Despite Tailslide's plans for the evening, they did not fly to the lake. Thankfully this wasn't the one hidden high in the mountains, requiring many hours of difficult trek up into the wilderness. A wide road led directly out of Agate, along the bank of a slow-moving river.
There was little in the way of boat traffic, only the occasional narrow barge laden with crates of whatever ponies floated out of Agate. The captain of one waved to them as he floated past, and Amie waved back.
Amie was used to carrying heavy saddlebags by now, using bodies that weren't designed for it. One of these days she would use an earth pony, and everything would be simple. But nothing Amie ever did was simple, and that wasn't going to start today.
"Let me know if you want me to take a turn," Tailslide said, as they reached the lake. "I don't expect you to carry everything yourself."
"They work you hard enough at your job," she argued, skipping out of his reach. "Besides, it's not as much as you think. A tent, a sleeping bag, and a single bottle of wine. How heavy do you think that stuff really is?" And a gun. But hopefully she never had to use that on anypony. She had a pretty good track record going so far.
"A sleeping bag," he repeated. "Are you trying to insinuate something, Amie?"
She lifted one wing toward him, grinning. "Oh, definitely. If there's any reason you don't want to date an absolute disaster, we can still turn around. Doesn't look like they locked the gate yet."
Tailslide led them along the lake, to an old dock. It was entirely abandoned, though there were several recreational boats tied up there. Rowboats mostly, though there was a single sailboat larger than the rest. "They use the honor system," he explained, as they stepped up onto the dock. "Just toss a few bits in there, and we can pick one. I'd suggest the sailboat, if I knew how to use it."
"I do," she said, tossing a few metal coins from her pack into the waiting bucket. "Those others are too small anyway. I don't want to tip over."
They loaded into the sailboat. Amie made sure he was secure, then untied from the dock, pushing them out across the water. "This lake looks pretty big from my map," she said. "Can we sail the whole thing? I'd love to get some distance."
The air was chilly over the lake, but that was expected. It was always colder on the water.
"Far as I know," he answered. The boat was larger than anything Stella Lacus had—not quite big enough to have anything belowdecks, but big enough for a little kitchen area in back for preparing meals, then a slightly recessed area with benches below the waterline. Tailslide rested in one of these, though he kept his wings spread at all times. "Guess it's a good thing you're a bat, if we're sailing after dark."
She let out the sail, then took the line in her mouth, guiding them away from the road, and the dock, and civilization in general.
The lake was beautiful by sunset, illuminating a mountainous countryside empty and natural all around it. That meant more privacy, though it did seem like a shame. This place would make for a gorgeous property to build a lakefront home.
"How'd you learn how to sail?" he asked, leaning one leg off the railing. The usual mountain breeze was more than enough to keep them moving, though it would be tacking against it to head home. "Is that a usual bug thing?"
How much further should she take them? There was a cove off in the distance, with a high rock wall on one side and nice shallow water beneath. How long since Amie had a real morning swim?
"We weren't bugs before, remember?" She raised the sail again, then lobbed their anchor over the side. They came to a stop maybe twenty meters from either shore, right in the center of the cove. A perfect place to watch the sunset. "Small boat sailing is one of the things we teach at camp. I taught it one year, but it wasn't my favorite. I like climbing better."
She sat down beside him, then fished around inside the backpack. She removed the bottle, settling it down in front of them. "I don't... know if I can drink this. You might have to enjoy it for both of us."
He picked it up with one wing, showing off a little more of that impressive pony dexterity. He turned it over, then settled it back down in front of them. "Are you sure... about all this?" He met her eyes for a second, then turned away just as quickly.
"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked. "I've been single for..." She counted out the months in her mind since Harvey. "Half a year. When I first appeared here looking like a... freak, I was glad I didn't have anything else complicating things. But the longer I'm here, the more I see how hard it all is. The responsibility sucks, but it would suck a lot less if I had someone backing me up. Someone I could count on being there for me on those nights when I just don't want to think anymore."
Tailslide wrapped one wing around her shoulder. The mountain breeze was cold, but not cold enough to penetrate his wings. "When I asked you," he finally said. "I just wanted to make sure this wasn't about debt. I don't expect you to repay me for helping you. A relationship that starts so tilted will never balance out, and just leave everypony unhappy."
Amie shook her head. "I'm not out here because I think I owe you. I saved your life, you saved mine. We're square, so far as I see it. I like you. You were brave enough to fight monsters, but... smart enough to see when we weren't. And principled enough that you refused to do something you know is wrong. Who am I going to run into who's better than all that?"
Tailslide nodded. "Just so long as we know what we're getting into, here. I... can't really do anything to make Equestria hate me more. Dating a bug..."
Amie shifted her weight closer to him. Being a bat gave her excellent senses, but her wings were also covered in naked skin. The cold was doing her no favors. Once she was comfortable, she took out a pair of metal camping glasses, and poured.
Amie was just old enough to drink in the first place. Her Rent-a-Friend apartment had come furnished with this stuff, she didn't know the first thing about choosing it. Strangely, it didn't smell rotten like so many other foods. Maybe that was a good sign?
"One last chance for you to get off this boat and fly to safety," she continued, settling the cup into his grip. He held it with his wing, and didn't spill. Somehow. "I've only ever dated people with two legs before. I have no idea what pony customs for this stuff look like. And when the sun comes up tomorrow, only God knows what's gonna happen to me. I'm already twisted up in contracts, I've got a whole little hive of kids to take care of. I don't expect your help with all that, but you are gonna have to deal with me."
