Chapter 49
I locked eyes with the draconequus Quarrel for the first time. The gaze that met mine reminded me of the kind, old men I had known on Rhod. I wanted to ask what he meant that he knew me, but I found myself tongue-tied.
He left my rhetorical ‘Aren’t you Quarrel?’ unanswered.
My heart was pounding
After a long pause, he set me down and patted my head. “Yes, there’s no mistaking it, you’re that wisp.”
“Wisp?” I parroted, unable to formulate something reasonable to say.
“Yes, I know about them from firsthand experience. You see: there’s no law saying you can’t raise the dead, but somehow everyone who’s tried hard enough has ended up with the same result: a wisp. They’re wispy, floaty entities carrying a magical signature and data on the physical form of the deceased. They just float off into the abyss, like a balloon let loose. Most of the time you never find them again.”
I steeled my countenance. Now I had too many questions at once. “If I am a wisp—as you are suddenly saying—how am I even here right now? And that’s not even the part that stands out! I’m alive as far as I know. And how can I be one if they disappear so quickly?”
Am I accepting his spiel too easily? Is this what they call a practical joke?
He shrugged. “Beats me. I’m just calling it as I see it. I just recognized your magical signature because lots of things come flying at Draconequii. It’s an occupational hazard: being a magnetic south when most other stuff is a north.”
My ears perked up. I wanted to ask him if he was an actual magnetic monopole, but I held back my curiosity. “What, do you study natural phenomena in your spare time?”
He shrugged again. “I like to read. I like it so much that I invented books down here. Had to invent candles too in order to see—a lot more work than you'd think without the proper materials.”
"Even if you reinvented the written word you'd still be the one writing the books so wouldn't it just be stuff you already knew? No, forget that. Moving on." I pressed a hoof into my jaw as if pressing myself to think.
Should I be scared right now? If he’s the same sort of “villain” as Starlight Glimmer, it’s probably not warranted.
A startled scream erupted from the drawer across from me as a disguised Alibi splashed down, thrown snout-first into a pile of socks.
He coughed weakly before lifting his head. He briefly scanned his surroundings, noting me, then stopped on the draconequus. He blinked a few times as if trying to ensure what he saw wasn’t some sort of bizarre hallucination. “Hey, you’re Quarrel, aren’t you?”
“Am too!” the draconequus asserted, thrusting his hips.
We both stared at him.
“Well, I thought it was funny in hindsight, and I missed my golden opportunity to use it when you dropped in. Never thought I’d get another chance so quickly.”
“How do you know about Quarrel?” I asked him. “And wouldn’t you think Discord first?”
Alibi laughed knowingly. “I learned about him from your play. And besides, they look nothing alike.”
“Thank you! You don’t know how cathartic it is to hear someone else say that,” Quarrel said.
“I wouldn't get too excited, he is a changeling. I think attention to detail is essential for them.
“Oh, I knew that immediately,” Quarrel said dismissively.
“What?” Alibi said, disappointed, as if wounded.
“I don’t see how anyone falls for changeling disguises truthfully, but that’s not the point. It’s just… so… validating not to be confused for… whoever replaced me as Equestria’s only draconequus.” There were tears in his eyes.
"You get confused for others often?” I asked, incredulous.
His tears evaporated along with his cathartic expression. “Well, you see, the enthymeme—that’s the jokey part of a joke—is whereas other beings would have that problem, I would not, therefore rendering it ironic that I would—”
“Do you know how to get back?” Alibi asked me.
“How would I know?” I snapped. I immediately regretted it. In truth, he was probably feeling the same anxiety I was.
“Maybe the lower drawer is the other side,” Quarrel postulated, indifferent to the interruption.
“That’s ridicul—”
In one motion Quarrel lifted Alibi and dropped him into the drawer immediately below where we had entered. I felt my eyes bulge at the sight of a sucking vortex of menacing nothing that seemed to dissolve Alibi as he screamed again.
Did that work, or—wait! Did he just get thrown into the abyss?
An icy, grieving fear slowly flooded my veins.
I didn’t even like him that much—but now he’s dead!?
I clenched my teeth and shut my eyes in anguish.
Our recent encounters flashed before my eyes, the good parts (though limited) rising to the top.
He’s gone. echoed in my head. He’s dead. Chilling my heart like a midnight knock at the door.
Tears welled up in my eyes. I briefly resisted the torrent of emotion, but I knew the dam was about to burst.
He’s worth this at least…
I heard a familiar plop once more in the second sock drawer. I stole a glance to confirm my hopes, but once I did, I had to yank my neck back to avoid making eye contact and beaming at Alibi as he crawled on out. Despite pony necks being much more resilient, the sudden motion still hurt. I tried to crack my neck in an attempt to feel better but found this body was too inexperienced to manage that.
Alibi jumped out of the sock drawer and strutted a few steps. “Hmm. That time I ended up in that one vacant lot in Canterlot. I see: this is starting to make sense. That's pretty useful: having a portal at hoof.”
“What? In case you need to borrow some socks or something?” I panned, covertly wiping any evidence of tears.
He fully extended his wings. “A whole universe of possibilities. Skipping the train ride to Canterlot, delivering mail faster, reconnaissance—or wait, I’m not supposed to do that anymore.”
“It was just—” I sighed. “You know, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. I don’t know why I’m bantering with you.”
Focusing myself, I looked back at Quarrel, who had somehow procured a nail file and was actively working on it. “Guess the princesses didn’t banish you very good, since you managed to stick around,” I finally said.
“Nope, we’re on Rhod,” Quarrel said, with all the excited demeanor of Squirt during music class.
“What!? It can’t be! You’re just doing that Draconequus thing where you can reference things for comedic effect!”
He blew the nail dust off his left hand. “Geomancer humans? Bearlike Ayabna? Dry, dry desert?”
My jaw dropped.
“Yes? No?” he asked, coy.
Alibi walked up beside me to take a better look at my comical exasperation. “So, he really is making sense to you. Care to fill me in?”
