Mercy
Everything seemed to pass by at high speed to Angela as she chased the little pony through the forest. Her thoughts were clouded, and a throbbing headache that refused to go away pounded on her skull from the inside.
But she did not care about that right now. Angela did not care how much pain she was in. She did not stop to address the scrapes and bruises she had accumulated during her chase. Her skin itched and burned like fire, and in the back of her manic mind she guessed that it was result of her wraith body having not been put through the process of performing any sort of attack before. The two warp blasts that she used had put a ton of stress onto her already unsound mind, and all Angela could think about was getting at the ones that had hurt her so.
She could just see the little pony running ahead of her, ducking and jumping over fallen trees with a surprising amount of acrobatic skill for a pony. Angela did not care though.
She did not care anymore that she was being consumed by her instincts.
She did not care that the reason she was in pain was born of a misunderstanding.
She did not care that the little pony was now running for her life from the monster that Angela had allowed herself to be.
She. Did. Not. Care.
The ponies and their allies had hurt her. They were the ones who could not leave well enough alone. They were the ones that mistook her for a monster and refused to see that she was anything but.
How dare they attack her!
How dare they try to kill her for the crime of existing!
Angela was now confident of only one thing anymore. There was only one course of action she could take. If the inhabitants of this realm were going to be so dead set on making sure that she was never going to be able to rest without the threat of being killed, either by traps or some other eldritch method of theirs, then she would give them a reason to never come near her ever again.
All she had to do was catch the little pony.
Bon-Bon was running and galloping for all she was worth through the forest, a feat that went unaided by the rough and uneven ground. She had to actively avoid rocks that jutted out of the ground and leap over logs that had fallen in her path. Yet, despite the adverse terrain, the mare kept going, knowing that if she slowed down for even a second she would never be able to regain the ground that she lost.
And yet, in spite of her exertions, the monstrosity was easily keeping up with her, and was actually steadily gaining on the mare, despite her wisdom in choosing the thickest parts of the woods to go through. At the rate it was going, Bon-Bon guessed that she only had another minute or so before it was upon her. So she kept going, trying desperately to ignore how her legs begged for her to stop, how her lungs burned like fire and begged for her to stop and rest.
But Bon-Bon refused to give to the demands of her flesh, and she never once stopped or slowed down for even a second, knowing that doing so would result in her evisceration. The most she did other than run was cast quick glances behind her to check how close it was to catching her, and each time her heart sank a little more to see that the creature was coming ever closer to her by the second, and Bon-Bon found herself doing something she had rarely ever done, even in the safety of her own home.
Bon-Bon started to cry as she ran. It began a few quiet sobs that gradually grew into a full blown breakdown as she realized that the prospect of escaping was a hopeless one. She had been through so much in her life, had faced down adversaries, both magical and ordinary, and each time she had survived the worst of the situation through her sheer determination and resolve. Each time she had survived.
But Bon-Bon knew in the bottom of her heart that there would be no escape this time. There would be no close call to brag about to her teammates. Stubbornness would not save her on this venture. This monster was going to catch her. And it was going to kill her. She would not be coming home at the end of the day. She would not wake up to the early morning sounds of Ponyville.
She would never see Lyra again.
This realization only made Bon-Bon cry harder and push herself beyond her limits so that she could see the next sunrise, so that she could see Lyra one last time.
It was not to be however, as the monster had apparently decided to cut the chase short and use its daggaerclaws to launch itself ahead of her. It landed in Bon-Bon's path with a thud before it whirled on her, its form moving like some sort of airborne serpent as it darted towards her. The mare skidded to a halt and tried to run to the side. But she was too slow however, and her aching muscles betrayed her as she felt the creatures talons close in around her, pinning her to the ground on her back. She desperately pushed against its massive hand with all of the strength she could muster, but it did absolutely nothing to aid her.
A hiss cut off her attempts, and Bon-Bon's attention was pulled to the monster as it hovered above her, its jaws mere inches from her face as it stared at her with its eyeless gaze, and its hot breath tousled her dual colored mane. Words could not describe the terror she felt under its hateful glare. And she noticed something odd as it glared at her.
On the side of its head and neck she noticed two red spots on its skin, like sores or scabs that had not healed quite right. Bon-Bon then realized that the sores were the gems that she had bucked at it. They had been grown over when the creature underwent its transformation, and Bon-Bon instantly knew that they were factors in the creatures rage towards them. They were why it was so persistent in getting revenge. It must have been in an almost unimaginable amount of discomfort from the gems. Bon-Bon herself had once been on the receiving end of one during her training days, so she knew what they felt like just being on her skin. She could not even begin to imagine the kind of torment it must be going through right now, and Bon-Bon began to realize that she was partially responsible for this mess.
