Chapter 19
Amie did not expect a response from camp. Her brother slept, and she couldn’t, so what more was there to do but drain her battery while poking at the intranet. She knew better than to expect it to keep working much past line-of-sight to the mountain. Once she reached Agate, she would have to come back this way every time she wanted to send messages to her kids.
If the mountain didn’t have guards, I might try to get them out. But we can’t all feed on the emotions of one bug, or they wouldn’t be starving in camp.
For Stella Lacus to survive long enough for Amie to get the princess’s help, they would need something to eat. Meat was sustaining them, but how long would that last? How many fish could they pull out of the river, or small animals out of traps, until they eventually ran dry?
Amie did more than worry that night. She practiced her magic again. The specifics of changing were still hazy to her, but she wouldn’t need a perfect mastery to make it useful. If she could change into a different random pony, someone who wouldn’t raise suspicion or seem familiar when she walked into Agate, that would be enough.
What to do with Wes still nagged at her of course—he didn’t look like the changelings of Stella Lacus, but that didn’t make him a pony. Would Agate respond as well as Motherlode had?
Amie didn’t manage to take any other shape during her hours of practice—but as she neared the edge of her mental energy, she did manage a breakthrough. After what felt like hours of intense effort, she settled to the cave floor, letting herself relax. In that relaxed state, more than her muscles changed. The fur vanished, her body shrinking back into the more familiar—more appalling shape.
She could still make herself into a bug, then. But she already knew that her original form was there underneath, she'd already learned that in Motherlode.
She paced nervously back and forth just outside the cavern entrance, keeping her nervous energy as subdued as possible. The last thing she wanted to do was wake up her brother, when they had another hard day of hiking ahead.
It wasn't an accident! Both of the last times she had changed, Amie had not so much intended her new form as it was the instinctive response to stress. The same as an octopus might recolor its skin to look like a rock when a predator swam by, or a chameleon might try to imitate its leafy green surroundings.
I can control it. This revelation was so interesting to her that she nearly missed the flashing notification LED waiting on her phone. She stopped as she walked past the little satellite dish, eyes catching on the steady red light of an unread message.
She levitated the phone up into the air, finding that particular gesture was already becoming second-nature to her. Easier than changing by far, and less draining. She couldn't use a touchscreen by magic, though—just because it felt like fingers didn't mean she really had them.
One stylus later and the message opened. There was no name on the contact, just a title. "CAMP DIRECTOR"
Albrecht himself had got her message—and he had replied.
"If you didn't kill those men, Amie, who did?"
She was probably wasting her time. This was the same man willing to experiment on her brother in the name of saving Stella Lacus. The same one who had sent three of the worst people in camp to bring her in. She would resist telling him they were better off without evil thugs working for him.
"The natives have a military perimeter around Stella Lacus's mountain. I ran with my brother, and we crossed it. Two Royal Guards arrived, killed your thugs, but were too injured to finish me off. Wes and I escaped during the chaos."
None of that was untrue, exactly. Even so, no reason to volunteer to Albrecht that she had saved the same stallion who had killed one of the camp's people. That same man had tried to kill her—she had no tears to shed for him now.
It was wrong to think of the old man as some ancient, stubborn luddite. He might not fully understand the intranet—but he knew how to use it. His response came in only a few seconds. She could imagine him calling in a camp meeting, demanding that the technical people figure out a way to track her.
Joke was on them. A whole Equestrian warship sat between Stella Lacus and Amie now.
"Why should I believe this fanciful story?"
She sent links to the photos she had already sent her boys. There was no way she'd get an image across at this distance, when her words already took minutes to send. But the photos were already uploaded.
"Because I have no reason to lie to you. Wes and I are continuing on to another native settlement. You can't reach us here."
There was a longer delay after that message. Amie checked to make sure her GPS was off, for all the good it would do. So far as she knew, no one had ever received a GPS signal here.
"Why bother sending any message?" came the eventual reply. "You've abandoned Stella Lacus to our fate. Run away then."
