Heart Beats

Chapters

Chapter 3:Lone Survivor
Chapter 4:A Ton of Bricks
Chapter 5:Stop, just please stop
Chapter 5.5: A.F
Chapter 7: New life
Chapter 7.5:From nut to oak
Chapter 8:Joy
Chapter 9:Confrontation
Chapter 1:Last Words?
Chapter 2: Heavy Rain
Chapter 6: Spikes and leather couches

Chapter 3:Lone Survivor

“You never realize how much you love someone until they’re gone”
-Dori-to

Panting heavily, I burst into one of the caves with the dragon roaring in fury close behind. Above the entrance was a hoof-carved marking labelling this cave for ‘storage’. As the name would imply, the room was used for storing plunder from battles and loot from ponies exploring the Badlands.
As I entered, I cursed at myself, seeing no other exit. The room was filled with all sorts of odds and ends, piled up against the dark and gloomy walls- from paintings, to saddle bags, and even a small rectangular blue phone box with the inscription ‘Police Public Call Box’ across the top. Sweating the nerves out of me, I tried tugging at the handle of the phone box. The door rattled but refused to budge.

The sound of the dragon’s footsteps outside intensified. Clenching my teeth, I dug into a makeshift dune of saddle bags, covering as much of my body as possible and ensuring that my ears and horn weren’t poking out. The dragon’s profound breathing echoed throughout the cave as his head peeked in. His presence was mentally killing me.

Making a small hole for my eyes, I saw the dragon saunter to the middle of the cave, his neck swaying around while he scanned the area. “Come out, come out, wherever you are, little changeling,” he sneered. “My stomach is rumbling and the only thing that will calm it down is changeling flesh.”

I kept my mouth shut while biting my tongue and tried to slow my breathing before I hyperventilated. Please go away, please go away, please go away.

The dragon gave me a hostile hiss “Fine- you want to play the silent game! Let’s see how silent you are when you’re on fire!”

The intense sound of a miniature sun erupting from of his mouth filled the room as it landed on a pile of paintings across the cave. The walls started to glow from the light of the burning beacon. All wood and paper, the paintings turned a dead, black color, and the ceiling was flooded with smoke. Thick and hazy, the smog turned the world into an old, grainy photograph. At that point, my heart was going into overdrive.

“Don’t make this any harder for me!” One of the saddlebags tumbled from the top of the pile to the floor. His right eye seemed to stare at my hiding spot.

“It’s only in a matter of time.” As he swung to face the pile of saddle bags that I was hiding in, his tail demolished a great deal of the cave’s rocky supports. A chain reaction of plummeting rocks crashed to the ground and began to fill the room. The cave shook treacherously.

Horse apples, I swore within myself. The dragon tried to scurry away but was halted by something, letting out a sharp yelp of pain. My whole body was filled to the brim with adrenaline. Jumping out of the pile and passing the large unconscious body with a growing lump on its head, I hurried toward the exit. The smoke stung my eyes, and made visibility almost zero.
The next thing I knew, my only beam of hope was welded shut with boulders.

Another dense boulder fell from the ceiling, missing me by a hoofstep. After colliding with the boulder and recovering from my concussion, I crouched down as low as I could and shielded my head with my hooves. I closed my eyes and hoped for another miracle. I sensed that the room was gradually getting smaller by the second as a bombardment of boulders and rocks came down around me. The cavern caved in on itself. In an instant, the world I knew was darkened.

***

Regaining my senses and feeling like I had been hit by two trains, I groaned. Lying on my stomach, my eyelids slowly rose to confront the darkness of the outdoors, barely illuminated by the sun that was about to say farewell to the waking world. The sound of the howling wind and the still crackling embers drifted through the atmosphere.

“How did I get here?” I groaned again, feeling the aches and pains while getting my hooves under me. Making sure that it wasn’t a dream again, I raised my front hooves and stared into them, or through them, more like.

“A nose- a mouth- two wings- two ears- two eyes- one lost tooth- still filled with holes- black fur- ow!” Placing a hoof to my head, I winced in pain. “A bleeding head . . . ”

Feeling the thick, green liquid on my hoof, I placed pressure on the bleeding wound. I searched for a piece of cloth or something to bandage it up, only to be instantly jerked back to the ground by a saddle bag which was tied around one of my hind hooves. I grunted, feeling even more agitated than ever before while I got onto my hooves again. My first instinct was to boot the bag all the way to the other side of Equestria, but before I could hit the ignition button, I noticed that the bag had a giant lump of something within it.

Down on my haunches, I scavenged the goodies from the bag, grabbing a piece of what looks like a former safari shirt colored like a dog’s breakfast with the initials D.D. embroidered on the front. There was also a map of Equestria, a compass, a pair of camo colored binoculars with a fractured lens, two notepads, a few black pens, a hoofful of bits and- a bottle of love!

Holding the pink essence with my right hoof, I raised it up to the barely visible sun for a few seconds- I had thought these things were extinct, since our food storages were bare and empty, and it was so hard to keep it stored in a bottle.

Well, at least something went in my favour today. I was able to place a slight smile on my face, only to have it wiped out instantly as my head angled up to see the whole colony in ruins and aflame. After binding the cloth securely around my head, and with the saddle bag slung across my back, I started to wander toward the wreckage cautiously. The smell of death filled my nostrils, and breathing through my mouth only gave it a gruesome taste.

The only changelings I could see where either dead on the ground, still ‘shinning’, or dead on the ground half-eaten with their organs sprawled out on the dirt. My stomach twisted, and II gagged out the remains of the bottle.

“Ugh, well- that’s a waste of love,” I said as I wiped my mouth with my hoof.

I continued through the cold and harsh twilight until I heard a soft, barely audible, and pain filled moan. Perking up my ears, I followed the source of the sound, and found Queen Chrysalis. She was buried in a hail of rocks, with only her head partially uncovered.

“Queen Chrysalis!” My muscles tightened as I began to remove the rocks as quickly as possible. I marveled at how she was able to survive under so much weight. My hooves ached, my head wanted a break from all of the pain from my injuries, but my loyalty to the Queen caused me to diligently press on.

Once I was able to get enough weight off of her, I was able to haul her out, though she was much heavier than I thought. I kneeled down beside her, raising her head a little.

“M- my Queen.” Her body was covered in several deep cuts which were severely bleeding, while blood slowly trickled from her mouth. Her eyes were pale, and a pool of concentrated dark green blood started to build up around my legs.

“Tell me,” she said in a weak voice, scarcely alive. “How . . . are my children doing?”

“My Queen, y- your lung is punctured.” I panicked, feeling like I was on the verge of hyperventilating again.

“Tell me, how are my children doing?” she repeated, in the same weak tone. She wasn’t going to ask a third time.

“I- I’m sorry my queen b- but . . . I think . . . ” I was struggling to hold back my tears. “I think that there are no o- other survivors. I- I could have . . . I should have . . . Please don’t d-”

“Shhh,” she placed a hoof onto my lips, speaking in her motherly voice. “Don’t . . . cry for me. I was prepared for this from the start. I should be the one who is sorry. I wasn’t able to save my children. It was my fault for the results of our siege on Canterlot.”

Her breathing became fast and shallow. “Promise me . . . promise me, as my last wish, that you will keep our existence alive, no matter what. And that - ."

She took another frail breath. “And that you will avenge the death of your brothers and sisters.”

I shook my head in denial, with tears beginning to escape from my eyes “No, no, no! You can’t! You can’t d-”

“Can you promise me?” Her voice interrupted me, becoming more insecure and unsteady.

“Is this really- . . . ” I took in a defeated sigh as my heart sank “I- I promise.”

“Don’t worry . . . I’ll be watching over you and . . . ”

She took her final gasps of air. “I’m sorry.”

Her voice trailed off with a long, deep sigh. Her head sagged to her shoulders as her body became limp.

“No, no, no, no, no, no!” I vigorously shook her body. Chrysalis was like a second mother to me. She took care of all of us- she placed her life at risk, laughing in the face of death, and didn’t care if it was one or one hundred thousand dragons that were going to attack us. She just held her ground, shielding us from any threatening danger, not thinking of her own safety or welfare. She was the first one on the battlefield and the last one to be fed.

“Damn it, Celestia! This is all your fault, you hear me? This is all your bucking fault!” I cried out, repeatedly punching the hard ground, somehow managing to make a small hole. For some reason, I had the urge to blame Celestia for this. Falling to pieces, I sulked on Chrysalis’ motionless corpse.

I don’t know, even to this day, how long I laid there, with tears flowing from my eyes. It was probably only a few minutes, but it felt as though it could have been hours. I cried for all the emptiness of my life. I cried for not having somepony beside me anymore. But most of all, I cried for being who I was. I wanted to stay there for the rest of my life- to join the others and rot with them- but I had a promise to keep.

Staying here wasn’t an option, as the dragons would probably return to check for any survivors come morning, but trying to escape the Badlands would be nearly impossible. I didn’t really have a choice: it was either burn to death . . . or die trying.

Softly setting down her head and shaking the drowsiness from my mind, I got a grip on myself. I placed the map down on the dry, uneven ground, with the compass in the top left corner. I didn’t really know how to read a map, but I knew that the red pointer of the compass meant north, and the arrow on the top right of the map had to correspond with it. I traced my route with my hoof. The hike to the other side of the Badlands, and then to the closest town- Dodge Junction- would be long and arduous, not to mention getting past all of the dragons.

Taking a deep breath, I got up on all fours and moved to Chrysalis’ motionless body. Parts of me were still in denial that she had passed on, but those hesitations faded away as I checked for any signs of breathing.

Softly pressing my head against hers, I repeated the words: “I promise.”

Author's Note

Thank you for reading Heart Beats, chapter 3

Don't forget, if you haven't already, to thumbs up,comment and follow :pinkiehappy:

If anyone has found something wrong with the grammar or spelling , please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them ASAP.

References found
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Chapter 4:A Ton of Bricks

Author's note: Any sentence that is in italics and has "quotation marks" around it is a thought.

“To boldly go where no man/pony has gone before”
-Star Trek.
In loving memory of Leonard Nimoy, the first actor of Spock.
1931-2015 age 83
Beam him up to heaven Scotty

As the sun was long gone on the other side of the horizon and Luna’s pearl was glimmering high in the sky, I shivered in the arctic atmosphere while my teeth rapidly chattered. The whispering night wind scraped past my ears and through my hooves. Each whisper reminded me of the voices of my brothers and sisters, back before our kind was highly ‘despised’.

With my head low I heavily sighed out, “What happened to those times?”

I tiredly marched on to the exit of the Bad Lands, getting ever closer to where the dragons sheltered. I was close enough to hear them triumphantly celebrating with all of the barbaric cheering and screaming.

Ducking behind a boulder, being about a hundred feet away from them, I poked my head out only to be slapped with the extreme radiated heat. With my right hoof shielding my eyes, my head scouted the expanse.

Pulling my head up, the air was crowded with a variety of dragons pulling off a stunt or two with most colliding into each other or plummeting to the ground for no reason at all. Looking left then right, it seemed like the party stretched from one side of the Bad Lands to the other. Walking around it would take up the whole night but flying over them was a death sentence.

I gritted my teeth “Ponyfeathers, come on Smoulder, think, any ideas? Dig under them? What!? How am I even supposed to do that with the ground as hard as na-”

“Heeyyyyyyy,*hic* wacha doing *hic* here?” A voice slurred out. My irises shrank to pinpricks, as I turned around; to meet a medium built purple dragon’s lightly red blushed face and eyes barely visible through his overhanging blond hair. I gulped.

“Whyyyy aren’t you *hic* with us at the partyyy?” He poked a claw to my chest. His breath smelled like his tongue was rotting from the inside and his body gently swayed one way to the other barely being able to stand up right. “I know you’re a little *hic* young for alcohol, buuuuut I think you’re a big enough*hic* dragon for it.”

I sat there. Paralysed, not knowing that he probably couldn’t hit the back of a barn with a claw full of rice being so intoxicated. Then I thought about what he said. “Wait, dragon? What the hay is he talking about?”

The drunk droopy dragon picked me up from my shoulders and with me tucked under his armpit, kicking and squirming, he flew, swerving in random directions like he was flying blind. I did everything I could possible do to escape. Even biting him with my razor sharp fangs didn’t get a single reaction out of him. Probably why scales were harder than teeth.

Bring me down into one of the craters, he landed like a cross eyed pegasus and started walking, still firmly griping me. The blasting sounds of upbeat music from a stereo filled the zone with energy. Feeling my tongue straightaway go dry and numb, I could just barely handle the heat from a gushing flow of red hot scorching lava coming from a crack on the wall forming an equestrian games sized swimming pool, not so far away.

Looking around, there were mountain sized piles of every kind of gem you could think of. From rubies to emeralds and even diamonds. With each dragon being able to ‘safely’ verse each other in king of the hoard and tail wrestling, it wasn’t really crowded.

“Hey Garble” The dragon gripping me boisterously called out, waving to a group of teenage dragon all having the same drunken expression on their faces. “Hey, look who I found!” he held me up by the armpits like a new born dragon.

The red dragon walked up to me and tightly squished my cheeks “Aww *hic*, well ain’t he a cute changeling.” Shifting my head away, with no prevail; I started to sweat bullets as Garble knew what I was.

