Trixie went back in time to her younger self, preventing the death of Twilight Sparkle and becoming the new Crystal Empress. To keep Harmony and Balance, she must keep Equestria at bay, lest Celestia banish her very special refugees.
Variables.
The Crystal Empire came back much earlier than what it 'should' have. Sombra recovered much faster than he 'should' have. Cadence and Shining Armor were delayed. Sombra was so much more powerful than anticipated.
Trixie spent ten years of her life in hell on Equestria, imprisoned for many of them. Her body, wracked by disease, nearly gave out on her... but the Elements of Harmony would not be denied, for they are the most powerful form of magic known to ponydom. A contract, a stay of death, a rescue and escape, and an attempt at rebellion. Love.
Loss.
One final contract. To earn back her life, Trixie's mind was to travel back in time and stop Sombra before he had the opportunity to kill Twilight Sparkle. Saving the others was a good thing, but the world literally depended on her survival.
With her healthy body back, free of Sombra's spells and... brands, with the strength of so much time spent on a rock farm, and with the training she received, it was disappointingly easy.
The problems started when the refugees arrived.
Turns out, her old timeline sent a few messages along with her.
Inspired by the many 'X beats Sombra before time' fics floating around.
With a little bit of 'Days of Future Past' thrown in, because I was itching for some even before seeing the movie.
King Sombra stood proud on the balcony, grinning widely at the crowd of slaves - too scared to lift their heads enough to see the castle, he was back in control simply from cantering within their sight. Thick chains adorned them, and their dull coats signaled the complete absence of the protection of that infernal Crystal Heart.
He could feel, taste their fear, their despair.
Exquisite.
And their hate? Ha! Delicious! Pity that clouding their memories, pushing them to the breaking point, and the punishments had all done their job so well; the hate was barely there.
It served as great warning system. Who could strike at somepony without feeling the desire to do them harm? Who could get close to him without feeling anything negative at all?
Sadly - for him - the answer was simple: Somepony who thought he was not worth the mental effort.
The pale magenta blade occupied the space of his heart, cutting off the breath he had taken to start laughing. His head jerkily moved to see the ghostly knife sticking out of his chest, without even breaking the skin. It was not meant to kill, as such, it could be wielded without the intent to harm. It pierced and sliced through the conduits of magic and life-force in his body the same way a mundane blade would his veins, only this blade was eager to drink them, instead of plugging them.
It might not be fatal, but it was as painful as the real deal. Excellent against Windigos and other magical things favored by ponies like Sombra, though not so much for killing physical beings quickly.
Good food, rest, love, the options for recovery were plenty! The owner, or rather, the conjurer of the blade had other plans, though.
As the tyrant unicorn fell down, gasping for breath, a blue hoof shakily reached inside a wide-brimmed, pointed hat.
Cigarette in hoof, the Incredulous yet Exulted Trixie took deep breaths, trying to reaffirm her reality. However, before she had the chance to light it, it disappeared. No light, no sound, just gone.
The world turned grey and halted all movement - though it was not too different from what she was already experiencing, given that the crowd was frozen in shock when time stopped.
'Trixie, considering you took a mouthful of dragon fire before, I would have thought that you would not be so eager to fill your lungs with smoke again.'
"Ah, leave Trixie be!" She answered the voice, giving her mane a small stroke with a hoof. "The Responsible and Diligent Trixie has done her part, and is now healthy, and capable of keeping herself as such!"
Her mane and tail were back to their usual tone, between silver and pale cornflower blue, and full of shine and body!
'I just wanted to talk to you before... before closing this connection, erasing this timeline.'
Trixie sighed, eyes watering a little.
"Trixie is sorry. Tr- ah, I mean, I will miss you too; you gave Tri- me, you gave me this new chance, and are literally killing yourself just to ensure I could go back further if this try got busted." She sniffled, and it was not from one of her aggravated illnesses. "I still don't know why Trixie was chosen."
'We needed a magic-talent pony aligned with the Element of Magic to send - lo and behold, it's you! You grew as a pony as you endured this hell, you bonded with the remains of the element of Magic, you kept the group together after Swarm died.'
"Trixie was not even second-best, only the closest one..."
'Give yourself some self-doubt-free credit; just because you are not The chosen of Magic, that does not mean you can't express it. Ponies can be quite honest and generous without holding the little gems of manifested empathy.'
Trixie laughed, softly, ruefully, but conceded the point.
'Now you have fulfilled your contract with the Elements, Fate and Destiny, forever altering the last two with your Will, and, as such, are being rewarded as you were promised. Your life is yours to do with it as you want, and have a few interesting friends going your way. I'm happy for you.'
"Does it hurt?" She asked, the voice growing fainter to her perception.
'No. It's like falling asleep, actually; I feel heavy, tired, but pleasantly so - like going to bed after doing a good job. You know what? I'm going to keep the bridge open just a few moments more, to the very end - I want to be a witness to your moment. Go, keep Sombra down, get the Crystal Heart.'
The world's colors came back.
Witness? Oh, she would make it a performance to be remembered.
Trixie strode boldly to the balcony, allowing the crystal ponies to see her - walking over the downed villain like he was a pile of refuse unworthy of her attention. She adopted Pose Number One, where she stood on her hindlegs and threw her cape open, forelegs high into the air.
"Citizens of the Crystal Empire!" She bellowed, almost managing to surprise herself with her volume. "I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, am unable to stand idly by while my fellow ponies suffer the indignity of slavery! No more are you to endure the tyrannical rule of Sombra, for I intend to return the Crystal Heart to the city!"
The crowd began murmuring, looks of half-recognition spreading through them as they tried to remember the significance of the words.
Trixie, for her part, turned away from the balcony with a dramatic twirl of her cape and headed - not back inside, but to the wall.
Trixie's talent was in magic, yes, but her passion was for stage magic. She knew many spells that could be worked into a performance and, in fact, they were easier when presented as a stage trick or show. Magic relied on connections, on the axis upon which the user's understanding hinged; cutie marks were one heck of a connection.
It was simple. She earned her cutie mark on a stage; acting as if the world was her stage would make magic easier and better.
Twilight? She got good at it. She reached beyond her limits - shattered them and flew past her old boundaries.
And then Sombra killed her. All due to a danged fluke.
But the Attentive and Perceptive Trixie was there. She was there, so she was able to hear Twilight's last grand speech, and felt how Twilight used the connections given to her by her friendships to obtain her tiara from the vault and elevate her powers and capacities.
Had Sombra decided to use anything other than the palanquin, she would not have had to see the black golem's sharp crystal claw remove one of Twilight's forelegs.
The Noble and Amazing Twilight lost, even after creating such a magnificent display of magic! Golems like those did not react with shock!
And... and even then, despite lying on a pool of her own blood, she found it in her to tell Trixie to run - even as she was bleeding out, she worried over her! Either Twilight resigned to her fate, or she was simply that selfless; she did not know - maybe it was a bit of both?
The Humble and Not-Quite-As-Powerful Trixie made due - and remembered to watch her back.
Sombra was so depleted, he was unconscious. Good. His defeat of Twilight had been really anticlimactic, ending Ponyville's winning streak and dealing a crippling blow to the counter-offensive; it was only fair that she returned the favor. She would not give him the satisfaction of being the target to her hate, either; she would not make her life revolve around such a despicable being. He was just some no-name unicorn she bested with her vastly superior skills, not even worth remembering.
She placed a hoof on the wall, a glowing pad of magic - an extension of Trixie's self - feeling both her limb and the texture of the structure, the smooth crystal, the kiss of magic that shaped it, the unicorns that had cast those spells, the earth surrounding the crystals prior to mining them- and that was enough; getting lost in the vortex of magic was a very real, highly probable danger for ponies not named Twilight Sparkle, doubly so without the stabilizing influence of one of the Elements.
She reached with another hoof, another, and the last.
She was attached to the wall - success!
She walked up the wall with ease, her legs having gotten strong due to the time she spent on the rock farm after running away from her... detractors. Her joy at feeling her body respond so easily swiftly carried her upwards, her destination clear.
Everypony could see the mare thanks to the star-spangled cape fluttering in the wind, each pony following her ascent with wide eyes and gasps of intrigue. She walked proudly, with confidence, elated at being able to help the ponies obtain their freedom.
Luna had found the heart, once, but was forced to retreat, and then Sombra changed it's location... but the princess graciously offered the previous hiding place whenever she told her story of regret.
So there she was, the top of the tower. There was the stone, the central decoration that was actually a trap Luna described as 'odious', and Trixie.
Easy.
She reached a hoof inside of her trusty hat, retrieving a blanket.
"Behold, the magical prowess of Trixie!" She declared to an invisible audience, tossing the blanket with a flourish. If friendship and music could power magic, why not drama?
The blanket floated through the air, covering the Crystal Heart and bypassing the trap. A good magician was ready to perform all of her tricks at any given moment, with maximum flair, so she brandished her hat with hoof and magic before reaching back into it.
"Bear ye witness, to the astounding magical feats of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" She withdrew her hoof, pulling out the Crystal Heart; the blanket remained where it was, until a sweep of Trixie's cape made a gust of wind that flipped it over, revealing it to be empty and causing it to be blown away from the trapped floor.
The ponies down below saw their savior's cape fluttering down to the street, landing in a heap under the balcony. Smoke and sparks rose from the ground in a loud burst, making everypony flinch in fear.
"Trixie has fulfilled her promise!" She announced, once more throwing her hooves high into the air, holding the Crystal Heart in her magic.
She turned around as the crowd started coming out of shock, ready to return the artifact to its proper place.
'Good bye, Trixie. See you in a better life. I hope my little present sees you well.'
Princess Luna stood unmoving in the half-formed dream.
'No, a memory, revisited during sleep.'
There was only one defined shape, under a harsh white light, in the whole place.
A blue unicorn mare on what could be an operation table. Thin, too thin, with her eyes and cheeks sunken in, her mane and tail a mess of gossamer strands, her breath raspy and labored.
An appendage shaped like a hoof placed a mask over her muzzle. The hoof was more like a collection of strings, surrounded by a haze, within the space a hoof would occupy.
Sensitivity to magic is high, the patient is reacting to the slightest of signals. Administering anesthetic. Everything is ready. It was less a voice and more simply knowing the words, so it was impossible to know who... or what the speaker was.
There were more of those strings becoming defined in the black void. The colors were abundant, even within a single being, making it really hard to identify them as anything other than pony-shaped.
Is there no other way? A shape, one larger than the mare, reached with a hoof. It was composed mostly of purple, and the nervousness apparent in the words was followed by a blur of shapes from the back. Can't she be healed without doing this?
Paying closer attention revealed the shapes, primarily sky blue in color, to be dragonfly wings. This figure also had a long haze on its forehead.
A changeling. And there were strings flowing from the mare and back.
