Chapter OneView OnlinePen On PaperChapter OneRight then, first day in Ponyville. I, Drake the changeling, was different from the others, in addition to my grey eyes and shell I lacked the ability to change and my species signature wings. I was nothing more than a unicorn with holes in his legs. Why I was like this I don’t know, my file in the Queen Chrysalis Everfree Orphanage just states that I was recovered as an egg from a burned down hive, I was the sole survivor. While the other stallions at the orphanage were adopted, either for their great strength, impressive flying speeds, or magnificent usage of magic I stayed, and wrote. I always had a certain knack for writing, and given that I loved science, specifically entomology, these short stories that I wrote almost always had to do with giant insects from toxic waste nests ravaging towns, mechanical stallions destroying the very ponies who had created them, creatures from space feasting on the very land they just discovered, or anything equally as fantastic and fictitious. I got off the taxi carriage and payed the coach pony twenty two bits. This is it, Ponyville, a place I hadn’t seen for about a decade, everything seemed smaller than it did as a colt. I started towards the house I had bought prior, a small cottage sat directly next to a clock tower, the lot was cheap and therefore within my budget. As I walked I checked the pocket of my hoodie; my pocket knife that had fought through even the most valiant of tape and twisty ties, a small cloth sack that held all of my bits, a black fountain pen and small black notebook that had served as my outlet to foreign worlds for as long as I could remember (granted these have been replaced by a large grey laptop that was currently sitting in its cloth varying case), and a small plastic carrying case that held my pet parasprite, a little blue fellow who I had named David. David was a lot like me in the way that his hive was destroyed and I had just happened to come across his egg, through various messed up spells I had also found out how to make his lifespan that of the average pony. I arrived at my new home to notice that the movers had already brought my bed, chest, bookcase, desk, and singular chair, the only pieces of furniture I had ever really needed. I sat down at my desk and took out my laptop, the machine sitting in front of me was going to put me on the map as a true author, I could finally break free of short stories and unfinished epics. I had formulated a plot based around the protagonist, a stallion seventeen years of age, coincidentally my age, named Dusk Looker who sets out into a cave system with the goal of recovering a mythic blade, his own cockieness driving him deeper into the earth, running from unimaginable horrors that not even Luna could dream up, in the end he must fight his way out with the very blade he had sought for. I had just finished the first paragraph when a bright pink mare burst through my door. “Welcome to ponyville! I’m Pinkie Pie! I can’t wait t-” “Why in Celestia’s name are you in my house!” I said shakingly, cutting off the overly hyper home intruder. “What?”, she shrugged, “Usually everypony is okay with me coming into their house” “Wait, let me get this straight, ponies are just okay with you invading their homes? Does personal space just not exist here?” “Well, I only barge into some ponies house when I have to tell them something really important or I have to tell them about a super amazing party coming up” she said justifyingly. “So which is it then, is Sombra back or is it some ponies birthday?” I asked, still concerned about the marauding mare who had annihilated the hinges on my door. “Well duh, it’s your welcome party!” she said with a huge smile on her face. “Welcome party? Sorry miss, but I don’t do parties.” My words seemed to have an instant effect on her, it was like she had never heard of a pony who wasn’t obsessed with parties, which wasn’t much of a surprise to me as this community seemed close knit. “You, you don’t like parties?” her voice was quiet, but I could tell this was but the eye of the storm. Luckily she forgot about my lack of interest, and instead focused her attention on Danny, my parasprite. “Just great! Now I have to go find a tuba” “Don’t worry, it’s a guy, no worry of an infestation” I said, but I then noticed that she had already trotted off.
