//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Looking for Reflections 
// Story: The Fungus Among Us 
// by Xain Russell 
//------------------------------//


Celestia stood before the door to her sister's chambers, gathering her thoughts and thinking of what she would have to say, or rather what she could say. This conversation had been a long time coming, and Celestia berated herself for, once again, not taking better care to mind the emotions of her younger sibling. Again and again the two of them seemed to be trapped in this loop of stepping over each other's hooves when it came to communicating their thoughts. Too often they found themselves trying to excuse their inaction by saying that Equestria came first, and that there would be time to talk about each other later. But that time needed to be now, they needed to sort out their internal troubles if they were going to effect their decision making to such a degree. With a deep intake of breath, Celestia pushed on the highly decorated wood and pushed, only to find it locked. Sighing, Celestia knocked gently and called through the closed threshold.

"Luna. I'm coming in. We need to talk." She waited for a moment to see if there'd be a reply but none came. Taking another deep breath of air, Celestia began to work her magic into the door's keyhole, only to retreat when she made contact with her sister's magic already at work on the lock. The bolt slid back with a click, allowing Celestia to push the door open and then silently close it behind her.

"Sister?" Celestia called out softly as she stepped into the room proper. Her eye went immediately to the bed where Luna lay, her forelegs clutching at a pillow as she pressed her face into it. Celestia walked to the bedside and, after a moment's hesitation, clambered onto the mattress and joined her sister. She waited for a reaction from Luna, but none came. "How are you feeling?" She asked.

"Lousy," Luna said through the fluff of her pillow before she pulled her face away. "I feel like somepony has been tinkering around in my head, only they don't seem to know how my mind works so they keep screwing things up."

"I know the feeling," Celestia said, lifting up a wing and draping it over her sister, embracing her.  "It's just one of those times when it seems the best idea is to simply stop, go back to bed, and come back when your head is screwed on straight."

"Hmph, I doubt it's ever that simple a fix." Luna leaned herself against her sister, reciprocating the physical display of comfort. "She's right you know."

"Who?" Celestia asked.

"Cadence. If I'd bothered to be at her wedding, you and I could have defeated the queen easily. But I wasn't. I let you all down."

Celestia remained quite for some time before responding. "That is irrelevant now Luna." Luna's head snapped up to look at Celestia with shock and confusion. "Was I disappointed of your disinterest in Cadence? Yes. Were we disappointed you weren't at her wedding? Yes. Would your presence have turned the tide and brought down the Changeling Queen? Maybe. But that's all in the past. It doesn't matter anymore."

"How can you say that?" Luna balked. 

"Because I am your sister," Celestia said simply. "I love you. I loved you when you were young and just learning how to move the moon. I loved you when your jealousy consumed you and you became Nightmare Moon. I loved you all those years you were gone. And I love you even now. Whatever mistakes you have made and will make, that fact will not change."

Luna lowered her head back to her pillow, silently deliberating her sister's words.  

"I understand why you were upset when you met Cadence," Celestia continued. "And I have my assumptions about what your vendetta is against the changelings. However I'd much rather hear it from you. Tell me sister, why to you pursue their end so vehemently?"

Luna remained quiet for a moment before she pulled herself out of Celestia's embrace and rose from the bed. She walked slowly and deliberately to the window sill, where the sun was drifting from its zenith in the sky. 

"I have failed you and all of Equestria on several occasions now." Luna said with an eerie calmness. "You may say that you love me despite my 'mistakes', but I can't love myself until I've atoned for what I've done. I won't feel satisfied with my life until I feel I've righted my wrongs. I dishonored my title of Princess by not being at Cadance's wedding, and it nearly led to the fall of Canterlot. Since that day, I've been doing my best to make amends. I instituted a changeling watch, I captured dozens of them to try and learn their weaknesses, and when the Crystal Empire returned I volunteered to go to Cadance's side out of fear that Sombra might have also risen from the ice after a thousand years." Luna turned to face Celestia, her eyes filled with regret. "But the damage has been done and the bridge has burned it seems."

Celestia contemplated her sister, before sighing and rising up from the bed as well. "That doesn't mean it can't be rebuilt." She said softly. "And the first step in doing so would be to meet her halfway. You are too concerned with trying to earn forgiveness, when all you have to do is ask."

Luna shook her head and grimaced. "After today, I'm not sure that's even possible."

"It is." Celestia said. "If I am willing to give the changelings a chance, then I know Cadance is willing to do the same with you."

Luna, despite herself, allowed a small smile to cross her lips, before they fell into a stern frown. "I don't much care for the comparison, but you've made your point."

