Destiny, fate or doom is a well-known but little-understood concept. In The Magic of Friendship, I described destiny as a kind of causality. The events of the past lead to the decisions of the future. With a wide enough view of those events, a trajectory can be discerned with regards to the future, and thus one's eventual choices can be predicted. That, then, is destiny: the trajectory of one's life.

I also clearly pointed out that while all ponies are subject to destiny, they are not chained to it. Ponies, and indeed all sapient beings, have the capacity to overcome the trajectory of their life and choose a new course. This capacity is called many things throughout the world. Many refer to it as Free Will, others call it the Chaos Factor. One word for it that I find particularly inspiring and poetic: the soul. Your soul is greater than causality, greater than destiny. It is that indefinable part of you that is not reliant on your experiences and what has come before. It is greater, deeper, stronger. It is the place where our Talents and cutie marks come from. It is a primal magic, fundamental to the very universe itself, beyond mortality.

It goes without saying that the Elements of Harmony can alter destiny. Their very presence distorts causality, and when linked to bearers they alter the path of the world without ever being fully activated. They do this in unpredictable and possibly dangerous ways. Ways that cannot be prevented or even impeded.

What does not go without saying, but needs to be said, is that the Magic of Harmony can toy with the soul as easily as one might dye their mane. This goes beyond the simple effect they have on causality. The Elements can completely change who a pony is without altering any of the experiences that have led them to where they are. Moreover, they are capable of doing this so absolutely and so perfectly that nopony will ever notice that anything changed at all.

I have spent many sleepless nights in the cold company of the fear that this is exactly what I did that night, so many years ago.

-From the seventh section of Harmony Theory by Twilight Sparkle

Chapter Eighteen: Practice and Perfection

Calumn ran. He tried to change shape–anything other than his true form would do–but Cash's magic clung to him and sent a wave of searing, scraping sensations all over his body that stymied every attempt. He was stuck as he was, and so he had to run as fast as his hooves could take him.

"It's a Changeling!" The cry went up from several throats at once. Chaos took hold as ponies began to run, panic filling them. Mothers ran to gather their foals, pegasi took to the skies, unicorns lit their horns. A few brave souls were already rushing at him.

"It was pretending to be a child! Don't let it get away!" That was Max Cash's voice. Calumn could hear the laughter in it, even if no one else would.

This would mean war. The Republics would deny they sent him, of course. He was just a rogue Changeling, acting on instinct. Not one of their tame, loyal allies. It was the standard response to a dead Changeling that everyone knew was a lie, and no one said anything more about. Not this time. This time it would be the thing that sent both sides of the Storm at each other's throats.

He dodged through ponies that stood stunned and horrified at his appearance. His wings buzzed as he lifted himself above the crowd and shot down the street, taking the first turn he could, dodging through buildings. There were screams erupting behind him. Screams of fear and screams of anger. He had to hide.

He scanned the buildings, looking for a some place he could hole up in and not be noticed, at least until Cash's magic wore off. He was running too fast and too panicked to make a conscious effort at it, so he let his training and instincts take over. He buzzed down the street, and took a quick turn down another that was thankfully empty of ponies.

Without knowing exactly why, he rushed to a cozy two-story house with an old cart sitting out front. He slammed into the door, trying the knob and finding it locked. He called on his Changeling magic, mimicking a unicorn's natural telekinesis. Magenta light sparked across his crooked horn and he hissed in pain as Cash's magic choked off his own.

He snarled a few choice curses in Lunar before remembering that houses usually had more than one entrance. He galloped around to the back of the house and found, to his delight, that the owner had left the back door open. He rushed in and locked it behind him, hoping that his instincts hadn't led him to a place that was occupied.

After a few long, tense minutes of listening he decided that he was alone in the house, and relaxed. He slumped to the ground, panting and shivering. Cash had gotten to him again. Nothing had prepared him for that unicorn. Not all the years spent investigating him, not all the stories he'd heard about him. Nothing. He wasn't bitter about that, he doubted he could adequately explain everything that was wrong with Cash himself.

Yet dwelling on it would not help him now. No, he needed to rid himself of Cash's magic, then find Blaze, and then the both of them could make their escape from Precious Corners. Preferably before the Griffins arrived and made everything a lot more complicated. To that end he pulled himself up, set his hooves in a wide, strong stance, and tried to shift.

Charisma heard the shouting before Blaze did. It was only natural that this would be the case, Blaze was a lot more distracted than she was at the time. Yet she was still distracted enough that she dismissed the noise for a long time before it began to be truly intrusive.

"Uh, is it just me, or are other people screaming?" Blaze asked, blinking drunkenly up at the sky. "Nope, pretty sure that's not me. I've got way better sustain."

Charisma stood up, her ears swivelling towards the source of the noise. "Max," she breathed. It wasn't a terribly difficult leap of logic to make. She knew her employer, and he was perfectly capable of causing any number of disasters that would provoke a response like what she was hearing now. Capable and more than willing.

"Charisma," Blaze said, getting to his own hooves and laying one on her shoulder. "Don't go to him. If he's getting worse, you don't know what he's going to do. He killed Jim, he probably killed that Conrad guy, right?" Charisma could only nod to that. "He's killing them for a reason. You might on that list somewhere, too."

"So don't go to him. You can come with me, we can hang out. It'll be like old times, only better because he won't be around."

She chuckled, knocking his hoof off of her with a swipe of a wing. "Stay safe, Blaze. I will see you again." She didn't wait for a reply, leaping into the air and letting her wings take her high above the compound.

What she saw was like an anthill kicked over. Ponies ran through the streets in all directions, some clustering in groups, others on their own. Many had the hurried, jerky movements of panic. Others seemed frightened, but not terrified to the point of blind running. Whatever Cash had done, it had been big.

She landed in front of one of the ponies who seemed to have it together. "What's going on?" she demanded

The earth pony mare shied back. "A Changeling was spotted in town!" she said. Charisma tensed up immediately, going on high alert. There were few things in the world that could frighten a sunlands pony like the thought of Changelings. She didn't fear them now as she had when she'd been a filly, but they were still the monster hiding under her childhood bed, and the mention of them conjured up those old, half-remembered fears. The fact that the mare she'd been torturing at the camp had really been a Changeling still sent shivers up her spine.

The mare nodded vigorously. "It was seen. In the park. Dozens of ponies saw. Everyone's getting to their homes, hoping the Griffins can get here before... before it gets to us." The mare looked closer at Charisma, frowning. "Wait, I've never seen you before," her gaze travelled down to Charisma's hooves, still covered in Blaze's blood. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in a gasp. "Who are–"

Charisma lunged forward, and a moment later lowered the mare's body to the ground. A quick look around confirmed that no one had seen, and a moment more was all it took to hide the mare's body around a corner. It would be found, and quickly, but she would still be long gone before it became an issue. She wiped as much of the blood as she could off on the mare's coat, leaving her forelegs a darker shade of pink than normal.

Her hooves tingled as she rushed onwards. She hadn't even thought about killing that mare. She'd become a threat the moment her suspicions turned to Charisma, and the pegasus had acted without having to even consider it. It was like getting a single breath of fresh air after spending a day in an abattoir.

She couldn't risk stopping another pony and asking more questions. She needed to find Cash as soon as possible, and leaving a trail of dead in her wake would quickly turn counterproductive. So she took to the air again, skimming above the streets and trying to sort out the form of her boss from all the other running ponies. It wasn't the best way to go about it, but it was probably the safest.

Deciding that Cash was probably still lingering at the origin point of the madness he had undoubtedly caused, she headed for the center of town. As she got closer she saw a group of ponies gathered in a tight cluster by the town hall and decided to take a closer look. As she approached she heard raised voices arguing. Flying over them, she thought she caught sight of her employer among the crowd.

"We don't know if there's only one of them!" This was Cash's voice, she was sure of that. She wheeled and descended towards the group. There were probably only around thirty ponies standing there, but they were so close together that she couldn't pick him out immediately. "They could be anywhere! Anyone!"

"There could be a dozen of them standing right here!" a near-hysterical mare cried.

"No they don't!" yet another voice called out. Charisma didn't bother listening as the ponies in the crowd began arguing over whatever rumors about Changelings they had heard.

"Now hold on, we can't just go around accusing people of being Changelings!" This was a new voice. Authoritative, masculine. She saw a yellow light flare up from the horn of a fat unicorn stallion who was drawing attention to himself.

"Why not? Are you working with them? They can get in your head, make you do things, we all know that!" That was Cash. She shoved her way into the crowd, ignoring indignant and angry rebukes and making her way to where she thought the voice was coming from.

"It was going after the children!" a mare cried. "It wanted our foals! Why did it want our foals?"

"The kids are safe!" the authoritarian voice again. "We've gathered them at the school, and they're being protected until we can sort this all out!"

"How can we be sure of that?" Cash again. Charisma's ears swivelled to the sound, homing in on her employer.

Other ponies took up Cash's cry again, and soon everyone was shouting to be heard. Charisma kept pushing, and finally found him. He standing, stone-faced, in the middle of the crowd. When she poked him in the side he looked over without a hint of surprise, and gave her a quick wink. "How can I trust any of you, huh?" he shouted into the rising din. "How can I know any of you aren't being controlled by it?"

Charisma sidled up to him. "We have to talk," she hissed to him. He shrugged at her, and waved a hoof around, indicating that he couldn't hear her through the noise. She snarled and grabbed him, shoving them both a path back out of the crowd. She dragged him down the street until the voices of the crowd were just a muddled murmur. She stood so that she had a clear view of the crowd over his shoulder, ready to get him out of the way if it turned violent. "What the hell is going on, Max?" she demanded.

"A good, old fashioned small-town lynching," Cash said, his eyes gleeful as his face broke into a wide grin. "Or it will be, if they ever get their act together." He looked towards the arguing crowd, chuckling as the accusations flew thick and fast. "I really wish we still used torches for light. I've never seen an actual 'torches and pitchforks' mob, and I think that's a shame. Well, they are farmers, at least there'll be pitchforks."

"Changeling, Max," Charisma snarled, trying vainly to keep him on topic. "They're saying that there's a Changeling loose in town. Is it... the one who was with Blaze?"

"I doubt it," Cash said. "No, those two are connected through the bonds of true friendship, not Changeling magic."

"Neither did I," Cash sniggered, barely suppressing his mirth. "But sometimes the world just does me favors."

"How was your afternoon with your stallion?" Cash asked, giving her a sly nudge and in no way acknowledging the question she had asked.

"Exquisite," she replied. "But interrupted by a damn riot breaking out! Did you out this Changeling? In the middle of the town we are currently hiding out in?"

"Are you trying to get us caught? Because if you are there are a dozen easier ways!"

"I love your eternal faith in me," he said. "How's the crowd looking? Ready to do some ill-thought-out violence?"

"No," Charisma replied. She took a deep breath and held it for a moment as she calmed her temper. Cash wouldn't do something like this for no reason, and if she was patient enough he might even explain it to her. Forcing the issue wouldn't get her answers, only frustration. "It looks like some unicorn's taking charge, calming things down."

"Oh, well, that's unfortunate," Cash sighed. "I was hoping plan 'p' would work this time."

"'P', for 'paranoia'. Changelings are good for that. But if these ponies have a leader they trust, things might calm down for them. Then this mob can be a calming influence on other mobs, and before you know it the whole town is working through the fear and uncertainty in a responsible, rational manner."

He shrugged. "It would make what comes next harder. So let's head it off before it grows, huh?"

"So you're going to go stir things up again," Charisma reasoned. She eyed the calming crowd. He could do it, she'd seen him do things like it before. A clever word here, a voiced doubt there, and he could shift the mood of a crowd like a conductor directing an orchestra.

"Actually, no," he said. "I'm going to raid the local confectionary and feed my chocolate addiction."

"Absolutely," he replied with a solemn nod. "Don't get in the way of a chocolate addiction. I'm almost out of cookies. Well, ones that are safe to eat, at least. I need to restock! Oh, hey, while I'm doing that, kill them all."

