As she approached the small, unlit shack she called home, Cteno nearly collapsed. She had worked hard that night; the other workers made quite a mess. When she arrived in Ponyville several months earlier with no memory, janitorial service was the only employment she could secure. Given her unique qualities, it was probably the best choice. She didn't need any chemicals, rags, or other materials. Instead of flesh and blood, her body was made of a caustic jelly-like substance formed around a pony-like bone structure.
Her "abnormality" made her opt to stay out of sight of other ponies whenever possible, especially while working; burning away debris, organic matter, and leftover food with just her skin, leaving the work area spotless and completely sterile. This also influenced her choice of abode, a shack not many others knew even existed, far outside Ponyville. Those who did know about it assumed it was abandoned and had no idea somepony took residence inside.
She opened the door of the dark shack and was greeted by a surprisingly empty home. There was a small table in the center of the dirt floor, and a large chest in the corner full of ice and boxes of apple and orange juice. The headache she's had for hours started pounding, and she made her way to the cooler. Upon opening it, she frowned, noticing there were only two boxes of juice remaining. "I'll save one for the morning," she thought as she pulled one from the ice with her mouth.
Cteno simply stood still for a moment. The cardboard box containing the juice began to smoke in her mouth, splitting open and releasing its sweet liquid. None of it was lost, however, as it was all absorbed through her "skin" without a drop of it being wasted on the ground. Her headache instantly subsided.
The juice was Cteno's "fuel." If she didn't drink often, she would be plagued with headaches and an inability to finely control her body. She didn't know why citrus juice had that effect, but she didn't complain. At least something makes the headaches go away. The box that once held the juice, now smoking profusely, simply disappeared in her mouth. She had digested the cardboard.
She paused, peered forward, and let out a small burp. "I really need to stop eating that cardboard..." She noticed her saddlebags were still slung over her back. Her ear grew into a long tendril, lifted the bags off, and set them near the door, several meters away.
Cteno decided that it would be best to get as much sleep as she could before heading into town to buy more juice. She had no need for a bed, given her gelatinous nature, not to mention her body would probably burn through any kind of bedding. She laid down on the ground, curled into a ball, and closed her eyes just as the first warm rays of Celestia's sun crept over the horizon.
It was that dream again.
Screaming. The screaming wouldn't stop. No matter what she tried to do, it wouldn't stop. It felt like it was going to split her head in two. An entity with no distinct form stood before her, shouting, "Why are you taking her?!" There was no answer. An unknown presence whisked her away from the entity, depositing her on a beach.
She stood up and shook off, then noticed a pair of ponies further down the coast. One was on the ground. The pony standing above the fallen one yelled at the top of its lungs, and appeared to shrink. As Cteno made an attempt to move toward the pair, they seemingly moved farther away. She took another step, but the ground split open beneath her hoof.
The last thing she felt was herself falling.... falling.
Falling.
Cteno's eyes snapped open as her head shot up, panting and glancing around her shack. "Again with that dream," she said between breaths, "it's gonna drive me insane!" The sunlight blasting into her eyes told her it was still morning. She hadn't slept long at all.
During her stressful sleep, her body had lost form and spread out on the ground half a meter in all directions. She took a moment to literally pull herself together, and stood up, shaking the dirt off her skin. "What hair style should I wear today?" she thought as she closed her eyes. The gel on her head grew slightly and formed a long, hot pink mane. The mane then gathered together and made a ponytail. Her tail, which was currently bulbous and several meters long, shrank and sculpted itself into something similar in shape to a certain chromatic-colored pegasus' tail she had observed soaring in the sky a few days before, except Cteno's was only pink.
As she slowly opened her eyes, the gel above her nose crept up and formed a pair of black-rimmed glasses. She looked at the floor, and noticed the light from the window was being tinted blue. Her skin slowly shifted from somewhat transparent to a completely opaque light blue. Spots of violet dotted around her eyes, chest and hooves. Her pink cutie mark, a five-point star, shifted position for a few moments until it settled in its proper spot.
The lower parts of Cteno's hind legs were a gray color. The gray grew out from her legs slightly, forming something closely resembling socks. This gray gel was also the only part of her body that didn't burn what it came in contact with, so she moved a small amount of it around, where it formed "socks" on her forelegs as well.
