18 - Invitation
The week passed peacefully. Silver and Night made it their business to rise with the coming sun and head out to aid in the reconstruction efforts. Night's keen observational and organization combined with Silver's magic made for good progress. It seemed that the Crystal Empire had only pegasi and unicorns in the form of the guards at the castle, and they were trained only for defense.
Having a flyer and a spellcrafter on the ground to help the ground-bound populace of the city paid quick dividends. They completed the expansion of the farming area and moved on to a mine.
"Do we have enough food?" asked Silver, "I thought Cadance said to handle that before we went on to other things. Why a mine?"
One of the crystal ponies pointed at the dark hole, "That is food. To be entirely healthy, we need a little gem dust sprinkled on other things." At Silver's expression, he laughed, "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt ponies any when it's ground up that fine. Besides, what do you think most of the buildings are made of?" He gestured back at the gleaming city. "Gems. At least this time we're doing it because we want to." He shuddered softly, then trotted back into the hole.
Night watched him go, then glanced back at Silver, "I suppose these ponies understand what it means to not have choices."
Silver huffed, "Compared to them, I've always had choices. I've got little right to compare. Let's go check it out and see where we can help."
The first thing Silver noticed was the lighting was dim. Sure, her slit eyes brought it up to an acceptable level, but she knew the crystal ponies had no such advantage. "Torches would be dangerous in a confined area... I think I read something that would be useful." She pulled out her book of spells and got to reading as Night scouted ahead.
Night came back at an idle walk, "They're just digging at the walls wherever they see something shiny. There's no order at all."
Silver raised a brow, "That's not good, but I know I can trust you to sort that out. You get them in line, and try to find me a crystal about this big." She held her hooves apart about the size of a baseball, "Round would be ideal."
Night trotted into the depths, and soon her loud barks were heard as she began loudly bossing the crystal ponies around. She wasn't mean-spirited about it, but she did take charge. Silver sat up, ready to cast when Night came back. Night pulled three gems from her saddlebag. Two were close to the ideal size, and one was the yellow hue Silver desired. She picked up the selected gem and began playing magic at it. With focus and magic, its internal matrix aligned to form a magic battery of sorts. "Time to do some magic electrician work!"
Night raised a brow, "Huh?"
Silver led the way out of the mine and looked around for a good spot. She tucked the yellow orb into a rocky nook, where it would be exposed to the sun. "This is the heart of the new light system. There aren't enough unicorns around to assume they'll juice it up. This one will refill itself through the day. I just need to start making the lights draw from it." She tilted her head at it, "One this big should support about a dozen lights. I'd make a bigger one, if I could... I'll have it dim out and turn off as the sun sets, since ponies should get some sleep anyway."
Night patted Silver with a wing lightly, "Your eyes sparkle when you start talking about this stuff. You're adorable." As Silver blushed, Night leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, "Don't go all introvert on me. You have lights to do."
Silver nodded quickly and headed back into the tunnels, "I'll want some more crystals, but tiny ones will do, say no bigger than this." She held up her hooves to ping-pong ball in size, "Round isn't needed, any color." Before Night could go searching, a passing crystal pony offered up some of her haul. Silver smiled, "Thanks!" She quickly snatched a silvery handful and got to work. As each crystal was bound to the solar crystal outside, it began to glow with its light, casting yellow-tinted illumination across the area.
Night picked up one of the crystals, "Looks like it's working. So they just have to put these around where they're working?"
Silver nodded, "And on the tunnel heading back to the surface. They can be moved around, so it should be good for a while. Since it uses the magic of the sun, they should keep on glowing unless they're damaged. They're still crystals, so tell them to not abuse them."
After the crystals were distributed, Silver trotted for the surface, Night just behind. Silver suddenly collided with something both hard and soft in places. She backed up a step and gracelessly landed on her belly. She looked up at the brown-orange pony she had crashed into. He had two-tone blue hair for mane and tail, and wore the gold armor of a guard. Silver's mind whirred a moment before she blinked, "Flash?"
Flash blinked his blue eyes, "Have we met before? Sorry for bumping into you, miss." He offered a hoof to her and Silver stood up with his help.
Silver squinted suddenly. She'd been helped up by Flash Sentry. By series logic, they had to fall in love? She snorted at the idea of it, though part of her agreed with the notion. He was a well-shaped pegasus, and he was polite, and he smelled kind-- Silver shook her head out. She was no one's waifu and she would not be stolen by Flash! She sagged a little, but would it be bad to be stolen in those orange legs?
