Heart Of Fire: Regal Rebirth

CHAPTER FOUR:

FAMILY FEAR

   "Ready or not, here I come!" Applebloom called out as she pulled her head from the trunk of a tree to look for the others. She trotted around the playground, her eyes darting back and forth as they searched for Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and little Cream.

   She passed by a bush when she heard rustling from the other side. She slowly turned her eyes, smiling mischievously. She proceeded walking away from the bush until she heard the noise again, at that moment, she turned in the air with a 'hah!' and dashed toward a now exposed Scootaloo. Scootaloo tried to run, but it was too late, Applebloom had a hoof on her back.

   "Tag!" She called. "Yer frozen until the game's over."

   "Hourse feathers!" Scootaloo poutd.

   "Ah-ah. No talkin' either." Scootaloo huffed quietly as she stood in place while Applebloom ran off to look for the rest.

   Cream was hiding in a tree near the one Applebloom had counted by, she would wait untill Applebloom had found the other twoand came looking for her. She heard Applebloom's voice call out 'tag' only a few minutes after she left to find them, she smiled at that.

   Several minutes later, she heard yet another 'tag' wich told her she was all that was left. She opened her wings and jumped from her branch on the treeand effertlessly glided down to the ground with a soft, quiet landing. She had learned how to glid like that from both her parents and her daddy's old friend, Spark Storm when ever they got a chance to see him.

   She slipped into a nearby bush to keep her bright yellow colors hidden from others. She could have easily tranformed into a different colored pegasus, but her parents told her she was not to use her changeling ability in publick, unless she realy needed to and she was not about to disobey her mother and father for a simple game of freeze tag.

   She dashed from one bush to another untill she saw an orange pegasus mare standing almost perfectly still. She looked around to see if anypony else was around before making herself seen infron of Scootaloo. She ran out of her bush toward the other pegasus, lept into the air, her wings flapping and her forehooves out stretched. Then, she was blocked by a yellow mare that ran up between the two.

   "Not so fast!" Applebloom said, a victorious smile on her face. Cream started to bolt in the other direction, but stopped in place, not because Applebloom had tagged her, but because she felt something that terrified her. Mommy. She thought to herself. She felt... fear. Her mother was afraid, pure, undeniable fear. She also felt something else, something... strange, themthing changing in her mother.

   "Cream?" Scootaloo asked. Cream blinked and looked up at the girls in fear.

   "What's wrong, sweety?" Sweetie Belle asked. Cream broke away from their gaze and looked off into the distance of the park. She focused her gaze on one spot, the spot that feeling she just had was the strongest, then bolted for that direction.

   "Cream!" The Crusaders called out at once as they bolted after her.

   Cream flew around the trees, the Crusaders followed, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had the most difficult time as they did not have wings but Scootaloo was able to keep up easily. Cream came to a stop, looked left then right, and bolted off the path to the right.

   She stopped to see her parents embracing each other, her mother in her changeling form was sobbing in Blazing's forelegs as he tried to calm her down. "Mommy!" She called, Chocolate and Blazing looked up at their daughter, she motioned with a hoof for her daughter to come, wich she did without hesitation. She jumped up into her parebts embrace.

   "What's wrong mommy? I felt you afraid of something." At that point, the girls came up and stopped short as they saw the family in a group hug, all looking like something terrible had just happened. Blazing and Chocolate looked at each other, it was obvious they were both debating on if they wanted to tell her yet. After a minute, they looked back at Cream.

   "We'll tell you after we get home, sweetheart." Chocolate said. Blazing nodded in agreement, now was not the time, or the place, for them to tell their daughter that her grandmother just turned her mother into the Queen of the Changelings. Cream nodded in exceptance then nuzzled her mothers chest, Blazing pulled his grils into his forelegs.

   After several minutes, the three finaly broke from their family hug, Chocolate turned to her knew pony form and Blazing looked over to the Crusaders, who looked to the ground. "Girls." Blazing called. The three slowly looked up and slowly walked up to the zebra striped pegasus. "Thank you for looking after Cream for us, but we're going to cut our date short today." The three looked up in shock and disappointment.

