Chapter 5 Odd Changes

Chapter 5 Odd Changes

“Now?”

“Nah.”

“Now?”

“... Nah.”

“And now? There is no possible way to be even more distracted.”

“Do you think, we should act now?”

... ... ...

“Argh, forget it!”

Just like this the ponytaurs left their cover and came out of the bushes back to the dirt road. Thereupon Gladiox and Syronyx passed grumpily the two blithely chatting ponies that they originally had planned to hunt down. It had been the third try now and they had wimped out again without a reason, even though the opportunities couldn´t have been better. An absolute lull in the wind, a minimal distance from the hiding place to the prey and they even had their backs turned to the ponytaurs. But neither Syronyx nor Gladiox wanted to take the initiative.

In the last three days and nights the ponytaurs had marched continuously westward without sleeping even one time. They had had to get away from Mt. Ziz by all means. After all the shimmering wings of primal chaos over there had been visible over kilometers and everypony in the area should have noticed the incident. And if everypony wants to check out what had happened there, it would be better for the ponytaurs to be as far away as possible.

Usually after its first transformation into the behemoth form a ponytaur became capable of feeding on matter of any kind. However in practice this power had become disregarded more and more because there was almost no ordered matter left in Ödland which somepony could gorge. The primal chaos had found its way into every corner there. Therefore Gladiox could enjoy a unique privilege as the only potential behemoth outside of Ödland. He was able to satisfy his hunger with anything. It could be the magical flow of this country, the life force of a tree, the matter of a sign at the side of the road or the nutritious liver of a pony... in theory.

But since he and Syronyx had advanced into Equestria so deep that even Syronyx had been able to taste the magical atmosphere of the country the ponytaurs weren´t able to manage one single hunt. They hadn´t unlearnt it or something, it was something different. The echoes of the magical blast wave which also had carried the changeling over Mt. Ziz into Ödland still resounded throughout the country and these echoes were perceptible everywhere in the magical flow which ran through Equestria. These echoes awakened something unknown inside the ponytaurs. It felt like qualms but stronger, so strong it wrestled their familiar instincts... and it seemed to devour them from the inside out. This something blocked their most basic abilities to hunt. Actually they came to this land to gorge and now the tables seemed to turn. Gladiox felt this but he refused to believe it. He was sure it was just an illusion of the order to confuse the primal chaos. He told his companion it would be better to lie low because he didn´t want to show weakness and tried to detract from his uncertainty. Killed ponies would just attract unwanted attention and there was more than enough alternative food for them. To Syronyx on the other hoof this weakness was enraging. He hated being controlled by his own scruples.

Although it would had been good, especially for Gladiox, to get some fresh meat. After his first transformation into a behemoth and the first encounter with the sun his body was still quite devitalized. He had been lucky the sun hadn´t burned him up completely and the transformation back had transferred the wounds of his behemoth body only on a minimal scale to his original ponytaur body. Even so the ponytaur was covered with burn marks as if he had been pulled through burning brake. Many parts of his body once covered by coat were bald and pale and to make matters worse a strange skin rash had appeared on both of his flanks. It looked like a picture, a dark mess... and it seemed to move as well when somepony looked at it for too long.

Furthermore Gladiox´s wounds didn´t heal like in the past anymore. By gorging they should disappear within seconds but this country wasn´t ruled by chaos but order. In Ödland the primal chaos had determined the natural processes and wounds had been healed right after ingesting. However it seemed to take longer here.

Besides Gladiox had tried to speed up the healing process by gorging more than necessary, or healthy. He had gorged more and more magic from his environment until an unmistakable sign had shown him that it was enough. Gladiox´s body started to shudder, his knees became weak, the blood went from his face, he fell on his knees and finally he puked all over the dirt road. A weird brown broth had come out of his gap and had covered a wide area. But the weirdest thing had been that where the vomit had touched the earth the plants had begun to grow exuberantly in seconds as if it had given the ground a little fertility injection. Something like that didn´t happen to either Gladiox or Syronyx ever before. In Ödland a ponytaur was not able to throw up, the body just didn´t have an ordered response to too much eating. On the other hoof it was quite seldom for hoofed beings to do something like that as well.

