Jackie paced back and forth in nervous fear as a changeling doctor sewed up the wound gaping in her human companion’s chest. Isaac insisted and the doctors agreed that no organs had been damaged, that the shards of broken steel hadn’t pierced something called the “abdominal wall” (whatever in god’s name that was). Still, it was hard not to feel a respect and admiration for this young man, whose sword had given Ezri a chance at life. All the battle she had watched and expected him to run. He fought with an inferior weapon against a drone controlled by a queen twenty times his age, yet still he fought.
Jackie hadn’t ever seen anyone fight like that. Fight not for himself, but for her mate. His friend.
From that single act, Isaac had won her loyalty. So she watched the doctor intently, careful to see if the drone intended any sort of covert revenge for her queen. Apparently she didn’t, because twenty minutes on his back and Isaac was standing again, with sticky green slime binding his wound instead of stitches.
“How do you feel?” Jackie approached Isaac as he sat on the edge of a hospital bed. The design was very similar to those she had seen during her human life, save it was apparently built for a pony’s body. That meant Isaac’s legs touched the ground and his knees bowed out, instead of hanging freely as Jackie’s might’ve done. Well, she might’ve done if her joints bent the other way and her spine let her sit like that.
The human’s chest was bare, his skin bruised and strained from the day’s adventures. This close, it was impossible to miss the surgical alterations his organization had made. A line of little metal plates ran up each limb to his spine, which was covered in thin metal. The armor was presently open, and she could see intricate joints and wires beneath, coated with glittering substances she couldn’t even name. It would’ve been impressive, were it not so horrific.
The wound itself glittered against his skin, which had turned an angry red where the slime touched it. He shrugged. “Like the Ancestors shat bricks on my head.” He smiled weakly, but when she didn’t respond he cleared his throat, shrugging. “I’ve had worse. Almost blew one of my arms off in training once. That was a lot of blood. This... This is nothing.”
“You think that nasty stuff will hold?”
“Feels like it will. If it’s strong enough for windows, it ought to be strong enough for stitches, right?” He shrugged. “Doctor said something about magic accelerated healing in the Glamour. I don’t really know what that means, but she puked it up fresh, so she must at least have been sincere.” He shivered. “Praise to the Ancestors we’re immune to Equestrian diseases.”
As she watched, Isaac reached over and started struggling into the robe.
“I thought you HPI humans were immune to every disease. I don’t think I saw one of you sick in fifteen years...”
Isaac winced as he pulled the robe down over his chest, speaking through strained teeth. “Not immune... The diseases just didn’t survive. The first generation was rigorously screened. Anything that could go dormant, any traces at all... disqualified them.”
Ezri was still with them though neither carried her anymore. She had been given a stretcher, and four drones to take it. Jackie stood beside Ezri’s cot, along with their coterie of motionless changeling drones. “Sounds brutal. It worked, though?”
Isaac stood. He swayed on his feet, holding onto the table to keep from falling. He shouldn’t have been coming at all after what he had been through. It didn’t make sense to subject his body to more stress. But Ezri couldn’t wait, and he had refused all suggestions that Jackie ought to go alone. He was going to be there if it killed him.
“Not perfectly. Some kind of nasty fever got in back in the first generation, but the damn thing burned itself out. I don’t... know the details. And anyway, it’s not like the immunity will last forever. We’re still swimming in bacteria, as much as humans ever were. Sooner or later something will mutate.” He frowned. “My being out here probably accelerated the process by a thousand years.”
“Don’t feel guilty.” Jackie tried not to show her impatience, but she couldn’t keep her tail from twitching or a hoof from pawing at the ground. Ponies were expressive about their emotions, and there was no easy way to prevent it. “It was Salazar’s fucking fault we had to leave our home. Her and that goddamn voice in the water she loves so much.”
“Yeah.” He seemed to notice how impatient she looked because he took a tentative step forward. “I guess we can go. If our... If our guides are ready.”
Jackie turned, looking at one of the four nearly identical drones in their row. They all had Ezri’s same coloration, aquamarine in their fins and in their eyes. They didn’t quite look like her sisters though there did seem to be some family resemblance. Jackie didn’t even want to begin to understand how a hive complex enough to create titles like “Sargon” might function. Must be hell at family reunions.
Jackie stepped right up to the drone’s face and looked her directly in the eye. “We are ready to see the Sargon. Once she’s ready, I mean.” No matter how this drone might look, Jackie hadn’t forgotten that it was Evoli on the other side of those eyes. Queen Evoli might still turn against them if the desire struck her. Hopefully, a healthy dose of respect would improve their chances.
The drone stirred, and as one she and her companions rose to their hooves. “The Sargon is eager to meet with you,” she said, in Evoli’s voice. “Follow my daughters, they will conduct you.” The drones each took station around the stretcher, and as one their horns glowed, lifting the complicated harness onto their collective backs. There were no joints to distribute the load or absorb shock: this stretcher evidently required perfect synchronicity.
They began to walk. Jackie followed, and Isaac joined her. He limped along, only barely managing to keep pace with their insectoid guides. As they made their way out of the medical room and into the burrows proper, an escort of half a dozen guards surrounded their group, blocking them off on either side. It seemed the guards were as much protecting them from something in the burrows as they were preventing escape.
