//------------------------------//
// 38 - Say What, Now? 
// Story: Raison D'être 
// by mechafone 
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"Say what, now?" Spark said, his face a look of shock. "Y...you don't mean to tell me that your mother meant for you to come here and have...um..." Spark fumbled with what he wanted to say. "Ah...Tr-nymph sex?"

Orea looked down at Spark with a hint of indignation. "It is not sex!" She looked away and blushed, a small sad frown crossing her features. "I...I have never even copulated before, unlike my...my sister." Orea closed her eyes as fresh new tears began falling from her eyes. "Oh, Spark, my sister, my mother, they are both gone forever and I must carry on the line without them. I am soon to be a mother and I will never see you again."

Spark looked up at his friend in concerned sadness. He reached up and placed his hooves on either side of her face in an attempt to comfort her. "What's going to happen once you find the dryads, Orea?"

"I will have to stay with them for the rest of my life, my Storm." Orea closed her eyes and leaned into the warmth of Spark's forelegs. Her mind darkened as she went back, remembering the day she found out that her family was in trouble.



Since Spark Storm had gone away, Orea had found herself alone among the Fighters. The others, having had little to do with her outside of socializing with Spark, had mostly avoided her while he was gone. While she had been attached solely to the dark pegasus, it nevertheless left her feeling bitter and alone.

Celestia's warning had scared her into solace, and was an unspoken encouragement to stay away from the Sun Goddess. She spent most of her hours in the royal garden, often perched in the comforting branches of her ash tree.

So much had changed for her since she met Spark Storm. She'd had her first encounter with the Changelings, her sister Ampelus had dared to hit her to steal yet another friend from her. For the first time in her long two hundred year life, her sister had hit her. Then, their mother, enraged, had nearly killed Ampelus for her violence. After Orea had explained these events to her mother, she'd fallen asleep, then woken up here, in the palace, away from her mother, away from her home. Everything was new here, and so strange from what she knew.

It was one of those long, lonely days when she felt it. She was up in her tree, nestled in the crook of one of it's highest branches. It started in her heart, and it spread from there. A feeling of panic, of fear, and although it was many miles away, she could feel it was coming from her mother. Orea leaped to the ground from the branch she was on, her wings unfurling and slowing her fall. She folded them again and took off at high speed towards the dropoff leading to the Everfree.

She came to a stop suddenly, a new thought having occurred to her. What if Spark came home and found she was gone, and no one knew where she was? She made a mad dash back for the palace. It was nearly ten at night, well after the sun had been lowered and the moon had been placed high in the sky. Little Orea ran through the hallways of the castle, stopping when she came to the place she knew was Celestia's audience chamber.

The big doors burst open, frightening several political figures. Celestia, at her throne, stood, her wings rising with anger. "Orea! What is the meaning of this?" she called sternly to the tiny mare in the doorway.

Orea had no time to explain herself as she ran inbetween the dignitaries, all exclaiming in disgust and confusion at the strange creature pushing past them. "Celestia, I must go! My mother is in terrible danger! I am sorry, there is no time, I must go to my mother..." She looked up at the Sun Goddess with both panic and sorrow written in her eyes. "Please, give my farewells to my Storm. I am sorry..."

And with that, she rushed out of the royal audience chamber. By the time Celestia had excused herself from her meeting and found her way outside the castle to look for Orea, she had already disappeared into the forest, having jumped from the mountainside. She didn't know where to look, and she couldn't feel Orea's life force the same way she could sense her ponies. It was difficult, and was soon lost to the vast forest.



Orea ran and ran. Unlike the ponies that her kind fed on, Orea didn't breathe the same. She didn't need to stop unless she needed to feed, and she wouldn't need to for another day and a half. If she kept up her speed, she could be home in just under three hours. Her run home was uneventful.

It was, at least, until she spotted her forest. It was crawling with Changelings, though they could not enter the woods. Thick vines kept the villainous beasts out, though the snapping of their jaws ripped apart the plants. Their attack was relentless, and Orea's mother and sister were in dire danger of being rooted out of their secret hiding spot that had protected them all for hundreds of years.

