//------------------------------// // Nothing Found // Story: Reflections of the Past // by Phaoray //------------------------------// Egg Island; sacred to the Island Nations. Landing there outside of certain times, or when not attending for celebrations or to perform certain rituals was considered taboo. Novo knew this, but at the moment, she had bigger concerns. “T-this isn’t good,” Spike said next to her, teeth chattering. The minute she had arrived on the main deck this morning, she could feel the cold wrap over herself. Thankfully, she was a Hippogriff, and one who was used to living in cold waters at that. “Hmmm…”Novo grunted in reply, watching the hippogriffs as they lashed the ship to the small deck on the island. “You’re right, I’m not sure why, but this place is absolutely freezing.” “It can’t just be here.” Spike replied. “It’s been getting colder since we started this trip. But why? It-” “It what?” Novo asked, looking over when Spike didn’t continue. Spike’s jaw was wide open as he looked at something on the island. Novo lined her vision up as best she could next to Spike. The island was green, though a level of frost was lightly starting to coat most of it. Novo had expected to see more of a jungle, or coconut trees, but no, it was just vast fields of green with a large mountain at the center. She thought the lack of animals was odd given the grassy fields. After a few more seconds of watching, the air above one of the fields moved. Novo blinked and looked again. “What is that?” She wondered aloud. “A Windigo…” Spike replied with dread. “A what?” She asked, squinting at the creature. She could see an outline, but it was hard to trace against the air. She heard Spike walking away, presumably to the gangplank. “We need to hurry.” “So, there are changelings and windigos on the island.” Novo confirmed, flying next to Spike as he walked around the mountain, eyes moving rapidly. “That’s what I think.” “And a changeling is…?” “It’s like a bug pony, I guess? Most of them are good now, but apparently not all of them turned a new leaf when we kicked their queen’s butt.” Spike explained as he walked, looking for any caves or signs of one. “Uh huh, and this is all from you seeing them in your dream?” “Oh, believe me, I wish it was all a dream.” Spike muttered. “Changelings live in hives, if they are here, they’ll be in this mountain… somewhere.” “Hun, allright. But, is your plan to just walk around this mountain hoping we find it?” “Unless you have a better one?” “Well, now, stop me if this sounds crazy but, we could fly.” “Uh-huh.” Spike said with a slightly sarcastic tone. “And you don’t think they would have figured out how to hide from anyone looking down? Plus, it’s a cave! Won’t being away from the ground just make it harder to spot?” “Suit yourself.” Novo flapped her wings harder and gained height before circling Spike once before heading higher. “And now I’m alone. Great.” Spike made it another hundred yards before Novo flew down and landed next to him. “Heh, that was quick.” Spike said, grinning. “How’d it go?” “Found it.” Spike’s grin turned into a solid line. “Excuse me?” “Yep, their mailbox is about a fathom ahead of us.” He scowled at her. “You’re making that up.” “What?” Novo looked at him, surprised. “No, a fathom is usually a nautical mile, but-” “No, not that, I mean about the mailbox.” Novo cocked her head to the side, looking at him before starting a casual walk. “No, it’s there.” “Changeling’s don’t have mailboxes.” “So those friendly changelings of yours don’t get any mail?” “No, no.” Spike shook his head, stepping quickly to catch up to her. “They have mailboxes now.” “Well, so do these ones. I don’t understand the problem you're having with this concept.” “Why would they have a mailbox!” Spike exclaimed, a little puff of fire shooting out of one nostril. “So they can get mail.” Came Novo’s calm reply. “From who!?” “Oh, look. Here it is.” Novo replied back, smugly pointing to a red mailbox a few hundred yards in front of them. “WHY!?” Spike screamed before falling back into the grass dramatically. After a brief moment of looking up at the clouds, Novo appeared in his vision, giving him a questioning look. “You okay down there?” “Yeah. Just working through some