Chapter 62
“So how did I do?” Pupa turned around and asked the ‘puppy’ with a beaming grin.
“If I’m being honest your highness,” Bristletail, still in the disguise of the dog, paused to find the correct words, “it was… sloppy.”
“Sloppy?” the nymph balked.
“I mean, it was okay, for your first try; but your target could tell something was amiss,” critiqued the infiltrator.
“And you really shouldn’t rely on your venom to disable your prey,” added Odonate, his head popping into view from the opposite side of the wooden fence.
“They are right,” came Chrysalis’s voice from above, “and if it wasn’t for Bristletail’s quick thinking, by stepping in as the missing pet, your entire ruse would have collapsed when the unicorn’s magic revealed an empty alley.”
Still in the form of a pegasus, the changeling queen walked down the brick wall as if it was just another horizontal surface, and easily transitioned onto the alley floor once she reached it. Another long stride brought her before the unconscious form of the unicorn, whom she prodded with a hoof.
“You should only use your venom for emergencies, self-defense,” Chrysalis admonished her daughter. “I’ve already told you before that draining a pony of their love alone is normally enough to incapacitate them and when they reawaken afterwards, they likely won’t remember what happened. But this one, she definitely will after the fright you’ve given her.”
“Well, she was a lot bigger than me,” argued the nymph.
“Then you should have picked a different target,” the queen advised and then motioned to the alley’s exit. “There are plenty of young fillies and colts running around out there.”
Pupa’s muzzle scrunched at the suggestion, causing her mother to curiously raise a brow.
“Is there something you find distasteful about that?” questioned Chrysalis.
“No,” said the nymph, who in truth hadn’t even considered about that option.
“Then enlighten me as to your reasoning,” the queen prompted as she stepped over the unicorn.
“Because… It would be too easy.” Pupa fibbed, watching as her mother strolled around her but avoiding direct eye contact.
“You’d be surprised how difficult some young can be at times,” Chrysalis deadpanned, easily reading her daughter.
“Sooooo, do I get to cocoon her now?” asked the nymph.
“No,” answered the queen, walking back toward the mare on the ground.
“Aww seriously?” Pupa pouted, “why not?”
“For one thing we’re not heading back home yet,” explained Chrysalis. “We can’t bring her with us to the zoo and it would be too risky to cocoon her and leave her here.”
“No cocooning?” frowned the nymph. “What do I do with her then?”
“Let her be,” the queen said, using her magic to part the unicorn’s eyelids so she could inspect the mare’s pupils. “It doesn’t look like you used much venom on her so she’ll wake up in about an hour or so.”
“Fine…” Pupa sighed with great exaggeration, sat on her haunches and crossed her front legs over her chest.
“Watch yourself,” calmly warned Chrysalis, “I can always cut the trip short if you decide to keep acting out.”
Opening her mouth, about to argue further, Pupa received such a stern look from her mother that it stopped her cold and left her with the realization that she was indeed being impudent. With an audible click she snapped her jaw shut and submissively lowered her gaze to the ground.
“Sorry,” whispered the nymph.
The queen gave an approving nod and gently rested a hoof on Pupa’s withers.
“Now then, we’ll head to the zoo next and after we’ve finished touring it, you can try again to subdue another pony,” Chrysalis mused aloud, “but first we’ll all need different disguises.”
The nymph gave her mother a confused look.
“When the unicorn does awaken, she’ll likely inform others of the strange little pegasus foal that coaxed her into the alley where something injured her and caused her to pass out,” the queen elaborated.
“Right…” nodded the nymph.
Odonate, in the form of a blizzard blue unicorn stallion with an almost pure white mane, cautiously peeked out from the entrance of the alley and quickly scanned the area.
“Okay, nopony is looking in this direction,” he whispered to the trio cloaked in the darkness behind him as he stepped into the sunlight. “It’s safe to move out.”
Three more unicorns emerged from the shadows, following the guard onto the sidewalk where together they inconspicuously headed off down the street.