"Good." Celestia said with a nod. "Does this mean you will cease your attempts eradicate the changelings?"

"No." Luna said without hesitation, causing Celestia's ears and wings to droop slightly. "It may not be what you or Cadance wants, but the Changelings present a threat to our subjects."

"Luna..." Celestia pleaded.

"No, sister, they are as locusts attacking a field of our precious crops, or a weed or vine strangling the life out of the trees and flowers," Luna paused for a moment before tilting her head down and looking right up into her sister's eyes. "Or even the very fungus that clings to them. There is no good in allowing them to roam our country."

"That isn't for you-" Celestia started before stopping mid sentence. She sighed, and gazed back into Luna's eyes. "If I can find something in them that is good, that proves that they can be reasoned with, that they don't have to be a threat to Equestria, would you give them a chance?"

Luna opened her mouth to respond, but then simply sighed. "You are... welcome to try sister."

"Trying is all we can ever do, and I would appreciate it if you could do the same." With that, Celestia turned to leave, calling back as she did so. "Please be at dinner tonight sister, you and Cadence can make amends at that time."

Luna grunted in the affirmative, her mind descending back into deep thought.

~~~~~

Twilight had managed to catch up to Cadence just as she was arriving at her guest chambers for the evening. "Cadence!" Twilight called, getting her former foal sister's attention. "Are you alright? Can we talk?"

"I, um... yeah, sure. Come in." Cadence held the door open as Twilight stepped in first, then followed in behind her. "I suppose an explanation would be in order?"

"It isn't... necessary," Twilight said slowly as she headed for the set of chairs arranged next to a table, set with a tea pot and cups. "What you said to Luna, and what she said to you, I won't pretend it didn't frighten me a bit, but I don't know what I could really say or do to fix it. That seems like something the two of you need to work out face to face." Twilight waited for Cadence to join her before taking a seat. "But if you want to talk, I'm all ears."

Cadence nodded after a moment, then took her seat opposite Twilight. She took her time to check the teapot and, finding it's contents of earl grey to be satisfactory, poured some for both herself and Twilight. The two lifted the cups and spent a few silent minutes drinking, Cadence's brow was creased in thought, and Twilight simply watched her patiently to see if her fellow princess would take her up on her offer.

"Do you remember," Cadence said after she laid her empty tea cup down. "When I told you the story of how I became an Alicorn?"

Twilight nodded. It wasn't long after she herself had ascended, she was worried about her duties as a princess in Equestria, what she might be expected to do for her country, and she needed someone to confide these worries in. Cadence was the one she turned to, and in response, Cadence had recounted her life prior to the two of them meeting. She'd been raised by earth ponies after being found alone in the woods as a foal. She'd been a mere pegasus at the time, but after an encounter with a jealous enchantress bent on stealing away the compassion of every pony in her town, Cadence had met with Celestia and became the Princess of Love. Twilight had found comfort in the story, and in the idea that Cadence could relate to what she was going through.

"Well, I hadn't told you what came after... long after in fact. The day you left for Ponyville, and the day Luna returned to Equestria." Cadence paused for a moment, before continuing. "For all my time as a Princess of Equestria, I never heard a word against me or my accession. But when Luna walked through the castle gates for the first time, and I was there to greet her with a smile, all she could do was freeze at the sight of me. She turned to Celestia and asked 'what is this?' She made no attempt to hide all the anger and disgust and betrayal she was feeling in that moment. And I had to just stand there and take it, even though my smile was faltering. I was so confused and hurt, I thought I'd done something wrong, that I'd somehow offended her. Celestia tried to reassure me that wasn't the case when Luna left to see to her own quarters. She tried to tell me that Luna just needed time to accept that I wasn't there to be her replacement, but to be her friend and equal. But months went by, and despite all my best efforts to make friends with her, she only elected to ignore me. It got a little better after Nightmare Night, when she visited you and your friends in Ponyville, but still, she wanted almost nothing to do with me. Celestia and I kept working to try and get her to at least speak with me on friendly terms, we even asked her to be my maid of honor at my wedding. But she refused to even entertain the idea of even being at the ceremony. And then the big week came and..."

Cadence faltered in her story, closing her eyes and breathing out heavily. Twilight reached over to place a comforting hoof over her stepsister's foreleg. Cadence looked up to her and nodded.

"When I next saw Luna, she was completely distraught, and trying to hide it. Celestia had waited to tell her what had happened until after the reception, and she came to me and Shining as we were loading our carriage to leave on our honeymoon. She said nothing about the wedding, or what had happened before it, but her eyes were twitching and her hair was fraying, as if she'd just gotten done trying to pull it out. She asked us if she could get us anything for the trip, wanted to know when we'd be back, then invited me to tea when we returned." Cadence hesitated, then shook her head shamefully. "I declined. I blamed her for everything that happened, just as much as I blamed the one's who had actually attacked us. And when I came back to Canterlot, it was as if our roles had reversed. I no longer wanted anything to do with her, and she was doing everything she could to make friends with me." She looked to her teacup and sighed before pouring more for herself. "I'm a fool, and a hypocrite. I let my anger control my actions, I couldn't see how much remorse and guilt she was dealing with, I ignored her just as she ignored me. And she felt obligated to make it up to me, to do whatever it took to make me happy. But I left for the Crystal Empire before she could, I left her to stew in her own guilt."

Cadence and Twilight sat in silence for a long time, Cadence sipped at her tea as she stared blankly at the ceiling, and Twilight ran over all the information and experience she had swimming around in her head, trying to find the right thing to say. The most logical course of action was to get Luna and Cadence to just talk to each other, to listen and maybe even forgive. But would they even want to forgive each other? Was it really so easy to, as Celestia said, fix a destroyed bridge? Then Twilight remembered something. Something from that same day that Cadence had mentioned, the day she left for Ponyville, the day Luna returned to Equestria.

"Do you think," Twilight said softly. "You two could make amends? To just sweep away what happened and start over?"

"I don't know Twilight... I hope we can, but, what can we say to make all of that go away?"

"How about, 'I'm sorry?'"

Cadence actually looked surprised for a moment, she looked back at Twilight, who was smiling at her gently. 

"It worked for Celestia and Luna, don't see why it can't work now."

Cadence gaped for a moment, then let her head fall backward into the chair. She draped a hoof over her face and sighed, before she started to giggle to herself, which turned into full blown laughter after a few moments. 

"'I'm sorry,'" Cadence said through her amusement. "Truly the two hardest words in the Equine language to say. And yet so much hardship could be avoided if we just say them."

Twilight started to chuckle as well, then poured herself some more tea and lifted the cup up in a toast. "Well, here's to forgiveness!"

"Here's to a couple of mares taking things way too seriously!"

The two brought their teacups to their lips and drank from them like they were big mugs of cider. They had another laugh before Twilight put her cup down and stood from her chair.

"I've got some research I wanted to do before Dinner time, but I expect to see both you and Luna there, hugging it out like the best of friends when I get there."

"Yes Miss Sparkle!" Cadence chimed like she was a school filly responding to her teacher after being reprimanded.

One more bout of giggles, then Twilight was out the door, heading in the direction of the Canterlot Royal Library.

"Now then," she said under her breath. "Time to go see what the Archives can tell me about this fungus. Probably should send a letter to Zecora too while I'm at it."

