Requiem of Equestria

by TheBlox

Grave of Neglect

Scootaloo and Flake returned to the riverbed after the timberwolf chase through the thicket of Everfree forest. There wasn’t a lot said between the pegasus and the changeling; it was mostly awkward silence.

“So...” Flake cleared his throat. “What did you say your name was?”

Scootaloo’s ears twitched, and she turned to face him. She was still uncertain if she could trust him, so she felt it was best she stuck with her other name. “Daring Do,” she replied, stretching out her wings as she stood back up. “Well, I should keep moving.” Turning to face the mountain, she began trotting upstream.

“Huh?” Flake’s ears twitched and he stood up to follow her. “Wait, you’re leaving?”

Scootaloo sighed and briefly stopped to face the changeling, rolling her eyes. “Look. I know you and I managed to get off on the right hoof there in the forest. But you really shouldn’t come with me.”

“Uh... Right.” Flake cleared his throat and turned away. “Well, bye then.” As he trotted off, Scootaloo watched with a raised brow. Why would the changeling be traveling in the opposite direction of his hive?

“Hold on,” Scootaloo called out to him, “Where are you going?”

Flake turned back to face her and shrugged. “Not sure. I guess it doesn’t matter,” he murmured, “I’ve got nowhere to go, really.”

Scootaloo was puzzled by that. She tilted her head curiously. “What do you mean?” she questioned him.

Flake was hesitant at first to reply. After a brief moment, he sighed and sat on his flank. “I don’t understand something... So I need to ask,” he requested solemnly, “My whole life living in the hive, none of the changelings would ever help me.” He frowned and looked at his ratty wings. “They’d look at these, telling me I’ll get nowhere in this shape. It’s always been my dream to join the high ranked guards. But I’ve always been turned down without even being given a chance.” He looked down to the ground. “That moment when you escaped from your cocoon, I realized that was my opportunity to show the hive that I am stronger than I look. So I snuck into Chitin’s search crew, and convinced him that the Queen recruited me so I could have the chance to show them what I can do.”

Scootaloo’s ears folded back as she listened. Flake’s expression grew more sour as he told her this story, and evident tears began to show in his turquoise eyes.

“So... I did what the captain and his crew could not,” the changeling explained, “I cocooned you.”

“Congratulations,” Scootaloo said cynically, frowning at him. Flake’s ears twitched, subconsciously reminding himself that he was talking to the pony he had captured.

“Well... You’re a pony.” The changeling sighed and winced. “You wouldn’t understand what that sort of thing means to a changeling.” He lowered his head, his eyes wandering. “I don’t feel proud of it, and I didn’t then either. I just wanted acceptance from my Queen...”

Scootaloo sighed. “You said you needed to ask me something. So what is your question?”

Flake chewed on his bottom lip, thinking of a way to word it. After a brief hesitation, he continued. “After capturing you, I thought that they would accept me. That they would give me a chance to be one of them.” The tears finally escaped his eyelids and trickled down his cheeks. He tried shaking his head in the attempt to hide it from her. “But instead, my own kind exiled me and struck me down... and left me for dead.”

Scootaloo’s ears twitched hearing that. It made sense to her now—why she found him the way she did on the riverbed. She couldn’t say much in response, but she felt the empathy.

“While my own kind sought to kill me... a pony—our enemy and food source—helped me; healed me.” He looked at her with his damp eyes and murmured, “Even after I’ve cocooned her, she still came back to help me. So I have to ask... Why?”

Flake’s single worded question stirred through Scootaloo’s mind. Strangely, she couldn’t think of an answer. Why did she help him? Why is it that she had fought her way through the other changelings after her—even resulting in killing one of them in a heap of boards and insulation—but spared the one who had succeeded in cocooning her, nearly sealing her fate forever? She stood there quietly, her eyes staring off into space as she searched the deep corners of her mind for an answer to his simple question. She knew the answer had to do with the fact he was just lying there, helpless, with hardly enough strength to even breathe. So, was the answer pity or guilt? Or did she see something in the dying changeling that she hadn’t before?

“Well, I, um,” Scootaloo murmured, trying to help even herself understand her answer. “It just felt like the right thing to do.”

Flake tilted his head and raised a brow. “But we were enemies,” he exclaimed.

“Thank you, for clarifying that for me,” Scootaloo said in a quiet tone.

“Huh?” Flake’s ears fell back. “I...”

“You said were,” the pegasus had a soft voice in her response.

Flake stood up straight and his ears twitched. “Um... Wait. So, what does that make us now then?”

Scootaloo smiled. “It makes us friends.”

There was a pause. Upon hearing those words, the changeling was seemingly frozen. Scootaloo was confused by his sudden behaviour. It was like he had been lifted from a sin, and he just stared at her. “F... friends...?”