“N—no,” I said awkwardly, still somewhat disoriented. “So where the heck are we? You live in some cottage on the other side of the planet?”
The draconequus bit his tongue, clearly suppressing his desire to counter with a goofy quip. “We’re underground actually.”
I swept my gaze across the room, looking to refute his contention. What I found was that the light filtering through the window was far too dim to be from Rhod’s sun.
“Underground!?” I echoed. “The Ayabna live—wait! You’re The Great One?”
The hybrid being nodded gently, clearly quite amused.
“What Great One? What are you talking about?” Alibi asked in desperation.
I pressed my head with both hooves, trying to get my mind in motion. “So, was this whole war your doing?”
He looked down, in solemn contemplation. “No. I hate war…”
He suddenly perked up. “And you can read about why in part seven of my memoir!” He pulled out an unadorned hardcover book from behind his back and modeled it for us.
It irked me. I wanted to resent the enemy I had been raised to hate my whole life, but he was perfectly reasonable—friendly even!
I sighed. “Is this the part where you tell me the whole war was a misunderstanding and everything I knew was wrong?” I asked, my expectations clearly shaped by my Equestrian experiences.
“No. This is the part where my lovely assistant tells you the whole war was a misunderstanding and everything you knew was wrong. Step right up, contestant number one!”
Quarrel opened the door, awkwardly framing empty space with his claws.
A powerful smell of grass wafted through the open door. I could hear softened footsteps, as though tempered by consideration for the grass underfoot.
Quarrel snapped. “Rats. Comedic timing is so much harder here.”
“Quarrel?” Asked my sister.
My heart nearly stopped.
“I brought the sugar.”
I met her gaze. I froze; I wanted to run; I wanted to avert my eyes; I wanted to hide; I wanted to talk to her; I dreaded it.
She made eye contact, rushed at me, and hugged me.
It was a good hug—better than any I’d ever had, or could remember anyway—but its objective merits were completely irrelevant. A multitude of worries melted away as I teared up.
“Am I missing something?” Alibi asked.
I ignored him. I was so absorbed in the moment that time had lost all meaning.
When she finally released me, my eyes wandered up to her antlers. She became self-conscious of them after a moment.
“Oh, sorry for staring. It’s just hard to get used to.”
“You’ve got headgear too, though,” she replied instantly.
“Well, that’s—it’s not the same.”
“Fair,” she said simply after taking a moment’s pause. “These took weeks to get accustomed to. Bumping into everything!”
“You know you can adjust their size with magic, right?” Quarrel advised, playful.
She swatted the idea away with her left hand. “Don’t mind him.”
“There’s a node at the first branching point; just flare a small pulse with a bit of spin,” Quarrel elaborated, undeterred.
Diane froze and stared right through Quarrel. “You are kidding, right?”
Quarrel grinned.
She threw her arms up in the air. “Why am I not surprised? Do I even need to ask: why have you never told me this before?”
“You didn’t ask!” Quarrel answered as if reciting a chant.
I glared at him too.
“Well, I did offer to make them smaller up front, but they were marvelous and a rather unlikely result,” he explained.
“Apparently the size and shape are a rarity,” my sister explained. “There’s even some traditional lore about them that I don’t understand too well…” she said, explanation dropping in volume until nearly silent.
“I see you’re still as shallow as ever when it comes to rare things,” I quipped, seizing the opening.
She softly flicked my snout. “So you haven’t changed that much, then?”
I chuckled, somewhat uneasy. “I wish you had said that later in the conversation and less in jest.”
Diane just smiled. It was enough that she was there.
I took a deep breath. “When I first saw you through my dreams—I always felt it was real—and through the scrying glass, I saw—well, I just didn’t know how to feel—I overreacted. I was lost, and didn’t know—”
“Hi, my name is Alibi Align. It’s nice to meet you!” My neglected companion ventured, clearly tired of being ignored.
“Oh, uh hello. I’m Diane,” she said faintly, her mind surely at work, evaluating the changeling child.
He put an unwanted leg around me. “Aren’t you going to ask if I’m her coltfriend?”
He was so lucky I made a snap judgment that retaliating with violence would only motivate him to pester me more.
“Oh, do children date in the pony world?”
I was so grateful for Diane’s tendency to ask the second question that popped into her head.
“Yes, but we’re not an example of that,” I said, gently removing the intrusive foreleg from me.
“Who are you anyway?” Alibi asked, stretching his wings out, which prompted me to become aware of my own stiff wings and do the same.
My sister looked to me for permission.
“Is this weird world where you came from?” He asked me.
I felt a jolt of surprise that lasted for more than the usual second or so. “How…” I managed to vocalize.
“Well, my first clue was that you fight with a ferocity that I’d never before seen in an Equestrian. Most ponies I’ve fought I can tell hold back because they’re afraid of hurting me, even when I have an adult’s appearance. You fought with a desperation that took me most of my life to learn. Your fighting style is a branch off a different tree as well.”
Diane regarded me with gentle concern and Alibi with pity. “You fought him?”
“Yes, but I lost, and well, it’s a long—”
“She came uncomfortably close to beating me. As young as she is, I only won by making it a battle of stamina,” Alibi explained animatedly.
“Yes, but I had charged rhodium, and I still lost,” I confessed. "—it’s just not—”
Diane laughed.
“So that’s where my charged rhodium went!” Quarrel exclaimed off to the side.
“You keep powerful rocks in your sock drawer?” Alibi asked.
Quarrel paused. “Would you believe me if I said no?”
“Why do you have two sock drawers anyway?” Alibi asked. “You don’t even have that many socks!”
Quarrel grinned. “I like to keep my right socks separate from my left socks,” he replied, deliberate with his nonsense.
Meanwhile, having ignored the sideshow Diane was still laughing, which puzzled me. “Oh, Aron,” she said, “I love that you’re still as forthright with the data as always—even when it cuts against your self-interest.”
