A Song Of Silk And Steel

by SilverNotes

Pomp and Power

"You haven't seen them?"

"'Course not."

The two mares laid together, speaking in low voices. Applejack had shed her dress, finally, and folded it into something that her granny could more comfortably rest her aching joints on, and Granny Smith was leaning to one side, resting against her granddaughter. The rest of the thrown-together herd, having not needed to ask to know family when they saw it, had given the two what space and privacy they could.

Granny let in and out a deep breath, the kind that made the old mare's ribs sound like they were rattling. "I won't be seein' hide nor hair o' either of 'em, either, 'cause Mac was a good grandcolt an' got himself an' Bloom out while I held 'em off."

"But where would they even go--Yeouch! What the hay, Granny--?"

Granny pulled back the hoof that she'd just smacked into Applejack's pastern. "Jus' checkin'," she said serenely.

"What in Equestria would that be checkin'?" she grumbled as she rubbed her other front hoof against the sore spot.

"That you ain't one o' 'em changelings."

"How would--"

"You didn't notice that they tend t' change back when somethin' hurts?"

"They were mostly changed back already by the time was kickin' 'em." Applejack huffed. "Seriously, Granny, why wallop me?"

"You were askin' where they'd go. I ain't sayin' nuthin' if I ain't sure." She bobbed her head toward a couple of changelings nearby, engrossed in their own conversation. "Don't want t' go leadin' any o' these fellers right t' their hidin' spot."

"...Makes sense." She laid her head on her front legs, avoiding the throbbing spot, and looked around. Other than the low-ranking changelings grunts who'd been saddled with keeping watch over them, the only other creatures speaking were a green unicorn and an earth pony with a multi-coloured mane, curled tightly next to each other and trading hushed whispers. The occasional nuzzle they exchanged identified them as a couple. "You're sure they're alright?"

"Sure as sugar." And with a sly smile, she added, "They'll've found Zecora."

Ears perked at the strange name. "Who's Zecora?"

"She moved in a lil while back. Nice sort. Keeps t' herself, mostly, but she took a shinin' t' Appleboom." The smile took on the smugness of a pony about to casually blow another's mind. "Zebra."

Applejack blinked furiously. "There's a zebra in Ponyville?"

"Eeyup, that's what I said." She raised a brow. "I would hope a grandfoal o' mine don't have a problem with zebras."

The blinks continued, then turned to a quick shake of her head. "No no, I've met a few. Aunt an' Uncle have some Farasian business partners. They introduced me. I jus'... Ponyville's kinda..."

There was a careful hunt for the right word, but before she could find one, Granny snorted. "If you're goin' t' say backwater, jus' say backwater."

"I was goin' t' say rural."

"Which is jus' a prettied-up way of sayin' backwater." Granny shrugged. "Not like it ain't true. It's a little nowhere town sittin' in Canterlot's shadow. But it's where your roots are, and don'tcha forget it."

"...I didn't." The words are soft. "I never forgot the Acres. I... hated missing the Summer Sun Celebration when you hosted it. Was plannin' t' come out for a special visit t' make up for it." A deep sigh escaped her. "I guess I missed m'chance."

"Horseapples." She snorted again at Applejack's look of alarm. "Oh don'tcha look at me like that. I'm older than the orchard, I can cuss iff'n I want to." She gave her grandfilly a prod in the ribs, much more gently than the smack to the leg. "And more important, I ain't in the dirt yet, an' your brother an' sister are still out there. Once we're home, we'll have that special reunion, the four o' us."

There weren't any tears, not on the outside. But there was no mistaking it in Applejack's voice. "Thank you, Granny. Lookin' forward t' it."

"Darn tootin' y'are."

---

Changelings were starting to whisper.

They thought that their queen couldn't hear them, but Chrysalis's senses were sharper than a drone. She knew what they were saying about in her, when voices grew low. They'd started to notice that she was more behaving more erratically than usual--the fact that there was supposedly a usual level of erratic made her particularly incensed, and she'd kicked around few drones for that one, followed by taking out her anger on one of Celestia's surviving vases--and that she, more and more often, seemed melancholy...

