//------------------------------// // Act Three: Chapter Ten - More Bad News // Story: Turning Points // by Slatewings //------------------------------// Act Three Chapter Ten - More Bad News “I don’t understand. How do they keep getting in?” Princess Benevolentia rubbed her temples with her hooves. “I thought Lumine’s force field was holding.” “It is, Your Majesty,” the officer of the guard answered. “And by and large it seems to be holding the changelings at bay. However, there seem to be weak points through the perimeter where they can break through occasionally. I’ve stationed additional guards at all suspected entry points but there is no way to ensure we’ve gotten them all.” “Have your ponies noticed any pattern to the attacks?” Prince Dutiful asked, leaning forward on his throne. “Not so much a pattern as a correlation, Sir. Most of the weak points seem to be those portions of the force field that would have been powered by the foci we lost after the field went up.” The mare shot a bitter glance at Peridot, who sat on a raised cushion to the princess’s side, “Due, of course, to the unfortunate surge of magical energy that happened soon after.” “I was trying to save Lumine’s life!” Peridot shot back. “And you succeeded, good for you,” she answered darkly, “but you were willing to put the whole city in jeopardy to do it too. How do you balance the life of one pony against…” “One pony,” Benevolentia interrupted, “was all it took to repel the changelings that had all but taken the city for themselves. Don’t be so quick to judge the value of a single life. I expect more from a member of my guard.” “Yes, your majesty.” The chastised pony hung her head, “I meant no offence, Lady Peridot. The past month has been difficult. I suppose I was looking for somepony to blame. I apologize.” The officer cleared her throat and concluded the remainder of her briefing without incident and exited the throne room to return to her duties. “Is there anypony else?” Princess Benevolentia asked Prince Dutiful. He shook his head. “Oh thank Harmony…” she exclaimed and slumped in her throne. “I don’t think I can sit that straight for another moment.” She yipped involuntarily and smiled, placing a hoof on her stomach. “I think the baby agrees,” she laughed. The prince smiled and stepped down from his throne to stand beside his wife, “I still don’t know how you can feel him moving so early.” He said as he brushed aside a strand of hair from his wife’ face. “It should be weeks now before he starts to kick.” “He?” Benevolentia said with a sidelong glance to her husband. The prince shrugged. “The baby’s probably a pegasus,” Peridot explained. “The extra set of limbs means they need more exercise than an earth pony would.” “Thats why you’re my doctor,” Benevolentia responded before letting out another yip. “Oooh,” she rubbed her stomach, “I think she is hungry. I think I’ll see if cook has any crystal berries to spare. Ooh, or better yet, figs… or pickles!” The princess tiredly lifted herself from her throne and made her way to the kitchen, Dutiful walking beside her providing support and trying not to laugh at his wife’s increasingly eclectic appetite. Peridot produce a small notepad from beneath her cushion and made a note. The princess’s cravings were a good sign, pegasi musculature was complex and required the mother maintain a diverse diet to ensure proper development. She wrote as she walked. It had been a long day of mostly sitting to problems and proposing solutions, just how tiring that could be surprised her. She didn’t envy Princess Celestia and Princess Luna back home, they were well on their way to becoming the longest ruling monarchs in world history and had already spent nearly a lifetime just stilling in court. Well, diarchs, technically, she thought to herself, but at least they don’t have to deal with this changeling problem. The ‘changelings problem’, as she thought of it had come to consume nearly every waking moment of her life for the past month or so. Every facet of life in the empire was effected, if only by the sight of the ever present purple dome overhead, and the wear was beginning to show. Everypony Peridot passed bore the same expressionless tired face and droves of ponies were checking into the local clinics and hospital with symptoms of fatigue, foggy mindedness, and a mental state of depressed apathy. The only ones who seemed to remain optimistic were Peridot herself, Phalanx, who had since been assigned as Peridot’s official guard when she went out into the city, and Lumine. Lumine, of course, had his own unique set of ailments. She stopped in the hall outside the door to Lumine’s room and knocked. Officially the room was still the secondary medical supply room but with supplies stretched as thin as they were, he suggested it be converted to living quarters so he could stay close to the clinic for monitoring but not take of a room needed for one of the many victims of a changeling infiltrator. “Let me guess...,” Lumine’s voice called from inside, “Yes, I’m feeling fine. Yes, I know to take it easy on my magic use. And, no I haven’t gone to the bathroom yet.” Peridot made a face, “That’s a little more than I needed