Nymph
Breathe in. Breathe out.
I readjusted my hooves, trying to find a comfortable position in the top corner between the wall and the ceiling. I may be a changeling, but trying to stand on walls still required a bit of finesse. I trained my eyes forward, staring down at the door beneath me.
I slowly opened the lid of a heavy storage chest at the end of the bed, holding it for just a moment before I let it shut with a loud wooden bang.
The guard outside the door shifted to a cautious curiosity, and the door under me opened carefully, light entering the dark room through the widening crack. He walked in—a unicorn, but nopony I could recognize—and stood at the entrance. His eyes scanned the room, but he looked everywhere except right above him.
He mumbled under his breath before he moved to the pods, leaning in and inspecting both the pods and the occupants, unsurprised by their presence.
Proof enough for me that he was a changeling. I smirked and charged my horn, weaving the spell matrix for my memory spell and aiming directly at his horn.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Release.
My spell arced across the room like a whip. I saw the green tether of my magic connecting the two of us briefly before my entire body shut down.
Just as it had happened with Overwatch, everything plunged into darkness, and the ambient sounds of the party cut off abruptly into total silence. This time, however, the fugue state I had entered the first time hadn’t made a return, and I was still lucid enough to think. My empathy sense also worked, and I could feel my suppressed aura changing subtly under the effects of the spell.
The world rushed back in, and the first thing I noticed was the throbbing pain in my face. I clutched my nose, curled up on the floor in the open doorway and trying to blink away the tears that came to my eyes.
I pushed myself up with aching and unfamiliar muscles, unsteadily propping myself up and closing the door carefully. The room went back to a moonlit darkness, and I plopped back against the nearby wall, my head throbbing. I wrinkled my nose, and I thought I could feel something dribbling across my upper lip. My shoulder was most definitely bruised as well.
“Report. How are the pods? What happened?” a male voice said over the hivemind, though this link felt different from the ones I usually used to communicate with my own hive and with Crystal.
I tapped into the new link and slowly unsuppressed my aura. “All clear,” I said, noticing my mental voice was much different, closer to that of a drone. “Just knocked something loose and it fell on me.”
“Alright then. Be careful.”
I stopped holding my breath. Sweet Celestia, I’m such an idiot. Of course it’d happen like with Overwatch. Why did I have to cast it from the very top of the room, why.
I wiped my bleeding nose with my foreleg, squinting around through teary eyes. The other changeling had fallen prone to the ground, slumped over the pods. I couldn’t feel him on my empathy sense, but he still wore his disguise, so he couldn’t have been dead.
I shook my head. The other changelings could take care of the body. I had other concerns. With a groan, I stood up onto wobbling legs. My feeling earlier was right. My body felt unfamiliar, as if it was just slightly larger than what I was used to. I located the dresser I had spotted earlier, the one with the mirror on top of it, and hobbled my way over.
It was… disorienting, to say the least. From within the mirror, a stallion looked back at me with strained eyes, his nose a wet mess, and his mane all over the place. I took a deep breath, watching as my reflection did the same thing, and tried to transform back into Overwatch.
It took more effort than I expected, and I realized that my magical reserves were much lower. My headache came back with a vengeance, but I managed to transform myself back into Overwatch. I flexed my weary muscles, as if slipping back into a favorite outfit, and let out a sigh of relief. My aura remained changed, but I could at least appear like I usually do.
I heard a new voice in my mind, this time female, and I froze in place. “Status report. How are we doing? Is that maid still causing us issues?”
A reply. “Yes, My Queen. We are keeping a close eye on her and are working around her, but her intervention is still slowing us down tremendously.”
“Why have we not podded her yet?”
“She is extremely cautious and suspicious of us. It is hard to get her into an advantageous position to take her out of the picture, and she continues to pester us about getting in the way of her job.”
“I will see what I can do then. In the meantime, prepare to start moving the pods down from upstairs. I do not like having ponies up there. Is it still just those three?”
“Yes, My Queen.”
