Harlequin stared at the strange pony, body completely frozen with horror. So far as she knew, she’d made the trip totally safely, without doing anything to reveal who and what she was.
Yet here was a pony to show her just how wrong she was. Without any effort, this pony had known she was a changeling. And she still wanted to claim that she wasn’t here for some hostile reason? “What do you want?” Harlequin asked. It was the closest thing she dared to a denial.
“First, to introduce myself,” she said, removing a flask from her vest and taking a sip. She offered it to Harlequin, before tucking it away again. “I’m agent Sweetie Drops. You may see me again, so remember it. Equestria knows what the bugs have done,” she said. “The, uh… facility you established in the lower city.”
Harlequin tensed visibly. She wanted to get up and run—maybe she could fly off the train, back in time to warn them. She had to do something!
But she didn’t move. This pony wore a heavy jacket, and there might be weapons inside. I can’t just run away. I have to be cleverer than that. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Princess Celestia was furious with what your ruler attempted to do,” Sweetie Drops went on. “Seizing Equestria through violence and arms—it hasn’t happened for centuries. Her memory of the last attempt remains fresh.”
Harlequin remained silent. She watched the window as Canterlot fell into the distance, and with it any chance she had of making it back to warn them. If the ponies plan anything, they probably already have ponies in place. They wouldn’t have told me unless it was too late to stop this.
“Her sister is kinder, however. Princess Luna was not involved in the invasion, and she doesn’t wish to see your species wiped out. That’s why she was placed in command of the S.M.I.L.E. Agency in the first place. So she made sure that ponies looked the other way.”
“I still don’t see why you’re telling me this,” she said. “Even if it’s true. And I’m not admitting to anything, so you know. I’m not going to screw this up.”
The mare rolled her eyes. “I’m supposed to give you a message for whoever is in charge. It’s a stallion, I think his name is Hydrus. Tell him this: Equestria is watching. We don’t want to see you starve. But if you ever attempt to do what your queen did, you will lose the tolerance of Princess Luna. She’s taking a chance on you. Don’t make her regret it.”
She rose, turning away. “Enjoy your trip.” She left without another word, without waiting long enough for Harlequin to get a word in edgewise. The door clicked shut behind her.
She spent the remainder of the trip on her own. A conductor arrived at some point to put a hole in her ticket and ask what she wanted for lunch service. Not knowing what else to say, Harlequin just told him she wasn’t hungry and took tea.
It wasn’t as good as the time Apple Cinnamon had made it in the barracks, but it was still tea. Even if it did nothing to nourish her, it was a pleasant reminder of something she’d almost had.
Would I be happier if I still thought I was the last free bug? Would I rather be pretending to be a pony for myself instead of Hydrus?
She couldn’t answer.
The train took her gradually down from the great height of Canterlot to the low valleys around it, the parts of Equestria she’d seen only from far above. Harlequin leaned up close to the glass, sipping her tea as the fields passed on either side. Little pony settlements of a few homes, with creatures hard at work. Oblivious to the invasion that had taken place so closely.
The sheer scope of Equestria was daunting to her, almost more than she could think about at once. Her home in the Badlands was only one place—smaller than Canterlot by far. But it seemed no matter how long she kept going on the train, Equestria still didn’t run out. How far in each direction could she go and still be inside it?
The temptation to stay on the train when it finally stopped—to ride it as far as Equestria went, and further—was hard to resist. But she had to get off—her mission had only just begun.
Harlequin expected Ponyville to be exactly like Canterlot, except maybe that it would be on flat ground instead of hills.
She was completely wrong—the ponies had built an entirely different second city than their first one. Here the buildings were all made of wood, with strange grasslike fibers for their roofs instead of tile and glass. The ground under her hooves was mostly dirt, with only little patches of cobblestone.
Strangest of all, it was the first time she had a clear look at the night. There weren’t magical streetlights glowing on every street corner, filling Ponyville with white even in the darkness. Instead there were only a few gas lamps burning just outside of the train station, leading to one of the roads into town. The others were mostly dark, and what lights there were came only dimly.
