To run into your future when you're running away
Ruby Pinch ran, she ran as fast as her hooves could carry her, she wasn’t sure where she was going, she just knew she wasn’t going back there. Her mother Berry Punch was a drinker, it was never a problem before, she only ever drank enough to be a little ‘bubbly’ as most ponies had called it. Then something changed, Ruby didn’t know what it was, she only knew the end result and how much it hurt. It had started months ago, Berry came home one night completely drunk, she passed out in the living room and slept there until the next day. The first time Ruby didn’t think much of it, then it happened again the next week, and again. Soon Berry would come home drunk more and more often, there were nights that she would stumble in the door, make it only a few steps before passing out on the floor. That Ruby could deal with, she was very mature and responsible for her age. Then came the anger, Berry had never raised a hoof to her daughter out of anger before, then one night out of the blue Berry hit her.
One second Berry was full of anger, the next Berry realized what she had done and was completely shocked, she promised Ruby that she hadn’t meant to do it and would never do it again, Berry had believed her as any loving daughter would, but it did happen again. Four more times the same thing, raging anger followed by abrupt apologies, and yet each time the apology seemed less sincere. Finally, after the fifth time, Berry didn’t even apologize, she started yelling how it was Ruby’s fault, whatever it was that had set Berry off. Ruby went to the one pony she could think of that she knew that could help her, Miss Cheerilee spoke to both her and her mother, while Berry seemed apologetic and sincere at the time, it was all just for show. As soon as they had gotten home the anger had returned, Berry had yelled like nothing else, all Ruby could do was hide in her hooves until Berry finally stopped.
After Berry had finally fallen asleep Ruby decided she had enough, sneaking out of the front door she ran away. She didn’t know where she was going to go, anypony she tried to stay with would just bring her back to her mother, so she picked a direction and ran. That direction turned out to be the Everfree Forest, a voice in Ruby’s head shouted at her to turn around, another voice told her to keep running, that this was the one place nopony and especially her mother would look for her. With that voice winning out Ruby kept running, she ran headlong into the brush and undergrowth of the forest. She didn’t know how long she had been running, she lost track of where she was in the dense forest, and she no longer cared.
Ruby decided that the more lost she was, the harder it would be for anypony to find her, she started running in random patterns turning left and right on a whim. Eventually the little filly was moving at a crawl exhausted, she found a small open patch of grass between some trees and fell to her belly. For the first time that night she openly cried, she had been afraid to cry when her mother was yelling, now the damn burst as everything came spilling out at once. She cried harder than she could ever remember doing in she life, she cried until she fell asleep in the small clearing, not caring about any creatures that were probably around. As she slept, a tall shadow with bright green eyes fell over her. It regarded the filly, sadness showing in its eyes, it swept over the filly as both vanished into the night.
~o0o~
Twilight was on the edge of frantic, she waited for her friends to arrive but couldn’t help pacing back and forth. Earlier that morning just before sunrise a royal guard had woken her knocking on the castle door.
Twilight groggily opened the front door of her castle, standing there in the early predawn was a royal guard pegasus with a worried look on his face.
“Forgive the early call your majesty, but there is an urgent matter.”
Twilight nodded, still some what sleepy, but the dregs of sleep were quickly fading. She motioned for the guard to enter, figuring that what ever this was about was most likely not something to discuss on the front porch.
“What is the problem gentalstallion?”
“Technically it’s several problems, most can be sorted out later, the pressing matter is the whereabouts of a filly Ruby Pinch.”
Twilight was now fully awake. “That's one of the fillies in Cheerilee's class, what's happened, you said whereabouts, was she foalnaped?”
“Not that we are currently aware of, we received a report yesterday from the local school teacher asking to have a Miss Berry Punch checked on as her daughter came to her with claims of abuse. According to the report, nothing was amiss when she med with both, but she asked that their home life be looked into regardless.”
“That makes sense if a filly is claiming to be abused it's better to check and be wrong than to not and miss it.”
“Yes princess, we arrived this morning to find Miss Punch passed out and her daughter missing, it also seems she has several warnings and pending fines for public intoxication as disrupting the peace.”