“Good. At least this maid has not forced us to pod any more ponies up there. It is irritating enough to have to change locations on the fly because she happened to be right in front of the basement at the wrong time. You know your duties. Perform them.”
“Your will be done, My Queen.”
I waited a moment longer before I could get my breath back. Of course their queen had to be here. Here, of all places.
I swallowed. No matter. What was more important was that they were going to start moving pods down soon, so I have to move fast. There’s also the matter of the third pod upstairs to deal with.
I sunk into my empathy sense as I tapped into my own hive’s link. “Sinister, I overheard some of the other changelings talking about a disruptive maid. Is that you?”
“...Probably. Why?”
“Your nagging has apparently really slowed their operation down. Their queen is going to, ‘see what she can do,’ about you.”
“Oh horse apples. Right, I’ll make myself scarce.”
Dexter came onto the hivemind. “You too, Nymph. You’re clearly not getting to safety if you can overhear something like that.”
“I will, I will,” I replied. I noted the pods behind me on my empathy sense, but I also picked up another one, not far away.
I looked in that direction, finding a pair of doors on the far side of the room. The bathroom connected to the master bedroom then. I made my way over and threw open the door, and sure enough, there was a pod on the far side, just next to the bathtub.
Right. Three. I unhooked the latch keeping my axe in place and unsheathed the holstered weapon as I approached the pod. Within the shadows of this one was the outline of another unicorn, though this one was dressed as a butler.
I held my axe in front of me with my magic and took a deep breath as I raised it up and to the side. It came down sharply, embedding itself into the side of the pod with a meaty crunch. With a brief glance inside to make sure the axe head was nowhere close to the pony, I began to lever the axe to deepen its cut. Goo bubbled out of the thin crack as I continued to split open the shell. When the cut reached about halfway around the pod, I dug my magic into the sides of the opening and began wrenching it open. The liquids inside flowed out like honey, spilling over the sides of the pods and pooling into a thick mess on the floor.
Setting the axe to the side, I dug my hooves into the opening, opening the crack more until I could reach in and drag the stallion out. As soon as he broke into the open air, he began to convulse and choke. He heaved all over me, expelling the remainder of the goo that had remained in his lungs.
I flopped backwards, dropping the coughing pony onto the tile. He took deep breaths, though he still had to cough out some of the gel stuck in his throat.
He glanced up at me and steadily got to his hooves, a wet monocle dangling from his vest. “What in Equestria…” he started, his face reassuming a stony countenance. “Madam, what is going on here?”
I stood up carefully. The exertion of pulling out a larger stallion was making itself felt. “Pod. Stasis,” I said, picking up my axe and directing his attention at the split pod from which he came from. “Come on. There’re still two others.”
He looked at me suspiciously and raised an eyebrow, but despite his wariness, he followed me as I led him back to the master bedroom and to the pods which I assume contained his employers.
“Alright, help me get these two out,” I said as I took a quick look inside to find where the safe spots were before raising the axe again. There was another wet thud as I dug the axe head into the first pod and began carving out an opening, just as I had the first time. This time though, when I began pulling open the crack, the butler lent his assistance, opening the hole much more quickly than I could and extricating Fleur.
I left the butler to watch over the newly rescued mare as she began puking all over the floor and swung at the final pod. A few moments later, the butler lent his strength to hauling Fancy out into the open.
Fleur looked around the dark room blearily before examining herself and the goo that clung in her fur. “S-slime? Oh dear, I don’t remember slime being vogue,” she said.
The butler seemed nonplussed as he helped the master of the house void all of the pod fluid before asking calmly, “Sir, are you alright?”
Fancy blinked his eyes, wiping off his face with a foreleg. “Good heavens, is that you, Hot Tea?” he said, looking up into the face of his butler. “So it is. My word, what in Equestria is going on here?”
I cleared my throat and gagged when all three of them turned their attention to me. I gave them a tiny wave. “Um, hi?”
