Chapter 1: Separation

For the first chapter, "outer/public thoughts" will not be in italics.

It wasn't going according to plan exactly, but one thing was for sure: Silk knew they were still winning. Her queen had been exposed, but far too late. Celestia had been defeated for all to see; perhaps she had held back to protect her subjects, or had been weakened now that the elements were bound to somepony else, or perhaps that she was never the deific being she was thought to be in the first place. Their royal guard was starting to put up some defense, but it was too little too late, over a thousand years of peace having made them into a host of new recruits. It certainly didn't matter at the moment.

Silk wasn't with the bulk of the swarm. She was a scout, able to take orders, assess situational information, and quickly relay information to the rest of the swarm. She was quick, agile, and sometimes elusive, but she was not a fighter. That was up to the Soldier and Worker classes.

Changelings had what one might call a hive mind, and yet that term didn't do them justice. Each Changeling could think for itself, decide for itself, feel for itself. Each one was free willed, sentient and sapient, a true being in every sense of the word. And yet, their minds worked differently. Some ponies say that almost everypony can keep track of up to seven things at once. But Changelings? They could think on at least two levels more. At the forefront of their thoughts was a form of telepathy, a massive swarm of information and outermost thoughts that was shared with the swarm in much the same way a Pony could share information when it talked. On the side of their minds, as if a set of invisible ears, one more to be able to hear each other, though "hear" does not always mean "understand".

The massive amount of information coming from the vast swarm was too much to make out individual thoughts; it was often impossible, like listening to an old recording of a crowded Canterlot school cafeteria and trying to figure out what was being said. One could make out if something was going on, to continue the lunchroom simile, as if some filly opened her lunchbox and a frog had popped out, causing the ponies at the table to shriek all at once. You could tell that something was going on in such and such direction, maybe involving some known group you've been keeping an ear on, but that was about it. You couldn't tell precisely what or where, and unless you're checking very, very carefully for individuals you knew personally, you couldn't even tell who.

Then there was their queen, Chrysalis. She alone could hear every voice of her swarm, and know what it said. She did not always pay attention to every word, but so many to listen to, she certainly wasn't expected to. There is a difference between being able to understand something and paying attention to every inane thing that was said. She had the ability to speak to all of them in a loud and clear voice; she was a loudspeaker through the crowd. What's more, were her dreams.

Changelings' "public" thoughts were uninhibited when they slept, and as such, they shared each others' dreams every time they slept. Most of the time seeing another's dream was fast. It happened in an instant, a flash of color and crack of sound, a split second of emotion and then returning to one's own dream. Not even enough time to taste the emotion, let alone feed on it. But Chrysalis' dreams were there. They were bright, vivid, and lasting. But still, the queen's dreams were sour, as if tainted; but she was their queen, and they would do anything to make those dreams come true.

So here they were, doing just that. Silk wondered to herself as she curiously flitted around the castle, looking for the rest of the scouting party. Several voices had gone silent and, for some reason, at least another dozen had just started dreaming. She was deep within the castle, closer to the other end of the mountain than the city of Canterlot now. Darkness painted the walls, becoming an ever deeper shade of ebony marred only by the light of her horn as she buzzed through the halls.

As she flew, a sharp thud emanated from a hallway forking to her left, as a familiar voice cried for help nearby, much closer than the rest of the swarm.

She turned around the bend, flying straight to the source of the cries. Or at least she hoped she did, this place was built like a maze, so she could easily hit a wall and have to double back. Windows flashed by on her right, and eerily, no light came from them. A moment later, she saw burst of green flame illuminate the scene. What looked at first glance to be a big pegasus stallion was standing over an unconscious changeling, but this wasn't just another member of the swarm, this was her friend, and he was hurt. It looked like the right side of his breastplate had been cracked by brute strength; the fact that it was a blunt force that caused that injury caused her no small amount of fright.

Changeling shells were as resistant to blunt forces in much the same way that Pegasus bones were: to be able to function after a crash, which frequently happens during youth, they had to be able to take a hit without breaking anything. In fact, Changelings were probably even tougher to such forces, their very lives dependent on never breaking any bone badly. Only the dragons could boast a higher natural durability.

A changeling's entire body may as well be very tough glass filled with water, but once that glass cracked, it was a very slow and painful process to seal... if it could be resealed before the water escaped that is. Infection, shock, and blood loss frequently spelled the doom of any who took too large a blow.

"Skitter!" Silk called out in her mind, flying swiftly as she could to aid her fallen friend.

The wounded changeling's eyes met hers as he urged her to go back, to get help. But at that moment, the pony looked at her, and time stood still. He was dressed as a guard, but this was not the gold clad Royal Guard that they had known about. His armor was dark, violets and blues while his helmet was adorned with a deep navy crest shaped like that of a sea serpent's ear. His coat was ashen gray, his mane the black of darkest night. His wings were not those of a pony, no. They were those of a bat. And then, most strikingly of all, were his eyes. They were golden, shining brightly even in the surrounding darkness, with slits for pupils: a pair of dragons' eyes.

This was no pony. This was a twisted amalgamation of a creature. This was an abomination! This was a... a draconequus!

The two seemed to be frozen in time, for the longest moment Silk had ever experienced. However, even as her own movements seemed sluggish to her, the creature soon moved swiftly over to her left with one massive flap of his unnatural wings. She saw what he was doing and turned to face him, knowing that she could not help Skitter if she wound up in just as bad a shape. The large pony quickly flipped around in midair and landed a hard kick, landing right where a pony's sternum would be: in the center of her breastplate, where she could best absorb the shock.

Time resumed itself in that instant. Everything happened so fast, it was as if time had decided to make up for her startled reflexes. A sickening snap. A black blob. An excruciating pain. A blur of brown. A bright azure plane. A bloom of green. A horrible crunch.

The changeling picked herself up, more than a little surprised at her location. She was now standing in a forest, and over the mountain she had just be thrown from was Canterlot, hidden from view save for a few gleaming golden rooftops and billows of smoke. She was quite a distance away from where she had been moments ago. She had been in a hallway, how had she wound up outside? Was it magic, or...

Then she saw it: a veil of pitch black, the edges dancing like a swirling mist, was covering a large horizontal strip in the mountain. Shadow magic, then. The younger of the Equestrian royal sisters must have conjured it, nopony else could possibly have dark magic of that caliber. For Nightmare Moon, that spell must have been child's play. Those windows weren't purely decorative eyelets, they overlooked the other side of the mountain.

"Wait, if she's still alive, that means I have to warn the queen!" she thought to herself. She hopped and made to take off, but winced and fell down in a heap. She looked behind her to see that her wings were badly damaged, bloodied and snapped forward. Then she remembered. She had been bucked out the window, hard, and had her wings spread out to brace for impact. Her wings must have slammed against the stone, breaking and tearing to shreds of shreds when the rest of her body kept pulling them backward in such a short period. Maybe one day she would be able to fly again, but it would take years.

A flash of her own sorrow touched her; she spat in disgust. Sorrow was a terrible emotion, a slow and bitter poison to her. Still with a bitter taste in her mouth, and likely one to stay for a bit, she felt and looked for other damage.

The first thing she noticed was that she was standing with her weight on only three legs. She shifted her weight and immediately shifted it back when she received a sharp scolding from her body. She looked down and noticed that her front left hoof was cracked, a small trickle of emerald blood coming from it. A moderate wound, it would get better in a month or two.

She then felt pain in her horn, and as she did so she noticed a drip coming from it. She went cross eyed, and looked up. A light bit of damage, she had feared the worst. This would hurt a bit, and her magic would be iffy... unreliable at best for a week or so, but this crack would seal itself in three days, tops.

"This damage... it was all from the landing... which means... oh no!" she thought to herself, her eyes and her good hoof darting to her chest in fear; fear, another one of those nasty emotions. She saw and felt no other damage, aside from a mild soreness. It looked like she had managed to distribute most of the impact across her body evenly, otherwise she would surely have suffered the same fate as Skitter.

Her fear turned to relief, and then turned to worry as these thoughts drove at her. But she did not allow them to take roost. Her own worry did little for her, and she could not act. So she waited, and did her part to signal the others that there were dangers lurking within the castle, telling her location. She was close friends with Skitter, and as such could tell he was unconscious, dreaming, but the flash of his dreams that she glimpsed were tainted with pain. More so than normal, but with his injuries, it was to be expected.

She did not have long to wait. Queen Chrysalis and most of the swarm suddenly yelled out in anger, defiance, fear, and indignation. They were moving, blazing back toward the swamp, back toward home for some reason.

And then she saw it: a massive magenta bubble grew out of the mountain, lingering there for a time before disappearing.

It was quiet. The Queen's voice still boomed in her mind, and commanded the swarm to regroup in their marshes, but the mountain was muted. For a few moments while the shield was up she thought she heard another, but it was cut off quickly, muffled somehow, most likely by magic.

Quiet. Not a single changeling awake or asleep.

Silk spat again at the bitter taste in her mouth. She knew that she had lost him, and defiantly fought the feelings she felt; despite her efforts, a lone tear dropped unbidden to the ground.

She could not reach the marshes today, or even tomorrow, but still Silk began to walk. Any changeling would do anything they could for their queen. Climb over any mountain, fight any foe, or overthrow the sun, moon, and stars themselves. What was a little walk?

She was weakened, however. She limped along, stumbling over roots and stones, wading through streams, and trudging through mud. She could not disinfect her hoof or her wings (or horn, for that matter, though that was likely unnecessary) without her magic, so all she could do was try to minimize the grime and moisture that got in the wounds. At least it wasn't raining.

On she trudged for two and a half hours, plodding her way slowly onward. However, even changelings, the masters of will over their form, have a limit to how long they can continue when injured so badly. Her vision hazy, she collapsed upon a fallen tree.

Her dreams were dour that afternoon, old memories tainted with the sting of loss and of grief. Her dreams would not last long, however; the Queen's voice soon commanded her subjects to pursue intruders. Silk's dream had turned into a race, chasing a pony through the marshes as the dreamscape whisked by her. She ever neared her target as the queen raged against some distant foe. As silk grabbed her target, it turned around, revealing its shining slitted eyes.

Fear. Absolute, stark terror filled her.

In that moment, the entire swarm screamed in terror. Silk could feel something crawling into their minds... into her mind! There was an icy presence, and Silk could feel a powerful magic, dark as night. Silk looked forward, and her nightmare made itself known. There in her dream flew the ruler of darkness, and one of the most horrific beings to ever exist: Nightmare Moon; the being whose dark magics were so great that they could be sometimes be felt from the moon, spreading to the entire swarm if she touched the dreams of a single changeling. She loomed over the changeling, growing darker, the world around them becoming black as pitch as she laughed.

Then she simply slept. Her mind was unaccustomed to this new situation it was in, and showed her nothing as she lost track of time for the first time in her life. Even in dreams, Changeling scouts and sentries would relay the time. Concepts, such as time, were always easier to understand without words than personal communication, especially if the same one is repeated by many members.

So there she sat, adrift in a sea of darkness. There was no emotion, no glimpse of the dreams of the others. There was no color, a simple dreamscape of black.

In an instant she heard them again, the chorus of agony and fear. It was a screaming, a shared emotion across all changelings. It started loud, so very loud. Then she understood their message, what was happening. A message carried out by the entire swarm was guarantied to be heard, after all.

They were being released from a magical prison, but forced into one far greater. She could feel and practically see a great jade inferno. It was the most common color of magical fire, though not the only one, used by Dragons and Changelings usually. But this was different... eternal. All consuming. Unrelenting. Inextinguishable. The voices streamed into the conflagration below in seconds, growing ever more quiet, until there was nothing left. A gate was sealed.

Silk woke up with a start, a shout, and a wince. Pain had returned to her as she regained her senses and recalled her whereabouts. She found herself lying down upon a log. Her shell was a sticky mess, covered in the her wings' moss colored congealed blood. Wing injuries would bleed a lot, but they were better than shell injuries. Even the worst would stop bleeding on their own relatively soon. Which brought her attention to her hoof. It didn't feel infected, at least not yet, but with the conditions she was working in, and the lack of aid, she would not be surprised if signs started showing eventually.

She had been jolted awake because she had failed to repress her fear, her horror, and that dread had been more powerful an urge to wake than her battered body was to rest. But as she lay there, she noticed that the swarm was gone. It had just disappeared. Only two possibilities existed.

She had been exiled, cut off by the queen from the swarm, or the dream... the dream had been real (a thought in the back of her mind showed her chasing a pony through the marshes), more or less.

Silk once again tasted her own bitter tears, but like always she forced the feeling into submission with her own willpower. She could still tell that the queen was out there, and if things were as bleak as she thought, she needed to be by her side.

"My queen, are you hear me?"

Nothing.

"My queen, can you hear me?"

Nothing.

She kept doing this, calling out to her every five or ten seconds under the shadow of the leaves of trees. The many gaps in the canopy left small beams of tired moonlight hanging in the air. Her body begged her to stop, but she did not. No matter the price, she would serve her queen, and they needed each other.

So on she went for hours, walking toward the swamp. A little lost rowboat out at sea, looking desperate for safe harbor. Then, the Queen began to dream.

Even when awake, Silk could hear her queen's dreams play like a radio. This night she could hear silence... then the scream, and the laughter of the nightmare. Silk shuddered at the sound, but it was an echo of the ones previous.

It was dulled, muted by her own determination, her own pain, the knowledge that it was in the past, that it was not her own dream, and even my the simple fact that she was awake. But then things took a turn for the worse as a short dialogue played in her head.

A sweet but all too familiar voice called out to Queen Chrysalis. “Oh look how the mighty have fallen. Alone in the world, your entire race banished to a realm of wickedness. Chrysalis, queen of the muck and the rot. A pity your subjects shall never return. Without them, you could not have stopped the Elements of Harmony from sealing you away, and never will be able to stop them again. All vengeance has been denied to you.”

“Are you here to gloat, monster?” The voice was the queen's, but it had the tone of a frightened child.

“Gloat? Why would I do that? No, I'm here to offer you a choice. You may remain here, dead in the land of the living, an empty shell of your former self. Or, you may join your kin and live in the land of the dead. I have been generous, and Charon's toll awaits you upon the dead grasses above the gate. I have seen that Cerberus will allow you a one way ticket into that realm. The choice is yours."

The nightmare had replied in a voice of pity, as it often did, but somehow the words lacked the subtle, cold undertones that they had had a mere three years ago. This was obviously a skilled temptation, but somehow it lacked the same degree of malice. It was still cold, though, like a winter draft finding its way through the window of a warm house, rather than a sensation akin to falling through a sheet of thin ice, unable to breathe as the surface bars your way to freedom.

The queen's dream ended, and panic struck the wounded scout. "My queen, can you hear me? My queen, can you hear me? Can you hear me?"

The queen was moving, but she wasn't replying. She seemed to be getting closer. Silk was cantering now, moving as quickly as she could through the forest with her leg, which no longer dripped but trickled, the additional chronic pounding weakening the already cracked shell further.

The changeling kept calling, moving in as straight a line as possible with these twisting pseudo-pathways. the night came to an end. She galloped through to the end, her pain ignored, and leapt across the threshold. To her dismay, the elevation of the ground had played a trick on her eyes, and what looked to be a gently sloping hill was actually a wide stream with a relatively swift current.

Silk landed in the middle of the stream and began to be swept away. She struggled against the current. It was strong, but not terribly so. After fighting for a minute or two, she reached the slick and muddy banks, crawling up and collapsing, her hind hooves still in the water. That was it, she couldn't move any further.

She looked down at her left hoof, still slowly seeping blood, but now covered in grime and sand. If it didn't get infected before, it certainly would now. Her wings, tiny jagged stubs on her back, would not bleed again unless disturbed. That was good, at least, though they still caused her pain. As for her horn, even if Silk knew that it would work, any spell would hurt and with her exhaustion, she would almost certainly pass out.

"My queen, please... can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can hear you," the Queen finally replied. It was a cold, bitter tone of apathy.

"You're going... aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Don't go... please don't go, my queen. We need each other, don't we?"

"No, I have no use for a single servant, especially one too damaged to be called a soldier, let alone a chevalier. Even if you were of merit, one servant simply isn't enough. Even trapped within Tartarus, they are more useful than you. You can't build a sculpture with one tool, you need a hammer and a chisel."

"Then we... we're just your tools?"

"Yes." A one word answer. One word, and yet this one word stung like a dozen manticores.

Silk's eyes began to water, the bitter poison of sorrow proving too much for her to fight. "But... don't you love us?"

