CCC-Back Home Again

by Fresnor

Beach Party

I sigh as I lean back in my chair, having finished off the last couple reports I had for the day. It took a while longer than I thought but everything was ready for the ‘diplomatic meeting’ I had set up with Twilight and a few others. If anything, I had to admire some of the tricks Celestia used to get some time off and I was willing to abuse them to get Twilight away from her job while her friend was around.

I look over the list of those invited once more to make sure that everyone I wanted to come had sent notice that they were available. Out of all of them Twilight was really the one that had the most problems freeing up time as she had the most responsibilities. I was about to leave when I heard the front door slam open in a way that I hadn’t heard in a few months. Looking back at the list I realized that I forgot one name because I didn’t expect her to be back any time soon.

“Ma’am? It appears that the lady Aurora has returned from her training. She is heading up to her room now.” I nod to my servant and smile to myself at the timing of the thestrals return. I was curious of how well she would deal with the otherworldly visitor especially with Surprise alongside her.

I took a moment to clean up the area so as to give the mare some time to settle in some before I padded my way upstairs towards her room. Coming on Aurora’s room I find that the door is wide open and the mare is laid out on her bed looking exhausted. I let out a whistle at seeing some of her bruises before commenting. “Wow, what are they making you do out there that is causing all this?”

The thestral looks back towards me for a moment before she flops her head back down onto her pillow. “Oh, hey there princess. I just messed up a bit during training with the Wonderbolts so they let me off to recover for a week. I thought that I was a good flyer before, but while I am faster than almost all of them they still easily fly rings around me. My wings can’t quite handle some of their maneuvers yet and I overdid it a bit and landed in a tree badly.”

I wince at that as I knew the feeling of tree related accidents as well as remembering some of the crashes I’d seen over the years. “Well your timing couldn’t be better then as there is a picnic planned for tomorrow. I may have used some political wording to drag a certain purple princess away from her job since she needed that break so don’t think I’m going to let you back out of it.”

She was about to say something else but I kept on speaking. “Don’t worry about image or anything either. I’ve got a few other ponies from town to join in as well, and that includes Surprise. I’m not sure if it’s possible for there to be a serious event with her around just yet.”

The thestral lets out a sigh before her head burrows deeper into her pillows. “Fine, I’ll go. At least if Surprise is there then there will be something worth eating then. Just don’t expect me to be doing anything during it, I’m supposed to be resting and watching your little terrors is not very restful.”

I chuckle as I leave the room to set up the final preparations for the trip tomorrow. It was nice to have someone around that didn’t care about my rank as it was annoying to have to deal with others bowing and scraping all the time. It helped that I did a lot around town that wasn’t expected of royalty so they had started treating me less like one and more of one of their own.

Still there were many that still treated me as untouchable but the ones that didn’t were the best ones to have around. I just hoped that they would open up more with Twilight as she needed more ponies to drag her out of her castle. Right now was the best time to get her tied up in the lives of others again and Pinkie Pie from the other dimension was the perfect excuse to get things moving.

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The day of the picnic soon arrived and everyone that I had invited were gathered in my basement as I charged up the portal to our destination. While I was doing this Twilight, along with Sunset, was looking over the portal archway while taking notes, while I made a note to myself to take all her writing implements away after we go through, and the others were talking. Aurora, Ebony, Ivory, BB, Triguna, and Velour were all watching warily as Surprise, Pinkie, and Sonata were chattering at each other at a relatively rapid pace. My daughters were also having a ball as they played with the younger brothers of BB and Surprise, and a cousin of the twins.

Soon enough I had the portal opened to the terminus in the harbor town where my kingdom’s ships had landed on our return. While there were plans to start up a few more towns around the Everfree Forest, the harbor and the area around the castle were the only places that were well established now. A section of the beach on the harbor had been set aside as a memorial park in remembrance for what we had lost and that was where I lead everyone for our little outing.

Everyone had brought a little something to the picnic though the Apples and Pies had brought the most as they worked in food related areas. This meant that there was a pretty wide variety of baked goods and apple related treats for everyone to pick through. I had brought a few things from my garden for them to sample, though the real surprise I had delivered from elsewhere and I was saving it for Velour to get the first taste of.

