//------------------------------//
// Spiral 
// Story: The Immortal Dream 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Corsica sat on a second-story hotel balcony, Halcyon's bracelet clasped loosely in her forehooves, letting her mind wander to kill time.

The last town on the road to Snowport, this hamlet was long and narrow, built into a valley that became one of the talons as it dipped below sea level to the east. Between the presence of the hotel, the sign to the south claiming 'Welcome to Stillwater', the large number of tiny storefronts built into the bottoms of two-story houses, and the very good view afforded by her balcony, Corsica guessed this place was far more accessible than Sires Hollow, and frequently used as a tourist destination. It wasn't that far from Snowport, and was clearly prepared for visitors...

Yet the streets were far from bustling, even though it was the middle of the afternoon, and unlike the carefully imported amenities of Sires Hollow, nothing here felt new. It was a decent guess, then, that ever since the Crystal Empire returned, it had sponged up a large slice of the tourism industry.

Corsica rolled Halcyon's bracelet along the worn wooden railing. Now that she got to look at it up close, it was unlike any heirloom she had seen before. If Stillwater really was a tourist town, they'd probably have ponies here who dealt in collectibles and could get the bracelet appraised... Going behind Halcyon's back to learn about her prized possession might not be the most upstanding thing to do, but Halcyon had clearly messed herself up with this somehow and wasn't doing a whole lot to understand or fix that.

The bracelet was plain, almost remarkably so, made of a metal blacker than ink at midnight and forged into a featureless, unadorned band. There was nothing signifying it as a bracelet, or anything other than a hoop. But its forging was also immaculate: even on painstaking inspection, there were no blemishes from being hammered, no telltale line from the removal of a mold if it had been poured. It was as if some higher power had commanded into existence a ring, and what they got was as close to a conceptual ring as possible, with none of the ordinary trappings or characteristics of being real.

"I wonder how you work," Corsica mused under her breath to the bracelet, rubbing its edge and staring through the center like Nehaley had done. Nothing. "Wish I could find a little clue..."

No clues presented themselves. The metal was inert and ordinary to her touch, and she didn't see anything unusual when looking through the center. It wasn't some magical looking glass, didn't have anything inside... In fact, it almost felt a little too empty. The more Corsica looked at it, the more she felt like something was supposed to fit inside the circle.

Maybe it was just because that space was usually taken up by Halcyon's leg, and she was unaccustomed to seeing the bracelet on its own, though. Still, she pondered that, and couldn't quite shake the feeling that there was more to it than that.





I sat on the roof of the hotel, looking out at the road we had ostensibly came in on from the north. I tried to remember it, and with enough focus, I could envision myself trudging in, bracelet burning, pulling the wagon with Braen... but there was no way to tell if that was really my memory, or if I was just empathetic enough to imagine myself in that situation instead.

My leg itched in the absence of my bracelet. I pulled my sleeve up and pushed the cuff of my boot down, checking for any signs of burn damage like had occurred for Mother, but there was nothing. Just a little dent in my fur right under the lip of my sleeve, caused by years upon years of wearing the bracelet and hardly ever taking it off, like you saw on the necks of ponies who wore tie collars to work every day.

I felt like something was missing, though, something beyond the bracelet and two weeks of hazy memories. Maybe my memory-dreams could fill in the blanks for those, but there was something else, too, something I couldn't quite-

"Ey there, little cigar!"

I turned, frowning as Ludwig rose out of the floor. "What do you want? I'm kinda busy right now."

Ludwig bobbed happily in midair, still reduced to a glowing mote of teal light. "Eh, I was bored, and you looked like you were in a funk, so I thought this would be an excellent time to let you throw your brain at me instead of whatever you are brooding about, friendo."

"A distraction might be welcome, but not if it's coming from you," I said, turning back to the mountains. "So I think I'll pass."

"That is pretty cold," Ludwig remarked. "All I wanted was to help you forget for a moment how screwed you are."

I swatted at him with a wing. "I'm not screwed! Now buzz off."

Ludwig drifted out of the way and sighed. "You know, for how rude you are to my face, I could almost think you didn't suck me up and bring me along with you on purpose, stupid cigar."

