I Want To Run!(Won't be Finished)
Chapter 1
"I dare say, it'd be the best damn thing to happen to me in years!".
Here I was talking about how great it would be to go to Equestria with my teacher, who is also a brony, and a hardcore one at that. Now I know what all of you are thinking, 'His teacher is probably some deity in disguise that sent me to Equestria', Well you couldn't more wrong. In reality my teacher was in fact, just another brony and after talking for a while we eventually got to what we would think if we were to be put in Equestria. He just gave some half-assed response, something about trying to score with as many of the characters shown in the show as possible. I did my best to ignore the fact that he said characters and not mares, as long as he didn't go after me I couldn't care less about which way he swings. After that though I gave my reason
"I want to run!"
When I was about 6 I had gotten into an accident where I nearly rode my bike into a car and instead opted to swerve to the right resulting in my sliding my exposed knee, I was wearing shorts at the time, across nearly 6 feet of pavement before flipping off of my bike and onto the ground. The muscle around the lower half of my knee had been shredded and I've never been able to walk in a normal manner since, much less run. After a few more minutes of talking about pony theories and how it might be possible for ponies to pick things up using hooves, we finally said our goodbyes and parted ways. Life went on normally after that, I continued to read fanfics and heck I even tried my hand at writing a few, none of them ever really took off but then again I didn't really mean for them to. School was boring as my only two classes at the time seemed to be going over what we learned in first grade, for example, just yesterday we learned about using 'powers' you know like 2 to the power of 3 or 5 to the power of 2 things like that. It was after a few days of this that I started to notice the feeling.
At first it wasn't really much, but after a few days I felt like my will to live in this world was slowly leaving me. A few days more and any thoughts of the future, and what I would like to do, were gone. Instead there were only thoughts of ending it, after all what was the point? I had no friends, spare a few people I knew from the internet, but they would be able to replace me soon enough. My parents seemed to absolutely despise my presence in the house and pushed for me to leave every day. A few times I caught my 'parents' talking about how they should just pack me a suitcase and throw me onto the streets to fend for myself. The only reason they hadn't done so was because they were to busy taking care of my little brother who was now a junior in high school. Finally I had never fallen in love, girls always seemed to avoid me, and I could never really find any desire to speak to them anyways.
The empty feeling I got seemed to grow and grow, until one day I noticed I looked much skinnier and paler in the mirror than I once had. A few hours after that I was sitting in class, ignoring the lecture on how add fractions, when the event finally happened. Yes the event that sent me to Equestria and set me free of the feelings of being empty and alone. It was in the middle of an example the teacher was giving us that I suddenly stood up, and against my will said, "you can find bananas, ON THE MOOOOOOOOOOOOON" and with that I blacked out. Little did I know that I would never be back in the human world again.
***
It was hot, too hot, like crack an egg open and watch it fry on the pavement hot. The Heat however was the least of my concerns when I realized I couldn't move. I tried to speak but all I managed to do was let out a strange combination of chitters and clicks. Putting speech aside I decided on trying to open my eyes. After a few attempts I finally managed to crack open my left eyelid and got a glimpse of my surroundings. I seemed to be under what appeared to be a palm tree, the sun beat down through the wide spread leaves and nearly blinded me as I quickly shut my eye again. Okay, so It's hot and there's a palm tree, guess I'm not in Colorado anymore. I put effort into opening my eyes again, but this time I tried to block out the sun with my hand so I could see. The sun's glare seemed to fade a little but not as much as it should have. Instead of bothering to check out my hands I sat up and observed the surrounding landscape.
Sand, that was it, all there was was sand. But there was something strange with the way everything looked. Everything seemed to be more opaque, and have less detail. The sky was a solid color of light blue as well, instead of the familiar gradient that it usually displayed. I looked back up at the palm tree above me and noticed it had similar features. The leaves looked to have been drawn? No that couldn't be right. I studied them a bit more, trying to ignore the glare of the sun. They were! the leaves looked like they had been drawn into existence, heck they even had a solid black outline around them. I tried once more to move my body and this time a tingling sensation ran up what I thought was my arm. A second later and a black shape hovered over my face. "Gah!" I managed to let out a yelp of surprise only to realize what ever it was in front of my face, was supposed to be my right hand. I began to examine my would be hand only to be surprised by it's appearance. It was covered in what looked to be a shell and there were many holes going straight through it. I tried to lift my left hand to my face only to see that the same change had happened there as well. One good thing was that I was starting to feel my body again, but everything felt different. If I had to describe the feeling it would be like having your hand cut off and stitched on backwards.
I sat up and looked at my body in disbelief. My once pale fleshy self was now a black shelled almost horse like creature. I felt something odd on my back and when I turned to look I saw insect like wings attached near what I thought to be my shoulder blades. I blinked a few times before thinking back, why do I feel like this body isn't right?. I slowly got to my 'feet' only to realize I stood very naturally, "What did I think was wrong with me again?" I asked aloud to no one in particular. All I could remember was that I had woken up under this tree, before that I can only draw blanks. "Hello!?" I shouted out, or at least tried to, I realized instead of a voice all I was able to make was strange high pitched calls.
Looking back on that day now, I realize that the noises I made were similar to those of a cicada. Oh and I know what you're all thinking 'oh, amnesia how original' well so sorry to disappoint, but that's what happens when you take a spirit out of it's body with out bringing it's brain with it. Considering that our brain stores all memories and that even if one were to live on as a spirit they probably wouldn't be intelligent and, would lack the ability to communicate let alone think. However since my spirit had been placed in a body with a brain on the same level as a human's I was quickly able to get emotions back up and running and at this point in time all I could feel was confusion. Anyways enough with breaking the fourth wall, back to what was happening when I first arrived.
I had been wandering the desert for a while now, I no longer recognized anything other than sand. I hated it, I was trapped in a world of heat and pain I didn't even have words for anything. My thought's were total gibberish that only I could understand and anytime I tried to make a noise all that came out was a screeching noise. I looked up at the sky and noticed the sun was starting to go down, and for the first time I felt an urge. With the sun to my left I started to run, I felt great joy in the sudden burst of running and I began letting out noises that could be considered laughs, but sounded like nails on a chalk board. I ran and Ran until the sun had long set and a new object. the moon, rose on the other side of the horizon. I continued to run until I saw something in the distance. Strange objects that stuck out from the rolling dunes of the desert around me. They were flat and stood tall though not as tall as the palms that surrounded them.
Movement near these strange structures caused my curiosity to peak. I just had to go look at them, and maybe there would be answers to my questions. As the moon shone bright in the desert sky the temperature started to drop to near freezing levels. I continued to walk towards the structures and the movement within them, but as the temperature dropped my speed increased. Something about the falling temperature made me nervous. What I didn't know at the time was that, as a cold blooded creature, the cold was a deadly thing, unless of course I were to hibernate, but I didn't even know what that was at the time so all I did was keep running. After what seemed like an hour of making my way to the structures I finally saw them for what they were. They were cube-like buildings that seemed to be living accommodations for the creatures that lived here. One of the creatures was outside when I walked into the cluster buildings. It hadn't noticed me yet so I watched it for a bit and tried to figure out what I might be. It looked similar to me, a Pony with the all the same features, save for a horn and wings, also it didn't seem to have a hard black coating, nor did it have the same gnarly shelled hooves as me.
A breeze interrupted my thoughts reminding me why it was I ran here, the lack of heat was to damn high! Without stopping to think, I quickly walked over to the other creature and gave a little squeak.
"Wha?" The pony looked at me it's eyes widening before yelling and running away into one of the structures near by.
I watched it run for a second, before deciding to follow it over to the building. I opened the door in the same way the pony did and walked inside. It was dark and all I could hear was a faint mumbling from somewhere on the floor above. I looked around the room I was in. On the walls were pictures of other ponies standing alongside the one that had run in here. It was dark so he couldn't really make out what they looked like but the one in the picture was wearing something on their head that made me think cowboy. After a few more minutes of looking around I entered another room that had a mirror over a sink. I looked into the mirror only to have a creature that looked terrifying right back at me.
Hideous, that's all I could think when I first saw my face. It was one of the first words I had started to remember at the time. My eyes were glowing a bright green, and my horn, which I didn't realize I had before seeing myself, was similar to my hooves. It looked crooked and gnarled and it seemed to be missing chunks. I blinked a few times at my reflection and decided I didn't want to look at my face anymore. I left the bathroom and headed back to the main room where I first came in. The mumblings from the pony seemed to have quieted down at this point. Curious as to what happened to him, I found a stair case that lead to the upper level and looked in each of the rooms until I saw the pony. It was laying, asleep, in a simple bed. I blinked a few times before shivering, the cool air outside was starting to change the temperature in the building as well. I walked over to the pony and nudged him with my muzzle. He felt warm, oh so warm, and there was something else, whenever I touched him I felt a slight surge of energy, like I had just taken a sip from an energy drink or something along those lines.
My nuzzleing didn't disturb the pony and I was now certain that he had fallen into a deep sleep, and now that I thought about it I was ready to join him. I jumped up on the bed and lay down next to him enjoying the warmth from the pony that saved me from the chill of the night. Soon I fell into a deep sleep, where I started to remember words, phrases, and a few other things. That was probably one of the best nights of sleep I had had in years.
Chapter 2
"GAAAAHHHHHHHHH"
I awoke to a scream, and looked around confused. I saw the pony from last night on the other side of the room up against the wall looking at me in fright. For one reason or another I found words. I figured I needed to thank and apologize to him, however what I didn't take into account that I might still be lacking a better vocabulary so what I said, and what I meant, would be two very different things. Here is what I meant to say, "Sorry for following you home last night, the cold would have killed me, is amazing how warm you guys are, so thank you very much". Here is what I actually said and what he heard "Sorry, last night you were amazing, thank you". Not realizing what I said, I grew confused when I saw the pony, first start to blush, then turn green, and after that pass out.
I realize that at this point you guys must believe that I'm, well for lack of a better word, homo. Your wrong, well kinda, It seems that my body, which I'm sure you guys know is that of a changeling, is neither male nor female. I can't really be called homo or hetero sexual as I can't really fit the bill of either. Anyways, after he fainted I watched the pony for a bit and grew concerned when he didn't get back up. I got out of the bed and walked over to him. I poked the pony a few times before realizing this was my first time seeing him in proper light. He was a yellow pony who's mane was a split between orange and light orange. On his flank was a picture of an apple and for whatever reason, when I looked at him the name Braeburn came to mind. I blinked a few times before deciding to move him back to bed.
Looking between the bed and the pony whom I was now going to call Braeburn, I realized I didn't have any ways of moving him without just dragging him across the ground. After a few minutes of pondering my predicament, I heard a knock from the door downstairs.
"Braeburn, ya' lazy dog, you up yet?" came a voice from outside.
I looked around frantically before qucikly deciding I would have to drag him. I bit onto his hoof, careful not to hurt him, and dragged him over to his bed. I got behind the pony and pushed him onto the bed. Downstairs I heard the door open and the voice call out again.
"Ya here Brae?" it asked, I could hear a bit of concern in the voice, but I ignored it as I continued to try to push Braeburn into bed. Finally I managed to push him into bed and cover him with a blanket. I stepped back and gave a sigh in relief before turning around to see another pony, who quickly turned around and smashed me in the face with it's rear hooves. As I blacked out I remembered 3 things, first I was once something called a 'human, second the world I was in was named Equestria, and last was that pony's can kick really hard. I hit the floor with a thud and blacked out.
***
I don't know how long I was out for, but from what I could tell it musn't have been that long. The reason I say that is because the first thing I heard was a conversation between Braeburn and the pony who bucked me in the face.
"Whad'ya suppose it is?" it was Braeburn.
"I don't know, sure as hell never seen anything like it before now though", that voice belong to the pony who had walked in earlier. "It didn't do anything to you did it?"
Even though I couldn't see it, I was sure Braeburn had just shook his head no. "Nah, he didn't do anythin really, and besides I dont think it could be anythin to dangerous"
I slowly started to open my eyes, and tried to look around. I couldn't see very much, mostly because I had been moved into a room with no windows, and there were no light sources in the room. The only light came from under the door along with the shadows of the two ponies talking out side. I tried to move only to realize that my hooves were tied together, some of the rope went through the holes making it impossible for me to just slip out of the ropes. I realized I had just missed half of the conversation going on between the ponies at the door, as they were no walking into the room. I squinted as light suddenly filled the dark room.
"Look it's awake" said the new Pony. I got a better look at the pony, and could now see that I knew his name much like how I knew Braeburns, meaning it just came to me for whatever reason. It was the Sheriff, though that probably wasn't his real name thats all I could remember when I saw him. he was a brown earth pony that wore a cowboy hat, a red bandana was tied around his neck and he wore a blue vest. His mane was a dark brown that was nearly black and his eyes were fairly similar to his mane.
"I wonder if it can talk?" Braeburns voice seemed a bit nervous, and what he said me. I was sure that I had already spoken to him earlier, maybe he thought this morning was a dream or something.
I looked between the two, and noticed they were both looking at me expecting me to do something. I decided to start with talking. "Hello" my scratchy insect like voice seemed to shock the both of them. "Braeburn, Sheriff" they both blinked when I said their names. I paused for a second before another name came to mind "Appleloosa?" I tried making the last name sound more like a question to show them I wasn't sure. They seemed to understand and looked at each other before Braeburn spoke up.
