//------------------------------// // Vacant Echo // Story: Requiem of Equestria // by TheBlox //------------------------------// Through the haunting fog, the lone pegasus roamed aimlessly beneath the tall skeleton trees. The dead grass that once beautifully grew was now dry and prickly to the touch, and it crumbled apart with each step. Not a sound nor a breeze, just flakes of dust dancing along the grey Equestrian floor beneath her with a cold wind at her hooves. Apart from all the grey, there was a green mesh stringing from trees like aged cobwebs. It saddened her to see her world like this. Nothing could grow here—not any more. “What happened…?” her voice was a whisper of sorrow. She approached a tree feeling brokenhearted, and she lifted up her front right hoof, and placed it on the trunk. Its bark crumbled and fell to the ground in chunks of dust. The fragile bark of the tree startled her, and she stepped back when it broke apart. Glancing up into the treetops, no branches would sway with any wind—everything was stiff and lifeless. The lone pegasus stood there in forlorn silence. She turned to continue wandering with pity in her heart, when she spotted a pair of eyes staring down at her from within a tree. She was a little caught off guard by the piercing eyes, and she stepped back, returning a stare at the bat that hung upside down from a branch, glaring at her. There was a long stare between her and the bat before she finally rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh of relief. Turning away from the bat in the tree, she sauntered onward with the mental image of changelings watching her. She was feeling cold and tired, and was beginning to grow hungry. However, without plant-life capable of growing in the condition Equstria was now in, she was concerned about being able to find food. While searching for something to eat was a strong priority, she also needed to find a safe place to hide and rest. Slowly and uneasily walking through the fog, she heard a twig-crackling sound from behind her. Startled from paranoia, she gasped and quickly turned around. There didn’t appear to be anything there. “H-hello?” she whimpered and trembled, “S-somepony there?” She stood frozen for a few long moments in absolute silence. Then from in the shadows, something came flinging out into the open, screeching. “Aaah!” the pegasus shrieked and dropped to her haunches, as the bat flew over her head, and off into the distant woods. She sat there, watching the bat’s silhouette grow smaller as it flew away, when an epiphany jolted her like a slap to the face. “It might be a fruit bat!” she thought aloud and galloped after it, thinking that perhaps it could lead her to food. Her heavy breathing and the pattering of her hooves echoed in the vacant forest, and the fog danced around her in the air as she galloped through it. The bat ahead of her took a few curving turns through the trees as the pegasus struggled to keep up. “Stupid bat, slow down!” she growled, passing under and leaping over broken down trees. Looking up to keep her eyes on the flying mammal, she suddenly lost her footing, and her hooves slipped down an incline in the ground. “Aaaaah!!” She stumbled down the slope into a ditch, landing on her side with a dry thump in a heap of dust. Coughing from the dust dancing in the air, the pegasus slowly pushed herself to her haunches. Feeling winded and filthy, she sat on her flank, rubbing the dust from her irritated eyes with the backside of her front right hoof. “Uhhgh… ow!” She winced in pain and arched her back near her shoulders. “Friggin… wing. How am I supposed to—EYAAAHK!” she shrieked and stumbled back frantically at the sight of a large ant hill on the ground. She had landed just a couple of feet next to it when she fell into this ditch. Staring at it, she watched the ants as they crawled around in assembly lines, going in and out of the nest. Some were carrying little crumbs of what appeared to be that green mesh the changelings covered their world in. “Gross…” Taking in a deep breath, she tilted her neck back and tried to calm herself down. When she looked up from beneath the fog in the ditch, she saw that the bat was circling around in the air above her, descending closer to the ground. Backing away curiously, she watched the bat gracefully lower over the ant hill. Using its clawed feet, it picked up a few ants and flew back up in the air, and ate them. “That’s gross!” The disgusted pegasus put her hoof over her mouth, and looked down at the ant hill, squinting. Looking back up to the bat in the air, she released her mouth and stood on all fours, stomping her hind left hoof in the ground angrily. “I thought you were a fruit bat!” After a distressed sigh, she rolled her eyes and sat back down in the dirt. “Guess I’m really screwed.” With a few graceful flaps, the bat flew away off into the distance, disappearing from sight over the top ledge of the ditch. The tired pegasus let out an irritated