//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: The Explorer // Story: After Midnight // by Nebula Star //------------------------------// After Midnight By Nebula Star Part 2: The Bearers *** Chapter 5: The Explorer *** If it weren't for the constant breeze blowing across the hill on which they stood, Destiny probably would have heard Reshkirana gritting her teeth in frustration. As it was, she was well aware of her draconic friend's anger. The cause of her frustration was just visible across the arid lands that lay before them as an indistinct smudge on the horizon; the ruins of a once great nation. “So... they're in Saddle Arabia?” Destiny asked gently so as not to incur the dragon's wrath. “It would appear so,” Reshkirana growled. They had been traveling north from the Zebra lands, heading toward Equestria as they had planned, when Kira had suddenly been able to feel a direction from the resonance of one of the gems she carried. Not willing to lose the trail, they'd immediately changed course to follow the resonance and it had led them here, to the edge of the arid wastes that had once been Saddle Arabia. “But you said nopony lives there anymore...” Destiny reminded her gently. “Nopony does live there! Not in six hundred years! They must be passing through or exploring... or something! If they'd been there when we were traveling back to the zebra lands a month ago we would have detected them then! There's no way they live there!” Destiny smiled to herself hoping that her friend wouldn't see. Reshkirana hated being wrong. “Well, let's get going then!” She said cheerfully as she quickly checked her saddlebags to make sure they were still secure. “If they're passing through, we don't want to lose them.” Reshkirana sighed heavily. “Right...” She agreed and, after quickly checking her own bags, took off, heading for the ancient ruins. The resonance was already strong; she had no doubt the one they sought was currently within the ruins of the city, and there was no way she was going to let one of the bearers slip through her claws now; not after almost three years of searching. ~~~ Brookstone was alive with activity, and Chrysalis and her changelings were right in the thick of it. There was a lot that needed to be done before they could move the colony to their new settlement, not the least of which was building the settlement. Construction teams had been organized that had already made the trek out of the forest to a temporary camp and were staying there while they started the first of Ponyville's permanent homes. At the same time other teams were gathering lumber and other supplies from the forest and transporting them to the builders, while yet more teams gathered food and other necessities for the rest. It was all hard work and everypony was involved, from blacksmiths and woodworkers to cooks and foragers; many working to the point of exhaustion each day. But there was also an excitement in the air that seemed to fuel the ponies as surely as love fueled Chrysalis's changelings. The promise of endless possibilities for the future that for the first time seemed to actually be within reach had spirits at an all time high. Word was being spread across Equestria by pegasus and changeling alike, that it was finally safe to leave the forests. Invitations were sent to join Brookstone colony in the building of Ponyville, as well as offers to aid other colonies in building their own settlements beyond the dangerous forests. Word had even been sent to nearby nations inviting ponies that had taken refuge in foreign lands to return to the land of their ancestry. Already they'd received word of several other settlements being founded in the central valley of Equestria. Several where towns and villages had once stood in ancient times; before the dark times. Chrysalis smiled. Ancient times, she thought trying not to laugh. I was already thousands of years old in what most ponies consider ancient times... But even so, a thousand years, almost a quarter of even my long life. It's been so long since anypony has had any real hope for the future. “Queen Chrysalis?” a familiar voice brought her out of her thoughts and she turned to find Sonata by her side, the twins, Raindrop and Dewdrop in tow. “Sonata, how are you today?” She asked, she'd seen a lot of the mare in the past couple weeks, partially due to her spending time with Surprise to teach her about her new abilities. But also because of the grief they shared for the loss of Sallis. Sonata smiled. “I'm doing better.” “We're worried about Surprise,” one of the fillies, Chrysalis still couldn't tell them apart, interrupted sounding impatient. Chrysalis looked back up at Sonata concerned. “What's wrong with Surprise?” “She locked herself in her room and won't come out. We tried talking to her but she wouldn't answer. We thought, since you can talk to her directly...” Chrysalis smiled understandingly. “Let me see,” she said then closed her eyes, reaching out to Surprise through the bond she'd inherited from Sallis. She had an idea what this