6: Machinations
The crystal caves under Canterlot were a strange and dour place. The upper levels under the castle were little more than drab grey rock and dull inert crystal that exuded a miasma of lifelessness. Twilight was thankful that she failed to notice that the last time she was here. Dark shapes danced about the craggy chamber as Twilight’s entourage of seven drones tried to occupy themselves with shadow puppets using their flashlights.
The hour was late, but that was part of the plan to allow Luna to join at a more convenient time for the nocturnal princess. At present, Twilight focused in on herself, or to be more precise, the clutch of eggs residing within her. Her magical senses probed each one as she sat on dusty stone ground. Only ten of them have been fertilized, and it’s been over two hours. I may need to have a second round with a consort to finish the job.
The sound of feathers on the stale air dragged Twilight’s attention to the eastern entrance, fully expecting Luna, but getting someone else instead. “Rainbow? What are you doing here?”
The cyan mare spun in the air before she descended to the ground near Twilight. “What’d you expect? You were trying to go on an adventure without me again,” she replied with pseudo indignation.
Twilight easily saw through it. “I didn’t think you’d want to go. We’re only going exploring in a cave system for archaeological reasons.”
“Oh yeah? Didn’t you go to the Ebony Castle for the same thing?” Rainbow challenged with a condescending lift of her eyebrow.
“Er, well,” she looked to her drones for help, but most only shrugged or couldn’t comment. Twilight suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and simply climbed to her hooves. “If you want to come, you’re more than welcome to.” That placated the pegasus, which gave Twilight time to spy the bejeweled iron circlet on Rainbow’s brow. “I didn’t know you were one for jewelry, Rainbow.”
“Oh this awesome thing?” she replied while patting it with a hoof. “My girl, Aegis, gave it to me. This thing is pretty sweet!”
The drone in question flew over after hearing her name. “You don’t have to wear it just to be nice, Aunty. I know you didn’t like it,” she said with mild bemusement.
Twilight arched a curious eyebrow as Rainbow Dash waved a dismissive hoof. “It wasn’t you, kid. I was just angry at my reassignment orders.”
“You’re really getting transferred? To where?” Twilight asked morosely.
“It’s the wing I’m assigned to. We’re being rotated to the chaos spawn border in a week,” Rainbow replied while trying not to sound terrified, and only partially succeeding.
“Oh…” Twilight’s ears fell flat. “I wish you luck then.”
“Hey, I’m not leaving yet, and besides, I already did a tour of duty a couple of years ago. They didn’t touch me then, and they’re not going to get me now!” Rainbow hoped she sounded braver than she felt.
Aegis felt her mother’s growing distress over the link and tried to steer the conversation off topic. “So, you really do like the circlet?”
The query had the desired effect. Rainbow adjusted her headgear to have her mane flow over it. “Yeah, it’s kinda grown on me.”
“So does it really make you faster like Curio said it would?” she asked with wided eyed enthusiasm.
Rainbow started to say something, but stopped herself to give it real thought. She rubbed her chin for a few moments. “No, if anything it's slowing me down a bit. Iron isn’t exactly light material, you know.”
“Bu—” Aegis tilted her head in bafflement. “Then why are you still wearing it? The whole reason I got it for you was to help you fly faster.”
Silly filly, it’s hard to remember sometimes you guys aren’t even five years old. Rainbow laid a matronly hoof around Aegis. “Girl, let me tell you something about gift giving.”
As Rainbow assured Aegis her gift was well appreciated, Twilight fell back to give them space. As she did, the hauntingly familiar scent of changeling magic leaked out of the circlet. It was so faint that she only noticed it after Rainbow poked the item with a hoof. She was about to start discreteely probing the circlet with her magic when Luna’s timely arrival distracted her.
The lunar princess, along with two Night Guards, trotted through the same entrance Rainbow had used, carrying heavily laden saddlebags; although one wouldn’t be able to tell given the spring in her step. “Good evening, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, I pray I haven’t left you waiting for too long.”
“Not at all,” Twilight reassured warmly. “We were just making final preparations, plus I already have several squads combing the upper levels of the mine. I left the juicy stuff down below just for us!”
“What are we sitting around for then?” Rainbow blurted. “Let’s go spelunking!”
The drones cheered their agreement and doubled checked their equipment before flying down the circular pit where a winding mine cart track descended into the lightless depths. There, they hoped to find answers to questions Tia’vil’yet had suppressed since times beyond remembrance.
Far to the south in the starlit jungles of the queendoms, a lean grey drone slunk through the dense wet underbrush of a small ravine. The never-ending light drizzle of the mistlands tried in vain to seep into his clothing as the drone jumped over a log on rubber shod hooves. The noise of drones approaching from the east caught his ear, making him shuffle behind some dense foliage.
The noise of gossamer wings on the air passed directly overhead and to a small natural clearing adjacent to a short waterfall. His genetically enhanced eyes saw the three dozen black drones carrying twenty cigar shaped pods of various sizes, before placing them near the riverbank. <Observer, are you there?>
<As always, Cypher. Do you have something to report?> a curt masculine voice replied.
Cypher watched the gathered drones as lightning struck a highly combustible Calero tree, blasting the area with noise and bathing the pods in orange light. Within them, he saw figures of various sizes. <Aye, it looks like Queen Jstrul is rebuilding her stockpile of love prisoners.>
<Jstrul?> Observer queried with a touch of worried concern. <I thought you were stationed in section one one D zero.>
<I am.> Cypher replied bluntly. <Does anypony else know why Jstrul would be so close to Polybia’s territory?>
<It’s possible they struck a deal. Even so, our treaty with the Equestrians declared kidnapping a forbidden practice.>
Several of Jstrul’s drones fanned out from the center and started sweeping the underbrush. Cypher wedged himself between a hollow log and a jagged boulder where the overhanging branches of a recently felled tree completely concealed him. <Still wouldn’t explain what the drones are doing here.>
<Agreed. Can you determine the prisoners’ species? Are any of them non-ponies?>
<That would be an exploitable loophole,> Cypher grunted quietly.
One of the hostile drones started moving towards Cypher’s position. With expert control over his magic, he changed his disguise to that of rotting leaves without the telltale flash of magical fire, although he was unable to obscure his equine silhouette. The black drones sniffed around, trying to use their superior sense of smell to locate any predators or threats, but the mists made that nearly impossible. Even though Link speak was completely silent, Cypher dared not even think as a drone hovered directly above him.