Charisma froze at the command, her pulse quickening to thunder in her ears. Slowly, she flexed her wings out, feeling the slight breeze blowing down the street through her feathers. Except for that breeze the world could have fallen into stillness for all she noticed it, like she was the only thing that moved. Her nightmare danced behind her eyes, a sea of ponies waiting for her. "All of them?" she asked, her voice a mere wisp of breath, quieter than a whisper.

"Um, yeah, I did say that," Cash said after a moment's contemplation. "Oh, and make it look like they did it to each other, okay?" He didn't wait for her to reply, giving her a friendly smile before skipping away. She didn't watch him go, all her attention was drawn to the crowd of ponies down the street.

She moved without thought. Her open wings caught the air and pulled her into the afternoon sky. She closed her eyes as she flew towards the sun and just let herself feel the kiss of light on her face. It had been so long since she had felt so light, so free from the burdens that weighed her down every moment of every day. For an eternal second she hung in the sky, in balance with all things. It was a perfect moment, the kind that only came before a storm.

She dropped into their midst. Several of them stumbled back from her in surprise, but the press of the crowd was too great for them to get far. She took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Then with deliberate calm she opened her eyes. The ponies stared at her. Waiting.

When Charisma had been just a filly she had loved to dance. She had loved to move and spin and jump and fly, with rhythm and agility and a beat that felt like thunder in her ears. Her parents had gotten her into dance schools from a very young age, and she had always excelled. Many had assumed it would be her Talent, a perfect fit for the beautiful mare they all knew she would grow up to be.

Then came the day she earned her Glyph, and it found her with a bloodied coat and bodies at her hooves. It had been impossible, unthinkable. How could such a beautiful dancer have such a terrible Talent?

Her Talent prompted her to block a kick. She spun in place, redirecting the hoof into the throat of an adjacent pony. A flick of her wing caused another to flinch back, and so he was in the way when a large earth pony tried to stomp on her. The two went down in a tangle of limbs, and all it took was a couple well-placed kicks from her to crack their skulls against the other's. She twisted, rolling over the back of one stallion and tripping a mare who was trying to escape. A moment later that mare was trampled by another pony trying to charge Charisma.

She was still a dancer. Combat was her dance. Each fight was a new routine with its own steps and rhythms. She could hear the melody of violence, and she knew how to move with it. It wasn't her Talent, but it synergized well. She spun through the panicked crowd like a pink whirlwind. Each of her limbs struck out with every bend and twist of her body, she barely ever had more than one point of contact with the ground as she moved. In her wake ponies fell. Some were dead before they hit the ground, others suffered a slow choking death from punctured lungs or broken tracheas. Others were merely tripped and bruised, but they were not safe. She soon came back to them and made sure of their end.

Most civilians would be shocked at the speed with which she moved, but to her she was being lazily slow. She took her time, savoring each kill and ensuring that her prey was dead in such a way that left most of the blood on the hooves of a fellow citizen of Precious Corners. Max would be pleased.

There was resistance, though. Someone interfering in the rhythms of her dance. A pony suddenly pulled from her path, a rock flung at her head that no one had thrown. She compensated for all of them, avoiding the attacks and eliminating those that were momentarily saved. Finally the killing ended. She spun en-pointe, only the edge of one hoof touching the ground. Her breathing was shallow and even, and while her face felt hot it wouldn't be noticeable under her coat. She turned slowly, gracefully to the last pony standing. It was the fat unicorn stallion who had been taking charge. He stared at her, eyes wide under the brim of his straw hat.

"I know you," he breathed. "They told stories about you in the barracks. Charisma. The killer."

"Oh? You were in the army?" Charisma dropped to all four hooves, regarding the unicorn with curiosity. "How long ago was that? It couldn't have been that long if you've heard of me, but if it wasn't then you really didn't keep up with your PT."

Without warning she leapt at him. Her wings blurred as she thrust her hoof at his face, aiming to break his horn. She was less than a foot away when his horn burst into yellow light and she was halted in midair. The stallion grimaced up at her. "Figured you'd attack from above. Typical pegasus, makes you easy to track."

Charisma found herself grinning. This one knew how to fight. She struggled against his hold and found it to be firm, flexible and very, very well done. Only middling marks, though, because he wasn't using the advantage to attack her immediately. "This is impressive," she said. "Telekinetic Talent?"

A flap of fabric tore away from his overalls to show his wide flank, and the Glyph emblazoned there. He was, indeed a Telekinetic Talent. No wonder he was so fat, he was a pony who literally didn't need to move a muscle to grab whatever he wanted. "My name is Hefty Bigwig, and I served as a lieutenant with the five-nine-eight squadron. I retired just about when you were making a name for yourself, but I still have my commission, and I'm still your superior officer. I am hereby taking you into custody and I swear to Celestia's sun that I will see you brought to justice for what you have done."

"The five-nine-eight, huh?" Charisma smiled. "Mobile artillery. Good crew, bad motto."

His eyes narrowed. "You're going to answer for this," he spat. "And every other crime you've ever committed."

"And you're the one who's gonna make that happen?" Charisma asked. "Knowing who I am and what I can do?"

"I've got you locked up tight," Bigwig said with a smirk. "Go ahead, struggle. Flap your wings. You aren't going anywhere, and I can hold you until the Griffins show up."

Charisma obliged him and gave her wings an experimental flap. It was like trying to fly through molasses. She could move, but the harder she pushed the stronger the resistance got. It was a good technique, but she'd seen it before. "Nice variability," she complimented him. "The holding me forever part is pretty transparent, though, so you should work on that."

"Really?" She asked, slowly stretching out all her limbs. "Not even if I do this?"

She spasmed violently. Each limb moved in a different direction as hard as she could make it go, twitching and shifting course erratically. To the outside it would look like a particularly nasty seizure, but she was in complete control of it, and there was a purpose behind it. Bigwig's telekinetic magic was strong and resilient, but it had its limits. One of those limits was trying to compensate for so much contradictory motion. She wasn't putting a lot of force behind any one movement, but the cumulative effect of all of them broke his hold in two seconds.

Bigwig stumbled back, reeling from the feedback of his magic being defeated. Charisma couldn't take advantage because her escape had left her unbalanced and unready to land properly, so she went sprawling among the dead. Recovery didn't take long, though, and she rolled to her hooves in a moment, jumping at him.

To his credit he recovered quickly, abandoning a second doomed attempt to grab her directly and instead grabbing whatever loose objects were lying about him and flinging them at her. She was forced to dodge, skewing her attack to the side so that she only landed a quick side kick to his flank. His fat cushioned him a bit, but she had still placed the kick well enough that his left hind leg folded under him.

He cried out in pain and anger, throwing a storm of small pebbles and other debris at her. She leapt high, flying over the telekinetic attack, then dove down at him from directly overhead. Again he reacted with admirable speed, dropping the projectiles and instead grabbing the piece of sidewalk he was sitting on. He ripped the slab of concrete out of its place in the ground and used it to throw himself to the side, barely avoiding her. She rolled as soon as she hit the broken earth, maintaining her momentum as she rushed him.

She saw the surprise and fear in his eyes. He had known who she was, what she could do, and he still underestimated her. She had expected better from a former 598.

He tumbled back, shoving the concrete slab at her. She was about to dodge when she felt his magic grip her again. The magic hold lasted barely an instant, but it was long enough to prevent her from getting out of the way. The broken slab of sidewalk slammed into her, driving the breath from her body and throwing her across the street and through the front doors of the church of the sun.

She tumbled down the central aisle of the church, slapping at the ground and bleeding momentum until she came to a rest halfway to the pulpit. She paused there, catching her breath and considering her options. Killing this unicorn was going to take a bit more attention than she'd been giving it so far.

She rolled to her hooves and leapt up, flying to the ceiling and one of the high windows. Like she had hoped, the window opened to let some air into the stuffy church during the hot summer months, and it was open right now. It wasn't wide enough for her to wiggle through, but that was okay. A few moments of work and she had removed the open pane from the frame. With careful intention she smashed the pane, grabbing a decent sized chunk of glass. The rest she threw out the open window before diving back to the door.

Just as she had hoped, Bigwig was waiting with a nasty surprise for when she showed herself. The smashing of the window and the object falling from the top of the church was what caught his attention, and he sent the deadly fusillade of projectiles towards the remains of the window while she rocketed out the door and straight into him. He reacted in panic, grabbing her with his magic, but she was already throwing the shard of glass. He saw it coming, too late to stop it, but soon enough to flinch. Instead of embedding itself in his eye it struck his shoulder, sinking deep into the thick flesh and staining crimson immediately.

He threw her back at the church, but she compensated as soon as his grip vanished. She was about to go after him again when he tore up another section of the sidewalk under his hooves. His yellow magic held the slab of concrete together as he used it to propel himself down the street, vanishing around a corner.

Charisma paused. She could chase him. This was a small town and there weren't many places he could hide, but she had the feeling that he was just making a tactical retreat. He would soon rally and come for her, perhaps with allies in tow. She debated with herself for a long moment on what to do, but slowly a grin spread on her face. So many bodies lay in the street, and there was now the prospect for more, and with a real fight to boot! No, her path was clear. They would come to her eventually. She had to prepare.

She thought of Melody, and her little practice field. That wonderful collection of knives. With a ringing laugh she took off, heading for the Fashion Estate to prepare her battlefield.

Calumn kept his cries down to a high-pitched hiss as the pain of Cash's magic assaulted him yet again. It was still clinging to him, preventing him from changing shape, but its hold was weakening. He kept trying, pausing regularly to listen for signs that anyone had noticed the burst of green fire that accompanied each attempt. He had been lucky so far, but the afternoon was waning, and as the light faded his magic was going to become ever more noticeable. His hiding place had kept him safe from the mob, but until he could reliably shift forms it was becoming less secure by the minute and would soon be a trap that he was stuck in.

He paused, panting at the exertion. Shape changing usually didn't take much energy, it was so natural to them that untrained Changelings had been known to shift in their sleep or with a stray thought. When that natural magic was blocked, though, it turned into chore that wore away at his reserves.

He tried again, clenching his jaw to keep from crying out as Cash's magic assailed him. It was definitely getting weaker, and it wouldn't be long now before he could shift properly. The damage was already done, though. He'd been seen. Clearly, publicly, undeniably. Even a town this small and remote would have a communication crystal linked to the capital for emergencies. They would have called in by now, and the Griffins would be on their way. If he and Blaze didn't escape in the next few hours, they weren't going to escape at all.

Thinking of Blaze reminded Calumn that he had to find his friend and warn him before he did or said something that would reveal his involvement. Because they were new in town they would be natural suspects. Cash would be too, but he knew that the mad unicorn had ways of slipping through chaos unnoticed.

A noise from above him made Calumn cease his attempts to shift. He crouched down, curling up under a table and going through exercises to slow his breathing. The sounds coming from above were hoofsteps. He'd thought this building unoccupied, but obviously he had been mistaken. He had to find some way out, but with the sun still shining he would be easy to spot in the streets.

The steps came closer to the stairs, walking with a strange cadence that the Changeling couldn't properly judge. Calumn forced himself to utter stillness. Cash's magic interfered with his other magic as well his shifting, but he was a fully trained operative of the Republics Intelligence Agency. He knew how to handle himself hoof-to-hoof.

There was a pause as the pony stopped at the top of the stairs. Calumn held his breath, readying to leap. Then there was a cry and Blaze fell down the stairs, juggling a flower pot, two fine china dishes and a vase. He rolled end over end, making a stuttering yelp with each thud against the narrow stairway. He hit the ground floor in a sprawl, each limb catching one of the objects he'd been keeping aloft and balancing them before they hit the floor. He looked up at Calumn. "Buddy! Am I glad to see you!"

Calumn had to take a moment to relax from his combat posture, and then another moment to take in the sight of his friend’s predicament. Blaze grinned up at him, still holding the breakables. Finally, Calumn shook his head. "I don't want to know," he muttered to himself. He quickly took the objects from Blaze and set them aside. He considered his lack of surprise that Blaze had found him here, but he remembered the stallion's Talent and decided it made as much sense as anything to do with Blaze. "Do you know what's happening?"