“Do I have to ask for an explanation every time?” Alibi asked, more than a little impatient. “I’m still only following like half of this. I’m going to go out on a limb, but are you siblings?”
My countenance forfeited any chance of denying the claim. “How’d you get that?”
“It’s obvious—to me, anyway—that you’re de-aging. If it was your magical signature, it would make sense, but the problem with that theory is that you’ve lasted so long without reverting completely.”
“It’s none of your business,” I said, forthright, hoping to shut down any discussion.
He scowled.
“So, how’s the family doing?” I asked, completely ignoring him again.
“Will is fine, thanks to you. He’s still having a hard time adjusting, but he’s ultimately glad he came with me I think. Charlie and Arnie are—with our mother. And… there’s really no diplomatic way to put this: she continues to wage an unwinnable, p—ppointless war—even now that’s hard to say. General O’Higgins himself has stopped attacking us. It’s really hard—every additional death feels more and more senseless. I—Damian deserted; I don’t know where he is."
I took a breath to process and worried for my youngest brother before composing myself again. “He’s probably fine. He was smarter than all of us; he wouldn’t walk off into the desert alone with no plan.”
Diane smiled thoughtfully. “There’s so much to say that I don’t know what to ask you next.”
With a jolt, I realized something important: “Diane, please do not tell Alibi that I was male before. I don’t know how, but he’ll find some way to be obnoxious about it,” I requested in Rhodish.
Alibi looked around the room, lost. “What was that? Even my guardian spirit says it sounds like you got your vowels from the thrift store.”
She responded with Rhodish in kind: “So, how is being female going for you?”
I took a breath. It was truthfully a question I had dreaded being asked. I thought I had made a clean getaway with Pestle and Beakington keeping my secret, only for it to be my sister to stir up latent anxiety.
“Are you okay?” my sister asked.
I almost thought she was teasing me, but her expression ruled that out.
“A—am I that easy to read now?” I asked, bashful.
“Well, no—not entirely I mean,” she stammered, a sheepish look creeping onto her face.
I smirked at her. “I know that expression all too well. I hit the nail on the head.”
Diane put her hands on her hips. “Well, it’s only fair that I have some type of advantage seeing you have a new face entirely that I have to try and read.”
“Look: if you two are going to hide the ball, I’ll take my talents elsewhere,” Alibi announced to no one’s dismay.
“There’s a really nice beach in the south part of the hemisphere,” Quarrel suggested.
“That’s not what I meant,” Alibi protested. He flailed his hooves in irritation at the whole room.
Good. Quarrel can babysit him and they can annoy each other
“Seeing you two in person really makes me think that dream vision undersells it: ponies sure are cute.”
I cringed. It was such an obvious thing to note about ponies—even I thought so—but her calling me cute made me feel uneasy.
“Well, first off, I promise you, I’m still Aron,” I said hastily. “I still harbor worries that the world on the other side has made me naive and sentimental, but thinking on it, I would bet my ‘silly quotient’ has gone through the roof.”
She listened interestedly. “They actually quantify silliness over there?”
“No. Wait—no—at least I don’t think they do. 'Would it surprise me if they did' is the bigger question. What I can attest to is that the most "comedic" outcomes tend to rise to the top.”
Diane rested her chin on her left thumb, trying to perfect her next statement. “I think I can somewhat relate. Even putting aside our ‘great one’ here, my life has gotten quite a bit sillier.”
“How?” I challenged, amused.
“Well… people around here keep pet rats, and it’s trendy to teach them how to dance.”
Quarrel cleared his throat. “I believe I deserve some—”
“—secondhand credit,” Diane finished for him.
I looked between the two of them. They probably spend a lot of time together. I grew red and then pale at the thought that if it weren’t for Alex’s mighty good looks, I might have had a draconequus as my brother-in-law instead.
Meeting the gaze of her hazel eyes, I smiled confidently. “Well, I have to think back a bit to beat your example handily…maybe… say—ten minutes for this gem. The two of us had to talk a mare out of using me to topple a princess she had slightly wronged. Not to mention that’s a step down from her original plan to use time travel of all things…”
“Time travel is real?” Diane asked.
I shook my head. “That’s what you seize upon?”
“It's Time Travel, how could I not? There’s a lot to unpack there, so I’m starting with the surface level,” Diane admitted. “You’ve definitely made your point about the silliness, so I guess that leaves the groundbreaking physics part of it as the most surprising.”
“The scary part is that I accepted that mare’s crazy scenario just as casually as you did,” I mused.
“How’d you convince the mare?”
“That instead of ‘in for a penny in for a pound,’ she might just try apologizing to one of the nicest, most easily forgiving pony princesses I know.“
“You know a princess personally?”
“No. I know four. I was meeting a new one every other day for a little while there.”
“Quarrel seemed to think they made you one,” she said rather matter-of-factly.
Although my expression didn’t show it, I was grateful: she could have teased me good with that bit of information.
“I understand you weren’t eager to elaborate when I asked directly, but in all seriousness are you doing all right? I know a thing or two about how girls work.”
“Oh?” I murmured, disinterestedly.
"Like I bet you don’t know what goes on at girls’ slumber parties?” she asked, enticingly.
“Mahjong,” I answered instantly.
“Exactly mahj—wait, what?”
“Yeah, I wish I was kidding; it’s all the rage among fillies my age. I have no idea how they get to tenpai so quickly, while I barely know a yaochuu from a pinzu.” I grinned. “Judging by the look in your eye it’s still probably more fun than what you had in mind.”
Diane pouted. It was almost a “pony pout,” but then again, I had seen more pouting from ponies in less than a year than from all the Rhods I had ever encountered. “I…I meant boy talk and who likes who.”
“I met, like, one filly that wanted to talk about that. Maybe I’m lucky, or maybe it takes older foals like Bulwark to have an interest.”
“You are doing okay, though?” she asked seriously.
I sighed. I wouldn’t get out of this one. “What I want to say is that it wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought it would be. I thought everything would be pink all of a sudden and my filly brain would change my personality. But it’s been… manageable. There are challenges, which are more from me than anything else. Fifty-eight percent of the population is female, so it’s not like I’m at a huge disadvantage socially.”
