"How is the tea, dear?"
The soft voice could melt the heart even of the coldest tyrant, raise a dead mother to give one final kiss to her filly, and make a statue go volunteer to a homeless shelter. It was also currently aimed at a being considered by most the incarnation of evil. Maybe not evil as such but at least the incarnation of uncaring arrogance and self-centered pleasure that could easily pass for it.
The owner of the voice and subsequently the owner of the heart of anypony listening to it was sitting on a small chair on a hill overlooking Ponyville and holding a cup of the same brown, steaming substance. The sun was shining brightly at her and her guest and their surroundings were gently swaying in a warm breeze. Considering it was the middle of winter the circumstances held a good clue that the pair apparently having a picnic were no normal ponies.
"Just delightful, Fluttershy."
One of the participants wasn't a pony at all. More similar to a patchwork flying snake, the non-pony lowered the cup held in his griffon arm and smacked his lips. His tail ending in a palm picked up the tea kettle and topped his cup off.
In short, Discord and Fluttershy were having a tea party on a high hill while warm summer temporarily took place instead of the coldest winter in living memory and nopony found it even slightly out of place.
"I'm so glad. Days like this-"
Like a broken record the yellow pegasus' voice froze in place and color drained away from all surroundings including her. Discord wasn't the one to get uncomfortable at sudden changes of well... anything and he just kept sipping his tea. With all sound fading completely, everything turned to darkness. After floating wherever Discord was for a brief moment sets of lines began appearing on the invisible ground directly around him. The glowing lines formed concentric circles with symbols writing themselves along them and as they got closer to completion the color began returning to the blackness around.
Expressionless, Discord began cleaning a pair of spectacles appearing in his hand with a towel held in his tail and after blowing on them he put them on. The blackness around slowly turned into space instead of being just a dark sheet and he could see that the place he was now resembled the hill he'd left in absolutely no aspect. The area looked like a temple made of obsidian in the middle of a desert but as a god Discord knew that reality of this place defied normal explanation.
Living shadows kept appearing through the space between pillars serving as borders between the desert and the inside of the black temple and the unending lines kept walking towards a figure sitting on a throne in the middle of the place. The shadows faded when the black alicorn rose up and stepped towards Discord levitating inside the magic circles wearing a tourist outfit and reading a pamphlet titled - A Guide To The Underworld.
"Greetings," Void bowed politely before the god of chaos.
Discord looked into a little screen appearing in front of him and with a button he gave the Land Of The Dead website a shocking one star out of five. Needless to say, he wasn't overly happy to be here. The final sanctuary, the realm of disappearing souls represented the ultimate order, the unescapable truth and thus was in direct opposition to Discord's aspect and the same went for the alicorn in front of him.
"You're playing with fire, alicorn," Discord threw a burning superball at Void and raised an eyebrow when it hissed out after reaching the border of the magic circle. A set of safecracker equipment materialized from Discord's ears and he began knocking on the barrier surrounding him.
"I apologize for the rude invitation but my request is of utmost importance."
"I must admit this binding circle is pretty sturdy. Well," Discord slammed his hand into the barrier and lightning arced from the impact, "done."
"I do not wish to waste your time but I need to keep you away from anything that might be happening in Equestria for short time."
Discord grinned.
"Whatever do you mean, alicorn? I thought you would enjoy a bit more... traffic in this place."
"Death is the ultimate protection from pain and suffering, yet I do not wish it upon anypony earlier than they are due."
Discord split in two and while one of them kept examining the barrier the other one tried to phase through, making the circle shimmer brightly.
"What is preventing you from protecting your little Equestria?"
"I cannot be everywhere and I cannot see the future. There is a role for me to play and there are roles for others."
With a crack the barrier around Discord shattered and the god of chaos broke free.
"I am the ultimate force of the universe, Void. I am chaos, I am unpredictability and thus I am life itself. You thought of yourself as my opposite but in the end you're just one of my creations... in a broad sense and I can unmake you just as easily."
