//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12: Missing 
// Story: Dean's New Life 
// by Moon_Skritch 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 12
Missing
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I hear the sounds of tweeting birds and other usual morning sounds, it's beautiful. I am facing the window, I open my eyes and see the sun rising on another glorious day.

“Good morning Pink-” I start to say as I turn over but, Pinkie isn't there, she's probably already downstairs, getting breakfast, I get out of bed and stretch a bit, then head downstairs, I notice it is very quiet.

I walk into the kitchen, nopony there, I walk around the house and shop, no sign of Pinkie anywhere. I hear somepony trotting down the stairs, I run over to the stairs and see Mr and Mrs. Cake trotting down. “Have you seen Pinkie?” I ask.

“No, we haven't, I thought she was still in bed.” Mr. Cake says. I shake my head, “She wasn't there when I awoke.” I say. “I looked everywhere too.” I am starting to worry a bit.

I walk up the stairs and look back in the bedroom, maybe she is playing a prank on me, to scare me, she's done that to me before, she disappeared from my side one day at the park and jumped out of the bushes and scared the life out of me. I open the closet, “Found you!” Nopony there, I move stuff around and I don't see her. I search all the possible hiding spots, I don't see her anywhere. I am really worried now.

I look back at the bed and realize that the bed on her side is made up, I notice a letter on the pillow, how come I didn't see that before? I pick it up and read, Dear Dean, last night was a mistake, the engagement and what we did. I'm not ready for that stuff, so I have left Ponyville and gone out to start over, don't come looking for me. Sorry -Pinkie 

I sit on the bed, my mouth open, this can't be true, she's the one that wanted to and she said yes. What did I do to her? This can't be the Pinkie I love, She would never leave me, she's the one that wanted me to stay here after I changed into a pegasus.

I look over at the end table and I see the pink bangle, my heart rips in two. My eyes well up with tears, she is gone. I thought she loved me. I pick up the bangle, it's the same one I gave her. I start to sob loudly as I hold it in my hands. I have no heart now cause it has evaporated into dust.

A few minutes go by and I hear a quick knocking on the front door, I stay still. I hear the door open and I hear a familiar voice. “Is Dean here? I need to speak to him!” Alex's voice seems a bit saddened too.

Then the bedroom door opens quickly and Alex stands there his face wet and eye puffy. Looks like he has been crying too. “Pinkie is gone too I see.” he says. I only sit there and hold the bangle, letting out a cry. I clear my throat and ask, “Who else is gone?”

Alex sighs and says in a sad tone, “Rainbow is gone too. She left me a note behind saying that it wouldn't work out and she needed to get away from Ponyville.” I look up at him and I see that he is starting to cry again. He stomps his foot down and yells “We need to find them!”

I get up and say “Let's go to Twilight's house. Maybe she knows something.” Alex nods. We head downstairs and I grab my pack, I put the bangle and the letter in it, and we head off to Twilight's house.

We come up to the front door and knock, we wait for a minute and there's no answer, I knock again and  Spike opens the door and he has the most gloomiest look on his face. “Is Twilight here?” I ask. He shakes his head. “No, She wasn't here when I woke up this morning.”

“Hmm, maybe the others know.” I say out loud. “Don't bother, they aren't home either, I checked. Though each of them had a note saying something about leaving and not for anypony to look for them.

This can't be real, why would our friends get up and leave, I pull out my letter from my bag to show Alex and Spike and I notice something about the way it is written, “Spike can I see Twilight's letter?” He hands it to me and I look at them both.

“Same handwriting...” I say. Alex and Spike look at me, “What?” they say in unison. I look more closely at the words, “I've seen Pinkie and Twilight write before, this isn't their writing. Our friends didn't leave, they were taken...”

Alex and Spike stare at me, “Are you sure?” Alex asks. I nod, “Can I see the letter from Rainbow?” I ask Alex, he nods and gives it to me, I look at all three of them, same writing still. “See same writing.” He looks closely at them and then looks at me “You're right, they were taken, but by who?”

We hear a poof in the library, we rush in and see a letter laying on the table, I walk over to it and read it. Do not believe what those letters say, we need your help! I had to find a way to contact you guys, Chrysalis, the changeling queen has captured us and is holding us in her castle on the other side of Equestria. HELP US! HURRY! It's in Twilight's writing.

“Chrysalis? Who is that?” I ask. “Oh no, not her.” I hear Spike say, “She's a changeling, she can morph into anypony she wants to, she has a humongous army of changelings, she feeds on love, and they want to take over. I thought we got rid of them.”

“Do you know where the castle is located?” I ask, Spike nods and says “Yep, it's near Manehattan, let's go get our tickets and go find them.” We nod and head over to the train station and get tickets.

We hop on the train and it heads to Manehattan, I sit in my seat holding the bangle, I hope Pinkie is okay.

The ride lasts for a couple of hours, it finally stops and we hop off the train, “It's outside of town to the west, good thing the station is on the west side of town.” We go outside of town and into the wilderness.

We walk for about an hour and I start to hear sounds, I don't think Spike or Alex hear it. Just then I hear a twig break, I look behind us and see three black creatures with blue eyes and holes in their legs stand there, they snarl at us and fly toward us with their small thin wings. “Run! Those are changelings!” Spike yells. We run as fast as we can away from them, one of them catches up and grabs Spike and flies off. I look to my left and see Alex stop, which makes me stop, “We can take them Dean!” He yells.

The changelings stand there and squint their eyes and they speak to each other in a strange language, then they charge at us. 

We get into a defensive stance as they run up to us. I block the punch the changeling throws at me, and I clock him right in the face, knocking him out. They aren't that tough it seems, all of a sudden I feel a tap behind me and I turn around and see five of them standing in front of me. I look over to Alex who is taking on ten of them, How many of these things are there, I look around and see more coming out of the forest, hundreds, thousands of them coming toward us.

I back away from them and I bump into Alex, I am so scared right now, I get into a fighting stance and get ready, some of the changelings run toward us and try to grab us, I kick one of them, causing it to slam into a pack of them, knocking them out. We fight them one by one and then they all pounce on us, I feel a sharp blow to my head when they land on us and everything goes dark.

Nothing is what I see, but what I hear is strange voices, in a strange language, then I hear another voice, “What are they doing here? I thought the notes I wrote would've fooled them. Take them to the dungeon and keep them there until I can figure out something I can do.” That must be her, the changeling queen, Chrysalis, her voice sounds distorted also.

I then feel me being lifted again and then thrown into a room, I land on the floor, which is cold and slimy feeling, I hear other thuds, which must be Alex and Spike. The pain from my head is severe, I close my eyes and pass out.