“What sorts of challenges are you running into?”
I could tell instantly by the look in her eye: she genuinely wanted to help.
“Silly stuff. I had to wear a dress for a fancy restaurant, and everypony thought it was acceptable to start critiquing my femininity—what a lady ought to be like and all that. It’s like suddenly it changed how others viewed me. I mean, come on, it’s a dress on a pony!”
My sister laughed politely, finally taking a seat in the polished wooden chair she had been leaning against. “They were making fun of you, you think?”
I shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t think so. It’s like I suddenly had higher expectations to meet. Who knows what the truth is at this point, though? The “princess” variable makes it tough to draw lines.”
Alibi popped up from a sock drawer for like the fifth time or so—I wasn’t paying him much mind.
“I think I’m figuring out how these portals are working!” he proclaimed.
I sighed. “You know, the worst is when it makes me feel… different. I played some group games with a male friend of mine, and it was really good at first. But now, I’m “The Filly” of the group, and they always remind me. Maybe Squirt needs to find better friends; I don’t know.”
She studied me, gentling regarding my tiny face. “Do you want to be treated like a boy?”
“Not really,” I replied—so quickly that it surprised even me. “I mean, I chose the name Alice for people who know the truth about me to use. I didn’t want to desperately cling to what was lost, or be in denial. And I guess it’s more of our upbringing than anything that I didn’t want the name not to match.”
She lovingly locked eyes with me. “You know, thinking back, that makes sense to me. Do you remember the time we played dress-up?”
“How could I forget?” I said, somewhat anxious.
“You know what you said wearing my clothes?” she asked.
My eyes must have answered in the negative.
“Something like ‘I don’t feel any different, so is this worth getting in trouble for?’ I believe it was.”
“Makes sense. It’s just clothes,” I said. “Even in a dress as a filly, it didn’t feel like anything significant.”
Diane’s gaze began to wander a bit, studying Quarrel’s accordion-like sofa. “You’re remarkably strong to be able to have that attitude.
I shook my head once. “If I was strong, the little stuff wouldn’t bother me.”
“I don’t quite believe that. I mean, I’m sure you’ve been through a lot to be okay with how things went.”
“Anyone would manage,” I countered. “I had to adapt; there was no choice there.”
She calmly shook her head. “I don’t think just anyone could do that.”
I steeled my expression as much as I could. “You are overrating me. I still constantly look over my shoulder for judging eyes—for becoming too childish—or feminine for that matter.”
“I don’t think you should complicate things like that. No one on that side who would critique you could possibly know what you’ve had to go through. Or, if you like to keep it simpler, no one there knows “You” from Rhod on the other side, and on this one, I’m just happy you’re alive.”
She hugged me. While I did manage to hold back the sentimental tears, I might have made a couple of cute noises in response to being squeezed.
Alibi popped out of the drawer again. I thanked my lucky stars he hadn’t been there to witness the prior moment.
He placed a couple of hourglasses in front of him. “Looks like it didn’t work…” he whispered. “Ah, wait, yes! I see! By my brilliant deduction, there is a time dilation factor of a perfect 1.0000 by these ultra-accurate timekeepers. I just knew I had to look into it, given the ramifications of spending time in another dimension.”
He’s fishing for praise, isn’t he?
“I’d bet my entire allowance that your guardian spirit told you to try it,” I challenged.
His expression went meek, he recovered and then he stuck his tongue out at me.
Then again, it’s really good information to have.
“I’m rather impressed by you two,” Quarrel commented. “You skipped all of the ‘OH MY GOSH! Our dreams were actually connected part.’”
“I’m a pony; she has antlers. No point squeeing like schoolfillies about our bond being real when the proof is right in front of us.”
Quarrel frowned slightly. “But I like those sorts of reactions. Why else do you think I go house to house delivering presents every Christmas!?”
My eyes popped, and I slowly cranked my head towards Diane. “Does he actually do that?”
My sister sighed. “Would you believe me if I said no?”
“Is that a catchphrase around here or something?” Alibi asked.
I glanced out the window, hoping to gauge the time elapsed, only to find the lighting indistinguishable from what it was before.
Must be artificial.
“I’m glad we got one of the hard parts out of the way,” I remarked carelessly.
“So, there was something else you were dreading?”
“I don’t think I said that,” I replied resignedly, somewhat pedantic.
Diane laughed. “I know you think I’m cheating with being able to read you as well as I can but consider this: I haven’t seen you for so long, so your every word and motion makes an impression.”
I briefly looked at Quarrel (who waved) to get some time to think. Looking at my sister again, I started to piece together a rather convincing justification. “I don’t know how long our time together here will last, so I’ll try and shelve my embarrassment.”
Breathing in, I met her eyes, and calm fell over me. “The hardest part for me—It’s the most obvious thing of all: losing faith in the cause. I’m sure it’s meaningless to act ashamed around you, considering… but, well, even knowing you defected, I still feel like I’m a failure as a warrior as I sit before you.”
Two seconds pause fell over the room.
“And YES, that’s even factoring out the whole adorable pony thing.”
She shrugged. “You said it, not me.”
I grinned. She was in perfect Diane form. I couldn’t even be a little mad at her.
Looking down at the floor again, I tried to recapture a disposition suited to the gravity of my confession. “I know you wouldn’t defect for nothing. I don’t want to hear it, but I’m sure you found the Ayabna to be very noble, peaceful, and accepting while our cause was nothing but a meaningless lie rooted in visceral hatred, but…”
The pause was intentional on my part, but the moment for me to pick up the microphone again came and went.
“You’re only half right, Aron,” Diane said, frustratingly cryptic in a way only an older sibling could manage. “The Ayabna cheat, lie, and steal. They can be selfish, boorish, and obstinate. While, of course, also being kind, jovial with their comrades, giving, and everything else. In that manner, they do not differ much from the Rhods—that includes the distribution of those qualities among with population. Honestly, realizing that bit of information, I would have probably changed sides before I did.”