They need not have bothered. Jackie didn’t have the strength to carry Ezri, and she never would’ve left the burrow without her. With all his superhuman power gone, Isaac seemed barely capable of a limp.
The burrows were a maze; Jackie couldn’t have said how many times they crossed from one area to another, couldn’t have said if they had crawled under other buildings or were still in the same gigantic structure. Changelings probably couldn’t get lost, not with the queens and their inhuman mental abilities. Jackie tried not to worry about it. If the changelings wanted to do something awful to them, they had plenty of opportunities.
The drones led them into a wide hallway, with a ceiling rising plenty high enough for Isaac to walk without stooping. The number of soldiers increased exponentially, with guards standing along every empty surface. Their armor varied along five principal color-schemes. There were yellow, red, blue, and green accents on the armor, which Jackie guessed must mark rank somehow. There were also a handful of purple-armored changelings, and none of these looked like mindless drones. Despite their similar armor, each one had marks of individuality woven into their clothing or painted onto the armor itself, like house crests.
They attracted many stares, but nopony stepped up to stop or confront them. This was just fine so far as Jackie was concerned, and she made no effort to talk to any of these ponies. They approached a massive door, at least two stories of what looked like stone accented with… was that gold?
Even in the dim light of flickering electric bulbs, gemstones and gold inlay sparkled brilliantly. Gold that hadn’t been crammed into one corner or another, but set with craftsmanship and care. The precious metal spelled no words, just as the design depicted no particular creature. It was geometric, just the like ones she had seen from the Islamic world back in school. The guards at the door wore purple accents on glittering metal armor, armor that caught Jackie’s heart in her chest.
The pair of ponies by the door wore HPI Aegis armor, standing nearly as tall as humans with metal plates as thick as her hooves. The whole construction was more like the exoskeletons of an insect than a suit of plate armor, since it moved more or less together without flexibility. Massive cannons sat mounted on their shoulders, pivoting to follow them in their approach.
“Ancestors above,” Isaac exclaimed from beside her, his voice a hoarse whisper. “What are they doing here?”
She whispered back, easier said than done when his head was twice as high as she was. Probably the drones around them would hear anyway. Oh well. “Do they have markings or whatever?”
Isaac nodded. “That’s Bountiful’s crest on their right shoulder. Looks like the unit marking got painted over with some kind of bug insignia.” Jackie could see the marking he meant, a bright purple beetle about the size of any other unit insignia. Their armor had no rank marks: even Jackie knew that every soldier in armor was a Centurion or better. Neither had plumes on their helmets, so they weren’t Prefects. Other than the cannons, the armored ponies remained stationary, a pair of rigid forms flanking the door.
Their escort took them to the door itself, then stopped in unison. “Wait here. The Sargon will summon us when she is prepared,” the lead said, before falling still again.
Isaac ignored her, walking past Jackie to stand right in front of one of the Centurions. It was hard to tell, but it seemed the armored pony watched him every bit as intently as Isaac did. Jackie reached out with one hoof to stop him but closed her mouth before she could say anything. Isaac knew what he was doing.
The tall human stood only just taller than the armored pony. He gritted his teeth as he snapped into a rigid pose, clutching one fist over his heart. “Twice-born brother,” he began. “In whose service is your sword?”
Like many of their rituals, the question had only one correct response. “The Honored Ancestors.” Jackie hadn’t ever quite gotten past the strange voice that came from Aegis armor, downshifted into such a low octave that it shook her chest. They all sounded alike, male or female, young or old. Just as all the armor looked alike, apart from the insignia. “Tribune Achilles speaks their will until they return.” The speaker paused a second, apparently done with the ritual. Jackie hadn’t ever bothered learning any of these, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t seen quite a few. “We know your face, Centurion Rommel. You fell by the hands of traitors defending the Honored Memory. How is it… How is it you have returned? How do you walk with ponies?”
The other armored figure dropped into a bow. “The Ancestors have sent you.”
The first speaker bowed as well, averting their head in respect. “They would send a hero like you to advise us in a time of war. Tribune Achilles will want your counsel. We cannot leave our post, but by the Sargon’s leave, he could come and meet with you.”
“I would like very much to see him again.” Isaac clutched at his gut with one hand, no longer standing at attention. “But not yet.” He glanced back at the resting Ezri on her stretcher. “Don’t bow. The Ancestors may’ve sent me, but I never returned from the dead. I’m still as mortal as you are.” The armored ponies obeyed at once, rising back to their hooves. There was no way to see any more detail through all those plates. “Please tell me how you’ve come to be here. Shouldn’t Achilles be protecting Bountiful with his legion? I can only assume you’re part of it…”
“There is no Bountiful to protect.”
Just behind them, the massive stone slabs started to shake, rotating slowly inward. Brilliant green light emerged from within, casting at first a line but then a growing cone of strange radiance. It was as bright as sunlight in the dark, though there was no sign of real sunlight from the room beyond.
The drones rose to their hooves again, taking up the harness. “She is ready.” Jackie hadn’t even seen which had spoken. It probably didn’t matter. Soon their group was moving into the room, and the HPI guards were suddenly reticent. Neither spoke, despite Isaac’s continued protests.