Fancy got to his hooves, still keeping his eyes on me. “Ahh, I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Miss…?”
I cleared my throat, more to give me a little time to put my thoughts together than to help me speak. “O-Overwatch,” I said quietly, before immediately kicking myself for giving my real name. “My umm… my apologies, sir, but…”
I trailed off as he looked behind him at the pod he had most recently occupied as well as the unconscious guard on the floor before turning back to me. I smelled suspicion and wariness, as expected.
I fidgeted with my hooves. “Please, sir, you three are still in danger. The guard has been compromised, and I believe your own servants have been replaced.”
He shook his head in wonder. “Replaced? Preposterous, they’re all the same workers I’ve had for months—”
“They’re imposters. They only look like your servants,” I said, before checking in on my empathy sense. No one was moving towards the bedroom yet, so I hoped we were still undiscovered. “Please, can we get out of here?”
The butler narrowed his eyes at me. “You are going to have to give me a little more than that before we can trust you. We don’t even recognize who you are, and you could be one of these hostile ‘imposters.’ Who’s to say that you didn’t attack the guard behind us for your own nefarious reasons.”
“If I weren’t trying to help you, you’d still be unconscious in those pods,” I shot back. “Please, just believe me.”
Fancy hummed. “Well, tis true that one of my servants was the one to lead Fleur and me to this room to ambush me. While I do admit you had no obligation to free us and I am ever thankful, the fact remains that we have little else to go on as to the content of your character, whether it be motivated by altruism or deception,” he said cautiously. “I am willing to believe the guard has been compromised, but you have not made a case for being very trustworthy yourself.”
I swallowed, shifting my weight back and forth nervously as I racked my mind for ways to possibly convince these ponies to listen to me.
“I… I um…” I gave them an awkward smile. “G-give me a couple minutes.”
Cadence
I giggled and took another sip of my wine as I watched Lily and Philomena fight over a soggy breadstick in a back-and-forth tug-of-war. Lotus had left us two alone a little while back, excusing herself so that she could check on her employees. Nopony else came to our table after she had departed, despite the presence of Celestia’s beloved pet.
Or, now that I thought about it, perhaps it was because of her presence that everypony stayed away, in addition to Lily’s table manners. Not that Lily hadn’t improved a bit from my instruction. I had gotten her to use utensils, at least. For the most part.
One thing I had learned from Lily’s play-fighting with Philomena was that the earth pony was much heavier than she looked. She accidentally leaned a little too hard on the table one time and made my side of the table jump a third of a meter into the air. It was extremely lucky that I caught everything on the table in my magic.
So it was no surprise when she sent Philomena flying when she suddenly straightened up, her ear flicking about as if she were listening to something I couldn’t hear.
Lily stood up as Philomena returned with half of a breadstick in her beak, landing on the table and throwing her head back to try and swallow it.
“Philo? Could you come with me real quick? Need a quick favor from you.” Lily turned to me as Philomena fluttered up to her head. “S’cuse for a moment, Amore. Just need to get outside real quick. Be back soon!”
I raised an eyebrow, standing up from the table as well. “Outside? What for?”
“Just remembered something, don’t worry!” she said and trotted off with Philomena in tow. I followed her as she rounded her way through the halls, making her way to the foyer of the house before stepping through the open front doors into the open evening air.
She put her foreleg out, and Philomena transferred to the offered perch. “So, Philomena, come’ere,” Lily said, leaning in close to the phoenix and whispering a few words I couldn’t quite make out.
I furrowed my brow when they separated, and Philomena flew off, making a wide turn around the mansion. “So, what did you need from her?” I said, turning to find Lily already bouncing back into the foyer.
“Oh, nothin’ much!” she said. “Just needed ‘er to check on a friend of mine.”
“Really?” I said. It seemed like such a strange thing to suddenly remember. “Does Philomena know where to go?”
She nodded. “Course she does! Ain’t too far away, I dun think.”
