Metamorphoses

by Orkus

Chapter 8: Loss and Reunion

Chapter 8: Loss and Reunion

Thoraxis's attention had been off of the play almost the entire time he sat there, pretending to watch it every time he noticed Petra glanced in his direction. The mysteriously concealed character next to him had also been doing something, but all the strange figure had done was bug him incessantly with his constant sobs.

"Hey. Mind keeping it down?" he asked in a grumpy mutter.

"I'm sorry, it's just... it's just so beautiful!" the figure said back from behind his scarf-covered face, as he wiped away a tear from his eye. "This is... I don't get out very often, so I don't see things like this that much. The story, the acting, the setting... I can't control myself! This is art!"

Thoraxis sighed in an annoyed way before looking to Petra, who was also fairly enamored with the performance. He put a hoof through his coat pocket and felt for the jar, deciding the time was now to test out his theory.

"Petra, I'm just going to go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a few minutes," he said to her as he got up from his seat.

"Okay. I hope you get back soon," she said, looking back to him as he got up. "I have a feeling that the climax is about to start!"

"Oh, don't worry," he replied. He squeezed through the others sitting in the chairs, and went on with his next move.

After getting out of the seating area, instead of heading someplace to relieve himself like he said he was doing, he ran in a sneaky fashion to the back of the stage. When he was close enough in the back to see workers going along with their behind-the-scenes business, he turned and saw some words written on the side of the theater.

The Theatre Metamorphoses has come to town, so while you can come bask in our wondrous sheen! Our acting may be real to some, but never forget, that things are rarely as they seem was carved into the wood in an expertly-crafted way.

"Yeah... I can see that..." he scoffed, as he snuck around some more. Then, from behind a stack of barrels, he saw the perfect victim. What appeared to be an aged deer was walking around on the grounds, instructing all he passed by on what to do.

"...And you should get that extra bale of hay onstage pronto! The final act's just starting, and it's a doozy," he spoke, pointing to a pair of what was no doubt disguised changelings. With a salute of "Yes sir, Quiverpike," the two did as they were told, and hefted the cube of straw in the direction of the set, leaving the aged being alone.

Pulling his jar out, and with a shout of "Aha!" Thoraxis lunged from his hiding spot, and let the contents of his item spill all over the deer, who reeled back in shocked surprise at the dark shape that came upon him.

"I beg your pardon?!" Quiverpike shouted, as he ran a hoof along the material staining his gray coat. "Wha- what is this? Mud?"

"Actually it's... clay," Thoraxis chuckled slightly, before his head tilted to the side in confusion. "Wait, why aren't you changing into your real form?"

"This is my real form you subnormal dolt! I'm a deer! What, did you think I was a pony?!" he shouted, shaking the dirty papers in front of Thoraxis. "And look what you've done to my notes! I need these!"

"Um... eh.. m-my mistake..." he apologized, backing away slowly. Quiverpike shook a hoof at Thoraxis, before refocusing on trying to get the material out of his items. Thoraxis turned around completely and ran in the direction of home. He was too embarrassed to care about the show anymore.

It was all pointless anyway.

---

Despite the fact that Carol and Luna followed him to the campground, Longinus didn't really seem to mind having the company. For the next several minutes the three walked through the grounds, until Longinus suddenly stopped a few feet in front of a large, orange tent. What he was feeling was just inside of it, he was sure of it.

"Ooh... Whit ur ye plannin' oan daein', Longinus?" Carol asked, noticing his pause.

"Something I've been waiting to do for a long time," he replied. "I need both of you to stay here. This is something I need to do alone."

"Aww... ur ye sure?" the kelpie inquired again. Luna put a hoof on her shoulder.

"I'll make sure Carol doesn't interrupt, Father," she said. Loginus shook his head.

"There is no need for worry on her part, I trust Carol enough," he spoke. "As do I trust you."

And with that, Longinus walked to the tent.

---

Inside of the tent, Pharsalia hummed to herself happily as she sifted around the place, which gradually turned to a hum of annoyance as a few minutes passed by, and she failed to find what she was looking for.

Oh... where is that darn basket? Shoot! she thought in a frustrated manner. Her expression lightened up as she finally found the basket, which of course was covered by a purple blanket in the back of the tent. No sooner had she stuck her hoof in to pull of the blank pieces of paper, when she heard the sound of the tent opening from behind her.

Spinning around, she saw what appeared to her to be a tall, dark-furred unicorn enter, a cloak over his back. When he came in, he purposefully hung the flap he came through open on a nearby hook, as if to let others outside see.

"Hello? Can I help you, sir?" Pharsalia asked, putting the papers down and turning her full attention to this mysterious figure.

"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you while you are working, but I have something to discuss with you," he started. "My name is Longinus. Longinus Eveningstar."

"I'm Pharsalia," she responded. "You need directions, don't you? The seating area is a few hundred feet behind you."

