Chrysalis summons a creature to help her take back her changelings.
After the 'Canterlot Wedding' incident the Changeling swarm was scattered across the land, enslaved by pony warlords and slavers beyond the borders of Equestria. Weak, desperate and with only a dozen changelings to her name, Queen Chrysalis resorts to summoning one of the most obscure creatures in mythology; a human.
Thanks to zinger906 for giving me the idea for this story.
The cavern echoed with the hoofsteps of Queen Chrysalis, the green glow from her horn lighting the way. A large retinue of changelings followed her, their eyes always flicking to and fro to make sure that there were no immediate threats in the area. One of them was carrying a large tome on its back, balancing it with a machine like expertise.
She took a left seemingly at random and continued for a good few minutes, passing stalactite after stalactite, stalagmite after stalagmite until they reached a stone-carved pedestal. In front of it was what seemed to be a round altar with a slightly raised platform in the centre. Four torches on each side of the altar caught fire as she approached.
The changeling with the book came over and bowed, allowing her to levitate it off of his back and onto the pedestal in front of her. It had been stolen from the Canterlot Archives in the recent attack on Canterlot, scratches and burn marks on the cover of the book hinting at the effort that had been taken to retrieve it. It did not have a title on it, just a simple brown cover, of what material she was unsure.
She flipped through a few of the pages, pausing now and again to look at the various creatures, until she found what she was looking for. An illustration of the beast she was seeking filled up the first page of the bio. It showed it bipedal, naked and with only a small mane on its head. It was also, she looked again to make sure, a male.
The description had been mostly torn or scratched out and the words ‘DO NOT EVER SUMMON’ were scrawled on the remaining paper. A small part of the description, however, was still readable.
-verfree Forest. This particular being has a property that hitherto has not been observed elsewhere . It is almost completely resistant to most kinds of majicks and nullifies the effects of it when nearby.
Other than this the only place she had been able to get information about them were books on mythology, and even they were very sparing with their description. They were supposed to be big and scary, and they snuck into little foals rooms and ate them up. Now she knew what to get him when he was hungry.
The anti-magic effect would be a problem though. Once she summoned him, the spells and wards that would usually bind a summoned creature to its master would almost definitely be broken, so she had brought offerings, an assortment of pillaged items, just in case.
She turned the page again and looked at the details on summoning a human. It was a lengthy spell and would require all of her energy to pull off. One of the key components was a sentient living sacrifice, a side note explaining that this was one of very few ways to get magic to affect magic-resistant beings.
A changeling came forward from the group and stood next to her. She patted him on the head.
“The hive thanks you for your sacrifice. I can assure you, it will not be in vain,” she said. The changeling nodded, expressionless and sat on the centre of the altar. As cold as the Equestrians thought she was, she really did care for her subjects, just as much as Celestia did for hers, and although she knew it, the ruler of the sun would never admit it.
She started the spell, her eyes glowing green as she uttered more words of the ancient incantations.
---
The Changelings had been there for hours now, waiting for their queen to finish the spell. One of them had taken to sifting through the things they had brought, trying to stave off the boredom it felt. They began to converse amongst themselves.
“When will we return home?” asked one.
“When the monster has been summoned. We’ll need its help to get back our brothers and sisters from those unicorns,” replied another. "The creature is supposed to have-"
“Keep it quiet back there!” Chrysalis shouted. All the changelings shut their mouths.
It was another few minutes before something happened. Everypony had been expecting some kind of flash of light, a noise, anything. What actually happened was a lot less dramatic.
As Luna flew across the night sky, a sudden feeling of emptiness overcame her, sending a shiver down her spine. She felt like something had just come into existence or, more accurately, that nothing had. She had felt the void far away, beyond Equestria’s borders. She was certain it had come from beyond the ocean. She’d have to talk to her sister about this.
The changeling disappeared, and the human materialised into existence in its place dressed in a three-piece suit, holding up a glass. Its eye level was a little higher than hers but if her horn was taken into account, she was still taller. On its face was a short beard. He didn’t seem quite as fearsome as she’d thought and she got a creeping suspicion he was just as soft as the ponies in Equestria. She really hoped that wasn’t the case.
There was a warm smile painted on his face, in fact, Chrysalis could feel the love radiating off of him. She couldn’t see the faces of her subjects, but she was sure beyond a doubt that they were smiling in anticipation of their meal, advancing on the beast.
She turned and gave them a quick glare, reminding them this wasn’t their prey. They cowered under her gaze and retreated into the darkness.
When she looked back it was no longer smiling. Instead its expression had gone blank and it was staring at her. She stared right back at it, waiting for it to do something. After a minute it looked into its glass, as if it wasn’t sure what was in it.
“Uh... what... have I been drugged?” She realised it was a male.
“I can assure you that I have done no such thing. I summoned you here human,” she said. The words didn’t seem to process in his head but after a few seconds he spoke again.
“Summoned? Like, magic?” his tone held disbelief in it. He had probably thought his resistance to magic to be immunity to magic.
“Ah, yes, you probably aren’t used to magic are you?” she said, forcing a smile. He shook his head. “I’m... sorry if it caused you any discomfort.”
-William-
“It’s no problem,” William responded automatically. His brain had kicked into autopilot as he tried to figure out what was going on. He did however note her slightly surprised reaction to his answer. Whatever she was.
Not really sure on what to do next he took a swig of the water in his glass. One minute he’s making a toast at his sister’s wedding, the next he’s standing in a cavern with a cheese-legged unicorn insect... whatever it was telling him she’d used magic to summon him. He didn’t know what to make of it. She also knew what he was, which prompted a whole other host of questions to spring into his head.
He wondered what his next course of action should be.
“I don’t suppose you could send me back?” he asked, his voice a little shaky now. She looked down sadly.
“Sadly no, human. As you may know, your resistance to magic makes it hard or even impossible to perform spells on you. It isn’t within my power to do such a thing.”
“...oh...” Apparently magic did exist. And he was resistant to it. That was... quite cool actually. But no time to dwell on that. “Then how’d you get me here?”
She paused for a moment, as though she wasn’t expecting that question from him.
“W-well, you aren’t immune to all magic. Summoning, for example still works on you. To unsummon you requires a whole different set of spells and even more energy, neither of which I have.’ She looked completely serious.
He wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth or not, but he didn’t have any knowledge to test it against, so he would just have to take her word. He had initially thought about stating that magic didn’t exist, but realised that him being transported to another world (Or maybe he really was just drugged?) should be proof enough to blow his statement straight out of the water. Again they went silent.
“So, why did you summon me then?” This was the only question he could think to ask.
She seemed to sadden again.
“For your help.” This caught him off guard. “You see human, I am Queen Chrysalis, and as a queen it’s my duty to my subjects to keep them safe, fed and out of harms way.” She started pacing. “For the longest time my children and I were roaming the world, looking for somewhere to settle down peacefully. Everywhere we went was freezing cold, infested by monsters or was completely devoid of anything we could sustain ourselves with. Then we found Equestria.”
“The inhabitants weren’t all out to kill us, the sun was warm and the land rich. I went to the capital and begged their leader Celestia to let us stay, but, she turned us down. Normally we would have just gone along to find another kingdom, but while I was meeting her she had her army forcibly subdue my changelings!”
He vaguely remembered changelings from a book on folklore he once read. What was it they ate...
“Now she keeps them prisoner, forcing them to work for her. These few are all that are left.”
A dozen changelings walked out of the darkness and assembled behind their queen.
It was apparent from her explanation that this ‘Celestia’ was some kind of tyrant. What wasn’t apparent was why they needed him to be there.
“What good will I do? How am I supposed to do anything? In fact, how do you even know what I am?” he asked getting more frustrated as his brain made more and more connections. His head started to feel light.
She looked quite irked at his sudden outburst but quickly hid it.
“I found out about your kind from books, though not very much was said, just that you could resist magic, which answers your next question. You naturally disrupt magical fields! My children are being held by magical shields and wards which I can’t crack because I’m too weak now.”
Now that he looked, he realised that she did seem a little lethargic. Even the Changelings seemed exhausted from what he now assumed was hunger.
