41- Taking a break... Almost
Bound by Scales- Taking a break… Almost
After taking a bit of time to find the door to Pinkis’ room… and trying to have dad not stare at everything around him, I knocked on the door a couple of times to try and get her attention. But not too loudly… I didn’t want to wake up Candy Apple if she was sleeping. “Hey Pinkis, I’m back,” I said in a light tone of voice. “Can I come in?”
The door opened up wide, and Pinkis was standing there in the doorway. “Course, but I have some… news.”
“So do I…” I told her in response as Dad crawled on top of my head… for some reason. “I’ll let you go first though.”
“The girls are moving out.” Pinkis said as she went to her massive fridge… well, one of her fridges to pull out a bag of apples. Personally though, I was a bit surprised at the news that the rest of Pinkis’ friends were moving… “Well, all but Shout. The rest have new things and places to go. Brutalight’s going to some school and is staying there full time while Rainbine and Derpigun assist this other Displaced’s problem. Apple Pills didn’t say though.” Well, at least that cleared up some things.
“Well, I do wish the best for them. It’s a shame that they couldn’t be able to stay around longer though,” I said, trying to sound empathetic and supportive. “Though… my news may be a bit… weird. And it involves him.”
At the last part, I pointed to dad and he let out a deep sigh. “I have a name… and no, don’t be like Tina and call me Syrup…”
“Are you… Ken’s new pet?” Oh wow… first, Tina calls dibs on him being a pet and now this? I wonder how long it would take for dad to go nuts.
“No… and I’m honestly a bit surprised that you’re the same girl who used to live next door to us when Ken was only just a young kid.” That… had me sigh for a moment and look back at Pinkis, before taking a deep breath.
“You’re not going to believe this…” I then spoke up, pointing back at him again. “But he’s my father…”
“Okay.” Pinkis said without hesitation.
“Wait… You… understand?” I heard dad ask, though he sounded more like he was questioning Pinkis than anything else. “No questions on How or Why… just ‘okay’? That… was not entirely what I was expecting.”
“You get used to it once you meet others in the same boat as you are,” I told him in response before looking at Pinkis. “Speaking of which… I’m sorry that I haven’t had the chance to spend time with you recently, Pinkis. My uncle decided to host some big Mad Max like tournament out in the middle of the badlands and I felt as if I needed to tackle that before Celestia or anypony else found out… Now though, I think I’m going to take a break and spend it with you. How does that sound?”
“Good, I’ve been bored outta my mind. Shout’s on a little monster hunt, looking for some Hydra in the bogs.” I nodded my head at that… before remembering something as I looked back at Dad.
“Um… Dad? Can you… leave us alone for a bit? I think Pinkis and I need some privacy.” Dad… didn’t really catch onto that cue really well though… until after I decided to step inside and leave him outside of Pinkis’ room. Hopefully, he’ll find Applejack and get the chance to see the kids.
Speaking of kids though… “So, how’s Candy Apple doing?”
“Surprisingly good.” Pinkis replied to me. Which sounded rather positive in itself.
“She’s not giving you a hard time now, is she?” I asked.
“It gets a little hard here and there, but Shout used to babysit. She’s helped and taught me a lot.” She explained. Well, perhaps some day she could be able to teach me a thing or two if AJ wants me to take a day off to look after the kids. It’s not ideal… but hey, I gotta do my part too with the whole parenting thing.
“Has Applejack had the chance to check in on you? I know that she’s been busy with some things back at Sweet Apple Acres, but I would think she would still have some time to see how you and Candy are doing.” I told her in response, wondering a bit as to where Candy was right now. There wasn’t exactly a crib or anything in plain sight, so I think it may be possible that Candy has her own room.
“No, I haven’t heard much from her.” Pinkis said, munching on an apple. “Gets kinda lonely if it wasn’t for Shout.”