"I'm not here to ask for directions. I know you are actually a changeling, but you have nothing to fear."

Pharsalia's eyes widened as she heard him speak. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice beginning to tremble.

"I'm a pony you've forgotten about," he replied. "You once called me your uncle, when you were but a child."

"Ch-changeling? Child? No... no, you must have me mistaken for... for another pony..." she tried to laugh, only to have a nervous mumbling noise come out from her mouth instead.

"You are a changeling, this I know. You don't have to hide behind that disguise," the alicorn spoke again. With a silent frown, Pharsalia was enveloped a green flame, and when it parted, a young, female changeling with a scarred back leg stood before him.

"Oh... my..." Luna whispered as she watched what was happening from the distance she and the kelpie stood away. "Could that be... Skia?"

"Skia? Who's 'at?" Carol questioned the alicorn beside her.

"I think you'll see in a minute..." Luna spoke back, as the two resumed watching the scene.

"I need details," Pharsalia said, as she hobbled to another part of the tent. "Who is this changeling you're looking for? Who do you think I am?"

"You were taken from us by wretched monster and had your mind erased by his magic, just over a year ago" he went on, in a pained sigh as he thought back to the horrible, gut-wrenching memory. "This may be a lot to take in but... your real name is-"

"Skia," Pharsalia finished. Longinus gave her a surprised look.

"How did you know that?"

"I met with a changeling named Thoraxis, yesterday," she replied. "Later on I spoke with a wyvern named Petra, and she told me about how he lost his daughter under circumstances that nearly matched with how mine started. I... never remember who my parents were and I always thought of it as being a case of amnesia, but when I heard what she said, I'm beginning to have second thoughts..."

An interval of silence came between the two as Longinus let her think over her choice. "What do you propose?" she finally said again. "How could we find out if your theory is real or not?"

"I've been working on a spell in my spare time. One that I created specifically counter the hex placed on you, and to restore the memories of somepony that has lost them because of magical means," he started. "If you will let me use it, I can repair what has been done to you."

"Would it work?" she asked. "I mean, are you... are you sure I'm the changeling you think I am?"

"I know you're the changeling I think you are," he replied, confidently.

Pharsalia closed her eyes, and let out a sigh. "Do it," she spoke in a quiet, but sure voice.

After nodding his head and taking in a deep breath, Longinus's horn lit up in a cobalt blue glow, before the tip turned into a small, solid white sphere. He bent over, and the second the alicorn's horn touched the changeling's own, a spark discharged from the sphere, a flash went out, and snapping noise sounded. Pharsalia collapsed to the floor with a cry of pain, and her body began to enter a series of convulsions while Longinus knelt over the moment this happened with a nervous, but expectant and stable expression.

"Shh... shh... don't fight it. Let it flow," he whispered to her in a tender, parental voice as he cradled her body in his hooves. While the rest of her body gasped and spasmed out, Pharsalia kept her two front hooves glued to her head where the most pain was coming from, as a series of images flew by over and over again inside of it like and endless parade of picture slides. Of the ones she saw were many key points in life, such as her first birthday. Flying lessons. The first day of school at the Ponyville Schoolhouse. Her father tucking her in at night and reading her favorite story.

As soon as it began, Pharsalia went limp. Her eyes closed as she fell unconscious, and the second this happened, Longinus gently brought her up to his body. Placing his forehead against hers, he hoped with everything he had that his spell had worked as it was supposed to. From outside of the tent, Carol and Luna let out gasps, but otherwise remained silent, afraid of what consequences could occur if they intervened during such a delicate moment.

Longinus lifted his head up as he felt the young changeling begin to stir. Looking down, he saw her slowly open her green eyes and rub her cranium with a hoof in a sore manner, before looking around groggily. The second her vision intermingled with the alicorn's, Pharsalia's entire expression changed to one of blank, unadulterated shock.

"U-uncle... M-M-Moredread?" she asked in a quivering voice, as she took her hoof off of her head, a waterfall of tears falling from her eyes.

"That's not my name anymore..." Longinus responded as he tried, and failed to suppress his own welled-up emotion. "...My precious, irreplaceable little... Skia..."

They both simultaneously threw their hooves around each other in a long and passionate hug.

"I've... I've missed you so much..." Longinus spoke into her ear. "And your father... Thoraxis had been dying every day since you went missing. When he sees you, I... I don't know how he'll react..."

"My father? Thoraxis?! Where is he?" Skia asked in a rushed tone, as she looked up to Longinus when their hug broke off.

"Unless I'm mistaken, he's with his girlfriend... watching the show."

"Girlfriend? Wait... her name's Petra! D-Dad's got a girlfriend! I knew changelings could feel love! I was right! I knew it!" she shouted in a triumphant voice, before her current feelings caught up with her and caused her tone to die down.