“You just need to get close to the shields and that’s it. No more, no less.”
That sounded quite easily, actually. His only real problem was, ignoring the fact that he was now on another world, what reason was there to help them. Sure it was probably the right thing to do, but she had brought him wherever here was and wasn’t able to send him back, he really didn’t feel like he was getting anything out of it if it ended with him being left to die at the end, alone in an alien world.
As if she could sense his thoughts she added, “If you help us, I can find a way to get you back home. If you can free more of my subjects then I will be more powerful. If I’m more powerful... I’m sure you can see where this is going. So what’s your decision?”
William could definitely see where this was going. He looked at his other options and realised there were none. It was help her or... whatever awaited him in this world.
William walked alongside Queen Chrysalis, holding up one of the torches from the altar. Thanks to his magic dulling abilities, she couldn’t create any light or levitate the torches, so he had to carry them.
For the entire journey he thought. About what his family must have been doing. About how long it would be before he got home. About whether this was real. He really hoped that his sister wouldn’t fret too much over his disappearance, but he was almost sure she would. It made him quite sad to think that he ruined her big day by not being there. Okay, that, the changeling queen had ruined, but it was his presence being missed, not hers.
Hopefully this experience would be over soon.
-Chrysalis-
Chrysalis had no idea it would be that easy to trick him into helping them. Granted, there was the incentive of going home, but she hadn’t expected him to fall for the lie about the unsummoning. It was easy enough, just sacrifice another being. But she wasn’t about to do that. Not until she had gotten what she wanted.
The lack of bloodlust had been a bit of a let down, but that wasn’t why she needed him so it didn’t really matter. It was probably better this way. He wasn’t putting up much of a fight, and he hadn’t tried to kill them, so it wouldn't be too hard to bend him to her will.
She glanced over to him. His face gave away his unhappiness.
“Did I pull you away from something important?” she said.
“Just my sister’s wedding.”
“Ah, yes... a wedding.” He didn’t seem to notice her slightly odd reaction. “I hope it was going well?”
“It was. Though don’t know how it’s going now that 200 people just witnessed a man disappear.” His voice had a sharp edge to it. She didn’t have enough energy left in her to do anything about it so she let it go.
-William-
As far as he could see, snow covered the land. The treetops of a forest could barely be seen on the horizon as snow started to fall in greater amounts. William assumed that the village would be there as it seemed to be the only part of the landscape that offered protection from the gale force winds that were now threatening to topple him over.
His assumption turned out to be right as they left the gaping maw that was the entrance to the caverns and marched straight towards it, William now lagging behind as he forced his way through the snow. Every now and again they would stop to allow him to catch up, the queen looking quite impatient but never saying anything. He had a feeling it was because she was worried he would leave them should she offend him, which he probably wouldn’t since there was nowhere else to go.
He thought he noticed something moving across the sky to his right, and when he looked it turned out there was a silhouette of something in the distance flying across the horizon.
“Hey uh, Queen Chrysalis. What is that?” he said, pointing to the object in question.
She gave it a glance, but didn’t stop.
“That? It’s just a dragon.”
Wait, dragons? Of course, why not dragons? First magic then changelings, now there were dragons as well! Who knew what next! Maybe there were faeries, hell maybe there were even hydras!
To the changelings he appeared to be taking all of it quite well. The truth was that his mind was in the process of melting as it tried to process all of the new information he had been greeted with. He had asked very few questions and accepted a lot without hesitation not because he was okay with all of it, but because he was not okay with it, not at all. His mind was still processing everything that had been done and said, and all that was still happening. If he stopped to consider all these things in their entirety he was sure he would pass out.
When they made it to the forest he found the wind died down considerably. He wasn’t so cold anymore, but he still shook, his arms folded to keep them warm.
“Why are you so cold? I thought humans loved the cold,” the queen said, raising an eyebrow.
He would have to ask about these legends soon. He was wondering how much they had gotten wrong.
“Not really. If I had a jacket or something, I’d be better,’ he said.
Chrysalis turned to one of the changelings that was carrying a saddlebag and nodded. Another one walked over to it and looked around inside, eventually pulling out a small yellow scarf then walking over to William and holding it out for him.
“Will this do?” she asked.
“Yeah, uh, perfect,” he said. He thanked the changeling as he took it from... it and wrapped the wool round his neck. Already it felt better not having his neck exposed, though his ears still stung.
They continued on their trek for a good hour until she stopped to tell two changelings to go ahead and scout. They ran off into the woods, much faster than he could sprint he was sure. He was glad for the stop because it allowed him to rest. He wasn’t used to anything beyond a short walk to the shops. An hour of walking through the snow was hell for his legs.
“They have wings, why don’t they just fly?” She looked at him like he was some kind of idiot.
“Because of the dragon.” That didn’t really answer his question.
“But it was so far away, why would it care?”
She sighed.
“You don’t have dragons where you come from do you?” He shook his head. “They’re extremely protective of their air space. They also have very, very fine eyesight. If we tried to fly it would spot us easily, even in this weather.”
He decided there was no point in asking any more questions. She obviously knew what she was doing so he left it at that.
When the scouts eventually came back they reported a settlement. This seemed to please Chrysalis a fair bit, and she informed the group that they would be eating soon. Eating what, though? He didn’t ask but he really hoped she didn’t mean the inhabitants of the village.
After some more walking they made it to what he was told was the outskirts of the village. He couldn’t see the town, but he could definitely hear it.
Chrysalis turned to him.
“Human-”
“My name’s William,” he interrupted. She didn’t look happy. “Sorry, it’s just annoying to be called ‘human’ all the time.”
“William, then, you stay here while the changelings and I go get some food,” she said. He just nodded. All of the changelings closed their eyes and... nothing happened. He watched them, waiting for them to get a move on.
When they opened their eyes they seemed to be frustrated, by what he couldn’t tell. They did it again and still nothing happened.
One of the changelings addressed Queen Chrysalis.
“Your majesty, I think I know what the problem is. The human is affecting our shape shifting abilities.”
‘Oh my god I’m an idiot,’ he thought. They were changelings. The clue was in the name and he still hadn’t gotten it. To be fair, his mind wasn’t very stable at that moment, but he still chastised himself for it.
“William, leave us, please,” she asked flatly. “We’ll be back soon, just don’t go too far.”
He nodded and started walking away from the village until he was a good 50 metres away from them, his view of them obscured by the trees, then, brushing the snow off, sat down on a rock. A white fox emerged from behind a tree and padded up to him, unsure of what he was and whether or not it should be scared. He watched it, fascinated. It wasn’t very often you got to see a wild animal up close, even if it was just a fox.
His rumbling stomach scared the fox away. When he realised what had happened he laughed, first softly, then progressively louder and with more force. Soon he was in a fit, lying on the ground trying but failing to calm himself down.
At first it had been about the fox, but then as he thought more and more about the day’s events he had found it so insane and fantastical that he couldn’t stop himself. Eventually he stopped and wiped a tear from his eye. His sudden outburst surprised him but he felt a lot better now. He didn’t have the same sense of dread that he had been feeling before when he was told that he couldn’t be returned home.
His stomach rumbled again. When were they going to get back?
“These tracks, I’ve never seen anything like this before...” said White. She knelt down next to the print. “Is this some kind of shoe?”
Snow Storm moved beside her and looked down.
“Probably. Maybe an Equestrian tourist? I hear they have all kindsa’ fancy clothing there,’ he said, removing his snow goggles to get a better look.
“Snow, Equestria’s borders are at least a 100 miles from here across the sea. Why would they come all the way out here?” He shrugged.
She had also noticed the hoof-prints alongside them. “What about these Snow. Pony or changeling?”
He squinted at them.
“I can’t rightly tell White. They’re too similar to ours. Don’t you know some kind of spell for these things?”
She shook her head grinning.
“Magic can’t solve everything. I do know how we can find out though.” She got up and started following the tracks. “They’re quite faint. With this weather that means they probably aren’t too far ahead.”
“Do you seriously want to follow these? It’s getting late, soon there won’t be any light,” he said.
She pointed towards where the prints led off to.
“These are headed towards the village.”
The grey pegasus stallion sighed.