I pursed my lips. “Well, alright then.” Perhaps this was what Auntie meant when she said she wanted ponies to keep an eye on her? If there was anything suspicious about her, that would be it, but she also asked Philomena to do it. If she was trying to keep something secret, asking Celly’s pet wasn’t exactly a subtle way to do it.
Lily made her way back to the banquet hall, and I was mildly surprised to find somepony waiting for her. The butler recognized us immediately, and he quickly approached us and bowed. “Madam Lily, I presume?”
Lily nodded. “That’s me!”
“Excellent.” He gave her a polite nod of acknowledgment. “The master of the house would like to ask if you could perform with the orchestra.”
I squealed, clapping my hooves together. “Lily, Lily, this is great!” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. “I knew he wanted to hear you sing, but I didn’t expect it to be here in front of an audience!”
Lily seemed just as surprised, but she quickly warmed up to the prospect. “Cor, didn’ see that one comin’!”
“This way please,” the butler said as he gestured us towards the stage where the musicians had been playing all through the night. “A few questions though. Do you require any accommodations? The orchestra knows a wide variety of songs and can play whatev—”
“Smashing!” Lily exclaimed with a wide grin. “Tell ‘em to play whatever.”
The poor stallion looked dumbfounded at her, and I had to stifle a few snickers at his expression. “Are you certain, madam?”
“Yep! Just lemme listen to the first ten seconds and I’ll be good to go.”
He stared at her for another few seconds before he bowed again. “As you wish, madam,” he said and departed.
I gave Lily a side hug. “Good luck! I’ll be in the audience!” I said, prancing back to my table.
This was going to be.
So.
Amazing!
Nymph
I breathed out a sigh of relief as Philomena circled down to the balcony where I stood. I hadn’t ventured too close to the edge in case someone spotted me, so I was glad she spotted me in the crack between the balcony doors. She touched down, and I moved aside to let her strut into the bedroom.
Almost immediately, I could hear the murmurs of the other ponies, their auras changing to a mild surprise at the sight of the bird. Hopefully, I would be better able to convince them to listen to me, especially with how precarious the situation was. I had no idea how long the other changelings were going to take before they decided to check in on Fancy and Fleur, and the longer I made them wait around, the less they believed that they were in any sort of danger and the more likely they were just going to announce to the world they were out of their prisons.
“Philomena,” I said, schooling my breathing. “There are a lot of hostile ponies here, some of which knocked out Fancy Pants and Fleur and stuck them into these stasis pods.”
Philomena looked curiously at the goo-covered ponies behind me but eventually nodded at me.
“It’s done,” Dexter said. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but I’m leading Lily to the stage. Give it about five to ten minutes.”
I took a deep breath and turned to the ponies. “Okay, I hope this proves at least some of my trustworthiness.”
Fancy looked closely at me a while longer, and I was worried I was going to have a panic attack for a moment if he continued to disbelieve me before he finally spoke. “At least some. I admit, I have been putting some thought into it and quite frankly, if I could be subdued in my own house, I’d wager it’s a bit too dangerous to go out the normal way.”
“Oh sweet Celestia, thank you,” I murmured to myself, before addressing him more directly. “Are there any other exits?”
He rubbed at his chin with a thoughtful expression. “Well, we can’t go through the front gate, way too many guards around there. Hmm… there’s always the servant’s entrance.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Where’s that?”
“Well, the servants take a side entrance that leads into the cellar…”
I grimaced. “No can do. We’d have to get through everypony in the mansion first, and I think the cellar’s going to be fairly occupied.”
He mirrored my reaction, though I felt a little trepidation color his emotions before he made his next statement. “Well, there’s one other way we could go,” Fancy said, before motioning out the balcony. “There’s a little passage out of here, next to one of the statues in the back. I’ve had to take advantage of such a route often due to… media presence. I think we’ll both agree there won’t be any ponies in that direction.”
I took another deep breath, hoping to calm my nerves, and nodded. “Y-yeah. We’ll go with that,” I said, turning to Philomena. “Philo, I’m going to need your help getting them out. Lily’s going to be singing in a moment. Once she does, I need you to distract the guards around the mansion for me. Can you do that?”