She should've just let that message lie. If only Amie really had abandoned everyone, she might be able to do that. But her kids were still back there, and this man was their only chance at survival. It might take months for her to reach the ones who could help, and somehow convince them into lending their support.
"Because I want you to live long enough for me to get help back. I know things you need to know. The reason we think food is rotten is we feed on emotions—positive emotions, I think. But not our own, only the aliens who live here. We're parasites."
She typed everything else she'd learned during her brief trip, about where she thought the guarded boundaries were, what she'd learned about Equestria, and the range of changeling powers. She gave it all, except the detail about saving Tailslide, and the direction and town she intended to live in.
It was probably more than she should give. It was more than Albrecht deserved, after turning on her brother. She told him anyway. If there was anyone with the determination to save the kids of Stella Lacus now, it was him.
By the time her last message finished sending, the sun was just beginning to rise in the east. Birds flitted around her, and she heard her brother shifting in his sleeping bag. He would be up soon, and time to resume their trek.
Another string of messages was waiting for her from Rick, and another few from Marcus. She didn't quite have the time to read those now, so she put them aside for later.
"What are you doing, Amie?" Wes asked, finally emerging from the cave. "I finished packing everything up how you asked. Do you think it's a good idea for you to look like that today?"
"No," she admitted. "But I've made myself look like a bug fewer times than I've made myself look like other things. I'll figure it out before we get to Agate."
Her brother stopped beside her, eyeing the satellite. "Talking to the hunters?"
"Should've been, probably. At least they would listen to me." She took one last look at the screen, and found nothing new. She started breaking it down. With her levitation, it took very little time at all to fold the dish and tripod, then disconnect all the cables.
Their battery backup was already flashing red by the time she switched it off and tucked it away. So that was one more problem for her to solve, somehow.
She felt a little better once they set off together. She always felt better once she was moving. At least that way she could feel like she was making progress towards a solution. Wes seemed in better spirits too, with the disaster of their initial escape from Stella Lacus now fading into memory.
She could only be grateful he hadn't seen the fight on the riverbank, knowing full well just how badly that would probably scar him. Wes was too gentle and vulnerable to see such brutality without leaving permanent marks.
They descended the mountainside, without any sign of other occupants. There was a trail, one Amie checked every few minutes to make sure they were still on track. But they rarely walked on it directly, not when there were flying ponies that might see them from the sky.
"Maybe it's a good thing you changed back," Wes said, around lunchtime. "We can't walk into that new pony town with you looking that way, right? You can coach me about how you're changing while you do it."
She wrinkled her nose as he said it, tilting her head to one side. "You make it sound like something I should be able to explain. But it was so spontaneous. The first time I touched blood, when I was looking down at a dead pony. That one's off the table. The second..."
She had spent the night trying to do it last time. Focusing on her hair... "There's a state of mind you need to make it work. It's a lot like making things float, actually. There's power inside, waiting for you to take it. I was trying to change the color of my hair, and—"
And she imagined how life would've been different if it wasn't ruined. She imagined arriving in Motherlode and working as a nurse, the same way she wanted to do back on Earth. She imagined what it would look like to be that pony, what it would feel like.
She remembered it now. Shorter than Tailslide, with a leaner build, a pale coat, and a first-aid-kit for her cutie mark.
She felt the power leave her just as it had the night before. Some of that was voluntary—but most of it just felt like a reflex. Green surrounded her, then dropped her back on the trail. Suddenly she was taller than her brother, with the straps of her makeshift saddlebag now struggling to cling to her.
Wes gaped. He stared, taking several minutes to finally say anything. “Someone else. Do you sound different that way too?" He nudged her shoulder with one hoof, touching the soft pony coat there.
"Yeah," she answered. "I think so. There's a bit of an accent. Not sure where it came from. I think I just imagined her coming from a wealthier background. Probably grew up with tons of money, her parents funded her way through school."
"You... invented a character," Wes finished for her. "That's... amazing! That's the best superpower ever!"
