- - - ch 24 - - -
Luna settled into her bed for a nap, but even in her sleep she had work to do. Fidgeting with her pillow till it was just right, Luna then closed her eyes, and focused on her breath. A moment or two later and she was asleep, but not unaware of herself. Stirring her magic, she let her mind drift into the dream realm.
The quiet murmur of dreamers surrounded Luna as she opened her mind’s eye. Raising to her hooves, she found the familiar maze of doors stretching forth in every direction. With a thought, Luna moved past thousands of dreams, then stopped with a blink in front of the one she wanted.
Clover’s door was more rust than iron, and the corners looked a bit melted. Steeling her will, Luna touched the door. Her hoof sank into the soggy thing, and with the slightest push, it opened to invite her in. There was no nightmare in Clover this time. Instead, she found herself on a dusty road. Mountains surrounded her on all sides, and the air was thick with the smell of herbs.
In the distance she could hear a pipe playing. It was a tune she had heard Clover play many times.
Luna smiled, this was the kind of dream she could work with, mold and guide. One where she could speak to the dreamer in ways deeper than could ever be done awake. Lighting her horn, she hid her wings, and turned her coat the color of sand. Clover would not recognize her as his aunt, but rather a nameless, young mare.
Taking a seat beneath an olive tree, Luna waited for Clover to show himself.
Soon enough, he came into view, prancing down the road. It was however, not the Clover she was used to seeing. His dream had made him a young, lanky stallion. Saddled to his back, a ballista rattled with every step, and lolled about like a corpse. All the while he played his flute, filling the air with its song.
That song and his smile were undoubtedly Clover though. She did not need her magic to see that. Leaning against the tree, she waited for him to near.
“Is the war over?” Luna asked as Clover walked by.
“Long ago,” he said with the voice that sounded tired and old. Looking over his shoulder, Clover unbuckled the weapon. Falling from his back, it crumbled and rotted. “Do you know this road, ma’am?” Clover asked stopping in front of her. “I’m a bit lost.”
“Where are you heading?” Luna asked standing up.
Clover smiled ear to ear. “I’m going home.”
“Where would that be?”
Clover opened his mouth to speak, but then shut it as confusion wrinkled his face. “I don’t... I do not remember.”
“Well...” Luna scratched at her chin. “Do you remember what it looks like?”
The stallion turned to mist, and in his place stood the colt she knew so well. Bright eyed, he looked up at her and nodded. “It’s a castle in the clouds!”
Luna giggled. “I do know where that is. There are not many of them.” Touching the dream world with her magic, Luna made a trail leading into the mountains. “It’s this way,” she said pointing to the winding path.
Clover’s form never seemed to settle as they walked into the mountains. One moment he was a unicorn, the next an earth pony, sometimes a colt, sometimes a stallion of late years, sometimes one of adolescence.
“You seem young, to be making such a journey,” Luna said when Clover again changed to his adolescent form.
“You flatter,” the old stallion said. “I have walked these mountains since before you were born.”
“Then how is it you are lost?”
“I don’t know,” the foal whined. “Nothing’s right here, this isn’t how it’s supposed to look.”
Luna pulled her magic from the dream world, letting it react to the dreamer’s slightest thought. “How are things supposed to look?”
“I don’t know,” the young stallion said, the sense of defeat pouring off him in waves. Defeat mixed with sadness as the old stallion returned. “All I remember is being tired and alone. I just wanted to die.”
The words startled Luna, but before she could speak creation itself shuttered.
“What was that?” the old stallion said.
Beside him the colt appeared. “Mom!”
To the other side, the young stallion manifested, his eyes cast to the heavens just as the bright world went dim. “The sun has gone dark.”
Luna blinked; the three Clovers were right. With a flash, she returned to her bedroom, her wings carrying her out the window before she could even get her eyes open.
- - - x - - -
From the garden, Celestia stared at the hospital building against the bright, evening sky. She really needed to go back in; Clover’s friends would have left by now. She hated the idea of him being alone, but she just couldn’t be in that room right now.
A little stroll in the garden, that would help her pull herself together. Even this time of year her ponies kept the place beautiful. The surreal bleakness of the winter garden fit her mood better anyway; she couldn’t handle being surrounded by flowers.
