It took a lot of comfort to draw Penny back to herself. Stick held her marefriend close and murmured soft words in her ears. "You took a lot out of her." The changeling addressed a now worried-looking Shadow.
"I… she kept doing it…" The umbrum was hovering close to the pair when Dreams returned from something.
"He… he put it back. King Sombra restored the crystal heart… it doesn't burn us…" Dreams sounded almost lost. "How… but it is meant to banish bad things…"
Penny finally found herself back in her right mind and smiled up, lifting a hoof to poke Dreams right in the chest. "You aren't bad. It was all a misunderstanding." Her nose followed her hoof and she kissed the confused umbrum on her nose. "Lets find out what the full word is, I am hungry and I think I can smell food from that way." She pointed toward the castle.
This got the tightest hug yet from Stick and a hint of her fangs inside the lunar mare. "Hunger is good. I am hungry too, for you and for information."
Rising to shaky hooves, Penny found another presence at her other side as Twilight came up beside her. "Come on girls, lets get to the bottom of this!" None of the ponies present had a reason to argue with the alicorn and so the group made their way to the castle.
The umbrum all around the castle seemed to smile when they saw Penny, some dashing over to give a little hug to her or Stick.
"Not that I don't appreciate it, but what is all this for?" Penny started returning the hugs to them, getting happier by the moment. It was tough for a brony, or pony, to get this much affection and not feel better.
"You worked out what we need to eat, now Princess Luna is going to help us!"
Stick giggled and hugged two of the little umbrum who came to her next.
It was slow going, there was a sense of relief and excitement in the air that brightened the moods of everypony who felt it. Eventually they got to the main hall to find it mostly empty, except for Cadance and Shining, at the head of the table.
Twilight burst free of the group of ponies and rushed forward to get a hug with Cadance, the two alicorns not needing words but, as they broke apart Penny knew just what was coming. "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"
Penny was led to a seat at the table by Stick. The changeling made sure the mare was seated. "Now, lets get started. Something sweet first." Some delicious-looking crystal berries were dancing in front of them, queuing up to leap into Penny's mouth as soon as she opened it. Chewing, she kissed Stick on the nose.
"I don't mean to be a bother, Cadance, but can you fix this?" Twilight lifted her hoof to her horn, the crystals there buzzing and making it impossible to channel any magic at all.
Cadance inspected the horn and nodded. "Oh, these things? Here, I can get rid of this." There was a wash of pink magic, Penny watching while she chewed. The crystals seemed to tremble a little before simply falling off Twilight's horn.
Flaring her wings wide, Twilight was hugging Cadance again. "Thanks Cadance!"
There was a clearing of a throat and Shining raised an eyebrow to the two mares that were suddenly looking at him. "No hugs for your brother, Twili??"
Cadance lost her hug but not her smile as the siblings hugged.
"They look so happy." Stick sighed, sounding like Penny imagined someone reading a sappy love-story would sound.
"Of course they do, they are." Penny was free from the berries for a moment until an apple pie presented itself, a slice coming off it and onto a plate before the mare. She could see the green magic neatly cut the pie and it never ceased to surprise her how clever Stick could be when it came to little things. "Oh, not the whole slice I-" Penny had been about to say she was feeling quite full, but her belly growled. "Betrayed…"
Stick could taste her marefriend, taste the happiness and love. She knew the mare was relaxed once more after the ordeal they had been through.
A pony settled down beside them. "What happened?" Perfect Poise was looking around, even as she scooped up a newly cut slice of the pie onto a plate.
Where to begin?
The changelings came regularly, mostly for the rabbit things. The poor little creatures didn't seem all that smart, the rabbits, not the changelings.
Clear kept close to her and Sally appreciated it. Her knee was starting to get sore and she huddled into the gentle wing of the stallion.
"You, you next." The changeling gestured to the human with a hoof.
She got up to a wobbly leg, hobbling forwards. "Alright, alright. Hold your…" She sighed, there were going to be a lot of things she wouldn't be able to say here. "Don't use your collar thing, I'll be good."
The changeling shrugged and turned.
"When I get out, can you get me an audience with the… Queen?" Sally had phrased it casually, but it certainly got a reaction from the changeling.
"You want to talk to Queen Fangs?" They blinked their big blue, faceted eyes.
Sally nodded. "Sure. Right now good or should I wa-" The collar was back, the magic of the changeling tight and gripping her.
"We go now. You can be happy for her? It will make her like you more."
The human pondered this, she felt an odd chill and realized the changeling beside her was doing something in her head. She tried to think of her family, in a good way, but the violence of their shared lives intruded. A stray thought came, of the nice and gentle stallion in the cage.
"There, that tastes nice. Keep doing that." She felt that touch inside her seem to thicken, but gripped tight to the thoughts of the nice pegasi.
"What is this? That new thing that was found?" The voice Sally heard was full of power. "You feed on my morsel, cease this!" The sensation in her head of the changeling that had been leading her was suddenly gone, but was soon replaced.
Sally's eyes drooped a little as the Queen herself leaned in. "Oh, now here we have something nice. A new friendship? Pure and simple love." Sally dropped to a knee as the world seemed to go a shade of green. "Yes, a delight. You have earned yourself a moment of my time, state your desire."
She had seen right through Sally, the woman was on her knees in front of a much larger changeling, one that practically radiated power.