Blaze shrugged as he got up. "Panic and screaming and running and stuff," he said. "Buddy, did you show off in public? Because, I get that you gotta fly that Changeling flag high, but, um, there's such a thing as being too open. Or, that's what people tell me. All the time. So I figure there's a grain of truth to that. Which I don't think you can make bread out of, and what would it taste like anywa–"

Calumn stuffed a hoof in Blaze's mouth before he could get up too much momentum. "Cash," he said. It was all the explanation Blaze would need.

Blaze nodded. "Charisma caught up with me," he said, turning to show Calumn the bloody wound in his side.

Blaze shrugged and waved a hoof dismissively. "Nah, I'll be fine. Some antiseptic and bandages are all it'll take, really." Calumn gave him an incredulous stare. "Look, this isn't anything she hasn't done to me before. I know how to deal with it."

"Okay, if you think so, but where are we gonna get that?" Blaze asked. "It's, um, kind of mobby out there."

"Oh, yeah, lots," Blaze said. "Don't worry about it. I mean, when you really think about it pain's just another feeling, right? Just like love."

Blaze shrugged. "Not really. But I can ignore it. And, buddy, I have had a lot of practice with that."

Calumn opened his mouth to say something to that, but thought better of it. He shook his head instead. "It doesn't matter anyways. I can't go anywhere until I can shift. Cash hit me with something that's stopping that, but I think it's getting weaker every time I try."

Blaze nodded, looking somber. "Yeah, that sounds like a nice number and all, but we really need to be moving in, like, two minutes."

"'Cause the mob of scared ponies I ran away from is heading in this direction," Blaze said. "They seemed pretty keen on catching me, and I think a pegasus saw what house I went into."

"'Cause people pointing at me and yelling 'get him, he's a Changeling' kinda makes me want to run, even though I'm not actually a Changeling so they really shouldn't be saying that. And I'm like 'nu-uh I'm not', and they went 'prove it', and I said 'how do you prove a negative?' and then they started running at me, so I took off."

"Luna's night! It's worse than I thought. We have to get out of here!" Calumn looked at the door, then down at his chitinous legs. With a snarl he tried to shift, and was rebuffed yet again. "Damn it!" he yelled, stamping his hoof.

"Don't worry, buddy, we'll think of something," Blaze assured him, looking around. "Uh, how about we dress you up as an old lady? Get you a flower print dress, and you can wear this really big hat and kind of hunch over and speak in that raspy voice that they always do, except not too raspy 'cause she obviously doesn't have a cold or anything because then why would she be out and about anyway? Unless she's really keen on this mob thing, and don't say she wouldn't be! I know a lot of old people who just want a good mob like they used to have when they were young and full of piss and vinegar. Oh! And you have to mention piss and vinegar a lot, even though I don't think you can be full of vinegar without dissolving because it's an acid. A little vinegar is good, but not on everything and I'm not sure if old people even eat hay fries, because those things are really salty and kind of bad for you if you don't keep really active."

"Got it!" Calumn crowed. "Clear a space out here." His wings buzzed as he took off, rushing up the stairs without waiting to see if Blaze was doing what he wanted. On the second floor there was a short hallway with two doors on one side and one on the other. They all stood open, and Calumn rushed into what appeared to be the master bedroom. Evidence of Blaze's entry could be seen in the open window and dirty hoofprints on the otherwise immaculate carpeting. Without pausing to take in any more details of the room, he pulled open the closet and gave it a quick scan. Finding what he was looking for almost immediately he pulled a thick blanket off a shelf and rushed back down the stairs to where Blaze had moved some of the furniture aside.

"This is how we'll do it," Calumn said, laying out the blanket. "We're going to roll me up in this. Then you are going to carry me out."

"Uh, buddy?" Blaze said, giving the Changeling a quizzical look. "I know you're not as big as me, but you're still pretty big. If you can't make yourself kid-sister sized right now, this is gonna be noticed. And heavy. And I've got a broken rib."

"You don't have to take me far," Calumn said, lying down on the edge of the blanket and grasping it to himself. "There's a cart out front, I saw it when I hid here. Toss me in it, hitch up quick and get moving. Look, it's not a good plan, but it's all I can give you right now! We have to move and this has at least a slim chance of working. So roll me up!"

Blaze looked at him for a long second before shrugging and grinning. "Whatever you say, buddy. Hold on tight and squish down!" He put his hooves on Calumn and rolled up the blanket.

Calumn flattened himself as much as possible, which was a surprising amount for anyone not familiar with Changelings. When the blanket was completely rolled up he said a silent prayer to Luna that he wouldn't show too much. Blaze didn't say anything, so he was hoping it was a good sign. A moment later he felt himself being dragged across the floor, out the front door and down the small flight of stairs, and finally hefted up and tossed onto the wooden cart.

He contemplated continuing his attempts to shift, but decided against it. The fire that accompanied a shape change usually didn’t get hot enough or last long enough to ignite cloth, but under certain circumstances it could have a cumulative effect that would start fires. Calumn was willing to bet that with his luck right now he'd set his blanket alight by the third try.

So he hunkered down and tried his best to keep from moving. Hopefully Blaze would get them out of town soon without encountering any of the terrified townsponies. If not, then Calumn would do everything he could to see that his friend made it out alive.

Of the many jobs Bright Lantern did for the town of Precious Corners, controlling the communication crystals was by far the easiest, and most lucrative. Most uses of the crystals were on a set schedule, and didn't even require his presence. All he had to do was make sure they were charged and ready for when their owners came to make their calls, which could be done days beforehand. The public crystal was a little different, as he had to spend some effort in tuning it to the receiver the client wanted, but the demand to use the public crystal was so small it was a busy week if he had to use it twice. This had been one of those weeks. Even when it wasn’t busy, though, his abilities with the crystals netted him both a crown stipend and a per-call fee that, while far from making him wealthy, would certainly allow him to live comfortably all even without all the other services he provided.

The one major downside to his duty as crystal operator was that in times of emergency he became the sole link to the outside world. Precious Corners was too far from the centers of Kingdom civilization for any pony on hoof or wing to bring help in time to make a difference. The crystals could get them help with great speed, and he had been fortunate to never have to use them for that purpose. Until today.

A Changeling. Of all the places in the sunlands, a Changeling just had to show up in Precious Corners. This could be the opening salvo in the war everybody knew was coming and nobody hoped would arrive, and it had happened in the park he could see from his office. He'd even seen the creature for an instant, running from the ponies who saw it for what it really was. He'd nearly thrown up just from that single glance. It had looked just as the whispered stories and lurid tales said it would: a monstrous pony-shaped insect, vile and black and flaring with green fire.

It had taken him almost a full minute before he'd realized what his duty was. A Changeling had been sighted, and he was the only one who could report it to the Crown before the creature escaped, or worse. It had taken another half an hour to find the proper codes and ciphers that would verify his identity and allow his message to be treated as anything other than a joke or the words of a panicked fool jumping at shadows.

Once he had jumped through the hoops, though, things had gotten deadly serious very quickly. They were sending Griffins. Not just a single warrior, or a pair, but two whole flights of them. More than a dozen Griffins, here in Precious Corners!

Of course, he couldn't just go and tell everyone else that was going to happen, no. He'd been ordered to sit by the crystals until they got there, in case something had to be communicated. Which would be fine if there was anyone else around, but they had all run off to do Celestia only knew what, and he was stuck here alone. When this was all over he was going to have some serious words with the nobles about disaster management policies and leaving the town hall empty during a crisis.

The crystal room was on the first floor of the town hall, just off the lobby. He could see the front doors clearly from his seat by the crystal board, which was good as it allowed him to get the attention of anyone coming in. What wasn't good about it was that he could hear things happening in the street outside, and ten minutes ago it had almost sounded like a battle. Screaming ponies, shouting and then loud noises. Not like explosions, but like heavy things slamming into each other. Then silence.

Bright Lantern sat by the crystals, all alone. He had been told in no uncertain terms that it would be treason to abandon his post now. That was the only thing keeping him from bolting for home. One thought kept repeating over and over in his head: He was terrified for his life, but he wasn't allowed to leave.

The knocking on the door was like a gunshot, making him scream and jump, his chair falling to the floor in a clatter. He stood, pulse pounding in his ears and breath coming in panting gasps, and tried to think of what to do as the knock sounded again.

"Wh-who are you?" Bright Lantern asked, his voice weak, probably too weak to be heard at the door. His mouth was dry, but he worked up enough spit to swallow and tried again. "Identify yourself!"

"My name is Max Cash," the pony at the door replied. "I was here earlier today? To use the communication crystal?"

The door opened all the way, and Lantern immediately wished it hadn't. The street out in front of the town hall was littered with debris and it looked like someone had painted it red and then left multicolored bundles of fur and cloth strewn about it. Bright Lantern tried desperately to hold on to that explanation, but he knew what he was seeing. He wasn't even allowed a few moments of blissful, confused ignorance. There were bodies in the street.

"Hey, nice to see you again," Cash said with a horrifically incongruous smile. "You're the crystal guy, right? I mean, I know you worked them before and you're here now, but you're the only crystal guy in town, right?" Bright Lantern shook, but nodded his head without really thinking about why Cash would be asking a question like that. "Wonderful! Now, you're looking a touch panicky, why is that?"

"Why is...? Do you not see the bodies in the street?" he demanded. He wrenched his eyes away from the dead and looked at the pony walking towards him, then found that he could not look away.

"There are no bodies," Cash said, his voice slow and calm. "The street is clear and normal."

"But... no," Lantern struggled for words. Cash broke off his gaze, allowing the other unicorn to look to the street again. It was clear and normal. There were no bodies. "But, I could have sworn..."

"Could be stress," Cash mused. "You might be working too much, being the only unicorn with a Communication Talent in the region. Has there been something going on recently that's given you additional stress? A personal matter or something? Do you have girlfriend troubles?"

Lantern stared incredulously at Cash. "Are you mad? There was a Changeling sighting not an hour ago!"

"Yes there... I... I don't know," Lantern admitted, wondering why his heart was beating so fast. He felt dizzy, and would have sat down but his chair was lying on the floor. "I thought there was something... I can't..."

"Hey, it happens to the worst of us," Cash said, his horn glowing as he picked up Lantern's chair for him. Lantern gave the other unicorn a thankful nod and sat down, resting his head in his forelegs. "I wanted to ask, though, did you send out a message about a Changeling sighting or something?"

"It will," Lantern agreed, new panic rising in him. "Oh, Celestia, what did I do?"

"Nothing that can't be reversed, I'm sure," Cash said. "Just give them another call, right quick, and tell them it was a false alarm. Everything's fine here."

"Yes. Yes!" Lantern lit his horn, pouring his magic into the crystal array. It was already set up to send and receive to a Crown relay so he didn't need to jump through any hoops this time before he was connected.

"This is Crown relay fourteen, please state your situation update." The voice coming from the crystals was clear and precise. They couldn't afford any of the expensive visual crystals, so audio was all he had to go on, but he imagined some kind of military unicorn on the other end. A no-nonsense type who wouldn't be pleased to hear what was to come next.

"The update is that there is no situation," Lantern said. He tried to keep his own voice as calm and professional as he could, but he could feel it coming close to breaking at points. "The Changeling report was mistaken."

"You claimed that you saw the Changeling personally. Are you rescinding this claim?"

Lantern paused. "I... I don't... I didn't see any Changeling." He shook his head. This was no time to be getting confused about things. "There was no Changeling sighting. It was a false alarm. Everything's fine here." There was a moment of silence from the other end, then the communication array went dead. "They cut me off," Lantern said, staring at the board.

"Oh? Just like that?" Cash asked. He stood quite close now, and was grinning in a way that made Lantern want to put a lot of distance between them. "While you were in the middle of an important message? That's awful!"

"But why would they do that?" Lantern asked, meaning the question for himself more than the other unicorn.