to know, Loony.” There was a scurry in the room followed by the sound of awkward fumbling at the door knob before the door jerked inward. “Peridot! I didn’t know you were coming by tonight!” Lumine’s face beamed… Most of it. The right side of his face and his right eye were completely paralyzed, he was fortunate to be able to talk without a slur. The immense surge of magical energy that had lanced through him when he cast his force field spell through the Heart had done terrible damage to his body. In addition to the bald and scared patches that littered his skin and the loss of most of his mane there had been severe internal injury as well, leaving him weak of stomach and walking with cane to compensate for the limp on his left side. Peridot was confident that, in time, she could heal most of his injuries, but she would need the help of the Heart to do it and at the moment it was busy powering the forcefield that protected the city. As soon as she saw him her hoof flew to her mouth and suppressed a giggle, “Well.. aren’t we looking dapper today?” Lumine looked down at his outfit and smiled proudly. Ever since his injury he had taken to going fully clothed, as opposed settling for a normal lab coat, to hide the scars on his hide, but his new outfit was... something else. He was decked out, head to hoof, as the perfect gentleman nerd. He wore a pair of tan straight slacks with a woven belt and a matching band binding his tail, which Peridot suspected might have been stuffed to hide the fact that he had lost most of his. On his front half he wore a light blue shirt with a dark red bowtie with a matching vest and a dark brown tweed jacket with elbow patches. Topping it off was a black eyepatch covering his right eye and a brown fedora over his ears. Her remark obviously please him and he gave a little twirl, tapping his new brass knobbed cane on the brim of his hat when he returned to facing her, “You approve?” “Oh.. um.. yeah… sure... definitely, you look very… dapper,” Peridot managed as she slipped past him inside. “You said that…” She rolled her eyes, “You look adorkable, Loony.” She levitated the fedora off his head, “Just lose the hat.” He smiled, accepting the praise. “So! What can I do for you, my savior?” “Lumine, please don’t call me that,” she begged. “Anyway, we’re one and two. Plus, you saved the whole empire.” “Yeah,” he chuckled, “I even had myself a celebratory barbecue to boot.” “Not funny…” He sank into a couch, “I suppose not. Then again, I saved the empire so I can say what I want. Besides, I seem to be the only one still in a good mood anyway. Even you seem down.” Peridot rubbed the back of her head and yawned, “Its been a long day. I was stuck holding court with Benny all day. I SO do not want her job.” “Are you kidding?!” Lumine answered in surprise. “I’d LOVE to be a prince. I’d host conventions and seminars every day so everypony could share in the fruits of my research. I’d hold yearly competitions in mathematics, alchemy, and magical theory and the winners would awarded with earldoms so ponies could finally have the nobility they deserve...” “Sounds like an egghead’s paradise,” Peridot laughed, joining him on the couch. “Oh yes, the envy of the world.” He wrapped a hoof around her and pulled her to his side, “And with you as my Queen…” “Blah!” she playfully pushed him away. “In your dreams, Loony.” The two of them broke down into giggles. A bout of coughing broke Lumine’s revelry and elicited a look of concern from Peridot. “So what’s on your mind,” he said, rubbing tears away when the fit subsided. Peridot sighed, “It’s like you said, everypony’s just in a bad mood. I figured I could use some cheering up.” “Actually, I have a hypothesis about that!” he exclaimed, jumping to his hooves and fidgeting with the drawers of his desk before grumbling and using his magic to open the drawer and levitate out a bundle of scrolls. “Hey, no magic!” “Oh, my magic’s fine. It’s just paper,” he said over his shoulder as he sifted through the levitating scrolls. “Besides,” he plopped back down next to her, “I can’t do anything with my hooves, I don’t know how earth ponies manage so well.” Peridot shot him her best disappointed doctor’ look. “Okay, okay, I know. But really though, my horn patched up nicely and every test you ran said my magic is fine.” He sat back down next to her, groaning a bit as he leaned into his cane, and unrolled the scroll between them. “Okay this is what I wanted to show you,” Lumine pointed to a cluster of equations and notes. “This here describes how the Crystal Heart’s own spell matrix interacts with a pony’s telluric aura during a Heart flare. See how this factor becomes bound here but the constant remains unbalanced?” “Um… yes?” He took no notice of her confusion, “Well… a few years ago , before I even considered expanding the Heart’s range, I was experimenting with ways to bind a crystal pony to the Heart so they could benefit from its energies regardless of how far away they are. It didn’t work but I did end up learning a lot about how we are tied to it and the two way nature of the Empire’s relationship to it.” “And…” “Well, just like when we laid the foundation for the