"Well, you bring us food but… it is not the best. Our bodies get little work while you… drink." The human's thoughts were in disarray, the changeling's handling of her had shown a casual lack of caring for her will, it hurt to know that not only were you a prisoner, but were considered little more than cattle.
"We take what we want from you, you are ours to do with, after all." The Queen's eyes dared her to challenge it, to challenge her.
It took a lot of Sally's will to not rise to that, to not try and drive a fist up into that carapace and beat the bug pony senseless. "Why not have us farm, raise our own food."
A change passed over the Queen's features. She went from what Sally had to assume was 'bored play' to 'interest'. "Keep talking, food."
Sally gulped. "I mean, you take food from somewhere already, the grain?" There was a nod of the royal pony's head. "So, why not capture that place, set up some pods there, have the ponies raise food for themselves and your other… guests…"
Fangs, real fangs, were suddenly in Sally's face. "You think you could do this, and make it easier to get free?"
Terror passed through the woman, terror like none other she had felt, short of her first time on a battlefield. She shrank back then, and did so now.
"I will think on it. But I think you and I need more meetings. You don't think like a pony, or a changeling. If I break you, it might harm that thinking." The creature drew back from her and smiled, those fangs, the hole-filled horn, it was an image she would not forget. "I think I will wear you down instead, rebuild you into a good little snack."
Sally tried to marshal the strength she used in her profession, but a part of her refused, told her it was impossible to fight this foe. The presence of the Queen, in her head again, turned the world around her green.
Sally passed out.
Articulate appeared a little later, looking as calm and collected as ever, despite the odd scenes playing out around the castle.
Penny, having just finished catching Perfect up on the goings on, threw her hooves up and grabbed another slice of pie. "Your turn, Stick!" She carefully lifted up a large mouthful of the pastry, filled with crystal apples, and plunged it in her mouth.
Stick giggled, Perfect had to cover her snout with a hoof. Art just shrugged. "I imagine there is going to be paperwork, but apart from that is this going to cause any problems?"
"I hope not." Cadance was right behind the little group, making everypony jump a little. "Articulate, Perfect." The alicorn grinned wide, already knowing her little game, there, had paid off. "Penny, we have a matter to deliberate on."
Penny seemed to shrink a little, gulping down the delicious mouthful of pie and nodding. "We do." Her voice was tiny, sounding lost.
It was enough of a change in her marefriend that Stick had the lunar pony in a tight hug.
"Approach the main table, this needs to be something everypony can see and hear, so that none will consider justice not be done.
Penny nodded and started to get up. Walking to the middle, she didn't raise her head enough to see Cadance reach the head table. Nor Luna enter the room, Dark Pass at her side.
"Ponies." Cadance raised her voice, able to be clearly heard all through the big room. There were many umbrum present now, and more than a few crystal ponies. "We find ourselves at the conclusion of what has been, for some, a very dark time." Soft murmurs of agreement were heard.
"Much was done, on both sides, that needs to be aired. Secrets should not remain so." The princess had captured Penny's attention. "Before me stands one among many. She had perhaps the greatest crime, however. Penny Farthing, in your own words, please describe the event."
Penny drew a deep breath. The words she spoke were heavy, she had harbored them far too long. As she spoke of the terror and fear, of running from the phantom Sombra had made of Stick, she began to cry. She told of her terror at the two umbrum, of them driving her back into the woods, speaking of the things they could tell she feared most.
The umbrum around nodded at this, knowing that the two were just following their imperative to feed.
"I tried to recall the one spell I knew, that would make fireworks." Penny slumped a little. "I couldn't think of it, but I remembered another spell, in a book." She gulped at this. "I tried to cast it anyway, not even knowing what it does."
Luna dipped her head a little, disappointment in the first of her new line of lunar ponies evident.
"On the third try I thought it was working, then it all went bad."
"What happened, Penny?" Princess Cadance coaxed.
"The spell miscast. I blanked out, it drew everything from me. They… I was told afterward, the two umbrum burned…"
A collective gasp went up from those present who didn't know this story.
"What did you learn from this?" Cadance's voice was neutral.
"I… learned… I learned I need to be much more careful with magic. That the umbrum might have just been hungry, that…"
"Enough." Cadance took a deep breath. "Your actions cost two umbrum their lives. This cannot be changed. You have, yourself, fed quite a few of them, at great personal cost." She had apparently heard quite well of Penny's work earlier.
The lunar unicorn nodded, a lot of other ponies in the room nodded too. All of them umbrum.
"Until the umbrum have their own food source secured, you will continue to feed them, as you can." Cadance pronounced the words, Penny lifting her head in surprise. "And further, the crown of the Crystal Empire demands you become better trained with your magic."
"Princess Cadance." The words were formal, as the mood required, but it wasn't common to hear them from Luna. "We believe our sister has a school that might be able to handle one more pony."
Penny's head whipped around to look at Luna. There was a sly grin on the alicorn's snout. She would get a well-trained lunar unicorn out of this, and keep Penny close enough to watch.
"This was not the only transgression, only the worst." Cadance continued. "My own husband was attacked, twice. The envoy from Canterlot too. But no serious harm came from this. Is this just?"
Her voice radiated, the question falling to all present.
Dark stepped up. "None are without some guilt in this, nopony can say justice was not served." Hooves clopped the floor in support of this.
Cadance smiled. "Then let the matter be done."