~Voices~

I couldn't remember the last time I was so damn cold.

Being cold was a feeling no creature can ever truly get used to. Some have excess fluff for warmth, and some warm blankets to pull over them whenever they feel “a wee' bit chilly.” However, when you're lying around well after the sun had set, without said blanket and fluff, no idea where you are, and even less of a thought on where to go, being “cold,” kind of just squirms it’s filthy little self into the front of your conscience.

I tell you now, it will never go away.

It will nip at you, a sizzle like feeling. It will make you squirm and writhe to escape it. But you can't. It brings forward uncomfortable and unwanted feelings: it makes you long to be back with those you know, wrapped in a blanked, perhaps by a bonfire.

Try as you might though, you can't really escape something that thrives like a bug in the air around you. The wind will bring it, moving will bring it; when you breathe in it sears your lungs, making you wince every time you need to take a breath. The cold, present and profound can't be moved or persuaded, and it doesn't leave you alone.

I can't forget to mention that as a sad and little changeling, I was used to being surrounded by thousands of my sardine-packed and decently warm hive members; in lands that never really get, well; cold. And, although I never got to “play” or “laze around,” I was never uncomfortable. More importantly, I was never cold.

However, against my will, and much to my disdain; my once trusty hive discarded me like a wagon toy with only 3 wheels. They tossed me out -or rather just knocked me out- and flew off. Presumably back to my once called home. They left me here, on the outskirts of the Everfree forest, all alone; even worse, without a way to get back.

And wow was lying still on Equestrian soil after dark, cold.

I suppose I deserved it. All I had to do in the attack was suckle up some happy couples love and buzz away from the action, and I didn't. I just sat on my haunches, looking on like an oaf while my hive attacked the mountain side city. I just watched as they relentlessly flung themselves at all those ponies. I watched as some of us got taken down, some getting what they wanted. Finally, I watched as my queen and most of my family got banished to, somewhere far away.

I watched but I never did anything. I don't even recall moving during the attack, just sitting like an injured bystander. I guess someling else noticed my stationary status because, when the few stragglers of our hive got their wits together and buzzed away, I was dealt a good blow to my scaly head. He must have thrown one hard and fast hoof because besides waking up, that's all I remember.

I still thanked the cold though; it was the only real reason I bothered to get up after all.

“Errmg” I mumbled, lazily pushing myself up like it was some sort of chore. I felt all my joints pop and creak from all the tension standing seemed to release. I turned my head to face forward, I opened my huge blue eyes and looked ahead, the monumental trees of the Everfree laid out before me. Of course I was dumped next to the one place that Chrysalis told us to avoid.

Come to think of it, why leave me at all? Just re-teach me how to be a sad shell of a creature like all the others that disobey Chrysalis. Was dragging me to the edge of a unspeakably horrendous place necessary?

Was it because I have the ability to stop and think, or maybe because I was willing to use that ability? Or was it because I didn’t just spring into action when the lemmings I call my brethren did.

Probably.

“Probably just wanted me dead” I muttered, turning my attention back to the dismal treeline ahead. I gulped; it was, unnaturally dark in there. I began listening for any noise that could indicate a brutish attack from one of the strange beasts within.

A gust of wind blew past me, once again, the cold went with it. It stung my eyes like dust.

Much to my relief, everything was silent. Only the constant drone of the wind and the light wheeze of my breath was present. I figured it about as good a time as ever to head in to a bleak and beast ridden forest.

I took a few, tentative steps forward; the grass muffled my hooves, making even moving silent and dull. The silence fit in incredibly well with the ever so dark and ominous atmosphere of the night. It seemed as if the dark wanted to choke me; like it was closing in just to wring my neck, and strip me of life.

Oh how ironic it was when my pitch black hoof landed on a fallen stick, and every darkened splotch in the treeline lit up with the angry eyes of… things. Things that were more than likely bigger than me. A few of them released pent up growls and snarls that showed they were incredibly territorial, or were waiting all day for something to be angry at, and then to snack upon.

