Chapter 26: Scattered Seeds
Midnight Hunter woke to find Moonbeam snuggled against him. She smiled awkwardly at him, still feeling a pang of jealousy over Mirror getting to him first, mixed with the weird thought that the changeling's tryst was the only reason she had him for herself now. For that matter, did she really want him for herself? She didn't think she would regret it, but the whole thing had been hastily arranged more as a cover to blow off Shadow Hunter's suspicions and let Mirror slip away than anything else. And that wasn't exactly a healthy basis for a relationship.
But he grinned at her, and caressed her cheek, and kissed her sweetly, not too eagerly. And soon she wasn't thinking about things quite so critically. The past was past, and the future was looking pretty good.
As Midnight Oil returned to school, she was assailed by questions, first from the teacher, then the other students, then a couple of guard ponies. Fossil and Mirror did an admirable job of helping her keep the lies straight, and mixing in enough truth to keep everything believable. Their cover was that she and her mother had made an impromptu trip to the country to visit family and old friends, and just returned. One of her uncles had taken ill, and they could always wait to take the entrance exams next year. They could only speculate that the changeling had used her unannounced absence as cover to try to slip in for some nefarious plot. Thank goodness the children were all safe!
Mirror didn't like being cast as the villain for doing a favor for his dearest friend, but he understood the situation better than anyone. What he really regretted was being exiled from Canterlot for the foreseeable future to avoid any chance of being caught. The lunar pegasi would be the only support available for Midnight and her mother now, as the King would not risk sending in more changelings for the time being.
There was only one more opportunity for Mirror to test this year. Flying Colors, a unicorn mare who wore a half dozen colorful ribbons tied to her horn, fluttering brightly in the breeze, came to their class. Her cutie mark depicted a cloud being twisted and wrung out like a sponge, water raining down from it, something that seemed more typical for a pegasus than a unicorn.
"At the Academy of the Elements, we specialize in remote weather manipulation. It takes hard work and dedication to master unicorn weather control, and few have the horn dexterity to even begin down this path. But a truly skilled weather unicorn can take on the work of an entire pegasus weather crew, or be an incredible boon during weather emergencies. And even if you do not ultimately pursue that career path, the science and horn control you will learn in mastering our core curriculum will aid you immensely in all manner of other magical pursuits. So, who will come and test with me?"
There were only two volunteers this time. Most of the other unicorns had either been accepted to other schools already or were quite aware by now that they needed another year or more before they were ready to go to an academy. One student made a quiet comment whose tone made it clear what she thought of 'weather unicorns'. But Flying Colors seemed positively delighted with the turnout.
It was raining outside as she stepped out, but she didn't get the least bit wet. "Don't get wet or you're disqualified," she warned. Both Midnight and the colt coming out to test with her were able to keep the water off them with a bit of telekinesis easily enough.
On the weights test, the colt struggled to get the 2 off the ground, while Midnight Oil, drawing on our now plentiful love reserves, managed to heft the 4 handily and even juggle it a bit, showing off. She didn't attempt the 5; maybe if no one was looking it would be good for us to know if she could, but we didn't want the attention it would bring for a filly to be wielding that kind of power. Flying Colors nodded to each in turn, considering both satisfactory.
They were then asked to run through the magical alphabet. The colt struggled mightily on this, although Mirror recalled him having fine recall of it previously. Only after Midnight had breezed through it did she realize he was having trouble with the multitasking necessary to keep the rain off while playing the letters on his horn.
Then came the real test. "Dismiss the cloud that is raining on you," the teacher instructed. "It is permissible now to get wet," she offered the colt, receiving a sigh of relief in return.
The colt struggled none the less, but his magic enveloped a portion of the offending cloud and soon it winked out of existence, leaving a colt-sized hole in the cloud, and a corresponding column of dryness. With a half side-step he got himself entirely into the dry column. Flying Colors nodded her approval. "You pass! You are invited to come attend our Academy."
The colt jumped for joy, and before everyone's eyes a fluffy white cloud appeared on his flanks. Midnight Oil stared in disbelief for a moment, before the attention returned to her. She was still a blank flank, but she was not going to be outdone by this sad excuse for a horn-wielder.
