My Name is Eris

Chapters

A Second Chance
Change
Quiet Time
This Story is Like a Runaway Train
COME AT ME MURPHY, MY CAPS LOCK IS ON!!!!!!
My First Friend
Chain of Memories
Eureka!
@#$%^&*
Rainy Day
Reality Smacks Me in the Face... Again.
Past, Present, Future: From the Past, In the Present, Deciding the Future

A Second Chance

I look out across the multiple cosmos that I am floating through and try to find a reason to care about the countless stars drifting past… It’s hard, finding a reason to go on any longer, to prolong my existence. Many of my peers are gone, simply fading away once they are forgotten, and I am honestly thinking about letting go of the few holdings I still have in this universe to let sleep take me on the next great adventure.

My name is… Eris Baker, yeah, that sounds right, not that it matters anymore. Most of my peers just called me Eris. I was mortal once, young, bright, and ready to take on the entire universe by myself… Yeah right, the truth of the matter is that I got railroaded when I poked my nose where it shouldn’t have been. One minute I am trying to spy on the high priestess of Hecate, and the next I am being sacrificed on an altar because I made a stupid mistake and interrupted a sacred ritual.

That should have been the end of me, but Hecate had other ideas, I was made into her familiar, and it was not a pleasant experience. I learned everything that my Mistress thought important to teach me, doing exactly what she told me to do, all the while unable to scream.

I bewitched a young maiden to disgrace her father by defiling Zeus’ temple, and set a boy down a path that led him back to his mother’s bed to keep her warm… I created storms to rain brimstone down upon my Mistress’ enemies and created poisons that could kill with a touch…

I finally make a decision and push the memories away to see the universe once more. Summoning my magic, I quickly cut the ties tethering me to the past. My entire being jerks as my legacy fades away and history is rewritten… No one will remember me in this reality, but I am not finished.

Summoning my magic once again, I steel my nerves and cut the ties to my future. The reaction to cutting off my future is much more violent than cutting off my past. I feel almost all of my magic leave me and agony laces through my being, almost as if I still had a body to feel it.

Struggling to keep myself together, I reach out to the magic sewn into the fabric of the universe and freeze. I am in a single moment, two strings straining to keep me tethered to this reality, but in this moment… I can see everything.

I can see what my life would have been like if I didn’t spy on the sacred ritual that ended it. I can see exactly what is happening to history, I can see what my future would have held if I didn’t cut it off early, but the most important thing to me… is that I can feel everything. I can feel every strand of magic in the universe, I can feel every living being and deity…

‘In this moment,’ I think, ‘I can do anything… but only once,’ I finish while looking down at the two strings keeping me tethered to this existence. If I still had eyes I would probably be crying, but… ‘This is MY moment… and… and…’ I craft a pair of ethereal hands, the right one grabbing the two strings and the left bending every strand of magic to my bidding.

‘I wish for a second chance, I wish for enough power to make my own way…’ I can feel the magic of the universe bending to my will, recreating the past, the present, and the future.

‘I… I want to make a difference.’ One of the strings in my ethereal hand snaps, and every single strand of magic jumps into action as the final string breaks.

I find myself looking into what could only be called a void. Nothing existed except for me, and it was certainly trying to remedy that. I could feel myself being erased bit by bit, my memories slowly leaving me, but before the void could finish me off something yanks me out of it.

I scream as agony wracks through me, I don’t know how long I scream but it feels like eternity before it starts to die down, leaving me utterly exhausted, and a single thought enters my mind before sleep takes me.

‘...Why am I falling?'

I groan, feeling something bright and warm on my face chasing away my sleep, and a throbbing in my skull like someone hit it with a warhammer. I bring an arm up to my face before I freeze and realize three things. One, I have an arm, one that doesn’t feel human. Two, I can feel the magic around me without concentrating, something I was never able to do. Three… I have a body again, and there are a lot of sensations I don’t remember.

I don’t know how long I just laid still just trying to sort through all of the sounds, smells, and thoughts, but I eventually open my eyes and…

‘Okay… Wow,’ I think in response to an orange and white tiger paw being inches away from my face. The surprises don’t stop as I move my right arm down and the tiger paw follows it, I get a strange thought and start waving my right arm around before finally come to the conclusion that I have a tiger’s paw as an arm after it mimics my movements perfectly...

Lifting my left arm I am shocked once again to find a jet black talon sporting three sharp digits in front and one to the side resembling a thumb in front of me. Performing my makeshift test again I discover that it is mine… Something catches my eye as I perform my test and looking down, I can see something at the bottom of my vision, lifting my talon up I cautiously poke at the grey… thing… and find that it is actually part of my face.

I blink, and let my new mismatched limbs fall to… whatever I’m lying on. I just lie there looking up into a cloudy sky between some trees as I try to sort through the various emotions and thoughts I am experiencing.

My thoughts are jumbled again when I move my new tongue around and find it similar to a serpent’s… oh… and apparently my teeth aren’t consistent. I think I have three fangs with two in the very top back, both left and right sides, and a slightly off-centered one in the bottom front scraping up against my mouth. I also have canines and… molars, spaced out randomly throughout my mouth.

‘By all the gods… what the hell am I?!?’ I puzzle before I shake my head- that is certainly a new feeling!

...Alright, let’s just get this over with. I bend my legs and find that I wasn’t mistaken. My legs bend the same way, but they’re different lengths. Lunging up, I’m surprised at how well I remember to move after so long without a body of my own.

I probably would have been surprised at how my lower body looks, but at this point I’ve just given up on trying to make sense of anything. My right leg resembles a black and white zebra back hoof and my left leg seems to resemble some kind of blue reptile with two claws in front and one in the back.

‘Because why the fuck not?’ I think with a roll of my eyes. My midsection is also quite curious as every limb seems to end very abruptly. My tiger arm doesn’t seem to have any fur from my grey top half and the top half of my torso doesn’t have any orange or white showing through either.

My lower torso seems to be similar to that of a green snake… which my new tail confirms with the black and green rattler at the end of it as it swings back behind my back.

Glancing back to get another look I find that I am also sporting a pair of mismatched wings, the right being a large multi-toned brown wing similar to an owl’s and the left one looking like an oversized bat wing made out of water… I could even see little bubbles flowing along the edges!

I slap my forehead with the pad of my tiger paw as I come to the conclusion of what I am.

‘...I’m a damn chimera… what the actual fuck…’ I silently ask the trees surrounding me. Placing my mismatched feet on the ground I try to stand up, only to fall down a second later on the bottom side of my tail. I sigh when I realize that I have to relearn walking.

“This is going to be a long day,” I mumble, and just when I say that thunder rumbles in the distance, and it starts raining…

Author's Note

Alright, Finals are OVER! I can finally unwind and relax with some writing!

If you have the time leave a comment down below telling me your thoughts on the story.

Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day! I know I am.

Change

Learning how to walk again is surprisingly hard. Normally this is quickly fixed with a small application of magic substituting for muscle memory or using someone else’s physical body and muscle memory… My new body was created recently thus no muscle memory, and my magic is… uncooperative.

‘Come on, come on!’ I think, focusing on my black talon of a hand and trying to push my magic through the twitching digits. I can feel the magic flowing through me, but… it’s like the magic is taunting me, holding out a metaphorical hand millimeters away from my talon with a shit eating grin and telling me to take its metaphorical hand knowing I can’t reach it.

Gritting my new teeth, I curl my talon into a fist and slam it into the ground. The rattler at the end of my tail rattles in annoyance at the perceived setback. I close my eyes and take a deep breath before opening them once more. Glaring down at my mismatched legs, I dig my arms into the ground for leverage and try to pull my legs under me.

I grab the ground with my lizard like claws and manage to pull the zebra hoof under me. It’s uncomfortable, trying to balance on my new legs. Trying to balance on the zebra hoof is almost like trying to balance on the tip of a human toe, and the other leg isn’t helping with me having to strain to keep it grounded.

Taking a deep breath, I loosen my grip on the ground with my arms and smile a little when I don’t come crashing down immediately, only for my eyes to widen and for my arms to pull two globs of mud from the ground as I come crashing down two seconds later.

I sigh, looking up at the storm overhead in annoyance. My patience is wearing thin, and after several moments of staring at the clouds I come to a decision.

‘One more try,’ I think. Bringing my black talon up once more, I try to summon my magic. It’s still uncooperative, but when my annoyance reaches its peak my magic jumps to the talon only to shoot back after the single moment.

The magic does… something. Come and gone so fast that if it wasn’t so powerful I would probably wonder if it happened at all. In that instant something changes, it feels like all of my energy is just… gone. I sigh again, looking up at the clouds once more with half lidded eyes, before falling over on my side and closing my eyes, trying to ignore the feeling of raindrops falling on my head.

…

‘...Why can’t my fur cover my entire body?’

It’s strange waking up again. It’s no longer raining, but that means little. My body feels different from yesterday… but with a touch of familiarity now. I can feel my ears turn in different directions and I can feel that my mouth and face changed as I yawn. Blinking open my eyes I find that my face is now white, or at least the bridge of my face I can see in front of me is. Opening my mouth slightly, I run a much larger tongue over my teeth, finding that my fangs are gone and there are an overabundance of molars in my mouth similar to a herbivore. Closing my eyes once more, I take a deep breath and find that I can smell much more than yesterday.