I locked up, gaping at my new guests. I felt bile climb up my throat, and I used about as much strength as I could muster to keep it down. I tried to stand tall, as if my authority wasn’t being challenged by a creature from the Everfree.

One stepped out, revealing itself to be a huge lio...scor...thing, towering well above me. It motioned its paws forward, leading the others out as well. Scratch that, leading the many others out as well. Six or seven of the miss-matched beasts squeezed through the brush and trees they had been using to stay hidden.

“C-can you ssspeak?” I questioned, hoping it could have some form of cognitive ability besides crush and eat, maybe even believing that it wouldn't try to make me very dead in a few moments.

It instead snarled and sprouted its….wings, oh my it has wings, big and powerful wings, and then snarled again; a deafening, guttural noise scraped up from the bottom of its throat.

“Ssso thiss meansss no?” I asked, half of me still wanting to believe that this was some sort of humorless joke. I started pacing backwards, and them forward. Each creature was equally matching my speed like it was a practiced routine.

I gasped when I stepped onto that accursed stick, causing me to lose balance, and come down onto my haunches. This gave me perfect view straight into their ‘leaders’ wide and open mouth. It leaned in and bared its almost sword like teeth to me. Teeth that made me -for the time being- actually want to go back to Chrysalis, wherever she was.

It took the moment I had off my hooves to jump up and over me, using its wings to glide down slowly and almost gracefully. The pride...er, uh, flock soon followed suit, and they sat in formation again; this time behind me, breathing down my neck.

Worse it seems, this meant that they were Intelligent; I was forced to go into the forest, where, most likely, billions of these things resided. It was like a trap, just, bigger, and with teeth and claws instead of tripwire and a net.

I gathered up the half ounce of courage I had left and pushed my legs back, moving into a ‘trot ready’ position, then took off. My petty, hole covered legs carried me as fast as they could away from my newly deemed, bat winged scorpion lions. oooh even better, lorpion bats! Yet, sadly, right now, it seemed it wasn’t all that fast. Even worse, against everything my brain said to do, I abided their plan, and went straight for the forest. I didn’t even bother to try something else, such as, running to the left, or to the right.

How Chrysalis-damned inane could I be? Why do I bother being alive if the best idea I can come up with under pressure is to trot into the home of lorpion bats?

Because being alive is fantastic, thats why I bother.

More cold wind shot past me as they pushed their mighty wings down, taking off full blast, they surprisingly didn’t immediately catch up. I closed the last few yards between me and the forest quickly, and in less than ten seconds, I had breached into the Everfree.

“oh, they sssmell bad asss well.” I hacked out when I registered the overwhelming scent of fermenting urine and sadness; more urine, less sadness.

Still, I plowed on, surpassing the urge to vomit, saving it for later incase I could puke at one of them. Maybe I could make them believe I’m insane and dangerous, or just too sickly to eat. I tried to get my wings open, but Everfree witchcraft was afoot and they seemed to stuck to my sides.

In a split second I made the decision to just use my changeling-born agility to outmaneuver them, trying to dodge and weave over just going forward. And it would have worked if more of them didn’t just pile out of the trees I passed. Run. Run. Run. Jump. Don’t puke. Run. How I avoided running directly into one of them was beyond me.

Tree after tree rushed by me as I dove, jumped, and bound ahead. My smaller stature and quicker footing legitimately being the only reason I was still alive. I could hear the crunching of branches and shrubbery as my pursuers made good chase, straining my fleeing capabilities more than I ever had before. A few more minutes of hauling-flank went by and before long, my legs were having trouble obeying me. Minutes were beginning to feel like hours, pain ripped through me with every second I galloped further. Every turn I took looked the same as the last one, and it was destroying most of the hope I had left.

Well of course they look the same, I'm in a forest; the Everfree forest at that...why would I come here? I heard a roar and cracking tree limbs behind me, a snap at my flank showed they probably wouldn’t just “go away.” Yup, thats why. My breath was starting to get really erratic and short. Not exactly at the point of passing out, but I noticed I couldn’t go as fast as before without almost collapsing.

