Chapter 22: Return of the King
It Takes a Village to Reform a Changeling
Chapter 22: Return of the King
"Alright," Mandy addressed the 8 other Changelings at the table, "How are we gonna find Mothra?"
Hyaline raised a hoof. "Don't get me wrong; I'm down for just about anything. But what makes you think he even WANTS to be found?"
Mandy gestured to the plushie. "Why would he come out of hiding just to give me a pep talk and a stuffed animal? He clearly wants us to know he's still alive, ergo, he wants to meet us."
Some of the Changelings wanted to voice disagreements, but Pharynx slammed his hoof against the table. "Look, we are going to find him. End. Of. Story. Now, if any of you have any ideas you'd like to share, then puh-lease feel free to do so!"
The others bit their tongues.
Pharynx's eyebrow raised. "Seriously? None of you? No scrying spells, no secret techniques – not even so much as a paper trail?"
"None of us are trackers," Deagus pointed out.
Pharynx caressed the bridge of his muzzle with his hoof. "Right..."
"You could always just ask for help."
The nine Changelings turned to face Twilight Sparkle, who was reading in her comfy chair.
"What was that?" Mandy asked.
Twilight didn't even look away from her book as she replied, "You could get me to ask the Princesses if they know anything of his whereabouts; I'm sure Zecora could whip up some sort of potion; or, I dunno, you could ask the extremely studied alicorn and literal ELEMENT OF MAGIC THAT'S SITTING RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" She finally looked up, shouting the last part in frustration.
Everyling stared at her for the longest moment.
Then Mandy said, "Hey Twilight, wanna help us?"
After a short research session, Spike found what they were looking for: a scrying spell that only required an item that the pony in question had handled at some point.
Since Mothra had MADE it, the plushie seemed like a good choice.
Twilight and all the other Changelings channeled their magic (Mandy and, now that he was also reformed, Pharynx gave the others some spare love to fuel their magic) into casting the spell. The doll rose slowly into the air, until a flash of green light burst out of it. The doll hit the floor, seemingly unchanged.
But when Spike picked the doll up, they realized that one of its hooves was now continuously pointing in the same direction, no matter how they oriented the doll. Twilight took this as confirmation that it'd worked, and they set out to follow the trail.
Funnily enough, they ended up back where it'd all begun:
Canterlot.
As they walked down those familiar streets, the usual sights greeted them: several ponies looked horrified at the mob of Changelings, a baby dragon, and a purple alicorn walking down the street in broad daylight.
Only this time, there weren't any royal guards to stop the activists.
A flash mob led by Prince Blueblood approached. "Halt, scoundrels!"
Hyaline, Deagus, Frons, Imago, Ozadene, Spike, and Thorax shifted uncomfortably under the glares of the Canterlot Elites.
Pharynx and Coxa glared right back, though Coxa was trembling inside.
Twilight and Mandy, however, couldn't care less. They walked straight past the mob, the others trailing right behind.
Blueblood blinked, clearly not anticipating this outcome.
Then he rushed to stand in front of them again. "I said halt!"
"Can't," Twilight said simply, focused on the doll, "On an important mission."
Blueblood watched in shock as they kept on walking, Twilight pushing the mob aside with a small magical force field.
"Well," he finally stated numbly, "There go my plans for the evening..."
Canterlot Castle.
There stood those iconic golden domes atop white spires. The staple landmark of Canterlot City. The palace that served as both the central seat of government for Equestria, as well as the living space of beings that literally controlled the Sun and Moon. The most heavily-guarded building in Equestria (in terms of raw numbers, not actual strength or competency – that honor went to the Crystal Empire).
And the scrying spell said that Mothra was inside it.
NOW Coxa was trembling outwardly. "Welp, here we are... Canterlot Castle... again..."
Deagus cringed. "This is the city where the failed invasion happened, right?"
Even Pharynx seemed nervous as he responded, "Yep."
Deagus nodded, smiling nervously. "Just checking."
Mandy looked at them and rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, it's not THAT bad. Sure, some of the ponies outside still hate everything to do with us, but the Princesses won't let anything happen to us."
"Well, this sucks," Mandy deadpanned, rattling the chains secured to his hooves. "Of COURSE we picked the day that Celestia and Luna are out of town..."