"They don't think much of you, do they?" Cash said. "They're probably angry that you wasted their time. Just some country unicorn making wild claims."

"Why did I even..." Lantern squeezed his eyes shut. There was something there, but he couldn't put his hoof on it.

"You know what? They don't appreciate you," Cash said. "You do all this hard work, live in this Celestia-forsaken backwater, the least they could do is listen when you own up to a mistake."

"Yeah," Lantern said, opening his eyes and raising his head. They didn't appreciate him at all! "I deserve better!"

"Good," Cash said, glee bubbling though his voice. "Now why don't you show them what you think of their attitude? Smash the crystals."

"I... I can't," Lantern said. They deserved to know his anger, but he couldn't just smash the panel. That was a felony crime at the best of times.

"Oh, come on," Cash goaded. "You know the only way they'll ever pay attention to you is if you make them. What do you owe them, really? Come on. Smash the crystals. You can be free of it, you can make them appreciate you. All it'll take is one. Little. Betrayal."

Cash was right. What did he owe them? The military, the Crown, hell, even the local nobles would be lost without him. No, he didn't have any loyalty to any of them. Bright Lantern felt something break. It took him a moment to realize that it was the communications board snapping beneath his hooves. He felt a perverse sense of glee at the sight of expensive and delicate crystals shattering as he smashed the board again and again.

Finally, when there was nothing salvageable left of the crystals, Bright Lantern stood panting over the destruction. "That'll show them," he muttered.

Lantern startled at the question. He had practically forgotten that Cash was there. "The, uh, the ponies at the relay?"

"Wow, yeah, good statement there," Cash nodded. "Though, considering the town's in a crisis, you probably shouldn't have done that."

Lantern snorted. "There was no Changeling... sighting..." His eyes went wide as he remembered looking out the window of his office and seeing the horrible thing running down the street. "Celestia's burning gaze. What have I done?"

"Looks a lot like you smashed the only communication crystals in town," Cash pointed out. "That's, what? Misdemeanor? Felony?"

"Treason," Lantern breathed. His heart was pounding again and his vision was going gray at the edges.

"Ouch. Well, I've got good news and bad news for you," Cash said, giving Lantern a friendly pat on the back. "The bad news is that you've just destroyed your career, your family's safety and quite possibly your town's chance for a speedy deliverance. All in all, the rest of your life is going to be a miserable series of humiliations and disgrace." Lantern let out a strangled whimper. Cash grinned. “There is good news, though! So things are looking up! The good news is that the rest of your life doesn’t have to be very long.”

"Well, I've got some business to take care of, so I'll leave you to think on that," Cash said, giving him a pat before turning towards the open front door. There were bodies in the street again. Lantern had no idea how he hadn't seen them. “Before I go, though, do you mind giving me directions to the local school? It’s along the road out of town, right?”

Cash paused for a moment, flashing Lantern a smile. "Primarily? I've been told I should be practicing more by a violent psychopath, so I figure I should work on that. You know, just to keep her happy. But first? Well, I was lamenting the lack of torches earlier, and a thought has occurred to me: a lot of these houses are made of wood, so if I want torches why don't I just make some of my own?" Cash began to giggle. A moment later it had turned into a wild, braying laugh that grated on Lantern's ears.

Bright Lantern shook. His magic picked up a long, jagged shard of broken crystal. It floated before him, inviting. He'd ruined himself, and he didn't even know why. It was all so confusing, starting from when Cash walked in. He paused, fighting through the confusion. Cash had come in, and then everything had started to go wrong. He thought about what the unicorn had just said, and the realization kicked him into motion.

"No," Lantern said, turning towards Cash's retreating form, his body stilling. "Make torches? You're going to set fire to the school! To the whole town!"

Cash stopped, turning back to Lantern with an almost shocked expression. "Only parts of it," he said. "Now, why aren't you killing yourself? No, seriously, I'm practicing here and I want to know what I did wrong."

"You did this to me!" Lantern snarled, his horn glowing brightly as he gripped the crystal shard ever tighter, turning it to face Cash. He funnelled all his confusion, all his horror and fear into anger. He willed his rage into a shield to protect him from the mind tricks of the creature before him. "You. You're the Changeling!"

"Nope," Cash said, eyeing the crystal. His wild smile dwindled down to a mad smirk, but didn't vanish. "Just a unicorn."

"Then you're working with it," Lantern accused. Either way, he wasn't going to let this pass. He steeled himself, swallowing his failure. "I don't care what you've done to me. I do care about the people here, the people you've killed and the people you're planning to kill. They are my neighbours and they are my friends. I'm not going to let you burn this town."

"Huh, friendship again," Cash said, shrugging. "Thanks, I'm gonna have to work on that."

"You're not going to be doing anything," Lantern snarled, lowering his head and pawing at the ground.

Cash's eyes widened, as did his smile. His horn lit up with a magenta glow and point of light began to gather at its tip. "Oh, right! You're threatening me. I'd forgotten. Well, okay, go ahead. I'm standing right here, I'm not going to move. You do whatever you're going to do with that crystal and I'll do whatever I'm going to do with this glowy thing."

Bright Lantern screamed, lunging forward. He slashed across Cash's horn with his crystal, hoping to disrupt whatever spell the other unicorn was casting. Cash didn't move, didn't even flinch. Yet when the crystal met horn there was no resistance. The crystal passed completely through Cash's horn without even marking it. It was in that moment that Lantern knew he had been fooled, and knew he was dead.

There wasn't much pain, which surprised him, just a cold feeling that slid from one end of his throat to the other. Lantern slid to a stop, looking to the side to see Cash standing casually several feet from where he had appeared to be. Another shard of broken crystal held before him in a magenta glow that did nothing to hide the red stain that covered it. Lantern tried to jump at him, but his legs failed him and he tumbled to the floor instead.

"You know, I don't often get to do this part," he said, crouching down next to Lantern. "I've got all sorts of nasty people to do it for me. Recently, though, I've picked up this trick, and most people I show it to end up offing themselves. Sometimes in the most hilarious ways. You gotta be the right kind of person to get through it, and surprise, surprise that's not the kind of person you are. No, you're standard issue pony, and yet you managed to pull through. That's cool. If I ever have a really good flashlight, I'll name it after you. How's that sound?"

Bright Lantern gurgled, his mouth worked but was unable to make any proper sound come out. His vision was graying, it wouldn't be long. He had one thing left that he could do.

With a soft, wet noise the crystal shard Lantern was still holding stabbed into Cash's flank. His violet eyes widened in shock and he turned his head to see the shard jammed completely through his saddlebag and into his flesh. "Ow," Cash said, his voice tinged with annoyance rather than pain. "Okay, let that be a lesson to me. But my advice to you if you ever get a chance to do this again? Aim for the eyes."

Bright Lantern couldn't even spare the effort to glare at him. He closed his eyes and let the swirling darkness take his thoughts. He wasn't afraid any more, he was finally allowed to leave.

The cart lurched to the side, nearly overturning as something slammed into it. Calumn let out a yelp as the blanket he was rolled in was thrown from the back of it and onto the street. Being wrapped in a thick blanket was, thankfully, very good for cushioning a fall, but it did severely hamper his ability to know what had just happened. He debated rolling himself out, listening as a familiar voice shouted curses that were muffled by the intervening fabric.

"Oh, hey Mr. Bigwig," Blaze said, sounding a little worried. "That's a nice, um, chunk of rock you got there. How's the steering?"

"You! You were with the Changeling!" Bigwig snarled, rage filling his voice. Calumn had the sudden sense that things were about to go very, very wrong. There was the meaty thunk of a body hitting the ground and Blaze let out a pained gasp. "Are you with her, too?"

"Technically we're still broken up," Blaze said, which would have caused Calumn to goggle if he wasn't too busy trying to struggle out of the blankets.

"None of you are getting anywhere near these kids, do you understand me? If it takes every ounce of power I have you will not get these kids!"

"Wait!" Calumn shouted. A moment later he was gripped in the telekinetic aura of Bigwig's magic and lifted into the air. The blanket unravelled quickly, revealing the scene to the Changeling.

They had been stopped on the road out of town, at a place where the houses few and far between. To his right was a building that proclaimed itself the Precious Corners Primary School. A blue-coated mare stood on the front steps next to an open first-aid kit, watching with fear. The roads were clear in both directions as far as he could see, the sinking sun shimmering off the heated pavement. The cart was lying tilted in the street, one wheel smashed completely by a slab of what appeared to be concrete. Blaze was on his back next to the cart, Bigwig's magic pressing him down to keep him immobile. The fat unicorn was standing on three legs, a hastily made bandage turning red on his right shoulder. He'd lost his hat somewhere, and its lack revealed a scarred and maneless head. His expression was twisted with exertion and anger, and the sight of Calumn only made the rage deepen.

"We aren't your enemy," Calumn said. "Please, sir, we aren't with Charisma, and I don't want to hurt anyone."

"That voice. Strongheart. You bastards," he snarled. "I welcomed you. Worked with you!"

"We were just passing through," Calumn defended. "I swear to you, sir. We didn't mean for this to happen. We didn't bring Charisma here. We don't even know what she's done."

Bigwig's scowl deepened and his telekinetic grip tightened. "And why should I believe the words of a lying insect?"

"You don't have to," Calumn said, meeting Bigwig's eyes with his own. "You have no reason to trust me. I know that, but I'm telling the truth. I'm not here to start a war, I'm not here to cause you any trouble at all."

"We're running away," Calumn said. "From a unicorn named Max Cash. He's Charisma's employer. I swear to you, I had no idea either of them were here!" He took a breath, lowering his volume. “Look, even if you don’t believe me, let Blaze go. Please, he’s done no wrong.”

Bigwig grimaced, eyes narrowing as his horn got even brighter. "No. Can't take the chance. Sorry, boy, I just can’t."

"Incoming!" Blaze screamed, staring at the sky. Calumn and Bigwig looked up to see a dozen streaks of magenta light arcing through the air. It looked like they originated somewhere near the center of town, but they had long since passed the apex of their flight and were now falling across Precious Corners. One of them happened to be coming straight for the three of them.

There was no time to react. The ball of explosive magic landed less than ten feet from them and detonated. The blast overwhelmed Bigwig's magic, throwing Calumn through the air and into the school. He hit the wall, bouncing off and to the ground, knocking the breath out of him. For once he was thankful to be in his true form since his flexible carapace handled shocks much better than soft pony flesh would.

He got up, looking around to take stock of the situation. Bigwig and Blaze had both been knocked to the ground, their coats smouldering. Buildings close to the detonation point had caught fire, the flames burning with a bright magenta tinge. He heard a choked cry nearby and looked over to see the mare who had been standing in the school doorway lying on the ground, choking and pawing at her eyes. Calumn rushed over to her, looking over her injuries. "Hold on," he told her, pulling her legs away from her face. "Okay, you're going to be okay. You've got some flash burns around your eyes, but it looks like you closed them in time. Alright? You'll be fine. Try to breathe, you'll be fine."

"Oh no," Calumn looked up at the building. The entire front was on fire, the entrance was an inferno of red and magenta flame. "What room?" She coughed and sputtered, trying to answer. Calumn felt panic well up in him and he shook her hard. "What room!?"

He dropped her, pushing her into a roll that would take her away from the burning building. Then, with a buzz of his diaphanous wings he took to the air, rising back over the street before rushing at the largest window to the left of the entrance. He smashed through the window in a shower of broken glass and burning wood, falling into the room beyond and crashing through a couple desks before coming to a rolling stop against the far wall of the room.

It took him a moment to clear his head from the impact, but once he did adrenaline threw everything into sharp clarity. The side of the room with the window he had come through was an inferno. Brilliant magenta flames curled and roared, spreading with supernatural speed as they clawed across the ceiling. The door to the classroom was still free of fire, though smoke was filling the hallway beyond. From the way the light was falling on the smoke he could tell there was an open back door to the school that they could escape through. Clustered in the corner of the room, far from both the fire and the door, were a dozen small ponies, most of whom he recognized as the children from the playground.