Rent a carriage. Stay focused, Harlequin.
Fortunately for her, there were a few ponies with carriages waiting just outside the train station. One of them approached her without prompting, nodding towards the covered car.
Compared to the fancy enclosed cars in Canterlot, this one seemed almost comedic. “I’m looking to go north of Ponyville,” she said. “There’s a manor there, can you take me?”
“Of course!” The pony saluted. “You wouldn’t want to walk so far on your own at night. Three bits for the trip.”
Three bits? How many bits of metal did she have left? Harlequin opened the pouch, sticking her nose in for a second and pulling out three pieces, tossing them to him.
The earth pony caught them, looking them over with wide eyes. “Uh… these are platinum, miss. Sorry, dark. Here.” He tossed two back, then hurried off to his cart with the one. He came back with a pouch twice as large as the one she’d been given. “Your change.” It thumped onto the ground in front of her, heavily enough that the metal inside sagged against it.
“I didn’t change,” she said stubbornly. “I just want a trip to my manor.”
The pony just stared stupidly at her. “You didn’t… what?” Then he straightened. “Ma’am, if you’d prefer to give me regular bits instead, I wouldn’t have to break your platinum. I almost didn’t have enough in the cart.”
What does he mean? The other passengers were staring at her. Instead of arguing, Harlequin took the second sack of metal and added it to her first, following the pony to his carriage. At least she knew how to get in one of these, and the poise she was supposed to demonstrate while riding.
“I’m Regular Pace, by the way,” he said, once she was inside. He secured himself to the front of the cart by way of thick straps then took off down the road. Harlequin could see why the wheels were so much larger—with such an unfriendly dirt road, they probably needed to be to stop the little vehicle from skidding to a stop. “And you must be… the lady of the house, isn’t that right? Daughter of, uh…”
“I’m Lady Irongate,” she confirmed. There was no roof, so nothing to stop her from watching the little town as they passed through it. Buildings were much further apart here, and she wondered why. But not enough to ask.
Then they passed a gigantic tree, and she nearly fell over sideways. There was a pony outside, sweeping the steps leading up with her magic. A pony that Harlequin recognized from the last day of the occupation.
Pace noticed her discomfort, and apparently took it the wrong way, because he slowed to a stop near the front of the tree. “Did you need something from the library, Lady Irongate? It’s after closing, but I could ask Twilight for you if you—”
“No!” she squeaked, ears flat. “Nothing. Keep going, keep going!”
The unicorn had stopped her sweeping and was watching her now, expression curious. This was the same pony Harlequin had seen blast changelings away like they were nothing. This pony was precisely why they’d underestimated ponies so much—they seemed so innocent, so weak. Until they weren’t anymore.
Then Pace started moving again, and she could finally breathe. She kept her head down even so, wishing she could change into something smaller. But of course if she did that, then any chance of pulling this off would be gone.
Equestria knows about us after all. Princess Luna is okay with us trying to feed ourselves. That meant that if she could make it back safely, and find out about the things that pony had wanted to know, then the bugs in prison could stop starving.
Almost as soon as she’d entered Ponyville, it seemed like they were leaving it behind. Little lights burning in tiny windows gave way to the starlight and full moon overhead. Harlequin leaned back, breathing in the cool evening air and enjoying the gloom.
After a few glances behind her to confirm the unicorn wasn’t following, she finally let herself relax. “Tell me about Ponyville,” she said. Was it alright for her to order him around? Too late, she already had. “You’ve lived here for some time, yes?”
“My whole life,” he agreed. “It’s a… nice town. Mostly earth ponies. Most of us connected back to the first generation of Apple Family ponies here three centuries ago. Nothing like you ponies from the court… we’re humble folk. Farmers, merchants, craftsponies.”
“What do you…” How could she even ask. “You grow… food, right? Is that what farmers do?”
To her surprise, he didn’t seem to think her question was that strange. “Yes,” he said. “There’s the Apple Family farm, Sweet Apple Acres, still owned by the same ponies after all this time. There’s a pear orchard nearby, and… your family’s land. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you about that.”
