My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

A Changeling’s Lament

Chapter 16

Return

Chrysalis angrily snarled when she heard the news. Out of anger, she fired at and destroyed a pillar. Edge and Pipsqueak were taking off guard by her destroying that pillar in a such a violent fashion

“I don’t think I heard you correctly!” she snarled.

“un… on the way back, we saw Oscurita fly in the direction of their escape. And when we saw him again, he was flying away from a battlefield where, from what we guess, fought a Leviathan and saved Princess Luna and a gray mare. He didn’t even touch the train on which the escapees escaped on.”

Chrysalis snarled again and destroyed yet another pillar. “that damn bastard has gone rogue. It seems he doesn’t care if he gets turned back or not. When he returns, make sure he receives due punishment.” Edge isn’t sure how he would do that but agreed none-the-less. “now… who’s this little colt?” she gestured to Pipsqueak.

“this was the only prisoner we could get from the attack from Maredrid. Calls himself Pipsqueak.”

Chrysalis looked down at the kid, who cowered behind Edge in fear. “why is he here?”

“I figured he would keep our little purple nuisance in check.”

Jax sat back on a crystal pillar and sputtered as she let go of her pick-ax and fell to the floor. “what a week.” she grumbled. Dinky mimicked her perfectly. Things slowly and gradually got worse as time went on. More then a dozen ponies started getting sick from all the mining dust and lack of air deep within it. Even though she was heavily pregnant, Cadence was also sent down to work. Fortunately, it was just taking food and water to the miners.

“better then digging at rocks.” the princess said with a groan as she sat down beside Jax.

Jax looked back at Cadence’s prego belly and got a bit mad. “that Chrysalis has some nerve sending a expectant mother down here.” she angrily muttered.

“I know but after what she thinks I did 16 years ago, I don’t blame her.”

“you ever thought of telling her that? Might get us out of here.” Dinky suggested.

“I tried to get to her a few times to tell her but those guards of hers, Leon and Friction, won’t let me.”

The sound of a pick-ax hitting the ground caught their attention. The pony it belonged to fell to the ground, having trouble breathing. “Dad.” his son exclaimed, running to his side.

Cadence lamentably sighed. “seeing that always makes my heart sink.” a couple of guards came in and dragged the sick pony away. “civilians caught in a war nobody saw coming, forced to do dangerous work for a tyrant.”

“sounds like war on every other world to me.” Jax muttered, using a small but sharp rock to clean her fingernails. “just have to hope that it’ll get better soon. I think that’s what keeps people going…” she looked and saw the kid pick up his father’s pick-ax and go to work. “… hope that it will end soon.”

Cadence nodded in agreement for a few seconds. Pain shot out of her mid-section, forcing her to bend forward and hold her stomach in pain. “princess!” Dinky exclaimed.

Cadence gasped for air and panted. “I-I’m okay.” she said painfully.

Jax didn’t buy that lame excuse, recognizing the signs. “no, you are not. I remember this from when Krystal had Marcus and when Toothless‘ girlfriend Cupid laid eggs. Cadence… you’re going into labor.”

“What!?” Dinky exclaimed in surprise. “it’s coming now?”

Cadence shrugged off the pain and sighed. “no. no, it’s not. That’s the first contraction I had in 3 days. The baby is still far from coming. Odds are, it’s gonna be another week until it comes.”

Jax must‘ve heard that wrong. “wait wait wait. You’ve been in labor for 3 days?” she gave a sighing chuckle. “you’re stronger then me. I can‘t even deal with the flu, let alone labor pains.”

“well… I do know that she won’t be coming anytime soon.”

Dinky sighed and looked out to the outside though a crack in the ceiling. She’s wondering if her mother will come back soon, along with everyone else.

Speaking of whom…

Derpy groaned as she opened her eyes. They were blurry at first but eventually cleared up. She had a killer headache. “Man. I wish I had some Tylenol right now.” she groaned. She looked up and saw that she was in a large cave. She heard snoring to her right. She looked and saw that Oscurita was sleeping. “why… would he save me?” she wondered to herself. She heard groaning to her left and saw that Luna was there with her. “Luna!” Derpy ran over and shook her. “Princess. Princess Luna.”

Luna groaned as she woke up. She saw a worried Derpy standing over her, concerned for her. “D-Derpy.” she held her head as she sat up. “where are we?”

“I don’t know but I think we should get out of here.” she pointed behind her to Oscurita.