may be about and when she made contact with Surprise's mind, the pain and sadness that she felt confirmed it. She sighed. “I think it would be best if I talk to her face to face,” she told them. It wasn't a long walk to Surprise's home and Sonata showed her to the locked door. “Alright... I think I know what's wrong. It would probably be best if I talk to her alone,” Chrysalis told her her softly. She nodded. “If you need me, I will be in the kitchen with the twins.” She left leaving Chrysalis alone in the hall. Taking a deep breath, she turned back to the door. “Surprise?” No answer. “Surprise, I know you're there... I'm coming in.” She used magic to unlock the door and opened it. The room was dark, and the light from the hall provided the only illumination. She spotted the young mare in the back corner of the room, her back to the door. Her entire body was shaking and the sound of soft sobs could be heard. But it wasn't Surprise. The pony in the back of the room was an earth pony mare with a golden-brown coat and red-brown mane and tail. Chrysalis couldn't help gasping as she recognized that form. It was Sallis; the form she had chosen for herself so many years ago when she'd first learned to transform. “She only showed me once...” Surprise said in her own voice though slightly distorted by being in a different body. “But I remember every detail.” She sniffed quietly. “I miss her...” Chrysalis understood then. Surprise had inherited the ability to transform along with the rest of Sallis's changeling magic just as Chrysalis had suspected. She must have discovered the ability on her own and it had likely made her think of Sallis. She knew that Surprise often kept her own emotions bottled up. She didn't want anypony to know when she was sad or depressed because she didn't want to make them sad. After all, she lived her life doing everything she could to make others happy. “I miss her too, Surprise,” Chrysalis said softly. “More than you can ever know...” She looked over her shoulder then slowly stood and turned toward her. As she did, green flames swept up around her as she changed. Then it was the real Sallis standing before her, in her natural form. Chrysalis felt her heart clench up seeing her daughter again in such a way. It wasn't until she noticed the splinted foreleg and the limp that she remembered that this wasn't really Sallis. “Surprise, please... don't,” she said shakily, holding up a trembling hoof. Green flames surrounded her again and Surprise was back to her normal white pegasus form. She hung her head down in shame. “Sorry.” Chrysalis smiled gently then stepped forward and put one hoof around her in a hug. “It's alright.” Surprise hugged her back and Chrysalis couldn't help smiling. It had been a long time since she'd considered anypony a real friend, but she knew that Surprise had managed to become just that. “Surprise, I know you miss Sallis.” She tensed slightly. “It hurts losing somepony so close to you. But you shouldn't shut out those closest to you when you're in pain. “I know you just don't want them to worry, that you want them to be happy even when you aren't; but they know when your sad, and it hurts them a lot more when you push them away and won't let them help you. They want to be there for you Surprise, because they know that you will always be there for them.” Surprise looked up at her and sniffed once more. “I just...” She started then sighed. “I guess you're right.” Chrysalis smiled. “I know you see Sonata and the twins as your family, and you want them to be happy. But they want the same for you, so don't shut them out, okay.” “Okay...” Chrysalis smiled and pat her back gently smiling. “Come on, they're all in the kitchen worried about you.” Surprise nodded and followed Chrysalis out into the hall. “I'm rather surprised though that you were able to adapt to your shape-shifting abilities so easily," Chrysalis told her sounding impressed. She shrugged. “It wasn't that hard; I was practicing channeling my magic like you showed me and I guess I thought of Sallis, how she had shown me her pony form just before... I felt the magic react...” Chrysalis nodded. “All it really takes is a mental image of what you want to become when you activate the transformation magic. I can teach you more later, but for now at least you already learned how to change back, so I suppose there's no harm in practicing on your own.” “Okay,” she said with a nod as they entered the kitchen. “Surprise!” Both fillies cried seeing them and Surprise found herself tackled to the floor. She laughed. “Hey girls, sorry I worried you,” she said hugging them both tightly. “I just really missed Sallis this morning.” “We miss her too,” one of the fillies said holding to Surprise tightly. “I know.” Chrysalis smiled. “Surprise, you should take a day off; stay here with your family.” “We're family?” The filly asked sounding confused. “Of course,” Chrysalis told her smiling. “Just because you're not related by blood doesn't mean you aren't family. You, your sister, Surprise, and even Sonata. You're