//------------------------------// // Conversation 40: Lyra Heartstrings // Story: Aporia // by Oliver //------------------------------// The guard stumbled and his light spell faded out as he lost concentration. For a few seconds, we marched on in complete darkness, until he bumped into a closed door and lit his horn again to open it. “…Are we lost?” I wondered, throwing a glance behind me to make sure Bon-Bon is still there. The castle wasn’t quite as labyrinthine as the Canterlot Castle, but that “not quite” was still more than sufficient. While the Canterlot Castle acquired this property over a thousand years of partial destruction, expansion and reconstruction, this one was built like that from the start. The spirals and dragon curves of the main storage coil woven through the crystal skeleton frame meant that living space had to take what was left. While the main corridors are straight as an arrow, I can’t help but imagine Discord getting lost in the side passages. There is a rule of symmetry here, but it would take a mathematician with a sledgehammer to put a hoof on it. At least all the plumbing seems to work correctly. Cadance told me there are whole sections of Canterlot Castle where the pipes appear to cross into alternate dimensions. “No, I am quite sure we’re almost there, madam,” the guard replied confidently. Even our guest room wasn’t actually a perfect rectangle – not enough to make it an actual problem, but just enough to make you notice. Bon-Bon found it so unsettling, that she kept glowering at the walls for half an hour before finally going to sleep. It’s not like she was just being pedantic, either, although she often is. If Mary’s information is correct, Sombra left us at least one nasty surprise in this castle. Who knows if there are any others… “We were ‘almost there’ at least twenty minutes and seven floors ago,” I insisted, “That counts as lost. Did Cadance say she wants to see me somewhere specific, or are we just drifting aimlessly hoping to bump into her?” If it is my fate to be lost inside a crystal castle, I could do this without dragging Bon-Bon around with me. She spent most of the day hauling crates across the stadium and needs sleep more than I do. “I am just a messenger, madam,” the guard looked at me, smiling that fake plastic smile, the kind you see on a newspaper photo. On the other hoof, if it is my fate to be lost inside a crystal castle, Bon-Bon is just the pony who would get us out of it. Now if I could only get that guard to get lost separately, because I’m pretty sure I don’t like him, and it’s not just for being the bearer of unpleasant royal requests. “O-o-o-o-o-o-ho-ho-ho-ho!” The guard stopped dead in his tracks, baring his teeth like a griffon and spun his spear around, dropping it into the latch on the side of his armor. Pointy end first. What’s going on? I glanced at Bon-Bon and saw her with her ears folded, staring intently along the corridor in front of us. It’s almost like she’s afraid of something. “O-o-o-o-o-o-ho-ho-ho!” came the sound – this time, from the opposite end of the corridor. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is on to your deception! You are surrounded! Come out with your hooves up!” Ah, so that’s what it is. “What, all four of them?” I called back. “Be reasonable, Trixie!” From somewhere nearby, which was neither the corridor in front of us, nor the corridor behind us, came the distinctive sound of Trixie choking down a laugh. Which usually sounds like a sputtering steam engine somepony is trying to strangle with a pillow. “We have a hostage!” I insisted, pointing at the guard. “I require ten thousand bits in new unmarked coins and an air carriage! With real pegasi to drive it, this time!” Bon-Bon threw a terrified glance at me, and that was the moment when I finally felt something is really, really, terribly, fundamentally wrong. Much more wrong than I had any right to think based on just getting woken up in the middle of the night. But before I had a chance to say anything, a door in the side of the corridor flew open and smashed Bon-Bon into the wall, narrowly missing my own face. My heart skipped a beat. I haven’t even had time to gasp, as a bright flash drowned out my vision, leaving snaking afterimages and concentrating my senses on the new, odd smell, that was so much like the smell of burning hair, but not quite… “The Great and Powerful Trixie saves the day again!” she proclaimed loudly. “I’m not sure what they were planning to do with you, but it can’t be anything good.” They?