Ocellus couldn’t have said if she did the right thing. It didn’t help being able to sense the creatures that had thought of her with kindness turn to anger and disgust. They probably wouldn’t be able to look at her again without thinking of what they’d seen her do to Marie.
Maybe her own friends wouldn’t forget either. Maybe they shouldn’t.
Maybe she hadn’t saved all of Equestria this time, but that didn’t matter. She had saved a single life, and that was almost as important. What would happen to that life…
Then she saw the image on David’s magic scroll, and the floor of the cave seemed to fall out from under her.
That storm last night. It was almost exactly like the one that brought us here. The human voices faded into the background, their demands lost as she backed away, eyes focused on nothing.
This wasn’t a mistake in navigation—Equestria never could’ve missed a nation bigger than it was, only a short sea voyage away.
It was wrong, all wrong. How much magic would it take to move a whole country? Then again, how much magic did it take to move the sun? Would Equestria have followed them all the way here?
There was something else. Equestria had connections—to the Crystal Empire in the north, and the badlands to the south. They weren’t there. No changeling territories, no Dragonlands, no Mount Aris. Only Equestria.
The scroll was still talking, its voice a paradox of fearful emotion that she couldn’t so much as smell. “…And that was the prime minister, urging all current and former emergency responders, police, members of the territorial army, and any others who have useful skills to report to your local division station.” The image changed from a map to an incredibly fancy-looking building, like something Ocellus might’ve expected from an Equestrian palace. “We take you live to Westminster where her majesty is beginning her national address…”
With the terrible storm over, Ocellus could hear the metal birds outside again. Only this time it didn’t sound like the casual searches there had been before. Now she could hear an entire flock, and they sounded angry. So loud that the old-looking human’s voice on the tiny magic scroll was washed away to nothing.
“Holy Mary mother of god.” Helen’s head dropped into her hands, staring down at the ashes of the fire. “We were part of it. The whole bloody world is ending and it’s all our fault.”
“I’m going to go take a look outside,” Ocellus called, loud enough that she could be heard over the birds. “No, you stay here. They might notice you.”
She would have to explain to the humans that none of this was their fault, or even had anything to do with them—but that could wait.
Ocellus changed into a raven, dramatically enough that the humans all gasped and stared.
“How did you do that?” Marie asked, probably without meaning to.
“Magic,” she responded, without thinking. Then she took off, flying low out of the cave and into the chill forest air.
Her ears hadn’t deceived her—there were over a dozen metal birds overhead, some of which could’ve eaten the ones she saw yesterday for breakfast.
She landed atop a sturdy oak, watching with fascination as the back of the birds opened, and shapes started falling from inside. Human shapes, falling in two orderly rows. As they fell, their wings opened up like a gigantic oversized mushroom behind each one.
They were too far away to sense clearly, other than feeling that each one was alive. Despite all the metal and cloth they were wearing, covering up every inch of exposed skin.
They’re coming for us.
Did the humans think they had been invaded? Wouldn’t be the first time changelings invaded a peaceful country.
But if these human-creatures had been peaceful before, it didn’t look like they intended to be anymore.
Ocellus’s sensitive ears caught more voices, coming from another of the perfectly flat human roads. There was a large metal vehicle there, and several humans moving into the forest.
“We’re looking for three of them,” one of the humans said. “One of the mothers said they went into the woods last night looking for a dragon, and didn’t come home.”
“You think they found anything?”
The other human laughed in response. “We better hope not. The intelligence service won’t look good if it’s being outdone by children.”
Ocellus turned and flew back the way she’d come without so much as a caw, returning to the cave in a panicked trot. “There are humans coming this way,” she said, ignoring all the confused looks. “Looking for you three. They seemed like they might be… the authorities? Do you have a royal guard?”
“Were they wearing funny hats?”
She shook her head. “Why would that matter?”
“Then they weren’t the royal guard,” David said, recovering his fallen pack from the ground. “Guess that’s the end of this adventure.”
Helen made an uncomfortable sound. “We just gonna… walk away, huh?” She reached to one side, tapping Marie on the shoulder. “And… what the blazes do we do about her? Either we leave Marie with these, uh… creatures, or we let them drag her off to some science lab somewhere.”
The freshly-hatched new changeling—or something like a changeling, anyway—was in no place to respond to that. She made an uncomfortable noise, her clothes twitching in a way that suggested her wings were moving.
