Chapter 3: The Changing Monster

My name was once Brody Thatcher, human, formerly. Now I am Spooky Patchwork: some sort of chimera dragon. My friend, Tony Niles, human, is now a carbon copy of a My Little Pony character. Yeah, now he’s (she’s?) an Alicorn mare he named Thrashion Riverside.

You probably know this already but I just need to bring you up to speed on my end.

Yes, I am a brony, but I like the show and the stories written by the community. I never dreamed of leaving Earth and coming to the Equestria. Quite the contrary. My life wasn't the best, but it was mine! I’m a natural nervous wreck, but right now?

Right now my life has gotten a tad more complicated but, it was pretty cool. Why is that? I am fighting; fighting manticore and I'm holding my own. I knew that dragons were powerful, but this was crazy!

The scorpion tail came down on me, and I watched as blades came out of my forearm. It was amazing, I was holding his shiny black scorpion tail with just my bladed forearm. The manticore's snarled and roared in my face, lifting it's paw to swipe me. I quickly gave it a head butt. That's when the two earth bound guards bucked the manticore.

"Thanks!" I shouted.

"No problem," The first guard replied.

"We just need to hold out until back up comes," The second said.

Lifting its tail, the manticore started to loose beams of green energy at us. We quickly took cover and hoped that our magic barriers would last.

"Manticores can't do that." The first guard said aloud.

"I don't know, I never seen a manticore." The second guard answered.

"I can hold him off!" I broke in. "But I may lose my mind, so if I go off you might have to get me too." No joke, I was going to push this body to its limits. I wanted to fight, I wanted to hurt something.

The two guards looked at me then looked at each other. They nodded and then looked back at me. "Try not to lose yourself," The first guard said to me. "Because we need a little time."

"We'll stop you, if need be." The second finished.

I darted out and made a roar; I unleashed my anger. Anger, why anger? It was always inside of me just waiting to come out. Being the but of people’s jokes, ridiculed at work and forced to put up with the crap all time… I normally would try to take in stride but now. Now? Well Hello Misplaced Aggression!

With great speed I smashed my clawed fist into the manticore's face. Before it got a chance to retaliate I laid another blow. Then another and then another, my fist meeting its lion-like face.

It felt good to have power, being able to push a manticore back. As a human I was a broken mess, my words. I had to take a lot of headaches, lots of crap, and a lot of pain! With each blow I could deal out I felt those old feelings of loss and helplessness bleeding out of me. Don’t get me wrong: I still wanted to be human again. I wanted to go home.

Still, this felt great! I delivered one strike after another after another to my opponent. The manticore broke away from my relentless beatings. He backed up, charged, and jumped into the air, over shooting me. Before I could turn around it tackled me to the ground and started to pound it's paw like fists into my back.

I let out a roar of frustration as I felt something spring from my back. It wasn't painful, rather it felt like my hair was standing on end, but harder and stronger than hair. I didn’t have hair on my back to begin with.

"Grewaowwl!" It roared, rearing back in pain. I was free of its crushing weight.

I made a quick glance over my shoulder and saw black spikes coming out of my back. I turned back to the manticore with a psychotically triumphant "Wrahahwa!"

We were staring each other down. Madness was coming, closer, closer and I finally had the power to change everything. It was a more primal me in this moment a me that I never really got to know. I liked it! The adrenaline rush felt so good, I didn't want it to stop. But I had to stop. There was no choice.

I was stopped by a barrier coming up over the manticore and a magic restraining field was cast on me, lifting me up into the air. My mind slowed down as I looked over at my brutally subdued handiwork. I took a deep breath and let my mind back from the brink. The blades and spikes started to return to their flesh sheaths and my thoughts became clearer. I hung there and went limp as I let out a ragged breath, I was almost back to normal.

“We’ve got them both!” some pony yelled from behind me.

“Keep the manticore confined!” yelled a familiar voice.

“The dragon’s on our side, he’s the one that kept it busy for us,” A second familiar voice called.

I was lowered to the ground and relieved to see a platoon of unicorns. Behind them were the two earthbound guards. “Thanks,” I gasped.

“Don’t mention it. The name’s Green Gable, by the way,” The first earthbound guard said.

“I’m Cross Chop, glad you can help but we want you to go back outside with your friend. We’ll handle this,” The second earthbound guard finished.

I took their hooves and shook them. The moment of calm was broken when the three of us heard one of the unicorns yell: “What in Tartarus is happening!”

We turned around to watch as the manticore began to ‘smolder’. It’s furry body was cracking and glowing with black and green light. The ‘smoldering’ covered its body and soon its form started to morph. Limbs twisted, contorted, bulged, and then constricted. The body started to smoke and burn away as it became an enormous turtle. It reminded me of a Red-eared slider covered in rocky-like armor. When the ‘smoldering’ was done it’s rocky covered body dropped out from the unicorn's bubble. Once it was free it started spitting out bursts of crystal, green goo coming from its sharp beak. It withdrew into its shell and started to spin until it broke through the floor and dropped down.

“How did it…,” Cross Chop stammered.

“Changeling?” I questioned, before they could follow up I added: “But, I thought they were myths,” I finished, covering my tracks quickly.

“Yeah, Changelings are real, but that wasn’t one, couldn’t be. Only high level can changelings can change into other creatures, even then they can only change into ordinary animals. Not some monstrous animal like a manticore. Even then while in pony or animal form they can’t use their changeling abilities while in their true state. Animals are the only thing that can overlap with a mimic’s powers,” Green Gable said to me flatly.

“How do you know Green?”

“Parents are Equestria Game Wardens, remember? But the creature did change. What it changed into was a dragon turtle and that’s the perfect creature to defend against unicorn magic with, their shells can disperse it easily,” Green Gable finished.

“Listen,” Cross Chop started . “Spooky is it? We can’t ask you to continue to fight this thing, it’s just too dangerous. Well have a guard escort you out to your friend.” I nodded to him and a pegasus was called over.

“Thank, I hope we meet again, Cross Chop, Green Gable,” I said as the pegasus led me back to Thrashion.

What I saw bothered me, but I didn’t know what to do with the information. I was led back to Thrashion. What the Hell is going on I thought. That thing had changeling powers, but it was different somehow.

“Ready to get out of her Thrashion?” I asked when we were face to face.

“You know it, Spooky,” My friend replied.

Quietly, the two of us slipped through the crowd and out of sight.

Author's Note

So to those who are following me. What do you think?
I know it's not the best but I am trying.

Thanks for reading.