Chapter twoView OnlinePen On PaperChapter two“Welcome to ponyville! I’m Pinkie Pie! I can’t wait t-” “Why in Celestia’s name are you in my house!” I said shakingly, cutting off the overly hyper home intruder. “What?”, she shrugged, “Usually everypony is okay with me coming into their house” “Wait, let me get this straight, ponies are just okay with you invading their homes? Does personal space just not exist here?” “Well, I only barge into some ponies house when I have to tell them something really important or I have to tell them about a super amazing party coming up” she said justifyingly. “So which is it then, is Sombra back or is it some ponies birthday?” I asked, still concerned about the marauding mare who had annihilated the hinges on my door. “Well duh, it’s your welcome party!” she said with a huge smile on her face. “Welcome party? Sorry miss, but I don’t do parties.” My words seemed to have an instant effect on her, it was like she had never heard of a pony who wasn’t obsessed with parties, which wasn’t much of a surprise to me as this community seemed close knit. “You, you don’t like parties?” her voice was quiet, but I could tell this was but the eye of the storm. Luckily she forgot about my lack of interest, and instead focused her attention on Danny, my parasprite. “Just great! Now I have to go find a tuba” “Don’t worry, it’s a guy, no worry of an infestation” I said, but I then noticed that she had already trotted off. It was hard to focus on my work after my encounter with the odd pink party pony. How could one be so hyper while still somehow functioning in society, much less having everypony in the town adore her? Thoughts rushed through my brain, was this town involved with a massive cult? Was she a high political figure or something? Was she just really nice in addition to being overly spastic? Was every pony in this town as mental as she was? I decided to settle my thoughts with some cola, the acidic beverage had always served as a method to clear my mind, I’ve been drinking the stuff since I was a colt, the sugar and bubbles almost had a hypnotic effect on me. I decided to flee the solemn safety of my home and visit the local sweets shop. The second I walked I noticed Pinkie pie playing with three soft colored fillies, while five other mares, one of which an alicorn accompanied by a baby dragon, were watching. I almost didn’t notice the magical winged wonder, I had grown up with changelings that could fly and use magic, I was actually surprised when I first heard of ponies besides me that only had horns. “Two cases of cola, please” I asked the mare with a blue coat “Right away!” she said with a smile, backing up my theory that everyone here was in some form of mass hysteria, or being controlled by a cult. I payed for my soda and nearly made it out the door before being approached by the alicorn. “Hey, are you the new pony in town?” Her words took me by surprise, not because of her being a princess, but because I didn’t expect a stranger to just talk to me for no reason, I knew everypony here was crazy but this was insane, for my standards at least. “Well, changeling, but yeah, I’m new” “Changeling?” She said nervously with an ounce of conviction in her voice, it must have been odd hearing that, I’m sure that there were plenty of normal ponies who followed the disturbing and quite frankly stupid trend of calling themselves changelings despite the complete lack of any sort of insect DNA. I took off my hood to show that I was, infact, a changeling. “Well, granted I don’t have wings, but I am a changeling” As I finished my sentence her face showed not the usual look of horror or shock, but of acceptance. “Well, pony or not, we can’t wait for your welcome party!” “Yeah, quick question about that, who’s planning it?” I said with convincing, yet fake care in my voice, I’ve always hated parties, but I wanted to make a good image of myself in this town. “Pinkie Pie of course! She’s kinda the only party planner here” “Brilliant, someone I’ve already met” “Let me guess, she just barged in didn’t she?” “Yeah, the hinges on my door are totalled” “You can get some new ones made at Sweet Apple Acres, it’s just west of here, I suggest tungsten, so far she hasn’t been able to break that” she said half part joking and half part sympathetic. “Thanks for the tip, I’ll be sure to stop by there” After that quick and ultimately meaningless talk I went back to my cottage and took a nap.
