//------------------------------//
// 03. | Time Signature 
// Story: Marking Time 
// by Nytus 
//------------------------------//

I had crumpled to the ground like everypony else and lay there, depleted, for several minutes before stirring. Once I could think of something other than my own exhaustion, I cast my eyes around the audience in search of the groaning forms of Warden and Double Time. Warden had draped himself over the prone form of Miss Time and seemingly kept his gaze locked on the stage, evaluating the situation like the former royal guard I knew him to be. Our eyes met briefly before he blinked wearily and returned his attention to Discord.

Thankfully, the lord of chaos and his apparent magic-eating ally hadn't stuck around very long. After they were satisfied that they'd stolen all the magic there was to steal, the pair vanished just as quickly as they had appeared. However, the panicked screams that echoed throughout the city were proof enough that they'd not gone far.

I got to my hooves before anypony else under the tarp, shamefully not through any inner strength or adrenaline-infused desire to protect the first two ponies I ever viewed as more than a meal, but due to my instinctual hunger. 

I have been emotionally hungry many times and have tapped into my reserves in combat often enough to understand the unbearable emptiness that threatens to overwhelm a changeling's mind as their magic is consumed. That moment on stage, though, was like nothing I have ever endured before or since.

Every bit of magic had been drained from me in an instant. Every shred of my emotional reserve was gone, leaving me hungrier than I had ever been. It was maddening—almost literally.

The need to attack and feed on somepony was horrendous. I was genuinely starving for the first time in my life, and instinct demanded I restore at least some energy immediately.

I am ashamed to admit it, but I abandoned Double Time and her guardian amongst the throng of writhing invalids to begin an emergency hunt. I  scanned my surroundings for any upright pony, though thankfully, nopony was. At that time, I would have instantly attacked Warden—or even Miss Time—had I thought either possessed any positive emotions flowing through them, and I would have hated myself for it afterward.

Unable to detect emotions other than despair, fear, or confusion, I bolted backstage and crashed through the cafe, searching for prey. Ponies were sprawled on the floor as I prowled through the impromptu changing room hallway, beyond the cafe dining room, and out the front door. I have no doubt that I looked every bit the monster Double Time thought I was. A desperate changeling is incredibly dangerous, even among the relatively benign members of my former hive.

The roads were crowded with incapacitated ponies who proved unsuitable for my needs. I had enough control over myself to refrain from forcibly draining the already-disabled citizens, but I knew that wouldn't last very long.

A weak gasp would occasionally remind me of my exposed carapace as I ran through the streets, but that didn't matter to me at the time. I knew where I needed to go and raced there like a changeling possessed, which of course, I was.

I ran for what felt like hours, but in truth, it was likely just a few minutes. Finally, I stepped over the still-trembling body of a royal crystal guard and stared hungrily at my salvation... my one-time mission objective... the Crystal Heart.

With a deep, greedy breath, I drew a shockingly large amount of energy from the impossibly large love crystal, still spinning peacefully above its pedestal at the base of the castle spire.

It took only one inhalation of an entire empire's pure, distilled love to restore my reserves and allow me to think clearly again. I stared in awe at the artifact as my hunger abated instantly. 

I cut off the flow of energy with a snap of my jaw. 

I felt strong again, but that strength came with a pang in my heart. I was standing in front of the object that started this tragic story. Everypony within miles was too feeble to stop me from just reaching out and taking it. What could have fed my hive for years could provide its energy to me for my entire lifetime, with plenty to spare. Nopony could stop me; except me. I hesitated and immediately swiveled my head around to take in the myriad details I had ignored up until that moment.

Four guards were on the ground nearby, two of which were staring daggers at me and attempting to stand. Beyond them, another dozen ponies had noticed me, with mixed reactions ranging from confusion to horror.

The continuous cacophony of fearful voices echoed throughout the city, and it suddenly dawned on me that I would likely be included among the suspects responsible... especially if I stole their most precious national icon and source of relative safety from the elements. 

