The Immortal Dream

by Czar_Yoshi

Our Interests Align

I stood in the entrance to the room where Leitmotif had been held, Unless and Papyrus and Corsica at my back. Lilith alone was present to greet us, sitting patiently behind a desk that looked badly out of place against the room's brutally bare decor.

"...What do you want?" I asked nervously, appointing myself the leader by means of my position in the marching order, even though Corsica or Unless might have been better prepared to handle this.

"My desires remain unchanged," Lilith said, her voice smooth and cold, "since last we met. I am more interested in all of your desires." Her emerald gaze scanned me and everyone backing me up. "Some of your faces are not ones I expected to see in my domain. Why have you come?"

"Easy. We're not here to break any treaties." Unless stepped out in front of me, spreading a wing to hold me back. "Got a friend here who's looking for another friend who apparently is down here. Higher-ups asked me to come along and smooth things over in case anything started to go bad."

Lilith coolly smiled, though I almost thought she was trying to be welcoming - she was just incapable of being anything but cold. "Your superiors are wise indeed. They know I would never do a thing to harm you."

Unless bristled faintly, but I could see the effort it took to keep her reaction in check. These two had history together.

"But that doesn't explain your presence." She turned to Papyrus. "Although we have a treaty, you being here inclines me to break it. You are fortunate that I am in a good mood, and that I am the caring type. And you." She turned to Corsica. "You are still an unknown."

Papyrus shrugged. "Kill me, and I'll be too dead to care, unless you stuff it up again. I'm just here because a little butterfly let me in on a plan, and it sounded like fun."

"So what's with the desk?" Corsica asked, pointing a hoof.

Lilith rearranged her paperwork. "My eyes and ears told me your party was potentially looking to make a deal in exchange for something you want. And while I doubt many of you have anything of use to me, I am, as I said, in a good mood tonight. So I decided to humor you." Her eyes scanned everyone but me expectantly. "What have you brought to offer?"

"I ain't offering." Unless held her wings out defensively. "I told you, I'm just here to cool some heads."

Papyrus opened his mouth to say something, but Corsica forced it shut with her aura. "The mare who used to be held here. Leitmotif? She's a changeling? Halcyon saw her last time she was here? Where is she?"

"Still alive," Lilith said. "Albeit very... busy. Test subjects in her unique scenario are difficult to come by, and it's such a promising avenue of research I was loath not to use her after Halcyon passed her by. From what I have heard, you are now here to seek her freedom."

"Test subjects?" Alarmed, I took a step forward. "What are you doing?"

"I have told you multiple times," Lilith slowly, emotionlessly explained. "I am trying to preserve your dying species by any means necessary, even at great moral cost. If you like, I could explain it to you. This is, after all, a place of learning."

"Start talking," Corsica told her. "I don't like the sound of anything you just said."

Lilith frowned. "...You. What do you desire from this endeavor?"

Corsica stepped closer to me. "What she wants, I want."

Lilith's eyebrows rose. "May I assume you mean that for all of your goals, and not just your time here?"

"Why would you assume a thing like that?" Corsica narrowed her eyes.

"Mere... wishful thinking." Lilith stared at her. "Halcyon is currently performing a task for me. You appear to be close to her. I wondered if you might assist her in it."

Papyrus and Unless looked at me with surprise, and Corsica with worry. I blinked at Lilith. "You what? No I'm not."

Lilith sighed. "I had feared you might forget the favor I asked of you last we crossed paths. And now I see that you have."

She rose from her chair.

"You're gonna have to forgive me on that one, because I was dead tired and had maybe a hundred better things to think about back then," I told her, standing stiffly. "What do you think you signed me up for?"

Lilith stepped out before us. "Don't get involved," she breathed. "I offered you a place in my organization, and you seemed shy of an alliance. And so I bade you to continue as you were. Remain careful. Remain distrusting. Remain free. Your shoulders are not as burdened as those of many others, and I would have them remain that way."

Oh. Maybe I did remember that... Did I? I honestly wasn't sure.

"You three have professed your allegiance to chaos," she told the others. "And Halcyon carries a contract ready to bind her to the very same. But I desire Halcyon not to be tethered to Ironridge by such a thing. I suppose I was wrong when I said you have little to offer me. Help her to not come under that creature's sway."

"You want us to tell Egdelwonk not to hire her?" Corsica gave Lilith a funny look. "What's in it for us?"

"And why?" I added. "Not that I want to get more tied up in Ironridge politics than I already am, but what's me staying unaffiliated do for you?"

Lilith ignored me, focusing entirely on Corsica. "I should think that doing the will of your friend would be reason enough. But if you desire a more substantial benefit... now is the time to ask."

Papyrus licked his lips. "Much as I'd love to beg your debasement in the form of saying 'please' a million and one times, I think what I'd like most is to hear why it matters. Plans are rare that look to remove a player from the stage. Just what are you plotting, old hag?"

