Equestrian Landings

by qwefg

ch2 New Settings and New Problems

Lockheart

You ever have one of those days where just everything seems to go wrong? Just yesterday I was doing… alright. I wasn’t rich rolling in money, but I wasn’t broke or up to my neck in debt. I had a job, but I will gladly admit that it wasn’t that great. Still that was life.

“Come on!” I screamed as my feet stopped by the cliff edge.

Then it all changed. Not just to me of course, but to a lot of people. How many you may ask? I have no idea as I was too busy learning how the little “Rules” of this game.

Rule number 1. Everyone gets turned into a pony, or hippogriff, diamond dog, or other various magical creatures until stated otherwise.

Rule number 2. There are the good guys and the bad guys.

Rule number 3. I’m on the villain team… so now I’m just trying to survive. Easy right? I mean it’s not like the rest of the world is out to get me right?

“Can’t you just fly!” Overkill screamed behind me

I shouted back “So can the freaking dragon!”

In under twenty four hours I had just managed to “ally” myself with two other “players” who have lost parts of their memory. In fact, one of them makes me feel good about my situation compared to theirs. Still, just when I get out of one mess I seem to be shoved right into another one.

Stardust looked down over the cliff and shouted “Jump!”

We both watched her jump straight down. Overkill jumped over the edge trying to catch her as I jumped along with them as the red dragon roared. The burst of heat and light burning behind me let me know just how close I was to turning into a crispy changeling. I made the foolish decision to look behind me and saw the dragon.

It was big. Seeing one on TV or in books made you think how big they would be, but seeing one! It’s like a shark. You’ve seen it. You know all about it, but once you actually see it. You don’t comment on the red scales that glimmer in the sunlight or the massive form that would give a T-Rex a freaking noogie.

Instead you’re too busy freaking out its teeth come chomping towards you like some sort of demented Pacman! Forgot the body, the size, and the rest of the details. All you see is teeth coming right at you at that tiny flicker of a tongue clicking… like a lighter.

“Fire! it’s breathing fire!” I screamed out loud seeing the dragon take another deep breath “Down faster! Down faster!”

I continued screaming as I flapped my wings soon overtaking Overkill and Stardust. The ground beneath us was rushing in faster as I could see the river. It was too shallow for my tastes. When you see the bottom of a river when you moving faster than free fall speeds, you know it’s going to hurt if you hit it. I tried to pull up only to see Stardust and Overkill rushing down towards me, as a spark came out of the dragon’s mouth ready to incinerate us.

The next few seconds were a blur. I tried to pull up, and follow or possibly skim across the top of the river. Overkill managed to grab Stardust by her arms and tried to do the same… only to have both of them crash into me. The flames rushed down above us as we hit the water.

******

I gasped for air as I was lying on a sandy shore. I hacked out some water as I could hear splashing nearby. Rolling my head over and tasting mud in my mouth I coughed as Overkill dragged herself out of the water with Stardust’s help. Once on dry land, she collapsed on the ground and started hacking up water.

“Well that went as well as could be expected.” Stardust said with a smirk “Everypony else alright?”

“Just peachy.” I groaned as I tried to get up. I flinched as my back screamed in pain. “Fu…ffff” and now I could taste blood in my mouth from biting my lip.

Overkill groaned feeling my pain “It’s one thing to curse us. But taking away our ability to swear in pain? That’s just cruel!”

My head ached. My back hurt like hell and if it wasn’t for the coat my skin would probably be covered in burns… or the fur is just blocking it. I hacked out more water, and tried to look back to see if Equestria’s living inferno decided to give chase. I sighed in relief see nothing, as I fell back into the muddy sand.

Stardust rushed over to me as I felt her hands… hooves on my… wing. Stupid weird magical pony biology. On the bright side! I didn’t have a stupid knot in my stomach so my magic is good so far... or I was currently feeding on Stardust’s compassion at the moment.

Stardust dug into her saddle bag as I couldn’t help but wonder how it survived the trip? Come to think of it she was the only one with saddle bags. Who got to pick exactly what we came into this dumped here anyway? I mean considering the vast differences between our current equipment… Then again trying to make sense of Discord’s actions seems kind of foolish.

With a touch on my wing, all those pesky questions disappeared, as I just figured out how a dislocated wing feels like. If I was allowed to swear, I would probably summon the dragon again.

“Good news is that we’re alive.” Stardust replied as she started to wrap my wing “Bad news is that our new alicorn friend just got demoted back to unicorn status until his wing heals.”

I shut my eyes and tried not to focus on how strange it felt to have the wing wrapped up. I did keep it underneath a jacket… but I didn’t think too much about it. How does wrapping up a bird wing help a bug wing? Just say magic and leave it at that.

I tried to smile “So I won’t get a cutie mark in flying.” I chuckled mostly to keep my mind off my wing “Still, an injured wing is better than a broken body.”

Overkill rolled her eyes “How did you pass the flying tutorial? You passed us, only to nearly crash when you tried to pull back up to help.”

That’s what she thought I was doing? Just stick with it. Trying to help always sounds better than trying not to crash into the ground.

“Who said I flew in the tutorial?” I quickly replied with ease “I managed to glide and almost crash into the spikes. Then I managed to hold myself in-between some gaps and flapped wings with a lot of huffing like a cartoon character.”

Overkill laughed for a couple of moments before stopping as she groaned, hurting her side. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with an injury. I looked back up and saw the sun shining in the sky without a dragon roaming for us. I glanced at Stardust, who seemed perfectly okay, despite having a pegasi in armor land on her. as everyone went crashing into the river.