Twilight groaned. “I had heard from Applejack that she had been hitting the bottle rather hard recently. I assume you are here to ask my help in starting a search,” Twilight paused thinking of something else. “Also you said other problems?”
“Yes princess, you see the report Miss Cheerilee filed asking for this to be looked into should have been sent to you as you are for all intents the local authority in legal matters, yet some paper pusher in the mayor’s office sent it to Canterlot, hence why we are here today instead of having this looked into last night.”
Twilight felt equal amounts of anger and annoyance at that moment. “ANd now Ruby is not at home, I’ll deal with the paperwork latter, let's start asking Berry’s nabors, I’m sure Ruby decided to stay with one of them…”
“Begging your pardon princess, but we already did. No pony has seen Ruby since she returned home last night with her mother.”
Twilight was silent for several moments. “Let's check with Mayor Mare and Miss Cheerilee, they must know of some family she would go to.”
“This isn’t my first home disturbance call ma'am, I checked over public records before arriving, no next of kin.”
Now Twilight was getting nervous. “Alright we’ll need to perform a citywide search, bring Miss Cheerilee here, I’ll gather my friends to help with the search.”
The guard saluted before rushing off to find Cheerilee.
Twilight was still pacing as the last of the group arrived, Rainbow had offered to spread the word to the others as it would be faster, now with everypony assembled Twilight addressed then as calmly as she could.
“Thank you for coming so quickly everypony, we may be short on time so I will try and make this quick, this morning I was informed that Ruby Pinch is missing.”
Everypony in the room gasped.
“D-Did something happen to her!?” Cheerilee asked her eyes wide.
“We’re not sure yet, you might know more than the rest of us actually, I was told you met with both Berry and Ruby yesterday and asked the guard to follow up on them.”
All eyes turned to Cheerilee. “Yes Ruby came to me the day before yesterday, claiming her mother was getting violent at home, I asked Berry to talk yesterday, everything seemed fine at the time, but sometimes you just get a feeling that something isn’t right. So I sent a request to the Mayor's office to have somepony look into their home life, I was actually hoping you might look into it since you live here anyway.”
“I would have,” Twilight griped. “But some paper pusher pony on the mayor's office sent the request to Canterlot rather than bringing it to me, something I’ll deal with later.”
There were various grones and agreements from around the room, sighing Twilight continued.
“Right now we need to search Ponyville, it seems Ruby doesn't have any other family in town, so she wouldn’t have any to go to, that being said,” Twilight turned to the Crusaders. “Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo you are all in the same class as Ruby, do you know anyplace she might have gone?”
THe three fillies pondered for several long minutes.
“Ah can’t really think of any place she might go.” Applebloom laminated.
Scootaloo just shrugged, and Sweetie shook her head also having nothing.
“Alright everypony, since we don't know where she might have gone we are just going to have to search the whole town, we’ll enlist anypony we can to help, some pony must have seen her somewhere, it's not like she could have just vanished into thin air.”
The group all nodded as they began to file out of the castle and into the town, Twilight hoped they could find Ruby before something happened to her.
~o0o~
Ruby slowly woke, she remembered running and falling asleep in the Everfree Forest, part of her was sure she wasn’t going to wake up, she was rather relieved that wasn’t the case. Blinking Ruby looked around, everything was dark but there was an odd green glow providing a little light. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, blinking to try and get a better idea of where she was, she became rather confused. She was in a cave of some kind, the details were hard to make out beyond ‘this is rock’. Ruby remembered being in the forest not in a cave, did somepony find her and bring her here? Or maybe a creature of some kind? She knew there were lots of friendly creatures around thanks to Fluttershy, did one of them find her? Ruby felt something or somepony next to her, the body was warm and had a smooth, yet comfy feeling to it. Turning to look who it was, Ruby froze in panic, there lying next to her was a changeling. Ruby remembered reading about the attack on Canterlot two years ago, changelings were supposed to be evil creatures that imprisoned pones sucking them dry, taking their place, or turning ponies into slaves or something like that. Either way Ruby was sure about one thing, she needed to get out of there and quick.
More running, guess I should get used to this. She thought as she tried to sneak away, easier said than done.
