//------------------------------//
// The Power of Love 
// Story: The Immortal Dream 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

I looked out at the cone of heat rising from the Ironridge crater as the airship lift carried me up, a curious Howe and an unconscious Corsica and a wary Leitmotif sharing the small platform. It shimmered against the clear sky, beautiful and deadly, a city of thousands sprawling below.

How could I reconcile everything Leif had just told me with this? All the intrigue and changelings and windigoes and wars, her having been a real batpony once and me being an unawakened changeling, Yakyakistan preparing to break the truce and mount an invasion... It answered so many of my questions, put to rest so many confusing observations and things that didn't add up, finally gave me a truth I could hold onto instead of grasping at shadows. And yet, looking out over the crater, I saw none of it. It was invisible, not real.

What I saw was a city that was struggling not to burn alive, and yet was massive, the product of centuries and generations of hard work and ponies living their lives.

The kinds of things I was worrying about, changeling bishops and magic bracelets and power vacuums and secret conspiracies, they just... It didn't feel like they needed to be real for the world to be complete. The ponies in that crater surely had rich, complex enough lives as it was, things to struggle for and against. If there was any sort of cosmic balance in the universe, Ironridge didn't need a conspiracy in order to exist.

An intense feeling of wistfulness washed over me, and for a moment I wondered if everything I had done so far, all the problems I ran into, were all in my head. And then the lift docked, and I remembered I was on the airship of a child goddess who looked to me for guidance and was being raised by a portable cult to commit matricide with a power that was likely far too weak to do the job.

I sighed. Coda, Leitmotif, Ironridge, and most of all me all deserved better.

"Are you sure about this?" Leif whispered quietly in my ear, Corsica propped between us - after that rest, she was about as capable as I was. "You know what I just told you about this place."

"Are you unsure about it?" I quietly asked back. "You made it sound like it was more... I mean... We're not exactly swimming in options, here."

Leif stiffened her shoulders. "I'll be fine. Just making sure you're paying attention."

Howe listened curiously, but didn't press, focusing instead on fastening the lift into place. The main lounge of the airship awaited us, its lights turned off yet well-lit anyway from a wide window in the side. All the altar curtains had been drawn back, and a lone cleric was cleaning them. Nobody else was in sight.

"Well? Welcome to the show, dudes," Howe greeted, sweeping a wing and gesturing for us to make ourselves comfortable. "It's not exactly the busiest place during the day, since most everyone's asleep. Which is what the Howenator was doing before her tiny majesty woke him up to go nab you, by the way, so excuse him if he's gonna go pass out..."

"Hold on," I said, stopping him. "What are you even doing here, anyway? On this ship?"

Howe shrugged. "Ol' Howe works many jobs, little mare. This one just happens to have the coziest place for him to crash."

I looked around at the relative opulence of the airship and remembered the sea of griffon gold stashed beneath the hull. Really, if someone let me live in a place like this, I'd probably take the offer in a heartbeat.

"So are we going somewhere?" Leif asked, sounding a little groggier than when we had been talking down below - I had a hunch it was an act, to make herself sound weaker than she was. "Or are you taking us back to Dead Herman?"

Howe shrugged. "Feel free to ask Coda. She was the one who stopped us, and I recall a certain memberino of your team is always welcome in her lair. Tip from a pro, though, dudes: it's the middle of the day. We have real pegasus-down beds. And you three look sadder than a flat Sosan ale. So unless you've got somewhere you need to be in a hurry, if the Howenator was you, he'd take the good fortune while you have it."

"Tempting," Leif grunted, helping me get Corsica into a chair and then settling into one herself. She gave me a nod, as if to say I should go see Coda and make sure we weren't about to get caught up in anything.

And so I did, pushing through the curtains in the tunnel to her throne room at the stern. Nobody stopped me, at least, and I assumed that was where the young queen would be... although a strange thought occurred to me that if Coda was running her changeling queen-detector spell during the day, and collecting prayers of the faithful at night, then when did she sleep?

I stepped through the final curtain, and my question had an answer.

