//------------------------------//
// Coming Clean 
// Story: The Immortal Dream 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

The upper hallways of Terutomo's castle were freezing, and when we passed by a window, I realized why: a blizzard had sprung up.

A heavy blanket of snow already covered the ground and the rail yard, which the window I found was facing, and more was accumulating by the minute. It was a familiar kind of blizzard, the same as we got up in Icereach: heavy black clouds roaring by, close above, and yet a seeming absence of wind just beneath them, the thick snow falling straight and undisturbed.

"That sure happened fast," Corsica remarked, stepping up to look as well.

"Beautiful, ain't it?" a guard accompanying us said, folding his hands behind his back. "Ever since the Equestrians reclaimed the Crystal Empire, weather like this has been rarer and rarer. But sometimes, fortune still smiles."

I felt a small sparkle of kinship for the ice dragons, remembering they, too, were at home amid the cold. Although there was such a thing as too cold... I took a step back from the window, just in case.

"...Anyway," Corsica said. "Maybe we could get a room that doesn't have windows, in that case."

The guard nodded. "Of course."

I wasn't paying attention to when Papyrus slipped away, and in fact only recognized that he was gone when Corsica led me into a snugly decorated space that looked like a cross between a hotel chamber and an office break room, and the guard didn't follow us inside. "I'll be across the hall if you need me," he said, stepping away and leaving the door slightly ajar.

Corsica lit her horn and closed it.

I blinked at her. "What are we doing here?"

Corsica sat down and stared at me, inviting me to figure it out for myself.

I scratched an ear. After being grilled by Seigetsu, fighting Duma, getting arrested, waking up with my memory not-quite-wiped, and being harassed by an old pony intent on recruiting me into his cult, I had just been following along with wherever we were going, happy to have a moment alone with the inside of my head... I had nothing.

Corsica sighed and turned away. "Bet you're feeling pretty lucky, huh? Not every day Papyrus comes to someone's rescue like that."

"What do you-?" I blinked. "Oh. Yeah. He did get us a friendlier audience, didn't he?"

"I dunno about that," Corsica huffed. "It looked like a standard good cop, bad cop routine to me. Still, you got to avoid spilling your secrets by some miracle of fate. Big relief, isn't it?"

The hostile note in her voice was more than enough to put me back on edge. "What are you on about?"

"Don't worry," Corsica said, "it's just the bracelet, nothing more. Miss 'what if I'm the product of something majorly heretical'. I'm surprised the dragons didn't press more deeply. Maybe they just don't know you as well as I do. You wanna know how I'm feeling right now?"

I swallowed. "Do I?"

"I've spent months," Corsica growled, turning on me, but keeping her distance. "Years, even, trying to get to know you better. I'm your best friend. We've crossed continents and gotten kidnapped and worked for a godlike janitor together, and still, it feels like every time you learn something or know something, I'm the last pony to know. You're out of my reach, and getting farther away. Last night I finally got you to promise to tell me everything, and actually let myself get my hopes up you'd follow through. And what do I have to do today? Sit there and listen as a couple of dragon inquisitors drag things out of you you never told me voluntarily."

"I..." My heart skipped a beat, and I took a step back.

"I know they didn't get the full truth," Corsica said coldly. "There's still something major you kept just out of sight from them. But what if you hadn't? What if they had pushed just a little harder, cornered you just the right way? If you were me, what would be worse? Still not knowing? Or having to find out like that?"

She gritted her teeth and punched the floor. "I just want you to trust me! Not... not... all of this...!"

I was floored. "Corsica..."

"Maybe this is my talent talking," Corsica grumbled. "In fact, it almost definitely is. I told you what happens to me when I overuse it. But you know why I was using it? To keep your sorry butt safe. During your... your escapade with Yelvey, or whatever it was you were doing down there! I never use this power on myself! Ever! It's always for you! And you just... You don't... Please..."

She started trembling, and trailed off, waiting for me to make the next move. But I was too frozen to speak.

Halcyon... Faye prodded in my mind.

