//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Calm gatherings // Story: The Misfits // by Cyber System //------------------------------// Solar Eclipse and Moonlight Shadow rested on a hill, just relaxing with the occasional question from Eclipse, only for Moonlight to respond with "yes", "no", "I don't care", a glare, or no answer at all. Eventually Eclipse gave up on questions, until it was Moonlight who asked the question. "What do you think of these misfits?" she asked. "I don't know, we've only been with them for a day, but it beats isolation on the sun." "Speak for yourself, I would have preferred it." "Why? Did you lose your temper and burn down a city?" "No, I just want to." "Only I was sent there to calm down and control my flames, why were you sent to isolation?" "I just wanted to, no question about that." "Doubt it." "What?" "I believe there are a lot of questions about it, 'why did you want to?', 'what happened to your foalhood?', 'where did your emotions go?', 'why are you so private to others?'." Moonlight pondered this, Eclipse had a point, and right now there was no escaping it. "If I tell you what you need to know, will you keep it a secret?" "I may," Eclipse answered. "Alright, but this is all that I will say," she took a deep breath and began. "As far back as I can remember, I was alone. I was confused, I didn't know what anything was or where to go. I had tp learn how to read, write, and talk by eavesdropping on other ponies. Then when I was finally discovered, I panicked, that was when I discovered my ability over shadows by accidentally hitting him with his own shadow. After I saw how many ponies were looking at me, they were just as scared as I was, calling me things like a freak, a mutant, and a shadowmancer. Problem was that was the first and at the time only thing I was called, so I took their word for it, and then I hid in the shadows ever since, in my own shadow realm where I could be myself and nopony could see me. "Celestia did somehow find me, but after an unsuccessful attempt at bringing me somewhere else, I didn't see her for a long time, but I did later see Luna, who took me in for a few months before I saw her alicorn powers. I asked her to take me somewhere I could be alone, she refused at first but I insisted. Eventually she took me to a place made entirely of shadows, where I stayed alone for months, you know the rest." "So you basically don't want to stand out?" Eclipse asked. "In a way, yes. But after hearing what Cyber said about me, I considered a change. I will show what I can do now to other ponies." "Any other changes you plan on making? Removing your cloak perhaps?" Moonlight was about to answer with "no, none of your business, so stay out of it!" But instead she caught herself and said something else. "Yes, but only when the time is right, I'm not quite ready yet, maybe once everypony knows my name and what I can do." "I'm sure Cyber would say 'whatever you feel is right' and personally, I agree with him," said Eclipse. "Thanks, and you know what? So do I." Celestia and Luna looked at the construction on the large boat, the scaffolding has already been placed and already the ship was starting to take shape. A wood brown earth pony with a five o'clock shadow, hard hat, bright orange vest, and cutie mark resembling a saw cutting through a wooden plank stepped up to the princesses. "The ships are already in the works and should be finished in about a week or so," he said. "Thank you, Sawdust," said Celestia as Sawdust returned to his post, then she turned to her sister. "It is almost time to send Fang to his homelands." "I look forward to this, but should we introduce ourselves to them before having Twilight Sparkle and the misfits head over there?" "It may be a good idea, I should bring along Cadence too for lunch with these predators." "Don't forget the hippocampi. Though what about Twilight? She would want to come." "I want them to be a surprise for Twilight, now we must prepare if we are going to make a good impression on the predators and hippocampi." Luna nodded. "I'll inform Cadence, you send a letter to the predators," Celestia nodded before Luna took off, then Celestia took out a parchment and cast a spell on it, instantly it began to glow as Celestia cleared her throat. "Greetings, Xanthos, I am Princess Celestia. I plan on having a nice dinner with you, your family and the hippocampi rulers as a way to understand you and your culture better as a good first impression so we may be friends. I am excited on meeting you at last, Fang has told me so much about how things are at your tribe and I wish to help you. I hope to see you, Princess Celestia." As she concluded, the scroll rolled up and teleported away to the predator tribe in a similar way to how she sent letters to Twilight, only this was more one-way and had to be voice recorded due to predators not knowing how to read, but it was much better than sending pegasi back and forth. 