//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Friends in High Places // Story: Prey // by Kkat //------------------------------// "You've been sentenced to death for your actions. How does that make you feel?" Ocellus sets her lantern down gently on one arm of the hall stand. The blue flame dances serenely. She pauses once more, ears up, listening for chittering or scurrying or the buzz of changeling wings. Nothing. She is alone. Or she is surrounded, and they are pretending to be... Ocellus looks around again, but aside from the hall stand, there isn't anything nearby for a changeling to be mimicking. Unless this hallway isn't supposed to have a carpet? Ocellus prances, suddenly uncomfortable with the way her hooves sink into the plush carpeting. Stop it! Ocellus squeezes her eyelids shut, chastising herself. That level of paranoia will not be helpful. Still, she spreads her wings and hovers off the carpet. Emotions flood in that are even less helpful. If she goes through the portal instead of destroying it, she puts everyone at risk. Not only in Equestria, but the whole world. Queen Elytra is terrifying.  Queen Chrysalis had an army, but even though her drones were loyal to her -- as Ocellus herself had been -- Chrysalis had never trusted her drones the way Queen Elytra trusts hers. Enough to arm them with royal jelly without fear of treason. And remembering how the drone dismissed Ocellus' attempts to show him the better way, the loyalty of Elytra's drones would not be easy to break. They have weapons. And worst of all, Queen Elytra seems to be siphoning Luna's knowledge... Horror breaks across Ocellus as she envisions her friends trapped in changeling pods scattered around the mirror portal, Queen Elytra draining their memories as well. Gaining all she needed to invade the Dragonlands, Griffonstone, Yakyakistan, Mount Aris and Seaquestria. And leaving her friends mindless husks. There was no way that Ocellus was going through that portal to her world. She has to destroy it. And she has to hurry! Ocellus refocuses on the task at hoof. She remembers: hall stands have mirrors, storage compartments, and pegs for hanging your hats, cloaks or scarves. The changeling nymph opens her eyes again, looking over the hall stand until she spots the drawer.  She grasps the drawer's handle with her mouth and pulls it all the way out, catching it with her forelegs. Ocellus barely pays attention to the objects inside, which include another lantern and a heavy winter cloak with sapphire moon pattern. Luna sent her back here for the whole drawer. Without something more significant to break down, creating a new copy of Nightmare Moon's Seal had to wait. As Ocellus hung the oil painting back on the wall, it occurred to her that the image and equations were detailed enough (even though the writing was all indecipherable Old Ponish) that she might be able to become the Seal herself. But with Luna trapped behind the mirror, there was nobody else to put Seal-Ocellus in the lock. But there is something else she needs before she can try to get the anti-Elements.  "They sense anyone who is weak to their nature, anyone whom their Vices resonate with," Luna warned. "Fortunately, I... Nightmare Moon did not trust the stars who aided her. She designed a purse with a protective lining to shield her from their influence as she carried them." "Return to the hall stand where I first found you," Luna instructed. "There is a storage drawer in the stand. Bring the entire drawer. The contents will have enough dark essence to fabricate the lining. And the underside of the drawer is carved with the blueprint for it." Ocellus lifts the drawer in her forelegs until the lantern's light reveals the engravings on the underside. What a bizarre place to hide a plan. She might have realized the true nature of the oil painting in the Throne Room, but would never have found this one on her own.  Maybe that was the point? Nightmare Moon did not want to risk forgetting these designs, but didn't want anyone else finding them? Anyone else being her sister Celestia.  Was there a pattern to where they were hidden? A clue? Thoughts for later. Perhaps she should ask Luna when she gets back to the Throne Room.  Ocellus opens her mouth and picks up her lantern again. Turning off the flame of her lantern, Ocellus works her way back towards the Throne Room, darting from pillar to pillar. Hiding. Listening for drones. Moving to the next pillar. Keeping low. To the shadows. Not thinking. Not feeling. Just moving. Hiding. Moving again. Ocellus makes it almost halfway across the Grand Hall, just past the fountain now half-encased in luminescent lime resin, when the tsunami of reality hits her. The sight of the drone trapped in a hardened explosion of resin breaks the wall holding back images of her friends likewise trapped, encased in green. Ocellus collapses against a pillar, her lantern falling from her mouth. It hits the floor with a clank, it's little door popping open. She drops the drawer, spilling the heavy cloak and one of the boots beneath. She's never going to see them again! Smolder! Gallus! Silverstream, Yona, Sandbar... She has to destroy the portal. And that means she'll be trapped here. Forever! She's never going to see her friends again!  