“Well, you did change sides,” I said firmly. I tried to stem the tide of my overflowing emotions, but my cute filly face didn’t conceal a thing.
“I get it,” Diane said with the immediate read. “It looks like—and is—a betrayal of everything we were taught to be. Honestly, I still feel guilt over the decision. But nonetheless, it was the right one…”
“What do you mean?” I asked in my cute voice, immediately vowing to be more vigilant with my speech.
“Aron, we were losing. We were losing—badly. I later found out the war was unwinnable from the start, which was shortly after I was put in charge of my own platoon. It dawned on me that we were walking slowly towards our own extinction. Children, the elderly, and anyone available were cycled through the war machine. I realized this and started to ask what good is an ideology that mandates marching our eventful history on Rhod towards its end.”
I shook my head. “I know you. You may not have been the most devout follower of our creed, but you always did have a bad habit of doubling down when you’re wrong.”
She smiled, not quite concealing heartbreak. “You’ve got me: I realized this truth but soldiered on for a few months more.
"I’d like to say the breaking point was something grand, but it was anything but that. I just…I saw the Ayabna interacting among themselves. For a few moments before the ambush, I got to see them treasuring a natural break in the shadow of oppressive conflict. The best way I can summarize it is that it occurred to me that while both sides had something to die for, only this community had something to live for as well.”
Intrigued, I started to ponder a bit before sharing my thoughts aloud. “For me, I had been lured away from my upbringing by a slow trickle of experience. Maybe my story is similar. I just got to see ponies exist in a peaceful world one day at a time. It wasn’t that I was enamored by their worldview; it was just witnessing firsthand another way to live.”
Diane stared at me for a moment in apparent disbelief. Meanwhile, Quarrel alternated sides while popping his head up from behind Diane’s shoulders and making faces.
“I’ll be… it really was the same for you."
We sat in silence for a few minutes. It made perfect sense. Our situations paralleled one another to the extent that almost no comment was needed.
“Are they just average then, and we’re just barbarians?” I wondered aloud. “If so, I guess I relate seeing how pony society can be plenty annoying while covertly trouncing our culture in stuff like food, entertainment, and education.”
I got the sense I had said too much; meanwhile, Diane’s expression wouldn’t have been out of place at a morgue.
“You deserve to know. Our cause was a lie, but not a meaningless one. It was based on hatred, but it was more.”
"What…"I felt my chest tighten and my pulse quickened. A dozen candidate theories and half-baked explanations meshed. "What do you mean?"
Diane’s trancelike sagacity faded for a moment and she continued: “It’s strange to put it in perspective, but what I’m about to tell you is Grade 1 intelligence.”
“You mean… the stuff only O’Higgins and the other three would know?”
“Correct. Although, circumstances have shifted somewhat: our father knows as well."
“Wait. Before all that though, if our side was a lost cause from the beginning. Then why did we start out winning?”
Diane instantly pointed at Quarrel. “You are looking at the most incompetent Commander in military history.”
Quarrel gave a glamorous wave, summoning actual glitter. “Oh, stop! You flatter me!”
“While some of his boneheaded decisions can’t be excused from a strategy standpoint, at the same time you can’t blame him too much. He’s a parent to the Ayabna and was often incapacitated by the prospect of sacrificing lives.”
Quarrel suddenly looked ten times more serious than I’d seen him. He put a claw over his heart and looked upward at nothing in particular.
Alibi popped up in the bottom drawer again, carrying a strange clock with an iron ball attached to it. He turned it over, allowed the ball to drop, and then glanced at the clock. “Aha! So the gravity here is much higher.”
“You needed a machine to tell you that?” I asked sardonically. Honestly, I was a little surprised that I adjusted so seamlessly.
He blushed. “Well, pegasi do stuff with gravity, so I didn’t know if it was a physical phenomenon or a magical one.”
“Okay, but you’re still a dork,” I said with conviction.
He fumed, internally bathing in bitterness.
“You’ve got a strange relationship with that one,” Diane commented in Rhodish.
“Tell me about it.”
“You jab at each other, but you’re also close. Longtime friend of yours?”
“No, I’ve only known him for a few weeks. Princess Celestia—the one in charge—just kind of put him in my vicinity. I’m afraid to ask what she has in mind because I’m sure it’s more bothersome than any reason I can come up with, so I prefer ignorance.”
For a brief moment I recalled the panicked moment of mourning I had a few minutes ago. Not wanting to dwell on it I seized on the easy out: classified information.
And of course, the first thing we talked about was the Draconequus in the room: Quarrel’s immediate impact on this universe when he arrived.
“You turned the Korpix into ponies!?” I echoed in disbelief. “So, you’re telling me they’re all ponies? Every single planet in the Korpix Empire?”
“We have no way to confirm that, as they’re not exactly proud of their current forms, but the three closest worlds we know of are mostly ponies.”
Quarrel looked down. “I was such a fool. I just assumed that they would learn a special lesson about living peacefully and turn back in a few days.”
“I know there’s a lot to unpack there, but in the interest of time, our father entrusted us with a bit of history that honestly all Rhods deserve to hear. You see, when the Korpix left our world, they cast off our bonds of slavery. As a measure of ‘compassion’ they entrusted us with a single share of stock. There’s a generous time limit by which we can journey to their stock exchange and join their conglomerate as equals.”
My expression must have been puzzled to the point of being indecipherable. “How do we know this?”
“The Share itself told us,” Diane answered bluntly.
“It talks!?”
“I wish it didn’t,” Diane deadpanned. “Honestly, it took us decades as a people to get the information we needed out of that blasted thing. The short and long of it appears to be that if we don’t meet the deadline, they can do whatever they want with us. Whereas if we develop our technology to the point of being able to make the journey to their capital, we will have some protection—not ideal, but better than being destroyed!”
