I Found Her

Chapters

Ch. 1 - Tough Times
Ch. 2 - The Father of Schaeffer
Ch. 3 - Things are Still Changing...
Ch. 4 - A New Frontier
Ch. 5 - Aurora, Starlight, and Moonlight
Ch. 6 - Support All The Way
Ch. 7 - Unwanted Visitors
Ch. 8 - Tyrant Queen?
Ch. 10 - Disgraceful!
Ch. 11 - Never Going Back (WARNING: CONTAINS CLOP)
Ch. 12 - Can You All Forgive Me?
Ch. 13 - Redemption
Ch. 14 - The Best Decision
Ch. 9 - Breakaway and Bonding
Ch. 15 - Hopeful Future
Soundtrack Guide

Ch. 1 - Tough Times

Chrysalis stood, laughing with her horn flaring a bright green, dominating the vantage point of the main hive chamber, and before her... knelt a slightly-smaller changeling queen, clenching her teeth and closing her teary eyes. This younger queen, as it just so happened, was Chrysalis’ younger sister, Cocoon.

"S-sister... please...!" Cocoon begged. "Have pity!"

"Pity?!" Chrysalis thundered. "PITY IS ONLY GIVEN BY THE WEAK!"

It had been only a few days ago that the former Queen of the Hive, Chrysalis and Cocoon’s mother, passed on from old age. It struck the latter quite hard, leaving her in a vulnerable state of grief, but the former... could not be any more pleased. In fact, Chrysalis utterly despised her own mother, particularly due to her holding onto ideology that the three pony races clung to, which she saw as... ineffective. The elder sister was indeed relieved that their “incompetent” mother was dead.

Being the manipulative, conniving demoness she was, Chrysalis took advantage of her firstborn status to take ascension to the throne, rather than submit to her little sister’s idea of a democratic election. And now... she was actively working to have Cocoon banished for challenging her view of how the hive should be run.

"Chryssi, listen to me!" Cocoon said. "I only have the hive's best interests at heart! I want us all to cooperate and build a lively community where everyone in the hive is happy and healthy! Perhaps even to once again become allies of the ponies who exiled us many generations ago!"

Chrysalis laughed wickedly. “You believe in such a childlike fantasy? This is what makes you weak! You are too trusting! You do not see that they must be punished for what they have done to us!”

Cocoon shook her head, eyes teary and jaw agape. “Chryssi... b-big sis... please...”

"And I do believe I shall enjoy becoming an only child!" Chrysalis declared.

Without any further hesitation, Chrysalis’s horn flared brighter, and Cocoon was enveloped in the light as she began to levitate. A golden tome sitting atop a pedestal glowed as well, opening its cover and several pages. Cocoon’s pupils went small as she realized what this entailed; that tome, as it just so happened... was a prison.

“N-no...! Sister...!” Cocoon begged.

Chrysalis did not listen, and continued laughing as a beam of light emanated from the tome, straight onto the younger queen.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!” Cocoon screamed as she was sucked into the tome’s pages, being stretched by the space distortion the magical imprisoning process generated.

Cocoon then disappeared completely into the large book, which closed its cover once Chrysalis completed the spell. The newfound Queen of the Hive then locked the latch into place, and from there, performed another spell that conjured a black hole-like portal, which she tossed the tome directly into, the book spiraling into the long, winding vortex, growing smaller until it disappeared from sight. Once she no longer saw it, Chrysalis closed the portal.

"YES!" Chrysalis cheered. "At last, my weak, pathetic little sister is gone forever! Ahahahahahaha...!"

The new queen turned her focus to the crowd of changelings that made up the hive, all of whom happened to be present in the chamber, staring in utter shock at having witnessed the banishing of Queen Cocoon.

"Now..." Chrysalis spoke to her subjects, "...bow to your Queen!"

Fearfully, the changeling drones responded, fearing what she might do if they refused.

-Thursday, June 8, 1989. Atlanta, GA-

It had been yet another long, grueling day at the bookstore, but William was finally able to clock out for the day. Despite the silver lining of receiving two days off to look forward to, he knew the weekends were seldom better than his mundane work routine, since he never had plans, and didn’t have a particular... fondness for his place of living. Regardless, the young man pulled into the car shelter next to his home, where he locked his car for the night and went inside.

William took the lid off his crock pot to reveal some beef stew that finished slow-cooking a short while ago, and was now being kept warm. He grabbed a bowl and spoon, and took three ladles worth of his pre-made meal, before he unplugged the crock pot and sat at his empty table. As he slowly ate the stew, a spoonful at a time, he glanced around his home while contemplating what exactly led him to where he was now.

His place of living was not anything to remotely brag about. It was a small, prefabricated home, about six-hundred square feet, with two bedrooms and one bathroom. He, of course, used the master bedroom as his own, and turned the secondary bedroom into a sort of office, with a writing desk, a computer, and filing cabinets, as well as use the closet for storage of boxes and other supplies he was not using at the moment.

The kitchen had sturdy cabinets and counters, as well as an electric stove, refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker, blender, toaster, sink, and dishwasher. His living room had a futon sofa in front of a coffee table, which was flanked by twin armchairs facing inward. A modest Goldstar-brand CRT television sat atop a stand, which contained a VHS cassette player, an Atari 2600, and a Nintendo Entertainment System.

His only car was nothing special, either. It was a matte-aluminum '81 Chevrolet Chevette. A five-door hatchback, it was a modest car. He wanted a sports coupe as a first vehicle, but due to his financial status, he was forced to compromise when getting his first car, and his mother happened to have some connections with her clientele, one of whom sold the car for practically a steal. He felt more fond of the car than he believed he should, but he figured it was because it was his first car... the only one he ever owned to date.

As for décor, William really favored simple art pieces. He had minimalist sculptures and vases on various surfaces, such as bookshelves and hallway tables. Several potted, artificial plants filled the small home as well. When it came to the hanging portraits, while just about everyone he knew had nothing but pictures of their families and friends, he strongly favored still-lifes, abstract art, and landscape photography, which made up the majority of his wall art.

William would have pictures of his family... that is, if he was able to start one of his own. But, he settled for what he currently had as he did not want to be reminded of... the type of relationship he did not have. Besides, pictures of actual people also reminded him too much of the reality and world he passively despised.

Overall, his home decorations were minimalist and spartan... but it was mainly by conscious choice more so than his financial status.

William Schaeffer lived a meager life, getting the most reasonable, budget housing he could find, as well as material possessions, and living paycheck to paycheck, just trying to keep food on the table and make ends meet. He was never willing to invest in assets or shares, as the time needed to yield substantial return was too long to be practical for his wellbeing. Large wait, small return, not worth it. Besides, right about now, he needed to save every penny he could get his hands on.

One thing William prided himself on was how tech-savy he was. He was really into computers, while many people around him, he noticed, were not. His personal flagship device, kept on the desk in his office, was a Commodore 64 home computer, complete with its own dedicated monitor, and a number of peripherals. It included two floppy disk drives, one 5¼-inch, and one 3½-inch, a printer, a mouse, and a modem. He frequently made use of the GEOS V2.0 operating system as the default program when he wasn’t playing games. He also found he could use a controller from his Atari 2600 console for games.

While not a programmer by any means, William solidly qualified as a power user. Plus… he even knew some basic hacking skills. He found himself dialing his modem into the university BBS server during his time in college as a means of “correcting” any poor grades he had (there was a password required to access, which changed each month, but he knew where the faculty kept them written down). It surprised him that he was never caught for phreaking, but he was smart not to bump anything up too high.

School had been very boring and tedious for William, and he was glad it was all over. However, even though he graduated college, he was still in debt. While he did receive some federal student aid, it was not enough to cover it completely, and though he applied for many scholarships and wrote several essays, it turned out to be a waste of effort, as he never won any of the lottery drawing for winners. And speaking of graduating college... there was something in particular that really bothered him, now that he’s graduated... but it’s not something most would actually consider at first thought.

In any case, the evening grew darker as it became late. William readied himself to go to bed after a bit of downtime playing video games, watching some television, and a shower. He pulled himself under the covers, switching off the light, and hoping that he would be able to have some pleasant dreams to keep him sane... if only they could be real.

Ch. 2 - The Father of Schaeffer

Before going to work, William decided to start his day with a meditation session. Sitting upright on a yoga mat, hands on his knees, and eyes closed, he let his focus drift away from the world around him, entering into a deep state of concentration.

"Remain centered..." he said to himself, quietly but firmly, "...breathe... focus..."

He channeled his chi, using it to tap into a... special ability, which he happened to have.

"...As the stars have taught me..."

After a little while of meditating, a ringing sounded, making him jump. He sighed, standing and walking over to the source of the noise.

"Should've unplugged the phone..." he muttered, picking up the landline receiver, “...hello? William Schaeffer speaking.”

“Ah, sounds like we’re up and at ‘em bright and early today?” Came a man’s voice over the phone.

William perked up upon hearing it. “Dad!”

“Heh heh...” his father laughed briefly, “...how you been doing, William?”

“Well, if you were anyone else, I’d call you out for interrupting my meditation,” William said.

His father chuckled again. “Still dabbling in the family witchcraft, are we?”

William's father, Jonathan Schaeffer, was a sailor in the US Navy. He was a Lieutenant, and had been stationed aboard the Adams-class destroyer, USS Goldsborough. The relationship between him and his now ex-wife, Marlene Silva, however, deteriorated due to his constant absence, to the point where she filed for divorce. She wanted a truly intimate relationship with her partner always by her side.

“So, what’s going on?” William asked.

“I’m on a short leave for the time being,” Jonathan said. “And I just wanted to call and see how things were going with you.”

“Oh,” William said, “things are going... decent. I’m still working at the bookstore... even though I’ve tried applying at other places. In fact, I’m going to be leaving in a short while from now.”

“Alright,” Jonathan responded. “If you gotta go soon, I won’t keep you.”

“But, if you’re on leave, does that mean you’ll come to visit?” William asked.

“Ah...” Jonathan uttered, “...unfortunately, I can’t. I’m currently in California. And in a little while from now, I’ll be taking a helicopter back to the ship to resume my service.”

William’s eyes fell to the floor. He figured it would happen. In all honesty, though... he was used to it. His father was only able to come home for fairly small stretches every now and then. It wasn’t uncommon for his father to be stationed on the Western Seaboard.

He continued the brief chat with his father for several minutes, before it was finally time for him to get going. He set an alarm on a clock to, what was intended, let him know to end his meditation session. From there, he bid his father farewell for now, threw on his work uniform, gathered his work belongings, got in his car, and drove to the bookstore. It wasn’t very far from where he lived; it was within two miles.

But man, oh man, did he absolutely detest the job he had...

The bookstore William worked at was a very dull place. It was monochrome, bland, and very old-looking. Given that it was a local business, rather than a larger chain, like Barnes & Noble, they didn’t necessarily have the budget to upgrade their physical location. How this was, though, was beyond William, since they received quite a high customer traffic on a daily basis.

Today, William had the responsibility of setting up some new advertisements around the store. One in particular caught his eyes. It happened to be a poster for a new line of My Little Pony children’s books and VHS cassettes. William knew it to be a franchise that really captivated female children, with its own TV show and toys.

William sighed as he looked at the ad. "Why do little girls watch these kinds of shows?"

He begrudgingly put up multiple versions of these posters in the children’s section, disgusted by the overall tone they presented.

"I mean, what's next?" William asked himself. "Will there be some future reboot of the series that will attract a large adult fanbase?"

He pondered for a moment, thinking, before he shrugged the thought off.

"Nah, that'll never happen," William said.

He kept at the dull task, having to deal with a customer with a stupid question every so often, such as looking for a particular section, when they were literally ten feet away from it, or trying to find the restrooms, when there was a sign visible across the entire store indicating where it was.

Eventually, though, William made it through the first two hours of his shift, and got to his first break. During his short downtime, he met up with an acquainted coworker, Matt.

“Hey, Will,” he said, taking a seat at the same table as William. “How ya doing, man?”

William pursed his lips. “Alright, I guess...”

“Well, ya sure don’t sound alright!” Matt responded.

“Thing is...” William began, “...I’ve just been really tense, lately, trying to make ends meet, and having to put up with customers not treating me like a human being, but as some kind of machine that’s designed to not make mistakes.”

“Hey, learn to lighten up, Shakespeare!” Matt said.

William sighed. Many of his peers had taken to calling him by a surname that, coincidentally, sounded similar to his actual surname. The most common was “Shakespeare,” but sometimes there was the occasional “Shatner,” or other names people could come up with.

“Don’t let it get to you!” Matt said. “You know that what people say about you is just their opinion, and usually isn’t true.”

If only it were that simple for someone like me... William thought.

The two just went back and forth with trivial small-talk, before eventually, the two returned to their jobs at the end of their break. The rest of William’s shift was fairly bland, but there were some moments to break the monotony... but not in a good way. It involved customers berating him for just about every little thing that was beyond his control:

“What’s the deal?! Last week, it was five dollars less!”

“Why is this backorder taking so long?! I want answers!”

“You shouldn’t even be working here if you can’t figure shit out!”

William often got the urge to just break down whenever a large number of people ganged up on him like this, but he always did his best to sober up, just for the sake of preserving his dignity. Eventually, he was approached by Eric, his manager.

“Will...” he spoke up, grabbing the young man’s attention, “...why have I received a large number of complaints from customers regarding you?”

William sighed. “They were nitpicking a bunch of things that were out of my control, like sales ending or backorder delays. I tried, politely, to explain to them the situation, but they didn’t want to hear any of it. I can’t just lower prices or speed up delivery trucks.”

Eric folded his arms, drumming his fingers. “I can see where you’re coming from in that regard, but the matter still stands; the customer is always right.”

Bullshit, William thought, facing back forward, in the direction of the queue line dividers across from the counter.

"However, your job is about to get a bit easier real soon, and maybe boost the overall morale around here,” Eric said. “It just so happens, I've got a surprise for you, Will.”

William turned back to face his manager, his eyes light with anticipation. "You're giving me a robot death-dragon?"

Eric narrowed his eyes, tipping his head slightly. “No... it’s our new computer system, which you will be taught how to use for the express purpose of processing customer requests and inventory inquiries much faster.”

This didn’t excite William all that much; even though computers were kind of “new” to the general public, he had fair knowledge of how to operate them, and didn’t feel like he would need training. Still, if it could get him away from the snotty customers... it was something he’d we willing to go through.

With that, Eric left his subordinate to checkout customer orders. With pure muscle memory, William operated the register, inputting the prices of books and cassette tapes, and ringing up the total. This continued for a good, long while, a lunch break and another standard break coming up at two-hour intervals of his shift, before he was finally able to clock out.

Even though work was over for the day, and it was Friday, he could not call it a day quite yet...

William was practically forced by his family and neighbors to help Mrs. Edith Milton, a mad old widow who lived alone in what was basically an organized, indoor junkyard. He only did so because his stepfather would forbid him from visiting or contacting his own mother if he refused to aid the old woman, as she was a longtime affiliate of Jack.

As for Mrs. Milton herself... she solidly qualified as a hoarder and a Neo-Luddite, refusing to use any new technology, since she thought it was complicated and unreliable. She was blunt, arrogant, and rude, and William utterly despised her. But... he also did not want everyone to call him selfish and spoiled for refusing to help out an old woman who could not lift anything greater than ten pounds.

She always had him move a bunch of random things, but without rhyme or reason most of the time. It just seemed like she changed her mind about how she wanted the layout of her belongings to be just about every week. And there were things she wanted pulled out for a temporary time, and put away a different time. Today, she had him prep her house for visitors.

"And go pull up my card table and the four cushioned chairs!" Mrs. Milton ordered. "Me and the girls are gonna be playing bridge on Sunday after church!"

“Yes, ma’am...” William said, passively.

Mrs. Milton rasped after taking a sip of her prune juice. “I swear, you kids today... you damn Gen-X-ers... so spoiled and brainless... using all this new ‘technology’ stuff, and not living how we were intended! Your stepdad’s got the right idea about you, since you got it too easy!”

William strongly restrained himself from exploding on her, and telling her she was wrong at every turn of what she just said.

"You best learn how to make up for your mistakes," Mrs. Milton said. "A wise person like me always put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to help me through the day, unlike you spoiled kids who just focus on material possession!"

Look who's talking... William said, looking around at all the clutter.

"And the Lord told me He's angry with you!" Mrs. Milton stated. "So, when you have a bunch of time to yourself, you best get down on your knees and pray to Him to save you!"

William pursed his lips as he begrudgingly continued the task. He was not religious by any means; he would do all he could to make use of physical effort instead of just desperately hoping for things to get better. Plus, he wanted to figure out how to fix the many flaws in this world, and not be so devoted to what may come after, be it an afterlife, reincarnation, or some other "life after death."

Given that he had a "go-big-or-go-home" mentality, his ambitions were often far beyond his capacity, though. He knew this world would never be perfect, but wanted to find ways to mitigate the harm regardless, so others would not have to go through what he's been through. Plus, he was one who wanted to genuinely enjoy life, as he could no longer find satisfaction with the little things anymore.

But, no matter what he thought, or how lost he felt, he unfortunately still had tasks to attend to, all for the sake of preserving his reputation.

"What are ya?" Mrs. Milton asked as he worked.

William narrowed his eyes. "What, like... how old am I?"

"No," Mrs. Milton responded, "what are ya? Polack? Swed? Apache?"

William sighed. "...I totally don't know."

"Uh-huh..." Mrs. Milton muttered, "...a mutt. Well, whatever ya are, stay away from my medicine cabinet! I got important prescriptions I don't need no one messing with!"

"It's a little after seven o'clock," William said, checking his watch. "I should probably get going soon; I need to fix myself some dinner."

Mrs. Milton rasped again. "Well, I didn't realize that I stopped being old and weak at seven! What am I supposed to have for supper?!"

"Can't you just order takeout?" William asked.

"I'm not giving those damn Mexicans my money!" Mrs. Milton responded. "They're almost as bad as that Lithuanian who fixed my screen door..."

As she rambled on and on, sidetracking relentlessly on trivial things, William let himself tune it out as his inner monologue spoke louder to him.

Jeez, I can't believe how horrible she is! He thought, looking at the old woman. Just look at all those wrinkles... what is holding this woman together?

His eyes happened to fall to her mouth that never stopped...

What the...? William thought, narrowing his eyes as he spotted something leafy stuck in her teeth. How long has that been there?

"...I suppose you're Dutch," Mrs. Milton continued to ramble, though William didn’t pay attention. "Ya got eyes like a Dutchman... little penny... ya got them penny Dutch eyes..."

WIlliam kept at the task for a little while longer, until Mrs. Milton finally (and reluctantly) let him go back to his home.

He eventually got back to his small home, where he went straight to his bedroom and collapsed on his bed.

“Hahhh...” he sighed, “...another long day done.Time for the weekend, to recuperate...”

However, he could not do so for very long right at the moment, since his phone began to ring. Groaning in impatience, he stood from his bed, and trudged into his office, where the closest phone was.

He picked up the receiver, holding it to his ear. “Hello? William Schaeffer speaking.”

“I don’t believe I need to introduce myself,” came a familiar voice over the phone.

William frowned, his eyes growing narrow. “Oh, Jack...”

“Hey!” Jack snapped. “You remember that you’re supposed to be respectful, and address me as you would your father!”

William bunched his lips together in disgust. Jack Poole happened to be the man his mother remarried to. While he was very fond of, and respectful for, his wife... the same could not be said for his stepson. It puzzled William to this day, since he doesn’t even know the reason why Jack disapproves of him. But, he assumed it was because he was living proof that Marlene had been in a relationship with another man... something Jack probably didn’t like.

Of course, William tried to voice his concerns about Jack’s temperament with his mother, but despite her saying “I’ll talk to him about it,” nothing ever came of it. Also, he refused to address Jack as “dad” or “father,” because he only reserved that title for his realfather... the only man in his immediate family who he had any respect for.

“Did you go over and help Edith today?” Jack asked. “You remember what will happen if you don’t follow through with your obligations!”

“I did,” William said. “Do you think I’m not diligent or something?”

There was a brief silence on the line.

“Hello...?” William asked.

“...Don’t be a smartass with me, young man!” Jack growled.

William bit his tongue. “I apologize...”

“You should know that apologies don’t fix the problem!” Jack responded. “Anyway, I’m gonna need you to come over and do a bit of yardwork for me. A good way to make yourself useful and stay busy.”

“But I already have plans for the weekend!” William lied.

“Then you’re gonna have to reschedule,” Jack said. “Tomorrow, ten-o'clock. I expect you to be here right on time.”

“And if I refuse...?” William asked.

Jack remained silent for a moment again. “...Let me tell you something, I am getting REALLY fed up with your defiance! And if you keep this up, and don’t come over, you know I’ll bar you from our house! And you won’t get to talk to your mother anymore!”

You son of a bitch! William’s inner monologue screamed.

His spoken voice, however, was more superficial: “...Alright, I’ll be there.”

“Good...” Jack said, “...you best learn to unfuck yourself, William. Your current attitude will NEVER get you far in life! Learn to appreciate all you’ve been given!”

“Right...” William said, nonchalant.

Without saying much more, the call eventually came to an end, William hanging the receiver back up. From there, he walked over to his futon sofa, laying himself down and staring up at the ceiling.

“Why do these things have to happen to me?” William asked. “There is no solace... no mercy... nobody willing to let me live the life I want.”

For a while, he had considered moving, but... he didn’t want to leave the only place he knew as home. He lived in Atlanta for his entire life. Also, because his mother still seemed to care for him, he wasn’t about ready to leave one of the only people left in his life he could still trust. He was also uncertain about what could happen regarding potentially new neighbors in a new place of living, whether he could bring himself to introduce himself, let alone begin visiting them regularly.

Regardless, all he could do was keep moving forward, in the hope that something good would come out of his current effort, and seek out any opportunity to turn his life around.

Ch. 3 - Things are Still Changing...

Queen Cocoon, having been imprisoned in the tome’s realm for a short while now, scrounged together what energy she could to conjure a simple house on a mountaintop. It was humble and of moderate size, but she hoped it would be good enough to shelter her from the unpredictable elements of the land.

She tried to get by, day after day, with the limited access to magic she had. Without the presence of another living being, she had no positive energy to feed on and fuel her power. So, she had to resort to giving herself basic meals, and conjuring some books from Equestria to pass the time. But more often than not, she resorted to just walking and flying around, exploring the land, and working on some DIY home improvement projects.

Cocoon tried to anthropomorphize inanimate objects, talking to them as if they were living beings, as a way to cope with the solitude. But what she couldn’t get over was one fact that she could not lie to herself about... she was completely alone in this world. There was not another being present in this world. And given how long it has been since she saw anyone at all... she was getting really lonely.

“Ahhh...” Cocoon sighed, staring at the starry sky one night, “...how I wish I could get out of here... or at least just have someone visit me. Please... just somepony... anyone to talk to...that’s all I ask...”

Given that she had spent about a month in isolation, however, that reality was looking very bleak... a pipe-dream, at best.

After William finished up with mowing the gigantic lawn, pulling weeds, and moving plant pots around his former property, he was eager to get back home for a nice, peaceful evening. After a hot shower, he decided to get a start on unwinding by taking a walk through a nice, quiet part of the neighborhood. The area was filled with trees and other shrubbery.

As he made his way through the vegetation along the path, he contemplated what led him to where he was today. It all started with his father’s call of duty, of course... but there were many other things that culminated to his situation. It was combination of bullying from his peers, mistreatment by his stepfather, and... another thing, regarding something he desired above all else.

And it just so happened, that something was about to make itself known to him once more.

As he continued along the path, William caught sight of a young woman, about his age, making her way in the opposite direction, toward him. She had light-brown hair pulled into a whale spout ponytail, pale skin, and rich, brown eyes.

William gasped. “Clara...!”

It was Clara Weaver, a girl William met in college, and had a crush on ever since they were partnered up for a group project. He was surprised to find out when she lived close to him, and they saw each other every so often. However... he was far too shy to confess how he felt to her. This was something about himself that William despised. He wanted more self-confidence, but due to the treatment he has endured all his life... it was easier said than done.

As she approached, Clara looked up from the path at him, smiling.

“William?” She said. “Is that you?”

“H-hey, Clara...” William muttered, his face going red, “...how’s it going...?”

“Very nice!” She said. “So, what’s new with you?”

“Nothing much...” William responded.

He fidgeted around with his hands a little bit. Clara narrowed her eyes and tipped her head off to one side.

“You okay?” She asked.

“...Y-yeah... I’m okay...”William responded. “...Anyway... I feel l-like... we haven’t really caught back up... since school, and whatnot...”

“Oh?” Clara asked. “What do you mean?”

The young man’s adrenaline was really kicking in, making him feel a bit dizzy.

“Whaddya say...” William began, “...y-you and I... go out for some... c-coffee, together...and just ch-chat, or something...?”

Clara frowned. “Uh... what now? Why would you ask me that?”

William began to panic. “No pressure... I was just c-curious... if you had some spare time...”

“Look, William...” Clara began, her tone growing firm, “...in case you didn’t realize,” she raised her left hand, revealing a golden ring, set with a diamond, on her fourth finger, “I’m already engaged. What is the matter with you?”

William froze, completely embarrassed. “...I-I... I didn’t realize...”

Clara’s gaze went narrow. “Well maybe you should use your eyes a little better! You should know better than to ask out a girl who’s already taken! Mark McDowell is my fiancée... and he was actually decent enough to take a loan for thousands of dollars, all so he could get me this beautiful, genuine diamond!”

William pursed his lips, his eyes falling downward. Mark was a person who, based on events at college, became a very distasteful person to him.

“Listen, I didn’t mean to offend you! That was never my intent! I was just...” he trailed off, getting increasingly frustrated as he realized what this meant, “...oh, forget it!” He started stomping back in the opposite direction. “I’m not even gonna try to... defend myself, or whatever!”

Clara was quite surprised by this outburst; she always knew William to be a fairly quiet, reserved, mild-mannered individual. All she could do was watch as he briskly ran back in the direction he came.

Shepondered for a moment, holding one wrist with the other hand. “Now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn’t have made it sound like I was scolding him...”

Upon making it back to his house, the sun had already set, and William sat in the middle of the floor of the living room. His head hung forward, his eyes squinted shut, as tears streamed down his face. Though it has been about two years since he last saw Clara, he still thought about her quite often, with her being his most recent crush. And to have her reveal to him that she was already engaged... it felt like a knife in his heart. He could feel an actual, stabbing pain in his chest.

The fact that she turned him down in such a condescending manner, and not even politely explained the situation to him... yeah, he immediately lost any respect he had for her in that moment. Also, that coupled with the fact that she flaunted her expensive jewelry to him... it only added to his feeling of low self-esteem, given that he was not in a successful career path at the moment.

William, only earning slightly more than minimum wage working at the bookstore, would most certainly not be able to afford a diamond ring, even if he did get a girlfriend he could eventually propose to. And it seemed most engaged girls around him judged their fiancées by the price of the ring, something he was utterly disgusted with.

"I mean... what the hell?" William said to himself. "Why is it a necessity for girls to take you seriously, in this society, by shelling out thousands of dollars...” he held up his fingers in a pinching position, “...on a little, tiny, stupid, fucking carbon crystal?! Why are the men expected to be the ones to pay for everything and be the initiators? I swear, America has become a low-key misandristic nation! It is driving me up the fucking wall!"

Also, there was the matter of her partner being Mark McDowell. This was the nail that really sealed the coffin...

(Flashback)

William sat in the corridor of the university’s art center, doing pencil-sketches in his sketchbook to pass time before class.All he did was just sit there, minding his own business, when trouble decided to confront him...

“Hey, pencil-bitch,” came a low, hardy voice.

William looked up to see Mark McDowell standing over him. Mark was your average jock, who kept his blonde hair pomaded and wore a varsity jacket over his bulky frame.

“Something I can do for you, Mark?” William asked.

“Yeah,” Mark said, bunching his hands into fists, “why don’t you do this campus a favor, and get your ass out of here?!”

"I guess you'd like me to tell the faculty about the things you're saying?" William asked.

"I'm not afraid of them..." Mark said, "...and I'm not afraid of you."

William narrowed his eyes. "Are you threatening me?"

“And your stupid-ass sketchbook...” Mark said, shifting his gaze to the item in question, “...you know you’re just wasting your time with that thing, right?”

“What’s it to you?” William asked. “I enjoy drawing things.”

Mark snatched the sketchpad out of William's hands. "This is shit!"

He began ripping the pages apart, scattering them all over the floor.William jumped from the bench, rushing forward to grab his sketchbook.

“What the hell are you DOING?!” He shrieked. “Give that back!”

But it was no use; Mark was too massive for him to overpower. Eventually, every page of the sketchbook was torn out of its binding, scatter across the floor.

“Maybe you should get a hobby that actually helps people around you!” Mark said, just before he walked off, laughing at his victim’s plight.

Defeated, William sunk to his knees, and started collecting the torn pages, putting them back in the sketchbook. He stopped to look at one that had been ripped in half, sighing sadly at how little people regarded his artistic talent.

“Why are creative people so persecuted...?” He said to himself.

As he stared, a faculty member happened to come out of a branching hallway, catching sight of William, and the scattered paper surrounding him.

“Hey!” They scolded. “Pick this up right now, and throw it away! You can’t go making a mess on this campus!”

“Huh?” William said, looking up at the university staff member. “O-oh! I didn’t do this, it was--”

“Don’t you dare lie!” The faculty member spoke.

Being reticent as he was, William held his tongue from there, and did as he was instructed. Needless to say... it was painful to be forced to throw away his freestyle sketches.

(End flashback)

At this point, William didn’t know what to do with himself. All he could do was just lay back, on the floor, letting his tears spill until he had none left then. Holding anything back would just destroy him inside, he knew. Right now, all he could do was left off his sorrow in the only way he knew how.

Since Clara had been engaged a short while ago, both her and Mark had quite a big engagement party. Many of their friends and family arrived for the occasion offering the couple their congratulations. Clara’s immediate family was especially enthusiastic about it.

“We can’t even begin to tell you how proud we are of you,” Clara’s mother said.

“Yep,” Clara’s father added, “so happy to see my little girl growing up.”

“Thanks,” Clara said.

“So...” Clara’s grandmother spoke up, “...I take it everything’s been going wonderfully since he proposed? You must be the happiest girl right now!”

“Oh, I am!” Clara responded, though promptly shifting her thought to a recent event. “But... there was one thing that happened a little bit ago.”