grumble, staring down at the ant hill. Squinting at the ants that were crawling along the ground, she made a disgusted expression and licked her teeth. She was beginning to see no other options for herself. “Uuuuugh…” Disgusted, her instincts of survival brought her to give into the idea. Turning her neck from where she was sitting, she looked for something to use. The miserable pony found a twig on the ground beside her, and she picked it up with a grip in her hoof. With a disgusted sigh, she stuck the end of the stick on the ant hill; the ants shortly began climbing it. Pulling the stick away from the ant hill with a few ants crawling all over it, she brought it closer to her mouth. “Uuugh…” she groaned again while hesitating, pulling the stick away from her mouth. A loud grunt escaped her throat, and she frowned at the dark clouded sky. “This is a joke, right Celestia?” Glaring back down at the ants crawling on her stick, she winced and brought it back to her mouth again. Slowly and hesitantly, she put the stick in her mouth, and pulled the ants off of the twig with her lips. She could feel them crawling in her mouth—it was disturbing, and made her immediately spit them out, “Y’agh!” Picking at her teeth with her tongue, she shivered uncomfortably. Licking and smacking her lips, the unhappy pony stuck the end of the twig on the ant hill to try again. Ants began climbing on the stick, and she pulled it away from the ant hill, and once again she brought it up to her mouth. Closing her eyes, she decided to act fast to get past the idea that she was eating insects. Quickly, the starving pegasus stuck the twig in her mouth and pulled the ants clean off the stick with her teeth. She started chewing them as fast as her mouth could grind them, and she swallowed them, followed by a loud and disturbed gasp for air. Putting her hooves down, she winced at the insects on the ant hill, licking her teeth. They were crunchy and weird-tasting. It wasn’t unbearable, she thought, though it certainly wasn’t a Sweet Apple Acres apple. The hungry pegasus sighed, and proceeded by sticking the twig back on the ant hill, waiting for the ants to climb up. As she did so, her mind began to wander… She thought of her friends. Were they okay? Are they in cocoons? Are they dead? “I hope they’re alright…” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “Alright, listen up,” Chitin ordered loudly to a lineup of four soldier changelings. Pacing back and forth along the assembly of guards, he glared at them eye to eye as he walked past them. “There is a pony out there, alive. And as long as she is breathing, she has potential to feed us.” Stopping his pacing, he turned to face the group. “The Queen has inquired me to assemble our top search crew,” he exclaimed and stood tall. “If she is out in the Equestrian wasteland for too long, the harsh environment will kill her. Ponies, as you’re all well aware of, are herbivores.” He pointed a hoof at an opening in the wall that exposed the clouded and barren outside world. “Since the sun can’t rise with Celestia imprisoned, plants can’t grow.” “Where do you suggest we begin our search?” the changeling questioning him had rattier wings than the other three. Chitin looked to him and squinted, putting his hooves down. “I don’t recall seeing you in this group before. I believe there were only three of you the last time you were assembled together.” “I’m new, sir,” he explained himself. “State your name,” Chitin demanded. “Flake.” Chitin raised a brow and stood tall again, staring at his beat up wings. He turned his neck, eyeing the other three guards. “The Queen know about this?” “She recruited me, sir,” Flake answered. Chitin turned back to him and squinted. “Are you sure you’re fit for this job?” One of the other changelings cleared his throat and spoke up, “Perhaps, Chitin, it would be wise if you didn’t question who the Queen recruited herself.” Chitin rolled his eyes and turned to face him with a frown. “Trek, do you really think Chrysalis would’ve recruited a changeling with such frail wings?” “I’m not as frail as I look, sir,” Flake tried defending himself. “You may address me either as Captain or Chitin.” The lead guard furrowed his eyes at the newcomer. “Not sir.” “My apologies, Captain Chitin, sir,” Flake replied in a bold and rude tone, frowning back at the leader. Chitin just looked at him with a raised brow and squinted. One of the other crew members acknowledged the newcomer’s rude behaviour, and couldn’t help but snicker, “Heh, heh. I can see why the Queen recruited you.” “Shut up, Dozer,” Chitin growled, keeping his glaring eyes on the newcomer. He raised a hoof and pointed between the new recruit’s eyes. “I’m watching you.” Putting his hoof down, he stepped back and glared at the others. “The pony was last seen in our water supply,” he informed the search crew. “Check around the river near the base of the waterfall, and spread out from there. When you find her, cocoon her, and bring her