things.” “Alright. But isn’t this a bit dramatic for a mailbox?” “I learned from the best.” Spike replied with a strange sense of pride. After another moment, Spike stood back up. “Okay, let’s deal with this.” “Spike?” “What?” “Are you done glaring at the poor mailbox already?” “I’m just trying to figure out what’s bothering me the most. The fact that it’s here, or-” Spike opened the mailbox. “That there is actually mail in it.” “Well, we didn’t come here to go through their mail, right?” Novo reasoned, looking back at the mountain. “Besides, that’s illegal.” “I know. Twilight would kill me.” He closed the mailbox and turned back to the mountain. Only to see a changeling standing not ten yards away from him. Black chitin. Definitely not the friendly ones. Cautiously, Spike took a few steps back as Novo did the same. “Um, hey.” Spike said, hoping he sounded calmer than he really was. “Hey.” The changeling replied with a gruff Pinkie-like voice. They stared at each other for another moment before the Changeling spoke up again. “So, I’m...just gonna-” Warily, the Changeling walked over to the mailbox, keeping his eyes on the two of them, and grabbed the mail. “Okay then.” The Changeling said uneasily. “Say, you didn’t go through this or anything?” “No, no, we were just curious.” Spike insisted. The Changeling looked them over suspiciously. “Okay then. Cause that’s illegal you know.” “Yep, yep, we know.” Spike said, Novo nodding in confirmation. The Changeling took a few steps backwards and, after another silent exchange of glances, flew off. Spike followed the Changeling’s path as it banked into a nearby gaudy cave. Gaudy. Spike had no other word for it. Bright yellow Sunflowers, mostly made from paper and crayons, were strewn across the sides of the cave, along with ornaments that would fit easily into the Summer Sun Celebration back home. I-is that a welcome mat? Clack! The constant sounds of digging surrounded Spike and Novo as they entered the cave tunnel. It started off soft, but grew louder as they pressed on, along with the droning noises of changelings flying. The cave was fairly straight forward and lit by different colored paper lantern lights strung haphazardly along the walls as an odd line of paper sunflowers descended into the tunnel. Despite passing a few smaller tunnels, Spike figured it would be best to follow the main passage to prevent them from getting lost, though it did make them easy to spot. It was a bit discomforting. But what perturbed Spike the most though was the random, off-key singing. “I am a Changeling and I’m digging a hole!” A unseen Changeling shouted out in a chipper, Pinkie-like voice. This led to Spike covering both his ears for what he knew was to follow. “DIGGY DIGGY HOLE! DIGGY DIGGY HOLE!” Screamed out a capathony of other equally chipper voices. “Spike!” Novo yelled out, rubbing her ears in pain. “Can we please figure out what we are doing before I go deaf?” “I’m trying, okay? We need to find whoever is behind this and stop them.” Spike looked around. “But it’s not like I really know where they are or anything.” “Hey, wait!” Another Pinkie-like voice suddenly called out. Spike turned to look down the tunnel on his left just as something collided with his foot. Looking down revealed a small, fuzzy white rabbit staring up at him. “Oh. Hi there, little guy,” Spike said, picking the rabbit up and petting its head. “You okay?” “Bwak bwak bwak!” The sound of a chicken coming out of the rabbit’s mouth startled Spike into dropping the rabbit. Spike backed away from the rabbit. “What the-” “There you are!” Spike gulped as a trio of changelings rounded the corner of one of the passages. “Quick!” Spike gestured to Novo. ”Run!” They both turned around, only to see three more right in front of them. “Unhand that bunny!” One of the Changelings cried out. “I’m not holding it!” Spike said, shielding his face. “Please don’t eat me!.” “Oh. He’s right.” The Changeling said, picking up the rabbit and looking it in the eyes. “There you are, let’s get you back to the others.” The Changeling turned to the other two and an edge came to her bubbly voice. “You two, you know what you have to do.” With that, Spike watched the changeling happily start bouncing down the passageway it