Things Are Rarely as They Seem

by Orkus

Honest Work

Persica wandered through the dark forest clad from snout to hoof in her gear. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, but made sure to keep her spear balanced over her shoulder in her right hoof as she did so. Panting, exhausted breaths left her mouth as she sped forth, both her eyes desperately looking everywhere as her head swung to and fro.

For all of her searching, she could not find who it was she looked for. She continued on scouring the forest with as much desperation as she could give, but still nothing befell her sight. It was only after hearing a loud, wailing cry rip through the air did she stop in her tracks and turn in its direction. It sounded like a creature in pain; going through the worst form of agony one could ever possibly suffer, but the weak voice to which it belonged was one Persica just barely recognized with fear. With more haste than her body could truly afford, she ran to where she heard the noise. Several gut-wrenching minutes later, after breaking into a small clearing within the wood, did she come upon the individual whom she had been looking for.

It sat there in the corner of the forest's opening, by an old and haggard tree, curled tightly in a fetal position and sobbing aloud. Its skinny and frail, defiled form whimpered, whined, and cried out like a newborn mewling vainly for its never-to-come parent, and tears like ice streamed from its eyes.

Persica knew this nightmare well. Every single time she slept since it happened to her in the realm known as reality she experienced it, but the experience itself was sometimes twisted into something else, though never by much. And no matter what she felt, she could not stop herself from constantly reliving it in all of its hellish glory.

Without a thought to stop her, she ran up to the creature until she stood over it. In her pain, she could not find the words to say this poor soul's name. So Persica, with tears of her own falling down from her eyes, slowly put her quivering hoof out to it. To comfort it in in the only way she could. Instead of accepting her warm touch, the second her hoof met its side, it violently batted it away.

"G-go away!" the creature sulked, howling out like a injured hound. "Y-you did this to me! This is all your fault, Persica... All your fault..."

With little warning, it suddenly snapped its face toward her's and glared malevolently. Its eyes, once an earthly brown, were now as red as fiery embers. "I... hate you... I'll..."

The creature she once knew and loved arose like a shadow cast from a great bonfire. Persica, torn by despair just from what she heard, dropped her weapon to the ground where it landed with a clatter. The creature's facial features began to curl and twist into something from pitiful and devoid of hope, to horrifying and unnatural. Something evil and burning with all-consuming loathing entered its visage, and it took its first step forward as Persica took her first step back.

"I'll kill you," it spoke once more, its voice as silent as a intimate whisper, yet as loud as a rabid beast's roar. Baring its fangs, it set upon her with arms widely outstretched, and the pony, unwilling to defend herself from the coming assault, found nothing she could do to halt its attack. Lashing its horrible head out, its fangs sank deeply into her shoulder, sending a powerful jolt of wretched pain through her brain. Lifting her body up, it shook her about violently before throwing her back to the ground, and its claws tore the armor over her chest to bits before getting ahold of the fur-laden flesh underneath, spilling red onto the soil soon after.

"Persica," it spoke tauntingly into her ears as it tore her body apart and sundered it into bloody ribbons, rending her limb from limb like a spent doll as she could only scream out in agony through a mouth she didn't have. "Per-sic-a!"

---

"Persica, I'm done!" Habeas said for the third time from where he stood by one of the far-off peach trees. From what he could see, the pony had quietly dozed off in her chair twenty minutes into his harvest of the peaches, and so Habeas took it upon himself to shout her name until she stirred. He dared not attempt to wake her up close, fearing that she would lash out at him in surprise from merely hearing his footsteps approaching.

When she finally registered the words, Persica quickly woke up with a mumbling start. Shaking her head and looking about, she pushed the brim of her hat back from her eyes and soon could see the shape of the changeling standing a few dozen feet in front of her, waving one of his hooves in the air as the rest of him leaned against the filled basket.

"About time," she grumbled. Slowly getting up, she left her seat and began to trot his way. Inspecting the basket as Habeas stood in attention, the changeling waited for her to give him the news on what she really felt toward his efforts, some random insult, or, dare he even hope for it, a compliment.

"Good job," were the two words Persica casually uttered. Taking the basket by its handle as Habeas silently laughed in victory, she effortlessly hoisted it over her back with one leg. Before going off to take care of the fruits, she shifted another glance to the changeling.

"There's still plenty that needs being done around the here," she spoke, looking back to her abode. "But before I forget, the inside of the house needs to be thoroughly cleaned. That means the floors need to be swept, the windows need to be washed inside and out, and everything needs to be dusted. Care to join me in doing that in a few minutes, changeling?"

"If that's what you want me to do," Habeas replied after sensing that there really wasn't much choice in the matter, already making his way for the house before she could lead him to it. Keeping a careful watch on him until he opened the door and ventured inside, Persica eventually shrugged as she went off with the big basket of peaches still behind her back.

---

It was a few hours afterword that the pair's work neared completion. As the time rolled to just past noon and all the duties to be done inside the house were finished, Persica asked Habeas if he felt, in whatever way he knew how, 'hungry'. When the changeling said he did, the mare went into the pantry and whipped out four slices of bread, a jar of purple, sweet jelly, and another jar of peanut butter. Using a butter knife to make two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from what she gathered, she handed one to him, and the pair had a small lunch at the kitchen table.