The gate was opened, the blazing green flames roaring through it. She sent one final message to the pitiful creature. Even as worthless as she now was, her devotion would be noted. "At one point I might have... so long ago that I forget. But you were not enough for me, and you never will be."

The parasitic queen stepped through, singing a song.

Today was supposed to be perfect...

The great dog Cerberus slammed the gate shut as the moon was tucked below the skyline.

Those last words twisted like a knife in Silk's heart, they were a sound that was even more terrible than the screams of the swarm. But this day was not over yet. What followed was worse still.

Silence. Terrible, unnatural, unknown silence.

She laid there for just a moment. She was cold and wet, battered and bloody, unwanted and unloved, too tired to move and utterly alone. Then, something happened in her mind.

Silk let out a terribly loud yell, control be damned. A cry of mourning, of grief, sadness, loss, betrayal, terror, pain, agony, anger, and rage. A scream of fear and loneliness, of hatred and frustration. All of these poisons in her soul had to be let out, but as a changeling, poison of the soul when released soon became poison to Silk's body.

The sun crested over the horizon.

The last changeling laid there and rested, having vomited from all the negative emotions she gave off. Chalk up another way for her to be miserable. There was only so much more that the universe could throw at her, after all. She could only think of two more ways things could possibly get any worse.

"Oh my goodness, is somepony there? Where are you? Do you need help? Hello?", a concerned feminine voice called from over the bank somewhere.

Yup, captured by the enemy, that's one, she thought as she chuckled at her record breaking poor fortune.

Silk decided she had no choice. A moderate headache formed as she concentrated her magic, her horn stinging just a little. Silk was engulfed in a quick burst of green fire. In a flash, her body rearranged itself, intending to come across as a pony. Her vision blurred. She did not know whether the transformation had worked, only one more thought would get through before she passed out.

At least it isn't raining.

Chapter 2: Alone

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Fluttershy's eyes cracked open, as they did at this time every morning, though perhaps it would be better to say every night. The moon had not yet sunk below the horizon, still wrapping the world in its gentle light for a short while longer. As such the term "morning" was somewhat debatable.

The yellow pegasus quietly yawned and stepped out of bed. She was still a little sleepy, having stayed up so long after the wedding before coming back home, but she didn't mind. It was nice to see everypony so happy, especially after such a scary day.

She took care of herself as usual, taking her morning bath and brushing her teeth; taking care of her mane and having a bowl of breakfast oats. She then walked outside, taking care not to wake any animals up.

This was the time she would take care of the night time animals. She couldn't stay up all the time, so she just woke up and went to bed a little earlier than most ponies. It wasn't terribly early, usually Applejack would get up even earlier and go to bed even later than her.

Tonight she had found that two racoons had been arguing over food again. Fluttershy gave them some nuts and berries, splitting them as fairly as she could. The larger one began to protest, but sheepishly backed down when she gave him the stare. With that matter settled, she turned her attention to the toads.

A few minutes later, the moon dipped out of sight, and the nocturnal animals had been taken care of. They did not rely on Fluttershy's help unless they needed it, because she simply didn't have the time, and the number of problems usually worked itself out to be solvable in the half hour before she would take care of the daytime animals.

She made her way to the chicken coop, expecting to hear the roosters crow any second now.

Then, Fluttershy heard somepony scream nearby, though she was not sure that that was the best word for it, or if a good word for it existed. A female voice. It was loud, enough that it would probably wake up a lot of animals, but more importantly than that was that it sounded so awful. There was just so much pain and sadness in that voice. It was one of the saddest things she'd ever heard.

The pony took off looking for the source. Somepony, or something, needed help. She dashed towards the noise. She was very worried and tried calling out to her. "Oh my goodness, is somepony there? Where are you? Do you need help? Hello?" she asked, calling out in the cry's general direction, only to hear no reply.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a quick flash of light coming from the fish stream. She moved to take a look down and gasped at what she saw.

It was a unicorn. A young mare with a medium blue coat, whose mane was a dark gray with a trio of turquoise stripes. She was lying sprawled out on the bank, plastered with mud, her coat covered in splotches of bright crimson and ruddy brown. Her front left hoof was bent out at an unnatural angle, with a terrible gash showing white bone, bleeding into the soil. A somewhat small diagonal crack showed in her horn, running parallel to the spirals, and she was covered in tree sap. Her eyes were shut.

Fluttershy carefully flew down next to the poor thing, walking down a slick muddy slope sounding like a poor idea to her. From here she could see that the unicorn was sobbing quietly, tears leaking from her eyes, and yet she wasn't awake.

The element of kindness had to help her, had to, but how? Fluttershy weighed her options. Calling the hospital was an option, and undoubtedly a good one, but the mare would need help in the meantime. She had helped with the injuries of animals many times, including ones as large as or larger than herself, and knew how to treat a compound fracture. It was usually best not to move somepony who was hurt, though.

Fluttershy was about to go get Angel to help her, (usually he was reading the newspaper at this time each day, provided that the mailmare hadn't gotten turned about that day,) when the mare mumbled in her sleep. "Don't go... please don't leave me alone... I don't want to be...", she said, choking on her words.

That settled it. It went against her own logic, and Twilight would be furious if she found out, but Fluttershy's heart told her that she had to take her to her cottage and treat her there, and quickly, even though you're not supposed to move anypony with a broken bone like that. Rationalizing that being stuck on a slope of cold mud warranted moving, fluttershy hefted her onto her back, being careful to move the injured leg as very little as possible. Normally she wouldn't be able to fly very well while carrying somepony, or at all for that matter, but whenever somepony was in danger or something made her mad, Fluttershy's strength and speed increased to decidedly above average. This was one of those situations. She took off, flying as swiftly and steadily as she could back to her cottage.

Silk's dreams that day were horrifying and uninterrupted, as there were no changelings to dream and break up her terrible imagery with their own.

She moved through shadowy halls and saw Skitter, but as she flew to him he turned away and disappeared. Silk fell, her wings suddenly gone as she tumbled through the floor, level after level of cold brick below until she found herself standing in the swamp, the faces of the swarm all around her. She ran to them, but she could not reach them, their likenesses ever moving further away, until they were gone. Over and over the dream taunted her, moving every face away, ever out of of her grasp, as she was powerless to get to them, crying out for them not to go. She could not tell how long this went on, but it felt to her like an eternity.

Eventually, she felt she had reached forever and a day, and she turned to see her queen behind her. Silk ran to embrace her, but the queen was soon wrapped in a tingling green fire, and scowled at her as she turned to ashes. "Useless" the embers whispered, as the winds blew them away.

Silence.

Fluttershy worriedly watched the blue pony sleep.

The pony was bandaged in several places now. Fluttershy had noticed that the broken leg had been a compound fracture, but oddly the pieces just slid right somewhat back into place, no jagged edges to be found, acting almost like a dislocation.

Although not officially such, Fluttershy was the closest thing to a veterinarian in Ponyville, not to mention next to the Everfree forest. As such, she had the basic tools she needed. The very simple x-ray that Twilight had (a little unnervingly) happily built her for her animals showed a pair of full cracks running on a gently curved perpendicular to the direction of bone. It also showed an odd, spiderweb-shaped series of fairly harmless, hairline surface cracks. Bones didn't break that way, did they?

The wound had stitched up pretty well, and the foreleg was now being held stiff in a simple plaster cast. The wound was disinfected and carefully bandaged beneath it to prevent the cast from interfering with the healing, and to counteract any further bleeding.

Fluttershy had done her best to clean her guest up, using several towels to remove the mud, sap, and blood from her coat as best as she could.

She had placed a small bandage with sticky sides over the crack on her horn, that was simple enough as far as she knew, not having any experience with them. Unicorn horns were different from animal horns, after all. Animal horns were often shed at some point, and most certainly didn't have magic.

There was a pair of fairly fresh injuries on either side of the pony, which had apparently been bleeding before Fluttershy found her. Fluttershy had bandaged these by wrapping a length of cloth around her chest a couple of times, tying the two down at once. The thing that worried her most was just how much blood the pony had lost, but aside from her slumber, there wasn't any indication of anything too scary.

She had sent Angel to take care of the animals for a while. He wasn't as gentle or as large as Fluttershy, and he certainly couldn't fly, but Angel Bunny had a certain no-nonsense attitude that few animals ignored; he even gave the larger predators pause. It wasn't "the stare", but he was still pretty good at it. When she had given the task, he had actually put on a metal bowl as a hat, and grabbed a carrot and rested it on his shoulder like a rifle, saluting her and literally marching out the door. It was actually really cute.

The injuries Fluttershy was a little worried about, but the thing that concerned Fluttershy the most was the way the unicorn kept crying even in her sleep. If a pony cries him or oneself to sleep, he or she usually stops crying and forgets why they're so sad while they dream. The tears had run out a while ago, but she was still quietly sobbing. She kept asking somepony, or maybe several ponies to come back, and not to leave her alone, and even though Fluttershy knew she wasn't talking to her, she couldn't bear to leave her.

A number of hours later, the unicorn began to stir.

Silk woke up to a blurry world. She could see warm browns above and mint greens below, but everything was in a haze. A voice quietly made a presence known to her. "Oh thank goodness, you're awake! I was so worried."

The world came into focus. Silk was in some kind of building, wooden judging by the ceiling, which was the only thing she had a great view of at this angle, her world at the moment hardly qualifying as a panorama. What appeared to be several straw nests and wooden bird houses dotted the rafters. She sat up, even though as she did so she felt a strong dizziness. Silk wouldn't let something so trivial keep her down.

"Oh, um, be careful. You were hurt... but uh... you probably knew that... but don't rush yourself... if that's alright with you, that is."

Silk turned her head towards the female voice. It was coming from a pony. She was a pegasus, which was blatantly obvious from the presence of wings. She was a pale gold pony with an equally pale, rosy mane and cyan eyes. Adorning her flank was a trio of pink and cyan butterflies. She was smiling gently.

Silk still could not hear the swarm, their absence leaving her feeling hollow. Where a lively cacophony of voices once was remained nothing but an empty ringing, as if Silk had an eternal case of tinnitus in her head.

Silk looked at her leg, which had some sort of plaster wrapped around it. It itched, and so Silk tried to slowly nibble her way through it, her teeth clacking a couple times as she picked at it. She had been told that Pony medicine was as likely to kill you as not, and she didn't trust this strange casing.

"Oh, um, don't do that, please, you're still healing." the pony said. Silk looked at her captor for a moment and relented. Pony house, pony rules.

The pony shyly brushed the floor with her hoof. "So, um... what's your name? That is... uh... if you don't mind telling me that is," she asked in a barely audible whisper.

She did mind, but Silk wasn't going to be going anywhere for a while, she knew that. Escape was not likely, nor a good idea at the moment. She would cooperate, to a degree. She looked at her flank, not remembering what had gone through her head during the actual casting of the spell.

A bed. Ah yes, of course it was a bed. The transformation had taken the last of her energy, of course she had been thinking about sleep when she had cast it, so that cutie mark matched. "Silky Sheets" she replied begrudgingly with the first name she could come up with. Silk's eyes widened and shut in less than a second, cringing after she realized her mistake.

What's wrong with me? I just used my name in an alias! she thought, mentally kicking herself.

The pony just kept smiling meekly. "Hi Silky, I'm Fluttershy."

Silk's stomach growled. She could taste something coming from the pony. At first she thought it was pity, but that was a bittersweet emotion, a mixture of caring and looking down upon others. This was sweet, more akin to... relief... and compassion. Silk fed on these emotions, and gained a little of her strength back. She had been starving, so hungry for so long. Still, she restrained herself from gorging on them, lest she give herself away.

Fluttershy heard Silk's stomach rumble. "Oh, um, are you hungry? I'll go get you something to eat if that's okay with you." She trotted out of sight, the clip clop of hooves going down stairs following her departure.

That's odd. Why didn't she just fly down?

Silk shrugged inwardly and looked around herself. It was always so weird, transforming into a pony. Everything was all outside in, though she knew that most creatures were like that and thus it was the Changelings who were inside out. Still, that was from a global perspective, not hers, and her perspective of it was what mattered here.

This coat of fuzz all over her body was a little disorienting itself. It was much brighter than her mostly black shell, and it offered such little protection. Even something as little as a rose thorn could hurt her like this. And there was the need to do without her horn or wings. She remembered how badly her wings were damaged at that point.

I guess I'll be without them anyway. She couldn't have transformed into a pegasus if she tried.

Fluttershy came back into the room carrying a tray with a bowl on it in her teeth, setting it down. "Here, have something to eat. Um, unless you don't like it, that is, that's okay. I could make something else..."

Silk did not reply, instead turning her gaze away and just staring down at the bowl of vegetable soup. She kept thinking of the events of yesterday, and the previous night. She would never wake up from this, this was real. She was alone, the queen had left her personally, and she would never see another of her kind again. Silk made sure she did not cry, misery was a lot more painful than meditation and objective perspective. She wasn't completely successful, but she had managed to suppress the misery into simple sadness.

The changeling in disguise didn't hate pony food, it was certainly interesting and sometimes things tasted good, but to her body it had the nutritional content of air. She did need to drink water, but food to a changeling was positive emotion, not this stuff. Silk could tell that Fluttershy was growing concerned, and debated with herself whether or not she should eat this stuff to keep in character.

There was a knock on a door somewhere downstairs.

"Oh, I, um, should probably answer that. Uh... I'll be right back, sorry," Fluttershy stammered in appology, leaving the room once again.

Silk couldn't make heads or tails of the mustard pegasus' motivation. She highly doubted that she knew she was a changeling, but that would be one heck of a skilled, cruel facade if she did. She wouldn't put anything at all past her own misfortune at this point. A more likely scenario is that she was scared of her suing or something like that. She had tasted a little fear from her, and she seemed pretty timid. Still, there was something... different about her that she couldn't put her hoof on.

Fluttershy opened the door to see her lavender friend standing there.

"Hi Fluttershy, what's going on? You missed our Pony Pet Playdate."

"Oh, uh, I forgot, I'm sorry, Twilight, I've just been really busy, sorry" she apologized, not having intended to hurt her friends' feelings.

Twilight looked over her shoulder. "About that... why is Angel marching a family of ducks out of the chicken coop?"

"Oh, the ducks have been trying to eat the chicken feed for the last couple days" Fluttershy explained.

"No, I meant why is Angel taking care of it instead of you? You said you're busy," she reminded. Twilight suddenly felt like she was pressing somepony for lying despite her intentions. She decided she'd drop the subject after this.

Fluttershy understood what Twilight meant now. "Oh, I needed him to take over while I took care of something else."

"Is an animal sick?" Twilight asked. Damn curiosity always got the better of her.

"No, it's not an animal."

This piqued Twilight Sparkle's curiosity more than before, now she HAD to know what had Fluttershy so distracted. "Is it a coltfriend?"

Fluttershy blushed. "No, uh, nothing like that."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Fillyfriend?"

"What?! No! Oh goodness, no, Twilight!" Fluttershy squeaked defensively, waving her hooves in a frantic negative gesture, shaking her head and blushing furiously in embarrassment that her friend would jump to that conclusion.

Twilight was stumped. "Okay, okay, Fluttershy, I'm sorry, calm down. If it isn't a romantic thing, then what is it?"

Fluttershy stopped her flailing, though plenty of color still remained in her face. "I'm taking care of somepony. She was hurt really bad," she began.

Fluttershy explained to Twilight what happened, how she found her on the bank, what her injuries were, how she had slept, and what her name was.

Twilight shook her head. "You should have taken her to the hospital, Fluttershy."

"I know, but I just couldn't leave her alone, she sounded sooo sad! She kept crying and saying not to leave, and even when she woke up she's so quiet and melancholy. She's hungry but she isn't eating."

Twilight sighed. This was just like that time she found Fluttershy trying to help Philomeena. "We'll take Silky there together, carefully. We'll be there with her the whole way there."

Fluttershy nodded that she would comply, and the two element bearers walked up the stairs and into the guest bedroom where "Silky" lay.

Twilight spoke up first, giving an uneasy smile. "Hi, Silky, I'm Twilight Sparkle," she began. "Now that you're all patched up, we're going to take you to the hospital to recover, okay?"

The name sounded vaguely familiar to Silk, and she knew she had heard it somewhere, but she dismissed it easily. The news about the hospital, however, sent a wave of fear through her. Here, she had a chance of recovery without discovery. She wasn't being scrutinized by highly trained doctors who might be able to spot something off about her hastily performed transformation spell, which she was not sure had worked perfectly yet. If she was caught, she dreaded to think of her fate. Possibly they would torture her for information, she was the final source of the intelligence of the Changelings, and as a member of the scout class, she certainly had her fair share of it. They might simply kill her, making an example of her to any race who dared attempt to rise above the sun and moon. Or they might decide to send her down into Tartarus with the rest of her kind, forcing her too down into the unknowable fiery pit of evil. She could not decide which was worse, but none of them were good.

