Gdocs Version
Marks of Harmony
Part 10
Applejack carefully scrutinized the bizarre harness now resting on a chair rather than around Inky Jay’s chest. That infamous pegasus was behind her, being bound and gagged expertly by Twilight and Rarity. Rainbow Dash was outside, keeping watch from the sky; Pinkie Pie guarding their captive with a raptor’s gaze. Fluttershy stood next to Applejack, supposed to be helping, but she had not yet offered any words on her opinion of the harness. Applejack understood next to nothing of the contraption’s launching mechanism and had thus focused her attention on how the entire ensemble fit together on a pony’s body.
Applejack could see it fit much like any normal harness, and was just about to tell Twilight she could see nothing special or suspicious on it, when Fluttershy gently asked, “Do you... do you mind if I try something?”
“Sure,” Applejack replied, stepping to the side to give Fluttershy more room. “I ain’t seein’ nothin’ on it that’d be strange or nothin’. I’m more interested in wha’ this here pegasus’s got to say for himself.” With this, she looked coldly upon Inky, whose blank eyes had not shifted past looking more than irritated. When Applejack turned her attention back to Fluttershy and the harness, her friend was moving the jointed ‘arms’ that had been attached to Inky’s forelegs via cuffs. She was incredibly purposeful in every movement, and Applejack could eventually see she was mimicking a walk cycle. Without any warning, Fluttershy yanked back on both ‘arms’ resulting a quick snap as springs released the launching mechanism.
“Oh, that’s very clever,” Fluttershy said—more to herself than anypony else—as all of her present friends turned at the sound.
“Are we safe?” Twilight asked Applejack and Fluttershy.
“Well seein’ as you din’t find any magic innit,” Applejack replied, “and I don’t see nothin’ that looks outa place... I’d say we’re good. Fluttershy?”
“I can’t find anything,” Fluttershy answered, “though I could be wrong.”
“You figured out how it works dear,” Rarity complimented her, “so I think if anything seemed out of place you would have seen it.”
“Oh thank you,” Fluttershy said, her abashed nature taking hold, “but I only knew because Rainbow Dash told me what he did right before the explosives were launched.”
“I think we can safely call in Rainbow Dash, Twilight,” Rarity said.
“Spike!” Twilight called, followed by the quick appearance of her assistant on the interior balcony. “Get Rainbow, we’re ready.” He nodded solemnly, still not quite yet recovered from nearly being incinerated and crushed. In the small interim, Twilight and her other friends gathered around Inky, who stalwartly refused to look any direction but straight ahead. “Listen up,” Twilight said forcefully to him. “There’s a lot that Aurora’s not telling us, and after what you just did in that shop, I’m demanding answers. Now, you and I both know that I can’t keep you here forever. All the same, you’re going to answer our questions. And you’re going to tell us the truth. Got it?” She stared purposefully into Inky’s set pupils, giving him no choice but to look at her. He gave no indication that he had heard except to dart his eyes down to his gag significantly.
“You’d better not scream,” Pinkie warned him seriously, receiving only an exaggerated roll of the eyes for a response. With Rainbow Dash and Spike’s return to the library’s main floor, Twilight magically undid the gag, eliciting a fresh intake of air from Inky.
“Was all of this really necessary?” were the first words to come from him, scratchy and perpetually condescending as ever. “Chasing down a stallion and dragging him from the air doesn’t exactly endear you to him.” He pointedly looked to Rainbow Dash, who only glared back.
“From what Twilight says,” Applejack drew his attention, “ya wouldn’ ‘ave taken us seriously if we hadn’ went an’ done all this.”
“And who is to say that still won’t be the case,” Inky replied sharply. “All I see is a group of mares desperate to avert change that is historically inevitable.”
“Don’t play around,” Rainbow shot back. “Twilight got a bad vibe from Aurora from the beginning, and I... we know that she has Changelings on board that ship!”
“So a single mare has the wrong hairs stand up on the back of her mane and all of her friends think that is legitimate reason to pursue a stallion for interrogation?” Inky said deridingly.
“Ooh you are good,” Rarity said, frustrated and impressed at the same time. “Do not think you are in control of this conversation mister. Twilight was not the only reason. As Rainbow Dash said, we know there are Changelings with her.”
“And so what if there are?” Inky fought. “Equality is not just for ponies, but for all sentient life. Changelings included.”
“Nice try,” Rainbow said, “but we were there when the Changeling’s attacked Canterlot. We know what kind of brutes they are.”
“What does Aurora really want?” Twilight cut in flatly. “The point isn’t why I had a bad feeling or why she has Changelings with her—”
“Wait, it’s not?” Rainbow asked, confused.
“No, Rainbow, it just means she isn’t telling us the whole truth and that she has things she doesn’t want us to know. What does she have planned?”
“I haven’t the slightest clue,” Inky replied. “Do you really think she would tell me everything?”
“You have to know something,” Rarity said, disbelieving the pegasus’s claim.
“Stop playing games!” Rainbow yelled, angrily hovering in his face. “Answer Twilight’s question, or by Celestia’s mane I’ll beat that scratch out of your voice!”