"Yes, I'm Braeburn and that's Sheriff Silverstar, and you are indeed in the Amazing town of Appleloosa!". He seemed to brighten up when he said the towns name, but then he looked back down at me "and if you know all that, then who are you?"
"I'm..." I couldn't remember. I couldn't think of any other names and I most certainly didn't remember my own name, for whatever reason. "I'm" for some reason I started to feel a bit stressed, it was like when the answer was on he tip of your tongue and you just couldn't remember. "I'm..." I looked at the floor hoping to avoid the question.
"what's wrong? don't you know your own name?" this time it was the Sheriff who spoke this time. I just shook my head, not willing to look at them. I could feel their stares of pity but all they did was piss me off.
"Don't pity" I said looking at them sternly, "no need it". I tried to stand again only to remember my legs were still bound together. I looked down at the rope and back up at the ponies "why?" I asked motioning to the rope.
Braeburn blinked before saying "Why? you trespassed into my house, plus we don't even know if your friendly or not!" he stamped one of his front hooves as he said this making me look at him nervously. Now that I thought about it, I wasn't in a very favorable position like this. I was tied up, in the home I had broken into the previous night, and the owner was now standing over me rather pissed. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just throw you out right now?".
I looked at him and swallowed before responding "Night time, cold, I die". This was the one thing I knew for sure about my body. What ever I am is a cold-blooded creature, and if I didn't have some sort of way to stay warm, I would definitely die in the cold of the night. "Sorry" I really was sorry, as far as I could tell all I had done since meeting Braeburn was scare him, break into his house, make him faint, and scare him again.
The Sheriff looked at me before turning to Braeburn who looked a little confused. "Braeburn, if you want payback make 'em work on your orchard for a few days, besides I hear you could use the help now a days" With that the Sheriff walked over to me and somehow began untying the ropes that bound me using his hooves. Braeburn only looked on, though worry was clear in his eyes. I tried my best to smile at him only to see him take a step back as I flashed my fangs which at the time I didn't know I had.
Braeburn blinked a few times before talking again "Alright, if you want to stay here your gonna help me in the orchard starting today". I was taken aback by his offer, but then again I didn't really want to question it, for me it was life or death.
"Yes" I said getting up once the sheriff removed my bindings. A few minutes later and we were out on the orchard kicking trees. I wasn't very good at it at first, each time I kicked only a few apples would fall, so I ended up having to buck the same tree 3 or 4 times before being able to move onto the next. Braeburn laughed at my efforts and reassured me by saying all newbies have to go through the same thing. That didn't stop me from feeling weak after seeing him get all the apple off a tree with a single buck.
***
I collapsed exhausted in the dark room I was in earlier. We had spent the whole day collecting apples, and I was to worn out to even feel hungry, or at least that's what I thought. What I didn't know at the time was that the whole day I had been stuffing myself with Braeburn's love for his apple orchid and Appleloosa in general. Either way I was tired and I wasn't hungry. I sat there thinking for a few minutes, trying to figure things out about myself when I realized I still didn't have a name. The whole day Braeburn had been calling me 'you'. I shrugged and crawled into the bed that was in the room. It was very warm and the mattress was as comfortable if not more so than Braeburns. I remembered when I had asked him earlier that day if he had remembered what happened in the morning, all he did was blush and say 'I don't know what you're talking about'. For some reason or another I found it to be rather cute.
My eyes closed and I fell into a dream of the past. I was back in the Human world and I could remember everything. Everything, but my name that is. Other than that I remembered all about My Little Pony, the fact that I was a brony, and that the body I now inhabited was something called a changeling, featured as the villains in the royal wedding episode that had showed just before summer break. Great, just great, well I guess that hadn't happened yet or else Braeburn and Sheriff Silverstar would have know what I was. I didn't even know where I was in the time line of My Little Pony, maybe the mane 6 hadn't visited Appleloosa yet? Not like I could meet with them If they hadn't anyways. Either way when I woke up I'd have a lot of things to do, I mean really I'm in Equestria! what the heck am I doing just hanging around in Appaloosa, sure the settler town was nice but I should go see the sights, learn the lingo, eat the foods. Oh wait I can't eat food can I, well maybe I can.
My dream soon ended and I found myself being roused by a loud knocking on the door to my room. "Time ta wake up, come eat some breakfast, you were so tired you didn't eat a thing last night!". I sat up and rubbed my eyes with my gnarled hooves. "Braeburn come in, I need to talk to you about some things". I still remembered a lot of what I remembered in my dream, if that made sense, and with my new-found memories (is that contradictory?) I figured I needed to at least fill in the pony who was letting me live with him. I looked up nervously when Braeburn walked in. I think he could tell I was nervous about something because the same nervousness started to show in his eyes.
"How come you can talk better now?" he asked a little confused. I tried to beat back my nervousness by smiling, and realized flashing my fangs at him probably wasn't the best way to calm him down.
"I need to tell you something Braeburn" I prepared myself for a long discussion that would more than likely take up most of the morning.
Chapter 3
"So you're evil?"
I sighed for the millionth time that morning, "No" I answered Braeburn.
"But your part of an evil swarm, why aren't you evil? The yellow earth pony was clearly confused with all that I had told him.
"I'm the same species as them, but I'm not part of their hive" I hopped off of my bed, which we had both been sitting up on for the past hour. "Changelings are alot like bee's, they work with a hive mind and listen to their queen".
"Then what about you?" Braeburn just couldn't make it easy for me could he.
"I don't have a hive, that and I'm a bit...different compared to other changelings". I looked at my back and remembered I had wings. wait...WINGS! I left the room leaving a confused Braeburn behind. I started laughing when I got outside, the prospect of flying in the sky seemed amazing, but then again I did have a fear of heights, I wonder if a pegasus could ever get a fear of heights, I should stop rambling and get back to the story. Anyways at that point I had no clue what I was doing. I was able to make my wings twitch, and heck I was even able to move them up and down but I couldn't get them up to the speed that the changelings seemed to require to fly.
Braeburn had been watching me for a while before blushing and running off somewhere. I didn't want to know if the fanfics were right about Braeburn swinging for the opposite team, but then again maybe he was just embarrassed for not understanding what I was talking about earlier. Either way I needed to learn to fly, and for that, I'm going to need to find a teacher, for changelings, an evil race that feeds off of the love of ponies in secret. yeah that's gonna be easy, in fact I think I see one, "There!" I shouted out while turning and pointing at a random earth pony that happened to be walking by. The pony took one good look at me and ran away thinking I was a monster of some kind.
Ok I'm going to skip over all the boring stuff, in short It took me a month to learn to fly and even then I wasn't that good at it. Instead I had taken a bigger interest in being able to run again, or gallop since I'm a changeling pony thing. In that month I started to hear of unlikely heroes, like Griffin of the Griffin Pirates, then there was a diamond dog named Echo that saved a pony village from hydras. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but I began to wonder if there were others who had made it to Equestria from Earth. Anyways after 3 months of bucking apples for Braeburn I had earned enough money to live on my own, and we had finally decided on my new name, Volo, it was one of my favorite words from earth, it was Latin and had so many meaning but the one I liked most from it was speed.
I had just finished bucking the last apple tree in the orchid when I saw Braeburn trotting over to me from the other side of the farm. He and the Sheriff were the only ponies in town that didn't seem to want to hurt me, and because of this they were also the only ponies I could feed off of when ever they were around me. Their love for the town was more than enough to feed off of, and I didn't notice any negative effects on them either. Still to be safe I had always feed in small amounts, that is when I could control it, sometimes they would walk near me and I would subconsciously steal some of their love without meaning too. If I ever did start feed subconsciously I would usually try to come up with an excuse and get away from them.
"Ok Volo that's all for today" Braeburns voice pulled me back from my thoughts the Yellow pony looked at me with a smile before starting to walk back to the house.
I blinked a few times and began to follow him. I resisted feeding off him until we reached the house, at which point my starved stomach couldn't take it any more and I started to eat. Braeburn flinched but he had grown used to having his emotions tapped into by the strange creature over the past month, after all I had done it nearly everyday. I stopped once I had my fill and went over to my room "Thanks Brae" I said smiling at him before closing the door. I looked at my room, which hadn't really changed through out the year. the only difference it that there was now a standing mirror in the corner next to the bed. I had recently begun trying to tap into my magic and I was becoming somewhat successful. It wasn't much but I was now able to turn into a solid black pony if I needed too and hold it for 5 minutes before distortions started to appear.
Looking away from the mirror I walked over to my bed and reached under it. Grabbing a bag with my hoof, a concept I still had yet to under stand, I pulled it out from under the bed and looked into it. 1000 bits were in the small pouch, all of which were earned from bucking apples for the past month. It was enough for me to finally begin my journey. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that didn't I. I had decided about halfway through the past month that I should explore the world and see all that their was to see. Maybe if I was lucky I would even be able to meet some other changelings and learn how to better control my magic and maybe even how to fly faster. I digress back to the story, I had just finished counting by bits when Braeburn knocked at my door.
I realized that Braeburn probably had no Idea that I was planning to leave. I would have to tell him, after all he had helped me so much, I should at least give him that before disappearing. "come in" I said aloud both hiding the bits and preparing to tell him that I would be leaving. The door opened as I slid the bits under the bed.
Braeburn stood in the door way looking a bit nervous. I didn't realize it at that point but the fanfics I read were right about Braeburn. "Hey Volo..um" he said looking around trying to keep his eyes off me. "Ah need to talk with you" he scratched at the floor with his hoof while still trying to avoid eye contact with me.
"Oh sure, now's a good time, there's something I need to tell you about as well" I motioned for him to come inside. I jumped up on my bed and let him sit next to me. There was an awkward moment of silence as I waited for him to speak up. Finally his voice rang out.
"y.you go first, ah still need to think over what ah want ta say" He coughed nervously and I shrugged. I knew whatever he was thinking of would probably be forgot when I told him my plan but, whatever.
"Well Brae, I think I'm gonna leave Appaloosa" I gulped as I waited for his reaction. There was none, he seemed to be waiting for me to continue "Don't take it the wrong way, this last month has been one of the best of my life, but I need to go see the world and remember what it is I've lost" That last part was just an excuse, as far as they knew though I had yet to recover part of my memory, my real reason for leaving though was to see the world and meet the others whom I suspected might be human as well. What happened next was the most surprising and heart wrenching thing that ever happened to me.
"Get out", it was Braeburn who had spoken.
"wha.?"
"I said GET OUT!" He shouted at me, but something was wrong, he had tears in his eyes as he stood on the bed and looked at me. "Take you stuff and LEAVE". I couldn't move, the good emotions from Braeburn that always tasted so good were now bitter and without taste.
"Wait Braeburn, what are you..?" I was totally confused, the colt who had taken care of me for the past month was now furious at me. I know I was being selfish by deciding to leave without his opinion but still, did he have to be so angry with me?. He pushed me off the bed and I landed on my back smashing my head into the ground. I lost consciousness after that.
* * *
I dreamed, or at least it felt like a dream. I realized it was actually reality and I was being dragged across the ground in the middle of the night. My heart jumped in fear of the cold nights, but I calmed down when I realized the quilt off of my bed was wrapped around me. The dragging stopped and Braeburn started to speak. "I'm sorry it happened this way". I felt him nuzzle my face and give my cheek a kiss. I stayed still and tried to steady my breathing, trying to feign sleep. "I wish you didn't have to leave" he backed away from me and left. I sat there for what seemed to be hours upon hours.
"So he does swing that way" I said aloud still in a daze. I felt a bit guilty that I wouldn't be able to turn him down but then again that was his fault for knocking me off the bed. I realized that there was something wrapped in the quilt with me. It was my bag of bits and a map of Equestria. A red X marked Appleoosa and a small note was scribbled next to it. Under the moonlight I couldn't read it so it would have to wait till morning. I looked up at the night sky for the first time in months and nearly gasped. Billions if not Trillions of stars dotted the sky. The moon shone directly above me making it one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.
That night I fell asleep with tears in my eyes and both joy and sorrow in my heart. One day I would come back here and apologize to Braeburn, but that would have to wait until I was done with my journey.
* * *
I awoke to the glaring sun in my face, it was nearly midday and I had yet get up. It felt odd waking up so late. After living on Braeburns orchard for a month I figured I would always be waking up early. I got up and looked around. Appleoosa lay far behind me. I laughed when I remembered coming to the village a month ago. I didn't even know what a house was until I remembered everything the next day. I looked back down at the quilt and the items in it. I realized there was also an empty saddle pack on the ground next to me that I would be able to fit everything in.
After a few minutes of folding, stuffing, refolding, and re stuffing, I had finally fit the quilt into the saddle pack. I put it on and realized it wasn't as heavy as I thought it was. Seeing as it was able to keep me sufficiently warm throughout the night. I picked up the map and looked it over again, when my eyes fell on Appaloosa and more specifically the note Braeburn left next to it I let out a smile. A small x crossed out the name Appleoosa and written next to it was 'Home'.
Chapter 4
"HOOOOOOOOOOT!"
I shouted at the top of my lungs, it had been about an hour since I started to walk away from Appleoosa, and the desert temperature was defiantly soaring above 100 f. Of all the things Braeburn could have not given me, a bottle of water seemed like a stupid decision, one that would probably kill me. Well then again, here I am telling the story, guess it doesn't take a degree in rocket science to figure out I somehow survived. Well it turns out the being a fan of Man Vs. Wild back on earth was finally starting to pay off. Although being a changeling anything I learned about getting food would be worthless now. A few times I stopped at a cactus and carefully stripped it of it's needles before taking a bite out of it and sucking it dry of moisture.
