//------------------------------// // Love is a Gift // Story: Requiem of Equestria // by TheBlox //------------------------------// Returning to the ceremonial room, Scootaloo and Flake rushed to the changeling’s original entrance they were making the attempt to dig back up. Approaching the pit, they both sighed in hopes that the pillar that had crashed down into the hole wasn’t going to be too much of a problem to remove. The echoes of the phoenix’s screech was emanating from all around them, and they could hear its powerful thrusting wings from the exterior of the room. “She sounds pretty angry,” Flake exclaimed frightfully. “Well I did just kill her,” Scootaloo muttered. Flake sighed and stepped up to the hole they were digging up, and peering down, his ears perked. “Huh... Well, that’s... convenient.” “What?” Scootaloo trotted up to the hole to see for herself. It turned out that the pillar that had fallen into the pit didn’t block off their path at all. Instead, the weight of the marble cylinder that fell into the hole had crashed right through the rubble floor at the bottom, opening up the entrance the rest of the way. “Well what’re we waiting for? Let’s go!” Flake exclaimed and jumped into the hole, hovering down into the open dark abyss. He stopped at a hover and looked up at the pegasus who was timidly looking below. “Hey, are you coming, or do you want to stick around up there to be phoenix bait?” “Uh... Just hold on,” Scootaloo muttered and galloped to her potions. Putting them back into her saddle bag, she carried it on her back and trotted back to the pit. Bracing herself, she looked down into the darkness once more, and taking a breath, she hopped down into the hole. Together, they descent lower and lower into the entrance of the changeling hive, with the shrieking echoes of the phoenix dwelling behind them. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “Uuuugh, the Queen is going to kill me for being so late,” Chitin muttered to himself as he made his exit from Ponyville. “Where did that bloody pegasus go?” Flying back to the mountain, he made his way over the Everfree Forest. As he made his return to the hive, he kept his eyes on the trees below. “Well if she’s not hiding in Ponyville anymore, where the heck has she gone?” Turning his neck to view the forest beneath him, something caught his attention on the river shore. “What the... where the heck did Flake go?” Stopping at a hovering state to think for a moment, he winced at that empty spot where he left the exiled changeling to die. “He couldn’t have just stood up and walked away from that,” he murmured to himself. Curious, he descent to the riverbed to investigate the area. Landing in the fog, he trotted around the vicinity, searching for signs. In the grey soot beneath him, he witnessed hoofprints leading upstream. The captain was completely dumbfounded. Not only due to finding hoofprints, but the fact there were two sets of them. One of them was a changeling’s tracks, and the other... “The... pony?” he quietly muffled in his throat, trying to piece the illogical puzzle together. Trailing his eyes along the hoof tracks upstream, he couldn’t make sense out of the situation. “Why would they be going back to the hive...?” He raised a brow and rubbed his aching head from his own mind-numbing questions he had to ask himself. “Let alone... together?” He shook his head after stating that remark. “No. That’s absurd. Why the heck would a changeling join forces with a pony?” He cringed at the thought and sat on his flank. Nothing about this situation made any sense to him. Deeply sighing after his moment to sit and rest, he stood up and ascent back into the air. Flying back to the hive, he shook his head. “Chrysalis is not going to believe a word of this...” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Walking cautiously through the abandoned changeling tunnels, Scootaloo and Flake trotted side by side. It was quiet and musty, and it was dark. “Ugh, I can hardly see anything,” Scootaloo muttered, squinting in the attempt to focus on what was in front of her snout. “Just stay close to me, I can see in the dark just fine,” Flake exclaimed. Scootaloo exhaled through her nostrils and turned her glances at her surroundings. The thick walls of mesh; the strings of web hanging from the ceiling; the many ominous passages to alternate corridors. “It seems so easy to get lost in here... How do you know which way you’re going?” Scootaloo murmured. “This place is huge.” “I know where most of the hive tunnels lead.” He turned to her. “I don’t particularly have a plan, though. Do you?” Scootaloo sighed and shook her head. “Are the ponies all in one place?” she wondered. “When I escaped the hive, I only recall seeing there was one room that was filled with cocoons.” “You mean the dome room,” the changeling exclaimed. “Yes, that is our main location where we keep the cocooned ponies.” He cleared his throat. “Excluding ten others.” The pegasus turned to him in question. “What do you mean, excluding ten?” “We keep these ten particular ponies separate from the rest of the equines,” Flake explained. “They’re scattered in different rooms throughout the hive. The Queen keeps them away from one another, because she fears their capabilities when brought together.” He raised a brow. “She called six of them the elements of um... what was it called again...?” He put a hoof to his chin. “Something to do with friendship.” “The Elements of Harmony,” Scootaloo exclaimed factually. “I know who those six ponies are.” “Yes, Harmony. That sounds right.” Flake nodded and turned to her. “Another two of these ponies were the Princesses of night and day.” “Celestia and Luna,” Scootaloo proclaimed. Flake cleared his throat, looking back ahead. “The last two are the Queen’s most feared ponies. They’ve defeated us once before, during our last attempt at taking over Equestria. Together, they formed a bond of love so overpowering, we could not handle the energy, and the blast took our entire race out.” “Yeah... I was there when Princess Cadence and Shining Armour kicked your flanks,” Scootaloo mumbled. Flake raised a brow at that. He exhaled through his nose and squinted. “Kind of ironic though... We’re creatures who live off of love, and yet, it is love that defeated us.” “Heh.” “But... it wasn’t the first time we have been defeated by love,” he admittedly revealed. Scootaloo raised a brow at that. “Huh? What do you mean?” He squinted as he explained himself. “Well... The Queen wasn’t around when this happened. But one of her ancestors, whom she would call by the Great Changeling King, was