Interviews With Equestrians

by Jmaster49

Subject 155: Foal's Play

I was now a foal. But not only that…

“What the hell just happened? Pale, why are you screaming like a kid?” I heard Quick’s familiar voice, albeit at a much higher pitch. “...And why do I sound like one??” The mare was now a filly.

And just as well, Corkscrew had become a colt like myself. “You guys alright? And why do I have a sudden craving for cookies and milk?” That’s when he looked down at himself, and exploded with panic. “AH! What’s happened to me?! My super cool looks! Gone! Reduced to a fraction of what they used to be!”

Quick Draw was, fittingly enough, the quickest to calm down and diffuse the shared terror between us all. “Guys, guys! Calm down. Clearly, this was the thing that we were after. Somepony’s started a curse that’s turned us into kids.”

“W-what?” Cork clung to me, and shivered in place. “Why would they do that?! Who would think of...uh...subje...forc...making us feel this?!” he muttered as he tried to find the right words to say.

I gently pushed him off of me, and took a deep breath. We needed to approach this as calmly as possible, so I took a few keen observations regarding the transformation we endured.

Firstly, we still had our cutie marks which was good. Quick had her hoofcuffs, Corkscrew had his green spiral, and I still had my puzzle piece outline. Our flanks were safe. Which means we weren’t reverted to the period of time in which we lacked our special skills. Okay, that wasn’t so bad.

Unfortunately, it seemed as if our overall intellect had been forced back down to the same level of foals. Sure, as I recounted the events I was able to think clearly. But in those very moments, it was extremely difficult for me to come up with anything too complicated or strategic.

Overall? We were in a situation that we needed to deal with by force.

“Okay, guys,” I said, “If this is what we’re dealing with, then we need to figure out the source. Once we do that, we can stop it.”

That’s when Quick brought up a rather frightening detail. “Wait a sec. Cork, didn’t you just say something about how scary it must’ve been for Cozy to stay in this place as a foal?”

“I did I…” His small wings flapped rapidly as fear ran up his spine. “Oh no...does this mean that somepony wants us to experience the same thing?!”

“It seems likely,” Quick replied, and glanced at me, “Pale. What do you think about this?”

I had been silent the entire time. Honestly? I had no clue what to think. “Erm...I think we should...uh…” The sense of dread that came from being within the underworld started to seep into my childlike mind. I couldn’t escape it. It started to weigh down upon me with the force of one-thousand houses. I started to hallucinate. Monsters and other forms of hatred began to fly into my peripheral vision.

Quick Draw’s vocal concern for me was drowned out by all of it. “...you okay? Pale?”

“...” I was unable to think or do anything. The horrific fog started to swarm around me, and I was faced with disgusting visions of all of the things I did wrong.

Every face, every voice, every drop of blood that the Blood Viper spilled. It all came back to me. I was being force-fed all of my sins and had had no control over my emotions. I wanted nothing more than to sink further and further into this pit of despair. But in order to escape from it...I would have to dole out just as much trauma to the ones who ridiculed me in order to find fulfillment. Yes. That was the only way.

SMACK!

I was hit square across the face with a wing.

“Dude, come back to me, man!” Corkscrew’s voice called out to me, barely able to cut through the darkness. “We need you! We can’t do this alone!”

“...Alone…?” I repeated under my breath.

“C-C’mon, Quick! Say something! Anything!”

Then I heard Quick Draw cry out in a rare sense of disturbed urgency and panic. “Er...um...Pale, we need you to be strong! You can’t let yourself succumb to the hate! We may be neck-deep in Tartarus, but we still need--oh no!”

“What’s going on?” Cork asked, “What’s happened?!”

“I...ah...I see...dead bodies...everywhere...they’re all haunting me! I can’t...get away!” she screamed in a struggle against her own mind.

Cork started to freak out along with us. “No...no, Quick, please! You can’t fall to that now! We have to fight it off!”

It wasn’t enough. The filly screamed into the abyss. “I...I...I wanna go home!!”

“Guys, c’mon!” Cork shouted. “None of this is real! We can handle anything!”

I couldn’t see the perspective of either of my companions. If I had to wager a guess, I could only venture that Quick Draw had started to fall victim to the dark magic of the underworld. Her child-like mind was unable to resist the perils of despair despite the fact that her older self had a far more hardened mind.

Cork, however...was different.

“No...no, I...I refuse! None of this is real!” I heard him shout as the black grossness slowly shut my senses off. “I know it! I’m not afraid of any of this! I’ve dealt with loads of bullies and their cheap tricks! It won’t work! You hear me! It won’t!”

Once again, I couldn’t view things from his lens. But I think I knew exactly why he wasn’t afraid of the demons in this situation.

---

From Corkscrew’s perspective…

All my life I have fallen behind Pale and Quick because I was too weak to defend myself. I was unable to think about how to go about dealing with bullies at the academy without her, and couldn’t solve a single test on my own without him studying with me. Even now, I’ve always followed behind Pale’s hoofsteps as his backup. But never have I had the chance to take action for myself.

But that ends today. This time, I’ll protect them myself.

---

My vision returned, and I watched as Corkscrew flung off all of the hallucinogenic monsters that plagued not only himself, but the others that plagued us as well.

ZIP! BAM!

He flew around the open rocky platform to gather up each foggy beast and forcefully push it off the tower into the pit of endless black down below us. “RRAGH! Come on! I don’t fear any of you! And my friends don’t either!”

His courage refueled us both. The weight had been lifted off of my shoulders, and I was able to move again. Quick was able to do so as well. We glanced at each other, and started to fight off the rest of the demons that tried to infect our minds with negativity until they were all tossed off the monolith.

After which, we showered him with praise.

“Cork! You did it!” I said with a playful nudge to his side, “You inspired us to keep going!”

“Yeah I have to admit, it was pretty cool,” Quick added. “But we’re still foals. Let’s not drop our guard.”

He nodded. “Thanks Pale. And you’re right, Quick. That could very well have been the first part of something much more dangerous.”

That’s when we heard a voice boom from above us with a demonic reverb.

“Precisely...you are much more formidable than you appear...even as children…”

Bingo. We found our source.

Comments

[Neo4K]

You know, Pale monologued that Cork never went to Tartarus as he or Quick did for a mission. 😁 Now, considering what they just experienced, it's a good thing he did go with them.

“Precisely...you are much more formidable than you appear...even as children…”

Bingo. We found our source.

I'm willing to bet the presumed-dead Father of all Monsters finally shows his face. Shit is about to get real.