• Published 19th Aug 2013
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My Little Changeling: Love is Life - Zephyrus Scary



Twisted Spare and friends go on vaguely familiar adventures and learn vaguely familiar lessons about the power of love between Changelings.

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Episode 2: Elements of Unity

My Little Changeling: Love is Life

Zephyrus Scary

Episode 2:

Elements of Unity

Amidst the chaos of the fleeing citizenry, those few Soldiers that Queen Chrysalis had selected to accompany her more for ceremonial appearances than actual protection valiantly push themselves forward to confront the possessor of their queen. However, upon finding themselves between Queen Husk and the panicking mob, they glance uncertainly at each other, all asking the same question with their expressions: How can we save and protect Queen Chrysalis with her body possessed? One second later this does not matter; ropes of green fire emerge from Queen Husk’s horn, and before the Soldiers can light up their own horns to bring forth any kind of defense, the fire binds them, wrapping them into flaming cocoons.

Stomping forward, Queen Husk narrows her eyes as she searches the raucous crowds, but just as she had already suspected, the worker that had stepped forward and so foolishly revealed herself as the only one who knows who Husk is and why she’s here has already disappeared. It matters not; she is only one. That so little is known of me is still some relief enough—that worker might not even know about the Elements! It should not be too difficult to secure them, then, but just in case… Turning nonchalantly away from those few frozen in fear that had been left by those fleeing, Queen Husk turns back to the cocooned just as the fires die away, revealing the Changelings with their new orange eyes and elytra.

- - - -

Flying full tilt towards the library, slowly separating herself from the Changelings intent on hiding or gathering cherished possessions to continue fleeing elsewhere, Twisted Spare silently curses herself as Gaze beats his wings madly, struggling to keep up. I could have handled that a lot better by not being so stupidly dramatic and just keeping my tongue still, because now Queen Husk knows I’m the only Changeling here that knows who she is, and if she knows what happened to the Elements of Unity-! The Elements of Unity… I need to get them before her!

Shooting through the door of the library and screeching to a halt, Twisted looks around frantically, now cursing herself for not familiarizing herself with the layout of this library. “Great! This is just great!” She screams to herself as a gasping Gaze stumbles in. “I don’t even know where to begin researching where the Elements of Unity might be. I don’t even know if that information on the Elements of Unity is in this library!” Shivering as she tries to fight back her panic, Twisted sits back so she can press both foretarsi against her forehead.

“Elements of Unity, huh? What are those?” Repeat Design buzzes her forewings in warning after landing. “-and how did you know that was Queen Husk? How did you know she was real? Are you working for her? Are you a spy?!” She nearly growls as she stomps forward, creating a web of hair-thin cracks on the stone floor.

Calmly stepping beside her, Proxyhack shoves the musclebound worker back with a single foreleg, even as the Cavekeeper lets out an aggressive snort. “Uh, you really think that makes sense, there, partner? A Changeling spying on Changelings? In case ya’ve failed to notice, Twisted here has the same shell and eyes as you an’ me.” As she’s explaining this and successfully getting Repeat to at least settle her wings, three more workers enter the library: those Twisted Spare had met as she had checked on the Carnival’s preparations. “Now, ya obviously know more about this than anyling, but what do ya know?” PH turns calmly—almost amicably, considering the situation—back to Twisted.

Maybe talking through it might help me regather my thoughts, Twisted quickly decides. “I read about her prophesized return, but what’s important right now are the Elements of Unity! They’re the only weapon guaranteed to defeat Queen Husk, since it was Queen Chrysalis who used them against her before, but I don’t know where they are, I don’t know how to find them… I don’t even know how to use them!” Turning away, Twisted begins pacing, stomping occasionally in agitation.

Piccy soon stops that, however, by suddenly somehow simply appearing in front of her without a teleportation spell. “Why not start here?” she asks, shoving a book against Twisted muzzle—too close for her to read its title. Piccy pulls it back and turns it around to read it for her. “The Elements of Unity: A Reference Guide.”

Pulling the book out of Piccy’s grip, she stares at the familiar cover for a moment. “That right! I meant to study this book last night! While I was doing my research on Queen Husk’s return, I didn’t bother with studying the Elements, since then I thought Queen Chrysalis would take care of it!” In that instant, her excitement dies down—a dangerous sign, so Gaze worried, as he had never seen her lose enthusiasm over reading before. “-but now… she can’t…” Her voice wavers, then suddenly catches when a presence leans against her: Photoshape, a silent support. Twisted tries to give her a tiny smile of thanks, but it does not come, then trying to offer an apology with her eyes, she awkwardly turns back to the book.

“‘Chap- Chapter One: Introduction to the Elements’…” she reads off the table of contents, then flips to the appropriate page as the rest settle before her in a semi-circle; she quickly zeros in on the third paragraph. “The Elements of Unity are composed of six Elements, though only five are known—Trust, Devotion, Joy, Compassion, and Forgiveness—as the sixth has slipped even from the Queen’s memory. The resting place of the now-useless Elements is the very same as the city Queen Chrysalis confronted Husk, which is now known as-…” Her eyes widen, then narrow, then she quickly shuts the book upon noticing Photoshape leaning in to read, causing the other Changeling to jump from surprise, then blink, silently asking for an explanation.

“Well?” Repeat Design prompts impatiently.

“Where are they? Do you know how to get there?” Forgery asks more directly.

“… Yes… and yes,” Twisted eventually answers simply as she slips the book under her elytra, which is pushed up slightly from it’s natural relaxed position, but this is no less comfortable than it would be for a pony to carry the same book in a set of saddlebags.

“-and?!” Repeat steps forward, flaring her elytra for a second, insistent.

“It doesn’t concern you.” Twisted turns away, taking Gaze into her magic and pulling him into the bedroom, ignoring his cry of surprise. Repeat zooms in after her before Twisted can close the door while the other four look between themselves uncertainly, but they don’t leave the library.

“Well, I dun’no about all’a ya all, but Twisted is just one Changelin’, and the only one with a real plan, so I’m with-”

“Say no more, PH. I agree, but…” Forgery turns away and shifts her forewings. “Does it not worry you that she will not tell us of the Elements’ last location? I’m not saying the intent is not noble, but if the offer is, indeed, futile…”

PH snorts and stands taller, determined. “So what if it is? Ain’t no harm in offerin’.”

“I agree…” Photoshape suddenly cuts in, leaving Forgery’s mouth hanging open at such a declaration coming from her of all Changelings; of course, this has the result of Photoshape drawing into herself with a little buzz of shock at her own daring, but the determination to speak her side is stronger. “I mean… Twisted Spare is scary, but Queen Husk is even more-” Photoshape gulps. “Thinking about just letting Queen Husk do what… she wants-… I can’t stand it!”

Her cry of such surety is only about as loud as any other Changeling’s normal speaking voice, but it has PH rearing up. “Yee-hah! That’s the spirit! I knew you had it in ya!”

“Yeah!” Piccy jumps forwards, pulling the Medkeeper and Ponytender into a hug. “Friends to the end! We fight for each other!” Piccy finishes by pulling back to wave a foreleg invitingly at Forgery.

Half sighing, half huffing, Forgery steps forward to allow herself to be pulled in. “As if I could disagree! Still, I must admit I am more scared of fighting such a war than I am of fighting… the queen who wishes to instigate it.”

“Ain’t no shame in that; I am, too.” PH winks, to which Forgery gives a small nod of thanks.

- - - -

As this is going on, Twisted Spare pulls Gaze and deposits him in his bed. “Gaze, I need you to stay here while-” Twisted tries to calmly explain, but, as she had half (more than half, truthfully) expected, he instantly bursts into argument.

Twis-?!

“Gaze… I-”

No! Twis, no! I can’t just-”

“I need you to stay here! Queen Husk isn’t going to care about a cockatrice as long as she doesn’t know we-… we’re prac- we’re family.” At the same time, the two jump together into a hug, Twisted knowing this could very well be the last contact she has with him “I want you to promise me, alright? You’ll be safe here, and… if I succeed, of course I’ll come back, but if not-… If I’m not back in twenty-four hours, then… I want you to promise me you’ll leave.”

“Twis… no… don’t…-” He tries to fight, but even he knows it’s over.

“You’re growing into a good, strong rooster, Gaze. You’ll be fine. I’ll be fine, too! I know where to go, and I know what to do, and if I figured it out, that means someling else can, too… if I fail.” Twisted shakes her head. “-but that’s not going to happen! This is… ‘just in case’. There’s absolutely no reason to think I could fail!” It’s such a transparent lie—as a Changeling that had never left Melipoland, nor trained to do so, Twisted had never once lied before this moment, but therein lies the meaning: Even Repeat forgets her anger for a moment in witnessing a Changeling lie to her own kind (at least to one whom she considers as her own kind).

“O-…-kay.” Gaze slumps before moving in for a tighter hug; he would have liked longer, but he knows every second he keeps her is a second they’re giving to Queen Husk to pull ahead in her plans. Instead, he sighs as he pulls away, turning to a wallclock to note the time. Twenty-four hours…

Twisted turns around, only to jump back when a hoof is thrust into her face—Repeat Design’s. “Hold it! I am not-”

“Follow me,” Twisted interrupts calmly, pushing the hoof down with her own.

Thrown off her attack plan, Repeat steps back in turn. “Uh… huh?” is the only halfway coherent sound she’s capable of making.

Twisted sighs and begins to step around the Cavekeeper. “If you want to help, follow me.”

The sound of the door opening triggers something, helping Repeat snap back to reality; she whips around to ask, “-but where is-?”