“You were the one,” Inky answered, smirking realization in his voice. “Aurora guessed correctly. You killed the Changeling.” Each of the friends in the room said nothing, letting awkward silence reign. “You should be thanking me,” Inky said to Rainbow, as if there had never been a pause. “I saved your life back in that little shop.”
“Now, we’re gettin’ somewhere,” Applejack was the first to recover. “If ya can’t tell us nothin’ ‘bout Aurora, how ya come ‘bout thinkin’ ya saved Rainbow’s here life by blowin’ up a business? An’ whydya save ‘er in the first place?”
“The more important question Applejack,” Rarity corrected, before being interrupted by Pinkie Pie.
“Why were you being so mean to the bagel pegasus? He didn’t do anything wrong,” she asked.
“Correct, he was innocent and I knew that full well,” Inky replied without a hint of remorse. “But my colleague did not, and that was exactly the point.”
“Who was she?” Twilight asked stonily. “Was she a Changeling?”
“Now you begin to catch on, if a little late,” Inky said to her. “Changelings are a tight knit group of creatures that do not suffer the death of one of their own lightly. Recompense was demanded, but Aurora could not reveal the true nature of her suspect, for reasons she did not tell me. I was tasked in keeping the Changeling away from discovering your true roles in the creature’s death, by any means necessary. With your untimely and ludicrously confident arrival, I had little choice but to offer up my best distraction.”
“And you fancied that killing poor Thunderlane was worth it?” Rarity asked, disgusted.
“How many times will I have to repeat myself?” Inky asked impatiently. “He will not have died. Neither will the Changeling, unfortunately. They will have teleported out before being destroyed, just as I knew Twilight and the dragon would be able to. The pegasus will have been taken with the Changeling for continued interrogation until it is satisfied of his innocence.”
“That’s one hay of a stretch,” Applejack said skeptically.
“Is it?” Inky asked. “Your dragon and unicorn friend are standing safely next to you.”
“So you may have explained away blowing up a whole shop,” Twilight said, still cold, “but you haven’t proved to me that you don’t know anything else about Aurora’s plans.”
“Difficult prick to please aren’t you?” Inky said.
“She can be a might bit annoyin’ at times,” Applejack said, smiling sheepishly at Twilight, “but she ain’t a prick. An’ Twilight, he’s tellin’ the truth. We ain’t the only ones she’s hidin’ stuff from.”
“I don’t know AJ,” Pinkie said, leery. “My Pinkie Sense says he isn’t telling us the whole truth.”
“Of course I’m not telling you rabble the whole truth,” Inky scoffed. “She has things she will tell you in time. I know about them, but it is not my place to say anything.”
“We ain’t gettin’ no more outa him Twi,” Applejack said. “And no Rainbow Dash, beatin’ him up wouldn’ get us anywhere, even if he does deserve it.”
“I suggest you let me go soon,” Inky added. “My Lady will not have cared about what I have told you, nor that you have taken me captive. In fact, she will consider it a job well done now that you are all warned of your danger. You need not worry about retribution from her.”
“As horribly unjust as it is,” Rarity said, “I do not see that we have another choice.”
“Untie him then,” Twilight sighed. “But!” she regained her vigor as Rarity undid the bonds, “you must carry a message to Aurora from me. I want to meet with her as soon as possible.”
“Of course,” Inky replied. “As much as you refuse to see it, she wants the ponies on her side.”
“We see it alright,” Pinkie replied, defiant. “But she doesn’t care about our smiles and how we are. Not like Princess Celestia.”
“And you would know exactly how a Princess millennia old feels,” Inky said sharply as he strode between the gathered friends to the door. “Watch yourselves. Changeling vengeance doesn’t die with a simple setback.” With a quick glance at the sky directly above the library before, Inky zipped into the air, angling for the House of a Thousand Fangs.
“ARGHH!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed once he had gone. “That was helpful,” she said sarcastically. Mimicking Inky’s voice rather well, she continued, “I can’t tell you anything important, except, oh yeah, that’s right, there’s a Changeling on the revenge path trying to kill you.”
“Even if he thinks he didn’t,” Twilight admonished her friend mildly. “He did tell me something other than that.”
“I didn’ get anything out o’ him,” Applejack replied, perplexed.
“Me neither,” Spike added, relief clear in his voice. “He’s worse than... he’s just worse.”
“True dat,” Rainbow agreed with Spike.
“I see what you are saying dear,” Rarity answered Twilight.
“Even if we don’t know what they are exactly, Aurora has plans for us,” Twilight elaborated. “Which means that she somehow knows that we bear the Elements of Harmony. She won’t be able to dodge so direct a question.”
“Unless she blasts you to pieces with an explosive for asking,” Rainbow Dash said cynically.
“Nah,” Pinkie reassured her, “Twilight’s too good at magic for that to happen.”
“Rainbow’s got a point though,” Applejack said. “Whatever you do, watch yerself ‘round her. She didn’ have any problems with lettin’ Inky blow stuff up and lettin’ a pony be tortured, so who knows what’d she do personally.”
