Night was falling quickly. The stars were never an unpleasant sight, and Luna always did wonders even during such dire times. But that wasn’t exactly on the Prince of the Crystal Empire’s mind as he walked through the city’s abandoned ghostly streets alone.
He had spent considerable time at his parents’ home, enduring the punishment his mother unjustly delivered upon him in the form of foal pictures. Though he could not deny there were some cute ones; but only when it was Twilight involved rather than himself. These pictures included the first time Shining Armor had held his baby sister in his hooves, a stupid grin on his excitable muzzle. Hearth’s Warming pictures were among the other favourites, Twilight’s features lit up as she receives that book she had been raving about for Celestia knows how long. Then there were those nights spent outside sleeping in a tent and cooking marshmallows around a fire, just the two siblings by themselves as they used to do together.
He had wanted to revive that tradition, once having even said so to Captain Vladimir. But it had never happened, too much had got in the way. Too much change had occurred.
And nothing could hide the ping of regret Shining Armor felt within his heart.
But after the embarrassment had been mercifully brought to an end, Shining Armor had to stand up and take his leave. A fair amount of time had passed them by, and he did have another arrangement to fulfil before the day’s end.
So, leaving the Element Bearers and Spike behind to continue conversing with his parents awhile longer, Shining Armor had departed from their company and taken to the streets once again. Not that he had particularly far to go, he was familiar with the chosen establishment.
Shining Armor, after a small trip through the streets, cantered up towards the bar where his compatriots were likely already waiting for him. He walked directly inside, easily sighting his old friends sitting in one corner with drinks already in hoof.
The bar was more populated than the outside streets, but was still far emptier than it would have been on a normal day. The barkeep was washing the bar down with a wet cloth held in their magical aura, and a few more ponies were sitting around the place with unfortunately miserable looks about them.
He would find little cheer in that place.
Shining Armor approached the two waiting Captains of the Royal Guard, who gave small waves as he came up to them. Without much prompt, Shining Armor sat down at the table while Vladimir motioned for the barkeep to deposit them another drink.
“Shining,” Broad Sword greeted. “How are your parents?”
“Fine, all things considered,” Shining Armor replied. “I left Twilight’s friends with them. They’re probably still chatting away right now.”
“Showing them your foalhood photographs probably,” Vladimir commented.
Shining Armor only groaned. He couldn’t hide anything form them, apparently.
“That’s a yes then,” Vladimir said with a chuckle. “Oh, Longshot would’ve loved that. I remember when he was still around to drink with us in this place. It… was only once, actually. Right before the Everfree…”
Vladimir even spied the very table they had sat at all those years ago, and the thestral was momentarily caught up in thoughtful reminiscence.
The barkeep came over with a freshly poured drink held in their magical grasp, depositing it respectfully before the Prince before departing to attend the bar once more. Shining took the drink in hoof and examined the liquid inside, before pouring a portion of it down his throat.
Placing it back down, Shining Armor sighed. “I needed that. Anything new while I was visiting the family?”
Both captains shook their heads, the thestral being the one to speak up. “Nope, not a thing. The generals are promising to kick the EUP’s flanks into gear and regroup faster, we’ll see if it does any good.”
“If they succeed, we’ll have our entire army ready to outflank the changeling swarm should, or rather when, they arrive here,” Broad Sword continued. “If not, well… We’re no stranger to fighting changelings.”
“Lucky us,” Vladimir dryly remarked, taking a swig of his own beverage. “Can we go back to solving simple domestic incidents now?”
“We can hope,” Shining stated. “Give me the Pony of Shadows any day.”
“Praying for an old pony’s tale won’t help much,” Broad Sword said rather darkly. “We’re still getting in casualty reports.”
“Way to be a spoilsport, Broad Sword,” Vladimir muttered to himself with a roll of his eyes.
While not disagreeing with Vladimir, Shining Armor couldn’t help but ask: “Anything in particular I should know about?”
“Just a long list of confirmed dead and injured,” Broad Sword replied. “Though a few stories of miraculous survival and family reunions. Those are good for the odd smile.”
“I wouldn’t mind reading the latter,” Shining noted. “Anything to raise your spirits.”
“I’ll forward a few,” Broad Sword replied. “There’s at least one your wife will appreciate. I heard that a couple of ponies saved each other escaping Manehatten and found love in the process. A couple of stallions, actually.”
Shining Armor couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yes, I’m sure she’d like that.”
“Oh, speaking of these reports!” Vladimir suddenly stated to the two other ponies. “Did you see the one about that town somewhere between here and the Crystal Empire?”
“There’s several between here and the Crystal Empire,” Broad Sword deadpanned. “Vladimir, I would ask that you be more specific.”
Vladimir gave his prosthetic wing an irritated flick. “Alright, sure thing. Suffice to say you probably won’t find it on any official map we have lying around.”
Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. “Oh? How come?”
“It wasn’t an official Equestrian settlement, apparently some ponies just up and founded a town without anypony realising it not so far from the Frozen North,” Vladimir explained. “It was a small place, shaped like an equals signs apart from this one house at the end according to the reports.”
“And it’s only been found now… why?”
“You can thank the changelings,” Vladimir stated. “One of the groups that continued to hound us during the absence of the princesses stumbled across it quite by accident. And when when I say it was a small place I mean it, they burnt it and drove its residents away quite easily.”
“I’ve read this report,” Broad Sword added in. “One of our own groups hunting the changelings came across the aftermath. Not many pony bodies, no changeling dead. Those residents who escaped fled into the mountains. Just a lot of burnt out homes.”
“A town nopony knew about, strange,” Shining Armor said in contemplation. “But moving on from that, how are the princesses anyway?”
