Scarlet didn’t know for sure how long she had remained like that, enveloped in that warm group hug, but it did, eventually, have to come to an end. She slowly inched out of the embrace with a shaky smile, looking down into Primrose’s eyes. The filly looked back up at her from her mother’s embrace, returning the smile enthusiastically.
After a moment, Sclera looked up to Spike, a question in her eyes. “So, what happens now?” she asked.
Spike shrugged. “To be frank? Hell if I know. This is all pretty surreal, not gonna lie. For now, though, this is where your work ends, and ours begins,” he replied before nodding towards the glyph door they had come through. “You’re all welcome to stay in Sanctuary for the time being. Sclera, Primrose, you two are welcome to live here if it is your choice.”
“What about us?” Lens asked. He settled down next to Scarlet, draping a foreleg over her shoulders. “I know we aren’t changelings. Are you going to ask us to leave at some point?”
“Possibly,” Spike replied without missing a beat.
Scarlet’s ears drooped, her gaze flicking down to Prim again. Judging by the uneasy look on the filly’s face, she was having the same thought. If Scarlet and Lens were asked to leave, that would most likely mean leaving Sclera and Primrose behind…
“If that is what comes to pass,” Scarlet thought after a moment with a deep breath. “I can take comfort in the knowledge that they are safe here.”
Spike continued a second later. “It all depends on how you conduct yourselves. I brought you here as an exception to the rules because you were guarding the drones who had the Lamp, but until I can truly get a measure of you, I won’t be making any promises one way or the other.”
Scarlet nodded her head. “I understand.”
“Good,” Spike said. He glanced down at Flurry, who was still looking over the Lamp. “Now, if you don’t mind, Flurry and I need some time alone. You’re free to explore Sanctuary to your heart’s content. If you need to move into another chamber, ask the guards by the paths, they can open the way. If you get lost, ask one of the drones, and they can give you directions.”
Primrose lifted herself up onto her hind legs, excitedly placing her hooves on her mother’s chest. “You hear that, mom?! We get to explore! Come on!” she squealed in delight before shooting passed her mother for the glyph door.
Spike lifted a claw. “Er, now hang on-”
Splat.
“Oooow!”
Scarlet grimaced as Primrose flew face-first into the glyph door. She slowly slid down it with a comical squeaking sound, like a frog slipping down dry glass, before plopping to the floor with an agitated huff.
Spike lowered the claw. “...See, you’re not attuned to the Hive yet, so you can’t open the way.”
Lens grinned. “Attunement to the Hive? That’s fascinating.”
Primrose shot her hooves into the air. “No! It’s stupid!”
Sclera hid her giggles behind a hoof. “I don’t know, Protea. Lens makes a good point. The sound you just made was very intriguing.”
“Moooom!”
Scarlet rolled her eyes.
The next few hours passed by in something of a blur. The group, with a bit of help from Flurry to open the way, left behind the Thrones to explore the rest of Sanctuary. They didn’t really have any direction at first, and so just aimlessly meandered around to take in the sights. Scarlet hung in the back of the group, listening in to the idle chatter of the others, but only rarely offering her own input. Her mind was elsewhere.
For one thing, she was still reeling from the sheer volume of information that had just been dumped on all of them. Learning so much about the Fall in such a short span of time had done wonders to throw her brain into overdrive, causing her to reevaluate almost everything she knew of that murky period of pony history. This was only compounded by the Lamp’s intrinsic connection to that apocalypse.
Scarlet paused at an intersection for a moment. She looked up towards the cave ceiling, catching sight of another large bundle of resin that cast its subtle green glow over the entire chamber.
“In the next few days, Princess Twilight Sparkle will return to the world,” she thought to herself, her brow furrowing at the notion. “And Spike seemed sure that there will be much work to be done when she is released… he had said they might begin to set things right.”
A few changelings passed her by, each of them giving her a questioning look. There was a little nymph in their midst, a green one perhaps two or three years younger than Primrose with a bright red shell that matched his crimson eyes. He looked up at her before looking up at who Scarlet assumed was his mother. “Mommy? What’s that?” he asked innocently.