“What was that?” Clara’s mother asked.

“Well, see...” Clara began, “...there was this other guy, who I met in college... I met him for a short time, when I was out on a walk, and well... he tried to ask me out.”

Her family members fell silent, frowning.

“I told him off for not seeing my ring, but...” Clara trailed off, “...I’m beginning to feel bad about how I said it to him.”

“Well, he really should have known better,” Clara’s mother said. “A good gentleman would actually take the time to check before making any kind of move.”

Clara pondered for a moment. “But... why is that really necessary?”

"Because he doesn't respect what you want, and what you need," Clara's grandmother said. "So, he doesn't respect you. And because he doesn't respect you, that means he's a disrespectful young man."

"He's clearly no family man," Clara's father said. "He sounds like a young man who just doesn't have the capacity to start a family of his own, so that means he's got no moral compass. He's just a selfish, arrogant bastard who doesn't deserve your pity."

“Maybe you’re right...” Clara said, reluctantly.

Her family tried to convince her that she did the right thing, and that William was a terrible person, despite the fact that they never met him. Clara, despite not buying into this, simply played along with it... and after doing it long enough, started to believe the lie she was telling herself.

Clara and Mark were both congratulated many times by their friends and family throughout the party. They received many free gifts. It was truly a joyful time in their lives, and one they would never forget. Overall, everyone was very happy for them.

Well, almost everyone...

...For months after losing yet another crush without even having a chance with her, William wandered the streets aimlessly in his time off from work. He simply did not know what to do with himself.

His life became a nonstop loop of work, eat, sleep, repeat. He attempted to meditate, and channel his power to aid him in his endeavors... but due to the abundance of negative, discordant energy twisted up inside him, it would not work. Eventually, he stopped his sessions, and felt little motivation to do anything apart from staying in bed in his free time.

"I've done so much for everyone around me..." William said to himself as he laid in bed, looking up at the ceiling, "...and have asked for very little in return. I'm giving the world what it wants, so when is it going to give me what I want? I just want to give a girl my affection in return for hers, and that makes me a bad guy? It's extortion is what it is! Lots of men in this world... after a long, hard day at work, they come home to a wife cooking them dinner, who they can hug and kiss, cuddle with on the couch watching a good movie... having a child of their own to brighten their already-good life...

“...But me... I don’t even have any of that! I’m forced to stand on my own two feet without anyone readily able to offer me a hand... no one to always be here for me... to hold me... kiss me... no one to give me what is quite possibly the greatest genuine emotion ever... I could be a good husband... and a good father... if someone could just give me a God. Damn. Chance!”

It truly hurt him that people invalidated his feelings without rational justification or understanding how they actually affected him, telling him to "grow up," or "stop acting like a spoiled kid." It was not black-and-white like that. People told him "you need to love yourself before others do the same." The truth was... he did. He really prided himself on his skills and talent, but the one thing he desired above all else was pure, unconditional love from a young woman he had affection for.Not only that, but he didn’t buy such a notion without empirical evidence to back it up.

He, after all, was still a human being, with emotions.

It was frustrating that he did not know what he was doing wrong. How did all the other guys do it? They were able to get girls in their bed on the same day as meeting them! To someone in William’s predicament, by contrast, even so much as getting a girl’s phone number or home address deserved a victory lap around Arc de Triomphe.

There had been many nights where he dreamed about an alternate life he could have lived. While they were all different, they shared the same theme of him starting a new life with one of his crushes who, in the waking world, rejected him. The two then went on to get married and have children of their own, with William making a living as a professional artist. These dreams gave him great bliss, but they were often too much for his subconscious mind to handle in contrast with his stark reality, often resulting in William waking in the late hours of night, crying himself back to sleep at the realization that it was not real.

He tried to find solace in video games. Late at night, he would be sprawled on his couch in front of the TV, playing The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and Contra on his Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as occasionally playing his Atari 2600, having its own shoebox full of games. He also had a tendency to get lost in the worlds of interactive fiction on his Commodore 64, and had a habit of purchasing 3.5-inch floppy disks to write a personal diary about his life events, which he kept hidden in a lockbox.

“Kinda glad there’s not much to eat in this prefab I’m forced to call home...” William said to himself, blankly,as he sat on his couch, “...‘cause I really don’t have much of an appetite anymore.”

He was absently browsing through a shopping catalog, seeing what there could be available that he could treat himself to. After such a tragic turn of events, he believed he needed something to distract himself.

"Well... the new Game Boy will come out soon," William said to himself, reading through the catalog. "Might pick that up. Be kindanice, taking a portable video game console wherever you go."

Despite his optimism that technology and entertainment were becoming more contemporary... it was still not enough to get his mind off recent events, let alone one thing that has persisted all throughout his adolescence. He set the catalog off to one side, sulking as he was hit by another wave of melancholy, giving him the all-to-familiar sensation of physical heartache.

William sighed. “...Not even the best technology possible can ever replace genuine love from a girl...”

At that moment, the phone rang. He willed himself to stand and make his way over to answer it. He figured that maybe, as long as it's not someone he despises, talking to someone could help him feel a little better.

“Hello? William Schaeffer speaking,”he said into the landline.

“William?” Came a woman’s voice. “Hey, how are you doing?”

It was his mother. He did not expect her to call him out of the blue like this.

“Hmmm... a bit under the weather, to be honest,” William said.

“Oh, what’s wrong?” His mother said.

William sighed. “...You wouldn’t understand. But, with that said... I think I want to move away from Atlanta.”

“What?” His mother uttered. “Why’s that?”

“I just feel like I need a change of scenery,” William said. “This place just has... too many memories.”

His mother paused for a moment. “...And where will you go?”

"I've thought about moving out west," William said. "Nice and open out there. Colorado sounds like a good place, from what I've heard."

“Colorado?” His mother asked.

William nodded. "Plus, with the Rocky Mountains up there, they got good water."

“Well,” his mother spoke, “if that’s what you really want... the sky’s the limit.”

William did not expect her to call his bluff. “Really? You don’t mind?”

“William,” his mother said, “you’re an adult. You get to decide how you want to live. If you want to move, then by all means, you may do so!”

“Okay, thanks,” William said. “Is that all?”

“Yes,” his mother said, “I just hadn’t heard from you in a while, and was wondering how everything was.”

Only partly grateful for her (misplaced) concern, William only talked with her a short while longer, before finally ending the call. If he hadn’t lost some respect for his mother for failing to stop Jack from mistreating him, she sure did from this call. She didn’t even ask him about what was wrong; she was more concerned with where he wanted to move.

I guess I was a fool to think sympathy exists in this world, William thought. Does EVERY PERSON in my life have the combined empathetic capacity of a BEAN? There’s no solace, no pity, no ANYTHING!

Despite being able to find some happiness in the world... there was still a void left within him that could never seem to be filled. He knew, deep down, that the only way to fulfill that yearning was to find a romantic partner. However... he had no clue where to begin.

Many of his interpretations of love came from romance stories, like books and movies. Given how everything was turning out for him, however... he began to wonder if such love really did only exist in fiction stories?

After a great deal of spending too much time inside, stewing in self-pity, William willed himself to go outside, and walk around. Hopefully, the release of endorphins from it would help him feel better.Since he had been through the route he took many times since he was very young... it always made him reminisce about the ‘70s... such a more innocent, happier time for him... at least, the first half of the decade.

Prior to his adolescence, William lived a modest, but overall happy lifestyle. The friends he used to have... the games he played... the things he did... it all made him wish he could turn back the clock. He wanted to go to a time before the world would chew him up and spit him out, starting with his parents’ divorce ten years ago.

As he walked, William spotted a single milkweed plant growing amid the dry grass, green and lush with orange, blossoming buds. It stood out strongly from its surroundings.He then took a brief detour, walking right up to the milkweed, stopping right in front of it.

“Well, just look at you,” William said to the plant. “Green and growing in this harsh, dry earth. Getting by all on your own, with no other plants to share some symbiosis?”

Of course, with how disconnected he felt from the people around him, and how dire the state of his wellbeing was from low income, William saw quite a lot of himself in the flowering weed.

“Yeah, you’re just like me,” William said. “You and I... we’re stronger than most others of our kind in that regard; learning how to carry on without the aid of others, in a hostile world. You may not look like it... but you’re a badass.”

He was about to continue on his way, trying to salvage any motivation he could from the sight of a plant growing against the odds... when he spotted yet another interesting thing. There was a golden glint of light that caught his eye, and when he made his way over, saw that it was a fairly large book, like a textbook. It looked like an ancient tome, with golden accents on a brown, faux-leather binding.

"Huh?" William uttered. "What's this?"

He picked the book up, noticing it was locked shut. It felt a bit lighter than it looked, strangely. Noticing a slip of parchment sticking out, he tugged at it to reveal a note. He kneeled down and flattened it to read it clearly:

-DANGEROUS CREATURE INSIDE! DO NOT OPEN!-

“ ‘Dangerous creature’? In a book?” William said to himself. “Probably a story somebody found to be sacrilegious or something.”

His previous thoughts slightly swayed off, William carried the tome with him back in the direction he came. As he approached his home, however, he saw an all-too-familiar pickup truck parked in front of his place. Walking toward him from it was...

“Oh... Jack...” William muttered to himself.

His stepfather stopped only a few feet away from him, staring daggers. “Where the hell have you been?” His eyes then shifted to the tome in William's hands. “And what’s that?”

William shrugged. “Found it?”

Jack folded his arms. "Don't you know you're not supposed to take things that don't belong to you?"

“Yeah...” William said, “...but that only applies to things you know are owned.”

“Well, maybe you need to start paying a little more attention to your surroundings to know these things!” Jack retorted. “You can’t just grab things as you feel! You understand that leads to trouble, right?”

"What are you saying?" William asked.

"I'm saying..." Stephan spoke, "...you need to put that book back where you found it! I don't wanna see that thing in your possession again!"

Thinking quickly, William decided to come up with a compromise to throw off Jack.

“Okay,” William said. “I’ll drop it off at the closest lost-and-found to where I found it, once I get the chance.”

“Damn straight, you will!” Jack said. “And let’s not forget... you still have some work to do for me! You’re on thin ice, young man...”

He then went on to lecture William about needing him for picking up landscaping supplies, which he later expected him to help out with. William knew quite well what would happen if he refused... but in all honesty, he was beginning to wonder if all this effort was even worth it, since his mother seemed to side more with her new husband instead of her own son, let alone that, back when he told her he was upset whenever he was rejected, she always told him he was acting spoiled.

Once Jack left, William went inside his house, not even giving the least bit of regard to Jack’s orders. He carried the tome inside, setting it on his coffee table.

“Now, to get this thing open...” he said to no one in particular.

He briefly left to his office, and returned with the necessary tool he needed to open the latching mechanism on the large book.

"Let's crack open this oyster, and see if she's got a pearl," William said, opening his spring-assisted knife.

He slipped the blade into the latch, and applied torque in an attempt to leverage it open. After a few second of pulling back, snapped the mechanism open. Since it broke, it would not be able to lock again, but that was of no concern to him. After opening the tome, William began flipping through the pages. His eyebrows came down.

"Huh?" He uttered. "What's with this book? It's completely blank!"

William stood and went to his office. He returned with a battery-powered blacklight.

"Maybe it's written with invisible ink?" He asked himself.

The young man flicked on the revealer, and held the dark-purple bulb up to the pages... yet they still yielded no print of any kind.

"Hm, nope," William said, switching the blacklight off. "Gotta say... I don't get it."

He picked up the handwritten label, looking over it yet again.

"Why would someone put a warning label on it? Unless, maybe it's someone's idea of a joke..."

He placed his hand flush on the page, and then something began to happen. A glowing, golden aura outlined the pages, and a humming noise began emanating from the book.His eyes went wide.

“What the hell...?” He uttered.

Picking up the book, he peered into the glowing pages. It seemed like he could almost make out something, very faintly, within them. He could make out what appeared to be a wide, open landscape, gradually coming into view. As this happened, the book glowed brighter, increasing in luminosity, until the whole room was filled with blinding white light.

After a moment, the light promptly dimmed away, and the book fell to the floor with a thud... but William had disappeared completely, leaving only his shallow foot indentations in the carpet.

Ch. 4 - A New Frontier

William felt like he was floating for a brief moment... and then came a new sensation.

“...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH...!” He shrieked.

William was falling, from high up in the sky, toward a green, grassy landscape, covered in trees, large boulders, lakes, and rivers. The sky was blue and crisp, with some silvery, puffy clouds in the sky. However, he had no time to admire the view, given how quickly he was plummeting.

As he got closer to the ground, however... it seemed like he was slowing down. His fall continuously reduced in speed, the momentum vanishing, until he came to almost a hover, inches from the ground.Carefully, he planted his feet on the grass, and his gravity was fully restored.

Once he got his bearings, William glanced around, taking in the place he was swept off to, having just been in his living room a few seconds ago.

“Wow...” William whispered in awe, looking around, “...what is this place?”

It looked very similar to someplace that might exist on earth, but a great deal about it felt... alien. It was too perfect, with no signs of exposed dirt or dying vegetation.There was also no noticeable infrastructure. It was bright out, partly-cloudy day... and the strange thing was how large the sun was, and the fact that it was proportionately dimmer, rather than the blinding point in the sky he knew as the sun.

Slowly, he took a few steps forward, and directly behind him after he cleared the area he landed in, was a spiraling beam of light, emanating directly upward. William looked at its zenith point, revealing what appeared to be a hole in the sky, outlined by a golden halo.

“Must be the hole I fell through...” he said, before looked at the light column, “...and must be the way back to it, if I want to leave, I guess.”

Assuming he would still be able to see it at a long distance, he set off to explore the new world he landed in.

Cocoon sat near the edge of a cliffside, staring out at the distant horizon as the wind blew her mane majestically. Without any interaction from other beings, she resorted to letting her mind freely wander the universe, in such a way that seemed like she was blanking out.

After a little while of doing this, however... she caught wind of something. A curious, unknown scent snapped her back to reality. She sniffed the oncoming air.

“Hm?” She hummed. “Wonder what that could be?”

Cocoon stood up from her spot, flapping her wings, and started gliding down the mountain she was on, in the direction of the scent she caught.She made sure to sniff every so often to confirm she was on the trail.

William kept on his trek, but keeping an eye on the portal he came through to ensure he would not get lost. This place was beautiful, he thought, but it still did not make much sense, what happened that led him here.

“Am I in Narnia or something?” William asked no one in particular.

As he continued to hike... little was he aware that he was being watched. Cocoon happened to have followed his scent right to him, and was now stalking him from a higher plane a short distance away from the trail he walked. She stared, dumbstruck, at the being she saw.

“What kind of creature is that?” She whispered to herself. “What is it doing here?”

Carefully, she hovered down from her hiding spot, a few meters behind William. From there, she made her way closer to him. Assuming he was sentient like she was, Cocoon assumed he might be able to understand her language.

“Hello?” She spoke.

The young man froze for a moment, not expecting to hear a voice. Upon turning to the source of the sound... he caught sight of the changeling queen. His eyes went wide and his jaw fell open.

“GAH!” William shrieked, falling and shuffling back. “Wh-what are you...?!”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” The creature said. “I didn’t mean to frighten you!”

“Y-you... can speak English?” William asked.

“English?” Cocoon asked, tipping her head slightly off to one side. “Where I come from, my language is known as ‘Equestrian.’ ”

Slowly, William stood back up, realizing that this creature was not of any threat. Its voice sounded female. She had a black, sleek, quadrupedal body, with seams that made it resemble arthropod chitin. Her eyes were a deep mint-green, with light-teal sclerae, and vertically-slitted pupils like a cat or lizard. Her hair and tail were fairly wavy, and a rich jade-green, and they almost made her look like a horse, particularly with the fact that she had a muzzle. However, she had a long, protruding horn, like a unicorn, and insectoid wings upon what looked like a dark-aqua dorsal carapace. There were also cavities straight through the lower halves of her legs.

Cocoon examined this strange, bipedal creature she just discovered. He lacked fur, but had a patch of chocolate-brown hair covering his scalp, a clean-shaven face, and fair skin. He was tall and thin, wearing garments that adorned most everything below his neck. He also had vibrant green eyes... and for some reason she couldn’t explain, those eyes were just absolutely mesmerizing to her, quite bizarre for a being on par with an alien to her. By far, his extremities were the most bizarre, each having five separate sub-extremities that seemed to work in unison, for grasping and holding things.

“I’m simply wondering...” Cocoon began, “...how did you get here?”

William shook his head slightly. “I have no idea. I just opened up an old book I found, and well... here I am.”

“I see,” Cocoon said, mulling over how he just described it. “And, if I may ask, who are you?”

“M-my name is William,” the young man introduced himself. “William Schaeffer.”

“A pleasure, William Schaeffer,” the female insectoid said. “My name is Queen Cocoon, and well... I am the sole inhabitant of this realm.”

Well, good thing she’s polite, William thought. I’d hate to end up in a world with a REAL monster...

He walked forward, making his way around Cocoon, trying to get a better look at her. Needless to say, he was quite curious about her, never having come across anything like her before.

“Now...” William began, “...I’m not trying to be rude, but... what exactly are you?”

“I’m a changeling queen,” Cocoon said.

“Changeling?” William asked. “As in, like... a shapeshifter? I don’t believe you.”

“But I am!” Cocoon said.

William folded his arms. “Prove it.”

Cocoon nodded, her mouth curling into a slight grin. “Very well...”

There was a flash of green light, and before the human’s eyes, the changeling queen transformed into a spitting image of Princess Celestia. She then narrowed her eyes smugly.

“Believe me now?” The white alicorn spoke in Cocoon’s voice.

William, speechless and paralyzed, was barely able to nod to convey his shattered skepticism. However, he was able to quickly recover, just as Cocoon took her default form once more.

“Quite impressive, right?” Cocoon asked.

“Oh, definitely!” William said. “You some kind of... mythological creature, or something?”

Cocoon giggled. “I must say, William Schaeffer, you are a rather funny... er... whatever you are!”

“Human,” William corrected her. “My species are called humans.”

“Of course,” Cocoon acknowledged. “That makes things easier for us.”

She then glanced around for a moment.

“Anyway, what’s say we head on back to my place for now? It’s not far,” Cocoon said.

“Oh, sure,” William said. “Could use a bit of downtime, to be honest...”

With that, both the human and changeling queen set off back to the latter’s residence. On the walk to the place Cocoon lived, William decided to keep the conversation going.

“So, like... have you always lived inside this tome?” He asked.

Cocoon frowned, hanging her head. “Not always. There was something that happened... something rather depressing that led me here.”

“Oh...” William said, “...well, if it’s any consolation, Your Majesty, I’ve been going through a tough time, myself.”

“That’s rather unfortunate,” Cocoon said. “And also, you may address me by my given name. There’s no need to be so formal with me. Besides... I have no kingdom to even rule over.”

William narrowed his eyes, glancing about as the two walked. “So then, why are you called ‘Queen?’ ”

“It has to do with my particular caste,” Cocoon said.

“So, there’s more of your kind?” William asked.

“There are,” Cocoon said, before a sad look filled her eyes. “But unfortunately... there are none here with me. They are all back in my native realm, where I was banished from.”

“Banished?” William asked.

“It was my older sister, Queen Chrysalis,” Cocoon explained. “She had a strong desire to rule over our hive... even to the point of driving me out by any means necessary. But she is cruel, she’s a tyrant. She will go to any lengths to get what she wants, potentially reigning over the hive with an iron hoof,” she sighed sadly. “I can only imagine what she is doing to all the drones I only wanted the best for...”

Not wanting to have her dwell on the matter too much, William changed the topic to some benign, trivial topics for the remainder of the walk. It took about a quarter of an hour for them to get to where they were going, before eventually they came upon Cocoon’s residence. It comprised of what looked like a regular house, not unlike one William was familiar with from his world.

The house was two stories, with visible basement windows, and slightly larger than what would be considered average in Atlanta. To Cocoon, however, having lived in a large hive structure, it was quite a bit quainter. She simply had to resort to use of information she could pull from whatever dimension she wound up in to create a place of living.

“Not much,” Cocoon said, “but... it’s what I call home.”

William grinned as he gazed over the two-story house. “It’s much better than what I’ve got...”

“It took a few weeks' worth of magic rationing just to build this,” Cocoon said. “And that was just from sticking with conjuring the essentials, like food and dishes. Water, I can simply boil after getting from the nearby river.”

“Magic...?” William asked.

“My kind can use magic,” Cocoon said. “It’s what I used to transform, remember?”

“Oh, right,” William said upon recollection of what happened a short while ago.

The two made their way inside, which yielded a nice entry lounge with minimalist decorations. There were leather sofas and chairs, along with a coffee tables and matching end tables, as well as a cabinet that held a large CRT television. William immediately liked her home, given how more substantial and spacious it was compared to his prefabricated house.

“So, is there anything I could get you?” Cocoon offered.

“That was quite a walk over here,” William said. “I could use something to drink.”

“Sure!” Cocoon said, making her way into the kitchen.

The kitchen was quite elaborate and nice, with numerous pantries, spice racks, breadboxes, gas stoves and ovens, and even a wood oven. Cocoon made her way over to the wet bar.

“Do you have a preferred beverage, William?” Cocoon asked.

William pondered for a moment. “...Some tea would be nice.”

“Of course!” Cocoon said. “What kind?”

“Could you make, um... Earl Grey, by chance?” William requested. “It’s my favorite.”

“Indeed, I can,” Cocoon said, nodding. “I’ll heat up some water for it.”

From there, Cocoon filled a stainless kettle with water from the bar’s tap, putting it on the nearby stove to heat up. From there, she pulled open a fairly large sliding cabinet, filled with various teas, such as varieties of white, green, oolong, and black, just to name a few. At William’s request, she pulled out the Earl Grey jar. She scooped out enough for both of them, since she decided to have some herself.

Once the kettle started whistling, Cocoon already finished putting the tea blend into a filter for a teapot. From there, she poured the hot water over the tea, filling the pot. After letting it soak and cool for a moment, she then brought the teapot over to the table, where she had two mugs already prepared for herself and her guest. William was already at the table, seated in front of his own cup.

With his tea poured first, William raised the mug in front of his face, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath of the Earl Grey aroma, before taking a sip.

“How is it?” Cocoon asked, pouring some for herself.

“Mmmm,” William hummed, just before swallowing his drink. “Really good! It’s even better than the store-bought stuff I’ve got in my pantry.”

Cocoon closed her eyes with a warm smile, tilting her head slightly. “It makes me so happy to hear such a compliment!”

And so, the two simply chatted while they drank their tea. For both of them... this was quite a welcoming experience, particularly with the way they both had to live their lives lately.

“I must admit,” Cocoon began, “it’s truly splendid, to finally interact with another sentient being, after being banished for so long. I’m so glad to have met you, William.”

“So, like...” William began, setting his mug down, “...why don’t you leave this tome, Cocoon? There’s a portal I came through.”

Cocoon frowned. “...It is because I was branded with a Banishing Rune.”

The changeling queen raised her right hoof, showing a strange, Celtic-looking symbol on what was the equivalent of the back of the palm. It was gray, slightly lighter than her chitin.

“It is a cursed mark,” Cocoon explained, “and so long as it remains imprinted on me, I shall be incapable of leaving this tome through that portal.”

“Have you tried to find ways to remove it?” William asked.

“Indeed, I have,” Cocoon said. “However, it is difficult when one is lacking sufficient amount of magic power needed to access knowledge of magic from my home universe.”

William paused, not knowing what to say. He could hardly comprehend the fact that magic existed, let alone how it worked. There was an awkward silence for a moment as he thought about it all.

“...I’m really sorry, Cocoon,” William said. “Hard to imagine what you’ve been through.”

“Also,” Cocoon said, “you mentioned that you’ve been undergoing a harrowing experience yourself earlier. Would you, mayhaps, like to talk about it? Get it all out in the open with me?”

“Oh, where to begin...” William said, laying back against his chair, “...for one thing, my father is away from home a lot, serving in the United States Navy. My mother got fed up with it, and well... she filed for divorce. Since then, well... communication with my father dwindled with the rest of my family. But,he is still able to contact me every now and then... but still not often enough.”

Cocoon’s eyes widened as she listened to him.

“My mother later remarried...but, it was to this prick named Jack Poole.He’s just the absolute worst man you could imagine. I feel like he just hates me because I’m living proof that my mother’s been ‘taken’ before him. He abused me all throughout my adolescence, making me feel completely inadequate by criticizing me at every moment he could. He even resort to beating me on occasion, sometimes with a belt.Mom, sadly, never lifted a finger to stop him; I guess she was always upset from the time Dad left...”

The changeling queen’s mouth fell open as William kept speaking.

“In school, I was bullied quite a lot. In retrospect... I can see why. Thing is, I’m fairly quiet and introverted, not to mention, well... timid. I didn’t have the willpower to stand up for myself. And, well... I was pushed around and taken advantage of. Nobody offered to help me... and that just made me feel betrayed by everyone.”

“Oh, William...” Cocoon said, quietly.

“And...” William readied himself to confess to his new friend, blushing slightly, “...I’ve never been able to... ask out any girls I’m interested in.I swear... every single time I’ve mustered up the courage to ask them, they turn me down. It could be for any reason, but the two most popular are ‘I’m taken,’ or ‘I’m not interested’...”

The dining room was completely silent, with the human and changeling queen both lost in thought.

“I...” Cocoon broke the silence, “...I never would’ve imagined... the first being to access my prison world... would have gone through much more than I have.”

“I don’t know,” William said. “Being alone for a good, long while... that doesn’t sound so good either.”

“But still,” Cocoon spoke up, “I can’t imagine being around a great many people who hold you in such disdain. It must be awful trying to get by, day by day. William... if you ever need emotional support, just know that I am now an available option.

William smiled. “Thanks, Cocoon. You make me glad that I stumbled upon the tome that brought me here.”

Cocoon’s stomach growled. She rubbed it just before looking at William.

“...I’m hungry,” she said, softly.

William stood from his seat. “Should we prepare a meal, then?”

Cocoon, instead of responded, stood from her own chair, walking over to her human visitor. She wrapped a foreleg around him, resting her head on his shoulder.

“Just hold me close, William...” Cocoon said, softly, “...it’ll feed me.”

William was caught a bit off guard by this sudden move. However, given that she actually sympathized with him... he actually felt quite compelled to return the hug. Closing his eyes, he held his arms behind the lower of her neck, gently running his fingers through her mane. As time passed... he absently tuned out everything, focused solely on the embrace he shared with the changeling queen, as though he were hypnotized.

“Hmmm...” Cocoon hummed, smiling with her eyes closed, “...your hug... oh, this feels so nice...it is so nourishing...”

“So is yours,” William whispered in her ear.

They held each other for a good, long while, paying little regard to the passage of time, before eventually, they summoned the will to let each other go, staring at each other.

“...That was nice,” William said, “but... where did it come from?”

Cocoon nervously shuffled her hooves for a moment. “See... my species feed on the positive emotional energy from other beings. While food can keep us going... it’s that positive energy that really fuels us and gives us the ability to use magic more effectively.”

“Really?” William asked. “I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“Well, now that I have more energy from your positive emotions...” Cocoon said, glancing around, “...I’ll be able to improve my place of living much faster!”

“That’s good to hear,” William said, nodding once.

“Yes,” Cocoon said. “I must really thank you, William Schaeffer... you truly made me feel happy once more, after a bleak fate.”

William shrugged, grinning. “It’s the least I could do. And I only hope to do more of just that for you, now that I’m here.”

The two continued to have a conversation, delving really deep into their inner thoughts and worries about how they came to be where they were, before the sun began to set, and William figured he should head back to the real world and get settled in for the night.

“The magical whirlwind should be able to easily lift you back up to the tome portal,” Cocoon said as William made his way to the front door of her house.

“Thank you, Cocoon,” William said to the changeling queen. “I really needed this.”

Cocoon nodded. “As did I.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, after I get off work,” William said, waving.

Cocoon smiled, closing her eyes and tipping her head off to one side. “I’ll be waiting!”

“Great! See you around!” William said, opening the door and stepping out.

“And William...” Cocoon said, making the young man look back at her, “...don’t ever think that you’re worthless or undeserving of anyone’s time. Because, well... you really are a special person, and it only took one afternoon of open conversation for me to know that.I truly feel like your stepfather and boss should really have the courtesy to listen to you.”

William was quite surprised at just how effective being open with someone about your problems could be in finding the root cause, and possible solutions. In any case, he gave a final wave to his new, nonhuman friend.

“Thanks, Cocoon,” he said.

Cocoon waved back. “And thank you, William.”

With that, William set off on the trail that would lead directly back to the tome portal. It was still perfectly visible from Cocoon’s house, despite being a distance away. It seemed like a lengthy distance to walk, but for a new friend... he’d go the distance anyday. After another good quarter of an hour, William made it to the whirling light column directly nadir to the portal, and upon stepping into it, felt his feet leave the ground as he ascended with a slow, counterclockwise spin.

He took in the lovely evening view, the world rotating around him, as he ascended back to the portal he passed through only a few hours ago. A world this beautiful and perfect... it was only fitting in contrast of the stark and unforgiving world he came from... the former he wished to visit every day for the remainder of his life now.

Ch. 5 - Aurora, Starlight, and Moonlight

It had been a very tedious week after William’s first encounter with Queen Cocoon... however, it was that very interaction that helped him cope much better with the strenuous workload he was given. Whenever he had a bad time, the changeling queen was always there to hear him out and console him, as he started to make it a habit to visit her regularly.

And, as it just so happened, feeding on the trust and happiness she induced in him fueled Cocoon’s magic, giving her the ability to expand her residence into a fairly large mansion, now. It also allowed her more control over how the landscape looked, so she decided to give it a more lively view, with some landmarks visible from the hilltop.

Given enough time and magic, she would be able to create artificial beings to populate towns and cities she could conjure, just so she would not feel so alone in William’s absence. However, she would need to save up quitea bit of power to do just that. Still, with how often he visited, she knew it would not be too long for that.

This was definitely something William wanted to record in his personal digital logbook.

In his office one day, he stuck the GEOS floppy disk into his C64's drive, booted up the computer, and input the ever-familiar load command:

LOAD"*",8,1

From there, he waited for the OS to compile, and the GUI appeared shortly. From there, he opened up a new text document, a 3.5 inch floppy disk already in the secondary drive to store it. Since these floppy disks were generally limited to about one megabyte, he tried to keep all his entries brief. In any case, he decided to write out his log in the “special” category, being longer than normal:

September 4, 1989

For a little while, I’d been stuck in a rut, putting quite a bit of distance between this entry and the previous. I experienced yet another rejection, which, like all others before it, hurt worse than the last. However, it seems that I might not have to keep putting up with it, as I’ve experienced a major turn of events.

