//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Confrontation // Story: Remnant // by preaplanes //------------------------------// Celestia sent a letter down to Ponyville to match a request that Twilight Sparkle had made of her for her changeling friend. She turned to her sister. "Are you certain you don't wish to write a letter, Luna?" The younger alicorn shook her head. "I'm sure. I fear my opinion on this matter is uncertain at best. If it was certain, I'm sure it would not matter." Celestia gave Luna a reassuring nuzzle, garnering a shallow smile from her. "Come on, Lulu, you worry too much. I know it would make a difference, the ponies trust you," she said encouragingly. "Perhaps..." Luna trailed off, but I still don't trust myself. Okay, it's official, these ponies are absolutely, certifiably, unquestionably, completely and utterly NUTS! Silk was overwhelmed, practically freaking out at the scene at hoof. In order to get the town to give her a chance, Pinkie had thrown a party. No, not just a party, a massive party. Even more than that, she practically had a PARADE going on. The only thing that flabbergasted her more was the fact that it was working. This was all way, way too much. She had spent her entire life trying to stay low-key and out of sight. If she had drawn any excess attention to herself researching and listening to dragons, she probably would have been flambéed. Just transforming into a dragon youth didn't mean she was fireproof, after all; that was a magical quality. Now here she was, in the middle of town, right in the center of attention. This was far, far out of her comfort zone. And to top things off, even the sun princess had apparently taken notice of her. She had sent a letter that had read something along the lines of "My little ponies, open arms, blah blah, give her a chance, yada yada, something terribly cheesy, Princess Celestia." The whole thing left her- "Embarrassed?" Twilight asked, seeing how tense Silk had gotten. "Embarrassed, overwhelmed, shocked, freaking the hoof out, mortified... yeah, let's go with 'mortified'," Silk replied. "All the ponies in this town are-" "Crazy? Yeah, trust me I've been there." "Oh, really?" Silk asked, a smug smile creeping along her face. "Yeah, like when-" "Your words, not mine," Silk teased in interruption, stifling a giggle. It took a moment but Twilight Sparkle soon realized her self-deprecation. "Hey!" she said with a small chuckle. "Will you two pay attention?" the pink party pony asked, suddenly face to face with Silk, albeit upside-down. Silk blinked a couple times in confusion before putting on a poker face. "... Pinkie?" "Yes?" "Could you, maybe, GET OFF MY HEAD?!" the changeling snapped. "Honestly, that's the third time this week!" Pinkie gave an upside down smile as she hopped to the ground. "Okie-dokie-lokie!" Silk had given up trying to understand how Pinkie did many of the things she did, including how she managed to stand on her head without her noticing. After a few hours, the party wound down, much to Silk's relief. She might have been new to this, but "fitting in" didn't seem compatible with "standing out" to her. The town moved on, apparently and strangely accustomed to random parades thrown by the resident hyperactive baker, leaving her simply standing there with Fluttershy and Twilight. Fluttershy, as usual, seemed content to observe. Well, that was disturbing. What just happened? What the hay was that? That's it? Everypony gets over me not being a pony, just like that? And... she thought, moving her hoof to her temple. "Ow my head," she whined. "I thought you knew not to think about how Pinkie does... whatever it is she does." Twilight reminded. Before she could respond, a trio of fillies ran up to Silk. Scootaloo was the first to ask. "Hey, Silky, how'd you get your cutie mark?" Silk blinked. "Well, I just made it. It doesn't really mean anything like a pony's does. It's actually only aesthetic and completely arbitrary for me." "Huh? You're makin' those words up!" Applebloom said accusingly. "No she isn't!" Sweetie Belle argued, who, having Rarity for a sister, definitely knew what aesthetic meant. "Showoff," Scootaloo grumbled at Sweetie Belle, who was once again playing the dictionary. "Okay okay, calm down," Twilight said, interrupting their argument before it got any further. "'Aesthetic' means something is only for looks, and 'arbitrary' means it's subject to whatever someone judges it to be. In this case, Silk is saying that her cutie mark is only for show and that she can change it or remove it completely whenever she wants to." "Aww, really?" Sweetie Belle said, disappointed. She knew Silk had fibbed about not knowing what her cutie mark meant, but she had thought it still meant something, since she had the same cutie mark the whole time. "Mhm," Silk confirmed, deciding to give a quick demonstration. A flash of green flames appeared on her flank, and when they receded, there was a cutie mark of a childishly-drawn house. A moment later, she cast the spell again, and there upon her flank sat a trio of bees. She kept making changes with a whoosh of flames