Releasing the breath, I open my eyes and bring an arm up to my face. A white hoof comes into view… at least, I think it’s a hoof. I feel that I still have a tail, but it’s different too. It feels shorter, more like hair than scales. Speaking of hair, I now have some rust red hair falling across the top of my eyes. Turning my head to the left, I take in my body’s appearance before letting it drop to the ground again and a painful sensation racking my head as something hits a very sensitive point on my forehead.

‘Damn it, damn it, damn it!’ I chant in my head as my white hooves scramble towards the source of the pain, freezing when I feel out a cone shape on my forehead. The pain fades eventually, but I am still in a daze as all the sensations pile up.

Lifting my head again, I look back at my body. I stare at the white wings clamped to my sides and my new rust red tail. An image of a quill and inkwell is on my flank and a moment later I come to a conclusion.

‘I’m another chimera, some sort of winged unicorn,’ I think, before shaking my head and looking around. There are two small puddles where my arms tore up the ground yesterday. Placing my two front hooves on the ground, I slowly pull myself into a sitting position. Reaching out as far as I’m able, I try to pull myself to the puddles to look at my reflection.

I quickly give up the endeavor with wide eyes as a sensitive point beneath my tail protests against sliding across an uneven ground. Moving my back hooves under me I reach forward again, catching my right hoof on the edge of one of the puddles. Making sure my back hooves are indeed under me, I slowly pull myself to the edge and look at my reflection. Two large blue eyes look back at me, and a horn protrudes from my forehead parting my now red hair.

‘...At least my legs are the same length now,’ I state silently. My magic has changed as well, as the chimera it was unhelpful, and now it’s acting like a hyperactive child. I can feel it flowing throughout my body doing things, but I’m not sure exactly sure what.

Repositioning my hind legs, I take a deep breath and attempt to stand up. My legs are shaking, but I slowly extend my hooves more and more until they are no longer bending.

Smiling softly, I focus on breathing and keeping myself on my four hooves. My smile dies a quick death when my new ears swivel towards a sound coming from the trees that’s getting louder. Turning my head to the right, I slowly move my hooves one at a time so that I am facing whatever’s coming.

‘Come on Eris, you’ve survived everything up to this point. Nothing in this damn forest could hold a candle to your magic.’

My breathing quickens as my normal reassurance hits a very big wall and the sounds grow louder.

‘...Now only if I could make my magic work.’

Author's Note

Hmmm, I wonder what's making that sound.

As always, if you have the time leave a comment down below, they are really appreciated, and I hope you wonderful readers have a nice day.

Quiet Time

You know, there are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, where people are made of smoke and cities are made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea's getting cold.

I basically unraveled the universe and told it to recreate itself from scratch. The chance of me recognizing anything in this new world is microscopic, and yet it’s only when I recognize four familiar figures emerging from the tree line that it dawns on me what I have done.

Four unicorns emerge from the tree line in gold plated armor carrying spears in visible magic fields, but they’re different from the unicorns my former mistress craved.

The four mythical creatures are sporting coats of various colors from black, white, blue, and yellow. Every unicorn also has extremely large, expressive, eyes with a hard glint behind them. The four also have very bulky legs compared to the unicorns I previously encountered that used long and skinny legs…

‘I know what they are, but they seem… wrong…’ I think silently. It takes me two seconds to process what I am seeing as the group trots towards me, and in the third I realize my mistake when my still shaking legs buckle under me and reacquaint my left side with the ground.

I suppress a grunt of surprise and blink my eyes a few times as the mud underneath me deforms and sticks to my fur. Pulling my head up I refocus on the group of unicorns and find that they have surrounded me and are pointing their spears at me.

“You are currently trespassing on the land of King Bullion, King of the Unicorns, what say you in your defense?” the yellow unicorn stallion with green eyes pointing a spear in my face asks me in a deep gruff voice, shocking me even further.

In all the time that I have existed, I have never encountered a unicorn with sapience. I can feel my ears fold against my skull as I stare with wide eyes and shrunken pupils at the unicorn that spoke. My tongue feels like it is tied in a knot and my lips are glued shut. Unable to get my mind out of the shocked state I continue to stare at the unicorn silently until the black one with silver eyes snorts by my front legs.

“The mare’s a pegacorn private, I doubt anything she says will matter seeing as she’s already a criminal.” My head whips around to look at the new speaker, “Just start moving her to the dungeons, no need to bother King Bullion with this half breed cloud farmer.”

‘...Wait, what?’ I think as something cold and hard clamps down around my neck from behind. ‘Wait, what?!?’

I feel myself being lifted by magic and taken towards the tree line. My new wings pop out in protest, but my captives don’t seem to care as my limbs seem to hit every tree we pass.

‘What in Tartarus are you doing?!?’ I mentally scream.

…

The dungeons are deplorable, with no light other than the torches the guards are using. The air is damp and it is obvious that no one cleans the cells, considering how much feces litters the floor and walls.

My mind is finally out of the mental loop it was stuck in, but now I’m curious. Nothing is hurt from being dragged through the forest, despite my captors’ best attempts, and I find myself wondering just how durable am I aside from my oversensitive horn. Lifting my head, I shift my hooves under me and gradually stand up on shaking legs. With how quiet the dungeons are, my hoofsteps seem thunderous alongside the guards’ patrolling. Taking several shaky steps to the right I hold out my left hoof and hear the clank of metal when the arm strikes something coming up.

The light from the torches returns and I see my hoof resting against the metal bars and a white unicorn guard is looking at me from the other side with a scowl on his face.

“Look, pidgeon,” the guard growls, waving the torch in front of me. “I don’t know what cloud you fell out of, but in here we have rules.” The unicorn punctuates this by touching the fire to my hoof. I stare at the torch pressed against my fur and find it somewhat warm, but definitely not hot. The stallion seems to take offense to this, judging from the telekinetic shove he uses a moment later. “You don’t talk, and you don’t mess around with the bars or the walls. If you do, we’ll have to punish you like the scum you are. Do I make myself clear?” The stallion finishes by leaning against the bars and leering at me through them.

I stare at the stallion with wide eyes long enough that he finally just snorts and goes back to patrolling the path.

I trace my left arm with my right hoof and find that while the fur around where the torch was held is slightly singed, there isn’t any other damage I can feel.

‘...So it’s useless trying to talk to defend myself, I can’t talk to the unicorns keeping me here… Am I just not allowed to talk?’ I frown before making a decision, ‘Fine, I won’t talk. It’s not like I’ll have anything important to say anyways, right?’

Taking a deep breath, I push myself up again and focus on keeping my balance in the small dark cell. Turning to the left, I slowly start walking, only for my right arm to come in contact with the wall with a muffled thud after my third step. Carefully turning around I walk back to the other wall and bump my left arm against the opposite wall after four steps.

‘Alright, four steps… I can work with this.’ Turning around once more, I continue my exercise.

I don’t know how long I’ve been doing my makeshift exercise, with no natural light the only time table is when one of the guards brings a torch close enough that I can see it. My legs have improved as I can’t feel them shake anymore when I stand, and I’ve gone from walking in straight lines to walking in a circle, and learning how to move my too large wings when my legs get tired. Unfortunately my magic still doesn’t want to cooperate with me.

I’m not the only one down here, I heard one of the guards giving a similar speech to someone further down to the left. It apparently wasn’t the first time they somehow managed to anger the guard as the stallion did something to the inmate that made him scream for a long time.

Down here, the guard can do whatever they want…

I freeze when the door to the dungeon screeches open. The doors have opened two times since I’ve been here, and both times the guards have dragged someone out, once by telekinesis and the other equine with a chain around her neck. Sitting down, I wait as the light from the torches grows brighter and blink in surprise when three guards stop in front of my cell, two of them holding chains and the third holding a bucket.

“Back against the wall, half breed,” the green unicorn to the left orders. I give the guard a half lidded stare before complying. They might be able to do anything down here and get away with it, but after the time I’ve spent in here I couldn’t care less about what is going to happen. They open my cell and levitate the chains towards me, clamping them down around my neck and leading me out of the shit stained cell. The third guard levitates the bucket over my head and tips it, dumping water all over me, and proceeds to attack me with various brushes.

The guard is very through, and only when he is done does he let go of my wings, which I promptly shake out.

Guards one, two, and three are still dry when I finish, and they lead me to the door I came in through like a damn dog.

Author's Note

Huh... Who knew unicorns could be so tribalist.

Anyways, smash that like button like it's guard number 3's face, and leave a comment down below about your thoughts on the chapter! Remember: Comments are 64% better than likes (although likes are decent) and 82% more motivational!

Finally... Have a nice day.

This Story is Like a Runaway Train

I believe that after existing for longer than any mortal being has any right to exist, my mind has changed since being in my former mistress’ employ. I believe that any sane mortal would be wondering where they were being taken in my position, or thinking of ways to escape… or studying the unicorns to try and figure out their magic… I do none of these things as my thoughts are… off.