Chapter ThreeView OnlinePen On PaperChapter Three“Get the fuck out of there Dante” Shouted Commander Lott over the intercom in my helmet while the queen, a giant serpent like creature, stared down at me. I bolted to a near chamber and hastily used a grenade to block off the entrance, I’d nearly died to the drones, there was no way in hell I would let this bus sized bitch have my head. When I looked up I noticed that in place of the burly space marine was me in all my scrawny glory and in place of a giant beast was a collection of large white eggs, and a squad of royal guards armed to the teeth. “Remember, if any one of these hatches kill it on sight” said the largest and most adorned member, presumably the commander. “Are you sure queen Formica is gone?” asked a smaller and less brawny soldier. “Yes, I can assure you that she has been dealt with, now let’s get this over with, Nightmare Moon was very anal about making sure this hive is dead” “Yeah, I’d bet she’d be pretty good anal” said another officer. “Shut your mouth Night Mark, don’t talk like that about our employer” barked the commander. “Cut it with the loyalty talk Dark Bash, if any of us were loyal to Celestia we wouldn’t be here” “By the moon! Shut up and light this place already, the sooner it’s ash the sooner we can go home” I tried to charge at the marauders but I was unable to touch them, it was as if I was a spectre haunting the doomed hive. The commander drew a torch and the others followed suit picking different sides of the resin lined cavern to light, it didn’t take long for the hive to fully catch fire. The ponies trotted out of the cave and back to their day lives. I stood in horror, unable to fathom how somepony could be so cruel as to burn down a hive full of changeling eggs. I ventured out of the cave to see the blue silhouette of an alicorn resting in some familiar woods. I woke up with a start, the craziness of this town really had gotten to me.
Chapter FourView OnlinePen On PaperChapter FourDreams of dark demigods and merciless marauders were not going to keep me from doing what I had come here for, I was determined to create the magnum opus to get me recognised in the literary world. I sat down at my desk and opened my laptop to see what I had already jotted down; “Dusk had heard legends of the Caster’s Blade for years, the legend had taken his young mind to the point of actually believing in and looking for a fairy tale. Dusk was not crazy like everyone had thought, he knew his efforts were not in vain, he had tracked the blades location down to a cave in Saddle Arabia, one that was forgotten by Equestria for ages. The blade was said to look like that of metal earth, layers of various strong metals forged into a sword so strong it was said to make even Celestia herself cower in fear.” “So far so good” I thought to myself, half mindedly thinking of how his character should be laid out. One of my strengths as a writer was developing characters. Actually following a plot and not letting everything fall into format hell, was not. “As Dusk flew to Saddle Arabia he had to admire the land, it was as if a long lost great artist had taken his or her brush and exacted their craft on the Equestria itself, every mountain to every lake seemed too perfect to be crafted by rough nature as opposed to the exactness of ponykind.” By the end of this small writing session I had filled the first chapter of character traits and bazaars, I held a personal regard of establishing text as nothing more than filler wrapped in an air of Shakespearean text, I still have flashbacks to the ungodly boredom that is Huckleberry Filly. The idea of whitewashing a fence for fun escapes me, not to mention that the author was three times as pretentious as myself. I again laid down on my bed and debated retreating to my sheets a thought crossed through my mind, what about the party? I’d been so busy writing that I’d neglected to come up with an excuse as to why I can’t be there. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the ponies around here, it was just that they were a cult like level of nice and I came from an orphanage where it wasn’t out of the ordinary for me to not have one conversation for weeks at a time. “Knock Knock!” I heard a familiar high pitched voice joyfully screech from the other side of my door. The voices owner was confirmed when I opened the door to see a pink mare on the other side. “Hey, what do you need?” I asked, trying to make the conversation as short as possible. “It’s your party!” She yelled excitedly, oblivious to my disinterest. This didn’t make sense, it had only been a few days, how could somepony plan a large party in that time? Pinkie didn’t seem like the type to skimp out on parties, they seemed to be her main character trait. “I’ve only been here for a few days, how did you already plan a party?” “Magic, friendship, various other writing cliches” “I see” I said, not really seeing a way out of this. I started to politely object to going but was quickly cut off. “Follow me!” She squealed before quite literally hopping away. I had no choice but to follow her.