• Published 30th Oct 2019
  • 3,633 Views, 257 Comments

A Deer Named John - Teapot Tales - Tael_Spinner

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Prologue: Spot of Tea, Change for Me!

William

I stood in the aisle of the train carriage. My body swayed with the motion of the carriage as I deliberately drooped from holding onto the metal rail above. Others were lucky to have grabbed seats. John, my long-time friend was on his phone to his mother. Next to him sat our youngest members Jacob and his friend Jackie, who also happened to be John’s younger sister. Finally, standing beside me and boxing us all in together from the crowd in the rest of the carriage, was Schmidt.

I yawned and closed my eyes. It had been an early start to the day. My body swayed with the rocking of the carriage, listening to John’s phone conversation. Can’t say his mother ever had a soft phone voice so I, as usual, overheard everything.

“You’re with Jackie, right? And her friend is there too?”

“She’s right here,” John said. “So’s Jacob.”

“Good. Remember, we’re counting on you to keep them safe.”

Jackie poked her tongue out at her brother. Apparently, she could hear her mother too.

“Mom, there’s three of us looking after two teenagers,” John said.

“And you’re all teenagers. Just don’t trust people in the heart of the city. Seen too many kids in your father’s Emergency Department and even on my surgery table lately. Don’t want to see any of you there either.”

“I know,” John groaned. He bristled and tried to turn away for the next part but I still caught it over the clatter of the train carriage. “Love you, Mom.”

“Let them have some fun. Love you, Jon-Jon.”

I smiled and gave a soft chuckle. With the press of a button, the call ended and John pocketed his phone. Opening my eyes, John was glaring at me and he said, “Shut it, William.”

I did my best to pull an innocent expression but John kept up his glare for the final two stops. At least it wasn’t a long walk from the station. That and John had other things to worry about once we were on the sidewalk again before finally reaching the convention building.

After a short wait in a line at the registration desk, our group of two young seventeen-year-old boys, eighteen for Schmidt, of varyingly decent to excellent sports builds, escorted two fourteen-year-olds onto the floor of a latest My Little Pony convention. I could think of worse ways to spend the weekend. Dealing with my parents for one. I pushed the thought away as I followed after John’s overly excited little sister.

Everything looked pretty normal for a convention. If you squinted and ignored the merchandise you could have been at a convention for anything, really. Crowds of people milled about booths where artists and craftspeople shouted and called to any who would listen to try and sell their pictures and plushies.

One big furry toy with horns and a crown on its head caught my eye. After I gave it a long, odd look, Jacob piped up about it, declaring it to be a Prince of the yaks in the show. I frowned at that. Was a strange looking yak. Barely anything like the ones I’d seen in nature documentaries.

We quickly moved on. There was the unmistakable odour of other humans which accompanied the warmth of so many bodies in an enclosed space. It was an interesting, relatively easy-going convention, though not my cup of tea.

“Sich langweilen,” Schmidt murmured under his breath after moving up to walk right beside me.

I smirked and shot back, “Ja, aber wir haben verloren.”

“Suck it up,” John said, keeping a close eye on his sister. “If you didn’t want to lose, don’t challenge me and my sister to basketball.”

I rolled my eyes and turned to watch Jacob as he seemed so interested in an artist’s stall. “Yeah, yeah.”

John clapped his hand onto my shoulder. “Just be glad you aren’t home.”

“Pfft.” I snorted then grumbled, “Not like they’d be there anyway.”

“As for you,” John said, confronting Schmidt. “We know you speak perfect English and aren’t you supposed to be experiencing a different culture?”

“Your sister doesn’t know Deutsch,” Schmidt murmured back. “And this craze is in Deutschland, too.”

He took a moment to sweep his hand as if gesturing to our surroundings while taking care not to hit other convention attendees. “I doubt it would be very different from this.”

“She’s been picking up bits and pieces since you’ve been around,” John added, still glowering. “Don’t underestimate her just because she loves her sports.”

“Oh no,” I said, dramatically feigning dismay. “Our secret code is being broken.”

Schmidt laughed while John just shook his head and quickly moved to where his sister was admiring a sculpture of a deep-blue winged unicorn. Even for a horse, it exuded elegance. Although not my thing, I had to admit, the artist had talent.

As the day wore on, I eventually found myself leaning against a wall watching Jackie and Jacob while we waited for Schmidt and John to finish in the bathroom. They were trying to whisper back and forth but I could still hear them. Hard to whisper and be heard over such a crowd in a space like this without basically shouting yourself.

“I could buy it for you,” Jackie needled. “My brother’s carrying more than enough and most of it is mine.”

Jacob cringed as he waved away the offer and did his best to change the subject by looking at the entrance to the bathrooms.

“Your brother looks bored,” said Jacob.