‘...hehe, snort… I feel so high right now…’ I think with a dopey grin on my muzzle before blinking in confusion. ‘Why is a horse’s ffffface called a muzzle?’ I turn to one of the unicorns to my right with curiosity, and start to frown when the stallion doesn’t answer my question.

‘Answer me!’ I think, glaring at the green stallion in golden armor. The stallion seems to ignore my righteous glare of indignation and continues walking. I sniff and turn my nose up showing the stallion just how much his coy act offends me before my attention is grabbed by the walls.

The shifting… shimmering… rainbow walls…

‘Thaaaaaaat’s new…’ I think. Shaking my head and blinking away the spots seems to only make it worse and when I can feel my hooves shake under me I decide that enough is enough. I stop following the now shimmering unicorns and park my plot on the floor… or is it the ceiling?

“Come on you crossbreed,” I hear someone say before something yanks me forward. I fall like a ragdoll on my side and stare up at the arching walls. I can hear something coming closer and snort in amusement when a frowning green snake enters my field of vision.

“Her eyes are turning yellow and red,” the snake says with her forked tongue.

“...Drag her along,” another voice replies after a moment of silence. “I doubt anypony will protest much if this thing gets a little roughed up before meeting the king.”

I slowly blink, wondering why I am being dragged across the roughest carpet I have ever felt and befuddled as to why it smells like peaches and wet cow.

‘...Are we there yet?’ I ask the air in the curved hall several moments later.

BANG

‘...Are we there yet?’

“All rise for King Bullion, head of the Platinum house!” a strained baritone voice calls out. I’m jerked up into a sitting position in front of a table in a spinning black and yellow room. Everything in the room appears to be swimming along to some strange tune… everything but a large brown unicorn with a full blonde mane and tail who is staring at me with wide eyes.

Not one to back down from a challenge, I immediately lock eyes with the stallion and silently accept the demand for satisfaction in the time honored tradition of the staring contest.

I could see beads of sweat traveling down the unicorn’s coat as our battle for dominance starts to heat up. The stallion has the high ground, but my determination is powered by the solar mig-

“What is your name?” the stallion asks.

I blink.

‘Damnit!’ I swear silently.

With a heavy sigh I bring my forehooves up and clap twice. The unicorn jerks back as the spinning room is bathed in black light making the room seem like a negative photo. The unicorn’s head twists back and forth as he takes in the scene and I stretch my mismatched limbs getting the cricks and kinks out of them. Scratching my white hair with my talon, I pause when I feel two horns coming out of my head instead of one. My horns seem to be positioned symmetrically, but one seems to be a straight unicorn horn while the other is… distorted for lack of a better term.

“What did you do?”

I look at the unicorn and heave a heavy sigh. “I get it,” I tell the stallion in a bored voice and start drumming my talon digits on the table I am sitting at. “You win, I lose, yada yada and all that,” I continue before climbing to my mismatched feet. “If you won’t listen to a ‘half breed,’ then maybe you’ll listen to a chi-”

“Stay where you are, creature.” I freeze before giving the unicorn an unamused look.

“You have caught and defeated me in a test of wills, I’m guessing you want the usual fanfare for such an accomplishment,” I guess before picking up a quill and parchment from the table in my magic and trotting over to one of the walls on four hooves. I start writing out the basics before I realize I have no idea what language I am writing in.

“What are you talking about? And how are you walking on that wall?” I blink and look up at the now sideways stallion on the ceiling.

I sigh once again and close my eyes for a moment before looking at the stallion again over the glasses I’m now wearing. “You know the usual fanfare for this type of thing, you get three wishes which you can use anytime throughout your life in which you can call upon me for a favor. I will fulfill your wishes and in return you never speak of the time you bested me in a test of wills and you release me.”

“...And why should I agree to this?” King Bullion asks with a glare.

I give the stallion a deadpan look, “You’re kidding, right?” The stallion opens his mouth again but I beat him to it. “A reality warping individual gives you a deal to grant three wishes and you ask why you should take it?” I give Bullion a glare that bores into his very soul. “I’ll give you one good reason: this is the most that I am willing to do for you, if you don’t take my offer then I will simply erase you from existence and deal with the consequences.” My magic flares at the end of my ultimatum and judging by how the unicorn jerks back in surprise I believe he gets the message. “Now then,” I hold out a completed contract in my tiger paw to the stallion. “Do we have a deal?”

King Bullion stares at the contract before hesitantly taking it in his magic along with the quill from before. Time passes as he reads over the parchment before finally signing the bottom of the document along the dotted line. I snap my talons and the contract blinks out of existence, a grin plastered across my face, “A pleasure doing business with you, Bullion.” The shackles around my neck fall away as the contract takes effect. Flexing my mismatched wings, I look up and see the top of the room fade away to reveal the sky above, and a moment later I’m gone.

Author's Note

I can't seem to find a good place to slow down, hopefully I'll find the brakes before it drives into a hole I can't fish it out of.

...

If you want more chapters leave a comment down below they motivate me to write more.

COME AT ME MURPHY, MY CAPS LOCK IS ON!!!!!!

I grumble to myself, flapping my wings to keep up with my companion and away from those… those xenophobic pricks! “-I mean, I wouldn’t mind it so much if they treated me like trash because of something I did, but those fucking asshats took one look at me, saw that I was a ‘half breed’ and treated me like I wasn’t worth the air I breathed!” I screech through my black beak.

“Who,” my winged companion replied in a tired trill, no doubt resigned to listening to my nonstop rant.

“Ugh, I don’t care that I got out of it. It’s the principle of the matter that’s important!”

“Whowho. Who. Whowho.”

“Well how would you like it if they threw you in a cage for days?!”

“Whowho.”

I grind my beak and grab the black feathers covering the top of my head to keep myself from strangling the green owl right then and there before freezing as what he says hits me.

“Wait, how do you know what a griffin is?”

“Whowhohoho.”

“There are griffins here?”

“Whoho.”

“Well where in blazes are they?!”

“Whowho.”

“...”

“Well fuck you too,” I tell my companion in a flat tone before flying ahead.

“Who!” the owl replies in an insulted voice, before catching up and hissing in my face.

“Well I am sooooooo sorry that having one of the worst weeks in my existence has made me a little bit stressed out! I mean, it’s not like I unraveled everything I have ever worked for in the past several eons to make your universe! It’s not like my mistress finally pushed me to the point where erasing myself seemed like a better alternative than existing for one more galaxy cycle! It’s not like I need to learn how my body works! I mean… Fuck! I’m a bloody Griffin right now! First I wake up as some sort of… Frankenstein monster, then I go to sleep and wake up as a winged unicorn, and now I’m one of the most recognizable chimeras known to the universe?!? What’s next? Waking up as a minotaur? Or, or maybe something insane, like an insect horse hybrid?” I look up at the star filled sky with a frown, “Are you spinning a roulette wheel up there Murphy? Huh?! Well you #$%&!# I hope you’re having fun because as soon as I get my talons on you I am going to #$%^&* you!”

I let out a long screech that destroyed several drifting clouds around us and end panting for breath.

“...Who?”

I feel my left eye twitch rapidly and know that if I don’t do something right now that I am going to blow up in the worst way possible… probably ending with me talking with Lucifer over tea, even with him not existing anymore.

The problem, is that I don’t know what to do. It has been so long since I have had to deal with my own emotions that I - I…

I grab my head and shut my eyes tight, focusing on my breathing, as my skull suddenly feels like someone is splitting it open with a jackhammer. My talons shake as the pain continues relentlessly and my heart pounds away in my chest.

My breathing quickens and the world around me fades out of focus. I am dimly aware of hitting something but the pain is minor compared to what I feel in my skull.

My magic is running wild but the pain is reaching the point that it is getting difficult to think.

“Come on Eris, just fall already.”

My body spasms and I try to cry out, but I don’t have the energy to even lift my head. Cracking my eyes open the last thing I see is the world twisting and warping around me.

…

………..

……………………………

My eyes shoot open and I jolt forward which proves to be the wrong thing to do when my legs cry out in protest. My body has changed again, considering the scales I feel when I wrap my arms around my body...

I never thought it was possible to feel fire in my veins and ice in my stomach at the same time, but this form has done it.

I can feel my ears swerve as I hear something approach. Gathering my strength I lift myself into a sitting position and take note of my surroundings.

The place I landed is no longer natural in any sense of the word. There are venus flytraps the size of houses in the clearing my magic created and bunnies with teeth sharper than any blade I have seen. There are creatures that look like a cross between a canary and a human with muscles so huge they would put the best bodybuilders to shame having a flex off. Mice and keyboards are dancing around the perimeter doing the conga and pigs are flying with miniature rockets glued to their hooves!

“Ahem.”

I look down and see a frog in a butler outfit, complete with the white cloth they always seem to carry, looking up at me.

“I am sorry to wake you, my lady, when you obviously need some rest, but several guests will be arriving soon, and considering they are not listening when I ask them to turn around, I suggest that you leave posthaste.”

I stare at the frog whose voice sounded more at home in a barbershop quartet for several moments before nodding dumbly and pushing myself off the bluish purple altar I was sleeping on. Clutching my stomach as I hit the diamond floor, I slowly shamble to the edge of the clearing and watch in silence as the purple and gold trees uproot themselves to let me pass into the forest.

