The Gathering storm
The old-fashioned alarm clock rang loudly, causing one of the two earth ponies sleeping on the nearby bed to groan in annoyance. Cheerilee, mumbling under her breath and cursing morning for coming too quickly, shut the loud and annoying relic off.
"I can't believe I actually requested that thing from the castle storerooms!", she groaned inwardly,opening her eyes. Gently pulling the covers back, she shook her mane loose, then slowly rolled out of bed. "Next time, I'll just put up with the kooky modern clock!"
She stepped on Wigwam's ascot, thrown carelessly aside, as soon as her hooves touched the floor. This past week with Wigwam had been truly magical, but she knew it would take some getting used to living with another pony... and a messy one at that. Looking back to the bed, she tenderly licked the coat of the stallion still sleeping there.
"Get some more rest, you big lug." She whispered to Wigwam. "I'll see you later!"
Wigwam groaned contentedly, and rolled over. Probably dreaming about her, if the feelings coming across the lifebond were any indication (not that she minded such a notion, anyway). Smiling tenderly, Cheerilee trotted off to the bathroom to take a shower.
After she had finished washing and drying, the teacher trotted back out to her living room, and looked around. Wigwam's furniture and personal belongings were being moved into the apartment, with boxes stacked everywhere, and furniture crammed into the room. It was going to be a pain sorting out what would go where- Cherrilee was uncertain how she felt about the prospect of having a dream catcher hanging in her living room. They would have to get his things situated quickly, if they were to be ready for Quackers's belongings to be delivered soon.
After she had dried her mane, Cheerilee put her hair in her now-signature pigtails, ate a quick breakfast, and trotted out of the apartment. Queen Majesty had offered the newlywed couple an immediate honeymoon to Horseshoe Falls or Galloping Gorge, but they had insisted they get matters settled here at the castle first, before they went anywhere. Still, Cheerilee decided, they would get the chance to go away for awhile soon.
As Cheerilee trotted up to Glory's apartment, she gently tapped her hoof on the door. The white unicorn opened the door, and smiled at the pink earth Pony.
"Why hello there, Cheerilee! We've been expecting you!" Glory exclaimed, motioning for her to come in. "We were just getting Quackers ready to go!"
As she stepped inside the entrance, Cheerilee looked down at the sad-looking filly with the white coat and rainbow mane.
"Well, Quackers... are you ready to leave?" Cheerilee said with a smile. "We have a nice room, all ready and waiting for you!"
"I weady mish Cheeriwee. -QUACK!-" The the little filly whinnied sadly, picking up her small bag. "We bettah get ghoing.-QUACK!-"
"Cherilee, I can't thank you enough for this!" Glory whinnied, as the teacher pony led the little filly back out the door. "If there's anything you need... please, let me know!"
Cheerilee said her goodbyes, then led the little filly back towards her apartment.
"Now Quackers, you'll have your own room, and feel free to go anywhere besides Wigwam and I's room." The teacher smiled down at her. "And I'll be teaching you at home from now on... though you will still have time to play with your friends, of course..."
"Miss Cheeriwee? -QUACK-!" The filly interrupted her. "Ah wanted to ask you a favah -Quack!-"
"Oh my! Of course, my little filly!" Surprised, the teacher stopped in the middle of the hallway, and looked down at little foal. "What is it, Quackers?" Cheerileee asked her newly adopted charge, smiling.
"Mish Cheeeriwiwee, I noh mommy didn't wan me. -QUACK!- and aunty Gwowy didn't wan me. Baby Nawf Star say no pony wan gwabage wike me." The little filly looked up at the teacher with tear soaked eyes. "If I good -QUACK!- maybe wou not twow me out wif de west of teh twash?"
The shocked Cheeilee bit her lip, trying to stop herself from crying. She took the little filly into her hooves.
"Quackers, listen to me." The teacher said softly, as she gently stroked the little filly's mane. "Nobody's ever going to throw you away, ever again!"
...
"Moondancer." Queen Majesty groaned, rubbing her tired eyes with her hoof. "You had better have a good reason for calling the Privy Council together at this late hour."
It was past eleven at night, when the six mares of Majesty's inner council gathered at Moondancer's summons. The other five besides Moondancer were yawning and stretching their hooves, and already plotting how they were going to get back at the unicorn prude.
"I do indeed, my queen!" The unicorn replied, levitating the folder with the pictures around for each of the mares seated at the long, lavender table in the council chambers. Each mare whinnied in shock, as she saw the scandalous pictures located in the file. "Here you will see the clear and present danger to the morality all of the foals here at Dream Castle! The very reason I had all of you, my fellow esteemed council mares, called from your beds in the middle of the night!"
"My goodness! Is that Cheerilee in that statue?" Cupcake, the white earth mare with the blue mane, exclaimed. "My stars! We can't let such an amoral pony educate our youth!"
"Now hold on just a second, ladies!" Poesy, the yellow earth pony with the pink mane, replied softly. "I'm sure Cheerilee has a good explanation for all of this!"
"Ah agree with Miss Poesy, girls! Rally I do!" Heart Throb, the pink Pegasus southern belle, replied. "So whut if our teachah has a sordid past! Besides, she and Wigwam such ah lovely couple! It's seems such a shame tah cause them such a terrible row!"
