//------------------------------// // 17 - Resurrection // Story: Exile’s Journey // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Gentle Repose - 22nd of Chillfrost 16 EoH Crystal Spire - Crystal Empire “There is no way it’s finished,” Twilight protested, shaking her head in disagreement. “I can’t believe it either, but we’ve checked each part four times. All of the components work, there’s nothing left to do but connect everything and see if it works,” I said with a weary sigh. I had done literally nothing over the past six days save work on the Matrix Amplifier. Twilight had to step out a few times to take care of things but had otherwise put her considerable arcane talents to work helping me as only another well educated mage could. She’d picked up on my enchanting techniques within three days. Perhaps that is what made the difference and allowed us to get this far so soon. Or maybe we really underestimated the capabilities of two wizards in a laboratory full of rapid prototyping tools, trying to make something which they had blueprints for. Come to think of it… I shook my head slowly. “Twilight, honestly, our estimation may have been slightly off. First of all, this is not a finished device. We’ve simply finished each part for the device. Any one of them could be bad or not work well with the others. It’s not Firebrand time yet. “And even if we are finished as soon as we put these parts together, you are the one who estimated it would take us a month. Did you factor in the fact that we are really just building a device from an existing blueprint, rather than making everything from scratch based on some calculations? What’s more, you yourself admitted to not having much of this laboratory's equipment. “In short, we had plans to work from, an excellent laboratory, two very experienced mages working as a pretty effective team, and I am undead and was able to put the last one hundred and fifty hours into nothing but constructing these components. If we include the marehours of labor you contributed, that’s about two hundred and thirty five total hours of work put into the project. A reasonable amount to get the first testable prototype. You just didn’t have all the data points required for accuracy when you made your estimation.” Twilight blinked as I finished my brief rant. Slowly shaking her head she gave me a smile. “That’s right, you don’t need to sleep. Or eat. Or use the bathroom… Wait are you still alive? Or did you just let yourself die of thirst?” I frowned. That was a good question. Reaching up to my barrel I attempted to feel around for a heartbeat. Ponyfeathers! I had. Well, this was embarrassing. “Uhhh…” I felt like I should be blushing with embarrassment, but no warmth spread through my cheeks. “Yes, I seem to have done that. I’m sorry, I must be starting to smell. I’ll clean up a little and we can put this thing together and try to test it.” “I can’t smell anything yet. You can probably save a shower for later,” Twilight said diplomatically. “But you should at least drink something. Here, have the rest of this lemon water.” Twilight passed me half a bottle of water with her magic, which I took and drank as quickly as I could. I never liked getting this sucked into projects, but at least I could produce results. “Hmm, you know… We don’t actually have anything to actually test this out on,” Twilight mused as I gulped down the bottle’s contents. That’s right. We didn’t. Horseapples! Wait a minute, Red and Sa’mas delivered the Sapphire Queen’s remains to Twilight for… Whatever reason. We could see if we could reverse some of the tissue decay! “Actually,” I began, “we do.” “Do we?” Twilight asked with a frown before her eyes widened in horror and her mouth twisted in disgust. “Um, I’d rather not injure you and see if it puts your parts back together…” “What? No. That wouldn’t be a sufficient test. I’m already undead. It’s easy to repair me,” I dismissed with a hoof wave and a shake of my head. “The crate Red delivered to you. It contains the remains of a Changeling Queen-” “WHAT!?” Twilight yelled in shock, eyes nearly popping out of her head. What did she mean what? Had I not been speaking loudly enough? “I SAID,” I yelled as loudly as I could in case I was thinking I was speaking more loudly than I really was. “THAT RED’S PACKAGE, CONTAINS THE REMAINS-” “I heard you! Why the flying buck did nopony tell me that it- That letter has to be extremely important! We need to take care of this NOW! Follow me,” Twilight ordered turning around in a heartbeat and practically running for the doors. You know, come to think of it, yes. Yes, it had to be important. What was I thinking? I should have spoken up when she received it. I can be a colossal idiot, it would seem. “As far as I’m aware, the package contains a changeling pod which has been preserving their Queen prior to the last. The ponies living in the hive seemed to believe she was still alive, but I highly doubt that. With a changeling’s regeneration, if she were alive in that pod the affection showered on her by those preserving her remains would have been enough for her to heal. I have no idea why someone would