“I’m… sorry to hear that,” I replied back, a bit surprised about hearing that statement. I was pretty sure that Applejack did check up on her… but maybe with the whole incident with Torgue and how she had to go camping with her sister that things didn’t turn out the way she wanted it to be. “Hey, if it helps, I can stay for a while and help you out. Would you be okay with that?”
“I suppose. What about your dad?” Pinkis asked.
“If anything, he’s probably going to wait with Revaan or Shayne. I told him to stay clear of Tina because she thinks he’s the reason why I originally disappeared in the first place,” I said with a deep sigh. “It’s a long story… though, I think he’ll manage.”
“Alright…” Pinkis chuckled, smirking. “But the babe’s asleep right now. Nothing to do.”
I… raised an eyebrow at that, before looking back at her. “Nothing at all? Are you sure about that? We could always do something to pass the time.”
“I suppose, but what?” Pinkis asked.
“Maybe a game or something? I was trying to think of something that could be relaxing,” I told her in response before beginning to look for a place to sit down. “I’m still a bit sore from all the running around earlier and getting shot at. Heck, if Applejack’s not busy, maybe we can have her join in on the fun.”
“Just rest a bit.” Groaned Pinkis.
“Alright, sure then…” I said. Hey… I know that I wanted to spend some time with Pinkis, but if she wants for me to rest, then who am I to complain?
Elsewhere
“So… Where are we supposed to be meeting Thorax at?” Trixie asked as she looked back at Starlight. Despite the fact that they had been to the Changeling Kingdom before… there were several differences between then and now that they had to take into account. For one thing, back then, they had to rescue their friends and everyone else that was kidnapped and taken by Chrysalis. Now… they had to help King Thorax with a particular problem. Something that Twilight told them to consider as their first ever ‘Friendship Problem’ to solve.
However, with the fact that they were walking most of the time… and the fact that Trixie accidentally lost the map, Starlight wasn’t really entirely pleased with how this trip was first starting out to be. “I would guess the front of the kingdom… I would look at the map, but somepony lost it…”
“Hey! The Great and Powerful Trixie had an urgent matter to attend to!”
“Fixing your hat and cape is not an urgent matter…” Starlight deadpanned, looking back at her friend before letting out a deep sigh. “Besides, you can’t be messing around with your cape when we find him.”
“Remind me again why we’re here…” Trixie asked, looking confused. “Trixie- I mean… 'I' get that Thorax asked for us to come here and so did Princess Twilight… but they never explained why.” That had Starlight sigh to herself, realizing that Trixie was not informed of the current circumstances… or probably did not pay attention to them in order to annoy Twilight again.
“Thorax wants us to… help out his brother,” Starlight explained to her friend as she stopped trotting in order to face her. “According to Twilight, Thorax’s brother is the only changeling who hasn’t transformed yet after the… reformation of the hive.”
“Which won’t be happening.” A masculine voice hissed. The speaker was a purple eyed changeling standing atop a rock. “And my ‘brother’ shouldn’t have bothered. You ponies waste your time.”
“I-i’m going to guess that your Pharynx?” Starlight asked, a little startled by how he just happened to pop up out of nowhere. Even if she didn’t sense anypony with her magic, this changeling caught her by surprise.
“Yeah, what gave it away?” The changeling looked slightly annoyed. Starlight herself was a bit embarrassed by that, especially since it was stating the obvious. But before she could say anything, that’s when they both heard somepony else speak up.
“There you are,” To Starlight, hearing the voice of Thorax was a personal sigh of relief… and a way out of a rather awkward situation. However, his arrival did not go down so well with Pharynx. “Pharynx, what are you doing? These two are guests here.”
“So? I don’t care if they’re the Princesses of Equestria.” Pharynx’s eyes narrowed venomously towards Thorax. “And how come they know of my name?”
“Because I told them… I was concerned about you since you have been acting rather differently over the last few days,” The king of the changelings told his brother. “So I told Princess Twilight about you and in turn, she sent two friends of mine in order to help you…”
“So, the Princess sent two ponies to silence the last pureblood changeling, hmm?” Pharynx glared at the mares. Which… made Starlight raise an eyebrow as she did not understand what he’s referring too.
