//------------------------------// // RotDK Chapter 18: Reunions // Story: Rise of the Dragonking // by Scarheart //------------------------------// It was midnight before Chrysalis came to the quarters of Princess Celestia. The two guards escorting here were very professional and did not speak to her. She suspected they would rather have words with a cockroach rather than herself as she could sense the cold distrust emanating from them. The Queen could sense their unease, but did not prey upon their fears. There were far more important things to worry about than playing with the help. The door was open and she was told to go right in by one of the other two guards standing outside the princess' quarters. Of course. She was expected. The Queen smiled to herself as she stepped in. The mountains of stacked books and piled scrolls made her eyes go wide. She never figured Celestia to be the messy sort, but it also made sense in a way. A thousand years of living alone could make an Alicorn seek ways to keep her mind occupied, but such untidiness struck Chrysalis as being unbecoming of the Princess of the Sun. The changeling queen winced as she panned the room, working her way delicately around centuries of accumulated knowledge. Idly she picked up one of the books, leafing through it before setting it down. Magic concerning mental manipulation. Another book replaced the first. Dragon Anatomy and Evolution. Chrysalis selected a third book as she moved, looking at just the cover. An Examination of Changelings and Exploring their Origins. They were all very old books. The Queen smirked at the last tome, wondering how inaccurate it was. Or was it accurate? She felt the need to look into the book and perhaps even ask Princess Celestia if she might borrow it. "Out on the balcony," sang a voice out to her. "I have tea." Tea? The Queen rolled her eyes, not at all a fan of the sickening friendliness in the tone. So they were best of friends now? Bosom buddies? Chums for life? Please. She followed the voice and found the princess laying on a couch with a blue blanket draped over her wings and flanks. Celestia was seated demurely, a book opened before her and slowly turning its pages. Her back was to Chrysalis and she was overlooking her kingdom as the stars and Luna's moon shone overhead. "It's a lovely evening, isn't it, Queen Chrysalis?" Celestia set her book down and greeted her old enemy warmly. She indicated an empty reclining couch next to her. "Have a seat, please. We have much to discuss." Why was Celestia not getting up to greet her properly? Chrysalis was a queen the last time she looked in the mirror. There was something about the princess clearly not right, she noted as she gracefully accepted the invitation and settled down comfortably into her seat. "Thank you," she said, matching the ancient eyes of the Alicorn with her own gaze. For a moment the two simply regarded each other, measuring one another. Perhaps a remembered encounter played for the both of them at the same time, reliving a high water mark of an invasion still remembered with chills by those who had witnessed it. Celestia broke the silence. "I had thought of many ways I would start a conversation with you over the years." Chrysalis regarded the books and scrolls surrounding the princess. "Is that what you've been studying for all these years? I'm touched." The princess chuckled. "Oh, no, this is for something completely different as we discussed in our letters to each other." "Of course." The Queen was still finding what was under the blanket distracting her thoughts. She had noticed not so much of a twitch coming from beneath it. No muscles moving, no shifting of hooves. Then there was the lifeless mane, devoid of the flow it normally displayed. Harlequin eyes narrowed shrewdly as they locked again with Celestia's own. "How long have you been like that?" she asked pointedly. "Since my battle with Flamespyre," came the reply. There was no regret nor self pity. "He broke my spine before I defeated him. It's been a secret since then. I am supposed to uphold a certain image and if my ponies saw me like this, one can imagine the fear it might cause." "Might cause?" Chrysalis echoed. "You disappoint me, Celestia. I never thought you a pony to hide something like this." She held up a hoof when the princess narrowed her eyes. "But I also see a very good reason to hide such an injury from your enemies." "It is necessary." The princess shook her mane. "But we are not here to discuss the loss of my hind legs. We need to discuss two things." "Silent Wing and Flamespyre, I know." The Queen thought the moon above was staring at her, judging. Celestia offered tea. "It's very good." "Sure. Why not?" A brimming cup was soon presented to her. Chrysalis accepted it graciously. "How is young Prince Silent Wing doing?" Celestia asked pleasantly. The Queen sipped her tea. "He'll live. What did Luna tell you?" The Alicorn arched a brow as she drank her own tea. "Evasive, aren't we?" "I'm sure you've already