Sentinel stirred slowly, a hoof lifting to rub against his brow as his eyes opened. The glow of the moon cast murky light across the room. It was so early that not even the birds dared sing their morning song yet, and the faint glow of the rising sun wasn’t even visible.
Shifting a little bit to get more comfortable, Sentinel found that Raindrop was curled in against his chest, having obviously taken up his offer of the bed sometime after he passed out. Her nose was buried in the crook of his neck, and her hooves were curled up between them.
Sentinel nosed down at the sleeping pegasus gently, shifting her a little bit away from him so he could get a good look at her. She looked peaceful, for a change. She probably didn’t notice it herself, but her expression seemed either frozen in a perpetual scowl or a frown of disapproval, with the weight of her problems a rather visible effect on her person. But now, she looked calm, serene. She really was quite cute. The guard smiled as he imagined what she would look like if she actually smiled herself. Sure, the edges of her lips lifted sometimes when she was insulting him, but he had never seen her truly smile.
Lifting a hoof, Sentinel gently pushed Raindrop’s mane out of her face and into a more ordered position. He couldn’t fathom what it was like for her at all. Finding out she was part changeling, her coltfriend leaving her, being forced to chase after the Elements of Harmony and now, their bearers as well. Not to mention assassins in the night trying to kill her for unknown reasons. And she couldn’t even really control her ‘powers’ as it were. Plus, they almost killed her.
One issue after another after another were just stacking up on the pegasus, and deep down, Sentinel knew that if it was he who had those problems, he’d have given up long ago.
Raindrop stirred faintly against him, and whimpered, hooves pushing at his chest and her expression changing to one of worry. Her eyes flicked back and forth under her closed lids, and it was obvious she was dreaming.
Green flames. Green flames everywhere.
Raindrop was underground. She could see dark, rocky walls all around her, and flames. The green flames surrounded her, eager to consume her flesh with their relentlessness.
A voice called to her through a break in the dancing flames.
Come to me, my child.
Raindrop’s ears perked, and she bounded through the flames, feeling their long tendrils clutching at her hooves eagerly, trying to drag her back. Searing burns found their way to her hindlegs, and she screamed in pain, trying to kick the fingers of flame from her hooves.
Burning agony filled her, and she cast her gaze left and right, trying to find something to sooth the burning of her flesh. A pool of water beckoned to her, and she leaped towards it, coming to a halt next to it. Encroaching flames followed her, eager to devour.
Raindrop inched closer to the water, a sense of foreboding coming over her. She knew if she looked down into that pool of water, then her reflection would not be her own. But the burning in her limbs demanded that she soothe herself, and so she took a deep breath, and leaned over the surface of the water.
A soft sigh of relief left the pegasus as she found her reflection to be normal, Her normal pink eyes gazed back at her. Without hesitation, Raindrop threw herself into the pool of water, sinking her hooves into, giving a low groan of relief as the burning in her limbs stopped.
A second reflection caught her attention, and her eyes widened. She could see a changeling staring at her in the reflection of the water.
With a start, Raindrop looked up. The young pegasus found herself nose-to-nose with herself. Only it wasn’t her. Raindrop could only stare at her doppelganger. The doppelganger stared back, a smug grin on its muzzle, vibrant green eyes narrowed with evil intent.
The green flames flickered at the edge of the water, and shapes began to step from them. Changelings. One after another after another. They surrounded her on all sides, giving her no avenue of escape.
Raindrop turned back to face the faux-Raindrop, but in its place, a new figure stood. In her heart, Raindrop knew what she was. She was the Queen of the Changelings. Their leader.
“Join us, my child,” Chrysalis hissed, smiling at her, revealing the pointed teeth in her maw.
Sentinel had absolutely zero warning. One moment, Raindrop was giving a little whimper and moving slightly, and the next, she was screaming and pushing herself away from him, wide-eyed, hooves scrabbling at the blankets in an attempt to get away.
Automatically, Sentinel tried to hug around Raindrop, to soothe her, managing to grab on around her shoulders and pull her against him, where her hooves could only scrabble weakly at his chest instead of get the full damage and reach of a flailing hoof. “Raindrop! It’s just a nightmare!”
Raindrop gasped heavily, and her hooves latched onto his chest, squeezing impossibly hard as she buried herself against him with a shudder, clinging to him as though for confirmation that he really was there.
“Just a dream,” Sentinel wheezed, wiggling a hoof against Raindrop’s own to try and get her to loosen her grip.
Raindrop began to calm slowly, her ears splayed back and her wings stiffened, obviously in the fight-or-flight reflex, and her grip slowly loosened on him.
“I-I could feel them,” she breathed against his neck, her eyes clenched closed and nose buried against him helplessly, seeking protection.
Sentinel wrapped his hooves around the mare, making a soothing sound. “They weren’t real, Raindrop. It was just a nightmare.”
“T-they were real,” Raindrop protested. “They’re me.”
Sentinel didn’t have anything to say to that, and lapsed into silence, settling for rocking the pegasus soothingly back and forth.
One image was burned into his mind though. The image of the wide-eyed Raindrop trying to push herself away from him, with wild, vivid green eyes.
Sentinel went back to sleep with no problem, but Raindrop found it impossible. Every time she became drowsy, the image of her own eyes, green and demonic, flashed into her mind and forced her back awake. After an hour or so of this, Raindrop decided to give up on sleep altogether, and instead crept through the quiet halls of the hospital and to the cafeteria, beginning to make herself a cup of coffee.
“Can’t sleep?” A nurse asked sympathetically as she stepped in to get herself a cup of coffee.
“Yeah,” Raindrop admitted hesitantly, picking up her cup and downing some of the liquid, ignoring the burning it produced in her throat and on her tongue.