“That’s where I’ll be taking you—and the others, if they want to help, too, I suppose—and when we get there, I’ll ask you again.”

“Tshk!” Repeat rolls her eyes as she follows the grim-face Twisted out of the bedroom. “Why would I want to change my mind?”

- - - -

The six workers occasionally shiver as they step silently trough the now deserted—apparently deserted—town, whipping their heads around to stare intently whenever they believe they see something move at the edge of their sight, and considering more than once they all simultaneously look at the same spot, their fears do not at least seem entirely unfounded.

As they finally reach the end of Fangville and begin to leave it behind as so many others had (hopefully not while under Queen Husk’s control), Photoshape breaks the silence just as they feel the atmosphere of a ghost town lift from around them. “Uhm, Twisted Spare? Why are we going to my house? If you don’t mind explaining that…” Photoshape affixes, considering that Twisted had continually denied to tell them their destination.

Twisted shakes her head, then braces herself before answering, “We’re not going to your house.” Just as she anticipated, all five sets of tarsi behind her suddenly stop; turning slightly, she watches the horror grow on each Changeling’s face.

Finally, Forgery speaks what Twisted knows is on each of their minds. “-but the only other- We’re not going into-… into-…”

“The Petualoose Mines!?” All five wail in such perfect unison that Twisted’s first thought is that the phenomenon might have something to do with the locals’ belief of the curse. It might even be some kind of Fangville “tradition” to refer to the Mines in that way to entrench the mysterious and threatening atmosphere the place is suppose to- Twisted shakes her head rapidly to dislodge the mental rambling, which the others see and unfortunately misinterpret, if their collective sigh of relief is anything to go by.

“Yes, we are,” Twisted affirms before their denial can go too deep. “-or at least I am, since I wouldn’t be too surprised if all you decide to leave now.” Despite her words and despite earlier telling herself that she wanted to—should!—do this alone, she still pulls her legs the slightest bit into herself, hoping differently than before.

Piccy seems not to have heard, going from shocked and frightened to carefree and… bouncy. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” She finishes with an innocent kind of giggle that lifts the gloom straight out of the atmosphere, then bounds forward, leading the way past a stunned Twisted.

Can a Swarmincorporator really have that powerful an influence? To completely redirect-… redirect-… “Huh? Wha-? Wait!” Twisted, regaining herself, gallops after the five that had gone ahead. Before she can reorganize her thoughts and phrase a proper question, Proxyhack speaks up.

“Yeh c’n save your breath. Yes, we’re coming. Yes, we know it’s dangerous. No, we don’t care.” Buzzing into a hover and pulling back alongside Twisted, she lays a foreleg across her back. “We might not be as, eh, ‘qualified’, but we’re stickin’ to you like gumbark!” She asserts confidently, pumping her other foreleg in anticipation of victory (and bringing her wings to a light buzz to keep her balance).

“Especially if there’s gumbark in there!” Piccy calls out cheerily, bouncing up to Twisted’s other side, making her doubletake, for Twisted is, or had been, certain that the Swarmincorporator had been ahead of them just a second ago. “What? That stuff is good,” Piccy says, misinterpreting the meaning behind Twisted’s expression.

She’s the Swarmincorporator. She’s the Swarmincorporator. She’s the Swarmincorporator. Twisted tells herself as the other five allow her to pass them so that she’s at the front once again when they pass by the tunnel leading to Photoshape’s place; entering the cave devoid of light-enchanted wax, the six light up their horns, giving off soft, pulsing green lights. She can’t be as bad as… whatever she seems to be… Casting for a change of subject, she asks the first question that comes to mind. “So, have any of you been in the Petualoose Mines before?”

Forgery lets out a disgusted snort and clicks her elytra in displeasure. “Why, of course not! This place is absolutely horrid. Worse than the surface, even, somelings say!”

“I hear it just ain’t like the rest of Melipoland,” PH adds, “Things happen that can’t be explained!”

“‘Things that can’t be explained’? How is that possible? What kind of phenomena are you talking about? Do you have an example?” Twisted Spare rapid-fires questions.

“Of course not…” Repeat Design wavers her voice for faux-spooky effect as she crouches and creeps along with wide, silent steps. “-and do you know why?”

Twisted’s genuine curiosity is shot down by noticing out of the corner of her eye the bored, almost disapproving expression with which PH is regarding the Cavekeeper. “Repeat, do you really expect Twisted of all-lings to-”

“-because everyling that has gone in… has never come out!” She suddenly jumps forward in a pounce that purposefully misses, but Twisted turns away and shares a roll of the eyes with PH, making Repeat huff at her failed scare attempt.

That doesn’t even make sense! How would anyling know the Mines were cursed if noling has ever returned? Backwards-thinking villagers!… Maybe I should have insisted they stay behind after all? No, too late for that, and I don’t want to waste time arguing! Just have to hope they don’t slow me down, or- “Does anyling else smell that?” Twisted asks, lifting her head high and sniffing deeply—the scent had only been a hint before, but this inundates with such pleasantness, that she momentarily forgets herself, and she only comes back to herself at the tailend of a sigh.

The others follow her example, PH coming out of euphoria quickest. “Love?” she questions not what it is, but why this scent would be here. “Did you leave a barrel open or somthin’, Photo?”

The Ponytender instantly looses the smile the smell had given her, now frowning sadly at the ground at the perceived accusation; Twisted is the one to speak for her. “That doesn’t make any sense.” She shakes her head. “If it was Photoshape’s, why would we only be smelling it now? Unless… it was stolen, and the only Changeling I can think of who would do something like this is-!”

“Queen Husk!” Repeat Design jumps up, revving her wings to shoot down the cave.

“Wait!” Twisted orders, using her magic to knock the overeager-ling from ruining their chance at catching the evil queen by surprise. “We can’t just rush at her! We need a plan! We need the Elements, before we do anything else! -but… if we can spy on her-… figure out what she’s doing with that love before we-… Wait here.” She turns and holds out her foreleg, emphasizing the order.

As soon as she disappears around a corner, Repeat speaks up. “She doesn’t really expect us to just sit here and wait, does she?” Noling needs to answer, and Repeat doesn’t wait for one before leading the way after Twisted Spare.

Ahead of them, Twisted, expecting to run into Queen Husk at any turn, has dimmed her hornlight to the point where she can only see the outlines of the walls about a meter around herself. Following her nose at a fork of two caves, the smell of whatever love had been stolen begins to overwhelm her to the point she has to focus on keeping her shaking hooves—eager to rush ahead—from making too much noise against the stone floor of the cave. Some meters behind her, the other five follow suit, not wanting to alert Queen Husk to their presence; judging by the thickening scent, she must be very close by.

Indeed, it’s not long before Twisted comes upon an area where the floor begins to slope gently downwards and the walls fly away into the darkness of a chamber of unknown proportions, yet the ceiling sudden drops so that Twisted’s horn barely misses scraping the rock above her; she estimates that Queen Chrysalis—and therefore Queen Husk—would be forced to crawl along on their belly. With one gulp to steel herself, Twisted lets the light from horn go out, sure that she’ll find some hint of activity from Queen Husk very soon.

There! A flash of green light at the bottom of the slope, distorted as if being reflected off some curved surface. There must be another cave leading off this chamber! Now that she is so close to the source, she can’t stop herself from lifting her nose high and taking a deep, appreciating sniff, at which point she pauses once more. Something is… wrong about that love. Is Queen Husk doing something to it? The legends say she feeds off of hatred, so the love she stole-… Is she trying to turn it into hate?! Can she do that?! Of course Twisted, as Queen Chrysalis’s personal student, knows more than most about spells that a very few special Changelings—Lovebreeders—use which can, with time and care, intensify even the tiniest amount of friendliness into an intense romantic attraction. For the reverse? To take the tiniest seed of animosity and cultivate it into murderous loathing?

… Not entirely outside the realm of possibility…

Shivering at the idea that Queen Husk might somehow turn her against Queen Chrysalis by exploiting some weakness in her devotion to her leader and teacher, she steps forward into absolute darkness, forgetting the slope, and consequently stumbling into the beginnings of a fall. She tries to steady herself by jumping into the air and bringing her forewings to life, but she only slams herself against the low ceiling, sending her back onto the slope, down which she begins to roll with a yelp of shock. Every attempt at stopping herself fails: She has no way to grab onto anything with her tarsi at the speed she’s tumbling (somewhat instinctively, she realizes the slope is becoming steeper), her wings are constantly pushed back against her side when she tries to open them, and she can’t concentrate enough to bring her magic to her own aid.

The other five rush forward at Twisted’s first cry of pain, only sending themselves falling after her except Proxyhack, who, at the back of the swarm, stops herself just in time upon noticing those before her falling away out of her sight. Careful not to step onto the slope, she lights up her horn to full brightness, quickly figuring that if Queen Husk is close, she certainly would have heard her fellows’ cries anyway. She does not focus on the others, but looks ahead to where they are falling, and the thing at the bottom—to which Twisted Spare is already dangerously close—makes her eyes widen for only a moment before she narrows them in determination and brings her forewings buzzing.

Near the bottom of the slope, Twisted is being driven to near madness by the intensity of the love in the air, even as she continues falling—she even begins to think that this tumble will be worth it as soon as she gets to sip at the sweet love. Actually, this fall might even be fortuitous, only sending me all the more quickly to that love! Hitting the lip of what she imagines to be some hole, from which that maddening scent is issuing, her body is slammed against what Twisted had thought should have been a wall of rock, but is waxy and… “surface-y”? Grass-y.

