//------------------------------// // Chapter Eight: Gone Foal Gone // Story: Gleaner Chronicles // by sevenofeleven //------------------------------// Gleaner Chronicles The dream of Past Ponyville “Mommy, I want to fly!” Margot’s violet unicorn foal screamed with glee. Twinkle looked up at her with bright green eyes and bounced on the ground. Margot grabbed her with her telekinesis and lifted her up into the bright blue sky. “Look at me Mommy, I’m a pegasus! Wheeee!” she said between squeals of happiness. For one moment, Margot was truly happy. Her daughter, Twinkle, the park filled with other pony parents - it was pure. Margot’s heart was filled with happiness and love. Black clouds filled with green flashes roiled into the bright blue sky. The warm golden sunshine began to get cold. Cold cutting winds started to blow through the park. Cries of fear and surprise were mixed with calls to wayward foals as ponies prepared to leave the park to seek shelter. The sky was quickly covered by the clouds and the area was filled with darkness until the lights in the park came on. “Mommyyyy!” Twinkle screamed with wide eyes. Margot brought her shivering scared daughter down to the ground next to her. She touched her daughter with a comforting hoof. “Stay close to me and we will be home soon.” The apartment was at least ten blocks away. It was a quick walk on a sunny day but now it would take much longer. Margot looked up at the sky. The clouds looked like they were coming down to the roofs of the buildings. Something about that made the fur bristle on her neck. She gazed at her fearful daughter and they went across the street. Just two more blocks and they would be home. Margot looked over at Twinkle, she was quiet and still cantering next to her. A flash of green caught her eye. Another flash of green caused Margot to stop. A tendril of green touched a pony a few steps ahead of her. He groaned in pain and turned grayish brown. Margot looked at Twinkle, the poor foal’s eyes were watching with fascination. She put her hoof in front of Twinkle’s face to stop her from looking at the grisly scene. The gray brown pony with the green glowing eyes stumbled toward Margot. She did not allow it to get close. The enemy was blasted away with a burst of power that sent it flying. “Come on Twinkle , let's go,” Margot said while looking for other threats. Twinkle followed and sniffled. Margot breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, they were home. All they had to do was open the door and get inside quickly. She used her magic to unlock the door. Margot was planning to grab Twinkle when she heard her daughter groan. Margot looked back and her heart fell, Twinkle had a green tendril sticking into her. Her little face twisted in agony Twinkle cried. "Mommy! Help me!" Margot could sense the strange magic draining her poor daughter’s life away. She could not do anything, but watch helplessly as her poor daughter faded away into a green glow and disappeared. Royal Guest Quarters Waking Far and Skybreeze held the weeping Margot and tried to make sense of her statements. They both looked at each other while holding Margot close. “How did she know about what happened when the Gleaners came to Ponyville?” Far asked with confusion in his voice. “She must have the ability to see the past, though in other ponies it's not this extreme, ” Skybreeze said while holding the still weeping Margot. AppleBloom strode up to the group. She touched Margot’s head with her right forehoof and said,”Peace.” Margot’s tearful eyes closed. She slumped into the hooves of Far and Skybreeze. Nga'Devro walked up. “Nga'Devro wonders what is happening, it sounds like a mare lost her foal.” Far looked at the puzzled changeling and said, “Yes.” Far and Skybreeze placed the unconscious Margot back on her sleeping bag. A few hours later Margot woke up slowly. The dream or Vision was so vivid. She had seen the fall of Ponyville through the eyes of a unicorn mare named Prism. Her loss of her foal, Twinkle, tore through Margot’s heart. Prism managed to dodge attacks from Gleaners and Remnants while standing in the doorway of her building waiting for her foal which was never coming back. Eventually hunger and dehydration killed the broken hearted mare. Margot remembered seeing her skeleton back in Ponyville. The dream strengthened her resolve to help Equestria deal with the Gleaners. She opened her eyes and slowly stood up on her bedroll. A tear fell from her eye as she fought back another wave of sadness. Nga'Devro walked up to Margot. “Nga'Devro sends condolences for your loss.” Margot frowned. “What?” Confusion covered the changeling’s face, “Nga'Devro wonders if you lost a little one?” “Yes, um, no. I had a Vision in which a mare, Prism, lost her foal. I felt everything,” Margot’s ears and tail drooped. The changeling nodded,”Nga'Devro understands.” Far and Skybreeze walked up to Margot and Nga'Devro. Margot’s ears went back up as she asked. “What happened when all of the ponies and creatures showed up? Its all a blur now.” Far replied,”Not much. Princess Luna