“If nothing was weird, do you think they’d take you away? Or just… maybe talk to you or something?”
“I don’t see why it would matter,” Smolder said. “It’s sounding more and more like we’ll have to fight soon. How good do humans fight?”
“Most not very well,” David said. “Fighting isn’t a useful skill anymore.”
Ocellus cut in. “Well, I got plenty of time to study how to be human.” She took one last glance at Marie, remembering exactly what she’d been like before she’d been changed. Fix the eyes, remove the wings and horn, and…”
She changed. It was easily the most difficult transformation she’d ever attempted—it wasn’t even close to the smallest form, yet the complexity of it took her nearly twenty seconds of concentration.
And when it was done, she dropped onto all fours, surprised by just how hard it was to keep balance. Not that she couldn’t adapt—but like every form she mastered, it would take time.
“You even copied my outfit,” Marie whispered, her voice meek. “That’s incredible.”
I’m glad you think so, because you’re going to have to learn it too if you want to go back to your life.
“So here’s the plan,” Ocellus declared, conscious every moment of how little time they had. They would need to go out to meet the humans before they reached the cave, or else they might want to search it. They would still need to find a new hiding place, once whatever was going on outside had died down.
“I’m you.” She straightened onto her two limbs, as the other humans did, adjusting her skirt, straightening the shorts underneath. “And I’m going to be asking you questions. Can you still hear me?”
“Yeah.” Marie met her eyes, still watching with fascination. “How far away can we do this?”
“Same… city? Just pay attention. Normally a changeling would study the one they wanted to replace for weeks.”
Not that Ocellus had ever been trained in that discipline. She was too young, and their ways of war had all fallen to ruin by then.
“I bloody knew it,” Helen exclaimed. “You’re a changeling who just wants to replace our friend. This whole time… that’s what you were after.”
Ocellus smacked one foot into the ground, hard enough that she nearly lost her balance all over again. She didn’t, though she did sway back and forth a little with the motion. “I am a changeling, I’m not trying… look, human, do you want her to get caught or not? You could just walk right out there and see what happens. But if I know anything about the way other creatures treat us, it won’t be good.”
“Ocellus is telling the truth,” Gallus said. “I don’t know what kind of changelings you have here, but she’s never been anything but honest and kind. If she says this will help your friend, then it will. Less… sure it’s a good idea to split up, though.”
“Just for a little while,” Ocellus said. “You all know about changelings thanks to me, so… you can help Marie! And I can make sure wherever the humans go looking for us is far from here.”
“Unless we want to just walk out there too and talk to their queen,” Smolder said. “Just an idea. Hiding and tricking worked great for changelings, I get it. But that isn’t the way dragons do things. We’re more about moving first and doubting second.”
“We’ll do it,” David said. “Marie, don’t let them do anything to you. We’ll be back… soon.” Ocellus could taste the pain in his tone, but most of what she found there was self-loathing. Like—he felt the same disgust for Marie that most creatures did for changelings, but he didn’t want to. That was fast. Sure you’re not a pony in there?
The other one just radiated anger. “Alright, alright! Fake Marie, you coming or what? Didn’t you say they were close?”
Ocellus nodded, then pointed towards Marie. “You all should find a new hiding spot as soon as it’s safe. She can…” She reached out with the fleshy, spidery claw, pointing it at the side of her head. “We can talk.”
The waiting humans didn’t seem to have a clue what she meant, looking more upset.
But Ocellus would have plenty of time to explain to them. She stumbled out the cave, and very nearly took her own tumble down the hill.
Ocellus squeaked in protest, but something firm caught her by one spindly foreleg. How did he hold her weight as well as his own without falling over? “You sure you can handle this?” he asked.
“Y-yeah.” She straightened. “We can… tell them about the fall. Hitting your head is… supposed to make you disoriented, is that true for humans too? They’ll ask less questions that way.”
“Your funeral,” Helen said, leading the way back towards the road. Exactly in the direction that the distant humans were walking, though probably not so distant anymore.
Behind them, Ocellus’s friends were taking everything into the cave. She felt a brief surge of pride—they might not be changelings, but they were her friends. She wouldn’t trade them for anything.
She waved with her free claw, leaning on the male human for a few more steps until she dared trust her own legs.
“So… if we get separated, how should I communicate with you two?” She reached into a pocket of the clothes she’d created, pulling out her copy of Marie’s magical tablet. It had an image of Equestria on the flat glass, unchanging. Changeling magic was good, but not good enough to copy a spell she didn’t even understand.