He knew the light rain fouled most attempts at sniffing something out, but that didn’t stop a dose of fear from slipping through Cypher’s professionalism. The sniffing drone’s head jerked to the side, as if it caught whiff of something.
With his horn coated in a resin to hide the light, Cypher noiselessly slid his knife out. The hostile drone slowly looked down right at him, and in an instant, found Cypher’s blade buried in his throat. The scout cursed his luck and prowled away with the corpse in tow. He made sure the blood trailed behind him. <I think I’ve been compromised, Observer.>
<Did you follow protocol?>
<Doing it now. Hopefully the others will think a beast made off with the body, but they’ll be on high alert at best.> Cypher angled his ears back towards the other drones, and heard several of them racing towards his last position. He made it to the ravine and dumped the body. He barely had a few seconds to hide under a broad-leaved fern before several angry drones buzzed past his location.
There he waited for five minutes as the ebony changelings searched for the body, only to assume the worst and return to the drop site. Much to his displeasure, Cypher’s prediction proved true, and the drones started moving in teams of three. Better keep my distance.
<Status report, Cypher. Are you able to determine the prisoners’ species?>
The scout swore under his breath. <I’m fine, but I can’t get close enough, I’ll have to use the spyglass.> He found a good perch in a tree and climbed up into it before withdrawing his glass. By now, the pods were surrounded by a ring of bioluminescent bladders, casting the pods in a gentle teal light. Half of the drones were busy fending off several small predators trying to eat their captives.
However, Cypher’s attention was focused on who the prisoners were. Odd, he mused before addressing his handler. <It’s a mixed bunch, half are assumed ponies, could be zebras, but there are minotaur, griffin, and donkey prisoners as well.>
Observer brooded for a few seconds. That doesn’t make sense. Jstrul’s hive doesn’t have drones modified to work in Griffin and Minotaur territory. Smuggling such prisoners would be difficult, given that Kreesus controls the old western roads into Minatoria. <Are you sure, Cypher?>
<It's pretty hard to confuse a bipedal bull ape with a pony, Observer,> he quipped derisively.
<Amusing,> Observer replied flatly. <Stick around. It may be obvious that Polybia is in league with Chrysalis’ sisters, but I want evidence before this is presented to the queen.>
<I don’t think I’ll be waiting long. The buyer’s already here.> True enough, an equal number of Polybia’s drones arrived from across the waterfall and gathered up the pods without uttering a word to the first group. That’s Polybia’s brood alright. I’d recognize that Tyrant strain anywhere. A shiver ran down his spine at the sight of the three tank-sized flying monstrosities being loaded down with half a dozen pods each. <Observer, it’s Polybia, no doubt about it. But why are they trading in secret like this?>
<That’s Central Intelligence’s job. Fall back to the rally point; the blood from the corpse will likely bring slicer flies into the area, if they haven’t arrived already.>
<Happy to oblige.> The faint smell of burnt rose petals struck his nose. Damn, those flies are fast. Maybe they’ll snag some of the no-brains.
As Cypher slid away from the meeting place, a black drone at the top of the ravine silently watched him leave through reptilian eyes. The bait’s been taken; now I just have to wait for Cadista to leave herself vulnerable.
A mirthless laugh bubbled from the puppet’s throat as it left to join its brethren in the inky skies.
If there was one thing the bowels of the crystal caves and the wetlands had in common, it was humidity. Unfortunately for Aegis, the caves did not share the jungle’s warmth. Her teeth chattered quietly as she tried in vain to bundle up in her light uniform. Hate the cold; hate the cold; I really, really hate the cold.
She scanned her flashlight across the painfully drab room, seeing nothing but full crystal formations and slug-like rock biters that scurried away from the light. Several drones and a pair of thestrals were carrying supplies and accompanying Twilight and Luna as the royal mares led the way deeper into the mines. How could anypony live down here?
A friendly hoof landed across her withers, causing the teeth-chattering Aegis to turn to Rainbow Dash. “You look down, kid. You alright?”
Aegis cleared her throat to buy time to look tough for her favorite aunt. “It’s just a little chilly. I’m used to the jungle heat and all that.”
Rainbow took her leg off of the drone to walk normally. “I get ya. The cold’s not that bad for me, but that’s what I get for growing up in Cloudsdale. I could do without the constant murmur these caves are putting out, though.”
“I don’t hear anything,” Aegis replied with only a brush of concern. “It’s probably the raw mana around here. The ancient hives used to settle around ley lines, and I believe Canterlot was founded above one.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Rainbow Dash sighed. Glad I’m not going crazy. “Say, once your hive settles down somewhere, you want to see Cloudsdale with me?” Rainbow offered, trying to distract herself.
Aegis’ eyes lit up and hugged her. “Really, you mean it!?”
“Sure. You, me, and anypony else who wants to go. Just be sure to bring a jacket.”
Aegis bounced on her hooves. “Ah! You’ve got to show me the wea—” With some of the flashlights partially illuminating the pegasus, something about her seemed off. Is her facial fur darker than normal?
Rainbow waved a wing in Aegis’ face. “Hello, anypony home?”
“Huh? Oh, sorry, I think the mana around here is playing tricks on me again. But yeah! I’d love to go!” She would have said more, but an intense wave of surprise cascaded through the local Link, causing Aegis to run over to Twilight.
“I think we found something, everypony,” Twilight called out as she surveyed the underground stream before her.
Strewn across the room was a dense carpet of bones broken only by the flowing water. Some were still in nearly intact skeletons, while other bones were lying by themselves. Broken pickaxes and shovels were scattered around, causing the two royal mares to contemplate silently as their escorts started moving carefully around the area.
Luna cast her senses across the foreboding chamber. The feeling of the room caused her horn to ache. “There is primal magic at work here. We must be close to the ley line fount.”
“There was a ley line fount under the Ebony Castle too.” Twilight dislodged a pickaxe head from a broken skeleton. “All of this should have decayed centuries ago. Not to mention...” She surveyed the carnage and couldn’t help but to imagine the fighting and the dying. Stay objective, Twilight. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think they attacked one another. Did you get a chance to review the old records of why they closed the mine?”