The mother ushered him on with a whispered scolding. She shot Scarlet a careful glance over her shoulder as if she were afraid the unicorn might lash out at any moment. Scarlet stared after her with an impassive look and a subtle tingling sensation at the base of her skull. She shook her head and looked away before breaking into a canter to catch up to the others.
While her mood was significantly improved from earlier thanks in large part to Flurry’s healing, she was unable to shake an unsettling feeling on the base of her neck. Part of it was the fact that she was still surrounded by changelings on all sides, many of whom stared with uncertainty and fear. Spike hadn’t spread the word about their purpose yet, and if Primrose’s life was any indication of what they had been forced to endure before coming here, most of these changelings had plenty of reason to be skeptical of her.
But there was something else making her uncomfortable, and it was arguably even worse. She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it, though. Whatever it was, it made her eyes dart at the shadows whenever something moved that she hadn’t spotted before, which was usually just another changeling going about their day.
Up ahead, Primrose suddenly came to a stop and turned around to look at her. “Scarlet? What’s wrong?” she asked directly, her eyes meeting the unicorn’s.
Scarlet froze. “W-what…?”
Primrose frowned, stepping up to her while the others turned to look. “Scarlet, I know what you’re feeling, remember? I can see and taste it all the time. And right now, you’re…” she scrunched up her muzzle. “...Scared? Angry? I dunno. Something like that.”
“I can attest to that,” Sclera agreed softly, coming up to stand next to her daughter. “Although I chose to hold my peace… I cannot say I know you nearly as well as Primrose does. It wasn’t my place to pry.”
Scarlet took a step back. “I…” she choked out, trying and failing to find the words to express her feelings.
Lens was quick to join them, although judging by the uneasy look on his face, it wasn’t to press the subject. “H-hey, don’t gang up on her,” he cut in, putting a hoof in front of them to halt their questions. He met Scarlet’s gaze directly. “...If she doesn’t want to talk about it, we shouldn’t force her. We saw what happened last time…”
Primrose visibly wilted at the reminder, scuffing her hoof on the floor. “...right. Sorry, Scarlet,” she apologized in a meek little whisper.
Scarlet was briefly taken aback, but was quick to regain her senses. She shook her head and brushed Lens’ hoof aside. She gave him an appreciative smile. “Thank you, Lens, but I can speak for myself, thank you,” she said gently before lowering herself down to be closer to Primrose’s eye level.
The nymph took a step forward, looking deep into Scarlet’s eyes with concern. “Scarlet…?” she whispered.
Scarlet sighed and looked down. Even now, she had a hard time meeting the foal’s gaze. “I’m not sure,” she said, a simple half-lie. “Something just feels off to me. Maybe I’m just paranoid and weary from the journey, but…” she stood up and looked around at the chamber they were in, at the various homes and the changelings who occupied them.
“Something just doesn’t feel right. It’s almost like...” she turned back to Primrose. “Have you ever noticed how you can smell rain moments before it starts coming down? How your instincts warn you about it?”
Primrose nodded her head slowly. “Yeah, kinda. Why?”
Scarlet glanced up, her brow angling down into an unsettled grimace. “It’s kind of like that. I feel like something big is coming our way… I just don’t know what.”
Lens reached out to put a hoof on her shoulder, a reassuring smile on his face. “Hey, we’ll be fine. It’s probably just the shock of everything that’s happened recently.”
Scarlet placed her hoof on his to anchor herself before smiling back. “Maybe you’re right… but just to be sure, I’ll be keeping an eye on our backs, if it’s all the same to you.”
Lens nodded before pulling his hoof away. “Alright. Just don’t work yourself too hard.”
Scarlet managed a short laugh at that. “Ha! You and I both know that I’m not likely to follow that advice.”
“Maybe if I tied you down somewhere you’d be forced to rest,” Lens suggested jokingly.
Scarlet chuckled at the idea before lidding her eyes at him. “Oh? I would like to see you try.”
For a second, Lens seemed confused by her tone. A tiny red blush appeared on his cheeks, signifying that it clicked, and he spoke again, this time lowering his tone to match. “Maybe I will.”
Sclera frowned at the display. “Can you not? My child is right here.”