“Point taken,” Twilight nodded. “But before we do anything else, we need to try to find Thunderlane. Can I trust you to find him Fluttershy?”
“Why me?” Fluttershy asked timidly, trying to appear as small as possible.
“Well, your animal friends that are still inside the bubble can help, and the Changeling will probably be looking for just me and Rainbow Dash now. You should be safe.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to leave poor Thunderlane all alone if he’s hurt...” Fluttershy thought aloud. “I’ll do it.”
“Good,” Twilight said, then turning to her other friends, she added, “Now that we know we’re all being hunted, try to stay in pairs if you can. And go outside as little as possible. Fluttershy, if you want anypony to come with you...”
“No, no, it’s okay,” Fluttershy replied mildly. “I have all the animals, so they can keep me company and keep me safe.”
“It’s the aftermath of the Changeling Invasion all over again,” Pinkie said defeatedly.
“It shouldn’t last as long Pinkie,” Twilight consoled. “Now that I have something to work with, Aurora will have to answer me.”
______________________________________________________________________________
Rarity and Pinkie Pie were off for a much needed spa treatment. Rainbow Dash was in pursuit of Fluttershy, her instincts shoving aside Twilight’s warnings about drawing the Changeling’s attention in the need to see to her close friend’s safety. This left Twilight at the library with Applejack and Spike. Twilight’s dragon assistant was currently occupied at a small writing desk, scribbling out his thoughts as Twilight often did when she was under stress. Applejack had not said anything since the departure of the rest of their friends, her face set emotionlessly as she pondered deeply. Twilight herself occupied her attention with Inky’s harness, slowly dismantling it with magic.
“Twi?” Applejack said, her voice appearing louder after the long note of silence just before.
“What’s on your mind AJ?” Twilight replied, still concentrating on separating some of the smallest parts she had ever seen into groups.
“I saw what ya meant when ya said Aurora was plannin’ somethin’ with tha Elements, but ya got any ideas what?” Applejack answered.
“It must have something to do with her technology,” Twilight said vaguely. “That magic form is obviously her talent, so I can’t see how it would be anything but that. Maybe she thinks the Elements are ancient Devices. Who knows.”
“See tha’s what I was thinkin’ ‘bout,” Applejack said, frustrated from being stumped in her thoughts. “But we ain’t got ‘em here. If them Elements are what she was after all along, why come here?”
“The Princesses, AJ,” Twilight said mildly. “She’s scared of them. Why do you think the field is up?”
“Okay, tha’ makes sense ‘til ya start thinkin’ ‘bout her demos,” Applejack said. “If she’s jus’ tryin’ to hide from the Princesses, why try ta impress us?”
“I don’t know AJ,” Twilight replied, turning to face her friend as she had finished sorting out the harness parts. “I just don’t know. She has a grudge against Princess Celestia, so she may be trying to subvert her. The thing is, her inventions would only give benefit to us, and thus to the princess as well.” Applejack sighed, shaking her head at all the loose ends not connecting to one another. “I know. It’s a complete mess,” Twilight agreed. “Just trust me AJ. Knowing that it’s a mess is the first step to cleaning it up.”
“I trust ya sugarcube,” Applejack replied. “It’s her I don’ trust. I know tha’s kinda obvious, but I jus’ couldn’ forgive myself if ya got hurt or worse.”
“Somepony has to do something though Applejack,” Twilight said. “And even if my magic won’t work when I’m on board the ship, I still know the most about it out of all of us. I’ll be okay. The Princess taught me a few things about treading carefully, and I think I can put them to use.” Applejack forced a smile for Twilight; for no matter all the reasoning in the world, she would not be able to rest easy until Aurora had left them for good. Twilight smiled back at her friend, giving her a warm hug as well. “Try not to worry,” Twilight said, breaking from the embrace.
Applejack was about to reply, when she was interrupted by a strangled cry from Spike. Both ponies whipped around, bearing witness to a ring of heatless green fire having erupted on the library’s main floor. Twilight was unable to hold back a gasp, while Applejack swore. Dragon and mares backed as far from the ring of fire as they could, Twilight readying a spell on her horn. With a whooshing roar, the flames flared brighter and sent up a dome of sickly green magic within their ring. Seconds later, the flames vanished, but the dome remained. “Lower your horn!” an aggressive, but magically distorted voice called out from inside the dome.
Twilight grimaced, not wasting any time before firing her spell at the magic. The powers met with a momentary blinding flash of white and the sound of clanging metal. When Twilight and her friends looked back, the only evidence to her attack was ripples on the dome like a stone had been dropped in a pool. “Simple stunning spells will not break this barrier!” the mangled voice said. “Try anything more, and the pegasus dies!”
“Hold up Twi!” Applejack put a foreleg out in front of her. “I think it’s talkin’ ‘bout Thunderlane.”
“Show yourself!” Twilight demanded. “And release Thunderlane! He has nothing to do with this!”
“So I found out,” the voice replied flatly unamused. “Take him!” Before either Applejack or Twilight were ready, Thunderlane’s limp, unconscious body was flung with magical force from within the dome. He crumpled and slid across the wood, Applejack at his side the moment he had stopped moving. Like Twilight and Spike, he was mildly singed from the explosion, but this aside, he seemed healthy.
