Night Fury's Lament

by JumpingShinyFrogs


Companionship

"Brr...it's chilly. Where am I? Did Luna bring hard cider again?"

I'm after speaking my thoughts out loud. Go me. But now I remember why I'm here. I'm a pathetic excuse for a dragon, that's why. I'm in a cave...in the middle of nowhere...with a weird voice?

I snap open my eyelids. As opposed to being near the edge of the cave like I was when I landed, I'm much deeper in. A fire is blazing. A pile of dry firewood is stacked neatly off to the side. A basic mat made of animal skins is spread on the ground opposite to me. A saddlebag is packed next to the mat. And skinning a bear in the corner is the strangest creature I've ever seen.

Its front half is feathered, with an eagle's beak and talons. It bears the wings of an eagle on its back. But its hind legs, tail and lower half lack feathers and are decidedly feline in appearance. Its feathers and fur are different shades of brown, with the exception of the feathers on its head, which are white. A couple of feathers stick out over its face in a fringe, and six more, three on either side of its head form twin crests in a similar arrangement to my own horns.

The strange creature looks at me.

"Oh, you're awake! Mind giving me some answers?" it questions. His voice is interesting. It's masculine, with a poetic quality to it. Which is ruined by his hasty approach to things.

"I don't know, I don't feel like talking," I say, rudely but honestly. It's true, I don't.

"Answers. Now," he orders, trying to be intimidating, and failing miserably.

"How about you introduce yourself? Then maybe we can discuss answers," I offer.

I notice that he's wearing an amulet of sorts, made of a flat coin of a sea-green, banded gemstone. The layered shades of green are very entrancing. Maybe I'll ask him how he got it.

"Alright, you first," he says warily.

"Not talking. I asked you first," I press him.

"I'm standing my ground," he asserts firmly.

"Then I'll go back to sleep. Wake me when you wise up," I say nonchalantly.

"Ugh, this is going nowhere. Fine, I'll go first," he groans.

Heh heh, nailed it.

"My name is Malachite. I'm from the Griffon Kingdom. I'm out exploring, looking for something. I make my living by selling any cool or rare things I can find along the way. I have a friend who I travel with. He's out fishing, but he should be back soon," he says.

A griffon? I've heard of those, but didn't know they actually existed. The name Malachite also rings a bell. Some type of gemstone I think?

"Alright, a deal's a deal. My name is Umbra, I'm a Night Fury dragon. I'm a terrible dragon so I left home to punish myself," I confess. I don't give him all the details, but for some reason, just confiding in someone takes the edge of the pain away. And despite our rocky start, I actually find myself enjoying Malachite's company. I wonder what his friend is like?

"Tell me more!" he demands, a little too exuberantly.

"Why?" I ask, more than a little suspicious of him.

"I love dark, dramatic backstories!" he exclaims.

"Right...that's not creepy at all," I say sarcastically.

"Heh heh, only joking," he laughs.

"Not funny," I say, before joining him in laughter.

"In all seriousness, you should eat something. You're all emaciated, and it's really creepy," he says, sobering up.

"I'm not hungry," I say, before my stomach betrays me, causing Malachite to laugh again. He tosses a fish in my direction.

"C'mon, eat up. There's no shortage, I have loads and my friend is coming back with more," he offers.

"I may be hungry, but I still don't want to eat this," I refuse his offer, dead set on starving myself.

"What's the matter? Too fancy to eat common food?" he teases, putting on a posh accent.

He rubbed my scales the wrong way altogether, so I decide to prove I'm not a prissy little hatchling. In one quick movement I slide out my teeth, grab the fish and, having ripped it into two halves, devour it. I lick my lips and attempt to smile.

Malachite drops the rest of his fish.

"Sweet Celestia, remind me not to get on your bad side!" he exclaims, the fear obvious in his voice.

Changing the subject, I ask, "Why do you have so much fish? If there's two of you, shouldn't there be a lot less here? And if you have so much, why is your friend out catching more?"

"I can answer the second part of your question. We're leaving soon, and need to collect more supplies. That's why I was skinning that bear," he says, gesturing to it.

"As for the first part...well, to put it bluntly, my friend is...a little odd. You'd do better to talk to him yourself," mumbles Malachite.

"Someling is talking about me. Is that you, Malachite? I always knew you were a little crazy, but talking to yourself? Really?" calls a voice, somehow managing to playfully tease Malachite, while still sounding concerned. An impressive feat, to be sure.

I turn to the source of the voice. Hey, you know when I said Malachite, Luna and Twilight were the strangest things I'd ever seen? Well, those statements can take a long walk off a short pier, because this is undoubtedly the weirdest creature I've ever seen.

His body vaguely resembles a pony, but instead of a coat of fur, he has a hard carapace, like a beetle or a sea turtle. His horn is short, and curved, like a fang, unlike Luna and Twilight's horns, which were long spirals with little to no point. His wings are gossamer thin, and insectoid. They're a pale grey in color, and full of holes. In fact, the creature's entire body is filled with holes, particularly his legs. His tail is short and the same grey colour as his wings, appearing not to be hair, but rather a thin material, possibly the same tissue that formed his wings. Fangs clearly show, hanging out from his upper jaw.

