Amie wasn't sure how long they waited in the ruins of an interrogation room. There were no windows, and the ponies didn't stick clocks in their prison cells.
At least the soldiers didn't try to lock them up again, or return with fresh restraints. They backed out the door, then split into two groups. One aimed their weapons inward, the other out at the hall, sending anypony who approached away in different directions.
Without restraints, there was plenty here Amie might use as a weapon. But if it came down to fighting through a whole castle—there was no point. She had called for the princess, now it was time to see that through to its conclusion.
After a few minutes, Beth couldn't keep up the act anymore, and she rushed over to join Amie. She pressed her head to Amie's chest, close enough to feel her racing heartbeat. The camper didn't seem so small by comparison when Amie used the body of a tiny bat. "I should've known you wouldn't leave," she whispered.
Love radiated from her, as powerful as a child for her mother. Beth's feelings were pale shadows no longer. Her gratitude and loyalty nourished Amie as richly as any pony could.
It wasn't quite enough for the guards not to overhear. Pony ears could be sharp, bat ears most of all. She'd seen at least one thestral out there, no less suspicious of her than the rest.
Amie rested one protective wing around her, the same as she would've done to the youngest of her campers when they needed support. "I'm the reason you're in danger," she said. "I just wish..."
She couldn't finish, but they both knew what she meant. Rick's final charge had provoked an incredible magical display, but it still ended with a spear in his chest.
Beth’s relief turned to pain. Part of her still hoped for Rick's survival, but not much. She saw the spear as much as Amie did.
"He wanted to protect me," Beth whispered. "He... loved me."
"Yeah. I think he did."
Hoofsteps echoed down the hall, loud enough to make both of them turn. Amie removed her wing, stepping between the entrance and Beth.
"Lieutenant. Thank you for standing faithfully over the prisoner. Relieve these stallions and get some rest."
The ponies straightened, turned, and marched away, leaving the doorway open. For a second, anyway.
Princess Luna stepped through, looking even more exhausted than she had before. Her mane frayed at the tips, and bags puffed out under her eyes.
Amie bowed to her as she had the last time. Beth copied the gesture, a little sluggish.
"There's no need for that, pony. We both know I did not send you here. SMILE agent... you're certainly bold enough to be a queen."
Amie straightened, keeping her wings open. She tried to make it casual, as though by being as large as possible the Alicorn might just forget about the bug arrested here. "The bug in your hospital... is he alright?"
Amie felt nothing from this alicorn beyond her exhaustion. The emotions of such a powerful being were probably too strong to feed on, even if she could. The brilliance of it might char her away from the planet.
"Our experience with changelings suggests they are not concerned with their own lives. Individually, they are not sapient, only vessels for their queens."
Amie met her eyes this time. Maybe she wasn't strong enough on her own—but if bugs like Beth believed in her, then she could do anything. "His name is Rick Therieau. He's thirteen. I only met his mom, when she dropped him off—Joann. He's from Vancouver, but his family wanted him to spend a few weeks in nature."
The princess tilted her head to one side. "This one... she looks similar. And the destruction here—it corresponds with what I observed on the streets of my capital. A thaumic mortar... the royal guards could not know what they faced. But they were in no danger. The weapons were created to fight dragons, and other fearsome predators. They do not harm living ponies. Or else the two of you would be pulpy red slime."
"Please, miss... princess." Beth peeked out from beside Amie. "I'm sorry for being here, and... wrecking all this. But Rick was my friend—is he okay?"
The princess settled weakly down onto her haunches, radiating an exhaustion that went all the way to her bones. "You are her, bat. Amie."
Amie abandoned her disguise. With her greater size, she pushed Beth back behind her, brushing away at her mane. "I didn't come to infiltrate your castle, or hurt anyone. I just wanted..."
"I know." The Alicorn lifted a feathery wing, silencing her. "Ivy Path is a guest of my tower. Your kind are a conundrum greater than any Equestria has yet faced. When I intercepted him, the changeling you spoke of had attacked one surgeon and stuffed another into a locker. He tried to flee—when I would not permit him, he swallowed a potent poison and expired before me. Your... bug... has been stabilized. Equestrian curative magic is not known to affect changelings—but it served him, somehow. He lives."
Beth cheered, jumping up and down in place. Amie turned to silence her, and the bug wrapped her forelegs around Amie's neck instead. "Rick's alive!"
"Yeah." Amie wiped away the moisture from her face, then returned the little bug's hug. "He's alive."
