Chapters The Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, Discord, yawns as he relaxes upon the sunbed he had 'spawned' for himself within his room in Canterlot. Looking through the roof at the star-filled sky above, his eyes settle on a single star.
"Hmmm?... Some form of life there..." He says to himself, spawning a book to his right containing all of the history of humanity, literally flicking through it before closing the book and frowning, looking up to the star in thought "So, 'Humans' live there... Nary a solar goddess, nor a glorious being such as myself brightening their lives up... Remarkably grey ethics..." Discord says to himself, suddenly gaining a mischievous grin
"I doubt Celestia would know..." He says, his eyes narrowing, looking at all of the corners of the room to be sure he was alone before clicking his claws four times, each click altering the laws of reality and the lives of four people on Earth. Satisfied, Discord yawns once more, closing his eyes and putting on a perfect act of sleeping... Time to give those lucky four some visions.
-- Meanwhile, on Earth --
Arach smiles, sleeping soundly on his bed, the smile turning into a slightly creepy grin, in reaction to the events in his dream...
Within the dream, Arach had just finished visiting Bronycon, and was having a great time. A bag at his side filled with shirts depicting various images of ponies. He had arrived there with his sister, and they had arranged to meet back at a hotel room at 8 PM. Excited and early, he opens the door to the room, and enters.
"I'm here!" He calls, though a little quietly for fear of disturbing other guests, to which he got no reply. "Sounds like I'm early..." He mutters to himself, actually glad, feeling a little thirsty, walking through a door and to a small room, inside which there were a few bottles of water they had brought, labeled for both of them. He walks over to his, and takes a few gulps of the water, before placing it down happily as he hears a female voice he clearly recognized as his sister's calling out: "I'm here!"
He smirks at the similarity of the words, not noticing his sudden loss of height "As am I!" He calls back, walking out to see his sister... His beloved, cherished, and DELICIOUS sister...
She sees him and yelps, eyes widening as she steps back, clearly in shock at what she saw, as Arach chuckles "What's the matter?"
She blinks a few times "Y-You're a Changeling..."
Arach grins, taking a step forwards, licking his lips as she takes a step back in response, suddenly leaping for her, levitating her into the room and biting through a wooden pole she was about to slam into his face, locking the door before looking into her eyes with a grin
"And you are excellent food..." He says in a raspy voice, before opening his mouth wide, slime covering her and quickly forming a cocoon around her, which he sticks to the ceiling of the hotel room, cackling loudly as he brightens up his horn, a green glow coming from his horn as he begins to feed on her emotions with the hunger of a predator, grinning as he feels her emotions fill the deep pit of hunger he felt, his expression faltering before he gasps in horror, jumping back, the dream fading as he sees something in her eyes...
He saw himself. Or rather, herself... He was the very image of Chrysalis, and the sight was enough to jar him out of his predatory mindset and realize what he was doing.
He opens his real eyes, looking up to his room and sighing, fully relaxing, despite the cold sweat he was covered in "...Just a dream" Says a raspy voice which he gasps at before realizing it was his own, raising a hand in panic and seeing just one thing... One thing which fills his mind with horror...
...A black hoof, with holes going the the limb it was attached to.
His breath catches in his throat as his heart rate increases, looking at the hoof with his mouth agape, a plethora of new senses assailing his quickly recovering mind.
His tail is one of the first new things to come to his attention, as he swishes it back and forth experimentally, feeling it move beneath the bed, whimpering in surprise and even a little fear, as he also notices a change of what he felt between his legs. A subtle prod from atop the blanket, before an attempted pinch, proved that he was no longer male.
It was a minor curiosity to the now-her, but nothing of much interest as she bites her lip gently and carefully, and her wings 'wake up', much like an arm would after being slept on.
She inhales at the feeling, slowly trying to sit up before wincing and collapsing again, remembering that pony bodies were not meant to sit like that, her eyes widening and pupils dilating for a second at the shock and joy of magic opening up for her. A whole new sense... Within a second, she couldn't imagine life without it.
Careful not to crush her wings, she turns to her side, and carefully sits up in the position she'd seen so many times while watching MLP
"R-Right, so, an Ali--" She begins, before she cuts off her own voice with a gasp. It had quickly developed into Chrysalis's own voice! She stares into the distance, unsure if she should be joyful or fearful, even slightly creeped out at this, her natural response being a small amount of the first, a lot of the second and an 'average' amount of the third.
"S-So, I'm Chrysalis..." She says nervously, glancing around before trying to use magic to close the curtains of her room, frowning as her horn glows and does nothing; She lives practically in the middle of nowhere anyway, so there wasn't much risk of being discovered.
After a moment, she shakily gets up, very carefully lowering out of her bed before slowly walking over to the curtains, wobbling on her hooves, terrified that she'd fall any second.