“We may as well then. Stay alert. If these tracks belong to changelings we're in for a fight.”
She nodded and began moving.
It had been an hour now. The sun was low and the changelings still weren't back. He had taken to drawing in the snow with a stick, looking up once in a while to check if they had come back yet.
At one point he was sure he had seen something moving in the distance but chalked it up to his hunger.
He took a moment to admire his masterpiece; a stick man eating a badly drawn hamburger. He wrote the name ‘William’ under it and nodded his head in agreement with himself.
Then he turned round and walked back towards the village. It would make it easier for them to find him if he was closer.
-White-
“What’s it supposed to be?” whispered Snow, craning his neck, at the same time trying to stay low.
“I think it’s supposed to be that monster... eating something?” White looked back up at the beast as it walked further away, then back down. “Yeah, definitely eating something.”
Snow shuffled closer.
“That kind of looks like a... pony...” They looked at each other. Then up at the monster, taking note of his direction. Then back at each other.
Snow was the first to get up. Before she could protest, he was off.
His heart was pumping fast as he neared his target. It pumped faster when his wings failed him.
-William-
The sound of snow crunching behind him was evident to William. He spun round to see what it was.
Oh, just a... pegasus. It was lying face on its stomach, face in the snow. It had crashed, as evidenced by the trail he had left behind him. It was groaning and muttered something, its words muffled in the snow.
“Hey buddy, you okay?”
Immediately the pegasus shot up and then froze when it saw him. He noticed that there was blood trickling down its nose.
“Damn, how fast were you travelling?” He started moving closer to it. “You could’ve killed y- Hey wait!”
At the mention of the word kill it panicked, screamed then turned and broke out into a sprint, managing to put some distance between them, still looking at William. As a result it smacked itself against a tree. The impact knocked it out, and more blood started pouring out of his nose.
Well that was certainly interesting.
He took a step forward towards where the pegasus lay.
“Stop!” a feminine voice called out. He complied.
A unicorn emerged from a bush to his left, pointing her horn at him. Obviously he was supposed to be scared by this but it just looked a bit odd to him. She moved over to what he now assumed was her friend and gasped.
“What did you do to him?” she demanded with a horrified expression.
“N-nothing.”
“You’re lying.” Her horn started to glow. “Tell me what you did!”
“Nothing, I swear! He hit his head on the floor then ran into a tree!” That had sounded better in his mind.
She seemed shocked, but that quickly turned to anger as she let off a bolt of energy at him. He shut his eyes waiting for the hit... but it never came. He opened them to see that she was, once more, shocked. Again she fired, then again and again, but each time it fizzed out when it got close enough to him.
He smiled and started moving closer. The closer he came, the dimmer her horn got.
“Look, I don’t want to hurt you. If you just let me help-”
“Snow, get up!” She shook the pegasus, waking him almost instantly.
“W-wha? What happened?” The stallion, as William now realized, said. The mare grabbed him by the fore-hoof and pulled him up.
“Snow, run! It’s coming!”
Snow looked round and saw that the human was walking towards them at a leisurely pace, hands raised up.
“Guys come on. I don’t want to-”
They didn’t listen to him. Instead they ran off into the forest not even pausing to look back. If this was how all the ponies were going to treat him, it was probably for the best he stuck with the changelings. At least they didn’t try to kill him.
---
The man warmed his hands against a fire he had managed to start with a lighter he’d forgotten he’d had.
“I’ll never take warmth for granted again...” he said to himself.
The moon was up now and the changelings had yet to show their faces. He was wondering if they’d ever come back.
“William.” He almost jumped. Chrysalis was suddenly next to him. “I see you’ve already got the fire going. You like your meat cooked then?” He raised his eyebrow.
“Usually, yeah...” What was she getting at? He looked up at her. “Why, do you have any?”
A changeling appeared out of a bush holding a sack in one of its hooves. It laid it down in front of him carefully.
“Yes, as a matter of fact I do.”
Oh wow. Maybe Chrysalis wasn't so bad after all..
“What, uh, what kind of meat is it?”
She smiled and walked round the small camp fire.
“It’s a surprise, one I’m sure you’ll enjoy.”
The suspense was getting to him. He started undoing the rope that was keeping it shut. Please let it be beef, please let it be beef, please let it be-
He stared down at the light green filly. The filly stared up.
“So, uh, you hungry? Cos I’m hungry,” he said clutching his belly, staring at her.
She started crying. Smooth, William, real smooth.
“W-wait, no! Don’t cry I’m not gonna hurt you!” He wasn’t quite sure what to do, so he just swivelled awkwardly on the spot, looking round to see if anyone else was there. No one was. Chrysalis had left him alone to, as she put it ‘take care of business’ while he'd just sat there stunned, so for the moment he couldn’t ask why she thought he would like to eat a pony.
“How about a game, huh? Do you like games?” She quietened down a little. “What do you think of... rock, paper, scissors?” The filly wailed even more. Wait, horrible idea she doesn’t have any fingers. “Uh, odd or even? Shadow puppets?” That one was even worse than the last.
An idea popped into his head.
“I know! Why don’t you,” he said as he ruffled around his pockets, “guess which hand the penny is in.” He pulled out a single penny.
She pointed to it.
“Ah, not yet.” He closed his palms and put them behind his back. After a ‘readjusting’ he stretched them back out in front of him. “Now guess.”
She pointed at his right hand, but when he opened it, it wasn’t there. Then she pointed at his left hand, but it wasn’t there either.
“Where’d it go?” he asked, trying to look as surprised as he could. “Hang on, is that...” He slowly leaned over to her ear and, using what little sleight of hand he had learnt from his schooldays, he ‘pulled’ the coin out of her ear.
She gasped, amazed at his trick.
“You can do magic?” she said, no longer crying, though her tears were still fresh on her cheeks. He chuckled a little.
“Not quite, no.” He reached back into his pockets. Was that his phone?
“Are- aren’t you going to eat me?” she asked, the fear, and wonder, in her eyes apparent. He pulled his hand back out.
“No, no I’m not,” he said, trying to sound reassuring.
“Oh. Why not?” Her voice was slightly shaky, though at least she had calmed down.
Why not? Because it was... it was just wrong!
“I don’t eat ponies.”
An uneasy silence set in.
“What’s your name?” he said, with what he hoped was a convincing smile on his face.
She didn’t answer.
“Okay then, I’m William. In case you don’t know, I’m a human.” Her eyes flashed with recognition. Maybe she did know? “Do you live in the village?”
She nodded.
“Do you want to go back?”
She hesitated, but nodded.
“Come on then.” He got up, “I’ll take you there.”
Taking off his scarf, he moved closer to wrap it around her but she inched backwards. He put it down in front of him and leaned back allowing her to get it herself and wrap it round her neck.
He picked up one of the sticks jutting out of the fire, but as soon as he pulled it out he found it wasn’t actually lit. Eventually he decided to leave anyway and use the light of the moon to find his way.
Navigation was much easier than he had expected. At times it almost felt like the moon was guiding them to their destination, lighting up the path through the forest towards the village. They emerged into a clearing, which turned out to be the entrance to the village.
There were eight or so log cabins around, all positioned with their backs to the forest facing inwards to a stone pillar in the centre with a freshly painted sign hanging off of it. There was writing on it, but he had no idea what it said.
“Do you know how to read?”
“A little...” she said looking down sadly.
“Oh, uh, would it be okay if you read this for me?”
She concentrated on it.
“If you want... it says, b-beee-beware of changelings.”
Beware of changelings. It was almost definitely there because of the earlier raid. The fact that Chrysalis had brought him a child to eat suggested to him that changelings ate ponies. If that was the case, he had picked the wrong people, or ponies to associate himself with entirely.
He really hoped that wasn't the case. As far as he knew, she was the only one who knew how to get him back to Earth.
There was another sign on the side that the filly told him said that the inhabitants had left for the next town over, some place called Redband Mines. Well that was great. Now he had to take care of the pony until he and the changelings had moved on.
His next thought was to search the houses. A lot of the ponies’ belongings had been left behind. He picked up a scarf from one of the cabins and put it on.
