Chapter 5: A Jaded New Friend
Deep in a little woodland cove, separating two small towns, trees rustled quietly in the cool wind. The day was bright and peaceful, small rodents and insects scurrying about. Sparrows and finches sang little harmonies, keeping light peppy music afloat throughout the entire expanse. Suddenly the tranquility of it all was cut off inexplicably by an unnatural, loud:
BAM!
All the critters scattered in fear and the sunny patch of greenery went deathly quiet. All the birds and rabbits were gone, and the place was now empty of life. Except for one creature, whose ears perked up in surprise.
Now in this part of Minnesota, there is not an abundance of reptilians, besides the occasional lizard or garden snake, but this beast was far greater than anything lizard any of the inhabitants might see, so she was wise to keep herself hidden away in the shelter of the trees, for her appearance would most likely start a riot. Others had occasionally spotted her from time to time, she knew, but she had been quick on her feet and made her getaway before anyone could really confirm what they just thought they might have seen. Her deep blue sapphire eyes were locked intently on the direction in which the noise had come from. Following the shot, she could hear an ethereal scream that sounded as if it were straight from a horror film. She bent her brows in concentration as her strong tail swished back and forth, pearl white scales glittering with each movement. A faint thoomp was heard as whatever was shot out of the air crashed into the soft but crumbly dirt. After a few moments of silence, animals started to reemerge for their hideaways, birds singing soft, wary notes as if they were checking to see if it was safe again. They all stayed a good 5 feet away from the creature; she scared them with her size and her array of claws and teeth.
Voices were then heard, all muffled, but obviously male. They were yelling to each other; it sounded desperate. The blue-eyed reptile knew what she had to do. Taking off like a rollercoaster that goes from 0 mph to 90 mph in 2 seconds, she darted very suddenly through the mass of trees as fast as her legs could take her. Weaving in and out between branches and large oak trunks, her wings were pressed firmly to her sides, in fear they may snag onto something.
As she neared a clearing where only small pieces of the Rose View Point High School’s white painted drywall could be barely seen through the cracks of the tree branches, something caught her eye and caused her to screeched to halt, backing up a few steps. The men were still searching through the woodlands, but she could hear their panicked voices screaming to the left of her. It was only a matter of time before they’d come looking this way.
Laying on a small patch of dirt, was a creature she could not immediately identify; it was faced away from her and slumped in a position which clearly showed that it was unconscious. It had made a small crater right next to a tree and, trailing behind it, was a streak of missing dirt, signifying that when this thing crashed, it slid across the ground until it hit the tree it currently had itself pressed against. The creature, she also noticed with a shiver down her spine, was sitting in a pool of a thick green liquid which kept permeating the ground, soaking into the dirt below. The yelling of the men grew louder. Slowly, the reptilian reached out a claw slowly and turned the creature over. Its head lolled around lifelessly, like a rag doll when she turned it over. Upon seeing the creature’s face, she jumped back in fright and recognition, her stomach turning. She had to put a claw over her mouth to keep from screaming in horror and awe. She knew what that creature was. She had seen those creatures before, many, many times. Not in person, mind you, but the features could not possibly belong to anything else. Her whole body seized up, unsure of what to do with this injured threat. It was probably the thing that screamed and was shot from the sky, she figured. Should she take it in? Leave it for the men to find? She herself could definitely not be caught, for that would spell certain doom. What if it tries to attack her? These creatures cannot be trusted, I know that. But what if it’s friendly? As she stood rooted towards the ground, mulling over her options, a voice pierced her thoughts.
“Over there! I think something’s moving!”
The voice shocked her, for she did not expect the men to be in proximity this close yet. Through the twisted and gnarled branches, she could see the figure of a man in a blue uniform, traipsing through the trees and taking care not to trip over any roots. He was approaching swiftly. Thinking fast, the over-sized reptile swung the bleeding foe over her shoulder and onto her back, where she prayed that her sharp spines would not injure it further. Before the police could find the two terrifying creatures though, she dashed back the way she came with the thing on her back, leaving confused policemen to poke at the dirt crater, and wonder where the hell that martian went.
Drake slowly awoke to the sounds of chirping birds and the rustling of leaves. He cracked open one of his eyes and got a mix of brown, earthy tones and faintly glowing lights. He yawned.
