Chapter 5
“For the deserts, we’ve got fritters, watermelon, cake-”
"I'm pleased ye remembered my daughters' tastes! I still cannae fathom why she fancies such things, I cannae stand it myself! Though at least I'm no' like that good for nothin tyrant! She detests aught tae do with ponies, 'cept when she's filchin' from them unjustly. It turns me ill. And tae think, all her subjects bear names frae bug parts! Ugh, ain't that a belittlin' notion."
“May I kindly suggest, Queen Gleòmhar, that ye take heart! In but a month's time, the hive shall welcome its new princely arrival. What shall ye name him, if I may inquire?”
"I believe I shall bestow upon him the name Ardent Valor, symbolising Justice and a spark of spiritedness. I can sense it each time I lay a hand upon his egg, that fervent determination to uphold what is right..."
“What do you MEAN you don’t know what you’re doing??” Angel yelled, focusing back on me instead of his fingers, or anything else of the subject. I fidgeted with my hooves as beads of sweat dripped down my face.
“I-It’s okay, I’m sure there’s an easy way t-to get out…” I flipped through the book frantically, attempting to find a spell that could get us out of this place. Sapple, no… Shadowed flesh, no… nothing. The book is just… empty half way through, no other spells other than this one in the beginning. I started hyperventilating, panicking. I’m… I’m stuck here. I’m stuck in who the hell knows where with a god damn rabbit, and to make matters worse I ended up dragging my brother into something he had no need to know about. I’ve fucked up, that’s it, I’ve fucked up. I played with fire, I got greedy, I wanted to feel powerful again and now I’m facing the consequences.
“Stupid… No, no, no, no, no, THIS FUCKING- GAH!” I threw the book against a tree in a fit of rage. Angel and Thorax recoiled slightly at this, but I didn’t care. Well, I did care, that’s a lie. I wanted them to be safe, to be honest, I wanted to at least be able to send them back and stay here to think about what a stupid decision I made using the book to go here. Thorax walked over and picked it up.
“Don’t bother. There aren't any spells that can get us out,” I said dejectedly. Thorax still read on, regardless, and I trotted up to him.
“Didn’t you hear me? There’s no way out, we’re stu-” Thorax shoves his hoof over my mouth, and I nearly blow up, but what he says next makes me reconsider, and actually makes me quite happy.
“It says here, on the second page, that there’s a way out using castle ruins,” I raised an eyebrow, grabbing the book hastily and flipping to the second page.
I should probably take a note here on how to get out, in case anypony wanders into this wretched place. I’ve found that this forest has ‘quadrants’. Outside of these ‘quadrants’, things are pretty safe. It’s once you go into a quadrant that things get dangerous. These quadrants hold eyeless beasts, much like the one I got attacked by on my first trip here, though that one had wandered off from a nearby quadrant.
These eyeless beasts have been proven to have some sense of self, as they continually talk about their own distinct lack of eyes. However, getting near them causes them to accuse you of being the perpetrator of their eyes, and thus they attack you, attempting to steal your eyes for their own sake. I haven't found a way to give-
I skimmed down until I found the part I was looking for.
But, there is a way to get out as said earlier. If you go to the core of one of these quadrants, there will be a ruined building. What that building will be I cannot guarantee, but, there will be an exit to the forest at the entrance. This will lead you to a corresponding building in the normal world.
There was a footnote at the bottom of the page.
Note: Finding the location of one of these ruined buildings in the forest will allow you to travel to it in the real world. Just replace “every” with a two syllable word that represents the building itself. This will not work if you haven't traveled to the building in the other world, my theory is that they need to be activated before they can be used, and by going through them on the side in the everfree dissonance, you manage to destroy the chains binding their otherworldly abilities.
A smile spread across my face and I nearly started crying from joy. And emotional whiplash. I caught my breath and hugged Thorax.