“Whatcha talking ab- *hic* about? He’s one of us.” The purple dragon poked his friend expressing his words. “Hesa no good dragon who *hic* gets paid cider by the royal guards to wipe out an *hic* an entire species.”

“WHAT!” My eyes lids widened. The fires in my eyes burned with a fuel that was indescribable. “What’s their bucking problem!? Grr, that’s it!. I’ll burn every last bucking one of them to ashes! See if they like to roast to death like my brothers and sisters.”

“NO! He’s *hic* a changeling!” the dragon with the red scales argued pushing his purple friend.

“Nooouuu!” the purple dragon raised his claw, carelessly dropping me on the hard rocky ground grazing my chin, “He’s a baby Dragon!” shooting back with his own shove.

Seeing my chance to escape I slowly crept out, trying not to get any attention. Looking at my rear, my only path to freedom was a clear trail through the party’s crowd behind the blond haired dragon.

“ Ooooh!” Garble said in a sarcastically tone as his friends behind him constantly repeated the word fight, each time getting faster and louder. “Fighting for the *hic* alpha spot eh?” He this time rammed with all his might with his shoulder.

It wasn’t long before it came down on me like a ton of bricks. They both plummeted to the ground landing on my back.

“ACK!” I yelped getting the wind knocked out of me, gasping for air and franticly flailing my limbs up and down. If it wasn’t for the cushioning of my saddle bag I probably would have been pancaked.

The two dragons threw fists into their opponent, each throw getting swifter and more brutal. Then they grabbed each other’s shoulders and they rolled off of me.

I gasped feeling like I’d been under water for years. With no time to loose I got up onto my hooves and dashed away with my wings. Every dragon was too drunk or hyped to notice I was there but I did have to swerve away from a few dragons that were recklessly flying drunk.

***

The sound of the upbeat music eventually became softer and softer until all that I could hear was the air going through my throat as I heavily panted and the howling wind drifting across the atmosphere. With my energy reserves depleted and my wings about to give up on me, I stopped next to a boulder wiping the sweat off my forehead.

Taking a seat on the ground, I stared up to the glittery night sky and I questioned to myself. “Why? Don’t the royal guards know we have families and friends too? Just… why?” A bevy of negative emotions began to swell up in my head and before I knew it, I was crying. A tear painfully rolled down the side of my head to my chin and in a few seconds more followed creating a blob of water that gravity took hold of. Taking a deep breath in and out, I rested for a few more minutes until I was ready to continue.

“At least the worst is over.”

***

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. But when life gives you a ton of bricks you build your life’s foundations out of them. Looking out with sweat gripping onto my forehead, while my wings ached in pain from an hour of non-stop flapping, a faint yellow glow pulsed at the horizon.

One of my eyebrows rose suspiciously “Is it morning already?” I shook my head, “No, it can’t be.”

I’ve only been moving for about four hours and there should of had been a few more until the first signs of light from Celestia’s ball of fire had arrived. Plus, Dodge junction shouldn’t be in sight till the red baron terrain ended. Dropping down, I decided to trot the rest of the way, giving my about-to-fall-off wings a well-deserved break.

As the yellow light pulsed brighter as I walked towards it, a straight path made out of chunks of light gray sandstone and rows of wooden poles with electrical lights perched on the sides, came into my view.

I scratched my head “Strange, I don’t remember this path being here.” I brought out my compass only to see the trail pointing directly north.
Following the side of the track, walking in the shadows, the sound of a pony’s clippity clopping of horseshoes and rattling of armor could be heard from a distance. Jumping behind a boulder, for the uncountable time in my life, I peeked over.

I could just make an outline of a black unicorn royal guard in his early thirty’s with his projectile weapon and equipment strapped on his belt. As he leant under one of the lights, he brought out a small silver rectangular box. He flipped the top half of the box and it beamed out a bright blue light easily penetrating through the night’s darkness.

The unicorn held it up to his ear and waited. The device made several low pitch beepings until another voice began to talk. Both of my eye brows rose as my jaw dropped in awe.

“What do you want?” a mare’s voice came from the device.

The stallion responded in a serious tone “Operation ‘White Wash’ is a success. All of the changelings are exterminated.”

“Ahh, well done. Expect a bonus check for doing it so swiftly when you return.”

The station took a deep breath in “ Roger tha- wait you know what. NO!” His tone started to rise into a rage “I don’t want your bloody pay checks. I’m sick doing all of your bucking dirty work! I just wiped out an entire race for two lives! When will you give me my two sons back?!” His normal breathing turned into shallow snorts.

The mare on the other side replied in a calm and collective manner “Now now, Mr Silver Hoof, you’ll receive your sons back when we are satisfied with your service. And may I remind you, any attempt to reveal us or escape from us will result in the demise of your sons. Do you understand?”

The royal guard gave a defeated sigh, softening his response “Understo-.” One of my hind hooves slipped on a loose rock causing a pebble to fall. *chit**chit**chit*

“I’ll be right back,” he finished closing his device and pocketing it. The guard grabbed out his weapon and pointed it to where the sound came from. “Alright, whoever is hiding behind the boulder, come out and you will not be shot”

The sound of his horseshoes clacking against the ground got closer and closer. Closing my eyes, I begged and begged for another miracle, but this time it never came. Facing reality, I looked up into the barrel of his weapon.

*click* I flinched thinking that he pulled the trigger when only he pulled the hammer of the weapon.
“Move.” He shoved my head.

With the stallion pointing the armament at my head with his brown aura, I shook like a leaf as I walked to the road under one of the lights. My breath stalled, fear clenched like a tight claw around my chest and tendrils of terror curled into my stomach.

“On your knees!” he ordered poking the barrel at the back of my head.

“Don’t. P-Please don’t,” he hastily pulled my mane, kicking my knees and pushing my front hooves behind my head into an uncomfortable posture.

“Shut up!” he yelled smashing the grip of his weapon against my head. The pain stung like Tartarus forcing me to collapse on the ground face first.

“Did I tell you to lie down?! Get back up!” The black unicorn strictly instructed giving me a few swift kicks to the stomach and already wounded head. Drowning in a pool of pain, I groaned getting back up into the posture he ordered me to be in.

He relaxed his volume to a comforting tone. “So tell me, what is your name?”

“S-Smoulder” I stuttered.

“And tell me Smoulder, why don’t you have a cutie mark?” Knowing the answer already, he started to walk around me with a smirk, always having the trigger ready for any sudden movements.

“B-Because,” I gulped down what felt like a rockmelon sized saliva, “Because I’m a changeling.”

“And do you know what we do to changelings?”

I kept my mouth shut, bitting my lip, not wanting to think of all the horrible ways to kill a changeling.

He shoved his nose right up against mine. “We buck them up and then put a bullet in their head to make sure they’re bucking dead.” He slowly moved his head back still having his aura on the trigger. “Do you know what this is?” He nudged the barrel between my eyes.

“Your c-crossbow.”

“RRRRRR, wrong.” He corrected, “It’s a gun or a Pfeifer Zeliska .600 Nitro Express to be more accurate. This baby could blow your head off before you could hear the sound of the gunpowder explode.” He gave me a few seconds to tauntingly think about it. He closed one of his eyes aiming for my head “Well it was nice talking to you. You might want to close your eyes. It’s gonna get messy.”

I closed my eyes once again as my lips began to quiver “So this is how it really ends? I’m…I’m sorry my queen. I’m so so sorry.” The pearl-shaped tears rolled down my cheeks from my wide luminous eyes. Then, just as I thought all was lost, I felt a small stinging spark appear inside me. As if something was just born. Something evil.

“NO!” a deep dark voice yelled from within my soul. “I did not just crawl out of a cave for you just so you can be KILLED!”

My teal eyes turned into a death red hungry for blood. My whole body, from hoof to ear, was immediately overtaken by the unknown voice. Everything in life, except for me, decelerated to a snail’s sprint.

I gave the unicorn a grin while knocking his gun to the floor. Pinning him to the pole, I took a snip at his neck, sinking my changeling fangs deeply into his meaty throat. His red juices poured into my mouth like a tap. I viciously swung my head left and right, shredding every muscle and skin. I heard every nerve in his system begging for mercy.

“Stop, stop, STOP!” I screamed at my soul. My eyes turn back to their normal teal color, time sped up to its normal state and I could feel my limbs again.
The voice slowly faded away back into my soul “Don’t worry you’ll thank me for this in the future.” It snickered, “Breakfast is served. Bon appetit”

I yanked out my fangs, disgustingly spitting out the pony’s thick blood as his body fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Sticking out my tongue, I coughed and gagged, getting the last few drops out. Looking back at the royal guard, his limbs went into a spasm. His blood sputtered out of his neck and mouth. My legs wanted to sprint off in terror but my eyes just stood there, staring deep into his eyes glaring right back at me. He choked on his own blood, trying to say something but was too inaudible for me to make out.

Eventually, after a few frightening seconds, he stopped squirming and his chest didn’t rise with oxygen. I poked him with my hoof making sure that he was truly dead, not believing what I had done.

“It’s… it’s ok Smoulder.” I looked away and took a deep breath in and out, trying to flatten my panicked state. “He was trying to execute you and you fought back in self-defence by… killing him.”

I stared at his motionless body again as my stomach coincidently growled. “It would be a shameful waste if I didn’t harvest the love out him.”

Moving my mouth to his soul, I prepared my tastebuds. A gassy pink essence rose from his chest and landed on my tongue. Physically the sweet taste of his fresh love returned wonderful memories of the good old days when love was indulging and plentiful. But mentally, I’d never killed anypony for their love before. It was the fastest way to harvest it but I was never that serious for food. The flavour soothed my stomach with a warm touch but stung my head like a migraine.

The quantity of love was extensive but to shocking dismay I discovered why. After finishing up the last few sips, I started to scavenge anything on him. There wasn’t much on his utility belt. A black torch, a flask full of water, a sturdy walkie-talkie and a photo of him, his wife and… two… young… colts.
One of my hooves cupped my wide opened mouth. “What… have…. I… done?” I began to have second thought on massacring every royal guard. I… I knew what it is like to grow up losing your parents and siblings at a young age.

“Silver Hoof, Silver Hoof do you copy?” the intercom from his two-way radio spoke out.

Thinking quickly on my hooves, I changed my vocal cords to the same as Silver Hoof and pressed the button on the side. I’ve only heard a few ponies use this device before but with the knowledge I had I thought I might be able to pass through. “I copy, over.”

“It’s two a.m., your shift is over, return to The Wall, over.”

“Got it, over.” I released the button not being able to review on how fast I reacted. *whew*

“Hey, Silver Hoof!” the voice from the intercom shouted making me jump. “You forgot to say ‘over and out’ again!” He grumbled something about royal guards not knowing the protocols.

“Oh,” giving an unsteady laugh, “sorry, over and out.” I gave a final sigh of relief. “Wait , what’s ‘The Wall?’” I scanned my mind for anything I knew. Then, it fell onto me like a ton of bricks, even harder than when the dragons crushed me.

A short flashback flew into my head. A few months after the siege of Canterlot, the princesses agreed on blocking the exit of the Bad Lands with a solid concrete wall to stop mythical beast from attacking Dodge Junction and to quarantine the changeling colony. Any attempts to fly over the wall would result in being filled with thousands bullets. The only thing allowed in and out of the lands where the useless weekly food carts, highly trained researchers and any dragons during the great dragon migration. There wasn’t a single second where there wouldn’t be more than a thousand guards on post.

“Horseapple!” I furiously kicked a rock realising how stupid I was to forget about the wall. I went on for about a few minutes kicking rocks, applebucking poles and loudly cussing.

I brought my hoof to my chest as I breathed in and moving it away as I breathed out. “Calm down, Smoulder, don’t over react with this. Just think of something, anything… like you always have.”

***

In a flash of green flames, my body shifted. Black fur sprouted, gray hair grew, and my wings receded into my body. A hard coating covered the membrane of my horn. My fangs retracted, my muzzle shifted, all while my eyes gained pupils and reformed in color. When the transformation was complete I lifted my head. Opening my eyes, I expected to see a disfigured or discolored copy of Silver Hoof. But instead I was an exact reflection of him, without all of the blood coating his fur.

I smiled, praising myself “Still a professional after all these years.”

After washing, with the whole flask of water, the blood off from the armor and gearing it, I picked up the revolver from the floor, securing it tightly in my saddle bag. Closing my eyes, I rethought about my plan.

I snorted at myself, “Some plan I created.”

Author's Note

Thank you for reading Heart Beats, chapter 4

Don't forget, if you haven't already, to thumbs up,comment and follow :pinkiehappy:

If anyone has found something wrong with the grammar or spelling , please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them ASAP.

References found
1. by
2. by

Chapter 5:Stop, just please stop

The most radical act anyone can commit to is to be happy

- Patch Adams

“Open the gates!” A royal guard ordered from the top of the concrete wall as lights and lasers beamed out through the windows and ceiling.

The first layer of security, two giant wooden doors, swung open to reveal two thick iron gates, looking more than enough to stop a whole migration of dragons. A gush of wind blew through the entrance. The cranking of gears and creaking of bolts blasted my ears as the final gates opened. I entered the front room where two large metal scanners were.

My muscles in my legs tightened, “Ok, I’m just going to run around the scanner and sprint for the exit… Oh, what the buck, this has to be one of my worst ideas."

