Golden Oaks Library was the largest tree house outside the bat pony village of Hollow Shades—hard to miss for anyone who knew where Ponyville was. The phoenix had followed her son there the night Spike had taken him away. Owloysius's mediation had helped to sort that mess out, and she had visited on friendlier terms several times since. Today's visit, however, was strictly business.
She saw the sun setting to the west as she flew 45 degrees to its right, leaving the misty summits of Macintosh Hills in her wake. Passing over Appleloosa's sprawling orchards, she saw farmer ponies returning from a long day in the fields to share a glass of cider, or applejack if the day's hardships warranted, with their coworkers.
The farmers looked up and swung their hats in the air as she swept past like a low-flying comet. In a world where mythological creatures were commonplace, phoenixes still had a special place in the hearts of the citizens.
The phoenix cawed and banked into a barrel roll before setting her sights on the railroad track, which she followed out of town, across the bridge, and over the river that cut through Ghastly Gorge.
The leviathan quarray eels poked their cherry-red heads out of their burrows in the cliff face to look up at her with mixed expressions of hunger and curiosity.
The phoenix dived to meet them, pulling up just in time to avoid their snapping maws. For some reason, teasing the quarray eels was a universal pastime among Equestria's fliers.
She continued to ascend above the cloud cover so as to avoid the pungent odor carried up on the wind as she turned left to pass over Froggy Bottom Bog. She kept her altitude as the Everfree Forest's canopy crawled beneath her—still green, as the forest was aloof to the passing of the seasons.
Phoenixes were among Equestria's apex predators, but even they knew better than to flaunt their tail feathers in front of the Everfree's denizens. Like a magpie, however, a phoenix's curiosity often got the better of her. When she saw a wisp of smoke snaking through the treetops, she had to fight the urge to swoop in and investigate. She knew how crazy most ponies were, but to set up camp in the forest was suicide.
In the end, her sense of duty won the day. Having worked for the postal service in a past life, she would let neither smoke nor fire stop her delivering the letter. She hadn't bothered reading the letter, but if it meant getting Spike and his disturbing variety of profanities out of her peaceful forest home, that was enough for her. She wondered if he was the kind of character she wanted raising her son, but the sight of Ponyville on the horizon as the last rays of sunlight slithered away banished the thought.
Meanwhile, Twilight was fighting to open her front door, only to realize that she'd locked it before she'd left. Not wanting to sift through her saddle bags in search of the key, which she'd never had use for in the past, she summoned her telekinesis and fumbled with the tumblers until they slid into place. The door swung open.
Her so-very-helpful pegasus pony bodyguards—another of Celestia's well-intended but needless precautions—exchanged glances, taking mental note of the ease with which a changeling could sneak in and kill her while they slept. The ward interfered with the changelings' fire portals and illusion magic, but the guards, even the unicorns, weren't beyond suspecting one another of being changelings in disguise. One had even suggested that he keep watch while Twilight bathes in case a changeling assassin was lying in wait.
Twilight drew the line there. She told him in no uncertain terms that she could take care of herself, and demonstrated by telekinetically throwing him out of the library, letting the door hit him on the way out. That was the first time she'd seen a mirthful smile cross the features of her remaining guard, a weathered veteran from some long-forgotten conflict or other.
The veteran wasn't stoic. She'd even seen him smile once if she could count the slasher grin he flashed Roseluck when asked how he got the scar on his neck. Twilight was tempted to have him replaced as well, but he'd mellowed out since then. He was still intimidating, but more in the back-off-and-nopony-gets-hurt sense than the I'm-going-to-cut-your-face sense. How a pony like him got into Celestia's Royal Guard was beyond her.
"You did well today," Twilight told him, hanging her saddlebags on a hook by the wall and levitating out the vegetables she'd bought at the market. Onions, carrots, tomatoes, and a head of lettuce floated after her as she trotted into the kitchen to start a pot of water boiling.
"Thank you, Ma'am," the veteran replied.
Twilight poked her head back into the main room in time to catch him smirking at his rookie partner, who flinched and backed away.
"Let's see. You intimidated three ponies today, only one of which ran away screaming. That's a 33 percent improvement over yesterday. I think the whole not-talking thing has done wonders for your charisma. Of course, you'd do even better if you could go a whole conversation without mentioning your scars."
The veteran rubbed a hoof along the rough, hairless patch of skin that stretched from his jugular vein to his throat. "If you caught ponies staring as much as I do, you'd call them out too."
"I could ask Rarity to make a scarf for you. If you stay for the fitting, she might even give you a few lessons in etiquette."
The veteran laughed, not catching her hint as a gust of wind upset the notes on Twilight's coffee table. They comprised what little information her books had yielded about changeling culture and biology, though references to changeling history were nonexistent.
"Close the door, would you?" Twilight asked, coming back into the room to reorganize her notes.
The veteran turned to the door just as a phoenix with a roll of gray parchment clutched in her talons swooped in and perched on Twilight's head.
Twilight looked up. "Oh, hey there."
The phoenix leaned over to meet Twilight's gaze.
The veteran bristled.
"Relax," Twilight said, giving him a look, "she's just here to visit Pewee. Isn't that right?"
The phoenix held the note out for Twilight to see.
