One cold winter night, two months later...
"Come..." the voice whispered. "Come home," the voice called again. "It is time to come home, my children." Madalah sat up quickly in her bed, her eyes wide with shock. The telepathic communication she'd just received was vivid and shocking. Not because she was unfamiliar with it, on the contrary; it was a voice that she knew well. It was her father's.
It was unusual for Kaysar to call any of his children home that he'd sent out to his brother or sister. Once a trade had been initiated, the trade was almost always permanent. For her to be receiving messages to return home, it must've been urgent...or he'd somehow received word that his sister's hive had been destroyed. Either way, this was not cause for celebration.
After her torn wing's wounds had healed, she could finally enjoy her time with Anorax. The last few days had been hell, the wounds from her ripped-out wings had been gaping holes of terrible pain. Her torture at the hooves of her sister had nearly killed her, had she not had the courage and strength to change her life as she knew it to escape her sadistic sibling's clutches.
Where her wings had once been were now twisted and rough bare skin. Madalah's hard shell now covered the spot were her wings once were, though the shell itself had healed in a way that no one looking at it wouldn't know that something terrible had happened. Her carapace gleaned in the moonlight as she arose from her bed, something she wasn't used to sleeping on. Anorax' kindness had seemed to know no bounds, even taking her into his home. Kecnik had been invited as well, but for reasons he would not disclose to his sister, he chose instead to sleep outside, in the backyard shed.
The wingless changeling sighed as she stared out the window into the cold night. For her, the nights had grown lonely and still. At least while she was with the hive, she never felt alone or cold. The days were full of things to do. And now that she'd fought tooth and nail for her freedom, she felt lonely, so lonely, even though she was here with Anorax.
The moment she'd laid eyes on the halfling, something in her had locked onto him, something primal, instinctual. Changelings often had multiple partners, whether for recreational purposes or if they were simply bored. Madalah was relatively young and had had only three partners, none of which she'd felt any attachment to. Changelings weren't meant to become attached to other changelings, after all. That was a special feeling only for the queen.
With Anorax, it was much different than what she'd experienced. It had been an instant fire in her chest, a longing like she'd been starved for a month and suddenly there was food. Not food in the way that she saw ponies, but in a sense that she'd found something to fill her up for the rest of her natural life. Anorax was, without a doubt, her soul mate. Soul mates was not a concept encouraged among the changelings, it was nearly a taboo. Only a few changelings in history ever experienced it and lived to get away with it.
Madalah sighed quietly and looked back at her bed, her eyes falling on Anorax's sleeping form. As many times as she'd invited him into her bed, he'd chosen instead to sleep on the floor. Such a sweet boy. He'd told her more than once that he would wait until the proper time, something he was very ambiguous about. As much as she wanted to go to him now and seek his warmth, there was something much more important she needed to do.
The changeling crept slowly out of Anorax's home and out into the chill of the night air. The ground was covered with snow, and it was very very cold. On another night, she might've dragged Anorax outside to play, but her thoughts were on her dream. They'd only recently begun two weeks ago, and she'd kept quiet about it until now. She did not want to leave Anorax behind, but the dreams were becoming louder and more invasive. She could ignore the calls no longer, and she needed to speak with Kecnik.
She found him outside already, sitting in the freshly fallen snow, his back to her and his face to the bright moon, which shone on the white snow and made everything shine. It was beautiful, and exuded a feeling of lonely beauty. As Madalah approached, she knew she needed not to announce her arrival. Even without their telepathic bond, their troubles were linked. He was as aware of her dreams as much as she was.
Madalah sat down next to Kecnik, a small frown on her face. The two sat in silence for a moment until she finally turned to him. "You've been having the same dreams, haven't you? Is father really calling us home?"
Kecnik nodded, his gaze never breaking from the sparkling snow on the rooftops of the other houses. "Yes, and yes. He is calling us, and we will have to answer him eventually."
Madalah closed her eyes tightly, and attempted to keep what this meant from reaching her heart. She knew. She had known from the moment that Chrysalis' hive fell that she would have to return to her own hive and leave Anorax behind. The only question remaining was how would she sneak away? She could do it right now, leave in the middle of the night, never to see him again or to feel as happy as she had been with him again.
Her tears had just begun to fall when she felt his presence. She gasped and turned around to see the halfling standing before her, the silver moonlight reflecting brightly off his white shell. The look in his face also reflected how she felt, but there was a determined look in his eyes. "Anorax," Madalah said, trying to come up with some excuse for feeling like this.
Anorax just smiled and rested a hoof on her shoulder. "I know. It sucks, but...we both knew this wouldn't last." Madalah stared at him, feeling her tears building up all over again. She let out a little sob and fell against his chest. Kecnik glanced at the two, a small smile on his face. He was glad that Madalah at least had a chance for true happiness. He was well aware of how rare it was for changelings to find something like this at all. He picked himself up discreetly and headed around the back of the house to let the two have their moment.