Princess Luna bent down to carefully inspect the ground for any more subtle clues. “No. Canterlot’s founding and the mine’s closure predates my sister and I’s arrival in Equestria by a few thousand years. As for the records,” she groaned while pinching the bridge of her muzzle, “after I asked for them, the archivist would have laughed me out of the library had I been anypony other than a princess. All the old records were lost in a series of fires spread out across the last five thousand years, and being the ageless alicorn that I am, she thought that would be common knowledge for me.”
“Was she aware that you two haven’t ruled for even half that?” Twilight asked with polite incredulousness.
Luna shrugged her wings in defeat. “I don’t know. The archivist does her job, but her nose was lost in a ridiculous tabloid when I approached her, so she just might have been that ignorant.”
“I knew the city was old but… I had no idea it was so ancient.”
“A lot of old history was lost in the Shadow War with Sombra,” Luna commented. “Thanks to that, exact dates from historic events are smudged, and most writers just like to say ‘a thousand years’ for dramatic effect.” She picked up two halves of a shattered bone. “This was done by a shovel.”
<Spread out and search for any evidence of actual weapon use,> Twilight commanded. “If I had to guess, I’d say the miners turned on each other.”
“Think your ancestors had something to do with that?” Luna’s tone was more clinical than anything else.
“Hmm… Given how deep into the mountain we are, I’d hazard a yes.” Twilight stood up to scan for a likely path further into the depths. “We must be close, just as the miners were.”
“And they were killed for it,” Luna remarked, earning a worried look from Twilight.
“I’m sure they had good reason,” Twilight replied, hoping to alleviate any negativity.
“Oh, undoubtedly,” Luna assured as she followed Twilight down one of the tunnels. “History likes to forget that early Equestrians were horrifically xenophobic. As was my sister in those early years."
Rainbow Dash decided to remain in the air and hovered near the alicorn. “But I thought Hearth's Warming Eve taught them the value of friendship with others.”
“Ha!” Luna chortled darkly for what seemed like minutes. Twilight shared a few uncomfortable glances with her drones and the Night Guard until the princess finally recollected herself. “Sorry, you weren’t there. Let me just say, that just because the tribes were finally able to overlook the racism between themselves, and only for mutual benefit I might add, doesn’t mean they were suddenly lovey-dovey to everyone else. As I recall, they waged war on the zebras a few times just because their stripes were seen as the Mark of Felnaroth. And don’t get me started on the atrocities committed against the griffins, even if they were justified.”
“...Wow… I guess that explains why ponies are so slow to welcome my kind.” Twilight traced a hoof across the tunnel walls. “On a brighter note, this feels smooth with traces of wax. This might be the right direction.”
Rainbow Dash flew over after Luna called out for everyone to move out. “Any chance we can get out of here any time soon? This place is really starting to creep me out.”
Twilight lit the downward sinking tunnel with a spell while giving her friend a cautious grin. “A graveyard isn’t exactly what I was hoping to find first thing either.”
“Well, that too yeah, but…” Rainbow scratched her head as if to try and dislodge a pest. “There’s a noise around here that’s bugging me. Ah, no offense.”
Luna stopped to face the pegasus. “It’s probably the echoes of the stream or subterranean life. There’s nothing here that poses any real danger, unless you fall directly into the ley line or the changelings left any traps behind.”
“I wouldn’t bet against that,” Twilight remarked while casting Aegis a knowing glance. The drone fretted over the memory, but tried to keep her nervousness concealed.
The group descended deeper into the mountain for several dozen meters through twisting tunnels that seemed to be designed to mislead any would-be intruders. Yet to one who knew what to look for, each step revealed a more artificial touch upon the walls, until they came to a crystal door. It was inlaid with worn runes forming a circle around the center. Both royal mares made sure enough light was on the door before Twilight bent down to read.
Luna took stock of their location with a geological spell. “By the stars! For all that walking, we’re only five meters below the site of the massacre! Looks like the miners dug too greedily and too deep for the changelings’ liking.”
“Sure looks that way,” Twilight agreed. “The door’s enchantment seems to have faded long ago, but I think the crystals that were used are still intact.”
“Allow me to assist; I am familiar with old changeling magic,” Luna offered.
As the two mares toiled away for over an hour, Rainbow Dash was finding it increasingly difficult to put on an air of cool confidence. Hundreds, no, thousands of voices whispered in the back of her mind. Her eyes darted back and forth at the brightly lit tunnel as the drones and two thestrals settled in to wait for their respective rulers. Some of the drones pulled out playing cards to occupy their time. Only one of the Night Guard decided to join the drones in a friendly game of Blackmare. Ferrum, the dealer, waved a hoof at Rainbow Dash to join them.
However, Rainbow Dash didn’t register the invitation as she scratched her forehead to try and ease an itch, but the voices were growing maddeningly loud. Shut up, SHUT UP! Get out of my head! A gentle hoof on her shoulder made her jump.
Aegis carried a gravely worried look. “Rainbow, are you alright?” She brought her flashlight up to inspect the pegasus’ face, only to gasp in shock. The fur around the pegasus’ head and face were a stark violet, and the roots of her mane were turning rich lavender. “Rainbow! Mother, something’s wrong with RD!”
Dropping everything, Twilight bolted over with Luna not far behind. Rainbow was sniffling out of fear. “Get them out of my head, make them stop!”
“Everypony get back!” Twilight warned. “I don’t know if this can spread.”
Everyone quickly obeyed while Luna scanned Rainbow for any sign of a mundane disease. Finding nothing, she switched to magical ailments. “Something is attacking her, but I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Twilight lightly tapped Rainbow’s cheek to get her to speak. “RD, what’s wrong? Does it hurt anywhere?”
The pegasus’ eyes were darting in every direction, and her ears were pressed flat, but the noise was only getting louder. “No! But these damn voices are making it hard to think! Get me out of here; I need to leave, now, now, NOW!”
A terrible thought crossed Luna’s mind, and she searched herself. I’m not hearing anything. She turned to Twilight. “We should take her to the surface; we can find out what’s going on there.”
“Agreed, but we can’t teleport this close to the ley line—” She stopped dead cold. Amidst the sea of voices that made up the hive mind, one of them was panicky, terrified, and frighteningly familiar. “No… How!?”
