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// Apollo Sparkle 
// Story: A Journey 
// by Bronythegreat 
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 You haven’t experienced a truly awkward situation until you’ve tried making idle conversation in a cramped tunnel while wading through sewage, which is exactly the situation Piper found herself in now. Apollo, though he seemed to know what he was doing, wasn’t much for small talk. Piper tried several topics; the premier showing of The Mare Who Cried Stallion 3, comments on the weather, and a few inquiries as to the war raging in the streets he had so recently rescued her from. After so many failed attempts at breaking the silence, Piper was feeling bitter and ready to give up altogether, until one question in particular grabbed Apollos attention.

“Where’d you find your Dawnix?”　 She asked, her face taking a quizzical expression as she cast a glance towards the large black bird. Apollo turned his head, looking at the Dawnix with a smile.

“It’s a bit of a long story.”  He started.  “When Syracuse and I first met, it was because Id nearly killed him. I was just a colt, and I was hunting pheasant to give to the dragons camped out at my aunt Fluttershy s house.” He said. “I would startle them into the air and shoot them down, and I was pretty good at it. One day I was out hunting and I made some noise to draw them out, like I usually did, and I shot at the first one I saw. I barely hit it though, just clipped its wing and sent it spiraling to the ground.” “When I went to claim my kill I found Syracuse hobbling around with my arrow through his wing. He looked so majestic that I couldn’t help but feel bad about hurting him, and it was the first time I’d ever seen a dawnix.” “They’re incredibly rare, you know; the last census of them only counted thirty seven.”　 The Dawnix, which was apparently named Syracuse judging from the story, puffed up his chest in a display of pride. Apollo took a breath and continued.

“Well, I couldn’t just leave him lying there in the middle of a field, so I brought him home. He didn’t really appreciate me touching him though; he put up a fight the entire way. I got my arrow out of his wing and started nursing him back to health as best I could.” “I would have had aunt Fluttershy help me out, but after hearing the story of how she tried taking care of the princess’s phoenix I decided to settle for simple advice.” “The wound to his wing was pretty gruesome, and it left one heck of a scar it, but he seemed to be recovering just fine. I was pretty shocked when he flew at me one day and sank his talons into my leg, returning the favor I guess. He cut me up pretty bad.” Apollo rolled up his sleeve, showing a nasty looking jagged scar from the elbow upwards on his right arm.

“After he got his revenge he turned and made like he was ready to fly off out the window, but I guess something held him back. Maybe he felt indebted to me for helping him heal, and he wanted to return both favors.” “You know how Dawnixes have magical tears right?” Piper shook her head, unaware of that attribute of a dawnix.

“Well, they do. Tears from their left eye can seal up a wound like crazy glue, and tears from the right eye are deadly poisonous. Syracuse flew over to me and ripped a wad of his own tail feathers out so that he could shed tears on my gashes, and they sealed up right then and there.” “If he hadn’t done that I could’ve gone into shock from the blood loss and possibly died, because nopony was around to help me if I passed out”

Apollo looked down at his hooves for a moment and then back up at Syracuse.  “After that he stuck around. I was willing to let him leave, but Dawnixes are very intelligent creatures. They only share their tears with somepony they really care about, so I guess he got attached to me while he was recovering, and we’ve been buddies ever since.” Syracuse let out an almost chirping caw and rubbed his beak against Apollo s head.  “The hardest part was convincing Twilight to let me keep him. She’s always been as protective of me as if I were her real son.”　

Piper suppressed a gasp. “You’re adopted? I, I didn’t know.”　 She gave Apollo an apologetic look, which he shrugged off.

“Yeah. I forget sometimes, though. Twilight s been a great mom to me, and I’m thankful to her for that. She never once held it against me that I’m not a Sparkle by blood.”　 Apollo broke eye contact with Piper and continued walking. Piper frowned slightly, the gears in her mind turning until they finally clicked.

“Sparkle, wait, you mean THE Twilight sparkle, student of Celestia and leader of the Elements of Harmony? The actual element of magic Twilight Sparkle?”　 Pipers jaw nearly dropped when Apollo nodded casually.

“Yeah, I suppose she is.” He kept walking almost nonchalantly. Piper gaped at him, feeling a rush of confusion.

“And you don t seem to regard that as out of the ordinary at all? Really?”　 She stared at him in disbelief. Apollo shrugged and replied;

“It didn’t really have much of an impact on my life. The Elements of Harmony had their last adventure years before I was even born. I never even saw them go up against Discord when he was misbehaving. And anything political she does, she usually leaves me out of it.”　 Apollo said his thin smile fading.  “Like right now, she’s off in Saddle Arabia trying to get supplies flowing again after production mysteriously halted. It was timed so soon before the changelings attacked, I can’t help but think that it was one of their plans to weaken us before they struck.”　 Pipers frown drew itself tighter across her face.