“Nah, he’s just tense,” said Jackie. “He’s being protective. Not like many would mess with him.”

Jacob nodded. “Yeah.”

He glanced at Jackie. “Not like you couldn’t handle yourself.”

Jackie shrugged. “I guess so, wish I could be as tall and confident as him though.”

“Confident as who?” John asked as he returned; Schmidt a few steps behind.

Jackie quickly turned her head away. “Nothing.”

All I could do was smile. John truly had no idea how much his sister looked up to him.

Before we made to leave for home, Jackie insisted that we take a picture of us all together in front of the large prop of a horse statue standing on a pedestal. Humouring her, we all took our places, huddling together as John held up his phone to capture the moment. I put on a cheesy grin. The phone flashed for its camera bright enough I was seeing spots for a moment.

I heard Jacob shout in alarm. Then felt the sharp stab from someone’s flailing elbow as it caught the middle of my chest. I stumbled backwards with the blow. Knowing I wasn’t far from the prop statue, I braced myself for impact, hoping it was made of cardboard and that we wouldn’t get in too much trouble if we fell into it and broke it.

The floor dropped away then I hit it with a loud ‘thwack!’ I let out a gasp as the air was driven out of me and my back screamed from slamming hard against the floor. I was glad Schmidt cursed in his native tongue so John wouldn’t snap at us for swearing in front of his sister. Though I doubt she was so innocent to not have a decent array of such words in English by now.

Wincing as I sat up, I took a moment to get my bearings. We were in the strangest of places. It looked and felt like a stone cell or cage in a dungeon from some medieval movie set. Oddly, with a mirror embedded in the ceiling above us. Considering where we had just been, maybe it was a mock set from the cartoon show. The look I saw on the faces of Jackie and Jacob, however, left me somewhat concerned. They were confused.

At least we didn’t look very banged up. Not John, nor Jacob, Jackie or even Schmidt. That had to count as something good.

A shriek of metal on stone scratched at our ears. I turned to face the bars in time to hear a door slam shut. It was soon followed by the steady clop of more metal on the stone floors. What strode into view left me wondering if I had suffered concussions when I landed. Considering the others were seeing it too, maybe we had all hit our heads. For standing before us was what I could only call a cartoon character brought to life. A dark unicorn, clad in shining armour and a regal cape, stood proudly on the other side of the bars.

Jacob and Jackie let out shocked gasps as the unicorn gave a surprisingly sinister chuckle.

“I need an army,” the dark unicorn hissed. John, Schmidt and I stared at the dark unicorn. Did it seriously just talk? “No volunteers?”

He leaned forward and sneered at us. “Very well.”

His horn erupted with a strange, bubbling violet light. Jackie was suddenly wrapped in the same light from the unicorn’s horn. He ripped her away to the other side of the cage. I tried to dash after her, as did the others, but we all slammed hard into a wall of magic which hadn’t been there before. As we stumbled with our footing and to figure out what was happening, the wall slammed against us again before brushing us across the floor to the other side of the cage.

“Ladies first!” the dark unicorn chuckled. He only examined Jackie for a moment before bringing forth the simplest yet most unexpected of items in his magic. An ordinary, plain looking, earthenware teapot. Looking at it, I didn’t know what to think. No doubt, the others did too. And the dark unicorn noticed.

“It seems odd, I know,” the dark unicorn muttered. “Like the mirror which brought you here. Its power is just as deceptive as its form is mundane.”

He floated the teapot between the bars of our shared cage, across to where it hovered in front of Jackie’s face. Her teeth were bared, her eyes twitching as she tried to struggle from the magic which held her motionless.

The dark unicorn chuckled. “Like the furless apes who came before you, struggling does nothing but entertain me.”

His gaze swept across the rest of us as I jumped from the floor alongside my friends. We crashed against the glowing barrier, doing our best to push and pound against. Trying to find a weakness so we could break through.

“Leave my sister alone!” John yelled. The dark unicorn simply ignored him.

“Such a very special thing, the ponies made. Something to help newcomers to our world gain a new perspective.” The dark unicorn smiled, giving a glimpse of the fangs which had no right being in the mouth of a pony. The teapot bobbed in his magic. “As the ponies who made it would say, ‘Spot of tea?’”

The glow of magic thrust the teapot forward, forcing the spout into Jackie’s mouth. Just as quickly, the teapot tipped and I saw John’s little sister’s throat bulge and gulp down a mouthful from the pot.

A gasp burst from Jackie’s throat when the spout lurched free of her lips. She had little time to cough as, a moment later, her body lurched forward and her cheeks bulged as if to vomit. Her lips remained shut. Jacob and John both cried out but I didn’t catch their words. I was too stunned by what I was witnessing.

The sinister vibe I had felt emanating from this dark unicorn suddenly manifested in the sneer of his voice. “Change for me!”

