//------------------------------//
// What to Do With A Spare Soul 
// Story: The Substitute Demon 
// by Reykan 
//------------------------------//

	Cimmerian sat in the crowd, watching the ponies on the stage play through the...heavily edited version of the unification of the three tribes. Celestia was playing the part of the narrator, telling a story she knew by heart as various ponies in improvised costumes played out their parts. A few pegasi and changeling's flew through the air, terrorizing the actors as the dreaded windigoes. Finally, a glass jar had been filled with love, the glowing fluid being used to symbolize the fire of friendship at the end.
It was cute, reminding him a bit of the story of the Grinch who Stole Christmas. It did leave him wondering what became of the Windigoes. Something that powerful doesn't just disappear overnight, or even over a few centuries. They were likely still out there somewhere, though whether or not they were still dangerous was up for debate.

"Oh dear, we missed it? How sad," Pandinus said, doing her best to mime a pout.

"You know, you don't have to pretend to like something," Cimmerian said, looking to the approaching queens. "Did you two figure something out?"

"We did," Zelus answered, lifting the drone that had been following her in her forelegs. "I think she looks better this way."

"So you put her in a drone...can't say I didn't think about it but I wasn't sure if it was possible," Cimmerian said as he looked the drone over. "How does it feel to be in control again?"

The drone tittered happily, it's mouth moving as it tried speaking in a rapid-fire pace while no intelligible sounds were produced.

Cimmerian raised an eyebrow, looking to the queens.

"She seems to forget things when she gets excited. It's kind of adorable, honestly," Din said, patting the still incoherently-babbling and wildly gesticulating drone's head. "We've already told her drones can't speak under normal conditions. They can shift vocal cords, but otherwise they're mute. Mindless drones don't usually have much of interest to say anyway. We'll look into creating a more suitable drone-form later but for now this will work. It's our, what was the holiday? A Christmas present from the two of us to her."

"The Christmas Celebration isn't until tomorrow. It's Hearth's Warming that's being celebrated," Cimmerian said with a smirk. He picked up the drone, placing it on his back even as it continued to soundlessly babble and wave at its surroundings. "Lets go, I think Celestia's going to want to see this."

"See what?" the white alicorn asked, approaching with the rest of the group from earlier.

"Ah, just the mares I wanted to see. So after the dream, I ran into a little issue. Spike was easy enough to return, but the Nightmare woke up. This left me with a problem."

Celestia's eyes widened.
"Is Twilight okay?"

"Better than okay at the moment," he said with a smile. Levitating the drone off of his back and setting it in front of him, he sat down and set his hooves on its shoulders.
"Ladies, until we can evict the Nightmare from Twilight, this young mare will be staying with us. I expect you to take good care of her and try to keep this relatively quiet for now."

"You don't mean that...this is..." Celestia started, moving closer to the occupied drone.

Twilight gave a false start, shying back for a moment before moving forward, taking Celestia into a hug as she once more descended into silent babbling.

"The drone we used is incapable of speaking and she doesn't know how to shift so she can't change that, but Zelus and I will be adjusting another drone later. Once it's done, we'll move her mind to the altered drone and she'll be set," Din explained, her horn glowing as the ponies surrounded their friend. "Mist, will you require help siphoning her off or will you be alright? They're a bit excited to see her and she may require a changeling to keep her at a proper level of energy for now."

"I think I can handle it, your highness," the nurse answered. "Pinkie has settled down a bit and the others are watching her. If I need a few friends to help out I'll call for it, I doubt they'd pass up a chance to help with this."

"Very well I'll. I'll leave you to it. Remember she thinks like a pony, so she won't be taking things like too much emotion into consideration," Din instructed the nurse before turning to Cimmerian.
"Come along, Slop wanted to do something special for your holiday and has been asking about Christmas recipes. As it's highly unlikely any here will know any of them, he's going to need to ask you personally."

