“When I said we would get to the matter later, I did not mean ‘five minutes from now.’”
“You should’a been more specific, then, moonbutt.”
Luna glared at me, making her opinion on that nickname quite clear.
“We have less than two and a half hours until the trial resumes for the day. As before, I am approving of your suggestion of taking that time for ourselves. Since you decided that resting was out, the least we can do is focus on our studies into the arcane.”
I shook my head, “After what happened? Our people are at each other’s throats when we need to be working together, Luna!”
“And our Captains are working on de-escalating the situation, investigating, and will prepare a briefing for us. Furthermore, my sister is there to supervise. This will develop into countless headaches before the day is out, Phasma. You must learn to reclaim minutes of your life where you can.”
I gritted my teeth, “I can’t just… You said it, Luna. Division-P could be here, within our walls!”
“That has always been the case. Do you not recall the thievery of artifacts? The shakedown of the Royal Guard following Chrysalis’s defeat? There have always been traitors wearing helms of gold. This changes nothing. We do not even know what started the fight, dear.” Luna levitated over our soulmancy journal, shoving it into my hooves, “The soul sight spell is ready for testing. Prepare to cast it.”
I lowered the book to the table, “Assassins in our ranks–”
“The way forward is not jumping at every shadow. Look, Phasma, I understand your fears. They are real, but you mustn't let them control you.”
“I’m not– Luna, I can’t just bounce around like you do. You’re so quick to move on, to switch emotions, to just hop forward. I’m still thinking about the Royal Guards around us potentially wanting to kill me, all those thoughts that won’t let me just sit down and relax, and your panic attack at the thought of being alone. I can’t really let go of things. It feels like so much happens so quickly, and– and I never even got to say goodbye. Not last time, and not before Lantern Night. If I… If I had died again, I would have died alone, in the cold and the dark. Again.”
Luna remained silent, her gaze settling on the table between us.
“I can’t just bounce back like you do,” I repeated. “I don’t know how you do it– if you’re repressing how you feel, then you’re doing that better than Celestia can. I’m not you, Luna.”
The corner of her mouth raised into a smile, “Thank Faust for that. Two of me would be too much for anypony to handle. Though I suppose with your abilities, there is potential for a prank…”
A shiver went up my spine, “Not transforming into the opposite gender. Nuh uh.”
She raised her head, sniffled, and rubbed her eyes, “I’m sorry, Phasma. I am not repressing anything, I promise. I’ve just had plenty of time to linger. Time enough for the rest of my days to be spent galloping. I do not know what to do to take away your pain, but I will keep trying.” She rose from her seat, slowly walked around the table, and sat down next to me, wrapping me with her wings. “I keep moving forward because I do not want to dare look back. I find that therapy helps. I find that lingering brings nothing but pain. I find that company keeps the silence at bay. I am just doing the only things I know to try to help you.”
“Right. Well. I will try the therapy thing again, even if it is a waste of time,” I said, pulling her wings closer around me like a blanket. “As for the whole company thing, I do love spending time with you. But too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, Luna. I… I really think I need to visit Nisir. And I hate Chrysalis’s stupid smug face and don’t want to see it.”
“If you feel so strongly pulled to that cold waste, I will speak to my sister. Perhaps she can find a way to excuse us both for just a weekend. Or, more likely, yoke us into doing stately tasks on our way north and back.” She rested her chin on my shoulder, “Now. The spell?”
Lifting the tome up, I read through Luna’s latest work. The tweaks she had made on our latest experiment looked fine to my inexperienced eye. I steadied my breathing, pushed away thoughts of ambushes, and focused on the spell.
“If your spell melts my horn, then you’re buying me a new one.”
Luna scoffed, “You are involved enough in this spell’s creation to absolve me of blame. It is not going to melt your horn, love. If anything, it will detonate it.”
The spell was a wide area of effect vision spell, casting a bubble around the viewer and gathering energy around designated hot spots. These spots would be visible to the caster, glowing through any object between their eyes and the chosen points. Of course, being soulmancy, these hot spots were souls.