Well, melancholy was her own word for it. When she'd first heard the treacherous whispers, the word of choice had been mopey, and she'd taken violent personal offense to that too. Queens did not mope, but they did occasionally feel the weight of melancholy pressing down on their withers. But she couldn't expect foolish drones to know the difference.

It was one of these fits of melancholy that had had her dismissing her guards, and pacing the throne room, the sound of her chitinous hooves striking the marble making an ultimately failed effort to drown out her memories pressing in on her mind.

"I suppose you'd be giving me that smug little smile right about now." The words met no living ears, and her gaze was aimed slightly to the left, at a half-ruined tapestry that depicted Celestia rearing up, sunlight gathered around her horn. "That way you look at everyone that makes it seem like you know everything that's going on and that you saw it all coming."

She glared at the burned fabric, baring her teeth. "You'd be asking right now 'so, Chrysalis, was it all worth it?' and you'd keep on smiling even as I kicked you in the jaw for daring to speak to your better out of turn."

She advanced on the tapestry, her own horn coating itself in eerie green. "You're always like that. For centuries you've been like that. Even after your own sister laid you low a thousand years ago, you never learned your lesson."

She reared up, briefly matching the tapestry's pose, and her hooves slammed into it, the jagged edges of her leg's holes catching on the fabric and making it audibly rip on the way back down. "After the siege of Trot, you stopped seeing me as a threat! Sealed away in that volcano, like the rest of your problems. I knew I'd make you regret not killing me when you had the chance, no matter how long it took."

Green flames burst from her horn, the scorched edges relighting. "I won! I watched you flee out of your own broken window, stripped of your power! I WON! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, SUN PRINCESS? I WON!"

The tapestry could not respond to her shout, and so she merely watched as the flames consumed the heroic figure, and her smiling face.

It didn't bring her any of the joy it should have.

She wasn't moping. She wasn't.

But she was... tired. Yes, she was tired, and should retire early tonight.

Chrysalis turned, and left the empty throne room. She'd been sleeping in the royal bedroom, after she'd removed and burned all but the bed, of course. This time, however, she took the longer path rather than the most direct one, again trying to drown out the thoughts with her hooves against stone.

There were drones in the halls, builder-caste ones who'd been cleaning the place up and making it more comfortable for changeling habitation. They pulled away when they saw her coming, vanishing into rooms with haste and starting up more of the treasonous whispering.

She'd driven out the alicorn. She'd seized the capitol, captured all major cities, and her supply of love had never been higher. She'd won. She would have paid a leg to see Celestia's look of despair as she cleaned out her wine cellar to toast to that victory. She would have kept the old mare in chains, and forced her to watch her pour the first glass.

Chrysalis had demanded the changelings bring her more, recently. But the vintages from all over Equestria didn't compare.

The builder drones thought she couldn't hear them. They all thought she couldn't hear them. They were wondering what was wrong, why their queen would be melancholy at the height of their victory. They didn't understand. Couldn't understand.

It would be good when they could move on, to the next target, but the conquest wasn't finished yet. There were still pockets of resistance, including in that infuriating backwater of Ponyville. It had taken so long to smoke out those ponies that one could start suspecting that her drones were slacking off on the job. And now Rockville was starting to fight back too, if the two idiot messengers who had arrived one after another were correct. How much work was it to ambush travelers on the road and starve out a bunch of stone cultivators?

Pharynx would sort out the Ponyville situation, and she'd find someone competent to sort out Rockville. This nation could draw out its dying gasps if it wanted, but it'd already lost.

She came to the door of what was now her bedroom. It'd been broken before, off its hinges, and had been hastily patched up with green resin. She pushed it open with a shove of her shoulder, and pressed on into the room, each hoofstep that bit heavier.

Just tired.

She hauled herself onto the softest bed she'd ever encountered, and let a long sigh escape her lungs as she settled upon it. She wasn't entirely sure what the mattress was made out of, but she'd bet her crown that enchanted cloud had been used in the construction to make it so soft. The pillow too.

She was sleeping in the bed of her hated enemy. Living her palace. Helping herself to her every little luxury.

That perfect moment will never happen again.

No wine will ever compare again.

They don't understand.