Defecating was likewise new to Syronyx and Gladiox. In Ödland anything a ponytaur or behemoth had gorged remained inside him. Everyone took what he could get and never gave it back. They didn´t have to anyway because again in the land of primal chaos the body was under different conditions than here in the land of order.

This ordered Equestria already had so many novel laws of nature the ponytaurs were hardly capable of keeping up and they had to wonder permanently about the most simple processes. Rain clouds were guided to their appropriate positions by the pegasi, birds uttered strangely ordered sounds called singing, the air was filled with countless smells, the ponies slept in houses in place of in the open, they took the animals caringly for a walk instead of gorging them and some of them wore some odd looking rags on their bodies. Yet the simple dirt roads the ponytaurs walked on were a total novelty, just like the smiling ponies which passed them from time to time. But most of all it was colorful here, extremely colorful. There were colors here Syronyx and Gladiox had never known before. Compared to Ödland where ponies could tell the rocks apart from their form and shade of grey at most Equestria´s scenery appeared to them like an exploded rainbow.

In comparison to the civilized pony nation the chaotic ponytaurs appeared like hoggish yokels, an absolute unknown word to Gladiox and Syronyx by the way.

After all a town came within the range of vision, the dirt road´s only direction led to it. A place full of life and with so much movement it seemed uncanny to the ponytaurs. A sign on the roadside said: Welcome to Stutegart.

Gladiox and Syronyx hesitated. It hadn´t been planned to visit a place like that. A place that had nothing in common with the environment the ponytaurs had been used to. Houses placed tightly next to each other instead of endless wasteland, noise from numberless conversations instead of dead silence where not even a single fly made a hum and countless ponies in confined spaces instead of wide rock deserts with maybe a hostile behemoth pack within a radius of a few kilometers.

Furthermore Gladiox and Syronyx could stand out because of their looks. But in the end one thing led to another.

While the ponytaurs still wondered if they should follow the road into the town or if they should forgo it, two mares out for a walk came towards them. They chatted and their faces beamed with joy. Anyone could notice that their facial expression was quite different from the ponytaurs´. Compared to most of the ponies the frowns of Syronyx and Gladiox looked always so serious as if they wouldn´t allow themselves to laugh. The facial features of the two mares on the other hoof looked like bright sunshine.

But when the ponytaurs encountered them the ponies looked them over dumbfoundedly and stopped. The first mare was a little silent and eyed these strange stallions with their split horns, the bedraggled manes and one of them had these burns. In addition they smelled quite foul. The second mare was more open-minded and she checked out the symbol on Gladiox´s flank which was in the same position like her cutie mark. With the exception that this cutie mark here seemed to lag and it didn´t seem to represent anything. But when her look went to the empty flank of Syronyx she had to restrain laughter.

“That´s pretty steep,” she giggled. “Such an old-timer and still a blank flank.”

Thereupon the first mare pulled her friend quickly to herself and whispered as quietly as possible, “Please don´t mess around with guys like that again. Don´t you notice? They stink like a wet dog.”

But the two chatterboxes had piqued Syronyx´s curiosity.

He turned to them and asked, “Blank flank??? What is that?”

In exchange he earned some stunned looks until the second mare answered him, “Have you been living under a rock or are you having me on right now?”

Syronyx gazing silently, “???”

Second mare, “You´re... weird, boy.”

Syronyx, “There are ponies living under rocks?”

The second mare rolled her eyes, “That was a metaphor, genius.”

Syronyx again gazing silently, “???”

Second mare, “A metaphor is... Argh, for Celestia´s sake, go and visit the elementary school!”

Syronyx again gazing silently, “???”

Meanwhile Gladiox gazing silently as well, “???”

Second mare sighed desperately, “What didn´t you understand now?”

Syronyx, “What´s an elementary school?”

Gladiox, “What´s a Celestia?”