“H-holy shit, Thorax. Thank G-GOD you’re here, or else I… I don’t know what I would’ve done.” Thorax reciprocated the hug, I’ll be a little confused.
“Couldn’t we just… walk out? I mean, we’re in the everfree, right?” Angel said, scratching his head. Again, Zecora, you’re wearing off on me. I turned to Angel and took a deep breath.
“Not… no, not really. We’re in the metaver… I guess this isn’t the metaverse if… this” I held up my scarf.
“Is anything to go by. What we’re in is called the Everfree Dissonance, according to this book we found in an old castle.” Angel raises an eyebrow at that.
“So, you mean to tell me you cast an unknown and clearly dangerous spell from a book that you found in an old castle for what reason exactly?” That… uhh…
“Because I thought it would connect to something from my past.” Technically right. Angel just face palmed, though.
“DUDE! WHAT- EH- WHAT… WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU EVEN THINK THAT’S A EVEN REMOTELY SANE REASON? “Because it connected with your past” OK, YOU DON’T SEE ME ROCKING IN A FUCKIN CRIB JUST BECAUSE IT CONNECTED WITH MY PAST!” Angel yelled at me. Again. Then again, he has every right to be upset. But…
“Yea, I fucked up. I know that. But, we can still get out. Arguing about this isn’t gonna get us anywhere closer to the exit.” Angel looked at me sternly, before letting out a sigh and rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“Ugh- fine, you have a point. I’ll bite your ear off about this some other time. Now, YOU got us into this mess, now YOU get us out!” He said, tapping his foot impatiently.
“Aren't we all supposed to work on getting out?” Thorax said, scratching the back of his head.
“Yea, what I mean is HE’S gonna lead us. HE’S gonna do all the thinkin’ round here, ‘cause I sure as hell don’t wanna, and you seem like too much of a coward to actually do anything.” Thorax slightly recoiled at that.
“Wha- Hey! I’m not that much of a coward! O-ok, maybe I am a little bit of a coward, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to take initiative!” Thorax retorted.
“Oh, sure. Just like you took initiative at the party! How about I walk you over to some cake among a group of ponies that are just ‘so scary’ HMM?” This was starting to get ear grating. I grumbled, my annoyance starting to heighten.
“Wha- hey! Just b-because I have social anxiety doesn’t make me a coward! A-and besides, you’re a stuck-up spoiled bunny!” I felt a hiss start to rise out of my throat as the pointless argument continued.
“Gasp! Well, you didn’t even have the power to say no to your brother, so it’s-” I let out a massive hiss. Needless to say, it shut them both up.
“Listen! All this bickering isn’t going to get us anywhere! You’re both going to need to get along if we wanna get out of here alive. I’m the one that messed up, so don’t try and blame this on Thorax! I made that decision, it was my mistake, and now, I’m gonna fix it. But I can’t do that unless you two co-operate!” They both started grumbling again, which turned into another argument, which led to me saying something I didn’t think I’d ever say.
“Will ye all just bloody well shut yer traps and sort yerselves out!?” The two looked at me confused for a moment. I was confused as well, I meant to say ‘Can you please stop this pointless bickering and get along?’. But, I decided to roll with it. It got their attention, they’ve stopped arguing, so it doesn’t matter. Too much, it doesn’t matter too much.
“Sorry, Spiracle. I’ll try to learn to control myself better next time,” He said, seemingly embarrassed. And a little confused.
“Pleasant sentiment, but you didn’t really start it, so it’s not really your fault. Though, you did let him instigate you, and then proceeded to instigate him back. Instigating him back is not something you should do,” I said with a sigh, brushing off my strangely Scottish outburst.
“The fuck does ‘instigate’ mean??” Angel asked
“It means to annoy someone for the purpose of getting a reaction out of them. Which is something you really shouldn’t do in this situation, Angel. Unless you want to get left behind,” I said, glaring at Angel.
“N-now, I think that’s going a bit far, Spiracle. There’s no need to be so rash.” I rolled my eyes.