Twilight was fuming in her own cell. "A princess! An honest-to-goodness princess, and they lock her up simply because she's with a group of Changelings – one of whom, might I add, was ALREADY PROSECUTED BY CELESTIA HERSELF, THEREBY BREAKING ALL LAWS AGAINST BEING TRIED TWICE FOR THE SAME–"
"Quiet in there!" one of the guards banged on her cell door.
Twilight mumbled something inappropriate under her breath, but otherwise acquiesced.
Frons was practically going insane from inside his cell. "They've separated me from Deagus – I'm never gonna see my loved ones again! I'll be alone for the rest of my life!"
Deagus was trying to comfort his adoptive son from inside his own cell, but it was to no avail; Frons was deep in another episode, and would only come out if they were reunited.
Hyaline sighed morosely. "This is what I get for following these lunatics out of the Hive... At least they aren't hurt..." She paused for a moment, listening to Frons's breakdown, then added, "...physically..."
Ozadene sniffed her surroundings. "At least it smells better than my stink glands..." she chuckled weakly, then sighed.
Coxa sat back and tried to get comfortable – which wasn't easy, considering that he, as the most able-bodied of the group, had been restrained the most. "What a lousy way to go out... Wasting away in a prison, and it wasn't even after an epic battle... A fate befitting a Changeling as pathetic as me."
Imago stared down at his hooves silently. All he wanted to do at that moment was fill in those holes, file down his teeth, grow fur, and otherwise become a pony through-and-through.
Thorax was practically bawling his eyes out. "What did we do!? Why are we in here!? I didn't even do anything – I was hiding during the invasion! I thought ponies were about love and tolerance!"
Pharynx shook his head, the chains around his neck and horn rattling. "The world isn't always fair, Thorax. Good ponies and Changelings get punished, and bad ones get rewarded. It's a hard lesson to learn, but it's a valuable one."
Thorax continued to weep.
Empathetically, the others began to sob as well, the weight of the situation setting in.
"Cheer up, Twilight," Even Spike's optimism was only dangling by a thread as he tried to reassure her, "I'm sure that Celestia will be here any moment to let us out."
At that moment, a familiar orange guard entered and addressed the guard currently on duty. "Armored Plate, Sir, I must inform you that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna won't be back from their Goodwill Tour of Griffonstone for another four days. And I regret to inform you that, no, you won't be getting paid overtime for this."
Both Twilight and Armored Plate groaned.
Flash Sentry blinked, turning his head at the familiar voice. "Wait, is that – Princess Twilight? What're you doing in here?"
She looked downtroddenly at the floor. "It's a long story..."
Flash looked at her, then at the ten other occupied cells. "Well," he smiled reassuringly, "Whatever happened, I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding. I know these guys; they'll listen to reason."
" 'Insubordination and allying with a hostile nation' my flank... Whatever happened to due process?" Flash muttered sourly, sitting on the dirty cell floor
Twilight sighed. "It was a valiant effort, Flash."
Finally, Spike broke. He started wailing like a kid who'd just lost his mother. "I'm too young to be a criminal! I had so much to look forward to: learning to ride a bike, going on my first date, becoming a cynical and jaded teenager..." Another wave of tears hit. "And it's not just that; our friends are gonna miss us so much!"
Twilight sniffled, "Like Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy..."
"...Applejack..." Mandy continued. "In my excitement, I forgot to tell her where we were going... Actually, I'm glad she wasn't with us here; I don't think I could bear the thought of her behind bars... Still, though, I'm... I'm gonna miss her."
The three Ponyville-ians began to cry in grief over the friends they wouldn't be seeing for a while – if ever again, in the Unreformed Changelings' cases.
Eventually, the sobs died off, and they all settled in for an uneasy sleep.
Every single one of them had nightmares that night.
Coxa dreamt of his peers snickering over the story of his death, laughing at how utterly inadequate he'd been when he was alive. He tried to defend his honor, but he had no mouth, and yet he had to scream.
Imago dreamt that he was being chased down an endless hallway by a sea of angry ponies. The further he went down the hall, the closer the ponies got, until they finally caught up with him, restrained him, and readied their horns.