He sipped from the glass. "I stayed in Agate so I could help save your tribe, Amie. If I didn't want to, I'd already be back in Cloudsdale."
"Great." Amie lifted her own glass in both forelegs, and sipped. It tasted nothing like she remembered, though there were familiar hints of grapes buried under a whole new species’s worth of flavors. It wasn't bad, just different enough that it would take her some getting used to.
"Mhmmm." She got halfway through the glass before setting it down, with Tailslide watching her every sip.
"I thought changelings couldn't eat," he asked, after a few minutes. "You sure that's a good idea?"
"It's definitely not. But sometimes that's the point. I want to save my friends, but I want to live too. Am I allowed to do both?"
"I can't give you orders," Tailslide said. "But I'm in favor."
It wasn't the craziest night Amie had ever had, or the most romantic. But it was hard to beat watching the sunset in the mountains. Recent developments to her diet and anatomy certainly didn't hurt the whole situation.
If there was some part of her whispering that she was only moving so quickly because her brain was rewired, and she shouldn't even be interested in aliens in such a short time—it was a small voice, one easily silenced by the abundance she enjoyed out on that boat.
It was so much more than the trickle of nutrition she had while disguised as Rain Fly with Ivy. Looking like a pony wasn't a lie with Tailslide, it was just a fashion choice. She could pick other things, and maybe she would, down the road. So long as he knew who was underneath, Amie would still reap all the benefits.
She told herself being a changeling was secondary to her experiences that night. She wasn't hungry, she didn't need food. What Amie really needed was someone to hold her for a while, someone to tell her that everything would be okay. Someone strong enough that she didn't have to wonder if they could do it.
Amie slept soundly that night, really slept, for the first time since Transit. It didn't matter what terrors were waiting for her when she got back, or the mantle of responsibility over a thousand bugs. For one night, on one boat, she could put all that aside.
It was also the first time she dreamed, more vividly than she could remember at any point in her human life. Her mind wandered through vast, subterranean spaces, caverns excavated with hooves and teeth. The shapes were alien to her, but also somehow comfortable and familiar. The maze served a purpose, a descending series of teardrop-shaped rooms, connected by a tunnel. Figures crawled up and down, so vast that she couldn't count them.
Even so, they welcomed her, by smells or gestures. This was her home too, even in near-total darkness. She navigated by smell, following trails others had left.
Down into the largest room of all, its walls covered with a waxy honeycomb of many cells. There were thousands of eggs, either tucked away into waiting alcoves to grow, or tended to by a throng of hardworking insects.
Finally she reached the bottom, where a throne of wax sat against the wall. Around it were familiar objects—books she had read, a few old family portraits stuck to the wall, repainted in oil at much larger sizes.
Eggs surrounded the throne, some still wet with greenish mucus. They obviously hadn't come from the one in the chair.
She was the tallest creature Amie had ever seen, except for the Rent-a-Friend's resident hippogriff. Her coat was deep blue, and her eyes as sharp as swords.
"A new queen arrives in Equestria," she said, setting something down on the throne beside her. Amie's phone, with a slideshow of her camp photos scrolling through it. "What kind of creature is she? What curse will she bring on Equestria?"
Amie didn't want to look like a bug anymore—so in the way of dreams, she didn't. Suddenly she was a bat. The body might be new to her, but the way she'd used it also supplied Amie with permanence in a way only Rain Fly's could've done. But that wasn't the form she took. Rain Fly would've run from pressure like this. The bat was still Amie—she would defy it.
"I don't want to curse anyone,” she said. "I don't want to build... this place. I don't want to rule anything, or control anyone."
"You speak as the master of liars," said the towering pony. Up close, Amie saw more frightening details—she had wings as well as a horn, something she'd never seen in Agate. There was something special about these creatures, though she didn't exactly know what. Maybe if she was awake she would've remembered. "Yet even now, you wrap yourself in a lie. Why should we ever believe you? You search for a meal, and you find it. You don't care the harm you do in the process."
"I'm not harming anyone," she argued, defiant. This burrow might feel familiar and safe, but it wasn't what she wanted. Amie willed it away, and something took its place. Cabins on a lake—a little like Stella Lacus, but not temporary this time. A street ran between them, a little town filled with bugs.
She populated the vision with campers she knew, as she imagined them when they grew up. If the camp counselors could do their job and keep them safe, maybe one day they'd build somewhere better. There were even ponies visiting, joining the locals for waterskiing, or buying snacks on the lake.
Amie didn't understand what she was doing, or how. But the effort cost her, and soon left her panting. No part of the hive remained, except the waxy throne directly in front of her, where the pony sat in judgment.
"I'm not what you think," Amie said. "I'm not the queen of anything. I'm not here to curse or conquer. I just want to keep my kids safe. And if I can figure out how—get them home."
The pony stood from her throne, surveying Amie's vision. When she finally spoke, her voice was softer now. She wasn't shouting anymore. "If that is so, then fate has dealt you the cruelest card of all. Your desire for peace will be swallowed in your instinct for dominion. You will never give to any creature, only take from them. You may not wish to harm—you may not even wish to take. You will anyway, because it is in your nature.
"Wherever you go, ruin will follow. One who destroys cannot build. First you must feed a thousand. Then you will birth a thousand more. Your future is tragic… and your end, inevitable."
With that pronouncement, the vision ended, and Amie woke with a start.