//------------------------------//
// Chapter 24 — Tastes of Barriers 
// Story: In Sheep's Clothing 
// by Kydois 
//------------------------------//




Nymph




Stalking my quarry was slow going. I had to keep myself down to stay undetected, but at least following someone was much faster than meticulously searching for a trail that may or may not exist.

Dim moonlight trickled down from one of the grates high above as if through the canopy of a dense treeline. I imagined Dexter and Sinister somewhere on the streets above me, shadowing me and mapping my position onto the overside of Canterlot. It was difficult to tell how much time had passed since I first came down here, but the night seemed to plod on. A part of me just wanted this to be over. My muscles were starting to complain about the extra exertion from keeping a low profile, but I had to be patient.

The pony I was tailing turned right, heading down a small hallway in the middle of the corridor we were in. I waited for the crate he was levitating to disappear around the corner before I tiptoed forward, wary of the few hiding spots should my prey decide to suddenly backtrack on top of me. Peeking around the corner, I noticed the pony step off to the side, looking down at the floor. He mumbled a few words under his breath before extending a hoof out and firmly pressing down on one of the stones under him.

My ears caught the sound of a faint click. A switch of some kind? He trotted to the end of the hallway and repeated the motion, searching around for something on the ground before pressing a hoof into it. There was another click.

My brow furrowed. It seemed like he was deactivating and reactivating a trap. In any case, it seemed prudent to repeat the same motions as the other pony. I waited until the stallion had exited through a door at the end of the corridor before moving out of cover to the first switch. The texture of the stone changed under my hooves, almost as if I had crossed a sort of invisible threshold.

“This pathway…” Celestia said, sounding a bit distracted. “This isn’t on the sewer maps.”

“The floor is a different material too. Had to have been added in later,” I murmured.

“Promising, then,” Crystal replied. “If it is not supposed to be there, it would be good to find out why it is there.”

I scanned the area, finding a brick on the floor that seemed to be a little more used than the ones around it. With a firm step on it, I heard the same click I heard before, both under me and behind the walls on either side of the hall. I took wary steps across, alert for any signs of danger. My ears flicked to-and-fro, but beyond the quiet thundering of water in the distance and the soft touches of my hooves on the stone, I heard nothing. It was almost too calm.

Dexter pinged me. “We can’t follow you anymore. You’re headed under private property. Looks like a pretty nice manor house from here.”

A bead of sweat dripped down my head, but I kept my pace steady. “Any idea who it belongs to?”

“Gimme a sec… Veil. It just says Veil.”

A breath escaped me as I made it to the other side without incident. I tapped into my hivemind once again. “Alright, I’m good from here. Stay safe.”

“Follow your own advice, kid,” Sinister said. “Queen guide you.”

I took a deep breath. A quick check on my empathy sense told me that my quarry hadn’t made it too far ahead, so without further ceremony, I pressed the switch on this side, listening to the click one final time before moving to the door and opening it a crack.

There wasn’t a lot I could see from the small slit I had made, but it was clear that it was no longer part of the sewers. The stone extended a little past the door, but it quickly gave way to dirt and rock. It was much wider than the tunnel into Fancy’s house, more a large cavern than a tunnel. Crates of varying sizes sat around the outside edge of the cave. A few crystals provided some scattered light, broken up by dark spots around the scattered crates. Surprisingly, there wasn’t another entrance to the room that I could see from my vantage point. I’d hit a dead end.

I moved in as the pony set his crate down in the middle of the room. He mumbled under his breath while he looked over the containers around him aimlessly, as if he were waiting for something. I took the opportunity to conceal myself, squeezing into a tight space between a large crate and the wall while he was still looking the other way.

The stallion turned to look forward suddenly, and I followed his gaze to the far wall of the cavern.

My eyes widened when another pony walked straight through the rock, causing a ripple in the surface similar to what I saw with the walls of the storage area. This one was a taller, lankier stallion wearing a butler’s uniform. The pony I had been tailing briefly acknowledged the new arrival before levitating his crate up into the other’s magical hold.

The butler left soon after with his new package, and the first stallion began to look over some of the crates in the cave, walking up to one and opening it.

“We can get through the barrier if you take his place.”

I grimaced. “Through the memory spell, right?”

“Unless there is another method, yes.” She paused. “You tried it yesterday, did you not? Were there any issues with it?”

“I-it did what it was supposed to, but it knocked me out for a little while and burned through a lot of my magical reserves.” I rubbed at my forehead, already remembering the headache that had resulted from casting the spell. “I can cast it, of course, but I don’t think I can cast it more than once.”

“Hmm, I was wondering what could have incapacitated you so thoroughly earlier today.” She grew quiet, humming in thought.

I raised an eyebrow. “You have a solution?”