Gathering the necessary energy and casting the spell, I was flash-banged by a bright orange light. Blinking away spots, I turned to look at Luna. Centered within her chest was a dark blue star, wisps of energy acting from its fiery form and whipping across her body.
“Did it work?” She asked.
“Close result, yes.”
“What about further?”
I turned away from her and looked towards the doors to the workshop. Beyond, smaller, distant suns burned with hot, magical energy. Four brightly colored spheres turned in place, lashes of energy reaching out within the body of a pony each. Beside them, four smaller suns spun even faster, and each shot out energy at a much faster rate. Mana arced from these smaller suns like the energy inside a plasma lamp, the tendrils bending and almost audibly crackling with power as they reached out to touch different points in each person’s body.
Blinking in surprise, I craned my neck down and looked at my own chest. I could see the energy behind my chitin, pulsing electric currents of mana glowing as bright orange as the burning sun within me. Even within God-Splitter, the remaining half of Princess Procho’s soul matched these characteristics.
“Test success,” I said, wonder stealing the volume from my voice and leaving me whispering. “Test success! Luna, you have to see this!”
“Now I simply must!” Luna grinned as she looked over the written form of the spell.
I let the energy drain from my horn and the magical light show faded in an instant. When Luna nodded, closed her eyes, and began casting the spell herself, I quickly flipped the grimoire to a new page and started jotting down our findings.
“That is… mesmerizing,” Luna breathed, joy filling her tone as much as it filled the air around her. “Wait, there are two kinds of–”
“Yep!”
“–Phasma! There are tangible differences between species!”
“Yep!”
“What could– what are those emanations of energy originating from changeling souls?”
“Magic, I would assume,” I offered, still writing down everything in detail.
“Magic?” She parroted. “Are you certain? What makes you think that? This could be anything, Phasma!”
“Changelings are creatures of magic,” I explained. “We eat magic. We practically breathe magic. We most certainly use magic throughout our entire bodies. It makes sense that those tendrils of color are the magic coursing through our bodies.”
“We should put that to the test!” Luna declared, smile widening.
Quickly, I jotted down another hypothesis, “Alright. Here’s a hypothesis for that: if I put on a disguise, then you’ll tell me how smart and handsome I am for figuring it out before you did.”
“You do not get rewarded for making educated guesses, my paramour,” Luna scoffed. “However, I can tell you for free that you are charming, handsome, and sometimes halfway to being clever.”
“I’ll take it,” I said quickly, setting down the oh-so-flammable book and stepping off the chair to adapt a disguise. “Get a good look at me casting a spell, too, Luna. That way I can rub your face in it twice.”
She clapped her hooves in excitement, “Our original spell was nowhere near this level of sensitivity, I cannot wait to see what casting a spell will do to a soul! I am ready when you are!”
With a smile and a wink, I pulled upon the Thread of Change, letting my mana flow into it. Tongues of orange fire sprung into existence, wrapping around me. The world grew in size as I shrunk down to the size of a unicorn. A taller than average unicorn– a more handsome than average unicorn.
When Luna saw Expected Value burn into being before her eyes, she gasped and clapped her hooves.
“Ha- hazah! You were right, Phasma! You must be the luckiest stallion in the world, you were right!”
“Luck had nothing to do with it,” I said, dispelling the disguise. “I’m just that smart. I know things. People pay me to know things, you know?”
“Luck! A very educated guess at best, but yes, you were right! Verifiable results– oh. Wait. What is that…. ”
I frowned, shifting uncomfortably on my hooves, “That's not something I want to hear while you're looking at my soul, Luna. What is it?”
She leaned closer to me, inching closer and closer till her nose bumped into my chest. This came as a surprise to her, as she startled backwards, blinking away the spell.
“Apologies! I saw something most curious and wanted to get a closer look. It seems there is more activity than what might be initially gleaned. Ah, there is more work to do, Phasma! We must increase the power and sensitivity to the- write this down,” she directed me, pointing at the grimoire. Quickly, I did as I was told as she continued, “There are faint ripples around you that I can see. It does not seem to be present for the other changelings, but obviously we will need to pull one of them in here to confirm that. It resembles heat distortion on a dry, hot summer day… Pulses outward from your core, going Faust knows where…”
I tapped the page with a quill as Luna trailed off, “Weaker magic? Or some other kind of energy picked up by our detection spell? Or maybe some known phenomenon that we don't know about? We should bring these findings to Celestia, Twilight, or whatever.”