She'll never see the School of Friendship again! Never sleep in her bunk... which she forgot to make. It's going to stay unmade. She'll never see Yona's yak summer wear. Or take Professor Rarity's test. Or finish any of her classes! Her parents will never get to see her graduate! ...Her parents! She's never going to see her family! Mom. Dad. Her little brother and sister... Ocellus curls up into a ball, trying to sob as silently as possible. Ocellus lifts her head from the pearl-white basin and stares into the moonsilver-framed, oval mirror hanging on the onyx-bricked bathroom wall. The Ocellus that stares back at her across the ebony-marbled counter is a puffy-eyed wreck. But at least it's a love-filled changeling. Not one of her other forms. Not Chrysalis. Or worst, absolutely nothing. How long is that going to last? Her hive has learned to sustain themselves by sharing love. What happens when there isn't anyone to share love with?  Ocellus knows the answer. It is almost as gutting as knowing she will never see her friends again. She's going to revert. I'm going to become a love-starved drone again. She thinks of the drone encased in resin. The one she hit in the face with a vase. One of them. Ocellus feels her eyes burning. Her breath hitching. She's going to start crying again. She sees her reflection trembling. No! She cannot keep thinking like that. She knows it is true, but she has to hold onto hope. She has friends, and they won't just let that happen to her. They won't stop until they find a way to get her home! And not just them. Headmare Starlight won't leave her like this. Nor will King Thorax. The Ocellus in the mirror gives a wavering smile as she imagines Smolder tearing the Dragonlands apart until she finds something that can get her home. The baneful voice of logic tells her: it's not going to be that easy. It took the Elements of Harmony to send Nightmare Moon here. It took four anti-Elements to send her back. It took a magical portal designed to open passages between worlds and the Treehouse of Harmony just to get her here. A magical portal that is now corrupted. There might not be a way to get her home. Her thoughts flash to the note Smolder spotted in her saddlebags. The one with Rarity's test. Could Discord get her home? At the height of his power, he was able to toy with the cycle of the sun and the moon, right? Yes, let's put all my hope in the Spirit of Chaos. How could that possibly go wrong? Ocellus lets out a wet sigh. At least she isn't crying again. She retreated to the bathroom because she doesn't want Luna to see her like this. More tears won't help with that. Ocellus lowers her face into the sink, splashing water across it. She tries to distract herself with other thoughts. The pearl-white sink in the ebony-marbled counter reminded her of a full moon against the night sky. Nightmare Moon really went all-in with the motif. The thought elicits a half-whimpered chuckle. She knows her friends, family and King will not just abandon her. But bringing her back home, and doing so without letting Queen Elytra and her army through, will be... extremely difficult, in the very least. Deep in her heart, Ocellus is bracing for it to be impossible. This is going to be home. She had best grow to like it. Wait. If it is so hard... the thought opens a door to another.  Why are there changelings on the moon? Ocellus looks up, water dripping from her face. Luna is staring back at her. A moment later, Ocellus consoles herself that it was a very small scream. "Ah yes. The adoring shrieks of the children," Luna says flatly. "I had almost forgotten the sound." She sighs. "Sorry, Ocellus. I grew worried by how long you were taking. Are you all ri..." Luna vanishes, the utter blackness that surrounded her fading to the almost-utter blackness of the reflected onyx brickwork.  Ocellus stares at her own reflection. "No. No, I'm not." The contents of her saddlebags rest in a pile at her hooves. Schoolbooks, notebooks, pencils, quills and ink. A colorful, geometrically pleasing scattering of dice. The dicebag -- a gift from Sandbar -- that now holds an alien orb.  Ocellus places her empty saddlebag on the third onyx pedestal. Instead of recreating Nightmare Moon's purse, they will be lining the inside of her saddlebags to safely hold the anti-Elements. Ocellus picks up the likewise emptied drawer. The lantern, boots and heavy cloak -- clothing fashioned for traveling outside the palace -- are now piled on the first pedestal of the onyx trio in Nightmare Moon's Throne Room.  