The Monster that is Me

by Terrahex

Chapter 6: Futile Flailing

o----[ Chapter 6: Futile Flailing ]---------------------o

Before the light green shards of Lyra’s magic barrier even hit the ground and faded out of existence, Trixie snapped into action. Her horn glowed and, now that Lyra had pointed it out to me, I noticed her amulet flash briefly. A bolt of crimson lightning sparked from her tip and harmlessly planted itself into the ground.

“What did she just-” I began before a writhing red vine burst from the ground close to me.

“Move!” Lyra yelled (like I wouldn’t if she didn’t tell me). I threw myself away from the vine as several more grew from the ground and began swinging wildly around. I ducked under a swipe as a small vine went by, going so fast it made the air scream. A vine jabbed at me but I jumped back, sparks of flame jumping off of my horn stub as I wracked my brain for a spell. having hidden my horn for almost a year, I was a little out of practice.

A heavy vine whipped downwards toward me, managed to graze my flank before I could get out of the way. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a mint colored pony in the center of a forest of flailing red vines. A flash of green later and many of them ripped to pieces, only to be replaced as the vines rapidly regenerated. Trixie said something (probably , but I was distracted as a vine wrapped itself around my front ankle.

I yelped, hastily trying to tug my leg out of the vine’s grip but the vine held firm. Panicking slightly, I forgot that my head was on fire. A spark of magic fire popped off of my horn and landed on the vine, immediately setting it aflame. The vine burned away, releasing my leg as it disappeared.

Fire. Ran through my mind. Other vines reached out for me, but a minimal jet of flame was enough to ward them off until one managed to twist around and get me around my midsection. I let out an ungraceful shriek as it hoisted me into the air. More vines poised themselves around me, daring me to try something.

A spell came to my mind. It was an odd spell for a changeling drone to know but an essential one when changelings made organized military maneuvers such as a massive assault on the capital of Equestria. It almost brought a smile to my face. The Queen had wanted more soldiers for her foolhardy assault and drafted massive amounts of drones that were given a crash course in being a soldier, including the fire charge spell.

If anything, I’d say that having hundreds of inexperienced soldiers in her ranks hindered her more than helped her.

The fire charge spell was harder to cast than I remembered, though a broken horn might have had something to do with it. Eventually, fire from my horn spread to the rest of my body, enveloping me in a roaring flame. Honestly, I had no idea if it would work while I was in a pony body, but since it didn’t seem to be hurting me, I went ahead and assumed that it did.

The fire spread to the vines holding me before long, and they were quickly eaten through by the green flames. More vines grabbed me, but they shared the same fate as the first. Eventually I reached the ground, but before I did, the majority of Trixie’s red vines were consumed by my green fire and more were being consumed as burning ones flailed around and caught others on fire.

Once more on the ground, I shook off the remaining flames as the spell sputtered out. finding Lyra once again by my side.

“Good going.” She complimented.

“Oh, don’t be so smug,” Trixie snorted, “the fight has only just begun.”

“Don’t be such a downer!” Lyra smiled ruefully in my direction. Her horn glowed and billows of dust burst into the air around Trixie, obscuring the magician.

“Now let’s get that amulet!” Lyra exclaimed triumphantly, disappearing into the dust cloud. I followed shortly after, stumbling blindly through the thick dust. I wished for a moment that Lyra would have told me about this so I could at least try to remember where Trixie was. Now I was just blindly hunting around in a cloud of dust with a madpony who trapped Ponyville under a sheet of glass.

A great wind hit me without warning, causing me to tumble over until my frantic grabbing at the ground yielded me a good grip. Dust and pebbles buffeted my face, the roaring of the wind in my ears. I looked up to see Trixie standing in a show-offy stance that put her on her hind legs with her forelegs pointed out diagonally. Her horn glowed like a beacon, and plastered on her face was a manic grin as she loudly gloated something that was lost to the severe wind.

My horn lit up with green fire once more. I intended only to use a telekinesis spell to push her off balance to hopefully disrupt her spell, but a bolt of electricity jumped from my horn to the ground in front of me, tracing a scorched, black line in the ground until it hit a tree which promptly burst into flames that were fanned by the ferocious wind.