Jackie tried to banish the ominous news. War. No Bountiful to protect. What the hell had happened while they hid in Sunset Shimmer’s secret city? She forced out every thought that wasn’t about saving Ezri. Once she had her mate back, then together they could investigate these new problems. Hell, while they were in the business of rescuing ponies, maybe they could save Alex next. Let her deal with saving the world.
The room beyond wasn’t as massive as Jackie expected it to be, at least from the doors. It was perhaps a hundred feet across, with a single chunk of green something burning at the ceiling and filling the area beneath with light. None of their escorts crossed the threshold more than a few feet. Once the guards deposited Ezri, they turned and marched right out again, never crossing a bright gold line set onto the floor. Past that line was a roughly round room, with a raised platform in the center and five thrones upon it.
There were no armed drones within, with their steel armor and glittering forms. There were instead changelings in beautiful robes, as well as quite a few regular ponies. Well, she took them for regular ponies. Several circles of gold had been set into the floor, and she guessed they must symbolize something. Jackie hesitated at the edge of the circle that none of the drones had crossed, fearful. Some good it would do her to get this far only to get them thrown out for disrespect now. Sargon Titania was somewhere in this room. She felt it, felt a source of magic stronger than anything she had ever felt before. Even Sunset hadn’t felt like this room did. Power was concentrated beyond in a way she had never experienced. Hopefully some of that power could heal her mate.
Jackie need not have waited much longer. Another pony approached, looking a little larger than the drones they had seen but still clearly a changeling. Even beneath its fancy robes, black chitin glittered. Yet it had a mane, and apparently a real tail too. Then the being spoke, its voice lower than hers but still echoing and stretched. She knew it then: a changeling male. “The Sargon wants to meet with you. Queen Winter spoke very highly of you, despite the irregularity of your visit. Unfortunately, none of the other queens could attend. Only the Sargon herself will hear you.”
“She’s the one we came to see.” Jackie didn’t bow for the male, or try to guess whatever else might be expected. “We aren’t trying to change any laws or get her to do anything big.” She gestured down at Ezri. “We have one of her daughters, Ezri. She deserves her mother’s help.”
“Really?” The male moved past her, glancing down at though looking at Ezri through spectacles. As the queens, his eyes seemed relatively normal. As normal as Jackie’s own, anyway. He flicked one hoof towards her, brushing cloth away from her neck and looking at the scar.
“This is Ezri.” He shook his head sadly. “Winter didn’t need to fight; she would’ve recognized this. But… I suppose she wouldn’t be Winter if mercy and compassion were her emotions.”
“You recognize her scar?” She raised an eyebrow. It was hard to tell, but he didn’t look all that old. Beneath the fancy clothes was a pony who hadn’t come into full growth yet. Males apparently looked like and grew like ponies. If he had been a pony, he might have been eighteen. Those thin, overlong limbs were a pretty obvious sign. “You don’t look old enough to remember her. I know she hasn’t ever come back to visit, since she’s lived with me ever since she left.”
The male nodded, his expression distant. The purple robe didn’t match his orange mane and tail very well, but he didn’t seem to mind. “I helped the Sargon create that scar, twenty… maybe thirty years ago? Details blur across lifetimes, and this last one has been more interesting than most.” He shrugged, and the whole stretcher lifted up in his magic. “Come with me, then. Let’s see if the Sargon can help.”
Jackie was done asking questions. Every time she tried to figure things out with a question, she only learned something more confusing. She followed the male, walking close beside the stretcher across each circle in turn. Ponies stopped to stare as they walked, many of them watching Isaac. More than one looked like they wanted to walk over and talk, but none dared.
They approached the raised platform with its five jeweled thrones. Nopony actually stood on it, though that didn’t mean it was empty. The closer they got, the stronger the feeling of magic became. Despite the strange green light above, the brilliant jewels and gold of the thrones shone in their own shades. Even the gray concrete floor fractured into a thousand different shades, splintering the whole spectrum.
The male set Ezri’s stretcher down just at the edge of the platform, then dropped into a bow. “Honored Sargon Titania, Queen of All Seasons. Victorious petitioners wait for your judgment. Please share your wisdom with us.” Was Jackie imagining things, or could she see a trace of amusement in his eyes?
The air around the largest throne seemed to shimmer, and for a second Jackie could swear something was drawing her in, a secondary source of gravity faintly stronger than the one pulling her down. She had to consciously lean backward to avoid moving. Beside her, Isaac wobbled on his boots, but he managed not to fall either.
Light gathered around the throne, green like the glow of the sphere on the ceiling. As it faded, it left a pony behind. Well, the general shape of a pony. She was a queen, that much was clear. A queen in gleaming golden armor. Not just gold paint, either. Real gold, in thin plates set with more gemstones. It was more wealth than Jackie had ever seen in once place, more wealth than she had even imagined. How could a pony be strong enough even to lift that much metal? Even without the platform, the Sargon would’ve been taller than Sunset and her Alicorn height. Her eyes seemed to radiate green magic, a bonfire of power burning just within her body. Jackie looked upon the one Sunset had called “Riley,” and in that instant she knew where her second name had come from.
