Revenant

by Zimprus Nalune

Parasite

I practically dove to Pyrite’s doorstep, opening the door and entering as quickly as I could. Pyrite was nowhere to be seen, so I immediately headed upstairs, absentmindedly shapeshifting back into a changeling. I walked into my room and leaped up on the bed, levitating a random book up from a pile to read, and my saddlebags to the end of my bed.

Glancing at the cover, ‘Beginner’s Guide to Combat Magicks’, I decided to start at the beginning of the book instead of a random page, as I had the night before. I casually opened the cover and flipped through the first few pages, all of which were simple drawings depicting a variety of attack spells and techniques. I had just arrived at the table of contents when I heard someling running down the hallway and stopping just outside my door.

I glanced over and saw Pyrite looking at me with wide eyes.

“Simmer down Pyrite,” I remarked. “I didn’t realize reading a book called for lethal suppressive force.”

Pyrite didn’t reply immediately, instead pointing a hoof at me. “You. Come here.”

With that, she ran back down the hallway, back to her room. I looked at my book with a mixture of irritation and sadness before sighing and getting off my bed, which practically called after me as I headed to Pyrite’s room.

I opened the door and was greeted by a large table littered with a humongous map, tools, a pair of saddlebags with vase-shaped clasps, and other assorted things that were strewn about in a messy, yet organized fashion. I blinked as I looked over the scene, remembering Pyrite’s comment about her work.

“Does archeology really take that much time?”

“That and more.”

The unicorn herself was hunched over the map, eyes flitting from place to place, hoof occasionally pointing to a point on the map that was marked with a flag, the color of which seemed to be chosen from blue, green, and red almost randomly. As I watched, she levitated a quill and notebook and began writing without so much as a sidelong glance, which I found somewhat impressive.

“So,” I began, getting Pyrite’s sudden and undivided attention. I was slightly unnerved by her wide-eyed look, but continued anyway with an unchanged expression. “I take it you interrupted my much-needed relaxation time for a good reason.”

“Revenant,” she said, talking quickly. “Planned all day. New trip. Going to Everdeep Castle.”

I blinked at her rapid speech. “O…kay… What does this have to do with me?”

“Need you to come. Too many dangers alone, reason I never went. With two, much safer. Plus, you can carry spellbooks, may come in handy.”

I nodded. It made sense. With two trips into the Everfree fresh in my memory, I could see why Pyrite never made the trip alone. Too many crazy archeologists and suspicious zebras. If we went together, though, we’d be a lot safer. She was probably more concerned about her health than mine, however, seeing as I was the one who had beaten her during our fight.

“Alright, so when do we leave?” I asked, resolving to get some reading done in several areas of magic to be prepared for the trip.

“Morning. Be ready.”

I smirked. “Count on it.”

With that, I left Pyrite to her plans for global excavation and returned to my room, hopping back onto my bed and levitating my book back in front of me. I had been reading for pleasure before, but now it was serious. I needed to be ready for whatever that forest could throw at me.

It turned out that my book really was ‘beginner level’, starting not with spells but actually gathering magic in an offensive fashion. I chuckled to myself as the book mentioned, as a side note, that certain species like changelings had combat magic practically born into them and thus needed much less training to use it. I nearly threw the book away at that point, but I decided that I should give it a chance, to see if the average pony could be a threat, if nothing else.

As I read on, I learned quite a bit about fighting magic. It turned out that there was a way to fine-tune magical blasts into a form that was much more efficient at the slight cost of power. Also, simply dumping power into a magical blast was not the best way to attack. Instead, starting with no more magic than a bolt, albeit outputting it constantly, and slowly upping the energy as required was a fantastic way to not only overcome your opponent, but keep yourself from tiring as well.

I read through the entirety of the first chapter, which consisted of five basic methods of attacking. A bolt, blast, the focused versions of each, and a deadly magical ‘blade’, which required concentration to keep up, but almost no magic past the initial casting to sustain it. After that, I decided to focus on the polar opposite of fighting: healing.

I levitated two books up to me, placing ‘Beginner’s Guide to Combat Magicks’ down in their stead. My eyes flicked between the two tomes, ‘Standard Book of Spells’ and ‘Advanced Healing Techniques’, weighing the option of each. The former was likely to at least get me a passable use of healing magic, but the latter would be needed if there were any major injuries sustained between me and Pyrite.

After some consideration and mental debating, I decided that should learn the basics over the advanced, levitating ‘Advanced Healing Techniques’ into my saddlebag, in case I really did need it later. I searched through the table of contents of the ‘Standard Book of Spells’, flipping through the majority of the book to Chapter 9, ‘Basic Healing Spells’. As before, I committed everything to memory as I read, except this time I was even more certain that I would need the information in the upcoming trip.