Yet, thats when I saw it. Something more beautiful than the rising sun or a full moon. It was a cottage, and despite being in the middle of the night, there was somepony outside.

Yes! She isn’t even moving! Run past her and hide, she can be bait now.

“Sorry!” I tried to yell, however, it came out as more of an abysmal whimper. Atleast I attempted to apologise, despite not knowing or caring much for whomever I was now going to practically use as an oversized chewtoy. She turned her head and locked up, letting out a little “Eep,” as she did so. I strode past her and dove into a nearby thick bush, turning around and peering out at the scene that was about to unfold.

I had never killed anything before, and although I wouldn’t physically be doing it, this still felt like this would fit the bill for murder.

“Wha-” She spit out, turning towards the line of shrubbery I had escaped to. Her eyes gazed over my new shelter; they turned back and forth, like a sweeping spotlight.

A distant roar was heard, she whipped her body around, and faced the treeline again. all the lopion bats dove out of it at once, thunderous thumps echoed through the small clearing ahead. Many more had joined the chase, their numbers tripled in our run through the Everfree.They roared, oversized vocal chords letting loose torrents of noise that pounded on my eardrums.

Within seconds they had closed the gap between them and the mare, and then they...stopped. What? They stopped and sat down in succession, all their excess noise and panting ceasing to be as they sat in front of her.

The mare stood tall, holding her ground despite the fact that she was being presented with thousands of pounds of beast. She glared at them, and they all grouped up into a tight huddle behind their ‘leader.’ What?

“Hey you big meanie! What do you think you’re doing picking on some poor, innocent creature like that?” she sort-of-almost yelled. What?

“What did it ever do to you and your pride Mr. Manticore?” She asked, staring at them, face to face with once so high-and-mighty manticore.

My goodness she’s actually staring them down. ‘Mr Manticore’ shrunk back, and… whimpered, at her.

“Well then” -she stomped down her right front hoof, and the manticores shrank down even more- “you go back home, um, and leave the other forest animals alone will you, uh, please.”

What she did, I might never know, but they obeyed, they actually turned around, and like a stubborn child after getting in trouble, stomped off, back into the forest.

All of my what? I had witnessed a lone mare, one that I managed to startle by simply apologising to, overpower and command a pride of manticores… with her words. They must have hit me harder than I thought, or I ran too hard. This isn’t real, I mean, why would it be real?... Actually, oh no, what if she can control minds, or something like that.

“You can come out now.” A voice startled me, breaking me free from my thoughts, my head snapped to it. She was right in front of my bush. “Its safe.” she barely said; quiet, even though she wasn’t even a hoofs length away from the bush I was cowering in.

I stared at her for a moment, it took me a second to realize that I had stopped breathing correctly. I was absolutely terrified of her. No creature has the need, nor should have the ability to command manicores. It truthfully, frightened me, quite a bit.

Then she smiled. It was a sincere, gentle, and also heart decimating smile. Her aqua eyes stared into me, a lovely and kind gaze though it was, seemed to pierce my very soul. She didn’t relent, and seemed to be completely unaware to what she was doing to me with that look.

I wonder why I didn’t just lash out and, well, attack her. After all, it’s what my kind was meant to do. One quick and powerful bite with my fangs, and I would have sucked up her love, slowly draining the life from her body, until she would drop down as an empty husk of what she once was. It was really rather grotesque, I watched it happen more than a few times during the attack, and it was heart breaking to say the least.

This would have also helped me regain lost energy; she would never give me one of those mind-bending smiles again.

But something held me back.

It could be that I simply felt in debt to her, for scaring them away, Or maybe because I truthfully didn’t believe that I would win that fight. I’m small, even for a changeling, only coming up to her jawline. Perhaps because I wouldn’t be able to go into town, and the only rightful escape I had was back into that shitty forest.

Plus she still terrified me.

I’ll pretend that the fear was what made me decide against hurting her and running away like a scared animal.

I sat there for a moment, I tried to piece together what happened, and why it happened. I thought about the overwhelming lack of other options I had, and after a small while of uselessly staring back at her, pondering my existence, and looking at that neverending heart-fisting smile, I gave in.