Luna nodded, “I shall bring our findings to my sister tonight, if only because she is excited to hear what new discoveries we are making.” She looked over my shoulder and pulled on a rope by the door, “Let us summon one of your drones and we can confirm a theory I have.”
The excitement of the moment cooled away, lowering my mind back into the currents of thoughts from earlier today. I bit my lip and looked away, a gesture that did not escape Luna's notice.
“Hmm? Out with it, changeling.”
“It's just… I want you to reconsider the idea of going to Nisir.”
Luna groaned, “Again? We have discussed this, Phasma. Neither of us can spare the time. Truly, is visiting the city that important? What urgent matter requires your physical presence? Did you not already assign Prince Pharynx to that frigid ruin?”
I gritted my teeth, “I just need a break from this place. I need a break from her. Every day I spend listening to everything she’s done is another day I spend sitting with anger boiling through my blood. Even if, if, if… if the things she did to my siblings was somehow warranted, everything else just–”
The doors to the workshop ground open and I bit my tongue. A Night Guard strolled in, stopped at the railing and looked down at us.
“Princess?”
Luna directed the drone, “Go fetch one of the changeling guards standing beside the door, please. We have need of their assistance.”
“Yes, Princess,” the armored mare saluted before leaving.
As her hoofsteps echoed away, I let go of a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. I tried to pick the conversation up again but my train of thought faltered. By the time the Night Guard returned, this time with a Red Right Hoof Soldier, I had all but given up on trying to convince Luna.
‘And it’s not like sneaking out is a good idea. I really am stuck here in Canterlot while things develop in Nisir, accelerate in Manehattan, and who-knows-what is going on in the South. Marquess Deep Pockets is up to no good, I’m sure of it. And speaking of people who have promised to make me miserable, where is…’
“Hey, Luna?”
Luna had taken up our grimoire and was writing down her own notes, “I theorize that the faint magical emanations coming from you are your Weave, Phasma. If my theory is sound, then there should be no similar phenomenon with any other changeling.”
“Unless it has to do with the depth of one’s mana well,” I countered.
“... Unless somepony can prove me wrong, I shall declare my theory correct!” She declared, casting the soul detection spell once again. “Hold still, young changeling soldier. When I say so, I will need you to put on a disguise. We are testing a detection spell, you see.”
“Of course, Princess,” the drone nodded.
“Luna,” I tried getting her attention again, “where is Prince Blueblood?”
“Blueblood?” She asked, her tone conveying all the contempt she had for the pony. “Why, I imagine he’s out galavanting and hobnobbing with those with more wealth than sense. Why do you ask?”
“Better to keep your enemies where you can see them.”
She snorted, “He’s well below the standard for an enemy, Phasma. He simply distrusts you with all his being, is all.”
“Uh huh. You don’t see the problem with that?”
Luna leaned in close to the drone, squinting, “You overestimate his capabilities and capacity for action.”
“Last time I underestimated a foe, I was left half-dead, down a leg, in intense pain, and lost beyond hope in the deep woods.” I cleared my throat and pushed down those memories, “I’d just like to keep a tab on what he is up to, is all.”
Luna scoffed again, “Are you not already doing that?”
“... Within reason,” I admitted. “There’s only so much spying we can get away with, Luna, let alone without your official approval.”
She leaned back from the drone, “Feh, nothing so far! My theory grows more sound by the second! Adopt a disguise, my little changeling.”
“Your changeling? My, Luna, I didn’t know we were married already.”
The Princess laughed, “Haha, perhaps we should! I would love nothing more than to elope and leave behind all those benchwarmers and busybodies who would be just as interested in the banquet table as the wedding.”
“You know, I am a Saint of my own religion,” I winked mischievously at her. “I could officiate our own wedding. We could get married somewhere romantic, say…. Shimmervale?”
I sensed a small spike of anger within Luna. Visibly, her hoof stopped writing and she paused in her examinations of the disguised drone.