The sun was finally starting to go down, as much as I would love to move at night, I would have to stop for fear of the night air killing me. The feeling of hunger was also starting to get to me, I had once tried to see how long I could go without feeding on emotions and learned my limit was 3 days. When I had reached that limit I had created a very awkward experience that I don't care to remember. After finding a flat stone surface, I pulled the quilt out and wrapped myself in it, from an outside perspective I probably looked like some strange multicolored larva. I watched the horizon as the light faded and the night took over. I realized for the first time that somewhere right now Luna was raising the moon, and Celestia was lowering the sun.
I looked towards the opposite horizon of where the light faded, and saw the moon hanging low in the sky. It was full, and it lit the desert up. I looked around and took in my surroundings for the first time in a while. The desert resembled the Arizona desert in the fact that there wasn't as much sand and lots of mountainous landscape surrounding the area. There were a few cacti here and there but no other plants could be found. I looked back up at the moon before closing my eyes and drifting off to sleep.
* * *
I looked around at what I assumed was my dream, it was wacky enough to be a dream but it also had enough realism that it made me suspicious. The desert I was traveling had been replaced with a frozen tundra with hundreds of ponies crowding around camp fires. They ignored me as I walked passed them. As I looked closer at the ponies I saw that they were not even ponies, they were other changelings! I walked over to the closest one and tapped it on the shoulder. It looked at me confused before chirping once loudly. All the other changelings that were gathered around the same fire as the one I had just poked, looked up at me. Looking around I noticed the other groups of Changelings ignored the chirp and didn't look up. The changeling that had chirped than spoke "Who are you, one with no hive?".
I looked at the other changeling a bit confused "One with no hive?" I asked aloud.
"Yes, you clearly aren't from any of the hives you see around you"
I looked around confused, I also noticed something about these changelings that I didn't seem to have. Gender, they all seemed to have their own genders although most of them seemed to be male. Was I the only changeling that didn't have a gender, if so then why? maybe it had something to do with how I came to Equestria. "I'm Volo" I said without thinking "and I'm not from here"
The changeling looked me over and also seemed to notice the difference in me "How did you come into being Volo?".
What am I supposed to tell them 'oh one day I was in class shouted out a my little pony meme, which is a children's television show featuring your world, and the next thing I knew I was here' no that wouldn't go over well. "I don't know" I said trying to hide the truth "I just woke up here with no memory of my past" well at least that part was true, sorta.
"You don't belong here, leave before the void consumes you" the changeling said pushing me back right into an open fire. It was hot ridiculously hot, I shouted as the flames engulfed me and flung me into darkness.
* * *
I awoke with a start in the blazing heat of the desert, which was magnified my me being wrapped up in the quilt. "Why does such a place exist!" I shouted to no one in particular. That morning was much like the previous one, I unwrapped myself and folded the quilt into my saddle pack and took a quick look at the map before moving onwards. That dream had given me a lot to think about while I packed up, it was true that I didn't belong to a hive, and what was with the void business at the end? Either way he needed to start moving before he died on this god...I mean Celestia forsaken land. After packing up I took one last look at the map. If I were to head north northeast I would eventually reach a path that lead straight to Ponyville.
I started walking making sure that the sun, which was still rising, was just to my right. I was hoping that the directions about the sun rising to the east were accurate in Equestria as well. Eventually I did come across a path, but it seemed like it had been place there for almost no reason. It was a cobblestone path leading off to the north east but judging by it's condition it hadn't been used in quite some time. The stones were eroded from the constant winds and the harsh rays of the sun, but it could still be followed, which I did. After what seemed to be hours of walking, as the sun was nearly setting, I finally noticed the scenery was starting to change. The dry barren landscape slowly started to become greener. Cacti turned to bushes and even a few trees started to appear here and there. Eventually the land had completely changed to and open grassy field. In the distance you could barely make out the structures of a town. Even closer than the town though was a giant lake.
"WATER!" I shouted in glee, I was tired of sucking on cacti and the sight of the lake was enough to drive me forward at a total sprint. As I was running I used a technique I had picked up when I had worked on the farm. I spread my wings and angled them downward, this caused me to be pushed down by the wind making the transfer of energy between my hooves and the ground stronger which in turn made me faster. As I quickly approached the lake I threw my saddle pack off and leaped into the sky, using my wings to cover the rest of the distance before shouting out "CANNONBALL!" I curled up right before I hit the water.
The cool water washed away all my troubles from that day. I opened my eyes under the water and looked around, there were a few fish darting around, apparently startled by my sudden appearance. The lake bed seemed to be solid, maybe made of clay, a few aquatic plants here and there but nothing special. I tried to paddle back up to the surface only to realize my hooves, gnarled and full of holes as they were,were definitely not the best swimming appendages. I struggled against the water, and realized I wasn't even moving from where I was. I looked around trying to find something that might help me, when I remembered what I was. I looked at my hooves and concentrated, in a flash of green they were replaced by webbed feet that reminded me of a frogs foot. I quickly struck out at the water and found myself gliding through it with ease.
I splashed to the surface and took a deep breath. I swam to the shore and climbed out, I examined both sets of my hooves and realized that my back hooves along with the rest of my body had changed along with my front hooves. I looked in the water and found an aquatic changeling looking back at me. The basic structure of my body was the same, save for my hooves, but the biggest change was the color of my exoskeleton. Instead of solid black I was now shades of blues and greens all combined to look like the top of a lake when your viewing it from above. Upon closer inspection I found there was another significant change in my body. On my neck were gills! I jumped back in the water and attempted to breath, no problem, they worked. I was astounded at this transformation, even more so the fact that I didn't seem to be using much concentration to keep it up.
The sun was nearly below the horizon when I had finished messing about as a fish-ling (Funny right?). Letting go of the fish form I found myself back in my changeling body. I walked over to my Saddlepack and pulled out the quilt again. I looked it over and noticed that a few tears had begun appearing, but other than that it looked like it would be good for another week or so. I wrapped myself up and rolled onto my back facing the sky. I realized the night sky here was no where near a beautiful as Appleloosa's right away. Here lights from the distant town of Ponyville hid some of the stars and the moon seemed less luminous than usual.
That night I didn't dream, no this time there was only sleep. The next morning I woke up earlier than normal, almost as early as when I still lived in Appleloosa. I quickly unwrapped myself and folded the quilt into the saddle pack. Today I would be picking up some supplies from Ponyville and moving onwards. There was no reason for me to meet the mane six and just randomly talking to them might freak them out, especially if my transformation distorts. I put on my Saddle pack and started to walk down the path which curved around the lake I had played in yesterday. The town of Ponyville looked silent in the early morning as most ponies didn't seem to be awake yet.
I walked into town disguised as a black earth pony with a cutie mark of a sideways lightning bolt, which signified my joy of sprinting. Most of the town was still asleep but some of the shops I wanted to visit were open. First things first I would need some matches, and a lot of 'em at that. I entered what looked like a camping shop on the edge of Ponyville. Inside I found all manners of sleeping bags, tents, portable pots and pans, some wilderness survival guides and most importantly several types of fire starters. I picked quite a few different ones and bought a giant box of matches. I also ended up buying several small rations of food, in case I found somepony along the way who would need them, and I also picked out a large canteen for water.
Leaving the store I found a much larger population of ponyville were now out and about. I saw the bouncing of a pink mane and instantly I was gone, any contact with Pinkie Pie would doom me. I could already feel my transformation starting to weaken. I ran down an alleyway and heard someone calling out after me. It was Pinkie, she must have spotted me, the one unassuming pony that she didn't know. I continued walking faster and faster until the pink party pony popped up in front of me from under a stone brick. Honestly I wasn't that surprised I figured something like this would happen which I why I had decided to go into a back alleyway.
"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie and your a new pony in town, ohmigosh and that means I can throw you a welcome party! oh it's going to be so much fun! but enough about that whats your name? and what's a changeling doing out here in ponyville?" I was taken aback by how much she was able to say in the five seconds after she had popped out, and what surprised me the most was that she knew I was a changeling. As much as I wanted to just leave the fact that Pinkie standing here with emotions of love kindness and joy practically gushing from her reminded me that I hadn't fed for days.
I dropped my transformation and let out a sigh of relief, "Hello Pinkie Pie, I'm Volo as for why I'm here, I'm just passing through" I paused and gulped trying hard to resist feeding off of the ever happy pony "also would you mind if I uh..." I stopped realizing what I was about to ask. "nevermind, oh and about that party.." I would have continued had my 'stomach' remained quiet, however with the emotions flowing around me I could hardly resist.
"Volo your silly, If you need some of my love go ahead I've got plenty for everypony, besides I know an honest changeling like you can't really hurt me" I didn't know what to say. To think somepony who knew what a changeling was and what they had to do to live would so easily let me feed, it made me want to cry in relief. I decided against that and instead decided to give Pinkie one of her favorite things, a smile.
"Thank you Pinkie it's been so long since my last meal" I began to absorb some of the emotions that flowed freely from her. She gave out a squeak in surprise which caused me to stop, "Are you okay?" I asked still unsure of whether or not I should be feeding off of Pinkie Pie.
"I'm fine I was just a little surprised is all, keep feeding I think there is something different about you" I did as she asked and soon enough she let out a sigh of relaxation. I opened my eyes and saw that she looked perfectly content. I continued to feed at a bit of a faster rate and she started to speak "Yeah right there, oh that spot's been bothering me for weeks!". At this point I was utterly confused.
"Um Pinkie Pie?" I asked while slowing down with my feeding "are you saying this is relaxing to you?" I didn't think It was possible could it be the sweet emotions I had been taking in this whole time from everyone were actually feelings of stress and discomfort? I noticed that she had closed her eyes and was nodding yes to answer me. I continued to feed with a new vigor, If I was actually doing a good thing then hell I might as well not restrain myself anymore. I fed all the way until I had felt I could feed no more. When I opened my eyes again I saw a radiant and rejuvenated Pinkie standing before me, looking even more energetic than usual, if that was possible.
"Thanks Volo who knew that changelings could feed off of stress, anyways I'm off to set up a few more parties, and let me know the next time you come to Ponyville I want to give you the best thank you, welcome to Ponyville, and welcome back to Ponyville party ever!" With that Pinkie Pie disappeared leaving me to my thoughts. I realized that maybe my feeding was a part of why Braeburn had felt so attached to me.
A quick transformation and a few stops at the market later and I was leaving Ponyville. It wouldn't be my last time here but I didn't know that yet. Soon I was back on the path and heading towards the mountains and the beautiful city of Canterlot.
Chapter 5
"Where the hell am I?"
I was sure that the trek from Ponyville to Canterlot would be an easy one, I mean you can see Canterlot from Ponyville, how the hell I ended up lost, I've yet to find out. The path had led me into a forest and then before I knew it, it disappeared from under my feet. Yes I literally walked off of a small cliff, and let me tell you, that's one of the most terrifying things that has ever happened to me and that's saying something considering I met Michael Jackson before he died. I ended up spreading my wings during the fall only to have one of them smashed against a rock that jutted out of the cliff side.
I awoke at the bottom of the cliff with a moan. I tried to move and felt a sharp pain from my back, it was my wing now horribly mutilated. I sighed and tried to pick myself up, my shell was still solid and as an insect horse thing I was guessing that I didn't have any bones to be broken. I blinked a few times and looked around me, trying to figure out where I might be. Turns out I didn't just walk off of a cliff, I walked right over the edge of a fissure. Yep here I am sitting in a fissure like an idiot with a broken wing. I looked through my saddlepack, which seemed remarkably unscathed, and found everything was still in good condition. The quilt must have helped with that, I'd have to remember to thank Braeburn for the quilt again.
"Hello!?" I shouted, I wasn't really expecting an answer but the echos off the wall offered me mild amusement. I began to walk along the bottom of the fissure, looking for any way I could climb out. After about an hour of searching I was able to find a way up, only to be greeted with a thick forest floor and no pathways to be found. I was utterly lost with no way to contact anyone. Turns out that's enough to make me realize how alone I am right now. I don't mean just physically alone either, The Changelings in my dream didn't seem to want me, the ponies of Appleloosa were all afraid of me, save Braeburn and the Sheriff. I was pretty sure the only reason the Sheriff wasn't afraid of me was because he knew he could smash me in the face if he needed too. Pinkie was a special exception, she was nice to everyone it didn't matter whether you were a pony or a dragon as long as you could smile she would be your friend.
I let out a sigh as I started walking through the jungle, as my broken wing brushed against the bark of a tree, I realized how stupid I was for not getting medical supplies. Turns out hiking in a forest when its the middle of the day can be really fucking hot, but hell that's been most of my life in Equestria so far. The only time I've been out of the heat was during the nights that could kill me, and when I jumped into the lake a few days ago. I realized that if Braeburn hadn't been there for me I probably would be dead right now, another thing to thank him for later. I was ripped away from my thoughts by the sound of crying, I didn't know what it was, but I knew that I needed to help it in some way or another. I galloped into the forest, ignoring any pain I felt from my broken wing.
In the center of a small clearing was a small cat like creature crying out. I burst through the underbrush and nearly lost my footing on the slick grass of the clearing. "What is this place?" I asked myself looking around the clearing that had no business being there. It seemed odd that a forest so thick wouldn't have covered the area yet, but what caught my attention next was the small cat. It wasn't just any house hold cat either it was a White Bengal Tiger! I trotted over to it and crouched down next to it, unsure of what to do.