Night slapped Silver lightly with a wing, "Equestria to Silver? You alright in there? Sorry for the trouble... Flash was it?"
"Flash Sentry," he agreed, "Nice to meet you both. I didn't expect to see lunar ponies outside Canterlot. I heard you were doing work around the mines and thought I'd come say hello and thank you."
Night flashed a fanged smile, "It's our pleasure. So what's guard work for Cadance like? She seems like a real sweetie."
Flash nodded, "She is. This has been my best post. She treats everyone like family. I don't know how she squeezes in all the time to talk to everypony, but she manages somehow."
Silver tilted her head, "How long have you been here?"
Flash rubbed behind his helmet with a hoof, "Well let's see. There's been one Hearth's Warming so far, so not quite two years yet. You two just arrived?"
Night nodded before adjusting her glasses, "Week and a half ago. We just finished in the mines."
Flash raised a brow, "Already?"
Silver smiled, "It wasn't that much. They needed to focus their efforts, and be able to see." She turned and pointed at the yellow crystal, "Don't let anypony mess with that. It powers the lights inside."
Flash nodded towards it, "I'll let the other guards know. Back to business for me, see you around the castle." They exchanged waves, and parted ways.
Night trotted alongside Silver as she spoke, "He was a fine slice of pony, wasn't he?"
Silver sagged, "Oh thank god I thought it was just me and a broken hormonal mind."
Night smirked, "Gotcha."
Silver went red and shrunk, "That was... really not nice Night, come on."
Night nudged Silver, "You were looking at him like you wanted to sail away in his eyes. He's not a bad looker, really, but you were lost to me. What am I going to do with you?" She nudged Silver again, "It's like you took Fast's place."
Silver blinked softly, flopping down on her haunches. "Huh... I never thought of it like that."
Night snorted softly, "Sometimes it takes an outside perspective." She leaned in close, "Do you think he's interested?"
Silver stiffened, "I didn't ask! Should I have? Night! Seriously... I don't want to be an awful herd, uh, sister."
Night raised a hoof, "And there is the problem. You're a mare, and you seem comfortable with that." She leaned in, "Before you freak out at that, I'm already OK with you as a mare, stallion, both, whatever. I like you for your crazy brain." She snorted and rolled her eyes, "So we're both mares. We get to shop around for a nice stallion."
Silver frowned, "What about Twilight? I might be... carrying her?"
Night shook her head, "Still a mare. Even if she decides to support you as best as she can, she is not going to stop being a mare. She's also a princess and won't publicly marry either of us." She flashed her teeth. "Good thing she can trust your devotion to her to keep quiet about where your foal came from..."
Silver sat with a stubborn blush. She wouldn't ever do something to purposefully harm Twilight, or at least she was pretty sure of this... "So... are you still first wife or not?"
Night tilted her head, "No stallion, no first wife, or second wife. We're just two girls in it to win it."
Silver frowned, "I don't like that. We're more than that."
Night shrugged gently, "Social constructs, what can you do with 'em? You can call me whatever makes you happy, so long as it's not bat pony."
Silver leaned in to nip at Night's neck gently, "What if I called you my darling little bat?"
Night wrapped her wings around Silver, "I would kill you and make passionate love to your still-cooling body."
Silver barked out a laugh, "Not the worst way to go. So... stallion market, that feels weird..." She glanced around, "What about the crystal ponies?"
Night shrugged, "Nice enough ponies, but what if that crystal runs to other places." She waggled her brows suggestively.
Silver swallowed loudly, "Alright, I can see why that might be an issue."
Night bumped against Silver, "I thought you would. Let's grab some lunch and see what else we can shove our snouts into."
As they turned to head to the castle, Silver felt song magic bubbling up within her. She let it take her and sang out one quick line about 'It will all work out', and then it passed over her. Silver glanced at Night, "Tell me you felt that."
Night blinked, "Felt what?"
Silver sighed and led the way to the dining hall, eager to replenish the energy spent in making the light system.
Cadance wasn't there, but a few other crystal ponies were, and they were eager to chat idly over lunch. Silver wasn't entirely sure, but she thought one of them, a stallion, was eyeing her. She pretended to not notice and focused on filling her belly.
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Flash Sentry? Dun dun dun!
5809975 fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/059/a/a/mlp___waifu_stealer_by_lixl-d78drgm.png
The Waifu Stealer has arrived!