“What I don’t understand is what the problem is,” I explained. "We should be celebrating. We just have to ferry enough magic over to this side of the portal and Quarrel will teleport us to the stock exchange! If what you said is true, we’ll be equals, and they won’t destroy us, right?”
“They know we have Quarrel,” Diane said flatly.
My heart jumped out of my chest and my jaw dropped limp. “What!? Oh no!? H—how is this planet still standing if they know that!?”
“We were discovered by House Keeper—the dream filly.”
“So the dream link—WAIT! She’s a real filly!? And a Korpix?”
I could see Quarrel clap with joy in my peripheral vision.
“He really does live for that sort of reaction,” Diane explained, following my gaze. “To answer your question: we don’t know either. Even if the probe is a toy from a technological standpoint—it took me three separate dreams sleeping twelve hours a day to get that information—they should have it by now.”
“Alibi! Quick: where’d you get those measuring instruments?”
His eyes lit up, delighted to be included again. “It was a general store that sings when you enter. I can’t remember the n—”
“Easel’s Everything Emporium.” I finished for him. “We need mana batteries—crystals—whatever you call them. I could give Quarrel my magic in a pinch, but my magic education advises against it.”
I quickly turned to my sister. “That’s the situation, right?”
“You’re not wrong, but—ª
“We have no information, but it’s not like the answers we seek are going to come knocking on that door.”
I heard a knock—then another.
I glared at Quarrel. He shook his head fervently and showed me his palms.
“Perhaps I can be of assistance,” came a sonorous voice, though muffled slightly by the door.
We all froze.
“You extended an invitation to me if you would recall, Master Quarrel.”
“What!?” Diane whispered aggressively at Quarrel.
“I thought the telegram was a prank,” Quarrel confessed.
Diane put her hands on her hips. “A prank!? How many telegraphs do we have around here, anyway?”
“Less than one,” Quarrel whispered meekly.
“I can come back,” the voice announced, though clearly annoyed by the prospect.
“N—no, come in,” Quarrel invited.
The door opened chillingly slowly.
In came a normal Ayabna: a bear with a lion’s mane, tail and fur, and deer antlers. My second thought was that his disguise was amazing for that to be my first thought.
“Please forgive my slight tardiness. Getting this android fabricated on such short notice was nothing short of miraculous. My name is Riks. I am an emissary hailing from Talmar. As a gesture of goodwill, I will inform you free of charge that the probe in question recently arrived. From experience, even if they acted with haste, you could count on at least two weeks. Their bureaucracy rivals our own after all.”
“How would you even begin to learn of this?” Diane challenged.
Riks laughed—in a genuinely disarming manner. “As pugnacious as the Korpix are, they tend to be lax with counterespionage measures. A children’s toy such as the probe that captured video of you was apparently thought to be so harmless as to not merit the most minimal encryption. As a result, we learned of this development before they did.”
The non-lionbear among us traded confused glances.
“Recharging Lord Quarrel’s magical prowess is a plan given the circumstances, but we have an approach that would be more… surgical.”
“So you were[\i] eavesdropping,” Diane snarled.
The emissary made placating gestures with both hands. “There are many reasonable objections to raise about my appearance here, but if that is the gravest sin I commit today, I will have done very well.”
“Why tell us all this, anyway!?” Diane asked.
I wasn’t sure if that was Diane’s natural fire to be able to challenge him, or if it was more me being completely petrified as a tiny foal.
“Basically, acrimony is our foreign policy with them. They hate us; we hate them, and this will ruffle their feathers—it will for a third of them anyway.” He then turned to Alibi and me. “These aren’t Korpix children, are they?”
“Well, there’s a very good explain—” Quarrel started.
“I’m not judging,” said Riks, “but copies like these won’t fool anyone for infiltration purposes.”
“Actually, we’re not—” I cut off Alibi by covering his mouth.
He shrugged. “It’s reassuring that you’re exploring so many options. Nonetheless, I can’t imagine you’d like to have our full discussion in the presence of youngsters."
“But—” Diane interjected. She was met with a stop sign from Quarrel.
“I understand. Diane, please take them to the neighbor’s house.”
Diane bit her lip. “But I can’t just barge into an eld—”
“Spice will understand when she sees them.”
Diane’s lip was now bleeding and her expression soured at the injustice of being left out.
Alibi and I meekly followed her out of Quarrel’s hut, shutting the door behind us. We found ourselves surrounded by a terrace the size of a small garage. Light reflected off the flowers and even the fungi along framing the narrow path out. Populating the small area were some rats playing cards atop some of the larger mushrooms and some little moles were whacking each other with stalks of corn. Expecting nothing less from a draconequus’s domain, I was left wondering regarding the comparatively mundane matter of where the light source was.
I got a brief look at where Diane had been living. Where we exited resembled more of a hallway than a block. It was as if the land had been chiseled from the earth, but carved out no more space than necessary. With my improved pegasi vision, I could see to the end of the “street", which terminated in a solid wall. From what I could see, the city seemed to have three tiers of buildings on each side. It looked like a concrete foundation was common to each three-building group and a large stone building at the bottom, an average stone building above it, and a small stone building at the top. Stairs were inset on the walls and seemed to conform to an underlying dirt berm.
I was disappointed to be ushered away from the engineering marvel into the closest low building. Diane shut the door behind us and lit a candle to reveal a tiny sitting area at the very front of the house. A raised pedestal adorned with what looked like a child’s drawing of Quarrel blocked the view of the rest of the house, as paths on either side led deeper into the house.
“Good, she’s not home,” Diane said.
I felt uneasy.
“So what we’re doing really isn’t normal etiquette?” Alibi asked.
“Not at all,” Diane answered flatly. “Quarrel’s leveraging his status for a temporary solution. We can’t let you be seen by the populace, so we needed to stay close by.”
“Who was that lion-bear guy?” Alibi asked.
I experienced a twisted knife of anxiety
“Honestly, I have no idea,” she confessed. “As far as galactic neighbors we only knew of the Korpix for obvious reasons, so he could well be telling the truth.”
