Amant awoke to the soft prodding of the hive mind. He rolled over and extended his consciousness outward, feeling the minds of his seven other comrades. One stood out as the foreling that he’d asked to get a construction crew.
<Your highness, the construction crew is at the site and they have begun. However, there is a disturbance between the crew and three mares. We ask that you come to intervene.>
He groaned, rolling out of bed. <Alright, I’ll be there in a few minutes.> His hooves padded on the soft carpet as he shook his head to clear the fog of drowsiness. He walked out of his room and continued out of the hotel, walking out into the brisk morning air, the sun a hoof above the horizon. He glanced around and caught sight of the golden building tops of Canterlot glistening in the sunlight. He sat there for a minute, thinking on the next step of his plan, until he was interrupted by a cyan blur streaking through the sky. He snapped back to reality and started walking again, not noticing the cyan blur curving around the town. He trotted down the lane until he came to the clearing.
He could hear the shouts and complaints even before he pushed his way through the brush. There, standing around a large hole in the center of the clearing, was a group of large stallions, muscled and sweaty, glaring down at three mares. He walked toward the largest of the stallions, who was currently nose to nose with one of the mares, until he was a few hooves away from the pair. He cleared his throat and the whole group turned to look at him.
“Is there a problem?” he asked softly.
“Excuse me sir,” the stallion stated, “but this mare here tells us that we’re doing things wrong.”
“Ah am!” the mare said, stomping her hoof on the ground, “ya’ll are doin’ the foundation wrong! It needs to be thicker!”
“Excuse me!” the stallion bellowed at her, though she glared up at him, not fazed at his anger, “we’ve been building homes for a dozen or so years! Who are you to tell us we’re doing something wrong?”
“Ah’ve read books.”
The stallion scoffed. “Read books,” he said, “that doesn’t give any experience. Talk to us when you’ve built more than fifteen homes.”
<Has anyling checked her claim?> Amant stated, and he saw one of the Changelings stepping toward the drawing board and the blueprints. He sat down on the ground, sighing as he listened to the two ponies shouting at each other. He took the time to study the three mares, figuring that they were most likely locals.
The main mare, the Earth Pony, had a yellow coat with a soft red mane tied back. Her orange eyes boring holes into the stallion in front of her and she wore a wide brimmed, leather hat that shielded her face from the sun. She was muscular, Amant found interesting for a mare, and slightly tanned, showing that she had spent time out in the sun.
The second pony, a Unicorn, was alabaster like a statue. She reminded him so much of the Unicorn that had been talking with Applejack that they might be sisters. Her mane was two tone, purple and pink that matched almost perfectly with her coat. Her light green eyes shone with intelligence and bore the weight of wisdom for one her age.
The third was a Pegasus, though her wings were much too small for flight, it seemed to Amant. She had a dark orange coat with a contrasting purple mane, making her appear like the setting sun. Her purple eyes glaring daggers at the large stallion in front of her friend, daring him to make a move.
As he studied each mare, he came to the same conclusion: each one was missing the symbol on their flank that most ponies bore. A cutie mark, he recalled, that’s what they were. He never understood the reason for them, Changelings didn’t have cutie marks. They all had roles to play in the Empire and butt marks didn’t change that.
He sighed as the air around the mare and stallion radiated the heat of anger, finally deciding to step in. His horn sparked, the sound of a firecracker erupting between the two ponies, making them jump back in surprise. “Now then, let’s come to an agreement.”
<She’s right. The foundation is half the thickness it should be.> the message came back from the Changeling studying the blueprints. Amant sent back a thanks, then turned his attention to the two ponies.
“Why would you diminish the strength of the foundation?” he directed his question to the stallion, unfazed by the glare that bore into his eyes.
“We haven’t been!” the stallion shouted, “we’ve been doing what we do best.”
“Yeah, cheatin' ‘onest ponies outta bits,” the mare muttered.
“Now that’s not right! We’re honest ponies, just trying to make it in this world.”
“By buying cheap materials, building faulty foundations, haphazard construction? Tha’s how ya’ll make yer livin’?” the mare stated, stomping her hoof on the ground.
Before the stallion could say anything else, Amant heard exclamations across the hive link, confirming the mare’s statement. Amant raised an eyebrow, turning to the stallion. “It appears my staff has confirmed this mare’s statements. Do you have anything to say in your defense?”
The stallion’s jaw fell open. He stuttered for several minutes, struggling to say something. Finally Amant sighed, raising a hoof to silence the stallion.
“In that case, consider yourself off the job,” he said, “it appears like this mare knows what she’s doing. Pack up your crew and head home. Find somepony else to scam.”
The stallion stood there, stunned, then his face grew hard and he turned and stomped off, his crew followed.
Amant turned to the three mares, the rest of his company grouping behind him. “Thank you,” he bowed his head slightly, “it seems that you’ve saved me some time. Time that is important. What is your name?”
“Ah’m Apple Bloom,” the mare replied.
“Apple Bloom, I thank you,” Amant stated.
