The Immortal Dream

by Czar_Yoshi

Locked Away

"In my younger days," Elise complained, sparks flying from her horn, "I would watch stallions cast this spell all day long, welding together steel plates and machine chassis parts with ease. They barely broke a sweat! Clearly, my memories were rosier than I'd hoped..."

Corsica, Ansel and I were all watching her with wide eyes. "You're trying to melt through solid rock with a horn laser," Corsica pointed out. "I don't buy it that anyone can do that all day long."

"A welding spell," Elise corrected. "And I'm very certain it was an employable skill. However... I'm not so certain this is going to be the most immediate way to make headway."

A good two minutes of bright flashes and recharging had burned a hole in the wall about the size of a breakfast cereal bowl. By my best estimates, the wall was about six or seven feet thick. As impressive as Elise's spell was, I was starting to agree with her that brute force wouldn't do the trick.

I had given my friends enough of a rundown on my exploration to cover the important parts: there was an exit, we were a difficult yet feasible distance from Icereach, it was late evening, and there was a mist monster we really didn't want to talk to. I didn't mention the magic scrolls, though. Some wary instinct told me it just might be better to figure out what those were without letting anyone know I actually had them.

Either way, it hadn't taken much discussion for us to unanimously agree that finding a passage to the other half of the hideout was a priority. And so, here we were, acting on any ideas that came to mind.

"Well, good luck with that," Corsica said as Elise charged up another burst. "Guess I'll go look for secret doors again, or something."

I nodded. "No matter what, it's not like we'll be making that climb tonight. Even if we find a way through and get some ideas for what to do when we get back, there's no way we'd survive at night, in a storm."

No one said it, but I was taking it for granted that we would do anything at all, and I knew it. We might be close to Icereach, but we were indefinitely safe here, barring anyone doing anything dumb with the mist monster. Sure, Leif and her goons would likely be back someday, but they wouldn't have locked us up if they wanted us dead. If we showed up unannounced in Icereach, though, and ruined their element of surprise? Who knew how things would go down? They might start using the Whitewing, or...

The idea of fighting in Icereach made my fur prickle. We knew so little about what was going on there, how could we possibly intervene in a way where we had control over what our intervention would do?

As far as I could see, the only possible way for us to do anything about Aldebaran would be to go back to Icereach and figure out what was going on without being spotted. And thanks to my talent, that was probably something only I could do - though being capable of doing it and being eager to do it were very different things. My own feelings aside, I had a feeling everyone else would disapprove.

"Hey, chum," Ansel said, snapping me out of it. "You got a sec?"

My ears twitched back at him. "Err..." Did I really want to talk with him? I was still mad about his comments earlier, and... "What's up?"

Apparently, my tongue cared more about what he wanted than what I wanted. I bit it and winced.

"I'm thinking about what we do once we get back to Icereach," Ansel began, confirming that I wasn't the only one with this on my mind. "Like, what is Icereach to you?"

I turned halfway to face him. "Why me in particular?"

Ansel shrugged. "Because you didn't look too busy, and you're way more approachable than those others. Anyhow, my question stands."

"Right now, it's the place where I wanna be, and the place where I'm not," I replied. "What's it matter?"

"It's just... You're always wanting to fly away." He paused searching for words. "You know, with Corsica. See the world, and all that. Don't pretend the idea hasn't crossed your mind. With changelings running amok in our home right now and our identities effectively accounted for, there's even less than usual stopping you from taking the easy way out. Hide out in a corner somewhere, wait for a passing airship, stow away... Or take one of the perfectly good ones moored there right now, if you're feeling daring."

I actually hadn't considered it. And I was frightened by how logical a way out it was.

"Maybe it's a bit premature for that kind of talk, but it's a choice all of us are going to have to make," Ansel continued. "Once the option presents itself. Right now, everyone's all excited about this news you brought back, and I can't say I blame them. But now that you've found this, it looks like physically returning home is going to be the easier half of seeing our lives back to normal."

"I dunno about that," I pushed back. "Have you ever climbed out of the Trench of Greg? It got named for the first guy to scale it for a reason. Dealing with Aldebaran's not gonna be easy, but this is hardly a cakewalk."

Ansel shook his head. "Stop sandbagging. What I want to know is, how hard does the going have to get before you two bail on Icereach and fly away? I'm not asking because I want to guilt you one way or the other, I'm asking because this will be a whole lot easier if you think about these things beforehoof."

My ears twitched in frustration. He actually had a really good point - if I couldn't put a number on how badly I wanted to get my old life back and at what point I was willing to throw in the towel, I was just going to have to make that decision later, once complications inevitably arose. I'd be under a lot more pressure then than I would be now. This was something I shouldn't put off. And yet, my personal limits were the last thing I wanted to discuss right now with Mr. Your-Talent-Makes-You-A-Bad-Pony.

"Like, here's a really obvious case," Ansel went on, mistaking my silence for wanting to hear more. "Suppose the only way to actually take them out is to literally take them out. Like, to kill them. But even they left us here without a scratch, so wouldn't that be stooping lower than their level? We'd hardly have ground to stand on..."

Oh, shut up, I wanted to say, forcefully tuning him out. Talking like he was concerned about us maintaining the moral high ground, when he already had no idea that he was lumping me in with them? If he felt-

I stomped that train of thought into the ground, not letting it finish. Where had that come from? I was hurt by what he had said earlier, sure, but I understood he was just a kid in a stressful situation who had no idea how his words could be received. Right? I didn't need to return the favor so venomously.

Well... except... No. There was a possibility, but not one I was going to think about in public.

"...Right?" Ansel was saying. "Look, I know I'm playing devil's advocate, here, and encouraging you to fly away is the last thing I should be doing, but..."

"Pause," I said with a sigh. He looked up, questioning.

"What is it you want?" I asked, questioning. "What's your end goal out of this? Getting back to Icereach? No more adventures for a year or three?"

"That's the pipe dream, alright. But unless you've got a magic changeling fly swatter hidden away in that coat..."

I tilted my head. "Fly swatter? You what? Err, look, never mind. That's what I want too. So chill out and stop worrying about what I'm gonna do, yeah? We'll get our boring Icereach lives back, and that's a promise."

Ansel gave me a wry grin. "You're cute when you try to look all responsible, Sis."

"Put a sock in it," I retorted, flicking my tail at his face. "I'm being serious, though. I've had my fill of signing on with strangers in airships for the time being, too. Besides, I've actually scaled the Trench before, so I know it can be done. So stop getting your ears in a twist and take it easier, alright?"

"Well, glad to hear at least your spirits aren't in a funk." Ansel turned to leave. "I just hope the rest of this is as easy as you make it out to be."

Mission accomplished. He was gone, and probably without hurt feelings over the matter. I, on the other hoof, felt tired and drained, and needed to be on my own to think. The bedroom, maybe? I hadn't slept long or soundly, and was starting to get a headache again from sleep deprivation. And we weren't going anywhere before morning, most certainly.