"N-no," she started with a quiet stutter, "no, please don't send me there. I don't want to go..." Silk was crawling out of the bed and overturning the still scalding bowl of soup onto her, falling to the floor in what looked like a clumsy bow when her cast hit the ground, her hind legs standing strong. She felt the pain of the first degree burns, but she ignored it completely, as she was in a much greater pain.

Twilight was shocked at this reaction. Such a little thing, a simple suggestion trying to help had set this pony off. From what Fluttershy had said, she hadn't said a word but her name. Fluttershy's hooves were at her mouth from a gasp.

"... I don't want to go, no! I won't! I won't go, please don't make me!" Silk cried, losing control of her emotions. She wasn't even talking about the hospital anymore. "I don't want to be alone! I don't want to go! I want to stay! I want everypony to stay! Just... just please, please don't go, I don't want anypony to leave me... again..." She was sobbing, bawling like a little foal. Something was different, even with all that had happened, controlling her emotions shouldn't have been this hard. She could taste her own bitter tears as she wept for all she had lost, and the one thing she had left, her life, which she could still lose. And here she was, the useless, broken scout, groveling for mercy from the very creatures that she had always been told were her enemies.

Silk felt a pair of legs wrap around her, and her sobs let up for just a moment. She looked up to see Fluttershy hugging her, tears streaming down her face. "I won't leave you, Silky, you can stay here, okay?" she asked gently, like a mother soothing a foal, the sweet taste of sympathy coming from her.

Tears once again welled up in the changeling's false blue eyes, from where she did not know, as Silk threw her hooves around the yellow pony and cried on her shoulder, her emotions finally let go, as the kindness of this young mare drew the poison of her sorrow as she let it out. The overwhelming positive destroyed the negative, Silk's soul being cleansed for the first time in far, far too long.

As Twilight left she apologized to her quiet friend for her interference, who insisted that it wasn't her fault, and that she had just been doing what she thought was best, which comforted her. On the way out, Fluttershy asked her to dispose of a container of bloodstained towels and sheets. Magical fire was the most effective way to dispose of such materials, after all.

Twilight opened the container, only to discover that the first cloth was covered in a patch of dirty green. She thought nothing of it; Fluttershy had said that Silky had been covered in sap, after all. But as she went through the bin, levitating and incinerating each one, she noticed that there were no patches of ruddy brown, only brown mud, amber and mossy green.

She got to the last contaminated towel. Still no reddish tint. She looked around, and saw no other boxes of cloth which she might have mistaken this for. Following her intuition, she took the cloth for herself, deciding to analyze the strange green residue, having no idea what it meant, or what it might have in store.

The day ended as Celestia's charge once again kissed the horizon, setting in the west.

Fluttershy had asked Twilight not to tell anypony about "Silky" without her permission, and the purple mare had performed some strange little ritual which Silk figured was a form of more iron-clad verbal contract, albeit an eccentric one. Silk had eaten the second bowl of vegetable soup to cooperate with Fluttershy, functionally pointless or not. As she looked out the window at the shrinking orb of light, she had several questions.

She wondered why she had been told that the ponies were evil and cruel. Her queen... no, Chrysalis had always insisted that positive emotions were rare and hard to find among these wicked creatures. Silk's own scouting had always been of other lands, keeping an eye on the long-term picture of the Dragons, which hardly changed at all. Their long term was much longer than she would live, after all, but that had been her job so she had always done the best she could. Such a task would never have had her interact with the ponies, and now she began to wonder whether this was a coincidence or not.

If kindness, sympathy, and caring were this easy to find, what about other positive emotions? She hadn't had enough experience to even touch this one.

Silk couldn't hate these ponies, especially Fluttershy. They were... good, but that word did not do them justice. But if they weren't her enemy, who was?

The sun dipped below the horizon and the moon crested. Silk glared at the white disc in the sky.

The moon. She would hate the moon, and all who followed her.

Chapter 3: Aloof

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Twilight Sparkle sat in her basement laboratory with a microscope. Slides and droppers lay neatly stacked alongside her, a new book open in front of her, "Maladies and Mutations". She was reading very thoroughly through the section on blood.

"Sulfhemoglobinemia, a condition where somepony's blood has excess sulfhemoglobin (obviously), a greenish pigment that can't turn back into normal hemoglobin. Leads to cyanosis. No, that's not it either." she sighed.

Twilight Sparkle had been running tests on the mossy stains all evening. The first thing she had discovered that it was, indeed, pony blood. Type O Negative, in fact. Universal donor, but for somepony who had been bleeding there wasn't a worse type to have. Thankfully, Silky had been found before things had gone from bad to worse.

But ponies' blood didn't turn green normally. That in itself was the problem. Twilight had spent a while searching, but she couldn't find anything describing a condition that described somepony bleeding red, but whose blood turned green when it dried out. Somewhere in the back of her mind was the answer she already knew, scratching to get out, driving her inquisition forward. She looked at her clock; it was about time for her to stop studying. She would resume later.

Silk bolted upright with a quick shout, her lungs putting out a metronome of short, quick breaths. She looked at her surroundings, seeing that she was still in Fluttershy's... building. She didn't know what to call it, not having seen it from the outside. She glanced out the window, seeing shaft of sunlight piercing through it.

It was midday now. She had spent the whole morning, in addition to the previous night, trying to fall asleep only to wake up from an inevitable nightmare. Cursing her inability to combat her own dreams, Silk wondered if she'd ever get a good night's rest again.

It had been a week since she had been wounded and still her nights were sleepless, more or less. The cast, as it had been referred to by her rose-maned rescuer, didn't seem to be making anything worse. If it hid an infection it would have burned by now. Instead, all it seemed to do was prevent Silk from nipping at a continuous itch which the cast seemed to make all the worse. Today, though, Silk decided she would try her magic, her horn having sealed the small crack shut a couple days ago.

She looked around for some way to scratch this infernal itch, finding nothing until her eyes fell upon a pencil on the other side of the room.

That might work.

Her horn lit up azure as she concentrated, using telekinesis to move the writing stick over to her. She slipped it carefully into her cast, scratching the unseen skin as her mind wandered.

It was skin, right? Last time she had seen it it hadn't been, after all. Then again, Fluttershy hadn't noticed anything fishy so it had to be. Besides, if it wasn't, it wouldn't feel this good to scratch it.

Silk sighed. These were thoughts that normally she would have made public: harmless ramblings that weren't in any need of privacy, but even though she still thought them publicly, there was no public there. There was only a persistent, empty ringing that swallowed up her messages the moment they left her, and even if the worst of the grief was behind her, it was still an alien sensation and a sad reminder of what was lost.

Fluttershy opened the door, with Silk quickly pulling the pencil out of her cast and flicking it across the room in response, not wanting Fluttershy to see her messing with it. A small, sweet flash of self satisfaction struck her when it landed on the desk without bouncing off onto the floor. The pegasus came in carrying some kind of oddly shaped wooden stick, the purpose of which Silk couldn't guess.

"Good morning. I, uh, thought you might want to walk a bit so I brought a crutch, that is, um, if you don't think it's too early."

I don't like the sound of that, Silk thought, frowning at the connotation of the word. She had only heard that word used metaphorically, being a changeling. Changeling skeletal injuries were rare due to their natural defenses. Silk only wound up like she did due to an obscene amount of force being applied to her by one of Nightmare Moon's monsters. If a changeling injured its wings, which was rare, it could still walk. If a changeling injured its leg, which was much rarer still, it could still fly. Being unable to do either was almost unheard of, with the exception idle "what if" conversations. As such, the simple mobility tool of the crutch was a nigh total unknown to her.

Fluttershy handed crutch to silk, who held it there in her right hoof for a moment and wordless stared at it trying to figure out what the purpose of the device was. After a few moments, Fluttershy volunteered the information, nervously giving the instructions on what the thing was used for and how it was used.

Silk placed the crutch under her damaged leg as instructed, placing her covered hoof on the hold and attempted to walk with it. When she pulled back on the crutch, she moved forward. A brief moment of fright hit her as she felt herself being lifted up and forward, then back down. As soon as she was on her three good legs again, she realized what it was. It was a lever, pushing her forward in a small jump each time. Moving around with this would take some getting used to.

The masked changeling hobbled about the small room a bit, getting used to moving with her crutch. It wasn't exactly a comfortable form of locomotion, but it didn't hurt, so there was that. She then tried to leave the room, only to be greeted by a staircase.

Fluttershy walked up behind Silk and inquired, “Oh, um, would you like to go outside?” Silk nodded. “Okay, let me help you down the stairs,” she said as she propped her blue guest up, letting her lean on her as they moved slowly down the steps.

The two moved out of the the house, which was also filled with animals. Silk finally stepped outside again, for the first time since she was on that muddy, sandy shoal. The breath of fresh air was a welcome relief to her lungs as she breathed deeply, stepping onto the road into town. As they went they crossed numerous animals. Fluttershy was, of course, greeted with happiness and appreciation. Silk, however, was far more mixed and matched. Some would welcome her nearly as enthusiastically as the animal loving mare next to her. Some would actually hiss and snarl at her, only to back down and whimper for some reason when Fluttershy looked at them. Most, however, had a cautious curiosity about her, as if there was something wrong but they just couldn't put their paws on it, but weren't too worried due to the company she was carrying.

The town was big, at least to Silk's eyes. It wasn't as big as Canterlot, but that wasn't her point of comparison, the marsh was. Changelings did not have buildings, at least not so grand as these. They would create makeshift shelters or hollow out trees, sure, but this level of construction was unique to ponies. Maybe gryphons had those similarly skilled in engineering, Silk wasn't sure, but changelings didn't, and from what she had seen in her time as a scout, dragons even less so. Dragons never built anything. They didn't need to, so they were usually living in caves and volcanoes, or just badlands in general. Dragons were tough like that.

Ponies were all over. Some were standing and others were sitting; some were moving about and some were talking and a few were even flying.

As Silk walked about, taking in the view, she found herself very suddenly facing a very pink pony with a mane that seemed way too fluffy and bouncy to believe. Silk would have checked her cutie mark, but that was pretty hard to do with somepony's face five inches from her. A pair of cerulean eyes stared at her.

The pink pony eyed Silk suspiciously. “Hey, wait a minute, I know what you are...”

“Y-you do?” Silk asked nervously. How did she know?! Did her behavior give her away, or was there something wrong with her transformation, or-

“Yeah, you're somepony new in town!” the pink one exclaimed, her eyes widening in glee. “Fluttershy, why didn't you tell me? My pinkie sense has been going off for, like, a week! I need to make a party seven times as super as normal since it took me seven days to find out! Like a super-super party! I have to find some streamers, and balloons, and make a cake! A big one! Do you like chocolate? Maybe vanilla or strawberry or maybe blueberry, even though I haven't tried that one in a while, it doesn't seem that popular, but I think it's great and by the way what's your name?”

Silk didn't know what to make of this pony, other than that she seemed to run on an energy as limitless as the sun's. “Um... Silky Sheets,” she replied, very confused.

“Hi Silky, I'm Pinkie Pie! Well, that's a nickname, but I like it a lot better than Pinkamina Diane Pie! Pinkamina sounds like pinkameanie and that's not very nice and what kind of name is 'Diane' anyway, it sounds so weird, doesn't it? Anyway, I need to get going, I've got a lot of stuff to prepare and wait a second-” Pinkie yammered on but suddenly stopped. “My cheeks are all tingly, and that means... hey, I know where you're from...”

Silk wasn't sure how to react to this. There was still the confusion about what she was trying to arrange, and what this “Pinkie sense” was, not to mention the fact that she seemed to be Fluttershy's exact opposite in terms of how much she talked. But now there was yet another red flag being raised instantly in Silk's mind.

She gulped. “I, uh-”

“You came from a rock farm! Or something like a rock farm. Oh no, I grew up on a rock farm too, it was so sad there! No wonder you look all mopey dopey! I have to make it a super special party to cheer you up! Oh no, I'm already throwing one of those! It has to be twice as special as the seven times as special, oh I've got so much work to do! Bye Fluttershy, bye Silky, I hope your leg gets better soon!” Pinkie blurted, turning and dashing off at a speed that shouldn't have been possible.

Silk looked to Fluttershy, raising an eyebrow as if to ask what the hay that was all about.

“Oh, uh, I try not to think about it too much. Just try to let it go and think 'it's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie'. Twilight tried to figure it out but she burst into flames and still doesn't know.”

Pinkie suddenly zipped right back. "Oh, and you should find someplace to take cover, my tail is twitching. See ya!" she babbled, zipping off once more.

Silk shook her head to snap herself out of her attempt to comprehend what just happened, heeding Fluttershy's advice. Bursting into flames sounded bad... especially the green kind right now.

Fluttershy, on the other hoof, seemed to have taken shelter underneath a market stand... these ponies were weird.

It was just as well. Once her leg was healed, she would have to leave the town. Staying in one place was too risky. Eventually she'd slip up and reveal herself and would have to go try to live somewhere else, where suspicion would also follow her. It was best to just keep moving, she figured. Becoming attached to anypony was a bad idea.

Attachments brought emotions, and emotions had to be suppressed. Emotions were pain. Emotions were suffering. They were torture and agony and death. Even if ponies had emotions that were positive, that were food sources, in Silk's experience, changeling emotion was nothing but a toxin. If one were to drink in too much negative emotion, one would surely die. It happened often in the swarm. If one became too weak to fight his or her own emotion, they would cough and sputter, they would hack and spit and puke, and would eventually die a horrible, miserable death. They would die alone, no changeling wanting to get too close to those emotions lest they too get a dose too much to handle. It was a terrible way to go, and despite her fate, she was in no hurry to do so.

Ever since she woke up, maybe before it, it was much harder for Silk to control her emotions, so she simply had to avoid getting to know everypony as much as possible. Silk sighed as she thought of this fate to wander eternally, and looked to her usual bright side.

At least it isn't raining.

Silk then felt the sensation of being suddenly soaked, as if somepony had thrown a bucket of cold water on her. She looked up to see a single small raincloud hovering not thirty feet above her. "OH COME ON!!!" she yelled, far more in indignation than in anything else. She tried to sidestep, but forgot about her crutch, winding up stumbling onto her right shoulder. She wasn't hurt, but the rain was still overhead, and that made her feel a bit grouchy.

"Whoops, sorry about that!" the cloud yelled in a female voice. "I guess I must've rolled over a bit too hard in my sleep," said a sky blue pegasus mare who stuck her head out. Her hair was... well, arranged in a spectrum of the traditional primary and secondary colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. There was a bit of debate about the true identity of the primary and secondary colors going on between the scientific community and the artistic and magical communities, though Silk was unaware of that. To her, a rainbow was a rainbow, rather than roygbiv or rbg/cmyk.

Fluttershy offered a hoof, realizing that the thing that was going to fall out of the sky was rain. "Are you okay, Silky?"

Silk nodded, carefully getting back on her hooves with Fluttershy's help. "I'm fine, thanks," she said.

The blue pony flew down and looked at Silk. "Friend of yours, Fluttershy?"

"Yes. But uh, well, we haven't known each other very long, only about a week."

"So what? A friend's a friend! Hi, I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in all of Equestria!" Rainbow said, offering a hoofshake.

Her parents named her Rainbow? Yikes, I guess they must not have been the most creative couple. Silky thought, shaking hooves, replying "Silky Sheets." Of course with that stupid alias, I'm hardly one to talk. Then again, I came up with it on the spot.

Dash retracted her hoof, shaking it as it had become wet by contact with Silk's sopping fur. "Want me to blow you off? It'll only take a sec."

Silk refused. "No thanks, I've got it. I have a spell. I just need a bit of privacy," she stated. It wasn't a lie.

"Oh, nice!" Dash said. She noticed Silky was standing on a crutch with a cast on her leg. "Ouch, broken hoof? I broke my wing once. I hated not being able to fly."

"I know the feeling," Silk muttered bitterly.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Anyway, I'm gonna go practice some stunt flying, I'll see you two at the party later."

"How did you know there's a party later?" Fluttershy asked.

"Pinkie always throws a party for anypony new in town, duh," Dash responded, taking flight "See ya around!"

And with that the multicolor-maned pegasus flew off in a blur, leaving Fluttershy and Silk standing there. Fluttershy trotted out in front of Silk. "I have a friend who can help with your mane. I could take you to her... um, if you would like to, that is," she suggested. Silk nodded, following the mustard pony through the town.