Now appearing as a tall and lean antique white mare, Chrysalis moved into step beside Odonate and casually flicked back her silky crimson mane; while Bristletail, choosing to take up the guise of a cherry blossom pink adolescent mare with a short amaranth mane, took up a position on his other side. Lastly, Pupa, disguised as a young filly with a glossy grape coat and blue-violet mane, quickly trotted up alongside her mother.
“Do you think I could feed the lions?” the little nymph asked.
“I highly doubt the staff would allow it,” Chrysalis replied with a little chuckle.
“What if you convinced them?” the nymph suggested and winked at her mother when the queen glanced down at her.
“That’s not going to happen,” said Chrysalis, looking unamused as she returned her gaze forward.
The discussion took a brief pause as the group of changelings walked by some rowdy pegasi youths hanging out on the stairs of a porch and arguing about what Fillydelphia’s new buck-ball team name should be.
“Can I try?” questioned the nymph shortly after they passed the herd.
“No, doing something like that will only draw extra attention to ourselves.” the queen explained softly before continuing, “and if you ignore me and try it anyway, I won’t stop the lion from eating you.”
Pupa scrunched up her muzzle at the proclamation, but when she saw the small smirk growing on her mother’s face, she realized it was only a quip.
“Coming through!” a pint-sized voice called out from up ahead.
A startled chirp left the nymphs throat as she briefly froze in her tracks before swiftly dodging aside. Forced to press herself against the stone wall of a building, Pupa barely avoided colliding with a trio of earth pony foals, two colts and a filly, who were speeding in her direction while chasing after an escaping ball. The giggling ponies galloped past her and pounced the ball as it came to a stop against the stoop of an apartment building.
Letting out an annoyed snort, the nymph turned away from the pesky foals only to feel something bounce off the top of her head less than a second later. Upon seeing the ball bound away in front of her, she wheeled around angrily to locate her attackers only to catch the briefest of sights of the foals as they rushed on by.
“Sorry!” the filly in the group called out as she pursued the other two ponies.
With narrowing eyes, Pupa followed the trios progress as they gradually gained on the ball. When it left the sidewalk and rolled into the busy road, the nymph’s eyes widened at the realization that the foals showed no signs of breaking off their chase.
Unthinking, the nymph took a step forward and her breath hitched in her throat as the world around her froze.
The street in front of her was vastly different now, the buildings less colorful, more worn and dirty. Empty paper cups and other bits of litter randomly freckled the sidewalk while small tufts of browning grass reached up futilely through cracks in the cement. Strange hunks of metal and glass in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors rested on black wheels along the street, lining the perimeter of the sidewalk like a barrier. Similar objects could occasionally be seen, from the few open spaces between them, streaking down the road and expelling a noxious grey smoke in their wake.
A couple of the peculiar bipedal creatures that she had visions of before, though smaller, ran past her view; and when her vision followed them without her direction, the terrifying notion of not being in control of her own body washed over her like cold water.
Save for a mane, the creatures were hairless and wore clothing from the neck down, even going so far as to completely envelop their oddly elongated rear hooves in a thick material. Lacking a muzzle, their faces appeared unnervingly flat, with only a minor protrusion in the center, below the eyes and above the mouth. Unfortunately, or perhaps beneficially, as with the previous instances she’d envisioned these beings, their facial features where distorted like melting wax and she only had an inkling to how their general appearance would be.
One of the creatures she watched was facing away from her, familiarly chasing after a ball as it bounced away, going between two of the strange metal devices and entering the dark grey street. A feeling of nervousness surged up her spine as the being stepped over the curb and her vision lurched forward in an attempt to catch up with the creature.
Up until that moment there was no noise, something she only realized once the sound of a long prolonged horn blared into existence; followed by a horrific screeching that pierced her ears like needles. The creature turned away from the ball to look at something out of view and then was gone.
There was a loud thump, a streak of red, and a frigid burning that filled her veins as waves of terror, heartache and helplessness overtook her. Bile filled her mouth and she collapsed, retching onto the filthy ground.
“STOP!” shrieked the nymph, her horn flaring with bright light that illuminated the entire area in an emerald tint.