When she found that she wouldn't be able to get close without alerting the invading army to her presence, Orea began to dig under the dirt. Changelings had the ability to dig as well, but surely her mother's roots grew much too deep to get through. Orea closed her eyes and closed up the tunnel behind her. Using the earth senses she was born with, Orea began a long, slow tunneling that took her the rest of the day. Her tunneling took her far below the surface, much further than Changelings could dig. She could feel them in the earth, they had dug down underneath to try to get into her mother's woods.

After a good three hours, Orea had positioned herself directly underneath her woods. She began her ascent, and after another 20 minutes, her mother's roots found her. With a feeling of joy and relief, Orea let the roots encompass her., and in no time at all she was at the surface again. As she took in the fresh air, she looked up into the loving and relieved eyes of her mother.

Something felt wrong. Orea looked around, and felt something was wrong. The silence coming from her mother was wrong. Orea looked up into her mother's eyes, and felt the whole world crumbling around her. Her mother was falling apart right in front of her, and in an instant understood that her mother had used all of her power to hold off the Changelings, just for her. And now that she was home, it was time to let go.

"...Mother? Mother?" Orea stood up on her hind legs and brushed her forelegs against her mother's face. It crumbled into dead leaves. She was gone. Orea's eyes burned as she fell against the steadily crumbling pile that was once her matriarch. Orea laid in the pile of leaves as she heard the Changelings getting closer. The vines no longer grew back, the protection of the forest would give out soon enough.

With her mother gone, and Ampelus nowhere to be found, Orea closed her eyes and willingly invited the Changelings to come and take her. Tears fell from the nymph's eyes. There would be no waiting for Spark Storm to come and comfort her. She no longer wished to live if her mother did not.

As Orea's tears fell into the pile of dead leaves, a yellow mist-like light began to drift up towards her. It wafted to her mouth, and before she had a chance to question it's appearance, it snuck into her lungs. It filled her very being, and she quickly passed out. Her body began to shrivel and shrink, even as the yellow mist began to envelop her. Soon, she had reverted into a tiny seed, and the yellowish substance hardened into amber. The little gem rocked back and forth before it began to dig, hiding itself among the roots of the large tree nearby. It would remain hidden for two and a half weeks, well after the Changelings had invaded, cut and burned the surrounding forest, where Spark Storm would find the gem and recover the seed.



Orea looked down at Spark Storm again as he stroked her cheek comfortingly. When Orea had been asleep, the faint traces of her mother's spirit had kept her company, and told her what must happen. She was to find they dryads, and give herself to them. Her mother explained that she would have gone herself if the Changelings hadn't been after the nymphs for hundreds of years to finish them off. Leaving the forest would expose their position. Of course, this happened anyway when she ran off with Spark Storm to escape the vindictive clutches of her sister. The Changelings discovering her home had been her fault.

Well, it was time to weep no more. Her mother had given her a mission, and if she failed this mission then her mother's sacrifice would be in vain, just like Braham had given his life to protect her and her Storm. This revelation was all she needed to make up her mind. Orea stood and put on a brave smile for Spark. "My Storm, I...I am ready."

Spark looked up at her, smiling gently with a new-found respect for the nymph. When his mother had died, he had fallen apart. And here she was, ready to make a change that would forever change everything that she knew. "Only if you're sure, Orea. Whatever you need, I'll be right there with you."

Orea let out a soft, longing sigh as she leaned down to kiss Spark's forehead. "Thank you, your support means so much to me."

Spark turned and immediately sagged as he noticed that all five girls had fallen asleep in a pile on the ground. Spark approached the pile of ponies and nudged the closest, Rarity, awake. She murmured and raised her head sleepily, then let out an indignant squeak as she pulled herself out of the slumbering bundle of girls.

"Oh Spark, I do apologize. It's just so late, and -" She frowned and stopped speaking as Spark rested a hoof on her shoulder.

"Rarity, I want you to gather our friends and take them home." the unicorn tried to give Spark her sternest face, but it fell as Spark glared at her, the moonlight catching in his eyes and reflecting it's light. "Rarity, there's a damn good reason why they call me a monster hunter. It's because I deal with monsters. And where I'm going, there are going to be monsters. I do not want you or the others caught up in what I'm about to do."