Ruby was laying next to the larger changeling tucked against its side, much like how ponies slept next to each other. The changeling had a translucent wing draped over Ruby’s back, and its tail was curled around the two. Ruby carefully tried to stand, the wing covering her twitched and Ruby froze. Nothing moved for a moment, eventually Ruby let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding, slowly she tried to take a step, only to find her leg tugging on a blanket.
Where did this come from? Ruby wondered, not having noticed the blanket before.
Slowly she tried to extract herself from the warm coverings, she got one leg free before the changeling next to her shifted. Ruby froze again, the changeling shifted to its side reaching out in its sleep, Ruby squeaked as the changeling's forelegs wrapped around her belly and pulled her close to the changeling’s barrel. The changeling held Ruby close, nuzzling into her mane as she slept. Ruby was certain she was trapped now, the changeling was holding her close and was now curled around her, snuggly. Ruby knew that changelings were dangerous, that they were bad creatures, so why did she feel safe here? Resigning to the fact that she was not going anywhere anytime soon Ruby tried to make herself as comfortable as possible, oddly it was not a hard matter. The changeling was rather comfy as well as the blanket she was in, Ruby was just starting to contemplate how that was possible when she felt a shiver run up her spine. It lasted only a second, but the sensation felt more like magic than actual cold. The changeling mumbled something before nuzzling Ruby’s mane, Ruby blushed slightly the contact felt nice, it felt a bit like what her mother would do before she started drinking, only nicer. The changeling stretched freeing Ruby, yet instead of running she turned to look up into the face of her changeling captor. The changeling opened its eyes, they were bright emerald green with draconic slits, and they looked right at Ruby. For a moment nothing happened, both just looked at each other for several long seconds, Ruby was the first to break the silence.
“So… are you going to eat me?”
The changeling flinched back as if struck.
“Ancestors NO! Is that what everypony thinks changelings do?”
Ruby shrugged. “No pony is sure, some say you foalnap ponies and drain all their love, others that you change ponies into changelings, or that you just eat ponies, I’m sure there are more stories.”
Why wasn’t she running? Why was she just staying here talking to a changeling!
“W-Well I can’t say none of that isn’t true for most changelings, but not me. I don’t do anything like that, I just go into town and make a few friends.”
Ruby was curious now. “What makes you different?”
The changeling shifted as if uncomfortable. “W-Well you see… *sigh* my ‘mother’ threw me out of the hive several years ago, I haven’t seen or interacted with any changelings since then.”
Silence descended on the two again, the changeling finally seemed to notice the position they were in and immediately scrambled to its hooves.
“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to- I wasn’t- that is-” The changeling slumped down.
“I’m Ruby.”
The changeling looked up, seeing Ruby sitting in front of her with an outstretched hoof, smiling she returned the hoof bump.
“I’m Chrysalis, but you can call me Chrissy, all my friends do..”
Ruby nodded. “How did you find me, Chrissy?”
“Changelings can sense and read emotions, I felt you nearby and came to investigate, you were crying yourself to sleep by the time I found you. Actually, why were you crying by yourself out in the middle of the Everfree?”
Ruby was quiet for a moment, part of her didn’t want to talk about it, part of her did, part of her told her to just run, another asked what did she have to lose?
“I’m running away from home, m-my mother s-started drinking r-recently, it’s gotten b-bad over t-the l-last f-few w-w-week…”
Ruby found herself swept up in a tight hug, before now she felt like she needed to hold everything in, to be brave and hope things would get better, now in a cave somewhere in the Everfree Forest Ruby Pinch cried her heart out to a changeling, her friend.
~o0o~
Twilight was mad, no she had been mad earlier, she was bucking pissed. It was late afternoon now and no pony had yet to find any trace of Ruby Pinch, it was like she had just vanished. Berry Punch had finally sobered up late in the morning, but she had yet to be informed of her daughter's disappearance, at the order of Twilight. Normally she wasn’t a malicious pony, but right now she felt it was called for. After speaking with several nabors it seemed that something had been going on for a couple of months now, but had only escalated in the past few weeks. All of this had been reported, and yet it was only now reaching Twilight from Canterlot, oh yes she was going to have words with ponies. It was Berry who really had her feathers ruffled right now, from the moment she had sobered up she kept asking what was going on and why she was there, never once asking about Ruby. Twilight was just outside the small Ponyville sheriffs office, taking a few calming breaths she entered the building.