all family.” “What about you?” The question caught Chrysalis off guard. She'd spent a fair amount of time with them all over the past couple weeks since she'd been training Surprise to use her new powers. But to consider them family? “Well I don't know about me,” she said smiling. “I'm more of a family friend I think.” “Nah, You're family, Chryssy,” Surprise said smiling up at her. She smiled thankfully. “I'm honored that you think so,” she said then grinned. “I have such a big family already, but I guess I can add four more.” ~~~ (Music) The broken spires of the ancient city rose above the desert wasteland in defiance to the decay of time. Even after over six centuries since it was abandoned, much of the city still stood. Destiny looked around in awe as they entered the ruins. The city wall itself was a sight to behold, standing nearly four stories high with several towers spaced around the city that stood nearly twice that height. Having been raised in the mountains by her nomadic clan, Destiny had never seen a city before she'd met Reshkirana and even those they'd visited thus far paled in comparison to the ancient capital of Saddle Arabia. Destiny was flitting from one side of the grand avenue to the other trying to look at everything as they made their way toward the center of the city following the resonance that Reshkirana could sense. Ahead they could see the grand palace of the ancient kingdom towering over the rest of the city, greater even than the castle of Canterlot had been before its destruction at the hooves of Midnight Star. Destiny could hardly believe ponies could build such a magnificent city only to abandon it. All the same she was ecstatic, in fact she could only think of one way to describe it. “This place is huge!” Reshkirana couldn't help but smile at her companion's excitement. The city had always been magnificent, even abandoned as it was. She however was focusing on following the resonance. It didn't seem to be much further ahead. It seemed to be leading them toward the palace but she didn't think it was quite all the way there. In fact as they drew closer the resonance seemed to be pointing more and more downward. Finally it felt like the resonance was coming from somewhere below them. “They should be somewhere around here,” she told Destiny. “Really? I don't see anypony,” Destiny said glancing around the empty avenue below them. “They must be inside one of the buildings. Come on, let's go have a look,” Reshkirana said diving down toward the roadway. When she landed though, she noticed something curious. “Can you tell what building they're in?” She shook her head. “I... actually it still feels like they're below us.” Destiny looked down at the ground. “Below us? How can the be below us? We're on the ground.” Reshkirana looked around thinking. Then the answer came to her and she shook her head. “They must be in the tunnels.” “Tunnels? What tunnels?” “It may have gotten worse during Discord's reign, but Saddle Arabia was always a very hot and arid land. The tunnels were originally for maintenance of the city's sewer system; but when it became extensive enough that it was possible to travel from one side of the city to the other through them, many ponies began using them to stay out of the sun. Before long they were expanded even more with many public entrances. Soon nopony used the streets during the height of the day anymore.” “Oh.” Destiny said cheerfully, and shifted her leathery wings. “Well it would be nice to get out of the sun; I'm not exactly made for daylight. So where do we go?” Reshkirana looked over toward her friend. She hadn't even thought of that. There had been a few times before during their travels that Destiny's wings had been sunburned, and it was once again a bright sunny day. “Are your wings feeling burned?” Reshkirana asked concerned. “A little,” she admitted. “I'm sorry, Destiny, I didn't even think about that.” She just shrugged. “We didn't want to lose the trail. It's not a big deal.” Even so Reshkirana felt bad for not considering her friend's comfort. She put a wing around her in a gentle hug. “I'll find some aloe before we make camp tonight,” she promised. Destiny smiled. “Okay, but first we need to find an entrance to these tunnels you're talking about, right?” She nodded. “Right. We just need to find the nearest entrance. If I remember correctly they were almost every other block.” She glanced past Destiny toward a collapsed building a little further down the road. Much of the rubble had spread out into the road. “Hopefully the tunnels are mostly intact.” It didn't take them long to find one of the entrances though it was a couple blocks back the way they had come. Destiny seemed nervous as she followed Reshkirana down the long unused and weather worn stone staircase. “Do you think there will be any traps?” Reshkirana looked at her raising a brow at the ridiculous notion. “Traps? Why in the world would there be traps?” She shrugged. “Don't old ruins usually have traps in them?” Kira laughed as she reached the bottom of