godfather of her child…"

"That was nice of her." Sazh smiled.

"As long as I didn't become a real father." Sleight sighed. "I'd've have been as bad as my dad."

"And... what of your father?" Sazh asked.

"He wasn't so bad at first." Sleight admitted. "But then my mom died. He was devastated, turned to drinking as a way to cope, and starting taking his anger out on me. The only way I coped was being with my grandfather, Wild Card. He taught me everything he knew when it came to card tricks... for what little good it did. When he passed away, I had to get away from my dad… so I ran away to the circus and became a lowly sideshow attraction…"

"Don't sell yourself short." Sazh consoled him. "I have faith in you, Sleight?"

"How?" Sleight asked. "How can you still have faith in me, when I've already let you, Chrysalis, my grandfather, and even Trixie down more than once?"

"It's complicated." Sazh declared. "I was born a runt. Hardly anypony wanted me. It was Wizel who took me in, raised me from a larvae. He was his only friend, the only one who gave me even an ounce of care and respect. Back then, I had no faith in any ponies, for I was taught that ponies were the bad ones who always treated Changelings like savages, and for that, I was afraid of them. But even then, Wizel was my only friend... but one day, about twenty years ago, while flying over a cherry orchard, I was hit by a wayward ball. I landed in a patch of thorns, only to be found by this young Pegasus colt. I was afraid that he was going to get an older pony to finish me off... but instead, the colt helped me out. And when he was hurt, I returned the favor." Sazh smiled. "It was on that day that I learned that not all ponies were bad... and to this day, I still believe it, no matter how badly treated I am by both my peers and the ponies."

"Sazh..." Sleight said quietly.

"I still believe in you, because you were the first pony I met that actually stood up for me." Sazh declared. "When I was caught by those ponies... when Char was bullying me... you defended me."

"Well, I had to... isn't that what friends do for each other?" Sleight shrugged.

"Yes... yes it is." Sazh gave him a small smile. "Look, Sleight... things may seem bleak right now, but I know... I know you can do this, because I believe in you... and I always will. Under all that pain and suffering and regret… under all the lies and misdeeds… there is a great pony…"

"Thanks, pal." Sleight smiled.

"So... how great was your grandfather, anyway?" Sazh asked, "In terms of magic, I mean?"

"Oh, he was one of the best, Sazh. He was not famous… nor rich… but his way with cards and illusion was unmatched by any others…" Sleight sighed, as he pulled a small pocketbook from his jacket. "He was the only pony besides Trixie that ever understood me. Whenever things got too much at home, he would teach me one of his famous tricks from this pocketbook. When he passed away, this was the only thing he left me…"

"So this is like a wizard's spellbook?" Sazh asked.

"In a way, I guess…" Sleight whispered, as he nonchalantly flipped through the pages. "With only a deck of cards, he created magic…and not just any sort of magic, but true, unadulterated magic…"

"So… he was a wizard like you?" Sazh asked.

"No…" Sleight admitted, "He was a wizard that I wanted to be…"

"But you are, Sleight." Sazh stated simply, prompting Sleight to glance at him, "I can tell. Maybe you aren't a wizard like Starswirl-wait, are you really related to him?"

"I don't know really…" Sleight shook his head, "My grandfather always bragged that we were… but I was never sure if he was yanking my chain or not."

"Well, either way, even if you aren't a wizard like him… you are a good wizard, too." Sazh smiled.

Sleight couldn't help but return a smile, as he looked at the pocketbook. He was about to close it when he noticed the page he was on. Glancing closely at it, his eyes lit up.

"By gosh, that's it!" He gasped.

"What's it?" Sazh asked.

"I know how to get you guys out of this mess!" Sleight smiled. "Come on, we've got to tell the queen!"

"Tell the queen what?" Sazh questioned, as Sleight quickly ran towards the door.

Sleight paused as he opened the door, levitating his top hat (recovered by the Changelings after his fight) onto his head, and smiled at Sazh.

"That I've got a plan…"

Comments

[danick]

OH WELL...
I SEE " A LEGO MOVIE" REFERENCE HERE
MAYBE NOT I STILL DON'T WATCH OZ

[Razzy]

Wow, sad back story there.

On to the next chapter.

Cya
Raziel-chan