got your own intelligence on my son, Celestia." "I do. I would prefer to know how you think he is doing." Chrysalis shifted where she lay, adjusting her legs and making herself more comfortable. "I think he's exhausted mentally. I would like to exclude him from any activities tomorrow until dinner. He's had a busy three days." The princess nodded slowly. "I agree with you. I certainly would not want him to be stressed more than necessary. Luna tells me his mental strain has been ongoing for some time. His dreams are haunted by nightmares not of his making." Chrysalis perked at this revelation. "What do you mean?" she grunted, setting her cup down firmly on a table between the two leaders. "I assume you are acquainted with Flamespyre?" "Unfortunately, yes." "How often has Silent told you of his dreams?" Chrysalis twitched, not liking where this line of questions was leading. "What does Flamespyre have to do with the dreams of a colt?" "I think you already know, your Majesty." Celestia indicated her years of work scattered at her hooves. "I suspect Flamespyre intends to use your son's body as his avatar once he breaks down the mental barriers protecting him." "What?" Chrysalis was shocked to hear this. "What do you mean by this nonsense?" Celestia selected a scroll, reminded by her conversation with Luna a couple of nights before. "This is the list of the known children of the Shadowdragon." Chrysalis glared at the princess. "Shadowdragon?" "Your title for him would be Dragonking." Celestia supplied the queen helpfully. "Starswirl the Bearded refused to name Flamespyre in his works, referring to him instead as the Shadowdragon. He was a brilliant sorcerer, if a bit superstitious. One of my greatest students." "Get to the point, Celestia. What does this have to do with what you're spouting?" Chrysalis was not liking what she was hearing. She had not been liking a lot of what she was hearing lately, almost all of it concerning Silent Wing. He was special, yes, but why did this cloud of doom seem to be hovering over him constantly? "Flamespyre wanted him dead. Why this sudden revelation he wants to control his body?" "Flamespyre's own body was destroyed by me when I fought him. I should imagine he has reasoned taking the colt's body would serve a couple of purposes." The Alicorn lowered her chin and opened the scroll she had picked up earlier. "It would appear his children also serve an additional purpose other than doing his work. Keep in mind, this is just a hypothesis. I could be wrong. Flamespyre is unpredictable and his movements remain hidden. Perhaps he merely wants us to think this is the purpose of his children. They might have all been just experiments he unleashed upon the world for all we know. I still would like to think of the other thing I believe is their purpose. Again, it is just a theory at this point." "And what is that?" "Spare bodies. Here. Take a look at this and tell me what you think." She pressed the scroll towards Chrysalis' face. The queen did so, her eyes scanning over the page. Dragonlings, mental manipulation, origins from changelings, ponies, and dragons using twisted black magic. It was all there. Chrysalis would have flat out denied it and even laughed at Celestia if it were not for her own knowledge she had of Flamespyre. He would indeed plan for something like this. Layers of plannning. Centuries of planning. A sleepless mind at work and constantly adjusting when necessary. "You're saying his replacement body has not yet formed and he wants to use Silent Wing as his own. This doesn't make sense. He could just as easily reconstitute his own body from magic contained in the planet's Ley lines. Why would you think my son to be that monster's replacement body? That's sickening!" Chrysalis shook her head in denial of the thought, knowing her former master better than the Alicorn. It could simply not be true. Celestia clucked her tongue against the back of her teeth. "How else would you eliminate a threat to yourself and keep it nullified?" she suggested, then sipped from her cup. "Imprison the mind and control the body," Chrysalis answered the question. She became increasingly fearful the more she thought about it. "Oh, buck." She admitted to herself she had not thought of this possibility herself. Celestia held up a hoof. "Flamespyre has no hold over the dreams in Equestria. Luna holds absolute power here in the Dream Realm and has already encountered him in Silent Wing's dreams. You have my word you child is quite safe here. I would venture to even ask you to let him remain here until we can deal with the dragon." Chrysalis started to protest, but the Alicorn pressed on. "It's my recommendation, Emerald Queen," Celestia offered simply. "Now there's a title I've not heard in ages. We're not dealing with the other changeling kingdoms yet, so let's just keep it simple for now. Why am I not surprised you'd want this?" The monarch gave out a dry chuckle and went for her tea as she shook her head in disbelief. "And how long do