punctuating each change, making them more quickly each time. Fwoosh. A bunny. Fwoosh. A bowl of soup. Fwoosh. A photorealistic view of Sugarcube Corner. A copy of Twilight's cutie mark. A copy of Applejack's cutie mark. A copy of Rarity's cutie mark. A caricature of the faces of the crusaders with buck teeth wearing dunce caps. "Hey!" the three protested in unison. Silk gave a small laugh. "Sorry, I couldn't resist." One more flash of flames, and her bed was back. "Anyway, I've gotten kind of attached to the bed, as silly as that sounds." "Yeah, that is silly," Sweetie Belle said. Well that's a bit blunt. "I mean, you could do anything you want! You could get good at all sorts of things," the white unicorn elaborated. "I'll remember that," Silk said. She didn't think this was some profound word of wisdom, but somehow she suspected she'd be thinking about it in the back of her mind for some time. "So, is there anything else?" "No, thank ya for showin' us," Applebloom said sincerely. "She wasn't any help, though." Scootaloo muttered, only to be lightly rapped on the head by Sweetie Belle. "Ow!" she exclaimed in a hushed yelp, more because it was the expected reaction than because it hurt. "Oh, wait! My sister said she wanted you to help her with somethin' on the farm when you were done with the parade," the yellow filly recalled as the other two crusaders ran off to do something else. She followed immediately. Silk shrugged. "I guess I'll see you later, girls," she said. Clearly it was best not to think about how Pinkie had pulled that off, as usual. Twilight and Fluttershy gave their short farewells and went about their business as well, Silk leaving for Sweet Apple Acres. Silk's tongue was hanging out of her mouth, trying to see if she could locate Applejack by taste. She was getting a general direction, but she could hardly be called a bloodhound with the degree of error she was getting. She wandered a fairly large patch of hilly orchard for a few minutes trying to zero in on her. A sense of direction didn't help for finding ponies, after all. After a few minutes, she came upon the farm mare working on applebucking. Silk at first questioned how apples were ready for harvest in late spring, but shrugged it off. Applejack then spotted her as well. "So, Applebloom said you needed help?" she queried. "Eeyup," she said with a smile, "I want you to help with applebuckin'," she answered. That wasn't too much a problem. "Okay, I can do that" Silk said. She had gotten very used to doing odd jobs around town by now, and picking apples was easy when you weren't at risk of being attacked by an angry farmer for being a thief. Silk's horn lit up as she reached out for a few apples. "Hold your horses there, sugarcube," AJ said, "I wanna see what ya can do without magic." Silk stopped. "Huh? But I'm not as strong as you, I'd barely get any apples down at all!" Silk complained. This seemed completely pointless, and using magic was one thing she used to comfort herself, since she hadn't lost that ability. Sure, it wasn't as dexterous as a Worker or Scavenger class', and wasn't as powerful as a Soldier's, but it was still her magic. It wasn't a big deal not using it for this, but it was enough to take her aback at the strangeness of the request. "That doesn't matter ta me. I just want to see what you can do." "Well, okay," Silk compled with some apprehension. What was she trying to get out of this? Silk lined herself up with a nearby tree, reared up on her hind legs a bit, before lowering them to the ground rapidly and delivering as strong a buck as she could to the apple tree, shaking a couple loose. "Just two," she confirmed to herself, looking at AJ, who only gestured for her to keep going. After fifteen minutes of bucking apples, she had only gathered a couple bushels full. She breathing heavily from the exhertion. She still didn't know why she was doing this this way, when suddenly her hooves were swept out from under her, eliciting a loud "EEP!". She then noticed that her hooves were all bound together by a rope. Specifically, a lasso. She looked up to see Applejack holding the other end. "Is this about the hole in the barn?" "You and me gotta have a heart ta heart, Silky," she said in a serious tone of voice. Silk could taste steely determination, suspicion, and concern on the pony. "You know, you're really not my type," Silk joked, "I mean, at least take me to one of those movie things first. Is that right, 'movie'?" Silk's jests added a slight bit of fluster to the flaxen-maned earth pony, but she was far more determined than that. "I'm serious. You're my friend, or at least I think ya are, and I'm sorry 'bout what I said, but you still lied about who you were, and that don't sit well with me." Silk sighed. Did she really have to tie me up? She could easily just blast the rope apart without harming herself, but she'd humor Applejack for now. "Just tell me what you want," she said in annoyance. This was the second time in two days that she had been tied up now, but this time it was less threatening and more simply rude. "Everythin'," she stated. "You might want to