Lilith glared at him.

I held my breath.

"Say it plainly," Papyrus offered, "and I will personally be as odious as possible to remind her that should she join up, she would have to spend more time around my sunny personality."

"Leave the room," Lilith instructed. "And I shall discuss with you later."

"Swear it on something even your shriveled heart can love," Papyrus demanded.

Lilith glared at him. "I am love. Everything I do, I do for the sarosian race. You already know this, colt of Riverfall."

"That's not a promise," Papyrus lazily pointed out.

"Oh, but it is," Lilith hissed. "It is a promise on my own nature. Now take your sunny personality and begone from my sight. Sun and moon have no place in the twilight."

My heart beat a little faster. Something in Lilith's voice sounded... frustrated and futile. Somehow, despite our situation, she was feeling cornered right now.

What was going on?

"I suppose..." Papyrus yawned, then got up to leave, tail lashing. "Do try to make this quick, will you? I get wanderlust when I'm bored..."

Lilith turned her eyes to Unless and Corsica.

"I don't like owing you stuff," Unless said. "And I don't like it when you owe me stuff. So how about we cancel a debt? You drop whatever you've got on Birdo and Slipstream, and I'll say please when I ask Halcyon not to sign any contracts."

"Hold on," I interjected. "This is seriously rubbing me the wrong way. Why are you making bargains about me right in front of my face?"

Unless raised an eyebrow at me. "I thought you wanted to not get caught up in this city. Right? Isn't this what you want?"

"Yeah, but..." I protested. "It's also what... you know..."

"What I want?" Lilith said, her voice tinkling like icicles. "And you hold little trust for me, so you instinctively shy away from my desire. Be careful, Halcyon. When you cannot trust someone, you should give their advice little impact upon your choices. To do the opposite of what I ask, for no other reason than that it is I who is asking, would make you just as manipulable as a pony who was foolishly, blindly trusting."

"But..." I furrowed my brow. She was right, and I had no idea what to do about that. I just didn't see what she got out of what she was asking me to do! Unless she was being truthful in her warning, and really was trying to reverse-psychology me into joining Egdelwonk...

I really, really hated Ironridge mind games. Which was saying something, because I usually much preferred problems I could solve with my head than ones that required physical danger.

Unless cleared her throat.

"You ask much of me." Lilith turned to look at her. "I shall offer a temporary moratorium. So long as Halcyon remains unaffiliated with anything that could tie her unduly to Ironridge, your interracial friends shall be free of their obligations to me. If anything happens to upset that balance, then the old status quo shall resume."

Unless nodded. "Gnarly." And then she glanced apologetically at me. "Sorry to throw you under the cart like that, but politics is politics. Honestly, I think it would be pretty smart for you to not sign anything unless you've got a real good reason to, too. Just trying to get something good out of doing what I'd already do."

I stared at her, my jaw slightly slack. And then something she said clicked in my mind: "Wait, Birdo and Slipstream?"

"Oh!" She blinked. "Yeah, it's a nickname Gerardo picked up a while back. You've been around us all night and you're still not used to that?"

Lilith nodded at Corsica. "And what of you?"

"You kicked Papyrus out," Corsica said. "That because you hate him, or because you're trying to get Halcyon alone?"

Lilith's eyes glittered with a look that clearly said both.

"Then where we go..." Corsica stepped even closer to me. "We go together. Plug my ears if you must, but she's not leaving my sight. You good with that, Hallie?"

I nodded gratefully. I had no idea how to feel about Lilith's request, or the fact that everyone with me was apparently signing on, but I was glad not to be alone.

"Interesting," Lilith said, regarding her. "Many who have power obtain it by making great trades and sacrifices. You prefer not to barter your way up, but would squander your opportunities to protect what little you have."

Corsica didn't budge.

"Loyalty in the face of temptation," Lilith went on. "A rare virtue. Or perhaps you simply don't believe I would offer you anything of value?"

Corsica's eyes glittered with a look that clearly said both.

Lilith just chuckled. Then she waved a wing at Unless. "Leave us. And make sure your friend isn't getting into any trouble."

"Yeah, yeah..." Unless stretched, then glanced at Corsica. "You can handle yourself?"

Corsica nodded. "I used my power before even coming down here. We'll be alright."

Unless whistled. "More power to ya, girl. See ya around."

Then she was gone, and Corsica and I were alone with Lilith.

"Alright," I told Lilith. "There'd better be a real good reason for this stay-free stuff, and you'd better spill it now that everyone who's leaving is gone."

"Naturally," Lilith replied, walking for the door as well. "But perhaps we might walk and talk. You did, after all, come here to retrieve a pony."