Luna levitated the stricken pegasus onto her back. “Twilight, we must hurry!”
“Wait a minute,” Twilight urged as she scanned Rainbow for a different magical signature. Her discovery made her breath quicken. “It’s not a curse; she’s being converted by alchemy! But that’s impossible!”
Twilight only half heard Luna’s stunned response as she quickly isolated Rainbow’s presence in the Link. I don’t know how this is happening, but at least I can ease her pain. Fearful that a complete cut might damage her friend’s mind, Twilight opted to deafen Rainbow from the hive mind. The effect was immediate, and she slackened on the princess’s back.
Luna turned to her guards. “We’re too deep to teleport out safely; get to the surface and tell the archmagus to meet us halfway. Go!”
She watched her thestrals depart for a moment before casting a worried glance between pegasus and queen. “You said alchemy? But I thought you needed a whole apparatus for that.”
“Normally…” Twilight’s senses directed her to the circlet, which she promptly ripped off Rainbow’s head. The act stunned Rainbow into a barely lucid state, but her fur stopped turning purple, and her mane mostly remained the same, albeit with different colored roots.
Twilight motioned for Luna to place Rainbow on the ground so they could inspect her. The lavender queen checked her friend from hoof to ear. “The alchemy’s gone; she won’t change any further.”
Luna cringed at the sight of the pegasus. The fur starting from mid way down her neck and up was completely violet that graded into darker shades, with the top being solid lavender. “How can you be certain?”
“She’s alchemically inactive.” Twilight took out her canteen and gave Rainbow a few sips before the stricken mare fell unconscious. “RD, are you okay? Speak to me.”
Rainbow Dash’s mind was experiencing too much shock for her to register Twilight's plea, which only served to send Twilight closer towards the deep end. “We have to get her to the ship, it’s the only place I can make sure she doesn’t have any deformities.”
Luna carefully placed the stricken mare on her back. “We should move her to the castle instead. It’s closer, and you can have any necessary equipment you need delivered easier.”
“That’ll work, but we need to move!” Twilight said before addressing her escorts. “Start searching for a way to open this door; I’ll summon an extra detail to give the bones a proper burial.”
“Yes, my queen!” They all replied.
Twilight fretted over the sleeping pegasus. While Rainbow couldn’t hear the hive mind, Twilight could still hear her. Hang on Rainbow. I’ll fix this, somehow.
Later, in the wee hours of the morning, Rainbow Dash awoke on one of the sofas in Twilight Sparkle’s tower. It was a new moon, so the only light in the central chamber was from the candles surrounding the exhausted mare’s desk.
Lying on cushions scattered around her sofa, Rainbow saw several drones were sleeping around her. Aegis and her squad were the closest. “Gah, what happened?” she moaned quietly. She blinked slowly at the lavender queen before drowsily taking wing to fly over to her. “Twi?”
Twilight jolted from her study of the circlet to face the violet/cyan mare. “Rainbow!” She gripped her friend’s head on either side. “Do you remember who you are? Who I am? Anything?”
Rainbow Dash arched a sardonic eyebrow. “Ah, yeah. You’re the biggest egghead royal bug I’ve ever met, and I’m the best Wonderbolt there is.”
The pegasus suddenly found herself being squished in a crushing hug. “Oh, thank the First Mother! Your memories are still there.” Rainbow struggled to breathe, prompting Twilight to loosen up. “Are you feeling well? Any pain or discomfort? I checked for nerve damage and tissue malformation, but I didn’t find any—” A cyan hoof planted itself in her muzzle, but her mouth was moving so fast she didn’t stop talking for a few more seconds.
“Twilight, what’s going on? Why are you asking me all this?”
It took Twilight a few moments to recompose herself and remove the hoof from her muzzle. “Please, answer my questions.”
Rainbow shot her a weird look before rolling her eyes. “I’m feeling fine, I’m not in…” She took a moment to pad herself down. “No pain anywhere. Happy?”
“Very; thank you. Do you remember anything of what happened last night?”
That was where Rainbow Dash was drawn up short. “Umm, I take it you mean besides the caves and the bones?” The lavender queen nodded slowly. “Well there were like a kajillon voices in my head. Is that the sort of trap the old 'Lings left behind, or did we piss off some ghost down there.”
Twilight fumbled with the circlet for several seconds to find the right words. “Rainbow… There were no traps or ghosts or anything. You were hearing my hive mind.”
That earned a tilted head from the Wonderbolt. “You wanna run that by me one more time?”
Sighing, Twilight levitated the circlet to hover between them. “This thing partially converted you into a changeling; specifically, Aegis’ template.”
“You’re kidding... right?” Rainbow hoped, only to find a mirror, wrapped in Twilight’s magic, fly over to her. Her face fell at the violet furry face staring back at her. Rainbow’s mouth hung agape as her brain failed spectacularly to process what it was seeing.
Twilight could feel Rainbow’s growing panic over the Link, but refused to bleed it away out of respect. “RD, I want you to know I’m going to do everything I can to fix this.”
“M-my fur… it’s supposed to be blue. Blue. Blue! Why am I purple!? I—” To both mares’ astonishment, Rainbow Dash’s fur shimmered an extremely faint lavender before returning to its normal cyan color, and the discoloration of her mane also faded away. “I—I… I’m blue again. Are you doing this?”
“No!” Twilight’s heart soared and she latched onto Rainbow’s face again. “Amazing, I knew your transformation affected your fur the quickest, but I didn’t think it was a complete conversion! I need to run more tests on you to gauge the extent of your changes… for science! By the way, it’s very light cerulean, not blue,” she added academically.
Rainbow was finding it hard to speak with Twilight’s hooves squishing her face. “Cwan yu wet go wow?”
“Oh, sorry!” The queen released her friend immediately. “I’m just shocked that you can use your disguise at all.” The partial conversion must have allowed her to generate some changeling mana.
Unfortunately, now that Rainbow’s panic was slowly bleeding away at the sight of her restored fur, whatever control she had over her abilities fell away and her coat faded back to violet. “No! Go back, go back!”