“He looks alright,” Applejack confirmed for Twilight.
“Any wounds inflicted upon him by the explosion I healed to the best of my ability,” the dome said. “Consider it... a good-will offering. You will do nothing once a I lower this shield.”
“I’m not that naive,” Twilight retorted. “We already know you are a Changeling. I’m putting up a defensive wall, but I promise not to attack you.” This she did, extending a barrier around her, Applejack, Thunderlane, and Spike. It glowed a soft, translucent violet, ringing of bells when it was secure. “You can lower your shield now.” Nothing happened for the first few seconds, the voice note even acknowledging her.
Twilight had been expecting a slow shrinking of the magic into nothing, but quite to the contrary, the field exploded with an electrical zap in a shower of green sparks that gradually winked out of existence. Twilight had been expecting a normal Changeling, perhaps altered slightly if it were one of Chrysalis’s Deceiver Guard. Instead, she was faced with the Changeling queen herself, and only mental fortitude born of years of intense study prevented her from lowering the shield and attacking Chrysalis. Applejack was not so restrained. “Sweet Celestia!” she swore, quickly assuming a fighting position. “You’d better have some sorta spell for this Twi!”
“I do, but I don’t want to use it just yet,” Twilight replied, her eyes never leaving Chrysalis’s own pupils. These had never left Twilight either, darting from a serious, intent focus to half-amusement and back again. “So you were the one leading the Changelings on Aurora’s ship. We should have known.”
“That you should have, but of greater importance is why I am here after that pair’s betrayal of me,” Chrysalis said, her voice still sounding distorted, but nearly as heavily as she had made it before. “Surely you are wondering.”
“I am,” Twilight replied cautiously. “Why don’t you tell us?”
“Lower the shield you have,” Chrysalis said back calmly. “Your fellow pegasus will suffer her punishment for her murder in time, but for now a greater crime has been committed against me. I... I need your help.”
“Ha ha!” Applejack laughed, “that’s rich! Twi, you keep this here shield up, no exceptions.” Only after she had taken in Chrysalis’s expression did her tone change and she ask, “Wait, you ain’t serious are ya?”
“I am,” Chrysalis replied gravely. “And believe me, if had any other choice, I would take it. The thought of working with the friends of the murderer of one of my children twists my soul.”
“So what happened?” Twilight asked again.
Chrysalis smiled deviously before saying, “We cannot hope to work together with you constantly behind that shield. Lower it.”
“She ain’t lyin’ ‘bout needin’ help Twi,” Applejack counseled her. “But it just don’ seem right to be so vulnerable ‘round her.”
“She’ll be more help than Inky Jay,” Twilight decided, shrinking her shield until it winked out of existence.
“Relax,” Chrysalis said to them, as all three were still incredibly tense.
“Oh sure,” Spike said sardonically. “Relax around the only creature I’ve ever seen defeat Celestia. Sure.”
“We aren’t going to be able to relax anytime soon,” Twilight said. “There’s too much between us for that. You want to reverse that? Tell us what happened and everything you know about Aurora. Inky Jay wasn’t helpful at all.”
“I know even less than that annoying scribe of a peasant,” Chrysalis decried Inky. “I can tell you, though, that there are one thousand prime Changelings aboard the House of a Thousand Fangs.”
“One thousand!?” Twilight was only able to repeat in pure shock.
“That’s the size of a small army!” Applejack added.
“It is a small army,” Chrysalis corrected her. “When Aurora came to us, that was her request. To give you an idea of scale, there were roughly eight thousand Changelings that invaded Canterlot.”
“Did Aurora say why she wanted an army?” Twilight asked, curious, while the other two thought back to the size of horde in the Canterlot invasion. “Here, take a seat on the sofa.” She motioned to the reading couch, taking three sitting pillows for herself and her friends. Chrysalis lay upon the couch comfortably without thanks, instead answering Twilight’s question.
“No, she did not,” Chrysalis said. “All she said was that she might need them in the end to bring about a new era in Equestria. One where Changelings lived free among ponies. That alone would not have convinced me, but... other arguments and her display of her machines was enough.”
“But we shouldn’ have ta worry ‘bout invasion or nothin’,” Applejack said, as if trying to convince herself of it as well.
“Before Inky Jay attempting to separate us, yes, there would have been no worry, for your kind,” Chrysalis answered, Twilight noticing an odd amount of effort in her straight tone. “That is no longer the case.” Whatever had been holding any emotion other than superiority out of her voice vanished with these few words. The only way Twilight had ever heard Chrsyalis speak before was in victorious glee; thus, it was odd to hear her voice drop into a near whisper brought upon by fear: fear motivated by love.
“Oh horseapples,” Applejack swore again. “What’d tha’ no-good, double-crossin’ allicorn do this time?”
“She... she stole them from me,” Chrysalis said, strength returning waveringly to her voice. If she had not been in the company of ponies that were effectively her enemies, Twilight thought she might have shed tears.