noticed how tired we were and postponed the meeting. We have to go now. Don’t worry, there will be food and drink.” Margot remembered how Prism did her vigil while suffering from hunger and thirst. That made her ears droop again. Skybreeze asked with concern on her face,”Are you alright?” “I am still dealing with the Vision I had,” Margot replied. The SHC walked up and Apple Bloom walked up to Margot. “Y’all OK?” Margot looked down at Apple Bloom. ”I am better, thank you.” “We need to leave now. The Battle Council is waiting,” Far said while his stomach growled. Battle Council Room Even though it was called a room, it really was just a large blue tent with a sectioned wooden table with ponies sitting on one side. Far and his group sat on the opposite side. A white female alicorn with a white coat and a flowing multicolored mane of blue, green and pink was in the first seat on the right. Princess Luna sat in the next seat. A blue female pegasus with red eyes and a rainbow colored mane and tail was next. An orange mare with blonde hair and orange coat was sitting in the last seat. She was wearing a stetson. The white alicorn introduced herself, ”I welcome you to Equestria and my name is Princess Celestia. Princess Luna has already given me your names.” Princess Luna nodded when her name was mentioned. Celestia looked at Margot, ”I am familiar with all of the ponies here except you. What brings you to Equestria in these dark times?” “I don’t know how I got here. Maybe it was the devices that the changelings exploded? I am not sure that is the purpose of the devices,” Margot replied. Scootaloo faced Celestia, “Margot was found lying above ground in Ponyville. We brought her into the tunnels.” Margot asked with narrowed eyes, “Where's the Prophetess? I was told that she could explain things and help me return home.” “Well, the Prophetess is gone. She got grabbed by the Shriekers,” A brash sounding voice replied. Margot looked at the blue pegasus. “Yeah, Rainbow Dash here. I want to raise an army and sweep those nasty shriekers from the sky!” Rainbow Dash said. Celestia turned around and looked in Rainbow Dash’s direction. “I am sorry, but we can not spare the ponies for such a project. I think there are just too many. We could be leaving ourselves open to attacks from Canterlot.” “How about the changelings? There are a lot of them.” A grimace of distaste crossed Celestia’s face. “I would rather not use them for that purpose.” Luna spoke up. “‘Tia, you must get over your resentment against the changelings.” “You are working with creatures that have killed people on my world?” Margot asked while her ears went back. “Well, Missy, I suggest you watch that tone when you are talking to the Princess,” The orange mare warned. “Applejack, Margot does have a right to know about the changeling’s role in what happened to Equestria and her world,” Celestia replied in a conciliatory tone. She motioned to a guard and told him to fetch the changeling Princess Chr'Aya. He saluted and left. “It started when Queen Chrysalis, the leader of the changelings attacked Canterlot. She was driven off by my niece and her husband. We had several years of peace until the Gleaners came. A month later, the same Queen who attacked my city returns asking for asylum,” Celestia said the last sentence with a note of anger in her voice. “It was a wise and just decision. They have been helpful in fighting the Remnants and Gleaners,” Luna said as she tried to calm her sister down. “Luna, you know that their explanations for why they left their hive were very vague,” Celestia said with more anger. “I do not understand, what did the changelings do to Canterlot?” Margot asked. “Changelings are ornery creatures that can drain a pony of its emotions, lickety split. Also they are shape-shifters. Poor Princess Cadence was replaced by Queen Chrysalis. If it was not for my friend, Twilight Sparkle, the Queen would be ruling Equestria,” Applejack said, her green eyes blazing with anger. Right after Applejack’s description of the changeling attack, the Royal guard walked in with Princess Chr'Aya and Princess Chr'Ida. Princess Chr'Ida looked at the faces of the angry ponies and remarked to her sister. “Tough crowd, we should be careful.” “You should be careful sister. I will just tell the truth,” replied Chr’Aya. The changeling princesses bowed to the assembled ponies. Celestia stood up. “I demand the full truth from you on why you left your hive!” “We will have to consult--” Chr’Ida tried to dodge telling the truth, but was interrupted by her sister. “I will tell you so you know and can help us later,” Chr’Aya said bravely. Chr’Aya’s Story Several Months ago Hive Labs Chr’Aya was amazed and humbled by the amount of support she got from Queen Chr'YSalis. They had more than enough researchers and equipment. Now, after a few weeks, the transport gate was ready to send the first subject to Earth. Also there was a viewing device too so Chr’Aya could watch what happened. Shifting his hooves nervously, the test subject waited. “Princess, I am ready to go.” Chr’Aya looked at the