the stairs and the tunnel opened up around them. The tunnel was easily twenty paces wide and almost five high. Down the center a was a deep trench with raised paths to either side. At every major intersection of the roads above, there was an intersection in the tunnels as well with bridges spanning the trenches. Without hesitation, Reshkirana started down the path toward where she could sense the resonance from. “No, not usually,” she said in answer to Destiny's question then used a little magic to create a ball of light floating just over her head. “But in the stories my mom use to tell me, there were always traps in ancient ruins protecting long lost treasures.” “First of all, these were public tunnels; ponies were traveling through here every day. I doubt they'd want to be avoiding traps all the time. Secondly, it's unlikely they left their treasures behind when they abandoned the city. It wasn't like they didn't have any warning that they would be leaving; it took nearly a hundred years for the city to be completely abandoned. And finally, if there were any treasure chambers guarded by traps in this city, it would probably be under the palace.” Reshkirana told her as they began around a deep pit that the trenches had once drained into. “STOP!” The shout while commanding was not unkind and in fact seemed concerned, the result being that both Reshkirana and Destiny willingly obeyed, freezing mid-step. Reshkirana then looked up spotting a unicorn stallion a short ways ahead appearing to have just come around the corner and quickly walking toward them. With a rich brown coat and dark brown mane and tail, both cut short in a rather messy style, he seemed handsome in a rugged sort of way. Aside from the saddlebags he wore, the only other piece of clothing he had was a wide brimmed hat that was a brown just a few shades darker than his coat. “Is there a trap?” Destiny asked worriedly. Reshkirana clapped a claw to her fore-head. The stallion seemed taken back. “What? No, no, there's not a trap. But unless you want to find out what's at the bottom of that pit, I'd suggest staying clear of that crumbling ledge,” he said gesturing to the path just in front of them that did in fact appear to be badly cracked and unstable. “Ah ha! See I told you; a trap!” Destiny said triumphantly. Reshkirana rolled her eyes. “It's not a trap, its just natural deterioration,” she said then looked back to the Stallion. “Thanks for the warning though; we both have wings, but I don't fancy taking a fall all the same.” He looked between them seeming to notice their wings for the first time. “Did the two of you trade wings or something?” “What do you mean?” He laughed. “I mean you're a dragon with pegasus wings and she's a pegasus... no wait, you're a nocturne aren't you!” He said sounding excited. Destiny grinned showing her small fangs. “Yep!” “Well, I'm pleased to meet you. I had thought the nocturne were wiped out during the wars.” She shook her head. “No, we just left and went out to live in the wilds. There's several nomadic clans roaming the mountains south of the zebra lands.” “I'm glad to hear that,” he said smiling sincerely. “Well that explains her; now what's your story? How did you end up with pegasus wings?” He asked gesturing to Reshkirana. “What makes you think there's anything unusual about it?” She asked heatedly. “Hey, I'm just curious,” he said holding up a hoof defensively. “I've never heard of a dragon with feathered wings before.” “And just how many dragons do you know?” She growled. “Well, you're the first actually.” “Then how would you know if it was normal or not for a dragon to have feathered wings?” She demanded. “I was just curious. I meant no offense,” he said apologetically. Reshkirana glared at him a moment more before finally relenting. “It's true; it's not common for a dragon to have feathered wings, but obviously it does happen,” she said opening her wings slightly for emphasis. He nodded understanding. “I'm sorry if I offended you. Please allow me to introduce myself; Origin Atlas, explorer and seeker of ancient secrets, at your service,” he said giving them a small bow. “I'm Reshkirana,” she introduced herself simply then gestured to Destiny. “And this is Clandestine, but she normally goes by Destiny.” “And you can call her Kira.” Destiny added cheerfully. Reshkirana sighed heavily; now he undoubtedly would use the nickname for her as well. He didn't seem to notice. “Well I'm glad to meet you, Kira, Destiny. I have to ask though; what brings the two of you to a place like this? I wasn't exactly expecting to find anypony else exploring the ruins.” “Well, it appears we were searching for you,” Reshkirana told him then levitated out the gem that was clearly resonating with him now that they were so close. She cast a spell causing both him and the gem to glow together with the resonance. “You're chosen.” He eyed the gem briefly looking surprised and thoughtful, then looked up at her. “Chosen for what?” “To help save the world!” Destiny told him grinning. Kira nodded. “And for