She did not have much longer to ponder her role however as she saw the creature raise both of its long blade like appendages. Again Bon-Bon struggled to get free. It was no use however, and Bon-Bon felt her tears return to her eyes.
"No. . . please no," she pleaded quietly as she clenched her eyes, not wanting to see her own death.
And then, something rather unexpected happened.
She did not feel the sensation of huge claws digging into her flesh. She did not feel the monsters jaws ripping her apart.
Instead what Bon-Bon felt was the pressure of the creatures palm on her chest disappear entirely. She risked opening her eyes just the slightest bit. And what she saw took her off guard. The monster was just hovering there above her, its sixty foot length hanging almost motionless in the air. It was still looking at her, although Bon-Bon could not tell what its intentions were. Even though she was no longer being held down, she still felt pinned underneath its gaze, and Bon-Bon was not sure what she should do now.
Should she run? She was hesitant to do so, as it might just be toying with her like a cat would a mouse; giving her the false hope of freedom before pouncing on her again.
Before she could make a decision on what to do, the creature began to move backwards away from her, though it seemed to keep its attention on her the entire time. Unsure what else to do Bon-Bon cautiously got to her hooves, never once taking her eyes off of it. For a few seconds nothing happened, and Bon-Bon's mind was struggling to process what the creature was doing.
By all rights she should be dead right now. She should have been ripped to pieces by the monster. It should have killed her, if not for food then at least out of revenge or defense of territory.
So why did it not? Why was she still alive?
What was this thing?
For the longest time she considered doing something that an experienced agent would never, ever do under any circumstances, normal or otherwise. Something that would have had her immediately expelled from the disbanded agency faster than she could blink, providing she even survived the mistake.
Going against all of her instincts and all of her years of advanced training, Bon-Bon slowly and cautiously began to approach the creature. And to her surprise it actually moved away from her, and she noticed that it was shaking quite a bit, like it was cold. She paused briefly in confusion before resuming her advance. She raised a hoof towards it and said quietly in a soothing tone, "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you anymore." But when she was less then ten from the creature it suddenly lunged, snapping its jaws at her. Bon-Bon jumped backward, prepared to run. To her continued confusion however the creature did not pursue in its attack, and Bon-Bon realized that it currently had no intention of going after her.
Not yet anyway.
For a moment nothing else happened afterward, until the creature suddenly hissed loudly as it seemed to recoil in pain, and Bon-Bon noticed how the sores on its head appeared to glow ever so slightly. She immediately felt a certain amount of empathy for it. There was no doubt in her mind that the gems were causing it a severe amount of pain.
Bon-Bon was at a loss at what to do now as the creature began to thrash around. She felt that she should do something to help it somehow, but in the state it was currently in there was no telling how it might react. If she tried to remove the gems by herself chances were that she would only make things worse for it, and by extension, herself. And of course Bon-Bon was actually somewhat hesitant to do anything, seeing as how it had attacked her and Gerald.
But, looking back, Bon-Bon remembered that until the griffon had provoked it with his traps it had not actually done anything to hurt anypony. All the times it lashed out at them was caused by their own errors.
She thought back to when it was chasing Harp. Why would it have done that? It obviously already knew that the trap was there, as it had refused to cave in to Gerald's goading. But when Harp ran into the trap the creature had intentionally put itself in danger to. . .
Bon-Bon gasped when she realized just how serious an error she had made. This creature was no monster. It was not some some mindless beast. It was intelligent.
She glanced back in the direction she had come from as she thought about the the glass bottle she had given to Gerald, and the instructions she told him to follow. Dread and regret filled her heart when she realized what would happen because of her mistake.
She glanced briefly at the creature before slowly backing away from it. It did absolutely nothing to pursue her. In fact, it seemed to have forgotten about her entirely as it hissed again from the pain caused by the gems, and it began scratching and clawing at the affected areas. Bon-Bon felt a pang of guilt at the situation she had put it in, and her eyes softened as she looked at it.
When she felt that she far enough to start moving without provoking it to start chasing her again, Bon-Bon turned around, and started galloping for Hollow Shades as quickly as her tired hooves could carry her, determined to fix her mistake.