I couldn't move. Why couldn't I move?

What would I say if I did move? I didn't know how to handle something like-





Faye sighed, the green crystal that made up her mask materializing in her forehooves.

She looked at it for a moment. This - Halcyon - was supposed to be her future. A version of her that could live less encumbered by her own baggage, more separate from her past. But if that separation was holding her back...

"It's me," she said, looking up at Corsica. "The original."

Corsica blinked once.

"I figured..." Faye started. "You should hear this from me. After all, it's my history to face. She just inherited it. I know she's the one you've grown attached to. Not me. But, I don't think she can talk about herself. It's a block on some deep, subliminal level... One that I created to protect her. So, if it's my fault that you two are in this situation... I should be the one to make it right."

"Protect her from what?" Corsica whispered.

"Me," Faye said stiffly. "You know that Nehaley... adopted me. The pony she adopted me from... was Chrysalis."

Saying it made her feel oddly hollow, as though the ground she was standing on had cracked off, but not yet started falling away. Corsica's eyes widened, but Faye didn't give her a chance to respond. "The war that destroyed the eastern continent was fought over me. My existence was the final straw that pushed Chrysalis over the edge. The blood of... my entire race is on my hooves. And I have my mother's powers. Everything she can do, I can do... if I ever learned how."

She took off her bracelet, holding it out in front of her. "This isn't a bracelet. It's a crown. My changeling queen crown. A focus for my powers. Growing up, I was terrified of myself. I almost didn't even have a sense of self. The little annoyance you made fun of for tagging along with you and Ansel? That wasn't really me. It was just an empty shell. I'm not even sure if I exist now."

Corsica's ears quivered as she listened.

"The Halcyon you've known for the last two and a half years?" Faye shook her head. "She's another self that I created. A different me that I could pretend to be. One who didn't know who she was, or what she could do, who searched tirelessly for an outside solution to her problems so she'd never turn inward and discover her potential. That's why she was so driven to unravel the mysteries of the light spirit. But, I made her too curious. Eventually... she started to figure it out anyway."

"How long has she known?" Corsica asked. "How long have you known?"

"Since before I was old enough to understand it," Faye said. "But she only figured it out on that final day in Ironridge, when she got back from the caves. She still doesn't know everything. Some of the inhibitions I created her with, though, are so strong that they're preventing her from properly processing or acting on what she learns. I think... I might have made her too simple, too straightforward or too innocent for the life she wants to live. It's probably because I've never much interacted with people before. I created her solely for the task of living with herself, without a thought as to how she'd live with others."

Corsica's eyes softened.

"I'm sorry," Faye said. "You... really have changed. I think you'd be a great friend for her, if she could let you in. And it's not her fault she couldn't tell you the details about the pink flame, or the mission she accepted when she found it down there in the tunnels. Being a changeling queen... My body is like a giant battery for emotion. The flame is made of that, and so is Ludwig. That's why she was able to absorb them. But even I don't understand much about how these powers work. A lot of the things she's been doing, she doesn't understand at all. That's why she can't tell you about them. She still has a mental block against facing the unknown. Like even acknowledging these powers at all would jinx it. You heard her back there, with the dragons, making it sound like it was all the bracelet, and not her herself."

"Is she listening?" Corsica asked. "Right now. Or is this conversation purely between you and me?"

Faye shook her head. "It's just you and me."

Corsica hesitated. "...When you went down there. It took you the better part of a week to come back. What kept you for so long?"

Faye took a deep breath. "As a changeling queen, we're... functionally immortal. Not invincible, but we seem to have supernatural healing and regenerative powers. You remember how surprised the doctors were after she got hit with shrapnel during the Aldebaran incident. Well, while climbing, she slipped and fell... and it just took that long for our body to knit itself back together."

"Huh," Corsica said. "Think it was worth it?"

Faye tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Being a changeling queen," Corsica said. "Coming back from a fall like that. If you weren't... If you were an ordinary pony... you'd be dead. But it sounds like you already wanted to not exist so badly, you developed a split personality long before that. So?"