"We... we can't interrupt the show. Not until it's over," she suddenly said, wiping some of her teardrops away. "My hive needs the love that the ponies give off with their adoration. We've all been starved for nearly three months just because we got the play ready. If we get in the way, or if anypony else finds out that they're changelings... oh wow, I don't want to think about that right now."

Skia and Longinus looked to the tent flap as the two shapes of Luna and Carol walked in. While the kelpie stood there, clapping her hooves vigorously together with glee, Luna walked closer to the two.

"It worked, didn't it Longinus?" she asked.

Yes, it did..." he replied, smiling.

"It worked! It worked! Ah dunnae kinn whit he was daein', but Ah kent it woods wark!" Carol went on in an overjoyed voice.

"Longinus?" Skia inquired, as she heard his name. He turned and looked at her with a smaller grin.

"It's a long story..." he replied.

---

Thoraxis had finished getting home, trudging inside with a tired gait. He took his coat off and placed it on the rack nearby. He ran up to his desk, jumped onto its seat, and looked over what lied on it. He looked over the map. Over the countless places he had searched. All the places he'd spent what felt like a lifetime examining ten times in a row. All the places that had found nothing in. His head lifted up from the desk as a grim thought came into his head.

It was all pointless anyway.

No sooner than he had sat down, Thoraxis stood back up and headed for the only place he could think of in his muddled state: Skia's room.

He pushed open the door and trotted inside with an expression that anypony would see as being severely troubled. He looked around at all the stuff Skia had left behind when she vanished, which was mostly books on the shelves. He walked up to one, and used his magic to pull a volume from where it rested.

It was titled The Fires of the Dragon Lord. Thoraxis, at first letting out a sigh at the nostalgic memory he had when he first got the book for his daughter, let his brow slowly twitch and arch into a lower, much less positive position.

It was all pointless anyway!

"She doesn't need this!" he shouted from behind grated teeth, using his magic to tear the book in half, throwing both page-filled clumps away. He pulled the next one out, The Ingenious Gentlecolt Donkey Oaty of La Mancha.

"Or this!" he yelled, ripping it apart without a second thought, and letting the ribbons and pieces that remained fall to the floor in a pile. He savagely continued on with the next one in line.

The Box of a Million Riddles; burnt to ashes by a wisp of balefire.

Summer of Falling Leaves; pages torn out and now-empty covers dropped like a spent piece of trash.

A Varghulf Walks Among Us; thrown to the ground, and stomped upon until it was crushed and broken.

He came upon the next one with a snarl on his lips, ready to do terrible things to it in his fit of rage, until he got a look at the title.

Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny.

Skia's favorite. The only one she ever asked for on her first and only birthday. Thoraxis's expression mollified into a frown when he realized what he was doing, and he let the book drop from the telekinetic hold he had on it, to the ground below.

Falling to his knees, he screamed. He screamed a cry of pure despair. He screamed at the unfairness of it all. He screamed with as much air as his lungs could give out, before digging his face into his hole-filled hooves. He had failed the one who needed him most. All he needed left to make his failure complete and utter was to wait for the day he would rot away and finally die like the waste of life he was, however many hundreds of years from now it would take.

"Thoraxis?" a familiar voice went out, snapping Thoraxis out of his moment of anguish. His head shot up, and saw the white, scaly shape of Petra in the doorway.

The changeling could only look at his girlfriend with a surprised and sorrowful expression painted on his face and teal eyes. "Shouldn't you be... watching the show?" he finally asked.

"When you didn't come back, I suspected that you were up to something," she replied. "I went backstage, and one of the stagehooves told me you quote-unquote "threw a jarful of mud" at one of them, and ran off. So I... came here."

Thoraxis went quiet, and closed his eyes, before lowering his head. Without a word, Petra walked up to the distressed changeling and sat down beside him, before putting her arm around his body and bringing him close to her in a comforting way. "I miss her..." he murmured, as his head rubbed against her scaly hide, remembering the fact that he still had one person he cared about who was still with him.

"I know you do, but please, for your sake, don't worry anymore..." she whispered back. "I know we'll find her, Thoraxis. I just know it."

"What if we... what if we don't?" he asked. "What if we never find her? What if everything we've done turns out to be for nothing? What if I go the rest of my life without... seeing her ever again? What if I... fail?"

"Don't speak like that, dear. As long as you have hope, we have a chance for you to see her again," she said back as she kissed him on the forehead. "And I know deep down, with all my heart, that it will be one day very, very soon..."

Author's Note:

The strangest thing is, I think that one day is going to come very, very soon.

Comments

[Sentinel053]

Yay skia is back but Thoraxis needs a hug

[Skye Mist]

I may not have Pinkie Sense, but I can see 'CLIMAX' written all over the next chapter!This'll be interesting.

[Gargon94]

Yes, he does need a hug. Good chapter through. I can't wait for the upcoming reunion.

[Cursed Quill]

Loginus

Longinus