Mayor Quartz surveyed the scene going on above her, and she found herself nodding her head in approval.
I had taken some time for her and Star Mix to gather enough ponies that would would make an adequate defense of their town, as many had been holed up in their homes and unwilling to come out for any reason. It had actually took some convincing on Roughshod's part, who had returned after checking on his wife, to get them to come out. Quartz envied him in that regard, the way he was able to get ponies to see his way of things, and thanks to him there were now over two dozen pegasi were in the air with thunderclouds, and multiple ponies on the wall. Most of them were unicorns with some knowledge in a few self defense spells that might come in handy, but there was also a fair amount of earth ponies that Quartz knew could embed a stone into a tree at almost any range with a strong buck.
It seemed that the entire town was now dedicated to the defense their home, and Quartz could not help but feel a sense of pride in her fellow ponies. Out of the corner of her eye the mayor noticed that Roughshod was trotting up towards her. A smile gracing her features, she turned to speak with the stallion when he was close enough to hear her.
"Ah, Roughshod," she said. "I can't thank you enough for all of your help." Quartz's words brought a slight grin to his muzzle as he accepted her praise.
"Thank you ma'am," he replied. "I'm just doing what I can to help." Roughshod's smile fell when he added, "And to make up for my mistake."
Quartz felt her own pleased expression disappear when she heard that, and a deep sigh escaped from her nostrils. Of course there was still the matter of Harp's disappearance to take into account, and it was not something that she just overlook, even now. Still, she felt guilty for making him feel like this when there were other matters to be taken care of.
Quartz glanced over at all of the ponies on the wall and in the air, each one keeping a vigilant eye out for anything out of the ordinary. The sounds of the forest being torn apart had long since fallen into silence, which was a relief to everypony, but nopony seemed willing to take the chance of letting their guard down, even for a second.
Turning back to Roughshod, Quartz sighed deeply and said, "Roughshod. . . you and I both know that what happened out there is something that can never be atoned for. If what you have said is true and there is a monster even worse than the bug bear, then I can only hope that he makes it through the night." Roughshods eyes went down to the cobblestone street beneath his hooves, and his ears laid flat against his head.
"But in addition I know it was not entirely your fault Roughshod," Quartz added. In response the stallions eyebrows rose in mild surprise at her words. "And I think that I might be willing to shorten the duration of your punishment so that you and the others can be back on the wall by the end of the week."
At this Roughshod hung slightly open in shock at her statement, and the grin from earlier returned to his face as he said, "Thank you ma'am. You have no idea how much that means to me."
Quartz simply nodded in acknowledgment of his gratitude and continued to survey the ponies as they milled about. A moment of silence passed between them, after which Roughshod cleared his throat to speak. Quartz felt her ear twitch at the sound and she looked at him again.
"Yes Roughshod?" she said expectantly as she waited for him to say what was on his mind.
Clearing his throat again he began to say, "Ma'am? Did Star Mix tell you about my other request from before?"
Quartz had to review her memory for a moment to recall what he was talking about. "Do you mean about the carriage I have?" she ventured, to which Roughshod nodded.
"I was actually wondering if you would be willing to part with it for a little while." he said hesitantly, as though he was afraid that the mare would hit him over the head for even asking such a thing.
"Whatever for?" Quartz asked, genuinely confused by the request. To her knowledge Roughshod was not the type of pony to be interested in fancy carriages, especially those with flying spells cast onto them. She also knew that usually when there was something he wanted, he worked his tail off to get it rather than ask somepony outright for it. So to hear the stallion asking for her to lend the carriage to him threw her for a loop.
"Well, as you probably already know, I care for Rose very much," Roughshod began to explain, apparently finding difficulty in speaking all of a sudden. Quartz only nodded as he continued. "I would do anything to keep her safe, no matter what. So. . . the reason why I am asking is because I want to send her some place where she will be safe until the situation is resolved."
Quartz almost did a double take when Roughshod finished explaining. It was not the fact that he wanted to send Rose Flare away from Hollow Shades that confused her, but that he was willing to let her out of his sight at all. Quartz had known the stallion for years, so the fact that he was even considering such a thing was a shock to her.
"What did Rose have to say about it?" she asked, genuinely curious.
Just then Quartz noticed Roughshod flinch slightly when she asked the question. Narrowing her eyes she questioned, "You didn't tell her yet did you."
"No, I did," Roughshod replied quickly. "She uh. . . just didn't take it very well."