you suppose it will take to dispose of Flamespyre, Celestia? He is an Immortal. Shall my son live his days here, away from his people, his sister, and me? Shall you tell him yourself he would be a prisoner in a gilded cage very much like the one I am currently trying to get out of? Are you going to propose to me this being the condition of the help from Equestria and the two most powerful Alicorns in the world? My freedom in exchange for my son's imprisonment?" "I am doing nothing of the sort, Chrysalis." Celestia shook her head violently. "I would never do something like that. Please understand, I want to deny a common enemy we share access to a wellspring of power neither of us fully understand yet. Even the colt is unaware of what is locked away within him. I don't even know what is exactly inside him. It's dormant, perhaps even latent. Luna suggests it might even be incomplete, based on her encounter with the colt's fa- creator." The queen flinched her nose, working her jaw back and forth slowly. Celestia had unwittingly hit a nerve. To think of Flamespyre as her son's father made her physically ill. "That's something I don't understand," she began, squinting at her old rival. "Magic does nothing to him. Once he hit puberty, his ability to shape shift faded. Any spell cast at him is ineffective. It's like he's a void." Ever since he avenged the death of his intended under mysterious circumstances two years ago, just before the assassination attempt on his life.(1) "If I might offer a hypothesis based on the research I have gathered around me," Celestia offered, returning the narrow glare given to her with open honesty. "Flamespyre made his children to be conduits of power. His thirst for magic and power stems from his base desire to feed on fear. I think it's not that magic doesn't work on him. Rather, he's absorbing it and storing the energy within him. For what purpose remains a mystery to me. No doubt Flamespyre knows." Chrysalis straightened with alarm. "Impossible!" "Your Majesty," Celestia noted patiently. "I raise the sun every morning for the whole world. My sister raises the moon each night in all of its stages. Would you like for me to explain the physics of magic required for the both of us to move celestial bodies?" The Changeling Queen blinked, her mouth hanging open as she began to understand how much of her own hoof she had put in her mouth. She suddenly felt foalish. "I just can't believe it to be in my little morsel," she managed to stammer. "I'm hoping to meet him face-to-face tomorrow night," Celestia sighed as she stifled a yawn. "You've raised a fine colt, Chrysalis. I'm impressed." "Are you trying to be funny?" "Not at all," replied the Alicorn disarmingly. "You've essentially been spending the last fifteen years raising the discarded offspring of an Immortal. That is not easy." "I really don't think his parentage has anything to do with how he was raised," muttered Chrysalis sullenly. "Explain to me again what I was thinking when I tried to remove you from power?" "You almost pulled it off," reminded the Princess of the Sun as she arched an eye brow. "You caught me completely off guard. You know how to undermine a stronger opponent. That's why your help will be instrumental in ending Flamespyre's threat." "Are you complimenting me?" "I give credit where credit is due," Celestia said with the flick of an ear. With a little grunt she shifted her body. "You are cunning and resourceful. You know how to use small numbers against a larger foe." "Flattery no longer works on me, Celestia," Chrysalis reminded her. "My generals tried that while they were wasting the lives of my soldiers in pointless campaigns. I ended up making an example with one of them. It was shortly afterwords the nobles began to undermine my power and take it for themselves." The Alicorn tossed her mane. "But I speak the truth. We're about to go to war against an enemy with forces we can't even begin to fathom the strength of. Other nations are aware of the threat. The numbers are not looking to be in our favor." "And of course there's Flamespyre," finished Chrysalis. "Well yes, there's always Flamespyre." "What do we know at this point?" asked the queen as she refreshed her tea. "According to what you've given me, there are literally millions of what appear to be changelings from beyond the known world. This means other changeling kingdoms have already fallen under Flamespyre's control." "I've got the griffons scouting the frontier lands keeping an eye on movements," Celestia said as she followed the queen's example. "I think we can expect an invasion any day now." "Is your army ready?" Chrysalis asked. "Ready enough," Celestia said coolly. "I'm not about to tell you all of my secrets. But I'll tell you something else you might find more interesting." "Oh?" The Queen was indeed interested as she noted the smile tugging on the Alicorn's mouth. "What could be more important than impending war?" "How about we discuss Silent Wing's first kiss? I thought a mother