“Blimey, you can…” Helen began. But then she stopped, a grin spreading across her lips. “Ah, I see. That’s not as clever as it looks.”
“Nope,” Ocellus agreed. “It’s not.”
“Here, take this.” Helen tossed the real version of the phone to her, little bits of broken plastic and all. It looked like it was oozing strange fluids from within, and she couldn’t sense even a trace of magic. “Guess you’re doing Marie a favor, in a way. ‘Er mum can murder you instead. Seems fair.”
“Is that common for humans?” she asked, her steps slowing a little. The change in pace nearly knocked her over again—buck these tiny feet and the steepness of the hill. “K-killing—”
“No,” David interrupted, voice flat. “Helen is being metaphorical. She means that Marie’s mother is extremely strict and Marie broke a lot of rules to be here. Last time she tried something like this, we didn’t see her outside of school for two weeks.”
“The thing that’s cancelled on account of a national emergency,” Helen added. “Apparently the north coast is about to flood. Christ. You better not have anything to do with that.”
“We don’t!” she squeaked, so loudly that a distant mumbling soon followed. The same humans she’d heard before, now running through the woods. While she could barely manage a walk, they emerged from the trees a moment later taking loping strides that made their adorable tiny bodies seem positively deerlike. Well, not so tiny from her current perspective.
“You three!” One of the humans stopped closer than the other. While his friend lifted up a magical tablet and started whispering, he moved in close. “Are you Helen Montgomery, Marie Evans, and David Walker?”
Helen nodded. “We are. Who are you?”
He removed something from a pocket—not a weapon, just a little piece of leather and paper, which he held up in front of them. “My name is Mr. Smith, Security Service. My partner and I are here to take you into protective custody. Please come with us. Your parents are waiting.”
Well, guess the intelligence service isn't looking too good, then.
Protective custody? I get the feeling the humans may already know more than has been revealed...of course, given present circumstances, it wouldn't surprise me if the human governments and the Equestrian governments have already tried to contact each other, attempt to figure out what's going since it seems clear that, as I suspected, Equestria didn't choose to suddenly be here either.
Considering that it was a storm that caused all of this (or at least that's what we're assuming it is) I wonder what state Equestria might be in...it may have suffered some storm damage itself during the transition.
Saying that humans don’t fight very well, while true for the average human, isn’t true in this case because they aren’t dealing with average humans. They’re dealing with the military and intelligence service. Also, could be useful if they mentioned that humans have weapons capable of killing from hundreds of metres away
9340769
I read it as "most don't fight good. It's not a useful skill to have. They'd just shoot you instead."
Im just hoping that the overwealming response is due to Celestia telling the local governance, that the safety of the innocents is on their heads, being its their realm, and so the forces are there to prevent anything happening, preferably.
9340781
Well, guns were never mentioned. Although, I just read that section again, and the very next line is “Ocellus cut in”, so he may have been about to say something about guns but Ocellus interrupted him.
Huh. Geographic cut-and-paste. There's definitely some manner of strange magic at work, but I have no idea what. This doesn't feel like Discord's style.
Marie and Ocellus are both in for some very interesting times ahead. And soggy ones. Looking forward to more.
Oh well, considering that half of the bloody country is going to die in the next our or so, it seems only logic to spend resources in searching three random kids... yes... it will work like that...
Uh! Those are CH-47 Chinooks! Or at least I think they are. They could be Westland Puma HC2 or Westland Sea King, but there are less of them that Chinooks, and the Chinook is one of the most iconic helicopter, so I point on them.
Oh no wait. Now that I read it better they are parachuting down. So they aren't helicopters they are planes... Wait... why are they parachuting? There is a Tsunami coming, the last thing that you want is troops that can't get bak because they do not have a vehicle. It's not like they can parachute APCs, it's Brittain... there isn't that much landing space...
Metal? What metal? They do not wear 15th century breastplates in the british army. Yes some metal here and there is present, but not so much to be a problem, unless they packed up for complete war with level 3 body armor, complete with AR500 steel plates, but I found it pretty useless for a save and secure mission. We are not in Iraq.
YOU ARE NOT A USEFUL SKILL! I still know how to use a gun as well as how to use it for killing, besides knowing the noble art of the longsword in the Italian and German school of HEMA.