Unlike ‘Beginner’s Guide to Combat Magicks’, this book had a rather lengthy and useless introduction, choosing to glorify medical ponies and the many uses of healing magic over actual material, so I skipped ahead to the actual material.

It turned out that healing magic was more complicated than fighting magic. Whereas with combat it was easy to break something, putting it back together was harder, especially if it was a living thing. Basic healing revolved around taking two parts of an injury and bringing them together, using intense magic to either cause the body to quickly heal itself, or fix and create new bonds between the injured parts. For minor injuries, such as cuts and scrapes, the body’s accelerated healing wouldn’t be a problem, but more severe injuries would require a second pony, or changeling in my case, to fix the damage themselves.

I hadn’t gotten more than two spells in before I let out an involuntary yawn. I suddenly noticed that the light from the window next to me had faded tremendously, and that the sun was almost completely set. I had been reading for some time, and I decided that I had learned enough for the trip tomorrow.

I levitated the rest of my books into my saddlebags, the last few having to be slightly squeezed in. With one more glance out of my window, towards the sunset, I laid down and closed my eyes, almost praying for a good night’s sleep.

***

The flashes had returned…

A void stretched out…

My body hung in a void of color…

Another changeling hung in front of me…

It reached out to me…

I felt it hug me…

Daddy…

I placed a hoof on its head…

Parasite…

***

I slowly opened my eyes, feeling a modicum of warmth on my back. The sun was just rising over the horizon, and I could feel its rays beating down on my back. I could smell the slight scent of pony wafting down the hall from Pyrite’s room. The chatter of ponies was audible even through my closed window, but even more clear was the sound of my heart beating in my ears. The texture and softness of my bed was more easily felt than normal.

But above all that was the feeling of clearness in my mind. It was something I had never felt before, something that faded with my peaceful awakening. And with it, my state of hypersensitivity.

As my senses faded to normal, I stood up and stretched my legs and back, gave my wings a quick buzz before hopping down to the floor. I shook my head once to clear the last of my drowsiness from my head before levitating my saddlebags onto my back. I grunted slightly as the full weight of all my books pressed against my sides, but it wasn’t any worse than the apple baskets from the day before.

I walked out of my room and down the hall to Pyrite’s room, moving at a slower pace than normal. It seemed that I may have slept too well…

I knocked on Pyrite’s door and was immediately greeted by the door opening and the unicorn standing right in front of me, wide awake and seemingly full of energy. She carried the same pair of saddlebags I had seen on her table last night, but hers were virtually empty as opposed to my chock full ones.

“Ready?” she asked. I smirked and quickly shifted into Night Wing.

“Now I am.”

With a nod, Pyrite and I made our way down the stairs and out of her house, likely for some time, if Pyrite’s quick and relatively inconspicuous hiding of the key was anything to go by.

We set out, travelling out of Ponyville and towards the Everfree on hoof. Pyrite decided on a leisurely pace, so by the time we reached the edge of the forest, the sun had finished rising over the horizon and was making its way towards the height of the sky. Pyrite and I stopped at the boundary to the Everfree, taking a brief break while Pyrite took out a map and looked it over, one of the few things she had brought with her.

“Alright, follow me,” Pyrite said, rolling up her map and placing it back in her saddlebag. “Don’t fall behind, and be on the lookout for any less-than-friendly wildlife.”

With a shape-changing flash, I nodded in response, and we continued our journey towards the Everdeep Castle.

***

We entered the forest and almost immediately went off the dirt path that I had followed my two previous trips. Instead, Pyrite led us on through the thick vegetation of the Everfree, where I could barely see through the various plants, let alone keep watch for animals that might attack us.

Even though I knew that the sun was shining and it couldn’t even be midday, we travelled in relative dark. It made the already hard task of keeping watch nearly impossible. The forest itself seemed like it was trying to get rid of me and Pyrite. But while I was worrying about being attacked, Pyrite just kept a determined expression and pressed on.

After what seemed like an hour, I finally began to let my guard down. We hadn’t been attacked yet, and I hadn’t heard so much as a peep from the local wildlife. The latter had been worrisome at first, but I figured that this part of the forest was just as creepy to animals as it was to changelings.

Finally, the thick bushes and trees began to thin out and give way to a more open part of the forest. The thinning out didn’t surprise me, as the plant life was getting less vibrant the further we travelled. Trees became grayer and lost their leaves, and bushes and shrubbery were almost nonexistent. That which did exist was shriveled and dead, if not dying.

Pyrite suddenly made a sharp right and walked through one of the few relatively thick patches of shrubbery. I attempted to do the same, but I immediately bumped into Pyrite, who had stopped just past the bush. We both fell to the ground, but I was the only one to get up. I noticed that Pyrite’s eyes were wide and she had staying absolutely still.

