//------------------------------// // Friend or Foe? // Story: Requiem of Equestria // by TheBlox //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash soared as quickly as her wings could take her through the tunnel ahead. It was dark, almost to the point of being black as night. The only visual perception she had around her was the glimmering effects of light from the exterior of the caves bouncing off the green mesh walls. Keeping her focus ahead, she raced forward, teeth gritting in determination, striving to catch up to Dozer and free Scootaloo. After minutes of flying, the elusive changeling appeared up ahead with the cocoon in his grip. Her eyes widened, and with a growl, she made a dash toward him. “Hey!!” she called out to him, “Where do you think you’re going with that pegasus, huh?!” Dozer raised a brow and turned his head to look back. Seeing the incoming cerulean pegasus, his mouth briefly hung open in disbelief. “How in the…” He was quick to turn back and flew faster ahead of her. “Think you can outfly me, do ya?!” she yelled, closing in on him. “You’re not gonna get away from me!” The changeling turned his head back once again to see that she was right on his tail. Astounded by her godlike speed, he made a quick turn while gliding backwards, and fired a green projectile of magic at her. “Woah!” Rainbow Dash swerved to the side, caught off guard by his assault meters in front of her. She was able to dodge, and the spell zipped past her, hurdling through the tunnel behind her until it hit a wall with a pop. Leveling herself out after losing some altitude, she continued the chase after him. “Ugh, blasted pony!” Dozer began making twisting flight patterns in the attempt to lose her. To his disappointment, she easily tracked his every motion. Then as if it took her no effort, she flew up right in front of him. Startled, he made a sharp stop in the air, and turned to fly the other way. Again, he found himself flying straight into her once more. With a grunt, he made the attempt to fly in another direction, but again she would only zip in that direction and block his path. “AGH!!” Angry, the changeling lunged himself into Rainbow Dash with a solid buck to her cheek, while keeping the cocoon in his grip. “Ogh!” Rainbow Dash flipped back from the impact. Leveling herself out, she placed a hoof on her sore jaw, and looked up to see that he had already made an effort to escape her again. “Hey!!” She twitched and threw herself at him. “Get back here!” Like a bullet, she caught up to him in moments, and crashed right into him. “AH!” The force of her impact caused him to flip forward through the air, and he crashed into the ceiling with a puff of debris, and fell to the floor with a stumble and a thump. Wincing, he pushed himself up, and noticed the cocoon rolling away across the ground in front of him. “No!” Rainbow panicked and made a dash for it as she watched the cocoon roll toward a hole in the ground. Dozer’s eyes widened, and he was quick to get up and gallop after it himself. Closer and closer the cocoon rolled to the hole, and just out of reach, it fell into the pit. “AAH!” Rainbow made her way after it, but before she could make it down into the hole after Scootaloo, she was struck out of the air by a spell cast by Dozer. She collapsed to the floor and rolled to a stop mere feet from the hole. Winded, she coughed and stood back up, sensing that her wings had been struck once again, rendering her grounded. Slowly, she stood up and her eyes twitched, looking down into the darkness of the pit. “Go ahead, jump in after her. The fall will kill you without your wings,” Dozer exclaimed. Rainbow felt a sudden twitch. She gnashed her teeth together, and a faint growl emanated from her throat as she slowly turned to glare at Dozer. “Why do you parasprites… always… aim for the freaking WINGS?!” Quickly, she made a full turn to the changeling in a battle posture, snarling. “Mad, are we?” Dozer squinted at her. “AAAAAH!!” In full gallop, Rainbow charged straight at him. Dozer just grinned and flew up into the air, hovering over her. Rainbow stopped, looking up at the airborne changeling with hatred. “Now, this seems to be more of a fair fight,” he muttered. “Come at me, you monster!” Rainbow angrily dared. Dozer cringed down at the pegasus, and his horn illuminated green. Rainbow braced herself, awaiting