She squawked at me and strutted back over to the balcony doors, which I held open for her.
“‘In a moment’?” Fancy said as I watched Philomena take off into the air.
I nodded. “It’s too dangerous otherwise. There’s an umm… a distraction I was hoping to take advantage of.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Resourceful, aren’t you?” he said, before moving over to a nearby drawer. “Sounds like we have a little time, at least. I hope you’ll excuse me if I write a short letter before we go.”
I watched as he withdrew a few items from the drawer: a piece of parchment, a quill and inkwell, and a small round stone, which I guessed had to have an enchantment of some sort if he was going to write a letter to someone. “Sure, just uhh… don’t take too long?” I said carefully. “We’re not going to have a lot of time once it starts.”
Fleur cleared her throat and stepped forward. “Speaking of which, how are we going to get to the gardens if we can’t take the stairs? We’re not pegasi.”
Fancy answered as he continued penning his letter. “We’re all unicorns, dear. I’m certain three unicorns can levitate one down from the balcony at a time.”
Fleur pondered this for a moment and nodded. “So it is. We shall await your signal, madam.”
I gave her a sharp salute, but I kept my eyes on Fancy. He was writing quickly, but through the darkness and his posture, I couldn’t actually see what he was writing about. It wasn’t a long letter, however, and he was done within seconds. He rolled the parchment up and held the small stone to it, channeling some of his magic into it.
My eyes widened as the stone let out a few sparks and set the parchment on fire, but instead of becoming a wad of burning paper, the letter dissolved in the flames, turning into a little puff of smoke and flying out the open balcony door.
I turned to Fancy, who stowed the stone in a jacket pocket. “So who did you send it t—”
“Lily is on stage,” Crystal messaged me.
I heaved a sigh. “Nevermind, we need to go,” I said as I tapped into my own hive’s link. “Get ready.”
Sinister harrumphed. “Well, let’s see how well this distraction of yours works.”
I shepherded the ponies over to the balcony and made a quick scan of the backyard. On my empathy sense, I could tell the guards were still making their rounds, though…
I looked up and found Philomena perched on the edge of the roof. She waved at me before flying off.
The sounds of the orchestra filtered in through the walls, faint and muffled, and I took a deep breath to brace myself. It was comically easy to tell when Lily began her song as the entire emotional spectrum seemed to white out, though unlike in the bar, Lily was instead drawing forth sadness and longing, a powerful bittersweet taste like the richest dark chocolate. Though I could sense the ponies right beside me just moments ago, now everything was so empathetically charged that I was essentially blind. My headache from earlier spiked up again, throwing my mind into a thick haze.
I heard the rival queen, her voice reverberating within my skull. “What in Tartarus is going on up there?”
Sinister’s voice came over on my own hive’s link. “That got them riled up real good. They’re actually leaving the cellar unwatched.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going in,” Dexter replied. “We need to get out of here.”
“Forget that, this is an opportunity and I’m going to take it. Come on, we can take the exit here after I take a look.”
A bright flare of light popped up from my right, and I heard the yelps of the Royal Guards. I slunk over to the edge of the balcony, looking over cautiously as guards sped around the mansion in pursuit of their antagonizer. The other changelings on their link sounded muffled, though I kept an ear out for anything that might indicate we had been spotted.
I turned around and motioned to the ponies, who followed me to the edge. “Fancy first, then Fleur, then Tea.”
Fleur, Tea, and I all focused our efforts on getting Fancy down to ground level. Though the help of two unicorns made the process much easier, my weak magic reserves still cried for rest, and what should have been a fairly easy process turned long and agonizing.
With the help of Fancy on the ground, we managed to get Fleur down safely. She seemed shaky on her legs once she landed, but she managed to steady herself enough to get Tea down.