How does an unarmed pony get past a fall like that without so much as a scratch? I mean I’d chalk myself up to changeling BS, but my sides hurt like hell as it did feel like I had two fully grown people tackle me.

Stardust noticed our looks and simply answered “Earth ponies. The Master Race.”

Me and Overkill both sighed as we said together “Noted.”

******

We spent the next few hours resting as we licked our wounds. Dear god I wish I had a watch right now… or a regular body. Human body to be exact.

I tried not to mess with the bandages around my wings, as Overkill left her armor near the fire trying to dry it out. Like me, she had a couple of bandages, except the one around her stomach.

I sincerely hope we don’t have to find a hospital for her. I mean it’s one thing to see someone holding their stomach, and another to can’t help but wonder if the fall did any… serious damage. I tried to calm myself down, reminding myself we were in Equestria, the land full of magical ponies and no horrible deaths… unless you count King Sombra.

Or, well humanity. In less than twenty four hours I had my current two ‘allies’ question and threaten me just because my current disguise looked like a sinister alicorn. Sure, they seemed to have simmered down after running away from a dragon… but that didn’t mean I forgot about it… or how they reacted even after I had helped save their lives before.

Stardust left us at our makeshift camp as she scavenged for food. It wasn’t because she was the only one not injured… It was just that she was the only one who apparently knew what we could eat. That stuff about ponies eating grass? Overkill started gagging after her attempt so we left Stardust to find food because she was the only ones who knew what we could eat without making ourselves sick.

So with just the two of us left watching camp, we started checking what we had… and what we could do.

We could pull up one of those Menu screens you saw characters had in MMO animes, but it wasn’t… fully intact? You couldn’t see your inventory, despite the fact I had nothing besides the clothes on my back, which were currently drying by the fire. You could see your skills, abilities and possibly message system… but all the other MMO aspects?

Gone. No exit menu. No mini map. No map system of any kind. A lot of stuff seemed gutted out of the menu, leaving only a few of the usual features behind. I looked at the skill tree again in doubt now. I could see the skills, the branches, and all the little aspects of the level up menu, with my new exp added, which brought up a point of concern. Overkill didn’t have the same level up menu I did.

Mine was a skill tree. You start at the bottom and then it branches out. Overkill had a different system. She claimed her version looked more like an RPG book. Certain skills cost certain points, and there was a little index explaining each skill and ability, along with a short description.

Still, it made you wonder a little bit. Was the level up menu just here to give us a decent start until we adjusted to our new reality… or could we only learn things if we used the system?

What I mean is in a game if you don’t have the skill than you can’t do it. You could have been a cub scout for fifty years and made hundreds of fires, but without that skill point in camping. You might as well be rubbing water balloons together.

“Overkill?” I asked out loud “Any idea if you can do stuff?” She glanced at me as if I was an idiot “I mean… stuff not listed. Like making camp fires. In games, usually, if you don’t have the skill than you can’t do it, even if you know how to do it in real life.”

She opened her mouth for a moment and then shut it. She was silent for a couple of minutes, apparently giving it more thought than I did. I was playing with a full set of human memories, and a lack of pony/changeling skills. She was playing with a mix. Come to think of it, how does a pony start a fire without a fireball spell in their skill set?

“That’s… a good question.” She slowly replied back “It’s probably…”

She didn’t finish her words, as I waited for the answer. She was apparently looking at the menu again. I tried going back to thinking about stories of the subject from books I’ve read, to shows I’ve watched. If we required the points in the skills… than we were missing a lot of basic abilities you don’t tend to think about. If we could do it without needing the skill… then that saves us a couple of points.

Overkill smiled as she walked over to the water. In just a few moments, she plucked out a fish from the stream with her mouth and carried it over to the camp fire, before dumping it on a rock. I watched her take a deep breath, as she pulled out a knife and started to get to work. It didn’t take her long to gut the fish and prepare it for us as a meal.

She turned back grinning apparently having found her answer “A little of bit of A and a little bit of B.”

She, without thinking, placed it on a stick and placed it over the fire as the meat started cooking. Overkill covered her mouth and ran away from the smoking fish, as it looked like she was gagging from the smell.

I on the other hand, wasn’t bothered by the smell in the least… though that was probably a changeling quirk. Herbivores noses probably despises meat, while I… could I even eat any food at all anymore, or is it the pure emotion diet for me from here on out?

“Could you throw it away?” Overkill pointed at the fish while covering her nose.

I nodded and grabbed it with my mouth before tossing it back into the river. It didn’t taste that great… but the smell wasn’t that bad. If anything, it felt like it needed to be cook longer, yet Overkill’s expression (and growing irritation) told me otherwise as she took a couple of deep breaths, trying to get rid of the smell… or something.

I glanced back at her “If you don’t want fish than how about you try a few berries or those twigs back there?” She frowned as I added “Beggars can’t be choosers.”

“You have a point…” She mumbled as she looked at the river “But I did learn something important from that experience. I know how to gut a fish. Steel Wings doesn’t because she’s an herbivore. I can’t catch a fish with my bare hands. Steel Wings can with her mouth.”

She sat down, probably opening up her menu, as she stared into the blank space in front of her “This… menu. It’s probably more like a cheat sheet or a beginner’s start up. I mean we’re not foals, so starting out with any basic skills would be difficult. Even then there’s the knowledge or aspects of certain techniques like magic, or in your case flight.”