“Hey Silver Hoof!” a brown female pegasus with a croaked voice called, zooming down next to me before I could react. “Come on, the celebrati- whoa, what happened to you?” She pointed to my bandaged head.

“Oh, umm, I tripped on a rock and fell into the pits of Tartarus.” I gave a nervous laugh, hoping that she would laugh it off.

“Yeah, right,” rolling her eyes, “now come on.” She beckoned for me to follow her. “Everypony is celebrating the extinction of the Changelings.”

I’ve given up thinking that at least one guard would pity our species. But then, why would they? To avoid suspicion, I followed the brown mare, going through many rooms and corridors with a spectrum of streamers, blasting music and a variety of party food.

I began to daydream, remembering the first time I tasted normal equine food. I was still a little hatchling and changelings were living secretly among ponies. My older brother used to say, ‘Don’t come running to me when you eat anything other than love,’ which was a metaphor, but I didn’t fully understand the world at that time.

So I went out, breaking a few rules, and bought a simple cupcake with chocolate icing on top at a nearby store and carried it home. The sweet smell of it placed a smile on my face. Just looking at it made my mouth water. But sadly, when I took my first bite, my tastebuds disagreed. As a matter of fact, the taste stunned me so much that I accidently swallowed it down.Then, all Tartarus broke loose.

My stomach started to growl, not in a hungry way, but in a groaning and moaning way. The next thing I knew, a month worth of love came out of my mouth and onto my hooves.

“Ah, the good old days.” I thought sarcastically as we kept on walking.

“Hey, Silver Hoof.” the mare waved a hoof in my face while I daydreamed. “Hellooo? Equestria to Silver Hoof”

“Wait wha- . . . who, when, where?” I startled, almost forgetting where I was.

“So how is Water Sprout going?”

“Who?”

She lowered her chin and eyebrows. “Your wife. Gosh, how badly did you hit your head?”

“Oh, yeah. Water Sprout. Umm, she’s doing fine. Doing her everyday pony related things, taking care of the pony kids. Working at the pony water factory….” I was mentally facehoofing myself, knowing how stupid that sentence was. She gave me a suspicious look.

Cupping my mouth, I gave a fake yawn. “Well, won’t you look at the time. Gotta go. Bye.” Galloping off through the corridors to find an exit, her response was to facehoof, passing it off as having too many salt licks. “Come on everypony,” she announced. “Drinks are on me!” Everypony cheered righteously.

***

After I was sure that no pony was near me or watching me, I stared at a fire escape map nailed to the wall. When I read the word fire, it triggered my self-memo to burn every royal guard zoomed back into my head.

“Kill” I alarmingly turned my head around but nopony was there.

“Burn” The voice said again.

“Feed” That’s when I remembered.

“Go away! You’ve already killed enough ponies today!”

“DESTROY!!!” A burning pain surged through my head. My eyes began to roll to the back of my head as they were given a red tint.

“AHHCK!!” I screamed, rolling on the floor kicking and screaming, grasping my brain. “GET THE BUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!”

I felt its cold tip slither into my spine, slowly taking control of every bone, every muscle and every nerve until it was in full control. All I could do was watch the horrors that appeared through my eyes. Everything was the as same before, except this time, everything was moving at a normal speed. I got up and gave the map a good look. A chuckle came out of my lips and I began to walk to the gates from where I came in.

By now, every guard had too many salt licks or mugs of cider to even walk. There were pegasi hanging from poles and chandeliers, earth ponies snoring in awkward positions on couches and tables, and unicorns whose horns became a black, burnt-out color.

I kept walking through alleyways and even more party rooms until I reached a wooden door with rusted iron strips reinforcing it. Next to the door, on a chair, was a snoring, brown earth pony guard who was drooling down into the barrel of his rifle. A glass bottle of alcohol hung from his other hoof.

Multiple keys, fitting into a ring, dangled from his belt. One of them was the way through to the voice’s destination. I expected the monster inside of me to somehow stealthily pinch them, but what it had in mind was completely different. Instead of grabbing the keys, my hoof clutched onto the bottle, unexpectedly waking up the guard.

“Huh, wha?” The earth pony, barely awake, partially opened his eyes as I thrusted my hoof, holding the bottle, to his head. The bottle shattered into millions of pieces, some landing on the floor while the rest jabbed into his skull.
He fell to the ground, groaning and covering his throbbing head with his hooves. I stared at his body squirming in agony before I looked at the broken glass bottle, which now had razor sharp tips.

“Perfect weapon for eliminating an obstacle.” I bent my legs getting ready to pounce and end another life.

”STOP!” the color in my eyes flickered between red and blue. “Just please stop.”

“Why do you care? Isn’t this the same kind who hunted our species to near extinction?”

“I care because….because….” I groaned in frustration.

“Don’t you want to keep your promise to Chrysalis?”

I opened my mouth to return fire, but as if there were cotton balls shoved down my throat, nothing… there was nothing I could come back with. Giving in, I relaxed my grip.

“Hmm, I thought so.” He mentally dropped a barrage of rocks onto my back that came down onto me like a ton of bricks. A loud crack was heard coming from my spine as my eyes returned to a dark red. I was too speechless to even howl at the amount of pain I was experiencing. Before I knew it, the monster inside started to hack at the guard’s head. I pumped my hoof up and down while the victim’s red liquid spurted out onto my face.

Tears ran down the side of my cheeks. “I don’t k-know why I care but it just feels so wrong.”

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to keep on doing this until it’s not wrong. How about that?” My hoof started to viciously jab near the navel.

This kept on going on for minutes until I stopped sobbing. The earth pony’s face and body didn’t even look like a pony anymore. His jaw was connected by a single strain of skin and intestines were spread out across the floor. A pink stream of love raced towards my tongue.

“It wasn’t that bad, now was it?”

I remained silent, my face buried in my hooves and unable to feel anything below my abdomen. The voice nicked the keys off his belt as it rotated my head to the door. It took more than one attempt to find the right key, but when I did, it elicited a short but loud click from the door. As light seeped through the opening door, a ruffle of gears clinked and clanked. I didn’t know what to expect to find, but there were barrels. Barrels upon barrels, stacked upon even more barrels of black powder. The voice brought up my hoof to show me a packet of cigarettes and a lighter.

“Ever smoked before, Smoulder?” He slid out a roll, lighting it then placing it between my lips. The gray, gassy substance burnt the back of my throat as it engulfed the insides of my mouth. “It seems that the guard back there was a smoker.”

I kept my mouth shut, not giving any expression. “Aww, come on. Don’t be like that to me. I might seem all mean and nasty, but in all honesty, I’m you. So basically whatever I do, you do and vice versa.” I didn’t open my mouth a single bit while the voice started to pour the powder on the floor, making a swirled line. “Fine, I’ll share a secret with you. Did you know that guard you just killed back there didn’t have very much love? Meaning that the only ponies I bet loved him where his parents.”

“You son of a BITCH, you killed him.”

“Like I said, anything I do, you do.” The voice tsked. “Anything like this!” Taking one last puff of the drug, my hoof dropped the embering cigarette onto the floor. It started to make a sparkling sound while the fire rapidly ate up the powder, like a swarm of parasprites following a line of food.

The monster inside didn’t hesitate to move. I kicked open locked door, shoved drunk ponies to the side and onto the floor, ran up a few flights of stairs, and soon flew off the top of the wall. I allowed gravity to slowly glide me softly to the ground as I turned back towards the wall.

The voice pretended to put on some shades. “Time to watch the fireworks.” It began to count down, swinging my hoof forwards and backwards with each number. “In three, two, one...”

It threw my hoof out expecting something massive to happen, but nothing came.
I smiled wildly, knowing that whatever it had planned didn’t work. Bringing my chin up I bragged “Ha, you fai-” A flash of blinding light dashed across the empty plains.

BOOM!!

I fell to the floor, feeling a burning shock wave ram me into the ground. My armor was stripped off. For a few seconds, I was blinded by the explosion. Covering my eyes, I waited for them to stop stinging.. The amount of light from the explosion disabled my ability to see anything and my ears were ringing from the volume of the blast wave. The blood in my veins flowed faster through my body. I just wanted to take one breath, curl up into a ball and never inhale again.

Eventually, my senses began to slowly come back to me. I felt a low rumbling vibration that shook the ground as screams, yells and cries could be heard. The sound of fire crackling droned in the air, but the sound of wall’s collapsing concrete overpowered it.

Soon after that, my eyes recovered only to meet a blood red sky. I got back up, noticing that I was in control of my actions again. I brushed myself off and started to walk north. I didn’t bother to look back as I knew that if I did, only grief and pain would encounter me. But that didn’t stop me from remembering what I had done. The thick smell of blood seeped into my nostrils, slightly strangling my throat.

I don’t fully remember what happened in the next few hours, and I especially don’t want to recall the emotions I experienced, but I will remember who did this to us: Celestia.

***

My body created a long silhouette as beams of light streaked over the eastern horizon, giving me warmth. I felt the smoothness of the fresh, lush grass underneath my hooves as I took a big breath in through my nose to smell the pollen and the early morning dew, instead of the rotting fumes of corpses and waste I’ve adapted to. I gazed to the north horizon to see a few lumps in the distance and the sandy terrain. I was getting close to Dodge Junction.

Inspecting my aching hooves, I had forgotten that I didn’t change appearance after the blast. Turning my head around, there was nothing but endless flat plains.

I took a seat on the floor, tapping my chin. “Hmm, who should I look like temporarily?”

For some unknown reason this took ages to think about. “Think think think.” I started to poke my head to clear my mental blank. “Ugh, why is it so hard to think of a random identity?!” Throwing my hooves up, I flopped onto the ground.

The only idea that came to me was the form of the pony I had a nightmare about. Seeing no other options in my metal blank, I closed my eyes as green flames wrapped around me. I inspected myself for any discrepancies. “Everything seems fine. No holes, no fangs, no croaky voice.” I sighed as I stared at the buildings in the distance. “Time for Phase Two.”

***

“Welcome to Dooooo-dge JUN-ction!” a yellow earth pony wearing a brown Stetson hat wildly waved his front hooves in the air “I’ve never seen you here before.”

“I would just like to know wher-.” Before I could get to finish my sentence he shoved me across town.

“I know, I’ll give you a grand Dodge Junction tour!”

“Please, I only want to kno-.”

He stopped in the middle of a busy cross junction. “Boggles the mind don't it? The settler ponies built all of this a few years before AAAAAAA-pple-LOO-sa was founded!.”

Opening my mouth, I tried to speak, but he just kept interrupting every time I attempted to talk. Whenever I tried to walk away, he’d just push me to a new location. It seemed that this place had no end to it.

After he wasted thirty minutes of life I could never get back, he finally stopped. “Is there anything I could do for you?”

Once the world around me stopped spinning, i was able to reply. . “W-Where’s the train station?”

“Aww, can’t you stay for a while? You just came here. Oh, I know what would make you want to stay a little longer! A feast! ” With his two hooves on his lips, he gave out a high pitched whistle.

Out of nowhere, all of the townsfolk came galloping out of their houses, carrying plates, cutlery and all sorts of products made from apples. I didn’t know what was scarier, being discovered by drunken teenage dragons, or being force fed ‘poison’.

“AHHHHH!” I ran away blindly in the opposite direction, only to slam into something solid seconds later. “AHHH- oofff.”

I rebounded off the obstacle and a stallion with a low tone followed, “Hey! Watch where you’re going.”

I tilted my head up only to nearly lose control of my bladder at what I saw if I didn’t remind myself that I was in a disguise. A black royal guard equipped with shadowy purple armor poked a rifle to my forehead.

“That’s enough, Sharp Shooter.” Ordered a blue alicorn who’s mane looked like it was made out of the night sky.

“UUGH, of course, I had to bump into one of the princess.”

“Are you ok, pegasus?” she reached out with a hoof.

I got up on my own, fearing that she might cast a spell on me if I touched her hoof. “I’m- I’m ok.”

“Hmm, I’ve never seen you before. Are you new around here?”

“Oh, umm...” “Don’t buck up now.” “I’m not from Equestria.” “Oh, great thinking Smoulder. Now she’s probably going to ask where I come from. I barely know the west end of Equestria.”

The princess of the night raised her eyebrow, “Are you from Saddle Lanka?”

“A little further than that.”

“New Eagleland?”

“A bit further than that.” She was closing in on me. Sweat poured down the side of my head and the princess knew something fishy was going on. The sound of a train’s horn went off. “Gotta go, have a train to catch.” And with that I was up and over to the way the horn came from. “Too close. Way way way way way too close.”

***

“May I have your attention please, the train to Las Pegasus has changed to platform four, the train to Las Pegasus has changed to platform four. Thank you.” The station echoed with the tapping of hoof steps. Some were fast while others were at a normal pace. I’d never seen anything so modern in my life. The roof was so high, that I thought I was still outside. The activity and motion of all of the ponies made me relate to a-... well I could think of anything to match so much movement.

The system of getting a ticket wasn’t very different, although I did see a few ponies just tap a post with a card causing it to beep and open two small door barriers.

“Where to?” A red mare in her blue uniform and cap asked from her box office.