talk to Twilight about that," Silk answered. Applejack stamped her hoof in frustration. "You know full well what I mean! I want to know why y'all attacked Canterlot, why Pinkie kept sayin' you came from a 'rock farm'-" "'...Or someplace like a rock farm'," Silk interrupted with a correction. "-or someplace like a rock farm. I need to know the truth, Silky Sheets," she said, earning a growl from the changeling for using that wretched surname. "No more lies, no more fibs, no more games or changin' the subject. The whole and honest truth." Silk could tell that Applejack was determined not to let this go, but she really didn't want to talk about anything in the past. "Do I have to?" she asked, knowing full well what the answer would be. "Eeyup." Hmm, I got the word choice wrong. I was expecting a 'Darn tootin'' or something like that. "Fine. What do you want to know?" "Let's start at the beginning." "Well, some say that the universe began when-" "What did I say about changin' the subject?" "Technically I didn't," Silk grumbled. "Fine. I take it you don't want to know about folk-tales?" "Nope, just your tale. From the start," AJ replied. Silk sighed. The story was going to be awkward enough without the rope involved, with it it hit a whole new level of uncomfortable. "I was born to a pair of Scout Class changelings, and like most of such a coupling, I was born into the same class." Applejack raised an eyebrow. "So you're born? You're not hatched, and you're not laid by the queen?" Silk glared. "I'm not a bug, you racist!" she snapped, genuinely offended. Now that accusation actually got to Applejack. "Woah, sorry, I reckon that was way outta line." "Yes. Yes it was," Silk said, giving an indignant "HUMPH!" "So," Applejack lead off, trying to get back on track, "y'all said you were 'scout class'? What's that?" "Could you let me go first?" Silk asked, the idea of blasting the rope becoming more and more appealing with each passing second. "You promise not to run away?" Silk rolled her eyes. "I'd Pinkie promise, but I kinda need my limbs for that, don't I?" The farm mare untied the changeling, pulling the lasso off. Silk could explain this one comfortably. "Changelings come in classes, much like how Ponies can be Unicorns, Pegasi, Earth Ponies, and the rare Alicorn. There are six classes: Worker, Soldier, Scout, Scavenger, Chevalier, and Queen, though some don't count the queen and more don't count the chevaliers. Each class has a different role in the swarm and can be told apart by different physical features. Workers are... were... the most populous class, and it's their job to take care of education, medical services, construction, and overall the widest variety of tasks. Soldiers aren't as numerous, but they're physically the second largest class after the Queen, with very tough shells and have particularly powerful blasts from their horns, and their fangs are actually longer. Scavengers, there were only a dozen of them, tasked with gathering resources and distributing food as best they could... it just wasn't enough; they had larger horns than usual. Scouts, such as myself, have smaller fangs and weaker magic, but the largest and fastest wings; it's a scout's job to gather information of all sorts, and as such we acted as spies or scientists or, well, scouts, each training to specialize in another race." AJ was struggling to get all that. It seemed that if she really got going, Silk could be almost as talkative and nearly as boring as Twilight. "So you're trained in Ponies?" Silk snorted in a stifled laugh. "Hardly. Haven't you seen how much of a foal I make of myself? Ponies and zebras are just the easiest to transform into. I was a dracologist." AJ was scratching her head in an easily sensed confusion. "Dragons," the changeling clarified, taking the nonverbal prompt. "Alright, so skippin' ahead, how were your folks?" AJ asked. Silk didn't answer, she just looked up. The skies overhead were clear blue, but to the south were large rainclouds pouring over the land. "... I hate the rain." "Pardon?" Silk was changing the subject again. "I said 'I hate the rain'. Nothing good ever happens when it rains, it only leaves misery in its wake," she said. "I don't remember much of my parents, they died when I was young." Applejack sat there for a moment without saying anything. "What happened?" Silk flared up irritably. "Oh for Chrys' sake, what is this, twenty questions?! How's that any of your business? How's any of it?" she nearly yelled in a biting tone. The orange pony sat down. "Normally? It ain't none of my business, but Twi said you live on emotion?" "Yeah, so?" "Well," she said, tilting her hat back on her head, "I reckon if good feelings are food, then bad feelings gotta be the opposite." Applejack paused, but all Silk did was break eye contact. "I'm right, aren't I?" she questioned, only for Silk to remain silent. "That's why I had ya applebuckin', to see if you were feelin' alright. I know how much you can do normally, or I think I do, and that wasn't near as much as you've been doin'." "Are you getting to a point to all this nonsense?" the blue "unicorn" asked. That