Shaking my head to clear away thoughts of grand larceny and memories of a former life, I ran again. Unsure of where else to go, I traveled down once-familiar roads. As soon as I could put a building between myself and the nearest pair of eyes, I called upon my newly-stolen magic and bathed myself in emerald flames. Even in a panicked flight, I shivered in delight as the comforting transformative energies molded my carapace into a much softer body. Within the span of a couple heartbeats, my disguise was complete.

I stepped into the open and made my way to the outskirts of town. I probably could have returned to the hotel, but I didn't think about it. My body seemed to know where it wanted to go, so I allowed myself to move on autopilot while I raged internally.

I thought Discord was a statue again! How in the hive did he escape, and who was the centaur!? I didn't know they could steal magic like that, or was it Discord that gave him that power for some reason?

After an hour, the screaming slowly receded, fading from a city-wide hysteria to one more localized in pockets around town. The duo seemed to work fast and likely drained most of the populace. 

It didn't really matter, though, as I had arrived at my destination. I slowly halted, resting my rapidly tiring hooves, and looked around the cul-de-sac I found myself in.

A very familiar cul-de-sac.

The neighborhood had been cleaned up, and the schoolhouse no longer had desks stacked up, blocking the windows. The doors had been replaced and freshly painted to welcome students back, making it look different from my memory of the place, but there was no mistaking the building where I first met Double Time... and failed my queen.

Pushing open the new door, which, like its predecessor, bore no lock, I stepped inside. The room I had called home for several months while spying on the Sombra-controlled city and planning my heist of the Crystal Heart was much cleaner than it was the last time I saw it. The bathtub I'd installed had been removed, and the student desks were returned to their orderly columns facing the blackboard.

There were drawings, predominantly stick figures, taped to the walls all around the room depicting small families, often omitting one parent or the other. King Sombra's occupation of the city had seemingly left behind more than a few scars.

A couple years prior—or a thousand years prior, depending on how you look at it—I would have considered it absurd to pity the families impacted by that tyrant. My queen's mission would have resulted in much worse for them, after all. Removing the Crystal Heart, even if it was to ensure the survival of my hive, would have doomed the entire empire to hypothermia and frostbite, if not worse. A few casualties in his battle against the alicorns are insignificant compared to what I would have done to them.

My introspection caught me slightly off-guard when a voice broke the silence behind me. I hadn't even heard the door open. 

"Homesick, are we, Carina?"

Even though I hadn't heard the old soldier approach, his presence behind me wasn't entirely unexpected. Somehow, I knew he'd find me; the schoolhouse was familiar territory. Of course, he'd come here looking for me once he knew I'd returned.

"More than you know," I replied softly.

Warden joined me in front of the drawings, taking note of their content as he sat down.

"Is that why you look like Headway right now?"

I blinked. Looking down, I noticed that the disguise I'd donned in my flight from the imperial guards wasn't that of DaCapo Aria but of Headway, the pony I pretended to be when I first came to the Crystal Empire. The pony Warden took under his wing and trained in the ways of those self-same imperial guards to protect our home. The pony that Double Time once said she'd loved.

"Sorry. I wasn't thinking clearly when I ran. I guess this is the form I associate with this city," I said. "I can return to being DaCapo, the lounge singer, if you want. Or, I can drop the disguise entirely if you'd prefer to talk to the monster."

Warden sighed. "Miss Time didn't mean that. She was shocked to see you on that stage and thought you may have been in league with those villains who attacked us. She was mistaken in that regard, yes?"

I nodded my head, unsure how else to respond. 

"Good. Now, why don't you tell me why you are here? I highly doubt that you came back to the empire to terrorize an orphan or to participate in a local talent show. Miss Time told me you left Fluttershy's cottage without saying goodbye and that you'd purchased a train ticket without even looking at the destinations."

I turned toward the former imperial guard, mouth agape. "She knew it was me? How?"