I wish you would anyway, she thought. “Does news travel this far?” she asked. “From Canterlot, I mean.”
“Sometimes,” he said. “We follow the NHL, if that’s what you mean. We have one of the best Hoofball teams in the midwestern block.”
“What about…” She winced. “Other things. Like the changeling invasion in Canterlot. How did that affect you?”
He chuckled. Ponyville had faded into the distance now, so far that she almost couldn’t see it. If they weren’t climbing up a gentle slope, it would probably be gone completely. Here were the apple trees he’d mentioned, with a distant farmhouse already gone dark for the night. “Not at all, if we’re being honest. We’re too small for national guardsponies, so we didn’t even have anypony to send. We got the warnings same as anypony, and so we stopped any trains from going on to Canterlot.”
Now that he’d started, he didn’t seem to want to stop. She opened her mouth, but she didn’t get a chance to speak again. “We didn’t evacuate either. Ponies were prepared to defend the town if it came to that. But our best were already there—Twilight, the librarian, she’s only one. The Elements of Harmony were there for the wedding. Everypony knew they would take care of it, and they did.”
A set of heavy iron gates rose into the distance. There were more trees behind them, organized into sections of different species. But Harlequin didn’t know quite enough to tell one kind of tree apart from another.
There was a tiny building beside the gate, with an even electric light glowing inside. A single pony wearing a black vest sat inside, watching them as they approached.
“I’m glad nopony from Ponyville was hurt,” she said.
“Me too,” he agreed. “The news doesn’t say anything specific, but we all know ponies died. There were real funerals and everything. Almost… impossible to believe that kind of thing can happen. That there’s real evil out there in the world.”
He stopped just in front of the gate, pausing as the guard approached. He took one look inside the cart, then jumped to attention. “Lady Irongate! I had… no idea you were visiting!”
“Neither did I, until I got here,” she said. “Open the gate.”
He hurried to obey, and soon they were walking up the long, cobbled drive. The manor was larger than most of the buildings of Ponyville behind them, with a style obviously reminiscent of Canterlot. Huge columns, pink glass windows, wide balconies on the upper stories. But it would have seemed small and puny compared to most of the upper-city buildings.
“Is there anything else you require, Lady Irongate?” Regular Pace said, as they reached the front doors. There were guards waiting outside, two stallions in black with swords on their backs. They too rose to unexpected attention, staring at her with shock.
Except of course that bit where she revealed who and what she was to Apple Cinnamon, but shhh, we’re not counting that.
Huh, interesting. Logically this should mean that Luna, at least, plus whatever SMILE agents are watching the little Hive, are aware of changeling dietary requirements. Which makes me wonder if anything is being done about the starving bugs in the cavern.
At least it probably means that the ones in prison, the ones Hydrus wants to free, aren’t starving anymore.
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Which also raises the question of why Luna doesn't try to contact Hydrus directly to learn about them, clarify things, setting rules, checking out the interactions between the two races including the possible abuses from the pony side...
...you know, the logical thing when you have a few thousand illegal shapeshifting, emotivore aliens living in your country in a post invasion scenario.
P.E: why in this kind of stories Luna aka fish-out-of-temporal-waters monarch always plays the part of the compassionate (relatively speaking) ruler? I find kind of difficult to swallow that diplomatic, wise Celestia is ok with genociding enemies vía starvation.
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Might be in the process of setting all that up now, and wants to give Hydrus the impression that SMILE is a lot more organized then it actually is. Delegating initial contact demonstrates that Luna has ponies to delegate to, giving the impression of a large organization, and if she shows up with rules and stuff already ready to go it gives the impression that she was watching closely the entire time and merely deigned to allow the changelings to advance this far.
Well now. Hopefully Harlequin will get that message to Hydrus. And hopefully he'll believe it. I could easily see him doubting the idea that the princesses would knowingly let him get away with the brothel.
In the meantime, thank goodness for Ponyville stereotypes of nobility. Not knowing the value of a bit or what a farm is? Oh, those Canterlotters. Not our Twilight, mind you, she's one of the good ones. Why, one time...