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Spike said flatly. “The Changelings are all super loyal to you right? It’s not like Aurora could sway them onto your side like she can ponies.”
“Good point Spike,” Applejack backed him up.
“How does that spawn of Tartarus do everything?” Chrysalis asked cynically, unable to keep her protective fury from coming through.
“She used a Device,” Twilight guessed.
“And the trouble is, I have no idea how she has managed it in so short a time,” Chrysalis said, still seething. “I had teleported away from the explosion, intending to immediately command some to attack her and others to capture your blue pegasus friend.”
“Go on,” Twilight said, doing her best to glaze over the last bit.
“But when I reappeared in a safe alley with that one you called Thunderlane,” Chrysalis continued, “there was... a disturbance.”
“How dya mean?” Applejack asked.
“Changelings have a universal telepathic network,” Chrysalis elaborated shortly. “I could feel them, but there was something keeping my instructions from reaching them. I thought it might be after-effects from the shock wave at first, but as I considered this, I... I lost them completely.”
“So you mean that the loss was gradual?” Twilight asked. She knew about the telepathic network from reports Princess Celestia had been kind enough to send her after the Canterlot invasion; and from the way the investigators had described it, Chrysalis’s connection with her subjects was not one that could be broken easily.
“Yes,” Chrysalis answered, having regained what little composure she had at first lost. “I cannot imagine their panic without my mind to unite the network. Aurora may be able to steal the connection with her machines, but a machine will not suffice as a substitute for a living mind.”
“Maybe Aurora is just taking your place,” Spike said, and though he meant no malice, both Twilight and Applejack saw Chrysalis’s visage darken at the very possibility.
“That cretin does not have the mental fortitude to command nine hundred ninety-nine independent minds. Simply controlling her machines with her mind is tiring for her,” the queen spat.
“Wait, she can do that?!” Twilight asked, shocked. Chrysalis certainly was proving more helpful and informative than Inky Jay.
“Only for specific systems,” Chrysalis explained. “And I know this only by experience. She requires the red bangles she wears on her hind legs to do it as well. I believe they are enchanted to be in connection with several Devices that synchronize all of the parts to a system.”
“This is all very interestin’ and everythang,” Applejack said blankly, “but ya still haven’t ‘plained why ya need our help.”
“You are clearly objects of her interests,” Chrysalis replied. “But you are at the same time at odds with her. We are united in this sentiment. Never before has a Changeling monarch had his or her subjects so blatantly usurped, and I will not allow the attempt to end in anything but failure. If you aid me in reclaiming that which should never have been stolen from me, I will share all that I know about the interior of Aurora’s vessel.”
“Okay, that’s sounds like a good deal and everything,” Spike said, skeptical, “but we were doing just fine without you before. And you want to punish Rainbow Dash later. Why would we help you when you still want to do that?”
“So that is the pegasus’s name,” Chrysalis said, her tone unchanging, but her eyes narrowing viciously at the very mention of Dash and her crime. “If any of your own were killed by a Changeling, would you not demand punishment to be dealt?” And before any of them could answer, Chrysalis pressed on, “My request is no different, and you might consider, that I will only refrain from slaughtering her in judgment and rightful vengeance if she negates some of her guilt with her assistance to my plight.” If Chrysalis’s own detestation of the ponies was clear in her reaction to Rainbow Dash; the reciprocal was equally evident on the faces of Twilight, Applejack, and Spike upon hearing Chrysalis’s words. Taking advantage of their silence, Chrysalis continued, “And if you have any hope of bringing her to her knees where she ought to be now, you will need our help. Six mares alone will not be able to break her defenses.”
Twilight sat, absently staring at a bookshelf in thought. So much of what Chrysalis was saying was true, and yet it was because of that truth that Twilight was struggling to side with her. Rainbow Dash had already suffered enough under the weight of her own guilt. That was punishment enough in Twilight’s eyes. But she remembered many a time when she had committed some sin, and even with her guilt, Princess Celestia had always seen to it that there was a real world consequence to be had. How could she try to protect Rainbow without seeming like a hypocrite and misrepresenting her mentor? She concluded that she could not. That, and Chrysalis was the big break she had been hoping Inky Jay would have been. If she was to uncover the complete truth about Aurora, she could not fight the reality that they needed Chrysalis.
“We have a deal,” Twilight said firmly.
“Wait! Twi! Ya can’t be serious!” Applejack burst out before Chrysalis could even respond.
“We need her Applejack,” Twilight said, trying her best to calm her friend down. “And she makes good points, on all fronts. Aurora is the one we need to focus on.”
“I dunno Twilight,” Spike said, casting quick, uncomfortable glances at Chrysalis. “She... she’s just plain creepy.”
“Would your comfort be eased by this?” Chrysalis asked with a sly smile before a flash of green magic consumed her, only to reveal a perfect replica of Twilight.
“GAH! Don’t... don’t do that! Go back! Go back!” Spike cried out, covering his eyes. Chrysalis huffed in something akin to mild amusement before shifting back to her natural form.
