The Immortal Dream

by Czar_Yoshi

Ghosting Your Best Friend

There was no way to deny it: I was a ghost.

Moving without gravity or being able to touch physical objects was oddly intuitive. I just tried to go in a direction, and it worked. The hard parts were everything I hadn't expected to be a challenge: for example, without being able to feel the pull of gravity, I couldn't tell which way was down. Hovering upright with respect to the ground felt exactly the same as leaning to the side; it just made the ground look like a slope instead of feeling like I was about to tip over. For a moment, pretending to walk on walls and ceilings as if they were the floor was interesting, but then I tried to get right-side-up and couldn't shake the feeling that I was ever so slightly missing the mark.

I floated through a closed doorway, unable to open it myself. Passing my eyes through something solid, rather than blinding me, gave me an eyeful of mind-bending geometries that reminded me of the way my vision got distorted when shadow swimming, except my brain wasn't wired to make anything coherent out of them. It almost hurt to look at. Staring at the inside of a wall for too long, I soon decided, was a good way to stretch my sanity.

Find Corsica. That was my mission. Technically, since I couldn't interact with the world and had no agency, I didn't need to be in a hurry to do anything at all. But idleness wasn't my style, and drifting past yaks who were incapable of seeing me didn't help either.

...Not that Corsica would be able to see me, either. For all anyone but me knew, I was tied up in the old office, and if they went to look, that was exactly what they would see.

I wondered what they thought about how I had wound up this way. Though my energy had returned somewhat after talking to Halcyon - unlike Procyon, I had no other name for her - even thinking about everything I had just been doing threatened to make me tired again. Which made no sense when I thought about it, because without a body, how could I be tired? What could I spend energy doing, even if I wanted to?

"Well," Procyon's voice said, interrupting my musings. "Look what happened to you."

I raised an eyebrow as she floated out of the floor.

Her posture was hesitant, almost abashed. "Guess we're in this together, at least for the time being. Welcome to my world."

"What's your problem with the other me?" I asked, disinterested in small talk. "I could hear you, back there when you were arguing. You never talk like that to me. With her, it was like you were a completely different person."

Procyon shrugged, not quite meeting my eyes. "We have... a history together. Or, more accurately, she is my history. Like a faded snapshot of me who got left behind to ensure you matured properly, while I continued to grow and change, just like you. She represents everything I tried to turn my back on when I prayed to Unnrus-Kaeljos that I might disappear."

"Give her a little credit," I said. "She's not that bad. At least, not once I got to meet her."

Procyon adamantly shook her head. "You don't know what she's thinking. You don't know what it's like to be her. To be someone you can't stand being. To want, so badly, to be someone different that you would create a new personality for yourself and raise it to take over your body... or just disappear."

I bristled slightly. "How do you know?"

She met my eyes. "Because I did disappear to escape from being her."

"Not that." I waved my hoof with a scowl. "How do you know I don't know what that's like?"

Procyon floated backwards gently.

"I've always wanted to be someone else," I told her, letting my eyes drill into her. "I kept a list of every mare I saw that I wanted to be like. I deconstructed their personalities, daydreamed about their admirable qualities, everything that I wanted for myself. I tried them on like clothing and could never shake the feeling that it wasn't real, and I was just borrowing and pretending. I grew up feeling like a blank slate with a few scribbles on, like what I currently was was the best I could ever hope to be, and desperately wanting more. So don't tell me I don't know what it's like to want to be someone else."

Procyon slowly, intently returned my stare. "You've changed, then?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "Maybe not all the way. But I'm no longer afraid to actually make something of myself, instead of imagining it and feeling like a shallow fraud. So-"

"Then you should understand how I feel," Procyon interrupted, firm and resolute. "Because I, too, have changed. Nonexistence changed me. I sat in the void for hour after hour after hour, counting every breath for nearly three years. It made me value the things I once thought to throw away. Once, I felt like nothingness was a suitable alternative, but now I see that anything is better than being nothing. Which is why I fear her."

She turned back to face the office. "Don't you see, Halcyon? If you try too hard to embrace yourself, to lift up your past and bring us all back together... it would mean we would have to be her again. To acknowledge that part of us who was too afraid to change. You are better the way you are. I created you to be our most perfect self. Don't waste that opportunity on the part of us that would make us throw it all away."