"You're in windigo jail," I told him. "It's not a pleasure cruise."

"What a pity," Ludwig crooned. "I guess that means your tiny brain does not want any of my help with the problems you came up here to figure out?"

I swatted at him again. "If you want me to talk to you, then instead of tempting me with special knowledge you probably don't even know in the first place, maybe try insulting me a little less? And don't just switch to praising yourself instead."

"Yikes. You are a pretty demanding boss, little cigar." Ludwig bobbed unhappily. "Hmmm... it was pretty cool how you made it half of the whole entire way through that blizzard that one time before deciding to pass out? And you have a titanic brain. How is that? I am not super used to flattering faces other than my own."

My jaw hung slightly slack. "Is that what a legitimate effort looks like from you?"

Ludwig bobbed in a circle. "Fine, fine, I will get to the point: I am starting to actually believe you are an idiot who is only keeping me around because you know so little about your own spooky powers that you cannot figure out how to let me go. So I was thinking, maybe we could scratch each other's backs a little, and I help you figure out what you are currently having a failure to understand, and in return you let me go, yes yes yes?"

"That's three more insults," I pointed out. "Or four, I lost track. How about, if you know something that would be useful to me, and isn't just gonna get me bent out of shape with worry, you tell me, and if it's actually useful you get a few brownie points for your troubles?"

Ludwig considered this. "Can I spend brownie points to get you to punch out a random stranger in a bar for no reason and start a brawl?"

I gave him a look.

"Eh." He started floating away. "I think I will keep my helpful knowledge to myself. Have a bad one, little cigar."

My eye twitched. He was gone.

You think he could actually know something? Faye asked in my head.

"I dunno," I sighed, turning once again to the mountains. "But if he does, it's not worth the price of finding out."

Sorry I saddled you with him, Faye apologized. I didn't know what else to do at the time. Maybe if I had a better grasp of our powers...

"You know anything about what happened to us just now, on the road?" I asked. "Or did you feel like you lost the last two weeks, too?"

Sort of, Faye admitted. I've got a few ideas.

I tilted my head.

Remember when we went to Lilith's school, the second time, and she was telling us how changeling queens work? Faye quizzed. She was describing how important it was that she didn't accidentally make a new one. The way she made it sound, changeling queens are like vessels for emotion, and we gain our powers by being filled with some resonating desire. Like how Chrysalis was full of negative emotions, and Coda was full of the prayers of her followers.

I nodded. "But we've never done anything like that."

Right, Faye said. Lilith made it sound like an unformed changeling queen would be just empty. A void... like us. Now, we're probably a special case, because we've eaten Ludwig and that pink flame. Neither of those is pure emotion, though: they're intelligent, and also pretty much emotional opposites. So when we use our bracelet, I would guess the power we're drawing on is literally what we've eaten. And the reason it went wrong is probably either because our diet so far is an incompatible mix, or because we don't know how to draw on them, or we can't draw on them at all because they're alive. Either way, I think we were borrowing against power we don't yet have.

I narrowed my eyes. "But... if you're saying, like, we used too much power, then how come we're fine now that we're separated from the bracelet? We are fine, right?"

I don't know, Faye apologized. All of this is pure conjecture. From what we saw of Coda's crown, I do think the bracelet is a link, somehow, between the physical world and the emotions stored inside our body... but she had a throne, and we don't. And I don't understand how if the emotions are in us, they would manifest as power using the bracelet. Why should it be necessary? There's too many differences and too few data points.

"What do you think even happens if someone runs out of emotions?" I asked. "Probably nothing good, right? I just don't get why, if that's really what happened to us, we're fine the moment we stop touching the bracelet, and then not fine the moment we touch it again."

I wish I could tell you, Faye lamented. I agree that it doesn't make sense. There has to be more to it than that. Maybe Ludwig really does have information...

"We'll do it without him," I promised. "We'll figure out how this works, learn to not overdo it like the last few weeks, and kick Ludwig to the curb so he isn't tied to us anymore. I promise."

Faye hesitated. Have you thought about what you'd eventually like to align us with?