“Umm,” I took out my map from my saddle bags and gave it a grave look, carefully selecting my choices

Appleloosa- I swear if I meet another pony with an Appleloosan accent again, I’m going to kill myself. Ponyville- nope, isn’t that where the elements of harmony live? Canterlot- I would rather put a sign up saying “Kill me, I’m a changeling”.

“Come on we ain’t got all day, you’re not the only customer.”

I quickly said the first city I saw. “Manehattan!”

“The express train to Manehattan it is.” I paid her with most of my bits.

“It just had to be the most expensive place to travel, didn’t it?” I rolled my eyes.

A few anticlimactic minutes passed as I decided to wander around the station while waiting for the train to come. The worst thing about being a changeling is that most of the ponies’ foods smell so delicious and mouth-watering, but we still can’t eat them. I would be better off drinking cyanide than a cup of hot chocolate.

An announcement alarm went off, “May I have your attention please, the express train to Manehattan will arrive in three minutes on platform two. Please stand behind the yellow line until the train has come to a complete stand still. Thank you.”

I ran through the peak hour grind to the designated platform. As soon as I reached it, a loud screech pierced my ears.

“Ow!” I rubbed my ears and pulled my head up.

The train didn’t look like the one I expected, pink, bright and powered by steam. Instead it was a giant, silver, steel centipede. Stepping onto the train, I handed my ticket to the conductor and took a seat. Not many ponies were in this carriage, just a few here and there.

The doors closed as the pistons of the train began to do their labor. My eyelids felt like they had dumbbells strapped onto them. Putting my disguise on ‘auto-pilot’, I slowly cried myself to sleep with a smile, drifting away from Equestria.

“Well Chrysalis, I did it. I did the impossible. Thank you.”

Author's Note

Phew, this chapter took longer than expected. Anyways

Thank you for reading Heart Beats, chapter 5

Don't forget, if you haven't already, to thumbs up,comment and follow :pinkiehappy:

References found
1. by
2. by

If anyone has found something wrong with the grammar or spelling , please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them ASAP.

Chapter 5.5: A.F

I find your lack in faith disturbing

-Darth Vader

*chuga**chuga**chuga**chuga**scrreeech!*

The train driver stepped out of his control box and placed a hoof near his mouth, amplifying his voice. “Last stop, Manehatten!”

I snorted, being disturbed from my sleep. “Eh, wha?” I looked left and right to notice the last few ponies leaving the carriage. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I proceeded to the exit. As I pulled the door open, a white alicorn with soft flowing multi-colored hair stood right in front of me. It was the princess of the day, Celestia.

I went into a calm panic attack, giving her my best poker face and slowly closing her door. Taking a few deep breaths in, I opened the door once again.

“Is there a changeling named Smoulder in there?” Celestia asked in a soft voice.

I’m not ready for this. I slowly closed the door again, taking in more deep breaths. I opened the door for the third time, hoping that it was all an illusion. The white figure was still there. “No, I didn’t think he’s here. My name is Smaug. The changeling you are looking for is not here. I will be sure to notify the proper authorities, should I encounter this Smoulder fellow. Maybe you could come back like umm.. never” I gave her a nervous laugh.

“May I talk to him?” The white unicorn responded without giving a buck with regards to what I had just said.

Alarm bells rang in my head, Abort, abort. I am definitely not ready for this. I slammed the door with my back barricading it as I was on the verge of hyperventilating. Ok switch to plan B.

“LEEEEEERROYYY JEEENKINNNSSSSS!” I cried pulling the door open and shoving the alicorn to the side. “You’ll never take me alive!” I closed my eyes yoloing it knowing that I probably had a thirty two point three recurring percent chance of living.

Celestia’s aura lifted my hooves off the ground and gently shifted me to her. I kept on paddling all four hooves, but I was a fish out of water.

I screamed my lungs out. “AHHHHH!”

“Calm do-”

“AHHHHH!”

“Calm dow-“

“AHHHHH!”

“CALM DOWN SMOULDER!” She boomed in her royal Canterlot voice.

“AHHHHHHHHHH, PLEASE JUST KILL ME ALREADY!”

Celestia’s horn began to glow as bright as the sun, and before you could say Equestria, I was put to rest by a sleeping spell.

***

Lying on the floor, I woke up in darkness. Everything around me was made out of the darkness. Dark walls, dark roof and a dark floor. Then a shimmer of light shined in the air, gradually drifting down to the ground. I shot up on my hooves and shielded my eye until the light turned to a brightness I could handle. A blue alicorn with her hair made out of the night sky appeared in front of me. It was the princess of the night.

“AHHH, NIGHTMARE MOON, AHHH!” I incorrectly screamed as I ran as fast as my hooves could go in the opposite direction only to painfully smash my muzzle against the wall. I galloped to the furthest corner of the room but Luna picked me up the same way Celestia did.

“AHHHHH!”

“Smoulder, plea-“

“AHHHHH!”

“Smoulder please calm down!” The blue alicorn howled.

“AHHHHH!”

Luna looked at you with a can-you-believe-this face. “So reader, do you know any good video games?”

“AHHHHH!”

Luna shot her hoof in the air with energy. “Ha-za! Another base for the Terran Republic, the fun has been quadrupled!”

“AHHHHH!”

Pointing a hoof to me, she asked you. “Do you think he’ll ever stop?”

I stopped screaming, gasping for air.

“Finally. Now Smoulder, as order of the prin-“

“AHHHHH!”

“Oh, son of a draconequus.” The ex-nightmare moon slapped the nonsense out of me. I stopped yelling almost instantly. “Smoulder, calm down or else I will banish you to the stars.”

I closed my eyes and started to tap the ends of my hooves together.

“There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.”

***

I awoke from my dream on a comfortable bed, engulfed in softness. I felt like I could sleep there forever.

“So you’re finally awake?” I opened my eyes to see the mass changeling killer--the princess of love--Cadence.

Torturing my worn-out lungs, I took a deep breath preparing to scream, but before I could give a single decibel, she held out a metal saber that extended out a beam of light. The tip stretched to my neck. It’s heat just merely burning the skin on my neck.

“Ah, not a single sound. No, nada, nope. Ok?”

I gave her a short m-hmm while she retracted the light. She beckoned for me to follow her. When I exited through the doors, I realised that I was in Canterlot. I remembered all of the unique glass work, painstaking wall carvings, all of the servants in their dresses and royal guards in shining armor. We soon reached two gigantic gold plated doors, and I knew who was behind it.

I grabbed onto Cadence’s hoof, “P-please don’t l-let me go in th-there. I-I don’t know what I should pack before leaving to the moon, I don’t know ho-how it feels to be a statue. I don’t want to be turned into st-st-stone, I don’t know how to sur-survive the Rainbow PowerTM and live in Tartarus and I don’t know how to survive fro-frozen in a glacier in the north.”

“I find you lack of faith disturbing,” Cadence said throwing me into the room with her magic. I landed with a thump and groan.

When I looked up, Sun Butt and Moon Cheeks boomed out in unison. “Smoulder, you have been cho-.”

“AHHH!”

Luna groaned. “For Faust sake!” Celestia faced hoofed while Luna walked up to me and gave me a slap on the cheek.

Rubbing my jaw, I became silent, not wanting another painful experience.

Celestia came forward and took over.

“Since we now have your attention--you, Smoulder, have been chosen.”

I tilted my head “Chosen for what?”

“This one, the force, strong is.” A black and white zebra observed, appearing out from the shadows in the corner.

“You are have been chosen-“ Celestia started.

“-to be the next alicorn princess.” Luna ended.

“B-but I’m a stallion, I mean changeling, I mean stallion changeling, urghhh!”

“Oh, I forgot about that. Well I guess you’ll have to be executed and sent to a research lab to be another ripoff toy for Hasbro.” The Zebra unexpectedly said.

“Wait, wha?” And with a bang I was thrown out of the glass window, down to the valley below.

“AAAAHHH!” I uselessly flailed my hooves up and down.

A pink party pony shouted from a train. "Look everypony a mocking bird!”

“Well I guess this is it.” I felt the wind past around my ears as the ground became bigger and bigger until

SPLAT

I smashed into the ground face first, causing me to pop up from the seat still in the train with my pony disguise on. “Oh,” I giggled, “That was an adventurous dream.”

However, that was just barely over a thousand words and Colt Bolt didn’t like that. The princess of the night, who was in the seat behind me, whispered up close to my ear, “That was no dream.” Sweat came pouring down my forehead. I blushed into a crimson red as she softly nibbled the tip of my ears.

A pink party pony bucked open a door. “Choo Choo, mother buckers, we have arrived at Los Pegasus! What happens in Las Pegasus, shall not stay in Las Pegasus!”

The night pony used her magic to rise my paralysed soul out of the train and into a limo with her. As the engine started, Luna gave me her most seductive eyes. “So, do you want to find out what a hybrid of a pony with sharp edges, sharp wit and sharp tongue each sold separately is?”

My eyebrows rose at this topic. “Oh, does the princess of the night have enough stamina?”

She responded with a seductive tone. “I’ve had over a thousand years of training, what, make you think I’m not ready.”

My wings shot up, staying stiff.

“Come to me.”

She opened her arms getting ready for battle but before she could lay a hoof on me, I shoved her arms away.

“Nope, hold the phone, hit the brakes, stop the writing. No way in frigging Tartarus, did I spend four years to get an acting degree, just to get laid in a book.” A line of green fire curled around me returning the deadpan changeling face. “I have taken a lot in this story but getting laid by the princess is where I draw the line. That does it, I’m out of here!”

“You can't leave, you signed a contract! I own you! If you leave I get 50% of your stipend until 80 years has passed or until you die, whichever comes first!” Colt Bolt objected. “ Plus we’ve got a better part where you get laid while drunk in a few chapters time.”

“But it's no good if I can't remember any of it! Good bye, さようなら,auf widersehen, 再见, bene vale, adiós, au revoir and tạm biệt.” I waved my hoof as I slammed the exit door.

“…” Colt Bolt sighed and stared at the word count. This time it was one thousand four hundred. It wasn't over nine thousand, but it would do. “It’s a wrap people, go home.”

The End.

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April Fools

A few days early

Posted on 27/03/15

Author's Note

Now for a few messages from my editors

Oh thank G-d! I was afraid I'd have to perform a homemade lobotomy to erase this atrocity from my memory. Now I'm gonna go sulk and eat a gallon of ice cream, as a reward for being subjected to this.- AuthorGenesis (editor)

Mother of Celestia . . . I was just completely bewildered throughout, wondering whether ol' Colt Bolt had finally found the diving board and jumped straight to the bottom of the deep end. I expected to have a good long sit and rethink my life, but now I can carry on with the rest of my day, lol.- Supersoup (editor)

Wow, this was an awesome experience writing my first A.F (April Fools) story.

Thank you for reading Heart Beats, chapter 4

Don't forget, if you haven't already, to thumbs up,comment and follow :pinkiehappy:

If anyone has found something wrong with the grammar or spelling , please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them ASAP.

References found
1. by
2. by
3. by
4. by
5. by
6. by

Chapter 7: New life

A rush of ponies and other Equestrians moved in and out of the train as I leaned against a glass pane at the foremost carriage. I looked up a clock that was hung from a brick wall. 8:14; the morning was still young. It shouldn’t have taken Grey Thorn too long to come out, but I found myself caught up in the sheer volume of colors; ads; and display windows that had been strategically positioned and built to catch the attention of wandering eyes. The flashing electronic ads were all about wear this, eat this, join this and even report this.

“Out of the way!” A gust of wind pass my ears. A brown earth pony and a grey pegasus, rushed out of the carriage. I could hear the earth pony mutter under his breath, “And this is what I get for losing it.”

A few steps ahead of them, a young papercolt selling the news to passbyers turned around, only to be shoved to the side, not knowing what hit him. The two ponies kept rushing out of the station through the glass door exits. The colt lifted his hooves for balance but his papers and bits were scattered on the floor.
Seeing as I had nothing better thing to do, I moved up to him shuffling the papers back in a pile and helping him to redeposit his bits. He thanked me as I handed it back to him, but just as I was about to leave, a familiar image caught my eye. Before I was about to get a closer look, he turned around and continued selling papers. Walking back to the carriage, I shook my head, thinking it was just my eyes playing tricks on me.

***

Seconds flew by,

then a minute,

And soon enough ten minutes had passed,

and then thirty minutes soon elapsed.

I lifted my head up to the clock again. 8:51

“Grey Thorn, where are you?”
The platform was then completely bare. Everyone, including the papercolt who had ran out of papers, was either in the train waiting as a new set of staff prepared the train for a trip to Las Pegasus or had left the station preparing for the day. I blew a raspberry as my patience took its toll.

A hoof lightly tapped my shoulder. I jumped, choking a little on my saliva.

“Are you Smoulder?” The attendance pegasus from before asked.
Getting my breath back, I replied with a nod of my head.

“Sir, said to give you this.” She raised her hoof to give me a brown leather wallet. I grabbed it, looking at its fine detail of every stitch and marks but before I could ask her where Grey Thorn was, she left out of sight. I sighed.

Opening the wallet, there were folds over flowing with bit notes, probably enough for me to buy all the cider in Equestria. Except one of the folds had a piece of yellow paper sticking out. I pull it out and read it.