… Trixie zapped a royal guard with what has to be a lightning bolt spell, hit Bon-Bon with a door, and she’s still alive? It took some more time for my vision to clear, but the first thing I saw once it did was Trixie’s triumphant toothy grin and proud pose over the bodies of two changelings. One of them was wearing royal guard armor. Smoking, charred royal guard armor. In contrast, Trixie’s silly conical hat was glowing like a beautiful paper lantern, bathing everything in warm blue and gold hues. “…Th-thanks,” I stammered out. Trixie is very sensitive about praise, and I couldn’t in good conscience deny some was due. I didn’t suspect a thing until she interfered. “How did you know?” And where’s Bon-Bon?! Just when did they replace her?! “Three ponies come into a dark room, six ponies come out,” Trixie grinned. “Not a very good trick, even somepony who is not so Great and Powerful would crack this immediately.” Mother always told me it’s impolite to hold tails in public, because all the ponies who don’t have a special somepony will be sad. I swear she gets an earful the moment I can arrange this. “How did you pick the group with me in it?” I wondered. “This was a trivial deduction for the Great and Powerful Trixie!” she exclaimed. “Logically, either of the two groups would have to include exactly one real pony, and it could only be either you or that marefriend of yours.” She sighed, “All right, all right, I didn’t! You just got lucky.” Bon-Bon wasn’t so lucky. I have to go find her! I jumped in place, but then stopped myself. Bon-Bon, the confectioner, might not be expected to hold her own against two dangerous creatures, but I have seen Sweetie Drops the special agent wipe the floor with five, and the only thing that held her back was worrying that I might not approve. One of them wearing my face will not delay her for longer than it takes to ask “Say my name.” She always told me I’m inimitable, anyway, even though sometimes she didn’t mean it as a compliment. No, the right thing to do is to stay put and let her find me. Because I’m pretty sure I am lost, even if Trixie somehow isn’t, and if Trixie is, it will take until morning to get her to admit it. “What were you even doing here?” I wondered, edging away from the corpses, while trying to make it look more casual than it really was. “The Great and Powerful Trixie was doing something none of you had the guts to do!” she proclaimed. “Searching for the artifact of unparalleled magical power, required to save the poor crystal ponies! It is hidden somewhere in the castle, isn’t it? The Crystal Heart?” “It should be,” I confirmed. “You weren’t with us when we discussed it, though.” In fact, she mysteriously vanished from the train altogether and never turned up for the entire day afterwards. “One of the perks of being the personal student of a Princess,” Trixie flashed a grin at me. “Secrets.” “How did you land that gig, anyway?” I asked. “After I graduated and moved back to Ponyville, everypony kept in touch, they turn up in town almost every week. Even Moondancer wrote me a few times. But you, you just dropped off the face of the Earth, like Twilight.” “The Great and Powerful Trixie does not just reveal her secrets!” she rejected sternly. She always liked her theatrics, but this is a bit overboard. “O Trixie!” I exclaimed, “Do enlighten your humble servant, how did you get so Great and Powerful?… Seriously, it’s perfect for the stage, but what happened? We’re not on stage now, you can tell me. If I knew you were doing magic shows, I’d make the trip anywhere in Equestria just to see one. Hay, I’d recommend you for a job in special effects on Bridleway! But the first thing I heard of it was you dropping out of the sky next to the town hall!” Trixie sighed. “I don’t remember, alright? Seriously,” she said, blushing and turning away from me. “What do you mean you don’t remember?!” “I think I cast Clover’s Covariant Cognizance sometime after you graduated, and edited out a bit more context than I wanted,” she explained. A make-me-unsee-that spell from the Second Celestial Era. Which definitely never had anything to do with Clover the Clever, it’s a classical spell written in early pre-reform Canterlot Standard notation. Works only on the caster, which is why… “Are you out of your little pony mind?” I exclaimed. “Well, maybe I was, but I’m not anymore, am I?” she snapped. “You’d think I would leave myself a note to explain why, but I didn’t. I probably had a reason, right? Maybe I decided I need to reinvent myself, so I did. I’m rather pleased with the results! My first tour across Equestria was the happiest my life has ever been!” She still tosses her nose up the same way Trixie always did. If anything, this “reinvented” Trixie is even more Trixie than the filly I remember from school, if that’s even possible. “I would be even happier if I didn’t have to remember Twilight Sparkle either,” she grumbled under her breath, without looking at me. “But once I stumbled on that little speck of a town, once Twilight humiliated me yet again, most of it came back,” she hissed. “So I tried figuring out dream magic on my own from first principles, to see if maybe I can find something Twilight Sparkle can’t cast better than me. That’s when Princess Luna found me and recognized my—” She was interrupted by a groan coming from the floor. The changeling she hit with a door was stirring. “Oh, still alive, you tricky thing,” Trixie grinned viciously, turning to loom over the creature. “None of the changelings taken prisoner in Canterlot deigned to talk to the Great and Powerful Trixie. Trixie was annoyed. Trixie was annoyed very much. It’s very important for Trixie’s education to know more about your species. And there’s only so much that can be discovered by studying a dead specimen.” “P-p-please don’t hurt me,” the changeling whimpered. It’s strange how little do you need sometimes to change your mind about things. Talking. What was a horrifying monster just seconds ago, now looked pitiful like a dog the owner forgot and left alone in the rain. Yes, dogs don’t talk. You know what I meant. “Why, does