Discord’s empty pedestal brought a momentary smile to her face. She wondered where he was. Perhaps his quest to learn about Clover would bring him back at the eleventh hour to save her son.
Turning her back to the other stone memories, Celestia wandered into the hedge maze. Down one path, then back up another Celestia paced. With practiced will, she hushed the thoughts spinning in her mind, and focused only on walking forward.
“Princess Celestia, we beg an audience.” A voice said from behind her.
Celestia sighed. She really wanted to just say, “Go away,” and not even turn to look at them, but she was their princess, she had to be the strong one. Plastering on a smile, she turned to face her petitioners.
The smile did not stay for more than the time it took her to turn around. Scowling in confusion, Celestia lit her horn as the two changelings looked up at her. A moment later and a bubble of golden light had surrounded all three of them. They would not escape, nor could more attack her from behind.
“What do you want?”
The two changelings bowed their heads, making sure their horns were not pointing towards her. “We know what is wrong with Clover,” the bigger changeling said.
Dragonfly waited for the princess to speak, but only found ear-ringing silence. With a slow movement, he looked towards Ladybug. The young changeling was staring up at something with horror in her eyes. Swallowing through a dry throat, Dragonfly raised his head.
“I was a fool,” the princess said as soon as their eyes met. The blue in her hair had turned ash, and the sky had become a colorless gray. “I had hoped Chrysalis would change—”
“Your Majesty, I—”
“Silence.” Celestia’s word emptied the air from his lungs. The green in her ethereal mane turned to ash, and the evergreen hedges went black with it. “I let too many suffer in hopes of harmony later, and now my decisions have come home to bite me.”
“Please...” Ladybug mewled, only to be silenced by a glare dripping with murder.
Gasping for breath, Dragonfly forced himself to move in front of Ladybug, to shield her from the alicorn.
“It is time I fixed my mistake.” Purple and pink joined the rest of Celestia’s mane as ash, and the last bit of color drained from the world. “I will end you, and I will end your queen.”
Celestia’s magic reached out to somewhere unseen, then in a scorching flash of light a spear appeared beside her. Its white-hot blade burned him from even this distance. The bubble of magic around them popped, but he dared not run. Beside him Ladybug wept as he tried to speak, but words failed him.
“I’m sorry you were born.”
He couldn’t help but notice how much sadness was in her voice. Wrapping his hooves around Ladybug, he shielded her from the searing heat, while waiting for the deathblow.
“AROS!” bellowed a voice like a typhoon’s rage. The word rattled his chiton, and a wind bowled him and Ladybug into the hedges.
“Ewch, chwaer. Mae gen i waith i wneud.” Celestia said, dismissing the interruption as nothing unusual.
“Ni fyddaf!” the other voice cried.
Righting himself, Dragonfly looked up from the hedge just in time to see Princess Luna land between him and Celestia. Indigo magic rolled around her in waves, muting the heat of the spear as she stepped closer to her sister.
“You are better than this.”
Celestia stared at Luna for a moment, her mane of ash fluttering in the wind, covering the ground with soot. “They’re an accident and a plague. Fleas that should have been poisoned long ago.”
“Sister!” Luna scorned.
Dragonfly winced when Celestia’s gaze left Luna, and returned to him. “Ticks that I had thought would bloom into flowers,” she said, leveling the spear at him. The sadness was gone, her voice rang of lifeless steel.
The spear darted forward, but indigo magic pushed its tip into the ground. “Please, do not make my mistake,” Luna begged.
“My mistake was not killing Chrysalis at Trot.” Celestia tried to pull her weapon from the smoldering ground, but Luna held it fast.
“I will not spare Chrysalis from you, but do not harm innocents.”
A bitter laugh echoed from Celestia, and the sun no longer gave warmth. “None of them are innocent, least of all these two. They poisoned Clover, then tried to ransom the cure.”
The accusation stung Dragonfly even as he shivered with cold and fear. Beside him, Ladybug whimpered, “No.” He reached to stop her, but youth gave her much speed. Before he could speak, Ladybug had darted past Luna, and wrapped all four legs around Celestia’s foreleg.
“I’d never hurt Clover! We just wanted your permission to try and help him!”
Celestia looked down at Ladybug with utter revulsion, but a bit of her rage had been distracted. Dragonfly steeled himself. He had to do this, too much was at stake. Jumping from the hedge, he landed next to Luna, opposite the deadly spear.