In the distance, he could hear what sounded like footsteps, and a bright pale light was shining in the distance faintly warming his skin. The place was unfamiliar to him, but as he was extraordinarily tired, he didn’t really worry about it much. Making a few clicking sounds with his mouth his eyes fluttered shut again and he could feel himself floating back into the realm of sleep.
Breathing in heavy and peacefully, he made to roll over and shift his sleeping position, but when he tried, a sudden sharp and terrible pain made itself present on his leg. His eyes snapped open as he let out a brief yell in surprise. The jolt of pain made memories come back to him, and he began to remember the horrid events that had transpired not long ago. The bathroom, a changeling, the cop he shot, the cop that shot him…
He sat up quickly and pressed his back against a dirty stone wall behind him, accidentally crushing his translucent wings, forgetting that they were there, and taking a good look at himself. Yup. Still a mutant horse bug.
He began to hyperventilate again as he looked down at himself, reliving the panic he felt in the bathroom. The tail, the wings, the chitin. He was still a changeling. And his leg still hurt like it had just been dipped in the firey pits of Hell. But he noticed, with some confusion, that it had been unprofessionally bandaged. Some kind of thin but wide leaf had been wrapped around his left flank and a small part of the hind leg. Some sort of a green ooze was leaking out of the cracks of the homemade bandages, and with dread, he quickly realized that that was his blood. Great. Green blood. Nothing says ‘you’re not human’ like green blood.
He looked up from his peculiar body to look at his surroundings and felt a strange sense of awe. He was laying on a small elevated piece of rock in some sort of a small cave, which was about 10 feet in length and width, and a ceiling low enough to where he might be able to barely touch it with his hoof. The walls were dirty brown and had some sort of leafy green plant growing out of small naturally formed cracks in them. But that wasn’t what surprised him at all; the cave itself had been beautifully decorated and meticulously organized. All the items in the room, Drake noticed, were either made from tree bark, leaves, stones, and other natural items, save for a few obviously man-made items. A small crooked table sat alongside the left part of the wall, covered in papers and writing utensils as well as different stones and twigs plus, strangely enough, an unlit Menorah. Red, yellow and blue Christmas lights were strung from the ceiling, making the room appear as if it were straight out of a fairytale. Drake’s head had rested against a clumped pile of leaves and a dirty white blanket had been kicked onto the ground next to him. A small collection of logs sat piled against each other in the center of the room surrounded by stones: A bonfire. Several sticks formed a spit over the firewood that was carefully balanced. A couple of cardboard boxes sat in another corner, full of objects that Drake couldn’t see. At the end of the small cove, there was a tunnel that led the way out, warmed by sunlight. The fairy-like design of the place left Drake wondering: Who did all of this?
Then, as if his thoughts had been read by an unknown deity, he could hear footsteps approaching from outside. The entryway into this little cove was a small almost even circular tunnel, which turned towards the left and led outside, Drake figured. From outside the cave, he could hear the sounds of sliding and crunching dirt. A shadow began to show on the wall as someone approached and Drake, acting on instinct, folded his ears against his head and pulled his legs closer to himself, and around the corner came…
A fucking dragon.
It couldn’t be anything else.
It abruptly stopped in the entryway when it saw Drake staring wide-eyed at it, and in return, it made the same expression. The two stared at each other for a while, looking over each other’s physical features in wonder and terror. The dragon had glistening white scales that seemed to shine, even though there wasn’t much sunlight in the cave. It was trimmed with lavender, which colored its sharp spines, two pointed horns protruding from above its temples, and wing membranes, as well as the tip of its tail. Its eyes were slitted, like a cat, with deep blue irises. Draped across its back, was a worn yellow towel, which was slowly dripping clean water onto the ground. The weird colors that Drake had seen swirling around everyone in the hallways at his high school were present on the dragon as well, a light purple and red aura radiating from its body, with small yellow circles surrounding it, appearing and disappearing in different places around it. What they signified, Drake could still not figure out.
They continued to stare, the dragon taking a small step back baring its teeth. On any other occasion, Drake would be scared out of his wits, but today, well, he’d seen it all. The fact that a goddamn dragon just waltzed through the door was too much for him to take. He was hardly even surprised. The number of emotions he felt was overwhelming. Finding nothing about his current situation funny, he began to chuckle anyways. That chuckle turned into a laugh and then Drake began to laugh so hard small watery tears began to leak from his eyes as he fell back onto the makeshift pillow. His hooves were clutched to his stomach, and the pain in his leg made him laugh even harder.