Here you will have to go on your own.
Even though our species has been isolated for so
long, I have every confidence that you will succeed.
Peddle forward and don’t give up.
Make sure to blend in with the crowd, just like our revered queen taught you.
Everyling is counting on you, Smoulder.

A hole opened up inside of me as I read the last sentence. I scrunched up the note in my hoof.

“What the buck, what the buck, what the buck!” I screamed inside my head as I stared at the paper in disbelief It didn’t make any sense. It made no bucking sense. Gray wasn’t a changeling who would just ditch another changeling. “This has to be a joke.” But it wasn’t, even after the train left at nine o’clock sharp, he still didn’t appear.

My hair cast a shadow over my eyes. I swallowed hard, irately accepting the truth.

For the second time in my life, I stood there … alone. With no one to guide me through this endless maze. A music piece that never ended.

Biting my tongue, I moved forward towards the glass doors of the station. Sunlight shined on my hooves. I started to doubt if indeed I had met Grey or if it was just a dream. It could have just been the monster inside me playing tricks on me but it wouldn’t explain the existence of the wallet or the note.

Nevertheless, I entered the streets of Manehattan trying to put on a better face.

My new life awaited me.

***

From every possible view Manehattan was breathtaking. Homes that were three to six stories high, businesses that ripped through the skies and a Starbucks at every corner.

I stop and watch in awe at the sheer number of ponies and griffons flying overhead, and overwhelmed at the sight of the crowded streets and sidewalks. And there were hundreds…no, thousands of them. All manner of shapes, sizes, colors, and hues almost resembling a rainbow colored river that flowed across the pavement.

I couldn’t stop grinning as I wandered through the hoofpath.

And it felt wonderful.

I didn’t have anywhere in mind as I walked through Manehattan. So many new sights, sounds and smells. I almost even forgot that I was an outcast here… which … scared me for a second.

The whole day was spent sightseeing. Occupied in my activities, I barely noticed that Luna was about to raise the moon. Only with street lights turning on did I noticed that I was, practically homeless.

My eventful day suddenly became an almost frantic search for a proper roof over my head. There were many apartments in Manehattan, but it was almost impossible to find one that didn’t send me into bankruptcy instantly. I was surprised on how inflation had affected Equestria with my money buying all the cider in Equestria turning into just a few pints of apple juice.

But soon fate smiled upon me that night as I was able to find an apartment complex that gave the first week free, provided I put down a small deposit at first, which only cost me an adequate fraction of my bits. And so, as I gave the manager the bits, he handed me the keys. I took the lift to the third floor, emerged to a carpeted hallway and found room forty nine.

And with the swipe of my key card, I was ‘home’.

It wasn’t anything fancy: a single bedroom with a small lamp and digital clock on a table, opened to a window facing the streets below, a small kitchen storing complementary grain, seeds and oat. Including a few pots, pans and other kitchen utensils. And an even smaller bathroom having a bath, toilet and sink.
All and all, the room was okay, though it was looked old enough to be dated back to the founding of Canterlot, though it was many times better than what I had before. But … never before ‘that’. Sigh.

Anyways, I decided to take a quick bath as I was feeling a little under the weather. And apparently, a quick bath turned out to take thirty minutes. Hot water sprinkled upon my fur and it was the best sensation I had in my entire life. You try living out in the dusty desert trying to eke out your survival on a daily basis. Yeah, that’s what I thought. Tartarus take the lot of your tenderhooves. I didn’t know if getting an hour more sleep on the bed after sleeping so long on dirt and rocks was more preferable, or a thirty minute shower was the more desired. No more freezing cold baths and smelling like an eviscerated decomposing body.
I had everything set up in my new home. With no appliances or televisions, there wasn’t much for me to do, but I didn’t mind. I was still riding high on the excitement of a new home. Sleep didn’t come until late at night, for I laid upon my bed and looked out the window to the sky and towers beyond. All the possibilities it held.

For that day, I was in a position that few changelings had: I could wake up in the morning, and shape a completely new life for myself. I had no ties to the past, no responsibilities to pull me down. I could do anything I wanted. Anything at all.

The endless possibilities would have overwhelmed any other changeling, but not me. For I knew exactly what I had come here to do.
I needed to get a job, first and foremost. Living I this city wasn’t going to come cheap.

But I had a deeper purpose in coming to Manehattan. My ambitions were not to leave my queen to writ in water… no, my ambitions were far grander, and beyond the common, ordinary dreams of my former brethren.

But my grand designs would have to wait until morning. I was tired, and once I laid in bed, I enjoyed the rest.
At that moment, I was still like a seed; tiny and ordinary. But I was about to take hold and spread my roots.
And once that was accomplished, no force on heaven or earth would stop me.

***

I ruffled between my bedsheets and blanket. Getting up I took a look at my clock. 12:06 AM. I’d been rolling around the bed for almost over two hours and black bags hung under my eyes. I groaned as I got up to look at the streets below, still as busy as ever. I guess it was true that the city never sleeps at night.
It wasn’t too loud or anything that kept me awake, but I couldn’t place my hoof on it. I felt as though my hooves were about to give out under my body weight. Rolling onto my back, I stared blankly at the ceiling. Though I still wasn’t able to fall asleep.

And then it landed on me like a ton of bricks.

Slowly sliding off the bed with my blanket, I rested my back against the cold hard wooden floors. And before I could properly set the blanket, my mind drifted off to a dream.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading Heart Beats, chapter 7

Don't forget, if you haven't already, to thumbs up,comment and follow :pinkiehappy:

If anyone has found something wrong with the grammar or spelling , please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them ASAP.

References found

Also, sorry for the long delay. One of my editors had to leave because of life situations (not that I'm angry, it's perfectly fine. And also that i found a giant paradox in my planing. (Yes, that's right, this story does have a plan.)

Chapter 7.5:From nut to oak

I’ve learnt that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

-Maya Angelou

A bird perched on a tree tweeted outside, as the door to my bedroom creaked opened. The rays of sunlight streaked across the cream colored wall. Slowly, a figure of a unicorn walked in. Her mane was a solid deep-sea blue with curls while her fur was a light hue of purple. Her cutie mark bore two thermometers crossing one another and she wore a loving smile as any mother would.

Around her, in the room, were an abundant of young foal toys from robots poking out of an overflowing toy box to spin tops tilted immobile to the red carpet. The unicorn leaned over my bed and gave a kiss on my cheek. “Good morning, Smoulder.” She awoke me with a voice soft as silk.

“Mmmm,” Squinching my eyelids, I dug deeper into my bed sheets. “Mum, give me another five minutes.” I murmured. She bent in closer, giving me another kiss on the cheek.

“Come on darling, you’ll be late for school if you don’t wake up now.” She placed a hoof on my shoulder, softly shaking it. Feeling like rubbish, I lifted my aching back, sitting up right. My small hooves rubbed the crust on my eyes to view my bedroom’s window pointing out to Manehattan’s Grand Library.

“Breakfast is ready down stairs.” She stated before leaving the room. I could hear the morning rush of ponies outside completing their daily errands as Celestia’s sun shined through the cloudless day.

Not even half awake, I bumped my head on the plaster wall, waking up on the wrong side of the bed, literally. Somepony throwing a brick to my head would have hurt less. I ricocheted back to the comfort of my pillow, cussing to myself.

After the pain faded away, I got back up and on the right side of the bed, slid off. But not before stubbing my hoof to a wooden clothes drawer.

“Some day this is going to be.” I groaned as now not only my head, but my hoof was sending pain signals to my brain. It just seemed as if the pain wasn't only constant, but increased now that I had hurt myself twice.

Limping the agony off, I walked on the carpet towards the opened bedroom door. To the right of it, a portrait of my family on a holiday rested in a frame.
Ghastly Gorge. I could remember the place as if it was yesterday. My older brother had his wing cuddled in close to me as I made a face of one asphyxiation ‘Stop trying to strangle me’. He was like every big brother. More superior to me, sometimes annoying and other times even more annoying.

To his right my dad stood up straight with a slight smile. He wasn’t the type to have fun around but he was a loving father putting my needs first, spoiling me like a brat. And finally to my left was my mum. She was a very generous and kind mother but if somepony trifled with her then she'd tear into them so fast that they'd regret ever crossing her.

Shuffling along, I slowly slugged down the wooden stairs of the house. It was a luxurious home fit for a prince, with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, decorative black and white marble floors and artistic carvings on the ceiling edges. I sat on the dining table's chair next to my brother. He gave me a smile to my half-awake eyes. I should have seen this coming but nevertheless, grabbing my spoon, I dipped it right into my bowl and took a sip of love. Or so I thought it was.

The pink liquid set alight to the insides of my mouth and dissolved the skin of my throat. What felt like hot burning magma blew out of my nostrils. “PHHHT.” I spat the liquid all around the table racing for the tap while my brother wasn’t able to catch his breath in his reign of mad laughter. I never really knew what he actually poured in my bowl; I don’t even know if I want to. To me, this was my average daily routine.

“Gotcha...haha….back, Smoulder.” He snorted almost falling off his chair. I should of known that he would have gotten revenge since I-

A scream came from the kitchen followed by a crash of plates.

“Freeze! Nopony move!”

***

“Mum!” I rose up from my bed sheet on the apartment’s wooden floor panting. My whole body was covered in sweat and my breathing became shallow. My heart would have been beating rapidly but it was still docile.
“It’s only a dream. The past is in the past.” I slowed my breath down and returned to bed.
Only to look at the clock to see it was eight thirty in the morning.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading Heart Beats, chapter 7

If anyone has found something wrong with the grammar or spelling , please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them ASAP.

References found

Also Merry Christmas 2015

Chapter 8:Joy

You can do anything, but not everything

-David Allen

“Sorry.”

“Nope.”

“May I see your I.D?”

“We’re looking for experienced workers, not rookies.”
Those four lines of my life would easily sum up my gruelling sixteen hour track of applying for a job. Shop after company after odd job, I was frequently rejected because I wasn’t what they were looking for. Even the simplest occupations like janitors or papercolts seemed like you needed a degree and PhD in neural science. At the end of the day, the so called ‘City of Opportunities’ almost lead me to bankruptcy.

However, as the evening traffic rush hour began to quell down, I still pressed on. I probably would have walked more than all the ponies in the Running of the Leaves combined, zig zagging central Manehattan with blistering hooves, until finally, fate decided to give me a chance.

There was a grocery shop, a few minutes walk from my apartment, which had a sign on the front window hiring staff. It wasn’t any big company that had a shop at every corner but at least it had a job open for me. As I entered the store, the smells of vegetables, fruits, freshly baked goods and other foods flooded the air. Soft music played while ponies of all ages moved along the aisles and checkouts where beeping with anticipation.

Then something heavy fell on me, pinning my back down on the checkered marble floor.

I screamed in shock. “Okyougotme.Iamachangelingjustpleasedon’thurtme, Celestia!”

When I opened my eyes, a pony with pink fur and purple hair with a band holding it tidy took a deep breath in.

“Welcome-to-A-to-Z.Weselleverythingfromapplestozucchinis.” She held up the fruits in her left hoof. “MynameisJoy.HowmayIhelpyou?” She chattered with barely any air left in her lungs.

I would of ran away to the next city if she didn’t have her whole entire weight on top of me, but trapped under a heavy mare that looked miniature to the eye, I stayed still for a few awkward seconds, gritting my teeth. I took notice that her eyes where a different color from each other. The left was a light purple that matched her fur but the orange to the right completely objected to her color scheme. Two crisscrossing golden arrows , the ones you shoot from a bow, were tattooed on her left flank while the other had a script.

“Joy! What have I told you about greeting our customers like that!?” A stern, authoritative voice shouted from the other side of the shop.

Joy and I both looked at a brown stallion. Obviously the manager of the shop, considering his styled solid black hair and his badge on his green and white uniform.

“And where is your uniform for Celestia’s sake?!” He raised a hoof emphasizing his question.

“Oops, sorry, Check List.” The crazy mare hopped off my chest and popped on a vest uniform out of nowhere.

He facehoofed. “Go to the back of the store and help Stacker stack the cans of tomatoes.” Joy followed her manager’s orders and zipped away. Dusting myself off, Check walked up to me. The signs of wrinkles were already evident in his face and I could tell from the black sags under his eyes that he hadn't had very much sleep in the past few days or maybe even weeks.

“I’m very sorry for the inconvenience.” He said in an apologetic voice but with a smile. It seemed like he had done it many times before, for the same trouble maker. “If there is any way we can give you back your satisfaction just tell us.”

I hesitated for a second trying to get my bearings. “I-I saw that you needed staff” I pointed to the sign at the window.

He shook his head and I already knew what he was going to say. “Sadly though, I was just about to take it down as the job was already taken a moment ago. Is there anything else you would like help with?”

I sighed as my ears lowered. “No, it’s … okay.”

I began to turn around and walk out of the stall until a clutter of tomato cans fell and rolled onto the floor. Pieces of the red fruit splattered everywhere as if somepony shouted ‘Bloody Marey’. A loud yell ran out. It didn’t feel like a yell in pain but more like a yell in frustration.

“I can’t take it anymore with that pink pony!” A purple pegasus with black hair and Thalia and Melpomene as a cutie mark screamed out. “I’ve been in this job for two hours and already that pink pony is driving me nuts.” She took off her uniform and threw it into Check’s face. “I quit!” And with that, she flew out of the shop at haste.