"...I don't know." Faye studied the floor. "Honest. I don't know what our future holds, or what we'll do from here. We hold the potential to create a disaster just like Chrysalis... or if Terutomo is right about the existence of my crown being a harbinger of the end times, maybe something even worse. At the same time, she still has things she wants to accomplish with her life... Dreams and ambitions. Saving Coda, stopping Chrysalis once and for all..."

"Wait a minute!" Corsica blinked. "That's right, Coda! What about her? Wasn't she supposed to be Chrysalis's daughter too? Does that make her your sister, or something?"

Faye chuckled weakly and shook her head. "No. She's a fake heir. A real changeling queen, though. Her cult didn't have the real thing, but believed that another changeling queen was the only thing that could actually oppose Chrysalis. So, they recreated the experiments and made a new one."

Corsica's eyes widened. "That's..."

"Despicable?" Faye sighed. "It doesn't matter. She exists, and now the other me will stop at nothing to help her. Well... nothing except confronting her past, I suppose. But if you asked her, she would say yes. It's worth being a changeling queen to have the opportunity to help Coda and walk alongside her. She's... very attached."

"So, Coda could get through to her where I couldn't, huh?" Corsica laughed bitterly. "Well... you're welcome, I guess. I might be the reason for your existence."

"What?" Faye furrowed her brow.

"My special talent," Corsica said, taking a deep breath. "It..."

Faye cringed.

"What?" Corsica blinked. "You don't want to know?"

"I know how important secrets can be," Faye said. "And I didn't tell you so we can all start sharing everything with each other. I told you because you've stood by Halcyon long enough that you deserve to know, she couldn't tell you herself, and it was going to seriously damage your relationship if it stayed hidden. Maybe it already has. But I know too many things I have to keep to myself already. I don't want to know more."

Corsica rolled her eyes. "And how do you think I feel? You think I want to be the only pony in the world who knows what my special talent does? It's a heavy burden, and you're the only pony I know who could even begin to appreciate that, let alone help carry it. These things are harder when you're alone. You've at least got the benefit of dividing up your head into multiple people to help manage the load, but I can't even afford that much! I don't just want to understand you, I want you to understand me!"

"Why?" Faye asked, looking at her with genuine confusion. "Secrets are safer when nobody knows about them. Halcyon is walking a dangerous road, trying to use our powers while keeping them under wraps, and it's not going to hold much longer. You were right to be afraid the dragons would get the truth out of her, and they still might before we leave this place. But you've done a much better job, haven't you?"

"...No." Corsica looked away. "Actually, Seigetsu figured out exactly how my talent works the very first time she saw me, gritty details and everything. The only reason you haven't noticed is because you... or, I guess, the other you... is bad at figuring out what I'm thinking."

"Oh." Faye sighed. "Fine. You... can say it. I'll keep your secret. Including from her. If you want Halcyon to know, tell her directly yourself."

"Well, it's not that complex," Corsica said, suddenly awkward. "It... I... Look, remember when I was in the hospital, after the accident?"

"Yes." Faye nodded. "A lengthy coma. I was at your bedside almost the whole time. That was... when I finally decided I couldn't live as myself anymore."

Corsica huffed. "Yeah, of course you were there. Do you remember who wasn't there?"

Faye blinked.

"Graygarden," Corsica said. "I heard it from the nurses. And later, from the stallion himself. Apparently, he visited once, for a few minutes when I just got back in... and then never again until after I woke up. Some garbage about work keeping him busy."

Faye's eyes widened in realization. "I wasn't paying attention at the time, but no, you're right. I never saw him there."

"I still haven't had a good and proper talk with him about it," Corsica said. "Haven't had a good and proper talk since then with him about anything. Probably never will. But when I first found out about it, I told him... told him I wished he wasn't my father."

Faye tilted her head.

"And then a few days later," Corsica went on, "I learned I had been adopted."

Faye frowned.

