Prisoner of Butterfly Island

by Magic Step

Epilogue

Twilight wondered how much time had passed.

She'd been watching TV nonstop, unsurprisingly, since there was nothing else to do in her small pod. There were three different channels.

One was music played by various creatures, sometimes changelings, sometimes ponies. Twilight even saw Lyra there once; if Lyra was still torn about the loss of Butterfly Island, she didn't show it.

One was mostly random colors and shapes, like they just left a kaleidoscope in front of a camera, while some kind of easy listening music played. It was nice to fall asleep to if the music channel was too raucous.

Twilight mostly avoided the last one. Apparently it was the one The Twilight Show used to air on. Now sometimes it showed interviews with changelings who worked on the show, sometimes it featured hints of a reboot using the Cake twins, but most of the time it was simply footage of an empty room with two chairs.

Twilight only watched that channel long enough to learn that the real Applejack, baby Spike, Cheese Sandwich, and all the other friends she'd made who'd never returned to the show, were for the most part not dead. The Queen felt no strong urge to destroy food. But apparently Cheese Sandwich, who'd also been a regular on the music channel in addition to his Butterfly Island appearance, had attempted to run away, which had sealed his fate as far as future show opportunities would have gone.

The channel made Twilight's heart hurt too much. She was never going home again; she was never going to see her friends again. She's betrayed everypony who'd tried to protect her and now they were paying the price.

But maybe it was only fair. She never did anything to deserve such bounty in the first place. She should have lived here her entire life from the start.

Twilight tried to distract herself from her musings by thinking of names for the colors on the soothing channel. Cool ocean mint, sunset tangerine, candy cane red....

She wondered how many years before every color became boring.

She wondered if she'd ever get invited to visit the Cake twins, or if they'd ever get to meet their parents.

She must have dozed off, because a loud clunk suddenly jerked her awake. A changeling was hovering right outside her pod. He looked like he was messing with a crank attacked between her and the neighboring pod.
Slowly, the green film that shut her off from the rest of the world peeled downward, and Twilight could see the landscape in all its barren brown colors.

"Escape and die," the changeling grunted at her.

"What do you want?" Twilight asked.

"I'm risking my rank for this so just follow me quietly," the bug hissed at her.

The changeling lead Twilight up the pod-riddled stalk in a zig-zagging pattern, dodging areas where the other imprisoned ponies could see them and casually sliding through the shadows when changelings were around. Twilight found herself slipping into her meager stealth training from Butterfly Island; it was refreshing to stretch her wings.

Eventually her guide lead her to the cube on the top of their strange prison/changeling house hybrid. He slid up to a door on the corner and held it open for Twilight.

Hesitating slightly, Twilight flew inside.

The changeling's apartment was in various shades of gray and all the furniture was blocky, like everything was made of cubes. The main source of color was the shelves covering every possible inch of the wall. They were loaded with playsets. Her playsets.

Her tree castle playset; the water slide playset; playsets of all her friend's houses; the lighthouse playset... even the limited edition Rainbow Cruise ship playset. Every single location Twilight had ever visited... well, except a playset of a small green prison of course. They were populated with tiny plastic figurines of everypony Twilight had ever known, decorated with incredible detail, posed in lifelike positions. In between playsets were framed photos of exciting moments from Twilight's show.

"There's love in the oven; give me another minute," a buzzy voice called from the other room.

"You sit here," Twilight's guide said, aggressively pointing to the couch.

Twilight obeyed, still in awe at all the playsets. Her gaze fell on a figurine of Shining Armor hugging a tiny figurine of her. A tear slid down her cheek.

She wondered if Shining could ever forgive her.

The changeling guarding Twilight flew into the room the second changeling voice had come from. "There's someone here to meet you," Twilight's guide said; Twilight could tell because his voice was a bit lower pitched. "I'll take care of dinner; you go out and talk to her."

"Make sure you test if it's done first; I went through a lot to get that oven thermometer..."

Twilight turned to watch the door. A changeling came out; Twilight could only assume from the conversation that it was the changeling who'd been cooking. She couldn't tell them apart.

When the new changeling saw Twilight, he stopped, blinked, and dropped his jaw.

"H-hello....?" Twilight said.

The changeling closed his mouth and laughed weakly. "W-wow, that's a really good imitation. You're a fan, too?"

"No, I'm not a changeling," Twilight said. "I'm just Twilight."

The changeling kept staring at her. "Th-this isn't funny. Please just show me your real self."

"This is my real self. Your, um, roommate brought me here for some reason. How can I convince you?" Twilight asked.

The changeling's jaw dropped again, and then he flew back the way he'd come. "Pharynx! Why are you teasing me like this!?"