I don’t know how long I stumble through the trees on my three blue limbs before collapsing under one of countless trees.

“Ugh…”

What I wouldn’t give for some Pepto Bismol right now…

I turn my head.

‘...Oh hey…’ I think before reaching out with a blue claw and grabbing a familiar pharmaceutical bottle, ‘Pepto Bismol…’ I pause with a claw on the top of the bottle, the strangeness of the simple bottle somehow breaking through the haze clouding my mind.

I blink and look at my surroundings.

‘When did I climb a mountain?’

An icy wind blows around me as I frown down at the landscape below. Climbing to my feet I unsteadily make my way down the path I had apparently taken judging by the footsteps… or would it be clawsteps?

Shaking the random thought away I continue my trek down the mountain. The pain in my leg had lessened considerably, only to return after what I can only assume has been hours of walking on uneven terrain. The snow is getting lighter the farther I go, and I am eventually lucky enough to stumble across a cave. Stumbling inside the temporary shelter, I am greeted by an… unpleasant sight.

There are four of them lying together with heavy cloth on their backs. Three equine shapes, along with a minotaur, huddled up for warmth. The sizes of the equines suggest a small family… a new family considering how small the third bundle is.

They aren’t moving…

...

The family is dead…

...

But the foal is still here.

Author's Note

...Maybe I shouldn't have used such a bad joke for such a bleak end note...

Actually using the caps lock however... It's better to just avoid it whenever possible.

Leave a comment down below to show your support for the story and to help motivate me to write more.

My First Friend

I stand at the mouth of the cave, staring at the floating translucent foal as it stares back at me with sickly glowing eyes. I can feel its curiosity, but it doesn’t move from where it is, which is a good thing, because my mind is experiencing a logic error.

There are some things that any sane being - and some insane beings - takes for granted. Death was absolute in my previous reality as spirits could not walk in the land of the living. Individuals live their lives and then they die. For a spirit to be in the realm of the living they must have a living body, it’s just common knowledge… a fact…

‘The foal is dead, so why is it still here? Even if no other god would take it Anubis would at least… but Anubis... ‘

‘…’

‘Anubis… doesn’t exist anymore…’

‘By the gods!’

My mind just sort of sputters out as the full ramifications of what I have done hits me. I had of course realized what I had done a while ago, but I didn’t truly understand what I had done until just now looking at the spirit foal…

In my long existence I have learned that there was only one universal constant, one fact that would never change no matter what happened... “Death is inevitable...” Even gods and beings like me eventually fade away!

But this foal… This foal has existed as a spirit for years! I don’t know how I know it but its…

I collapse on my blue scaled ass as everything I know is put on trial. Every law of magic, every rule of energy facing what could possibly be the death penalty in this new world.

‘Are there limits to what magic can do in this world? Is anything constant or sacred? If death can’t hold the dead…’

I turn my head to the right feeling something brush up against my shoulder. The foal is just floating there beside me with a curiosity so overwhelming I can literally taste it.

I chuckle at how absurd the situation is and reach out with a claw and somehow ruffle the foal’s ethereal mane. “Don’t worry little one, I’m fine,” I tell the spirit as it gives me an annoyed frown and batters at its mane to try and fix it.

I grin, remembering another individual who hated when I messed with his head. “You remind me of someone that I know little one.” The foal grumbles… somehow, before turning and folding its hooves across its barrel. “Oh come on, don’t be like that,” I whisper to the spirit before crossing my legs and placing my scaled head on my knees. “Could I make it up to you with a story?” I see the foal’s right ear twitch.

I doubt that the spirit would actually understand what I am speaking, but… Sometimes it’s just better to talk.

“I have so many stories I could tell you, little one. Stories so dreadfully painful I can still feel their cutting edge and stories so sad that they could tear at your very soul… This… is not one of those stories,” I pause and place a claw on the foal’s back. The spirit tenses but doesn’t move away as I start to stroke its back with a blue claw. “This is the story of how I met my first friend… My… foolish, foolish friend, and his brilliant father.” I look into the sickly glowing eyes of the foal beside me.

“This, is the story of how I met Icarus.”

…

I had been in my mistress’s employ for a while already, I don’t really know how long as time was difficult after the incident.

(The incident? That young one, is not a tale meant for foals, now hush.)

I do not know how much time had passed, but my mistress finally deemed me ready enough to further her goals without her supervision. My mission was simple: save a father and his son from a prison that their king forced the father to make. I could influence anyone as I saw fit to complete my mission as long as I never left any sign that I was there.

I will be honest, I wasn’t cautious, I was paranoid, and it is a good thing that I was. The king regularly visited the father and his son in their prison and being the son of Zeus the king was very sensitive to the magic surrounding him. The prison was a specially designed tower with air currents that whispered in the king’s ear if magic ever tried to enter.

My mistress told me to not leave anything that could imply that I was ever there so I took an… indirect route. Circling the king’s castle I came across a bird eating from his garden. It was a small bird, nothing very special about it really except that the bird had the whitest plumage I had ever seen. Thinking about my mistress’s words I had the idea of… scouting out the situation by standing in for this white bird.

It was quick, and I don’t believe it actually realized what was happening. One moment I was watching it eat berries off a bush and the next I was looking through its eyes and flapping its wings. Flying towards a tower in the middle of a maze.

I couldn’t begin to describe how amazing it felt, flying for the first time in my existence. I could feel every breeze through our primaries as we soared over the stone hedges of the king’s maze. It was only when we approached the tower in the middle that my new instincts started giving us trouble. Oh there was the occasional insect that our mind told us to swoop down and eat, but those urges were easily suppressed. No, it was only when we closed in on the tower that an overwhelming sense of dread and wrongness forced us to turn around. It was like the air itself had turned against us, and feeling that from a bird’s perspective is absolutely terrifying.

We turned around that day, but I did not return to my mistress. I was terrified of what she would do if I told her that I had failed. I… slept as the bird, and if I am honest it was extremely disorienting. Nothing is more surreal than not eating for an unknown amount of time and suddenly waking up and wondering if I should go hunting for insects or eating berries off of the bushes. It was only for a moment but… Well there are some things that simply can’t be explained except through experience.

Regardless, I spent another day as the white bird and after eating more berries off the bushes we went back to the tower to see if we had better luck than the day before. We didn’t make it to the tower, but we did come closer before turning away.

This cycle repeated for what seemed like months before… Well another white bird distracted me with his nest. It was a big nest, and his feathers were so full, and oh the way he danced through the sky!

I blink and look over at the foal. I can feel the confusion coming off of it as my cheeks heat up.

“Uhhhh… Where was I? Ahh, right. After a break of sorts and saying goodbye to the other bird I resumed my mission.”

…

If I remember correctly it took another week before we could circle around the tower without fleeing, but afterwards it became much easier, as my curiosity about the shadowed figures I could see through the sole window was enough to overpower our instincts.

Landing on the window ledge, I saw a man with a scraggly beard wearing worn and… soiled clothes drawing something on a piece of parchment with a quill on a stone bench. A boy, not really a young man quite yet, was leaning against a wooden door and looking at us.

The moment that we made eye contact I knew the boy was special. He had the look, not the look many boys have when thinking of mischief. This was a look that spoke of intelligence, of a cleverness that would brand him as either a genius or a madman when he grew up.

The boy’s eyes lit up as he rushed over to the man and tugged at his ripped sleeves, “Father, I’ve got it! I’ve figured it out!” The man looked over the boy with a confused look on his face before the boy pointed at me with a grin. “Wings, what if we made a pair of wings? We could fly out!”

The man’s face went through a series of emotions from confused, to skeptical, to slack jawed wonder before clamping a hand on the boy’s shoulder and smiling as if the boy had just given him the best gift he had ever received. “Icarus,” the man started waving a finger at the boy, “I believe you might be onto something.”

I tilted our head in confusion before flittering over to the stone bench the man was drawing on just in time to see him start a new drawing. A frown marred his face as he looked at me briefly, “This dove doesn’t have a lick of sense approaching hunters this way.”

“No Father, don’t you see?” The boy replies looking at me with a grin. “It’s a message from the gods, we’re going to be free!”

Turning back to the drawing the man was hunched over, I could see the idea emerge. Turning around, we flew out the window and back to the garden, a plan forming in our head.

My mistress told me to not leave any trace of what I did, so I wouldn’t. Their idea was brilliant, but it would fail without my intervention. I wouldn’t leave any trace of magic, after all if they escaped who would ever be able to verify if the wings they used to escape were magic?

I had my plan, I simply needed to see it through.

I blink again and turn to the spirit beside me, only to see it lying on the ground with its glowing eyes half closed. I chuckle, “Even spirits get tired little one, I’ll finish the story tomorrow… Now let’s get some rest.”

Straightening my scaled legs out, I lie down on my side with my arm under my head and slowly drift off to an uneasy sleep.

Author's Note

I wonder how the story ends...

If you like this chapter and would like to show your support then leave a comment down below. Likes are decent enough, but a comment is 87% more motivational.

Chain of Memories

Author's Note

By the gods, the author's note at the top?! Blasphemy!

Now then, before you go down and read the chapter there is something you should know: This chapter includes several lines of lyrics to a song that I thought was appropriate. I have taken them out just in case in the version below, but you can find an unedited version here.