The dragon’s threatening stance was gone, and now it only looked on with confusion and worry, the red vanishing from the variety of colors circling her.
“Uh…” She lifted a claw up and cleared her throat. “Hello?”
Drake continued to laugh like an absolute madman. Eventually, he began to calm down a bit and he lifted his head to look at the dragon and wipe a tear out of the crook of his eye, a stupid grin still drawn on his face.
He waved a hole filled hoof at her “S-sorry, I just...I just… with me turning into a character from a little girls cartoon, the entire police force after me, the fact that I probably killed someone and then was immediately shot in the leg was a lot to handle. And then, I-I wake up in what looks like Tinkerbell’s house and...and...and..out trots a mother frickin dragon!” He began to wheeze with laughter. “I mean, what, with how this day is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if my great aunt came barreling through that wall, offering me cocaine!” He doubled over with laughter, and dragon simply stared at him, now looking... sad.
Soon, Drake’s laughter began to die, and the giggles were replaced by gentle sobs. “I-I-I… I don’t even know what’s happening…” He quickly wiped away his tears then sniffed and looked up at the dragon. She still remained in the exact same spot, her concern for him showing on her face. She watched him for a few seconds as he sniffed and straightened up, before sighing and walking towards the small homemade table. She remained silent as she fiddled with some of the things on the desk before walking over to Drake and taking the towel off her back. She ringed the ratty thing out before forcefully pushing Drake down onto the slab of stone, telling him without words to lay down.
He complied without protest as the dragon draped the cloth across his forehead, right above his curved horn. She then promptly left without saying a word and returned to her desk, continuing whatever it was she was doing. Drake, who had now fully recovered from his state of emotional trauma, shifted his position slightly so that he was more comfortable. “So...uh…”
“You were hurt pretty badly and are coming down with what I think is a fever as well,” said the dragon, not looking up. “Don't squirm so much. You're just going to make your wound open even more. I already got the bullet out, so you should be on a steady course to heal properly.”
“Ah…” said Drake intelligently, putting his hooves on his stomach and staring at the ceiling.
Silence, except for the scratching of a pen and the rustling of objects on the desk, was heard.
After the quiet period between the two stretched beyond five minutes, Drake spoke up.
“Er… quick question…”
“What?” hummed the dragon, still absorbed in her work.
Drake inhaled with the fury of a thousand suns.
“Who are you, what are you, how do you exist, where are we, why are we here, what the hell is happening, are we still on Earth, why are you taking care of me, did I kill a man, does the world hate me, do you hate me, are you a dragon, what are you doing over there, are we underground, how far, why do you have a menorah, are you going to eat me, cuz it looks like you have a bonfire set up over there, since when did you exist, did you save me, did you make this place, do you have a name, can you fly, can you breath fire, are you the thing we heard about on the radio, is this all some sick dream, can you make all the color tornadoes go away, can you get my my fingers back, is this karma’s doing, do you know what I am or how to fix me and most importantly, I'm hungry is there something I can eat?”
Now, the dragon looked at him stupidly, work abandoned. Slowly, her expression morphed into a more gentle one and she turned from her desk to root around in one of the cardboard boxes. Eventually, she found what she was looking for, then, the items in her claw walked over to Drake and dropped several tiny spheres on the ground next to him. They were blueberries.
Drake’s mouth watered. He had hardly had breakfast this morning, and… wow. And to think that this morning had been a perfectly normal start to the day. Huh.
He stretched his right hoof out to grab the tasty fruits beside him, but only after managing to roll a couple away from him instead of actually grab them, he remembered.
Oh yeah.
No fingers.
“Hrrrrrnnnggg,” he growled, throwing a hoof over his eyes. He was going to have to get used to not having opposable thumbs anymore, wasn’t he?
The dragon snorted in amusement, looking at him placidly. “Get used it, chump. You can eat them with your face if you want.” Drake shot her a look that could turn water into acid, before stupidly rolling over on his stomach (careful not to injure his leg any further) and hanging his face off the edge. He then began angrily eating the blueberries on the ground. He supposed that he looked like an absolute moron right then.
Once done, he rolled back onto his back, forgot he had wings, crushed them, shrieked, rolled back onto his stomach, then slowly, wings held out straight at his sides, laid down slowly, content. The dragon kept scribbling.
