"GET HIM YOU IDIOTS! HE'S ESCAPING!"
I ran as fast I could, feet cut from the rocks in which I stomped, heart pounding, and face covered with tears.
"I EITHER GET THE STALLION'S HEAD, OR I GET YOUR HEADS!"
'I can't do it' I thought to myself, slowing my pace, readying myself for my fate. 'There's no reason to live anymore.' I turned around and smiled at
No.. You have to be strong.. Live. Do it for us LIVE.
'..W-w-what?! Mum?!'
I began looking around. 'No.. She's right. I'll do it for her.. Live..'
I picked up my pace, running with all of my power, in efforts of escaping those bastards. 'They did this.. It's all their fault. Or.. Is my fault?.. I wasn't strong enough.. They all died because of me.. It wasn't them.. I just stood there as they took them from me..' Tears began falling down my cheek once more.
DAMMIT, JUST RUN!
'Dad?! Fuck, I can't get distracted now, he's right, I can revel on how much of an idiot I am later. Now is the time to escape.'
I turned a corner, fleeing into the woods, and began to serpentine around the trees, ducking under trees and hiding in bushes occasionally to throw them off course.
'Live.'
I attempted to stretch out my wings, but they were still too injured to move. 'Damn, if only I could fly.'
"THERE HE IS! AFTER HIM!"
'SHIT!' I immediately bolted off again, seeing my pursuers not too far away, running with all my might until I saw a light leading out of the forest. 'This is it! Just make it through here and we're home free!
"Dammit! Chrysalis isn't going to be happy!"
Oh yeah, I'm a Changeling.
The light blinded me for a second, and then everything went black.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Ugh.. Where am I?'
I began to open my eyes. I was blinded by the sun and covered my eyes as I waited for them to adjust.
"Girls! He's awake!" yelled a purple mare, whom I have never seen before.
Immediately after, a cyan pegasus with the colors of the rainbow for a mane, flew over to me at lightning speed.
"Start talking! Is Chrysalis back!? ARE YOU A SPY?!" interrogated Rainbow Dash, putting her muzzle centimeters away from my face.
"Uh.. Who are you? And where am I?" I questioned, unbeknownst to my location.
'This doesn't look like the Swamp of Sorrows. I thought I made it out of the forest.. Did they capture me?! Are these girls assassins, about to give me a false sense of hope, just to inject me with poison!? They must be Chrysalis' lackeys, trying to trick me into false security!' I panicked.
"Well, I am Twili-" Was all she managed to mutter before I jumped to my feet and went into a defense position.
"STAY BACK ASSASSIN! I KNOW YOUR TRICKS!" I hissed with an angry expression on my face.
"Excuse me? I am the student of PRINCESS CELESTIA. How dare you accuse me of being an assassin! I'd never hurt an innocent pony in my life! I think you should be the one under questioning, CHANGELING!!" She recoiled.
"First off, excuse me, that's racist, also, HOW DO I KNOW IF YOU'RE JUST LYING TO ME!? GETTING UNDER MY SKIN!" I yell back.
"HOW DO I KNOW THAT YOU'RE JUST ACCUSING ME BECAUSE YOU ARE ACTUALLY THE GUILTY ONE AND YOU'RE TRYING TO GET IN MY HEAD BY SAYING I'M IN YOUR HEAD!" She shouted, hoof pointing at me.
A few meters away, the rest of the Mane Six looked on until the argument became inaudible yelling.
Applejack sighed and walked towards us a few paces. "Ah'll go stop 'em...."
"Aww, c'mon, just a liiiiiitle bit longer?" Rainbow Dash pleaded.
"Yeah! This is fun!" Pinkie Pie added, teleporting over to Twilight and I, contributing to the argument by yelling random noises.
"Eenope, ah've had about enough uh this." Applejack said as she angrily stomped over to the two (And Pinkie).
She looked at us all with the rage of a bull and took in a deep breath.
"EEEEEEEEEEEENOUUUUUUUUUGHH!" Applejack screamed at about 160 dB.
We stopped in our tracks, looking Applejack dead in the eye and whispering in unison; "Yes m'am."
"Now, ah want ya both to stop arguin' and listen to eachother's sides of thuh story." Applejack stated more calmly.
That's when I froze up.
"I..." I stumbled.
'That's right.. This is all real.. My mother.. Father.. Sis.. Everyone.. They're.. I never got to say goodbye...'
I broke into heavy tears, pounding the soil beneath me.
"IT'S ALL MY FAULT!" I screamed. "I WASN'T STRONG ENOUGH TO FACE THEM! THEY'RE ALL DEAD BECAUSE OF ME. ARE YOU HAPPY CHRYSALIS?! ARE YOU HAPPY?!" I yelled into the heavens.
"Oh you poor thing." cooed Fluttershy, gently flying next to me, putting a hoof around my shoulder.
"Fluttershy! Get away from him! He's probably trying to trick us!" Rainbow Dash warned, as she began flying over to Fluttershy.
A lasso grabbed Rainbow's ankle and pulled her back.
"Hey! What was that for Applejack! Flutters is in danger!" Rainbow Dash said, turning around, and attempting to fly back once more.
"Rainbow. I can tell when someone's lyin'. That poor thing over there is in uh lot of pain. Let's leave 'em be. He looks like he needs it" Applejack reasoned.
