//------------------------------// // chapter fifteen // Story: Changeling Heart and the New Moon // by ambion //------------------------------// Changeling Heart and the New Moon chapter fifteen ...It ain’t much. It ain’t. But I made the box all by myself and I dug the hole all by myself, right out in the middle of the field, deep as can be. She’s got our finest in there. I threw in that packet of seeds she kept wanting us to get ‘round to. Seemed better than to leave ‘em around forever. At least they’re in the ground this way. Every year, a packet of blackberry seeds, and every year they don’t take. I keep on tellin’ her they won’t, they never do, but every year she insists anyway. All them twisty thorns for a few sweet little berries ain’t much. I say ‘stick to your flowers, the eating plants is colt’s work.’ She just goes on and says ‘see how much you like the cabbages without my hoof then. Or the potatoes, ya big turnip.’ That made us laugh, that did. I’ve got them all here, plenty of everything. Even turnips. And she was right, my May was. So right. Without you, they don’t seem worth a damn. I miss you so much. A thud in the blackness called Luna back to herself. Chrysalis had refused to try the doors again, in doing so keeping the private car with its decent bed. What little space Luna had been able to make for her own, she had. So had passed the remainder of the night, sunk into her familiar lonesome. Dawn wasn’t far off, and the alicorn had hoped to retreat into some quiet reading before the madness of the day started. With catlike precision and silence, unblinking, she sent the journal away and scryed into the darkness with her black eyes. Another thud, accompanied with a muttered curse. In an unusually high, soft voice. “Surreal? What are you doing in my car?” “I was sleeping.” No. It wasn’t possible. Luna had been entirely sure of her privacy, it wasn’t as if a princess of night could accidentally get it wrong. Other ponies could miss her when she made them, but never the other way around. Had the strange, obsessing little changeling found some terrible magic to spy on her with? Had Chrysalis empowered Surreal with vile powers? “Where?” Surreal yawned with a little squeak, one that entirely broke the ominous feel of Luna’s imposed blackest abyss. It was a sound that had no right being half as adorable as it was. “Overhead luggage compartment,” she said sleepily. “Dark. Confined. Was like home.” So much for vile powers. There was another little bump, softer than the last. “Surreal.” “Mm?” “You think you could go away now?” “Oh. Fine then.” Just as the silence was soothing its ruffled feathers, another, louder impact sent it squawking. “Um. Mistress Luna?” “Yes?” “I can’t see in this.” “Oh,” the princess said simply, but hesitated to lower her spell. Luna had the absolute blackness of the abyssal voids, but she wielded it like a much loved fluffy blue blanket. “I thought changelings could see in the dark?” “We can. But this is ridiculous.” Luna didn’t answer that. Another bump against the woodwork, the scuffle of hooves on the floor; a muted sigh. A tiny green illumination punctuated the emptiness. It wobbled and bobbed a bit before dancing a little jig that might have been a changeling trying to work a door handle. “Mistress Luna?” The changeling paused, but the silence was impenetrable. “I hope everything works out for you.” “...me too,” she whispered back. Then the light was gone, and darkness reigned undisputed once more. At long last Luna set aside her magic, letting the first little nuances of light enrichen the shadows of her train car. She blinked the unnatural blackness from her eyes just as a quiet, firm knock and a quieter, firmer voice drew her attention to the door. For a moment she was satisfied; Wax had flown fast indeed and hastened back to her, it’d be good to face the day with her trusty hench-ponies. As always, Luna’s realization came a critical few seconds later than her impressions. That wasn’t his voice. Besides, neither Wax nor Wane probably would have knocked at all anyway. “Princess. Princess, are you there?” “I am here.” “Right. Good. We’ll be in Canterlot soon-” “I know.” “No pony knows what to do, what with you pulling this- “I know.” “It’s just that you’ve brought the hornets’ nest-” “I know!” Chyrsalis opened her eyes. It was too early for this nonsense, but as the defiant syllables rang through her ears - and probably everyone elses’ - she found herself smiling. In a week Luna had gone from a hapless pony floating in a pod to a vindictive princess trying to prove a point. She was still as hapless as ever, of course. Canterlot itself was taking them in on the dark alicorn’s behalf. The pride of pony civilization, home to treasures beyond the physical, or even magical. If Chrysalis’ crowbar into that wondrous heart had a face and name and hopes and dreams, so be it. The Queen of changelings would still use her ruthlessly to serve the changelings. Chrysalis frowned and turned over in the bed that clearly did not earn the status of 'Queen sized'. No. Not ruthlessly. She’d use Luna sparingly. Discreetly. There was no point to being cruel about it. Pushing too hard would only break Luna’s patience for the Queen and unite ponies against her again. That was it. Chrysalis couldn’t direct or distort open, simple violence. Controversy, however...a changeling with a head on her shoulders could use that. Chrysalis still frowned. Her little moon was more of a wedge anyway. She turned over again and tried to go back to sleep. There’d be more than enough excitement soon enough. Besides, today would be Luna’s big show of homecoming. If the Queen of changelings wanted any chance here she had to trust to her wayward companion to get them over the first hurdle, and that pony needed all the support she could get. Even if all it meant was to stay out of her way. Luna gave a little shudder as the last of the momentum bled away from her and the train