“I’m not actually going to leave him behind, I’m not a heartless bastard.” Everyone let out a sigh of relief at that.
“Now, where to…?” Looking around, we were surrounded by greenery. Greenery that was so dense, not even a rabbit could go through it. I tried to think of my persona, but all that came up was Canny Cash Yearling… I swear I had a different persona, one that was significantly less… pony… eh, that doesn’t matter now. What matters is the fact that the only way we’re getting through this is with a persona, since I didn’t bring a knife, sword, flamethrower, or anything of the sort.
“Hey, if pulling off that mask thing made that ghost appear, what happens when you pull off your scarf?” Angel asked.
“I… I’m not sure," was the answer I gave.
“Well, take it off! I wanna see what happens.” I shrugged and did as Angel said. No reason not to. I found I was able to take off my scarf with magic, mostly because it was a habit of mine to grip anything I wanted with magic, instead of using my hooves like most other changelings did. Using it just felt so… natural to me. Anyway, back to the scarf.
When I took it off it whirled in a flurry of bright yellow flame, until a Nata took its place, which is also known as a machete. Or knife-axe thing- We’ll just call it a machete. That’s what most people know. It had a black blade with a red handle. Convenient considering this is just the kind of tool that can be used to get us out of this mess.
“Huh, convenient,” Thorax said as I started to chop through the thick bushel. It only took about 5 minutes before we were out of the leaves and into what I could only think to be actual forest. Only notable thing I saw was some notably red hearts desire. The potency of this one was… something else, though. Normal hearts desire doesn’t have a taste normally. I mean, an emotional taste, and why would it? It’s a plant. However these… I can literally taste desire on these. It tastes like potato chips. But that’s not important right now. I grab the heart's desire, throwing it on my back for later use.
The leaves I cut also seemed to taste… salty? Like as if the leaf itself was made of sodium. I take a couple of those with me as well, just in case. We walk for a long while, before Angel starts coughing.
“Angel? You alright?” He spits out what looks to be an apple and gasps for air, weakened by choking on it… I think.
“Those… apples… just chewing one makes me feel… weak… cough.” Ok, so he wasn’t choking. He just nearly ate a poisonous apple. He gets back up, and I pluck one of the “apples” from the tree and throw it on my back for further testing. You never know what you might find! I put my scarf back on, since I’m not really using my machete right now, but in the process I burn one of the apples, or rather flash cook it.
The scent of the apple is sweet, and in fact, it’s taunting… I take the apple off my back, look at Angel, and wiping a bead of sweat from my forehead, I bite the cooked apple. It’s… sweet, like some sort of candy, and it doesn’t hurt in the slightest! I take out the book and flip through until I find the page I’m looking for. The page on Sapples. Sure enough, they were apple-like, which is what I assumed based on the name of the fruit.
Comparing the Sapples in the book and the “Apples'' we had found, they were identical. I read on in an attempt to see what they were all about.
The Sapple. These fruits are dangerous when eaten raw, but it cook-
Right then, that’s a whole lot of boring words that I’ll just skim this time. Basically, this fruit saps your energy away when eaten raw, but serves as a neroushing snack when cooked. How informational! Now, back tae adventurin'! Wait, no, we’re trying to find a way out of here. focus, Spiracle! I put the book away, swallowing the cooked Sapple.
At long last we reached the edges of a ruined palace's territory. If we head to the centre, we should find a way back. And so, we trek on into the ruined area, Thorax and Angel staying close by me. And then… we hear it. From the corner of my eye I see it, but alas, I was too late. The creature bit my abdomen, before flinging me into a tree.
"Ahk, that's gonna leave a mark!" Angel and Thorax stood there, practically shaking in their metaphorical boots. Thorax was the first to snap out of it and actually do something, though…
“You… You all took them… Took my eyes, my eyes, my eyes! You have them! Give them back!” That cannot be good. Thorax is practically brushed off by the beast, knocked against a tree in the same way I am, only harder.