I knew what she meant, as I replied “Not the top of my class. I know. Still… if it’s both then… how long will it last? I mean I have full memories and no hoof skills so to speak of. You have most of yours and some pony’s skills.”

Stardust walked out of the clearing as we were silent. Already she was chopping up the plants and putting it in a pot to cook, as she hummed a small tune that would have earned a place on the TV show. It would be cute to look at if it wasn’t for the fact that she had lost a lot of her original memories and gained a lot of pony skills, knowledge and second set of memories conflicting with her first one.

“So…” I tried to phrase it the best way I could without injuring someone’s feelings “Let’s test the level up system.”

Just like the first time I used it, my eyes darted as the little icons clicked and moved about, as if I still had a mouse and keyboard to operate them. In fact, it actually felt like I was using a mouse, instead of using my eyes to operate the little clicker, as I clicked on the Skill Tree icon. All of my newly earned points went towards emotional magic and craft disguise. Hopefully, I wouldn’t be just limited to just this the creepy dark alicorn disguise anymore. I clicked on ‘accept’ as I felt my body shiver.

Stardust covered her mouth as she stared at me. I could feel the shift in my body, as I struggled towards the water fearing the worst. I continued to stumble forward, as I didn’t know what the hell was happening to me.

Soon enough, the pain subsided as I stared at my own reflection. What I saw was a complete makeover of what I had been... again. I now had a light gray coat instead of jet black, while my green mane and eyes were now turned blue... and there was now a cutie mark of a heart shaped locket rested on my flanks.

I glanced at my horn, as it now looked closer to those of the run of the mill unicorns… Still, there where hint of my old teeth in my smile. It wasn’t a complete pony smile… just a few pointed teeth and a few flat ones. Hopefully, I would be able to fix that in the future.

I sighed in relief, happy to just see a color change instead of my changeling form being revealed. Now a new title rested above my head, replacing the given name.

Lockheart.

I chuckled in the moment, until I freeze up and realize they had seen me change form, as I turned around to face them. Did I burst into green flames, like the Changelings in the show or did I just suddenly start shifting in colors? What did they see exactly? How screwed was I?

Overkill face hoofed “You picked up illusion magic without fixing the wing issue?”

I glanced back at the water and saw I still had my wings and horn… for now “Still incomplete. I have some illusion skill…” I shifted the colors again, seeing my coat seemingly casually change into each color, before resting back to its gray form “… but not all the knowledge.” I ended with a sour note.

I lowered my head into the water, as an extra precaution, and held my breath as I tried to focus on my horn. Just as anticipated, the wave of green flames flickered passed my horn. I have no idea why the changeling flames appeared this time, but I didn’t need to risk them to see it… and hopefully the water would put out the flames as soon as they appeared.

I focused on trying to make the nub on my forehead to disappear, while I could feel the green flares dance about, as I trying this time to actively change my form/disguise. The flames weren’t exactly burning me, but I could feel the rush of heat around my body. I pulled my head up and grinned, seeing the horn gone… only for a spike of pain to come and my horn appeared again in another the burst of green conflagration.

“Damn it!” I screamed right out of the water, as a burst of magic shot out of my horn.

Stardust shook her head “Are you alright? I mean?”

Stardust seemed to blush as she looked away. I just simply sighed out loud as somehow I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. Still it was nice to feel the concern. It meant they hadn’t seen anything I was afraid of.

Overkill simply shrugged as she didn’t seem to care “So you can’t hide everything yet. What level did you grab?”

I opened my mouth to shout but held my answer back as I checked the menu again. There was only one level of craft disguise. There were more levels for craft illusion and I had one free point left. Hopefully I just needed one more point to hide my wings.

Sure, I could have dumped it into some combat skills… but Overkill has our DPS covered and if it came down between a fight between me and her? One point in combat isn’t going to make a difference. She’ll still kick my ass either way.

“Just the basics.” I muttered selecting the point and dumping it into illusions as my body shivered again.

Instantly, the knowledge seemed to flow into my mind, as I then managed make another copy of myself standing beside me. I glared at it, as copy me had the same black coat and green hair of my first disguise. Seeing the black coat at first made me instantly think it was my changeling form, which I did not want to reveal right now.

I felt my frustration build as I nearly shouted “I can make an illusion of myself, but I can’t hide a horn or a set of wings!”

How does making body double illusions rank lower than hiding wings on the fancy illusion skill tree! I nearly face palmed when I looked back at Craft Disguise. Maybe it wasn’t the skill level that was wrong, but where I put the skill point. I’ll have to remember that next time.

Overkill chuckled walking around my doppelganger “Like I said Stardust. Not a complete set. He has RPG skill without character knowledge.”

Overkill flew into the sky for a few seconds and brought down a dark cloud. I stared at the absurdity of it all as I knew she was using pegasi magic to do it... But, I was staring at a full grown pony sitting down on a lump of vapor. She struck a hoof at the cloud and sent a lightning bolt straight through the illusion as it shattered. I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of unease after watching my illusion clone being ‘killed’ so easily.

“I have player knowledge and pony knowledge.” She smugly replied “Increased accuracy, and I can use the Thunder Strike skill without needing to buy the ability.”

We glanced back at her as she sighed “No seriously, there is a separate skill for Thunder Strike. My trick was just bypassing some of the requirements, since pegasi naturally know how to manipulate clouds to a certain extent. I also upped my weather skill talent, because summoning tornadoes seems like a nice skill to have in the future… Though I don’t know how many points I’ll need for that.”

