Gogurt hummed a cheery tune as he popped the strawberries skewered on his claws into his mouth. He skipped and smiled between the berry bushes, not believing the fortune he came upon in the Equestrian town. It had been too long since he had good strawberries that were not bruised or tasteless, like the ones he so often found in Walmart back home. In fact, these strawberries were the best he had ever tasted.

“Enjoying the spoils, boy?” Fenrir croaked from within his mind.

“Yes, I’m enjoying them very much. Quite a step up from the trashcan pie I had the other night.”

“While berries are all good and tasty…. when are you going to consume some FLESH?”

“Gee, Fenrir, I dunno, maybe when all the livestock stops being SENTIENT.”

“I suggest that you procure earplugs, they drown out the annoying cries of mercy well enough so you may eat in peace.”

“See, I don’t think you understand, that is only PART of the problem. At least these claws are handy.”

Gogurt could hear Fenrir snicker, “Ah, yes, they terrified that other town VERY nicely.”

“I’m… I’m starting to think you aren’t really much of a good guy.”

“Perhaps, anti-hero would be better to say?”

Gogurt shrugged, and made way to the lone house at the head of the orchard. He sat down on a rocking chair and eyed the sleeping, old, blind mare (who probably owned
the fields) as she snored on another rocker next to him. The strange pony seemed to give Gogurt no mind. Either she was too blind and old to notice that vile presence, or she simply did not care about such things anymore. Of course, she could just be senile.

He leaned back into the chair, relishing the creak in the chair's woodwork, “I have a feeling that this terrorizing thing I’m doing is gonna make our trip complicated.”

“And what makes you say that?” Fenrir asked.

“Well, I’ve scared about two towns half to death, and that was before I even hopped that train out of the Crystal Empire. Just look at this…” Gogurt leaned over to snatch the day’s newspaper from the coffee table between the chairs.

He flipped through the papers until he read:

“And what of it?” Fenrir growled in annoyance, “This is only the rumoring garbage tabloids. Strange monsters come to these lands quite often. This certainly is not the first time a beast tried to interrupt some yearly celebration, and you have yet to cause any damage, at least, not enough to warrant a large-scale manhunt\. Focus on the goals at hand.”

Gogurt curled his lip, “Hey, no one wants to kick Chrysalis’s hole-y ass more than me. I just can’t help but wonder exactly why everyone loses their shit the second they see
me. I mean, yeah, I look like some hairless alien to them, but you’d think they would at least try to reason before running.”

Fenrir rumbled, “I’m not sure myself. You DO carry some archaic, deliciously-evil malice… but I can’t place a claw on why.”

The human raised his eyebrows and reached inside his jacket. He took grip of the familiarly leathery book which brought him here that he kept safe under the coat. He pulled it out and peered at the twisted skull.

“I’m pretty sure it has something to do with this…. hello?”

Fenrir had suddenly frozen up.

“That… throw it away.”

“What? I kinda need it, it might get me outta—”

“TOSS IT AWAY, NOW!” Fenrir’s howling order was so intense and loud it rattled Gogurt’s skull.

“AH, ALRIGHT ALRIGHT!!” Gogurt rose, took a running start, cocked his arm back, and flung the dark tome in a large arc, deep into the orchard. Fenrir’s hand certainly aided in the distance.

“Damn, what’s up with you?!”

“That book BLEEDS hatred and power, who knows what kind of curse is placed on it. Just count yourself blessed that it hasn’t ended you yet.”

Gogurt smiled, suddenly realizing that he could have asked this anciently arcane being of ice and snow about all of his otherworldly troubles, “Great! That means you must know what the Hell that damn Necronomicon is?”

“No.”

“Shit.”

“There’s something… off. The artifact smells older than I… but the hatred and malice smells fresher. Whatever this thing is, it must have existed past my domain, and I know nothing except that it is DANGEROUS.”

“Wow, that is very helpful and specific. Like, if I were to have a list of people to ask for helpful and specific things, you would be sooo high on that list, you would go past the edge.”

“..... are you being sarcas—”

“—YES, DAMMIT.”

“What’s all the ruckus for, Grandma?” a young, green earth pony mare walked out from the inside of the house.

Then she spotted the human reclining in the rocking chair, smiling at her, with berries stuck on great, white, scaly claws.

Gogurt raised an eyebrow, “You come here often?”

“Wow, you really have been waiting a long time to use that, haven’t you?”

“Why do you gotta be such a cynical ass?”

“LOOK WHO’S TALKING.”

Gogurt chuckled, “Oh yeah, you’re right.”

The mare’s pupils shrank to raisins as she backed away, stuttering and gasping, taking in the alien rocking in the chair, “C-C-C-CRAZY MONSTER!!!!!!”

Gogurt squinted, “Yeah, it probably did look like I was having a conversation with myself. The crazy thing makes sense now.”

The pony grabbed her grandma by the hoof, and galloped away announcing to the whole town, “HELP! HELP! THERE’S A MONSTER IN THE BERRY ORCHARD!”

Almost immediately, the town’s sirens and bells began to blare through the entire settlement.

“Why didn’t you freeze her?!” Fenrir scolded.

“Because then they would have a reason to hunt and kill me!” Gogurt could already hear the clippity-clop of more ponies rushing to capture whatever beast they
assumed he was, “Better get to the train!”

The alien leaped from the chair and sprinted towards the wooden fence that boarded up the orchard. He crouched, dove clear over the fence, rolled when he hit the other
side, jumped back to his feet, and kept running without missing a beat.

“I still can’t get over how AWESOME you’re making me!”

“Heh, heh... and it only gets better!”

Gogurt smiled ear to ear as he dashed through the town’s bricked pathways, running past wailing ponies and swooping Pegasi. The clawed enhancements provided by
Fenrir’s soul proved very effective in many aspects, and Gogurt was loving it.

It was not long until he was halted by a tall barricade of overturned tables and sandbags, manned by what appeared to be the local authority. He looked to his left and right, seeing similar but smaller blocks pushed into place by the townsponies.

“There’s nowhere to run, monster!”

This was strange, no one ever tried to make him stay put before, and a fortification like that would have at least required an entire day to put together.

Gogurt instead slowed to a squat in front of the barricade, much to the cautious relief of the stallion who had spoken before.

“Good! Now just wait for the..”

The stallions voice trailed off as the human sailed over the the top of the block, the remnants of volatile, blue fire from the hollow spines on Fenrir’s legs casted twinkling embers into the wind.

“YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!” Gogurt cried as he soared through the air, feeling the wind scrape through every fold and corner of his body. It felt like he was really flying. Those combusting blue flames sure had a lot of power, but he handled it with grace.

Until he crashed, headfirst, through a series of wooden carts and vendor stands that were filled with now pulverized goods.

“Oooooooow….”

“You really need to see before you soar.” Fenrir chuckled.

As he groaned from the bruises under the wreckage, Gogurt saw that this was his chance to give the slip. He looked to a nearby dark alley between two houses. He silently
crawled out of the rubble and crawled into the alley.

He ignored the ponies checking the destruction for any sign of his body, and quietly made his way to the train station. Luckily, the town ponies had a helpful series of signs that directed Gogurt down the proper paths. He stuck to running between the cover of buildings or shadows to avoid the citizen’s watchful eyes.

He had to stop. Before him were a Unicorn mare and a Pegasus stallion, both standing at the next turn to the train stop. Gogurt looked around to see if there was any other path or conveniently placed rocks to hide behind. Unfortunately, there was a scattering of even more citizens in this street. This must have been where most of them ran off to when Gogurt first appeared.

“What the shit am I supposed to do now?” he whispered.

Fenrir’s sigh echoed in Gogurt’s head, “You should probably write down all the new things I’ve granted you….”

The human remembered back to when he first meshed with Fenrir, and a grin of enlightenment sparked across his face, “Oh yeah!”

He looked to the turn, and then he disappeared in a wisp of icy wind. He reappeared behind a tree, dissipated again, and coalesced right behind the chatting pair that had blocked his way. He was only inches away from the chatting couple.

Actually, they were not chatting, they were arguing.

“You never had faith in my dreams, Starry!”

“Your dreams was a startup company that delivered fertilizer and pizza at the same time! Why would anyone want to buy pizza from a pony who puts literal crap next to his pizza dough!”