Midnight had lived her whole life with a pegasus mother, one who worked low enough to the ground for her to observe in person. And now she had access to all of her knowledge and memories on how pegasus weather magic worked. She had access to the thoughts and memories of other weather pegasi as well now, and even some changelings with experience working weather with both horn and wing. She even had a better than average scientific understanding of how clouds worked, and access to a lot of power and deft horn control.
While still maintaining the shield that deflected the incoming water, she reared up onto her hind legs, spread her forelegs wide in a needless display of showmareship, and lit up her horn. Up above, the clouds parted in a majestic display of swirling patterns, ultimately dissipating the clouds in a two block radius and letting the sun shine through, highlighted with a glorious brilliant rainbow. Birds appeared instantly, highlighting the scene in beautiful song.
"Congratulations, you also pass! You too are invited to come attend our Academy," Flying Colors announced, before trotting away.
The lack of response gnawed at Midnight's soul as she returned to her seat, until the colt leaned over to her and whispered. "I thought you were really good." She gave him an appreciative smile before slumping down to wait out the end of the school day.
Meanwhile, in another school, 'Stormbringer' took 'his' seat, quite satisfied with 'himself'. Prince Alexander Gabriella Stormbringer the First, as they were less publicly known, had been called up to the front to answer a few math questions, but with a few a cappella lines he had managed to turn the whole scene into a musical number in which everyone learned the joys of arithmetic and how it applied to daily life. It had gone from a tedious few seconds of chalk writing to several minutes of highly compressed learning. They would need to observe the results in the days ahead, but if the last few song numbers were anything to go by, the other ponies would have learned a surprising amount of competency in adding and subtracting, multiplication and division, well beyond what they would have picked up from a few more exercises on the board. And they would have learned just a bit more about the mysterious Song Magic that held such strange sway over this world.
The weirdest part of it though was how blind the ponies could be to it. When the montage ended their minds kind of rationalized the whole scene away, absolutely denying that any singing and/or dancing had ever occurred. Most ponies would swear they had never sung a bar in their life, even a few seconds after finishing a chorus line. Once, they had even gotten a group of ponies to sing about the fact that they never sing. Now that was a favored memory that would replay itself in their mind for years to come.
[She's looking at you again,] Gabriella noted.
[Who is?] Alexander answered, avoiding looking around. But he flashed a generic smile.
[Ginger Dimples, who else? Think she wants to be our special somepony?] Gabriella mused.
[I doubt it.. we're too young for her, even by appearances. Which reminds me.. we're growing too fast. Ponies will notice,] Alexander thought sadly.
[Ponies never notice anything. You worry too much,] Gabriella countered, though he could sense her doubt.
[We'll have to move on soon. Stormbringer, can we, I don't know.. 'save up' and have a big growth spurt on the road to our next school?] Alexander thought.
[Indeed. Commencing compressed storage of key nutrients. We will need to consume an elevated quantity of food immediately before and during the journey. Please see the following spreadsheet for details,] Stormbringer replied, providing a mental link to a constantly shifting set of numbers.
And now the teacher was going over the alphabet again. The easiest time of all to launch into a song. Too easy, almost, but they were still just learning, and needed all the practice they could get. Besides.. they had to do something to not go crazy waiting for the end of the school day, when their guardians, 'Mr and Mrs Muffin' would retrieve them.
"There! How's that", Golden Hue asked as she finished her newest painting. The unicorn mare smiled at herself, quite satisfied, as her partner strolled up. The guest house they were staying at was a bit cramped for the two of them, especially working on separate art projects in parallel, but it was free as part of their patron's provision.
Azure Hue, a changeling disguised as a unicorn stallion, placed a hoof on his chin as he contemplated the painting carefully for a few minutes. In his former life, he had been in charge of forensic cleaning: carefully adjusting every detail of a scene after other changelings had done their duties so that nothing would indicate anything of interest had happened, much less a foalnapping or other such foul play. The job had honed his attention to detail to an almost crippling level, and adding the Kingsblood just made every flaw all the more glaring.
"The lighting on this apple is too bright," he finally commented. "The angle of the window should only leave an eighth of it shining, not a full quarter. The shadow from the table here should be a little longer, and farther to the left. This smile is really unconvincing.. is it supposed to be? It works if you're trying to convey a false smile hiding darker true emotions, but if so it would help if the painting had some clue as to why that would be. And most importantly, you signed the painting 'Painted Vista'. That's not your name anymore."