The black alicorn screamed when reality blurred around him but black fire swirling from his wings burned the blurriness away.
Just one attempt and Void was breathing heavily and shaking. He wasn't the one to give up easily but he knew foolish effort when he saw it and while his idea of summoning Discord here, into the place of order, was a logical one he underestimated his power way too much. Still, he had a request to fulfill and he would much rather disappear than fail Scream.
White tethers swirled around Discord and bound him inside the reappeared circle.
"I do not have to imprison you here, I just need to buy enough time."
Discord's hands melted through the tethers and clapped... very slowly and ironically.
"Bra-vo... bra-vo, little creature," one of the hands suddenly wore a shiny wrist watch at which Discord disappointedly looked, "Almost five minutes. You've succeeded, Equestria is safe from my deeds and whatever evil endangered it has been eradicated in the meantime. Congratulations! I'll get the celebration started and you're going to be in charge of CONFETTI!"
Void burped and few paper streamers fell out.
Discord suddenly grew, reappeared in a flash in front of the black alicorn and picked him up by the neck.
"If your heroes fail then there will be much more chaos and fun than with any sort of my intervention," he threw Void on the ground, "What kind of friend would I be though if I didn't give those closest to me a chance?"
"What?" croaked Void, trying to massage his half-crushed windpipe.
"I agree to your request. I will not interfere with anything going on for two weeks and I will just watch. But-" Discord's tail pulled Void back up and slowly dusted him off, "there is a little quid pro quo, tit for tat, you scratch my back, I scratch-"
"I understand. What is your condition?" interrupted Void the infinite stream of nonsense.
"The same goes for you. No matter what you will not interfere with anything as well."
"I agree," Void nodded. It felt too easy but as he learned today he really didn't have any leverage over Discord.
The god of chaos grinned.
"Trust me, in the end you will be sure you made the wrong choice. Oh and one more thing-"
The reality around Void blurred once again but he was too weak to resist Discord's power for the second time.
"- and that is the punishment for your insolence and arrogance. Let me show you how to turn a perfecly fine alicorn into... a TURTLE!"
Void focused to at least weaken the magic affecting him.
"Just kidding," Discord grinned, "Enjoy being a mare."
With echoing laughter the god of chaos disappeared.
Void, sweating to his hooves, shaking and drained, lowered his head to look between his hind legs and groaned.
"Scream is going to have a field day with this."
Well, it could have gone worse.
Luna was tired, at least mentally. She had spent hours rethinking her ideas on how to prevent another invasion but every single time she'd ended with the same result - failure. Of course they could erect protection spells. Of course they could make the area around the tree a deadly wasteland. None of that would help though. Barriers could be stripped, wasteland could be teleported out of. Magic was the problem all the way.
Perhaps she was looking at the problem from the wrong angle. Both times they had been on the defending side so maybe if her Equestria took a proactive approach to the invasion and gave the enemy a showing of force then it might allow them to control the rift and the access to it. No, that still wouldn't work. As long as any strong access point existed then there was the possibility of personal travelling spells working.
Well, today was a bust again then. Luna yawned and decided to try again when she was fresh.
She knew she, of all ponies, shouldn't be afraid of sleep but the depths around her once again felt alien. This time though she knew what it meant.
"Having a nap, princess?" the bowing thestral smiled.
"I really need the rest. With you gone I have to personally oversee a part of Nightguard business, prowl through dreams, and think about the damn Tree of Harmony."
"I take it that you haven't though of anything useful?"
"No. Unless it gets destroyed then nothing will be solved no matter what magic we throw at the problem. We could make the rift ourselves and invade the mirror world first but that would only result in having out rumps kicked, we don't have the military to do that."
"What about Scream's information?"
"You mean releasing Discord and Nightmare? That isn't even an option. Dead world isn't a favorable result."
The anger in her voice made Sharp Biscuit step back. The anger wasn't aimed at him thought.
"Don't blame yourself, Luna. Your efforts aren't in vain and the knowledge about the inner workings of the Tree hints at something else."
"What do you mean?"