The disgust that the feeling of plant-matter brings to Twisted pulls her out of her love-induced hypnosis. She scrabbles for purchase as she begins to fall into the hole, but quickly finds that the waxy texture of the apparent-leaves that line the hole prevent her usually so reliably sticky tarsi from stopping her fall. In her panic, she bites into the plant, and she finds to her relief that its thick, sturdy “body” holds instantly, even if it hurt her jaw and neck a little to stop falling so suddenly. Twisted lets herself hang there for a moment, regaining her senses and allowing her heart to calm itself.

This is interrupted by the arrival of shouts of surprise and pain, and her grasp is threatened as four bodies fall past her one after the other, almost seeming determined to knock her lose in the narrow hole. Their cries are silenced by the sound of splashing from below, and for a too-long moment she waits from them to surface and call out. Now with both panic and the draw of that love scent rising again, she carefully removes one of her fangs from the plant to tilt her head enough to look down, and she just barely manages to keep herself from screaming in fear at what she sees.

What she had imagined as a pool of water is, in fact, a pouch filled with something that must have a texture like that of syrup, given how the four are struggling inside it. The absurdity nearly convinces her that this must be some nightmare—being as they are, “insect dreams” (nightmares of suffering humiliating fates as common insects might meet) are not at all uncommon for Changelings—but the still-throbbing aches of her recent tumble inform otherwise. Some kind of giant insect-eat- Changeling-eating plant?! How?!

Swinging herself back up to reinsert her free fang once more into its hole, she thinks frantically for some method of not only escaping herself, but rescuing the ones already drowning below her. That’s when movement catches her eye, but it takes her a moment to process: The leaf attached to the hole of the chamber, which she had hit at the end of her tumble, is closing. If this thing regularly… “ingests” Changelings, would I be able to open that?

This is answered soon for her by the last of their group, PH, arriving and attempting to hold the leaf at bay as she looks down into the “belly” of the plant, for even though her legs visibly shake at attempting to hold it open, the strange strength behind the leaf unhaltingly pushes it closed. Proxyhack only gapes at the horror under her for a second before pulling away from Twisted’s view. “Wait!” Twisted cries, successfully calling PH back over the “lip” of the plant. “Help me!” She holds out her forelegs, inviting PH to fly in, grab her, and pull her out, but the motion causes her fangs to shift dangerously, so she quickly drops them back to her side.

PH shakes her head as she slowly pulls back. “Even if I could- Just hold on!” Is all the worker says before disappearing from sight, leaving Twisted with nothing more to look at than the still-closing leaf. In a panic, she fires off a spell to burn the plant, but her magic fragments into mere sparks upon hitting the leaf that undoubtedly had developed every possible defense against Changelings.

“-but... I can’t,” Twisted whispers to herself as the leaf seals the plant’s five morsels inside. Dislodging her fangs the rest of the way, she lets herself fall, closing her eyes, knowing her inevitable fate, relaxing into the syrupy liquid, which almost, if she stretches her imagination, cushions her fall, and envelops her like the softest of all possible blankets.

A jostle, and an odd sound reaches her through the liquid: a kind of thump… maybe. This thing doesn’t have a heart… does it? She questions; the plant’s very existence has already shaken her understanding of things, making this seem not all that implausible. Another jostle and thump, then a third and fourth. The fifth heralds another fall and more tumbling, and when all is done, she finds herself suddenly able to breathe, and all around are the sounds of gasping.

Climbing onto shaking hooves, the first thing she realizes is that the plant is now on its side, from… falling? she wonders as she looks up at the leaf, where Proxyhack has reappeared and now capable of pulling the covering back without apparent trouble. After hacking and spitting and shaking out their wings and antennae as best they could, the five crawl out the plant that had almost taken their lives, and now find themselves in a wide and high-ceilinged cave filled with brightly glowing crystals of seemingly all colors. The green light… It must have been these crystals’ light filtered through the plant’s membrane and reflected off the leaf… Twisted Spare realizes with embarrassment and disappointment.

As for the plant, Twisted turns around to see that it had been supported by a trunk of a stem, nearly as thick as a Changeling’s thorax, which, she next realizes, PH must have chopped through to free them. Proxyhack, I should have known she wouldn’t really leave us to die… She turns back to the humble-ling sitting off to the side, politely waiting for everyling else to shake off the ordeal and ready themselves to continue. “Proxyhack, I’d hug you if I wasn’t still covered in a thin layer of… this.” Twisted lifts a foreleg to show off how the crystals’ light reflects off a thin layer of the plant’s digestive juice still clinging to her carapace.

“In-Indeed!” Forgery adds, regaining as much poise as a Changeling can while being covered with such slime, and prompting the others to voice their thanks in a jumble of praise.

“Yeah! Awe-some!”
“That was super-duper-wuper-fuper!”
“I… agree.”

PH tries to hide her grin, looking down and away. “Shucks, I was just doing what- Did anyling else else hear that?” She asks suddenly, pulling her head up, antennae twitching; the others, having heard nothing, follow her, tilting their heads this way or that, straining to hear… something. Nothing happens for a few long minutes.

“Are you sure you heard somethin’, Hack?” Repeat eventually asks, being the first to run out of patience, and slumping in a disappointed way, as if she had been hoping for action that she could actually fight back against this time.

“’Course I’m sure.” PH answers, leaning even further in the direction she had been sure she heard something: the only way forward. “It sounded… a bit like rock scraping ’gainst rock… but not quite?” she adds with a glance at the ceiling that gives not the slightest sign that it might be about to cave-in, even to Repeat’s trained eyes.

The six linger for a moment, indecisively glancing between their only two choices: back up, or forward through the crystal-speckled cave with the supposed rock-on-rock sound of unknown origin—not that the five had any reason to doubt the sensitivity of Proxyhack’s antennae. Eventually, Twisted voices her opinion. “Well, we’re already down here, so we might as well see what’s down this path. If we run into a cave-in or something, I know where there’s another cave that branches off up there.” She gestures up at the vertical shaft the giant pitcher plant had occupied, and the others nod in vague agreement.

So they set off, mostly quiet, still listening for any sign of that rock-on-rock-like sound PH had mentioned—all except for Twisted Spare, who ponders the light-emitting crystals. This light… would a plant be able to photosynthesize it? Bah, of course it would; it’s the only thing that explains the existence of that giant Changeling-eating plant… but then why aren’t there any other plants around?… Were these crystals the reason these caves were mined? Except that Changelings don’t have as heavy a need for plants as other beings, so was it some kind of export? If so, for what, and with whom?

The rumble Proxyhack had spoken of finally sounds once more, much closer and now loud enough to make the six of them crouch and step back a few paces in anticipation of something bearing down on them. Nothing happens except for the sound disappearing just as suddenly as it had reappeared, leaving them shaking for a long moment, waiting for it to sound a third time.

As the fog of fear left in the sound’s wake dissipates, something new catches Twisted’s eye: a patch of deep shadow that, given the spread of crystals, shouldn’t exist. Stepping forward curiously, she catches sight of a crystal inside the patch of shadow, barely discernable in the inexplicable, localized darkness. Crystals that… “cancel out” light, as well? Those would definitely be of use to Changelings! So why haven’t I ever heard of such a thing? If these were mined, why aren’t they still in use since they don’t appear to lose their power over time? Unless I’m assuming too much about these crystals…? I don’t know. Something to think about after Queen Chrysalis is safe!

“Woah!… That’s freaky,” Repeat Design comments from beside Twisted, also straining to peer into the artificial shadow. Then, in full folk-science fashion, Repeat tentatively lifts a foretarsus, and before Twisted can shout, “No!” she taps the crystal.

Instantly, the rock-on-rock scraping/rumbling sound returns, drowning out Twisted’s too-late cry of warning. This time, it doesn’t stop, but grows louder and louder, soon causing the ground to shiver, then begin to shake when it becomes possible to distinguish the sound of something huge and heavy walking.

Silently, five fall into a line and crouch, ready to fight off what might threaten them, or to fly away and hopefully lose the apparently giant creature in the narrow pitcher plant’s shaft. If whatever this is was put here by Queen Husk, then this has to be the right way!

Behind the five, Photoshape takes one tiny step back for every booming footfall, until an inexplicable shadow comes into view, at which point she hides her head under her forelegs, but an instant later looks up, head tilted. Twisted, meanwhile, lights up her horn with the others. The rock-on-rock sound! It’s a golem made of those anti-light crystals! Smart… The darkness makes it practically impossible to identify the golem’s Key Stone, so it looks like we’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way!

Forgery preemptively rushes forward unaided by her four shocked allies, who can only watch as she manages to dodge under a swipe of one of the golem’s forelegs, then she jumps to the side from a stomp, landing on the cave wall, which she then uses to shift her momentum to deliver a spinning kick to the golem’s head. However, given the deep shadows hiding the golem’s exact form, Forgery had miscalculated the angle of her kick against the shape of the golem’s head, thus sending her tumbling. Moreover, the golem is hardly fazed by the kick, and Forgery barely manages to regain her senses in time to roll out of the way of another stomp, leaving her to retreat back into the line, grinning sheepishly.

“Alright… this time, together!” Twisted stomps one of her tarsi forward in a battle-ready stance she had seen the Soldiers-in-training practicing on the grounds around Buzzington Castle; the other four—two on either side—copy her. As the golem continues to make its slow, seemingly inexorable way towards them, Photoshape, still behind the others, steps forward as well, but curiously, narrowing her eyes, straining to pierce the darkness hiding something she’s sure she had caught a glimpse of just before Forgery had launched her attack.