Finding a good spot on the beach we set everything out and settled down in a couple connected circles centered on Twilight. Pinkie was in front of her with me and Velour to her sides with Surprise and Sunset next to Pinkie while the rest were scattered around the sides. After eating I sat and watched my kits play with the three foals that came with us before I turned my head towards Twilight.

“So, are you glad that I dragged you away from your little palace for this ‘diplomatic meeting’ between neighboring kingdoms?” Twilight rolls her eyes at my wording for a friendly picnic, before she sighs and smiles a little.

“It’s not like I would have been able to get much done anyways with Pinkie Pie here for the month. She probably would have done the same thing if you didn’t beat her to it you know.” I chuckle at her deadpan tone on the last bit as I dig through the bags that I used to carry food in. I pull out a good sized container that had one of my cooling gems imbedded in it and set it in front of Velour.

“Well if two of your friends are thinking that you stay locked up inside too much then they might be right. Also I need to thank Cadance for getting these out to me so fast. There seems to be a rather high demand for these and I’ve been curious about what everyone thinks of them.” Pulling off the cover I reveal the glittering blue forms of crystal berries from the Crystal Empire. I passed one to each of the ponies there, though my attention was completely on Velour as she was the reason I had brought them.

I had tried a few myself long ago and I still remember the fizzy feeling that came with the berry taste. After talking with her mother and learning about the food from Flutter Valley and seeing the parallel to the Crystal Empire I was hoping that the fizz I remembered was similar to what they had there.

Her reaction when the juice of the berry touched her tongue was far outside of my prediction as her eyes widened and she dove for the box of berries. Most of the others gasped at her, but not for her reaction, but for the fact that a wave of flame rolled over her as her disguise fell away. Thankfully most of them only looked confused about her for as she hovered over the box as changelings had mostly faded from memory again with only the one sighting during the war when I scared them off.

I look over at Twilight who just looks back with a raised eyebrow before I sigh and start explaining to those that didn’t know about her. “Well that wasn’t quite what I expected to happen, but I think it answers the question of if those berries were like the food from her kind’s homeland.” Velour looked up at me with a hoof halfway to her mouth, after having already eaten half the box of berries, before she looked back at herself to see her missing disguise. After seeing this she shrunk away from the others and hid behind me, though she didn’t loosen her grip on the box of berries.

“Well for those of you that didn’t know before, this is Velour’s true form as the daughter of Chrysalis, ex-queen of the changelings.” Everyone except for the younglings, the princesses, and the two Pies drew back a little bit before I continued. “More interestingly she also happens to be closer to what the changelings used to be as one of the lost tribe known as the Flutterponies.”

This brought about some confused looks from everyone except the two princesses as they had heard the story before. This really highlighted the fact that the tales had fallen into obscurity and the only ones to remember them were the few alicorns and other long-lived creatures. “So how are those berries anyways Velour? You haven’t said anything yet, but you do seem to be going through them quickly.”

By this point the box was nearly empty and the young shapeshifter had slowed in her gorging as her body reacted to its fullness. Looking up at me before glancing down again at the box she blushes before she is able to squeak out a response. “Um, they are really, really good. I’ve never had anything like them and even the animals don’t fill me up like this.”

Twilight’s eyes widen at this as she realizes what this meant and she turned to look at me. “You mean that changelings can actually eat these without needing to feed on ponies? How did you figure out that they could eat these and what even gave you the idea that it would work?”

I glance over at the others who started to tentatively converse with Velour again causing me to smile before turning back to the purple princess. “It was actually pretty obvious once we heard the story of what happened to Flutter Valley. There was no mention of the flutterponies leaving the valley for long periods and it was only after the stone protecting the place being destroyed that they started turning into changelings. While the sunstone may not have been like the crystal heart, the fact that they feed on love means that the crystal heart may give off a kind of magic similar to it. Actually I’m surprised that the place isn’t flooded with changelings with all that love magic in the air that the heart puts out.”

Twilight’s jaw drops open at this logic before she brings a hoof up to rub at her head. “It is rather obvious now that you mention it, isn’t it? But this is incredible! If we can somehow recreate it then we might be able to finally have peace with the changelings. But how to create something like the sunstone again and who would we even bring it to once it is finished? I mean it’s not like-“

Her small rant is cut off as I land a crystal berry on the tip of her horn, impaling it there which causes her to look up at it in surprise. “Think about it later Twilight. Now is the time to spend with your friends and I know you’ll just tune everything out if I don’t stop you. I thought that you broke that habit centuries ago before I left on my trip.”