Oops.

Trixie, upon seeing my sad attempt at frying her brains, blasted me with a large gust of wind that tore me away from the ground, tossing me head over heals until I landed hard on my back, my breath driven out of my lungs. I gasped, trying to suck in air. Most of the crowd had dispersed by now, driven away by the gale force winds, but among the few stubborn stragglers was a single pony that I immediately knew was not a pony at all.

Now was not the time to think about it. Lyra needed my help to stop a madpony.

Lyra was closer to Trixie, still struggling with the wind. Her horn glowed brightly and a new minty hemisphere appeared around Trixie. The effects were immediate. The wind outside the force field stopped and a cyclone began swirling around inside. Trixie was picked up and tossed around, her hat and cape whipped around until they were eventually blown off.

“Good thinking.” I complimented, walking back up to her so we were once again standing side by side.

“My mom used to say I was too clever for my own good.” She smiled ruefully.

The cyclone stopped and the barrier shattered. An angry (and quite disheveled) looking Trixie emerged. She snatched her hat and cloak from the air before they hit the ground and repositioned them on her figure.

“Trixie has to admit,” She said, her usual boasting voice gone, “she didn’t expect you two to last this long.” Her horn flashed brightly and the ground around Lyra’s feet ejected itself, launching her head over heels into what was left of the crowd, a silent scream on her lips.

“Lyra!” I almost reached out to her with my horn as she flew but stopped myself. My horn obviously wasn’t in any shape for doing something as delicate as carrying somepony. I just set a tree on fire with a bolt of lightning on accident. I didn’t want that to happen to Lyra. She could take care of herself.

“As for you...” Trixie continued, drawing my attention back to her. Her eyes and amulet flashed red briefly. That couldn’t be good. I took a step backward, bracing myself for whatever new spell she might throw at me.

But before she could do anything, my horn lit up on its own accord and exploded with concussive force. I fell over from the force, black smoke dissipating into the air.

Trixie’s horn stopped glowing, her face spreading into a wide smile as she began laughing loudly. “What was that?” She asked between loud guffaws. “Was that supposed to do something?” She collapsed on the ground, writhing with laughter. “Trixie has never seen something so hilarious!”

Disoriented, I struggled to my feet, a blush growing across my face as Trixie continued to laugh. You’d think a drone, the lowest rung in the social ladder in the changeling hive, would be used to being degraded and humiliated. Well, Niphi was. Long days under the bellowing voice of a manager made sure that my ears strained to hear the voice of those who are better than me and my hooves longed to carry out orders.

Midnight, on the other hand, never had that particular flavor of pleasure, and Trixie’s laughing stung about as much as a blister in an inconvenient place.

My vision was blurry as I tried to focus my sight on Trixie, likely stemming from magical exertion. I hadn’t used magic for months and this sudden flurry of relatively complex spells were starting to tax my horn which was still smoking from the earlier explosion. That probably wasn’t good.

I was about to try one last assault on Trixie when Lyra limped up to me, favoring her front left leg. I gave her a sympathetic nod which she returned. She readied her lyre.

“Go for the amulet.” Lyra said, her proud, boastful voice almost a whisper. She readied her lyre beside her, strumming all the strings at once, making a single, ugly chord. It faded and Lyra had an evil smirk on her face. “Now.”

I ran toward the still laughing stage magician as best I could, stumbling dizzily on my own feet. A loud WUM pierced the air. Trixie stopped laughing turned into a silent scream as she frantically tried to cover her ears with her hooves. I looked back to see Lyra, eyes closed in concentration.

I cringed. It was loud, but obviously much louder for Trixie, who was desperately trying to cover her ears. I leaped at her, my forehooves wrapping around the amulet desperately, pulling to no avail. Trixie let out a frustrated screaming, summoning a pair of earmuffs that settled on her head. That done, she grabbed me with her telekinesis, and I could feel her trying to fling me in a random direction. I held fast to her amulet.

“Release Trixie!” Trixie bellowed over the loud Lyre.

