Requiem of Equestria

by TheBlox

The Requiem of Equestria

Stepping through the entry gates of Canterlot, Scootaloo and Flake cautiously moved forward at a slow and steady pace. The city had crumbled into ruins, and was completely vacant without even an equine corpse. It was quiet to the extent they could hear the echo from their breath, and the whistling winds passing through the alleyways. Buildings had collapsed into rubble, and the stone pathways were cracked and shifted. The darkness from the deathly clouded sky made the empty city feel ominous with its casted shadows.

Keeping a timid pace as they wandered through the city, they kept their heads down and their eyes focused on the darker corners of the ruins. Mercy was cowering low in Scootaloo’s mane, his ears pinned back.

“So...” Scootaloo cleared her throat and quietly questioned the green changeling beside her, “Why, exactly do you not use the original entrance any more?”

“Well, we sealed it off,” Flake explained with a sigh. “So we’ll have to do some digging.”

“Sealed off?” Scootaloo looked at him and winced. “What do you mean, sealed off? Why?”

“We didn’t want the feared monster of Canterlot to get into our hive.”

The pegasus stopped walking forward and squinted at the changeling. “Feared monster?”

“It appeared soon after we’ve captured the princesses of night and day,” Flake explained in a timid voice. “It fought back at us, and though we’ve tried, we couldn’t seem to cocoon it.”

“Uh... Why not?”

He winced. “Whenever we fired our mesh spell at it, the effects would just dissolve away from its body.”

Scootaloo sighed loudly and rolled her eyes. “You know, Flake, you could have told me this before you guided me to these ruins!”

“If I had, would you still have come?” he questioned her. She just furrowed her eyes at him in response and said nothing. “Relax. So long as we don’t bump into it, we’ll be fine,” he reassured her, clearing his throat. “After all, there’s only one.”

“That is so comforting,” Scootaloo sarcastically muttered. “And if we do bump into it?”

Flake shrugged. “Run?”

Scootaloo gave him an unimpressed look, rolled her eyes, and continued walking. “So, where is the entrance anyway?”

“In the castle,” he exclaimed and trotted toward the iconic stone structure. “We had the original entrance in the back of the ceremonial room.”

Scootaloo just cringed and followed behind. Keeping herself alert, she watched her surroundings for signs of movement; she felt uneasy not knowing what sort of creature was lurking in the abandoned city.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Flying through the cocoon dome, Shade examined the cocooned ponies hanging from the beveled ceiling, searching for a drainage source. Placing his ear up against a cocoon shell, he could hear the energy being drawn from the pony. “What is going on here...?” he grumbled to himself in question. It sounded like the energy was being drawn upward into the ceiling through the stem of the cocoon. Hovering up the side of the cocoon, he examined the stem. It seemed the love from the ponies were being drawn up into a channeling source through the walls.

Hovering up close to the wall of the dome, he placed his ear against it. He could hear the buzz of the energy trailing through it. Judging by the sound of the current, it appeared that the energy was going downward.

Flying down along the dome walls, he slowly and cautiously made his way lower, following the source. Until eventually, it lead him to a two meter wide patch on the wall that seemed darker than the rest of the dome. He squinted curiously, and prodded it with his hooves. The surface of this wall was frail, and it was crumbling easily.

“Hmm...” He hovered back a bit to give himself some room, and then with some momentum, he launched himself into the surface of the wall, breaking through it with ease. Upon impact, the mesh wall collapsed into chunks of rubble. On the other side of the frail wall, he revealed a tunnel that cast downward into darkness. He winced and raised a brow at the sight of the foreign cave in their dome. “What the...”

He turned his neck to see if any other changelings were watching; none were in the vicinity. Looking back to the hidden tunnel, he shrugged his shoulders while taking in a breath of air. After a moment of hesitation, he descent into the dark abyss, following the source deeper into the blackening shadows.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Flake and Scootaloo made their way to Canterlot Castle, approaching the large double-doored entrance up the stone staircase. Scootaloo felt nervous entering the royal building of Equestria, feeling as though she was setting hoof on forbidden ground. Standing in front of the doorway, they briefly exchanged glances, and Scootaloo stepped up to the door with the attempt to push it open.

“Hnngh...” She put her weight into it, but the door wouldn’t budge. “Oogh... This door is heavy...” Taking a breath and stepping back, she turned around to face Flake. “You mind helping me push—” He wasn’t there. “...Flake?” She turned her neck to locate the changeling, and found him off to the side. Flying next to the castle wall, he gave himself some momentum, and hurled himself into a stain-glass window, smashing through it. “Right...” the pegasus murmured, rolling her eyes. Flapping her wings, she followed Flake through the broken window, landing on the white tile floor inside the castle next to him.

The interior of the castle was massive. Everything was covered in the green mesh, draping from the walls and ceilings, and patches covering the floor across the room.