'It's only a matter of time,' Celestia thought. Mixy stopped at Golden Oaks Library, reading a book about changelings. Changelings are dangerous creatures that dwell deep in the badlands of Equestria. Changelings have the ability to change their looks into anypony they want, becoming an exact copy of another pony. These creatures are heartless and instead get love by taking it from other ponies... "That's wrong," Mixy commented as she continued reading. Changelings seem to be unable to ingest regular food, therefore love is their only source of survival... "That's wrong," Mixy said again. There are a few ways to spot a changeling. Including loved ones acting strangely and starting to get much more close than usual, the feeling of fatigue and emptiness while said loved one continues like normal, and constant usage of excuses. Every changeling is a direct offspring of their queen, Crysalis, therefore they follow her blindly and loyaly, stopping at nothing to protect their queen. Remember, no changeling can be trusted. "Okay, this one is the most wrong, have they even met my dad?" Spike answered as he dusted the shelves, "I don't think anypony has." "Okay, maybe not, but this book has changelings all wrong." "What has what all wrong?" asked Twilight as she entered. "Oh, hey Twilight, it's just this book on changelings, it's got a few errors in it." "There must be many different things about changelings we don't know about now that I know about your dad." "You have no idea," Mixy replied. "So where were you?" "Over with Cyber, his inventions are amazing, he says he's almost there to completing Clockwork." "Ah yes, Clockwork. You should have seen him when he first came up with the idea, he wouldn't stop talking about it." "I can imagine, he and Lyra kept exchanging ideas about what emotions to give Clockwork, kinda makes me wonder when he'll be completed, I would love to meet him." "Yeah... and about Lyra, does she seem... attracted to Cyber at all?" "Hm? I don't think so, why?" "Uh, no reason." Twilight was skeptical. "Are you sure?" "Yep, positive," Twilight gave Mixy an unconvinced look. "Well, maybe there is, I sorta have a slight crush on Cyber." "I knew it!" "How did you know?" "Let's just say it becomes really easy to tell if your assistant has a crush on another pony." "What? Who said that? I never had a... um... I'll be going now..." Spike said as he nervously left. "Anyway," Twilight continued. "Does he even know about this?" "Well, no, he doesn't," Mixy answered. "Why not? Are you nervous?" "That, and also Cyber never really has any opinion on romance, the only time he was ever concerned about it was when he met my parents and it was just a way to make sure it was normal. If I tell him who knows what'll happen?" "The only way to know is if you tell him yourself." "I guess, but when is the right time time to tell him?" "I'm not really the one to ask, that is for you to decide." "You're right, I just need to decide for myself. It's just with being half changeling, love becomes a very complicated subject." "I understand." "Also, could you promise to keep this crush away. At least until it becomes out?" Twilight smiled. "Pinkie promise. 'Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye'." She said as she and Mixy mimed the movements. Xanthos and his family joined Trident's in the southern regions of the island, where they awaited the arrival of the special princesses. They all sat around a table, with the hippocampi in special water filled tanks to keep them from suffocating "When will they be here?" asked Aquarius, slightly impatient. "Be patient, Aquarius," said Amphitrite. "They will be here." "There they are," spoke up the daughter of Xanthos, Lampie, a naturally brown predator mare with a bait lure cutie mark. Lampie pointed to the sky where two carriages decended, each contained two ponies in them. As they approached the ground, the four ponies looked around at the scenery before Trident approached them with a little help from Xanthos. "You must be Celestia," assumed Xanthos, the white alicorn smiled and nodded. "Yes, this is my sister, Luna, and this is Princess Cadence and her husband, Shining Armor." "I am Chief Xanthos, this is King Trident," introduced Xanthos. "And I'm pretty sure we were told