The stallion nodded and followed the queen.
"That sounds good. Oh, I can already taste...did we get any potatoes on the last trip? Potatoes and carrots were usually there, not too hard to prepare. Any kind of meat would be fine, since the usual choices would get me in trouble here. Have you ever had mashed potatoes, Din? Zelus?"

The queens shook their heads and Cimmerian guffawed.
"You two are in for a treat. You can season them as you like, but I like mine to be a bit spicy. Used to mix this sauce in, sriracha it was called. If you weren't used to hot stuff it would set your tongue on fire. Heh, good times..."

"I'm sorry, but you found it enjoyable to have your mouth burned by foods?" Zelus asked in confusion.

"Not temperature hot. You remember that chili a week ago?" he asked, holding the door open for the queens.

"I still don't understand why it is called chili when it burns my mouth," Pandinus grumped. "There was nothing chilly about it."
Zelus nodded in agreement.

"It's that kind of hot. Spicy. Ah, I love it when I get to eat something that clears my sinuses," Cimmerian chuckled.
"Slop! I come bearing food ideas!"

"Cimmerian! I plan to cook them!" the chef answered back, causing the two males to burst into laughter.

"I heard from the ladies that you're looking for some ideas for tomorrow. A lot of it would be kind of iffy with the local ingredients, but I'll do my best to think up substitutes. Maybe you can come up with a few as well," the alicorn said with a large grin. "You have something to write it down with?"

A nearby aide walked towards them, some paper and pencil at the ready.

The Cimmerian rubbed his hooves together in anticipation.
"Okay so the first thing we need is mashed potatoes. I don't know if it would work, but you may be able to use local tubers if we can't get potatoes. I'd suggest peeling about half of them and leave the rest of the skins on for some texture, I find that to be nice. Add a bit of milk and butter to smooth them out and...no, nevermind. Pepper may be okay but no salt, I have to remember that.
"Next thing is going to be carrots. Steamed, boiled, sautéed, I don't really mind. I need carrots with a Christmas dinner. Then we're going to need the main course. Usually this is a hearty meat-dish that..."







Even as the two stallions went over the dinner for the next day, Queen Pandinus was hard at work. Checking the foods against their stores, having the drones finish making the proper decorations that were to be placed overnight, even a few drones in Zarris to pick up things that would be needed. At the mention of sugar cookies she mentally added asking the pink pony about the ingredients for them. She'd need the information soon though. She didn't need the drones in Zarris making a night flight when it was so cool outside. It would leave them sluggish, a dangerous situation in the jungle at night.

'Zelus, I'm going to go speak with the pink earth mare, she'll know what we need for the cookies. You keep me updated on anything else he adds,' she sent to Zelus.
The larger queen nodded in response, turning her focus back to the drooling alicorn as he described the different methods of preparing broccoli and cauliflower.

Making her way back outside, she sent a ping to Healing Mist and was surprised to find the mare was inside the temple. A quick explanation was sent back. The Twi-drone was reacting poorly to the cooler weather so the group had made their way inside, heading upstairs and into the currently empty war room to speak privately.

Din frowned at the choice of location. If not for the fact that the mare was cut off from the nightmare it would stink of espionage. As it stood though, Twilight was almost as dependent on the hive as the true drones were. More so in fact, because she didn't know how to shield herself from emotion or feed properly. Her friends would solve the latter issue of course, but such powerful emotions could easily overwhelm a true drone.

The queen found the mares curled up in a corner of the room, talking quietly amongst themselves or, in Pinkie's case, sleeping with her friends. A few blankets were scattered over the floor providing a bit of cushioning while others were draped over the mares to focus the warmth to the center of their group, a currently sleeping drone that was drooling a bit of gel.
Pandinus couldn't help but giggle. The drone that was prepared to hold Twilight's mind would need a bit more emotional capacity as well, it seemed. Standard capacity would be overwhelmed too quickly at this rate.
'At least she's gathering enough to cover the energy costs such changes will incur.'

