Chapter 48: Contemplations and Changeling puberty.
*Raiden POV*
I stretched out on the floor with a big yawn as I felt Luna stir slightly beside me. Neither of us were the right size to properly lay across the seats, so the floor had been the next best choice if rest after our...strenuous activities.
I looked to the sleeping princess and and found myself in awe. Even in sleep, she managed to keep up her beauty, resting peacefully with her head on my scaled chest as she slept quietly.
On the note of scales, I raised a claw and studied it. I had four pointy fingers like Spike, except mine were bigger and seemed sharper as well.
It's crazy, to think about two months ago I was a simple fry cook at Mcdonalds to now being a mythical creature in some colorful land with talking animals. I thought as I thought about past conversations about my form. Luna had said we would look into finding a way to revert myself back to my normal form...but did I really want that?
I mean, I enjoyed being a human, don't get me wrong. But being a dragon is awesome! I have wings, can breathe fire, and pack a waaay better body (in more ways than one.) I honestly wasn't sure if I wanted to go back to being a human.
Now, I am defintely glad I don't look like Ronin does. He sonehow managed to get an exoskeleton that fused with his skin! That, with the metal wings, really makes him look like some sort of lab produced warrior. He pulls it off though, considering the man has three mares in his herd.
Which brought up another point. Would I want to herd? And if so, how many mares would I want to go up to? Twilight was already being considered, though that was mostly thanks to Luna, and conaidering the foreseeable future, who knows what will happen?
I shook my head. There's no point speculating on the unknown.
Speaking of unknown, that brings up Nicholas. My twelve year old sibling who had managed to somehow bring us to this world with nothing more than a wish and a necklace. I had seen the instances with his magic and even his own form change, and it looked far different than magic I had seen up to this point.
And that Dadiolus guy had wanted Nicholas too. But why? What's so special about him? What makes him different than me or Ronin?
I was pulled from my thoughts as I heard a knock at the door. I sighed and booped Luna on the muzzle.
"C'mon, Luna. Time to get up." I softly said as she groaned, her eyes not open yet.
"Neigh, let us sleep for another century or two." She whined as I chuckled and rolled her off me, resulting in a mild oof coming from her. I got up and opened the door to see Twilight looking at me, a grim look on her face.
"We just arrived in Canterlot, and from the letter Celestia recieved from Blueblood, saving Ronin is going to be harder than we thought" She stated as I frowned while Luna joined us at the door.
"How so?" I asked, feeling a hoof wrap around me as Luna hugged me supportedly.
"Blueblood is using the families of the dead as testimonies, and several of the injured guards as witnesses. It's going to be hard to appeal to the judge with that type of opposition." She said as I groaned loudly. Of course this prick would pull the sorrow card with family. It made sense if he wanted Ronin dead, and it made our mission that much harder too.
"Then we must ready ourselves by fighting back the one way possible." Luna stated as Twilight and I turned to her.
"And what would that be?" I asked her as she turned away and looked out a window.
"If thou wishes to save your brother, your court argument must be that he was only following orders. This would allow blame to be cast to the one who had the orders made, rather than the one who executed them."
I winced, realizing what she was implying, while Twilight spoke up.
"Then the blame would fall on Chrysalis, and she would be executed instead." She shook her head. "That can't be the only way out of this, right? Just to pass the torch to somepony else?"
Luna sighed and faced us. "It's the only legal way to do so. Any other way would cause any of us to commit a crime and be punished accordingly, and as a princess we cannot do so. Especially with public opinion of us already being so bad."
I walked over and pulled Luna into a hug. "I won't ask you to do that, nor are we going to break Ronin out of jail. We need to find a way to do this the RIGHT way." I stated as Twilight beamed.
"Well said, Raiden. Now, I believe we might have a chance if we-" She was interrupted as a latch loudly clicked open above us and Pinkie dropped through. She looked around and saw us.
"Emergency meeting in the second train car from the front, STAT!" She exclaimed before, without so much as a warning, vaulted out a (luckily) open window.
For a second, no one moved.