“Farmers would buy it, Starry, FARMERS WOULD!”

It looked like the arguing kept them completely oblivious. And would probably ruin their relationship. It was a terrible startup idea anyway.

Gogurt shook his head and walked towards the train station just ahead.

The stowaway yawned as he sat on the cushy cardboard box full of fragile treasures, feeling the train rumble and roar over the iron tracks. There was nothing left to do but wait. The train would not go through the Badlands, but it would eventually pass close by. From there, all he would have to do is hop off and leg it to the castle. However, Gogurt already knew that there were some problems with this plan.

For one, he still only had a tourist's knowledge Equestria. He learned of the races, the twin rulers, and the Elements of Harmony, but his info stopped at the obvious. The most of what he knew of the land was by the map he snagged from the trash in some backwater town a few nights ago. He had no idea of the history, the dangers, the law, or really anything beyond the surface. The human thought that Fenrir might have had some knowledge of the land for him, but the cold-wolf-dragon-ice-thing kept entirely to himself.

Another problem was what exactly he planned on doing upon reaching the castle. He has yet to know the extent of whatever strength he received, and he almost did not wish to learn. Would taking more of Fenrir’s soul be detrimental in the long run? Putting two souls inside a body, disregarding that one of them is nonhuman and a somewhat metaphysical being, sounded like the most dangerous and stupidest thing he had ever done. Putting the any possible effects aside, Gogurt did not have any knowledge of Chrysalis’s power. He was essentially running in blind.

But he did not care.

Not an edgy or teenage angsty apathy, he was just numb. What options did he have anyway? If he spent any more time waiting or scheming, than Ditzy and Reginald would become dry husks, devoid of life and emotion, waiting for death.

Well, if that has not happened already.

Then finally, there was Fenrir. Despite sharing the same body, it seemed that Fenrir could not hear his thoughts. Gogurt had taken on this spirit’s proposal out of
desperation, but what exactly did the thing want?

“Hey, Fenrir?”

“What do you want?”

“Well, I was gonna ask you the same question.”

“Hm..?”

Gogurt rolled his eyes, “I mean, what do you want to do now that you’re out?”

Fenrir froze again, caught off-guard by the question, “I… haven’t thought too much about that.”

“... you’re joking, right?”

The ice entity growled, “If you do not remember, the first item on the agenda was to leave that wretched prison, and not to waste away in silent death.”

The human grimaced, “I see that, but those things are checked off now, right? So what’s the plan for you now, redo the whole frozen domain deal? You seem pretty pumped when you were talking about it before.”

Fenrir’s growls ceased, “No.”

“What? Why?” Gogurt sat upright as he felt more invested in the conversation, “That was your entire deal. Incarnation of the cold, land of ice, only the real survivors will live,
the whole shebang, right?”

“First and most obvious…” Fenrir sighed, “I don’t think you would let that happen. I am under your control, technically. You seem to be one of those mushy, moral upholding types. I doubt you would let a possible third of the population be wiped out.”

Gogurt nodded, “Okay, you’re probably right about that. What else?”

Fenrir continued, “Second, is that there is no point. The only thing that my reign has brought me is pain and hatred. In fact, it looks as if the inhabitants of the cold realms are right where they need to be, without my spread of power. Since I kept to me, I have no comrades to return to or to get help from. If I were to exert my longing once more, the ponies would oppose me again, and those damned Princesses would rise to their call, locking me in some other Hell, whether it be Tartarus or a frilly grotto. It’s pointless.
And even if I wanted, what would come of it? I’ve forced myself to survive as a weapon for an alien who took pity on a former lord of frozen crags and blizzards. Any legacy I had was slaughtered like helpless lambs long ago. I don’t even know if I can ever be whole again. So, in conclusion, I do not exactly know what I want, since I have nothing, and can get nothing.”

Fenrir’s words hit Gogurt like a speeding eighteen-wheeler. The old king was in the same boat as him. They were stuck and helpless. No place. No home. No friends or family.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

“I suppose there is one thing you can do.” Gogurt said with a smile.

Fenris yawned, “And what’s that?”

“Celestia and Luna, they’re the ones who locked you up, right?”

He rumbled upon hearing their names, “... yes.”

“Well, for a couple of Princesses who seem to tote the idea of justice, harmony, love, and friendship, they didn’t really live up to anything they were supposed to
when your cubs were taken away, right?”

Fenris’s snarls began to fill Gogurt’s head, “YES… THEY. DID. NOTHING. THEY TOOK IT ALL FROM ME. THEY. LEFT. ME. WITH. NOTHING.”

Gogurt frowned and held up his hands, “Hold on, tiger, uh, wolf, I’m not talking about bloody vengeance or anything like that.”

The spirit’s snarls faded away, “Then what EXACTLY do you propose?”

Gogurt lowered his hands, relieved that most of the anger died down, “Well, this is going to sound kind of lame, but we don’t really have many options since we BOTH could get imprisoned forever. I propose that we SHOW them what they’ve done.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah… yeah! Show these royal, white-knight assholes what their fantastic decisions have done.”

“So.. a pity party?”

“No, no, you’re not gettin’ me. I mean to show these dickless shit-for-brains what good they’ve done.” he jumped to his feet and began pacing around the rumbling cargo, “These royals, from what I’ve learned, seem to be super idealistic, meaning if we show them how they’ve utterly contradicted their own beliefs, it could send them into a emotionally hysteric tailspin, causing the country to fall into ruins and spawn a possible uprising in the common ponies! Well, that last part is a stretch, but it is something.”

Fenrir paused as Gogurt nodded his head in approval of the longshot of a plan.

Then the frigid lord laughed. A genuinely, happy, mirthful, positive laugh that Gogurt had never heard from the sulking wolf.

Fenrir roped in his laughs to say, “How moronic.”

“I mean, you don’t have to be a dick about it, but—”

“—No.” Fenrir interrupted, “I mean to say that the effects of confronting those wretched Alicorns would not be nearly as dramatic… they’re made of sterner stuff than you think.”

Gogurt raised his eyebrows, “Seriously? One of them has a rainbow in her mane.”

Fenrir grunted, “You’d be surprised… but perhaps confronting them would not be such a bad idea.”

“Well, if starting some French Revolution type of deal is out, what do you want to do?”

“Show them. Show them what they’ve reduced a mighty ice king to, a beggar at the beck and call of some foreigner. I want to SEE THOSE QUEENS. I want them to SEE howmuch better they think they really are.”

“You do know that’s pretty much exactly what I said, right?”

“Shut up. I don’t really care about what happens to them. Maybe I want the satisfaction of rubbing my escape in their face. I… it’s something, savvy?”

Gogurt decided not to bother Fenrir about his malformed goals, since he still was not sure of his own ambitions.

He smiled and said, “Tell ya what: after we get the changeling thing sorted out, the first thing we’ll do is head to Celestia and Luna, then, uh, let the rest follow. Is that good?”

“I suppose. I still find it hard to believe I’ve been reduced to the pawn of some convicted creature, whereas I USED to have an entire palace formed of permafrost bricks… now I just have the head of an idiot who thought it would be an amusing idea to pick up a terribly cursed book.”

“Oh, waaaahh. Cry about it later. And I got rid of it, didn’t I?” Gogurt looked himself up and down, “See, no evil miasma, right? I’m just glad that I’m clean now, none of that running and screaming from a single look anymore.”

“But it’s not gone.”

“What?”

“That scent is still there, I forgot about it, but then you mentioned it. You still smell like a devourer of souls or killer of orphans. I suppose one grows used to the scent of unfathomable evil after a certain point.”

Gogurt frantically patted himself down, “That’s impossible! I threw that…” until he felt a hard object tucked into his jacket, in front of his stomach.

He slowly unzipped the tattered jacket, droplets of sweat condensing on his forehead while the feeling of dread quickened with every inch undone. He slipped a hand inside, gripped the tough, wrinkled, texture tight, and removed a smiling, cackling, leather bound curse with a sharp tug, as if the skull had been latched to his stomach like some demonic parasite.

He took it in both hands, looked into the beady red eyes of the book, and cried, “MOTHERF*CKER!”

Then a random blue bolt of magic energy burned a smoking hole near his left foot.

Gogurt frowned, crinkled his nose, and examined the entrance hole the bolt left through the armored ceiling of the train car above him, “Hm.”