“You can’t keep me in here, I know my rights, you haven't even accused me of anything!”
And any sympathy Twilight might have had was gone, Berry seemed wholly unrepentant and ignorant of her situation.
“And I told you, your being held until the princess come to talk to you or release you, I’m just doing my job.”
“And a fine job you are doing Sheriff.” Twilight interrupted before the obvious back and forth could continue.
“Princess, any luck?” The sheriff asked worriedly.
Funny how the town sheriff cared more about Ruby then her own mother.
“I’m afraid not, we are to the point of looking in the Everfree Forest.”
The sheriff pailed.
“What are you both talking about?” Berry demanded.
“Sheriff, could you give me a few minutes?”
The sheriff nodded. “I’ll wait outside, take as much time as you need.”
Quickly the sheriff walked out of the office, Twilight stepped in front of Berry Punch staring her down, the earth pony suddenly wasn’t so loud as before.
“What is the last thing you remember before waking up here?” Twilight asked her voice cold.
“I-I was at the bar in town, having a few drinks before going home, I-I must have drunk a bit more than I intended.”
“I would say that is an understatement, you seem to have drunk away all of your common sense as well as maternal instincts.”
Berry didn’t say anything for a long moment, Twilight could start to see the wheels turning in her head, it hit her like a sack of boulders dropped from the moon.
“RUBY! Where is she!?”
“As of this morning, no pony knows. She has been missing since we think last night after you came home drunk off your plot once again as the bartender stated. You likely hit her again, or worse, resulting in her simply vanishing.”
Berry’s jaw hung open as she stood in shock.
“As of right now you are charged with copious amounts of public intoxication, foal abuse, and neglect, other charges might be brought up depending on and if Ruby is found and in what state,” Twilight turned to leave, giving Berry one last look over her shoulder she added. “I would use your time in here to think about where you went wrong.”
Twilight left the sheriff's office, once outside she slumped to the ground, it had taken everything she had to not both scream and strangle Berry, as well as break down crying. Picking herself up she returned to the castle, her friends would be back by now and they would have hopefully have found some sign of Ruby by now. Entering the castle Twilight found Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. She walked up to her friends exchanging worried glances with each of them.
“I can assume nopony has sound Ruby yet?”
They all shook their heads no.
“Anypony heard from Fluttershy?”
“She was going to talk with some of her animal friends, there are a lot more of them and she hopped one of them might have noticed something.” Rainbow replied.
“It's the best we have so far, we’ll wait for her to get back then we will-”
“We found her!” Fluttershy burst in the door with a surprising amount of force.
“Where!” Everypony shouted.
Fluttershy eeped and hid in her mane.
“Fluttershy,” Twilight began softly. “Where is Ruby?”
“Um well we didn’t find her exactly, but one of my animal friends did say they saw here.”
“It's a place to start, can your friend take us there?”
“W-Well it might be harder than that, they saw Ruby in the Everfree Forest.”
“I was afraid of that, we searched all over town, there weren't many places left. Alright, we will go to the spot she was last seen, I might be able to-”
“T-There's more.”
Twilight looked back at Fluttershy. “What is it? She… she isn’t…”
“I’m not sure, my little bird friend said they saw Ruby being taking deeper into the forest by… um… … …”
“A what?” Twilight tilted her head.
“A changeling.”
The room was dead silent.
~o0o~
Ruby sat comfortably on the ‘couch’ in Chrysalis’ living room, although couch might have been a generous term seeing as it was more of large patch quilt rug over stuffed with what Ruby suspected was clouds. Regardless the couch was clean and very comfortable, and it seemed to be enchanted to be extra soft. Ruby hummed as the brush was run through her mane, Chrysalis lay behind her working the brush with her magic as she hummed a tune.
“What is that your singing Chrissy?”
“It's a song from an old earth pony legend, it tells the story about a grand city fort that was burned by a dragon. The song itself is rather sad but I’ve always liked the tune.”
“I like it, will you tell me the story?”
“Later I will, right now we need to figure out what you're going to do.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well I’m not about to send you back to that mare, but you really can’t stay here, not permanently at least.”