It looked up at me with big crystal blue eyes, I wanted to hug it sooooooo bad at that point. Have you ever seen a tiger when it's just a kitten, they're the most adorable things you'll ever see. When it saw me, it looked to be afraid, and then it surprised me "d-dont hurt me, please". I nearly pissed myself when it talked. Judging from the voice the tiger was female, and the fact that her voice sounded like a professional voice actors from japan just made her all the more adorable.
"Who could ever hurt somepony as cute as you!" I said horrified by the very thought. I gave her a smile before slowly pulling out my saddlepack. "Now, tell me why your crying, are you hurt? perhaps your thirsty, or hungry?" any pain I felt from my wing was now long gone from the thought of finding somepony to interact with, even if she was a tiger of very young age. Before any of you out there say 'oh he's totally a pedophile', your wrong when I see something small and cute that can't take care of it's self I feel the urge to support and cheer it on no matter the cost!(If you got the reference +10 points to you)
"you won't hurt me? but momma told me that changelings were dangerous" she looked at me with her big eyes, on the verge of tears. I nearly had a heart attack right there, If this kept going on I was sure I would die by the end of the day from all the adorableness smacking me in the face. But something she said interested me, apparently amongst tigers changelings were known, and for that matter they were known to be dangerous. Also if she has a mom why is she out here all alone? I was getting lost in my thoughts and didn't realize how long I was taking to respond. "Um Mr changeling?" she called out making me realize where I was again.
"dubah?" I blurted out before smacking myself in the face. Yeah real smooth, I was about to speak again when I noticed the tiger was now giggling to herself 'finally my stupidity has paid off!' I shouted in my head. I began to laugh with her before answering her earlier question "well yes, most changelings are very dangerous, but on the other hand I'm not most changelings huh?" I gave he a smile before starting to rummage through my pack.
"I guess not" She grew silent as she watched me dig through my pack. I started to notices waves of emotion flow from her, more specifically they were sweet and delicious, which for me meant they were of sadness, stress, or depression. I decided against asking her what was wrong until after I found what I was looking for. Finding it I pulled out a small bag of what looked like meat. It was actually a tofu ration from the camping shop I had stopped by earlier. Apparently they sold them for the more carnivorous visitors they might get. Of course buying at the time got me a strange look from the clerk.
"Here, you must be hungry" I said opening the pack for the young tiger. I wasn't sure if tofu would affect a tiger in any bad ways, considering that where I come from they only ate meat, but then again this was Equestria, who knows maybe tigers could eat tofu here. The tiger looked at the fake meat with a gleam in her eyes. I could tell from this that she hadn't eaten for a while and was in fact quite starved when I came around. She managed a give me a squeak of thanks before digging into the food. I laughed as she ate and soon I began to hum aloud. I didn't notice that I had started to slowly feed on the young tigers emotions until I had finished humming.
I looked down at the tiger, who looked back up at me with tears in her eyes. I panicked realizing what I had just done, "I-I'm sorry I didn't realize what I was doing" She interrupted me with a smile that stopped me in my tracks.
"It's alright I'm feeling better" She said looking at me with a smile "you remind me of my mother, she used to hum to me before she..." The tiger stopped and I felt another wave of despair fall from her. I stopped myself from feeding on this emotion, it was something I couldn't take as lightly as other stress. "before she..." she tried to finish her sentence but started to cry. I quickly pulled out my quilt and laid it over top of the tiger before wrapping my hooves around her. I didn't need her to finish her words to know that her mother wouldn't be coming back for her.
"It's okay, you're not alone anymore" I said to the tiger who was now openly crying "I'll be here for you from now on". I knew what I was saying, I was essentially taking her under my care and making her my responsibility, but I couldn't just leave her all by herself. I don't know how long we lay in that clearing but I do know that by the time she was done crying, my quilt was near soaking and the night was near. I looked at the now sleeping tiger and smiled, I guess I could find a way out of the forest tomorrow morning. I wrapped the quilt around both of us before nodding off into sleep.
I awoke to something next to me moving, opening my eyes I found that a white tiger was looking at me with daggers in her eyes. It didn't take me long to find out why, I quickly noticed that in my sleep I must have mistaken her as a stuffed animal and I was now clutching her in between my hooves. I quickly let go and smiled sheepishly at her "Sorry" I looked around and realized it was still early morning and the air had yet to fully warm up.
"It's okay, but I swear if I catch you doing it again I'll bite you" the tiger had crawled out of the quilt and was now stretching. She gave me an annoyed glance before remembering the events from last night. I quickly noted how my heart felt weak before looking at her again and remembered why. She was now looking at me with a wide smile before saying "Thanks for staying with me last night, the last time someone hugged me was so long ago". I clutched at my chest as I felt another heart attack of cute coming over me.
"No problem, I only wish that I had remembered to ask your name" I was now returning the smile, I realized that I felt full, of course I must have feasted greedily during my sleep, I hope that it wouldn't bring up any bad side affects. "Ah but it's rude to ask for your name without introducing myself first" I gave the best bow I could in Equine form and introduced myself "I am Volo the Swift at your service" nice title right? yep took me all of 2 seconds to think of, I bet your all just jealous of my amazing naming abilities ha ha!
The tiger let out a little laugh before introducing herself in much the same fashion "Greetings Volo the Swift, I am Elly the magnificent!" oh? so the young one is fairly good in titles herself, that will be of great use in the future, I know it! (no it won't...) Shut up I'm having a moment here! (...Whatever).
"A Pleasure to meet you Elly, now come we have an adventure to go on, and time is of the essence!" I jumped up triumphantly with my saddlepack on my back, which was somehow already packed. Elly jumped up on my back and put her front paws on my head and joined in.
"Yes we must hurry, quick!" she said playfully. we stood there for a few seconds before I remembered that I had gotten lost when I had found Elly.
"You wouldn't happen to know the way to the closest path?" I asked still trying to sound triumphant, I must have looked like an Idiot because the next second she was rolling on the ground laughing. "What, I'm not that funny to laugh at am I?" I asked putting on a fake pout. Elly stopped laughing, looked up at me and started laughing again. Well at least I know I can make someone laugh. "Well then, since you find me so funny, how about this!" I leaped on top of the tiger and started tickling her sides making her squeal in protest before she started to laugh even harder. After of a few minutes I stopped and looked at her before laughing myself. She looked like a kitten who's fur had been affected by static electricity, it was sticking up everywhere.
She glared at me which cause me to laugh again. I stopped when she started to pressed her fur back down. She was a lot like a cat with how they acted. enough about that, I wonder if she does know where the road is "No but in all seriousness now, I was totally lost when I found you yesterday, do you know how to get back to the road?".
"Yes it's not far from here" She got back up and leaped on my back again. I didn't really mind, it was nice to have her company. "That-a-way!" She shouted pointing directly ahead. I laughed and started to walk the direction she pointed me in. At the edge of the clearing I pushed through a few bushed and found myself on the path. The whole time I was literally 10 steps away from the path and didn't even know it. I laughed to myself with a new understanding of why Elly was laughing so hard earlier, she must have realized the irony of the situation.
"Onwards!" I said happily walking down the path. Soon we found ourselves out of the forest and on the open fields of Equestria. Far to the left I could see the shining city of Canterlot. It seemed that I was on a different path because I noticed in the distance it snaked away from the capitol city. I pulled out and looked at the map and saw that I had just crossed through a small section of the Ever Free Forest. Huh it wasn't as bad as every pony makes it out to be. I glanced up at Elly who had her front paws on my head, I noticed she was looking at the new surrounds in both wonder and a bit of fear. "First time out of the forest?" I asked. She just gulped and nodded which made me laugh "Well don't worry too much about it, I'm here to protect you after all" I smiled at her and we started to gallop down the trail.
Chapter 6
"So you're saying that you're not even from this world?"
"Yep" I smiled up at Elly who was still sitting with her front paws on my head. I had decided that since I was going to be taking care of her for a while she might as well know some more about me, I ended up spilling everything about my past. Well not everything but most of my current situation, including some of my life as a human. "I'm not sure how I got here exactly but I do know that it must be for a reason".
"Riiiiiight" Elly clearly thought I was crazy but I just chuckled and continued to walk down the road. The road we currently were on led straight to Manehattan but it would be days before we made it that far. Instead we had planned on breaking away from the path to go to a small town that was about a days travel from where they were. The small town was named Brambleburg, probably one of the few towns in Equestria whose name didn't relate to ponies or horses in any real way. The only reason we knew about it was because we noticed the small dot that marked it on the map. "So if you were something like a hairless ape, why are you a changeling now?".
"I'm not sure, I woke up this way without any memory of what happened" I looked around and took notice of the mountains far off in the distance. There was nothing but long empty fields between the road and those distant mountains. "And the memories I do have didn't come back to me for a few days, and I get the feeling that something's missing from them". I turned my attention from the landscape back the the bundle of fur riding on my back.
"Is that why you're out here traveling?" Elly sure did like to ask a lot of difficult questions. Personally I had no clue what the heck I was doing out there, hell at the time I believed I was only in Equestria out of coincidence.
"I'm not sure, I just feel like I need to move around, and if I didn't listen to that feeling I never would have found such a cute little tiger". I smiled and laughed when she swatted at my ears. I had learned fairly quickly that she didn't like being called cute, but her pouting only made me want to tease her about it more.
"Don't call me that" she said with a pout.
"alright alright I'll stop...for now" I laughed when she swatted at me again, clearly she didn't like me hinting that I would start up again at some point in the future.
* * *
We had finally reached Brambleburg a day later. It turns out that a changeling and a small tiger were very easy to amuse on their travels as they had talked through most of the previous day and earlier in the morning. As I looked over the small town of Brambleburg my spirits started to sink. The town looked to be an empty husk of what it might have once been. The buildings were all but gone, the fields were covered in weeds and crows picked at whatever crops had survived over the years. I sighed and walked towards the ruins of the town, not even bothering to disguise myself.
Elly jumped off of my back when we entered the ghost town and scurried about. She was clearly tired of riding me and was ready to move around on her own. As we walked down the street I made it a point to check all the buildings that remained standing for anything that could be of use. In the end all I ended up finding was a small blade and a few scraps of cloth that I used to wrap the blade and put into my saddlepacks. As I emerged from the building I noticed Elly running towards me with a look of fear in her eyes.
"Volo help!" She yelped out before I noticed a strange creature running after her. It was Bipedal and looked to be covered in hair. It's build was rather bulky and had arms that seemed like they could touch the ground while standing upright. It was wearing a vest that seemed to be made from some type of leather it also wore a collar of similar description. Around it's waist hung a belt that seemed to be equipped with several small vials and in its hand was something that reminded me of a harpoon gun without the harpoon. I blinked realizing the creature was now pointing the weapon at Elly with its finger on the trigger. Without hesitation I charged at the creature with my wings out.
The creature seemed surprised by my sudden appearance and puller the trigger on its gun prematurely. The gun turned out to be a net launcher, which was now worthless as the net had been fired way off target. I angled my wings, ignoring the pain from my broken one, and started to use more power in my strides becoming faster and faster. I flew right passed Elly who seemed to be in shock of my speed. Looking back I noticed a trail of black similar to Rainbow's trail when she flies. Looking forward with new confidence in my stride I realized that I wouldn't be able to avoid collision with the creature and smashed into it.
I quickly got back up and stood over the creature which seemed to be having a worse time recovering than me. Upon closer inspection I was able to figure out that it was, in fact, a diamond dog, similar to ones that had made an appearance in the MLP TV show back on earth. I smashed my front hoof down on it's jugular causing it to whimper loudly and clutch at its throat. Keeping my hoof in place I started to rummage through my backpack with my muzzle and pulled out the knife I had found earlier.
"Tell me why you attacked us" I said while trying to hold the knife in my mouth. Though my words came out muffled and hard to understand It didn't seem to affect whether or not the dog understood me as it was quick to give a reply.
"Me catch puny tiger and changeling, bring them back to den and force them to dig for gems" It snarled and I smashed my front hoof down on it's throat again causing it to whimper loudly once more.
"What for, you can dig perfectly well can you not?" I was still debating if I should use the knife on it or not.
"Not enough, dragons want more gems than what we can get, we grab slaves make them dig extra gems" The dog seemed to realize for the first time that I was holding a blade and started to whimper.
"Wait, so you dig gems for the dragons? why?" This was news to me, nothing like this had ever been mentioned in the show before, and I would know having seen each episode multiple times.
"We have a deal with dragons" It gulped and I signaled for it to continue talking "We give them gems and in return they protect us from other clans and dragons". I was finally starting to understand what was happening then a question popped into my mind.
"Why don't you guys fight them?" I was curious, from the show dragons were portrayed to be easily beaten, but then again it was a TV show that may or may not have been altered for the younger viewers.
"Some tried, the clans that have are no longer among the living" I started to recognize the diamond dogs as a tormented race forced into doing things they usually wouldn't in order to survive. Looking down at the diamond dog I gained enough respect and sympathy for it to recognize him as another soul treated unfairly.
"Alright, one last question" The blade that I had been holding in my mouth was now back in the bag wrapped in cloth. I stepped off of him and offered my hoof to help him up "What's your name?"
He looked at me dumbfounded before eagerly taking my hoof and standing back up "Changeling is strange, my name Faeron"
"Ha ha, nice to meet you Faeron, names Volo" at this point Elly walked over to us curious about Faeron "and this is Elly, if you ever try to hurt her I'll rip out your throat slice off your ears and nose the stab you in the stomach multiple times" I laughed light heartily acting like what I had just said was nothing.