Luna winced in fear. “we should get out of here before he wakes up.”

“right. But where do we go?” they both looked around, trying to find a way out. A small pebble hit Luna in the head, getting her attention.

“Psst! Over here!” Amelia whispered. Luna and Derpy looked and saw her and the others right behind a pillar. The two tip-toed over to them, trying not to wake Oscurita.

“Be careful not to make any noise.” Gourry whispered.

They neared the group when Derpy tripped and fell into a small pile of pebbles, making a lot of noise. Oscurita’s eyes shot open and snarled when he saw them trying to escape.

Derpy poked her head out of the pile and shook pebbles out. She looked up and gulped. “oops.” Oscurita roared and moved to take them out. “my bad.” she embarrassingly said to her friends.

Oscurita roared and moved to attack them. His back rubbed against the ceiling, causing it to cave it. A large boulder fell to the princess but she was too busy looking at Oscurita. Derpy did notice it and ran over to her. “Princess!” Derpy ran into Luna and pushed her out of the way as the entire cave caved it.

Twi depressingly sighed as she looked at the Gryphon Capital from the train. She was hoping she wouldn’t have to return; not after what happened last time.

Last time she and her friends came, Trixie, in a effort to impress Twi and make the librarian fall in love with the magician instead of her brother, used a spell that inadvertadly turned every pony in Equestria human. Any pony outside of the country, such as Daring, Cadence, and Armor, were unaffected. Learning that there was a reversal spell, the gang set out for the Gryphon Kingdom. Once there, they learned that it was located in a old fortress of Nightmare Moon’s. once there, they found the spell, learning too late that using any spell in the fortress, be it a light spell or the Reversal spell, Nightmare Moon would be revived without Luna. They used the spell, bringing about her return. After a long and arduous fight, which included Req getting possessed by the monster, Trixie almost dying, and Jax trying out the newly created Personality Shift, and some rather unexpected help from a giant dragon, they were able to defeat Nightmare Moon for good. Not long after that, Twi, Trix, and Derpy went out to celebrate, which resulted in Twilight getting kidnapped and that… resulted in the developing Starlight.

Halo could sense that Twi was upset and walked over to her. “you okay?” he asked.

“no.” she looked out the window to the massive tower in the middle of the city. “you remember what happened to me last time, right?”

“yeah. You got kidnapped and that resulted in Starlight.”

Twi cringed and held her stomach. “I think Starlight hates coming back here, too.” she sadly laid her head on her seat as Halo sat down beside her and nuzzled her.

“it’ll be okay. You have Armor, Cadence, Celestia and Luna, your parents. And me, if you want.”

Twi smiled and kissed her coltfriend. “of course I want you.”

“I wonder how Gilda’s doing.” Dash wondered. “it’s been too long since we last saw her.” she said to ‘Shy. “I wonder how she’ll react when she finds out I became a mom.” she looked down at the slumbering Draconequus and snickered. “well, adopted mother.”

“she’ll probably be surprised.” ‘Shy depressingly said.

Shadow was a little out of place, mostly due to ‘Shy’s personality. “un… did I miss something?”

Dash looked to her friend and gestured Shadow to come close so she could tell him without ‘Shy knowing. “her friend, Mirror’s Edge, turned out to be a Changeling sent to spy on us. After he returned to his own kind and helped them take Canterlot, she’s been like this.”

“oh, man. Think she’ll be all right?”

“Hopefully.” she looked back to ‘Shy and got sad. “I hate seeing her like this. Wish there was something I could do to cheer her up.”

The train rolled into Feather Top station and hissed to a grinding halt before groaning. The engineer walked off the engine and patted her. “you did good, girl.”

“Wow. Big place.” Lloyd said in astonishment as he looked at the city. “much bigger then Meltokio back home.”

“I’d say bigger then Canterlot.” Sweetie Belle added, visiting the city for the first time as well.

“it’s big. No question about it.” a distant Twi said, feeling off for being here.

“you okay?” Cynder asked.

“no. not really.” she walked off to find her parents. In all this confusion these past few days, she never even tried to.

Cynder watched in confusion as she walked off. “did I… say something wrong?”

“no. she just has bad memories about this place.” Sora said. “Really bad memories.” Now Cyn was curious but didn’t pursue it. Besides, she had a pretty good guess why.