Angel shakes, and smacks his lips.
“Hey! They didn’t steal y-your eyes! S-so back off! Or… Or I’ll… I’ll get you! Somehow!” The creature backed off of me and started towards Angel, who was slightly shaking. However, he steeled himself, and took a confident stance.
“I can’t sit around and just… do nothing! I’ve been a jerk my whole life because I thought it was the easiest way to get what I wanted, b-but that’s not an option here! So starting now, I’m gonna stop trying to get what I want by being an asshat, and I’m going to start getting what I want by doing hard work and helping ponies, and other creatures, out. Starting with those two.” I think I know what’s about to happen. Give it a moment, aaand…
Angel then started to laugh. Not an insane laughter, but something more genuine. I was confused as to why he was laughing, but then a blue flame started appearing on his head, meaning he must be awakening to his persona without experiencing the normal excruciating pain. Wait, that only happens when you take off the mask… How do personas even work in this world?? Wait, I just have a machete, does that mean that- Wait, I have a machete! What am I doing??? Regardless, a black baseball cap appears on Angels’ head. Ok, that answers the question of persona or tool. He pulls the baseball cap off to reveal… a baseball bat. A little on the nose, but fine nonetheless.
It’s what happens next that shocks me a little, though. His bat lights on fire, like normal fire, and he wacks the creature with it. I cannot light my Machete on fire, I feel massively scammed. Enough of that, though. Angel jumps off the beast's face, then off a tree, bringing the fiery bat down upon the creature. It screams in agony, and swipes at him, knocking him to the floor before running off. The fire on his bat dissipates, and Angel gets up, slightly groggy.
“You guys… ok? You looked like you took a good beating.” I cough a little, but get up.
“That was fantastic, Angel! How’d you do that fire thing with your bat, anyway?” Angel turns the bat back into a cap and puts it on.
“I dunno, I just kinda used… Agi was it called? Yea, I used Agi.” Alright, new baseline for this ‘Everfree Dissonance’: I know nothing. This place operates on rules that are just different enough from the metaverse that I’m officially lost on how all this works.
“So uhh… Angel… Who’s your persona…? I- The person or pony that represents your inner self- I mean your weapon.” I ask, hoping to get an answer so that I can cling to at least some sense of normalcy.
“Huh? Oh, a pony named Somnambula. She was called from the void or something to help me out, made some sort of deal with me, and then gave me that awesome bat.” Interesting… I wonder why I can’t do anything with my machete. No Ehia or any other skills I remember being able to use. I can’t help but feel like I’m missing something.
And then a sharp pain hit my abdomen, and I fell to the ground, panting heavily. I had been beat up, bad. I forgot how fragile I was… Thorax managed to get up, though, and he looks fine. So I suppose it’s not that bad. He runs over to me, standing above me, sweating with worry.
“S-Spiracle! Are you okay?? Please, say something!” He said, worried to all hell.
“I… I’ll be fine, Thorax, please try to calm down…” I said as he knelt over me. I winced in pain as I took a look at the bite. I had a large gash there, and it stung like hell. I turn away, wincing again as a tear rolls down my cheek.
“Dammit… It got me good.” I breathe in sharply, and choke back a small cry from the pain. Angel turns around and rushes over at the sound, confused at first, then full of dread. I must've been at an angle that blocked him from seeing the injury at first when we talked. He stares blankly at me, before finally speaking.
“Spiracle… are… are you gonna be ok?” He says meekly, a single tear forming below his eye.
“Um… Yea… Yea, I will Angel. I’ll be up and moving again soon enough. How about you… you just… go over there for a little while. We’ll um… we’ll continue on in a bit.” Angel sniffs, his eyes say he doesn’t believe me. I don’t blame him though, I don’t believe me either. He walks over to a spot in the everfree and starts picking plants.
“Hey… Thorax?” I say, Thorax crying over me. He leans in to hear what I have to say, listening intently.
