Chapter 13

Dave and Celestia walked behind Nox and Sweetie Belle. Whilst the two children talked and laughed, the older alicorn and human both had mixed expressions

Celestia bit her tongue nervously “Are you sure this is a good idea?” she stayed close to Dave’s side as they walked towards the school

“Not entirely” Dave scratched his head “but at least he can start learning and interact with others his age” Dave wrapped an arm around the nervous Celestia “If he doesn’t like it then we will take him out, he has all of eternity to learn”

The princess of the sun nodded “I suppose you are right” She smiled down at her son “I am just getting used to the fact that he has grown up so fast” She rested her head on Dave’s shoulder as they made their way to the school’s front door

Sweetie Belle pushed the door open and stepped inside with Nox “Miss Cherilee?” she looked around and saw her dark purple teacher setting up some paints at the side of the classroom

“Oh Sweetie Belle you’re here early” The pink maned mare smiled at her student before her eyes moved over to the grey colt beside her “And who is your friend here?” her happiness switched to confusion as she noticed the unicorn also possessed wings

Celestia stepped into the school with Dave close behind “This is my son Noxporta, I understand that this may be quite a shock so it would be advisable if you could… blast” Celestia sighed as Cherilee tipped over and slumped to the floor

“Ponies seem to like fainting recently” Dave groaned as he looked around the large classroom “It would be great if she woke up soon, I’m already starting to get flashbacks of my school days” he shuddered as he saw what looked like physic equations on the blackboard “At least if you don’t know the answer you could always say magic”

Nox looked around the alien environment and let out a faint gulp “Why do I get the feeling that bad things are going to happen?” his nerves shook until Dave knelt beside him

“Hey, me and your mum are going to get you at the end of the day” Dave hugged the nervous colt “We will never leave you” Dave placed Nox back on the ground “You will only be here a few hours, Sweetie Belle will be here and Miss… unconscious pony will make sure nothing bad happens”

Nox looked between Celestia and Dave before finally nodding “Alright dad, I’ll stay here until you come back” He hugged Celestia before she left with Dave, leaving him alone with Sweetie Belle and the unconscious teacher

“Miss Cherilee normally has a few spare desks in the store cupboard” Sweetie Belle walked over to the door near the teacher’s desk at the far end of the room. She pushed it open using one of her white hooves before peeking inside “Here’s one!” she called

Nox hurried over and poked his head into the store cupboard, shelves were filled with a mix of books, paints, pens and paper. At the side of the store cupboard a few desks were piled up with a few chairs stacked next to them

Sweetie Belle looked at Nox “Can you use magic yet?” She hummed as Nox shrugged “Well I should be able to get these without much too much trouble” She smiled reassuringly as her horn began to glow, a single chair and table floated up and into the classroom before dropping to the floor. Sweetie Belle panted a little before quickly regaining her composure

Nox easily pushed the table and chair into line with the front row of tables at the front of the classroom. His attention was brought back to Cherilee that was just regaining consciousness

“That was so strange” Cherilee rubbed her head as she got to her hooves, she looked around at Nox and Sweetie Belle before taking a deep breath “So, I take it that you are joining my school?” the shaken teacher sat behind her desk “I’m sorry if I act a little strange… never had to teach royalty before”

Nox nervously smiled at the teacher “I-I don’t really know what I should do” Nox tapped his hooves together as he looked at Sweetie Belle “Sweetie Belle is the only other pony I know that is my age… at the moment”

“Well would you like to sit next to Sweetie Belle?” Cherilee looked to Sweetie Belle for a sign of conformation that it was ok with her. She missed the large blush that spread across Nox’s face as he avoided looking at the unicorn next to him

“W-well I suppose that it would be ok” Nox jumped as the door slammed open and an orange Pegasus and a yellow earth pony ran in. They both walked strait to Sweetie Belle and Cherilee, missing the colt that sat only a few feet away

“DAVE AND PRINCESS CELESTIA!” Scootaloo cheered as she hopped in the air “I knew the party yesterday was for something big but I didn’t realize they were both in town!”

Applebloom had an equally large grin on her face “They were hugging’ and they looked so happy to be back!” she bounced around excitedly until she noticed something out of the corner of her eye, she turned to see a grey colt nervously hiding behind his wings “H-hello?”

The wings dropped slightly to reveal a grand horn and a nervous eye. Sweetie Belle smiled reassuringly until Nox finally dropped his wings to completely reveal himself, his panicked breathing finally returning to normal

“Hey” Nox tapped his hooves together as the new fillies stared at him “Y-yes I am an alicorn, Celestia is my mom and Dave is my dad” He sighed as the girls exchanged confused looks “My name is Nox, what’s yours?”

