Chapter Thirteen
As Brave as an Army with Banners
There were, of course, banners and trumpets. And flags and confetti and bunting and streamers. As the seven of us marched out of the castle, the glare of the morning sunlight reflecting off of our armor nearly blinded half the crowd, and the fanfare and roar of the audience drowned out my little prepared speech, but all the ponies seemed to love it. Chrysalis hadn't wanted to be a part of the ceremony and had boarded the airship well before dawn with her two changeling attendants.
Fortunately, after I explained in detail how the expedition was supposed to turn out,[1] Spike was satisfied with escorting the rest of us to Evenstar's moorage and then remaining at home. He wore his shiny new breastplate and a hat with a big feather in it while carrying my personal banner as we headed for the airship.
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[1] Hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of appalling violence.
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We marched up the airship's boarding ramp and took up our stations. Evenstar lifted, trailing all of her signal flags and some unauthorized streamers, and we were away.
Rainbow Dash and her team flew a V-formation in front of us, with other pegasi teams flanking them. We turned in a broad curve until we were on a course that took us over the Everfree, heading for our rendezvous point.
"Would you like to take the helm, Your Highness?" Captain Zephyr asked.
I had been standing on the bridge all the while, going over all the plans in my head while nervously tapping my metal-shod hooves on the deck. I suppose it was the captain's polite way of asking if I'd like to have something else to do but fret. It wasn't a bad idea; I usually found the slow, careful motions and steady concentration needed for steering an airship very relaxing.
The pilot recited our course, speed, and control settings, and I repeated them back to him before I took the wheel. With the captain's tacit permission, I ran through a series of simple maneuvers. Evenstar had been taken out for a shake-down and speed tests the day before, of course. I just wanted to make sure that I had the feel of the new way she handled. Aside from being a bit less responsive to the helm, she still steered well enough.
Lieutenant Stormfeather went over the new levers and valves that had been installed on the pilot's pedestal with me. Even though most of them controlled systems that gave Evenstar additional maneuvering capabilities which were too uncomfortable or dangerous for a passenger ship, I made sure to memorize them.
Twenty minutes or so later, a manticore flapped up from the forest, probably just curious about us. I can't see how even one of the fierce creatures of the Everfree would think attacking a large craft like Evenstar would be a good idea. The pegasi on our left flank dove at it, and it fled back below the canopy of trees. Otherwise, not much happened the rest of the watch.
I briefly looked in on everypony before making my way to my cabin and settling in. Before starting to work, I removed my chamfron and set it on the bed. I brushed out my mane, wishing Luna was there to do it for me, or even just to watch. Or just to be there. I wondered if everypony in the first flush of love was so obsessive about their partners or just me. I sighed, put aside my pointless speculation and turned to my paperwork.
First, I re-read the replies to my letters to Shining Armor and Cadance. Cadance's was very polite and apologetic. I wrote her again, also apologizing again, and giving her my love. I knew that it would take a few little low stress get-togethers between us all to get things completely smoothed over, but at least we were on the right track. I'd get a chance to talk with Shining at the rendezvous, so I didn't bother replying to his somewhat fractured ramble about family and duty. At least he'd signed it "Your BBBFF." I put the letter in the stack to be sent from Dodge Junction.
I dealt with a few other bits of correspondence and went over some reports, but it was mostly just busywork. I hadn't been lying to Spike about the amount of dragging down-time involved in any military endeavor. Fortunately, I found a few hours of routine paperwork soothing. I finally admitted to myself that nobody would consider it dereliction of duty if I just relaxed with a good book. I discovered that the angled coronet that topped my chamfron made an ideal book rest.
It was late afternoon when a pegasus courier came winging in from the northeast. He reported that Solar Flare was slightly ahead of schedule and would be at the rendezvous point a half hour early. I ordered our engines to full ahead and sent the messenger back with a note saying that we would try to arrive at the same time.
I'd gone over the consumption projections several times and knew that the extra energy that would be burned was well within our safety margin. Seeing Luna again a few moments sooner would absolutely be worth it.
= = =
The two airships signaled each other, a series of colorful flags dropping on weighted lines from their respective bridges. They maneuvered and lowered their ground anchors well upwind of where Hazina was already waiting. I stood impatiently on Evenstar's bridge until the "all secure" signal was given, then I threw myself out of the side hatch and sped for Solar Flare.
Luna met me halfway.