The wall across from the throne had collapsed and folded out, and there was now a posh, double-king four-poster where empty floor space had once reigned. It was a fold-away, and yet it was the most opulent bed I had ever seen, to a mind-boggling degree. You'd think in an airship this big, someone could have given Coda her own bedroom, but no, here she was, tucked in and laying on her back with her forehooves poking out over the blankets, eyes closed and slumbering softly, wisps of a half-formed aura running up and down her horn.

I blinked. I tilted my head. I held my breath and came closer. She... really looked like she was sleeping...

"Who goes there?" Coda's voice said from somewhere behind me.

I jumped and spun around, letting out a yelp of surprise, and yet there was no one there.

"Speak with your mouth if you are present, creature," Coda's voice authoritatively urged, and now I was all but certain it was coming from nowhere. "Or is your great goddess being boondoggled by phantasms of the day?"

"I'm here," I said, incredibly confused. "What are you doing?"

"No response?" Coda's voice echoed. "A ghostly specter indeed, then. You've done well to fool a princess, I commend you on that. I take it you are a trick, perhaps, conjured by the two travelers in the other room I did deign to rescue? A light movement of the curtains that guard my room, conjured by fell magics to make me think I had a visitor?"

I stared, clueless, at the peacefully-slumbering filly, a small smile on her lips.

"Oh! Erm..." Suddenly, the pitch of phantom Coda's voice was different, the way I might make mine be if I was talking for a sock puppet. "I'm no phantom! I'm Halcyon! Yes, that's why your magic can't see me!"

I had even less of a clue.

"Ah! Princess Halcyon the Garbed!" Coda's voice went back to normal, sounding immeasurably pleased. "When I bade my henchpony save those silly, stranded travelers, I hadn't imagined you might be in their company! Ah, I suppose every good deed must be rewarded, for I am bored and a chat with you might do me a world of good. Tell me, fellow goddess, how did you and your minions come to be in such a predicament? Most mortals I observe from on high do not venture unto that vast plane of stone."

"Well, that's kind of a long-" I started.

"It was fascinating," Coda interrupted, in what I was pretty sure by now was supposed to be a facsimile of my voice. "We got lost! Because that's a thing you can do in the real world, when you don't have goddess powers to know where everything is!"

I sat down in bafflement.

"For truth?" Coda's voice was once again her own. "The plight of the common folk never ceases to expand my own horizons. I have heard of this phenomenon from the myriad worshipers who offer me their love, albeit never done it myself. As an all-knowing goddess, such an experience is impossible for me. Which is quite paradoxical when you think about it, is it not? Can one truly be all-knowing if the state of knowing everything renders one unable to know what it is like to not know something?"

Her voice changed to 'mine' again. "Philosophy? That is one of my areas of expertise. What would you like to learn, Coda?"

Once again, it was back to her own. "...Actually, I would impose upon you with a secret," she whispered. "You can keep a secret, right?"

Instinctively, I nodded, feeling a little surreal. That glow on Coda's horn... Was she using a unicorn spell to sleep-talk? While dreaming, and narrating her dream in real-time? A dream about me coming to visit?

"Excellent," Coda's voice breathed. "I have, indeed, never gotten lost. And my clergy impress upon me daily the doctrine that I am all-wise and all-knowing. But consider this: I have never left this airship, and by their own lack of losing their way, I suspect it is small enough that a mortal mind could memorize all the rooms and hallways just as I have. Ironridge, meanwhile, is so huge that even this airship takes much time to circle it in its entirety. Considered in its entirety, I believe this evidence means I, too, could get lost were I to wander the world of mortals on the surface."

I didn't know what to say.

"It's so boring, being fawned over as my faithful are wont to do," Coda went on, her voice a bare whisper. "You must keep this a secret from my clergy, as they would never understand. And I could not in good conscience tell them my holy mission does not sit at the forefront of my mind day in and day out, may it ever fill me with purpose. But they tell me failings such as losing my way are ills native to the mortal world, and that as a goddess, it is my right to exist above them. But you are a princess too, and you lost your way, did you not? Tell me, was it really so bad? Or was it exciting? You are unique because you are a creature I cannot predict. And nothing could be more unpredictable than to find yourself in an unknown land, bereft of waypoints, with choices to make that actually matter and countless outcomes none of which you know about..."