"Canterlot has known many changelings. I witnessed the horrific outcome of that abuse—seen good stallions and mares tortured and harvested of every drop of magic they contained. I stood at the funerals of mothers, fathers, and their children. I heard their weeping, begging us to promise that Equestria would never suffer that fate a second time."
She stood, looming over the two of them now. It wasn't as dramatic as her dream appearance, radiating with incomprehensible magic. There was something similar in the regal confidence. "Explain it to me, Amie Blythe. How can your species overflow our streets with monsters, then send creatures like you? I do not need to judge this child to see she does not belong in a dungeon."
Generations as parasites fighting to survive. Humans could end up that way, if it was between evil and starvation. Director Albrecht had already shown her exactly what the first steps on that path could look like. "I might know the answer, princess. But maybe we could have that conversation another time. You look exhausted."
She lowered her head again, but this time her bow wasn't pretending. "Thank you for saving my camper's life. After what other changelings have done to you... we could not expect kindness."
"No greater love," the Alicorn whispered. "Many wars we have won against many foes. In each we knew that victory was no victory if it cost what made us ponies. You have seen no kindness—but perhaps you should have. So many have been blinded by their hunger for vengeance. They joust against the wrong shield."
Princess Luna pointed her horn at a patch of blank wall. A shimmering opening appeared there, leading to a much more comfortable stone room, filled with bookshelves and soft furniture. "The night is far spent. I must confer with my sister. Given what has transpired already, I cannot speak to the safety of the castle proper. Step through to my tower, and do not leave. I will retrieve you."
Amie nodded her gratitude, then approached the glowing magical doorway. Here was a teleport, exactly like the kind she needed for her campers. Except that it would have to pass between worlds, instead of from one room to another.
Beth slipped through, ducking inside with a final muttered thanks. She appeared on the other side as easily as walking through a hallway, hooves settling on wood.
"The tower is sealed with my defensive magics," Luna said. "If there are other infiltrators within our gates, you need not fear them. You and your daughter are under my protection."
Amie shifted, shrinking back into the bat she'd been a few moments earlier. She could've corrected the princess, but stopped short. As their queen, she probably had adopted the bugs of Stella Lacus, young and old. "Thank you. Please don't leave me there for too long. There are a thousand others like her on that mountain, with your army surrounding them on all sides. They need me."
She passed through the spell. The space fuzzed and bent around her, not unlike what she felt while trapped inside the interrogation circle. Then she was through, standing in a wide, circular room.
It was a large, comfortable living-room, packed with bookshelves and cozy places to read them. A telescope took a place of prominence in the center, looking into a huge clear window. The first orange of dawn flickered through the glass. A pony rested on the seat beside it, touching one hoof up against the window.
Ivy had a blanket wrapped around her, and her mane almost as disheveled as Princess Luna's. Her eyes were bloodshot, swollen with many tears. She stared at the pink bug, watching Beth circle the room inspecting the bookshelf. Then she noticed Amie. "You're a bat—did the princess call for me? Or does she want me to..." She looked away, sagging into her blanket. "She won't forgive me. I don't deserve it."
The queen's wisdom repeated over and over how important it was for ponies to never see her change. The less their magic was understood, the more they could use it to escape their sight. Amie did it again, changing back into Rain Fly. Ivy wasn't watching her at first— but the flash of magic made her turn, in time to see a unicorn replace the bat she'd been. "Good to see you again, Ivy."
The pony recoiled from her, but not fear this time. She curled up on the window seat, lifting the blanket over her head. "The princess let you go."
Amie nodded. "I've been judged already. And my kids—Beth! Could you come here?"
She couldn't project the thought to her, let alone compel her to obey. But she didn't have to. Beth scurried over, nudging up against her side. She glanced between them. "I... remember her. She doesn't like you very much."
Amie chuckled in spite of herself. If she still thought Rick had died, Ivy would probably be right. No matter how good her intentions, or childish the mindset behind it, she couldn't easily forgive a betrayal that killed one of her kids. "I just want to know... why," she said. "Did you want them to throw me in the dungeon? Did you want them to kill me?"
"No!" Ivy straightened, flinging the blanket away from herself. Fresh tears streamed down her face. "I thought... I dunno what I thought. You weren't supposed to be a real changeling. But when the steward heard what I thought, she got the guard involved. You were just supposed to admit you lied. Then I would ride back to Agate and leave this awful city. Nopony was supposed to get hurt."
Amie waved Beth off again. She should be using this time more productively—reaching back to her hive, so they knew she wasn't dead. But she wasn't a perfect queen—she needed closure too.