It's certainly possible to hug and smooch in mid air, but as I was not a natural-born pegasus and encased in metal, I decided not to try it. But oh, how I wanted to! Instead, we flew tight circles around each other, calling out greetings. She was wearing her platinum armor, bright and shining again, and I felt dizzy at the sight of her magnificence. Or maybe it was the flying in circles.
We finally got smart about it, and I followed Luna back to Solar Flare. The commander's stateroom was quite nice, and the bed was very comfortable. And strong.
= = =
I had a nice talk with my brother in the afternoon. We commiserated about having to balance official duties with our personal lives and agreed that the world ought to be much simpler than it actually was.
"I'm really sorry we pressed you guys so hard," Shining Armor said. "Maybe Cadance and I were being a bit paranoid about the situation, but after all the shenanigans that went on at our own wedding…"
"Perfectly understandable." I nodded in agreement. "I wish I had as good an excuse for my own behavior. Or any excuse, really." I paused before hesitantly asking, "Uhmn... Have you and Luna spoken since...?"
Shining Armor chuckled. "She's technically my C.O. on this mission, so it's kind of hard to avoid it," he said.
"You know what I mean!" I gave him what was supposed to be a playful swat on his shoulder with my wingtip. The clank of my couteau against his peytral was a reminder that our business was serious.
"Yeah." He nodded. "She started out the trip by apologizing to me... in a very Princess Luna sort of way." At my curious frown, he continued, "About an hour out of Canterlot, she ordered me to report to her quarters and I stood at attention while she pretty much itemized the things she was and was not sorry about. Lots of the royal plural and words ending in 'eth' and 'est' were involved."
"She tends to slip back into archaic speech when she's emotional," I explained.
My brother regarded me fondly for a moment. "I guess that's good then, because when she was trying to convince me how much she loved you, I could barely understand her."
I grinned at that.
He shook his head and chuckled. "It's going to take some getting used to. You and the Dark Lady... who would have guessed? Have you talked to Mom and Dad about—"
"Whoa, that's Luna's nickname? The Dark Lady?"
"Yeah. Well, just in the Royal Guard, really. The... uh..." He trailed off, suddenly looking a bit nervous.
I can read my brother like a book.[2] "And what do other ponies call her?"
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[2] A book with lots of explanatory annotations and footnotes.
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He knew from my tone of voice that I wasn't going to let it go. "The Bats... uh... that is, the Night Guard call her... uh... The Mistress." Ponies with white coats don't hide blushes well, so it was lucky for him that he had his helmet on.
I wish I had Rarity's ability to come up with lighthearted quips in such situations. As it was, I had to make do with a shrug and an attempt to sound casual as I said, "Oh. I guess that makes sense."
I was disconcerted enough that I forgot to ask him if I had a nickname.
Shining and I made tentative plans for a completely unofficial family get-together after everything was settled with the dark magic monsters. I wanted Mom and Dad to meet Luna in a casual situation, and, evidently, in addition to the letter she had sent, Luna had promised a thorough (no doubt archaic and itemized) personal apology to Cadance.
We met with the rest of the fleet commanders before dinner and went over the plan again. I assured them that Chrysalis' part was purely political, and that, unless things went wrong in a completely unexpected and spectacular way, she would not be taking part in the fighting.
Nobody came up with anything new, and there was general agreement that everything was in order. Shining and Luna were being very polite to each other and as casual as military discipline allowed, which also added to my general satisfaction with the situation.
Luna and I dined with the officers and Chrysalis, but retired just as soon as it wasn't terribly rude to do so. It took a lot of effort on my part to wait even that long because Luna kept surreptitiously running her magic through my mane.
When we made love that night, there was a moment when I looked up at the golden sun-in-splendor that crowned the headboard of the bed and recalled that there had been a time that such decorations were commonly called the Eye of Celestia. I froze up for a second.
"Oh, Twilight," Luna gasped. "Cease not thy ministrations now, I beg of thee!"
I had an urge to flip a corner of the bed curtains over the sun, but mentally shook myself out of a pointless reaction to my ridiculous flash of guilt. I turned my magic back to pleasing my lover, and was rewarded by a soft cry on a taken breath. That wordless sound of joy meant more to me than any praise of Celestia's I could imagine.
= = =
I wandered in a beautiful village of whitewashed stone buildings that clung to a steep rocky shore. The same moonlight that sparkled on the ocean far below made the pale buildings a mosaic of luminescence and shadow.