"Oh my gosh, why is it so impossible to believe I'd do something nice for my little brother!? Just go and talk with her about the show and stuff like you've always wanted and hurry; I don't know how long she can be missing before somebuggy gets suspicious!" the low-voiced changeling shouted back.

A changeling re-entered the room, this time on hoof. Or whatever those hole-ridden things were. "Y-you're the real Twilight." High pitched voice.

"Do you guys have names?" Twilight asked.

"I'm Thorax; I live here with my brother Pharynx." Thorax was shivering. From excitement? Fear?

"Did you... work on the show?" Twilight asked, still confused why she was here.

"N-no. But I watched it every chance I get. I'm a housebug so I'm always here alone."

"House...bug....?"

"I guess you never learned that word... I just take care of cleaning and cooking. I do it for other changelings who have more important jobs. Like my brother; he's a Level 3 security drone."

"Level... security..." Twilight's head was spinning with questions, but what did any of them matter? She was destined to fill a pod for the rest of her life and that was all. Might as well only talk about the past. "Why did you watch my show anyway? I tried to kill things like you!"

"I...." Thorax said.

"See, I told you it's weird!" Pharynx said, sticking his head into the room. "uh... 275?"

"It's not done; it needs to be 300. Did you stick the thermometer all the way to the bottom? Because if it touches the pan it doesn't count," Thorax said.

"I'll try again..." Pharynx said, pulling his head back.

"Also please tell me you didn't leave the oven open while you're testing it!" Thorax shouted after him.

"Don't pester me!" Pharynx shouted back, followed by the sound of an oven slamming.

Twilight smiled weakly in spite of herself. Then her face fell again, and she waved her hoof around the room. "So as I was asking... all this? For me? I know why ponies watched my show; because it's a fun fantasy of a better life and because you can win a chance to be on it. But don't changelings have everything they want anyway?"

"We're well fed and our lives are very leisurely, I guess," Thorax said, looking around the room. "We all have standard issue houses and a sibling to keep us company. It's very cookie-cutter and stuff."

"Instead you want to get blasted into pieces?" Twilight said.

"I don't know! I just thought..." Thorax stared at the waterslide playset intently. "I just wanted a distraction while I was cleaning houses, and a friend gave me a magic mirror so I could watch the shows the ponies watch. I was just going to listen to music but I found your show and... and it was so colorful and fun and exotic and there were so many different things you were doing and you and your friends were so inspiring and I just couldn't stop wishing I could be there. I thought maybe if I could slip in, in disguise, maybe I'd get to try ice cream or the slide... maybe you would all even... want to hang out with me..." Thorax looked ready to tear up. He sighed. "The changelings you met were always in their natural form and were acting like villains to wind you up, because that's what they were there for. But I thought maybe I could act like a pony. Maybe."

Thorax swayed back and forth a little, staring at the ground, looking a little lost.

Twilight almost felt sorry.

Then a loud beeping came from the kitchen.

"Thorax, where's the fire extinguisher!?" Pharynx shouted.

"My oven!" Thorax wailed, rushing through the door.

Twilight followed, her horn already gathering power.

The kitchen was also grey, except for the crimson flames coming out of an oven in the wall. Thorax was digging in a cabinet while Pharnyx was doing what he could with a kitchen sprayer.

Twilight cast a quick spell at the oven, and the fire winked out immediately. Inside was a glass pan with some kind of crusty grey slab inside it; it looked about as appetizing as paper Mache.

"I take it we're too late?" Twilight asked, pointing at the pan.

"No; it's still on the raw side," Thorax said.

Twilight wrinkled her nose. Who knew love would look so unpleasant?

"Your magic is... decent," Pharynx grunted.

"Thank you," Twilight said. She swayed awkwardly as the two changelings started slicing at the baked love; their knives sounded like they were scraping through drywall. "Um. I guess I need to go back now?"

"We don't really have food for a pony," Pharynx told Thorax.

"Oh... right..." Thorax gave Twilight a heartbroken look. "It... it was nice meeting you."

"Mmm." Twilight didn't want to be rude; this certainly was a different experience. But all it had done was stir up painful memories.

Thorax opened his mouth like he was about to speak, then closed it.

"All right; I'll take you back," Pharnyx said.

"No, please... you'll come again, won't you?" Thorax pleaded.

"I don't have a choice; ask your brother," Twilight said.

"No; the first time was risky enough," Pharynx said.

"But... but I have friends that watch you too!" Thorax said. "We all want to hear about what it's like, and..."

"I'd rather not talk about it," Twilight said. She let Pharynx herd her into the living room.

"And you're a hero! Can't you... can't you do something!?" Thorax followed them, looking near tears.

"Something about what? It's over! You've won!" Twilight said. "You have everything and we have nothing; why the hay are you asking me to 'fix' this?"