I swore, though the cars honking outside, I heard a cricket chirping.

“Well,” The manager said pressing one side of his lips together “looks like we do have a job open for you after all.” He beckoned. “Follow me.”

As he guided me to the back of the shop, I was at awe with how well off ponies were. Anyone could literality live here and have everything to their dispense. *Sigh* If only that was true years ago.

Anyways, we soon entered a staff common room where instantly a few of the younger staff members who were yelled at by Check for lounging around on a couch. I took a mental memo not to get on Check's darker side. Inside were couches of many sizes and colors surrounding coffee tables and a bulky TV on two filing cabinets.

He opened the door and we finally reached his office. Offering me a seat in front of his desk, I prayed to Chrysalis as this could be my last chance for tonight. We went through the standard protocol of paperwork; getting my name, address, phone number, etc. He then asked me a few questions which caught me off guard but somehow narrowly got through. Fortunately, he didn’t ask for any I.D and I didn’t need a PhD in medicine.

I nervously gave him the finished and signed papers and placed the pen I was writing with away from my cramping mouth. He scanned through the lines and gave me a short glare at me. I gave of a soft grunt. A metaphorical lightning bolt went through my head and a bit of me died on the inside. I had not been given that look ever since I first saw the queen. It was obvious that my neatness with a pen was not the best but nor was it the worst.

Who am I kidding? It was the worst. A new born foal could have probably written neater. The most I've ever written was about the amount of words in the first page of 'To kill a mocking Griffon'. And when I say first page, I mean the title page. Luckily, I think all, or at least ninety-nine percent, of the jobs here didn't need legible writing.

After he nodded and just accepted my papers, we worked on negotiating the times I could work and, most importantly, the pay. He planned me to work the night shift all week except Friday, as they had enough staff on that day, and, to my limited knowledge of the economy, he took advantage of me by giving a lower pay than the average garbage stallion. It was a problem that I talked with him about in a few weeks time but it was enough to pay the costs of living in the city.

He shook my hoof, gave me a uniform and welcomed me to the so called 'family', after I signed a contract. Leading me out of the office, he called out for Joy.
"Joy, where are you?!"

A stretch of pink skitted across the store and in a blink she was in front of me. "You called?" She asked in her high pitched voice.

"Take Smoulder and show him the ropes. He's your new manager assistant." He patted me on the shoulder and left into his office.

“Manager assistant? How did this sugar rushed mare get promoted to such a high level? Moreover, if Joy is the manager of the store than what is Check than?”

Joy took offence, "Hey! I'm a sugar rushed mare who is doing a fine job at keeping this company alive and Check is the C.E.O of the company."

"Wait what?" I blabbered.

"Hmm" She turned her head at me. I stood there not knowing how to react until she pulled my hoof. "Enough babbling. Come on, we have no time to waste." Moving at the rates of G-forces, we reached room after aisle after another room. “Listen carefully, you put the bouncy balls in the blue box and the gumballs in the red box. Don't get them mixed up or we'll get foals choking and a lawsuit on our hooves. Got it? Good." She wasted no time at explaining what I need to do every day I work here and after a few minutes of face pulling running we came to a stop at the entrance.

"Ok, you got it all?"

My eyes swirled in their sockets. "I think ... I lost track after you ... after you said listen carefu-"

She wrapped her arms around my lungs and hugged. "Ohh, I'm so happy you got that all of that. You'll be a great assistant."

I was able to feed off her a bit until the pain in my back overcame. "Joy, not so ... tight."

She released me and we said our goodbyes. How I was going to survive that mare was impossible to know, but I didn't bother. My bed/wooden floor was calling me and I had a job to go to tomorrow.

Chapter 9:Confrontation

To love at all is to be vulnerable

-C.S Lewis

About two weeks had passed since I got my job. My daily schedule then was, wake up, shape shift, get into uniform, drink a survivable amount of love from my bottle, wonder if I’d need to bring the revolver I had to work in case my true identity was found, shake my head seeing that it would probably make me look more suspicious, walk to work, get jump scared by Joy falling from the roof, help Joy out with jobs here and there, walk out of the store, only for Joy to almost decapitate me with her hugs and finally sleep. Sometimes, in my free time, I would go for a stroll around Manehattan, blowing a cigarette now and then but most of the time I would spend my time at the Manehattan library.

After I had gotten a library card, I started to read books at an unbelievable speed, almost to a point where I would stay inside for hours on end. Through it, I learnt common knowledge of Equestria, a small amount of how economics worked, although I stopped reading after the first 10 pages as it didn't peak any interest, and a few amateur spells, even if it gave me a glare or two from others, looking like a pegasus and all. I also started to read a trilogy made by a stallion named M.A Neighson. His story was about a world where all equestrian beings were alicorns and, as strange as it might seem, it was quite interesting to read. His philosophies and moral were perfect to the T. But the thing that struck me the strangest however was his choice of paper size. It was a thick A6 book, or more like notepad, that I was able to save rotting away from the back of a bookshelf. Even the librarian was shocked that I found this book. From there on, it stayed in my uniform’s pocket, just the perfect size, ready to read whenever I wanted to.

One day, I ask the librarian at the front desk who was reading the daily news if there were any books about changelings. She pointed to the bugs section in the flora and fauna aisle.

“E…Excuse me?” I asked taking offence.

She lowered her papers and gave me both of her eyes. “Yes, is there a problem?”

I was about to go on a bombastic outburst but I quickly realised my mistake. I moved to the aisle, giving a huff through my nose. A hundred pages later I found my species in a paragraph at the bottom of the last page.

Changelings are bugs that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a two-segmented body with four legs, two wings, two eyes, teeth (including two fangs), and a fin like crest on their heads. Their only known diet is love from other beings. The more attracted their prey is to them the higher levels of output of love there is. Another way they can harvest love from their prey is by killing them, giving them the highest output of love. Their metabolism is well known to be very high, living at most a week off nothing but air. It is unknown what kind of eyes the drones have and how they see, but their queen/s have mammalian like eyes. It is also unknown why they have unique holes in their hooves but many theories have been made, from creating a deathly howl like a woodwind instrument when they fly at great speeds, to a curse being placed on them.

From here, the best fit for changelings taxonomically speaking is they are animals within the phylum arthropoda and are a part of the subphylum chelicerata. This places them within the same category as spiders, mites, ticks, horseshoe crabs, and scorpions. But we are not finished finding out what they are as we only have their subphylum. Given these observations along with their fangs, and the fact they produce a sticky substance used to capture prey, changelings are most closely related to Arachnids, specifically spiders. But taxonomy does not work that way. Changelings are clearly a unique branch of life and therefore would have their own class, order, family, genus, and species within the chelicerata subphylum.

Kingdom: Animal
Phylum: Anthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: cogitativam
Order: falusequui
Family: affecetai
Genius: Mutata
Species: M. alveium

This would make the scientific name of Changelings, Mutata alveium.

To be honest, it wasn’t the statements that offended me, as most of them were quite correct with decent evidence backing them up, but it was the length of the passage. While the cottontail rabbit had two pages dedicated to it, changelings only had barely half a page and no pictures. Changelings were going to be nothing but a forgotten memory. However, as much as I would have like to make a fuss about it, I had a bigger problem than my species being a footnote in an animal book. The last drop of love exited my bottle.

The amount of love I would get from Joy daily wasn’t enough to keep me alive as she only saw me as a ‘co-worker friend’. So other alternatives had to be made. I had tried to find a decent host to feed off but with my lack of skills of wooing mares and stallions, it was a waste of time. Most ponies in the city didn’t have enough time on their hooves, only talking to those who benefited them. I had even gone to explicit places but the love there was non-existent.

Days past and the hunger pains came in. It was a discomfort I had felt so many times but now, since I could compare it to the feeling of being well fed, it was almost at an unbearable level that even Joy asked me to take the day off. I declined but with her friendly stubbornness, I was forced to go home.

Midnight rolled along and my stomach felt like as if it was imploding on itself. On the floor with my blanket and pillow, I twist and turned, uselessly numbing the pain. A fever came over my head and sweat droplets began to appear. The only reason I think I was able to go to sleep that night was because the amount of pain that faded me into unconsciousness.

***

The building was on fire, and it wasn’t my fault. My young hooves clipped and clopped on the tile floor as I sprinted around a corner and toward the entrance doors to a school building on the southwest edge of Manehattan. The flames had become so abrupt that I had to keep my head down to breath when I got inside. Distant streetlights and the pulsing red flames provided the only light through the windows in a dusty and smoke-filled hall.

“Ani!?” I screamed at the top of my lungs for my older brother. “Where are you?!”

“Over here.” A faint voice called out. It came from the other side of the hallway where the smoke forbade light to pass.

“Come here!” I called back.

“I can’t, I’m stuck.”

I ran towards his voice. My shadow only became less and less visible till it blended in with my soundings.

“I can’t see you.” I squinted my eyes hopelessly finding him.

A light suddenly shined out of a heap of school desks. “I’m in here.”

I started to pull desk after desk out feeling as if no progress was being made no matter how fast I went. Then Ani’s hoof came out and gave a firm grip to my hoof. Except it wasn’t his hoof that grabbed me. It was more of a glistening tar like texture. I slipped out of its grip, moving back from the unexpected cold touch.

A dark figure, without warning, burst out of the pile, throwing desks everywhere. One of them came right for me, throwing me to the side and ricocheting my head off the plastered wall.

“Did you miss me?” An all too familiar voice said.

My cracked eardrum only heard a blurred sound. I could feel the floors and walls rumble sharply as if they were about to give out soon. The figure transmuted itself into a shape of a pony, its horn giving off the only light.

“What’s wrong?” It said dishearteningly, placing a hoof under my chin. “Didn’t you miss the fun times we had?”

My senses pulsed back and gathering my strength, I threw a punch. It landed straight on its cheek but my hoof etched as if it punched a brick wall. I threw myself to the side giving a few meters between us.

“I thought you rotted in Tartarus!” I said.

“Oh, Smoulder,” It started to walk circles around me like a lion ready to pounce, “it seems like it is you who is rotting in Tartarus. No plan to avenge Chrysalis, no food for days, and you can’t even get a decent meal to feed off.”

I looked at the end of the hallway where I came from but a solid plaster wall took its place.

“Don’t bother, there are four walls, a floor, and a roof. There’s no escape.” It mockingly ginned and shook its head.

Adrenaline picked up through my blood and if I couldn’t flee, there was only one choice. My legs tensed for what was about to happen.

It stopped walking, its body faced me. “I didn’t come here to fight, but if it’s fight you want then it’s a fight you’ll get!”

The light on its horn fizzed and turned off. I was swallowed in darkness. Sight became useless and hearing was my only friend. If it wasn’t for gravity, I wouldn’t have known which direction I was facing. A rustle and a giggle came from my right. I swag a hoof but to no avail.

“You should try better next time.” The voice came from everywhere. “Ani and Chrysalis would be ashamed. You shouldn’t be fighting me, you should be fighting the ponies.”

It stood silence for a few horrifying seconds.

“After all,” It directly spoke in my left ear as I gasped and turned my head. It came around to my right ear. “I am you.”

I took countless of steps back.

My rump hit the wall.

It was so silent that I could hear the sound waves of my breathing bounce off the other side of the wall.

Two hooves ripped out of the plaster behind, and grabbed my arms, pinning me up like a poster. I was too shocked to move.

It came up to my ear again. “You know what? Since I’m so nice, I’ll give you three days to find a decent meal to feed off. If you don’t,” It giggled, “lets just say this body won’t be yours anymore.”

A fire relit in my eyes. “Dam you, take your evil deeds and rot in Tartarus!” I broke from its grip and threw a punch, aiming to break the plaster.

The light and setting suddenly changed. I closed my eyes from the sudden brightness. My hoof went through something soft, then hard and then soft again. The next thing I knew was that my hoof was covered in a liquid. It was too thick to be water and smelt like alkaline. Moreover, my tongue had a taste of something sweet.

My pupils adjusted to the new light and I opened my eyes. I screamed in horror. A body of a mare laid on the floor. Her mane and tail were drenched in her own pool of blood. It was almost impossible to tell if she had blue and black fur or if they were bruises as they blanketed her body. A hole through her chest cavity, where my hoof was, showed her internal organs the light of an alleyway lamppost.

I whimpered as her blood dripped from my raised hood and into my holes.

Sirens blared and a mix of blue and red light flashed from one side of the ally. I hesitated to move at first but I knew I couldn’t go down like this. While shape shifting, I ran the opposite direction, out onto a street.

The sun hadn’t risen yet. I remembered this place as I’d been to many of the businesses and shops look for a job. The roads and pathways were empty except for the random cars and night owls. I ran back to my apartment with an empty mind, too shell-shocked to recall what happened.

When I arrived at the hotel, the stallion at the registration was flipping through a magazine. The distance from the entrance to the stairs was only a hop skip and a jump away. I was such in a mad rush to get back into my room that I forgot about him. I carelessly bumped an object with my rump.

“Hey, you knocked down the bin!” He exclaimed pointing at the trash now scattered on the wooden floor.

I ignored what he said.

***

Blood is thicker than water.

I turned the bath’s handle and barely took notice of the sudden spray of cold water, as my hooves shook like a leaf.