Part of me thought I shouldn't be listening to this. Another part of me reminded me that, technically, she thought she was telling this to me anyway.

"Mmh... It's no use..." Coda struggled briefly in her sleep and rolled over. "I am sorry, Princess Halcyon. No matter how I try to conjure you as a figment of my imagination, you remain yet under my control. A discussion of my presumptions and perceptions about the surface holds no meaning when the you in my mind exists purely to validate my inner speculations. But you can neither surprise me nor prove me wrong. I will inevitably call you back later, and do so enjoy these daily chats of ours, but I just... No. I must succeed in my duty and stop my mother. And then you can show me the surface you tell me so much about."

Her little smile had been replaced by a little frown.

That was it. I climbed onto the bed and crawled across - it was far too big for me to reach without doing so - and poked her on the horn.

Coda flinched, then twitched, then shifted, her half-aura going out and her eyes blearily trying to look around. They settled on me.

"Errr..." I started.

Coda moved all at once, lunging forward and glomping onto my chest in a tight hug, knocking both of us out of the bed.

"Woah!" I tried to get some hooves beneath me, the giant filly clinging on tightly, somehow not triggering my usual aversion to being touched. "Sorry if I woke you up. You, like, err, I mean..." I looked down at her. She wasn't letting go. "Are you alright? Not that I mind, but I've only met you twice..."

Eventually, Coda did let me go, sitting back and rubbing her tired little eyes. "Forgive my outburst and sudden loss of control. I was having a very familiar dream, and..." She squinted, then blinked a few more times. "I truly did sense you enter my chambers. That was you, listening to everything I said."

I nodded.

"Shame ill-befits a goddess," Coda yawned. "You must be... dreadfully confused... My, but it must still be high noon in the middle of the day..."

"You can talk during your dreams," I guessed. "And use magic. And dream lucidly, or something?"

Coda nodded, wobbling slightly. "See, I knew you were a goddess. You understand... Even some of my clergy, I have given up explaining it to, and they merely accept it as things their mortal minds are too small to... to contain." She yawned again, bigger this time, her ears folding so far back their tips almost touched together. "Although my body rests, my powers remain ever active. It is rather like how I feel in the waking world, except I am a ghost, and can only interact using magic. A perfect time for scanning for changeling queens... though because you resist my magic, apparently you are invisible to my dreams, as well."

"That's crazy," I said, noting again how tired she looked. "I can... sort of relate? My dreams aren't normal either. But should I let you rest, though?"

"Perish the thought," Coda muttered, straightening a rumpled patch on her coat. "In sleep, I have even less to do than in the waking world. Since you are here, I must not let this opportunity go to waste."

I tilted my head. "You want to talk to me that badly?"

"You did glean the meaning of the monologue upon which you eavesdropped, did you not?" Coda yawned yet again. "Your loving goddess is bored. It was always so, and coming to meet you has only shown her ever so much of the world of mortals that she is missing out on. Behold: do something unexpected. Your princess commands it."

I had a hunch that no matter what I did, it wouldn't change the direction of this conversation.

"See?" Coda pointed a wing at me. "You did nothing. Perhaps not entirely original, but not something I could predict because you are immune to my royal ability to feel the emotions of my subjects. In fact, I already explained this to you ere last we met, and the fact that I must do so again concisely proves my point. Do you understand how?"

"Might as well just spill it," I said. "I like you, kid, but I've honestly had a pretty big day and don't really have a lot of brain power left for pretty much anything until I get some sleep."

Coda tapped her forehooves in glee. "I knew it! You see, you forgot about me, wise and magnanimous and unforgettable though my clergy insist that I am. The finer details of our conversations have slipped your mind because, as inspiring as I am, I cannot compete with the happenings of the surface for mastery of your thoughts. And thus your life is enviable and I, a goddess who should be denied nothing, am inexplicably missing out."

"That's a whole lotta words to say you're bored and tired of being shut up in here," I told her, wondering exactly how bad of an idea it would be to let this filly meet Corsica and Leif. "You don't need to come up with a big long logical proof for it to be true. It's just the way ponies are. We get bored when we're understimulated, and tired when we're overstimulated. Looking at you, you've never known the latter, though believe me you can very much have too much of a good thing."

