Peace at Last Side Stories: Back in Neighpon

by Prince_Staghorn

Arrival

Neighponese

Neighpon.

An advanced country by the standards of most others, Neighpon combined traditional values and life with innovation, and it reflected across the four islands making the country, from the humble shrines of the Kirin in the South Island to the Imperial City on the North Island.

The Imperial City. The technical term most non-natives would use to describe it would be "Steampunk", and that fit well enough. The buildings were somewhat crowded together, there was a hiss in the air as various steam-powered machinations worked, and there were thousands of changelings.

It was clear today that something was going on, though, as other species in addition to the hole-legged equines were present in force.

Baku, short creatures with long, tufted tails and short trunks, weaved their way through the crowd.

Ibex travelers from the West Island strode among the excited throng, regarding everything with a mild interest.

Breezies rode on the wind from Foal Island, accompanied by their changeling kin.

Zenko, large beings similar to a mix of diamond dog and fox, avoided the crowd, leaping along the roofs, accompanied by Bake-Neko, small beings like two-legged cats.

Even Old Mejiro, a local Tsuchigumo shopkeeper, had joined, his eight legs carefully moving, his seven good eyes watching to make sure the alicorn-sized spider didn't accidentally step on anyone.

It seemed like every single race from Neighpon had come to the city, though the Kirin were absent. But what had brought them all to the capital?

***

Nīsan and Onēsan were coming home!

Pupa was incredibly excited. There were few individuals she held in high regard, but among them was her mother, her nanny, Cerci, and her Nīsan and Onēsan- her big brother and big sister, Stag and Hope.

The five-year old fussed slightly as she was bathed by Cerci, but the pink-haired changeling mare had seemingly infinite patience when it came to the youngest of Chrysalis's children, and continued until the filly was cleaned, dried off, and dressed. She still needed to look presentable, even if it was just her older siblings. Using a handkerchief to wipe away some excess saliva from Pupa's mouth, Cerci looked at the filly. She was thoroughly cleaned and ready.

***

It had been the better part of a year since Chrysalis had received an invitation from Cadence to go to the wedding, and the news had reached Neighpon about the attempted invasion. To top it off, shortly after summer had begun, the sky went wrong. Neighpon was in a perpetual twilight for two days before the sun and moon began moving again. And Chrysalis had still not returned. Her sister, Danauria, had reluctantly taken up responsibility for the throne, but everyone was still worried.

That was why when Chīsaki had burped up a message in dragon fire, directly from Chrysalis herself, a week ago, everyone was pleasantly surprised.

Danauria,

If you have received this message, then I have successfully managed to use a local dragon here to send it to Chīsaki, and in theory, you can send messages back until a better system is devised. Due to certain pressing circumstances, my stay in Equestria has been somewhat extended. Tell Uncle Pincer not to worry, I shall return in due time. In the meantime, I shall have to run the kingdom from here.
My son Staghorn has successfully managed to maintain some semblance of peace with Equestria following the Canterlot Incident, and will be arriving in Neighpon in a week's time with a representative from Canterlot.

Your sister, Chrysalis

Since then, a better system had been devised and put to use, involving enchanted stones, which Chīsaki was thankful for. The little female dragon had complained that the constant sending and receiving of messages was making her stomach hurt. Of course, she also said it was making her bronze-copper scales lose their luster and her tiny two-point antlers buzz, so the validity of the statement was somewhat in question.

Not that it mattered to Danauria. She sat in the throne room, waiting for her niece and nephew to arrive, and trying to ignore the baby dragon's complaints.

"...and I mean, what sort of fire is GREEN? I mean, if you're going to use your magic fire for that, it should be a purple or blue color, but green? That's basically saying you vomit out fire! That's GROSS! And it was coming out of MY mouth! Makes you wonder how healthy that dragon is, and furthermore..."

"Chīsaki?"

"Yes?"

"Go see if Pupa and Cerci are ready please."

***

Stag and Hope stepped off the ship, followed by Twilight and Spike. Twilight could only gape when she first saw the city. Stag chuckled.

"I told you it was something."

The unicorn didn't take her eyes off the skyline. "Yeah, but I thought you were exaggerating..."