I glanced at my skill tree not finding any ‘Thunder Strike skill’. Of course, a changeling might not have that skill due to the fact that their changelings, and not pegasi. The other possibility could be different rule books or something like that. She had a different level up menu system after all.

I put my blue jacket back on, feeling it press up against my wings. I could still feel a twinge of pain from my wing, at least It didn’t feel broken anymore… but it certainly hadn’t finished healing.

I was slightly annoyed that my only way to hide those wings was with a jacket. I could barely fly, almost no spells for me to use, and I was just barely passing in my illusions and disguises… while being a freaking changeling. That’s like saying flightless pegasi or a unicorn without magic. I think I had enough right to be annoyed right now!

“You feel anything when you used the level up?” I asked out loud “My body just kind of shivered.”

Overkill looked away from us “My… hair stood on end. I…” She tugged on her hair with her hooves for a moment “I told you the friends I was looking for right? Their names?”

I wasn’t sure what she was talking about, we both shook our heads. Overkill slammed her head against the static filled cloud in frustration, as Stardust went over to her. I stayed back, not daring to risk another lightning bolt.

“You forgot.” Stardust replied softly “I… was in the forest. Kept thinking about my tour on duty, and something that had happened that bothered me. Just put in a few points and then I felt better…”

They both stared at me. Stardust looked concerned as she kept glancing at me, but not directly looking at my face. Overkill looked terrified. She looked as if she just found her car scrunched up into a tiny brick. They had lost more chunks of their memories, while I had no memory lost as far as I could tell.

“Nothing.” I said out loud, looking back at my memories for what I might have forgotten without realizing it. How the hell could you tell what memories you’ve lost if I don’t know what it is anymore in the first place? “So how do I figure out what I lost?”

Overkill sunk her face into the cloud as Stardust sadly replied “Nothing. You would know they were missing. You would feel the gap of knowledge. It’s not something you simply forgot, but more like… it was taken from you. You just know you lost it.”

I glanced back at the skill tree in new found concern “New skills for old memories. That’s… twisted.”

“Lucky…” Overkill darkly muttered through the clouds “So, Grim...”

“I told you my name was Yadrell.” I nearly snapped back in annoyance. I didn’t have memory loss and she did. She had a right to be annoyed “Or pick Lockheart.”

I didn’t want to be called Grim Tale, and be stuck with a reminder of Discord’s joke… or how lucky that I was to be on the villain team. Join the villain team! Earn new skills and get to keep your old memories. Sure my knowledge dump wasn’t as useful as theirs, but still… I remembered my past. They lost a couple of more chunks of it.

How many people would start to grow jealous, or hate those who didn’t have to deal with the pesky trade off? How long until people were singled out or… I tried to block that disturbing thought out of my mind. It was just another reason why it was okay for me to be paranoid.

Overkill groaned “So that’s what you told me yesterday?” I nodded as she sighed in relief “I’d rather lose your name and have you remind me, than something else important.”

I felt like snapping a little, bit but she was right. Better to lose a stranger’s name than an important memory.

I sighed “Just out of curiosity? Do you have any idea how much memory you lost?”

Overkill nodded “Three chunks. My friend’s names and what they were playing as. The GM of the game and your name. I gained three new skills only to lose three more chunks of my memory.

Stardust pawed her hoof against the ground “I lost how to skin a deer. A moment of fear during my tour of duty… something bad from how it felt when I remembered it… and my first kiss.”

We both stared at Stardust as she sighed “I’m a guy. I kissed a girl. Now I remember kissing a colt name Bright Light. Instead of skinning a deer, I suddenly knew a few more pony recipes and my incident of fear was now replaced, as a unicorn named Mystic Brew taught me how to make potions. You?”

Overkill scratched the back of her head “Mostly just lost. Nothing new added… well not added since relating to my skills…” Stardust continued to stare at her as Overkill coughed nervously “Alright… maybe a little bit of a foggy memory about the Fillydelphia high, but not a lot of detail.”

Overkill’s eyes were still a little bit puffy, but she was trying not to show it now. Apparently, those memories weren’t as foggy as she wanted us to believe. That, or, she just felt guilty about crying over forgetting a few names when Stardust lost important chunks of her life. I really need a term for Stardust because calling her…just seems… rude.

Yes he’s a girl right now, but if you got slapped with a gender swap, wouldn’t you be a bit annoyed being referred to as your new gender? Of course, the fact that Stardust also has a female personality kind of makes it all the more confusing.

Stardust was starting to have an identity crises. Last thing I need to do, is say anything that might set her off. Or cause him to hit me.

The bushes started to rustle as we all turned to face it. None of us swore… Well I didn’t swear underneath my breath. My mind went straight for the magic blast spell. Overkill glared at the bush in hatred, while her storm cloud rumbled, as Stardust hid behind the metal pot used for cooking our meal.

A brown head poked through with yellow hair attached to it. It was a pony… a unicorn to be exact. He glanced at us for a moment, before smiling nervously.

I felt my wings clenched to my sides at the sight of him, and looked over myself to realize that my jacket safely hid them. My secret was still safe. I was too focused on what was going on around me to even have spotted the new commer before he revealed himself to us. I had a changeling skill set as I could sense emotions and I had been completely caught off guard by some guy who just wandered in on us. I going to have to pay more attention to my new changeling sense emotion skill in the future.

“Uh… are you lot alright?” Asked the stranger.

Overkill stood up “Who are you?”

The stranger smiled more firmly this time “Livewire! I just got a little tied up in these woods until I saw I dragon. It was a good thing to because it lead me out of Bansewood forest!”