It was almost impossible to wash blood off fur. Some of it had already dried up into scabs, flaking off in chunks while the ones deeper resisted. I scrubbed so many times and so hard that the skin on my arms, rump and chest became red and irritated. The water that poured down the drain wasn’t tainted with red, it was as if only blood came out of the shower head.

“Am I a good man? Am I a mad man? It's such a fine line, between a good man and a mad man.” I asked myself this question all the way through, bit by bit eating my soul away.

But, eventually, the suffering and pain would end. After using all the hot water in the hotel, 2 bars of soap and a bottle of shampoo, I dried myself off with a towel.

I stepped out of the bathroom and it felt like I had spent my whole life inside there. My hooves still softly shook as I made my way up to the bed. I looked at the digital alarm clock. 1:12 AM.

With the last few ounce of strength, I shape shifted into my changeling form and fell onto the comfort my blankets and pillows. This would be the first time when I was able to sleep on a bed.

***

I awoke from a knocking from my door.

“Smoulder, are you there?” I heard Joy’s voice through the door.

I shuffled in my blankets and called back in a tired but audible voice, “Yeah,” I yawned, “I’m here.”

“Well get up sleepy head.”

“Just gimmie another ten minutes.” I poked my arm out of the blanket, into the cold world, beckoning Joy away, even though I knew she couldn’t see me.

“Do you know what time it is?”

“I don’t know, muffin time?” I lifted the blankets over my head to see the clock. 11AM.

Buck.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading Heart Beats, chapter 9

If anyone has found something wrong with the grammar or spelling , please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them ASAP.

References found
1.Jekyll and hyde by Deadlynighshade
2. by
3. by

Chapter 1:Last Words?

Darkness. Life will always start and end in darkness. Every living creature has darkness in their hearts, just some more than others.

The cacophony of stallions cheering for your death isn’t especially pleasing when you’re a changeling. Bruises and cuts cover half of my body and hooves and my own green tinted blood running down my body in rivulets. A durable, fibrous rope securely binds my wings to my torso, so that my chances of flying away are about as low as my body suddenly teleporting into thin air. Heavy chains weigh down each of my hooves, making trotting impossible, so I limply walk through a narrow corridor to a wooden stage while two stallion guards station themselves just behind me. Ahead of me on the stage was my fate—a noose. I sigh gravely as the crowd of two hundred or more stallions roar out over and over again a single word: “Death”.

Each second seems to drag on for minutes, as I was acutely aware of my own time running out. The thunderous sound of my own heartbeat, as my senses sharpen in the moment of tribulation. The smell of sweat, hay and dirt. The dryness of my mouth.

A dark yellow stallion with brown shag hair approaches me and fiercely threw an uppercut at my bloody face, causing me to lose my balance and crumple to the stage sideways with a thud. After he spits on my wings and snorts with disapproval, he trots to the other side of the slaughter hall with his head held high.

Ignoring the sudden burst of pain and renew cheering with trembling legs, I slowly rose back up onto my hooves. I painfully groan as I stumble on my broken front right hoof.

“Move it!” One of the guards intimidates me with his pike.

“Buck you,” I shot back, gritting my teeth.

“Say that again,” he snarls narrowing his eyes.

“Buck. You.” I taunt him, emphasizing each word, seeing as my life would either end by his wrath or by a ten foot rope that loops around my neck.

The stallion’s face grows red. Drawing back his hoof to strike, his brows scrunch together, as his eyes narrow at me in hate. He showed me his teeth and his lips part in a sneer of rage. I laugh quietly, both to mocking and further inciting the stallions wrath, but I was laughing that the very same species from which we siphoned magic from, was the very same species that was now going to sentence me to death, just for being what I was. Fortunately, the second guard was able to temper the other, grabbing the end of the pike before I was slaughtered.

“The audience needs their entertainment,” the second guard offers, glaring at him, looking him eye to eye. The hostile guard reluctantly shook off his colleague’s hoof and shoves me forcefully, causing me to stumble and fall, despite his desire that I should move again.

With my teal changeling eyes gazing down at the timber planks while I hobble, I think over the past year. Oh Celestia, it was such a year. Filled with so many lows, but higher highs that effortlessly eclipse the darker times. My eyes fill with tears—not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. I suddenly realize that I had actually fulfilled my desires. I had made a few friends whom I truly cared about, and had lived without harming anypony and I ...

I think ...

I feel a peace, despite my impending death. I am not afraid, not of death, nor what may come after.

As I reach the stairs to the gallows, the same stallion who tackled me to the floor just a minute ago, came to me with the noose and notices the grin plastered across my face.

He questions me in a heavy Appaloosan accent. “What are you smilin’ at, you damn changelin’?”

“Well, can’t you see it?” I ask confidently, not wanting him getting the better of me.

“Well, from what I can see, stands a changelin’ who ain't going to be alive for much longer.”

“Then may Celestia have mercy over you,” I pray aloud as he secures the rope around my throat.

He moves over to the lever that drops the trap door, Each hoofstep sounding like the pounding of a judges gavel, declaring with each clop the weight of my 'sins' against these ponies. Time seems to slow, so that each hoofstep took minutes, instead of seconds, a regular metronome ticking off the moments before my execution. I gave a small but conspicuous smile to the audience that was still waiting in suspense. At least I was going to die with dignity. The crowd slowly becomes silent as the yellow stallion places his hoof upon the lever that is to choose for me between life or death.

“Any last words?” He mocks me again wearing a grin of his own.

Slowly sorting through the mess within my own mind, I eventually respond, “Yes, I do have a few last words ... I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry that my brothers and sisters have harmed the innocent residents of Equestria. I’m sorry that we tried to harvest your love. And I’m sorry that the havoc we caused years ago has led to this ... But, do you know what I’m sorry for, most of all? Each and every one of you.” I aim my hoof toward the crowd. “Some of you could have become great musicians, artists, singers, designers, or maybe even inventors of grand solutions to the world's problems, but instead you dedicate your life to these acts of terror. And what cause have we given for you to hate us? For being different? Then why aren’t you killing dragons and zebras? Because we feed differently than you do? Then why aren’t you killing gryphons?! Instead of facing your fears and seeking to understand us and our society, you would damn an entire species to death?” An eerie silence settles upon the theater, until somepony behind me begins slowly clapping their hooves.

“Touching, very touching,” a mare’s voice calls out sarcastically, her voice thick with the accent of the Northern ponies.

She lowers her voice as she finishes her sentence. “But we asked for last words, not a lecture.”

I draw a quick sharp gasp as I realize the mare behind me, during another stretch of uncomfortable silence. The mare nods to the yellow stallion. Mentally ready, I close my eyes, hoping that the pain will be short and that the last thing I hear is a loud click and a bang.

How did I come to this dreadful fate?

Author's Note

Thank you for reading Heart Beats, chapter 1
Don't forget, if you haven't already, to thumbs up,comment and follow :pinkiehappy:
If anyone has found something wrong with the grammar or spelling , please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them ASAP.

Chapter 2: Heavy Rain

“Life is a tough challenge, but it’s a challenge worth fighting for”
-Alexandre Bellefeuille

My lengthy journey to the gallows took place in the Badlands, a few years after the failed attempt to take over Canterlot. It wasn’t much to look at—just a scatter of bone dry rocks, a few decomposing corpses of my former comrades, and the ever present Macintosh Hills that seemed to stretch forever. A large community of wild dragons which we don’t usually get along with, was nestled a few miles away from our camp. At first glance, no pony would ever want to be a resident here, not even for all the bits in Equestria.

The colony was on the brink of extinction, from having a population of over ten thousand which had plummeted to just a few hundred because of the love famine and recent dragon raids, who burned anything we owned as a source of amusement. We tried to escape and seek asylum, but we would either be forced back by a barrage of fireballs or be ‘persuaded’ to go back by Celestia’s new weapon. It was like a crossbow that shoots very small metal projectiles at incredible speeds and makes a really loud bang when you pull the trigger.

She expected us to eat normal equine food, so her guards sends carts full of hay, apples and other nourishment weekly. Doesn’t she understand that their cuisine seems to our taste buds like something from a Los Pegasus’ dumpster? Most of the food was either taken by the dragons or was left to rot away in time. Trust me, you would have seen me eating meat before eating a cupcake with chocolate icing. So to conserve energy, I didn’t shape shift for years.

It all started on a freezing night during a major downpour, which was extremely uncommon seeing as it only rained about once every ten years. Every small cave and overhanging boulder in our territory was filled to the rim by hiding changelings. Every time I tried to jam in, I would be greeted with an annoyed kick or a shove.

“Go and find somewhere else to sleep, Smoulder!” a changeling would bellow, after being awoken. With my head hanging down, soaked in water, and my breath turning to vapour, I wandered aimlessly, hoping to find some sort of shelter from the shiver inducing rain.

***

A few uneventful minutes passed, walking on a remote plain while the volley of rain showed no sign of stopping. By chance, I was able to find a dead tree that had just recently yielded to the elements. It rested on a rock with its bough making a small but convenient roof. The floor was a little wet, but I guessed it was better than trying to get some sleep in the shower.

I was slightly more comfortable but the pitter patter of rain remained an irritating background noise, which didn’t cease so long as it continued to rain. I tried my best to ignore the infernal sound by pushing my hooves into my ears. I started to think about what a normal earth, pegasi, or unicorn pony would be doing right now. Probably snugged into their beds, under a dry roof with a warm fire crackling by their side.

As I kept thinking about how privileged they were, a small pressure started to build at the back of my head. It only grew bigger and broader as seconds passed, until … it landed on me like a ton of bricks.

“I can’t take this any more!” I exploded, throwing my arms out. Coincidentally, at the same time a crack of lightning busted out of the clouds. My head went into override only having experienced lightning a couple times in my life, I fainted from the sudden shock. Well, at least I was able to get some sleep.

***
The sound of a high pitched beeping awoke my mind. The atmosphere around me felt … alien. I was comfortable. Too comfortable. Not wanting to open my eyes, leaving the alarm continuously beeping in the background, I studied my senses. My … my horn! I couldn’t feel it and … my wings … they felt less cracked than usual.
“Oh, Celestia. Please don’t tell me that the lightning struck me and turned me into a creature with seven hooves and eleven eyes,” I said as I bit my lip.
Slowly gaining confidence, my eyelids opened little by little to see that I was on a wooden bed, with a blue silky quilt and a white pillow placed at my head. Bring up my hoof to inspect my horn, my scream had been several octaves above what I'd normally be capable of producing. I realized that my fur was now a navy blue colour, without holes! I tried to shift form back into a changeling, but it didn’t work.
I began to rotate erratically, eyeing my limbs and body in horrified disbelief while barely managing to speak between my frenetic breaths. “No ... this ... it can't be ... I'm a—” I halted when my tail tucked itself between my legs, squeaking at the sight and feel of the involuntary reaction. Getting a hold of myself, trying to slow down my breathing, it took a few seconds before I was able to once again attempt to inspect my horn.
The first observation that I gathered was that my horn felt as if it was totally gone, like it was never there. But another thing amazed me - I had hair! Smooth, silky hair! Fascinatingly twirling my shocking yet astonishing discovery with my hoof, I started to examine the small bedroom. It was mostly empty, just an old bleak, brown wooden wardrobe and closet, the door in front, and a square window with velvet curtains glistening with sunrays to my left.
When my eyes moved to view the right side, I jumped in alarm to the other side of the bed. There was a stallion gawking right at me. I raised my hooves in a fight stance and narrowed my eyes, ready for any attack and so did he. I waited for his first offensive move, ready to block or dodge it, and so did he. I sat there glaring at his eyes for a minute. Tilting my head in confusion, he copied every move I made, from scratching my head to making faces. Then, for the second time in a single day, it landed on me like a ton of bricks. I was playing with my own reflection in an oval, golden framed mirror. Giving myself a small laugh for being so dumb, I moved in closer to inspect my image.
Seeing my head hornless, but covered in cyan hair with a green outline was quite amusing. What also caught my intentions were my wings. They weren’t dried Swiss cheese anymore, but more smooth and sophisticated. I haven’t felt this great sensation for years.
Suddenly, my reflection shape shifted into a changeling with a heavy smirk. It grabbed my head pulling it through the mirror. I tried as hard to resist but with the element of surprise against me it was far too late. I felt the power of gravity as I tumbled down a steep hill made out of obscurity.
Groaning from the agony of falling down of what felt like a flight of stairs, I finally reached a flat plain. I could just see the outline of the ground but the changeling was nowhere to be seen. Abruptly, a shadowy hoof, gloomier than darkness itself, hurled into me from out of the sky and turned itself into a furious sea storm trying to drown me. Every wave that crashed into me felt like a hoof shoving me down. I was able to stay afloat for a few seconds, with the little experience I was equipped with, until a current or what felt like an eagle’s claw hauled my forehooves down. Struggling for my life, with only half a lung full of air, the claw dragged me deeper and deeper to a stage where I knew nothing could be done.
“This is it,” I thought miserably, ceasing my struggling. “I’m just another changeling served on a silver platter to death itself.”
Seeing the last few air bubbles fly away to the surface, my vision began to blur.
***
“Ghuahh!” I came back to reality, gasping for air. Spitting out a few pints of mud that came from a puddle which I rolled into face first during my sleep. The taste was revolting. Swiping the mud off my eyes with my hooves, I slowly rose and trotted to a nearby, mostly clean pond crafted by the weather last night to wash down my mud covered face. I gazed at my reflection.
“Yep, still a changeling,” giving off a grave sigh.
After a few minutes, I started to amble back to the colony but as I did, my hooves stopped in a tremor and my eye widen. I just … I just had a dream. Changeling weren’t meant to have dreams. We slept, but all we would visualize is the darkness in our literally non-beating stone hearts. No, I’m serious, it was literally made out of stone- never to love, feel, or dream. I guess that’s why we savour the taste of love so much.
At that moment, a spectrum of emotions fazed through my head. At one side, besides my dream turning into a nightmare, it felt overwhelming, splendid, and remarkable; I don’t think there are enough words in the Trotford Dictionary to describe it. But on the other side of the spectrum, terror ran within my veins. What did this mean? Was I going to turn into a creature with seven hooves and eleven eyes?
“W- What’s happening?” I frightfully whispered under my breath. Without warning, a ball of fire roars past me throwing me into disarray on the ground.