Fluttershy led her to a tall, circular building. It was colored in some parts by a diagonal checkerboard pattern, alternating between light purple and lighter purple. The wall on the ground floor was blue, though. The structure was covered in elaborate markings and frilly patterns. At the top was a small flagpole with a long triangular red flag flying on it. The building was near a collection of nine tents, and the shape of the building was somewhat reminiscent of a tent. Silk noticed what appeared to be two carvings of ponies being impaled through the center of their bodies, and a picture of one up front, which seemed like a pretty morbid decoration to her and made her apprehensive. Still, she followed her guide inside. Hey, it had to be better than being cooped up all day. She hoped.

The interior was no less decorative, probably even more so. The molding was in ornate, two lines coming to a heart repeating over and over, above which was a pattern that looked something like the ends of a doily. The room had a few mirrors and mane equines within it, and thick drapes colored a deep royal violet were all over the place. Silk's wariness lessened greatly as she looked about.

Well, it doesn't seem like someplace a killer pony would live.

Fluttershy looked about quietly with Silk until she found who she was looking for. Silk turned toward where her friend was looking and saw a white pony hard at work. It was a mare, judging by the shape. Her mane and tail were clearly meticulously styled, and three blue diamonds adorned her flanks. She hadn't heard her guests enter and Fluttershy seemed unwilling to disturb her. Still being quite new to this, Silk didn't question it and simply followed suit, sitting down and waiting.

After five minutes, Silk grew tired of just sitting in the same spot on the ground and went to find a chair, discovering a seat in a vacant mirrored booth behind a curtain. She made sure the cushion wouldn't be damaged by water and sat down, closing her eyes to relax a bit.

A half an hour rolled by before the pony turned around. She was a unicorn, judging by the horn. The unicorn jumped when she did so, apparently startled. "Good heavens, Fluttershy, how long have you been standing there?" Fluttershy, of course, began her apologies.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Rarity. You just looked to busy concentrating on your work that I didn't want to interrupt you."

"It's fine, dear, just make sure you let me know you're there next time," Rarity replied, regaining her composure. "Now then, did you need something?"

"No, I didn't, but I was wondering... if you could maybe help my friend whose mane got messed up... that is, if you aren't too busy."

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Rainbow Dash or Applejack?" she inquired, wordlessly asking which of the two had needlessly messed up somepony's hair this time.

"Rainbow Dash."

The fashionista sighed. "Well at least she's less prone to get everypony absolutely filthy. Well, let's see what the damage is, where is the poor thing?"

Fluttershy looked to her side. Silky wasn't there. "Oh, I guess she must be here somewhere, I didn't see her leaving."

"Very well, Fluttershy, we'll see where she went off to."

It did not take long. The first place that Rarity checked was indeed where Silk had been waiting. She had fallen asleep, her nights hardly being restful this last week. She was lying on her stomach. Her forelegs, cast and all, lay in front of her, her hind legs tucked in, and her head resting in between her forelegs. A doleful expression was worn on her face.

Rarity could tell that this young mare had been through a lot recently. She had a very fine mane that had suddenly lost its luster. Tear lines could be seen beneath her eyes. And yet, there was something deeper, something unusual hidden beneath, and Rarity could not make out what. Of course, that was all beneath the still damp coat. It looked almost like she had lost a water balloon fight with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and that might lead to split ends, perish the thought.

"Oh the poor thing, I only wish I had known sooner!" Rarity exclaimed dramatically. That woke Silk up.

"Wha-?"

"We simply must get your mane some proper care!" the white mare said, whisking the pony into the seat.

"Wait, I-"

"Such lovely highlights, they really bring out the color of your eyes. Maybe we could put in a-"

This was all a bit too much for Silk, who had just woken up. She made the first excuse for some breathing space she could come up with. "I have to use the bathroom!" she said.

"Ah yes, down the hall on the left."

"What hall?!" Silk snapped. It was a circular building, for crying out loud!

Rarity sighed. "Over here" she said, pointing her hoof down the hall.

As Silk dashed in that direction, she heard Fluttershy whisper, "Um... I think you scared her."

Yes, yes I think that's a fair assessment.

Silk arrived in the bathroom and locked the door behind her, breathing a sigh of relief. She walked over to the mirror and realized she hadn't actually seen herself in the mirror. She could tell what her coat color was, obviously, and her mane color(s) would surely be very similar to her tail, so that wasn't a big deal either. She could see her eyes, though. They were blue, with the typical white sclera and black pupils of a pony. Of course, that wasn't the problem either.

The problem was her mane itself. She had no idea what shape it was in normally, and she had mentioned around Fluttershy that she could dry herself off with a spell.

Was it straight, or maybe wavy? It couldn't have been curly or very styled, it wouldn't be shaped down as neatly as this. Well I guess I can try for something between the two. With a flash of emerald flame, her mane and coat were dried, and she had decided on a slight wave, hoping that the middle ground was the answer, or at least wasn't too noticeable a difference if it wasn't. She had kept the length, the color, and the turquoise stripes. It had been a rushed, unreliable spell when she first took on this form, after all. She was honestly surprised it hadn't bitten her in the flank.

Silk walked out of the bathroom a little more confident, until she saw Fluttershy and her white friend, that is.

"Oh wow, you made your hair wavy!" Fluttershy marveled.

Oh horseapples.

"Oh my! Your coiffure is simply marvelous! The gentle wave, the lustrous sheen, and the texture! It's as soft as a foal's!" the marshmallow mare gushed as she swarmed around Silk and handled her, single-hoofedly crowding her guest.

It better be, it's about thirty seconds old. And what is with this pony? Even with their limited telepathy, changelings still had a sense of personal space. Silk's was being heinously violated right now.

"That was magic, wasn't it? You simply must tell me, what spell did you use?"

Silk shifted nervously. "It's uh... a family secret." Silk felt satisfied with that answer. The best cover stories weren't lies, merely carefully phrased versions of the truth. At least that's how it worked for her.

The pearl coated pony seemed a bit disappointed. "That's a shame, but I suppose we all have our own little tricks of the trade. Oh! Where are my manners?"

I've been wondering that myself.

"I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Rarity, what's yours?"

"I'm Silky Sheets." The answer had come quickly. Silk had introduced herself as such twice already today, and it was getting easier, though she couldn't help but feel like a broken record.

"I do apologize if I made you uncomfortable, Silky. I can get a bit... overzealous in my work."

Silk could taste a bit of embarrassment coming from Rarity. Embarrassment didn't really taste like anything else, it was a weird emotion. Rarity wasn't really suppressing it, but she was doing her best to keep her equanimity. It also seemed she didn't suspect her for what she was, which came as a relief. “I think I can understand that,” she answered, accepting the apology.

“Thank you for understanding, Miss Sheets,” Rarity smiled.

Silk, on the other hoof, recoiled. “Ugh, just Silky please,” she insisted. The extra syllable haphazardly slapped onto her name was bad enough, but being called by that poorly thought out last name was just too much.

“Tell me, Silky, what does a mare of your talents do for a living?”

You're not of the woods yet, are you, Silk? a little voice said in the back of Silk's mocked as she fought her panic down. How exactly was she supposed to answer THAT?! She would have to demonstrate whatever she said somewhere down the line, it was only a matter of time, and that whole "cutie mark" think complicated things. Just what the hay was she supposed to say about a stupid bed?! It wasn't even real, so whatever she decided to say wouldn't match up.

Was she supposed to be a good sleeper? Even if that was a job, which it wasn't, she hardly qualified with the nightmares she'd been having. Was she supposed to be able to literally make a bed? Yeah, right, like she knew how Ponies built things. Was she supposed to be able to pick out great linens and bedding? As if she could get away with that fib around this fashion-obsessed dressmaker who undoubtedly knew about such materials.

There was only one thing to do: come up with an excuse and get the heck out of dodge. "I, uh, oh, look at that, it's almost lunch time! Come on Fluttershy, you can show me where to get something to eat!" she yammered nervously, pushing the pegasus with her head despite her broken hoof and sliding her across the ground.

"Um, okay, I guess I can do that," Fluttershy said, confused about what was going on as she slid out the door, leaving an equally confused Rarity behind.

Back in town, Fluttershy had led the two to the market. Street vendors with quaint booths full of goods of all shapes and sizes lined the streets as far as the eye could see, though due to the large crowd of ponies that gathered to shop there, that wasn't all that far. It seemed everypony was wearing saddlebags here.

"So, uh, what would you like to eat?" Fluttershy queried, having finally worked up the nerve to ask. Silk had, of course, noticed her hesitant nature not long after interacting with her, but it still surprised her how much the pony did so. Such hesitation was somewhat alien to the changeling, who shared many of her thoughts with the rest of her kind... or used to.

Silk thought about the answer. She wasn't truly hungry, of course, at least not for anything that could be picked up here. She doubted she could just order a happyshake.

Oh, wait, that vendor over there is advertising those... but I doubt that's literal.

"Um, maybe we could get some fruit?" Silk asked. That idea wasn't bad. Fruit was sweet, usually, and it was sometimes eaten by Changelings. It wasn't food, really, but it tasted sorta like it. It was something used to lift the spirits, or at least keep them from crashing down, and made one feel like, maybe, one was something more than just some stupid, oversized bug.

"Oh, sure, I know where we can get some. It's this way... I think..."

You think. Terrific.

Fluttershy led Silk through the crowd. It took a while because she kept letting everypony who crossed her path cross first, but she still arrived at her destination in a few minutes. She had stopped at a wooden cart with a green and white striped, triangular-prism-shaped canopy. Above the canopy sat a flat wooden apple with a horseshoe on it. Standing to the side of the cart was a proud looking orange mare in a brown stetson hat. She had both her mane and tail done up in ponytails (a word which baffled Silk as to its origin). Her chest was puffed up in a clear display of pride in her wares, her legs straight and hooves planted firmly on the ground.

The mare's posture relaxed when she saw the two approach. "Well howdy, Fluttershy, what can I do for ya?" she asked in an accent that Silk could not place, not knowing about places like Hoofston or San Anponyo.

Silk's attention wasn't on the mare, though, but on the two bushels of shiny red apples being displayed. Silk hopped forward with her crutch and looked at them all; she rarely saw this much fruit in one place. She took one that looked especially nice.

"That'll be one bit," the straw haired pony said politely.

Silk's head drooped a little. Money. Of course. Just one more thing that was different about this culture. She was about to put back the fruit, when Fluttershy saw her crestfallen friend, pulled out a pair of bits, and took one apple for herself.

"Here you go, Applejack. This is enough, right?"

"Thank ya kindly, sugarcube!" the pony, apparently named Applejack, replied.

Silk was touched by this, but this sentiment soon led to a struggle within her.

She's just been so nice, and I've been so... useless. she thought, shuddering as she repeated the word from her nightmares. I'll find some way to repay her later, I have to. Wait... what later? What am I doing? I can't get attached to them! I'll have to leave as soon as I recover so I don't get caught, and then what good will those connections be?

But maybe the good now will outweigh the bad later?

What good? All my emotions have ever brought me is pain.

"Um, Silky, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked, bringing Silk back to reality.

"Oh, uh, yes, I'm fine." Silk answered, regaining awareness of her surroundings. She was staring down and noticed her cast. "Well, mostly."

Applejack went to shake hooves. "The name's Applejack, proud owner of Sweet Apple Acres" she said, grabbing Silk by the good hoof and shaking it up and down almost as fast as a changeling's wingbeat.

"I'mSilkySheets" Silk blurted, trying to take control of her hoof as quickly as possible. The "Silky" bit was beginning to grow on her, but she was really starting to hate the "Sheets". Oh well, too late now.

"A pleasure makin' your acquaintance, Silky Sheets." Yup, definitely starting to hate that part. "So, how'd you bust your leg, if ya don't mind me askin'." Fluttershy reacted slightly at this question; she hadn't wanted to pry and hadn't asked all week how Silk had broken her leg.

"I... I got wounded during the fight in Canterlot." she answered. It was the truth, and surely injuries after the attack had to be fairly common.

Applejack nodded. "Ah, I gotcha. Nasty, good fer nothin' varments, those changelings. Impersonatin' princess Cadance, going all mind-doohicky on Twilight's brother, and attackin' everypony to boot! What kinda monster does somethin' like that?"

"Uh, heh-heh... yeah..." Silk chuckled halfheartedly, guilt beginning to weigh on her. She had considered that "the enemy" would turn on her when they knew what she was, but she hadn't actually looked at their perspective of things yet. She took a bite of her apple. Now she needed this pick-me-up.

Applejack didn't notice, and was too busy whispering something to Fluttershy. "Did she run into Pinkie yet?"

Fluttershy gave a slight nod.

"So it is a welcome party? But she's been actin'... Pinkier than usual all day. I haven't seen her actin' this weird since the parasprite incident. She came by and bought a dozen apples so fast I couldn't even tell who it was, until I found a trail of confetti that is."

"Oh my!"

"Well, I guess we know what we'll be doin' later on today, don't we? Take care of yourself, now, I've got to get back to my cart."

"Oh, uh, okay," Fluttershy mumbled under her breath.

"Well, what now?" Silk asked, her spirits better than a few moments ago. It was an temporary increase in morale, but the apple did take the edge off of things. It was like an aspirin tablet in that way: it didn't take away the cause of the pain, but it let one ignore it more easily for a while.

Fluttershy thought for a moment. "We could go to the park." she suggested.

Silk liked the idea, a park would be someplace she would be more used to than any street or building. And so the two set off for the park, arriving there a few minutes later.

Silk looked around for something to do. If she could still fly, she could sit in a tree and enjoy the view. She could sit on a cloud, for that matter. But she couldn't fly, so that was out of the question. She could enjoy a swim in that lake over there, or was it a pond? Either way, with her hoof still in unknown condition beneath this "cast" thing, it was probably not a good idea. Fluttershy had taken to feeding a family of ducks, but the ducks just looked at her warily.

So Silk decided to simply sit down on a park bench. Well, more lie down than sit down. Maybe rest her eyes a bit... okay, she admitted to herself, she was sleepy. Even though she was she was still going a little stir-crazy back in that little room, and wanted to move, she was still so very tired.

"WAKE UP, SLEEPYHEAD!"

Silk rubbed her eyes with her good hoof. She had woken up from the same nightmare again, the same one she always had. The same hallway, the same swamp, the same faces disappearing, and the queen ever slipping through her hooves. Only, there was something different this time. She could have sworn she saw Fluttershy for some reason. Or did she? It was all becoming a blur now.

It was getting late now, the sun had set and the moon was in the sky. She had been asleep for a few hours. Silk looked to the front of the bench and saw Fluttershy standing behind Pinkie Pie. With a name matching her so well, it was a hard name to forget. Actually, a lot of ponies seemed to meet that criteria. Silk thought, maybe, she could have called her self Bluebug... or, uh... Imapony... maybe "Silky Sheets" wasn't the worst name in retrospect.

Pinkie bounced up and down. "Oh good, you're up! Most ponies don't sleep during the day, that's really weird. Do you stay up all night? Well, I guess Princess Luna would like that, but I mean, really! You must've been super tired! What were you dreaming about?"

Silk had a shot to take some of the wind out of Pinkie's sails, and she knew it, and Pinkie seemed to have plenty of it to spare. "The worst day of my life," she answered bluntly and truthfully.

That ought to slow her down just a little, maybe make her comprehensible.

Pinkie frowned, her bouncing ceased. "Oh, well that's no fun at all! Rock farm..." she growled, shaking her hoof at the air in no direction in particular. "Oh well!" she said, her smile right back to its full beaming glory. "I've got just the thing to fix that, over this way! Come on, come on!"

Or maybe not.

Huh. I guess ponies DO hollow out trees.

Silk found herself staring at a large tree with windows, a door, and a balcony installed. The upper floor, or floors, were lit up, but the ground floor was dark. Silk couldn't see anything in those windows.

Pinkie was excited, more so than usual, if that was possible. "Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on!" Pinkie squealed, urging Silk into the door. Silk shrugged and opened the doors and stepped through.

It's too dark to see anything. Maybe I should try using some ma-

"SURPRISE!" a large number of ponies yelled, popping out of nowhere as the lights flashed on.

WAH! I'M UNDER ATTACK! Silk thought in a panic, diving for cover and backing herself into a corner, her eyes darting around the room looking for movement; she wasn't paying any real attention to the room itself.

The ponies were all quieted by this unusual reaction, producing quiet mutterings of confusion when Pinkie came bouncing in, giggling as she did so. "What, you look like you've never seen a party before! Oh, right, rock farm, or something like a rock farm, I guess you haven't!"