Another of the shapes (red, white and green with a few splashes of yellow) became brighter, with a veritable blue-and-green torch as a horn. The light of the horn reached like a vine and coiled around the mare on the table.
No. I am at my limit. A second vine reached out, this coming from a possible changeling (or scarf-wearer) made of mostly blue, black, and white; this pony(?) trotted over almost to the point (he? She?) touched the mare. I can still keep her health from deteriorating further indefinitely, but if, and only if, we do not do anything more strenuous than a calm gait. She deserves better, and the chance to become more active in our endeavors; I cannot stay by her side forever, either. The particles she inhaled aren't enough; she needs the whole thing.
Vitals are as stable as they are going to get. Beginning the operation. A third and a fourth figure lit up, one of the figures having bat-like wings and the light coming from (its?) hooves. Vague shadows of surgical tools appeared as yet another pair handled them - one evidently a pegasus.
The purple changeling gently caressed the mare, the hoof becoming more solid where it made contact. The connection between mare and changeling glowed almost as much as whatever spells were being cast.
Please be alright. Not just because we need you. I love you. Even if she could not tell the actual speaker, Luna found it obvious that it was the changeling who had spoken. After a nuzzling and a kiss to the forehead, enough details of the head were revealed for the princess to identify the changeling as a male with purple hair and eyes.
Good, good. Keep telling her; the changeling magic... and the magic in general is responding to you. This blend of healing spells, artifact-crafting, and golem-making is... most definitely going to be delicate. Keep at it, you are anchoring her. Now, flip! The mare was set on her belly, and one of the surgeons went straight for the base of the tail.
Can't keep her like this for long. Need to get the pressure off her chest, stat. Luna had to crane her neck, but she saw the incision nonetheless; they shaved a portion of her coat with a spell, then made the cut.
First location, base of the tail, one of the points of balance for the energies. Will lessen strain on subject unicorn from use of magical abilities in general. Shard. Luna was momentarily blinded as was could pass for the morning sun shone through the place, being inserted into the mare through the cut. Luna could not tell what else had been done, however - it was too bright.
Uniting the pathways with the shard... goodness, that was fast. Shard is accepting and aiding the procedure by itself. Healing the cut- shard is amplifying the healing magic and enhancing harmonization rate; risk of Arcane Biological Degradation is zero despite patient and healer being on their previously-known limits; Arcane Biological Harmonization increased and likely to restore patient's health and enhance it given prolonged exposure, even with only one shard - estimates to be theorized after procedure is complete.
Second location, the back, center of pegasus magic. Even if subject unicorn does not receive enhanced abilities from heightened flow, subject will find pegasus magic easier to achieve - examples: Flight spells and weather manipulating spells. Shard.
Luna did not bother to fight it and simply covered her eyes with a wing. The light was... warm, comfortable.
Uniting pathways. First shard is aiding second shard. Healing... complete; there is no trace of the operation, coat restored to previous state, and is safe for the patient to be placed on her back. Flip!
The mare grunted and huffed, her breathing becoming slightly erratic. The changeling shushed and cooed even as he started to cry. His tears shone like stars, and those than fell on the mare dimmed. Luna saw how one of the vines entered through her nose, then the patient calmed down.
Please, Lula, you are more than strong enough to get this over with.
Patient has recovered stable breathing rhythm, positive emotions and the bonds of her relationships are stabilizing the healing spells with aid of the shards, as expected. Recent injuries are healing at astounding rate; older conditions seem to take longer depending on their age. Continuing with the operation. Third location, the heart, another center of balance. Increased compatibility with changeling-style magic, increased instinctual magical response in the face of danger, increased pools, increased synchronization and stability with cutie mark-related talents, increased synchronization with magic used by those with close personal relationships, possibility of recharging merely through expressed empathic links.
That procedure... that one, Luna found gruesome. The mare was opened with an enormous Y-shaped cut and her ribcage exposed. An instrument that she would rather not think about was used to cut her ribs to expose her heart, though it appeared that the shard was attached to the inside of the sternum.
Princess Luna was up-to-date with medical procedure; she knew that the heart could be successfully operated on, even transplanted to another pony, but it was one thing to see pictures, and a very different thing to see an ill mare hanging on to life by a thread laid open in a table in front of her.
She chanced disrupting the dream, and got closer to place a hoof on the mare's shoulder as her ribs were carefully placed back. Just what had happened to her that she had to undergo such an operation? What was it supposed to accomplish?!
Well, she had a strong suspicion about the answer to the last one. Convince the heart, the one she had seen with her own two eyes, to keep beating for longer.
The next part was harder still, as, apparently, the hooves had to be done symmetrically, so both hind legs at once, then both front legs. For increased strength - possibly - or at the least greater compatibility with earth pony magic, like in a growth spell. It seemed that the need to do all four hooves forced them to split two shards in half, although what relevance it had was lost on the princess due to the lack of information - she just filed it away for later.
The 'sixth' and final shard would be simply held to her forehead below the horn with a bandage while a proper fixture was crafted, since the patient was a unicorn. Luna was grateful that it ended...
In a few years, the estimate said, the mare could be given a clean bill of health, and even her mane would recover.
I love you, Lula. You are more important to me than anything else. Not just because I know you can get us out of this mess. I'm doing this for all of us, for you, because I know that if I can make you smile, then everything is going to be right in the world.
The dream shifted abruptly, leaving Luna inside a dark room while the mare, or so she assumed given the dull coloration and scraggy mane, sobbed and coughed with her face to a pillow.
On the floor, there laid a sharp, crooked black horn, with one end coated in a purple substance.
The mare was covered in purple.
*****
"Lula." Something prodding her.
"Lulaaaah." A small whine.
"Wake up, Lula! Don't cry..." This she recognized as a foal's voice.
A pair of tiny hooves were at her back, trying to shake her awake, while she could hear sniffling around her.
"Muuh, 'ake." The Erudite and Articulate Trixie enunciated her return to the land of the living with her usual grace and panache.
"Are you hurt?" A filly somewhere in front of her asked.
"Noo..." She groaned.
"You had a bad dream?" A colt sniffled; her little trip down memory lane had hit them pretty hard, it seemed.
"T- I was remembering a... friend I lost." She sighed as she opened her eyes.
She was surrounded by colts and fillies, on what used to be Sombra's bed. The decor was mostly an uniform shade of red; red bed, red pillows, red drapes, red carpet, red, red, red. She had decided to put the bed to good use and let the foals without homes sleep in the palace - originally she intended to take a smaller room for herself (past-Trixie would have a fit) but the smaller of the group of foals didn't want to be alone at night without an adult.
It still felt a little odd how the Crystal ponies were so willing to follow her suggestions like they were orders, but she had been too tired to care.
The filly right besides her hugged her neck and nuzzled her, making all of the others follow in her steps. She had yet to get up, so the foals essentially dogpiled her.
"Don't be sad, Lulah." They said, squeezing her all over.
It was more comfortable than she would have guessed, probably because she half-expected her body to protest, so she would give them a few more minutes before calling them for breakfast. Wait... it was still dark out? Sheesh, she must have woken them with her... alright, she would admit it - with her crying.
She was feeling rested, however.
The previous day had been tiring, what with ensuring that all traces of Sombra's magic were gone from the ponies, but it was satisfying. Sombra's... body, it could be said, turned to ash; being asleep when it happened, he looked oddly at peace, right before he crumbled, leaving behind his crown and armor.
The magic from the Heart was quite powerful, and invigorating, despite being in regular old Trixie's body (did she just think of herself as old? Goodness, the magic was making her feel too contented).
That her 'crystal pony form' was so nice was an added bonus. She felt the connection with the Heart, one which was interesting enough to study in more detail some time later when she wasn't being slowly crushed by children. They were a little heavy after all.
"Alright, the Responsible and Concerned Trixie says it is time for us to go get ready. Be good, and Trixie shall make pancakes for all of you!"
They didn't know what a pancake was, but, oh... would she educate them!
*****
Princess Cadence woke up well before the dawn, too nervous to sleep properly.
The blizzard was still going strong outside of their cave.
It had been the night after returning to port from their honeymoon when the message had arrived; had the Crystal Empire gotten back a couple of days later, they would have been in Canterlot, and wouldn't have needed to waste so much time traveling.
The weather was awful, at least, from their side. Their chariot was broken, and she was not about to leave everypony behind, either. The way the wind was blowing meant that traveling from Canterlot would have made the storm miss them completely, if it did not dissipate with the two-day reprieve.
All she could do was try to rest and trust Shining and the few guards they had.
*****
Princess Luna trotted dazedly through the hallway.
Changelings and ponies working together, desperate, banking their hopes on a single, sickly mare.
Heck, if she was willing to abandon her usual skepticism, that one with the glowing hooves might have been... a lilin. Which gender, or even species, she did not know (there were many with that general shape), but possibly a cubi - the children of Lilith were overall better with empathic magic than others.
Her own pooka guards were ponies of night magics, but lilins... the magic that flowed through them was very different in nature - almost like the Nightmares. Celestia was jumpy whenever they were involved - not that her stoic and freakishly-calm sister would show - and she had a good reason for it.
She couldn't just go to Celestia, not without something solid. Not for fear of being... how did the captain word it? 'Being blown off', but rather, for fear of being believed and getting her worked up.
She needed to find this 'Lula'.
*****
He, along with others around him, had kept their promises, upheld their oaths, or fulfilled their contracts.
Now, they were traveling the cold wasteland in hopes that the message was correct and they would find somewhere to live in peace. He had faith - he did not know why, but he felt like he could trust the message.
And so, he had joined the others on their journey. Right now, it was his turn to be on the lookout.
Chrysalis mucked everything up, for everyone, not just her hive.
He still had a little trouble understanding the part about 'meeting somepony special for the first time again', though.
*****
Princess Celestia's eyes opened with a start and a sharp intake of breath. She did not wake, for that would imply she was asleep. She turned to the side; only six minutes since she last checked.
No, the reason being that, once again, she spent yet another sleepless night feeling the slime of a cocoon whenever she closed her eyes in the dark.
As soon as she closed them, she began to feel the cold, viscous liquid around her. She knew it was all in her head. She knew, from the way the feeling only ever crept from the areas sensitive to temperature, that it was merely psychological.
It was all the same to her.
She could still see the changeling Queen, whose name she never even got, standing above her, chuckling, gloating. A lance of red-hot iron digging into her skull from her forehead - metaphorically, of course, though the pain was very real. Shining Armor, a mere zombie, totally unaware of his surroundings. Her niece, captured, half-starved. Twilight Sparkle, a hostage, taken to the Queen...
"You will not get in my way ever again."
The blur of a black hoof. The sickening cracking of bone-
Princess Celestia's eyes opened with a start and a sharp intake of breath. She did not wake, for that would imply she was asleep. She turned to the side; only five minutes since she last checked.