The pegasus just shrugged. “Well, yeah. You saved my life,” she exclaimed. “I mean, what else would I call you?”

Flake just kept looking her in the eyes with that wide-eyed stare. Scootaloo kept watching him, and something happened that she never would have expected... His coat magically changed in colour, from the pitch black all changelings tend to have on their bodies, to a dark olive.

At first, Scootaloo was left in awe. She didn’t understand—until she remembered something. That very same thing happened to her when she was comforted by the love and affection from Mercy. When she escaped the changelings’ hive, her coat and mane were a dead grey; Mercy’s friendship brightened her colour, more and more each time she felt the warmth of kindness. “You... have coloured coats, too.”

The changeling blinked a few times, snapping out of it. “What?” he questioned her comment, and out of curiosity, lifted his front-right hoof up to look at it. When he witnessed his new colour for himself, he just kept looking at his hoof. He stood there in silence, admiring his new look. After what seemed like a long minute, Scootaloo watched as he continued to acknowledge his change. Closing his eyes, he slowly lifted his head, looking to the sky through his closed eyelids. “Why do I... feel so warm?” he murmured in a trembling voice of comfort. “I-I don’t understand this feeling. What is it?” He opened his eyes and put his hooves down, looking at the pony through his damp turquoise eyes. “What is this feeling, Daring Do? I don’t understand.”

Scootaloo stood, watching, and slowly a smile formed over her face. She knew exactly what he was feeling. “You’ve never felt it before?”

“What is it?” he asked again in a voice that sounded as though he was ready to cry.

“The very thing you need to live,” she replied.

“Love...?” he questioned her.

Scootaloo nodded with a warm smile. “The magic of friendship.”

“I’ve never... felt such a thing before,” the changeling murmured and tilted his head. “N...nopony’s ever called me their... friend before.”

The pegasus raised a brow. “How could that be?”

Flake breathed through his nose and looked to the ground. “I’ve never even known what a friend was,” he whispered slowly, “Until you showed me.”

Scootaloo put that to thought. “Well... what doesn’t make sense to me, is... how is it that every changeling I’ve ever seen has always had that dark and colourless coat? And then I meet you, and your coat changes colour as a result of friendship...” She squinted at the thought. “Does every changeling in your colony have that same black colour?”

The changeling nodded curiously.

This got Scootaloo thinking. Her eyes wandered as she searched for the answers in her thoughts, and slowly, it started to make sense to her. “If that’s true,” she pondered, “Then it’s almost as if none of the changelings have ever experienced friendship in their lives.” Her eyes widened as the epiphany came together. “And... that’s why you have to feed off of love. Because you creatures don’t know how to love yourselves.” Her eyes wandered as she thought about it. “Every changeling I’ve ever met has been self-centered. Always wanting all the honour to themselves. Always wanting respect from the Queen. Always thinking—so deeply—about themselves.” She looked at the changeling, and he looked back at her. “Is that how it is in the hive? You all just do your job in the Queen’s name, but you don’t do anything for other changelings?”

Looking into Scootaloo’s eyes, Flake’s ears fell back. “Will you teach me?” he requested.

Scootaloo’s ears perked from the question. “Teach you what?”

“The magic of friendship,” the changeling replied. “Now that I know that feeling, I don’t want to let it go,” he murmured quietly. Then his eyes widened, and he breathed a little coarser, like he was about to have a panic attack. “That’s the feeling we’ve been draining out of ponies? That’s the love we’ve been consuming?”

The pegasus tilted her head and she raised a brow in question. As she nodded, his breathing became faster, and he lifted a hoof to his head. “I... I can’t...” he stuttered, “We’ve been taking this wonderful feeling from you ponies? Leaving you feeling...” He paused, thinking of how to describe how he felt before he knew friendship.

“Empty?” Scootaloo asked.

Flake looked back into Scootaloo’s eyes with understanding, and he nodded. “Empty...” he replied solemnly. A brief moment of silence had past before he cringed from self-disgust. “I’m going to help you get your friends back.”

Scootaloo stood tall and perked her ears. “You’re coming with me?”

The determined changeling nodded.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Resting in her throne room, Chrysalis waited for Chitin to return from his search. Sitting in her seat, she heard hoofsteps approaching the doors from the other side. Leaning forward, she sighed and murmured, “About time...”

The door knocked three times, then there was silence. “Come in,” she called out. There was a hesitation, and the doors opened up. The changeling entering her throne room however was not Chitin like she had expected. “Shade?” She raised a brow and sat up straight. “What brings you in here?”

“My apologies for being intrusive, Queen Chrysalis.” He bowed for a brief moment before standing back up and getting to the point. “We have a problem back in the cocoon dome.”

“One thing after another...” Chrysalis groaned and impatiently slammed her hoof into her armrest. “We have enough problems dealing with the pony on the loose.”