"What is it you want?" I turned away. "Are you really me? When I talked to her, I realized... we knew how each other felt. The reason why we felt that way might be hidden, but not the feelings. But I don't know what you're feeling, and I don't know if I want to know."

"Good," Procyon said. "I've told you before that you're better off without me. My feelings don't belong in a perfect mare. Though I came to regret it, there were reasons I wished to erase myself, Halcyon. Reasons from which you are intended to be free. Leave me as a shade forever looking over your shoulder, and her as an empty consciousness at the back of your mind. Live the life that I was too foolish to live out myself. Being made to watch is not just all that I deserve, but better than I had dared to hope for. You, on the other hoof, should be free."

A chill ran down my spine, and Procyon sank back into the floor. What was she, my dark side?

I thought about my wants, my desires, my actions in Ironridge and Icereach and before. I had... Well, particularly since the avalanche, I had never desired to hurt anyone. Never held real malice. It had taken Ludwig's possession of Corsica to truly raise my ire, and that was more desperation than anything else. But I knew not all ponies were like this.

Leif had a cause she would do anything for. Papyrus seemed to enjoy tormenting others, even if he was technically on my side. The Corsica I let myself remember was my lazy, carefree friend, but I knew she hadn't treated me all that well before the avalanche, and neither had Ansel.

I generally thought of myself as a good pony, sure, and I didn't particularly want to change that, but... was it actually because I was split like this? Could a pony's desires be pulled apart, binned according to good and bad, and stuffed into separate selves, filtered out with a magical mask, leaving only the pure and the impure? If so, who got to do the binning, to decide what to keep and what to toss? And what would become of any of the resulting parts, diluted and less than a whole pony?

...It felt as if I was staring out into eternity, and there was absolutely nothing there. I felt deeply, desperately cold.

I had to find my friends.

---

Without floating through anything thicker than a door - I had no idea how Procyon navigated, and didn't want to become lost eternally in the void - I navigated the hideout, finding everyone congregated in the most obvious location: the Nemestasis room.

"But you must," Coda was insisting, her attention fixed on Corsica with a mixture of royal authority and childlike desperation. "I would know what could cause Princess Halcyon to behave that way! Your goddess entreats your aid, peon..."

From her tone, I gathered this wasn't her first entreaty.

"What do you want me to say?" Corsica shot back, looking weary and irate. "I didn't expect her to say that either, okay? You look at me like I've got any idea what goes through that mare's head."

"Cast aside your displeasure and help me!" Coda pleaded. "I must know the meaning of this!"

"You and everyone else." Corsica slouched her way over to the side of the room. "Someone change the subject back to this kid's parents. I can't deal with this."

Papyrus licked his lips. "Afraid that one's already been hashed and re-hashed, Princess. You know, if I was a big sappy believer in the magic of friendship and all that, I'd say you might be better served spilling your heart on the table so your true companions here could help with whatever's got you in such a mood. But I'm not and everyone's happier for it, so I suggest you all follow my example, stop worrying about who's planning to betray whom, and let this mystery marinate for a while while we see what the yaks are up to. All in favor?"

He raised a hoof. Unless grabbed it and yanked it back down. He gave her a wounded look.

"There are two reasons we're here," she told him firmly. "Your reason, and a good reason. Focus on the good one."

Leif sighed. "No matter how you slice it, we aren't making the flight to Icereach at night, and we're not operating the teleporter to Ironridge until Ludwig decides to show his face. Unless you'd like to enlighten us as to a more productive use of time, all we can do is wait and speculate. And we're waiting together so we don't have to worry about getting replaced by changelings."

I clenched my teeth. The mood in this room felt about as brittle as I remembered it being during our imprisonment in the Aldebaran incident, except these ponies weren't nearly as good of friends as myself, Ansel and Corsica. Not to hold us up as paragons, either: this was a slipshod team I assembled first and foremost for their willingness to come with me. Plus a lost kid who had no one to advocate for her and no one willing to take seriously her questions.

If Ludwig were here, he would have a field day.

"We could while away the hours telling emotionally destructive parables that cause us to question the basic tenets of our faith in equinity," Papyrus idly suggested.

Everyone else, even Coda, gave him a look.