But it wasn't like sleep was going to make things better between me and Ansel. I felt like something I couldn't see was tying me in a knot. I couldn't understand why my skin wasn't thicker, why I couldn't give him a pass, knowing he was under duress. And I hated not understanding my own thoughts. It was like waking up to find that one of your hooves had been swapped out for one from a stranger.

...No. It wasn't that I couldn't understand. It was that I didn't want to admit it to myself. Just thinking that caused my mask to crack a little, the set of habits and tenets and desires that comprised post-accident me.

I hung my head. Maybe I should go back to talk with the statues again. I needed to rearrange myself a little, and it would be nice to have some company that wouldn't judge.

---

"Hey there," I greeted, instantly knowing I had made the right decision. The alicorn statues all watched me, their features carved to look like they were listening, like they cared. Whoever made them clearly intended for them to be talked to.

I settled down against the base of one of the statues and sighed. "You wouldn't believe the day I've had. Mind if I unload a little? I mean, I kind of just did, the last time I was here, but..."

The statues didn't seem to mind.

"Awesome." I leaned back and let my breath out. "Can't believe it's only been half a day since they marooned us here. Things are so twisted up in my head, it feels like it's been ages. Compartmentalize, then survive first and deal with it later, you know? The funny thing is, it's not even the danger or the life-changing whatever of it that's getting to me. It's my friends."

The air was still save for the steady flow of ventilation, chilling the tips of my ears. "Ansel in particular. He's... How should I put this? He's my brother. And most of the time, he's awesome. The kind of guy who gets you tickets to obscure press releases he knows only you will care about, and puts up with Mother being a layabout and works part-time to keep the family in the green and keeps the old couch-sleeping thing so I don't have to give up my room. He teases and he heckles, sure, but he's way better than... than before the accident. We might have been related by blood, but there wasn't much else tying us together. And even then, we were half-siblings, at that."

I took a deep, deep breath. "That's why I should be able to get over a couple dumb comments he made today. It should be no biggie. Especially when I've been through something like this after the accident, so I know how stressed everyone probably is. But... I can't. My thoughts just keep hitting a wall, like I'm not letting myself think the way I need to. And I know why. It's because..."

The statues waited, listening. Drama queen, I imagined them saying.

Every muscle in my body slumped, and I heaved a shuddering sigh. "I can't look at the truth like this. You lot can keep a secret, right? Give me a moment..." I steeled myself. "Alright. Let's do this."

And then I reached into my coat pocket, pulled out my ocarina, and began to play.

I only knew one song, and it wasn't a song I was particularly fond of, mostly because of what happened when I played it. Maybe it was magic, coming from my talent. Maybe it was psychosomatic, coming from how I thought about myself. The two were intertwined enough that it was impossible to tell where one stopped and the other began, but I played anyway, the simple melody filling my ears and molding my thoughts until I was able to take off-

---

-her mask.

Halcyon looked small, sitting against the base of a statue in her oversized coat and clunky boots, an instrument held to her lips with her wings. Part of the effect was caused by her ears - pointing backwards instead of sticking up, they cut a few inches off her height, making her look soggy, or like she was hiding.

"I swear, this gets weirder and weirder every time," she complained, putting down the ocarina and testing her limbs. "I'm me! Same Halcyon I've always been, right? Why do I have to think about myself like I'm someone else? Pretty sure I'm literally even looking at myself from outside my body. I know it's my talent's magic doing this, but what if it's all in my head?"

She did exist, she was certain of that much - insomuch as a void could be a state of existence. The emptiness was so much louder here, now that she had taken off all the traits she usually applied to it to create her. A distant rushing blew through her ears, and everything felt just a little too big or too small, as if her senses were trying valiantly to prove their own existence. An immense longing to be something washed through her, and it took all of her willpower not to put the mask back on, not to return to the illusion of knowing who she was.

Halcyon called it a mask, but a better word for it might have been lens. She wasn't really Halcyon, she was a... something... holding a lens that focused her into the pony called Halcyon. Every meaningful part of her, her habits and routines and mannerisms and beliefs and desires - beyond the desire to exist - were contained in it, and it was malleable. In fact, she was almost surprised that she thought of this as herself holding a mask, rather than a void holding her. But those thoughts were proof of her own existance, so she held tight to them, too.

Being separated like this terrified her. She looked so tiny and vast and cold and exposed, and she could remember things, knowledge that she excluded from the mask so that she could live more like a normal pony. She thought thoughts she knew she wouldn't remember once she put the mask back on again. Except for one thought that she was here specifically to retrieve.

"Get in and get out, Halcyon. Don't spend too much time thinking about it," she urged herself, saying her name to help tether herself down. She was here in the first place because her mask wasn't working. A little layer of the story that she lived as her life, one that had grown up over the last two years, wasn't working right, so she had to remove it. Chip it away a little, move the life that she usually lived one step closer to the truth - here, without her mask, she understood everything, yet trying to function with that void at her core and nothing else around it just wasn't feasible. So, she needed the mask.

"There we go. All done." She nodded in satisfaction, running her mind around the contours of her work, thinking through its implications and imagining how she would probably think once she put that mask back on. This was good. Usually, while she wore the mask, she was averse to the idea of changing it, hence why she had waited so long to come here. Her identity was precious to her, even if it was mostly made-up, because it was still the most substantial thing she had. But this time, she had only rewound it a little, removed a piece so she could think like she had two years ago. She was still going to be a Halcyon she had been before. So, she figured it would be fine.

But she still hesitated before putting it back on, glancing up to a statue. It felt like looking at a mirror. "This can't be normal, right?" she asked, seeking some reassurance. "The way I'm feeling. I get that there's magic, and all. But even if normal ponies don't literally look at themselves like they're an external person, do they ever have no idea who they are? I wonder if this is actually all I am, or if this emptiness just prevents me from seeing anything else. It's kind of distracting, you know. If it wasn't there, would I see something else instead, something I'm missing? Logically, if you take away nothing, you'd still be left with nothing, but this can't be something everyone has inside of them. Someone would have said something. Right?"

Well, she hadn't said anything. This was among her deepest secrets, after all. And she could say that with confidence, since all the secrets she usually buried and locked away behind her mask were plain for her to see here.

"Fine, then. Maybe others do feel like this," she admitted. "But I sure hope they don't, because it's weird. Or maybe I hope they do, because I'd love to know how they deal with it. Or maybe they deal with it like me, and just pretend all the time. Urgh. Why can't I just be normal, like Corsica or Mother or Elise...?"

Enough of that, though. It didn't take any music to reverse the process. Time for her to get back to-

---

-my more comfortable self.

I flopped on my back, panting, as my senses returned to their rightful functions, the rush subsiding and my body feeling like a cohesive entity again. I wasn't the Halcyon I had been just a minute ago. I was new. I had changed something.