I followed stiffly. Corsica stayed by my side. Briefly, I looked her over, but I couldn't see many outward signs of fatigue or exhaustion. Didn't she just say she used her power? Her special talent, I assumed? And didn't she tell me earlier that overuse, or even use at all, of her talent left her drained and mentally exhausted? Sure, she looked about as strained as I was feeling, but nothing supernatural...

We passed through a door, and entered the school's maintenance wing. Tile floors and smooth, rectangular walls greeted us along with dim lighting. Lilith led the way.

"One thousand years ago, sarosiankind was created at the hooves of a goddess," Lilith began as we walked, not looking back to see our reactions. "She was called Princess Luna. But Luna swiftly abandoned her brood, and they came to be cared for by another. That other was known as the Night Mother."

My backwards ears perked. A history lesson? Whatever was going on here was relevant to things that happened that long ago?

"The Night Mother established many institutions around herself," Lilith went on. "Temples and altars and forms of worship. Her power was legitimate and immense, and it was fed by the prayers of her faithful. Under her, all knowledge of Luna faded swiftly. She tricked the sarosians into believing she was their progenitor, and in many other ways as well. In truth, she was a liar and a manipulator, a creature of chaos who acted obliquely and in the deepest shadows. Tell me. Do you believe that even the foulest and most accursed of evils is capable of doing good?"

I had no idea how to answer that. Procyon, who had been floating beside me just a moment ago, was nowhere to be seen.

"Yes," Corsica grunted. "What of it?"

"I had already given up on that possibility long before I learned the truth of her nature," Lilith told us. "It was enough to me to look at the conditions in the Empire and realize the sarosians could not have a creator who was both loving and all-powerful. In Mistvale, things were allegedly peaceful, though the only life I knew was in the central province of Izvaldi. A name I believe you are familiar with."

The name of a certain love princess cult in the Sky District. I didn't say it aloud.

"Throughout the Empire, sarosians were treated with many degrees of hostility," Lilith said. "Sarosian pirates had disrupted imperial trade routes across the sea for centuries, while trading themselves, unimpeded, with Varsidel in the north. Already a convenient villain, politicians looked to them as an enemy that could be used to increase national cohesion. And many of them lived in the Empire, worshiping a different goddess than the Empire's beloved Garsheeva. But their piracy was at the Night Mother's command. All that strife, and all of it ultimately originated with her."

I listened raptly, my curiosity for history muscling aside my paranoia and distrust.

"For several decades leading up to the Twilight of the Gods, Izvaldi had been secretly under the control of sarosians," Lilith continued. "Their ruling sphinx family was dead. Under imperial law, that family would be replaced with the high prince, Gazelle, who would take over the province and begin a new dynasty. But Izvaldi was politically weak, and Gazelle privately turned up his nose at the notion. So he made a pact with the sarosians. For many long years, they installed a puppet government and ran the province themselves, deceiving the public that Izvaldi's sphinx was still alive. In return, Gazelle remained free of a weak province he did not want. In that way, a sarosian named Chauncey came to rule the Izvaldi government."

Smarter than that Chauncey guy but pretty, too. A memory of one of Coda's epithets flitted through my mind.

"While most sarosians clung to the Night Mother for succor, Chauncey had grown disillusioned with her," Lilith said. "It was because of the heresy, maintained by the Night Mother and Garsheeva both, which forbids relationships between sarosians and creatures of other races. You know that sarosians always breed true to the race of their partner. As an act of rebellion, Chauncey attempted to subvert this rule. He turned to magics so deep and so dark that they could corrupt even gods, and toiled to modify a sarosian so that they might bear children of either race, not just that of their partner. And he succeeded... at the cost of learning too much."

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

Lilith shrugged. "I was there."

"And you're interested in this because you want to make batponies not an endangered species," Corsica said. "You want his old methods so you can make it so batponies don't have to be exclusively with each other to survive. What's that have to do with Halcyon not signing a contract with Egdelwonk?"

"You are correct," Lilith admitted. "But that is not the point of this story. During Chauncey's experimentations, he discovered a method by which he believed he could create a new god. A means of disassembling and reassembling ponies. He decided to build a replacement for the Night Mother, a better god he believed would be more worthy of the sarosians' adoration, splicing together the perfect pony piece by grisly piece, someone who could succeed where the Night Mother failed."

A bad feeling suddenly occurred to me. "...Chrysalis?"

Lilith barked out a sharp, harsh laugh. "Hah. No, but also yes. Chrysalis was not his new god, but the tool he intended to use to create them. Not the end result of his experiments, but their byproduct. A tool... that was all he saw her as. And because of his ignorance and inability to feel even the most basic of equine compassion, she laid waste to all the Empire and all of Mistvale together. Just as wretched a creation as her creator."

My fur prickled, cold. "Is she you?"

"Am I Chrysalis?" Lilith snorted. "Fortunately not. I know too much of her mind already to want anything more to do with it. Now, I will ask it again: do you believe even the lowest and vilest among us are capable of doing good?"