Drake cleared his throat obnoxiously. “So, uh, you didn’t answer majority of my questions.”
The dragon paused and put the pen down slowly for what seemed like the fifth time before walking over to him calmly and sitting at the foot of his bed. Drake had not known the dragon for very long, but he could obviously tell she was the type who was fixed in a constant “raised eyebrow” state. Both lazy amusement and the skeptical stare of judgment flickered in her eyes.
“Actually, I have some questions for you as well.” She said. “How about this, I’ll answer your little inquiries if you answer mine. Deal?”
Drake nodded, looking at the reptile with immense curiosity.
The Dragon cleared her throat. “Let’s start off with the basics. Do you have a name?”
“Yeah, it’s Traffer. Drake Traffer and aw shit that sounded like a James Bond movie…” he moaned, throwing a hoof over his head in embarrassment.
To his surprise, the dragon giggled, like she actually got the reference.
“Anyways, uh my name is Byte, and I-“
“Woah Woah Woah, Bite?”
“Uhh, yeah that’s my name…”
“Like your actual name is Bite?”
“Well…”
“So were your dragon parents like really uncreative when they name you or something…”
“No! It’s a nickname, genius! Geez, why is that always so hard to understand.” She huffed in annoyance.
“Oh, okay.” Said Drake, thinking. “So, if that’s your nickname, may I ask why you have it? Are you, like, good at biting things, or…”
The dragon’s raised brow line seemed to go higher. “Will you let me talk for more than five seconds without interrupting me to predict what I’m about to say next, or can we move on?”
Drake was silent, and the dragon took it as a yes.
“My name’s not B-I-T-E, it’s B-Y-T-E, like a megabyte or a gigabyte. I’m good with computers, and someone called me that one day and the name just stuck. Anyways, your turn. Why are you here?”
“I don’t know,” Drake said rolling his eyes, although Byte had trouble making it out. His eyes were all the same color, after all, the only indication of whether he was looking at her or not was the gradient circle of faint white which she assumed was his pupil.
“I mean, you dragged me here against my own volition. You above all should be able to tell me why I’m here.”
“Well, would you have rather me left you to exsanguinate until the cops found your body?”
“Ex-san-gwin-nate…?”
“It means to bleed to death.” Byte said placidly.
“Wow, way to put it lightly,” mumbled Drake under his breath. Luckily, she didn’t hear him.
“What I mean is, what’s a changeling like you doing in a heavily in the forest? Why were you shot in the leg?”
“Well, I mean it’s a long story, one that even I don’t fully understand but… wait. What did you call me?”
“I asked what you were doing in the forest and-“
“No no no no no, That’s not what I mean. Before that, did you call me ‘changeling’?” Drake’s mind was doing somersaults. How? “H...How do you know what that is…?”
Byte’s eyes went wide, and she blushed furiously, looking mad at herself. “No! It’s just...it’s…Arrrrggghh! I give up!”
Then before Drake knew what was happening, both of her fore-claws were on top of Drake’s shoulders, and he felt like both of them might break under the pressure. She was muzzle to muzzle with him, and there was fire in her eyes.
“Who are you really?!” She growled. “Are you the one who did this to me? Do you work for Queen Chrysalis as one of her drones? Are you from the Badlands? Speak, Goddammit!”
The two creatures stared wide-eyed at each other in silence. Drake was at a loss for words. He could only squawk in surprise. The last thing he expected was for his captor to have extensive knowledge on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. His heart pounded faster. The colors that swarmed her body were red and with a little blue mixed in. He still didn’t know what those were, and they still scared him. They only-
Wait.
He thought back to every occasion on which he had seen them. Around the students, around the people, around Byte. What was he again? A changeling. And what did changelings do?
“I KNOW WHAT IT IS!” he suddenly shrieked, causing Byte to gasp in shock and stumble backward. Her colors turned purple and white, before momentarily switching to red.
“They are emotions!! I’ve been seeing these weird things everywhere, swirling around people, and I think I just realized what they are!”
Byte looked at him blankly, which switched her colors to a blue and yellow. That confused conformation made Drake’s grin widen. “Oh, what a relief!” he cried, throwing his hoof over his eyes.
Byte was absolutely speechless. “So… what does that mean?”
Drake gave her a fanged smile. “It means I can see emotions! How FLIPPING COOL IS THAT??”