“It was nuttin’” Apple Bloom said, scraping her hoof on the ground.
“Sir,” one of the Changelings said, drawing the two’s attention, “we now have a problem. With no construction crew, how will we get our home built?”
Amant thought for a second, then turned to the Changeling. “How fast can we get others here?” he asked.
The Changeling paused for a bit and Amant could tell he was running numbers, then he said, “after getting a Waystone set up, we can have more here in three hours.”
Amant smiled, then turned to look at Apple Bloom. “It seems like we have a crew, but now we need a forepony,” he said with a glint in his eye, “I wonder where we could find a pony that we could trust, somepony that knows what they’re doing.”
The two other ponies nudged Apple Bloom, who was blushing slightly, her face tinted red. “Ah guess,” she said slowly, “Ah could do it…” Amant smiled and nodded, then guided her over to the blueprints and began to explain what he wanted in the home while half of his company started to build the necessary matrices for long distance teleportation, the rest cleared the land and marked off locations for materials as well as disposed of the leftover materials.
After several minutes of making sure that Apple Bloom knew what he wanted, Amant returned to stand by the edge of the clearing with the other two mares. They sat there for a time, watching the busy ponies work. A request had already been sent through the hive mind for materials and workers. It had been accepted and they were preparing on the Empire’s end as well. Soon they would have a gateway from here to the Empire and back.
He turned to look at the two mares next to him, studying them a little better. The Pegasus had a glint of courage in her eyes, fearlessness he realized having seen it in several hundred Changeling in his time. She sat with her back straight and wings tucked to her side, though twitches washed over her coat at times. It was almost like she wanted to do something more than just sit there. She glanced up at the sky and Amant followed her gaze to catch sight of a prismatic trail streaking across the sky. A wave of envy and desire washed over him and he turned back to the mare. She watched the streak with want burning in her eyes, deep and abiding. Her wings extended and flapped several times, but curled back up when the thrust wasn’t enough to even get her off the ground.
“How long have your wings been like that?” he asked, startling the Pegasus. She stared at him, eyes wide, then looked down.
“They’ve been like that my whole life,” she said, her eyes watering at the edges, “the doctors say that I’ll never be able to fly. I was able to hover above the ground with effort when I was a filly, but as I’ve grown older and my wings haven’t gotten any stronger, I can’t even do that.” Clear liquid ran down her cheek and splashed onto the ground near her hoof. “I want to fly so badly, to feel the wind in my mane and the air brush through my feathers. But,” she turned to look at the Unicorn on the other side of him and smiled, “if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to spend as much time with my friends as I have. And my friends are more important to me than anything.”
A warm wave of emotion flowed from the mare, washing over Amant and making him smile. Then he turned to look at the Unicorn.
She was truly a work of art. Her coat shimmered in the sunlight, smooth and silky. It was like she’d been chiseled out of marble, but she was too alive for that. Her green eyes saw everything as she scanned the clearing, her eyes lingering on tiny details such as the far trees and the marks on the ground that the crew had placed for the materials. Her pink and purple mane was curly, but just so. It was as if somepony had just twisted bits of her mane around their hoof a few times, giving it a spring that he’d not seen on many other mares. Her horn sparked occasionally with small jets of green sparks that matched her eyes. He felt thoughtfulness flow from the mare and she bore the look of a professor, thinking and analyzing. Then a spark flashed in her eyes and Amant felt a small wisp of something sweet flow off her like a breeze.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked, causing her to squeek and jump slightly. She turned to look at him, a blush on her face.
“She’s probably thinking about Button,” the Pegasus stated, verbally jabbing her friend. The Unicorn stammered for a few seconds, then glared at the mare.
“So what if I am?” she demanded.
“When are you going to tell him you like him?” the Pegasus asked, but the other mare shook her head.
“I don’t know if he likes me back,” she said, her head falling with her voice, “I don’t want to bother him like that.”
“Just take a stab and tell him! And if he doesn’t like you back, there’ll be others out there who will.”
“Yeah, but he’s the one I want to like me back. I’d give anything to know for sure.”
“Ah come on, Rumble and I hit it off well enough, after we both got up the courage to tell each other.”
“Yeah. But Button likes video games and he’s always so happy when he plays them. I just want to keep that smile on his face as long as I can, even if it’s never directed at me.”
“Come on, Sweetie Belle, he’ll be lucky to get you,” the Pegasus said, moving over beside the other mare, “I’ve heard dozens of other stallions, even colts, say how drop dead gorgeous you are. You just need to really lay on the charm, make him see you for who you really are. Not just a friend, but somepony who wants to be more.”
Sweetie Belle just nodded, turning back to stare out into the clearing to watch the workers gouge out runes in the ground. The two mares and Amant sat there and watched the clearing buzz with activity. He would glance over occasionally at Apple Bloom who hovered over the blueprints, making marks on a nearby notebook and comparing figures.
The sun glided across the sky and it neared the western horizon when one of the Changelings strode over to Amant. “Sir,” he said, snapping a quick salute, “we’ve completed the array and have confirmed with the Empire, who are ready as well. We can now begin importing workers and materials.”