“Okay,” Applejack said to the queen, “ya can help an’ all, but I swear by Celestia tha’ if ya do one thang I don’ like, I’ll buck you all the way ta Manehattan.”
“AJ, that’s not really the best way to—” Twilight said, only to be interrupted.
“Duly noted,” Chrysalis inserted to Applejack.
“Well okay then,” Twilight said, awkwardly sarcastic. “How should we go about telling the girls?”
“Spike an’ I can run an’ get Rarity and Pinkie,” Applejack suggested. “Dash and Fluttershy should be back on their own after a while when they can’t find poor Thunderlane.”
“You will no doubt be called back soon to Aurora’s ship after sending out the request with Inky Jay,” Chrysalis said. “Do not call them back yet. Any new information you have after the visit can be melded with what I possess all at once rather than separately.”
“And they need some time to rest after all that’s happened,” Twilight added. “Yeah, just wait Applejack. I want to take some notes to organize what we know so far anyway. Spike, quill at the ready.”
______________________________________________________________________________
Inky Jay soared over Ponyville, bearing straight for the House of a Thousand Fangs. He knew the Elements had been sorely displeased by his answers, however much they were true. In this alone, he feared Aurora might be displeased. Her goal, after all, was to bring in the Elements to her fold, and Inky himself had done nothing to aid on that front. Though without Chrysalis to contend with any longer, things might go more smoothly. In fact, Aurora might be able to turn Chrysalis’s stalking of the Elements to her favor; providing a Device that would eliminate the need for constant vigilance. As Inky came to this possibility, he wondered with an revelatory huff if Aurora had planned to use Chrysalis for that very purpose from the beginning.
Thoughts of Chrysalis and the Elements—particularly of Twilight Sparkle and her request for an audience—followed him as his wing beats became more labored upon entering Aurora’s protective fields and finally landing on the ship’s deck. He was accustomed to being greeted by her moments after his arrival, and was thus surprised when it was not Aurora, but some nameless Changeling that met him. “Where is Lady Aurora?” he asked bluntly.
“She is our comforter while we search for our queen,” the Changeling replied in its chittery voice. “She tells us want we ought to do and tells us that we are still safe.”
“I didn’t ask what she was or what she was doing,” Inky snapped impatiently, his answer to how Aurora was managing so many Changelings partially given. “I want to know where she is.”
“Comforter is in her place of work, as always,” the Changeling replied. “Have you seen our queen? She was with you in the town the last we knew.”
“There was a mishap,” Inky said carefully, unsure if Aurora’s methods for controlling the creatures would hold against the truth. “She could be anywhere below right now.”
“We see,” the Changeling replied worriedly, the most emotion Inky had ever heard in a Changeling outside of Chrysalis. “We will tell all the others of this.” Inky’s only response was a brisk nod before his hooves descended down the stairs into the ship’s belly. There was always the option of Aurora’s teleportation network, but Inky had never liked the idea of teleportation and after having gone through it with Chrysalis, knew why. So familiar was he with the ship’s many corridors and rooms that his hooves all but carried him to Aurora’s lab by themselves. He was on the third floor, opening a floor hatch to the access tunnels which provided a convenient short-cut through the ship, when he felt the air around him shift. His wings ruffled slightly as he turned to see Aurora walking toward him as silently as ever. Only, she was not alone. At least two hundred of the Changelings were gathered all about her, squeezing themselves into the hall to surround her every careful hoofstep. They were not an confused mess of tangled creatures attempting to be the closest to her, but rather they were ordered and collected around her. The outer Changelings appeared fierce and battle-ready while those closer to the inside gazed up hopefully at her. And for it all, Aurora maintained a sense of power. It was that of severely drained power to be sure, but she had certainly not let the burden of the Changelings bring her to her knees.
“I assume your system is imperfect then,” Inky said, eyes continually darting from Aurora to the horde surrounding her.
“That would be an apt description,” Aurora answered, weariness more present in her speech than her physical appearance. “If I am to continue to work,” she continued, motioning to the Changelings about her, “this is price I pay. I expend far too much energy trying to keep them all away, as my connection to them is not natural as it is for Chrysalis.”
“Will it hold?” Inky asked, still leery of the Changelings’ reaction to the truth.
“Chrysalis would need to break through three different varieties of telepathic interference,” Aurora replied assuredly. “While it is within her power, it would take her far too long to be useful.”
“Why do they not rebel when you mention Chrysalis in that way?” Inky asked, the contradiction being as sharp as night and day.
“It seems that Changelings have two mindsets,” Aurora said shortly. “Those that have been given duties to carry out have a measure of independence, while those that have not wait upon and protect the one at the center of their telepathic network. Enough of this talk of things that have already been resolved. What were the questions of the Elements?”
“They had no real questions,” Inky said, waving his hoof in general condescension. “They simply demanded I tell them everything I knew about your plans.”
“You did, did you not?” Aurora asked, her tone clear that only one answer would be satisfactory.
“Every word,” Inky replied, “though their reactions seemed somewhat mixed. They did not believe I had lied to them, but they had set their expectations high for what I would reveal. They were all most certainly displeased to know that a Changeling will now be hunting them.”