"That's a pretty complicated conspiracy to get you to move, Ivy. Bring some actors to the top of a mountain—learn powerful illusions to pretend to be bugs, then pay an artist to paint you a fake picture of my family. What if you just turned us in to your dad? What if you ran off that peak and hurt yourself?"
"I know it's stupid." She wiped away at her eyes again. She cried so energetically she could never win against all those tears. "I'm sorry. You don't have to accept it. I'm sure you'll never want to see me again. I just... I had to tell the princess. Guess it worked—you're not in jail anymore."
Amie sighed, resting one leg on Ivy's shoulder. "It was wrong for me to let you come here to help. I've gotten into a lot of bad habits—asking kids to take risks like adults with a lifetime of experience. Equestria chewed us up, spit us out the other side." She let go. "Thanks for trying to make it right. Coming to the princess like this—might be the reason she intervened when she did. You might've saved my kid's life."
Ivy sniffed, and finally stopped crying. "Yeah?"
"Yeah. And... I'd rather not live with a grudge. I can forgive if you can."
"I think that sounds—nice."
Finally some reprieve for Amie. Rick was alive, contact with Luna has been made, rainbow bug transformation was happening and Ivy at least did one right thing so that Amie could forgive her. Such a nice feeling after the frustrating previous chapters.
and then Wes's gonna be kidnapped by Roman changelings or something lol
I'm not sure why ivy believe such a lie. Someone pretending to be changelings the most hated species around is the stupidest thing that she believed. I think it more likely that they tricked her in order to get information about changelings in order to hunt them down.
It's good that Amie and Ivy made amends for both of them. I'm not at all surprised the Roman changeling commited suicide when he got captured.
Loved this chapter. Beth's relief, Luna's penitence, Ivy's reconciliation... a wonderful detente after a solid few weeks of suspense.
It'd be impossible for me to lay out every moment I enjoyed, because it was pretty much all of it, but there was one idea posited that I thought was really interesting to think on - when Luna asks how changelings can both be the monsters who invaded Canterlot and this, and Amie thinks thus: Generations as parasites fighting to survive. Humans could end up that way, if it was between evil and starvation.
Because if you look at it, of the groups of changelings we've met... the longer they've been in Equestria, the less of human values, or decency, we see in their behavior. We have the green tribe, who are modern-day humans fresh out of the portal. We have the orange tribe, the Native Americans, who still value their bugs as individuals... but see them as necessary sacrifices at times. They still heed the council of their elders, but the queen is the supreme authority. They have empathy enough to give their food to starving bugs of another tribe, but they see ponies as dangerous and subhuman creatures for whom violence is the immediate and best solution. The purple tribe, the Romans, thinks the same about ponies, but has no such empathy for their own kind; their first instinct is not to help their cousins but to crush. They place little value on the lives of their bugs; everyone besides the Empress is a means to an end and will be disposed of the instant they become a liability. And then we have the blue tribe, who even the other changelings see as monsters - who spawn starved bugs and send them out as fodder for war, whose drones will claw off their own limbs trying to attack ponies because they're out of their minds with hunger.
I know it's not that simple - the modus operandi of each tribe also has to do with the cultures of the groups of humans that got transported. The Romans were never going to have as much belief in human rights as Stella Lacus. But Amie's right, Albrecht was very much a portrait of how decent people could be driven to do evil under terrible circumstances. You can see how hardship, betrayal, and fear would have eroded the humanity of any of these groups, sanding away the fundamental rights of the individual for the survival of the hive, and how any of them could have become worse over time... or been better in the past.
And whoever started it, it was a cycle that perpetuated itself, cementing ponies and changelings as enemies until Amie threw herself against the grain hard enough to shatter it.
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makes me wonder just much of their original history and culture is left and if we're about to see a legion of shapeshifters that have been training for war I don't think they gonna have a tech advantage at least not a major one if one at all.
Yeah embrace your inner anime protagonist Amie!
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Oh god, I hope not. Even Chrysalis' hive would be better than the Romans. ...Oh wait, no it wouldn't. Chrysalis would kill him to keep up the illusion that her way's the only way. And if questioned by any of her drones she'd say something like 'it was an anti-changeling weapon designed to lure as many into range as possible before it went off'.
I'm thinking, if the other Hives besides the Roman didn't see the new Queen as a threat to their own survival, they will now.