The golem halts, raising its head up, almost making it appear shocked at the five’s approach, and at this moment Photoshape’s eyes widen. There! A flash of green light! Knowing she hasn’t a moment to waste, Photoshape teleports between the five rushing forward and the golem, shouting, “Sto-ooo-p!” but she needn’t have bothered, for her appearance in the flash of green magical fire makes all five buzz their wings frantically to help them halt their charge.

“Photoshape?! What-?!” Twisted begins to ask, but the Ponytender ignores her, turning to the golem and slowly approaching its still silently standing form. “Wait!” Twisted calls, but her warning is unheeded.

“You don’t have to do this,” Photoshape assure quietly when comes within touching-distance of the golem. The creature of anti-light crystals makes no response, so Photoshape reaches forward, neither slowly nor quickly, merely confidently, and brushes a few chunks of crystal off of the golem—rather, golem-like construct. She does this again and again, creating a “hole” in the shadows until the face of a Changeling can be seen, its horn lit, or at least the face of what seems to be a Changeling.

With its face fully uncovered, all six can see a formation of crystals floating inside an empty head, forming a kind of eye: A small diamond-shaped anti-light crystal—a “pupil”—is set inside a blue, octagonal-shaped light crystal—an “iris”. This eye-structure shifts between where each eye socket would be if the husk had a skull, glancing between Photoshape and the group of five still standing back where Photoshape had stopped them, all gaping at this development.

“You poor thing…” Photoshape whispers, stroking the side of the husk’s face, which feels as firm as if it still had flesh underneath. “Here, let me help.” Stepping back, Photoshape uses her magic to swiftly pull up a cube of earth out of the cave floor, leaving a hole just large enough for a Changeling.

Tentatively, the living husk pulls itself out of the golem-like construct and allows its horn to stop channeling magic, which leaves the anti-light crystals to collapse in a pile behind it. Shivering at its exposure, it swiftly climbs into the hole and falls still, and as Photoshape brings the cube of earth back over the hole, she sees the husk through the crack just before she drops the earth as it seems to sigh in relief. Photoshape copies the husk’s last act as the five behind her approach, shivering at what they just witnessed.

Everyling is told scary stories of unburied husks coming to life and wreaking havoc, but that is all they were, or all they had been, to convince nymphs to properly dispose of husks; such stories are not all that dissimilar from pony parents telling their foals to put their things neatly away in their closets or else monsters might take to inhabiting the unused spaces. The six glance at each other uneasily, knowing what they are all thinking.

First that insect dream come to life, now this nymph-scaring tale, too? Twisted shakes her head at the thoughts coming to her. It’s all so surreal I’m starting to worry that if this trend continues, I’ll only become more and more convinced this is actually dream, which it might be, but- No! I can’t think like that! This is definitely real, and I have to believe that to have any chance of saving Queen Chrysalis!… Still, something is very definitely wrong about this place—not “cursed”, of course!—but what’s happened here cannot have a natural origin, and something tells me this is not Queen Husk’s doing…

“Wait.” Twisted jerks her head up to look curiously over Photoshape. “How-… Photoshape, how did you know what to do?” This prompts the others to also look up, and their combined attention causes the Ponytender to draw back.

“We-Well…” Photoshape gulps and begins to nervously draw circles around a hole in her right foreleg with her left foretarsus when this only calls the other five to lean forward, expectant. “Animated husks sometimes… come out of the Mines, and- uhm… I help them. -by bury-”

What?!” Twisted cries out, making everyling jump, Photoshape highest of all. That… can’t-… -but she-… There’s no reason for her to lie… unless she’s deluded and/or wants to help perpetuate Fangville’s beliefs, but there’s no denying that what she did worked, so if either of the former is true, then the only other explanation is that she simply guessed what to do, which even I don’t buy!

“Urng… N-Never mind. We have more important things to worry about. So, how about we… just keep going?” Twisted gulps as she steps back from the barely discernable mound the buried husk makes in the cave floor, and pulls her eyes away from it to the pile of anti-light crystals that nearly blocks the way forward, then she pulls back in shock. As they had focused so completely on the husk, none had noticed the anti-light crystals losing their power, becoming apparently simple, non-magical black crystals. I guess they have to be powered by magic… Twisted shrugs before leading the way over the hill of crystals. The path beyond is largely uneventful save for the gradual shift in the ratio of light crystals to anti-light crystals until, eventually, the anti-light crystals simply end. Very different from how they had gradually grew in number… Twisted muses worriedly. Had they been mined long ago and stopped here from some reason, or were they gathered by Queen Husk just recently? Pondering this, she stares at the border where the crystals stop, but soon her line of sight is broken by a turn in the cave, and a different question supersedes it when she turns back forward. Wood? Here?

Splinters of wood spread over the cave floor soon turn to chunks of broken planks that hint they had once been parts of doors and door frames, then, just before a sharp turn, tiny glittering shards of glass, piles of what can only be glass crushed into sand, and a piece of bent metal—a hinge. Given this, Twisted isn’t too surprised to find a door in the cave wall around the next bend in the cave, but she is surprised, along with the other five, to see the cave lined with at least a dozen doors to each side. Most of these doors are broken, revealing only smooth rock wall behind where they had once stood, and the first door to the right—rather, door frame—contains a heavily cracked mirror, and its door lays on the ground beside it, mostly intact.

Twisted steps carefully forward—not in mind of the glass, as such cannot pierce her carapace, but in mind of anything that might wish her harm, frantically going over any stories that might warn about dangers around mirrors, but coming up empty—to peer into the supposed mirror. At first, as she approaches it from an angle, it seems to reflect the cave, as a mirror should, but as she comes in front of it, the image shifts to show a white, barren land beneath a cliff of ice. A… glacier? Is this some kind of spying device? Why would it be focused on what I’m guessing are the mountains in the north? Nothing’s up there… unless-…? I wonder how long this thing has been here. The spell is probably as broken as the mirror—just ready to fall apart…

Shrugging, she turns around, jumping slightly upon seeing that the others had come up behind her without her noticing, also staring, confused, into the broken mirror. “This doesn’t look important; let’s continue,” Twisted advises to general nods, though all continue looking back at the mirror until it once again fades into simply reflecting the cave when the angle of their line-of-sight to it becomes too sharp. Turning their heads back forward in near-unison, every one of their eyes falls upon a door that had been left partially open, showing them all something that makes them freeze.

No… It can’t… be! Twisted’s heart jitters in her chest; the shivers in that root to life would have caused her to fall if not for the mad, desperate tightening of her muscles, ready for any reason to spring to life… but there do not appear to be any. Past the frame of the door, Twisted sees the throne room of Buzzington Castle, where Queen Husk stands over the crumbled throne, the rubble of which partially obscures an unmoving Queen Chrysalis.

How?… How?! Repeat Design wants to scream, but her throat has locked itself, and even as much as she begs silently for an explanation, she already knows there’s only one cause behind what she sees. Only to her Cavekeeper eyes do the remains of Fangville make itself known, so complete is the devastation wrought by a massive cave-in.

Oh, no… Please, no! Of all of them, only Photoshape moves, lifting a tarsus to her mouth, opened in horror, and tears form in her eyes. There, she sees a Changeling with orange eyes and an orange elytra standing among the torn remains of the cocoons holding the ponies under her care; even before they can shake off the grogginess of the Ponytender’s magically induced sleep, the Changeling begins to restrain them in shackles of iron—one of the worst tortures Changelings know; neither Photoshape nor the orange Changeling seems aware that the ponies are not affected by iron like Changelings are.

There’s no way… Proxyhack’s breathing turns shallow, and her eyes glaze over, doubling her vision as if trying to block out the image, but she still can’t turn away or close her eyes to what she’s forced to watch. The door opens into her home, where all the family that had gathered for the Carnival sits tied, and there in the center of the room stands a Changeling that could only be of Husk’s Hive, looking over a collection of ingredients before a cauldron—ingredients that Proxyhack takes less than a second to realize can be mixed into a potent, painful, fatal poison.

Why!?… I didn’t-! Forgery’s mind works frantically to make sense of what she sees, going over every calculation and consideration that had gone into her work. She doesn’t question how the door shows the inside of a pony’s home, or rather, a Changeling’s home, whose disguise she had built from scratch, where the now-unmasked Changeling is restrained by pony-Soldiers under the pure terror-inducing gaze of Princess Celestia.

“Hmm?” Piccy hums in thought, tilting her head at what can only be nonsense. Standing beyond the door is none other than herself, glancing around in fear as the entirety of Fangville has cornered her and is slowly closing in on her with murderous intent in their eyes. That’s not happening right now, and there’s no way it’s gon’na happen, so-oooo… A smirk grows into a smile, and before long a chuckle escapes her, then a giggle, then a fully belly-laugh that makes her too weak to stand.

Finally, the other five are able to take their eyes away from the horrific scenes beyond the mirror-door, though only to stare with continued horror, now mixed with incredulousness, at Piccy as she rolls back and forth, almost looking like a bug struggling on its back, if not for the fact that it’s obvious she’s not even trying to get her legs back under her, what with her hugging her thorax as it heaves from her laughter. “Piccy, what-… what are you-…?” Twisted struggles with her tight throat to question her ally’s sanity.

Calming enough at this unfinished question to get back to her legs, Piccy gestures to the door. “Oh, girls, don’t you see?”

Girls? The others are momentarily distracted by this word. What’s with the pony-terminology all of a sudden?

Pausing to take in a huge breath, Piccy begins to sing.

“When I was little nymph-y and the Sun was going do-ow-own,”

This only further confuses the other five, which, as they’re yet unaware of, brings them further from the fake worries the door had brought to them. “Nymph-y”? -and what’s that part about the Sun supposed to be about? Did Piccy grow up on the surface?