In another he found that somepony had been cooking something before they left. A pot filled with soup was hanging over what were now just a few burning embers in the centre of the room, but it still smelt good. Rustling around a few of the drawers and wardrobes on the sides, he found only a single bowl and spoon.
Sighing, he filled it up with the soup and handed it to the her.
“But, aren’t you hungry?” she asked, not taking it from him.
“Yeah I’ll be fine, don’t worry. You eat first. I can wait a bit longer.”
She tried to grab the bowl but couldn't get a grip, as he had expected, so he rested it on the floor to allow her to drink from it. After she had finished, he took it from her and used the same bowl, using the spoon to scoop up as much as he could, as quickly as he could. As he was about to take his last gulp, something knocked at the door.
He looked quizzically at his companion, but she didn't do anything or seem to know who it could be.
Slowly opening the door he peeked outside to find Queen Chrysalis tapping her hoof impatiently.
“There you are! What are you doing in the village?” she snapped. The changelings were milling around outside looking for any sign of danger.
He opened it slightly and gestured to the pot and the dark green haired filly sitting next to it.
“Oh I see.” Another smile. “You prefer it boiled?”
He was horrified.
“What? No! I was feeding her.” She looked very confused.
“To... fatten her up?” Was she really not getting this?
“I’m feeding her so she doesn’t starve to death.”
“So you’re saving her for later then?”
“I’m just saving her! That’s it!” Chrysalis thought about this for a moment.
“You mean... You’re taking care of her?” she looked even more confused. “I thought you ate fillies and colts.”
“I never said I did! What made you think that?”
He noticed a subtle movement in her back hooves which moments later was followed by the changelings assembling behind her. Perhaps picking his next few words carefully would be a good idea.
“Well then what do you eat?”
“Chickens! Cows! Animals that don’t speak!” He was frustrated by her apparent lack of understanding .
“But, cows can talk.”
Hold up, what? Cows can... talk?
“What do you mean, cows can talk?” He looked back at the filly who had covered her ears in fright. Maybe he shouldn’t have raised his voice like that.
“What I mean, human, is that cows are like you and me. They speak just as well as us, and they have families and lives too.” His blank face told her all she needed to know. “Cows don’t talk where you come from,” she stated.
He just nodded, dumbfounded. It wasn’t the new things that got you, it was when something you thought was familiar was made alien. He stood by the door unsure of what to say. Unfortunately he didn't have the luxury of dwelling on it so he moved on to his next question.
“Chrysalis, what do changelings eat?” he said. She paused before answering.
-Chrysalis-
She realised this wasn’t going to work if she just flat out lied to him. There would be too many inconsistencies. She’d have to settle for half truths.
-William-
“We eat love.”
He snorted in amusement.
“No seriously, what do you eat?” She looked at him seriously. “Love. You actually eat love. That’s, uh, that’s a new one.” He turned round, leaving the door open for her to come inside. “So, does it hurt? When you take it from them?”
She shook her head.
“No. They can sometimes get tired, but they’re usually fine.” Once again he couldn’t be sure if what she told him was true.
“Do you force them to do it or...”
“We don’t, not usually. All it takes is for a pony to feel love towards someone or even something, and we can feed off of it.”
He turned around to look her in the eyes.
“So no one gets hurt?”
“Nopony gets hurt.” She seemed sincere enough.
“Why did you bring me a pony to eat then? I thought nopony was supposed to get hurt.”
Chrysalis took a few seconds to answer his question.
“I didn't want to give her to you, but the legends said that you ate ponies. I was scared that if I didn’t feed you, you’d decided to kill us.”
That sort of made sense, though he still didn’t like it.
“Believe me if I had known there were alternatives I would have taken them, but I couldn’t be sure. Without your help I can’t get my subjects back from the ponies who have taken them. If you haven't already realised, they are my actual children, my flesh and blood. I'm sorry I did what I did, but it seemed necessary.”
“But how could you just take a child so easily? You didn't even flinch when you gave her to me.”
“If you had to pick between your own child and some colt or filly you hardly knew, which one would you choose? Because I would choose my children, every time.”
As horrible as he felt to admit it, that one made perfect sense. Sure it was good and all to say you would try to save both from whatever calamity was befalling them, but who would you go for first? She probably had hundreds if not thousands of children to worry about. He didn’t have children but he did have a nephew and he knew that there were many things that he would be willing to do if he was in danger. What if he had a hundred nephews and to save them he had to kill someone?
“So why did you want to know how I was going to,” he said the next part in a lowered tone, “cook her?”
“...here it is akin to table manners to ask about somepony’s meal. It... shows that you care about the guests presence and therefore are showing respect. We left you alone to eat, did we not? We don’t enjoy seeing anypony hurt.”
Once again he couldn't tell if it was true. The reasoning behind it didn't seem dodgy though.
“Just promise me that next time you think you have to hurt someone to do something you'll look for an alternative.”
“I promise William.
"Next time you're unsure about what I want, just ask me.”
"I will."
Well that was a relief. Now he was more sure he wasn’t on the wrong side. She just needed help getting back her people, and no on- nopony innocent had to get hurt doing it. Of course he knew some ponies would probably get hurt, but only those responsible for imprisoning her subjects; they had it coming.
“That’s good.” He turned and walked over to the filly, sitting down next to her. “We’ll be spending the night here. If you need something you know where to find us.”
She nodded and left them alone, closing the door behind herself.
-Chrysalis-
That had been a close one. She was surprised the last one about table manners worked though that could be attributed to his lack of knowledge and what she had a feeling was his less than stable mind. In the future she would have to remember to restrict his flow of information, otherwise he would start seeing the more obvious holes in her explanations.
She hadn’t realised that the human had morals so similar to the Equestrian ponies. Still, this would again make it easier to manipulate him. She had seen the slave camps and fortresses where they kept her children and was sure an idealist like him would take one look and assume the worst about the ponies that lived there.
-William-
“Did you like the soup?” he said, putting the bowl to one side. She nodded, giving him a smile. He wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be, it tasted like a cross between a leek and a mushroom. It still tasted good though.
There were a couple of woolen sheets in the wardrobe, so he had taken them out and laid them down on the floor to make a mat for himself. The child got the bed.
For now though, they sat awake, deep in their own thoughts.
She was watching him, flinching every time he moved. Poor girl. She was completely alone with a two legged monster she didn't know anything about. The best course of action would be to tell her a few things about himself so he didn't seem like such a stranger.
"Do you have any siblings?" he said genuinely interested.
She nodded and said something about two sisters.
"I'll bet you get annoyed at them sometimes, and they get annoyed at you."
She nodded again.
"But you still love them, don't you?"
"Yes," she said.
"I have a brother and sister. They always annoy the cra- I mean, they get on my nerves as well but in the end it doesn't matter. They're still your siblings. I was at my sister's wedding before I came here."
"Your sister had a wedding too?" she said surprised. He laughed. Children always said the funniest things.
"She did. Or is still having one if they aren't worrying about me. One of your sisters are married then?" She was grinning now.
"Yeah! She got married to a real life knight! He has shiny armour, a sword and everything. He even let me wear his helmet!" She sounded very excited as she told him more about her 'new big brother'. He had slayed manticores and hydra by himself and even saved her from a timber wolf. "She lives far away though so I can't visit her."
"What about your other sister? Can't you see her?"
"She's gone away as well. She lives in Equestria now, and Dad said we can't go because it's too far."
He nodded in understanding.
"I'm sure one day you'll meet again one day." She just nodded and went back to her thoughts.
That marked the end of that conversation. They fell back into silence until he thought of another question he had for her.
“When I said human back at the fire, you looked like you had heard of them before. Do you know what they are?” He spoke softly, not wanting to seem too forward.
She looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn’t.
“It’s okay, you don't have to tell me.” He lay down on the sheets, turning onto his side facing away from her. He doubted she’d appreciate him staring at her the whole night.
“They’re monsters. From fairytales.” He sat up slowly. “My grandmama told me stories about them.” Monsters from fairytales. That raised a lot of questions.
“What did she tell you about them?”
She paused again.
