Grief is the Price We Pay

by Scyphi


Stratagem

            They found the airship flying along on its own at a steady clip, heading almost due south. They did not expect to see it here like this, but there it was. There appeared to be no guards stationed anywhere on or around the small craft, or any sign that anyone on it suspected trouble. It appeared for all the world to simply be flying along on a normal cruise. But as that didn’t confirm or deny anything for them, they went ahead and approached the craft, circling it once or twice so to survey it in full—not that there was all that much to see—before swooping in to come in for a landing on its empty main deck. The apparent pilot, seeing two male pegasi boarding the craft, left the helm and stepped out of the craft’s deckhouse to greet them.

            “Hello boys,” the azure mare, wearing a pointed violet hat decorated with stars and moons, said as she strolled up to them. “What brings you here?”

            The two almost immediately noticed something off about the mare though, so one of the two knowingly stepped forward to speak. “Nomina ipsum!

            The mare grinned. “Nomen mihi est Julio,” came the reply, then promptly dropped his disguise to reveal the changeling underneath, tossing the magician’s hat off his head and to one side. “It’s about time you lot showed up,” Julius continued as the other two changelings dropped their disguises and revealed themselves as well, satisfied Julius was an ally. “What, did you get lost?”

            “You try to keep up with a pair of targets that keep teleporting about at random,” the changeling who had first spoken grumbled.

            Julius rolled his eyes. “So just drop a few fire portals to keep up with them!” he reasoned aloud.

            “Not all of us can perform the spell to create a fire portal, Julius,” the first changeling reminded firmly.

            “What, you mean to say one of you two can’t?

            There was a momentary pause then the second changeling sheepishly raised his hoof.

            Julius laughed mockingly at this. “How you even got to your rank without that skill then, I’ll never know,” he teased the second changeling.

            The first changeling rolled his eyes and got back to more pressing subjects. “What are you doing here anyway, Julius?” he asked. “Your orders were to find the traitor, eliminate him, capture or eliminate any accompanying him too, and then wait for the targets to arrive so to trap them.”

            “And I did!” Julius assured, before shrugging. “I just decided I didn’t want to wait for them to arrive, so since I had this airship at my disposal, I came to them. It’s faster that way. Doesn’t her highness want this matter sorted out ASAP?”

            The second changeling shrugged. “I guess she does, doesn’t she?”

            “So I take it you’ve already caught the targets then,” the first changeling summarized, not entirely in approval of Julius’s departures from the plan.

            “Yup,” Julius answered smugly and tapped the deck of the airship with one hoof. “When they saw this puppy flying towards them, they thought help had arrived and came hurrying aboard, only to realize, too late, it was a trap!”

            “And the traitor?” the second changeling asked.

            “Deader than a doornail,” Julius promised. “Ditched the body overboard back in the Dragon Realms.”

            “And there were no problems?”

            “Well, the two dragons he had with him were a bit tricky to subdue, but since I still got the drop on them in the end, obviously I managed. As for the traitor himself…he really didn’t put up much of a fight, just like I expected.”

            The second changeling smirked. “Well, thank the Informis Una for small favors.”

            “So I’m assuming what you’re saying then is that you caught the targets and whoever was with the traitor and have them captive right now,” the first changeling summarized so to be particularly clear.

            “Of course,” Julius confirmed, rolling his eyes in annoyance at the continued questioning then motioned for the two changelings to follow him. “Here, you can see for yourselves.”

            He led them into the deckhouse and through the control cabin to the back room, opening the hatch and urging them inside. The room was originally a navigation room, but from its ceiling now hung four cocoons, two of which held the two mares that had been their targets, while the other two held two dragons, a purple runt and an older, cyan, dragoness, respectively.

            The first changeling strolled up to one of the cocoons and poked it, watching the heliotrope colored unicorn within stir slightly, deep in the cocoon’s induced hibernation state. “You cocooned all of them yourself?” he asked, a little impressed.

            “Took just about every ounce of gel I had in me, but I certainly did,” Julius said, leaning on the wall as he watched the two other changelings observe the cocoons. “They should keep nicely until I get them back to the hive.”

            “Is that where you’re heading, then?” the first changeling asked.

            “I’m heading in that direction already, aren’t I?”

            “And the airship?” the second changeling inquired as he wandered through the cluster of cocoons.

            Julius shrugged. “Ours for the taking, really. I figure Queen Chrysalis can find a use for it.”

            The first changeling snickered at the idea. “Yeah, I bet we can find something interesting to do with it,” he agreed, considering some of the possibilities. “You know, I’ve never seen what happens when one of these things crashes…maybe we can stage one for it.”

            “Now that seems a little bit wasteful, don’t you think?” Julius remarked.

            The first changeling tilted his head at Julius teasingly. “Oh c’mon Julius, lighten up.”

            “All I’m saying is that we can probably use this thing more practically for other things,” Julius went on. “Like a troop transport or something…I don’t know.” He shrugged. “It’s not really our job to decide things like that, now is it?”

            The first changeling sighed. “You’re probably right,” he admitted reluctantly. “You’re still a spoilsport, though.”

            “Ooh,” the second changeling suddenly remarked as he hungrily examined the cocoon holding the azure unicorn mare, the same one Julius had been disguised as when they first arrived. “This one’s certainly putting off a lot of yummy love!”

            He started to slurp in some of the positive emotions, reaching out to touch the cocoon with one holed hoof, but stopped when Julius abruptly grabbed that hoof with his magic. “Now, now,” he reprimanded as the changeling grumpily yanked his hoof free of Julius’s aura. “Save some for the rest of us. There should be plenty to go around once they’re at the hive.”

            “Yeah,” the first changeling agreed, giving the second a shove. “Your greedy gob isn’t the only one that needs filling!”

            The second changeling gave the first a shove back. “I was just having a small taste, that’s all! Sheesh!”

            “You two done?” Julius asked, interrupting the small spat.

            The two turned to face Julius. “Well, you seem to have things handled here at least,” the first admitted. “Do we need to accompany you back to the hive?”

            “Nah, I’ve got this, the ship practically flies itself anyway,” Julius assured. “Go ahead and fly on ahead or whatever. I don’t want to have to be staring at your ugly mugs the whole trip anyway.”

            “Fine,” the first changeling concluded as they all filed back out onto the main deck, Julius closing the door to the navigation room on his way out. “We’ll fly back to base and report in, let the queen know you’re coming.” He nudged his compatriot. “C’mon, you.”

            “Don’t eat all that love you’ve caught yourself, all right?” the second changeling demanded as the two moved for the prow of the craft.

            “Bah, I couldn’t eat all that emotion on my own even if I wanted to,” Julius assured. “I’d sooner pop trying. Besides, I like my lean figure, and anyway, you could stand to work harder at getting one yourself.”

            “Hey!” the second changeling objected, starting to turn back to deal with Julius for the insult, but was stopped by the first and pushed on for the nose of the ship.

            The two then took to the air, reapplying as they left the pegasus disguises they had been wearing when they arrived, and flew away. Julius put back on his disguise as Trixie, retrieved her hat from where he had dropped it on the deck, and returned to the Vergilius’s helm to pilot the craft, setting the hat reverently to one side. He watched the two changelings in disguise fly away until they were gone from sight. It seemed clear they weren’t going to be coming back, but he nonetheless waited until well after a half hour had passed and he could be absolutely certain the two were not going to be doubling back suddenly.

            That was when he really dropped his disguise entirely, this time revealing himself properly as Thorax, and slumped against the ship’s wheel in immense relief. “Well, that was nerve-racking,” he muttered aloud to himself.

            He took a moment to recollect his nerves, but then finally straightened, pushed the throttle to full, then locked the helm’s controls so the airship wouldn’t veer off-course while unattended for a moment. Leaving the control cabin, he went out onto the main deck and walked around the deckhouse until he stood at the aft of the craft, climbing up the craft’s sternsprit so he had a clear view of the land behind the air yacht. Once there, he charged his horn of magic and fired a simple bolt of cyan energy in a straight line directly away from the airship. That bolt kept traveling for a few hundred feet before it slowly fizzled out without fanfare. He did it again a second time for good measure, then waited. He wasn’t waiting for long before Obsidian and Garnet came into view, the adult dragons having seen Thorax’s signal from where they had been discreetly following the airship, hidden and from afar, and now moving to fly along it again like they had never left.

            When Thorax left the sternsprit to speak with them directly more towards the middle of the main deck though, there was still one more precaution to make. “Eaisht lesh dagh cleaysh…” Garnet began in prompting sternly.

            “…eisht jean briwnys,” Thorax finished without hesitation, smiling to himself at how the ancient dragon words rolled off his tongue. According to Ember, it was an old dragon proverb meaning, when translated into Equestrian, “listen with each ear, then do judgment.” The saying was poetic enough, but to Thorax what was most interesting about it was the fact that it was in a language he had never quite heard the likes of; and this was significant coming from a changeling who had heard many different languages in his lifetime, both modern and ancient, and could speak a number of them decently. Unfortunately, the reason why this was so was because the language was always solely a dragon-spoken language, and even now it seemed to be dying out, as Ember admitted it was a language few dragons spoke anymore—she herself knew little beyond one or two more old sayings similar to this one proverb.

