Romance and the Fate of Equestria

Chapter Eighty-Nine

It was the middle of the night under a clear starlit sky, the streets of Ponyville silent and cold.

Gilda peered out of an alley and scanned the streets. Satisfied that they were empty, she hitched herself to a large wagon and stealthily scurried out into the open.

In the wagon was a huge, spherical red force field, held together by a great kite-shaped silver shield. In the center of the field floated the changeling Cocoon, his gangly body curled up in a fetal position as usual. His bulging green eyes, with diamond-shaped white pupils, stared vacantly upward, and his jaw was slack. His wild purple hair was even more overgrown; his rat-tail would almost have touched the floor had he been standing.

Gilda crept along the edges of the street, careful not to jostle the force field, her eyes constantly scanning and alert for any signs of life in the town.

"Gilda?"

Gilda nodded to Twilight, having noticed her a split second before she spoke. "Ah, good, you got my note," she said, coming to a stop.

"I did," said Twilight, approaching and looking apprehensively up at Cocoon in his magical prison. "What's going on?"

"Hidey-ho," Cocoon mumbled in his bizarre accent. "Cocoon am I."

"Yes, I remember," Twilight said seriously. "Don't you have anything else to say? Tell me more about how much your queen hates my sister. I'd really like to know."

She waited. Several long seconds passed before he spoke again. "Hidey-ho. Cocoon am I."

Gilda shrugged. "I guess getting him to talk was a one-time thing. Anyway, I'm glad you came. Here." She pulled out six envelopes and passed them to Twilight.

"What's this?" Twilight asked, rifling through them with her magic.

"Everypony's percentage of what's left of the Golden Thread business. Damn thing was dead anyway. I closed up shop, took all the money out of the bank. I'm taking my cut and skipping town."

"You're running away?" Twilight breathed.

Gilda opened her beak, looking like she was about to deny it, then considered for a moment and answered, "Yes. Everything that's left of the Golden Thread is in the secret basement of the shop. Whatever you do with it, promise me you'll be careful."

"Of course," said Twilight. "But where are you going? Why are you doing this?"

Gilda sighed, then scanned the streets again before proceeding. "Remember the other day," she whispered, "when your goat-headed dragon guy wanted to talk to me in private?"

"He has a pony's head, actually," said Twilight. "I know he appears to be a goat, but he designed his face to resemble his idea of a pony. He calls himself a draconequus, a dragon-pony, and he considers himself kin to the pony race… so, yeah, not a goat, even though he looks like a goat…"

Gilda blinked.

"…I should've just said 'yeah'," Twilight muttered apologetically. "What of it?"

"He told me," Gilda said gravely, "that the queen of the changelings really cares about Cocoon, more than anything else in the world, and will stop at nothing to find him."

At that, Cocoon lunged forward, as close to the edge of the bubble as he could get, and stared hard at Gilda, breathing heavily through his mouth.

"Um… is that so?" Twilight said to Gilda, eyeing Cocoon nervously.

"Yeah, I…" Gilda paused and frowned at Cocoon. When he continued to do nothing but stare, she shrugged and kept talking to Twilight. "I've gotta get outta here before she sends a whole swarming army into Equestria to get at him. She'll tear apart Ponyville. I couldn't live with myself if that happened. I've gotta bail before I bring something awful crashing down on all of us."

"Where will you go?" Twilight said solemnly.

"My first thought was to hide out in dragon lands," said Gilda. "It's to the southeast, the changelings are allegedly in the northwest—figured I'd be safe. She'd have to cross all of Equestria to get to me. Then I thought, what if she actually tries it? Tries to fight her way through the whole country? It'll be a massacre, or at best, a war. I'm not worth that, and this guy definitely isn't."

She gestured to Cocoon, then shot him another odd look, confused at his earlier response. "So, um, I'm gonna go back to Vanhoover, hang around there long enough for her to maybe get wind of me, then catch a ship to the Whispering Desert. I'll try to live out my life there, alone, and if she tracks us down, then fine. No one gets hurt except me. I can deal with that."