bawled out one final, baleful screech of steam. The curtains were drawn, but what tethers of light slipped through the gaps lit up the car more than enough to announce the encroachment of the day. She blinked against brightness and peeked through it, forcing her watering eyes to take in the light and colours of the ponies crowding the platform. There were so many of them, stepping all over one another, their camera flashing like crazed fireflies all the while. Eight pegasi were assigned from the contingent to cover her, a stoic bulwark of dull seriousness holding back a tide of crazed sensationalism. Once the door opened the storm would break, there’d be no going back. There was never any going back, and with this thought Luna found a pocket of calm, her eye to the hurricane. It would swirl all around her. It would be immense, loud and frightening, but it wouldn’t touch her. It couldn’t. It was an eerie calm, that of dark, deep waters. It frightened her a little, but none of that showed as she pulled herself to her fullest height and flared her wings to their most majestic. Whatever they thought of her, whatever they would come to think of her, she was their princess. No more, no less. She’d suffered enough to appease the ever changing whims of ponykind. She didn’t need their love. Not anymore. If she could transmute their fear to respect, that would be enough. After that it all just seemed...unimportant. She took a deep breath, albeit one not needed. The dark alicorn of Equestria opened the door and stepped headlong into a frantic galaxy of lights. A phalanx of crossed wings and polished armour encircled her instantly, but in the roar of the shoving ponies it seemed the tiniest grain of sanity in a roiling sea of upheaval. Despite everything the guard held their lines and the reporters at bay. In some ways literally, Luna stood above it all. A hundred voices boiled over one another to harangue her or hang her, but if there was one thing Luna was undoubtedly the most experienced with it was hostile voices barging into her head. Other armoured ponies were already bulldozing their way into the throng, forcibly restoring order to the train platform and the surrounding street. Dozens of civilian pegasi filled the air, and most of the windows of the nearby buildings had intent watchers behind them. To each and all her guards grunted out the same blunt message. No statement. At the Castle. Later. It was a kind of panicked lockdown, in the way enforcers of state are wont to do when heads of state seem to have lost theirs. Questions erupted from them like sparks from an inferno, by midday the whole city would be ablaze with them. The changelings, what few were left of them - for a great deal seemed to have up and disappeared in the confusion of the night - were to be all but smuggled to an undisclosed location. Not even Luna knew where, nor did she care. Just so long as Chrysalis behaved, just for a little longer, this madness might actually work. Questions abounded. Bewilderment reigned, but Luna knew it wouldn’t stay that way for long. Shock gave way to misgivings, in turn these would step aside for hostility. The cities of the modern era were fascinating, but tiring. Invasive as it was, the dark princess held no disdain for the crowd’s actions, shoving and shouting incessantly, blinding her with flashes and drowning her in noise. Upsetting as all these things were, she could understand. It didn’t mean she welcomed it in the slightest, but did mean that she wouldn’t actually send them fleeing in terror to restore her peace and quiet. Being thanked for such a thing afterwards was infinitesimally less likely than it had been in Ponyville, and that had been close enough as it was. Such thoughts were not to be dwelt upon, for fear is ever the catalyst of hostility. Luna held none for her ponies, knowing that all the while that many of them would not hold the opposite true. Her own truth was that she had no fear to spare, she had a terrible foe to contest wills with regardless of their common interests, and a sister to face in lieu of all she’d done... From the street behind the crowd came a flash like none other. It couldn’t be contained by the word, nothing could contain that pure luminescence. It was like standing inside a lightning strike. A gasp heralded it, a gasp of hundreds of ponies shocked and awed simultaneously so that for a fleeting, beautiful moment there was light without sound, or even sight. The dazzling brilliance left no room for sight. It withdrew, and as it went Luna thought she could imagine the sounds of soft chimes. It left her feeling good. At peace. Safe, as if she was being held. As always her thoughts lagged behind her feelings, but for once it might have been better had they never bothered at all. Once she recognized the source of this, it poisoned the whole sensation with dread. The fading light finally revealed Celestia. Resplendent as ever and shimmering like the snow of the highest mountain peaks, she shone with an ephemeral glow. Somehow Luna stood, dumbstruck as everypony else, though her heart was so full of roiling emotion that it left her head no room for thought. Half a dozen steps from the white alicorn brought the sisters face to face. “Welcome home, Luna,” she said in a voice for all to hear. If the tone had a name, it would be ‘benevolence.’ Celestia leaned closer, but Luna could only stare forwards, her mouth somewhat open, her eyes entirely so. “Fly with me. Quickly, before everypony catches on.” the dark alicorn could hear the smile in those words, they sunk into her like much-needed rain on hardened ground. It recalled to her mind memories of Celestia’s gentle mischief, and laughter from long ago. From there it was a short leap of thought to the Elements and how they’d entwined through both alicorn’s lives. As the gust rolled over her Luna realized it was an even shorter leap into the open air, and Celestia was already two strokes ahead.