"Oh? What's this?" Twilight took it in her magic, unrolled it, and began reading.
The phoenix disappeared upstairs in search of Pewee.
Once Twilight recognized Spike's handwriting, for it was unusually bad, she gasped and dropped the note.
"What is it?" the rookie asked, the first words he'd said since earlier that day when the veteran had told him exactly what they would do if another changeling made an attempt on her life.
He'd barely finished his sentence when Twilight teleported away in a blinding burst of purple energy.
"Trouble," the veteran answered. He picked up the note and read it. "She's headed to the Badlands."
"Isn't that dragon territory?" the rookie asked.
"Bingo." The veteran gritted his teeth. He threw the door open, spread his bleached wings, and took off into the sky without bothering to see if his partner was following. The flapping of another set of wings, faster than his but keeping the same pace, told him the answer. Unlike the phoenix, he took the direct route over the ruins of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.
"How do you know the way?" the rookie asked.
The veteran didn't answer.
Meanwhile, a flash of light chased away the darkness that had spread over the forest beyond the Badlands. The light dispersed as fast as it had arrived, leaving a purple unicorn with a frazzled, singed mane in its wake.
The unicorn wore the shell-shocked expression of a pony who'd gone sightseeing in Tartarus. Not beyond the realm of possibility was that her latent neurosis was the result of the mind-bending glimpses of extra-dimensional space she got whenever she teleported. Theories abound about what might happen if a pony got lost in that space, never to return to the world as we know it.
She stood as still as the time she'd faced down a cockatrice. She collapsed to the ground when she realized her legs had ceased supporting her. Exhausted and disoriented, she looked around to find herself exactly where she'd intended. Not even melded with a tree.
Long-distance teleportation had been documented, but it was a taxing, dangerous feat no matter the skill of the unicorn. Had she given any thought to what she was doing, she'd never have found the nerve to actually do it. Mentally patting herself on the back, she resigned to a nice, long nap. A century or two of shuteye would do her a world of good. Rather, it would have if not for the incessant, disharmonious cries of a nearby bird.
As the bird's squawking grew in volume, depriving the unicorn of her well-earned rest, she decided to tell the bird exactly what she thought of it, its mother, and its atrocious singing.
When the unicorn raised her head, however, the bird wrapped itself around her neck like a warm, scaly scarf. She realized it was a snake. Too exhausted to panic, she resigned herself to being strangled, only to realize that it wasn't a snake, but a dragon, a green and purple dragon.
Having seen the flash of light and recognized it as the aftermath of teleportation magic, Spike had emerged from his makeshift shelter in the base of a hollow tree trunk and rushed to the source of the light, where he found her laying on the ground and muttering something incoherent.
Once the rational part of her mind came back from its lunch break, Twilight—that was her name, she'd remembered—felt a wave of euphoria crash over her as she realized what'd happened, where she was, and who was hugging her. She sprang to her hooves.
Spike might have fallen off had she not swept him, herself, and several fallen leaves up in a levitation field that filled the forest with a pale purple glow.
Lost in the moment, Twilight held him to her chest and kissed him as they pirouetted in midair. She realized what she'd just done. With a blush that would have made the pinkest flamingo jealous, she settled back to the ground and looked aside, rubbing her right foreleg with the left even as she panted for air. Though the tension and worry that'd built up in her mind since the day she woke up alone in that hospital room had burned away, her exhaustion remained.
"It's good to see you too, Twilight," Spike said, hugging her leg.
Looking down, Twilight saw that he was blushing too, but he showed no other sign of discomfort. Remembering how tired she was, she eased herself back to ground level. For a while, she didn't speak, opting instead to enjoy the retreating tide of her sudden high as she caught her breath. She doubted the fluttering in her chest would have let her say anything coherent anyway, as evinced by her first thought, which was to tell him what a terrible excuse for a bird he was.
Finally, Spike broke the silence. "Did you teleport all the way from Ponyville?"
"Well, I was at the library, I got your note, and now I'm here. My mane is singed. I haven't checked, but my tail probably is too."
"It is," Spike confirmed.
"Right, so given the circumstances, I think that's exactly what I did."
"I had no idea you could teleport that far."
"Me neither. We'd better get the Guineighs Book of Equestrian Records on the phone; I think I just set a new record for long-distance teleportation."
"Too bad the only one around to see it was an enemy of Equestria." Spike paused. "What's a phone?"
Twilight frowned, sitting up to look at him. "What are you talking about?"
"You said something about a phone. Do you mean a gramophone? I didn't think the Guineighs Book dealt with that kind of record."
"No, I..." Twilight realized she had no idea what she'd been talking about. She vaguely remembered Pinkie using a similar phrase and resolved to ask her about it later. "Never mind. I meant how are you an enemy of Equestria. They didn't interrogate you, did they? Even if they did, it's not like you know anything they could use."
"Actually..." Spike began, letting go.
Twilight's heart sank. "They did? You do?"
Spike ground the toes of his left foot into the dirt beneath the underbrush. "Don't quote me on this, but I may have sent a letter to Legate Cassius that night in the hospital. In that letter, I may have disclosed information about Shining's mission in hopes of bringing him back to the negotiating table. That information may have gotten Shining killed."