I swung over the side of the balcony onto the wall and made my way down. I stumbled a bit when I fell the last meter or so, breathing in sharply as my muscles suddenly seized up. My body had an otherworldly feel to it, though the sensation was fleeting, and I managed to straighten up again. The other hivemind was still in chaos as they tried to coordinate with both Philomena and Lily distracting them, so I turned to Fancy and said, “Looks like we’re good. Lead the way.”
“Dexter, it’s clear. I’m headed in.”
“Gotcha, I’m at the basement entrance now.”
Fancy nodded and began making his way through the hedges. It was a bit comical how the nobles before me tried to sneak through their own backyard, both trying to keep their heads down and avoid as much dirt as possible, as if their outfits weren’t already ruined by pod goo.
“Oh. Oh no.”
“Sinister, what do you see?”
“Queen save me, there’s a bloody hole down here! They’ve dug a hole here! No wonder I’ve been sensing things beneath us! They’ve been pulling pods out of here the entire night!”
We were moving much slower than I would have alone, but I followed behind steadily. The statue was visible, and we had only a little more to go, enough time to ponder what I had been overhearing.
“Forget them then. We need to pull out ourselves while we still have a chance. Come on! The cellar exit’s clear.”
“Yeah,” Sinister replied, sounding a little dazed. “Yeah, let’s go. There’s nothing we can do here. They’ve made a huge operation and we’ve got nothing to show for it.”
We reached the statue, and Fancy moved to the back of it. With a little application of his magic, he opened a trap door in the back, disguised with an illusion spell as just another patch of stone.
I wiped off my brow as I opened up the link one last time as the ponies filed inside. “Crystal, we’re clear now. Are you going to be alright?”
“Worry about yourself, Nymph. Lily has been in more dangerous situations than this paltry showing.”
Right. I sent them one last prayer, took a deep breath, and descended into the darkness.
Cadence
I knew Fancy was prone to a few spur-of-the-moment decisions, and it was clear from the reactions of the other nobles that this had been one of them. When the ever-present music died down a bit and Lily took the stage, the crowd began to murmur, wondering who she was or remembering her manners.
The orchestra began with a long, slow song, and for a moment, I was concerned. The only type of song I had heard from Lily at this point was the upbeat, jazzy music ponies could dance to, and this was far from what I knew she could do.
My worries were unfounded. Really, I should’ve known better than to doubt her. She spent the first few bars of the song simply listening, and once the prelude concluded, she finally found her voice.
I could hear the impact of her sorrowful song on the audience. Though her exact words were lost to me, her voice told tales of loss and longing, of nostalgia and remembrance, and her tones seemed to strum the heartstrings of the crowd as well as any instrument. Ponies stifled sobs, some had to leave altogether, and the rest swayed with the music like waves in the ocean.
I hadn’t felt such heartbreak in a very long time. Not since Luna. It seemed the whole crowd had taken the moment to remember such things we had lost.
But it still had to end eventually. The final notes died off, and the wave of emotion ebbed away, though the effects of it still lingered. The entire crowd held its breath, the silence loud.
And then the banquet hall broke into thunderous applause. Lily was ecstatic, clapping her own hooves with the crowd and looking like a foal with a new lollipop. She hopped down the front of the stage, and I trotted over to meet her.
“That was amazing!” I said, embracing her. “I knew you could sing, but I didn’t expect that kind of performance from you!”
She grinned at me. “Pish posh, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, luv! If the ‘eathens love that, wait til I really get going!” she said, giggling as she continued trotting past me. “Alright, let’s go then. Gettin’ a bit late.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Oh, we’re going already? You know there’s gonna be so many ponies who’ll want to talk to you after that one.”
She nodded, though she seemed a little reserved. “Yep yep! Been a bit of a long night already.”
It didn’t require a psychologist to see something was wrong, and Lily wore her emotions openly. “Lily, is there something wrong? I hadn’t expected you to make such a quick exit after your debut,” I said as we left through the front doors of the mansion. “You can tell me the truth.”