Happy reading, and leave a comment down below to help motivate me to write more.

Chain of Memories

“Do you truly believe that your actions are your own?”

I’m chasing something, I don’t know what it is, but I do know that I can not let it escape me. I turn down a corridor and find myself in a ballroom filled with dressed up people chatting with one another. I can see my target and smile knowing what is about to happen. Strolling up to the man in the expensive looking suit, I reach into my bag and pull out a device with a switch and a button. Flipping the switch I am rewarded with a red light blinking on inside my bag. I push the button, and everything goes white.

“Oh please, we both know this isn’t the end.”

I burst through a door and find myself in a room with a large group of men killing or forcing themselves on my mistress’s followers. I feel my face contort in rage as magic races to my fingertips. Bringing my hands up, I throw my magic at the attackers and watch as they are picked off the ground and thrown back several feet. Making a grasping motion with my right hand I pull back and snarl as one of the attackers stops suddenly with a sickening snap. “You dare to defile the temple of Hecate?! I will flay you alive for your disrespect!”

“Ehhh, seven out of ten.”

I race across bars of music trying to outrun the treble clef eating the notes behind me as a demonic voice calls out from the aether.

“~”

I stop at the edge of the bar and look into the black abyss beyond.

“~”

I turn around and find the unicorns from before hounding me with glowing eyes. The demonic voice is coming from every one of them.

“~”

I turn around and without a second thought I leap into the abyss.

“You’re getting closer, Eris. Now let’s see how much you really want this.”

I crash into the cavern floor and look around. The lights mounted on my shoulders are at their maximum output and the light barely penetrates the darkness surrounding me. I hate this place, I hate this mech I am in. I know what is down here, and I am terrified.

A long drawn out sound vibrates the water around the mech. I shiver, knowing that I am about to face something that even my mistress is wary of.

I take a step forward and the mech mirrors my movement. I activate the device in my ear and open my mouth, “This is Armor One Seven reporting in, I have reached the destination.”

“Copy that One Seven,” a gruff voice replies after a moment of silence. “Activate your cameras, something down here is keeping us from mining the caverns and we want answers.”

I roll my eyes before following through on the order. I continue walking forward despite the oppressive silence. My mistress wanted this thing gone at all costs and I can see why.

I can feel the beast pulling at my magic simply by being near it, I can’t imagine how it would feel if it was actively trying to eat me.

Another long drawn out sound vibrates the water again, this time much closer. I take one more step before the ground beneath me shakes and I experience my first true terror of the universe.

The ground opens beneath me and a glowing yellow orb floods the cavern with light.

I turn pale as the cavern floor cracks and breaks. Pushing the mech’s speed to its limits, I barely have time to place a hand to the ground before the cavern’s true nature reveals itself.

I am almost thrown off as a titanic eel shakes off the stone encasing it and starts gliding through the cavern. The eel’s four glowing eyes show me just what the fuck I have sentenced myself to.

The cavern is filled with eels of gigantic proportions. The smallest eels almost as large as the thirty foot mech I am currently in.

“S-s-s-s-sir! Are you seeing this?” I whimper into my communicator.

“...Get out of there, Armor. This planet is a loss.”

“Y-yes sir!”

The mech lets go of the eel and the propellers kick in, driving it to the surface. Unfortunately my mission is far from over. Leaving my host behind before she ascends, I am left clinging to the eel as it swims deeper and deeper into the cavern.

Bending the rules of death even this much would probably send my mistress into a fit… but she did tell me to get rid of these things at all costs…

‘Am I really thinking of doing this?’

Laughter echoes through the abyss. “I’ve been wondering how you would deal with this memory, or rather our lack of memory.”

I close my eyes and feel myself sinking into the eel, only for a jolt of energy a moment later to force my eyes open.

“Disorienting I know, it’s one thing to bury a memory, it’s violating to take one.”

I blink and rub my eyes not exactly sure of what I am seeing. A chimera is sitting in a beanbag chair sipping what I think is Dr. Pepper out of an upside down teacup.

The chimera rolls its eyes before opening its mouth, “Oh please, we’ve seen stranger things than our reflection, Eris.” The chimera chides me as it tosses the teacup to the side where it sprouts legs and runs away. Taking a look at the scenery is a mistake as it makes me feel as if I am in some sort of abstract painting… A two dimensional abstract piece trying to portray seven dimensions.

“Now I know what we’re thinking, ‘this is such a mind fuck’ and I’ll be honest, it totally is. This is why I absolutely love this place, as I can just sit back, relax, and let our mind wander wherever it wants without trying to make sense of everything, as I know we could never do it!”

The chimera leans back with a smug grin on its face, “What’s the matter, bird catch your tongue?”

‘She’s not real.’

The chimera frowns, “Well of course I’m real, I’m you... well, a part of you anyways, or maybe it would be more correct to say that you are a rather large part of me.”

‘This is insane.’

“Well of course we are. It’s one thing to talk to yourself, it’s another thing entirely for me to be having this conversation with myself.”

‘...’

I hear something shatter behind me and the chimera winces before looking behind me, “By Morgana’s bouncing belly, why is it every time we have this conversation it results in one of our mental walls breaking? That’s the fourth one this week!”

I simply stare at the chimera as it waves its arms around in exasperation.

“You know what? Fine, it’s not like we will actually remember this when we wake up. Now go and find something else to keep you preoccupied, or better yet...”

The chimera holds up a black talon with two claws pressed against each other, “Wake up.” The claws make a snapping sound.

My eyes snap open as I jolt awake. My head falls to the stone underneath as a moan escapes my mouth. I hate waking up like this, the moment of vertigo like my stomach is going to fall out of me is… well it’s not the absolute worst way to wake up, but it is definitely in the top ten.

I’m a griffin again, judging by my completely black body. Looking over, I come face to ethereal face with the spirit foal who is curiously poking my side in fascination…

I just silently watch the foal for several seconds with a bemused expression before opening my beak, “Are you done?”

This proves to be the wrong thing to do as the foal doesn’t seem to handle surprises very well as it dives into the closest thing around… which happens to be me.

My eyes open wide as my body tenses and a shiver travels from the tip of my black tail to the feathers on my head. I feel my body tremble as an unnatural cold sweeps over me. I have been in subzero degrees before but absolutely nothing compares to the ice I can feel in my veins right now.

“Ohhhhhhhh, that’s cold,” I whisper, feeling my left eye twitch every now and then. Focusing on my breathing I am greeted with a surprise when frost forms where I breathe. I lie there for what feels like minutes as all these new sensations overwhelm me and I am given a crash course on places of my body that should never be cold, and it is only after the immediate shock passes that I realize I can feel something else in my head.

I’m not sure it is the best idea but… ‘Can you hear me, little one?’

Confirmation, along with contentment.

I move my talons and feel a large amount of shock when I place them on the stone and shift myself into a standing position. My body is still trembling badly as I head over to the right wall and collapse against it. Curling up with my back to the wall, I start running my talons up and down my sides to try and warm myself up with the friction. “W-well this is an experience,” I stutter as the cold lessens a tiny bit.

Confusion.

I shake my head. “I’ll- I’ll explain later.”

I have no idea how long I simply sit there but I eventually feel the chill in my bones fade… or maybe I just get used to the ice in my veins. My body aches from being tense for so long but after this I want to get somewhere warmer before I fall asleep again. Climbing to my talons and paws once more, I shakily make my way over to the mouth of the cave.

Fear.

I tense as another shiver goes down my spine, ‘Don’t worry little one. I’ll keep you safe, just wait and see.’

I place a talon on the snow and frown at how warm it feels. Not trusting my wings at all for the moment, I silently start making my way down the mountain to the plains beyond.

Eureka!

It is a strange experience, making my way down the mountain. The spirit foal jumped out of me at one point and is now flying around trying to look at everything at once. It acts like it has never been outside before, seeing how it stares at every snow covered bush and tree we pass in fascination.

I am glad the foal is out of my head, seeing as it could hear my thoughts, and… Well, I’m not entirely sure what to do with the spirit. I like having a companion, but I only have a little bit of experience when it comes to spirits. There is also the fact that I don’t know nearly enough about this world to actually do much, and the fact I can feel something watching me, and-

I pause as my thoughts come to a surprising conclusion, ‘By the gods, I’m having an anxiety attack…’

The realization is surprisingly sobering as I close my eyes and take several deep breaths, the familiar action bleeding the tension out of me slowly, as I tackle my thoughts one by one.

‘Alright, first off: the foal. It’s a spirit so it shouldn’t need food or water which is a major plus. It has a childlike curiosity so it shouldn’t be that hard to keep it happy, or distracted. Does the spirit need to be kept safe? Uhhh… I don’t know, so… I’ll keep an eye on it I guess.

‘Second, my stalker, who I haven’t seen yet and who hasn’t made a move against me yet… I could try to get the drop on whatever it is, but I would be relying on instincts to see me through the confrontation… Yeah no, I don’t like those odds at all. I would have the advantage of the first strike if I could sneak up on it, but again, unknown enemy for all I know its skin could be toxic to touch.