            To Thorax, though, this was such a pitiful shame because even from just this small bit of it that he’d heard, he thought the language sounded beautiful and was taken with it almost immediately. He made it clear to Ember when she brought it up that he’d very much like to learn more if at all possible, and Ember told him she happened to know a drake back in the Dragon Realms whose grandmother was still fluent in the language. Once this was all over, she offered to arrange a meeting between her and Thorax, which Thorax eagerly agreed to. In the meantime, though, the proverb was serving as a code phrase to confirm that Thorax was truly him and not an enemy changeling posing as him. Garnet or Obsidian would begin by prompting with the first half of the phrase, and then Thorax would prove his identity by correctly filling in the second half.

            And having done so, Garnet nodded his large head in satisfaction and maneuvered a little closer to the side of the air yacht so the two could communicate better. “You speak the words well for someone who only first learned them a mere couple of hours ago,” he praised in approval of the changeling’s pronunciation of his half of the proverb.

            Thorax shrugged sheepishly. “Changelings are fast learners when it comes to language,” he explained simply.

            “I trust everything has gone as planned, then?” Obsidian asked from where he flew along on the other side of the ship. “The pursuing changelings have been sent away successfully?”

            Thorax turned and nodded at the other adult dragon. “They didn’t seem suspect a thing,” he said. “As far as they were concerned, I was an ally changeling who had caught their targets successfully and was now heading back for the hive with the spoils. That confirmed, they then flew off for the southeast, probably for one of the hive’s outposts that sit near the border to the Badlands, which we are not heading towards on our present course. Either way, they’re long gone by now. I don’t expect them to come back.”

            “We should still be on the watch for trouble regardless,” Garnet suggested in warning. “No need to be reckless even after a small victory.”

            “Agreed,” Thorax said with a nod. “Especially since all of this was just a prelude in comparison to what awaits us ahead.” He felt a small chill run down his spine at the thought, but he pushed it aside for now, keeping his attention focused on the two adult dragons. “Anyway, I’ve got the Vergilius on course and locked the controls. With how little wind there’s been, she shouldn’t drift very far off course and can safely go without a pilot for a little bit. Regardless, you two keep an eye on things while I go and…wake the others.”

            The two dragons nodded their heads in agreement and set to the task immediately. Meanwhile, Thorax turned and headed back into the deckhouse and reentered the navigation room where his friends slept in their respective cocoons. Thorax hadn’t been fibbing when he said he had put them all in cocoons himself—that part had been complete truth, and it was no small task to do so, as it had completely drained his poor and now slightly achy gel glands in his mouth doing so. He was lucky to have enough gel in him to just accomplish the task and doubted he would able to squeeze any worthwhile amounts of gel out of them now for a couple of days until his body could finish producing more. But in some ways he was also a little proud at the feat, especially considering the trying circumstances…though it had helped the others had all begrudgingly, but voluntarily, gone into their cocoons. It was a pity, then, that the cocoons had already served their usefulness.

            Nonetheless, closing the doorway to the room behind him, he lit his horn, carefully formed the right spell that could affect all four cocoons at once, and then fired it off, watching as the cyan magic spread out and interacted with the glowing bubble-structures located at the top of each cocoon. The yellow-green glow they produced flickered for a moment, then quickly turned to a more solid sickly yellow color as they shifted from producing fresh supplies of the slime filling the interior of the cocoons and instead started producing agents to counter the chemicals that were keeping the occupants of the cocoons in hibernation. Very quickly, each of them started to stir within as they drifted back out of the deep sleep they had been put in while Thorax watched anxiously, monitoring the progress.

            Spike was the first to wake fully, suddenly jolting within his cocoon and looking around through the slime he was suspended in with wide eyes, struggling within his confines. Seeing this, Thorax hurried to his cocoon, motioning through its walls for him to keep still, before jabbing the sharp point of his curved horn into the top of the cocoon, piercing right through the semi-transparent material, then dragging his horn downwards, slicing the cocoon open in the process. Faintly green-colored slime gushed out as he did this, some spilling around Thorax’s horn and onto his head, but most just dribbled onto the floor, coalescing into a large puddle under the rapidly deflating cocoon. Thorax inwardly winced at the sight of the ooze pooling onto the wooden panel deck of his airship, but there was little he could do to avoid it right now, and knew that the puddle would soon be joined by three more.

            Once this opening had been made and the slime rapidly draining out, Thorax thrust his holed hooves into the cocoon and latched onto Spike, dragging the little dragon’s slippery body out. The moment Spike’s head came free of the cocoon, he went into a coughing fit, hacking up the suspensive slime he had been floating in from out of his lungs and throat. Gently, Thorax lowered him onto the floor of the room and allowed him time to do this, knowing that the best thing to do was to allow Spike’s body to readjust to being outside the cocoon on its own. Still, he sat himself nearby to supervise, distractedly wiping slime off his limbs. He was inwardly glad he had taken off his jacket earlier so to more accurately pose as Julius, otherwise it would be soaked with slime now.

            Eventually Spike had cleared his lungs enough to find his voice again. “You really sure saving Equestria is worth this?” he griped, panting, partly serious and partly not.

            Thorax grinned and clapped him on the dragon’s bare back, Spike having taken off all elements of his trademark disguise prior to getting into the cocoon for the same reasons Thorax was glad he wasn’t currently wearing his jacket. “Quite,” he assured the dragon before noticing Starlight had awoken fully in her cocoon and moved to go liberate her too. “Just take it easy for a few minutes, you’ll readjust soon.”

            He then did much the same thing with Starlight’s cocoon, using his horn to slice open the cocoon then reaching in to bodily pull the unicorn free of it, though he had help in that the moment she saw Thorax opening it, she scrambled to try and climb out of it herself, latching onto the opening with her hooves. Like Spike, she came out of the cocoon coughing, needing to clear her lungs of the slime.

            “That was both nothing like what I thought it would be—” she stopped to cough briefly, as Thorax lowered her to floor, “—and exactly like what I thought it would be.” She proceeded to cough a few more times, recollecting herself, then gazed about, wiping slime out of her eyes. “There wouldn’t happen to be a towel handy I can use, is there?”

            “Oh right, I almost forgot,” Thorax admitted, and with his magic grabbed a pile of towels from where he had stashed them in an out-of-sight corner of the navigation room in hopes the two changelings that had briefly boarded the airship wouldn’t notice them, and offered one apiece to Starlight and Spike as they both worked to wipe slime off themselves.

            “Thanks,” Starlight said, using the towel to wipe off her face, still coughing sporadically. As Thorax moved behind her to get at Trixie’s cocoon, seeing she was the next to wake up fully, she turned to business. “So the two changelings tailing us…you were able to get them off our trail, then?”

            “Yes, and they didn’t suspect a thing,” Thorax said as he plunged his horn into Trixie’s cocoon and started to slice it open. “Once they saw all of you in the cocoons, that was pretty much enough for them, like I’d hoped. They didn’t even try to go below deck, so there was no chance that they could’ve even found the real Julius in his cocoon.”

            “And they’re not coming back, right?” Spike asked skeptically as he wiped himself off with his towel.

            “I highly doubt it at this point,” Thorax assured as he reached into Trixie’s cocoon so to pull her free, struggling slightly as Trixie had started to panic and flail about. “Easy, easy, I’ve got you, Trixie,” he soothed aloud as he pulled the struggling and coughing showmare out of her cocoon.
            “You’re sure?” Starlight urged cautiously. “We don’t exactly have room for error on this.”

            “I was able to discreetly plant a subtle tracking spell on the hoof of one of the two changelings,” Thorax explained, recalling the changeling’s hoof he had grabbed with his magic when stopping him from poking Trixie’s cocoon earlier—it had given him the chance to slip in the tracking spell while making it appear he was merely using his telekinesis to hold the hoof in place. “With that, I was able to keep a frame of reference of where that changeling was after they left the Vergilius,” he continued as he held onto Trixie, who instead of letting herself be lowered onto the floor, latched onto Thorax tightly as she continued to cough up slime, slightly to his distress. Thorax had to raise his voice slightly so to be heard over her. “He’s since gone out of range for me to still detect that spell, but if they’ve both gone that far without doubling back for any reason once, it’s highly doubtful they’ll do so now. At any rate, Garnet and Obsidian are both outside, escorting us again while they keep watch.”

            Having gotten the most of the slime flushed out of her lungs now, Trixie started to calm down by this point, only to realize she had Thorax in almost the equivalent of a bear hug, and with a start, pulled back in surprise, unsure if she was permitted to do that right now, given their presently awkward relations. Thorax took no offense (and in fact was a little relieved for much the same reasons) and instead floated another towel over for her to use.

            She did, and as she was using it to wipe slime off herself, she looked around, spying Spike and Starlight already out of their cocoons and frowned. “Aw, what?” she bemoaned upon seeing this. “I volunteered to go into the cocoons first specifically with the expectation that I would be the first one to come back out again!”

            Thorax smiled apologetically at her. “Sorry Trixie, I, uh, cast the spell for all the nutrient bath regulators to revive you simultaneously,” he pointed a hoof up at the bubble-like structure placed at the top of her cocoon, the light it produced now having faded to a faint glimmer, “but that doesn’t mean every occupant of every cocoon is still going to wake up at the same time,” he explained to her sheepishly. “It’s always a little different for every occupant in a cocoon.”