send mercenaries to find you and give you a cordyceps riddled corpse,” I explained as we ran for the door. “Because right now Equestria has several hundred quite insane Sapphires kept in a military prison who could conceivably helped by being exposed to their Queen’s pheromones, which her preserved corpse should still give off. This is probably the work of a noble who wanted to remain anonymous for political reasons,” Twilight rationalized as she opened the laboratory doors and stepped through practically in the same instant. I closed the lab door behind us, making sure to lock it. I was certain the Lab’s wards would keep intruders and snoopers out until we could return with the stasis pod and the Queen within. “Hey!” A filly’s voice called eagerly as we stepped into the hallway. “Have you seen my mom? We’re supposed to be doing fencing practice.” Turning my head I saw a young alicorn! Who the hay- Ah yes! Flurry heart, Cadence’s daughter. I remembered her from dinner, sort of. We hadn’t spoken. The poor young mare was a riot of colors, I imagined she would opt to dye her coat as soon as she was out from under her parent's hooves. Although, come to think of it, maybe her pink and purple hues were dyed. Princess Cadence didn’t seem like the kind of mother who would limit personal expression. Revision: Hopefully one day, Flurry would learn basic aesthetics and stop dying her fur like that. “I’m sorry, young miss. I have not seen Princess Cadence today,” I said to her as politely as I could manage. Flurry’s face scrunched in confusion. “What? No! I said mom, you know, Prince Shining. Are you new?” “He’s a guest,” Twilight said oddly quickly. “Repose, this is Flurry. Flurry, Repose. Flurry likes to swap her parents titles as a joke, that’s all. Sorry Flurry, I haven't seen my brother today.” Flurry rolled her eyes in annoyance. Not at Twilight’s statement about not having seen Shining today. But when she said ‘joke’. “Yeah, sure… Thanks, Auntie Twilight,” she sighed in annoyance with a clear distaste for her aunt in her voice and body language before trotting off down the hall. Before she left, something hit me. “WOW! This is the worst possible place to raise a foal. Is she able to see through the illusions?” I asked Twilight as the realization made me unable to keep my mouth shut with the pure shock. “I can see everything,” Flurry called down the hall. “She can, it’s not normal to raise a foal like this…” Twilight grumbled, ears flattening angrily. This made Flurry stop and turn around. “Normal for a spider is chaos for a fly, Auntie,” Flurry said calmly. “Your mom told you to say that, didn’t she?” Twilight asked irritably. Flurry nodded. “Yes, he did! Because it’s true! When I’m an adult I’ll be used to how adult life really is without all the dumb stuff they try to teach you as a foal which dad says you need to unlearn to be happy with yourself. So they are not teaching me those dumb things, to begin with. Because they are good parents,” She rambled ears laid back in actual anger. “Stop calling them bad! Cuz I know that no matter who I like when I get old enough to do adult things, mom and dad will always love me, and love them too, and I know how to do adult things safely, and when it’s appropriate to do them, and-” “Ugh!” Twilight groaned rubbing a hoof across her eyes. “Fine… Look, let’s stop having this argument. We do it every time I come over. And can you please stop calling my brother your mom just to get under my skin?” I watched with amusement as Flurry’s angry face melted into stunned surprise. “Um… That’s not why I call him mom…” She corrected. Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. It is.” Flurry rolled her eyes again and turned around. “Okay. Bye Auntie Twilight… I won't argue again if you don’t call mom and dad bad ponies,” she promised, trotting off down the hallway. I shook my head slowly. “You know, considering your sister in law’s lifestyle, I don’t think Miss Flurry is joking,” I said casually. “YES! SHE IS!” Twilight insisted super defensively while giving me a death glare. Ah. I see. Well, let’s not push that button. “Yes, you must be right, I don’t know what I was thinking,” I said diplomatically, clearing my throat for good measure. “Shall we continue to your suite to retrieve her Highness?” Twilight nodded and began to trot down the hallway towards the stairwell. I bit my lip uncertainly as a thought came into my head. Should I say that? Mmm, yes. This event did call Twilight’s character into question. “Specific issue aside,” I said as casually as I could manage. “I must admit that it’s rather funny to see a grown mare argue with a twenty-two year old filly.” “She’s eleven,” Twilight grumbled, ears flattening. “There’s no way she’s eleven years old!” I scoffed. She had been too tall, to mentally developed, her wings had grown in fully. There was no way she was a mere eleven. “She is. As far as we can tell, Alicorns develop about twice as fast as normal foals. She should be an adult by age fifteen. She’s the only pony to have been born an alicorn. The science is new,” Twilight rambled. “If that’s true, it’s rather upsetting to know you would