Scootaloo bounced forwards and shook Nox’s hoof “I’m Scootaloo and this is Applebloom, so you are Dave and Celestia’s son?” she sat down as she tilted her head “How old are you?”

“T-three days” Nox winced slightly at the various gasps of shock “I don’t get why everypony is so shocked” He shrugged “I’m just going to take my seat”

Nox carefully stepped around the three fillies as he sat in his chair and gazed out the window. Scootaloo took a seat a few places away whilst Applebloom dragged Sweetie Belle to the side of the classroom, the earth pony glanced at the new alicorn before looking to her unicorn friend

“That’s Dave’s son?” Applebloom stared at Sweetie Belle until the unicorn nodded. Applebloom tapped her chin before blushing slightly “Y-you don’t mind if I sit next to him do you? I mean you have gotten ta know him a bit better than I have so I would like ta chat with him”

Sweetie Belle smiled “Of course, I’m just glad that you didn’t faint like I did when I first met him” Sweetie Belle sat next to Scootaloo whilst Applebloom sat next to Nox, his gaze moved past her to Sweetie Belle before giving the earth pony next to him a small smile

The children all turned their heads as a group of fillies and colts swarmed in, all laughing and talking to each other. The group all made way for a pair of fillies that had their heads held high. One was grey with a slightly lighter mane, a pair of expensive glasses covered her eyes whilst the other was pink with a violet mane, a single streak of white was complimented by a diamond tiara

Applebloom leaned over to Nox “The glasses is called Silver Spoon and the big head is called Diamond Tiara,” She whispered before sitting up strait again

“Urgh that party yesterday was so disgusting, why would anypony want to party in the streets with other common rabble” Diamond Tiara sat in the seat behind Nox, obviously she failed to notice him due to her self-absorbed nature

Scootaloo was already gritting her teeth as Silver Spoon nodded in agreement “I can guarantee that a trio of blank flanks went” She rose an eyebrow to the Cutie Mark Crusaders as she giggled with her upper-class friend

Nox nervously pulled a wing around himself and used his hooves to play with his feathers “I have a blank flank” he whispered to himself as he looked down at his clear grey flank

“Good morning students!” Cherilee called and the class responded her “We have a new student joining our class so I hope you all give him a warm welcome” she gave a reassuring smile to Nox before addressing her class again “Our first lesson today is arts and crafts, you can work in pairs and the equipment is on the side”

Nox peeked over at Sweetie Belle but saw that she was already moving to sit with Scootaloo, his eyes moved again to see Applebloom shuffling her seat so she was at the same table as him

“Ya don’t mind if I work with you do ya?” She smiled nervously, a hint of red graced her cheeks as Nox smiled back

“Uh… no I don’t mind” He chuckled nervously “I’m glad somepony wants to work with me” He sighed as Applebloom went to get the equipment, his voice dropped to a whisper as he saw the chaos of children rushing to get their hooves on paints “at least nopony noticed I’m an alicorn yet”

As Applebloom returned with paints and paper, Nox began to trace a landscape with a pencil on his sheet of paper. He began to draw a mountain range before an annoying posh voice filled his ears again

“Oh I didn’t realize we had another blank flank in this school” Diamond Tiara pointed at Nox “It looks like the Cutie Mark Failures might get another member,” She laughed along with Silver Spoon and a few other classmates. Cherilee merely rolled her eyes as another argument was going to break out

Applebloom instantly snapped “Leave Nox alone ya!” She glared at Diamond Tiara “It’s no wonder ya have almost no friends with your sour attitude!”

“At least her friends have some quality behind them!” Silver Spoon snorted, “What are you three?” She smirked at each of the Cutie Mark Crusaders “Smellyloo, Stinkie Bum and AppleBog!”

“Shut up” Nox growled loud enough for everypony to hear, his head was hung low so his mane shadowed his eyes. His hooves were gripping the table as he shivered

Diamond Tiara gasped, “Did you tell us to shut up?” she snarled at the grey colt in front of her “What kind of peasant are you to say that to me?”

Cherilee gawped, her hoof instantly went for the hipflask of cider she kept in her desk for emergencies. In this case, it would not go amiss

Nox’s wings spread open as he lifted into the air, turning so he could glare down at the two snobs that bullied him and his friends. The rest of the classmates gasped as they noticed the new colt was actually an alicorn. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara both froze in horror as the colt glared at them

“You are both horrible and mean” Nox’s bottom lip quivered before his face turned into a snarl “If I hear you say anything mean about me or my friends again then I will…”

“We are sorry! We didn’t know that you are an ali…”Silver Spoon tried to interrupt by begging

Nox glared down at her “SHUT UP!” He yelled at the top of his lungs, his royal voice kicked in and blasted the windows out of the buildings. Silver Spoon’s glasses shattered and Diamond Tiara’s tiara cracked as Nox’s hate filled voice brought sheer anger upon them