            “Metabolic differences, most likely,” Starlight reasoned aloud, who found this explanation perfectly reasonable.

            Trixie made a few sputtering sounds as she spat lingering slime out of her mouth. “Well, it still should’ve been,” she grumbled. She shuddered, wrapping the towel around her slimy and otherwise undecorated body as she, like all the others, had gone into the cocoon unclothed. “Still, I’m just glad the experience is over now. Getting into the darn thing and getting back out was both awful…though at least the part in the middle when I wasn’t awake for any of it wasn’t so bad…” she blushed a little, recalling the experience. “…I was in the middle of a, ah, pretty good dream, actually.”

            “That’s the idea,” Thorax explained, watching as Trixie slumped her body against the nearby wall, waiting for her strength to fully return. “The cocoon is supposed to keep occupants in a peaceful state so they don’t accidentally harm themselves, and, for those that would be prey, generate good dreams so that the prey keep producing positive emotions to feed off of.” He noticed Ember waking up in the last cocoon and started to move towards it. “Anyway, I need to get Dragon Lord Ember out of her cocoon real quick.”

            But before he could reach it, Ember suddenly thrust her fist into the inside of the cocoon, punching right through its filmy skin, then using her claws to force open the hole wide enough to shove her head through, hacking heavily as her mouth hit the open air again.

            “…or she can just free herself, I guess,” Thorax mumbled to himself, watching in idle surprise as the dragoness slithered herself out of the cocoon and flumped flat onto the deck with a wet splat.

            “You know, Trixie’s right, the dreaming while sleeping through all of that wasn’t so bad,” Starlight commented aloud, reflecting back on the experience while wiping down her forehooves and watching as Thorax levitated another towel over for Ember, lying flat on her back and still coughing. “I mean, I wouldn’t be eager to do it all again anytime soon, but at least the dream part was fairly enjoyable.”

            “Yeah, I was dreaming about an all-you-can-eat bucket of ice cream that magically refilled itself when you emptied it,” Spike croaked aloud whimsically, having to stop and clear his throat of lingering slime after saying this.

            “I dreamed of flying a kite in the park just for hours and hours,” Starlight admitted with a content sigh. “It was very peaceful, actually.” She glanced at Trixie. “Out of curiosity, what did you dream about, Trixie?”

            Trixie, however, blushed profusely and balked at the idea of having to explain it to the others now, despite being the one to bring it up. “None of your business.”

            Starlight, however, quickly had a good guess in mind after seeing from the mare’s reaction. “Why, did it happen to involve a stallion?” she asked in a teasing tone.

            Trixie just blushed harder. Spike, meanwhile, couldn’t help but snort at all of this. “Weren’t you wet enough already in the cocoon, Trixie?” he quipped aloud.

            Trixie groaned, covering her face with her towel. “That was uncalled for, Spike!” she bemoaned.

            “Do we really have to be gabbing about this junk?” Ember suddenly criticized as she heaved herself up into a sitting position, having largely cleared her lungs of the slime she had been breathing inside her cocoon. She shivered, curling up into a ball as she draped her towel over her shoulders. “Quartz, it feels cold outside of that slimy cocoon,” she cursed to herself.

            “That’s normal,” Thorax assured as he took the final towel for himself, wiping off the slime he had gotten all over himself freeing the others. “What you call slime stores heat, conserving your body warmth so you don’t accidentally catch a chill while stored inside.”

            “Yeah, I noticed,” Starlight remarked, gazing up at her now drained and limp husk of a cocoon thoughtfully, having also noticed feeling the temperature difference upon exiting it. “Inadvertently though, between that and the wet slime, I can’t help but wonder if this was loosely along the lines of what being born must feel like…”

            “Ew, Starlight!” Trixie complained as she tried to wipe slime out her mane. “Don’t make this any weirder than it already is!” She gave her head a shake only to have her wet mane slap her in the face, sticking to it. Sputtering, she wiped it out of the way again. “I mean, it’s bad enough I’m already covered in slime, I don’t need that mental picture connected to it, thank you.” She regarded her still slimy body for a moment in disgust. “What is this slime stuff, anyway?”

            “Oh yeah, I guess you didn’t see because you were the first to go into a cocoon,” Spike realized as he sat on the floor, calmly trying to wipe himself off.

            “If you really want to know, though,” Thorax offered, turning to face Trixie, “the nutrient bath is composed of mostly highly charged pre-digested positive emotion magically duplicated repeatedly until it fills the cocoon, laced with nourishing nutrients, a high oxygen concentration, a solution to aid in healing and sterilizing if needed, and a series of chemicals that induce and control the hibernation.”

            Trixie however got caught up on one detail. “Wait, wait—pre-digested emotion? Where the hay did that come from?” Thorax averted his gaze instead of answering, but the gaze of Ember, Spike, and Starlight all pointedly and knowingly wandered to the changeling, having seen, unlike Trixie, precisely where it had come from. It was enough that Trixie quickly started to catch on. “Are you saying that I was basically swimming in changeling vomit just now?”

            “…a…mong…other things…” Thorax relented slowly and hesitantly, ending it with a sheepish cough as he realized, really for the first time, just how all of that sounded.

            Trixie involuntarily gagged to herself, sputtering as she worked to ensure her mouth was totally clear of the slime that had gotten into it while redoubling her efforts to wipe the slime off her body.

            “Suffice to say, we should probably do something to clean ourselves up properly,” Spike reasoned aloud patiently.

            “Yeah, please tell me you have a shower on this yacht of yours,” Starlight inquired, turning to Thorax.

            “Well, not a shower, but we do have a tub in the main head for bathing,” Thorax offered, pointing a holed hoof in its general direction.

            Trixie’s hoof immediately shot into the air. “I call first dibs!”

            “Aw, darn it!” Starlight shouted, who had been just about to do the same thing.

            “As interesting as all this is…” Ember chose that moment to butt in sarcastically, wiggling the end of her towel in one ear, “…I think there are a few more important things we should figure out first, like what we actually plan to do next now that I assume we’ve successfully chased off the changelings that were following us for the moment.”

            “Ember has a good point,” Spike agreed, turning himself so to better face the others. “What are we going to do next? Where are we going to head?”

            Starlight settled herself in to consider the matter, wrapping her towel about herself as she continued to sit in the puddle of slime that now covered most of the room’s floor. “I suppose that all depends on what we decide to focus on doing first; overthrowing the changeling control of the Equestrian government it’s obtained by replacing the royal family, or staging a rescue of the captured members of said royal family and liberate them from changeling imprisonment.”

            “Assuming they are even still alive,” Ember remarked pointedly, being realistic.

            But Thorax quickly ruled out any doubt as he sat himself down for the ensuing discussion himself. “They would all most certainly still be alive,” he assured them all firmly, wanting there to be no uncertainty about this. “They are no good to the hive dead, especially with how Starlight has described their plans.”

            “Then with that in mind, rescuing the captive ponies would be the smartest course of action,” Starlight reasoned, “as doing so would not only liberate some very powerful allies, it would also challenge Queen Chrysalis’s control on Equestria and endanger her ruse getting discovered by those she would not want finding out about it. It’d also present physical challengers to those who had replaced the royal family, leaving the control the changelings have garnered all that more tenuous.” She glanced at the others optimistically. “And then with their control over Equestria so weakened, it’ll give the rest of us a better chance of stopping the changeling takeover altogether.”

            “Well, when you put it like that,” Spike quipped sarcastically, rubbing his back with his towel, “you make it sound too easy. But of course this will be anything but easy.”

            “Either way, all we need to know now is where to find the ponies the changelings have captured,” Trixie said, largely ignoring Spike’s quip in favor of the more comfortable ignorance to the dangers, and turned to Thorax for the answer. “I don’t suppose you’d know?”

            Thorax knew exactly where they would be. “In the changeling hive, of course,” he explained matter-of-factly to the rest. “For the hive to make the best use of the love and other emotions they would be collecting off of the captives like this, they would need to keep them at the hive itself. It would also be the best way to keep the captives safe, protected, and away from those who would seek to try exactly what we’re plotting, where the vast majority of the changelings in the hive can be immediately called upon to defend against any arriving threats. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the queen has had the captives placed directly in her throne room, one of the most secure rooms in the hive, so she can personally keep an eye on them.”

            This all made perfect sense…but it was also not the best of news. It was clear on their faces that they all balked at the idea of trying to break into the very heart of the changeling threat with such few numbers and gravely limited resources.

            Even Thorax paled at the very idea of doing it. “I have to admit though,” he continued on, “this is not at all how I had ever envisioned one day returning to the hive.” He paused for a moment, letting that sink in, then shook his head to clear the thought from his mind. “But,” he went on to also point out, “given their current location, even with the Vergilius flying nonstop at its top speed, we won’t arrive at the hive’s location in the Badlands until sometime tomorrow morning. That gives us time to come up with some sort of plan overcoming these problems.”

            “Where are we currently flying right now?” Starlight asked, having already noticed the Vergilius was in motion through the navigation room’s window, just visible past the deflated cocoons hanging in the center of the room. “Have you already set that course?”