This time, Corsica didn't answer.

"How am I supposed to answer that?" I protested, bristling. "After all you've just said, assuming even a scrap of it is true..."

Lilith shrugged. "Answer any way you like. I asked what you believed, not what is true. Something doesn't have to be true for you to believe it."

I stared at the ground.

We went through a sliding door, and were suddenly in a lab. Glass vats of glowing blue liquid lined the sides, bubbles occasionally rising through them, and the ceiling was cris-crossed with bundled pipes and hoses.

"For a long time, I didn't believe," Lilith said, marching along a tile walkway between the vats. "A long time, longer than either of you have been alive. And then, I saw the plight of sarosians in the wake of the calamity, and I had an epiphany."

Finally, she turned to stare at us, her horn providing illumination with a too-solid emerald aura. "The Night Mother wasn't in the wrong," she told us, voice steeped with conviction. "She was, perhaps, a great and unquestionable evil who did evil things purely because they were in her nature. But her desire was for the preservation of adopted children. When I looked upon her ruined plans in their entirety, I saw it for truth: even though she could not but do evil, she was able to twist her nature against herself and eke out of it some amount of good. Despite all that sarosiankind suffered under her for a thousand years, they endured. All the way until the bitter end, even though she brought anguish to many of their members, she kept them alive in a world that seemed determined to do otherwise."

Lilith's voice didn't waver. "In her actions I saw a path that I, too, could take. I am no saint, Halcyon. I was deeply involved in the Twilight of the Gods to an extent where it may not have happened if not for me. Papyrus and Unless's mistrust in me is well-founded. They know what I am capable of, and have done before, just as I know what they have done. But the idea that even such a broken and fearsome creature as I might bring about good, despite all indication to the contrary... That idea is why I survived. It is my reason for existence. Even to those for whom atonement is denied, we might still make a difference."

I took a step back. "You sound like you're trying to justify sacrificing us to a dark god..."

"Oh, nothing so sinister." Lilith shook her head. "I merely have a little favor to ask of you. One that can only be asked of someone with no ties or obligations to Ironridge. Let your worries be at ease, Halcyon. Even a sarosian as anomalous as you is still a child of the Night Mother... and now that I have adopted her mission, a child of mine. Nothing I can do will ever hurt you."

"And that is?" Corsica asked.

Lilith smiled coolly. "Run away, Halcyon. Leave Ironridge and don't look back. Find somewhere where no one wants to use you, where you can live with the peace you deserve..."

My fur prickled.

"And useful you are," Lilith told me. "This is the greatest proof I can offer of my commitment to your kind: you still walk free, as precious as you could be to my cause. Because I have lines I will not cross. Lines that were made for you and yours."

"What do you mean, useful?" I took a wary step back.

"You are protected," Lilith said. "A magic I cannot identify is shielding you even as we speak, and I know of many deep magics. This puts you outside the influence of many factors. You could be the ultimate control variable in any experiment I could dream of. Any who could discover how you became the way you are would gain a path to limitless power."

Procyon was back, and she was staring distrustfully at Lilith.

"Anyone less principled than I could learn unspeakable things from you, Halcyon," Lilith purred. "Of this, I am certain. But your heart is unburdened by much of the history of the sarosian race. You have not felt for yourself the ills of your ancestors. I can tell. And so I cannot bear to despoil that by using you as a tool, no matter how excellent of one you might make. Besides. I just told you what happens when powerful ponies are used as tools by those without empathy."

Chrysalis.

She was... comparing me to Chrysalis.

Procyon looked like something was darkly funny. I bet I really had felt those things, and the me under my mask had hidden them away.

"But there are many others who can recognize your potential," Lilith went on. "Many who do not shackle themselves as I do. Many like Egdelwonk. I am sacrificing a great advantage in not exploiting you, Halcyon, all for your own happiness, but they will not do the same. And so I ask you to make my sacrifice not be in vain. If I can't have you, let no other have you, either. Leave Ironridge, and live."

A feeling of static ran up and down my body. Lilith made cold, creeping sense. I didn't like what she had to say, and yet for once, something in Ironridge made perfect sense.

"You brought us all the way here to say that?" Corsica cut in. "If you've got so many spies, shouldn't you know that was our plan already?"

Lilith raised an eyebrow. "A pleasant development. I did not know. Your endeavor has my blessing."

For a moment, I considered asking for Lilith's help with that. If she truly wanted me gone... And besides, she knew enough about Chrysalis and the Night Mother, maybe she would have a lead on where Garsheeva was? But Corsica said nothing, and I wasn't sure I wanted to trust Lilith with that either.

"So what's with the spooky lab?" I asked, pointing around at the glowing vats. Nothing was suspended in them.

