• Member Since 24th Aug, 2015
  • offline last seen August 13th

Orkus


Death is a preferable alternative to communism.

T

This story is a sequel to Things Are Rarely as They Seem


Featured 1/22/2017

Much has changed, both figuratively and literally, since the changeling Habeas Brittle and the pony Prunus Persica saw past their differences and found something truly dear in one another. But as some time goes by and their affinity for the other reaches its apex, they find the unexpected and unpredictable has not yet abandoned their worries.

Both turn their gazes toward the unforeseeable future, tailed by dogged fear and angst, yet with hope still warm in their minds and hearts. And as fate would have it, they aren't the only ones who are discovering terrible troubles in dire need of being overcome.

WARNING! Spoilers in Comments Section! You have been warned.

Chapters (11)
Comments ( 220 )

Yay, the sequel is out! Hurrah!

The question is, will the foal look different?

Well damn... what a start to this tale :pinkegasp: egads...

Nice start!

Ok, question. How long has it been? Because it looks like you have skipped ahead a few years, but I thought you would skip only a few months...

Anyway, what will the foal/nymph look like? (Flymph? :rainbowlaugh:)

It will most likely be super adorable, or downright ugly.
I hope it's the former because then someone can draw adorable artwork of it! :twilightsmile:

7888330 It takes place just over a year since the end of the last one.

Wow... what a bombshell to drop on us! Whew... this, will be an interesting...
...
Uh oh... I smell something you may have planned dear author, but I shan't say anything in the comments.

Good show!

Great start! Now, assuming the Nightmare Night featured in your previous tale is the same one during which the Season 5 episode "Scare Master", and the Hearth's Warming in the "Hearthbreakers" episode is the one Habeas and Persica first had sex just prior to, is this story taking place parallel to the episodes of Season 6 after Starlight Glimmer begins studying under Princess Twilight? I know you probably shouldn't just simply throw in character and episode references to the show needlessly as that would be unnecessary fan-pandering. However, as long as you consider how you can use such references to propel rather than distract from the main focus (that's the difference between mere pandering and using references with purpose) they can add further intrigue and slice-of-life scope to the story. Meanwhile, I hope for the best to come out from Persica and her family's dilemma(s); may they come out of this tale still together.

aw yeahh

trackin this shit yo

What time does this take place in the show?

Oh Persica, it doesn't matter what the foal looks like. What matters is that it's yours!

Happy to see this sequel up so soon. :pinkiehappy: I'm sure to be following. Just try not to punch my delicate feels too hard, kay?

Congratz on getting featured again!

Alondro has arrived and is defiling UR RUNESTONES!! :trollestia:

SEQUEL!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M HAPPY NOW!!!!

hose orders, which she carried out without question, were almost always about what to do with certain ponies and other creatures who threatened, or fell into Queen Chrysalis' plans. Whether it was disrupting whatever actions they had, to indispose them, or to downright eliminate them, she would perform these with surgical precision.

In other words: she's a murderer, who has killed who knows how many ponies (i.e., PEOPLE) already.

There's no way to simply shrug off this fact. I suggest DEATH!!! By snu-snu!

reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/snu_snu.gif

This will please everyone! :pinkiecrazy:

"Miss Prunus Persica... say hello to your new foal!" the doctor said with the utmost mirth in his tone.

In the vivid, yet somehow dim light from the lamps above, Persica could see the vague silhouettes of the doctors and nurses standing at the foot of the now sheet-covered bed in front of her, along with a long, limbless shape. She made it out as the shape of a white, faceless grub-creature caked in her blood, writhing about in their hooves, squealing and screaming dementedly, crying out for its mother. Its mother who could only look at it with a sickening mixture of pure horror and revulsion.

I see somebody remembers "The Fly" birth scene.

bogleech.com/halloween/thefly-maggot.jpg

Now there was a GOOD remake!

7888924 Well, unless it looks like this:

img.csfd.cz/files/images/user/profile/159/001/159001677_c717b3.jpg

Then ya got a problem. Especially now that ya can't just sell it to a freak show.

:trollestia:

7888749 Fifteen days after the finale of season six.
7889459 Ah, so you noticed. I thought one of you would catch on to the reference.

The long wait is over! And such a good start!

7889551 I'm 10,000 years older than sand. I know all the references!

Except new ones. Everything new sucks. Clearly. (Alondro has contracted 'cynical asshole syndrome' and thus everything sounds and looks and tastes like shit)

The treatment is lots and lots of booze!

7889437 Just have Habeas finished the job. Or give Persica another shot at her life. She's moved on from Chantilly so she's not falling for that shit again. And if Apini tries morphing into Habeas' new form or into Persica during the next confrontation, Persica and Habeas could have a codeword only they know to identify who is real and who is fake.


7889551 So is that how Habeas is meant to look now in the cover art, or was it just some picture you took at random?

7889551 So he is not only one who redisigh now. But considering that they live in country side and barely interact with anyone, that will not affect story much. Or is it ?

Kinda... predictable? Well, don't know about others but I expected a foal at the end of first story :)

7888395

Kinda surprised Chrysalis didn't send a "clean up" team to take care of the whole mess, that being all both outcast changelings and the mare. She should have been visited by that one changeling we saw once in the last story who apparently gives her the missions to carry out, if only to see if she completed it or not. Maybe she was and it's in the next chapter? Just speculating here...