I’ve discovered a mystical tome that can teleport me to an amazing new world! And in this world... there is only the kindest, most empathetic living being I have ever met. She is an equine-insectoid called a “changeling,” named Queen Cocoon. After spending a great deal of time with her, having meals, watching movies, and playing games, I can safely say that we are excellent friends, which is good for her, having been trapped in that world all alone for a while.

It’s strange... but I feel like I’ve been getting a little TOO attached to her. It almost feels like I’m getting certain... *feelings* for her. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I don’t want to lose her, or make myself look like a creep. In any case, things are going MUCH better now. I can’t even begin to describe how fortunate I feel when fate lent me her hand, for once.

William completed yet another long shift at work, clocking out and making his way to the nearby café for a quick cup of coffee before he would visit his changeling friend. After receiving a dark frappe, he took a seat at an outdoor table. As he sat, sipping his coffee, he could not help but keep thinking about his massive stroke of luck the day he found the magic tome that held Cocoon.

She had become practically all William could think about, every moment of his waking life, and sometimes his dreams, too.His train of thought was derailed, however, when a café patron spoke to him.

“Is this seat taken?” The person asked.

It was a blonde, young man, with an athletic build, wearing a collared, black shirt, and dark-blue denim jeans. He had a strong German accent.

“...Huh? Pardon?” William said, disoriented from snapping back to reality.

“Is it alright if I sit here?” He said. “Just felt like I could maybe chat? I promise I’m not weird or crazy.”

Pondering for a moment, William looked back up at the blonde person. “...Sure, go ahead.”

And so, the young man took a seat at the table. “I’m James, by the way.”

“Name’s William,” William introduced himself.

“Come here often?” James asked.

“Occasionally...” William said, trailing off as he diverted his gaze in the direction of his home.

James raised a brow. “You alright?”

“Hm?” William snapped his gaze back to him. “Yeah, why?”

“Well,” James began, “you just seem a bit... distracted.”

William took a breath. “To be honest... I kinda am.”

“How so?” James asked.

“Well,” William said, “after going through a streak of misfortune... I discovered something recently that’s completely ended my mundane and boring lifestyle, giving me something to look forward to at the end of each day.”

“Oh yeah?” James asked. “Like what?”

William pursed his lips briefly. “...You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me,” James urged.

William wondered if it was wise to tell a complete stranger about what he discovered.

“Why are you so interested all of a sudden?”He asked.

James angled his head forward slightly. “Because... it’s just something I’ve dedicated my life to. Whenever I see someone suffering, whether physically, emotionally, or otherwise, I just want to do everything in my capacity to help them. And you seem like someone in great need of help concerning uncertainty.”

“Well...” William began, thinking, “...if you’re really curious, maybe you’d like to visit my place, and see for yourself what I mean?”

“Of course,” James said. “Be nice to actually acquaint myself with others from this country.”

William raised his eyebrows. “You must be from... Germany, I take it?”

“Ja,” James said with a nod. “I believe my accent gave it away?”

William also nodded, “...Ja, you got it.”

Once the two spent a good amount of time chatting about their overall lifestyles, and becoming somewhat familiar,William wrote down his home address for James, and he parted with the foreigner. From there, got back in his car, and drove on home. As always, for the past week, he had always been looking forward to this part of the day, when he would visit Cocoon in her ever-growing residence.

Of course, he got to thinking about what James told him. Apparently, he served in the German military for years. This surprised William, given how young James looked. Then again, maybe there existed people who just didn’t age until it was time? Well, as it happened, his theory about this was partially correct...

The drive gave him time to reminisce of the times, long ago, when he felt this way, back in the innocent years of his early childhood. Somehow, Cocoon was able to give him the optimism to relive what he felt during that time. To think, someone like him, who grew bitter and passively spiteful of the world, would end up getting such a great turn of events... it was almost unthinkable.

From the bustling, small commercial region, through the quiet, sleepy suburbs where William’s house resided, the drive back itself was not something he was actively focused on. The thought of spending more time with Cocoon was his main and only concern in that moment.

Come to think of it, he began to wonder how people would react if they learned about what he found. Would the tome be confiscated? Sent to a laboratory to investigate and study? Would he ever be allowed to see his new friend again? Would everyone be envious of what he found? Would they consider him outlandish or deviant? He didn’t know, and in all honesty... he didn’t care, since this was something he would most certainly keep a secret from the general populace.

Once he made it back to his house and parked his car, he picked up his letters from the mailbox, quickly sifting through them to see if there was anything requiring immediate attention. Fortunately, there wasn’t, so... he made his way around the house, discreetly pulling down all the shades, and making sure the coast was clear.

From there, he pulled Cocoon’s prison tome off the bookshelf in his office, putting his hand flush on the page, passing through it, and into the artificial world. He fell down the magical whirlwind, and came to a halt just short of the ground, and followed the marked trail to Cocoon’s mansion. The sun was setting, now a deep, rich scarlet, giving the sky a lovely red-violet color that complimented the abundant stars that slowly faded in.

“Wow...” William remarked, taking in the new tone of the world, “...Cocoon definitely picks out the best look for her realm.”

Eventually, he made it to Cocoon’s home, seeing that she really lavished the outdoor surroundings as well, expanding the lot accordingly, conjuring a lush, green lawn, elegantly-trimmed bushes, and even some stone horse statues and a fountain. A black-powder-finished metal fence surrounded the refurbished property, with a swinging gate at the front walkway. William opened it up and let himself in.

Cocoon sat in a swinging chair at the top of the stoop, where, upon seeing him approach, stood and brightened her facial expression, after a long day of waiting for him.

“You’re finally here!” She said, happily.

“Yeah,” William said. “Just took a brief detour for some coffee... but I still made it!”

Cocoon opened the front door, beckoning him inside. “Come in, I just prepared some dinner for the two of us.”

“Excellent!” William said. “Could use a bite to eat.”

With that, they went inside to retrieve their meal from the kitchen, bringing their filled plates back to the dining table. The changeling queen had taken the liberty of preparing an exquisite salmon meuniere for them, as well as fusilli in a basil pesto sauce, steamed broccoli with chives, and hot, buttered corn.

“Wow, you really went all out,” William remarked once they were seated.

“Anything for you, Willy,” Cocoon responded.

William stopped short of picking up his fork, looking back at her a moment. “...What did you call me?”

“Is it okay if I call you Willy?” Cocoon asked, a big, stupid smile on her face, with her pupils wide and sparkly, and her head angled down.

This was one thing that William learned he was quite vulnerable to: Cocoon doing anything to make him adore her and heed her requests. He could not help it. With the overall cartoony appearance she had, it only added to the effect.

Why is a horse-bug like her So. Damn. Cute? He thought.

Letting out a brief, dry laugh through his nose, William nodded. “Sure, you’re more than welcome to call me Willy, if you want.”

“Thanks!” Cocoon said, closing her eyes and grinning, showing all her teeth. “Anyhow, how was your day?”

William sighed after swallowing his mouthful of food. “Bland and depressing, as per usual. Customers harassing me... boss scolding me...you know the drill.”

“I’m so sorry,” Cocoon said. “But, hey, there’s always a silver lining to everything... you get to come and see me every day when you leave that accursed job you work.”

“Yeah,” William said, “I’m glad that there’s someone who actually listens to, and understands, me.”

Cocoon nodded. “It’s only because you have interesting things to say, Willy. Sadly... most just don’t seem decent enough to listen.”

The two of them continued to eat, discussing mainly what they’ve been doing in their personal time, away from each other.William often inquired Cocoon about what she learned about their word through her magical dimensional perception, and it seemed like she was really interested in learning Earth’s history (though, when she mentioned this, she remarked “you humans sure do fight a lot in your world,” to which William, flustered, agreed).

Before long, though, the two of them finished their dinner, and Cocoon simply made their used plates, silverware, and drinking glasses vanish with a simple spell.

“Oh, that was excellent,” William said as he took a seat on a sofa in the massive living room.

“I concur,” Cocoon said, laying right next to him. “It’s all thanks to the energy you provide me, with your sense of caring alone, that gives me the ability to magically prepare such refined culinary.”

“I’m glad I could help out in that regard...” William grasped his arms, tense. “...I just hope word of what I’m doing doesn’t necessarily... spread among the people living in the city I do.”

“Why’s that?” Cocoon asked.

“I may have...” William trailed off, “...hinted about you to someone, when he realized I was having some problems.”

Cocoon stared straight ahead for a moment.

“Don’t worry,” William said, “he seemed trustworthy.”

Cocoon squinted, glancing around. “But... how can you be sure?”

Just as he took a breath to speak, William paused for a moment. “...I’m not sure, but... something about him just seemed... like the kind of person who’d be willing to keep secrets. I know he was sincere, in the way he spoke while we were talking.”

“Hmmm...” Cocoon hummed.

“Think you’d be willing to accept a new person here?” William asked.

Cocoon, after some thought, nodded. “Given how I’ve been alone for a while, I’m open to having more visitors. And, even if he isn’t willing to keep the secret, it won’t be a problem. I could simply wipe his memories of you and me.”

“Oh,” William said, eyes wide in realization. “Well, that makes things easier.”

“And Willy...” Cocoon said, “...I think what you did, accepting the assistance from another, was actually a good thing. One thing to keep in mind, is that many working in cooperation are the ones who achieve the greatest things. By shutting yourself off from the world for so long, you deprived yourself of that.”

“I only wish I could offer something in return...” William trailed off.

Cocoon put a hoof to his mouth, shaking her head. “Your concern for me alone is more than sufficient.”

William smiled again. “So glad I have such an ability for your kind. Also... it just so happens that I have a certain ability, which I think you could benefit from as well.”

“You do?” Cocoon asked.

“Yes,” William said. “I have something that is sort akin to what you would call magic, but not quite on the same par. Basically, with intense focus, and channeling my chi, I’m able to achieve a level of influence on the fabric of reality, in which I can make situational probability favor me for a better outcome. And I can even do the same for other people.”

“Really?” Cocoon said. “That sounds rather interesting! I thought you told me that humans don’t have magic, though.”

“Well, to be fair, ‘magic’ is kind of a bad way to describe it,” William said. “I’d call refer to it more as a ‘metaphysical ability.’ Plus, it requires positive emotions in order to work. Because of this... it’s never worked in times of despair, which is, ironically, the time when I needed it most.”

“Well,” Cocoon spoke, “I feel like, if you ever need to use it now... you need think only of the happy times we’ve had, as well as the ones to come.”

“To think...” William began, “...a week ago, I thought I was just a twenty-four-year-old loser who didn’t have any hope for a future. And then, by sheer luck, I found your world-tome, and now I finally feel like, with you, Cocoon, I’ve got a good life ahead of me. And, of course... I never thought my ability alone made me special.”

“It didn’t make you feel special?” Cocoon asked.

“Thing is...” William said, “...I’ve come across other people with special abilities. One girl I met could catch accurate glimpses of the near-future... but usually without context. And an athlete from my grade-school class could channel his chi into others to give them a stamina boost when needed, through physical contact; holding their shoulder was his preferred method, disguising it as an encouraging speech. And there was a girl I met could eliminate short-term memories of other people pertaining to her, if those memories are unfavorable.”

Cocoon raised her eyebrows. “Wow... so do all humans have these kinds of abilities?”

William shook his head. “From what I gathered, we make up a very small percentage of the human population, kinda like a fictional mutant hero team, from comic books in my world, called the ‘X-Men.’ I inherited my power from my father’s side of the family. But we do exist... and try to keep a low profile, lest others call us delusional or crazy.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Cocoon said. “If only your people could embrace these abilities of the gifted few... just think of the difference you could make for the world around you.”

“I just wonder how I could make a big difference in the lives of others...” William said.

“I know your power could make a big difference to me,” Cocoon said.

The changeling queen immediately stood from the sofa, making her way out of the lounge area, but briefly turning back to William.

“Come up to the observation balcony with me...” she said, walking toward the stairwell, “...there’s something I want you to see.”

She then led William up to the rooftop of the mansion, at its highest accessible point. Upon exiting the door to the railed platform... William was met with a majestic night sky, thick with green, blue, and violet aurora among the abundant, bright stars. Long, ribbonlike clouds were sparsely scattered throughout the atmosphere. Cocoon and William stood silently, staring at the sky, as the changeling queen let her friend take it all in.

William was frozen, speechless. Never had he seen anything so beautiful in his life. His agape mouth curled into a smile, tears in his eyes. The new ambient light made the landscape looked even more mesmerizing than how it usually was at night.

“Do you see, Willy?” Cocoon said, before turning and motioning at the luminescent nighttime environment. “All of this was made from the energy you provided me to fuel my magic! You have a great deal of potential within you, most of which is still untapped. If you can give me the ability to do all of this...” she looked around at the glowing plants covering the landscape, and aurora filling the sky, “...think of what you can do at your maximal potential.”

Looking back at her, William remained silent, taking in what she just said to process.

“Simple things, like levitation, vanishing, and teleportation, I can do all under my own power,” Cocoon said. “But all of the big stuff, like terraforming, transfiguration, and dimensional manipulation require power from another source. And, like I said, my source for the power to do all these things is you, Willy. Watch...”

With a green flash, Cocoon took the form of Princess Luna. From there, she focused her power, making a beam of silver light emanate from the tip of her horn. It seemed to be aiming in the direction of a random spot on the landscape, but once she angled it above the horizon, William saw what she was doing; the moon, much larger (and dimmer, yet that made it more beautiful) ascended into the sky above them.

She stopped when it was at a nice angle among the aurora, making the sky look even more radiant, even at night. The young human took in the awe of what Cocoon was able to do, which she apparently had not been able to do prior to meeting him, as the former took her default form once more.

“And...” William began,still taken in by the drastic changes this realm underwent after his first visit, “...what does all this mean for me?”

“What I’m trying to say is...” Cocoon paused, swallowing, and then taking a deep breath, “...I need you, Willy! And not just for my magic, but... because I care about you. I want to help you realize your self-worth, and what you mean to others who care.”

All she could do after saying this was stare into his eyes. And the look in her own eyes... William could tell from that alone that she was true to her words. Never before had anyone said something like this to him. And the fact that she was doing all this, changing her world just for him to come to as a means of escaping his harsh world...

...William felt a warm, pleasant sensation filling his chest. All his negative emotions were nonexistent at that point. If she did indeed feed on his positive feelings... there was no doubt in his mind that she would be able to achieve perpetual energy so long as he was with her. He stepped closer to his changeling friend.

“Cocoon...” he said, softly.

Closing his eyes, William lightly held his fingers against the base of Cocoon’s jaw, bringing his forehead and nose against the bridge of her nose. Cocoon also closed her eyes as she gently pressed her head against his in return.

“Ever since the day I met you...” William began, “...you’ve brightened my world. I’ve seen things through a completely different lens. You’ve made my life worth living more so than before, and given me a whole new world to explore... in more ways than one.”

“You’re so sweet, Willy...” Cocoon said, still nuzzling him, “...I now have no reason to go back to my home universe... I could never bear the thought of leaving you.”

The two stood atop the roof, under the light of the moon, aurora, and stars, for what could have been hours... but the passage of time was irrelevant to both of them. All that mattered to both of them, in that moment, was how much they cared for one another. Never had they experienced such a genuine connection with anyone else in their lives...

...It was truly the greatest sensation they ever had.

Author's Note

For those who aren't aware, James is an OC of Bronycommander. I included him as part of a meta-scope.

Ch. 6 - Support All The Way

Once the weekend came around, James followed through with William’s offer to check out his secret. There was a knock on the door, and William opened it up to see the German visitor.

“Ah, James,” William said. “Didn’t expect you so soon.”

“I always like to uphold a commitment,” James said.

William stepped aside. “Come on in.”

As his guest entered the house, something about him caught William’s eye. Tucked against his left hip, between his T-shirt and open collared shirt, was what appeared to be a handgun.

“Oh...” William uttered, “...I didn’t know you conceal-carried.”

James’ eyes shifted to his handgun. “Ah, yes. I always carry this with me. She’s served me well for many years.”

William, looking at the weapon carefully, noticed something distinct about the handle and back of the frame.

"Wait... that wouldn't happen to be a Mauser Broomhandle, would it?" He asked.

“Ah,” James said, taking out the handgun, “you’ve got a good eye. Model C96, chambered in the original seven-point-six-three millimeter.”

Holding the weapon by the barrel, he offered it to William to take handle, who did just that. William aimed the weapon, in both hands, in a random direction away from James, ensuring to keep his finger off the trigger.

"Definitely feels thinner than my Beretta 92FS... but a lot nicer, that’s for sure. Got yourself quite a fine reproduction piece, here," he commented, handing the Mauser back to its owner.

"Oh," James began, taking the gun back, "it's not a reproduction; this is an original German-made model."

“Really?” William asked, surprised. “Well, whoever resold it to you really knew how to keep it in good condition!”

“Actually...” James began, pausing briefly, “...I was the one to receive it directly off the manufacturing line, back during the early years of my military career.”

William narrowed his eyes. “...You’re telling me you were born in, what... The late 19th Century? Early 20th Century? What, do you think I’m an idiot?”

“What exactly do you mean?” James asked.

“I mean...” William said, “...don’t you think you’d be an old man by this point if that were true? You look to be in your... late-twenties, at best! C’mon, you had to have been born in the ‘60s!”

The German reached into his pocket.

“Well... look at these...” James said, pulling out an envelope.

He opened it and pulled out the contents, comprising of copied photographs and newspaper clippings. All of them had the name “Jessie Günther” among some German text. At first, William was a bit confused as he skimmed over them, not believing these pertained to James, but upon seeing one name that read “Jessie ‘James’ Günther,” this was when he was able to piece it together. The newspaper clippings contained James’ photographs, yet were dated from the early 20th Century.

William was speechless for several moments as he looked at these documents. “N-no way... that’s not you...”

“But it is,” James responded.

William shook his head. “That’s gotta be like... your father, or grandfather, or someone else!”

“I assure you, William, that is me, Scout’s Honor,” James said. “The force I’m in is known as the Harmonische Wache, known in English as the Harmonious Guard, an elite paramilitary organization that serves not only in warfare, but private security and transport of important persons or cargo. We specialize in the use of analog technology, which is not vulnerable to electrical weapons.”

“ ‘Am in’?” William asked. “So... it’s still around?”

“And still as powerful as ever,” James responded.

Looking at all the photographs, there was too much resemblance for William to deny it. The individual in the photographs and clippings was definitely James himself.

“But...” William trailed off briefly, “...how have you lived so long?”

“It was due to exposure to a defective chemical weapon,” James said. “It was supposed to kill me, but that didn’t happen. Instead, it altered my genes at a molecular level, to a point where my DNA can now replicate flawlessly, without degrading in the process.”

William tried to process everything the apparently-immortal German said to him. “Weird... and, like... have you ever thought about sending in some of your DNA samples to be studied for medical research?”

James nodded. “Yes. However, due to such traits about myself being almost unnatural... the German government wanted to keep the findings classified. And there were quite a few moral implications of tampering with the human genome using my DNA, with many of the doctors believing it not to be wise to ‘play god,’ so to speak...”

This was all so much for William to take in. Given that Cocoon was from another plane of reality, he could accept the things she could do. But, with James being from his world... this was completely shattering his perception of the forces of nature.

“So, anyway,” James said, “about why I was originally here...”

“Oh, right...” William said, walking over to his office, “...wait here. It’ll just be a moment...”

When he returned to James, he brought with him the gold-accented tome. The German’s eyes widened upon seeing it.

“Well, that’s a rather fine-looking book!” James remarked.

William nodded. “Thing is... it’s more than just a book.”

“How so?” James asked.

“Listen...” William began, “...what’s about to happen is gonna be very...strange. I doubt it’s like anything you’ve ever experienced before.”

James chuckled. “Oh, believe me... I’ve seen many strange things throughout my long life.”

“...Like real magic?” William asked.

To his surprise, James nodded. “Especially real magic!”

“Alright then,” William said, opening the tome. “All we have to do is place our hands flush on a page, and the book will do the rest.”

“Very well,” James said, doing as William asked.

The two placed their full hands against the tome’s open pages, and before they knew it, they were both in Cocoon’s prison realm. James was shocked upon falling, but William reassured him (over the roar of the rushing air) that they were both going to be fine. Sure enough, as always with William, they both landed slowly and unharmed.

“Okay...” James said, taking a moment to gather his breath, “...that was quite an intense way to enter another world, I just have to say.”

“I agree,” William said, before heading in the direction of the designated path. “Now, all we have to do is follow the set of markers, and that’ll lead us to... my friend’s... castle.”

James tilted his head. “They have a castle?”

“A small one,” William said. “But yes. And she’s been working to step up her place of living every which way she could. Also...” he peered into the distance, making out what looked like a small town, “...she’s been making use of her excess magic to generate some infrastructure, as well as a few artificial beings to start a population around here.”

James nodded. “Alright, shall we go, then?”

“Yes,” William said, leading the way.

Cocoon laid on a large sofa in the lounge under a blanket, lightly dozing off. Having become bored, she decided to take a nap earlier. The light was dim, so as to help her get a better midday rest. However, she was awoken by a tone that sounded throughout the castle. She opened her eyes and sat up.

The sound was a perimeter “alarm,” which alerted her to whenever a living being crossed within a one-hundred-meter radius of her castle.

“Ah, Willy!” She said to herself eagerly, making her way to the front door.

Upon opening the twin doors and stepping out into the entry courtyard, the changeling queen was surprised to see her friend accompanied by another person. She stopped in her tracks upon seeing the other, blonde individual.

“Hey, Cocoon!” William said.

“H-hello, Willy...” Cocoon responded, “...who might this be?”

“My name is James,” James introduced himself. “And you must be named... ‘Cocoon,’ I take it?”

Cocoon nodded. “I believe you are the who Willy informed about me?”

“Very vaguely, apparently,” James said, “but regardless, I was curious, given how uncertain he seemed. It just makes me feel good, helping others with their problems.”

William turned to face James. “So... can I count on you to keep a secret? If you do, I promise to keep your genetic secret as well.”

Without hesitation, James nodded. “Of course. A secret for a secret, that’s a fair trade.”

“Now,” Cocoon began, “what’s say we have ourselves some lunch?”

Feeling a bit adventurous, Cocoon decided to take to hunting some of the soulless, artificial creatures she manifested as a means of preparing their meal, all to conserve her magic. James watched in awe as she took the form of a cheetah to chase down a wild deer, and a large griffon to carry it back. She then magically skinned it and separated all edible venison before putting it on then new, massive cooking spit.

It took a little while of cooking, but the meat was ready to be served, and during the cooking time, Cocoon prepared a bunch of other side-dishes, mainly vegetables and fruit, for her guests. Once they were all seated, Cocoon briefly took the form of a dragon, hovering and using her fire-breath to light the chandelier and numerous pedestal-torches in the dining hall. The whole time they ate, all James could do was stare, bewildered, whenever he saw the changeling queen.

“So,” he spoke up to Cocoon, “would you mind explaining that little... trick you do?”

“I’m a changeling,” Cocoon, still in her dragon form, said.

“Like a shapeshifter,” William added.

“Is that so?” James asked. “I always thought such beings were just mythical... and it is, by chance, difficult to alter your form?”

“It really doesn’t take much effort,” Cocoon said, just before changing back to her default form. “Something that comes natural to my kind.”

James slightly grinned. “...I suppose I don’t doubt it, when you put it like that.”

He glanced up and down her body.

“Stop me if I’m wrong,” James said, “but do we have any way to know that this is your real form?”

Cocoon smirked. “...I guess I have no way to prove it.”

“But I know how she is on the inside,” William said. “And she’s far better than most of the people in my life.”

The changeling queen turned her attention to her closest friend ever, standing from her seat and walking over to him.

"The best part about having me as a friend..." Cocoon said, changing her form to a generic, pure-white alicorn, "...I can be literally anypony you want me to be."

William smiled. "I like that... but more so, I like you for you, Coony."

Cocoon’s eyes lit up as he called her that, promptly changing back to normal with no noticeable change in stance or expression as she did so.

“I hope it’s okay I call you that,” William said.

“Absolutely!” Cocoon said, before leaping forward and hugging him.

William, albeit surprised, returned the hug.

“Oh, Willy...” Cocoon said, nuzzling the side of his head, “...more and more, I just want to be by your side forever. You are truly the kindest male I’ve ever come across in my life.”

“And I must say, Coony...” William began, his face flushing, “...you’re really the first female who’s ever given me such a level of attention as this.”

“The first?” James asked. “You mean... you’ve never had a partner?”

Cocoon and William separated from their hug as the latter prepared to explain.

“No,” William said. “And the thing is... just about everyone in my age-group, that I know of, has been in at least one relationship. This has really made me feel left out... especially at school.”

James subtly nodded, acknowledging what his new acquaintance just said.

“The male students at my old high school always went over-the-top when asking girls out for prom,” William said. “Putting on big displays and extravagant performances... personally, I find all that unnecessary.”

“Unnecessary?” James asked.

“I favor personal interaction with a loved one,” William explained. “If they feel the need to dress up their emotions with a bunch of razzle-dazzle... I really don’t feel like they’re being genuine with me. Personally, if a girl were to have asked me to a Sadie Hawkins dance, I would probably only accept a face-to-face request, nothing more. That’s what I want from a relationship; someone who is deeply personal, and doesn’t hide behind a flashy mask. A level of genuine trust. Other guys, who see it as a show of devotion are, in my opinion, using a widely-skewed social compass.”

James raised a brow. “And how can you be sure of that?”

“I don’t know people’s intentions,” William said, “but I know people. And it’s mainly due to the fact that I’ve been pretty neglected emotionally, forcing me to recognize the flaws of human psychology. People have just passed off my needs, and, well... it’s made me pretty bitter about my lifestyle, to say the least.”

“But I feel you should consider yourself fortunate,” James said. “You are living in a very wealthy nation, and in the best of all possible times.”

William sighed. “But what’s the good of living in a prosperous nation if you, on an individual level, are not prospering?”

“Come to think of it...” Cocoon spoke, “...I don’t think I’ve ever seen your residence, Willy.”

William darted his eyes about for a moment. “Would you even be able to see it? You can’t leave the tome, remember?”

“That’s true,” Cocoon said, “I cannot actually leave, but I am still able to glance through the portal. So... would you be willing to let me take a look at where you live?”

Since they were close to finishing their meals, they decided to just wrap up their leftovers for later. Besides, they were not quite hungry enough for a heavy meal, so Cocoon could magically preserve. The three then left the castle, making their way back to the portal. The two humans were able to easily pass through the portal, but the changeling could only look through it like a pane of glass, suspended in midair by the magical whirlwind.

Back at William’s house, James and the homeowner rematerialized in the living room, right where they departed from their universe, and the tome still sat open on the coffee table, but still glowing, as Cocoon was on the other side of the portal. She peered through the tome's pages at her friend’s spartan, working-class residence.

"Tells a story, doesn't it?" William said.

The changeling queen, hovering directly behind the portal, glanced around as William rotated the tome, walking through the small house to give her a good idea of what his place was like. James walked with him all the while.

"I mean," William began, "I tend to live a modest, low-key lifestyle due to my limited resources, and having to rely on some life hacks. But I guess one positive is that it forces me to focus on the essentials, and when I think about it, I find that there's really nothing... superfluous in my life. I never invest in anything redundant or unnecessary, and never get myself into debt when I don't need to. When anything I have or come up with is obsolete or impractical, it is..." he flicked his hand up, away from him, "...eliminated from my lifestyle."

James nodded. "…I find that to be a very wise approach to living."

“Yeah,” William said. “And I very much consider myself an individualist,”

“Self-reliance is always a good thing,” James said. “But still... it’s also good to have someone you can depend on.”

William agreed. “Well, you’re not wrong there. But, enough about that. Ready to head back in?”

“Alright,” James said.

“I’ll just get clear of the portal...” Cocoon said, her voice having some reverb through the tome, gliding out of the way.

With that, they fell back into Cocoon’s personal world, where the one in question awaited them on the ground.

“Welcome back!” Cocoon said.

“So yeah,” William spoke, “you can both see why I like to come here more often than bum around at my place.”

“Indeed, I do,” James said. “And I don’t blame you, William, for taking up an opportunity so unique and life-altering the moment it presents itself to you.”

“And just always know that I’ll be here for you whenever you need me,” Cocoon said with a warm smile.

“Still,” William said, “it blows my mind to this day, knowing that magic and changelings are real, as well as parallel universes.”

“I must admit,” James spoke up, “this is really quite extraordinary! And, I’ll be honest... it kind of reminds me of... a little, purple filly I once found, from another universe. Especially since, well... you look like an equine yourself, Cocoon.”

“Is that so?” Cocoon asked. “In that case, I’d love to hear your story sometime, James. I’m curious about this filly you speak of.”

James smiled. “Natürlich.”

Cocoon squinted, tipping her head slightly. “...What?”

“It’s my native language, German,” James said. “It means ‘of course.’ ”

They all had a pleasant walk back to Cocoon’s castle. The sun, being proportionately larger and dimmer than Earth’s, was more bearable, as it wasn’t blinding, yet still provided enough light to compare with Earth’s daylight. The air was very clean, free from any carbon emissions. And even the landscape itself was cleaner than anything naturally-occurring from the human world.

“So...” William spoke up to James, “...you still onboard with keeping the secret?”

“I’ll keep the secret, if...” James began, his lips curling into a smile, “...you agree to let me start visiting Cocoon regularly.”

“Sold!” William said.

James nodded. “And just know, I’ll do everything I can to help you both out. I want you both to know that I support your relationship!”

William and Cocoon both stopped dead, flabbergasted at the choice of wording he used.

“R-relationship...?” William stammered, his face going red.

James stopped, looking back at his two new affiliates.

“I-I mean...” Cocoon spoke, her face flushed a deep green, “...it’s not like w-w-we're...”

“Hey, it’s alright,” James said. “I don’t believe it’s odd. Who says it can’t happen between two different sentient species?”

William and Cocoon both stared at each other for a moment, saying nothing. After a moment, though, they were able to snap back to reality.

“R-right, well...” Cocoon said, “...shall we go back to the castle, and continue to make use of our downtime?”

“Yeah,” William said, “let’s.”