As the grey alicorn blasted the room with his shout, his horn released a faint red wisp, the tiny red cloud turned black as it escaped Nox’s horn. The colt suddenly shook in the air before being launched against the wall and slumping to the floor

The Cutie Mark Crusaders all hurried around Nox as his eyes flickered shut. Applebloom’s face tightened in anger as she leapt at Diamond Tiara, swiping with her hooves

“Look what ya did!” She roared as she was dragged away from her target. She broke free of the classmates that were restraining her and hurried to Nox’s side “Please be ok” She whispered as she nuzzled his head

Meanwhile…

Celestia was sipping her tea as Twilight showed her some of her latest discoveries and small inventions. Dave was poking through some books and occasionally picked one up to have a small read before returning it to the shelf

“You have definitely rearranged these shelves” Dave sighed, “I mean I like everything in size order but I think that alphabetical order is better” He tapped his chin as Twilight pouted playfully

Celestia rolled her eyes “Ignore him, he is just worried that his son is at school” She sipped her tea again as Dave held his hands up

“Hey when I went to school for the first time it was terrifying!” He folded his arms as he returned to looking at the shelves “I thought that my mom didn’t care but hey… I know that she was actually just as terrified as I am”

Twilight smiled “You know, if you weren’t so… you, then that might have been sweet” She laughed as Dave shook his head “School is only a few hours long so you will get to see him again soon” She returned to showing Celestia her latest design for a spell

“Yeah I hope that…” Dave stopped as his chest tightened, his throat seized as a black fog rolled out of his mouth, it hovered by his face until another cluster of black smoke joined it. It swirled before a bolt of red lightning slammed Dave against the shelves and it escaped through an open window

Celestia and Twilight whipped their heads around in time to see Dave be buried under a pile of books, Twilight began to use her magic to lift them individually whilst Celestia brushed them aside with a single blast

“DAVE!” She yelled as she held his motionless body, Celestia shook him until he let out a cough. Her faithful student looked around for the attacker but hummed when she saw no evidence of anypony else in the library

Meanwhile…

The tiny black fog raced into the air, it slowed as it reached the edge of space, a few embers split from the main body but quickly faded.

Suddenly, one of the stars in the vast emptiness of space flickered and released a large beam of red light. It struck the black fog and caused it to swell, twisting and shaking as it became monstrous in size, and the blackness slowly became accompanied by the faint pulsing of crimson

The large mass began to spin, its speed increasing with each rotation until it rocketed downwards towards the ground, becoming longer and thinner as it reached the clouds and neared the ground

The fog pierced the ground and burrowed through the dense earth, racing through abandoned mineshafts and diamond dog burrows. It raced through dirt, clay and rocks with ease. It finally reached a thick black material, the fog twisted at its discovery and began to spread itself throughout the gooey material

The sound of buzzing around the fog only spurred it on as it hunted for its target. The fog finally reached a leathery surface and paused. The fog glowed a bright red as it stared at the yellow surface before it

When the yellow sack shook and turned black the fog forced its way inside. A loud scream accompanied the invasion as the egg sack pulsed and squirmed, the changeling princess attached screamed in agony

The changing queen burst through the wall at the sound of her younger sister’s distress “Larva! What is happening?” The queen gawped at the egg sack that produced her changeling swarm “What is wrong with the egg sack?”

“Chrysalis help me!” Princess Larva cried “the sack has been different ever since that… that HUMAN!” She winced as a large black spike stabbed out of the sack, a spray of yellow pus covered the floor

Chrysalis shuddered as her sister began to beg for anything that could take the pain away. The changeling queen’s eyes widened as the spike cut a large hole in the sack and a long bony leg stepped out followed by a black, exoskeleton

The sack returned to yellow as the large, broad head finally pushed itself out of the sack, the large ridge was easily twice the size of chrysalis whilst the rest of the monster’s body made her feel like a weak kitten. A large oval gem that was set into the creature’s skull sparked to life and filled with a dark crimson glow

A long bladed tail shook lazily from side to side as the giant, mutated changeling snarled down at the queen. Its red eyes were joined by a wide mouth that was filled of jagged and uneven teeth.

“What kind of abomination are you?” Queen Chrysalis shuddered as the creature smiled at her, its eyes unsettled her and his voice sent a shiver down her spine. However, as she recognised the voice her own face was met by a sly grin

“It is nice to meet you again Queen Chrysalis” Odio chuckled “I have very recently found out that you have a war with gryphons on your holey hooves” His smile grew as the swarm of changelings in the hive rejoiced at the addition of their newest member “I would like to speed up… negotiations”