5809975
All personenel we are in Code Orange repeat we are in Code Orange. Mares beware of cute stallion guards , this is not a drill.
flash naw not happening just not silvers style he is to stuck up.
just hormones talking.
a good chapter. the part about twilight is right she cant join a herd at lest in the public eye and she will stick to the little one if silver is really with baby.
Harts Fire
P S twi better stay with silver if she is charring her little one.
5810177 I don't think Twilight will do anything to harm Silver, but she better hope she doesn't cause the fury of Night will be worse than a God's Righteous wrath. Also that trollish Song music messing with Silver again xD, when will she ever learn
5810230
I must admit I never even gave the Song music as a problem but you are right.
Now I'm wondering what will happen if Silver ever meets Big Macintosh face-to-face. That should be rather interesting ii'd think.
5810854 Good to have you reading, let me see how much editing I can do on the road
5810918 Curiosity and a lingering fear of being alone are both powerful motives that can only get stronger when blended together. It's only mildly annoying to think back on Celestia's rant and realize she's been proven mostly correct, having no more desire to serve as a guard and already kind of looking forward to being a productively helpful mother.
Damn that Celestia, who does she think she is?!
5811527 welcome aboard.
*beats Flash hard*
NO!
*steals Silver, Night, Twilight and Cadance*
Yes! YESS!!
*also steals Shining Armor while he's at it*
Erm, does Silver and Night have those adorable ear tufts?
5811706 You didn't see Night's picture? Silver has an updated picture that is taking a while.
5811790 All fixed, many thanks! Good to have you back.
There should be a "but" before the phrase "she knew the crystal ponies had no such advantage."
His blue hair is "two-tone."
Being a princess, she won't "publicly" marry them.
Her "still-cooling" body.
5812104 All fixed! You made it!
5812116 I finally made it!
This chapter was satisfying for the fact that it once again had the characters reacting realistically to their current situation, which in this case was that - now that things have settled down - they need to take stock of their life and figure out what to do next.
In this regard, I confess myself annoyed that they seem to have entirely forgotten their extended social circle. Is anypony going to write a letter to Rough, Trixie, Fast, First, Meadow, Tumble, or anypony else that they knew to let them know what happened? When Trixie and Rough vanished, Silver was beside herself with worry over what had happened to them. Surely they've considered what their sudden disappearance is doing to others.
Besides that, it was insightful that they started to talk about what their social unit is now. We've never really had it clearly delineated how a herd functions beyond the idea that the first wife picks potential future wives, and the stallion approves. That two females can't form a herd unto themselves was interesting (though they can presumably simply be married, considering how common lesbian partnerships are). It's interesting how much Silver seems to accept the idea that she's pregnant (they haven't even confirmed that yet), but even more so for how casually she seems to accept the idea that their herd needs a stallion in it. Once that happens, Night will likely be the first wife, so Silver is going to take a serious backseat insofar as who makes the major decisions for their family.
That said, I was quite amused that you had Flash Sentry show up (as I'd mentioned before), and doubly so that Silver was suddenly so genre-conscious when he did. Besides that he's a blank slate, Flash doesn't really have any bad qualities, and it was funny to see Silver suddenly swooning over him despite not caring much for him intellectually. Is it too much to hope that Flash will be back in the future? Probably, but that was quite fun to see.
5812257 It was a special tickle to do Silver's confused reaction to Flash's presence. Genre savvy and fanon knowledge clashed with what physical presence implied. Silver no longer felt quite as bad about Twilight getting swoony when she ran into him. The boy has a magnet built into him, I swear. All the mares are bouncing off of him. He doesn't seem to mind.
This would, ironically, be a major reason Silver might not ever look that way again. Low self-esteem means not chasing what appears to have a lot of competition. Luna was a lofty target, but noone else was after her. She was lonely, he was lonely, perfect! Flash is a socially established and well-known hunk that probably gets lots of mare attention. All systems go to panic!
5810961 That's an interesting point - technically, Celestia was correct about what being a mare would do to Silver's mindset... or was she? Her rather condescending insistence was that being a female in general, and a mother in particular, would give Silver a new respect for life, but that implication that Silver was too quick to rush to harm was motivated far more in her personal ideology than facts. Silver has only been in two fights where she dealt harm, and the first was the result of a decision made in a state of panic, and the second was an accident. Neither were premeditated, so that Silver is happier as a mare is not only superficial, but a complete coincidence with regards to Celestia's reasoning.