Coda glared at me, a light of challenge in her eyes, daring me to tell a story and put some evidence to that last point. It was a hungry glare, less like a changeling queen who had been magically stuffed full of emotion and more like a child who had been given far too little.

I made up my mind. Leif was working for me now, so she could just deal with Coda, and if she tried to pull anything, she'd have to answer to me. And somehow I had become a figure that Coda glommed onto upon waking up from a lonely dream, so I was pretty sure I could talk Coda down if she tried anything, too. And given that I was now in it deep with both of them, it would be better for them to get comfortable with each other in a safe setting where nothing was exploding and I could arbitrate free from distractions.

"Come on, then," I said, beckoning her along. "Let's go let you look at my friends. They're pretty beaten up, though, and your magical mind-reading isn't gonna tell you they think it's entirely a good thing."

And, all better reasons aside, I was just too tired to do the mental gymnastics of interpreting Coda's flowery speech in real time while I was alone.





When we entered back into the lobby, Corsica was still passed out. Leif saw me and my charge, and gave me a look that was surprised, wary and resolute. But she didn't resist as we got closer.

"Oh my..." Coda frowned, lighting her horn as we crossed the room. "These two are your own devoted followers, then? I could not detect it from afar, but they are not in perfect health, at all."

"You think?" I shrugged. "Leif, this is Coda. Coda, this is Leitmotif. Just figured it might probably be better if-"

"I do think," Coda said, her voice solemn. "These two bear the unmistakable emotional signs of being fed on by changelings."

I blinked. Leif, that was probably because she was a changeling and had overused her own powers, but Corsica? Fed on by changelings? How, and when?

"Don't worry yourself about it," Leif said, visibly uncomfortable. "I know what I know."

Coda scrutinized her. "You are skilled at leveling your emotions, mystery mare, but I can tell that you fear me. Know, however, that I am an avatar of goodness and life, and may possess the means to heal your ills."

"What's that entail?" I asked, stepping in. "What do you mean, fed on by changelings?"

Coda nodded. "All beings are endowed with a capacity to care about things and show them emotion, such as love and anger, and that capacity burns like a flame. To have feelings of any kind for another is to give them that emotion that you feel, an act that has both a mental component and a metaphysical one. Such is the mechanism by which the prayers of the faithful become my own power, you see. Now, in many cases, experiencing emotions and giving those emotions to another is a self-perpetuating cycle, because investing your emotions in a thing causes you to care about it more and have more emotions to feel, and it is because of this cycle that ponies are able to give and give without burning themselves down to cinders. Other emotions can create an opposite cycle, in which feeling them tires you out. Which emotions do which depends on your personality. For example, for one pony, the act of hating something might cause them to hate it more. But for another, it might wear them out. And everyone gets tired sometimes, but you always have rest and relaxation and being shown care by others to help rekindle your flame, do you not?"

I stared at her. How could someone so clueless about so many basic facets of life be able to describe something like that in so much detail? I wasn't sure how right she was, especially since my mind worked differently from every other pony's, but she clearly at least had reason to believe herself an expert.

"This flame is indeed precious to mortals," Coda went on. "It is why the act of willingly sharing their prayers with me makes my own faithful so special. Tragically, a certain evil queen, odious is her personality, has difficulty attracting devout followers to fuel her powers, and thus she must take those emotional energies by force. 'Tis a sad duty that all her drones are forced to carry out, and the result is a supernatural weariness of the soul, for your flame has burned low independent of your own actions."

I stared at Corsica. Her special talent... She told me it came at the price of her ability to care about things. Whatever it was, however it worked, it was powered by her emotional energy in the same way a changeling queen was?

In the same way Leif's transformation magic was, assuming that was what had happened to her.

"The good news is, a generous practitioner of such magics might just as easily use her powers to reverse the change," Coda proclaimed, "sparing the downtrodden days of recovery for costs they did not wish to spend. This is particularly fortunate for our sarosian friend, who experiences the effects of drainage not as a mere weariness of the soul, but a physical one upon her body, for reasons that are yet a mystery to me."