I'd like to see more of Habeas' inner thoughts too. He should have detected the overwhelming fear coming from her through the bathroom door conflicting with the hasty denials. This is assuming he hasn't already found the detection kit remains in the trash over the last week.

And halflings, do they happen? Are they short and have extra furry hooves? Heh.

7889459

Wandered down to the comments section for "The Fly" reference spotting, leaving satisified.

"Oh, Habeas Brittle. That's a nice changeling na- wait a second this is by Hrungnir oh mY GOD THE SEQUEL"
Absolutely can't wait to read more, the first was a great story.

Also,
Deerling, eh? Eh... Ehhhhhh......

Oh damn, ship alert

wee woo wee woo

Wow, that news must come as a real mixed bag for poor Apini.
On the one hoof, the queen whom she was terrified would learn of her crippling failure is no longer in power, and she's free to live out the rest of her life with her loving family.
On the other hoof, the assignment she failed to carry out, the one that cost her rear legs, turned out to have been completely pointless in the end. The uprising came and went, and her target had nothing to do with it. Hell, she could have completely ignored it and it would have changed nothing but her own paraplegic status.

Apini knew right off who this friend was. The only friend who her son ever seemed to collaborate anything with was that polite young pony, Peach Blossom. The daughter of Persica. The daughter of the mare whose husband she devoured all the love out of and left as a wretched husk all those years before. The mare who she almost left to the same fate and killed, a little over a year ago. Just thinking about her made the changeling's very soul fill with negative emotions, some aimed towards her, some aimed towards herself.

First of all, it was Peach who owned your sorry backside in the last story and not Persica, and second you killed her husband and then tried to kill her, so you deserved to lose the use of your legs, you silly bug bitch. i mean I don't need to state the obvious here but if you want your legs back you can try giving out a little love. It got Habeas his horn back after all.

But then again, hope was what got her into this sorry state of mind and body to begin with.

Oh boo fucking hoo. Oh woe is me, I suffered because I tried and failed to murder somepony. I feel sorry for her kids. You brought this upon them, idiot. I hope Bumble changes into the new form and finds peace with Peach so you aren't an embarrassment to him anymore. And it wasn't hope that got you into this mess; it was your unwillingness to break free from a tyrannical queen.

Sorry about this folks, but Apini isn't getting sympathy from me until she earns it. Also, this line?

"...Want to see it with you?" he finished for her, just before detecting a small hint of redness developing on her cheeks.
"Yeah, that," she said, smiling sheepishly. "Think we could? As friends, of course."

Yeah, that's how it always starts. Then he comes round to your place and brings a six pack of beer and a condom and a special cigar to smoke after you've done the dirty tango, and then you break up with him because you discover his shocking secret - that he didn't flush the toilet after using it, the dirty bastard.

Sorry - never been in a relationship myself. i don't really know how they work.

Dear author, I'm curious why you haven't described either Persica or Peach Blossom's cutie marks yet. Are you leaving them up to our imaginations?

So apparently there's been a year between Apini's failed assassination and La Revolucion, and in that entire time Chrysalis never so much as checked in on how it went?

7898827
I mean it...hasn't really been relevant. These characters have kind of grown beyond a butt picture. Assume something to do with peaches?

7898869 The assignment was to kill Habeas if he was found near where she lived. She never told them that she did indeed spot him or not.

You know, at first I was a little peeved that Apini made it out of the last story but I'm kinda rooting for her now. She made a huge mistake, holds not just others but herself to blame for her actions. It's large character growth and I love it!

Yay! A update! I can't wait to see what happens next!

7898732 Geez, you savage. XD
Also, I just realised that I see you on pretty much every Fanfic I read.

7899375 I'm like Skeeter the Lurker, except I don't do it as a weird gimmick.

7899408 That reference flew right over my head :derpytongue2:

7899688 So does Skeeter the Lurker. Freaking lovable git.

Anyway, take a joke from this encounter if you will - what does a car with a dead engine in a parking lot, have in common with a very energetic man having sex with his missus? They both can't pull out

Actually, take another joke on the house - what do you call a holy woman who is armed with a heavy weapon? Can-NUN!

7899744 Yea, none of what you said made any sense...

Wow, that was kinda depressing to read. I hope Apini gets out of her slump soon less she drive her own family away. And that'd be even worse. Glad to see the fathers back too.

Really loved the first story and I'm excited to see where this one goes.

One really minor thing: In both this story and the last one, you misspelled "afterward" as "afterword". Minor spelling mistake, but they're two different words with different meanings. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Keep up the good work! ^^

7899818 Nothing in life makes any sense these days, my good buddy.

7900503 Ah, yes, I'm afraid your right.

7900517 I know I am. I have these rare moments.

So you wanna be friends now or what?

Wow.... what a chapter this was, jeez... much sad, but much awesomeness.
Nicely done!

7900550 Sounds good to me

Friend Get

7898684

Indeed, life is complicated. This also brings up a curious point in that, what about all the other changelings that were not at the hive when the epiphany occurred? We know of these two which would indicate there are others out in the world that missed out on the transformation. Habeas is kinda changing, I think, in a far smaller one on one situation (as opposed to an entire hive). And will Apini also change if she can ever dig herself out of the funk she's fallen into?

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