Madalah and Anorax were quiet as they sat in the silver snow, clutching each other, as if to keep from falling into a dark, lonely place. Both were on the edge of that pit, both despairing and holding onto the waning light that was the warmth of each other. The moon had moved about about a quarter of the way down by the time Anorax decided to finally speak. "Look, I know this situation is the farthest from what we wanted, but...I want to help you get home."
Madalah pulled away just enough to look up into Anorax's eyes. "But...why? Seeing me go will be hurtful enough, but-"
"I don't care," he told her, leaning forward to press their foreheads together. "If I can help you get home, then I'll have done one last thing to keep you safe. It'll make me feel better, if that makes any sense."
Madalah closed her eyes once more. She loved being close to Anorax, but she didn't want him to see the despair in her eyes. "I understand that, I suppose. But how are you going to do that? The journey is across the sea, you know."
Anorax merely smiled and pulled her closer to him against his chest, his arms wrapped around her tightly. "Well then, we'll get ourselves a boat, and then we'll cross the sea together."
Madalah sighed quietly, feeling warm and safe in Anorax's grasp. She took comfort in the knowledge that she still had some time to be with him, and she wouldn't waste a second of it.
Spark Storm opened his eyes blearily. Despite it being the middle of December, he was very, very warm. His apartment was home to several creatures, after all, and they all liked to share his bed at times. This was of course one of those times. He glanced down at his chest, where Orea was snuggled against him, her forelegs dangling off the side of the bed. He smiled at how cute she looked.
He perked his free ear up, listening for signs that the others might be up. He could hear breathing a bit behind him. He craned his neck to look behind him very slowly until he could make out Amacia's form. She was in a sitting position on the chair beside the bed, though she was hunched over with her arms wrapped around her knees, which she kept tucked to her chest. Spark still didn't understand how harpy anatomy worked, but the way Amacia slept looked really uncomfortable.
That just left Ampelus. It was never a good thing when she couldn't be found. Spark Storm very carefully sat up, a little reluctantly leaving Orea's extra warmth. Morning in the winter was always a little unpleasant if one wasn't bundled. These apartments just didn't have the same cozy warmth that a big house did.
After making sure he hadn't woken Orea, Spark cautiously made his way to the bathroom, which had of course been fixed weeks before. He stumbled his way to the sink and began brushing his teeth. It wasn't until he rinsed that he noticed the dark body laying in the empty tub. He turned, a skeptic frown on his face. Suddenly, two whip-line vines flew forward and wrapped around Spark's shoulders and waist, pulling him into the tub and on top of the taller nymph.
Spark tensed as he laid flat-out on Ampelus' side. He felt her vines wrapping more and more around him, and it was getting difficult to move. He spread his wings, preparing to zap the nymph if she didn't let go, but he paused when he felt one of her soft hooves pressing to his lips. "Hush now, or you'll break the tub again," she whispered. "Remember what happened to it last time? I'll play nice if you'll just lay with me for a while, what do you say?"
Spark Storm narrowed his eyes down at the nymph. Ever since he'd welcomed her into his home, she'd gotten bolder and bolder with her advances. Sometimes she was docile and cooperative, at times she was difficult to fend off. He had to be gentle, though. After the exploding bathroom incident two months earlier, Spark tried not to use his wings on her too much. She was much too difficult to hit now that they'd spent more time together. She was learning his moves, exploiting his blindspots.
Ampelus smiled and batted her eyelashes at the pegasus. He hadn't tried to strike just yet, so being true to her word she hadn't done anything untoward to him...yet. Spark slowly lowered his wings to fold them against his back and started to relax. As much as he disliked Ampelus' constant flirting, there was something comforting and even reassuring about her routine.
"There, see? A little trust between the two of us goes a long way. A little snuggling can go a little further," she whispered to him, but as promised she behaved, even if her grasp on him hadn't loosened.
Spark sighed and diverted his gaze from hers. "Why do you have to be so touchy all the damn time? We've been over this a thousand times in the last couple months: I'm not interested in getting...'romantic' with you."
Ampelus giggled quietly. Her grasp on Spark began to shift as she pulled him closer to her, her muzzle situating closer to his right ear. Spark tensed again, his hooves spreading to rest on either side of the nymph to support himself. "Who said anything about romance?"
Spark had had enough. He stood, even as Ampelus clung to him. "Wait! Can't we talk this over?" she begged, clamping her legs tightly around Spark's body. Spark blushed, but it was more from anger than from discomfort. He lifted a foreleg and pushed down on her head away from him. The two struggled quietly for a moment until the nymph finally gave up and plopped down into the tub, a pout of disappointment on her face. "You're no fun. Didn't your mother teach you how to treat a lady?"