I climbed the winding streets, discovering delightful little plazas and fountains along the way, until I reached a great tower at the top of the village. Strings of colored lanterns hung around the edge of the open space at the foot of the tower as if they had been set out for a celebration, but there were no ponies present. On the tower itself hung a huge embroidered banner that stirred slightly in the gentle breeze from the sea. It depicted Luna, rampant against a field of stars. The artist had captured her beautifully, even though the design was stylized in a heraldic manner.
While I was admiring the banner, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. A black patch of shadow at the foot of the tower was moving in a way that couldn't be accounted for by the slight swinging of the little lanterns. It slowly flowed out onto the plaza, oozing toward me like thick spill of black oil.
I cautiously stepped back and readied a spell.
The unnatural shadow stopped inching toward me as if realizing it had been seen, then it began to undulate and hump upward, drawing in at the edges. It rose up into a distorted shape, and I caught the brief glimpse of white within it, like a parted mouth full of sharp fangs. Then two glowing dragon eyes opened in the blackness, and the thing spoke.
"She is magnificent, isn't she?"
The Nightmare slowly took on her usual shape, and she nodded her head toward the banner, mane and tail streaming away from her like dense, oily smoke.
"My Luna is the most beautiful mare that has ever lived," I said, looking back up at the banner.
"Your Luna," the Nightmare said, her eyes narrowing.
"Yes, and I am her Twilight," I replied, just a bit miffed at her tone.
"Oh? I thought you belonged to the big white one." Her mouth quirked upward in a half grin, half sneer. "Celestia's Little Terror is what some ponies call you; the vicious attack dog that keeps Her Majesty's hooves out of the mud."
"I'm going to destroy you," I told her, conversationally. "Not right now, but as soon as possible."
"After all I've done for you? That seems ungracious." She didn't seem too upset by the news.
"I know you're up to something. There's a prophecy."
She chuckled and trailed a wingtip along a string of lanterns as she walked, setting them to swinging. "There's always a prophecy. Equestria is littered with them. Prophecy, destiny, fated quest, and ancient enemy. They will tug at you like the strings on a puppet if you let them." She leaned close to a red lantern and the dancing highlights in her eyes became blood-colored streaks. "Let me guess: it was Celestia who told you about this prophecy."
I tried to remain calm, but a tight rage was building up in my chest. "Killing you seems like a better and better idea every time you open your mouth," I said through my teeth.
"Do your worst." She grinned. "Afterwards, we'll sit down to tea and I can tell you what you did wrong."
"I've faced much more powerful foes than you!"
Her smile faded. "Only with borrowed power, Twilight; alone, you are no match for me."
"I'm not alone! I have my friends, I have the Rainbow Power, and I have Luna!"
"Oh yes," the Nightmare's grin returned. "The lovely Luna! Where is she, I wonder?"
That was a very good question. I glanced up at the banner and touched my lower lip with my teeth.
"She would rush to your defense if she sensed the slightest threat to you, wouldn't she?" The Nightmare almost purred the words. "So, I must not be a threat. Isn't that logical?"
"I wish I could believe that." Where was Luna?
"That little tidbit of advice I gave you some nights ago served you well, didn't it?" She began to circle me, walking very slowly and only looking at me from the corners of her half-lidded eyes. "If we were friends, I could show you other things. Things that would make that seem like nothing in comparison." She circled closer, her smoky tail curving around just a hoof span from my legs. "We could practice them together."
"Get away from me!"
The Nightmare swirled away into a cloud of laughter and smoke, then reformed into her alicorn shape at a more comfortable distance. "As you wish, Twilight. You see? I am very accommodating." That said, she began walking toward me again. It felt like I was being stalked by a predator. "You are chummy with Discord, you play ball with Cerberus, you are even getting along quite well with the parasite that came close to devouring all of Canterlot. Why shouldn't we be friends?"
"Because killing you will save Celestia!"
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. You could be misinterpreting the prophecy. Or, like several others, it could be wrong. Or Celestia may have lied to you."
"Shut up!" I screamed. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
The big banner loudly snapped in the rising wind, and the figure of Luna tore loose from it and fell in serpentine twists to the paving stones. It didn't land in a heap the way fabric ought to have done, but stood there, looming above the Nightmare. "Enough!" embroidered Luna snarled at her. "Go now, else we shall do battle."
"I may be stronger than you," the Nightmare said. "I once was."
"I am not alone," Luna said, laying a fabric wing across my back.
"No. You are not alone now," the Nightmare said, over the freshening breeze. "But I can wait until that little pest is gone. Then we shall see."
The wind increased, swinging the strings of lanterns wildly. One line broke and the brass and colored glass smashed on the paving stones, the candles guttering out. Luna pulled me closer.