We will see wich one of us will survive after the apocaliptic appearence of Equestria will bring to a nuclear war and than to a nuclear weastland in wich Italy will need to defend itself and the pizza's mines (as well as the olive oil fields and the wines tree) from the raider invaders.
Good luck with that, David.
So, if anyone didn't notice, I found out how to use the "Quote" option, and now it's over for everyone. I will abuse the hell out of it, and my nitpicking skill will finally be satisfied (spoiler: it will not).
I still take my time to say that even if I nitpick a lot, that doesn't mean that I dislike the story. I will not read it if that was the case. I simply do like the sound of my written voice. A lot.
And said that, we will se each other in the next part, were probably Brittain will drown, but ehy... it isn't like this is a site of colorful pony stories, isn't it?
Ahhh... Of course. Now I see why there was all the shooting at the start. After all, it wouldn't be a story if the protagonists could just go and talk to people.
Yep! Mindless antagonism, the only possible response. There is no possibility any adult in the security services or government has actually connected the dots and realised that the Equestrians are from the new continent, and want to simply talk to them, or realised that after their initial experience and that sending the entire army after them is possibly not the best way to gain their trust.
No, capture them or shoot them, then torture the answers out of them and disect them, that's the only way! And that's obviously what the kids and Equestrians would assume automatically.
Speaking of the kids, you have Protagonist McHardluckperson, Token Boy, and Bitchy McBitcherson, who's one contibution to the story is to be angry at everything and everyone. I know they're supposed to be the 'plucky kids', but the Famous Five they are not. The Tepid Three is closer to the mark.
I am getting so fed up with the characters in this story. All of them. 'Friendship Abroad'? I have yet to see Friendship Anywhere.
9340903
If you can only see the bad parts of this story and hate it so much, why are you still here?
Since equestria appeared in the north sea, I wonder if someone would be willing to draw a rough map of the north sea with equestria.
This situation just keeps going from bad to worse, doesn't it? Injured human gets turned into changeling-hybrid to save her life? Check. New continent magically appears out of nowhere and triggers a massive tsunami? Check. Changeling has to replace human girl she just met while interacting with the authorities and under custody? Check, check, check.
I'd ask if things could get any worse, but I'm 95% positive they already are.
9340975 Because I can see the seeds of something better in it. I am hoping it will emerge.
9340903
You're an armed police officer in the UK, when you get dispatched to a large boat that's washed up on the shore. Upon arrival on the scene you see a flying dragon, a mythological creature known to murder, pillage, and generally cause havoc. It's also breathing fire and could be flying towards you. It looks pretty aggressive.
Do you
A: Assume the dragon is friendly and wants cuddles
B: OH QUEEN! THAT'S A DRAGON! THEY'RE REAL! IT'S BREATHING FUCKING FIRE! IT'S GONNA BURN ME ALIVE THEN EAT ME THEN BURN ME ALIVE! THEN IT'LL FLY OFF AND EAT THE QUEEN! BANG BANG BANG
9340983 One, the shooting started before Smoulder started her distraction. Two, we already established that it was animal control officers, as it was unlikely armed police would be there from the start, since that's not how we do things in Britain.
But that's not what I was talking about. I was considering the Doylian perspective, not the Watsonian one. The author needed to set up antagonism from the start, so they took the worst possible set of conditions, an animal control officer who thought they were Wyatt Earp, and a government who having investigated the wreck and if there are any scientists amomng the investigators who have an IQ above room temperature (in Celcius) had to have realised that those 'animals' weren't the cargo but the crew, still decide that the best way to find scared, shipwrecked aliens was to start a manhunt that makes Rambo look like a game of hide and seek.
This forces the Equestrians to rely on the kids, for the teen adventure Goonies meets Explorers meets ET plot, which would work better if the kids were characters rather than sets of characteristics.
But then I've always despised the 'automatic goverment antagonist' trope in plenty of 80's kids movies. In DARYL, you've created the biggest breakthrough in A.I. ever a being with human level intelligence and emotions, but you want to progress to a soldier robot, so you obviously want to destroy it, and will send an entire army to do so. Or the way the NASA administrator in Flight of the Navigator acted more like the frigging Gestapo than a scientist.
Maybe if we saw what was happening in the government, or any kind of thought being used in the official response it might feel less forced.
9341035
The official position of the Crown is that the dragon instigated aggressive actions against responding armed police officers.
Responding to the threat of violence against their persons, the responding officers fired upon the creature and wounded it grievously. The creature retreated and has not been seen since.