Twilight blushes at this last statement but is blocked by a pink form before she can respond. “Yeah! Come on Twilight, whatever happened to how fun you were when we were back in Canterlot High? And I came out here just to help cheer you up.”

I watch as Twilight looks directly at Pinkie Pie and her gaze softens as it meets the pink pony’s puppy dog eyes. “You’re right Pinkie. There will be plenty of time for that later. Now is the time to have some fun and maybe I can forget what has happened over the last few decades for a bit.”

With that Twilight rises to all fours and starts trotting towards the ocean before taking to the air a bit and diving into the waves. Most of the others soon sprang up to join in on the swimming with the exception of the younglings, who had fallen asleep, and Sonata. The former-siren looked as if she wanted to join in though and I had suspicions as to why and I was just waiting for the last guest to arrive to confirm them.

I smile as I notice a lavender mane speeding through the water towards the ponies swimming around. None of them notice it until the yellow form pops up in the center of them all revealing the horned form of Sea Star. She started chatting with them, and Twilight looked really excited to see a sea pony up close, but my attention was mostly on Sonata who had frozen up in shock at the sight of her.

As the form turned towards us and climbed out of the water, becoming a quadruped in the process, Sonata shrank down upon herself with a look of fear on her face. She looked like a filly that was caught being naughty and she stayed like that as Sea Star walked up to her and stopped. The two stared at each other for a few moments before the sea pony finally spoke up. “I see that one of my wayward daughters finally decided to return home after all these years.”

Sonata Dusk somehow managed to shrink even further in on herself before she managed to squeak out a reply. “H-h-hi, Mom.” Nothing else was said for a while as the cringing pony was grabbed up in the front hooves of the elder one, causing her eyes to widen in surprise.

Author's Note:

Bleh, really suck when your sense of motivation gets divided so much that you lose the urge to write. I still have plenty of ideas flowing around for this and my other stories but certain things keep me away from it. Still in a week or so I should be done with Witcher 3 and my focus will be back where it should be.

Of course the question is will the next chapter I write be for this, Trickster Priest, or Seven Lights.

Comments

[ShadedTz]

It's alive!!!!!!

[john117]

more ..please if you don't mind that is:

[zooba]

While this story is good, Seven Lights is better I think. I haven't read Trickster Priest yet.

[john117]

question will this be updated soon or is it on hiatus

[Trimontar]

is this story dead?

[Crescent Glaive]

THIS IS GLORIOUS!!!

I LOVE IT AND I LOVE SEVEN LIGHTS! I NEED MORE OF THIS STORY

[Samellan]

Both stories are great, so keep new chpaters coming!

[Fresnor]

8143755 It'll be back eventually... Once I can figure out where I'm going next to get to the end which I have partially planned out. Of course I may have to reread some of it myself again to remember just how I was writing it and get back into that mindset.

[NicLove]

Before I read this, what is the Gore tag for ?
And how bad does it get ?

[Hypnos]

I can't wait for more this story deserves more recognition

[Negative Shadow]

Ohhhh so not entirely dead?

[jfyish]

Waiting for new chapter

[Crescent Glaive]

*pokes Fresnor*
Is this still alive?...
I wanna see more of Flarenza

[Crescent Glaive]

Uugh... I've been waiting for so long...

I need more Flarenza!!

[rilliam]

Wow, been a tense few days as I read all of Flarnza’s adventure as quickly as possible, I feel like a part of me is missing now that there isn’t any left so I can’t wait for the next chapter. Love all the rest of it and your use of the various creatures. Hope the writings going well!

[bluerock66]

More?😕

[Rikki]

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This story could possibly be one of the greatest stories here, along with Seven Lights, but please, just re-read it and fix all the misspells and grammar

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[Zapper Frost]

I shall wait impatiently for the next chapter

[Jhtmar]

More?!

[unknowncape7377]

This is sad. 6 years after this last chapter has been posted, the story remains frozen in time. Waiting for the author to take up their pen to continue this universe.

[Randompegasus168]

I really hope you continue this