“Oh horseapples, please not a dragon.” I groaned, hastily getting up and darting back to the colony.
Looking over my right shoulder, I was right: it was a dragon. Its scorching eyes locking onto me, red scales penetrating through the air with ease and jagged nails and teeth ready for a bite.
“Buck, Buck, Buck!” moving my hooves as fast as possible. The predator was rapidly gaining on me. Taking a glimpse back, a ball of raging fire exploded out of its mouth. Fortunately, instincts and adrenaline combined together made my wings automatically shoot up, dodging the projectile by inches. Grunting at the pain of the heat, sweat hanged on my head.
I was quite stunned to see how far I had walked last night seeing the colony so far away. “Come on, just over this mound of rocks,” flapping my wings so hard that they felt like falling off. Peeking over my shoulder, I realized I wasn’t being chased anymore. The dragon had completely disappeared.
Decelerating, I landed on the heap of rocks. I didn’t know whether to be relieved that it was gone or afraid for not knowing where its location was. Turning around to face the colony, I was paralyzed in fear. A mass of dragons, if not the whole the whole population, was burning everything. Dead corpses blazed on the ground while the living were either using their weak magic to defend themselves while being pursued, or were rolling on the ground and howling in horror, trying to flatten the fire from eating them alive.
Somehow, simultaneously, I knew that this was our species last stand for survival. A symphony of spine-chilling hollers cried out behind me. The red scaled dragon reappeared out of the sunlight, now accompanied with his friends.
“Ponyfeathers,” I swore to myself, as I felt the adrenalin pumping back through my veins again.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading Heart Beats, chapter 2

Don't forget, if you haven't already, to thumbs up,comment and follow :pinkiehappy:

If anyone has found something wrong with the grammar or spelling , please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them ASAP.
(thanks for the 100+ views)

Chapter 6: Spikes and leather couches

Some people will never learn anything, because they understand everything too soon.

Alexander Pope

Two young fillies chased one another up and down the train’s corridors. They were no older than four or five years of age. Their laughter brought me back to a pitiful reality. My eyes opened to white overhanging lights. I blinked with a straight face, adjusting to the brightness. I didn’t know how to react. Happy, that I could confirm the road ahead was no longer dangerous or grief, that what I had done will forever be down in history.
I stretched my stiff back and wings, giving off a few cracks. Still tired, hungry and confused, I was about to grab another swig of my bottle of love. One of the fillies tripped over my saddle bag which was lying against my seat.
“Oooff, sworry miwster.” She apologised giving me ‘puppy eyes’ as my only source of food rolled out of my bag. It was picked up into the hooves of the second little blond haired filly.
She held it up to her gleaming eyes, just like I did when I found it. “Ahh,” she said in the most curious high pitched voice, “what kind of strawberry milk is this?”
My breathing stoped for a second. I had the impression that a few eyes were watching me. Grabbing the bottle back, my actions where a little too hostile, accidentally slapping her hoof. I shoved it back into my bags before anypony had a good look.
The blond filly started to weep out a few decibels and before you could say Equestria, she started to brawl out tears. I laid my ears down both because of the shrill shrieking wails of the little filly. When they reached pitches and decibels of this intensity, it makes it rather painful for those of us who enjoy hearing. Tartarus! I could even feel myself grinding my teeth, and I wasn't doing it intentionally! Before, I thought I had a few eyes watching me. Now, I was certain that everypony’s eyes were watching at me.
“Oh, no no no no,” I held out my hooves trying to stop her from crying, “Shhhhh.” A bitter taste lingered in my mouth as my gut felt heavy.
When nothing could stop her from gathering more eyes towards me, I resorted to the action I mainly take. Walking away. I grabbed my belongings and keeping my head low, began to trot to next carriage ahead. I moved into a small lavatory and with the slam of the door, locked it.
Facing a mirror above a sink, my eyes connected to my reflection’s eyes.
“Sigh,” I closed my eyes touching my head against the mirror; “I’m Smoulder, right? When I open my eyes…” My breath shattered. “I’m still Smoulder, aren’t I? And what if I’m not Smoulder? If I’m not me, then how do I find myself? The real me, that is. And then that begs the question: If I’m not me, then why did I fabricate ‘this’ me?”
I opened my eyes still looking into the mirror, only to be startled by another changeling holding a knife behind me. “Oh, not again, not again!”
I assumed it was going to be the mysterious voice again attempting to hijack my mind once more. But this time I could feel fur striking me at the back of my head. Hitting my head on the toilet seat, I fell to the floor barely conscious.
The changeling pounced onto my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. If I didn’t use my normal voice and changed back into my original form in another second I probably would have been as dead as a doornail.
“Wait! Grey Thorn, it’s me, Smoulder!” I barely got the sentence out with the amount of oxygen left in my lungs and with a throbbing head.
“Smoulder?” He tilted his head in confusion but then realised who he was on top. “Hey! Smoulder, how’s it going?”
“Grey Thorn” I hopelessly tugged his hooves off, “a-airrr.”
“Oh, sorry.”
I gasped, coughing out pain. Giving me a hoof up, Grey wrapped his hooves around me as if his life depended on it. “You don’t know how many years I’ve been waiting for someling to escape the Bad Lands.”
“Grey-”
He kept on babbling on a hundred words per second, “I had almost given up hope, but then you came.”
“Grey, stop ... suffocating … me-e-e.”
“Sorry, sorry.” He released his grip, but held his hooves on my shoulders. “It’s just that I’ve never expected for this day to come. How’s everyling doing back home?”
I trace of thought, when he asked that question. “I-is it ok if we talk about that in a bigger and more private room?” I asked, discovering that I had developed a mild sense of claustrophobia.
Grey nodded his head. A green flame morphed his black fur to white. His eyes gained depth. His wings shrank while his horn was enclosed by a white coating. And as a final touch, he wore a blue train conductor uniform that he grabbed from the vents above. I switch to my pony disguise.
Grey gave an unsatisfied look, “Really?”
“What?”
“Out of all the colors you could have chosen,” He rolled his eyes, “yellow, purple, orange, red, it had to be blue and green.” He pretended to gag.
“Hey! I kind of actually like this form.” I argued, brushing the fur on my chest.
He patted me on the back, “Just kidding with you, Smoulder.”
I chuckled shaking my head, forgetting my phobia, “You haven’t changed a bit, have you?”
He unlocked the door leading the way. Whilst we walked through the corridors and foals who were racing down the aisle unsupervised and undisciplined creating a racket; I asked how his life has been so far.
He responded with the usual, “you know,” (which I don’t) ,“doing what changelings do best. Blending in with the background, getting a steady life style as a train conductor in Equestrian Rails and so far unsuccessful at finding a lover to feed off.”
He grabbed a key from the pockets of his uniform, unlocking a door. I stepped in first onto the velvety red carpet. Inside there was everything a pony would need to live. Fancy fine dining, a small overhanging chandelier, weird electronics and leather couches. Of course, most of these things were useless to me since I was a changeli-
“Wait, leather couches!!” I halted in my tracks as Grey walked past me.
He sat on one of them inviting me to join him.
“Err, Grey, leather comes from cows, right?” I questioned pointing to one of them.
He nods, “Mmhm.”
“Doesn’t that shock you?”
“Elaborate.” He raised one of his eyebrows.
“I thought ponies where… herbivores.”
For a few seconds he gave me a blank stare, but then knocked his head back as if I threw a brick at him.
“Ohhh!” He giggled making me think that for a moment he was loco in the coco. “Just because a species is herbivore doesn’t mean they can’t eat meat. And also this leather is imported from the griffon’s kingdom where all they do is moo and eat grass.”
My eyelids blinked at him. I probably needed somewhere to sit, for six months, trying to process all of the information. He laughed hysterically, falling off the couch, rolling on the carpet.
After completely flattering the carpet, his laughter died down. He wiped the tears out of his eyes and then pats me on the back again. “Don’t worry, I had a hard time believing it too.” He sat back onto the couch, patting the cushion next to him. “Come on, it’s better than a rock pillow.”
Sitting down, I wiggled my plot trying to find my ‘comfy’ spot. I tilted right, left, up and down but it felt like I was sitting on a pile of spikes. The seats in the first carriage weren’t very different from rocks being so cheap, but this couch, it was a fabric I’ve never had felt before.
Giving up on my attempt, Grey spoke out first. “So how’s everyling doing back in the Bad Lands?”
I swallowed hard. The ‘spikes’ in the couch disappeared. I gave a long sigh staring at the carpet, thinking of how I could break this down slowly. In the end, there was no way to say it softly. “E-everyling is dead, Grey.” I muttered out as the atmosphere turned dark.
“Come on, Smoulder.” He softly punches my shoulder. “You know that joking about death isn’t funny.”
I looked at him with the same facial expression.
“Oh,” he bit his tongue. “What happened?”
I stooped my head low, too ashamed to say it in his face. “Everyling just disappeared like that.” I clicked my hooves. “Nicolas, Cage, Rebeca, Black and even the queen, th-they’re all dead.” I clasp my head with my hooves. Drip by drip of tears flowed down my muzzle to the tip of my nose.
It took another ten minutes to explain about the dragon colony, how I was able to avenge the swam by bringing the wall down with hundreds of ponies. I only left out the part where an ominous voice hijacked my whole body and actually caused all of the actions.
I wiped the water off my eyes. His head slowly nodded while his lips showed no signs of emotion. He didn’t even draw a tear. It was as if nothing had happened. The only word he managed to whisper out was, ‘ok’.
“O-ok? OK!!?” I stood up on all fours, getting a height ‘advantage’ over him. I slammed my hoof against the couch. “What do you mean by ok!? Almost all of our species have been wiped out and you’re saying that it’s… OK!?”
“Smoulder,” He replied lowering his chin. His low civil tone made it as if I was talking to another changeling. “I was one of the lucky few, if not only you and me, who was able to live and keep living in Equestrian society. It was only a matter time until there wasn’t a singleling left in the Bad Lands.”
“But we did try to escape! We sent full force att-”
He also stood up also slamming him hoof on the couch. “And do you think it worked!? The ponies of Equestria have kept a record on how many changeling casualties there are each week and reports them to the daily newspapers! Do you know what I see!? Waves after waves of changelings who died in vain!” He pointed to the direction of the Bad Lands. “Wake up, Smoulder! No pony, griffon or dragon cares about us! They’ve condemned us! They’ve attempted to hunt us down to extinction! You know just as well as I do that if I didn’t ditch the colony alone, I would be filled with even more holes!”
“But- We- They-” I pressured myself to get another vowel out but, with a heavy heart, I sighed and sat down with my hooves over my bowed down head. “Y-your right Grey Thorn. I’m sorry.”
He breathed in deeply though his nose and then out his mouth. Switching back on his ‘gullible’ voice, he cuddled closer to me, “Come on, cheer up. The queen wouldn’t like us to act like this.”
I lifted my head up, “Thank you, Grey.”
He smiled at me.
There was a knock on the door. A blue pegasus mare stepped in. Her brown and yellow mane made it almost impossible for her uniform’s hat to stay on. Around her neck was an attendance’s scarf. And her cutiemark was of three cards of faces with the middle one winking.
She clenched her teeth. “Err…”
“…”
“…”
The blue mare broke the silence. “Am I interrupting something, sir?”
“No no,” Grey shook his hoof, “What’s up?”
The pegasus moved into the room. “We’re about to reach Manehattan soon. You’re needed at the front, sir.”
“Ok, just give me a few minutes.” And with the nod of her head she left the room, closing the door behind.
I placed on a smirk. “I knew you were working for Equestrian Rails but I didn’t think you would be so high that you would be called sir.”
“Well,” he moved his eyes up, “having the advantage of shape shifting does give you its benefits.”
I snorted.
He got off his seat. “Meet me at the top of the train when we reach Manhattan. There’s something I want to give you.”
I nodded as he moved to the door. “See you soon.”
I sighed with relief having a ton of worries off my back. I laid down all of my body on the couch. “Ow ow ow ow, dam spike couch.”

Author's Note

Thank you for reading Heart Beats, chapter 6

Don't forget, if you haven't already, to thumbs up,comment and follow :pinkiehappy:

If anyone has found something wrong with the grammar or spelling , please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them ASAP.

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