Secrets of the Everfree

by PaisleyPerson

Chapter 83: Mission Accomplished

Chapter 83
Mission Accomplished

Charcoal had not yet attempted to leave the tower, but even if he had, the door was locked from the inside. Luckily, Chrysalis was able to unlock it. The carbuncle headed down first, followed by Charcoal with the pup on his back and the sandfish skittering through his hooves, then Chrysalis with the grown timberwolf bringing up the rear. (This was mostly to keep an eye on the changeling.)

“It will be easiest to cut through the throne room,” Chrysalis advised. As they neared the bottom of the tower, Charcoal began picking up echoes of more thuds and crashed, though not so loud or powerful as before.

“What is that?”

“I do not know. Kindling must have disconnected me from the hive mind. I cannot hear anything.”

“I think he disconnected the whole hive,” Charcoal mused. “Pound couldn’t hear anything, either.”

“What?!”

“Shh!” Charcoal strained to listen as the whine of faint screams reached his ears. “They’re here!” he exclaimed.

“The rebels?” Charcoal just nodded as he bolted down the hall.

“WAIT!” Chrysalis’ goo caught his hoof and sent him sprawling. The timberwolf pounced, pinning her down before she could try anything else funny.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Charcoal burned away the sticky substance and picked himself up.

“Running blindly into action will do you no good,” she retorted, indignantly shoving off the timberwolf.

“I have a plan,” Charcoal insisted. To demonstrate, he lit up a patch of the floor in front of him. “Let’s have a barbeque.”

“Fool,” Chrysalis gunked up the floor to extinguish the flame. “Changelings are derived from thestrals. We are designed to be your counterparts- our abilities evenly balance yours.”

“We’ll see about that.” Charcoal sidestepped the mess she had created and continued on his way, heading for the throne room where the noise had emanated. Chrysalis sighed. She couldn’t stop him- this was where they were supposed to be heading, anyway. She reluctantly followed, if just to keep the colt out of trouble.

Chrysalis just managed to pull Charcoal against the wall before he entered the last corridor. “Let-” Charcoal demanded, just before a stampede of fleeing drones sprinted out, pursued by a wall of broiling flame. Next, Chrysalis wordlessly flung another dose of goo at one of the fleeing drones, catching its legs and sending it skidding across the floor. “...go. Uh... thanks,” he sheepishly scratched his head.

“Drone!” Chrysalis ignored him and gruffly addressed the changeling.

“C-Chrysalis!” it gasped, trying to scramble away. She levitated it back before it could get anywhere. “M-My queen!”

“Am I?” she snarled. “Or has Kindling stripped me of this title, too? The last thing I remember was the lot of you insubordinates bowing to his will, against my orders!”

“Forgive me, my queen, but he would have slain us all if we had not!” Chrysalis grunted, uninterested.

“No matter. Report.”

“The rebels have arrived just outside the forest, and crumbled our hive mind,” it told her. “Our forces are scattering without communication. Kindling has gone missing, and there is no one to give further orders.”

“Follow this one, then. Retreat.”

“My queen?”

“You heard me! Withdraw our soldiers! My primary concern now is locating Kindling Pyre. I cannot be distracted by the Equestrians.” The soldier bowed.

“Yes, your majesty.” It scrambled away without another word.

“You didn’t even ask it what was going on in there,” Charcoal jabbed his hoof back down the hall.

“Then I will investigate myself,” she declared, marching ahead of him.

“Not without me, you aren’t!” Charcoal hurried after her, though allowed Chrysalis to remain in the lead should they encounter more drones. The carbuncle, sandfish and timberwolves stuck close behind him.

Chrysalis peered cautiously around the corner, where the voices they had previously heard were no longer screaming, but frantically conversing.

“Get. Them. BACK!” a lavender hippocampus mare demanded, nose pressed against an earth pony stallion’s, who was currently engaged in fiddling with some peculiar device.

“I’m trying! Bah! It doesn’t do wood!”

“Can’t we just take the branches off?” A rainbow-maned pegasus colt wondered, noticing that the timberwolf bark only appeared to make up the outer layer.

“NO! We have no idea how it works! Tampering with it without realizing the consequences could potentially harm them,” the changeling traitor Chrysalis recognized as Shift exclaimed.