“Pharynx, you don’t need to be hostile to anypony anymore… What you’re doing isn’t being pure, it’s starving yourself and being hostile towards everypony else.” Thorax then said in response. “Would you really want to starve yourself to death just because you don’t want to accept the new ways?”
“The new ways are laughable! Talking about feelings, arts and crafts, it’s sickening!” Pharynx’s tongue lashed out at Thorax. “I’m perfectly fine. The rest of you can’t even hold off a simple animal anyways! This ‘reformation’ or whatever made us weak. And you’re all buddy buddy with the nation we tried to take over.”
“Because there isn’t a need to fight anymore… Chrysalis only did it because she was envious of what they had and thought that the only way to get it was to take it by force,” Thorax responded back to him. “We don’t need to fight anymore. So why still come off like this if there is nothing to fight in the first place?”
“There’s always a need to fight. Even those silly ponies know that, because that’s why they have the royal guard. We live out in the middle of nowhere, with creatures that we’ve fought for centuries and bested time and time again.” Pharynx frowned more. “Ponies still hate us, even if you choose to ignore it.”
“They fight to protect what’s dear to them… We once fought to take what’s dear to them… there’s a difference,” Thorax told him. “Pharynx, leave my friends alone. They have no quarrel with you and neither do I.”
Pharynx stared at Thorax for a long while, before turning and storming off. Which… startled both Starlight and Trixie as they just watched him stomp off into the distance. “Woah… that was…”
“Hostile? Yes…” Thorax sighed. “This is part of the reason why I was concerned about him. He’s always been against this new change in the hive, but as of recently, his behavior’s been a lot more different. Going on about the whole ‘pureblood’ thing for the last week… I want him to see that he doesn’t have to be like this, but his mind’s like a fortress… He’s not even allowed to live in the hive anymore because of all this.”
Starlight and Trixie raised an eyebrow in response as Trixie took the chance to respond. “Wait… where does he stay then?”
“In a cave that’s not far from the hive… why?”
“Well… Trixie has a… bit of a theory,” Hearing that had Starlight raise an eyebrow as she seemed a little surprised by the fact that Trixie had some kind of thought on the matter. “Back before I met Starlight, I once found something called the Alicorn Amulet… it lead to me having great magical power, but it made me a completely different pony…”
“Wait… are you suggesting that Pharynx found some kind of magical object that’s making him act this way?” Starlight asked. “That sounds like a plot straight out of one of Rainbow’s Daring Do books.”
“My point… is that perhaps that he found something in that cave that he’s staying in…” The unicorn told her friend. “Thorax said that this has been going on for the last week, so perhaps he found something most recently that’s having him be like this.” Despite how crazy that sounded in theory… Trixie might’ve actually had a point there.
However, Starlight noticed one particular hiccup with that plan. “Yeah, but how are we actually going to go inside? It’s not like we can just trot right in there. And if we used a spell, there’s a chance that Pharynx can detect our presence even if we tried to hide ourselves from sight.”
“Hmm… What about if he’s not there in the cave?” Trixie asked, before looking to Thorax. “Thorax, could it be possible that Pharynx sometimes has to leave the cave for some reason?”
For a moment, Thorax tapped his chin… before realizing something. “Why yes actually… he leaves his cave quite often. Whether it’s to find food or something else…”
“Well, here’s what Trixie is thinking…” The magician replied back. “The next time that Pharynx steps out of his cave, Starlight and Trixie should go take a look. There must be something out of place in there that’s causing him to act this way…” With a dramatic pose, Trixie then looked to Starlight and smiled. “Come on, friend! We’ve got a case to solve.”