Of course, the servants may not be so easily persuaded, especially not if Harlequin panics.
It's usually Luna that's the hawkish one in stories. I'm pleasantly surprised it's the opposite now. Though I suppose it's getting increasingly likely she's the alicorn trying to find a place for Harlequin (and possibly the other changelings) into the story, whatever that means.
Yes, best to avoid the walking death ray.
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I'm assuming they understand of the operation in general and accept that at least the species as a whole isn't starving. The tolerance given by Luna is likely all under the table so she probably can't make change happen without the whole operation being discovered. A bad situation that must be allowed to prevent something worse. That or she's still allowing their autonomy, knowing and accepting whatever Hydrus is doing is not technically against Changeling morals. Let them be them, as long as they don't attack Equestria.
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It must be hard enough to convince the SMILE agents to hold on to this "agreement" already. It's possible that only a few trusted agents know the full scope of what's happening. I'm also assuming that Luna must keep herself at arms length to this. She might be watching them, but her sister and the kingdom will certainly be watching her. And it's not even out of suspicion. She can't negotiate without being discovered.
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Despite the logic, I must say again I'm quite pleasantly surprised about this. I suppose it might make sense if she was the one contacting Harlequin in the dream sequences. The one who wants to fit something that doesn't belong into the story. Also, Celestia has one thousand more years of bonding with her people than the returning monarch, Luna. Celestia would probably be much more protective to them and vindictive to those wishing her people harm. The political experience she has could also mean she is probably the victim of public opinion. And right now the majority probably wants to bash changeling heads. Not giving in would have consequences that might not be good for Equestria. Luna might simply not be looking at the consequences of her actions and might simply be the more idealistic one because of the thousand less years of experience she has.
Well... so much for it simply being a question of when will Equestria notice what's going on in the prison... i'd be willing to bet that SMILE only knows that the Brothel exists, and roughly the function it serves; they probably haven't checked inside the prison itself yet, and may not bother doing so at all now, since their attention is focused on the Brothel.
If Celestia does know about the starvation problem, and has chosen to do nothing about it, then she is a monster, and a moron; and if she knows, but has done nothing out of fear of public backlash, then she is a coward, and a fool.
As i stated last week, enforced mass starvations like this, in a magical setting, are how you end up with a swarm of the hungering restless dead. It's like the ponies want to bring about a second coming of the Windigos; except this time they'll be proper Wendigos, spirits of ravenous hunger.
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The story seems to argue that since she didn't see the Invasion firsthand, she is more detached than Celestia, who herself had been forced to fight.
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That's absurd. Even if Luna didn't witnessed the events she knows the aftermath: the loss of pony lives guards and civilians alike, mass destruction of property and infrastructures...not to mention her own sister beaten and put into a pod. She has as many reasons to be pissed off with the changelings as everyone else in Canterlot.
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I don't disagree, mind. Luna is not the forgiving sort, while Celestia was the one who offered Discord a second chance.
So this explains a fair bit of why the captured changelings have been so...neglected. Celestia sounds like she wishes to clean her hooves of the whole affair and just be done with it, being no friend of the changelings (currently). Luna is more benevolent by comparison and willing to mostly turn a blind eye, but is not yet willing to give the changelings the benefit of a doubt just yet. Otherwise, by the sound of it, the powers that be are very aware of the lackluster state of affairs for the captured changelings, they're just choosing to do nothing about it, preferring to "wait and see" if the changelings will earn that benefit of a doubt and, I assume, pave the way to better conditions. Or so is the impression I've been given.
I guess its still possible they don't know the changelings are, in fact, very much starving in the hive except for Hydrus's questionable attempts at a patch job to the problem. Though if they know so much about said Hydrus's patch job, then I'd think they'd at least be partly aware of the whys. Besides, Luna seems aware of specifically Harlequin, so that seems to settle the debate that it is Luna probing her "dreams," and I'd think would have picked up a few additional details on the fly while doing so.