She gulped. She should have been more attentive. There were dozens of races capable of shapeshifting into a pony and fake their abilities, even an alicorn's, and she had just let one get close enough to put a spell on her. And then, she lost. The first offensive spell she had cast in anger - for she would not delude herself nor deny that anger does have a part, time, and place in the life of a pony - in centuries and she still lost.
She had sent Twilight because she knew Sombra would underestimate her, and he would keep doing it until it was too late for him. She could not go - not even get close - he would know, and he would do something that... that she knew it would be bad. He was hard to predict; paranoid enough to trap everything, arrogant enough to classify anything not immediately impressive as a 'non-threat', cruel enough to attack them anyways... it was madness.
She knew she would not send her friends away - that last bit about doing it alone was merely a little test of character. Heck, Celestia herself knew what the outcome of the test would be, Twilight merely had to be made aware of it.
If she was alone... and a quick check assured her she was - if she was alone, she would admit that she was a little scared of herself, not just the changelings.
Yes, her beam was still surpassed, but it had been enough to kill a guard and melt his or her armor - not the nearly-entirely ceremonial one almost everypony was familiar with, but the real, combat-ready one. She knew that a well-fed changeling queen was powerful, after all.
It had been so easy. She asked that little bit of magic within herself that was just like sunshine to turn... harsher to protect her ponies. The magic jumped at her request. She poured more magic into it, and reached her intended goal much too quickly to feel real.
What would she do, should she see Sombra again?
Would she be angry enough to cast a spell like that? Goodness gracious, that time with the changelings, it was a minor miracle that she had not hurt one of the ponies still in the room!
Well... she would admit that she was still very controlled. Sombra would have to do something really bad to get her to lose it...
And she had just sent Twilight to him! No- no, it was alright, she was alright. She could do it. Twilight would succeed.
Twilight was strong and smart. She could see it, Twilight lying on the floor as one of her forelegs was separated from her by a jagged black crystal, turning her watering eyes to her as Sombra lifted a hoof covered in more crystals.
'Princess, run!'
The hoof came down.
Princess Celestia's eyes opened with a start and a sharp intake of breath. She did not wake, for that would imply she was asleep. She turned to the side...
"Are you sure that the Equestrians will not realize the deception?" A changeling asked, nervously pulling one of the sleds where the more vulnerable members of their group weathered the cold. Adjusting the dark visor meant to diminish the glare from the snow and gulping nervously, the changeling spoke again.
"I know your group did fancy and dangerous magic back there, but, are you sure?"
A bandaged hoof, apparently armored in amethyst-colored metal gauntlets with tiny claws, rose from that very sled.
"If they do notice something, they deserve to notice. That was some high-quality sneaking back there." The mare, owner of the hoof, spoke tiredly - even after days had passed. "Even a cutie mark in detective-work won't help you - not by itself."
"If you say so." The changeling sighed, wings almost buzzing, were they not under thick layers of winter clothing.
"I do say so. Plus, with the conveniently-timed 'attack' of the Timberwolf Emperor, the other group got away nicely, too."
"We'll be there next morning at the latest!" The caravan leader shouted, making cheers erupt from the whole gathering.
"You are awfully happy to leave Equestria behind." Another changeling, this one carrying saddlebags with supplies, commented to a stallion who was strapped to another sled.
"Oh, I wonder why would that be..." The pony replied sarcastically. "Maybe it is because Celestia banished my wife - my very visibly pregnant wife, I might add - to Tartarus, without a trial, just because she is a succubus whose disguise failed at the wrong time. Ah! And let us not forget the part when it was declared that I was suffering from 'chronic mental distortion' and all but labeled legally insane and thrown into the mental ward by Cadence because they could not even think of the possibility that I might actually love her anyways!"
The stallion was panting at the end of his rant, having stubbornly insisted on doing physical labor - and yelling during it - despite not being all that fit.
"Honey, your anger will make the baby cry again." From the stallion's sled, another mare with clawed hooves scolded in a stage whisper tone, then, she turned to the changeling. "Don't worry too much; Lilim is one of the Paladins of Tartarus, and no creature there, not even the insane ones, would cross them - it'll bring at least another two down on them, hard. Having your great-great-great-and many more greats-great-grandmother as one of the chiefs of the Wardens gives you a very high degree of safety; she's best friends with Lamia and Melusine, after all."
"You are even angrier than I am." The stallion pointed out, flicking his ear and snorting. "All I had to do was see my life falling to pieces, you are the one that had to care for a foal in there."
"True, but Lilim told me something that I found quite useful: If you cannot do anything about it, then why worry? If you can do something about it, then why worry? Rest assured, if I can make any of the two feel sorry about what they did to us, I will." She growled the last part, one of her hooves - the one not holding her foal - briefly glowed an acidic green.
Meanwhile, around the middle of the group, a changeling, helping with the heating spells to guard the more sensitive of the pilgrims, faltered.
He caught himself, but stared off to the distance.
He was feeling love coming his way; potent, honest love. He had no idea of how, since being able to feel it at a distance meant that it was love given to him because of him, not just in spite of him... Somepony out there loved him without caring for his status as a changeling. Sure, the ponies and so-called 'demons' around him were respecting him, some giving him their friendship, but somepony out there was more than just acquainted with him.
It just wasn't possible. He was a captain! He was much more discrete than other changelings, and more individualistic, to boot. He did not use a hive mind that often, or with that many members even when it happened - the most changelings he had linked deeply with were five, during the rescue of their unjustly-imprisoned fellows, and even then he left them to their own devices for the most part...
Alright, so not being domineering and letting them take so many choices for themselves was part of the reason he was so liked in his hive, but it was no enough to justify the influx. The relationships he did have with those that knew him well were almost strictly professional, since his task was to stay hidden and supervise those that did go into pony society and make friends to harvest love.
He shook the snow out of his mane, and checked once more that the sleds with the half-serpent ponies were fine. He did not know why Lamia's children would go north instead of getting back to Saddle Arabia, but he was not about to give them a hard time.
The ponies had done enough of that.
*****
The Bold and Relentless Trixie spearheaded the incursion to the territories of the kitchen, which were taken without resistance (there was nopony to resist, nevertheless, it was a valid account of the event). With her army of foals, the Adjective and Other-Adjective Trixe was unstoppable!
She needed a little extra push, however; one of her eyes was blurry and unfocused, and she was certain that her smile was staying up on prayers alone.
The pantry was well-stocked, though regrettably devoid of coffee; the Foresightful and Ever-Prepared Trixie knew it was a possible outcome ('Come on, they've been gone for over a thousand years'), so she had a few emergency rations.
"Rosetta Latte, I could kiss you." She mumbled as she took out a jar of instant coffee out of her hat - thanking whoever it was that decided to invent storage spells in the process - and taking a long, deep sniff of the plantly miracle. "Hay, Trixie would add you to her herd in a heartbeat."
After exploring the pantry some more, she turned to address the foals.
"Now, those who like these... shining berries Trixie has on her hoof, please raise yours." She asked them, lowering the aforementioned hoof for all to see. The response was unanimous, with some of the foals jumping in excitement.
"Ah!" A pegasus mare - a servant, apparently - gasped at the sight that she had stumbled across. "M-mu-mistress! Wha-what are you doing out of bed, and working in the kitchen so early?"
Trixie, though wishing to take care of her caffeine deficiency before dealing with other ponies, did not miss the nervousness of the servant- oops, better make that plural. There was a small crowd of ponies gazing almost-fearfully at the interior of the kitchen.
"Auntie Lula is making pancakes!" Was the general response from the foals.
'The buck's a pancake?' The mare mouthed, furrowing her brows in confusion; Trixie paid the gesture no mind.
'Wait, "auntie"?' Was the mare's next thought, but by then it was too late to ask.
"Indeed, the Trustworthy and Reliable Trixie is making breakfast for the foals, as she had stated a desire that the foals left homeless - either by Sombra or other circumstances - be cared for in all aspects." She answered, gathering the ingredients with her magic as she spoke. "Trixie is merely keeping her word, and remembering that the majordomo said that Sombra had kept a large stock of foodstuffs that could see use to fulfill Trixie's goals."
The maid(?) noticed Trixie's calm, yet resolute, tone of voice, and the care with which she moved the foals about so that they could see how she mixed the ingredients she had gathered.
"But, by yourself, mistress?" The maid asked tentatively; she knew Trixie was worlds different from Sombra, but she did not expect her to do the labor herself.
"If need be; though, given the amount of foals that need feeding, help would be appreciated." She smiled as she poured the very first crystal berry pancake in history - shooing away a little filly so that she would not touch the (hot!) stove.
"Ah! Right away!" The servants spazzed out for a second as they tried to jump into action, show their respect to Trixie, mind the foals currently occupying the dining hall and kitchen, and process Trixie's attitude all at the same time.
"This is what you have to do to make pancakes..."
*****
"Court?" The now Satiated and Caffeinated Trixie blinked. The advisor of the previous king (previous to Sombra, that is), a pegasus with a thick mustache by the name of Golden Quill, had just asked whether they should hold a celebration or court as customary.
"I cannot speak for the masses, but it might help reestablish a sense of normalcy and security; a celebration, on the other hoof, might lift spirits and increase the flow of positive emotions into the Crystal Heart." The stallion, yellow with an auburn mane and an inkpot and scroll cutie mark, bowed respectfully as he spoke.
Trixie reached with a hoof, took her hat from the really pink filly that had been playing with it, and put it on her own head.
"The reasons are easy to understand, but why would you ask Trixie to attend court?" She tilted her head; the foals turned curiously towards her.
"Attend?" And then it hit him. "Oh, no... we are asking if Your Highness is going to hold court."
Inside of her mind, her train of thought suddenly collided with a mountain that dropped out of nowhere. Logic almost bit it, but Self-Preservation had been in so many brushes with death that she could keep her head cool and/or react in a split-second, heroically pulling the wounded Logic out of the wreckage. Logic took a nasty hit to the head, and wasn't breathing, but Self-Preservation was a stubborn mare, and inhaled...
Lust, despite being forgotten, and, in fact, thanks to it, was witnessing the moment... the horrible future might have changed Trixie, but there was still some of the Self-Biased and Narcissistic Trixie left in a few aspects - particularly without somepony to call her out on it and return her to reality - , so she thought it was hot, thus utterly ruining the moment. A thought made it throught the haze, nonetheless; the crash happened because ponies were thelling her that she was their queen, or even empress.
The Real and Whole Trixie, having her thoughts salvaged and her ability to reason stabilized (and her ego inflated), laughed haughtily yet nervously...
She still needed a couple of seconds.
"Trixie asks that you bear with her, this might sound a little rude, but she feels the need to ask: Why would she be considered for this? Trixie would be most grateful for your Honesty, and begs you to dispense with the formalities."