“Livewire?” Overkill asked in confusion “Is that your name… your real name?”

Livewire blinked “Uh… yes? Are you alright miss?”

I glanced at the menu again. Overkill’s name danced above her head, as the same was with Stardust, but Livewire? No name danced above his head. Just three capital letters.

NPC. Just freaking great. Time to see if we can salvage this situation… or screw it up on purpose!

“Sorry.” I quickly replied “We just are all a bit… lost. Can you tell me how to get back to Midgard?” Livewire looked at me strangely, along with the others “You know Midgard? Big place. City built around the massive tree, you can spot from miles away?”

Why Midgard do you ask? Because everyone knows it, and MLP doesn’t have a Midgard or it’s own brand of Norse mythology… maybe some of the monsters, but not the cities and stuff.

Livewire shook his head slowly “No… You alright mister?”

“Lockheart.” I replied with ease “Had a bit of a scape. It’s a long story, but seriously. Midgard isn’t close by… can you at least tell me where I am?”

Livewire stared at me with unease “Equestria. More specific the Bansewood forest.”

I smiled and continued screwing up on purpose “Can you take me to your king?” He stared at me, obviously having no idea what I was saying “Lord? Uh… person in charge?”

“That would be the princess.” Livewire slowly stated, probably wondering who I was, and if I might possibly be insane.

Stardust tried not to say anything. Part of her seemed to be struggling on telling me to stop messing with the guy. The other part understood that I was simply asking the questions that would make us look strange on purpose. Better to have someone else act like an idiot than do it yourself.

Overkill just stared at Livewire at first, making sure wasn’t a human just trying to fake being a NPC pony or something. Now, she was trying not to smile at his obvious confusion, as I was messing with him. She now struck me as the kind of person who would make Doctor Who jokes in Ponyville or near Time Turner… or Doctor Whooves… or whatever his name was.

I smiled getting ready to solve one of the questions on hand as I replied “Is there a succession problem with the queen, or is there more than one princess in charge of these lands?”

Livewire rubbed his head “Now I know you not from around here. Princess Celestia is the pony in charge. You might want to take a visit to Canterlot though… sounds like you’re a far away from home.”

Okay, that just roughly placed us within the last thousand years of the show…

Livewire glanced at the other two members of the group “What about you two?”

“Canterlot.” Stardust replied, only to sigh as she realized her mix up.

“Boston.” Overkill replied, only to get the same strange look Livewire gave me.

Livewire simply nodded “Must be a deadly place Boston. Never seen a pony travel with so many weapons.”

Overkill shook her head “It’s not that bad of a place.”

Livewire didn’t look like he believed her “If you say so… but you’re carrying a lot of weapons and armor, while your friends here aren’t.”

Overkill looked back at me and then at Livewire with a hint of annoyance on her face. I picked Midgard, while she picks Boston, and our new pony friend, Livewire, thinks Boston is a dangerous place to live in. I would have laughed, if Overkill wasn’t watching me.

Stardust shook her head, as she tried to play diplomat “Sorry, their just a bit mixed up… something happened, and we all ended up in the forest, with no idea what caused it. We were all kind of worried of where we ended up.”

Livewire glanced back at Overkill “So, when she asked about my name?”

Stardust lowered her head and pointed at Overkill “She couldn’t remember her name.”

Overkill sighed, as what Stardust said was technically true. Still, it was better to give our resident NPC an explanation that fit my crazy story, and of our current situation. Besides, it might make it easier to track down other people who got lost in this twisted game… and possibly which time period we are stuck in. Before cannon? Near cannon? Or after cannon?

Alright maybe not after the MLP show, unless someone, or something, just went out and murdered the rest of the other princess. Still, a quick look at the moon might solve that answer… which makes me wish I did that in the first place, come to think of it. Still, at least we have a better idea now.

Livewire rubbed the back of his head “Oh I see… sorry about your troubles miss.”

Stardust smiled, as she walked over to the pot “How about you stay with us for lunch, and help catch us all up.”

Livewire blushed “It wouldn’t be imposing wouldn’t it… I mean you’re from...”

“True, but I don’t know my way out of the woods.” Stardust said honestly “and we don’t know which direction to take. It all seems like woods… unless you follow the river.”

“You might want to rethink that plan.” Livewire said cautiously “It leads to a waterfall.”

Stardust chuckled “So it’s agreed. You help us get out of here and you eat with us, while we all trade stories.”

******

Stardust was surprisingly manipulative. Honestly I’m not sure if it’s Stardust the pony or Frank the human… which still kind of sounds like a fake name to me. Either way, [at first glance] Stardust just seemed like a very nice and innocent soul. Maybe it was a combination of the pony side and human side struggling over control of one another that surprised me about her actions.

One moment she’s trading silly stories about trying to earn her cutie mark, then, in the next moment, he’s laughing and she pickpocketed his bag of bits, and dumped it into her bag saddle bags. Then when he couldn’t find the missing money, she asked if he lost it in the forest, and he just believed her and blushed at her fake concern. [It was just so eerie to watch how she seemed managed shift from one identity to another nearly seamlessly. If you look at her carefully in her mannerisms, you could tell who is in control at the moment; from the demure gestures of one to the alert gaze of the other. Could they somehow both be playing off on an each other without ever bidding for control?]