“Hey,” I said, poking her a few times. “Let’s go. You’re the one who was so eager to-“

Pyrite’s hoof shot out and plugged my mouth, preventing me from speaking. She slowly pointed behind me, and I turned around…

… to see a manticore yawning as it woke up.

A part of me was scared for a moment, but then I realized that there was no reason for me to be scared of it. To ponies, he might be even less of a monster than me. I grinned and stood as confidently as I could. I glanced down at Pyrite.

“You going to help me, or not?”

She looked at me with a shocked expression, like she couldn’t believe that I was thinking about taking on a beast as big as the one in front of us. Her shock slowly turned to iron determination, likely because she came to the same reasoning I did.

“Only if I need to.” She smirked slightly. “After all, a two-on-one just isn’t fair. What with you being a changeling and all.”

I chuckled and turned my attention back to the beast, which had by now woken up and was looking around, giving a territorial roar as it caught sight of me. I settled lower into a fighting stance, giving a challenging hiss as I did so. It was simple, the manticore was on his turf, and I was invading. So we would fight.

We both walked forwards, then started circling one another, facing each other and waiting for the other to make a move. I looked over the beast before me. It was an average, run-of-the-mill manticore, nothing to imply it had anything over its kin. The only thing worthy of note was its coat, which was just as grey and lifeless as the forest around us.

Our circling went on once, twice, three times before we locked eyes. Then the creature charged.

It covered the ground between us in seconds, leaping up into the air before coming down with a swipe of its paw. I quickly jumped to the side, buzzing up to its face and giving a retaliatory jab to its muzzle. The manticore yelped and swiped at me again, but I flew high above it, once again dodging the claws of the beast.

I let off a few bolts of magic, which sailed down towards my opponent. It quickly wove in between the blasts, missing them only slightly before it bellowed at me, realizing I was far out of its reach. I chuckled and readied more magical blasts, intent to drown the beast in a hail of fire.

Then it flew towards me.

I wondered for a split second how the manticore was able to fly on such small wings before it swiped at me once more, this time catching me off guard and sending me to the ground, a fresh cut on my side that stung as it began leak green blood. My yelp of pain was interrupted by my impact with the ground, my head banging against the forest floor and disorienting me enough to dull all my senses for a brief moment.

I sluggishly tried to roll onto my hooves, but the manticore landed on top of me, pinning my front legs to the ground and roaring in my face. It bared its fangs and its head lunged forward...

… and then a blast of amber magic impacted firmly in its side, with enough force to knock the beast off me, saving me from being devoured. My senses now refocused, I leaped to my hooves and looked at the unicorn who had just saved my life, nodding my head in gratitude and receiving a sharp nod in return.

The manticore clambered to its feet, snarling at us in thanks for the sizzling burn that now sat on its side. Remembering my studies the night before, I loosed another blast of magic at the beast as I buzzed away from it. It was only an attention-getter, and it worked, the beast’s focus now solely on me. I smirked as the manticore pawed the ground in preparation for a charge, playing right into my hooves.

It charged, bellowing at me as I stood still. The creature once again jumped and came down, claws ready to tear me in half. I waited until the last second for the manticore to descend, before making a small jump forward, so that the creature landed directly over, but not on top of me.

I closed my eyes and concentrated, pouring magic into my horn and willing it into shape, before a blade made of bright green magic formed around my horn. I reared up on my hind legs, driving the blade directly into the manticore’s gut.

The beast’s cry of pain was deafening, and my sudden driving of the blade deeper into its belly only increased the volume. The creature’s flesh sizzled around the blade, and its grey coat began to redden as blood flowed and was boiled away around the blade. I ended the trickle of magic that was sustaining the blade, rolling out from under the best and delivering a strong buck to its already injured side. The manticore collapsed, whimpering in pain as its life essence slowly began to trickle out of it.

I had won.

I heard a slow stomping sound from behind me and turned to see that Pyrite was audibly signaling her approval. I bowed and grinned.

“Thanks for the save back there,” I said, walking away from the dying beast. Pyrite waved a hoof dismissively. I winced as the cut on my side suddenly throbbed with pain, but I quickly remembered my reading, bringing the two halves of the cut together and feeding them magic until they knit back together, leaving no trace of injury.

“Don’t mention it,” she said. “I know you would’ve done the same for me.” She then turned around and pointed deeper into the forest. “Come on, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.” Pyrite set off once more, leaving me behind for a moment before I realized I needed to follow her.

As we kept walking through the forest, thankfully uneventfully, I found myself hanging on to Pyrite’s words.

You would’ve done the same for me.

Would I have?