She did bow this time. Isaac did as well, though not by dropping to one knee as Centurions usually did. Jackie couldn’t speak as the massive queen made her way to the edge of the platform, couldn’t find the courage. Only in her dreams had Jackie seen beings this powerful. If Sunset Shimmer had magic like this, she had kept it well hidden. By contrast, this queen hid nothing.
Her voice was musical beyond any pony voice she had heard before, pitch perfect and harmonious with every word. It also seemed to be speaking into Jackie’s mind, not just her ears. Unlike the mind magic Sunset Shimmer had done, there was no resistance. The Sargon could reach into her skull, and she couldn’t have done a thing about it. “You bring my daughter to me.” Every muttered conversation in the whole room grew silent at the Sargon’s words. As one, every form bowed. “I am told she is the drone Lonely Day named Ezri. Is this true?”
Jackie nodded, though the gesture took most of her concentration. It was going to be difficult to talk to this pony if this presence in her mind didn’t go away. “This is her.”
“Ezri.” The queen didn’t move by walking so much as she blurred through the air, and was suddenly standing on Ezri’s other side, looking down. Her expression was unreadable, but this close Jackie could feel the magic burning around her. Even her coat pulled towards the queen, and even the black of changeling armor fractured into a whole spectrum of color. “Who is she to you that you’re willing to fight and die for her?”
To her surprise, Isaac spoke first. Maybe being human meant her strange aura affected him less. “She was my only friend growing up. I know she would’ve done the same for me.”
“Indeed.” The Queen of All Seasons didn’t look away from Jackie. “And you?”
“My wife.” Jackie didn’t avert her eyes.
A spark of something flickered in the queen’s face, magic seeming to flare around her. “You’re her wife, and you couldn’t keep her fed.” It wasn’t a question. “She looks like she hasn’t eaten for days.”
“A month.” Jackie took a deliberate step back. “Sunset’s ponies aren’t as good with some parts of medicine as humans used to be. Their version of life support is a tiny bit of sugar in some salt water and honey whenever she would take it. It wasn’t good enough.”
“Impossible.” As before, Titania did not question. She just spoke, apparently expecting the world to bow to her will. “A conscious drone will wither and starve after a week without glamour.”
“And humans cannot survive exposure to magic.” Isaac spoke up from behind Jackie, his voice much quieter than usual. Even so, he still had the courage to argue. Impressive. “I didn’t traffic with demons, either. You can search me with your magic if you want. I reject their taint.”
Titania finally turned, looking past Jackie and directly at Isaac. The human faltered, wilting with the intensity of her gaze. Magic illuminated him briefly, casting a strange reverse-shadow on the ground behind him. Blackness outlined a bright green copy of him, still standing tall. The changeling queen nodded. “That explains the influence I felt a few hours ago. He tried to make a deal… but you didn’t take it. I would have had to kill you if you had.”
“You can see all that?” Jackie looked away as she spoke, unsure if she was even allowed to ask. She tried searching for the male, but he had retreated once Titania appeared. There was no help for her but her own common sense.
“To the spirit.” Queen Titania suddenly wasn’t beside her anymore, her body blurred back to rest upon her throne. “When I was young, your friend Sunset told me a story. A story about a changeling queen who defeated her god. Do you know how the queen did it?”
Jackie shivered, only just managing to shake her head. She couldn’t look up, not with those eyes watching her. Those eyes that burned with power.
“Ponies command magic, but the magic they control is limited by their own bodies. They cannot use too much at once, at risk of damaging their spirits. Changelings have no such limits. Enough glamour to live on for a year might be consumed in an instant for extraordinary power, or stretched into two years of near-starvation. Beyond the bounds of pony experience lie many powers you could not comprehend.”
It was Jackie’s turn for courage. “Well, use those powers on your daughter. We’ve all been changed. If you can really do all that, look at her spirit.”
“You stake your life on it?”
Jackie shivered, then nodded again. Sunset’s intel about a kind, practical queen seemed as out-of-date as the rest of what they had seen.
“Chip, come here.”
The male complied, hurrying over and bowing again. He stood just a few feet from Jackie. “Riley?”
Ha! Jackie felt a rush of excitement at the name. But why was this male allowed to use it when nobody else could?
The queen frowned. “Just stand there, Chip. I will only need you a moment.”
“As you will.” He stood straight, asking no further questions and watching nothing in particular.
“You saw what an intact spirit looks like in your friend,” the queen said, flicking her tail briefly towards Isaac. “This is what we look like.” Again magic seemed to boil away from her, burning just beneath the chitin of her body in power Jackie couldn’t imagine. All that power cast a shadow as before, illuminating the male and the space behind him. Unlike Isaac, there were gaping holes of dark space in his glowing form. The holes didn’t seem to correspond to the real ones in his body, but they looked similar enough. “Thank you, Chip. You may go.”
He bowed again, then turned and hurried back into one of the little crowds of watching males.
“Are you absolutely sure you want me to look at my daughter this way, pony? I give you an opportunity to revise your story to the actual one. I suggest you take it.”