Ruby turned back to pout at Chrysalis. “Why can’t I? You’ve been nicer to me than any other adult.”
“Simple, your still a filly you need to go to school, make friends, play outside. You can’t do any of that living in a cave out in the Everfree Forest.”
“You do.” Ruby pointed out.
“I don’t go to school so that doesn't count, I do make friends, and it's easier for me to get back and forth because I can fly and I have stronger magic than you.”
Ruby crossed her hooves and gave Chrysalis her best grumpy face. “I still don’t want to leave.”
Chrysalis sighed and set down the brush she was using. “Believe me I don’t want you to leave, you the first pony who hasn't run away screaming or tried to blast me with magic.”
“I can imagine, especially after what happened at the wedding.”
Ruby gave Chrysalis a half accusing half curious look, it was a question she had been wanting to ask but had just been putting it off. Chrysalis visibly deflated, she knew this was coming, didn’t make it hurt any less.
“I know what you are saying, ‘what did I do at the invasion’. Would you believe me if I said I wasn’t there?”
“Then who was?”
“My mother Queen Catalyst, the same one who kicked me out. Where you there?”
“No but we heard all about it living this close to Canterlot, you didn’t have anything to do with it?”
“That’s not exactly true, I did catch wind that something was up, did you hear that the guard was warned about a threat?”
“I think I heard something about that.”
“I gave the warning, changelings are masters of the shadows, or we are supposed to be, I hopped that mother would back down if they were faced with a fully rallied guard, guess you know how well that worked. But we are getting off topic here, you need someplace to live, and you can’t stay here. Even if you could get to and from here to school safely, I doubt the princesses would let a changeling adopt a pony.”
“So change, you're a changeling.”
Chrysalis gave Ruby an unimpressed look. “Ha ha, very funny.”
Ruby just stuck her tongue out at Chrysalis. Chrysalis had to admit she did like Ruby, the little filly was more mature than her age would suggest, and she hadn't run from her cave screaming. She also admitted to herself that they were alike in some ways, both having mothers who had abandoned them for some reason. But no, Chrysalis needed to think of Ruby’s safety, and if there was one thing the Everfree Forest wasn’t it was safe.
“Can… can I at least stay for a while longer? Mom…” Ruby shook her head. “Berry Punch was never nice like this, even before she started drinking, always so busy she said.”
Oh ancestors curse me, I know I’m going to regret this. Chrysalis looked over to where a calendar hung on the wall, seeing it was Saturday she gave in, if only a little. “Yes you can stay, for now, we’ll worry about school come Monday, but this isn’t over little miss.”
Chrysalis booped Ruby on the nose to drive home the point, Ruby giggled nuzzling into Chrysalis’ barrel, Chrysalis could feel the love radiating off the little filly, she sucked up every drop coming towards her. She had tasted fresh love directed towards her, or rather her disguise, before but never in such amounts or so strong, briefly she wondered if she could get fat from love.
~o0o~
Twilight and company came roughly to the spot where Ruby had been last seen, it was hard to tell in the deep undergrowth of the Everfree.
“Alright everypony stay back, I have a spell that might help, but it's very easy to fool.”
Lighting her horn, Twilight cast the area in the magenta glow of her magic. For several moments nothing happened, then an almost invisible wispy trail of light purple could be seen, the trail stopped in a small open area before heading off again with a light green trail next to it.
“What kind of spell is that darling?” Rarity asked.
“An aura revealing spell, normally it wouldn’t work like this, in town everypony’s aura would overlap and mingle until I couldn’t tell them apart. Even the ambient thaumic field around town would block it out, but out here I can separate a pony’s aura from the Everfree.”
“And I’m guessin’ that green stuff is the changeling?” Rainbow asked pounding her hooves together.
“I can only assume, and it’s only green because they were undisguised. Follow me everypony, hopefully, we’re not too late for Ruby.”
The six friends followed the aura tails, the trails quickly rose over the trees leaving Twilight and Rainbow to follow. Rainbow would fly over their ground-bound friends directing them what way to go from the air, while Twilight focused on her magic. They followed the trail for over an hour, now deep in the forest they came to a large cliff with a cave about halfway up, the cliff formed rough steps that the others could jump to until they were all at the entrance to the cave.
