//------------------------------//
// Tanzanite 
// Story: A Song Of Silk And Steel 
// by SilverNotes 
//------------------------------//

Rockville was quiet.

It had always been a quiet sort of place. The ponies there kept to themselves, neighbours greeting each other with polite nods and small hums, with a flicker of a smile reserved for extraordinary times. Each day was much like the last in the dusty little place, and you could have set your clock by some of the townponies' schedules.

Jawbreaker hadn't grown up in Rockville, but she'd still been there more than half her life. She was a candymaker, and she would boast--she was a pony who'd grown up outside, and so she was allowed the eccentricity of desiring to boast--that she was the best candymaker in the history of Rockville. This was true, simply because the category had only ever consisted of the single mare, and was unlikely to rise in number anytime soon. She was the best and only candymaker that Rockville had ever known, because few if any ponies were so adept at their craft that they could cater to the locals' unique palate.

She had not only succeeded, but thrived. Her store would have display cases filled to the brim with every kind of rock candy under the sun. Garnet, beryl, citrine, feldspar, any flavour that the locals could imagine, she could render sugar into the likeness and flavour profile of the rock of their choice. More than one customer had tried to pry the secrets of her process out of her, but she'd always wink, look at her mark, and tell them trade secret.

Now Jawbreaker was in a Canterlot corral, and the drone wearing her face went through the motions of opening the shop. The samples that been out the day the swarm descended on the town still sat in the display case, glittering like real gems in the sunlight, nothing new needing to be added when there hadn't been customers since then. Just ponies to lie in wait for, be they locals venturing out in search of survivors, or wanderers looking for shelter.

Part of the charade was to step out at specific times, strolling through what passed through the town square. She would nod at the others, offer the slightest smile because the pony she was pretending to be was allowed that eccentricity too, and eventually reenter the shop. 

Except at noon, when she would receive the day's update.

Her cohort, wearing the appearance of the local shoemaker, had put in the work to look appropriately scorched from his forge as he approached her. Heart Bar had always been the sort to stoically ignore a few burns in the course of his work. They nodded to one another, and rather than continue on, she turned to take a place at his side and chat a while. "So, what's the word?"

"There isn't one." He moved beyond the flatly stoic impression he was supposed to maintain and went in the direction of a proper frown. "We should have heard from the scouts two hours ago, and there hasn't been a peep."

"Do you think they ran into something they couldn't handle?" The question was out before she stop it, and she suffered the incredulous look.

"What, you think our scouts got beaten up by some big, scary ponies?" Her snorted and tossed his mane. Or would have, if his current disguise had had more than a buzzcut. "I'm not worried about them, I'm annoyed. My bet is that they jumped some travelers themselves and they're in a love coma from the gorging." He snorted again and ground his teeth. "Even though they're supposed to let them pass and let us round them up."

"Hey, cut them some slack." She nudged his shoulder with her own. "They're probably hungry stuck out there. If they can top up, let them."

He rolled his eyes. "If Vixen were here, she'd kick them up and down the railroad for compromising the flow of information."

"Then good thing she's not, huh?" She giggled. "She'd fry in the heat out here, anyway, loaded down in all that armour. I don't know why the higher-ups even wear it when we're up against a bunch of soft-flesh prey."

"It's intimidation. At a distance it's hard for them to tell we're covered in chitin, but wearing something overtop makes it easier to tell how tough we are."

"So dumb posturing to make the food even more scared. Gotcha."

"You really have a death wish, don't you?"

"Hey, like I said, she's not here." She traded the shoulder bump for a hip bump this time. "This post is already boring. One of the only perks is not having authority breathing down our necks."

He froze in place. "Do me a favour and shut up."

"You really are no--"

"Not that, just shut up and look."

She followed his gaze, and she froze as well, both drones staring at the three new ponies strolling into town.

One almost looked like he belonged there. Almost. The towering earth pony stallion was far too vibrant a red to be from this dull little town, and while she couldn't get a glimpse of his flank from here, she would bet just from that hue alone that it would be some kind of produce. Maybe a tomato, or a chili pepper. The other two, however, stood out starkly, and because of that, she felt that it was still in cover to stare. There were no pegasi in Rockville--what were they going to use their weather powers to help water, the latest crop of quartz crystals?--and no unicorns either.

However, the unicorn she could catch a glimpse of the mark of, and the diamonds made her wonder. Somepony who regularly purchased the town's exports, perhaps? It would certainly explain why she was waltzing in like she owned the place, the other two trailing behind.

"Well then." She smiled at her companion. "It looks like we've got some visitors to give a Rockville welcome, don't we?" She gave him a bump. "Come on. We'll explain our closeness as you starting to court me."