"We will never leave each other!" I yelled at the Nightmare over the rising gale.
The wind tore at the Nightmare's form, shredding it and carrying it away into the darkness, but I clearly heard her last words, anyway, and they didn't please me at all. "Never is a long time, mortal!"
= = =
"I am going to smack her so hard, she's going to bounce!" I growled as I paced around Luna's stateroom in the morning. "I'm going to kill her, and then I'm going to find and use a resurrection spell on her just so I can have the pleasure of chopping her zombie corpse into gooey little chunks!"
Luna didn't interrupt. She just sat on the bed and watched me pace. At one point she tilted her head and smiled.
"What are you grinning at? Don't you think I mean it?"
"Ah, but of course I do, my love. I revel in thy righteous anger, and thy newfound ferocity is a joy to me. But also, I cannot help but notice..." Was she actually blushing? It was kind of hard to tell under her dark coat.
"What?"
"Thou hast developed the most attractive lines of muscle tone in thy shoulders and thighs. The wearing of armor agrees with you, it seems."
Well, that totally derailed my rant.
Around an hour or so later, I showered and left her stateroom, heading back to my own ship. I was still feeling the golden after-glow and was so distracted by my own happy thoughts that I almost ran into Private Flicker. Not that I realized who he was until he spoke.
"Your Highness," he said, bowing low. "I wish to thank you again."
His half armor let me see his cutie mark, which was the same open fan, but a much darker shade of orange than before, and it had a small crescent moon on top of it. It fit quite well against his new steel-gray coat.
"You're very welcome. How are you adjusting?"
"I did not understand before what an honor and a blessing it is to serve Her Majesty of the Night. Had I known, I would have volunteered before I was wounded."
Oh. So he was adjusting pretty well, it seemed.
"How about your family and friends?"
He shrugged. "They are fearful, but I hope they will come to accept it. In any case, the Night Guard is a family to me now."
Maybe Flicker was adjusting a little too well. I might have been more concerned, except I was halfway to worshiping Luna myself. I completely understood his enthusiasm.
I flew over to Evenstar and made sure everything was ready for the next leg of the trip. Then I stopped by the galley to get some breakfast and found Rainbow Dash slurping down a big bowl of oats and cream.
"Oh, hey, Twi," she greeted me, lifting her dripping muzzle out of the bowl for just a second.
By the time I got my food and went to sit down at the table, Dash had finished and was moving for the door. "Hang on a second, Rainbow."
She stopped and looked back. "Yeah?"
"I just wanted to ask you something."
"Sure thing! Shoot." She stood up a little straighter, no doubt anticipating a grilling on the progress of her own recovery.
"How are your teammates coming along?"
Dash relaxed a bit and gave a little shrug of one shoulder. "Not too bad, actually. I'm keeping it really simple for Downer, and Derpy is never going to be a star formation flier, but they're doing okay. They're sure trying really hard."
"I'm glad to hear it. Thank you, Rainbow."
"No prob, Twi!"
"Make sure you and your team get some rest today. You'll be wrangling clouds in the middle of the night tonight."
Rainbow Dash blew me a raspberry. "Twi, the day you can teach me anything about napping is the day I turn in my wings!"
= = =
The rest of the day was hard on me. I tried to sleep in the afternoon but only managed a bit less than an hour. I kept feeling like there was a Luna-shaped hole by my side. The couriers that flew circuit between the ships carried some saucy notes between us, but that was all I had to occupy my time. I teleported out to Hazina a couple of times, unnecessarily checking on her cargo and her skeleton crew. We all knew what we had to do and all the preparations had been made, so there was not much else to do but watch the desert slide by beneath us until we were in position.
When night finally fell, things started to happen. All three airships hove to at predetermined distances, and then the weather pegasi got busy. Luna and I provided extra energy for the steaming machinery on Solar Flare's flight deck while the cloud specialists came and went.
About two hours before dawn, I flew out and inspected the line. The weather team certainly knew their business: we had a perfectly natural-looking line of high desert cumulus in place. I returned to Solar Flare as the second-shift pegasi moved into position to start the gentle breeze that would float us over our target.
When I staggered slightly on landing, Luna insisted on putting me into a brief magical sleep. After an hour curled up on her bed, I awoke refreshed and energetic, and she gave me a lingering kiss before I left for Evenstar. "Be careful, beloved. Any hurt you take will pain me twice as much."
"There will be plenty of hurt, but it will all be outgoing, I promise you."