“Trying to think of one, though I might have an idea. Try casting your memory spell, but channel magic through me while you weave your spell matrix. I can take care of the rest.”

I took a deep breath. The stallion was still looking through the contents of the various crates away from me, so I called forth my magic and reached out to the crystal in my holster. A chill ran through my entire body as I linked up with Crystal, almost as if I had jumped straight into a giant pool of water. I suddenly felt a lot more magic at my disposal, but it also felt alive, wiggling and writhing as I instinctively tried to bring it under control. I wove my memory spell matrix quickly, afraid that if I dallied for too long, I would drown under the sudden influx of magic.

The other presence—Crystal, I assumed—seemed to notice my efforts and lent me a guiding hoof, both taking control of my magic and altering the spell matrix slightly. It felt as if I was being washed with the current, so powerful it was. Without much input, I watched my spell snap from my horn to the pony like a whip, pulling taut once it connected.

Despite expecting it, the deadening of all my senses still caused a small degree of panic in me. I kept a close watch on my empathy sense, waiting with bated breath as my magic changed subtly under the effects of the spell. Everything came rushing back in again, thankfully much sooner than I had expected.

I was on the floor again, unsurprisingly, but since I wasn’t foolishly on the ceiling when I cast my spell, I hadn’t woken up to horrible, throbbing agony from landing on my face this time. The headache I had last time was also absent. They were small blessings, yes, but they were ones I was very much thankful for.

I had been disguised as the stallion while I was sleeping, so I changed back into Overwatch and peeked out. The stallion was slumped on the ground just like before, and with a quick check of my empathy sense to make sure the coast was clear, I emerged from my hiding spot and approached him.

“What was that spell?”

I jumped into the air from fright at the sudden voice, and it took me a few moments of calming breaths before I realized it was the Princess. She had been so quiet, I had completely forgotten she was still watching over me. “Well, uhh…” I mumbled as I knelt down and confirmed that the disguised changeling was still breathing.

Crystal answered for me. “It confers a number of benefits in terms of infiltration, but its purpose for now is to get her past the barriers.”

“Truly?” Celestia sounded unconvinced. “I did not get a good look at the spell matrix, but the spell she just cast seemed like it was supposed to change her magic completely into that of her target’s.” She muttered a few unintelligible words under her breath. “Yes, it would certainly allow her to bypass any selective barriers, but I have never seen such a spell like that. An individual’s magic cannot be changed so completely so easily.”

Crystal remained silent for a few uncomfortably long seconds. “I am… surprised you could tell that from a mere glance.”

“I do head a school for gifted unicorns, not to mention my experiences with a fair number of highly experienced magic crafters over my long years.”

“A fair point,” Crystal conceded. “This particular spell only works because of what Overwatch is. Her race has a very malleable magic field.”

I decided to stay silent, focusing on moving the body out of sight behind the boxes where I hid before.

Celestia spoke again. “If her magic field is so malleable, what’s stopping her from permanently turning into whoever she casts the spell on? A complete transformation within and without can’t leave many options open for reversing the spell.”

“It… works slightly differently for Overwatch. She is absolutely not representative of her race due to her many unusual characteristics. The spell she cast works only temporarily on her for the same reason she boasts an extremely high magical resistance.”

“Ahh, so the magic resistance is not a racial characteristic?” Celestia hummed in thought. “Do show me this spell at your earliest convenience. I would very much like to take a look at it.”

“I see. When Overwatch returns, I shall ask her to demonstrate the spell for you.”

A frown spread across my face. I was somewhat put off at being volunteered without permission, but I shrugged it off, making sure that the unconscious body was well hidden in a dark corner of the cavern before turning to the hidden barrier.

I checked my empathy sense one last time. Above me were about seven or eight different signatures, spread out among what seemed like two floors. None of them were close by, nor immediately across the barrier, so I felt safe in experimentally poking a hoof into where I thought the barrier was, causing it to ripple as I had seen before.

There were too few signatures for me to have found where they had hidden their ponies, but still, there was a lot of work put into the cavern I had just left, along with the trapped room just before that. With that much effort, there had to be something here I could use.

With a deep breath, I plunged in.

I emerged into what seemed like a basement. It wasn’t very large and only contained a number of conventional amenities, so I ignored most of it in favor of taking the stairs up.

There was a door at the top, and with a soft nudge, I cracked it open and peered through the thin opening. Nothing much was revealed beyond a small portion of the dining area. There were a few long granite-top islands that I could see stretching across the area, topped with an assortment of fruits. It was an extremely clean living space, devoid of many of the obstacles that made maneuvering unseen through the sewer system simple. The darkness I had clung to had also been broken up with a few dim lights here and there. I’d have to be careful if I didn’t want to bring everyone here down on me.

