Chapter 19. World of Loathing, Part 3.
We agreed that explaining my shape shifting abilities to the town guards was a good idea. Since the authorities were aware of it anyway, doing so would help them keep people calm should a situation arise. So, over the course of my first week of being able to venture into town, we steadily showed the guards as they would visit one or two times a day.
Several of the unicorn guards tried to cast some sort of dispelling magic on me, with no effect. Apparently, they had recently started integrating those shape shifting bugs into their society and had measures for keeping them honest if need be. When they discovered this technique didn't work with me, they weren't exactly ecstatic. So, for the sake of clarity and earnestness, Fluttershy and I cooperated in showing them subtle differences in how I looked and behaved to the guards so that they could tell me apart if ever needed.
I kinda wanted to listen in too, but my amulet wouldn't fit around most of the critters necks, being too large or too small, and merging it in with all my clothes seemed to deactivate it too. So all I could hear as an animal was the same gibberish as before, save for the occasional word I recognized like "stop," "yes," or "no." I was only able to actually understand what parts they would explain to me after I changed back, which I figured were filtered. I myself couldn't see the differences and I think the guards were mildly relieved at that. Yet a pony that specialized in animal care could see them as plain as day, apparently. Several of her critters could pick up on the difference in my scent too, which some of the guards noted for the war effort in case the invaders had similar abilities.
With what I could tell, Angel wasn't fond of me, but he knew better than to pick a fight again. So he did his best to behave and perform for his master, though I could tell he didn't exactly like me wearing his face.
"Vjev upi ot ectumavimy efusecmi, sohjv Ephim?" I heard Fluttershy call out in Equestrian during our final session for the guards.
The guard successfully managed to pick me apart from Angel after we scrambled around behind a curtain to throw them off. To reward him, I bowed lightly in my bunny form, hopped back a little and transformed back.
"Ding, ding, ding!" I called out while I reached for my amulet, trying to keep that smile of Fluttershy's going a little longer. "We have a winner!"
It turned out that any time I used a word as an onomatopoeia the amulet held off translating it, since the sound itself was meant to be the meaning. It was a nifty method of backup communication Fluttershy and I were developing that also helped in buying time in a conversation to activate my amulet now and again. It couldn't hold more than a dozen charges at a time and a willing unicorn wasn't always available to recharge it with their raw "aether" or whatever it was that their horns used. As such, two way communication was still a valuable resource I had to ration myself with. At least the incoming side was fairly permanent.
"Are you sure he can't hear us as an animal?" The ranking officer asked as his subordinate smiled at my performance.
"Oh, I can," I answered him as I eased down onto the bench to relax and converse. "I just can't get Starlight's amulet to work with the animal shapes unless it's something with a neck about the same size as mine to wear it from, so most the time all I hear is gibberish."
Fluttershy nodded in agreement. "It's true. Remember when I told him we found enough spare fire wood for a hot shower today? He didn't even perk an ear up as a bunny."
"We do!?" I asked in reflex. Cold showers were fine and still felt kinda peaceful, probably due to my aquatic features not minding the cold water, but they were nothing like the hot shower I had just before I was released.
Fluttershy could only wince and shake her head as I asked, dashing my hopes. Wood was sadly a rationed supply with the war effort. Not that everything was super tight or anything. It was just that they had to limit how much they drew from the land with the desire to keep the land in good health even in times of peace. Sadly, the war effort had to take a large chunk of what they allowed themselves to take from the land, forcing them to ration the rest far more stringently. As such, certain luxuries like hot showers in households without alternative heating methods had become more rare. Even cooking with wood had to be made as efficient as possible. Needless to say, I had learned to go without anymore fish after that first day and settled with a pile of nuts on my plate instead.
I couldn't help but feel like I had been a burden for her. In this place, it seemed like I was little more than an exotic creature with needs she wasn't familiar with and took up more of her time than it should have. To be able to give back with my little shape shifting shows, even at the cost of some of my dignity, was nice. It felt like something that could put the lingering bits of trauma, shame and fears of poisoning this world to the back of my mind, at least for a time. The unmistakable sparkle of earnest curiosity and gleefulness in my host's eyes when she saw me shift into one of her critters was strangely soothing.
But even that wasn't enough to keep the bills at bay. Keeping me here was expensive and I doubt the RRE system was meant to be a free meal ticket. I needed to find a way to pitch in more fully, which was the next thing we were set to do that day, once the most recent squadron of the town's guards were finished with us for the morning. Well, we couldn't fix it fix it, but we could do a stopgap measure at least.
* * *
As soon as the guards said they were finished, Angel took his thank you treat from Fluttershy, stuck his tongue out at me and hopped away with his prize to the back of the cottage as fast as he could.
We quickly got ready for our trip to town, grabbing a satchel for errands and groceries, securing my small pouch of gems set to be sold to one of Fluttershy's contacts, and waited for the mail mare to deliver the mail before leaving.
We decided not giving the ponies that still didn't like me the opportunity to steal the mail was best, as tensions were a little high still. Fluttershy flipped through the mail for a moment before looking a little shocked.
"Oh!" She called out, looking up at me for a moment.
I gave the gesture for "What?" trying to save from having to spend my amulet's last charge.