Pyrite had given me a place to stay, didn’t expose me to pony society, gave me plenty of tomes to study, and to top it all off, saved my life. I realized that I, at the very least, should save her life in return. A part of me was reluctant to even think about sticking my neck out for a pony, of all species, but I knew I owed her. And I would repay my debt.

Nodding to myself, I refocused on the journey, determined to keep any further surprises at bay.

***

Before too long, Pyrite and I exited the forest, coming to the edge of a deep gorge with a rickety wooden bridge stretched across it. Across the bridge, a thick wall of fog prevented even me from seeing past the opposite side of the gorge. The deadened trees no longer blotted out the sky, giving way for the evening sun to cast its orange rays down on us.

I blinked in surprise. We had been in the forest almost an entire day? It couldn’t be. A few hours, at worst. I briefly looked back at the Everfree, faint whispers of warnings from a pony and a zebra ringing through my head. With a shiver, I looked back to the bridge to find Pyrite already half way across.

Not wanting to strain the bridge any more than necessary, I quickly flew over the gorge and met up with Pyrite. I watched as her horn lit up a bright amber, before a quickly-expanding sphere of orange light came from her horn, driving away all the fog that came in contact with it. Soon, we were able to see unimpeded, and were greeted by an impressive, but slightly deterring sight.

The Everdeep Castle, as Pyrite had called it, sat near another edge of the Everfree forest, but was relatively untouched by the forest itself. Its crumbling walls and towers made it clear that it was rotting away with time, which made me suddenly very aware of the importance of Pyrite’s work. She wasn’t just collecting artifacts, she was saving them for other ponies to get a glimpse of what we were seeing.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with that.

A dome of green magic sat around the castle, making it completely inaccessible to outsiders. Pyrite stomped her hooves in frustration, but instead of being agitated, I quickly began thinking of a work-around.

From a few brief asides that I had read in the ‘Standard Book of Spells’, I knew that barriers were effectively just large locks, blunt, simple, and severely draining, but incredibly strong and resistant to physical and magical forces. If one could cast a proper barrier spell, it would take an army to breach it.

An army, or one changeling who knew its way around locks.

“I’ve got an idea,” I said, immediately catching Pyrite’s full attention. “From what I’ve read, barriers are just large, simple locks.” I looked at her and smiled. “And can you guess who read up on lock-picking spells?”

Pyrite’s eyes lit up, and she gestured to the barrier. “If you think you can open the barrier, go ahead.”

I nodded and walked up to the green wall, placing a hoof on it and closing my eyes, concentrating on the magical feel of the barrier. It was a simple lock, but not a weak one. A simple opening spell wouldn’t work. I would have to use a combination of opening magic and a focused blast to carve to hole in the barrier.

I began drawing on my magic, trying to prepare and merge two spells into one. It was easier said than done however, as combining two entirely different kinds of magic was like trying to fit a square into a circle. Each spell tried to overtake the other, but I needed a perfect balance. I stood where I was for some time, trying to mesh the two spells in the way I needed to. I briefly spared some thought to think of how much easier the process would have been if I had been a unicorn.

Once I was confident I had gotten my ‘breaching’ spell prepared, I cast it on the barrier. A thin green beam shot out of my horn and impacted on the barrier, slowly tearing open a hole in the barrier. Pyrite immediately dashed through the hole, but I remained rooted in place, the spell requiring almost every bit of my focus to keep open. I couldn’t so much as try to take a step without the hole wavering and closing almost instantaneously, before I refocused and kept it open.

“Coming?” Pyrite asked, completely oblivious to the difficulty of the task I was performing.

“Can’t… spell… needs… focus…” I managed to say those few words, but even speaking made the spell waver dangerously. Pyrite looked down in thought for a moment before speaking again.

“Then let me take over,” she said. I looked at her with as best a confused face as I could manage. “You’ve already cast the spell, so all I need to do is keep it powered long enough for you to slip through.”

What slight bit of me not devoted to the breaching spell panicked. What if Pyrite couldn’t, or didn’t, keep the spell up? Could she keep the barrier open long enough for me to slip through?

Then, in true Pyrite fashion, she spoke up. “Revenant.”

I looked at her, her horn glowing amber.

“Trust me.”

I felt another force come in contact with my magic. It was weaker than both me and the barrier, so I knew it was Pyrite. Her magic began slipping into the breaching spell, feeding it the energy and balance it needed to stay up. My magic was still largely in control however, and didn’t allow Pyrite to fully take on the spell.

Again my doubts came forward. Could I, a changeling, trust her, a pony? I struggled briefly for a moment, but Pyrite’s words came back to me.

Trust me

I let go of the spell.

I leaped forward.

And I landed on the other side in one piece.

With a grunt, Pyrite released the spell, the barrier flowing back together in the blink of an eye. She staggered backwards and panted lightly, and I slowly got up off the ground. We looked at each other, and I bowed my head in thanks. I trusted Pyrite, and she hadn’t let me down. I wouldn’t forget that.