Jackie looked up at the queen, remembering a dream she had. There had been a young knight in her dream, with a book for a sword to make the nightmares go away. The knight had never bowed before great powers, why should she? “No.” Jackie nodded. “I told you the truth. She’s been like that for over a month. We’ve given up on all help but yours to wake her up.”
“We will see.” The queen’s eyes were dark, and for a third time she called upon her strange power. Light shone from her, brighter than either of the previous times. The ground behind Ezri darkened until it was blacker than space, darker than the emptiness in a demon’s heart. Ezri’s sleeping outline shone in the darkness, and the holes in her legs cast no shadow. Like Isaac, she was intact.
Sargon Titania stumbled backward a step, her eyes wide with shock. The illumination vanished from behind Ezri, as did the shadow. “GET OUT! EVERYPONY OUT!” The quiet throne room became a flurry of activity, dozens of ponies trying to conceal their fear as they fled out one of several side passages. The male named Chip stepped up from behind them, and opened his mouth to whisper, but Titania silenced him. “No, Scribe. They stay. You too. Get everypony else out, and make sure we’re not disturbed. Instruct the guards that even the Seasons aren’t to enter.”
Was she… crying? Jackie looked up, and sure enough there were a few glittering specks on her face. The space around the Sargon no longer seemed to pull her in inexplicably, the burning of green magic was gone. As the chamber emptied around them, the queen appeared to shrink. Her elegant armor vanished from around her, and she didn’t move again. Sargon Titania didn’t seem concerned with living up to her title anymore, just staring down at Ezri and occasionally choking back a sob.
It took less than a minute for the room to empty. Without the pressing crowds of drones and robed ponies, the throne room felt deserted. Chip kept to the front door, sitting quietly and not interrupting them. Jackie didn’t dare speak, and neither did Isaac. With her attendants gone, the Sargon made far less of an effort to keep her tears quiet.
It was another ten minutes before the Sargon finally spoke, her voice no longer echoing in Jackie’s mind. “I never thought I… Didn’t think I’d live to see… Maybe after thousands of years of research, but… not my generation.” She shook her head, wiping away tears with the back of one leg. “I mutilated this poor drone to learn whether her sisters could ever wake up. Tell me stranger, what happened to her? How is it she’s come to be… intact?”
“Jackie. My name’s Jackie. That’s what Ezri always called me, anyway.”
“Riley. But not to my subjects. Image is survival.”
Jackie rose to her hooves, though she wasn't nearly as careful as she had been earlier. “Sunset Shimmer said your daughter and I went… ‘Above.’ I don’t really know what that means, but she said—”
“How did you survive?” Riley made her way to the edge of the platform. “You aren’t an Alicorn… none of you are.”
“If I tell you, will you help her?”
She nodded dismissively. “Help is already on the way. Her symptoms are strange, but there’s one cure we can be reasonably confident will work.” She looked up. “Chip, check the chute. A package should be arriving any second.”
He didn’t shout across the hall, just lifted into the air with buzzing wings, flying up towards the ceiling. Jackie didn’t watch him, not with Riley’s eyes on her. Even softened, she was a queen with power Jackie could barely fathom.
“Alex did—er, Archive. Archive did it.”
“She’s an Alicorn now, then? The Initiative must’ve been mistaken about her death. I suppose the apotheosis would be easy to confuse for—”
“No.” Jackie didn’t let her finish. “She did die. I don’t really understand what happened, you’d have to ask Sunset to get details like that. She was going to ascend, but she rescued us first.” She gestured around, from Ezri to Isaac and back to herself. “I think we may’ve… inherited… some of the power that was waiting for her. It changed each of us differently.”
Riley sunk into a sitting position, and some of her energy seemed to fade. “That doesn’t sound repeatable.”
“Probably not.” Jackie prided herself on her honesty, and that didn’t change just because she had disturbing news.
“Why does it matter so much?” Isaac’s voice was no less respectful than earlier. “All of this with Ezri went over my head. I know she shouldn’t have lasted so long without love, but…”
The Sargon answered far faster than Jackie could’ve. “Ezri does not need love anymore.” She rose, then hopped down to ground level, advancing on the resting drone. Isaac got out of her way, even as Jackie moved protectively beside her wife again. “Changelings feed on emotions because we are born damaged. Even refugees, as unfair as that is. Ezri, though… she has survived as long as she did because her invisible injuries are healed. We don’t really have a word for one like her.”
Chip landed beside her, levitating a little gold box in front of him. He didn't bow anymore, just offering the container to Riley with a quiet reverence. She took it, unspinning the lock and flipping it open in the air in front of her. “If anything will wake her, it's this.”
“Assuming she can even drink it.” Chip spoke for the first time since the room had been emptied, his voice low. “If she doesn't need glamour anymore, it might not—”
“I know.” Riley removed a glass bottle from the container, filled almost to the brim with neon green fluid. It was similar in color to the hardened green slime she saw around the city, though far brighter. It glowed with its own light, as though it were some kind of dangerous artifact from an old movie. “Royal jelly,” she explained, unscrewing the delicate golden cap. “Enough to create another queen.”
“We're both better off this way.” Chip sighed, walking slowly back to the door. “Go ahead and use it all. I'd rather just be recycled again, anyway.”
