Not As Bad
The midday sun stood above the students of Miss Cheerilee’s class as they walked down the rough path. The wild trees of the Everfree forest rose to the left and right of the path, safely held at bay by the pink forcefield surrounding the class.
“Thanks again for agreeing to do this Twilight.” Said Miss Cheerilee.
The purple unicorn in question simply nodded, mind focused on the dual task of maintaining the shield and walking in a straight line. Despite the recent trouble at her brother’s wedding, she was determined to uphold the promise she had made to the friendly schoolteacher earlier that year. She ran through the map she had memorized one more time. A quick survey of her surroundings confirmed her belief and she looked to Cheerilee
“We should be only a couple minutes away now. There’s going to be a bridge so everyone will need to be single file.”
“Got it.” She said, before turning towards her class. “Okay everypony, line up! We are about to cross the bridge and we don’t want to put Miss Twilight to any more trouble than we already have.”
“Really, it’s no problem...”
“Nonsense Twilight, I’m not clueless on unicorns, I know how hard you’re working to keep us safe. I appreciate it, really.”
Turning back to her class, Miss Cheerilee began to corral her students, leaving the blushing Twilight to continue plotting their course.
---
Drip. Drip. Drip. The black pony awoke to the splash of water as another droplet landed on her horn. Unmoving, she observed the cold ground beneath her face and the dark stone of the opposite wall. Tilting her head, she observed the length of the room she was in. Patches of a faded red carpet stretched across the corridor, visible only due to the large, picturesque windows. After a long look down the hall, the pony attempted to stand. She pushed her front hooves down only to discover that she had little to no strength left. All of her might only resulted in enough force to flip herself over. Luckily, her newfound view of the wall revealed a thick vine crawling up the height of the wall. Slowly, she reached towards it. Seconds stretched into minutes as she grasped the vine with both hooves. After a minute of hard breathing she began to pull. Buildings shook as she slowly drew herself up to a sitting position. Each movement requiring enough force to move the sun, she managed to turn herself to look out of the closest window.
The brightness of the outdoors blinded her, but she fought past the ensuing migraine to look out. A barren and lonely castle met her eyes. Decrepit parapets and partial walls littered her vision leaving an impression of a castle as beaten as she, herself. This stirred a thought. I am beaten. This thought brought another. Who am I? The pony thought on this. She recalled many names, many colors. Steady Brick. Red. Dancing Lilly. White. Amethyst Blossom. Purple. None of those seemed right. She raised a hoof to her face. Black. Holes. She turned to her wings. Clear. Holes. This wasn’t enough. She raised a hoof to her horn. Jagged. Changeling. This felt right, but at the same time, wrong. She looked towards her wings which sparkled and shone in the light as she fluttered them. Glimmer. I am Glimmer. This felt right, but something was still wrong. She cast a wary look across the hall. She focused on a pile of debris and felt a memory resurface. I fell. I made that debris. A turn of her head revealed a pony sized hole in the ceiling a short distance from the debris. With a flinch, she recalled the cause of her crash landing. The invasion...what happened? Where am I? Where are the oth- Glimmer shot bolt upright as the problem finally clicked into place. Buzz! where is he? She stood upright and began to look around wildly, dipping into reserves of energy she was sure she didn’t have. I’ve already lost everything else, I can’t lose my colt.
---
“Now students, this bridge has been repaired and reinforced, but it is still old. I expect everyone to behave themselves as they cross single file. Miss Twilight will go first and I will go last. Once you are on the other side, you are free to explore the grounds for a while, but no one is to enter without Miss Twilight or me.”
As Cheerilee finished her speech, a pegasus at the back of the class raised his hoof.
“Yes Featherweight?”
“I thought the Everfree was supposed to be super scary and dangerous, why are we allowed to wander around once we cross the bridge?”
“That is an excellent question, but I feel that that would be best directed towards Miss Twilight.”
Cheerilee turned toward the purple unicorn that was currently doing some calculations with a stick in the dirt.
“Twilight?”
