"We are being followed," Coda remarked under her breath, once again disguised as an ordinary filly and riding on my back. Papyrus and Corsica flanked me as we strolled the streets of Dead Herman, more because Corsica didn't want to walk next to Papyrus than because I was the leader.
"Eh?" My backwards ears twitched.
"By my clergy," Coda added. "I know their minds well enough to recognize them even at a distance. Their thoughts run stiff with worry..."
I thought back to the confrontation that ensued as we left the airship. Clearly, Coda's escapades with me the night before hadn't gone over well with her followers, and things got charged enough that my own emotions got a little heated trying to persuade them that seeing the world was in the filly's best interest. Not that it was me, ultimately, who convinced them to let her go. Papyrus had been the one to actually cow them and make them back down.
Coda sounded worried too. "Ever have they acted in my best interest," she breathed in my ear. "I do want to see the world. I desire it with all of my being. Yet victory sits hollow in my breast when it was won over the objections of my most faithful. This will be alright, yes? They are merely overprotective, and will surely be reassured by witnessing us on an innocent and refreshing jaunt around the city?"
I grit my teeth. Yes, if I was acting solely for Coda's benefit, taking her on a safe, controlled tour designed to get her hooves wet and teach her about the world little by little, under her guardians' watchful eye, would be the best both for her and for their own peace of mind.
Instead, I was marching her off to war.
Resolving to myself that I would see her home safely, no matter the cost - a silly resolution to make when she was far more powerful than I was, but an important one nonetheless - I kept up my pace, walking towards the inn where I was told I would find Leitmotif. Coda had apparently given her some griffon gold prior to her last departure, with a general understanding of what it would be used for, and now claimed to be able to detect her at range, though it took several minutes of focusing each time she wanted to get a new reading. I still had Egdelwonk's map to guide us when she fell short, but this was something I wanted to let her have. The soupy sea of revelry and emotion that made up Dead Herman wasn't easy for her to traverse, and Coda was starved for a challenge.
We found the establishment, and after a word or two with the proprietor, learned that Leif was indeed waiting for me to show up. A moment later, Leif emerged, once again in pegasus form, with most of her body covered by a loose, paper-thin shawl. Her eyes locked onto Papyrus. He innocently grinned.
"...Quite the party," she eventually, slowly said. "Whatever you want with me, let's not talk here."
I nodded, swallowing. Me, Corsica, Papyrus, Coda, Leitmotif... The entire team, or at least the team I would get. Recruitment was over. Time to talk about what was about to go down.
On the far outskirts of town, I stopped us, pulling us off what might generously be called a mountain trail between Dead Herman and the Ice District. I took a breath, faced everyone... and started to explain.
"Some of you already know what I'm about to say, and others have no clue, so I'll keep it medium-short," I began. "I'm from Icereach. Isolated research colony in the mountains, about two weeks west of here by airship. My mother..." I nodded pointedly at Leitmotif. "Is still there. And I've got good reason to believe that Icereach is currently in the process of closing its doors to foreigners and travel into and out of the city is soon going to be impossible."
I moved my gaze across everyone else. "Personally, I like my mom and wouldn't want to never see her again. So, tonight, we're going to go to Icereach, find her, and bring her back to Ironridge."
Coda's eyes were wide with excitement, but Leif gave me a level look. "Two weeks one way," she said, voice laden with the assumption that I had a plan.
I nodded, opened my saddlebag and pulled out the pattern card I had looted long ago. "Near Icereach, there is a secret lair with a bunch of old technology that belongs to someone influential in Ironridge. Some of us may have visited it before." I gave Leif another look. "It turns out that lair has a teleporter, which used to be paired to one in Ironridge until I stole the key." I tapped the pattern card. "But I know where both teleporters are. We'll be using them to get in and out."
"You've got a way to power the teleporters?" Leif raised an eyebrow. "Those things aren't widespread, and the reason is because they don't run on conventional power sources."
"Yup." I nodded. "Windigoes."
Leif bristled. Papyrus grinned. Coda listened with wide eyes.
"Our ticket into Icereach is powered by a good friend none of us have any bad history with called the Composer," I told Leif, "with whom I've already worked out a deal. Our ticket out will be powered by Ludwig, and convincing him to play nice is something we'll have to do on the fly." I glanced at Corsica. "You've blackmailed him before." I turned to Coda. "And you're a goddess with love powers. This isn't a pleasure outing: we've got an agenda, and it involves parlaying with the forces of evil. I know you talk big, but here's your chance to be big as well."