Primrose turned to look up at her with a chirpy smile. “It’s okay, mom. I know what sex is already.”
Scarlet and Lens went rigid at that exchange, the red in their cheeks spreading to cover the entirety of their faces. Scarlet awkwardly coughed into her hoof, her tail twitching behind her in a display of embarrassment before she turned to face the changelings again.
“What’s sex?” a new voice suddenly asked from behind her, making her jump. Scarlet spun on the spot. She saw the very changeling nymph that had asked what she was a few feet away, staring at them all with a weird look on his face. “And what are you? Are you a pony? I’ve never seen a pony before, except for Flurry Heart.”
Lens and Scarlet shared a glance, silently agreeing to not answer the first of those questions.
“Yes, we’re ponies,” Lens acknowledged with a nod of his head. “I’m Sharp Lens, and this is Scarlet Frost.”
“Those are weird names,” The nymph said without missing a beat before grinning at them, his wings buzzing excitedly on his back. “But wow! Actual ponies! Haha! Did you come from outside? What’s it like?! How did you get here?! And why are those changelings behind you all holey?”
Scarlet and Lens both recoiled from the onslaught of questions. They shared a befuddled glance before Scarlet found her voice. “Well, uh, yes, we came from outside. It’s, uh…” she looked up. “...Very… big. Compared to this place. We got here thanks to Spike, and, uh…”
She frowned, glancing back at Primrose and Sclera, who were both watching the exchange with an odd mixture of excitement and trepidation. “They probably want to engage in the conversation, but it’s been so long since they’ve been around their own kind that they aren’t sure where to begin…”
Sclera, after a moment, managed to find her voice. She stepped forward to stand between Scarlet and Lens before settling down on her haunches. “It’s because my daughter and I are ‘incomplete.’ We’ve both gone for a very, very long time without being able to eat properly. It’s caused our bodies to start changing back to how we were a long, long time ago.”
“Oh. I get it, I think,” the nymph replied, scrunching up his muzzle while his little brain went to work. “You look kinda like what mommy says the cursed ones look like. But you’re nice.”
Sclera’s face fell, her smile fading away. “...The Ferals. No, we are not like them, and we never will be.”
The colt’s wings buzzed before he looked past Sclera to Primrose, who was peeking shyly out from behind her mother. The colt grinned. “Hiya! My name’s Larynx!” he greeted with a friendly wave. “What’s yours?”
Primrose’s eyes widened. “Uh… my name is Primrose,” She answered in surprise, her voice going briefly back to the quiet, timid whisper Scarlet had first heard from her in her cellar.
Larynx grinned enthusiastically. “Weird name, but I like it! Nice to meet ya, Primrose!”
Before the conversation could carry on any further, a new voice rang out from not far away. “Larynx! Where are you?!”
Everyone looked up, and Scarlet recognized who she assumed to be Larynx’s mother coming into view from behind a nearby building. The drone was pink in color with red eyes and a red shell that made it clear where her son got his from. Her eyes fell on Larynx, and then on his company.
Larynx spun to face her with a big grin. “Heya, mom! These are ponies! Cool, huh?!”
The mare cantered up to him, briefly shooting Scarlet and Lens an uneasy look. “Larynx! Oh, honey, you know you’re not supposed to go running off like that on your own!” she chastised him.
Larynx was not at all phased by her tone. “I know, but look! Ponies! Oh, oh!” he then pointed at Primrose. “And this is Primrose!”
The mare looked to Primrose, and then to Sclera. Her eyes quickly shot to Scarlet and Lens before focusing on Prim’s mother again. “O-oh, is that so? Eheh. I’m really sorry about him. The little knucklehead just gets excited,” she explained while hefting him up onto her back, a crooked grin on her face.
Sclera shook her head. “No, it’s quite alright. After everything we’ve been through lately, your little boy’s enthusiasm was very welcome. He… reminds me of one of my sons.”
The mare paused, giving Sclera a more thorough look. “You… you’re Hraesvalgr’s guests, aren’t you?” she asked after a moment, her tone becoming notably lower.