“I didn’t t realize Saddle Arabia was supplying us…” She stopped suddenly, her unfinished sentence hanging in the air ominously. Apollo looked at her, a worried expression forming on his face.

“Something wrong?” He stared at the mare, who was standing like a statue.

“Do you hear that?” She asked. Apollo pricked up his ears, slowing his breath and focusing on the sounds around them. He could hear his breath, his heartbeat, the dripping echoes of the sewer tunnel around them, and a faint hissing sound. It sounded peculiar, almost to the point he hardly believed he heard it at all; a slight buzzing and hissing like a bumblebee flying past a leaky valve. He heard the sound again, this time assuring himself it wasn’t his imagination. He and piper stood silently for what felt like an eternity dragging on through the near silence, the sound getting progressively closer to them. Cautiously, they looked around, scanning the tunnels for any sign of the sound s source. Piper turned at a bend in the tunnel, the unexpected sight that awaited her eliciting a high pitched scream. Apollo jumped, turning to see what was going on, and could hardly believe his eyes.

Packed into the tunnel before them were at least thirty changelings, all mirror images of Piper. He couldn’t tell which was the real allicorn that had accompanied him through the tunnels, so he simply turned and ran, pushing his legs to carry him faster through the knee deep sewage he had galloped into. He needed to put some space between himself and the multitude of changeling Pipers before he could put any of his quickly conceived plans into action. He whistled to Syracuse, who had flown off of his perch on Apollos back when the changelings appeared, and the dawnix swooped down to him, his talons glistening with the fresh blood of some unfortunate target. Apollo could only hope that target hadn’t been the genuine Piper. Apollo looked at Syracuse with worry etched into his features.

“Syracuse, you find the real Piper. Go!” He hissed through his teeth. Syracuse cawed in acknowledgement before taking wing again. Apollo hoped the birds keen eyes would be able to differentiate between a changeling Piper and the real deal. The echoing sounds of chitinous hisses and buzzing signaled that the changeling horde had caught up with him. He started running again, turning his head briefly only to be rewarded by the sight of a changeling launching itself at him. Apollo quickly ducked, gripping his bow and removing it from its sheath on his back before he brought himself back upright, taking a split second’ s aim before loosing an arrow towards the fumbling creature. The arrow flew true to its mark, piercing the changeling’s throat; the momentum carried it to the wall of the tunnel, pinning the changeling’s body to the wall. The creatures disguise faded, blood spilling from its mouth with a gurgling sound as the green glow faded from its eyes. Apollo didn’t have time to admire his marksmanship, however. He readied another arrow and turned to face his pursuers.

Syracuse flew close to the tunnels ceiling, the cramped conditions proving less than convenient for anything more complicated than a glide, the occasional flap, or a dive-bomb at a Piper that obviously wasn’t the genuine article. The dawnix folded his wings closer to his body and stuck his talons out, slamming them into the eye of a changeling disguised as the light pink allicorn he was trying to find. The changeling shrieked, shaking its head violently and splattering droplets of blood over the tunnel walls and several nearby Piper changelings. Syracuse held fast to the creatures face with his talons, lifting one leg and then plunging it back down towards an eye. The talons met their mark and the changeling shrieked again, a violent shake finally dislodging the dawnix. Syracuse flapped his wings heavily, getting himself out of reach of the infuriated changeling whose eye he had just removed. The changeling lashed out, only to collide with the wall of the tunnel with a sickening crack. Syracuse scanned the mass of Pipers again, looking for any detail that would set the real Piper apart from the many disguised changelings. After a minute of searching the crowd he spotted an undisguised changeling dragging a Piper by the throat away from the rest of the changelings. The Piper being dragged had one of Syracuse’s feathers stuck in her mane, and the dawnix took that as proof enough that he had found the genuine Piper at last. He flapped his wings, keeping close to the ceiling of the tunnel, and then glided silently over to the buff looking changeling who had a stranglehold on Piper. Syracuse took advantage of his dark feathers to blend in, waiting until the last second to dive out of the shadowed ceiling towards the unsuspecting changeling. A well placed swipe at the changeling’s throat rewarded Syracuse with a shower of hot blood and a garbled choking gasp from the changeling, in place of what was probably intended to be a scream of agony. Syracuse slashed out again for good measure, the large changeling’s head dropping into the sewage with a splash and sinking to the bottom. Piper gasped for breath, her wide and fearful eyes taking in the bloody mess of the changeling that had been dragging her, and she realized she was soaked in the hot blood of the creature. The blood was quickly growing cold, and as the realization finally hit Piper, she fainted outright.