“The entrance to the hive is just through those doors ahead,” Flake exclaimed, trotting up to the double-doors. Scootaloo recognized this location; beyond those doors was where the Royal Canterlot Wedding had been held. Flashbacks of preparing to be one of the flower fillies played through her memories as they approached the doors. They slowly pushed the creaking doors open to see the altar at the end of the red carpet aisle, with open windows on either side. She remembered seeing the changelings for the first time, and their Queen, who had taken form of the original bride to hide her identity from the ponies. She remembered how Princess Cadence and Shining Armour had defeated the changelings with one of the most powerful spells known in Equestria, conjured up by their love. At the steps at end of the aisle, there was a large pile of rubble.

Flake sighed and trotted up to the pile of brick and stone debris. Scootaloo winced and followed the changeling. “So, the entrance is buried beneath here?” she questioned him in an unenthused voice.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Flake replied uneasily. “As I said before, we’ll have to do some digging.” He began pulling rocks away from the pile.

“Yeah right! That’ll take forever!” Scootaloo groaned loudly. “Isn’t there some other way we can get in?”

“Nope.”

Scootaloo gave him an unimpressed look. “Just how deep is this debris buried?”

“About... ten meters below the floor?” he estimated. Scootaloo’s jaw dropped, and her eye twitched. She was about to say something, but instead, all that came out was an unpleasant groan of impatience. Flake winced and looked at her, lowering his ears. “That’s annoying, don’t make that sound, please.”

“You have got to be kidding me!!” Scootaloo yelled, startling the winged mammal resting in her mane. Mercy rose up into the air with a screech, and hovered in the air, looking below at the frantic pegasus. Flake raised a brow in response to her sudden outrage. “We’ll never get this pile of crap dug up! I’ll be old enough to have a boyfriend by the time we get through!!”

“Uh... what?” One of Flake’s ears perked in response. Scootaloo rolled her eyes, remembering that she had skipped her foalhood. “Never mind!” she growled.

“Are you coming on to me?” he questioned her.

“Wh—No!” Scootaloo squinted in disgust.

“Sheesh, you’re acting like a foal,” he exclaimed.

“Well I... I’m... You’re a... Shut up!”

Flake sighed and pointed at her saddlebag. “Daring, you have any other useful potions in there that could come in handy?”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes and opened her saddlebags, searching them upon his request. The glass vials clinked together as she dug her hoof through them, checking the labels. “Well... there’s one here that provides temporary amplified strength.”

“That’ll do just fine,” he exclaimed as he pulled another boulder aside. “Drink it and help me dig.”

Scootaloo winced at him. “Me?”

“Yeah?” His left ear perked and he looked at her in question.

“Are you implying that I’m not strong enough to dig without it?” she grumbled. “Why don’t you drink it?”

“Can you stop acting like you’re five?” he requested with lacking enthusiasm.

“I’m not five!” she snapped back at him. “I’m eight!...” She paused and blinked. “...teen!” she corrected herself.

Flake just stared at her, unimpressed.

“Fine.” Scootaloo exhaled with a grunt, plucking the cork from the vial. Sighing irritably, she took a swig of the potion. The moment it hit her tongue, she made a very sour expression, and her eyes winced and watered. She held her lips shut, and felt as though she was about to gag every time she tried to swallow it.

“That good, huh?” Flake snickered, watching the pegasus struggle to drink the potion. Scootaloo just cringed at the changeling, and with a loud and forceful gulp, she managed to swallow the liquid in her mouth.

“Ugh!! That is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever put in my mouth!!” She spat raspberries and gagged a few times. “Oh, gosh, my stoma—” she was interrupted with an unpleasant belch that made her clench her mouth shut and arch her back.

“Uhhh... You okay?” Flake winced.

Scootaloo clenched her eyes shut as she smacked her lips in a disgusted manner. “I just verped.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Flake muttered, and then cleared his throat. “Do you feel any stronger?”

“I dunno.” The unhappy pegasus sighed and rolled her eyes, putting the seal back on the half-consumed potion, and placed the rest in her saddlebag for later. “If I feel anything at all, it’s sick.”

“Good, that probably means the potion is doing something,” Flake exclaimed with amusement. Scootaloo just winced at him in response. Flake grinned and pointed at the pile of rocks. “Try moving something.”

Scootaloo exhaled through her nose, and trotted over to the pile of rubble. “Alright.” She shrugged and approached a large rock. Rising up on her hind legs, she used her front limbs to push the massive boulder. “Hngh!!” She gave it a hard shove, but even though she was putting all of her weight into it, the rock wouldn’t move.

Flake shrugged. “Well, maybe you should try drinking more...?”

“Oh, hell no,” Scootaloo muttered, making that disgusted facial expression again. Stubborn, she removed her saddlebags and placed them aside on the floor, and she continued pushing the rock. Flake stood watching, and to both of their surprise, the boulder ever so slightly slid across the ground a couple of inches. Flake’s ears perked in response to the moving rock, and gradually, Scootaloo was able to push it further and further at an increasing pace.

“Woah, Daring!” Flake leaned forward, intrigued. “I think that potion’s kicking in!”

Scootaloo’s momentum was picking up, and eventually she stopped to grip it at a lower section. “Hhhngh!!” Sweating from her mane, she attempted to lift it.

“Daring, don’t hurt yourself,” Flake suggested. “Don’t try anything you’ll regret later.”