"Ohhh," Quartz said in understanding, knowing all too well how stubborn her foalhood friend could be at times, and her pregnancy had probably done little to help. She imagined that Rose Flare must have been on the verge of a complete mental panic when Roughshod told her his plan. She probably thought that she was never going to see him again.
"And. . . ? What else happened?" Quartz asked, aware that she was treading on difficult ground. Just as Roughshod was about to answer however he was interrupted by shouting coming from the ponies on the wall. Alarmed, the two ponies forgot their conversation for the time being and began rushing to see what was going on, thoughts of the creature attacking their town filling their minds. When they arrived Quartz raised her voice to be heard over the shouting.
"What's going on?" she demanded. A earth pony mare looked leaned over the railing to reply.
"There's a pony and a griffon coming out of the woods! They want us to let them in!"
Quartz's eyes widened slightly when the mare mentioned there was a griffon, and she already suspected she knew his identity. Before she could dwell on it Roughshod shouted, "Well, don't just stand there! Let them in!"
Before long the gates were opened just enough to allow the two entry, and when everypony saw who one of them was they all felt a sense of relief.
"Harp!" Roughshod exclaimed, feeling a burden that had been weighing down his shoulders immediately disappear as he rushed to the young stallion. Both he and Quartz could tell that he had been through some serious action in the last few hours since they had lost him. He was virtually covered in dirt, mud, pine needles and everything else the woods had to offer, and looked like he would have appreciated a good long bath.
"Hey Roughshod!" Harp called back, a relieved visible grin on his blue muzzle even from a distance. "Boy am I glad to see you. You are not going to believe what happened out there!"
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I forgot about those crystals. Hopefully Bon-Bon will be able to fix her mistake before Angela is captured/killed or sent into another bloodthirsty rage.
OOOH! UPDATE and Legacy of the Void coming out tonight, can't beat this setup!
And things just got a WHOLE HECK OF A LOT MORE INTERESTING!
Can't wait for more.
Oh please stop to make her nice it's ridiculous and uninteresting, there's no way that anyone with a sane constitution would not crush bon-bon especially if you are in the body of a such powerful beast.
And don't say the "it's because she doesn't like her new body" because that mean that the only logic ending would be Angela becoming again human and live an happily life, seriously do you think that would be interesting? It's way better to be a badass and show them to not piss her off exactly like her instinct tells her because this would be much more cool.
And for the "she will be chased and killed" I can tell you that if a rocket can't blow up her face there's nothing they can do against her and that's why it is so awesome and she didn't even rise the third stage!
So, moral of the story : Angela need to stop becoming a doormat.
Good chapters can't wait for more
Pls dont stop on this chapter, there is a lot of things to talk about. Wraith is scary intimidating creature, at the same time she is graceful, natural and beautiful embodiment of killing uncertainty. When you are playing against her, its not encounter with her that stress, scares you, but expectation of it.
Your Wraith lacks the spirit of Wraith. Angela should have to merge with her new nature so you could create something valuable out of this story. Its problem of most displaced fics, such fic is bad when protagonist and its current state do not merge and assimilate each other. I hope Angela will find balance between herself and her new nature, i hope she will be that
.
I like to listen to https://youtu.be/CMU4Fz15GZg?t=1 and other video game medleys when I work. Go look up medleys for Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and FFVI, too.
6619993 First of all, she knows she's in Equestria. Killing ponies, even out of self-defense, will lead to certain princess-goddesses hunting for her head. Second, she's already got major PTSD from killing someone, and killing another clearly sapient creature will make it worse (and PTSD is no fun at all). And third, while I agree that the griffon definitely deserves to get slaughtered, Bon Bon wasn't given the time to properly assess the situation and merely reacted in what she thought (at the time) was the only way she could. Upon reflection, that turned out to be a definite no, but hindsight, and all that. Plus, I think the author is aiming for a flawed but sympathetic protagonist. Becoming a cold-blooded murderer won't make that happen.
Wow, Angie was acutaly more mercyful than I had anticipated. Not even a slap to the frist for Bonnie... well, maybe a slap if you count the near lethal amounts of sheer terror. Cudos to our wraith-girl here.
Hmm, I tend to listen to bombastic, opera-like stuff or something along these lines , mostly.
This is a very good displaced fanfiction, normally displaced is synonymous with terrible but you are one of the rare people that do it right and make it interesting ;3
I'm just glad that Agent Sweetie Drops realized her folly and that Angela was willing to be merciful.