Orea shot straight up in bed, an alarming anger from Spark Storm having woken her up. "What did you just say?" she heard him say, coming from the bathroom. She crept closer as Ampelus' voice also sounded from inside. She was annoyed and frustrated, from the sounds of it.
"I said maybe your mother could've taught you a few things! Just how sheltered are you?!"
Amacia stirred in her position on the chair next to the bed. She raised her eyes to glance at Orea blearily. "What's going on?" she asked sleepily.
"Daddy and Ampelus are fighting again," the young nymph replied.
"...Oh, that again..." the harpy mumbled before closing her eyes to return to sleep.
Things had been like this for a couple weeks now. Spark Storm was getting fed up with Ampelus' constant flirting, and the two fought and argued much more than they got along these days. But this time, Orea could tell that her aunt had gone too far; she'd mentioned Spark's mother. Ampelus didn't know about the circumstances of Cherry Joy's death, but Orea knew it all too well. It stung her heart as much as it did Spark's.
There was a blinding flash, and an instant later a smoking Ampelus flew from the bathroom and smashed against the wall and crashed down onto Spark's bed. The impact rained down clumps of wall. Amacia, startled by the sudden violence, reacted merely in shock as Spark Storm followed Ampelus out to the bedroom, his wings ablaze with furious energy.
Orea, easily sensing that this wasn't a simple squabble between her aunt and Spark, stood in front of Ampelus defensively. "Daddy, stop it! You can't act like this, you can't hurt her!"
"Any why the hell not?!" he yelled at Orea, his furious gaze turning down on the little nymph before him. Even Ampelus, shocked but relatively unhurt from Spark's attack, looked up at Spark Storm in uncertainty. Orea's gaze turned bleary as tears threatened to spill from her eyes at her surrogate father's tone. When the first tear fell upon his bedsheets, Spark immediately realized that he'd nearly threatened Orea. He shook his head slowly as if to deny the reality of what he'd done, then turned and headed outside, closing the door behind him quietly.
Outside, Spark stepped away from his apartment for a few steps until his legs gave out. He sat down in the snow, his breath coming in ragged pants and fresh tears of both fear and anger dropping onto the snow covered ground. The stress and frustrations over losing both Sohl and Sapphire Snow had finally gotten him to the point where he was attacking his friends, and as much as he told himself that he hated Ampelus' constant badgering and flirting, he liked her, he really did. Not that way, of course, but she gave him constant attention and affection. He had to admit he would be having a strange day if she didn't hound him once or twice.
Things just weren't working out for him. Life was harder now that he was single, as strange as it sounded. He was constantly angry, he lashed out at Ampelus too much, he pushed others away...he was depressed. Was that it? Spark lifted his bleary gaze from the ground. He needed help. He'd fallen into a difficult to escape pit without Sohl, and even with Orea, Amacia and even Ampelus to keep him company, he kept sinking. He desperately needed to do something, anything, to help him feel alive again, even if it meant travelling for a while.
Maybe I should mention this to Celestia, he thought. Something needs to change. He turned around to face his apartment, and came nose to nose with Orea. The two stared at each other until Orea hopped towards him. He caught her in waiting arms and the two held each other quietly. Spark didn't need to tell her that he was sorry for yelling at her. She knew. She forgave.
"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Kecnik asked the younger Anorax, a small, thoughtful frown on the changeling's face. "Madalah hasn't been out among the town for some time. The absence of her wings will be immediately apparent. A pegasi's wings do not simply 'fall off', and she was not admitted to the hospital here. Ponies will ask questions, and we do not have time to answer them."
"You worry too much, and completely underestimate the creative mind of this halfling," Anorax said with a cheerful smile. He stepped around Madalah, who was playing the patient game, though she was curious as to how he planned to pull this off. Madalah had spent time some time around Ponyville hidden as a pegasus, so to suddenly appear walking around town as a wingless pegasus was definitely out of the question. So, she wondered, how did he plan to parade her around town without her being noticed?
Anorax stopped and brought a hoof up to his chin as he studied his girlfriend appraisingly. Suddenly, it came to him. With her standing there in her changeling form, it was no wonder. "Madalah, switch to your pegasus form for me." The changeling frowned, but she did as he asked. Her body briefly erupted into that bright blue fire, then revealed the blue pegasus form she'd had before, except...well, no wings, her back having carried the twisted scars from her real body.
Madalah closed her eyes tightly when she saw the look on Anorax's face - a look of trepidation and a little horror. "Now hold on, like I said, I can fix this!" he told her, and went into his living room, then to his bathroom, causing a bit of frenzied clutter from both rooms. When he returned, he held several items up for Madalah to see. He'd grabbed two pillows and several rolls of gauze.