The three foals froze in place at the lip of the curb as an aura of opaque green magic surrounded them. Immediately the trio were yanked up into the air, pulled backwards and then released, leaving them sprawled out in confusion on the ground. A second later the heavy hooves of a pair of stallions, pulling a cart behind them laden with wooden barrels, clamored past the place the foals would have been.
Even with the trio now safe on the sidewalk, the young queen couldn’t keep her mind from continually replaying the awful vision over and over again.
“Whoa! Is that a changeling?!” a faint voice cried out, barely registering with the panicking nymph.
Looking down and spotting her natural perforated hooves, Pupa inhaled sharply at the realization she had accidentally shed her disguise.
“It is!” said another, “What’s it doing here?”
Upon wheeling around to locate the source of the voices, the nymph spotted the herd of pegasi that she passed only a moment ago. As a group the ponies stumbled backwards, startled at the sight of her wild eyes, folded back ears and guarded posture. Still, others began to gather now, watching her warily from a safe distance while hurriedly whispering among themselves.
Drenched in sweat, tears running down her cheeks and shaking with adrenaline, Pupa struggled to catch her breath as the sound of her thundering heart filled her ears. The scrutinizing faces of the ponies began to distort, twisting and melting into those of the otherworldly bipedal creatures. Red and blue lights, that only she could see, flashed from outside of her peripheral vision as a howling siren gradually increased in volume within her mind.
A gallimaufry of phantom voices questioned the nymph while a single one arose prominently among them; whaling with pain and laying blame for the tragedy purely upon him. Him?
“That’s not a reformed changeling, should we call the police?” a mare in the crowd asked.
“Something seems wrong with her,” appraised a stallion.
“She attacked those foals!” a shrill voice proclaimed.
Even with her emotions running wild, and unable to stop her freely flowing tears, Pupa instinctively went on the defensive and arched her back to prominently display her transparent wings. In a warning to the building mob she buzzed them loudly and bared her fangs, causing a few of the onlookers to step back.
“Hurry, somepony call the police already!” shouted an unseen member among the herd.
A shadow eclipsed the shaking nymph as two long white furred legs steeped protectively to either side of her. She followed the limbs up to see her still disguised mother, giving her a look of concern before turning her gaze threateningly at the assembled ponies.
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I hope someone looks at cctv or a bystander notices that she saved those kids.
Ungrateful good for nothing
'she's a Changeling, so she must be evil'
surrounding ponies.
How many foals die to carriage accidents eatch year i wonder...
11509518
wouldn't matter. Chrysalis stepped into the fray, and it'll just get worse when Sassy comes to and remembers everything.
11509563
No good deed goes unpunished and all that...
11509564
And that will unfortunately work to Chrysalis's favor in indoctrinating Pupa
Great work on this chapter! Loving the story so far.
11509529
Uh, probably not many. They're not moving very fast.
After all, they've only got one horsepower.
11509518
MLP doesn't have any of that stuff.
oh, no pupa having a traumatic flash memory involving something like that i don't blame those tears!?
reckless pony youths on busy streets and their evil ball when they should be playing in parks darn it I hope that ball popped!
was curious about the police force of ponies this could be interesting Friends Forever Issue 14 I wonder if police ponies in this city are as silly in that issue? or corrupted when one tried to frame Trixie in another issue? but ill admite, if police ponies wee woos during a chase, would be ridiculous and take the edge off a bit...
11509674
I think they actually do. They regular enchant objects with spells and Twilight has shown there are audio and visual recording spells. But such decives would be exceptionally expensive, so being on a city street? No not happening.
Memory unlocked!
And here.... we.... Go!
By chance, just as I was beginning this part, the random playlist on my computer launched into "The Awareness" by Ayreon. Sublime!
11509518
Is there even a CCTV in magical pony land? Witnesses definitely, but CCTV? Highly doubt that.
"Yes, we're the tolerant ponies, now change your very being completely out at won't accept you."
Checks out.
Though, I hour they do have some cctv-like system to check the event out and see that she actually saved those morons.
I see that carriage ponies behave like drivers on our world, didn't ebbed attempt slowing down.
Comment section sure is entertaining
I wonder why someone insisted on her attacking anyone?