Ocellus flips over the drawer, studying the arithmetical images and equations. Wishing she knew Old Ponish. There wasn't anything to mimic in the design. Just raw data. With a small sigh, she places the drawer on the crown of the middle pedestal. A column of pitch black fire flashes upwards from the first capital. Ocellus' eyes widen as she watches the lantern, boots and cloak dissolve, breaking down into chunks like charcoal amidst greasy blue smoke. Then melting completely into oil as black as space and sprinkled with tiny sparkles of cerulean light. Not melting down but upwards, flowing towards the vaulted ceiling. Reaching the height of a bugbear before the smoke and oil are swallowed in brilliant flashes of light. Another column of midnight fire erupts around her saddlebags. Ocellus' attention is caught by more flashes, these high above the third capital. Blue smoke and black oil pour down towards her saddlebags, the oil swirling into thin strands that weave into them, merging with them as the smoke billows atop the capital.  The oil stops pouring and the smoke itself is absorbed, leaving her saddlebags just as she remembers them. Except a crawling inside her skull emphases they are not. Ocellus looks to Luna who merely nods. She opens her mouth to take her saddlebags, but that crawling in her skull makes her stop. She reaches out with a foreleg and scoops it off the pedestal.  The saddlebags thump to the floor, falling open.  "There is no reason to be frightened," Luna assures her calmly. Ocellus nods, swallowing down her trepidation. Then slides her belongings back into the bag and puts it on.  She turns towards the huge window, gazing out at the barren landscape of the moon. There is no life out there. No friends to make. Ocellus feels another pang in her heart, this one of guilt. She feels like she has failed her teachers, her school, her King. All their effort and lessons wasted on someone who wasn't going to have the chance to make any friends. Ocellus banishes the poisonous feeling. She knows better. Her professors, her parents, the Headmare and King Thorax are all proud of what she has already done. Thorax would chastise her (understandingly) for feeling any other way. Her gaze becomes a defiant stare. The view is indifferent to her defiance. Nothing but a lunar wasteland. "Luna? If I'm trapped here for the rest of my life, what will I eat?" Luna closes her eyes. "While the dark stain of Nightmare Moon is gone, and with it the fields of black moonflowers, the farthest wing of the palace contains a greenhouse -- the Conservatory -- where I... where Nightmare Moon cultivated the most potent plants to harvest for dark essence. The essence containment pools lie just beyond it." Luna looks away. "After opening the portal to Equestria, I ordered... Nightmare Moon gave one last order to Her creations: to take the gifts from the stars and place them back on their storage pedestals, then gather about the essence pool. There, they dissolved back into raw dark essence once more. "All save for the ones working in the Conservatory. Those I commanded to continue their work. It was... a failsafe." Luna looks back to Ocellus. "I have no mirror directly into the Conservatory. But Nightmare Moon's creations maintained it faithfully for centuries. There is no cause to doubt they continue to do so. You can find all the sustenance you will ever need within." Ocellus listens quietly. When the night alicorn finishes, the changeling nymph timidly asks, "But... what about love?" Ocellus looks down, her features etched with worry and sadness. Normal food might sustain her; but barring a miraculous change within the local hive, there is no one here to love her, and no one to share her love with. Without love, she will slowly degrade until she is a love-starved changeling again. "I-I don't want to become one of them again." "Fear not," Luna tells her. "That, at least, I can prevent. The moon is part of my domain. I will visit you every night in your dreams and provide you with the love you need." Ocellus smiles weakly with relief. Even if the dream is not real, so long as Luna is real and the love is real, she can take that love and feed on it. "Thank you." Luna shakes her head. "No. If you do this, it is all of Equestria who should be thanking you." Ocellus has always been proud of her skills at taking notes. Sitting before the mirror with pencil in mouth and notebook open to a fresh page, the changeling nymph listens intently to Luna's every word and transforms them into a sketch of the Palace of Nightmare Moon. The structure is vaguely spider-like, with the Grand Hall and Throne Room forming a main body from which multiple wings extend. The anti-Elements are housed at the far ends of four of those wings. Envy is closest by merit of being in a much shorter wing. One which contains general living areas such as lounges and bedrooms.  