Silk calmed down a bit as she noticed no angry mobs, boulders, fireballs or lightning bolts seemed to be coming for her. "Party?" she asked. She'd heard the word before, but wasn't a party a group or something?

"Sure! You invite all your friends somewhere and have fun! Here, try this!" the party pony said, grabbing a piece of cake and stuffing it into the faux pony's mouth.

"No no, wait, I'm not hung-RFF-" Silk tried to refuse, only to have her protests smothered by the offending material.

Wait, this was sweet. This was very sweet. The subtleties of the flavors were lost on her, not having a pony's palate and whatnot, but Silk really enjoyed whatever this was. Silk had had honey once before, and was currently debating with herself about which was sweeter.

Silk swallowed the cake, which took some effort to do without choking since her mouth had been literally stuffed with it.

"Good, huh? I KNEW my blueberry apple cake would be delicious! Want another piece?"

Silk coughed, not having swallowed all of it perfectly. "Uh, no, thanks, I'm not hungry." She wasn't a pony, she didn't have the same hunger they did. On the other hoof, she did get full at a similar rate while transformed. "... well, maybe one more."

Pinkie smiled and sliced "Silky" another piece of cake, then went off to dance somewhere in the crowd.

Silk took in the decorations as she stood there contentedly munching on the cake a little at a time. There was a bowl of what appeared to be some sort of fruit liquid, though that neon color couldn't possibly be natural. The cake was massive, standing twice as tall and just as wide as its baker, yellow and blue frosting decorating it. Hung from the ceiling was a large banner that read Surprise Belated Not On A Rock Farm Or Something Like A Rock Farm Welcome Party!!!. Silk had no idea how she'd managed to fit all that on the banner.

"Enjoying the party?" a familiar voice said from behind her. Silk turned around to see Twilight Sparkle.

"I guess," she replied dispassionately.

"Wow, Pinkie really wasn't kidding when she said you came 'from a rock farm... or someplace like a rock farm'. Everypony has a blast at Pinkie's parties!"

"They're great, but the cleanup afterward isn't!" a voice said half jokingly from behind the purple unicorn. Silk couldn't place the gender of this one well. It was either a young male or a somewhat older female. She did not have to guess for long because not a second later the voice's owner stepped into view.

It was a dragon. Now these creatures Silk understood, to a degree that is. It was pretty poor scouting to wind up getting too close and too barbequed while trying to get more details. Risk-reward and all that.

This was a male, a toddler by the size and shape, one that either hadn't gone into his hording phase or hadn't had the access to treasure that it required, which was very common for a couple of reasons, namely scarcity and maternal intervention.

The young dragon here had purple scales, green eyes, and green ridges. His ears, for lack of a better word, were a lighter green, while his underbelly was a green that was lighter still. Dragons were highly intelligent creatures. At this age they could talk, since they were able to learn as quickly as a changeling or pony even if they did not grow at the same rate. By all accounts but two, he was your typical dragon, but two accounts were two accounts still.

Where was his mother, and why was he socializing with ponies and being friendly about it? Maybe he was a slave? He did say he was cleaning up after the party, so that seemed likely.

Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled. "Oh alright, Spike, I'll help you clean up. With a party this big, I couldn't ask you to do it all by yourself."

Well, so much for that theory, Silk thought.

"Thanks, Twilight, I just hope the party doesn't get too loud and wake up Peewee."

The unicorn snickered. "I don't think you have to worry about that, Spike" she said, pointing her hoof straight up. A small, bright orange phoenix hatchling was fluttering in a chain of loop-the-loops around the banner, just smiling to itself.

The dragon's ridges went stiff, similarly to how somepony's hair might stand on end. "Yikes! Peewee, get down from there, you might hurt yourself!"

It's a phoenix, I really don't think anything non-magical could hurt it for long... wait a second, he's concerned about it? He's a dragon, they're the natural predators of phoenixes! If they didn't hunt the young for sport, the population of phoenixes would explode, so to speak, in theory leading to widespread famine and wildfires. Well, so much for knowing something about anything in this town.

Silk sighed and used a bit of telekinesis, her horn lighting up as she gently stopped the chick, which looked disappointed, in midair, handing it to the dragon. She'd be lying if she said she didn't half expect him to eat it or smash it or something as soon as he had it; instead, he started talking to it with a concerned tone and walked off through the crowd, up the stairs, and out of sight.

Twilight smiled at this display. "That was very nice of you."

Silk shrugged. "Was it?" she nonchalantly asked.

"You're not having fun, are you?"

The changeling shook her head. It wasn't that this wasn't wonderful, it really was. There was plenty of food here, even for a changeling. Especially for a changeling; the amount of happiness and joy in the room was overwhelming, the chatter was punctuated by bouts of laughter. The music stank, but that was probably because it was pony music. Different cultures, different tastes, after all. The cake, too, had its merits. Overall, there was no reason for her not to be having fun, save for the most important reason: she wouldn't let herself. She couldn't let herself. If she got too close to anypony, she would just have one more memory of loss when she had to go, whether voluntary or forced. Voluntary would be better, that way at least nopony would hate her.

"I can't let myself," she confided.

Twilight used her magic to grab Silk by the hoof, the bad one. "Hey, wait! What're you- OW!... ow!... ow ow ow ow owowow!" Silk winced as she was dragged through the crowd. Even without the distracting pain, the magic coming from Twilight Sparkle was leagues ahead of her own; a gap in ability that even a lifetime of training could not bridge. She couldn't have gotten away if she tried.

The taste coming off of Twilight was one of resolve. It was a very neutral, almost metallic taste. "You need to talk with Pinkie... which come to think of it may count as cruel and unusual punishment... but if there's anypony who can get anypony to actually have fun, it's her!"

Twilight let her go when she saw Pinkie dancing the... actually, that shouldn't be physically possible. Come on, Twilight, it's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie she thought as she tried to let that one go.

Silk was rubbing her hoof, rather ineffectively due to the cast. "Next time at least try to ponyhandle me by someplace that isn't shattered," she accused.

Twilight sheepishly apologized, having forgotten about that whole broken-hoof thing. But still, Silky's choice of words was odd. "Shattered"? Maybe she was tired of the word "broken", or just wanted to make a point.

Twilight then said five little words. "Pinkie, Silky isn't having fun."

Pinkie stopped dancing and gasped. "STILL?! This is serious! When did you get off the rock farm?"

Silk still didn't quite know what she was going on about, but her situation hadn't changed until the battle, so she gave that number. "I don't know... a week ago?"

Another gasp.

"Look, I just can't afford to be making friends with anypony. I just can't. If I do it'll just make it that much harder when I have to leave... or they have to leave... or when they start to hate me."

Pinkie frowned. "Well that's just dumb!"

"Huh?"

"Friendship doesn't mean any of that stuff! Duh! Real friends don't ever hate each other, they have fun and laugh and play together! They're there to make you happy, not sad! True friends stay friends even if they wind up far away! Don't think about goodbyes, think about the hellos! Have fun now, don't worry about the what ifs and the laters! I know living on some rock farm is hard, I used to too, but if you try to feel nothing so that it doesn't hurt, you won't feel the happiness and joy everypony can give you, and that's no way to go through life. Now, what do you say we go get some fruit punch, okay?" the party pony said. As she did so, her frown turned slowly back into the same beaming grin that she seemed to always wear.

Silk was speechless. Her ideas, everything she had been taught, every way she had known how to survive, all of it had been shot down and shown to her as utterly wrong in less than a minute. She had already discovered it had been so much harder to suppress her emotions but... maybe she didn't need to. While still reeling from the shock of this revelation, Silk decided to take a leap of faith and finally let all of her defenses down.

Silk began to cry, tears streaming down her face unchecked. And yet, on her face she wore a giant smile. She was happy. She was sad and confused and curious as to just what the heck a rock farm was, but more than anything she was happy. She was happy, and Pinkie, and Twilight, and the whole party was too. This joy, the jubilant mirth that filled the air easily overwhelmed the sadness that Silk could taste, the metaphoric acid thoroughly neutralized by the base and then some.

Silk sniffled. "... okay," she said, following Pinkie to the proverbial fruit punch. She at least hoped it was a fun game, punching perfectly good fruit seemed like a waste otherwise.

"TWILIGHT! You said you'd help with the cleanup!" Spike called down to the purple pony in aggravation. This party was big even by Pinkie Pie standards, and cleaning it all up himself was NOT his idea of a great evening.

Twilight was in her lab, taking care of one final thing. "Just a minute, Spike! I've already eliminated every known disease, toxin, and genetic disorder, so I'm just going to get a sequence of Silky's DNA to send to the Canterlot Health Institute! Who knows, maybe they'll name the syndrome... or whatever... after me!" she said gleefully. The chance at discovery excited her more than the recognition, but the recognition would nice too.

Spike rolled his eyes. "Don't they normally give the name to the patient?"

"Quiet, Spike!" she snapped back. He could be such a killjoy sometimes. Twilight lowered the sample into the sequencer apparatus. Being the student of Princess Celestia herself had its perks, and second-hoof, semi-cutting-edge equipment was one of them. She flipped the switch on and the machine made a few motions with the vial, pouring and measuring until...

ERROR: INVALID SAMPLE

"Huh?"

She tried again.

ERROR: INVALID SAMPLE

Twilight blinked. She took a cursory scan of the machine that lasted a few minutes. "Nothing SEEMS broken. Alright, let's give this another try."

ERROR: INVALID SAMPLE

"Lousy hoof-me-downs" the mare complained. She knew this was the right sample, she'd been running tests on it all week. She hit the override code to set it to scan for a valid sample continuously. A couple broken up cells wouldn't stop the law of large numbers!

OVERRIDE ACCEPTED
ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME
500 HOURS

"20.83 days... three weeks!?" Twilight's hoof met her forehead. "Ugh. Oh well, I guess I wasn't really going to be using a gene sequencer for anything else... except documenting plant species from the Everfree Forest with Zecora the Tuesday after next," she groaned.

"Coming, Spike!"

Twilight left the room, leaving the machine whirring behind her.

Silk returned to Fluttershy's house after the party. As she sat there in bed with the shades drawn, she pondered about the events of the day.

While a large part of her was apprehensive about simply lowering her proverbial guard like she was doing, a larger part felt that she kind of had to. She was living in an entirely new circumstance, maybe it was best to look at the world in a completely new way.

And then there were the lies. The queen had lied to her; had lied to every single one of them. It felt like everything Silk had ever known was an illusion breaking apart. Maybe she was in the illusion now, being lied to by these ponies. But they had yet to lead her astray. Perhaps it was a desperate changeling's gamble to trust them in the first place, but she had, and she was... better... for it.

It's decided. I'll just stay hidden, it's been a week and I haven't been caught yet. I'm not going to leave as long as there's a place here for me. This thought, even as it came, filled her with guilt.

She had no purpose here. Fluttershy was letting her stay out of the kindness of her heart, but she had no job. Her "special talent" was a fake, just as she was a fake. She was determined to find a way to pay Fluttershy back. Pinkie, too. Still, the ashes of the queen from all of her nightmares rang clear in her mind.

Useless...

Silk shook off this bad thought as she spat. Lowered defenses meant stronger emotions, which meant bad feelings tasted even worse.

Silk went down to sleep. Perhaps this night her dreams would be kinder.

No such luck.

Did I just see Pinkie?

Chapter 4: Worthless

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"Now hold still, I'll try to be as gentle as possible."

"Ow."

"Sorry."

"Ow."

"Sorry."

"Ow."

"Sorry."

"Ow."

"Sorry."

"Ow." Silk winced, twitching slightly as yet another stitch was removed. She'd heard that she had some stitches under that cast, but she had no idea that having stitches was actually... having stitches. The thought of sewing up a bleeding gash in this ever-exposed, floppy pony flesh made Silk a bit uncomfortable. Nauseous was probably a good word for that, if a little strong. The idea of somepony taking a needle and piercing through her body was a bit unnerving.

Of course, this was because of this fragile pony form she was in. A changeling's shell was normally quite resilient. One could sleep in a rose bush and pay its thorns no heed. As such, a needle would draw no fear from a changeling normally. Transformed, however, the idea caused Silk to feel some fear, possibly more than a normal pony who was used to objects being able to prick them would be. She had her soft parts, after all, but that consisted of parts of her underbelly and her eyes. The rest was safe inside her shell, save for her clipped wings. But while a pony's imagination would have it piercing skin, Silk's would have it pierce chitin.

Still, that had all been done whilst Silk lay unconscious. Right now Fluttershy was taking the stitches out. It didn't really hurt, per se, but it felt more than foreign enough to warrant a few small interjections.

With tweezers in mouth, Fluttershy had removed the last of the stitches. She put placed the tweezers on the counter and took some cotton in her hoof, dipping it into some antiseptic. She pressed the onto Silk's healing wound and rubbing it gently but firmly. Silk winced again; the liquid Fluttershy dipped it into stung a bit.

As soon as Fluttershy had finished, Silk stood on her hooves. She had been moving around on a crutch for eight days now, and she was getting pretty tired of it. She also very much wanted to fly, but that was an issue that only time and luck could resolve. "Now I know the x-ray shows those big breaks are all better, but the little ones might still hurt a little so be careful... uh, not that I don't think you'd be careful."

Silk looked down at her leg. Everything seemed to be in order, except that she could still see what remained of the wound. The scars on her bone would show up on her shell if she turned back to normal, right where they were before she transformed in the first place. This scar on the skin that this would probably leave was easy enough to remove with transformation. The tissue itself would remain scar tissue, but only in functionality. Aesthetically, it would be just the same as everything else, unless she decided to keep said scars. Silk thought she might slowly shrink away its appearance over the course of a couple months; Fluttershy had been quite startled when she fixed the two "fractures", after all.

Time might not actually heal all wounds, but it had healed Silk's hoof. Two weeks in a cast, mostly in bed, for a pattern of hairline fractures was how long it took.

Silk was honestly very surprised, it would have taken much longer to heal back with the swarm, had the changelings still been around. The typical treatment was similar to fixing a piece of broken porcelain: smaller, sharper piece of shell would be removed as carefully as possible, while larger pieces would be held together in place as best as possible while waiting for the glue to harden. The glue in the example was simply how long it took for a changeling's leg to heal. The bleeding would slow down after a number of hours, and even trace blood loss would stop completely after a couple of days, but walking would take at least two months for a minor break, eighteen for a bad one, and Silk's would have taken five. Getting that part of the shell back to the same durability as before the injury? That took about six years. The two weeks in bed for Silk, while frustrating and mind-numbingly boring, were a godsend compared to lying on a branch for five months.

That said, she had heard that unicorns and earth ponies with a broken leg or hoof would suffer an agonizing condition called laminatus or laminitis or llamatuts or something. A pony's body would become unable to handle their own weight and their other legs would collapse along with them. Eventually somepony would need to be put to sleep to end their suffering. Silk had asked about this, but Fluttershy didn't know a thing. Twilight Sparkle, on the other hoof, said this hadn't been a major concern for nearly two hundred years, gone the way of the ponio virus, whatever that was.

Silk tested out her leg, walking at first. It felt comfortable enough, though the skin where the stitches itched a lot. Still, that was a comfort thing, not an obstacle to basic locomotion. After trying out simple walking for a couple minutes, she decided to try to walk outside, but the first obstacles were the steps.

Silk looked down the staircase with apprehension as Fluttershy kept a nervous eye on her. Silk had never actually used these things before; Fluttershy had helped her down the last time. Before that, on the markedly rare occasions that she had had a need to do so, she had always used her wings; obviously this wasn't an option. She had always assumed that was normal: why else would they be called a "flight of stairs"? Nervousness and hesitation were slightly sour emotions, but in small doses they were completely harmless; the emotions themselves caused more trouble than their effect on the body.

She daintily lowered her left hoof down onto the closest step; while she wasn't sure if a tumble from here could break any bones or not, and while she also wasn't in any big hurry to wind up with another fracture, she was more concerned about winding up with bruises. Silk's hoof made contact and planted firmly on the ground.

Well, so far so good, she thought as she looked down to the bottom. She swallowed hard. Was this room always this high up?

After experiencing far more vacillation than she would ever care to admit, Silk finally made it outside. Soft, fluffy white clouds dotted the robin's egg sky. Silk was a flier, and longed to flit about the skies; to land on a soft cloud as the caress of gentle zephyr pushed her slowly across the skies upon her nebulous vessel. Still, for now she was content to stay on the ground. Her wings would have to wait a few years, and she had just recovered her legs.

Silk began to trot down through the area, just getting a feel for things, cautiously optimistic about her recovery. The animals around seemed to be less on edge than they had been at first, but they were still wary of her presence.