Twilight gave a start and spun around, a blush faintly visible on her muzzle.
“Yes?”
“Featherweight wanted to know why it was safe on the other side of the bridge.”
“Oh,” said Twilight, surreptitiously rubbing her rear hoof over her calculations. “is that all? It is safe around the old celestial castle due to a variety of powerful warding spells that were cast on the grounds at its creation. These spells keep anything with ill intent from entering the grounds. Of course, anything with sufficient power or magical knowledge could circumvent these wards, but the only being to do that was Princess Luna, and that’s hardly a good example because she was one of the ponies who cast it in the first place.”
The students looked at Twilight blankly for a second before Sweetie Belle piped up,
“So basically, it’s because the princesses are protecting us?”
Twilight sagged a little at this.
“Yeah, sure.”
Cheerilee clapped her hooves together and chirped to the class,
“Right then, that’s enough questions. Everybody line up to start crossing.”
As the children argued their way into a single-file line, Cheerilee leaned over to Twilight and whispered,
“Don’t worry about it, they’re just foals. I’m pretty sure a couple of them got it, but for the most part you need to have a bit more patience than usual”
Twilight nodded before taking her place at the front of the line. At Cheerilee’s mark, the class set off across the bridge. Many of the more skittish students stopped moving the moment they looked down, but with some urging, they were convinced that it was safe to continue.
As the last of the class crossed to the other side, they all looked to Cheerilee, excitement obvious upon their faces. She looked around, mouth open in preparation for a speech, before sighing and saying,
“Fine, I’ll leave off the safety talk. you have thirty minutes to go explore.”
The class gave an excited cheer as they ran off to see what they could get up to in the short amount of time. She gave a slight chuckle
“I’ll need your help to keep track of them, Twilight. Do you think you’re up to it?”
Twilight gave a slight grunt, closely focused on some more writing she was doing in the dirt. Cheerilee gave a little cough and Twilight leaped into the air before turning to Cheerilee.
“Whatcha got there?” Asked Cheerilee.
“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.” replied Twilight, a nervous smile plastered across her face.
Cheerilee gave her a look of disbelief before saying, “Did you hear what I said?”
“Something about tracking.”
“I need your help watching the foals.”
“Got it.”
Cheerilee eyed Twilight for a moment before turning to walk around the area. Twilight hurriedly scuffed up her writing before running after Cheerilee.
---
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Treasure Hunters Yay!”
The three mischief making fillies hadn’t waited a single second before rocketing off to explore the ruined castle of the Celestial sisters. Now far ahead of the rest of the class, they were poking around anywhere and everywhere, looking for hidden passageways and treasures.
“Ah don’t know Scootaloo. I don’t think anypony would keep their treasure in a compost heap.”
“Come on Applebloom, it’s the perfect hiding place. Now give me a lift.”
With a wary sigh, Applebloom dug her hooves in and pushed up as Scootaloo attempted to climb over the wall to the compost heap they were currently investigating. As Scootaloo crested the wall, Sweetie Belle piped up,
“Uh, girls? There’s a gate over here...”
The moment Sweetie Belle said this, Scootaloo lost her footing and tumbled into the moist dirt.
“See anything in there?” yelled Applebloom.
“Just a bunch of dirt.” replied Scootaloo.
“Ah’ll come around and let you out.”
As Applebloom rounded the corner to help Sweetie Belle release the gate, she heard the two voices approaching least wanted to hear.
“Where did those blankflanks run off to this time?
“No doubt getting their pretty little flanks into trouble like usual, Silver.
“I wonder what kind of ancient evil they’re going to unleash this time.”
“Maybe they’ll get their cutie marks in Helping Villains.”
After the last remark, the two fillies speaking came into view from behind a stone arch and spotted the pair standing outside the stone enclosure.
“Well there’s two of them. Hey blankflanks, where’s the orange one?” asked Diamond Tiara.
“I have a name you know.” said Scootaloo from inside the heap.
“Is she seriously in there?” asked Silver Spoon.
“There is a very good reason as to why I am in here and I will explain it as soon as you get me out.” retorted Scootaloo.