They stared, more afraid of him than of the fire burning out the ceiling above their heads. "Come on! Let's get you out of here!" he shouted at them. "To the door!" They just flinched back, huddling closer together and crying from the fear and the heat. The whole room was aflame now, the fires licking down the walls from the inferno that had become the ceiling, magenta bleeding into natural orange and red as the magic faded.

Calumn got up, the children screamed out. He had to get them out of the room quickly, before the smoke and heat could overcome them. He could see the problem with horrible clarity: They could escape through the door, but so long as he was in the way they wouldn't move. He could run for the door himself, but then he wouldn't be sure that they would follow, and he couldn't live with that uncertainty.

He leapt away from the door, deeper into the burning room. "The door!" he called, pointing a hole-filled hoof at the exit. "Run!" Still they did not move, too fixated on him, too frightened by his appearance to think clearly. Calumn closed his eyes, feeling the heat seeping into his carapace. He focused on shifting, and put all of his strength, all of his will into the change. Green fire swirled out of his hooves, wrapping around him. Magenta light burst in flashes across his body, trying to stifle the Changeling magic. He didn't let it, gritting his teeth against the pain and forcing the change to continue. When the shift came it felt like he was being flayed. His body shrank and the pain only multiplied, as if he was squeezing all the agony down into a more concentrated form. Yet he endured, even as the feel of wings disappearing and fur growing into place was accompanied by a thousand stabbing needles and the need to scream until his lungs bled.

Finally, he stood before the frightened children as one of them. "Please," he pleaded with Holly's face and Holly's voice. The pain didn't abate now that he'd fully shifted. Instead it remained a constant scraping agony that drowned out the heat of the fire completely.

"Holly?" a faint voice called out, and Andy pulled himself from the group. "Are you really Holly?"

Calumn nodded. "You have to run, Andy. You have to get everyone out, right now!"

"Yes, I am, but you have to escape!" There was a loud crack from the ceiling and Calumn looked up to see part of the roof above the children sagging. "Andy, please!"

"I..." Andy looked around, seeming to notice the fire for the first time. He grabbed at one of the other kids. "Come on, we gotta go!"

Reluctantly at first, but with rising urgency, the others got to their hooves and began shuffling to the door. Most still stared at Calumn with wide, frightened eyes, but others seemed to have come to their senses and ushered them on. Calumn ground his teeth and held his transformation, silently urging them to move faster.

It wasn't enough. With a loud crack, the roof collapsed. Calumn was moving as soon as he heard the sound, his form returning to its true shape as he leapt forward. Fillies and colts screamed as he rushed at them, cringing away. When they weren't immediately gobbled up they looked up to see the Changeling bracing a thick, flaming ceiling beam up above them. He held back the burning ceiling with bloodied hooves, his green eyes blazing with effort and magic.

"Go!" Calumn screamed, and they began to move. Too slow, far too slow. He'd spent too much energy forcing back Cash's magic, there wasn’t enough left to strengthen his limbs to the level he needed. The children edged around him, most coughing from the smoke, a few stumbling and tripping as they were slowly asphyxiated by the fire. His own lungs burned, but he ignored it. His legs shook and his vision blurred. He let out a growl as he focused on holding the ceiling up. He just needed to do it long enough for the kids to get out.

His strength began to fail. The heavy beam dropped an inch, and then another. Then the weight was suddenly gone, and Calumn stumbled from the loss of pressure. He looked up to see the ceiling held in place by the cool yellow aura of Bigwig's magic. His eyes shot to the door of the classroom, and there he saw the heavy stallion leaning against the doorframe, ushering children to the exit while staring at the Changeling with an appraising eye.

When the last of the children had made it out, the unicorn continued to stare at Calumn. The smoke filled the room with a murky haze, and breathing was all but impossible. Yet the two did not move. Finally, with a look of supreme reluctance, Bigwig jerked his head towards the exit, pushing off from the door to limp that way himself. Calumn wasted no time in following him, rushing out the back door of the burning school to the small playground where the children were sprawled out, being tended to by a pair of mares and a singed Blaze.

Calumn coughed and retched as he stumbled out into the light. Changeling physiology meant he was actually a little more susceptible to smoke inhalation than a pony would be. The shifting had helped with that, and so he only felt like was going to cough out one lung instead of both of them.

He didn't have much time to get his breath back, though, as he was gripped in a telekinetic vise and slammed into the ground. He coughed and sputtered as his muzzle was ground into the dirt, choking and unable to properly expel the smoke that seemed to fill his chest more and more with every failed breath.

"Don't do this," Blaze said, rushing over to stand in front of Bigwig. His stance was purely defensive, he didn't offer any threat to the unicorn, but he was clearly ready to stop him from getting to the downed Changeling. "He didn't lie to you. He's not here to hurt anybody, and we didn't bring Charisma."

"And why should I listen to you either?" Bigwig demanded, pausing to cough up his own lungful of smoke. "He could have you thralled for all I know."

"Yeah, sure, but he doesn't," Blaze said. "I think I'd know if I was being mentally dominated so that my every thought was twisted to his evil, fell purposes. Which they totally aren't. Because if they were then I would probably be thinking about his butt and stuff, which I'm not. Well, I wasn't. I am now."

Bigwig stared at Blaze in unbelieving confusion. Calumn had the mad urge to laugh. It was just like his friend to be so completely, unhelpfully goofy in the most serious situation. Yet he wasn't worried. If there was any hope of them getting out of this, then Blaze would find the way. And when he did, he'd leave everyone utterly baffled and unsure of what had just transpired.

His attention drifted. Bigwig was either going to kill him or he wasn’t, and there was nothing Calumn could do to affect that decision. He looked at the mares helping out the foals. One of them was the blue mare who had been burned at the front of the school, and he was glad to see that she seemed to be doing fine. The children were all breathing, though many were crying and coughing from the fear and the smoke. Most of them weren’t even singed. They would be fine, and Calumn felt a strong measure of peace in that knowledge.

A pair of watery eyes caught his attention and Calumn focused his gaze on Andy, who was staring at him from across the playground. He had just thrown up whatever he'd eaten that day and was being fussed over by one of the mares, but his eyes had found Calumn and refused to leave. There was no fear in those eyes, stung as they were by the smoke and heat. No, instead there was something else, something very much like awe. With a shock Calumn realized he was getting a stream of power from the small pony. Not friendship, not love. There was gratitude there, but it was laced heavily with something else, something stronger. He'd never felt anything like it before, and had no idea what to call it.

The Changeling looked at Andy and felt wonder rise in him. Here he was, a creature that they told stories about to give kids like this nightmares, and yet this child felt no fear. He had sworn to be good, to be kind, to be better. In the eyes of this colt, he saw the proof that he was living up to that vow.

Calumn twisted his face out of the dirt and smiled at Andy, doing his best to convey all that he was feeling even though he knew his fangs would make the expression frightening. Instead of flinching, Andy smiled back. A weak smile, but a smile nonetheless.

“Look at them,” Blaze said, stepping aside and gesturing between Calumn and the foals. “Just look.” Bigwig looked. He grit his teeth, pawing at the earth and tossing his head as he struggled with the contradictions he was faced with. In the end he let out a long, hissing breath, seeming to deflate as it went.

The pressure suddenly lifted from Calumn, letting the Changeling curl up and cough until his raw throat felt like it was being rubbed with sandpaper with each breath. When he could move again he levered himself upright, looking towards the hefty unicorn who stared at him with narrowed, angry eyes.

Calumn didn't have to be told twice. He stumbled past Bigwig and up to Blaze. The earth pony bent his shoulders down slightly, and Calumn took the invitation, throwing a foreleg over his friend as they both limped down the street.

"Thanks, Blaze," Calumn rasped out. "Whatever you said to convince him? Thank you."

"Wasn't me, buddy," Blaze replied, grinning widely. "He looked over and saw how you and the kid were smiling at each other. It was so cute. I mean, absolutely cute. We're in a town called Precious Corners, and I don't think it's ever seen anything as cute as that before. They're gonna change the town's name to 'Precious Changeling And Colt Looking At Each Other And Smiling Super Cutely Corners' now. Except that's a really long name, and it'd be hard to address postage, so they'll just call it 'Pcaclaeoasscc' and the tourism will be huge!" Calumn choked out a laugh as Blaze sounded out every letter of his ridiculous acronym. "It was all you, buddy. You're a hero."

"No," Calumn said as they walked out of the town and towards the horizon. "Not a hero. Just a person trying to do the right thing."

Melody swooped down towards the burning school, landing next to the familiar bulk of Bigwig. The stallion looked worse for wear, with a bloody bandage wrapped around his shoulder and his coat burned and smoke-darkened. He was staring off down the road out of town, an absent, thoughtful look on his gruff features.

"What's going on?" Melody asked, looking with horror at the schoolhouse inferno. She had so many memories of attending this tiny three room school. To see it burn felt like a blow to her heart. It looked like all the foals had gotten out fine, which she was thankful for. Yet even with that there were still more important things for her to focus on. "People said there was a Changeling sighting, and when I flew over the town square there were... were..."

"I was there," Bigwig said. His voice was distant, his attention clearly elsewhere. "Something evil's come to our town, and it isn't the Changeling."

"Was," Bigwig said, finally looking away from the road. "It's gone now, and you and me, we've got bigger fish to fry."

"Who. Her name's Charisma, and she's just about the worst pony you could ever have the bad luck to meet."

"Wouldn't? You know her?" Bigwig asked, rounding on the pegasus, his horn lighting up with power.

"I... She's staying at Lord Fashion's estate," Melody explained. "She's a retainer for a Magic Talent unicorn."

Bigwig spat a glob of smoky phlegm on the ground. "That bitch is no retainer." He paused for a moment, breathing heavily and frowning at the ground. "This Magic Talent. His name Max Cash?" Melody nodded. "Huh, then the bug wasn't lying. You know where either of them are?"

"No, I left Charisma over by the east warehouse, but she wasn't there when I went to look. I don't even know where Lord Cash is."

"Fashion," Bigwig muttered. "They're staying with Lord Fashion." He stomped on the ground, gritting his teeth in anger. "Celestia burn it, girl! They're going to kill him!"

"Charisma's killed more than two dozen ponies in this town. She and her master are going to want to get rid of witnesses. That means you and me and Lord Fashion. We're mobile, they've gotta find us, but Lord Fashion'll hole up in his estate. They'll know exactly where he is."

"That's what they want," Bigwig snarled. "That’s their plan! They'll use him as bait to get us to come to them. It's a trap."

Bigwig spat again, running hoof over his scarred head. “Owe him my fealty same as you, girl. Don’t think I’ve forgotten it.”

He glared at her for a long moment before snorting and giving her a wry look. “You’re the one who’s gonna be helping me, girl. They’ll be waiting for us, but since we know that it won’t be an ambush. Charisma’s going to be there, though, and she’s the problem. I got away from her earlier, thought about getting together a good militia, but that's not going to work with her. She'd chew through any pony in this town faster than a chainsaw through dry straw. I can get her, but I can't do it alone. I'll need you to run a distraction. Can you do that?"

Melody paused, knowing exactly how much of a distraction she would provide for the former marine. "I don't know."

"Dammit, girl! You're the closest thing to a soldier this town has! Do you want to save Lord Fashion? Then do not prove a coward now!"

Melody cringed back from the chastisement, but rallied her courage and nodded. "I'm not a coward, sir. But I don't know if I can fight her."

Melody stepped closer to Bigwig. "No, I really can't fight her like this," she said.

"I'm not sure I can take her on my own, girl," Bigwig growled back. "You just said you're not a coward, don't prove a liar too!"

"No, I mean I can't fight her hoof-to-hoof," Melody explained. "She's too good. I need a weapon, something that can keep her at a distance."

Melody shook her head. "No, but I might have something that will work. I've got a weapon cache in the woods. There's knives and spears there."

Bigwig's eyebrows drew down in thought. "That'll be useful," he mused. "Alright, let's go get your weapons before we head to the estate."