Once we had caught our breath, Pyrite and I made our way towards the crumbling front doors of the castle. I took the lead, pushing open the large wooden door, which creaked in protest. Inside, a large hall stretched on, support pillars and stone carvings worn away. A large fountain was in the middle of the room, a pool of water sitting still at its base, and several pedestals stood empty. The roof was open, letting us see out of the castle and stare the green barrier that lay overhead, blocking out the orange evening sky.

Though despite the amazing view of the ancient castle, there were several things that caught our attention.

Several ponies, in fact, each held against a pillar by thick chains and suspended over empty wooden barrels. I guessed that these ponies were the ones that had gone missing. They ran the gamut from stallion to mare, unicorn to earth pony, though they all shared one thing in common.

They were all grey.

Normally vibrant and colorful manes and coats were grey as ash, and the ponies themselves gave no indication of being alive other than the occasional moan of sniffle. Pyrite and I were both put off by the sight of hanging ponies, so we began moving to help them down when a loud buzzing filled the air.

We looked towards the source, which appeared to be the fountain. As we watched, the air above the top pedestal shimmered and warped, before slowly turning a bright white as a pony-like form faded into view. Pyrite let out a gasp.

The changeling opened its eyes and looked at us, grinning.

It was almost the polar opposite of me. Its carapace wasn’t grey, like a normal changeling, but snow white. Its eyes were a sky blue, lighter than most of our species. A large, twisted horn reminiscent of a changeling queen sat on top of its head, but it appeared to be at a cost, as its wings were only stubs of what they should have been, useless for flight and good only for buzzing.

“Welcome…” the changeling hissed, bowing politely. “Welcome to my humble castle, your highness.”

Pyrite and I looked at each other in confusion. She gestured at me, but I shrugged. To the best of my knowledge, I wasn’t any more royal than she was.

“Who? Pyrite?” I asked, getting a sharp laugh from the changeling in return.

“Hahaha, of course not!” It chuckled, finally leaping down from its place atop the fountain to approach me. “I was talking to you, your majesty.” Another bow. “I am Parasite.”

“I’m no king,” I said, waving dismissively. “Never was, never will be.”

Parasite looked up, shock written on his face. “You… you’ve forgotten?”

“There’s nothing to forget!” I shouted. “Now let those ponies go!”

Parasite was taken aback for a moment, but he rose from his bow and walked back to his fountain, placing his hooves on the rim and gazing into the water.

“I can’t do that,” he said. “Their lives are meaningless. They will only be food for our king.” He glanced back at me. “Who I suppose isn’t you. So leave, now.”

“Not without those ponies!” Pyrite demanded, stomping a hoof down for emphasis. “Let them go!”

“Don’t force me to hurt you, pony!” Parasite spat, whirling around and glaring at Pyrite with pure hatred in his eyes. “I will not hurt my kin, but I only spare you because you helped him!” He jabbed a hoof at me before narrowing his eyes further. “Your kind has been given the genocide order by the king himself, and you’re lucky that the queen holds as much sway over him as she does! If not for her, I would carry out the demand, even without a royal order!”

“Just let them go,” I said, again moving to let a pony down from their bonds. Parasite hissed and quickly refocused my attention onto him as his horn lit up with a green glow.

“I don’t care what your rank is, Elite!” He said. “I will not allow you to interfere with my mission! I have been given an assignment from the queen herself! And you will! Not! Stop me!”

I settled into a fighting stance, Pyrite doing the same as our horns lit up with magic.

“Then we’ll fight you for them,” I stated.

Parasite sneered, settling into a stance of his own. “I will not hurt you, brother. But your companion… I have no problems with.”

With that, Pyrite and I fired twin blasts of magic at Parasite. He jumped over them and fired a retaliatory beam at Pyrite, who rolled to the side to avoid it.

I quickly ran towards Parasite, intent on making the most of both his unwillingness to hurt me and his focus on Pyrite. I made a quick jab at his head, but he ducked underneath my strike and firmly, but lightly, shoved me away with a wall of magic. True to what he said, Parasite’s rebuttal didn’t hurt me at all, but sent me flying away from him, slightly winded.

I recovered my breath and got back up, watching for an opening as Parasite fired beam after beam of deadly green magic at Pyrite, who occasionally tossed off an easily dodged amber bolt. Pyrite finally managed to get some distance between the two of them, and I buzzed forward, aiming to tackle Parasite and then finish him off quickly.

He saw me coming however, and leaped to the side as I went sailing past him. I quickly turned around and flew back towards the white changeling, who was too occupied firing at Pyrite again to notice me flying towards him.