She gave me an apologetic smile. “Sorry, luv. Maybe another time. Promised someone I’d keep it a secret.”
“I…” I paused, trotting in silence for a while. We had just passed the outside gates, moving past the few news crews still hanging around. “Okay then, but don’t be afraid to tell me when you’re ready, alright?”
“Sure thing!” Lily said, looping a foreleg over me and bringing me in for another embrace.
There was a flash of a camera at that exact moment, and I rolled my eyes. Of course.
We made our way back to our coach, which had been parked on the opposite side of the street. After rousing the driver and taking our seats, we were headed back home, just as Lily had wanted. The night was still enjoyable despite our early departure, and I found myself sitting around with a warm feeling in my gut.
We had just barely gotten moving, however, when I felt a little something from one of my pockets. I reached in with my magic and withdrew a small, round jewel, the runes across it glowing a light gold.
This was a bit of a surprise, to say the least. Most of the time, Auntie never used this to send messages to me, so it had to be pretty important if she were resorting to it now. I focused my magic on it, like inserting a key to the lock. The gemstone recognized my magic, and it released a wisp of smoke which coalesced into a small folded piece of parchment.
Lily watched in surprise as I opened it carefully. “Return to the castle immediately,” it read. “Are you with anypony at the moment?”
I used my horn to write a response under it: “I’m with Lilywater. We just left the party.”
With a little application of my magic to the enchanted gem, I sent the letter away.
Lily watched the smoke disappear into the walls of the carriage, her eyes wide in wonder. “‘Aven’t seen anythin’ like that before. What was that?”
“It’s a…” I pursed my lips, wondering how I was going to phrase this. It wasn’t a very common way to send messages, and Celestia had wanted to keep it a little under the radar since she only gave those stones to those she trusted. “Just a quick way to exchange letters. Nothing too fan—”
The gemstone lit up again, and I looked down at it in surprise. “—cy,” I finished lamely, before channeling a little more magic into it.
The note took shape in front of me again, this time with only two more words added: “Bring her.”
I took a deep breath, releasing it slowly as I stared at the message. “It uhh… looks like we might have a small change of plans, Lily.”
Nymph
The corridor seemed endless. Glowing gems spotted the walls here and there, providing a little light with which to navigate, but it had the effect of making the entire length of the hall look the exact same.
We all walked in silence, giving me nothing to focus on besides the groaning of my body and the continual feeling of dizziness. It was like gravity decided to take the night out and get completely wasted, and I was just along for the ride. Somewhere in that darkness, I felt my aura snap back into the feeling it had before, probably the effects of the memory spell wearing off.
I might have gone a little crazy down here from monotony as well. I could have sworn I saw a puff of… something flying around, but it was most likely just a figment of my imagination. There weren’t even torches down here to make any smoke.
I went back to brooding on what had transpired. I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to keep using the memory spell if this was what was going to happen every time. It was still incredibly useful for accessing another hivemind and it might even be a way for me to temporarily disguise myself as anypony other than Overwatch, but the physical and mental drain made it at best a one-time use per day.
“S-so,” I began, my voice echoing slightly. “Once we’re out, where are you headed?”
“The castle,” Fancy answered immediately. “We’ll most certainly be safe there.”
“Aren’t there guards there as well?” I said. “I don’t know how many of them are trustworthy now.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about that, dear,” he said, and I could feel the chipper little smile on his face even if I couldn’t see it. “We won’t be going in through the front. There’s a little side entrance I know of.”
The entire line stopped suddenly. “Ahh, and here we are!” he said. “Back above ground soon. Mind the steps.”
We emerged from another trapdoor into a small, unfurnished room with a single door, and after Fancy unlocked that, the group moved out onto the streets. I ground my hoof into the pavement, getting a feel for it. We were actually extremely close to Canterlot Castle now, not that Fancy’s mansion was particularly far from it to begin with, but I really had to wonder at how Fancy managed to get such an exit tunnel constructed. It might have been built long before his time, but what was the purpose of such a passageway?