Bigwig laughed, his horn glowing as he grabbed a slab of concrete that was embedded in a partly-destroyed cart. He dragged the slab over to himself and stepped on it, then lifted the slab so that he floated a foot in the air. "Five-nine-eight special. We're not called 'mobile artillary' for nothing."

Bigwig could move his platform faster than she could fly, but had absolutely no maneuverability with it, and so it took a little longer than she could have moved alone to get to her training ground. It was still far faster than waiting for Bigwig to get there on hoof would have been. When they got there, though, she found the shed open. A quick look through confirmed her fears. "My knives are gone," she told him.

They were silent for a moment, thinking over the implications. Finally, Bigwig shook his head. "Doesn’t matter. The rest of it?"

"Lay them out," Bigwig said. "Pick the best one for yourself, something you feel comfortable using."

She selected her weapon quickly, a short-bladed spear that she had practiced with more than any other weapon. It wasn't the best weapon for fighting another pegasus with, but if she fought carefully she should be able to keep Charisma at least a pony's length away.

Their arsenal ready, the two of them took off for the Fashion estate. The sun was sinking to the horizon, and the smoke had formed a cloud that was painted a blood red by the low sun and burning buildings. The estate's lights were on, the gates open wide. Standing on the terraced lawn, watching them approach, was Charisma.

"I wondered when you'd show up," Charisma said as they touched down in front of her. She casually flipped a knife through the air and balanced it tip-down with one hoof. Melody narrowed her eyes, she recognized that knife, and all the others that were strapped to the pegasus. They were hers, from her training grounds. Seeing them used by the murderous enforcer felt like a betrayal. "I didn't expect you to be bringing just her though."

"It means that it's not important why I killed them," Charisma snapped, the smile disappearing. "I did it, that's all that matters. Run away, Melody. Run away or I'm going to kill you too."

Melody set herself, holding her spear at the ready. "I can't let you get away with this." she said. "I trusted you."

"No, you trusted Max," Charisma replied, staring at her with an unreadable blank expression. "That was your mistake. That's always the mistake."

Charisma launched herself at Melody, moving so suddenly she had crossed half the distance before the younger pegasus had realized she was moving at all. She brought her spear up, but Charisma was already twisting in the air to avoid the weapon.

A club whirled through the air, spinning like a propeller blade as it swung at the enforcer. Charisma flared her wings, changing direction with the same shocking suddenness that she had started moving with. The club missed her by half a foot, spinning into the red twilight.

"Get her!" Bigwig roared, launching a pair of spears at Charisma with a yellow flash.

Melody hesitated, but forced herself into motion. In that moment of pause Charisma had already avoided the spears and thrown a dagger at Bigwig. The unicorn caught it in a telekinetic field and threw it back with astounding force. Charisma barely avoided it, losing a few feathers as it brushed past her wing. The knife embedded itself into the ground with a dull noise that was more like an explosion than an impact.

Melody rushed at Charisma, jabbing with her spear. The other pegasus casually deflected the blow, sliding inside Melody's reach and jabbing her in the leg. Melody instantly felt the leg go numb and dangle at her side, forcing her to withdraw. Bigwig still used the opportunity to launch more weapons at the warrior. He smashed a wooden club to pieces on the driveway and used the resulting splinters as a cloud of flechettes that he sent spinning at her.

Charisma leapt high, avoiding that attack but opening herself up to another one. Bigwig tossed a metal club at her, forcing her to veer right into Melody, who was rising to meet her. With one leg out of commission, Melody couldn't put a lot of force into her spear jab, but her momentum combined with Charisma's did plenty. The blow looked like it was going to strike true, but the enforcer twisted at the last moment, taking a shallow cut along her side, but closing to a grapple with Melody.

She panicked. Young pegasi had many rules about flying that had to be drilled into them, but one was always more important than others: don't get entangled in the air. Any interference with her wings while she was flying would make her fall, and crash, and likely die. She wasn't high enough to do more than possibly break a bone, but it was still a terrifying prospect.

Charisma seemed to have none of the same fear, grabbing onto Melody with a strange, spider-like crawling motion. They began to fall, Melody struggling with all her might and Charisma casually ignoring her as she set herself and leapt. Melody recovered from the fall immediately, soaring up into the air and turning to watch what happened below.

Charisma's leap took her towards Bigwig. He stood stock-still, watching her approach with a snarl. At the last moment, as she set her hooves to attack, he rolled over. Beneath him he had hidden the mace, already surrounded with his magic and straining to fly upward.

Charisma reacted with impossible suddenness again, barely avoiding the mace as it swung up at her, then diving to the side as it came down again, slamming into the earth. She rolled back to her hooves, laughing. "The mace! Oh, I'd forgotten about that!"

Bigwig roared with effort and the slab of concrete he'd been using as a platform ripped itself from the ground and hurtled at her. The mace whipped up at the same time, rushing into the place where Charisma would have to leap up to avoid the concrete. She didn't leap, instead falling back and to the side, twisting and springing in a disturbingly un-equine way until she was out of the way of both attacks. Melody's jaw dropped open, astonished at the sheer ability of her opponent.

Charisma didn't pause to admire herself, however, and with a fluid motion that was just a flashing blur to Melody's eyes, she threw a dagger at the unicorn.

The dagger flew at Bigwig. He reacted with the swiftness of instinct, his telekinesis knocking the blade aside. His eyes widened as he realized the first blade had been a feint, and a second knife was following behind the first. He grabbed the second knife bare inches from his eye, holding it in place. Melody cried out, trying to warn him. She was too late.

The second blade had also been a feint, and with his attention focused on it he saw too late the pink pegasus streaking at him in a blur of flapping wings and outstretched hooves. He grabbed at her with his magic, but not soon enough. Her leading hoof hit the dagger floating in front of him, breaking it free from his divided attention. It didn't have far to go, far too short a distance for him to react, and it buried itself to the hilt in his eye.

His magic winked out instantly, dropping Charisma to the ground. She touched down lightly, gracefully turning the fall into a pirouette that set her facing Melody. Charisma smiled, the pure joy of accomplishment radiating from her. Bigwig's body crumpled to the ground, and Charisma's mouth opened in a small gasp of pleasure at the sound.

Melody felt rage unlike anything she had ever experienced before. It boiled through her body, energizing her wings and focusing her vision down to a point that encompassed her opponent. She screamed in fury and denial, hefting her spear and diving as fast as she had ever flown towards Charisma. The pink pegasus shifted her stance slightly, extending her wings in a gesture of invitation before taking off to meet her.

Melody knew she was going to lose. She knew that the only way this would end was with Charisma triumphant and her dead, but she would make her work for it. They came at each other, Melody with blind rage and Charisma with deadly grace, and knew this pass would end it.

A magenta explosion between them knocked both combatants out of the air. Melody hit the ground hard, losing her spear and rolling back towards the estate. Once she came to a stop she lay for a long moment, collecting herself. When she finally had her wits together enough to find out what happened she found Max Cash standing a dozen feet away, beside Lord High Fashion.

"We're really not," Cash put in, his casual tone distractingly incongruous with the situation.

"They've killed ponies!" Melody said, throwing a glace over her shoulder to where Charisma stood a good fifty feet back, poised and ready but unmoving. "They set the town on fire! Look! She just killed Bigwig!" She gestured with a hoof to the dead unicorn.

Lord Fashion looked disdainfully at the corpse. "Fool," he said. "He deserved it."

Melody could barely keep on her hooves. She didn't believe what she was hearing. "No, they're criminals–" she began, but was cut off.

"So what?" Lord Fashion snapped. "What do I care if they're obedient to the wastrel king and his court of fools?"

"My lord, no!" Melody pleaded, her wings drooping. "That's treason! I don't... why are you saying this? I don't understand!"

"But I do," Lord Fashion said, stepping towards her, his eyes wide and burning with a fanatical light. "I understand everything. They left me out here in this backwater nowhere! A family forgotten the moment they were no longer useful to the Crown. They ignore me, they belittle me. 'Just a country noble', they say! Pah! What do I owe them? The nobles, the Crown, the Kingdom? I have no loyalty to any of them!" High Fashion ranted, spraying spittle with every pronouncement. "Cash has offered me everything I want, everything I could ever desire. I'll take it! It'll take it all and get what I've always deserved!"

"No," Melody's rejection was a small, broken noise. She stared at her lord with tears streaming from her eyes. "Please, Lord Fashion! You can't mean that!"

"Oh, he can," Cash said, stepping into her line of sight and catching her eyes with his. She tried to look away, but something stuck her gaze fast. She couldn't even blink. "He's your master, Melody Drop. You've dedicated your life to his protection. Surely you can see his point of view. Doesn't it make sense? Haven't you thought the same things before? You should stick by him, Melody. Come on, show me your loyalty."

Melody's breath caught in her throat. Her eyes widened. She felt as if something was pressing in on her from all directions, crushing her down into something denser than stone. Her wings shook and a low keen escaped her throat, but it cut off with a gasp as everything suddenly became clear. Duty, Charisma had said. Anything and everything to keep him safe. If he was going to turn against the Crown, then it was her duty to stick by him and protect him from the consequences of that decision. That was her first loyalty.

"Of course, Lord Fashion," she said with a bow, barely noticing that she was now released from Max's gaze. "Forgive my confusion. I swear that I will be by your side, no matter what." Her bow was low to show her humility before her lord, but it didn't stop her from seeing the mad grin that spread across Cash's face.

Charisma perched on the roof of the Fashion estate and watched the smoke rise from Precious Corners. Most of the fires had been put out long ago, but a few still smoldered enough to stain the air with soot. The town looked like a battleground: charred buildings and bodies lying in the street. She was responsible for many of those bodies. It had been a long night of blood and broken bone as she had sown death and confusion at Cash's direction. She had picked off stragglers and lone ponies who had braved the dark and the fires to try and organize the town. She had even slaughtered another group of a dozen ponies at once, though she had no idea why Cash had ordered it. All innocents, all dead by her hooves. It was the worst thing she'd ever done for him, and it had let her sleep peacefully for the first time in weeks.

Her hoof ground against the roof, the soft scraping sound of it the only outward indication of the tension that had risen inside her. She kept her breathing even and calm, repeating a silent mantra in her mind to force her pulse to slow and her muscles to relax. Old techniques for dealing with a problem that she had long ago given up trying to solve.

A window opened a little ways behind her. "Here you are!" Cash called out. She turned slowly to watch him climb out of the window and onto the roof. The slope of the roof wasn't terribly steep, but unicorns weren't made for sure footing and Cash wobbled as he made his slow way over to her. It would be so easy to trip him and just let him fall. Her Talent screamed at her to do just that. Instead, she rolled her eyes and looked back to the town.

"Early to rise and early to bed, will make you wealthy, stealthy and dead," he said, then frowned. "Wait, one of those is wrong." He shrugged. "Ah, well, it's probably true anyways. How'd you sleep?" She snorted again, declining to answer. "Yeah, me too. Something about setting fire to a town gives me the late night munchies. Good thing Fashion's so obliging now, right?" He elbowed her in the side and pointed down to the estate grounds, giggling like a child with a secret.

Charisma followed his direction and saw Lord High Fashion stomping about his carefully manicured gardens, stamping on random plants and ranting loud enough that she could almost make out what he was saying from this far away. Melody followed him, her eyes wide and manic, darting to every corner and shadow. Charisma could see the tension in her, straining her muscles to the point where she was going to pull something soon, if she hadn't already.

"Practiced my trick," Cash replied. "You said I should, and you were right. I almost got myself killed yesterday when I assumed it would work like it always had, and wouldn't that have been embarrassing!" He let out an amiable chuckle, his magic pulling out a shard of crystal and spinning it in front of his face. "Nope, nowhere near the time for that little number."

Charisma looked at her employer, keeping her face as neutral as possible. "What's the trick, Max? How are you doing this?"