“Haaah!!!” Scootaloo hollered from her throat, and slowly, the boulder rose up from the ground, inch by inch. Flake’s eyes widened, and his jaw nearly dropped. “AAAh!! AAAAAAH!!!” She lifted it upon her back, and held it up with her shaking legs.

After verifying that the potion was working, she dropped it off her side, and it crashed hard into the tile floor beside her. “HOOOAGH!! Pheww!!” She wiped her sweating forehead with a hoof and sat on her flank.

“Huh.” Flake smirked and applauded, clapping his hooves together. “That was epic.”

“Alright...” Scootaloo huffed. “I think... we’re ready to dig our way back into the hive now...” She turned to him and pointed at her saddlebag on the floor. “Drink the other half of the potion.”

Flake nodded and trotted to her saddlebag, and reached into the pouch for the bottle. Pulling it out, he uncorking the vial and held it up. “Well, cheers.” With that, he tipped the bottle back, and drank the rest. Lowering the empty vial, he smacked his lips a few times and shrugged. “I don’t really know what you were whining about. This tastes just fine.”

Scootaloo winced. “Well... you’re...” She froze, trying to come up with a response. “Your taste buds are screwed up.”

“Right, right,” he snickered and threw the empty vial to the floor, shattering it. “Now, let’s get digging!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shade continued his search through the tunnels, following the source of the drainage problem. He could hear the energy emanating from the walls, and the sound grew louder the deeper into the passage he went. Taking turn after turn, the caves went deeper, and lower beneath the hive. Until finally, he came to a dead end.

“Ugh...” he grumbled and turned his neck to look for explanations. “I’ve trotted all the way down here for nothing?” After a sigh and a wince, he stepped up to the dead end, and placed his hoof against it. Just like the wall that he had discovered in the dome that crumbled with ease, so did this one. “Hngh!” He pushed through it, and it collapsed into dust, revealing a shallow opening beyond the dead end.

Suspended in the air at the end of the tunnel was a black cocoon, which was hanging by strands of dark mesh attached to the walls around it. His ears fell back, and he cautiously trotted toward it. “What the...” The cocoon was massive; at least three times his size. He examined the area, and it wasn’t too difficult to realize that the ponies’ love was all being drawn into this cocoon through the strands of mesh attached to the walls.

“Huh...” He scratched the back of his head, unsure what to think of it. After some brief contemplating, he stepped up to one of the strands attached to the cocoon, and tried tugging on it to strip it off the wall so it would stop draining their food source. After plucking just the one strand of mesh with a bit of force, the tunnels shook, and he braced himself at his hooves. “W-what’s going on?”

Looking up at the cocoon, he watched as it began to split open. The first thing that punctured through the shell of the cocoon was a large bat-like wing. Shade’s eyes widened and he stepped away from the creature emerging. An equine shaped monster climbed out of the cocoon, and looked down at Shade with its piercing red eyes. Its body was a thick solid armour as black as the shadows, with sharp scales across its back. It flapped its hideous wings and descended from where it dwelled, and landed with a loud thud in front of the trembling changeling. In place of hooves, the creature’s four legs were pointed like that of a spider.

“Yoouuu...” his voice was deep and hoarse. “What brings you all the way down here, hm?”

Shade was shivering, and his eyes were widened. After a brief hesitation, he decided to retaliate. “Ah!!” He fired a green spell at the monster, and a burst of mesh struck against his cheek. The creature briefly flinched by Shade’s assault, and the mesh just fell off of him. The beast frowned and looked back at Shade with a menacing glare.

“You disturbed my cocooning process,” he exclaimed in an angry voice. His crooked horn glowed a deathly red, and he began charging a spell. “Now I have to re-attach myself all over again!”

“Wh... who are you??” Shade whimpered.

With the monster’s horn illuminating bright red, he glared into the eyes of the terrified changeling, and grit his serrated teeth. He lifted his front limbs, concentrating the magic from his horn.

“Wait, no!!” Shade pleaded, but to no avail. The monster crashed down to the floor with his front limbs, and a powerful blast of magic emanated from his horn, striking down the cowering changeling. “AAAAAH!!” Shade’s shrieking voice echoed through the halls in agony, and his body dispersed into ashes, leaving behind nothing apart from his bones.

The monster furrowed his eyes at the bones beneath him, and grit his teeth. “Who am I...?” he growled as he lifted his right limb, and smashed Shade’s skull with his pointed leg, cracking it into pieces. “I am the requiem of Equestria...”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many thanks to these gentlecolts:
Proofreading and Editing done by The Princess Luna and David Hasselhoof.
Prereading and other Assistance by Morfonious.

Comments

[Blahman2816]

Yes.
YES!!

Note: I think that at the end of this story, someone should sing "Here Comes the Sun", should everyone make it out alive.

[Sunny]

Some sort of Mega-Changeling...hmm.

[TGM]

I'm so sorry... but...just....when she talked about drinking the potion that enhances strength, all I could think of was

i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/514/511/ef9.gif

[Hairy Rainbowish Thingy]

He said the name! Roll the credits