defeated by the same spell as we were.” He looked up as he continued explaining. “Although, when it happened to the changeling King, it was very... different.” “Different? How so?” Scootaloo murmured. “You see...” Flake exhaled through his nose and turned back to her. “That spell is legendary. Few have conjured it. And how it happened the first time, was said to be impossible.” Scootaloo looked back at him in question to that. “It was said that the spell could only be cast by the love two ponies,” Flake explained, and his eyes wandered. “But the unthinkable happened...” His eyes widened and he looked forward. “Our Great Changeling King was defeated by a lone stallion.” “Huh?” Scootaloo’s ears twitched. “You mean he was defeated by one pony?” Flake nodded as he exhaled. “Somehow, yes...” He looked up. “As the Queen explained it, the spell can only be conjured up under the condition that the casters are in a moment of bliss. A moment, where they both feel love for all things, and hatred toward nothing.” He turned back to her. “They say that when two ponies are in love, there is a moment in which they share, that is absolute bliss—where their minds become one in harmony. And it is in that moment, when the spell can be cast.” His eyes wandered and he looked forward, squinting. “It is said that those feelings can only be shared. But, for an individual pony to feel those emotions—to feel bliss and love for all, and to feel hatred for none—is unheard of.” He lowered his ears. “That is, until he cast it...” Scootaloo’s eyes wandered as she thought about what he had told her. “Next to Discord, the Great Changeling King was the most powerful being in Equestria,” Flake exclaimed. “Not in the sense of spellcasting, but in the sense that—like your Princesses—he was said to be immortal. And yet, the lone stallion still defeated him.” He turned to her. “But in doing so, the pony had died.” Scootaloo raised a brow. “Casting the spell killed him?” Flake nodded. “The spell is far too powerful for just one pony to conjure up, and live to tell about it.” He squinted and looked up. “Ever since I’ve heard the tale of the Great Changeling King, and how he’d been defeated the way he was, it could never dawn on me—nor any one of us for that matter—how somepony would willingly, knowingly die, as an act of protection.” He turned back to her. “He knew the spell was going to kill him before he even made the act.” Tilting his head, he murmured, “I could never understand... None of us could... What did it mean? And why would he do it, if he knew he’d die?” The pegasus sighed through her nose, feeling pity for the changeling’s misunderstandings. “It is sad that your kind doesn’t have the teachings of love.” Her ears perked as she explained herself. “When you love somepony enough, you would do anything to keep that somepony safe.” She turned to him. “Even if it means you will die.” She raised her head. “What the stallion pony did was an act of love. He gave his life so others could live.” Flake winced and looked down. “Love is... a gift?” “Love is many things,” Scootaloo exclaimed. “There is so much to it, to the extent, it can never be explained. It can only be experienced. It can only be shared. Given.” She winced at him. “You can’t just take love. You will never feel its true power. The reason you never actually feel anything is because the only way you ever take it in, is through your hunger for it.” Flake’s eyes wandered as he put that to thought. “It’s still so... strange, that somepony would actually allow himself to deliberately perish. For any reason at all.” Scootaloo exhaled through her nostrils and shook her head. “To give a life, is the greatest gift of love, anypony could ever give.” The changeling looked eye to eye with the pegasus, uncertain how to respond. Scootaloo could see that he was seemingly overwhelmed with the topic. With a sigh, she turned to face onward and changed the subject. “So, where can we find the ten ponies you specified?” “Er...” Flake winced. “I don’t know.” He looked up and turned his glances around him. “All I know is they’re each hidden in random tunnels.” He cringed and sighed. “And as far as I know, the tunnels they are hidden in are sealed off, so they can never be found.” Scootaloo’s ears folded back in response to his unfortunate explanation. She could feel a heavy weight on her heart, believing she may never see her friends again. “You don’t even have a rough idea where they could be?” “All I know is, the Queen hid them herself, and never told any of us where. She hid them a decade ago, shortly after their capture.” Flake turned to her. “Since it was that long ago, our best chance that we have of finding them would be in the oldest tunnels we’ve built.” The pegasus nodded. “So, where exactly would that be?” Flake looked up and around himself. “We’re walking in them.” Scootaloo blinked. “Huh. Well, if this was the original entrance, I guess that makes sense.” She turned her neck curiously. “So, if we were to go looking in these tunnels, where would be a good place to staAAAAA—!!” Suddenly the ground beneath Scootaloo’s hooves crumbled loose, and she fell into a dark cavern. She landed hard on a sloped platform and rolled downhill, collapsing to a stop, nose down. “Scootaloo!” Flake yelled from above the pit. “You okay??” “Ngh... My nose...” Scootaloo murmured, holding onto her snout while lying flat on her belly. After recollecting herself, she stood back up, rubbing her nose with the back of her hoof. Refocusing her vision, she noticed something at the end of the cave she had fallen in. Curious, she cautiously trotted toward it. Flake jumped down after her—more gracefully than Scootaloo did—and followed along behind. There was a cocoon hanging from the ceiling, covered in cobwebs and dust. In its present condition, it was obvious that it had been here for a very long time. Scootaloo winced at the cocoon and approached it closer. When she was close enough, she could see the silhouette of a familiar athletic pony inside. Closer, she could make out her mane and tail, and her legendary cloud and lightning bolt cutie mark. But there was no colour; the spectrum of her idol was depleted and grey—just like she was when she had escaped the hive. Leaning in closer, she put a hoof on the face of the cocoon, and she murmured in a soft, breathless voice to the sleeping upside-down pegasus inside, “Hey, Rainbow Dash...” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Many thanks to these gentlecolts: Proofreading and Editing done by The Princess Luna and David Hasselhoof. Prereading and other Assistance by Morfonious.