such as yourself would want to know of her child's education." Celestia mentioned it as though it were an off hand topic. Chrysalis' ears perked forward eagerly. Using her horn, the Changeling Queen scooted her seat closer to her new bosom friend, her eyes very wide now. "Oh," she clucked with giddy delight. "Tell me everything. Leave nothing out!" The next Tuesday morning found Silent Wing standing on a veranda he had stumbled across while exploring the castle grounds. Feidole and Frakas were waiting outside his door when he stepped from his room, chatting with the two Equestrian guards there as if they had been old friends. Leave it to those two changelings to make friends with fellow soldiers. They followed him quietly, speaking to each other in hushed tones as they discussed their first impressions of the mares of Canterlot. From the grins on their changeling faces, they were very pleased indeed. Captain Myzanum had made them put on their formal black embossed plate armor, each changeling lugging a short broad bladed spear. Their short little horns poked through the center of their helmets like blackened railroad spikes. Silent knew they hated wearing their armor as they felt it restricted their movements. So far as they were concerned, their natural armor was more than enough. Besides, Feidole and Frakas were technically light infantry and not heavy shock troops. "Ah, Silent?" Feidole finally asked after they had been wandering for an hour. "Captain Myzanum isn't going to be happy when he finds out you're deliberately avoiding debriefing." The colt peered out from the veranda, noting they were several stories from the courtyard. He looked up and saw several grand balconies built elegantly into the walls they sprouted from. They reminded him of tree leaves in their design, or the bottom of a long ship's hull. Silent could not decide which one suited them better. Either way, it made home look like it had acquired a 'good enough' feel to it over the centuries. Canterlot in the sunlight made the centerpiece castle Silent Wing had grown up in look rather squat, ugly and dilapidated. "I know," he said as he blinked in Celestia's light. "There's not much he can do to me other than cry to the Queen. I doubt she'll give a hoot, either." The familiarity between the prince and the two brothers brought any onlooker to a pause. He was also wearing ceremonial armor, but this was of fine ebony leather with silver trim. Around his forhead he wore a silver circlet with a single small and ruby over his forehead. A silvery black cloak was draped over his back, concealing his bandaged wing. Upon his hooves were silver shoes. If anything, he appeared dressed down when compared to the magnificence of the two changeling brothers. The circlet was the only clue to his status. It was one of the few ensembles he did not mind wearing and allowed him to breath and move freely. Feidole and Frakas envied him. It was also considerably lighter for starters and it made the prince look dashing. Silent Wing might have looked more impressive if he had bothered to brush his mane that morning. Instead, it was a red and black lump of bed head he had partially attempted to fix. The proper description might have easily been a red haystack. Ti-tac. Ti-toc. Ti-tac. Ti-toc. The three continued in silence, the sound of silver shod hooves bouncing off the stone ceiling and walls. It would have been louder if not for the open air to their left. Silent decided the sound of his own hoof falls were unusually loud with the shoes on. He preferred going bare-hooved. The three passed a few servants going about their business. A respectful distance behind the changelings were two pony soldiers assigned to keep tabs on the prince. There was nothing on the schedule for the prince that morning or the afternoon as the Queen had ordered her son to relax and just rest until the formal dinner that night. Nothing was more relaxing than being inside the walls of a massive castle seemingly built from a fairy tale. Frequently Silent would stop and just gape in amazement at the architecture. It wasn't as massive and forboding as what he was used to back home, but the elegance spoke of a balance between beauty and a magical imagination. Some of the towers were so fragile, the young prince imagined they might topple should a cloud brush against them. Silent Wing heard a commotion down in the courtyard below. He peered over the side and saw a group of mares gathering near the main gate. They were surrounded by several colts and fillies somwhere ranging from Atalanta's age to just a year or two younger than Silent himself. His golden gaze caught sight of a light blue coat and a chromatic mane and tail fluttering about the mares with excitement. "Is that Rainbow Dash?" he asked a servant who was trying to hurry by. He pointed with his hoof at the group of mares. She peered over the rail curiously before smiling at him. "Yes it is, Prince Silent Wing." He thanked her and she went about her business after giving a