"Family is our link to the past and bridge to the future."
–Malus Fusca, 53 BCE
Celestia's sun cast its long rays on Ponyville as it set, filling the sky with a brilliant, fiery display. Some of its light was caught by Princess Twilight's new crystal castle, which reflected vivid purple colors across Ponyville. Most of the town's residents enjoyed the castle; it was a unique piece of architecture with a cheerful color scheme that greatly increased the town's tourism revenue.
Thunderball was much more ambivalent about it. The design, building materials, and color scheme did not match Ponyville's rustic aesthetics — the castle would have fit in much better in the Crystal Empire. Then again, the library was hardly a residence befitting a princess — not only was it far too pedestrian, but it was painful hard to secure.
Chrysalis's surprise attack on Ponyville five months ago demonstrated the point all too well. She had eavesdropped on Princess Twilight and overheard a report from Thunderball of numerous changelings who had taken up residence in Equestria. At the time, Thunderball had assumed they were infiltrators, though they had really gone rogue due to Chrysalis's poor leadership. Twilight discovered the changelings in Ponyville and arranged for an audience between then and Celestia, which Chrysalis interrupted with a surprise attack.
He put a hoof over a bare patch of skin on his left side. One of Chrysalis' elite warriors had gored him with his horn and then unleashed a magical blast directly into his body. The only reason he was alive was because two alicorns had poured massive amounts of healing magic into his body, along with blood donations from a friendly changeling. Even so, he had spent fifteen hours on an operating table, and months in rehabilitation.
In an ideal world, Princess Twilight would have restored the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest and taken up residence there. Not only was it a much more defensible position, something the Princess sorely needed given the sheer number of emergencies Equestria had suffered in the past few years, it would also allow her to watch over the Tree of Harmony and secure access to the castle archives, along with any artifacts that might have been left behind.
However, it would have made her much less accessible by the general populace, and the princess would have never wanted that. Twilight Sparkle, like her mentor, wanted to be a part of citizens' lives, rather than an abstract concept. Thunderball supposed that residence in Ponyville made more sense from an administrative point of view.
It was just too bad that the new castle was so gaudy.
The last light of the sun dipped beneath the horizon and Luna's night took over. Activity in the streets of Ponyville died down considerably, though many ponies remained to enjoy the night — couples out for a romantic evening walk, amateur stargazers inspired by Twilight's astronomy club, and the bar crowd. Thunderball watched them from his hospital room in envy — it would probably be another month before he could fly freely about the town.
The lights in his room flickered briefly, before plunging him into momentary darkness. He shot upright in his hospital bed and reached for the nurse call button, only to find that the power was out. Thunderball sighed and made a mental note to ask the hospital staff to talk to their electrician about the wiring in his room. A warm breeze blew into the room, followed by the abrupt return of light.
"Howdy, stormtrooper!"
There was barely enough time for Thunderball to register that five ponies wearing chameleonskin cloaks had entered his room before Dive Bomb tackled him in a bearhug, while Meriwether wrapped her forelegs around his shoulders. Daisy Cutter, Flash Point, and Phrase Mark watched Thunderball's ensuing struggle to free himself with amusement.
"Can't...breathe..." Thunderball wheezed as he pried Dive Bomb off of his chest.
The thestral grinned sheepishly. "Sorry 'bout that, forgot you took one t' the chest. Uh, how's that doing?"
"Doctor says I'll make a full recovery in time." Thunderball leaned back into Meriwether's embrace as he came to terms with the impromptu reunion. "You know, I really didn't expect to see any of you again."
Daisy cleared her throat. "Just because we have had our differences in the past does not mean we no longer care about you."
Meriwether nuzzled him affectionately. "Yeah! You think I'd forget how you taught me how to fly?"
"Or that you gave me my first ax?" Dive Bomb went in for another hug despite Thunderball's protests.
Flash Point chuckled and turned to Phrase Mark. "Well, at least they've stopped arguing about who gets more glory, girls, or bits."
"From what I've heard, girls aren't an issue anymore," Phrase Mark giggled. She was immediately hit in the face with a pillow.
"Don't think I've forgotten that tripe you wrote about me being gay." Thunderball tossed his pillow at her playfully. "Do you realize how much harder things have been since then? I've gotten a mountain of hate mail and marriage proposals, and I'm not sure which is worse."