~~~~~

Room 333 of the Plaza Hotel was a bustle with activity, all four of its residents were looking through bags of seemingly random nicknacks and groceries. Most of the contents had been tossed aside, only bought to add to the ruse of the four being tourists in the big city, what was left was being taken apart and sorted on a dining table in their suite's kitchen. No one said anything, save for the occasional request for a specific tool or mutter of apology when they bumped into each other. 

There was a sudden knock at the door, a very specific knock: two, pause, three, pause, four, then the password.

"Little pig, little pig, hurry up and let me in!"

Monarch stood and approached the door, ready with one of his flash crystals. One of his companions went to the window sill and prepared to open the latch in case they had to escape. Monarch then called out the response phrase.

"That's not how that goes, Silence. Want to try again?"

"Oh just open up already, you bleeding heart!"

Monarch quickly opened the door and put on what would pass as a genuine welcoming smile. "Nice of you to drop by."

Silence smiled as well and started to walk in. "Eh, not due for work until later. I actually got my shift at the hospital back! Thought I'd drop by and see what you clowns were up to. Even brought a welcome gift!" He pulled out a long tube and waggled it about. "Wanna see what a real Canterlot mare looks like?"

"Do I ever!" Monarch responded before finally closing the door behind them and dropping the charade. His smile disappeared instantly as he lead a very irate looking Silence into the kitchen. "I take it that's the dungeon blue prints?"

"Mhmm..." Silence grunted. It was only while in his disguise that Silence ever said more than a few words. Now that he was in a secure location with his fellow changelings, the perverted, jockish, guard pony vanished. He laid the tube on the counter and pulled out the contents, a map of the entire castle dungeon. The dungeon was shaped in a large rectangle with a cross through its center. The only entrance was in the bottom corner, and every hall had dozens of tiny squares that designated the cells. Several marks and notes had already been made, some showing the location of the infected Changeling and its guard, they were just around the corner from the entrance. There were a few marks down a separate hall for the other changelings and their guards, and then there were a few random marks here and there showing the dungeon's other residents.