Warden shook his head; a calm, if weary, smile crept onto his face. "No, she didn't know who you were, but I did, if you'll remember. She told me that 'Glade Whisper' had left Ponyville, nothing more."

"Ah, all right. That makes more sense. Yeah, I got on that train with no real intentions. I made up a new disguise en route, but it took several months before I fleshed out any significant motivation." 

"I tried my hoof at several small jobs around town, but the need to feed on a pony's emotions every few days made it difficult to retain employment. More often than not, my employer was on the receiving end of each meal. More than once, I found it challenging to build a rapport when the pony I was trying to impress consistently felt drained in my presense."

"Eventually, I returned to my roots: espionage," I admitted. "I observed those who arrived in town and realized there were only a few reasons ponies were visiting the city. They either came seeking easy money, weekend entertainment or to become an entertainer themselves. So, I revised my story and decided to learn what I could about entertaining ponies."

"A few nights spent watching small-time singers in the local bars was enough to confirm what Fluttershy had tried to teach me. The adoration of others, both as friends as she intended and now this new option, as an idol, could easily sustain me. In most cases, it took only one pony to enjoy listening to their performance for the would-be entertainer to beam with gratitude. You might not be able to feel directed emotional energy the way changelings do, but I am sure you've noticed how your mood changes when others praise you. That is what changelings live for, literally. Love is incredibly potent magic, but any positivity can restore our energy at a lesser rate. We can sort of feel emotions in the air, and sample a bit of it to maintain our reserves without anypony the wiser. That said, emotions directed at us on a personal level are much stronger, more concentrated, and require almost no effort to absorb."

Warden occasionally nodded as I spoke and waited for me to pause before interjecting. "I see. That doesn't answer my question, however. Why did you return?"

"Oh," I said. "I didn't expect to ever come back here, actually. Not so long ago, I settled on singing as my method of entertaining ponies. In doing so, I made the aquaintence of a club owner and a... erm, well my neighbor. She got her hooves on Equestria Games tickets and invited me along. Naturally, I accepted before learning of their location and couldn't easily back out of it once I'd said yes. The club owner came along too. He's the one who got me into the karaoke contest this afternoon."

Warden followed my story with the patience of a saintly grandfather, allowing me to speak without interruption before asking leading questions.

"For the time being, I will take your report as fact and accept your word when you say you didn't return to abuse Miss Time. Your story also fills in a few gaps regarding your abrupt departure from Ponyville," he replied.

"It seems that leaving Fluttershy's cottage so suddenly wasn't as great an inconvenience to her as I had initially assumed. From the sounds of it, she was doing you a favor rather than the other way around. That is what Zecora meant when she told us that Miss Fluttershy was helping you; feeding the animals built their trust and dependence on you, eventually forming a bond of appreciation that you could use to sustain yourself. The potential of such a bond formed the basis of your new life as a vocalist in Las Pegasus. Have I got that right? It seems that the one who feeds the animals would simultaneously be fed in kind, assuming they were physiologically capable of accepting it. Likewise, entertaining ponies would also form a symbiotic relationship where their gratitude could sustain you without causing harm or distress."

I had almost forgotten how sharp Warden was. 

"Well put," I said. "When I decided on becoming DaCapo Aria, I never intended to retake my natural form. My hive is gone, and a hostile queen has taken over. I have no mission or family to protect." At that point, I lost my train of thought and rambled. "I failed them, Warden. I let every single changeling in my hive, thousands of souls, perish because of my incompetence. I allowed my attachment to you and Double Time to influence my mission. Had I acquired the Crystal Heart with the urgency that I should have, they'd have survived."

"They may have," came a weak but disgusted voice from the main entrance, "but nopony here in the empire would have. Also, get out of that body," she denounced with contempt. "I want to remember Headway as my friend, not my captor."

I spun on my hooves to face her. Double Time's demeanor was somewhere between angry and afraid; meanwhile, her body trembled with the effort of standing, even an hour or more after the attack.