"Um...Are thou sure that friend of thous is alright, Twilight Sparkle?" Luna asked as Twilight sighed and shook her head.
"I have no idea, princess. But whatever is going on, it sounded important. So we need to check it out." With that, Luna erupted the room in a blue flash, teleporting us to our destination.
When the light faded, we found ourselves in a train car with Chrysalis, Redheart, a very tired Celestia, and...Pinkie?
I pointed a finger at her. "How'd you get here before us? We teleported here!"
Pinkie smiled wide. "I found a shortcut in the plotline!"
I went to argue, but Twilight jabbed me lightly in the leg.
"Don't even try to argue with her, Raiden. It's just something she does." Twilight said as I groaned and sat down, Luna following suit on my left as Twilight walked over to Celestia.
"Princess, what's the meeting fo-" Twilighr would be once again interrupted as Celestia let out a huge yawn, causing Chrysalis to snicker.
"Looks like somepony needs a nap." Chrysalis said mockingly as Celestia threw a tired glare at her.
"I need no such thing, its just been a long night." She turned to Twilight and smiled. "But I did not call this meeting, Twilight. That honor goes to Chrysalis."
Luna looked to Chrysalis and frowned. "You called the meeting? What for?"
Chrysalis went to answer, but was cut off by Pinkie Pie, who had been slowly starting to vibrate in place.
"WE ARE GONNA BREAK RONIN OUT OF JAIL!" She exclaimed loudly as Redheart sighed and face-hoofed.
I blinked while Luna and Celestias jaws dropped. Twilight frowned while Chrysalis just sat there with a bored expression on her face.
"Pinkie! We can't go and break him out of jail! that's illegal!" Twilight stated, but Pinkie shook her head.
"Not like that, silly. We were gonna make it LOOK like he was executed, then teleport him somewhere safe until he could return to ponyville." Pinkie said as I went to argue against this, but couldn't.
"That...actually could work. But where would he go?" I asked as Redheart stepped forward.
"He will be going to Griffonia for the time being." She said, causing Celestia to snap out of her stupor.
"Griffonia? Why there of all places?"
Chrysalis spoke up. "In Eureka last night, Ronin told us he had been notified about Grimbeak knowing about him and his brothers. He plans to investigate how he came to know this information all the while laying low."
Luna frowned. "And how would thou go about teleporting him to Griffonia? It is very far away and that level of teleportation needs a lot of energy."
Redheart nodded. "Exactly. And that's where Nicholas and his friends come in. We will need them to collect enough love energy to teleport Ronin just before he is executed by the lightning bolts."
I raised an eyebrow. "Bolts?"
Luna nodded to me. "The normal executions in Equestria use a barrage of lightning bolts that are dropped on the criminal." I gulped slightly at that, while Celestia spoke up.
"Even so, that would take a enormous amount of energy. How would young Nicholas manage to obtain so much?"
I smiled at the idea of Nicholas performing in front of hundreds of ponies. "He is currently a DJ, and with his friends help, he might be able to pull it off."
Redheart turned to Celestia. "Which brings us back to a main issue: What to store that power in?"
The sun princess thought about that for a second before smiling. "I have a necklace that can absorb magic. It should be able to do the job."
Twilight gasped. "Princess! You can't be seriously suggesting that we do this, right? This is easily a felony and could get all of us in trouble!"
Celestia chuckled lightly, though for a second I swore I saw a glint of orange in her eyes, and answered her student. "Twilight, the fate of one of our friends is at stake. If it was you or my sister, I would do the same."
I smiled warmly at those words. "Thanks, Celestia. It means a lot knowing your gonna help us. But that leaves my brother and his friends with the job of figuring out how to perform for a whole city." I said as I wondered where Nicholas was on the train now.
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Tak POV
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I awoke to the sound of slight whimpering to my left. I sat up and looked over to see Nicholas holding Diamond Tiara close, his face scrunched up in pain while his mouth moved slowly.
I stood and slowly walked over to him, careful not to make much noise as I saw the three fillies sleeping around him. I leaned my head in to hear what he was saying.