“The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frow-ow-own.”

Here, Piccy begins to move to nonexistent music, often rubbing against and hugging her companions as if inviting them to join her.

“I’d hide under my pillow at what I thought I saw,
“But Granny Tick said that wasn’t the way to deal with fears at all!”

Inexplicably, she pauses for a moment, eyes wide with intent as she stares purposefully, expectantly at Repeat Design, but nothing happens, so Piccy continues singing.

“She said, ‘Piccy, you got’ta stand up tall; learn to face your fears!
“You’ll see that they can’t hurt you! Just laugh to make them disappear!”

Pausing to take another breath, Piccy jumps and stands with her head high before the door for a tense moment, then leans forward and lets out three short laughs, “Ha. Ha. Ha!” and with each one, a tiny crack forms in the door’s mirror, making the five others gasp, shocked and wondering how Piccy can do such a thing with a mere laugh. None of them speak as she continues to dance and sing, making further cracks in the mirror with every synonym.

“So-oooo, giggle at the ghostly!
“Guffaw with the grossly!

“Crack it up at the creepy!
“Whoop it up with the weepy!

“Chortle at the kooky!
“Snortle at the spooky!

“And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he’s got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wan’na-…”

As Piccy takes in yet another large gasp after saying that long sentence in one breath, she jumps into the mirror, landing in each vision as if there are five copies of her, and just before the finale of the song, she hugs to her side Queen Husk in Twisted’s vision, the orange Changelings in Photoshape’s and Proxyhack’s visions, and Princess Celestia in Forgery’s vision, then the Changelings of Fangville from Piccy’s vision suddenly appear in Repeat’s, and all the other Changelings—and in Forgery’s vision, ponies—simultaneously lift their heads to cheerfully cry out,

“-laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!”

Even with what they had just witnessed—though now knowing it was fake all along helps them discount it—the five can’t help but begin to smile at the ridiculousness of the scenes before them. Curiously lifting a leg, Twisted touches the mirror, almost expecting to fall through into her vision as Piccy had entered; instead, the mirror instantly shatters into dust upon contact. The particles flutter like cooling ashes, revealing Piccy standing inside a tiny alcove barely large enough for her.

“Huh…” Twisted exclaims, examining the harmless dust that had settled on on her leg, the paralysis she had felt upon looking in the mirror now mostly forgotten. “Oh!” She looks up at the still widely smiling Piccy. “Piccy, how did-? Never mind.” Twisted shakes her head of questions that can be considered later. “What… was that about? Laughter… doesn’t really help…” She gulps as the fear from seconds ago begins to creep up on her once more.

“Silly, it’s not about the laughter, it’s about what the laughter means!” Piccy bounces out of the alcove as if nothing had happened.

“‘What laughter means’?…” Twisted tilts her head nearly synchronistically with the four beside her, voicing all of their confusion.

“Yeppie!” Piccy closes her eyes cheerfully before sitting and lifting a foretarsus to her thorax, right over her heart, and lets her head hang as she closes her eyes—this calmness all in complete opposition to the Piccy they know. “All you have to do is think about the Changelings you care about…” she begins in a quiet, almost solemn tone before suddenly shouting out, “and you’ll just know what to do!” Piccy throws her legs up in her “Piccy-way”.

“Think about who we care about…” Twisted repeats, copying Piccy’s meditative-like stance. Queen Chrysalis… everything she’s done for me… and for all Changelings… There’s no way a little fear is going to stand in the way of that!

“Ha!” Twisted cries out and stomps the tarsus she had been holding over her heart, doing this with the other four in another moment of inexplicable timing. Their laugh might not sound like one of happiness—more like one of confidence—but in each, “Ha!” is contained the strength of happiness they had all experienced in the presence of those they love, and a wish for more of such moments to come, but first, “Let’s go!” Twisted calls once more, more confidently than any time before.

- - - -

Some time later, after “navigating” a long, winding cave without a single fork, Twisted comes to a halt at another bend, holding a foreleg out to the side to silently signal for the five behind her to stop—they don’t have to ask why, for just at the beginning of the curve they can see that once more active anti-light crystals block off all light suddenly. This has to be the most transparent trap of all traps that ever had and will exist! -but it’s been a long time since we last saw any branching cave, so… does this trap’s mere existence mean we’re going the right way?

“Alright, everyling,” Twisted whispers, hoping that only the five behind her can hear and noling wishing them harm that might be waiting in the shadows of the crystals. “That artificial darkness has to be hiding some trap or ambush, but it’ll make anyling else in there just as blind as us, and if anything happens, teleportation is one of my best spells, so there’s nothing we can’t handle.” She assures, trying to stoke the embers of the strong conviction Piccy’s “pep talk” had given them.

Around the six of them Twisted casts a weak barrier meant more as a means to neutralize any element of surprise or buy time to cast the teleportation spell she spoke of before they proceed into the shadows of the anti-light crystals. They don’t go very far before a drone’s voice, close, but still far enough away to be distorted by echoing, and yet all the same strangely familiar, makes them jump in surprise, then crouch, ready. “Heh heh heh… Ah-ha ha ha ha! You’ve fallen straight into Queen Husk’s ingenious trap, foolish-ling!”

“Is that-? Aieee!” is all Forgery gets out before the cave begins to shake, almost making them fall—Forgery isn’t the only one to cry out in shock and fear.

“Look out!” Repeat Design calls out over the ever-worsening rumbling. She lights up her horn, but without being able to see the cave itself, she’s rendered incapable of casting her usual Cavekeeping spells, so all she’s able to do is lend her strength and knowledge to Twisted’s barrier, making it more specialized to stand up against falling rock.

As the shaking of the cave continues to build, all of the anti-light crystals are shaken loose and lose their shadow-casting power, and with reflexes born of her training, Repeat quickly stabilizes the ceiling she can now see, nearly instantly stopping the rumbling.

“Huh? How did-? You were supposed to be alone!” The once-confident drone yells with fear now present in his tone. “I have to tell Queen Husk!” Looking up through the clearing dust, they see a Changeling with blue elytra retreating, but his turned back can’t hide his identity.

“Tsep?! What is the meaning of this!?” Forgery calls, rushing ahead, flying over the rubble of broken crystals, leaving the others to frantically follow her.

It’s not only the sound of his name that makes him look back in shock. “Forgery?! You’re-?!” Before he can finish his question, he slams into the cave wall where it narrows sharply. This disturbance, combined with Repeat’s hasty work, is all that’s needed to once again cause the cave to begin shaking, only now centered over where Tsep lies in a daze—a crack quickly appears in the rock over him, shaking copious dust onto him.

Twisted fearfully glances towards Repeat Design, but in her fury, the Cavekeeper refuses to aid the traitor, doing nothing more than narrowing her eyes. Regaining sense just enough to realize the danger he’s in, Tsep kicks off the wall, not thinking about why the rock is getting ready to cave-in. He manages to launch himself out of immediate danger, but a boulder, finally shaken completely loose by his kick, slides out of the wall and comes down on his hind legs, after which the instabilities in the rock settle, at least for now.

“Tsep!” Forgery repeats as she lands before him, still surprised, but such has abated enough for anger to come to the forefront. “What is-!? What are you doing here?!” She struggles to ask as the others come up behind her.

Wincing and hissing at the pain in his legs, but rather bravely showing no more reaction, Tsep answers, “I… was waiting to trigger that trap, but…” he sighs, “Queen Husk told me that it would be easy, since only she was coming…” He waves a foretarsus at Twisted.

Before Twisted can properly process this and what would have happened to her (multiple times over by now), Forgery explodes, “That’s not what I meant, and you know it! Why?!” Tsep winces further, pulling his legs more tightly against himself, but whether it’s Forgery’s shout or that the force of it causes another momentary rumble through the cave, only he knows.

Gulping, he blinks a few sudden tears from his eyes before they go blank. “I… saw… what she can do.” He pauses, and his breath quickens as the scene replays in his mind; the six standing around him wait with their own breaths held. “Those Soldiers that-… she made them like herself, and I knew she did something to their minds, too. I didn’t want that to happen to… me… so I offered to serve her willingly.”

“Oh, no…” Twisted whispers. I really, really hope that’s reversible…! No, it has to be reversible! Right?

“Feh!” Repeat snorts disdainfully. “Well, at least we know we’re going the right way now!” She points into where the cave narrows, the only path onward and the only escape Tsep could have been heading for; she takes a few steps, obviously intent on leading the way.

“Wait!” Tsep lifts a foreleg, offering it as if to invite them to pull him out from under the boulder. “You’re not just going to leave me here like this! Are you? You can’t! Please don’t…” He begs, switching tones from frantic to worrying to aggressive to sorrowful.

“What do you think, quisling?” Repeat spits, making Tsep wince, before continuing to walk unconcernedly, muzzle up and nose wrinkled in disgust; upon reaching the entrance of the narrowed cave, she looks back, one brow raised upon noticing noling is following her—in her anger, she doesn’t register their shocked, disapproving expressions. “Uh… Hey! Lings! Are we stopping Queen Husk or not?”

“Repeat Design!” Forgery attempts to scold, but the name, oddly, doesn’t mix well with such a tone of voice. “Can’t you show a little sympathy or understanding for Tsep’s position!? What hope is any normal worker or drone—such as ourselves and Tsep here—supposed to have standing against a Queen without the Elements?! It’s surrender or-!…” Forgery gulps. “… assimilation.”