quick curtsy. It was not really necessary to have somepony point out the one and only Rainbow Dash out to the colt. Silent knew her on sight and had only wanted a confirmation to make sure he wasn't dreaming. There was his favorite racer in all the world, the Wonderbolt of Wonderbolts and his idol right there, in the flesh and making the photos of her do no justice! He propped himself up on his forehooves and leaned over the railing, loosening his cloak. It fell to the floor. Feidole sighed, picked it up. Frakas cleared his throat and deadpanned, "No. Please. Stop." He was rolling his eyes and heaving heavily, imploring some deity above to stop the prince from embarrassing himself again. Silent was loosening the sling his wing was in. "It's not use, brother," Feidole told him. "He's got that look in his eyes again." "I know. I know." Frakas watched as the sling fell to the floor. "That's mine," he said to his brother." He studied his prince's face. "A lot of mares down there," he noted sagely. "He's tensing!" Feidole said having seen this before. Frakas shook his head. "Don't think it's going to happen." "Oh, there it is!" His brother observed the hesitation. "Too many females. Again." The other changeling sighed, sounding bored. Feidole grunted, "Are we going to have to speak on his behalf?" His brother indicated with his chin, eyes narrowed. "Ears just went back. He's not going down there." "Who's going to encourage him this time?" complained the other. Frakas stared at him glumly. "Didn't you do it before?" "We'll both be his courage!" The two brothers nodded to each other and took up positions next to their wavering prince. They each took a foreleg and began to lift Silent Wing off the ground. "What are you doing?" Silent Wing asked with a squeak, already guessing their intention. Naturally he resisted. "No. No, no, no, no! Don't you guys do it!" Then a pink face showed up in front of his, with huge blue eyes and large, white smile. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie and I couldn't help but notice you were up there staring down there so I thought I would just come up here so you wouldn't have to come down there and just say hello because it looks like you were going to say hello and I thought that was such a nice thing to do but I wanted to get the jump on you and say hi first!" She pulled herself up and over the rail. How she managed to climb three stories was a mystery. Silent Wing stared past her and down, wondering just that. This pink creature was an Earth pony, so she could neither fly nor use magic. How did she do it? Did she have friends helping her? The two changelings recoiled in horror as they seemed to recognize Pinkie Pie right away. "It's the Pink Monster!" cried out Frakas, dropping Silent's leg and jumping back. "Our doom is at hand!" shouted Feidole, imitating his brother. Silent was more than embarrassed by the twins. Apologetically to the pink mare who was staring open eyed between the two, he said, "Don't mind them. They're both idiots. My name is -" "Prince Silent Wing of the Changelings!" she finished for him. "I know! Your picture is all over the newspapers. Front page! You royals are front page! That's amazing! I'm so excited to get to meet you I could just throw a party right here on the spot!" Pinkie Pie made a sour face, leaned towards the prince and covered her mouth with the back of a hoof. She whispered to him, "What's up with those two guys?" Silent Wing sighed. "Their dad was here when my mother tried to take Canterlot. He has flashbacks to something about the Unicorn cannon being fired by some crazed pink pony." She leaned back, grinning. "Oh, that's a silly willy story! For one thing, I was using a real Unicorn - that was Twilight Sparkle - and second of all, I'm not crazy!" She hopped down from the rail and gave Silent a massive bone-crunching hug. Somehow she also managed to include his two squirming guards, squeezing them hard enough to make them squeak in the sounds of a pair of rubber ducks. "It's true," said a voice behind her smugly. "Knocked changelings all over the place. It was awesome. Just like me." Rainbow Dash hovered in the air on her wings with ease. She had an air of confidence, her forehooves crossed over her chest as if to challenge any who looked upon her to doubt her coolness. Her ruby eyes gleamed as she started to introduce herself. "I'm -" "Rainbow Dash!" blurted Silent Wing in awe. There she was, his heroine. She was the Wonderbolt of Wonderbolts and the only pony in the world he had ever really wanted to meet. The poor colt was overwhelmed with meeting first Pinkie Pie, then the blue Pegasus. His words reflected the mental overload. "HappymeetblueawesomeIamhonoredpony!" It should also be noted his eyes were round and his pupils were dilated. Dash was quite familiar with the expression. Some fans simply could not handle being in the presence of their idol. "That's okay, kid," she said worriedly. "Are you okay?" "He's fine," called out Frakas, not even thinking of stepping