“Rainbow—” Twilight started, only to be given pause by a raised wing. The pegasus growled into the mirror in her hooves to change back, and her violet fur shimmered a bit, but couldn’t fully stabilize. Twilight pushed the feathered wing out of her face. “Rainbow, I can teach you how to control this, at least long enough I figure out how to reverse this.”
For several minutes, Rainbow tried to reclaim her original color. She would succeed for, at most, several seconds before the strain was too much and she reverted back. In the end, she turned to her lavender friend. “Can you reverse this? Like, before I go on deployment with the ‘Bolts?”
Despite Rainbow’s irate exterior, primal fear seeped through the barrier Twilight had placed between her and the hive mind. Twilight hugged her friend tightly. “I promise, Rainbow, I’ll do everything I can to fix this. But I don’t know how long it will take.”
“Hey, come on,” Rainbow scoffed, trying to reassert her bravado. “If you hadn’t been there, I’d be a hundred percent 'Ling now, wouldn’t I? So my fur’s a different color, big deal. Nothing a dye job can’t fix, right?” Twilight let go of her friend, giving Rainbow time to fully inspect herself. “I mean, awesome mane: check. Sky blue - er - cerulean coat: mostly check.” She flexed her wings into different positions and gave her feathers a good tug. “Radical wings: double check!”
Twilight hid an inner cringe. Oh no, she’s doing a checklist…
As Rainbow finished her self-inspection, Twilight recollected her notes on her earlier inspection while trying to ignore the connotations of Rainbow’s inspection method. “From what I gathered, your fur and skin from the neck up are nearly a complete conversion. Oddly enough, it’s only skin deep.”
“Am I going to have to worry about shedding or something?” Rainbow said, trying to inject some humor.
Not that it worked, since Twilight could sense the pegasus’ lingering terror under the surface. “Ah well, no more than usual, although you might find humid heat to be more to your liking,” Twilight explained, glad to bring her friend into a more amicable mood. “I stopped your transformation before your horn could start growing in, and as far as I can tell, nothing’s been changed below the neckline except for one thing.”
“So I don’t have to worry about eggs?” Rainbow asked with sudden intense dread. “I mean, eggs are good, but that’s all you, queen bug.”
Twilight attempted to give a flat look but it ended up turning into a sleepy yawn. “No, you’re entirely pony below the neck, except for an alteration to your metabolism and digestive tract.”
“Metabo what?” Rainbow couldn’t stop running her tongue over her distinctively not flat teeth. “Is that something do with my teeth being weird?” Before Twilight could speak, Rainbow’s eyes lit up like the sun. “I get it! Sharp teeth means you eat meat! I can eat meat now!?”
Twilight was at a complete loss at her friend’s sudden enthusiasm. “Umm…technically ponies have always had the ability, but—.”
“Yeah, yeah, most of us’d get indigestion. But are you saying I can actually eat meat totally safely now?” A confused nod was Twilight’s only answer. “This is awesome! All those years of Gilda dangling chicken in front of me, and recently with your hive…”
The pegasus was practically drooling over Twilight’s scrolls as she rambled about dining on Pepper’s famous Beer Roasted Beef with Onions. Twilight simply couldn’t find any words, although she could sense over the Link that her friend was grasping at straws. Anything to distract herself from how close she came to becoming a drone. Even with that in mind, Twilight had difficulty finding any semblance of logic to Rainbow’s incoherent mumbling about other changeling cuisine. “I’m starting to think the circlet actually did do something to your mind,” she muttered half-jokingly.
“You think my taste buds are more inclined to like meat now too? Because your kids eat more beef than ponies do hay.”
Twilight threw her hooves up at the figurative curve ball worthy of Pinkie Pie herself. “That’s it, I give up. I’m going to bed. But before I do. Would you allow me to teach you how to control your disguise? I can do it in a short minute via the Link.”
“Ahh…” Rainbow reimagined the constant nonsensical chatter that assailed her under the mountain. Her ears folded back and she started to hyperventilate.
Twilight felt a wash of terror from her friend. “Sorry, I should have known you’d be af—”
Rainbow’s ears shot up and a determined look crossed her face. “No!” Twilight stopped as the pegasus wrestled with her fear. “Will it hur - no, will it mess with my brain in any way? I want to still be me.”
“The hive mind is for communication; you’ll still be Rainbow Dash. You’ve seen my children; they have as much personality as any pony out there,” Twilight reassured. Although not as much as you half the time.
The pegasus forced her breathing and fear under control through sheer force of will and stared at her lavender friend. “Do it.”
As Twilight gently imparted the knowledge, the drone of the hive mind was unintelligible for several seconds until Vespid passed into her knowledge, followed by the nuances of wielding a disguise.
A thought struck Rainbow while it all happened. “Why does it not sound as terrifying as last time?”
“If I had to guess, it’s because you know what the voices are, and that they won’t harm you.”
Duh. “Okay. Um… That make sense.” She was having difficulty thinking with a few thousand voices in her mind. “How do you deal with all the noise?”
“You want the simple answer or the long one?”
“Simple, please.”
Twilight poured the last of her cold coffee in a mug and took a few sips before giving the cup to Rainbow. “Simply put, a changeling’s brain is wired to work with a hive mind. Given enough time, you won’t want to be separated from it.” Rainbow put the mug down, but Twilight jumped out of her chair. “Which is why I’m limiting you to just a thread connection until I’m sure I can sever you safely.”
“Now hold on!” Rainbow half shouted, stopping Twilight short. “You’ve gotten into all kinds of trouble over the years, and I wasn’t able to help you because I never knew about it until after all the action was over. You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”
Some of the drones awoke from the raised voice, while Twilight was frozen by the idea. “A-are you seriously suggesting—”
Rainbow waved her hooves defensively. “Not the whole thing, just you. So long as I’m part 'Ling here, I at least want to stay in contact with you.”
“I guess I can do that, but I’d really like to get some sleep.”
“Sounds good. But before you go, what did you find out about the circlet and where Aegis got it from?”
And there goes what little of a good mood I had, she inwardly groaned. “The shopkeeper lied about knowing what the circlet really was. He thought it was some old junk that he could con somepony into taking off his hooves.”
“You don’t really believe that do you?” Rainbow rebuked. “A pony like that’s gotta know what he’s selling.”
