Courtesans

by GaPJaxie


Chapter 1

Double Time was many people.

On Saturday she was a courtesan—an expensive whore in a venue that advertised changeling lovers. For two thousand bits, a pony could have the experience of meeting the mare or stallion of their dreams. They got an evening out, dancing, laughing, growing to know their partner, and realizing that somepony beautiful could care for them. They told her they loved her, and she made love to them. At the stroke of midnight, she vanished.

On Sunday she was a volunteer counselor, leading group therapy sessions for ponies who still suffered from trauma as a result of the Canterlot Invasion. She would transform into a member of Queen Chrysalis’s old swarm and hiss, allowing them to confront their fears in a safe environment. Sometimes ponies yelled at her and cried, and she gave them a hug.

On weekday mornings and evenings, she was a student at the Canterlot School of the Arts. Once she had attended in her true form, but since her run-in with the law, she’d assumed the alter-ego of a butch earth-pony painter named Smock Up. It was always a joy to develop a new character, and she’d grown Smock Up into a quiet mare with a sassy wit. She didn’t talk much, but when she did, she burned.

On weekday afternoons, Double Time was a mother of two.

Ponies would have disagreed. Ponies would have said that they weren’t her children, that she hadn’t adopted them, never mind that drones were sterile. But ponies couldn’t see what changelings could see. Double Time had first noticed the foals when they and their parents passed by her in the market. She’d seen many couples with kids that day and not given them a second thought.

But those couples loved their children.

Double Time followed them home, to a house that was clean and beautiful and dead inside, and she applied for a job as nanny. Every weekday from two to six, she came to pick up the children from school, clean them up, do their laundry, help with homework, and reassure them that somepony cared for them.

“Feather!” The mare’s name was Sapphire and the colt was Night Watch. They spilled out of school along with the other foals and rushed towards her. To them, she was a pegasus named Feather Dust.

“That’s me.” Sapphire was first to reach her, and so was the first to receive a hug. “Oof! You’re getting big. How was school?”

“Fine,” Sapphire dragged a hoof along the ground. She quickly added, “can we go to the park?”

“The park? But your brother didn’t even get his hug yet.” Double spread her forelegs, and Night Watch piled in. “There, isn’t that better?” She gave him a tight squeeze.

Then, she picked the teacher’s note right out of his saddlebags.

He didn’t notice until he pulled away and saw the paper in her teeth. With a cry of “Hey!” he leapt to snatch it back, his voice full of childhood indignance. But she was too quick, and lifted her head out of his reach.

“Ah ah,” she mouthed around the paper, gently pushing him back with a hoof. Sapphire and Night Watch each started shouting excuses, their voices mixing to form an incomprehensible noise. With a firm but gentle hoof, she poked each of them in the muzzle and shushed them.

Then she read the note.

“Well,” she said when she finished. “I suppose we can visit the park for an hour. Your parents won’t be home until five.”

She walked the two of them to one of Canterlot’s little parks. She gave Sapphire a ball and told her to go play with the other fillies, while she and Night Watch sat on a bench nearby. Night Watch didn’t want to talk, and so they sat quietly and watched Sapphire play. She was with another filly and they were playing make-believe. The other filly’s doll was Daring Do on a heroic adventure. Sapphire’s ball was the giant rolling boulder chasing Daring around the grass.

“Oh nooo!” Sapphire cried. “Daring got squished.” The other filly disagreed, insisting that Daring flew away right in the nick of time.

“I’m sorry,” Night Watch finally said.

“I know.” Double Time said. Night’s father would have gotten mad. Night’s mother would have said that she wasn’t mad, she was disappointed. “So why did you do it?”

“Vim was just being really…” Night Watch bit his lip. “Dumb! Always talking about how cool his parents are, and how his dad always takes them flying, and how since he’s a pegasus and his mom is a unicorn his dad sometimes takes him up to a cloud and they hide from chores. And I was like, we know! And he was all stop yelling. And I was like, I’m not yelling, you’re yelling!”

“Is that when you punched him and made him eat dirt?” Double Time’s tone wasn’t flat, but it was calm. She let herself show enough sympathy to acknowledge his frustration, but she didn’t rise to it.

Night Watch looked at the bench. He didn’t answer.

“Did bullying him make you feel better?” Double Time asked. When Night Watch still didn’t answer, she reached out with a hoof and forcefully lifted his head to her. “Night, please answer me.”

“No. No, it didn’t,” he snapped, reaching up with his own hooves to shove hers away. Then he glared off at the bushes. “I can’t do anything right and everything I do makes it worse and I’m a big stupid bully. Are you happy? Fine.”

“You aren’t stupid, Night. And you aren’t going to be a bully unless you want to be. And I don’t think you want to be, do you?” She leaned her head down to catch his eyes, and this time, he turned his head to her willingly. “Do you want to be a bully?”

“No.” He bit his lip. “I… just got really mad. Okay? He was being dumb and I don’t want to hear his stupid stories.”