            “I have,” Thorax confirmed with a serious nod. “A direct course for the changeling hive…I didn’t see a need to delay it any longer.”

            “Much as I hate to admit it, that is probably a good idea,” Starlight agreed. “The longer we put this off, the harder pulling this all off is going to be.”

            “So just how are we going to pull this off?” Spike asked, wanting an answer for this straightaway. “I mean, we’re talking about trying to break into not just the changeling hive, but the very heart of it no less.”

            “I say we attack, hit them hard with everything we’ve got and can muster,” Ember volunteered eagerly from where she still sat next to her now-empty cocoon. Being the dragon she was, she was all for the brute force approach. “I could have a dragon army here before morning with a single command, ready to do battle,” she continued to explain confidently. “We’d then stand a much better chance of staving off whatever the changelings will have to throw at us.”

            But the rest weren’t so keen to resort to such violence. “That sounds more like it’d only start a war nopony asked for,” Starlight reasoned gravely, leaning forward slightly to gaze at Ember. “And I’m not eager to be one of the ponies to cause that.”

            “Frankly, I’d rather we try to avoid any bloodshed at all,” Thorax added, thinking of Julius still in his cocoon below deck and still in grave condition, though he had thus far remained alive. “Enough have already been harmed from this mess…I don’t really want to see anyone else be hurt over it too, be it dragon, pony, or even changeling alike.”

            “Even the changelings?” Trixie asked in mild surprise from where she still leaned against the wall of the room, looking across the area to where Thorax sat not far from Ember, as he had never really left the spot after ensuring Ember had exited her cocoon okay.

            “We may not be on the best of terms presently,” Thorax patiently explained to everyone regardless. “But we all are of the same species still. I take no joy in seeing my kind come to harm than I hope any of you would for your own.”

            “Besides,” Spike added with a notable amount of snark, “starting a dragon-changeling war would sort of rob us of the advantage of surprise.”

            “Spike’s right,” Starlight agreed with an approving nod. “I think our best hope is going to be using a bit more stealth.”

            “Then I suppose my next idea is out, which was to use those two outside to fight our way in,” Ember hummed, pointing in the general direction where her two escorts flew alongside the airship. She leaned over slightly to prop her body up with one arm while she thought to herself for a moment. “Maybe, instead, we can use them as a distraction, by having them attack while the rest of us slip into the hive and stage the rescue undetected.”

            Starlight considered the idea for a second. “It’s a start…unless anyone has any objections.”

            “I have one,” Thorax said, “because while such a distraction probably would help us slip into the hive while everyone’s attention is on the two dragons, I’d like to point out this would only put the hive on full alert, making it much harder to navigate the hive undetected after we’re inside.”

            “You think we can still get safely inside the hive without a distraction, though?” Spike asked with concern.

            Thorax considered it for a second. “Assuming the hive doesn’t already know we’re coming…then I think so. And seeing that the two changelings I was able to throw off our trail will only be reporting in that everything is going according to plan, they shouldn’t be expecting trouble…”

            Trixie winced. “No offense,” she said while she played with the slimy end of her mane, “but I kinda want a guarantee of that and not just a ‘I think so.’”

            “I still say brute force is the way to go,” Ember stressed. “If it were me and the other dragons doing this, that’s exactly what we’d be doing at the very least. We aren’t afraid of a little bloodshed.” But seeing the disagreeing looks on the others, she went on. “But it’s also your leaders that need rescuing, not mine…so I guess I ought to let you ponies have the final say.”

            “Then I say we avoid brute force, on the grounds that it’ll only cause more trouble than necessary,” Starlight said. “Really, we just need to rescue the royal family and get out of there. What happens to the changeling hive after that doesn’t really matter for now so long as the princesses are safe and back on their thrones in Equestria. We just need to figure out how.” She looked up at the roof of the room, thinking of the lifting envelope of the Vergilius keeping it in the air. “Maybe we can use the Vergilius somehow? Maybe fly in close to the hive, and…”

            “We cannot,” Thorax immediately objected, interrupting. “The Vergilius’s engines will cease to function that close to the hive.”

            All eyes turned to him. “Why?” Ember asked.

            “No magic other than changeling magic works in close proximity around the hive,” Thorax explained. Seeing their questioning looks, he continued. “Queen Chrysalis’s throne is carved from an ancient dark stone that soaks up outside magic the same way changelings soak up emotions like love. It’s how she keeps the hive safe from general outside threats. But because the Vergilius’s engines are powered by magic, trying to fly her towards the hive would only drain the engines dry of power very quickly, if not instantly. In fact, there’s enough magic employed throughout the whole craft that I’m not even sure she could stay airborne for very long that close to the hive. To say nothing of the fact that the two changelings I threw off our trail know I’m flying the Vergilius towards the hive already and said they intended to pass word along, and there might be lookouts stationed awaiting our arrival anyway. So we’ll have to land somewhere nearby but still relatively out of sight, and walk the rest of the way to…”

            “Whoa, wait, hold on a second, back up,” Starlight said, growing concerned as she attempted to piece together what Thorax was telling them. “This throne…it soaks up any outside magic?” she pointed to her horn. “Does that mean my magic, or any magic any of us have, isn’t going to work at the hive too?”

            Thorax nodded. “Most likely, yes,” he confirmed.

            Ember folded her arms grumpily, flipping slime about in the process. “Well, that would’ve been good to know a little sooner,” she grumbled.

            “I’m sorry, I didn’t think to bring it up until now,” Thorax admitted apologetically, the problems this all brought up having not come to mind until now. “It hasn’t been a matter I’ve had to think about for some time now.”

            “It’s all right bud,” Spike assured, scooting himself across the puddle of slime they all sat in, getting close enough to the changeling so to pat him on the hoof. “We’ll just have to manage without.”

            “Speak for yourself!” Trixie objected, who looked terrified by this new development. “How are we ever going to pull this off without magic?” She looked at Starlight. “Please tell me you know a way.”

            Starlight winced however. “Without magic, I haven’t the foggiest idea.” She looked at the others. “But…nopony else is going to be able to help us, so…somepony here had better come up with something.”

            But the others all looked at her blankly, not having anything to suggest.

            Starlight’s wince grew. “…anyone?” she prompted again hopefully.

            “To be honest, you seemed to be the one with all the ideas on what to do,” Ember reasoned bluntly. “I’ve just been following your lead. Besides, like I said, they’re your ponies to rescue, not mine, so it’s probably better one of you ponies lead the way.”

            “I really shouldn’t be leading anyone though, not with my past,” Starlight quickly reasoned.

            “Like that is really going to matter right now,” Spike grumbled aloud.

            “I told you my ideas, but you also pointed out the admittedly valid drawbacks in them already,” Ember added.

            “Starlight, as much as you don’t want it to be, you still seem to be the brains of this operation now,” Trixie added with a small and apologetic grin, turning her head to look at her unicorn friend.

            Starlight let out a weary sigh. “Okay, okay…” she mumbled, and reviewed the information Thorax had given them. “Thorax, about this throne,” she said. “You said it’ll soak up all of our magic once we enter its range. But let’s assume we manage to destroy it somehow…would that give us our magic back?”

            “Uh-huh!” Thorax said with a nod.

            “But how are we going to destroy it without magic?” Trixie asked, as she stopped playing with the end of her mane and was now trying to squeeze the remaining slime out of the cornflower blue hairs.

            “Hey, who said you need magic?” Spike asked and suddenly turned smugly confident. “After all, you’ve got two firebreathing dragons right here!” And to prove it, he spat out a small ball of emerald flames from his mouth…which promptly landed on the one spot of wooden deck in the middle of their circle that wasn’t covered with spilt slime, starting to smolder to everyone’s alarm until Ember quickly reached forward and swatted the flame out.

            His initial fear at the fire now passing, Thorax shot a disapproving look at the little dragon. “Spike, if you set my airship on fire again…”

            Spike coughed sheepishly. “Sorry.”

            Now Starlight scooted closer through the puddle of gunk so she could place a reassuring (and slightly slimy) hoof on the dragon’s knee. “Your little demonstration aside, I get the point you’re making,” she said. “If we can’t destroy the throne with magic, maybe we can use a dragon’s firebreath instead.” She glanced at Thorax. “The question that leaves us then…will the firebreath be enough?”

            Thorax considered the question for a moment. “I’m not sure,” he admitted, “but maybe. I don’t think anyone has ever been in a position to try it before.”

            “We have another problem with that though,” Ember spoke, slightly concerned. “A dragon’s firebreath is still magical in nature. That’s why it has properties to it that normal fire doesn’t.”

            “Like how Spike’s fire just now was emerald in color?” Trixie asked, glancing away from the strand of mane she was wringing slime out of and at the dragoness.

            “Among other traits, yes,” Ember explained with a nod. “In fact, it’s not so much breathing fire as it is more…commanding it at will. I’ve heard some elder dragons refer to it as speaking fire…though it’s not a perfect analogy.”

            “Speaking fire?” Spike repeated, perplexed by this tidbit of knowledge. “Never heard it be put like that before.”

            Ember gave him a smirk. “That’s what you get for being raised by ponies,” she teased, but then she shook her head. “My point is that a dragon’s fire is basically our equivalent of your magic; we can perform our own sort of “spells”—if you will—with it too. An example I assume all of you are already familiar with is Spike using his fire to send messages.”