"What?" He shrugged. "We've failed to rule out that there's some secret puppeteer pulling all the strings right now, and if I were an omniscient and omnipotent master manipulator who set this whole situation up through a convoluted series of improbable gambits, I'd have an end goal in mind because as entertaining as I might find this, I'd want to be productive while I enjoy myself. Now the obvious culprits for any stunts and shenanigans are the windigoes, and windigoes are quite predictable when you really get down to it. This little cave system is basically an emotional pressure cooker. Butterfly's already flipped her lid, two thirds of you look three quarters of the way there, and whatever the yaks are doing with this parlay business, you can be sure they're not going to come back any saner and stabler. And since everyone knows you can't stop the evil plan on phase one, why not have a friendly quarrel to speed things on their way?"

"Easy for you to say when you're already insane," Unless belched, lounging high up on a shelf. "I'm not particularly feeling up to losing my cool, though. If you've got enough of a death wish to walk into obvious traps for sport, though, then be my guest."

"You!" Coda zeroed in on her. "You haven't said a word yet about being bothered by Princess Halcyon's motives or conduct. Please tell your princess you have been holding out on her and can yet make sense of this all?"

Unless nodded. "Yeah, sorry about that. I totally have. All the answers, right here." She tapped her head.

Coda gaped, then narrowed her eyes. "And those answers are?"

Unless shrugged. "Just sayin' what you told me to say, boss."

Coda looked away, frustrated and upset. "Your princess does not understand from whence you find mirth in this..."

"It's a coping mechanism," Leif told her, focusing on the Nemestasis machine. "If you get a choice, sometimes it's better to pick a good way to feel than a bad one."

Coda stared at her without understanding.

"Well if none of you want the spicy tales, how about a nice vanilla one?" Papyrus stretched and yawned. "Maybe about old Izvaldi? I'm bored of not hearing myself talk. And after Butterfly keeps forgetting that she already earned a story or two about the Empire from me, it would be hilarious to imagine the look on her face when she learns she missed out."

I stuck my tongue out at him. I couldn't help it.

"Izvaldi is the name of my organization," Coda instantly reported, reciting the fact like a dutiful schoolfilly. "As well as the land of my birth. A landlocked province within the Griffon Empire."

"Yes, it was all that and less," Papyrus droned, not waiting for anyone else to stop him. "Dreary place, full of trees and grass and sunshine. Had most of the Empire's orchards, and about zero percent of its clout. In the end days, Izvaldi had lost its lord, not that it wanted anyone to know, you see."

At the prospect of a potentially real story, everyone else shut up and listened.

"You'd know this, Senescey, but for all you non-imperial-expats, sphinx succession was a tricky thing," Papyrus went on, pointing a wing at Leitmotif, who scowled. "Provinces are helmed by sphinxes, who are rare enough that the species' survival always seemed to hang by a thread. The imperial royal family, being the most important, always got the best pickings from the lesser houses' children to wed their own, and their daughters always went on to become empress. But the lesser houses had no such bulwark, instead breeding with common griffons and ponies - yes, yes, it was legal - and hoping against hope for another generation. And whenever a line was invariably extinguished, the imperial crown prince would get to take over that province as their own. The houses reinforce the imperial line, the imperial line replaces the houses, everyone inbreeds and the empress has to be a regular old foal factory to keep the whole system afloat. Until the days of High Prince Gazelle."

He said the name with a toothy grin. "Gazelle, who was a complete monster that no one in their right mind would ever introduce themselves as for a joke, had certain ambitions in life that called for inheriting a province with some clout to its name. In other words, not Izvaldi. Fortunately, his parents were assassinated before he gained any younger brothers, so there was no one in line behind him pushing for him to take an unpopular province and no one to enforce the rules when he cheated and helped Izvaldi pretend their old sphinx was still alive, ailing in a hospital in some Garsheeva-forsaken cave. Gazelle got to keep his paws free to inherit a more powerful province should any of their lords have a timely accident, Izvaldi got a steward and a sphinxless fake government to rule it in the interim, everybody won! Except for the caretaker government, who had to worry that Gazelle's plan could fall through at any hour of any day and their fraudulent rear ends would suddenly be out of the job."

Papyrus smiled sweetly at Coda. "That caretaker government now lives on your airship."

"I know." Coda frowned. "Such is written in the annals of my scripture. The founders of my sect did indeed raise me as penance for their wickedness in allowing my mother to come to power as she did."