argue so bitterly with somepony so young. Why the bad blood?” I asked firmly giving Twilight an upset stare so she would know I was serious. Catching my state, Twilight sighed and stopped walking, before turning around to face me. “Look, we all have our button issues. I don’t hate Flurry, we used to get along very well. But she’s in that rebellious stage where you get resentful of others, you know, like a twenty year old. “I swear she intentionally tries to piss me off everytime she sees me. And while I could handle that, what I can’t handle is she knows that calling my brother’s masculinity into question gets to me. And that’s what button she will push every, single, last, time. I know that Flurry and her parents have their cute family joke, and that’s fine, but every single time I talk to her, Flurry insists it’s not a joke just to get under my skin. “Why? Because she asked me what I thought of her parent's parenting style. I decided to be honest and said that Cadence was a bad influence on my brother in terms of parenting and that Flurry should never have been exposed to the adult world at all, ever, and should find out about it herself naturally. Because that’s normal. “I know that my behavior isn’t excused by that, and I’m trying to become better. But it’s hard. I hope that I’ve at least explained myself.” She had. Quite well in my opinion, too. Not only her own issues, but why this place even existed at all. It would seem that normal Equestrian culture was a tad prudish overall. Not that I cared personally, but I could see how many people would prefer a place to go with a different culture, one more suited to them, which was still a part of their own nation. Come to think of it though, I hadn’t seen any other children here… If they were banned, or sterilization was required since this was clearly a city for adults rather than families, then Flurry should not be raised here. Though the city should remain as is an unaltered, I suppose. It seems rather unfair to force people to acomidate those under thirty for their entire lives in every aspect of scociety while ignoring their own prefrences. Put that way, it's a bit tryannical. But such is life. And even so... “I do understand. Nopony is perfect after all,” I said after a moment’s silence. “You still shouldn’t argue with a foal. It only serves to solidify their rebellious feelings during that phase. Next time, try simply disconnecting your auditory nerves and continuing about your business.” Twilight triple blinked, face scrunching up in horror. What? “OH! Right, you’re not undead,” I laughed, smiling at the humor of my mistake. “My apologies. Now, shall we get this done? I’m eager to return to my own project.” “Yeah, I can’t just plug and unplug body parts…” Twilight said with a twinge of horror. “Let’s see why someone shipped me a changeling queen’s corpse.” The two of us ran through the crystalline halls, speeding up the stairs as Twilight decided the elevators would be too slow. When we at last arrived at her suite, Twilight practically burst the door down, almost ramming it with her shoulder in her haste to get it open. I must admit that I did enjoy the dark purple shade of crystal which formed the walls. It went well with the black painted furnishings and hot pink upholstery. The brass accents on furnishings and light fixtures was equally pleasing. Whoever decorated these rooms had excellent taste and a passion for interior design. I hadn’t seen any of the guest rooms before now. I’d just sort of not gone to mine. I regretted it just a tiny bit. The crate lay in the middle of the room, hastily placed as if it were meant to be moved into a proper location later. Twilight clearly hadn’t touched the box since before the welcome dinner. At least I was not alone in ignoring things for the sake of personal projects. Twilight rushed to the crate, snatched the letter off the top with one hoof and to my amazement, closely examined the seal instead of just ripping it away. The seal was formed from a green wax and had a stylized three leaf clover stamped into it, along with some writing around the outer edges in a language which I could not identify. Twilight eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Hmm, Ancient Changelish. I’m still learning this language. Kar'tayl vencuyanir vencuyot… Information preserves time? No, no, word order matters… Ah! It’s ‘Knowledge sustains the future’,” she translated allowed to herself. “I don’t know any noble’s house which uses that motto… Or ancient Changelish. Jade might.” As Twilight retrieved a messenger gem from a pair of saddlebags resting beside the room’s bed, I tried to remember if any house I knew of used that motto in any language. It seemed like the sort of motto a line of Wizards would use, or perhaps librarians. But I didn’t know of anyone who would use a long dead language to conceal their crest. Of course it could be made up. “Jade,” Twilight instructed. A moment later a changeling mare’s voice asked, “Um, hello?” “Jade, it’s Twilight. This is crucial. Can you recall any house, family, or organization which uses a seal of green wax, a clover emblem, and the motto ‘Kar'tayl