“What?” Jackie looked between them, frowning. Just when she thought she was starting to understand these changelings…
“Conscious drones can be recycled, started over. It's expensive, but not nearly as expensive as creating another queen.” She lowered the container down towards Ezri's mouth, tilting it open and sitting her up, so gravity would help her swallow. “I pay back the debt I incurred to you, Ezri.” She tilted the container violently back, and Jackie watched a single drop grow on the bottle's edge. The drop didn't seem to obey the ordinary laws of physics, growing brighter instead of larger as the container that held it emptied. “Wake up.” The drop fell, vanishing down her throat.
“That's it? You think that will...”
“It's the safest way. All that power at once, while she's unconscious… it should repair whatever damage is keeping her from waking.” Riley set the empty bottle back in its velvet case, and set the empty box down onto the platform.
“Will she… Will she be a queen?”
“Fortunately for her, no. She would have to be a larva for royal jelly to change her. Probably she'll just have more energy than she ever had.”
“Maybe that will balance out the cold.” Jackie shivered, remembering the way she had felt when she first woke up. “Being down here, after… after that other place… thought I would freeze to death. I wonder if it was worse for her. Maybe it was so bad she didn't wake up.” Jackie looked down, as though she expected to see Ezri shivering with invisible cold. She would've noticed familiar symptoms, right?
Far from shivering, her mate had started to glow. The light came from her mouth, and her eyes, and every other opening in her chitin. It was brilliant green, just as the royal jelly had been a moment before. The drone started to twitch, rocking back and forth as the strange magic worked.
“Ezri!” Jackie jumped to her side, but found herself frozen in the air a few inches away, her whole body held rigid by magic. She turned, glaring up at the Sargon, suddenly not caring about her title, or anything else for that matter. “Dammit, let me go!”
“You can't touch her now.” Her voice was as firm as before, but not angry. “Your natural magic would interfere. Let her body heal itself.”
Jackie ignored her, kicking and squealing against the magic, all to no avail. She watched with horror as green magic burned around the little changeling's body, her coat flipping rapidly through different colors, shapes, and builds. She grew pegasus wings and lost them again, had several different horns, and switched between mare and stallion. So many different changes, almost too fast to follow.
Jackie's screaming stopped abruptly as she felt a large, human hand rest on her shoulder. Isaac smiled sadly down at her, shaking his head. “I'm sure the Sargon knows what she is talking about. We should trust her.”
Jackie fell limp, giving up. She didn't really have much strength left anyway, not after her day. Ezri looked like she was in pain, but it was nothing like what Jackie had seen in high spaces. Something was happening. The queen hadn't been wrong about that. She nodded. “Alright. I won't touch her.” She felt herself moving through the air, a few steps away from Ezri, before something lowered her back down onto her hooves.
She didn't fight again, watching as her beloved mate twisted and writhed between a dozen different forms. She reached out, but not far enough to touch her this time. “It'll be… It'll be over soon, Ezri. Just hold on! We're all counting on you!”
“You can do it,” Isaac echoed, watching solemnly. “You're the strongest little pony I know, bug. You got this.”
Suddenly, she did.
Ezri stopped squirming, stopped shaking and stopped coughing. Her whole body seemed to come into better focus, and all the foreign parts faded away. Ezri appeared exactly as Jackie knew her, an adult drone with bright blue fins and eyes like an insect. Ezri stopped shaking, stopped glowing, then looked up. “J-Jackie?”
Jackie crossed the distance in less than a second, practically lunging for her. She wrapped up the little drone between her hooves, squeezing her tightly to her chest. “Ezri… thank God you're back.”
“Back?” her mate asked feebly from within her grip, confused. “Where did I go?”
“It's… a bit of a long story.”
Then they kissed.
* * *
“It must be quite the assignment, to warrant a commission as expensive as yours.” Headmaster Orion stared down at the letter of credit, inspecting the thick paper with its elaborate wax seals. The number scrawled on that page was several lifetimes of fortune for most ponies. Jackie shivered in her expensive suit, which in the way of pony fashion these days didn’t cover anything useful. Still, the lawyer of a wealthy pony ought to dress fashionably.
Ezri sat beside her, though she hadn’t looked sideways once since they sat down. That familiar green form, her wings and cutie mark and eternal youth—she couldn’t shake the feeling that impersonating Alex was somehow disrespecting the dead.
She could only hope that Alex wouldn’t mind. This was her dream she was helping to fulfill, after all. She would have been okay with spending her money on it, right? Jackie had no way of asking. Alex might not return for some time, assuming she ever did. “It is. My client believes this is more involved than any spell that’s ever been performed. She expresses some doubt that anypony is up to the task.”
Her words had the desired effect, and the wizened old unicorn sat a little straighter, thrusting out his chest. “Well, it would be foolish not to even ask. You would not have wasted your time with a visit if you thought the mission was impossible.” His horn glowed, and he levitated the letter of credit just that much closer to him. It was worthless without Alex’s signature… Ezri’s signature now that they were impersonating her. Even so, he kept it close. Even for an organization as big as Alexandria’s academy of magic, that was no small sum.