She quickly reaches the curtains, and carefully drags them closed with her more flat teeth, before shakily walking to a mirror, having to stretch her forelegs up to a desk to pull herself up to view it.
She looks into the mirror, and back stares Chrysalis. She gasps after a moment, pupils dilating as she feels the final, and most important sense open up to her: Emotions.
Now that she thought of it, she had actually felt nothing like hunger or thirst after waking up until now, but this... This was like some kind of mix... She wasn't that hungry right now, but feared the worst for later when she actually did need to eat, innately knowing that she wouldn't be able to eat normal food.
Her pupils returning to normal, she sighs, about to get down from the desk, when her reflection does not follow her movements, but instead leans up to the mirror, snout almost poking the mirror as it grins evilly, eyes turning the color and shape of Discord's as the mirror-self grins at the scream of the real Arach, who had pushed herself away from the table and had half collapsed into a sitting position, staring up at what she now assumed to be Discord, her eyes wide and mouth open in shock.
"So, tell me..." The reflection says, passing through the mirror, shape changing to Discord's at the point of contact, as the rest of his body slowly turns back to its natural form with every inch he steps out of the mirror
"...Do your legs whistle when you fly?" Discord finishes with a grin once his last hind leg leaves the mirror.
C Chapter 2: Higher Learning
"So, tell me..." The reflection says, passing through the mirror, shape changing to Discord's at the point of contact, going down her body as she slowly crawls out
"...Tell me..." Discord says, grinning down at her "...Do your legs whistle when you fly?"
Discord's grin grows a little, as he looks down on Arach, who was currently staring up at him in a mix of horror, fear and wonder
"Oh, i'm sorry for frightening you, chum..." He says with no hint of sympathy, teleporting with a flash behind the terrified Arach, body wrapping her back as he looks into her eyes close up, causing her to clench her teeth and move her head a little bit away from him.
"I'm merely here for a laugh... And a little gift." He says, a book phasing into existence on a nearby desk, as he glances over to it.
"A full guide on magic, written by youuurs truly" He says, smiling as two miniature fireworks burst from his back and explode behind his head
Arach just stares back at him, hardly believing her eyes, mouth gaping, fear gripping her over the idea of being a Changeling, and a seemingly non-reformed Discord being loose in the world.
"Speechless at how pleased you are? Oh, you flatter me." He says, turning into a paper image of himself as he says this, straightening out and blowing off with a non-existent wind, beginning to burn up as well "Ta-ta for now, and enjoy your feast." He says, as Arach gets to her hooves and runs towards him as well as she can at this point.
"W-Wait!" She begs after him "Why have you done this!?" She calls, hoping he'd hear, as the paper fully burns up and his voice echoes throughout the room
"Hahaha... Your hive will be fun to watch..." He says in an echo, voice fading out.
Arach watches the spot Discord was in a moment ago, speechless, chest filling with fear and horror at what that implied, pausing before turning to the recently formed book slowly, lifting it up with some effort and bringing it to her bed.
The book was brown, with the outer edges almost looking like a wooden frame, the title being proudly displayed in the center of the frame
Magic
The full Walkthrough.
Also containing pie.
Arach stares at the title for a few seconds, raising an eyebrow at the final line, but proceeding on anyway, turning the page.
"The font's so tiny..." She complains, having to move her face inches from the book to read the first words, which appeared to be comprised of postage stamps and parts of old newspapers, looking like they had been dragged right out of a horror film
"Read aloud: Whyyy...?" She repeats as the page instructs, instantly being hit in the face by a pie, some force behind it as well, causing her to close her eyes and bare her teeth in frustration, pushing it from her face before shuddering at an attempted lick at her lip
"Disgusting..." She curses, delicately picking up the pie and managing to place it on what was once a comfortably high desk, before returning to her book and glaring at the page "...Nice trap." She says with frustration, turning the page to some nicely sized text, growling in rage before suddenly stopping, eyes widening as she sees the title of the page
Magical Feeding
Advanced techniques and efficiency for consuming emotions quickly.
As much as she hated it, she felt desire start to bud up, before a feverous need to learn all she could from that collection of pages. She smirks as she feels some emotions start to get drawn into her from the air.
"Ahhh, my old emotions... Delicious, but... Stale..." She comments "And I don't produce any as a Changeling..." She trails off, before grinning "...After this, a little family get-together sounds nice" She says, chuckling to herself "They'll never know what hit.. them..."
She would pale if her body was not covered in Chitin, looking down at her hoof with some fear. "He's taking my mind as well? " She thinks, horror filling her at that. She'd become as bad as Chrysalis, maybe worse. She would become humanity's scourge, the delicious emotions would pulse through her...