Papyrus sighed fondly. "Yes, well, your mommy dearest was 'involved' in their experiments. As was your daddy, the griffon grandson of Izvaldi's last sphinx and officially the steward of its government. Your maternal grandfather, now, he was the vizier ruling that fake government from behind the scenes... Or was he your great-grandfather? Twisted bloke, might have been both. Either way, the world might never see a romance as dysfunctional as that of your parents ever again."

"You're enjoying this way too much," Unless dryly pointed out. Leif looked similarly unimpressed.

"Sue me." Papyrus made a show of not caring. "Now, where I'm going with this, and something I bet your scriptures didn't teach you, is that Chauncey - grandfather, great-grandfather, whatever guy - happened to have a former Icereach head scientist in his employ."

Leif took a step back, her eyes widening. "You're implying that Navarre was Coda's father?"

Papyrus lifted his ears in interest. "Oh, you see where I'm going with this?" He glanced at Unless. "Well, what about you, Bats? Think I'm onto anything?"

Unless waved a lazy hoof. "Nyeh."

"You mean to tell me you suspect my mother was an infidel?" Coda looked seriously at Papyrus. "Sin upon so many sins, does her wickedness never end?"

Corsica's interest was much keener. "You're saying there just randomly happened to be an Icereach Head Scientist in Izvaldi, in a position to become her father."

"Oh, there was nothing random about it." Papyrus aggressively shrugged. "Chauncey hunted him down and captured him on the outskirts of Icereach. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened in this very facility! I believe he wanted this Navarre's expertise to help in some experiments regarding windigo possession, which, surprise surprise, was also involved."

"Wait," Corsica commanded. "You're saying, after the way we treated Halcyon because there was no better explanation to this head scientist's daughter business, that you knew that Coda's mother and a head scientist had been in close proximity at the right time. You're saying we jumped her purely because this seemed too contrived to be a coincidence and we had no better explanation, and you actually had a better explanation."

"Don't look at me!" Papyrus raised his hooves indignantly. "I'm just postulating innocently about how little Coda could be related to this machine. I didn't know there was a machine here with a condition like this. Besides, I'm not the only one here who knew about Navarre! Isn't that right, Senescey?"

Leif glowered. "Shut up and stop calling me that. And... yes. I hadn't put two and two together. But I knew of Navarre's existence."

"If it makes you feel better," Unless volunteered, "I knew too."

Corsica gave everyone an incredulous look. "Right. Last chance to give me a reason not to untie her, because you all are way more suspicious than she is."

"Because she asked to be tied up," Leif said, looking away. "Whatever it is she knows, she had to have a reason for that."

I swallowed, floating. How differently this conversation might unfold if I was there...

"Before everyone drifts away, perhaps I might finish my wild speculation," Papyrus suggested in a tone that implied he would finish whether others wanted him to or not. "Izvaldi's government was desperate. They all wanted to change the rules so they could stay in power if the fragile status quo Gazelle put in place collapsed out beneath them. They had this sad, cultish 'us against the world' mentality going on long before they got an airship and shacked up to raise Coda, and when Garsheeva eventually came to squish them for their naughtiness, they answered her with copious amounts of explosives." He tapped on the Nemestasis machine. "This kind of explosives."

Coda's pupils went pinprick. Leif just sighed. "In other words, proof that their captured scientist was able to activate this machine."

"From all the way across the world?" Corsica asked. "Didn't you say they brought Navarre back to Izvaldi? How'd he use it if he wasn't here?"

Papyrus blew a raspberry. "Who asked you? Not like I know how this thing works. Maybe it's activated by magic."

Leif frowned. "Wireless mental magic does exist. It's called the Daydream Network, and it's a mechanism the Night Mother used to communicate with her followers, and now that Chrysalis uses to control her changelings. It doesn't have anywhere near that kind of range, though. It only covered the eastern continent with the help of hundreds of signal boosters and transmitters."

I wanted to point out that Icereach had wireless technology too, apparently good enough to allow Kitty to remote-control a Whitewing all the way from Ironridge. But apparently the prospect didn't cross anyone else's minds. If Izvaldi had an Icereach head scientist, though, they'd have access to just about everything that was invented or stored here up until that point...