"Miss Time," I began as I again called upon the magic to restructure my body. With a quick flash of brilliant green flames, I took the form of DaCapo Aria. I figured she wouldn't want to be confronted with black chitin and pupilless eyes. "I don't know what to say to you except 'I'm sorry.' I won't make excuses for what I did to you. I wanted to leave you here with Warden once I completed my mission. I didn't want to harm your father, but he was about to hurt you. Brainwashed or not, his weapon had no familial loyalty. My choice was to let him shove that spear through your chest or break my cover to defend you. I knew that in either case, I would no longer be able to remain in the empire. That fight shattered my love crystals, making it impossible to survive without either a willing pony to draw love from—which you would obviously no longer be—or a cocooned pony to feed on as I returned home in defeat."

"Love crystals? You mean the purity crystals you were carrying," she asked, reaching into a saddlebag on her flank. "I guess I should have known your promise to become my Crystaller was just as false as your face."

She pulled out a familiar wooden box and tossed it across the ground at an angle, which slid along the freshly-polished floor and stopped at my hooves. The latch on the lid was damaged, and there were noticeable attempts made to repair the splintered wood in places, but most surprising was a single glimmering crystal, still intact, on the softly padded interior.

"There, now you won't starve on your way home," Double Time said as she turned and walked out the front door. Her voice was unsteady and filled with sarcasm, but I could feel the immense waves of sadness coming off of her.

I chased after her, brushing the door aside as I caught up to her. "Miss Time," I began again, "please wait a second. Thank you for returning the crystal to me. There was a time I viewed it as one of the all-important items vital to my mission, but now it symbolizes so much more. It is the last physical reminder of my mother, Queen Serosa, and that alone makes it precious to me... but it is also clear that you took care of it in my place. It has a small charge within it, which I know was not there when I last saw it, meaning you must have poured your heart out into it. Your feelings are inside that gem, and I will not feed on them. It is no longer a food source for me; it is your purity crystal. One day, I promise, I will regain your trust and use it to introduce you to the empire."

She stifled a sob, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. A half-smile graced her face for a few heartbeats before returning to a resting frown. She wiped her eyes with the back of her fetlock and took a deep breath before replying. 

"Pretty words from a stranger's voice. I don't believe you. I've been convinced you're not quite evil, but I'm not sure you could ever manage to pull that off. The whole world thinks you are nothing more than a monster, and even after hearing your flowery words, I still can't say I disagree. You scare me, Carina. If it weren't for Warden, Zecora, and Fluttershy, I wouldn't have the courage to speak to you. They think you might be sincere. They have asked me to find it in myself to forgive you, but I can't. I can't forgive the monster that took my father away from me. I want to. I want the pony who protected me all those months to still be there, to be my friend. I want to see Headway again, but all I see is a liar. You say you aren't like the bugs that attacked Canterlot, but personal experience tells me otherwise. How can I ever trust somepony who is a liar by their very nature? You said you gave up being Carina to become this singer, DaCapo, but isn't she just another lie? I'm sorry, but I just don't see it happening..."

Before I could even form a response, she found a burst of energy within herself and galloped away at an impressive speed. She slowed only once to turn her head back toward me. Her words were quiet and muffled by distance, but I thought I heard her say: "I hope you prove me wrong."

I didn't follow her.

Warden, who had been silently listening to our conversation from the doorway, came up beside me and sighed. "She's still hurting inside, and today was quite the shock for her. Not only was she not prepared to see you so suddenly, but the real monsters made everything worse. Give her time, and make good on your promises. If you really want to become a pony full-time, don't let anything stop you. Although, I imagine finding a middle ground between who you are and who you think you have to become would be a much better solution. I am sure your queen would have agreed."

A pony walked away from me for the second time in a short timeframe without a response ever forming on my lips. I watched as the old guard calmly followed after Double Time at a much more deliberate pace. It was several heartbeats after he turned a corner and left my sight before I reentered the schoolhouse to collect the abandoned love crystal.