Twilight stared at him, unblinking. All expression was gone from her face. She looked a shade paler than usual, though he couldn't say for certain whether it wasn't just the moonlight. The only indication that she hadn't turned into a statue was a slight twitch in her right eye.
Spike stood there, cringing as he waited for her to tear into him, verbally or physically.
Twilight did nothing.
After a while, Spike began to worry less for his own safety and more for her sanity. "Uh, Twilight?" He waved his claw in front of her eyes. "Are you okay?"
Twilight burst out laughing. She rolled onto her back and laughed until she cried. Then she just kept crying.
Spike didn't know what to say. Not at first. He walked around and held her in his arms, his cheek pressed against hers. When her tears began to subside, he said, "I tried to set things right. I failed. Celestia was right; we can't always do the right thing."
"No, Celestia was wrong. You said you may have gotten him killed. That means he may still be alive, right?" Twilight rolled onto her stomach and lifted her head so she could look him in the eye. "Right?"
Spike realized how poor his choice of words had been. "Of course. After we escaped together, he left for Canterlot. You probably just missed him."
"All right, so you made a mistake, a big one, and you'll have to answer for it, but not right now. No, right now, I'm just glad you and Shining are okay." Twilight hugged Spike.
"Shining wasn't so lucky."
Twilight groaned and pulled away. "You just said—"
"He got out, but not without a cracked horn."
Twilight fixed Spike with a clinical stare. "Cracked or broken?"
"Cracked."
"He didn't use any magic, did he?"
"No, why?"
Twilight sighed in relief. "A cracked horn is an unstable one. Using magic would have made the damage worse. Not to mention the pain."
"The same goes for medical magic, I assume."
Twilight nodded. "How did you two escape without magic, though?"
Spike felt around on the ground for a place to sit as an excuse to delay his answer. He had no idea how she would feel about Aurelia, and he wasn't sure he wanted to find out. Remembering why he'd sent the note in the first place, he realized he had no choice. "We had help."
"From who, another prisoner?"
"Another changeling."
Twilight tried to laugh. "You're joking."
"Cassius sent me to meet her after he captured Shining. He said she was in charge of foreign relations, but he just wanted to keep me busy while he dealt with Shining. This other changeling, though, she was different. She seemed to want the war to be over as much as we do."
"You're not joking," Twilight said, more for her benefit than Spike's. "Does she have a name?"
"Funny you should ask; most changelings don't. Hers was Aurelia."
"Aurelia, huh?" Twilight took on the expression she usually did when solving a difficult equation.
"What?"
"By any chance, did you read that book on Old Equestrian I gave you?"
"No."
Twilight frowned. "Well, if you had, you'd know that Cassius, Aurelia, and Chrysalis are Old Equestrian names." She mused, "I wonder why changelings don't have their own language?"
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know, maybe they didn't need one, being a hive mind and all."
"I meant the names. What do they mean? You understand Old Equestrian, I assume."
"'Cassius' means 'empty,' for one."
"Talk about a meaningful name."
"You'd know better than I."
"What about Aurelia?"
"'Aurelia' means 'golden,' which is also what 'Chrysalis' means, so if their names are as symbolic as Cassius's, she might not be as innocent as she's lead you to believe."
"I'd know better than you."
"Would you?"
"How much do you know about changeling history?"
Twilight's ears drooped slightly. "I haven't been able to find any information about it."
"Aurelia told me changelings had no choice but to turn to the role we know them for. That's how they got their name, which is also Equestrian. Is it not?"
"That's right. The term comes from an old fairy tale, but the only similarity to Chrysalis and her kin is behavioral"
"Chrysalis met with Celestia on peaceful terms long before the attack on Canterlot. They couldn't come to a resolution, so the changelings got desperate."
"Did Aurelia tell you that too?"
"You don't believe me."
"Honestly, I don't know what to believe. I have no reason to trust a changeling, but Princess Celestia hasn't exactly been forthright with us either. Next chance I get, I'm going to have a word with her about all this. First, I'd like to talk to Aurelia. Where is she?"
"Well, we sort of got in a fight earlier. She accused me of betraying her trust and flew back across the border, but a dragon caught her. That's why I called you here."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"You were in no condition to help. If the dragon was going to eat her, he would have done so already."
"I love you, Spike, but as Rainbow Dash would say, you can be a real featherbrain. Whatever he wants with her, it can't be good. The dragons left behind after the migration are vicious even by the standards of their own kind. Which way did they go?"
Spike pointed to a mountain cave just visible from the moonlight reflecting off it. "In there."
Twilight began to charge her horn. "Get beside me."
"You just teleported halfway across Equestria. Are you sure doing so again so soon is a good idea?"
"It's not, and I don't care. I may not trust Aurelia, but she saved you and Shining. I'm not going to let another minute go by without returning the favor. If you want to help, I suggest you hold on to me." Twilight held her hoof out.
Spike took it in his claw.
Twilight lit her horn up like a firecracker. An orb of magic enveloped them, fading a second later. Nothing was left in its wake but a few smoldering leaves, which burned out before they touched the ground.
Meanwhile, another orb had formed and evaporated at the mouth of the cave, leaving a unicorn and a dragon in its wake. Both orbs were visible from the sky, where a pair of pegasus pony guards were coming in fast.