“I sssuppose.” I said, her eyes widened, surprised that I could speak. She stepped back and gave me room to leave my fortress of sticks and berries. I sighed once more, and stepped out in front of her.

However, I seemed to forget that I was a changeling, a race that has always been against pony kind, furthermore, one that just recently attacked the Equestrian capital.

She backpedaled, eyes wide with what could only be described as fear. what, no! you command manticores, remember silly pony! Oh that was stupid, stupid, and some more stupid. Why didn’t I just change?

Fearful thoughts screamed through my head, a thousand different scenarios on what she was going to do pounded my thoughts around. She opened her mouth, and it dawned on me what her next action would be; she would scream for help.

“No, don’t, no! Don’t ssscream, I won’t, uh…” She began to squeak at me; a short rapid fire torrent of squeaks that couldn't deter an attacking lady bug. “hurt you… Um, are you alright?” I held one hoof out to her in case she needed help standing up. She flipped over onto her back, her hooves stuck out and pointed to the sky. At first I thought I had put her into cardiac arrest, but when I checked for a pulse, her heart was beating fine.. I may or may not have just broken this pony. I brought my head down to her mouth, and listened to her breathing; as far as my small medical knowledge on ponies went, it seemed pretty normal. I...believe I, froze her...maybe...probably.

“Now, I don’t know if you can hear me pony, but, I won’t hurt you. You sssee, I am no longer out to, um, get you. I’m, uh, good now, yessss, I am good.” I tried to speak softly as to not kill the mare by making extra noise. She shifted her neck to look at me, once again crushing my soul with a gaze that would melt steel.

I attempted to smile, but the overwhelming thought that this pony could possibly be, well, damaged because of me, brought my conscience down. Why though, I should have no feelings at all for this pony. In fact, I should have negative feeling because she’s a pony.

“Y-y-you w-w-w-wont?” She managed to squeak out. No promises.

“I promissse I won't” I just told myself I wouldn't promise, I’m a traitor. “You ssshould get up, if you can, I won’t touch you.”

“P-Pinkie p-p-promise?” What?

“Isss that, good?” I asked. She nodded her head vigorously. Her mood seemed to be getting better, less freezing and squeaks and more fluent body motions and brain function. “I, uh, Pinkie promissse then.” With that she smiled and slowly turned over, righting herself from her shock-induced state.

“Ooh,” she mumbled, shaking the dust off from her little ordeal a few seconds ago. She turned, giving me a quick backwards glance. “Y-you can come into my cottage for a moment, um, if you want to that is; y-you, um, look cold.” She smiled again, it was all too sweet and loving. Especially after my kind just attacked your capital, and I tried to use you as bait. But yet, her words gave me comfort; it also reminded me just how cold I was. Cold.

I shivered, “Yesss that would be, uh...niccce.” This time I was sincere with myself. It would indeed be ‘very nice’ to come into your home and not be killed outside. “Thankssss.” I squeaked out, the fact that I know nothing about my new company dawning on me. She could still read minds you know. Yet with the all the energy I burned from my forced marathon earlier, and the cold nipping at my limbs, I couldn't have cared any less.

She smiled again, and even giggled a little. damn that smile is contagious, and I’m not even supposed to smile. “You’re w-welcome.” She turned back around and gave me a “follow me” nod, and headed towards her back door with me following close behind. She started to hum, and was putting more spring into her step, skipping here and there. It was almost as if I didn't paralyze her with fear only moments before.

It was almost like I wasn't a banished race, one that the “princess” doesn't even approve of. Like she wasn't bringing me into her home, not even knowing who I was, or why I was here. this could be bad. I looked ahead at her, prancing along towards her home. that unusually contagious smile resting on her face. I managed a smile as well. Probably not.

Author's Note

Again, force feed me the criticism, brutal if need be.
And it would be much appreciated if someone come hold my hand and edit my stories. :3

here is the song for this chapter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF_sGFjQYow I can't get it to embed so I gave up.