Poking my head out further, I realized that the staircase continued upwards, confirming my suspicion that there was a second floor. I had no clue where to start, but perhaps I could see if the signatures I sensed earlier were guarding anything in particular.

The water turned off somewhere in the house, and it was only just then in the sudden silence that I realized that someone was even using the water in the first place. Was it a shower? I had acclimated to the constant sound of water in the sewers that I hadn’t even realized it was still going.

I entered the kitchen area, closing the door behind me. Looking upward from the dining area, I could see the second floor looping around above me, featuring, to my dismay, a glass railing rather than something more opaque. There were four signatures upstairs, and now that I could estimate where some of the rooms were, I guessed that one of them was the butler I had seen and the other two were guards for a final VIP. The three downstairs all seemed to be outside, so despite being surrounded, no one was in a position to spot me yet.

A familiar voice came in through the secondary hivemind link, and I felt a cold grip on my heart when I realized where I had heard it before.

“Excellent. Leave it in my study. I shall look over it later once I return. Guards, keep careful watch while I survey our outposts, and If you catch any of Chrysalis’s vile spawn lurking around, dispatch them at once.”

“Your will be done, my Queen.”

With that, the signatures upstairs began to move. The one I had tagged as the butler entered the room the queen was leaving. I crossed the room quickly to a door I spotted on the other side and opened it quickly. A small bathroom. Little to no hiding spots, but it was out of the way enough to keep me safe until the queen departed, so I slipped in and closed the door quietly.

I closed my eyes. The queen was descending the stairs and was departing through the basement. A little part of me wanted to follow her, knowing that she would be involved in the much more important tasks, but the simple survey she was going on probably wouldn’t reveal too much useful information, nor would it necessarily lead me to the kidnapped ponies.

“Good that we will not have to deal with her for now,” Crystal said. “We will likely confront her later on, but only when we are adequately prepared. I am currently working on something on that front, but for now, we are in her mansion and I am immensely curious about what kind of package she may have received.”

I took a deep breath. The butler upstairs had looped around after he had entered the upstairs room, stopping for a moment before departing through the same path. He had delivered whatever he was going to. I just had to make sure to mark that location for when I head up.

Still, that room was guarded from at least two entrances, one on the inside and one, it seemed, leading in from an outside balcony. Using the memory spell here was too risky. I’d have to take another route inside, perhaps through a window.

I left the bathroom, watching as the butler made his way to the stairs. Not eager to spend any more time in open space, I opened the door directly adjacent to the one I left and found myself in a drawing room. Numerous couches and coffee tables were situated around the room, and the exotic rugs and paintings added a little more variety. A grand piano sat quietly in the far corner.

It was almost a shame that the only thing I cared about at the moment was how the soft, luxurious rugs muffled my hoofsteps as I made my way to the far window.

I flipped the latch and after making sure none of the first-story guards were nearby, I slowly pulled open the window. I squeezed through the tight opening, landing behind a few bushes and closing the window behind me quietly.

My target room was on the other side of the mansion. After checking once again that the guards outside weren’t in view of this side of the building, I began scaling the wall. Once I made sure that the gutter wasn’t loose, I pulled myself up onto the rooftops.

I hadn’t quite realized just how expansive this mansion was until I finally got a bird’s eye view of it. The roof itself had few hiding places, but it was much darker than the inside of the house. I made my way up the slope towards the moon hanging high in the sky, careful not to dislodge any of the shingles. Once I had crested over the ridge at the very top, I tried to get a look at my destination. I could see the balcony from my new position as well as the guard stationed there, looking away from me.

I ignored him for now and made my way to the other side of the house where the balcony hadn’t extended to. I was right on top of the room I wanted to get into, so I peeked down over the edge to find a window to break in through.

Sure enough, there were two possible points of entry from this side. Now my only concern was making my way in without the guard on the balcony turning around and spotting me.

I looked around. There weren’t a lot of materials here that I could work with, and using one of my fumes to block his vision would most certainly spark an alarm. Dark, all-obscuring clouds don’t simply pop out of nowhere. Grinding my hoof on the shingle below me, a thought came to me. Perhaps I could toss something down to distract him?

I worked my magic around a shingle in the middle of the roof, wiggling it back and forth until I managed to pry it out from its place. It wasn’t large, but it’d have to do. I swung over the side of the house, still levitating my shingle along. Once I had gotten a good hold, I tossed my shingle lightly towards the side of the house the balcony was on.

I ducked down while it was still flying through the air, maneuvering my way down the wall towards one of the windows. A clay-like clunk echoed quietly through the night air, and I held still, watching as the balcony guard flared up with tangy surprise on my empathy sense, no doubt noticing my act of vandalism.