***
Aurelia cracked open her eyelids and found herself facing the floor, where her braided mane was dangling no more than a hoof's length above the beginnings of a campfire. The smell of roasted meat mixed with burnt fur wafted over from somewhere nearby. Looking around, she saw firelight flickering off the cave's orange walls, but not the source of the smell. Feeling something tight wrapped around her legs, she looked up to see that four tendrils of the gnarled vines hanging from the ceiling were responsible. She would have fallen to the ground, but the vines found purchase in the holes in her hooves. She twisted her head up to what would be its proper position were she standing and saw, through the window of her hind legs, the dragon that had torn her from the sky.
The dragon, who was sitting by the campfire and munching on the dismembered haunch of what may have once resembled a mountain goat, looked back at her.
Realizing the implications of her tail not obscuring her field of view, Aurelia blushed.
"Took you long enough," the dragon said through a mouthful of what may have once resembled a mountain goat's haunch. "What with all the blood rushing to your head. You changelings must have weird biology." He pronounced the last word as if it stretched his vocabulary.
As he showed no indication of having noticed the cause of her embarrassment, Aurelia got to thinking that decorating his ceiling with attractive mares, to use the pony term, must be a regular thing for him. That brought its own set of things she didn't want to think about, but it begged a certain question. "What are you going to do with me?"
"I'm not going to eat you, if that's what you're asking. Not right now, anyway. This goat is plenty filling." The dragon ripped off another chunk of seared flesh. It spurted blood as he swallowed it whole.
Aurelia winced. She understood his being a predator, but he didn't have to make such a show of it. "Why did you take me, then?"
The dragon tossed the haunch into the bed of coals, sending up a flurry of sparks as the flames licked at what he hadn't finished. "I haven't taken you, but now that you mention it..."
He had noticed, then. Aurelia blushed deeper. "Not what I meant."
The dragon got up and walked around her. He took her head in his claw.
Aurelia disliked the physical contact, but having him out from behind her was a welcome change.
"I never had a changeling before, and I wanted to see how you'd taste, but then I got tired of waiting for you to wake up and found something else to eat, so now I don't know what to do with you." The dragon looked thoughtful. His claw drifted to where her neck met her head, tightening. "I could always snap your neck and save you for breakfast."
"Please don't," Aurelia whined.
The dragon gave her a toothy smile. "I'll tell you what: you answer a few questions for me, and I'll let you live a little longer. Deal?"
Aurelia nodded, her eyes starting to water.
The dragon let go and walked around to sit on a rock beside her. "First of all, tell me what a pretty thing like you is doing so far from home."
Aurelia didn't bother lifting her head; her neck was still sore. "I was helping my friend escape the hive." She amended, "'Former friend,' I should say."
The dragon leaned back until his orange spines flexed against the cave wall. "I see. Would this 'former friend' happen to be a little purple dragon by any chance?"
Aurelia looked at him curiously. "Do you know him?"
The dragon laughed mirthlessly. "He's a 'former friend' of mine too. In fact, he's the reason I'm stuck here."
Aurelia was silent. She wanted to be skeptical, not least because of how he reminded her of Cassius. Given her revealing conversation with Spike earlier that day, however, she felt compelled to hear the dragon.
When the dragon realized she wasn't going to ask, he continued, "Spike showed up to the migration one day and suggested to me and my buddies that we go snatch some phoenix eggs and make ourselves an omelet. Since the elders don't like us pissing off the phoenixes—"
"Why did you listen?"
The dragon frowned. "I'm getting to that. See, we dragons take our pride pretty damn seriously. For us, getting branded a coward is worse than getting kicked out of the migration. So anyway, Spike ditched us. He must have gone back to tell the elders before he disappeared with his pony pals, because when we got back, I got blamed."
"How do you know the phoenixes didn't turn you in?"
The dragon growled. "Because they'd know I was innocent!"
Aurelia had a feeling he was stretching the truth, but decided playing along was in her best interest. "I can't believe I fell for that bastard," she mumbled.
The dragon coughed. "Beg pardon?" he asked, another phrase he must have picked up in his travels, for it clearly didn't suit him.
"You heard me. That's why I went against Cassius's wishes and got myself kicked out of the hive—I was in love. You know what I got in return? I got to find out—after the fact, of course—that he never trusted me in the first place." Aurelia told herself she was putting on an act, but her anger was real. "He stabbed me in the back like he's done to all his other so-called friends. I guess that's just dragon nature for you—no offense."
"None taken. You're right; dragons are jerks, but most of us are more honest jerks. I guess he got that from his pony upbringing." The dragon paused, taking on that thoughtful expression that looked so out of place on him. "You're an outcast too, huh?"
Aurelia sighed. Memories of her home flooded back to her—thoughts of what could have been. Maybe she could have swayed Cassius after all. He seemed to take a fancy to her, and he was actually likable before he filled his empty head with designs of war. "Yeah, I guess I am."
The dragon stood abruptly, almost nervously, in contrast with his devious, menacing grin. "That settles it, then."
Aurelia felt uneasy. In her reminiscence, she hadn't noticed his eyes beginning to wander. "Settles what?"