explained why she didn't care about the actual strength of the bucks; she had set up an endurance test, and apparently Silk had failed. "Yeah, all this stuff? If ya don't get it out in the open, it's gonna eat you alive. It's killin' you, in a way far too real for my tastes. So I need you to tell me everythin', even though it's hard. Because it's hard. Please." Silk could taste that Applejack was being sincere. She sighed again. "Fine, but I don't like it." "That's all I'm askin'. You said you lost your parents when you were little?" Silk nodded. "I can relate. I lost my parents when I was little too. There was a fire in the barn, and... well, they didn't make it." Applejack had had her time to grieve over this, and while it wasn't the most comfortable subject, she had accepted it long ago. "Oh I doubt you can relate," Silk said, her face excessively grim. She wasn't sad, or rather, she was doing her best not to show it. "Yes I can, I just said-" Applejack began in protest, only to be interrupted. "Oh really? Did you kill your parents, too?" Silk asked in a monotone, her face stoic. Applejack was shocked, and somewhat horrified. "Wha- what?" "Life was hard in the marsh. Starvation and death spirals were the most common forms of death. The only way to survive was to cut off your emotions as completely as possible, lest you succumb to a death spiral yourself, your emotions poisoning you, becoming stronger from the poison, and poisoning you ever more thoroughly, until you died, nopony daring to come near you or be caught in it themselves." Silk spat, a vile, bitter taste in her mouth from remembering this. "I was never the best at suppressing my emotions. I was just... sad. All the time. No food? No light? No warmth? Living in some rotten bog, with Everfree encroaching ever further? Why wouldn't I be sad? I got that from my mother, I guess, because when she saw me so... dead... she became depressed. It got so bad, that she went into a death spiral herself." Applejack was just sitting there, unable to respond yet. "She died in less than a fortnight. I couldn't even see her, my father wouldn't let me because I'd just go into a death spiral too," she said. Silk was becoming angry. "Not that it did anything, no. I just went right down into a death spiral myself because I got way too emotional when my mother died. And then my father..." Silk said, pausing. "... you know we eat emotion? Well, if we 'gorge' ourselves on one individual, we leave that individual completely drained of that emotion for a time. And my father?" Silk yelled, giving an incredulous chuckle. "The moron actually went and gorged himself... on me. On my own stupid misery! That idiot went and died because of me!" Silk stopped, realizing she had stood up and started shouting. She sat down again, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "It was raining that day... raining so hard... but for once, I wasn't sad. Just outraged... and yet indifferent. I couldn't be sad, he took that away. After that, walling off my emotions was so much easier. That answer your stupid question?" Silk asked bitterly. Applejack kept waiting for a moment, trying to take it all in, but was having a difficult time comprehending what was said. It looked like Silk was finished talking for a while. "Sorta. I reckon I get why your folks did that, but there are other things I'm just not gettin'." "Yeah, you go ahead and say what you're going to," Silk scoffed. "Your folks musta loved ya a lot, an' they couln't bear watchin' ya so sad. Watchin' ya made your ma even sadder than you were, and that got her. Your father didn't want you to die, so he gave his own life to save yours." "Pitifully weak, the lot of us," Silk nodded. "Uh, what?" Silk rolled her eyes. Ponies often did not have the same values that changelings did, which she was constantly forgetting and equally being reminded of. "We have a saying, or had one. 'Apathy is the road to strength'. If you don't care about something, it won't matter to you when it's gone. If you don't get your hopes up, you can't have your hopes dashed. Why aim for the stars, when you never miss when you don't aim at all? Caring can get a changeling killed." "You don't sound like you don't care," Applejack commented. Silk shrugged. "Yeah, well, I gave up trying to be strong. I'm weak, and I'm done pretending otherwise." "Well yeah, nopony's strong on their own," Applejack said. Silk raised an eyebrow. This coming from somepony as physically fit as her? Not only that, but her brother was downright frighteningly strong, or would be if he would be if he wasn't so mellow. Still, Applejack continued. "No, I'm not, either. Do ya think I could harvest this whole orchard on my own?" "Eeyup" Silk replied, mimicking Big Macintosh's voice. AJ chuckled. "Well thanks for the vote of confidence, but I can't do that, I just ain't that strong, not on my own. Believe me, I found out the hard way. I tried once, but after a while I... kinda went nuts. You know what I did?" Silk squinted in annoyance. "Are you going to keep waiting on answers for questions you're just going to answer in a few seconds