Prince Mark Wells remained depressed for the remainder of the week but, when the weekend came around, the promise that was made to Steady Flight to be a mare for him was kept. However, the change of form brought with it an abrupt change in emotional viewpoint which hit her hard. She bawled her eyes out for an hour or more while her husband provided unstinting comfort. Nevertheless, this brought the final catharsis that Mark needed and she and Steady spent the remainder of Saturday being quietly intimate.
That evening, the herd dismantled the nest at the foot of their bed that Chrysalis preferred to sleep in. While doing so, they discovered small items of memorabilia that the changeling had incorporated into the nest that highlighted special moments between her and her husband. The mares chose to keep an item each as a keepsake of their lost herdmate.
The following morning, Trixie stood next to the bed, clearing her throat louder and louder. The emotionally exhausted Princess Mark Wells continued to sleep, drooling on Steady Flight’s back.
“Bark Parallels!”
“What? What?” Mark looked around wildly until his eyes settled on her first wife. Steady Flight jolted once then rolled off the bed.
“Ah, are you awake now? Splendid. Hold out your right foreleg, please.” She held out a gold chain with one small rectangular charm attached. Mark saw that a similar chain and charm adorned Trixie’s foreleg. Squinting, he looked closely at the charm.
Mark gasped as he recognized where and when he had seen its like before. “This is the tradition from our first shared dream!”
“Precisely. Trixie’s subconscious mind is as great and brilliant as her waking one. As you observed then, this will ensure that our herdmate will always be with us.”
Silently, Mark held out a shaking foreleg and Trixie’s magic fastened it in place. Trixie pulled Mark into a hug. “As leadmare of our herd, it is my responsibility to ensure she is always remembered, no matter how many centuries we live.”
After they broke apart, Steady Flight shuffled on his hooves. “Trixie? I… I would like one as well.”
The blue mare lifted an eyebrow. “That was not part of our dream.”
Mark poked her flank with a hoof. “Come off that high horse, dear.”
“I should have anticipated each of our herd would want to partake in Trixie’s Great and Powerful genius. Very well. I shall have more created.”
The pegasus stallion nodded his head. “Cool. Until then, let me take a look at yours, Mark. What can you tell me about it?”
As Trixie turned to leave, Mark talked animatedly about how the symbol of the Canterlot Hive came about. Mark’s voice was filled with the vigor Trixie hadn’t heard for nearly a week. Smiling, she entered the hallway and closed the door to the herd’s chambers behind her.
On Sunday, a public commemoration for Queen Chrysalis was held in the castle gardens. The non-changeling portion of the attendees turned out to be far greater than anticipated and included several of the nobles. While most had clashed with her on occasion, many nevertheless respected her. And, to be honest, it was good form to show up for the event. The turnout was a good indication of how much the perception of Chrysalis had turned around in the years that she had spent as a member of the Royal Herd.
Mark insisted that he was ready to resume his Court duties on Monday. This brought up a problem though. He needed a new advisor. Queen Diadem was quick to offer to replace her mother but her father shook his head.
“You still have a lot of work ahead of you with reorganizing the hive, and that’s on top of your mage studies. Your ambition to be one of the top magic users in Equestria should not be put on hold for this. I will find someone suitable; don’t you worry.”
“What about Sybilla?” Diadem suggested.
“Your sister will need to focus on learning hive matters. She’s now heir to the hive throne, after all. And before you suggest Esperanza, she’s too young and inexperienced for the job. However, I might ask Sybilla to head up the hive network to keep the flow of intelligence going, if you feel she’s up to it.”
“She is, Dad – she’s a bit like I was when I came looking to you for direction in life. Also, Sybilla often tagged along when Mom interrogated our agents and maintained her intelligence network. I think she would enjoy the job.”
That still left the role of Advisor open, so Celestia said she would take it up again until a suitable candidate was found. Mark was grateful but wished that Starlight Glimmer was available. He needed someone who was slightly adversarial to his opinions to keep him on the level, and Celestia was just too darn agreeable and diplomatic!
“The Equestrians have canceled further meetings between the changeling, Crisp Berry, and our researchers,” the agent informed his boss.
The Head of Operations slammed his fist on his desk. “Damn it! That cursed assassin has fucked up everything!”
As much as he hated to admit it, the research into the so-called ‘magic’ had been going well. The death of the changeling wife of the prince had changed everything. Security had been beefed up considerably all around, making their job much more difficult. And after the events of that day, it had become imperative that America learn as much as they could about their strange trading partners.