“She said that there were three kinds of humans. Warm humans, cold humans and... I can’t remember the last one. They look different but they’re really the same. Like three different ponies.” She seemed quite proud of that analogy. “They could go anywhere and do anything, even slay dragons! But there weren’t many of them and ponies didn’t like them very much because they were always angry. Grandmama told me that they would steal naughty foals and eat them! But I don’t think you would. You’re nice.”
As cheesy as it sounded, that remark at the end genuinely brought warmth to his heart.
“Where is your grandma now?”
“Daddy said she was sleeping. He also said we should never talk about it.”
Sleeping huh? He was familiar with that one. Most children got told that.
“Where’s your father?”
She seemed unsure.
“I don’t know. I remember him being taken away by some stallions in red. He told me to stay where I was but he didn’t come back. Then I came home. He usually goes away on long trips, so I’m not scared. I’m know he’ll be back.”
“Where’s your home?”
“We’re in it.”
Ah.
“...you don’t mind me using your sheets do you?”
She shook her head quite happily.
“It’s okay. Dad wouldn't mind.”
He nodded and laid down. There was a lot to think about.
Lord Pick sat at his desk, looking over a few of his advisers. They stood in a ring around him numbering seven in total.
“This had better be good,” he said. “I was in the middle of negotiations with King Goldback when you called me here.”
They shifted in their places, sweating despite the cold weather.
“There was, news, sire. We thought it best to inform you right away,” said the one directly in front of him.
“Get on with it then. Griffons don’t like being told to wait,” he said gruffly. He didn’t want this to take longer than it had to.
“Yes sir.” The adviser who had spoken gestured to a guard behind them, who opened the door, letting a white mare wearing a black scarf and a simple grey cloak into the room. She stayed behind them, keeping her head down.
“First, sire, we intercepted an Equestrian diplomatic convoy.” The adviser threw a file onto the desk. “It seems that the Eastmarsh treaty has been terminated sir.”
Now that was important news.
“Equestria is giving the griffon kingdom free passage to the north?”
“Not free, sire. It is being replaced with another. The Equestrians will be accepting payment in exchange for their access to our land.”
That was a big problem. King Goldenback was already the most powerful ruler in the north. A few more griffons and he’d be able to knock all of the opposition off, including him. He looked at the last adviser on the right.
“You, arrange some messengers to contact the other pony lords. Tell them to meet me at the cathedral in three hours,” his voice gave away his stress. The adviser left to carry out his order.
“Sire there is another thing,” said the adviser, beckoning the mare forward. “White Rush, from one of the villages further north sir. She has something important to tell you.”
Pick leaned back, waiting for her to speak.
“Lord Pick, it’s a pleasure to me-”
“Spare me the pleasantries, I don’t have the time.” She was slightly taken aback, but continued.
“Near my village sir. I saw a monster.”
Like that was big news. All the ponies here complained about monsters.
“And why should I care about this particular creature, when thousands more roam the north? Need I remind you that the other lords and I already provide ponypower to try and keep the countless timberwolves, manticores and hydras back? It’s a good thing the changelings were subdued, we were close to breaking last year.”
“Because sir, it’s not just any monster. I wasn’t sure at first, but when I got close enough and heard him speak, I remembered my mother’s words. It’s the demon trickster Low Key, he has returned.”
He planted his face in his hooves. These locals took their folktales way too seriously.
“Do you expect me to believe that a character from an old mares tale is roaming the forest terrorizing ponies? Leave.”
“But sire,” one of the advisers stepped forward. “Every village elder from here to Southpoint speaks of this demon in history. If what she says is true-”
Pick raised his hoof, silencing him.
“If I told you that there was a time when giant chickens walked the land would you believe me? What she says can’t be true because it’s just imaginary, like Father Hearthsmas. It doesn't exist.”
If he’d known that they were such a superstitious lot he would've hired mercenaries or held more interviews, anything to make sure he wasn't getting his advice from a bunch of uneducated country-folk.
“Could you at least send somepony to check it out?” White pleaded.
“Look Ms.Rush, I’m not going to waste anypony on a pointless mission just because you think you saw something out of a fairy-tale. It was probably a minotaur or something, now go.”
"But I-"
"I said leave."
"You haven't heard the-"
"You don't seem to understand Ms.Rush. This conversation is over!" He stood up glaring at her.
She gave up and left, along with all the other ponies but not before giving him a glare. When everypony had gone he took a fresh piece of paper from one of the drawers and started to write using his wings to manipulate the pen. He’d have to inform the King that he wouldn’t be able to make it, there were more important things to attend to now.
A lone changeling hovered in place, searching for any sign of a living thing. As far north as it could see, the ruins of what was probably once a great city lay scattered about, covered in snow. The wind howled, and more than once it was sure it had seen horse-shaped clouds moving faster than they should’ve been.
Spotting what it had been looking for, it swooped down, landing on the roof of a great cathedral. Parts of the ceiling had caved in, but it was stable enough to hold its weight. The sound of raised voices echoed from the inside.
‘Just in time,’ it thought.
---
The changelings had woken them up early in the morning. His watch said it was 7PM so now he knew it was off. After he and the child had gotten ready, they left the village, heading south to the Redband Mines. She hadn’t taken much convincing to go with him, the prospect of being completely alone in a village was a little too much for her. Hopefully there would be somepony in town who would take her in, there had to be. Until then though, he’d be taking care of her.
She skipped alongside him as the 15-strong group trekked through the wilderness, the changelings arranged in a circle around the Queen, William, and the filly. He had, with permission, cut holes in the sheets and made ponchos for both himself and the small filly.
The sky had cleared up and a warm sun shone down on them, though not quite warm enough to melt the snow. He held a jar of sauerkraut he’d found in the village storehouse. It wasn’t ideal, but he didn’t want to eat meat in front of the filly and it was the only thing that didn’t require special storage to keep it edible.
On a lighter note, he had found his phone in his blazer pocket: an old nokia. His grandad had given it to him long ago. Now it was his back-up phone. He figured that most people wouldn't want to steal a nokia a decade old so he would always have a phone he would be able to use. That and it held a charge for a very long time.
He’d turned it off before the wedding so as not to be interrupted which meant that now it was still more or less fully charged. He had turned it on in secret to check if there was a signal despite the chance of it being virtually zero then turned it off again. There was no need to waste the battery until he needed it.
With nothing to do except put one foot in front of the other his mind drifted to the future. Chrysalis had told him that he was going to have to enter the town under the cover of darkness since the ponies probably wouldn’t be too welcoming of him. Humans were something of a legend here, one that many locals didn’t take lightly.
“Cover!” called a changeling, resulting in everyone but William and the filly to jump into any available piece of foliage. Once his brain registered what had happened he followed suite, ushering the foal along.
After a minute of silence William saw him. A lone pegasus soldier wearing a dull iron helmet and a red cloak emerged from behind a tree quite a distance away, hefting a spear in one hoof. How did they do that?
He spotted their tracks and approached cautiously, trotting right towards William’s location. As he closed in on them he dropped the spear. Looking down, he tried to pick it up but failed to repeatedly. Unsure of what to do next, the guard decided to continue. When he came within 20 metres or so he was suddenly engulfed in green flames. When they cleared, the man realised it was a changeling.
“Scout, report.” said Chrysalis who had appeared to William’s left. How did she move so quietly?
The changeling bowed.
“Queen Chrysalis, your majesty. All the local pony lords and barons gathered at the citadel last night. They have assembled a force to attack King Goldenback.”
“How many ponies?”
“30,000 your majesty. According to their leader, Lord Pick, the target is New Gryphonia. They plan to kick the griffons out of the city before they can receive any aid from the south.”
She nodded and turned to William.
“This is the perfect time to free the others, the guards on wall will be under strength so sneaking you in should be easy.”
William just nodded, there wasn’t anything to be said on his part.
They trudged on through the forest.
---
The sun sat low, slowly creeping out of view. William had gotten a fire started again and the filly sat close to it, resting her head on her poncho which she had bundled up into a ball. The one changeling Chrysalis had left behind was perched above him in a tree, watching in the direction of the Redband Mines.
One interesting thing he had found out was that while it was called Redband Mines, it was more or less a town with the actual mines sitting somewhere in the centre. From what he had seen, he could guess that the large magic orange dome was probably where they were.