As I made my way back to the hotel, I thought about what they had both said to me. Warden was just as even-tempered as ever, but he couldn't understand what it meant to be alone to a changeling. His advice was valuable, but embracing my former life didn't seem wise. Even now, hours after the attack, the few ponies walking around spoke animatedly about the changeling seen in town. The stories got wilder and wilder with each gossip circle that spread it. By the time I arrived in our hotel lobby, I was apparently responsible for the attack and planning a complete invasion of the empire with millions of other changelings.

	If only that were remotely possible.

The worst part of the rumor mill was the sheer number of ponies I supposedly directly attacked in the streets. I was ravenous, sure, and no doubt scary to behold in that state, but I know I resisted draining anypony. Several of the claims were from districts many blocks away from my flight path.

	And Double Time called me the liar.

Double Time. She, on the other hoof, was in a similar enough position to understand. The loss of one's parents doesn't quite measure up to the loss of an entire hive of brothers and sisters, but it is at least similar enough to empathize with. Her words stung me, not because they were harsh, but because they were true. 

I am a liar. I was trained from the moment I hatched to do so professionally. I am good at it, and it is second nature. I can maintain a disguise under scrutiny like no other infiltrator in the generations before me ever could. 

As I unlocked the door to my room, I switched gears and started thinking about where to go from there. I had been exposed in public, but very few of the ponies who saw me could identify me as DaCapo, and even fewer of those knew DC lived in Las Pegasus. My cover may not be blown yet. Misty was backstage, so she could have put two and two together, but I didn't see her on my way out of the cafe. With any luck, she was groaning on the dressing room floor and didn't actually see me run. Smooth Talker wasn't even at the venue, to my knowledge.

I locked the door behind me and vocalized my dissatisfaction with a bit of colorful wording as I threw myself on the bed. I rolled my head to the side and looked at myself in the mirror on the far wall. 

I was happy with DC's design. She was, by all accounts, attractive for a pony. Her golden fur and two-tone blue mane were deliberately chosen to stand out and grab attention. I spent weeks listening to and evaluating prevalent singers around Las Pegasus to fine-tune her vocal cords to near perfection. Among all the diverse ponies in my repertoire who never actually existed, she was the one I was most proud of fabricating. I wasn't ready to retire her just yet.

However, even her painstakingly sculpted body didn't feel respectable at that moment, so I wiped away my disguise with a quick flash of green fire while maintaining eye contact with my reflection.

As a changeling of Queen Serosa's hive, I didn't visually stand out much. My appearance was nearly identical to that of my brothers and sisters. I had slight variations in hole pattern and a subtle difference in the shape of my carina—the chitin around the base of the wing—from which I was named. I never cared much about it, but it was distinctly characteristic of my hive. As the last of Queen Serosa's children, I was, ironically, now unique.

Warden's words echoed in my head; perhaps it would be better to find a way to honor my queen somehow. I'd have to think about how to do that, though.

I stared at myself in the mirror for a few more moments before setting that thought aside for the time being. I jumped off the bed and wandered over to the window. The panic in town had subsided substantially, and one could almost call it a quiet evening.

I bent down to retrieve the small box that had once held half a dozen crystals filled with emergency reserves of love energy, rations entrusted to me by my queen, but now contained only one surviving battery.

I wonder if it was Warden or Double Time who returned to the schoolhouse to collect this? The partial charge in it must be the result of Miss Time mourning the passing of her father and the apparent loss of Headway. I came very close to permanently establishing a source of love between her and my crystal persona. She refused to believe he and I were one and the same, so it makes sense that she'd be the one to repair it.

We'd been through a lot together, even if she came to hate me. Double Time convinced me that ponies had value beyond the next meal, even if she never knew it. I chose her when it came down to her life versus a much easier escape from Chrysalis' scouts. I broke character to protect her from her own brainwashed father, even if it meant killing him and losing her trust. Better for her to live in grief than die in confusion. She was significant to me, more so now than before I lost my family. 