The dragon walked around behind her and began untying the vines that held her hind legs aloft. "I know what to do with you."
Aurelia didn't ask. She knew the answer.
The dragon felt the need to elaborate anyway. Perhaps talking helped his nervousness—or excitement. Whichever it was. "Like I said, I never had a changeling before. Considering Spike's age, I assume you've never had a dragon before. It'll be a learning experience."
Even if, in light of having her fate all but spelled out for her, Aurelia could have enjoyed the relief of having the pressure on her legs released, she had no time to, for a moment later, his claws clamped around her legs, spreading them wide. She wanted to protest, to squirm. Her body wouldn't listen. Even if it did, she doubted he would.
"I'll admit, you had me worried for a moment, but now that I get a closer look, I'm glad to see you resemble a pony in more ways than one."
With all the half thoughts prancing through her head, Aurelia had to look up to see what the dragon was talking about. Following his gaze, she blushed scarlet. She tried to close her legs, to tuck her tail, anything to hide herself from his thieving eyes, but he was too strong.
For some reason, her mind decided this was a good time for a stroll down memory lane. She recalled what Chrysalis had told her. For a changeling, pleasure came from her partner's love. The act was secondary. Aurelia felt no love from the dragon—not even the infatuation she'd felt from Spike—so she could expect mild pleasure at best. Being her first time, it would likely be painful more than anything else.
She realized the dragon hadn't made his move yet and looked at him inquisitively, almost impatiently. If this was going to happen, which she knew it would whether she liked it or not, he ought to get it over with. Instead, he was toying with her. "What are you waiting for?"
"You do have a horn, you know. I'm surprised you haven't used it."
As insecure as Aurelia was about her magic, she found herself unusually suggestible at that moment. She called on all the magical energy she could muster. Her horn lit up like a ghostly flare.
The dragon released one of her legs to grab her horn.
The spell fizzled. The magic dispersed.
"Of course, if you value your horn, you'll know better. I think it's sexy, so I'd hate to have to break it off." In his revelry, he failed to notice the purple flash from the mouth of the cave.
Aurelia didn't. Putting on her best I-know-something-you-don't grin, the kind Cassius loved to wear, she stopped resisting. If their time together had taught her anything, it was how to be antagonizing at wholly inappropriate times—or so she thought. In reality, he'd learned it from her that night in the auditorium. Her beauty had caught his eye, but her attitude had caught his heart.
The dragon was taken aback. Releasing her horn, he smirked. "Well now, there's a side of you I haven't seen before, which is saying a lot." He winked. "Bondage is all well and good, but if you're going to give in, I could unbind your forelegs. We could have much more fun that way."
Aurelia kept her voice cool and level. "Oh yes, that's exactly what I was thinking." She winked back and turned her attention to the mouth of the cave, where she was starting to hear the clip-clopping of hooves on stone.
The dragon heard it too. He twisted around to get a better look.
With her free leg, Aurelia gave him a powerful buck to the groin. Considering his current state, his pain would be especially great.
The dragon confirmed her prediction with an ear-splitting howl. Swiping his claw at her, he missed.
Aurelia had untied her forelegs, righted herself in midair, and soared toward the ceiling at the rear of the cave. She had cornered herself, but he was in no position to take advantage of her vulnerability. Not anymore.
The dragon tried anyway. He puffed up his chest with a deep gulp of air in preparation to roast her on the spot. A telekinetically-hurled boulder connected with his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He whirled around in time to see a purple unicorn before her dimming horn blended into the darkness.
It didn't need to; the unicorn stepped into the firelight, trying to hide the symptoms of magical exhaustion. Briefly, her expression curled with disgust as the smell reached her nostrils. Having dined with griffin dignitaries in the past, she had learned to ignore such things as a dismembered haunch roasting in a makeshift fireplace. She tried not to think about where the rest of the goat might be.
Spike followed. He picked up a smaller rock, took aim, and said, "Leave her alone, Garble. I'm the one you want to fight."
Aurelia's heart skipped a beat.
"You're absolutely right," Garble growled. Demonstrating how fast he was when not caught off guard, he lunged forward before the unicorn could charge another spell and threw her aside with a blow to the head.
"Twilight!" Spike cried.
Twilight slammed into the wall. She didn't get up.
Meanwhile, Spike had abandoned his rock. Charging, he hoped to leap on Garble's head and scrape the jelly from his eye sockets.
Garble was faster. He got on all fours to maximize his lung capacity and engulfed him in flames.
Spike went sprawling to the cave floor in a blackened heap. His scales protected him from any lasting damage, but the extreme heat paralyzed him.
Meanwhile, Aurelia had dived in, intending to sever Garble's spine with her horn. Her buzzing wings gave her away.
Using the floor for leverage, Garble spun up and swung his fist into her stomach.
Aurelia careened into the wall and fell to the floor. That her chitin prevented her from losing consciousness was no blessing. It left her fragile wing between a rock and a hard place. The world fell away before the unbearable agony that coursed through her. When she tried to turn her head, her brain was reluctant to cooperate. When she saw the crumpled mess that remained of her wing, the real pain began. She screamed.
Birds flocked into the night sky from the forest below.
The two pegasus pony guards that had been flying overhead had already landed.
Garble stopped to survey the carnage.