On one of his days off, William decided to go out for a walk through his neighborhood park on his own. While he did like to spend most of his time with Cocoon, there were times when he needed to take an hour or two to gather his thoughts.

He thought about everything that happened, and where he would be if it didn’t happen. To think he would still be stuck in a rut if he hadn’t happened upon Cocoon’s tome... she’s given him the will to keep going of his own accord... and what really made him feel better about himself was that he had made a new friend who supported his and Cocoon’s newfound friendship.

He snapped back to reality when he caught sight of a family walking opposite of his direction, on the other side of the wide path. It were two parents with their kid. The child was running about, and the parents were holding hands. William scornfully glared at them, despite the fact that they were not looking in his direction.

The NERVE of these people... showing their affection in public! William thought. Get a room, will ya?!

He tried to brush off his frustration once they passed, keeping his mind on all the positive things he encountered recently. Cocoon was definitely a good friend, yes. More so, in fact, than any other friend he had in his life. In all honesty... he was beginning to wonder if James’ assessment of their relationship was accurate?

William couldn’t help but feel like he was getting so close with the changeling queen, that he started to develop... feelings for her.

“I mean...” he said to himself as he walked, “...would she even feel the same way about me? Would I be coming on too fast for her? I really don’t want her to be upset because of me... I don’t wanna lose her as a friend...”

As he kept walking, someone sitting on a bench he was about to pass spoke up.

“Hmmm...” they hummed, “...you seem to be dealing with... a great deal of self-doubt.”

William stopped, turning to face the person. “What?”

The individual in question was an Asian women, who appeared to be in her forties, wearing a two-tone gray-and-black kimono, a midnight-blue magatama worn around her neck by a string, and geta sandals.

“Who are you?” William asked.

“Who I am is irrelevant to your lifestyle,” the woman said, standing. “What you do require, however, is guidance.”

“Guidance?” William asked.

“Most certainly,” the woman said. “Now... let me see your dominant hand.”

“Uhh... okay then...” William said, holding up his right hand.

The woman gently held it by her fingertips, running her right-hand index finger across the various ridges in his palm.

“You have undergone a great deal of turmoil...” she said, “...your life has been driven solely by monotony, and yet...” she looked more carefully, “...you have persevered regardless... in the hope that something better may happen.”

William’s eyes went wide. “H-how... how do you...?”

“I am a medium, specializing in divination and insight into the unseen and higher realms,” the woman said. “From what your palms speak to me, you carry a great deal of potential and intellect... most of it, however, is being withheld from maximal potential. And now... let me see your eyes...”

The medium then peered closely into his eyes, and William, despite being weirded out, maintained eye contact. Eventually, she stepped back to an acceptable distance.

“You have made a significant discovery, of something that is not of this world,” the medium said. “And... a creature, benevolent, and capable of assuming many forms, that has altered the very course of your life.”

“Yeah...” William uttered, just as surprised, if not more so, than her first insight, “...the creature is a changeling. But... you know they’re real?”

The medium nodded. “When you have been in my practice for many decades, you find out many facts about the cosmos that fundamentally, and forever, change the way you view reality itself. And not only that, but... I also know you carry a special ability; you can forcibly shift the forces of nature in your favor, increasing probability for a favorable outcome, whether for yourself or another.”

“Yeah, my power...” William said, “...my father has it also, and I got it from him. I regularly meditate to keep it conditioned, so to speak.”

“A wise method,” the medium said. “To neglect it would put greater strain on the soul if attempting to invoke it, following a long period without its use, manifesting as fatigue in both the physical and spiritual body.”

“But... how do people have abilities like these?” William asked.

“From what I have learned,” the medium spoke, “certain deities had mortal offspring, who exhibited abilities from their parent gods and goddesses.”

William remained silent, trying to ponder the fact that there were metaphysical deities in this universe... or potentially other universes, if there was indeed a multiverse.

"As it happens," the medium explained, "the earliest humans to possess your ability were the demigod offspring of Tyche."

"Tyche?" William asked. "The goddess of fate?"

The medium nodded. "Yes. Only a handful of people across time, descended from her half-blood children, learned how to harness the gift of their Olympian ancestor. And it is reasonable to believe... you are one such descendant."

This completely changed the way William viewed his special ability. To think, it came from an Olympian goddess... and that means he’s directly related to her... this alone made him feel even more special than he did after Cocoon came into his life.

“And because Tyche is the daughter of Aphrodite...” the medium continued, “...this is the reason you feel great sorrow when deprived of true, genuine love you desire. And as of now... it seems you feel that desire may well be slaked soon, by the female shapeshifter you discovered, living in a parallel, artificial realm.”

“Yeah,” William said. “But the thing is... because I’ve had terrible luck with girls in the past... I’m scared that, if I confess what I’m feeling about her, I might lose her as well...”

The medium placed a hand on his shoulder. “Do not doubt yourself. As I can tell you are her first, and most compassionate, acquaintance she has had in a long while, she will know that you truly care about her... and that alone shall give her the emotional drive to return your affection.”

“You really think so?” William asked.

“It’s how the female mind works; being driven more by emotion than conscious thought,” the medium said. “Follow your heart, and do what you feel is right.”

William let his thought trail off for a moment. Given how much Cocoon had expressed in regard to their friendship... with hugging and heartfelt compliments being commonplace... he started to feel like maybe she did harbor some deep feelings for him as well.

“Of course,” William said. “I’ll do it! Thank you for taking the time to explain it all to me.”

The medium gave a short bow. “It is my pleasure. I only wish more were like you, accepting of the metaphysical, and not passing it off as folklore. You are a well-enlightened young man, with a pure, open soul.”

William started walking on his way again, looking back at the medium one last time. “I’ll follow through with your advice. I wish you well!”

“Good luck,” she said, before sitting back down on the bench.

With that, William felt significantly more confident that, so long as he was assertive and spoke his mind honestly with Cocoon, things would surely go his way. And with James giving nothing but his support, it would most definitely add to the effect. For once, things were finally falling into place for him, now that he had something explain it all to him after they realized what he was going through.

Surely, there was no downside to this... right?

Ch. 7 - Unwanted Visitors

Late one evening, William and James joined Cocoon for another fine dinner. By now, her castle had been magically grown from a basic, Medieval Earth-style fortress, into a towering, Gothic, fantasy-style palace. There were several towns and cities now present throughout the realm as well, making the land feel not so bare, and fairly lively at night with lights.

The dining hall was now massive, with multiple crystal chandeliers, lustrous black tile floors, dark-gray stone arches lining the walls, and fancy stone torches surrounding the many long tables, on which plates, silverware, centerpieces, and candles sat. A large, multi-tiered stone fountain sat in the middle of the hall, as well.

“I hope the meal was up to your expectations, as always,” Cocoon said to her guests.

“Oh, it was exquisite!” James said.

“I agree,” William added. “You know how to prepare some five-star dishes, Coony.”

The two looked at where Cocoon was sitting... but she had vanished.

“Coony?” William repeated, looking around.

James also looked around briefly, and suddenly, something tall, narrow, and black emerged from right in front of William’s seat. Startled, William looked down to see that the narrow, black thing was Cocoon’s horn. Cocoon herself had crawled under the table, right to William’s chair. She looked up at him with wide eyes and her lips tucked inward, a giddy smirk showing from within it.

“Hello!” She playfully said.

“Oh!” William uttered. “Coony, uh... I think you’re head’s a bit too...” his face went red, “...c-close to...”

Given that her head was right between his legs... anyone could understand what the fuss was about.

“Anything you want, Willy?” Cocoon asked.

“Wh-what do you mean...?” William asked.

“Well...” Cocoon trailed off, her cheeks and muzzle going green, “...I could lower your zipper, and...” she narrowed her eyes teasingly, “...do as you please.”

William was paralyzed. He did not know what to say or do, the way she was, for lack of a better term, coming onto him the way she was.

“Uh, Cocoon...” James spoke up, “...maybe we could just continue our night in a more... laid-back manner?”

“Of course,” Cocoon said, going back under the table for a moment to crawl back to her chair.

Once she got back to her seat, she continued interacting with them as if she didn’t get a little... too close with William.

“Anyway,” the changeling queen spoke, “I also took the liberty of preparing a dessert dish for us as well.”

“Oh, really?” William asked.

Cocoon nodded. “Do you both like chocolate?”

“Definitely,” James said, firmly.

“Oh yeah,” William added. “Dark is my favorite.”

“Wonderful!” Cocoon said, standing and making her way into the adjacent kitchen.

She returned with a large cheesecake, which was absolutely drenched in chocolate sauce and whipped cream. It got the two humans’ mouths watering the moment it entered their line of sight. The trio helped themselves to some sizeable portions, becoming too full to eat anything else for a good long while. Cocoon, of course, was courteous enough to get them all some milk to wash the rich confection down.

After a little while of lounging, James decided to head on back to the real world, leaving William and Cocoon alone with each other. Not knowing what else to do, they decided to just sit on the couch and watch a movie in the new theater, which was lined with couches instead of regular seats. They settled on watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which Cocoon managed to replicate from the human world.

Cocoon laid on the sofa first, taking up the whole piece of furniture. At first William wasn’t sure where to sit, but she insisted he could lay with her. She then put a blanket over both of them, and as the movie went on, they both shifted to a point where William was laying completely on top of Cocoon.

“I hope I’m not... crushing you, or anything,” William said at some point in the movie.

“Oh, nonsense!” Cocoon said, wrapping her forelegs around her human friend. “Close to you, Willy, under a blanket, I’m just snug as a bug!”

William smirked, looking around briefly. “Uh, Coony... you technically are a bug.”

“Yeah, I know,” Cocoon responded.

After a little while, the two decided to shift their positions, just to be more comfortable. William rolled onto his belly, and Cocoon followed suit, being the one on top now. However... she gradually shifted herself down toward the other end of the couch every so often. As she did this... she started subtly rubbing her hooves against his buttocks.

William’s face flushed as she did this. She continued to slide her way down, very gradually, until her chin rested right above his posterior, gently squeezing both cheeks in his hooves and lower neck.

"Do you really have to be that obsessed with my butt, Coony?" He asked.

Cocoon smiled at him. "I can't help it; you've just got such a cute butt, Willy!"

"If you're not careful..." William began, smirking, "...I might fart in your face."

"Oh, you wouldn't!" Cocoon said, laughing.

William tried his best to brush off everything she was doing, and just focus on the time... but the thoughts remain firmly at the forefront of his mind. Not to mention, they were actually making him feel quite a bit more attached to Cocoon.

After the film, William found himself ready to head back to his place to get settled in for the night. As he was about to leave, Cocoon went with him right out to the castle’s courtyard.

“So...” William began, “...it was a nice night.”

“Yes, it was,” Cocoon agreed.

William sighed. “I’ll admit, while it’s nice having James to visit... I really find it nice when it’s just you and me, Coony.”

“I agree,” Cocoon said.

“And, lately...” William said, “...with the amount of time we’ve spent together... I can’t help but realize...” he started blushing again, “...how much you really mean to me.”

Cocoon curled her lips into a subtle smile, her eyebrows pointed up slightly.

“I’ve never had a friend as close as you, Coony... and I really am starting to think that... I-I... I l-lo...”

He could not get the words to come out, no matter how much he forced his breath and vocal cords, and it was becoming extremely difficult to say while maintaining eye contact with the changeling queen. However, it seems like Cocoon was able to pick up on the message. She touched the tip of her hoof to his lips, and he was able to give her his full focus again.

Tears filled Cocoon’s eyes, but she still smiled. Then, she pulled him into a firm, deep hug. William, used to it at this point, returned the hug. This one, however, felt substantially different. There was quite a bit more... depth to it, if that made sense.

After what could have been an hour or two, they partially separated, their faces only a few inches from each other. Each stared deeply into the other’s eyes for a good long while... and then they leaned, slowly, into one another, closing their eyes.

“...Coony...”

“...Willy...”

With their hearts beating rapidly, and trying to keep their breath under control, they puckered their lips... and they touched. They began to draw suction, their liplock becoming deeper.

His first kiss...

Her first kiss...

Something so pure...

And can only be experienced once in a lifetime...

The two were in absolute ecstasy, never wanting the moment to end. Nothing else mattered. The artificial realm around them did not exist to either of them in that moment. It was just him and her. Nothing else. No one else.

Eventually, they separated after what felt like an eon, though it was only a few seconds, and separated, simply staring at each other. No words needed to be said to express how grateful they were for each other, particularly with the way they conveyed their feelings in a nonverbal manner.

“...I’ll see you tomorrow,” William broke the silence, just before he turned to make his way back to the portal.

Cocoon waved as he left. “I’ll be waiting, Willy...”

And with that, both the human and changeling, now officially beyond the friendship zone, went back to their respective residences to get settled in for the night. Cocoon, having been extremely nourished by William’s love for her, fell into the changeling-equivalent of a food coma after she crawled into her bed. William, on the other hand...

...Hours passed, with him sitting on his couch in the small living room. He was completely lost in thought. Never did he imagine he life could lead up to something like this. After facing so many heartbreaking rejections, from so many girls in his life, he really started to lose confidence in himself, worrying that no one would ever love him. To be honest, though, he was picking up on the hints early on in his and Cocoon’s friendship.

Whenever she called him by her pet name for him, he didn’t think much of it. He partly understood why she called him that, what with him being the only sentient being she knew after a long stretch of isolation. But, after what unfolded earlier that evening... it was like a blind person seeing beauty for the first time, a deaf person hearing music for the first time, or a cold person feeling warmth for the first time.

He finally did it. William Schaeffer, after twenty-four long years, finally broke through the cold, bitter shell he had been encapsulated in. After opening his heart up to a sweet, caring, insectoid-equine, he was finally able to regain the sense of positivity he lost upon the start of his transition to adulthood.

William was able to fully embrace the fact that he loved Cocoon... just as she loved him.

These visits to Cocoon’s prison realm, however, did not go unnoticed by some within the human world. As it turned out, William was visiting her for longer stretches as time went on, sometimes with James accompanying. This causes problems with his official commitments to the other people he knew, and some others saw that he wasn’t coming out of his house for long stretches.

Of course, most were smart enough to mind their own business. However, there were those who sought a personal vendetta against him... particularly due to recent events.

Mark McDowell realized it was William who attempted to ask out Clara, his then-fiancée. This absolutely did not go over well with him. It didn’t matter to him that William was unaware of their companionship; he wanted to make his point in a fairly... forceful manner. So, he brought along a close friend of his, Jon Lang, who was currently dating Clara’s sister, to track down William and, what they crudely planned, beat him up.

“That skinny-ass little bitch is gonna get what’s comin’ to him, let me tell ya,” Mark said as he drove his convertible toward William’s home address.

“Hooh, boy!” Jon said, cracking his knuckles. “Can’t wait to pick off the dude who tried to put the moves on your girl!”

Before long, they pulled up on the street William resided, and happened to catch site of the homeowner himself, making his way across his front-yard walkway to his door, apparently after being out on a walk. There was another person accompanying him as well, which just so happened to be James.

“Hey,” Mark said, pointing, “there’s the ass now!”

Jon peered, chuckling once he could make out William’s thin figure. “...Dude looks like he’d be twenty pounds soaking wet! Good, this’ll be easy, then! But... what about that other dude?”

Mark shrugged. “Don’t know who he is... but we’ll kick his ass, too!”

“Why?” Jon asked.

“Why not?” Mark said. “He’s with the Schaeffer-punk who’s after my girl!”

Mark and Jon were both fairly brawny, being part of athletic clubs in school. No doubt, it would be a very unfair fight against the two in a hand-to-hand fight.

In any case, the two parked discreetly on the side of the road, and got out of the car. They made their way over to William’s house, right by a window leading into the living room. Peering in through a narrow gap between the open blind and bottom of the frame, they could make out William opening a large book and setting it on the coffee table as James knelt next to him.

“Man, oh man...” Jon said, “...these jackasses got no idea what’s coming for ‘em!”

“You got that right!” Mark responded. “Now, let’s go right in, catch ‘em by surprise, and then we...”

He trailed off as both trespassers saw a bright light fill the living room, and once it dissipated, William and James had both vanished. Some lingering gold light remained within the tome’s pages for a moment before quickly fading.

“...What the hell?” Mark uttered.

“I dunno, man,” Jon said, making his way to the front door, “let’s go see what just happened in there.”

“Right behind ya,” Mark said, following.

The two vengeful young men entered William’s prefab, taking a look around the place.

“Sheesh, no wonder this bastard can’t get no women!” Mark commented. “This place is shit! No girl that ain’t braindead would live here!”

“But where did he go?” Jon asked.

“They’re just playing a trick on us, or somethin’,” Mark said, walking deeper inside. “C’mon, he’s hiding! Let’s tear this place apart if we have to!”

Jon, however, walked over to the tome on the coffee table. “So... what were they doing with this thing?”

Mark came over and picked up the large tome, flipping through the pages. “I dunno what this is about, dude... but then again, nothing about what this dingus’s been doing even makes sense to begin with!”

When he happened to place his hand flush against a page... the very same thing happened that they just saw a moment ago: the tome began to glow. Instinctively, both Mark and Jon came close to the book, trying to examine what it was doing.

“Okay, like... what’s the thing even doing right now?” Jon asked.

“You tell me...” Mark responded, just as the light became very bright, enveloping them.

Soon, they both disappeared into the tome as well. They were now in Cocoon’s world...

William and James soon made it Cocoon’s castle. Since she figured it was already large enough, Cocoon settled on refining the look and furnishings of the fortress, making it look more elegant, and in some cases, exotic. Certain areas had a European Medieval theme, other areas had a Renaissance look to them, and one section had an Oriental Imperial style. William definitely liked the Far East-themed section of the castle the best.

“I have to say, Cocoon,” James said as they toured the castle, “you’ve really done quite an amazing job, with what you’ve managed to do with your home.”

“Why thank you, James!” Cocoon said.

“And the fact that this world is supposed to be a prison...” William added, “...I’m glad we could help out in making it into the opposite of its intended purpose, through our fueling your power and whatnot.”

“Of course,” Cocoon said. “There is no way I could have done anything of this magnitude, had my prison tome not been found by anyone... let alone any who would actually care about me.”

Eventually, they made their way out to an observation balcony, where they could get a vantage point of the world around them. It really allowed them to take in the formerly-empty realm, which now seemed very lively and civilized.

“Gotta say,” William spoke, “this place has really come a long way in such a short time.”

“And it really makes living here much more bearable,” Cocoon said. “There have been times when I felt like I needed to...”

She paused and started sniffing.

“What is it?” William asked.

“I think...” Cocoon sniffed again, “...there are intruders in my world.”

“Intruders?” James asked, more alert.

Mark and Jon reached a concrete observation platform on the summit of a hill, after falling into Cocoon’s realm. At first, they didn’t have a great sense of direction, but once they saw that the location had some high-powered, rail-mounted binoculars, they decided they could get a better look at all the landmarks before deciding where to go.

The first place they got a peek at was Cocoon’s castle.

“Jeez,” Jon remarked as Mark peered into the binoculars, “this place Disney Universe or somethin’?”

“Wait...” Mark said, adjusting the zoom one of the castle’s spires, “...there they are! And there’s a... thing with them...”

Jon squinted, folding his arms. “What kind of ‘thing’?”

Mark stepped aside. “Take a look yourself, man...”

Jon looked into the binoculars, and made out William, James, and Cocoon, all of whom were surrounding a floating, glowing crystal sphere, about twelve inches in diameter, before Cocoon said something while pointing out Mark and Jon’s real location, prompting the other two to look in the same direction.

“Uh, dude...” Jon spoke, “...I think they know we’re here. They’re lookin’ right at us.”

“Oh, really?” Mark said, before turning his attention to the distant fortress. “Well, if they can see us from all the way over there...”

He then held up both his hands, middle fingers and thumbs extended straight out, and all other fingers folded.

“...Let’s let ‘em know what we think about ‘em!” He said.

“Ditto, man!” Jon said, making the same offensive hand gesture at the castle.

William pursed his lips as he looked into the Perceptor Orb. “How pathetic... they’re flipping the bird at us.”

“Oh...” Cocoon said, glancing out in the real direction of the two intruders, “...so, they think they can stand up to me?”

She walked over to the balcony rail, raising her hoof in the equivalent of a raised fist at them.

“Well, if they wish to play this little game, perhaps they would like a bit of return fire, as to ensure they don’t mistake us for some naïve pacifists!”

She moved her raised foreleg around a bit... but then her face fell.

"Ah..." Cocoon uttered, looking at her hoof, "...it would appear I lack the... dexterity required to, as your people put it, 'flip the bird.' "

“But, even if you could...” James said, “...do you really consider it wise to inflame a response from those two?”

Cocoon chuckled. “It’s just a way to show them that what goes around comes around.”

Her eyes then shifted to her backside.

“Well... I can still make my point across with those two ignorant fools, with a bit of enhancement, of course...” she trailed off.

Her horn glowing a bright green, the same glow appeared around her plot, and it gradually expanded with a faint gurgling noise. Her face flushed and her tongue hung from her mouth as this happened.

“Oh, that feels niiiiice...” she said.

William stared, blushing, as Cocoon made this alteration to her anatomy. Even James was caught a bit off-guard, feeling a bit of a hormone rush as well. Once her glutes were of a decent, very feminine size, Cocoon stopped, taking a moment to admire her work.

“Yes! This shall do adequately!” She said, before turning to face William. “Now, Willy, as my official lover... would you show me your love and devotion by aiding me in my endeavor?”

"I..." William began, nervously darting his eyes around, "...I don't know, Coony. This is how fights start. And with Mark McDowell... I don’t know if that would really be a good idea."

"Oh, but this is not a fight," Cocoon said with a smile, before her eyebrows came down and she got a serious look on her face. "This is a war!"

James shook his head, smirking. “Rather petty for a ‘war,’ I must say. But, as always... you do things the way you wish, Cocoon. It’s your world, after all...”

"So, Willy," Cocoon began, "why don't you drop your trousers, and show off your lovely posterior assets to our foes?"

William sighed, undoing his belt. "...If you say so."

"Heh heh..." Cocoon giggled.

She then turned her backside to face away from the balcony. She flipped her tail forward from its natural resting position, lightly and tauntingly slapping her own plot with a front hoof. William, simply deciding to mirror her moves, reluctantly did the same.

“Yeah!” Cocoon called out to the intruders. “Bite my sleek, insect plot!”

“What the...?!” Jon uttered, before looking up from the binoculars at Mark, pointing at the castle. “Dude, they're mooning us!”

“What?” Mark asked.

He looked into the high-powered binoculars again to see William and Cocoon doing exactly what Jon just said.

“That’s it!” Mark said, stomping away and down the steps. “We’re going over there, and giving them something they’ll never forget!”

“Yep!” Jon said, following. “They’re all in some deep shit, now!”

“Oh,” James said, looking at the Perceptor Orb, “here they come.”

Cocoon started laughing. “I knew they’d take the hint... and now, they’re going to really stumble on their way over here, with how I’ve set up certain... defensive measures.”

“Defense...?” William asked, putting his jeans and belt back into place.

“Since my prison tome ended up in a world inhabited by sentient beings,” Cocoon explained, “I knew, shortly after meeting you, Willy, that I had to set up some security measures within the world to thwart any trespassers from reaching my residence.”

She summoned the Perceptor Orb toward the three of them again.

“Just watch... and see these fools fall flat!” She said.

Mark and Jon were getting within reach of the castle, right at the mountain’s base, eager to give William and the other two a good beating.

“Almost there...” Mark muttered, “...gonna kick that smug son of a bitch’s ass!”

“Oh yeah! And then he’s gonna wish—" Jon was cut off.

The ground in front of them randomly exploded, sending a large volume of mud airborne, in an arc, that landed directly on the two trespassers, soaking them in a thick, murky, wet soil, before they had a chance to react.

“AGH!” Mark shrieked.

“GAH!” Jon yelped.

The latter stood clumsily amid the now-mud-soaked earth... but the same could not be said for the former. Mark was now partially-sunk into the ground, everything between his upper chest and lower thighs, unable to move; Cocoon bewitched certain patches of the earth to act as quicksand for a brief moment, before returning to normal, solid, packed dirt.

Mark groaned as he struggled against the earth. “I can’t move!”

“Here,” Jon said, grabbing his hand, “I got ya, dude!”

No matter how hard he pulled, however, he could not get his friend free. Eventually, he gave up, panting.

“Sorry, man...” Jon said, “...gotta keep up my strength.”

“Then just go ahead!” Mark urged. “Go kick their little sorry asses!”

“Got it!” Jon said, leaving behind his stuck friend.

He then started trying to scale the rocks, up the mountain, but took it really slow, stumbling every so often.

"Oh look," James said, peering into the Perceptor Orb, "we still got one of them in hot pursuit."

William pursed his lips briefly to suppress a grin. "I wouldn't call it 'hot'... it's like lukewarm pursuit, at best."

James and Cocoon laughed.

"Well," Cocoon began, "no matter how warm or cold the pursuit is, they'll never get inside..."

Jon kept trying to climb the cliffside of the mountain, as opposed to just taking the path. And it was this that would be his crucial mistake... as the soil began to liquefy. He slowly started losing his footing, before he began slipping and realized what was going on.

“Wha...?!” He uttered. “What’s this?! This don’t make no damn sense!”

After a vain struggle to crawl, and eventually swim, his way to the top, Jon ended up sliding all the way back to the bottom. From there, covered in mud, and miserable, he made his way back over to Mark, who still sat, muddy and struggling to pull himself free.

“C’mon, man...” Jon spoke, “...how does that hold you down?”

“Shut up!” Mark shouted.

“How do we get up there?” Jon asked.

The next few moments consisted of Jon hastily trying to dig out the packed earth that held Mark in place, partly buried. Eventually, however, something descended upon their spot...

...Cocoon landed right in front of the wide-eyed, speechless intruders.

“Now...” the changeling queen spoke, “...because I’m nice, I’ll do you the honor of getting you out of the soil...”

She then cast a spell at the dirt that buried Mark, liquefying it, and allow him to stand, disgusted, from it.

“Ugh... can’t fucking believe this!” He mumbled, flicking the wet dirt off his arms.

“The hell are you, anyway?” Jon asked.

Cocoon did not answer. “And just so the both of you do not remember me...”

Her horn beginning to glow. The same green glow filled Mark and Jon’s eyes, and they both held a blank expression as this happened. After a little bit, she ended her magic use on them. William and James descended the castle and mountain, meeting up with Cocoon and the entranced Mark and Jon.

“What happened?” William asked.

“Nothing,” Cocoon said. “I simply wiped their memories that came after arrival at your residence, Willy. So... I believe now would be an opportune time to dispose of them, no?”

“Perhaps it would be best to return them to the human world,” James suggested. “William and I can take it from there.”

Cocoon nodded. “Of course. But, you both may want to act quickly, as they’ll awaken from their trance in a few minutes.”

Suddenly, William’s face lit up. “I think I know what to do!”

Mark and Jon came to, a short distance away from William’s front stoop of his house, sitting back-to-back.

“Huh...?” Mark uttered, confused. “Hey, what just happened?”

“I dunno, man...” Jon responded.

They both stood, seeing William standing on his porch, arms folded and drumming his fingers.

“So..." William spoke, “...thought you could get yourselves a quick powernap before breaking and entering?"

Mark glared. “Oh, you’re gonna learn your lesson! You don’t go askin’ my fiancée out for coffee, EVER!”

William quickly retreated back into his house, locking the door for a brief moment. Mark rushed up the two steps, pounding on the door. Jon came over to cover him.

“COME OUT, WIMP!” He called. “WHAT’S WRONG, YOU SCARED?”

William opened the door, only to be accompanied by James. Mark was about to rush them... only to hastily step back after realizing what the homeowner and his guest were carrying.

Mark and Jon stopped in their tracks when they found themselves staring down the muzzles of William's Beretta and James' Mauser.

"Stand down," James ordered. "You're trespassing. The Castle Doctrine of the state of Georgia grants the homeowner and invited visitors legally-backed justification to use deadly force against an intruder."

William pulled back the hammer on his pistol. "So, you'd better turn your fat asses around, and piss off!"

Mark and Jon glared, before turning and stomping away.

"I'm calling the police!" Mark said.

“No need,” William said, his eyes shifting to where Mark’s car was parked down the street. “They’re already here... and they seem to be having your vehicle removed from in front of the hydrant.”

A police car parked with its lights flashing next to a tow truck, to which Mark’s convertible was already secured.

“HEY!” Mark shouted, running over to the commotion. “PUT MY CAR DOWN!”

Jon, as usual, followed after his friend, shouting as well at the police and tow truck driver. William and James watched in amusement at the two-dimensional forethought the former two demonstrated.

“Well, takes care of that problem...” William said, spinning his handgun triumphantly, by the trigger guard, on his index finger.

“Now then,” James said, “shall we go back to Cocoon’s realm?”

William nodded. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

With that, the two went back into the tome, William putting it in a less-obvious place, the closet, so that there was still enough room for them to get into, and out of, the parallel world.

Mark and Jon tried in vain to convince the officer and truck driver to put his car back down, and rescind the ticket the former handed to the vehicle owner, but it did not work. When they started to show violent behavior, the officer firmly ordered them to leave the area.

“I’m serious!” Mark told Clara, after he informed her and his families. “He pulled a gun on me and Jon when we were just coming up to talk with him! And he got my car taken illegally!”

“Yeah!” Jon chimed in. “We weren’t gonna do nothin’ to him! But... he’s clearly the hotheaded one!”

Clara was speechless. “I-I... I had no idea... that he was so dangerous.”

“So, we gotta do somethin’ about it!” Mark said.

“Okay, sweetie,” Clara said, wrapping her arms around him and giving him a quick kiss. “We’ll make sure he pays the compensation. My daddy can get some connections with good lawyers.”

They went on to find connections William had, such as his place of employment, mainly his manager, Eric, his family, limited to Marlene, and others he had been forced to help out, including Mrs. Milton. The three aforementioned all met up with Mark, Jon, and Clara to discuss what to do, all of whom were voicing their concerns about William being distracted, if not absent, from many of his daily duties.

Marlene shook her head. “I don’t know... that really doesn’t sound like William. He’s never been so... irresponsible.”

“I say we go and teach that young man about showing respect for others!” Mrs. Milton said. “I don’t understand why he is such a bad person to good people like us! He hasn’t been turning up to work for me in days!”

Eric nodded. “He’s been very distracted at work, lately. It’s getting him written up more often than normal! This is unacceptable!”