"Please....help." I heard him whisper, fear etched in his words. "No...Leave me alone!"
I frowned. It was apparent that Nicholas was suffering from a nightmare, but how to help? The princess of night usually helped ponies with their nightmares, but since Nicholas wasn't a pony would she be able to help him.
Then again, Princess Luna was preoccupied with pleasing Raiden, so that may impede on any dream guidence from her, meaning I had to do something.
It was then I felt the urge to touch my horn to Nicholas's forehead. It was odd, like I had this burning desire to give him something..but what? I leaned my horn down to his head and watched a light yellow trail go from my horn to his forehead.
Immediately, I felt my own stamina dissolve and dropped to my knees. It had felt like something had drained the love from my inner core itself, but there were no changelings nearby that could...
I shot upright as I felt something odd. The yellow light I had given off had turned purple and seemed to resonate around his whole body with a light glow. I noticed his face was now a resounding calm and his pained muttering had ceased.
I let out a gasp as the purple light went and surrounded myself, causing me to float in the air slightly. After a flash went through the train car, I landed on the floor and looked around frantically.
Suprisingly, no one awoken from their slumber, though something was off. I looked at my legs and nearly had a heart attack! I quickly ran into the nearest bathroom and locked myself in and looked to a mirror.
My whole body looked completely different! My black coat of skin was now a gleaming blue, while my eyes kept their yellowy glow to them. My wings (WINGS! YEEES!) seemed to be a maroon color and they, alongside the rest of my body, was no longer covered with holes. Even my horn seemed more natural now.
"What has happened to me?" I stated quietly, noticing even my voice no longer had any hiss to it. "The only thing I did was place my horn on Nicks head and..." It suddenly all came together.
When I had placed my horn down, I had somehow transfered magic to Nicholas. And since changelings require love to
use magic, I must've shared that love energy with him out of worry for his well being. But mother had always said that changelings couldn't do so, only take love from our enemies...
...Or, that's what she preferred to do, anyway.
If this is correct, then all changelings can do this. I felt much stronger in this form, more...complete. It felt like I had just found the last piece of my puzzle that had been hidden for centuries. And I had this insane urge to go and spread this odd feeling with everyone I knew, especially...
I looked to the mirror with a sad smile. I had told Scootaloo to stay back in case things got dangerous, but now I wished for her to be here more than ever to see this form of mine. It felt...incomplete wothout her here with me, and I guess that's the biggest sign of love I've seen yet.
But why would this happen? Why would sharing love have such a huge affect on us changelings? And if mother truly knows about this, why hide this ascension from the others? As I thought this, I recalled the girls who were with Nicholas.
Applebloom, Sweetiebelle, and Diamond had all snuck on the train in order to help Nicholas, the latter definitely wouldn't allow Nick to get hurt. Their love (whether it be romantic or family like) drove them to follow us on the train. and while that was an impressive feat on its own, it didn't answer my questions regarding the true power of love.
I looked to myself in the mirror again, worry now taking shape. What if they don't like my new look? What if they don't know its me and think I did something to myself? The girls might not jump to conclusions like that, but I wouldn't put it past Nicholas to misread this type of situation and try to do something we'd both regret.
Which was another thing altogether. Could Ronin be the key in helping mother undergo this same epiphany about love? That sharing it is better for both us and our associates? She wouldn't like it at first, but Ronin could easily persuade her to try it... I hope.
I heard a knock at the door and froze.
"Hey, Tak! You in there? I gotta pee." Nicholas said rather bluntly before a yawn followed. I smiled and went to open the door before remembering my form change.
"Nick...promise not to freak out, alright?" I said as I swore I felt the confused emotions swell up in him.
"Uh...about what?" He asked as I opened the door, smiling weakly at his shocked expression.
"Tadaaaa..." I stated weakly.
************
Nicholas POV
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Mind.EXE was currently unavailable at the moment, please stand by...
I snapped out of my shock when Tak, at least I think it's him anyway, poked me in the ribs.