   "You're not going to send us back home yet, are you?" Scootaloo asked.

   "Oh, no girls." Chocolate answered. " We invited you three to stay for the weekend." The girles perked up at this.

   "We just had something come up, is all." Blazing added. "We're going home and having a little family chat."

   "It's not serious, is it?" Sweetie Belle asked. Blazing looked up at Chocolate who had Cream on her back.

   "You don't need to worry yourselves about it, girls." Chocolate answered.

   "C'mon, I'll cook dinner for everpony." Blazing said, then they all trotted off back toward the Feathers' cottage, Blazing and Chocolate side by side with looks of worry in their expressions.

   Blazing, Chocolate, Cream and the Crusaders finnished their dinner, the girls played around the livingroom for a little bit before Blazing called for Cream. Cream ran up to her father and jumped up on his back. "You girls can look for something to watch if you'd like." Blazing told the Crusaders before carrying his daughter to her room, Chocolate followed.

   Blazing carried Cream to her bed while Chocolate closed the door behind her. Blazing placed his daughter on her bed, she happily climbed under her blankets as he tucked her in. When she was set, she looked up at her parents, her joy suddenly replaced by a hint of fear.

   "Mommy, Daddy? What's wrong?" Chocolate sag on the side of the bed while Blazing sat at the end by Cream's hind hooves.

   "Sweetheart." Chocolate began. "...what you felt earlier... mommy got a message from your grandmother."

   "You got a message from grandma Autumn?" Cream asked.

   "Not my mother, honey." Blazing answered. "Your mommy's mother."

   "Who's mommy's mommy?" She asked.

   "She's somepony like me,sweetheart." Chocolate answered. "She could change like you and me to other ponies. The onlh difference is..." She trailed off.

   "What?" Cream asked.

   "She is the Queen of the Changelings." Blazing filled in the rest of his wife's sentence. Cream perked up at this.

   "That means... mommy is a Princess? I'm a Princess?"

   "Yes, sweetheart. We are Princesses." Cream nearly jumped out of her spot befor Blazing held her in place with a hoof.

   "Honey, we're not done yet." He said.

   "But, I'm a Princess!" She said cheerfully.

   "Sweetheart, we have to tell you why I was afraid when my mother talked to me." Chocolate stated, the joy in her daughter vanished as quickly as it appeared. "Sweety, you grandmother..." She trailed off. "... she just died and named me Queen." The joy immediately returned at the news of her mother being a Queen.

   "Mommy's a Queen!" She screamed, Blazing and Chocolate both reached up to settle their daughter down.

   "Honey." Blazing called. "Calm down."

   "But, mommy's..."

   "I know, but you need to calm down for us." Cream now looked confused.

   "Sweety... mommy doesn't want to be Queen." Chocolate stated.

   "Why not?" Cream asked. Tears started to trail down her cheek as she looked at her duaghter.

   "Because, I never wanted to be Queen. My mommy alwasy told me how to be a Queen and whatI must do as a Queen." Chocolate explained.

   "Isn't that what mommies are suppose to do with their daughters?" Cream asked.

   "Yes, but I didn't like how my mommy wanted me to be Queen. I always wanted to be... different." Chocolate continued.

   "How?"

   "I never wanted to live, feeding off love in secret without one who would love me in returne. That's where you father came in, he found me in the forest and cared for me." Chocolate said.

   "And, that's why you to got married." Cream asked.

   "We got married because we loved each other and we didn't care what anypony thought about our love." Blazing said. "I didn't care that you mother was a changeling, even though the changelings and ponies... never liked each other."

   "Why don't they like each other?" Cream asked.

   "Ponies are just scarsd of changelings, sweety." Chocolate answered. Before Cream could ask the next Question, Chocolate already began to explain 'why'. "Because in order for us to survive, we need to feed off love. Ponies are just afraid of that." Cream gave a confused, yet satisfied nod. The three gathered in another family hug, saying their goodnights, then Blazing and Chocolate trotted out of the room, shutting the lights off and closing the door behind them.