“I understand you’re busy with that,” he muttered abruptly. “However, there is a crisis on our hooves bigger than a missing pony.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “What could possibly be so important that you had to come in here?”

Shade took a breath in before he explained himself. “Since the pegasus escaped, we have had to throw away eight other cocooned ponies who have been drained completely of love.” He raised his voice to emphasize the severity of the situation, “I have been the head guard of the cocoon dome for eight years, and in that time, we have never had to toss out empty ponies at a rate this high.”

The Queen momentarily froze, and remained silent. She stood up slowly from her throne, and squinted at him. “How could that be? The only way to drain love so quickly is to use our transformation magic. And even then, there is no way it would drain it at a rate as high as you say, unless multiple changelings were doing it.”

“I looked into it,” he revealed with a sigh and a wince. “I don’t know the source of it... but, it appears that someone is draining the love of every cocooned pony in our possession.”

“Someone is stealing our love...?” the Queen questioned him with doubt. “We’ve never had a problem like this before.” She cringed and sat back down, putting her hoof to her chin. There was a moment of silence, and she put it to thought. “How quickly are they draining? If we don’t stop the source from stealing our supply, how long do we have?”

“Before we have nothing left?” Shade looked to the side, putting the question to thought. He shrugged his shoulders, and came up with an estimation, “Four, maybe five months?”

“That fast...?” she quietly stuttered. Her eyes wandered, and she put the situation to thought. “What I am having a difficult time fathoming is how all of these critical problems have been unraveling ever since that pony escaped!”

“Are you suggesting there is a connection?” the guard questioned her.

“I don’t know,” the Queen grumbled. “Chitin and his search crew are looking for her as we speak.”

“And how is that going?”

Chrysalis just cringed at the question.

“Never mind,” he murmured and cleared his throat. “I will continue to look for the source of the drainage problem.”

“Good,” Chrysalis sighed. “Come back to me with any updates on the matter. If we don’t take care of it soon, we won’t be able to live in Equestria any longer.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Trotting side by side along the riverbed, Scootaloo and Flake made their way toward the mountain.

“I have a question,” Scootaloo exclaimed and turned to the olive changeling beside her. “After you cocooned me, I awoke washed up on the riverbed. What exactly happened while I was unconscious?” When Flake looked at her, she could tell that he was still sore on the subject. “I don’t mean that offensively; I know you meant well by your job,” she reassured him, “I just want to know what happened.”

Flake sighed. “I was taking you back to the Queen, and Chitin stopped me.”

“So, he’s the one who tried killing you?”

The exiled changeling winced in response, and he looked away from her. There was a silent pause in their conversation before he continued to talk. “And to think, I wanted to become just like him.”

Scootaloo’s ears fell back, and she thought about his response. She imagined a pegasus soaring through the air creating rainbows and clearing clouds, and a memory of her flightless foal self looking up at her idol from below, wishing to be airborne like her. “So... you looked up to Chitin?” Scootaloo couldn’t fathom her idol turning her back on her. But she knew, that if that ever did happen, she would probably die on the inside.

“Like a brother,” Flake replied with a sigh. “Although I don’t think he ever really noticed me...”

Memories of Scootaloo’s idol pegasus kept spinning through the corridors of her mind. The day Rainbow Dash took her under her wing, accepting her as her little sister—her happiest memory. The agonizing empathy she felt for the changeling stirred in her heart. Chewing her bottom lip, she looked away and tried to move on with the subject, and cleared her throat. “So... what happened after that? How did I get in the river?”

Flake’s eyes wandered and he took in a breath through his nostrils. “Chitin wanted to take you back to the Queen himself,” he explained. “At that time, I didn’t feel it was right that he would bring you to her. That should have rightfully been me, because I caught you.” He squinted and sighed. “Before he had a chance to fly off with you, I pushed your cocoon into the river so he couldn’t get you.” He frowned and lowered his head. “As a result, he got angry, and cast a forbidden spell on me known as Red Death, which burns the victim from the inside out—which, in most cases is fatal, but after a slow and painful struggle. The Queen doesn’t approve of this spell ever being used, unless absolutely necessary for our survival.” He turned to look at the pegasus. “You were no longer in a cocoon, because water washes our mesh away.”

“I see,” Scootaloo murmured.

Trotting further upstream, they could hear the roaring of the waterfall up ahead. Looking up, the mountain was now towering over them, with the water plummeting into the river below, where Scootaloo had fallen from. The dead equine bodies in the gloomy water sent chills down her spine. Flake looked over to her, acknowledging her ominous expressions as she glared into the watery grave. Scootaloo stopped trotting, and had to stand still for a moment to pull herself together. Slowly turning her neck to view the river of bones, her heart kept sinking deeper and deeper into her gut.