She closed her eyes, and as she fell asleep, the sun sank below the horizon.

---

The caverns had gotten a bit more lively, with Spike around.

Twilight Sparkle heard the whoosh and watched the green light flickering through the crystals along the walls of the old mine, well before she even reached the meeting spot. The little baby dragon could be a bit sneezy, but after the initial bout of ducking, covering, and screaming, everypony had mostly gotten used to that.

Watching him chewing through the surrounding rock was taking a bit longer to feel normal, but it did make her grateful they'd chosen here to hide him. Dragons were natural cave dwellers, and so long as they provided sources of heat to make up for a lack of his mother's flames, he was perfectly comfortable eating, sleeping, and playing with the strange hoofed siblings he'd found in his nest.

Speaking of playing, she was hearing a lot of stomping hooves and wordless whinnies, and Twilight couldn't help but smile. He'd figured out quickly how to climb up on their backs, and loved being carried around as they trotted between their piles of salvaged books. He had less patience for being read to, but took more interest when there were pictures on the pages, especially colourful ones. Stopping him from trying to chew those colourful pages, however, was a work in progress.

She came upon the meeting place right in time to see a rearing Trixie dramatically neigh, spin on her back hooves, and flop over onto her back, with her legs in the air, while Spike giggled and smacked his little fists against the ground in the closest thing a dragon could get to hoof stomps of applause. Sunset was curled up with him, the little drake snuggled into her warm coat as he cheered.

"Looks like you're all having fun."

Trixie instantly sprung to her hooves again, shaking dust from her coat and doing her best impression of a housecat who had just slammed into a wall trying to pounce on a bug. "You saw nothing."

Sunset smirked, tilting her head. "What about me?"

"You saw a moderate amount and are sworn to secrecy."

"And Spike?"

"Can't speak yet, so no promises are required."

Sunset chuckled and shook her head as Twilight lowered herself to the cavern floor on the other side of Spike. "So, how goes the research, Twi?"

Twilight shrugged. "As well as it can go when I can't just ask them my questions, but... I've been keeping my eye on that one differently-coloured drone. It sounds like there's been some strong resistance in the Ponyville area and he's pulling some of the swarm out that way."

"Ponyville?" Sunset tilted her head thoughtfully. "I've been there a couple of times, but it always seemed kind of..."

"Rural?" Twilight offered.

"More like backwater," Trixie commented as she settled down next to one of the book piles. "I performed there once and it wasn't anything to write home about."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Well, whatever they're doing out there, they're lasting longer than Canterlot did." She grinned. "And if they're diverting resources there, it might just give us an opening."

Trixie huffed. "Care to finally tell us what you've been cooking up in that in that brightly-coloured head of yours, then?"

"I want to wait until Moondancer gets--"

"Twilight!"

"Well, speak of the pony." Trixie allowed the two to go through their usual hug-filled greeting this time and waited until they were settled back onto the cavern floor, pressed close together. "Now can you tell us?"

Sunset looked around at the other unicorns, now plus dragon, present, and took a deep breath. When she spoke again, something about her voice had changed. She was no longer the easygoing Sunset Shimmer they'd grown accustomed to, who offered a steady presence and bits of playful ribbing during a dark time where it would have been so easy to give in to despair. In her place, there was something that felt... older, as if the mare were echoing a fraction of her ancient mentor in her precision and the grim heaviness of her tone.

"What I'm about to tell you, you can't breathe a word of to anypony. Under most circumstances, my telling you all would be a massive breach of classified information, but during dire enough emergencies, I can bring ordinary ponies into confidence. If things ever get back to normal, you'll be sworn to silence and there will be paperwork to match. This. Is. Top. Secret. Am I understood?"

Slowly, three heads silently nodded. Spike, having no idea what was going on, chewed on the end of his tail.

Sunset Shimmer took another breath, and continued. "I'm Princess Celestia's apprentice. That's public knowledge. What isn't is my second official position within Equestria's government, and my place in global security."

Three unicorns stared at the fourth, and barely any of them breathed. There was no magic in the air, not a one had casted anything recently save for routine telekinesis, and yet the air felt weighted down by something, pressing on each back.