Currently they were sitting behind a hill waiting for the Queen and the rest of the changelings to come back from the scouting mission, which should have been half an hour ago, but they still hadn’t come and the sentry’s silence told him that there wasn’t anyone approaching them yet.
“Where do you come from?” asked the filly, sitting up.
“Me? From far away,” he said holding his hands out to the fire.
“Your home is called ‘far away’?” she said smiling mischievously.
“Ha ha very funny.” He couldn’t help but smile as well. “I come from a city called London. I don’t really know where it is in relation to here, but it’s definitely too far to walk to.”
“Why did you come here?”
Why indeed.
“Queen Chrysalis wanted help so she summoned a human which just happened to be me.” That reminded him. He glanced up to make sure the changeling was still paying attention elsewhere, then leaned towards her, speaking in a hushed tone. “Do you know anything about changelings?”
She scrunched her face up in thought.
“Nopony ever told me about them. I just remember this one time when a our next door neighbour turned out to be a changeling and all the ponies were angry at her for some reason. She left after that.”
She. Did the changelings have genders? He had only heard a few of them speak, and they had all sounded male, more or less.
“You never heard any rumours or stories? Nothing?”
She shook her head. Maybe someone else could tell him.
“What do you do back in London?”
“Do? You mean, my job?” She nodded. “I, uh, help people when they need... help.”
“Like a hero?”
“Yeah... we’ll go with that.”
He didn’t like to admit that he was unemployed. After having studied business and languages at university, he’d left to start a business with what he could’ve sworn was a great idea but it had fallen flat on its face. There were large debts hanging over his head back home and for a few seconds he thought it might be better to just stay wherever here was. Heck, with some luck maybe he’d be declared legally dead and some of those debts would disappear. It wasn't all bad though, he still had his family, his health and friends to help him out through the rough times.
Now he was, or had been a handyman, taking work wherever he could find it, from fixing doors to cleaning toilets. The suit he was wearing was rented because he couldn’t afford anything nice enough to wear. Recently he had received an invitation to a job interview. It was going to be his big break, finally he was going to go somewhere in life. Then this happened. Thinking about it made him feel sick so he decided to change topics.
“Where is Equestria? Why would your sister want to move there?” he said.
“It’s over the east ocean. Most ponies who go don’t come back here.” That sounded really ominous. “She sends me letters sometimes. She likes living there and says that some day maybe I can go join her. I don’t know though... if I go, who will look after my dad?”
“That’s very considerate of you.”
“Consi- con-si-duh-rate?” she said, sounding out the syllables.
“Considerate. It means that you’re thinking about other people, I mean, ponies.” He’d forgotten how old she was. Come to think of it, he didn’t know how old she was and he’d never thought to ask. Even now he wasn’t about to ask her that despite having good reason to. It just felt a bit odd to ask a little girl he still didn’t know that well about her age. He was sure he’d find it out in due time.
He opened up the jar and used a fork that he had brought along from the cabin to scoop up some of the sour cabbage and stuff it into his mouth, then handed it to her. Once again she tried to pick up the fork but to no avail. Thinking back to the changeling and the spear, he realised he’d have to leave to let her eat without problems.
Getting up, he left the warmth of the fire and climbed the hill staying low to make sure no ponies spotted him. When he got to the top the town lay before him sitting at the foot of a small mountain. The townsfolk had started to light torches, thousands of small glowing dots littered throughout the cityscape.
Basically nothing he hadn’t seen before.
There were still a few merchants and travellers trickling into the town not wanting to be left outside in the dark with whatever it was that awaited them. He watched them walk by, some in groups, some loners, but all of them pulling carts of some kind.
He was concentrating so hard on them that he almost missed the silhouette in the sky heading straight towards him. He was about to dive into a nearby bush when he heard it call his name.
“William! Wait!”
That sounded like one of the changelings. He turned, watching it closely in case it was some kind of trick. It landed in a tree, fell out, then stumbled towards him. Soon the changeling that had been on guard arrived to see what was going on. The changeling that had arrived looked wounded, a green liquid seeping out of a wound on its upper forehoof.
“Where’s Queen Chrysalis?” asked William, now very concerned.
“The captain of the night watch, she found us. We hid but it didn’t work, she knew where we were. Even when we had changed shape she spotted us with no problem and no hesitation. We were too weak to fight, so they captured everypony else.”
This was bad. This was very bad. He could feel his mind closing in on itself as he started going through all the implications of the Queen not coming back, his single greatest concern coming to the forefront of his mind; going home.
For a few moments he lost control of his body. He didn’t faint or fall over, he just stood frozen, unable to make any decisions. The two changelings stared at him, waiting for him to do something. Obviously since he was the big bad monster he would have to be the one to break them out, but he wasn’t sure how he was going to do it. He wasn’t a soldier or a policeman or anything even remotely to do with sneaking past armed guards. He was a failed businessman, there was no way he could do anything.
As his homesickness increased, however, his fear began to subside and a new emotion welled up inside him; longing. Oh how he would love to see his home again, even if it was a dump. No, this wasn’t how it was going to go. Not left on this alien world with no friends or family to keep him company, no, he was going to do something about it.
“Okay, uh... you two, what are your names?” he asked dazedly.
“I am Bugruff.” He found the name... odd but he didn’t comment. The changeling that had been left hadn’t said anything.
“Well? Don’t you have one?”
“No,” it said. He waited for it to elaborate but it didn’t say anything else.
“You’re a talkative bunch, you know that?”
“I was not aware of that,” said Bugruff.
Moving on.
“Well, changeling, stay here and guard the girl,” he said to the nameless one. It complied, turning back to the campsite and walking away. He’d expected it to be less subservient but Queen Chrysalis may have had something to do with that. He shifted his attention to the other one. “Bugruff you stay as well. With that leg you’re in no condition to come with me.” It nodded and followed the other.
He wasn’t actually serious. He was expecting it to protest and try to come along, least of all because only Bugruff knew where he had to go. Hadn’t it heard of an empty gesture?
“Wait, Bugruff! How am I supposed to get into the town?”
It stopped again and looked at him.
“We shape-shifted and flew over the wall. While these ponies are used to strange animals, they will kill you on sight. There is an open waste sewage pipe on the western wall.”
Wading through pony waste, excellent.
---
He felt giddy as he approached the pipe. It jutted out from the wall, a stream of murky water flowing out of it and into a small pool of the stuff. It smelt horrible but he’d expected that anyway. On the wall above him a few sentries sat watching the horizon rather than looking down at the pipe, talking about some event that had happened. He didn't think it was important enough to listen to.
The pipe itself wasn’t actually big enough for him to walk through so he would have to crawl. The very thought made him gag.
He walked up to the edge of the pool. He tried his best not to think about the details of the water. Any more discouragement and he would turn around and leave. As he raised his foot to step into the water, he took a moment to admire his shoes. Black leather shoes, not particularly expensive but they looked damn fine. Shame he’d never wear them again after this.
His right foot went into the brown sludge, soon followed by his left with an audible splash. The water seeped into his shoes and soaked his legs up to his knees. Oh god, it was still warm. He waded towards the pipe, then, after a minute of careful consideration, crawled into the tube.
He thought happy thoughts as he made his way through the sewer pipe, anything to get his mind off of this. His limbs were covered in the stuff but his torso and head had yet to be drenched so at least that was going well.
His phone. He pulled it out of his pocket and held it up with one hand. He couldn't let it get wet, that would be a disaster. Other than his lighter, it was the only thing that he could use as a light source.
Eventually the pipe came to an end. It was almost pitch black so he didn’t see the end and slipped into a sewage tunnel, his head and torso swallowed up by the waste. He instinctively thrust his hand up so as to make sure the phone didn't get wet. A few second later he burst out of the ‘water’, gasping for breath, eyes shut. He wiped his face as clean as he could and fumbled around in his pockets for his lighter.
He attempted to light it, but it wouldn't start.
"Work dammit!" he thought to himself. "How the hell am I supposed to get through this without some light?
He froze when he remembered that one of the waste products of animals was methane. A lighter would be a bad idea.