back alive.” After finishing his sentence, he acknowledged that the fourth group member didn’t seem to be paying much attention. The guard was standing straight with an irritated wince, looking straight ahead, but not directly at Chitin. “Plague,” Chitin grumbled and glared at him, “Is there a problem?” Plague impatiently rolled his eyes and turned to glare back at the leader. Chitin frowned and kept silent, waiting for an explanation for his ignorant attitude. “Not at all, Captain,” Plague replied sarcastically in his grungy voice. Chitin cringed and sighed, standing tall as he growled, “Anyone else??” Silence. “No?” Chitin impatiently pointed a hoof to the opening in the wall. “Then get out and find that pony!” After his final command, one by one, the four changelings turned and flew off into the open wasteland. Once they had finally left, he sighed and sauntered away from the exit. “Those dolts had better find her,” he muttered to himself. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Aimlessly, the lone pegasus continued wandering through the fog and darkness. Licking her teeth clean from the bitter taste of the ants she had eaten earlier, she shuddered from the mental image of the crawling insects. She didn’t eat very many, but in terms of tolerance, she certainly had enough. She had walked for a little over an hour now since she left the ant hill she stumbled upon. It didn’t matter where her hooves took her, everything seemed the same—dead, dark, still and quiet. This wasn’t the Equestria she remembered. With everything so corrupt, she had a hard time finding anything that she could recognize. Trotting onward, she came across a cave entrance on the wall of a cliff-side. Exhaustion was taking over now—she needed sleep. The cave was going to have to do for now. She took a few steps toward the mouth of the cave, and momentarily paused, turning her neck to examine her surroundings. She had the odd feeling that she was being watched. The mental image of Changelings kept flooding the back of her mind. Letting out a sigh after ensuring the coast was clear, she sauntered into the cave. It was very dark—she could barely see her hoof in front of her snout. “Unicorn magic would be handy right about now…” the tired pegasus murmured, wishing she had something—or somepony—with her to light her way. Slowly the cautious mare continued trotting deeper into the darkness, her ears perking every which angle from paranoia. She could hear the silent echoes of dripping water coming from the depths of the cavern. She eventually stopped to turn and face the mouth of the cave. “Good enough…” she murmured to herself with no desire to trot any further into the dark. The tired mare moved over to the cavern wall at the side, and she lied down on the stone floor. She put her head down, keeping her eyes on the cave entrance. Her eyelids were beginning to grow heavier each passing moment; they were slowly closing, and she felt her coherence fading, fading, fading… And suddenly her eyes jolted open and her ears perked to a scratching noise in the cave. She curled up into a tight ball against the wall beside her, shivering. The scratching sound was heard again, and her ears sank to her sides. There was a tiny screech that echoed through the cave. That did it—she sprung to her hooves and spun around where she stood, panicking, “Wh-who’s there??” The frantic pegasus tried figuring out where the sound was coming from. It was getting louder and closer, until something swooped down from above and screeched right before her eyes. “AAAAH!!” She stumbled back and fell on her flank, wide-eyed and petrified. She then looked up at the creature flying before her, and felt a bit embarrassed that she was so freaked out by a creature so small. Eyes blinking, the dumbfounded mare glared eye to eye with the bat. “You again…?” The bat flew around the cave in circles, and up to the ceiling to hang there upside down. The mare raised a brow and stood to her hooves, trotting beneath the bat on the ceiling. “You following me or something?!” she yelled, her voice echoing throughout the cave, “Cut it out, you’re starting to creep me out!” She picked up a stone from the ground with her hoof, and hurled it up at the bat—the stone missed and clunked against the stone ceiling next to the bat, which startled it and made it flap its wings and frantically fly away to the exit. “Leave me alone!” she shouted at it. The bat did a few more circles, and hung on the ceiling again right at the entrance of the cave; she could see its silhouette just hanging there, and its eyes glared over at her. “Uuugh…” she muttered and went to lie back down, attempting to ignore the bat’s company. The pegasus curled up and rested her head, when she heard the bat flap its wings and fly around the cave again. It screeched a couple times, which instinctively got her to throw her hooves over her irritated ears. “Uuuuuuugh!!!” It screeched again and again, and flew around in circles above