"Don't get that excited." At least this fake medical pony still had a horn she could use. Amie adjusted the pack, loosening it with levitation. She felt a little stiff without wings to express her emotions, though. "We're still ugly parasites who need emotions to live."
He rolled his eyes. "But Amie, you can change. You can look like a horse, right? So why couldn't you look like other things? Why not look like a person?"
Could she? The possibility would haunt her until she tried it now, taunting her with a return to life that she deserved. But Amie resisted the temptation for now. Looking human would make her feel better, but it would not solve any of the problems she faced.
"I'll get some more practice before I try that," she said. "I don't know how much power this takes, or how much I can spare. You should try!"
He backed away from her. "Okay. But if it works, you don't tell any of the hunters, okay?"
She nodded. She would count herself lucky if she ever got to speak to them again, much less about Wes's first experiments with new magic. "It's just like your first time learning any new skill. It's okay if you fall over riding a bike."
Wes closed his eyes—then grunted, shaking his head in defeat. "Almost thought I had it."
"You'll get there." She patted his shoulder, then set off again. "Keep trying on the way. If you can get it before we get to Agate, things will be much easier."
Amie had figured out how to transform with only a few days of practice! How much harder could it be?
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I hope that Wes manages to pull of changing before the reach Agate. It's good tha Amie shares her info with Albrecht despite their animosity.
The journey continues. Teaching Wes is a bit hard since Amie's learning too but I guess the teacher also being the student is hardly a unique situation.
Even if the mountain didn't have guards, the situation with Albrecht makes returning impossible.
So Albrecht really did suspect Amie? Wonder if that "survivor" testimony came from another camper or it's just Albrecht hammering the point. It's unnecessary and risky if the truth came out.
Albrecht found the bodies, didn't he? If he's really after the truth then those wounds should show Amie didn't cause them.
Was hoping for Albrecht to be little more reasonable to Amie but it really does seem like he's going off the deep end. I wouldn't be surprised if he "discovers" how changelings work despite Amie's earlier information dumps and starts conducting raids.
I'm not too sure... seeing the battle might have shown him the true seriousness of their situation if he hasn't realized it and might keep him focused. Depends on whether his aloofness might become a liability. I don't know, we'll have to see.
She can but should she?
Well now, I don't doubt for a second that Wes will have the power to move mountains before he has the ability to create a convincing disguise.
Not until the climax, got it.
No telling what Mr. Albrecht is thinking, but I can’t imagine it’s very happy. I can only imagine what will be waiting for Amie when she gets back to the camp. Heck, I can only imagine what she’ll be like by then.
Hooray Amie!! You did it!!! Though I might suggest you probably should have shared what you knew with your kids instead of that guy. They could spread it around camp more freely, since we've seen before that the adults were hiding things they didn't want the kids to know.
Can't wait 'til Albrecht uses this newfound knowledge to send kids "foraging" into pony settlements now... Thank you for the chapter.
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Except for the guards posted around the camp. Now that they know what they need to live, I can see Albrecht ordering his "hunters" to capture some guards for the campers to feed on.
This could very, very easily come back to bite Amie in the ass later. I can see it now: Albrecht is going to use the information Amie gave him about the military perimeter to somehow attack and/or capture some of the natives, and if Tailslide has been trying to explain to his superiors that the camp of changelings isn't dangerous or at least isn't what they thought it was then the attacks/kidnappings are going to convince them that Tailslide is wrong, and if he ever learns that Amie fed information to the camp's leader to enable that, he's going to feel very betrayed.
I know right? I'm still very impressed with her on this; pretty much every other similar story the camp would sadly be forgotten about after the 1st arc, instead of a recurring point. Why is that rare?
Well, Wes's transformation efforts are gonna be a bust then.
At least we see that Albrecht does seem to have good intentions, still...
But a raid on pony settlements feels disturbingly likely.
AMIE! You just invoked the wrath of the all-powerful MURPHY!
So, it seems that ALbrecht is turning into a proper changeling leader.
That`s kinda cool.