near Pinkie Pie. Wagging a hoof generally at Silent Wing, he added, "The prince hasn't gotten used to being around pretty mares. His brain more or less turns to goo. Nopony's been able to figure it out." There was a pregnant pause as the brother looked at each other uncomfortably for a moment. "Well, we know why, but it's just one of those things we aren't going to talk about." Silent heard every word. It snapped him out of his stupor and he turned on the changeling, blushing furiously and sputtering. "I do not!" "Um, yes, you do," hissed Feidole as he winced from the sad truth he spoke. "Ever since you started noticing girls, you've become a gibbering idiot around them. Especially around the pretty ones. You squeak, too." "He's perfectly fine if mares have foals with them," offered Frakas helpfully. "That's pretty pathetic," said Rainbow Dash as she rubbed the back of her head uncomfortably. It was debatable if she was talking about the changelings yapping openly in front of their prince his fears. Perhaps it was how he froze when he noticed the Pegasus (he had no time to react to Pinkie Pie). Maybe it was both. Either way, she did not seem to sympathetic towards the changelings. "Give him a break, would you?" Landing next to Pinkie, she took the initiative and shook the prince's hoof vigorously. "You're about the same age as my colt, Lightning Dash. I'm always glad to meet a fan. I heard about what you did at Grazeland. That was pretty amazing to read about." Rainbow Dash understood how to get a colt comfortable around mares. Always having been a tomcolt herself, she knew all she had to do was talk about something the shy colt was interested in. "What kind of training did you get?" "Griffon-do Jujitsu," he responded quietly with a confident little smile. Dash was impressed. "Oh, really? That's like the hardest hoof-to-hoof style to find somepony to train others in. It's supposed to be super-secret!" She was grinning openly, trotting around the young prince. "You've gotta show me some of your moves!" "I know Griffon-do," claimed Pinkie Pie. "It's great for keeping in shape and working up an appetite!" "He's actually restricted from any physical activity past walking for the next week or so," Frakas threw out there to the Pegasus. "He got tore up pretty bad by timberwolves and diamond dogs." He stared at the pink pony, wondering if she really did know the difficult style. "Really?" She studied the prince closely, pulling out his left wing and examining it. "It's the right wing that's hurt, isn't it?" "Hyperextended," he said with a nod, rotating his right wing at the shoulder uncomfortably. "Should be fine in a couple of days. They gave me something to speed up the healing." "You've got some speed in you, don'tcha?" she teased slyly. I can see it in your wing structure. "You're also in great condition. Must be that constant military training you've beed going under. You've got to meet my kid. I think you two would hit it off great!" Without waiting for a response, she looked out over the rail and yelled down into the courtyard. "Lightning Dash, get your little flank up here!" A pony's voice drifted up from the ground below. "What is going on, Dashie dear?" Pinkie Pie by now had joined Rainbow Dash at the railing. "Hey, Rarity! He's not at all as stuck up as you thought he was! He's actually really, really nice!" she bellowed loud enough for ponies in the next county to hear. "Thank you for clarifying that!" the one called Rarity called back with annoyance. "No problem!" A Pegasus colt with a darker blue coat than Rainbow Dash and sharing her hair coloration. His eyes were like bright emeralds. "Hey mom, what's up?" he asked. The colt took after his mother and her mannerisms, already measuring himself against Silent Wing. Lighting Dash landed next to her and got a hoof messing his mane playfully. "This kid's mine," Rainbow said proudly. "Lighting, Silent. Silent, Lightning." "Hey," said Lightning. "Hey," replied Silent. Both colts eyed each other like competitive rivals. Frakas leaned over to his brother. "Isn't that how we met the prince?" "Yep." Feidole was nodding. "We've just seen the start of a beautiful friendship. It's just missing one thing." Silent Wing and Lightning Dash gave each other a grin and a hoofbump. "There it is!" crowed Frakas happily. Pinkie Pie was beaming. "I love seeing friendships being made. You've got to come down and meet the other kids, Silent. And you can meet the other girls and make friends with them, too. So many friends to make and you get to do it so fast! Those are the best." She began running down a list of names. "There's Applejack and her two colts Red and Golden Apple. They're thirteen and ten. And yeah! She had to leave her two youngest back home because her husband Blazing Cruise broke his leg. Their names are Crisp Apple and the daughter's name is Winter Apple. Oh! Rarity brought her adopted daughter Unique. She's twelve years old. I brought my two girls Custard and Blueberry Pie. They're twins and