"You don't have to dance around it," Leif said, watching her. "I know you're a changeling queen, and I don't need to be beholden to your hive. I overdid it on the transformations, but it's nothing I haven't recovered from before."

"Beholden to..." Coda's brow scrunched in confusion. "You mean to say that you are a changeling?"

Leif stared at her. "You mean you can't tell?"

"Fascinating," Coda muttered. "I had imagined Mother's emissaries to be much more formless and sinister. Yet you have your own thoughts and emotions, and are not merely a conduit funneling to and from a master. Such is the uncanny difference that I mistook you for an ordinary mortal. In fact, my powers are so insistent that you are one, I am having trouble finding a difference at all."

Leif watched her suspiciously.

"The existence of thinking, feeling changelings is known to me, of course," Coda went on. "But you are still the first one I have met in person. I must admit, this is unexpected. Though I suppose it does explain your condition..." She rubbed her chin. "Are you quite sure you do not wish to partake of divine love to replenish yourself? As a goddess, the loss of a single pony's worth of love would be of little consequence to me, and it was indeed for worthy purposes like this that I collected it."

Leif glanced at me. "How... badly do you need me back in action? She's not lying about what she can do. Not that I have any choice in what she does, of course."

"The Princess of Love gives you a choice, mortal," Coda piously proclaimed, holding her chin high. "Repayment is appreciated, but never required."

"Thanks," Leif grunted. "So magnanimous."

Coda glanced at me. "This one certainly believes she has little need for gods."

"Not everyone does." I shrugged, then glanced at Leitmotif. "How long do you think you need? To get back on your hooves on your own. We've got all the stuff you told me about, and I've got my own reasons to go fast, but I'm kinda tired and need to rest, myself."

"I'll manage," Leif said. "On my own. Thanks."

I shook my head, wondering what possibly could have made her that way. As much as she had told me down on the plateau, there had to be so much more to her...

"And what of this one?" Coda asked, moving on to Corsica. "She is so deeply drained as to have passed out! Depending on her resilience, coming back from this normally may be a rather grumpy endeavor, and that's provided you remove her from the offending changeling. Which I hope is not you?" She glanced back at Leif. "Unless she is a changeling too..."

Leif gave me a questioning look. "Do you know why she's drained?"

"She's not a changeling, I do know why, and there's not too much to do about it," I said, hoping I was guessing rightly about this being her talent at play and she wasn't also getting fed on by a hostile changeling at the same time. "And she... might appreciate having a boost. If she doesn't like me speaking for her, she can wake up and slap me herself."

"Very well, then!" Coda reared up. "Behold the power of love!"

Her horn lit with a blackish-pink flame, and a thin haze of energy seemed to hover around Corsica before dissipating into mist.

Corsica stirred.

"Unnngh..." She stirred harder, her head writhing against the back of the chair like she was trying to get something unstuck from her mane. "Nggh... What the..." Her eyes flew open. "Ew! What happened to me!? Eww!"

"Corsica?" I reached out a guilty hoof.

"I feel like a rube!" Corsica moaned, complaining loudly. "Like a flake! It's not supposed to work this way! What happened? Euggh, I need a cold shower..."

I repeated her name.

"Halcyon?" She squinted at me. "Where are we? What happened to..."

"You have been restored by the power of love!" Coda proudly declared. "All your ills can be at ease now... except you don't feel very at ease." She turned to me with a stern look. "Tell me, Princess Halcyon, why doth your minion complain so?"

Leif blinked at me in bewilderment. "Princess?"

"Long story, not actually meaningful," I told her, pushing back Coda with a wing and focusing on Corsica. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"My brain feels sleazy," Corsica groaned, holding a hoof to her forehead. "Like I somehow lost all my strength of character..." She focused on Coda. "Who are you, and what's going on here?"

Coda straightened her posture. "I am Coda, Princess of Love, trouncer of evil, basher of corruption, she who smites injustice and spiders because they're gross. And you are a favored mortal who has just been healed of grievous emotional injury by the power of love. Given your ordeal, I can understand if you do not immediately rejoice, but there's no need to be this stingy with the praise..."