‘Third… I need to figure out how to use my magic. I can fly, but that is more instinctive magic than anything. While using instinctive magic might be a step up from not knowing how to use any magic at all, it is not a step in the correct direction… or is it?’

I blink open my eyes and stare up at the cloudy sky overhead as I think about the magic I have used so far in this world. ‘When I first arrived in this world I couldn’t use magic, I could feel it while I was that first chimera but it wouldn’t respond to me until I got annoyed and that was only for a moment. While I was the winged unicorn I could still feel my magic, in fact I could feel passive magic flowing through my body then, although I don’t know what it was doing. I can fly in this form, even more passive magic, but then there was what I woke up to after getting angry. That scene was undoubtedly active magic at work unless of course I have somehow acquired the ability to passively warp reality around me, which I highly doubt, considering it isn’t happening now. Next, the mountain, how in tartarus did I get up here? I didn’t feel any active magic, although I wasn’t exactly paying all that much attention at the time. Something could be messing with my head… Actually now that I think about it I would be more surprised if something wasn’t messing with my head. I seem to change species when I sleep, and different species have different instincts…’

I sigh, shaking my head and continuing my trek down the mountain. The foal is staring at another tree, and with my stalker still following me from the shadows I decide to experiment. Opening my right wing to its fullest extent I try to trace the passive magic flowing through it. The magic flowing from the base of my wing to the tip of my feathers is… complex, not to mention completely illogical. The veins and bones in the appendage, or at least what I believe to be veins and bones, hold the most magic flowing through them in a very structured circuit going from the base of my wing to the tip before returning, this is logical. What isn’t logical is the little strands of magic coming out of the bones and veins. The strands of magic don’t seem to be a part of the circuit but they are connected. Tracing the strands of magic leave me even more confused as… Well… they don’t make sense.

Every single strand seems to be creating its own magic not drawing from the bones and veins. Multiple strands are connected to each feather in my wing, but not in a way that would suggest that the feathers are the source of the strands. In fact the strands of magic seem to resemble plant roots more than anything, or perhaps a spider web without a pattern.

I frown and fold my wing against my side and try to trace the magic in my torso. The magic is flowing much faster, but the strands of magic are there too. I come to a complete stop a moment later my mind jumping from thought to thought. I instinctively know these strands are important, they might even be the key to my magic. No, there is no, ‘might’ they are the key! I know it!

‘But how?’ I ask myself, glaring at a raised talon with an intensity that would make even Zeus shake with fear. I try moving the magic to the talon I am glaring at and it works. The strands of magic lining my right black talon swell, but stop at the exact same point as before. I attempt multiple different ways to make the strands react. Forcing more magic into the strands does not work, connecting the strands does nothing. Clenching my talon into a fist I am about to try crossing the strands when an odd thought occurs to me.

‘If immortal techniques don’t succeed, then what about mortal techniques?’

I open my talon and look at the black digits. The human race used both science and magic before they were erased, most often using heat to release energy or magic, the most common method they used to create the heat being friction.

It is a long shot, but I focus the strands of magic into my middle and back claw. Bringing the two digits together I apply pressure and slide them past one another.

*Snap*

I can’t help the grin I feel on my face, looking down at the tiny green flame in the palm of my talon. The burning orb sputters out after several seconds, but it is a victory nonetheless. I continue my trek down the mountain, the grin never leaving my face, and when night falls and I stare up at the starry night sky beside the foal, I can’t help but think that things are beginning to look up.

Author's Note

...

I wonder what happened to her stalker.

As always, leave a comment down below to help motivate me to write more.

@#$%^&*

I feel horrible. Too hot, too cold, my throat feels like it is swelling shut, and the lower half of my body feels numb. To top it all off, I have a migraine, which makes me feel like my head is going to explode like a watermelon.

I groan and don’t even attempt to open my eyes. I hear something coming up to me but I don’t have the strength to do anything but clutch my head with my hooves. Some sort of bowl is pressed to my lips, and when I feel the cool liquid in it I gulp it down…

By the gods that was a mistake.

I feel like my throat is burning. A burning that the flames of Tartarus couldn’t hope to match. The concoction makes its way down my throat and I feel as if I swallowed a mixture of vodka, gasoline, and gunpowder, followed by a lit match.

I smash my hooves into the bowl to get it away from me and grab my throat as I try to cough up my lungs. The world shrinks until it is just me and the burning sensation slithering down my throat leaving third degree burns in its wake.

I don’t know how long I lie there hacking and coughing, but it feels like eons before the sensation dies down. I focus on breathing, and eventually the pain simply fades away.

…

……

…………..

My eyes open with a snap, and I can already tell I have changed again. Smelling the world in a different way and the fact that I can feel hooves again… are surprisingly not the first indicators… Nope…

My first hint that I have changed once more is my magic becoming active. I could actively feel magic swirling around me like a freaking storm. Not like a thunderstorm, but like a hurricane, a tornado, and an erupting volcano all came together to destroy any civilization on this side of the planet. There is no word to describe how volatile my magic is right now and it is reacting to something I haven’t even thought of.

My magic is reacting to me being, undeniably, absolutely, two-thousand nine hundred seventy three percent pissed!

I know I can hold a grudge, I have an understanding with the emotion of hatred, and if anything living was in my sight when I opened my eyes I would have undoubtedly killed it without a second thought.

Most mortals would probably call me a psychopath, and they are probably right. Eons upon eons of being used as a tool and a weapon by my former mistress has probably made me a loose cannon, add in emotions I can’t turn off anymore and I am probably the equivalent of a nuclear warhead just waiting for the right trigger to set me off.

I literally can’t think right now. Clenching my jaw tells me that I have fangs now and bringing up two black hooves with holes in them to grab my muzzle just makes me madder! I can feel my left eye twitching rapidly and realize that I am stuck in a feedback loop with my anger which in turn only makes me more pissed off!

I scramble to my hooves and look around. I am completely alone, the zebra is gone, and the spirit foal is missing. Around me are rolling plains as far as I can see, with only the mountains breaking up the scenery. Falling on my rump, I can feel my entire body shaking, and my magic begs to be used. Bringing my forehooves up to my face once again, I try to focus my magic, and to my joy the magic leaps to the bottom of my holed hooves with a golden glow.

A manic rictus slowly splits my face as I lift the limbs above my head… and bring them down in fury.

The entire world just stops for a moment, a split second of absolute calm and silence…

…

……

…………

I stomp my hooves into the earth again as my grin twitches, no change.

I stomp my hooves again and again as my grin slowly dies. I scowl and clench my jaw before twisting my head to look behind me.

I have a long blue mane and tail, along with my hide having become something like a black shell. There are holes through my hooves, but with how angry I am I can’t bring myself to care about it.

All I can think of is how much I want to punch something. I want to punch something, anything, in the face so hard that it explodes in a fountain of gore! My head whips around looking for anything I can take my anger out on. I can’t see anything I can beat to death, so I pick a direction and start galloping.

My strides are long and uneven. I stumble a number of times, with every mistake followed by a loud crack I can hear in my head. It becomes painful to run, but with every spike of pain I get more and more livid. I see a large tree in the distance and grin, pouring on the speed despite my body’s protests, and two translucent wings buzz to life on my back. Closing the distance quickly to my target, I lunge forward with my left forehoof cocked back before extending the limb forward.

I can feel something happen to the hoof as it makes contact with the tree that is wider than I am, but it doesn’t make a dent in the tree… Nope…

When my hoof connects with the tree it explodes with enough force to put a stick of dynamite to shame.

I slam into the ground on the other side of the jagged stump I left behind and roll to a stop. I gulp down air as a haze settles over my mind.

...I need more.

It isn’t a thought, but a fact I could feel in myself. I need to hit something else.

Climbing to my hooves, I screech as a spike of agony travels through my left forehoof. Scowling at the appendage, I can see a large crack extending from the bottom all the way to where the limb ended. Strangely enough the agony makes me even madder as I force the leg to support my weight. My head whips around once more looking for anything to destroy before I simply snarl and start galloping in a random direction again.

I am every synonym of mad right now. I want to kill, I want to mutilate, I want to *&%$#@^* the next animal I see and use its skull as an outhouse.

The anger and agony shooting through my mind blurs the world around me, with every step the ground fades a little more. Silence reigns with my heartbeat being the only sound I hear. I can feel something off in the distance, a flame in the fog shrouding me and I make a beeline for it. I can feel it getting closer.Beating my wings, I leap forward, bringing both of my forehooves together to smash whatever the flame is into nonexistence.

I hear something give with a sickening crunch and something wet coats my hooves. I take a deep breath and take some small satisfaction from the smell.

...But I still need more.

The haze in my mind lifts for the briefest of moments as I try to remember how the flame I just snuffed out felt like. I am rewarded when more flames appear in the distance, almost like candles on a birthday cake.

I take off, smashing through anything in my way face first. The world fades away again, but nothing is going to stop me from finding the flames and destroying them.

Author's Note

Eris has issues, leave a comment down below if you want me to write more about them.

Rainy Day

“What am I doing?” I ask the air while sitting on the blood soaked ground. I don’t know how much time has passed but I have calmed down… No, “calm” isn’t the right word… Apathetic is a more accurate term. I can’t hear anything, even the question I just asked.