The stallion smiled gently, making him look like her grandfather for a moment, mustache and all.
"When we all had lost ourselves to our despair, you brought hope!" His voice was soft, and his warm, throaty chuckles made some of the foals giggle. "You personally did... something to erase all traces of the magics that were so cruelly cast upon us. And just look around you, and tell me what you see."
Trixie did so.
"Dazzle sitting pressed against T-my hooves." The really pink earth filly that had worn her hat. "Silver Shoes, rubbing his full belly." A unicorn colt with a grey coat. "Star Dust..." She was interrupted by a hoof as she looked at a unicorn filly with a silvery and yellow mane.
"That, and the efficiency with which you took control of the situation, makes us believe you are what we need to - as you yourself said - 'leave the pain behind us, build a better future, and make Sombra stay as the unpleasant memory he is'."
She thought about it.
She did, indeed, bust out the knowledge and experience she had gained getting the part of the rebellion she was at to stay organized, doubly so after Swarm died... had she really given them an impression of leadership strong enough to get them to...? Surely she hadn't...
'Give... myself self-doubt-free credit, huh?' She thought.
She might not have been the top rung of the ladder, overall, but she still had a part to play; defending the hidden settlements, organizing the ones under her care, training both for herself and others, and many more activities to ensure that something of Equestria survived.
This was remarkably similar despite the near-polar opposite circumstances, albeit in a much larger scale. This was not some forest hamlet with secret gardens, or cave dwellings where they farmed mushrooms; she was being asked to help a whole city that was many times larger than Ponyville.
It didn't help that the Crystal Empire was an enigma, not from being too isolated, but rather, because it was too new. Quill looked old enough to be a second generation crystal pony, third, if age wasn't kind to him; the youngest foals following her were around the fifth. She knew this from the princesses' own admittance.
The whole place began as an experiment. They were loyal to the family that grew the freaking place, which was almost lost after Sombra killed them to steal their knowledge. Cadence, despite being descended from the survivors, didn't know a thing about how the place worked any more than the princesses did.
Had she succeeded, the crystal ponies would have given her their allegiance just like they were offering Trixie.
Wait, why was she even considering it? It wasn't like she had something against Cadence taking the throne... maybe she just wanted their approval. Yes, that had to be it. She was still herself; still looking for the acceptance of a crowd. She had to stop doing that. She would make her own way through.
Ugh. Cadence would arrive in four days, thankfully without any black crystal golems nor hypnotized ponies on the streets.
"I feel that a celebration is in order." She said, measuring her words to control herself, giving gentle pats to the head to the foal nearest to her (Emerald Glitter). "As for restoring the city, I have... experience in the administration of resources. I still do not know what to think... it is an honor, yet I am still unsure. I need time to think - I did not desire to rule when I set out to give you back your freedom, I merely sought to ensure that Sombra would be stopped."
Redistributing the food supplies for a celebration had not been that hard; it took a little while, since she was slightly reluctant to part with food they could very well need later, but - numerically - it worked out perfectly.
It was habit. Sure, while Sombra was in charge the storage of food for everypony else was... lacking, but it was a problem that could be solved.
There truly was food enough for a Fair... Trixie's reluctance came from harsh past memories.
Memories of being chained to a wall in a dank dungeon cell... curiously enough, it was relatively easy to ignore them; the merger had been done slowly through the day, not all at once, so it wasn't overwhelming. That, and the managing of food for the settlements and bases had developed into a small habit of being careful around large, sudden drains in the stores.
No, if there was a problem, it was because of the older memories, before everything had gone... goodness, it had all been wrong since a long time ago.
Were she not doing her mental exercises, she might have cried. She had been alone, she had been shunned, she had been hungry... but, above all, she had been angry. She had been angry; at Ponyville, at the world, at Twilight. She had not wished them ill-fortune only because she was too self-centered to allow fate and fortune to get in her way, although that was eventually turned into a virtue, with determination taking the place of egoistic self-obsession.
She had wanted to take revenge; perhaps it was not the exact word that would describe it, but she had definitely wanted to prove herself better than any of them, no matter the cost. She thought it to be the lowest point in her life, even below her imprisonment. At the least, even in a dungeon she felt less filth inside of her than when she was plotting a way to humiliate Twilight Sparkle.
Even in the dungeon, Trixie had found hope.
Twilight Sparkle had been that powerful, she had been that inspiring.
That was, after all, the job of the Element of Magic. They fight for hope, to reach for it and never give up until they find it, and, if necessary, create it altogether. Magic is friendship and hope and love.
Trixie paused for a moment, wiping the tears out of her eyes with a hoof, trying - and failing - to keep her sobbing in check.
That job had fallen on her, and, even though she was... not quite optimal, she had- she was giving it her all.
It just was that things were getting worse too fast for them to wait until she got better. Oh, she was good, and the operation to implant the Element of Magic into her body gave her the chance to become better... but they didn't have time for her to get healthy.
She might not have the Element, being in the past, but she had the Crystal Heart, and the support of the citizens - given her ability level and restored health, it was virtually the same difference. (As in, she was not that good, so, even if relying on the Heart was not as fast, not having to sustain her own body made it easier). The Element, for its part, was undoubtedly where it belonged. With Twili-
Oh, boy... Trixie's eyes snapped open, and she gasped as chills coursed through her body.
The Element was in a vault. Where it was completely useless. Twilight did not have the ability to summon it to her!
She took deep breaths, closing her eyes and rhythmically gesturing in and out with her hooves.
Everything was going to be fine. Sombra was gone. Everything was going to be just fine. Being tactically retarded was not as much of a concern at the moment.
The conditions were different. While the stupid vault was still more of a liability than a safeguard, there was still plenty of time to correct that mistake.
There was no Sombra to damage the gates of Tartarus, nor would he be able to encase the building in dark crystals...
Granted, that meant that there were very few lilins around, and being a lilin or a changeling would get you banished or arrested, then likely thrown out of the country, respectively. Nothing like a desperate struggle against a tyrant to... well, Celestia didn't take it well, and Twilight's death did not help; it fell to Luna to accept their assistance, and see them for what they truly were.
Yes there were some that joined Sombra, yes some were bad, and yes, some to the point that they actually deserved to be in there, but even Queen Chrysalis had recognized that Sombra had to be stopped!
Changelings could get sick, maybe even die, when exposed to his kind of magic, after all.
It was enough moping for a day, though. There was a celebration to attend, and it would not do for her to deprive her loving audience of the magnificence of the Great and Powerful Trixie.
...
Hoof, meet face. She was doing it again. Bah, she could entertain the foals or something.
*****
Nothing.
Like, literally nothing.
There were no signs of ponies having set hoof inside the rooms, much less having a patient inside for any length of time.
Even the smell was gone, all the way through to the laundry assigned to the patients.
Somepony had been ludicrously thorough in eliminating all traces of the patients, then themselves. If they had used magic, it must have been something else, since there were no traces of that, either.
The officer in charge knew, from experience, that magical trace was as good as any nose, hoof, or lip print in identifying somepony, but they faded with time. Nowhere anywhere that fast, however.
He knew, also from experience, that different kinds of ponies had different kinds of traces. Of course, trying to guess the type from the residue alone was not always accurate... the one semi-consistent thing was that earth pony traces could easily blend into the surroundings when on the ground, and could seem to fade into nothing much more quickly than normal, but detailed examinations usually got something.
However, it was quite blatantly spellwork.
The locks did not have any signs of forced entry; the only wear was consistent with that of the keys. Either they had the keys, or some sort of lock-picking spell that could work despite the high security level of the whole place.
Given the level of the scrubbing the place had gotten, he wasn't discarding the latter so easily. Although getting the keys, using them, then returning them before anypony noticed they were gone would have been a walk in the park for such an intruder.
Somepony had gotten in, taken the patients, their personal effects, all traces of their stay, and all traces of the invaders.
The access points were numerous, the possible extraction ones... not so numerous.
The doctors and nurses were very helpful, giving them a wealth of information on all of the missing ponies.
All of the patients were in for chronic mental distortion. All of them had been in a relationship with a changeling, or even a lilin, involved. All of them believed that they loved the other, despite so many attempts to remove magical influences over them; the effect was ultimately ruled permanent by the doctors and the princesses, since trying to fight fire with fire was not only highly unethical, but liable to cause much more harm.
Besides... writing down their statements... made him doubt; the doctors and nurses themselves had doubts, after all. They interacted with them often, and were not so sure about it all. All of the patients fit the profile for a pony in love, and the reasons they had not turned in their companions were perfectly logical (on top of the list being that they would be forcibly separated, and then sent to a mental ward for saying that they honestly loved each other); they were rational, free-thinking beings in a relationship like any other, with fights and disagreements included. Mental alterations would have to be hellishly subtle to not alert the victim of the clear point in which their mindset was shifted, and subtler still to avoid changing the basic personality outside of whatever effects the relationship itself (in this case, love) would.
Thus, to have an enthralled pony in a discussion with their supposed brainwasher would have to be shadowy down to the instinctual level, since the other pony also conceded at points.
It couldn't be just for the sake of appearances, either, since topics could be mundane and personal...
The doctors had told him everything they could without violating confidentiality, although nonetheless it had been a substantial amount of information.
Although one of the nurses let slip that the affected were of the opinion that having them for coltfriends or fillyfriends was an 'amazing' experience. They knew 'tricks'.
He was smart. He knew that affection and intimacy could be used to bargain and manipulate. It rarely happened in ponies, or at least, with any severity worthy of note, but he knew of things that happened outside of Equestria's borders - what some griffins were willing to do to one another, of how toxic relationships could be, even if they were mere 'friendships'. Ponies were less confrontational, and broke off long before that level was reached.
And any of that was absent from the mess.
Both Princess Celestia and Princess Cadence had warned him of the dangers of lilins and changelings several times before, and what they had done to the 'poor' patients... but he just couldn't see it.
Equestria was founded on trust, and changelings and lilins were antonymous to trust, thus they had no place in Equestria. That was the simplified version, anyways.
And he couldn't see it.
There was the potential for that, yes, but mental magic was hard. The most widespread was a basic relaxation spell, with anything higher than a basic sleep aid being beyond the reach of most, because it meant having to fight against both the pony's natural resistance, active mental efforts, and their magic, not to mention having to take care while 'navigating' the mind.
Presumably, changelings and lilins were no different. Maybe even worse, if their average was lower than the pony average.
Yes, they could be ingenious spies, thieves, and virtually anything they ever desired. Yes, he had apprehended some. Still, he had looked over the profiles of the assumed identities... and nothing. The records were clean. False, if that may be the case, but clean. No stolen property in any home, no suspicious documents, no nothing.
For all intents and purposes, they had been living like any given pony. He would have to look into it much more closely.
Then there was the escape of some changelings. Some of which were on the list.