“I just worry something might be wrong,” Marlene said. “William was often depressed for no apparent reason, throughout much of his teen years. I never found out why, though; he never talked to me about it...”

“Well, that’s just an excuse!” Eric said. “He still has a job to do, and duties to perform!”

“I think we should just go check up on him, to make sure everything’s okay...” Marlene said.

After a bit of debate, it was agreed that they would go to William’s residence to check up on him, and potentially hear him out if there is indeed a problem. Marlene agreed to lead them to his place, and let them in if William refused. She felt like they needed to listen to him to understand, if her suspicions were correct.

James had taken the liberty of exploring Cocoon’s realm out of curiosity, taking a hovering, motorcycle-like stone vehicle to some neighboring towns and landmarks. William was left alone with Cocoon, and the two of them simply laid back while the artificial, faceless pony figures, that served as their servants, gave them massages.

“Ahhh...” William sighed as his lumbar was kneaded, “...I tell you, Coony, nothing beats living large.”

“Oh, you are absolutely right, Willy,” Cocoon responded.

William laid in bliss as the figure continued to press and rub all the tension away from him. “So nice to have a place to escape my real-world problems.”

“As always, glad I can help,” Cocoon said.

After a little while, their session ended, and William stood from the massage table, putting his undershirt, regular shirt, and jeans back on. The artificial ponies left the room at this point.

“That was nice,” William said, turning to face the door that led out of the chamber. “But... unfortunately, I have to go now. I got stupid work to do tomorrow...”

Cocoon narrowed her eyes, her horn glowing. She used her telekinesis to shut the door he was about to leave through, locking it as well. William stopped in his tracks, glancing back at her.

“Now, Willy...” she began, “...do you really have to go?”

She then started closing and locking every single door and window in the castle. William only managed to get one last look at the final window to close... before it was shut as well. The castle, from the outside, was dead silent. Completely devoid of any noticeable activity...

Ch. 8 - Tyrant Queen?

William glanced around the room for a moment, shortly after it being locked up by Cocoon. He was left alone with the changeling queen, but made no effort to try to open the door to get out.

“You’re right,” he said, “I don’t really have to go, do I?”

“Of course not!” Cocoon said, standing and making her way toward him. “And, because we’re both officially together...”

She then sprang herself upright with her forelegs, transforming in the process to an anthropomorphic version of herself... a very busty and curvy version, for that matter! William froze, his eyes wide and his face immediately going red, as Cocoon slowly approached, her wide hips swaying to and fro, tail subtly whipping, as she did so. Her hind legs kept their hooves, but she now had human hands, as well as overall physique. Plus... she was pretty much nude, with nipples and genitalia fully exposed.

Towering over him by about a foot, she wrapped her hands behind the back of his neck, pulling him close to her... his face going right into her cleavage. William, absolutely paralyzed, was unable to make any sort of remark about what she just did.

“...who’s to say we can’t have ourselves... a bit of fun?” Cocoon said.

Hohhhh... William’s mind moaned, ...TITTIES! I’ve got my face right in between a pair of MASSIVE, SQUISHY TEATS!

His member pressed firmly against the front of his trousers in protest of the apparel blocking it. He looked up at his changeling girlfriend.

“Oh, yes! Absolutely!” William responded, his mouth still muffled by Cocoon’s boobs.

“But...” Cocoon spoke, gently pushing him back, “...it’ll need to come at a cost. After all, nothing is ever truly free, is it?”

William darted his eyes about for a moment. “...Wh-what do you have in mind...?”

Cocoon smiled again. “I understand you’re great at drawing and painting, Willy... and I want my likeness to be captured by your hand. And then... you’ll get your commission payment.”

With that, she conjured a large, blank canvas on a stand, and next to it was a table with a large assortment of oil paints, brushes, palette knives, a rinsing bucket with water, and a dry palette. Suddenly realizing what she had in mind, William wasted no time making his way over to the art equipment she just spawned.

“Now...” Cocoon said, laying on the sofa on her side, an arm behind her head and one leg slightly forward from the other, “...draw me like one of your French girls!”

Ohhh... William thought, grabbing a rigger brush in his right hand, and the palette in his left, ...this’ll be a fun project!

Marlene, Eric, Mrs. Milton, Clara, Mark, and John all turned up at William’s house. Once they were all parked, they made their way to his front door. Marlene then rang the doorbell.

“William?” She called through the door. “You okay, sweetheart?”

No response came.

“Well where is he?” Eric asked.

“He’d better not keep us waiting!” Mrs. Milton demanded.

Marlene knocked on the door this time. “William?”

Again, there was only dead silence behind the door. Marlene opened the door, letting herself inside.

“William, are in you in here?” She called.

With that, the group made their way inside. They all started searching the small prefab.

“Wow...” Clara said, glancing around, “...kinda glad I rejected him. Seems like he’s too poor for my liking.”

“He really needs to learn how to invest a little better,” Eric remarked.

Marlene made her way into the closet, where she saw the giant tome sitting on a TV tray in the middle of the room. Her eyes went narrow.

“What the...? Where did he get this from?” She said to nobody in particular, picking up the book.

She brought it out into the main kitchen/dining/living room combo area, where everyone got a look at it when she put it down on the dining table, flipping through the blank pages

“What is it?” Mrs. Milton asked.

“I have no idea,” Marlene said. “I’ve never seen it before.”

Mark and Jon both stepped forward.

“I feel like I’ve seen this before...” Mark spoke, placing his hand on a page.

The tome began to glow and hum, prompting everyone to step forward, their eyes wide and jaws agape.

“The hell...?” Clara muttered.

Everyone else remained speechless, watching as the light grew brighter, filling the room. Soon, it enveloped them completely. Once the light faded, they had all vanished, into the tome’s realm.

“AAAAAAAAAAH...!” Everyone screamed as they fell.

After a bit, they slowed to a halt just short of the ground below. Once they all got their bearings, they took a look around.

“That’s just not okay!” Mrs. Milton whined. “I’m OLD! I could’ve had a HEART ATTACK and DIED!”

“Never mind the fall,” Eric said, looking around, “where the hell are we?”

“Let’s head for that town, and ask for directions,” Clara said, pointing to a nearby community. “Maybe someone there has seen William?”

They all agreed that it was their best option at this point. So, they set off on a walk toward the town (having to walk slowly for Mrs. Milton, sometimes needing to help her). All the while, they continuously took in the absolute perfection this strange, new world had to offer.

“I’ve heard of people being ‘into books’...” Clara spoke, looking around, “...but this just throws that metaphor out the window!”

“I agree,” Marlene said. “I really don’t know what’s going on here...”

After a short walk, they arrived in the town, and saw that it was inhabited by a bunch of solid-color, faceless, quadrupedal beings, doing things one would expect in a community; walking, manning shopping stalls, using construction equipment, dining, etc. Needless to say, the six humans were all very confused at this point, more so than the fact that they just entered another world through a magical book.

“What... are they?” Jon asked.

Clara narrowed her eyes. “...They kinda look like those My Little Pony toys, but life-size or something.”

“Maybe one of them knows where William is?” Marlene asked.

With that, they spread out, trying to speak to the faceless equine beings.

“Hey, you,” Eric said, tapping a regular pedestrian pony on the back. “You seen a young man named William Schaeffer anywhere?”

The faceless pony ignored him completely, both voice and touch, as well as presence altogether. But he was not the only one to have this problem with communication.

“Excuse me,” Marlene spoke to a faceless mare sitting on a public bench, “have you seen a browned-haired boy around here?”

Like with Eric, there was no response. This was the case for everyone; it seemed like the beings of this world were completely ignoring their existence altogether. Most of the human visitors all reconvened in the town’s center plaza.

“What’s the deal? Why won’t any of them talk to us?” Jon asked.

“They’re all just being very rude!” Mrs. Milton said.

Marlene looked around at the lively community... which felt very synthetic to the humans. “I don’t know... it’s like they’re just on autopilot, like robots, or something.”

“Oh, yeah?” Mark said, making his way over to a stallion.

He held the faceless equine in place with one hand, making it scrape its hooves across the pavement as it continued to try to walk.

“Think you can ignore me, huh?!” Mark shouted, before he started repeatedly punching the stallion where it’s face was supposed to be.

Still, it was completely unresponsive even to being hit. Regardless, he continued to just let his frustration take hold and hit the drone of a pony repeatedly.

“Hold on...” Clara said, peering down another road at something approaching them, “...those ones are speaking like normal people!”

A group of armored ponies, resembling constabulary officers, walked briskly toward them. The lead stallion was the only one with a face, oddly.

“Halt! Intruders!” He shouted as his squad made their way toward the group of humans. “You do not belong here!”

Marlene’s eyes went wide. “Uh-oh... we’d better run!”

With that, all the humans ran down an adjacent road... except for Mark, who was still punching the stallion, trying to make it acknowledge him. Jon grabbed his friend by the arm, pulling him away.

“C’mon, dude!” He said. “We gotta move!”

“Return to your world, immediately!” The faced officer shouted at them, continuing pursuit. “Leave now, or face the consequences!”

“Fuck the po-lice!” Mark shouted, flipping the guard off.

He picked up a loose brick, hurling it at the faced guard. It was just about to hit him... but deflected off some invisible energy field, which became visible for a split-second when it made contact. Mark’s jaw fell in disbelief.

“The hell?!” He cursed. “That’s not fair! We can’t hurt them!”

They made their way to the edge of town, where there was a river and a small dock with some boats.

“Quick!” Eric said. “We’ll take a boat! They won’t catch us with the current!”

With that, they took a skiff large enough to hold them all, undocking and pushing away from the dock, paddling downstream. The guard captain and his squad stopped at the edge of the dock.

“Quick!” He said to his subordinate officers. “We’ll catch them at the waterwheel!”

The six humans paddled as fast as they could down the river, trying to make it past the millwheel before the constabulary would catch them. However, the stream narrowed, and their pursuers were gaining... there was very little chance they could pull off such a tricky escape. However, just when they began to resign themselves to the inevitable...

“EXCELSIOR!” Came a female voice on the other side of the river.

A grapnel hook, attached to a long rope, latched onto the rim of the skiff, pulling them all toward the opposite bank. The one pulling it happened to be a human. They were female with long, flowing, blonde hair, wearing silver armor, a long, green cape, and a protective headdress. A long rapier sword, with a very ornate handguard, sat in a scabbard on her hip. Once they were on the bank, the girl stopped pulling, placing one of her metal-plate boots on the rim of the boat.

“Ah, fear not, intrepid explorers!” She said. “For I am but a human, such as thou! A rare sentient being to be spawned as a result of Magigenesis! And I am ecstatic to see thou art unscathed!”

“Oh, good...” Clara said, “...you can actually talk! But... why can’t those other beings?”

“While all of us are artificial beings, fabricated through Magigenesis...” the heroine spoke, “...there exist some of us who possess genuine sentience, as well as facial features, such as myself! We happened to have been spawned by accident!”

“And...” Mrs. Milton spoke, bewildered, “...just who might you be?”

“I am but a rogue,” the heroine girl said, flourishing her rapier, “a maverick, a renegade, working tirelessly to end the reign of the dreaded, changeling Tyrant Queen!”

“Tyrant Queen...?” Eric asked, raising a brow.

The heroine nodded. “She be’th the one whose henchmen were thy pursuers. And she hath taken a certain tall, thin, brunet male human as her prisoner, deep within the bowels of her impenetrable, undetectable, behemoth of a fortress.”

“William!” Marlene chimed in.

"Yes," the heroine continued. "And it is there where she shall force his hand into marriage, making him into her captive King!”

“Aw, hell no!” Mark said. “No way am I lettin’ that little bitch be a king!”

“We gotta go save my son!” Marlene said.

“Never fear, brave travelers,” the heroine said. “For I shall go forth, and rescue thine friend and family member, and thou shalt follow this stream back to their realm.”

She then pushed the boat back into the stream, prompting Eric and Mark, who were padding, to start doing so back toward the bank.

“Hey, stop!” Eric said.

“Fare thee well!” The heroine said, waving.

“No, no, no!” Marlene said.

They attempted to re-shore themselves, but the heroine tried to stop them by putting her boot at the bow.

“What art thou doing?!” She asked. “I insist to do this by my own effort! Thou doth not need to endure such peril!”

Despite her continued protests to go at it alone, the heroine met resistance from the other six humans. Eventually, Jon stepped in, pushing her back, and Eric and Mark plowed themselves onto the shore, with everyone quickly getting out of the boat.

“So...” the heroine spoke, her tone less enthusiastic, “...thou insist on accompanying me in the quest?”

“Yeah, no shit!” Eric said. “What, did you think we were doing all that paddling and screaming for nothing?”

The heroine sighed. “Very well... but heed my words of caution! The path to the royal castle of the Tyrant Queen is but a perilous one! She now knows thou art within her realm, and shall stop at nothing to prevent thou from stealing away her future King! The path is warped and treacherous... the realm itself bends to her every whim... and many illusions obscure the mere perception of the castle! Such shall not be an easy tribulation! Chances are that one, or more, shall perish on the journey!”

“That doesn’t matter!” Marlene said. “I’m not going anywhere without my sweet baby!”

“However...” the heroine continued, “...so long as we stay together as one, we shall overcome any obstacle that standeth in our path to victory!” She drew her narrow blade, raising it skyward. “EXCELSIOR!”

She then ran at a brisk pace, sword pointed ahead... in the direction of the portal. Everyone immediately realized this.

“Uh...” Clara spoke, “...we just came from that way!”

The heroine stopped, looking back, and then corrected her heading.

“EXCELSIOR!” She repeated, this time running in the correct direction.

After a long while of walking (with Mrs. Milton getting tired), the seven humans made it to a large cornfield... and among the stalks were some strange creatures that resembled Chain Chomps without eyes or chains.

“Brave warriors...” the heroine said, “...we are about to enter the first obstacle in the path to the Tyrant Queen’s lair, the harrowing Fields of the Forsaken! I must warn thee that thou may not survive! ‘Tis not too late to turn back and return home.”

“We’re not stopping!” Mark said. “Schaeffer’s still got hell to pay!”

The heroine nodded. “Very well, then. Proceed at thine own risk!”

She then drew her rapier and charged into the fields.

“I shall meet up with you further on!” The heroine said.

“Wait!” Marlene said. “Where are you going?!”

The heroine did not answer as she got deeper into the fields. In fact... it seemed like she disappeared completely.

“Now what?” Jon asked.

Mark cracked his neck. “Screw it, let’s just go!”

With that, he charged into the fields, reckless-abandon. Reluctantly, the others did the same as well. Unfortunately, they caught the attention of the teeth creatures, which immediately pursued the humans. They ran as quickly as they could, the creatures still gaining all the while.

Improvising on the spot, Clara grabbed an ear of corn from a stalk, chucking it into the mouth of one creature following her. It immediately stopped, chewing the ear, and distracted from anything else.

“Everyone pull the corn!” Clara shouted, throwing the stuff at the teeth-creatures. “Feed it to them! It slows them down!”

The rest of the group happened to hear, and started doing what she did, grabbing the corn and tossing it into the creatures’ mouths, prompting them to stop and finish eating it, giving everyone more time to get to the other side of the cornfield.

Upon reaching the end, they encountered the heroine already there, who nodded and grinned, impressed.

“Well done, adventurers!” She said, before a serious look overtook her face. “However, that was merely the first of many trials ahead, for we are now at the start of the perilous Jungle of Japes! Recall that I warned thee! I can make it through most easily, but thou art most certainly doomed!”

“Oh, we can get through this!” Jon said.

With that, the young man ascended a short hill where some hanging vines laid, their ends dangling against the earth. He grabbed one, and started swinging. As he swung, a pie came flying at him from nowhere, which he promptly dodged, the pastry narrowly missing his face.

“Heh,” he briefly chuckled, “easy as pie!”

“Come on, let’s go, people!” Eric said, making his way for the vines as well.

Everyone was soon swinging their way through the jungle, dodging flying prank-obstacles, such as ink-spraying pens, glue and feathers, and water balloons, just to name a few. Soon enough, they made it through, where the heroine awaited them, as before.

“Well...” Mrs. Milton said, “...I don’t know if I can take much more of this...”

“Thou would be wise to heed the words of the wise elder!” The heroine said, motioning at Mrs. Milton. “For ahead lies yet another trial... the dark, bottomless Sea of Sorrows!”

“This is getting really difficult...” Marlene said, before she held her shoulders back, narrowing her eyes at the path ahead, “...but for William, I will do anything!”

Jack sat impatiently, listening to the phone ring, as it has been doing for the past several times he called.

“Where the hell is that boy...?” He muttered to himself.

Once more the answering machine picked up: “Hello, this is William Schaeffer’s residence. I’m not home right now, so if could leave me a callback number and a brief--”

Jack hung up the receiver firmly in frustration, growling. “He’s been skipping out on his responsibilities for too damn long! That’s it! I’m going to be having a word with him the first moment I get...”

He did, however, have his own work to worry about at the moment, and could not afford to miss out on it. Once he was done for the day, only then would be try again to get in touch with William. Needless to say, it was pissing the middle-aged man off that the young man he viewed as a servant was being so inconsiderate and refusing to communicate.

After making through a number of other obstacles, the six visiting humans, accompanied by the heroine, continued on their way to Cocoon’s castle.

“Most admirable, such determination thou possess!” The heroine commented. “However, my friends... this is thy last chance to turn back, and I suggest thou taketh it! For what lies ahead is of greater horror than the Fields of the Forsaken... more terror-invoking than the Jungle of Japes... and more deterring than the Sea of Sorrows! I regretfully lead you to... THE GONDOLA OF GARGANTUAN AGONY!”

She directed their attention to a gondola. It looked very simple and unintimidating, comprising of a platform with guardrails, suspended on a pair of wires. On the gondola, however... there were a set of seven piano-style keyboards, the one at the front playing one note at a time, the played key illuminating as it depressed. One keyboard, however, was on the cliffside rather than with the other six on the gondola itself.

“ ‘Gargantuan Agony’?” Mark asked, before rasping. “This thing’s nothin’!”

He rushed onto the gondola, up to the front keyboard. The heroine extended a hand in his direction.

“Sir Mark, NO!” She shouted.

“Oh, oh!” Mark said, sarcastically. “What EVER shall I do? For my head will SURELY explode if I am to press but a single key!”

He then touched a key on the piano, which played the middle-C.

“Dear God Almighty!” Mark spoke, exaggerating further. “If I play but one more note, my eyes shall BURN out of their sockets!”

He touched another random key... but a buzzer sounded, and the keyboards all inverted their colors. The gondola shook for a moment, and Mark, startled, bolted right off of it, right at the very moment before it detached from its lines, plummeting into the valley below. He fell as this happened, looking back at the empty space where the gondola was.

“The hell?!” Mark cursed. “That’s messed up, dude!”

The gondola then reappeared, fading in with a high hum. Once it fully rematerialized, the lead keyboard started the song again. Mark stood back up, and everyone else observed the gondola from a distance.

“What did I tell thou?” The heroine said, stepping in front of the group, trying to force them back the way they came. “Come now, adventurers! We must return thou to thy plane of reality, posthaste!”

“Hold on...” Marlene said.

“No time!” The heroine said. “I shall save William! I gave thou my word!” She held a closed fist to her chest.

“Just...” Eric began “...why are you so hellbent on getting us to go back?”

“Thou saw what hath happened to the gondola, no?” The heroine said. “Much too dangerous! I cannot risk innocent lives!”

“We’re gonna find the boy, no matter what!” Mrs. Milton. “We need him around!”

“Hold on...” Marlene said, looking carefully at the lead keyboard on the gondola, “...I think I know how we can get the gondola to move!”

“How?” Clara asked.

“Watch the notes...” Marlene said, pointing, “...after it plays the song one time, it repeats. So, I think that, if we hit the keys in the correct order that they are played, and copy the whole song, it’ll take us to the other side. Mark, the first key you hit was the right one, but the second one was wrong.”

She walked onto the gondola, and pressed the same key as before, followed by the second one in the correct sequence. The others yelped in fear... but nothing happened. She then continued following the keys.

“See?” Marlene said as she played. “It’s not that hard!”

Suddenly, another keyboard started its own pattern. The sound of it caught her attention.

“It started another part of the song!” Marlene said. “Everyone jump on in, and wait for your part to come up!”

With that, the other group members start playing their parts on their own keyboards as they came up, adding additional harmonies in addition to the main melody to the song. None of them knew how to play the piano; it was like some sort of metaphysical force was guiding their hands... giving them the ability to flawlessly copy the song. They were all getting into it, and started stepping and rocking back and forth to the song. The tune was catchy and upbeat.

“We’re almost to the end of the song!” Marlene said, turning the heroine, who stood at the landlocked keyboard. “Take us on home, hero!”

For a moment, the heroine played the song along with them... before her eyebrows pointed downward, and her lips curled into a sinister smile. Out of nowhere, just as the song was about to complete its outro... she brought her right hand to the highest note, striking it, and triggering the “wrong” buzzer. Everyone gasped.

“NO!” Marlene said.

The gondola shook for a moment, and before anyone could react, it snapped free of its line, just like before.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH...!” The group screamed as they plunged into the ravine.

The heroine peered over the cliffside, watching as the transport device fell deeper toward the ground below.

“...Got them!” She said to herself, triumphantly.

She then stood, quickly leaving the area. And she seemed to going someplace in particular...

Author's Note

Wow... eight chapters in, and only two people have commented thus far? How am I supposed to know if there's anything that could be improved, or possibilities that could be suggested, without feedback? :derpyderp1:

Ch. 10 - Disgraceful!

“Hey, Mark!” Jon’s voice came. “Can you get up?”

Mark stirred a bit, groaning. “...Please... five more minutes...”

“No, really!” Jon said. “Can you move, like, at all?”

Once Mark got his bearings, his drowsy eyes shot wide open. He realized that he was tied up; his entire torso was covered in rings of rope, his back to a support beam. The same thing was with everyone. Well, everyone except...

“Wait...” Mark said, looking around, “...where’s Clara?!”

“Oh...” the filly spoke, walking into the room, “...I wouldn’t worry about her! If I had to guess... I’d say she had a pretty severe reaction to that sugar! Let’s see here...”

She grabbed the cylinder of powdered sugar, looking it over... and then peeling the label slightly. Her eyes went wide.

“...Oh, dear,” she said, “it seems that this isn’t powdered sugar at all! Turns out, what is in this container is...”

An evil, wide smile spread over her face as she ripped off the label for powdered sugar, revealing another one that said...

“...SLEEPING ESSENCE!” she read the label, just before laughing maniacally.

“Hey!” Eric shouted. “I’m sorry, but this is—”

“Oh, you’re SORRY?!” The filly said, furiously. “Good! You’d better be! You had many chances to leave this world, but no, you just HAD to stay and try to save your precious Prince William! You want to stay? So be it! Because now, for your defiance against the Benevolent Queen... I will imprison you until the day the last of you dies!”

She laughed wickedly again. From there, the filly turned her attention to a sheet draped over what looked like a person.

“Now then... for your darling Clara, I will give the first barrage of punishment!” She proclaimed.

She lifted the sheet... only to reveal a series of pillows arranged in a humanoid shape laying down. The filly’s smile vanished, and her eyes went wide with a gasp.

“WHAT?!” She shrieked. “But, where...?!”

“Over here!” Clara’s voice came.

The filly looked back to see the girl in question untying the other five. Almost immediately after they were free, the three male humans rushed the filly, grabbing her and holding her in place against the floor. She struggled against them, but they were too strong for her. Clara walked right in front of her, and the filly looked up at the towering female with disgust.

“But that doesn’t make any sense!” The filly said. “I saw you eat a crumpet!”

Clara shook her head. “No, I just pretended to eat it. ‘Cause, here’s the thing...”

She kneeled down, getting close to the filly to deliver her response.

“...I don’t eat sugar,” Clara said.

With that, Mark grabbed the fire poker, which just so happened to be laying on the floor nearby, and held it at the filly’s face.

“Now...” he said, “...you’re gonna tell us how to get to the castle, so we can go kick Schaeffer’s ass!”

“Hey!” Marlene interjected. “None of that!”

The filly, after a moment... grinned. And then she spoke... but in a voice that sounded far older than her regular one, and her eyes glowed green with slitted pupils. “All you fools disappoint me...”

Suddenly there was a green flash, and the small, female pony child disappeared... or so it appeared. It turned out, she had turned into a bird, which flew away from the group, to the door that led out.

“Sayonara, you blind brutes!” She called back, laughing.

“Uhhh...” Mark uttered, unable to move from surprise, “...what just happened?!”

“I dunno,” Jon said, before breaking into a sprint for the entry stairwell, “but we can’t let her get away!”

The group made their way out of the underground hideout, and saw the bird swoop down, changing in the process to a black, equine form. It turned out that this “filly” was Queen Cocoon disguised. She glared evilly at the six humans, her horn glowing a malevolent green.

“You cannot stop me!” Cocoon proclaimed. “You are all WEAK!”

“SHUT UP!” Jon shouted, charging at her.

Cocoon simply fired a green bolt of light at him, which launched him backward into the air as it collided.

“And SLOW!” Cocoon said. “Nopony bests me in MY world! I am everything! I am everywhere! And... I am everyONE!”

“What does that mean?” Marlene asked.

Sighing impatiently, Cocoon changed her form yet again, this time to the cop leading the squad that pursued them shortly after they entered the tome’s realm.

“First...” she said in the male officer’s voice, “...I tried to chase you out!”

Cocoon then turned into the Medieval heroine girl from earlier.

“Then I took you to the most dangerous places to try to scare you out!” She said.

She then took the form of the filly from a few minutes ago.

“And then, I tried to trap you here to stop you from taking Willy from me!” She said.

Cocoon assumed her default form once more, staring vengeful daggers at the group.

“But you just wouldn’t take the hint and go away!” She shouted.

Mrs. Milton stepped forward. “Okay, you know what?! You are being SO RUDE right now! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

“Tell us where William is, RIGHT NOW!” Eric shouted.

Grinning a sadistic grin, Cocoon began to flap her wings, her horn flaring brightly, and she ascended, upright, into the air. Her mane and tail flowed majestically around her.

“You will never find him!” She said. “He is mine! Mine! ALL MINE! AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...!”

She then tipped her horn to aim directly at the group.

“And now... I shall imprison you all in a forcefield that is indestructible, and inescapable, from the inside!” Cocoon said.

With that, she fired off a blast of magical energy at them before they could try to get away. However, Clara happened to step in, having come up with an idea in a split-second. Using her makeup mirror, she stepped directly into the path of the bolt, positioning the mirror right in front of it.

As she had hoped, the magical beam reflected off the mirror, accompanied by a loud “CLANG!” sound, shooting straight back toward Cocoon. As if in slow-motion, the changeling queen’s smile faded and her eyes widened as she caught sight of what just happened, and before she could react, she was struck by the bolt, enveloping her in a field of light, which condensed into a transparent sphere around her.

Cocoon was now imprisoned in a small forcefield by her own spell. The younger ones in the group of humans laughed at her plight.

“Oh yeah?!” She shouted at them. “Think you can pull a trick on me like that?!”

With a flash, she attempted to teleport away, but a split-second later... she rematerialized in the same spot, inside the magic prison sphere. Her pupils went small, and her jaw fell agape.

“What?!” She uttered.

She attempted to teleport out again, only to have the same result once more. Then she tried to fire energy bolts at the field, only to have them dissipate upon contact, leaving the field completely unscathed. Mark and Jon, chuckling, walked up to Cocoon, picking her up as she was trapped inside the field. It was surprisingly light, like a garbage bag full of air.

“No fair!” Cocoon shouted. “Put. Me. Down!”

“So,” Mark said, “the reason Schaeffer’s been hiding... is because he’s getting an alien-donkey shapeshifter to cover his ass?”

He and Jon laughed while the changeling queen glared.

“How dare you insult me!” She hissed. “I demand you open this field immediately! It will do so as easily as paper from the outside! And if you oblige, I may just let you all off without any punishment!”

“Sorry, buttercup!” Clara chimed in. “But after everything you did to us, you deserve this!”

“But you don’t know how this world even operates!” Cocoon protested. “I am everything! I am everyone!”

“No, you’re not,” Marlene said. “You are just one female, in this entire world, it seems, and you can only be in one place, in one form, at one time! Now, tell us how to find William!”

“NEVER!” Cocoon retaliated.

Eric sighed impatiently. “Alright, you brought this on yourself...”

By the time daylight had returned, the group carried Cocoon to a body of water, where there was a buoy some distance off the shore. They took a rowboat, along with a long stretch of buoyant perimeter rope, tied the two ends to the buoy to create a roped-off ring, and from there, put Cocoon’s prison forcefield inside of it, where it floated on the water.

Relieved that they finally put her down, and starved for revenge, Cocoon started galloping like a hamster in a ball, to propel herself on the water... but found that she could not get it to roll beyond the floating divider. Realizing she was trapped, she glanced back at the group to see them leaving in their rowboat, back toward the shore.

“WAIT!” She called. “You’re just going to leave me here?! You’ll never make it across the land find the castle without me! You need me!”

“No we don’t!” Eric yelled back.

“Um...” Marlene said, silently, “...actually, yeah we kinda do.”

“Trust me, Mrs. Silva-Poole,” Eric said, “I know this’ll work...”

“No, wait!” Cocoon called helplessly from her internally-impenetrable forcefield. “Wait! WAAAAAIIIIIIIIT!”

Hours passed, with Cocoon still stuck in the prison field. The sun blazed hot overhead, which was worsened inside the forcefield, as it acted like a greenhouse. The changeling queen was really feeling the effects of heat exhaustion at this point as she laid on her side at the base of the sphere.

“...Uuuuuuuunnnnnnnnhhhhhhhh...!” She groaned, soaked in her own sweat.

Cocoon futilely tried to lick some of the condensation from her breath collecting on the inside of the forcefield, as she was dehydrated. Heat was especially not good for changelings; they tended to be more sensitive to extreme temperatures than mammalian beings.

“What am I gonna do...?” She said to herself, before she picked her head up, looking in the direction of the shore. “...They probably already got there by now!”

When she happened to glance under the water’s surface... she caught sight of a school of swordfish. Seeing what they had on their featureless faces, she realized what she could do to get loose.

“Good thing I thought of spawning these things in a freshwater lake!” She said to herself.

With a green flash, Cocoon took the form of a swordfish herself, flopping onto her side inside the forcefield.

“Hey, ugly!” She called.