And she'd love every second of it.
A few days passed, with Arach doing little more than reading and getting used to her new form. She quickly realized that she could transform emotion directly into magical power, and so decided to be careful with her spellcasting, in case she starved herself before she was ready.
No-one had seen her, apart from various texts she had sent out. Luckily, she had transformed during a break from work, giving her plenty of time to hone her skills.
She had also quickly discovered an ability to see in the dark, and was already well-versed in Changeling transformation magic. As such, she had regained her old form, with nothing to betray her new nature.
It appeared that hands could channel magic much like a unicorn's horn: A green... coloration, similar to on the show, covered the hand down to the wrist whenever magic was cast. The coloration moved about on it's own as well, almost sharing the physics of fire, with the direction of the wrist being the constant direction of 'down'.
Something nagged at Arach's mind for the first day, before on the second she just dropped everything she was doing and stepped to the center of the room she was in, closing all curtains and returning to her true form.
She closed her eyes, inhaling softly as a thick green goop began to seep out of the holes on her limbs, causing her to sigh. Something was just... Fulfilling about doing this. A strange desire to just... coat the room with the stuff had gripped her.
Her hoof moved through it easily, though through primal instinct she knew that any non-changeling would get trapped within it.
Within the next two hours, every surface in the house other than the windows and anything electronic was coated, the curtains closed and the room dim.
The house quickly grew warm and humid.. But in a pleasant way. The Changeling quickly grew to enjoy and revel in the dark and damp place, only briefly thinking about the correlation between this and the optimal location for bacteria...
Arach smiled, though there was a hint of nervousness to it.
"I knew this day would come... " She thought, exhaling as she consumed the last piece of emotion that her human half had wastefully left wafting around. For some reason, she couldn't feed on the emotion from other houses, or even sense it as she had once tried...
She smiled softly, walking over to a window and peering out of a crack in the curtains "My power has grown, I think... I am ready." She said to herself, closing the curtain.
She was living on the outskirts of a small town, relatively far from civilization. A perfect place for a new hive, she had theorized.
Wordlessly, she left the building, being consumed by green fire, blinking as she put on the form of a pale man, clothed in some of her old clothing.
She smirked down at the form she was taking. It felt... right. Right to be disguised like this in public...
She began to walk down the path to her neighbor, before deciding to walk past the house and enter the town. Mere happiness and the other spectrum of emotions would not do... While they were delicious, some primal part of her knew that love... Was exquisite. Not necessary, but a luxury.
She tapped into her 'empathy sense', as her book had called it; Something that all changelings have, allowing them to sense the emotions of nearby beings, even consume it discreetly.
Quickly, she began to walk towards her target; A couple of two, eating at a bar. Deeply in love... A perfect meal.
She entered the bar and blended into the crowd after taking a simple glance at the couple, already feeling the mass of emotion around her, silently tapping into it to fuel herself.
This had the effect of raising her mood, causing her to smile gently as she ordered a drink. Silently watching a conversation between two drunk men, while keeping tabs on the couple through her empathy sense.
Some small part of her protested, thought that what she was doing was disgusting and immoral... How wrong it was. These humans... They were so... simple. Undeserving of the freedom that currently graced them, nay, this was not their place at all.
Their true place was at her hooves, as her eternal food and slaves.
The barkeeper returned with her drink, dragging her out of her thoughts and giving her a smile. "That'll be three pounds." He said simply, as she sensed his boredom and yet small happiness.
She smiled, handing him the money, along with an additional two pounds for a surge of happiness. Money would soon be worthless to her, after all.
She looked down at the beer she had ordered with a smile, raising a hand to grasp it.
Beer... Some would question the value of getting drunk while attempting to replace a family member, but to her it made perfect sense.
The two were drinking non-alcoholic drinks, and she knew just the thing to get one of them tipsy, and dull their senses.
She pretended to take a sip, before lowering the glass to her side, with a smile, putting one hand in her pocket.
Some may have noticed a dull green glow coming from her pocket, but they were either too intoxicated or distracted to pay it heed; Or they may have even have thought that it was some form of technology.
In actual fact, she was separating and evaporating the alcohol from all other things in the beer, before magically guiding the vapor to the drink of the male of the couple.
Once done, she noticed their drinks were nearly finished, and so raised her glass and drank, subtly evaporating some of the now non-alcoholic beer in order to finish it faster.
She finished just in time, and placed her cup on the counter as the couple did, smirking to herself as they both got up at the same time.
She let them leave first, knowing one of them to probably be a little drunk, following after them silently afterwards, walking into a back alley when they weren't looking.
No-one noticed the green glow coming from the alley for a second, and nobody noticed the butterfly leaving the alley and flying after them, high in the sky. Watching them... Waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