"I can help!" She countered, keeping her voice cautiously low. To prove her point, she reached into her saddlebags magically and produced the quiver that she'd packed for this trip, which itself was packed carefully with about twenty of her arrows. Spark was about to continue arguing when she held one of the arrows in front of her. Like the arrows from before, they were diamond tipped. However, on each side of the arrow head were tiny plastic tubes of liquid that had been very, very carefully melted to attach to the heads.

Spark quirked a brow and reached up to examine the arrow until Rarity slapped his hoof away. "Do not touch these arrows, Spark. They explode upon hitting their target."

Spark gaped at his friend. "Are...are you serious? What are you doing carrying that around?"

Rarity grinned at Spark's reaction as she very carefully slipped the arrow back into it's place in her saddlebag. "Honestly, dear, do you actually expect me to walk that far into the Everfree forest and not be prepared to defend myself?"

Spark smiled at this. He knew Rarity was smart, he had no idea she could be that resourceful, though. "All right...I don't think it's a good idea, but...I guess you can come with us." Rarity gasped happily and pranced in place with excitement, but her look fell when he glared at her and pointed beyond her at the other girls. "But that leaves the other four. We can't just leave them there, and the more of you that I have to look after the longer and more difficult this mission will be..."

Spark thought for a moment, then made his decision. He cantered past Rarity and nudged the girls awake. "C'mon, girls, up and at 'em."

The pile of sleepy ponies slowly got to their feet, grumbling at being woken up so rudely. Before they could say anything, Spark directed a wing towards Ponyville. "Girls, I'm sorry, but I'm sending you home."

"Whoa, sugarcube, Ah don't think so!"

"Yeah, we stick together! We are not gonna bail on ya now!"

Spark pointed again to the village. "I don't care what you girls want to do. I've decided to take one of you with me - no, no you, Pinkie...it's Rarity."

Before the girls could object, Spark stamped his hoof hard enough to put a two-inch print in the hard ground, his wings flared. "No more arguments! You're all going home! It's too dangerous for me to be watching all of you right now. I'm the only one here who's had any actual battle experience - with monsters, Rainbow, monsters." he said to Rainbow's glare. "Please. I am begging you now. Go home so there's less for me to worry about. I...I love all of you and I don't know what I'd do if any of you got hurt."

At this, Applejack hoof'd the ground with embarrassment. Pinkie Pie smiled and hopped in place, while Fluttershy smiled happily and went to hug Spark. He sighed and returned the hug, then looked up at Rainbow Dash, who didn't look impressed. He smirked, then looked at her more kindly and said, "I love ya, cuz."

Rainbow frowned and looked away, crossing her forelegs. After a moment she sighed and shrugged. "Yeah, I love you, too...Fine. FINE!" She threw her forelegs up over her head in exasperation. "I don't know what good she's gonna do you out here. Maybe style your mane while your big friend over there...does her thing or whatever. Good luck with that!" Rainbow turned in the air and shot back towards Ponyville. She was obviously miffed and Spark figured that he'd probably owe her an apology when this was over.

Spark looked down at the rest of the girls, giving them a stern look. Applejack returned it, then walked right up to him and put her hooves up on his shoulders and stared right in his eyes.

"Applebloom's got two brothers. Two. If you bring that number down to one, I'll be havin' words with you, ya hear me?"

Spark Storm smiled and brought Applejack into a tight hug, then released her. "Yeah, I hear you, Applejack. Now go on, keep my village safe while I'm gone."

Applejack smiled and headed back to Ponyville with a concerned Fluttershy in tow. Finally.

Spark turned to look back at Orea, who had been waiting patiently. She smiled back at him warmly. "You certainly have a loyal extended family, Storm. You are lucky."

Spark smiled gently as he walked over and pulled Orea to her feet, where she loomed over both Spark and Rarity. She hadn't yet been this close to the nymph before, and her towering height was both dizzying and a little bit frightening. But Rarity had brought herself into this, and she wouldn't rest until she got Spark Storm safely back home to Ponyville.

"Come, mes amis, let us entrepise to our destination!" She said, striking a pose as she walked past them towards the unknown of the White Tail Woods. She looked back at the two, who stared questioningly at her. "Oh, you know, um...Allons-y?" Spark shrugged.

"Oh, whatever. Let's just go."