“I… I don’t think I’m gonna make it. So, while I still can, I’ll say this. You… You’re the best friend… no, brother I could’ve ever asked for. I… I did… some pretty stupid things. I kept making more work for you by being reckless. I tore a rift between you and your brother, I, even if accidentally, forced you to walk across an entire desert and forest just to save me, and worst of all, I nearly got you killed just because I was too proud to stay quiet. And yet, after all that, you stayed by me.” Tears started rolling down my cheeks, and I started choking on my words.
“A-and… I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for being with me. You made my life bearable, you gave me happiness when I thought I lost it. So… yea… thank you for being my brother, Thorax.” A white flash filled my vision as my eyes closed. I felt Thoraxes hooves wrapped around me as I drifted off to sleep.
I wake up, but not in the forest… nor in the velvet bar. I’m in a study, a study in the middle of the void. A blue… Hippogriff, I think, wearing a top hat sits at the desk, sipping a glass of scotch. He sets it down and looks at me, giving a faint smile.
“Well, would you look at that? Some walls have come crashing down, have they?” He said with a Scottish accent.
“Uhh…” I started, but he interrupted me by laughing.
“Have a seat, lad. I wouldn’t dare hurt my own great great nephew, after all.” He said.
“Pff, don’t lie. I don’t have a father, and my moms a tyrannical changeling” He looked at me with what can only be explained as an inquisitive yet confused look.
“Lad, changelings don’t reproduce asexually. You have a father. And for another, your mother is no tyrant!” I gasped at what he said. The father part is whatever, but the fact that he would call Chrysalis anything by a tyrant is insane.
“Oh please, Chrysalis is nothing but a tyrant and yo-” He interrupted me again.
“Chrysalis?? Chrysalis!? Isn’t your mother, why in the blazes did you get that idea- Ohh, right. The egg-napping. Haud on, but even wi' that, hae ye ne'er questioned why yer een are red???" He slammed a Nata into the desk.
“Because that means changeling blindness- And if you’re Scottish-”
“Trottish.”
“Whatever- Trottish, then why do you have a Japanese Nata Tool of all things??” I asked, feeling my confusion rise.
“It was my first ever treasure I collected- and changeling blindness is represented by either deep evergreen eyes or maroon eyes! And no… uhh… noling even has crimson eye in the tyrants’ hive, since if one of them gets blindness it’s called Evergreen eye! Has that old twit been jamming nonsense into your head like this all your life?? Whit else did she say??” He asked.
“Uhh… besides the political nonsense, she also said the only food we could safely eat is love.” The hippogriff rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“Oi vea… That’s just… no… Lad, yes, you need to eat love, and yes, you can live off it, but if we’re bein real here, YOU really only need it to charge up yer magic! It’s really only good for empty carbs besides that. ‘Tis why most of her hive are usually hungry.” I thought for a moment.
“What about the mushroom farms?” He looked at me confused, before snapping himself out of it.
“If I had to guess, she’s growing desperate and making actual food to keep up with demand. They probably don’t have any love in ‘em, to prevent her subjects from being able to kill them with drainage. In fact, her whole love fiasco is how she’s able to keep up her tyrannical grip in the first place. She promises them a good life with all they love they could ever need, which in reality isn’t that much, but she lies to them to make them think they need way more, and uses that as a catalyst to have them do her bidding. Meaning, she’s just what you call her, lad. A tyrant.” I look at him inquisitively, before shaking my head.
“Wait, so if the tyrant’s not my mom, then who is?” The hippogriff simply laughed.
“That, my great great nephew, is a spoiler! And even if you think you know, there’s still a mighty good chance yer family tree will give you a bit of a shock! Until then, I’ll give you this. Yer last name is ‘Yearling’. Oh, and I nearly forgot! We’ve got to make a deal. I should probably tell you my name though, shouldn’t I?” I tilted my head in confusion.
