A day and a half later Celestia's sun was starting to dip under the horizon as the train pulled into the station at Las Pegasus. The doors of the train scarcely had time to open before Twilight burst out of the train car and excitedly trotted across the station's platform. She had been to Las Pegasus a few times before, but not enough for the city of lights splendor to be lost on her.
The entire skyline was filled with towering buildings, not simple skyscrapers like in Manhattan but instead replicas of many famous buildings, castles, and keeps from all across Equestria's history. There was even a replica of Canterlot Castle at the center of the city which was lit up with all manner of blazing neon lights which even in the light of sunset were bright enough to cast the city in a beautiful multicolored glow.
As Twilight looked over the city skyline she noticed amusingly enough that construction was underway on a replica of her castle. She didn't have more than a moment to look at the new building before somepony yelled “It's Princess Twilight!”
Suddenly a mob of adoring ponies seemed to materialize out of thin air to swarm Twilight, asking for autographs, favors, offering lunch, and all manner of other things. As Twilight suddenly remembered why she simply outlawed treating her like Royalty in Ponyville outside of her castle's throne room one mare's cry of “Marry me!” simply made the crowd too much for her.
With a flash of violet light Twilight teleported out of the mob of ponies and did her best to sneakily trot away hooves clicking lightly against the concrete platform. She managed only a few hoof steps before a silver armored pale brown earth pony stallion galloped in front of her and saluted, “Your Highness! I've been posted here to escort you to Fort Champron by Warden Aegis's orders. Shall I take you there now my lady?”
Twilight nodded, “Yes please, this is after all official business.” She hoped that her words might get some of the ponies who were now moving to surround her again to leave her alone.
A few of them went about their business as they realized Twilight wasn't on a social visit. The rest however quickly surrounded her and the guard. The guard sighed and stomped one hoof making a loud crash instantly drawing everyponie's attention, “Alright everypony, you got to see the princess, move along. She is here on official Royal business. Need I remind you that delaying nobility in state maters is an arrestable offense?”
The crowd quickly dispersed. Twilight gave the guard a shy smile, “Thanks. I didn't catch your name.”
“Corporal Taproot at your service,” the Corporal tipped his helmet polity before turning and giving a bow as he pointed to a waiting carriage, “I remembered your preference for solitude from the briefing. I hope I was not too rude to your subjects just now.”
Twilight shook her head as the two climbed into the carriage, the driver quickly starting to move. “Not at all. I wasn't aware that delaying a noble was a crime, is that a city ordinance?”
“No... It's a lie the City Guard has been using for a few decades now to help get VIPs like yourself through crowds as quickly as possible.” he admitted with a chuckle.
Twilight grinned slightly, it was a little funny if perhaps rude to the citizens of Las Pegasus. “I understand. So, I don't suppose you know anything about the prisoner I am visiting?” Twilight asked eagerly.
“Yes I do, but not as much as I would like. All guards who take shifts at the prison will eventually see every prisoner. But our patrols and guard posts are constantly changed so none of us can grow attached to the prisoners or become so used to a part of the prison that we become complacent in our duties.” Taproot informed, doing his best to keep a stiff formal posture despite the cart rocking as they sped through the city.
Twilight's ears drooped, disappointed, “Oh. Well what can you tell me?”
“She loves to sing, and to tell stories. The prisoners housed near her cell complain about it constantly. I recall one time I was on shift in her section. She spent the entire evening reciting a story about a group of adventurers on a quest to destroy a magic ring to prevent an ancient evil king from arising again to inflict his evils on the world. I only remember it because of a Batpony who screamed at her 'This is the fifteenth time this month you have told that story!'. She responded by preforming the story as a bardic chant instead of speaking it. Other than her being generally starved, that's all I know.”
Twilight couldn't help a giggle. In her head she pictured Pinkie doing the same thing, 'I've told you the story too much? Okie-dokie-loki! I'll sing it for you then!' Clearing her thought she asked, “Is there a reason she is starved?”
“There isn't much love to be had at the fort your Highness.” Taproot admitted. “Before you ask, we did use to give her standard rations, but she never eats them. A friend of mine looked into her species and told me they can eat normal food but it docent do anything for them. It would be like if you just drank water. You would feel full but gain no nutrients. Personally I think she tells the stories to try to squeeze a few drops of emotion from her cellmates for lunch. If I guarded her wing more often I would try to help, but I am normally stationed in the market district.”
Twilight nodded, “So how dose a market guard know-”
“Oh that's easy your Highness. Amber is pretty famous in the ranks. We all take turns at the prison and you can't help but notice her. They have a magic inhibitor on her so she is in her normal form. She stands out like, well, a bug among ponies.”
