//------------------------------//
// Nothing To Be Done 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"This is Valey," Amber said, nudging the shell forward. It blinked at Celestia with empty eyes. "She used to be..."

Celestia nodded gently. "I understand. And yet she does not appear hostile or feral. She is far more like the changelings I used to know..."

"Changelings?" Harshwater tilted her head.

"Used to know?" Amber murmured, leaning closer.

"That is the name we have given them in Equestria," Celestia replied. "Few know of their existence, because they are almost always live lives as ordinary sarosians. But they were created in my lands, and I saw them at their genesis. Has she not displayed any of her powers?"

Amber blinked at the changeling. "Powers?"

"They are capable of changing their form and assuming mannerisms in response to powerful emotions around them," Celestia said, leaning towards Valey and lighting her horn. "Despite having no souls themselves, they have a limited ability to reflect the souls of others, rooted in their nature as creatures of emotion. When empty like this one, they subside on the positive emotions of others, rather than food. This one looks remarkably well-taken care of." She lifted her head, meeting Amber's eyes. "You care deeply about who she was."

"We all do," Amber replied, keeping her gaze from shaking. "Can you fix her?"

"Returning a soul to its body after it has moved on is no small feat, especially for a sarosian," Celestia murmured. "I am afraid it is far beyond my abilities."

"Oh..." Amber's ears fell, and a single tear trickled free.

Jamjars curled her lip. "Tell that to Garsheeva. She did it for us."

Celestia instantly fixed her with a curious gaze. "Hello, little one. You have met with Garsheeva?"

"In her crystal palace," Amber replied, pointing down the stairs. "Though I think everyone who actually saw her is inside... She put back together another friend of ours who had her cutie mark pulled out with moon glass."

"Hmm. Cutie marks." A smile twitched across Celestia's muzzle, belying deep concern in her eyes. "I did not know that was a common term in the north."

Saffron shrugged, holding and staring at her splint. "It's a term that gets spread around."

Nobody else spoke, and Celestia sighed. "She has not gone feral." She glanced at Valey, and her gaze moved on to Felicity. "And you are still whole. You escaped the influence that stripped all the rest of the Empire's sarosians of their souls."

Felicity shrugged, looking at the floor. "Yes, well... some of us were luckier than others, I suppose."

"This ship is powered by harmony," Grenada cut in, standing straighter. "No one aboard it was affected. Perhaps it protected us while it still had power. Unfortunately, now it is empty, and we are stranded as a result..." Her voice carried a tone that clearly suggested she thought there was something Celestia could do.

"Harmony can mean many things, my little pony," Celestia replied. "Explain."

Grenada hesitated, moving to the entry. "It will be easiest to show you, if you are familiar with magical technology."

Celestia stood very straight, her horn suddenly pulsing with some kind of signal. When everyone blinked, she nodded, stepping toward the door. "I am alerting my soldiers for our protection," she explained. "Your ship is surrounded by a hidden vanguard right now in case we are approached by the children of the Forest King, or Arimaspi's brood."

With varying degrees of acceptance, the ponies nodded, and Grenada led Celestia to the engine room, Amber and Valey close behind. The princess's head was bowed to avoid the ceiling, and when she entered the room, Jamjars' machine was still stuck into a console, Maple laying on a bed nearby.

Maple gasped, and immediately winced. "Ow...! Are you...?"

Celestia kept her head low, mindful of her horn against the doorframe, and straightened up once she could, nearly touching the rail array that conducted harmonic power. She kept a perfectly even face as she surveyed everything in the room, and eventually lit her horn towards Maple, bathing her in the same yellow glow that had suffused Saffron. "You are clearly injured," she whispered. "This will speed your healing."

Amber and Grenada entered the room as well, the rest staying behind to conserve space. "It is slightly patched together at the moment," Grenada admitted. "But our ship runs on the same type of power borrowed from ponies' brands."

Celestia's eyes next went to the obsidian sword. "You did not find this merely anywhere."

"It's different from regular moon glass?" Amber looked closer, holding Valey closely at her side. "We think she's inside..."

Celestia shook her head. "The meteor from eight years ago never fractured into that shape." She leaned closer, her eyes inches from the material. That close, both Celestia's outline and the sword itself seemed to shimmer faintly, as if they were reacting to each other in a magical way that wasn't entirely confined to one world. "Where did you come by this?" she asked, stepping away.

Amber winced. "Is this a question that could have really bad answers?"

Celestia gave her a serious look.

"My daughter made it," Maple interrupted, lifting her head. "Using Nightmare Modules. And now she's trapped inside."

"Is this true?" Celestia turned to face her. "The Nightmare Modules are not things ordinary ponies would even know of, much less use. And obsidian confined cutie marks alone. How do you mean she is trapped inside?"

Grenada shrugged. "She tripped and fell inside. I do not know how it occurred."

Celestia squinted at her.

"Either way, Valey might be in there too," Amber insisted, picking up Valey by the shoulders and holding the changeling up. "Even if we had her cutie mark in there, is there nothing you could do?"

Celestia looked at the sword for a long moment. "Do you know the legends of Nightmare Moon associated with this substance?"

"Maybe," Amber replied. "But I don't know if they're true."

"This black glass repels me," Celestia apologized. "Its original creator willed it to hold things separate from me. I could attack it, burn it, shatter it, hurl it into the sun, and it would refuse to yield to me. If something you seek is lost inside, there is still nothing I can do."

Amber's ears fell. "Nothing at all? Not even when I have her body right here?"

"I am sorry, my little pony." Celestia shook her head. "But that body is not your friend, and will never be again, no matter how much care you show it. Even if it one day learns to utilize its powers and transforms into an image you love, it will merely be a shadow, living off your love for it. There is nothing you can do but let go."

"Nothing." Amber's eyes burned into Celestia's. "Garsheeva could do something. There was a stallion called Chauncey who was trying to do this through science, too. Do you mean nothing, or...?"

"Nothing that would be worth disrupting the natural cycle of the world," Celestia replied. "All things are possible with the right power and the right will, even the ones that are not meant to be. You are a pony, as you were meant to be, and this is your fate. I am sorry."