"Things went on the way you remember for a while," Corsica continued. "You were there. I had a brand-new talent. Told ponies it was for geometry or whatever, but the truth was, it seemed to make me good at everything. Not just good at it, but like I'd meet with success before even trying. Except no matter how little effort I put in and how much I succeeded, I got so drained and so tired, like my life force was gone and I was a listless bag of meat. And I could remember what it used to be like, how I was so vibrant and eager to live, and..." She shook her head. "My special talent makes my wishes come true, at the cost of my capacity to want things. It's as simple as that. Once I realized something was wrong and none of the doctors could diagnose it, it was a matter of quick trial and error... When I wanted to figure out how my talent worked, it helped with that, too."

She closed her eyes. "I wished that Graygarden wasn't my father, and suddenly he wasn't. I didn't want him to have a charitable reason for ignoring me while I was injured, and so I never found one. I destroyed that relationship without even knowing what I was doing, and it wasn't the first. During the Aldebaran incident, I wished we'd all get home and everything would end alright. All those 'miracles' you were talking about afterward, how they must have been the work of the light spirit? Just me. And I wished that if we weren't happy with the outcome of Ludwig's game, we'd have the chance to get revenge, remember? When he was there in your house, daring you to fight him... You already had the power to do what you did the second time around, when you possessed him back, or absorbed him into your body or however it went. If you hadn't let him go, you could have done that then and there. You could have done that with your changeling queen powers... which you gained so that my wish could be fulfilled."

Faye narrowed her eyes. "I was born a changeling queen long before you got that special talent."

"That's not how it works." Corsica shook her head. "I was born long before then too, and it still changed the circumstances of my birth. As long as I don't know something about the past concretely, nothing is beyond my talent's reach. It can... retroactively change the past for anything outside my own memories, and everyone else's perceptions will be altered as if the world had always been that way all along. Of course, the alternative is that time is static and the course of history has always been set, and this thing instead controls my mind to make me desire things that already exist, but that's hardly any more comforting..."

Faye sighed.

"Can you even imagine how it feels to be me?" Corsica pressed. "To know that either everything I interact with is an illusion, or that I'm the illusion myself? To be unable to strive toward any goal whatsoever, because any effort I put in is ultimately meaningless and I could just say the magic words instead, but also because I have no effort left to give? I'm so tired, and I want it to end. I wish I had never received this talent to start with, but I know that if I hadn't, both of us would have been dead many times over, and how is being dead any better than the alternative? In fact, the reason I manifested this to begin with was probably because somewhere deep down, even while I was unconscious and comatose, some part of me just refused to accept my fate and die. But whether I want to wish things had been different or not, it doesn't matter, because wishing this talent away is the one thing even it can't do."

"That's... really how you feel, huh?" Faye looked seriously at her. "You truly hate having it that much?"

"I don't know." Corsica gritted her teeth. "How can I even want to give up this power when I use it on a regular basis to keep us safe? Especially when it's you I'm saving? Listen to you. You're a changeling queen, you've got powers you don't understand, you've got some terrible things in your past that arguably aren't your fault but still wouldn't have happened if things had gone differently, you're the only pony who can even begin to understand me, and I might be the same for you. And now we're finally talking, and... I don't know where to go from here."

"...Can I ask a favor?" Faye asked.

"If you want a wish, I'm all tuckered out. But asking is free."

Faye's brow furrowed. "Don't tell... the other me. About what your special talent does. At least, not until she's able to tell you on her own about who and what we are."

"Oh?" Corsica glanced at her.

"It wouldn't be fair," Faye said. "And I'm not sure how she'd handle it. She's still only half-formed. Even though she leads almost all the time, you've seen how she breaks down and can't talk about herself when pressed. The light spirit, those 'miracles' back in Icereach... She hasn't thought about them for a while. They're no longer her driving force. But, she's still trying to figure out what to do with our powers, what kind of future she wants to have for herself, and who she wants to be. I just don't want to take away the platform of faith she's been standing on before she's ready."

"Huh," Corsica said. "Makes sense. But, you know, you're kind of treating her like a child."