Coda looked somewhere between excited and scared. "Tales of the wraiths of ice have crossed m-my ear before, but..." She swallowed. "I mean, yes! Your goddess will stand strong! This is what the power of love was made for..."
She looked nervously back at her ship.
I gave her my most encouraging smile, even though my reservations had suddenly redoubled about bringing her along. "We're going over this before we leave so that no one goes without really wanting to. If you don't think you're one hundred percent ready, I've got enough contingencies to do it without you. Even if it was just me, I think I could convince Ludwig to take my side."
"It's just..." Coda hesitated. "I do not have my crown. That is still affixed to my throne."
"What's that have to do with anything?" Corsica yawned.
Coda gave her a serious look. "A changeling queen's crown is the nexus of their power. By affixing it to my throne, I become one with my airship, allowing the ship to fly by the power stored within me, and allowing the apparatus that collects my prayers to function. While there are many other advantages to me being separate from it, it does mean that the powers I can call upon now are but a shadow of my true potential."
I hesitated. "...How big of a difference are we talking? Exactly how strong are you now?"
"I could not say," Coda apologized. "I have never worn the crown. In sitting upon the throne, I can resonate with the prayers contained within, acclimate myself to their presence, allow the whispers in the back of my mind to become a storm of voices. Ever have I been told that wearing the crown would be the final necessary step towards wielding my power against my mother. Alas, it would be decidedly impractical to live day to day with all of that emotional energy pressing unfiltered against my mind."
I thought back to the storm I had seen on that fateful night when I touched Coda's throne, in a world that might have been the inside of her mind. Conscripting a changeling queen to fight otherworldly forces without a solid understanding of how changeling queens even worked might not have been the best idea, come to think of it...
"Are we going to sit around all night hashing out the nitty-gritty, or is there going to be some action?" Papyrus complained, ruining my train of thought. "Look, Butterfly: the only reason you're playing the leader here is because you haven't been usurped yet, and I'm of a mind to change that if we don't pick up the pace. How much more do we really need to know to find that teleporter, use it, and stir up some trouble?"
I squinted at him. "We're preparing. Ever heard of double-checking your plans and making sure everyone has the same idea as you about what role they can play?"
Papyrus waggled his eyebrows. "Ah, but I thought the whole point of this endeavor is that you know literally nothing about how Icereach has changed since you left, planning is pointless and we'll have to play everything by ear. Is that not why you begged an accomplished improviser like me to join your little escapade?"
"It's because you threatened me with discussing philosophy if I didn't," I protested, my mind spinning circles as I looked for the best way to shut this down.
"Details," Papyrus sighed. "Butterfly, I like a dash of mad science every now and then, but you're operating under a terrible many assumptions here, first and foremost being that if cute little Coda fries the windigo with love energy, it's not going to be in any state to power any teleporters. If you must plan for contingencies, plan for ones that will take us in a beneficial direction."
"I..." I worked my jaw. "Look, excuse me for wanting every bit of leverage I can get against a creature that sees us all as playthings, okay?"
Papyrus pursed his lips. "And here I thought we were talking about the windigo, not me."
I sighed in defeat. "Fine, then. What's your plan for how to get back out once we've got what we came for?"
"Wing it." Papyrus's eyes glittered. "Do what feels best with the options we have. Maybe we can teleport. Maybe we steal an airship. Maybe we stow away to Yakyakistan. The more you accept the necessity of planning on the fly, the less time you'll spend resisting it and the more time you'll spend practicing. Isn't that right, Senescey?"
Leif's brow shadowed. "You can call me Leif, or Leitmotif."
Coda was watching with mixed fascination and concern. "This is quite intense," she remarked. "I can tell the loud one has little respect for me or my powers, but he is also quite fearless and has no sense of danger. You there!" She pointed a hoof at Papyrus. "From whence does your confidence flow? Your princess desires to understand."
"Me?" Papyrus put an angelic wing over his heart.
"He's maybe not the best person to take life lessons from..." I cut in hastily, giving Papyrus a shut up look. "Listen, we're going in circles and getting off track. Coda, I'm asking you and no one else: should we go back and get your crown?"
Coda hesitated, clearly still thinking about Papyrus. "I..."
Leif was looking at me. A very pointed look. A look that said, I told you I wouldn't be able to be around Coda without being tempted to use her for my own ends. Are you doing anything different?
