Picking Up The Pieces

by Silver Dragon Blade Wing

Chapter 9: Meeting, and a Shocking Discovery

Ponyville

In Front of Town Hall

To an observer, it looked like a stand off was happening, and in a way it was.

The Changelings stood facing Town Hall and the very large group of Ponies facing them. Dragonfly stood at the front of his Changelings with Seeker next to him, Rhino, Darter and Spotter behind him, Titan standing slightly in front of him,and Spartan standing over the nymphs with the rest of the hive ready to protect the young ones if need be.

For the Ponies, Celestia stood in the center of the front row with Luna, Black Death and his squad on her left and Cadance, Shining and Twilight on her right. Twilight's friends stood behind Twilight and the rest of the Ponies stood behind them.

Dragonfly was, to be fully honest, was down right scared. He was facing three Ailcorns, the Captain of the Guard, one of the most feared Ponies in the world and his squad, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony and 2000+ Ponies. He only had two Juggernauts, 3 Healers,13 Drones, one Soldier, one Gatherer, one Advisor, one Royal and 30 nymphs of various ages.

In other words, if things went south, his hive was in serious trouble.

Okay Dragonfly don't panic, you only outnumbered by a lot. Deep breath... let it out, don't make any sudden moves.

He sized Celestia up, before today he had never seen the Princess up close. She definitely lived up to the stories he'd heard; She stood at least six, maybe six and a half, feet tall, a little taller then him. Dragonfly could feel the love she had for her Ponies, First-Mother could he feel it. He knew he had to tread carefully.

Letting out a sigh Dragonfly walked forward, he noticed both his Changelings and Black Death's Squad tense. Celestia also walked forward till they meet in the middle.

To Him, it was like looking up at an ancient Changeling Queen, one who held vast wisdom and power under her beautiful exterior. Dragonfly knew that, even with his experience in fighting, that he wouldn't hold out of long against her in a fight. The Only reasons Chrysalis had won her fight was because Celestia had held back to much and the Changeling had been supercharged on love.

To Celestia, she could tell that despite being a bit younger that the other Royal Changelings he was a capable fighter in his own right. Looking into his eyes she noted he relaxed his posture and simply stared into her own. To her he looked... heather than the other Royal Changelings, who had looked sickly and a little maniacal, his carapace, back plate, wings, and eyes were shiner, his mane and tail were thicker, long and his mane was tied back much like an old style warrior.

Before today Celestia had only seen mare Royal Changelings, this stallion Royal's back plate covered the lower half of his neck and his flanks. Was that unique to him or standard on stallion Royals?

She filed that away for later.

According to the letter Dragonfly had give her, he and his hive had nothing to do with the invasion. They had no quarrel with her Ponies and wanted to make peace. What did surprise her was the Pinkie Promise that this was not a trick, a thing not really known out side of Ponyville. The Changeling in front of her cared about his hive, a step in the right direction as far as she was concerned.

"Prince Dragonfly, we finally meet. I've heard a lot about you." Celestia said. Dragonfly blinked in surprise.

"You have? How?"

"Many Changelings willingly surrendered after being ejected from Canterlot. We questioned them and they told us many things, including why they surrendered, their treatment from the other Royals, and finally you."

Dragon nodded in understanding.

"Doesn't surprise me why they did. After all, it was ether back to the Kingdoms and face the civil war, or stay in Equestria and take their chances here."

"We've treated the ones we have well, and would it surprise you to learn that a huge number of Ponies were appalled on how the other Changeling Royals treated their subjects.

"Only a little. I guess Ponies, who are known for being a forgiving species, would be. I would like to know how many you have if that alright with you."

"More than enough so you wouldn't have to worry about endangerment of extinction, and I would be glad to discuss transferring the Changelings we have back into you hive and on improving our kinds relationship with you."

Dragonfly smiled brightly.

"So do I Princess Celestia, just... not in Canterlot. At least not yet."

