Interviews With Equestrians

by Jmaster49

Subject 243: Lightning Trust

Like a fool, I was close to rushing in before I knew the context of the situation. Cheerilee was equally livid to see one of her old students in danger, but I wasn’t about to let her hurt herself.

“If Scootaloo is so much as scratched, I am gonna--”

I grabbed ahold of her tail with my teeth. “Hang on. We need to approach this carefully. Elytra is a fickle mistress.”

From nearby, we heard the two sides speak to each other.

“What is the meaning of this? Why do you struggle so hard to keep somepony else safe? More so, why would you care about somepony that you hate?”

“What do you mean?” Lightning replied with a grimace, “How dare you say something like that! You don’t know me and where my heart lies!”

“Oh? But if I recall, weren’t you the one who coerced her into performing a dangerous stunt out of jealousy towards Rainbow Dash? How did it feel? Coming close to usurping your once-partner by following your heart and trying to eliminate her?”

“Th...that was two decades ago!” Lightning screamed in the face of the changeling with all she had. “I was a dumbass back then! I never really wanted to hurt her! I just...I don’t know!”

Next to me, Cheerilee snarled with her hooves scraping at the ground--ready to take off. “That’s it. I’m getting Scootaloo out of there. You? Tear that whorse a new asshole for me.”

Okay. There was officially zero--nay--negative chance to stop this mare when she had a plan ready. No time to mess about anyways.

“Alright. But if we hit trouble--and she’s already taken off ahead of me,” I said to myself as I watched her run on ahead. Yowzers that mare could run.

And so could I. With the utmost persistence, I rushed in to grant Lightning Dust some aid. “Hey! What’s going on here?!”

“Pale? Oh thank god--I have a witness now…” Lightning spoke in a rather relieved tone when she saw me. Why was she so desperate to have an audience for this situation.

Elytra snapped back. “You...hmph. I was hoping to see that old fart Starswirl. He would have a hoot upon the realization that his carelessness allowed me to come back not only once--but twice! Might even have a heart attack if he’s lucky.”

Yeech. How disturbing. “Save your petting comments for someone else. You aren’t going to get any further than you already have. Right, Ms. Dust?”

The teal pegasus gazed at me with hope in her eyes. Almost as if she didn’t expect such a response. “...Y..yeah! This’ll be easy!”

Behind us, from the corner of my eye, I could see Cheerilee pick up the injured Scootaloo and slowly back away to get her to safety. Okay, that was over and done with. Now we just had to address the threat that was in front of us.

“Easy? Hm. Are you forgetting how much stronger I am now? Than the both of you? Not even your alicorn retired princesses could stand up to me now. I’m perfect in every way that Chrysalis was not.” The newly minted changeling pondered for a moment. “Hm. Where are those old hags anyways? Shouldn’t they be out here helping their subjects? Or are they too afraid to raise a hoof against powers that they themselves are responsible for?”

Blech. As much as I hated to agree with an enemy, she was right. It was extremely curious as to why neither Celestia nor Luna had made themselves apparent yet. I could only imagine that Cadance and Twilight currently dealt with other threats that were launched on their home regions, and thus, couldn’t come to aid us. But as far as the Two Sisters...yeah, I had nothing.

Even so, that wouldn’t stop us from holding our own ground.

“That’s not a concern that we--or you--should have,” I replied swiftly, “What matters is taking you off the face of the earth before you can cause anymore destruction.”

“Yeah!” Lightning supported me with her own words, “You’re gonna rot in the pits below Tartarus for what you did to Scoots! Now get ready!”

The grotesque, mutated changeling flew into the air and lit up her horn with a sickly green aura of magic. “I’d love to see you try before I suck you dry.”

The start to this situation was much more deliberate. With Elytra’s horn activated, she caused the entire world around us to shift and contort into a blackish-green mist that disrupted our vision. It didn’t hurt, but it made it damn near impossible to see through.

“Tch! Hghghg…” I started to shudder. That’s when I began to feel its effects slowly seep its way into my body. This was no ordinary changeling magic. It didn’t attack our sense of love--no…

Around me, I started to see convincing clones of myself. Mirages that represented all of my cases up to this point. Except...I saw myself murder and destroy every criminal I came across without question. One by one, necks broken, bodies hidden...and congratulated for my deeds.

“No...no...I’m not...gah…” I froze in place. Watching myself commit these heinous acts as if they were real and etched into my actual memory caused me to shake down to my core. “I don’t...I’d never…”

“But you wish you could,” her voice cut through the darkness like a hot knife through butter, “And that very fact leads me to believe that you’re not who you say you are. You’re weak. No better than the ponies that run this terrible world. But that ends now. This world will be ruled by the strong rather than the weak…”

“I...can’t...you’re wrong…” I tried to lift my body up, but I felt too constrained to move. Was I really that weak?

And in that moment, I could have sworn I heard a faint song in the distance. Or was it my imagination going crazy from this mental torture?

“Woah-oh…”

“Woah-oh…”

Comments

[Neo4K]

😁 Sounds like a siren's song. Sunny and the Dazzlings coming to the rescue!!