Twilight pulled herself to her hooves.
In an instant, Garble had her throat pressed against the wall. "All I have to do is flick my wrist, and your neck will snap like a stick of bamboo."
"Easy now, Garble. Put the mare down, and I might go easy on you," came a voice from by the campfire, belonging to a veteran pegasus pony guard who'd been in this situation many times before. His muscles were tense, ready to spring like a trap the second Garble so much as twitched.
Garble turned his head to the newcomers. When his eyes fell on the veteran's scarred neck, he dropped Twilight and backed toward the rear of the cave. He knew that scar; it had still been bleeding the last time he'd seen it.
The firelight illuminated the veteran's slasher grin. "Too slow."
Garble held up his claws in a feeble attempt to defend himself. "You can't do this! I'm outside your jurisdiction!"
"Wrong." The veteran charged.
Garble fell to the ground, his knees popping from their sockets. Next came his wings. He wanted to scream. He couldn't—a vine clamped his jaw shut. Another bound his arms behind his back.
The veteran strolled back to his rookie partner, who had been watching in stunned silence. The veteran slapped him on the back. "Thanks for the help, partner."
The rookie flinched but said nothing.
The veteran smiled. "Don't worry about it. I wanted him for myself anyway. Let's see how our charge is making out."
The rookie nodded dumbly. At length, he convinced his legs to move.
Meanwhile, Twilight had limped over to Spike, who was starting to regain the feeling in his limbs. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Spike said. "Go check on Aurelia."
Twilight favored her front right hoof as she trotted across the cave. She winced at the sight of Aurelia's wing. "Oh Celestia." The impact had reduced it to a clump of splintered filaments and crinkled membrane. She kneeled by Aurelia's side. "I know some medical magic that will dull the pain."
Aurelia had become a delusional wreck. The pain had numbed her senses to the point where Twilight's words barely registered. She whimpered in reply.
Twilight touched her horn to Aurelia's wing so the anesthetic spell could have the maximum effect.
The relief was immediate. While not absolute, it was enough for Aurelia to form a few words. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. I wish I could do more, but if you're ever going to fly again, we need to get you to a hospital."
"Why help me? I'm a..."
Twilight stood. "Changeling or not, I can't stand by and watch you suffer. Especially not after you saved Spike. He's the one who told me where to find you."
Aurelia nodded. "Where is he?"
"I'm here," Spike said, kneeling by her head and hugging her neck. "I'm so sorry, Aurelia."
Aurelia tilted her head so she could see him from the corner of her eye and smiled weakly. "Not your fault... I didn't listen... Thank you."
Puzzlement gave way to realization as Twilight watched the scene unfold. "Are you two—"
"You all right, Ma'am?" the veteran asked.
"Huh?" Twilight turned to him. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
The veteran nodded. "Right." He turned to Aurelia. "Aurelia, you're under arrest."
"What?" Spike asked, keeping one arm around Aurelia as if afraid she would be gone when he turned around. "Why?"
"Trespassing."
Spike glared at the veteran. "Arrest me too, then. I'm the one who brought her here."
Aurelia began, "Spike, you don't—"
"Wait a minute," Twilight said, glaring at the veteran. "What about the dragon? Why don't you arrest him?"
The veteran looked at her. "Much as I'd love to tear Garble limb from limb, he's beyond my jurisdiction. The Draconian-Equestrian Treaty protects rogue dragons who stay in the Badlands. If I wasn't charged with protecting you, I wouldn't have been able to intervene at all."
Twilight tried in vain to keep her anger from seeping into her voice. "Then I'm coming too. Princess Celestia and I will have words about this."
"That's fine, Ma'am. Princess Celestia decides how the law is enforced, anyway." The veteran turned to Aurelia. "Can you stand?"
Aurelia looked resigned, shaking her head.
The veteran turned back to Twilight. "Ma'am, if you'll lift her onto my back, I'll fly her back to Ponyville for medical attention. You and Spike will follow my partner back on hoof. I'll have a carriage to Canterlot ready by the time you arrive."
Twilight nodded. She didn't like the situation, but Aurelia would only get treatment if they cooperated. Twilight called on her last reserves of magic and levitated Aurelia onto his back.
Aurelia held the veteran's neck with her forelegs while her hind legs draped over his haunches and almost touched the ground. She would have felt awkward riding a stallion like this, especially after what Garble had tried to do, but she was too tired to care about any of that. She hoped the anesthetic spell lasted until she got to the hospital, or she might lose her grip.
The veteran flapped his musclebound wings. She was lean enough—or he was broad enough—that they retained their full range of motion. He'd flown wounded soldiers out of combat zones in the past, and she was much lighter. "Right. I'll be off, then. See you three in Ponyville."
Aurelia clung to his back as he trotted to the mouth of the cave and shot into the night sky.
The rookie found a path down the mountainside and lead Spike and Twilight back the long way. They would have to take a detour to avoid the Everfree Forest, so they wouldn't arrive in Ponyville until sunrise.
No one noticed the phoenix that flew into the cave behind them, lighting it up with his own natural glow as the last embers of the forgotten campfire burned out. He landed in front of Garble, staring at him.
Garble, who was still incapacitated and in great pain, stared back. "What?" he grumbled through what little space the vine around his jaw provided.