Then another spear punched through the metal, a little closer to his body this time, “What’s going on here?” and this was followed by another missile. Then another. And another.

Fenrir finally boomed, “STOP STANDING LIKE A SLACK-JAWED JACKDAW IN THE MIDST OF THE TIDES!”

“W… what?”

“MOVE, YOU IMBECILE!”

“Oh!” the daydreaming human took a running start before diving for the iron door on the other side of the car, just as a zipping volley of magic javelins peppered smoldering bits through the precious cargo.

He threw the gate open and stepped outside of the cargo hold, “I was going to move! I was just kinda…”

“Mesmerized by the pretty colors?”

“Well, that’s part of it.”

Gogurt braced himself against the railing of the cart as the train experienced turbulence. He squinted as he clenched the rough bars, watching the vividly colored landscapes of Equestria blur together like some disorderly collage designed in a children’s art class. He inwardly remarked on its beauty, but then an all too familiar voice broke through his admiration.

“I know you’re there, Sexy Beast! You better turn yourself in before you make any more trouble for yourself!”

Gogurt felt Fenrir’s cringing confusion, “Sexy Beast? What… just… what?”

“I’m not very creative with names,” the alien admitted with a sigh.

“Did you not hear me?” the commanding voice shouted over the train’s cacophonous noise, “Come to the top and face us! You really don’t want us to come in after you!”

Gogurt flared a nostril in ire, “I’m comin’, damn it!” He looked back to the door and spotted the metal ladder leading to the top of the train car.

He gripped the bars and heaved himself to the roof of the rust-red train car. He carefully rose to his feet and balanced himself so that the speeds of the moving machine wouldn’t immediately throw him off to the side, although he was not doing a very good job of that.

Fenrir snorted, “Again, you should do well to write these things down.”

“I keep forgetting I can do this…” He changed to Fenrir’s legs and clenched the taloned toes tight against the metal, forming a steadfast grip into the yielding iron of the roof,
“There we go! Now that’s handy, or should I say, foot-y?”

“If I listen to one more pun on this trip…”

“So, here you are.”

Gogurt looked a train car ahead and stared at the calling stallion he remembered from that particularly explosive festival. Captain Shining Armor stood upon the vibrating car, mane flapping through his helmet, eyes blazing, like some white knight ready to take down the snivelling villain and be the hero.

Except that this snivelling villain was having a hard time looking in that direction because of the particularly slicing winds.

The Captain also brought some of his subordinates. Beside Shining Armor was another Unicorn with a readied spell dancing around his horn, and behind him were two Pegasi, wings primed for flight.

This was not an ideal situation. Most of what Gogurt was used to dealing with were the occasional stallions that tried to look like some badass in front of their marefriends, but all they did was give him the stink-eye and wait a couple of seconds before running so that they looked like they chose the battle. It worked for the stallions for the most part, but it left the monster with no experience.

Before any dramatic monologue, the human had to get one gripe out of the way, “So were you the prick that kept shooting death lasers at me just now?”

Shining nodded, giving no expression, “Just a harmless Stunning Bolt, nothing would have come if it hit you.”

“Harmless Stunning Bolt my BROWN ASS!” Gogurt screamed, “That shit burned a HOLE through metal! And, second, how did you even find me?”

“Enough whining, already!” Shining Armor shouted with a sweep of his hoof, “But to answer your question, we followed the trend of the towns you menaced, and our investigators were able to figure out which trains and towns you were going to stow on next. I've seen FOALS hide their tracks better than you. Now… this caster is going to bind you, and then we’ll escort you’re terrorizing little self to Canterlot where you’ll have MANY crimes to answer for!”

“I didn’t do SHIT!” Gogurt sharply spat with an indignant stomp, surprising himself with the venom in the words. “The only shame I have is eating a pie out of the TRASH. DO YOU KNOW HOW DISGUSTING THAT IS? And you know what's even MORE shameful? I ACTUALLY LIKED IT! I'VE DEVELOPED THE PALETTE OF A HOBO!”

Shining Armor’s nostrils flared, “You’re not the first monster I’ve heard that from... well, except the pie part. Every one of them, ‘I’m just a victim! I did what I had to do!’”

A spark of anger suddenly flashed in the accused boy, compounded by Fenrir’s increasing snarls and heavy breathing. He wasn’t an easy person to anger, so this was quite a new feeling.

“I’m telling you, I’ve done NOTHING. AT. ALL.”

“I’m not going to listen to the whinings of some beast who won’t own up to anything he’s done. Not to some THING that won’t answer for the villages he’s terrified, to the foals he inspired weeks of nightmares, to the attempted robbery of a relic that was the ONLY thing keeping an entire empire safe from danger!” the Captain stopped his tirade to catch his breath, stifling his wheezes and coughs, “You remind me of Sombra. I… I can tell from just looking at your dead eyes, that you just don’t care.”

This was ridiculous, Gogurt thought, how could this overzealous guardsman think he was some soulless monster? Was his trek from the Crystal Empire really overblown to
the haunting of a nightmarish boogeyman with nothing but apathetic destruction on his mind? What brought on this hate-fueled judgement?

Oh, he knew why.

Laughing… he could hear laughing now. He could feel the chattering jaws of the leather skull scrape and scratch his skin. He could almost see the burning red eyes, kindled by the hurt.

The laughing, the accusing, the snarling, and the absolute helplessness, it all goaded that depraved ember into a crackling fire.

Fenrir exhaled and snickered, “I wouldn’t mind devouring this decorated fool!”

The frozen wolf’s gnashing and growling began to encompass all of the human’s senses, filling his head his head with nothing but the thoughts of hungry teeth and the obstacle of a Captain before him.

“I’ll say this again,” Shining Armor slowly said, taking a few steps forward, “stand down, and we won’t have to use force. And you DON’T want that. You’re outnumbered, and with this running train, you have nowhere to run.”

The next sentence to leave Gogurt’s mouth sounded like there were two voices behind it, one old and hungry, and the other was just hungry.

He scowled and crossed his arms, “DO something, BITCH.”

Everyone immediately froze. It was almost like the very wind ceased at this moment.

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow and cracked a smile, “Excuse me, what did you say?”

It was also at this specific moment that Gogurt realized what he did. By an emotional spur, he called a highly-trained, expert level guardsman and prince of the Crystal Empire the derogative term for a female dog.

“Uh oh, I’m in deep shit,” he thought, but then he decided to go with the boat he set for himself.

“I’m sorry,” Gogurt said with a level voice and raised hands, “I meant to say that it SUCKS that your wife isn’t here to see the little BITCH you’re being!”

“Yes, YES!” Fenrir cheered, “You brought his female into the fray, how excellent!”

Shining Armor forced a laugh, and pulsed an ominously deep purple current in his horn, “You have no idea what pain you just brought upon yourself…”

Fenrir howled, “Now, strike him with another splash of venomous rhetoric, lay the peacocking idiot low by a lance of wit!”

Shining turned to the Unicorn at his side, “Ready the—”

“—C’mon, bitch.”

The random and well-thought command interrupted whatever process Shining and his guards had.

“Did he just—”

“—C’mon, bitch!”

“If you don’t stop—”

“—C’mon, bitch!”

“I’M SERIOUSLY going to—”

“—C’MON, BITCH!!!!”

The Unicorn guard rolled his eyes, “I’ve had enough of this.” and released the sparking blue charge in his horn... the same blast that punctured all those holes in the roof.
Gogurt’s eyes widened as the bolt speared towards him, only being able to watch as it arced to his chest. Luckily, having a second conscience means that a mental nudge is all that is needed to move one out of the way.

He twisted to the side, and saw the laser burn through the roof behind him.

Gogurt looked back at the caster and scowled, “So it was THIS NIGGA who’s been throwing Avada Kedavras around!”

Another spell whizzed past him, “So, do I just run at him?”

“Watch out for the Pegasi…”

“Huh? Oh shi—” he ducked just as the pair swooped over his head, before circling and flanking Gogurt in a swift and practiced maneuver. They landed on either side of him and flared their wings. The Pegasi were not moving, why were they just standing?”

“It’s a distraction, duck!”

Fenrir’s sudden bellows spurred Gogurt to dive and tumble forward, narrowly dodging the flashing spells that flew just over the Pegasi, making a zzziiippp! as they whistled past.