The hallway where Ocellus had originally found herself, she is told, does not have an anti-Element within it. But the cross-hallway with the dining room and kitchen connects the two. She might have run into Envy if she had taken a different turn when fleeing the patrol. Ocellus raises a hoof. She has a question. Luna continues describing the hall for a moment longer before stopping, tilting her head. "Why are you lifting your hoof like that? Is something wrong?" Ocellus blinks. She drops her pencil, lowering her hoof. It occurs to the nymph that Luna was gone from Equestria a very long time. She has had many years to acclimate, but is it possible there are things she still doesn't know? "I just had a question," Ocellus says, not wishing to embarrass her teacher.  The night alicorn's brow furrows. "I have told you that you may ask your questions, have I not?" Ocellus quickly nods, realizing what Queen Elytra is doing to her must be terrifying. She does not wish for Luna to start questioning her memory where there is no cause to.  "You said bedrooms. Plural." Ocellus thinks back to the dining room. "There were a lot of chairs at the dining room table." Luna's eyes shift left and right. She sits down, touching her forehooves together timidly. "I... Nightmare Moon may have... created companions from the dark essence to keep her company." A thousand years of loneliness. The thought slashes her cruelly. Ocellus looks down, wondering how long it will be before she starts making pseudo-friends of her own. She shudders at the idea of having a tea party with pseudo-Smolder. "Oh." Ocellus closes her notebook. Then walks up to Luna, once again putting a hoof to the mirror. "I'm sorry. No creature should ever have to be without friends." "I deserved no less," Luna claims. "And I have friends now. I am happy to count you as one of them." She smiles to Ocellus and puts her hoof against the surface of the mirror opposite the girl's own. "And you will never be without one." Minutes later, with lantern in mouth and saddlebags over her flanks, Ocellus steps out of the Throne Room. Ocellus stares at the wall of black magic that bisects the hallway ahead of her. It is like a void that has eaten the stars. Like the heart of a black hole. She approaches it with caution. The energy radiating from it reminds her of Princess Twilight's magical shield. But colder. Not a physical cold. An existential one. Like a murder without remorse.  Ocellus decides not to touch it.  Ocellus looks around until she spots a pedestal with a bust of Nightmare Moon. She moves towards it, tasting the room. Nothing. Expected. If either the pedestal or bust was a disguised changeling, she wouldn't sense it unless they were feeling love at the moment. Unlikely. After a little consideration, Ocellus concentrates, reshaping herself into a hippogriff. This is her first time as one, she realizes. Ocellus wonders briefly what Silverstream would think of the form. Granted, Silverstream didn't comment when she took the form of a seapony, so seeing her become a hippogriff probably wouldn't elicit a reaction either. She flies above the pedestal, lifting the bust with her hippogriff paws, grunting softly in surprise at its weight. She wasn't any stronger, but it was much easier to hold something like this than with hooves.  The changeling's thoughts wander. Why had she never tried being a hippogriff before? For that matter, she'd never been a griffin or a yak. Just a dragon. (Ocellus didn't consider Sandbar in the equation; ponies don't count. In Chrysalis' hive, every changeling learned how to become a pony. Pony was one of the first forms in her repertoire.)  On opening day at school, she had changed into a dragon for her very first time. She hadn't even really known Smolder then. But something about the dragon made her feel more at ease being one. She had become a dragon several times since. The form seemed natural. Enough that just this morning, she took it without knowing she had...  Ocellus shakes off the line of thought. She didn't need to start worrying about her sense of self now. Not here. She turns to face the inky dark again, intent on determining if it is a barrier or a gulf. A chill passes through her. For just a moment, she swore she saw something swimming in the black.  She spins in the air and hurls the bust at the blackness. The head strikes it and rebounds as scintillating blue and white flashes ripple out across the magical barrier from the point of impact. The bust drops to the floor with a loud crack, snapping off the horn of Nightmare Moon.  