had come from earlier, bunny on its back. What is wrong with this hive? Spike looked around for the other three Changelings that he swore had been behind them. And where’d they go? “Ah-heh, now, you two, let’s just talk this out, please?” Spike heard Novo say to the two remaining Changelings who were now approaching them. “Hisssssss!” They echoed. “Hiss!” The one with pink glowing eyes repeated. “Hiiiiiis” Said the other with blue eyes. The pink one rolled it’s eyes and looked at the other. “Hiiisss?” The second one asked. “...Eh.” Pink replied, sticking its tongue at the first, apparently trying to enunciate for the second one. “HiSSSssssSsSSsssss.” “...What are they doing?” Spike whispered, watching the two Changeling’s start making faces at one another. “I don’t know...I-is this what adventuring is like?” Novo asked hesitatingly. Spike sighed dejectedly. “More or less. Fun, right?” “Fun?” The changeling’s suddenly repeated in unison. Peering over, both of the Changeling’s were now looking at Spike with interest. “What fun?” Pink asked, bringing herself inches from Spike’s face. “Fun!” Blue repeated. “Where’s the fun?” “Fun!” “Uhhh..” Spike mumbled confusedly. “Okay, that’s enough out of you two!” Another similar voice bellowed. “Awww, it’s the Miniboss.” Another Changeling with a yellow hardhat on approached them from one of the passages. “You two” The Miniboss pointed a hoof at them. “Hurry up and get ready, you're up soon.” “Oh, great!” One of them chirped before they both took to the air and flew off. “Okay.” Spike directed his attention to the Miniboss Changeling. “I don’t really care what happens at this point, but I have to know. Why do all of you sound like Pinkie making gruff voices?” The Miniboss raised an eyebrow in confusion, her eyes darting around shiftily and voice getting faster as she went on. “Pinkie? Never heard of her, sounds like a great mare, maybesaw herat aparty once, IDon’tTakeOrdersFromYou,You’reNotMyParents!” With a quick clap of her hooves, the Miniboss gave them an overly wide grin. “Anyways! You two are here for the games, right? Great! Team thirteen needed some more hooves and we are running low on changeling power. Let’s get you suited up!” The Miniboss started walking down the main hall as Novo and Spike looked to one another. Spike just shrugged and started to follow behind. They hooked a right down one of the passages and finally began to see more than stone walls and colored lights. The walls not only had a line of sunflowers decorating it, as it was joined by a line of paper rabbit heads, hearts, and crescent moons. A large opening to the left of the tunnel came up, it’s outside decorated with more rabbit faces and neon-colored fake eggs. Spike slowed down to look in, curious at the amount of noise coming from inside. Calling it a room would be wrong, inside was more of an indoor hoofball field filled with rabbits. A small wooden fence mostly kept them inside where, somehow, a grassy field was growing. Several large, brown-looking eggs were being carefully picked up by the Changelings in the fenced field. To Spike’s utter confusion, one of the clucking rabbits actually laid one of the brown eggs before he had to hurry to catch up with the others. “Alright newbies.” The Miniboss said, stopping at a large wooden door connected to the passageway. The door and sides were decorated with Nightmare Night ornaments, consisting mostly of spiderwebs and paper ghosts. “Get in there, change, and meet in the Queen’s Hall with every changeling else in fifteen minutes. Just follow the hearts on the right.” She pointed a hoof down the continuing passageway. “Change?” Novo asked. “What, did I stutter?” The Miniboss answered gruffly, raising an eyebrow. “Get changed, welcome to the swarm, and remember the most important part of this; to have fun!” Without another word, the Miniboss turned around and began hopping down the hallway until she was out of sight. “Ugh, this is like dealing with a dozen smaller Discord’s.” Spike groaned out, rubbing his temples. “Well, at least they seem friendly, right?” Novo offered. “I guess.” Spike sighed, turning the door handle and walking into the room. “Let’s just see what he was talking about and...oh, you have got to be kidding me!”