“Alright, they must be inside. We should be prepared for a fight, this could be the hive we’ve been looking for since the invasion or its there equivalent of a fort. Best to be ready for anything.”
Each of the friends nodded as they carefully made their way into the cave, none of them saw the rune carved into the floor, nor did they see when the rune began to glow green.
~o0o~
Ruby giggled as she splashed about in the tub, after realizing how hungry they both were they had eaten lunch, followed by getting Ruby a bath as both of them realized she hadn’t had one since the night before running away. Chrysalis laughed as she stuck a generous amount of bubbles on Ruby’s head, the two were just content to continue playing and having fun, until Chrysalis suddenly froze.
“Chrissy? What's wrong?” Ruby asked nervously.
“Something's come into the cave or more likely somepony.”
“How do you know that?”
“I have an alarm placed at the entrance, I haven't had a creature enter my cave in years, it has to be ponies looking for you.”
“Oh no…”
“Don’t worry,” Chrysalis said changing into a silver unicorn with a blond mane. “I’m not going to hoof you over if they want to take you back to Berry.”
“But you will if they don’t?”
“We already talked about this, you need to go back to Ponyville.” Chrysalis lifted Ruby out of the tub, quickly drying her off and placing her on her back. “But I’ll come see you often, I still need to teach you that song.”
They entered the main room of Chrysalis’ home, the short hall and large door on the other end of the room leading outside seemed very ominous to Ruby right then. Chrysalis was about half way across the room when the door flew off its hinges, Chrysalis threw up a shield just in time to deflect the splintering wood. Both ponies looked back at the now gaping hole in the wall in time to see a cyan blue rush into the room, Chrysalis felt the impacts on her shield as the blur continued to pound her shield over and over. She got a good look at the blur, seeing the rainbow-maned pegasus punching her shield, she was about the grab the pegasus with her telekinesis when she took a hard magical blast to her shield. In the ruined door way now was the alicorn Twilight Sparkle, and in that moment Chrysalis felt fear.
“Give it up changeling, we know your not a pony! Give us back Ruby!”
Chrysalis opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by a cracking sound as her shield weakened.
“Stop. Attacking.” Chryslisys managed between hits.
“Ya not happening.” Shouted Rainbow.
Chryslisys grunted again as she took another hit on her shield, this time from a powerful buck delivered by Applejack.
“Stop hurting Chrissy!” Ruby shouted from where she was on Chrysalis’ back.
Twilight blinked hearing the filly, then her ears went flat as she growled.
“That changeling has her under a mind control spell, we need to break through!”
The three ponies hit Chrysalis’ shield at once as hard as they could, changeling magic was meant for stealth and disguise, not combat. Chrysalis cried out as her shield collapsed, she was nearly knocked over as something rushed over her back. She didn’t get a change to even look back before a blast of magic hit her square in the barrel, she flew backward slamming into the wall as her disguise fell. The world spun as Chrysalis tried to get back on her hooves, blinking she saw Twilight standing next to Rainbow Dash her horn glowing. She could see her mouth moving but she couldn't hear anything, Applejack was standing over her glaring down at her, Chrysalis began to slump back down when a shriek cut through the cotton in her hears, she could see Ruby screaming holding her hooves to her head.
In that moment everything turned red. Drawing on her entire magical reserve Chrysalis transformed into a dire bear, roaring loud enough to shake the entire room Chrysalis charged at the two ponies. She felt something on her side and gave a back paw to Applejack as she tried bucking her. Twilight unleashed a volley of spells into the angry changeling turned dire bear, if Chrysalis felt them, she didn’t respond to them merely charging through them. Rainbow made a mad dash for the exit, but Chrysalis still had all of her abilities and teleported ahead of her, blocking the exit. Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie who were watching the exit now found themselves between Rainbow and an angry Chrysalis. Fluttershy dove to the side, Rarity ready the few spells she knew while Pinkie pulled out her signature party cannon. Nether was effective as Chryslisys roared and charged them, she nearly trampled Rarity while knocking Pinkie to the side. Rainbow went wide eye as she saw her friends simply brushed aside, she turned to try and double back hoping to slip past Chrysalis, when she got a punch in the side. Looking down in surprise she saw Ruby had punched her, altho not significantly hard, and was trying to get out of her grip, the few seconds this distraction cased her was enough for Chrysalis to grab Rainbow’s hind leg and keep her from flying away. Ruby took this opportunity to leap from Rainbow's grasp onto Chrysalis head, she held onto her neck right behind her ears glaring at Rainbow.