Ocellus flies back to the last hanging mirror. "A black wall?"  The night alicorn contemplates the news from within an oval wall mirror hung in an ornate adventurine frame, in an alcove opposite a supply closet. Luna had been surprised and confused to find an unfamiliar hippogriff knocking on the mirror and calling for her.  Ocellus' wings beat rapidly as she hovers, having quickly returned to her natural form. The changeling nymph nods to Luna. "Yes. A magical shield, I think."  Luna is silently pensive in the reflection for a few moments longer before her eyes open wide.  "Oh! I am sorry, Ocellus. I had forgotten about those." Ocellus can see a flicker of worry cascade over her. "I-I am surprised they are active. The changelings here must have tried to breach Nightmare Moon's Throne Room and triggered the palace's defenses."  Palace defenses? Ocellus cringes back. That sounded bad.  "On reflection, I should not be surprised."  Ocellus wonders if Luna is aware of her own pun. "Defenses against what?"  Luna sighs. "As I told you, Nightmare Moon... I... created essence minions." The night alicorn looks to the side, then back again. "I soon discovered that it was possible for my creations to gain a mind of their own. So I created these barriers to seal off the anti-Elements if one of my creations became independent." Luna's words remind Ocellus of a lesson in then-Headmare Twilight's class about when one such creation had gone rogue: the Tantabus. Luna had created the Tantabus in the dream realm -- a monster of nightmares that would torment her in her sleep. Luna was punishing herself for her deeds as Nightmare Moon. But even though it was made in the realm of dreams, the Tantabus was a real thing, meaning it could cross over and exist in the real world. It would have done so -- bringing all its power with it and plunging the world into a never-ending, living nightmare -- had Luna not forgiven herself and taken its power from it.  Ocellus doesn't even want to think of what one of Nightmare Moon's creations might be capable of if it got ahold of something as powerful as an Element of Harmony.  Luna continues, "There is a way to turn the void barriers off. You must look for a small, white button shaped like the moon. It will be hidden." She pauses. Her face contorts with the effort to recollect. "I would tell you where, but I cannot remember..."  Luna stops and gives Ocellus an apologetic look. "Even if my memories were not being molested, it has been centuries. I have forgotten many details about the palace. But from what I do recall, I fear even once you find it, you may not be able to push it. The buttons are in difficult places to reach. They were meant to be pressed by magic... Why are you smiling?" Ocellus feels the grin digging into her cheeks, and it feels wonderful. "Because it's a puzzle! I love puzzles." Ocellus returns to the hallway, searching for the button. She first checks the walls around the barrier, but she is unsurprised to find no moon button there. Luna said this would be challenging.  She looks up at the gloom of the vaulted ceiling and is thankful again for her lantern. She flies up, the blue flame dancing happily as it illuminates the ribs and crevasses. But she finds no button.  Next, she inspects the wall sconces, mentally noting how less than half the sconces in this wing burst into flame at her approach. Checking behind the nearest ones, she finds those vines with purple leaves and mildly bioluminescent lavender lesions that she noticed before. But no moon-shaped buttons. Next, she moves to the pedestal from which she had taken the bust of Nightmare Moon. Ocellus spots a hole in the top of the pedestal that the bust had been covering. She looks into the hole, expecting to find the button. All she sees is darkness; the hole is at least a couple feet deep. She tries holding her lantern over it, but the hole is so narrow that Ocellus finds it impossible to position the light to see straight down. Ocellus lands, setting the lantern onto the floor, its blue flame flickering. She steps back, taking a breath, and concentrates. Unlike being a hippogriff, she has taken this form before, if only once.  The turquoise flame that surrounds her is much brighter and warmer than the light of the lantern. In its wake, the nymph is gone, replaced by a cute little pink bat.  Thank goodness for Professor Fluttershy. There was a reason she nearly always voted for her to be the Teacher of the Month. Fluttershy always had interesting creatures in her class for her students to befriend. After her puckwudgie disaster, Ocellus had spent a month trying to get befriending-through-imitation right. With, granted, mixed results. Ocellus flaps her wings, rising up to hover over the pedestal. She lets out a sonic cry at the hole, and it returns with a moon-shaped irregularity.  