This Beautiful Darkness Shall Protect Me...

by Timemaster

17-Bubbles.

Having been a week since the last meeting, I have finally fully moved into a moderately sized 'house' right outside the Council Building (Which is of a fancy dome design) and neighboring Trixie Lulamoon and Emissary Council Member Shining Armor (Yes, he tells us to call him that, for no reason).

The inside of my 'house' is just these three rooms:

-The bedroom, filled with soft and plushy things. It may seem nice, but I cannot go human in there, for the maids open the doors in the morning to wake me up. The maids are griffons who were caught here illegally, but are allowed a free-citizen pass if they do a half-year of community service. Most of them stay after that, though, for the job pays quite well. Glider, a maid who wakes me up with a feather in my nose each morning, is a nice gal, but mischievous.

-The kitchen/dining room is filled with all sorts of foodstuffs and a big table. The maids clean it, but you have to fork over an extra bag o' bits if you want Leo to cook. Leo is a nice griffon who cooks some great vegetarian dishes, for he is vegetarian himself. He doesn't talk much, though, which makes it uncomfortable to be around him, because his eyes are always focused on what he cooks, it looks like he is showing disapproval at what you say.

-But, most of all, there is the bathroom. Yes, it is indeed a bath room. There is a subsection of toilets, but there is just one big tub, that can fit twelve ponies, a few meters away from the blocked off toilets. The tub is, too, cleaned by the maids, so most of them ask to use the bath if your house is there last shift. The bath is just amazing, for is able to become a hot spring.

The reason that it can become that, though, is because we are in a mountain right next to a volcano. Volcanic glass is found everywhere around here, so you must wear booties if your feet are weak to such things. I always worry about that, unless, like now, I am in the hot-spring-tub-of-awesome.

"Ahh~" I say, sinking into the tub in my human form. I made sure to lock the door this time, because last time a maid walked in here while I was, er, in my happy time with the pony body. I felt violated as she covered her eyes and closed the door...

Thinking about it now, it was pretty funny. I laugh in the tub, seeing that the soapstuff I put in here made bubbles.

I think about random things, blowing bubbles in the palm of my hand... and fall asleep...

---

All I dream about is the bubbles, floating innocently in the air. The bubbles are glistening in the sunlight as they are moved by the wind towards distant goals...

Then, I realize, the bubbles are not floating, they are actually being pushed by the air. The air is a menace. The air acts like a supporter of the bubble, letting it rise to higher causes, but all the air wants is the air in the bubble. The air, warm and comforting, slowly pushes the bubble into a wall. The bubble, under pressure, pops and releases the air. The air is dank and humid, but free. The air joins the group of air again, but then somepony blows another bubble, trapping the air once more...

"But who is at fault?" Princess Luna said to my pony form in my dream, but my amulet made her blurry and me blurry.

I laugh an ominous laugh that scares me before I say, "Does it really matter who is at fault? History is written by the victors, anyways."

"It doesn't matter how someone felt." I say, curling up, "Even if the victor asks his people to fel sorry for the enemy, they will only grow to resent or forget them in the future..."

Princess Luna looks at my pony form, "Human, why are you with the changelings?"

"I am not. I am just waiting to be free."

"Then, who are you?"

"I would say it, but I feel that is premature. Let us build up our relationship... I have been only seeing you in my dreams for a week straight."

I try to sound as different as possible.

"Then, can I see you?"

"No. The form before you is just your understanding of my current body, but you've never really seen me, so you are replacing all my parts with somepony else you know..."

"So, who do I look like?"

She ponders for a second, "You look like Professor Jan, a colleague of Twilight Sparkle at alicorn school."

"Alicorn school? Professor?" I laugh, "If I was an alicorn, I would be free of this damned curse by now."

"I guess so."

My dream begins to blur.

"Well, I guess it is time for you to go."

"I gu—"

---

"AHH!" I jump out of the spring. Elda, the maid who saw me doing such things, was pulling me out by the ear. Thank goodness the black ooz gave me my amulet in the middle of sleep.

"Don't you know privacy?"

"Don't ya' know ya' can die in there?" Elda said, a pair of sunglasses on.

"Why do you have sunglasses on?" I said, chuckling.

"Well, I dun' want to see ya' playing with ya' self again."

"Then why not send a male maid?" she lets go of me.

"They all too busy with cleaning the council rooms today..." she hands me my sleeping clothes, "so I was tasked to put everypony in bed."

"Have you been successful so far?"

"Nope."

"Well, then you are now." I put on my sleeping clothes, "Have a dip in the tub, I am gonna sleep. Goodnight."

"Don't drown in your bed, ya'hear?"

"I won't."

I dreamed of the bubbles all night...

---

"Lets get down to business!" I say to the council, who elected me as the head of today's meeting, " Has anypony gotten any clues on the identity of the necromancer?"

Hector Velp, the communication/spy leader, raises his claw.

"Yes, Hector?"

He pops his jaw, "Well, you see, we have found some hairs of the necromancer."

"What color are they?" I say, everypony else nodding.

"That's the odd part," he pulls out a bag, "they are a rainbow of gray."

He tosses me the bag from my left. I catch it with my odd wings (that I still haven't flown in).

The hairs are all the shades, black to white. I pass the bag along to the left row, who hand it back to Hector.

"Is there anypony of this fur-color in your database?"

"Not anypony," he frowns, "any zebra."

"I thought zebras were only black-white?"

"Well, actually, it is a zebra-unicorn hybrid, which is not that uncommon now a days."

"So, anyone match the description?"

"Not in this country... which means that we may be dealing with an illegal immigrant on our hooves."

"Illegal immigrant?" spouted Trixie, "I thought the guards at the border were thicker than anywhere else?"

"They are, but there is always loopholes, my dear." I say to Trixie, trying to calm her down a bit. I am too far to eat her emotion, though.

She looks at me funny, but sits back in her seat.

"is that all the evidence?"

"So far, yes, but we will stay vigilant, as you always advised."

"Thank you... now for the trivialities."

Everypony sighs, reaching for the stack of paper next to them.

"First order of business, what the fundings should be for the army for next year...