One swordfish at the rear of the pod stopped, turning to face the changeling queen. Due to her current form, she was able to communicate in a way it could understand.

“Wanna fight?!” She challenged. “Or are you a COWARD?!”

The faceless swordfish threshed in a threatening manner, ready to strike.

“You’ll never hit me!” Cocoon continued. “You’re too slow, and fat!”

The swordfish then darted straight at the forcefield, puncturing it. In less than a heartbeat, Cocoon took the form of a falcon, taking flight as the field dissipated around her.

“YES!” She shouted triumphantly, taking to the sky. “I’m free!”

Cocoon then darted in the direction of her castle, flying at a high speed. It only took a few minutes at such a velocity for her to make it back. From there, she took her default form immediately after descending upon the uppermost balcony of the main tower. She entered the master recreation room, and entered her bedroom.

To her relief, she saw William laying on his back, atop the covers, deeply asleep.

“Oh, good...” Cocoon said to herself, “...he’s still right where I left him. Those other fools haven’t made it here yet!”

As it just so happened, William was not unconscious of his own accord; Cocoon placed him in an enchanted sleep, as to avoid having him learn of what she was doing to the intruders, and possibly ruining her strategy.

She charged her horn to awaken him, touching it to the middle of his chest, which produced a flash of light. William slowly stirred, lightly groaning and his eyelids flickering. He shifted his gaze to the changeling queen.

“...Coony...” he said, sleepily.

“Have a good night’s rest, Willy?” Cocoon said.

“Definitely,” William said, sitting up. “Well... guess I should get back into my clothes, and start the day, huh?”

“Of course,” Cocoon said. “It’s always a good day with you around, my Willy.”

“And in the meantime, might as well see if James is up yet,” William said.

The group of six uninvited humans made a successful trek across Cocoon’s world, realizing that she was the fast-flying bird they saw, as all other birds flew at a moderate or slow rate. All of them followed the direction she flew, and by midday, made it to Cocoon’s castle.

In contrast to what Cocoon claimed under her generic filly guise, the castle was not “heavily guarded.” There were a few faceless guard ponies, and some cleaners, but they were able to easily slip past these weak defenses.

“Guess she really was trying to use fear tactics more than actual security,” Clara said.

Eventually, they ascended the main tower, to the recreation room of Cocoon’s quarters. They burst through a doorway where they heard a voice, and they all caught sight of...

“William!” Marlene said upon seeing her son.

“Huh...?” William said, looking up from his facedown laying position, his eyes going wide. “...MOM?!”

William, as well as James, had been receiving a back massage from two faceless, artificial pony beings Cocoon spawned. They immediately stopped what they were doing, stepping back as the six other humans entered the room.

“What are you guys doing here?!” William spoke up, after realizing just who the group consisted of.

“We came to find you!” Clara said.

James folded his arms. “William, who are these people?”

“My mom,” William answered, “and some... well, acquaintances.”

“We thought some ‘Tyrant Queen’ kidnapped you!” Marlene said.

“Oh!” William said, surprised, standing and slipping his shirt back on. “You mean... you guys came all this way to save me? You thought I was in trouble?”

“Yeah!” Marlene said.

“We weren’t going to let that alien witch-horse do who-knows-what with you,” Clara said.

This was quite a lot for him to process. Never did he imagine that people would ever care enough to try to come after him if he was in trouble.

James nodded approvingly. “I must admit... coming into a place like this of your own accord, that’s rather bold. But noble, nonetheless.”

“Guys...” William began, nonchalant, “...I was never actually in danger. I chose to come to this place. In fact, I’ve been coming here for quite a while now!”

“A while?” Eric asked.

“As have I,” James said. “We both come here to escape from the turmoil of the real world, particularly in William’s case. I simply come here as a visitor, with all the stimulating activities available at our disposal here.”

“Why didn’t you just tell us?” Marlene said. “We just wanted to make sure everything was alright.”

“I really do appreciate your concern for me, everyone,” William said. “But, to be absolutely transparent with you all... I don’t want to go back! I’m totally doing just fine here!”

Everyone stared blankly at him.

“Why not?” Marlene asked.

“Coony’s got over three-hundred great TV channels... the latest video games, including the new Sega Genesis that I don’t have, plus a MASSIVE arcade in one chamber... an endless supply of pizza and root beer... bowling alley... swimming pool... and I can perform my meditation sessions without being interrupted! I love it here!” William said, happily.

Everyone glanced around at each other for a moment.

“But William, we need you!” Marlene said.

William’s smile faded. “I don’t follow...”

“You got a bill to pay for getting my car towed, plus the ticket you got me!” Mark said.

“Huh?” William said, narrowing his eyes.

"Let's not forget," Eric said, "you have a lot to answer for regarding your absence from work! I've been without help on your end for too long!"

“Wait...” William uttered, “...what?”

"And how am I supposed to move everything around in my place when I can't pick up anything really heavy?!" Mrs. Milton said. "My yard is also an overgrown mess that needs to be cut!"

This left the individual they were questioning in a state of complete disbelief at what they were telling him. James, able to piece it all together, understood quite well why William preferred to spend time with Cocoon, more so than before.

"Hang on..." William interjected, "...hang the fuck on... you all didn't come to rescue me because you missed me; you just missed all the stuff I used to do for you!"

“That’s right!” Eric said. “When you took up that job listing, you agreed to work for me! That ain’t changing!”

“And you’re gonna start some good servitude for me, too!” Mark said.

“It’s because it’s good for you!” Mrs. Milton said. “Teaches you stupid kids not to be so spoiled!”

William turned away, his eyes starting to well with tears. "Well, you all can forget it! I'm sick of doing so much for everyone, and not even getting so much as a 'thanks' in return! And I’m sick of everyone disregarding my needs, brushing me off like my feelings don’t matter! Well, in this place, I'm the one having my needs met!" He stormed out of the room, tears running down his face. "And that's the way I like it!"

“William!” Marlene spoke up, trying to follow after him.

However... a hand grabbed her shoulder, stopping her. Looking back, she saw it was James. The look in his eyes clearly said to her that it was better to just leave William alone to calm down.

“And in all fairness,” James spoke up, turning to the rest of the group as well, “I support his decision, particularly since I believe no one should be subjected to such hardships when they could, and should, have a say in the matter.”

“Hey,” Eric said, “listen, buddy... you don’t go sticking your nose into other people’s business! Will’s got obligations to all of us! I don’t know just who the hell you think you are!”

Angered, the German guest made his way out of the room as well. Looking back at the group, he pursed his lips, shaking his head.

“Schande! I can’t believe you people!” James exclaimed in pure disgust. “Asking William to sacrifice his own happiness just for your own? You are all so selfish! You are disgraceful! Acts of kindness are something that should be done willingly, not forced out of someone!”

He slammed the door shut behind him, which deeply offended some of the short-tempered people there.

“Hey!” Mrs. Milton shouted, marching over to the door. “Young man! Get back in here and say you’re sorry to all of us for what you just said, and slamming the door!”

There was a response... but not from James. Rather, the room went dark as an ominous, green-glowing mist filled it.

"How dare you...!" Cocoon spoke, fiercely, materializing in a spectral form in midair.

Everyone began coughing as they inhaled the mist, eventually falling to their knees, and collapsing on the brink of unconsciousness yet again.

"Nopony upsets my love and gets away with it!" Cocoon shouted, all six of them barely awake to hear it. "And now... you shall never see my dear Willy ever again!"

All six of the intruders fell into yet another deep, unwavering sleep.

“THAT’S IT!” Jack angrily shouted as he violently hung up his phone receiver, nearly breaking the machine. “I’m DONE with that boy slacking off on his duties!”

He marched firmly toward his front door.

“Time to teach that lazy bastard a lesson about ignoring his responsibilities!” Jack angrily growled at no one in particular.

He got into his pickup truck, driving quite fast en route to William’s house. Surely, if he understood what was to come for him upon a particular discovery... he would be willing to give it some thought? However, logic and rationality were definitely not strong points for Jack Poole.

Ch. 11 - Never Going Back (WARNING: CONTAINS CLOP)

Time to go and comfort my love, after he was subject to such cruelty... Cocoon thought as she came to the room William was sulking in.

Sure enough, he was in the small recreation room, sat in a chair at a table, hunched forward, tears streaming down his face. The changeling queen walked over to take a seat next to him.

"Hey, Willy..." she said, quietly, "...you doing okay?"

William sighed. "...No. No, I'm not."

Cocoon moved her seat closer to her human companion, pulling him into a deep, caring hug. William held her in return, quite firmly, but not crushing-force.

"I'm so sorry they have to be so cruel and selfish," Cocoon said. "It's truly a shame that they don't take your own happiness into consideration, only viewing their own needs as the highest priority."

"It's just not fair, the fact that most of the people in my life share this type of mindset," William said, sniffling.

"Shhh..." Cocoon softly shushed, rubbing the back of his head with her hoof, "...it just shows that they are the wrong kind of people to be around. You don't belong in Atlanta, Willy. You belong with me."

"...You're right, Coony," William said.

The two hugged it out for a long while, and it was really helping William. Given that she seemed to be the only one who actually cared about him anymore... more and more, he felt compelled to stay in this world, with the girl he loved.

Eventually, the two separated, and Cocoon made her way over to the room's entrance.

"I know just the thing that will make you feel much better," Cocoon said. "Specifically, a creature that can make both you and me feel better."

William, curious and knowing Cocoon always delivered on her word, stood and followed after her.

Cocoon had led him to a room filled with strange, black, sleek tendrils. It almost looked like some sort of Eldritch-horror scene. William stopped in his tracks upon entering the room, staring in shock and confusion at what he was seeing, the tentacles squirming about randomly.

“Uh, Coony...” he uttered, “...what is this?”

“It’s a special creature I spawned, for a bit of... personal gratification,” Cocoon responded.

William’s focus quickly diverted to his feet, where he felt some tentacles wrapping around his ankles. Gasping, he tried to step loose, but their hold was too tight to break out. Two more appendages wrapped around his forearms, and one around his upper torso, binding him. He struggled against the appendages as they began to lift him, but Cocoon place a hoof on his shoulder.

“It’s okay, Willy,” she said. “Don’t fight it, or you could hurt yourself. And trust me... I guarantee you will enjoy what this being can do, for both of us.”

William stopped struggling, turning his head to face his lover. “A-are you sure...? Is it safe...?”

Cocoon nodded, just before she walked over to a bulbous node, which appeared to be the main vital area of this strange, tentacle creature.

“Now, listen,” she spoke discreetly to it, “he’s not like how I am; he’s smaller and more fragile than me. So... please be gentle with him.”

With that, she got directly underneath William, who was suspended in midair by the tendrils, and the creature began to wrap around her limbs as well. Soon, she was firmly bound, and held in a face-up laying position, much like the human above her. Speaking of which... he was making a straining sound.

“Something wrong, Willy?” Cocoon asked.

“...A-aaahhh...!” William shrieked, clenching his teeth. “...It’s... tearing me... apart...!”

Gasping, Cocoon returned her attention to the creature’s main node. “Hey, hey! What did I tell you?! Ease up on him a bit!”

The creature obeyed her, and loosened its tight hold on the human, allowing him to partially bend his limbs again. Panting, William turned his gaze to Cocoon.

“Thanks, Coony...” he said, “...for a moment, I thought I was about to lose an arm or leg.”

Cocoon smiled with narrow eyes. “And now... the fun begins...”

“Fun?” William asked.

Almost immediately, the creature began to remove his socks, exposing his bare feet, followed by his jeans, after undoing his belt, and his shirt. The came the undergarments, leaving William completely exposed, without having to do anything of his own accord. After what happened on their first night involving this... William was somewhat used to it, though still bewildered. Each time one tentacle removed an article of clothing, another wrapped around each limb, on his bare skin, to keep its hold on him.

His member already upright... another tentacle wasted to time in coiling itself around it. William’s breath escaped his throat as it did this. It did the same for Cocoon, carefully inserting another of its appendages into her. Then it began rubbing the human off, while thrusting into the changeling queen, giving them both quite an adrenaline rush.

“...Ahhh...” William moaned, “...f-fuck...”

“...Mmmm...!” Cocoon strained from the intense sensation.

After a little while, the tendril-creature brought two more of its appendages into this, penetrating them both from their backsides simultaneously. It caught them both by surprise as they gasped in unison. However... this act by the creature only served to amplify the great feeling they both had.

The tentacles continued to stimulate them both, the two completely tuned out from reality. Never had William experienced anything so intense before. It was almost completely overbearing, yet somehow, he could not get enough of it. He was outside of even Cocoon’s artificial world; his senses had transcended to a place he never knew existed. And it was absolute bliss.

Very much could the same be said for Cocoon. Despite the “sessions” she had with this creature that she spawned for this reason alone... something about William’s presence, and the fact that he was experiencing the same, just made it so much better. The creature alternated its inward and outward thrusts on both tentacles inside her, keeping one in at all times, but did it slow enough to ensure she would not be done too quickly.

Eventually, the creature lowered William directly on top of the changeling queen, and released the latter’s forelegs. Immediately, she held onto her lover in a firm embrace, and tipped his head toward her, where she immediately kissed him. In spite of their moaning, they continued to kiss, not wanting to separate their lips, while the tendrils continued to really stimulate them.

After a while, they were finally at the brink of their climax. Cocoon held onto William tightly, bracing for orgasm, and he did just the same, clenching his teeth and shutting his eyes tight. The creature then spared the two no mercy, and went all in, forcing it out of them.

William howled while Cocoon let out a loud whinny, both of their cum spilling about the tendrils and the floor. The creature, knowing that they were finished, gently retracted from them, and simply allowed them to lay in midair to recover from what just happened. Panting along with her lover, Cocoon placed a hoof on his shoulder.

“So...” she spoke, softly, “...feeling better, Willy?”

William let out a long sigh. “...Yes.”

“Good...” Cocoon responded, just before a yawn, “...that was rather fun, wasn’t it?”

William nodded, his eyes slowly closing. “...I’m very tired...”

“Of course, Willy...” Cocoon said, sleepily, “...l-let us... rest... awhile...”

She could not say too much more, and she was out in a matter of seconds, as was William, both still suspended amidst the fleshy, sleek appendages.

A short while later, James, who was exploring the castle in search of his two friends, eventually found them in the room with the tentacle creature. Upon peering in... he saw that William appeared to be naked, laying atop Cocoon. Both of them were asleep. At first, the German was a bit bewildered by the sight, but after piecing it together with a bit of logic...

"...Maybe I should just leave them be, for now..." James said to himself, turning around and going back the way he came.

Marlene, Eric, Mrs. Milton, Clara, Mark, and Jon all slowly came to, gradually becoming aware of their surroundings.

"Huh...?" Eric muttered.

Marlene sat up, looking around. "Wait... we're back?"

All of them quickly realized they were back in William's small house.

"You kidding me?!" Mark chimed in. "We gotta go through all that again to get back at Schaeffer?!"

Clara gasped, looking and pointing at the table. "The book! It's gone!"

"What do you mean?" Jon asked.

"What do you mean 'what do you mean'?" Clara said. "It's not here!"

Marlene glanced around the room, but did not see the tome anywhere. "Maybe it's hidden?"

"Everyone, start looking," Eric said.

With that, the six trespassers started looking left and right, tearing William's house inside-out to try and find where the book might have been. After several minutes of this, and turning up with nothing, they all reconvened in the main room.

"I'm sorry," Mrs. Milton said. "It's really gone!"

"How we gonna get it back?" Jon asked. "We can't let that bitch-punk off the hook!"

"I don't think we can get it back..." Marlene said.

Mark sighed. "Whatever... I'm just gonna head home and watch some football for right now."

"Hold on!" Clara said. "Maybe there's another way to get back into that world! Maybe... maybe another portal? Like, in a wardrobe?"

Eric reluctantly shook his head. "I really don't think we're gonna be able to get back to that place now that the weird book's gone, unfortunately."

"GUYS!" Clara shouted. "What about William?!"

Marlene, her eyes slightly watery, let out a long sigh. "I really don't want to be the one to say it, but... it looks like my sweet baby just doesn't want to come back."

"But he's your son!" Clara said. "You're just abandoning him?!"

"No," Marlene said. "I'm just letting William do what he wants. As long as he gets to live the way he wants, and is happy..." she briefly pursed her lips, "...that's all that matters to me."

Giving up, the group dispersed, leaving William's house, and making their way back to their respective residences. Clara, having been driven, instead elected to walk back, since her house was a decent walking distance away. In any case, she just needed some time to think about the whole dilemma.

"It doesn't make any sense..." Clara said to herself, "...why would William not want to come back? He's got so many opportunities in this world! Helping people should make him feel good! Why is he so angry? I just don't get it..."

She thought back to what William said to all of them before he stormed off:

You all didn't come to rescue me because you missed me, you just missed all the stuff I used to do for you!

"That's not true!" Clara said. "But what we would really like, even if he doesn't want to do any favors for us ever again... that's fine! If he wants to stay in that book-world for the rest of his life, being treated like a king, that's fine! But we gotta find a way back in, just to make him understand... we actually care about him as a person, and not the things he does!"

She stopped her walking, and made her way directly back to William's house. Regardless of where the tome ended up, she knew she had to find it, so she could explain that her rejecting him was not of ill intent, and so the others could explain themselves better as well.

Mark made it back to his own home, after being dropped off, where he immediately plopped down onto the couch, and grabbed the remote control.

"Hello, TV, my good friend," he said, pressing the power button.

However... the remote button did not press. He made several more attempts to press it to no avail.

"Ngh, stupid clicker..." Mark muttered, examining the device, "...won't click when it's supposed to click!"

Every effort to try and press any buttons on the remote were futile, as they did not yield. It was as if the device itself was a solid piece of plastic.

"GRNGH!" Mark groaned, hurling the remote at the TV in frustration.

It hit the screen, but this did not break it. Rather, it struck the corner, peeling off what looked like a reflective film. Narrowing his eyes, Mark stood, walking up to the TV.

"What the...?" He said, peeling the film off.

This revealed that the television set, too, was just a giant piece of plastic. No working parts, as the dials and switches were just solid pieces that did not move.

"Okay, did someone pick off my shit while I was gone?!" Mark shouted.

He immediately made his way to the phone to call the police. However, the receiver made no dial tone, and again, none of the buttons could be pressed, being just decorative.

"INCLUDING MY PHONE?!" Mark thundered. "Okay, whoever did this in is real deep, now! Tampering with phone lines is a federal offense!"

With that, he made his way out to his car, and drove off back to William's house, who he suspected was responsible. But even stranger... his car sounded different. There was no sound from an internal-combustion engine, but rather something that sounded like... clockwork mechanisms.

Eric also noted that his car sounded a bit strange as well as he drove everyone back to their respective residences. He did not pay much mind to this, as he was still very upset and angered by the way William spoke to him.

"I'm gonna see to it that his position is vacated for a more optimistic worker!" He said to himself after dropping everyone off.

He pulled into his driveway, parking and walking up to his front door... which just so happened to not be there. Instead, a flat representation of the door was in place of the actual door, with solid wall now completely obstructing the former passage.

"Okay..." Eric said, clenching his teeth in frustration, "...would someone explain to me why my front door is gone, and now just painted on a wall?!"

With the same assumptions as Mark, Eric got right back in his truck, and made his way over to William's house.

Mrs. Milton, after such a harrowing ordeal, wanted to climb into bed and just rest. However, to her irritation, she found that the sheets of her bed had apparently been glued down, as if the bedsheets were just a continuous piece of cloth sew onto the mattress itself.

"Is this someone's idea of a joke?!" She complained.

Like the others, she also made her way back to William's place.

The six all met back up at William's house, describing their strange experiences upon returning to their homes.

"Like," Jon said, "what's going on? All my lightbulbs were just hollow plastic!"

"I'm not sure," Clara said. "But we need to find a way back into that world that William and the strange alien-horse are!"

"Damn right!" Mark said. "He's gonna pay for everything he did!"

Clara shook her head. "That won't help. We need to convince him that we actually care about him. At this point... I don't really think it matters which world he stays in. If he wants to spend his life in that strange world... that's his decision. It took a bit of thinking, but I now realize that's the most sensible thing; let him live how he wants."

"Why should we do that?" Mrs. Milton said.

"It's only fair," Clara said. "We can't dictate how his life should be."

"But first..." Marlene spoke up, "...shouldn't we try to figure out why everything is so strange here, now? Like how there doesn't seem to be anyone in the city?"

"Come to think of it..." Eric said, "...I didn't see one other person on the road."

Clara pondered briefly. "There's gotta be some reason everything's so funky right now..."

Jack sped right up to William's house, slamming the brakes when he was at "reasonable" stopping-distance from the driveway. From there, he shut off the vehicle, got out, slammed the door, and stomped rapidly up to the prefabricated home's front door.

"He's got hell to pay...!" Jack muttered under his breath.

Clara walked to the front door, ready to head out and conduct her own investigation into the bizarre things in their world.

Jack made his way up to the door as well.

Clara grabbed the handle...

...so did Jack.

She pulled open the door...

...He pushed open the door... and found the house empty.

"WILLIAM!" Jack shouted. "Get your ass out here, NOW!"

Walking in, and looking around, he saw the tome leading to Cocoon's world, sitting on the table in the dining room. It was completely undisturbed from how it was when the other six passed through its portal.

"That book?!" Jack said, instantly remembering. "I thought I told that good-for-nothing to put it back where he found it! That's it! Now he's gonna get it nice and rough when I get my hands on him... disrespecting me... disobeying me... lying to me... now he's gonna learn!"

He made his way over to the tome, opening it up to see if William had done anything with it, out of curiosity...

Upon stepping outside, and taking a careful look at her surroundings... Clara gasped and froze at the sight of a giant figure in the sky.

It was William.

He seemed to be much more giant than even the planet, and even outside its atmosphere. But, that was only from their perspective...

"Wow!" William remarked. "It looks just like Atlanta!"

Cocoon had taken William to a new chamber in her castle, containing a large, scaled-down, circular cutout of Atlanta and the surrounding region outside the city limits. It was about ten feet in diameter, and even had its own closed climate, simulating an atmosphere and partly-cloudy weather.

"Great attention to detail, Coony!" William commented as he examined the city replica.

"Just a little something to remind you of where you come from," Cocoon said, happily.

“Indeed,” James remarked, examining the recreation. “Impressive that an ecosystem can be scaled down to such a degree.”

William continued to admire the scaled-down, lively representation of his former home city. Given that it looked like an actual piece of the world he came from, with its own ecosystem, it was hard not to take his eyes off it, particularly given that such a thing was possible.

"Flip it over," Cocoon said.

James narrowed his eyes. "Flip it? But... how would he...?"

"It's much lighter than it looks," Cocoon pointed out. "There's an inscription on the bottom."

"Okay..." William said, lifting up the recreation of Atlanta.

True to her word, it was quite lightweight, like Styrofoam. He then flipped it over to see exactly what his girlfriend was talking about.

"WOAH...!" The six uninvited "guests" screamed as the artificial city was flipped upside-down.

All of them fell onto the ceiling as the entire place was inverted. The furniture remained in place, as it appeared to be nailed down. However... their feet began to break, and sink, into the ceiling, given that it was not rated to hold their weight in the same way as a floor. This was especially true as it was a scaled-down, magic recreation.

"Everyone, don't move!" Eric said. "Too much shifting could make us fall through!"

Despite being tense and agitated, everyone did as instructed, panting anxiously as they held still.

William read out-loud the inscription on the base of the city.

For the kindest, sweetest person I have ever had the fortune to know.

He felt his face go a deep red after he read it, turning his attention back to Cocoon.

"Aww, Coony!" He said. "You're the kindest and sweetest!"

He set the city replica on its rim, hugging Cocoon with his free arm.

"I swear," William said, warmly, "you don't have a single bad piece of chitin in your body."

As she was being hugged... Cocoon made an evil smile at the Atlanta replica. She knew that this act would hopefully result in the six intruders being disposed of without William ever knowing, especially since he had no desire to return to his world.

The six stayed where they were, but even some of the slightest movements they couldn't help caused them to sink through the ceiling even more, falling deeper into the holes their feet created.

Marlene stood where she was, trying to process what was going on, and in particular...

How are we going to get out of this? She thought.

Ch. 12 - Can You All Forgive Me?

William, after flipping the replica of Atlanta back upright, went out to the castle courtyard with Cocoon and James to get some nice, summer air. At her insistence, the changeling queen gave them both a ride on her back. The two humans found it remarkable that she had the strength to carry them both without breaking a sweat.

"Y'know, we can walk just fine, Coony," William said. "Wouldn't want to put you through the trouble of a bad back."

"It's no trouble at all!" Cocoon said. "You're both as light as a pair of feathers!"

She even decided to fly around with them both. Her flight patterns were not greatly affected by weight or drag from the two, but she was overall able to maintain a proper flight pattern.

"Wow!" James said, looking around. "I've piloted many aircrafts in my time... but this is quite exhilarating compared to that!"

After a little while, she set down, and William and James both got back on their own feet.

"That was fun!" William said.

"I agree," James remarked.

"Anything for you boys," Cocoon said.

"But..." William began, "...isn't there anything you'd like to do, Coony?"

"Me?" Cocoon asked, sitting. "You want me to decide?"

"Of course!" William said. "You've done so much for me and James already."

James nodded. "It's the least we could do."

"Okay," Cocoon said, closing her eyes and grinning. "How about a game of Hide-and-Seek?"

She opened her eyes, and upon seeing that William disappeared, immediately frowned as her eyes shot wide open.

"Willy?" She gasped, looking around.

"Uh, Cocoon..." James began.

However, the changeling queen paid him no mind, flapping her wings so hard, she propelled dust all about as she took to the air.

"Willy?! Willy?!" She called, looking around the castle.

She looked high and low, but could not find her boyfriend anywhere in the place. Tears filled her eyes and she gasped for breath, panicking.

"WILLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY...!" Cocoon bellowed from the pinnacle of the castle's tallest spire.

She glided back down to the courtyard where James still was. Visibly panicked, she walked up to the confused German.

"J-James...!" She uttered. "...Wh-what happened... to my W-Willy...?!"

"Hey!" William's voice sounded. "Calm down, Coony!"

Cocoon turned around to see William standing just behind her.

"It's called 'Hide-and-Seek,' not 'Hide-and-Flip-Out,' " William said.

She immediately leapt at him, pulling him into a tight hug, tears flowing from her eyes.

"I-I thought you were gone...!" Cocoon sniffled. "...I thought... y-you left me... and that I would be... a-a-alone again...!"

"Coony..." William said softly, running his fingers through her mane as he hugged her back, "...I wasn't gone; I was just right behind you the whole time."

"That's what I tried to tell you," James said to Cocoon.

"Besides," William began, separating partly to look her in the eye, "why would I just up and leave without telling you? You're my best friend, and I would never leave you alone!"

The three went back into the castle, into the chamber that contained the replica of Atlanta. By then, Cocoon managed to pull herself together.

"Better now?" William asked.

Cocoon nodded, smiling weakly. "...Uh-huh."

"Glad to hear it," James said.

Just when William was about to suggest something else they could do... some bizarre sound caught his attention. It was high-pitched and faint, but fluctuating. His eyebrows came down and his mouth went narrow.

James raised a brow at him. "William? Is something wrong?"

"Shh..." William said, holding up a finger, looking around "...do you guys hear something?"

Cocoon's eyes went wide and she pursed her lips.

"DOWN HERE!" Marlene shouted.

"DO. YOU. SEE. US?!" Mark bellowed.

"LOOK THIS WAY, DUMBASS!" Eric yelled.

The shrunken, six intruders were all standing at the edge of the Atlanta replica closest to William, James, and Cocoon, trying to get their attention.

"I-I hear nothing but the sound..." Cocoon stammered, forcing a smile, "...o-of your lovely voice, W-Willy..."

Before William could respond, he felt something hit the back of his neck.

"Huh...?" He uttered, standing bolt upright, and rubbing the spot where the object, about the size of a pinhead, hit him.

He tried to turn and face the city replica, where it seemed to come from, but Cocoon hastily tried to drag him away.

"It's the ghosts!" She said. "Did I forget to mention that my castle is haunted?"

Cocoon, using her forelegs, tried to physically force William and James out of the room.

"C'mon!" She said. "We must get out of here!"

"Now, hold on but one moment..." James said.

"Yeah!" William said, his gaze fixed on the rim of the scale Atlanta replica. "What's that? I think I see something moving..."

With quick jumps, he got around Cocoon, and kneeled down next to the edge of the replica.

Cocoon gasped. "NO!"

Peering carefully at the moving spot, William could see...

"...Everyone?!" He uttered, shocked. "What happened to you all?"

William turned so his ear could face the group, who appeared to have set up a makeshift catapult, which, he assumed, was used to launch the small rock at him to get his attention. He listened to the high-pitched grievances of the six small humans.

"Huh...?" He uttered before his eyes lit up. "...She did what?"

Cocoon then stepped forward... each stomp of her hooves quite forceful. William looked at her, and was surprised to see a very furious expression filling her face.

"I'm certain you take back what you said now, don't you?!" She said, angrily.

"Uh..." William muttered, "...take what back?"

"That you would never leave me here alone!" Cocoon explained. "I know you're mad at me for doing something bad! But I didn't! I was punishing them for trying to take you away from me!"

"Now, Cocoon..." James said, "...we can be reasonable about this."

"You stay out of it!" Cocoon snapped at him, before turning back to William. "And now, I know you're just going to keep me imprisoned in this tome... just like she did!"

"She?" William said, confused, before it came back to him. "Oh, right... your big sister, Chrysalis. Coony, listen, I'm not leaving."

"LIAR!" Cocoon shouted, her furious eyes glowing red, baring her sharp teeth, her horn glowing, and her mane flowing malevolently around her.

"I'm not lying," William said, calmly. "I gave you my word that I would stay with you, no matter what. And when I make a promise, especially when it comes to love... I NEVER break that promise."

After he said this, Cocoon's eyes stopped glowing, her horn went out, and her expression lightened up considerably.

"Really?" She asked. "You mean... you're not mad at me?"

"No!" William said. "And I can understand that you were just scared and desperate."

James came up and placed a hand on the back of her neck. "It's okay to be scared, but at the same time, it's not okay to do bad things to other people."

Cocoon sighed, bowing her head sadly. "I guess you're right..."

"So..." William began, "...what do you think you should do?"

"Hmm?" Cocoon hummed.

"Turn them back to the regular size," William requested.