"I'll show you an unconvincing smile!" she said, before attacking him bodily with her paintbrush. His horn glowed as he lifted his own brush to defend himself, and soon the implements were clashing in the air like a sword fight. They danced around each other, dipping brushes in paint and continuing to clash. Hooves lashed at one another, and somewhere in the middle of it all little dabs of paint were added to the canvas. The table got knocked over, though somehow, as if by magic, none of the paint actually spilled. Which is not to say that nothing got inappropriately painted. Walls, cabinets, the door, and especially each other all became a wet sticky mess in colorful fashion.
And then, unable to resist, Azure tackled Golden to the ground, dragging her into a forceful kiss and rubbing against her, belly to belly. If he hadn't been a changeling, he didn't know if he would have dared be so presumptuous, but he could feel the passion raging in her heart, and the hooves wrapping around his back and pinning him in place on top of her confirmed everything he suspected.
Letting his kingsblood guide his horn, Azure put in the final touch, replacing the old signature with his 'wife's new name before drawing his attention fully to the act of lovemaking. And just in time. Seconds later their patron, a noble unicorn heiress named Pampered Horn, came in to check on their progress. Seeing the scene, she blushed but decided to focus her eyes squarely on the painting.
"It's perfect! Is it finished? I can take it out to dry while the sunlight is still good, and just leave your payment here for you. Do try to clean up before the paint dries everywhere."
"Yes, yes!" Golden Hue confirmed, or so Pampered decided to take it. The artist probably didn't even realize she was here. But this wasn't the first time the couple had been otherwise preoccupied when she came to pick up a commission from them, and she could hardly fault the newlyweds for enjoying one another. But she had learned the hard way that waiting for them to be done simply couldn't be fit into her busy schedule. So she left the bag of bits on the side of the overturned table, lifted the easel and canvas in her horn's glow, closed the door behind her, and then allowed herself to entertain the notion of hiring Azure as a stud.
After passing three farms that looked to be well staffed, the half dozen earth ponies finally got ahead of the other seasonal working families and found a farm in need of help. Peach Seed took the lead, knocking on the door with a hoof.
The proprietor opened the door, stared in disbelief at the mare before her and then exclaimed. "Seedy Weedy! Oh, I missed you so much!" She lunged forward and gave the younger mare before her a crushing hug before practically dragging her inside the farm house. With a wordless exchange of glances the others followed at a respectful distance.
"Where have you been these past couple years? Were you avoiding your own mother's farm?! You could at least come say hi when you're passing through!" the old mare berated.
"Mom! I'm.. I'm sorry, things got kind of complicated. But I'm here now, okay?" She nuzzled her mother gently before slipping back a bit.
"Oh! And these aren't your old crew. You've got some awfully studly looking stallions with you though," she said, looking over the others appreciatively, particularly the one real stallion and a pair of changelings posing as such. The pair of mares, one real and one changeling, barely warranted a glance. In a stage whisper she asked her daughter "which one's yours?"
"MOM!" she exclaimed, flailing in the direction of the smaller of the two changelings, who grinned in return. "Anyways, I know we're family, but we need to talk business. We need work and your trees are looking awfully full."
"Yes, yes, dear, the usual rates, you all look like you know what you're doing," she said, already moving toward the larger changeling. She may have had a grown daughter, but she wasn't past the interest in stallions. And for his own part, the changeling wasn't about to brush her off.
"Ugh, alright, guys, let's go get a quick start. We'll have these peaches ready for market before you know it," she said, leading five of her six member group outside. "Probably before she's done with him," she continued once the door was shut. She was at least glad to know she wouldn't end up with a half-sibling out of the exchange. It was awkward enough dealing with the ones she already had.
With a frustration fueled buck she knocked the first wave of peaches from the first tree, and began their contribution to funding the Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Sunbeam was funding the Kingdom by air, acting as a courier between towns. It was easy work to get into and out of, and gave plenty of excuses to travel. Supposedly, the other pegasi and a handful of the changelings were supposed to be joining in as well, but she easily located their subnets' signals in the large cloud house they had rented together. The house was in the middle of nowhere, making any kind of work a long commute, but kept the price down. Which was good, since apparently she was the only one bringing in bits so far.