He paused, meeting her gaze. At first it was just a normal meeting of eyes, then it wasn't and she was locked in place by his stare. "You wouldn't understand even if I told you," he said, his voice filled with intensity and danger and all the undeniable power that made her sure he wasn't just insane. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Cash smiled, breaking the gaze and looking out over the town. "Well, first of all you've got to understand that, for my purposes at least, people come in two different varieties: connected and unconnected."

"All in the name," he replied. "You had friends when you were young, right?" Charisma reluctantly nodded. "Do you remember what having friends was like? That special, glowy feeling of knowing other people. That connection. Even when you were mean to each other, you were still connected, and you knew it, even if you couldn't describe it. That connection, that special, glowy thing, that's what I'm talking about."

"So the two types are ponies with friends and ponies without friends?" Charisma asked, sure that she was missing something.

"No," Cash said. "And yes. But no, not really. Except, in a way, yes. But a special, secret kind of friend. That special, glowy connection you feel is just an emotional thing, really. Nothing actually special, nor really glowy. But what if there really was a special, glowy connection? Imagine for a moment that that special, glowy connection was a real thing, and it connected you to a group of other ponies. A connection that was made before any of you actually ever met."

"There are ways," Cash said, giving her an infuriating wink. "Some take more effort than others. Anyways, stop imagining it, because it's a real thing. It's actually special, it actually glows if you know what to look for, and it really, really does connect you to other special people. It connects you and it will inevitably bring you together and allow you to fit together. Not necessarily as friends, but to work together in a very specific, very powerful way."

"Everything," Cash said. "These connections aren't, strictly speaking, natural. They're shadows, cast by things that exist in such a different state from the rest of us that I don't even have an analogy for it. For the casual observer, these connections don't make a lick of difference. But for me, using my trick? They're the difference between Fashion and Melody, and why one of them is going to kill himself within the week and the other won't."

Charisma froze. "He's going to kill himself," she repeated, her tone a numb calm that betrayed nothing. "Why?"

"Because, while I'm getting better at it, I'm still essentially using Betrayal more like a sledgehammer than a scalpel," Cash said.

"Yup," Cash's magic pulled a golden necklace from his saddlebag. A crimson lightning bolt served as its central gem, gleaming like blood in the morning light. "This is the Element of Loyalty. Or Betrayal, if you know how to look at it right," Cash said. "Explaining what it is, well, it's literally impossible. For our purposes here it's a powerful magical artifact, and it's what lets me use that oh-so-ambiguous 'trick' we keep talking about."

"This thing?" Charisma said, poking the necklace. It didn't feel powerful to her, but she was no unicorn. "A necklace?"

"It's part of a set," Cash said, putting the necklace away. "And if you're a clever little girl you'll have figured out where the rest of them are."

"What's that thing you say when someone does something you like? Oh, right: 'full marks'. Yes, the digs."

"Well, you never asked," Cash pointed out. "And it didn't matter. Still doesn't."

"I used Betrayal on Fashion, I used Loyalty on Melody," Cash corrected. "I'm not too good with either, honestly. Hence the sledgehammer approach." He chuckled again, this time it was a sound that made Charisma think he wasn't too broken up about his clumsiness in using Betrayal. "Back to the original point, the difference between the two of them is that special, glowy connection. She's got it, he doesn't. Most ponies don't. Most of everyone doesn't. When I hit one of those people with the sledgehammer they break. I'm getting better at delaying that, but it'll still happen. Most of the time, at least. Someone with the special, glowy connection, though? They survive. They bounce back, they adapt, they overcome."

"Have you used that on me, Max?" Charisma asked, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer.

He shook his head. "I used Deceit on you. Totally different thing. I'm way better with that one. But if I did?" He looked at her, his unreadable expression made twisted by the ever-present smile on his lips. "You would overcome."

"It's Blaze too, isn't it?" she asked, unable to keep her wings from rustling as she thought about it. "He's connected too, isn't he?"

Charisma stilled a tremble. "That Griffin. Lady Star." Cash nodded at both names. "James?"

He was silent, but the widening smile was all the answer she needed. She wrapped her wings around herself, suddenly cold. "You knew. You knew what was going to happen this entire time. This is what you wanted." She gestured out to the wreckage of the town. "All of this. All your plan."

"What makes you think I planned this all out?" Cash asked, his head turning to watch a pair of trucks drive out of the fields and into the town, heading for the estate.

"Come on, Max," she spat at him. "I'm not stupid and I'm not blind. Back at the dig you knew that the kingdom was going to attack. Lady Star didn't tell you a damn thing, but you knew anyways. Now Blaze and the Changeling just 'happen' to show up at this exact time? I don't care how you know this stuff is going to happen, but you do, and you've planned for it. So I want to know what is going to happen next. What crazy coincidence will just 'somehow' fall on our backs?"

Cash's smile widened, but his eyes grew intensely focused. The effect was a crazed grin, the look of a mad pony about to bite. "I have no idea," he breathed, his words hitching as he stifled a laugh. "I really don't. Sorry to break your confidence in me, but I'm not responsible for all of this." He let out a wild laugh that cut off as suddenly as it began. "I'm not responsible for it, but I am using it. I have no choice. I can't stop now, can't slow down, can't think about it, can't plan, can't do anything but charge straight ahead and laugh at the confusion I leave in my wake."

"You don't have a plan?" Charisma asked. It was a hard question to even contemplate. Cash always had a plan, even if that plan was a mad one.

"Charisma, please. Of course I have a plan. I've been working on this plan for over twenty years. It's a beautiful plan, scheduled and checked and triple checked and full of contingencies for every conceivable problem or opportunity that might arise. I've had it all nailed down and waiting to go for ten years now. Ten years to tweak and refine and make sure it was all perfect for showtime."

"There's an order things have to be done in," Cash sighed. "I was missing the first piece. Betrayal. Once I found that, then the rest was always going to start falling into place. In fact, that's about the only thing in the plan that's still working. Everything else is way up in the air, ready to come tumbling down in ruins."

Cash grinned. "Rainbow Dash. The very best and very worst thing that could possibly happen. Utterly impossible, absolutely unpredictable. Perfection in pony form." He gave her a sidelong look. "Not that you're not perfect, either, but it's a different kind of perfection." He gave her a pat on the back. "Don't worry about it. The plan might not be whole, but I guarantee you it won't matter. Just because I built the perfect plan doesn't mean I expected it to succeed perfectly." His grin widened again. "And that's why I'm practicing."

She turned away from him, watching the trucks pull into the estate grounds. "Our ride's here," she said.

"So it is." He stood, stretching out his legs as he slowly turned back to the open window. "You should go say goodbye. If you meet her again, things might be very different for the both of you."

Cash chuckled. "That's up to her. For the moment she's on track to growing as a person, but, well, special, glowy connections are fragile things. Who knows what'll happen tomorrow?"

She stayed still as he left the roof, closing the window behind him. She opened her eyes again, looking out at the drifting smoke. Cash came out the front door, greeting the ponies who stepped out of the trucks to meet him.

"Sleeping," one of the drivers replied. "We're using up our sedatives quickly, though."

"Not to worry," Cash laughed. "Won't be much longer now, and we'll need him awake and walking soon enough."

Charisma tuned them out, looking down at where Fashion and Melody walked. She stood, flaring her wings and feeling the warm breeze blow through her feathers. She closed her eyes, letting the sunlight fall on her face, the warm kiss of a Goddess who refused to consign her to darkness. Drop on them from above, aim for the spine of the pegasus, immobilizing her. Attack the unicorn before he can react, single kick to the throat. Finish her by stepping on her neck. She opened her eyes, and leapt.

A minute later she flew over to the trucks, her blood singing and her entire body tingling. Cash gave her a questioning look. "Did you say goodbye?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes at him, stepping past and into the cab of the truck. Cash laughed and climbed into the back while the drivers started up the vehicles and began the drive out of the estate. She looked out the windows at the grounds as they passed them. She imagined eyes looking back at her, filled with rage and confusion. Then, with a whisper that was barely audible over the sound of the engine, she said one word: "Overcome."

Harrenhorn wasn't a big city by Kingdom standards, home to barely fifty thousand citizens of various species, but it had several advantages that justified its rail line and highway connections. The first was a pair of wide rivers that met there, giving the city access to waterways going north as well as east and west. The second was a university that specialized in technical and scientific studies, bringing a lot of young talent and money to the city. Third and most important was the full military base a few miles outside the city limits. Even without anything else, the needs of that base would have kept the city thriving.

When the transport had arrived at the base Star Fall and her friends had been caught up in a flurry of activity that was simultaneously head-spinningly hectic and mind-numbingly boring. Beyond the usual report filing and psychological counselling that came after an incident like what happened at the dig, Gamma's people had jumped at the chance of testing the limits of Dash and Applejack's abilities. The two of them were kept going from sunrise to sunset, and often afterwards as well. Since Star Fall and Dash were the only two on base who spoke Old Equestrian, one of them always had to be on hand to translate for Applejack as well. Between helping the earth pony with understanding Solar, visiting Astrid in the base hospital, and the constant questioning about what had happened, Star Fall was left with very little time to herself. Time that she needed if she was going to solve the mystery of Max Cash's intentions and power. So she had to stay up even later than everyone else to get in the research necessary.

This lack of sleep was why she was already on her fifth cup of coffee that day when Gamma found her. Star Fall was staring at a table covered with papers and books, many of which had been borrowed from the Harrenhorn University's rather sparse collection of classic literature. The spymaster was looking a little worn herself, her black mane limp and her saddlebag poorly positioned on her back. There was, however, a new light to her intense eyes that made Star Fall think something very important had happened. Most tellingly, her scarf had slipped a little, showing the edges of the scar tissue underneath.

"How are you progressing?" Gamma asked without preamble. Her appearance might have been dishevelled, but her voice held the same iron control as always.

"Pathetically," Star Fall answered, blinking at the spy and pushing aside her curiosity. "But not completely without progress." She slumped in her chair and gestured at the mess on the table. "The Elements of Harmony are not mentioned even once in any reference I have. Not directly as the Elements. But now that I know to look for something there are oblique references that pop up all over the place in pre-Schism art and literature."

Star Fall shook her head. "Nothing. No mention of it at all. No talk of a 'missing' Twilight Sparkle book, no indication that she ever wrote anything other than the well-known list of works we have. Hell, even the lost works of Twilight Sparkle are well documented. We know what they were and what they were about, we have surviving quotations, histories, everything! But no Harmony Theory. Nothing. Honestly, I don't think I'll have any luck tracking that one down."

"Do you believe this lack of information to be deliberate?" Gamma asked, her horn lighting up as she pulled a sheaf of papers from her bag.

"Yes," Star Fall said. "There's nothing to indicate it's missing, but the lack of any direct reference to the Elements of Harmony when there are all the sidelong mentions of them? No, that can't be coincidence. This was done on purpose by someone. I'm sure of it. Though I have no idea who could have orchestrated something like this. It had to have been done before all these books were preserved, which means at the very latest it happened during the Schism, most likely well before that."

"There are those who could have accomplished it," Gamma said. "We know at least one is directly invested."

"Umbra," Star Fall said, nodding. "But she's not working with Cash. At least, he acted like she wasn't. Who the hell knows with him?"

"They are linked," Gamma asserted. "Though I don't know exactly how. That they are is clear enough."

"What if it wasn't her, though?" Star Fall had to ask, squeezing her eyes shut. She could still see the words she had read through the obscuring mud. 'I'm sorry, Princess. I'm so sorry.' "What if this stuff was censored for a reason? A good one?"

Gamma sighed. "It's too late to worry about that. Cash has one Element, possibly two. He might be looking for the others. He has that book, whatever it turns out to be. Even if there is a very good reason to have hidden the knowledge of these things, that secrecy now works against us."

"I just wish the Professor were here," Star Fall said. "She's been studying magic and Twilight Sparkle for decades, I'm just a student!"

"You are an agent of the Crown," Gamma said, putting her hoof under Star Fall's chin and forcing her head up. She opened her eyes and stared into Gamma's, seeing confidence and strength in them. "I would not have given you that responsibility if you were not able to live up to it. The Professor has her own duties to attend to, as you have yours. I assure you that you will be reunited soon enough, and then I am sure the two of you will find a solution. The more you do now, however, the swifter that eventual answer will come."