Tears welled up in Twilight's eyes. "Gilda…" She set aside the envelopes, and pulled Gilda into a tight embrace. "You are not the same griffon you were when you first blew into Ponyville. Or even who you were when you first came back seeking Rainbow Dash's help. You've grown so much. To make a sacrifice like this…" She nuzzled Gilda's face and stepped back. "Is there any other way?"

Gilda shook her head. "I've thought about letting him go. Maybe he'd find his queen on his own, and there'd be no need for her to come hunting at all." She shuddered. "But first he'd kill me. I've told you before, that's all he ever does when he's free, come after me and try to kill me. And I'd rather live, if it's at all possible."

"I understand," said Twilight. "It's still a very noble thing you're doing, how you want to keep your friends and everyone else out of danger." She produced a quill and parchment. "Do you think you could write a letter to Princess Celestia about all you've learned since you've been here?"

Gilda closed her eyes and produced a single teardrop. "It would be my genuine pleasure."

She unhitched herself from her wagon, took the quill and parchment, and walked over to a lamppost, writing under the glow of the streetlight.

"And while you're doing that…" Twilight muttered. She turned to Cocoon. "What's on your mind, sport?"

He glared at her silently.

"I know there's something," Twilight whispered, stepping closer to him. "Please… tell me."

His expression softened, and he smacked his lips a few times. "I for looking is Chrysalis Queen, said you?" he whispered.

Twilight and Gilda exchanged glances. "I believe so," Twilight said blankly.

Cocoon inhaled deeply and gazed up at the stars. "Hoped always did I," he said dreamily. "Along all, true was it, think to."

He backed away, letting out a wheezy cackle. His two forward-curving horns glowed a sickly, venomous green, and from both horns shot harsh beams of magical energy, which converged upon the silver shield that generated his force field. The shield bent and wrinkled, its three emblems glowing red-hot, and it snapped into two pieces. The force field fizzled and disappeared, and the two halves of the shield clattered to the streets.

"NO!" Gilda cried.

Cocoon grinned wickedly as his ridiculously huge purple wings started buzzing.

"That shield was a gift," Gilda growled. "Largo made it for me. And now it's gone… you slack-jawed son of a bitch!"

Gilda launched herself at Cocoon, tackling him and raking him with her claws. He angled his horns to gore her, but Twilight's magenta aura lit up around his neck, and she began dragging him down to the ground.

He turned his head toward Twilight. A blast of black silk shot out of his nostrils and touched her horn. Her magic sparked and died. The continuous stream of silk then started covering her legs, which buckled beneath her.

"What the frak?" Gilda demanded.

Cocoon pointed his face at her, blasting her with more of the black silk, which covered her chest, neck, and limbs. She tumbled to the ground, tangled in the silk, and gasped for air.

"You… you could have escaped any time you wanted," she choked out. "I'm no match for you. Why have you never run away or killed me if it's this easy?"

"It in not was heart mine," Cocoon said gleefully. "I for look to enough, care not did she, thought I. Wrong was I, hehe. Safe I, wants does she. Known have, should I. All after, king changeling am I. Wonderful is this!"

He leapt into the air. At the highest point of the jump, his wings started buzzing and he soared off toward the northwest.

"CHRYSALIS QUEEN, YOU FOR HOME COMING AM I!" he cackled.

Twilight and Gilda watched him go, both of them buried under heaps of black thread.

"He's gone," Gilda marveled. "He didn't kill me. Twilight, he didn't kill me!"

"That's wonderful," Twilight grumbled. "Can you move at all?"

"I don't…" Gilda strained, and made an attempt to lift her arm. "Yeah, I can. Barely. What is this stuff?"

"Well," Twilight pondered, "it's not sticky, but it's weakening our muscles and my magic. It must be, like, the opposite of the silk he produces that you made into Golden Thread. That's fascinating in a morbid sort of way…"

"Sure is," Gilda agreed. She attempted to spread her wings. "Agh, my muscles are aching… how do we get out of this?"