vencuyanir vencuyot’?” Jade was silent for several moments, but then, “No, sorry. Why?” “I’ve gotten a letter, it’s sealed with that crest. Since your hive was the last to speak the language, I was hoping you would know something. Are you certain you can’t remember anything?” Twilight pleaded urgently, frowning deeply at the glowing gemstone in her magic grip. “Sorry, Twi. I don’t. If I remember anything later, I’ll call you. Okay?” Jade asked, sounding truly sympathetic. “Okay, thank you. Goodbye, Jade,” Twilight said, setting the gem down as Jade also said her farewell. Twilight carefully opened the letter, using her magic to peel the seal away from the paper without breaking it. Inside the envelope were two folded sheets of parchment. Selecting one of the two, Twilight opened it and read the letter the sheet happened to contain. She then proceeded to go as white as a sheet, read it a second time, then a third, and then promptly lit the letter a flame with a pulse of her lavender magic. I yelped in alarm as the flames consumed the page. “What are you doing!?” I demanded incredulously as she held the burning page aloft so it could not catch anything else on fire. “Destroying the message as instructed,” Twilight said, trembling slightly. “We need to cast the spell on the other page on her, and then try to get her back on her hooves. Now.” “Why?” I asked. “What could possibly warrant this kind of reaction?” “Instructions sent forward in time by Clover the Clever as a means to avoid a disaster Starswirl foresaw,” Twilight explained urgently. Clover the- Seriously? “And how do you know you’re not doing somepony’s dirty work by falling for a hoax?” I asked skeptically, raising one eyebrow. “I have Clover’s spellbook. I know her writing, her manner of speech, and it was written in a dead language, which as far as I know, only Clover’s last living heir speaks fluently. Furthermore, it is exactly like her to not give away anything but the bare minimum details of ‘terrible disaster. Cast this spell on this person, do best to revive.’ She was very paranoid and used puzzles to hide… Everything,” Twilight said as the letter finished burning. “Furthermore,” she added. “Starswirl, her husband, is the undisputed master of time magic and could easily have gotten this to me, which they did, because the letter states I’m likely the only one in Equestria who could cast the spell required. Which is highly plausible.” “That’s very convincing, but are you absolutely certain?” I asked hesitantly. “Assuming we even can revive a changeling Queen, that is not an idea to be undertaken lightly. Especially if she was alive during the last days of the Changeling Empire, which she could have been.” “The letter said we’d need her as an ally, to avoid the unspecified disaster in the near future. Which has to be terrible, otherwise the two greatest Wizards in Equestrian history would not have tried to meddle with it. They didn’t warn us about Tirek, or Sombra, or that Kaiju that got lost while migrating, or Discord’s return… “Take the crate to the lab, put the amplifier together. I’m going to get Cadence as backup in case things go bad,” Twilight ordered firmly. “Please, I’m trusting you. Trust me too. My life has been one crisis after another, and this is exactly the sort of thing I’ve been afraid would happen for a year, because it’s that weird to go a year between crises for me!” Twilight’s face bordered on the edge of terror and duty. She was thoroughly convinced this was a thing we had to do. The shear amount of urgency which bled from her tensed body was more than enough evidence for me to believe her. “Yes, Ma’am,” I agreed, snapping a salute on reflex, before lifting the heavy crate with my magic and backing up into the hallway, pulling it as quickly I could manage with the growing mental strain keeping it aloft put on my shoulders. “Thank you,” Twilight exclaimed urgently, vanishing in a flash of lavender light with a crack. I paused, setting the crate down. If this was as urgent as Twilight believed, then lugging this heavy crate down the hallway would simply take me too long and consume too much energy for me to hope to attempt a revival. In fact, it would be more energy efficient to teleport, crate and all. Could I take that much mass with me? It was a corpse, so I wouldn’t have to worry about safeguarding another mind… Yes, I could manage this. I reached out and set a hoof on the crate, focusing my mind on every last detail of Cadence’s laboratory, fixing it in my mind as I reached for my magic to initiate the telep- Sweet Faust… She wasn’t dead! I recoiled in shock, concentration broken by the touch of the very faint dying ember of a mind as I had readied my teleportation spell. The Queen was alive. Barely. Literally on her very last spark of life. Legally, she would be considered a corpse, but as a necromancer I could she was still holding on. Doubt vanished from my mind. That letter had been authentic. Nopony without divination magic would know that she yet lived unless they were able to check for themselves. And if they could, they would not have hired mercenaries to find and retrieve ‘her