With a turquoise flash, Ocellus is a nymph again. She stares at the hole. The button is definitely down there, but she can't reach it. The hole is barely wide enough for a single talon. And she didn't have a form small enough to fit yet heavy enough to push a button.  The nymph lands, rubbing her chin in thought. All in all, Ocellus considered the puzzle a fair design... well, assuming Nightmare Moon's minions didn't manage to invent the long stick. Ocellus claps her hooves. She is sure she saw a bunch of brooms in the closet back near the mirror! Moments later, she is back at the mirror yet again. She stops, looking into the reflective oval, hoping to see Luna. But the night alicorn is gone. The mirror reflects only her and the door to the supply closet.  Ocellus turns and opens the door. The closet has no light. The back wall bears a gross black stain. Four brooms lean against a wall of shelves, each with a handle long enough to push the button. She reaches out to take one. The closet erupts with flashes of green as three of the brooms become a trio of young drones. Ocellus gasps, backing away. But she is not quick enough. They are on her, driving her to the floor. Her elytra slam onto her wings painfully and she cries out. "Gottt you!" chitters the one standing on her breast. She is a young drone. They all are. Younger than Ocellus by several years, yet much older than a grub.  She's how old I was when we invaded Canterlot. "Yesssss!" hisses the one pinning her left foreleg. "Let's drain her!" the drone holding her hindlegs suggests hungrily. "She has love!" A shot of fear sends Ocellus' heart racing.  "No," the first one proposes venomously. "Let's stick her! See what happens!" What? "YESSSSS!" The one on her arm grins with malicious glee. "Stick her!" The changeling standing on her breast pulls out a long, silvery needle that ends in a bulb filled with roiling blue smoke. She holds it over Ocellus' face while the other two shift position to keep her pinned. A turquoise flash is followed by three hard thuds as the adolescent changelings learn they are not strong enough to pin a bugbear, and the ceiling of the closet is very hard. Bugbear-Ocellus pulls herself out from under the pile of drones, changing back. "I'm not going to be stuck by anyone," she spits. "Especially not kids who hang out in a broom closet." Ocellus checks each of the younger changelings, searching for breath. She wants them out cold, but she doesn't think she could live with herself if she killed any of them. Fortunately, each one is merely knocked unconscious.  In doing so, she spots the strange needle. She's never seen anything like it. The smoke inside seems almost alive. Ocellus scoops it up into her saddlebag, intending to ask Luna about it later. Then she takes the remaining broom -- the real one -- and gallops back towards the void barrier. Ocellus walks along the shadowed hallway, lantern in her mouth. Beyond the void barrier, the vaulted ceiling has changed to the lower, tiled design common to many of the rooms. The hallway is more liberally furnished and decorated. Doors set into pointed arches conceal rooms that Ocellus will surely one day explore. She could fly, but after that pinch to her wings, she wants to give them a rest. She moves cautiously, nervous about what lies ahead as much as all that surrounds her. The brooms were a harsh reminder that she cannot trust anything here. Her heart beats hard in her chest.  She knows better. She herself can become a rock. She is lucky none of the changelings here have added floor tiles to their repertoire. At least that she has encountered. Yet.  Ocellus stops, her legs feeling frozen. She lowers her head, bringing the lantern's light closer to the floor. Checking... not that there would be anything to see until it was too late. She straightens up, chiding herself once again. She needs to be cautious, not paranoid.  No wonder other races were terrified of changelings. Logically, she always knew. But feeling it for herself... she feels a whole new respect and admiration for Headmare Starlight and Spike and her former Headmare Twilight. Giving changelings a chance had to be a lot harder than the hive ever really understood.  Ocellus takes a step forward and freezes again as she hears a shuffling from... somewhere. She spins, turning the lantern in every direction. Her heart is pounding. Nothing. Silence.  She imagined it. She was going to go crazy.  Or not! she thinks as she hears another sound. Close. And... above? Ocellus spreads her elytra and flaps her wings, lifting herself away from the cold marble and towards the ceiling.  She hadn't questioned the difference in the ceiling. Now, her imagination was conjuring up secret cavities above her, filled with love-starved changelings swarming overhead.  