“Oh dear Celestia… The Great and Powerful Trixie has now become the The Great and Powerful Detective Trixie…” Starlight groaned internally as she began to follow her towards the cave where Thorax was staying at. “Celestia help us all…” It wasn’t just Trixie’s words that had Starlight not like where this was going, but also her actions. On the way over, she was thinking that they needed some sort of fool proof disguise in order to use if Pharynx was onto them… but her best idea was to have them be disguised as a tree… a tree in the middle of nowhere.
This was going to be a long afternoon…
Pharynx had just left his cave, looking angrier than before. He flew south, but this gave Starlight and Trixie the perfect chance. Hopping in on her back hooves, while lighting her horn up just in case Pharynx were to surprise them… she then signaled for Starlight to follow suite. Something that seemed to annoy her the more that Trixie tried to act like a detective.
The cave itself went in for a while, lit up only by a strange glowing blue liquid here and there. Something that both Starlight and Trixie haven’t exactly seen before… but decided to use caution when navigating the tunnel of the cave. Just in case the composition of the liquid was somehow harmful to ponies.
They came to a stop at the end of the cave. The tunnel opened up into a rugged, circular room which had an opening in the ceiling of the cave, giving Celestia’s sun ample room to enter and illuminate the two twin beds on opposite sides of the space. Something that… puzzled both ponies. “Hmm… nothing seems out of the ordinary here…”
That just had Starlight facehoof, before looking back at her friend. “Uh… you’re overlooking something.”
“Oh really?” Trixie asked with a confused look. “What would that be?”
“Oh I don’t know…” Starlight spoke sarcastically. “The fact that there are two beds here… If Pharynx is the only one staying in the cave, then why the hay would he need two beds? And in parallel sides?”
“Maybe he feels uncomfortable in one sometimes and decides to sleep in the other?” Again, another facehoof.
“Didn’t your mother tell you not to go snoopin’ in others home!?” The raspy voice of a young mare shouted from behind them and in the tunnel. Which, made the fur on both of the unicorn’s bodies stand up on end respectively.
“W-who was that?” Starlight asked.
A turquoise pegasus mare with yellow eyes and a short yellow mane stepped from the shadows. She had a cold stare, but smirked in a cocky manner. “I should be asking you that question. Intruding on little Pharynx’s hole in the ground.”
“Well…” Trixie was going to speak, before realizing something. “Wait… if you know him… then why the buck would a pony like you be staying here if he detests ponies?”
“Oh, because I’m here to help him break away from the hive.” The mare said. “He’s a tough one, but he’s allowed me to stay and try convincing him. His loyalty was hard to crack, but I always saw loyalty as a weakness. Drags ya down, y’know.” The mare said, grinning viciously.
“Wow… Talk about Anti-Dash…” Trixie muttered… trying to think of some way in order to get out of this kind of mess before the changeling came back.
“Oh, you know Dash too!? Rainbow Dash, right?” The mare asked, her grin widening maniacally. Which, seemed like a cue for both unicorns in order to abort the mission they were on now that they met ‘Ms. Psycho Pegasus’. “Honestly, I kinda miss her, even though she stabbed me in the back.”
“Um… who are you again?” Starlight asked.
“Lightning Dust. Bet Dash hasn’t told you about me, it was a single week we knew each other.” The mare’s wings twitched. Making Starlight gulp for a moment based out of sheer nervousness… all while Trixie was still trying to think of some way to escape. “C’mon! What, cat got your tongue? Dash is a bittersweet memory for me, doesn’t mean we can’t be civil. I haven’t threatened you, so speak up!”
“Um… we were wondering more about… Pharynx…” Trixie stammered a bit, wondering if this was something that could start a conversation.
“Oh, he’s most likely contemplating my offer.” Lightning Dust said, shrugging. “Other than that, specifics?”
“Well, his brother is concerned about him and-” Starlight paused for a moment as she processed what she heard the pegasus say, before raising an eyebrow. “Wait, what offer?”