“Luna wasn’t convinced either—” Twilight yawned loudly, “but since he had a disclaimer sign at the door and register, and you didn’t die, we can’t prosecute him.”
As Twilight finished gently granting Rainbow the knowledge of proper disguise use, the pegasus felt some of Twilight’s drowsiness leak into her. “Maybe I’ll try it out in the morning. Night, Twi.”
“Good night, Rainbow Dash.”
Just outside of the window, a Night Guard listened in on the entire conversation. Rainbow’s rapid turnaround deeply troubled him. Nopony could be so accepting of having that plague brought upon them. That queen must have planned this. The boss will want to know. We have to stop the plaguebearer from spreading her curse any further.
With utter silence, the guard fell away from the window and powered his way to the noble district.
During the following day’s lunch in Twilight’s tower, Aegis’ squad watched on in mute awe as Rainbow Dash shoveled a roast beef sandwich into her maw. Moans and gasps of ecstasy escaped the mostly cyan mare between bites. Her plate had been filled with four different changeling dishes. There were no survivors.
Aegis nervously fidgeted with her hooves and couldn’t truly face her adopted aunt. While all of them felt guilty for not presenting the magical items to Twilight for inspection first, she was the one who had purchased the circlet. Rainbow took notice and spoke after washing her sandwich down. “Aegy, are you going to wear that apologetic look all day?”
“Sorry,” she whined. “I shouldn’t have been so stupid as to trust that crook to know what he was selling.”
“So you messed up, it’s not the end of the world.” Rainbow pulled Aegis into a sidelong hug and shot her a winning smug grin. “Sure, the purple fur’s not my thing, and I keep biting my tongue on these new teeth,” some of her cheer started fading, “and I have short fangs… and a bit of a love addiction…” Aegis’s mood plummeted. Rainbow cleared her throat and took a swig of her beer. “Look, it wasn’t your fault. And besides, Twi stopped it before I went full drone, and she’s cooking up a cure right now, and I get to eat meat, so that’s like a triple plus.”
It wasn’t enough to bolster Aegis’ spirits, and she leaned her head into Rainbow’s neck to whimper. I’m so sorry, Aunty.
A loud knocking on the door stifled any further discussion. Intel jumped out of his seat right as Twilight spoke from the upper levels of the tower. <Can somepony get that? I’m in the middle of a delicate experiment.> Rainbow successfully reverted her coat color before Intel could obey.
He found a nervous looking bellhop with a pair of brown boxes bearing the royal seal on his back. “Delivery for ahh...” the earth pony pulled out a scroll. “Queen Twilight Sparkle and Dame Rainbow Dash.”
Intel eyed the pony, and then the boxes, with curiosity. “I can take those for you.”
“I need your signature here, p-p-please.” He flipped his scroll over and offered an inked quill. Once Intel did as requested, he pulled the two packages off the earth pony’s back. “H-have a good day, sir.”
The bellhop ran off like a shot, prompting the drone to tilt his head. Maybe he’s just another superstitious pony.
Once the door was closed, Rainbow let go of her partial disguise with a labored exhale. “That” *huff* “was harder than I thought.” *puff*
Aegis gently patted her adopted aunt on the back. “Even though mom gave you the knowledge via the Link, it'll take time to get used to using it. But you're doing great for a beginner!”
Intel placed the packages on the table, while Rainbow gave her niece a crooked smile. “Thanks, kid.”
“So, were you expecting anything?” Ferrum asked while prodding the boxes to see which one belonged to Rainbow.
As soon as it was identified, the violet/cyan pegasus started ripping her package open. “The address said it was from Princess Celestia.”
As Rainbow finished tearing her box apart, Twilight fluttered down from her study. “I think I figured out what the circlet is.” She paused at the table. “What’s in the boxes?”
“Apparently, they’re gifts from Princess Celestia,” Intel replied evenly.
Twilight eyed the medallion Rainbow pulled out the tattered remains of her package. “You don’t sound convinced.”
Given the recent trouble with the circlet, Rainbow Dash was wary to do any more than look at her gift. “I think I’m the only one who has reason to be paranoid about jewelry right now.”
“Did it come with a note?”
“Uhhh…” Rainbow put her medallion on the table and searched through the box to find a folded piece of paper.
I’m terribly sorry I couldn’t deliver this gift personally, Rainbow Dash, but my duties hold my attention elsewhere. Nevertheless, I discreetly commissioned my personal enchanter to create a masking ornament for you. I hope it is to your liking, and that Twilight finds a speedy solution.
-Princess Celestia
Ferrum prodded the medallion with a hoof. “That was awfully nice of her, wasn’t it?”
“I guess…” Rainbow admitted reluctantly.
“This would give you plenty of time to master your disguise,” Intel added reassuringly. “I mean, I know jewelry isn’t your thing and all, but...”
“Yeah, yeah I get you, but sorry, I’m not wearing that thing,” Rainbow huffed as she pushed it away. “Gift from the princess or not, I’m not wearing any more magic items unless it’s called the Element of Loyalty, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”
Rainbow’s growing phobia made Twilight scoff. “Don’t be so melodramatic, RD. It’s just a simple illusion charm.”
“Oh yeah? And what if this enchanter guy messed up and it turns me into a newt?” Rainbow Dash said while crossing her forelegs.
“Look,” Twilight placated, “what if I scan the medallion right here and now, to quintuple check that’s perfectly safe?”
If I say no, they’ll think I’m being chicken. “Yeah, sure. Just make sure it’s safe, and then I got no problems.”
“Good to hear.” Twilight nodded warmly before directing her senses to Rainbow’s medallion. She took the time to visually inspect the medallion first, which a finely crafted gold necklace with bronze enclosing a gem-quality crystal. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she scanned her magic over it. “It’s just as the note said; it has a basic illusion charm on it. Nothing to worry about,” she said while nudging the necklace towards the hesitant pegasus.
Rainbow Dash decidedly pushed it back. “Legit or not, I’m not touching it. I’d rather muscle my way into learning my… disguise rather than be tricked twice by some piece of metal.”
“You’re hopeless; you know that?” Twilight groaned.
“Hey! How do I know the thing wasn’t cursed before the archmage got ahold of it? He coulda gotten this thing from Bargain Bin Warehouse for Cursed Junk, for all I know.”