"The energy of the Tree doesn't flow only out of it. That could mean that while the Tree allows the Elements to work there's also the possibility of the Elements giving energy to the Tree so it doesn't die."
"I don't think so. The Elements were inactive until Twilight woke them up and the Tree survived just fine."
Sharp hummed a little tune.
"Who was their last user?"
"My sister temporarily bore all six of them."
"Then the possibility is that the Elements were not lost but simply dormant since your sister is still alive. Speaking of which, how is she?"
"How do you not know? You are my subconscious."
"It helps talking about things. I know you feel responsible for her almost dying. Wash the wounds and take a different perspective on things."
"There is hardly any perspective. She got almost mortally wounded by an enemy bearer. She took a month to regain consciousness, an alicorn got wounded THAT severely. I should have done something, I should have been there. My sister never thinks somepony's eradication should be the first choice but there are times she's wrong. I should have destroyed the attacker."
"The important thing is she's recovering. Her state might actually be a good thing."
"How can you say that?"
"That brings us back to the topic of the Tree. If the Elements are nourishing the Tree as well then if you somehow got rid of them then the Tree and the mirror Elements would slowly lose power without releasing the Nightmare."
"Got... rid of them? I thought the Elements chose new bearers as soon as the old ones died."
"It takes time for the bond to appear apparently, at least according to the books you read."
"I can't in good conscience order the death of five fillies and one princess. I mean just thinking that is preposterous."
"I'm just going over the possibilities and you said that Equestria needed somepony to balance the soft approach of your sister. Nopony said anything about killing them anyway, just putting them outside of time should suffice."
"A stasis spell?"
"It could work and they would be safe. Sadly, they would have to be imprisoned for a long time or at least until we made sure the Tree was dead but it sounds better than the other option."
"I'll keep that as an option but I refuse to do it until I know there is no other choice. It is too harsh of a step. There is still enough of Starswirl's research to go through and there might be other way."
"Your subjects must be happy to have you, your Highness."
Luna just smiled bitterly and drifted into deep sleep.
"Pine Hills, princess!" a proud voice rang through the inside of a long-distance carriage.
Twilight groaned and unglued her eyes. Luckly, she was travelling alone as traffic to a backwater town like this consisted more of logs and other raw materials shipping out and complex machines being shipped in. If there ever was a place for changelings to infest, control and quietly feed in then it was a town like this. Not that she was actually expecting to find just a bunch of cocoons and empty houses buuut...
Well, she was expecting that, no reason to lie to herself especially after Ponyville had ended that way during Chrysalis' second attack. On the other hoof, she had had one of the Nightmare changelings spending time with her at home and despite him/her being slightly silly and confused there hadn't been any problems whatsoever. Therein was the problem though - their ability to learn, adapt and their hunting prowess without any combat training.
Twilight shook her head. Sitting and hiding inside a carriage wouldn't help anything so she hoisted her bags and stepped outside into the dangerous world of Pine Hills. The looks of locals trudging through the thin cover of snow around what looked like the town square caught her off guard. Apparently, alicorns weren't really common guests here. The princess scolded herself. While Ponyville was larger than this place it was still a small town but even with her long stay there the locals had been put off by her becoming an alicorn at first as well.
The closest and most official looking building was...
Twilight thanked heavens and headed towards what looked like a town hall on the other side of the square. As she trotted on, trying to ignore the questioning glances of the residents, something caught her eye. At first she thought it was one of the villagers walking his dog but when she focused to look at the prowling creature she noticed it was dark blue, bulky, chitinous and changeling looking. Even with the slight differences between Nightmares and normal changelings Twilight had no problem identifying this one as one of the former kind. Yes, it was wearing a green sweater and a matching hat with a knitted snoflake on top but it was definitely a deadly creature.
In her mind more than in the mind of anypony around apparently.
A Nightmare walking without a disguise among the villagers. Prowling and trying to look inconspicuous but still in plain sight. That could mean two things. Either Guiding Light and her hive had the village in their grasp or there was nothing even slightly wrong going on. So... she had nothing and infinite theories wouldn't prove useful whatsoever.