"Snap out of it!" He stated, his voice no longer sounding like... a changelings. More like a everyday persons.
"Whoa...Dude, what happened to you? You look...bright."
Tak rolled his eyes. "How descriptive. But to answer your question, you happened." He said, causing me to frown.
"Me?" I asked, pointing to myself. "What did I do?"
He shrugged. "You were having a nightmare, so I accidently transfered some love magic to you, and ended up unlocking some hidden power in myself. Now I have a changed body and weird urges I don't understand."
I snorted slightly. "Sounds like you just hit puberty."
Taks head tilted slightly, allowing me to notice he was now my height...weird. "What's puberty?"
I blinked before face-palming.Of course he doesn't know what puberty is...do the girls? Have they already went through it? (Though I seriously doubt Sweetiebelle has, considering her voice is higher than a kite.)
"Never mind, it's a human joke." I stated, pushing the painful idea of myself, who had just started puberty almost a year ago, having to deal with three if not four PONIES going through human-like puberty. "But your saying that, in the midst of helping me with my nightmares, you somehow unlocked some deep-hidden potential among your kind?"
Tak thought for a second before nodding. "That sounds about right!"
I groaned and looked out a window. It was still dark, but we weren't moving anymore, so we might've reached our destination. Still, it was WAY to early for this.
I walked past Tak and closed the bathroom door. "Alright, go and sit down or something. We'll figure this out when I'm done in here." I heard his footsteps echo away before I looked into the mirror.
My eyes had slight bags under them, though I'd blame the nightmares for that. I yawned and looked to the toilet, which had its seat up.
Tak couldn't have put the seat back down? I thought before frowning. Wait...did ponies and changelings pee standing up? how? I decided to not question that further and went to do my business.
***********
Ronin POV
***********
I sat down at a small table in an even smaller break room. Prisoners got three meals a day, but breakfast hour was spent in some small barracks so the prisoners could "conversate" with each other.
I had been awoken at about three in the morning for breakfast...THREE! Not only that, they had me change into some cartoon-style prision clothes with black/white stripes on them. After being ordered to turn off all my armour, or get punished with no food, I had managed to put on the clothes.
I looked down at the tray in front of me. Since I had canines, they immediately put me on the griffon menu, meaning a raw fish had been put on my plate...greaaat.
Thankfully, they had given me a cup of water, alongside a fork, therefore allowing me to wash down each bite. As I ate, what I mocked up to be a steroid chicken sat down in front of me.
I looked up and noticed two things. Although the thing had back paws and a lion tail, it had golden claws and a eagle like face. Second, it was looking at me like I knew it.
"Are you Ronin?" She asked gruffly, causing me to drop the bite of fish in suprise.
"Wait...Gilda? That's what you look like?" I stated in suprise as she narrowed her eyes at me.
"And what wrong with I look like?" She stated before shaking her head. "Nevermind, I need to know of you were serious about what you said before."
I nodded. "I am, I have outside sources helping to prepare the escape, we just need to sit tight." I looked the griffon over quickly. "Ya know, you look like you've got muscle on ya, for an overgrown rooster, What type of workouts do you do?"
She smiled and stretched, flexing her body. "Not to brag, but I am one of the fastest flyers to exist in this whole world!"
Her attitude reminded me of the ponified gay-pride flag herself. "Well, Gilda. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that title belong to a rainbow-colored pony?"
For some reason, that comment angered her FAR more than I thought it would. She leaned in real close and slammed her claws on the table. "Leave that two-faced brat out of this." So she does know Rainbow Dash...I wonder how.
Now feeling slighly threatened, I followed suit and butted heads with Gilda. "Watch that beak, griffon. Or I'll use it to cut a new hole in ya."
Before more could be said, a pegasus guard had appeared and was holding his spear out towards us.
"Enough!" He barked. "Sit down and eat your meals, or else it's solitary confinement for the both of you!" He turned and walked off, but not before I fired a parting blow.
"Oi! Whats your name?" I yelled to him. The orange pegasus turned and frowned.
