The Broken One

I walked beside Twilight with my hand on her back as we made our way to the castle dining room and pondered the results of our various failed experiments. This was the second batch of clones we had used and both had been utter failures. There had been a few close calls involving our experiments being discovered but for the most part I was able to deflect interest with half-truths and outright lies.

As hard as I tried to keep it all quiet Cindra had stumbled in just as one of the experiments had failed explosively. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I thought back to it. We had just pushed magic into the clone’s veins when I heard her gasp behind us. I turned to her and she began backing out of the room but in a burst of vamponic speed I was in her face with my hand wrapped around her throat as I slammed her into the wall.

“W-what is this”, she whispered.

I looked over my shoulder and laughed when I saw Twilight crouched in a fighting stance in front of the slowly swelling body. I pulled the changeling along with me as I made my way back over to Twilight and stared at the bloated corpse.

“We’re conducting experiments”, Twilight replied evenly. “Oh, Jackson, what are you three doing for Hearths Warming this year?”

“Do what now”, I asked as I idly stroked Cindra’s mane.

“Hearths Warming is a holiday to celebrate the unity of all races”, she explained as she poked the corpse. “There are ghost stories and presents and a big feast!”

“J-Jackson”, Cindra shuddered. “C-can I l-leave now?”

I opened my mouth to reply but a squeal from Twilight was followed immediately by bloody chunks of flesh splattering across us. Cindra screamed about it getting in her mouth and crumpled to the floor emptying her stomach contents across the stone floor and my boots.

My thoughts were drawn back to the present as we reached the dining room and I held the door open for Twilight before following her in. When we reached the table at which Cindra and her mother were seated I pulled out Twilight’s chair before taking my own seat.

“Such a gentlecolt”, Twilight giggled.

I bowed my head before turning my attention to the two changelings staring at us. I turned from mother to daughter before I turned my attention to the servant that had just arrived.

“I’d like a special burger, hay fries and mead”, Twilight smiled despite the waitress’s shock.

“Same for me”, I said before motioning to the two changelings.

Cindra ordered a Celestia salad with mead and Chrysalis ordered wine but had to settle for mead. The servant scurried off to relay our requests and bring our mead. Chrysalis stared at her mug before taking a tentative sip. Her eyes lit up much like Cindra’s had and at that moment I realized changelings may be predisposed to alcoholism.

I whispered this hypothesis to Twilight and her eyes shone when she whispered back about needing subjects to test it. I glanced to the two confused changelings and told her I would try to get test subjects.

“Some sort of state secret”, Chrysalis asked coolly.

“Scientific research”, I replied as I shook his head.

“Ah”, Chrysalis intoned. “Prince Jackson, I was under the impression that you were working on distillation projects. Has anything come of it yet?”

“Yes, actually”, I replied as I sipped my mead. “I’ve been able to produce quite a potent alcohol using apples and corn. I’ve also used some cherries and other ingredients to make nice bourbon but it was a rather small batch.”

“Bourbon, you say”, she asked with interest.

“Yes, it’s quite good by itself but it lasts longer when mixed with soda”, I smiled. “I personally prefer a good mixed drink. Of course if you just want to get drunk quickly I used potatoes of all things to make another type of alcohol called vodka.”

“Why didn’t I know about this”, Cindra wondered idly.

“Because as much as I love you”, I grinned, “you’re the reason our mead stores are at half capacity.”

“I can’t help it”, she whined. “It just tastes so good!”

“Chrysalis, did she sing about a lovely bunch of coconuts in the hive”, I asked.

“No, actually”, she replied amused. “We don’t have access to alcohol in the hives.”

“You do now”, I nodded.

“Oh, I couldn’t accept without a way to compensate you”, she smiled suggestively.

“As strangely beautiful as you are, I have to say no”, I grinned causing the changeling queen to sputter. “I would just need to borrow about twenty of your sapient changelings for a day.”

“That’s an odd request”, she smiled. “Would you prefer male or female changelings?”

“Both”, I replied. “I’m willing to compensate you. How does five barrels per changeling sound?”