Monarch scanned the map while Silence looked over his shoulder and the others continued their work. He pursed his lips and tapped on the mark for the healthy changelings. 

"Who are these?" he asked Silence.

"One Drone, One Sentient," Silence said flatly. "Prince Swallowtail is in the far right one."

"Swallowtail is here?" Monarch said with amusement and surprise. "Oh that just made everything a heck of alot easier!"

"How do you mean sir?" One of the others working at the table said without turning away from what he was doing.

"Swallowtail knows shield spells, I was afraid we might have to burn the entire ward down just to make sure we got the job done. With him, all we need to do is stun or else incapacitate the guards, have him put a barrier around our target's cell to keep ourselves safe, then we burn the inside of the cell down to the mortar. Minimum casualties, might actually be able to make an escape, if we manage to avoid raising an alarm before the job is done."

"You didn't think we'd make it out?" Said another of their companions.

"Honestly," Monarch said sadly. "I almost expected us to have to burn ourselves after this was all done."

The work at the table paused briefly, before the third changeling spoke up with a question that confirmed that Monarch's words hadn't swayed them from their mission.

"When do we act?"

"At sundown," Monarch said. "When the princesses are away for Dinner and for the changing of the Sun and Moon. We can pose as guards bringing food for the prisoners."

~~~~~

"My Queen?" The guard said as he stepped out of the cave and joined Chrysalis on the cliff overlooking the Equestrian countryside. "You've been out here for a few hours now. Is there anything I could get for you?"

"No," Chrysalis said sternly. "Return to your post."

The drone bowed low and retreated back to his place by the fire. Chrysalis snorted in boredom and frustration. Her thoughts had been circling around and around from the moment she stepped outside, but they were starting to calm down now, at least until the guard came out and snapped her out of her zen like meditative state. She looked up at the sky and grimaced, it looked like they were due a light drizzle soon, and she wasn't in the mood to let herself get wet. Standing, she took a few more minutes to cast her gaze over the landscape, breathing air that was starting to get heavily tinged with the scent of grass and trees as the humidity rose. She twitched her ears around, picking up the sound of the wind rising, rustling the leaves of a few scattered saplings clinging to the side of the mountain. However, one sound and one scent seemed out of place on that cliff side. 

The scent was musky, almost like that of a pony that had been left in the dungeons for too long without bathing. The sound was like the uncomfortable grunts and moans made by the drones when they're lungs filled with fluids during especially cold seasons. Slowly, Chrysalis turned her head and looked down the mountain path, searching for the source of disturbance to the mountain atmosphere. At first, Chrysalis didn't know what she was looking at, it looked like a shambling bush with the most peculiar blooms on it. It also looked half dead, it was all brown and grey, much of it looked shriveled and wilted, and occasionally it would sway and a piece of itself would drop. As the thing got closer, Chrysalis's eyes slowly got wider and wider as she recognized that what she was looking at was not some mobile bush. Then her mouth fell open and she screamed when she realized the moans she was hearing were the creatures attempt at saying "Mother." And finally her mind snapped when she came to the conclusion that the abomination headed right for her was one of her children, their entire front half covered in fungal growth.

"GHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Her blood curdling screech echoed across the mountain ridge, birds scattered every which way, and even the wind itself seemed to blow away from her. The infected changeling paused, sniffed at the air, then let out one long high pitched snarl that was almost lost in Chrysalis' screaming. 

"MMMMOOOOOOTHHHHEEERRRRR!!!"

The changeling began shambling forward with greater speed, its forelegs falling apart from the strain, and then when it was halfway to her, they snapped at the knee. But it ignored this sudden impairment of its mobility and continued its charge, until it was within about a dozen meters of her.

"My Queen!" Came a shout from the cave as the guard rushed out and tackled the infected to the ground. 

Chrysalis broke out of her maddened state long enough to realize what was happening, and cry out, "NOOO!! Keep away from it!!"

But too late this warning came as her protector had several fungal blooms shoved into his exposed face. The creature's gaping mouth, deformed by the many roots spreading and tearing at its face, bit down on the guard's upper foreleg, causing him to cry out in pain as he continued to hold down the monster. 

"Run my Queen!" He cried. "Leave me and get inside!"