"Preparations for experiments," Lilith said, turning to watch them as well. "One branch of research my department has been conducting is into the viability of growing sarosian foals outside of wombs. Should that become possible, we could create sarosians much faster than the limited supply of mothers would normally allow. What you see here are prototypes based on medical curative vats developed in the Empire that we will eventually seek to augment into artificial growth chambers for the foals. But other sections of that project encountered obstacles. I thought these would make good display pieces until it is time to begin their modifications."

Corsica raised an eyebrow. "You're really trying to do that?"

Lilith met her look. "Princess Luna created the first sarosians. How do you think she accomplished such?"

Corsica glanced to me. I was clueless.

"We do not know that this particular way is possible," Lilith said. "But even gods operate within set laws. Should we discover the way she made the first sarosians, my organization could replicate it. Sarosians have, before, been created from nothing. Logic dictates there must be a way."

She started walking again, and I followed, an uncomfortable prickling in my stomach. My understanding of Ironridge, in this place, was turned upside-down: Lilith's story held water when measured against itself, at least as far as I could tell. Her professed motives made sense with her actions, to an extent. For once, Ironridge's logical laws didn't seem shrouded in mystery.

But where the way things did work was suddenly clear, its moral laws has become an impenetrable mystery. Lilith used phrases like 'much faster than the limited supply of mothers would normally allow'. Did she have no empathy? She professed to caring deeply about batponies, and even told a lengthy story about the dangers of treating ponies as tools. And yet she spoke as if the ones she wanted to help were nothing more than statistics and machines.

Did she understand what she was saying on an intellectual level, but not an emotional level? How was that possible, for someone who professed to fervently believe in what they said? It was possible she was lying about everything, but no liar could have that good of an understanding of the intellectual merits of a cause and not come to believe in it, because beliefs were rooted in facts and logic, right?

Right?

It was like Lilith was actually missing some capacity to understand things that other ponies took for granted. Like she wasn't fully equine...

Maybe she was like me. Beliefs were only rooted in facts and logic for everyone else, I had observed time after time in Icereach. For what felt like me alone, I chose to believe in things that empirically made no sense, like a mysterious light spirit healing Corsica, without rational reason and purely because I wanted to.

I shivered. Thinking about this was pushing me dangerously close to thinking about the holes in my own worldview. I just wished I could understand what I was feeling about this mare. Some cocktail of fear and sympathy and unease and curiosity and familiarity and many other emotions that didn't have names, all blended together into a thing I didn't recognize.

"So what was the point of that Chauncey story?" Corsica asked. "About how he started off trying to make batponies able to be born to mixed-race parents? You poking your nose in that stuff, too?"

"Yes," Lilith said, leading us through more darkened hallways. "I am. Progress is slow, because I employ an abundance of caution in not recreating the circumstances under which another like Chrysalis could be born. Unfortunately, those circumstances were... tangled, and difficult to pick apart. Chrysalis became a creature called a changeling queen. Changeling queens are like empty vessels that can be filled with emotional energy. Chauncey filled Chrysalis with every negative emotion imaginable, with hatred and anguish and despair, in order to sculpt her powers to become the type of tool he desired. However, he initially discovered his creation of such a vessel quite by accident. Once a changeling queen has been made, feeding it unintentionally on a scale required to manifest its powers would be nigh on impossible. But reckless research in this field could still potentially create a new, empty queen. A union of god and void, upon which no power or purpose has been written, free to consume any ideal, embrace any potential and become any form..."

Lilith stopped and opened a door. "Such a thing must not be needlessly brought into this world. It is for that reason that I exercise such caution in my experiments surrounding Chauncey's modification of sarosians. I tell you this because you inexplicably seem to care about Leitmotif, and would not want you to think that the purpose for which I have volunteered her is wholly without merit."

My heart sped up.

The room we entered was divided cleanly in half by a reinforced glass barrier, both sides lit brightly enough that shadow swimming was clearly a concern. The far half held several amenities including a bed and a bookshelf, no visible exits, and a marginally healthier but very bedraggled Leitmotif, in batpony form. The near half held a machine that appeared to suspend a tiny black crystal in a forcefield.

Leif reacted with a light gasp when she saw us.

"It seems," Lilith told her, "Halcyon was not, in fact, finished with you at all."

She looked at me with a look that said get me out of here.

"And this is?" Corsica glared at the machine. I could tell she was trying not to glare at Leitmotif.

"Perhaps a demonstration is in order," Lilith said, walking up to the machine. "Your friend here has been helping me develop a means to analyze the body composition and properties of other test subjects. Being a reunified changeling, she is in a unique position to report on the effects of trials. Behold."

She pulled a switch. The machine didn't seem to do anything, but suddenly Leif's form was twisted with green flames, and she became a different batpony. Leif didn't look amused.

Lilith pressed several more controls, and Leif cycled through a few more forms, each time looking progressively more ashamed and embarrassed. "All of these forms are scans taken from my employees and students," Lilith told us as she worked the machine. "I can turn her into you, if you'd like."