“Come off stupid amulet!” I shouted in return. The pulling on my body became more intense, my grip began to slip, and I felt like I was going to tear apart any second. As a last ditch effort, I quickly knocked off her earmuffs, letting Lyra’s playing in at full force. It didn’t seem to affect her nearly as much as it had before, however.

“You will release me!” She shouted over the loud ‘music.’

My hind end began to flail around in the air as Trixie tried to loosen my grip. It was probably more effective as an attempt to embarrass me than it was at loosening my vice grip. I had worked hard to get my hooves on this amulet and I wasn’t going to let anything come between me and the object of my desire.

“That’s it!” She shouted. “I am so sick of this game!” I was so shocked that she wasn’t using the third person that I almost let go. So much for unbreakable bonds.

“Trixie is sick!” She amended after a second. Her horn flashed brighter and a shiver of terror ran down my spine before a red light obscured my vision. It cleared and suddenly I wasn’t holding onto Trixie’s necklace.

Blue sky surrounded me. Everything seemed so quiet compared to the clamor raised by Lyra’s lyre, and the sudden absence of sound was, in its own way, even louder than the sound so recently assaulting my ears... and blue sky surrounded me.

And I was sliding.

Far below me was Ponyville’s town square. Soon, it dawned on me; Trixie put me up on top of that stupid upside-down fishbowl, and I was sliding down the side. I rolled over, my hooves scrambling for purchase on the smooth glass surface. The glass bowl was at a 45 degree angle at the least here and I quickly realized that there was no way I’d be able to stop myself.

I screamed as I continued uncontrollably rushing down the side at an ever faster rate. I felt myself lift off the glass and go careening into the trees. A large limb struck my midsection, knocking the wind out of me. Momentum tugging at me, I flipped over that, cracking my hind hoof on something before being tossed around and whipped in the face with another branch. Several branches later, I hit the ground.

_____ _________ ______ _______ __ ______ ______________ ____________ ______ _________ ________ ____________ _______ ____ _______ _______ _________ _____ ___ ______ _______ _________ ___ __ __________ _______ ________ _______ ______

My brain overloaded with pain. My lungs slowly coming back to life. Every beat of my heart feeling like an explosion in my chest. Limbs. What are limbs?

Did I pass out? I hope I don’t pass out. Didn’t? Did I or don’t I? Or will I? I hope I didn’t. I don’t pass out.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ oh. that would be a limb. that thing throbbing with pain. all the pain. excellent.

Okay, okay, okay. Stay calm. think rationally. Oh Celestia that hurt.

Anything broken? Everything working? Vision swam- swimming? swamming? blackness encroaching. No, must not pass out.

I moved my foreleg almost passively, turning myself over onto my side.I fought to get a leg under my body, eventually push myself up enough to get my feet underneath me. The fuzziness in the edges of my vision disappeared slowly as I put my weight against the tree.

I felt thoroughly battered. Examining myself revealed a myriad of scrapes and sore spots that would become the worst bruises, especially the one on my back leg that had been cracked hard against a sturdy branch. Putting weight on that sent a tremor of pain down my spine even in my adrenaline injected state. On the brighter side, nothing felt broken. Well, plenty felt broken, but I don’t think anything really was. The upside-down fish bowl was a good twenty feet away and as impenetrable as always.

Lyra. I hoped Lyra would be alright. What Trixie would do with her, I couldn’t conceive, but I could’ve been seriously injured by that little trick she pulled. Hopefully she wouldn’t hurt Lyra just for helping me try to beat her.

But even if I could get into Ponyville, I’d be in no shape to help her if I couldn’t move without cringing at the sheer agony of it all. To top things off, my stomach rumbled, alerting me to the fact that fighting with Trixie had left me nearly drained of the duplicate Pinkie’s love. I groaned, Pinkie’s love had been an exception. Since leaving my mother, I went from snack to snack, never truly feeling full or satisfied. I wasn’t really looking forward to going back to that.

After a minute, a girly shout permeated the air. “I found her!”

Flying low in the sky was a grey pegasus I recognized as Derpy the mailmare. Her head turned off in another direction as she called: “Over here!”