The carriage slowed and lurched to a stop, the driver giving the carriage a few light kicks with a back hoof to signal they had arrived at their destination. Corporal Taproot quickly hopped to his hooves and pushed open the door, “After you my lady.”
The prison itself was a rather nice stone structure. It's middle ages architecture betraying how old the fort was, while the techno-arcane devices attached to the walls, gate, and visible on the inner building's roof betrayed how heavily the building had been modified.
Twilight stepped out of the carriage, thanked the driver and took a few steps towards the gate. Taproot quickly moving to her side and waving to the two pegasi guarding the fort's gate, “Her Majesty Princess Twilight-”
“Yeah yeah we know Tap!” The green pegasus on the right groaned, “The warden has been going on about it for days now.”
The other guard tapped a button, causing the gates to swing open, “Go on in your highness. Good luck with your inspection.” she grunted.
Twilight followed the blushing corporal into the fort's main building. The interior was very spartan, bare plank floors, smoothed stone walls, simple white light sconces which held white light spells, and the odd military tapestry were the only decorations she could see. They passed several other ponies as they walked all of which saluted Twilight and offered some form of greeting, save for one stallion who Twilight recognized as a former member of her brother's old squad named Brass Lance. He gave her a smile, a wave, and called, “Tell Shining he's a jerk for not visiting more often.”
Twilight laughed as she waved back. After a few moments she asked, “So... are you taking me right to her?”
“Yes mam. She has been moved to an isolation room for your interview. The warden wanted you as inconvenienced as little as possible.” Taproot informed, “It won't be much longer.”
Twilight nodded quietly following the guard down four flights of stairs to the upper floor of the dungeon. From there it was a quick walk to an iron door with a single view slit covered by a sliding panel labeled 'Isolation Room D'. Stopping at the door Taproot took a brass key out of his armor and unlocked the door, “I am under orders to let you talk with her privately. But if you need me I will be stationed right outside the door. If worse comes to worst, I am sure you can handle one ling far more effectively then I could your Highness.”
“Thank you. I promise I won't make you wait any longer than possible.” Twilight promised before opening the door and stepping into the whitest room she had ever been in.
The isolation room was completely white. The walls, floor, ceiling, light fixtures, table, and chairs were all the same exact shade of white. It was painful to look at. The single color gave the room the illusion of being an infinite void of white. It took Twilight only seconds to assume the paint scheme was some form of passive torture to get prisoners to talk. It turned her stomach to think that ponies would do such a thing to somepony. But those thoughts vanished in an instant as the Changeling stationed across the table from her spoke, “Oh thank god, you're not white! That would have been the Shrine of Amana all over again.”
Twilight gasped, Amber was currently bound more securely then she had ever seen anypony. The Changeling was secured with a straitjacket which forced her forelegs behind her back and over her wings to prevent flight and arm movement. A pair of steel manacles bound her hind legs together to prevent her from tottering around on two legs. A crystal and iron magic inhibitor ring seemed to be hot-glued to her horn, and was being used to help secure a half mask over her lower face which had a few small slits for breathing cut into it. To top off the restraint's her jacket had chains attached which secured her upright to a large wheeled metal frame so she could be tipped backwards and pushed instead of letting her walk.
'Are you really that dangerous?' Twilight wondered, suddenly fearing this might have been a bad idea.
A few silent moments passed, then Amber spoke up, “I really, really want to make a joke right now. But it's based on a reference you wouldn't get. Can we just pretend I said something funny to break the ice?”
The Changeling grinned at Twilight through her mask, her eyes smiled along with the grin. Dangerous or not, she seemed happy. As far as Twilight could tell looked like a normal Changeling. Solid blue eyes, shiny black chitin, pointy ears and, “Hold on, you don't have holes in your hooves.” Twilight observed, nervously staying the first odd thing she noticed aloud.
“Yeah. That's because I don't drain ponies dry, that's actually really bad for you. Like, eating your own weight in food every hour bad. Except instead of getting fat, our chitin gets brittle and crumbles around the hooves.” she replied quickly, an eagerness in her voice, “So you came to chat with me right? That's a nice change of pace. I haven't had someone want to talk to me for... however long it's been since I started living here.”
Twilight tilted her head, eyes narrowing in a confused sort of stare. 'How could anypony be this talkative while bound like that and stuffed in this maddeningly white room?' She wondered before it dawned on her, 'Oh... She feels she is going crazy and wants to talk in order to stay grounded. This is cruel, I will talk to the warden about it.'