"You're forcing her to transform," I said numbly, feeling like I was stating the obvious and yet with nothing else to say. If someone else with a machine could press a button and take my mask on and off, I'd be... beyond mortified.

"Yes," Lilith said. "I am. Changelings, and by extension, changeling queens, are able to modify their appearance consciously and even subconsciously. By helping me to develop this, Leitmotif is creating an early-warning system that can be applied to sarosian candidates for offspring race modification tests. Were their bodies to begin undergoing the same type of transformation as Chrysalis, I might now be able to detect changes that would not consciously manifest for quite some time."

Corsica's eyes narrowed. "You're making a machine to force batponies to changeling-transform to see if they've become close enough to changeling queens to be capable of it, before they'd learn how to on their own."

Lilith gave her a funny look, then shrugged. "An innocent way of putting it, but correct."

"Knock it off," I told Lilith. "How happy do you think she looks right now?"

Lilith stepped away from the controls. "Leitmotif agreed to this in full knowledge of what it would entail. And the process is not painful. It is being designed for sarosians in interracial marriages who desire the ability to have children of their own race. It is being designed as a safety measure so that process can be developed more safely. Full aware am I of how you might see such a thing, but that is why I took the pains I did to explain it. Think of this like... a preventative medical checkup."

I looked again at Leif. She met my eyes. She still wanted out.

"So?" I looked back to Lilith. "I'm here for her. You wanna give her over to me? And then let us out of this place?"

Lilith considered this. "...Forgive my curiosity," she said. "I was given to believe this mare was your mortal enemy. Last time you visited me, I presented her to you as a peace offering, of sorts. I was surprised to see you pass her by. What changed? And what do you mean to do with her?"

"I dunno," I told her, and then shot Leif a quick glance that said if you betray me I will murder you. "Just going with my gut on this. And last time, I was a bit too overwhelmed by getting kidnapped out of jail to think straight."

"Interesting," Lilith said. "I could, perhaps, give you her as a token of goodwill. Although perhaps you might respond in kind by giving me that contract in your pocket? I'm certain you could get another if you just asked, but think of it as a symbol of your desire to remain unshackled by this city's machinations."

I hesitated, then pulled out Egdelwonk's contract. "This for Leitmotif?"

Lilith shook her head. "Not a trade. A mutual exchange of gestures of good faith."

"Same thing," I said, Egdelwonk's silly crayon doodles flapping as I shook the paper at her. "You want it?"

An emerald aura congealed around the page, taking it from my grasp. "I thank you," Lilith said as the paper began to burn, "for your sign of commitment."

Green fire slowly engulfed it, beginning at the edges and creeping inwards. In the center, at the very last place to burn, I could swear Egdelwonk's silly insignia of his face was watching me.

I shuddered.

"Now what about her?" Corsica pointed to the glass cage.

Lilith nodded. She pressed another button on the machine, and the lights in the room dimmed, until Leif was able to change back to a batpony and shadow swim through the glass. Once she was free, she stood warily and weakly, looking around.

"Come on." I beckoned her over. "You're coming with us."

"What are you doing?" Leif whispered in my ear as she got close. "Why are you back in this place? Don't you know what's happening right now?"

"Nope." I shrugged, offering her a shoulder. "I'm going with my gut. Like I said. And you had better not make me regret it."

"Whatever..." Leif slumped against me. I quickly remembered that I wasn't that fond of being touched, but it was too late now. "Get the shard in her machine. Don't leave it here."

Lilith watched her, then took the shard in question and pulled it forcibly out of its holding field. "I suppose this does belong to you," she said, floating it closer in her aura. "I have little use for it alone."

Leif reached weakly for it, but I was faster, snatching it in a wing. "What's this?" I asked, peering at it more closely. Now that I saw it up close, I realized it wasn't crystal at all: it was a chip of glossy black metal. The same kind, I suspected, as my bracelet.

I frowned. If this was related to Leif's changeling magic... I had noted before that the emerald fire of my bracelet was the same color as the stuff changelings made when they transformed, a color that also seemed to be associated with Lilith. That all but sealed it: Mother's bracelet, somehow, was a changeling artifact. Probably a stolen one. I would be very curious to ask about that in the future.

"Think I'll hang onto this," I said, pocketing the chip instead of giving it over to Leif. "If you want it, let's call it collateral in the name of good behavior, because you're going to owe me double after this stunt is done." I turned to Lilith. "So what's the point of this metal?"

Lilith was staring off into space. "...A thought occurs to me," she said, ignoring my question. "You have met Coda. You know who and what she is."

I nodded. A changeling queen.