Before either changeling could ask what Anorax was up to, he got to work. It took him ten minutes and two tries, but he finally managed to wrap the two small couch pillows around Madalah's body, situated so that they sat on her back and made it look like her wings had been injured and wrapped to prevent them from moving. Anorax had to admit, it was one of his better plans that didn't get himself sucked into a crazy scheme to get rich, or to get involved in a secret rescue attempt.
Madalah craned her neck to look at her middle back. He hadn't done a bad job at all. Even she was fooled, and could almost believe that her wings were still there. But of course, they weren't. She sighed, just once. She could live without the wings. It was Anorax that she couldn't...This time she sighed a little heavier, and she turned her gaze back at Anorax and Kecnik, a sad look in her eyes.
Anorax smiled patiently as he approached Madalah. "Try not to think about it. This is just another adventure, you know? It'll be fun as long as we focus on the journey. Keep the destination at the back of your mind."
Madalah finally smiled. She closed the distance between the two of them and came to rest against the halfling's shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and held her in silence.
Three hours and a redress later, the three said their goodbyes to Anorax's parents and set out down town in their pegasi forms. Madalah got a few looks, but nothing out of the ordinary, and there wasn't a single pony interested enough to ask her what happened. That is, until, Lyra spotted them from her window. The trio were nearly to the road leading to Canterlot when Lyra caught up with them.
"Hey! Hey guys, wait!" she called. Anorax sighed quietly and turned as Lyra approached them. "Where are you guys going? I mean, I can see you're headed to Canterlot, but..." she paused, noticing Madalah's wrapping, a small, unhappy frown spreading over her face. She was Anorax's best friend, although she had to admit she was a little jealous now that Madalah had crept into his life and taken the role that was once hers. Still, it hurt to see Madalah injured. She was the sweetest non-pony creature she'd ever met.
"Oh, uh..." Anorax began, though he didn't know how to finish. He hadn't counted on being approached, so he hadn't bothered to come up with an excuse. He looked to Madalah for help, but she just smiled and nodded, giving him the okay to tell her. Lyra had brave and gone down into the changeling caves to help her kidnapped friend and battled with an alicorn. She deserved no less than the truth.
Anorax sighed and turned his attention back to Lyra. "Kecnik and Madalah have been called home by the changelings, Lyra. I'm...I'm helping them to get home."
Lyra's eyes opened wide in shock. "What?! I thought we killed those jerks! Uh...no offense, guys," she said, directing this last bit to the two changelings. "But...if that's the case, why are you guys headed to Canterlot? The changelings are..." she paused, a look of realization spreading across her face. "Wait. You guys aren't from here, right? So..." she sighed, a look of helplessness on her face. "I don't get it. A little help?"
"Our original hive lies across the Northwestern Sea," Kecnik told the unicorn. "In a gesture of good faith, our father sent the queen here...us. Well, the four of us: Myself, Madalah, Bezzle and Dozix."
Lyra frowned thoughtfully as she thought back. "So that's why you guys looked so different from the changelings here. They're all black and teal, and you guys...well, you're bigger than most of the changelings I saw," she said, gesturing to Kecnik, then turned to Madalah, "and you're a blue changeling. I didn't see the others, though..."
Kecnik nodded, confirming Lyra's speculations. "Yes. No two changeling hives will have the same look. Our specific family all have different looks, several of the older ones have different abilities."
Lyra tilted her head as she looked betwee Anorax and Madalah, suddenly sensing the sadness between them. "But...wait, Anorax, are you gonna stay with her?"
That idea hadn't even occurred to the halfling. If it meant being with Madalah, then - he paused in his thoughts as Madalah touched a hoof to his shoulder. He turned to her in question. The changeling shook her head sadly. "It is not possible, Anorax. You are a halfling. You're...well, "impure" is the word. Our hive would not accept you."
Lyra frowned unhappily at this news, and at the downcast look Anorax took on at hearing Madalah's rebuttal. "Oh, geez, I'm sorry, guys. I didn't mean to make this situation even more crappy than it already was." Lyra stepped forward and embraced Madalah. "I should let you guys go before I make things worse..." She turned and nuzzled Anorax, then turned and rested a hoof on Kecnik's shoulder. "I'm so sorry," she repeated before running back towards Ponyville.
Madalah watched the unicorn go, then turned to Anorax. "You don't think she'll tell anyone that we're leaving, do you?"
"Naaah..." Anorax said with a light shake of his head. "She won't. Trust me, that mare can keep a secret." There was a brief silence between the three of them, their eyes on Ponyville one last time until Anorax turned and began the walk towards Canterlot. "Might as well get a move on. We'll be there by mid-afternoon."