Daisy visibly strained to keep a straight face. "I'm sure all the attention from stallions has made it very hard for you."
Thunderball's grey coat turned bright red as his cousins snickered.
"If it really bothers you, why don't you go out more and establish that you're into mares, sweetheart?" Flash Point suggested slyly.
"Yeah! Hey, how about I arrange a concert or something f' you in Ponyville? You'll barely have to leave the hospital." Dive Bomb rubbed his hooves together in excitement. "Do you have any good local bands? I think I heard one a few months ago — They Might Be Humans, the one with the cute lyre player?"
Meriwether rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous, the last thing he needs is to have his eardrums busted. He'd be better off with me at The Great and Powerful Trixie's Great and Spectacular Magic Show in Canterlot next week."
The two stared at each other definitely until Daisy interrupted them. "Cease this ridiculous dispute at once! Thunderball is in no mood to attend you pedestrian events. You could at least have the decency to suggest something more suitable to his interests, such as the upcoming Daring Do convention in Seaddle. I hear there will be a preview of her next book, Daring Do and the Winged Scarab of Ra."
Thunderball clapped his hooves together to get their attention. "Look, I'm happy that you all want to spend time with me, but I'm pretty much restricted to the area around Ponyville for the time being, and I really do want to keep things quiet. Maybe you could visit more often?"
Dive Bomb nodded. "Yeah, that'd be great. Look, forget the concert; I'll bring a nice bass by sometime an' we'll–" He paused and flicked his ears. "Somepony's pushing a cart up the hall — probably a nurse."
The doorknob rattled for a moment before it opened, and Nurse Redheart stepped in. She looked about the empty room with a confused expression on her face. "I'm sorry to bother you, but we got a call signal from your room just now. Is everything alright?"
Thunderball cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I was just… there was a power outage a few minutes ago."
"Say no more, dear. I'll have an electrician inspect your room first thing tomorrow morning." She examined the room again, as if she was searching for something. "You know, I could have sworn that I heard voices coming from this room."
"Oh, um, it was.." Thunderball searched his immediate vicinity for an alibi, and brought up the first thing his hooves bumped into on the nightstand — a book.
Nurse Redheart smiled as she read off the title. "Daring Do and the Songbird's Lament! You must have gotten an advanced copy! You'll have to let me read it after you're done."
He nodded quietly as she closed his window and wished him a good night, leaving him to his own thoughts.
A cold nighttime breeze tore through the Badlands, carrying with it two changelings with a pegasus in tow. Their unconscious passenger stirred as the wind rustled her grey mane, but did not wake from her sleep. The changelings glided through the air and landed at the base of a rock the size of a large apartment complex. A solitary changeling guard stood guard outside of a tunnel drilled into the rock, and saluted as the fliers landed.
"Where'd you find this one?"
"Looting the pyramids on our southern border," one of the fliers hissed. "Caught her coming out of one with a sack full of trinkets."
His partner slid the pegasus's saddlebags off to show the guard its contents — pearl necklaces, bronze daggers, copper amulets, and a scarab molded out of clay laying on top of it all. The move inadvertently exposed her cutie mark: a compass rose. The guard whistled as he looked between the contents of the saddlebags and the pegasus.
"Looks like somepony's been a busy filly."
"All the better for us," the first flier laughed. "One more for the hive, and more wealth for the Queen."
"I just hope you didn't drain her too much on the way over." The guard placed a hoof on their prisoner's neck and counted out her pulse. "Tell you what, you let me take a cut before she's processed, and I'll ignore the fact that she's already been fed on. Let you keep some of the jewelry too."
The fliers looked at each other, then nodded. "Agreed. Just be careful; there's only so much we can pass off as dehydration and exhaustion."
The guard touched his horn to the mare's forehead as green energy flowered from her to him. She struggled against him without waking, but her feeble motions could do nothing against the three changelings holding her in place. When he was done, she was panting heavily and fidgeting as if in the throes of a nightmare.
"Alright," he chuckled. "Time to introduce this filly to the first day of the rest of her life."
The guard stepped aside and let the fliers carry their victim deep into the bowels of the hive.