"You know what?" I straightened up. "I'm... sorry for getting you mixed up in this, Coda. This isn't the kind of thing I should be taking you out to do, especially when your cult is trusting me to keep you safe. But we won't be gone for more than a day, and when we're back, I promise I'll take you to meet my mother and then show you the city some more. Normally. No... None of this. Can you forgive me?"
Coda stared at me for a long moment, and eventually she frowned. "What are ponies supposed to do in situations like this?"
I waited for her to explain.
"It is my royal duty to protect you and fight the powers of evil, no matter their shape and form," Coda explained. "By all rights, this mission is so adjacent to my destiny that they are as siblings. And yet all of you are so clearly uneasy with it. Even you." She glanced at Papyrus. "All that has ever been asked of me, for all of my life, is that I wield my powers with righteousness and oppose supernatural evil that is beyond the abilities of mortals. Why, then, does that run contrary to everyone's desires? Princess Halcyon, I am used to being surprised by, as she is an enigma. But here, she is not an outlier, but in consensus. I don't understand."
"You think about stuff a lot." I ruffled her mane. "And the only answer is that the real world is super different to the one you know. No matter what they say about your age, you're a kid. Kids aren't supposed to have duties like these. I'm probably too young for it too, but at least I've done this song and dance a few times. I wanna show you the world so you can get a bit of normalcy in your life, and dragging you off to meet a windigo isn't how to do that."
"And you believe you stand a chance without my holy power?" Coda countered. "What are my powers even good for if not what you propose to do tonight? Why have I lived my entire life preparing to use them so if I am to be told they are not necessary at the moment of truth? I want to join you! I want to see that all those long nights pandering to the faithful from my throne were not for naught!"
I bit my lip.
"Please do not turn me away," Coda murmured, averting her gaze. "I... am feeling like I am awaking from a very long dream, and know little of what to do. The world I bear witness to right now is so unlike everything I have ever known, and I cannot see how to reconcile it with my past. I do not want to leave the past behind, Halcyon. To choose wholly to live in either world and abandon the other... I think such a choice would make me unbearably sad."
"You wanna come because you want your powers to be good for something," I said, condensing down everything she had just told me.
Coda nodded, a tear threatening to drip down her cheek.
"This isn't a field trip," I warned her. "Whatever happens, it's probably gonna make your worldview get even more messy."
"All to be expected," Coda acknowledged. "I would not be here were I not desiring of new sights and experiences. And what value is there in preserving my present worldview if it is not sufficient to give me satisfaction and peace?"
"Not to interrupt," Papyrus interrupted, "but this has to be the most wholesome thing I've ever witnessed. Yech." He made a show of scraping with his wings at his tongue.
Leif gave me a look that suggested she was still concerned about my choices. Corsica looked too tired to care.
"Alright then." I stood straight again. "If that's how it's gonna be, you can come. We won't be needing your crown, though. Whatever you can do without it, you can do, and whatever you can't do... You wanna embrace the future, too, then you're better off being more like a normal pony when you can get away with it. And remember, frying the windigo is a last resort for when all the rest of us are out of ideas and we're really in a pickle."
"Understood!" Coda bounced in place, her eagerness returned in force. "I shall not fail you, Princess Halcyon the Garbed! Now, wherefore is this teleporter? Your goddess decrees herself ready to move!"
I pointed to the distant spires of the Ice District, and we resumed our walk.
As we did so, Corsica pulled up beside me. "You sure about this?" she whispered.
"No," I whispered back. "Definitely not. When everything goes belly up, first priority is protect the filly."
We entered the Ice District from the top, the same way we left when Corsica and I went to visit the rocket crash site near the Aldenfold. Coda spent the trip predictably wowed by the scenery, and Leif looked ill at ease - I noted that she had never officially given her consent to the plan, and wondered if it was unfair of me to brief her on it all at once in a group where Coda was going to dominate the conversation. But she should be on board, right? This was her own sister we were going to save. I remembered during the Aldebaran incident, opening the door to my apartment and seeing her and Mother sitting there, at the table...
I knocked on Jamjars' door, and it was immediately answered by Kitty, her hoodie drawn up tight and her tongue lolling eagerly.
"Hiya, lady!" she greeted, stepping back to let us in. "Lotsa friends?"
Coda's nose wrinkled in surprise. "Ah! This one is..." She glanced to me, alarm visible in her eyes.
