//------------------------------// // CH. 12 Reunion // Story: The Last Changeling Queen // by Atuhor Name //------------------------------// Reunion         Twilight eased the dagger out of its sheath for the tenth time that minute and grimaced. It’s not that the dagger itself was badly made. For something made out of changeling spit and paper, it was sharp. She wouldn't trust it to parry an actual steel sword, but it was adept enough at stabbing.         What bothered her about it was that it was a hidden dagger sliding seamlessly into a slot on her changeling spit and parchment armor. They had actually spent a good amount of time on those slots for their armor, despite Twilight's protests.         And now she had a dagger on her person. It wasn't meant for survival in any way, so she couldn't make any excuse about having a “utility knife.” It was too well-hidden, and too small, to be used for any kind of intimidation tactic. This was a killing dagger, something to bring out when your enemy's back was turned to stab them with.         The fact that it glimmered, just like the armor, literally with her love, disturbed her even more.         “Twilight? Are you alright?” Naudia asked.         “I don't like this.” Twilight answered back instantly.         “Think of it like one of the O&O campaigns then. Would you go into a dangerous situation unprepared?” Naudia asked, not having to even be told what was on Twilight's mind at this point.         “No, I wouldn't, but it’s my friends we're talking about!”         “Twilight.” Naudia said, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “I'm doing this because I'm worried about you. They may be your friends… but they also put you in that cell.” Twilight flinched at that. “And I will do everything in my power to make sure you don't go back in there.”         Twilight sniffled a bit before she regained composure, and hugged Naudia who returned the hug warmly; as warmly as they could through armor.         “Thank you.”         Twilight stiffened up suddenly.         “Twilight?”         Naudia opened up her eyes and stiffened up as well, Actually that was an understatement: she went full battle skin and preemptively began charging her horn. Twilight barely noticed as she stared up directly into the sun, or at least what was left of it.         The sun was no longer lit.         The normally warm rays of Equestria's tiny sunlet died, leaving only a volcanic red imitation made of rock and stone in its place. Even that was beginning to fade and to grow dim in the sky.         Twilight could only stare open-mouthed in both terror and sadness as the diminished sun was once again eclipsed by the blood moon. ----------------         Celestia had one day explained how she raised the sun to Twilight. Apparently, it was a question nopony had ever asked, assuming that, like the tides, that was just the way things were. Or, more likely, Celestia was a figure too far removed from a normal pony for them to allow themselves to bother her with the question.         “You know, Twilight, you are the first pony to ask that since Starswirl the Bearded, although he was significantly more annoyed when he asked.” Celestia had the smile she wore when she was proud of her student.         “How much do you know about the poles?”         “Which ones? Magnetic or Magical?”         “Magical of course.”         “Not much. Nobody has bothered to study them since they are so constant, even more so than anything else. For a time they were thought of as proof that conservation of energy could be broken.”         “Good. It’s always nice to know you will always be thorough in your lessons. And the answer to your first question is that I draw my power from there and that is how I light the sun for all of Equestria.” ----------------         Celestia's connection with the sun was impossible. It was the first impossible thing that Twilight had studied in her life. From a distance, she had determined that it didn't obey the normal laws of physics, and the only comparable thing she could find was Celestia's--and eventually Luna's--connection to the Moon.         Nothing else in Equestria was like that. No artifact, no spell, not even the fabled Elements of Harmony, once she got her hands on them, operated on the same level as Celestia and Luna's connection to their Celestial bodies. Even Pinkie Pie had some grounding in the logical universe that Twilight could vaguely pin down. But the Sun and Moon of Equestria operated on a different set of rules than even Discord did.         It was a massive font of energy, assumed to be infinite, that somehow Celestia and Luna could tap into to move the sun and moon. But it was strange: while they could call upon it to move the sun for the rest of time, anything else was rationed. Rationed was probably a bad word, as it was still well above what any normal unicorn, or even Cadance, could call upon alone, but it was still limited compared to the incalculable amount that rested at the poles.         The ONLY comforting thing about this situation was that the moon once again eclipsed the sun in short order, preventing her from staring at it any longer.         