I don't know what you expected
You wake to find yourself in total darkness. Your body keeps swinging back and forth, like somepony is carrying you. You wait for your eyes to adjust to the lack of light, and you notice the sounds of nearby voices. You strain your ears to listen in, but a throbbing pain on the back of your head makes itself known. You try to bring a hoof over to feel it, no good; a thick rope is tying all four of your legs together. Another rope tied around your waist is keeping your wings painfully folded at your sides. Your hoof brushes against something rough, like a burlap sack. The realization slams into you like a train wreck; you are trussed like a hog and being transported somewhere. You wince in pain as whoever’s carrying you abruptly stops and tosses the bag to the ground. The voices speak up again and you try to listen in on their conversation.
“You two idiots managed to bring the meat on time?” A deep authoritative voice asked sarcastically. “The Queen will be most pleased.”
You quickly realize that you are the “meat” they speak of and cry out through the gag lodged in your mouth as you start squirming madly.
One of your captors delivers several harsh blows to your side saying, “Oy! pipe down in there or I’ll skin ya alive!” The blows stop and you whimper softly as the bruise starts to swell.
“And the meat is alive? You two really got your act together!” The deep voice says with genuine surprise. “You might even get second helpings at tonight's feast!”
A squeaky, childish voice chimed in, “Um, aren’t we going to skin him alive anyway? Isn’t it redundant to threaten him if we-”
“Not this time you fool!” You hear a loud thwack as the younger voice gets a painful physical reminder. “But that reminds me, how are we going to prepare the meat this time?”
“Well we baked the last one, so thats no good. The queen doesn’t like repetition,” The deep voice replies, “Why don’t we roast him?”
The angry voice sounds disgusted as he says, “What? No, he’ll get all burnt.”
“Not if you use a low flame.”
“But that will take foreverrrr! I’m hungry now!”
“You will have to wait for the ceremony to be done anyway, you can wait a bit longer can’t you?”
The younger voice cautiously says, “Um, I have an idea.”
The deep voice says in a purposefully menacing tone, “Oh? And what would that be, maggot?”
The childish voice gulps loudly and says, “Well, why don’t we boil him?” There is an uneasy moment of silence after that last suggestion until the other two voices cheer with approval. You cry through your gag once more and desperately try to find some way to escape your predicament, but your captors notice your struggling and smack your head with something blunt and your body goes limp as your mind fades to blackness.
You wake up again and still the throbbing pain hasn’t gone away. In fact, it’s fair to say that the pain has intensified since you last felt, forcing you to groan and unsteadily regain your focus. Luckily there’s no darkness surrounding you this time being that the desolate room you now sat in was illuminated by the gentle firelight of sconces lining the walls. You are more easily able to adjust your focus and twist your head around to take in whatever else happened to be laying about. As you swivel your head around, you notice that you are right in the center of a massive arena of sorts, with rows upon rows of empty seats rising up all around. You try to move your legs, but you quickly find them held in place spread eagle. An pain in your side lets you know that your wings are still tied down, too. You look down and realise to your horror that you are being suspended over a large cauldron full of water.
Your heart starts racing as you wonder what is going on when you notice a lone figure enter the arena. The figure approaches you, tall and slender like one of the princesses but without the large, feathery wings or, for the most part, beautiful and flowing manes. Dread creeps into your veins as the figure becomes more and more easily recognizable. You struggle in your bonds, praying to Celestia that somehow, someway, you’ll manage to break yourself free. The figure chuckles and steps into the light, revealing her black chitinous skin, transparent insect wings, and oily turquoise hair. To top it all off, she’s wearing her iconic black crown.
The figure chuckles softly and keeps moving forward until she is almost an inch away from your face. Her forked tongue licks the air beside your ear and you turn away in disgust. She pulls your face back to hers and her stare penetrates the depths of your soul. Just by looking at her, you can tell that any kindness she may have had is long gone.
She chuckles once more and says, “Its been so long since I’ve had a live sacrifice, its the fear that add that extra flavor, you know?”
“S-sacrifice?” you ask, perspiration forming along your brow.
“Oh yes, for my subjects!”
Then you hear it, the ominous buzzing of what anypony else would think are bees or flies, but from one look up at the arena surrounding told you otherwise. Hundreds of changelings poured through every crevice available and took their seats. Row by row the arena filled up until all of the way in the back it was possible to make up the last of the changelings being forced to float in the air. You can feel the bloodlust and hunger of the swarm as their soulless eyes stare down at you.
You try to speak, but the slender figure places a hoof on your lips and gently whispers into your ear, “I hope you enjoy the show.” Before you can respond, she takes off and flies out of the arena. As you try to figure out if you should be worried or confused, you notice that the stadium has grown silent. Then, very faintly, you hear the sound of drums echoing across the stadium.
“What in Eques-” you start to say to yourself, but you’re interrupted as several changelings all with huge manes jumped into the center of the arena.