"I should really talk to that fashionista again," she said as she slung a light gray vest around her body and lifted her bags to her back. She thought about the purple-maned unicorn and how generous she was to give a complete stranger a set of well-made saddlebags. She couldn't help but wonder what material she made both the bags and vest from, as it didn't react with Cteno's skin at all. She shrugged and stepped toward the entrance of the shack.
"I hope that cute blue stallion is at the shop again. He's one of the few ponies in this town that don't make fun of me." She consumed her last box of juice, releasing the cardboard back into the cooler this time, and opened the door.
Cteno stepped outside. She thought back to the nightmare, then let out a nervous chuckle. "Its a beautiful day," she thought, "I'm not gonna let some dream screw it up."
I suppose I'm describing stuff far too much. This chapter should be the only one that's more of an expository passage than an interesting/entertaining story.
Cteno couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched during her quiet stroll to Ponyville. Every few minutes, she would glance over her shoulder, only to see the path she had been walking on. She noticed a stallion, head held high, trotting in the direction opposite hers. She felt compelled to gaze at his smooth gait, firm muscles flexing beneath his shiny blue coat. Cteno stopped, finding herself staring at the stallion for quite some time, until he rounded a bend and left her sight.
She continued on, and soon found herself in the heart of Ponyville.
As she entered town, she cringed when she heard a pair of familiar voices. Voices that poke fun at her every time she comes to town. "Hey jelly-belly," they would jeer, "go back home, you freak of nature!" Strangely enough, the young ponies remained silent as they passed by, possibly because of the older mare nearby who knocked one of them on the forehead with her hoof. Regardless of that, they both plastered sneers on their faces upon sight of Cteno.
When she entered the only shop in town that sold the juice she desired, she found herself gazing at a stallion that looked remarkably similar to the one that passed her by earlier that day. "Those muscles... his shiny coat... oh, Celestia, I bet he's just great in--" she realized what she was thinking about and shook her head violently, banishing the thought. "No Cteno, there's no way you can live with a guy like him... he's... normal." She stepped to the back of the shop, and when she was sure noone could see her, she extended her tail to lift a small crate of juice boxes onto her back, shielded from her skin by her saddlebags.
She approached the counter to pay for the product. She withdrew several bits from her bags and dropped them to the counter. The blue stallion behind the counter was gazing into her eyes, never breaking eye contact as he swept the money from the counter top to a drawer. "Thanks, Cteno!" He was smiling.
Cteno smiled at him and turned from the counter, but quickly froze. "My name... nopony's ever used my name here..." It was the truth. In the time she spent in Ponyville, only a handful of months, noone had called her by her real name. They instead used scornful names like "Jelly" or "Blob," sometimes having the slight bit of decency to call her "that mare."
Not even ten steps from the shop, her thoughts were shattered by the squeals of the pair of disrespectful fillies. "Blobby got its juicy-woosey?" they said in unison as they approached her. She continued walking, smile fading from her face and not noticing the large stick one of the fillies had thrust between her forelegs between steps. With a loud yelp, Cteno tumbled to the ground, scattering boxes of juice and barely keeping her form intact. The fillies grew hysterical, "Bahahaha! The freak can't even walk right!"
A group had gathered around Cteno and the fillies as they bounced around the mare laying on the ground. If her body was capable of making tears, her eyes would have been full of them at this point. She whimpered softly as one of the young ones prodded at her bags. "Aww, little baby's crying! Haha!"
"You little FOALS!" A booming voice from behind nearly made Cteno jump out of her skin. She glanced over and saw the blue stallion from the shop, rage in his eyes as he glared at the children. They immediately ceased their laughter, and before anyone could blink, they bolted from the scene.
"I'm so sorry about those foul-mouthed milk-suckers, Cteno." He let out a sigh as he approached her, still on the ground. She was looking in his direction the entire time, but never made eye contact. "Come on, I'll help you up," he said as he put a foreleg under her own and lifted her to her hooves.