"Eh?" I blinked.

Lilith said changeling queens start out empty, and their powers mature as they become filled with emotion aligned to a particular purpose, Faye repeated. We're definitely still empty... or something close to it. And we could live out the rest of our lives this way. Not that I'd mind that. But you're pushing our boundaries and trying to learn more about our powers and their limits. And I'm all but certain that one day, if you really want to transcend those boundaries, you're going to have to start filling us with emotions from an external source.

I felt my backwards ears sag.

Hopefully that day is a long way off, Faye added. I don't like the idea of being reduced to a vessel for someone else's will. Which might be surprising, considering I dreamed up you to live my life for me, but... we're still a part of each other. It would be different if we were hooked up to a machine like Coda's throne, literally taking in the wishes of other ponies. But if you're determined to keep going down this path, it's a day you should probably think about before it arrives.

"I don't..." I didn't know what to say. "I need to see more of the world before I can make a choice like that. I need to live more. A lot's happened to distract me from my goal, but that's why I left Icereach in the first place. And even though I've got a goal now, finding Fluttershy and saving Coda, that's a near-term goal. Not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I just don't think I can answer that."

Then maybe it's good that you've hit a roadblock in testing our changeling queen powers, Faye said. Because I'm not ready for that day, either.





Corsica paced through the streets of Stillwater, which was only wide enough to have three of them before the valley edges started forcing buildings up onto terraces. Domiciles, grocers, a hardware store next to a blacksmith... There!

Her eyes settled onto a sign reading Antiques and Oddities, hanging above a storefront that looked like amateur hooves had intentionally tried to make it old-fashioned... though she knew little enough of architectural mores in Equestria to say for sure that this wasn't cutting-edge modernism. Halcyon's bracelet rested safe in her dainty saddlebag, but soon it would get to come out and about: if neither the metalworker nor the antique shop could tell her anything about it, both of them were frauds.

If she were in charge there, she mused, the blacksmith would be making antiques and using the shop next door as an outlet... but these ponies must have been doing this for a living for decades, so odds were they had an even better money-making scheme cooked up. It probably wouldn't be great for tourism to have the local stores be run by charlatans, but this town did look like it was presently in dire need of cash. Was it wise to enter a potentially unscrupulous vendor with a friend's valuable heirloom and no contingencies in case anything unfortunate happened? Was this a venue where a little healthy paranoia might be justified, given the importance of what she was handling?

She pulled out the bracelet and looked it over. Yeah, probably.

Although, on second thought, she had just used her special talent barely an hour ago. It was a small use, but right now most of her woes centered around hiking cramps and noodly legs, and she wasn't in a hurry to change that. Better to wait and see if anything untoward actually happened before burning what might turn out to be a bigger use.

A bell jingled as Corsica stepped inside. The interior of the souvenir shop was dark and claustrophobic, but in an inviting way, the air tingling with mystery and adventure in a way that coddled tourists would probably find irresistible. A winding main aisle led to a low counter in the back, dozens of glass cases built into the wall behind it, stacks and shelves taking up all the floor space save for a small area just in front of the desk. From the sound of things, there were at least two other shoppers browsing already, which was a good sign.

A stallion with cracked spectacles and a flyaway mane sat behind the counter reading a tattered novel, looking like he was trying to appear older and more eccentric than he actually was. He looked up, gave Corsica a hefty nod, and went back to reading.

"Hey," Corsica said, sauntering up to the desk. "Any chance you do appraisals? Got a family heirloom here. Not looking to part with it, just learn about what it is."

The stallion straightened up, setting his book aside and adjusting his spectacles. "Let's see what you've got," he said in an artificially-creaky voice.

"May or may not be magic," Corsica warned, sliding the bracelet out and dropping it on the counter. "Just in case."

"Magic, hmm?" The stallion leaned over it. "Well, we do have a village wizard for that, so you might want to try your luck with him... I say, this is almost remarkably unremarkable."

He lifted it gingerly, weighing it with a hoof and inspecting it from multiple angles, giving it a tap and listening closely to the sound. He held it up to the light, studying how it reflected, rolled it back and forth a few times, and eventually pushed it back to Corsica.