“Chrysalis is dead.”
“What?” Luna balked.
Celestia glared at him for a long moment, before peeling Ladybug from her leg with magic, then tossing her in front of him like a bag of potatoes. “You lie.”
Bending down, Dragonfly helped Ladybug to her hooves. “She is dead. This one has never known her.”
Again, Celestia tugged at her spear, but Luna held it firm. “Sister,” Luna said. Her eyes were pools of concern. “There is a way to know. I would rather have you use that spell, than cross a line you can not come back from.”
“Fine.” A spell flew from Celestia’s horn like the crack of a whip, and Dragonfly felt his mind tingle.
“Who killed Chrysalis?” Celestia asked.
Words began leaving Dragonfly’s mouth without his control. “Queen Mantis and Queen Apis ordered her death. Every drone in the hive swarmed her, and drained the life from her.”
The answer did not seem to please Celestia or Luna. “Tell me where these queens came from, and where I can find them,” Celestia said, her magic glowing stronger around her spear.
“After escaping the prison, we made a new hive. But we knew Chrysalis would only lead us to more ruin, so we conspired against her. We took our two healthiest grubs, and sealed them in a special place. We made Queens of them. Queen Mantis, took half the hive, and left for the wild lands. Queen Apis is still in the gorge east of the everfree.” Dragonfly winced as he spoke. He had given away the hives’ locations. He had to get word back, so they could move.
“And what are their intentions?”
“Queen Apis wishes to become symbiotic with ponies; Queen Mantis to be a predator of demons and monsters.”
Celestia still scowled, though curiosity had taken Luna. “Did you bring any harm to my son through action or inaction?” Celestia asked
“No.”
The resolute answer shook Celestia, but her look of suspicion only doubled. “Do you wish harm on any pony?”
“Only that asshole that runs the bakery on third.”
Celestia’s expression went vacant for a moment. “Bear Claw?”
“Yes,” the spell forced him to say, but he felt no need to hide his feelings on the subject. “I’d buck him in the face, if I thought I could get away with it,” Dragonfly said without the spell’s compulsion.
A snicker escaped Celestia in spite of herself, and the winter sun again warmed his back. Straightening her posture, Celestia’s magic let go of the spear. “What is wrong with Clover?”
“Sometimes there’s a sickness that the locals think nothing of, but it’s deadly to foreigners. We don’t know why it happens, we just recognized the pattern.”
Luna’s magic enveloped the weapon, and with a pop, the spear disappeared, but the soil still boiled and fumed where it had been. “We have heard of such things. Remember the migration? We lost many to something similar.”
Ash fell from Celestia’s mane, and the sky turned blue again. “I... I do recall that.”
“Now please,” Luna said, stepping closer to her sister. “Release him from that spell, and we shall finish sorting this out.”
“One more question,” Celestia said, holding up a hoof to pause Luna. “How can you help my son?”
“It’s a Changeling ritual, to strengthen a hive. Hopefully it will give him some of our strength. We’ve done it to ponies before. Saving a life gets you a lot of love.”
Celestia’s magic fell from his mind, and Dragonfly stumbled to the ground.
“What do you ask for in return?”
Staggering to his hooves, Dragonfly looked up at Celestia. “Nothing.” The words were spoken of his own free will this time, but they were still the truth.
“What else will this do to Clover?” Luna asked.
“Euphoria, and possibly mild magical complications for a day to a week, nothing more than a nuisance.”
The colors of the world came rushing back as the rest of the ash fell from Celestia, and anger turned into desperation and shame. “Would you please try?” The sadness was back in her voice. It was a sound that made him want to cry.
“I can’t do it alone.” Looking to Ladybug, he helped her to stand. Her legs were still shaking from adrenaline. “You still up for it?” he asked.
“Of course I am.” Ladybug paused for a moment, her legs calming as a smile tried to show on her muzzle, but it faded as a sour expression took over. “Also, I owe you my life,” she said looking to Luna.
Luna nodded, then looked to Celestia. “I think it is best you go hide the Sun Spear again. I sent it to the old marble quarry. We do not want it getting around that you had it out. I will take these two to Clover’s room, and let you know when they have left.”
Celestia sighed and nodded her head before taking off into the evening sky.