"Y-you have some mail, besides hate mail that is." Fluttershy felt a little uneasy about it, but I didn't push her.
I just shrugged and pointed towards the table, then towards the clock. I couldn't read their language even with the amulet. Apparently that part of the Comprehend Languages spell had to be knocked out to make way for other components.
"I-I'll read it to you when we get back then."
A typical glare filled hike through town and we managed to get the gems weighed, measured for quality and effectively traded for the local currency by the same tailor that ended up helping me get the garments I wore in prison. But sadly we had to be rushed out the back in a hurry when one of the tailor's less understanding business associates arrived particularly early.
Fluttershy and I were respectively shoved out the back door, barely with even the payment and receipt in hand.
"But what about the amulet!?" We both called out.
"He just used his last charge to talk to you! Nopony else is willing to charge it for him!" Fluttershy called out alone, but to no avail. The tailor, Rarity, was already inside with her client.
A moment passed as we both sighed in defeat.
"Well, what's the game plan with no amulet charge?" I asked Fluttershy while I still had time left on my current charge.
She looked around with a bit of worry, then gestured me down the road. "My Senior RRE Officer, Cold Shoulder, is a unicorn. He might be willing to charge you up on the way back if we ask nicely. I need to pick up some paperwork from him soon anyway."
* * *
"What in the blazes of Celestia's sun is that abomination doing here!?" we heard Cold Shoulder shout when he opened the door to his office, "I told you to never bring that thing to my home!"
"But this isn't your home, it's your office." Fluttershy corrected, unusually bravely.
"Yea? Tell that to my wife! I can't get a moment's peace at the house while she's there and she's always there! So office, home, same difference these days!"
I backed up a few paces and stood firm. Partially to get away from the smell of a pony that had been sleeping in his own sweat and possibly liquor soaked suit, partially to not add tension to the already growing argument. It was pretty clear getting a recharge wasn't going to happen.
"You had some paperwork for me?" Fluttershy asked in a way I could tell she couldn't pull off if she were just doing it for herself. "The sooner we get it, the sooner we can go."
He paused for a moment. "...Keep him outside. I don't trust him." *Hic* "I don't know why I ever agreed to oversee your work, knowing you were only doing it for that monster." With this he turned away and started shifting through his files, stumbling in the process.
"Probably because you are so lousy an RRE officer that you have to take whatever commission you can get these days," Fluttershy said under her breath before walking in to help.
She turned to me and said, "Don't wander off. Stay near the door." She closed the door and helped him along.
I waited a few minutes outside his office on the street with nothing more than a few double takes and ponies moving over to the far side of the road to pass.
At one point I saw three little fillies looking curiously at me with a quill and a notepad in tow from across the road. When they saw I had spotted them, they quickly ducked under cover. After a moment of relative silence, they peaked their heads out again. With a look at me then at each other, they came out and made a moderate canter straight for me.
Just as they were about to reach me, they were suddenly shoved into a cart by a mare with sizable pearls around her neck. "There you go. Now enjoy the slumber party with my dear daughter you blank... You lovely ladies." The cart promptly closed and took them away.
I knew at only a glance that this was one of the ponies that were still wanting to make trouble with me. I backed up to the door and did my best to knock, only to hear a crash from inside.
"Oh my! What have we here!?" she called in a clearly practiced tone. "A thief! This disgusting beast has made off with somepony's-" She yanked the bag of coins from my hand. "-bit bag! Guards! Arrest this despicable thing!"
I was being set up. One hand was reaching for my sales receipt and the rapping of my other hand's knuckles on the door came more urgently now.
I think she was a bit surprised that I didn't go for my bag when she took it, but I knew better than to do that. I'd had enough experience with people spinning accusations that the last thing you wanted to do was do anything that could even remotely justify those accusations. Injustice of letting myself being pushed around, or taunted or robbed was bad, sure, but I knew better than to retaliate in any way.
I was the big guy even back home in my original body, and any action I did in retaliation could be construed as me being the bad guy just because I was "the stronger one." The "frail" or "weaker" people at home, even among other guys sometimes, could push and shove an taunt all they wanted, since that wasn't seen as them "throwing their weight around." They could try to goad me into doing something to justify their claims against me without fear of being scorned for it, even when they yelled at me like I was total garbage. The only way to not fall into the trap was to not give them any fuel. That's exactly what I was doing here. Fair or not, that was my only chance.
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I hope they all get whats coming to them. It's not really an excuse anymore when he was completely cleared in the most invasive and total way possible...
9121151
kill all the ponies accusing him of bullshit that he did not do. i would after a day and no one would know.
Well Google is BS on the translating part, all I know is that it's Vietnamese.
the ponies are lucky he had sorceror spells because druid spell swould be useless to them.
They are such a controlling species that they could never work with nature.
9121249
It's just my own concoction of alphabet substitution, like I hinted at in chapter 1.
9121365
are you trying to make a guess as to what classes Moss has? are you claiming sorcerer is in there somewhere?
9121151
It's called prejudice and confirmation bias. A lot of ponies might believe he's not bad even if they fear he might still be kinda dangerous. Others need the evidence metaphorically smacked over their heads, individually, one by one, with how much they want to believe what they want to believe. It's a lot like this with people too, sadly.
(But yes. It is no excuse.)
9121662
Which is unfortunate.