“I know.” She reached out to to stroke his mane. “I know you don’t want to. But hurting other ponies doesn't make you feel less mad, does it?”

“No.” He hung his head.

“No, it doesn’t. And besides, if you want to go flying…” She waggled one of her wings, then tickled him with the tip of a feather.

Involuntary giggling seized him. “Stop it!” He swatted at the feather, but his eyes were not so downcast as they had been. “I’m not a pegasus. I’d fall.”

“Only if I put you on a cloud.” She wiggled her ears, and a playful little smile touched her face. “But I could put you on a roof. You and your sister both. We could fly up to the top of the Canterlot Belltower.”

“Really?” A smile touched his face. Then it vanished. Then it appeared again. “No way. Would you? No. Mom would freak out.”

“Your mother doesn’t have to know,” she said with a coy little smile. “It’ll be a treat. But treats are for colts who don’t get into fights. So I need you to be extra—”

With a loud snap, a swirling green disk appeared in the air beside them. Night Watch leapt backwards on pure instinct, the force of his little legs sending him scrambling a good three feet away. Across the park, ponies stared at the strange apparition. Double Time stayed put, and after a moment, the disk rotated to face her.

It was about two feet across, and when it solidified, a changeling’s face could be seen in its surface. “Drone CX-37889-A, Double Time,” the drone spoke. Its voice resonated as though out of a deep well. “Queen Amaryllis personally summons you to appear before her in the hive. You are ordered to return home at best possible speed and without delay. This supersedes all other directives.”

Double Time’s hoof snapped to her forehead. She saluted the image and delivered a crisp “I understand and will comply.”

The image in the swirling disk vanished. A moment later, the disk vanished as well. “Woah,” Night Watch said, slowly stepping up towards her. “That was really cool. What was that?”

“Oh.” She smiled. “Magic. Somepony had a message for me.”

“Because you’re a changeling?” He asked. When she frowned, he shot her a sour look. “I was right here and you just said I wasn’t dumb.”

“I did. Didn’t I?” She patted the bench for him to sit beside her again. “You’re not afraid?”

“No. Changelings are good now.” With a certain defiant pride, he added. “Princess Twilight shot laser beams at you and now you’re all rainbow colored and nice.”

Double Time giggled. “Something like that.” She stared at him for a moment, then at his sister. “But,” she said after the pause, “I used to be bad. Back when all changelings were bad. Do you know why?”

Night Watch bit his lip. “Because you had fangs and hissed at ponies?”

“Because my mother didn’t love me.” Double Time waited a moment for the words to settle in. She could see it on Night Watch’s face. “She was mean and stern and whipped my backside whenever I didn’t follow her rules. My father was never around. I felt worthless, and whenever ponies talked about how great things were, and how much their families loved them, I got mad.”

“Oh.” Night Watch looked at the bench. “Is that why you… you know.”

“Mmhmmm. I beat ponies up and made them eat dirt too. When I was doing it, I thought it would make me feel better. But it never helped, and I was angry and sad all the time. It wasn’t until…” A small smile touched her face. “Twilight’s student helped us that I was able to get better. That’s when I realized that I was worthy of love, and that other creatures were worthy of it too. And that’s why I’m here. Because you and your sister deserve to have a pony who loves you.”

Night Watch’s ears tucked back against his head, and he reached out with a leg to grab her. “Let’s go flying now,” he said. He spoke too quickly, and the words came out jumbled.

“Night…” She reached out to brush his hair out of his eyes. “You know your sister needs you, right? I’m going to have to go away for awhile, and I need you to look out for her.”

“No. No.” The little colt in front of her gripped her leg tighter. “You can’t go. You weren’t going anywhere. You said. You promised!”

“I know, but I have to.” She nodded her head gently. “My Queen is summoning me home, and the hive is a long way away in the north. I’ll be gone for a long time. Maybe forever.”

“What?” he shouted. “Because you hate us?”

“No no,” reached out a hoof to reassure him. “Night. I love you and your sister. You’re wonderful, and you’re going to grow up to be wonderful ponies one day.”

“If you really loved us, you’d stay.” He yanked his hoof away from her. “A pony who actually cared about us instead of just pretending wouldn’t run away because a giant bug told them too.”

Double Time tried to reassure him, but he yelled and wouldn’t listen. So she walked the two of them back home, and gave them each a goodbye hug, and left her resignation letter with the servants.

She flew away.


Once, the Northern Changeling Hive had been an imposing spire of black stone, surrounded on all sides by desolate fields of ice. Braziers of putrid green fire had burned at all hours to keep the building from freezing. The hive soldiers, or skalvadkt, were the most feared monsters in all the north. King Sombra kept a squad of skalvadkt mercenaries as his personal bodyguards, and legend said that any one of them was a match for a hundred ponies in battle.