Her horn and wings were enough of a passcard for Twilight to immediately get the attention of the nearest town hall clerk who immediately showed her to the mayor's office. The mayor looked surprisingly similar to Mayor Mare in Ponyville. Yes, this guy was a stallion. Yes, he was much more muscular and his build hinted he belonged into this frontier town a bit more than somepony softer would. Buuut... the grey mane, faded brown coat, half-forced smile and hidden worried look in his eyes were more than enough of a giveaway that this guy was a civil servant.
"What brings you to this forgotten place, your Highness?" the mayor stood up from the paperwork in front of him and shook Twilight's hoof vigorously.
The greeting wasn't insincere but Twilight felt something was off. The mayor gave her the same look she'd recieved from high royalty right after her coronation. To him she was just a young nuisance to whom he had to be polite but still just a nuisance. A show of dominance was in place.
"Take a guess, dear mayor. I'm here on princess Celestia's orders so... what might be important here of all places for her to send a diplomatic envoy."
Her hard look fell flat as the mayor sat back down behind his desk and propped his chin on his hooves.
"There is nothing surprising about your visit. I've been expecting something of that sort for a while now but, truth be told, I wasn't expecting you in person."
"I am experienced enough to deal with anything that might be happening here," lied Twilight, mostly to herself.
Seeing her blurt out the answer and blush slightly, the mayor took a deep breath.
"I am a simple pony and I didn't mean to insult you. What I really meant was that there is no reason for somepony so high up in the command structure to come here because there in fact isn't anything happening."
"So... no problems with the changelings?"
"Not at all. They just flew in few weeks ago grouped around their queen and asked whether we needed some odd jobs done. This place is pretty much surrounded by the Everfree Forest so we lose ponies from time to time and we agreed. In exchange for their helping hoof all they wanted was a house with roomy cellars and we had that for exactly the same reason. Whenever we need some heightened protection or just help we call on them and they come without complaining. Some of them even come out from time to time to have a drink in the evening in the pub, not their queen though. To be frank, we like to have them here."
"What about the feeding thing?"
"Heh, that one's actually pretty funny. Most of our guys haven't seen a friendly changeling before their coming here and avoided then like a plague. Thanks to princess Celestia's order we didn't have any open hostilities and from what their queen told me our fear of them was enough to keep them fit. When things changed and we began warming up to them they just switched from eating fear to eating love. Yes, it wasn't much at first and some of the villagers out at night fell unconscious but they've always been transported right to their homes without even a bruise from dropping to the ground."
Twilight didn't know what to say. All this seemed too good to be true.
"That's, I guess, good?"
The mayor grinned.
"I appreciate princess Celestia's concern but there really isn't anything sinister going on here. Honestly, there isn't much of anything going on here. We live, we log, we mine, we eat, we get drunk in the evening, that's all."
Princess Celestia wouldn't have sent Twilight on a wild goose chase. There had to be a reason for her visiting here and she was going to find it. It was possible the princess was just overly worried due to the nature of changelings but Twilight wasn't ready to accept it before exhausting all other possibilities.
"Do you mind if I stay here for few days and evaluate the situation myself?"
"Not at all. I will send somepony to prepare a room for you in the tavern and show you around."
"Erm, where is the changeling hive? I would like to talk to Guiding Light."
The mayor shifted nervously in his chair.
"I... wouldn't advise that, at least not right now. There were few guys trying to check out the place to assess any possible danger but after entering they woke up back in their houses and had to sleep through the entire day. The Nightmares don't bother anypony but apparently value their privacy a lot."
"I have to talk to her as an envoy. They are still princess Celestia's subjects technically."
"I'm not saying you should leave. I'm saying you should go easy on them."
"Why are you trying so hard?"
The mayor raised his hooves defensively.
"The young queen told me about her desire to stay hidden from the princesses, especially princess Luna."
"Aaand that didn't bother you at all?"