He put the lighter back in his pocket and switched his phone on. It was a little wet, but it still started up. Nokias really were durable. It didn't give off a lot of light and he'd have to keep pressing the buttons to keep the screen on, but it was a lot better than nothing.
He felt his stomach rumble a little, then he bent over and vomited. When the gagging stopped, he stood straight again and assessed his situation.
He was covered in what would probably be better not to think about and was standing, now waist deep, in sewage water. There was only one way to go now, forward. Humming now to keep his nerves steady, he continued onward in the hopes of finding a manhole.
[Sorry to break your concentration. I don't like putting the author's comment at the beginning but this is important. Instead of a lighter he uses his phone. If you want, go back to the previous chapter and read the end (there's also a bit a little earlier where he talks a little about the phone, but that's not as important) to see the updated version. Enjoy!]
As William continued down the tunnel, he noticed something odd: this sewer had doors. At frequent intervals on both sides along the walls, an iron door stood, all of them locked and almost fully submerged in water. They were smaller than him, intended for use by ponies, not a human. He found it too difficult to try and kick them in when he was himself half-submerged in water, so he ignored them, holding the phone above his head to make sure he didn’t splash anything onto it.
He could hear the sound of rushing water further down the passageway and the currents in the water became slightly stronger. Sure enough, after another two minutes of wading he reached an incline where water poured down to his level. He realised they were flowing down stairs. That was odd, sewers didn’t tend to have stairs.
He walked into the current and forced his way up the stairs. It was quite tiring, but he managed to reach the top without losing his footing. The water was lower up here, down to a bit below his knees which he was very grateful for. He looked down the tunnel and noticed that there was a shaft of light shining down from the ceiling. He rushed towards it, thinking it might be an exit.
Unfortunately it wasn’t an exit, just a grating cover. He could see the moon through it, its light casting an eerie silver glow in the room. He looked round to survey his surroundings. He was in a mostly empty small hall. A large chandelier lay on the ground to his left, old and rusted. What kind of sewer was this? A small balcony sat above the only other exit to the room. It was too dark to make out what was beyond the balcony, but he could see a pinprick of light.
Wait, a pinprick of light?
He looked back up but the light was gone.
-Aquas-
There was a... there... a... a human...
Folks had told him that the old castle was haunted but he had never believed them. Two years of working in the underground ruins directing the flow of the sewage had told him otherwise. It turned out they were right.
He barely had time to stop his spell when it walked into the room below. He was sure that it had seen his horn glowing, even if it was only for a second.
Aquas slowly trotted away from the balcony and down the hall. The exit was close, but with that monster lurking around he was going to have to be very careful. It didn’t help that the lower floor was flooded... then again, he would be able to hear the monster moving around. It worked both ways, though.
He went down a set of stairs and arriving at a t-section. Was it left or right? The sounds of splashing water from the right told him it was the left and he waded down it as quickly and quietly as possible.
He passed many different intersections, most of them caved in, trying to get away from the monster, but when he stopped to listen for the monster, the distant echo of splashing was still there. Was it following him? He increased his speed a little and stopped again. The splashes were still there. He increased it again and once again the splashes pursued him, in fact they were louder now, as though it was moving faster. He broke into a full on gallop.
With only two hooves, both longer than his, the monster had a big advantage moving through the water. He had to do something soon or it would get him, but what could he do except run and pray for the best?
The stairs to the exit came into sight. He galloped up them into a large rectangular hall, full of overturned rotting tables and chairs. At the end of the hall was a large hole in the ceiling with a rope dangling down attached to a platform on the floor of the hall. The human was close behind him, he could hear it. He’d never be able to get to it in time unless...
He was a unicorn but that didn’t mean he was good at teleporting. He had done it once and had almost killed himself when he appeared just a hair’s breadth away from materialising inside of a wall. Now he had no choice but to do it.
In a flash of blue light, he appeared on the platform dazed and confused. That had been a lot harder to do than he remembered, almost as if somepony was trying to neutralise his magic. It didn’t matter though, he was there now.
He began turning the lever he knew was on the surface, raising the platform. The demon came into sight, sprinting towards him. Hah, it was futile now, he’d had gotten out of its- Hang on.
As it approached he found himself losing his magical grip on the lever. His mind became foggy as he used up more of his energy to try and pull himself up but he had expanded most of his reserves on teleporting. Every muscle in his body ached, the pony desperately trying not to be overcome by fatigue. Soon he was falling back down. Then, darkness.
-William-
Ooh, that fall didn’t look pretty. The unicorn had hit its head against the stone ground. William knelt down to inspect the pony and found nothing immediately wrong with it. The pony’s heart was still beating, and he could see its chest rising and falling as it breathed in the cold, musty air. It had a tattoo on its flank of a wave of water but he ignored it.
He would have prefered if this didn’t happen, but in hindsight he didn’t see any way he could’ve stopped him short of physically assaulting him, an idea he found laughable. He wasn’t proficient in any kind of combat or fighting style. He had been running after him to try and speak to the pony, but...
Anyway, onto the task at hand. How was he going to get up there? He tugged on the rope and found that it was secure enough to carry his weight. Brilliant. He clasped his hands around the rope and began to do something he didn’t think he’d ever do after primary school: climb a rope. He got around halfway before his arms became dangerously close to giving out. His wet clothes were weighing him down heavily and he was out of practice in rope climbing. Not willing to risk it, he slowly slid back down, taking care not burn his palms off, and sat down on a nearby metal stool.
His arms weren’t strong enough to get him all the way up and he couldn’t use his legs on the unknotted rope. There had to be some other way. As he stared at the wall waiting for inspiration, he thought about what he would do up on the surface.
He was much larger than a pony and he smelt worse than a compost dump, which would really be problematic for him while moving through the town. Hopefully the inhabitants would be in their homes rather than wandering the streets. It was the only way he’d be able to go anywhere undetected.
And where was he supposed to go? He didn’t know where they had been taken or if they were still alive. No, they were probably still alive. He wasn’t the expert on anything in this land but he was sure that a queen was a queen wherever you went. If his history lessons in primary school had taught him anything, there had to be some trial, or meeting, or something before they did anything to her.
At least, he hoped so.
Seeing as he didn’t know where the queen was, he decided on the next best thing: the forcefield. It was so big he wouldn’t be able to miss it. Having more changelings would definitely help him find Queen Chrysalis.
He went back to thinking about a way out. Maybe it the answer lay in the environment. He scanned the hall, but found no solutions until he looked back at the wall.
The bricks, he finally realised, in the wall had deteriorated severely. Many of them had fallen out or crumbled. That was it!
He got up and walked over to the wall, trying out the handholds. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do. He began to climb, quite slowly, taking care to test the bricks before he put his full weight onto them.
‘Come on man, it’s just like rock climbing. It’s all in the fingers, it’s all in the fingers, it’s all in the-’
Now that he could use his legs, he didn’t tire out as fast.
He looked down. It hadn’t seemed as high when he was still on the ground. Ah well. After a minute or so of climbing, the ceiling was just above him, but the hole was out of reach. There was only one thing left to do and he wasn’t going to like it.
The rope was too far for him to reach, but just close enough to jump to. It was the only way he would be able to get up through the hole in the ceiling. A fall wouldn’t be fatal but he was sure he’d at least sprain something from this height. Then the only way out would be back through the pipes, and he really didn’t want to do that.
He sighed and braced himself. A few seconds later he pushed himself away from the wall and into the rope, his adrenaline levels shooting through the roof, grasping madly at the air until he caught it. After getting ahold of it, he wasted no time in pulling himself the last few feet to the top and lifting himself out of the hole, where he promptly fell over next to it in exhaustion.
He lifted his hands to inspect them and found that they were, aside from being coated in dirt, blood and muck, visibly shaking from the adrenaline rush he had just experienced and his head hurt a lot. Grandad would be proud.
The jump had shaken him badly, so he took a few moments to collect his wits until he felt he was ready to sit up and take a look at where he was, also switching it off and putting the phone back into his pocket.