"I understand that Canterlot may not be the best place after the invasion. I am curious on why you chose to have your hive close to Ponyville though."

"I was wondering that too." Twilight spoke up.

"My reason is twofold; first is that this very town was were my mother meet my dad, so in a way it is my hometown as well. Second is due to the massive amount of E-energy in the air."

"E-energy?" Twilight asked, What's E-energy?"

"Emotional Energy, that what we call it." Dragonfly answered.

"And you said Ponyville has a massive amount, how so?"

"Allow me to demonstrate."

Dragonfly waved the Gatherer forward. The Ponies watched the new (to them) Changeling walk to and sit next to him. Shining asked the question on everyponies minds.

"What is that? That wasn't on the notes Black Death showed us."

"This Changeling is known as the Gatherer, a variant of my own creation. let me shown you how it works."

The Gatherer stood up and moved about looking up, rotating his head around till he stopped. his horn lit up and a steam of green magic traveled from the horn into the sky. Upon reaching a good height the magic spread out and changed from green to many different colors.

"Wow..." Was the general response.

"look at all the colors. It's like a rainbow with many colors!" Pinkie said.

"That's E-energy?" Cadance asked waving a hoof.

Twilight had a scroll and was writing like crazy.

"Yes, That's E-energy." Dragonfly said. "This is what Changelings see with our emotion sense ability when it's active."

"And this is what Changelings feed from?" Black Death asked.

"Yes, we still need regular food and water but we also require E-energy."

"And you get E-energy from Ponies?"

"Any living creature works but Ponies give off the most. As for how, there are two ways; the first is draining the E-energy directly from the Pony. I have forbidden my hive from feeding that way because even though it is more filling and gives a power boost, long term use causes permanent damage to both sides."

"What sort of damage?" Luna asked.

"Ponies became empty shells with the only mercy being a painless death."

Dragonfly noticed Cadance and Shining looking very worried all of a sudden.

"Don't worry, Captain Armor only suffered the short term effects. At worst the Pony only needs some food and rest to fully recover in that case, and I think Princess Cadance might have boosted his recovery. The long term effects take years to show and have any effect."

"You said both sides, what happens the the Changeling." Celestria asked.

"Insanity at great levels."

The Ponies looked at each other, that actually did explain a few things. Twilight looked up from her scroll and asked,

"What is the second way?"

Dragonfly gestured to the Gatherer who walked around till he stopped, looked up, than lit up and pointed his horn. A tether of magic traveled up to a spot, than to the Ponies wonderment, the multi-colored energy traveled down the tether into the horn, and the tubes and saddle bag-like growths began to swell as the energy run down the former and into the latter. Once the bags had swelled to max size and the tubes were full the tether vanished.

"Once the Gatherers are full they return to the hive and fills cocoons with the energy." Dragonfly said gestured to some Drones who spat a few globs of slime and shaped the slime into a cocoon. The Gatherer then poked the tip of his horn into it and the energy flowed into the cocoon filling it up.

"And then we cut up the full cocoons and divide the pieces among the hive."

"Like cake." Pinkie said excitedly.

"Ya, just like a cake. Never thought of it that way before."

"And by feeding this way, the Changelings won't have to harm Ponies?" Twilight asked.

"Right, I actually have a project where I'm trying to create a self-replicating love source but I've had... limited success."

"So Changelings wouldn't have to feed off Ponies?" Cadance asked.

"More like an alternative, just in case."

Black Death and Shining were looking over the cocoon. Shining then asked;

"Can Changeling slime be used for other things?"

"Why yes, It's a very versatile substance. It can be used to make food, furniture, building materials, weapons, just about anything really. In fact-"

Dragonfly tapped Rhino's helmet. "-it makes great armor when mixed right."

"Okay everypony, that's enough for now." Celestia said. "I do have one more question."

"What would that be?" Dragonfly asked.