anyway? Those are supposed to be rhetorical!" AJ scratched her head. "Red-yer-whatnow?" Silk rolled her eyes. Lovely, I have to explain rudimentary terms even some dumb soldier class would know. Again. "It means 'a question that doesn't actually need a response', such as one you're going to answer in a second anyway." "Well no need ta get snippy 'bout it," Applejack said. "What I did was I let my friends help me. You get your strength from friends and family, not from not carin' 'bout anythin'." Silk blinked a bit. "You... sound like Skitter." "Friend of yours?" Applejack asked. "I considered him more of a partner than a friend... but I guess... in hindsight... he was." "I'm sorry. Is he-" "Of course he is. All of us are either dead like him, or gone. You're looking at the only exception." Applejack waited a while, the two of them just staring at the sky in silence. "What was he like?" The changeling sighed. "That's a good memory. Not happy, never happy, but..." "Hey, are you okay?" Silk looked up to see another changeling scout about her age looking at her. "Skitter, right? Been worse. Been better." "Sorry to hear about your parents." he thought. Silk got a tiny twinge of bittersweet pity from the boy. Silk scoffed. "I'm not. I don't care about my mother anymore, she's dead, that's all there is to it, and frankly, my father was an idiot who got himself killed." "He was saving you." "Exactly. If I was weak enough to die, he should've just let me." "I... nevermind. What'll you do now?" Silk shrugged. "Beats me. I'll probably find a cloud or something to sleep on. Nothing's changed." Skitter frowned. "Anypony ever tell you you're a bad liar?" "Nope, never had a pony tell me that," Silk replied sarcastically. Skitter laughed. "Okay, miss literalpants. You're welcome to stay with me, if you want." Silk raised her eyebrows before putting on a devilish smile. "Bringing a stray home? And a girl, too? Oh what would your parents say?" she teased. Also, 'literalpants'? What are we, two? she thought to herself. "Not much, considering they're dead too," he said, eerily relaxed about it. Skitter was very weird. Silk could tell he was having fun with this, and was hoping she'd take him up on his offer. If the two had been ponies, they would have been sent to an orphanage, but as changelings there was no such thing. Fortunately, Skitter still had his parents' tree-house. "You're certainly a chipper one." "I guess I am, aren't I?" he answered with a smile. "Then you're even weaker than I am. How exactly are you still alive?" she asked. Skitter tapped his cavatied hoof against his chin. "Hmm, I would say it's because I just look at the bright side. But if you think that makes me weak, then how about we lend each other our strength?" Silk pondered. "Well, what have I got to lose?" "Oh my gosh, what're we gonna do, what're we gonna do, what're we gonna do, what're we gonna do?!" Skitter thought in a panic. It had been several years since then, and he and Silk had been tasked with the study of the dragons, with emphasis placed on long-term patterns. They'd only been there a couple of weeks, but already they had drawn the attention of some more aggressive dragon youths. They had ducked away into a small cave that the two had claimed as a home base. "Oh would you relax? We were transformed, it's not like our cover is blown. They were just being territorial and trying to show dominance, and they would have backed off if you weren't so rife with fear." Silk thought that he was being a scardy-shell, though that fear was rational enough that it couldn't be called a phobia. "Then they aren't looking for us anymore?" "Oh, no, they're definitely looking for us, and there's a good chance they'll attack us on sight now that we've shown ourselves weak targets." "Oh, gee, thanks a lot. That's really reassuring," Skitter remarked sarcastically, shooting her a dirty look. Silk pressed her hoof between her eyes. Sometimes it really felt like she was foalsitting him. She put her hoof back down and approached the mouth of the cave. "I'll protect you." "Wha, huh?" Skitter thought, stunned. "I swear, I'll die before I let harm come to you. After that, though, I don't really have much say in the matter," she responded, joking on the second part. "... Thank you..." "You're welcome." "... but I told you, didn't I? We'll lend each other our strength." Skitter's fear was gone. Silk could taste confidence and determination coming from her companion, and also just a hint of something sweet. She chuckled. "Okay, fine then, mr. tough guy. If we have to, we'll defend ourselves together." Silk sighed. "He died a month ago in Canterlot. This huge monster hurt him really badly. He got me too, kicked me so hard I went flying out of the castle and into the forest. I guess that's why I'm still here. Skitter tried to tell me to run, but I didn't listen. I told him I'd protect him, what else was I supposed to do but try to get him away? I was a pretty quick flyer, but that... thing... he was unbelievable. I've only ever seen two things move that fast, Flit and Rainbow Dash. I was lucky I reacted in time, or my