“Why aren’t you in that meeting right now?” I asked, trying my best to weather the emotional turbulence.
“It may be odd—or maybe not from your perspective, since you just dropped in here—but despite my near-daily access to Quarrel, I have no official title that would let me participate in foreign diplomacy. I’m just his friend.”
“Well, in the pony world, there’s no nobler station,” Alibi quipped.
I wanted to whack him for mouthing off, but honestly, he was right.
Another pulse of nervous energy in me circulated from head to hoof.
“Don’t get me wrong: I want to be in there more than anything right now. There’s a gray area where I function as a diplomat when it comes to the Rhods, but some wind-up Ayabna lion man waltzes in, and all bets are off.”
I conjured awful scenarios in my mind: betrayal by the messenger, war, planetary destruction, enslavement, or worse—merely talking to him being the justification the Korpix needed to punish Rhod.
My sister stroked me. “Are you okay?” I felt temporarily soothed.
I tightened my facial expression and swept my tail outward. “I—I’m good…”
“You don’t look okay,” Alibi opined.
I scowled at him. It was a blessing and a curse to have an Equestrian around who was actually perceptive.
I sighed. “The fear of losing everything is just too much. It’s no guarantee that the Korpix will attack us, but not knowing…”
Diane stroked me gently. I felt a warmth in my very being and a lingering shame.
“I’m pretty pathetic letting this body make me so emotionally weak.”
Diane grabbed a fistful of my fur and made my petting into a soothing massage. “It’s all right. You don’t have to be stoic and calculating in every situation; that’s our upbringing talking. I’m scared. We’re all scared.”
“But you’re not reduced to a bundle of nerves.”
Alibi took a few paces towards us before stopping, apparently sensing my wariness. “With you getting younger that’s going to happen. The mind and the body are linked—my daily existence tells me that. You’re honestly amazing—being as strong as you are.”
“I’m not sure I can give myself that pass, though. As amazing and calming as this petting is, I shouldn’t need it right now.” I buried my head in Diane’s lap. “I shouldn’t be seen like this.”
Diane stopped the petting. I looked up, and the sad pony look I gave her would surely be a further blow to my dignity.
“Well, we’re the ones seeing it, and we’re not judging you,” Diane said serenely.
“But…” I voiced.
“Honestly, as your sibling and a Rhod, I’m in the best position to judge you harshly, but I’m not going to. So if I say it’s okay for you to need some care and affection—or just be a child—from time to time, you shouldn’t care if ponies, Rhods, or whoever else disagrees.”
My shivering stopped for a moment, and we just gazed into each other’s eyes for a moment.
I stole a glance at Alibi, and he was just shuffling around awkwardly.
Diane stroked me a few last times before setting me down off her lap.
“So, how about we talk about something lighter—innocuous—like food?” Diane offered with innocence.
I grinned at her. “That’s the best part! Their food is otherworldly levels of good! No pun intended. Am I more predisposed to puns being over there for so long? That’s a scary thought…”
Diane bopped my nose.
“Hey!” I protested weakly.
She giggled.
I stretched my forelegs. “You have a point: we’d be here all day if I started analyzing my every behavior.”
“If my experience with the Ayabna is any indication, it’s probably a foolhardy task to generalize about any large group, no matter how distinct.”
“Yeah, I was talking to a Zebra about that the other day,” I started.
My sister’s face crept towards a blank expression. “What?”
“Yeah, there are Zebras, Griffins, Minotaurs, Buffalo, all sorts of sentient creatures,” Alibi chimed in, hoping to be included again.
“I have this… task I’m working on—”
“You mean your princess mission…” Alibi insinuated.
“It’s not a princess mission! Anyway, I was having difficulty connecting with the ponies involved. I was thinking I wanted an easy way to understand them, but all twelve of them will need a different strategy—no shortcuts, unfortunately.”
“Why do you need to do this mission?” Diane asked.
“Honestly, because there’s a magic chest I need to unlock with something that could save my exist—”
I froze. A grin slowly formed on my face.
“You know, I just realized that the magic chest might have something that could save Rhod!” I explained excitedly.
“Why would it?” Alibi asked, beating Diane to the punch.
I just told him about the chest, didn’t I? He’s so disarming that even I forget from time to time he’s a possible threat.
“Apparently some prophet put something in the chest for the future. I’d find the notion ridiculous myself, but apparently Twilight unlocked a similar chest, and a complete castle was erected instantaneously.”
For the first time, I saw disbelief in my sister’s eye.
“I didn’t see it myself, but the castle’s definitely there,” I assured her.
Alibi perked up. “I can actually confirm that story: a castle “grew” in Ponyville overnight.”
“I don’t think I’m getting a castle, but honestly collecting keys for this chest by helping ponies with their friendship problems—”
Diane now looked at me like I had two heads.
“Please don’t give me that look.” I sighed. “Equestria has its own rules, and what I’m describing is reasonable there.”
Diane visibly perked up. “That’s good that you have something you can potentially do to help. I thought I would have to plead with you to not stay here and wait it out with us.”
Somehow the room seemed to grow darker.
“I was going to,” I admitted.
“You don’t need to risk your life,” Diane argued. “It will give me peace of mind that you at least can survive if worse comes to worst.”
“I’ll still bring the mana batteries,” I said.
She nodded, which had the strange side-effect of swinging her antlers towards me. “We still do need all the help we can get. Even if it comes from uninvited androids.”
“He’s gone,” Alibi said suddenly.
“How exactly do you know?” My sister asked.
“I’m just that amazing!” Alibi proclaimed.
I walked to the front door and looked out one of the windows. I couldn’t see Riks, but instead, Quarrel was walking towards our borrowed hideout, confirming Alibi’s perception. The draconequus stretched every bizarre way I could have imagined before pressing his hands to his face and waltzing straight into the house without knocking.
“Before you spill the beans, please make sure you’re allowed to discuss the meeting,” Diane cautioned.