“You did no more than I expected; acting appropriately with the Devices I gave you” Aurora said, “and that being all said and done, you have aided in my elimination of, as they say, two birds with one stone. Chrysalis and the Elements have an antagonistic history, and by that will they remove her for me. In addition, your limited knowledge of my intentions has only increased Magic’s desire for the same. You have done very well, better than any servant I have ever had. My trust in you was not misplaced.”
“Thank you, Lady Aurora,” Inky inclined his head, having never been given such praise by any pony, let alone Aurora. Rising back up, he continued, but without the extreme reverence he had just displayed, “Your anticipation of Magic was not incorrect. She has all but demanded a meeting. She seems to have inferred something, at least based on her fervor.”
“No doubt she has,” Aurora replied. “No matter her errant philosophy of principle, Celestia would only ever have picked the sharpest of unicorns to be her personal students.” It was clear to Inky she had intended to say more, but without apparent cause, her face contorted first to one of irritation, then gradually from interest to shock, and finally to hatred tempered only by mild amusement. As this final emotion stole over her face, all of the Changelings—which up until that point had been relatively quiet—about her erupted into a cacophony of chirping, buzzing, energized movement, and excited noise-making. “The ones I have put on watch have seen a new development on the horizon,” Aurora managed to say, her eyes shut and head turning sharply from side to side as she was bombarded by Changeling thoughts. “SILENCE! ALL OF YOU!” she exploded, the message no doubt mental as well.
“My Lady?” Inky asked uncertainly, having never seen Aurora so vocally frustrated. It was far from her to act so.
“While I prefer the power of a pointed word to the brutal shouting most ponies resort to, when dealing with such creatures as these, I sometimes have no choice,” Aurora said. “They have now calmed,” she said, somewhat contradicted by the Changelings still chittering at her feet. “Come, they were rather vague and used terminology I was unfamiliar with, but I have my suspicions as to what comes to greet us... finally.” Inky nodded and dutifully followed Aurora and her mass of Changelings. There were so many beside, behind, and before her, that Inky never saw her hooves, giving her already flowing walking an even more ethereal quality. The Changeling’s were like a mass of shadow at her hooves, as they were a part of her, flowing with her, being drawn to her, and yet also coming from her. Inky Jay noted to take down this observation later.
The two of them and the Changelings took an almost identical path from whence Inky had come, save ascending as many stairs. They came instead to the second level, the corridor apparently dead-ending just where ship’s nose began to taper. But like every other wall in the House of a Thousand Fangs, it concealed the entrance to a room. The place was one Inky knew well, having spent the first few weeks of the vessel’s flight to Equestria in the room. Around the spacious expanse were multiple holographic Devices, each linked to various data gathering brethren on the ship’s exterior. Changeling’s sat at each station, taking notes on everything from wind speeds to the position of the sun for the log books. At the triangular room’s head were clustered the most Devices, these offering up magical projections of images outside the vessel. It was the Navigator Station.
The Changelings surrounding Aurora seemed to comprehend that they would be unable to fit inside the room with her, and thus parted to either side of the entrance, allowing both herself and Inky to pass inside uninhibited. They moved straight for the image displays and the Changelings clustered around the one connected to the single, fixed long-range viewer. “Out of the way, the lot of you,” Inky growled at the over-excited creatures. Their heads snapped back, and immediately shrunk into a bow of submission before backing away from the Device.
This revealed a single sky-blue image: a rather boring look at valley’s horizon and the ground just before it. This was nothing abnormal, as Aurora had built the long-range imaging Device for the very purpose of viewing the horizon. No, the interest in the hologram rested in that which was coming over the visible edge of the land. “Inky Jay, run a playthrough of all the images taken in the past thirty minutes, maximum speed,” Aurora ordered, staring fixedly at the hologram. The procedure was second nature to him: rotating one node down so that it first showed all of the images from the time Aurora requested, then turning a second to push the images back to the current one. The result was a sequence of stilted flashes that revealed any change over the indicated period of time: change that was undeniable near the end of the arrangement.
It began almost imperceivable at first, but within the next image, there appeared an army swallowing up the land before it. Thereafter, the images only spoke of the army’s size as lines of armor clad ponies seemed to have no end. “They will be here by nightfall,” Aurora said, more solemn than usual. “Prepare yourself Inky Jay, for war over control of the Elements of Harmony is about to begin, and it is a war I am determined to win.”
______________________________________________________________________________
Princess Luna slowly lowered the moon as her sister brought in the first rays of dawn. Her care of her charge was greater this morning than it normally was, for she had become accustomed to performing her most important of duties from Canterlot’s highest towers. While she held confidence in her abilities, the Royal Astronomers would never let her hear the end of it if the moon’s course was ever incorrect: no matter the reason. Adding to her abnormal position for lowering the moon was the fact that the sun was not her only illumination. The vivid pink sphere of magical energy encasing Ponyville cast a dull glow over the valley around it for at least half a mile. The shadows from the sun’s rising were thus heavily distorted or gone entirely, giving Luna even greater trouble in identifying her sister’s pace so she might match it.