his attack. “Back in your cocoon!” he shouted, firing a green missile of magic at her. Using her quick reflexes, Rainbow Dash sidestepped with a bit of a leap, and the bullet struck the ground. Dozer cringed at her, and charged up his horn again, and fired again. The mare below made a quick jump backwards, and it missed her again. “Hold still!” “Hold still?” Rainbow Dash raised a brow. “Have you even met me?” “AAH!” Dozer recharged his spell again, and made another attempt to fire at her. Rainbow Dash payed attention to his aim, and leapt to the side once again, dodging his attack. “Come down here and fight like like a stallion!” she mocked and stomped her hoof. Dozer was beginning to lose his patience. Squinting furiously, he began charging his horn again, taking longer to get a bigger charge for a stronger spell. His horn illuminated a brighter, fluorescent green. “Dodge this,” he muttered, and focused his aim carefully, firing straight for the colourful mare below. Rainbow braced herself, and at the speed his spell was bulleting toward her, it was in that moment when she realized she was done for. It was too fast—even for her—to get out of the way. Her eyes widened, and she clenched her teeth as it came closer, and she cowered low to the floor with a frightened holler with her eyes shut tight. Rainbow heard the loud magical explosion of the spell when it made its impact. There was a quiet moment as the green mist from the spell faded, and she slowly opened her eyes. She was mystified; why wouldn’t she be in a cocoon? Rainbow looked up, and saw the silhouette of a changeling from the back. She stood to her hooves in awe, and when the mist had cleared away enough, she could see that it was Flake, who had blocked the shot for her yet again. “What the hell has gotten into you?!” Dozer yelled in an irritated manner, flailing his hooves in anger. Charging up another spell, he growled impatiently. “I’ll get you!! I will!! AAAH!!” “Now, Trek!!” Flake shouted. With Dozer distracted, Trek came flying out from the dark, and collided straight into him from the back. “AH!” Dozer was knocked out of the air, and Trek landed on top of him when they made contact with the ground. “GraAAH, get off of me!” Trek had him pinned, and he had a spell in effect, radiating from his horn that kept Dozer still. “Wait, what?! I don’t believe this! You too?!” the pinned changeling shrieked furiously. “What has gotten into you backstabbing parasprites?! Get the buck off me! GET OFF!” Rainbow watched from a distance, uncertain if she should get involved or stay out of it. It looked intense from where she was. “Rainbow, where is Scootaloo?” Flake asked her quickly. Rainbow looked up to him, then pointed to the hole in the ground. “She fell down there,” she exclaimed, “I couldn’t fly after her; he shot my friggin wings again.” Flake took quick initiative, and dove down into the hole after the fallen cocooned mare. Dozer watched from where he was pinned, trying to struggle free of Trek’s grip while growling helplessly. “Why are you on their side…?” “I’m not,” Trek replied. “I’m doing this for us.” “The buck are you talking about?” the grumpy changeling muttered. “For the changelings,” Trek exclaimed. “Maybe there’s another way of life than the one we are living, where we’ll never starve of love. Flake says that the ponies can teach us.” Dozer just cringed at the thought. “Ponies are our enemies!!” That declared, he jumped up onto his hooves, pushing Trek off of him. Then with a quick motion, he spun around and struck Trek in the jaw with a hoof, and then shoulder checked him onto his back. He prepared himself to strike him again, when Rainbow Dash galloped in the way, and she stood there between them defensively. Dozer looked into Rainbow’s determined eyes, and cringed at her. “I don’t understand you,” he growled. “Any of you.” Then from the pit which Flake had gone down in after Scootaloo, they heard a scream in terror that echoed through the caves at an alarming volume. Rainbow Dash, Trek and Dozer’s eyes all widened from Flake’s sudden shriek. The pegasus and two changelings at war exchanged glances with each other; they knew this battle had to be held off after a scream like that. After a brief hesitation and uneasy glares between the two changelings, Rainbow trotted over to the hole, and glanced down below with