That day.. that awful day… it haunted Bia. She had come close before, but that was the first time she had actually cried. Of course it had to be just a few weeks after she learned she had a dead biological sister. Learned that she had a sister that was taken away from her. Now, it's happened again.
Life on the farm wasn't the same for Bia. She did her chores with less enthusiasm every day. She had trouble getting up from bed most days. The worst thing in her parent's mind was was that she rarely smiled anymore. It was as if when Niridia was taken away, the changelings also took her happiness.
They initially tried asking the authorities to help, but they weren't able to do much due to a lack of evidence as to their whereabouts, along with the lack of willing ponies to look for a changeling. That made Brandy mad more than anything. She had gone off on a few ponies for saying things like ‘good riddance’ or ‘she was a danger’.
After a couple months of searching, the farm couple made the hard decision of calling off the search after it got nowhere. However, Bia couldn't bear to give up.
“Bia! We know yer heartbroken, but we have no choice! No one can help us, we have no idea where she might be! It's hopeless. Ahm sorry, ah don't wanna accept she's gone either, but we have to..” Corn Graze scolded the young, adult zebra. However, Bia didn't back down.
“Ah don't care how hopeless it seems! She wouldn't give up on us! She's part of our family! We have to keep looking! We have to! An’ if you ain't gonna help, ah'll do it on my own!” She stormed out of the room and out of the house. She may have been letting her emotions get the best of her, but she was determined to find Niridia. Even if she had to search the far ends of Equestria.
“Bia, wait!” Her mama called out.
“Ahm sorry, mama.. but ah have to find er.. she'd do the same fer me.. ah will find er. Goodbye..” she ran off in the direction of the town, leaving the home she grew up in behind. She had no idea when she'd return, or if she'd return, but that was the least of her worries. All she could focus on was her sister. She had to find Niridia.
In her rush to get out, she didn't have much time to grab things to travel with. All she had was a bag with Niridia's flower in it, the bits she had been saving, and the drink she was going to give Niridia.
In the first few months of her travel, she went through a few towns asking for Amy information, but it was of no use. No one really knew much about changelings, or really wanted to help find them.
A year had gone by since Niridia was taken away. Brandy had gotten nowhere with her search. She sat in her hotel room with a small drink. Niridia's flower sat on the bed next to the sulking zebra. She had slept with it next to her every night since that day, and tonight, she ‘celebrated’ her sisters birthday.
She raised her drink to the sky, looking down at the bottle she made for her sister.
“Happy birthday, sis. Wherever yah are, I hope yer doin alright. I love yah.” She took a sip of her drink and sighed. She felt so lonely. No one to celebrate with, no sister to hug, no family to help her cheer up. Suddenly, she heard a huge commotion outside her hotel door. Curious, she walked to the door and looked out of the peep hole. There were a bunch of ponies running around, freaking out.
Wow, the ponies of Ponyville are weird. She initially thought. Then she heard someone yell the word changelings. That's when she burst out of her room.
“What about changelings?!” She asked the nearest pony.
“You didn't hear?! Changelings attacked Canterlot and the royal wedding!”
Finally, Brandy found out something about the whereabouts of the changelings. However, it wasn't something she really wanted to hear.
What am I thinking?! Niridia would never hurt a fly. She thought. However, she knew that the changelings would force her to participate in some way. However, this gave Bia something she had been losing over the past year, hope.She had to get to Canterlot as fast as possible.
Brandy ran back into her room and packed everything as fast as she could. She paid the front desk pony for the trouble and ran quickly to the train to get to Canterlot.
When she got there, she was unable to get on the train due to guards blocking everypony from getting on.
“Sorry folks, we can't let you on! No trains to Canterlot till the issue is resolved!” The guard announced, getting protests from the crowd.
“But mah sister may be there! I have to get there now!” Brandy joined in on the protest.
“I'm sorry, but it's for your safety. We’ll make sure you can see your loved ones when it's over!”
“No yah don't understand! If ah wait till it's over I may not get to er on time!” She said to the blue Pegasus guard.
“I'm sorry, but I have my orders. I wish I could go help, too. But I'm stuck here.” He said, not letting her on the train.