“To leave the hive and stay pure, unlike those weaklings in that kingdom.” Lightning said smugly. “He’s been struggling, but soon he’ll understand that joining me is what’s best for him.” That… answered numerous questions in both of the unicorn’s heads. It wasn’t some kind of object that was making Pharynx act this way, it was this mare. And from how she was speaking alone, she seemed to have a bone to pick with some ponies that the two of them knew.
Now… the only thing they need to do now is find a way out. Which… wasn’t exactly easy since Lightning was blocking the only reasonable way out.
“Now that I’ve told you about myself, let me guess… Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon, am I right?” Lightning asked smugly.
“H-how do you know who we are?” Trixie asked, startled.
“Oh, I was told by a little birdy~” Lightning almost sang those words. “I wish we recruited sooner, we’d have a dictator and a greedy magician on the team, but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be.” That… sent shivers down both of the mare’s spines as they looked back at her. How the hay does she know so much about them? “I’d rather have you than some of the others.”
Starlight blinked for a moment. “O-others?”
“I said I’m recruiting. The mistress fate, deemed me worthy of joining, after my fall from heaven.” Lightning Dust said, her yellow eyes gleaming in the dark as she spread her wings, which were discolored. Most of the feathers were still turquoise, but were beginning to whiten in a sickening way. “Wonder what pa woulda thought, had he seen me flying too close to the sun...”
Now that this was happening… the only thing that either unicorn could think about was getting the buck out of there. Yet… how they got out of there was an entirely different question. Because it felt like Lightning was cornering the two of them. Though, Trixie had an idea on how to possibly escape… with the only catch being that it might not be what Starlight had in mind.
“Well… This has been an… enlightening conversation, but I think that the two of us need to take our leave.” Trixie cleared her throat.
“Oh, you won’t be leaving. Not yet, at least.” Lightning Dust said as smoke began to simmer off of her feathers. At first, Trixie was a bit surprised by that… But as she took a deep breath, she looked back at Starlight as she told the Unicorn to stand by her before throwing a ball at the floor.
Little did Lightning know that this ball… was a flash bomb. And as it went off, it blinded the pegasus for a brief moment and when she was able to see once more, there was no sign of any unicorns in the room. For a moment, she thought that they used some sort of teleportation spell to leave the cave, causing her to run outside and look around to see where they could be.
What actually happened though… was that Trixie casted a shrinking spell the moment that the flash bomb went off. Having her and Starlight shrink down to the size of a speck of dust that brushed off of Lightning’s coat the moment she stepped out of the cave… and a few moments after the pegasus took off, the magician was able to revert the two of them back to normal. “Whew… that was a close one…”
“Could you please at least warn me before you do something like that?” Starlight asked.
“Sorry, but Trixie had little time for a way to get out of there without Pharynx learning that we got in there…” The Showmare replied. “Come on, we need to get back to Thorax and tell him what we learned before that pegasus comes back!” Starlight nodded her head as the two of them began to take off. Trying to make it back to the Changeling Kingdom to warn Thorax of what was going on.
By the time they got back, both unicorns were originally relieved to see Thorax as he was talking to a few other changelings in the hive. And when he noticed them, he sounded a bit relieved that they returned. “Oh there you are… I was beginning to feel a bit worried for you two… Especially when I heard that loud bang earlier.”
“Yeah… That was something Trixie had to do in order for us to get out of there…” Starlight groaned. “As it turns out though… He’s not living in that cave alone. Some pegasus named Lightning Dust is living there and… based on what we heard from her alone, it’s possible that she might be the one behind his most recent behavior.”
That was when both of the mares began to tell Thorax about everything that they found out while Lightning had caught them sneaking around in Pharynx’s cave. And everything that they did tell him… made the Changeling King rather concerned about his brother. It didn’t sound like she was brainwashing him… but the whole matter alone reminded him of something that the Dragon Lord Ember told him.
“However, I can tell from… experience that those who might have a similar mindset like that of your brother might join him.”
The only difference being that in this case… Pharynx sounded like he was considering on joining with Lightning Dust and whoever this… ‘Mistress Fate’ was supposed to be, or if she just meant something like Lady Luck.