Clearing her thought Twilight took a seat across the table from the Changeling and answered, “Yes. I hoped we could talk about Changeling magic. Let me introduce myself I am-”
“Princess Twilight Sparkle, aka Book Horse. I know. You're really famous.” Amber replied.
“Book Horse?” Twilight exclaimed in a mixture of surprise and anger.
“It's meant affectionately... I think. I'm Amber Fire. I'd shake your hoof but I'm tired up at the moment.” Amber joked.
“Yes... Um... Pleased to meet you.” Twilight shook her head to refocus on the task at hand, “I was told that you are a Changeling sorceress. Is that true?”
“Ehhh kinda sorta. I'm more of a wizard then a scourer, and honestly I tended to do more alchemy than spellcraft before I was captured so if you want to call me by my profession, alchemist works best. I would rather be called Amber though. Because you know, I'm a perception... no that's not the right word... um... a parsimony? Or is it parsnip?” Amber sighed, slumping in her restraints and buzzing something in Changlish, “Ah right the word is person. Sorry.”
Twilight couldn't help but giggle, realizing she laughed at the mare she blushed feebly apologizing, “Sorry that was just well... funny.”
“It's ok. I normally speak prefect Equestrian. It's just this room. It's the gods damned plane of suck.” Amber sighed.
“I know! I've only been here a few moments and I swear I already have a headache.”
“Try being here for five days. I keep expecting some monster to charge out of the white and take a bite out of my skull. Right, lets talk about anything else but the white. You wanted to know about Changeling magic? No problem!” Amber grinned.
Twilight nodded eagerly and took a quill, ink, and journal from her saddlebag and got ready to write.
Amber closed her eyes, “I assume you don't mean our shape changing magic. Unless there was some sort of Library of Alexandria moment there are plenty of books on that. So you must mean our lost magic right?”
Twilight raised her head curiously, a hopeful grin forming on her lips. “Lost magic?”
“Yeah. Oh right... you're a pony. We Changelings used to have a single massive hall we lived in, it was carved out of a mountain. One of those realy nice, solid, safe feeling places. When it fell we lost well just about everything. We have a song about it, the part important to you probably being 'The Hives of yore forged mighty spells / love's light captured within gleaming gems / our burning hunger they did quell.'” Amber informed.
“Hold on,” Twilight asked taking a few notes quickly before asking, “You mean to tell me your people have a home city? Where is it?”
“Had. We had a home. One night a dragon decided to make it his home and we were scattered to the winds in one evening. Well those of us who didn't try to fight the thing off. I would have stayed and fought but I was assigned to guard... Eh it's not important. Long story short, we had a kingdom, a dragon took it, the royal family split up, and now most of us are roaming gypsies with tiny family like hives... Unless they have settled down in the last few years.”
Twilight's ears drooped, “I'm sorry... I know what it's like to loose a home.” Suddenly something clicked in her mind, “Amber, when did this happen?”
“No idea. What year is it?”
“It's the year 3487 C.E.” Twilight replied.
“Oh, about thirteen years ago then. Why?” Amber asked curiously.
“Eleven years ago an army of Changelings attacked our capital city. That makes sense now, you were forced out of your home, and with what you eat you would need food... So Chrysalis was just trying to feed her people.” Twilight groaned, slumping to the table, an awful feeling welling up deep inside her, “We would have given food if she had just asked...”
“Pppfff! Chrysalis asking for help, that's a good one!” Amber laughed, her shoulders shaking hard enough to rattle her chains. “If it makes you feel better Chrysalis was our High Queen's youngest daughter. She had 'youngest child' syndrome really bad. Figured a good campaign of conquest would get her mother's favor. On top of that she was a gods damned phyco.”
“That certainly dose seem like her... She impersonated Princess Cadence in an attempt to marry into the Royal family.”
“What? How dose that even make sense? If she wanted military intelligence and could impersonate a princess... Did she tell you her whole plan? I remember she loved monologues.”
“Sadly no. She did say that she planed to use my brother's love for Cadence to power her magic.”
“Wow... another genius move by fluff brain. How many of us did she have following her? Never mind... I assume you dealt with them... I'd rather not know.” Amber blinked suddenly, her eyes narrowing, “Hold on. If she attacked you eleven years ago that would be an act of war. I was taken prisoner about that long ago. I fought back when those guards came for me... That explains a lot.”
“Why did you fight back?” Twilight asked in a tone of morbid curiosity.
Amber rolled her eyes, “Because dudes in armor were screaming at me, waving spears, and firing spells. Where I'm from you kill those sorts of things before they redecorate the walls with your component molecules. Seriously you ponies are so insanely pacifistic. Not everyone thinks to talk it out first. Most things fight.”