"I love thee with a fierce and lasting passion, Twilight Sparkle."
I returned her kiss, then said, "Thou art my true and noble lady, Luna. My steel and velvet Mistress of the Night." I tore myself away from her and flew through the darkness to Evenstar where she waited, far below.
It was time to go to war.
= = =
The clouds floating in the arid desert sky lit up in red and orange hues minutes before the light of the sun touched the ground around the entrances to the changeling hive. When the sun was fully risen, there still remained dark shadows across the landscape: shadows that crawled and slithered and even walked.
As Evenstar floated slowly nearer, I could make out the shadow things digging at the ground in several places, scraping away with claws and teeth at the hard translucent substance that plugged the entrances to the hive. Where the sun was at a particular angle, vague movement could be seen through the greenish plugs as the changelings on the inside presumably added to them, fighting a slow battle against the diggers.
I lowered the spyglass and nodded to Captain Zephyr. "It's all just as General Csharreee reported. We go ahead as planned."
The captain saluted, then pulled down three times on a large brass lever that had been newly installed on the aft bulkhead of the bridge. Bells rang throughout the ship and hooves clattered on the deck.
It wasn't at all like the scenes you might read in a military novel, with all the excited shouting of "battle stations" and ponies rushing around in a near panic. All my crew knew exactly where they needed to be, and they went to their places with a minimum of fuss.
Two unicorns entered the bridge and sat themselves at their firing ports. They flipped the brass levers that opened the ports, then slid their heads onto the padded rest that supported them while their horns projected slightly beyond the hull. We cleared the last ridge between us and the hive. If the monsters happened to look in the right direction, they would undoubtedly see us.
One of the speaking tubes whistled. Lieutenant Stormfeather flipped up the cover and put his ear to the tube. After a moment he flipped the cover down again and turned to the captain. "All crew at battle stations, sir."
"Very good Lieutenant. Start engines and get us some altitude."
The pilot set the two trim tabs to either side of the wheel, then adjusted three small ballast tank valves and pulled the dump lever. There was a clunk and a hiss, and the deck pressed against my hooves as the water dropped away and Evenstar begin to rise. The lieutenant rang the big handles of the engine telegraph to slow ahead and a moment later, the indicators matched up, and the low rumble of the engines accompanied a surge forward. I raised my glass and saw the sudden flurry of movement in the mass of monsters as they heard our engines start up. Black shapes rose into the sky.
"Looks like they've gotten better at flying since last time," the lieutenant observed.
He was right. There was none of the floundering, inefficient motion we had encountered in the first battle. The mass of monsters still seemed slightly disorganized, but the individuals flew very well. Quite a lot of them looked like changelings.
"Full ahead," the captain said quietly.
Lieutenant Stormfeather rang for the requested speed and the indicators acknowledged his order. The engines ramped up, moving us faster and faster toward the monsters.
The creatures began to realize we were a serious threat and some broke away from the mass to charge at us while the rest of the flight-capable monsters were still taking to the air. I could spare firepower for the first few brave (or stupid) ones; I settled myself into the central firing port. Monsters flared brightly and fell from the sky as we opened up on them. Far from being a discouragement to the rest, the initial blasts seemed to galvanize all of the remaining fliers and they came at us en masse. Even the few left on the ground decided to take to the air.
They weren't stupid about it either. They rose as quickly as possible to get above Evenstar's envelope where only the three unicorns in the dorsal cupola would be able to fire at them. We kept blasting at the approaching fliers from the bridge and the ports along the gondola's sides until there were no more targets visible.
A whistle from a speaking tube, and the lieutenant opened it and listened, repeating the report as he heard it. "Enemy massing above. Tight formation. Any second now. They're going to hit us all at once."
I stood and nodded. "Time to go." In a flash of magic I was on Solar Flare's bridge, standing in front of Luna. "Now," I said, and couldn't resist kissing her on the end of her nose, just below the edge of her chamfron. I heard "vent gas" and "engines full ahead" before I winked out again.
Back on Evenstar, we all slipped on our dark glass goggles, and I moved to the speaking tube from the cupola. The most eager of the monsters hit the envelope with muffled thumps. Several more came in quick succession. Then, over the speaking tube, the hollow voice of Captain Lance shouted, "Now princess!"
I cast a shield around Evenstar. It was an ellipsoid rather than a sphere, a compromise between fitting it as closely to the airship's shape as possible while keeping the matrix simple enough for me to maintain in my head. That still left a number of early arrivals clinging to us inside the energy barrier, but it excluded the majority of the monsters assaulting us. Those were still outside.