By now the first mare tugged impatiently at her friend´s foreleg for the two ponytaurs became more and more bizarre. She wanted to leave as fast as possible but the second mare stayed with a stunned face.

Second mare grumpy, “Okay, do I honestly have to clarify something like that to you?”

Syronyx gazing silently, “???”

Second mare shouting angrily, “I mean explain!”

Syronyx filled with wonder, “Ah...”

Second mare finally shook her head, “You know what, forget it. I just changed my mind. This conversation will get us nowhere. Find yourself a wordbook.”

Syronyx suddenly perked up his ears attentively, “Book? Book!”

Second mare was about to leave, “Yeah, book. These things you can read.”

Gladiox still gazing silently, “???”

Syronyx started to smile happily, “Book! Yes. We finally speak the same language.”

Second mare walked away with her friend, “Not even by half.”

The two ponies kept moving and left the ponytaurs behind who acted like the dumbest morons on the planet. While Gladiox still puzzled about the word read, Syronyx tried to remember all the new words. Words nopony would ever use in Ödland.

The two mares strode away and seemed very glad that the ponytaurs didn´t think of following them. Meanwhile two unknown stallions came toward them on the dirt road and flagged them down. It was nopony less than two unicorn soldiers from the Royal Guard, they were tall, broad-shouldered and wearing golden armor. They interrogated the mares of name, address and if they had seen something unusual during the last days. The first mare answered hesitantly to the last question pointing at the ponytaurs. They still stood where they had been left behind and talked to each other.

“The two of them had such strange horns and they were kind of spooky,” she said.

This aroused interest in the soldiers. They let the two mares pass and approached Gladiox and Syronyx. The first one took a wanted poster out of his armor and began to compare the pony on the piece of paper with the ponytaurs while the second one backed him up by keeping everything under surveillance. There was a picture of a changeling on the paper and some descriptions about its danger level and special abilities. This was not a big surprise for the changelings had invaded the capital city Canterlot and had suffered defeat just a few days ago. Since then their troops were scattered literally to the four winds and uncoordinated. It was certainly possible that scattered changelings were still somewhere in Equestria and that they now were hiding among the natives so they could await new commands. And these strange ponies with their split horns. Well they did look suspicious.

“No, take the sign earlier for example,” said Syronyx to Gladiox. “I think it was called Stutegart.”

“But that wasn´t my question,” responded Gladiox. “How do you know what a book is?”

“Excuse me, misters,” the first soldier harrumphed when he and his partner came up to the ponytaurs. Syronyx and Gladiox span around for they had been so lost in thoughts about all the new terms they didn´t even hear the Guards coming.

“Do you have an ID?” asked the first soldier severely.

“That´s weird. Both of them reek of the captain,” mumbled the second soldier quietly.

Gladiox and Syronyx gazing silently, “???”

“Name and address!” repeated the second soldier impatiently.

“What does ID mean?” asked Syronyx irritated.

The Guards became distrustful. The first one took again a look at the wanted poster and was willing to compare.

The second Guard was ready to pull out his weapon while the first one now requested, “Both of you. Open your mouths and show your bits.”

Unsuspecting Gladiox and Syronyx followed the instruction, opened their mouths and exposed their teeth. There the first soldier saw the needed evidence. The canine teeth of the ponytaurs were elongated. Together with the strangely formed horns and the dark body color they fit well the description of a changeling. Almost simultaneously both of the Guards grabbed with their magic their fold-out spears and turned them fast as lightning on the ponytaurs.

“You´re under arrest! You´re going to follow us to the next barracks!” dictated the first soldier with a dead serious face.

Quite surprised by this turnabout Syronyx and Gladiox flashed each other a look and did what they always did when there was an enemy bigger than them. Running!

As quick as a flash they ducked their heads and ran away in full gallop into the opposite direction, right to the town. Their advantage amongst others was that during their time as scouts they hadn´t done anything else than use their legs. But the Guards were likewise no snails, they chased the runaways at full speed and didn´t lose sight of them.