Previous Chapters Next
Close
Words of a Changed Changeling596 words
Be Careful What You Wish For2,579 words
The Little Moments3,144 words
The Prince and the Training Montage4,587 words
Cart Rides are Long2,467 words
Slowly but Shirley4,118 words
Brains Before Brawns3,593 words
Unforeseen Events5,837 words
Adventure is Out There!4,062 words
More Than Meets The Eye4,515 words
New Discoveries4,623 words
As Busy As A Changeling3,361 words
Unda' Da Sea3,923 words
Hindsight is 20/203,565 words

Be Careful What You Wish For

Chapter 1

Be Careful What You Wish For

There I was, working in my safe little 8 x 8 haven, when the blonde chick from the next cubicle over came to visit me. Well, I say 'visit,' but in reality I wanted to stuff my ears with cotton before her high-pitched nasal voice could cause them to bleed. She had started taking about how her son was on the honor roll in the local high school before I ignored her.

Congratulations, your son is now a product of the government's way of making children seem special when all they did was regurgitate the information they were fed. I never liked school, and it wasn't because I never got exceptional grades, either. Most schools nowadays don't even try to teach kids the basics of common sense and critical thinking. I sighed before I returned to overlooking this article for the newspaper about how the new movie that came out and is sure to be a fun family experience. I cringed at what the writer thought was interesting before going about fixing his grammatical mistakes and sprucing it up here and there for public consumption.

The blonde pointed out how rude I was being for ignoring her and returned to whatever depths of hell she spawned from. But before I could make any more edits, a shadow was cast over the computer screen. This time I wasn't going to acknowledge the blonde's existence by turning around, but I wanted her to leave as soon as possible. "What do you want, Linda?"

A masculine voice guffawed in response. I turned with a frown on my face to examine this newcomer. He was a rather slim man with rather big eyebrows and a stylish grey tracksuit with gold climbing up his sides. He gave me a near maniacal grin, with one canine slightly longer than the other. The light behind him obscured most of his face, but I could make out a Fu Manchu that made my goatee look pale in comparison.

"Not much of a people person, are you?" He responded in a heartily manner.

I turned back to my work before responding, "What's it to you?"

"Look, you won't even face people who are talking to you! It seems to me like you need a vacation to somewhere nice and quiet."

I kept my back turned. "I'm not interested in whatever your selling, giving away, or rewarding me with. Now go away."

"Oh, but I've got something you will give everything for. I know you just want some peace and quiet. Why not let me give it to you?" His tone suggested that his grin returned in full force. I turned around to face him with my best poker face.

"You can give it to me by leaving me alone. So scram!" I waved my hand like I would wave an annoying fly away. His hand suddenly snaked out and grabbed my wrist. I tried to pull my hand free, but he had the grip of an iron clamp.

"Here, let me show you."

I opened my mouth to tell him how many ways I could say 'leave me alone,' but my peripheral vision cut me off with an important message. I listened to my eyes as I moved my head to the side, then all around me. My brain tried to deny what my senses were telling me, but there was no way to deny what I was experiencing.

I wasn't sitting in my office chair anymore, I was sitting on a stump in the middle of a leafy forest. A breeze gently shook the tall trees from their slumber, spreading the sunlight all across the forest floor. The smell of pine bombarded my nose with the pleasant fragrance, I heard a woodpecker off to the distance and the rustling of the leaves high above. I could only watch as the red and gold leaves fell from their perches and gently floated to the ground. This was eerily similar to the forest I lived near when I was a kid, and with the memories it brought about pangs of nostalgia and longing.

The man turned me towards his now level face. I could see that one pupil was bigger than the other, and his grin wasn't near maniacal - it was maniacal. "I can let you live here, in this land called Equestria, for the rest of your days. All you have to do is ask."

I looked around to see the forest again, but I was back in my cubicle - with the grey walls and the harsh and unnatural lights above. The reality of my situation dawned on me. A single man in his mid-twenties, living in a poor city, in a cheap apartment, and a job that's going to disappear after the newspaper finally dies. It hasn't even been a minute and I already missed the green and brown of the trees and the leaves.

"Alright, you made your point. I'll take you up on your offer" I raised my hand to shake. He reached for it, but I pulled away with a level look. "On one condition." He grinned in response.

"Tell me why are you offering me this. I have nothing to live for, I'm not special, I'm just an average Joe. So why?"

He nearly threatened to burst out of the tracksuit as he started to laugh, harsh and mockingly, for a moment before regaining composure. "You're not the first to ask me, and I'm certain you won't be the last. I'll tell you what I told him, and what I will tell others before you."

The man grinned again, and grabbed my wrist and picked me up as if I weighed no more than a babe. He lowered himself next to my ear and gave a small whisper, "Why not?"

He then positioned himself as if he were pitching a baseball, then threw me.

I have no idea how he did it, or what exactly happened after that. But what I do know is that I flew for a solid minute through whatever it is between dimensions and then... just stopped.

The first thought I had was 'being thrown across time and space was very similar diving into chocolate pudding.' I don't know why I thought it, I don't know why diving into chocolate pudding was like, but it was the best description I have ever given to the feeling, and I have yet to think of any other way to describe it.

After a few moments I wondered if I was dead. Then I reached out with one hand only to encounter something blocking my path. I was in a confined space of some sort, so I did what any normal person would do in such a situation; punch his way out. Eventually whatever was blocking my path splintered, and gave way to sunlight. My determination to escape tripled, as I broke the opening wider and wider until it was big enough for me to escape.

I tried to walk through but my foot was met with air, and I plummeted down to the ground where I landed hard on my back. The fresh wave of pain proved that this is real life and not just fantasy. I could easily see my prison from here, which was apparently a white cocoon. Now, why would I be trapped inside a cocoon? My thoughts came to a halt as I sat up and examined my surroundings.