My mouth grew wide and I felt my skin crawl as I watched on in horror while Jackie’s body twisted and changed. Clothing burst into shreds, replaced by wiry yet thick black and grey fur which sprouted all over her body. Her body… What had once been the slender form of a young teen girl, now bulged and rippled as muscles expanded all over, the weight of which forced Jackie onto her hands and knees.

Her hands… they no longer sported fingers. Instead, they bore the thick, split hooves of the beast she was becoming. Her head grew larger, losing its femininity to a hard, stern face as a thick set of horns sprouted from either side of her skull.

The others and I could only stare, John with tears streaming down his cheeks as he couldn’t stop what was happening to his little sister.

When the power of whatever Jackie had ingested from that seemingly innocent teapot had run its course, we remaining humans could only gawk in slack-jawed terror at the impressively strong looking yak which now took up a third of the space in the cage on its own.

I collapsed to my knees, my heart racing and chest heaving as I felt the panic rising within me. I could do little more than watch as Jackie gulped in breath after breath. The oddest thought came to me in that moment. I remembered the plush toy yak Jacob had pointed out. Jackie looked a lot like it now. From what I glimpsed between the new yak’s legs as it tried to steady itself on its hooves, there was nothing but masculinity to be seen.

There was little time to come to terms with the situation before, in a flash of magic, a strange helmet appeared and, just as suddenly, it was slammed onto Jackie’s head. Jackie only let out a deep, throaty grunt before gathering himself to stand at attention, his entire face now obscured from view.

The dark unicorn let out a chuckle. “What a brute you are. Brute you shall be! Perfect for my new army!”

Brute, the former Jackie, simply nodded his head, giving out another grunt which the face covering of the helmet distorted into a snarl.

The cage grew silent. None of us dared move. What we had just witnessed… it was as unbelievable as it was shocking. Yet, Jackie wouldn’t be the last.

Seemingly at random, the dark unicorn would pluck one of us from our horrified huddle and force us to sip from the spout of that rapidly becoming accursed teapot.

Next went Jacob. With but a sip of the tea, his body began to change. Although not as spectacular in gaining girth like Jackie, Jacob was soon stripped of his human visage in what his screams told us was just as violent as Jackie’s change.

Like Jackie, Jacob grew fur, but nowhere near as thick as that of the yak. Its strangest aspect being that the fur was tinged a greyish deep blue. Jacob was forced to his knees early in his transformation, his hips and legs twisting until he could never again take a bipedal stance. His arms altered just as quickly, his hands bunching up until they became hooves, lightly covered in the stringy hairs of fetlocks.

Jacob screamed in agony and I felt my stomach churn when I watched his nose and mouth repeatedly crack, shift and stretch until they jutted out into a very equine muzzle. He couldn’t help but squeeze his eyes shut from the pain when a horn, matching his coat in colour, erupted from the middle of his forehead to stand proud like that of the dark unicorn.

When Jacob’s now white hair and brand-new tail settled into place, and he collapsed from the last of the changes, I felt myself trying to will him back onto his new hooves. Hoping he could use his horn on the dark unicorn to free us from this nightmare.

It was not to be.

Seconds after Jacob began to stir once more, another helmet, like the one the yak now wore, blinked into existence before being forced onto his head. When he rose from the floor, he moved to stand beside the former Jackie, his stance just as militaristic.

“Shield Breaker!”

“Schmidt!” John screamed, reaching out to grab our friend who was suddenly wrenched through the barrier by more of the dark unicorn’s magic.

I knew I should have watched out of respect for my friend, but I simply couldn’t. I squeezed my eyes shut and gave a whimpering sob through my clenched teeth. I didn’t want to see what happened to him. He was just a foreign exchange student. He was with us because he wanted to experience our culture and we were the ones assigned to help him. Sure we had become good friends in a short time, but I still felt responsible for his safety while in our country.

When the screaming finally stopped and the oddly sizzling sound of the glowing magic took its place, I opened my eyes to stare in shock at what Schmidt had become.

He was similar to what Jacob had become, in the fact that he was now some kind of pony. Other than the helmet he now wore and the gender they still shared, that was where their similarities ended. Schmidt’s new fur was charcoal grey, his mane and tail a wispy faded blonde. And from his sides stretched the purplish black leathery membrane of bat-like wings. There was an odd marking on his hind legs, but the voice of the dark unicorn snatched my attention away.

“Comet Streak!” The dark unicorn chuckled at the form of his latest minion. “An excellent addition.”