"That," I managed, "has got to be the weirdest thing I've ever heard of a pony doing." I lay there for a while as the thoughts I had just been having recontextualized them in terms of my present reality, and shuddered. I had already told the statues how I felt, what I wanted, and putting the mask back on hadn't changed any of that. All that was left was quietly repeat my prayer that someday, I would find something beyond the emptiness and the facade, and know who I really was inside.

"...Anyway." I shook my head, still on the floor, ready to stop stalling. "I, err... Wow. I guess that worked. I hate it when I do that and it works, since it's a huge reminder that this really is how things work for me. So, you mind if I spill some beans a little? I think I'm gonna have to talk this one through with someone."

The statues didn't seem to mind at all.

"It's Ansel," I said, my thoughts flowing freely where earlier, they had been getting twisted and stuck. "He's my brother, right? Sort of. Well, it depends on your definition of brother. Actually, he mostly just is because I say he is. But..."

I let my head tip back. "Elise has the right of it. He died, two years ago. This Ansel is... someone else."

My mind felt like an unclogged drain, familiar and comfortable banks breaking down as I acclimated to things I had always known, deep down.

"Pretty crazy, right?" I went on with a feeble shrug. "There's, um, a lot to explain. Where do I start? The bottom line is, I knew, and I didn't care because he made a much better brother than the one he replaced. I wanted a second chance. I wished for one with everything I had. And, when I got it, I took it. And it was good enough that I just let it become part of my reality..."

My limbs fell spread-eagled around me on the cold stone floor. I knew this. I had always known, deep down, but I just liked the story I told myself too much, that he really was my brother and nothing suspicious had happened, and I let it grow into something I lived and believed... just like so much else in my life.

"I don't know that he's a changeling, though," I pointed out. "Just someone who's really good at looking like Ansel. But, that's the truth. I guess..."

Now that I had broken the lie and could think clearly about my history with him again, I could see the real reason his comments about identity theft bothered me. It wasn't for my own sake - I was annoyed, but a sensible level of annoyed. It was because his comments must have also been about himself.

"You're probably curious about the details," I guessed, looking up at the statues as my thoughts continued to flow. "It was after the accident. He never recovered. It was my fault, in a way... Several ways, actually. But, I wished with everything I had that it wouldn't end like that, and that everything would be alright. I wished for a second chance. And then he just... showed up."

I shook my head and continued. "He called himself a missing piece. Said he was a refugee, like me, who stowed away on an airship and made it to Icereach about a week before. I first found him in an air duct in the real Ansel's hospital room. He said he knew, somehow, that I felt the same way he did, and that's why he came and talked to me. Beats me what made him think that. But when he showed his face, he looked just like Ansel, and he... was exactly what I had wished for. A second chance."

The statues quietly glittered.

"Big shocker, huh?" I said with a rueful shrug. "It's obvious, now that I'm not pretending he's the original. He's so different than he was before. Honestly, I think I'm the reason no one else found him out before this. He had me around covering for him, glossing over the awkward holes in his memory and pretending it was real. As time passed, he got better and better at it and all I needed to do was keep pretending. Of course, it must have helped that no one knew anything about changelings, since literally everything is censored... I know it sounds like a crazy risk on my part, letting a stranger I knew nothing about steal the face and life of a family member, but I wasn't exactly rational at the time. And you have to remember, the old Ansel and I didn't get along well. We were family, and I sure felt guilty about what happened to him, but I didn't like him. Trying again to have a sibling with someone new... It seemed like a good idea at the time, I guess."

I shrugged. "And then it became too good of an idea. The new Ansel was a way better brother than the old one. We actually got along perfectly. I'd take that life to my previous one any day of the week for him alone. And for him, well, it must have been a whole lot better than whatever he had before Icereach."

More connections formed in my mind. Ansel was so opposed to leaving Icereach and seeing the world... If he had actually lived in the rest of the world, if his current hatred of identity thieves and changelings wasn't founded by Aldebaran but by something he had been through out there, maybe his desire to stay isolated at home and never travel wasn't just based on paranoia.

"Anyway," I continued. "Nowadays, I don't even know now if it is a lie to call him my brother. We might not be related by blood, but maybe that's not what's most important. I never asked him, ever, about who he had been before coming to Icereach. I didn't want to disturb the good thing we had going, and he's clearly touchy about whatever's back there in the past. But... I guess I've gotta. When I went through the accident, I was alone. This time, I think I can handle it, but he's probably right where I was. Especially if he thinks Elise is poking somewhere he doesn't wanna have poked... I've gotta do something to patch this up."

Aside from broaching the subject, though, what could I do to help him? Did I have psychotherapist written on my flank? I understood so little about my own self, helping other ponies work through their personal issues was probably the one thing my omni-talent didn't qualify me to cheat my way through. Especially when using it to rearrange myself tended to strain my grasp on sanity for a while...

"Hey," I said, getting back to my hooves. "Apropos of nothing, but what do you think I should be when I grow up? Not a whole lot that's off the table. And before you ask, I can use my talent to learn skills just fine. It's not only good for weird sensory out-of-body stuff. It also lets me just be a really quick study."

Unhelpfully, the statues said nothing.

"Figured you'd say that," I grunted. "Imagine there's a kid with a talent in starting fires. Sounds like a risky thing, right? Could easily become an arsonist. Could just as easily become a world-famous chef. Now imagine they're a good kid - shut it, I'm going somewhere with this. Imagine they're a good kid, and they'd rather be the chef. But how do they learn the limits on their talent if they never go all out with it? And if they don't know their limits, how do they safely practice with it without risking becoming an arsonist by accident? It's a dilemma."

I straightened my coat and folded my wings. "See, I'm a lot like that kid. My talent's pretty strong, but it's hard for me to really push its limits and learn about it and stuff without risking something I'll regret. It just feels like the kind of thing you don't mess with, you know? I might be a phony, just a void with a mask on, but what if I break that mask and can't fix it? It's sure better than nothing. Right now, that mask is literally me. And even if I just stick to learning new skills, who says I won't learn something I don't want to know I can do? That's why I like being more passive and letting others lead. But if I'm going to climb that cliff and mess with Aldebaran in Icereach... which is something I could do, not something I'm going to do, and might still be a terrible idea... I'd need to be at my best, go all out and hold nothing back. I'm probably going to cave and bail with the airship like Ansel said, to be honest. But just in case, look out for me, okay? I could use anyone in my corner I can get."

And now I had put voice to my fantasies of maybe having the tools to play against Aldebaran. Great. Unlike admitting Ansel's origins to myself, this truth just made me feel silly. What was I, some kind of superhero? That's what I wanted to travel the world to meet, not to become myself.

Even though my talent could probably make me into one if I wanted.

---

"Secret passage: rumbled," Corsica declared with a satisfied sigh, standing with me and everyone else in the hideout's posh bathroom. A hairline crack in the wall tile grout had been widened, and a door swung outward on specialty hinges that let it open outward while staying hidden inside. That would make it completely undetectable while closed, as well as only openable from the other side.

Unless you were good with telekineis, apparently.