With Ruby in tow, Chrysalis made a dash for the exit, only to be stopped by Fluttershy as she stood in the tunnel wings flared. She had an angry expression on her face, not unlike when she was giving the stare. Chrysalis met the pegasus nose to nose growling, yet Fluttershy didn’t back down.
“What did you mean?” Fluttershy asked definitely.
Chryslisys blinked, her anger remaining but now mixed with curiosity.
“What are you talking about?”
“When you roared, I heard what you said, I can understand animals after all. What did you mean?”
Ruby poked her head up. “What did she say?”
Before either could respond, Chrysalis took another hit from behind.
“All of you stop it!” Fluttershy demanded.
Behind them the other five skidded it a halt, Fluttershy didn’t speak up often, or at all, but on the rare occasion that she did. Her friends tended to listen.
“You.” She pointed at Chrysalis. “When you attacked you said ‘get off my daughter’, what did you mean?”
Chryslisys suddenly became uncomfortable, she hadn't meant to yell that when she roared, and now it seemed the cat was out of the bag as it were.
“I-uh… I saw you hurting Ruby and I just… reacted.”
“That’s still not an answer.” Fluttershy shot back.
Silence hung in the air for several minutes, eventually, Chrysalis slumped sighing loudly.
“I admit I’ve become attached to Ruby rather quickly, I tried not to, she needs to be in Ponyville not out here. I guess I just got protective of her.”
The other were quiet for a moment before Fluttershy spoke up again.
“I think we all need to sit down and talk about this.”
The other agreed, Chrysalis returned to her natural form as they walked back into her home, fortunately, besides some damage to one wall, the place was still in one piece allowing the group to sit down as Chrysalis told her side of everything that had happened.
~o0o~
“...and then you tripped the alarm at the cave’s entrance letting me know you were here, the rest you know.”
“Yes, you’ll have to show me that rune spell some time.” Twilight said sipping from a glass of water. “But now the question, what do we do with the two of you?”
“Ruby needs to stay with ponies, if for no other reason then she needs friends and to stay in school, but I think we can agree taking her back to Berry would be a mistake.” Chrysalis pointed out.
“As much as ah support family, ah can’t rightly call her family after hearing what she did, or didn’t do as the point stands.” Applejack said crossing her hooves.
“No, and she is still being held on other charges, if she wasn’t capable of caring for Ruby before then she definitely would be less so now.” Twilight added.
“So I can trust you to find somepony to care for her?” Chrysalis asked.
Twilight looked at the two sitting across from her, Ruby was sitting in between Chrysalis’ forelegs snuggled against her barrel, she fondly remembered times when she was Ruby’s age sitting in the same position with Princess Celestia.
“I think I have a candidate in mind.” Twilight said with a grin.
“Thank you, as for me, I’ll leave the area if you want me to. I doubt you’ll want a changeling living so close to your town.”
Ruby looked nearly heartbroken at that, she definitely didn’t want her friend leaving.
“I’m afraid that won't due,” Chrysalis deflated as Twilight began. “You’ll have to live in town so I can keep an eye on you.”
Chryslises jerked up, of all the things she expected to hear that was not one of them, nor was the grin on Twilight’s face.
“And since you’ll be in Ponyville anyway, I think you should look after Ruby, she seems to like you a lot after all.”
“I-I… thank you, princess.” Chrysalis said, she tried bowing but a purple filly was currently attached to her neck preventing her.
“I don’t mean to rain on the parade darling,” Rarity interrupted. “But how are we going to explain this? Chrissy being a changeling aside, hoofing over a filly to all intents a stranger will draw attention as well as being suspicious.”
Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. “You bring up a good point, but I think I have an idea. We say that Crissy found Ruby out in the Everfree Forest and offered to take her in until somepony came for her, we found them and I offered to have Crissy move to Ponyville. Since she will need a place to live temporarily she can help take care of Ruby under my ‘supervision’ while they stay at the castle.”
“Isn’t that what happened?” Fluttershy pointed out.
“Yep, we just don’t tell anypony that Chrissy is a changeling if nopony asked no pony will know.”
“That’s a might close to lyen’, but I’d be willing to let it slide for’ their sake.”
Twilight nodded. “Then it's settled, we’ll get you two back to town and set up in some guest rooms. Chrysalis and I will come back tomorrow and retrieve her personal effects, Ruby we’ll need to take you to see Berry.” Twilight held up a hoof forestalling the impending argument. “She is still your legal guardian, and since your not old enough to live on your own she has to release you to me, technical she has to release you to the crown, and since I’m a princess now that means me.”
“How long can you keep her?” Chrysalis asked.
“Normally until a next of kin can be brought in, however, I know for a fact that Berry doesn't have any. In this case, she can stay in my care for thirty days before I have to release her to nurse Red Heart and the orphanage, but there is no law on how long she has to stay in her care.”
“Meaning, she can be adopted after the paperwork has been signed turning her over to the orphanage.” Chrysalis said connecting the dots.
“Correct, that is if everything goes alright between you two, remember you’ll be staying with me for a while, consider that your trial period.”
“You are much wiser than your year's princess.” Chrysalis grinned.
Twilight blushed and rubbed her forelegs together. “N-Not really, I just read a lot and I’ve been reading a lot of Equestrian law now that I’m a princess, I need to know these things when stuff like this comes up after all.”
Everyone in the room chuckled.
“Nevertheless thank you, princess.”
“Please call me Twilight.”
“Thank you, Twilight.”
“Alright everypony,” Twilight said standing. “Let's get back, we have a lot to get done.”
~o0o~
The meeting with Berry went about as well as Twilight thought it would, she completely broke down when Twilight had told her she was taking custody of Ruby. And Berry had nearly gone ballistic when Twilight told her that ‘Chrissy Cross’ was the one who had found her and wanted to look after Ruby, and that Twilight was currently agreeing. Even the sheriff had to agree with Berry that this seemed like a rash decision until Twilight stated that everything was on a probationary period and would be keeping a close personal eye on them before agreeing to anything long term. With the sheriff and her friends as witness Twilight signed the paperwork formally taking Ruby under her protection for the next month.
As they left the sheriff’s office the group split up going their separate ways, Twilight led Ruby and Crissy to her castle to get them settled in for the night. It was late by the time they made it back to the castle, Spike was there waiting surprised to see they had guests. Twilight informed him that they would be staying with them for a while, Spike seemed to like the idea of someone else his age in the castle. Spike went to make them all a late dinner, Chrissy followed as she offered to help, it was only fair she pointed out since there was two more of them. Despite the lateness of the hour dinner had been a lively affair with the four of them, Ruby and Spike seemed to act like siblings laughing and playing off each other like only siblings could. Twilight and Chrissy laughed right along with them, Twilight added to the mix by bringing up little things that made the little dragon sputter. Chrissy was right there too, and while she didn’t know Ruby for as long as Twilight had known Spike, she was still able to make Ruby hide in her hooves more than once.
They all made their way to their rooms, each of them tired but happy. As she crawled into bed, Twilight thought about how much more homey the castle had felt at dinner, it was true that the place was still rather empty even if it didn’t feel as cold since her friends had redecorated, but it was nice to have more ponies living here. Just as she was about to pull up the covers something nagged at the back of her mind as if she had forgotten something, knowing she wouldn’t be able to sleep she trotted back out of her room and headed down to the library. She figured her mind had remembered that she left a lamp on or something, as she walked down the hall she noticed the door to Ruby’s room was slightly open, peeking inside she saw Ruby wasn’t in her room. She panicked for a moment and hurried to Chrissy’s room, where she found the door also open just a bit as well. She peeked inside, smiling softly at what she saw. Chrissy was undisguised laying on the bed with one wing draped over Ruby who was already snoring lightly. Twilight couldn’t help but be happy for the two, it seemed that in being lost they had found each other.