Livewire lead us out of the forest without us running into any more trouble. The town he apparently was from was called Green Hooves. I tried not to groan at the pun. It’s Equestria. Whatever didn’t have a pun had something weird… like Rainbow Falls. On TV it might look nice, but I’m bettering in real life it would be a glaring eyesore every two steps.

Green hooves looked more like one of those old medieval communities. I half expected a group of ponies to be shouting “She’s a witch! May we burn her?”

The joke made me shiver, as it just reminded me just how close that comment could be made towards me. Instead, I focused on the ponies and the surrounding buildings. Most of the structures looked alike, except for the few colorful signs hanging out in front of them. Unlike Ponyville, with a large mare population, Green Hooves had a large Stallion population… and no, I wasn’t mixing up stallions with mares.

These stallions clearly looked more like Bulk Biceps but without the steroid abuse. You could see the bulges of muscles clearly marking them as men. That, and all the mares wore dresses. In fact, quite a few of them wore fancy dresses, and waving little fans, as a the few stallions who weren't body builders or lumberjacks wore black suits chuckling with their fellow male friends.

I’m guessing this town might be one of those retreats, for the young and rich. Where a wealthy idiot could buy just about everything cheap, and feed their ego, since they had enough money to essentially buy the whole town twice over. Back home, they would be the rich idiot on the safari who had no real idea what they were doing, but joined for the "adventure", but actually came so they could brag about it back home.

Fortunately, None of the ponies in town took a second glance at me or Stardust. I mean I had my jacket keeping my wings covered, as I was sporting a fake cutie mark. Stardust to my surprise I just realized that she was sporting a cutie mark of a laboratory flask, with some green liquid on her flank. I had no idea if she had just earned it, or had it all along.

No, I didn’t look at her butt to check beforehand, because they were human and so was I. Usually, staring at a girl butt back home, will earn you a few snide comments. Staring at her butt trying to see if she has a tattoo on it within face bucking range, will earn you a black eye, or leave you with a few missing teeth.

With my fake cutie mark, and her real one, the two of us went by unnoticed. Overkill on the other hand, stood out like a sore thumb it seemed. Her armor left her cutie mark spot uncovered, and every one of the ponies stared at her, as a couple gasped, or suddenly dropped something, when they saw her blank butt.

I could have taken off to the skies singing at the top of my voice, and shooting lasers out of my horn, and they probably wouldn’t have noticed me at all; everyone stared at her blank butt. I guess they never saw someone older than a foal without a cutie mark.

Overkill just swore a few curse words underneath her own breath, only to have a few random objects fall on her head, as a few overhead pegasi apologized to her. Apparently, the cursing curse was still in effect in a town… just not as deadly.

Needless to say, when Overkill spotted the outline of a train in the distance, we didn’t stay in the town for long, and said our goodbyes to our temporary guide. Why the town had a train far away from the town I had no idea. Maybe it was one of those weird pony logic things, like pony pulled trains, or some rich noble didn’t want the train to clash with the ye old country looking village.

When we finally managed to read nearest train station, Stardust used our freshly stolen bits to buy us three tickets to Canterlot ticket booth, letting us leave this town, before somebody started asking questions we didn't want to answer. If a nice place like Ponyville locks their doors from just seeing a zebra, then I did not want to see what a town full of rich ponies and buff stallions did to someone they didn't like and/or feared.

So we got into the train leaving for Canterlot in search of three things. Information, money, and help.

We needed to know what exactly we were dealing with. Did the reference of one princess mean past Equestria, or did it mean present Equestria as none of the locals paid attention to Luna’s return, or her possibly coming return? Did they even count Cadence as an official princess before she took over the Crystal Empire?

For Overkill and Stardust that would translate to… find element bearers or help current element bearers. For me… find save housing location and wait till someone else fixes this mess. Makes me wish I paid more attention to the other one shot towns they showed for hiding/love locations.

The second reason for going to Canterlot was that we needed money.

I had no money. Overkill only has two bits… so most of our current money is from Stardust’s stolen money bag. On the bright side, Stardust knew enough of Equestria’s economy that the show never explained to keep track of our money. She also knew what prices to sell the plants we found at Canterlot to earn a good profit, to help keep us afloat for the time being.

I’m a little skeptic about that last bit, but it’s our best bet. We won’t be rich, but we won’t be penniless. If we’re lucky we’ll have enough money to buy some train tickets to wherever.

This place wasn’t an MMO, as killing monsters wouldn’t just conveniently fork over a bag full of golden bits. Kind of a shame really, as I could have tried killing a few giant rats for an easy profit. Knowing my current luck, I would probably get a fine, as Fluttershy would shout at me for harming defenseless animals.

The last and least likely of all reasons for visiting Canterlot was help, and we all had different opinions on just where we could find it.

Stardust wanted to ask Celestia for help… but considering my outright lies of being from a distant land wasn’t that far from the truth, and Livewire could barely believe it. I highly doubt Celestia would believe the even crazier version of the actual truth. The fact we were all humans from another world, magically transformed into ponies, for reasons unknown, while missing a few chunks for memories, didn’t forebode well us for the most part.

In normal society, that would get you locked up in the loony bin. In Equestrian society… well someone might believe it, but let’s face it. Without any physical proof, it’s more likely she’ll think we're nuts, lying, or have some sort of cursing blocking our “pony memories”. Since two out of three people in our group have pony memories running about in their heads, mingled with their human ones,the argument would clearly stand against us.

Overkill’s reason for visiting Canterlot was that players would most likely gather up there. Which kind of made sense. It was big and easy to spot, set on a mountain second most known location in Equestria, and… if you're going to panic and shout at someone, why not the Princess herself? That and Ponyville (if it exists yet) isn’t that far from it.