The ceiling tiles above her crash down. Ocellus screams, dropping the lantern, as a dark figure falls towards her.  The lantern hits the floor, its little door swinging open, light cast upwards at...  "Gallus?!"  Gallus' fall stops abruptly as the mess of vines pull tight, leaving the blue griffin entangled and suspended in midair. He is hyperventilating, his chest rising and falling rapidly, his eyes wide and pupils dilated.  Ocellus has never been happier to see a friend! Ocellus feels tears well up in her eyes. She rushes towards the entangled griffin. Gallus is here! She's not alone! Gallus is here too!  ...wait, why is Gallus here? Ocellus pulls up short as the paranoia from a moment ago returns. She stops, backing just out of the griffin's reach, and studies him. Same eyes, same feathers. She tastes. There is no love coming off of the blue griffin. But, she reminds herself, that doesn't mean he's not Gallus. Nobody feels love all the time. And right now, it looks like all he is feeling is panic. She glances up at the hole in the ceiling. There is some kind of duct up there -- it reminds her of the air vents around school, only this one is clogged with vines. It looks like part of it was rotten; there are stains of old water damage. It must have failed under his weight. Which could be true of a changeling too. But she knew Gallus. Crawling through that would be a personal nightmare for him. The panic says Gallus, and it pains her to see him like this. She wants to hug him and tell him everything is okay.  But everything is not okay. And she needs to be cautious. Ocellus sees his breathing is slowing, and his pupils are returning slowly to normal. In a calm, even voice, she addresses him. Not wanting to startle him further. But needing to be sure.  "Tell me something only Gallus would know."  The griffon's breath catches. He struggles to turn his head towards her. "Ocellus?" Ocellus moves into his field of view, but keeps her distance. "It's me. Please, something only Gallus would know."  Gallus breathes rapidly, hanging awkwardly in the knotted mass of vines. The fear coming off of him is almost palpable, but she can see him trying to calm himself. "Uh... okay. I once yelled at the Tree of Harmony."  Ocellus blinks, then feels a huge smile spread across her muzzle wide enough to make her face ache. That is definitely Gallus! It was a moment she would never forget! Gallus' cross, sarcastic voice leaps to the forefront of her memories:  I'm a bit rusty on pony history, but since when does the Tree of Harmony trap creatures in a cave with their biggest fears!?  Ocellus glomps Gallus, sending him swinging in the vines as she hugs him tightly!  Gallus oofs and squawks. "H-hey, good to see you too, Ocellus. You don't know how good!" Ocellus holds the griffon tight as the swinging settles. She feels his feathers, breathes in the stink of him. She doesn't want to let go, afraid he will just be a hallucination. Gallus begins to chuckle. "Okay, okay. Enough with the hugging. And can you please get me down from here?"  Ocellus slowly lets go and backs up. "And for the record," Gallus cannot help but add, "I call bullshit on the Tree's answer. We didn't choose to see our greatest fears. We may have brought them with us, but it is the Tree of Harmony who decided to separate us and make us face them."  You chose what you saw in my roots, not me.  "So if all of this is the Treehouse pulling the same crap? There. Are. Going to be. Words!" Ocellus blinks again and laughs. Oh, and it feels so good to laugh! "It's not the Treehouse," Ocellus tells him when she stops giggling. "I'm pretty sure this is real. We're on the moon."  Gallus' eyes go wide. "You do realize you just said real and on the moon in the same sentence, right?"  "Heh... yeah."  Gallus probes, "And you know how completely bonkers you sound, right?"  Ocellus cannot help it. "Also, there are hostile, love-starved changelings everywhere. And the only way home is a portal opened by evil counterparts to the Elements of Harmony."  Gallus stares at her, dumbfounded, for several long moments before concluding, "Now you're just making things up." Ocellus shakes her head as she begins to help Gallus untangle himself. She pauses to inspect the vines her friend is bound up in. There are five separate vines the griffon has managed to get snared in, and many more in the duct above that are drooping slack through the hole. The vine with a tight and painful-looking hold on his left wing has familiar purple lesions. The others are black, or maybe a really dark brown or green. The blue light from the lantern below them isn't good for telling colors.  Ocellus tries to loosen the purple one so it isn't holding the poor boy's wing at such a painful angle. But tugging at it tightens another, getting a grunt from her friend. She looks to him apologetically, but he is focused on the vine trying to choke him, and not having any better luck.  