"See if you can come over here and take if off of my horn," said Twilight, struggling to lift her head. "Then I'll be able to lift the rest of it."

"Okay. Crawling…"

Gilda started pulling herself along the road, creeping toward Twilight at a painfully slow pace, her claws trying to find a grip in the cobblestones of the street.

"…I can't," Gilda rasped.

"You have to or we'll be here all night," Twilight urged.

"O-okay…"

Gilda hauled herself closer and closer, and reached for Twilight's horn, her thread-laden arm quivering. Her talons gently brushed against the silk hanging from Twilight's horn before going limp.

"It's making my claw weak," Gilda muttered. "I can't grab it."

"You don't have to grab it," Twilight urged. "Just… try to get your claws tangled in it, and then let your arm drop."

"Right. I can do that… anyone can do that… yeah. Here we go."

She held her hand perpendicular to the ground, slipped her fingers into the silk, and slowly twisted her wrist ninety degrees. With the thread interlaced with her talons, she let her hand drop to the ground, pulling the silk from Twilight's horn. "Ow," she said dully.

Twilight's horn glowed, and all of the black silk was lifted from their bodies and rolled up into a big ball floating above their heads. "What are we gonna do with this?" she asked.

"Pack it up in the basement with the gold stuff, I guess," said Gilda, standing up and stretching her weakened muscles.

Twilight stood as well, looking at the broken halves of Gilda's shield. "Sorry about your shield," she said gently.

Gilda was silent for a moment, first glancing momentarily at the shield, then intensely staring up into the sky where Cocoon had vanished. "He's gone," she said. "Heh. Hehe. He's gone." She threw her head back and cackled wildly. "HA-HA-HA-HAAAAA! Isn't it great? He's gone!"

"Yeah," Twilight said tersely. "Gone back to his queen, who still has an army, and sent him to Equestria… to scout."

Gilda paused. "Okay, that's bad," she admitted. "That's a bad thing. I'm concerned about that. It's my country too. But… you'll have to forgive me the profound sense of joy I feel. I don't have to live in fear of his… his single-minded desire to kill me to death. The impossible happened: he left without killing me. I'm free." She wiped away the flow of tears dripping from her eyes. "I'm free."

Twilight lifted a hoof and stroked Gilda's face. "I guess that's good," she said.

Gilda hugged Twilight, burying her face in her lavender fur. "I don't have to run away. I can stay. I can stay here." She pulled away, her hands on Twilight's shoulders. "Equestria will be fine. If there's one thing I know, it's that harmony and friendship between ponies can beat anything."

"I like to think so," Twilight said brightly. "But we'll have to watch out. All of Equestria may be in danger. We may have to start protecting our borders. But you're right. That's nothing new."

"Right," Gilda muttered. "We ought to warn somebody, right? I guess that means I should release you from that oath I made you swear…"

"No, there's no need for that," said Twilight. "We can warn everypony about the possible threat of changelings without revealing how you were involved—that secret is still safe."

"Well, okay. Thanks." Gilda grinned and gave Twilight a light-hearted punch to the shoulder. "Don't stress about these things, Bangs. Deal with it when the time comes." She sighed and looked up at the stars. "Thanks for being here with me tonight."

Twilight smiled. "You're welcome, Gilda."

Gilda hopped over to the park bench where Twilight had set the six envelopes. "I'll, um… I'll be the one to bring these checks to everypony," she said, handing one to Twilight. "Here's yours. Might as well. The business is… still dead."

"But you're alive," Twilight said cheerfully.

"I am," Gilda agreed. "And good riddance to that guy."

Twilight set the huge ball of black twine on the ground, eyeing it apprehensively. "All right, let's get this thing to the basement, I guess."

"Yeah, I'll take care of that," Gilda said. "Throw it on my wagon."

Twilight smiled. "I'm glad you're staying. I'm sure all of your other friends will agree."

Gilda bowed her head. "Thanks," she said, her voice cracking. "Thanks very much."