“Daring Do?” the changeling questioned her, expressing his concerns with a calm voice. Scootaloo’s focus was swallowed by the heartbreaking view; she could hear him, but not coherently.

“Daring,” he called again, snapping her out of it. Her ears twitched in response, and she turned to look at him. “Everything alright?” he asked.

Scootaloo exhaled slowly through her nose, and she brought her glance back to facing the river. Flake cleared his throat and stepped closer to the emotionally scarred mare. Cautiously, he approached her with his ears curved back.

“Every living creature needs to feel love,” Scootaloo solemnly and quietly explained. “Just like you changelings need it to live, we ponies need it, too. Without love, a creature feels nothing. If a creature feels nothing... they die.”

Flake turned to look at the dead bodies in the river, his eyes slowly trailing along the stream of bones.

“Because of your kind’s way of life, I can see why you need to rely on feeding off of the love that other creatures provide to stay alive. And because of this, I have a question...” She turned to look at Flake, and he looked back at her. “When a pony’s love is cleaned out, you throw them away as if we are garbage...” She winced. “What do you changelings do to your own kind when you’re deceased?”

“I...” Flake froze, and his eyes wandered. “I don’t know... I never really thought about it.”

“How often do you know of changelings dying?” the pegasus questioned him further.

“Well... It isn’t unheard of. It happens every once in awhile... Why do you ask...?”

“Do you know who they were?” She sat on her flank and made a saddened expression. “Did any changelings know who they were?”

“Um... Yeah, but... I...”

“So a changeling dies, and nobody acknowledges it. They just toss them out, too? You can’t show even a speck of love for your own kind, so you feed off the love of another. To the extent, you feel nothing for even a changeling when they die, and dump them here with the other dead bodies, without a hint of respect.”

“What... what makes you think...”

Scootaloo interrupted his question by pointing to a skeleton on the river shore not too far from them. Flake glanced at the body, and winced at it. After a brief hesitation, he slowly crept up to the body. His ears fell back at the sight, and he felt his heart sinking. The bone structure was different from the other deceased ponies. “A changeling...?” he whimpered, “Bu... but why... why would we...?”

“You’ve never really thought about it before, because you’ve never felt love before,” Scootaloo murmured. “You’ve only ever fed off of it.” She stood up and trotted to him. “But now that you’ve felt what we ponies feel—love and friendship—you feel the loss; the heartbreak and sorrows in your soul.” She stood next to the trembling changeling who was looking down at the corpse at his hooves. “You feel what I’m feeling.”

Flake kept his eyes on the changeling’s skeleton. The sickening feeling in his heart was overwhelming, and tears began to trickle from his eyes. Slowly, he reached out a hoof and gently nudged the skull, which tilted to its side at an angle which seemed like it was staring right back up at him through its empty eyes. His ears fell back, and he looked up to the mountain where the waterfall was flowing from. “This is wrong,” he muttered in a breathless voice. He looked back down to the skeleton, then he turned to Scootaloo, and he started to cry. “I’m sorry,” he whimpered, “Daring Do, I’m sorry, it never crossed my mind, I’ve never felt it, I didn’t... I didn’t know...”

“But now you have felt it,” Scootaloo replied warmly, “And I forgive you.” Tears were evident in her eyes as well.

Hearing those words of comfort and acceptance, Flake was left speechless. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out; just a weep. Scootaloo sighed, and she trotted up to him. He was at first confused by her gesture when she wrapped a hoof around his shoulders; he didn’t know what to make of it. Scootaloo embraced the trembling changeling in a forgiving hug, and a gasping hiccup escaped his throat. He lowered his head upon her shoulder, and he began to sob. He could feel himself changing—his colour growing brighter; greener.

After a long moment in the silent embrace, Scootaloo finally broke the hug and stepped back, witnessing the bright leafy-green changeling before her.

“I won’t allow this to continue to happen,” Flake exclaimed. “We have to tell them... show them...”

Scootaloo smiled and nodded. “You know a safe way in?”

“Hm...” Flake put a hoof to his chin and put that to thought. “...Yes,” he replied and put his hoof back down. “The original entrance. The changelings don’t use that part of the hive any more; we’ll be able to get in easier without being seen.”

“Alright,” Scootaloo exclaimed. “Where?”

“The original entrance is through the old abandoned city.” The changeling looked up to the mountain at the far side, and pointed a hoof. “Canterlot.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many thanks to these gentlecolts:
Proofreading and Editing done by The Princess Luna and David Hasselhoof.
Prereading and other Assistance by Morfonious.

Comments

[Legiondude]

At last!

[Sunny]

Okay, ever more interesting!

Will we see the fates of the Mane 6?

[Mechanical Gears]

Huzzah! An Update!

[-Brutus]

It would feel...strange to read and imagine Canterlot being in ruins.

[Vendable Sheik]

Flake is definitely one of my fav characters in this story now.