her. She sat up and tried swatting it in the air. “What the heck is wrong with you, bat?? Can’t a pony get a goodnight sleep??” The bat kept it up for a little longer, screeching, flapping, and spinning around her head. Eventually it got her full aggravated attention, and she jumped to her hooves, and the flying mammal trailed off further into the cave. “Oh, you!!” she growled and dashed after it, chasing it further into the darkness. The bat flew around a corner, and she followed it into a small room. It flew up to the ceiling and hung there out of reach. “Uuugh! Stupid, frickin—” “I think I hear something in this cave!” a voice echoed from the entrance of the cave. Her ears sank to her sides, and she gulped. Peeking around the corner from the room she was in, she carefully glanced over to the entrance, where she saw two changelings creeping into the cavern. She gasped and hid against the wall out of view, breathing heavily. “Check over there,” one of them suggested to the other. She could hear the silent pattering of their hooves echoing in the cave as they slowly trotted inside. They kept coming closer, and her heart continued beating faster. She covered her mouth with a hoof, trying to resist heavy breathing so they wouldn’t hear her. Just as she felt as though they were just around the corner, the bat swooped down from the ceiling from above the pegasus, and flew back out into the cave toward the changelings. The pegasus almost panicked when the bat went out into the open. It flew down toward the changelings, screeched to get their attention, and it flew back up to the ceiling above them, and hung there upside down. “Ugh, it’s just a bat,” one of the changelings muttered, turning to leave the cavern. “Come on, Dozer.” Dozer turned and followed him back to the entrance of the cave. “Trek, Maybe she went further in the cave,” he suggested, “Shouldn’t we keep looking?” “I wouldn’t bother,” Trek muttered, “Ponies can’t see in the dark like we can. There’s no way she’d try going in there.” They left the entrance and flew away. “Besides, I don’t want to take my chances if there’s an Ursa Major in there.” The pegasus waited for a good half a minute of silence before she crept out of the small room around the corner. She slowly trotted forward with her eye on the entrance, and she paused, looking up to the bat with her jaw hanging open. She pointed a hoof at it and raised a brow. “Did you just… save me from being caught?” She rolled her eyes and turned to trot the other way. “Coincidence. Pure coincidence,” she said to herself, “It’s a bat.” She went back into that small room around the corner, feeling safer there than closer to the entrance, and she went to rest back on the floor. The tired pegasus put her head down, and closed her eyes to get some rest. Though, she had a hard time falling asleep with the mental image of changelings in the vicinity. After a few restless moments, the bat flew into the room she was in and hung on the ceiling above her. The pegasus looked up to the bat on the ceiling at the corner of her eye, and sighed. She lifted her head to look straight at it, and it glanced back at her. Several quiet moments have passed, and feeling bored and lonely, she decided to speak to it. “So, um…” the pegasus cleared her throat, “I guess you can stick around, if you promise not to annoy me when I’m trying to sleep.” She paused, as if waiting for a response, though she knew she wasn’t going to receive one considering she was talking to a bat. It dropped from the ceiling and flew down to her, and stood on the ground next to her, facing her. Startled, she stood up and looked down at it. “Jeez, it’s like you’re communicating with me.” Trying to relax, she sat on her flank and looked down to the bat with a hoof on her chin. “Well if you’re going to keep following me, I guess I’ll just have to name you.” The bat remained still in response to that. “Okay… Hm…” she scratched her chin, thinking out loud, “Hooow abooout… Oh I know! Bruce Mane!” The bat screeched and flew up to the ceiling to hang there upside down. “No? Hmph… Bitey?” she muttered more suggestions, “Batlicious?” In response to that, the bat wrapped himself up in its wings and screeched. “Angel. No wait, that’s Fluttershy’s bunny’s name…” Silence. The pegasus paused briefly to think of a proper name, and something hit her. “How about Murcielago? It’s Spanish.” she rubbed a hoof through her mane. “It’s a bit long, though… How about Mercy, for short?” The bat opened its wings and looked back down to her. It didn’t seem to cringe or anything at that name. So the pegasus smiled. “Mercy then.” Resting back down on the floor, the pegasus yawned and made the attempt to sleep again. She curled up in a small ball, and slowly began to drift off to sleep. “Well, good night, Mercy.” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Many thanks to these gentlecolts: Proofreading and Editing done by David Hasselhoof. Prereading and other Assistance by Morfonious.