caution. “Flake?” she called out. “Hello?” “What the hell happened down here?!” Flake cried loudly from the darkness below. Trek and Dozer both jumped in after him, leaving Rainbow at the top of the hole who couldn’t fly anyway. Descending below into the black pit, they landed on the bottom next to Flake, who was standing next to Scootaloo in her cocoon. He was frozen where he stood, terrified at what he was looking at before him. Trek and Dozer both looked to see what he was staring at with such immense fear, and their eyes both widened and their jaws hung low. Surrounding them in this dome shaped room, were dead bodies. Age old changeling skeletons covered the walls, which dangled from black cobwebs. The ceiling hung as high as ten meters, with the hole at the peak of the dome which Rainbow was peering down below from. “What’s going on?” she asked. “How deep is it?” The three changelings were completely lost for words. They turned their heads, examining the room of death. “What could have done this…?” Dozer murmured quietly to the other two beside him. None of them could take their eyes off of the walls. Turning their necks to examine all the skeletons and cobwebs, Flake found a stone slab on the floor with some markings. He trotted up to it and peered down at it. It was covered in dust from age, so the imprinted markings on the stone were hard to make out. Gritting his teeth nervously, he brushed the dust away from the stone while the other two changelings beside him watched him uncover the engraved markings. It was an imprinted circle with spikes around it, and four-cornered stars surrounding it. “It’s the symbol of the King,” Trek determined. Within the center of the circle, there was a written scripture... ‘From dawn to dusk, I’m feared at sight; my wrath eternal, like Nightmare Night. My time will come, and all shall hail; and those oppose, shall surely fail. For each betrayer, shall decor my shrine; my death be theirs, a return be mine. New body and soul, new mind and power; my place be taken, for the darkest hour.’ The three changelings reading the scripture looked up and exchanged glances with each other. Then looked up at the walls again, seeing the dead changelings hanging all over the room in a decorated manner, evenly spaced out to align the dome of the room. “You figure this is the Great Changeling King’s shrine?” Dozer questioned the other two. Trek winced at the thought. “But, that wouldn’t make sense,” he exclaimed. “It says in this scripture that those who betrayed him would decor his shrine. I can only assume it means their deceased bodies...” He gestured to the bones on the walls for emphasis, then turned to Dozer and squinted. “But, I was always told that our King was a good King. That he looked out for the changeling race. So why would our race stand up to their own King?” He looked back up at the walls, and turned to examine all the bodies. Flake grit his teeth and exhaled. “Perhaps there are more reasons behind this cave being abandoned than the Queen let us to believe.” “The fact the King’s shrine being here, though, still doesn’t make sense,” Trek exclaimed. “I thought this cave was only as old as our return to Canterlot ten years ago when we first dug out our hive.” “Or…” Flake put it to thought, still traumatized by this discovery. “Maybe this cave was always here, and Canterlot was a coverup to hide his shrine.” Trek and Dozer both exchanged looks with each other. “The Queen wouldn’t hide something like this from us,” Dozer exclaimed, wincing as he turned back to Flake. “Would she…?” “Hey!!” Rainbow called from above them. Looking up, the three changelings saw the silhouette of the grounded pegasus impatiently peering down at them. “What’s going on down there?” Dozer cringed at her, and Flake held a hoof up in front of him. “Leave her,” he said. “We still have unfinished business,” Dozer muttered and turned to him with a frown. “And you’re on my list, too!” “After a discovery like this, you’re really going to think like that?” Flake shook his head and exhaled. “Don’t you see there is something obviously wrong with this picture?” Dozer raised a brow. “Uh, yeah, I do. You’ve sided with a pony.” “You call the pony our enemy…” Flake squinted at him, then turned and pointed to the wall of dead changelings. “And yet, we find this shrine, decorated of our own kind’s skeletons, in what