Uuuugh. He had to report that the break out was a dead end, and then he would have to go all over Equestria to look things into more detail.
*****
"Princess Luna!" The librarian hastily bowed, smacking her forehead into the desk, the brief, sharp pain startling her into throwing herself back and toppling her chair.
She never reached the floor, however, as the princess had carefully blanketed her magic around the mare and her chair.
"Please, do not be alarmed." The princess spoke formally, yet the librarian still felt a warm undercurrent beneath the careful tone.
It could have been the magic, though. One could learn a lot about a pony's disposition by the feeling of the magic - it was almost like physical contact, in a sense. She was placed back behind her desk, seated, and her glasses straightened.
It was mildly embarrassing, but it told her that the princess cared for her. She blushed.
"Are you well? That impact was quite loud." Luna asked, to which the mare quickly nodded, trying to make herself smaller and sink behind the desk. "I have need of a book on arcane medical procedures, miss..."
"Ah! L-Library Mouse, your highness." She answered the unvoiced question, bowing (slightly), then returning her attention to the lunar princess. "Is there anything specific that might narrow down your search?"
"Anything on 'Arcane Biological Degradation'." She answered, to which the librarian (a cream-coated earth pony, with dark coffee-colored mane and an open book cutie mark) helpfully accompanied her to the section with the medical magic books.
She had an inkling of an idea, which was ultimately proven correct. The term was relatively recent, the medical boards having decided upon it slightly before her return. It encompassed a number of older terms, one of which she actually knew well - mage-rot. The new term was made more for formality's sake, and each variant or cause had its own descriptor.
That meant that the procedure could not have been performed more than two years ago, unless the one (or multiple ones) that designed the procedure knew of the term before it was decided, but she had serious doubts about it.
Still, it was a start.
"Miss Mouse." She called - softly, naturally - for the librarian.
"Yes, princess?" She said with a bow, but smiling warmly and with more than a little awe. "What else can I help you with?"
"I require information on golems, and anything on artificers, their craft, and similar."
She needed to find this 'Lula', and the procedure might gleam some answers.
"What's their story?" One changeling asked a pony, nodding towards a changeling and pony couple on one of the sleds. "He looks like he went through a blender, and she's not that much healthier..."
The pony - a pegasus pooka mare, or 'bat-pony' - turned to where her companion was gesturing, and saw them.
Like almost all changelings, his winter covering was full - scarf covering his muzzle, hooded jacked, pants, boots - but he also had bandages covering his eyes, and the bulge in the jacket hinted at a heavily-injured foreleg hidden inside. He kept nodding every which way tiredly, and one hindleg was being held up with a makeshift sling. The only way to know he was a changeling was the crooked horn peeking from under the hood, and the hole-ridden medium-length blue tail.
The white unicorn mare keeping him company had the left half of her face hidden behind bandages, and, though her winter garb wasn't as complete (like that of most ponies in the caravan), it only displayed her bandages to the world.
"Ah, I take it you weren't captured?" The mare turned back to the changeling that had asked, although she already knew the answer.
"No... did they...?" He started to ask, fearful of the possible answers.
"Oh, no!" She shook her head quickly, guessing where that line of thought would have gone. "They were with the extraction teams; the changeling helped break me out of the loony bin, and the unicorn went with the ones that hit the prisoner transport."
"They got that hurt during that?"
"In a sense... did you know that you can actually choose to get mage-rot and healing sickness to make your magic more effective?"
"Oh..." The changeling shuddered at the thought of performing magic so big it would hurt.
"Most of the injured are cases like those, actually, though nowhere near as bad; if it weren't for the urgency, we'd let them rest before moving." She sighed, shaking her head. "Sadly, someponies had to have a heavier load than others..."
The call for dinner was made, and, if she squinted, she could swear that there was a small blue light shining somewhere in the distance; it was almost, but not quite, obscured by the icy winds.
*****
Princess Celestia went over the report once more, trying to see if another glance would help her retain everything.
She had been consulting them over and over for the past hour, but each pass felt like it was making her forget what was written!
Once more, for the sake of getting things done.
For a good leg of the journey, things were fine.
Then the sound of trees being toppled came to their ears. Many trees, quickly, one after the other.
Then, a trio of ponies came out of the woods running at full gallop, chased by a whole pack of timberwolves sized larger than the trees.
One of the ponies, a white mare, blasted one in the snout, making it burst... and the rest of the body fell apart and joined those of the other wolves.
The guards were alert, yes, but even so, it was difficult. Timberwolves formed out of clumps of strange, unstable magic that thought they became a wolf; it gained a form of stability, but they were a danger to everypony... moreso when they started growing like that.
The fallen trees floating towards the struggling ponies, the unnatural green glow coming from within the wolves already formed...
She wondered, would the guards have felt like she did? That time, seeing the beam from the changeling queen's attack drawing so close, so quickly? The report was a sanitized account, with feelings and most opinions removed...
They performed admirably, even if the enormous entity swallowed the poor trio it had been hunting, back when it was many instead of one.
Still, it was no wonder that the changelings escaped - something that big wouldn't be so quickly dispelled by the wards of the transport. It was too powerful, although maybe after a while, after having to waste energy keeping its form outside of the forest, keeping its form despite the attacks, the fire...
A few of the guards requested a brief leave, though not therapy.
She wondered, was it because they were that brave? Were they that resilient, mentally speaking? She herself had not quite stared death in the face, and yet she had trouble sleeping... the guards escorting the prisoners were not trained to fight that kind of monsters. She could invite them, give them an award - well, first she had to find a loophole, as they had not taken injuries of note.
Thank goodness.
Neither had they 'completed their mission despite the adversity'... perhaps she could give one to the officer in charge, for managing to bring back every guard and directing their efforts so well. She would talk to them all, try to see if they needed any help to recover from the experience.
Ugh... but the changelings escaped. The suppressor of one of them was scored deeply when the beast smashed into the transport, after having taken the first of its original prey within its jaws. Then the bindings were removed and damaged, preventing them from reusing them and requiring them to be remade from the forge.
The changeling must have been an adept magic-user, as the damage alone would not have been enough to completely disable the ring. That, and a blow that powerful, even against the metal of the ring, would have made his or her horn feel it.
And she could not even begrudge the changelings their choice of running away. One of them did hit the wolf in the eye with a spell, helping the guards in the end even if it was to save themselves.
She still had the report of the hospital's breakout to go through, however.
With a sigh that almost turned into a whine, she opened the next folder.
*****
"... they always think of the horn first; it is an easy mistake to make." A changeling with a bandaged left eye rasped, coughed slightly, then continued. "All ponies have magic, in any case, and the entire body is magically conductive to some degree."
"Case in point." A bandaged, amethyst-armored hoof wiggled in the air, before picking up a bowl of soup and lightly pressing it to the changeling's mouth. The owner was a lilin, a succubus more accurately, with purple eyes and hair (although one eye was behind a bandage), with a silvery white coat and leathery wings. "Some parts more than others, depending on the type."
The changeling had a red, medium tail, and his eye was also red. He wasn't doing any magic, nor connected to any other changeling, so his iris showed. The reddened sclera took some time getting used to, for non-changelings, but being around them for a while exposed ponies to a rainbow of colors that made them shrug off that particular detail rather quickly.
"I thought that the whole point of the restraints was to prevent changelings from shapeshifting, cutting off the magic flow of the entire body, even if nopony thinks of magic that way." A unicorn stallion, the one that had insisted on dragging the sled that held his cubi wife and child, asked.
"While that is indeed the case, previous to my 'capture', my brother used a metamorphosis on my hooves, not a shape-shift, thus making their altered state the 'normal' state, and therefore my transformation remained." He spoke calmly and eloquently, or as much as he could with a throat lined with sandpaper. "Muscular mass and enhanced tendons made breaking the chains a cinch; although smashing one of the shackles until it was too dented to work was part of the plan, it was a painful part of the plan."
Indeed. The changeling had a foreleg inside his coat, on a sling, just like the blue one from the hospital.
"From there on, I put my studies to use." He said, making the lilin feeding him giggle, bat her eyelashes and kiss the side of his snout. He continued as if he hadn't noticed her, or the stallion and his wife - which were blushing. "I disabled the ring around my horn, pulled it off, levitated a piece of metal, and hit the ring hard enough to cut a good amount of runes and even get to the core, which conveniently shorted out the magic field in the metal I used, eliminating it as evidence. I freed the others as quickly as I could - which involved my magic rebounding and hurting my body -, but I was done just in time; the timberwolf tore into the transport ten seconds after the last restraint was a piece of bent scrap."
The cubi mother shivered, her feathery wings bristling unconsciously.
"Must have taken some courage, jumping into the jaws of something that large."
"Were it a hundred-percent real, I suppose so. That is the beauty of growth spells, potions, and a group of ponies using magic in harmony."
"Sadly, not complete harmony, since the rebound was not pretty."
The injured pair almost touched their bandaged eyes, wincing. They brought down their hooves, and simply sighed.
The wind howled outside the shelter.
Ice and snow magicked into an igloo kept the embers of hope burning still, giving them the chance to grow.
*****
"Empty your mind."
Luna found herself standing once more inside of a half-formed room. The walls were a washed-out grey, and there was the vague shapes of weapon racks with hazy colored objects upon them. There were some ponies, and quite evidently a changeling at the least, but none of them defined save for one.
'Lula' was sitting in the middle, blindfolded, with an expression of serenity.
Her ears twitched as the ponies around her moved, tracking them through sound. Sometimes a pony became less blurred as they made a noise that gave a hint as for their expression, then returned to an unfocused shape as their stance became uncertain.
'Spatial awareness, and not bad, either.'
She had a small silver circlet, fitted with a magenta-colored crystal lozenge below her horn.
'The shard, I suppose.'
The mare broke out in a coughing fit, with the final one sounding like she had blown a stone through a pipe, making Luna wince in sympathy.
Lula grunted, with an exhalation that sounded like a whine, before she threw her head back and moaned in discomfort. She shook her head, her scraggy mane losing what little semblance of order it had, making her look... well, awful; whereas she had looked ill before, now she looked ill and neglected.
"Easy there, Lula." A male voice said - it clearly belonged to a changeling, as the strange reverberating effect was quite distinctive. "Don't push yourself too hard."
She just snorted and blew a few strands of hair off her face, returning to her previous posture. The jewel on her forehead started to glow brightly, although Luna suspected it was similar to what she had witnessed during the procedure - the light was not actually 'there', in the sense of common sight.
Indeed, she could see faint glowing lines appearing at the level of the floor, and the multitude of colored strings and mists that represented a living being. The mare was connected to each one of them, as well, although none as warm or as beautiful as the one that tied her to the mostly purple changeling from the night before. Everything became much clearer, and the vague guesswork images were completely replaced.