that purpose, we need you to come with us.” “You do, huh?” He said glancing back over his shoulder where he'd been. “Well if it's really that important then I'll of course do what I can to help. But, well, is it urgent?” Destiny just snorted. “Not really.” Reshkirana reluctantly nodded. “It's not extremely urgent, we still have a couple years to do what needs to be done, but the sooner we get it done the better it will be.” “Will a day or two make much difference?” She sighed. “Probably not. Why?” “Well I think I've made a discovery that could be valuable for pony-kind, but I'm having some trouble getting to it.” “Well maybe we can help,” Destiny offered. With another sigh Reshkirana shrugged knowing that Destiny would insist on helping no matter what she said. “I guess we might as well, if you really think it will be beneficial for others in the future.” He smiled. “Knowledge is always beneficial.” Reshkirana raised a brow. “I could argue that; some of my worst problems came from knowledge I would have been better off without.” “But was it really the knowledge that caused the problem, or what you did with it?” She frowned having not ever thought of it like that. “Well if I hadn't had the knowledge I couldn't have done anything with it in the first place!” He just smiled. “It was still what you chose to do that was the problem. Perhaps you didn't know what the consequences would be; but then wouldn't that mean the problem was too little knowledge? Or rather, incomplete knowledge?” “I suppose,” Reshkirana admitted grumpily. “So what did you find?” “This way,” he said gesturing for them to follow. “Just stay close to the wall and you'll be fine.” They did as he said, though Destiny eyed the pit uneasily as they passed. “You saw the collapsed building up above?” “Yeah...” Destiny told him nervously. “That was the royal library. It collapsed in the great earthquake that was what finally convinced the rest of the Saddle Arabians to abandon the city. They salvaged what they could, but they never really dug out all the rubble. Probably thought anything in the lower chambers was a lost cause.” His horn started glowing. “But while exploring I detected one chamber down here that seems to be intact.” “Detected?” Reshkirana asked curiously, not recognizing the spell he was using. “It's part of my talent; a spell that lets me detect hidden chambers and caves,” he explained. “Anyway the way into the chamber through the library is obviously buried so I came down here to see if I can find another way in. It feels like there's a wall near here that shouldn't be very difficult to break through.” “What makes you think that anything of value is inside? It could just be an empty room.” “There's rows of shelves. I think it may have been an extra storage room; there may not be anything of great value, but you never know. At the very least anything in there will be hundreds of years old and may contain information that's now lost...” “Books and Scrolls don't last forever, you know. They may have just rotted away.” He shrugged. “Well we won't know until we get in there and see for ourselves. Here we are.” He stopped next to what seemed to be just another section of the walls in the tunnels. He placed one hoof against it. “The chamber is just on the other side of this wall.” “How far?” Reshkirana asked. “About four or five hooves.” Reshkirana nodded. “That doesn't sound too difficult. Stand back, I'll get us through in no time,” she said gathering her magic into an elemental spell. The stone before her seemed to shimmer and then flow, pulling back away from a central point and slowly reshaping into an archway. It took about ten minutes of constant spell-work, but finally the way to the chamber was opened before them. Reshkirana gasped and stumbled back when the stale air washed over her. “Wow... nobody's been in there for a while, that's for sure.” Atlas nodded. “Here, let me freshen the place up.” His horn glowed again and Reshkirana began to feel air flowing past them and into the room, while the air within the room was drawn out and sent further into the tunnels. This continued for a couple minutes before he spoke again. “There, should be safe now,” he told them and without waiting entered the chamber, his horn glowing with a light spell. Reshkirana followed him in. “Are you sure there's no traps?” Destiny asked nervously from their makeshift entrance. Atlas laughed. “This was just a library storage room, not a hidden treasure vault. There's no traps.” Reluctantly Destiny followed them in. As Atlas had said, the room was full of lines of shelves that had once held numerous books and scrolls from the ancient kingdom. But as Reshkirana had feared, there didn't seem to be much left. Atlas picked up one of the books off a nearby shelf in his magic only to have it crumble into dust. Many others had already crumbled and several entire shelves had collapsed with the decay of time. Atlas sighed, clearly disappointed . “Well let's look around, maybe something survived worth salvaging.” Reshkirana nodded; they weren't