"Navarre was a unicorn, right?" Corsica tilted her head.

Leif blinked. "Sarosian. Why?"

Corsica frowned. "Really? You're certain?"

"Unless there are two Head Scientist Navarres and only one of them was taken from Icereach to the Griffon Empire..." Leif shrugged.

"Huh." Corsica looked away in thought. "I've never heard of a head scientist being a native of Icereach before. I know little and less about past administrations, but that's pretty basic. And Lilith... She talked about it being a big deal that Coda was born looking like a batpony. The way she told it, batponies always breed true, so if Coda's father was a griffon and her mother a batpony, she should have been a griffon, too. The fact that Coda defied this rule was foundational to her research. Lilith told me and Halcyon all about this when we broke into her lab. But surely Lilith is close enough to Chrysalis that she would know if Coda's real father was a batpony and there was nothing out of the ordinary about her species."

Papyrus's face scrunched in a frown. "Curious..."

"Lilith is one of Chrysalis's elite peons, right?" Corsica looked at Coda. "You called her a Changeling Bishop, and said she acts as if created for a singular purpose. Why would Chrysalis create a minion to pursue a line of research based on a foundational premise she knows is false?"

Papyrus strummed his feathers. "Word on the street says Chrysalis was beyond outraged when her child was a sarosian. Percival himself assumed she had been unfaithful, and that doubt was the final blow that pushed her over the edge. All signs do point to her being a filthy cheaterpants, and yet it's as if she wasn't even aware of it, herself... Incidentally, it must have been quite a sight to see the look on her face when that went down."

Leif rubbed her chin with a wingtip. "Things don't add up, but the one irrefutable piece of evidence we have is that the machine works for Coda. Unfortunately, even if we conclusively figured out why Coda has Navarre's blood, that tells us absolutely nothing about whether it's really a coincidence that she's here now, tonight, in a position to use it."

I let their words soak through me. Since I couldn't help and provide feedback, it was easy to disengage from the conversation, and there were plenty of threads from earlier I felt like deserved more attention than the matter of Coda's parentage. For example, had they said a rocket was launched all the way to the Griffon Empire, to use as a weapon against Garsheeva?

That was a new one. I was almost certain I hadn't heard that before. And it brought to mind another important conversation, when Leif was telling me her original interest in Icereach's rockets was as a method for fighting Chrysalis.

It wasn't just conjecture. In her homeland, these had been used to target gods before. And everyone was suspicious that someone had manipulated Coda into being here on purpose, perhaps that the rockets might be used again...

"Ey there, friendo," a grating, metallic voice said, my body going rigid as I felt something rise up behind me.

I turned. It was Ludwig.

Nobody else in the room seemed to be able to see him.

"I have been waiting and watching your face for several whole entire seconds," Ludwig said, wiggling earnestly. "I thought it would be best for dramatic timing if I showed up right when you looked like you figured out something important! How did I do? And did you miss me?"

"You can see me?" I asked, hovering. "And they can't see you?"

Ludwig shrugged. "Your good old buddy Lord Ludwig Frederick Mk.III was sort of hoping you would have a more exciting reaction than that, little cigar. This is honestly kind of lame."

"Too bad. Guess I've toughened up since we last met." I shrugged. "Why are you a ghost like me?"

Ludwig did a loop. "Because it is convenient! All of these ponyos and hairy things would probably be a whole lot less interested in squabbling if there was a windindindigo like me out in plain sight to be spooked of. It is a basic trick, friendo: sometimes the expectation of a thing is worse for your nerves than the thing itself!"

"Lovely," I sighed. "And what do you want?"

"Aside from a few kicks and giggles?" Ludwig shimmered, sloughing off a cascade of white-blue mist in its wake. "Honestly, little cigar, I was getting pretty tired of no one asking that. It is always 'Ludwig, go here' or 'Ludwig, do that'! What I am actually personally wanting with my brain is for you to say you remembered when I said I owed you one and have come to collect! It would be pretty cool to be on the same side and trounce some bozos, friendo. I don't suppose your face is here to fight anyone and take some names?"

I circled Ludwig slightly. "And what if I am?"

Ludwig flew in a circle. "Then it would be an excellent excuse to tell the robobobot to get bent and go have some fun for a change. Honestly, all this kill-our-creator stuff sounds pretty good on paper, but is really boring to actually do. And I have a sneaky little hunch you probably would want us to knock it off if you knew how we were going about it."