"Is it working?" A pony (or disguised changeling, or lilin) asked, trotting about. Each time a hoof impacted the floor, the shine coming from the floor rippled as if water, and, as 'Lula' recovered her calm, the lights of each being and the floor around them pulsed in a rhythm that was quite evidently that of their hearts - Lula's included, naturally. Each wave also illuminated the things it traveled through - be it an object or a pony - , mixing and bouncing back with those produced by others, or simply coloring the air and words that were spoken.
Lula nodded.
"Good!" Another pony(?) said, this one a collection of black, white, and blue - and the waves he produced had those same colors. "You're making great progress! Earth pony magic is something else; makes you feel more alive, no?"
Lula hummed in contentment.
"Of course, this is more like Magic itself." The male changeling that courted Lula said. "I am sure it is beautiful."
"Focus." A mare, possibly an earth pony, said with a stomp - said stomp became the source of an intense ripple that lit up everypony else and bounced back almost as bright. "Nature magic is veee-he-he-ry finicky. You need to work with it; it won't move just because you want it to... although that is good in a way, since it makes those who can take it into their bodies much more hardy."
"Changeling empathy helps bridge the gap, and, coupled with some natural defenses, they can emulate earth ponies even if they don't know all of the working principles of it all." Another pony, stallion judging by the voice, said, inspecting a wooden training spear (or so it looked like).
"For as long as their reserves hold, anyways." The one changeling Luna was certain about commented.
"Now, it's testing time." The blue, white, and black pony said, suddenly less than a hoof's length from Lula, somehow already holding the wooden spear and bringing it down on her shoulders before her ears had finished rotating.
"Ow!" A mare covered her eyes eye with her healthy hoof.
"It ran out? But I- oh, of course it ran out." A changeling scowled behind his bandages, then coughed - he really shouldn't have raised his voice. "Is anyone proficient with transformation? Other than us..."
*****
Luna turned another page, rubbing her eyes. She had spent every possible minute reading about medical magic and crafting of artifacts, paying close attention whenever the words 'harmony', 'disharmony', and 'synchronization' appeared - or 'popped up', as Mouse had said in between book runs.
Boy, her eyes were starting to sting, and she had to lower the moon soon.
The words had yet to actually 'pop' and swim through her vision, but the long study sessions and the abrupt ending to that dream wasn't doing her any favors.
Currently, she was reading about an affliction of her beloved pooka - the one that had spawned the myth of vampirism.
Solar Resonant Interference.
She made something resembling the ghost of a smile - the old name was... crude - and it warmed her heart that ponies had grown more supportive.
Her smile became more genuine.
And one (or more) of the possible treatments could help lead her to the still-unknown medics, and 'Lula' by extension.
*****
"I'd do it myself, but..." The blue changeling gestured to himself. "Getting everypony out had a bit of a pricetag attached."
"We don't know what to tell you; anyling good enough with transmutation to do it on somepony else wouldn't get caught, or risk what they already have to come here." Another changeling replied - although he had held the title of Captain, his merits laid elsewhere, in combat and organization, causing the purple changeling no small amount of distress.
'How am I supposed to protect them like this?' He sighed deep to himself, adjusting his visor over his naturaly-covered eyes (he'd like to commend the forethought of whoever took enough for everyone, as snow-blindness wasn't something a changelings' second eyelids could protect against). 'Any- err, anyone here with that kind of skill was part of the big link-up, and is too roughed-up to help precisely because they already helped out.'
"I'd offer some of my medication..." A bat-pony they had helped began. "... but I don't think we've got the same needs."
"No, it-it's fine, really." The white unicorn stammered. "It's just the light hurting my eyes- my eye."
"What about the anemia?" The changeling tried sounding stern, but his raspy voice made the attempt fall flat. "The headaches, everything?"
"I'll use an umbrella, and my old shades." She replied. "Bard, we're together now, aren't we? That's all we need."
*****
The less fortunate had their malady cause bleeding gums, and would have trouble expressing their talents under sunlight.
Hence the 'blood-drinking'.
Luna huffed; how much damage could arise from an erroneous conclusion, itself born of a mispercetion...
Library Mouse approached carefully, having just returned the books the princess said she wouldn't be needing.
"Um..." She scuffed a hoof on the floor, avoiding making eye contact with the tired royal. "You-Your Highness. Perhaps I could be of more assistance if I were... privy- I mean, party to your search?"
Luna mulled it over. She wanted to know what this 'Lula' had gone through, and what had been done to her... the first dream had a sense of urgency, and the second part of it left her with little doubt about the risk to the mare's life.
"I am searching for a... talented group of mages." She replied after a few seconds, to avoid making the poor librarian worry about her offer - she'd been such help already. "I know not their names nor their location, so I will attempt to glean their identities through their works; I have been trying to find clues of a... theorical procedure I wish to inquire upon."
"Huh?" Mouse tilted her head - it was cute, really. "These ponies must be something else for Your Highness to set to the task of finding them personally."
Ponies...?
Ponies!
Luna smacked herself in the forehead with a hoof as she gasped in shock. How could she have overlooked this!?
"Goodness gracious!" She whispered, unaware Library Mouse had shrunk into herself like a certain soft-spoken friend of hers. "I-I am not going to find much through this route, I'm afraid."
And it's not like she could ask around, either in Equestria or in Tartarus, for medically-adept lilins, either - her dear sister had managed to become widely hated among all lilins, and the Wardens and Paladins had no love for her, either.
She would need to contact the investigators, instead, and ask them to search for additional information.
"I might need to inform my sister of my findings earlier than I had intended." Luna sighed, turning to the librarian with a tired smile. "I thank you for your assistance - it must have been difficult for th- for you to spend that much time seeing to all of my demands."
"O-oh! N-It- it was no problem, Your Highness." She blushed as she ran a hoof over her forehead, keeping strands of mane out of her glasses. "I spend much of my time reading - I-I'm afraid it's gotten me into trouble sometimes."
Luna was of the opinion that the Earth mare was cute when she pouted like that.
"I just can't help it! I've read each book at least twice, but it's... reading is just..." Mouse scrunched her face in thought, and Luna almost let out a chuckle. "I don't think I can put it to words - I just like reading, even if I know all of the words already."
Luna blinked.
"Have you memorized the contents of the books?" She asked, and recieved an ebarrassed nod in reply. "It seems I shall further require your assistance - I shall take care of the procedures, and please..."
"Ye-yes, Your Highness?"
"If you desire to be formal, simply address me as 'Princess Luna'; we are friends, after all." She said with a smile, although it faltered slightly as Mouse turned cherry-red and fainted.
"Hmm... I just hope I can find the involved before 'Lula' suffers any more."
*****
"Your nose is bleeding!"
"I was starting to feel lightheaded..."
"Hold on, we're almost there!"
"Huh, his fangs are short."
"Because mine are."
"You've held up this far, brother; we will have our reward, and you shall be there to enjoy it."
*****
"Your Highness!" A pegasus pony guard (despite lacking his armor, since it had to be reforged) rushed up to Trixie, who was overseeing the refitting of guard equipment - it would not do to have Sombra's tainted sigils blemishing the equipment, and the armor used for the Fair was... inadequate.
She had heard the thundering of his hooves upon the ground and his wings shaking up a storm, though, and through that, she understood the guard's urgency.
"Speak." She ordered confidently, falling back to old memories; the guard saluted. "What is the emergency?"
"A band of ponies and... pony-like creatures are approaching the city; they fly a white flag, and seem to be in need of medical assistance." He reported; his eyes quivering, but resisted darting away from the spot straight ahead. "I was selected to message you as I am the fastest sprinter."
"Heavy Hammer, continue melting down the old armors; Sombra's magic is completely gone from the metal, I garantee so, so merely wait for Trixie to provide the schematics for the new equipment." Trixie wasted no time, drawing power from the air into her body, pouring it inversely from a regular spell and through her legs, making them stronger; another, making her whole body lighter.
"Lead the way." Trixie ordered, making the stallion almost trip as he tried turning too fast and shocking him as she kept pace.
He was without armor, so his surprise was understanable.
He felt... reassured. Trixie possessed great skill and power, without a doubt.
*****
Swarm could see that they had been noticed. They were in the middle of a field with zero cover, and most changelings (himself included) shrugged off their hoods, visors, and scarves. Those that forwent manes in favor of fins (mostly diggers and high-activity workers/soldiers without noble blood) extended them fully, since the change in climate had been quite sudden, turning their protection into an impromptu changeling cooker.
A pony shot off to the distance - a very sparkly pegasus with fire-like hair - while the rest of the watch waited for... something.
He gritted his teeth; they had some in bad shape, and he really didn't want trouble. He was sick of it.
All of them were sick and tired of... everything.
He- all of them were placing their hopes on the strange message.
"The beacon of hope in the far north, ready for those that have done their part". It was the least vague of the messages, excluding that which the lilins had received - a window of opportunity to correct the injustice wrought upon them.
In the time it had taken him to mope about his situation, they were halfway to the city porper and the pegasus came back with a blue-
His head spun around from the sheer power of the incredibly-focused emotion aimed squarely at him. He was aware that the blue, sparkling unicorn with a cape and hat was looking straight at him ('Is my mane combed right? I hope my wings are still presentable under my coat'), her hair done in a ponytail ('Cute'), blushing and yet looking like she had seen a ghost. He was also aware that she snapped out of her trance-like state when her eyes fell upon - most likely - the wounded from the extraction teams, firing off orders with great authority that his ears couldn't process due to his brain having currently sent swimming through a sweet-scented haze of lilies and moonlight-touched glens...
Somepony - or ling - else started directing the sparkling ponies that the mare commanded, making sure their charges were treated with care. They recognized his current state ('Such great friends!'), and he was sure some ponies had a look of realization on their faces ('Must be the ones paired with a changeling').
Both lamias began to shake off the lethargy, making some of the ponies helping them yelp as they suddenly became aware of their snake halves. Their leader - and it was clear the blue unicorn was the leader - barked something, and approached them herself; greetings, perhaps a question or two.
He knew the answers - he was dazed, but his memory supplied what the senses were currently missing. A promise of temperate climates, a land of love, a place that would accept them. He knew, because that was what he had been promised himself, sans the 'meeting somepony special for the first time again' part.
The unicorn stood in front of him, still blushing, coughing into her hoof. The flying wall of raw emotion that had slammed into him finished its run, allowing him to blink away the haze.
It had taken a minute, a surprisingly-quick minute, between her arrival, and the carting off of the injured.
*****
Swarm!
How could it be possible?! She knew he would still be alive, of course, but why here?!
She wasn't complaining, though.
Ok! Ok. Everything was OK. Her ponies were taking care of the injured (so many faces! Bard, Hunter, Orchid, Frozen Rose!) O-K... Breathe.