The phoenix dropped a fragment of red-and-yellow-striped eggshell on the ground between them.
"Already ate."
The phoenix narrowed his glowing yellow eyes and stepped onto Garble's snout, one claw after the other.
The last things Garble saw were two sets of razor-sharp talons reaching for his eyes.
Meanwhile, though the rookie had finally found his voice, he lost it again upon hearing the screams echoing from the cave.
***
Celestia lay on a gold-embroidered couch with matching velvet pillows bleached to the same radiant white as her coat. Pastel oil paintings, decorative shields, framed documents, and flowing tapestries adorned the left and right walls of her office. A translucent stained-glass window covered the back wall, tinting the morning sunlight a rainbow of colors and overlooking the castle, city, forests, mountains, and towns beyond. A marble coffee table, the surface of which was etched with a map of the known world, filled the space between her and the two smaller couches on its opposite side. Each was big enough to occupy a grown stallion. The one on the left was doing just that.
Shining had spent the last two hours recounting everything that had happened since he'd descended into the fog three days prior.
Celestia listened in stoic silence save for the occasional clarifying question. "I presume you were unable to apprehend the fugitives due to your injuries," she said.
"That's correct," Shining lied.
If Celestia saw through him, which was a real possibility considering the millenniums of political experience she had backing her up, she made no indication. "Spike would know better than to stay near the Badlands, and if Aurelia is as inept at illusion magic as you say, they wouldn't have gotten far into Equestrian territory without drawing unwanted attention," she thought aloud. "Where do you think they are now?"
"I couldn't say for certain, but my best guess would be—"
A knock on the oak double doors cut Shining off, exacerbating his dull headache and causing him to break eye contact with Celestia to inspect the source of the offending noise. The doors still being closed, his efforts were in vain.
"You may enter," Celestia called. Whoever was on the other side wouldn't have knocked without the consent of the unicorn guards she had stationed there to assure that Shining and her were undisturbed.
Their horns aglow, the unicorns opened the doors to grant Twilight and her veteran bodyguard entry. The rookie had left for an appointment with his psychologist. The unicorns closed the doors behind them.
"Princess Celestia," the veteran said, bowing lower than necessary.
Twilight neither spoke nor bowed. She looked at Celestia accusingly.
"What news?" Celestia asked, skipping the formalities. She knew ponies like the veteran were a necessary evil, but that didn't mean she had to like them.
"Two prisoners await trial, Your Majesty," the veteran said. "One is a changeling caught crossing the Equestrian border. The other is a dragon who resisted her arrest."
"Thank you. You may leave."
The veteran performed a winged salute.
Shining frowned.
The veteran turned and rapped his hoof on the doors.
The unicorns opened them.
Twilight watched the veteran leave, waiting for the doors to close behind him before turning to Shining.
Shining looked back.
Twilight glanced at his horn.
Aurelia had been injured worse, but she had had the benefit of medical magic. Thanks to the veteran, persuading the doctors at Ponyville's clinic to treat her had been easy.
Nopony spoke.
Finally, Twilight stepped forward, stood on her hind legs, and wrapped her forelegs around Shining's neck.
"I assume you've forgiven me," Shining said.
"I don't agree with what you tried to do, but I understand why you tried to do it, and I forgive you for that." Twilight said, pulling away to look into his eyes. "I still think needless bloodshed could have been avoided, but I'm just glad you're alive." She stepped to the edge of the table and glared at Celestia. "You, on the other hoof, have a lot to answer for."
Shining had to keep his jaw from dropping.
Celestia blinked. Even during their last meeting, Twilight had addressed her as "Princess." Twilight wouldn't abandon all effort to be cordial without a reason. That Celestia had somehow lost her credibility in Twilight's eyes hurt, but she had no intention of letting herself crack again. Especially not with Shining present. No, this meeting would have to remain professional. "Very well. Ask."
"For one thing, what the hell is the Draconian-Equestrian Treaty?" Twilight asked.
"Now is hardly the time for a history lesson, but I'm sure you could find whole volumes on the subject in the castle library."
Twilight was almost taken aback. Celestia had never been snippy with her. Then again, she had never been snippy with Celestia. There was a first time for everything. "A rogue dragon very nearly snapped my neck because of a clause that gave him free reign to be a complete monster so long as he stayed in the Badlands."
Celestia winced.
Twilight walked up onto the table and poked Celestia's chest. "I'm only alive because Sergeant Slasher bent the rules to honor his contract."
Celestia gave her a stern look.
Twilight stepped down. She took a deep breath and exhaled through her nostrils.
Celestia waited for her to calm down before beginning, "The Draconian-Equestrian Treaty is how I've maintained peace for the past thousand years. Equestria was weakened in the years following Princess Luna's banishment, a fact that didn't escape our enemies. We had no quarrel with the dragons but plenty of resources they wanted. Rather than relying on the good will of our neighbors, I proposed a treaty that would provide the dragons with migration rights, a swath of territory on the southern edge of Equestria, and favorable trade agreements with our ample gem mines. In exchange, the dragons became our staunchest allies. Some of the original signers live to this day.
