“Hey, hey Gnomey! Gnomey!”

Sylphie poked the solemn, quiet earth spirit in the cheek repeatedly, trying to get her to respond.

“Wanna hear a joke? Huh, do ya?!”

“Hey Sylphie, bro, just let Gnome chillax, man. She doesn’t talk much anyways."

Raindine chimed in, laying back on a cloud and enjoying the relaxation.

“Oh! Then instead of a joke, I’ll impersonate a bird!”

Sylphie put her arms to her sides like a chicken.

“Chi-pa-pa! Chi-pa-pa, I’m a bird! That’s great, isn’t i-“

Gnomey glared and gave Sylphie a swift backhand….then another, and several more.

“Ugh, my head hurts!” Exclaimed Pip as he sat up, a hoof on his head as he noticed Chrysalis had been smacking him a few times to wake him up.

“Wakey, wakey, sleepy head! Today is your big day! And this time, you got me here to make sure you don’t oversleep.”

“Thanks Chrysalis, but did you have to hit so hard? I cant feel my face.” Pip rubbed his cheeks with his hooves, while the changeling queen chuckled.

“Oh, toughen up, Mister Hero! And come on, hop on my back, we are heading to the real hero coronation.”

Pip slowly got up and climbed onto Chrysalis back, and she spread her large, thin wings, flapping them as they took off into the sky.

“Are you sure its safe to be riding on your back?!” Pip yelled out, holding tightly to her for fear of falling off.

“Now that you mention it, we really should have taken a griffon, but your goddess Celestia banished them from her land long, long ago. So this is the best you got, Pippy!”

One long, perilous flight across the ocean later, and our duo was now within sight of the Changeling homeland, Hivegondo. The borders of the island country were surrounded by such high mountains, that no ship could ever hope of docking. The land itself was coated in a strange, black material, with a huge castle in the distance.

“Pip, on behalf of my kind, I welcome you…to Hivegondo. If you fail here today, this will be your new home, so I hope you get to know it well."

Pip’s eyes began to get heavy from the altitude, and everything quickly went black.

An odd, warm aura surrounded our young hero, and once more, he was standing at the feet of his goddess, Celestia, in an ethereal plane within his dream world.

“Oh brave hero Pip, I apologize, but I had to have one last meeting with you, before you entered that wretched monsters castle.”
“It is quite alright, I should be the one apologizing, my goddess!”

Pip bowed out of respect, and Celestia waved her hoof

“You may stand. Now, Pip, tell me, how do you feel about Changelings?” the goddess asked, directly to the point.

“I….” Pip paused, having to think for a moment, due to what he has seen during his quest.

“I feel that while some of them may be evil, some of them may not be?”

The goddess frowned, giving a look of displeasure.

“And when you say this, who among them do you believe is good?”

Before Pip could speak, she shook her head.

“My great hero, Pip, their queen is simply trying to tempt your heart, and make you question your morals. She is in fact the most evil of them all, because she is their queen. She is, to put it quite simply, the root of all pure evil in this world, an enemy to all ponykind.”

“My Goddess…I don’t honestly think she is evil, wouldn’t she have taken me prisoner by now if she was?”

Celestia stepped forward, brushing Pip's mane gently, in a way only a Goddess could do.

“My dear, dear hero Pip. You must simply trust your goddess, for what pony can know better than me? Pip, I am asking you as your kind, benevolent, and loving Goddess: Strike this abomination from our planet, and I will see to it that you are rewarded greatly, as a true hero should be.”

And with that, Pip slowly regained consciousness, falling off of Chrysalis’ back and onto the ground.

“Woah! Your lucky, Pip. You blacked out and fell off me just as I landed!”

She kneeled down and helped him to his feet, and Pip could finally see the end of his journey: in front of him lay the grandest castle he had ever seen, even topping the temple built for Celestia in his home town.

“Welcome to my home, Pip. Around here, this castle even has a special name, coined many centuries ago by my great, great grandmother.”

“Wow, cool, Chrysalis. What is it called?”

“Castlevanialopolis. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?” She smiled and looked up at its grandeur

“Castle-what?”

“No matter, this is where our journey ends, Pippy. This is where we part. I’m going to go inside, and the next time we see one another, we will be enemies. It will be the age-old tale hero and villain”

Pip looked down, feeling a little bad about having to part with this changeling who he had grown attached to over the days, even if she had been a tad bit dumb some times.

“Ok Chrysalis….it has certainly been fun adventuring with you though.”

He shook his head, then looked up, with a smirk of determination on his face.

“But you had better believe: I’m going to make it to your throne room.”

Chrysalis chuckled and walked over to Pip, giving him a kiss on the cheek, and then walking off into her castle. Somehow, she knew nothing would prevent Pip from getting to her throne room. Even if he was the smallest colt she had ever seen, she had faith in him. And he knew that no matter what, this unorthodox hero-crowning ceremony would be the most difficult trial of his life.

Author's Note

The ending is fast approaching, I hope you guys are liking it so far :)