really pressed for time and she'd never liked seeing somebody's hopes crushed. Creating several light orbs she sent them to various places throughout the chamber to give them light to see by. Unfortunately this just made it that much easier to see how poor of condition the contents of the shelves were in. With a soft sigh, Reshkirana started down one of the aisles scanning the shelves for anything that looked at least partially intact. It wasn't until the end of the second aisle that she found something. Her eyes widened in surprise, spotting the book. While the rest of the shelf's contents had long since rotted and were crumbling away, this book appeared to be in perfect condition. “I found something!” She called to the others, levitating the book off the shelf. The other deteriorated books leaning against it crumbled to dust as they lost their support. She paid them no mind however instead bringing the book close she blew across the cover to clean the dust off. “What did you find?” Atlas asked joining her and looking at the book with interest. “I don't know,” she said examining the book with more than just her eyes. “There's some kind of magic protecting it. But it's not any kind of spell I've ever seen before. Definitely not unicorn or dragon magic.” “I don't recognize the text.” He said thoughtfully. “I've seen just about every pony language before, but not this. Is it dragon?” Reshkirana shook her head. “No, I don't recognize it either,” she said opening the book. Inside their was a fair amount of the same text but covering most of the pages were illustrations of ponies with bat wings in different poses, many with arrows or other markings indicating movement. “Nocturne...” Atlas said softly in surprise. Reshkirana nodded in agreement. “These look like written instructions for some kind of dance...” “Can I see!?” The speed at which Destiny appeared hovering at her shoulder made Reshkirana jump and nearly drop the book from her magic. She recovered quickly though, being use to such antics from her bat-winged friend. She levitated the book toward Destiny and let her take it in her hooves. Her eyes lit up seeing the illustrations on the pages. “Do you recognize the text?” Reshkirana asked. She nodded. “It's ancient nocturne.” “Ancient nocturne?” Atlas repeated sounding confused. “The nocturne had their own language?” Destiny glanced at him. “Of course.” “But weren't the nocturne created by princess Luna? Why didn't they just use equestrian?” Reshkirana tried to hide a giggle behind her claw, shaking her head. Destiny smiled tolerantly. “We weren't created by princess Luna, that was just the first time we really showed ourselves to the rest of the world. We were proud to serve the princess of the night... before.” Before what didn't need to be said. “Sorry. I suppose I should have known better.” Reshkirana pat his shoulder comfortingly. “Not much is really known about the nocturne before they came forward to serve princess Luna, don't worry too much about it.” Destiny smiled and nodded in agreement. “Even I don't know that much about our history,” she said then looked down at the book again, turning a few pages. “We didn't have many books in my clan. One of the other clans supposedly kept a lot of historical artifacts, but I never saw for myself.” “Do you know the language though?” Reshkirana asked. She bit her lip. “Well, a little; I was taught some of it when I was a filly. I could probably figure it out, but it will take some time.” “Can you at least tell what this book is? Maybe that would give us a clue why they'd go to the effort of enchanting it to preserve it.” “What I'd like to know is if they were the ones who enchanted it and how,” Reshkirana added. “Nocturne aren't unicorns after all.” “Um... well I did recognize a few symbols right away. If I had to guess, I'd say that these are instructions for dances meant for specific rituals.” “Are ritual dances common for nocturne?” Atlas asked. “Not so much anymore. But there are still some that we practice among the clans... It's actually what got me interested in dancing myself,” she hesitated before adding; “and what got me discovered.” Reshkirana gave her shoulder a sympathetic squeeze, knowing what she meant. “Discovered?” Atlas asked confused. “Destiny's family kept her a secret for most of her younger years.” Reshkirana explained, rubbing her friend's shoulder comfortingly. “Why?” “For a nocturnal race, having coat and mane colors as bright as mine aren't exactly a good thing...” Destiny said softly in explanation. “My family was ashamed of me.” Atlas looked at her in disbelief. “I... I'm sorry.” He said softly. She looked up then and smiled in thanks, then held out the book. “I could probably translate this for you, but it would take some time,” She told him clearly wanting to change the subject. “I would like to try some of the dances in it if that's alright?” He just smiled. “You can go ahead and keep it.” Her eyes widened. “But this was your discovery; it might be the only thing of value in here!” “It won't be much