“You were connected to the hive. Do you have any idea how it works?” a black-gray hippocampus with a stunning neon blue mane pleaded.

“I know how to activate the orbs, but Fink was the only one who knew how to unlock them,” he hopelessly shrugged.

“So they’re gone,” a dark purple thestral mare bit her lip.

“Not necessarily,” the changeling queen corrected, stepping into the room.

“CHRYSALIS?!” Charcoal popped his head out from behind her.

“Hey, guys!”

“CHARCOAL!” Spectrum zoomed up and tackled him headlong, barely giving the creatures under him a chance to move. Chrysalis tried to move and make way for the ensuing crowd also rushing up to greet him, but was tackled rather roughly by a red and green striped hippogryph and the lavender merpony.

“Char!” Garble’s tail plunged through the crowd and greedily snatched up the missing thestral. “You had me so worried! What were you thinking?!”

“Sorry, Garble.” The dragon released the colt so he could properly hug him. “But we needed that orb.”

“We’d have found another way,” Garble failed to withhold tears of joy.

“It’s okay, I’m fine,” Charcoal assured, squeezing as much of his enormous brother as he could. “And besides, if I didn’t infiltrate Kindling’s tower, I wouldn’t have found his notes on the orb. And I might not have earned my cutie mark.”

“WHOA!” Spectrum exclaimed, noticing it for the first time.

“See? I told you this one was something special!” Time Turner congratulated him.

“What is it?” Glitter had been hastily wiping away her tears before the colt noticed her crying.

“A carbuncle gem, I think. I haven’t had time to figure out what it means, yet.”

“Carbuncles are beings of unity and harmony,” Chrysalis interpreted, still being held back by Hawk and Whirl Pool. “You have unified hippogryphs, hippocampi, thestrals, earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, dragons, and even changelings.”

“And a time lord,” Time Turner put in.

“And a time lord,” Chrysalis didn’t argue with the odd interjection. “I would not doubt that is what the gem represents. As for the ring of fire, it may be an ode to your fire dancing ability.”

“That still doesn’t tell me what my destiny is... who I’m supposed to become.”

“Perhaps the combined symbols of a carbuncle gem and fire ring suggest that you share your destiny with Kindling and I, conducting magical research.”

“He’s nothing like you!” Spectrum spoke up.

“But she could be right. I think I earned it when I created that little guy,” Charcoal pointed to the pup curiously watching from the corner.

“You made him?” Kelpie gasped, reaching out to pet it.

“By accident!” he assured. “But maybe that means that my special talent is conducting magical research in the lab.”

“That is for you to discover for yourself. In the meantime, would you mind...?” Chrysalis nodded to the ponies hanging off of her.

“Oh, yeah. It’s okay, guys. She’s with us.”

“CHRYSALIS is on OUR side?!” Ditzy burst.

“For now at least, I think we can trust her. She says she thinks she may know where we can find the orbs.”

“Kindling kept a stash of materials in the catacombs beneath the castle,” she nodded.

“She’s here to help, guys,” Charcoal assured, noticing the unsettled expressions of those around him.

“Prove it,” High Tide challenged. Realizing what she was getting at, Cascade nodded and handed over the orb.

“Open this one,” the siren demanded.

“Isn’t that the one I sent back?” Charcoal asked.

“Yeah, but we had a run-in with a couple changelings before you got here. They trapped Shining Armor, Trixie, Gilda and Jet in there.” Charcoal’s eyes widened, realizing that they were, indeed, missing a few members. Chrysalis had already taken the orb in her magic and was undoing the braid. Nearby, four bodies materialized out of thin air.

“TRIXIE!” Glitter cried, throwing herself at the unicorn. “Wake up! Please, wake up, Miss Trixie!”

“She can’t hear you yet,” Chrysalis informed, still prying the gem loose. Once the jewel- this time a purple one- was removed, the rest of the orb crumbled. A quick, barely-noticable flash encircled each of the five ponies’ and gryphon’s heads. Glitter held her breath and watched with wide eyes. A second passed, then two, those were the longest seconds of her life. At last, her mentor’s chest began heaving quiet, reviving breaths.