Faeron gulped and started to laugh nervously thinking I would really do it. Elly's eyes widened from my threat but otherwise made no comment, she instead turned her attention back to Faeron.
"Hey, Faeron right?" Elly paused and looked around the destroyed town "do you know what happened here? why is this place so empty?". I stopped laughing and looked at Faeron, I wanted to know as well and hopefully he knew something we didn't.
Faeron glanced around the town nervously before starting to talk
"They said this pony town haunted, made me come here alone"
"Haunted? you mean to say that there are ghosts here?" I didn't believe a word of it, but then again maybe I shouldn't be so skeptical, just a few months ago I didn't believe in Equestria either, yet here I am.
"Yes, they told me that evil things lived here but there were travelers headed this way and someone need to capture them" Faeron looked at us and whimpered apologetically "I was ordered to bring you back to them".
"Well that explains why your here, but did they mention anything else about how this place is supposedly 'evil'?" I was starting to share in Faeron's obvious paranoia of the town, and with a glance towards Elly who was now standing much closer to me than before I could tell she was starting to get frightened as well.
"They said Ponies long dead roam this village, and those who see them die" Faeron gulped and looked around nervously and Elly started to try hiding herself behind me from the invisible ghosts of her imagination.
"Okay enough of that already, It's about time we left this place anyway, there's nothing here left to scavenge and Elly here seems to be near wetting herself" I was teasing her at the end and yelp when she bit into my leg "ow geez, I was just kidding" I looked down to an angry Elly with fangs piercing my shell. She frowned and looked away pouting from my teasing.
"Faeron want to go with you, if I go back empty handed I'd be forced to work the mine for rest of life" Faeron seemed a bit less nervous from my comment but was still as eager to leave as I was.
"Oh very well, besides we could use another set of paws on our journey" I smiled at Faeron before scoping up Elly with my good wing and placing her on my back. "Lets go, this place is starting to give me the creeps". As we left the town I noticed a strange little statue but paid it no mind until we walked passed it and I realized what it was. It was a statue from the human world, Greek in appearance more than likely the image of a goddess judging by how the figure had wings. "Now where did you come from?" I asked aloud gaining the attention of Elly and Faeron.
"Where did what come from Volo?" Elly asked from the top of my head. I pointed to the statue and only got an awkward silence in return. "there's nothing there Volo" Elly said confused by my actions.
"Really, the statue! right there sitting right in front of us!" I looked at Faeron who seemed just as confused as Elly "You don't see it?" I asked. I realized Elly was starting to shiver, probably from my strange behavior and the story of this village being haunted. Faeron shook his head in response to my question which caused me to facehoof. "Whatever lets keep going.
"Ah I've found you at last" as voice rang out causing me to stop dead in my tracks. The voice sounded feminine but at the same time seemed to be very powerful. "You are Volo yes?" it asked ringing out again. I found myself nodding and realized the world was starting to fade from my vision "Good I have a great deal of things to speak to you about"
"What are you..!?" before I could finish my sentence I fell to the ground, faintly hearing the surprised calls of both Faeron and Elly. Their voices grew distant as the darkness closed in on me. I didn't feel any fear nor did I feel any other emotions I only felt at peace. Out of the darkness a figure suddenly appeared, it was the goddess from the statue. She towered above me and looked at me with a slight smile. "It's a Pleasure to finally make your acquaintance Volo, my name is Hesychia daughter of Dicé and goddess of tranquility".
I blinked a few times before realizing I seemed to be in a body of my own. I looked down to see myself in my old human body and of course I just had to be naked. I tried to cover myself but found I couldn't move. "Alright I'll listen to you if I can at least have my clothes. I felt a flash of warmth and looked down to see myself wrapped in a toga "Close enough" I said trying not to laugh. I looked back up at the goddess "So Hesychia, was it?, what did you need to talk to me about?"
Chapter 7
"So Hesychia, was it?, what did you need to talk to me about?"
"Good, it's straight to business with you, I can appreciate that" The goddess gave me a smile and I took in her features. She stood tall, nearly 7 feet if I had to guess, her complexion was very fair and her long golden hair reached down to her waist. She was dressed in a white toga-like dress that covered more then a fair portion of her body leaving only her arms and feet exposed. Her eyes were a piercing blue and seemed to look through to your very soul. Honestly I nearly found myself speechless, but then I remembered that she was a goddess of course she's gonna be beautiful.
"First I think you should know that I'm the one who brought you here" I blinked and thought about this for a second what? "and before you say anything, no I didn't choose you specifically you just happened to be the closest person with the type of personality I was looking for, also there were many other factors..."
"Hold on a sec" I said interrupting her not believing what I was hearing "You brought me here?" I waited for her to answer and when she nodded I continued "well two things, first thank you so very much, I'm so happy that I'm able to be here now, and second" I paused inhaling a deep breath so that I could say everything at once. "FUCK YOU, did you even thing about the implications of bringing a HUMAN to a place like EQUESTRIA!, No before that even what about back on earth, my parents my friends! what must they be feeling with me disappearing like that, and in such a fucked up way as well, I mean seriously why did I have to shout like that before being brought here!" I took in another deep breath about to continues yelling when I realized I couldn't open my mouth.
"You have quite the spirit to ignore your own position and try to lecture me on my decisions" I swallowed realizing who I was talking to again. shit, well I'm fucked. "Very good, you're exactly what I wanted" She looked at me with a smile and I realized I could talk again.
"Um, sorry about that, I'm just a bit stressed, being pulled out of your own world and thrown into another does that, y'know?" Just because I was speaking to a goddess didn't mean I would back off with my anger. "Why do you even need me here anyway?"
The goddess seeming to ignore my efforts at throwing her for a guilt trip blinked. The area around us starting to change until a map could be made out. In the middle was the country of Equestria and near the north eastern edge was a blinking red dot.
"This is where you are now" She said motioning toward the blinking red dot "I brought you here so that you might accomplish what other can not", suddenly other dots started to appear on the map, there were a good dozen or so all colored in green "These are other humans, brought here to represent their own gods, like you will for me" My eyes bulged, so I really wasn't the only human in Equestria. "Each of them are trying to accomplish a certain goal, however they cannot do it alone, and that is where you come in" the map changed again and this time it's colors changed to look similar to a heat map. The green mass that was Equestria was surrounded by bright red, even inside Equestria there were a few splotches of color.
"What does it mean?" I asked stunned by the map, I knew for sure that whatever the red was it wasn't good.
"This is a map where untimely deaths occur, more specifically it shows areas where others are most likely to die by the hand of another" I didn't know what to say, The few spots in Equestria surprised me but knowing that all the other counties surrounding it were covered in red made me stop all together. That much murder? And I'm supposed to do something about it? I couldn't fathom the situation.
The shock of hearing that the world I had known to be at nearly perfect peace, and at a stage of prosperity that humans would only ever dream of reaching, was in fact a place where death, killings, and murder were commonplace, save for one measly country of ponies, I was about ready to go out and donate all my time to whatever charity drive would take me first. "This brings us to why you are here". dots started to appear on the map again, mine was marked in a bright red and the others were now blue instead of green. Looking at the locations of every human I realized all of them were either in or nearby one of the red zones, myself included. "As you can see, you humans seemed to be drawn to these areas for whatever reason, most of the time when humans enter these areas they become bigger, which is why you're so unique".
The goddess rose her hand and pointed to my dot and the red area it inhabited which seemed to be shrinking in size "You have the Aura of Tranquility a power that will reduce the size of these areas so long as you get to know the general population and purify the environment of negative emotions". I remembered back to searching the houses, Now that I thought about it I seemed to have been absorbing energy at the time but I didn't notice.
"So you want me because I can rid the world of these environments?" I was starting to get it and my anger about being plucked from the surface of my world and being brought here was lessening.
"Exactly, while the other humans have mostly good intentions they sometimes leave behind 'red zones' which have a negative influence on the land" The map started to fade away and was replaced by a picture of his new body. "This form that I gave you is different from other changelings" I nodded already knowing this much "For example, most changelings can only speak through insect like noises but I have made it so that you may speak normally, and unlike most other changelings, you feed on and rid others of negative emotions, also" She paused and I noticed that the picture of me started to change, my black shell was now becoming a solid white, and my blue eyes started to go a shade darker, I even seemed to grow a bit taller though nowhere near as tall as Chrysalis might have been. "as you can see your unchanged appearance is now what is shown, oh and now that we've met your powers will begin to grow at a faster rate" She glanced at me and smiled "I believe you have already found your ability to change, as well as your ability to morph?"
At first I was confused, weren't changing and morphing the same? but then I remembered the incident at the lake. So changing is when I disguise myself as another pony, since it's only an illusion it's understandable, so Morphing must be like what happened when I turned into the 'fish-ling' where it wasn't just an illusion but an actual change in form.
"If I'm thinking correctly then yes, I know what they are" I answered her, I was starting to get more excited, If those were just a few of my powers what others would I have.
"Good, then you are progressing well, unfortunately our time runs short and your friends are starting to worry" The picture disappeared along with the goddess "when you wake up, check your map for your first destination" I tried to call out but found myself once again unable to speak.
* * *
"Hesychia!" I shouted out sitting upright quickly, only to realize I hit something rather solid with my face that made me dizzy. After getting my senses back I realize I had just headbutted the now unconscious Faeron who was holding a damp cloth in his hand. Looking around I spot Elly looking at me with tears in her eyes before she sprang at me and tackled me into a hug. "whoa Elly!" I laughed as she cried into my neck, it was obvious she had been very worried about me. I realized I was already feeding off of the stress coming from Elly, and soon I found myself petting the back of her head while returning her hug. "it's okay Elly, I'm right here, I won't be leaving you anytime soon". While trying to comfort the young tiger I realized we were inside one of the buildings and through a shattered window I could see it was already night time. Looking around the room I saw a large fire near the middle that seemed to be burning from the branches of the overgrown trees we had seen outside. The warmth that was radiating off of it was enough to keep me safe from the cold night air.
After what seemed to be hours, Elly drifted off to sleep tears still in her eyes. I smiled as I carefully tucked her in to the makeshift bed I had previously been unconscious in. Faeron who had woken a few minutes after I knocked him out looked at me with his ear pricked up.
"Volo okay now?" Faeron, even though we had met only hours ago, had also seemed to be worried for me.
"I'm fine, thanks Faeron" I gave him a smile before walking over to the fire and laying down next to it. "You must be tired too Faeron, get some sleep I'll take over watch duty" The diamond dog gave a grunt before curling up on the floor near me and falling to sleep. Alone with just my thoughts I ran through everything the goddess had told me. For hours I stared into the fire thinking before realizing that birds were starting to chirp outside. The noise surprised me as I hadn't heard it the day before when we had first entered the broken village. Along with the noise of birds came the first rays of sunlight. The fire had nearly gone out by the time the sun had fully risen. I left Faeron and Elly to sleep a little more as I decided to go look for a mirror. After looking through a few of the houses I found a large mirror mounted in what used to be a restroom.
Examining myself I found that my form had changed in all the ways that Hesychia had shown me, I now stood as a taller pure white changeling with piercing dark blue eyes. My wings seemed to have been healed and their appearance had changed as well. Instead of the sharp razor like wings that the typical changeling had I was now equipped with short slender wings that seemed to resemble those of a Dragonfly. Whatever mane and tail like appendages I once had were now replace with a smooth shell that resembled that of a beetle. I noticed slight groves on my chest, face, and neck that seemed to make me look more aerodynamic in comparison to my old self. I glanced at my hoofs and grinned when I saw that the holes that once plagued them were now smoothed over and filled in.
I left the mirror and went back outside to stretch my new body. I stretched a few times before deciding to take a quick run around the outline of the village. I started off at a slower trot, after a lap I let loose and started to run at full speed. Soon I was circling the perimeter of Bramble Village (About 1 mile) once every minute, then once every 50 seconds, each lap around the village shaved a few seconds off of my time and soon I was circling the village once every 40 seconds. Looking behind me I noticed a long trail of light stretching behind me. I laughed as I continued to work my muscles, and increased my speed further by lowering my wings. Ahead of me I could see a trail of light similar to the one that had stretched out behind me, I was shocked to discover it was the same light trail and that I was now traveling fast enough for it to perfectly surround the village.
Satisfied with my workout I slowed down to a gentle trot and ended my marathon outside the same house that Elly and Faeron were currently in. I gulped in air trying to get my breath under control once again, the adrenaline buzz still had yet to wear off and I was ecstatic about being able to run at such high speeds. I walked into the building still panting and sat down at the now cool embers of last nights fire. Faeron was already up and taking inventory on his equipment. Elly on the other hand was still sleeping soundly in the makeshift bedding. Faeron regarded me with what appeared to be a smile before going back to his vials and potions.
I trotted over to Elly and leaned down next to her. I put my mouth close to her ears and took a deep breath "ELLY WAKE UP THE POTATOES ARE ATTACKING!" I shouted scaring both Faeron and the small tiger. Elly's reaction made me laugh though when she jumped up and shouted
"Grab the Peelers!" she looked around a bit before looking at me and realizing I was on the floor laughing. Elly smiled mischievously and jumped at me landing on my head "Volo you jerk!" She yelled playfully as I rolled over still laughing. Faeron had recovered from the initial shock of me yelling and was now joining in on the laughter, though his was a bit more coarse and sounded almost like barking. After a few minutes of fun I remembered that Hesychia had told me to look at the map to find my first destination. I stood up with a serious face which cause both Elly and Faeron to stop laughing and look at me curiously. I smiled to them both before walking over the my saddlepacks which were near the makeshift bed.