"Who was your father Prince Dragonfly?"

Dragonfly looked very nervous at the question. Celestia held up a hoof, trying to calm the Changeling.

"You have my word as a Princess he wouldn't be harmed." She even Pinkie Promised.

"It's not just that, I haven't seen him or my mother for a long time. Not after the other Royals found out about me and tried to kill him. They failed as we never found his body, but we did find the bodies of four Royals."

"Who aren't that easy to kill." Black Death added.

"As for who he is..." Dragonfly paused, "he's a Thestral by the name of Black Saber."

"WHAT??!!" Came the sudden shout from Black Death who did what is best described as a standing variant of the 'Fall out of chair in surprise'.

"Black Death? are you alright?" Cadance asked, voicing everycreatures thoughts.

Pulling himself back up Black Death looked straight at Dragonfly who leaned a bit back from the large Winged Thestral.

"Black Saber? As in 'ash grey coat, bright yellow eyes, dark blue webbed mane, tail and wings, and a cutie mark of two midnight black crossed sabers'?"

Dragonfly reared back. "You know him?"

"Of course I know him, he's my twin brother!"

Dragonfly reared back fully onto his rump.

"WAIT WHAT!!"

Author's Note:

I just know I didn't have Celestia or Pinkie in character somewhere in this chapter.

And apparently Black Death, the Thestral that Changelings fear most, is Dragonfly's Uncle.

Comments

[Captain Absolution]

Welp, that was a twist. An big twist of twist.

Whew, caught with this story, and I'll have to wait. Sad changeling is sad.

And I have to say, good job! I'll try to leave something more 'better' comment on later chapters.

[Lerd_Gamer]

Plot twist of the other kind. Spoopy.

[JNKing]

Hi Ho Silver,

So, that's the twist you spoke of in the last chapter: Black Death is Dragonfly's Uncle. Nice.

Nice job with the twist; it actually does make sense, considering Black Death and Black Saber have the same color based first name, sort of the same way Star Wing was the daughter of Star Hunter, or Applejack is part of the Apple Clan. It's a nice little detail that might go over someone's head, but anyone who's looking will spot it.

Great job.

As for Pinkie and Cadance being out of character, I didn't honestly see that. Both of them still acted very much in tune with their characters; Pinkie was still excitable and invested in what was going on, and Cadance was understandably worried about her husband, but also still willing to give the changelings a chance. They felt just fine, so don't worry about them. You did great with their characters.

Thanks as always for sharing.

[Silver Dragon Blade Wing]

11346165

So, that's the twist you spoke of in the last chapter: Black Death is Dragonfly's Uncle. Nice.

Nice job with the twist; it actually does make sense, considering Black Death and Black Saber have the same color based first name, sort of the same way Star Wing was the daughter of Star Hunter, or Applejack is part of the Apple Clan. It's a nice little detail that might go over someone's head, but anyone who's looking will spot it.

Indeed, and it stands true in Dragonfly Hive, and again Dragonfly has no idea.

Now that you mention it, I can see the similar naming theme... Maybe Thestrals have their Clans named after something and each one takes that name as part of their own?

Come to think if it, I could see the Star Clan and the Black Clan being close allies.

You did great with their characters.

Thanks, as I've mentioned I do have some trouble writing the Mane Six but I'm sure that will change in time.

[JNKing]

11346956

Come to think if it, I could see the Star Clan and the Black Clan being close allies.

That'd be an interesting idea; Black Death is in Dragonfly Hive too, right? Maybe we can explore that with him and Star Wing being friends or him being a mentor figure to her or something like that.

[Silver Dragon Blade Wing]

11346984

That'd be an interesting idea; Black Death is in Dragonfly Hive too, right? Maybe we can explore that with him and Star Wing being friends or him being a mentor figure to her or something like that.

I think so too, we talk more about it via PM.

[JNKing]

11347523
Sure. 👍