“Uh… Sure?” I said, scratching my head.
“My name is Canny Cash Yearling. Yer, as you call it, ‘Persona’. As well as yer great great uncle! Really though, ‘Persona’? I get why you’d call it that but it just sounds so… cheesy. Though, maybe that’s because you’re not used to how things work around here. You see, yer soul attempted to reach for something that didn’t exist anymore. A ‘Persona’ here is just someone who’s passed on in some way. The user's soul, when it’s in distress, then reaches out to them and calls for help. This can only happen during moments of self discovery, because how else would yer soul know who to call? Certain people go with others, lad. And clearly something in you goes with me. And I couldn’t be happier.” I nodded slowly, looking slightly confused.
“Oh, come on! I know we’ve only just met, but for petes’ sake I’m yer great great uncle! I’m a real member of yer family, not a fake like that tyrant is!” He seemed angry, but then just sat back in his chair and rolled his eyes, smiling.
“Oh, bah. I’m sure you’ll get used to me eventually. After all, I’ll be visitin that Velvet bar with you!” I shook my head in shock.
“Wha- How do you know about that??” He laughed, before settling back down in his chair.
“Lets just say a certain dragon told me her employer would be very happy if I came and helped her out with teaching you about traversing the ‘Everfree Dissonance’. If I’m gonna be honest, though, I just wanted an opportunity to turn you into a daring adventurer like miself!” I raised an eyebrow.
“What if I don’t want to be an adventurer? Are you going to force me?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Lad, we both know you want to explore. Hell, it’s yer cutie mark for goodness sake!”
“I don’t even have a cutie mark, I’m a changeling!”
“You’re about half pony, of course you have a cutie mark!” He displayed the picture of the mark that appeared on my disguise.
“This mark appeared in yer mind because yer mark! Even if you don’t realise it. Hell, you came across this thing so long ago that you probably don’t remember! Mostly because you were a changeling and when it happened you were probably pickin mushrooms or something.” I sat there in slight confusion.
“How do you even know this much about me??”
“Lad, I was friends with yer mother. I got to see yer egg with my own two eyes. And… I failed to… nevermind, let's just move on with the deal so that you can get back to yer friends, ok?” I shook my head in confusion for a second, before nodding.
“Alright lad, You’ve gotta be the smartest, toughest, sharpest, most daring person out there. You’ve got to uphold justice, and keep yer friends by yer side! You’ve gotta be able to push forward when all hope seems lost, you’ve got to be able to get back up when you’ve been knocked down, and most of all, you’ve got to never back down! Because, whether you believe it or not, yer a Yearling. And Yearlings never back down!”
I awoke with a start, sitting up and muttering one thing when I did.
“Sounds like a deal, Uncle Canny.”
"You and your brother had a whole trove of legendary treasures that where thought to be lost long ago, not to mention your strange ability to use your nata machete scarf thing as a pogo stick. So tell me, where did you learn to do something so strange?" Shining banged on the desk
"Tell me!"
I am thou, and thou art I…
Thou hast created a new friendship
It shalt help open your eyes
To the truth you need to see
With thou gaining the Justice Persona,
Thou will gain the will
To give their utilities heightened ability.
Shaking myself out of… whatever just happened, I looked down to find myself sitting down on some sort of cot, my abdomen wrapped in gauze and bandages, but besides that it looked rather whole, and instead of splintering pain there was only a dull ache.. Looking around, I appeared to be in a ruined castle… or rather… a ruined palace. Thorax walked in, looking wrecked with stress, and wearing a dark blue sweater. Upon seeing me, he lit up like the sun, and nearly galloped over, hugging me.
“I-I thought I lost you…” He said, crying.
“Well… I’m… I’m glad you didn’t. But, on another note, how did I survive?” I asked, dumbfounded as to how I survived getting a giant gash in my chest. Thorax pulled away from the hug, smiling. He gripped his sweater with his magic, and tugged on the sleeve, which resulted in the entire sweater burning away into a dark blue medical kit with a green cross on it.