"Now lets see, ah here it is!" I pulled Braeburns map out of my saddlepack and unrolled it. The first thing I noticed was a red dot on the map that seemed to be blinking. I Put the map down on the floor so that Elly and Faeron could see as well. Oddly enough they didn't seem to notice the blinking red dot. I shrugged it off as Hesychia's magic that only I could see. "I think I know where we are going next" I pointed to the city of Manehattan where a blinking marker was. As I thought they couldn't see the marker either but they didn't question my decision, instead they looked excited at the prospect of leaving the ghost village.
"When do we leave Volo?" Elly looked at me excitedly nearly bouncing in place. With a glance towards Faeron I could see he was just as eager.
"As soon as we're packed!" I said with a smile. At last my real journey would begin. I only wish I knew at the time what I would be facing in the future that once seemed so bright to me.
Chapter 8
"Are we there yet?"
"No"
"Now?"
"No"
"How bout now?"
"For Hesychia's sake, NO we won't be there for a few days Elly!"
Faeron was laughing at my frustration with the white tiger. We had left Bramble Village hours ago and were now having trouble finding ways to entertain ourselves on the long walk. The reason for this was because in the first hour I explained everything that had happened to me and why my appearance had decided to make a sudden change in the albino direction. The thing that surprised me the most was that neither of them really questioned any of it and just went along with what I said, so either they both thought I was totally mental, or they just understood that weird things were bound to happen around me.
"Why are we going someplace so far away first?" Finally a good question, of course it was one I had been asking myself for the past few hours as there were plenty of other areas on the map that were much closer. There were even a few dots near Ponyville showing that other humans were in that region. As to why the goddess seemed to indicate on the map that we should be making the trek to Manehatten was beyond my understanding.
"I'm not sure Elly, the next chance I get I'll be sure to ask Hesychia" I sighed as we continued to walk through the day. I wanted to break out into a sprint, but knowing that Faeron and Elly wouldn't be able to keep up, stopped me from doing so. I decided that since the walk was going to be a long one I might as well use the time wisely and practice more basic magic. Sure I couldn't actually use normal magic like a unicorn could but maybe with enough practice and effort I would be able to do simple tasks like lifting a quill or opening a door.
* * *
It had been about three hours since we had last spoken and the silence was starting to get to me. Surely there was something we could do as we walked throughout the day, yesterday I had managed to entertain myself by experimenting with my magic but by the time we had stopped for camp I found myself able to do many of the things unicorns could do. It turns out that there are two possibilities, either using unicorn magic is normal among changelings, or Hesychia forgot to mention that little modification to my body. I hoped it would be the latter as the former would make my new found confidence in my magic explode twice with nothing left over.
Just when I thought the silence would break me, Elly started to hum a familiar tune, it was one I had not heard in a long time and the fact that a song from Earth was being hummed by a creature living here in Equestria confused the hell out of me. The song was Bach's Air "On the G String" sure it didn't really fit the moment but I had always enjoyed the tune and began to hum along with her. Together Elly and I were able to successfully recreate the tune to it's entirety which surprised me, at one point even Faeron added his own humming to the tune. I felt myself relax and we continued to walk while humming, turns out if we failed at ridding the world of it's negative emotions we would make a good barber shop quartet minus the fourth person, and we didn't sing we hummed.
"So Elly" I asked "where did you learn that tune from?" The moment I asked I immediately wished I hadn't as a wave of sadness smashed me from behind. It pains me to say that I was grateful for the unexpected meal as it had been a few days since I had last feed on stress.
"My mom used to bring me out of the forest sometimes" I knew it, way to bring up painful memories dirt bag I said scolding myself in my mind. "we used to go listen to the ponies play their instruments, of course we never got close enough for them to know we were there but we were able to hear all the same". I glanced back at Elly and noticed her eyes were starting to tear up but she was also smiling at the memories. "That was one of the songs me and my mother used to love hearing, It was always so peaceful and made everything seem perfect for us". With a glance at Faeron I knew I wasn't the only one angry at me for bringing up Elly's bitter past.
We had stopped walking as we listened to Elly's words, and without realizing it I had drawn her into a hug along the way. "There were a few times we were caught listening and the ponies would run away from us in fear, but mama would always laugh as we made our way back to the forest". Elly's tears were now flowing freely and Faeron had joined in on the group hug.
"I'm sorry for bringing that up Elly" I bent over so I could look her in the eyes "I bet your mom was the best in the world" I gave her a small smile hoping to cheer her up. She smiled back and nodded in agreement before wiping away her tears and jumping out of the hug and onto my back.
"She was the best, but we should continue on, Mush!" Elly whipped me with her tail and I laughed before starting on a trot.
"Hey Faeron" I yelled over my shoulder, the Diamond dog was following behind us with relative ease "think you can keep up with me?". When I got a nod that was all I needed before yelling out "Get a good grip Elly, things are gonna get bumpy!"
"Wha-!" She didn't have much time to respond to my warning as I instantly took off going at about 10% my best speed. After a few seconds of silence and the pain of claws being stuck into my back I hear Elly start to laugh as the wind rushed us by. From the sound of paws beating on the ground I could tell that Faeron was indeed able to keep up with me.
We traveled this way for a few hours until the sun had started to set, in the distance we could see the towering skyscrapers of Manehatten and beyond them was the perfect image of the setting sun. We had reached our destination in good time, but the labored panting of a certain Diamond Dog told me weren't going any farther for the night
"What's the matter Faeron, I thought you said you could keep up?" I smiled as I looked back at the exhausted creature on the ground. Faeron scowled at me which cause me to laugh, sure I was slightly worn out but something about my feeding habits had kept be from getting too fatigued. It would be interesting to see if I could feed on my own negative emotions. Unfortunately I didn't have anything to be really sad or stressed out about other than the slight guilt I had felt when bringing up Elly's mother. Before it became too dark we had completely set up camp, there was a small fire with plenty of wood to keep it going throughout the night and 3 beds made of the scavenged cloth from Bramble Village were spread across the ground.
* * *
I awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of hoof steps. I quickly sat up and looked around the dim campsite, the fire had all but gone out and was now on it's last limbs. I quickly threw in some more of the extra wood fearing for my life when I realized the cold didn't seem to be affecting me as much. Once the fire was back up and burning I heard a sharp gasp from behind me. I spun around to find myself starting face to face with well, a pony obviously, however she seemed familiar like I had seen her before. I shrugged it off before I realized that this pony must be frightened out of her wits as she was just staring at me unmoving and wide eyed.
"uh, Hi!" I said cheerfully as though I wasn't a creepy white insect creature that looked carnivorous to the everyday pony. "How are you this lovely morning?" Instead of a response the pony had instead fainted. I blinked a few times before sighing and putting her on my bed, it seems I wasn't going to be able to sleep for the rest of the night. I walked back over to the fire, threw in another stick and sat down to watch the flames.
After a few hours of staring into the flaming embers, I decided that since I was up anyway I should try practicing my ability to morph. I picked up a stick when an Idea came to me. I held the stick in my hooves and concentrated on gaining it's features. Straining I could feel something starting to happen, suddenly a flash of green light told me that I had transformed, however when I tried to move I found I couldn't.
* * *
The morning rays shining down on the campsite reviled three sleeping figures, the smallest of which was the first to stir. Elly sat up and looked around, she quickly noticed the unknown pony sleeping in Volo's bed, she got up and carefully walked passed a tree to wake up Faeron. Faeron was quick to wake up and he stopped himself from making any noise when he too noticed the presence of the pony. He stood up on his paws and quietly tip toed passed the same tree Elly had passed to get to the sleeping pony. Faeron stopped when he stood next to the tree and looked up at it in confusion, it looked like the other trees in the area but something about it's coloring seemed off.
Here I was living out Fluttershy's dream, yep that right all you bitches must be jealous, never thought I'd be able to be a tree did ya? Well let me tell you, it sucks, I'm not sure why Fluttershy said she wanted to be a tree in the first place but at this point I could see no reason for wanting to be a tree. Turns out all you can do as a tree is sit there and think, yep that's it. I had no sense of my surroundings, I couldn't hear a damn thing and there was nothing I could see. In fact the only thing I could feel was my big stupid tree self swaying in the breeze.
Faeron sniffed the tree again and stood back looking at it in confusion.
"What is it Faeron?" Elly asked curious as to why the Diamond Dog was suddenly so obsessed with the tree. The tree was just like any of the other trees but it was a shade lighter than the rest and seemed to have strange grooves running along it's surface. "something about that tree seems familiar"
"Volo" Faeron barked out interrupting Elly's thoughts "tree smells like Volo"
"What do you mean 'it smells like Volo'?" Elly was dreading the diamond dogs answer, there's no way Volo would turn into a tree right?.
I don't want to catch the world on fire! I just want to start a flame in your heart! I had been singing through any songs that I could still remember waiting for either my morph to wear off or something else to happen. At some point I though I heard Elly and Faeron speaking and maybe a few taps, but I couldn't be certain so I just continued to sit around and make like a tree. I started on another song that came to me Do you like my sword, sword? Sword, my diamond sword, sword...
Faeron and Elly sat at the Base of the white tree, they hadn't moved for about an hour now waiting for something to happen or trying to figure out what to do. They didn't notice the Unicorn pony stirring behind them until she let out a little
"Eeep!"
Elly and Faeron both snapped their heads and locked their eyes on the stranger. The Unicorn was a pale blue with a slightly curled blue mane. Her eyes wore a striking shade of green and her cutie mark resembled a pile of herbs. Elly looked back at the tree with concern in her eyes, she didn't really care too much about the unicorn and wished that Volo would be back soon. Faeron on the other hand made sure to keep and eye on the unicorn so that she wouldn't try to run until they were ready to talk to her.
* * *
bored bored, really bored, gotta stop being bored, maybe go to space, no ,no gotta get free, return to normal, not tree, get out of tree mode, wanna leave, wanna do something, wanna not be bored I was getting bored if you couldn't tell. A flash of light told me that my long trail of being bored was over. I opened my eyes to see Elly tackle me to the ground and Faeron smiling happily. In the background I saw the Pony from last night and instantly locked my eyes with hers.
Ignoring the squeals of protest from Elly, I stood up and walked over to the unicorn
"Hello, may I ask your name?" She looked surprised that the evil looking creature in front of her was now exchanging the regular pleasantries one might expect from meeting somepony new.
"Oh uh my name's Caraway" I was surprised by her voice, it was very sweet and honest, it betrayed her fear but it also gave hint of curiosity. I smiled and preceded to introduce myself and the rest of the gang.
"Well Miss Caraway, I am Volo" I pointed to Elly "That's Elly, and that" I shifted my gesture to Faeron who was back to examining his equipment "that's just Faeron". Elly walked over and jumped onto my back and Faeron just flicked his ears. Neither of them greeted the pony. "That's pretty rude of you guys" I said trying to make them at least acknowledge the other pony's presence. I rolled my eyes when neither of them moved to greet Caraway, "Don't worry about them, they have trust issues" I said trying to explain to Caraway.
"Oh, no that's okay" Caraway was definitely still scared of us, which I honestly wasn't that surprised considering what each of us were.
"So why were you out here so late last night?" I asked ignoring Elly's attempts to get my attention. I finally noticed the odd sensation that had started when I had locked eyes with the mare, it felt like she was trying to hide a large amount of sorrow and pain.
Chapter 9
"So Caraway, why were you out here so late last night?"
I didn't really know what to think of the unicorn, although I was relieved that she wasn't as leery around me anymore now that she knew I wouldn't kill her. The more I thought about it the more I found her rather cute looking. I shook my head knowing that now wasn't the time for admiring how cute others looked.
"I just needed, some time alone" Caraway, although a bit more trusting of me now, still didn't seem to like the idea of warming up to a changeling-like creature. I smiled and sat down, signalling for her to do the same. I was hoping that maybe if she were in my presence she might start to feel a bit more comfortable. We began to talk on a few minor things, starting with the weather, then where we come from, and eventually I had her talking to me like any other pony. I learned that she was born and raised near Stalliongrad, which was apparently to the far north. I remembered hearing rumors of a wolf killing a dragon near there but I didn't know much about the place.
After learning about where she was born I figured I might as well give some information about myself as well. I told her about how I woke up outside of Appleloosa and that I didn't have any memory of my life before hand. It wasn't really a lie seeing as at the time I really didn't have any memory of my past life. I then told her that I had left and about some of my adventures, including the discovery of how I consumed stress and negative emotions. After hearing that she seemed to be a lot more open with me.
She told me about a project that was being built in Manehattan as we speak, it was labeled 'The Manehattan Project', that alone was enough to make me rather nervous about what she was going to say next.
"It's an orbital laser system" said the nervous Caraway. During the past few hours since I'd been talking with Caraway, Faeron had gone off to do what ever it is he did in his spare time, and Elly decided to spend her time chasing after whatever unfortunate flying insect entered her sights. I pressed for more information, turns out she had a husband, to which I felt disappointment for some odd reason. Her husband worked at the local research institute for Astronomy.