Twilight twisted her muzzled into a disbelieving scowl. “Alright, alright; if I take a more detailed inspection, will you wear it?”
“Ahh…” Rainbow glanced at the drones and could just feel her cool factor draining fast. “Yeah, sure. If you can make it a hundred and twenty percent safe, then yeah, I’ll wear it.”
Twilight levitated everything off the table and shooed everyone away so she could focus entirely on the medallions on the center of the table. Her magical senses wrapped around Rainbow’s gift, again detecting the illusion charm. However, now that she was taking a scrutinizing look, she saw that a thread on the twelfth matrix line was slightly misaligned. Wait a second; that would mean the charm was altered to have an overcharge, but that wouldn’t be necessary to simply mask some of Rainbow’s fur.
She pushed her senses upon the awry matrix line, only to push through it to discover a very different enchantment underneath, one that caused nothing but confusion. “There’s a wearer’s enchantment linked to a locator beacon.”
“A locator beacon?” Aegis chirped with bemusement. “But those are only used for tracking.”
“Or for a remote teleport array to lock onto,” Ferrum added chillingly.
Rainbow hovered next to the queen with a smug grin. “I knew that thing was bad news… So what does it all mean though?”
Twilight’s mind churned troubled thoughts. “The wearer’s charm activates any linked enchantment when the object is worn, and it only works when the owner of the object puts it on, hence the name. The idea of it being linked to a teleporter is troubling.”
“Is there any way to be sure?” Aegis piped with as she brought a hammer over. “If not, we can either smash it or take it to one of the princesses so they can confront the archmage.”
Ferrum interposed a hoof between the medallions and the hammer. “Hold on a sec. It’s possible the package from the archmage was intercepted and this trapped necklace was put in its place. We could be dooming an innocent pony by doing this.”
Rainbow flew around to hover between Ferrum and Twilight. “Or we could be right and that archmage is up to something.” She snatched the second package up. “What about your package, Twi? I bet you fifty bits it’s a trap too.”
No one took that bet, as all it took from Twilight was a repeat scan on her own gifted medallion to find the same hidden enchantments. “Then we are at an impasse,” Twilight declared reluctantly. “We either ignore it, warn the princesses and the conspirators, or we take the bait and hope to fight our way out.”
Aegis felt a deep frown crease her face. “I have a plan, mother, but you’re not going to like it.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.03 seconds
Total duration
765 users online
1,012,459 hits today, 2,073,628 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Twilight should have known it wasn't really from the Princess when the letter misspelled "discreetly".
Also,
a strange and dower place
are you sure you don't mean "dour"?
Great chapter, though!
And the plot thickens...
Rainbow part ling? 20% cooler dash
And so things continue to pile up. Rainbow's partial conversion, whatever-that-scene-in-the-jungle was, the Night Guard being paranoid, and whoever wanted Rainbow to wear the medallion and then teleport her away.
Unlike with Twilight, I actually hope Rainbow Dash can get turned back to normal. She wasn't reborn like Twilight, someone was trying to forcibly convert her.
Hm, the plot thickens!
5 bits says Aegis' plan is for a number of drones to hold onto/wear the traps so the... *insert appropriately complex and insulting synonym for jerk here*
will have their own trap to deal with. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
Have two lings take the trap in the mane 2 places. And have em be hevy class fighters, wih flintlocks. Or flintlock clockwork legs. But still a good plan. But think, a clockwork forehoof, riged with a 6 shot ato reload flintlock pistol system. Good idea?
Another great chapter
I bet the Jewry is from Twi's mom.
I think the underlined part is wrong.
Let's see here...The Night Guard is full of overzealous morons who don't even answer to their own leader. Wonderful.Twilight Velvet managed to get a nasty Gambit Roulette* going within less than two days. She also needs to get defenestrated forty feet onto some hard stone paving posthaste.Oh yeah, and Rainbow Dash apparently had an obsession with meat even before she could eat it safely. Well then.*What do I mean by Gambit Roulette? Well...1. If anyone other than Dash bought and wore that circlet, there'd be some poor schmuck turning into a changeling, and Twilight wouldn't be able to get to them to stop it in time. Meaning Twilight would be forced to "cure" herself because her being a changeling would become a serious danger to public order. Because Canterlot's already on edge, so it wouldn't take much to start a riot.2. She's taking advantage of the Night Guard's zealotry to cause even more problems. Especially since the NG is too stupid to realize that Luna knows full well what's going on and hasn't told them to intervene. Fucking Night Guard.3. Faking a gift from someone Twilight has severe troubledistrusting? Brilliant.Somehowfinding out what happened to Dash and using it immediately to very nearly catch Twilight? Evil genius right there.EDIT:
Actually, I can sum this all up pretty nicely.
Velvet, you magnificent bitch.
well that wasn't ominous at all
Aegis is gonna put on the charm in RD's place isn't she?
I wonder if both medallions teleport to the same location. They could have Twilight put on Rainbow's and see how that messes up the trapper's plan.
Or, a slightly less risky move would be to have Aegis use it since she could fight out of many situations. She might even do it in the hopes of catching whoever planned to trap Rainbow, hoping that it would somewhat make up for the circlet incident.
Vile machinations of evil changelings and a-hole ponies alike. Reading events like this always make me want to see the conspirators get nuked from orbit.
Also, a bit here:
I think you mean wary instead of weary. "Weary" means "tired" or "worn out", whereas "wary" means "cautious" and "alert", which seems to fit into Rainbow's (justified) paranoia.
Remember, ponies, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they ain't out to get you.
this all smells of Twilight's Unicorn mother.
Cliffhanger...
Oh yeah! Rainbow has joined the lings! We totally called it!
In other news, why don't they have the two princesses don the artifacts? Stupid jerk faces would get red handed big time, and there would be no way for them to link the lings at all!
I still think Dash is putting up a front to save face, even if she won't take advantage of the best group therapy in existence.
Keep going! ;)
Whatever you do don't put on the necklace...
but this was a great chapter. was getting progressively more excited as you kept pointing out things wrongs with RD. the only other thing i was guessing was that she was a spy for another changeling queen but this is so much better.
And the plot thickens!
Also, meatlover!Rainbow is hilarious.
3943309
If you aren't paranoid, it's because the people after you are too good at hiding!