There is no evidence to contradict this sequence of actions Citizen.
So a changeling literally abducted and replaced a human child, just like in the oldest fairy tales. The ones with blood by the bucket load. I'm absolutely certain this won't be revealed at the worst possible time...
It's a bit weird they sent in the spooks immediately. You'd think that it would be ordinary policy on the hunt for missing children even if there are dragons and other mythical critters loitering in the woods.
You really have to give serious talks about the transformed marie. Because it could be considered administering an untested formula on a child who does not understand what is going on.
What they should have said is that fighting is not mandatory anymore but it still is practiced.
9340981
Then perhaps you could try to be a bit more constructive in your criticism. The way you worded your original comment, it comes off as rather inflammatory and insulting.
9340657
Or this the other side of the mirror.
9341035
Stainless here does have a point--the set up definitely has its stereotypical moments to it, and the government's reaction that we've seen so far has been especially guilty of it.
I doubt, however, that examining the shipwreck would really give clear evidence that it's crew were the animals and that said animals are intelligent. Of the things I recall still being left aboard, there's not really too much that would convey that without there also being other things that could explain it. And considering we're dealing with magical creatures not normally native to the world, it's doubtful any one examining it would really jump to that conclusion first when there are other things that could explain it too. Like Helen, they would be skeptical of such assumptions, and thus no reason not to assume the "animals" really are animals with the evidence they have thus far, or like Helen assumed, some sort of elaborate prank.
But...I'm wondering if there might instead be more going on behind the scenes, considering the spooks have already been brought out when, from what we know of the government's perspective, there wouldn't be just cause to yet, let alone to assign them to the task of finding three kids that as far as they should know, are more likely unrelated. Maybe they already know more than we've been told. If so, it might account for some of their actions thus far.
Okie, we have the plot moving, but things yet to spike higher yet XD
9341073
Problem with that, it WAS tested. Just not on humans. And the alternative was death by bleeding cranium, so the closest thing to "consent" available was her friends, who did give the go-ahead.
Granted, Ocellus should've explained that whole "transformation" aspect, but other than that she did nothing wrong legally... and that could be waived due to the circumstances being less than ideal for such explanations to happen.
9340847
Indeed. He'd be more concerned about preventing death from being a direct result of his actions (corpses aren't chaotic after all)... and tsunamis don't fit that mindset.
9341035
No it didn't. The humans called animal control after seeing Yona, and then didn't see any of the other Student Six at all until Smolder started her distraction, and Ocellus immediately sensed overwhelming surprise from the humans gathered on the pier when Smolder appeared in the air.
Why? Why would a human on Earth in the current day assume that a shipwreck full of nothing unusual (beyond perhaps indications it was handmade) was crewed by things that don't exist, instead of simply crewed by missing humans? In order to make such a hypothesis, you need evidence that intelligent ponies, pony-sized insects, griffins, hippogryphs, yaks, and dragons are real in the first place, and as far as has been described in the story, the Solidarity contained no such evidence.
From the point of view of the humans in the government, the following events have occurred:
Further, they have no evidence that any of these events are actually connected.
That seems like a problem for everyone involved.
Paratroopers? I wouldn't have expected the new Equestria location would have been close enough to see anyone landing there, and I can't quite imagine why they'd need to do that internally to the UK. It's not that big of an island.
It might also cause them to take "Marie" to a hospital.
Does the UK have a "Security Service"? If not, going with them might be a bad idea.
9341046 Ultra doubleplus good.
9342341
According to wikipedia, MI5 is known as the Security Service, so I'm going to go with "probably". It's basically MI6, but MI5 is domestic intelligence where MI6 is international.
Alternatively, in American terms, MI5/Security Service is basically the FBI, MI6 is basically the CIA.
She turned into a raven, didn't she? It's crows that are known to caw.
Agent Smith, we meet again~
9340903
Yeah I can't help but agree at this point. The antagonism and nonstop conflict balls being tossed around is pushing me to just drop the story, though I still hope it can come around to having characters that aren't utter morons. As it is, most of the characters in this are unlikable for a variety of reasons. I'm just not enjoying how every confrontation is just a never ending case of "How antagonistic and aggressively confrontational can we make literally everyone?"
The more I read the less since this is making
9341576
And if the UK has anything like parts of the US has, the often-called "Good Samaritan Laws", then what Ocellus did could be argued as a form of "first aid" given the severity of Marie's injuries.
Extra quote at the end