Hoping to help persuade the Cavekeeper—the one who would know how to free him most safely—Tsep nods, not too vigorously, fearing such would only irritate Repeat further, but not too slowly, either. Spotting this, she narrows her gaze on him slightly before turning directly away from him and sitting down. “Hmph!” is all Repeat offers, obviously not averse to the others freeing Tsep and just as obviously not about to offer aid. Instead, she mutters to herself, “‘-any normal worker such as ourselves’? speak for yourself…!”

Sighing, shaking her head, and closing her eyes to help her focus as she takes a moment to gather her reserves of patience, Forgery turns back to Tsep. Humming in thought as she takes a careful look about the boulder and how it contacts the cave wall and the cracks around it, she tries to determine a safe way to lift the boulder, but her complete lack of training or studying in anything even remotely connected to Cavekeeping means she has to soon admit she’s only stalling to gather her bravery for her one, likely only, attempt. “Alright, dear… get ready!” she warns as she lights up her horn, and Tsep tenses his forelegs.

A terrible grinding sound, bordering on a screech, makes all but Forgery and Repeat Design cringe, and another blanket of dust is shaken loose from the stealthily widening cracks in the ceiling and walls. Repeat Design’s eyes widen.

“Forgery!” She whips around, magic struggling to steady the cave’s structure.

“Got him!” Twisted calls, who had used magic to yank Tsep out from under the boulder the second after Repeat’s warning.

“Ouch!” Forgery cries out when Repeat forcibly removes the Changemaker’s magic from the boulder, causing not a little backcast to rush through her horn.

Immediately after, an echoing bang leaves all silent except for everyling’s heavy breathing, and all has gone dark as everyling’s magic is exhausted or forgotten as they recuperate their wits.

Tsep is the first to try to move, immediately causing him to hiss in pain. “Ah! Sss…! M-My legs! Sss, I… don’t think… I can walk!” His hissing soon turns into quieter whimpers. “Erm, will some-…-ling carry me, please? I don’t-” He gulps fearfully, then raises himself up slightly with sudden inspiration. “I can show you the way! Yes! There’s a hidden path!”

Five of them look surprised and gladdened by this news, but Repeat stomps forward to stare skeptically into Tsep’s eyes; he shrinks away as best he’s able. “Oh, really? Why didn’t you mention it before? How are we suppose to know it’s not another trap?!”

“Be-Be-Because… I’ll-…” Tsep looks back and forth as he searches for some reason; it hits him just a second before Twisted realizes the same. “You’ll take me! I’ll be with you! If there’s another trap, I’ll die too!” I really hope Queen Husk hasn’t set another trap…!

Repeat narrows her eyes, staring straight into Tsep’s, searching for anything that might hint at a trick; Tsep stares back, but tilts his head as if fighting the instinct to look away from the Sun. Forgery breaks in, “Repeat-”

“Fine!” She rears up, turning away from the traitor. “-but he’s coming with me.” Noling argues as she lifts Tsep in her strong telekinesis and places him not so gently on her back—the only reaction is Forgery wincing at how his limp hindlegs flop against Repeat’s side.

Not wanting to lose what little trust he’s gained, Tsep quickly gives directions before anyling can prompt him. “Okay, go into that crack and… I’ll tell you when to stop.” Without hesitation, and rolling her eyes at the obvious instruction, Repeat takes the lead into the narrow cave that forces them to go single-file. They don’t go for long before Tsep taps Repeat’s side. “Here it is! I just have to… uhm, uncover it. Gim’me a second…” he mutters, lighting up his horn; Repeat and Twisted do the same, ready to respond to any trap Tsep might trigger, knowlingly or otherwise.

Nothing, however, happens except a portion of wall that had felt quite solid before simply disappearing to reveal a much wider cave. Stepping slowly into the newly revealed cave, most wiggle their shoulders a little, grateful for the space—though many Changelings go through their entire lives without seeing the surface (outside of ponies’ dreams), their caves are never as claustrophobic as that they just exited.

Once more they do not go far before being stopped, but this time is by Repeat Design. “Everyling be quiet for a second.” Being the Cavekeeper of their group, the others do not question her as she gingerly steps up to the cave wall to put an antenna against it; she closes her eyes to listen for a few seconds, then announces, “Something is… weird here.”

“‘Weird’?” Twisted repeats with a raised brow as the Cavekeeper sits roughly, letting the unprepared Tsep roll roughly off her back.

“I’m not sure, but something about this rock…” She taps the wall, which indeed produces an odd sound. “I’m gon’na scout ahead. If you hear something and I don’t come back…” she glares over her back at Tsep, and what she says makes him gulp. “You know what to do.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? To go alone?” Twisted steps forward, offering to accompany, but Repeat nods.

“I know you can’t see it, but I’m worried about this cave being unstable. I wan’na make sure before we put too much weight on it, because if it collapses and it is the right way… then what are we gon’na do?”

She’s right! Queen Husk had Tsep set up that trap that was designed to catch me alone, so if I passed that trap, she would have to know I’m not alone, so any trap after would be designed to catch multiple Changelings! Twisted nods and steps back, silently signaling the soundness of Repeat’s plan.

With that decided, Repeat carefully advances, but not too slowly, for they’re still racing against Queen Husk for the Elements. When she passes out of view, Forgery goes to where Tsep had been left and rearranges his legs so he’s more comfortable. He only sighs in relief, still too nervous about his eventual fate to speak, even to thank Forgery; she gives him a quick, small smile though, seeming to know what he wishes to say but for which he has no bravery.

Down the cave, Repeat is becoming more and more nervous, for even as she steps lightly, the odd sound had turned into an odd feeling in the floor under her tarsi, felt with unknown awareness coming from deep in her Cavekeeper’s intuition, but she refrains from flying, not wanting to alert anyling—or anything—with the buzzing of her wings.

Upon coming to the entrance to what she guesses to be a city-sized chamber, she catches herself before she allows a sigh of relief. I still don’t know what’s wrong with that rock… She frowns as she steps into the chamber and turns to the cave, tilting her head, she examines the rock that frames the exit, hoping to find the offending deformity.

“Repeat…” comes her name, whispered but still loud in the silence of the Petualoose Mines.

“Huh? Is that you, Twisted?” she directs her question into the cave, for the voice had a quality that made it difficult to distinguish in tone and direction.

“Repeat…” The voice repeats, closer, revealing it is certainly not Twisted, nor any other-ling that she had left in the cave, and it is coming from behind.

“Why’re you hidin’, huh?” Repeat whips around, horn firing brighter. “You scared’a me? ’Cause you should be!” She smirks confidently when she notices shadows barely discernable against the darkness. Three on one? Now this shouldn’t take ten seconds! -and if they think they still have the element of surprise…

Instead, three workers, eyes and elytra blue, step calmly into Repeat’s hornlight; the apparent leader stands, heavy-built and tall—not quite as tall as a Queen, but her overall body mass might rival one—a leg-length forward of the other two. “We have been waiting these countless ages for the best Rocklaborer in Melipoland to present herself before us!” she announces, using a now mostly archaic term that includes all those that physically work with caves.

Repeat Design blinks, shocked out of her fight-ready stance. “Countless ages”? Could she mean since before these Mines were cursed? She gulps. Stranger things have happened here, I know! “Uh… huh… Well, good luck with that… I guess?” She turns back to the cave exit; the idea that she might be the Rocklaborer they are talking about doesn’t yet enter her thoughts.

“That would be you, naturally,” the worker is quick to sink her fangs into Repeat’s ego.

She whips around once more, antennae perked. “Really?!” In the next second, she pulls back, forcing herself to appear relax, perhaps even unconcerned—she hopes—as if such a statement is as uncontestable as Princess Celestia’s status as the Goddess of the Sun. “I mean, ya think so, huh?” The pseudo-Queen nods. “Well, it would be cool if you would, you know, go ahead and tell the Rumblerocks that? I’ve been train- I mean, trying to get them to recognize me forever!” Repeat’s resolve begins to crack near the end, and her excitement at the mere idea of the prestigious group leaks into her tone.

“I don’t think so, Repeat Design-”

“Wha-?”

“-because we want you to join us, the Shatterstones. We are the greatest Bodypowered team of Petualoose!” she explains, referring to the title of those that train their body to use as little magic on the job as possible, since magic is much more expensive, love-wise, than simple manual labor, “-and we will soon challenge the Rumblerocks for the title of greatest in Melipoland, but we need a new captain. Someling with the most bravura-”

“Mm-hm…” Repeat nods, more excitement building behind her palisade of stoicism.

“-the fastest reflexes-”

“Mm-hm, mm-hm…” Unconsciously, Repeat shines her horn even brighter at the praise.

“-and the greatest daring in all hives that ever were and will be…” As she spoke, the leader had stepped forward and tilted her body so that Repeat would not be able to see the other two slip back into the shadows—she needn’t have bothered, so engrossed in the leader is the Cavekeeper, she is now failing to contain excited chuckling. “Who we need is… you.”

“Yeah!” Repeat buzzes her forewings and clicks her elytra. “Of course you do! So, uh, what do I need to do to get in, official-like?” Given the apparent-leaders praise, she expects she’s already in, with only whatever needs to be done yet to be so.

“Oh, just a short demonstration. I’m sure it won’t be any trouble for someling like you. You do know the A-formation, right?” Out of the darkness, the other two reappear, carrying two boulder-sized crystals of the normal, non-glowing (and non-light-absorbing) variety. Repeat instantly understands the idea, having seen the Rumblerocks crash such crystals together to create amazing explosions and showers of crystal with raw muscle.

Having memorized the stated flight patterns long ago, Repeat nods, so she and the leader silently take a boulder each and lift them, testing their weight for a second before nodding to each other. One of those on the ground counts down from four, and the two fly off.