Sclera nodded. “Yes, we are. And you have nothing to fear from these ponies,” she assured while gesturing at Scarlet and Lens. “I owe them my life. Neither I nor my daughter would be here now if it weren’t for them.”
The mare didn’t look entirely convinced, but whatever doubts she had, she chose not to voice them just now. “I imagine there is quite a story behind them, isn’t there?” she asked.
“Oh! Oh!” Larynx thrust his hoof up into the air. “A story?! I wanna hear it?! Mom, can we hear it?!”
His mother blinked and leaned back. “Er…”
“Pleeeaaaase?!”
The conversation began to go back and forth. The words gradually began to fade from Scarlet’s mind as she watched the scene unfolding, smiling all the while. Sclera and Primrose looked so much more at peace then she was used to. Being amongst their own kind, their true selves revealed for the world to see without fear of retribution from those around them, and just getting to talk to another mother and her foal…
It was a sweet thing. A tender moment of true normalcy that they had gone for far too long without. Scarlet’s smile slowly began to grow. “I’m happy for them,” she thought to herself, looking down at Primrose in particular. “And I’m proud of you, Primrose. You’ve done so, so well to make it this far…”
Larynx and Primrose giggled at something together, their laughter ringing in Scarlet’s ears like a soothing lullaby. She slowly relaxed and closed her eyes, soaking in the wonderous noise and losing herself in it.
But as the conversation carried on, she slowly became aware of another feeling crawling up the base of her neck. The laughter ringing in her ears was distorting and deteriorating into heart-wrenching sobs. Scarlet’s brow furrowed, her heart beating just a little faster as the image of a certain unicorn filly flickered through her mind.
She was back in Swanrun, talking to a flower mare by a street corner, whose own foal was standing under her with a timid smile. And there, talking to the foal with a big grin, was Crystal Clear…
Scarlet’s eyes snapped open, forcing the unwanted memory to depart in favor of the present. She focused on the others, suddenly feeling unbearably lonely and, once again, obsolete. Sclera and Primrose were happy right now, being a mother and daughter, truly and openly, for the first time in five years.
For a fraction of a second, for one shameful moment, Scarlet inwardly wished that she had never rescued Sclera so that she would be the one standing there, talking to Larynx and his mother with smiles and warmth. She was quick to shut down the notion, looking down at the floor.
“I can’t be so selfish,” she chastised herself, gritting her teeth silently behind her lips. “Primrose has her family back, and I made that happen. I rescued her mother. I’m happy for them, I am… I am…”
But just because she was happy for them, that didn’t mean she was happy for herself.
“...I’m never going to get that feeling back, am I?”
Larynx’s mother sent Scarlet another uneasy look, as if she were keeping tabs on her to make sure she wasn’t a threat. The stare sent an indignant chill down Scarlet’s spine, followed by a harrowing one. Instinctual disgust and anger churned in her stomach, heating her veins. Images of gnashing fangs and spraying blood and the empty eyes of a dead child flashed before her before she forced them down.
She closed her eyes again and took a series of deep breaths to try and calm herself down. Sadly, with her eyes closed, the sounds around her became agonizingly clear: the buzzing of wings, the subtle chittering noises made by drones as they went about their day, the slippery scrape of chitin on resin, of stone pulling open to admit yet more changelings to pass through.
All of those noises and so many more wormed their way into her ears, crawling over her brain like an army of malevolent insects hell-bent on ripping away her sanity. An involuntary shudder ran down her spine.
“Scarlet?”
Scarlet’s eyes snapped open when she heard Primrose’s voice. She briefly looked down, her eyes meeting those of the changeling nymph. For a fraction of a second, she was staring down into the empty eyes of Crystal’s corpse, and then the savage glare of a feral changeling.
Scarlet shook her head to dispel the mental image before turning away. “Forgive me, I just… I need some time to myself,” she suddenly excused. Without looking back, she trotted away from the group, making her way for the exit. She could feel their confused stares boring into the back of her head, but she couldn’t find it in herself to really care just then. She needed to see the sky. She needed air, she needed space, she needed to just get away from all of this noise.
As she went, she could not ignore the many pairs of glowing orbs that stared at her from the darkness.