“What do you think Diamond? Should we help them?”
“Hmm, yeah. We might as well help the blankflanks.”
“We don’t need your help!” yelled Scootaloo.
“Yeah!” chimed in Applebloom.
“Um girls...” whispered Sweetie Belle.
“Looks like Sweetie Belle’s the only one of you with eyes.” said Silver Spoon. “The latch on that gate is rusted shut. You need our help if you want to get that open without getting into trouble.”
Sure enough, the old, two-door wooden gate was locked shut and rusted beyond all recognition. The old iron hinges were in similar repair. The metal was was decrepit, but still holding up. Applebloom gave a quick kick to the gate.
“Ah hate to admit it, but they may be right.”
“As always.” said Diamond Tiara.
“Ya’ll don’t have to be all smug about it.”
“Differences aside,” interjected Sweetie Belle, “We should probably get going before we get called back.”
“Whatever you girls do, can you hurry it up? It’s getting kinda gross to be standing in here.” complained Scootaloo.
“Yes, let’s.” said Diamond Tiara, “Everypony line up and we’ll kick the door at my mark.”
With a bit of fussing, all four fillies lined up in front of the door and prepared to kick.
“One, Two, Three, Kick!”
As one, the four fillies bucked the door as hard as they could, causing it to shudder and give off a huge amount of dust. The iron work held strong, but a large crack now ran up the gate.
“Aw shucks, it didn’t work. Should we try something else?” asked Applebloom.
“Buck up blankflank! We’re making progress. It just needs another good kick. Everypony bunch up and get ready to go again.” ordered Diamond Tiara.
Once again, the four fillies lined up. This time, flank-to-flank they kicked and caused a large portion of the gate to break off and land in the dirt.
“Ow!” yelled Scootaloo.
“Hold on Scoots, we’ll find ya!” shouted Applebloom.
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom ran to the pile and began digging through the dirt for their fallen comrade. Soon both of them felt a hoof in theirs and pulled.
“I’ve got her!” they exclaimed in unison.
Applebloom looked to Sweetie Belle to find her eyes wide and clutching Scootaloo. Slowly, she turned towards the hoof she was holding. She followed the black, holed hoof up the black, holed leg and up to the large blue eyes that were staring into hers.
“Changeling!” she screamed letting go and running away from the monster.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders came rushing out of the stone compost so fast that they ran into Diamond Tiara and Silver spoon who were still standing there.
“What are you blankflanks so worked up about? Did you touch a bug? Maybe get a little mud in your mane?” sneered Diamond Tiara.
“For your information there is an evil monster in there.” retorted Scootaloo.
Diamond Tiara poked her head past the gate.
“All I see is a terrified foal you dolts.”
Diamond Tiara stepped through the gate and took a good look at the form cowering before her. Gossamer wings buzzed skittishly as the black, horned pony before her watched every movement she made.
“Don’t let those idiots get to you. We don’t mean any harm. How did you get here?”
The pony didn’t reply. It simply continued to stare. She raised a hoof and it recoiled.
“I’m not going to hit you. I just want to see if you’re hurt.”
The pony returned to its original position and continued to watch her warily as she stepped closer to it. Diamond Tiara carefully looked it over but didn’t find much of any use.
“Do you mind if I call my friend in? She knows a lot more about medicine than me.”
The pony’s eyes widened before it carefully nodded its ascent.
“Silver! Get in here. I need you to check for injuries.”
“Just a second!”
Silver Spoon said something undistinguishable before slowly walking in. The moment she saw the Pony, she gave Diamond Tiara a questioning look.
“He won’t say anything and I certainly don’t believe he lives here. Check his health if you can. I bet he has a mother somewhere and I would hate to return him injured.”
At the mention of a mother, the pony began to sniffle. Diamond Tiara took it into a hug.
“There, there. We’ll get you back to your mother somehow.”
Silver Spoon, working around Diamond Tiara, carefully inspected the foal. The alien physiology made it difficult, but she applied everything she knew to diagnose.