Things were quiet as they ate together, both sitting opposite of one another; the only noise to go out being the typical munch, munch, munch sound one hears when they chew on the soft flesh of bread. The silence was finally broken a few minutes later when Persica finished her meal and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

"What can you tell me about yourself, changeling?" was the question she had chosen to ask once that was done. "What really made you decide to, supposedly, leave your kingdom and begin anew?"

Habeas looked up from his sandwich, now only consisting of the last bit of crust he was ready to devour, to her and gulped down the bite of food currently in his mouth. Turning his head over his shoulder, he saw nobody else was around, and soon after came to the fantastical realization that she was speaking to him. "You want to know about... me?" he asked, putting a hoof to his chest in bewilderment.

"That's what I said," she blandly replied. "And that's what I mean to know. So tell me, why have you ventured so far from your horrendous homeland by yourself?"

"Because I want to change my fate," Habeas spoke with a hint of pride in his tone. "I don't want to harm anypony. I don't want to steal from anypony. I wish only to make an honest living among your kind."

"And your inspiration to do so was...?"

"The idea came into my head because one day, I..." Habeas straightened the bandanna around his neck and coughed into his good, hole-filled hoof. "...came across a cookbook."

"So a cookbook is what got you to leave your hive? A cookbook is what caused you to decide to put your whole life behind you?" Persica simply could not help but inquire. "Just that?"

"That's one way of putting it," Habeas chuckled, looking away for a brief moment. "I was raised never knowing of the other varieties of love in the world. When I discovered a cookbook and read through it, I found out that there were other, savory ways of getting the food we need; one such way being how ponies typically make their food with love. Take the food you made, for example."

Persica, rubbing her hoof in a circular motion over the crimson tablecloth, was visibly taken aback by these words. "Huh. Changelings are always starved and never content, but you've been keeping yourself fed on the normal food that I've prepared, because it has love in it. That... actually is beginning to make some sense."

"I've told your daughter, and I've been telling you, that I'm different," Habeas insisted. "I mean it."

"It sounds like you really, really want me to believe you, don't you?"

"I do."

"And that's the thing." Persica gave of a small smile as she turned her head and shook it. "It will take a long while and great effort for a thing like you to gain my trust, changeling. And by then, should your injuries heal, you'll probably be gone before you even get the chance."

Habeas sighed and lowered his head. "Yeah, I guess you may be right. I just... sort of wish that wasn't so, if only to do that."

Persica's lips wrinkled in slight confusion at his dejected response. "But no matter. We shouldn't trifle ourselves with such thoughts anyhow," she murmured, pushing her seat back and standing up. "Peach Blossom will be home soon. We'd best finish the last of the chores. There isn't much left, so don't worry too much."

Habeas slowly and stalely nodded in agreement as he too left his chair, taking a last bite of the crust before doing so. "Yeah, I guess."

Comments

[KVFFour]

7682025 Shall I put you out of your misery?

[Samellan]

Changeling are always Yay! in my list.

[Orangeblossom1212]

UPDATE! PLEASE, I'M DIYING!!

[eggtosser]

I'm loving this story :D It seems Persica is developing a soft spot for Habeas, it isn't much but is enough to know it's there and present.

[Ardent Dusk]

I quite like this story, and I love the cover-art.

[Morphy]

7691402

Eh, not sure about the soft spot. It's all a bit like post-World War 2 movies where one of the former enemy soldiers decides to venture into the other country and claiming that they want to be friends and distance themselves from the typical propaganda. I have a feeling she will always be cold towards him, and he might understand why when the story behind that scar comes out, eventually.

[Truthseeker]

She seems to be accepting him very quickly. One day and she's willing to smile at him? Even after that dream?

[Luckysweep]

7727615 I agree. She should not be this nice to him this soon. I was expecting his food "made specially for him" to have sedatives in them or poison. Or enacting rediculous standards in his chores. Or at least not letting him eat AT HER TABLE!
She HATES his kind! She shouldn't be all nice and friendly sk soon.

[Dustchu]

Mmm... seems like she's accepting him... though...

Nicely done.

[AyanamiRei]

7727615
7735630

#1 She big fear that the changeling was manipulating her daughter and draining love from her, turned out to be false.
#2 It seems like her daughter and the changeling are genuinely FRIENDS.
#3 Despite the various ways the changeling COULD have done something to harm her or her family, NOTHING was done.
#4 The changeling has proven itself to not be a threat, despite having multiple chances to hurt her or her daughter.
#5 The changeling has proven that he doesn't need to steal love to survive, that multiple facts seem to objective prove his story. She's even thought that everything he has said seems to be true, and she has ZERO evidence to that says he is lying about ANYTHING.

Remember even though she has been looking for a SINGLE sign that he is Evil, Lying, etc. she has found ZERO evidence. Plus her daughter's words really got to her that if he wasn't a changeling she probably wouldn't hate him or want to kill him. She's a good pony at heart, and can't bring herself to hate him enough to want to see him dead, but she can't trust or like him enough to keep him around until he heals either.