Cocoon let out another sigh. "Alright..."

Once William stepped aside, she powered up her horn, pointing it at the group of shrunken humans. Focusing a steady beam of green light onto the six, they steadily grew, all of them stepping off the city replica once they were of proper size, and Cocoon continued growing them until they were back to the size they were before she shrunk them while they were unconscious.

"There!" Cocoon said.

"Now," William began, knowing he had to be the bigger man here, "what do you have to say to them, Coony?"

Flustered, Cocoon crossed her front legs, slouching.

"I'm sorry I shrank you," she said, dismayed.

"Thank you," William said.

Mrs. Milton gritted her teeth. "Are you kidding? Apologize like you mean it!"

"Hey!" James said. "No need for that tone!"

Slowly, Cocoon stepped forward before speaking again, this time with more sincerity in her voice. "Listen... I really am sorry. About everything. Can you forgive me...?"

Clara stepped forward. "I forgive you."

"Same," Marlene added.

The rest of the group stood back, all four staring daggers at Cocoon.

"Well?" Clara asked. "How about the rest of you?"

"Why should we?" Eric said.

"She was very rude to us!" Mrs. Milton protested.

"She apologized, and returned you all to normal!" William pointed out. "The least you could do is forgive her! Besides, can't we all just make something positive out of this, instead of trying to twist and contort it into the worst thing ever?"

The remaining four darted their eyes about, thinking.

"Plus," Clara spoke up, "if William is happier in this world, who are we to decide for him what choices he should make? Also... imagine if we decided to stay here, too!"

"What? Why?" Mark asked.

"Well," William began, "we've all seen what Coony can do with her magic. Imagine if we could live absolutely carefree, without any need to live under the bureaucracy of our government? Think about it... no more working, no more paychecks, no more taxes, no more bills..."

Cocoon nodded. "So long as nopony poses a threat to me, or tries to take away what I desire most, I would be more than willing to provide for you all. Anything and everything to meet your needs and wants!"

At first, Eric, Mark, Jon, and Mrs. Milton wanted to protest... but realizing exactly what they were lacking in their own lives, really took into consideration the possibilities Cocoon could be a conduit for. Well, almost all of them...

"No!" Mrs. Milton spoke up to the changeling queen. "I won't let you tempt me, servant of the Devil!"

Cocoon blinked, confused. "I beg your pardon...?"

Mrs. Milton held up her cross necklace in her direction. "May the Lord God grant me strength, who by the power of the Holy Spirit, will help me vanquish this demon from our blessed world!"

Cocoon narrowed her eyes, unamused. "Don't go getting crazy on me, now..."

"I'm sure we're all free to go back to our world if we want," Marlene said. "But that being said... I think I'll stay in this world. If William's happy here, I think I'll be, too."

"But..." William began, "...before we pull the trigger on anything, we're gonna need to make a few arrangements back in what will hopefully be our former world."

"I agree," James said. "Probably wouldn't be wise to have anything cut off abruptly. Would likely raise suspicions if that were the case. Besides, so long as there remains a way back to our world... I still have a call of duty to uphold."

After a bit of debate, most everyone decided that staying in Cocoon's realm might be a better decision than the future they originally had in mind. If they could have everything provided for them with a limitless amount of magic from Cocoon and William's bond, how could they refuse?

Of course, they all knew they had to return to their world and cut some ties with their employers, and make arrangements with relatives and friends (provided they could keep the secret, and Cocoon could wipe their memories if they couldn't).

Mrs. Milton, on the other hand, was too stubborn, and wanted to stay in the human world, believing Cocoon was not to be trusted (and continuously made derogatory slurs at the changeling queen).

William and the others returned to the human world through the portal to make said arrangements, and the others all went off on their way.

"Let's just hope this doesn't go wrong," William said.

"I'm certain it won't," James remarked.

"Besides," Cocoon said through the tome's portal, "nopony could ever pose a threat to me, as I'm certain no humans can use magic against me."

At that moment, a pounding on the front door caused all three of them to flinch. It opened to reveal a person William absolutely did not want to see in that moment, and one who James and Cocoon knew about quite extensively, having been told all about by William.

"YOU!" Jack shouted. "You've got hell to pay, ignorin' me and disrespectin' me!"

"What?!" William said. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"It's time you own up for your unacceptable attitude!" Jack said, making his way inside.

James stepped in front of him, an arm extended. "Jack Poole, I presume?"

Jack gritted his teeth. "Who the hell is this ass-clown?"

"I beg your pardon..." James said, narrowing his eyes at the man, "...but you have absolutely no business calling me that when you don't know me personally, nor should you be barging into other peoples' residences! Such crass, callous actions are unbecoming a grown adult!"

"YOU'D BETTER LEARN HOW TO SHOW A LITTLE RESPECT FOR YOUR ELDERS!" Jack shouted.

With that, he attempted to hook James in the face, but the immortal German used an Aikido-style deflection to redirect the blow, bringing Jack's arm behind his back. From there, James brought one leg around Jack's, leveraging it and throwing the middle-aged man off-balance. He fell to the floor, James pinning him down with his trapped arm.

"GET THE HELL OFF ME!" Jack shouted, struggling in vain.

"I'm warning you," James said, firmly, "I've been extensively trained in military combat for the German Special Forces and Harmonious Guard! If you try to throw another hit at me, I will not hesitate to dislocate your shoulder, or worse! I'm much stronger than I look, mind you."

"I SAID GET OFF!" Jack shouted, roughly rolling to get out from under James.

"STOP! STOP!" Cocoon pleaded through the tome's pages.

He quickly stood, jumping aside to avoid being tackled by James and William, where he rushed for the dining table.

"And I'm taking this with me!" Jack said, picking up the tome.

"No!" Cocoon bellowed through the portal she could not pass. "Put me down! Stop!"

After closing the tome, which silenced the changeling queen, he bolted out the door, pushing aside William as he tried to stop him, knocking the young man to the floor. James rushed after him, his hand on his signature Mauser pistol, seeing that Jack had already gotten into his pickup truck, starting the engine.

"By authority of the Harmonious Guard," James said, drawing his weapon, but keeping it as his side, "I am hereby placing you under military arrest, Jack Poole!"

"You say you're military?" Jack said. "Well that means you're sworn in to serve the people! That means you serve ME! I'm YOUR commanding officer, and you do as I order! You're talking to a former U.S. Marine! I know how this shit works!"

Without saying anything further, he sped off down the road, the German sprinting in a vain attempt to keep up.

"HALT! STOP!" James shouted, his Mauser leveled on the pickup truck. "Cut the engine!"

"You have absolutely no idea what you've just done!" William called out to the truck as he followed.

It was fruitless; Jack sped too far and fast for them to catch him. Panting to catch his breath, James tucked his Mauser back into its concealed holster.

"He would be lucky I don't contact and dispatch a Guard patrol on him!" James said. "It would definitely be the most unfriendly confrontation of his life, I am certain."

William hung his head. "He took away my only source of true joy in this world... stole it... and given how angry Coony might be..."

Both recalled that Cocoon mentioned to them that, if she became angry enough, her magic could break its safety limits, which could possibly grant her access to the real world, and bring about devastation. She was certain it would never happen, given how William always kept her happy, as well as James, but...

"I imagine this is going to spell a lot of trouble..." James said.

William pursed his lips, his head tipped forward. "Knowing Coony... she's gonna make it Hell on Earth...!"

Cocoon was completely shocked, scared, and panicked that her prison-tome was being taken away by Jack. Given how he was described to her... she was now very fearful that she would never get to see her Willy ever again.

"No...!" She uttered, pacing around. "No, no, no...!"

Tremors began as her passive magic keep the world stable became more erratic. It increased in intensity, the sky gradually turning from its calm, aurora-filled skies, to a malevolent, volcanic-looking cloud cover, flowing rapidly through the sky. Volcanoes broke the surface of the land all across the realm. More and more, the tome's realm became very hostile and inhospitable, all due to Cocoon's violent emotions from being, what she assumed, was permanently separated from her love.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!" Cocoon bellowed, her voice resonating loudly across her world.

Her horn flared violently, sending out jets of light in every which direction, vaporizing anything they made contact with... and the Banishing Rune on her right leg glowed white for a brief moment, and then it disappeared...

Ch. 13 - Redemption

Jack, after seeing the mystical properties of Cocoon's tome, dropped it off at an APD station. The officers, too, were quite surprised to see a realm within the book, through the portal, generated by a form of energy beyond their comprehension.

"We'll need to look into this in greater detail," the station captain said to his subordinates. "Call up Special Investigations. We're gonna need to give this thing to some of their best scientists and engineers to analyze."

"Yes, sir!" A lieutenant responded.

William and James both picked up on Jack's trail, discreetly following his pickup truck in William's SUV. All the while, James used a portable radio to alert any members of the Harmonious Guard in the vicinity of Atlanta of what was about to happen. Luckily, there were responses from high-ranking American HG officers, with affirmation that they would take necessary action to notify the local law enforcement and infantry preparations.

Once they saw that Jack dropped off the tome at the police station, William pulled into the parking lot, only being sure to head inside once his stepfather left. Upon entry, James stepped ahead.

"I'll handle this," he said to William.

With that, he approached the officer posted at the metal detectors.

"Do you have any business here?" The officer asked.

James held up his PMC identification badge. "Jessie Günther, Harmonious Guard. Let us through, now! We don't have time to dawdle!"

"Stop!" The officer shouted, shoving the German back as he attempted to pass. "That tells me nothing. Nobody's allowed inside without authorization!"

"I'm the commanding officer of the PMC I just mentioned," James explained. "That means I outrank you. And now, under my authority, I am authorizing the Guard to assume jurisdiction over the Atlanta Police Department, and local County Sheriffs’ offices, in response to an imminent crisis."

The officer glared, putting a hand on his service pistol. "I'm going to have to ask you people to leave. You don't just come in here, and start telling us how to--"

At that moment, the cop's radio blared.

"...All units, be advised, the Harmonious Guard paramilitary corps has assumed emergency jurisdiction over the Atlanta area," a senior officer spoke. "All officers are to adhere to the orders of any commissioned officer of the Guard that identified him- or herself. Senior staff, acknowledge."

The station guard, now flabbergasted, returned his focus to James and William. The former folded his arms, tipping his head forward.

"Now," James said, "it looks like my request is now an order."

"A-ah, yes..." the officer said, stepping aside, "...go right ahead, sir..."

"We'll need to have a full spectral analysis of this thing, given the strange phenomena happening within it," one officer said, looking at the tome inside of a holding cell.

Given that it was a very unknown type of object, they wanted to ensure it was secured, in the only way they had, from anything that could harm the station personnel.

Out of nowhere, William and James burst into the room.

"Harmonious Guard!" James said, holding up his ID. "Give us the tome you just obtained! Hurry!"

All of the officers looked up from what they were doing as William stepped forward.

"What the hell are you doing in here, kid?" The captain asked.

"Listen," William said, "the creature inside that tome is going to come out in a few minutes, and when she does, the only thing that's going to stop her from completely leveling this city is me. So, you need to let me talk to her."

The captain narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about? That cell's made of reinforced carbon steel. Whatever sort of 'creature' you're talking about won't be getting out."

"She can!" William explained. "She's able to use magic; those steel bars won't stand a chance of containing--"

"Captain..." one officer spoke up, looking at the monitor of an EM scanner, "...I'm getting some frequencies from the object that... uh... I can't even make sense of this..."

Everyone looked at Cocoon's tome, within the cell, humming and glowing a malevolent green. It slowly ascended off the floor, its light rapidly pulsating. And then, out of nowhere, a beam shot up from the open pages, breaking through the ceiling of the holding cell. Everyone in the room jumped and staggered back as it happened.

Outside of the police station, the jet of light condensed into a physical form, manifesting as a ghostly, gargantuan representation of Cocoon, hovering high above the building. Dark storm clouds filled the partly-cloudy sky, sending off a series of lightning strikes. Cocoon had assumed a very monstrous form, looking as if she was made of thick, black gas, with glowing green, angular eyes.

"YOU WON'T KEEP HIM FROM ME!" The changeling queen's voice resonated loudly.

Marlene, Clara, Mark, Jon, Eric, and Mrs. Milton all quickly realized what was happening when the storm clouds appeared, seeing the ghostly form Cocoon had taken as a result of her unstoppable rage. All of them immediately went back to William's house as the changeling queen started firing off magical bolts, amplified in size and intensity to fit her upscaled form, destroying infrastructure.

"He's not here!" Marlene said to all of them upon searching the small house. "And neither is the book!"

"Did you see where that monster appeared from?" Eric said.

"William must be downtown!" Clara said.

"Come on!" Mark said, making his way back to his car. "Let's go toast that bitch!"

William and James both made their way out of the station, and by then, several police units already mobilized to try anything they could to neutralize Cocoon.

"Let's hope the law enforcement don't get carried away and open fire on her..." James said.

William rushed back to his SUV. "C'mon! We gotta hurry before she destroys the city!"

With that, James got into the passenger seat, and the two sped to the district where Cocoon was currently engaged in her rampage. Right now, she was knocking down buildings, tossing vehicles around, and hurting many civilians. People ran as fast as they could, as there was a massive, gridlocked traffic pileup.

William and James both abandoned the car in the first parking lot they saw near a hardware store. From there, they proceeded on foot to the area Cocoon was. On their way, however... they both stopped upon seeing a particular injured person.

It was Jack. He seemed to have run his truck off the road and crashed into a telephone wire pole, before tumbling out of the vehicle. James immediately kneeled next to him, taking a quick look at his injuries. William stood over the two, and Jack happened to shift his eyes onto him, as he was still conscious.

"What happened with you?" William said. "And moreover... what the hell were you thinking, not listening to us?"

"...You..." Jack mumbled, "...you... did this..."

William narrowed his eyes. "What?"

Wheezing, Jack responded: "...If you just... did... as I said... everything... would be better... for everyone..."

"Oh, bullshit!" William shouted. "If you kept your abnormally-large nose out of my business, none of this would've happened!"

"But never mind that right now," James said. "You would do well not to move around until assistance arrives, given your condition. In the meantime, William and I must ensure Cocoon is stopped before she destroys Atlanta... and quite possibly the world."

With that, the two abandoned the injured man for the time being, and focused solely on the immediate matter. They made it to the central downtown plaza of Atlanta, where there were sparse civilians, all running about randomly, while heavy law enforcement activity, both the police department and Harmonious Guard PMC, covered the area.

However, there were some there were people willing to actually stay and see what was going on. Particularly...

"William!" Marlene called.

William's eyes went wide as he turned to see who spoke to him, in a familiar voice. "Mom!"

Marlene, Clara, Mark, and Eric all came to the scene where Cocoon went on her rampage through Atlanta.

"What's going on?!" Clara asked.

"It was my stepdad!" William said. "He made Coony angry! Now, she's going to destroy everything before taking me back to her realm! But I think I can stop her!"

"How?" Marlene asked.

"I'm not exactly sure..." William said, clenching his hands into fists, "...but I need to try!"

"At this point, it's all or nothing!" James said.

With that, William made his way forward, toward the dark, cloudlike manifestation of the changeling queen, with James following behind. There was a massive amount of wind blowing around, the clouds above spiraling malevolently, like something out of a fantasy film. As they approached, a police cruiser pulled up in front of them both, blocking their path. The officers stepped out, rushing toward them.

"You shouldn't be here! It's not safe!" One officer said.

"Order your men not to shoot her!" William said. "You'll only make her angrier!"

"SIR!" The other officer yelled, pointing at him. "You both need to get to a secure area!"

"STOP!" William urged, grabbing the officer by the collar and pulling him to make eye-contact. "LISTEN TO ME! I know her personally! Everyone in this city is going to die if you don't let me talk to her!"

"And the Guard PMC has assumed emergency command of this operation, and over the local authorities," James stated. "I am the commander of the paramilitary corps, Jessie Günther. Anything I command must be strictly adhered to! So... let him do what he must."

The officers, after a bit of hesitation, reluctantly stepped aside and allowed William to step closer to the threat they were specifically told to direct people away from, the heavy wind whipping his hair and jacket around. As he approached, however... he prepared himself, and everything around him, in a way most other people would be incapable of.

"Let's hope this works..." William said, taking a moment to focus, "...don't fail me now!"

With intense concentration, blocking out everything around him, he invoked his probability-altering ability. With his eyes still closed as he channeled it, he extended both arms out to their full span, pushing his power to extend to as far of an omnidirectional radius as he could make. The strain this took on him, however, giving such a large population and piece of land good fortune, resulted in him receiving a migraine and nosebleed.

Amidst some frantic debate with her acquaintances, Marlene noticed her son approached the dark, spectral form of Cocoon.

"William!" She called, extending an arm but not walking forward. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"It's okay!" William called back over the wind. "I'll be fine! She won't hurt me!"

He then stood directly below Cocoon as she pulled back, ready to charge at a high-rise building.

"COONY!" He called up, over the wind, to his demonic lover. "COONY, IT'S ME, WILLIAM! IT'S YOUR WILLY! PLEASE, STOP AND LISTEN!"

She seemed to hear him, as she froze, glancing down to see him right below her. William took advantage of her attention, and kept talking.

"Please, don't do this!" He pleaded. "I'm here, Coony! See? I wasn't taken from you forever!"

Her angry, glaring, glowing eyes gave way to an expression of remorse. As this happened, she descended, lowering herself to the ground. The wind became less turbulent, and everything just seemed to fall more silent.

William reassuringly placed a hand on her massive, smokelike hoof (which felt surprisingly solid), in the hope that he could settle her down.

"You've..." he spoke, calmly, while looking up at her, "...been a bad girl... haven't you?"

Cocoon slumped remorsefully. James and everyone else stood where they were, watching.

“I know you did what you did for me,” William said. “But, remember what James said... it’s not okay to hurt others.”

James received a transmission over his secured radio.

“Sir,” a Harmonious Guard officer spoke, “Commander Terrance Olson of Unit Alpha speaking. We have a clear shot at the vital areas of the creature, and can perform a simultaneous sniper barrage. Permission to proceed? Over.”

James held the transmit button on his transceiver. “Negative. All units, standby. Do not engage without my authorization. Over.”

“Copy,” the unit commander responded, “we will await further orders from you, sir. Over and out.”

Cocoon pursed her dark, smokelike lips for a moment, before she spoke.

“Willy...” she uttered, her voice amplified as if over a stadium loudspeaker system.

“I’m here, Coony,” William said. “And like I promised early on in our relationship... I would do anything and everything for you. I wouldn’t let them take you from me forever. I’m sure James would’ve been more than willing to have your tome brought back through his connections and clientele.”

Tears welled in Cocoon’s large, glowing eyes. She hung her head down in shame, closing her eyes and mouth. “...I’m so sorry... to everyone...”

She then powered up her horn, creating a brilliant green glow that cast on the low clouds. James was quite taken in by the spectacle, along with Marlene, Clara, Mark, Jon, and Eric. In fact, the few remaining civilians in the area all stopped and watched as the green light increased in intensity. However, everyone soon had to look away as it enveloped the whole area.

William and James both found themselves floating in an abstract void, brimful of dancing light patterns all around. Cocoon, now back to her regular size and form, hovered right in front of the two. The changeling queen looked, needless to say, fairly upset.

“I made...” she said, sighing, “...a terrible mistake.”

A sad look filled William’s eyes.

“I should’ve have been so short-sighted as to do what I did,” Cocoon continued. “And now... I’ve brought devastation to your world, Willy.”

“Coony...” William began, reaching toward her, “...I don’t blame you. It was my idiot stepdad. He tried to drive a wedge between us. But I would’ve fought to get you back.”

“I know,” Cocoon said, sulking further. “But... I was just so angry that he would do that. I just wanted to punish him myself.”

“Vengeance never achieves anything good in the long run,” James said.

Cocoon took a deep breath. “And that is why... I must undo the damage I have inflicted.”

James nodded in approval. “Good that you are willing to make amends to our people.”

“However,” Cocoon said, “they will never know of it, with what I must do.”

“Hm?” William hummed.

“To accomplish my redemption...” the changeling queen said, “...I must turn back the clock... reverse what has happened... and let the rest of the humans of Atlanta live in blissful ignorance of the tragedy that could have been.”

“What?” William asked. “Go back in time?”

Cocoon nodded. “But this spell requires an immense amount of potential energy... and the only source with enough intensity would be the tome in which my prison world resides.”

It was from this that William and James extrapolated what she had in mind.

“Y-you mean...?!” William uttered.

“Yes, Willy...” Cocoon said, somberly, “...to restore things as they were, and to avert any catastrophe that results from this, I must make use of the energy that links the tome to your world. From there, it could possibly be destroyed, or otherwise rendered useless.”

“Coony, no!” William interjected. “You can’t do that! I... I need you! I love you! After everything we’ve been through... y-you’d just go and... run the risk of tearing us apart through some sort of interdimensional lottery?!”

He began to let off tears. After such a harsh life, he finally found the one thing he needed... but now, she was insisting that it be taken away from him.

“Why can’t my love give you the power you need? Can’t we just do that?” He asked.

Cocoon shook her head, frowning. “...Love power alone is insufficient for this type of transcendent magic. I’m afraid this is what must be done, for the safety of mankind. Exposing them to a force they cannot comprehend... I’m sure you’re aware of the dangers it would implicate, with what just happened.”

“...C-Coony...!” William sobbed. “...I don’t wanna l-leave you...! Th-there’s... gotta be... another... w-w-way...!”

Cocoon simply gave a weak smile, tears filling her eyes. “Willy... you remember from the Star Trek movies you showed me, what Mr. Spock said? The needs of the many...”

William’s eyes went wide. “...Outweigh the needs of the few.”

Cocoon nodded. “Or the one.”

James decided to give his input as well. “I know this must be hard for you, William. And none regret it more so than I... but I hope you would find solace in knowing that I have been in such a place before.”

William shifted his teary eyes to the German paramilitary commander.

“When I lost my dear wife, Lena, and my child...” James hung his head, “...I felt like I lost everything, period. For a while, I had little personal incentive to keep going. But... I kept on going, and eventually, came to terms with what transpired. I was able to find things that matter to me, things to pursue... and that stemmed from my sense of altruism, as well as humanitarianism. And with what Cocoon has in mind... I believe it is a noble thing to do, sparing the world of the potential perils of magic misuse.”

The more William thought about it, the more he was able to see why this might be the best thing to do, all to keep the people of his world safe. But...

Cocoon’s horn flared, conjuring the tome that held her world in front of them.

“Now...” she began, “...I will perform the spell, which will take me back into my world, but still with all the magic you provided to me, Willy. I can restore it to how it was prior to Jack Poole stealing the tome. And as for you two... you will be dropped at the points where you were prior to Willy’s discovery of the book.”

“Coony...” William said, tear streaks running down his face from his eyes.

Cocoon propelled herself forward, and when she was close enough, wrapped her boyfriend in a warm, tender hug. He wrapped his arms around the base of her neck, gently running his fingers through her mane.

“W-will I... ever see you again...?” He asked.

Cocoon rubbed his back with a hoof. “I promise, Willy... I give you my unbreakable word... that I will do anything and everything to find a way back to your world... restore the link... and have you as mine once more.”

The changeling queen could not hold herself back any longer, and began tearing up as well. James watched all the while, not saying a word, but still feeling empathically sad for his two friends, and personally sad for having to part with his new, nonhuman friend as well.

“So...” she said, separating from William and hovering back behind the tome, “...it’s time.”

Cocoon powered up her horn once again, and the tome opened its pages. A radiant, golden glow appeared within the pages, creating a spiraling, vertical vortex of energy. William froze, his sad eyes wide as ever, as he watched.

“Coony...!” He said.

“One...” Cocoon spoke, still performing the spell.

“Coony, wait!” William said, reaching toward her. “Can’t we just wait a little while?”

“...Two...” she continued.

Desperate, William tried to make a break for his lover... but was held back by James.

“How do you know you’ll find a way back?!” William asked, helpless against the much-stronger German.

Cocoon opened her eyes, looking right at him, and whispering the final word as everything fell silent: “...three.”

A bright, white light spread all throughout the void the trio found themselves in. Everything was quiet. Still. Lifeless. Neither William nor James had any sensory input, nor sense of time, for what felt like an eternity, yet only lasted a few seconds. Soon enough, however, things slowly came back into focus...

Author's Note

For those who are a bit worried here, don’t! This isn’t Cocoon’s final appearance for the story, nor her final interaction with William and James. Sorry about the long wait; school starting back up in a chaotic state due to the pandemic restrictions, as well as writer’s block. :ajbemused: Anyway, hope this story is coming together nicely for the close!

Ch. 14 - The Best Decision

William opened his eyes to find himself back in his home. Everything was very much like how it was before the calamity. James was nowhere to be seen, however. William quickly shifted his gaze over to the table where he last left the tome... only to find that it was bare apart from the place-mats and centerpiece.

“N-no...” he uttered, tears filling his eyes, “...it can't be...!”

Immediately, he rushed out of the prefabricated home, making his way toward the spot where he found Cocoon's tome in the open fields just outside of the suburban area... but the spot was empty. No sign of the large book to be seen. The same, familiar milkweed plant sat in its spot. That plant, which he took notice of... which helped him meet the first girl he ever loved who truly loved him back...

This was all too much to be happening at once. William's legs gave out from under him, and he began to cry once more, burying his face in his hands.

“...C-Coony...” he whimpered.

After a while, William decided to make his way back to his home to hopefully take some time to pull himself together. He called the Eastern Standard Time-of-Day service to determine that it was the day he discovered Cocoon's tome... the day he first met the changeling queen.

Even though he had the rest of the day off... William did not believe he had the mental fortitude to go on with his day-to-day routine tomorrow at work. Surely his brain would switch itself to autopilot as he contemplated everything that happened, losing the love of his life.

“...I guess it all really was too good to be true,” he said to himself as he laid on the futon, staring at the ceiling.

After a little while, the doorbell rang.

“Come in,” William spoke absently, but audibly.

The door opened, and James stepped inside.

“I thought I'd find you here after what happened,” the German paramilitary commander said.

He made his way over to the living area, taking a seat in one of the armchairs next to the futon. Interlacing his fingers as he brought his hands together, he let out a long, slow sigh through his nose.

“I know it must be hard, being forced to leave one who you love so dearly,” James said.

Swallowing, William pursed his lips and clenched his eyes shut. “...It was... far too soon. It felt like we were only starting our relationship!”

“I'm so sorry, William,” James said. “Truly, I am. I'm certain Cocoon is upset as well, knowing full well she may never see you again. But... she did what she had to do, as to preserve the integrity of our world's essence.”

“And that's what I just don't understand,” William said. “Why do I have to lose the people in my life who I care about, ending up right back at square one, where my life sucks?!”

James closed his eyes and tipped his head forward. “...I don't think that's a question anyone can answer. I'm certain this goes without saying, but life is rather unfair. I knew this firsthand when my homeland was taken from me by a tyrannical political party, and so many people I knew personally suffered by their hands. And particularly... when I lost my wife and child. That was the breaking point. From that moment on, I felt like I was destined to suffer.

“But after some time, I began to realize that in order to find happiness... I needed something to pursue. I then recalled exactly why I joined the German Army in the first place. I did so to ensure I could help to create a world where my friends and family could find happiness, and live peacefully and securely.”

William turned to face his visitor. “...Why are you telling me this, James?”

“Because I feel it's important for you to understand that, even though it does not look like it...” James said, “...somewhere, there's someone who needs you, who wants to help you find your place in this world. And, I'll be frank... I am one of those people. As I spend a great deal of time interfacing with military and government personnel, they consist of most of my closest affiliates outside of my family, coupled with the fact that I have outlived most of my friends from back home.

“William, you are one of the few civilians I have actually had enough time to get to know personally on my extended leave, and one from America, no less. I know you have a great deal of untapped potential, and I implore you to make good use of it! And besides, since you and Cocoon have met once before... who's to say fate has not intertwined your destinies to cross paths again?”

William lowered his gaze for a brief moment. “You really think so?”

“Absolutely,” James said. “Just keep pressing on toward the future, using what you have learned in the past to better yourself for whatever comes.”

“I guess you're right,” William remarked, weakly.

James stood from the seat. “So, what's say we go out and do something to distract ourselves from this whole ordeal? Maybe... we could head out for a nice, long walk? It's good for both the heart and mind.”

After sitting still and thinking for a moment, William finally swung his legs over the rim of the sofa, sitting himself upright.

“Okay,” he said, standing.

The two soon found themselves walking around the neighborhood, generally chatting about some minor, trivial topics at first, soon delving into each other's past. James, in particular, had quite a lot of stories to tell, having lived for a little over a century.

“Wow,” William remarked at the stories told to him, “and you've managed to live to this day, with all the battles you've been through?”

“I've taken my share of bullets and shrapnel, and even been hospitalized a few times,” James said, “but I always lived to fight another day. And with all the experience I've gained, such occurrences are far less common than when I was younger and more impulsive at times.”

Little were the two aware... they were being stalked. A young woman was trailing after them, moving around the various blocks surrounding the path the two were taking. She seemed to be taking a particular interest in the two...

“I'm sure if I ever went into combat... I'd probably end up dead or a POW,” William said, sadly. “No way in hell would I ever be able to do anything as remarkable as you did in my lifetime...”

“Oh, don't go thinking you're insignificant,” James said, sagely. “I am positive that there is still a great many things you could do to go about changing this world for the better.”

“I appreciate the sentiment,” William said.

After continuing their chat and walk for a little longer, the young woman following them finally stood directly ahead of them. William and James both stopped upon seeing her.

“Oh,” James uttered, “hello?”

“Hey there,” the young woman said.

She had fair skin, dark-brown hair, blue eyes, and a thin figure. She wore her hair loose, and had simple, slim-fit blue jeans and a black tank-top. From her overall appearance, she seemed to be about the same age as William.

“How's it going?” She asked.

“Well...” William began, “...we're getting by, I suppose.”

“And who might you be?” James asked.

“I'm Janet,” the girl said. “Janet Rhodes.”

“Janet...?” William asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, but my friends call me Jan... at least, y'know, if I had any.”

“You don't have any friends?” James asked.

Jan shrugged. “Guess you could say I'm a new addition to the community. I moved here recently and picked up a new job at a local diner.”

William nodded. “Always good to see a new face around here.”

“You okay?” Jan asked. “You look a little... lost.”

Lowering his eyes to the sidewalk pavement in front of him, William sighed.

“To tell you the truth...” he began, “...I'm not really doing so well at the moment. Someone I really care about has... gone away. And I might never get to see them again.”