"No. I found that out later and at the time they caused less trouble than most of ponies travelling through this place. If nopony knew about them, no harm done."
Twilight sighed at the stupidity of Celestia's, and her, subject.
"I don't intend to invade their hive and start blasting them with magic. I just want to talk to her. The reason for her trying to stay hidden is actually the thing I need to sort out to prevent it festering and becoming a problem in the future."
"You know what? I can't stop you, of course, but do me a little favor and visit a guy called Shieldbreaker. He's a guard who moved here shortly after the Nightmares came. It shouldn't take too much of your time and might help you."
"Where does he live?"
The mayor walked out of the office and returned with two clerks. One of them got the order to guide Twilight to Shieldbreaker's house and the other one was going to make sure there was a place for Twilight in the inn. With another hoofshake she left the town hall.
She couldn't shake off the feeling of walking into a trap. Everything felt too easy, too good to be true, but there still was the underlying threat of walking into Guiding's hive and getting 'moved' without her permission. Perhaps this Shieldbreaker pony could help her. A guard from Canterlot should be trained to obey a voice of leadership.
The clerk left her in front of a house similar to the other ones in the village in all aspects. With the afternoon turning into an evening the cold began biting harder than on the road so Twilight knocked on the door.
It was opened by a grey-coated unicorn mare with light blue mane whose matching blue eyes widened when she saw Twilight.
"B-B-Breaky? We've got a visitor!" she took few steps back, not even trying to hide her distress.
A muscular pegasus stallion rushed out of a door inside with a long black stick in his mouth and froze when he spotted Twilight looking into the entry hall from outside.
"P-princess... what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?" he walked up to Twilight and shoved the unicorn behind him with a wing.
"I wish I knew, mister Shieldbreaker. Princess Celestia sent me here to investigate any possible problems with Nightmare changeling hive not respecting the peace treaty between her and queen Chrysalis. When I talked to the mayor he sent me here."
"Why?"
"No idea. When I mentioned that queen Guiding Light isn't bound by the treaty and might cause problems he-"
"The queen wouldn't do that!" the unicorn mare interrupted her heatedly.
"Errrm," Shieldbreaker coughed, "Well... that's that. I think you can drop the act, love."
The pair exchanged glances, the mare's horn glowed and in a shower of green sparks coursing through her coat she turned into a changeling. Nightmares at close range looked very similar to normal changelings with them being a bit bulkier and having a natural tendency to prowl instead of walking, the greenish hue of the black chitin being replaced by a dark blue one.
"What's going on here?" asked Twilight, having pretty good idea.
"My marefriend... last marefriend used to be a guard. She got drafted during the second invasion and died in the battle for Crystal Empire. Then this little creature-"
"HEY!" the Nightmare poked him and in turn Shieldbreaker patted her head.
"-She said she was sent to find out how ponies would react to her presence and kept me company through some night shifts in Canterlot. She wouldn't stop bugging me about my understandably gloomy mood at the time and we got talking. I liked the company and she wanted a free snack-"
"THAT'S NOT TRUE! Well, not all of it."
"-She asked her queen if she could choose her adult transformation. I'm not sure if you know but the Nightmares can only choose one disguise and it is a proof of their maturity. Well, one day she surprised me when she came out of the bathroom looking like I described my fallen marefriend. After talking-"
"And sobbing," the Nightmare snickered.
"-No snack today. As I said - after talking and my subsequent choices considering her disguise I understood what her choice meant and I decided to stay with her longer. When princess Luna killed their king, father, whatever and they left I decided to move here. The poor thing was so lovesick and wouldn't stop sending me letters."
"I'm sorry? I wasn't the one sending the papers so wet they were unreadable."
Shieldbreaker blushed.
"Delivery problem... totally not my fault."
Twilight stopped a giggle from escaping her mouth at the bickering of the pair.
"Hm," she pouted thoughtfully, "I'm glad you aren't a mind-controlled food slave, mister Shieldbreaker-"
"Who says he isn't?" the Nightmare nuzzled his side.