“No, he really doesn’t care,” Quarrel said. “He’s remarkably straightforward and honest—crazily so, in fact. He even told me his solution was unethical—and so it was.”
“What? Does he want you to warp a giant bomb to the Korpix capital?” Diane asked.
“No…” Quarrel intoned. “Though his suggestion rivals what I did to them.”
“Come on, tell us!” Alibi urged, strangely invested.
“It’s complicated, but basically he wants us to impose a natural law on the Korpix.”
Diane glared at him. “What did he really say?”
Quarrel almost had a tearful look of sincerity in his eye, which took Diane aback.
“In Equestria, ponies coexist with an ambient force called Harmony,” Quarrel explained. “While I’ve never been a fan of it myself, it’s accepted and well-liked there.”
“Yeah, we’re acquainted,” I quipped, bitter, trying in vain to defuse the gravity of the situation.
Quarrel continued: “Since their bodies are modeled after Equestrian ponies, they have parts of their brains adapted to interact with Harmony.”
“Oh, are they like fish out of water without it…” Diane asked, deep in thought.
“Riks mentioned that they don’t fly or use magic over there, but we have no way of knowing if they are suffering without it.” He sighed. “The long and short of it is that they want us to use their technology to hack into that part of their brain that interfaces with Harmony and use it to compel them to be non-violent.”
“That—that’s… wow,” Alibi said, vocalizing what we were all thinking.
I made eye contact with the changeling. “If this guy says it’s bad, you know it’s wrong.”
“They’re real bad guys,” Quarrel explained. “Apparently they routinely conquer other worlds and leave them ravaged and penniless.”
“Wait wait wait wait,” Diane prompted. “Why do they need us to do this? They have the technology after all!”
Quarrel scratched his chin. “Apparently if they do it, it’s a war crime, but if we do it, it might be considered self-defense by an underdeveloped world. Apparently, it’s not just the Korpix that consider us below them.”
A silence hung over the room for several seconds.
“One more thing: the Korpix will destroy Riks’s people if left unchecked. They have fought countless wars against each other over the millennia, but Nereseren—that’s their homeworld as Diane previously found out—is all-in on militarization while Riks’s is all-in on hedonism. Place your bets now, folks,“ Quarrel said with the least enthusiasm of any of his jokes.
“So can’t they say it’s self-defense?” Diane offered.
Quarrel sighed. “I didn’t think to ask that.”
“Umm… River?” Alibi meekly asked.
“What is it?” I asked, emotionally flat.
“We should probably get back. I told some ponies where we were, but if we don’t get back soon, Princess Celestia might go crazy. She really likes you for some reason…”
“That’s probably for the best. You can get us the mana batteries if you want, but otherwise, we need some time to think this over ourselves,” Diane explained.
We exchanged a hug before Quarrel guided Alibi and me back to his sock drawer. And with a simple magical charge, we found ourselves in Equestria again. Celestia had a special task force assembled trying to access the portal. What I would always remember is the look of relief on the mother rabbit’s face.
“Praise the sun, I thought I was going to be rabbit stew…”
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My reaction to finally seeing another chapter.
Thanks for the chapter!
That went from 0 to 100 real quick. I had forgotten how the last chapter left off and got blindsided by this chapter because of it.
I wonder how our MC will handle Celestia knowing about the portals.
ohh, the story is still alive!
Hacking a metaphysical network thats already been forceully introduced to the populance in order to force ajust their thinking?
Its a Vlogger Influencers greatest dream.
Interesting chapter, but I'm looking forward to the next one too. I only remember bits and pieces of this story, so I might reread it soon.
Time to roll out the good old Friendship Mega Nuke!
Poor Alibi. Didn't like being treated like a background character so found more productive ways to fill the time.
Many good revelations and confirmations this chapter!
Almost completely forgot about the de-ageing. Forgot what the resolution was going to be on that, but now that we know wisps are a thing....?
You don’t have co-writers? In other news this is only a month late than I was expecting.
Here I was expecting a load of drama as the main protagonist finally confronting the villian face to face! Instead we got to see a lot of character growth all around and a heartwarming reunion. I love it! I'm glad to see the story continue, and hope to see more chapters!
Is the mother rabbit from the rabbit factory world in Chapter 1?
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No the rabbit from the former chapter, who they were helping out with some tasks.
See you in some months
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which would make even less sense if said camp is run by an adult(s). I stand by my earlier arguement XD
11722094
I was caught in my own trap by hiding behind my E rating. As such, I can only confirm it rather wimpily here: There are "quenching" spells available for mares who aren't ready for foals or intimacy like Dash, but it's all or nothing. There are stallions who are gay, older or otherwise disinterested that will also volunteer to help with the camp. It's a microbe of a clue, but I had the chaperone of River's tent be a widower and not ready to jump back into any sort of relationship for his son's sake. So between those two groups there are enough adults to run the camps.
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Probably not. And I thought I had figured out a way to avoid that...
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It's understandable if I stretched believability with the time frame. The truth is I didn't know how long this fic would or wouldn't be from the onset. The justification I've always used in my head is that the closer River is to her final state, the less of a driving force there is to turn her back. As for the justification I've cooked up to retcon that conundrum, stay tuned!
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.
Thank you for commenting nonetheless. I always joke with my editor that comments on my latest chapter are usually nice, while 5-7 comments on a bunch of old chapters mean I'm about to get skewered
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You're right, and I've known it for a long while now. Writing is harder than it looks, but I won't make excuses. At least no one's picked up on the worst offender I snuck in as a "joke."
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Much appreciated!
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What I intended was that the experiment had so many bizarre variables to control that it took her many attempts to prove what she hypothesized. It's a self-deprecatory "joke" that what she did was misconduct. As usual: over-complicating everything.
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That's certainly constructive criticism. I'll take it ten times out of ten. If I sound dismissive, that's because I have no idea what might have been going on in my mind way back when. At least with my other fic, I have the excuse that I conceived it in a manic episode.
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Boldish's suggestions have been getting really good lately, but I still have creative control.