Equestrian Revelations

by DuskApproaches


Chapter 9: Return

We sat on the cloud for quite a long time. I insisted that we use his lightning teleportation or, whatever it was, to leave the area. He, however, insisted that a bolt of lightning in a sunny day would be sure to attract attention. As much as I didn’t want to stay up here, I must admit that he was right. Something about my rescuer bothered me.

“I had a question I wanted to ask.”

“And what would that be?” he replied raising a suspicious eyebrow in a sarcastic tone of voice.

“I’m not saying that there are problems with our queen’s judgement…”

“But?”

“Why has she not sent anyone to rescue me before you?”


[/hr]

The question was a difficult question to answer. My answer to the question was going to make a big impact on Chao. This is the kind of question that drives us to seek life’s answers with existential reasoning. What is the Matrix? Ah...I got distracted again. Anyways, what was I doing? Oh, right, Chao’s inquiry.

“Well, the answer is quite simple.”

“What is the answer then?”

“She did.”

“What?”

“She sent many changelings. Whether it was to rescue or send reports of your status. None of them were successful.”

She was staring at me with wide eyes. Should I tell her I was joking and replace the truth with a lie. That would be a safe choice to make. But there is a reason people take risks. Risks don’t mean there is going to be a bad result. A risk is something that might not only conclude as a bad result but sometimes a good one. The safe path, itself, only has a neutral outcome. In my situation, I think that risking the bad result is worth the possibility of obtaining the good one. She wasn’t responding so I decided to speak up.

“I trust you know of the Ning Squad.”

“Y-yes?”

“Not anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“They died.”

“They died?”

“They died trying to find you.”

Tears were forming in her eyes again. Except this time I did not deny what caused her to cry. I merely put an arm over her shoulder. She was not the type of changeling one would expect to be a bodyguard of royalty. She did not possess the stubbornness that guards normally possess in that role often requiring they give up everything for the safety of their queen. She was also quite sensitive. Most guards have little to no emotion. That helps guards uphold their dutiful obligations and responsibilities above all other matters.

This proved to me one thing: Chrysalis did not appoint Chao as her guard because she was talented at being one - but because of more personal reasons. My judgement told me that I should not start guessing and wait for the answer to turn up eventually. Chao was still quite upset. It was my fault but all I wanted to achieve was for her to obtain the facts that she deserved to know. I didn’t want her to be upset. I don’t want her to be overly distressed. So, I formed a plan to get her mind off it.

“Well, now that I’ve answered your question perhaps you could answer mine.”

“What would you like to know?” she said letting the tears subside.

“Changelings feed on love. Love is like a changeling’s nutrients, correct? So - unless the griffon I killed earlier was secretly your boyfriend, wasn’t really torturing you, and you were into some kinky bondage and submissive acts - you probably didn’t receive any love. Anyways, my question is… if you didn’t receive any love, how did you survive this long without food?”

What the fuck did i just say?

“Um, well, love is hard to get. So changelings have evolved so that we hardly need any food to survive. Lack of food makes us physically weaker and we can feel the hunger burning, but it does not kill us.”

“So, you must be starving then.”

“Well, yes.”

That’s the answer I was hoping to get. Now for the next part of my plan.

“But I’m sure that Chrysalis will find a way to ge- MMPHF!”

And just like that, I cut her off by putting my hands onto the sides of her head and pressing my lips against hers. Was doing this necessary to make her feel better? Probably not but I had other reasons.


[/hr]

After about half an hour the griffons gave up their search and went back to the castle. Griffons seemed to be quite impulsive according to my observations and intuition. Griffons lacked dedication to their work and are good at doing it only if they want to be. The chance of this happening is pretty much never since it only took half an hour to give up a search; A search in the surrounding areas of their only prison looking for the person that killed one of their prison guards. Oh well, who cares? It’s time to go home. I lift up my right hand and wind started flowing from it.

“I wish I could do that,” the changeling beside me said.

“Can’t you turn into a propeller or something?”

She gave a cold stare returned in kind with my own smile.

The trip back to the Khanate was a lot faster with Chao helping me fly the cloud - as a propeller. Well, the first five minutes of it anyways. After that she fell asleep. I can’t blame her, though. She deserved some sleep after what she had been through.

I looked down at the castle. I was about to go through the skylight again when I remembered what happened last time.

“Hey Chao. Wake up.”

“Huh? Did I fall asleep? “

“No shit you fell asleep. Come on, we’re here.”

“Great. I’ll just- HOLY SHIT WE’RE HIGH UP!”

This is starting to get annoying. Like they say: ‘sometimes push comes to shove’, ‘you gotta do things the hard way’, yadda yadda yadda.

“So, how do we- AHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Well, the best way to overcome your fears is to face them head on. I looked down from the cloud. Actually...maybe pushing her off wasn't such a great idea after all. I jumped down from the cloud and followed after her. She was falling slowly due the pressure on her wings, but she was still screaming loud enough for the changelings below us to look up. I grabbed her and forced electricity out of my back.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“We’re not moving anymore.”

“Oh.”

We floated down gently like the single petal of a flower...a petal that is surrounded by a barrier of electricity with enough voltage to power an apartment building that is. In a very short time, we landed on the ground.

“Still afraid of heights?” I asked Chao.

“No.”

That’s good. I guess my plan actually worked.

“Now, I’m afraid of falling.”

Huh, never mind then. My plan failed miserably.

We walked up the stairs to the castle. The changeling guards turned their heads in our direction, each raising an eyebrow, smiled, and went back to their original positions. Looks like I was starting to gain respect. With a push the doors of the castle swung open. Before I could do anything, Chrysalis tackled Chao to the ground. Not sure where from though. It was a touching sight watching Chrysalis hug Chao like she was squeezing out the last bit of toothpaste from- I think I just ruined the moment with my stupid similes. It still made me happy to see Chrysalis hug Chao and… kiss Chao… and touch… Huh? Maybe if I back away slowly they won’t notice my leave.