Ocellus tries to fly at the problem from a different angle and help him with that vine instead, being extra gentle with it. She feels her saddlebag shift and hears a soft tak-takt-tak as a couple of her now-loose dice spill from her saddlebags onto the floor below. Gallus wheezes slightly as he tugs at the vine. "I don't think rolling for proficiency is going to help."  "I... wha-? That's not... oh." Ocellus giggles as she gets the joke. Meanwhile, Gallus has worked enough slack into the vine around his neck to pull it back, then rip it with his talons. His face and neck are splattered with luminescent white ichor that spurts from the severed ends of the vine.  "What the..." he grimaces. "What is this?"  "I don't know," Ocellus says, staring, "But I'm wondering if I'm old enough to watch you do this."  Ocellus gives Gallus a sinnocent smile.  Gallus stares back with the deadest of deadpans. "Seriously?" Gallus turns away, choosing to ignore her as he grabs the vine binding his right hindleg and twists it to point away before slashing it. Clear liquid pours from the dangling end as his leg regains freedom and his bulk shifts in a way that pulls on his left wing. The blue griffin bites back a squawk as he allows the redistributing of weight to settle. "Is that water?" Gallus asks, looking at the clear liquid pouring onto the floor. Ocellus follows his gaze. "It could be," she offers, "There's a running water fountain back near the Throne Room."  Gallus raises an eyebrow. Then looks at the vine, seeming to contemplate using it to wash the white gunk off his face.  "More likely that than poison or acid," Ocellus adds. Gallus flinches back from the severed vine. "I'll just wait for the fountain." He looks back at the vines, focusing on the purple-leafed one causing him the most discomfort. "Now what is this about a Throne Room?" Gallus reaches up and slashes the vine binding his left wing. Purple-black smoke gushes out in a heavy spray. The smoke blows down over the floor and across the open lantern, and ignites, filling the room with a geyser of cyan flame!  Ocellus dives for cover behind a gothic sideboard carved in reliefs of black alicorns. Gallus flaps his freed wings, trying to fly away. But the two remaining vines are wrapped tightly around his left hindleg, keeping him from escaping the potential reach of the flame. The purple vine whips about, spraying fire like a demented dragon in the throes of laughter. Fire crackles across the sideboard, baking Ocellus in the heat, then swings away to incinerate an old painting on the opposite wall.  "Gallus! Get back into the hole! Quickly!"  Ocellus is aware of just how cruel a call that is. To ask her claustrophobic friend to crawl back into the horrible hole he just escaped from. She risks a peek, ready to apologize and urge, but Gallus only balked a moment. He is already climbing in, curling his tail close to keep it from getting burned by the thrashing flame. Ocellus pulls out the orb from her dice bag, her face bathed in its sickly green glow, then rolls it towards the lantern on the floor and ducks back into safety.  SPLURTCH!  In an instant, the fire is out. The severed purple vine dangles harmlessly, covered in hardening resin. As is most everything else. "Gallus, you can come..."  Gallus thrusts himself backwards out of the duct, gasping for air.  "...out now," Ocellus finishes. "Sorry. It was the only way I could think to stop the fire. And you really don't want this stuff in your feathers. "I'll take your word on that," he replies, looking at the dripping lime ooze as it hardens. "Thanks for saving my bacon." Gallus brushes his yellow crest-feathers. "From becoming actual bacon." He looks at her. "And have you found any of the others yet?" "The others are here too?!" Ocellus breathes joyfully. Gallus' face falls. "I don't know. I just kinda assumed, since you are here..." He trails off.  Ocellus clamps down on her rapture. Still, Gallus could be right. If two of them are here, the chances seem much higher that more -- maybe even all of them -- are here. The blue griffon flexes his wings. He winces a little as he stretches his left one. "Remember when the Tree of Harmony teleported us all to different places in that weird test of friendship? I figured this was like that," Gallus admits. "I mean, we were even at the Treehouse when it happened."  He pauses, rubbing his neck where the vine choked him. "Right. Moon. So not that." The griffon walks up to her. He winces again, just a little, as he steps with his left hindpaw. Ocellus suspects he twisted it while trying to keep away from the flames.  "You seem to know a lot more about where we are and what's going on than I do," Gallus concedes, holding out his right talon. "So what's next?"