When she opened the door, she couldn't help but smirk at Top Flight's position. "I think it's time you admit to being a colt cuddler," she said. She wrinkled her nose as she entered, and set about opening windows to let the heady smell of sex start to air out.
"That's not fair," he said despite having a clearly male changeling under him, and another on top. "I happen to like mares just as much, but I don't see why anypony has to change just to meet my lusts."
The third changeling, a female who bore obvious proof of his flexible libido, was in the kitchen preparing a meal for the two pegasi. "We appreciate the sentiment, but we're changelings. It's no trouble for us to, you know, change," she said before shifting to a rather handsome looking pegasus stallion. He slid a plate over toward the pile of ponies before setting the other on the table, pulling out a chair for Sunbeam.
Sunbeam appreciatively took a seat, hungry from the hard day's work. She started in on the meal, and then gave a gentle moan of appreciation as the changeling serving her slipped behind her to start giving her a wing massage. "So, you've been doing nothing else but feeding the changelings all day? Trying to beat Stud Muffin's record?"
"Scoff if you want, but this is hard work and fairly important. It's as draining as a unicorn trying to lift a full wagon in the air with their horn over and over again. I know, I've done the math and we actually have the ability to measure this kind of stuff now. This is my tenth full meal of the day, and I'm still barely gaining any weight. Don't forget we're recovering from being malnourished as well, so make sure you have seconds. Speaking of which, I've already gotten most of the holes closed on these three, but the others are going to need the King to do some redistribution. Not all of the others are being especially loving toward their changeling partners, and a few of our ponies are in Canterlot with no changelings available to feed off of them. I know sexual logistics isn't really your thing, but somepony has to take it seriously."
"So.. wait, are you four seriously going to just stay here and romp all day every day?" Sunbeam asked, her wings feeling more fatigued just thinking about it.
"No, of course not. Once these three are well fed, two of them will go off and get work, probably with you for simplicity. And once all of the Kingdom's changelings are well fed, the rest of us will get jobs as well. A nightly romp after work should be plenty for maintenance, and since we don't need to sleep, that still leaves plenty of time for training or other extracurricular activities. Seriously, am I the only one that thinks these things through?"
Sunbeam looked a bit downcast, annoyed at having been caught once again underestimating the insatiable horn dog, as well as being shown not to have thought things through herself. She was surprised when he came over and gave her a gentle nuzzle.
"Hey now, I'm sorry I snapped at you. I know you've been hard at work all day, and what you're doing is quite important as well. Don't let it get you down. We need you. I need you," he said in the sweetest tone of voice he could manage.
Sunbeam flushed a little and her annoyance ebbed, but then she got a bit suspicious. "And just what do you need me for? Just the bits?"
"Of course not. Changelings are infertile, at least normally. Where do you think the next generation is going to come from?" he asked before she knocked him flat on his back with a well placed hoof. "Ow. Well? No need to rush into anything, but I'm just thinking about the future!"
"Get back to your changelings!" she said with a huff, before storming off into her bedroom. She wordlessly signaled with her eyes to the changeling who had cooked their dinner to come join her in the bedroom before she slammed the door loudly.
Top Flight shrugged as he did as she suggested. "I'm thinking three months from now when she's receptive she comes around. Now, where were we?"
[There. All finished. Here you go,] Cherry Blossom thought up to Shining Star, as her long limbs lifted a handful of newly crafted construction tools up toward the unicorn mare. It was pushing the limits of the challenge: the fractal spiders were not permitted to directly manufacture anything for use outside their hosts' bodies, but converting their hosts' body into a makeshift factory seemed to be skirting the line about as much as using dead bodies as 'undead' subordinates. If I hadn't failed the challenge yet, this probably wouldn't set me over the edge.
Shining Star stood carefully at the edge of the pit, her horn glowing with power as she carefully lifted the tools from the pit. They were nothing fancy; the only meaningful difference from something bought at the local hardware store was that it didn't cost us any bits. Just the effort of tossing some branches down into the pit and Cherry Blossom's own mining efforts as part of expanding her unnatural body further and further. And finally, carving the wood with bony blades and hammering the metal into shape with metal-clad appendages.