"I don't know which I want to know less: how you found that, or who chose a bathroom as the endpoint for a secret passage," Ansel muttered, warily eyeing the contraption.

"It's a spell Elise showed me," Corsica bragged, bags under her eyes and the fur around the base of her horn looking frizzed. "Piece of cake, really..."

Elise shrugged under Ansel's questioning look. "It involves trying to grab at places behind walls with your telekinesis to search for pockets of air," she explained. "I learned it decades ago from the daughter of a mutual friend. Admittedly, I've never had need to use it before now."

"You all look like you're going to pass out," I noted, observing signs of magical fatigue around both unicorns. Corsica in particular looked exhausted, and I could tell she was putting on a blustery face to cover something else up. Quietly, I noted to myself that Ansel wasn't the only one I needed to worry about.

"I may have overestimated my own magical strength," Elise admitted, not particularly abashed. "Fortunately, my horn has always been quick to recharge, but thank you for your concern. It did feel rather good to let loose with it again."

"You were melting a hole through solid rock with a horn laser," Ansel pointed out. "If you thought that was going to succeed, I think 'overestimating' might be too tame a word, don't you?"

"Can it with the grumbling," Corsica snapped. "I found a door. Do you want to see the other half of this place or not?"

Hesitating, I stepped in. "Don't forget it's kind of nighttime out. And the middle of a blizzard, to boot. Maybe we should rest up a little and go staring at the Trench later, yeah?"

Corsica sighed. "Doubt it'll be very restful. I wanna see what I just spent all this time looking for."

"Actually, I think Halcyon has a perfectly good point," Elise interrupted, her mane halfheartedly fluttering instead of its usual eternal blowing. "This is good progress, Corsica, but we have little to gain from pushing ourselves when we are tired. Furthermore, I don't believe Halcyon found the other end of this passage, so we have no guarantee it will be a simple sightseeing tour through familiar terrain. All of us ought to get some rest before exploring this together."

"Fine by me," Ansel declared, waving a hoof and walking out of the bathroom. "Dibs on the couch. You mares can have the fancy bedroom. I've never had much use for those, anyway."

I glanced between Elise and Corsica, expecting Corsica to push back. She was stuborn, and this was more of good advice than a strict order, right? Exactly the kind of thing she'd usually shrug off.

"...Whatever," she eventually said instead. "But the bed's all mine. You two can sleep on... something." She didn't even finish her thought, walking out without looking back.

Elise and I shared a look. And how about you? it seemed to say.

I shrugged. "Well, I'm far from a hundred percent, but I'm not that out of it. Maybe I should go talk to her?"

"If my experiences with teenage mares are any guideline," Elise replied, "you'll have more luck than I will. But don't wear yourself out on others' behalves. You might be better at hiding it, but I can tell this isn't easy on you, either."

Once again, she could read me perfectly. On top of all my earlier fatigue, my head was still a little shaky from the readjustment I had done in the statue room. Fortunately, my thoughts were finally in a place where I could try to relax, with some new distance and clarity on my feelings toward Ansel and Aldebaran. I also hadn't really started digging into what I intended to do once - of if - I made it back to Icereach. This would be the best chance to rest up I would get.

And yet... even if I was tired, I was still able to function despite it. Maybe I should push myself a little more before bed and check on my friends.

---

"Oi," I greeted, tromping into the bedroom and noticing Corsica already there, hogging the center of the bed like a cat on a throne. Now that I was a little more coherent, it suddenly struck me that trying to share would be a lot more awkward when I wasn't half-passed out from fatigue like during my earlier nap. In fact, I couldn't remember for certain that someone hadn't dragged me there.

"Back off, muddy boots," Corsica warned, her eyes glowing faintly with reflected light. "I spent ten minutes cleaning this out after the last time you hopped up here."

Something inside me from more than two years ago let me absorb the barb like it was part of a perfectly normal conversation. "Coolio," I responded, laying down on the floor and curling up against the side of the bed, still wearing my coat and everything. "I'll just take this spot instead. Can I have a tiny corner of blanket, Your Majesty?"

If Corsica read any sarcasm in the request, she didn't show it. "Here's a spare pillow. Use that," she said, unceremoniously dropping it by my head.

I took it and spent a minute arranging it. "You still awake?" I eventually whispered.

"What else would I be?" Corsica asked immediately, a slight hitch in her voice.

"...Are you alright?" I lifted my eyes, but didn't light my bracelet, leaving the room in darkness.

Corsica didn't respond.

"See, I know you usually are," I went on. "You're pretty resilient, and I admire you for it. But I also remember how we became friends. When I... you know... kept bugging you about it when you obviously weren't. So I don't wanna let this drop. You know you can talk to me. You've done it before, last time. Remember?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about. And when did I tell you what I was thinking back then?" Corsica asked. "The way I recall it, I just started helping you with your chapel project because it was a better use of my time then everything else I had been doing. And then, we got close doing it."

I frowned. "I mean, it was obvious that you had a falling-out with your father, and it had to do with your hospital stay, and..." I trailed off. "Okay, I guess I put most of the pieces together myself. But still. You've obviously got something on your mind. If not me, who are you gonna talk to?"

"I wasn't going to talk to anyone," Corsica said with a forced nonchalance. "It's very personal. And don't worry too much about me. I'm not blind, I know I look like a lethargic heap. I'll walk it off. It's happened before. Just an issue that's part of being me."

Funny. That was how I thought about myself and my situation, too: my memory-dreams, my mask wearing, my backwards ears. Just a part of being me. I knew how badly I wanted to keep my own secrets, how dangerous and precious they felt. Oddly, that just made me want to hear Corsica open up even more.

And then I got an idea. "How about this," I said without thinking. "We're besties, right? You share with me, and I'll tell you something private of my own. Equal exchange. Something I'd normally never tell anyone. Like, err..."

Like what? Would I tell her about my talent? My emptiness? My mouth had gotten ahead of my thoughts, and now I was regretting it. Deep down, I did want to share my secrets, to be known by someone more powerful and absolute than I was, who could understand me and help me make sense of myself and who I was supposed to be. But that wasn't Corsica. She was just finding her way through life like me. Right?

"Hmm." To my dismay, Corsica was seriously contemplating it. "How about your boots," she decided. "I want to see what you look like with them off. No clothes. And I wanna know why you wear them, if seeing doesn't make it obvious. Then I'll tell you why I'm in a funk. Deal?"

I froze, imagining it playing out. My stomach twisted involuntarily, and my ears pressed harder against my skull.

"Thought not." Corsica rolled over in bed and dropped it.

But the idea didn't leave me alone. On the scale of potentially harmful things I knew or could do, showing my legs was hopefully pretty tame. Probably. How many times over the last week had I needed to explain to Corsica that I wasn't going to take the boots off while someone was looking? Most of those times had been fueled by our trip with Aldebaran, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if we ever tried traveling together outside of Icereach, those dustups would continue. Maybe... this was something I could actually do.