"Ugh, leave it to you to think of the romantic side of this mess, Heart Throb!" Ribbon, the blue unicorn descended from the heroine Red Ribbon, exclaimed. "Wigwam is implicated in these photos as well. We may have to chastise them both for this unseemly behavior!"
"Now wait just a second, all of you-" Majesty's plea was cut off, as the five mares began arguing with each other. The queen's eyes darkened.
"SILENCE! ALL OF YOU!" Majesty bellowed, stamping her hoof. All five of the arguing mares immediately fell silent. "Thank you. Now, we haven't yet heard from this council's representative from Dream Valley's Changeling clan." She turned to the sixth chair surrounding the table, and addressed the mare sitting there. "What say you, Shady?"
"Who? me?" The unassuming pink earth pony, with the sunglasses cutie mark, had been silent this whole time. "I just don't know.. it seems such a shame to punish poor Cheerilee and Wigwam for a few pictures." Shady started to tear up. "In fact, it makes me want to cry even thinking about hurting them and poor little Quackers!"
The other five council mares groaned- leave it to Shady to make an entire room of ponies depressed. A pony from Dream Valley's small and secretive changeling clan, The pink earth mare had been born a normal pony without the ability to shape shift- a failure in the eyes of her family. Shady had grown sad and depressed, feeling rejected by the parents her birth had so disappointed. Her only advantage was that she did not need to drain love to survive, and so she was made the Clan's representative to the council- a very lucrative position, indeed.
"I suggest you send one of your changeling spies to observe Cheerilee, Shady." Twilight Shine came Trotting into the council chambers, staring at all of the mares assembled. "It may be in the herd's best interests to find out what her true motives are."
"Why, whatever do you mean, Twilight?" Majesty inquired curiously, as the pink unicorn mare trotted up to the front of the room.
"My fellow mares, my Queen...." Twilight started, addressing Majesty and council alike. "I have reason to believe our mysterious teacher, may not be a pony at all..."
...
In the castle's northern turret (The other three being the classroom, Galaxy and Gypsy's observatory, and Twilight and Tornado's bedroom) was where the changeling clan, House Shadowvale, had it's private quarters. Masquerade was currently extracting a vile-looking red liquid from a beaker, pouring it into a tankard she held in her hoof. She stared down at the unpleasant concoction for a moment, dreading what she would have to do with it.
"Bottoms up." she thought to herself, as she downed the disgusting concoction, grimacing at it's foul taste. She felt a rush of energy though her body, that caused the yellow Pegasus mare to cough and sputter. The empty sockets her jewel eyes rested in watered, and she said a silent thanks to the horsemaster that it would be another month before she had to drink that vile sewage again.
Shadowvale's nectar, they called it... the cure that made it so Changelings didn't have to drain love from ponies to survive and thrive. First concocted by a Dream Castle alchemist back in the first days of Dream Valley kingdom, this modified version of the love poison formula served as a potent substitute for the stolen love that other changelings needed to survive. Monthly doses suppressed both the craving to drain love, and the ability of a changeling to drain off a pony's love- making the brew a double edged sword.
It was in exchange for this powerful elixir that the Shadowvale clan served Queen Majesty's line for so long... and so well.
"Masquerade, are you up here?" Shady trotted up the steps, looking around. "I have an assignment for you from the Queen."
"I am here, half-breed. No need to shout or get yourself excited." The Pegasus sighed, shaking her green and blue striped mane. she really didn't care for Shady, despite the fact that the earth mare had been a friend of her mother's. It always bothered her Shady's changeling genes, so watered down by generations of pony blood, made it so she did not have to take the elixir to survive. "So, what does our Queen require of me?"
"The teacher, Cheerilee- there has been some suspicious activity surrounding this time-lost mare." Shady replied, in her usual depressed tone. "Queen Majesty wants you to watch her every move, without her being aware you are doing so."
"All too easy a task, half-breed, for a Changeling such as myself." The pony master of disguise morphed into the form of a small Pegasus school filly. "She won't even know I am there. If the teacher from Equestria is up to fell deeds, our queen shall most certainly be made aware of it!""
"For Cheerilee's sake, I hope you don't find anything." Shady replied nervously, as the disguised Pegasus trotted down the steps.
....
"This is unbelievable, Senorita! You should have freed me by now!" The large, cat-like monster in the book hissed. "I have upheld my end of the bargain, why have you not upheld yours?"
"Patience, old chap!" Baby North Star replied, staring down at the book. "The grownups take time to carry out their punishment against ponies they deem to be bad."
"So you will not free me, until your vengeance is complete! A filly after my own heart!" Ahuitzotl bowed to her from the page. "But allow me to give you another way to strike at your hated teacher... through those she cares about the most!"
"Wigwam and Quackers?" Baby North Star asked curiously. "Blimey, I figure we can strike at the lil' filly freak, but 'ow we gonna strike at a Stallion like Wigwam?" She streched her hooves out and yawned nonchalantly. "'Ell be returning ta buffalo country soon, an' like takin' that family o' his with 'em. If I may be so bold as to ask, 'ow you plan on strikn' em down!"
"Ohhhh, Trust me, senorita." Ahuitzotl grinned a fanged smile, staring at the Pegasus filly darkly. "Dere is more than one way to scalp a Buffalo pony!"