I fixed him with a look. "Try me."

"Tell you all of our secret plans?" Ludwig stopped undulating, looking me straight in the eye. "Hmmmmmmm... Tempting, friendo, tempting. Honestly, I do kind of owe you one. And they would probably be more interesting plans anyway if you ruined them a time or two and made us think up new ones. And by us I mean the robobobot. Some windigoes have no chill, little cigar! But first, why not tell me your own secret plans? Maybe I can help!"

"Since when have you been interested in helping me?" I queried, dubious.

"Since pretty much always and stuff." Ludwig did another loop. "I literally almost took over Icereach for you before the rude raspberry ponyo made me take a hike, remember?"

I shook my head. "Right. What if I'm not actually looking to take over any cities?"

"Then that is a good thing!" Ludwig vibrated excitedly. "Because the city here would be a pretty terrible place to rule right about now, friendo. That princess ponyo from Yakystan who is getting the hairy things outside to trust her? That is literally Chrysalis. Yup. One hundred percent. And windigoes actually do not do so well in a fight against creatures that physically eat emotion. I would probably not back you up if you wanted to fight her in a hoof-wrestling contest."

If I had been drinking, I would have spit out my drink. "That was Chrysalis? You're pulling my leg."

Although... Coda had sensed a changeling queen...

"For serious, friendo," Ludwig insisted. "I am telling you the truth with my mouth."

This would... be an excellent way for Ludwig to turn me against a potential ally. And also an excellent way for me to ignore a legitimate warning and become a pawn in someone else's game. I wasn't exactly flush with options that didn't leave me vulnerable...

About the best I could do was trust the yaks to deal with her and not get duped themselves. Hopefully, if they were wrong, I would get us all a way out of here before it came back to bite them.

"You look kind of like this secret knowledge messes up your cool plan," Ludwig patronized with a hint-hint-wink-wink expression. "Why not tell your good buddy all about it so he can help you out? I am serious here, little cigar. Your face's side would be way funner to be on than any of these losers."

I sighed. "My mom. Disabled batpony, wears a bathrobe, lives in Icereach? Around forty? I want to get her out and bring her back to this hideout. Then, I want passage through the teleporter for me, her and everyone I came in with, plus any of the Icereach yaks if things take a turn for the worse and they need an escape route. I have the teleporter key. What'll that cost me?"

"Honestly, friendo, you are pretty legendary," Ludwig told me earnestly. "There is basically nothing I could do to make Jamjars believe my face when I said I did not take the key myself. Watching her try to figure out where it had gone was hilarious like you would not believe. Anyway, I would really like to help you, friendo! And I would even like to do it for free!"

"There's a but coming," I pointed out, not even needing to ask.

Ludwig wryly twisted. "You are a smart one, little cigar. You see, all the hairy things I have been letting live in my cave are just the teensiest bit too nice. I am maybe not the world's biggest fan of squishy niceness because it kind of diminishes my powers just a tad, which has nothing at all to do with me feeling more cozy as a ghost right now and I promise I would not lie. Going to Icereach and back is no trouble, but to power the teleporter my face will either need the hairy things out of this cave, or else a big fight nearby. Sorry, friendo. It is just the way I work."

I considered that. It... was definitely possible Ludwig was telling the truth.

"Fortunately," Ludwig insisted, wriggling, "if we went all the way back to Icereach, it would be pretty easy to start a war while we were there, if that is your style. Things there are wound tighter than the time King Father tried to cram my entire species into a box for several thousand years. But if you have a better idea, you are welcome to try it instead, friendo."

I narrowed my eyes. "Alright, fine. I told you my plan. Now tell me yours. Yours, Kitty's, whatever all the windigoes are doing."

"Oh!" Ludwig vibrated excitedly. "Sure, little cigar! So, basically, like ninety nine percent of us windigoes are trapped in a magic forcefield at the bottom of the world under the Yakystan glacier, which is sort of rude but honestly beats being in a box by like a whole entire large amount. We have been getting stronger through the deterioration of world peace for a while now, and the barrier is sort of getting weaker on its own just because it was never all that strong. But we thought, if Ironridge and Yakystan go to war and then Ironridge wins enough that there is a battle at the Yakystan capitol, it should give us the push we need to break the barrier and free ourselves once and for all! Then we would move on to phase two, which is basically to kill our dad once all of us are there and the world is a little messed up so we have some strength. I think that part is still being planned, friendo."