Except for one tiny little problem. She didn't just want to see, she wanted to know why. And I couldn't tell her that even if I wanted to, because I didn't know myself.

I played with the cuffs of my boots in the darkness, turning the idea over in my mind. It wasn't like I was... well... it was hard to say. My thoughts sort of froze up and got twisted around when I tried to rationalize it, but I knew for certain that letting anyone see me with them off was something I needed to avoid at all costs. Logic couldn't explain the strength of the desire, and part of me wanted to rebel against it just because I could. But, no. I had to trust myself even when I couldn't understand myself. And besides, deep down, I had a feeling that I actually did know why I had to keep the boots on, and it just wasn't a reason I let myself be aware of. The kind of thing I locked out of my mask, excluded from my life and only remembered when I took the mask off. Exactly like how I had made Ansel into my real brother and pushed his origin to the side.

The only reason I had unblocked that was because I needed to. This hardly seemed like an urgent need to go diving into something I must have left out for a good reason, and I really wasn't keen on becoming that version of me twice in one day. Especially not while someone else was watching. The sensory side effects were severe enough that it would almost certainly end with her giving me strange looks and me panting on the floor.

Good night, I thought at her, giving up and closing my eyes. I couldn't help but feel like I should have done more.

---

"Huh huh. Halcyon pony posture all wrong. Need to brace self with legs, like this!"

"Are you sure we can't just hit it?" Corsica asked from the side. "Scientifically, a single blow would deliver a much higher peak force than continual pushing."

Balthazar shook his shaggy head, lumbering amiably over to where Corsica was watching me strain against a training machine. It looked like a giant gong strapped to the front of a hay bale, but was actually, I was told, a sophisticated yak machine to measure the force with which I could push against something. I had a hunch it really was just a giant gong strapped to a hay bale. Either way, Balthazar was adamant that spending hours pushing on an immovable object would turn us into true yak warriors, and the other yaks agreed.

"Hitting not help," Balthazar explained to Corsica and Ansel as they rested in between their turns with the hay bale. "Hitting is single strike. Either works or doesn't work! Once hoof stop moving, hit is over. Can always hit again, but then is downtime between mighty blows. Fast foe might recover. But when pony push, never have to stop until ready to stop. No gaps in defense."

"Are you sure about that?" Corsica argued. "Imagine pushing a rock continually along. It might keep moving, but you won't be strong enough to stop it from moving backward from a shock force! Why isn't the most important thing to break an opponent's guard?"

Balthazar ruffled her long, raspberry mane, earning a loud huff. "Balthazar never said this not so. But pony who only hit, only know how to hit. Must know how to push too."

"But punching things is better!"

I forced my shoulder against the gong, my hooves scraping the rocky mud floor, a little too concerned with the physical exertion to give the argument in the background much merit. Don't stop to redo my stance when my shoulder started to ache, Balthazar had told me. Readjusting myself counted as letting up.

But didn't Corsica have a point? Wasn't letting up now to come back stronger better than never breaking in the first place?

The mountain sun shone down on my efforts, and paradoxically, I relaxed. I had been expecting another nightmare, and a training session with Balthazar - an earlier one, I gathered, but I didn't remember precisely when this one occurred - was a welcome reprieve. I still felt my past self's exhaustion, the burning in my muscles and the cold air in my lungs, but it just felt good. It felt like I was doing something.

My past self's thoughts were still there, easy to read. Looking back, I never really had grasped the point of this exercise. At the time, I assumed it was some bodybuilding thing, a benefit to my strength that had to be done this specific way. Balthazar was the expert, after all. But what if that perspective had been wrong? Balthazar had no book smarts, but he was wise.

If I looked at the gong as a problem to be solved, Corsica wanted to hit it a bunch - like coming up with a plan, trying it, and then making a new one based on what happened from there. But what if, Balthazar's lesson suggested, you came up against a problem that required not cohesive singular solutions, but constant stamina and determination to make it through to the other side?

Something like keeping your sanity during a stressful exile.

...I stopped thinking about it. Instead, I thought about the immobile hay bale, and how I wasn't stopping even though my legs were starting to burn, and I listened to the sound of Balthazar's voice in the background. It felt far better than any training session I had ever been to in person. I resolved that once I was back safe and sound in Icereach, I owed Balthazar a cake.

Time didn't speed up. Usually, my dreams would skip over unimportant bits, my thoughts skimming over the memories like swiftly-turned pages in a book. But tonight, I stayed in the training yard, stayed in the monotony of perseverance, and was perfectly happy for it. Thanks, brain. Sometimes you really-

The sun went out.

I woke with a start, my dream shattering as it sometimes did when the waking world intruded too aggressively. Something was wrong. What? The lights. It was darker than it should be. But hadn't I left all the lights turned out?

No, there should have at least been light coming under the doorjamb. Without turning my bracelet on, I fumbled my way to the door and opened it. Pitch black. Even my sensitive batpony eyes couldn't see a thing beyond.

"This had better not be some automated system that tells you to go to bed when it's late out..." I grumbled, already dressed and scrubbing at my eyes, commanding my bracelet to glow and heading out to investigate.

I met Elise in the broken terminal room, the unicorn descending from the stairs. "Halcyon!" she greeted. "It appears we have a power outage. None of the lights are working. Were Corsica and Ansel in there with you?"

"Corsica's there," I managed, my mouth still waking up. "Maybe Ansel's upstairs?"

Elise shook her head. "He was napping on the couch in the lobby, but then I took it for myself when he went to do something else. I haven't checked the rest of the area. We ought to regroup, although I was primarily looking for you. Did you see a generator room when you were exploring the maintenance section earlier? I'm afraid of the possibility that this hideout was unused for so long that bringing it back into service has taxed a system that may have degraded while it was dormant."

Generators, generators... I felt like I should know that, but couldn't remember off the top of my head. "Well, let's at least see where Ansel is," I pointed out. "Probably not best to ditch him since he can't see in the dark."

Elise shook her head. "These quarters are not so large that if he was in distress, we would be unable to hear him. I think it's more likely he went somewhere else in search of rest, or perhaps to be alone for a while."

"Oh." Made sense. Sort of. Where was he, sleeping on top of the food supply like those tin cans were dragon gold? I almost could see it really happening... But would that really be more comfortable than the couch?

"While you think on any possible generators, I wanted to ask you something," Elise said. "You overheard my conversation with Ansel earlier, when we discussed changelings, among other things. I want to make sure you can ask any questions you have, resulting from that."

I blinked into the colored hornlight, my brain slowly pulling back out information I had already archived behind the more pressing matters of literally rearranging my brain, not to mention our misty jail mate and our proximity to home. "Err... Questions about which part?"

Elise shrugged. "I did question whether your brother might be a changeling, as well as squarely announce that your mother once was a member of a criminal group in the Griffon Empire. These were things I told to Ansel based on his specific feelings and situation. But I imagine you are feeling Aldebaran's betrayal keenly, and want to ensure I am not unduly adding to any worries you have that things are not as they seem."