injuries would have been far worse, but still... I broke my promise to him." "Good. Now, just a couple more things." Silk groaned. "Oh for the love of Chrys, still?" The pony nodded. "Mhm. Just two more. Why did you attack Canterlot?" Uh oh. That's not a good subject, Silk thought. "That's obvious, isn't it?" Applejack just shook her head. Silk got up and started talking quickly, not wanting to discuss this and feeling guilty about it. "We were told to. Nice talk, gotta run, things to do, places to-" She had begun waking away, but was interrupted by a rope yanking her hind leg, not causing her to fall but halting her advance. I swear, one more time and I'll break this darn thing she thought. "Why did y'all go along with it? I don't get it." Gee, there's a shocker. Silk huffed. "If one of your pony princesses told you there was a way to save all of Equestria from famine, darkness, and death, wouldn't you do anything she asked of you for that goal?" Applejack had to admit to herself, if that was why, she could understand, but... "Just how was attackin' Canterlot supposed to help you?" "I'd have to ask the queen, oh wait, I can't. All I know is that we thought it would make her happy... if she's happy, then we're happy. It's her role in the swarm to love us... and from that love, we could feed and be happy. But she wasn't happy. She was never happy, just like the rest of us. We would have done anything, taken any risk, made any sacrifice, if it would make her happy. But no... she wasn't. That was our last gambit, and we failed. In the end, we all paid the ultimate price, in one of two ways. Every one of us either died, or was sent to... there, except me." Applejack looked sad for a moment. "Naw, I reckon you paid a mighty high price too. Losin' everypony you ever knew? I can't think 'a a higher price than that. But why didn't y'all just do what you're doin' now? Livin' offa' other races' feelin's without hurtin' anypony?" Silk shook in anger. "Because we were betrayed. We were betrayed, and I'm the only one who knows it. That... THING does not deserve to be called a queen! We were lied to... for thousands of years at least we were lied to, by her, and her predecessors. We were told that the ponies and griffons and everything were evil. Love and joy were 'rare commodities.' That they were filled with arrogance and greed, spite and envy, that they were gluttonous and vain and wrathful. Some claimed they learned to feed off of hatred, anger, and rage. They could thrive on loathing and spite. I never could. Most of us couldn't. Two of the chevaliers, Scarab and Cocoon, said they could keep going just on their own hatred. I believe it. Scarab was actually so twisted by his hatred that he was exiled until recently. I guess that makes us the monsters, doesn't it?" Silk had echoed Applejack's accusations, leaving her feeling guilty. "I didn't mean it when I said that," the mare said apologetically. Silk shook her head. "No, you were right. We were monsters. Do you know what I was doing in Canterlot?" AJ scratched her head. "I reckon y'all were scarppin' with somepony. Heck, I lost count 'a the number 'a changelings that tangled with us before they got us." Wait, she was there? Silk thought, before shaking it from her mind. That wasn't important right now. "You were probably up against the worker class. The Soldiers were ordered only to target the military. The scouts... we had a different objective. We were ordered to find anypony fleeing, and capture them. We were going to enslave you, harvest you like you were just a bunch of these trees. To trap you and take away both your land and your freedom. We didn't know exactly how we were going to get love and happiness out of that, and the worst part? We didn't even care." Silk became increasingly manic. "I didn't care about it, I would have done anything to please the queen! We all would! We were starving, dying, why wouldn't we? I would have killed without hesitation if I had been told to! Don't you get it, I could think for myself, but I never did! None of us did! What does that make me if not a monster, some feral beast?!" Applejack nodded. "I guess you were monsters then..." Silk laughed. "See? You were right, I-" "... but you're not anymore," Applejack continued, interrupting Silk's breakdown. Silk was caught offguard. "What?" "You're not a monster. You might have been, but not anymore," Applejack stated. "You changed." "What do you mean?" Silk asked. She didn't think she was that different. "Well, you tell me, then. Would you still hurt somepony? Would you do whatever that queen 'o yours told you?" Applejack questioned. Silk responded frantically. "No! No, I wouldn't, never again!! If I-" "Then I don't see the problem. A monster wouldn't feel bad about it, or try to forget about it. A monster doesn't feel guilty or sorry, and wouldn't care 'bout doin' it again. But I think there's an easier way to tell," Applejack explained. Silk lowered her head a little, trying to avoid eye contact with the farmer, but Applejack put a hoof over her shoulder. "Monsters don't cry, especially for others." "Damn it..." Silk said, trying