“... I have told you already, Phasma. No. We cannot go to Nisir, not unless it is a matter of life and death. We must be seen here, presiding over Chrysalis’s trial.”
I crossed my hooves and grumbled angrily to myself– but my professional whinging was interrupted by the drone clearing his throat.
“You wish to go to Nisir, My King?”
“That’s right,” I answered.
He continued, “But you… have to be seen here, in Canterlot?”
“Which would make traveling a quarter of a continent away a bit difficult, yes.”
The drone pawed at the ground, clearly unsure if he should continue.
He did anyways, “What if… you just had two drones disguise as you two while you two left?”
I snorted derisively at the idea, and Luna initially followed suit. However, when she started to rub her chin, smile, and turn to me, I started shaking my head.
“Uh uh! No way, Luna! There’s a hundred and one ways it could go wrong, not to mention the first and most obvious way being the changeling on trial knowing it isn’t me. It’s stupid, it won’t work.”
But Luna just kept smiling.
“This is a terrible idea.”
“So you keep saying,” Luna responded out of the corner of her mouth, keeping her eyes forward.
“What if something goes wrong?” Phasma asked.
Luna risked a glance at her partner, “Then we handle it. We have three armies and two alicorns here in the city.”
“Not for long,” the King pointed out. “The bulk of the forces are moving out of this city this evening and making for the hills for their training exercise. That investigation is also under way, remember? This is a stupid idea, stupidly timed, and stupidly executed.”
“Will you two be silent?!” Celestia hissed. “Some discussion may be permitted, but you are lucky there is a mild sound dampener spell between us and the hundreds of ponies watching us.”
Luna resisted shaking her head in frustration, instead adopting the prim and perfect mannerisms taught to her, “Behave, Phasma, and we both get our reward.”
Her ear twitched at the quiet sound of gagging next to her.
Phasma shook his head, “Eugh! You do that far too easily, you know? Such a lack of decorum had seen a number of drones executed…”
Luna pointed towards Chrysalis, who was watching them out of the corner of her eye as a pony stood behind the witness stand, giving her testimony.
“Which is exactly why we are here, Phasma! Now hush!”
Without warning, a gust of wind brought in a small cloud of dust, condensing down into a letter that floated into Celestia’s waiting hooves. The Princess opened the sealed letter, drawing confused looks from the pair, and rapidly read through its contents.
“This week’s letter seems to have been written by Rainbow Dash,” she said quietly. As she read its contents, she slowly rotated it upside down, then right-side up, then upside down again. “... Reading is… something… everypony can enjoy? Inkwell, would you mind taking a message? I need to tell Twilight to offer hoofwriting classes to her friends.”
Phasma sighed, “... Why is it you are going along with this whole thing, Princess Celestia?”
“Because next week is my turn,” the white alicorn answered. “Now remain silent and look regal, young changeling, unless you want to explain to Phasma when he returns just why our plan was ruined on the very first day.”
I pulled the overcoat tighter around me, buttoning up the collar and pulling my hat down further on my head. Pony fur theoretically should have kept me warm just fine, as Luna and the rest seemed mostly okay in the winter cold, but I kept finding myself shivering. The freezing mountain air just cut straight through my jacket and pony disguise, no matter what I did.
“Bugs aren’t meant to be this far up north,” I lamented.
My marefriend turned away from the edge of the landing strip, “Then why did your ancestors build a city up here?”
I sniffed, getting close to the gray thestral and rubbing against her side, “Because they were stupid. Should’a made their place somewhere warmer. Why couldn’t ancient changeling society have dug their Hive into the pony-Bahamas?”
Luna giggled, “You were in such a rush to get up here, and now once we arrive you immediately start complaining? You are like a cat, Phasma. You want in the room, now you want out of the room, but wait no let me back in…!”
I reached down and held her hoof, “I’ll be a lot happier near a big fire. Come on, let’s get inside.”
I pointed the way forward, and Luna stepped ahead, leading the way into the small tunnel carved into the face of the mountain, away from the small airship we had taken here, and into Nisir. The back of my skull buzzed with the presence of the synthetic Weave, looming over and around me like a shadow.