“Miss Trixie!” Glitter squeezed her tightly.

“What?” Trixie groggily opened her eyes. “Glitter?”

“JET!” Whirl Pool happily pounced the recovering mare. “You’re okay!”

“What... happened?” Gilda scratched her head and woozily stood. Winter caught her on one side, which helped to brace her for impact when River Rush bounced up.

“The... orb,” Shining Armor wheezed, remembering. “We were all in the orb.”

“Oh yeah,” Jet recalled, then shivered. “That was creepy.”

“It was like... a void,” Trixie shook her head. “The only thing we could see was each other- there wasn’t even a ceiling or floor.”

“The worst part was, no one could move,” Gilda contributed with a shudder.

“How did you release us?” Fink coughed, allowing Shift to pick him up.

“I dismantled the orb.”

“Chrysalis!” Shining Armor growled, trying to shrug off Spectrum as his support and stand on his own.

“It’s okay,” Charcoal assured. “She’s with us.”

“Charcoal!” Jet quickly recovered and slithered forth to hug him. Gilda and Trixie likewise grinned.

“How can she be ‘with us’? She’s the reason we’re here!” Shining Armor wasn’t fazed by his appearance.

“Kindling betrayed me, as well,” she spoke. “I want to defeat him as badly as you.”

“She knows where we might find the rest of the orbs.”

“I believe he may be keeping them in the catacombs.”

“The catacombs?! Charcoal, we can’t trust her, especially not to take us down there! Do you know how many ponies have gotten lost trying to navigate their way through? They’re never seen again!”

“I know my way around the maze,” Chrysalis assured.

“Charcoal,” Shining Armor took the colt aside. “If she were to betray us...”

“She won’t,” the colt insisted. “Now, let’s go. And Chrysalis, put that timberwolf back together.”

“Why?”

“Because... it’s not right to leave it in pieces,” the colt shuddered. “Besides, if we happen to run into Kindling, they might be our best chance, now.”

“They?” Gilda noticed for the first time the other two timberwolves, carbuncle and sandfish.

“Very well.” Chrysalis rolled her eyes but replaced the gem into the empty husk of bark. The other ponies watched in awe as a new timberwolf sprouted from the hollow shell, this one slender and lithe, even a bit feminine in appearance. It coolly looked around at its rescuers, dutifully waiting for orders.

“Right. Now-”

“Hey, guys! Look at this!” Ditzy was investigating the luxurious throne in the middle of the room. “It looks comfy!”

“Ditzy, we don’t have time for this,” Time Turner rolled his eyes. That didn’t stop the mare from sitting down, and accidentally cracking the seat. Under her weight, the chair completely caved in.

“Oops,” she blushed. “I just don’t know what went wrong!”

“Ditzy,” Time Turner groaned, following everypony else as they moved to assist the clumsy pegasus.

“Sorry,” she grinned through the embarrassment as Shining Armor hoisted her back to her hooves.

“Goodness! Everypony, look at this!” Cascade gasped, peering into the rubble Ditzy had created. There used to be a cushion on top, but Ditzy had cracked the flimsy support underneath to reveal a secret compartment below.

“The orbs!” Spectrum greedily snatched one.

“This is where he’s been keeping them!” High Tide exclaimed, examining another one.

“And you wanted to take us into the catacombs,” Shining Armor narrowed his eyes, his tone of voice somewhere between taunting and accusatory as he picked up the last orb.

“I didn’t know!” Chrysalis indignantly defended.

“Look, we’ve got them now, so let’s just get our family back,” Charcoal picked up the last orb and started undoing it himself. Spectrum passed his on to Fink, and High Tide reluctantly surrendered hers to Chrysalis. Shining Armor kept ahold of his, and watched the others to figure out how to release his prisoners. He gingerly lifted the braid off, and watched as Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadance materialized on the floor beyond.

“Cadance,” Shining Armor gulped, moving to his wife’s side. He stroked her hair before remembering that she was not free yet, and continued to try and grapple with the gem. Once he had finally pried it out, the sand and manticore venom leaked out from the husk. He tossed the leftover bark and gem aside, where Time Turner retrieved it and tried his hoof at assembling a timberwolf. It was a feisty, playful little fellow, which Time Turner and Winter had a blast with.