Suddenly, they heard a huge bang come from Canterlot. Everypony looked up to see what it was. A huge burst of rainbow colored energy expanded from the castle and ponies could see little black specs on the outside of the explosion of energy. Boone knew what had happened until someone yelled out something everyone but Brandy wanted to hear.
“They did it! They expelled the changelings!!” Everyone jumped up in celebration, happy that the conflict was over. Everyone except Brandy, who kneeled over and stared up at the glimmering energy. She was too late. Her sister was yet again out of reach. She began to tear up again.
The guard she spoke to must have saw her because he stopped celebrating and knelt down next to the zebra.
“What's wrong? Your sister is probably safe.”
She didn't respond, instead, she let a tear fall down her cheek as she mumbled, “N-Niridia…” before the guard could say anything, Bia ran off away from the train station. He couldn't do anything g to help her, so he let her go. He did until he saw that she left her bag in front of him.
“Hey, ma’am! Wait!” He grabbed the bag and ran after her, but with no success. She was gone. He tried loooing around town for her, but with no luck. After giving up on his search, he decided to head home since his duty was done for the day. As he got home, he noticed that something in the bag was glowing.
Despite his brain telling him not to look in someone else's bag, his curiosity got the best of him. He looked in and saw the flower inside of the bag was the thing glowing. He took it out and placed it in the table.
Then he heard a voice come from the flower, getting the shock of his life.
The next day, Brandy laid in a field of grass, not moving. She hadn't moved since she collapsed there the previous day. After she found out all of the changelings were expelled, she wanted to listen to the message that her sister left her, but she found out that she left her bag at the station. She went back, but it was gone. So she ran until she couldn't run anymore and collapsed in the field where she is now.
Everything she had left of her sister was gone, everything. She had lost all hope now. At this point, she was just waiting for death to take her away from this pain she felt.
Suddenly, a shadow was cast upon her from above. She barely turned her head to see what was blocking out the sun. She could make out the figure of a Pegasus pony floating over her, looking down at her.
“There you are! I've been looking for you.” The pony floated down to stand next to the zebra. Bia then recognized the pony as the guard she saw the previous day. On his back, he had her bag. He pulled it off and set it next to her.
“Are you alright?” He asked, concerned for her well being. She nodded half heartedly and started to get up when she felt his wing on her side, letting her use it to get some leverage to get up.
“Thank yah..” she picked up her bag, “and thank yah fer findin mah bag.. I thought ah’d never..”she stopped her mopeful sentence short after realizing what she'd be saying. Anyone who didn't know about the flower would be completely lost, and she was in no mood to explain it.
“Listen, I'm sorry about what happened to your sister.” Brandy’s ears perked up.
He knows about mah sister?! How?!
“When I found your bag, the flower glowed and played the message. From what I saw at the station and what I heard on the message, I could put two and two together. Listen, I can try and help you find your changeling sister.”
“Y-yah can?”
“Yeah, the guard is being tasked to finding as many changelings as we can so another attack doesn't happen. If I find your sister, I'll help her out. I know what she sounds like now, so if I come across her, I'll bring her to you.” The Pegasus said.
Brandy almost broke down in tears. This pony, a guard nonetheless, was the first pony to offer to help, even when he found out her sister was a changeling.
“T-thank yah.. thank yah so much.. uh..” Bia Brandy couldn't recall if he'd said his name.
“CZ, names CZ.”
“Nice to meet yah, CZ. Names Bia Brandy.”
“Nice to meet you, too. In case I do find her, what's your sisters name? She didn't say in her message.” CZ asked.
“Er names Niridia.” She said.
“Alright, I'll do my best to find her.” CZ said.
“Thank yah.”
“If you're looking for a place to stay, I would offer to let you stay with me and my family, but our house is too packed as of right now.” CZ explained.
“It's ok, I wouldn't expect you to do any more than yer doin now.” Bia said.
“However, I do know a place that's always taking ponies, and non ponies in.”
“Ok.”
CZ pulled out a map of Equestria and circled a certain point in the undiscovered west. He said there's a town there called Dragontown. Normally ponies would be suspicious of someone being so nice to a sister of a changeling, but Bia felt like this guy was trustworthy.
After they said their goodbyes, she set off for Dragontown, hoping that maybe Niridia had heard of this town and would make her way there on her own.