Faye shrugged. "She is one. Sort of. But I am, too... We all are. We're barely even adults yet."

"Doesn't change our position in life," Corsica muttered.

"No," Faye agreed. "Anyway. I'll... work with Halcyon about this. If she's going to be embracing our powers, that means keeping them a secret will be less and less possible. And you're the first she should have by her side. I'm going to keep this conversation a secret from her, if that's alright with you, because I want her to tell you this on her own terms. I just... told you now because I could feel how much you were hurting."

Corsica raised an eyebrow. "You mean that literally?"

Faye nodded. "I do."

"Huh." Corsica turned away. "Well, I guess I can wait for her, then. Sorry for... pressing you like this. I've got a heavy burden. It just got a little much."

"I understand." Faye shook her head. "And if you ever want help figuring out more ways to live with your power, or discovering more about how it actually works... My powers might be suited for that, even if I don't have much control over them."

"Thanks." Corsica stood up, then faced the door. "What next?"

"I suppose we wait out the storm, then take a train to the Crystal Empire," Faye said. "Everything Halcyon told the dragons about the pink flame is true. She's scared of the responsibility she's taken on, and has trouble acknowledging it by talking about it, but it does weigh heavily on her. She... can't ignore it, and that means I can't either."

Corsica raised an eyebrow. "But the flame is now in that Aegis thing, which is bound for the Equestrians for other reasons. And you've given the dragons a decently full report. We could always just... do something else."

"We've still gotta protect Ironridge." Faye shook her head. "And rescue Coda. Don't forget, Ansel is still back there, along with a ton of other ponies. Chrysalis doesn't have to be my problem, but... she's a problem that Halcyon has chosen to make her own."

"Gotcha," Corsica sighed. "Seems like an awful big problem to tackle for someone who can't even spill a secret she's bad at keeping to her best friend, but whatever. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess. And worst comes to worst, you'll have me around to blow out my mental stability ensuring you once again don't die."

"Have you got any leads whatsoever on how to not do that?" Faye pressed. "Some way to make living with your talent more manageable, or... anything?"

Corsica shrugged. "One or two. Starlight supposedly knows a thing about it. According to Valey, she used to have this exact same talent when she was a pre-teen. If I'm this badly off, I doubt someone who was a little kid at the time fared any better, but she might have insight about how to get rid of it and still live with herself after losing the power. Also, Coda thought she could use her changeling queen powers to influence this somehow... but that felt all kinds of gross, so don't even think about trying the same thing without a long and rigorous study."

"Right." Faye nodded. "Starlight. We need her to save Coda, too... unless I can master my own powers well enough to split the burden of sealing all those windigoes, so that it's not too much for either of us to bear. But I don't think we're learning that in time to confidently apply it without a tutor, and I have no idea where we could find a friendly changeling queen."

"Guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Corsica said. "Oh, by the way... if I'm going to be spending more time with you, instead of the other you, is there anything different I should call you, or think of you as?"

Faye hesitated. "...Faye."

Corsica blinked, the gears in her head visibly turning. "Oh," she eventually said. "That makes... so much sense, now..."





I felt slightly disoriented after coming to, aware that I had missed out on something and completely in the dark about what it was. By the change in Corsica's demeanor, however, it had been big.

If you're jealous, Faye said in my head, there's a simple fix: talking to her yourself. She wants to listen. Just... whenever you're ready.

I swallowed. The tension of that moment had clearly passed, but...

Better not to dwell on it. Take the peace when it came, and figure out what to do later.

"Hey," Corsica said, strolling out into the hall and spotting our guard lounging against a wall in an intersection three doors away.

The guard saluted. "That was quick. Bored already?"

"If we're going to be getting a move on, you know where the rest of our friends are?" Corsica asked. "Nehaley, Leitmotif and Braen? And Papyrus too, I guess."

The guard frowned. "Well, I know where their accommodations are, but no promises. This way, if you would?"