remains’. I ripped the crate apart with a pulse of telekinesis, throwing the unnecessary mass across the hall in a cloud of shrapnel. I had to save as much mass as possible to pull this off. The Queen was much larger than a typical pony, and the pod added a lot of mass as well… The crate was not enough. I needed to shed three more pounds. I had to ditch my cloak. “Woah woah woah! What the buck are you doing?” A tall, pale washed out, purple furred unicorn mare asked. My racing mind took a second to process who she was. Recognizing the mare as Cadence’s personal assistant Sunset, I stripped off my cloak, taking my watch and looping it around my neck by the chain, and tossed her the cloak. “This is an emergency! Take my cloak down to the laboratory, and find Cadence. She needs to be there. Twilight’s looking for her as well,” I explained as I grabbed the now bare pod and refocused on teleporting. “Emergency? How?” Sunset asked seriously. “Letter from an ancient wizard in the past saying wake this actually somehow still alive changeling up to avoid impending disaster,” I summarized, gritting my teeth to refocus after speaking. “Shit!” Sunset cursed in some language or another. “I’m going with you. That’s a big load for one pony to teleport.” Sunset crossed over to the pod and grabbed it as well. I immediately felt the load I was trying to carry lessen, and released the spell. The hallway melted around us, dissolving into the interior of the laboratory as Sunset and I materialized alongside the pod thankfully with nopony stuck halfway through a workbench. “Ugh…” Sunset groaned, wiping her forehead with the back of a hoof. “Your teleports are a bit sloppy… That or undead teleport weird.” “We teleport weird. Negatively charged mana rather than positive, making the difference,” I quickly explained as I wheeled around to face the bench the amplifier’s parts lay on. I had just barely attached three of the five components when twin cracks signaled the arrival of Princess Cadence and Twilight. “Good! Sunset, you take position by the doors and cloak. If anything goes wrong, put the Queen in a force cage,” Cadence ordered immediately. “Good plan,” Sunset agreed her hooves clicking as she moved into position. I carefully set the next component into place atop the small power core, and began to fuse the parts together. “Um, Cadence, she has almost no aura,” Twilight said uneasily. “With magical power that low on the scale, Sunset won’t be able to contain a Queen for more than a second or two.” “She’s more powerful than you could imagine, Twilight,” Cadence corrected. “It’s called aura-cloaking,” Sunset added. “It’s just that unlike you, I don't have so much raw power that I can only dim it. I can hide all of it.” “Ah! Surprise bodyguard. I understand,” Twilight said with a relieved sigh. “Repose, are you ready?” I shuddered involuntarily. Twilight was that blindingly powerful and had an aura-cloaking spell running? But she was STILL afraid of facing a Queen? What happened to make that possible? On second thought, I didn’t want to know. “Not yet,” I answered. “This can’t be rushed.” “Let me know when it’s time to power it. I’ll take care of that,” Twilight instructed. “Understood,” I replied, focusing entirely on my work. If I messed this up, it might just disintegrate everything inside the field due to becoming a wild magic storm generator. There was no room for errors. “Okay… Spell…” Twilight murmured to herself. The rustling of parchment pierced my ears are I carefully finished soldering the last of the tiny pins. No, don’t focus on what they're doing. Next part. It’s important. It’s the field limiter… I carefully positioned the small cage-like carved diamond over its connector and began to fuse each of the hair-thin links one by one. “Wait, what kind of spell is that?” Cadence asked curiously. “It looks like it’s meant to separate a foreign arcane signature from somepony.” “It’s probably a curse or hex removing spell,” Twilight said agreeingly. “Which makes sense. Chrysalis had to take over the Sapphire hive somehow. If she disposed of her… Yeah this is probably meant to remove some kind of hex meant to kick in if she’s revived.” “What are we planning on doing about that cordyceps infestation?” Sunset asked urgently. “We have changelings living here, you know.” “If Repose’s invention does not remove the fungi, I know a few treatments. As for the spores it will release, we are in a sealed lab. The decontamination button is the big blue one right next to the door, Sunset,” Cadence replied calmly. “I set this place up as a hazmat chamber, just in case I messed up a potion.” Well, that was good to know. I’d hate for Fell to be mind puppeted by a fungus because I bucked up putting this thing together. The field limiter hummed slightly as I finished connecting it. Good, the mage gems were properly powering the basic enchantments. All that remained was the spell matrix receptacle. “Okay, here goes,” Twilight warned. I heard a slight scintillating melodious sound which reminded me of wind chimes in a blizzard. A bright lavender flash of light flashed, reflecting off the wall in front of me and leaving