"Well, I wasn't. Now come on, the palace is this way."

Twilight looked in the direction he pointed.

"...How do we get through the crowd?"

Hope smirked. "Just stick close to us, and you'll be fine."

***

Cerci could see the commotion on the streets as she escorted Pupa. Chīsaki had joined them, and was now telling stories of the many adventures she (hadn't) been in, such as fighting the (nonexistent) Kappa that (didn't) live in the pond in the palace garden. Cerci smirked.

"Was this before or after you fought off the Ushi-Oni Pirate with nothing but a wooden spoon?"

"After, and it was a toothpick!"

"So you manage to do that, and yet somehow you manage to forget where your tail is and trip over it five times every day?"

Chīsaki raised a claw, opening her mouth to protest, but slipped after tripping over her tail and fell into a nearby koi pond. She came back up, a lily pad on her head, glaring at the frog sitting on her nose. Pupa and Cerci laughed, and it wasn't long before the baby dragon joined them, her clanging copper pot laughter contrasting sharply with Cerci's and Pupa's more melodic laughs.

Cerci wiped a tear away after catching her breath. "Alright, 'Kappa Slayer', let's get to the throne room."

The three continued onward.

***

Twilight couldn't understand it. The crowd literally parted around them, keeping them in a constant circle, five feet from anyone.

Spike whispered to Twilight. "He's really a big deal around here, isn't he?"

'Well, he is crown prince..."

"I don't see anyone treating Blueblood like this in Canterlot."

"Spike, while Blueblood is a nice guy^, he's only a prince by title.^^"

"Right..."

Stag spoke up. "We're here!"

The Imperial Palace was a classic Neighponese palace, placed on a hill and surrounded by tranquil gardens. However, one could still see the steam ducts and electrical cables if they looked hard enough.

"Shall we?"

Not waiting for an answer, Stag opened the doors, and the group went inside.

Author's Note:

Pupa, Pincer, Danauria, and Cerci are the creations of Magic Man, but while this version of Pupa is meant to be as close as possible, the extent of her... condition has been dialed back some.

^the incident at the Gala was only due to 1.) Blueblood being sick of mares only caring about appearance, social stature, and wealth, and coming up with the idea to act like an uptight snob cranked to 11 to drive them off, and 2.) Believing Rarity was one of said mares.

^^His family bears no true relation to the princesses, instead being descended from ancient Unicorn nobility from pre-alicorn ruled Equestria. Specifically, Star Swirl the Bearded, ironically making him a distant cousin of Trixie and Lyra

Comments

[Reddened Chaos]

I'm looking forward, to seeing this continue...

[Captain Lunar]

Domo arigato Mr. Robotto

[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq8gK7cfU7s]

[Prince_Staghorn]

4363394 Baku- creatures in Japanese myth said to eat dreams, now synonomous with tapir, though here, they're two different things

Kitsune- "fox", used here to describe Neighpon's diamond dog equivalent species

Bake-Neko- "ghost cat"- think the Felyne from monster hunter

Mejiro- "White Eye"

Tsuchigumo- a type of giant spider

Nīsan and Onēsan- Big Brother and Big Sister

Chīsaki- "Little One"

Kappa- a turtle-like aquatic troll

[Prince_Staghorn]

4363439 Big Sister, meaning Hope

[Prince_Staghorn]

4363464 Well, changelings are japanese, so i'm sorry

[Night Star the Scholar]

Pupa?
Cerci?
Danauria?
Using characters from Maternal Instincts? I find it interesting how some authors will borrow or share characters to expand the personalities of said characters. Even adding continuity to stories.

[Prince_Staghorn]

4365157 I still gave proper credit, and while this is not in the same continuity as Maternal Instinct, that fic was a huge inspiration

[Night Star the Scholar]

4365505 I saw you give credit to the original author, I just love when they expand stories in that manner. Increasing their characters & how cleverly they work it to fit a continuation with the original story.

I love it. That's all.

[Prince_Staghorn]

4365778 thank you

[Razzy]

Hm, so the order in which you read the peace at last stories doesn't matter?

Nice start, always happy to see stories with good outcomes for changelings and Chryssie.

Cya
Raziel-chan