"You want Yakyakistan and Ironridge to go to war," I said, narrowing my eyes. "Convenient how you rule Ironridge, and the Yakyakistan rulers want a war because of that. It's like you get to call the shots for both sides."

Ludwig sighed. "The robobobot is annoying like you would not believe, but also pretty smart, little cigar. Most of my plans are just about how to get two dumb ponyos to say nasty things about each other's faces. She thinks bigger. Anyway, both sides already want to fight, so basically my job is to make a dust-up in Icereach so that they have an official excuse to begin. Which is a much more boring job than you would think, since Chrysalis is here and is much more aggro about it than me!"

"Fantastic," I grumbled. Much as I didn't want to say it, and much as I had harbored fantasies of protecting Icereach for real this time, Leif was right: just because I knew about the coming storm didn't give me an inch of power to stop it. The best I could possibly hope for was to take care of my own and get out of the way.

And if that meant making sacrifices and choosing priorities...

"Getting Mother out of Icereach," I said. "And back here, safe and sound. What's that gonna involve? If you're serious about helping. Pull it off exactly the way I want it, and I'll let you have fun with it."

"Well!" Ludwig shivered in genuine excitement. "First, friendo, what way do you want it? There are a whole entire number of ways we could pull off a thing like that. Do you want to keep being a ghost, or come along in person? How about any of your friendos? Would you like to borrow my totally cool powers again like I gave the raspberry ponyo last time? I still have the magic circle I used to do that! How about-"

"Rule number one," I interrupted. "No doing anything to any of my friends without their permission. And if it's all the same with you, I'd rather not get possessed by a windigo myself. And it has to be explicit permission, got it? No word games like last time."

Ludwig sighed. "Honestly, little cigar, I was pretty proud of how well I misled you by only telling the truth last time. You could at least compliment my face for it."

"Fine. You're very evil and cunning," I patronized. "Now, being absolutely clear: you understand how playing fair and respecting boundaries works? Or are at least prepared to get this done without harassing any of my friends? We haven't even started yet, and it's not too late for me to forget I ever gave you the time of night and go do this on my own."

"...Like this?" Ludwig looked to me for approval, then paused, fuzzed...

POMF!

Ludwig suddenly seemed very, very slightly less ghostly. Everyone in the room dropped what they were talking about, gaped at Ludwig and screamed.

"Hi there, ponyos!" Ludwig rattled, its voice sounding like gears with tines that were made of swords. "Your friendo Halcyon, who is currently a spooky ghost in this very room, wants to know if any of you would like to get possessed by a cool windigo today!"

Comments

[Boopers]

"Wait," Corsica commanded. "You're saying, after the way we treated Halcyon because there was no better explanation to this head scientist's daughter business Wait, what!?

All signs do point to her being a filthy cheaterpants, and yet it's as if she wasn't even aware of it, herself...
Oh boy... I wonder where I heard something similar before...

POMF!

HELL YEAH!!!

[KMCA]

"Your friendo Halcyon, who is currently a spooky ghost in this very room, wants to know if any of you would like to get possessed by a cool windigo today!"

[Sharp Quill]

I can't help but think Halcyon's three parts will be unified by the end of the story. What would she then be capable of?

[BurningSkies]

" Hi there, ponyos! " Ludwig rattled, its voice sounding like gears with tines that were made of swords. " Your friendo Halcyon, who is currently a spooky ghost in this very room, wants to know if any of you would like to get possessed by a cool windigo today! "

Same energy as "Hey kids! Who wants to see a dead body?"

[RoboRed]

Friggin-A, Ludwig...

[Venlinelle]

I generally thought of myself as a good pony, sure, and I didn't particularly want to change that, but... was it actually because I was split like this? Could a pony's desires be pulled apart, binned according to good and bad, and stuffed into separate selves, filtered out with a magical mask, leaving only the pure and the impure? If so, who got to do the binning, to decide what to keep and what to toss? And what would become of any of the resulting parts, diluted and less than a whole pony?

🎵 I need to know
The nature of the demons that possess man’s soul 🎵