Chapter Ten

Reunited

My dead mother smiled at me. The fact that a shape-shifting bug made this possible only made me feel more light headed, as if I was waking from a vivid dream. Or in my case, a nightmare.

“Yes, little Equus, it’s me. It’s really me. Marrow Mortis.”

I sat up and reached out to her face with a trembling hoof. All I could touch was the hard shell of a changeling. She was there, yet she wasn’t. I might as well have tried to touch a memory.

“Hello, son,” she said, a sob hitching in her voice.

“M-mom . . .”

We hugged each other tight. For a few moments, there was no one else in the world except us. I cried as much as when I was getting tortured, but these tears were the kind I didn’t mind having. After all, how many times in my life have I ever cried tears of joy?

After what felt like an hour later, we broke off the hug. I stared into her beautiful eyes, trying to recall all the photos dad took of her. They didn’t do her nearly enough justice.

Mom said, “I wish changelings could cry actual tears. I’ll just have to settle for yours, dear.”

“Plenty to go around,” I replied.

I heard a whimpering behind me. I turned to see Pinkie Pie trembling as she stared at me.
Seeing a happy reunion should have made her hop for joy as much as her wheelchair allowed, yet she looked terrified.

Then I realized what she was staring at. My bleeding wounds.

“They’re just like Dashie’s,” she whispered. “Just like what I did to poor . . .” Pinkie looked away, keening like a kicked dog.

Applejack ran over and steered her away from me. “It’s okay, sugarcube. Don’t look at ‘em.”

“I remember it all now,” sobbed Pinkie. “Everything I did to Rainbow.”

“It wasn’t you, darlin’. It could never be you.”

They held each other, both shivering from bad memories.

“Mom? Quietus told me that you were looking for him. Is that true?”

“That’s right. I had to use his resurrection powers to get back to the living. All I had to do was tell him I wanted to torture my own son to death for his betrayal. He couldn’t bring me back here fast enough.”

“How did you even know what he was doing?”

Marrow smiled knowingly. “Oh, a certain rainbow-maned mare told me.”

Pinkie’s tail twitched as she whirled around. “You talked to Rainbow Dash?”

Rarity trotted over to my mom. “Does she miss us?”

“Is she lonely?” asked Spike.

Mom had to laugh a little at all the attention she was getting. She held up a hoof to quiet down the barrage of questions. “She loves and misses all of you.” She looked at Applejack and Pinkie Pie. “Especially you two.”

“So . . . awesome . . .” whispered Pinkie.

“Ain’t surprised,” said Applejack. “Still, it’s mighty nice of you to tell us that.”

Mom turned to me. “Rainbow asked me to tell you, and I quote, ‘Hey, Captain Big-Mouth. Thanks for keeping your hay-burger holster shut and not telling Applejack that she and the others needed to move on. Oops, you totally told everypony. I’m polishing my hooves for the butt-kicking I’m going to give you, free of charge, when you finally pop your horseshoes.”

She waited until everypony, including me, stopped giggling. “Ha. I’m kidding. My new boss wouldn’t like me beating up one of his future agents. Oops, there I go, spilling beans. Just like you. Seriously, I’m glad you kept A.J. from killing Trixie, even if it meant telling our secret. Stay cool, skull-butt.’ That’s it. Chatty mare, but she seems happy where she is.”

Twilight rubbed her chin. “Who is Rainbow’s new boss?”

“He’s an interesting fellow. Has ten fingers and toes, black fur, thin muzzle and long, pointed ears. He tracked me down and told me what Quietus was planning to do. Now he’s using me as a kind of spectral homing beacon for when Quietus dies.”

“Ohh, you’re his secret agent mare!” chirped Pinkie.

My mother snickered. “Something like that.”

I said, “Quietus told me that as long as he’s able to keep the changeling’s Queen under his control, he’ll be able to keep his followers in the land of the living.”

A voice rose from outside of my circle of friends. “That will soon change.”

Twilight stepped to the side to let a large battle-scarred black changeling approach me. “So you are the one that Quietus was so eager to lure here,” he said as he peered at my wounds.

“And you are?” I asked.

“Bicho. Chrysalis’s appointed guardian of the Under-Queen.”

“Quietus mentioned her, but he didn’t seem that worried, even if it’s her that’s keeping the entire hive from his control.”

“He’s a lunatic and a fool,” grumbled Bicho. “He’ll pay for stealing away our beloved Queen.”

“Where is this Under-Queen?” I asked.

He pointed towards a nearby pair of changeling guards. A large dark green pupae stood between them. “She will hatch soon. When she does, the entire hive will belong to her. Quietus has little experience with Chrysalis’s powers, so he can never be the master of us all.”

Twilight asked, “Equus, did Quietus tell you what he’s planning to do with the changelings?”

Applejack snorted. “An’ did he say what he’s doin’ with all those ponies from Appleoosa?”

“Apparently that town was a test run,” I said. “Quietus said that they would be dead in a few hours. As soon as the whole hive is under his command, he’ll order them to kill every pony in the nearest city. He thinks that much bloodshed will bring back Nightmare Moon.”

“No!” cried Pinkie as she stamped the ground. “Not again!”

“We gotta save those ponies!” demanded Applejack.

Bicho held up a hoof. “My fellow changelings are looking for them now, but they have to be careful. They can’t risk being discovered.”

Applejack snorted impatiently. “I’ll go help look, if that’s what it takes!”