The Rocklaborer speeds slightly ahead, but Repeat pushes the tiny bit needed to catch up without issue, making her grin at her undeniable victory, at least for a second. Wait… If we crash the boulders here, then the shockwave could-! In the next instant, the “convenience” of running into this supposed Bodypowered team hits Repeat. They’re the trap!

Thinking quickly, she lines up with the fake Rocklaborer slightly too soon than what the A-formation calls for, then the second before impact, pulls up and launches her boulder into the darkness above. Without losing momentum, she performs a spinning kick to the fake’s side; the sound of cracking chitin is clear, and Repeat feels her tarsus become wet. The other boulder flies off into the chamber, landing far from where any shockwave it creates could cause the cave to collapse.

Before the other two can react, Repeat curves around and knocks both out on one pass, then she flies up once again to catch her boulder before it can crash into the ground near the cave. Setting it down, she takes note of the Changelings now revealed for what they are, with orange eyes and elytra. “Hmph! Should’a known…” She shrugs, then takes another kick at the one that had posed as the pseudo-Queen, her size revealed to be quite normal under the disguise—the fissure in her chitin is not nearly as bad as it had sounded.

- - - -

Having not found out the secret of the strange rock, but having knocked out those three Soldiers, they fly through the cave (Forgery insisting on carrying Tsep) and reach the chamber in seconds. Twisted gulps as she lands, not even glancing at the unconscious orange Changelings beside her. “This has to be it…” She mutters, bringing out the book from under her elytra—an action that calls the others to land in a semicircle before her. “‘The Ruins of The Hive with Two Queens’…”

Frantic, but knowing they need to be silent, they fan out, but only so far that the light of their horns barely overlap, to search the impossibly large cavern. This is it. Husk has to already be here. If she gets to those Elements before us-… I can’t think about it!

Finding the castle, both fortunately and unfortunately, is not at all difficult, for it has similarly complex designs in its enchanted wax as Buzzington Castle, reflecting their hornlight from far away. Twisted winces and struggles to keep her wings still as they rush (always careful to be silent) to the apparent entrance of the crumbling castle, only to find-

“Are those… the Elements?” Proxyhack steps ahead of the others, who had stopped in shock, not only by the presence of the Elements, but the simple fact the Elements are here, in the open, practically waiting. Shouldn’t Queen Husk have already found them if they’re… just here?

“‘The Elements’?” Tsep suddenly perks up, and the unsuspecting Forgery can’t keep him from falling from her back “You can’t mean the Elements of Harmony?!”

What are the Elements of Harmony? Five wonder, but only idly—the question quickly forgotten under the thing before them.

“Uh, no, the Elements of Unity…” Twisted quirks her brow at him for a second, then turns back to the monument sitting in the middle of the room, stepping reverently forward. There is the giant statue of a wasp, facing the entrance, head positioned as if to look over anyling that would dare enter its ancient, dead hive. Its stinger connects it to its platform, and its legs are spread out, each holding what appears to be a necklace made of stone. Everything matches the illustrations in the book, except-

“One of its legs is gone!” Piccy points out unnecessarily; her tone is panicky, but still does not quite lose its jolly quality entirely.

“One of the elements is gone!” Photoshape clarifies in the loudest voice Twisted had yet heard from the Ponytender.

“No…” Twisted shakes her head. “No. No, no, no, nonono…!” She mutters as she flips through the book frantically. “Gah! Why didn’t I-! ‘When the five come out of hiding, a twirl will turn them home and call to the sixth’! ‘Out of hiding’? ‘A twirl’? I don’t… understand!” Twisted wails, letting herself and the book fall.

Just after the others turn to Twisted, but before they can take one step toward her, a calm laugh echoes into the chamber. “Ha… ha… ha… ha… ha… ha… ha.” From a hall in the back, Queen Husk enters. “So! You finally realized, student of my dearly loved sister, that all the knowledge in the world can’t help you, have you? It can’t save you. It never could…” Her last statement is quiet, almost seemingly directed to herself.

Then, she takes the book that Twisted had dropped, quickly flips through its pages, and, with a twinge of magic, blasts it into dust. “… So useless… To think Chryssy, so supposedly great, would waste time on this.” It would have been easy to imagine she’s talking about the book if she had not shot a disgusted glance at Twisted on the final word; she does not spare much attention on Twisted, however, and becomes suddenly engrossed in the wasp statue, staring into its expressionless compound eyes.

“So very useless… just like these.” With a sigh and slump to her withers, she lets loose another blast of lazy magic, leaving the stone necklaces as nothing but fragments, indiscernible from all the other shards of stone the ruins had deteriorated into over the countless years.

Even as the others call out in shock or anger, Twisted merely allows her eyes to close and her head to fall to the floor. It doesn’t matter. They were useless without the sixth Element, and I have no idea how to get it… “A twirl will turn them home and call to the sixth”? How is that suppose to help… “Useless”… Useless… Vaguely, Twisted hears Queen Husk now laughing more fully—victoriously—somewhere above her.

Wait… “Turn them home”? Twisted opens her eyes, quickly blinking them clear of tears. Does that mean… they weren’t home? They aren’t home? If that’s the case, the Elements have to be somewhere else! Still blind and deaf to anything happening around her, Twisted stands, beginning to grin; the only thing she hears, Queen Husk’s laugh, begins to lose its strength—its surety. Queen Husk didn’t do anything but destroy their old homes, so they’ll need new ones, and new homes means-! I hope this works… Elements, wherever you are… whatever you are, you better hear me! You’re our last hope!

Finally standing straight and confident, the world snaps back into focus. Queen Husk is still standing at the base of the wasp statue, now holding her muscles tense, no longer relaxed. She knows… She must have known all along. To either side of Twisted lay the other five, demoralized. Photoshape and Piccy hug each other to her right, and to her left sits Proxyhack, head down, tears running from closed eyes and down her muzzle, then Forgery and Tsep, also hugging, and finally Repeat design, glaring and gritting her teeth, hatred seething equally against that which she cannot defeat and her own weakness. “Come on, lings! We’re not defeated yet! Stand!”

“Heh… heh… hmm. ‘Not defeated yet’?” Queen Husk lowers her head, pointing her horn. “How is destroying the only weapon that could overpower me not ‘defeating you’?” Husk smirks when noling follows Twisted’s order except PH, who only steps to Twisted’s side to put a comforting tarsus on her elytra.

“She’s right, Twis. What else-?”

“No, she’s wrong. The Elements of Unity are right here!” As Twisted lifts her own foreleg to place on PH’s back, the Medkeeper lets hers fall, confused. “You we’re the first, PH. You showed me that even when I doubt… my friends… they’ll always come through, embodying the Element of Trust!”

To everyling’s shock—even Queen Husk’s—except Twisted’s, fragments of stone lift in green magic without anyling casting a levitation spell and begin to circle Proxyhack’s neck.

Yes! “Photoshape!” The Ponytender lets out the tiniest sound at being addressed. “When you fearlessly confronted the angry animated husk and laid it to rest, you showed us all the power behind the Element of Compassion!” Once more, slivers of stone that had once formed a necklace light up with a green glow and make their way to their new Bearer.

Finally, Queen Husk breaks through her surprise. “How can-? No! Stop! You. -will. -stop!” she cries, firing spells haphazardly, which only bounce off an invisible barrier now surrounding the seven Changelings, and as Twisted goes on, she soon turns to attempting to flee, but once more finds some power blocking her.

“-and when you, Piccy, reminded us why we were on this mission to begin with, you revealed your Element in the Joy you asked us to recall! Forgery, in your understanding of how terrible situations can lead some astray into making terrible decisions, you represent the Element of Forgiveness! Then, Repeat Design, when you confronted those who would trick you into deserting by using your dreams against you, you showed yourself worthy of the Element of Devotion!”

The now brightly glowing stone fragments pulse as they lift their new Bearers off the floor; Tsep, released from Forgery’s hug, scuttles back into a corner, mouth hanging in awe of the power he has chance to witness.

Husk, breathing frantically, forces out a strained laugh. “Ooooh… Ha! Your-… Your out of Elements! You don’t know where the sixth one is. You don’t even know what it is!”

“Yes, I do…” Twisted asserts calmly, making the Queen stop breathing. “Queen Chrysalis already told me, even if I didn’t realize it at the time.” When she pauses, closing her eyes, the fragmented necklaces pulse, their brightness growing. “‘There is so much more to a young Changeling’s life-’… The sixth Element, that my new friends have shown me, is Life!” As if they had been waiting, the pulsing Elements fire beams of green magic at Twisted, completely enveloping her in a cocoon of green fire, which quickly disperses to reveal her wearing a tiara containing a gem glowing so brightly it obscures its own shape, and when the beams die, they also reveal that the fragments had reshaped themselves, their gems also glowing too brightly to be seen.

“No! How?!” Queen Husk cries, now cowering at the base of the wasp statue.

“Queen Husk…” Twisted looks down at the shivering body as she is lifted into the air alongside the others. “-the Elements of Unity reveal to us Changelings the aspects of Love, and as we Changelings should know, if you are not loved…” Twisted once more closes her eyes as she puts her foretarsi over her heart, then spreads them out as she looks at her new friends on either side of her. “-if you don’t have love in your heart for others…” With finality, Twisted thrusts her right foretarsus to point at Queen Husk before shouting, “-you might as well be dead!

With this cry, the room explodes in magic, blinding everyling for a split second, then the shock hits, leaving nine bodies lying motionless under a statue of two wasps facing each other, their legs intertwined.