Hyaline dreamt of the others, withering away in her hooves while she was helpless to save them.
Frons dreamt that he was trapped in a cardboard box, forced to watch as he was passed from guardian to guardian, nopony wanting him.
Deagus dreamt of that clichéd prison shower scene from the movies. However, his harasser was the same Changeling that'd been involved in the incident which made him run away in the first place. And this time, he couldn't escape the ridicule. Even Frons got in on the laughter, mocking the one he'd once called a dad.
Ozadene dreamt that she was locked up in a pony city simply because she was a Changeling. The scariest part of that nightmare was that it was TRUE.
Thorax dreamt he was locked in a cage at the circus, and everypony had been given whips, paying a fee just to attack this poor, defenseless creature, and... and Queen Chrysalis was there, paying the most out of anypony.
Pharynx dreamt that his brother had died alone in his cell, and Pharynx couldn't have been there to comfort him.
Spike dreamt that he was nine-hundred years old by the time he got released, and the moment he stepped out of the cell, he collapsed into dust.
Twilight dreamt of everyone she loved moving on without her, and when she eventually got out, she was no longer welcomed by any of them. Then Princess Celestia showed up, expressed her disappointment in her former protegé, and left her all alone.
Flash Sentry had the classic "I showed up today wearing nothing but underwear" dream. He was a simple pony; he had confidence that the situation would resolve itself, and soon.
And Mandy...
He dreamt that Applejack visited him every day, devoting every moment of her free time to visiting him. Her relationships with her family and friends crumbled, she slowly lost who she was, and, one day, in came an empty husk that only vaguely resembled Applejack. He'd urge her to go out and live her life, to leave him behind, but she wouldn't listen, and he didn't know why, and it was driving him crazy...
But unlike the others, Mandy's nightmare was intentional.
He was trying to get Princess Luna's attention through the dream world.
And he was torturing himself to do so.
Alas, the spells around the Canterlot Dungeon were too strong, and he couldn't get through to her. If she were actively looking in their direction, her power would've overruled the spells for sure, but she wasn't.
So the nightmares continued.
A knock at the door woke everypony from their slumber. The door opened, and everypony – including the newly stationed guard – gasped.
Princess Cadence had arrived.
"Captain Silver Cutlass, I presume?" she asked authoritatively.
"Y-your highness!" he stammered, quickly locking into a stiff salute. "What– er, pardon my bluntness, but, uh, what are you doing here?"
"One of my soldiers didn't return last night," She said levelly, eyeing the cell that contained Flash Sentry (who was smiling at the sight of the Princess). "I wanted to know why."
"Uh, your Majesty, he was, er, insubordinate, and – and he was conspiring with a hostile nation."
Cadence took a moment to look at the other cells, seeing some Changelings, Twilight and Spike, some more Changelings—
Wait, Twilight and Spike?
The Princess of Love glared coldly at Cutlass. "Did you seriously lock up Princess Twilight Sparkle and her assistant?"
He was now trembling in his boots. "B-but she–"
Cadence eyed the guard closely, and he clammed up.
Then she pointed to Mandy. "That Changeling was already tried by Celestia, Luna, and myself. And not only THAT, but he is also the Equestrian Ambassador to the Changelings. You have not only arrested a group who have either done nothing wrong or have already received their punishment, but you've arrested two government officials. Do you REALLY think that's okay?"
The guard, shrinking back, quickly shook his head.
She smiled. "Good. Go ahead and release them, and maybe – just maybe – I might forget about this whole incident."
Without missing a beat, the guard pulled out his keys, opened all the cells, and undid all their chains. The freed characters rushed out and grabbed the Princess in a giant group hug (except for Frons, who immediately lunged for Deagus).
"Woah– okay, I'm glad to see you're alright," she said as she accepted the hug.
"...and here's all the stuff we confiscated," the officer said as he brought out a cart loaded with the items they'd brought.
Spike graciously grabbed the ink, paper, and quills, happier to see them again than he ever thought he would be; Twilight got her saddlebags, filled with her priceless books on arcane magic; and Thorax got back a comic he'd borrowed from the Golden Oaks Library.