Since the reformation of the hive, things had changed. The black stone was covered in colorful banners and paintings. The desolate fields were home to blossoming villages of ice-fishers and hunters. The braziers burned with a clean blue flame, and where they provided sufficient heat, flowers and vines sprung to life.

Some things hadn’t changed though.

Double Time kowtowed, lowering herself so far to the floor that the tip of her horn touched the ice-cold stone. She splayed out her forelimbs. She shut her eyes. These were the three requirements of the Position of Subservience. Once the position was complete, and she was suitably posed, she spoke.

“I swear absolute obedience to Queen Amaryllis.
“I will obey her commands.
“I will obey her laws.
“I will defend her hive.
“If I am ordered to die I will die.
“If I am ordered to kill I will kill.
“Without her, the hive is nothing.
“Without the hive, I am nothing.
“I am an extension of her will.”

Chuckling carried through the throne room and echoed off the stone. “All the old guards are like that,” Queen Amaryllis said. Somewhere nearby, a changeling grub chittered.

“You still make them say it every time?” Princess Cadence asked. Her distaste was obvious.

“I’m still their queen, aren’t I?” Queen Amaryllis replied, her tone playful. “You know. The crystal ponies might respect you more if you made them bow in your presence. It’s a tradition for a reason.”

“It makes me uncomfortable.” Cadence cleared her throat. “Could you get up, please?”

But Double Time had not been dismissed from the position, and so she did not speak or lift her head.

“Drone,” Queen Amaryllis commanded, “rise and answer my guest’s questions.”

Double Time rose to her hooves in one smooth motion, lifting her head and opening her eyes. In front of her, the queen of the Northern Changeling Hive rested on a throne of jagged metal spikes. Once it had matched her dark carapace quite well. In modern times, her rainbow-colored exterior and delicate faerie wings clashed rather noticeably. Next to her, Princess Cadence sat on a giant pile of pink pillows.

Cadence was holding a changeling grub in her forehooves. It had a distinctive blue streak down its back, and it gurgled as it tried to explore the pillows. Double Time noticed, but she had not been asked a question or instructed to speak, and so she still said nothing.

Silence hung between them until Cadence cleared her throat. “Uh… you there. You’re my sister-in-law’s friend, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Princess Cadence.” Double Time continued to stand at attention, her back straight and her head held high. “I was Light Step’s roommate for ten months, during which time we were quite close. While we have not spoken since last year, I continue to consider myself her friend.”

“Then,” Cadence continued, “you are also the changeling who sucker-punched one of my guards?”

“I am.”

Cadence hesitated for a moment before she asked: “Why?”

“My motivations were selfish, and I acted upon them without the knowledge or consent of my rightful superiors,” she spoke crisply and formally. “I accept the criminality of my actions and beg that you do not allow them to reflect negatively upon the greater hive. I plead that you do not permit my flaws to mar my Queen’s radiant image.”

Queen Amaryllis laughed again. “No no. None of that,” she said before Cadence could reply. “Princess Cadence is my friend, drone. A true friend. These aren’t the old days. Please, answer her question honestly. Be candid.”

It took a few moments for Double Time to find the words. She shifted to look Cadence in the eye. “I sucker-punched him because he was trying to arrest me,” she said. “And because I didn’t want to go to jail.”

Cadence frowned. “You didn’t think hitting him would make things worse?”

“It would make things worse if they caught me,” Double agreed. Her beetle-like wings buzzed, and after a moment she added, “But they didn’t.”

“I see.” Cadence’s frown tightened. The grub in her hooves squirmed and vomited something milky onto the pillows. Two servants appeared at once to clean it up -- such things were normal for grubs. “I would…” She turned to face Queen Amaryllis. “Like to take her into custody, if I could.”

“Of course,” Queen Amaryllis leaned over on her throne so her head was closer to Cadence. “Is there anything else I could do? I’m so very sorry about the whole mess.”

“No. That’s fine.” As soon as she could, Cadence handed the grub off to one of the servants. “Thank you. I… appreciate it.”

“Of course.” Amaryllis smiled at Cadence, then sat up straight on her throne. Her eyes turned back to Double. “Drone, you are ordered to surrender yourself to Princess Cadence’s custody, and thereafter obey her commands. If she elects to punish you for the Equestrian laws you broke of your own volition, I forbid you to attempt escape.”

Silence hung over the throne room for a moment. “If I am ordered to die, I will die,” Double repeated.

“You know Equestria doesn’t have the death penalty, right?” Cadence asked. “The Crystal Empire doesn’t either.”

“I am aware,” Double said. “With your permission, Princess Cadence, I will await you at the hive’s main exit that you may conclude your business undisturbed by my presence.”

“Um…” Cadence bit her lip. “Yes,” she finally said. “Yes, fine.”

Double Time was many people. Some of them would have fled, or cursed, or spat in Cadence’s face when they passed. But at that particular moment in time, she was a hive soldier.

She clicked her rear heels together, saluted her queen, and left.