She landed in front of me. “That took a while.” She whined, stretching her graceful wings. “I was up on that cloud for hours waiting for you.”

“Waiting for... me?” I looked around. This had to be some kind of vulgar joke.

“Yes.” Derpy responded, oblivious to my concerns. “Try to be more specific next time you ask us to be somewhere. Coincidentally the next time you might ask us to be somewhere might actually be the time you ask us to be here, isn’t that funny? Wait, that means you didn’t listen to my advice!” She tried to glare at me, but her eyes went off in different directions. She stuck out her tongue in concentration, trying to get her eyes to cooperate.

I looked at her blankly. Was the pain making me hallucinate? Everything she said made no sense. Then again, it was Derpy, and from the few instances that I’ve had the pleasure of conversing with her, she never pegged me as an entirely rational pony. Or maybe she was real, but the pain was making it hard to understand her.

Derpy must have noticed that I was having trouble, throwing me a confused expression. Her eyes only momentarily focused on me before one meandered to gaze at an innocent boulder. “I’m sorry, we have met before right? I was told that at this point in your timeline, we’d have met.”

“Yeah.” I choked out after I realized she expected an answer. “We’ve met a few times.”

“Great. Now, I’ve also been told that we wouldn’t have been properly introduced. My name is Ditzy Doo.”

Ditzy, not Derpy. Got it. Wait a second... Why did Spike call her Derpy then? This made a solid case for that whole ‘hallucinating’ thing.

“Midnight...?” I trailed off.

“We know who you are.” A familiar voice was emanated from a brown pony trotting toward the two of us through the trees. His suit jacket was in a better state than the last time we met, but there was no mistaking him.

“You!” I exclaimed. “You’re that weird pony with the magic box!” I was sure of it.

“It’s unnerving how every pony in the entire universe describes me the same way.” The stallion shook his head. “The Doctor at your service, though as I recall, we have already been introduced.”

“I just saw you two days ago.”

“Yes,” Ditzy cut in, “You saw him two days ago, but we just saw you about three hours ago.”

“Eight hours ago actually.” The Doctor corrected. “Sorry, Ditzy has a bit of a problem with numbers.”

“It’s not a problem!” Ditzy angrily interjected.

“Hush now, Ditzy, we need her to have a good impression of us.” The Doctor gave me a grin.

“Honestly, Doctor.” Ditzy said in a reprimanding tone. “Let’s just do what we came here to do, and leave this all behind us.”

“Alright, alright.” The Doctor dismissively waved a hoof. “Midnight, how would you like an all expenses paid trip to the sunny Everfree Forest?”

I eyed him warily. Almost every pony in Equestria knew that the Everfree Forest was bad news with its monsters and immense size. If you weren’t immediately killed by the monsters, you’d surely get lost in the maze of twisting branches and clingy brambles. I didn’t really have a problem with it, seeing as I had lived most of my life in the changeling hive situated somewhere in the eastern end of it all, but I was supposed to be a pony. Ponies don’t like scary forests.

Back on topic, anypony who wanted to go into the Everfree Forest was either an adrenaline junkie, had brain problems, or was a hallucination produced by excessive pain coupled with a concussion. “I think I’ll pass.”

“But wait, there’s more! Waiting for you at this destination is your disgruntled friend, Twilight Sparkle!”

That caught my attention. “Twilight’s in the Everfree Forest?” Now that he mentioned it, Twilight was partial to a type of tea leaf she told me came from a friend in the Everfree forest.

“Do try to pay attention, Midnight, so I don’t have to repeat myself.” The Doctor turned around and started trotting off into Whitetail woods. “Come along now.”

But the Everfree Forest was in the other direction. More importantly, every breath I took was starting to feel like I had swallowed a needle and my lungs were brushing up against it with every breath. In addition, every fourth step sent an extra bolt of pain as I favored my back left leg.

“You alright?” Ditzy asked, stretching out her wings.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

She frowned in my general direction, neither of her eyes trained on me. “Will you really? You’re pretty beaten up.”

“No worries. It’s just my entire body.”