use to me; I can't read it. And if you like to dance...” He shrugged. “My father always use to say, 'knowledge is always beneficial, but especially so when placed in the hooves of those that know how to use it.'” Destiny smiled and clutched the ancient text to her chest. “Thanks.” ~~~ “Things are coming along nicely, don't you think?” Chrysalis asked as Surprise limped slightly, following alongside her. To say she was in a cheerful mood would be an understatement. “Yep, and I can't wait for all the housewarming parties and grand openings and more groundbreaking parties...” Chrysalis laughed. “Sometimes I think you have a one track mind, Surprise.” “Why would I want any tracks in my mind? Trains are noisy! I wouldn't be able to think!” “That reminds me, once the settlement is more complete, we should look into restoring the old railways,” Chrysalis said thoughtfully. She was too use to Surprise by now to be confused by her way of thinking. Suddenly there was a flash of green from Surprise and Chrysalis looked down at her to see what she'd done. It had been a few days since Surprise had discovered her ability to transform and in that time Chrysalis had been helping Surprise practice all her changeling magic. She was an amazingly fast learner despite her often short attention span; she'd already become adept at transformations as well as other more traditional spells such as levitation. But whatever she had done, it wasn't readily obvious... until Chrysalis noticed the white unicorn horn all but hidden by her curly golden mane. “You pretending to be an alicorn today?” She asked raising a brow questioningly. She grinned. “Well I kind of am aren't I? I mean, I'm a pony that can fly and use magic. And I might even be immortal now...” Chrysalis missed a step. “What makes you think that?” She asked looking over at Surprise. She shrugged. “Well, Sallis was immortal right? And I have almost all the rest of her powers...” “I see,” Chrysalis said softly. “I won't lie to you, it is possible that you have inherited Sallis's immortality.” She sighed. “I thought so.” “It's possible,” Chrysalis repeated. “But unfortunately we won't know for sure for years, so try not to worry about it for now.” “Okay,” she said and with another flash the horn was gone. “How are your injuries healing up?” Chrysalis asked to change the subject. She shrugged. “Alright. My leg still hurts if I bang it, and the doc said I shouldn't try flying for another week still, but otherwise I'm doing pretty good.” “Glad to hear it, I'm sure you'll be happy to get in the air again...” “Queen Chrysalis!” A pink pegasi with a blue mane and tail said as she flew toward them at high speed then flaring her wings to stop right in front of them. “What is it Firefly?” “There's a large group of ponies approaching the settlement from the north.” “Refugees?” Chrysalis asked. She nodded. “They look to be in pretty bad shape. Twister already went and talked to them, they're mostly unicorns from Canterlot.” “Well, then we should go greet them shouldn't we!” Surprise said with enthusiasm and started trotting off toward the north end of the settlement. “Has the council been alerted?” Chrysalis asked turning to follow Surprise with Firefly hovering alongside. “Yep, ran into a couple of them on the way,” Firefly answered. “Good,” Chrysalis said then picked up her pace to catch up to Surprise. When they reached the north end of the settlement, they found the group of refugees had already reached the edge of the town and were speaking with a few members of the council. Many of them looked up seeming nervous but also hopeful as they saw Chrysalis approaching. Then one of the unicorns stepped forward. A brilliant blue in color, she had a black mane and tail elegantly styled though she had clearly seen better days. “Are you Queen Chrysalis?” She asked with a refined Canterlot accent. “Yes, I am,” she answered smiling and trying not to appear too intimidating. “I'm Lady Sapphire. My company and I have come from the ruins of Canterlot seeking refuge.” Chrysalis nodded. “Well, as you can see, we're still building our settlement ourselves,” she started but then smiled when she saw their dismayed looks. “But I'm sure we can find some place for you, so long as you're willing to help with the work.” They all looked relieved then and Sapphire smiled. “We can certainly do that. We were trying to rebuild at least part of Canterlot before...” “Before what?” Surprise asked appearing right in front of her. Sapphire looked at the pegasus startled. “Uh, well, before the shadow demon appeared.” She shook her head. “We don't know what it is or where it came from, but it took over the ruins and drove us out. “We had heard of your settlement here of course and heard that you would accept anypony willing to work...” Chrysalis nodded. “Indeed we will! Welcome to Ponyville all of you!” “Hey you know what this calls for!?” Surprise said jumping up in front of her again excited. Chrysalis just rolled her eyes while many of the unicorns looked at the pegasus confused. “A PARTY!”