It was warm out, and there was a breeze in the air. The wind left a pleasant cooling sensation on her skin and caused her hair to move slightly, like branches on a tree. Silk picked up her tempo, moving into a canter. She had been in pony form for over two weeks now, but now she was actually moving about in it. It was different. A changeling's chitin was tough, and allowed one to survive in harsh conditions, making one nearly invulnerable. Being a pony, or at least changing into the body of one, had other advantages. One of those was a gentler, more sensitive sense of touch, though this too had its drawbacks.

“Ouch!” Silk yelped as something sharp pricked her, slowing down to a stop. It was a very unfamiliar sensation. She looked down and noticed a bee's stinger lodged in her side, the insect fallen dead below her.

“Silky, be careful!” Fluttershy called in warning. “You're too close to the beehives! You have to move away! Uh, at your earliest convenience that is.”

Ah, that explained it. Silk simply stood there for a moment as the bees began to come out of the hive. She glared at them, and suddenly they stopped moving towards her. They did not have true emotion, but they hesitated as a one would hesitate to grab something that radiated a scalding heat. A few moments passed and the bees began to move into their hive as if in apology.

Hive based flying insects such as bees and wasps instinctively knew better than to provoke a changeling. Their stingers could not pierce a changeling's thick shell, and as such they had no defense should one decide to simply smash their nest to bits in a fit of fury. The only worse thing to provoke was a dragon, which could incinerate the entire hive without any chance of the queen escaping.

Fluttershy watched this in just a little bit of awe. “Wow, Silky, I didn't know you were good with bees.”

Silk shook her head. “I'm not, they just know better.”

“Huh?”

Silk giggled, pulling the barbed stinger out of her shoulder with a quick light of her horn. “Oh nothing. Anyway, I should get going, I need to find some way to pay you back for everything.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “No, it's okay, you don't owe me anything, I was happy to help a friend.”

And that's exactly why I need to pay you back.

Silk would have been quite willing to snub Fluttershy and skip town before payment if she had only taken her in in order to extort from her. For the first few minutes, that's exactly what Silk had thought the mustard mare was going to do. Instead, she felt compelled to try to make it up to the kind pony however she could. She was her friend, after all.

“Well, my hoof feels fine, now I'm going to go look for a job.”

Silk was about to start galloping into town when Fluttershy suggested “Oh, I think Bucky Bedding is looking for somepony to help out with bed making.”

Silk had to restrain herself from making a blatant wince. It looked like she was out of time to keep the whole fake cutie mark a complete mystery. She would have to make something up. “I, uh,” she mumbled cautiously, “I don't... think that's my special talent.”

“Oh, uh, okay then. Maybe you could help Daisy Dreams with ponies that are having trouble sleeping?”

Oh for Chrys' sake, do they have somepony for everything here?! “No, uh, that isn't it either.”

“Then, um, maybe help Rarity pick ou-”

“No, no, no.” Silk interrupted, having guessed at that nonoption when she first met the fashion pony. “I can't do any of those things.”

“I'm sorry, I guess I was jumping to conclusions. Sorry. So... what is your special talent?” Fluttershy asked.

“I... I don't remember,” she lied. This wasn't a half truth, or a misdirected truth, it was a full-blown lie. For Silk, this was the hardest kind of cover story to pull off.

Fluttershy gave a quiet gasp. “You don't remember?” Silk shook her head. “Not even a little bit?” Another shake. “Oh, that's awful. I can't imagine what it must be like to get your cutie mark and forget what it means.”

Neither can I, technically. “I'm... sure it'll be fine...” Silk trailed off. She could still taste Fluttershy's concern. Great, now I'm lying to myself. “Well, see you soon!” she said, bidding farewell to the pegasus and galloping off down the path towards town.

Feels like my leg is fine. Now I just have to make a new start.

Silk didn't know where to begin. She stood in the town square, and everything was moving. The many ponies about were all going this way and that, and the lingering emotions in the air were too many and too mixed to even tell apart, constantly shifting like the sands of the zebras' great desert (not that the entire land was such). Actually trying to eat this weird, gelatinous amalgamation of emotions would definitely make her sick to her stomach.

Silk hadn't really had the opportunity to observe this before. In Canterlot she was too concerned with carrying out her mission, the last time she had come here she had been too occupied with just getting out of the cottage and following Fluttershy around.

This could take some getting used to.

Silk stood about and watched the curious sights for a few minutes, all the while pondering to herself what to do.

Hm, there are a lot of ponies selling things, maybe I could do that? No, no, I'd have to have something to sell, plus I have no idea how to attract customers. Maybe I could put on a show? I could, um, transform and play multiple roles in an act... no, wait, that would be a really bad idea, I can't just reveal myself like that! Hm, maybe I could do impressions of famous ponies... no, wait, I don't know any famous ponies. She had no idea how wrong she was. No, no, wait, that would expose me too. What am I good at... I know, I'm a scout! I could deliver messages! Oh... wait... that's right, I can't, my wings... plus I don't think being a dracologist is safe without them. Well, it wasn't safe before, but now it's just suicidal. Great, now I've made myself sad. Okay, don't think about it, new ideas, new ideas, um... maybe I could ask Twilight for help. She seems like the knowledgeable sort. Yeah, could work.”

Silk set off through the town to the library... tree... house... place. She wasn't really sure what to call it.

There was a knock on Twilight's door, pulling her out of her new edition of “Sorcery and Spellcraft”. Spike was out getting groceries, so she stood up and walked over to the door to answer it. She opened the door to find Silky Sheets standing outside the door frame.

“Hi Twilight, can I ask you something?” the blue mare asked.

Twilight looked behind her quickly, suddenly self-conscious of the state of the library. She had had another long study session the night before and books were unkemptly strewn about. “Sure, come on in,” Twilight noticed that her guest wasn't wearing her cast anymore. “I'm glad to see your hoof is better.”

“Thanks! I'm just glad it wasn't worse, I really don't like staying in one place on the ground.”

There she goes being weird again. Oh well, that's how all my friends seemed at first, and Pinkie never stopped seeming weird. Twilight thought.

Silky shifted and looked like she was getting up the courage to ask something. “I, uh, don't suppose...” she clumsily began, Fluttershy rubbing off on her no doubt, “... that you know anything... I can... I mean, if there are any jobs... that I'd be... qualified for?”

Twilight chuckled a bit. “Oh I'm sure there's something around here. What does your cutie mark mean again? That's usually a clue to what a good job is.”

Silky gulped. “I... uh... don't... think mine really... means anything.”

If Twilight had been drinking something she would have either spat or choked at that news. “What?! Of course it means something, it always does! You can't be talentless, can you?!”

“Well if I do have a special talent I don't remember what it is and I can't figure it out, okay?!” Silky snapped.

Really tactful, Twilight, she scolded herself, having apparently struck a nerve after touching on what must be a sensitive issue with all the care and grace of a sledgehammer. “Sorry Silky, it's just really rare for somepony not to know what their special talent is after they got their cutie mark,” she explained apologetically.

Silky huffed once and for just a moment Twilight could have sworn she made a face as if she had just unwittingly bitten into a jalapeno. She breathed in loudly and sighed. “It's alright, I know it's unusual. I just... I need help. I don't like being so...” Silk trailed off, apparently unable or unwilling to say whatever she was about to.

Twilight got the jist of it, though. “Okay, well, I don't know about anything like a career for somepony with your... circumstances, but there always seem to be odd jobs around town.” She looked at the disheveled shelves. “Maybe you could start by helping put away these books? I'm sure Spike would appreciate the help."

Silky looked at Twilight for a moment, as if trying to figure out if she was being duped into simply doing somepony's chores. She must have been really concentrating, too, since the tip of her tongue was sticking out of the corner of her mouth. “Well... okay! I guess that's a start,” the guest resolutely declared.

Silky's horn began to glow and a number of books started to float towards her, before floating into the shelves.
Twilight smiled, feeling she had done her good deed for the day, returning to her book. “If you need any help, I'll be right over here, okay?”

“Okay!”

Twilight was continuing to read her book on loan from Canterlot.

Ritual magics are spells that require preparation and planning to cast, but allow the caster or casters to perform feats of magic beyond their normal capabilities. Each ritual is different, and there are a number of different possible requirements, such as the number of casters, chants, duration of casting, specific sigils, runes,-

“WAAGH!” Spike's voice cried out.

Twilight snapped her attention to the scene at hoof. Spike's eye was twitching, his mouth agape. A bag of groceries rested on the table, as a blue unicorn stood there looking startled and confused. The dragon was staring at the books in disbelief, and not in a good way.

Twilight walked up to see what he was looking at and also fell stunned.

There sat all the books neatly in order.

Unfortunately, that was an alphabetical order.

For both fiction and nonfiction.

By title.

“Silky... you do know how to use a library, right?” Twilight asked.

Silky stood there and frowned. “Uh, A-B-C-D?” she offered with a halfhearted smile. She had clearly figured out she had messed up by their reactions. “Oh,” she bemoaned, slumping down disheartened to the floor.

Spike began frantically rearranging books, talking to himself in a stressed murmer. “That goes here, and that goes there. This goes there, and that goes over there...”

“Don't worry, Silky,” Twilight reassured, “it's just the first try. I'm sure you'll find some jobs you're better at.”

At that moment, the library door opened as three fillies entered the room. A white unicorn, a yellow earth pony, and an orange pegasus.

Uh oh.

Applebloom piped up while Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle started scanning the shelves for something. “Twilight, do you still have that book on cutie marks?”

“Well yes, Applebloom, but didn't you just look at and return it three days ago?”

“Well, yeah, but I figured even if lookin' at a book on cutie marks with no pictures in it is borin' and don't make a lick a' sense, there might be somthin' in there that could help us find our special talents!”

“Found it!” Sweetie Belle squeaked. “It was under C! Everything's in order now!”

“Yeah!” Scootaloo agreed enthusiastically, “Good thing you rearranged things, Twilight, it would've taken forever to find this with that old dumb way!”

Doesn't anypony appreciate the dewey decimal system anymore?!

Silk's ears had perked up. “Did you say you're looking for your special talents?” she inquired.

“That's right,” Applebloom answered.

“Do you think I could tag along?”

I'm not sure I like where this is going. Twilight thought.

“I don't know if we want a chaperone along.”

“No, I mean, I need to find something I'm useful at, too.”

“But you have a cutie mark already!”

“I don't remember what it means.”

“Hmm” Applebloom pondered, tapping her hoof on her chin a couple times in thought. “HUDDLE!” she yelled, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle zipping over to her. The three literally put their heads together and formed a circle as they began whispering to each other. It was too quiet and too far away for Twilight to hear. Then again, she did have a spell for that.
Just as Twilight was about to cast the spell to sate her curiosity, the three broke their huddle. “Okay,” Scootaloo announced, “you can come along with us for now as a Cutie Mark Crusaders Newbie!”

“Initiate!” yelled Sweetie Belle

“Trainee!” insisted Applebloom.

“No, newbie!”

“Initiate!”

“We can decide later! And it's trainee!”

The three stepped outside as they argued semantics, Silky following close in tow, clearly without a clue what she was in for.

Twilight tried to warn her. “Wait, Silky, you might not want to...” The door slammed. “... nevermind.”

Spike had temporarily stopped his frantic reshelving to watch the scene. “Uh, did what I think just happened happen?”

“I think so, Spike.”

“Do you think she knows what she's in for?”

“She has no idea.”

A few hours later, Silk galloped into a clearing and hid behind a conveniently placed tree.

Well strike working with those three! Even if they were focused on finding a job instead of doing random stuff, I don't think I have enough lives to keep that up! Where am I, anyway?

On second glance, this wasn't a clearing, or was it? The underbrush had certainly been removed, but there were trees. There were trees all over the place, all arranged into neat little rows and columns, spread out across hills and plains. Hanging from the branches were numerous red and green fruits. Silk was standing in an orchard.

Apple trees? A whole lot of them, too. Wait, I should know this. Hmm, what am I not remembering?

At that moment bark and a growl startled Silk, causing her to jump. She looked down to see a small brown and white dog. Silk wasn't sure, but it seemed to be a female. She could not place the breed, but she didn't really consider a dog in such a way to begin with. To her, a dog was an abnormal wolf bred and domesticated by ponies, one that considered certain ponies it interacted with as a part of its pack.

The dog continued to bark and growl at her, alerting whoever might be listening to the presence of an intruder. Silk counted her blessings that this was a watch dog, not a guard or attack dog, but was still hesitant to simply ignore it, it might bite her, and in this form that would probably hurt, but she couldn't exactly blast it for no good reason. She decided on an idea that popped into her head.

A voice called from somewhere within the orchard. “Winona? What're you barkin' at, girl?”

Silk could recognize that accent, and since the little yellow filly Applebloom was in the other direction, she had a strong hunch as to who that might be. She added two and two together, and recalled who owned this plot of land.
Sure enough, Applejack came into view a few moments later. “Uh, Silky? Ya mind puttin' Winona down for me?”
Silk had taken the liberty of simply levitating the dog safely off the ground, barking harmlessly and helplessly in midair. She then put Winona back down gently onto the ground, letting go as her horn stopped glowing. The canine kept growling in suspicion.

“Winona, what's gotten into you? She ain't stealin' nothin'!” the farmer scolded. Winona looked up to her owner with a whimper, her ears moving back and her tail hanging guiltily between her legs. Giving her dog a scratch to let her know that she wasn't too mad, Applejack turned her attention to the “intruder.”

“Well, howdy there, Silky She-”

“Just Silky” the changeling interrupted.

“- Alright, Silky, what brings ya out here?”

Silk's expression changed to one of fearful recollection as she struggled to keep a cognitive thought of the incident. “Cutie mark, talent, job, beavers, dam, so much concrete, so many angry buck teeth, crusaders, ran away.”

Applejack chuckled. “Yeah, they can be a hoof full some times, but they're good fillies.”

“About that, are you and Applebloom related?” Silk queried.

“Yeah, as a matter of fact, she's my little sister. How'd ya know?”

Silk did her impression of Applebloom. “How do ya think? I don't think I'm imaginin' the similarities. The name was a clue, too.” Word choice aside, a changeling's impressions were always flawless if they were of somepony they heard speaking, though only if they actually sounded like that normally. More than one changeling had messed up in the past by imitating somepony with a hoarse voice.

Applejack was impressed. “Wow, that was pretty good. You an impressionist or somethin'?”

“Sort of. It's crossed my mind, but I really don't think that's a good idea. It's... complicated,” Silk said, her voice returning to normal for her disguise.

Applejack noticed that there was something the unicorn wasn't saying, but decided not to press the issue. “Well, if ya say so.”

Silk looked about the farm. It was big, really big. Surely there was something for her to try her hoof at here. “Speaking of which, is there anything you could use a hoof with here? Maybe an... 'odd job'?” she asked, quoting Twilight Sparkle. “I just need to do something.”

Applejack thought for a moment. “I suppose I might have a thing or two that needs doin' if you're offerin'. It ain't gonna be easy, though.”

“That's fine! I don't need easy, I just need something!” Silk said, grinning enthusiastically.

Silk was sweating. Her legs burned from the task of pulling the heavy plow through the hilly earth, her muscles aching in places she literally didn't know she had. She wondered why, exactly, an orchard would need plowing, but she let it go. She didn't really know anything about farming, and even if she did, she likely wouldn't care. Applejack had said something about her brother needing to see somepony named Minuette because of something like one too many Pinkie parties. Something about teeth and roots so she needed her to plow this... she hadn't really been paying attention.

Two more rows.

It was midafternoon now, and she had been pulling this plow for quite a while. Applejack certainly wasn't lying about this task not being easy. Silk was an average sized changeling, and she had transformed into an average sized pony. She would receive no extra help besides a little extra pull from her magic, though the mental strain from helping move such a heavy object for so long had also begun to take its toll.

One more row.

Silk panted, the sun beating down on her. For the first time, her coat was soaked with sweat. Every now and again a light breeze would give her a brief reprieve, cooling her off from the heat. She was tired, but she could taste her own steeled determination to see this through.

Done. Silk thought as she sat on her haunches for a moment to catch her breath. She had spent a lot of time in dragon territories, as inconspicuously as she could, and as such was used to heat. The hard labor on top of that, however, she hadn't ever done before. She looked behind her, her task completed, and got a taste of pride.

Applejack had arrived a couple of minutes earlier, guessing correctly about when she would finish. “Hooie, I reckon I had you pegged all wrong, Silky She...” Silk glared at her. “... Silky. After Rarity told me about yer hair spell, I'da figured you for somepony who didn't know about a hard day's work.”