I’ve changed again, I believe I’m a zebra, judging by my striped hooves, but I don’t care.

I’ve reached my point, the point that every individual I have met has. The point where one takes the shittastic hand that Life has given them, throws the cards on the table, proceeds to flip the table over, walks away from the table while flipping Life the bird, and after acquiring a tank of gas proceeds to light Life’s house on fire and watch as the building goes up in flames with dead eyes.

I am done. Standing up, I look around the remains of the camp I am in. I don’t know what was making camp here, but what is left of the bodies littering the ground are mangled beyond recognition. Bones, feathers, a beak, and few talons and paws are the only pieces that are even remotely intact aside from the broken hide huts scattered around.

With a sigh, I pick a direction and simply start walking, leaving everything as it is.

I believe I might be deaf in this form as the silence encompases everything and leaves me to my thoughts.

‘Perhaps I should have worded my wish differently, instead of wishing for enough power to make my own way, maybe I should have asked for a life filled with joy. Everything makes a difference whether one recognizes it or not. Heck, I recreated the universe, I already made a huge difference!’

I feel a drop of rain hit my muzzle and look up with lidded eyes. Dark clouds overhead threaten to drench me, but after a moment’s glance I continue to walk.

I feel a twang of loss as my thoughts drift to the spirit foal. The spirit was only with me for a short time, but it was nice to have a companion again, one that didn’t judge me or try to kill me.

Rain starts to fall on my head, but the tiny water droplets barely even register as I continue my trek across the plains.

‘Perhaps “making a difference” isn’t the best goal,’ I think with resigned acceptance, before coming to a complete stop as a baffling question hits me.

‘What am I supposed to do?’

I’ve had orders for as long as I can remember. Ever since I made my wish, I’ve just been wandering aimlessly. I don’t have any clear goals, and I can’t think of anything I might be able to do seeing as my magic just doesn’t want to cooperate with me… So what in Tartarus am I supposed to do?

With a puzzled frown on my muzzle I continue walking.

‘Wow… Will this rain never end?’ I’ve been walking for a while now, but the dark clouds overhead don’t seem to end.

…

……..

………………..

“Iiiiii am walking in the raaaaiiiiiinnnnn.
Iiiii am singing in the raaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnn!!!!
Iiii can’t recall the words to this song~
So I’m improvising all along~
Iiiiii am singing in the raaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnn!”

….

………….

“...I wonder how that sounded… Do I have a beautiful voice, or do I sound like that one woman who was obsessed with dalmatians?”

…

“Whatever.”

It is still raining, but… I have found a pond to get a drink. It is mostly dark, but I can make out a few features of my form that I kind of like.

I don’t seem like most zebras I have seen. For one, I have a single golden stripe around my neck almost like a necklace… or maybe a noose if I want to be morbid. I also have a black stripe across my eyes almost like that of a racoon. I would consider looking for a cane with a hook on the end, but I’ve played the dark ops role way too many times.

…

“...Perhaps a paladin?”

The silence follows as I continue on my seemingly endless journey.

It’s a good friend.

“Walking walking walking walking walking walking walking wal-king wal-king wal-king coo-kie coo-kie coo-kie coo-kie coo-kie coo-kie coo-kie coo-kie coo-kie coo-”

…

“Have I really fallen to imitating a Krabby?”

…

“I need to find someone to talk to…”

“I can’t believe I am thinking about this… I cannot believe I am actually considering this…” I mumble while pacing back and forth. I heave a giant sigh before sitting on my plot and cuping my hooves to my muzzle.

“What could possibly go wrong!” I holler at the top of my lungs. Dropping my hooves I look from side to side waiting for something to emerge... then something slams into me from behind.

My muzzle is firmly planted in the ground, but after a second I am able to tug it out and look at my assailant.

Aaaaaannnnd I am greeted with the spirit foal floating in front of me with a grin on its face. It seems more solid than I remember, but by this point I have given up on logic. With a smile on my muzzle I pounce on the foal and actually manage to grab the sucker and pull it into a hug to end all hugs, which it gladly returns.

I don’t question how I am hugging a spirit foal, I don’t ask how it could have physically moved me…

I’m just glad it is back.

Breaking off the hug I glance it over before getting back to my hooves. I can’t help but grin as I open my mouth, “Well little one, are you ready to move?” The foal bounces around me in circles before darting off and coming back a second later.

I laugh at the foal’s antics and start walking once more. The foal has boundless energy tonight, but I smirk as I remember a promise I had made earlier. “Now calm down little one, you wouldn’t want to miss story time would you?”

The foal’s head shoots up at the words “story time,” and it visibly tries to calm itself down to walk beside me. It is still vibrating, but with a chuckle my eyes start to glaze over as I continue the story of Icarus.

Author's Note

...

I think I'm going to set this story aside for a few weeks, maybe write a chapter for one of my other stories...

As always if you want to show your support leave a comment down below. Have a wonderful day.

Reality Smacks Me in the Face... Again.

So, where were we in the story of… Icarus? It was either the story of Icarus, or the story of Behemoth… Ehhh, they both end somewhat similarly…

Did we reach ‘the burning’ before the story ended last time? ...I’m going to guess by your curious expression that that is a no…

Wait! I remember now!

…

So, the next several days pass without incident. The old man, I find out, is a genius, and I don’t use the term lightly. This guy was someone who Hephaestus looked up to for his inginuity.

“Who’s Hephaestus?” I ask the foal, while looking at it with a confused ex- “...Riiight, forgot about that.

“Alright, Hephaestus was a big guy who could literally create anything he set his mind to. Hephaestus looked up to my friend’s old man because he created hundreds of inventions that Hephaestus didn’t even think about creating.

“Anyways, my friend’s old man was a genius, in fact his plans for escape with his son might have actually succeeded even without my help.”

The foal looks a bit startled, given how I’ve built this situation in the story up to be very bad I suppose I could understand. “I suppose I should explain. The first thing you should understand is that everything- and I do mean everything has magic. The grass I’m walking on has magic, the rain coming down from the clouds has magic, hell even the dirt has magic. There are only like, five exceptions to that rule, but we’re not talking about those and we probably never will.”

The foal looks curious, and I knew I had to nip this in the bud now. “The only thing you need to know about magicless beings is that: if you come across something that doesn’t have magic you get the fuck out of there.” I tell the foal with pointed gestures with my striped hooves to get my point across, “I do not care if the damn thing is sucking the magic out of me, if you do not run, I will personally drag your flank out of the void and beat the stupid out of your ethereal fur.

“Do you understand me!?” I ask the wide eyed spirit, and it vigorously nods its head in confirmation.

“...Good, moving on.

“The second thing you need to understand is that having magic and utilizing magic are two totally different things. Most of the time mortals can’t use magic by themselves, they need a higher power to help utilize the magic they have. This does not apply to races that have evolved to utilize magic naturally such as unicorns and pegasi.

“Anyways, I’m getting off topic. I suppose an example of having magic versus using magic would be building a clock. The gears, the minute hand, the hour hand, and the wood frame all have magic but the clock doesn’t use the magic stored in its various parts, it simply tells the time. The magic it has doesn’t affect the world around it, it’s just there.

“Now here’s the thing about my friend’s old man, his mind was so… advanced… that he could mix magic and science. His inventions didn’t just use magic parts, his inventions utilized the magic in them to influence the world.”

The foal has a blank look on its translucent face, and I have a feeling that I have lost its interest… “Too much to understand? Alright, I suppose a simpler way of saying it would be…

“Daedalus, a completely mortal individual, my friend’s old man, was able to enchant items without a medium. A feat that I thought was completely impossible.”

‘Okay, seriously,’ I think as the foal nods its head in understanding, ‘How the fuck did you understand that, but not my explanation?’

“What does this lesson and geekout have to do with the story?”

I stop and blink, going over everything that happened because of Daedalus’s ability, and once again floored by just how much could be laid at his feet.

“...Quite a bit actually.”

…

So a couple of days go by and I continue to bring Icarus and his old man more feathers laced with magic. It is during one of those days that I noticed that the maze their tower was located in was… different.

It was the day that I got my first taste of just how small I was, even when serving my goddess! I later learned that the maze was called the Labyrinth, and even eons later scholars could not even begin to comprehend just how the Labyrinth worked the way it did.

Most could not even comprehend one of the simplest facts about the Labyrinth - the fact that the Labyrinth was alive. The maze utilized the magic it had to such a degree that it could shift and change according to its desire, and believe me, it had feelings, and gods have mercy on your soul if you pissed it off. One of the most amazing things I discovered about the Labyrinth was that it could literally take anyone anywhere, as long as the maze knew about it. Of course most individuals learned quickly that they shouldn’t piss off the maze that could send them to the planet Pluto…

I’m getting off track again aren’t I? The point of note is that the maze liked me enough that it didn’t imped my efforts to help its creator. Why would it? I wasn’t in league with the king that shackled it to his land…

Then again… most magical constructs don’t need a reason to make your life that much more annoying, so I suppose I could count myself lucky in that respect.

Anyway, I dropped off the feathers I collected that day, and I watched as Daedalus weaved a pair of bronze wings. Most inventions similar to the wingpacks made later in the century would not come even close to being flight capable, but Daedalus used feathers I brought from various birds in the area to create the necessary magical effect. Daedalus literally built something that gave his son and himself the ability to fly like a bird!