*Cough!*
"Greetings!" She said with glee she was failing to contain. "The Great and Powerful Trixie bids you welcome to the Crystal Empire!" She swept her hoof behind her, turning as confetti was basted from nowhere, punctuating her words.
"We shall take care of the injured first, then, allow Trixie to take care of everything." She said, returning to face Swarm! the pilgrims, speaking with an air of authority. "After all, as the Crystal Empress, it is Trixie's prerogative to accept new citizens - that you passed through the shield of the city is proof enough that you are not being magically-compelled to do so, nor are there any dangerous magics in your bodies."
'Sorry, Cadence, but you are not yet ready to accept them.'
"Trixie needs to see you alone at some point, though." She whispered to the purple changeling in front of her. The feel of his magical signature... he might not be the Swarm she knew, lacking the experiences, but he definitely was the Swarm she fell in love with, having the same heart.
*****
Celestia...
He didn't hate - no, hate was such an ugly thing. UGH, no.
He would give her Despair. He would give all of them Despair.
It's what they deserved; the only thing they deserved.
He was a child of Lilith - but not through Lilim, no. UGH. No, no, and a thousand times no.
He had escaped her, escaped his prison. Another had tried; that centaur bastard. UGH, such an inelegant moron, stealing magic - gorging himself on it... and yet stealing the substance was beyond him!
He was no conqueror; he was a balloon with delusions of Godhood.
Lamia and Lilim were there for some reason, though, as if warned.
Which meant that his beloved great-great-aunt was not there to watch his prison. His fiery prison.
He didn't hate fire. Hate was ugly.
He'd turn fire cold; once the princesses were out of the picture, he'd turn everything cold.
He would make everything like him.
He was ice. He was sorrow, and all would drown in it.
It was what he understood. It was what they deserved. Everything is pointless, after all - save for those like him who understood Reality. Those like him that brought despair.
They didn't deserve to feel happy - they didn't understand. They deserved to be frozen in despair, moving only when he gave them permission to move, doing only what he and those like him said - because he understood Reality and Beauty.
He had yet to recover his strength, or find the right conduit or tool, but all in good time.
Trixie was wearing a new cape, the same purple hue as her old previous one, but much thicker and with a fur (maybe?) trim not unlike Sombra's, although it was held by a brooch over a cravat and the neck of a dress shirt. Curiously, instead of making her an extravagant crown or tiara, the crystal ponies made another hat just like hers, sans stars, with a golden band styled like a tiara with a cerise-colored crystal in the middle.
In all honesty, given the speed with which the ensemble had been put together, she suspected the ponies had been sitting on the design for a whle.
She had just given a public address about the changelings - they eat love, no they don't leave you an emotionless zombie after feeding, the Heart constantly gives off love-energy that can feed them, and they change shape. The lilins weren't much different, although most of the differences between them and the pookas were subtle, behavior things; lilins had stronger... predatorial traits than pookas, who themselves were influenced by the night to be... spookier than a regular pony in turn.
Cubi were like changelings the most, while other lilins had to rely upon other means to disguise themselves. Not all of them had wings, or horns, and the armor some had was akin to the talons of the griffons, although their maleability of body made it behave like the shell portion of a changeling's body - flexible under most circumstances, hard when needed.
Close to fifty changelings, over two dozen lilins and nearly as many ponies as lilins had just fled Equestria.
The two lamia threw her for a loop, though. They were harmless, affectionate and passionate - as a whole, they liked how pony bodies felt warm to the touch.
Still, she had to contain her desire to just jump and hug nearly everypony there. She hadn't seen young little Sea Breeze until Sombra had broken into Tartarus, and seeing the little lilin foal now warmed her heart and filled her with happiness.
Trixie allowed the group of refugees answer questions themselves while she tried stealing galnces at Swarm.
She caught the tail-end of a question about eyes.
"We don't have 'bug eyes'; they are covers." One changeling said. "If we had insect eyes, they'd have to be twenty-two meters across just to have the same sight as a minotaur!"
"This is a meter." A pony said, holding his hooves apart.
The crystal ponies made a sound of disgust at thinking about eyes that big.
"Or they might indicate we are connected to another changeling." Swarm spoke.
Oh, how she wanted to just jump him and speak at him until her words just poured out his ears...
*****
"Octavia Von Clef?" The inspector asked the grey mare at the door.
She nodded.
"I am detective Prism Glass, of the Canterlot city guard." The inspector reached into a pocket of his uniform and pulled ou his badge; returning it to it's place, he continued. "I am here to ask a few questions about Neon Light's supplanter - I'm afraid he has escaped the Royal Guard while in the middle of carrying out his banishment into the Badlands."
The earth pony pulled the door open and gestured for the inspector to come in.
Prism Glass couldn't quite process the scene - his eyes, sharper than most even for a pegasus as himself, told him that the mares living there had to get a third party if they wanted to decorate. It was obvious that two radically-different mares lived there, as one corner had an exquisite dining table with carved chairs and a collection of fine procelain dishes... right next to a couch that looked like somepony had beaten the stuffing out of it (the coffee table was really nice, however) and a rainbow-colored collection of goofy-print beanbag chairs; there was a beautiful black grand piano next to enough sound equipment to turn the house into a nightclub, with an electric guitar sitting right next to a violin and its bow, a cello, and an electric cello with sharp-looking edges with a similarly-sharp bow besides it; a fern shared a corner with an acoustic guitar inside a display case (huh, signed 'To Tavi, with love: Bucky Cash') and another violin - this one missing its bow.
There were several pictures hanging from the walls, both of either mare's family, and those that had both mares- wait a second, was that Octavia in that rave? And- he- he knew that Vinyl was from a well-to-do family, but her shades and wild hair made her seem out-of-place in the audience of that concert...
Octavia gestured the stallion to a beanbag, breaking him out of his distracted state as she sat (well, more like laid) on the couch, starting a metronome on the coffee table.
She had been about to practice, it seemed.
"I know you have been questioned already, and I also know that Neon Light said he thought that that had been simply a pony with a good disguise spell that presented himself in his stead when he was sick... but I still want to know if the changeling contacted you in any form these past few days." The inspector felt a strange tension as the mare looked at him, before she ultimately shook her head.
She pursed her lips, and adjusted the metronome to go faster.
Tick-tick-tick the noise faded into the background.
"Well, I was hoping to find Vinyl Scratch, as Neon works with her quite frequently, and might have known more about the imposter..." He saw Octavia frown as she made the metronome go a little faster - Prism idly noted that he could measure his words to the sound. "Somepony went to great lengths to break into Canterlot's hospital without leaving trace... and spirited away every pony that had been in a relationship with a changeling or a lilin."
Octavia shrugged, and reduced the speed a little.
"This is serious; the lives of ponies could be at risk, even if I don't personally believe those ponies were coherced." He said, startling Octavia who hurriedly slapped a hoof to the metronome, stopping it and making him flinch.
He gritted his teeth a little, trying to hide a grimace - he had been getting quite a headache and he was only just then noticing, likely from the sound - since he didn't want to seem rude to the mare in her own home. She was looking at him with those big, surprise-filled eyes that always made him feel like he had sprouted a second head... what was he saying again?
"Uh... uh... there- Neon Light is under police protection, and you should take care."
Fifteen minutes and some quick questions later, Prism's headache had subsided, and he was walking out of the house.
Octavia watched intently as the pale yellow pegasus's blue tail had disappeared around a corner before sighing and relaxing, allowing her shoulders to slump as she ambled towards the couch, plopping down on it again. She ran a hoof through her mane and stared at the ceiling, deep in thought. She waited in silence, an ear turnet to the door in case the detective decided to come back...
After a few moments of not hearing anything abnormal, she made her way to a violin and produced a few quick notes.
Five minutes after that, Vinyl appeared in a blue flash, right in the middle of the room. Her electric blue feathers rustled and bristled in barely-contained anxiety, and her tiny claws made an infertal tapping sound... but Octavia couldn't bring herself to care, simply throwing her forelegs at the succubus's neck and hugging her tightly.
They both relaxed, though it took a full minute.
Octavia always feared Vinyl would be discovered, and Vinyl always feared Octavia would have her life ruined like those ponies at the mental hospital... but they were still fine, and knowing - knowing - that there were others looking out for them was... was...
It was a big damn relief, that was what it was.
And Octavia didn't need to melt that stallion's train-of-thought, either.
*****
"Excuse me?" Swarm asked, not quite sure.
"Yes." Trixie nodded as she whispered. She had no need, being just the two of them in a side room, but she could barely contain the urge to just pour out everything she knew. "Magic that can reshape Destiny."
She breathed in, out, and continued.
"For example, back before the founding of Equestria, arranged marriages were a thing, then fell out of use as the princesses voiced their opinion on forcing such a thing upon a pony... officially." She flicked her mane to clear some errant strands. "Unofficially, there were still ponies that were willing to provide 'encouragement' to relationships they approved of, both for sanctioned unions, and to persuade 'inappropriate' suitors to retire quietly and take any 'inconvenient' foals away with them... until they suddenly found themselves unable to influence other ponies' destinies, no matter how hard they tried to convince an unruly family member to keep 'tradition' or seek 'adequate' companionship; they lost the ability to send ponies away if they did not want to part. The Elements of Harmony cannot be denied so easily - cannot be turned away with simple money and selfish promises; one cannot control what the cutie marks of others will be, as that is the choice of the bearer; through a task representing your own desires, or if your hardships have been great, you can earn a change - and protect it from selfish ponies."
"And this relates to the way you look at me... how?" He could make a guess, based on the message he had gotten.
"Trix- I- well, through a grand expression of said magic, I have memories of the world ten years from now." She said, shaking with excitement. "I- I feared I would never see you again."
"Why?" He knew he should have been more tactful as the vibrant air around the unicorn was replaced with a languid sea of depression; her head hung low and her ears... it was like looking at an entirely different mare - worn, sad, even though a minute ago she was a giddy filly talking to her first crush. It had taken a second to hit him, that bit about the experiences from another time, and another second to realize that many things can happen in the span of even a single day.
"I saw you die." She breathed the words, a cold chill coursing her veins. "It- Sombra knew you and I had been behind so many strikes at him, you heped me escape... it was not quick."
Swarm gulped reflexively as he raised a hoof to his throat. He felt the emotional spike through her, and didn't know how to respond to it.
"Sombra, the unicorn that tried to..." He had heard the name Sombra several times in the past few hours, and heard the tale of how Trixie had appeared out of nowhere and beat him just as it seemed he had gotten back in power; without Trixie, and knowing egomaniacs as he did, he supposed that-
"Take control of everything, yes." Trixie didn't seem to care much about the former king, which Swarm figured came from having defeated him so thoroughly and quickly. Closure, he guessed, or perhaps that anything Sombra could have done was so prevented. "He made a huge mess, in the future that never was. My memories arrived before the Empire came back into the normal flow of time, and I infiltrated the city and stabbed him with a knife-shaped mass of counter-magic before he discovered the dangers of nulled emotions."