spots in my eyes. Everypony gasped loudly. “The fuck was that!?” Sunset swore. “No idea!” Twilight said in awe. “Please tell me this lab records spells cast in it!” “Sadly no,” Cadence admitted. “But you know what that flash reminded me of? Discord’s magic. We’ll ask him about this as soon as possible.” “Agreed!” Twilight exclaimed decisively. “Ready repose?” “Nearly,” I grunted. The receptacle clicked into place. The small blue gemstones around its base glowing green to indicate readiness. There! “I’m ready,” I announced, taking a step back from the workbench. Everypony grew silent for a few moments. “T-that looks like a fez with a propeller on top attached to a tiny radio antenna attached to the propeller’s shaft,” Sunset said after a few heartbeats. “I know what it looks like. There’s a structural reason it looks like that. Trust me, I’m an enchanter,” I grumbled. I did NOT want to explain why it had to look like that right now. “Do you want to set it up?” Twilight asked. “I’m not certain I remember how it works.” I nodded and carefully picked up the delicate device with my magic’s grip and set it down atop the changeling Queen’s pod. After carefully folding the stabilizing feet down from the chassis so it would sit atop the pod properly I stepped forwards and carefully turned the ‘propeller’ to the correct position to adjust the side of the effect field to be just slightly larger than the pod itself. Stepping back, I nodded to myself. Everything seemed okay. Except for the third of a changeling I could see through the translucent green pod. That did not look okay. Because of the mess of white tendrils erupting from all of the rest of it. That would look less horrific if she were all dead, instead of mostly dead. “Alright. Twilight, cast your spell on the crystal in the center of the bowl. And don't step within two meters of the device. The area of effect is a sphere,” I warned. Twilight nodded and stepped up to the edge of the invisible field, close, but still outside of the zone. Closing her eyes, she focused on her spell, horn glowing dimly at first but then brighter and brighter until I had to look away from the welding torch like blaze surrounding her horn. The blinding beam of magic finally surged from her horn and connected with the crystal. The twisting and arching trace-lines of magic scattered and raced over the gem like mini-lightning bolts, but otherwise remained confined to the gemstone instead of moving on. Instead, it simply stopped arcing. Seemingly dissipating harmlessly. “Did it work?” Twilight asked as she stopped casting her spell with an uncertain frown on her lips. “It should have,” I said with a weary sigh. “At least it didn’t explode. I think we might have not quite gotten something up to sp-” The amplifier suddenly began to hum, quietly at first but with increasing volume as a bright golden glow began to creep over its copper and brass surface like the device was being dipped into paint. The propeller began to spin as the glow overtook it, white-hot lines tracing down each blade as the spell circuitry powered up. “Duck?” Cadence asked uncertainly. “No! It’s working!” I exclaimed happily, a smile erupting across my face before I realized that there shouldn’t have been a delay. “Actually um, duck anyways!” I ducked behind one of the workbenches just as the three quartz emitters on the sides of the fez pulsed, each sending out a beam of white-hot light making the device look to be spraying liquid metal before the limiter field lit up a bright orange-ish gold, blocking out everything within the bubble as the glow became painful to look at. A jolt of primal fear shot down my spine as the hum grew to a full roar which made tools vibrate atop the workbenches for one brief terrifying moment. Then the light vanished. Instantly. As if somepony had snuffed out a candle. Everything was still. Everything was calm. I peeked out from behind the workbench. The Amplifier's glow faded away completely, allowing me to catch the last fleeting bits of power as the left the slightly blackened but seemingly okay device. “Clear!” I called loudly. Cadence peeked up from behind one of the filing cabinets, a pink force field rippling as she dismissed the shield. Twilight stepped out from a utility closet, nervously looking at the device. Sunset looked at all of us and shook her head slowly. “Did you guys seriously think it was going to explode? That reaction looked perfectly controlled,” she said with a smirk. “Not all of us have an innate sense of thermodynamics,” Cadence mumbled, glaring at Sunset in response. “What?” Twilight and I asked together. “Special talent,” Sunset countered with a grunt. “So, who's checking to see if it worked?” Oh! Yes. We had turned it on to do a thing. I’d forgotten for a moment. Being fairly certain you’re about to be vaporized will do that to you. Good thing I hadn’t eaten in awhile. That could have been embarrassing. Clearing my throat I carefully moved the amplifier from the pod to the top of a workbench as gingerly as I could, then stepped closer to the pod, placing a hoof on it and readying a teleport so I could extend my magic to check the Queen’s