However, as we didn't get to see what went on in Angela's head, I'm left kinda wondering...
What changed your mid, Wraith?
I mean, you were all for the vengeance...
And then you just let her go?
Missing something around 'mare would'.
6623049 That will at least be partially explained in the next chapter. And thanks for catching that.
6622481 Thank you!
It really warms my heart to know that so many think that I am doing so well.
Ignore those who despise upon the human condition. It is an act of true humanity to show mercy while in the throes of violent-passion.
6619993
*raises hoof*
I have a sane constitution, and I wouldn't crush Bon Bon. I also find Angela being nice very interesting. A lot of people would just go for the kill and whatnot, and that would be boring.
That's not the only logical ending from that. First, she could always go pony.
Second, this could be a journey of her getting over that.
More badass, yes. Practical at all, no. If she proves herself to be a threat like that, she could just bring the princesses down on her, and I don't think she can just gank them.
I dunno, it looks like if she didn't evolve when she did, just Gerard and Bon Bon could've taken her out on the spot if they'd had a mind to.
She hasn't even had the opportunity too be a doormat yet, really. She's been chasing ponies around hardcore going crazy. If that's what a doormat is to you, then what do aggressive people do?
Yay
This story has been pretty incredible so far, and I have to say that this is a fantastic example of a displaced fic done well. I do have a question about this though. Angela managed to break the first crystal on her arm by hitting a tree. If that's all it took then why didn't her Void Blast special destroy the other two? I can't imagine that her special is weaker than a single back swipe, especially on a creature that isn't meant for brute force, and there is no way the blast's energy could have missed. Unless the crystals are somehow resistant to her blast's energy (which is a different can of worms) I don't see how this could have happened.
Other than that small gripe I've greatly enjoyed this and am looking forward to more.
What's a path path?
6772027 A path for a path?
Le sigh.
Here I was hoping for airborne pone power!
Sigh.
People don't survive deadly encounters because things fatefully line up for them to survive. More often than not, things line up specifically in order to hinder their survival. Bonbon being spared was nothing short of Celestia's fucking breastmilk levels of serendipitous, the other assholes escaping was also unreal in how much of a copout it was.
On the other end of the spectrum and in direct spite of all that, everything seems to have fallen in line in order to make Angela's life proportionately shittier. There's a shade of hypocrisy in that which I find rather upsetting, and as always, I'm certain keyboard warriors will love to downvote my comments for voicing these concerns, without actually bothering to argue why I'm wrong.
On one hand there's the whole, 'feeling nice and smug about being the bigger person for turning the cheek and forgiving stupid childish ponies' that bronies just love reading about. Or that authors love using to hinge their suspense on. On the other hand, all of that is bullshit. Just once I'd like to find a story where the ponies get what's coming to them, or AT LEAST own up to the bullshit they pulled.
8279013 And yet, for all your displeasure at the ponies for seeing a creature designed deliberately to appear as a complete monster exactly as that, you spare not a trace of ire toward the single being responsible for all of this: that wicked old man, who's likely a demon of some sort.
Silly humans and your emotions. They lead to all the wrong conclusions.
what were wraiths 4 skills again? abduction, implosion, super nova, and 1 more i cant remember. also has she only evolved to stage 2 at this point?
Wait so, did she start off at stage 2? Cause now she’s at stage 3! 60 feet, or rather somewhere around 67 ft is usually the stage 3 height, the tallest being 85 ft
Wasn’t a fan of how Bon-Bon lived, it took all the built up tension/excitement and ended it in the most anti-climatic way possible. I would’ve either liked to see her either come up with a plan to remove those gems, which in turn would give a reasonable mercy end rather than an ass pull. The other option is just Bon-Bon fuckin dies, so there’s this drama about the only one that knew the monster was actually intelligent is just gone.
8279013
I feel this glosses over the fact that Angela seems to have serious trauma over killing someone in her previous life as a thief, and the monster-side of the Wraith fighting to take back over her body. Should they have gotten what they deserved for essentially harassing an unknown creature just because it looks dangerous? Yes. But A) killing them would only make things worse for Angela’s situation, and B) it would go completely against Angela’s current character. I felt this is a good display of the sheer amount of restraint she is trying to take hold of her monstrous, raging form and if the royal guard is called in there won’t be much which will hold her back anymore. In my opinion, it’s more a case of self restraint and the knowledge she was about to fully give in to the monster that saved Bon-Bon, not just luck or feeling smug about saving them.