But the one thing that he knew for sure was that they were going to need some help for this. “Starlight, do you have some kind of spell for contacting Twilight?”
“W-well yes, but she told me only to use it in case of emergencies or if we were to write her a friendship report.” The unicorn told her, all while Trixie just raised an eyebrow in response. “Yes, that’s a thing…”
“Well, write her a message about the current situation…” Thorax told her before saying one other thing before the unicorn went off to fetch some parchment, ink and a quill. “I have a bad feeling about what might happen if we don’t do something soon.”
Point of View: Ken
Most of the time when I wake up, it’s either by myself or I get woken up by Ruby and Magma nudging me in the morning because they wanted to stay with AJ and I. This… wasn’t exactly the case. Because instead of waking up to any of those things, I woke up to the sound of Candy crying.
“Ugh…” Pinkis groaned from beside me, clearly sounding exhausted.
“Good morning…” I told her as I slowly began to straighten myself up on the bed. I was going to add onto that, but I figured that she would be wanting to check on Candy Apple first before talking to me.
Pinkis slunked out of bed and dragged her hooves out of the room, vanishing from sight. A minute later and the crying stopped. I was going to follow her and check to see if everything was okay… but if she had just gotten Candy to fall back asleep, then I didn’t want to accidentally wake her again. Soon, Pinkis returned, looking half asleep.
“Would you like for me to get you anything, Pinkis?” I offered her. Wanting to try and help out anyway that I can.
“I don’t know, maybe some more apples?” Pinkis shrugged. Oddly enough… that was when I heard a light knock at the door. And when I went to open it, I found Applejack holding a huge basket of apples with her mouth before setting them down.
“Good morning, you two… Thought ah come see how things are doing and bring the newest crop from the orchard,” She replied, before looking back at Pinkis. “May I come in?”
“Course…” Pinkis replied, opening her fridge and raiding it… I worry a bit about her gorging habits. Applejack herself took the chance to pick up the basket again and set it back in Pinkis’ kitchen before letting her eat a few of them and putting the others away.
“Sorry ah hadn’t had the chance to check on ya recently… Had to reorganize a camping trip for Applebloom and her friends while also doing my chores,” The earth pony sighed. “But now that ah got that sorted out, ah’m here now. How’s Candy doing?”
“She’s fine-” Candy’s crying started up again, cutting Pinkis off. Before she could go though, Applejack volunteered in order to go calm her down and disappeared into Candy’s room for a moment… and after a few moments, the crying ceased as Applejack trotted back out and wiping one of her forehooves across her forehead.
“There we go… Now, as you were saying.” I… was rather surprised by that. I mean, for Pinkis, it took a little while in order for Candy to settle down once she came in there to sooth her… but that was almost instantaneous. I’m not sure if she got that experience from watching over Ruby and Magma or from raising Apple Bloom, but that was definitely impressive.
“Thanks…” Pinkis gratefully said.
“No worries,” She smiled, rubbing Pinkis’ head a little as she looked back at her. “Ma taught me how to take care of little ones the same way she had to look after Apple Bloom… Ah’m sure ah can show you a thing or two.”
“You… Never told me about your mother…” Pinkis said.
“Well… it turns out ah learned much more about her than even ah knew at the time…” Applejack replied back. “Ah knew her as Buttercup… but her name is actually Pear Butter. She and Pa were always kind and helpful and taught Mac and Ah how to help around the orchard… She would have loved to meet both you and Ken.” That… was something I did not anticipate to hear from her. For a moment, I thought this was just a conversation between both of them, but hey… who am I to-?
“WHAT THE BUCK!!!?!”
And just as things were going well, Rainbow had to ruin it… especially when we began to hear Candy crying again… and for Applejack to facehoof herself shortly before saying a few words and going back to Candy’s room. “Darn it, Rainbow…”
End Chapter 41
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RAINBOW!
Uh-oh.