Gamma nodded. "Good. These are sketches of the Elements done from descriptions given by Agent Dash. Perhaps they will give you more to work with in your search." She dropped the papers on the pile. "I want you to focus completely on this from now on," she said.

"She's learned enough Solar that your translation services are no longer necessary," Gamma said. "More importantly, our timetable has been forcibly shortened."

"There has been an incident," Gamma said, her eyes narrowing. "A Changeling sighting has been reported."

Star Fall’s fatigue vanished in a burst of adrenaline, her body tensing. "Here?"

Gamma shook her head. "No. West of here, several hundred miles. Too close for any measure of comfort, and too close to Cash's dig to be assumed as coincidence."

"The Changeling we encountered in the Everstorm," Star Fall said. "Could it be tracking her?"

"Possible, but without further information all we can do is speculate pointlessly," Gamma said. "Regardless, this base is being put on high alert and the transport is being sent with support personnel to help the survivors."

"We aren't sure yet," Gamma said. "The first responders found chaos. Half the town was burned, the other half in a panic. There was apparently a massacre. Ponies killing each other in the streets."

"It wouldn't," Gamma replied. "They're infiltrators, saboteurs. Direct antagonism like this is contrary to their nature and their training. It's counterproductive. No, there may or may not have been a Changeling there, but I suspect the rest of it is the result of an outside agency pushing tempers in the town to a breaking point. Changeling sightings create paranoia, and a skilled manipulator can use that to cause a great deal of violence with little effort."

Star Fall may have been tired, but she could put the pieces together quickly enough. "Cash."

"Possibly," Gamma cautioned. "He would have the means and motivation to do this, but we have no evidence of his involvement."

"Yes," Gamma said, giving her a hard stare. "This is currently being treated as an isolated incident. If, however, there actually was a Changeling there, and if we can find no evidence that Cash or one of his agents was the true cause of the mayhem, then the Crown is going to conclude it was an act of war, and act accordingly. Do you understand, Agent Fall?"

Gamma turned away. "Then I also don't have to explain how important it is that you discover everything you can about these Elements of Harmony, and quickly. We must know what it is we are facing. Applejack and Agent Dash have told us everything they know, but that is woefully sparse. You are the only one who can give us the rest. Can you do that?"

Gamma nodded. "Fair enough. Do what you can, Agent Fall, but hurry." With that she left the room.

Star Fall stared after the departed Gamma for a long moment before turning back to the papers. "All up to me, huh?" she sighed. "Hurry, she says. I'm trying to build a haystack out of needles that I have to find in a thousand other, bigger haystacks, and she says hurry." She spread out the pictures of the Elements that Gamma had given her. Five necklaces and a crown. She rummaged through the piles of papers until she found her own sketch of the cover of Harmony Theory. "Yup, you match," she said, looking from the sketches of the Elements to the symbols she'd seen on the cover of the book.

"So, there's that," she said, staring at the pages as if they would give up their secrets through her sheer obstinance. She muttered the name of each Element under her breath as her eyes went from one to the other. "Loyalty, Kindness, Honesty, Magic, Laughter, Generosity. Loyalty, Kindness, Honesty, Magic, Laughter, Gen–"

She cut off, her eyes going wide as she stared at the last sketch. The sketch was just charcoal, but she could almost see the purple tint in the central gem. "Generosity. Generosity. I know that one. Why? Where?" She began frantically sifting through the books and papers, shoving several small piles from the table to the floor. Finally she found what she was looking for, a book that she had barely thought useful before, save for a few key words that had appeared. She slammed it down, quickly flipping through pages until she found the one she wanted.

"'The series was displayed throughout Equestria to much praise," she read aloud, wiping at tired eyes as she tried to focus. "But by request of the artist two of the pieces were put in permanent installations. The most important, of course, in Ponyville where much of her life was spent. The other was displayed in Canterlot in the grand hall.'" She shook her head. "No, no, no. The name! Where was the name!" She flipped back and forth a few pages before she stopped, a smile growing on her features. "Generosity. Of course. Of course, why didn't I see it before?" She leapt up on the table, staring down at the pages beneath her while her wings buzzed with excitement. "There you are!"

Rainbow Dash flew down to where Applejack was pulling a heavily laden wagon. She'd been going around a wide track in circles, and the dull, half-asleep look in her green eyes told Dash that her friend thought all this testing was super-boring too. So she decided that a little friendly company would liven up the day and dropped down to land on the tarp-covered cargo Applejack was hauling. It was hard and gave a metal ring as she touched down, alerting Applejack to her presence.

"Are you really that bored that you gotta come down here and bug me about it?" Applejack asked.

"What? Bored? No," Dash protested. "I'm just here to see how you're doing in this crazy, crazy future."

"I'm doin' fine, now get," Applejack said, shaking her harness a bit to make the cart rock.

Dash flew off the wagon, but only to float down and hover by her friend. "So how long have they had you doing this?"

"Can't rightly say for sure," Applejack said. "Look, not that I don't like talkin' to you, sugarcube, but don't you have things they want to test you on too? Flyin' through hoops and whatnot?"

"Did them," Dash said, stifling a yawn. "Easy-peasy one-two-threesy. Took no time at all. I was going to find a cloud to nap on, but then I remembered that nopony's stopping them from just drifting away."

"And the folks here'd get in a tizzy if you just up and disappeared like that," Applejack reminded her. "The way Star describes it, not a lot of pegasi that can walk on clouds are left."

Dash's face fell a bit. "Yeah. Don't remind me. Hey, how much longer are you going to be doing this?"

Applejack shrugged. "Can't say. Part of it's supposed to be how long I can go for."

"Sounds like work," Applejack said. "I could use a job of work right about now."

Dash paused at that, and at the heavy emotions hidden in her friend's voice. "Right," she said, thinking. "So, anyways, how's the language stuff going?" Dash asked, hovering up a bit to take a closer look at the heavy load Applejack was pulling. "Star hasn't had a lot of time to talk to me about it, but it looks like you're doing okay."

"I wanted to talk to you about that," she replied, stopping her long walk and waving at the soldier who was watching. "Somethin' mighty strange is goin' on with this language stuff."

"Yeah, it's kinda half-familiar, right?" Dash said. "I asked about that and Star said that Solar is, like, descended from Equestrian or something. So they sound similar 'cause they are, but that'll confuse you if you think the words that sound the same still mean the same thing."

"Well, not quite what I mean, sugarcube," Applejack sighed. "The real question is how I'm learnin' it so fast at all."

"Listen, sugarcube. I'm still doin' foal-talk, but every time I do I get better at it. I'm even understandin' the other ponies when they ain't slowin' down to talk to me."

"Too fast," Applejack sighed. "It ain't natural. You know my cutie mark story, right? How I ran off to Manehattan and lived with my aunt and uncle Orange for a spell?"

"I did, but that's not what I'm aimin' for," Applejack said. "When I was there I had to work real hard to fit in. Part of that was learnin' how to talk like a high-falutin' Manehattan pony. Now, I wasn't learnin' any new language like I am now, and it still took a long time and a lotta hard work just to get the words right."

Dash bobbed in the air as she waited for Applejack to continue. "Okay? So?" she finally prompted.

"So, if it took so darn long to learn how to talk different with the same language, how come it's takin' such a short time to learn an entirely new language?" Applejack said, shaking her head. "My cutie mark sure ain't for languages, and I've never been a particularly fast learner, so why in the hay am I gettin' so good so fast?"

Dash dropped to the ground, folding her wings and frowning. "I don't know, AJ. I haven't really thought about it."

Applejack smiled at her friend. "Didn't figure you had, sugarcube. I just thought maybe that smart friend of yours might'a noticed and said somethin', is all."

"Yeah, well, she did say something," Dash replied. "She said it was impossible."

They stood in silence for a long moment, each contemplating what that might mean. One of the unicorn ponies who had been running the tests took that moment to come over to them. "Are you too tired to continue?" he asked as clearly as he could manage.

"No, am not," Applejack replied, working to get the unfamiliar words right, but not nearly as hard as she knew she should be. "Just talk to Dash."

"She has been hauling over two tons of steel for the past three hours," the soldier replied. "Why do you think she shouldn't be?"

Dash laughed. "Hey, AJ! Did you hear that? You've been pulling two tons all this time!"

Applejack frowned. "Sounds about right. Assumin' they use the same measures we do. Er, did."

"More," Applejack replied, giving her friend a flat look. "It ain't important. Never has been. It don't matter anyhow. I'm not gonna be sittin' around here all day lettin' 'em hitch me up to heavier and heavier weights just 'cause they can."

"Agent Dash, does she understand what's going on here?" the soldier asked, incredulous. "These tests have phenomenal importance! She has outperformed every single benchmark for a Strength Talent earth pony, and not by a little bit. She's taken our best and blown it away. Even the strongest of Dragons would struggle at this level, but she keeps going! She is, quite simply, the strongest, most durable being alive, and we have not even seen her limits yet!"

"Yup, knew you were going to bring that up, too," Applejack sighed. She turned to the soldier. "I am sorry. Do not want make you sad. No more tests. Not important."

"They are not," Applejack insisted. Then she shot Dash an irritated look. "Will you quit it?!"

"Stronger than strong!" Dash burst up to the top of the laden wagon in a rainbow streak, striking a pose. "Tougher than tough!" She blurred around the two ponies, kicking up a mini whirlwind that forced Applejack to hold onto her hat. "Faster than fast! Winner and still champion after a thousand years!" She flew up, twisting and weaving through the air, her ethereal trail hanging behind her the entire way. A solid sheet of color that eventually spelled out her own name in the sky. She dropped down a second after giving the final flourish to her aerial signature, landing in front of Applejack and the shocked unicorn. "The one, the only, the Iron Pony: Rainbow Dash!" She grinned widely.

"Not just bored!" Dash cried, dropping to her knees and flailing her forelegs at the sky. "What's the point to all this waiting around? We've gotta find Cash, we've gotta stop him! But we're just sitting on our butts taking stupid tests while he's out there getting ahead of us! If something doesn't start happening soon I am gonna explode!"

Star Fall burst onto the track, shouting and rushing towards them in an awkward two-legged run, her wings supporting her and her forearms full of papers and books. "I found it! I found it!" she yelled.

"Thank you," Dash sighed, happily falling onto her back as the scholarly mare approached.

"I found it!" Star Fall said again, skidding to a stop in front of them and dropping her burden to the ground. "Generosity. In front of face. Did not see."

"Agent Fall!" the soldier said in surprise, stepping over to her. "What's going on?"

"What? No, you can't. No." Star Fall shook her head, batting a hoof at the approaching unicorn. "You're not cleared for this! You can't see this. Go! Shoo!" The soldier was taken aback, and probably a little offended, but he obeyed nonetheless, retreating with Star Fall's glare following him the entire way. The moment he was well out of earshot she returned to her Old Equestrian ranting, her speech so slurred it was practically unrecognizable. "It was there. All along. I saw, but did not see. Lost meaning in mind. Clear with picture. Need two connections or more to make truth!"

"Whoa there, nelly!" Applejack said, laying a hoof on Star Fall's shoulder. "Slow down and think it through. We'll wait."

Star Fall stopped, taking a few heaving breaths. Dash rolled to her hooves and took a look at the things the pegasus had brought. She recognized the sketches she'd helped make, but the rest were either books or Solar gibberish. One particular sketch had been circled several times, unreadable notes scrawled next to it.

"I found it," Star Fall said, calming enough to speak clearly but still bouncing from place to place as her wings fluttered in excitement. "It was hidden. I do not know how. I have seen it before, but I did not recognize it until I saw this picture, until I matched it to my own picture of the book. But now I remember. Now I know. I found it."

"What did you find?" Applejack asked. Dash already knew the answer she would give and it sent her body buzzing with energy. Finally, things were moving.

Harmony Theory

by Sharaloth

Chapter 18: Practice and Perfection