I crashed directly into Parasite’s back, sending him sprawling on the ground. I let out a triumphant laugh, but he got back on his hooves and hissed at me.

“I had hoped I wouldn’t have to hurt you, brother, but you leave me no choice!”

Parasite charged towards me as I landed, a blade similar to the one I had formed while fighting the manticore, except much longer and wider, forming around his horn. I formed my own blade in response, ready to engage him in a full-on swordfight, but an amber bolt of magic crashing into Parasite’s side and sending him flying into a pillar removed that idea from my mind.

The white changeling hissed in pain as he stood up, baring his fangs and looking at the both of us with an expression of hot fury.

“Curs!” he shouted, horn lighting up with twin layers of magic. “Now we fight on MY terms!”

With a blinding green flash, all three of us found ourselves in a much smaller room, circular, torch-lit, and with little room to maneuver. Before Pyrite or I had properly gathered our senses, Parasite was already on the offensive.

I felt a hoof collide solidly with my head, knocking me to the floor. A surprisingly hard kick to my side sent me sailing into a wall, and I slid down unceremoniously. My vision swam as I got up, but I was able to make out Parasite attacking Pyrite with a whip-like spell. A yelp signaled that she had been hit, and she stopped just long enough for the whip to wrap around her torso and yank her up in the air. Parasite smacked her against opposite sides of the room’s wall before slamming her down to the ground, a sickening cracking announcing some kind of broken bone. Pyrite lay on the floor, virtually unmoving as the whip vanished and the white changeling slowly approached her.

“Don’t worry, little pony,” he said, his horn’s aura glowing brighter and brighter. “It’ll be quick, and there won’t even be ashes.” Parasite raised his head high as he continued charging magic, obviously intending to fulfill his threat.

No.

I wouldn’t let him kill her. I owed her, and now was the time to pay my debt.

Control…

On pure instinct, I stood up and ran at Parasite, not a single conscious thought in my mind. I closed the gap between us, and the changeling turned just enough to see me charging at him, a yell resounding in the circular room.

Our horns met, and the world faded away.

***

Like all my dreams before, I found myself floating in a void. But unlike all my dreams, I found I had complete control over my body. I looked around myself, wondering if I had died, and this was the afterlife.

Suddenly, a bright white glow came from behind me. I turned around to see what could only be described as a pile of white slime hovering not too far away from me. Slowly, it grew some vague head-like shape, tortured and melted pony-like features imprinted on it.

And like so many times before, I went from having no idea what I was looking at, to knowing exactly what it was.

I was staring at Parasite’s essence.

Not his soul, but rather his identity. Who he was, what he wanted, and all of his hopes, dreams, and fears.

Control…

He wouldn’t have an identity much longer.

I charged at the slime, running on nothing. I pulled back a hoof for a punch, but the slime remained immobile. My hoof flew forwards, but the Parasite’s essence stayed still. My hoof made contact with the slime.

Only then did the slime react.

Not with words, but with thoughts. I felt the full weight of Parasite’s identity crash down on me, swarming my head with his thoughts and memories. I began to lose myself amidst them…

Flash…

A sudden, sharp pain ripped me from unconsciousness. I let out a yelp as I scrambled to get up, holding the top of my throbbing head. The sound of a cawing crow burst through the air, and I opened my eyes to look for the bird.

Flash…

Parasite opened his eyes for the first time. His parents, a mage and a drone of high standing, stood over him, faces beaming with pride as they beheld their firstborn…

Flash…

“Uh huh. And how do I know this isn’t a trap?” Pyrite sighed exasperatedly and rolled her eyes.
“If I wanted you found, would I have reminded you to shapeshift? Would I have made a cover story for you?”

Flash…

“Again!” The instructor called. Parasite was the only one who had difficulty with flying. All the other drones could outfly arguably some pegasi. But not me… he wasn’t good enough…

Flash…

“I suppose you can prove that?” Parasite asked, glaring at it. “What are you, her pet lizard?”

Flash…

I stood before the king and queen, bowing in submission as was proper. The king was silent as the queen spoke into his ear, whispering things I couldn’t hear. Parasite opened one eye to catch them suddenly nuzzling one another affectionately. He almost leaped at the chance to feed on their love, but I knew that there would be severe consequences.

Flash…

Big Macintosh nodded and opened the door to the barn, going inside for moment before coming back out with two baskets held together by a pair of straps that the held in his teeth. He placed the buckets on my back, and I grimaced as they crushed my wings to Parasite’s sides.

“Now,” he began. “Yer job is ta go out there inta th’ orchard, and buck them apple trees till them apples fall inta yer bucket. Then bring ‘em back here an’ get yerself another set a’ buckets. Wash, rinse, repeat.”

Flash…

The queen had been in fury for days. Noling had survived her wrath once incurred, and the ponies would be no different. Parasite knew that they would pay dearly for taking her king from her. And I was going to be instrumental in that process.