"So let me get this straight, in a utopian society like yours they need to build an Orbital Laser CANNON?" Her husband has been researching methods of traveling to the stars when he had come across some ancient research documents that mentioned using gems as an energy source. He had then designed Equestria's very first 'Space Carriage'. The next thing he knew, the royal guard took control of his project and basically made it into a weapon. "That's so messed up" It was worse then knowing of the 'Red Zones' that existed in Equestria, if this thing was built there would be a revolt of some kind or another.
"Well there wasn't much he could do, it was a direct order from Princess Celestia herself that such a thing be built" I sputtered before finally sitting down to think for a second. If Princess Celestia had ordered it, then it was surely important but then again if it were built the balance of power in this world would shift and cause all sorts of things to happen. Negative things, and even though I feed off the stuff that doesn't mean I want it to consume the world.
"We need to stop it" I finally said standing on all fours, gaining the attention of Elly who had successfully snagged a bright blue winged butterfly out of the sky. She pranced over proud of her catch, and even though the situation was supposed to be serious I couldn't help but let out an internal squeal of delight at her cuteness. "Elly, would you be a dear and fetch Faeron for me?" I asked smiling at her.
"Mmophay" She said through the butterfly before running off into the trees to hunt down Faeron. I watched as she left before turning to Caraway and offering her a hoof to help her up, She gladly took it and stood up herself.
"So who does the little one belong to?" Caraway asked while we waited for Elly and Faeron to return.
"Oh Elly? neither of us, I found her in a forest near Ponyville, her mother was dead and her father was nowhere to be found so I took her in" I smiled at the memories of what was nearly a month ago. I felt a small wave of guilt and sorrow from Caraway, probably thinking she had brought up a touchy subject.
"I'm sorry"
"What for? you didn't have anything to do with her mothers death, and besides she's a strong one she'll be fine with us" I laughed but noticed Caraway was still feeling a bit down. "Listen don't worry about that now, we've got Equestria to save!" Caraway looked at me a bit surprised before nodding and laughing along with me. A few moments later Faeron walked back into the campsite with Elly riding on his back. I was glad to see that they seemed to be warming up to each other, I figured a cat and dog would make for many disputes but so far they didn't seem to mind each other.
"Alright, everyone ready?" I looked at the three others gathered with me who all nodded. "Right let's go see Manehattan!". Elly and Faeron both cheered and Caraway seemed mildly confused by my seemingly spastic change of plans.
* * *
I walked down 3rd street lost and alone, I had disguised myself as a white pony with a smile for a cutie mark. I figured that it would be the easiest to explain seeing that I would be able to cheer ponies up, by feeding on their sadness, and explaining it as my talent. Somehow after entering the city, I had been distracted by the emotions that ran rampet on the streets, it was as if the entire city was filled with a foul mood. In a matter of minutes I had found myself separated from the group. I knew better than to worry knowing that Elly was with Faeron and that they had Caraway to keep them from getting lost but I worried anyways.
Well let's just say that when I worry I like to eat, and considering this city's air was filled with emotions of turmoil I had a non-stop feast for the next few hours to enjoy.
* * *
The sun was going down and now I was worrying for a whole new reason, I knew better than to stay outside too late at night in the city but that wasn't all. Unfortunately for me, what came with the night was the cool night air that could be dangerous to me. I would have a few hours after the sun went down before it got way too cold so I knew I would have plenty of time to find the others who were no doubt looking for me as well. I noticed that the streets were starting to empty in numbers and I soon found myself moving around easier than I had since entering the city. I started to trot hoping to cover as much ground as quickly as possible. I found myself moving faster and faster but to no avail. you'd think it would be easy to find a diamond dog with a tiger on it's back in a city of ponies, apparently not.
The sun was starting to set below the horizon when I heard someone talking about how a rough looking diamond dog had scared her earlier that day. I stopped by to ask where she last saw him and quickly sprinted off in the direction pointed while shouting out my thanks. I realized while I was running that even though I had been feeding all day there still wasn't any noticeable change in the towns atmosphere. I guess it will take longer to purify an area than I thought. After passing a few shops that were starting to close and rounding a corner I found myself in a park that was supposedly the last place Faeron was spotted.
I looked around frantically searching for any familiar faces when suddenly I heard a dark laugh from behind me. I was hit with a wave of negativity that I had never felt before, it made me freeze in place.
"What's wrong buddy you lost?" The voice was of a Stallion, I slowly turned my head and spotted him. I figured out what the negative feeling was in the process, the colt was wielding a blade in one of it's hooves. Oh yeah he wanted to murder someone.
"Um yes actually, have you see a diamond dog around?" I tried to mask the fear in my voice and figured that if I acted like nothing was wrong I might surprise him if he tried to attack me.
"Heh he he heh, diamond dogs? Here? You're funny, any diamond dogs found here would be taken in for questioning" I felt a small flicker of anger mixed with regret which I decided to pounce on.
"Why would that be?" I asked hoping to draw out any conversation and any possibility of either Faeron or Elly finding me.
"Ever since that Griffin fella came round, we've been extra careful with any suspicious characters" the guard seemed to flare in rage when he mentioned Griffins name. "Every since that damned Griffin" He looked at me with tears in his eyes which caught me off guard. "I used to be a respectable pony!, but ever since HE knocked me out on the job an busted out another prisoner, I've been having the worst luck!". Any talking that he was doing was done at this point as he suddenly decided to charge me.
"Woah now!" I easily dodged out of his way. The foalish guard wasn't even trained, he was just randomly striking out. "You might want to back off" I changed my eyes so that they were now glowing a bright blue.
"What are you..." The stallion hesitated for a bit before a rustling could be heard from the bushes near by. Out popped Elly, who looked relieved at finding Volo. The colt smiled and I watched in horror as he scooped Elly up and held his blade to her throat. "Now then, I don't think you'll be moving much from now on will you?" the stallion's eyes were filled with madness and I truly felt sorry for him, however he was pushing my patience a bit too far by taking Elly as a hostage.
"Put her down, she has nothing to do with this!" My pleas fell on deaf ears as the colt just watched me with a shit-eating grin. "I said put her DOWN!" Instead the colt held his blade closer to her throat causing a slight drip of blood appeared from Elly's neck. I felt myself losing control of my change, for a split second I was back in my original form "Last chance! put her down!" The colt shook his head and pointed his blade at me.
"How about we walk to the station instead, or perhaps you need some more blood?" The stallion laughed and stabbed the blade into Elly's leg. I felt myself snap, my mind literally exploded from watching Elly in a silent scream of pain and terror.
I felt myself begin to morph but lost consciousness before I could see what I was becoming.
* * *
I looked around the destroyed park, there were scorch marks and craters every where. A few tree's were on fire and from the light I could make out a pile of meaty material which made me feel sick. I realized that it was what was left of the guard that had tried to attack me. Looking down at myself I saw blood spatters across my white shelled hooves, apparently I had lost control of my illusion and was now back to my usual self. I heard crying from somewhere behind me and turned to see Elly curled up holding her leg and sobbing uncontrollably. "Elly, your leg? what happened..." I felt myself drop to the ground, darkness took over and I knew no more of that night.
* * *
Sirens, that was all I could clearly hear. There were a few voices but they were too muffled to understand what they were saying. There was a dull pain coming from what I though was my head but I couldn't be sure. I drifted back into darkness and began to see something in the darkness. It was almost like a movie, but this was a horror movie for me.
A blue flaming beast stepped out of a smoking crater, in the middle of the park. The area around it was starting to burn from the heat and eventually a nearby tree caught fire. In front of the beast lay a shivering stallion who was now insanely raving about life. The beast let out a loud roar, and from it a column of blue fire launched into the darkened night sky. crying could be heard from the park but the beast didn't seem to notice it. Right now it's intended prey was already at it feet.
The guard looked up at the beast before letting out a blood curdling scream. The beast had bared it's fangs and was now ripping into the still living colt searing his flesh with each bite. The pain for the colt would have been the same as being burned alive inside a blender. Soon there was nothing left of the colt but a pile of burned meat and shredded bones. The beasts jaws were caked in blood and small pieces of flesh.
The beast howled at the sky letting out another raging fiery column into the sky. This time however it was blood red fire, in the distance there were screams from ponies fearing the end of the world, while in other parts of the city Sirens were sounding calling for all guards to report. The best looked back at the pile of meat and snorted in content at it's meal. With a flash of blue flames the beast was gone, and there I stood seemingly waking from a trance.
* * *
"What is this thing?"
"It's not like any other changeling I've ever seen"
"There's no way we can do anything about this is there?"
"Shouldn't we alert the Princess about this?"
In a white emergency room a crowd of doctors and nurses were trying to revive a dying white changeling. The changeling has been hooked up to heart monitors and various other medical instruments to help learn about what condition it was in. The heart monitor suddenly started beeping faster and faster, and someone called out "It's going into shock, some grab the Tranquilizer, and hold it down!".
Nurses rushed to hold down the albino while others went to get medication and tranquilizers, no one noticed the local Captain of the Guard watching with a diamond dog, and the local herbalist. In the next room over a number of doctors were also treating the young white tiger who had a stab wound and a punctured neck.
Chapter 10
"Who's playing AC/DC?"
I awoke to the song Highway to Hell. I looked around thinking that maybe the whole thing in Equestria was a dream, but soon realized this was not the case, as I was still a changeling, Oddly something felt different it was almost as though my body felt lighter than usual. I shrugged it off and looked around the room trying to figure out where I was. The dimly lite and sterile smelling room led me to deduce fairly quickly that this must be a hospital. Back to the music, where was it coming from? I looked around the room trying to find it's source. Looking out the window I noticed a bunch of multicolored lights flashing from what looked to be Equestria's version of The Statue of Liberty. It's torch was burning and the sounds of the music could be heard blasting from there. I was lucky my bed was so close to the window as it let me see all that was happening down below.
From what I could tell the concert seemed to be led by a griffin, which through the power of my amazing deduction skills of awesomeness, I figured to be Griffin the captain of the Griffin Pirates. I was lucky to have my theory of him being a human confirmed before ever meeting him. I smiled when the song was over and the cheers of what seemed to be a large portion of Manehattan rang out. I chuckled to myself before laying back in bed and enjoying the many random songs that were played after that. After about and hour of listening I found myself nodding off and going back to sleep.
* * *
"He seems to be recovering fairly well and should be waking in a few days"
"Thank you Doctor, Faeron and Elly will be glad to hear it"
"No problem Caraway I'm just glad that our resident Changeling expert was able to figure out what was wrong with him on time"
"Yes it's very lucky that he'll be okay after what happened to him"
I slowly opened my eyes and tried to remember where I was. Caraway's voice was recognizable but the other one was a total mystery. Looking around, I noticed that the room held only a bed a table next to it and on the far side mounted up on the wall was a clock.The voices from earlier were coming from the hallway outside my door. When trying to sit up there was nothing but a sharp pain throughout my body which threw me right back down. I gasped at the pain and decided to make a quick mental note. Note to self, being in a hospital means you're hurt, if you find yourself sleeping in a place such as this, refrain from moving unless you wish to know why you were put there in the first place the hard way. Doing my best to not move too much I peered out of the window to see the sun had either just risen or was just setting. I wondered if the concert held by Griffin was just a dream, but my thoughts quickly led me to a way of finding out if my suspicions were correct.
I looked around my room trying too see if my saddlepack had been brought in. I spotted it perched on a chair a few feet away. With my magic and a bit of pain I managed to pull out the map and bring it too my bedside. I couldn't be sure if it was Griffin but there was a dot moving away from Manehattan at great speeds. After feeling a jolt of pain and losing concentration on my magic, the map fell to the ground and a groan of pain escaped from my mouth. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Caraway peek through the open door and gasp. "Doctor he's awake!"
"What? Really?" The disbelieving doctor looked through the door and let his jaw drop. His reaction would have made me laugh, but under the circumstances I would only feel more pain, and that was the last thing I needed.
"Heh heh, hey Doc" I said in a weak voice which surprised me. Honestly it was stunning to learn I was injured at all, from the vivid dreams of the beast, which I had trouble accepting was me, I wasn't hurt at all. "So Caraway, how long was I out?". Clearly I'd been out for more than a day as she seemed to have lightened up a bit since I last saw her. I was thinking that it had maybe been a few days, or maybe a week at worse but the answer she gave me shattered all of my previous plans.
"Volo, you've in a coma for nearly a month now"
"Ha ha very funny, no but really how long have I been asleep"
"She's not kidding you" this time the doctor spoke before Caraway could "You've been out for about 26 days now, we weren't expecting you to wake up for a few days more". The doctor seemed to realize something and ran off saying something about fetching the expert. I assumed it was probably the changeling expert mentioned earlier. I sat there in silence, Caraway was probably saying something but I couldn't hear her. It had been a month since he had killed that Stallion, and since the birth of the Beast. Then how long had it been since the concert? He figured the dot on the map might have been griffin, but what the concert had been days ago and it was an entirely different human altogether. Either way I missed a lot, and I need to know what happened to Elly after the fight. As long as she was okay it didn't matter what happened to me, after all it was my own fault letting that stupid stallion capture her like that.
"Volo? Volo? VOLO!" Caraways shout pulled me from my thoughts and I looked into her eyes of concern. I realized I hadn't been paying attention to word she said and shock my head, only to feel the pains of not moving for a month.
"Sorry Caraway, what were you saying?" I asked giving her a sheepish grin and making her sigh.