Celestia walked off and looked up at the tower. “I’ll be back. I’m gonna go talk with King Zaltan.”

Ash looked to Celestia’s left and gestured her to turn around. “I think he’s coming to you.” Celestia looked and saw the king coming to see them with Gilda and Jason coming with him.

Zaltan arrived and bowed to Celestia. “Princess. We received your letter 11 hours ago. Allow me to be the first to say welcome to Feather Top, though I wish it was under better circumstances.”

“you and me both, Zaltan.” Celestia somberly replied. “so… do you have shelter for us?”

“Plenty. There’s tons of abandoned buildings in District 4, summer get-a-ways that have been put up by the owners, and plenty of hotels. Not to mention loads of room in the tower itself.”

“Sounds better then our ol’ town.” the mayor of Maredrid commented.

Gilda yawned. She was never a fan of politics. Thankfully, she immediately found her ol’ friend walking down to the streets. She snuck on after her and grabbed Dash.

“Dashie. Long time no see.” Gilda chortled as she gave the Pegasus a noogie.

“hey hey hey hey.” Dash grumbled, trying to get loose from Gilda‘s death grip. “Can’t breath. Can’t breath.”

Gilda chuckled and let Dash go in a spin. “so, what’s new Dashie? Other then the war, I mean?”

“well, I became a mom.”

Gilda heard that but laughed. She fell to the floor, laughing in pain. “Oh. Oh, that’s rich. Dash a mom. How dumb do you think I am?”

Dash looked at the guffawing Gilda with half-fazed eyes. Eris poked her head out from between Dash’s feet and looked at the laughing Gilda. “mommy, who that?”

“just a old friend.”

Gilda stopped laughing and wiped tears from her eyes. She noticed the Draconequus then looked up at dash. “you know you got a thing between your legs?”

Dash looked down and saw Eris. “Hey, Eris. What are ya doing?”

“hiding, mommy.” she said in such a cute way.

“Scootaloo being scary again?”

“un-huh.”

Gilda shook her head, not believing what she was seeing. Dash really was a mom. Adopted, but still a mom. “you weren’t kidding, were you?”

Dash chuckled and smiled. she then remembered something she needed to do. “I-I have to go somewhere. Can you look after Eris for a minute?”

“where to?”

“It’s just something personal.” Dash unfurled her wings and flew away as Scootaloo, Shadow, and Soarin’ reached where she was.

“Where’s she going?” Soarin’ asked.

“I don’t know.” Eris curiously walked up to Gilda and pulled out one of her feathers. “Ow.” Gilda looked down at the baby and snarled. “though she left something I never expected her to have.”

Eris curiously looked up at Gilda when 3 other fliers flew over to them.

“was that Dash that just flew away?” Zatch asked.

“yep.”

Lightning noticed Eris and immediately went into mother mode. “OH! Look at the cute little baby!” she spoke in baby talk, which freaked out Eris rather then enjoying it.

“Dash’s daughter. Well, adopted daughter.” Shadow said.

“oh, hey. Shadow. Long time, no see.” Gothic said. “so… you and Dash finally going out?” Shadow gave a groaning chuckle as he scratched his neck.

“just trying to figure out where she went right now.”

“She did leave in a hurry. But why?” Gilda muttered.

Scootaloo thought about it, thinking back to when Dash jumped. The reason why she left entered her mind. “I think I know where she went.”

Pipsqueak yelped as he was thrown into the mine. He landed and skidded on his face, cutting his chin a bit. He quickly got up and turned to face the Changeling that threw him.

“Try that again! Just try it.” he said, trying to act brave but was, in fact, scared for his life. The Changeling chuckled and left.

“Pipsqueak?” Dinky asked in surprise. He turned around to see Dinky right there, happy to see him. “Pipsqueak!” she ran over and hugged him, causing him to blush red like a tomato. “What are you doing here?”

“Got captured. How else would I have gotten here?”

“What happened?” Cadence asked as she and Jax walked over to him.

“the Changelings attacked this small town; Maredrid I think it was called. Anyway, they used a giant monster to completely destroy the town; turn it into a crater.”

“oh no.” Cadence gasped. Maredrid was one of her favorite towns.

“What monster?” Jax asked.

“it was that one from the movie shown at Nightmare Night. Not those gremlin things but that giant monster. What was it called?”

“Godzilla?”

“yeah. That’s it.”