"They entrusted Spike's egg to my care as a show of good faith. When it failed to hatch after more than a century, I assumed it was dormant and used it as a prop in the entrance exam when I opened my school for gifted unicorns. That his breath can teleport objects is not innate dragon magic but a lingering manifestation of the wild magic by which you hatched his egg and turned your parents into potted plants." Celestia allowed herself the shadow of a smile. "When Spike grows up, which, as you've learned, is the result of him acting on his greedy impulses, he will be able to teleport much larger objects than rolls of parchment—whole ponies, if he were so inclined. That's probably how Legate Cassius planned to assassinate me and also why I cast the ward over Ponyville."
Twilight knew Celestia was trying to distract her. Fascinating as the information was, a more important matter needed to be addressed. "Chrysalis knew about our relationship with the dragons, but she invaded anyway. Why?"
"What do you know about Chrysalis?"
"Spike and I saved her daughter from that rogue dragon. I asked her a few things I'd been wondering about, and she had some interesting answers," Twilight bluffed. The information she had was all second-hoof, and many questions remained unanswered. "The real question, Celestia, is what you know about Chrysalis."
Having put two and two together, Celestia turned to Shining. "I won't be needing your best guess after all. You may leave when you wish."
Shining stayed.
Celestia turned to Twilight and sighed. "In light of everything that's happened, I suppose you deserve to know the truth. You will, I promise, but not now. Luna should be the first."
Twilight remembered the question that had triggered Celestia's breakdown. "All right." She began toward the door and lifted her hoof. She stopped just short of knocking, set it back down, and turned to look at Celestia. "There's one other thing."
Celestia hid her exasperation. "Yes?"
"What will you do with Spike?"
"I'll want to know all the facts before I make a decision, which means I'll have to talk to him and the changeling—does she have a name?"
"Aurelia."
Celestia paused. She was fluent in Old Equestrian, of course, and she knew that Chrysalis only named changelings for specific reasons. "Right. Aurelia. Normally, treason of the caliber Spike has committed is punishable by execution."
Twilight had to make a conscious effort to stay standing.
"Given the circumstances, however, I sincerely doubt that will be necessary." Celestia looked to Shining for a confirmatory nod before continuing, "Shining Armor has assured me that upon realizing the consequences of his actions, Spike put himself at risk to rescue him. All things considered, there is no easy answer to what Spike's punishment might be. All I can promise is that I will decide fairly."
"I guess that's all I can ask for." Twilight pulled the doors open with her magic and left.
The unicorns closed them once more.
Celestia turned to Shining. "Was there something else you wanted?"
At length, Shining spoke. "I want to resign."
Celestia didn't bother asking why, already knowing the answer. "You're not the first assassin I sent after Legate Cassius, you know. A cream-coated pegasus pony mare proposed the idea not long after the invasion. I didn't know her name—she didn't say, which is a shame." Sensing Shining's question, Celestia added, "She never came back."
Shining hadn't seen the mare's body, but he remembered the smell permeating Cassius's dungeon. A smell was one thing; knowing who it belonged to was another. He fought a wave of nausea. "I see."
"I could never bring myself to solicit an assassin, and nopony else stepped forward until you did. With the intelligence you... extracted... from the changeling assassin, I thought we stood a better chance. Whether or not I was right, we'll never know."
Shining sighed. His eyes wandered to the many curiosities hung along the walls. "I assume the nurse told you what really happened."
"The changeling spy, you mean. Yes, she did."
Shining looked back. "You knew about her too?"
"I didn't know she planned to kidnap Spike. You'll notice I didn't tell Twilight this, but he may have saved himself by sending that letter. I doubt Legate Cassius would have found him useful otherwise."
"Why tell me all this? I'm a murderer."
"The bodyguard you saw with Twilight was a murderer too, a former dragon hunter. He joined my royal guard after a dragon that strayed too far from the Badlands hospitalized him. He told me he didn't want to kill anymore. Twilight is alive because he lied.
"That said, I may reassign him. As you know, members of my royal guard swear to only use lethal force when necessary. I like to think that murderers have no place by my side, but when faced with war, they're a necessary evil. If you want, I can reassign you as well. You'll keep your rank in a military role, and your desire for revenge won't be a handicap."
For a long time, Shining sat and stared out the window. He felt like years had passed since he'd walked in the door, but the sun was still too low in the sky for him to see it over the castle's walls and spires. Having been locked underground for so long, he found the sun's absence unnerving.
Getting up, he stretched his stiff legs before trotting over to the window. Gazing out at the sun and the world below, tinted as they were by the many fragments of colored glass, he allowed himself a small smile. "Cadence didn't marry a murderer."
Celestia twisted her head around to look at him over the back of the couch. "A murderer wouldn't feel remorse."
Shining looked back. "Then if I quit now, there might still be hope for me."
Celestia smiled, breaking the stoic mask she'd been wearing for the last few hours. "As you wish. I'll assume your duties until I find a suitable replacement. The position will remain open in the meantime, should you wish to revoke your resignation."
"Thank you."
Celestia remembered what she'd promised Twilight. Her smile faded. She stepped off the couch and stretched. First her legs, then her neck, and finally her angelic wings. Folding her wings back to her sides, she turned to him with a heavy heart. "If you'll excuse me, Shining, I need to go talk to my sister."