Uh oh, I guess word has gotten out about that, and if that's gotten out, what else has everypony heard about? Oh well, if everypony thinks it's just a spell and nopony sees it, then it's perfectly harmless. Silk thought.

Applejack pulled out some bits from a saddlebag. “Here, take this for all your hard work,” she said, giving them to Silk, who then realized she didn't have a saddlebag of her own and opted to carry them with magic.

“So,” the imitation pony inquired, “what's next?”

Applejack wasn't sure what to make of that. “Woah, there, sugarcube. Ya just finished up not half a minute ago, you might want to take a breather and get somethin' ta eat first.”

Silk shook her head. “Nope, I'm fine, what's next?” she said, but her heavy breathing belied her.

“Well, that's all I need a hoof with for today.”

Silk stood up falteringly. She appreciatively told the farmpony, “Okay then, thanks Applejack. I'll check in town.” Silk trotted off towards Ponyville, leaving a somewhat concerned Applejack behind her.

As a scout, Silk had a good sense of direction, and sure enough wound up in the outskirts of town.

“Hey Silky!” a voice came from above her. Silk back jumped at this, startled by the voice. Once she was certain her heart wasn't going to stop, she looked up and saw Rainbow Dash floating above her.

“Oh, hi, Rainbow” she responded.

“Good to see you're up and about! Two whole weeks in a cast? You must have busted up your leg pretty good, huh?”

“You could say that, yeah.” Silk answered.

Dash was floating about, twisting and turning in midair. “So, what're you up to?”

Silk thought she might have an opportunity here. “Looking for a job. Do you have anything you need help with?”

Rainbow Dash laughed. “Sorry, I don't think you can move clouds around!”

Yeah, without my wings? Not a chance for clouds that aren't close to the ground Silk thought bitterly.

Changelings couldn't manipulate clouds as well as a pegasus, and their inclination to do so was negligible for the most part. They could still work with them somewhat, using their wings to get close and their telekinesis to push, pull, or blast apart clouds in addition to being able to walk on them. Still, they couldn't “activate” a cloud like a pegasus could, nor could they create their own from lakes.

Dash, apparently, had a knack for saying innocuous things that hit a bit too close to home. Silk deflected this, saying “Nope, I guess not.”

“I think Rarity was looking for somepony to try on some of her clothes or something, maybe you should ask her?” the azure pegasus suggested.

“Thanks, I'll go do that... I think...” Silk said, remembering the first time she had visited the boutique.

“Oh my! I had been looking for somepony to model a few outfits for me, you know how mane equines don't capture any of the subtleties of a real, moving pony...” Rarity said, addressing Silk. “... but we'll have to do something about that coat of yours first. Were you speaking with Applejack earlier by any chance?”

Silk was standing in Carousel Boutique, still messy from moving the plow for Applejack. Truthfully she didn't really know that much about pony hygiene, her home having been in the muddy waters of the swamp. To get clean she usually just took a dip in a lake. She wasn't totally clueless, she knew about washing hooves and, while teeth didn't exactly rot on a diet of emotion and water, she had figured out brushing teeth the first couple days at Fluttershy's. Shampoo, on the other hoof, was an unknown to her, though it would not remain unknown for long.

“Yeah, I was pulling a plow for her,” Silk affirmed.

“Tell me, darling, does that little spell of yours work on your coat?”

Warning bells went off in Silk's head, a little voice yelling Yellow alert! Yellow alert! Go to defcon 3! “No! No, no it doesn't. Not at all, sorry!” she blabbed, her bluff failing her.

Luckily, Rarity didn't seem to notice. “Well then I suppose we'll just have to use my tub. Come along now, dear,” she said with a smile.

Green alert, green alert, go to defcon 4 Silk thought, having miraculously averted a crisis, breathing a sigh of relief and following Rarity into another room.

“I've got to admit, that was pretty nice. Thank you, Rarity.” Silk said appreciatively as the two walked out of the bathroom.

The water had been warm, which Silk hadn't expected. Whenever Silk took a bath, it was a cold dip in order to get the muck out off her shell and out of her joints that shocked her awake, if temporarily. This, though, was relaxing. The water soothed her sore muscles. The shampoo that was used had a scent to it. It was vaguely reminiscent of lavender but somehow smelled fake to the changeling.

“Oh don't mention it, dear. I'm just glad we're on good terms now. I felt like we got off on the wrong hoof last time,” Rarity said, rummaging through a first aid kit for a bandage to replace the one that had been lost in the bath water.

“So... you said you needed help making models of dresses?”

Rarity raised her eyebrow at the foal-like question as she pulled out a bandage and began applying it with her magic. “No, dear, modeling for them. I need to see what they look like on somepony and seeing how they look. The eye has to flow across them just right, they mustn't clash with themselves, and they must accentuate a pony's natural features,” she explained. “Come to think of it, that spell of yours could really come in handy with that last part, if you don't mind that is.”

Silk considered her options for a moment. “Well, okay, but no peeking when I cast it. It's... embarrassing” she half-lied.

Silk tasted a slight touch of disappointment as Rarity agreed, saying “Oh, very well, Silky, I shan't look.”

“Promise?” Silk asked, looking at Rarity sternly.

The white unicorn smiled and began a short series of gestures. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Silk recognized this from earlier, and was satisfied with the promise. “Alright, then. Just try to leave me some breathing room when you're doing whatever with the dresses, okay?”

Rarity giggled. “Deal.”

“... and just then the beavers came waddling back and discovered the whole mess. Of course, they got mad about the whole thing, and since they didn't trust me and probably didn't want to hurt young fillies with a more viable target around, they started coming after me. I had to hoof it out of there as fast as I could. They were all over the place, crawling out of the woodwork... literally!” Silk laughingly regaled.

Rarity had been meticulous about each dress, making careful measurements each time. Every so often she would ask Silk to change her mane, and Silk would do so when she stepped out of eyesight. Silk had lied and said that she couldn't change her mane's color, just the style and length.

“Oh dear, sounds like quite the ordeal,” Rarity said, taking off the dress silk was wearing. “There, I think we're done for the evening.”

“Evening?” Silk parroted, not having realized what time it was. She looked outside. Sure enough, the sun had gone down and the detestable moon had risen.

“Yes, I do so appreciate your doing this for me. Here's something for your troubles” Rarity said, floating a few bits over to her friend. “I also took the liberty of whipping a little something extra for you.” she said, pulling a saddlebag out from behind a curtain. It was a tasteful green bag with a picture of a bed stitched into the front of it. The same bed that adorned Silk's flanks. “I noticed you didn't have one and I happened to have this lying around. I added a bit of a personal touch to it. I do hope I didn't miss any details.” she said, indicating the cutie mark.

Silk was touched, and wondered when she had even had time to make that. She had been with her for all but a few moments while she stepped out to allow her to cast her spell. That left two possibilities, both equally plausible right now. Either Rarity was unbelievably gifted, or she had noticed back at their first meeting and had had this ready for a while. It was likely both, given that the fashionista would probably never give anypony something that didn't match, and that Silk hadn't heard any sewing machines or clicking needles.

“I... I'll pay you back somehow, Rarity.” she said in earnest. “Oh! I've got some...” she thought, looking to her hard earned bits, before she realized she had absolutely no idea how much it was actually worth, aside from one bit buying an apple.

“Nonsense!” Rarity declared. “I wouldn't dream of it! It wouldn't be a gift if I made you pay for it!”

“But I have to-”

“Ah ah! Not another word, I insist!” Rarity said, cutting Silk off.

Silk could taste something coming off of rarity, but she couldn't place it. Somehow she reminded her of Skitter.

“Okay. Thank you, Rarity.” she said. Still, somehow she felt unfulfilled. She would need to do something else. “I'll see you around, Rarity. I'm going to look for something else to do.” she said, turning around and walking out the door.

“Wait, Silky! It's getting dark out, don't you think you should...”

The door shut and Silk disappeared into the darkness.

“... go back to Fluttershy's? Oh dear. If I know Fluttershy, she'll be dreadfully worried about her staying out so late.”

Rarity sighed and began cleaning up her shop. It would take a little while, but it was better to do it now than in the morning.

Several minutes passed. Then, there was a knock on the door. “Come in!” Rarity said. In ran Twilight Sparkle.

“Rarity, have you seen Silky? Fluttershy said she hasn't come back yet and she's getting worried,” Twilight asked in concern.

“Well, that's not entirely unexpected, but from her odd behavior I believe it may be deserved this time” Rarity said honestly.

“Then you've seen her? Good, when Fluttershy asked me, I went and found Scootaloo and she pointed us to Applejack, and after that we hit a dead end. When I asked Rainbow Dash, she said she pointed her in your direction. For a second there I thought we hit another dead end. Where is she?” Twilight said, finishing a short rambling.

“I do appologize, but you actually missed her by a few minutes,” Rarity answered. “She said she was looking for something to do. I tried to tell her that it was getting late, but she ran off before I could.”

Twilight swung her hoof in front of her. “Shoot! Another dead end.”

Rarity finished putting away her threads and walked over to Twilight. “Well come now, Twilight, think. Where would she be headed?”

Twilight thought for a moment. “She'd probably head in the direction of the center of town, where you'd find the highest concentration of ponies, at least during the day, and probably the highest concentration of things that need doing.”

“The town center? I may have an idea where she is.” Rarity frequently heard the news about town, being somewhat of a gossip. It got out of hoof sometimes, and after the Gabby Gums incident, she knew that there were lines that shouldn't be crossed, but it was usually a harmless way to stay connected... at least in her opinion.

Rarity led Twilight to the town hall.

“Uh, Rarity,” Twilight said, “I wasn't being this specific when I said 'town center'.”

“Yes, I know, Twilight, but I do believe I heard that the mayor has been looking for somepony to reapply a coat of waterproof paint to town hall,” the fashionista explained.

“Why didn't you just say that before?” grumbled Twilight.

Rarity put on a smug smile. “Call it a mare's prerogative.”

The two started walking around the tall building in a circle. Sure enough, the two soon spotted “Silky Sheets” on a ladder.

She had taken off her new saddlebag, which was resting several feet away. A paintbrush and a can of transparent wood sealant were floating magically beside her. She was dabbing the paint brush in the sealant and slapping it onto the wall. Her crude strokes didn't sit particularly well with the organized Twilight or the meticulous Rarity, causing them to cringe a bit upon witnessing them.

“Uh, Silky?” Twilight asked first. “What're you doing?”

“Painting, I think.” Silk said, not taking her eyes off her work. “Hard to tell since this stuff doesn't color anything.”

I wonder, is this like what happened with Applejack? Twilight wondered. “Mind if we lend a hoof?”

“Not at all, the mayor said there were some extra... whatever this is... and brushes somewhere over there” she said, waving a hoof over to her right.

I guess not. I guess Applejack would have stopped on her own, not started looking for other things to do.

“So why are you doing this?” Twilight asked, feeling this was a better question.

“The mayor mare said this needed waterproofing” Silk answered simply, dunking her brush into the can and slopping it onto the wall again. She had never painted anything before didn't actually know what she was doing.

“No, I mean why are you working on this in the middle of the night?”

“I, I have to. I have to have something I can do.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight said. She wasn't sure how well this was going to work, but playing 20 questions with Silky had worked pretty well so far.

“I need to pay back Fluttershy, and Pinkie, and you, and Rarity... and everypony, and I need a job to do that. I can't sit around, good for nothing, I have to be useful at something.” Silk began. “I have to be useful at something, but I've lost what I've always been, so I have to find something else. I need to. I need to be useful,” Silk started muttering to herself. Silk didn't know what she was on about herself, but she kept the manic stream of consciousness going uninterrupted.

“If I'm useful I'll have a purpose again. I need a purpose. I've always had a purpose before and now I don't. I have to, I have to have a purpose for being here. I have to be here for some reason. There has to! There has to be some reason I'm here!” Silk began yelling, throwing the bucket in a tantrum, accidentally splashing herself with sealant as she felt sorrow once again. She hopped off the ladder. Now she was getting to the crux of her issue, watching herself as she broke down.

“Why am I here? Why am I the only one here?! I'm the only one, and I can't figure out why! Why, damn it?! Everypony I ever knew is gone where I dare not follow... why am I still here?!” she sobbed. “I don't deserve to be here. It shouldn't have been me...” she trailed off as she cried. It was survivor's guilt, a desire to show her thanks, and a loss of identity, all rolled up into one, though even Twilight was having a hard time piecing together this explanation. She hypothesized that it was something about Silky's past, probably the same thing that she was torn up about the day she met her, and the fact that she didn't know what her cutie mark meant.

“Well now, that's quite enough of that,” Rarity chimed in, producing a hoofkerchief. “Nopony thinks you're useless, Silky, and you don't have to prove yourself otherwise.”

“Everypony has a special talent, and I don't ha... know mine. How am I supposed to pay you all back if I don't even have anything I'm good at?”

Rarity sat down next to her friend. “Now, even if that's true, that doesn't mean you're useless, and you don't have to 'pay us back'. We're your friends, friends do things for each other so they can see each other happy, not because they want to be paid back in turn, and we'd never think of you in such an uncouth manner. Now listen, I can't find your 'purpose' for you, and you shouldn't run yourself ragged trying to do so, but I can promise you that we'll be there to help you find it. And when you do, we'll help you make it a success.”

Silk sniffled as Rarity's compassion reduced her pain, emotionally and physically. “Pinkie promise?”

Rarity smiled. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Now, let's get you cleaned up before that dreadful sealant damages your gorgeous coat.” she said, picking her up.

Twilight grinned. “I'll tell Fluttershy that Silky's staying over at your house today.”

“Could you? That would be wonderful, dear, thank you.”

“Don't mention it,” Twilight said with a wink. “What are friends for?”

Yeah Silk thought, What are friends for?

After a very thorough scrub, Rarity had set Silk to bed in one of the tents surrounding Carousel Boutique.

“I'm ever so sorry the guest room was taken, Sweetie Belle is staying over this week. Are you sure you don't want to use my bed instead? I could sleep on the pull-out couch.” Rarity offered, though the idea of causing her decorum to clash by unfolding that tacky bed was somewhat repulsive to her.

What the hay is a pull-out couch? Silk thought. “No, thanks. The tent is more than enough shelter for me,” she answered.

“Well, if you say so,” Rarity relented. “Well, good night. I'll see you in the morning. I think I might want to try creating some bolder mane styles with you tomorrow if you don't mind, since that spell of yours can fix your hair so easily.”

Silk nodded. “Sure, just no peeking!”

“After making a pinkie promise? I wouldn't dream of it.” Rarity said melodramatically. For a second there Silk could taste a slight tinge of fear among the happiness and excitement. Rarity walked off to go to sleep herself and Silk sat there thinking as she often did these days.

I might not have a reason I'm the only one left, save for dumb, dumb, dumb luck, and I might not be able to go back and do what I used to, but now I've got friends to support me. I don't have to pay them back, but I'll still help them out when I can, and I'm not going to kill myself doing so. Silk yawned and closed her eyes. I'll find something else eventually...

Silk fell asleep once again. Her dreams were still cruel to her, and this night, four more faces joined her nightmares, and yet on this night, the changeling queen's taunt did not come.

PROCESSING SAMPLE

PROCESSING COMPLETE

ERROR: INVALID SAMPLE

SPECIMEN CONTAINS NO VIABLE DNA

PLEASE INSERT VALID SAMPLE

PROCESSING COMPLETE

ERROR: INVALID SAMPLE

SPECIMEN CONTAINS NO VIABLE DNA

PLEASE INSERT VALID SAMPLE

Chapter 5: Exposed

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"Oh come on, that performance was flawless! I bet I could outfly anypony you know!" Dash protested.

"Eh, I don't know," Silk responded, "You were fast, but you had to work at stopping. I used to know somepony who could have given you a run for your bits."

It was late morning and Twilight and "Silky" had just watched Rainbow Dash's latest aerobatic trick, a series of incredible dives at breakneck speeds near the sonic rainboom barrier. When asked for their opinions, Twilight had been very complimentary, Rainbow having outdone herself once again. Silk, however, had experience in flying; notably, this experience was in a radically different method of flight, and as such valued different aspects of it. The two could both appreciate all skilled forms of the craft, but while Dash valued speed and acceleration foremost, Silk put dexterity and maneuverability first.

"Oh yeah, right. Did you used to know one of the Wonderbolts?" Dash asked sarcastically, before realizing what she had asked. "Andifsocouldyouaskforanautographforme?" she added quickly in a mumble.

Silk had been referring to one of Queen Chrysalis' three chevaliers, Flit. Flit was formerly a member of the agile scout class, as Silk was, and was the changelings' foremost aerial combatant. Silk did not know this, but on the day Luna had sealed the changelings all away, Flit had nearly caught her decoy traps and foiled the night princess' strategy.