"Well?" Corsica tilted her head.

"I'll admit, I'm stumped," the stallion said, sitting back. "I've never seen a material like this before, and there's no sign of who made it, or for what purpose. Usually, bands like this have some inscription on the outside, either magical or ornamental, and some form of mark identifying the smith on the inside, here." He tapped the ring's inner edge. "Why anyone would create something like this is completely beyond me. It has no visual or functional purpose, after all. And what that usually means is it was fashioned by a wizard for a purpose only they can know. It also has no wear whatsoever, which is unusual for an heirloom. I'd be careful with this, young missy. It probably wasn't made to be carried around like a trinket during someone's daily routine."

Corsica nodded. Figures. "You mentioned a village wizard? Where could I find them? Any point in taking it to the blacksmith next door?"

The stallion rubbed his chin. "That smithy's run by my daughter. If there's anyone who can tell you what kind of metal this is, it would be her, but she inherited the trade from me, so the odds of her knowing anything more are slim. Wouldn't hurt to try, if you've got time to kill. She'd certainly be curious. Even if you did know what this was made of, though, that wouldn't tell you much as to its origin or purpose."

"Right..." Corsica picked up the bracelet again, taking another look at it herself. This was harder than she had been hoping.

"The wizard's over on the southern ridge," the shopkeep went on. "Takes a bit of a climb to reach him, but at least you can't miss it. Eccentric fellow - he changed his name to Corvus Crombus, if it gives you an idea. But he's all about strange enchantments, and could almost definitely tell you about any spells it's under."

"Do I hear talk of strange enchantments?" a new voice interrupted.

Corsica turned to look. Out from between a rack of clothing and a shelf of boxed oddities strode a creature roughly twice her height, bipedal and clad in an impressively angular armored uniform. It had a thick tail and lizardlike features, and scales that seemed to catch the room's dim light and amplify it into a subdued, purple-tinged rainbow of polygons.

She had never seen one before, but there was only one thing this creature could be: a dragon.

The shopkeep's eyes widened. "Sir Seigetsu!" He tipped his spectacles and bowed his head in a gesture of respect. "Forgive me, I didn't notice you come in!"

"There is nothing to forgive," Seigetsu answered with a tiny nod of his own. "I was the one who was eavesdropping. However, I find the artifact you were discussing to be most interesting." His slitted eyes brushed over the bracelet, then found their way to Corsica. "Might I have a look at it? Preferably outside, where the light is better."

Corsica blinked. This sounded like the start of trouble... "Sure," she said, scooping up the bracelet and nodding to the shopkeep, keeping up a perfect composure. "You ever seen something like this before?"

Seigetsu just beckoned for her to follow.

When they got outside, Seigetsu gave her a look, and extended a claw. "Would you permit me to test if this is a genuine article? If not, rest assured you will be duly compensated."

"A genuine what?" Corsica raised an eyebrow and didn't hand the bracelet over. "You know what this is?"

Seigetsu didn't retract his claw. "That's classified," he said in the same professional, feminine tone he had used since appearing. "However, if I'm right in assuming you don't know what it is you hold, it would be in both of our best interest for me to verify its identity."

Corsica hesitated... then held out the bracelet. "Alright. Wish you give it back right after, and don't skunk me."

Seigetsu sniffed the air, and his eyebrows rose in mild surprise, but he said nothing, instead taking the bracelet, walking a few steps away, and placing it on the ground, standing up on its side. When he was satisfied it wouldn't start rolling, he backed up several paces and motioned for Corsica to stand back.

He took a stance... and in his hand, something gleamed. One second, nothing was there, and the next, he held a bright purple sledgehammer, minimally decorated and made of a completely uniform metal with a bizarre color and sheen. Seigetsu tensed, leapt, brought the hammer down over his head with a double-handed swing, and landed it squarely on Halcyon's bracelet.

"Hey-!" Corsica's voice was drowned out by the sound of cracking rock as Seigetsu stepped back and straightened up, looking over his handiwork. The sledgehammer vanished from sight, and beneath where it had struck, the stone was fractured, the bracelet driven more than halfway into the road... but not deformed at all.