Meanwhile, Shining Armor brushed the mess of damp sand away from his wife, cradling her in his arms as he waited for any sort of reaction. Only when she began breathing again did he try to wake her.

“Cadance?” he whispered with damp eyes. “Cadance!”

“Hmm?” The princess sleepily opened her eyes. “Shining Armor?” That was all it took for the stallion to break down. Holding her tightly, he rocked them both, babbling about how happy he was to see her. It was all Cadance could do to hug him back and allow him to run his course.

At the same time, Chrysalis was deconstructing the orb containing Essence. As she waited for the destral to wake up, she took great care to shake all the sand out of Jasper’s bark before replacing his gem. Immediately, the timberwolf had Chrysalis pinned, though it took another moment for Essence to wake up. She groggily looked around, only partially registering what was going on around her. “Chrysalis?” she squinted.

Shift’s orb contained Blaze, Spike, and a few of the changelings that had been caught in the crossfire. The changelings wee all quite disoriented and dizzy when they woke up, and Spike eventually peeked open one eye, but Blaze let out a thunderous snore. Garble leapt on top of him, violently shaking his brother to rouse him.

“Blaze! Get up!”

“Five more minutes,” the younger sibling groaned, rolling over. Garble cracked up.

“Okay,” he consented, a tear of relief escaping his eye as he curled up beside his brother. As Spike stretched, though, he outstretched a wing. “Good to have you back, too.”

“Huh?” Spike, too, was barely aware of what was going on.

Charcoal’s hooves were shaky as he removed the bogg sprite braid. After all the time, the effort, and the sacrifice he had put into this journey, his quest was finally over. The braid fell to the floor, and thirteen ponies, plus a draconequus, appeared in the corner.

“Mom! Dad!” Spectrum zoomed up between Rainbow Dash and Soarin’, pulling them close enough so he could wrap a hoof around each parent. Charcoal could hear his teeth chattering against the crystal as he tried to pull it out. There was his gray-coated mother, his chocolate-colored father, both lying on the floor together not ten feet away. He’d longed to see them for so long! But he wouldn’t really get them back unless he could remove this blasted gem! Charcoal finally yanked the stone free, and forgetting to reassemble the timberwolf, sprinted to his own parents.

“Wake up! Wake up!” he pleaded, shaking first his father and then his mother. Torchwood was the first to respond to the violent stimulus.

“Char?” He was promptly tackled by his son, and nearly suffocated from Charcoal’s death grip.

“Charcoal?” Acrylic also looked around, unsteadily making her way to her hooves.

“Mom!” Acrylic was just finding her balance when Charcoal also knocked her off her hooves.

“Charcoal! What are you doing here?” Acrylic squeezed him tightly, and nestled her head on Torchwood’s shoulder when she felt him scoop both of them up.

“Spectrum!” Soarin’ exclaimed, greeting his son. Rainbow Dash also hugged him before her eyes snapped open.

“Where’s your sister?” Dash burst, easily recovering from their imprisonment and searching the whole throne room for her daughter.

“She’s safe,” Spectrum called after her. “Charcoal took us all to the Dragon Craters- they’re still there, safe with the dragonesses.

“Dragon Craters?” Torchwood exclaimed.

“Hi!” Garble grinned, swinging around to nuzzle his pony side of the family.

“Garble!” Acrylic hugged his muzzle, the only thing she could reach. “What are you doing here?!”

“It’s a long story,” Charcoal grinned.

“Your cutie mark!” Acrylic cried, noticing the mark on her son’s flank. He just grinned wider, also looking back at it.

“Yeah.”

“I’m so happy for you,” she wept, joyously crying into his shoulder.

“You’ve done us proud, champ,” his father beamed, failing not to get emotional as well.

“Char!” The next thing he knew, Charcoal was being pinned to the ground by Pinkie. “Spectrum! Shining Armor! Trixie! Gilda!” She zoomed around the room giving everypony a huge hug of greeting. Then, she sucked in a tankful of air.

“Twilight, look! New ponies! AND THEY’RE HIPPOCAMPI!”

“Current!” Acrylic gasped, noticing the group of merponies waiting in the corner.