Trixie have a reason to?” Trixie inquired, with unconcealed sarcasm. “Did you do anything to warrant Trixie hurting you? Beside being a little pony-eating monster, that is. Because, know this, you bug person, this is Equestria. We don’t hold it against people that they can eat people. Ponies can eat people, if they try hard enough. What makes us really angry is when people do eat people.” “I have not eaten anyone, please don’t kill me!” the changeling shivered, covering his eyes – at least the voice is masculine, though it took me a few seconds to realize that – with his hooves, and peeking through the holes. “Hush, Trixie, you’re scaring him,” I said, gently pushing her aside. I didn’t expect her to let me, but she did. The other thing I didn’t expect was the changeling letting out a shriek and trying to sink through the floor as I approached, with rather pathetic results. It’s like he’s afraid of me more than he is afraid of Trixie. It did not take me long to figure out why. Part of his right ear was missing, sliced cleanly off with something incredibly sharp, barely scabbed over with a fresh layer of chitin. I took a deep breath. “Tell me, changeling, do you have a name? Do your people even have names? What should we call you?” It took him a while to answer. “Thorax. M-my name is Thorax.” “So tell me, Thorax,” I said, slowly sitting on the floor before him, trying to avoid any sudden motions. “Why are you the only changeling that speaks at all? I have heard changelings talk while transformed, but none of you ever tried to communicate once revealed.” “B-because I’m broken,” he stammered out. “I have always been different, ever since I hatched. I’m ‘deaf.’ A little deaf. Not completely deaf. I don’t hear Mother the way the rest of the clutch do. I was the weakest little larva. Mother says I’m useful, because I show initiative! But my brothers hate me. They say I’m a freak!” And here I thought humans were weird. It almost sounds like changelings treat individuality itself as a disability. How utterly strange… No wonder my first thoughts upon seeing them in action were of shock at how identical they are. “So why are you still with them? You’re a changeling. You could turn into a pony and nopony would notice. You can imitate ponies. That’s what our legends say you have always done.” “Because ponies are terrifying,” he whispered, removing the hooves from his blank, glowing eyes and staring at me. “I was afraid of you before, but in Canterlot, I saw, I heard your song, I felt the magic…” He jerked his damaged ear. “You ponies have rules, right? If I surrender, you’re supposed to treat me well, right?” “If we were soldiers, yes,” Trixie piped up. “We aren’t.” “Hush, o Great and Powerful one!” I tossed at her and looked back at the changeling. “It’s more complicated than it could be. But I promise I won’t try to hurt you until you try to hurt somepony else, and I won’t even ask you to surrender. You’ll have to live with that.” Thorax relaxed somewhat, but that only lasted a second. “I m-must tell you something,” he started, stammering, trying to speak faster than his jaws would move. “M-mother is going to send the entire hive to attack this city soon, but that’s just a distraction. My group was supposed to charm you to get the Crystal Heart out for her and run away, while you’re fighting this… She found this monster, this destroyer, brought him to some cave in the Crystal Mountains and fed him, so that he’d get stronger… She h-hates you all… hates you all so much… I don’t know why, nobody knows, we’re just her latest clutch, but what happened in Canterlot was the last straw, she… This is madness. She thinks he’s too stupid to notice she doesn’t expect him to win. But he’s not that stupid, and he’s never going to stop eating. She’s going to get everyone killed, all the changelings, all the ponies, everywhere. You have to stop him, before it’s too late!” “Stop whom?” Trixie poked in again, her ears twitching against the brim of her hat. “His name is Tirek. I don’t know where he came from, but he eats magic. All magic.” Now this is serious. The sky is falling kind of serious. I know that legend. “So why are you telling us this, you… Thorax?” Trixie said, leaning in closer. “I don’t think spilling your mother’s plans will be taken well.” “Because,” he turned to look at her, and suddenly, there was a hint of steel in his voice. “Because I love my Mother!” It was the tone. It was the way he said it that convinced me, because I could tell. Saying something like that, even to complete strangers like us, required incredible courage from him, more than I expect to see from anyone, let alone have any right to expect, and more than I tend to show myself. I stood up. “Harmony is for everyone, Thorax. If you truly wish your mother well… When I sing, you will sing with me. Now go. Don’t give me a reason to change my mind.” I turned away. Soon, after some uncertain shuffling, I heard the clatter of chitinous hooves on the floor behind me, and then, it was gone. “Was that really such a good idea?” Trixie wondered. “No, it wasn’t,” I said. “But it was the dramatically appropriate thing to do.” Suddenly, another door in the side of the corridor burst open, and in came Bon-Bon, breathing heavily. “Welcome back, Sw—” Being silenced with a kiss is my favorite way to get silenced.