Unfortunately he slid to a halt right under the grinning figure of a Pegasus.

“I got you now!”

The guard took the chance to quickly stomp a steel-shod hoof on Gogurt’s chest, sending blistering pain through his sternum and shocking the breath from his lungs, all
while effectively trapping him to the vibrating roof of the train.

Fenrir showed no sympathy towards the human as he writhed in agony, “There is still something you can do to get out, can you not?”

Gogurt sighed, “My memory really sucks ass today.” and disappeared in a gust of snow.

The Pegasus Guard stumbled as his hoof sank through the swirling, cold air, “What the..!”

Gogurt reformed above the guard, “THIS.”

He clenched Fenrir’s frozen hands together and raised them high, “IS.”

“SO.” And smashed the plated haymaker onto the shelled cranium of the Pegasus, cracking the helmet and knocking him out, causing his unconscious body to topple off the side of the train.

Gogurt landed where the Guard stood and shouted, “BADASS—OH HELL, is he okay?”

He searched the dusty brown ground rushing by the train to see the Pegasus was rolling away from the train, groaning, and covered in bruises, but otherwise still alive.

“Oh, he’s fine.”

“You shouldn’t be concerned about that winged pansy’s welfare…”

“Quit being such a dick!” Gogurt shouted back.

Shining Armor cocked his head to the side, taken aback by the human yelling into the air, “Who are you talking to?”

“Don’t tell him, he’s stupid.”

Gogurt shrugged, “No one important.”

“You CUR! Oh, and, the other Pegasus is behind you.”

“Huh? Oh HELL NAW!” Gogurt spinned around and slid back with his left arm, catching the swooping Guard across the neck with the heavily armoured scales around Fenrir’s
elbow. The instant contact was made, a blast of cold energy arced through the stallion’s body, causing a cocoon of ice to sprout from the impact, and freeze him to the roof.

“Wow! I didn’t even know I could—AGH!” Gogurt clutched his side, feeling the magic bolt send its burning jolts through his insides, “Geez, that really stings! Ow!”

Gogurt could do nothing but cover his head with his armored hands as Shining Armor and the remaining Unicorn released a relentless volley of purple and blue missiles from three or four train cars away, burning and blasting arcane misery through his body.

He felt the mystical effects of the bolts inflame every exposed area on his anatomy, and could only think about shrinking or running from the torment as his vision slowly blurred and faded to black.

But then he heard gnashing.

Snarling, gnashing, angered teeth that filled every thought, a sensation similar to before, but this time, he did not mind the invasion.

“I remember these spells…” the growling spoke, “these bee-stings that they imagined would be enough to dethrone a white drake. They unearth memories… memories of… chains? Rebellion? Majesty? A fall?" a heavy, pulsating throb echoed in their minds, "I grow weary of it.”

The human slowly opened his eyes, noticing the bloodshot streaks thumping his sight, and he saw that the snarling that was all he could hear.

A bone chilling roar ripped from his throat, but was it his own?

The spines on his legs begin to spout blue flames, propelling him car across two cars with two running steps, keeping his head low to dodge most of the stunning spears.

A congealing mass of cold power built and squirmed in his left fist, struggling to find some release. He smashed both feet down in a squared stance, causing him to grind to a halt, emitting a high-pitched squeal as the talons dug into the roof. He quickly cocked his arm back, and punched at the Unicorn Guard, spitting the blue, quivering sphere at the caster in blinding speeds.

PHTHOOM!

Immediately knocking the guard onto his back and freezing him in a messy, uneven case of ice. Shining Armor, however, was gone!

Gogurt heard a fwip! and saw that he was surrounded by a strange, transparent, purple, bubble.

“I’d like to see you get out of that.” the Captain said from behind Gogurt’s trapped figure, sauntering to the front to face him, “Shield and barrier spells are my specialty, so I—”

CRACK!

Millions of twinkling, purple shards showered the flinching Captain as a single, flame-propelled punch shattered the barrier.

Shining shook his head, and opened his eyes to see the monster crouched below him, arm cocked back and charged with pulsing, cobalt light.

“EAT,” his spines erupted azure fire, thrusting him from the crouch and driving an explosive uppercut to Shining’s royal chin, “SHIT!”

Gogurt watched his scaly hand send Shining Armor arcing, tumbling head over hoof in the air, slowly freezing over, seeing small purple pieces of mystical glass scatter in the
wind. The shrewd Captain must have had some sort of shield enchantment on his body. Shining Armor would probably leave with nothing more than a cracked jaw.

But was the punishing, scaly hand his?

Gogurt realized that his heart was racing a mile a minute. He blinked several times, noticing that all the redness in his sight was gone.

“Did that just happen?”

“Whelp, the Badlands!”

Fenrir’s rasping voice shook Gogurt out of his stupor. He looked to the right, and as the nagging specter said, there was the vast, sandy, windy, dust filled wasteland known as the Badlands.

And it was all under a cliff next to a moving train.

“Well, this wouldn’t be the first time I rolled down a cliff…” with that, Gogurt leaped off the train and over the edge of the crags.

“You know, I think there was a path further down the way.”

“What, really?” He glaced down as he reached that point of weightlessness in the jump and observed how far away the ground really was from him, and realized how
close bone-shattering death was as well, “Ah, crap…”

“Oh, you’ll be fine, the series of bushes and hards roots that you’re smashing through seem to be deadening the fall.”

Some Time later...

“Fi…. Finally. I’m here..! Heh heh!”

The tattered traveler looked at the dirty brown ground below his feet, slowly lifting his gaze to the winding, precarious, serpentine path that met the grey, rugged fortress perched like some dark gargoyle on top of the cliff, overlooking a large, murky lake under a yellowed full moon, casting its light across the perilous lands that the traveler found himself in.

In front of him was an old, rusty, cast iron gate, decorated with a crest in the shape of Queen Chrysalis’s head, guarded by two massive goblets burning with massive green flames, the only obstacles left in his path. Ever since that fall into the Badlands, he had to traverse the wastes, using whatever direction he gathered during the train hoppings to find the castle.

It was a chilly hike full of strange creatures and sites, some dangerous, some only odd. The long venture through those tribulations gave him new scars and weary muscles. There were caves, landslides, rivers, all a mixture of beauty and peril, but he was tired of it all. He was tired of walking. On the plus side, the few days journey gave him much opportunity to practice the esoteric abilities Fenrir gave him. The change felt much more natural now, to the point that he seldom used his human hands or feet.

But now, he was finally here, Changeling Castle, the goal that had been a blinding beacon through the seemingly hopeless walk. Here were those he left behind, the only ones who had befriended him when he was lost in this new and frightening world. A debt unpaid lied somewhere in that castle.

Despite the creeping feeling that something was fraying within... he had been relentless in his pursuit.

“Here we are, boy.” Fenrir whispered the first time that day, “What do you know of the insects that haunt that castle?”

Gogurt kept his stare on the castle, “Queen Chrysalis the changeling queen, and her drones.”

Fenrir snickered, “Yes, a Queen who has her entire army at her beck and call. A Queen whose extent of power is still unknown to us. How exactly do you plan on accomplishing this task of yours?”

“Well, from what I understand,” Gogurt explained as he prodded the creaky grate with a claw, “Chrysalis and her army isn’t as strong as it used to be. So, at least the numbers shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

“Is that all?”

“Well, she probably ALSO thinks I’m dead, so I suppose the surprise factor works in my favor.”

“You still haven’t said anything of your plan..”

He scratched his chin, feeling a small, curly beard twist beneath his claws, causing a brief urge to shave to resurface in his memory, “I’m just gonna stealth it out, and hope for the best.”

“Hope for the best? Really?”

“Yep, let’s go.”

The pilgrim disappeared in a flurry of snow, flowed through the spaces between the bars, and reformed on the other side. Best avoid any noise from opening a creaky door, or the whole operation could go up in flames, like they so often did.

He took a deep breath, pulled the frayed hood of his jacket over his head, and began the long walk up the twisting path that led to the changeling stronghold. As he walked, he looked over the sheer drop off of the walkway, noting the icy waters that swam about far below. This walk to the dark castle felt like he was stepping to the final boss in some video game, all he needed was a heavy and sinister orchestral music piece to complete it all. He ignored the dread and fear rising in his gut, and marched on.