There was a moment of awkward science which Amber broke, “Don't get me wrong Book Horse, I'm not saying I am a murdering psychopath I am fully aware that most things here are sentient creatures just doing their jobs. I didn't mean to kill those guards. I meant to wound them and get away. You don't waste food, and unicorns are well, delicious. I just seriously misjudged how strong your species is. Shouldn't have thrown a Sunlight Spear.”
Twilight's eyes lit up at the mention of what had to be the name of a spell. “Sunlight Spear? Could you tell me about that particular spell?”
“Yeah sure!” Amber nodded as much as her restraints would allow. “So The Sunlight Spear is a piece of miraculous sorcery derived from the Soul of the Lord of Cinder Gwen. In essence, by memorizing the spell patterns and having enough faith you can amplify the power of your own soul, and using the enhanced energy along with the faith you hold as a matrix you can call upon the power of flame to summon forth a bolt of the sun's very flame to throw at an enemy.”
Twilight wrote down everything she could in her journal. “What is miraculous sorcery exactly?”
“It's a means of casting spells. Basically if you have enough faith that the spell will work along with knowledge of how it works, the spell works. A lot of people believed you have to worship a god to cast it but that's not true at all. You basically use your hope to amplify your soul's power to cast the spell.”
“Is that how Changeling magic works?” Twilight asked, quill jotting away.
“Oh no, miraculous sorcery is far older than Changelings. I am sort of the lore keeper of it. Changeling magic is similar though. Using the power of your soul along with complex formula you expend a portion of your life force to... reject reality and then substitute your own. Normally you need to use something as a focus to bind the magic to, a staff, sword, most 'lings use their horn. There are ways around that however, like expending a large number of souls.”
Twilight's quill stopped scratching, “Hold on... is this Necromancy? You keep saying soul, and well um, expending.”
“No. This has nothing to do with meddling with the dead... usually.” Amber reassured, “By soul I mean life force, not the... essence of who someone is. Using sorcery expends a few hours or a day of your life. Now some workarounds for that are being immortal, or harvesting left over souls after someone has died. Now of course it can't be a natural death, or there wont be anything left. Oh! Right! If a Changeling overfeeds we can actually use the emotional energy instead but it is far less potent.”
“Oh.” Twilight smiled nervously, 'At least it's not necromancy.' “So your magic burns through your life span and works by warping reality in accordance with a formula?”
“Yes... I would describe a formula to you but that can take weeks. Hell just attuning a spell can take an hour. I've taught a few 'lings how to do basic sorcery over the years and well yeah I don't think you have the time for nth dimensional calculation formulas. You also have to have the intellect for it, you need to take in the variables within the formula and then let the magic 'run' the spell and direct the flow. It can get very mentally taxing, hell I can't do most of the sorceries I have the scrolls for.”
“That's really interesting. It's almost the opposite of unicorn magic. We concentrate on the effect we want and reach for our magic, then let it work as we will it to. An incantation can help get the instructions clear in your mind while you are casting but other than that it is simple, you just use your own understanding and knowledge to explain to the magic what you need it to do.” Twilight tapped her chin thoughtfully, “Come to think of it, when I studied Changeling transformations all the books said that's how you do it. There wasn't anything on what you are describing.”
“Probably because I am talking about battle magic.” Amber informed, “We also can do unicorn magic, after all we impersonate you guys. But we took care to cultivate our own combat magic. It's an extra edge. When we had our Hall we lived underground, and well you know... In places deep, dark things sleep.”
Twilight blinked realizing something, “Your species is pretty diverse isn't it?”
“That's one word for it.” Amber snickered.
“But you created two different systems for magic...” Twilight's eyes widened as the implications of that hit her, “That inhibitor is only meant for unicorn magic!”
Amber's wings twitched in surprise, “It is? Well now isn't that interesting. Heh... Fortunately for you I have no reason to escape. If I leave I am pretty sure I'll be caught and shot and I really don't want to deal with that annoyance. Besides. The warden has my stuff. I couldn't leave my guitar.”
Twilight frowned, not fully believing her. Something in her tone was off. Still it wouldn't be a good idea to push the issue. “Sooo you play the guitar?”
“Yeah. I sing too. I'm pretty good, at least I think I am. I've had a lot of time to practice.”
"Right. How about we get back to talking about magic? What are some other spells your people used? More common ones." Twilight asked as she dipped her quill into her ink pot.
Amber nodded, and after a quick breath launched into an impromptu lecture on Changeling spellcraft lasting for several hours.