"It's not like that at all!" Thorax said.

"Shut up you moron; do you want to be executed!?" Pharynx said.

"Why not? So I can lie around and clean gray houses for 50 more years?" Thorax shot back.

Pharynx zipped over and pinned Thorax against the wall, fire in his eyes. "Do NOT. Talk like that. Understand?"

Thorax's expression was defiant, but he said nothing.

"I can't... I can't always be here, or wherever you are, okay?" Pharynx said, his voice quieter. "Sometimes... you don't think clearly, but I wouldn't want you to throw everything away in those moments. Understand?"

Thorax didn't acknowledge this second question either.

"...Let's go together," Pharynx said, releasing the pin he had on Thorax. He jerked his head roughly at the door.

The two changelings stood on either side of Twilight, and when they filed out the door, Thorax let Pharynx through first, then Twilight.

"Maybe have Twilight fly close to the wall, and Thorax, you be on the outside, to hide her from view," Pharynx said.

Thorax didn't acknowledge the suggestion but he did as his brother suggested, buzzing softly to Twilight's side.

"He reminds me of my brother," Twilight muttered to Thorax.

"Shining Armor was good and noble," Thorax muttered darkly. "Pharynx sells his fellowlings out to keep us in line so that he personally is safe."

"Exactly like my brother. Minus the bugs. I think... I think in their own way they're trying to love us," Twilight said. "Maybe that's just how older brothers are."

Thorax seemed to be mulling this fact over as they wound down the stem to Twilight's pod. A few changelings passed.

"Don't you want your home back?" Thorax asked.

"My home was a lie. The world was always gray."

"No, we built it before! The materials were real... the care was real!"

"Keep your voice down!" Pharynx hissed.

"But what if... what if there can only ever be just one happy pony in the world? There's no reason it should be me..." Twilight said.

"That can't be right," Thorax said. "Even if it was mostly just you, you made so many ponies happy just to see you happy, and weren't you happy making others happy? It's not... happiness isn't a limited commodity... r-right?"

Twilight couldn't answer. Something was caught in her throat.

Then she choked out, "I don't know... what I want.... anymore. What... what do you want?"

"I want what you had."

"Beaches?"

Everything came gushing out of Thorax at once. "Friends and family that I could go to ice cream stores with and hug and show emotion around in the open, and play with on slides and wear bright colorful clothes and like what we like and dislike what we dislike and it's not a national crisis if we're different and we don't have to worry we'll be rounded up and reeducated for daring to have different opinions than the queen."

"The queen arrests you if you don't like the color gray...?" Twilight said.

"Well.... more or less. It's complicated and we don't have time to explain."

The small party arrived at the empty pod that was now Twilight's world. Pharynx held the door open for Twilight. Twilight dutifully re-entered her prison.

"Do you think I'm alone....?" Thorax asked.

Twilight turned and stared into his unnerving blue insect eyes. She couldn't see fear or pain; from the outside he looked like a monster. Everypony in Twilight's life had never done anything except trick her; for all she knew even this outside world was a construct by a deranged demigod of chaos who was just messing with her for fun. It had happened before.

But there was nowhere to go but forward.

"If I'm as beloved as you say I am, and if the queen is truly as cruel as you say, then all we're lacking is communication. Maybe if we all talked to each other and knew how many of us there were, then... then maybe..."

Twilight didn't know how to finish that sentence. What did she know about battles that weren't prescripted for her?

But Thorax's fang-filled mouth curled into a small, tentative smile.

Pharynx inserted some kind of giant key into a crack beside Twilight's pod, and the green walls started to shut her in again.

"Talk to you soon?" she asked the changeling brothers.

Thorax nodded numbly, looking to his brother for approval.

Pharynx grumbled softly as the world assumed its green tint.

"Be ready."

Author's Note:

It's only after finishing this story that I realized that this, the planned end point of the story, is really what I should have spent most of the book on, and I should have squished all the Truman-show stuff to the first two chapters or so. That's what happens when the story prompt is 'hey, what if I had the plot of the movie The Truman Show but use MLP characters instead?' I guess.

So yes, sorry; even though it sounds like this is only just the beginning... this is the end of all I had plans for. I know nothing about how to write a story about a societal revolution, but I wanted to imply what would happen next so that the story ends on a happyish note.

I'm not ruling anything out but as of now, this is as best as I can do. Thanks to everyone who commented and followed it through to the end; I really appreciate everything!

Comments

[fanreader999999]

Well, it finished.

And:

I know nothing about how to write a story about a societal revolution, but I wanted to imply what would happen next so that the story ends on a happyish note.

Uhhhhhhhhhh.....

[Fluttershylover3]

A sequel would be awesome though

[Magic Step]

9407023
Thanks for the feedback; it means a lot