As he followed behind her, she pretended not hear his mutter of, "You wish."





Careful.

As Rarity walked into Rockville, she reminded herself that the intel they had was unreliable. The scouts they'd subdued had incentive to answer the questions, but not necessarily accurately. Every word would need to verified, which meant keeping up the charade that they had no suspicions about the place they were walking into. However, as they made their way up the main--not to mention only-- road in the town, she had no problem believing that the place was compromised by changelings.

The ponies out were too calm, milling about and talking to each other. Or at least they had been before spotting the trio. The stares were surprised, sometimes alarmed, but there was none of the skittish paranoia that should have been there. Nopony was fleeing and hiding. Nopony was coming up to try to accost them and accuse them of being changelings. It was like the overly-friendly scout on the road, only magnified; creatures acting too normal for the state of Equestria.

Spot the spies by the ones who could keep acting like there was nothing wrong, no matter the truth of the matter, because deceptive normalcy was what they were trained for.

Had there not been those scouts on the road, however, there was a chance that it could have worked. The town was isolated, and there was the smallest chance of that isolation being so complete that they had yet to realize anything had happened. However, the probability of that had been going down as time wore on, the efforts to round up all stragglers growing more intense.

Hopefully the homesteaders were still holding their own, and it was only the main town taken. She hadn't trusted the scouts to feed them any accurate information about that part, especially.

Two started their approach, and Rarity stopped, Fluttershy and Big Macintosh halting soon after, and she examined the two. Both appeared to be earth ponies--all of them did, which made sense in a rock farmer town--and sturdily built. The mare was a dusty rose colour with a slate grey mane, her mark some kind of black orb covered in red dots like an unusually spherical hunk of heliotrope. The other was sandy brown with a steel-coloured mane, what of it was left from the extremely short cut of it, and had a mark of a metal shoe within a stylized blue-grey heart. The mare was smiling, while the stallion looked decidedly sullen.

Rarity and Fluttershy's gemstones flickered, and both briefly shut their eyes against the power.

Not now.

It was hard to suppress. They had to know it was coming to have a chance, and it wasn't a casual act of will to make Harmony bide its time, but they managed it, and Rarity placed her own smile on her snout as she stepped forward to greet the false locals.

The mare spoke up first, "Well hello! Welcome to our sleepy little town. We haven't had new faces out this way in a while."

That seemed to confirm it, that they were going for the angle of acting as if Rockville had simply been cut off so severely that they didn't know about the invasion at all. She imagined what they were expecting, and could picture it perfectly. Three frightened ponies babbling about changelings and trying to beg the townsfolk for help, and mare would pretend to act concerned. She would lure them into the home of the pony she'd replaced, offering to let them wash up, or to get them some tea, under the pretense of listening to their story.

And then the others would strike.

Rarity could see the script, and so she made her first move tossing aside her lines entirely. "Oh? That's a shame. This is a lovely little township." Her smile widened ever so slightly. "But I'm sure you're tired of hearing that from me every time I come to visit, darling."

Ears went up. Eyes widened. Rarity watched the frantic gears turning of a spy who had just encountered somepony who supposedly knew their cover but they had no intel on. Then the expression melted into another smile. "Don't be silly, I'd never get tired of hearing compliments about home." She waved a hoof in the air as if to shoo away the thought. "Now, what brings you?"

"Oh, the same as always," Rarity said casually. "Checking up on one of my business partners. Igneous Pie has been working on some lovely geodes for me."

Gears were still turning. She wasn't entirely sure one hadn't already slipped out of alignment. The stallion-presenting drone opened his mouth to say something, but the mare-presenting one cut him off. "Good ol' Igneous! We're a little concerned about him ourselves. He normally comes by to buy candy for his daughters and I haven't heard a peep from him on that farm."

The gem flickered again. Rarity did her best to force the power down. "Oh dear, well, all the better that I've arrived to check on him." She turned slightly, taking a step in the general direction that Big Mac had indicated the farm would be. "I'll be sure to let you know how he's doing."

"Wait!" Rarity paused, looking at the mare-drone. "Maybe we should go with you."

She forced a titter. "If you're worried about my getting lost, I assure you that I haven't since the first time--"

"No no, it's just.." It was like watching a pony trying to get a jawgrip on a cascade of falling straws. "He really hasn't been to town in a while, and Bar and I have been very worried." She glanced at the stallion, who wasn't hiding the lack of patience well. "It'd be nice to see for ourselves that he's okay."

Rarity considered the revised script in front of her, and the part that she would be expected to play.

She smiled with what a pony would consider too many teeth. The changelings didn't seem to notice.