appears to be the Great King’s tomb.” He turned back to him and frowned. “This is the work of our own kind, and you’re pointing hooves at her, why? Because she is different from us? Has she done us harm?” Dozer just turned away in response, keeping his frown. “There is something very wrong with us; don’t you see it? We make the biggest discovery in centuries that shows such a huge flaw in our race, and all you can think of is yourself, and getting even with a pony.” After finishing his speech, he knelt down to the cocooned pegasus beside him. Picking up Scootaloo, he flew up into the air with her and frowned at Dozer, who just looked back at him with disgust. Exhaling through his nose, Flake turned away and shook his head. “I sometimes ask myself why our race even exists, if all we’re good for, is consumption. We take land that isn’t ours, we steal its life and its love, and not long after we’ve turned the place into a desolate wasteland, we find ourselves empty, and we must move on to find more lives to take away for our pathetic existence to continue.” Flake flew back up to Rainbow Dash who backed away to give him some room. He gently placed Scootaloo down on the ground, and focused a spell on the cocooned pegasus. In the meantime, Trek and Dozer ascent from the shrine below, landing beside Flake, though keeping a bit of a distance. Trek was paying attention to what Flake was doing, and Dozer was just expressing a lack of enthusiasm with a frown. “I don’t care who the leader is,” Flake exclaimed, “Nobody harms these ponies.” With that, he sent a magic jolt into Scootaloo’s cocoon. Her mesh prison slowly began to dissolve away. “You’re the single most confused changeling born, aren’t you,” Dozer spat. “What the hell is the matter with you? Why would you side with them? It makes no sense!” Flake rolled his eyes and finished dissolving the remaining mesh off of Scootaloo, then turned to Dozer and sighed. “When your own kind tries to kill you, then who was supposed to be your enemy saves your life, you tend to question yourself who is on your side.” He glanced back down to Scootaloo who was lying on her side. “She’ll wake up in a few minutes. We’re staying here until then.” He turned back to Trek and Dozer, wincing. “Any questions?” “Ugh!” Dozer just marched away and sat down a good distance from them. “I can’t believe this!” he shouted to the ceiling. Rainbow Dash and Trek both looked over to him with a raised brow. Flake just rolled his eyes and turned to frown at the stubborn changeling. Ignoring the debate between the changelings, Rainbow Dash stepped into the conversation. “So, what was down there?” Flake looked into Rainbow’s eyes and exhaled through his nostrils. “Nothing…” he murmured with a lack of enthusiasm, trying to avoid bringing it up. “Here, let me free your wings.” Rainbow raised a brow in response to Flake’s disappointed expressions. “Uh… Kay?” She lowered to her haunches to make it easier for Flake to work with her wings. Flake stood beside her, and began to focus a spell. Trek watched as Flake prepared to help her, and Dozer watched from his distance. Dozer squinted as he witnessed Flake perform his spell, and Rainbow Dash just sat there, fully trusting in the changeling. Casting his magic into her wings, the green mesh glowed a warm orange, and slowly crumbled away. He scraped his hooves at her wings to help remove it, and peeled it off of her, carefully and gently. The more Dozer watched the trust they had in each other, and the more he thought about the shrine below, he started to experience a feeling he didn’t understand. Lowering his head, he winced and turned away. “So… what are we doing from here?” Trek questioned Flake. Flake raised his head and turned to him. “As soon as Scootaloo wakes up and Rainbow Dash can fly again, we’re finding the other ponies Chrysalis hid in these tunnels,” he replied. “I don’t know what your intentions are, but if you two aren’t going to help us, you both can leave and we’ll take it from here. But I’m not leaving these ponies. They’ve helped me more than you’ll ever know.” Trek nor Dozer had anything to say. Dozer slowly turned to look at him with a frowning glare in his eye. “Where could we start looking?” Rainbow asked. “This place is so big, and you know it way better than either of us.” Flake put that to thought, but didn’t know how to answer