"She is Chrysalis' daughter," Lilith told me. "It would seem the state of being a changeling queen is hereditary, much like the modification I seek to isolate that will make sarosians better able to reproduce. Coda feasts on love, which is a weak and transient emotion even at the best of times. Her powers are weak as a result, but only on the scale of gods. You, however, are likely immune to anything she can do. You, she would be forced to treat as an equal. I do not believe our destinies as ponies are immutable, but hers will be a difficult path. I think, if you could be her friend, that might be an avenue through which you would have a lot more potential than most to do good in the world."

"I am her friend," I said. "She's searching for Chrysalis and wants to fight her."

Lilith shook her head. "An ill-advised quest. As she is now, Chrysalis is harming no one and hidden far away. Coda is chasing phantoms, and will all but certainly find enemies more ruthless even than her intended quarry. Dissuading her from her mission will be difficult. By their very nature, changeling queens physically become the concepts they embody. But she is young, and has supped thus far on a meager diet far thinner than that of her mother. Coda still has time to choose a better virtue to embody. Perhaps she can yet be free of the shackles she believes to be her destiny."

"Neat," I said, feeling like I hadn't learned anything new just there. "Anyway, we walked and talked on the way here, so you mind if we get going now? I'd like to be making progress..."

"You may return to your companions at any time." Lilith nodded. "I have said what I mean to say."

I took a step toward the door, half-carrying Leitmotif. Corsica was already ahead of me.

"...You know," I said, looking back. "You wanna hear the real reason I'm helping Leif? It's because she wasn't the real bad guy. The one who really did us dirty back in Icereach was the Composer. You know the one. They were with you when we first met outside Jamjars' place."

"So it is her your vendetta truly lies with?" Lilith looked interested. "The windigo..."

I nodded. Of course Lilith knew what the Composer really was. "If you really wanted to make us trust you," I said, "perhaps you should think harder about who you associate with."

To my surprise, Lilith seemed to seriously contemplate this. "I see," she said. "Then if I require another favor from you in the future, provided you are still in Ironridge, perhaps my payment is already organized."

Warily, I raised an eyebrow. "You're implying you'd betray them at my say-so?"

"No one likes a windigo, Halcyon," Lilith purred. "My alliance with that creature is purely one of convenience, much like my alliance with the rest of Cold Karma. You've been in Ironridge long enough to know that all of us on the board of directors use the company as a facade to pursue our own agendas. Should that partnership become more of a hindrance than an asset, it is disposable. Of course, that would take quite the convergence of circumstances... but it is within the realm of possibility. I am grateful you've let me know."

I sighed, moving to better prop up Leif. "Whatever. And come on, let's get out of here."

---

We heard Unless and Papyrus before we saw them, out of sight around a corner in the Flame Barracks. It sounded like they were playing cards, and Papyrus had been caught cheating. I instantly wondered if we shouldn't have spent more time looking for the front door, but Lilith was no longer following us and Corsica's presence, as a non-batpony, was making everyone we passed very uneasy.

"We're back," Corsica called, leading the way into the room.

"It's you!" Papyrus sat up in delight. "I was just trying to convince Bats here that it's perfectly legal to... Look, never mind that, I've been bored to tears waiting for Lilith to come lock herself alone in a room with me as promised for a little old verbal sparring..." His jaw fell as he saw who I was carrying. "Garsheeva's breath, old girl, is that you? Senescey? I could have sworn you kicked the bucket!"

Leitmotif - right, her real name was Senescey - stiffened and stood on her own, falling into a wary stance. "Who are you?" she demanded. "What is the meaning of this?"

"It's me!" Papyrus sat up on his hind legs and spread his wings, wide and welcoming. "Your old chum Gazelle!"

Leif's eyes went pinprick.

"...Or not. Surprise?" Papyrus sat back down and gave a too-bad-so-sad grin. "Actually, I'm a random Riverfall schmuck who happens to look similar enough to an evil conqueror from two continents over and a generation back that I can't help fishing for reactions. I even did some research to make it more convincing! Real name's Papyrus. I read all about you in a book. Can't believe I actually fooled someone who really knew the tyrant himself!"

He winked, made a show of patting himself on the back, and turned slyly to me. "See, Butterfly, that's how you were supposed to react back in that bar when I introduced myself for the first time. When reactions like that are out there, I just can't help myself!"

I narrowed my eyes. So that was what fueled his alleged knowledge about the Empire? Research he did for the purpose of pranking ponies by introducing himself as Gazelle?

Leif was watching him with a deadly suspicious gaze.

"Can we put the shenanigans on hold for a bit?" I asked, stepping between them. "I'm dead tired, and you look even worse." I nodded at Leif. "Look, we got through all this without me needing to use that contract, so let's... just..."

I looked around at everyone. Me. Corsica. Papyrus. Unless. Leitmotif.

Five ponies. And we had only brought four masks.

"Err..." I hesitated. "I... guess I forgot that we might be bringing someone back through the... caves..."