Luna and Celestia may be willing to establish peaceful relationships with Amie and her brood, yet they will also try to find out as much intel about changelings as they can. Including the secrets of their magic and how to counter it. As rulers of Equestria is their duty to look after the safety of their own subjects.
Everyone get in the cuddle huddle!
"it was that moment Ivy knew: and done fscked up." 😏
It's interesting that the Roman used traditional methods, there should be more effective ways of preventing the enemy from gaining knowledge, and mere instant poison still leaves a body. 🤔
It is such a shame transcended lings lose their mental abilities. Wonder why that is?
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They can be lucky they didn't get Mongol Horde changelings.
Slaughtering perhaps up to 11% of the worlds human population( 37-60 million people) in their conquests.
👍
Well, I'm glad we're finally relieving all the tension built up in the past few chapters. It really seemed like a neverending climb over the past weeks. I still wanna see Rick's actual recovery, though.
I'd have some criticism of how this chapter was handled, but honestly I'm just tired of being overly critical here and probably other readers are, too, so I'll just keep that under wraps, I think.
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My interpretation is that they actually don't lose anything at all. Unless I'm forgetting something, those 'mental abilities' all involve being controlled by the hive's queen (except for the ability to sense and consume emotions, for which there's no indication that they lose that). To me it seems that a queen can only project herself into these bugs because they are, in essence, hollow, even when they're not actively starving.
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Experiments must be run! Perhaps if the drone was Invitational. But it does seem like she can't even engage base telepathy with them which is quite strange, as if fundamental incompatibilities have been introduced. 😅
I imagine we'll meet Celestia next chapter. Wonder how that will go.
I don't think Ivy's completely clear. Amie seems to be the type to forgive and remember. But the damage is healing and there's progress on all fronts. The only thing left to do is exposing and defeating the Roman conspiracy to dominate Equestria. Things will become easier once that happens.
THANK 👏 YOU 👏 LUNA 👏
Things are looking up. Thank you Princess Luna.
I'm glad everything is starting to sort out.
Next chapter, maybe. And perhaps Beth and Rick might be living in Canterlot for a bit longer…
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to be fair, she has been in Canterlot for months, working a job she hates, without any friends or even access to her hobbies, and just found out she had been lied to. I'd break down and start believing on some stupid stuff too
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Why would stay with a job she hates and amie was her friend Considering not many people outside the changelings even knew her much less the truth about her. Sounds like a bunch of stupidity to me .
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She's a teenager under a ton of stress. It's a mistake to expect her to be perfectly rational, something Amie says outright.
Remember, Ivy found evidence that Amie had been paid by her dad to act like her friend. There's a reason she felt betrayed. Considering how unbelievable the situation was, it's not beyond reason she started doubting everything else Amie had told her, too. But her heart was in the right place, hence how she folded so quickly and tried to get help once everything went off the rails.
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Yeah but the company is called rent a friend what did she expect they weren't getting paid?! Amie worked at the company so expecting them not to be charged when you're renting something is ridiculous.
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I think you're missing the point here. Her father secretly hired someone from Rent-A-Friend to befriend Ivy and convince her to follow his life path. Ivy thought Amie just showed up and decided to be her friend. She had no idea Amie was on an assignment, even if Amie wasn't trying to do what her dad wanted and did genuinely consider her a friend.
It's very understandable to assume, once you learn the person who just befriended you was being paid to do it, that they didn't actually care about you or want to be your friend.
Yesss, Luna, thank you!!! Also cool Amie sees the good in Ivy, realizes that she does have potential. Poor thing was just being misled at every turn by everyone else around her (mainly her dad) and got confused. They've both made mistakes, and hopefully they both learn from them
Because a species need not be a single, monolithic cultural edifice, you silly horse.
When Amie keeps referring to the campers as "my kids," certain conclusions are inevitable.
And Ivy... yeah, without anyone to fact-check her and months of living a life she hates, I can see her desperate to find someone to blame. Especially after finding the Rent-a-Friend receipt. Still a rather tortured chain of logic, but she's been in rather tortured circumstances.
Looking forward to the discussion between queen and princesses. I can only hope Celestia's willing to listen to a mare who's already been found innocent by the most impartial judge they have available.
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I've got a better response for Luna. "Given your history, I think you should know better than anyone."
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Pointless since Amie doesn't know anything about Nightmare Moon.
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No, I know Amie doesn't know, but if she did, it would be a good response.
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And Considering where the ponies were at one point in their history expecting other cultures to act like they expect is stupid. I doubt first contact with other species always went well considering every culture is and why else would they need a princess of friendship.