"Flash Sentry, why?" He asked me. I turned to Gilda and winked before turning back to the blue-maned guard.
"Well, Flash. I just wanted to let you know that I've banged your boss, and if you point that spear at me again, I'll cut the tip off the one you brandish twenty-four seven." I stated simply, reveling in watching the eyes of flash widen to saucers as he turned around and, quite shakily, walked away.
I heard Gilda snort as I sat back down. I looked to her to see her covering her beak to keep from bursting out laughing.
"What, dude probably has a three inch anyway." I stated simply, causing her to lose her composure and burst out laughing.
"Oh man! You really-HAHA-dislike ponies, huh?" She asked me mid-laugh as I shrugged.
"Only the ones that tick me off, which is about half of them." I said as I sat down to finish my 'breakfast'.
**************
Meanwhile, in Tartarus
**************
In the center of this hellish landscape of eternal torment is a castle surrounded by a fiery pit filled with the lost souls of the war against the god of chaos. If one looked closely at the castle, you would see its bricks were made of the hooves or claws of said souls.
Inside this castle was only two rooms. A giant hallway featuring the murals of every evil being to grace equestria. And a throne room where the king of Tartarus sat, slept, and ate.
Said king was grinning wickedly over the recent subject to arrive in his domain. It had about a decade since this particular subject managed to escape Tartarus thanks to an accidental rift occuring. (He had also lost track of a certain Centaur, but that wouldn't cause too much problems, right?)
Tarus stood and pulled out his sword, an elongated horn made from the last pony king of Equestria, and pointed it at the bald man in front of him.
"Dadiolus. You have done many a bad deed in your lifetime, even going as far as escaping from Tartarus! How do you plead?" He asked the man, who looked up at him with a resigned smile.
"I have done many a neccessary evil to help Equestria, and managed to find someone else to carry my torch. So guilty, your horribleness." Dadiolus spat the last words as a spear found itself buried in his forehead.
"Oh, look at that." Tarus mocked. "You've been impaled."
The man crumpled over as a blackish light left his chest. Tarus walked over and grabbed the light in his palm...and devoured it whole.
His whole body glowed for a second before he looked up to the roof and smiled big, his teeth blackened by what he had consumed.
"Hehehe. Another soul for the fire. Though I wonder what he meant by carry my torch?" The bipedalistic king thought aloud as the room erupted with a loud wail of a old soul being burned to cinders.
**************
Raiden POV
**************
After the meeting had dispersed we had started loading everyone off the train, though Nicholas and his friends was nowhere in sight.
"Where could they be?" I muttered as Sweetiebelle and Applebloom walked off first, followed by Nicholas piggybacking a sleeping Diamond in his back.
Then...something else came off as well. It was about Nicholas's height and had a shiny blue coat with maroon insect wings.
I walked right up to them and nodded to the thing. "Nicholas...what's that?"
He smiled and motioned carefully to it, as to not disturb Diamond. "Oh, that's Tak. He's kinda going through some changes."
I looked to what was apparently Tak with bewilderment. "What?!"
Wait...I didn't say that.
I found Chrysalis standing right next to me, her face one with confusion and some anger.
"What do you mean changes?!" She demanded loudly, causing the crusaders to flinch and Diamond to stir, muttering something about a wedding dress before snoring lightly.
Tak spoke up. "Mother, earlier last night I awoke to find Nicholas having a bad nightmare. I found myself drawn to help him and ended up somehow transfering love to him via my horn." He stated as Chrysalis's jaw dropped.
"You...Shared love? How?" She asked, causing Tak to frown.
"I was hoping you would know, but the event caused this form to arise, which makes me believe that any of us can achieve this form." Tak said.
This whole situation was confusing as all get out, and I could tell Chrysalis was getting angry that something that sounded important she had no clue about and the way Tak talked like it was such a good thing.
"Why would anyone wish to change into that eyesore of a form. It would be nigh impossible to sneak around at night looking like that." Chrysalis said with a hint of venom.