"Hmm." Seigetsu bent down, and with a grunt, managed to yank it free. He inspected the bracelet. "Yes, it does appear to be the real thing. No phony could withstand such a blow."

Several ponies nearby had turned to look, but none of them seemed overly intent on staring. "You just ruined the road," Corsica pointed out, gesturing at the spider web of cracks in the stone around the gouge where Halcyon's bracelet had been driven.

"A small matter," Seigetsu said, leaning down and dragging a claw through the rock as if it were putty. After a few moments of sculpting, the crack had all but disappeared. "There. Good as new."

Corsica stared at the ground. And then at the bracelet.

"Earth dragon blood runs in my veins," Seigetsu explained. "I doubt you would appreciate the full significance of that, so suffice it to say I possess some of their powers, as well."

"That's great," Corsica said warily. "So, the bracelet..."

Seigetsu inspected it. "You'll be wanting this back now, won't you?"

Corsica raised an eyebrow. "You think?"

For a moment, Seigetsu didn't reply. He was stalling, but for what? Corsica's special talent tingled in annoyance, and she suppressed a frown. It should have been more instant than this...

"...Hmm." Seigetsu was obviously waiting for something. "You keep your composure better than most." He hid a slight grin.

"What are you talking about?" Corsica kept her voice steady, thoroughly unnerved. Why wasn't it working? Unless this dragon somehow knew-

Seigetsu snapped his claws, and a sensation like a spike of static was driven into Corsica's special talent. Her vision blurred, and the world in front of her seemed to shatter and fall away... and then she opened her eyes, and everything was right back to normal. Except, she could no longer feel the previous use of her talent, looming in the back of her mind like an iceberg waiting to break off and fall away.

"You have a rare gift," Seigetsu said, holding the bracelet as Corsica struggled to get her bearings back. "But a magic so new has no effect on a race as old as dragons."

"You..." He did know. And not only that, but her special talent didn't even work on him? "How?"

"Here." Seigetsu offered back the bracelet. "I was not interested in keeping it. Such things are not so easily separated from their owners. I was merely surprised you thought to compel me to do what was already inevitable. And with such a powerful effect, at that..."

Corsica snatched it with her aura, floating the bracelet immediately close. "Who are you?"

Seigetsu nodded. "Special Inquisitor Seigetsu of the Holy Cernial Convocation. It is my job to wander the lands in search of those who would misappropriate my church's most sacred relics, or share its teachings with those who must not learn them. And here I find you, in possession of an exceedingly dangerous weapon with seemingly no idea what it is."

"Care to enlighten me, then?" Corsica asked, long hours of getting her privacy invaded and expectations shattered by Egdelwonk the only thing that kept her from stammering.

Seigetsu considered this. "No," he eventually said. "That will not be necessary. But let us take a walk. You may not be what I came to this town for, but now that I've found you, I'd be a fool to leave empty-handed. And in lieu of that weapon, I think you could stand to give me a most interesting story."

He started to walk, and Corsica felt her hooves drag her after him almost of their own accord. "And what about you? What's your story?"

"I just told you," Seigetsu said. "I am a Special Inquisitor. You, however, have been most tight-lipped. Who lent you this weapon, and to what end?"

Corsica didn't need to hesitate. "That's classified. How about a few reasons why I should trust you, first?"

Seigetsu folded his arms behind his back. "As we have established, your magic is powerless to affect me. Additionally, you know less about the powers you carry than I do. Were I to attempt subduing you by force, there would be little you could do to stop me. That I have opted for dialogue instead, and even allowed you to retain your weapon, should speak to the purity of my intentions."

Corsica frowned. "Anything else?"

Seigetsu wasn't finished. "Furthermore, my half-brother administers a major port town only a few days south of here, a factor that greatly contributes to my presence here and something any local would surely know. That you do not recognize me implies you are a traveler. And, provided we can get along, any traveler could do far worse than ingratiating themselves to the local rail baron."

Corsica winced. If that was true...