Now he saw that he was sitting in the centre of a rundown garden surrounded by high fences on three sides with a house on the fourth. The rope had been attached to a winch on a post that had been stuck in the ground next to the hole. Apart from the odd passerby, it was very quiet, so he assumed that most of the ponies were indoors.
He thought briefly about the garden being above a hall but moved on.
He observed the house for a bit in case anyone, or anypony as it was now, was coming, but no ponies came. His next move was to leave the garden and head to the glowing force field.
He scaled the fence and came out onto an empty street. Candle lamp-posts sat on street corners but nowhere else. As a result it was very dark where he was standing, ideal conditions for sneaking around. The buildings all looked like something out of a medieval history book, only the houses had more colour to them: blue, magenta, purple, the colours went on.
He began making his way towards the force-field, taking care to stick to the shadows and using alleyways to bypass lit or more populated areas.
In all his life he’d never felt more alive; blood pumping, adrenaline coursing through his veins and his mind running through all his possible routes and decisions he had to make, and it made him feel like utter garbage.
Every time he tried to take a breath of fresh air, his sinuses were filled with the smell of sewer water, every time he wanted to wipe something off of his face, he just made it dirtier. He wasn’t sure what else could go wrong, but with his luck so far he knew that whatever it was, it was going to.
He just wanted to go home. Back home nothing had tried to kill him or make him crawl through sewers. He may not have been a millionaire, but he'd had a roof over his head, food in the fridge and a TV to watch. Paradise compared to this.
It started to rain. First it was just a little, then a little more, then it poured. Just like home. It showered him, giving him a bit of a cleaning, though not enough to clean all of the muck off of him. It was something, at least.
As he entered an alley, his heart almost burst when he stumbled across a pony dressed in tattered clothing lying on a few newspapers, completely smashed. The stench of alcohol was overwhelming.
“Wuzzat? Who’s there?” the pony said, sticking his head up. “Go away, only room for one pony in this alleyway. I don’t want to have ta hurt ya...”
He tried to get up but fell back down. The pony either didn’t know or didn’t care that William was definitely not a pony. Probably the former.
“Uh, sorry, I'm leaving,” William said quickly and quietly, then made his way to the other end.
He stopped at the end and peeked around the corner. Nopony to the right. He swivelled his head round. Nopony to the... hang on. He spotted two ponies in the gloom walking down the street, a foal and, from what he could hear, a stallion. Panicking, he moved back and hid behind a few metal bins, watching them go by. The stallion was talking, though about what he couldn’t tell.
When they passed the alley, he moved back to his original spot and watched them go. That foal seemed familiar, which was ridiculous because the only foal he knew was that filly who was outside of the town. He chuckled quietly at the thought of her being in town. It was absurd.
The two ponies reached the light of the lamp-post which revealed the stallion to be a red unicorn and the foal to be-
Uh oh.
Earlier...
Where had William gone? The Changelings had told her he had gone to town but they wouldn’t say why. She didn’t like being alone with them, their sharp teeth and big blue eyes were scary, so she decided she would go find him. She just had to wait for the right time.
“Do we need to feed the pony child?” said one of the changelings.
“No, the human brought along food for her. She can feed herself,” said the wounded one.
“What about us? When do we get to feed?”
Bugruff thought about his answer before he spoke.
“Soon but not now. Queen Chrysalis ordered me not to enter the city until we receive the signal.”
“But I’m hungry, I need to eat now!” shouted the healthy one, stamping its hoof.
Bugruff responded without emotion.
“We have our orders scout. We must obey our leader.”
The changeling scoffed, pacing around Bugruff.
“Look where our leader’s orders have gotten us. We’re so scattered and weak that we have to rely on the help of another species. Burtooth was right.”
At the mention of Burtooth, Bugruff was upon the scout, and despite the wound, flooring the changeling in seconds.
“Burtooth? How dare you mention that traitor’s name!”
As they argued the young filly slipped away. Most colts and fillies her age were scared of the dark but not her. She’d always enjoyed it, it let you go places without anypony seeing you. When the shouting was faint she galloped to the town gates on the eastern side at full speed through the rain and mud.
The gates were shut but the guards on the wall saw her and opened them again to let her in. It opened into an almost empty street, save for a few ponies here and there, that looked like it went right through the city. Once inside, she was greeted by a unicorn guard wearing a red cloak and an iron helmet which he took off. She could see his cutie mark was a musical note made of candy canes but he quickly covered it when he readjusted his cloak. He seemed familiar to her.
“What are you doing out at this time of night? Are you lost?” He had a concerned look on his face.
Was she lost? She didn’t know where she was, or where she was going so maybe she was.
“I think so.”
“So you don’t have any place to stay? Nopony to look after you?”
“...no.”
He nodded and turned round, beckoning her towards him. She was uncertain at first but followed him anyway.
“I know somewhere you can get a hot meal. Would you like that?” His voice was very soft, almost comforting, and she found herself being drawn to him.
She nodded, a smile forming on her face. Maybe just a little food, then she could keep looking for William. She was sure he wouldn’t mind.
They seemed to be headed towards the large glowing dome that she had seen from outside of the city. Wasn’t that where Queen Chrysalis said they kept all the other changelings?
After some time, having passed house after house and lamp post after lamp post he stopped at one of the entrances to an alleyway.
“After you,” he said, moving aside to let her in.
Without thinking she walked into it only to find that it was a dead end. She turned to see three stallions blocking her only exit. The one that had led her in was at the front.
“Don’t run. It won’t do you any good,” he said, his voice still soft and sweet. They closed in on her, one of his peers levitating a bag along with them. The filly backed away but felt her hindlegs collide with the wall.
“W-what are you going to do to me?”
The guard sighed, droplets of rain dripping down his face.
“You’re going to be a slave, foal. Nothing personal, s’just, a stallion’s gotta eat.”
Then she remembered who he was. He was one of the stallions who had taken her father away.
“Daddy...” she whimpered.
-William-
William turned the corner, his fight-or-flight instincts kicking in. Three stallions, two of which he had noticed following the filly earlier on, stood around the filly at the end of the alleyway, their backs turned to him.
“What in tartarus is that smell?” one of them remarked.
“Shut up,” said another.
They were in the process of bringing the bag down over her. He wasn’t quite sure what to say in a situation like this so he approached this like he would any normal situation back on Earth.
“Uh, excuse me, sir, but would you please not touch that child?” he said.
They didn’t even turn to look at him.
“Mind your own business bub, this doesn’t concern you,” said the red one in the centre.
“Actually it does. I’m her...” What would be an appropriate title? “...uncle.”
The red one laughed and his friends followed suit.
“It looks like we’ve got another catch then, boys.” He began to turn. “Do you know wh-”
When he saw the human standing at the end of the alley, he stopped dead. Even in the current lighting, William could see the look on his face, one of pure, unadulterated terror. He found it quite amusing, though he still didn’t feel in control or even remotely safe. If they decided to attack him he had no doubt that they would beat him into the ground, so his tactic for now was to scare them off.
He waited for them to say something but they kept silent. Humans must really be feared in these parts for them to act this way. He walked closer and motioned to the filly to come to him.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said.
She galloped to him, jumping into his stomach, the man barely catching her, and giving him the strongest hug he was sure he’d ever had. A few more of his worries dissolved.
As they were about to go, William received his second almost-a-heart attack for the night when the unicorn fired a few magic bolts at them. He flinched as they dissipated in front of him, then, remembering that he had to keep them scared, gave the pony his best glare. The unicorn fainted.
He turned back round and ushered the filly along.
-Celestia-
“Tia, are you sure that is the best course of action?” asked Luna, prying her eyes away from the window to look at her sister.
“Yes, Luna, I do. The situation there has gotten out of hand and I don’t want my ponies to be caught up in a war they don’t need to be a part of. The locals will just have to deal with the monsters themselves.”
“Can we not work something out or...”
“I wish we could, I really do Luna, but you saw how the negotiations went. Now that Eastmarsh isn’t in effect anymore, the Griffins can do anything they want. The Equestrian Royal Guard has to leave Hadrow.” She finished writing up her letter and sent it off. “Now if you’ll excuse me sister, I have other matters to attend to.”
The princess of the sun got up and left the room, leaving a frowning Luna in her wake.