the question. “There is a passage not far from here,” Dozer revealed, pointing a hoof off in the dark. “South side of the tunnel, about a mile in that direction.” Flake, Rainbow and Trek all looked at him in question. “I found one of the cocooned ponies when searching for you and Daring Do… Er, Scootaloo, whatever her name is,” Dozer replied and exhaled through his nostrils. “A unicorn, with a cutie mark of diamonds.” Rainbow Dash’s ears perked and she sat up at the description of her friend. Flake tilted his head in question. “I don’t know… Can we trust you…?” “I do,” Rainbow exclaimed and stood up, adjusting her wings that were now free from mesh. “You do?” Flake raised a brow. “Well, I know he isn’t lying, “Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “He just described to us one of my best friends… Rarity.” Trek and Flake exchanged glances. After a brief moment of thought, Flake shrugged and looked back to Rainbow Dash. “Alright, when Scootaloo wakes up, we’re heading in that direction.” “I’m not going,” Dozer murmured. “Huh?” Confused, Flake raised a brow. “But, you know where she is.” “After discovering that room down there, I feel disgusted enough already about my race,” Dozer exclaimed with a mutter in his voice. Rainbow Dash glanced to the hole in the floor in question toward Dozer’s statement. “And now I feel like a total traitor telling you where to find that unicorn,” he murmured. “Traitor?” Flake questioned him. “I don’t know!” Dozer shouted. “Can I even call myself a changeling?!” He backed away and cringed, looking off to the side in self disgust. “I don’t understand why, but revealing the location of that unicorn to you, it… it felt right.” He turned back to them and squinted. “Why?! What is happening to me? All of a sudden after seeing you actually care for these pegasi, it… it made me feel different. It made me feel sympathy!” He stood tall and began to act frantic. “Why do I feel like this? I’ve never felt this before, and it’s scaring me!” Flake sighed. “All those years in the hive, fending for ourselves, serving our Queen… It has really turned us into mindless, selfish creatures. Although it’s all we consume, I don’t believe any of the changelings in the hive know what love even is, let alone what it feels like.” He then gestured to the pegasus asleep on the ground. “But she showed me. And because of her, I don’t need to consume love to survive.” In that moment, Scootaloo slowly regained consciousness, and opened her eyes. Her tired eyes wandered, and she looked up to the changeling watching over her. Flake smiled at her, and she smiled back. Dozer saw their smiles, and felt a welcoming warmth within himself. He squinted and shook his head. “This isn’t us,” he protested. “What even are we?! I can’t expose myself to this!” “Dozer?” Trek turned to question him, but he had already started galloping the other way. “Dozer, come on!” The changeling running off into the distance didn’t even look back. He flapped his wings and flew off into the dark, feeling the need to stay away from the exposure of the unfamiliar feelings and emotions. “Dozer!!” Flake called out to him, but there was no answer. He knew there was no convincing him to stay with them and help. He sat on his flank and sighed. “It is ironic, how a changeling’s biggest fear is change, when change is all we can do.” Scootaloo slowly pushed herself back up to her haunches. “What… what’d I miss?” she yawned, turning her neck to view her surroundings. Flake took one more glance in the direction Dozer had run off in, and then turned to help Scootaloo back to her hooves. “Doesn’t matter,” he murmured, helping lift her up from her shoulders. “We know where another one of the ponies are, though.” “I still want to follow,” Trek exclaimed. “I am curious how the ponies can help us.” Scootaloo and Rainbow exchanged looks and smiled. “Heh, well… Thank you, Trek, for giving the ponies a chance,” Flake quietly said. “I will admit, I’m a little skeptical about change, as you put it.” Trek shrugged. “But after the few things I’ve seen in the last short while, if it’s for the benefit of our survival, I’ll give anypony a chance.” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Many thanks to these gentlecolts: Proofreading and Editing done by The Princess Luna and David Hasselhoof. Prereading and other Assistance by Morfonious.