"Healing Mist? I thought you said you would call for assistance  if you needed help keeping her stable?" Pandinus called, looking about for the nurseling.

"She's over there," Rainbow Dash said, pointing across the way to the comatose changeling. "Applejack went to get another changeling to find out what was wrong, then Twilight started getting sleepy too. They're not hurt, are they? They started drooling that glow-y stuff..."

"No, the opposite in fact. It's too much emotion for them to process. All the love and happiness has overloaded them. It's why I told Mist to ask for help keeping your friend stable. True drones like the one she is currently riding are not made for this kind of interaction. Zelus and I plan to correct this in the next drone we use for her. That drone will also be capable of speech."

"That's kinda weird, how you keep talking about...swapping her around to different bodies. Is it really that easy?" the blue mare asked her.

Din closed her eyes while making the preparations in the hive. It wasn't necessary for her to switch but sometimes it was nice to show off a bit. When she opened her eyes again, she was beside the pegasus. She rose and quickly wrapped Rainbow in a hug, earning a squawk of fear at the sudden contact.
"Drones are born for this kind of use. Right now your friend is in the hive. Once she settles and calms down, she may be capable of using any drone she wishes to. Drones like Mist will be beyond her grasp, but any true drone in the hive will be open to her if she wishes to use them. Given the fact that Zelus and I will be making one specially for her, I doubt she'll truly be interested in such an ability though."

Rainbow Dash looked to her body and back to the drone, processing what had occurred.
"You! You took the drone from her, what happened to Twilight?"

"She's been pulled back to the hive. She's currently in the dream-state of the hive, still only half-lucid because of the emotion overdose. Even if this body is destroyed, she will not be harmed. Zelus and I have anchored her to ourselves."

Closing the drones eyes and switching both herself and Twilight back to their respective forms, Din finished siphoning the rest of the surplus emotion just as several more changelings walked in through the door.
"Watch the drone, keep it from overdosing. You may take your fill of the emotion you siphon, I'm certain there will be plenty to go around. Just be nice. The pony currently using the drone for mobility has been tortured for years and thus may be in worse condition mentally then the pink alicorn was when she first arrived. If she begins to act up, do not hesitate to contact me."

Stepping over to her original goal, she nudged the pink earth pony, earning a sleepy yawn and some random mumbling about a lazy author. Ignoring the mare's comments, Pandinus leaned in and whispered into her ear.
"I need to know the amount of ingredients we'll need to make sugar cookies for the a good portion of the population to enjoy, especially the foals, nymphs, chicks, and pups."

Pinkie's eyes jolted open instantly. The pink pony pressed her nose against the queen's and grabbed the larger mare's muzzle in her hooves.
"I need a list of aaaall the ponies who live here, not-ponies as well. Give me numbers and I'll give you the amount of ingredients we need to make everyp-one happy. And I want access to the kitchen again. Slop kicked me out."

"It will only be temporary," Pandinus countered. "This is a special occasion, otherwise we can't afford your baking. Do this for me and I'll allow you at least a day in the kitchen each month. Once things improve we'll see about increasing the number of days."

"If I can teach ponies how to grow gems, would that help?" Pinkie asked, earning a confused stare from the queen. "I grew up on a rock farm, we grew gems there and I know how to do it. I haven't looked, but there may be a good place nearby for it. I'll show you how to farm gems if you give me my baking supplies."

Din scowled at the pony.
"You drive a hard bargain. Prove to me that gems can be grown and I will have drones build you your own building for baking."

"Deal," Pinkie said, reaching out a hoof.

The queen tapped her own hoof against the party ponies hoof before lifting Pinkie in a magical aura and setting the earth pony on her back. 
"We have a lot to prepare for, dear. I want everything to be perfect for Cimmerian. Any aid you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

"Weeeeell, he has done some good things. I guess I can spare the time," Pinkie said, sounding almost put out.
"Meh, I haven't baked in a long time. I'd probably make cookies to celebrate Armageddon at this point. Lets go do some baking!"