            “But if that’s all magical in nature…then your firebreath isn’t going to work much better than my horn will while we’re in the changeling hive, is it?” Starlight concluded.

            Ember nodded her head. “I fear so,” she admitted. “Spike and I should still be able to produce small jets of just raw fire, I think…but probably not at the same strengths we normally would, nor with the same degree of control. I can’t guarantee how effective that’ll be, if at all, until we’re there and I can try it for myself.”

            Spike looked to Thorax. “Is that still going to be enough against that throne?”

            Thorax shrugged. “I can’t even be sure your firebreath working under normal circumstances was going to be enough,” he confessed. “I admit, I only know so much about the queen’s throne and what it’s made out of, and most of what I do know is by word of mouth. I’m afraid I can only tell you so much about what will or won’t work around it.”

            Trixie made an exasperated groan. “That pesky throne,” she grumbled, giving up on her mane and flinging the wet strands out of her face. “It’s making all of this a lot harder than it ought to be. I mean, with no dragon fire and no magic…”

            “Actually, as I see it, there’s one who would still have his magic,” Ember spoke up, and glanced at Thorax.

            Thorax blinked, surprised. “Me?” he asked.

            “Unlike the rest of us, you’re a changeling,” Ember reasoned. “And you said this throne soaks up non-changeling magic, but it leaves changeling magic alone still.”

            “That’s right!” Starlight agreed, and looked to Thorax hopefully. “Thorax, do you think you could use your magic to destroy the throne?”

            Thorax bit his lip, clearly unsure about the idea. “I…I don’t know…maybe…” he shook his head. “I’ve never heard of any changeling ever trying any magic on the throne before, so I have no idea how it’d react to it. I mean, if worse comes to worse, I’m more than willing to try, but… changeling magic isn’t entirely the same as pony magic. And with how little I know about the throne’s nature, for all I know, it might have a means of protection against even changeling magic and it wouldn’t make a difference if I tried or not.” He winced. “There’s also a good chance that the other changelings would more readily detect my magic and my attempts to use it to harm the throne, and thus be quick to try and stop me before I succeed.”

            “So no guarantees that way either,” Trixie lamented aloud.

            “No,” Starlight agreed. “But there’s still more promise there than anything else we’ve got.” She glanced at the others. “So here’s what I think we’ll have to do. Once we’re at the throne, our first course of action is to try and have Thorax destroy the throne with his magic. Then, if that fails, we’ll have either Spike or Ember, if not both, try and use their firebreath on the throne, because even with the magical elements of it removed, your fire might still be able to be used as a weapon enough to destroy or at least damage the throne, and that’s better than nothing, right?”

            “In that case, you’ll probably want Ember trying that more than me,” Spike reasoned, motioning to the dragoness with a slimy set of claws. “She’s the bigger dragon, with the bigger lungs, and would probably produce the more effective flame than I ever could.”

            “Two’s still better than one, Spike,” Ember pointed out.

            “And that all assumes we even reach the throne at all,” Thorax observed. “I should remind you that this throne is the queen’s, actively used by her, and is going to be heavily protected even if we manage to not raise the alarm at any time while we’re in the hive.”

            “Would it be smarter to just focus on freeing the captured royal family then?” Ember asked. “That is our real goal with all of this, not this throne thing.”

            “That assumes we can reach the captives any easier than the throne,” Thorax added. “Don’t forget, there’s a good chance the throne and the captives are going to be kept in the same room. Like I said, Queen Chrysalis is probably going to want to keep a close eye on those captives herself, and for her, that’d be best done from within her throne room. It is one of the most secure rooms in the hive. I believe I already said that.”

            “You did,” Starlight agreed with a nod. She considered the dilemma for a moment. “Thorax, do you think we all could successfully sneak that deep into the hive undetected?”

            Thorax hesitated. “With a group of this small size, perhaps,” he cautiously replied.

            “But much bigger than this, as it’s inevitably going to become if and when we free the captives…” Starlight prompted.

            “…then it’ll start getting more and more unlikely, yes,” Thorax agreed, finishing Starlight’s deduction. “And getting in will probably be the easy part. Getting back out after the other changelings start to realize what’s going on is going to be much harder.”

            “Which is why I think focusing on destroying the throne first is probably going to be our best option,” Starlight concluded. “Not only will it create a distraction as the changelings scramble to respond, it’ll also give us all a better edge as it’ll give us access to our magic again, not just for us, but the captured princesses too.”

            “And just Princess Celestia alone is a force to be reckoned with,” Spike added, seeing Starlight’s reasoning.

            Starlight nodded. “Destroying this throne is going to be imperative in staging this rescue, or I fear we’re just not going to have enough of an advantage to stand much of a chance,” she said, laying the situation out plainly for them to see.

            “Not only that, but the captives are going to be unconscious and in cocoons when we find them, no matter where they’re at,” Thorax added. “And the longer you’ve been kept in a cocoon, the harder it is to recover again upon release.” He motioned to the others with one hoof. “You all have an idea of what that was like already.  So if we just focus on freeing them and ignore the throne, we’re still going to have to deal with them fumbling about as they recover while we’re also trying to escape…except stealth will still be mandatory. With destroying the throne first, stealth obviously isn’t going to matter so much. So I agree that our odds improve if we remove the throne from this picture first.”

            “Here’s a thought though,” Spike suddenly interjected. “What if the princesses and the others aren’t being kept in the throne room? Where would they be then?”

            “The harvesting chamber,” Thorax replied automatically, clearly of the opinion that there was absolutely no room for doubt on that. “That is the room where all captured prey is stored for safe keeping within the hive where the emotions from the prey are periodically harvested at mealtimes to then to be disturbed throughout the rest of the hive, for feeding.”

            “Sounds like a wonderful place to be,” Ember muttered aloud in a heavily sarcastic tone.

            “It’s located in the lower levels of the hive, and like the queen’s throne room, it’s kept well-secured, for obvious reasons, I think,” Thorax continued to explain. “But, outside of mealtimes—which would be equivalent to the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of ponies—it’s generally fairly empty and scarce in changelings present beyond basic guards unless the alarm’s been raised. And unless it’s changed since I left the hive, I know of at least one entrance in and out of the chamber that would be relatively unguarded at such a time.” He grinned optimistically. “Assuming we arrive at the hive in time for one of these lull periods, which by my calculations should be likely, we can easily pass by and check if the princess captives are being kept there. If not, then they are certainly in the throne room, our next stop regardless.”

            “And so on to the throne from there,” Spike concluded, which Thorax nodded to. “All right, that sorts out that then. The big issue that remains still is the throne.”

            “Okay then, so for that, we get to this throne, have Thorax try to destroy it, then failing that, have Spike and Ember try and destroy it,” Trixie summarized. She frowned. “But what if that fails too?”

            “Then I guess we resort to simple blunt force to try and destroy the throne,” Starlight decided with a helpless shrug. “Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, though.”

            “I guess that part’s settled then,” Ember said, also shrugging. “But what about even getting to this throne? Just what is our plan for sneaking in and through the hive far enough to get at it without being detected?”

            “And for that matter, how are we going to get back out afterwards?” Spike asked flatly, finding that matter a bit more important.

            “If we destroy the throne first, I may be able to teleport all of us directly out of the hive, or close to it, giving us a head start,” Starlight replied, having already thought of this. “But as for getting in…” She then hummed to herself for a moment as she considered the other half of the problem, then again glanced at Thorax. “Thorax, you think can lead us safely to this throne without getting detected?”

            “You all stand a far worse chance of actually getting there if I didn’t,” Thorax replied, seeing the matter did not even need to be discussed.

            “You sure though?” Spike asked. “I mean…you have been away from the hive for a while.”

            “Yes, but I was still born and raised there,” Thorax reminded, looking at his best friend. “I might be fuzzy on the finer details, but I should still remember the major landmarks enough to guide the rest of you safely to the throne room or anywhere in the hive really, barring no unforeseen complications. And trust me when I say all of you would never find the throne room on your own without a changeling to guide you.” He looked back at the rest of the group. “No, I’m more worried about how well we’d all be able to sneak in there. How many of you even have any practice doing this sort of thing?”

            The group all looked at one another, frowning as they realized they all didn’t exactly share that skill.

            “Surely you do though,” Spike reasoned, motioning to Thorax. “You served as an invader when you were still in the hive…you’d have the tactical and military training the rest of us wouldn’t, right?”

            Thorax grimaced. “Only sort of,” he admitted. “Aggressores, or invaders, are not exactly highly specialized soldiers, and were never meant to be. They’re just a very low-standing, bottom-of-the-barrel, rank meant to fill in the unimportant gaps of the hive’s troops.”

            “A ‘grunt,’ basically,” Ember remarked.

            Thorax nodded. “In terms of training, I only ever got the minimal basics I needed to not get myself killed immediately in a conflict. And even then…I admit I’ve always made it a point to try and avoid actually using most of it if I could. It was never a role I enjoyed doing.” He looked to Ember and Spike. “As you may recall Julius noting when he attacked us.”