condition. The first thing I noticed was none of the stalks of fungi which had been erupting from her body like needles in a pincushion were visible. But that didn’t mean any wasn’t still inside her. The second thing I noticed was that spark of life had been fanned into a decent bed of coals. The spell worked! My amplifier worked! “HA! Yes!” I exclaimed with every last ounce of joy I could muster. “She’s unconscious, but we could wake her. Woo!” I spun around, holding up one hoof exuberantly for Twilight to bump. The lavender mare smiled and gently bumped my hoof. “Good job,” she said with a proud smile, which quickly faded. “Um, anyone know how to check for cordyceps infestations? She looks clear but… You know.” Cadence shook her head. “Sunset? Teleport to Canterlot Royal Hospital and tell them to get a biohazard room ready. As soon as the doctors are inside and the room is sealed, teleport back here and we’ll move her directly from this sealed environment to that one. Twilight, you and I will wake her here to make sure she’s no threat, then as soon as she’s in the hospital we both go get Celestia. “Repose, as soon as we go, you hit that blue button to sterilize this room. Don’t worry, it will only get rid of dust, spores, and other contagions. It’s never damaged dead matter, plant or otherwise. After that, get your device ready for another use. Because as soon as it’s ready, we’re going to break into a certain room in Prance. Understood?” Break into a certain- OH! I nodded adamantly. “Understood, princess!” Cadence nodded in satisfaction. “Right, moving out,” Sunset agreed with a nod, vanishing in a flash of cyan light. Odd… She didn’t have cyan eyes or a cyan cutiemark. Maybe she used vanity spells? Bah, whatever. As she vanished, Twilight’s horn blazed lavender as the alicorn cut the pod open with a thin purple ray of magic. A thick blue slimy liquid spilled out from the cuts covering the floor tiles as the pod was cut open, immediately making the room reak of extra sweet honey. A moment later and Twilight lifted the ‘lid’ off the pod and set it aside. The Queen lay still, looking dead for a few short moments. Her dull, unhealthy looking chitten contrasting with her soft looking features and long bright sky blue mane and tail. “Are you certain she’s alive?” Cadence asked with a frown as she trotted up to the edge of the pod. I barely had time to nod before the Queen’s dark sapphire colored eyes flew open and darted between the two alicorns who were leaning over her. “I’ll beat you each apart!” She yelped in a startled but melodic voice. “I’ll take you both together! Back! I’m warning you!” Twilight immediately took a step back. “Woah! Easy! We’re not going to hurt you. We’re here to help,” she said as soothingly as she could. “That’s right, we’re on your side,” Cadence agreed. “If you’re not going to harm anypony, that is.” The Queen frowned, a twinge of fear flashing across her features as she tried to look down but could not. “Why won't’ my legs move?” She asked. “You’ve been mostly dead all- For a long time,” I said in as medically professional of a manner as I could. “We just removed you from a stasis pod.” The Queen’s frown deepened. “Stasis pod? Who are you? Are we enemies? Why am I outside my hive? Oh, Tartarus! Where’s Chrysalis! She has a jar of cordycep spores!” She screamed in alarm. “Let me explain,” Cadence began before pausing and shaking her head slightly. “No, there's too much. Let me sum up. Chrysalis is dead. She exploded.” “Twice actually,” Twilight added. “I was there when it happened. It’s been a very long time since you’ve been awake. We’re fairly certain that Chrysalis infested you with cordyceps and left you to die.” “Oh,” the Queen said, her voice ringing hollow with defeat. “Is my hive dead?” “Not completely,” Twilight said soothingly. “We can talk about them later. Right now we have no idea if our means of reviving you removed all of the fungi from your body. Is it okay if we move you to a hospital for treatment?” The Queen snorted. “Oh please, no physician can treat a cordyceps infestation. Besides, what pony doctor would even know how to treat a changeling?” Cadence smiled and gave the Queen a gentle pat on the shoulder. “Equestria has changed a lot in recent years. We can treat you, and we want to help. Will you let us?” “Yes,” she agreed after a few moments. “I’m paralyzed, you could have easily killed me if you wanted… I trust you. My name is Jiila, who are you? I don’t recall any Alicorns other than Celestia and Luna, and you are not them.” “I’m Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s former student,” Twilight introduce with a polite half-bow. “My friend is Princess Cadence, she rules the Crystal Empire, which you are in now. Our friend over there is the enchanter who brought you back. His name is Repose.” I gave her a happy nod. “Thank you for proving my device works,” I said, still happy with my success. “No, thank you for saving me from… This…” Jiila winced. “OW! That was a heart! I’m not okay! A hospital would be lovely because I am not regenerating at all.” A cyan flash lit up the room as Sunset popped back into existence. “They