That was the only possible positive thing that she could possibly think of in this situation. The moon was wrong, the sun had literally gone out, and more than likely her friends were trying to hunt her down.         For the first time in a while now, Twilight didn't feel like she wanted to break down. For the first time in her life Twilight felt free. Plans swirled around inside her head of a world coexisting with changelings, without a sun, without...         Without a Celestia.         Because Celestia was the keystone of the sun, and something had disabled her in some way, cutting off the link to the poles that kept the sun on.         It was then that Twilight finally started paying attention to Naudia.         Who was on the ground bowing in the direction where the sun was eclipsed, muttering to herself.         “Uhh...” Twilight wasn't quite sure what to say.         “Quiet!” Naudia snapped, without so much as stopping whatever the heck she was doing.         Twilight watched, as Naudia seemed to be performing some sort of ritual on the ground, something that involved painting something that looked like almost like warpaint with mud. Twilight couldn't put her hoof on it, but she thought it looked vaguely familiar from somewhere.         “Naudia, what the hay are you doing?”         “I have to make the sun come back, Twilight.”         That triggered a memory in Twilight's head, a dusty memory, one that very few still living on Equestria could stay awake long enough to remember.         “Naudia. I think the Unicornian sun ritual fell out of practice well over a thousand years ago.”         Naudia stopped for a moment and turned her head to Twilight, mud still smeared on her face.         “Unicornian?”         “Yeah. That fell out of practice the second Celestia and Luna started taking care of the sun and moon.”         “I don't know where you got the idea that was from Unicorns, Twilight, my mother taught me that.” She paused for a second as something finally registered in her head. “Wait. Celestia actually controls the sun, as in, that’s not just ceremonial?”         “Yeah, she's controlled the sun for well over a thousand years now. Where did your mother pick it up? Nopony has used that for a long, LONG time.”         “She said she learned it from my grandfather.”         “But you said-”         “I know. But that's what Mom told me. I guess I just never thought to question it.”         “Back on to the main subject here, how could you not know that Celestia and Luna controlled the sun?”         “Well, you ponies always said she did, but I always assumed it was sort of a religious thing and she didn't actually control it.”         “Do all changelings believe that?”         Naudia looked caught off guard for a moment.         “Honestly, I don't know. Celestia doesn't generally come into our lives unless we're bad children who need to eat our hope. I never actually expected to meet her in person.”         “Hope? Seriously, your analogue for vegetables is hope?”         “Well, yeah, it’s not generally a very strong emotion, so its not all that tasty. It’s more of an... expectation, and not all that great to eat until you pay it off.”         Twilight wasn't sure what to say, she was still getting used to the idea that emotions could still be eaten at all.         “Anyway, we're getting off track now. We need to start planning what to do now that the sun has gone out.”         “Oh, yes, how do you plan on helping Celestia?”         “I think we should try and gather any of the changelings you can find, with any ponies who are amicable, and move underground.” Twilight said, doing her best to ignore what Naudia said.         “What?”         “I said we should try and find your hive so we can start over underground.”         “But Celestia-”         “Clearly isn't in charge anymore, so we need to get your people back so we can start over.”         “No, I mean, are we seriously not going to help her?”         Twilight sniffed and tried to look indifferent.         “She has made it abundantly clear what she thinks of me.”         Naudia opened and closed her jaw a couple times in shock. She could feel the invisible ties of the relationship between Celestia and Twilight and they had always been strong. Even before she had learned who the other end of the link was, she could feel the string both strong and taut. Naudia would have called it an anchor chain if it had any kind of physical component.         Now, it was frayed, and not only frayed: several other lines had snapped entirely, leaving Twilight flapping free. Looking at the confusing soup of emotions that swirled around Twilight, Naudia finally had a much better idea of her mental state than before.         "Twilight... I know you're hurting now."         Twilight was about to speak up when Naudia shushed her with a hoof.         "Let me speak for a moment. I know you're hurting and I'm certain I can empathize with you more than anypony else in Equestria. But what happened between you and your friends was a misunderstanding. It was taken too far, Twilight, don't get me wrong. It's not worth abandoning all of Equestria over, all right?"         "But they threw me in a cell! They never listened to a single word I said! How could we possibly clear up anything when they're acting like that?”         “We have to at least try.”         “I don't wanna go back in the cell, Naudia. If I go back there, they will put me in a cell again, I just know it.”         "What did I tell you earlier, Twilight?" Naudia pulled something out of her saddlebags. “I promise you now that I will do whatever is in my power to keep you free.”         The thing Naudia pulled out of her saddlebags looked like somebody had made a broken key out of kiln-hardened changeling goop. It rested on a necklace made out of simple twine.         "This has been enchanted with a spell that will open most standard locks in Equestria. Just touch it upon the keyhole and it will unlock it. I made it for myself, but I think you need it a great deal more than I do.”         “Thank you.” was all Twilight could think to say as she clutched at the key.         Naudia looked like she was about to get back on the ground and start the ritual again before she turned to Twilight and asked:         “I don't really have to do the ritual, right? That's what you were trying to get at, wasn't it?”         “Yes, the arrays are no longer in place to accept the prayer. One pony doing it alone wouldn't change anything, anyway.” Twilight snickered. “Also… you've still got mud on your face.”         Naudia scraped the mud off her face with magic.         “All right then, lets get moving.”         It was only several minutes later that Twilight thought to ask where they were going.         “To get my changelings back Twilight. That's the best idea I have for keeping you safe during whatever negotiations we’ll have to undergo.”         “But how are we going to find them?”         “That's simple! Once we get close enough to Canterlot, I'm gonna send out a query ping through the hivemind.”         “Could you send one out now? I kinda want to see what the magical signature looks like.”         “Well I can't send them out willy-nilly, they take a lot of love to send out!”         “Oh...” Twilight said in a sultry voice. “More than this?”         Naudia received a kiss on the cheek and subsequently more love than she would have had in a week back at the hive. It had a rather stunning effect on her, and she sat for a moment rubbing her face in shock.         “Sorry, Twilight, I'm not used to having more love than what's required to keep me going. It’s just never really been an option before so I keep thinking like I'm still in the badlands.”         “Oh, was that all right, then?” Twilight asked her confident facade failing in an instant.         “That was more than alright. That was fantastic! But you'll have to excuse me if I'm not used to dealing with all that at once.”         “Good.” Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.         “Now get whatever spells you need to study the ping ready, so I can do a lower-power control ping without any changelings in the radius.”         Several seconds later, Naudia looked confusedly in the direction of Whitetail Woods. ----------------         Cadance was, to put it mildly, having trust issues. She didn't trust changelings any farther than she could throw them. Considering how jumpy she was, it was a minor miracle that her ability to throw changelings had not been tested. Yet.         The changelings in the group, at least the ones that were distinctly more unfriendly to her than to Shining, seemed to be testing their limits around her. In particular, Mattar seemed to be taking no small amount of joy in sneaking up behind her.         It was somewhere around the fifth time when Cadance finally got over being shocked and started to get angry.         Mattar made a mistake on the sixth time, stepping on a dead leaf and accidentally giving Cadance forewarning.         At which he was picked up by his neck and slammed into a tree by Cadance's magic, her eyes glimmering with fury.         “All right.” Cadance said, attempting to calm herself down, and failing, in the presence of all these suddenly alert changelings. “What's the deal here?”         Mattar hissed at her.         “Umm, dear?” Shining put forth hesitantly glancing around the clearing as if to point out they were surrounded by changelings.         “You're not gonna stop me on this, Shining. These changelings have been targeting me specifically, and I'm going to find out why.”         The armored changeling stared at her like she'd grown a second head. As did every changeling under the camouflaging bubble that kept them out of sight from the outside world.         “You don't know?” Mattar said incredulously. “You really don't know?”         At this point Mattar had been let go of. He merely slumped down the tree, giving a hollow laugh.         “She says she doesn't know why we hate her.” Mattar seemed to be slightly drunk on despair, as he gestured at the changelings who could fit into the clearing and shouted. “Who here has lost a loved one to the princess of 'Love?'”         Those that had enough hooves to raise did so. Those that couldn't attempted to raise stumps.         “Are you kidding? I haven't killed any changelings.” Cadance felt a chill go up her spine at the sudden drop of temperature in the clearing.         Even Mattar seemed to sober up a bit at that.         “You... You absolute--” Mattar's voice was so much filled with rage that it was unclear if the next thing he said contained words or not.         Nevertheless it had it an effect on Cadance, who shied back from Mattar, who seemed to have snapped.         “Let me tell you a story, Cadance! A story about intolerance, disharmony, and hate.” Mattar's manic tone of voice was entirely unclear, whether it was sarcastic, or so angry he no longer cared who he was speaking to.         “In the beginning, there were three pony tribes, and they hated each other. They hated each other so much that their hatred could fuel dangerous magical apparitions from an unknown source.”         “And in the final moments before they were wiped out, they learned of the power of 'friendship.'” Mattar sarcastically threw up air quotes around the word. “They continued to preach this 'friendship' hypocritically for hundreds of years until one of the hives stepped forth, foolishly also believing in 'friendship.'”         “Sadly, changelings were only the second-largest species that ponies had driven out. And we escaped to the Badlands, where nopony would follow.” Mattar sent a glare at Cadance. “Unlike some of the others.”         “AND THEN!” Mattar roared, shaking with barely contained fury. “AND THEN! THEY BRING FORTH A PRINCESS OF LOVE!!”         “While we were starving, off in the Badlands, fighting against starvation, and extinction, you ponies, in your arrogance and opulence, trot out a pony filled with 'love,' inside their gilded city… where emotions are thrown about like so much trash.”         “That was the final straw for our previous queen, Chrysalis.” At the mention of her name, Mattar paused his tirade, bowed his head, and muttered 'may you rest in peace.' “And she united the remains of the hives to attack Canterlot.”         “And then you cast that damn shield spell.” Mattar finally broke down completely, and started crying.         Cadance tried to think of something to say to that. There didn't seem to be anything to say to the changeling, crying, slumped over on a tree, so she sat down next to him, unsure of what to do next.         Eventually the tears came to a stop.         “I had to bury my mother last month.” It was unclear if Mattar was speaking to Cadance or not. “We had hoped she had survived the blast, that is, until we found her horn.”         “Are you sure she isn't still out there?”         “It’s been months... we haven't even heard a peep out of her in the hivemind. No, Cadance, Chrysalis is dead. She either died in the blast or shortly afterwards...” Mattar stared off into the distance. “I hope it was in the blast, that would have been quicker at least.”         As if by chance, two things happened at the same time: A ray of blood-red light from the blood moon snaked its way through the heavy forest canopy to fall across Cadance, and Naudia's ping to the hivemind went out. ----------------         “And that's why Changelings need the holes.” Naudia explained to Twilight, as they made their way through Whitetail Woods.         “I never would have thought they used them to channel pony magic!”         Mattar seemed to fade out of the shadows and walked up to Naudia and saluted. Instantly and instinctively, Naudia snapped to attention.         “Mattar, report!”         “Only five casualties since previously stated, all due to pre-existing wounds. All remaining changelings escaped Canterlot, before whatever went down there happened.”                 “And?” Naudia prompted.         “And... well, that's really all I can think of at the moment.” Mattar had started sweating.         “The details of your miraculous casualty-less escape?”         “Well...” Mattar tried to think of a way to skate around the issue. “We were just kinda… let go.”         “Would this have anything to do with the two pony presences I feel nearby?”         “Maybe.” Mattar was putting forth every indication that he didn't want to talk down this path, short of holding up a sign in protest.         “You can come out now!” Naudia shouted. “I know you're there!”         Cadance and Shining entered the clearing, looking slightly confused and uncomfortable. Not at all by Naudia's presence, but by the presence of changelings following them around, looking to them for comfort and, to a lesser extent, a quick snack.         The expression of shock on Naudia's face would have been worth photographing and applying text to, if she didn't immediately turn to Mattar and say:         “This is a joke, right?”         The clearing was silent. Mattar was doing his best to not project any kind of emotion at all. Cadance and Shining were inching away from the procession of changelings following behind them. Twilight for her part was racing her mind, trying to come up with the best way to smuggle an enchanted key into a prison cell.         And then Naudia noticed that line between Twilight and Cadance.         “Wait,” Naudia turned to Twilight. “You KNOW the Princess of Love!?”