We trudged through more frosty corridors, the blizzard outside still barreling through at full force. And, soon enough, we came to the block of rooms where we had been put up for our first night.

The guard knocked on Mother's door.

"I'm home," Mother's voice sighed from within.

The door opened, revealing her and Leitmotif in a room that thankfully didn't have a window. The two were sitting at a table, drinking tea and hunched over a large spread of papers that Leif quickly swept off the table and stuffed into her satchel. The guard bowed and backed off, leaving the four of us alone.

"Hey," Leif greeted. "There's been quite the ruckus around here today. Either of you involved?"

Corsica nodded. "You could say that."

"Is Braen here?" I asked. "We could... do with a team meeting."

Leif shook her head. "She left early this morning. Said something about Freedom Town. Doubt she'll be back until this weather clears up... though knowing her, she might not even notice the cold."

Huh. Maybe she had gone back to the bar to chat with our friends from last night?

"Anyway," Leif said, patting the satchel. "I've been doing some investigating as pertains to our mission. Chrysalis has had a high profile in Equestria over the last few years, and the residents are talkative. They had a lot to say."

I blinked, remembering that we were also trying to stop Chrysalis in addition to getting the pink flame to safety and now whatever I had gotten myself into with Aegis and Duma and Yelvey. When had I sighed myself up for so much...?

"Since we're currently almost certain Chrysalis is in the Yakyakistani capitol, your ether crystal fault plane research will be," Leif went on, "though I'd still like to continue that avenue of pursuit because if that was somehow a false alarm and we tagged along with a military campaign against Yakyakistan for nothing, it would be a huge waste of time and resources. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we're lucky enough to have an access point to the bottom of the world here in Snowport, and I haven't had a lot of luck coaxing credible legends of incredibly deep, nearby holes out of the townsfolk. But I think our next best move is a trip to the Crystal Empire. From everything I've heard about it, it's probably connected directly to the ether river. You two are the experts, but if I were you, I'd be drooling over the chance to press your studies and theories there."

I glanced at Corsica. She looked at me.

Leif gave both of us a look. "You do remember the reason I joined up, right? You're not getting too distracted with all these other fun adventures while there's still work to be done?"

"All of our lab equipment is back on the ship in the mountains," Corsica pointed out. "Anyway, why did you join up? I wasn't paying much attention when Hallie was passing out writs."

Leif sighed. "I'm helping Halcyon with research the two of you were involved in that targets ether crystal fault planes because I believe their formation can be used as a method of tracking Chrysalis. After you rescued me from Lilith's school, I sighed on. Remember?"

"Sorry," I apologized. "It's been... a busy month. I do still want to do that, though."

Corsica smugly grinned. "I'm starting to see the drawbacks of keeping the details of our mission too close to your chest."

"Yeah, yeah," I groaned, "point taken..."

"Mission creep is dangerous," Leif said. "I don't know what context I'm missing, here, but something tells me you're taking on too many conflicting goals at once, are having trouble balancing them, and just got a stern talking-to?"

I winced. Saying I don't remember here would be the kind of thing Papyrus would do, but in this case, it was true...

"Not really, but close enough," Corsica answered for me. "That's why we need to have a team meeting, though. Luckily for you, the Crystal Empire is decently high on our priority list, but I think it's high time everyone came together and formally put all their reasons for being here on one table at the same time and in the same place."

"What's this about tables?" a voice said from the door.

It was Papyrus, accompanied by Braen, both of whom were caked in snow.

Leif greeted them with a salute I didn't recognize.

"There's an excellent joke to be made here, and all the wrong ponies to make it to," Papyrus sighed. "Anyway, I've just rescued my adorable charge here from an inquisitory tribunal related to her meeting last night with a certain centaur, which for the record she was enjoying far too much. Is everyone seriously all in the same place at the same time? Wow, fancy that. Maybe I should leave again so it doesn't get too productive in here?"

"Nope," Corsica said, closing the door behind him, "everyone stays. We've got a long overdue conversation to have about what everyone's here for, how we're operating, and how we pretend to be a somewhat functional team."