“Doctor...” Ditzy’s wings flapped once uncertainly as she looked back to the Doctor.

“I’ll go get the TARDIS. Stay right there. I repeat: Do. Not. Move.” The Doctor continued off into the woods while muttering something about wandering off.

And then I was alone. Well, alone with Derpy. Ditzy. Ditzy Derpiddy Doo. The mare in question bumped her hoof against the tree that had fondled me on my way down.

Yeah, this is awkward...

“So...” I began.

Ditzy looked at me expectantly (with one eye).

“You’re with... the Doctor?” I asked. I honestly shouldn’t have been surprised. the first time I saw the Doctor, he had asked for Ditzy.

“Not ‘with’ with him,” Ditzy blushed, “but I travel with him. Well, I suppose I’m not quite there yet.”

“What?”

“Well, in your timeline, not yet. I’m his companion now, but not to you.”

“Why do you keep saying ‘timeline.’ You talk about it like you’re not part of it. You can’t seriously-”

“Travel through time?” Ditzy interrupted. “I thought it was weird at first too.”

“You can’t be serious.” One look at Ditzy told me that she was dead serious. “How is that possible? Even Star Swirl couldn’t make a proper time travel spell!”

“The Doctor is-” Ditzy began before she was interrupted by a familiar sound. “-Weird” She finished.

“That’d be his magic time traveling box.” I muttered, wincing as I took a step toward the location it was materializing in. The door opened and the Doctor stepped out with a flamboyant wave of his hoof as if he expected me to fall at his feet asking for the secrets of the universe.

“You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not in the mood to be impressed.” I said, limping past him into his blue... woah.

The Doctor is and has remained the strangest pony I’ve ever met, and that instant was probably the first time I realized that he truly was not like any other pony.

Inside the relatively small space was an expansive room with a large, domed ceiling. Walkways with metal grates for floors led to the center of the room where a console covered in levers, toggles, dials, and many (many) blinking lights surrounded a glass tube that rose to the ceiling. My mouth dropped open in awe. “It’s...”

“What was that about you not being in the mood to be impressed?” The Doctor mused, showing his pearly whites.

Not responding, I ran outside, ignoring the pain. “It’s not possible.” I said. “Not even Twilight could do this.” Ditzy giggled as my beliefs on how the world works were strained.

“I assure you, Midnight, it is entirely possible.” The Doctor disappeared into the box

“You have a time machine that’s bigger... on the inside.”

“C’mon,” Ditzy beckoned, “we’ve got work to do.”

I swallowed, nodding. Like it or not, we did have things to do, and sitting there trying to wrap my mind around the impossibility that was this box wasn’t going to get anything accomplished.

Comments

[Mother3Forever]

All of my Squee, and ALL OF MY ALLONS-Y!

[Marked Point]

great chapter!

[adamdwarf]

bigger on the inside love that part

[truthaura]

Not bigger on the inside. Smaller on the outside.

[Iamsorry]

YES! :D
GO doctor!
i wonder if he knows shes a changeling! X3
also...do you listen to doctor whooves and the assistant? because form the few lines i read it seems like you do! X3

[Scyphi]

I'm starting to suspect this is turning into something of a Doctor Whooves fanfic.

I approve.

[Terrahex]

2573056

I do actually. I also watch Doctor Whooves Adventures, though I wasn't basing any lines off of either of them :P

As for the changeling part... :P just you wait.

[Terrahex]

2573648

The Doctor is scheduled to make several appearances, though Midnight will remain the focus of the fic. I've not yet planned any problems concerning the Doctor, though I do have a rough idea of the times he'll appear.

[Terrahex]

2572349
:P

2572314
Not a predator in the literal sense. More of a cat toying with a mouse.

2572095
You and me both, buddy.

2571863
Why, thank you, good sir!

As for those I haven't replied too, thank you for commenting. I can't respond to every comment, but know that each and every one is appreciated.

[Scyphi]

2573741
I still approve.

[Iamsorry]

2573728
ha i knew it! XD
i do too they are aweosme and im dieing to see what you have in mind for that! >:3