are ready, is she safe?” She asked quickly. Cadence nodded. “Yes, Jiila is not hostile and seems to be in critical condition. Jiila, this is my assistant Sunset. She will be teleporting you to the hospital. Twilight and I will be there with Celestia as soon as we can get her attention. Is that okay?” “I don’t care! Physician now, please! I can feel another heart starting to choke!” She yelped. Sunset jumped landing atop the pod in a display of catlike grace, grabbed Jiila by her barrel and teleported, the two vanishing in a flash of light that left sports on my eyes for a few moments after their departure. Twilight sighed and let out a deep breath. “Okay. Good. That went well. Unexpected, given the letter,” she said, her body relaxing as relief washed over her. “Don't relax yet. We need to tell Celestia that we revived a changeling Queen,” Cadence reminded with a serious tinge in her eyes. “Let’s go, the faster the better. Repose? You remember what to do?” I nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.” “Good!” She exclaimed in satisfaction. “Ready, Twilight?” Twilight nodded. “Yes, let me go ahead. That way you can be certain the decontamination system worked properly.” “Good idea,” Cadence agreed. Twilight vanished with a crack and a flash. I trotted over to the door and pressed the large blue button next to it as firmly as I could. Immediately a bright red ray of light swept back and forth over the lab, making several passes. I felt an odd itching as the ray swept over me and the smell of burnt something filled the air, vanishing as the ray flickered out. “Are we good?” I asked hopefully. Cadence nodded. “Yes, that’s what it’s supposed to do,” she said with satisfaction. “Get that thing repaired. As soon as Twilight and I are free again, we’re going back to Prance.” “Of course,” I said as Cadence’s horn began to glow. “Wait! One thing before you leave.” The glow vanished. Cadence frowned. “What is it? Do you need more money for parts?” I shook my head. “No. I may not get another chance to ask this, as Twilight will be present next time I am with you. We ran into your daughter and-” Cadence facehooved. “They argued again? I’ll have a talk with Flurry… This has to stop. What’s the question?” “Is her calling Shining her mother really a joke?” I asked with a slightly embarrassed blush. Cadence flashed me a grin. “It’s more fun if I don’t answer that,” she giggled. “And even if I wanted to, now is not the time. We have a rather pressing matter at hoof.” Evading the question eh? Well… “Oh come on, you said you owed me one after I showed you how to bake bread over a normal campfire, Blade,” I said with a sly wink. Cadence immediately frowned. I held up one hoof defensively. “It’s okay, I will never tell a soul. I’m not blackmailing you, I’m calling in that minor favor. Mostly because I want to get to know the real you. I consider you a friend,” I explained. Cadence sighed and shook her head. “You’re lucky I can see your heart and know you’re not lying to me,” Cadence said before giving me a friendly smile. “Alright. No, it’s not a joke. Shining is a rather effeminate stallion in private and talked me into letting him try being our foal’s mother. “He thought it would be fun for him. It was not fun for him at all, but he stuck through it. I’m very proud of him for that. We remained mostly isolated for the duration of the pregnancy and used illusion spells to make everything seem normal. Because well, sadly our family is a political issue for many. Meaning we can’t be truly free. That’s one reason I share in the Blade identity. For freedom to act as I see fit to help others. “You’re the only one besides the three of us and Twilight who knows about Flurry’s actual parentage. She walked in on her brother and I during the ‘making of Flurry special’. But she refuses to acknowledge that happened. It’s a bit sad but also kind of funny. “Is there anything else? Oh, and this stays private. If Flurry chooses to leave the Crystal Empire later I don't want anypony knowing her parentage so she will not be teased or mocked.” I nodded firmly. “My lips are sealed. I just don't like not knowing things for certain. Um, one last thing. Do you really not shelter her from anything at all?” Cadence snorted, holding back a laugh. “Oh Faust no! There are plenty of things she doesn't know about, like almost every extreme kink. She has limits. She just thinks she knows everything. Which is the best way to hide the things which can actually be bad for a foal to experience… Or hay, even for some adults to experience. “I’m not stupid. I simply let her know about tamer things so she doesn't wonder if there are other illusions. Like the ones hiding certain doors. Look, I need to go now. We can talk more later, if you like.” I nodded. “I’d like that. Good luck!” “You too, Reep,” she replied before vanishing in her own flash of light. My curiosity sated, I trotted over to the work bench and began to examine the amplifier. It seemed to be fine, but a full component by component examination was needed. Especially since this was, after all, a prototype. A prototype which had some major work ahead of it.