Staying around as Daedalus wove the magic and metal to his liking was similar to listening to a symphony that I have never heard replicated by a lesser being.

Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy. The day I noticed that the Labyrinth was alive, the king broke down the doors to the family’s room.

…

“They took Icarus,” I whisper, remembering the final days I was with the father and son duo. “The kid put up a fight, the stupid idealistic fool thinking that he could overpower the guards and king by himself. I hid myself beneath the workbench trying to keep anyone from knowing about me.” I could feel myself shaking as the memory played through my mind. “The stupid boy kept screaming, and screaming, and-” I force myself to take a deep breath, and go through the nightmare that happened after that night.

“Daedalus… Daedalus was almost broken that night. Listening to his son scream himself hoarse. In the end, the king and his men threw Icarus back into their prison. Only after Daedalus made sure his son was still breathing was when I realized my mistake.”

I gave the translucent foal a bitter smile, “You see, when my mistress told me that I could not allow anyone to know that I was there… She meant it, and… well, Daedalus was a Genius, with a capital G… I failed my mission to help the duo, because the very next moment, Daedalus admitted that he knew that I was a servant of the gods…”

I couldn’t bring myself to continue with the truth about what happened with me, so I came to a decision, Icarus and Daedalus would only be a story. History is written by the victors, and as the only survivor of that time, I can write the story as I see fit.

“It didn’t matter in the end that I failed my mistress, because I had given Icarus and Daedalus everything they needed to escape their prison.” I slipped on a metaphorical mask that conveyed a smug attitude to the translucent foal. “Do you know what happened to Icarus and Daedalus?”

The foal leaned towards me and I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face as I lean towards her, “Daedalus completed the inventions, and both of them flew off into the sunset,” I whispered to the foal, and I was treated to the sight of the filly’s mouth dropping open as I gestured with my striped hooves to emphasize just how far the small family flew. “They flew across the ocean and reached a new land that welcomed them with open arms…” I booped the filly’s nose with a white hoof, I could feel that my body changed once more as I could feel the wings at my side. The filly’s nose scrunched up, and my right wing darted forward to grab the girl before she could move away. I pressed the spectral foal to my side, ignoring the chill that went down my spine, and looked at her with a soft smile on my face, “Icarus and Daedalus won their freedom.”

The foal looked up at me with wide eyes, “I suppose if there is one thing that you should take away from this story, other than the lessons, it is that while things might not always work out for the best, there are still happy endings… You just need to fight for them.”

The rain starts to let up as if it was waiting for me to finish the story before leaving. The foal is looking at me as if she believes I hang the stars in the night sky.

All of these things can’t help the jaw cracking yawn that escapes my mouth a second later. Glancing down at the filly I can see it trying to hold back a-

…

“Did you just giggle?” I ask the filly with narrowed eyes. The filly is trying to hold back her laughter an-

“You did giggle!” I exclaim, and the foal just starts laughing! It takes me a moment to process what is happening before promptly shoving thoughts about this development into a mental box clearly labeled, ‘stuff to deal with later.’

Shaking my head in exasperation, I walk over to a convenient tree and lie down on the grass beneath it.

“Whatever, I’ll deal with you silly filly in the morning,” I tell the filly still tucked securely under my wing. “Sweet dreams, sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite, Little One.”

I wake up after some time has passed. I feel refreshed, but the immediate thing that grabs my attention is the absence of a certain chill in my side.

Lifting my right wing I look down and see…

See…

‘Oh gods…’ I can feel myself pale as I look down at the flesh and blood filly that is pressed up against my side. The blue coated filly scrunches her nose in a very familiar way before letting out a squeaky yawn. The filly’s tiny horn on its head and wings pressed against its sides leave a cold feeling settling in the pit of my stomach.

The filly looks at me as if asking why I moved her makeshift blanket…

I don’t know when I open my mouth, but, “Nyx, your name is now Nyx.”

‘Now… How do I take care of a flesh and blood filly?’

Author's Note

This chapter took way too long to write.

As always tell me what you think about the chapter down in the comments, and I hope all you readers have a wonderful day!

Past, Present, Future: From the Past, In the Present, Deciding the Future

I am in pain.

…

No, pain doesn’t even begin to describe what I am feeling right now. I am more like a mass of agony in the shape of a dragon. I can feel death closing in on me as my body trembles and tears start running down my scaled face. I can hear someone speaking faintly, but I can’t make out the words.

I hate it. I hate this familiar feeling. I hate the bastard that is doing this. I hate that he has proven her right.

My lips twitch upward as a jolt of agony lancing through me makes me flinch, sending another jolt of agony through me.

I hate my mind that is starting to slip. I hate the giggle that passes my lips. I hate the song I hear her singing. I hate myself as I climb to my claws. I hate my laughter tainted by madness.

I hate that my mistress was right. I hate that I will never escape the past.

…

I might hate her, but I will always belong to her.

The voice is talking again, it sounds amused… The owner of the voice comes into view, and I hate the smug smile on the chimera’s face.

My vision tunnels as my grin threatens to split my face. I hate the bastard… but I am going to love hearing him scream.

I lunge forward with my arms outstretched and grab something before slamming it to the ground. Opening my eyes I find… something struggling in my grip. It looks similar to the unicorns from before, but without the horn… Its coat of fur is also stripped.

‘A pony zebra?’ I think through the haze shrouding my mind. I can feel that something is wrong with me, I feel so cold that it burns when the scales covering my body come into contact with the Zebra’s fur.

I can’t think straight, I can feel myself shaking, and my body feels like lead. I shove the zebra away and stumble to my claws. I can hear the zebra get to its hooves as I start running.

I feel lightheaded after taking two steps but I keep myself running for a while. I don’t know how much time passes, but the uneven ground eventually brings me down when my right leg drops into one of the small holes dotting the plains. Pain shoots through the limb as it tries to bend in a way it is not supposed to and I just collapse.

Rolling onto my back I clutch my leg and stomach. My vision is blurring and my stomach is cramping up painfully.

Adding the signs together I mentally kick myself for not realizing this was coming. I am on a completely new world in a new body. I’ve contracted something, and with my body being new it stands to reason any foreign disease the plants and animals have I will be vulnerable to.

“...What the fuck,” I mutter to myself.

My vision eventually clears and the haze in my mind lifts slightly, but I can’t bring myself to stand up. I feel like I am forgetting something, and it is only when a translucent face appears in front of me that I realize what it is.

“...Smooth Eris,” I start in a bitter tone, “you left your charge behind.”

Something is coming up behind me and tilting my head back slightly I see the zebra from before standing there. We kind of just stare at each other for a while before she lifts one of her hooves and blows a powder in my face. I gag and cough for a bit before my strength leaves me and I slip into slumber once more.

I am sitting at a desk drawing something with a pen on a piece of paper. A wax candle is illuminating the desk and my work. I can’t tell what I am drawing, the lines moving around on the paper too much for me to identify it. It is a slow process with my striped hoof adding a line only so often. The image must be perfect or else… My hoof pauses above the paper.

‘Or else what?’ I ask before laying the pen down and twirling the swivel chair around.

Many drawings are floating in the aether, each one depicting a different individual.

A griffin is staring at me with cold indifference, his talons tapping against the table he is sitting at in boredom. A name is written out above his head.

‘Horus’

The next drawing is curious as it seems to be depicting a bipedal dog. A concerned look is on his face as he sits on a throne. Another name is floating above his head.

‘Clifford’

The following drawing depicts a muzzled cross between a man and a bull glaring down at me in loathing as he strains against chains clasped to his limbs.

‘Minos’

A decaying skeleton is shown in the next drawing. The skull frozen in a humorless grin and a hunger found deep in its eyes. The drawing keeps changing from one form to another, none of them more than bones.

‘Death’

A drawing of what I can only describe as a dragon stares back at me with a cocky grin on its face, a perfectly spherical stone spinning on one of its claws.

‘Bonetail’

A striped equine individual is looking at me with concern in the next drawing. There is something about the way she holds herself that makes me smile, but I can’t quite put my hoof on it.

‘Gaia’

I smile sadly at the moving drawings. They are all gaining quite a bit of color and I know that it won’t be long before they leave. Turning back to my current drawing I find myself… hesitant. I can already feel that this one is similar to the others in a way, but there is also a difference that sets it apart from the others. I glance up at the name briefly before putting my pen to the paper and adding another feather.

‘Nyx’

I frown feeling as if I am forgetting someone and lift the pen from the paper. I can feel that she is different from the others… Perhaps… she would like company?

A new paper appears alongside Nyx, and after a second of thought inspiration strikes. Across the top of the paper a name appears.

‘Aurora’

I smile and start back to work with Nyx before opening my mouth, “Well what do you know, you’re getting a little sister, Nyx.”

Author's Note

Alright fellow pony fans, I have a mission for you. The lack of comments in the past few chapters has been very detrimental to my motivation to write more. Your mission is to leave a comment down below to help motivate me...

Seriously... the lack of comments tells me that no one cares enough to share their thoughts on the story, and that is demoralizing.