Jax was officially lost. Godzilla was a movie monster; it doesn’t exist. So unless Chrysalis or Oscurita figured out how to turn movie monsters real, there’s no way for him to be around. She then remembered that this happened before back on Iselia when that monster from The Host attacked. This couldn’t be a coincidence; someone somewhere was making them come to life. But who and why?

The group have been given the beach house they had used the last time they were at Feather Top. Since there was more of them, they had to make every inch count, even the balcony. Thankfully for everyone sleeping outside, winters in the Gryphon Kingdom are warm; at around 68 degrees. They still had snow but it wasn’t always 4 feet deep, usually for inches.

“let’s see… where will me and Luna sleep?” Trixie muttered.

“why not take the master bed?” Armor suggested.

“oh, no I couldn’t. this is yours and Cadence’s beach house, after all.”

“I know but this was supposed to be your honeymoon. Go on and take it. I insist.”

“Us too.” everyone said in agreement.

Trixie smiled at her friends but her expression took a turn south. She looked out the window to the river and sighed. “if they get back in one piece.”

A soft sprinkle of rain pattered down in to a graveyard. A cyan Pegasus walked along a path to a particular gravestone and set down some roses.

“hey, mom.” Dash softly said. “I’m sorry for not visiting you when I was here 6 months ago. We were all busy trying to turn us back into ponies, and the stuff with Nightmare Moon and Twi getting knocked up… I didn’t have time to come by the old homestead. Now I’m starting to wish that I did. I would’ve seen you one last time before you… you…” Dash tried to hold back tears but she couldn’t. she broke down, fell to her knees, and cried. “Dammit. Why did you have to go and die? Why didn’t you tell me you were sick? I would’ve tried to find you a cure.” Dash hit the ground with her hoof and cried some more. “dammit… why did you have to die?”

Tears fell from her face and landed on the grave stone. She can’t believe that her mother was gone forever. Why wouldn’t she tell her about a decease that was slowly killing her? Why is her life spiraling downhill like this? It’s just not fair.

Dash continued to cry until a clawed hand grabbed her right hoof. Dash tearfully looked and saw Eris standing there, holding her hoof. “Eris…” Dash grabbed Eris and hugged her tight. “I’m not going to let you go. Ever.” more tears fell down her face and slipped down on Eris’ shoulders. “I’m gonna be the best mom I can be. I swear it.”

Shadow walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Dash… I’m sorry.”

Dash sniffled as tears continued to fall. “I-I-It’s okay.” she shakingly said. She cleared her throat and got up. “it’s okay. I just… I can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe my mom is gone. I just…”

“I know. I know.” Shadow softly said. “but you have Eris.” they both looked down to Eris who looked up to them with a smile. “And you have Soarin’, Scootaloo, Gilda, Zatch, Gothic, Lightning…” Shadow took her hooves and held them. “and you have me.”

“…Shadow…” Dash broke down again and cried into his shoulder. He didn’t fight it and just let her cry. Eris felt that this was a tender moment between the two of them and snuck off.

Night had fallen on what was a rough week for the refugees. It felt like ages since anyone had a rest, and by golly they needed it.

At Trixie’s insistence, she’s sharing the bed with Dash and Shadow. She overheard her crying at the graveyard and knew full well what it’s like to lose your parents. She lost hers twice. She hoped that Luna was alright, as well as everyone else. She doesn’t want to be alone just 8 days after being married.

She heard the door open downstairs and slowly got out of bed, careful not to wake up the new slumbering couple. She reached the bottom of the stairs to see Zel, Amelia, Gourry, Hiccup, and Toothless come in. they were careful not to step on anyone.

“Guys.” She loudly whispered. “When did you get back?”

“just 20 minutes ago.” Zel whispered, holding his wounded shoulder.

“We were lucky to get out of there alive.” Gourry whispered.

“what happened?” a curious Trixie asked.

Amelia yawned and tried to keep her eyes open. “We’ll tell you tomorrow. Right now, we’re sleepy.” she walked off and landed right on the floor.

“What about Luna? And Derpy?”

“Req took them to the hospital. Derpy saved Luna from a cave in but got crushed. And when that happen, the monster just… up and ran.” Hiccup explained.

Trixie breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness Luna was okay. But poor Derpy. She hopes she’s all right. She has a lot of thanks to give the mailmare for saving her wife. But… why would Oscurita run away? From what she heard, it would’ve been a good opportunity to take them all right. Why didn’t he?