“Your mission, Parasite, is to…”

Flash…

I was utterly unable to break free of Parasite’s memories. The line between him and me grew blurrier and blurrier…

“I will consume you…”

The sound of Parasite’s voice brought me back into focus, all of his memories fading away.

“I will turn your bodies to FOOD.”

I growled, about the only resistance I could muster.

“All of the ponies in this wretched town will be sacrifice for our king…”

“… it will be glorious…”

I began squirming in my mental bonds, trying to break free of Parasite’s influence.

“…when my soul is devoured by the king…”

My hooves under my control again, I seized the slime, finding something solid buried within it.

“…when I’m ripped apart and my screams become music…”

I grabbed hold of whatever was inside the slime, forcing my will onto it. One thought, one command.

“STOP.”

Everything went black.

***

I struggled back to my hooves as I regained consciousness, snippets of memories flashing across my vision. I couldn’t tell which were mine, and which were Parasite‘s. But I immediately became too distracted to bother sorting them out.

I opened my eyes, suddenly disoriented by the sight of the room from two different angles. I heard panting coming from all different directions, and my body felt awkward but familiar at the same time.

“What happened?” I asked aloud, recoiling in shock as I heard Parasite say the exact same thing, at the exact same moment. I quickly looked around for him, snarling as soon as I caught sight of… myself?

Half of my sight was locked onto Parasite, but the other half was looking at me, like I had put half of a mirror between us. I took a step back, and Parasite did the same. I bared my fangs, and the white changeling mirrored my move exactly.

I realized what was going on. Somehow, I had gained control of Parasite’s body. Had it been that lucid daydream? It must have been, but that would have meant it wasn’t a dream, but that I had, by some reflexive instinct, entered Parasite’s mind and wrested control of his body from him.

No sooner than I had realized the reality of the situation, than I felt Parasite’s mind returning to consciousness. He began struggling against my will, trying to regain control of himself. I fought back, the struggle to keep him under my hoof nowhere near as difficult as the struggle to balance my breaching spell.

Eventually his fits or resistance ceased, replaced with an overwhelming joy that I fed on without a second thought. I had become acutely aware of how exhausted I was, slightly surprised that I hadn’t noticed before but excited that I had prey that was so willing to be feasted on.

Even as I continued to consume Parasite’s joy, the emotion only seemed to increase in size. I let out a sigh from both our bodies as I felt my magic and energy slowly return from the sheer amount of positive emotion being absorbed.

Prey…

Food…

I stopped feeding faster than I could blink.

I was playing right into his hooves. I had felt Parasite’s desire to be consumed before, but only now did I realize how much this ‘king’ meant to him. It was an obsession so deep, it projected Parasite’s dreams onto me and made them my desires.

And all because I had done that… mind control.

I felt myself reaching back for Parasite’s joy, deeper instincts overcoming my mind and making it feel good to feed. I wrestled between forcing my instincts back down and keeping Parasite at bay. The strain began mounting, drowning out all my thoughts, requiring every shred of focus I could spare until I only had one thought.

STOP.

Everything did.

Parasite’s mind, sight, hearing, and body were severed from my mind. All the oddness I had felt controlling his form were gone, replaced with familiarity of being ME. My vision was through my own two eyes once more, and I looked at Parasite. Or rather, what had once been Parasite.

His body laid on the floor, eyes grey and empty. His mouth was open in a silent scream, and a small trail of green changeling blood flowed out of his mouth and nose. I waited for him to move, but nothing happened. Not even a twitch.

I had killed the white changeling with only a thought.

And that scared me.

Not the act itself, no. That had been a necessity. Rather, it was the ease of which I had done so. I had invaded someling else’s mind and wrested their body from them, then killed them with no more effort than a wave of my hoof.

And as I looked over Parasite’s body once more, the hunger I had felt, his hunger, surged through me for a brief moment. That was another thing that terrified me. I had taken a piece of a monster… and made it a piece of me. And there was nothing I could do about it.

I closed my eyes and looked away from the dead changeling, remembering what had triggered my action in the first place. Pyrite.

And she needed help.

I dashed over to her and placed a hoof on her neck, relieved when I felt a pulse. I lightly slapped Pyrite on the cheek a few times to wake her up. She slowly came back to consciousness, groaning and whimpering in pain, unsurprising considering the number I… Parasite did on her.

“Easy now,” I said softly, helping her up and wrapping a leg around my shoulder like I had done only two days ago. “We’re getting out of here.”

Pyrite’s only response was a nod.

A quick look around brought a wooden door to my attention. I opened it with magic, slowly helping Pyrite walk out of the room so as not to injure her any further. Once outside Parasite’s new tomb, I looked around the new room that we found ourselves in.