Chrysalis nearly did exactly that before a jet of fire burst from the cave entrance, striking both the guard and the infected. The guard squealed as he leapt from the fungus and tore its leg out of the changeling's mouth. The jet of fire continued and began covering the infected changeling and most of the outcropping they stood on. The changeling was able to get out one last scream for its mother before its carapace started to pop and incinerate under the immense heat. Soon the fungus was burned away and the silhouette of a changeling skeleton remained for a few more moments before it turned to ash. The jet of fire continued for almost a full minute before its wielder finally shut it off. 

Out from the cave stepped Mimic and three more heavily armed guards. Mimic looked like all the anger in the world was flowing through him all at once, flames still flickered around his horn as he looked around the cliff. When he saw that bits of fungus were still left here and there, he gestured to his guards and pointed to the mountain path.

"You three. Scorch the earth to the very bottom. Keep a ten meter buffer between yourself and any... remains."

The guards nodded and then set to work. Mimic then looked to his Queen and stepped towards her. "Are you alright, my Queen?"

"No I am not alright you fool!" Chrysalis cried out, attempting to keep her composure and failing as her voice started to crack. "That was one of my nurses! She followed me all the way from the main hive! She... she followed... oh ancestors why..." She clamped her eyes tight and attempted to stop the flow of tears gathering around her eyes. A moan of pain caused her to open them again and look across the outcropping, towards the changeling that had saved her life.

The poor thing looked to be in a miserable state. A large swath of his right side was cracked and molted from the fire, smoke still rising from him even as he tried to lift himself up. The left side was faring no better as the bite wound bled profusely, dripping down his leg and pooling at his hooves. Mimic spat in anger and disgust, then placed himself between the downed guard and his Queen.

"Drone Oak," he said sadly but firmly. "You have done the swarm a great service and made your ancestors proud, but I ask that you remain still where you are until I can get a medical team-"

"No," Chrysalis said, turning her eyes away. "Put him out of his misery."

"What?" Mimic gasped, turning his head to look at her. "But My Queen, he's still alive!"

"And infected with that accursed plant!" She snarled at Mimic. "He's beyond help now! Better to end his life with honor then allow him to turn his brothers and sisters into those things!"

"If my life... huuhhh... is a danger... to my siblings..." The drone named Oak moaned. "Then I'll gladly... huhhuu... go into the eternal sleep."

"The Queens of old will reward you greatly," Chrysalis said, then glared at Mimic. "He is one of your charges. End him quickly."

"Wait!" Mimic said, looking between Oak and Chrysalis. "Drone Oak, you can still do more for your Queen and Swarm! We need a cure, or a way of eradicating the fungus! If we study you as you turn, it may lead us to an answer!"

"Silence!" Chrysalis shouted. "I will not have that fungus in this or any other hive! What's more, you are suggesting we allow this changeling to suffer endless pain in the hopes that it might lead to a solution. I am not so cruel as to allow that to happen, especially not to one who has sacrificed himself as he has!

"But he could save us all! I... I can quarantine him! I know the spell! I've studied the procedures ponies use and I can alter them to fit our resources!"

"I won't hear anymore of this! End him now or I will end both of you!"

Mimic threw himself to his Queen's hooves and began to grovel and plead his case. "A well constructed cocoon pod will ensure his and the infection’s isolation, and I can fill it with chemicals and herbs that will numb his pain as he dies! Please My Queen! Punish me as you wish, but do not throw away this chance to save your children!"

"MY CHILDREN ARE ALREADY DEAD!" The Queen shouted before kicking Mimic out of the way and charging up her horn.

"My Queen..." Oak said slowly, lifting up his head as much as he dared. "Is what he said true... huuhhh... if I continue on... can he save you? Can I save my family by suffering more?"

Chrysalis froze, her horn dying down slightly before she answered. "It... is possible. But my decision is final. Go in peace young drone."

"No!" The drone cried as he wrestled against gravity to lift his body to his hooves. "I stand... hurrk... ready to serve... my Hive... my brothers and sisters... the royal brood... and you... My Queen." Chrysalis watched as the drone, with the last of his strength, bowed before her. Her breath caught in her throat as he croaked out one last promise. "For... the... Queen. For... the... Swarm."

And with that, Oak the guard drone succumbed to his injuries and fell to the ground, unconscious.  

Chrysalis stood still as she dared for a brief moment, before shutting off the flow of magic to her horn and turning back into the cave. She turned to give Mimic one more seething glare.

"Do as you wish, you pathetic little mockery of my race," she spat at him. "But if we lose this hive because of your stupidity, then I will do everything in my power to strip your memory from the Hivemind. Forgotten forever, by both ponies and changelings."

"I swear, My Queen," Mimic said somberly. "I will not fail you."