"I'm the world's failsafe."

Sunset took her third, deep inhale.

"I'm not just an apprentice. I'm Celestia's heir."

---

The refuge was a lot quieter, without Rarity.

It wasn't fair. Sweetie Belle had barely gotten any real time with her before she had to go. She'd spent so much time talking to other creatures and helping them out, and then she'd had to get out, go even further away, and save ponies. And when all this was over, she would likely travel far away, leaving Sweetie--

No. Not alone. Rarity had promised Sweetie that her parents were out there, and she believed her. She'd have her mom and dad back, and things would be okay.

She still wanted her big sister.

She'd been getting physically stronger day by day, now that she was eating regularly and had a safe place to sleep. She was making friends with the other foals here, and it would hurt to say goodbye to them as well. She'd thought about asking her parents if they could move to Ponyville, but she knew that wouldn't fix anything, either, since everypony was always talking about where they would go.

Her new friend Silver Spoon called Ponyville too rural--her other new friend, Diamond Tiara, had used the word backwater instead, but Cheerliee had been very upset when she'd heard it, and so Sweetie had filed that away as a word not to say around grown ups--and so the consensus seemed to be that, once everyone had their moms and dads again, they'd go to better places. Big, fancy cities, or even lands outside of Equestria.

None of it was fair.

"Sweetie Belle, can you not sleep? It is strange to see you, into the night so deep." Sweetie jumped, and turned around. She'd been staring at the canopy, watching the beams of moonlight shining through the branches. Zecora was looking at her, head tilted slightly with a look of concern. "My apologies, my young friend. To sneak up on you, I did not intend."

"It's okay..." She settled back into the sitting position she'd been in. "I just miss Rarity, is all."

Zecora slowly walked over and sat down next to her, nodding sagely. "When apart from those we hold dear, rest can be elusive, I fear."

Sweetie looked up at the zebra mare. The first zebra she'd ever seen. "Must be harder for you." At the inquiring look she got in response, she elaborated, "You're from really far away. You probably haven't seen your family in a really long time."

Zecora smiled, but in the moonlight, Sweetie could see a shine of unshed tears. "It is kind of you to think of me, young filly, but I did not come to Equestria willy-nilly." A hoof came up, nudging the rings around her neck. "While this land was strange, even before the current threat, my choice to come here gives me no regrets."

Sweetie gave a small hum of thought. "Do you have any sisters or brothers, Miss Zecora?"

She shook her head. "I have always been an only foal, little one." She chuckles. "With the trouble I caused, for children, my parents were done."

"You could still have some someday." Zecora looked like she may speak, but Sweetie kept going, "This place is a little like a big family. I bet some of the ponies here would like calling you their sister."

It wasn't fair. They should all stay together, when this was over.

There was silence, and after a few moments, Sweetie worried that she might have said something wrong. Then Zecora smiled. "You speak of found family." She looked at the clusters of wooden homes, illuminated by flickering amber lights. "Ones of choice, made informally." Some mischief came to her smile. "Is that you asking me to join yours?"

Sweetie blinked. That last part didn't rhyme.

Then again, Zecora had said that she did that by choice. That she could stop, when the situation was important.

Sweetie smiled back. "It would be kinda nice to have another big sister."

A black hoof raised, and ruffled her mane. And it said more than any words could have, rhyming or not.

Sweetie slept a little better, that night.

Comments

[BirdsBooksBrownies]

So, Spike being a baby was that a flashback, or was he just hatched later in this timeline?

[a creature]

every little shakeup of the plot is very exciting! can't wait for the next chapter :)

[FanOfMostEverything]

Given Granny Smith’s caution, I have to wonder if that’s really Moondancer hearing Sunset’s big reveal…

Also, I don’t expect Chrysalis to actually learn something as she reflects on the hollowness of her victory, but I can at least get some schadenfreude out of it.

Great catch-up chapter looking at how everypony’s faring outside of Rockville. The world still turns (or, at least, the sun’s still moving) beyond the away team’s current mission… though speaking of the world, I do wonder whst everyone else thinks of this. News may travel slow, but the longer the changelings squat on Equestria, the longer the other nations have to think about that occupation.