"Why would we need to sneak around in the first place, mother? We live in peace with the ponies right now and no longer need the foul-intended abilities we possess." He stated rather heatidly as Chrysalis stomped her hoof.
"You shut your mouth with that blasphemy! For centuries, we have thrived off of our abilities of stealth and deception and-"
Tak cut her off. "And where did that take us? Near extinction by a stronger species? Thousands of our kind starving and weak and barely able to levitate pebbles? You cannot seriously call that thriving!" He stepped past a rather shocked Chrysalis and shook his head. "We can talk more about politics later, mother. Right now, we need to focus on saving Ronin."
I decided to speak up then, if anything to keep the other kids from hearing any more mother/son debates. "We have a plan to save him, but you guys will have a huge role in supplying the love energy to do so."
Nicholas and the others turned to me while Chrysalis stood there quietly while occasionally glancing to Tak.
"Why would we need to harvest love?" Tak asked me as Sweetiebelle tilted her head.
"And where would we store it? That type of magic needs an area of containment, right?" We all looked to her in suprise, causing her to blush slightly and shrink a bit. "What? Ms. Cherilee did a lesson on magic and how to store it, and love was one of the kinds she went over."
I shook my head and turned to Nicholas. "Well, we need your performing abilities to gain the love of the city, all the while Tak and the other changelings gather it and store it. Once you guys come up with a plan to gather the love, go find Celestia or me. We will give you the necklace that can hold the energy you need to collect."
Nicholas nodded and looked to his friends and reached out his hand.
"Well, how about it? Ready to make some love?" The kids reached their hooves in and swung them to the sky at once.
"YEAH!" They yelled as Chrysalis leaned in to my ear.
"Nicholas knows that the statement he said was a double entendre, right?" She whispered as Diamond woke up crom fhe shouting.
"Can you guys keep it down? Nicks reeeeally comfy!" She stated, causing the kids to laugh as I rolled my eyes and answered Chrysalis.
"I hope not, or else I need to have a loooong chat with Ronin when I next see him."
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But, wouldn’t that mean he can’t wear his armor?
I don’t think he’s the only one that wants him dead.
Wouldn’t that be lying?
Don’t you mean out?
Wouldn’t that still be illegal?
Are they trying to kill him slowly?
Then don’t get involved.
So their voices change?
How can he know about puberty, but his brother didn’t know about heat?
They grow in size, too?
I thought he just had his exoskeleton, now.
What’s a mural?
Oh boy.
How is that even possible?
Oh no. Is he talking about ronin?
He does know there’s this thing called a dentist, right?
You mean bipedal?
No it wouldn’t. Isn’t he still able to transform?
What does that have to do with politics?
What were the others?
That sounds so wrong.
10845901
Question answering time!
Yes, it would. Unless he got new armour...then that would fit.
Kinda...Chrysalis did order him to fight back if caught.
Did mean out, thats a typo.
Yes it would.
Yeah...pretty much.
The changelings always hiss their s's a bit, so that wont happen anymore with him. And yeah, I made him taller.
Heat is an animal thing, while puberty is a human thing. Pretty easy to know.
Exoskeleton was his armour, and now he has prision clothes.
Murals are a sort of art. Look it up for more info.
Hehehehe....spoilers to a backstory.
Yeah...probably about Ronin.
Meh, hes king of tartarus. who has a dentist down there?
I do mean bipedal. Second typo
He could, but that was just an insult thrown at him.
Those things kinda ARE changeling politics.
I mentioned them before, but here are some: love, hate, despair, chaos, light, dark.
Oh yeah, I meant that to sound bad.
Again, my favorite is POV Ronin. I don’t know why it’s so ... although I could have guessed: in his plot you can feel the spirit of adventure, while in the rest of the brothers it is more like everyday life.
Well, I also noticed your attitude towards Gilda. It seems that you like this character at least a little, but you still like it, because you also want to drag her into adventures. And yes ... you make it canon, although with gay-pride you clearly went overboard.
Just femininity female griffins are slightly different from ponies.
10856086
Oh, Gilda isnt gay, just a jerk.