Fluttershy raised a hoof. “My bats can help find them.”

“It’s not that simple,” explained Bicho. “These mountains have hundreds of miles of caves. Fortunately, my race has a shared hive-mind that not even Quietus can completely control. If we are careful, we can find the prisoners through the eyes of the possessed without giving away our own position.”

“So we just sit here,” Applejack grumbled. She shook her head and walked away.

After Twilight bandaged my wounds, Mom and I found a private corner of the cave. There were a thousand questions bounding around in my head, but one kept hopping higher than all the others.

“Mom? How well did you really know Dad?”

She hung her head and sighed. “I was afraid you would ask that. I suppose you’ve read my letters to him?”

“A few. One that stuck with me was the one where Dad nearly beat a mugger to death after you two went to a theater. He then acted like it was no big deal.”

“You have to understand a few things about your father. Ivory absolutely adored me. He would do anything in the world to make me happy. No sacrifice was too great for him. In order for us to get an apartment that wasn’t in the slums, he worked months of double shifts at the city morgue. But he never complained.”

She brushed my mane away from my eyes. “One of the reasons why I loved him was not only his puritan work ethic, but also his self-confidence. He was always rock-certain about everything he did. That’s why he felt no remorse over nearly killing that criminal.”

“Did you know he sometimes referred to me as the one who killed you? How could anyone be so sure about that?”

She groaned, shaking her head. “I’m so sorry about that. I never would have imagined him calling you something so hateful.”

“Did Rainbow tell you about Cherry Flower?” She was someone my father once loved and even considered marrying. Nightmare Moon told him she wasn’t suitable and would have to be sacrificed to her. Dad used the bathtub as a sacrificial altar.

“Yes. I would have never imagined my husband being that far gone. It might be just as well that you and your friends sent him to the moon. I probably wouldn’t recognize him now.”

Studying my face, she continued. “After Rainbow Dash and her master told me what your father had become after my death, I realized that Ivory had stoic determination, but his most crippling problem was that he wasn’t able to deal with loss. He thought that my untimely death meant never being happy again. He had found paradise in our marriage. When I died, you were all that remained of me.”

“And I wasn’t enough? I thought you two wanted children.”

“We were hoping for a lot of children, as many as the apartment could hold. Losing me must have dug a much deeper wound than I had ever guessed.”

I rubbed my temples, trying to piece everything together just right. Dad wasn’t just a murderer. Wasn’t simply knives and smiles. Nopony kills without cause.

We all have triggers. Pet peeves. Something sets each of us off. Dad nearly killed someone when his only lover was threatened. He sacrificed Cherry Flower out of fear that he would lose his wife. Later, he sacrificed himself so that Nightmare Moon would come back to Equestria, bring Mom back from the dead and reunite them forever.

“Dad killed out of love. He tried to make things the way they used to be through murder and suicide.”

Mom looked thoughtful as she tapped her chin. “A philosopher once said that any act committed out of love goes beyond good or evil.”

“That’s the preferred logic of a sociopath,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “You used to be a coroner, so you’ve seen what love can make some ponies do.”

“Maybe it was more than just love that drove him to kill, Equus. It might have also been fear of a future that he didn’t want any part of. He wanted to be a father and also a husband, but not one or the other.”

“But no one should ever be afraid of the future. It’s the only thing any of us have to look forward to.”

“We’re all afraid of what might come at some point in our lives, dear. My husband was just too emotionally damaged to deal with his fear and loss in a constructive way.”

“Which made it easy for Nightmare Moon to control him.”

Mom put her front hooves on my shoulders. “I’ve been told about the fights you’ve been in. You stabbed a griffin in the gut, I hear.”

“She shot me with an arrow first. Lost a kidney, too.”

“You have your father’s determination. You also have his anger.”

“Yeah, I’m finding that out,” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “Before Quietus tortured me, he said that Nightmare Moon gave me the ability to absorb the pain of others.”

There was an itchy moment of silence between us.

“I . . . I killed one of Quietus’s followers in Ponyville. But all I felt was extra strength.”

“Did you enjoy killing him?”

I grimaced. “Part of me did. Mom?”

“Yes, dear?”

“I’m not . . . exactly like Dad. Am I?”

She smiled and rubbed my cheek. “Ivory never let the world into his life. You have. He wasn’t able to handle losing. You’ve lost so much over the years, but you haven’t let it turn you sour. You resemble your father in another way.”

“What way?”

Bicho ran over to us. “We found them! There are only a few still alive, but we have to go now to get them.”

Pinkie ran over next to me. “All right! Let’s get this done.”

I heard the tremble in her voice. “Pinkie? Are you sure you’re up to this? What we’re about to do is bound to lead Quietus right to us.”

“It’s like what I told you in that nut-house, Equus. No one should die like Dashie and no one should live like me. These changelings know what it’s like to be owned by horrible people.
So do I. I wanna help send this Quietus guy packing.”

Her determination was inspiring. When my mother bashed Quietus in the head, I felt a small surge of power. My destiny marks may have been removed, but I was still a Mortis. My wounds burned like red coals, but I couldn’t stop now.

We would indeed send that bastard packing.

But not before I made him suffer the way I suffered.

As we gathered my friends and several black changelings together for the rescue mission, I pondered what Rainbow said about my eventually working for her boss.

What was Rainbow’s new job, anyway?

Author's Note

"Euphrosyne" by Raison D'etre. Nice tune.