to avoid crying. There was no reason to, and it wasn't rational. It made her feel so very, very helpless. Still, she couldn't help but feel a powerful mixture of sweet happiness and bitter sadness, which brought tears unbidden. "Damn it, damn it... I'm so... pathetic," she said, a couple drops of salted water escaping from her eyes. "Ain't nothin' pathetic 'bout cryin' after goin' through what you've gone through," Applejack said comfortingly. Silk's troubles had finally been laid bare, all but one, and a wave of forgiveness and sympathy from her friend began to heal those old wounds of the soul. Still, there was one trouble left. "One last thing," Applejacked asked, "what happened to the rest of the changelings?" Silk shook her head. "No, I can't... I can't answer that. I don't even want to think about it! I wish I could scour it from my memory, but I can't! It would be easier if I knew they were dead, but what happened is... unspeakable. I'm sorry, I just... can't." Applejack sighed. "Okay. You alright?" she asked. Silk noded. "Just... just give a minute." Applejack complied, taking a few steps back and giving her a little space. The two sat there wordlessly for a time, just watching the sky. It was a lot less fulfilling for Silk than what she was used to. The clouds did not typically float of their own accord here, and those did were swiftly brought into line. She could not touch the sky as she once could, and as such it felt distant; she felt somewhat detached from it. Still, sometimes the simplest things were the most comforting. The sun was beginning its descent into the horizon, the sky slowly changing from blue, to amber, then going into orange and finally a brilliant rose. "I should go." Applejack turned to her companion. "You okay?" Silk paused. "Yeah. I think... I think I am. Thank you," Silk said sincerely, giving a faint smile. "Anythin' for a friend, and I'm a might sorry 'bout callin' you that yesterday." Silk gave a sheepish grin. "Uh, call it even for the hole in the wall?" she asked. The earth pony chuckled. "Sure, ya still did less damage than Rainbow and Derpy do in a week." Silk didn't doubt it. The two bid each other good bye, and despite the pain of recalling those memories, Silk felt better for having done so. Silk did not return home to Fluttershy's cottage right away. Instead, she took a detour, going a couple hundred feet into the Everfree Forest. Eventually she stopped in her tracks. She frowned. "So, I guess you're not just following me to eavesdrop, are you?" she said, turning to her eight o'clock. Whoever it was didn't get the hint. "Are you going to come out or what? I know you've been following me all day." No answer, but Silk could taste a quick flash of panic. At this point the faux-pony was getting irritated, and fired a blast into the treetops, sending a couple of small branches falling somewhere into the brush. There was an audible thunk. "Ow! Fine, I get it!" A dark forest-green coated unicorn mare stepped out from behind the shrubbery rubbing her head with her hoof, a simple map sextant adorning her flank. Her mane and tail were pitch black, and she was wearing a pair of yellow tinted sunglasses. It was Shadowdancer. Silk glared. "Why are you following me?" "I can't say." Silk raised an eyebrow. There was no curiosity on this mare. "Well then, allow me to hypothesize. I know you're not here to ask me a question, and since you haven't tried anything, you're not trying to do anything to me, at least not yet. You're watching me. Why?" "Sorry, I still can't say," Shadowdancer replied. Her cover was clearly blown, but Silk wasn't hurting anypony, so she clearly wasn't supposed to detain her. Well, she had just knocked her on the noggin with some tree branches, but that was clearly an attempt to flush the cartographer out. "Fine. Then stop," Silk stated. The sun had set now, and the moon took its time in the sky, and shadows were all around. Retreat would be a simple matter if needed, but the question was what to do. The Lunar Guard was tasked with far subtler missions on par than its solar counterpart. As such, the princess herself had given some general orders in the inevitable event that somepony got caught. If in danger and you have the upper hoof, strike. If in danger, and at a disadvantage, retreat. If not in danger, and exposed to an enemy, strike. If not in danger, and exposed to a friend or third party, depending on the situation, either redeploy from another angle, retreat, or substitute another member of the guard. The problem was, just what was Silk? Friend? Foe? Somewhere in between? Shadowdancer didn't know, but this changeling did not seem like an enemy, at least not from what she had seen over the last day. Shadowdancer took a guess. "I'm afraid I can't do that." Silk stamped her hoof. "Well what can you do!? Leave me alone!" Silk shot a small blast of magic at the pony, just enough to swat her on the nose. However, as the spell went off, it did more than make Shadowdancer wince. The sunglasses were blown apart at the bridge, drooping down on the guard's muzzle. Silk gasped. There were those eyes again. Those