You’re taken aback, and the drums in the background slowly morph into what sounds like some sort of pop drumbeat. The changelings in front of you start to dance along to the beat, shuffling their hooves side to side with a wiggle of their flanks and a shake of their tails. Then came the sound of several flutes in the background making up a short melody. You sat there in your bonds watching the spectacle, utterly stupefied.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any stranger, the tall creature from before dances her way to front of the group and leads them with a chorus that sends chills down your spine.
“I eat cannibal.
Feed on animal!
Your love is so edible to me.
I eat cannibals.”
You gawk at the bizarre scene unfolding before you. Their movements are mesmerizing; you don’t want to keep staring but you simply can't look away. You try to look away but one of the dancers uses her magic to hold your head still, so you literally can’t look away.
“I eat cannibal.
It’s incredible!
You bring out the animal in me.
I eat cannibals.”
You watch as the changelings do a spin and slide to the left. The tall figure figure then steps towards the cauldron, a big and toothy smile plastered on her face. She leans in close to your face, and you’re able to catch a good whiff of her reeking breath. She laughs heartily and, with a zap of her horn, ignites a fire underneath the cauldron, slowly but surely bring the water to a boil. She leers at you and takes a step back as the other changelings come up and one by one drop a new ingredient into the water.
The slender mare leans in again as she rocks back and forth.
“What can you do?
You’re in a stew.”
The changelings throwing the ingredients into the pot all jump up at the same time as they sang,
“Hot pot cook it up,
I’m never gonna stop.”
You watch in horror as the changelings return to prancing around the pot again, adding more and more ingredients to the water. One of the smaller changelings, rather than throwing her apple into the pot, waves it in front of your face and says, “Fancy a bite? My appetite.” Before greedily chomping it down. She wiggles her way back to the other dancers who begin stomping their hooves in time with the drums.
“Yum yum, gee its fun
Banging on a different drum!”
The swarm grows more and more restless as the song continues.
I eat cannibal.
Feed on animal!
Your love is so edible to me.
I eat cannibals.”
The changelings all group up into a diamond formation in front of the cauldron and bounce on their hooves, turning a full ninety degrees and whipping their heads towards you.
“I eat cannibal.
It’s incredible!
You bring out the animal in me.
I eat cannibals.”
The tall mare leaps out of the formation and lands right in front of the pot, her jagged horn becoming surrounded by a green aura. She lifts salt and pepper shakers and starts to shake some of the spices into the water. You struggle in your bonds and shake your head frantically in terror.
“I like a spice,
Tasty and nice.”
The changelings add their own magic to the fire, making it roar to life as the scalding liquid starts bubbling up.
“Roastin, vitamin
Forget the dieting.”
Two smaller changelings come up and oogle the stew greedily before taking a ladle and scooping some out to taste.
“Ooo, such a dish!
I can’t resist!”
They give the tall mare a nod of approval before joining the rest of the dancers, who cheer in unison,
“Healthy recipe
What’cha got is good for me!”
The singing stops and all of the changelings, including the tall mare, group up together in the diamond formation again to dance. The drums and what sounds like a guitar chimes in, and around the whole stadium changelings start shouting out “FOOD” all together. The drums get louder and louder, as well as the chanting, until the changelings in front of the pot cease their dancing completely. The color drains from your face as two of the changelings step towards you.
“All I want to do,
Make a meal of you.
The tall mare slowly walks up to, seductively swinging her hips as she looks longingly into your eyes.
“We are what we eat.”
She suddenly grabs your face and comes right up to your mouth and says, “You’re my kind of meat.” She traces one of her long, holed hooves across your chin and your neck and adds, “Got a hunger for your love.”
The changelings from behind her all sang along in unison,
“Hot pot, cook it up
I’m never gonna stop.”
The mare runs her hoof down along your chest and stopped, poking you. “It’s all I’m thinkin’ of.”
The changelings from behind bounced together, all singing,
“Yum yum, gee it’s fun!
I’m banging on a drum.
Roasting, Vitamin
Forget the dieting
I eat cannibaaaaals!”
The changelings continue with the chorus, and to your dismay you find yourself singing along to it as well. You try to stop yourself, but the queen notices and laughs gleefully as she approaches the ropes holding you up. The queen takes her horn and severs the bonds on your lower legs and you flail wildly in a desperate bid to escape. She then cuts one of the ropes on your upper legs, forcing you to dangle pathetically over a pot of delicious, savory doom.
Chuckling to herself, the queen looks around both you and the pot, watching as the changelings were once again dancing and prancing and encompassing them in a circle.
“Roastin', toastin', you're the one i'm boastin'
Eat me, eat you, incredibly delicious too
Gourmet, flambe, serve you up an entree
Intake, homebake, you're the icing on the cake.”
You try to plead for your life, but against the thunderous roar of the changeling swarm, your voice in less than a ghost in the wind. With one final swing, she cuts the only thing keeping you out of harms way and you shriek in pain as the scalding water envelopes your body. You open your mouth to scream and the water rushes in, boiling you from the inside. Evens the last shreds of your life are torn away and your vision turns dark, you still can't get that song out of your head.