Cteno was shocked. Not many ponies have ever directly touched her, or even got close enough to for that matter. Those that did always ended up running away, screaming at the blistered and burned flesh where they came in contact with her. This stallion just touched her, and was no worse than before he did. Strangely enough, some of the gray-colored gel that made up her front "socks" had shifted to the exact position where the stallion had come in contact with her. "Lemme help you get those drinks," he said as he scooped up several of the boxes and put them back in the crate still on Cteno's back.
She was at a loss for words. "Tha----Thank--" was all she managed to get out before the stallion put a fabric-wrapped hoof to her mouth.
"Don't mention it," he said with a grin, "nopony gets made fun of like that on my watch. Are you okay?"
Cteno finally met his gaze with a large smile, and nodded slightly. The pair stood for quite some time, staring into one another's eyes. Their concentration was suddenly shattered by an older stallion from the crowd. "Oh, just hurry up and kiss already! You know you want to!" The stallion had a massive grin on his face and chuckled as he saw Cteno's eyes grow wide.
"Ohmigoshimsosorry," she blurted out as she sped away from the crowd, leaving the blue stallion with stares and questions from the townsponies.
"Did you see that?" One of the mares who gathered asked as she stared at the cobalt pony. "Her skin changed color where you touched her!"
"Hmm. Yeah, I guess it did..." he said, peering into the distance as he watched Cteno gallop away.
Cteno's soft hooves made nary a sound as she sprinted along the dirt path. She had never been so embarrassed in her life. The insults, she could handle, but the thought of showing such affection in a public place, especially when she could melt the face off the other pony, made her squirm.
A thought crossed her mind as she slowed down to a gentle trot. She looked down at the spots where the stallion had touched her. She never willed the gray gel to shift position to those spots he had contacted, but it did anyway. "How did that happen," she began asking herself," and who was that--" she cut herself off.
She had been walking for much longer than she thought, as she nearly passed her home. As she approached the door, she felt something was amiss. The door, slightly ajar, swung open in the light breeze. Somepony had been in her home.
Cteno cautiously pushed the door the rest of the way open, eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness of the shack's interior. Nopony was inside, and neither her small lantern nor ice chest had been disturbed. "I must not have closed the door all the way on my way out. Oh well, not like there's anything anypony would want to steal in here." She stepped over to the ice chest to deposit her goods, but stopped as she opened it.
The empty juice box she was sure she had left there before she left was replaced with a hastily scrawled note.
I'm sure you have questions for me, and I shall do my best to answer them. But right now, you're in danger. They're coming for you, Cteno. They will catch you again, and they will hurt you. I'll do what I can to help come sundown. Be ready.
-A friend
"Who--wha--how--aggh..." Cteno's mind was in shambles, unable to even form a complete word. Her mane grew long and melted over her shoulders and her tail grew extremely long as she dismissed her guise. "Catch me again? I've never been caught by anypony before." She absorbed several boxes of juice as she unloaded the carton and removed her bags and vest.
As she finished her third juice box, Cteno's vision blurred. She fell to the ground as darkness consumed her mind.
Cteno found herself in a dark room, unable to move, the bitter taste of blood in her mouth. Her limbs had been strapped down away from her body. A light shone from the far side of the room as the smell of unfamiliar chemicals forced their way into her nose. A shaft of red luminescence erupted from the spot of light and pierced her body. Even though she knew she was dreaming, she could feel it burning. She could feel herself melting.
Knock knock.
Cteno snapped her eyes open as she glanced around her shack, trying to find the source of the noise. She had lost her form while unconscious once again, and within seconds, regained it.
More knocking. It was coming from the door. "Who's there?" she yelled defensively.
A familiar friendly, but firm voice responded. "A friend. Are you ready to go?"
"What? Go where? Who are you?" She swallowed hard. "How can I trust you? How do you know somepony wants to hurt me?"
"Your inquiries will be answered in due time, I assure you. But for now, we must flee this place. You can trust me, Cteno, because..." the voice hesitated as the door swung open, being pushed by a semi-opaque cobalt-colored tendril. At the other end of this tendril was the shoulder of the blue stallion from town. He had an urgent expression on his face.
"Because I'm like you."