they're both nine. Fluttershy's here, but she doesn't have any kids on account she's always been shy around ponies, kinda like you, Silent, but with everypony and not just girls and that is really silly because you're not a bad looking colt and I'm sure you'd make some filly a happy special pony. Oh! And Twilight's got her son Star Journey around here. He's nine. Kind of a chunky colt and kinda bossy and kinda rude and kinda spoiled, but not a bad pony. Just spoiled rotten and hangs around Blueblood a lot because his mom's always doing stuff and his daddy's up at the Crystal Empire doing army stuff." Frakas leaned over to Feidole. "Did you get any of that?" "Some. You?" Frakas shrugged. "Was I supposed to?" Feidole shrugged helplessly. Silent was a bit more diplomatic. "I look forward to getting to meet them all, Miss Pie." "Oh, it's just Pinkie, you silly-willy!" She gave him another bone crushing hug. "I like you! You're such a sweetie colt!" Pinkie threw her blue eyes at the two changelings who never took their solid blue orbs off the Pink Monster. "You guys should come down, too! You look like you guys can use some fun. Those uniforms must be stuffy and uncomfortable and icky and sweaty and just unfun." "We, um...really don't have a choice," supplied Feidole with a polite cough. "It's our job to follow Prince Silent Wing." "He's not so bad," included Frakas nervously as he eyed the pink mare. He imagined if he kept staring at her, she could not and would not move. "He doesn't yell at us, he's fun to prank, and he was forced to grow up with us." "I like you guys," Pinkie said after taking a moment to scrutinize them by rubbing her chin with a hoof and studying them as if they had stolen all the pastries in her shop. "You're both invited to the party!" "What party?" Silent asked her curiously. "Why the party I throw for every new pony I see. We'll have to throw it before you go home to the Changeling Kingdom." Her smile appeared a permanent fixture on her pink face. Were her blue eyes always so full of life one might confuse them with insanity? So was Silent Wing introduced to the rest of the Mane Six, having already made acquaintances with Twilight Sparkle. Applejack was a pleasantly plump and happy mare who gave the prince a hearty hoofshake and introduced her two colts. She spoke with a distinct country drawl. Her offspring did the same and were just as friendly as she was. Red and Golden were named after their coats and both shared their mother's blonde mane and tail. They stared at the prince oddly at first and seemed to follow Lightning Dash's lead in taking a liking to him. Fluttershy was curious about the prince, but barely spoke anything louder than hello. She seemed afraid of Silent Wing for a moment until he became equally shy towards her. Fluttershy was intimidated by his fangs and eyes, yet also intrigued as he was a pony, but was something else. He was so nice, too, speaking softly to her as his brain registered her personality to be even more reserved than his. Rainbow Dash had managed to loosen the colt up by adding commentary about her friends. Describing them along with the introductions made them feel like they were already his friends. For some reason, she regarded Fluttershy coolly and with less enthusiasm. The opposing Pegasus would not look at the rainbow maned mare in the eye. Feidole and Frakas were glad they were not caught up in all that attention. Rarity's daughter Unique was almost a carbon copy of her mother (despite being adopted), save her mane was a glossy black and kept in several loose braids tied at the ends with gold thread. Mother and filly eyed the colt's mane, clearly bothered by its messy appearance. Both Unicorns set about to remedying the problem. They discovered their magic was useless on Silent Wing. After he explained his immunity, they improvised and settled on brushing his hair into a manageable form of neatness. Soon they had his hair looking less a pile of red and black hay and more like a mane a young colt would be proud to sport. Pinkie Pie introduced her daughters. They were both a pale pink with a mane and tail of white and red. Custard and Blueberry were both serious little fillies almost complete opposites of their cheerful and fun-loving mother. They did smile a lot, but they studied everything around them and were, for all intents and purposes, eggheads. Custard was the only one of the two who wore glasses. So was Silent Wing introduced to the Mare Six and their children. He was readily accepted and given a warm (yet wary) welcome, something that would never happen in the Changeling Kingdom. He had to fight for every friend he had. Literally. They also started mothering him right off the bat. Silent Wing did not know what was more uncomfortable; being surrounding by gorgeous fillies or suddenly being adopted by seemingly every member of the Mane Six in one fell swoop.(2) It was simply so unexpected he could do nothing but accept the fact he now had five more mothers who would inevitably worry.