Prism, when I cast my force field spell I relied on that knowledge in order to bind it’s spell matrix to the Heart. That way I didn’t need to remain connected to it at all times… and preventing me from being a tad more scorched than I was.” Peridot looked away from the scroll and rubbed her eyes to ease the strain of reading Lumine’s terrible penmanship, the stallion just could not write with his mouth. “So what does this have to do with everypony being in a bad mood again?” “Well… thats the part that might not help your mood.” He rubbed the back of his head nervously, “There’s no way to know for sure unless I can go out and run some tests on the heart but...it’s possible that the reason everypony is so down is that the changelings are able to feed on the whole empire at once by drawing energy through the forcefield.” Peridot sprang to her hooves, “WHAT!?” “Oh don’t worry, you won’t be affected, you’re not a crystal pony. Besides it’ just a hypothesis, we won’t know if it’s true until I test it.” “Lumine! How could you not tell anypony about this?!” He blinked, “I thought I just did… Anyway I didn’t put it all together until last night and it seemed like such a remote problem compared to the more immediate threat of changelings sneaking through. I still can’t for the life of me figure out how they are doing it. The forcefield is very specific, only chrystal ponies or those who’ve lived under the effect of the Heart for extended periods of time should be able to pass through. That was the only way I could get that ‘sweeping’ effect that pushed all those unpleasant critters out of the city.” He scratched his chin thoughtfully, “You know I was so relieved to see you when I woke you up. I was a tinsy, tiny bit worried you might get flushed out of the city with the changelings, seeing as how you haven’t really been here long enough for the Heart to have a permanent effect on you.” “Wait what?! I could have been left outside with those things?!” “Well, I calculated the risk as rather low, especially considering the Harmonic nature of your magic. It isn’t like I just rolled the dice on you, you know. And I did have a few thousand other ponies to look out for, not to mention that I was kind of getting fried while trying to do the calculations in my head.” “Yeah…” She waved a hoof at him, “You’re just lucky it worked or I would have been too busy being locked out of the city to able to save your barbecued rump.” Lumine smiled, “Benevolentia said you held me and cried.” “No I didn’t!” she denied. “Mmhm…” “Okay… maybe a little,” she admitted. “You can’t blame me you were pretty much gone when I found you.” “I don’t remember a thing after I cast the spell. I hear you blew out a healthy chunk of foci to save me.” “Yeah, it’s all kind of blurry though.” Peridot shifted in her seat, wanting to change the subject. “We think that’s how the changelings keep getting in. I can’t seem to get the attunement right on the replacements without shutting down the Heart Prism and it’s creating weak points in your forcefield.” “Ahh…” he scribbled on one of the scrolls arrayed on the couch. “Yes, that might do it. Access would be intermittent and unpredictable though, you’d have to keep a constant eye on all points.” “The guard is doing what they can but they don’t have the pony power to watch them all at once.” “I see.” He leaned on his cane and rose, “So you coming with me?” “Where?” Peridot asked. “The Heart of course,” he slipped his saddle bags on over his clothes. “If we already know how the changelings are getting in then I might as well test my hypothesis about the forcefield. Otherwise I’ll have to tell Benevolentia and Prince Dutiful in the morning anyway and it would be nice to not have to lay this particular worry on them.” She shook her head, “You’re not in any condition to be getting back to work, Lumine. I just barely finished putting you back together, for Harmony’s sake.” He chuckled and leaned on his cane, “Oh I dare say you’re not done yet. I may not be a doctor but I doubt I’ve made a full recovery just yet.” “Exactly,” Peridot responded, “you’re just not ready to start work again. Give it a little longer. I’m sure you’ll be back to blowing up your lab in no time.” “Oh well, fine you win.” He crossed the room and sat on a stool. “I’m sure Benevolentia won’t be too upset.” “About what?” Peridot asked, taking the bait. “Oh you know… That her two closest friends knew that there were hundreds, possibly thousands, of giant insectile ponies currently feeding on her unborn baby’s spirit but figured it could wait.” Peridot’s eyes widened as memories of Benevolentia’s face when she realized that the Empire, her ADOPTED, children were being threatened flashed through her mind. If the princess thought that her actual child was under attack and that she and Lumine hadn’t done anything about it… Peridot shuddered and swallowed, her throat suddenly dry, “Maybe… we could go take a quick look, just to make sure.” “Are you sure? I mean I am so badly wounded. Maybe it would be better if I just lay…” “Oh, just come on, Loony!” He laughed, victorious, and rose again to his hooves. They packed a few scrolls and a small collection of magical instruments