"The reactions of others to my presence should, I hope, attest to the truthfulness of my identity." Seigetsu nodded to the various nearby townsponies, most of whom were trying to stare without looking too hard like they were staring. "Now then. I have told you much and more of myself, and offered multiple gestures of goodwill. I think it is time I heard about you."

Corsica weighed this. If Seigetsu was bluffing, it would be a dangerous bluff to call. He had multiple powers she had never heard of before, including one that seemed to directly countermand her special talent. And the way the townsponies treated him certainly befitted a religious inquisitor, especially the owner of the antique shop. And Halcyon's plan to catch a boat to the Catantan Peninsula was contingent on haggling and getting involved in local affairs in order to barter passage, since they couldn't afford it - if this went right, they could potentially get in with the owner of the fastest ships in the land, assuming the port town Seigetsu mentioned was Snowport.

On the other hoof, Corsica had no idea what the religious mores of the dragons were, and whether or not anything in her story would seriously offend them. Doubly so, considering she knew so little about what Halcyon's bracelet actually was.

Seigetsu kept walking.

"...The name's Corsica," Corsica eventually said. "I'm just passing through. Traveling with a group of friends. Not looking for trouble."

"I see," Seigetsu said. "And where are you going?"

Again, Corsica hesitated. If this was going to reach the best possible outcome, Seigetsu would need to learn her destination one way or the other, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to reveal enough to imply that her starting point had been Sires Hollow just yet. That would tell the dragon she was from over the Aldenfold, which the ponies in Sires Hollow had advised her not to make the biggest deal about... If only she could grease this situation along with her special talent.

Ever since she had gotten it, it had been an unwelcome and intrusive companion, always present when she wished it would leave. Now, the tables were turned, and it felt alien beyond belief.

"We're trying to reach the Catantan Peninsula," Corsica said, hoping her coddled instincts wouldn't lead her astray. "Figured we'd get a boat out of Snowport."

Seigetsu frowned. "There are not many ways in which a trip to Snowport would take you through Stillwater. Unless..." He snapped his claws again, and a fuzzy sensation briefly passed through Corsica. "Most interesting."

"Oh yeah...?" Corsica waited, not about to give away anything else.

"You claim to be traveling in a group," Seigetsu said. "And you all possess Writs of Harmonic Sanction?"

"I do." Corsica emphasized her flank. "Isn't that what you were checking?"

Seigetsu looked mildly amused. "I asked about your companions."

"If I say yes, you're going to ask to meet them," Corsica pointed out. "To see for yourself. That many writs in one place is supposed to be unprecedented."

"Mmm." Seigetsu nodded. "But I would like to meet them regardless of your answer. Such a large crossing is unprecedented indeed, and of great interest to my role as inquisitor."

"Well, we've all got writs," Corsica said. "So don't get your hopes too high on there being stuff to inquisit."

"Noted." Seigetsu kept walking, never emotionless but always unflappably calm and still sounding just enough like a mare that Corsica was starting to worry if she had misgendered him. But the shopkeep had said Sir, and he sounded like a stallion, too...

"Your companions," Seigetsu said after Corsica failed to change the subject. "Is the owner of that weapon among them?"

Not much point in trying to hide it... "What do you mean, 'owner'?" Corsica asked, trying regardless to dodge the question.

Seigetsu scrutinized Corsica's eyes. "...I cannot tell if you are trying to mislead me," he eventually said. "Or if you truly are that ignorant about what it is that you carry. These constructs are not toys."

"If you believe that, you could tell me what's so dangerous about it," Corsica challenged.

"No," Seigetsu repeated. "I merely wish to know where you got it."

"From a friend," Corsica said. "Who inherited it from her mother, who stole it from somewhere a long time ago." True, as best as she knew it. And besides, if there really was an imperative to keep the origins of the bracelet secret, best to give that duty to the pony who knew where it came from, especially when that pony had once been a practiced criminal.

"Most interesting." Seigetsu nodded. "And how long is 'quite some time ago'?"

Corsica shrugged. "Twenty years, give or take. You want to ask her yourself, both of them are traveling with me. I'm done getting grilled over their thing."

"Hmm." Seigetsu looked intrigued. "Thank you, Corsica. I think I should like that very much."