The nomad finally reached the top of the hill and stopped to examine his surroundings. Around him were miniature houses and buildings, covered in a thick coating of lime-green slime. This must have been the remains of the village of ever-adoring animals that Chrysalis used as food.

He trudged past the small village and came upon the entrance to the grim castle, in the shape of a small series of grey steps, culminating in huge, brown, oak gates housed by a sloping roof and glowering gargoyles.

Seeing no other entrance into the castle, no windows or crawlspaces, he decided to head through the massive doors.

He placed his shoulder against the wooden door, and heaved it open, earning a long and painful groan that could be heard from a mile away, “There goes my secret entry…”

Gogurt stepped inside the abandoned fortress that housed the changelings, letting the door to creak as it shut behind him.

That was when he noticed he had not seen a single changeling at all.

“You know, I expected this place to be a lot better guarded.”

“Human, you’re going up against beings that survive by camouflage and subterfuge. I doubt that guarding would be how they chose to protect their stronghold. Honestly, I think this whole sneaking idea you have is pointless with these cowards.”

“Eh, you’re probably right, might as well just stroll to the boss…” Gogurt shrugged and took the interior of the bastion into his eyes, before letting out a moan and dropping to his knees, “Really… THIS SHIT?!”

Stairs.

Nothing but an endless amount of staircases, sprawling from one end to another, ceiling to floor, winding in impossible ways, all leading to doors, much like a famous piece of art he had seen at home.

And it drove him mad.

“HOW THE HELL am I supposed to navigate this bastard child of nonsense and gravity?!” his cries echoed through the entire castle, showing his animosity towards the idea of slowly wandering about a colossal maze of a castle.

In reply to his lamentations, the silky, invasive voice of a Queen boomed inside the stronghold, mocking his misery and hopelessness, “Open the doors, little human. Behind one, you will find me! The others have a vast array of—”

“—Oh, it’s that one.” Gogurt spied a single door on the other side of the large chamber. The door was the only one left ajar, and was the sole source of the noise.

Chrysalis’s voice now came as a nervous laugh, before snarling, “Which one of you idiots left the door open! I SPECIFICALLY told you to shut it after bringing me my hay fries!”

Gogurt laughed and shook his head, “Oh, this is awesome! I’M COMING FOR YOU GLORY-HOLE QUEEN!”

“I’d like to see you try.” her snarky voice cackled, “Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t just stay hidden away, or dead, or whatever you were doing. Now, you’ve decided to walk,
alone, straight back to your prison. Not a very bright one, are you?”

He scratched his nose, and started his descent down the single set of steps that led to the cracked door, “No, not really.”

A sound of hissing began to fill the stairwell-room. Gogurt ceased his sprint as the noise surrounded him, followed by a swarm of pale-blue eyes coming from the darkness.

Then dozens of dark, carapaced changelings, some wearing purple armor, burst from the shadows in a messy frenzy of buzzing, flapping, insect wings, all eager to pounce on the sole invader.

They all struck at once!

The mass of biting and tackling shapeshifters soon found themselves tangled up with each other, due to the sudden and unorganized rush.

“Well, this is lucky, they’re all in one spot.” the traveler had blinked in the same method he used to escape many perils, and now stood ahead of them on the steps, watching the wriggling knot of changelings struggle to free themselves.

His left hand trembled as a clustering mass of cold energy collected into a wobbly sphere in his palm. He gripped the squirming power tight, and grinned as the sphere was spat from his hand in a punching motion, splattering and exploding against the trapped changelings, entrapping them even further in a thick cement of ice.

Gogurt admired the shocked and frozen faces of the changelings stuck in the ice, “Gotta appreciate the cartoony coincidences you find here!”

He turned away from the masterpiece and ran to the ajar door, a newfound confidence in his tired bones. He threw the door open as he ran through it, laughing, beyond joy that the Queen he had been hunting for days was now right before him.

And then Ditzy Doo plowed him over in a koala-bear-style hug.

Gogurt felt her light grey coat and blonde mane beneath his claws. They felt all too real. This was her fur, her mane, her mark.

“I can’t believe you’re finally here!” she cried with tears in her eyes, "I was soooo scared, but... you came back for me!"

Gogurt smiled, stood up, unlatched her from his body and laughed before taking a few steps back.

Then he ran forward and kicked her across the stomach, causing a fews rib to crack and her breath to whoosh from her lungs as she flew across the red carpeted throne room, slamming into the heart shaped chair and knocking it over.

“How stupid do you think I am, you attention-hungry whore?”

The chair erupted in green fire as the Pegasus form burned away. Queen Chrysalis’s silhouette appeared from the fire, mane in a mess, and a glare in her toxic eyes.

She flicked her forked tongue at him and sauntered closer, “Well, you’ve certainly learned a few new tricks, hmm?”

Gogurt shrugged, “You pick stuff up on the road.”

“So… is that what you were hiding the entire time?” Chrysalis suddenly appeared directly behind him, and circled his tensed body, “No, not exactly, it doesn’t have the same, gorgeous maliciousness that I felt before.”

Gogurt sighed as his claws began clenching and releasing in anxiety. He took this time to survey the stage for the fight.

It was a humongous hall, lined with old pillars and the remains of colorful banners. Under his feet was a dirtied luxurious carpet, and above was a tinkling, crystal chandelier, and below the hanging ornament was the destroyed lounge chair accompanied by a small coffee table of lacquered wood. The most noticeable feature was a massive hole in the right-hand wall of the room, giving an ample view of the starry night sky and its moon. It seemed like this was not the first time this room was used as a boss battle.

Gogurt exhaled and rubbed his clawed hands together, “I’ve walked a LONG way to come for you.”

Chrysalis blinked before him in a small spurt of lime fire, eyes wide and lips pouted in mock-surprise, “Really? How sweet. But, boy…” she stepped uncomfortable close,
bringing her face and warped eyes near his, “you’re way out of your league!”

She warped a more satisfactory distance away, wearing a smirk, “I’m a Queen. Queen Chrysalis, you see? I even managed to take down that Celestia all by myself.”

“This harlot defeated that accursed Alicorn?” Fenrir barked in disbelief.

“So, what hope do you,” Chrysalis spat when she said ‘you’, “a whelp, who just learned how to freeze an idiot or two, have in dethroning ME?!”

As if on cue, a series of spouting columns of fire and unknown evil laughter blasted around the pair. In fact, the human could have sworn that he heard epic music playing in the background. Chrysalis’s layered cackling echoed and rang through Gogurt’s head, signalling the beginning of the battle.

But instead, Chrysalis took a deep breath and started to sing,

—SMACK!!
The clawed vagrant’s shattering right hook to Chrysalis’s jaw brought a screeching halt to the entire aria, “I didn’t come to sing…”

While her head was snapping to the side from the sheer force of the blow, he planted himself in a squared stance, and swiftly delivered a whipping kick with his left leg to collide with her midsection, “I CAME TO KICK ASS!”

“No time for songs, EH?” Before Gogurt could blink, she was gone again!

Out of instinct, he dove to the side, narrowly missing a Chrysalis’s lime-green magic bolt. However, he could not do anything to dodge the shockwave that threw him like a little ragdoll.

He hit the dusty, stone ground, rolling, and was painfully halted by a round pillar that left him with more than a few small bruises. Gogurt tried to ignore the hurt as he struggled to his feet, and ambled to where the magic had hit. The bolt had left a sizable scorch mark on the ground, a scorch he did not want on his body.

Chrysalis blinked before him again, bearing a fanged smile that did a poor job of concealing the laughter booming from her throat, “Do you finally understand now? You are severely outclassed here! If you carry on with this foolish endeavor, there might not be enough left of you to even fill an urn. But… I do have another proposition for you.”

She trotted closer and circled him, her voice carrying the sickly sweet tune she loved so much, “There is much potential sleeping in you. You only need somepony like me to truly awaken it.” the Queen placed her holed hoof on the thoroughly disgusted human, her voice rising in intensity and excitement, to the point of yelling, “Stop this purposeless quest of yours, and join me at my side. If you do, I’ll let you live, and stop feeding on those two friends of yours… but there’s so much more to seize.

“Become my student, and challenge the foundations of Equestria with me! We will show those frilly Princesses what REAL power can do! JOIN ME, leaving behind whatever insignificant life you had before, and take on your new name, Sharp Nightfrost!” her dramatic speech’s final note faded away as the last of its echoes blew through the castle.