She inhaled deeply before turning away from him and staring at the ceiling. “Oh lord, what the actual fuck is going on…”
Drake was about to answer but she whipped her head around and glared at him. “Don’t move. I’m going to find more food because I wasted all my blueberries on you.”
Drake looked at her curiously, a smile still on his face from his recent discovery. “Where do you even…”
“Garbage.” She stated simply, slinging a brown satchel over her shoulders, but as she was on four legs, it was difficult to keep balanced, and it kept slipping down her arms. She growled at it, but the bag didn’t seem to understand.
“I’ll be back in an hour,” she said, finally nesting it comfortably in between two of her spines. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“An hour??” He cried incredulously. “What am I supposed to entertain myself with.”
She grit her teeth together. “Find a way to manage, princess. And don’t touch my stuff either.” Drake’s face seemed to fall slightly at the last comment, proving that’s what he was planning on doing.
“You’re getting the smelliest garbage I can find,” she muttered, turning away and stomping irately out of the cave. “Bye,” she called, sounding extremely jaded. Drake heard the scratching of claws against the dirt, and then he was alone.
After a few moments, he rolled onto his back and put his hooves on his stomach and staring at the ceiling in apprehension.
“Smelly garbage, why do I get the smelly garbage…” He trailed off, grumbling to himself while his stomach rumbled. He thought about how long it was since he’s eaten and began to picture all of his favorite foods. Lasagna, pizza, those gummy bear rings they sold at the Walgreens checkout aisle.
But for some reason, those didn’t seem as appetizing as they used to.
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That's a lot to unpack there.
Also... Holy shit, this story's alive?!
9402061
I haven't been on this site in nearly two years or so, and I decided to check in tonight, saw a thousand unread notifications and saw that people were still commenting on it. Pretty recently too. So I decided to hell with it. Here y'all go.
9402065
Well, welcome back then
OK pinkie pie
It's been a while since this was last updated.
That brings to mind...
https://m.Taking a quote from Dark Crystal, "Questions, questions. Too many questions!"
9402597
Almost two years lmao
9403061
Indeed. Happy to see it has returned though, it inspired one of my own stories. It has a protagonist not disimilar to Drake.
Nice to see you back again, I thin the chapter was good with showing a human turned dragon be his first out example of a human transformation, keep it up.
It's aliiiive!
I'm very excited for this to continue, human to changeling fics are rare enough, and most get abandoned. Please continue!
You updated o.o
9409924
THIS MADE ME SCREECH IM NOT EVEN KIDDING THIS IS THE BEST COMMENT IVE EVEN SEEN WTF?????
9409972
Hi.
I just wanna say.
Thank you for the overwhelming amount of support. It's been like - two years since I've really written anything for this story. The recent chapter was something I had written a year and a half ago but only decided to cap it off and post it recently. But dude... your comments are actually making me the happiest person in the world rn
Also teachers like that do exist. Talk to my friend's chemistry teacher, she got a tardy and a referal for showing up literally ten seconds after the bell rang.
9410018
Yes, I agree! This is exactly what I was looking for, but I had assumed it had been abandoned. (So I hadn't put it in Tracking, and only managed to come across this chapter by chance.)
9460729
I set all of my folders as tracking so I can see if someone updated.
9460906
I guess I had just seen so many changeling fics get abandoned, and I hadn't bothered putting it in any.
I have since learned my lesson. Unless it actually says "cancelled," I shouldn't assume an author might get back to writing.
9462222
Fair enough! I'm seeing a number of formerly dead fics either come back or get continuation announcements this year, so hopefully this is the year of continuing fics!
9462238
Tbh I'm really not sure.
I don't actually know where to go from here. The chapter I had just posted wasn't recently written - it had been written a year and a half ago. I just found it scrolling through my old docs and decided to give it a hasty ending.
I'm also not as interested in MLP as I used to be. Phases come and go I guess, (suprised to see my UT phase lasted me this long
)
If someone could maybe DM me with ideas, I'd really appreciate it. I know the pain of a cancelling fic, and I know that a decent amount of people really like this story, so I don't want to let them down...
9465355
Awwww...
Well, if it cancels it cancels. There are plenty of other fics or writers out there that can fill its shoes. I do hope you get some neat ideas, though. Fics like this (where humans become Equestrians WITHOUT going to Equestria) are very rare.
AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! It's been updated! So nice to see a deadfic get a revival. Thanks for coming back