“We are sorry that happened,” Luna said, rising to properly greet the two changelings. “You are my guests now, I will see that you are treated as such.”
The two gave her a cautious bow, but didn’t move from their spot.
“May I ask your names?”
“My name is Dragonfly,” the taller one said. “And this is Ladybug.” The little one gave her another bow when her name was said.
“Well Dragonfly and Ladybug, would you like to follow me? Perhaps we can get you cleaned up and warmed.”
Ladybug and Dragonfly stared at each other for a moment with an unfocused expression. Luna could tell there was a conversation there she couldn't hear. After a moment, green fire rolled across them, transforming them from changelings to unicorns with rather forgettable features.
“We can clean ourselves up later. Right now, time is valuable to Clover.” Dragonfly said.
“True enough,” Luna said, motioning them to follow.
It was a long walk of awkward silence back to the hospital. Luna’s mind spun around the implications of Chrysalis’ death, and the new queen’s desire for symbiosis. It left her with a thousand questions, but they could wait for now.
Approaching Clover’s room, Luna ushered the two in, while pausing by the two guards. “Nothing enters this room, until I say so, or call for you.”
“Yes, Princess,” the guards saluted.
Luna gave them a smile, then entered the room, and locked the door behind her. “You have all the privacy I can give you.”
Green fire returned the changelings to their natural form as they sat down by Clover’s bed. Again there was a silence where Luna knew they were talking on a level she couldn’t hear.
After a moment, Dragonfly rummaged through the room’s medical supplies till he found the phlebotomist’s kit and a sterile jar. Sitting the kit down next to Ladybug, he took the jar and paused. “This part is a bit gross, you may not want to watch,” he said with a sheepish grin.
Luna almost laughed. “Common gore has little effect on me, and besides, you have my curiosity now.”
Dragonfly shrugged, then staring intently into the jar, began to make lurching sounds. It rather reminded her of a cat with a hairball, but neither hair nor vomit came forth. Instead something that shined with green magic dripped from his mouth. The smell of sugar filled the room with the first viscous drop of the stuff. The changeling lurched again, and more dripped into the jar. The glowing stuff oozing down the side, and pooling at the bottom.
“That should be enough,” Dragonfly said, sitting the jar down.
“What is it?” Luna asked.
“Love!” Ladybug said, almost fluttering.
“Consensually given love,” the older changeling added. “Magically purified into food that can be stored in the hive.”
Luna nodded at the iridescent green goo. “Is there a name for it?”
“Spoo,” Ladybug answered, watching the older changeling pick up a needle and vial from the kit.
Dragonfly gave her an apologetic look as he rubbed a bit of antiseptic on her leg. “It only pricks for a second.”
Ladybug scowled, but said nothing.
A second later, and Dragonfly had a vial of changeling blood that he instantly injected into the IV line attached to Clover. At the same time, Ladybug picked up the jar, and pressed it to Clover's lips. Luna moved to wake him up, so he would drink, but the instant the spoo touched his lips, he lapped at it eagerly, despite still being asleep.
“Now sleep well,” Ladybug said, pulling the jar away with one hoof, and petting his mane with the other.
Clover writhed with ecstasy at Ladybug’s touch. Blindly reaching out in his sleep, he found the little changeling, and tried to cuddle around her. It was only a stern look from Dragonfly that kept her from allowing Clover to do so.
“May I see that?” Luna asked, pointing to the jar still glowing from leftover spoo.
“Keep it,” Ladybug said, hoofing the jar over to her. “Add a drop to his food, makes even hospital food taste delicious.”
Dragonfly lit his horn and looked at Clover with an appraising eye. “We’ve given him the tools, the rest is up to him.”
Clover’s dream came back to Luna. “I fear he may take some convincing.”
“Well, the love we gave him should help with that.” Walking over to Ladybug, the older changeling tended to a few scrapes with the medical supplies nearby. “We should really be going now. Princess Celestia will want to look in on her son.”
“You can stay,” Luna offered. “We can put you up. I would like to better understand the new Queens; perhaps start diplomatic relations.”
Dragonfly gave her a sad smile. Some bit of magic fell away from him, and only then did she see the burns on his face and back. “I think it’s going to be a while before that can happen. The old ways need to be forgotten. Your ponies need to grow up hearing rumors of kind changelings; then maybe we can walk this castle undisguised.