Gogurt grimaced as he removed her hoof from his shoulder, “Okay, now I’m going to go ahead and tell you why that’s a horrible idea. First, you’re probably lying about Ditzy and Reginald, and will probably make me suck the last of them up in some transformation banquet or whatever. Second, I hate you. Third, you’re gross. Like, really, REALLY, gross.

“Fourth, I’ve seen enough movies to know that becoming some dark apprentice is either gonna have all my limbs burned off and put in some life support suit, or I’ll just be a really crappy person who’ll hate myself for the rest of my life. Fifth… Sharp Nightfrost… really? Were you just looking for the edgiest name you could think of? That name is so edgy, I’m afraid to say it again because I might cut my tongue from the SHEER edginess. So… I’m gonna pass.”

Chrysalis sighed and rolled her eyes, “You’re going to regret—!”

Gogurt’s elbow swung widely into thin air, its intended target having vanished!

The next thing he felt was the blast of the green spear as it impacted into his back, sending burning flares and magic currents convulsing through his bones. The force of the bolt, yet again, sent him soaring and rolling onto the cold, unforgiving ground.

The second the spell hit him, Gogurt knew that it was of a different sort than the Royal Guard’s. This spell sent a feeling of sickness splashing through his frame, and seemed to focus more on the burning aspect. This was a spell meant for pain and punishment, meaning that catching too many more would be a bad idea.

As he was getting to his feet, a low thrum caught his ear, and if there was one thing this human learned in Equestria, a thrum was almost always a bad thing. He quickly spun around and raised a plated, scaly arm over his head, just as another sickly javelin exploded against his shielding arm. The armored plates and scales absorbed most of the damage and the sizzling side effects, but the force still left him sore and staggering.

“This was a lot harder than I imagined it to be..” Gogurt moaned.

“At least you’re able to predict those weak little spells now.” Fenrir said with a lighthearted, and of course, unsympathetic tone.

“I really just wanna get out of here alive, thank you…”

“Whine, whine, whine. That’s all I hear from you.” Fenrir scolded with low snarls, “I grow tired of this punishment. It’s almost worse than being locked in that damned grotto!”

Gogurt gasped as another spell burst against his raised arm, causing him to slide back a few feet. While he withstood the assault, he cocked his other arm behind his back and condensed all the cold power he could hold in the trembling palm.

“But you can at least do more than cringe like a whelp, can’t you?”

Chrysalis yawned as she released beam after bolt of the weighty spells, “You can’t keep this up forever, you know? The poison will continue to spread and spread… until you’re as limp as a dead fish, and then you’ll be my love bank forev—.”

“You know, it’s not a wise idea to talk during times like these.”

The Queen could not finish her thought due to the frozen cocoon she found herself in.

Her eyes dilated then shrunk to pips as she quivered in rage. With a banshee screech and a burst of magic from her crooked horn, she obliterated the icy shell, only to be hit with another wobbling sphere, this attack more focused on pure power than freezing.

The bedraggled human counted as he delivered bullet after orb of the cold eruptions, “One, two, three!”

A punch, punch, kick, combo releasing Fenrir’s frost, a simple strategy that berated the cunning queen with devastating effectiveness. Chrysalis could barely move an inch as each sphere thwacked her like a frosty hammer, and Gogurt was gaining ample ground with each enthusiastic combo. His counts grew more gleeful each time, to the point where it sounded as if a second voice joined in the song.

But was it his voice?

As he got closer to the punished queen, the snarls and red tentacles slowly began to take hold of his senses. The snarling, all he could hear, the red tendrils, goading suffering on nothing but his target who was now only a few arm-lengths away.

“One, two...” he blinked in a rush of snow and reappeared above Chrysalis’s half-frozen form, “THREE!” dropping his plated heel on her exposed back, obliterating the ice and laying her flat on the frosted carpet with an OOMPH!

Gogurt watched her groan in that strange voice as the brutal beating throbbed pain through her incredibly durable, insectoid body. He was breathing deeply and heavily, his voice producing a strange overlapping resonance. It was then that he felt the areas beyond his usual armoring were… different? Even parts of his face felt abnormal.

Chrysalis coughed and hacked a few times before craning her head to look up at the human, a crooked smile on her face, “If you could only see yourself now!” A flash of green flames suddenly blazed before Gogurt’s eyes, momentarily blinding him and blinking the queen away!

A green ray from above bursted against his chest, eliciting a gargled cry and a bloom of inflamed venomous suffering. Another thrum sounded, prompting Gogurt to raise his arms in defense.

Instead, something blunt quickly jabbed into his gut. His arms automatically dropped to to his stricken stomach to soothe the pain. Gogurt leveled his eyes at the grinning Queen in front of him, her horn aglow with the lime light, the magic holding a long, slim, and curved saber with a silver blade dripping some unknown liquid, finished with a jet black grip and emerald jewel pommel. Chrysalis must have struck him with the pretty pommel, otherwise he would not have much time or life to make these observations.

Chrysalis tilted her head as she examined the improvised weapon, “I always prepare a little something in case one gets TOO close and personal,” Without warning, the saber whirled in the air and slashed across his ribs, slicing clear through the jacket’s cloth and underlying shirt but leaving a stinging, shallow cut over his bones. Within seconds, the cut began to burn as if it were eating his skin.

Gogurt backed away, keeping one arm raised and one clutching at the cut, “R.. really?! More poison?!”

Chrysalis shrugged and held the poisoned cavalry sword in the light, “What can I say, a mare loves her venom!”

Her saber rose, and swiftly performed a diagonal slash through the swirling dust motes. Gogurt grunted as he blocked the quick draw cut with his right forearm, but he scarcely had time to recover as another slash swung towards his unprotected neck.

The defending human could only block as the aggressive cuts came from all angles as the confident queen advanced, but despite his defense, the curved steel snaked its way through his defense, leaving a scattering of small nicks and cuts into his soft flesh, spreading more of the burning venom into his flooded system.

Chrysalis ceased the cutting march, crouched, and buzzed into the air, zipping past the overwhelmed challenger. Before Gogurt could ascertain her position, she swooped past his side, executing a quick slash across his back and ripping a gash into his unguarded skin.

When he recoiled from the cut, feeling the blood seep into his jacket, Gogurt learned something alarming. None of these burning slices were deep enough to do serious damage. The Queen was toying with him, intending on causing as much torment as possible until he possibly bled to death.

Another frightening fact became apparent as he was only able to partially defend against a diving slice from the sabre. He was slowing down. His brain seemed to be only able to fire the responses to his muscles at half their regular speed, and the sick feeling he felt before now drenched every cell in his being. The only thing that kept him alive must have been Fenrir’s stalwart soul.

However, Gogurt noticed a hole in Chrysalis’s assault during her last pivot in the air.

He ducked low under a high chop from the queen’s saber, and watched as she kept flying in the same direction, forcing her to slow herself to a complete stop before being able to pivot and drop again.

Those few seconds of slowness were the key.

Gogurt dissipated in a gust of snow, and coalesced above the changeling mare’s veering form.

However, he was a few seconds too late.

Queen Chrysalis’s bucking rear hooves impacted solidly against his sternum, and flung him into the ashy remains of the destroyed, heart shaped chair, but if that was not enough, a heavy bolt compounded the onslaught. While the spell only hit near him, the blast was more than enough to thrust him into the nearby wooden coffee table.

Gogurt’s eyes screwed shut, trying to make the starbursts and ringing in his head go away. He panted heavily, and opened his eyes once he felt able. His vision was shaky and slightly blurry, but clear enough to see the long-maned queen with the crooked horn stroll to his sprawled form. From his point on the ground, she seemed like a towering messenger of the end, holding the final decision in her eyes.

“Fenris.. this doesn’t look good for us. I can’t even get up. Isn’t there… anything you or I can do?”

The drake’s snarls and growls were reduced to low, ragged breaths, “Toxic… it’s all poisoned. I.. I don’t think…”

The dogged traveler’s sight finally steadied. He grunted and tried to sit up, holding himself up by the last energy left in his blighted limbs. His eyes were placid, his expression
blank. Was this resignation? Or sheer curiosity to whatever happened next?

He tried to crack a smile, “I’m sorry that our little trip ended here.”