Armed now with saws, hammers, nails, and so forth, Shining Star and her companions returned to the top of the abandoned well, and started harvesting materials to build a house. Sure, it might be easier to rent a house in town, but we specifically wanted to build one around the old well, one that would allow us to come and go from Cherry Blossom's pit and make use of her labor.
The unicorn stallion with her, Iron Horn, had a powerful horn that was quite helpful in all of the heavy lifting, if far too clumsy for anyone's comfort. While it was impressive he could lift a log with his horn and move it into position, he knocked a wall over more than once in the process, setting back the work by hours at a time.
The pair of changelings that accompanied them took on earth pony forms, well suited to the heavy construction work. They worked hard and without complaints. When Shining Star made it clear she wasn't interested in being affectionate with either of them, they had both taken on mare forms, and seemed to be competing for Iron Horn's appreciative looks, quickly catching on that he had a thing for broad, powerful females more typical to the earth tribe than slight graceful unicorns like Shining. And so they snacked on a light stream of lustful fondness as they worked tirelessly, while Iron had to take frequent breaks to replenish everything he was using up and giving away.
They worked day and night for three days before they had completed a sprawling one-story mansion, with a spiral staircase where the well had once stood, leading into a 'basement' that they would eventually finish properly.
When it was done, they collapsed onto their beds, Shining in her private bedroom while Iron snuggled with his pair of changelings in the 'herd-sized' bed in the master. They were too tired to get up to anything more intimate than a snuggle, but sleeping seemed wrong somehow now that it was unnecessary.
Finally Cherry Blossom's thought-voice reached out to them. [Come, dream with me,] she offered, including instructions. They followed the instructions.. it was much like the avatar protocol that Midnight Oil and Mirror had developed, allowing them to leave their own body behind and take on the senses and body control of another. But in this case their new body was a fictional one within a world that Cherry dreamed up. They appeared within a seemingly endless field of grass and flowers in dizzying varieties. Here they were alicorns, because why not. The sun was shining brightly, exactly warm enough to be perfect, with just enough clouds to make the sky picturesque.
They romped around, enjoying the simple beauty of it, until that got boring. But that really wasn't a problem. Because all they had to do was ask, and Cherry Blossom imagined a new world for them. And so they dreamed sweet dreams, scary dreams, funny dreams, adventurous dreams, and even an occasional educational dream.
Mirror spread his wings wide, settling into a glide as he finally spotted the wagon with his own eyes. Drifting down, he came in to join Wind Chaser, null and I, just as we crested the final hill. Down below us stood a massive, busy, bridge crossing the narrow channel of water, and beyond that the towering skyline of Manehattan.
[You're sure you're ready for this, Mirror? It's going to be dangerous. Whoever we're dealing with here has no qualms about killing to get what they want,] I asked him.
[Yes, I'm sure. I'm willing to risk my life at my king's side. You've done so much for me already, for all of us. I have no regrets,] he said. [So to steal a quote from one of your memories.. 'Let's get dangerous!']
I wanted to laugh at that, I really did. But my heart was too heavy with the reality of it all. At least there was one good thing. If we did perish in the days ahead, at least the scattered seeds of my kingdom would survive.
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Hmm, I do wonder what will happen next.
5999152
The sequel is set to focus on the King and his immediate group in Manehattan. I'm curious how much interest there is in what will be going on with other groups. I could see either occasional looks in on them, flat out alternating between the main group and the side groups (perhaps like I did with Friends Like These, where each chapter is split between two threads) or even forking them into a separate, parallel sequel. The Manehattan thread is definitely going Adventure, but the other seeds will probably be more Slice of Life.
(I'm also curious if there's any interest in a Mature/clop side thread. There's certainly a lot of sexual themes in this story, and it doesn't -need- to be any more explicit than it is.)
5999201 I see.
5999265
But what is your opinion?
5999293 I'm curious on how things might work our with this kingdom, sure they got ponies and changeling, but what about the other races? the griffons, the Minotaur, the cows,I could go on. If the kingdom is to aid the broken...why not reach out to other races?
5999353
That is more or less set to be the next arc after Manehattan, and may or may not be the last arc between this and catching up to the start of Kingdom in Shadows. (Depending whether there's a clear thematic break that I don't currently foresee.)
5999388 ah, I see now.
a vary good story. I will be checking the sequel's.