“Correct.” Jackie lifted a briefcase up onto the desk with her mouth, clicking it open. “Ostensibly, the request would be that your academy’s mages complete a spell, then cast it once. The spell was being designed by one of the greatest wizards alive… but she died before she could finish it. It might be years or even decades of research and testing. That’s why we would use the payment plan I discussed, only dispersing for your direct expenses until the spell is complete. At that point, you would be paid the remaining sum.”
“And this… unfinished spell… you have it with you?”
“I do.” Jackie lifted a thick chunk of folded paper and set it on the desk between them. She started to unfold one square section after another until none of the wood was visible. It was the same spell Alex had written in her library, the same spell she had transferred into Jackie’s mind. Not the replica of the preservation spell—that would’ve taken thousands of pages. This was only her modification. “I don’t know anything about magic myself, but… she knew she was dying, so the unfinished sections have red markings on them. Those are probably the first areas you will want to research.”
“Stars and stones!” the headmaster exclaimed, staring down at the design in shock. Any smugness he had been showing before was long gone. “Miss Jacqueline… is this Mystic Rune’s work? I haven’t seen anything this advanced since I locked away all his private notebooks. This work is a hundred years ahead of anything we’ve done. It’s as sophisticated as the Equestrian texts, perhaps more.” He leaned across the table toward Ezri. “Where did you get this?”
Of course, Ezri wasn’t actually speaking. Jackie answered on her behalf. “The spell was reverse-engineered based on the one that changed our planet. The Universal Preservation… something.” She trailed off awkwardly, wishing she had listened a little more closely to that golem in the library. “That’s all I can tell you. The secrecy is part of the price.”
The headmaster stared down at the intricate designs, scratching a little scruff of growth under his chin. Jackie couldn’t rightly call it a beard, but that was remarkably close to the feeling it evoked in her. His graying coat did a much better job of making him look dignified. “I will have to consult the department heads and the funding committee, I don’t have the power to make a decision like this on my own. Upon inspection however, I can give you a preliminary response. This academy has some of the best and brightest minds on Earth—many of them studied under legends like Mystic Rune. There is nowhere else you could take your spell and hope to complete it. I believe, however, that we are equal to it. I expect your estimate of a decade was a bit generous, however. Perhaps twice that. Much research will be required… and even at a glance I can tell the power requirements for this monstrosity will be enormous. I don’t believe the sum you offered us will be enough.”
Jackie swallowed, but of course she had a backup plan ready for this. “The sum I offered was only part of the price.” She spoke carefully, trying not to sound hurried. “There was more. To aid in your work, I could offer a complete copy of the Preservation spell for your study. I don’t know how much of it will be useful to you, however… I know it’s the most advanced piece of magic that ever happened.” She scooted a little closer to him, lowering her voice. “I’m not at liberty to say how, but I’m also prepared to offer several computers… the kind ‘Mystic Rune’ used in his work. We even have the spellmaking software he helped write, significantly improved. You would be free to use this hardware for other university purposes, so long as you were working on my project.”
She took a breath, reclining back into her seat. “We would also be prepared to negotiate again in ten years’ time. To discuss the project’s funding. Reevaluate it, maybe, if you think your financial needs have changed.” Of course, she didn’t have the money for that. The letter of credit on the desk represented every chit Alex had saved.
“We’ve never received such a long-term research assignment before.”
She shrugged. “Well, I do represent an immortal.” She flicked her tail towards Ezri. “They dream bigger than the rest of us.”
* * *
Isaac looked up from the recharging station as they returned, instantly alert. Jackie watched his movements carefully, searching for any sign of infection. She didn’t find any, though the scars on his belly hadn’t gone anywhere. The air was thicker deep in the burrows, heavy with the damp of thousands of changelings. She didn’t mind it. The dark was nice. “How’d it go?”
Ezri bounced in beside him, setting down her saddlebags. Bright red apples glinted from inside. “We pretty much nailed it.”
Jackie leaned over, nuzzling Ezri’s head from one side. “They’ve got to talk about it in their next meetings or whatever, but it looks good.”
Ezri looked down at her hooves, deflating into a low sitting position. “I still don’t… don’t get why we don’t just get Mom back.” She sighed. “She’d love to do all this boring stuff. Mom loved meetings.”
Jackie pulled the little drone into a hug, embracing her with one wing. “We would, bug. We’d find a way in… disable that dumb machine… but it doesn’t work that way.” She had already explained it half a dozen times by now, but Ezri just didn’t understand. Didn’t want to understand, maybe. “We don’t know how long it would take her to come back. What if we had to keep it off for a year? What if it took ten?” She shook her head.
“Then we could break it!” Ezri screamed, though not at Jackie. “Break it into lots of little pieces! Mom would come back eventually… she can’t be dead. She said… said she wouldn’t leave me…”
“I won’t leave you, Ezri.” Jackie squeezed her tighter. “Do you really want to tell your mom that you had to kill most of her humans to bring her back? ‘Cuz those people don’t have anywhere else to go. If you break their machine, they’ll all die. I don’t think she’d like that very much.”
“N-no.” Ezri sniffed, then collapsed into a limp, sobbing ball.