Syracuse screeched unhappily, the mare he had just risked his own tail feathers to save had repaid him by going to sleep in the middle of the sewage tunnel. The dawnix knew he had to somehow get Piper back to Apollo, but with her asleep and refusing to wake up, the task seemed a lot more complicated. Syracuse cawed at the sleeping mare a final time before giving up hope that she would wake up and start walking on her own, and he knew that he would have to carry her back to Apollo himself. Of course, Syracuse could do this with ease. Dawnixes were said to be able to lift ninety times their own weight, and whether or not this was an exaggeration didn’t change that the allicorn mare was light enough for Syracuse to lift far enough off the ground to move her. That did not, however, mean that the dawnix was happy about having to do so, and she was heavier than she looked. The dawnix strained his wings and started to make his way back to his master, and closest friend.

Apollo landed a solid kick to the shoulder of a Piper changeling that had tried to sneak around him. He followed up on that kick by smacking the changeling with his bow, a solid thunk and a cracking sound satisfying him that the creature was out of commission. Apollo quickly notched another arrow and barely had time to aim it before he let it loose towards another changeling, who shrieked in pain as Apollo followed that arrow with two more that hit it in the stomach and shoulders, the third arrow piercing the changeling’s heart. It dropped into the sewer water with a splash, the arrows breaking under its weight and becoming irretrievable. Apollo groaned and loosed another arrow at a Piper changeling who was snarling and preparing to launch itself at him, hitting it squarely in between the eyes. Apollo rushed forward and yanked the arrow out of the changelings head before he notched it again and sent it flying after another changeling. After sending several more arrows into the chitinous bodies of changelings, many of which were wearing Pipers appearance, the remainder of the horde seemed to retreat from the merciless unicorn who was felling changeling after changeling. He almost allowed himself to sigh in relief before he realized the trick, whipping around just in time to avoid being tackled from behind. A changeling barreled into Apollos abdomen, making him drop his bow and spill the remaining arrows from his quiver into the murky water. He reached for a knife from his sheaths, only to find them empty.

“Well this sucks.” He thought to himself, slamming a hoof into the changelings face and wriggling away from the changeling who had tackled him. Out of knives, bow gone, arrows gone, and Syracuse is off looking for Piper He smacked the changeling again, its chitin cracking under the blow and leaking hot blood into the water. Apollo managed to get to his feet and gave the changeling a firm kick before diving out of the way of a second changeling, this one disguised as Piper. He hesitated for a moment, only striking out at the changeling once he was certain it wasn’t the real piper. He brought his hoof down on the creature’s neck and quickly followed up with a hoof to the face. “I don t know how much more of this I can take” Apollo checked his magic reserves, not surprised to find himself nearly drained. He was far too exhausted to perform any combat spells, though if he absolutely needed to he guessed he had enough left in him for a single stun, or if he was really desperate a teleportation spell, but only as a last resort. He heard the sound of splashing water and looked back to see the changelings he had just beaten off of him starting to get up again, and knew that he wouldn’t be able to repeat that performance. He bolted down the tunnel for as long as he could run, which proved to be about twenty seconds of solid sprinting before he collapsed from exhaustion. Apollo pulled himself back to his hooves and looked back, the shadows of the changelings cast across the walls showing that he hadn’t gotten far enough to outrun them. He closed his eyes, the choices of his life swimming regretfully through his mind. He wondered if he could have done anything differently, if he could just get another chance to make things right. Apollo braced himself for a final encounter with the changelings.  “I won’t let them take me without a fight.” He resolved to himself. Something brushed against his leg, and he fished his bow out of the slight current that had dragged it back to him.

Braced for the fight of his life, the last thing Apollo expected was for Syracuse to peck him on the back of his head, cawing irritably. “Syracuse! You’re alright!” He cried, so overjoyed to see the dawnix that he barely noticed his cargo. “You found Piper! That’s great!” Apollo opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by the hiss of four obviously pissed off changelings who had just turned into his branch of the sewers. Apollo closed his eyes, summoning everything he had left in him, grabbed Syracuse and Piper, and erupted into a flash of purple energy just before the changelings reached their position. He left them grasping at nothing but empty air and a small pile of ash which settled into the sewage and was quickly carried away.