Now, when I think insect, I think of the colour black, and when I look at this creature I think of insects. So maybe that's why it comes as a shock to me, that rather than black, or some other colour with good camouflage, this creature's chitinous body is white. Not the same white as the snow, or even Sweetie Belle's coat, more like a very light grey, but white nonetheless. His eyes don't seem to have pupils. Either they are entirely iris, or there is no iris and just an oddly coloured sclera, but his eyes are empty, and are a sickly pinkish red colour.

The creature speaks once more.

"Huh? What's that?" he asks, pointing a hole-filled...appendage at me. His voice is a trill, with a sort of buzz to it, again, very insect-like.

"Hey bro," Malachite greets the insect. "This is a visitor. She wandered in while you were out. I fed her and made conversation."

"Oh good, you're not crazy," laughs the bug with relief.

He turns to me.

"Hi! I'm Scolopendra, but you can call me Pen," he introduces himself, offering a hole-filled limb. I clasp it in my claw, unsure what to do, but based on my observations of humans, and to some degree, ponies, it would appear that the proper response is to shake it. Not sure why, seems rather pointless. Why shake claws/hands/hooves when you can send blasts of fire as a greeting?

Still, it appears I was right, as after I shake it, Pen withdraws his limb. "And you are?"

"I'm Umbra. No nicknames, no titles, no surnames. Just Umbra," I say.

"Nice to meet you!" trills Pen.

"If you don't mind me asking, what race are you? You appear to be a type of pony, but I've never seen anything like you," I ask.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," he says.

"Well, I'm a Night Fury. A type of dragon. I'm not from here. Like, at all," I say.

"Fair enough. I'm a Changeling. We're a type of pony, created during the reign of Discord. We feed off of emotions, but love tastes the nicest and sustains us the most. But, well...I'm not like other Changelings. Most Changelings are black, with blue eyes, but I'm white, with red eyes. And most Changelings have 20/20 vision, but my eyesight isn't the best. I left the village when I was a larva, and met up with Malachite. We've been together ever since," he explains.

"First off, that's really weird, no offense, and second off, you said Changelings were 'created'? What does that mean?" I ask.

"Good question. It's a story not many ponies know. Even most Changelings don't know it, but when you spend all your time inside your house trying not to get beaten up for being different, there's not much you can do but read. The story begins, long ago in the time of Dis-"

"Peeeeeeen!" whines Malachite, who had been twiddling his talons awkwardly through our entire conversation. "I've heard this story like a million times!"

"True, but Umbra here hasn't. Go back to skinning your bear," Pen dismisses him.

Malachite takes his advice, and wanders off, muttering under his breath.

"As I was saying, before I was interrupted, this story begins in the time of the tyrannical rule of Discord. All ponies feared and loathed him, but none were brave enough to stand up to him. All except one. One brave young pony sought to stop Discord's reign. Against the wishes of her family and friends, and against her own better judgement, she ventured forth to his lair. She was captured almost instantly, and brought before Discord. He decided to use her as a victim for his latest bit of fun. Using his chaotic magic, he transformed her into an emotionless insect. She went on to become the first Changeling Queen.

Her bravery in challenging Discord inspired two others to take a stand- sisters who would go on to be the famous Princesses Luna and Celsetia. Using the Elements of Harmony, they turned Discord to stone, becoming immortal alicorns as a reward. Once they took the throne, and began to restore Equestria, they decided to fix that which Discord had broken. They sought out the new Changeling, and attempted to restore her to her original state. But Discord's magic ran too deep, and they were unable to fix her. They decided that they would at least try to give her emotions back. But the spell they used backfired. Instead of returning her emotions, they caused the Changeling to hunger for emotions. She could feel, but she now consumed all emotion around her. She broke away from them and started a colony of Changelings in the Badlands."

A tear drips from Pen's eyes as he concludes the story.

"And we have lived there ever since."

~~~

Dear Princess Celestia,

It has come to my attention that the body of a young colt was found in the Everfree Forest last night. The body was found lying on a stone altar, about halfway to Zecora's hut. It was found surrounded by flowers, with a few fish and some gemstones. An engraved stone tablet was present, inscribed with unknown runes. I will set about deciphering them as soon as possible.

In an autopsy that was performed, it was discovered that the colt died due to a broken spine. Imprints of scales were found, as well as claw and tooth marks. Given this evidence, I believe I know the culprit.

A large, black, dragon-like creature has been sighted around Ponyville for the past month and a half. It is this creature that I believe to be the killer. I don't know for sure why the colt was killed, or why his body was arranged so intricately, but I believe it may be some sort of sacrifice, perhaps to a beast of Tartarus?

I didn't want to trouble you about the dragon, seeing as it only shows up occasionally, and when it does, it is easily beaten or frightened away, but now the situation is more grim. May I be so bold as to request that you look into this matter? I have enclosed an artists sketch of the creature.

Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle

P.S I know I'm not usually so formal in my letters, but the Ponyville Chief of Police was adamant that if I was going to help investigate that I had to keep professionalism when detailing the incident.