"Well, if you insist..."





"So does your dad ever like... smile?"

The clouds above the rock farm needed touch-ups, and Rainbow Dash was the best mare for the job. Anypony pointing that she was also the only mare who could take on the job was arguing meaningless details. She needed to maintain the exact thickness and magic level, or it wouldn't do what they needed to when the swarm came down on their heads. She preferred being out and doing something to being in the farmhouse, so she had no complaints.

The only one out of the family who would come out just to talk was Pinkie. Rainbow had a feeling that the rest of them didn't like her very much, even after she'd proved that she wasn't a changeling. She was something new in their quiet little monotony and that wasn't sitting right with them, which in turn, didn't sit right with her. Ponies should have loved to have a little more awesome in their lives.

Pinkie, at least, seemed to get it, and at the question, started to giggle. "Of course he has, Dashie! He's smiling in his wedding pictures, and the picture he has holding each of us as foals, and he smiled when all of us got our cutie marks!"

Finished with her tune-up of the trap, Rainbow swooped down, stopping just short of landing to hover a hoof-width above the ground. "And that's... seriously the only times?"

Pinkie nodded. "Pies only smile on special occasions."

"So... what's that make you?"

Pinkie's smiled widened into a grin. "Somepony who wants to make every day special!"

"Now you're speaking my language. Every day should be awesome!" She chuckled. "I guess I'm just not used to ponies like your family. My Mom and Dad were always celebrating every little thing. Got... kind of annoying, really."

Pinkie tilted her head slightly. "Annoying? Why?"

"Well it's... I dunno..." Her hooves finally met the ground again, mostly so that she could kick a nearby stone. She hoped that wasn't yet another offense worthy of Limestone snarling at her. "They hyped up every single thing I did, so I never knew if I was actually doing anything special. I didn't know what needed improving, or what to do to improve. And if I'm gonna be one of the best fliers that ever lived, I've gotta know what needs training, right? It was frustrating."

The words seemed to be sinking in, and when she spoke again, her voice was more subdued. "So... if I make every day a party, ponies aren't going to know when it's an extra special occasion?"

"Ehhh..." Rainbow raised a hoof and nudged Pinkie's shoulder. "I think you're good. There's a difference between giving every day a smile and what they were doing." Her ears drooped with a sigh. "And as mad as I got at them sometimes, I'd give a lot to see them right now and know they're okay."

Pinkie's ears drooped too, and Rainbow's only warning before she was yanked into a hug by deceptively strong front legs was the sniffle. "I'm so sorry Dashie. We'll do something to get them back, I pro-o-mise."

Rainbow closed her eyes, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes as she moved to hug her back. "Thanks Pinkie. You're a good friend."

A small gasp, and another sniffle. "We're friends?"

"'Course."

Hope crept into the watery voice. "Best friends?"

She chuckled. "Tell you what. If we last out here, and we do get my parents back? We'll be best friends forever. Promise."

Pinkie hugged her tighter, and the sobs got even louder. Rainbow's own tears continued to fall, much more silently, and she made no move to let go. Both mares were splotches of wild, bright colour against a dull, dark background shielded from the sun, standing out starkly in their own ways.

Rainbow had assumed that the rest of the family didn't like her. She didn't know--and wouldn't for a long time--what they said when she wasn't present. That she was what they called a gemstone, a bright pony who'd appeared among the duller stone-aligned ponies around her. That arrival could be a birth, like Pinkie, or from circumstance, like Rainbow, but the message of one's arrival was always the same.

Times would be interesting so long as they glittered among the rocks, but they would also bring gifts to the community that no other could.

The Pie family had treasured their little pink gemstone, and now she had found another to befriend.

They were happy for her.

And that's why they would have left them outdoors to hug, had Maud not needed to come and call them indoors.

Because there was only one single road to the farm, and there were ponies on it.





A unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony walked along the old road, with two more earth ponies behind them. That was what it would look like to any observers, until it didn't.

Suppressing was getting harder. No matter her feelings toward the tree that had gifted it, the gem sensed the malevolent intent of the two drones trailing in their wake, and wanted to protect its wielder. It was taking more and more effort to push it back, and Rarity saw Fluttershy nearly trip over her own hooves as she stopped and shivered from the effort of keeping her own necklace from going on the attack.

They couldn't risk the whole town seeing the light show, or hearing the combat that ensued. They'd taken care of the scouting party, but there were numbers that would be beyond their ability to fight, and just the ones she'd been able to count when walking down the street had been too many.

They needed to wait. They needed to strike at just the right moment, hopefully a few moments before the two decided to mount their own assault. 

And pray to Celestia that Big Mac's kin were really still here to find.