Still, while I know she's trying to protect herself by denying everything, Harlequin missed a chance to inform Sweetie Drops of the full story anyway, if only in hopes word would be passed along and somebody higher up might agree to some sort of arrangement to address it. But I digress.
At any rate, I don't particularly care for this "wait and see" plan of Luna's, on the grounds that it does little to actually address the core problems nor really give the changelings much motivation to meet her standards except the threat of retaliation if they don't. Which, as we can see from today's modern politics, that doesn't necessarily guarantee anything especially if some 'ling chooses to call that bluff. I could see Hydrus doing as such. Subtly and quietly, of course, so to not be obvious about it, but I could see him trying. In short, I don't know how well this plan will pay off.
That being said, I can also still understand Luna's thinking on this. With the changelings, the want to be overly cautious can be understandable. I just fear it's not enough...in more ways than one.
Still...it's implied giving this message to specifically Harlequin wasn't an accident, giving me faith that Luna sees something in Harlequin, so this could also just be the first step of a much greater plan.
Deep questions. Can't really give you an answer either, Harlequin.
Actually...that assumes that Luna is even aware of Blueblood's intentions, and is willing to "turn a blind eye" to that as well...my gut is thinking that doesn't seem so likely, though. If she were to find out about this scheme of Blueblood's, would this count as an instance of not staying in line like Luna's deal stated?
*shrugs* Questions for later.
Oh really? Oh really? Hmmmmmm...
Also: Sudden ninjas are sudden. But then I guess they wouldn't be very good ninjas if they weren't.
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What minibox said. Most likely, Luna needs to keep up appearances that she and SMILE are not directly involved as of yet, for whatever reason (there's many that could be suggested--minibox again hits upon some of the obvious ones).
Besides, the "mysterious and aloof" attitude kinda always has been Luna's thing.
The more I think about it, though, the more I think this is just a temporary arrangement, and that Luna's got a bigger plan to follow later on. For all I know, she currently just scoping out the situation, gathering information to make sure whatever she's planning actually will work. But that's speculation on my part.
Poor Blueblood, he thinks he's being so clever. haha
We have to think about the timeline of just when did Luna and, SMILE find out about the changeling brothel.
I can see Lunas caution in her actions.
I think we can safely assume it wasn't until very recently anyone in equestrian authority even realized changelings don't eat regular food.
Bluebloods clandestine activities are probably not as secret as he thinks it is, which brings into question just how much of Bluebloods activities, and influence is involved in the possibility of the changeling prisoners in the castle soon-to-be-released.
Changelings are a truly unknown entity, and Luna needs to ensure that the changelings in Canterlot don't scattered to the four winds. Thereby possibly causing all kinds of Chaos in the Equestrian landscape.
SMILE knows where the changelings are, they know that they're staying in the brothel, and they probably know the Nobles who have been trying to take advantage of the situation.
Have to wonder if they realize how fragmented the changelings are. They might not know how many died in the dungeons what with Hydrus claiming their attention.
Ergo, does this imply Celestia WISHED for them to be wiped out? Does this mean she planned the terrible conditions in the dungeons? Did she plan for her citizens to be unaware of changeling food needs, knowing them herself and didn't correct them when they fed them pony food? Did she plan a genocide, only for her sister to stop it?
Phew, I hope Sweetie Drops misspoke here, because the potential implications otherwise are enormous.
Interesting.
Ahh, so Luna really is helping, after a fashion.
So they know who the leadership is, and that the changelings need to do what they're doing for survival.
Oh my god.
Don't make her swat you with that broom.
How? Good thing Harlequin got the most freely expository taxi puller in Ponyville.
Fantastic.
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They most likely think she’s an inexperienced rich girl.
Do you got a copy of 'how not to get blasted to dust' ?
Twi: Sorry- just ran out of those! ZAP!!
She's sooooooo unable to learn. But this strikes me as odd... she wasn't for long in the hive to be so unable to get rid of that concept.
It’s interesting that Celestia essentially wants them all executed but doesn’t want to have to do the deed herself. The Princesses between them know what the prisoners need. To be unwilling to provide it is tantamount to torture.