"Shush," the pegasus covered her head with his wing.
"-Back to business. I need to talk to queen Guiding Light."
"I don't think the queen-" began the changeling.
"Let me rephrase that," Twilight was getting annoyed. She was a princess. She was an ambassador and she would prove her worth to her mentor no matter what, "It is either me or a platoon of Canterlot soldiers. I just want to talk, nothing else. I'm positive princess Celestia would be happy to her royal hooves that your hive isn't causing any trouble and actually being more helpful than most other changelings but I just need to make sure of it."
Shieldbreaker sighed.
"Love, could you arrange it? There is no way princess Celestia would mean your queen any harm."
"I guess," Shieldbreaker's marefriend turned from him to Twilight, "I wouldn't expect a warm welcome if I were you. Come back tomorrow then."
"Thank you very much," Twilight nodded and left after exchanging the necessary pleasantries to keep the best impression.
Success.
Whistling, Twilight returned back to the town hall and after getting directions to the inn decided to leave things be for tonight.
In a completely different town but at the same time, a white pegasus was writing a letter, one lamp hanging from the ceiling illuminating the quill in his mouth.
According to my information there is a high chance of both targets hiding in the town of Ponyville. I will continues observing the surroundings to make sure that is the case.
My sources say that a batpony appeared shortly after the invasion and she's currently visiting a local mental institution daily. That coincides with the information of the local guard about a unicorn of the same color cheme as the target found wandering the Everfree Forest.
The report was short and Icy Gaze wasn't expecting anything other than having a drink and going to bed so when his solar talisman burst with flame for the second time shortly after sending the letter he didn't hesitate and opened it.
The traitors are hereby turned into a secondary objective. Keep observing them but do not engage. Once you are sure about their location send a definitive report.
Your primary objective is now the capture of all Element bearers who should be residing in Ponyville. We do not care about what measures you use but under no circumstances are they to be severely hurt.
The new objective will be considered fulfilled when all bearers are restrained in one place. Death or serious injury to any of them will result in your execution.
Icy cursed and rolled the parchment back up. The mission did have the caveat of objectives changing though so he decided ot take things in stride. Finding out information about the Element bearers should be easy because all of them should be well-known to local populace.
A lightbulb lit up above his head, not literally of course.
There was a bearer even he knew about and that one wasn't allowed to find out about her friends missing. Princess Twilight Sparkle had to be taken care of first otherwise she would sic her guards on him and thus endanger the entire mission.
Icy stepped out of the inn to slink through the shadows and observe the Golden Oaks Library, the castle or whatever it was now. To his surprise the entire building was dark and quiet. Expecting some sort of magical protection, he very carefully knocked on the entry door. He could always pretend he'd been looking for some obscure volume.
Nopony answered even his repeated attempts. The caretaker of this place was either gone or in deep sleep, Icy hoped for the second and pulled out a set of lockpicks out of his saddlebag. With a painstaking patience and few attempts at pretending to be drunk and throwing up on the door to discourage ponies walking through the late night the lock clicked and Icy stepped inside.
Not a creak went through the building.
Further sneaking proved that this place was completely empty. After about ten minutes of exploration he came to the conclusion that there would be no problem with lighting a lantern and rummaging through the library.
Nothing.
Aside from one door being completely sealed off the entire building didn't have a single soul inside aside from him and there were no magic wards or protections in place. That meant one thing - he was the only pony with the access to this place then.
Icy grinned.
The young princess was probably gone so if only he could find out for how long then he might be able to use this place as a base and...
His eyes fell on a table inside what looked like a room where somepony might live and probably did. A letter bearing the same seal as the one he'd gotten was the thing that caught his eye and he immediately read it. Afterwards he looked at the map lying on the table.
Apparently the princess living inside wasn't too keen on being tidy in her personal space and according to the map he probably had at least a week left, even in the case the princess arrived there and returned immediately.
So he didn't have to find a cellar somewhere. Now he had his own little castle and a real time limit for catching his targets. The cellar looked sturdy enough.