Mandy reached into the cart, but stopped when his hoof hit the bottom of the basket. His heart sank as he realized that the doll wasn't in there; the only thing he had left of his dad, the best chance they had of finding him, was–
"Mandy?"
He turned to face Cadence, who was holding out the plush. "I found this in a hallway; I assume you dropped it sometime during the arrest?"
He looked down and gladly accepted the doll, thankful it was miraculously safe.
Then he froze.
The doll's arm was pointing directly at Cadence.
He looked up at her, then back to the doll. He moved the doll side-to-side; the arm stayed true. He looked back up at her.
'Cadence' winked, a soft smile gracing her lips.
Mandy's mouth fell open as he numbly held the doll.
With that, 'Cadence' stood back to full height. "Well, now that this has all been taken care of, I must be off. Flash Sentry, if you be so kind as to go ahead and meet me at the Train Station?"
Flash saluted, then dashed off. 'Cadence' wasn't far behind, though she stopped at the door.
"If you need me," she glanced back, "all you need to do is ask."
And with that, she was gone.
The nine Changelings stared at the spot she'd just been in. "Well," Thorax smiled, "she's nice."
Mandy was still dumbstruck, even as Twilight approached. She noticed his expression and asked, "What's wrong?"
He simply held up the doll, whose arm was still pointing past the door.
She looked down at the doll.
Then up at the door.
Then back down to the doll.
Then up to his face.
"Oh."
Ponyville was as lively as ever. Ponies walking to and fro, going about their business, completely unaware that 3 Changelings (the others had returned to Sweet Apple Acres), a pony, and a dragon were sitting speechless in the Golden Oaks Library.
Thorax was the first to speak: "So... You're telling me that wasn't Princess Cadence... But rather, it was actually Dad?"
Mandy nodded. "The charm was pointing at him, and he winked at me. If that's not proof enough, I don't know what is."
Twilight was stunned. "I couldn't even tell the difference; he's a much better actor than Queen Chrysalis!"
Pharynx looked around. "So, what does this mean for us?"
"You heard what he said, right?" Mandy pointed out. "If we need him, we just have to ask."
Pharynx butted in, "I don't know if that means 'Call me if you have questions or just wanna see me'."
"You'll never know if you don't try."
Everyone in the room turned towards the unknown voice, finding a blue earth pony stallion stepping into the library. Mandy vaguely recognized the form from that mob that harassed him back in Chapter 9, but the voice was completely different than before.
He smiled as he closed the front door. "And I'm pretty sure I'd want to see my sons."
Everyone in the room did a double-take. "You don't mean...?
The pony smiled, before a whirlwind of purple-and-green flames consumed him. When they dispersed, there stood a changeling unlike almost any other. He was as tall as Chrysalis, his dark red hair was side-swept, his slitted eyes were purple, his carapace was dark green, his wings were reformed just like Mandy's, and he wore a golden necklace adorned with a sapphire.
He grinned warmly at the three Changelings. "It's good to see you all again..."
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Yay!! Return of the father.
10434105
Oh ok So basically I kinda over did it my bad 😥
Well then That should be a clue that she wants to help lol
Well that escalated really quickly
I think you said rainbow dash twice
The pony smiled, before a whirlwind of purple-and-green flames consumed him. When they dispersed, there stood a changeling unlike almost any other. He was as tall as Chrysalis, his dark red hair was side-swept, his slitted eyes were purple, his carapace was dark green, his wings were reformed just like Mandy's, and he wore a golden necklace adorned with a sapphire.
He grinned warmly at the three Changelings. "It's good to see you all again..."
wow Things Escalated really quickly they we're in the jail and princess cadence came to the rescue Even though that's not really her Now the back at ponyville and it looks like daddy is back The only question is where's he been all these years I guess we'll find out next time
Dark when done right can be good, this is a good chapter
10434443
*Cue Twi-Dash shippers going nuts*
...alright, I'll fix it real quick.
The royal guard would later find itself reduced by one member.
CURSE YOU RACISM!!!! YOUR THE BANE OF FANTASY AND SPACE SCI-FI EXISTEEEEENNNCCCEEE!!!!! But at least good things happen to the end.
gotta admit, did not see that coming
I was half expecting Cadance to get locked up too.
Best line ever.