Huh. Little did she know, I already knew way more about Ansel than her, and had known about him all along... At least, as of a few hours ago.

"It's... not that big of a deal," I said, hoping to placate her. "Yeah, you made some points about Ansel. But we've been better friends these last two years than we were the years before, so if he was someone else, would it be that much of a bad thing?"

Elise tilted her head. "You seem remarkably at peace with the idea, considering what has happened over the past few days."

She must have sensed there was more to it than that, but my talent and years of covering for Ansel let me answer like I hadn't even noticed. "I already knew the Aldebaran ponies were hiding something about who they were," I replied, leaning on the truth. "From way before we got on that airship. It was everything about them. Leif in particular. Their careful presentations, the way they dressed, the way they tried to read others... My read on it was that Leif was really a batpony disguised as a pegasus, and they were a group of friends from before the war who had some hard feelings about being told to fight each other." I shook my head. "I was wrong about what they were, but right that they were hiding something. Point is, it doesn't bother me when ponies keep secrets. Everyone does that. I know I do. The only thing that bothers me is that they betrayed us, which is different from not being who they said they were."

Elise nodded slowly. "That's a very resilient worldview. It also sounds like you're quite observant about these things. Would it be too much to ask what you think of Ansel, then, and my ideas about him?"

"Too much to ask?" I averted my eyes. She was just as keen as during our chess 'game'... "Not really, but... I don't wanna question it, you know? He's a cool brother. Why would I want to go digging into reasons why he might not be?"

"I see." Elise straightened up and backed off, apparently not wishing to press. "In that case, it sounds as though it is best to leave well enough alone. Is there anything else you would like to ask?"

"What are we asking?" a groggy Corsica inquired, joining us with an unbrushed mane and a flicker of sapphire around her slender horn. "And why's it so dark?"

"We're asking why it's so dark, of course." I stuck out my tongue at her. "Elise says that the power's out."

Corsica frowned, considering this. "Well, good thing we've got a way out?"

"Insomuch as a nigh-unscalable mountain face constitutes a way out," Elise replied. "Although it does sound prudent to think about how we could overcome that and what we could do once we reach Icereach now, rather than waiting to see if the power comes back on and finding ourselves low on heat if it doesn't."

Low on heat... I stared deeply into a wall. What was it I wasn't remembering? It was right on the edge of my mind...

And then it hit me. "The mist monster," I groaned. "The one I found in the other rooms. It said something about being put down here as a power source."

That instantly got Elise's attention. "Oh dear."

"So... what, it escaped?" Corsica asked, pulling her mane out of her eyes. "Is that it?"

I glanced at the air vent I snuck through the last few times I visited the outer rooms. "Not that splitting up seems like a great idea, but since I'm the only one who can go, maybe I should go check it out? I was hoping to avoid talking to that thing again, though..."

Elise shook her head. "I would rather we prioritize finding Ansel. Splitting up seems unwise if there is any risk of an unknown, hostile power in these tunnels."

"But Hallie's the only one who can go through the wall," Corsica pointed out. "Aren't we splitting up anyway? We still haven't checked out the secret passage in the bathroom. That's what I'm doing."

"And I wouldn't call the mist hostile, exactly," I added uncertainly. "It did seem kind of evil, but it was friendly, too. Not exactly chomping at the bit to come grind our bones. That said, we probably want to avoid talking to it if possible..."

Corsica nodded. She did sound a bit better with half a night's sleep behind her, I decided.

Elise regarded the two of us. "I suppose Corsica does have a point," she admitted. "You are the only one currently able to reach that mist, Halcyon, at least until we explore the tunnel. However, I don't imagine a lack of heating will cause us to freeze instantaneously, and this issue is my responsibility. I won't stop you from going if you truly mean to volunteer, but you shouldn't see it as a duty."

I thought about that for a moment, my brain tugging in four different directions. Part of me insisted that it was a duty, that as the best pony for the job, I should go to maximize our chances of a good result. Another part of me felt that the mist was bad news, and told me to avoid it. A third, childish part just wanted someone else to rely on, and was happy to hide behind Elise in the illusion of safety. And an even more childish part of me was curious and just wanted to investigate, all consequences forgotten.

But I had talked to the mist before, so out of all of us, I was probably the most equipped to talk to it again, assuming it hadn't just up and floated away. And more importantly, I had an unsettling feeling about what might happen if the mist monster got a chance to talk to anyone other than me. If it was just me listening to its ramblings, I could filter and process everything I heard, and if there was one quality I had in abundance, it was self-control. But I didn't trust it not to try and convince someone else to do something stupid.

"...Yeah," I eventually said, making up my mind and nodding. "I'll go check it out. I appreciate the offer, but I probably would be best at this. No offense."

Elise watched me, then relented, nodding toward the air vent. "Very well. Be safe, Halcyon. The world is a very old place, and it is far from thoroughly explored. It would be most unwise to make assumptions about what an unidentified magical creature can or will do."

I nodded and slipped into the duct, leaving her and Corsica to find Ansel and search the bathroom passage.

---

I ran to the sealed door, feeling a lot less brave than I had in the company of Corsica and Elise, breath catching in my throat as I slowly started to realize the situation I was putting myself into. What if... Well, anything was possible. Checking it out alone? I had to be nuts.

The door was still sealed, though. I threw my weight against the lock wheel, and felt my heartbeat spike when it swung open: the floor beyond was clear. No blue mist flopped and undulated, and no unsettling music tinkled in my mind.

I sped up, skidding to a halt in front of the half-melted inner door and frowning. It looked like the lights were still on in the room beyond... I lifted my bracelet leg, stepping closer when I realized there were words written in frost on the melted door.

Out For Lunch

Why do I even need lunch anyway? It's a question for the ages. What do you think, friendo?

I blinked several times. "What the...?"

It felt like the kind of message that was designed to look like a riddle, but was actually meaningless and just existed to waste the reader's time. Was there something else I was supposed to make of this? Was the power really out because it had just flown the coop? It had told me it wasn't really trapped...

Well, there was an easy way to find out. Briefly considering that this might be an even worse idea, and then deciding that the mist seemed far more interested in messing with me than hurting me, I extinguished my bracelet and swam under the door.

The light in the room ejected me forcefully from the floor as soon as I was far enough inside to fit, and I stumbled, catching my balance. The room was about the size of my living room at home and roughly circular, with a domed, jagged roof and a flat floor taken up by a huge circle made from chiseled runes, full of angles and connections and arcane symbols. At the center of the circle was a tiny pedestal that couldn't have been meant to hold an object bigger than a potato, and above that pedestal floated an impossibility: a phantasam of white and blue, its frontal half vaguely equine and its barrel trailing off into a plume of churning clouds. It regarded me with pure white, luminous eyes that made me feel as if my heart was being turned to ice.

Also, Ansel was in the room.

"Phooey," the mist-thing complained, blue mist seeping out from it and covering the floor once again like a released breath. "I forgot you could do that."

"Told you so," Ansel retorted, looking smug.