I shook my head. “Alright, let’s get going,” I said, orienting myself to a mental map. From our exit, it was possible to get to the castle without ever going out onto the main street and risking exposure to potential hostiles, so I let my hooves lead the way, trotting down an adjacent alleyway.
It was getting still darker outside as the night continued. The stars were barely visible over the tops of the buildings around us, and the moonlight dimly reflected off of the white stone. My empathy sense told me the back alleys were clear, and with the shorter sight lines, I could relax my guard just a bit.
We were about halfway to the castle when it started raining, and I suppressed a groan. The pegasi must have decided to change the weather schedule while I hadn’t been paying attention, but there was nothing to do but move on. It quickly intensified, cold water seeping into my fur and my scarf, biting into me like icicles. I shivered as I trudged on. Even my vision was starting to become impeded by the hard rain, but I knew these back roads well enough to navigate without looking.
My ears perked up, flicking off some of the accumulated water as I listened through the roar of rainfall. A crack of thunder and a shout. A cry in the distance.
I burst out running as if in a trance, darting this way and that, making sharp turns messily as I wove my way closer to the call.
I had to get there. I had to go faster.
The voices split into two, a mare and a stallion.
I rounded the last corner, finding two shadows in the dark, obscured by the rain.
I heard one more voice. Mine. Echoing in my head, though not in my throat.
Get away from her.
Lightning struck.
I blinked away the blinding light, and when my vision came back to me, I was looking down an empty alleyway. My heart was racing, and I could hear the blood pulsing wildly in my ears. A cold sweat drenched my fur, and I was panting hard. My eyes darted back and forth, trying to make sense of the scene in front of me, but there was nothing strange. Nothing out of the ordinary.
“Madam, are you alright?”
I turned to the voice to find the three ponies galloping to meet me, winded from the extra exertion, and it was then that I realized that there wasn’t a single sign of the pouring rain just now. The alleyways were completely dry.
I stared blankly back at Fancy, who looked back at me with concern. “Overwatch, dear, I hadn’t expected you to go running off like that,” he said between breaths. “Did you notice something?”
I tried to swallow, though I had long since run out of spit to do so. “I’m… I’m sorry, I’m not sure what came over me,” I said, my voice a little raspy. I cleared my throat. “I’ll be fine. We need to get you to the castle, and then I’ll have to go back. There are more nobles that may have been taken away from your home, and I need to find out where.”
Fleur gasped. “Most certainly not! Especially in your condition, madam. No offense, my dear, but you can barely stand!”
“It’s fine,” I said automatically. “The castle isn’t too far. Don’t worry about me. I’ll get through it, like I always do.”
Like I’ve always done.
I rubbed my forehead, ignoring the looks between the ponies following me. We were close to the castle. Just a little bit more. I thought I could hear the ponies’ voices behind me as we rounded a few more corners, whispering amongst themselves, but I paid them no mind.
Once we finally reached the castle walls, Fancy spoke up. “I’ll take it from here, madam,” he said, trotting ahead. He turned to the right, farther away from the front gates, and I followed behind him.
I was still shivering involuntarily, though I kept up well enough. Fancy had stopped at some point, and he applied his magic to some of the stone, which seemed to slide away and grant us passage. Just beyond, I could see the lawn inside the castle walls as well as the back of the embassy building.
I followed Fancy through, though his eyes were scanning the skies. I looked with him, wondering what he could possibly be searching for when I finally felt something on my empathy sense.
My heart dropped as Princess Celestia fluttered down to meet us. Already, her intense aura was suffocating, and I had neither the strength nor the energy to hold it back. I stood frozen to the spot as I stared through bleary eyes at her.
She touched down gracefully and looked down at me, her face expressionless. “So we meet again, Overwatch. We have much to talk about.”
I strained my body to stay upright. To keep going on. To suffer the abuses and do as I wanted. I begged. I pleaded.
Like I’ve always done.
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I collapsed onto the grass unconscious.