My Curse's Benefits

I never thought it would come down to this one little thing. How foalish was I to think that I could make it through flight school with my disability? After all, what use does Cloudsdale have for a Pegasus that cannot stand on clouds? I thought that this was my best option, trying my luck at flight school and seeing if I could get a job. No wonder my mom told me never to come here. She was right.

The moment I flew into Cloudsdale and enrolled, I was bombarded with bullies who all had fun of me for the same thing. My cutie mark; it is a rainbow colored platypus surrounded by like-colored fish. My talents match my mark well for I can, in fact, turn into a rainbow-colored platypus. I can also communicate with fish and other aquatic creatures, along with some semi-aquatic creatures.

How I can turn is explainable too, you see, I am half-changling. My mother’s half to be exact. When I was born I inherited some of her powers, meaning I could shape-shift into the first thing I saw, which was a rainbow-colored platypus toy my mom bought me. She never said what happened to dad, though; I assume it was a one-night-stand gone wrong. My foalhood was like anypony else’s, except that I was home-schooled; mom said it was for my own good, but I know now that it was because of my… differences.

Before you ask, I have solid cyan eyes, grey fur, a red mane, and medium-sized wings. I was always happy with my mom, she was so cheery. It hurts me to think about her and what happened to her…
It wasn’t long ago, five months tomorrow; mom and I were baking some loaves of bread and there was a scream from outside. Suddenly I was hit by a purple wave that felt like being hit by a train, causing me to fall to the floor in pain. What I saw when I got up horrified me beyond belief; it was my mother, smeared across the wall in a green goo.

A jolting motion brought my memories to the end. I had arrived at the factory. After my mom died, my life spiraled downward. Not knowing where I would get my next meal, where I would or could sleep, or if I would be on the receiving end of judging eyes or physical and verbal assaults. This was maybe the best thing that happened to me in a while; I wouldn’t have to worry about food, sleep, or bullying. I just wanted it to be just me and mom in the afterlife, be it pits of fire or fluffy clouds, but this failure made me rethinks my plans, I only want to have some fun now before I spend my life as a factory worker. The doors to the carriage were opened two burly stallions in suits.

“Beautiful day isn’t it?” I say to try and lighten the mood.

“Shut up and get movin,” the one on the right says.

I begin to hover next to them and get moving but was grabbed around the neck by the one on the left.

“Walk,” he said.

“Did they not tell you why I failed the exam?”

“Flying ability does not affect walking ability,” he growled

“Oh no, I didn’t fail for that, I failed because I can’t walk on clouds,”

“*Sigh* Well, we’ll have to carry this one, won’t we?” the one on the left said to the one on the right.

The one on the right just nodded as they both hooked a hoof around my wings so I was being held up by the wings, with no way of relieving the pressure on them. They proceeded to drag me through the air through a medium-sized set of double doors. Once inside I saw others who had failed the exam on the ground and on the far side of the room was a large, shiny machine with several chains hanging from it.

“Let’s get this show on the road shall we?” I casually said to the thugs as if the three of us were waiting for a hoofball game to start.

“I hope your death is quick so you can’t laugh through it,” the one on my right said under his breath. The word ‘death’ came as a shock, but I’ll play along with it.

“What would the fun in that be?” I ask.

The one on the right was about to formulate an answer but a loud ‘AHEM!’ came from the scaffolding a few meters above the floor. I search for the owner of the voice as a cyan Pegasus with a rainbow mane walked into the light.

“Now that we are ready to get started, I’d like to introduce myself; I am Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria, owner of this factory, and the decider on who dies first”

“Sounds pretty cocky to me,” I said fairly audibly.

Like a lightning bolt, she flew down from the scaffolding and gave me a powerful punch to the stomach. I doubled over from the force of the punch, still with a smile on my face. I let out an audible laughter.

“What’s so funny?” she asks.

“It’s just I think your still hot shit and I just want to taunt my captor before I escape” for that she gave me another punch, this one to the face, drawing a bit of green blood.

“Is that so?” she said tauntingly.

“Yes, in fact any moment now I will break through the floor and escape,”

“Fat cha….” Her sentence was cut off by my rear hooves hitting her upper chest, sending her off balance.

I then changed my lower hooves in to those of a platypus and stuck the barbs on the lower part of my newly formed ankles into the abdomens of my two holders. I injected enough venom to cause paralysis but not enough to kill. Before the thugs knew what hit them, they fell to the floor, unmoving, but alive. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the cyan Pegasus charging me; I quickly turned toward her and push my hooves against hers.

“Is there something I might tell you by before I leave?” I teased.

“Like what?”

“Oh, nothing much, I’d just like you to know the irony of our names.”

“Why?”

“Well, you see, my name also pertains to this factory in a way,”

“How so?” she was beginning to push harder.

“I am called Rainbow as well, Rainbow Platypus to be exact,” I smiled stupidly.

“WHAT??”

“Would you like me to show you why?”

She remained silent, focusing on overpowering me. Perfect.

“I will take that as a yes,” I said as I changed into my platypus form, beaver tail and all. The sudden lack of pressure caused Rainbow fall forward and plow into some of the other failures.

I swear I heard the jaws of everyone in the room drop at the sight of the flying platypus.

“I will be making my leave now,” I said as I changed into my pony form, and closed my wings and dove straight down.

“How can you? That floor is solid stratus,” Dash said as I dove.

I let out a small chuckle as I fell through the cloud floor, and spread my wings and flew back toward my old home. I heard a loud war cry as Rainbow Dash crashed into me.

“Can’t get your hooves off me I see,” I was having too much fun for the situation.

“Nopony gets out of the factory alive,” she growled brandishing a knife.

“Well, looks like that streak will end today,” I said dodging her lunges.

“I…think….not!” she shouted as her knife connected with my front right leg.

“Well, would you look at that,” I said looking at my leg.

“It won’t be your last,” she said with blood lust in her eyes.

“Ah, there is the problem, you see, I happened to have aimed myself at a lake outside of that there town and we will arrive
there shortly… Now to be exact.” I said turning so I was facing the water below.

I could hear her trying to pull up as I turned into a platypus and pierced the water. I could see her lingering above the surface, waiting for me to need to breathe. Too bad for her, I found a cavern that had a tunnel to the surface. It was large enough for me to crawl through but small enough that she couldn’t get to me.

Knowing that I was safe for the moment; I lie down and fell asleep.

I awoke to the sweet aroma of steamed vegetables. Wait a second… I don’t remember getting vegetables. I opened my eyes to see that I was not in that cavern, but in a small cottage, with a yellow Pegasus cooking in the kitchen. Not knowing where I was, I stayed put; the Pegasus hadn’t done anything for me not to trust her. Soon she was done cooking and was bringing a plate of vegetables to me.

“There you go, now let’s get a look at that leg,” she said with a feeling of care I hadn’t seen since my mother.

I flinched as she removed the bandages from my leg, where the cut used to be, was a fairly large scar.

“Now what could have done this to you?”

“It was a Rainbow-mane bitch at the factory,” I said.

You feel a string of guilt as she passes out onto the floor.

“Well that went well,” you say turning back into pony form.

-Author's note: Thanks to my editors.
constructive criticism is wanted