My eyes bounced between them, eventually settling on Ansel. "There had better be a real good explanation for what's going on here."

Ansel gestured to a cleft in the far wall I had overlooked. "Short version is, I was exploring that tunnel Corsica found in the bathroom and wound up here. Ludwig and I were just getting to know each other."

"Ludwig?" I glanced at the mist monster, trying to avoid thinking about how Ansel had agreed that we should hold off on exploring the tunnel together, then apparently gone down on his own. Not that I had ground to complain when I had been exploring solo as well, but still... At least now I knew why I hadn't found the other end of that tunnel.

"That is my name, friendo." The mist-thing shrugged. "Well, technically it is Lord Ludwig Frederick Mk.III, but that is a bit of a mouthful to say with your mouth. You can call me Lord Frederick instead if you want to sound cool."

I had to sit down.

"Anyhoodles," the mist - Ludwig - continued, "you are a kind of annoying ponyo. You didn't even play my game. So I think our bet is null and void, grumpy ponyo. Too bad. Want to try again?" It looked to Ansel.

"Your bet?" I glanced at him too. "Seriously? Can't you tell this place has bad news written all over it?"

"In case you haven't noticed, so does everything about our situation," Ansel insisted, calmly holding his ground. "We've been bamboozled and betrayed by brigands, and to make matters worse, they did it in such a way that we can't know one of us isn't their fifth member. Elise already suspects me, and that only got me wondering about everyone else. It seemed like solo operations were the best way to go, not that you haven't been doing your fair share of solo exploring as well. And if there's one person down here I can be reasonably certain isn't a changeling, it's this." He pointed a hoof at Ludwig. "Believe it or not, it's actually kind of relatable."

"Relatable?" I glanced sideways at the mist. "Relatable enough that you're making wagers with it? You know the power's out right now, right? Is that your doing? And what's with the weird writing on the door?"

Ludwig happily cleared its throat. "Oh, that is easy, little cigar," it boomed, its voice just as metallic here as it was in the outside tunnel. "Your friendo was like, 'Do you know any ways to the outside, O magnanimous mist?' And I was like, 'Sure do, grumpy little ponyo! In fact, I live in this particular hole because it is one you have to go through to get from in here to out there! I am really quite smart.' And then he said, 'O mist-'"

"This thing put its lair in the middle of the intended route to get from the living area to the maintenance area, basically," Ansel clarified. "The whole point of our wager was that if I won, we'd get free passage to come and go between the halves of this hideout. As for the lights, the whole wager was on how you lot would react."

Ludwig sighed laboriously. "It is so hard to find ponyos who do not trust each other these days. I thought for sure you would assume he asked me to possess him like a puppet to go help kick some bad guy tail, and that was why I was no longer around. You trust each other so little! Why not jump to conclusions, little cigar?"

I stared at both of them incredulously. "What the...? Are you seriously that daft? That makes so little sense, I don't believe either of you. And I'm not a cigar."

"That's why I agreed to it." Ansel shrugged. "I said the thought wouldn't even cross your mind. It's just not how you operate."

"I left a message for you to read with your very own eyes," Ludwig pouted. "On the door. It told you to think about the reasons I might have really had to leave!"

"You're so bad at this, it's almost adorable," Ansel taunted the mist, waggling a hoof. "I told you, that's not how ponies work. Leastwise, not us. Anyway, I told you she'd see through it and get the facts first, and boom, there you have it. I'd say that counts as a win for me. So let's say we can come and go now?"

I loudly cleared my throat. "That still doesn't explain why you were betting on how I'd react to being put in weird circumstances in the first place. I'm a pony, not some test subject!"

Ludwig did the spooky cloudy mist monster equivalent of a shrug. "It was his idea, little cigar. I just said yes because I was bored!"

"Hey!" Ansel took a step back. "Watch it, frost breath. Hallie, I'm sorry if that came off differently than intended. I only asked if there was any way we could get safe passage through this room."

This was exactly what I had been afraid of, with multiple ponies getting to talk to the mist: the emotional temperature in the room was rising, and Ludwig seemed to consider egging it on to be good sport. We needed to both get out of here as soon as possible, and then talk this out or agree to put it behind us somewhere that thing couldn't contribute.

"Well, it's been real," I said, taking a few steps toward Ansel and offering a wing. "Come on, let's go back up, enjoy the power being back on, and-

"What's going on in here?"

I remembered far, far too late that Corsica said she was going to check out the tunnel in the bathroom.

"Hallie? Ansel? And what's that?" she asked, stopping at the edge of the room with a lit horn and a half-brushed mane.

"Hello, raspberry ponyo," Ludwig greeted cheerfully, doing a loop in midair and turning to face her. "I am Lord Ludwig Frederick Mk.III, but that is a bit of a mouthful to say with your mouth. You can call me Lord Frederick instead if you-"

"We were literally just getting wrapped up with the power back on," I interrupted, marching across the room toward Corsica. "Excellent timing, care to head back with us?"

It wasn't going to work. As if I could see the future, I knew her reaction: to her, seeing the two of us here would look exactly how running into Ansel had looked to me, plus the added novelty of never having met the mist before. And out of the three of us, she was the most likely to do something hasty or jump to a conclusion.

Ludwig's creepy little tune grew more lively in my head, like it was setting the soundtrack for an upcoming fight scene.

"But what is it?" Corsica protested, dodging my effort to push her back into the tunnel. "And that doesn't explain what you two are here for."

Ansel gave me a look as if to say, See how I felt?

"Bail now, talk later," I declared. "Just take my word on this, I promise there's a good reason and I'll explain as soon as we're in another room."

Ludwig whistled, validating all of my wariness. "Get on with your bad selves, yes, nothing to see here!"

"Oi. Put a sock in it," I warned, glaring daggers at the mist. "We're bailing because I've got a bad feeling this is going to get chaotic real quick."

"Is that the mist monster that runs the power supply?" Corsica pressed, resisting my pushing. "Halcyon, leggo! What's Ansel doing here?"

"Eyyy, but I've got a good feeling this is going to get chaotic real quick," Ludwig smugly replied. "I have another riddle for you! A lack of trust and a communications breakdown depart from two opposite train stations, moving toward each other. The lack of trust is moving at thirteen secrets per paragraph and the communications breakdown is moving at one perplexed bystander who does nothing to help. How long does it take until I need popcorn?"

Ansel nodded, moving towards us. "Hallie's got the right of it, let's absolutely talk somewhere this jester isn't-"

"Everyone, stop speaking immediately!"

A pulse of magic washed over the room, and I suddenly found that my mouth didn't work quite right. The feeling intensified, until it was full-on filled with cotton. I moved it and no sound came out.

Elise stepped into the room, horn glowing. "Give each other some space," she commanded. "And whatever you were just thinking about, I urge you to set it aside for the time being." She turned to Ludwig and sighed. "...Well."

Ludwig regarded her owlishly. "Killjoy."