Overkill just thought we could maybe set up a few posters, or something we could gather enough humans turned magical what not, and then be able to do something about the mess we are in. Nice plan in theory, except for one tiny detail.

Staying in Canterlot costed a lot of bits. Bits we don’t have a lot of. Even then how many players would make it to Canterlot without any bits to their name? If Stardust didn’t stealed from Livewire, we wouldn’t have had enough bits to even take the train, much less stay in Canterlot for a few days. Unless we found stable jobs, we wouldn’t stay in Canterlot for long and let’s face it. We’re are still learning the pony basics, much less pony job professions.

To simply put it, we cheated big time. I’m not sure how many people would steal a bunch of bits and buy tickets to Canterlot. I’m even more doubtful on us getting jobs, since most jobs in Equestria seem to be “What’s your cutie mark?” and quite frankly, only one of us actually has one. So, it’s more of a gamble than hoping Celestia can help us.

As for my crazy reason for visiting Canterlot? It’s to see Discord himself. My incredibly crazy stupid idiotic idea that’s likely to backfire… but it kind of ties together with the information reason.

If Discord is still sealed in his stone prison, and if I can manage to lose Stardust and Overkill in Canterlot, Then, I will go back to my original survival plan which is: Fine someplace safe to lie low, as I try to survive. Maybe I could go town to town, as I try to get a hang on both my feeding and magical abilities.

If Discord is walking around after the Fluttershy episode, then all I needed was a quick trip to Ponyville with a talk with Fluttershy to fix the problem for us… or find out what we need to do. All I would need is maybe a guilt trip, or the “please help me” vibe to make Fluttershy make Discord simply snap his fingers, and fix everything.

If that doesn’t work... then I’m not up to kidnapping her. Seriously, that’s suicide levels of stupidity there. I’ll just hide in the background and simply point other former humans there, until one of them manages to fixes everything… or I get to watch the fallout from a safe hiding place. Heck, I could give the mirror pool trick a try, and see if I could feed on them as it would solve the food issue.

******

The train ride was… well let’s face it. It was lousy. Hard wooden seats, combined with tiny space, as what hadn’t been given to the absurdly rich nobles section, feels like a rejected prison cell, due to falling under cruel and unusual punishment category. While as for the cart in front of us sported lots of purples, blues, and gold as it just screamed "High Class Seats". Which of course, were strictly reserved for nobility aka ‘the filthy rich’, so even if we ‘had’ enough bits, we wouldn't be able to get a seat in there.

The urge to simply walk up and toss one of those fancy pants nobles, so that I could impersonate him for an actual seat did cross my mind… until I tried to figure out how to hide a body, since I doubt we were moving fast enough to leave him in the dust, if I tossed one overboard.

Don’t judge me.

The only bright side about these awful seats was that… quite frankly we were the only ones here, leaving an entire train cart for ourselves. Of course, even taking an entire seat/row didn’t help, as we finished going over our half-baked plans, and counting out how many bits we had left.

“Okay, didn’t the train look a lot better… before we got on?” I carefully said, in case anyone was listening in on our private conversation.

Overkill nodded “A lot better. Heck this, even the jail cells looked better.”

Trouble Shoes even got a bed to rest on. Heck, I’d even take the ones with the giant horse sized holes in them, as I think this seat is trying to whittle down my HP bar.

The train shook again, as Stardust rubbed her head “And the tracks. There has to be something wrong with them, because a train shouldn’t sound like that.”

It wasn’t the faint clickety clack of a train wheel over each piece of track set out before it. It was more like… Whamedy smack, with the random screech of metal ramming against metal. Like a pothole in the middle of the road, but only built for trains.

My stomach grumbled, as I tapped my hoof against the back of a chair. I was getting low on energy, and the current mood wasn’t doing me any favors. I glanced back at the upper class section of the train with fancy colors. The urge to do something I would soon regret was growing.

Overkill tried changing the conversation to something else “Now… what about our names.”

I felt like rolling my eyes as I replied “Which ones? Pony or other. It’s not exactly like I know either of your names.”

Overkill huffed, as I tried to ignore the train’s constant noise “Let’s face it. Overkill might work as a nickname… but it’s not exactly a good pony name, unless I want to start sporting a dark cloak and a horde of evil minions.”

Stardust chuckled “Just watch out for the rainbows because those things are killer! Just ask any villain from G1 My Little Pony.”

Overkill sounded much better now as she replied “So… what about Valkyrie?”

At that, I couldn’t help but smirk as I said “Just as long as you don’t call me Loki we’ll be fine. I’m from Midgard remember? As for me… Lockheart works just fine for now.”

The conversation started to lighten up until Stardust went silent. Did I just step on an emotional landmine or something?

She sighed as she said “Stardust for now. I… just want to get through this mess in Canterlot and be done with it.”

With that said, the good mood had just been shot down, bringing back the misery. I closed my eyes, trying to block it out and the noise of the train. Soon, I would be in Canterlot and hopefully getting the answers I wanted. That, also of course meant making my next crucial decision… ditching this group and hiding in fear, or staying with them and trying to keep my identity a secret?

The next bump made me opened up my eyes, as my stomach grumbled again, as my changeling side reminded me about my current problem. I needed food, and diced carrots weren’t going to cut it. No wonder vampires were all mopey. It’s hard trying to find a meal without getting a mob ready to torch your ass.