"What, you mean these?" Papyrus made a show of slipping his mask on. "Don't look at me. I never got all the juicy details on the plan because someone didn't feel like sharing! Can't double-check what you don't know."

I gritted my teeth. "Well, she can have mine. I'm a batpony, so I can just go back through Lilith's school and find the normal entrance, and..."

"Wish someone had thought of this before coming down here," Corsica muttered.

"I did." Unless stuck out her tongue, then pulled out a fifth mask from her saddlebag. "Was just waiting to mention it 'cuz I wanted to see your reactions when you figured out we were down one. If it came to that. Nyaah."

Corsica sighed.

"How devious!" Papyrus chortled. "And here I thought that's the kind of thing only I would do! We'll make a mare out of you yet, Bats!" He blinked, examining the new mask up close. "Wait, this one has a headlamp too? Why didn't you swap mine out for this earlier when I was complaining?"

Unless bonked him with the mask, then tossed it to Leitmotif, who caught it with a stumble.

"Err, yeah..." I looked between everyone. "Let's get out of here now for real."

---

After hours of trekking, we were outside.

Hours of trekking during which I had to carry Leif pretty much the whole way, because either she didn't trust anyone else or no one else trusted her. Hours of trekking very reminiscent of the last time I made this climb, lugging Kitty along with me. Hours of trekking added to the hours it took us to get down there, that caused us to emerge well after the sun had risen. But, we made it.

Hours that felt far different from the last time I had done this, despite the similarities, because I felt no emotional ambiguity about what had just happened. Lilith was still an enigma, and I didn't know what to think about her, but it didn't matter because I no longer had any goals pulling me back down to her lair. Leif was free now. And even though I didn't know what to feel about her, either, I spent the entire trek buoyed by the unshakable sense that I had done the right thing.

"So this is it?" I asked when we stepped out into the sunshine on the inner junkyard wall around Fort Starlight. "We're home free. This is the part where you betray us, yeah?"

I looked squarely at Leitmotif, whom I was all but carrying.

"Unnngh..." She groaned, and promptly passed out.

"Welp!" Unless took flight. "Gotta go report to Valey about how all that went down. Also, hot tip? She might have a history with that mare. I recognize you're kind of low on options, but you should see about not making Fort Starlight your long-term home for her while she does whatever she's gonna do next. Or your short-term home. Or even your next stop, if, like, you can help it, which maybe you can't. But hey, maybe she'll just bail, and then you won't have to decide?"

I shook my head. "No bailing. We spent all that effort and took all those risks to get her out. I'm gonna at least want some answers from her in return."

"Whatever floats your boat." Unless nodded and zoomed away.

"Whole lotta effort," Corsica groaned beside me, suddenly wobbling on her hooves. "Think I might have... overused my special talent..."

And then she collapsed too, out like a light.

Papyrus raised an eyebrow. "So do you want my help carrying them somewhere, or would you rather be as free of my presence as possible until you inevitably come back to ask whatever imperial questions you invited me to this shindig to get the answers to?"

I glanced at him. I glanced at the two unconscious mares with me. He was Papyrus, but... "I think they'll forgive me if I ask for the help?"

Papyrus winked. "Well, too bad, Butterfly! I'm bushed after that hike. These bones are due for a spa session at Egdelwonk HQ..."

And then he cheekily flapped away, leaving me on my own. I growled a little at getting played.

Whatever. Time to figure out what to do with two unconscious mares in the daytime Sky District.

Comments

[Boopers]

After this chapter, I have but one question: Who the hell is Lilith?
I guess I have wondered about that before, but today this question is a bit more intense.
The way she tries to persuade Hallie to leave Chrysalis alone makes me think even more that it could be her.

[Sharp Quill]

He decided to build a replacement for the Night Mother, a better god he believed would be more worthy of the sarosians' adoration, splicing together the perfect pony piece by grisly piece, someone who could succeed where the Night Mother failed.

Halcyon has ears that point the wrong way, hooves the color of which do not match the rest of her, and wings that for some reason do not appear to work. Also:

"You are protected," Lilith said. "A magic I cannot identify is shielding you even as we speak, and I know of many deep magics.

And...

She was... comparing me to Chrysalis.

Put two and two together, Halcyon.

[Workable Goblin]

11253330
I'm pretty sure she's not Chrysalis, since judging from the amount of time that's passed since the first story and knowing roughly FiM's timeline Chrysalis should be in Equestria by this point.

[PropsValroa]

I feel like Lilith may actually have created Halycon.

[Venlinelle]

Everyone else is suspicious of Lilith- meanwhile, I’m suspicious of supposedly-not-Gazelle.

[sploopy slooder]

why cant any of them just act NORMAL, just for a little bit? all the scheming just gets obnoxious after a while, especially when halcyon isnt nearly clever enough to know whats going on. not that i really blame her. but seeing her get jerked around all the time and not even TRY to avoid it is already getting old.