            Ember sighed. “I guess, then, that means I’m the only other one who’s had any real tactical training,” she said. “But I think I’m not going to be very much more use than Thorax. I mean, I got all the training, and I personally don’t have any reservations about using it…” she rolled her eyes, “…but my overprotective father was always,” she made air quotes with her claws, “‘keeping me away from the action,’ and I haven’t been dragon lord long enough to change that myself, so I’ve never had any meaningful on-the-field experience using any of that training. Just the usual, you know, punch out the dragon who annoyed you and be done with it, which doesn’t really require much tactical training at all, just some brute strength. So everything I know would be more…” she trailed off, looking for the right way to describe it.

            “…textbook and theoretical?” Starlight offered.

            Ember shrugged. “One way of putting it.”

            “Well good,” Trixie remarked, trying to look on the bright side. “That means I don’t feel like I’m the only one who’s so woefully unprepared for this. We all are, really.”

            “Then let’s not continue to dwell on it,” Starlight suggested. She began studying her now-empty cocoon hanging beside her thoughtfully. “Thorax…I know none of us are going to be eager to do it again so soon…but sticking us in these cocoons for those changelings following us really helped to dissuade attention…what if we did it again to get us into the hive, right under the noses of the other changelings?”

            “If you had suggested that before I pulled you all back out of your cocoons just now, then possibly,” Thorax relented. He rubbed at the upper jugular area of his throat, right where it met with the base of his jaw, feeling his sore gel glands that lay underneath. “But these cocoons are useless now that I’ve opened them up. If I could cough up enough changeling gel, I could repair and reset them, but I had to spend so much gel just making them in the first place, I’ve basically milked myself dry. I’d be lucky to be able to come up with enough gel to repair just one cocoon, let alone all four.”

            “How long until you possibly could produce enough gel so to reuse these cocoons?” Starlight asked next, motioning at her spent cocoon with one hoof.

            “Probably not for a couple of days,” Thorax admitted.

            “Time we don’t really have to spare,” Ember noted aloud.

            Thorax nodded. He sighed. “Besides, now that I think about it, those two changelings that had been following us are only going to pass word on to the hive to expect Julius with captured prey to house at the hive, and the moment I arrive with such cocoons filled with what would appear to be prey, the other changelings are only going to spring forward and all help take them away and into the care of the messores, the changelings responsible for the upkeep of the hive’s emotive food supplies and harvesting positive emotions from prey. That would effectively take all of you out of my hooves and where it’d be hard for me to get back to you, and where would that leave us?”

            “Nowhere good, that’s for certain,” Spike observed. “Doesn’t sound to me using the cocoons to get into the hive is all that bright of an idea.”

            “No, it doesn’t,” Starlight agreed thoughtfully.

            “Now hold on,” Ember interrupted, and focused her attention on Thorax. “You said the hive is going to be expecting you to arrive in an airship with us as prey?”

            “Well, more accurately, they’re expecting Julius to arrive in an airship with prey, but yes,” Thorax said, seeing why Ember asked already. “I know what you’re thinking Dragon Lord Ember, but I doubt that’s going to cause any more problems than what we’d already face without that even. All that means is that the hive will be on the lookout for the Vergilius, but only up to a certain distance. Lookouts stationed at the hive itself shouldn’t be able to sight us coming beyond the acorn grove surrounding the hive, and I plan to land us well outside the grove for that reason. There are changeling outposts placed around the Badland borders and along the outer edge of the acorn grove, but I’ve already got us on a course that will take us between them at a distance where they shouldn’t be able to see us…and even if they did, they’d know by then that it’s likely Julius and will be able to let us approach without much trouble. But my plan is to fly the Vergilius in close enough to the grove without actually entering it that we can safely proceed on to the hive on hoof without any changelings actually seeing us coming.”

            “And you think we can safely just walk on into the hive that way?” Ember asked.

            “We’ll have to take an underused side-entrance to avoid detection, but yes, I think we can,” Thorax stated confidently.

            “But if the lookouts don’t actually see Julius and the Vergilius coming by tomorrow like they expect, won’t they start getting suspicious?” Trixie asked.

            “Doubtful, as I never gave any changeling a clearly expected time of arrival,” Thorax assured. “Just that Julius would be arriving sometime tomorrow morning. If he didn’t show up right away when they expect, they’ll more likely just assume he’s running late and get ready to reprimand him for it once he did arrive at first. They wouldn’t actually start to think something might be up until closer that evening, and by then, I hope will have gotten this all wrapped up and already be well on our way out of there again.”

            “So with a little luck, you’re saying we shouldn’t face any additional complications from that,” Ember concluded, satisfied with Thorax’s explanation.

            “Now that I’m thinking about it, we have other concerns anyway,” Spike remarked, who had moved on to think of other things. He turned to Thorax. “Thorax, I know changelings can smell the emotions of their prey…”

            “Wait, smell? Emotions?” Starlight repeated, baffled about how this could be possible.

            Spike ignored her remarks though and pressed on without interruption. “…so once we’re at the hive, are our emotions getting detected only going to give us away to the other changelings?”

            Thorax considered the question for a moment. “They could,” he admitted, but here he actually turned optimistic. “There is, in fact, a distinct difference between pony emotions and changeling emotions—subtle, but obviously something a changeling like me could detect…” he grinned, “…but only if we’re actively looking for it, in very close proximity to the source, or attempting to feed upon said emotions. Otherwise, even a changeling could miss it. And with the hive being so heavily populated, our emotions will likely just blend in with the rest of the ambient emotions put off by the other hive inhabitants. So as long as none of us are put in the situation where our emotions are so close to the changeling in question that they’re hard to miss, or permit ourselves to experience an emotion not fitting to the ambient emotions of that area of the hive, we should go unnoticed, emotion-wise.”

            Ember smirked. “First good news we’ve had today,” she quipped.

            Starlight had a concern, though. “Emotions not fitting in with the rest,” she repeated to herself. She glanced at Thorax. “Just what sort of emotions might those be?”

            “It’ll be hard to predict the hive’s mood exactly until we arrive, but we probably to avoid anything like unbound love, profound sadness, or unrestrained fear,” Thorax reasoned, covering the emotions that struck him as obvious.

            “Yeah, that might be a problem,” Trixie confessed, raising her hoof out of the puddle of slime she sat in so to draw attention to herself. “Because I have to admit just the thought of doing all this absolutely terrifies me.”

            “Push past it,” Ember urged simply, like it was the easiest thing in the world. “Control your fear so it doesn’t control you. Make it your tool instead of your stumbling block.”

            Trixie snorted. “All easier said than done.”

            “I can sense all of your emotions so long as we keep together,” Thorax assured. “If need be, I can alert any of you if any of your emotions are getting too…obtrusive…and help to tone them down somehow.”

            “I’m getting the sense that so long as we follow your lead then, we stand the best chance of actually pulling this off,” Ember noticed in a tone that suggested she had mixed thoughts about that.

            Thorax sheepishly, but solemnly, nodded. “Admittedly…I am probably your best bet in succeeding. I don’t want to scare anyone…but none of you probably would stand a chance without me.”

            Trixie shuddered involuntarily. “Not helping,” she whined.

            Thorax winced. “Sorry, Trixie,” he apologized with meaning.

            Trixie glanced up at him and locked eyes with him for a moment, calming down a little. Then, blushing a little, she averted her gaze again. Thorax quickly did likewise. Both continued on pretending as if it didn’t happen, but awkwardly avoided making eye contact again for the next several minutes.

            “So that’s getting into the hive more or less settled, and we have a tentative plan on how to get back out of the hive,” Spike summarized, listing these points off on his claws. “But what then? I mean, I’m sure the changelings aren’t just going to sit to one side and let us do all of this and get away. They’re going to try and chase us, certainly.”

            “Just come back to the Vergilius here and fly away before they can catch up,” Trixie suggested, like it was obvious, “Keep as much of a lead on them as we can.”

            But it wasn’t quite that obvious. “But while the Vergilius is certainly fast, it can still only go so fast,” Spike retorted back. “Couldn’t those changelings still just catch up with us and swarm the airship?”

            “Probably, but not right away, assuming we can get enough of a lead to take off and into the air,” Thorax replied. “The Vergilius can go just fast enough at full throttle that we can maintain that gap for a good distance.” He sighed. “But Spike raises a good point, because we still wouldn’t be able to outrun them forever, and there’s a bigger problem anyway.” He glanced at the others. “There’s enough magical charge in the engines that it will last long enough to arrive at the hive. But by then, it’ll be down to a third or less…not enough to fly back to, say, our present location. And once that charge runs out…we’re dead in the water, so to speak.”

            “So basically you’re saying our getaway carriage has a broken wheel,” Trixie summarized with a frown.

            “Or it will soon,” Starlight corrected, and tapped her chin with one hoof in thought. She quickly regretted it because, as it had been resting in the puddle of slime filling the floor, this got a wet blob of slime on her chin which she then had to rub off before continuing to think. She turned her head to Thorax. “How far could the Vergilius get before that happens?”

            “It depends on how fast she’s going,” Thorax replied. “How fast that remaining charge of magical power runs out of course depends on how hard the engines are working to push her. But as we’d probably want nothing less than full throttle if we’re being chased, then I’d say…ten to fifty miles, maybe.”