It was the forest that skinny man had shown me. I was speechless, I just sat there, watching the forest do what forests normally do. That is, not much. I felt my mouth stretch into the widest and probably most lopsided looking grin I've ever held in a long time. I chuckled, but what I heard was a small buzz instead of the gruff voice that I had grown used to hearing as my voice. I frowned, then tried to laugh again. The same buzz as before replaced my laugh.

I experimented with my voice with full sentences, and a long and complicated series of buzzes and clicks replaced what should have been the sentence, "Oh god what the hell is happening." I covered my mouth when I realized I couldn't actually talk, and then I noticed I had holes in my hooves.

Needless to say, my brain did a hard reboot and processed this new information in the form of a numbered list.

1. I sound like an insect imitating R2-D2.

2. My mouth has become a snout.

3. I have fangs instead of canines.

4. My hands became hooves.

5. My new hooves have holes in them.

6. Data impossible to decipher. Shutting down.

When I recovered from fainting, I assessed the data and filed away into the 'what is this I don't even' folder. I stood up and promptly fell over from standing on two legs. Right, hooves mean quadruped, I can't stand upright anymore. I unsteadily got to my feet... hooves. I put one hoof forward, then another, then fell flat on my face. I made a little buzz with a few clicks as a way of grumbling.

After a few minutes of falling and getting up again, I got into the groove of walking with four legs. Soon walking became a mindless task and I began to reflect on the scraggly man's words.

He called this place "Equestria." My memory was a bit hazy, but surely he didn't mean Equestria from My Little Pony, did he? I knew all about that show; hell, I was a fan. I wouldn't go as far as to call myself a 'Brony,' I never really liked having labels. Plus the whole 'love and tolerance' thing gets you nowhere unless you want to get your ass handed to you on a silver platter from the ones you were telling to love and tolerate. The internet wasn't a safe place for any self-respecting Brony.

So I had landed in a cartoon land. Fine, I could live with that. Just as long as the inhabitants here don't act like they did back on Earth. I briefly wondered if I could live my days of peace somewhere far from Ponyville - It didn't seem like the best of places to live quietly.

I looked down at my holed hooves. I wasn't a pony, that much was certain. I heard the rushing of water nearby and my throat felt drier than a desert in summer. I followed the sound until I reached a river. It was almost fifty meters across, and I couldn't tell how deep it was. It flowed slowly, so I was able to examine myself in the water. Not before I dunked my head into the icy cool water and drank deeply, though.

When I raised my head with a content buzz I looked into the water. What looked back was a horrifying creature with green buglike eyes with darker green pupils, a horn that curved slightly upwards, and fangs that extended past my chin. When I looked at myself, my long ears folded against my bald head and I bared my teeth in disgust. As I examined myself further, I discovered a fin along my neck and transparent wings on my back. I also seemed to have some sort of chitin acting as a shell on my back.

Only one creature I knew of fit this kind of body. I was a Changeling. Now that I thought about it, it could have been worse. I could be a diamond dog, or even a cat. At least I can look like anypony I wanted to be. At least, I think that's how changelings work. Their lore was a sketchy at best.

After I examined my new body, I decided to follow the river to wherever it led. My thoughts led me to the mystery of my prison. I was an insect pony of some kind, so the cocoon kinda made sense. I wonder who that guy was, though? He seemed oddly familiar if I thought about it. Let's review what I knew about the guy, yeah? He knew about Equestria, he was near insane looking, had a killer mustache, and had the power to bring a mere human to a magical cartoon land of ponies while at the same time changed me into something... else.

Only a few characters from the show popped to mind, and the only one who fit the profile was Discord, Master of Chaos and Disharmony. Made sense, if I thought about it. He wants to create as much chaos as possible, so what better way to do that then bring an outsider (one from such a chaotic race, no less) and shove them into the innocent and sweet world of Equestria and watch what happens. If I was the embodiment of Chaos I would probably do the same thing, honestly.

I continued on my journey down the river. I noticed that the sound of rushing water was increasing in volume. There's only two things that can come from such an ordeal: rapids and waterfalls. Sure enough, I saw the water dip down ahead of me as I reached the edge of a cliff and silently watched the water cascade down into the open sky below.

Wait, the open sky?

I was really high up. I mean really really really high up, probably higher than the Stark Tower. The cliff face just ended about ten meters from where I stood and just disappeared, making what I was standing on either a floating island or the overhang to the longest drop I had ever seen. I immediately let out a whimper of clicks and a buzz before I scampered away with my metaphorical - and possibly literal - tail between my legs.

Eventually I had worked up the courage to keep the edge of the cliff in sight and follow that instead. I walked alongside the pines while always checking to my left that the cliff was still in sight. Sometimes I would walk closer to the cliff to see if I really was still as high up as I thought I was.

Once again, my thoughts turned to Discord's words. "Why not?" I remembered a time when I was younger, and those same words were the beginning of stupid yet exciting and fun adventures with my friends. I smiled as I relived those old days, when everyone was open and free, warm and inviting, and everyone shouldered each other's burdens and celebrated with everyone's successes. I started to wonder about why I ended those days of "why not" before my introspection was interrupted by a discovery.

I came to yet another river. Of course, I could only assume it was the same river that I had once followed as it was the same width across. This had left me with (once again) only two possibilities: I had walked around only a fraction of this place and found the same river blocking my path, stranding me here unless I found a way down or across the river; or I had come full circle to the same river, only this time on the other side.

Either possibility left me with only one course of action - to follow the river to the source. This river had to come from somewhere, and I'm going to find out what.

I had never noticed that there was a shadow that followed my every step.

6,029 views

212

Previous Chapters Next