Of course, that's all tangential - what's far more important here is that Celestia's being right or wrong is less important than how she acted to achieve her goal. There's a reason why we say that the ends don't justify the means, and it's because it excuses any sort of conduct so long as it works out well, and in this regard Celestia has shown herself to be what we always knew she was but never really fully appreciated: an autocrat.
In point of fact, there's a parallel here between Celestia and Luna - both have been entirely honest and upfront with regards to Silver. Luna told him flat-out that a romance wouldn't work, but Silver didn't listen. By contrast, Celestia never directly said "The only law in Equestria is my whim," but that was very clearly the implication, an implication that she never contradicted. Indeed, she showed her entire hoof when she swept aside Silver's diplomatic immunity in a rare fit of pique - if there hadn't been pressure from other nations, she never would have relented. Is Silver upset that Celestia has run roughshod over him? Of course; that's kind of what tyrants do.
So in a very real way, this all brings us back around to the basic problem - Silver is still a stranger in a strange land, trying to adjust to the local customs and assumptions. She has still been reacting to things the way she thinks they should be, or the way they were back home, and look at how well it's served her so far. One alicorn heartbroken by her, another thinking that she's a dangerous and unpredictable creature.
That doesn't mean that any of it is necessarily fair, or just, but it is the way it is, and every other pony in Equestria has made their peace with it (albeit because they have no model of anything else, or at least anything that they think is better). Luckily Cadance seems to be a better fit for what Silver has been expecting, but still... one can only wonder how soon it will be before Silver trips over some other sort of unwitting presumption with regards to her?
5813146 Can't blame Luna on that, Silver woke up.
Sad to say thats im thinking about to stop reading this story because the gender bender stuff is really getting strange/weird.
(really, "i'm female now lets get fucked by some male" is starting to freak me the shit out.)
5918293 She never gets it on with a random male somewhere.
5918293 I am curious of you have any other thoughts on the story besides gender changing is odd? (more odd than species changing, vampirism, magic wielding, and friendly discussions with the watcher of fate)
If I ever somehow wen to equestria I would become friends with discord and blow up everything.
5933834 But Discord isn't really in it to blow up Equestria, is he?
5809995 Kill it! Kill it!! KILL IT!!! Drown it in boiling water!
quickmeme.com/img/31/31bd6717863828d67c11e20465fb08d1ad39d5d9b873041862be0d0a8b0f939c.jpg
Having a flyer and a spellcrafter on the ground to help the ground-bound populace of the city paid quick dividends.
Correction: Having a flyer and a spell crafter on the ground to help the ground-bound populace of the city paid quick dividends.
Don't worry, it doesn't hurt ponies any when it's ground up that fine.
Correction:Don't worry, it doesn't hurt any ponies when it's ground up that fine.
The first thing Silver noticed was the lighting was dim. Sure, her slit eyes brought it up to an acceptable level, but she knew the crystal ponies had no such advantage. "Torches would be dangerous in a confined area... I think I read something that would be useful." She pulled out her book of spells and got to reading as Night scouted ahead.
Night came back at an idle walk, "They're just digging at the walls wherever they see something shiny. There's no order at all."
Silver raised a brow, "That's not good, but I know I can trust you to sort that out. You get them in line, and try to find me a crystal about this big." She held her hooves apart about the size of a baseball, "Round would be ideal."
Night trotted into the depths, and soon her loud barks were heard as she began loudly bossing the crystal ponies around. She wasn't mean-spirited about it, but she did take charge. Silver sat up, ready to cast when Night came back. Night pulled three gems from her saddlebag. Two were close to the ideal size, and one was the yellow hue Silver desired. She picked up the selected gem and began playing magic at it. With focus and magic, its internal matrix aligned to form a magic battery of sorts. "Time to do some magic electrician work!"
Where did it talk about Silver needing a yellow hue?
She was no one's waifu and she would not be stolen by Flash!
Correction: She was no one's wife and she would not be stolen by Flash!
6475199 You never heard of a waifu ?
6475194 She never did. She is already learning to think like a female, expecting you to know.
even rhetorical questions should have question marks.
6819567 Fixed!
6475199 Waifu is Japanese for wife for anime/manga fans it has other connotations.
When I read the author's note that said let there be light, the fort thing that came to mind was AC DC's lt there be rock........
6961138 They hope there will be good rocks in the mines.