Penumbra's Tale

The sun seemed to get brighter overhead—perhaps it did, since once Axiom looked up for a moment he saw the princess soar towards the direction of the swarm that was approaching the castle. Perhaps she was going to find the queen. Hopefully, then he wouldn’t have to fight any more if the queen was out of commission! Wishful thinking, yeah, but at least it was some form of hope.

His eyes glazed over as he heard a long guttural response from in front of him, his attention immediately snapping back to the larger changeling. Either it was incapable of speech, or was trying to appear intimidating. It was working. Axiom could feel himself shaking already, and it was difficult to remain vigilant as he was. Those two kills before were merely a fluke!

Fuck! Why did I just call him out? The grey unicorn cleared his throat and puffed out his chest, trying to peacock his strength that he didn’t really have. Counter intimidation, right? That works, he hoped, but the colossal changeling didn’t even look close to being frightened. Then, it picked up a large battle axe and charged.

Axiom huffed, and then suddenly panicked once he noticed that he didn’t have a weapon himself. His spear was broken and too many meters away, as well as that dagger he once had too. He should’ve kept it… His teeth were clenched as he glanced around him, finding a short sword within distance sheathed to a dead pegasus’s armor belt. Using his magic, he gulped and took it out with haste as he started charging forward, clashing the blade against the changeling’s battle axe in defense, before swinging it around at his neck.

The big thing didn’t even flinch as the metal connected against it, barely placing a dent in its exoskeleton. With a snarl, it used its magic on the axe it was wielding to knock the sword away and it landed with a clatter.

Another guttural cry as it swung the axe down towards Axiom—to which he barely escaped, feeling the weapon clip his heel of his left-right hoof. The separation of some of his hoof and skin was agonizing. He screamed and staggered backward just as the battle axe hovered upward from the ground beneath her.

“Fuuuuuck yooooou!” he screamed to the best of his ability, trying to mask the pain. This was terrible, but he was in a good position to flank it. He sidestepped, and turned a one-eighty, ducking his head underneath the behemoth, slipping underneath and then standing up with all his might. This caused the changeling to lose its footing, toppling over and landing on its side, losing its magical grip on its weapon and dropping it.

The grey stallion bared his teeth as he bit his bottom lip in determination, grabbing the axe in his own aura before mercilessly cleaving it downward at the changeling’s stomach. A sharp crack emerged from the exoskeleton as it cracked open like an egg, just a fragile on the underbelly. The steel sunk into the belly of the beast. The now-warrior Axiom gave his own war cry, using his magic to drive it downward even more before the changeling kicked him away with its massive strength.

His body was sent flying until it hit the castle walls, feeling his spine connect directly with the stone and fracturing a disc. Shit, was he going to be paralyzed? Hopefully not… he didn’t want to die here. He really didn’t want to die here. There was so much left in the world he wanted to do. Find a nice mare, settle down, have kids—the whole shebang!

The giant shapeshifter stood up with obvious pain, using its green magic to remove the axe from its middle, sauntering forward. It winced, seething its sharp teeth as its pace gradually increased. He hit a weak spot, but he didn’t finish the job. Dammit!

Axiom stood up, but at a significantly slower pace than the changeling, but at least he was able to. He knows his spine was definitely hurt bad, the pain was excruciating. He trots forward at a crawl, getting his way towards the changeling as it was doing the same towards him.

However, Axiom Quill didn’t anticipate that the sword he was using before was just not far beside him, close enough that the gigantic bug could take use of it in its magic and send it into his own stomach as revenge. The unicorn coughed in response, a spurt of blood dribbling down his chin from his mouth. This was too much, and he felt like he was getting close to passing out, and he knew if he did that, he was going to die…

Now they were face to face, and he used his own aura to expel the blade from his stomach as he used some of the last of his energy to pounce the changeling. It was a sloppy start, but he managed to topple him over as they both went crashing back down. His own blood and whatever was oozing from the changeling coated both of them, mixing and entering each other’s systems. Axiom gave a weak roar as he rolled with the changeling a short distance, until they finally stopped with him on top of it.

The unicorn was still smaller, but that didn’t stop his will to live against the bug. He reared back a hoof and punched it, pounding at it over, and over, before he used his magic to keep himself upright and wailed with both. Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed a war hammer, and wrapped it in his aura, pulling it weakly over to them as he continued his assault.

Once the weapon finally made it, he raised it weakly in his magic before he grabbed with a combination of it, and his hooves, pulling it up high, and then slamming it downward so fast that when he heard the disgusting crunch of the exoskeleton of its head shatter.

He stood up a little easier, unaware that the changeling’s blood was mutating him fast, as every step make him feel better and made him able to walk straighter and with more purpose. He was going towards the smaller changelings that witnessed the scene, giving a snarl and another exasperation of intimidation, hardening from his very short war experience already.

They looked between each other before taking flight and leaving the castle alone. Apparently they didn’t want to deal with somepony stronger than their biggest in the vicinity. Axiom sat down, realizing that his energy was running low, but at least he managed to stop this particular part of the swarm. It might not be a big pat, but it was something. He wasn’t going to go out of his way and search for more to fight… he still had that stab in his stomach.

That stab in his stomach! He didn’t even feel the pain anymore! He looked down to find that the slit had regenerated, and the area around where it used to be was slightly hardened, as well as soaked in his blood and the changeling’s. If it was even blood… What was going on? Then he felt odd convulsions in his body, twisting his insides in ways he never knew possible, causing him more pain than he could imagine. What was going on now? Celestia, he really didn’t want this!

Suddenly, just as quickly as it came, the pain dissolved into nothing as he felt his consciousness wane, clearing his throat and beginning to shake. Perhaps this was it… the freakish healing meant nothing… he was going to die and this was that moment. He was going—and in a moment more, he collapsed in place.

“Once he finally woke up, he was in the city’s hospital, but he was also tied down.”

“Because he was showing changeling properties?”

“Exactly. After some tests, they were able to confirm that it really was my father, and that he was mutated by the mixing of blood with that giant changeling. Axiom Quill’s own theories on it was that Queen Chrysalis was genetically modifying her own brood to make them stronger, either while they were still forming in the egg sacs before she laid them, afterwards, or when they were older. Either that or she was breeding them that way, which meant there would be something wrong with their biology then too, somewhere. Then, adding that he was a unicorn, the inert magic in his own blood would cause a reaction… well the science really doesn’t matter now.”

Little Penumbra stared at his mother, as he had already reverted back to his original form. He wasn’t sure what to say to all of that information, mainly since it didn’t make any sense to him.

“In any case,” Elegant sighed, glancing away, before clenching her teeth. “I suppose I’ll have to excuse you from school for a few weeks to adjust to this and control it. If you suddenly start changing in class, you’ll have a really hard time then. In fact, they’ll probably try and kill you…”

“What?! That’s kinda brutal today, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but it is still the norm.”

“Jeeze…” Pen stared downward at the end of the couch, shrugging. “At least I don’t have to go to school.”

“Good! Think on the bright sides. Good to know you’re taking it a little better.”

“Well, sounds like grandpa was epic, though. How’d he die?”

“Old age, as he wanted.” She gave Pen a smile as she stood. Once she stood, she trot to him and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. “Now, get ready for dinner in thirty minutes. I’m gonna go finish making that food.”

“Alright…”