I notice everyone's quick to pin this on Velvet. While I wouldn't put it beyond her, she'd have to be very close-knit with one of the archmages to know that RD has partially transformed too.
Also, I find it hard to believe that the circlet was her doing either. The circlet was using alchemy. While there's no indication the archmages don't know alchemy, there's nothing here hinting that they do either. ( Or maybe I missed the mention? ) Given all the secrecy and plotting that Chryssi and Polybia are doing, I'd find it much easier to believe they made it and placed it there for Twilight's brood to find. ( as to why or for what purpose, I could hardly fathom. [though, thinking about it, if Aegis were to have put it on, would she have then been converted into the hive of the changeling that last touched it? Perhaps it could've been planted for a devious plot in that direction...] ) At the very least, it wouldn't be hard to guess that Twilight would be thorough enough to have artifact shops inspected for potential prospects.
On the other hoof, I'm a little surprised that Twilight didn't ask... uh... ( suddenly, her name escapes me... )
"Mother"Cadista if she knew anything about alchemical iron circlets. But then, I suppose that option could've been explored 'off-screen' and dismissed because it didn't turn up any information. ( Or mayhaps she was afraid that Cadista did know about them and she would say that the effects are largely irreversible? ) Either way, Halfling RD... not the most pretty image I can get from the description, but still pretty interesting. Wonder what sub-plots will be explored there.D'aww, carnivorous Rainling
All the evil plots. All of them.
~bass
I swear I have learned to see a cliffhanger coming just by looking at the red bar at the top of the page
Thanks for the update. this story rocks!
Rainling and Twiling are best lings.
I certainly did not see a changeling Rainbow coming.
On another note: Those medallions seem suspicious. TWI'S MOTHER!
LE GASP! Maybe. You never know. 
3943483 heh i would love to see the look on the poor fool who triggered that trap
needs an end " marks.
__________________________
Poor Ageis, I hope nothing bad happens to her. And RD's part Ling now, that's so awesome! Good chapter.
Rainbow dash: "Who's paranoid now?!?"
Hmn, so Dash is about to deploy for another rotation at the chaos spawn front with a circlet that is leaking hints of changeling magic. That has potential to go badly, or at least interestingly.
Uh oh. I hope this doesn't mean we are about to lose either Cadista or Stripped Gear.
On the other hand, between Dash's fur changing color and the sounds she is hearing, maybe it's going to get interesting far sooner than Dash's deployment date.
Hmn, a Shadow War with Sombra? Do tell.
Welp, and there's the "interesting" I was wondering about. So much for Dash's deployment, I doubt that the 'Bolts will want her on the field that soon after being partially converted into a changeling.
Ooooo, good thing Dash was so paranoid about the necklace. I'm gonna guess that Twilight's mother is responsible and she is trying to kidnap and unconvert her daughter.
Aegis is going to suggest that she be the one that puts it on....
I just know it >.>
3945618
As a Mr Garak would so wonderfully point out, "Its only paranoia if they're really not out to get you."
Oh god, please, please don't make RD a permanent part of the hive. We need at least some normality in this story.
3942736 All hail Princess Rainbow Dash!
fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/309/8/5/changeling_rainbow_dash__element_of_sloth_by_sakuyamon-d5jni3f.png
3946466 epic picture
3946182 And in what part is this story normal?
3943132 FINALLY someone post that clip. It goes through my head every time I see it
Twi could probably half-fix that chaos spawn problem with a few broadsides from her hive ship.
Finally another chapter, been waiting forever to read this!
Man, Chrysalis is up to something, and the conspirists are not helping.
Haiku of...Arrgh!:
Look back frequently
One still misses cliff edge dire
Toes grab the tree root
^.^
Meat eating RD? She really DID turn out 20% cooler.
And the web of conspiracy grows ever more twisted.
Also, Rainbow
!
3946466 I would read that side-story. Or fanfic fanfic. Or what ever it would be. Just, somepony write it!
I wonder why Twilight didn't just ask the princess "Hey, did you send a package to Rainbow and I? Or should I be informing you of somepony attempting to start a Changeling-Equestrian war?" Really Twi, just check the source.
So there are two things that have been bugging me for a while now, and I figure now's a good time to get them out of the way before I get them interrupted by my thoughts on Chrysalis' "evil scheme" that so far seems about as cunning and intelligent as her attack on Canterlot.....
Anyway, the first is Rainbow Dash. This is more something that's been bothering me since the prequel that I had been holding off on bringing up until I saw what you were planning with her in this story. In the fist story she heads to Stripped Gear in order to overcome her xenophobia and become pals with th changelings, but we never see any of it happen. Aside from one very, very brief moment of contact when she first arrives in Stripped Gear, every other moment of her visit and every moment that she ever spends actually interacting with changelings is completely off screen. If it had just kind of been a thing in that story and then never really brought up again I would have left it alone, but since she's supposed to be one of the most important characters in this story I really can't.
It honestly feels like she's just a side character that you threw the Headband of Extreme Plot Significance at so that it would be a part of the story rather than because Rainbow Dash herself is actually important in any way. You tell us that, of the mane 6, she's the closest to Twilight, but it never really shows in the writing. She's constantly sidelined in this story, and there's no background from the last story to make her feel important.
My second issue is with another character that's been sidelined. Whatever happened to Ratchet? Unless I missed something really important (which is possible given how easily distracted I am), he just kind of stopped mattering after the first story. In the beginning, he was Twilight's Number 2, her go-to changeling when she needed an other opinion or a shoulder to lean on, but in this story he might as well just not even exist at all. Aside from that one scene where he switched over to Twilight's half of the hivemind, he's been completely absent from every major moment where you would expect the changeling who is effectively Twilight's husband to be present. Not only has he been absent, but Twilight hasn't so much as spared him a single thought since that one very, very brief conversation they had before she went to fuck her nameless sperm donor.
Anyway, that aside I really like the story so keep up the good work and all that jazz. And I can't wait to see what Cadista has to say about Chrysalis' blatantly obvious trap.
3952124 I can't remember the story name, and it has been rewritten 3 times with the third time coming with a name change which is why I don't remember it, but it has Twilight becoming the Changeling Queen, and Rainbow becoming half changeling making her changeling princess.