“It happened as your eyes were closing. When you were saying goodbye I could almost feel myself calling for help, calling for anything to help. That’s when a pony named ‘Mage Meadowbrook’ appeared in front of me. She gave me this sweater and told me to use it to save you, and when taking it off I managed to form this medical kit. I managed to use something called ‘Dia’, and some gauze to heal you. It managed to save you, but your barrel will still be in bad condition for a while, so no galloping or any putting any stress on it for a while. We couldn’t leave with you asleep, we just kept ending up at the incorrect time period. At least, that’s what it says in the book. That we can’t leave unless the creature who brought us here takes us out.” I nodded in response.
“Well then. Hey… I do wanna come back here and explore in the future… and I was just wondering… Would you like to come with? I could use a healer,” I offered.
“I… I think I’d be an awfully bad friend if I let you go back in here without any medical help. So… yea. I’ll come with you. We’re not going until you’re healed, but when you are…” He put his hoof around my shoulder.
“We’ll go in again, and I’ll be right behind you.”
"Even with all of your adventuring you always came back either good as new, or at least with only a few bandages. You would gain these from nowhere, and you never brought any medical supplies with you besides for a few surprisingly powerful healing potions. So I'll ask you this. Where did you get gauze and bandages of this quality while in a place like that?" Shining gritted.
"I asked where you got them!" He screamed, throwing the examples to the other side of the room.
I am thou, and thou art I…
Thou hast created a new friendship
It shalt help open your eyes
To the kindness you need to see
With thou gaining the Fool Persona,
Thou will gain the will
To give their utilities heightened ability.
“Kindness… that’s different,” I muttered before Angel came walking in through the door.
“He alright? C’mon, let’s leave this joint if he is. I’ve had to take care of like… five of those eyeless monsters.” I looked at him and rolled my eyes.
“I could've died, y’know!” Angel looked at me, before looking down and and putting away his bat, rubbing his shoulder.
“Y-yea, I know. I just… I… I’m glad you’re okay.” I smiled at Angel, and he looked back up and smiled back
“Now can we PLEASE leave??? My head fluff is an absolute mess!” He took off his hat and pointed at the ball of fluff on his head.
“I think it looks better that way,” I said, smirking.
“What? How does THIS look better??” Angel Exclaimed.
“Makes you look lett stuck-up,” I explained as I slowly got up, my midsection still aching. Angel put a finger to his chin as we walked out of the palace and back into the real world.
We fell out of the exit and onto the street, where rarity happened to be crossing by. The issue was that we hadn’t had time to put our disguises back on. When she saw us, she just froze… and then, she screamed. oops.
We sat in silence while in the carousel boutique with Rarity, and then she inhaled, and spoke. “So you mean to tell me that you are a Royal ‘changeling’ who might have been kidnapped or abandoned and the mother you got stuck with was incredibly abusive towards you, and then she tried to kill you because you spoke out against her. Which then resulted in you flaring AS AN ADULT-”
“Technically teen,” I corrected.
“... As a teen, which made you teleport away to safety where you then spent about 3 days travelling where you then met the zebra in the everfree. Then she threatened you, put some truth telling goop on you, and let you live with her. Then you came here in hopes of making friends so that you could survive off of love but you used disguises because you were afraid the citizens of Ponyville would freak out if they saw you like this, which, to be fair, is true. And what’s with the injury around your barrel? It’s only been about ten minutes since I’ve last seen you.” I think it said something in the book about time coming to a standstill whenever you’re in the everfree dissonance.
“Don’t worry about the injury. Had a small run in with a timberwolf, but I managed to scare it off, and Thorax helped me with my injuries.” Rarity seemed reasonably content with that answer.
“Ok, that’s all… honestly I don’t think even a madpony could come up with a story as outlandish as that. Are you sure you’re okay living with Zecora? She is a… oh what does pinkie say… ‘Evil Enchantress.’” I rolled my eyes.