I pressed my back against the wall. Both John and I were breathing so heavily in panic, I thought we were going to have heart attacks. My eyes widened with fear. My body trembled as I turned to my remaining human friend and said, “John­–”

Then the magic snatched me, silencing my voice by locking my jaw in place along with the rest of my body. I was ripped away to the centre of the room. I caught a glimpse of John huddled on the floor where he had collapsed after his sister’s change. The magic squeezed even tighter, I tried to fight against it but my muscles simply couldn’t respond.

My eyes snapped to something floating in front of me. That infernal teapot.

“Just a spot of tea?”

How the dark unicorn could make such a simple, seemingly innocent question sound so sinister? It wasn’t a question I got to voice as, like with those before me, I was forced to partake of the hot liquid forcibly offered.

The change was brutal, I’ll admit it. It also wasn’t helped by the fire I felt growing from where the tea settled in my core. I lurched forward and coughed, pressing a hand against my chest. At least I was free of the magic. Not that it helped. My skin felt like it was bubbling before burning away with the heat as it spread throughout my body, leaving behind a sight which made me scream and wish this was just a nightmare. Scales of emerald green replaced much of my skin; my underbelly appeared as a faded version of my new outer-scales.

Tears filled my eyes. I grunted and screeched in agony as my bones cracked and shifted, shrinking yet strengthening as my body adjusted to the whims of the magic liquid from that accursed teapot. It was during this change that I could hear my voice altering. What maturity it once held was stripped away, leaving behind the softer nature of that of a child or a teenage girl.

The changes weren’t quite through as I hit the floor, arching my back as twin pricks of pain ripped free from my back just beneath the tops of my shoulders. A third spot wrenched forth from above my rear end, shredding what little of my jeans still clung to my hips.

As my hair disappeared from view and the pain of the changes subsided, I could still feel the heat of the tea I’d ingested as it roiled within my very blood. One thing I knew, even before I could fully adjust to my new state of being, my human self was no more.

In its place, squatting on one clawed hand and scaly knee was a rather short dragon. My chest still heaving from the sudden and violent change, I let out several gasps and jumped a little as they erupted in small bouts of flame.

A sinister grin cracked across the muzzle of the dark unicorn. “Such a prize! My Cremator!”

I had barely a chance to look up when the unicorn’s magic snatched hold of me again, keeping my body so still I don’t doubt I appeared to be a green, scaled statue. With another flash of magic, a helmet appeared. This one designed not to impede the mouth. No doubt this crazy horse wanted me free to breathe more fire.

I heard John cry out, his voice a choked sob, “William! No!”

But I couldn’t see him. The approaching helmet blocked my view. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. The blood rushing through my now burning veins screamed at me to flee, to react, to dodge. Anything! Yet I couldn’t. I was physically frozen. All I could do was watch in horror as the top half of my reptilian head disappeared within the helmet.

As with Jacob, Schmidt and Jackie, once the helmet was in place, the magical aura holding the latest victim vanished. It was no longer needed. The moment the helmet was in place, I felt my desires, those long-held ones of my human self, along with the new draconic ones bubbling within me, swamped by the will of the helmet.

I rose somewhat mechanically from the floor. Even with the helmet in place, this body was new and would take a bit of adjusting to. Not that it would matter, soon I would be flying at the command of a King. He never gave his name but I already knew it, the helmet had leeched it into my brain.

“Long live Lord Sombra!” I declared, my new feminine voice twisting into a menacing growl. I stood steadfast, dutifully awaiting my King’s first orders.

The last human whimpered nearby. I gave him only the barest of glances through the eye-slits of my helmet. In moments he would learn, in moments he would know the loyalty we all now shared. All thanks to a little spot of tea…

Would you care to try some?

Author's Note:

Translation Guide:
Sich langweilen – Getting bored.
Ja, aber wir haben verloren – Yes, but we lost.


This is my third posting of this chapter. Hopefully I won't have to strengthen it again. It does mean I have to get rid of the original versions which were posted separately to stay within site rules. But, at least it is all together now.

Anything to blame for this? Not really. The idea for the teapot came while reading The Return of Sunset. While reading the moment where Celestia teleports a tea set and many different flavours of tea, I thought, "Why can't the teapot produce whatever flavour the person/pony wants while only putting water in the pot?" This just took it to a little darker place thanks to reading Princess Is Sad? Boop The Snoot and making me think of so many Human in Equestria transformation stories.

Why choose King Sombra when Discord would more suit the random nature of the teapot? Simply, I struggle to find the sinister nature in Discord and it didn't quite fit the other villains.

Why wasn't Keepers of the Crag my next story posting? Like From the Diary of Close Call, this was just a random spur of the moment thing.

I would absolutely love to write more stories from Cremator's point of view, especially if she and her friends are somehow released from Sombra's control, but I have no idea what they would be. Yeah, this spawned something I really didn't expect but have been absolutely loving writing.

Anyone wanting to use this world for other stories can do so, just link to and credit this story. It is all I ask.