“I saw Princess Luna up and about,” Vladimir noted. “Not sure about Princess Celestia, or Princess Cadance for that matter.”
“Cady will still be up,” Shining Armor responded. “She’s probably waiting for me to come back before retiring for the night.
“Makes sense,” Broad Sword said. “Hm, I imagine she must be missing Flurry Heart, as must you. I know I would if Valiant were separated by such a distance.”
“She’s safe in the Crystal Empire, that’s enough,” Shining Armor affirmed, taking one last gulp from his drink and emptying it. “The changelings haven’t even tried to touch it. Yeah, we do miss her… But we’d rather it be this way than her be in the line of fire.”
Broad Sword nodded. “Point taken. Hmph, and it’s the opposite for me.”
“You’ll keep them safe,” Shining Armor assured the pegasus. “I know it.”
“He’s right, Broad. But let’s talk about something else, eh?” Vladimir suggested, looking over to the barkeep. “Hey! Another round for the three of us!”
Far away from Canterlot and the mellow festivities undertaken by its captains, the changeling swarm still persisted as a dour blight upon the otherwise idyllic landscape. The swarm moved its way through the landscape, batting away those who took too much notice while closing in on their prey. With the moon high in the sky, they all made sure the drones would be strong and able for the battle to come, the Changeling Queens keeping a watchful eye on those they watched over on the Empress’ behalf.
Every one of the Changeling Queens were present, the swarm having separated out under each queen while those who needed physical rest did so. On the morning’s arrival they would re-join and finish what they had set out to do.
At the head of one such group, standing vigilantly atop a large boulder, Queen Twilight Sparkle observed those who followed her. Half of her followers slept soundly and obediently, the other half helping keep their safety assured until the day’s first light. Half way through the night the two halves would swap, but that was yet hours away.
The Queen’s red eyes examined them all. She would not take any rest until the city of Canterlot was off of the mountain, and unlike her drones she still had plenty of energy to go onwards. She did not yet require the realms of sleep, and would continue to govern those under her jurisdiction until the morrow.
And there would always be tasks to micromanage in the meantime.
“A small group of ponies, random earth pony villagers, wandered too close to the camp. They are no longer an issue,” one group of drones reported to the Changeling Queen.
“A predator almost tore apart one of our patrols. Likely having wandered out of the Everfree Forest during the town’s destruction. It shall be gutted for food now,” another group informed the Queen.
Messages like that through the hive mind were hardly uncommon. But ultimately they were inconsequential, but she no less listened lest something truly meaningful were to arise.
But that was on the outside. On the inside, Queen Twilight Sparkle was focused on an entirely different and more meaningful task.
Within the hive mind, Twilight observed several projected still images from where she sat within her chains. She lit her horn and sent the images away, bringing forth a few new images that were far more disfigured and illegible to her eyes. Her horn glowed brighter, her eyes closed in concentration as she bit gently down upon her tongue. What she was doing required the utmost focus, and would normally be impossible with her outward micromanagement of the swam.
She made a mental note to thank Empress Immortalis for fracturing her mind as she had.
The images in front of her gradually began to clear themselves up, becoming easier for Twilight to interpret. Many of the images had been of the hive from her previous vision, so much so that Twilight had come to the startling realisation that the hive in question was none other than the Council Hive itself. The hive in those images was in far better condition, and from what she had seen it simply looked… new.
The walls were smooth. They lacked any sign of cracking and were well kept, even the forest around it looked far less dense that the one that surrounded the hive in Twilight’s time. A look into the past so much longer before than any changeling had seen previously.
Except for the Empress herself, anyway.
But it wasn’t just the hive that was proving to be of interest either. Rather, the characters within those images often caught the young Changeling Queen’s attention. She would see the same unknown Changeling Queen who she’d seen perform a dark magic ritual previously, that changeling appearing in almost all of the earlier memories.
Memories that came from multiple sources, if Twilight was to infer. And those were including that mysterious Changeling Queen.
But aside from her, one other figure was also a constant point of note. An eerily familiar Changeling Queen in various stages of her life. A nymph. An adolescent. And an Empress.
But the images alone could only tell her so much, each one representing a cluster of memories locked away.
No more.
Twilight’s horn fizzled out, the images she had been working on vanishing into the ether. And this time, unlike all previous times, no new images emerged to replace them. All was silent around Twilight Sparkle, and she kept her eyes closed in concentration as she examined all that she had claimed.
And then her eyes shot open victoriously.
“I… I did it,” Twilight muttered to herself, eagerness pouring off of her. “Ha! I did it!”
Those had been the very last of the memory clusters she had been working so hard to unlock. Everything she had taken from the Empress’ head was now hers forevermore, and she had no intention of letting them slip on by.
Of course the Empress knew she had them, that was still of slight concern to the Bearer of Magic.
Immortalis certainly hadn’t meant for her to have them, but neither had she done much about it beyond being angry. She was certain that nothing in there would help Twilight out of her predicament, and Twilight was still certain that she was being truthful…
Directly at least.
Understanding your enemy was never something to go amiss. And Twilight swore then and there that she would understand Immortalis and her self-proclaimed natural order. She would know what turned her into the monster she became, what brought the Empress of the Changelings into being.
Who was she, former protégé to the Princess of the Sun, to say no to a history lesson?
Content, Twilight closed her eyes once more and focused on the complete memories now coursing through her head. She sought out exactly where she had been cut of on her previous attempt, where the unnamed Changeling Queen had begun her ritual, and she poured all of her concentration into that one exact moment.
And she allowed it to overtake her, reality warping from her ethereal prison to that of a familiar hidden chamber.