"And then I was here, not knowing if you would ever hear my name." She squeezed her eyes shut, but willed herself not to give in. "You helped me- you led the- I was captured and left to rot, as Sombra couldn't break me; you- you were there for us, and every time I felt weak and helpless you gave me your strength and your hope. I wouldn't be who I am if it were not for you - well, and the Element Bearers, but suffice to say they have done plenty for us already."
"Oh." He would have berated himself for the lame response if his mind could just remember he was supposed to be smarter than that. Every experience, every sense he had told him that she was being absolutely, one-hundred-percent honest. How could he respond any better?
"So... did we... were we in a relationship?" He managed to ask. He was curious; he knew of changelings that entered real relationships, and, in fact,had seen just how much stronger the love obtained that way was.
"Hmm." She blushed and stroked her hair embarrassedly. "To the best of circumstances; I had to have some... brands and sigils removed, but the damage to my health was extensive; even if the broken pieces of the Element of Magic were fused to my body, by the time I stopped coughing every other minute you were..."
"Dead." He blinked. It was very abstract - to him - and the only way he could feel anything about his own death was through the echoes of memory coming from the unicorn in front of him; she had (would?) become so dear to him that he had given his life to protect her. She came to love him so much, the sight of him had saturated his senses with unbridled love even if she knew - intellectually - that he would not know her.
He figured there was one course of action.
"Well, with any luck, the world isn't going to end anytime soon." He said, kneading a spot of the rug with a forehoof. He suddenly gained a higher appreciation for his infiltrators; being on the spot oneself was much more difficult than relaying instructions, regardless of however much knowledge of the workings of society one had. "I can see that you are an exceptional mare, and the care you show for us outcasts of Equestria... what I'm trying to say is... would you like to try again?"
He almost expected getting tackled.
"I'd like that very much." She replied with a teary smile, extending a shaky hoof at him. "I am Trixie Lulamoon, pleased to meet you."
"My name is Swarm." He smiled back, taking her hoof on his own and giving it a gentle kiss. "The pleasure is all mine."
*****
"Are you sure she is Equestrian?" Celestia asked.
"Yes, sister; the dreams would not have appeared to me if she had not been in Equestria, although it seems she is far away for now."
Luna tastefully withheld, for obvious reasons, the involvement of lilins and changelings.
"I haven't heard anything like it, Luna; the procedure itself is one thing, but I know of very few artifacts that could help somepony stabilize their magic even in that state without placing her in even more danger, and all of them are accounted for." Celestia idly rubbed her muzzle. "Others with the capacity to regulate energies don't have much power, while power intensifiers would require delicate control."
"Hn." Luna grumbled. "Maybe something structured like the Elements? Something where the object is merely a physical vessel for a magical existence?"
"Oh..." Celestia pondered the option. "She would have to be attuned to it, and that might give a higher presence."
The nurse couldn't help but feel bad at the state the changeling in front of her was in.
His bandages had been changed, and she had gasped at the sight. She was relieved that the pultices and the regular medicines were effective, but it was the worst case of mage-rot she had ever seen.
Considering that she had seen two dozen cases in the past hour, that was saying something.
Still, 'love' was a little abstract a treatment - she knew, obviously, of the healing properties of love - and normally she (and the doctors) would have complained about letting two ponies in the same bed, but love does heal... and his partner was in for the exact same thing, and nearly to the same degreee.
Plus, the changelings needed their partners anyways, and they were more stable and resistant to rebounds or relapses when held by their loved ones.
So they said; she could only take their word for it.
"Is something the matter?" Bard asked, while the white unicorn - Frozen Rose - looked at the doctor with her one good eye. The nurse decided to step back.
"The issue of your recovery." The doctor spoke, feeling that it was better to just be honest and straightforward. "I don't know if there are fancy treatments out there, in the world of a thousand years... but it could take years; you might never walk again if it's made it to the bone as you said."
"He'll be fine." The mare hugging him as they both rested squeezed just a teensy bit harder.
"I'm still alive, after all. I am-"
-----
"... a ghost, not a changeling." Swarm said with a frown. "I am proud of my own shifting, but I had never so much as heard of anyling that could stick their hooves to a keyhole, then just flow... flow themselves inside to pick the spell-disrupting locks."
"And you say he just made the others do the same through the link?" Trixie asked, getting ready to leave for the hospital.
"He has been storing love since Shaper-knows-how-long-ago." Swarm frowned. "With that much mastery over Form, who knows what he can do?"
"Keep me from falling over dead, for starters." Trixie rubbed the back of her head. "It's... shoot, I forgot how it was called before!"
Trixie tapped her forehead in a vain attempt at focusing.
"It has to do with the core of his magic. Mine has 'harmony', 'entertainment' and 'illusion' among others, while he has 'balance', 'beginning' and 'avoidance' - among others." She waved a hoof around, trying to recall better. "He was a key agent in many of the operations of the Ponyvil- Everfree forest cell."
"I can see why." Swarm commented. "I cannot imagine that Princess Celestia was happy to see us around Equestria, even if we were fighting a common enemy."
Trixie sighed heavily, slumping slightly.
"She wasn't; she focused her efforts on Sombra, obviously, yet she would argue endlessly whenever Princess Luna tried to get her to send supplies or ponies - just as well, since Celestia's soldiers lack the sneakiness of Luna's. Still, Shining Armor had his hooves full just keeping Canterlot in line and protected, with his wife a paranoid, traumatised mess; before Twilight Sparkle died, even."
"Just what happened to her? Cadence, I mean." He had been told about Twilight already - he respected the mare, actually, because, well, standing up against Nightmare Moon, an insane changeling queen, and Discord?
Such a shame.
"First was her brush with Sombra, then, she accidentally killed Fen- buck!" Trixie slapped her forehead. "Trixie has to deal with Fenrir now!"
"What?!" Swarm gasped, reeled and staggered. "WHY?!"
"Hmm?" Trixie looked at the changeling with confusion. "Why are- oh. The wolves think that they have the right to claim this land as their own, but let's just say that Fenrir is neither as smart nor as powerful as he thinks he is - he thinks he still is. Sombra enslaved him quite easily, and Cadence, having heard enough about him from the princesses, shut him down hard enough that she killed him by accident."
"How could she do that?" Sure, the princess of Love was stronger than she looked, as Chrysalis found out to her cost. "He's The Howling Wind! The Fanged Blizzard! He's older than Equestria herself!"
"Not all of the old threats remain relev- not everything- she used a 'cone of silence' spell." She answered, while Swarm was obviously waiting for her to continue. "That was it; no howling, no magic. Sombra was... rough, and Fenrir's body didn't take it well; without those legendary howls, he was just a wolf with a long life and implanted black crystals."
"I find that hard to believe."
"Trixie- err, I know what you are thinking - he's immortal, right? old and powerful like the princesses, no? In a way. Princess Celestia doesn't stay idle, though. She's always wary of the next big threat, and she doesn't fight-"
-----
"Clean." Celestia read the report.
All of them so far were clean; the changelings hadn't tried to contact anypony - although personal effects from the hospitalized ponies were stolen and some of the houses emptied.
Pictures of herself and Cadence were vandalized, with crude devil horns and goatees, and the occasional eyepatch, scar, or monocle - in one particularly-artistic instance, all three. She'd like to blame the changelings, but the Equestrian Times did have a tendency to stir up trouble to sell more papers... like when they accused her of sitting on her rump while Nightmare Moon almost froze Equestria with her eternal night.
After having three journalists arrested for political espionage and hefty fines slapped right on their muzzles, though, they at least stopped trying to break into the castle's private areas (poor fools thought they could use 'free speech' and 'transparency' laws with the 'the public has a right to know' excuse to get out of jail). Defacing posters of her was common - after all, it was exactly what had happened the last time she had to keep one of the changeling's poor victims from doing something stupid.
She reached for the next repor- huh.
Neon Lights? Right, one of the ponies that was accused of hypnotism to make ponies attend his shows... along with the mare he often 'competed' with. Their pictures were stuck to the cover with clips.
She was getting a headache just from remembering it. Luna was very upset that the nightclubs she had come to love were getting accused of something so... disgusting.
Still, if there was anything hypnotic, it was the music itself - which was kind of the entire point. Nothing unsavory, just a pair of skilled performers reading their crowd like open books and knowing their trade.
She sighed, then proceeded with the report.
No strangers approached them, nor were any seen stalking them, no sudden changes in routines, no interrupted schedules. This suggested, like so many others, that the changeling had fled elsewhere rather than attempt to get in touch with their victims, or find new ones.
Which was odd - surely there would be one bold (or dull) enough to try? Some of them had had quite a comfortable lifestyle at the expense of her little ponies, making them believe they loved them. Why not try again? Still, kidnapping their old victims was too risky a move.
Speaking of which, the families of the victims... poor ponies; always so nervous when they spoke to her about the search, and no matter how much she promised them to find them, it only seemed to make them more afraid for their loved ones.
She would find her little ponies, and she... well, she couldn't do anything about their minds, but she would keep them safe.
"Thank you." His parents didn't know it, but after everything they had done to help her with her own depression, Trixie was willing to do anything for them.
"She knows what she's doing." Swarm commented with a nervous smile. He could only take her word for it, for now, and he disliked having to put her in a difficult position after everything she had already been through.
"Don't you worry; the Experienced and Deft Trixie has collected skills and spells that might just surprise you!" She winked at him, sending a wave of confidence and love his way. "Now, let's see the rest, shall we?"
She tried to steel herself, really. She told herself that, with her having seen the others in that state so often, she really should not be surprised that they had been admitted for mage-rot.
She still flinched.
Rose looked at her and, while she might have imagined it, she seemed to have seen something about Trixie.
Wouldn't be too surprising, given that the Stock and Vanilla Trixie wouldn't have made it through Equestria in time, much less the frozen near-wasteland outside - not without beign forced to leave supplies behind and/or falling terribly ill from exposure and strain. She had to apply- REapply, rather - some bits of magic she learned (would have learned?), and it was a little too evident to one of the ponies that had (would have had?) taught her how to keep her own body from falling apart - they were derived from shape-changing magic, after all.
Bard's other call to fame.
She tore her eyes away and-
Rosetta Latte, Stag, Vine Yard... seeing so many friends lying down on hospital beds brought back unpleasant memories, making her tense up.
"They will pull through." Swarm, brave, level-headed Swarm snapped her out of it, as he usually did; it was like nothing ever changed.
But that wasn't true; everything was different. They had a chance. Swarm wasn't trying to shoulder all the weight himself, Anis was happy and not-gruff...
Everything was just... hopeful and bright.
She could keep it that way.
She motioned for a doctor, and managed to give an honest smile.