"An alicorn?" Corsica focused on her wings and horn. She glanced at me. "Wait, so this is your..." She glanced back at Coda. "Are you the reason I'm currently thinking about... you know!?"

Coda started to look confused, and maybe a little worried. "Of course I am. You had passed out from being fed on by a changeling-"

"No, from pushing your emotions too hard," I interrupted. "You know what I mean."

"Whatever," Coda interrupted. "Naturally, a loving goddess could not leave you in such a despondent state, so I took it upon myself to fill the hole in your heart with naught but the purest of holy love. It did work, right? Your goddess has not had the most frequent chances to practice, although it is simple in theory..."

Corsica levelly met her eyes. "You did this to me? You dumped these 'emotions' into my head?"

Coda sighed. "Mortals do love making me repeat myself. You aren't satisfied?"

Corsica didn't look away. "You earnestly believe this is love?"

Coda blinked. "What kind of question is that? As the Princess of Love, I am an authority on what constitutes-"

"You poor, corrupted soul," Corsica interrupted, shaking her head. "I wish I wasn't feeling this way anymore."

For a second, Coda looked peeved, and then utterly gobsmacked. "What? But... How did that happen? You just went from full to..." She stared at me. "What happened to the love I..."

"Get flexed on." Corsica slouched her way over to me, looking limp and exhausted. "And don't worry about it. Just don't touch my mind with that again. Hallie? I'm going to live with not knowing whether you okayed her doing that."

"She-" Coda started to say, before Corsica's horn lit and her aura clamped down around her muzzle. Her cheeks scrunched in frustration.

"Just lemme hibernate for a day, keep her from doing that again, and we'll call it even. 'Kay?" Corsica slumped her way over, not giving the princess a second look.

I nodded. "Deal. In fact, I think we all need to get some sleep. It's the middle of the day, and this place is probably safer than anywhere else we're going to go. Right?"

Leif managed to nod. Corsica was too tired to follow suit, but the sentiment was overwhelming.

"But..." Coda protested, slipping her telekinetic bonds. "You're going to waste this rare time with your princess in the throes of slumber?"

"Yup," I said, noting her own baggy eyes. "And so are you. We all need it."

"Even though we could be talking of the surface, or something so much more engaging?" A hint of desperation entered Coda's voice. "I don't... Sleep is..."

"Yup," I repeated. "Sleep isn't something you ignore, especially when you've been up as long and done as much as we have."

Coda blinked, then hardened her voice. "If you rest when there is so much to be done, then so too shall I, Princess Halcyon the Garbed. No more scanning for the day! Is this the example you would set for your eager princess?"

"Yup," I told her once again. "Work's important, but you need a break even more than anyone. And if you got it through your head that you don't actually need to be crewing this ship around the clock, casting spells and listening to prayers, maybe you'd have time to leave this place and do something more interesting with your life."

"Fie, the voice of temptation..." Coda drooped. "You have my weak spot firmly in your grasp. I hope you know what you are doing, worldly equal of mine. Much as I dare to hope your words might be true, 'twould then be on both of our heads were the dereliction of my duties to let catastrophe ensue. No work for today, it is."

And then she left, going back to her own quarters, leaving me unsure how to feel.

She wouldn't be able to fight what was coming, I knew it for certain. Not only had I seen and felt the weakness of her power firsthoof, but Corsica rejected it as not the real thing, as well. She could try, of course, but she would certainly lose and fail. And the best thing I could do for her would be to do as Lilith wanted and free her from this duty. But something was coming. All my own observations spoke to confusion and high tensions throughout the city, and Leif warned me of the form it would take: windigoes, and a war.

Come to think of it, Leif had given me a strange request as well, asking if I could know about the coming war without being compelled to stop it. Seeing it from that side of the table, it was hard for me to grasp what she was saying, or more importantly why she was saying it. If there was good I could do, why wouldn't I? I was a good pony. It was my duty.

But what Leif was asking of me was exactly the same thing I was asking of Coda. Trying to take someone whose job it wasn't and get them out of harm's way.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and pondered what I should do.