Amant nodded. “Let us begin,” he said. He stood up and walked over to the edge of the control array gouged into the ground next to the blueprint table. Apple Bloom looked up and saw him stand next to her, then step into the center of the circle. His horn sparked and the circle burst into green flames that licked the ground, but didn’t burn. Two more circles, each one equidistant from him around the circle, followed suit, their Changelings feeding magic into the array.
Then the sky ripped open. A circular hole, the same size as the array, tore open, revealing the arid sky of the Badlands. As Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and the Pegasus watched, a dozen Changelings disguised as ponies glided through the portal and landed outside the array, making way for the materials that would come. And come they did. As all present watched, dozens more disguised Changelings carried, levitated, hoisted, and lowered various materials into their allocated spots in the clearing. One of the Changelings flew over to Amant and he gestured over to the blueprints and Apple Bloom’s figures. The Changeling pulled out a scroll and unfurled it, checking the two lists of figures and materials against each other. Then he rolled the scroll back up and, nodding to Apple Bloom and snapping a salute to Amant, he turned and flew back into the portal, the material wielding Changelings followed after dropping off their supplies.
The ponies all watched the portal shrink down until it almost vanished when, to Amant’s surprise, a large bag was dropped through the portal before it closed. The bag hit the ground and toppled over, spilling hundreds of silver bits onto the ground. A Changeling ran over and gathered the coins up and stuffed them back into the bag, then stowed it out of the way. All the Changelings lined up in front of the drawing board and stood at attention, each one staring straight forward.
Amant looked them over. They were smart enough to take the forms of all three pony tribe in roughly equal number. Then he turned to Apple Bloom. “Here’s your crew,” he said, snickering at the sight of Apple Bloom’s mouth hanging open. She shut it quickly when she realized that all eyes were on her, then she turned to Amant.
“How did you do that?” she asked.
“Simple long range teleportation array,” he said, “It allows us to move ponies and materials almost anywhere needed. It takes some time to draw it up, but once it’s there, we can use it almost indefinitely as long as we have at least three mages available.”
“That was way awesome!” the Pegasus said, rushing over.
“And why do you say that?” Amant asked.
“Because! If we could figure out how to make that portable, we could use it for some wicked cool tricks! And Dash could pull off some even more stunning tricks in the air!”
“Always thinking about ways to impress Rainbow Dash, huh Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle said, though her eyes were focused on the point where the portal had appeared.
“Of course, why not?” Scootaloo inquired.
“Could you show us how it works?” Sweetie Belle asked. Amant shook his head.
“It only works with the right kind of magic,” he replied then, seeing her fallen face, he said, “I could have one of my company look over the array and see how we could adapt it to general use.”
Before the conversation could continue, Amant noticed Applejack and the alabaster Unicorn pushed their way through the brush while a prismatic Pegasus streaked over the treetops, landing at the edge of the clearing. The three ponies, mares he could see now, moved toward the group. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo smiled and charged toward the Unicorn and Pegasus, while Applejack strode up next to Apple Bloom.
“Looks like ya’ll got yer hooves full, sis,” she said, causing Apple Bloom to jump and spin around.
“Applejack!” she cried, hugging her sister around the neck, then she looked up at the sun and saw how late it was, “is it really that late?” Applejack nodded, then turned back to the others at the edge. She walked toward them, Apple Bloom following her, and she waved at Amant who waved back.
“Hello Applejack,” Amant said, shaking her hoof when she extended it, “nice to see you taking care of your sister. No worries, I won’t let anything bad happen to her.”
“Well, that’s mighty kind o’ ya, thanks,” Applejack smiled, then she turned to the Pegasus and Unicorn, “sorry, I’ve never introduced ya’ll to mah friends. This here is Rainbow Dash,” She gestured to the Pegasus who stood with an air of superiority, “and this is Rarity.” She pointed to the Unicorn standing next to Sweetie Belle.
“It’s wonderful to meet you both,” Amant stated, smiling at the two of them.
“Yes, quite wonderful indeed,” Rarity said, reflecting his smile, then turned to look at Sweetie Belle, “come along Sweetie Belle, it’s getting late and a lady needs her beauty sleep.”
“Yeah, the two of us should also get going,” Rainbow replied, “come on kid, I’ll walk you home.”
“Thanks Rainbow!” Scootaloo said, beaming as she followed the Pegasus through the brush and out of sight.
Amant watched the four mares walk away, then he turned to look at Apple Bloom. “When can you get here tomorrow? We’re on a schedule,” he said, business-like.
“Ah guess Ah could get here shortly after sunrise,” Apple Bloom replied, looking at Applejack who nodded.
“Excellent, I’ll have the crew rest up and be ready to go then.”
With that, the two farmmares walked out of the clearing. Amant looked out over the piles of materials at the dozen and a half Changelings. Tomorrow was going to be the beginning of a long journey. A journey that would end with either the complete destruction, or the complete rebirth of the world.