“Is that right?” Jan asked, her eyebrows raised in curiosity. “I'm sorry to hear that.”

“Thanks,” William said, nonchalant.

“Would you like to get a cup of coffee with me?” Jan offered. “It might help take your mind off things.”

“Coffee?” William asked.

“Just figured,” Jan said. “I'd like to get to know someone around here... especially you in particular, William Schaeffer.”

William's eyes shot wide open. “H-how... how do you know my name?”

“I guess you could say... we've met before,” Jan explained.

“But, that doesn't make any sense,” William said. “I've never met anyone named Jan.”

“Well, I'm sure it may come back to you,” James said. “Plus, I could do for some coffee myself.”

After a moment of thought, William relented. Who knows? Maybe this girl could understand what he was going through once they became familiar enough for him to elaborate?

“Sure,” William said. “Lets head on over to the cafe, shall we?”

Sure enough, the trio went and sat at an outdoor table after ordering their beverages, conversing with each other yet again. James, of course, had much to tell the young woman about his life, and while she did find his stories interesting... for some reason, she seemed more interested in William.

“So...” Jan began, “...what happened that made you so upset now, William?”

William shook his head. “It's complicated. You wouldn't believe me if I told you.”

“I doubt that,” Jan responded. “I'm fairly open-minded, and I can tell when someone is lying. So go on, and tell me!”

“Alright...” William began, readying himself, “...you see, I met someone, from another world, a 'pocket dimension' if you will. And, even though she wasn't a human... she was still probably the most important individual I had ever had the pleasure of knowing. She helped to take my life in a direction I thought it would never go... but it all came crumbling due to a tragic series of circumstances.”

Jan's eyes lit up. “Really? Well, I can only imagine how awful things must be for you now, getting to know someone you truly care about being swept away from you after such a short time.”

“Hold on,” William said. “You actually believe me?”

“Of course!” Jan said. “Besides... this world, the pocket dimension you speak of... would it happen to have resided within a certain type of tome?”

Both William and James were frozen as they heard how she described it, only able to wonder how she knew such a thing.

“It's a rather complex form of magic, I know,” Jan said. “But I know about it firsthand myself... because I was there to experience it for myself.”

“Y-you mean...” William trailed off.

“...And I met a brilliant, smart, handsome boy who gave me the absolute purest love I could ever receive in all of reality,” Jan finished.

Both William and James, in spite of their surprise at how much she knew about the situation, used what she told them to piece together exactly who she was.

William's eyes went wider than ever. “...Coony?!”

Jan smiled. “Yes... I'm here, Willy.”

He was unable to believe it. The girl who sat in front of him was actually Cocoon? She assumed a human form? Of course, he had his doubts, and wondered if maybe she was a stalker pulling a prank on him or not, if she knew about the situation. But then again...

“Cocoon...” James interjected, “...if this is really you... then, how are you in this world? I thought you were imprisoned in the tome. And, are you just in a different form right now... or is this a new, permanent form?”

“When I made the time-jump with my powerful spell,” Jan began, “I sent my tome back a little further, to spawn at an area where there would be no human perception of it. From there... I got to work condensing every single wisp of magic I could from the realm within the tome. Once I did that, I used it to bring me into your world, and alter my form in the process into the human girl I am now. I then used the last of my power to conjure documents, including a fake birth certificate, for me in the nation's database...” she nervously shifted one of her legs, “...brainwashing a few federal employees to help out in the process. And I was able to get some welfare benefits, a small apartment, and a decent job.”

“S-so, Coony... that means...” William stammered, “...you're...”

Jan nodded. “Yes, I am a citizen of the United States. And my name is no longer Cocoon, or even 'Coony.' Now, it's Janet Allison Rhodes.”

Tears fell from William's eyes yet again, but this time a warm smile spread over his face. Jan, formerly Changeling Queen Cocoon, stepped toward him, wrapping her arms around her lover, and he did so in return.

“I thought I would never see you again...” William choked out.

“For you, Willy,” Jan responded, “I would go across the farthest stretches of reality.”

After a long, well-deserved embrace between the two, they mustered the will to separate.

“So... what about the tome?” James spoke up.

Jan pursed her lips. “Unfortunately, due to the power I absorbed from it in the process of leaving it's world and altering my form... it's been completely depleted of power. The world within has ceased to exist. And as a result... I have lost my magic when I assumed human form.”

William clasped his coffee cup, but did not pick it up from the table. “So... why would you do it? Why would you abandon everything that makes you... well, you?”

Jan looked out into the distance, up at the sky just over the horizon. “Why wouldn't I? Willy... everything that happened on that fateful day we met... when you came into my world... ever since then, I have wanted to be by your side, no matter what the cost may be. So, when I realized it was possible to come back to your world, I was also well aware of the price. And when it came down to remaining in an artificial world with magic, but without love, and living in a real world without magic, but a lifetime supply of happiness...” she shifted her focus back to her lover, “...I immediately opted for the latter.”

“Coony—er, Jan...” William began, a blissful smile overtaking his face as his eyes continued to well with tears, “...you have no idea how happy this makes me.”

“Indeed,” James remarked. “I think it's wise to choose happiness over power. Not to mention... I am certain you would not want to be subject to complete isolation yet again, would you?”

Jan shook her head. “Never again. That's why I knew, after having met Willy... that this would be the best decision for all of us.”

With that, the trio continued to drink their coffee, more or less deciding on where they wanted to go with their future together. James, of course, had to return to his command of the Harmonious Guard after his extended leave was over, but no doubt, he would remain in contact with William and Jan. As for the two lovers... well, it went without saying, but they would surely be willing to see each other on a daily basis going forward. Though she no longer fed on love... Jan knew she could still not live without it after having become accustomed to it from her Willy.

Ch. 9 - Breakaway and Bonding

The gondola fell into the ravine, spilling its human occupants about in random directions. Eventually, everyone landed... in some sort of dull-orange, gunky substance that broke all of their falls. They all struggled to pull themselves loose from it, since it adhered firmly to their skin and clothes.

“Ugh...” Clara groaned, pulling an arm loose from the stuff.

“What is this shit?” Mark said after getting his entire back free from the sticky stuff.

“Wait...” Marlene said, looking at the spot where she was partially-stuck, “...there’s imprints of us in this stuff!”

Everyone saw she was correct; in the spots they had fallen, there were some shapes that made up their entire body, identical in color scheme as well.

“Oh, sweet!” Mark said, immediately slamming himself facedown into the gunk.

He did this over and over, creating multiple, flat duplicates of himself in the sticky substance. Everyone else stepped through the stuff onto dry soil some distance away.

“Mark!” Jon called back. “Dude, quit screwing around! We gotta keep moving!”

A groan of multiple voices sounded. Jon glanced back at the others.

“What’s up with all of you?” Jon asked. “Don’t get all whiny!”

“But...” Mark said, after catching back up, “...that wasn’t us.”

The groaning sounded again, and everyone turned back. Several figures were approaching them... and they were all comprised of their imprints in the gunky stuff. Mark’s many copies were still “standing” from the rest of the stuff. These beings slowly and menacingly encroached on the six humans, who immediately became alert.

“Shit, zombies!” Mark said. “And most of them are of the best-looking guy on Earth!”

“C’mon!” Eric said, starting down the path. “Let’s move!”

The six humans started rushing down the valley, hastily clearing the obstacles in their path, including falling branches and rocks. However, more of the gunky-beings began to appear in their path.

“Uh-oh, they’re multiplying!” Clara said.

Mrs. Milton, panting, slowed down. “I-I... I can’t keep going...”

Marlene slowed down, grabbing her arm. “C’mon! We gotta keep going!”

Eventually, they spotted something in the distance ahead of them ascending into the sky. They made it out to be some sort of circular platform, ascending from the pinnacle of a pyramid of stairs.

“Up there!” Eric said. “When it comes back down, we’ll ride it out of here!”

Jon looked back at the army of strange, gummy clones of themselves approaching. “Uh... I don’t think we have the time!”

The platform slowly descended from the top of the valley, the group anxiously and rapidly climbing the stairs up the pyramid.

“C’mon!” Mark shouted up at the platform. “Move faster! MOVE FASTER!”

“EXCELSIOR!” Came a familiar voice down below.

The group looked back down where they came, and saw the heroine from before, slashing at the gunk-beings with her sword. But it seemed almost fruitless; they kept repairing themselves, almost as if nothing happened.

“There’s too many of them!” Clara said.

“We gotta go help her!” Marlene said, starting her way back down.

The heroine, however, held her hand back at them in a “stop” gesture. “NO! Go forth, adventurers! Save thyselves!” She sliced another creature about to creep up on her. “Save your beloved William! I shall hold back the monsters here!”

By this point, the platform came all the way back down. Eric grabbed Marlene’s arm. “We gotta go, NOW!”

Everyone got onto the platform just before it started its ascent, and just before the gunk-zombies, coming up from the other sides, could get aboard. The heroine kept slashing and slicing, but was eventually overwhelmed by the sheer numbers alone, buried underneath them. Everyone looked over the edge of the rising platform, to see what had happened...

...And they happened to see a flash of green light from within the gaps of the pile of the weird beings, just before it imploded. Everyone narrowed their eyes.

“...What just happened?” Mrs. Milton asked.

No one could answer, however, since the platform rose directly into a sort of large pipe in the sky, the inner part of equal diameter to the platform itself. They ascended directly into it, and everything went pitch black. They stopped moving, and everything went silent.

“Uh...” Mark uttered, “...what happens now?”

Suddenly, they were all shot directly upward, like being blasted out of a cannon, into the open sky.

“AAAAAAAAAH...!” The group shrieked as they flew straight up.

They shot past a giant, floating gem. As this happened, it spun rapidly, making a twinkling sound. The group then fell back to the ground below, in a random spot of the open fields, and just like entering the tome’s world, they slowed to almost a halt just short of the ground.

“Okay...” Mrs. Milton said, “...this is getting RIDICULOUS!”

“And why would that hero-girl help us... right after completely stabbing us in the back?” Clara asked.

At that moment, however, the large, sparkling gem they passed descended down to only a meter above the ground. Its flat polygons separated and dispersed... revealing a pony filly with lilac hide, a long, deep-purple mane and tail, and teal eyes, who hovered for a moment, before setting onto the ground. A big, ecstatic smile spread over her face.

“YAY!” She exclaimed. “I’m finally free!”

The filly then ran around, jumping up at the six humans, hugging all of them tightly.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!” She said repeatedly.

“Oh, heeheehee...!” Mrs. Milton giggled upon being hugged.

“Uh...” Eric uttered, “...and what are you thanking us for?”

“For rescuing me, silly!” The filly said. “I was imprisoned inside that floating gemstone by the Tyrant Queen for trying to rescue the human William!”

“William...?!” Clara said.

“So... you know about William, too?” Marlene asked.

The filly nodded. “Everyone knows about the Captive Prince to be wed to the Queen! I’m one of the rare sentient artificial beings, part of the uprising against the Tyrant Queen, and we’re all trying to set her poor human prisoner free! I tried...” she then hung her head sadly, “...but the castle was just too heavily guarded.”

“So,” Marlene began, “what do we do from here? Do you know how to get to this castle?”

“Oh, yes!” The filly said. “But, before we make any move in favor of the uprising, you will all need to buildup your strength. I’ll take you all back to one of our hideouts, where you can rest and have a meal. And we can come up with a plan to get past the Tyrant Queen’s forces. And don’t worry; we’ll be safe there. The Queen doesn’t know where this hideout is.”

Mrs. Milton sighed in relief. “Good. I could really use something like that, right now. Nice that there are some kind, talking animals in this world.”

The group of humans, led by the filly, made it to a modest underground house in a forested region. By then, it had become late in the evening. The entrance to the hideout was obscured by surrounding vines and foliage, which they had to brush aside as they passed through to the front door. From there, they got themselves settled in for a rest.

Mark, meanwhile, was looking through the cabinets and cupboards around the place when the filly was preparing a meal for them.

“Where’s all the weapons?” He asked. “Where’s the swords, the maces, the bazookas?”

Clara cleared her throat at him. “Don’t you know it’s rude to snoop around in other people’s cupboards without permission?”

Mark didn’t listen, and ended up taking the fireplace poker.

“...I guess this’ll have to do,” he said, flourishing the tool like a one-handed weapon.

Mrs. Milton sighed impatiently. “...Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“Well,” Mark said, “if we’re gonna be fighting some evil witch-queen, we’ve gotta get someone else to be the lead hero now, aren’t we?”

“And just who said you could be hero?” Jon asked.

Mark narrowed his eyes. “Hey, it only makes sense, doesn’t it? I was varsity captain! So, my natural leadership skills should be used here as well!”

Before this petty debate could continue any further, the filly appeared from the kitchen, pushing in a rolling cart with a tray on top.

“Okay, everypony!” She said. “The tea’s ready!”

Mark rasped. “I don’t even like tea!”

“Could we get some hard drinks?” Jon requested.

The filly, however, did not acknowledge what was just said. “And, you know what goes best with tea?”

No one said anything, so the filly removed the lid from an adjacent tray, revealing some pastries.

“Crumpets!” She said, happily. “And what does best with crumpets?”

She pulled a container off the lower part of the cart.

“Powdered sugar!” She said with the same optimism.

With that, the filly powdered the crumpets just before offering them, as well as the tea, to everyone.

“Oh, why thank you, little girl!” Mrs. Milton said.

“Hope they’re to your liking!” The filly said. “They’re EXCELSI—!”

She stopped herself, just as everyone stared at her with narrow eyes.

“Uh, I mean...” the filly collected herself, “...they’re excellent.”

Brushing aside the minor, random outburst from the filly, the six humans ate the crumpets... at least, most of them.

“Mmmm...” Marlene hummed while eating, “...these are really good!”

“Really nice to have some hospitality around here,” Eric remarked.

“Yeah,” Mark added, “especially since we’re gonna be... going after...” he trailed off, swaying a bit with his eyes partially closing.

Jon did the same. “...Oh, man... feel kinda weird... my tongue’s getting numb...”

“...I can’t... feel...” Marlene chimed in, “...my arms...”

Everyone was quickly dozing off. It was becoming extremely difficult for them to remain standing, bringing them to their knees, and finally either their backs or fronts. Only the purple filly remained awake, and she giggled with a wicked expression across her face.

“Nitey-night... my rescuers...” she said, tauntingly.

Before any of the six humans could give any response, all of them fell asleep.

William had fallen asleep a little earlier in the day after finishing his painting of Cocoon, and by the time he came to, the sun had already set.

“Ah, Willy!” Cocoon said as she stepped into the master recreation room. “Naptime’s over, I take it?”

William stood from the sofa, stretching. “Yeah... bit longer than I would’ve preferred. But hey, leaves one refreshed.”

“That’s good,” Cocoon said, grinning and narrowing her eyes, “because... I think it’s time for your payment.”

The young man froze, trying to process what he said, just before Cocoon left, heading into the adjacent bedroom. After he was able to collect himself, William entered the room after her, seeing that she had taken her anthropomorphic form yet again, and laying on the bed in a sexy pose.

“U-uh...” William began, “...so... about this ‘payment’ you’re talking about... wh-what exactly do you... have in m-m-mind...?”

Cocoon narrowed her eyes, smiling warmly, as her horn glowed. William was enshrouded in the green halo as he felt all his weight vanish, slowly levitating a few feet above the floor.

"I care about you, Willy," Cocoon said. "And I'm going to show you how much I care..."

The changeling queen slowly began to bring him closer to her, and as she did this, she slipped off his shoes from his feet. William made no effort to protest this... as he was still trying to process what was happening. For someone like him, this was too much, too soon.

Cocoon then removed William’s socks, exposing his bare feet. This was when he began to feel the heat rising in his face. Given what society’s been pressuring on everyone his age for years now... he had a good idea about what she had in mind.

As he continued to slowly float closer to Cocoon, she forced his arms upward, and pulled his shirt off, leaving the sleeveless undershirt for now. She then undid William’s belt, unzipped his jeans, and pulled them down, the trousers falling to the floor.

“You’ve got a very nice build, Willy,” Cocoon remarked, seductively.

William glanced down at himself. “W-well... I’m kinda lacking in the ‘build’ department...”

“That’s okay,” Cocoon said, “I like thin males more so than over-bulked barbarians...”

Cocoon then removed William’s undershirt, leaving the young man in nothing but his boxers.

Holy shit...! William thought. Never, not by the longest shot, did I EVER think I’d be levitated by a sexy, female horse-bug, being stripped in the process... and getting what I now KNOW will happen next!

Finally, Cocoon slipped his boxers down his legs, exposing his standing manhood. William’s face was now redder than he was sure it had ever been in his life. Even the middle of his chest was flushed as well. He was finally set down directly beside the anthropomorphic changeling queen, who wasted no time pressing herself directly against him.

Though they had been intimate many times before... direct, skin-on-chitin contact, while nude, was completely new to both of them.

Cocoon placed a hoof on William's chest, gently rubbing as she brought her muzzle closer to his person. Closing her eyes, the changeling queen slowly ran the tip of her tongue over his nipple. In response, William laid back completely, his eyes closing and his mouth falling agape.

“...Aah...” he moaned, “...f-fuck...”

After a bit of teasing, she moved directly on top of him, her face right over his.

“After much hardship throughout your life, Willy...” she said, leaning closer, “...it’s only fair you get your break.”

Then Cocoon pulled him into a deep kiss, making William completely lose touch with reality... up to a point. She used this distraction to position herself correctly... and enveloped his upright member with her pussy. William moaned in surprise, breaking the kiss as this happened. From there, she started thrusting up and down, taking his cock in and out in a steady motion.

William began to pant and sweat as he wrapping his arms around Cocoon, and he started doing the same with the changeling queen. He continued to thrust in and out of her in a steady rhythm, making her moan in absolute bliss.

“A-aah!” Cocoon uttered. “Oh, Willy... yes! K-keep going... aah!”

She was rather tight, but that only stimulated him even more, inclining him to continue. Unbeknownst to him, Cocoon was using her magic right around both their crotch regions, giving them a more intense experience through nerve stimulation. The sensation of his long, firm cock stretching the inside of her vagina was unlike anything she had ever felt before... and not did it feel truly extraordinary, but extremely relieving, as well.

The same could very much be said for William as well, who was becoming fairly fatigued from taking the lead. Cocoon struggled to keep herself held up, falling right on top of her boyfriend. He paid no mind to this, though, and continued pleasuring her. Eventually he was so pent up, his seed begging to be released, up until he eventually climaxed with a howl. Cocoon, already having had multiple successive orgasms, was more than satisfied with what he did for her.

The two separated, laying and panting, soaked in each other’s sweat, and cum splattered across both of their groins.

“...O-oooh...” William moaned, his eyesight blurring and crossing, “...f-feeling dizzy... can’t... h-hold... aah...”

He could no longer maintain his consciousness, passing out.

“Willy...?” Cocoon asked, gently tapping his shoulder. “...Willy, are you okay? Sweetie, are you alright?”

James eventually returned to the castle following his exploration. He immediately made his way up to the master quarters.

“Hello, you two!” He called as he entered. “Sorry I’m later than usual!”

“Shhh!” Cocoon shushed him, emerging from the bedroom. “Keep your voice down!”

“Oh, sorry! My bad!” James said, quickly.

He glanced around as Cocoon shut the door behind her.

“So... where’s William?” James asked.

“Willy’s resting right now,” Cocoon spoke softly.

“Resting?” James asked, checking his pocketwatch. “Seems a bit earlier for him to fall asleep than usual. Did he do anything really... strenuous?”

“W-well...” Cocoon began, “...let’s just say that... he’s had a very exerting night with me. And we were quite... connected...”

James pursed his lips. “...I won’t ask.”

Cocoon blushed. “...What I did for him... may have been a little too intense for a human like him.”

“I can understand why he would require some recuperation, in that case,” James said, nonchalant.

From there, he went to the room Cocoon arranged for him, to get settled in for the night, as he decided to spend the night in her world. The changeling queen herself got into bed, after cleaning up the mess they made with some new bedsheets, and laid alongside William under the covers. As the night went on, all she could do was stare at her lover, well and truly connected with him following what transpired that evening.

“Of course...” Cocoon said to herself, “...now that I’ve had a bit of fun with him, I think I’m just getting started with Willy!”

Author's Note

Yeah, I know it was kind of a lame lemon, but that’s the idea; this is just a warm-up for something more interesting later in the story... :raritywink: Be sure to stay posted!

Ch. 15 - Hopeful Future

William and Jan both spent a good deal of time catching up from where they left off, and definitely spent more time alone with each other, since James eventually returned to Germany to continue commanding the Harmonious Guard after his extended leave. The two went on dates quite often, though at times there were some awkward moments, as Jan still did not have a firm grasp of the human world. More often than not, she relied on William to help her assimilate into their culture.

After a few years, she became very accustomed to the human world, having moved on from what she originally was. William knew it would’ve been a long transition… but strangely, Jan seemed to have slowly forgotten who she was originally. Whenever he brought up the situation of how they originally met, she recounted how it was in the woods someplace, but she thought he was crazy for assuming that it was inside some sort of artificial world.

So… she’s forgetting? William often thought. I’m guessing her magic was integral to who she was, and without it… her now-human mind is just constructing its own, more cohesive story of her life before she made the decision to stay here with me.

While a little distraught that she did not remember the extraordinary circumstances of the day their paths crossed, he ultimately decided it was for the better, as she would be able to live a more “human” life and be able to cope with a world she did not originally come from.

Eventually, William worked up the courage to officially tie the knot with Jan, since it was very clear that they both loved each other dearly. After discreetly getting her ring size, he went out and got a modest diamond ring, where, after an elaborate date that led to an isolated spot in a park at night, he pulled out the piece of jewelry, and asked the single most important question he could ever ask her, on a bent knee. Jan, of course, gratefully accepted.

After about a year of being engaged, the two were then married by a presiding justice of the peace, and, as it just so happened, James was back in America around that time. He, as well as William’s parents, served as witnesses of their marriage. The latter two questioned Jan about where her family was, to which she nonchalantly said that she had no idea. Not only that… but she did not accurately recall who James was, despite having spent a great deal of time with him back a few years ago.

“In any case,” James remarked nonchalantly over his drink, “I am happy for both of you.”

“Thanks,” William said.

They all decided to treat themselves to some fine dining to commemorate the occasion for the two newlyweds. All of them made sure to wear their best formal clothing, with James opting for his ceremonial military uniform (which boasted a large assortment of medals and other decorations, showcasing his massive contribution to the German military).

“We can’t tell you how proud we are, William,” Marlene said.

“Definitely!” Jonathan added. “I knew you’d get over your approach anxiety one day.”

“Indeed,” James chimed in. “All it takes is determination to overcome what would appear to be an insurmountable task. Many years in the military have taught me that much.”

“And I’m glad my son got acquainted with an overseas military man!” Jonathan said. “I must say, Cmdr. Günther, all the circumstances surrounding your career… I’m quite amazed, all the things you went through to get to where you are now.”

James let out a single chuckle through his nose. “Please, call me James. No need for us to go by rank among the civilian populace during leave and liberty.”

“Yeah, force of habit,” Jonathan remarked. “Still, I’m a bit surprised, given that we’ve had some interactions, assignments, and operations in conjunction with several Guard companies via connections through NATO… and here I am with the CO in person!”

“Of course, I’m glad to have met you personally, Jonathan,” James said, picking up his drink again. “But, tonight’s not about me, of course.”

Jan then spoke up. “I’m just… so glad to have met someone as kind and caring as Willy. He and I are truly meant for each other.”

William and Jan both looked deep into each other eyes, blocking out everything else around them.

“For you, Jan…” William began, “...I would go above and beyond, any day.”

“...And just that dedication alone is enough for me,” Jan said. “All I ever want with you, Willy… is to love, and be loved.”

“And that’s what you’ll get from me, until we cross the veil,” William declared.

William was able to find a good career in the field of art, with him doing mainly freelance work. He worked as an illustrator for books, a graphic designer, décor art, among other things his skills could be useful for. Jan, despite being only a diner cook at first, was able to work her way up to becoming the head chef at a posh bistro in downtown Atlanta. Both were able to make quite a good living for themselves, that they moved into a newer, nicer home, selling William’s old prefab (Good riddance, William thought.)

Overall, the two set themselves up for quite a good lifestyle with the money they made. As it just so happened, William was not the only one in his family to take up a bit of change as well.

Marlene got fed up with Jack, due to him lacking a great deal of affection for her, and mainly only being concerned with keeping himself occupied. She could not stand being married to a workaholic, and ended up filing for a divorce. Realizing that she had her mind made up about this, he did at least have the rationale to know she would not change her mind (his stubborn disposition really only manifested around William).

Ultimately, William’s father, Jonathan, ended up retiring from the US Navy after over twenty years in his career with an honorable discharge. His original ambition was to become captain of a warship one day. However, with how slowly he was ascending the ranks, despite his going above and beyond his call of duty on a regular basis, it was now appearing more to be a pipe-dream, at best. He only ever received the most basic decorations and medals for a First Lieutenant.

So, he decided to attend some classes to get a Captain’s License for operating merchant ships, since, at this point, becoming Master of any ship would be satisfactory enough. With his background in the Navy, even as a Lieutenant, he ended up receiving certification fairly quickly.

From there, Jonathan Schaeffer ended up serving as captain of several cargo and container ships, mainly on the Maersk fleet. In all honesty, he ended up taking quite a liking to his new job, especially since he realized it would be pointless to be CO of a warship if there was next to no chance of being authorized to fire the weapons, particularly since Goldsborough never saw combat for as long as he was stationed aboard, nor did any ship he served on. Not only that, but another thing he was grateful for was the ability to call William more frequently with the onboard satellite phones.

However… William and Jan, during a time when they could both have themselves a vacation, opted to join the former’s father on a moderate-sized container ship that would traverse a short route; one that would take them through the Gulf of Mexico, around Cuba, and ultimately to Puerto Rico. The two even decided to do some volunteer work to help out the crew, which mainly consisted of ensuring proper equipment and vessel systems operation, cargo inventory checks, cleaning, and in Jan’s case, helping the ship’s cook.

During some off-time, William took to exploring the boat when he got bored of looking out at the horizons. Sometimes, a crew member, oblivious to who he was, would make a snide remark like “This ain’t no amusement park, son! You best keep to the upper decks!” but sometimes, another crew member would come along and interject, something along the lines of “I wouldn’t want to talk down to him if I were you! He’s the Captain’s son!”

It didn’t take long for the whole crew to realize who he and his wife were, though, since it only consisted of about twenty crewmen in total.

It had been almost nine years since James met William a little while later, and the former was able to take another leave from the Guard after another long stretch of operations and missions at that point. So, he decided to fly back to the US to check up on his two overseas friends. After informing them he was in the country and would be paying them a visit, the two happily agreed, with them hinting that they had something really big to tell him about.

James had a bit of an idea as to what they were going to reveal to him, and once he arrived, what he saw alone confirmed it.

Jan had a large bulge in her abdominal region, which she subtly rubbed to direct attention to. James stared, both surprised and delighted, as he knew quite well what this entailed.

“Yeah…” Jan said, softly, “...seven months already.”

“Wow,” James said. “So you’ve finally decided to officially start your own family.”

William nodded. “We figured it was time, given how long we’ve both been together, and how much we’ve both wanted it.”

“And we’ve learned that it’s gonna be a boy,” Jan said.

James smiled. “Well, I am glad that you both decided to go through with this. And…” his eyes shifted to Jan’s pregnant belly, “...I’m positive your son will grow up to be just as amazing a man as you, William.”

“I can only hope…” William said.

Without dwelling excessively on the matter, the three simply went off to make the best of James’ visit once more. They did a bit of traveling together, some sightseeing, and generally just enjoying themselves with some of the local attractions of their destinations.

There was no doubt that William’s life, after having met Jan as the changeling Queen Cocoon, ended up far better than before. She helped open his eyes to things he never thought he would attain, and inspired him to pursue bigger and better ambitions. Sure, he did wish that he could have met her earlier in his life, but he could not change the past, of course.

But, in any case, his future looked bright indeed, as he now had a family of his own, and was finally able to emerge from the shell he encased himself in to avoid others rubbing their own good lives in his face. He was now a much different man than he was a decade ago, and has come to embrace what really makes life worth living. And he help some good faith that his son could go on to do amazing things for the world, particularly since the advent of contemporary technologies has made international connections far easier.

William Schaeffer knew, going forward, that whatever would come for him, Jan, his future son, and James, it would all be for the better as each of them worked to make a better tomorrow for themselves and those around them.

The End?

Author's Note

Sorry if this ending was a bit underwhelming; I just didn't really know a good way to wrap up the story. Not to mention, I've been sidetracked on a number of things. In any case, it was just a prequel story, and I am planning to write up a fourth installment (which will also be the fourth chronologically in the Find Her series.

In any case, thanks for reading, and especially those of you who favorited and followed! Keep a lookout for the new story after I take a break!

Soundtrack Guide

"Main Menu" (Gareth Coker - Ori and the Blind Forest)
"The Long Night" (Satoshi Okubo - Last Window: The Secret of Cape West)
"Still (Reprise)" (Ben Folds - Over the Hedge)
"Hyrule Field (Day)" (Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata, and Hajime Wakai – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)
"True Love" (Daniel Lanois and Woody Jackson - Red Dead Redemption II)
"The Spirit Tree" (Gareth Coker - Ori and the Blind Forest)
"Boss Battle" (Koji Kondo and Shinobu Tanaka - Super Mario Sunshine)
"The Medallion Calls" (Klaus Badelt - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)
"Ook" (Toru Minegishi, Asuka Ota, and Koji Kondo - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)
"Reminiscence ~ False Relations" (Noriyuki Iwadare and Yasuko Yamada - Ace Attorney INVESTIGATIONS: Miles Edgeworth)
"Man's Stubborn Love" (Satoshi Okubo - Last Window: The Secret of Cape West)
"Goliath" (Michiru Yamane, Keisuke Ito, Ryusuke Fujioka, Ippo Yamada, and Atsuhiro Ishizuna - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night)
"End Credits" (Michiru Yamane, Keisuke Ito, Ryusuke Fujioka, Ippo Yamada, and Atsuhiro Ishizuna - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night)
"The Sacrifice" (Gareth Coker - Ori and the Blind Forest)
"15th Theme" (Seunghwan Lee - Lucy: The Eternity She Wished For)
"Go the Distance" (Michael Bolton - Hercules)