“I can give you something to help you sleep?” the nurse offered, raising a brow.
Raindrop shook her head, shuddering and then mumbling, “I don’t want to sleep. Nightmares.”
The nurse nodded sympathetically at that. “I’m afraid there’s no real cure for those as of yet. Just try to remember that they’re only nightmares. They’re not real.”
Raindrop downed the rest of her coffee and set the mug aside, shaking her head for a moment. As she moved towards the door, she said over her shoulder, “That’s the problem... This nightmare is.”
Raindrop crawled back into bed with the sleeping Sentinel, settling in next to him, and then worming her way into his hooves. For all that she would never admit it, he was her one island of calm now. Somepony to depend on. Somewhere she could go when she just couldn’t handle it all any more.
The words to an old zebra song played through her mind. ‘Don’t worry, be happy’. The message it carried with it: Why worry about the things you can’t change?
It was a nice philosophy. But it was hard to follow.
But right then, Raindrop had a handsome guardpony to snuggle against, and she would have to content herself with that. She was doing all she could to fix her ‘curse’, and Shine was something she couldn’t effect. So she just focused on Sentinel. Maybe it was a faux friendship. He was only with her because Celestia ordered him to, really. There were hints of more, like when he kissed her, but it was soon after Shine that she had no idea whether or not she really felt anything for him or it was merely a product of him being the only pony she could actually depend on at that point in time.
Raindrop sighed faintly, and pressed herself closer to Sentinel, closing her eyes. She didn’t intend to sleep, but hoving in the sanguine abyss between sleeping and waking was a very appealing thing to her at that moment. Maybe Sentinel would be just another let down in the end, but right at that moment, it was good enough.
both climatic and anticlimactic at the same time
poor Raindrop
....aww man. Y u keep torturing rainy?
Latly i am running out of good stuff to read. I use to find storys in those top five storys or whatever the hell that is i dont care though really. But then they changed it to ten and 9/10 are lesbian storys about twilight and i dont like those. So i always get really fucking happy when good storys like this update.
Are you trying to tell me that Raindrop is a hive queen?
Considering the last queen died and killed off the last living changelings, I find this rather... peculiar. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Queen_Chrysalis.png
1028914 My lips are sewn on this matter because spoilers. Maybe she is a hive queen? Maybe because she's the last of her kind, her changeling blood is going to try turn her into a queen?
Maybe I'm secretly sitting on a bombshell that I've hinted at in no less than four chapters so far?
Raindrop sighed faintly, and pressed herself closer to Sentinel, closing her eyes.
Nurse - "Get on with it"
Half-Blood Zebra - "Yes! Get on with it!"
Crowd - "Yeah! Get on with it!"
Raindrop - "Maybe Sentinel would be just another let down in the end, but right at that moment, it was good enough."
Celestia - "GET ON WITH IT!!!"
1028993.
Oh... THAT bombshell, the one i have been predicting since chapter 20?
1029080 PM me the bombshell? I'll confirm or deny
"but hoving in the sanguine abyss" I assume "hovering" is the correct word? Great chapter as usual; I look forward to more.
Raindrop being the intended queen would make sense. She is the last changeling afterall. My only question is how the hell would she have new changelings even if she wanted too? She's afterall only 1/4th Changeling and since Sentinel is 0/4th Changeling her kids would be 1/8th Changeling.
1029155
Don't you use your fancy mathematics to muddy up the issue!
1029498 Oh, we're going to talk in low, disgruntled tones now? Awesome!
(Sorry, couldn't help myself! xD I think you mean muddy up the issue, not mutter. :3 )
Raindrop you fool! Just because your coltfriend left you doesn't mean Sentinel is going to be a let down! Oh, well. We will have to wait and see what happens.
1029155>>1029498 The Revelations chapter for this series is going to be so fucking insane.
1029155
Well actually, changeling blood seems to be aggressive. It takes over and changes the host, so if she did have a foal it'd probably be a delayed reaction like it was with her; if it was a unicorn then maybe it would even be a true changeling with shape shifting and all.
1029780
Can't wait.
1029780
Well hurry up then!
How has no one said this yet? Dawwwwwwwwwww
1028993
What are of her cousins, aunt and dad ???
OK I didn't think Sentinel, a trained soldier, was that weak I mean...her problems aren't that bad! OK let's compare her problems with, say, Frodo for example (because I just watched The Lord of The Rings)
Frodo's problems were: Finding out that his inherited uncles magic ring is The one ring of power, being hunted by the largest dark empire that ever existed in his world, having to take the ring in a volcano in the heart of said empire with a little chance of survival even if he succeeds, knowing that if he fails the entire world will be covered in darkness, being stabbed by one of the nine ring wraiths that hunt him receiving a wound that never heals, having his soul and mind being slowly destroyed by the influence of the ring...those...were some bigger problems, oh and he does all of this out of his own will.
And Frodo was just a hobbit from the shire not a knight like Sentinel.
1031935 well considering that her grandmother is a changeling queen, I'd imagine her parents along with some parts of the family are half-lings like herself; however unlike most of them as far as I can noticed she's gotten some of that much more concentrated changeling blood going off; more than likely is the prime of her blood. like for example, I have 2 parents and I'm going to give them Aa for my mom and Bb for my dad for their blood types; now pretend that I got Ab, I would have inherited a good chunk of my DNA towards my Mom side. Well the same concept could be said for Raindrop. Now as time progresses new "blood" gets added to the plot. Her DNA is AA just b/c idk b/c it could now the chances of the child having AA blood is high, but a lingering possibilty is added b/c I still have a "b" somewhere down the road. Don't remember much from my science class but hopefully that answers some questions
P.S.As for cousins some of them might be in her shoes as well but I imagine others would be just ponies.