“What in Equestria would I do with a hundred barrels of mead”, she asked wide eyed.

“It wouldn’t just be mead”, I replied. “You could drink it, sell it, hell you could bathe in it for all I care.”

“What are these changelings for”, she asked quietly.

“They will be returned to you unharmed so you have no need to worry”, I smiled.

“Very well”, she sighed. “If you harm any of my changelings you will answer to me.”

I nodded my agreement and to my delight our food arrived. The changelings stared at Twilight in shock as she bit into the juicy burger. I laughed when their eyes nearly bulged out of their heads as they realized exactly what Twilight was eating.

“Twilight Sparkle, are you eating meat”, Chrysalis asked queasily.

“Yes”, she smiled. “I have to admit that manticore meat is a bit tougher than the last… shipment of meat we received."

“What shipment”, Cindra asked as she cocked her head.

If you don’t go along with this I will spank you for an hour straight, I whispered in her mind.

“That’s right”, I groaned aloud. “You were out harvesting foalflower when the shipment came through.”

“Foalflower”, Chrysalis asked with interest. “You have a supply nearby?”

“Yep”, I grinned. “You guys don’t have it in the hives?”

“We have no way of growing it.”

I laughed and launched into a seminar about subterranean growing methods and it quickly turned into an energetic dialogue as we ate. The queen had never thought of hydroponic growing with artificial sunlight so I summoned parchment and a quill to sketch out a growing schematic. She expressed interest so I popped to my chambers to retrieve a pouch full of seeds and popped back into my chair.

“Impressive teleportation control”, Chrysalis said respectfully as she opened the pouch and her daughter joined her looking into the pouch.

“Wrong pouch”, Cindra giggled. “This is the one that has the buds in it.”

I accepted the pouch back and popped away to swap the pouches before returning to the dining room. I handed over the correct pouch and finished my meal. I felt a hoof on my arm and leaned over to hear what Twilight had to say.

“Jackson, we have a problem”, she whispered. “It’s been two weeks since you’ve fed and I’ve noticed a change in your scent.”

“I’ll just- fuck”, I growled. “We just killed the last clone.”

“Feed off of me”, she replied. “After queen bug goes home.”

I nodded and sat back to enjoy the rest of my mead as Chrysalis stared at me with narrowed eyes.

“She was just reminding me that it’s time to feed again”, I shrugged.

“But you just ate”, Chrysalis disagreed.

“I’m a vampony”, I grinned exposing my fangs.

“Oh shit”, Chrysalis whispered before she glanced at her daughter.

“I don’t feed off of her”, I smiled. “Not anymore.”

The changeling queen stared at me in shock before she stood and turned to her daughter.

“You’re coming home with me now”, she said fearfully.

“I don’t think so”, I growled.

“You will not presume to tell me what I will and will not do with my daughter”, she hissed at me.

“First, Cindra is an adult”, I replied coldly as I stood and unleashed my inner vampony. “Second, I would never hurt her. Thirdly, you’re in my domain. In this forest I am God and the Devil. Your life hangs in the balance of my whim when you set hoof in my forest.”

“Are you threatening me”, Chrysalis scoffed with a hint of fear.

I walked around the table and stopped inches from her face, my eyes shifting to a deep crimson as I glared at her.

“I don’t like it when somepony tries to take my things from me”, I replied with a deadly calm. “My family is the most important thing to me.”

“You consider her family?”

“I do”, I replied.

“But have you said those two words to Cindra?”

“That has nothing to do with this”, Cindra interrupted.

“Cindra, finish eating”, I smiled at her but my face hardened as I turned back to her mother. “I will send your barrels of alcohol with you and will expect the volunteers in two days.”

“Are you truly dismissing me”, she asked in shock.

“Audrey, please remove thirty three barrels of each type of alcohol and Queen Chrysalis from the premises.”

The older changeling disappeared instantly as Audrey obeyed my commands. Cindra stared at me in shocked awe as I returned to my seat.

“Jackson”, Twilight said quietly. “Your eyes aren’t changing back.”

“Well, fuck.”