into Lumine’s saddle bag, which Peridot insisted she carry, and walked out into the hall. Peridot grumbled as she walked behind Lumine. She knew Lumine had pulled one over on her but he did have a good point. If the changelings were able to feed on everypony at once it could indeed explain most of the symptoms she had been seeing in the clinic. It would even account for the worsening prognosis of the victims of ‘direct’ feeding. She heard the tinkling sound of magic and looked up to see Lumine levitating a notebook in front of him, muttering and making notes in the margins as he walked. She opened her mouth to chastise him again for going against her orders when he suddenly drew in a sharp breath as one of his hind legs gave in a little. He didn’t slow down or even miss a step but Peridot noticed him leaning just a little bit harder on his cane. She felt a pang in her chest and every limp was cast in a new light. Lumine had been willing to give up everything to save the ones he cared about. Back when they first encountered the changelings, he had risked grave injury to save them, despite knowing, down to the millithaum, how much magical energy was flowing through the foci. Later, without a second thought, he willingly laid down his life when the guards told him that she, Dutiful, and Benevolentia were still out in the city. It was only by a miracle, the incredible energy of the Heart Prism, and a well timed magical epiphany, that Peridot was able to get his heart started long enough to get him back to the palace. Lumine stopped and grimaced as a cramp seized his leg but refused Peridot’s suggestion that she fetch him a wheelchair. Instead, she walked along side him with a foreleg hooked around his so he could lean into her as they walked. She stole a sideways glance at him and could not help but smile. Lumine was the most selfless, kindest, loyalest friend she had ever had and, she had to admit, despite his occasional annoying bouts of unquenchable nerdiness he was actually kind of … She coughed and shook her head before she could finish the thought, Okay not going there… They made it out of the palace and to the Spire where the Crystal Heart was situated without any further delays, other than Lumine having to twice endure the ‘indignity’ of being levitated down the stairs. Thanks to Prince Dutiful’s foresight, the Heart had been kept under heavy guard since the shield went up, a preparation that quickly proved invaluable once a band of changeling infiltrators staged a strike to capture the Heart only a few days later. A strange chill ran up Peridot’s spine as the guards let them through the swiftly built fortifications that blocked the way. The last time she had was here was when she found Lumine crumpled on the ground. Medically speaking, it was the greatest achievement of her life but, all in all, not a great memory. She looked to Lumine, expecting him to feel the same but he simply strode up to the Heart, unpacked his instruments and set to work without saying a word. She rolled her eyes, he was in pure egghead mode. There wasn’t much she could do to help him. Her magic’s natural affinity with Harmony was invaluable in constructing the Heart Prism but when it came to the pure magical theory she wasn’t even in the same class as Lumine. After a while Peridot’s thoughts began to wander and she took to pacing back and forth. Soon she was so bored that a part of her hoped her pacing would be distracting enough to elicit a response just so she’s have somepony to talk to. Lumine, however, didn’t seem to notice and continued to take his measurements as he muttered to himself. She paused and looked up. High above, she could just make out the dark shapes of flitting changelings outside the force field against the light of the setting sun. “Why hasn’t Equestria sent help yet?” she wondered aloud. “There’s a major snowstorm beyond the city, it’s persisted for weeks now,” Lumine answered, causing Peridot to jump. “I didn’t have the time to direct the Prism’s energy as I would if I had had the time so nearly all of the Heart’s energy is going to powering the force field instead of weather control. I dare say this will be the worst winter we’ve seen since the Heart was first used to reign in the elements a generation ago.” “If there’s no weather control then why is it snowing at all?” “The windigo that drove your ancestors to equestria did terrible damage to the land,” Lumine explained, not looking away from his work. “It will probably be a thousand years before it heals.” “So we’re on our own?” she asked nervously. “Do you think Equestria will investigate when the Empire doesn’t change the seasons?” “I imagine so, and the Princess thinks they will too, but it might take them some time to notice. By your standards it’s always winter outside the city.” Peridot nodded, remembering the sudden change of climate when her skywagon approached the city. “Unfortunately, I don’t think it will be an issue,” he scribbled something down and closed the notebook. “You remember when the princess assured everypony that we had ample supplies to last through the winter till help arrives?” Peridot nodded. “We aren’t going to get a chance to eat