The first to come to is Twisted Spare, groaning as she pulls herself to her legs; the floor immediately around her is barely lighted by her still-glowing Element, which had somehow kept itself firmly on her head. Glancing around, she can see the other five Bearers are also beginning to wake, as she can see by the movements of the dull pinpoints of green, too weak to light anything. “Is everyling okay?”

“Thinkin’ so.”
“I don’t… feel hurt.”
“Yeppie-!… Maybe.”
“You mean besides the fact I feel as if I’ll have to shed now, too?”
“Ha-! As if-! Urgh… -a little explosion could hurt me!”
“I don’t suppose that question’s directed at me, too… Is it?”
“Indeed, my dear student, I believe everyling is going to be very well, now.”

Twisted’s breath catches, her mind barely daring to believe the voice she had just heard as belonging to whom she knows it must belong, at least until her Queen lights up her horn from where she still lays, revealing her slightly battered form, smiling gently, proudly. “Q-… Chrysalis!” Twisted abandons the title in her whirlwind of emotions, and the next thing she knows she has her forelegs around Chrysalis’s neck, squeezing as tightly as she can; whether she had ran or teleported to her Queen’s side, she cannot tell.

The other five newly-minted Bearers climb to their tarsi and step forward slightly bowed, much more aware of their Queen’s status than Twisted. “Ah, my little Changelings…” She smiles more widely, upon taking notice of them, then stands slowly, letting Twisted ease herself from Chrysalis’s neck. “I cannot tell you how far beyond any simple happiness and pride your success makes me feel. You will be remembered to the end of time for what you have done here.”

Grinning or gaping, wordless, the six look between each other, and finally take note of the Elements—rather, their homes—particularly their shapes. The black stone of their form, barely discernable against their chitin, hold green gems of various shapes: On Proxyhack’s neck are two triangles, one on top of the other, slightly staggered, pointing left and right; on Photoshape’s are two squares, a smaller one “supporting” a larger one; on Piccy’s is an arch enclosing a pair of Changeling wings; on Forgery’s is a circle “balancing” on the tip of a diamond; on Repeat’s are two curving lines, folding over each other in a two dimensional representation of a double helix; and on Twisted’s tiara is a heart, divided into six parts.

A soft scraping sound against the silence draws all seven’s attention to the corner where Tsep had retreated. “My Queen!” Tsep stumbles in his haste to stand and bow as Queen Chrysalis makes her way toward him, smile fading but not disappearing—the only thing he notices is that she’s not smiling nearly as much as before. “This foolish… quisling drone… is willing to accept his punishment.” He sighs his resignation as he prostrates himself, clenching his eyes shut, not wishing to see sure death come rushing at him; even when the only thing he feels is a soft spell easing the pain in his hindlegs he daren’t believe he’s going to be going home intact, if I get to go home at all…

“As long as you call me your Queen, you are no quisling,” Chrysalis announces, using a weak pull of magic to lift Tsep’s head up; his eyes open wide to stare into nothingness in the distance, too amazed to sense anything else but relief.

“My Queen, are ya sure-” PH begins.

“The Bearer of the Element of Forgiveness saw fit to overlook his transgression in the context of the direness of the situation. Who am I to ignore her council, even if she didn’t know she was giving it?… -but even if that weren’t so, I saw everything through my own eyes; my sister couldn’t stop that. I know what led you, Tsep, to act as you did… perhaps better than you think…” she finishes in a murmur so quiet only Tsep can hear, but she also lifts her muzzle and narrows her eyes slightly, curiously, which draws Twisted’s attention—it’s not often, after all, that a being older than the Goddesses comes across something that would invoke such a reaction.

Something else niggles the student’s mind, however—something with more substance that she can latch onto. “Your… sister?!” She cries in surprise, for though Queen Husk had said as much, Twisted had discounted it as a poor attempt at planting a seed of doubt in her love for her Queen.

“My dear student, I know how you look up to me, and-… and I wish you knew-… I’ve made so many unwise, even dangerous, decisions in my shame. -in the name of preserving my memories of the sister I grew up with… Now-” She looks up from Twisted to the base of the statues. “-please stop pretending and tell me whether all the hopes I’d clung to for these millennia were in vain or not, sister!”

For a moment, the seven Changelings standing around their Queen blink, then turn to the forgotten ninth figure, still laying motionless but for her even, sleep-like breathing. Then, with no apparent movement or magic, her body jumps into the air, her eyes opening wide in the same moment. Like a cat, she readjusts herself in midair, landing with a thump into a crouch. Before the Bearers can begin forming a defensive line, the other Queen’s fearful, confused tone makes them step back instead. “Chrysalis? You-?… I didn’t-? I was-? How long was-?”

Husk’s last question is interrupted not by herself, but Chrysalis rushing to hug her. “A second would have been too long without you by my side! Worry not about punishment; I know the Hatred inside of you has left and is no more—only your body attacked me, not you.” Her voice wavers with such emotion, leaving the mortal Changelings (minus Twisted) incredulous, having always viewed their Queen with power and might that take her above such things, but before this reunion they cannot help but succumb to the display of love and sigh in joy for their Queen’s happiness.

- - - -

A quick teleportation back to Fangville, and an announcement from Queen Chrysalis on her sister’s behavior is all that’s needed for the hive—always trusting of their Queen—to accept Husk as the long-lost second half of The Hive with Two Queens. Though they wonder where Queen Husk’s supposed hatred-eating army is, they do so silently, most figuring that they had been dealt with as well.

Twisted, basking in the overwhelming emotions of the celebrations, smirks upon noticing a few Changelings trying to convince others to try what must be Piccy’s love-infused pony food. Piccy… What’s her full name, again? Will I even ever see her again, after tomorrow? Twisted sighs, abruptly feeling oppressed by the overabundant cheer all around her.

“What could possibly have you looking so down with so much to be glad about, my dear student?” Twisted jolts at Queen Chrysalis’s appearance, so sudden she would have believed she had teleported if not for the path cleared behind Chrysalis, lined by Changelings just rising out of bows.

“I’m… thinking about how I’ll have to leave my friends tomorrow. -so soon after…” Twisted sighs. “-everything.”

“Oh, Twisted Spare…” Queen Chrysalis smiles and shakes her head slowly, knowingly. “What made you believe you have to leave them?” With a question on Twisted tongue, the Queen forges on. “I told you, did I not? ‘There is so much more to young Changeling’s life’… I wrote that, did I not? You also said it yourself, very well, I must add, about how the Elements of Unity teach us about love…”

“My Queen!?” Twisted urges, excited.

“-so I want you to stay here with your fellow Element Bearers, and send me letters about their lessons on love.”

Trying to bow but then thinking better of hugging, Twisted awkwardly trips, launching herself forward, coming to rest with her lips on Chrysalis’s right foretarsus. Knowing it was an accident, she playfully lifts the “kissed” tarsus. “Twisted! There’s no need of thanks of such a degrading caliber…!” she teases. If she had skin, Twisted knows she would have been blushing as she raises herself back to her tarsi. “Now, I think you have some very good news to share with your friends…?” Chrysalis then prompts with a wave of the still-lifted leg.

Not a second after Twisted’s departure, Chrysalis is met with her sister, grimly frowning, carrying a gasping Lovebreeder. “She says there is dire news from Equestria…” Husk whispers after teleporting them to the quiet entrance to the Petualoose Mines.

“Yes! … Yes…” The worker tries to speak between gasps—no doubt she had traveled a long way. “The-… The Elements of Harmony… rea-…-wake! Night-… Nightmare Moon returned… but defeated! Goddess of… Moon stands with Sun… again!” Her critical message finally delivered, her breathing starts to slow, but soon she realizes her company and looks frantically between the two Queens.

“Queen Husk, my sister, has returned and stands once more by my side, as well, as have The Elements of Unity found new Bearers,” Chrysalis quickly informs, bringing a smile to the Changeling that had been overloaded with fear just seconds before. “You should join the festivities,” she offers with a gentle smile, but also pointed glance; the Lovebreeder is quick to comply.

“Sister, don’t think after all this time I don’t remember that look. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking… the answer to all our problems may have fallen right into our hive… or it will soon enough.” Queen Chrysalis answers cryptically before returning to the Carnival and pretending to enjoy the party while rebuffing all of Husk’s further questions.

Author's Note:

Trivia:

One of the things I didn’t care so much about in the pilot episodes was how it just skipped over the ponies agreeing to go with Twilight. I get time restraints and all, but I feel like Twilight would have been more insistent about going alone, and some of the characters Rarity would have at least expressed more hesitation instead of just calmly trotting into the forest after a quip from AJ, so that’s why I added that extra scene of the ponies Changelings actually having a serious discussion about helping with this very-definitely-potentially-fatal mission.

Something much slighter that bothered me about this episode is how “clean” the falling-down-the-cliff scene was. I’ve fallen down hills (minus the cliff at the end) like that before, and it makes you tumble, not go sliding down smoothly on your back.

The original plan was to write an original song for Piccy/ask someone to please-please-please-pleeeeease write a song for her for me for this story, but I eventually decided it would not only be easier for her to sing Pinkie’s songs, I thought it might be funnier, too, in a “broken fourth wall” way, as it should be for Pinkie/Piccy.

The use of the term “quisling” was inspired by the use of it in Prodigy, which I found neat, even if it doesn’t really make sense beyond the “-ling” part.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, yes, Tsep will be taking the place of “Spike”/Gaze as Forgery’s romantic interest (Forgery/Tsep?… Forsep!), because I hate even the canon infatuation Spike has with Rarity… because he is, as we’re constantly told, a baby! Not even “a toddler” or “a young boy”, but a baby! Gah! Just typing that-! So… creepy…