I needed something to feed on, and with all this gloom around, I couldn’t even get a few happy bites to settle my stomach. I just needed an excuse to leave and find a meal “Time to learn if this train has a bathroom.”

Both of them nodded and looked away, as I walked out of the train cart and went to “searching” for one. The next cart was… how can I put this nicely?

It looked like a five star hotel. One freaking ass huge bed that looked like it could be used as a lifeboat, in case we ran adrift at sea. The only table bolted to the floor was covered in plates and garbage, as what probably counted as the equivalent of a high class lobster meal with extra butter. The stallion on the bed was sleeping looking so content, it made me want to toss him out of the train and watch him bounce away on the railway tracks.

Yes, it would be a stupid thing to do, mostly because the girls were one train cart next to mine… I shut the door behind me. He wasn’t exactly using a lot of energy at the moment… and after being stuffed in that train cart for god knows how many hours, I was very… I don’t know if the proper term is jealous or vengeful, but testing my changeling magic and draining him dry, sounded very tempting right now.

He smacked his lips and slowly got up, as he had one of those sleeping masks on “So, they already sent a maid? About time.”

No court in America would hold it against me… I was about to harm a mythical creature that shouldn’t exist! Who knows? Maybe he’s a Blue Blood, since he had the whole white coat and blond hair deal… combined with an extra helping of fat, giving him more of a beach ball impression than fancy nobility. Either way, he had this coming!

I stepped up closer to him, with my horn glowing and grinned, like a serial killer in a horror movie. You know, the type of smile they have when as they didn’t actually expect the idiots to actually come back into the house. I’m not sure how the whole emotion vampire thing worked with love, but hey, I’m flexible. If anything, it’ll be like eating a very cheap Big Mac. It might not taste great, but it will fill you up.

He raised a hoof and said “Now get me…”

And then I fed on him… well tried to at least. More like a stare as no love energy sucking beam of death hit him, turning him from a fat plum, to a shriveled raisin. Figures, the only guy I wouldn’t mind accidently killing would be the one that it doesn’t work on.

He took off his eye mask and stared at me in confusion, before screaming as he probably saw the look of rage on my face. Before I could even say anything, the entire train jerked, as wind was now whipping against my face. I turned around... only to stare at the huge eldridge monster right behind me.

Oh this went so horribly wrong. This was like the serial killer jumping out from behind the door, with a knife only to see Shoggoth waiting there, instead of the easy to kill cheerleader levels of a plan gone wrong.

Fatty grabbed me with his unicorn horn and floated me in front of him screaming “Save me!”

I’ll honestly admit, I had no absolutely freaking idea what the hell it was. It was roughly three times the size of a bear… or possibly one of those trucks that carried trucks. Point was, this freak of nature was huge and not your standard Equestria mash up monster.

Oh no, whatever made this abomination, cracked open the necronomicon read up and then made notes, while watching horror movies, before asking H.P. Lovecraft for a few tips.

The beast in front of me was a mass of tendrils, as the few that left its body twisted about forming hands that tore into the train. The section that was now ripped only was only torn off to let the other two tendril hand grab onto the train, giving it a secure grip. The only good thing about Shoggoth junior, and the horde of chattering noises, made by its unnatural hell spawned body, was that I was staring at the end of the body.

And that's when Equestria said “fuck you” in nice bold caps, as my horn finally did it’s energy love drain thingy, after fatty shook me with his magic. How being shaken by levitation magic activates love drain on an eldritch monster, I have no idea.

The green glow struck the monster, as it screamed. It wasn’t a raging dragon or howling Timber wolf scream. No, this was a ‘should never belong in MLP scream’, as I could taste the sheer hatred in it’s voice. Hell, I didn’t even need my special changelings powers to feel it’s rage, as the scream shattered the windows as my ears seemed to twist in pain from the noise.

The three tendril arm legs tore chunks out of the train, as it moved around before tearing off the roof of the noble’s cart, like it was nothing. I saw the roof be tossed over it’s back, as the mass of tendrils had two neon red eyes staring at me in rage. In one of it’s arm, it held a black chest wrapped in chains and locks which just spelled evil ancient artifact of doom.

I opened my mouth and simply said “ Oh shit.”

Author's Note:

New Chapter up. Like before let me know if I made any mistakes or point them out so I can fix them.

Comments

[Seeking Dusk]

Few minor errors, like 'hospitable' for 'hospital' and 'couldn't see the inventory' reads more it should be 'could see', but all said and done, I enjoyed this chapter a lot more than the previous one.

Seems like playing for the bad guy has fringe benefits. Compared to Overkill who's loosing bits of her life in exchange for skills, and Stardust who is having her's over ridden... Unless Lockheart's paranoia is his thing...

[Kevin Lee]

Really nice work at world-building. Previous chapter was a good setup and intro--now, here's some real meat to this story--getting good!

[mastermenthe]

So attempting murder summons eldritch horrors?

[Darkwhip]

I wonder how far off he is from life and mana drain, if he needs emotion drain to live.

[WeepingDiscord]

I opened my mouth and simply said “ Oh shit. ”

Now it’s cuthulu

[erictheblue]

It wasn’t the faint clickety clack of a train wheel over each piece of track set out before it. It was more like… Whamedy smack, with the random screech of metal ramming against metal. Like a pothole in the middle of the road, but only built for trains.

reminds me of something in a novel: most train tracks are intentionally made with the joints of the rails offset, which results in that "clickity clack" sound.
BUT in Russia or East Germany (i forget which), they are side-by side, making the wheels go THUD-THUD!