"Let's maybe get inside before saying anything," I mumbled, herding everyone else through the door. This was a residential district, after all, and the hallway could hardly be expected to stay private...
The door clicked closed behind me, and I locked it for good measure. "Kitty, here's my team," I said, kicking the dust off my boots. "We'll all be going through the teleporter. Everyone else, meet the windigo who will be giving us our ride out."
Leif blanched. "You're the...? Impossible..."
Kitty smiled at her, then waddled forward and attempted to give her a big lick.
Leif dodged out of the way.
"Aww..." Kitty pouted. "Oh well. You gots one more in Jamjars' room!"
"One more...?" I walked the length of the hallway, pushing open the door and looking inside.
Unless was leaning against the window.
I raised an eyebrow. "Thought you weren't coming."
"Not allowed to come," Unless corrected. "And not getting paid for it. And, sure, I've got plenty of reasons not to want to, as well. But I thought about it and my bones just didn't sit right leaving you alone with Papyrus to face that place by yourself."
Papyrus poked his head in behind me. "Ayy, Bats! You made it! I say, someone had some coin to spend on luxury, here..."
"Don't touch the bed," Unless warned. "Unless you wanna think about who's slept in it."
"How'd you know where to find us, anyway?" I pressed, far more interested in Unless than Papyrus. "And what we're up to?"
Unless tapped her skull. "I've got eyes and ears. Just know how to use 'em, is all. We'll talk about what you owe me for this after we clear this job and go home."
Leif was the next to enter, looking so warily at Kitty she took a full moment to notice Unless, and Coda and Corsica brought up the rear. Unless noticed Leif, though, and for a brief moment I saw a less-than-thrilled look cross her face.
What a wonderful, stable adventuring party I had managed to put together. It felt like there wasn't a pony in this room who didn't have some manner of questionable history with at least two others. Oh well...
Kitty pulled open the sliding closet door, revealing the teleporter. "Kitty powers this from her room," she instructed me. "Just stand on it and wait for her to do her thing!"
I gathered everyone around as she left, the six of us forming up tightly on the dais. Everyone seemed to be talking, but my ears suddenly tuned it all out, and the world felt smaller and smaller around me. This was it: the jumping-off point, where I would face my past and be left with no alternative.
This was my last chance to turn back, to embrace my chaotic life in Ironridge, with all its pressures and good things, too. Once Kitty turned on this teleporter, I would have no free ticket back to safety: every move would matter. I'd be on the clock. I'd finish the mission, or else.
My bracelet itched around my foreleg. It was still my signature weapon, and I still had only the barest idea of how to use it. Back in Icereach, right before we left, I had been building a better weapon out of the inertial stabilizer rotor, I remembered; something I could use for situations that still called for force but weren't quite dire enough to entrust my fate to an unknown power. Ironridge hadn't left me a minute to remember that weapon existed, much less to work on it.
I remembered the Aldebaran incident, how I had all but paralyzed myself with fear, how I pushed myself to start a plan and then limped through the motions, and ultimately had to be rescued by my friends, by miracles, and by who knew what else. This time would be different, I knew... and yet so far, it was going exactly the same. I was starting a plan.
The teleporter console began to glow. Time to see if I really had grown.
The possibility that Kitty might have swapped the destination on the teleporter to send me somewhere I didn't want to go crossed my mind at the exact instant the teleportation hit, along with a hundred other what-ifs that came too fast for me to name them. My body twisted and compressed and whipped around, and in another instant it was over, an aftershock of light fading from my eyes.
Kitty hadn't lied. I remembered this room. We were in the hideout once again.
The teleporter we all stood on was inert, sealed in a small hewn-stone room, an unlocked vault door leading to a tunnel that, if memory served, would take me to the statue room. Leif looked slightly chagrinned, perhaps because her own inspection had missed this part of the hideout. Coda and Unless looked tense. Papyrus was halfway between a grimace and a grin.
Corsica sighed, lighting her horn and pulling the door further ajar. "Here we go again..."
I stepped through the portcullis, leading the way. Time to roll the dice and see how much things had changed.
Almost immediately, I knew something was different. It was too noisy. There were voices up ahead, and lots of them, not nearly something that could have been caused by just Jamjars and Ludwig. My legs tensed and my pace quickened, and I kept my steps quiet just in case as I rounded the final bend.
The statues had all been cleared to one corner of the entry hall, shoved up together, and in their place was a crowded barracks. It was the yaks.