I used my magic to unlatch the window and pulled it open. The balcony guard had flown up onto the roof, leaving my entry into the room completely clear, so I took the opportunity to swing my way in, landing with a few light thumps of my hooves on the wooden floor.

There was a desk at one corner of the room, surrounded on two sides by wall-mounted shelves filled with books and decorative trinkets. A couch and an armchair sat in the middle atop a large rug with an intricate floral pattern. A few abstract paintings hung on the walls along with a few plants here and there. There was no sign of any potential package.

My brow furrowed. The room was actually L-shaped. I could’ve sworn that the butler had made a U-turn when he was in this room. Where could… 

My mind went back to the cavern. I hadn’t even realized there was another entrance until I saw someone stroll straight through the wall. If the queen was using this space often, perhaps there was another such barrier here.

The guard was still searching around the roof, so I slunk down close to the inside wall and began to trace along it with a hoof. If there was going to be a hidden room, it was going to be somewhere…

My hoof suddenly sunk into the wall. Nailed it.

“Ahh, quite perceptive of you, Overwatch. This should be interesting.”

I snorted as I made my way inside. A light turned on as soon as I stepped inside, revealing a surprisingly spacious inner sanctum, though in a mansion, most rooms likely ended up spacious one way or another. There was a workspace along one wall with an assortment of opaque white and blue crystals scattered across it as well as several pages of notes. A few shelves of unspectacular boxes and items took up one side of the room alongside a billboard with a map of some sort posted on it. I also noticed a staircase going down on the far side. Good to know there was another route that didn’t go through two guards.

On the ground under the shelves was the package I saw being brought in earlier, and I immediately made my way towards it. The crate wasn’t secured very tightly, so I simply used my magic to pry off the top.

I narrowed my eyes. The only items inside were a bunch of books, of all things. A quick glance at some of them told me that they were primarily focused on…

“Illusion and transformation spells?” Crystal mused. “Ahh, there’s one on crystal enchantments and the properties of various crystals. Reference materials.”

I placed them back in the box, looking around the rest of the room. “But reference materials for what?”

I approached the table and took a quick glance over it. Arcane runes and circles were written over the various pages. Under the table was a wastebasket full of additional crumpled-up pages.

“Crystal, can you make sense of any of these?” I asked, spreading out a few of the papers.

“Yes, this does look a bit familiar. I have done similar research myself, though it looks like our new queen is taking a different approach.” She hummed in thought. “It is the basics of an experimental detection spell, and guessing by the content of the books we found, these enchantments are likely intended to counter the abilities of other changelings.”

I grimaced. “Does it work?”

“Uncertain, though because it appears that she is still working on it, we might be in the clear for now. It looks like there is some general dispelling magic incorporated into it, though spells to dispel illusions and transformations do not usually function passively. True sight, maybe.”

I looked around the desk more, finding a few notebooks. I levitated one over and cracked it open. “This one looks like an inventory.”

“More like shipping documentation.” Crystal paused. “That is a lot of material being shipped in and out of Canterlot.”

“It doesn’t look like there’s any particular pattern though,” I said, glancing down a long list of bathing supplies. “Say, would the name, ‘Veil,’ mean anything to you? My hivemates mentioned that this mansion was the property of Veil.”

“Veil? Likely Lotus Veil, the owner of Busy Bee. Quite useful to know.”

I skimmed through it, glancing through imports and exports from cities all across Equestria. There were quite a few items highlighted in yellow ranging from construction materials to arcane catalysts. Near the back though, was a section titled, “Cave Inventory.”

I swallowed. “Princess, do you know anything about any caves near Canterlot, particularly ones large enough to function as a base of operations?”

There was a short pause before Princess Celestia responded. “The only large one I know of would be the Crystal Caves. It's laid untouched for a long time ever since I closed down mining operations long in the past. The logistics and cost of transporting materials over dangerous chasms proved unprofitable and unsustainable, and it’s never opened up since.”

I looked at the map on the billboard. It featured a large irregular area with long uneven tunnels connecting large blobs of space. Entrances and chokepoints were marked clearly as well as a few central areas. "Nursery" was one of them. "Pods" was another.

Crystal chimed in through my communication channel with Celestia. “Looks like we’ve found where she has been hiding. Good work. Get back so we can prepare.”

I nodded. “Got it. I’ll make my way back through the sewers.”

I tried to rearrange everything in the room as I had found it and proceeded down the stairs. There wasn’t much down here, but I pressed a hoof to the walls once I hit a dead end.

My hoof was stopped at each of the walls, and I felt my stomach drop a little. I made my way up the stairs, suddenly wary of the thumping of the hoofsteps through the walls. Each sound, each creak and moan of the mansion, seemed to be amplified as I made my way back to the entrance I came in through.

I reached a shaky hoof out towards the wall. My hoof stopped.