there are four princesses." "Princess Twilight has other business to attend to at the moment," said Luna. "Thank you so much for your hospitality," said Cadence. "It is our pleasure, anything for the ponies who helped end the famine, which reminds me, it is time to eat," the Princesses were shown to the large table as the predator and hippocampus rulers took their seats. "Before our meal is prepared, perhaps we should introduce you to our families," said Trident. "This is my wife, Amphitrite; my two sons, Aquarius and Oceanus; and my daughter, Marine." the hippocampus princes and princess waved at their guests. "And this is my wife, Deinos; my son, Podargos; and my daughter, Lampie," Introduced Xanthos. "It is an honor to meet members of a new species," said Shining. "Likewise," said Podargos. "Now I shall have some food in a second." "That will not be necessary," said Celestia, using her magic to levitate several dishes in front of each pony, then as the lid was removed the predators were amazed at the sight of the large pile of really rare meat in front of them, while the hippocampi had some fish and the new guests had some kind of oat hay casserole dish that neither predator nor hippocampus could make out. "Princess, I don't know what to say," said Deinos as she and the rest of the predators resisted the urge to gorge themselves in the meat. "You didn't have to do this." "Actually, what we now see about new species is completely amazing, consider it our gift to you as friends," said Shining, instantly the predators shoved their faces in the pile and dug in. "Well, that is interesting," commented Cadence, slightly grimacing at the sight. "They're carnivores in the middle of a famine, what are you gonna do?" said Marine. "Apologies for our behavior," said Xanthos, who was the first to stop shoving his face. "It has just been so long since we had such bloody, fleshy meat like this." Shining nearly threw up. "I think I lost my appetite." "Er... right," said Luna. "Since you're a bit busy with your... meal, I suppose we could just ask the hippocampi about the culture here." "It might be for the best, though I would keep an eye on them in case they choke," said Trident. "So, about the hippocampus culture," began Amphitrite. "We rule in a civilized manner with a kingdom, we can't go above ground or else we suffocate from the air." "In other words, we have gills!" said Marine. "And a question for my sister," said Shining Armor. "Where are your gills?" The hippocampi exchanged looks before shrugging. "We never actually knew," said Aquarius. "As long as at least our tail or our head is in water, we can breathe." "And what about beliefs?" asked Cadence. "What did you think rose the sun and moon before you met Celestia?" "We always thought it was natural," responded Trident, then Celestia turned to the predators, who already ate two thirds of their meal before calming down and were able to talk. "And what about the predators?" Xanthos swallowed the food in his mouth. "Us predators like to be on top of the food chain, we may live as a tribe but we always respect each other like family." Podargos spoke up. "And we rule by a way of competition, if one predator shows to be stronger, faster, wiser, and more skilled than the current chief, they take over the right, if nopony shows to be worthy of the title, then the title of chief is passed down to the next generation once the chief passes away or is unable to continue. So if my father were to die or grow too old, I would continue as chief." "If that is what stallions do, what about the mares?" asked Celestia. Deinos answered. "The wife or daughter of the chief may assume the title if the chief dies foalless or if the firstborn is a mare, but normally the mare supports the chief and aids him in times of need." "You seem to respect all ponies equally," said Luna. "Of course," said Podargos. "It is a big responsibility to be chief, though sometimes I wonder if Fang is more worthy of the title than me." The name got Oceanus' attention. "Where is Fang?" "Fang is currently in Ponyville with the other misfits." "Will we get to see him again?" asked Marine. "The boats to sail here are being constructed as we speak," answered Luna. "Wait, misfits?" asked Xanthos. "Yes, Fang is part of a group of ponies who don't fit in, but want to be treated like they do. He seems to enjoy it." "That sounds interesting, I want to hear more about what Fang has done," said Deinos. "It's actually a very interesting story..." Celestia said as she began telling them how she met The Misfits and what good they have done for other ponies and Equestria.