Chrysalis smiled, and her horn glowed with the despicable light. Her body was then enveloped in an unforeseen blaze of emerald fire, causing Gogurt to squint through the light.

The fire faded away, and Chrysalis was Ditzy Doo once more. This Pegasus, however, was thin, frail, staggering, and had hollow eyes, devoid of all energy, and despair in her slight frown.

“Why?” she asked, “Why did you run away? How could you let me, your only friend, down?”

Anguish and sorrow lanced through the undone contender.

Ditzy stumbled closer, “What happened to the friendship? Was that all an excuse to make yourself feel better for being treated like a monster? Why didn’t you come sooner? Now, look at me. I've wasted away.”

He knew this was just some meaningless clone brought on to torture him further, but why were tears leaking from those eyes?

A sixteen-year-old student stolen from his family, friends, and home, now laid on some ancient bricks in a dark bastion perched in an alien world, poisoned, bleeding, and dying all alone, with nothing accomplished but his own harm. The one valuable thing he found in this land was taken too, and because he failed, it would fade away in this castle.

He had nothing. Absolutely nothing.

“Why did you leave me here?” he barely registered that Chrysalis was in her original form, scowling, her head held low and saber left unattended on the ground, “Why was I left to die?”

A snicker sounded from somewhere behind the brooding queen.

Gogurt knew that snicker.

He strained to turn his head towards the rising cackling that echoed inside his frayed mind. There it was, the wrinkled tome of misfortune, standing against a pillar, red-eyed skull writhing in the cover as the intense chortles shook the leather.

It seemed that this was the trigger.

His heart began to pound, and his blood drummed through his veins as a question thrashed to his mouth, “Fenrir, there has to be SOMETHING. JUST...” his brain ached and
throbbed while his soul clawed for answers, “ANYTHING?”

Fenrir groaned and tossed inside, feeling the pounding and clawing, “I already told you that..!”

Then something dropped in the spirit’s mind, like some secret or locked memory surfaced in the mist.

“NO! The misery... There… THERE IS… I CAN FEEL… M-m-my… AOOOOORGGHH!!!”

Fenrir’s random howling and roaring conquered all other thoughts in their consciousnesses.

Gogurt’s chest suddenly squirmed and twisted. He doubled over as something seemed to struggled its way out of his body. The newfound agony somehow restored all the vigor in his bones, causing the stricken boy to jump to his feet, all while experiencing intense shudders.

The rising in his chest poked and squirmed through his skin, revealing a large, visible knob digging out of his skin and jacket. The final, fleshy boundaries tore away as what resembled an ivory white bone wrapped in ragged cloth met the outside air.

“MY HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORN!”

A bestial roar bellowed from the depths of both of their souls, shaking the foundations of the fortress and leaving Chrysalis shrinking away from the sheer volume of the howl that discharged waves of freezing wind, adding a layer of frost to the surroundings.

Gogurt gripped the protruding relic with his clawed hands, and proceeded to draw all four feet of wicked sharp horn from his relenting body and nearly dropped to the ground from the effort of it all. He held the horn horizontally in the light to examine it.

It looked like some crude weapon fashioned by a caveman. The horn looked liked a snow-white bone given a smooth edge and ground to a slight curve. There were touches of dark blue and black streaks along the edge, as if it was dirtied or worn out. The grip was slightly narrower than the blade portion, and was thickly wrapped in grey leather, but there was no real guard. For such an unrefined weapon, it had near-perfect balance and little weight.

“HELL YEAH!” Gogurt cheered as he raised the horn aloft with his left hand, “NOW we’re talking.” Simply holding the weapon gave the boy vivid energy and alertness, curing all the poison in his body.

Chrysalis shook out of her daze now that the howl ended, hissed at his posing figure, brought the dropped saber forward, leaped, and thrust it towards his exposed heart.

“NOPE!” Gogurt instantly noticed the queen’s charge, thanks to the heightened sense Fenrir’s Horn granted, and swung the blade upwards, intercepting the saber, and sweeping its piercing edge away.

Chrysalis could only watch as her poisoned sword clattered far from her magic’s reach and was unable to react to the pommel strike to the head from the ancient horn. Gogurt followed the blow with a heavy uppercut from his right hand, tossing the queen head over hooves and tumbling onto the gritty floor. Before she could recover or blink away, Gogurt scraped the stone with Fenrir’s Horn as he chopped upwards, rapidly raising a tall series of frozen spires in a straight row, successfully trapping the Queen in the icy surge!

Gogurt shook his fists and danced a little hopping jig, “Y… Ye.. YESS! YEAAAAAHAHA! THAT SHIT WAS AWESOME! I didn’t even know that was going to happen!”

“I knew it was going to happen,” Fenrir said with a know-it-all tone, “and that’s really all that’s necessary, considering you never really know much anyway.”

Gogurt ignored Fenrir’s snarkiness as Queen Chrysalis’s chattering fangs caught his ears. He promptly stomped his way to the shivering changeling, her head the only part left unfrozen, excluding her troublesome horn of course.

Chrysalis spied his placid face, a drop of sweat rolling down her forehead, “If-f-f-f-f… you c-c-c-could see yourself—”

“—YEAH, yeah, see myself now...” Gogurt sharply interjected, “You know… what you did was really f*cked up.”

“I-I know that—”

“—You literally TORTURED me!” he shouted, a second voice joining the cry, “You TORTURED me physically and mentally. Why? What sick pleasure do you gain from this?
Are you just bored because you can’t leave this stupid castle?”

“What could you possibly understand?” Chrysalis roared at his face, all fear forgotten in the glares of her green eyes, “Stuck in a blasted castle, treated like a fool and a loser. A LOSER. Always, a loser. When I felt like I had an upper hand for once, could you blame an evil loser of a queen for enjoying the sweet victory?”

Gogurt shook his head and took a deep breath, “Believe me, I understand. I get the maddening imprisonment, being a loser, I get all that. And that’s why I know your excuses are worth shit.”

He suddenly levelled the white horn at her throat, snarls and red tint slowly filling his senses again. For once, he held the judgement. He held the sentence. He could choose now.

“End the insect.” Fenrir whispered, “She’s a pest in Equestria’s side that should be squashed.”

Gogurt flared a nostril and quickly lowered the tip of the blade, “What? Hell no. I ain’t doing that, I was just intimidating her. I mean, it still feels icky for me to slit someone’s throat like this.”

“Wimp.”

“Are you seriously talking to yourself?” Chrysalis asked with a raised eyebrow.

Gogurt blinked a few times before returning focus on the frozen queen, “So, you wanna tell me where the horse and lizard is before I leave you in this comfy coffin for the rest of your life?”

Chrysalis curled her lip in response, “What are you talking about? They’re back in the left corner of the room, like they were before. Don’t… don’t you remember being there?”

He rubbed his neck and squinted as he struggled to remember, “Oh. That’s right. Wow, I’m REALLY surprised one of us didn’t hit them or anything.”

Gogurt turned around and scanned the nearly destroyed room for the oozing chrysali his friends were trapped in. As Chrysalis and memory said, two, small, green, cocoons were tucked away in the farthest corner.

He patted the dust off of his jacket, fixed his hair, and walked to the organic jail cells. He stood directly over the two chrysali with a relieved smile. Inside the larger cocoon was the large, scaly, sleeping raptor he knew as Reginald, lying on his back, snoring loudly, and inside the smaller one was the grey Pegasus, curled up, and also sleeping. There was no visible damage, meaning that the queen may not have done any physical harm to them.

Gogurt used his right claws to first rip open Reginald gooey’s prison, considering he looked horribly cramped inside. The raptor flopped out of the slime with a thunk, and was still fast asleep.

Gogurt shrugged, deciding to wake him up afterwards, and moved on to Ditzy. He clawed open the cocoon and quickly bent down to catch her fall from the chrysalis.
Strange, she was still asleep too.

Either way, he could not help but feel immense satisfaction and fulfillment. He finally accomplished something. After running for days from monsters and the Royal Guard, he finally finished the long quest.

It felt good. A feeling he sorely missed.

Gogurt leaned down towards the snoring raptor, and patted his bony head a few times, “Hey, Reginald, WAKE UP!”

The call immediately interrupted the reptile’s sleep, and his eyes shot open. Gogurt watched his pupils swim around before stopping on the eagerly awaiting human. Once the dinosaur realized there was someone standing above him, he flinched and scrambled to rise to his muscular feet.