            Starlight’s eyebrows went up. “So that should still be far enough to get back inside the Equestrian border, right?”

            “Yes, but that’s not going to matter much. That far south, where the population is still fairly sparse, the changelings are only going to keep pursuing without qualms. Besides, from Queen Chrysalis’s point of view, Equestria would still be her territory anyway, by right of conquering.”

            “Yes, but the pony populace she’s still going to want to keep unknowing about the situation, or her whole ruse will unravel then and there, and then she’ll have an uprising on her hooves.” Starlight paused to consider the matter some more before turning back to Thorax. “There are still villages that far south though…could we possibly reach one of them? Like say, Dodge Junction? That’d be the biggest of the villages in the area and still along our flight path back into Equestria.”

            Thorax considered it for a second. “Barely, at best,” he admitted, and didn’t seem entirely confident.

            “Can’t we just set down somewhere and recharge the engines before we continue on with this whole scheme first, so it won’t have to be a problem?” Trixie asked with exasperation.

            “Not when Equestria is already on alert searching for you, and those search parties could be easily being manipulated without knowing by changelings to carry out their dirty tasks for them,” Ember answered pointedly.

            “And we can’t recharge the engines ourselves, not without certain equipment we simply don’t have aboard,” Spike added, who knew this much about the airship’s refueling process.

            “Besides, even with a full charge on the engines, we’d still only get so far before the changelings catch up and overwhelm us, unless we do something to shake them off our tails first,” Thorax added, glancing in Trixie’s direction then back at Starlight, who he could see was still pondering on the dilemma. “I believe what Starlight is suggesting, though, is to arrive at a pony village such as Dodge Junction and hope they will be willing to help ward off the pursuing changelings long enough to take another course of action, if not end the chase then and there by force.” He winced. “But…that’d likely mean going to battle…something I wish to avoid if possible…and there simply won’t be that many ponies that far south we could count on to fight back anyway. The odds, at least in terms of hooves helping, will still be unbalanced.”

            “Yes, but if all goes well, then by that point we’ll have four alicorns with us that can help even the odds a little,” Starlight reasoned before looking Thorax in the eye. “And I don’t like the idea of having to do a battle like that either…but if we can be perfectly honest and realistic with ourselves? We probably won’t have a choice by that point. Not unless some miracle transpires and changes the situation completely in our favor.”

            “Or not in our favor,” Trixie added with skepticism.

            “Knock on wood,” Spike murmured, rapping his claws twice on the slime-covered deck they sat on.

            “As I see it then,” Ember remarked, jumping in to voice her own thoughts on the matter, “we don’t have much other alternative. We’ll have to stand and fight at some point, and I agree with Starlight, it’d be best to do that with as many allies as we can get. So I say once we leave the hive, we get to the closest pony-population we can, make our stand there, do what we need to so to chase off the changelings.”

            Starlight nodded then rose to her hooves, slime from the puddle she had been sitting in unpleasantly dripping off her rump, and considering the matter settled for now. “Well, it’s still the best plan we’ve got, and we lack anything better for the moment,” she admitted. “But until we arrive at the hive, I challenge all of you to try and think of something better where you can between now and then.”

            “‘Better’ being a relative term, of course,” Spike remarked pointedly, being slightly negative, which of course everybody still readily agreed to.

            Trixie also rose to her hooves eagerly, seeing the discussion over now. “Does that mean I can go wash this cruddy slime off of me finally?” she asked with a hopeful look, more than ready to get herself cleaned up properly after her brief stay in the cocoon. “I’m starting to feel sticky all over thanks to all this gunk.”

            Starlight looked to Spike and Thorax for confirmation, seeing it was their airship. Spike, standing up too, barely waited for that much as he waved Trixie on with an uncaring flick of his claws. “Yeah, go ahead,” he said. “Just don’t use up all the hot water.”

            “Or all the water in general,” Thorax added quickly as Trixie immediately turned for the navigation room door. “Remember, we have only so much on board, and while most of that is regularly recycled, a certain amount still needs to stay in circulation at all times, especially for the water that serves as ballast for the air yacht.”

            “I’m going to take a quick bath, not try and fill the Celestial Sea,” Trixie grumbled as she marched out the door.

            Ember was the last to stand of the group, shaking slime that had accumulated on her tail off in the process. “Well, while all of you prissy ponies fret about how much you need bathing, I’m going to go press on with more important things than that,” she grumbled as she headed out the door, trailing after Trixie.

            Starlight frowned and glanced at Spike questioningly. “What does she mean by that?” she asked, uncertain she understood what Ember’s intent was behind saying it.

            “In the Dragon Realms, dragons generally don’t bathe,” Spike explained flatly, “at least not regularly in the same manner ponies do.”

            Thorax frowned. “Then…how do they keep themselves clean?”

            “They take a rollicking swim in lava,” Spike answered. “And not even with the explicit intent to clean anything, but rather just for the fun of it, because, to them, bathing is for wimps. Obviously, any dirt and grime they might bring into the lava pool doesn’t last too long in it. So basically, lava is the dragon form of bathwater, even though they don’t see it that way.”

            There was a pause as Thorax and Starlight processed this. Then Starlight made a half-smile. “Sounds hot.”

            She then glanced back and forth eagerly at Spike and Thorax, awaiting their reaction to her little play-on-words quip, but Thorax looked at her blankly, missing the joke, and Spike, unimpressed, just rolled his eyes and turned to exit the room too.

            Starlight made a small sigh. “Never mind,” she said, and moved to follow, pointing a hoof ahead of her. “Other things to do, then.”

            Among which included cleaning up the rest of the mess opening up the cocoons had left. Thorax was at first at a loss as to how to best do it with the limited cleaning supplies that were on board, but then Starlight jumped in by using her magic to scoop up the spilt slime into one big ball that she then simply tossed overboard. The cocoons weren’t quite so quickly removed though, as Thorax was hesitant to just toss them overboard like the slime; as they were clearly changeling and would still hit the ground largely intact, he feared they would only serve as clues to where they had been, should someone come here looking.

            But this left him with few other alternatives. There was a way to recycle the material making up each cocoon that would then break it back down into the base changeling gel, which in the hive would then be bottled and stored for use on demand later, but they lacked the materials and tools needed to undergo this recycling process, or even the things needed to create a makeshift equivalent (Thorax explained that all changelings that served in any role that could potentially have them operate outside the hive at any time were taught how to build a makeshift recycler if needed) aboard the airship.

            Now that they were drained of their contents, leaving the cocoons alone would mean they would eventually dry out and degrade on their own over time, but this could take days to weeks, too long for their purposes, and there wasn’t room on the airship to stash them in the meantime anyway. So finally, at Starlight’s suggestion, she and Thorax gathered up the four cocoons and dropped them overboard regardless, but carefully timing it so the cocoons landed in a small lake they were passing at the time. Open as they were, the cocoons would fill with water and sink to the bottom, where they would go unnoticed until they had decayed away on their own.

            Meanwhile, during all of this, Ember was speaking with her two escorts (who had held misgivings about letting their leader be put into a changeling cocoon and were pleased to see Ember was no worse for wear from the experience), the three brainstorming on how the two adult dragons were going to fit into their plans, and what roles, if any, they could play. As they waited for their turn in the bath, Starlight, Thorax, and Spike eventually joined in, adding their own thoughts on the matter. Ember was still of the opinion that keeping them around was the smarter plan, possibly with the idea that they could provide an additional distraction while they’re escaping from the hive, or at least provide some sort of backup in case something in their shaky plan failed. But Starlight still had concerns they would only rile up the changelings even more in such a situation, not to mention risk undue harm to innocent lives.

            And by then they had all come to agree that they really preferred to keep the bloodshed to a minimum as much as they could in this matter. Thorax was especially in agreement with this thought, stressing that he very much wanted to pursue it as a goal for as long as they could. Even Ember wasn’t necessarily keen to deal out needless injury for this, having to concede that she didn’t really see “the need to resort to that right this moment,” though like the others she didn’t rule out it needing to become necessary later whether they wanted it to be or not, nor was she afraid to have to resort to it if forced, which she made blatantly clear. A dragon like her wasn’t afraid of a “little fight,” as she termed it. Therefore, she continued to push to keep Garnet and Obsidian around somehow despite Starlight and Thorax’s misgivings.

            But then Spike also firmly stressed that he didn’t want to do anything that could unnecessarily add to their risks and agreed that keeping the two dragons around ran such a risk. Thus, outvoted regardless of whether or not Trixie was present to voice her opinion too, Ember started relenting to their views on the matter. Thorax started to have concerns that the large size of these dragons was only going to cause them to get noticed more easily anyway, resulting in yet another strike against them, so Ember came up with an even better plan.

            To the two’s great reluctance, not wanting to have to leave their dragon lord at any time, Ember ordered that one of them, Obsidian, would remain to escort them at a distance on towards to hive, until such time that they arrive and land. Then Obsidian would have to remain behind to stand guard over the Vergilius while the rest of them went on to infiltrate the hive…something Obsidian didn’t particularly care to do as it meant Ember would go into danger without him guarding her. Garnet had it worse though, because Ember ordered him to return to the Dragon Realms and inform the dragons there of the situation and her orders, then collect a small group of dragon defenders to bring back and wait somewhere in the Dodge Junction area, standing at the ready to come in a fight off pursuing changelings they expected to give chase during their planned escape.