same golden eyes that she had seen so vividly a month beforehoof. She stammered, "Y-you're-" Just then, a blinding flash of white light blasted through the trees behind Shadowdancer, cloaking her in shadow, lingering for a few moments, accompanied by a deafening thunderclap. Silk was forced to shut her eyes, and Shadowdancer took the opportunity and opened a portal back to canterlot to report back to the princess. When Silk opened her eyes, her mystery stalker was gone. She stuck her tongue out to try to get a taste of her, but she was nowhere near her. "Did she teleport away?" she asked herself aloud. She looked around, searching for the source of the lightning bolt. It was way too unlikely that the timing of that was a coincidence or a random act of nature, but there were no clouds for miles. Unnerved, Silk headed for Fluttershy's cottage at a quick trot. Shadowdancer knocked on the door to Luna's chambers, having opted not to travel directly in like last time in an effort to lessen the inevitable chewing out that she was about to recieve. Luna's voice came from inside. "Who is it?" "Shadowdancer, ma'am!" she yelled through the door. "You may come in," the princess stated, more commanding than offering, and Shadowdancer obliged. It was dark in the room, save for a quartet of candlesticks glowing upon the princess's desk. The princess was hunched over, a number of seemingly ancient tomes lying open upon its surface. Pieces of parchement lay scattered in a disorganized clutter in and around the books, Luna frantically scribbling notes inside. "Your report?" she asked, not breaking her focus on her work. Luna had been spending much of her time these last two years at her desk in an attempt to bridge the painfully long gap in her knowledge of the world. She sometimes even joked that her medical license was only 998 years past due for renewal. Still, the clutter was odd. The Princess was always fairly organized in her studies, though not obsessively so. This did not go unnoticed by the unicorn entering the room. "I, uh, about Silk?" "Yes, what about her?" Luna asked hurriedly. Shadowdancer shuffled her forelegs guiltily, sweeping a hoof along the ground. "I, uh, she found out I was following her. I'm sorry, I failed you." Luna lifted a hoof in a dismissive motion, still staring at a tome. "You didn't fail me, of course she discovered you, that was to be expected. How did she react?" SD's jaw dropped. "What do you mean that was 'to be expected'?!" Luna sighed and turned around, finally looking her subordinate in the eye. "Naturally when I ordered you to follow her closely, I knew that the emphasis I put on the aforementioned adverb would cause you to overcompensate actual physical distance you'd tail her at, due to your semi-compulsive desire to avoid displeasing me. At that short a range, any changeling would easily be able to tell that he or she was being followed. That's why I sent Fletch to watch her, and provide means of escape and cover fire if necessary. With his eyes and accuracy, he can observe her from several miles away; out of reach, well out of range for a changeling's sense of 'taste', invisible to the casual observer, and able to strike at a moment's notice if she attacks somepony. I told him to stay just three and a half miles away and told him to use a telescope just to make sure. You were there to get an accurate picture of how hostile she would be to somepony ambiguous as to whose side they were on," Luna explained. Looking back to her tome, the ruler of the night sighed. "And now I've lost my train of thought. Well, in that case, I'd like you to describe everything that happened today." It took some time, but Shadowdancer explained the day's events, from the simple morning to the flamboyant parade, to as many details as she could remember overhearing, all the way up until Fletch's arc of lightning. At the end, Luna nodded. "So, only one half-count against her." "Is that good?" Shadowdancer asked. Luna shrugged. "Yes and no. Yes, it means that so far, Silk is proving to be deserving of a second chance. It also means that evidence is mounting that I'm right, and.. I don't know if I want to be. All the same, I'll keep her under observation until I can sort this all out." After what happened with Firefly millenia ago, and her own actions, she did not know who she trusted less. Even now it felt like Nightmare Moon was haunting her. "What is it you might be right about?" "... you're dismissed, guardsmare. I have a lot of research to do," Luna said, turning around and looking at her tome again. Shadowdancer glanced down at what the princess was working on, gleaning the title of one of the books. Encyclopedia of Darkness, Volume 2. Second Revision Luna must have had eyes in the back of her head, because she addressed Shadowdancer's growing concern. "Relax, Shadowdancer, it is an encyclopedia, not a grimoire. Now, I believe I said you're dismissed." The guard gave a salute and walked out of the room quickly, leaving the demigoddess staring at her tomes. The flames flickered on her desk, casting a long shadow behind the alicorn, full of doubt and fear.