On a whim, and because I had more stored love energy than I'd had in months, I condensed some of it and launched it into the sky above the hotel. I can't remember if I hoped someling would actually respond to the invisible emergency beacon or if I had simply done it to acknowledge and lament my now twice-failed mission, but it relieved some of my tension.

I closed the shutters covering the window and sat down at a little desk beside the bed. A song idea had popped into my head, so I took out some parchment and a quill and began to write down lyrics before I forgot them. I probably should have changed back into DaCapo for the process, but I decided to remain in my natural form for the rest of the night. I could always make changes to the melody to suit her voice later.

♫ Oh, why do I love you so?
♫ My tears simply overflow
♫ I am at a loss
♫ Without a thought of
♫ Where to go from here.

♫ Had I seen your eyes that day
♫ I'd have seen we were the same
♫ Instead, I stand, 
♫ Alone, right here
♫ Without you by my side.

♫ Oh, why do I love you so?
♫ I can't seem to let you go.
♫ Although you're gone,
♫ You still push me on.
♫ I'll never break free.

♫ I've spent such a long, long time,
♫ Running from a heinous crime.
♫ One mission to do
♫ But I hurt you; and
♫ Could no longer see it through.

♫ I can't find the remedy
♫ To heal fractured memories.
♫ Can't reach you now,
♫ What should I do?
♫ You've gone so far away.

♫ Oh, why do I love you so?
♫ I can't seem to let you go.
♫ The answer's clear
♫ I'll wait right here
♫ Because I can not move on

My songwriting was interrupted by a gentle knock on my door. Quick as a flash, and quite literally, I resumed my disguise as DaCapo Aria before acknowledging my guest.

"Yes," I called out, "who is it?"

"It's me, darlin, Misty Gaze. Are ya all right in there? I saw the light flickering under yer door and thought I heard singing."

Singing? She could see the light... oh no, could she have just noticed the transformation flash as well!?

Panicking inside but forcing myself to remain neutral in appearance, I swung open the door to admit her. She looked better than anypony else I'd seen since the attack, but her mane was tousled, and she had bags under her eyes. No makeup adorned her face for the first time since I'd known her, which probably meant she'd washed up at the cafe.

"Oh, sorry Misty. Yeah, I'm okay. I stumbled my way back to the hotel and fell asleep for a while. I felt much better once I woke up, so I decided to write for a bit. What about you? I went looking for you but couldn't find ya."

She seemed distracted because her response had very little to do with my question. "Ah. Ya musta showered, too, 'cause you're looking great. Everypony else out there still look like zombies. Eh, maybe I should go to bed early tonight as well..." She hesitated a moment, trying not to draw attention to the fact that she was attempting to look past me into my room. "So, you're alone? The singing didn't sound like you. Oh! If ya got yourself a stallion in there, I won't pry no further. Mums the word, sugar."

I chuckled at her assumption, then shook my head. "No, no. Nothing like that. These hotels use cheap soundproofing tricks between the rooms so your neighbors can sleep; maybe the door just muffled my voice a bit."

"Maybe," she said, sounding unconvinced. "Oh well, I just wanted to make sure everything was all right. Smooth said the trains wouldn't be affected by all this and that we'll be ready to go bright and early. He looked worse than either of us, though, so I wouldn't be too surprised if he slept through the first train. We might catch an afternoon one instead."

I nodded as she said that and flashed her my best reassuring smile. "It wouldn't surprise me either. But, if you don't mind, Misty, I would like to finish this song before I lose it, so I'll talk to you in the morning, okay?"

"Sure thing, sugar. Rest well, and make sure you get back some of your energy tonight. Yeah?"

She stepped back from my threshold, and I closed the door. As I sat down at the writing desk, something about her wording bothered me, but I couldn't figure out what it was.