The Icereach yaks, my friends with whom I had hung out, roughhoused and learned to fight for two years, had moved into the hideout and were using its front room as a military fortification. And some of them were visibly injured.
"What...?" I sucked in a breath. "Balthazar? Tarkov? Mustafa? Darius?"
I stepped through the entrance, Corsica and Coda and the others at my side... and immediately a net fell from above, ensnaring us. Several bright spotlights turned on, ensuring that shadow sneaking would be impossible. The net was coated in a sticky white powder that clung unpleasantly to my coat and smelled funny, and... and...
"And that's how to stop changelings from getting you with the same trick twice," I heard Jamjars' voice say, but it was hard to piece together where it was coming from. I felt like I was seeing the room through a long tunnel with black around the edges. My neck and face itched everywhere the net was making contact, and I struggled to push it... to push...
I came to with a burst of cold, and was suddenly very wet.
It was bright, and my head hurt. Someone was shining a light on me. Also, I was mostly underwater. And, most importantly of all, I was completely unclothed.
My instincts pushed me bolt upright, even though I was still dizzy, trying my best to keep my red legs beneath the surface of the water.
I was in a room... In a bathtub. Jamjars was watching me, horn lit. Balthazar was in the background, carrying an industrial flashlight. He didn't look happy at all.
"Three questions, and don't move a muscle until you've answered them correctly," Jamjars warned. "In Ironridge, what was the first job interview I arranged for you?"
"What-? Job interview?" I blinked rapidly, shaking the water out of my mane and fixing her with a glare. "Give me back my clothes!"
I cast frantically around, spying them in a pile near the doorway. My bracelet sat neatly on the top.
"Right answer," Jamjars said. "Moving on to the next: what's it matter to you?"
My body still felt disoriented, but I summoned my strength and pulled myself out over the rim of the tub... and into Jamjars' waiting telekinetic aura. Suddenly, I was floating in midair, helpless.
"I need an answer," Jamjars warned. "We can't afford-"
With a gasp, Jamjars tripped. And then, so fast that I couldn't see where she came from, Unless was there.
As Jamjars fell, Unless punched her in the belly, flipping Jamjars' hindquarters into the air. With one smooth movement, Unless grabbed her head, yanked her around in a suplex, and landed her on the ground, a hoof pressing her horn against the floor and preventing it from lighting. The aura around me went out, and I crashed to the ground in a dripping heap.
Jamjars snarled, but she was perfectly pinned, Unless holding her with two hooves in a careful position to prevent her from getting any leverage beneath herself. Balthazar snorted out a warning.
"How about," Unless warned, "since hostage situations are so fun, we do one on equal ground? Halcyon, yak boy, nobody move. Now let's explain ourselves and start from the beginning."
"...Changelings come to Icereach," Balthazar said slowly. "Pretend to be Halcyon and friends. Stir up trouble in city. Get dealt with. Halcyon and friends leave, then more changelings come and repeat trick. Not get dealt with so easily. Now Halcyon and friends come again. Changelings? Need to know."
Unless lifted one hoof... and with a flicker of green flame, it turned to black carapace, and then back to normal. Balthazar's eyes narrowed.
"There's your answer," Unless said. "Now, here's a hot tip: maybe you should be more worried about someone's intentions than their species. I had enough of folks not getting that before the whole fiasco in the east."
"Get off me..." Jamjars hissed, struggling.
"Nyaah. You started it." Unless stuck out her tongue at the captive mare, then turned back to Balthazar. "Now. If there's still any questions about whether we'd like to be on the same side, ask away. If not, I'm gonna need some clothes that aren't covered in stun powder for the kid to wear. Speaking of, you really couldn't think of any traps that would be slightly less inconvenient if we turned out to be good guys?"
"You're not the ones I thought would come through that teleporter," Jamjars said with a grimace. "And even when it was you, threatening something someone really cares about is an excellent way to weed out impostors."
Unless looked pointedly at Balthazar. "My identity speaks for itself."
Balthazar slowly nodded, and lowered his flashlight. "Unless pony not in doubt. What of other ponies? One look like known changeling from first incident."
"Long story." Unless flexed. "Maybe if we can all be civil for a bit, you can hear it, and we can hear yours. Now get on with your bad selves." She released Jamjars and stepped back closer to me.
Jamjars got to her hooves, fixing her mane with a venomous look. "Maybe to you, taking due precautions seems like a fool's errand, but to us it's a matter of life and death. There are fresh clothes in the cabinet there. Of all the ponies to get locked up with..."