Gogurt’s eyes widened, and he put his hands forward to halt Reginald’s spooked antics, “WHOA, whoa, calm down, it’s me, Gogurt! That Indian dude whose fantastic leadership you’ve been following?”

Upon hearing the name, Reginald slowed his clambering and calmly got to his feet. Reginald then began to perform a series of hand gestures to communicate his thoughts.

“What is this lizard doing?” Fenrir asked with genuine confusion and curiosity.

“It’s sign language,” Gogurt explained as the signs went over his comprehension, “and I know none of it. The pony knows, however, so I’ll just wake her up too.” he looked at the sleeping Ditzy and shouted, “Get UP, SEXY BEAST IS HERE!” Sexy Beast waited a few seconds after his loud, verbal alarm.

But she did not respond.

“Uh… He… Hello?” Gogurt knelt down and shook her by the shoulders, “Hey! Listen!”

Still nothing.

Gogurt stood back up and looked at Reginald who seem just as bewildered, “What the Hell is this!”

“She’s been my personal food bank for a long time,” Chrysalis shouted from her cold prison, “and for some reason, the lizard was starting taste to like spoiled fish… so she’s
been my only food reserve.” Chrysalis sighed, “It seems that she’s all spent! Strange. She should have lasted much longer, I suppose she gave up.”

‘All spent’.

“I was too late..?” One would expect that pure, unabashed fury would be what manifested here.

But the consequence of his lateness overwhelmed everything else.

He paced back and forth, shaking his head in disbelief, “No, no, no. Please, this can’t…. Is she…”

“Dead?” Fenrir bluntly boomed in his head, “She doesn’t smell to be decomposing, and she’s obviously breathing.”

“So, what?” Gogurt asked, a scrap of hope creeping into his voice.

Fenrir sighed, “Soooooo… she seems to be in a coma of sorts. I imagine that she’s lost too much… ugh…love. I suppose this love ties into the ability to apply her will. Must be why she’s in such a state.”

“Hold on hold hold on, a coma?” Gogurt ran to the sleeping body, desperately watching for any sign of movement, “Like, a never wake up for years or ever again kind of coma? The kind where we can’t do ANYTHING?!”

Fenrir hummed in thought, “Well, I suppose resupplying large amounts of… love…. from an outside source could reverse the coma. Of course, I don’t know if this will work or not. I’m not well versed in stupid things like this.”

The frantic boy turned his head to the iced queen, “HEY, GLORYHOLE, how do I fix this mess you made?”

Chrysalis cocked her head to the side, “How am I supposed to know? I EAT love, I don’t know anything about putting it back. If it means anything, I truly didn’t mean for this to happen. I switch out love reserves when the source looks to weak. Again, she must have given up.”

Gogurt inhaled heavily and scowled, eyebrows bent in a baleful expression, “Your intentions don’t really mean shit right, thank you very much.”

Since Chrysalis was no help, that meant Fenrir’s solution was all he had. But, Gogurt knew that it was much more complicated than just, ‘giving love’. Ditzy would need COPIOUS amounts of the emotion to be nursed back from her sleep, and that also included bed rest, a safe location, for her to be bathed and cleaned everyday, food to be directly fed into her system, and a large flow of love. In short, she needed a hospital.

Something he could not provide by himself.

Gogurt suddenly remembered something in his earliest memories in Equestria. The group’s first goal was to reach Ditzy’s hometown of Ponyville. This town must have held
many who loved and deeply cared for her, along with some sort of medical place.

Gogurt stepped all the way back to the frozen spires that held Chrysalis.

He stopped before her, took a deep breath, and asked, “Do you happen to know where Ponyville is?”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, “Ugh, THAT stupid town. Yes, I know where it happens to lie. What, need a map or something?”

“Yes.”

Chrysalis paused and blinked for a few seconds, “Well, I was being sarcastic about the map, but… I do happen to have one of those warping crystals made SPECIFICALLY for
Ponyville. If you unfreeze my horn, I’ll blink it over. No tricks!”

Gogurt slowly nodded as he tapped Fenrir’s horn, “Right, because if you do anything I’ll chop your freakin’ head off.” He raised an arm and tapped a claw against Chrysalis’s frozen spike. The ice responded by quickly melting away.

Her horn briefly glowed before a small gout of flame gave appearance to a triangular, hand-sized, purple gem that landed in Gogurt’s outstretched hand.

“Thank you!” and then the ice on her horn refroze.

Chrysalis blew a raspberry.

Gogurt gripped the crystal and sprinted to Reginald’s befuddled side.

He pushed the gem into Reginald’s claws and looked him into his intelligent eyes, “Hey, Reg, I need you to use this warp gem to take yourself and Ditzy to Ponyville…. okay before you say anything about the warp gem, don’t ask me, it’s contrived, magical bullshit, so I know nothing. But, yeah, take yourselves to Ponyville, she’ll get help there.”

Reginald frowned and operated a confusing system of signs.

“Again, I can’t understand you, bro.”

The raptor rolled his eyes and simple pointed at Gogurt.

“Oh! Oh…”

In the back of Gogurt’s mind, he heard a chuckle…

He looked away, “No, uh… I can’t really come. I got something else I still need to do. Just go, alright? Besides, they don’t need to be freaked out by another non-pony sentient being, so you just go and try not to get caught. You got me?”

Reginald just looked at the placid human’s face for some time. He eventually nodded, and attempted to form a smile, which just looked like he was baring his teeth.

“Great! Let me just get Ditzy on your back…” the nomad bent down to gingerly pick up the sleeping Pegasus by her middle, and deposited her on Reginald’s back, making sure she was properly balanced.

Gogurt forced a smile and furrowed his brow, “Laters’!” and waved his hand in farewell.

Reginald waved his little raptor arms at the traveler, and stared at the gem, looking confused as to how to work the thing.

“Just break it!” Chrysalis yelled from across the room.

Reginald grunted, and easily crushed the crystal in his claws. A white light shone from the twinkling fragments, covering the pair in the luminescence, before another flash
radiated from the shards. When the light disappeared, so did they.

“Why didn’t you go with them?” Fenrir asked.

Gogurt pursed his lips, and turned towards the exit of the boss stage, “You’ve seen what luck I’ve had with that damn book following me around.” he trudged to the door, wearing a deep frown, “It’ll be safer if I just stay away now. I wish I knew this was the problem before. Woulda saved a loooot of trouble.”

As he stepped past the icy arches holding the changeling queen, the prisoner shouted, “Are you just going to leave me to waste away, too?”

He stopped.

Gogurt moaned and switched paths to Chrysalis, “Damn my moral convictions…”

Chrysalis’s eyes widened as the vagrant began to melt away the ice, “Oh.. didn’t think you’d actually do it.”

“Uh huh.” Gogurt mumbled.

Just as the ice began to thin out, he saw something in the reflection of the surface. It was his head.

Over half of it was covered in beady skin, plates, and a curved horn, culminating in a fearsome visage of a nightmarish beast.

Then the ice was gone, and Chrysalis dropped to the water-covered ground, free from the prison. She stood back on her feet, and shook the water from her mane and wings.

Chrysalis scratched the back of her head with her perforated hoof, “Um… this is.. well, I’m just going to not bother you anymore. Bye?”

“Uh… huh.” Gogurt paid no attention as he looked into his reflection in the waters.

Completely normal. Whatever he saw was gone now.

“Something wrong?” Fenrir asked as he felt the unease seep into the human’s mind.

He looked away from the water and walked towards the door, “No.” Gogurt stretched his arms and yawned, “I guess we’re going to Canterlot.”

Gogurt had a random thought, brought on by the strange reflection. When was the last time he ever used his human hands? Considering how long he’s been using Fenrir’s claws, he decided it would be nice to see human fingers for a while, so he willed the claws away like the many times he did before.

He blanched.

“What’s wrong now…” Fenrir asked with a tired sigh.

“The claws,” Gogurt’s pupils shrank, “They won’t go away."

...

But will he care?

Author's Notes:

This. was. the. most. miserable. chapter. to. edit.

IDK why, but the new update to the site seems to have screwed with the gdoc importing. I had to redo everything TWICE.

But, here you fellas go, the LONGEST chapter I've ever written. It's about sixty pages.

Da Hell is wrong with me.