“I think it’s fine. It seems to be built differently than us, but I don’t think it has anything more than a scuff or a bruise.”
“Do you feel fine?” Diamond asked the pony.
The pony didn’t respond. Diamond Tiara turned to see it breathing slowly, fast asleep. She attempted to extricate herself from its hold only to be gripped even tighter.
“It looks like I’m stuck here Silver. Can you go make sure the others don’t freak out?”
“No problem.”
---
“What’s the deal? Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are never this nice.” said Scootaloo.
“Just because we’re not nice to you, doesn’t mean we’re not nice.” Interjected Silver Spoon as she rounded the corner. “Diamond Tiara and I are active helpers in our community, unlike you three.”
“We help.” protested Applebloom.
“No, you destroy. We’ve spent many, many hours cleaning up after your messes.”
“You really did that?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Yes Sweetie, we did.”
“Ok, this is real fascinating and all, but aren’t we forgetting the important issue here? There’s a highly dangerous changeling in there. Shouldn’t we tell Miss Cheerilee and Twilight?” asked Scootaloo.
“We should not.” snapped Silver Spoon, “All that is in there is a highly terrified foal. We don’t need to bring anyone else into this at the moment.”
“But Silver, you don’t know what they’re capable of.” Insisted Sweetie Belle “We’ve seen first hand what they will do. We really need to tell someone.”
“Sweetie, I’m sure you three saw some bad stuff, but I’m trusting Diamond’s judgement on this. She’s really good at reading ponies. If she doesn’t see a threat, then neither do I.
“No offense Silver, but we don’t exactly trust Diamond. I’m going to go get Miss Cheerilee.”
“Scootaloo if you take one step I will take you down.” growled Silver Spoon. “I think you three need to march in there and apologize to that poor thing as soon as it wakes up.”
“Ah hate ta say it, but I think she might be right, girls.” said Applebloom.
“Fine, but I don’t have to like it.” sulked Scootaloo.
“Uh Silver, I agree with you, but we’re going to need to check in with the class pretty soon. Maybe we should get Diamond Tiara and come back later?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Darn, you’re right. Let’s go grab her.”
The four fillies crept through the gate to find Diamond Tiara sitting in the arms of the changeling. She was cooing to it quietly and rubbing its head as they approached. She looked up and gave them a quick shush before returning to her cooing.
“Can you get out?” asked Silver Spoon. “We need to report in pretty soon.”
“Not really,” whispered Diamond Tiara “he’s got me pretty tight.”
“He?” asked Scootaloo.
“He’s been talking in his sleep. His voice sounds masculine.”
“Well we need to figure out something. We can’t just have you not show up.” said Sweetie Belle.
“I hate to say it, but we might need to tell someone.” said Silver Spoon.
“Wait! I’ve got it!” exclaimed Diamond Tiara “You go tell everyone that you think I got lost in the castle. That will give me enough time to get him to safety somewhere else. Once that’s taken care of, I’ll come find you girls.”
“Ah don’t know, what if ya’ll get actually lost?” asked Applebloom
“I’ll just have to figure that out. Do you have a better plan?”
“No, not really.”
“Then it’s set. You go tell them that, and I’ll try to wake him up.”
With some nervous affirmations, the CMC and Silver Spoon set off, leaving Diamond Tiara with the slumbering changeling. She nudged him, causing him to nuzzle her.
“Come on, we need to move. We can’t leave you here.”
The sleepy changeling yawned, revealing tiny pointed teeth and buzzed its wings.
“I’ll take that as an agreement.”
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Ah che bell'inizio!
Un mutaforma che viene separato dlla madre ma viene trovato da dei pony che iniziano a cercare di aiutarlo a ricongiungersi con la sua famiglia.
2586340 Grazie. Sono contento che ti sia piaciuto. Io amo la madre-bambino dinamica e ho sempre apprezzato changeling. Se vi state chiedendo circa la grammatica, ho usato google translate, perché ho pensato che sarebbe stato elegante a rispondere in italiano.
2586444
Grazie mille!!!!!