Isaac spoke from beside them, not far away. He didn’t interfere—Isaac never did. One of the cables still hung from his back, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Athena is working on it. When the war ends, maybe we can do some negotiating or set up some special machines, or… something. But not now.”
Jackie didn’t voice her own fear, that quiet hopelessness that maybe Alex wouldn’t ever come back. She had made elaborate plans for her death, plans she had known might take decades. According to Isaac, she had chosen to die, so that humans immune to magic could be born. Jackie didn’t buy that crap for a second. She wouldn’t ever be able to accept the divinity of someone she had mined coal with.
If Archive never returned, someone would have to worry about the planet in her place. Somebody who was actually from Earth, and wasn’t a bunch of satellites floating around in the sky. Maybe that someone was her.
“Okay.” Ezri sat up, blinking the moisture from her eyes. “I’m good now. I get it. We can’t… We can’t hurt lots of people just so we can maybe help one. That wouldn’t be fair.”
Jackie hugged her one last time, then let her go. “We don’t have to help if you don’t want to.” She gestured around the room, at the clipboards covered with pictures and sketches from Alex’s library, the elaborate diagrams and stacks of contracts. The costumes and supplies they had used to impersonate her. “Your mom would understand if we can’t handle it. We could probably find somebody else to do it. Maybe get Sunset to change her mind…”
“No!” Ezri squealed from beside her. “No. Mom… really wanted her book thing to happen. We can’t go back home… the dream shop is gone… we might as well do something good, right?”
“Might as well.” Jackie grinned. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
* * *
Isaac pulled the robe closer about himself as he felt his way through the hall. He stopped, one hand running along the rough ceiling to protect his head. Changelings might be industrious, but they were not particularly attentive to detail in things they didn't consider significant.
A few more meters through the dark and he saw the harsh glow of LED lights, illuminating the entrance to the caves. Isaac slowed as he approached, relieved as the ceiling sloped away from him. Thank the Ancestors he didn't have to crouch every time he visited. Of course, armed guards were standing at the entrance, both of them thickly armored.
One of the ponies wore Aegis armor and towered over his fellow. The other wore one of the slimmer infiltrator suits, her body much more graceful and mobile.
“Who desires to enter?”
Isaac straightened, replacing the cloth cap with its broad crest. “Prefect Isaac Rommel. You know, the only human for five hundred miles.”
It was hard to tell, but he could've sworn he heard her groan from within her helmet. Then she straightened, raising one foreleg to her front in a salute. “Honored be a name loved by the Ancestors.” He could practically hear her roll her eyes as she stepped aside. “You're late.”
He didn't reply, returning her salute before hurrying past her. The hall beyond the guards was so bright compared to the corridor behind that he squinted, covering his eyes and trying not to wince. The ground sloped almost violently down, and he had to stoop again. There were no handrails, so it was all he could do to grip the rock and pray.
The Ancestors appeared to be guiding his steps this evening, or maybe he was just used to walking this way. Either way, he emerged into the war room without any rips in his robes or scrapes on his head.
He straightened, brushing off the dust of the tight quarters. The war room rose around him, a limestone cavern so massive even the enormous holotable couldn't completely light the stalactites. Isaac sniffed back a little congestion at the thickness in the air, stepping over a small stream of cave runoff as he made his way in.
There were perhaps twenty ponies in the room, all chattering quietly to one another. Most stood around the gigantic holotable in the center of the room though a few worked on smaller workstations along the walls. The war room was at the beginning of the caves; the only room large enough for their purposes. There were many others, thousands of little rooms following the sloping curves of the earth. Isaac had not explored them much: though he was welcome to live here with his fellows, he hadn't left Ezri and Jackie's own quarters with the other ponies.
He would get to it. Eventually.
“Tribune Achilles.” Isaac stopped in front of a grizzled old earth pony, raising his fist in a formal salute. “Prefect Rommel, reporting for service.”
The pony looked far less annoyed by his tardiness than the guards. If anything, he seemed to be concealing nervousness. It wasn't unlike the expression Isaac himself had worn, the first time he met the Archive. Isaac had become a hero to many in the HPI. It was not a position he enjoyed.
“Of course, Prefect. Your presence is an honor to all of us.” He gestured to an empty space beside him at the table, the only place with a human sized chair. “You are the last. We can begin, at your leave.”
“The honor is mine sir,” Isaac repeated. It was the same ritual he had to go through every time he visited. Transfer the respect to the man who actually deserved it. The Tribune was the only reason anyone from Bountiful was still alive. Well, him and…
And a glittering figure standing in the center of the table. Athena was made of glittering light, her body a perfect hologram. Athena was everything an ideal human should be: strong, fit, intelligent. She was every kind of beauty, from her ancient armor to the falcon resting on one of her shoulders. Her gray eyes cut deeper than any changeling sword. “Please sit, everyone.” She gestured around magnanimously, and ponies in armor or robes began to shuffle. Only Isaac needed a chair, and he sat.
The table glowed taking the shape of continents and hills. Rolling slopes of green and craggy mountains with surprising fidelity. She was a true goddess at this scale, her vast scope expressed in the little peeks of land and miniature cities. “Generals, Prefects, Tribunes of the Legion, gather round.” She smiled as she said it. “We have a war to win.”