"I said that while you were unconscious Elly and Faeron were living with my husband and I" She looked back at the door as the doctor from earlier walked in followed by whom I assumed was the 'expert'. I looked him over and was unimpressed, the doctor at least looked the part of a doctor, he had tidy hair glasses and a syringe for a cutie mark. The expert on the other hand looked like he was some bum off the street, his hair was a mess, he didn't wear anything and he even looked a bit bigger than the doctor, much bigger than any other stallion I had seen including the one I destroyed.
"You shouldn't be awake" I looked at the expert confused before realizing what he ment. I blinked a few times and the next thing I knew I was out cold.
Caraway cried out in shock when she saw the expert smash his hoof into Volo's face, knocking him out instantly.
"Why would you do that!?" The expert turned to her and smiled before not answering her question and instead tunring to talk to the doctor.
"Make sure he isn't awake for at least 2 more days, if he wakes up again come get me" The expert turned and winked at Caraway before leaving out the open door. Both the Doctor and Caraway were utterly confused as to what just happened but nothing else was said about it. The Doctor coughed and left saying something about not getting paid enough for this leaving Caraway alone in Volo's room.
* * *
"Damn you Potatoes!" I shouted sitting up suddenly. "What? Where am I? What happened to that cursed Potato head?" I looked around the room for the objects of my dreams and realized I was back in the hospital. This time there was an over joyed Elly about to pounce me and a tail-wagging Faeron.
"Volo!" Elly shouted out as she jumped up on me causing me to lose my breath. She had grown since I last saw her, she was now standing at about half my height compared to a moth ago when she was only up to my knees. Unfortunately for me this growth also made her heavier than she used to be and carrying her wasn't going to happen anymore.
"caaaaaaaaaaaant breeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaath!"I struggled trying to gasp for air as Elly practically strangled me. She quickly let go of her hug and I gasped sucking in as much air as possible.
"Hehe oops" After catching my breath I smiled, no matter how big she was she was still just as cute as the day I found her. I started to panic when tears began pouring from her eyes "Ever since that day in the park, I thought maybe we had lost you" She smiled through he tears and pulled me into another hug "I'm so glad your still here".
"Ha ha, no way I could leave you guys alone" I said laughing and motioning for Faeron to come closer "Besides who would watch over Faeron if I were gone right?" I liked teasing Faeron who never seemed to mind. But I was surprised at how he had changed as well. He used to be a little chubby but now he was lean and seemed like he could pack a punch if need be. The equipment he used to wear was now gone and was replaced by a short sword and shield.
"Ha ha, I'm glad to see you haven't changed Volo" I looked around the room to see who had spoken and realized it was actually Faeron.
"Faeron, your good at speaking now!" I said in a captain obvious sort of way, but hey you can't blame me I was gone for a month.
"Yes, after spending a month living with the ponies I learned better speech" Faeron seemed to be smiling happily and I realized I needed to learn more about him at some point. I was curious about why he looked so strong now, but figured that things like that would be revealed in time.
"So what all did I miss?" I asked genuinely curious as to what might have happened since I was last with the wakeful. We began going into a long discussion on things that had happened. Elly had lost movement in her foreleg from the stab but had undergone good physical therapy until she could use it normally again. Since she was still a growing tiger she was lucky that she wasn't going to be permanently crippled or anything. Faeron on the the other hand after learning about what had happened in the park had spent the last month training with the local guards until he was too strong for them in a 5 on 1 fight. The rest of the time he had been doing odd jobs around the town to earn enough to help pay their meals at Caraways house.
They were surprised when I had brought up Griffins concert which had apparently happened about 5 days before I woke up to Caraway and the Doctor talking. speaking of which I also learned that it had been 3 days since the 'Expert' had knock me out. In the middle of our talking and catching up Caraway had entered and joined us. The rest of the day was spent in good company and laughter, but I knew it wouldn't last as I had a mission to complete.
Chapter 11
"CANNONBALL!"
It was a perfectly sunny day and all was well with us at the lake outside of Ponyville. It had been years since I was first tossed into Equestria. My job had been nearly completed and all that was left were a few minor conflicts amongst some of the residents here and there. Hesychia let me stay here which I'm really glad about, any connection to earth I once had was now gone. Elly had grown much larger and was now as tall as Faeron. Speaking of Faeron, he's been made into an alpha of a diamond dog pack, I always knew he had it in him to be great.
I surfaced from the lake and looked to the shore to see Elly, Faeron, and a few other ponies that for some reason I couldn't really recognize. They were all laughing and having a good time, enjoying the picnic they had set up on the beach. I swam back to shore to join in with my friends. They had all accepted me for what I am so I no longer had to hide my true self around them. I sat down on the picnic table with a towel wrapped around my white shell of a body to dry off.
"Volo, how's the water today?" It was one of the ponies that I couldn't quite recognize. She seemed to be someone I had met recently but I couldn't quite place when.
"It's great, Celestia sure did give us a nice day today didn't she?" I said smiling and picking up a slice of water melon that had been laid out for me. Sure I couldn't live off of it but eating wouldn't hurt me, at least not that much. I realized that I was still eating away at stress from somewhere. I looked at everyone trying to figure out who it was I was feeding off of. Nopony seemed to be giving off stress and yet it was all around me, I could feel it everywhere in the environment. The light seemed to dim, causing me to look upwards to see the sun eclipsing. "I didn't know there was going to be an eclipse today!" I said amazed, when I didn't get a response I looked back down to see that everypony had vanished.
I spun around in every direction looking for them, "Everyone where are you!" I shouted out, my nervousness had made me revert to my human way of talking. "Where did you all go!" I had started to sprint, I heard a roar in the distance accompanied with a bright blue glow. I ran towards it to see what was happening. Rounding the corner I was met by the sight of the monster that I had become that day so long ago. The beast's hard rock-like shell burned a bright blue as it howled at the eclipse in the sky. Looking around I was meet with a terrible sight, all my friends were laying dead at its feet. "NO!" I joined in it's howl, but instead of raging anger mine was of grief and despair.
* * *
"NO!" I sat up in my bed with a start, I ignored the pain that shot out from my back and looked around rapidly. I was back in the hospital room in Manehattan. "A dream" I shivered as I remembered the contents of the dream. The mare I had failed to recognize was Caraway but the other two I don't remember having seen before. I looked out the rooms window at the night sky, barely visible above the glaring lights of Manehattan. I lay back down in my bed, much to the relief of my aching back. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day, and I would need all my energy. As I attempted to return to sleep I realized I was still feeding off an unknown source of stress. "Oh well, I'll deal with that in the morning". My eyes drooped back down and soon I was drifting back off into another dream, hopefully this one would end a bit better, however I would have no such luck for the next dreams.
Chapter 12
"Volo is it? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't contact Princess Celestia and have you banished right now"
Since having woken up I had been talking with Elly, Faeron, and Caraway for quite a while, and unfortunately that meant I had lost my chance to escape. Then again I didn't even know that until the big military stallion walked in and started interrogating me. Apparently Changelings aren't the most popular of creatures among the ponies, especially mutated ones that destroy parks. I was tempted to just try and scare the pony away, but he didn't even flinch at any of my intimidation techniques. Well if renegade options won't work guess I'm going paragon for now I smiled and politely gave him an answer "Because good sir, I don't even know your name, that and I did nothing to warrant any sort of punishment, whether that punishment be banishment, death, or otherwise."
"Nothing wrong? You killed a soldier and destroyed one of the city's finest parks!" I could tell the pony was absolutely furious with me at this point, that and he still didn't give me his name.
"You wound me sir!" I said dramatically clutching my chest "accusing me of such crimes when you lack the evidence to prove it!" I could tell my act did nothing to please him seeing as he still looked a little bit peeved at me. I wonder why he was steaming at that point? his face looked awfully red as well.
"We have plenty of evidence, there were many witnesses to your destruction!" at this point I was starting to grow tired of his anger filled ways, and so I began to feed off his emotions and stress. Huh, you know I never really thought to much about it but did I ever tell you that stress sorta reminds me of swedish fish? My thoughts of delicious sugary candy were put aside when I realized he was still waiting for an answer.
"Well then, If you have witnesses they should also know what else happened in that park" I said trying to poke any holes in his testimony that I could. Though it was also true, if he had witnesses then hopefully some of them had seen that the guard attacked without any provocation from me.
"Fine, if you wont come clean now, you'll just have to be proven guilty in court tomorrow" The guard trotted out still pissed with me. A small grin was plastered across my face from this small victory I had just earned and with that my time at the hospital was now coming to a close.
"Upsy daisy!" and with that I was back on my hooves. There was no time to waste, if I was going to be in court tomorrow I would have to begin my mission today. Without hesitation I began to flee the hospital, leaving was easy as my room was near a staircase that let out to the front door. Now that I'm here in the city though, "Where am I going?". That's when I noticed a familiar white and black figure. "Elly!" I called out while rushing towards the young tiger, who seemed surprised to see me on the street. Without stopping to give an explanation I rushed passed Elly while morphing into a black Pegasus with a lightning bolt cutie mark "We've got work to do!". Only now do I realize how lucky I am that no pony was in the area to see that.
Elly immediately gave chase, and in turn I slowed my pace a bit so she could catch up to me.
"Volo, why are you out of the hospital?" She asked in between strides.
"Oh not much, balancing the world, bringing order, that sort of thing" I smiled at my joke but it soon became apparent that Elly wasn't in the mood for jokes. "Ok fine, tomorrow I'm supposed to go to court, they want to hold me responsible for what happened in the park". I chuckled at Elly's shocked face and continued on "So I'm going to destroy that Laser and get out of town before that can happen!".
We ran through the streets, eventually Elly took the lead showing me the way to Caraway's home. It was located on the outskirts of the city in a neighborhood that reminded me of human design. We reached a large green house, vines and herbs grew all around it. On the walls of the home were glowing mushroom-like plants that lite up the area that was darkened by the branches of the enormous tree that grew out of the house. Elly walked up the path through what looked like a jungle at first glance.
"Volo? what's wrong?" She looked between me and the house and laughed "I forgot, this place kinda freaked me out too" She walked back over to me and nudged me forward. I stumbled and then regained control of my mobility. After walking through the dense foliage of Caraway's yard we finally reached the front door. Elly simply opened it and walked inside leaving me feeling a bit awkward, after all it was my first time entering someones house without them knowing, reluctantly I followed Elly inside not knowing what awaited me.
The inside of the house was just as marvelous if not more so than the outside. All around were crystals that seemed to be glowing, giving the inside of the house light. As I followed Elly I noticed one room had a large floating crystal that seemed to be chained to four spots on the ground. In the same room were tons of scattered pages and books, all of which seemed to contain notes and research on an unknown subject. As we continued through the house I noticed a few pictures, one of which showed Caraway and somepony whom I believed to be her husband. The Stallion was a Unicorn, light blue in color, whose cutie mark was that of a crystal, bet I know what his cutie mark relates too!
I found myself being nudged away from the portrait by Elly. I blinked a few times and chuckled a little before moving further into the house. After seeing many more rooms with strange crystal machines and one room full of books we had finally made it to what seemed to be the living room of the house. The room itself was larger than most of the other rooms we had seen but was fairly empty. Inside of it were only a few couches, a table, and a few books on said table. On one of the couches sprawled out and snoring was an exhausted Faeron. I stopped myself from bursting into laughter, the diamond dog was sprawled out in such and uncomfortable looking position that it seemed ridiculous that he could be asleep.
Elly flicked her tail toward one of the other seats in the room, "You sit down somewhere, I'll go get Caraway and Crystal Spark" I nodded and took a seat as she advised. I looked at Faeron, who was still asleep in that awkward position, and smiled to myself. I was glad to be out of that hospital, now I just need to go destroy a laser cannon to celebrate my newly found good health.
Moments later Elly walked in accompanied by Caraway and someone whom I could only assume to be Caraway's husband. The stallion was actually a little bigger than me, and yet he still froze instantly at the sight of me. Caraway started the introductions while I stared at the stallion who stared at me, seriously, I'm beautiful but that doesn't mean he should stare like that.
"Leolie this is my friend, Volo!" Caraway said happily not realizing that he would most likely be shocked at the sight of a changeling being introduced to him by his own wife.
"What's wrong?" I asked before throwing an accusatory hoof at Elly "did she steal your tongue! Shame on you Elly I thought I told you not to do that any more!" Elly only looked at me clearly unamused while Caraway glanced between me and her husband, she was obviously a little oblivious to the situation, and very much confused, the poor dear.
"Caraway" I was shocked, the stallion finally spoke, and my God his voice was the most golden voice I'd ever heard, like on the same level of Morgan Freeman.
"Oh, yes dear?" Caraway answered like the voice she had just heard was not that of a god's.
"Why is there a Changeling in our house, or more specifically why are you introducing him as your friend?" I was starting to get a bad feeling about this meet up, even if hearing his voice is one of the best things this world now has to offer.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you didn't I?, He's the one that wants to destroy that terrible weapon you're being forced to create, I wonder how him being a changeling managed to slip my mind when I told you about him". I liked Caraway, no really, she's sweet but even I found it odd how much of a ditz move that was. Seriously, how long was I out again, like a month right? how had no one let this poor guy know who he would be destroying his own work with? My thoughts were interrupted when a ring of crystals surrounded me and started to release a blue light that enveloped me. I found myself unable to move, and even worse unable to talk. Suddenly the world became very quiet and my vision started to fade, my last sight was of Elly with a paw on her face, Caraway shaking Leolie, and Faeron still snoring in the background. Woo teamwork!