However, it seemed that Celestia was just as perturbed by the sphere’s glow, as Luna was able to proceed with the moon’s lowering at as slow a pace as she desired. When she finished, her hoofsteps were immediately directed to her new general’s tent. Spearhead had lived up to her high view of his abilities in a position of command, whipping (often times literally) the Army of the Moon from pathetic shambles into an organized war machine. He held back no criticism, especially when he was drunk from hard cider, but his praise was always given to those who deserved it. The soldiers he had not sent back home crying like foals admired him greatly, bragging in letters to their family members about how they were being trained to be as efficient as the Moon Guard by the very stallion who commanded those elite ponies. His praise among the soldiers had even seeped into the Army of the Sun, complaints being heard about desiring to be lead by Shining Armor rather than the appointed generals.
This thought prompted a light chuckle from her as she pushed aside the flap to Spearhead’s tent. “Your Majesty,” Spearhead said tiredly and gruffly, his white morning scruff not yet shaved away. It was a reminder that despite his still vibrant forest green mane and tail and deep ocean blue coat, he was not exactly a young unicorn.
“Good morning, Spearhead,” Luna said, taking a seat before the small desk within the tent.
“What business needs doing Your Majesty?” Spearhead asked, this time scratching at the scruff as he viewed a supplies manifest through old spectacles. “Is there another slacker out there, resting his plot on the ground rather than doing some honest work?”
“No Spearhead,” Luna replied, “thou hast most effectively cleared out those with little respect for their duty. No, our business is in knowing how thou plannest to proceed.”
“What in Tartarus do you mean Your Majesty?” Spearhead asked gruffly. “We’re not attacking the shield head on if that’s what you mean.”
“We apologize for our vague question,” Luna retracted. “What we meanest to say is, how dost thou intend to study the magical field? Surely much canst not be accomplished whilst it still remaineth in place.”
“I haven’t talked with the captain of the Corps of Magical Engineers this morning, but he’d be your pony if you want to know the specifics,” Spearhead replied. “They’ll be headin’ out this afternoon; once the armies finish surrounding the town. I’ll warn you though, I may have command over where Captain Field Spell goes and what he works on, but he can be a right pain in the flank.”
“Why dost thou not replace him then?” Luna asked, curious.
“His talent is studying magic out in the world rather than in a lab,” Spearhead answered, although talk of the magical engineer was clearly not helping his mood. “Not many ponies with a talent that specific. Can’t afford to replace ‘im.”
“We see,” Luna said blankly, unsure of how Spearhead would react to her sympathy to his plight. “We have a final question.”
“You are my Princess, Your Majesty,” the stallion said flatly. “Fire away. It’s not like I can dismiss you or anything.”
Luna giggled at her own silliness—the result of always having Celestia stress to her the importance of decent manners when she was young—and pressed on, “We wouldst have thee tell us, hast thou decidest upon those other ponies that shall accompany us for the negotiations?”
“With all due respect Your Majesty,” Spearhead said, causing Luna to brace for a soldier’s vulgarity, “you couldn’t have picked a worse bucking time to ask that question.”
“What hath gone askew?” Luna asked, doing her best to force down a wince.
“Those bucking ponies I had chosen to be going with you went off and got into a bucking brawl last night!” Spearhead fumed, it clear he had not yet had anypony to whom to vent his frustration. “I never have, nor ever will, reward brawlers,” he continued defiantly. “But that now puts me in the bucking situation of having no ponies to go with you. Two of them were Shining Armor’s and he isn’t too pleased either.”
“Then we hath a request to make of thee,” Luna replied, thinking of how much poetry she would need to read to clear her mind of the cursing. “We trust thee more than any other military pony alive. This is why we madest thee our general. But we art extending our trust further. Thou shalt accompany us to the negotiations.”
“But... but... Your Majesty,” Spearhead spluttered, already reaching for his cider drawer. “My job is to fight the enemy until they either surrender or die, not to talk with them about peace!”
“Art thou refusing us?” Luna asked critically.
“Not at all Your Majesty!” Spearhead backtracked, his tone calming as he took a large swig of cider. “But I am only saying I am hardly the pony best suited for this.”
“But thou hast informed us that the best hath shown themselves to not truly be the best,” Luna said, “so we canst not linger on any more decisions. We trust thee more than any others under us, so thou wilt go with us.”
“By your orders, Your Majesty,” Spearhead relented.
As Luna turned to leave, preparing to meet with her sister to oversee their armies splitting into their various companies to encircle Ponyville, she said, “We art sorely unhappy to see thee so haggard, Spearhead. Tryest to put more faith in those under you, as we hath done. It lessens the burden of rule.”
“I’ll take that to heart, Your Majesty,” Spearhead replied, though after he muttered just a tad too loud, “when anypony shows they deserve my trust.” Luna sighed, choosing to say nothing more. The stubborn adherence to duty and discipline that made Spearhead her choice general also made him his own worst taskmaster. As she took wing in the early morning light, she hoped dearly that negotiation was the only thing in which Spearhead was needed; that his true skills need not be put to the test.