She stalked away. Balthazar departed too, with a sad look.
I just sat there, shaking. Through something like this, I should have been able to hold myself together, especially when it sounded like Jamjars and the yaks had legitimate reason to suspect we were hostile changelings. But my guard was completely down, and a voice was echoing in my mind about blood on my hooves. My legs had been there for all to see, and Balthazar had just gone along with it? Even Jamjars knew that was important to me. Right...?
"Well, you heard her. Better get dried off," Unless said, mercifully looking away from me. "They're probably gonna need that tub to get the powder off your friends, too. Hope you weren't too attached to that outfit, because unless they have a laundromat down here it might take a bit to get the powder out without taking another dirt nap."
"You..." I struggled to find words, a creeping paralysis threatening my thoughts, this time, instead of my body. "How'd you...?"
"Avoid the trap? Sneak in here?" Unless shrugged. "You've seen one, you've seen 'em all. Probably dumb to ask if you're alright?"
I hesitated. She kicked me a towel, and I caught it and started drying myself.
"Tip from someone who's been there before," Unless said, her voice suddenly low. "If it feels like you just got betrayed by someone you thought you trusted... Don't try to deny it, I saw the look on that yak's face... don't think too much on it. There's a windigo here, I can smell it. I'm surprised you can't, actually. And windigoes... They've got this huge, invisible aura you don't wanna sit around in. Even the presence of a dead one can strain creatures' minds, lower their spirits and make it easier for them to be their worst selves. Live ones are infinitely worse, especially ones that aren't ponies like Kitty. Rule number one of dealing with these creatures is that you promise yourself, no matter what happens, you'll forgive anyone for anything they do once it's over, and hope they'll do the same to you. I'll bet you anything that yak isn't too happy with himself for going along with a plan like that to make sure you were the real you."
My thoughts still threatened to seize up, but I grabbed Unless's words and hung on. "Was Ludwig doing this last time, too? Is that why I... How do you know this?"
"If you aren't proud of anything you did back then, the windigoes certainly didn't help," Unless said, still respectfully looking away. "And I know because I've messed with windigoes before. They're about as nasty as you can get... Not quite the worst, but definitely within spitting distance. Now hurry up. That powder they used is neutralized by water, and I'm sure everyone who didn't outsmart that trap is waiting for their turn, too."
I finished drying myself, finding the cabinet stocked with a thick winter sweater and some sturdy rubber work boots. Not exactly a fashionable combination, but they covered the important parts. And so I sat by the bathroom in the hideout's living quarters, carefully transferring the contents of my satchel to a clean one so that it could be washed, a bowl of water nearby to rinse off any powder I got on my boots. I made a point of not speaking. My heart beat loudly in my chest, and after hearing Unless's warning, I realized that giving too much voice to my feelings would land me in exactly the same situation I had been in last time.
For what was about to happen, I needed all my competence. And while I didn't have the full story, I knew it involved changelings, and was eventful enough to have made all the yaks leave Icereach.
I only looked up when they brought Coda in for her turn getting a rinse. A worm of guilt crawled through me for leading her into a trap already, and I tried to quash it, but it just wouldn't die. Maybe this was Ludwig's aura making the guilt hit harder, but I really had failed her already.
Resolving that I would make up for it, I got to my hooves and followed her into the washroom. This filly was my responsibility, and she wasn't getting out of my sight again any time soon. Not if I had anything to say about it.
Corsica was already on her hooves, sitting there and helping, as a unicorn who could move ponies around without touching the powder. I pondered harder and harder who thought this powder was such a good idea when it was so hard to clean up, but like Unless said: don't think about it too hard. I didn't suspect any answer I could come to would lead to a greater degree of trust in anyone I was sharing the cave with.
Coda got dunked, and she spluttered, coming up soaked and dripping. Groggily, she recognized me. "Your princess has a headache..."
"It'll wear off," I told her encouragingly, ready and waiting with a towel.
As Coda dried herself, she briefly summoned a horn and lit it, then frowned, going back to being a pegasus. "You alright?" I asked, shifting uneasily back and forth.
"All explanations for what just transpired aside..." Coda groaned. "Tell me how far away from Ironridge we are, again?"
"Two weeks by airship," I told her. "No clue on the mileage."
Coda nodded, wobbling slightly. "Then perhaps it would interest you to know that my spell still... still says there is a changeling queen nearby..."