changelings monitoring the viewscreen and the support equipment. They nodded. A bright green glow filled the arc of the black and green transport gate. The subject walked into the gate and was gone. A small ripple crossed the gateway. Chr’Aya and Chr’Ida watched as the test subject approached a human wearing a lot of ragged clothing. Earlier, the human had been seen drinking out of a bottle. He then fell asleep with a smile on his face. The test subject walked up to the sleeping human, and looked around then he started to drain the human’s emotions. The human went slack and dropped his bottle. “I told the test subject not to kill the human!” Chr’Aya said angrily while pointing at the screen. Chr’Ida did not care about the human, but she noticed that the human was still breathing. “No, my sister, the human still breathes,” Chr’Ida said while watching the screen. The test subject turned around and staggered back to the gateway. “Is the subject drunk?” Chr’Aya asked with a look of horror on her face. Chr’Ida wanted to laugh but she had a feeling that her younger more prudish sister would not understand. The subject appeared in the lab and took three steps before collapsing onto the floor. He closed his eyes. Everypony in the lab watched as the test subject curled up and went to sleep. Several changelings walked up to the snoring subject and scanned him. Chr’Aya went to another console and checked out the stats while her sister looked over her shoulder. “It looks like the first transfer was a success,” Chr’Ida said. “Maybe, but I don’t like some of these figures. We need to do more testing,” Chr’Aya replied. The test subject belched loudly, causing several changelings to giggle. Several weeks later Chr’Aya's Quarters Chr’Aya sat in her quarters and wiped the tears from her eyes. Today’s status meeting was just terrible. The Queen had put her hoof down and forced Chr’Aya to move the project along faster. She did not know what was worse, being demoted or having the project move faster even though the anomalous figures seemed to suggest that they need to be more careful with the equipment. Even though the designs that Chr'Aya got from the ancient book seemed to work, deep down she still had a degree of mistrust. If the Hive was not in so much distress over emotions, Chr'Aya might have left the book back in the Forbidden tunnels. She sniffled again as she realized that being demoted to just designing equipment hurt her ego. Along with that Chr’Aya thought that if she was not useful to the project, they would find other projects for her and she would not be able to fix problems with the gate tech. After she used her telekinesis to bring a handkerchief to wipe her eyes, Chr’Aya resolved to do whatever it took to make sure humans were not harmed and her sister did not run the project into the ground. Hive Labs Chr’Ida watched the view screens with a grin while changelings found scenes with naked humans. This was important because if they were going to send changelings to different areas, they need to understand how humans move. One bright lab changeling found a way to save static pictures from the main viewscreen. That was useful for research and other purposes. Today, they were going to use devices that Chr’Aya had designed to drain emotions from a group of humans instead of one human. Her overcautious sister wanted more time to study the effects, but Chr’Ida pushed hard for the devices to be made. Five changelings morphed into humans waited for the order to step through the gate. Chr’Ida gave the order and the changelings stepped through. All they had to do was leave the devices and return. After a few minutes, the devices would explode generating a draining blast that would send emotional energy back through the lab and the Hive. The amount of emotions would not feed the Hive’s hunger, but it would take a little bit off the top. It would allow the Queen to keep her throne and add more allies. Chr’Ida knew that the project needed somepony who understood real world demands and priorities. Her younger sister does not have the heart for this. Five humans came back through the gate and transformed back to changelings. Chr’Ida was happy that her picky sister just had to make equipment and analyze figures. In a few seconds, the devices would send a flood of emotion through the lab. Chr’Ida found a chair to sit on as the rest of the lab team readied themselves. Emotion filled the lab as the devices went off. Chr’Ida felt the feelings flow through her. Most of the emotions were positive, but there was a bit of fear at the end but that was OK. She smiled at the small amount of lust she sensed. It was not enough to totally satiate her but the gnawing ache inside her was reduced. The changelings outside the lab would get less, but they would not go against the Queen now. Chr’Ida sighed, there was so much work to be done. More devices have to be made and more changelings trained to carry them. Several weeks later Battle Council Room Chr’Aya stopped to catch a breath and lowered her head. “A few days later, things changed for the worst.”