Where Solar Flare was.
High above us, one of the big, fluffy, and totally non-threatening cumulus clouds that had drifted over the hive in the wee hours of the night burst open to reveal the enormous airship that had been hidden within.
She dropped down, trailing thick wisps of cloud as her firing ports flickered open. I saw her rudder swing hard left as she turned to present us with her starboard side, then I didn't see much else but blazing magical fire as she enveloped us with a full broadside. The pressure in my head as I took the strain of the impacts on my shield was worse than I'd anticipated, but I managed to hold firm even as the kinetic transfer made Evenstar lurch and slew around. The plan had been for ten-second bursts, repeated until all the monsters outside of the shield were destroyed, but I would have sworn that the first volley went on for at least a minute.
When the barrage finally let up, I widened my stance and lowered my head, bracing for the next attack. I needn't have bothered. The next blasts from Solar Flare were sporadic and specifically targeted, hardly impacting my shield at all. After about a minute of that, all firing stopped, and a string of signal flags dropped from Solar Flare's bridge.
"Solar Flare reports 'all aerial targets destroyed', Your Highness." Lieutenant Stormfeather said.
I dropped my shield and flipped open the speaking tube to the bunkrooms. "All pegasi away," I shouted.
Our small contingent of pegasi flung themselves out of the hatches and engaged the monsters that had been inside our shield. The unicorns fired at any lone dark shape they saw, but most of those were already broken, spiraling down to the desert below.
Solar Flare, meanwhile, kept dropping down toward the hive, her unicorns turning their attention to the flightless groundlings, which were helpless without their air cover.
It was an out-and-out massacre.
We sent out messengers to the Wonderbolts' picket line to the east, where they had positioned themselves between the hive and the city, patrolling for any escapees that might carry news to the main body of monsters. They reported no sightings at all; the battle was officially over.
I went aft to tell Chrysalis that it was safe to leave the ship and found that she and her attendants had joined Evenstar's pegasi in the cleanup action. The spatters of green goo looked perfectly natural on her.
"It's all clear, Your Majesty. You can go tell your people the siege has been lifted."
She paused before she jumped out of the open hatch and said, "Thank you, Twilight Sparkle." She said it like she had something sour in her mouth, but she said it.
The girls were also there, even Rainbow Dash, just arrived back from her scouting flight. I grinned at them, feeling very pleased with myself. "I think that may be the first time in history a battle has gone exactly as planned."
Applejack chuckled and lifted a leg, shaking it so that her armor rattled. "All dressed up an' nobody ta stomp!"
"Stomping isn't the most important part of it, AJ," Dash said with a superior air, much to the surprise of everypony present.
"We had more trouble with the parasprites!" Rarity said, sounding just a little miffed.
A pegasus entered the hatch while we were talking and Fluttershy turned toward him. "Are you hurt? Do you need medical attention?"
"Oh, no ma'am, I'm fine!"
"Oh," said Fluttershy, sounding both apologetic and disappointed at the same time. "Do you know if anypony else is hurt?"
"I think one of the unicorns in the cupola got cut by some broken glass when his firing port cracked."
Fluttershy grabbed a first-aid kit and ran into the passageway.
Pinkie Pie was pressed against one on the ports, looking intently down at the desert below. She had a pencil tucked into the corner of her mouth and would turn aside every so often and scribble something on a pad that lay on the deck.
"What are you doing, Pinkie?" I asked.
"Baking," she mumbled around the pencil.
"Uh... no you're not," I said, intrigued despite myself. "What's on the pad?"
I moved closer to get a look at her writing or drawing or whatever it was, but she snatched up the pad and held it close to her chest. "Professional secret!" she hissed at me with narrowed eyes, and then rushed out of the room.
I shrugged and let it go.
A couple of minutes later, as I was speaking to a young unicorn who had a band-aid on his cheek patterned with pink and blue kittens, two changelings crawled in the open hatches.
"Her Majesty requires your presence!" the first one demanded of me.
"Shut up, idiot," the second snapped at her, giving her a hoof to the shoulder. "I'm sorry, Princess Twilight," she continued. "But could you please come down to the hive? It's urgent."
"Tell Captain Zephyr where I've gone, please," I said to Applejack, and then dove out of the hatch after the changelings.
We dropped down to one of the hive entrances, and I could see right away that it hadn't been opened willingly. The mouth of the tunnel was littered with the bodies of both monsters and changelings.
"This way, Your Highness."
I followed the changelings down into the dark.
= = =
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