"But!.. Aw, whatever. Don't say I didn't warn you!" Rainbow Dash said, flying back towards town.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I woke up in a library, my head fuzzy, and my eyes sore.
"Alright, take two everyone. Before anything, my name is Twilight Sparkle." grinned the purple unicorn, hoping for a more civil conversation.
"I'm Rainbow Dash.." grumbled the agitated pegasus.
"I'm Fluttershy.." whispered the shy mare.
"Uhh, could you repeat that?" I said as nicely as I could.
"I'm Fluttershy.."she whispered even quieter.
"One more time?" I asked once more, not wanting to make her even more scared.
She let out a small whimper.
"She's Fluttershy." said Twilight.
"And ahm Applejack! Pleasure to meet yuh!" Applejack said, walking over to me and firmly shaking my hoof with the force of a train, causing me to visibly shake.
"N-n-i-i-c-c-e-e t-o- m-e-e-t y-o-u, p-l-e-a-s-e l-e-t g-o" I managed to say, my voice vibrating as I was shaken around.
"Oh, sorry there." Applejack said, freeing my hoof from it's prison and walking away.
"And I'm Rarity! Pleasure to meet you darling!" said overenthusiasticly.
"Well, it was nice to meet you al-" I said before something struck me. (Not literally) "Wait.. Wasn't there a sixth one of you?"
"Yeah, Pinkie Pie is righ.. Pinkie Pie?" Twilight remarked before spinning in circles, searching for the lost mare.
"What's up?" said Pinkie, appearing from behind me. "I'm Pinkie Pie!"
'What the hell!?' I did a double take, knowing that there was not a bright pink pony behind him seconds before. "How the hell?!"
"Don't question it. It's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie" Rainbow said calmly.
"That doesn't explain anything, how did she.." I said frantically, searching for an answer.
"No! Don't question it! Last time I tried, my mane physically combusted!" Twilight yelled, grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me back and forth.
"Alright! Fine!" I said, giving up.
Rainbow Dash then proceeded to fly up to my face once more, repeating what she did earlier.
"Ok! Now down to the important stuff! Who are you, and where did you come from!" Rainbow asked accusingly.
"Rainbow Dash! Don't talk to our guest like that!" Rarity gasped.
"No, it's alright Rarity. Where do I start.." I said, visibly upset.
'Well, here we go..'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Well, as you can obviously see, I am Changeling. I come from a small unnamed village, shortly outside of Equestria. I live.. lived, with my Mother, my Father, and sister." I started choking up at that part.
"My Mom and Dad were escapees from Chrysalis' army, fleeing to an isolated location, trying to start anew. My sister is the oldest, being born 3 years before me. Life was pretty simple for a while. We were very poverty stricken, but it didn't matter much, because our love for each other fed us each day, and that was all that mattered. Until a few months ago. Recently Chrysalis had found out were we had been hiding. And she wasn't too happy. My Mother begged for our freedom, and Chrysalis accepted.. Under one condition. Our poverty was now our downfall, as the evil Queen forced us to pay heavy taxes, often paid in goods, causing my parents, sister and I to work in the fields until our limbs were numb. Chrysalis got her payment, and we got freedom, simple right? Well, no. Chrysalis decided that she wanted more. So she began taxing us double the old amount yesterday. My entire family worked as hard as we could all day and night, but alas, today, when the collector came, we did not have enough. So the tax collector settled for the next best thing. Our lives. He burst through the door, knife in his mouth, chasing my family around the house. My sister and I hid in a closet, until we saw our parents cornered. I tried to scream, but I got a hoof over our mouth.
My sister whispered "No.. We're all going to die if you yell." tears streaming down her eyes as we watched in horror. "Go. Get out of here. I'm going to go distract them. I'll tell Mom and Dad how much they love you." she whispered, looking deeply into my eyes.
"Are you fucking insane!? They'll kill you!" I whisper yelled.
"I know.." she said, tears now pouring out of her eyes. "Sis.." I looked with horror in my eyes.
"No, we'll both make it out!" I said.
Nope. My sister burst through the closet door, charging towards the assailants before stopping short and yelling
"You want me!? COME GET ME, YOU FUCKERS!"
'No! Sis!' I screamed in my head. 'No, don't let her sacrifice be in vain!' I ran and jumped through the window, landing on the hard ground a floor below, breaking my wings and landing on shattered glass. I stood up quickly, running as fast as I could until one of the tax collector/assassin's guards noticed me.
"GET HIM YOU IDIOTS! HE'S ESCAPING!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Wow.." they all said in unison, deeply saddened expressions on their faces, except Pinkie, who was sobbing unrealistically.
"Now you know my story. Now I have a question for you. Where am I? How did I get here?" I said, my face hardened.
"Why, yer in Ponyville!" shouted Applejack, a big grin on her face, despite the tear jerking story told seconds before.
"Ponyville.. Why is that a name? That's like calling something 'Changeling Town' or 'Buffalo City'." I said confused.
"Shh.. You're breaking the fourth wall." said Pinking caressing my face.
"What?" I said suprised.
"Nothing." replied Pinkie, sliding out of my vision.
"Anyways, we have no idea why you're here. Ponyville is right near Canterlot, and that is just about dead center in Equestria. How did you get all the way here, when, if I recall correctly, you ran through barely a fourth of a forest?" Twilight questioned suspiciously.
"That's what I want to know." I said, my voice trailing off.