It wasn’t as large as the hall that we had first gone into upon entering the castle proper, but it was similar in design, scale and décor being the only true differences. Pillars went from dirt floor to stone ceiling, simplistic and looking more like stalagmites in a cave. A chandelier hung from the ceiling to cast a modicum of light into the room, which would have been pitch black otherwise. Slabs of stone with flat tops were strewn about, most covered with glass tubes and beakers that were suspended over flames or kept on racks. A staircase rose out of sight at the far end of the room.

Pyrite pulled me towards one of the tables near the left wall, littered with beakers. We slowly walked over to it, and Pyrite let go of me to grab an open bottle of red liquid, quickly chugging the contents down. An amber glow came from her abdomen, and a loud crack sounded. Pyrite placed the container back on the lab and looked at me with a smile.

“Alchemy,” she said. “I don’t think he’ll be missing that healing potion.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That was strangely convenient.”

Pyrite shrugged, obviously not going to argue with luck. We turned to leave when a moan sounded through the room. Both Pyrite and I readied our magic, our horns lighting up and illuminating the dark that clung to the edge of the room. Another stone slab greeted us, except this one had a pony chained to it.

Pyrite and I kept our horns lit up so we could see clearly, walking over to the pony that weakly tossed its limbs about. As I got closer to it, I saw it was a unicorn mare. Her body was almost completely greyed out, like the ponies Pyrite and I had seen upon first entering the castle. However, there was just enough color left to identify her as once having been blue-coated, with a light blue and white mane and tail. Violet eyes held only the slightest bit of emotion, and a cutie mark of a wand and stars implied magical talent now useless.

I looked her over a few times, feeling her life slowly but surely draining away. Her emotions had been stolen from her, by Parasite no doubt. I could feel her emptiness, the monstrous hunger I had taken turning its figurative nose up at the pony that was imprisoned in this lair.

“Let’s go,” I said, turning and walking towards the stairs at the end of the room. “There’s nothing we can do. She’s too far gone.”

Pyrite gave one last look at the pony, pity visible on her features. “If you say so.”

We walked up the stairs, evenly placed torches lighting our way. We emerged from Parasite’s lair, coming up into the original hall we had entered. A look around showed that all of the ponies had disappeared, and the barrels underneath them were filled with rainbow-colored liquid. Out of curiosity, I went over to one of the barrels and sniffed. It smelled of something only a changeling could sense.

Pure emotion.

I didn’t know how Parasite had gotten ahold of that much raw emotion, but I had a guess that I hoped wasn’t true. With a shiver to myself, partly out of uneasiness, partly out of disgust, and partly out of an unbidden hunger, I signaled for Pyrite to follow me.

The sooner we were back in Ponyville, the better.

---

Hooo, boy! This was one hell of a chapter to write, lemme tell you! It's officially the longest non-oneshot I've ever written. And you know what? I'm probably going to have to top it.

Anyways, reviews, please! It's your feedback, good and bad, that keeps me going! Criticisms are welcomed, and praises thanked.

Special thanks goes to Gremlin Grenade and nobodyreallyimportant for helping me get this thing done right. They're awesome guys, and you should check them out. Seriously, I wouldn't have been able to get this done without them.

So what's in store for our heroes next? I guess you'll just have to find out. ;D

Comments

[Tyren]

Wait, blue coat, blue and white mane, and a wand cutie mark. Was that Trixie?

[Zephyrus Scary]

My, quite a few twists and turns in this chapter. Many a bit too much; could definitely use a little slowing down. Other than that, however, it's fairly good! (Even if I don't care for fight scenes and mostly skipped over those...)

[insert uncreative name]

This story has been interesting so far. However I do have one problem with it.
It bothers me that he is so quick to give those ponies up for dead. What's stopping them from taking that pure emotion and returning back to the ponies that it was (I am assuming) stolen from. I mean Common man be a hero.

Well that's my two cents for all it's worth.

[Slip Kid]

1272708

Eeyup, that's why I don't care.

[Zimprus Nalune]

1272708....m...maaaaaaaybeeeeeeee...

1272832 So glad to hear I continue to have your approval. Though I sincerely hope you read the fight scene after Parasite does his teleport-thing. It'll be important later on.

1273066 Pony present>Empty barrel
Pony gone>Full barrel
You do the math. And I thank you for your two cents.

1274749 Oh, you will soon. Promise.

[Tyren]

I was wondering when another would be out, Sometime next week?

[Zimprus Nalune]

1295226
Unlikely, school is seriously sapping my creative juices. However, I will try to come out with a quality chapter some time in the near future...

"Some time" is the key phrase there...

[Tyren]

1316278 Dont you just hate the unknown? Sometim could mean next week or 2 months.