            But as part of a contingency plan, Ember gave final orders to both dragons that if no one heard back from her by the end of two days from now, the dragons were thereby permitted to stage their own rescue attempt to get her back. Ember did this fully expecting that such an event would result in a dragon invasion on the changelings and a war following immediately thereafter. But to use that to their advantage, Ember also ordered them that, should such a conflict arise, the dragons were to keep their attacks focused on the changelings and the changeling hive only, and to not engage any Equestrian forces at any time, should Chrysalis attempt to use her control of Equestria to interfere.

            “It’s my hope that by so doing, that would either force the changelings to rely only on their forces alone, or, better still, risk the rest of Equestria finding out about the ruse, leading to you ponies staging a rebellion of your own and turning the war into a two-front conflict,” Ember reasoned aloud to the others. “I think that should help to level the playing field.”

            “I strongly doubt the changeling hive could win in such a scenario, even with its present advantages,” Thorax was forced to concede. “Nonetheless, I still hope no such conflict will ever have to transpire, as I still wish to try and pull this off without seriously harming anyone, pony or changeling alike.”

            “And even I’ll admit that I’m starting to have similar desires,” Ember admitted, though with some reluctance. “I’m fully aware that such a war would only result in many casualties on all sides, and even though I’m sure the dragons at least would rise to challenge gloriously regardless, I’m not interested in permitting that to happen if we can help it, not without a much better reason at least.” Her gaze then turned serious as she looked at the others. “Nonetheless…I recognize that the odds are against us enough that it’s still better to be prepared. If we fail for any reason, then we need to have at least someone prepared to step in and try and finish the job we’ve started.”

            The others regarded each other for a moment. “Seems reasonable enough,” Starlight relented finally. “And Ember’s right—we probably should have some sort of backup plan in place, just in case. A lot could still go wrong, after all.”

            “It’s not much of a plan,” Trixie remarked as she suddenly reappeared on the main deck, strolling out to join them as she finished straightening her now freshly cleaned mane before levitating her hat that she had found where Thorax had left it back onto her head like it had never left. “But I suppose it’s still more of a plan than we had before.”

            Starlight looked at the freshly cleaned Trixie with surprise. “Done bathing already?” she asked aloud.

            “Yeah, it wasn’t as hard to get all of that gunk out as I thought,” Trixie admitted with a shrug. “And it seemed there was still plenty of water left, so the tub’s free for whoever’s next.”

            “I call the tub next, then!” Spike declared, raising his claws into the air.

            “Darn it again!” Starlight shouted, who was again too late to claim her chance to bathe. “Then I claim the tub after Spike!”

            “I really don’t see what the big deal is,” Ember grumbled, and rubbed one of her arms with her claws. “Look, after it dries, the slime just flakes right off, see?” Sure enough, the dried slime on her arms flaked right off as a faintly green and uneven powder.

            “She’s not wrong about that,” Thorax added, who certainly didn’t find the slime comfortable on his body, but knew it wasn’t going to cause harm and would come off on its own quickly enough. “Admittedly, it’s not like the slime is causing any real harm.”

            “Yeah, but unlike you two who don’t have a natural hair on your bodies,” Starlight groused, glancing at the dragoness and changeling and their completely hairless bodies, “I’m finding that this slime doesn’t mix so well with fur.” And sure enough, a quick glance at Starlight’s heliotrope coat showed the hairs had become sticky and matted as the slime still on her body dried.

            Ember snorted. “Whatever,” she muttered. “You prissy ponies do what you think you need to, I don’t care.” She turned to Garnet and Obsidian. “Now, you two, you’re clear on what your orders are?”

            “Yes, dragon lord,” both dragons chorused together.

            “Though I still believe it unwise to leave you behind to go at this alone, dragon lord,” Garnet added, for the record.

            “Bah, don’t worry about it you two,” Ember said, giving them a confident grin. “Things should work out fine, and I’m more than capable of looking after myself just fine without your protection. Anyway, I’m not alone.” She motioned to the others. “They’re an odd bunch…but they’re allies, and I hope friends I can count on too.” She turned back to the two escorts. “So I’ll manage just fine. You two just worry about carrying out your orders for now.”

            And with that, the two dragon escorts nodded their heads and banked away from the Vergilius, Obsidian coming to continue following the air yacht but from a greater distance, while Garnet came about fully to fly back the way the airship had sailed, heading for his homelands. The others watched the latter dragon fly off, Starlight and Thorax wishing him well, while Trixie mumbled to herself that she had felt safer knowing there were two enormous dragons around. Once Garnet was gone though, leaving Obsidian, the Vergilius, and all aboard alone as they soared onwards for the Badlands, a heavy silence fell upon the group as they realized they were committed to this crazy plan of theirs now.

            Seeing this and wanting to distract them from that, Thorax abruptly clapped his hooves together. “Well then, before Spike heads off for the bath next,” he said loudly so to get everyone’s attention. “We’re not going to reach the hive until tomorrow morning at any rate, which means we’re all going to have to spend the night here on the ship. So we’ll have to take turns flying the Vergilius through the night, and I’ll happily show all of you how later. But for right now, I think we should find sleeping arrangements for everybody. There should be just enough berths for everybody to have their own…”

            Trixie’s azure hoof suddenly shot into the air. “Dibs on the stateroom!” she eagerly claimed.

            Ember rolled her eyes. “Again with the dibsing,” she mumbled. “And here I thought dragons are supposed to be the competitive ones…”

            Ignoring Ember’s grumbling, Starlight shot Trixie a look. “How do you know this yacht even has one?” she asked, incredulous. “You’ve never been aboard before today.”

            Trixie smugly put a hoof to her chest. “I remembered Thornton describing it in his letters to me,” she explained in a haughty tone before adding, “besides; I saw where it was while I was below deck to bathe. You’re just jealous Trixie thought to claim it first.”

            However, at Trixie’s mention of the letters, Spike shot Thorax a stern look of his own, causing Thorax to immediately avoid the dragon’s gaze, knowing exactly why he was getting that look. “I thought I told you to not tell her anything in those letters that she didn’t need to know,” the little dragon remarked firmly. “Just what have you been telling her?”

            “So!” Thorax declared, ignoring Spike’s comment and moving to usher Trixie, Starlight, and Ember towards the deckhouse to head below deck. “Trixie’s already claimed the stateroom. I’d personally kind of like to keep one of the berths nearest to the stairs to the below deck, so I can get up top in a hurry if needed. After that, I’d imagine, for everyone’s comfort, it’d best to keep everyone with like genders, which would put Spike with me in the other bunk near the stairs. So, Starlight, Ember…that leaves the cabin with the two beds in the prow…do either of you have any issues with sharing that cabin?”

            “Well, that depends,” Starlight remarked and looked at the taller Ember. “Do you snore?”

            Ember frowned and folded her arms. “Absolutely not,” she replied crossly.

            “Good, I don’t either,” Starlight replied and turned back to Thorax. “So that shouldn’t be a problem.”

            “All right then, I’ll show you where to find your beds then,” Thorax said and hurried them on into the deckhouse, leaving Spike behind on the main deck, still giving Thorax his stern look.

            As such, Spike wasn’t about to let the matter go…as Thorax found out when he returned above deck some minutes later and stopped to check the control gauges at the helm as he passed. He failed to notice Spike still hadn’t moved for the head to bathe or that he was moving to stand in the doorway leading out onto the main deck until the little dragon spoke. “Thorax, just how much have you told Trixie?” he asked simply but bluntly.

            Thorax jumped and looked at the dragon for a moment. Seeing the look on his friend’s face made it clear he wasn’t going to be able to evade the question, Thorax instead averted his gaze. “Well,” he began with a little hesitation, “if we count the letter I sent Trixie literally as we were fleeing Vanhoover, then…everything.” Spying the look of disapproval Spike made at that, Thorax sighed. “I felt she deserved to know by that point. And it’s not like it matters anyway. She clearly knows now.”

            “I know, I know, it’s just…” Spike averted his gaze for a moment, licking his lips as he collected his thoughts. “…why didn’t you tell me?”

            Thorax glanced at him for a second, his expression faintly apprehensive, but then he returned his gaze the controls of the helm and proceeded to busy himself with them without answering. Spike realized he was deliberately trying to avoid giving one and his mind started to consider why. “Thorax…is there something going on between you and Trixie I should know about?”

            Again, Thorax glanced at him for a second with the same expression, only now there was an added note of alarm in it. He then again tried to avoid answering by turning back to and busying himself with the airship’s helm controls, but when Spike didn’t show any signs of budging on the subject, he turned and moved to exit the control cabin and out onto the main deck, slipping past Spike in the process. “Excuse me, I, uh, want to go inspect one of the air scoops on the envelope,” he said distractedly. “I think it might have gotten clogged with something.”

            Spike allowed him to leave without comment, but he turned his head to watch the changeling stroll out onto the main deck before buzzing his wings to fly up to the lifting envelope strung above them so to carry out the task. He continued to watch the changeling with a conflicted look, pondering on just what it was the changeling was deliberately keeping to himself.