“Guys!” Kelpie bounded forth to give the Wood family a big hug.

“You know them?” Twilight gasped, allowing Flash to help her up.

“Surprise!” Acrylic nervously chuckled.

“And hippogryphs!” Pinkie went on, proceeding to shake the hooves of the three mountain dwellers.

“Hiya,” River cheerfully greeted.

“YAH! Changelings!” Discord jumped up.

“It’s okay. These guys are cool,” Spike finally shook himself awake. Blaze was also bright-eyed and bushy-tailed by now.

“After a week of getting to know each other, we decided they weren’t so bad,” the orange dragon agreed.

“Guys, meet Morph, Mutant, Tweak, Transmute, and Dragon Fly.”

“Dragon Fly?” Torch raised an eyebrow. Blaze just shrugged with a sheepish grin.

“Don’t ask.”

“These guys are with us, too,” Charcoal gestured to his own changeling friends. “Mom, Dad, this is Shift and that’s Fink. They helped us find you.” Both changelings respectfully nodded upon being addressed.

“What’s going on? Could somepony please explain?” Cadance politely requested, trying to look around Shining Armor for anyone with answers.

“I, too, would very much appreciate an explaination,” Celestia voiced.

“As would I,” Luna shied away from one of the many timberwolves who were now investigating the new arrivals.

“Kindling is still on the loose. Shouldn’t we find him first?” Glitter wondered. There was no need- a group of changelings soon entered, dragging the destral behind them.

“KINDLING!” Chrysalis furiously screamed, flinging Jasper off of her as she marched up to the destral. He silently met her gaze. “You miserable, double-crossing CHEAT!” she yelled, digging her hoof into the marble floor.

“Ooh, this ought to be amusing,” Discord commented, reclining on a recently-summoned couch with a bag of popcorn.

“What’s she doing?” Cadance whispered.

“After Kindling betrayed her and imprisoned Chrysalis in an orb, Charcoal accidentally freed her, and she promised to help us get you back if we would help catch Kindling,” her husband whispered back.

“She saved us?” Cadance couldn’t believe her ears.

“You tricked me into loving you! For a millenia, I pledged my heart to you! I tirelessly worked to reunite us for a thousand years! And this is the thanks I get?!” Kindling still said nothing. “None of it was real! The whole time, you played me! I slaved for you! Stop staring at me like a mute fool! What have you to say for yourself?” Kindling remained silent, blankly looking at the outraged changeling. She stared right back, not sure how to react.

“Wow. I thought he’d be angrier,” Trender Hoof whispered.

“He is acting peculiar,” Rarity agreed. Chrysalis turned around and shrugged at the others, clueless as to what sort of game he was playing.

“Kindling Pyre,” Essence loudly announced, stepping regally forth. Flanked by her massive timberwolf, she couldn’t have looked more intimidating. The stallion switched his gaze upon the approaching princess, but still didn’t react. Essence was equally confused- she’d expected some sort of reaction, considering their long history together.

“What happened to him?” Caramel wondered.

“Do you think one of his spells could have backfired on him?” Flash inquired.

“I wonder if he tried to clear his memory so we couldn’t pry any information from him,” Twilight theorized.

“Ya mean he brainwashed himself?” Applejack exclaimed. Cheese and Pinkie both cracked up.

“Brainwashed himself! That’s funny!”

“Not too smart,” Cheese agreed.

“I wonder if it’s even Kindling,” Garble frowned.

“Oh my! You mean that might not be the real one?” Fluttershy shivered.

“That’s definitely not the real one!” Charcoal realized, jumping up.

“How do you know?” Twilight inquired.

“His armor! That should be his timberwolf, right?”

“Casper,” Chrysalis confirmed.

“Then where’s the carbuncle gem?” Everyone took a second glance at the destral’s wooden armor, which had no gems of any kind embedded in it. Chrysalis angrily cast a spell on the phony, and in a flash of green fire, he reverted back to the drone it was. “The carbuncle gem would have brought the armor to life, and changelings can’t transform into two separate creatures,” Charcoal reasoned.

“So then where’s the real Kindling Pyre?” Trixie gulped. The group exchanged nervous glances. Their arch enemy was still on the loose.