them.” Peridot’s eyes widened, “So they are feeding on us? Oh my gosh… the baby…” Lumine set down his tools and hobbled over to her. “The baby will be fine,” he said, placing a hoof on her shoulder as he leaned into his cane. “If she had been pregnant during the last Crystal Fair we might have a problem but as of yet he or she isn’t technically a crystal pony. You’re safe too by the way.” Peridot bit a hoof nervously, “So, what are we going to do? We have to tell everypony. Maybe there is someway we can block them or maybe recast the forcefield or maybe… Wait, you already knew Benny’s baby was safe?” He nodded, a mischievous smile forming on his mouth. “And you still guilted me into letting you come?” “Well, are you glad we know?” “I… Um… well yeah, I guess so.” “Would you have let me come otherwise?” he asked. He had her on that one, “Okay, maybe not but still!” “Just consider it my revenge for that whole ‘let’s throw Lumine a baby shower’ thing,” he winked, somehow still in a good mood. Peridot narrowed her eyes at him, glaring and considering her revenge. She settled for poking him sharply in the shoulder, “You are evil. You know that right?” “Perhaps,” he laughed, rubbing his shoulder, “but you love me anyway.” Peridot continued her angry squinting. Eventually he rolled his eyes and turned to pack up his equipment. “We can wait to tell the princess in the morning, but this needs to be priority one. Not only can we not just let the changelings feed off of the Empire’s ponies but if we CAN manage a way to cut them off we might be able to starve them out.” “Do you think there’s a way?” Peridot asked. “Maybe we can recast the forcefield to resist them.” He made a face and shuddered, “Only as a last resort. I don’t think you could cast the spell, no offence, and I’m not sure I’d survive it. Tell you what, why don’t we get some rest. I’ll give it some thought and sleep on it. I’d like to be able to give Benevolentia a solution when I break the news to her in the morning.” Peridot agreed and helped him pack up before taking him back to his makeshift room by the clinic. “Are you sure I can’t be any help?” Peridot asked at the door. Lumine shook his head, “Maybe, but you need your rest too. I can’t have the pony who’s suppose to be healing me fall asleep in the middle of a session, can I? I don’t want to end up with a third eye if you mess up a spell.” Peridot did her best to laugh and they said goodnight. When she arrived at her room she threw herself into bed, face down on the pillow and tried to go over everything that had happened. Changelings were able to break through the forcefield because she had blown out so many foci in her reckless, though successful, effort to save Lumine’s life. Whispered suspicions that it was their meddling with the Heart that attracted the changelings in the first place were circulating through the guard. Now, she had learned that the changelings were feeding on everypony in the Empire at once. Guilt began welling up inside her as her mind kept spinning. “Is this all my fault?” she wondered aloud as, only an hour from dawn, troubled sleep finally began to claim her. Before the concerns of the day even had a chance to stir up dreams to worry her at night there was a loud bang as somepony barged into her rooms, uninvited. “Who’s there?!” Peridot called out, fearing that a changeling had managed to slip into the palace and was coming to claim her. Her bedroom door opened to reveal a tired eyed Lumine, leaning wobbly on his cane. “Sorry, sorry. My cane caught on the rug and I fell,” he hurried across the room and crawled up into the bed, sitting down beside her. “Hey, come on! Can’t a girl get some privacy?” He ignored her and drew a strangely inlaid black book out of his saddlebag, laying it on the between them, “I think I found it.” “You think you found what, you Loony?!” “Well I couldn’t sleep so I had one of the guards take me to the archives.” He paused as an excited look swept over his face, “Have I ever shown them to you? Oh we have to do that! They have books on every subject you could possibly imagine, cooking, farming, astronomy, medicine, magic, you name it!” He clopped his hooves, “Why there was one time I was looking for a book on…” “Loony, what did you find?” Peridot asked, yawning. “Oh yes, sorry.” He cleared his throat. “I was digging through the archives looking for anything related to the changelings, hoping to find some way of repelling them. I managed to find some fascinating bits of information, previous isolated attacks, reports of a respected member of the community turning out to be a changeling, but it wasn’t until I reached the Starswirl the Bearded collection that I finally made progress. “I don’t think Starswirl ever had direct contact with the changelings, at least in their present form, but some of his notes pointed me toward a possible solution,” he held laid out the book he had brought. “In this I believe it I have found the answer to the changeling problem. It might be a bit dangerous but I don’t know how much choice we have,” he found his page and pointed a hoof to the spell at the bottom, “and given the circumstances I think we at least have to consider it.”