Reviewing the news footage of the events had been eye-opening. Witnessing people trying to maintain their balance after that small winged pony had slammed his hoof down was amazing. How much physical strength was needed to make a mini earthquake was incalculable. But when Prince Wells executed the assassin with a massive lightning bolt, it had left him gaping in stunned disbelief. That a living being could generate lightning at all was incredible, but the sheer magnitude of it was ridiculous! People and animals were killed by lightning all the time, but none of them were left as charred corpses as Fletcher had been. The execution had been massive overkill, but it had shown the world just how dangerously powerful these beings could be. More than ever, they had to find out what made these creatures tick, and how to counter them.
Tonight on Fox News in our series ‘Eyes On Equestria’, we take a hard look at these visitors from another world who claim to champion friendship among species, but callously kill a human without remorse. Have they inadvertently revealed the dark truth about themselves?
Smolder sighed. They were going to have to move up plans for Equestrian tourism to counter the negative press that they were getting from several quarters. Not that it would completely appease conspiracy theorists. And the added security was going to complicate efforts too. Now that one nutcase achieved their goal, others would start trying. Were they going to have to do thorough background checks on everyone who wanted to come to their world? They did that for all the Harmonic Composites employees who had been let into the secret of their link to another universe, but what was done for a mere few was not easily scaled up to hordes of visitors. Somehow, she did not think Princess Twilight would agree to that level of investigation to every new potential friend to the Equians.
Negotiations had been underway for a long time with several nations to place an interdimensional portal in their countries. While this obviously had a lot of advantages, Mark had been greatly reluctant to agree to that for the very reasons that he had decided on Outback Australia in the first place – security and control. The solitary known portal complex allowed access to Equestria only at a single point. Local international portals made it possible to ship quickly between countries. Unfortunately, the latter required mana to operate, and that was an extremely limited resource in that universe. The problem was only solved by linking the local portals to the interdimensional one to channel mana through it. On the surface, it was a good solution but several magic experts were concerned about the drain on Equestrian resources, even if just local to the Equus facility. Not enough time and studies had happened to determine if there were any risks, which made multiple interdimensional portals the safer bet in the short term. However, the assassination had changed everyone’s outlook. Security had become paramount and plans for new portal facilities were shelved for the indefinite future.
It did mean that lobbying for more international portals gained momentum. The need to draw mana from the Alice Springs portal meant that all the local connections would need to travel via there as a hub. The politicians in Canberra rubbed their hands in glee at the thought of all the income they would get from administrating international shipments, let alone the base fee for the use of the portals. Fortunately, Mark and his staff had made plans long ago with this in mind, and it was not long before work began on a huge new sprawling facility that had been designed for the efficient flow of trucks.
Then the coach industry caught on. While private vehicles were generally not permitted, a busload of tourists was an exception. Why spend most of a day flying around the world when you could be at your destination within an hour? The bus operators were practically salivating at the idea of being able to offer that service for a fraction of the price of the airlines. Of course, the latter were in an uproar. Smolder spent some time dealing with the blowback of this massive upheaval, pointing out that it would take years to set up the network, and it would only be serving major destinations. Plenty of time for the companies to pivot their services to the new paradigm.
“Your two o’clock appointment is here, Ma’am,” Smolder’s changeling assistant said over the intercom.
“Send them in, please, Ajax,” she replied. Smolder reviewed the appointment – representatives from some entity named EQCON desiring permission and facilitation of administration for guests from Equestria. Smolder blinked and raised an eye ridge. Whenever Ajax provided such sparse details, he knew that she would be intrigued immediately and ask for relevant information herself. This promised to be interesting.
Her office door opened and three people entered – one female and two males. Smolder got up from her chair and gave them her best closed-mouth smile – no need to intimidate them. She invited them to take a seat before sitting down herself. “Welcome to the Equestrian Embassy. I’m Ambassador Smolder. How may I help you?”
The woman spoke up. “My name is Florence Gatewell; you may call me Flo if you wish. These are Arthur Yee and Johanne Bauer. We are trying to organize a convention that celebrates Equestrian notables, its varied species, their art, and music. We want permission to use aspects of your world and to facilitate obtaining guest speakers and performers. There are a rapidly growing number of humans who are fascinated by your peoples and cultures and we want to bring that to them in a way that won’t step on your toes – or hooves or claws for that matter.”
Ajax had been right. This looked like an excellent opportunity to bring some much-needed positive publicity. Smolder leaned forward over her desk and smiled again, this time showing a tiny amount of fang. “You’ve got my attention – tell me more.”
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