“She’s not some sort of evil witch out to get you, she’s just an alchemist. An alchemist who’s quite annoyed that everypony keeps avoiding her when she comes to the market to buy ingredients, might I add.” Rarity sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.
“Listen, we’re just trying to live a somewhat normal life. One without an evil tyrant constantly looming over our heads. Also, I’m not even sure if I even need to eat love to survive. A hippogriff, I think, told me that I can survive with food, I just need to eat love to restore my magic.” Rarity looked at us, let go of her suspicious expression, and sighed.
“Fine… I suppose I can keep your secret. Though, on another note, you simply must tell me where you got that scarf! It looks simply dashing!” She said excitedly.
“It’s because my great great uncle called out to my soul needing help… or something. I’m not too sure. It can turn into a machete though,” I said, taking off my scarf, having it enwrap itself in blue flame and forming the Nata. I made sure to point it away from anyone.” Rarity was a little shocked.
“Oh, that’s… wow, that’s certainly interesting! You should probably get a sheath for that. In case it’s a summer day or something and you take it off but still want to carry it with you…” I nodded in agreement.
“That’s true! Plus it would look cool,” I said, laughing.
“We should probably get going now, though.” Rarity nodded as me and Thorax donned our disguises again, and with Angel in tow, we left.
When Zecora saw us, she breathed a sigh of relief, before looking at my new injury in slight shock.
“How in the world did you get hurt?? Did you get reckless and overexert?” I shook my head.
“N-no, mahm, we just had a rough e-encounter with one of those wooden wolfs. I managed to get him help, so he’ll be fine. We’d just like to go to bed for now… we’ve had a long day.” Angel nodded as Thorax headed off to our bed.
“I feel bad for him. He was pacing back and forth near constantly while we where waitin’ for you to heal. He was scared half to death, and even when we set you down on that cot he just kept blubberin’ on about he should’ve done more to help.” I nodded in response to Angel. Before I head off to bed Zecora asked about him, we told her the whole thing about fluttershy, and she seemed content enough with that. I dropped off the other ingredients I had been keeping in my scarf. I kept the book close to me, closed my eyes, and went to sleep.
Justice - Canny Cash Yearling
Rank 1/10
Congratulations! Spiracle no longer has the durability of a leaf. That’s no excuse to be reckless, however!
Fool - Thorax
Rank 1/10
Healing items are now useable by any party member. Thorax is the only one that can heal fatal injuries, however.
Here’s the reference for Spiracle/Fifth wisdom! Sorry if some things were a little confusing in this chapter.
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First thoughts when seeing Angel's awakening:
The blue fire in his hand is a nice reference to Narukami's awakening in P4. Then the baseball bat, cap and Agi skill made my brain go "Junpei, is that you?" This story has been really good so far, and now i'm wondering if any references to P3's awakenings will show up. I hope you enjoy writing this for many chapters to come.
Don't worry, a normal chapter is coming monday. The new prelude hasn't thrown off the schedule.
11709422
Too many spoilers for the story? Dude, that’s just called foreshadowing. There’s still so much shit that you don’t know about, man.
11709424
won't argue that, but still feels wrong to me, as again it was posted after multiple chapters and stands before them, without adding to them anything more that "It's what he is telling his interrogator" and not the usual flow.
11709427
Take into consideration what you learned in the prelude, and apply it to what you’re learning in the flashback. (Btw once he finishes telling shining everything the story’s not gonna end)
11709427
Also I wanted to do something like this from the beginning, but the story itself wasn’t built up enough in my head. Now that I’ve got a better grasp on events that are going to happen, I’ve made it in order to pique interest, and to make the reader ask questions.
11709431
Well, as i said many times to different people - "You do you". Story it still interesting for me, and as I'm sure for many others.
2 new social links~ Noice! Justice and The Fool!
his uncle canny is the scrooge Mcduck of this world