"A windigo," Elise remarked, watching it. "I hoped I would never have to meet one in person. They thrive on conflict between ponies, and attempt to create or exacerbate it wherever they go. Creature, I apologize for depriving you of your sport, but these three are my charges. You will not touch them."

Ludwig examined her for a moment. "...You are pretty good, friendo. Where did you learn about us? I thought we were just spooky stories out there."

Elise met its empty white eyes. "I am not here to banter. I'm here to collect my little ponies. We'll be on our way, and will leave you in peace."

"Ehhhhh, peace is boring, friendo," Ludwig decided, leaving its pedestal and doing a loop midair before settling down in front of the tunnel entrance everyone but me had used. "You talk like you know what I can do, so why also talk like you can make me do what you want? You're just one ponyo. A shrimpy one, too. Shrimp."

Elise bowed her head. "Diplomacy is always my first recourse. I am indeed outmatched, but you've engaged in civil discourse thus far. I hope I can assume you will continue."

Ludwig scrutinized her closely. "Mmmmmmm... Hmmmmm... Hrrrmmmmmm... Good idea, shrimp! I like diplomacy." A tiny little flicker of blue energy pulsed from its body, hitting Elise's horn and encasing it in a thin layer of ice. The ice caused her aura to go out, and suddenly my mouth felt normal again.

"You talk too much, though," the windigo decided, the ice already melting away. "Let the others join the fun!"

To our credit, none of us spoke.

Elise winced a little from the cold, but recovered quickly. "Corsica, Halcyon, Ansel, please leave this room. I shall be right behind you."

Ansel took several steps toward the exit to the bathroom tunnel, but stopped, turned his head and bowed. "With all due respect, this windigo room is the halfway point between where we're bunking and Hallie's exit to the outdoors. It's probably not in our best interest to vow never to visit here again. Also, I don't believe the power ever got turned back on..."

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that, grumpy ponyo." Ludwig did another loop, then circled the room. "You are giving me so much to think about!"

"It's bizarre, but I don't think it's trying to kill us," Corsica remarked, leaning her head forward and squinting curiously at the windigo. "Right? What's it even made of?"

"All of that can be settled later," Elise said, giving them a stern look as I crept toward the door, deciding that leaving the room would provide more of a benefit than I could possibly give by being present. "Corsica, Ansel, please-"

"Meh! Diplomacy boring," Ludwig abruptly decided. "I am thinking the shrimp has a really good point. You young ponyos are too young and stupid to hang around a dangerous windigo. OoOoOoOoOo... Off you go!"

Suddenly, it surged with far more power than when it froze Elise's horn. I looked around frantically, realizing ice was forming along the floor. Thick ice, that seemed to be rising beneath us, pushing us up instead of trapping our hooves...

Slanted ice. One by one, we lost our hoofing, fell down and slid down the formation, to where it funneled us in a heap just inside the tunnel entrance. A sturdy grate of ice rapidly grew from the floor, forming in midair and completely blocking the passage back into Ludwig's room. Etched into the ice, on a panel that looked specifically made for it, were the words, Come Again Soon, Have A Nice Day!

Corsica huffed, getting back to her hooves. "Rude," she pouted, staring back through the ice to where Ludwig was hovering smugly.

Ansel glanced up the tunnel. "The power's still out, isn't it?"

I met Elise's eyes, and saw that we were thinking exactly the same thing: by cutting off the conversation so abruptly, it was less like Ludwig was encouraging us to leave and more like it was daring us to return. We hadn't been allowed to make up our own minds about being able to walk away. Instead, we had been unceremoniously booted from the most interesting place in the tunnels - a place someone would need to venture to petition for the power to come back on. I gave it two, maybe three hours until someone would want to go down there again.

Faster, if we started to get cold.

Comments

[Phoenix Kitten]

Careful with that astral projection power, Halcyon. Hate for Ludwig to get the idea to jump into your head while your consciousness is "out to lunch" so to speak.

[Oberth Effect]

OK, what

Excuse me while I go pick up the shattered fragments of my mind.

That's a very interesting ability Halcyon has there, and definitely not at all what I expected. Could see some interesting directions for that.

Ansel was also quite a surprise. Makes reading through his previous conversation with Elise interesting. I'm still not sure whether there are hints that he has at least some previous familiarity with changelings, which would seem a bit odd given he was ostensibly born in Icereach, or whether he's just formed an opinion on them based on Aldebaran and/or other bits of his conversation with Elise. I wonder how much Nehaly knows/suspects...

Really curious to learn more about his backstory. He said he was also looking for a second chance, but I wonder how much it differs from the second chance Halcyon was looking for...

(Dare I ask what happened to the original Ansel?)

I hope Halcyon isn't in for a huge shock if it turns out someone was listening in on the other side of those dusk statues. Speaking of which, I'm curious what color their gemstones are; it's implied in TOW that the gemstones are made of the same material as crystal palaces, so it'd be rather interesting if these statues also used rubies.

Really have to wonder what Ludwig is looking for, waiting in the bunker. Or how long it (he?) has been free.

[Zapdroid]

[Sharp Quill]

Interesting stylistic twist there, going from first person to third person and back to first person. Like with the mask off, Halcyon becomes omniscient (in a sense). That begs the question, of course, of just what exactly is going on.

[RoboRed]

...Welp, I definitely got the Windigo guess right.

[Venlinelle]

(I’ve given up on trying to remember things and now have a second tab to live comment)

Well then. That’s a hell of a skill.
I love the switch to third person, and I’m a bit curious if you used first person specifically so you could do that. This can’t be the only weird thing going on with Halcyon, because it doesn’t explain her legs, but it sure is a start.

The way she describes wishing for a new brother and getting what she wanted reminds me of how Starlight’s whole “solving every problem” thing that she disliked so much worked. Of course, in Starlight’s case it was because she was an ancient magical artifact from space, which probably isn’t what’s going on this time.

"It involves trying to grab at places behind walls with your telekinesis to search for pockets of air," she explained. "I learned it decades ago from the daughter of a mutual friend. Admittedly, I've never had need to use it before now."

Speaking of Starlight…
It’s really sweet that Elise still thinks of Starlight as Maple’s daughter.

“‘Oi,’ I greeted, tromping into the bedroom” is a truly excellent sentence.

I’m predicting that Halcyon’s desire to keep her legs hidden isn’t because they look abnormal now, but because she remembers them having holes in them- whether those are her memories or someone else’s, who knows. I’m betting we’ll get a scene where she takes her boots off and nothing happens…

I find it very funny that, in TOW, it took us 600k words to even see a windigo, and, like in the show, they were built up as a terrifying and eldritch force. Meanwhile, Halcyon finds one by accident after a day and a half.
I was thinking Ludwig seemed eccentric. And then I remembered that Puddles foalnapped Valey and took her on a skating tour while turning fountains into statues of them kissing, and I revised my standards.

[sploopy slooder]

well this chapter has a lot to unpack. also windigos. he reminds me of puddles, theyre both weirdos.