"One of the what?" she queried.

"You mean you've never heard of the WONDERBOLTS?!" Rainbow Dash asked incredulously.

"I guess not, is that a band or something?"

"Bass tummy!" Dash yelled dramatically pointing a hoof accusingly at Silk.

"I think you mean 'blasphemy'" Twilight interjected into the boisterous conversation.

"Yeah! What the egghead said!"

"Hey!" the purple mare objected.

Silk shrugged. "Hey, all I'm saying is you were focusing so much on speed that you couldn't have pulled off more than a thirty degree turn without drifting. You just had too much momentum from building up that much velocity. You could pull off much tighter corkscrews if you let up on the speed."

Dash groaned. Her friend did have a point, and the Wonderbolts were known for their aerobatics just as much as their speed and formation flying. "Sheesh, I'm not sure if you know what you're talking about or if you're just full of it. Are you sure you're not part pegasus?" she asked rhetorically, once again uncomfortably close to the truth.

As the disguised changeling put on a self-satisfied grin, Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile. "Okay, girls, I've got to go check up on some projects and give Spike his lunch," she said, levitating a large ruby out of her saddlebag for the two to see, "just try not to turn debate into argument."

"See ya, Twilight" Dash chimed in unison with Silk, who said "Alright, bye Twilight."

Twilight hoofed it back towards her library as she listened to the two resume their conversation.

"Maybe I could work on my turning before a sonic rainboom... ooh! Or after!"

"A sonic what boom?"

"That's where I go really fast and boom! Break through the wind resistance and accelerate a whole lot real fast and leave a giant explosion of rainbow awesomeness behind me!"

"Wait, that was YOU?!"

"Yeah! Wasn't that the most awesome-" Terrifying, Silk thought. "-thing you've ever seen?!"

The last that Twilight could make out before she was out of earshot was Silk saying coyly "I don't know if I'd say 'awesome'. Maybe 'grand' or..."

Twilight opened the door and stepped inside. The library was in order and judging from the snoring, Spike was still asleep, having helped her with observations regarding the stars the previous night, though he should have been up by now: it was nearly noon. On the other hoof, she did often forget that he was a baby dragon, so she decided not to lecture him about it.

She followed the noise up the stairs and found him still soundly asleep in his basket. Twilight made a mental note that he was still growing, and that she would need to get him an actual bed in the next few weeks. Her first thought at this was that Silky might be able to help, but then recalled that she was quite adamant in her insistence that she did not know the first thing about it. She'd just go talk to Bucky Bedding.

"Spike! It's time to get up!" she prodded, nudging the slumbering dragon awake with her hoof a couple times.

Spike yawned and opened his eyes. "Alright, Twilight, I'm up, I'm up," he said.

"Well you missed breakfast, but I brought you a treat for lunch for being so diligent helping me with my research last night," she said, levitating the ruby and placing it in front of her assistant.

"Gee, thanks Twilight!" he sincerely thanked, taking hold of the gem and taking a bite out of it.

Twilight smiled at his grateful enthusiasm. "You enjoy, I'm going to go check on my projects."

"Can do!" he said, munching happily on the red stone as Twilight turned and headed toward the basement.

Twilight flipped on the switch, magically powered lights instantly illuminating the lab. The space was lined neatly and orderly with all sorts of gadgets and machines. Indication lights blinked at random all across the room like an army of fireflies. A procession of folded paper lay before her seismograph, which produced very straight lines, save for the marks made when Vinyl Scratch had dropped the bass at a Pinkie Party next door two days ago, and small shakes from her own hoofsteps. A number of experiments were placed into appropriate conditions and situated to allow for easy access and data recording.

The first thing that Twilight went over to was the star log that she had been keeping for a while. When Princess Celestia gave up control of the night to Princess Luna once again, things started changing, quite literally. Celestia was never meant to control the night as she had done for a thousand years, and as such her night sky was cold and unchanging, an eternal copy of star maps made shortly before her sister's banishment.

Luna's new iteration of her ancient sky, however, was vibrant and full of life in comparison. Stars would move and nebulae would swirl, some stars would be born and others would grow dim or wink out of existence or explode like a firework in the vast night sky.

Major constellations remained the same, so that navigation was not befuddled, but the white static dots in the sky had been replaced with a dynamic dance of slow, beautiful motions. Twilight Sparkle had taken the liberty of starting to compile all the changes that the princess of the night had made, to see if she could discern any patterns to maybe predict the princess' next changes. After a few months, she was still nowhere near a graph-able data set, and was growing unsure if such a task was even possible, and she wondered how anypony could have ever grown blase to this over a thousand years ago.

Twilight walked up to her magical star atlas very carefully copied in her notes from the previous night. The atlas took the shape of a globe. Stars dotting and shifting across the surface, hopefully mirroring the movements of the last few months, before resetting back to their previous position when they caught up to the last recorded night.

She had dubbed this little project the "Ursanometria". When it was completed, if it was completed, she hoped to show it to the princesses, although at the same time she knew she would be hesitant to waste their time with this paltry seeming bauble.

After a couple minutes her task was done she turned her attention to a second project, one less ambitious than the last. It was a simple attempt at observing the growth of a typical plant from the Everfree forest. She had set up a little terrarium, locking in the water the plant would need in a large clear jar for observation.

"Specimen's recorded growth... zero. Again."

For some reason she just could not get the sample to grow, and indeed it seemed to be dying. She didn't know that the plant would not grow in a dark basement without a source of thoroughly simulated sunlight.

Twilight sighed. "I don't get it," she said to herself, "these plants are supposed to grow all on their own. What am I doing wrong? Oh well." she said, turning her attention elsewhere.

Two hours later, Twilight thought to herself, wondering what other projects needed a look at. Nothing was coming to mind, but for some reason she felt she wasn't done.

What am I forgetting?

Twilight tapped her hoof on her chin, trying to think. She scanned the room with her eye as she did so, eventually falling on what she had been forgetting: her DNA sequencer.

"Oh yeah!" she said, giving herself a light tap on the forehead for forgetting. "That's right, it's been three weeks! Well, a bit over, the readout was probably ready last night. Now let's take a look at that." Twilight stepped over to the display and took a look. The result blinked in front of her.

PROCESSING COMPLETE

ERROR: INVALID SAMPLE

SPECIMEN CONTAINS NO VIABLE DNA

PLEASE INSERT VALID SAMPLE

Twilight groaned. "That's impossible. EVERYPONY has DNA! Everything that's alive! And I'll prove it!"

Twilight walked upstairs in a huff as Spike walked down. "Spike, I need you to get the salt, the dish soap, the rubbing alcohol, and a couple of glasses. We have an experiment to run."

Twilight poured the alcohol gently into the top of the glass. After a few moments, she saw something begin to form. "There! See? DN... eh?"

Twilight looked down into the glass. Where a stringy white substance should have been, there swirled tiny whisps of multicolored light, predominantly green.

It was magic.

"What the? That's not possible. This is not possible!" Twilight yammered. She was at a loss for an explanation. Silky Sheets was a unicorn and could do some magic, sure, but she wasn't made out of arcane energy, was she? Twilight thought back to everything she'd heard about her and from her.

"I found her asleep over there on the bank of the river, crying and hurt. It was so sad! She looked like she came through the Everfree forest."

"She's hungry, but she isn't eating."

"The animals don't seem to trust her. Oh, but, uh, I'm sure it's just because they're not used to somepony new around."

"It was simply marvelous! I've never seen anypony work her mane so well with magic, going from straight to wavy just like like that. I did wonder if that was her special talent but I'm afraid I didn't see how that related to a bed of all things, unless it's to fight off bedhead of course."

"Yeah, she said she got hurt in that little scuffle up there in Canterlot durin' your brother's wedding."

“I... uh... don't... think mine really... means anything."

"What's with her, anyway, Twilight? She doesn't know about a lot of stuff. Maybe she's a foreigner or something?"

"Honestly I did try not to peek, a lady keeps her promises and never breaks a Pinkie promise after all, but it's rather hard to miss that bright green flash and that whooshing noise."

"Yeah! She's stops by for pastries and cupcakes and muffins and stuff! She doesn't seem to each much else which is weird and you know what they say about too much junk food. Well, I don't, but I'm sure you do! She doesn't seem to eat much in the first place though, so I guess she only eats about as many sweets as everypony else. Why do you think that is?"

"You mean you've never heard of the WONDERBOLTS?!"

After a few seconds, all of it added up, and Twilight's eyes widened in realization. "Oh no..." A large number of dark thoughts and scenarios crept into her mind; assassinations, imprisonment, betrayal, and spies all took up space in her head.

Twilight dashed away from the table and over to the bookshelves, looking for a clue, checking a number of books and floating them close to her. "No, no, no, no no no nononono!"

Spike was confused. "Twilight... what are you doing?"

"Spike, quick, help me look for a book on changelings!"

"I don't think we have any of those."

This answer stopped Twilight in her tracks. Changelings were as mysterious as dragons, and even more reclusive. Even if you did see one, you'd probably never know it. Finding a book on them in this town library was unlikely. "Darn it!"

"Uh, Twilight, what's gotten into you?"

Twilight spat the answer out. "Silky's a changeling!"

Spike's eyebrows went up in mild surprise. "Wow, really? Neat. I guess that explains a few things, huh?"

Twilight snapped at him. "It is not neat, Spike! This is really bad! Mind you, the implications of a creature with magic instead of DNA are fascinating, but now a changeling is close to the elements of harmony. Way, way too close! Take a note, Spike, we have to let Princess Celestia know about this immediately!"

Spike rolled his eyes and groaned. Twilight seemed to be overreacting to him. Sure Silky was totally clueless about some stuff but she didn't seem bad. He took out his quill, ink, and parchment and began to write.

Dear Princess Celestia,

It has come to my attention that the unicorn I have written to you about, Silky Sheets, is in fact a changeling. I do not know what steps you should take, you would know better than I would, but after what happened to Princess Cadance, I implore swift action in this urgent matter. I will be taking steps to ensure that no harm comes to myself, the other Elements of Harmony, or anypony else.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle

Spike wrapped up and sealed the parchment breathed a small plume of green fire, converting the message into ash, which spiraled out the window as Twilight galloped out into the street.

Silk stood there in Applejack's barn, contentedly sipping on a glass of punch on the sidelines of another one of Pinkie's parties, this one thrown for another passerby. It seemed like she threw one of these every day. There were often ponies coming in from Canterlot to get away from the city, or traveling through town to get there, and somehow, it seemed like Pinkie was there to greet the majority of them. Anypony who stuck around for more than a couple hours would get one, which most thought was weird. And they'd be right.

Even with Silk's limited sense of the value of a bit, she knew that this must surely get expensive, but that at the same time, that the amount of business and special commissions that she and the Cakes saw was considerable.

Silk had begun taking these opportunities to eat to her heart's content. The flavors of emotions got all mixed and jumbled into a sweet mix that one couldn't quite pick out the individual aspects of, much like how a pony would taste the beverage she was now drinking.

Pinkie Pie was here, of course, and so were Applejack and Rarity. Last Silk had checked, Fluttershy was escorting snapping turtles from one pond to another. In this case, "escorting" did not mean carrying, but walking next to, ever so slowly. Needless to say, she would likely arrive late. Rainbow Dash wouldn't be able to make it, today was supposed to be overcast and the day before had been clear skies, so she was busy making trips back and forth from Cloudsdale to bring new clouds in. Twilight Sparkle was busy with her experiments, though how long that would take was anypony's guess.

Silk had spent much of the last two weeks doing random things around town. Though she had loosened up a lot after that first day, the compulsion to have a purpose was strong, and all the random work would take her mind off of things. She still didn't eat much pony food, only stopping into Sugarcube Corner for pick-me-ups when she started feeling particularly down, so her food budget was nearly nonexistent. She would still buy juice, though, usually drinking it instead of water, but overall her expenses were very low, and as such she had been building up a sizable number of bits.

She was very hit and miss with her jobs. Some would go smoothly, some would not, and others had results that were reminiscent of a certain mailmare. Still, she excelled at nothing so far. The closest thing she had to a useful ability was her transformation spell, which she used only to help out Rarity (and always changed back to the slightly wavy, dark grey mane with the three turquoise stripes afterward), and that felt like a hollow victory since that was a trait of her race, not her.

Silk caught a brief aftertaste of worry and panic. Either Fluttershy had arrived, or Twilight Sparkle had arrived and was worrying about some letter to somepony again... or somepony had found Gummy enjoying a dip in the punch... again. Silk put the tip of her tongue out of the corner of her mouth to try to figure it out.

Yeah, I think that's Twilight. I'll see if I'm right in a minute.

Silk had been adjusting as best she could to her new circumstances, and one thing she found was that just like every changeling had a distinct voice she could listen for if she knew them well enough, every pony's emotions had a certain flavor as well. This might have applied to changelings as well, but without dropping her proverbial guard, she would have never known; the differences were very subtle, like that of two dishes prepared by two professional chefs following the same recipe. Silk was just beginning to figure this out, and did not know for certain if her guesses were accurate.

Twilight soon emerged through the crowd, confirming Silk's guess. As soon as the purple pony saw her, the panic turned to relief, which very quickly turned to anger. "Hi, Twilight. What's wrong?" Silk asked, a little concerned about this emotional shift. Something must have gone wrong in her experiments.

Twilight snarled, infuriated at the falsely-assumed idea that somepony was out to harm her friends. "Oh, I'm sure you know what's wrong!"

"Look, if it's about that scylla attack yesterday, I swear I was just taking a swim!" Silk defended.

Rarity joined in the conversation, walking over from another conversation she was having. "In the narrow water channel on the Everfree forest border. Really, dear, I know you're new here but that was simply lacking in common sense."

"Hey, I said I was sorry!"

Twilight shook her head and angrily stomped her hoof. "No, not that!"

Pinkie and Applejack now joined the three. "Punch?" Pinkie offered.

"Oh, I'm seriously thinking about it!" the element of magic growled.

"Woah there, sugarcube," Applejack said, pushing Twilight Sparkle back slowly with her muscular hoof, "just calm down and tell us what's wrong."

"This!" Twilight said, blasting a startled and confused Silk with a beam of magic, aiming from head to toe in half a second.

The blast caught Silk totally unawares, the initial hit blinding and disorienting her, knocking her back against the barn wall, the magic giving a mild scorching.

Silk's eyes regained focus and she wobbly got back on her hooves, seeing that Applejack had tackled Twilight and had her pinned in such a way that she couldn't stand up. Hot anger and outrage seethed from the both of them.

"What the heck's the matter with you, Twi?!" Applejack demanded at this unprovoked attack.

"See for yourself!"

Gasps were heard all across the room, and were the only noise heard aside from the music playing in the background, as ponies all around began to stare.

There before them stood a changeling, fully exposed in her natural onyx armor. Her eyes were completely light blue, her sclera a somewhat darker shade than the rest. She had a pair of fangs, though they were less pronounced than those that the Elements of Harmony had fought. Her horn was jagged and blunt, ill suited for use as a weapon, and her hooves had holes that resembled Swiss cheese. Two holes on her front left hoof had a web of rough marks on otherwise perfectly smooth shell connecting them showing it had recovered from an injury, the shell having fused back together. The changeling's wings were tiny and jagged, obviously horribly damaged, but what remained was a transparent azure, the material vaguely resembling the wings of gossamer and morning dew that Twilight had once conjured for Rarity.

Silk at first didn't know what was had happened, but a feeling of dread rapidly grew inside her as she became the center of attention. Then it hit her.

No...

The room was filled with shock and surprise, tasting as if one licked a battery, but soon that changed.

"I don't believe it," AJ said. She snapped at Silk, "What're you doin' here, ya consarned monster?!"

The emotions of the room soon changed. Now there was anger and rage.

Silk stammered quietly, trying to come up with something to say. "No no, I didn't, I only"

Wrath. Indignation. Outrage. Silk's mouth burned like a wildfire.

"No..." she whispered as a number of them surrounded her, her eyes beginning to water. Her voice echoed slightly.

Hatred.

"NO!" she yelled, using the only thing she could think of, a spell that all changelings had: a lime green blast of energy that exploded on impact. Silk aimed at the wall behind her, sending a cloud of smoke and a wave of splinters about. Her shell would protect her, even with the epicenter placed five inches from her body, though the wooden shrapnel would probably cause a number of ponies to require an evening with a pair of tweezers.

Silk galloped away through the new hole in the wall, heading into the Everfree forest, teardrops trailing behind her.

Ponies coughed as the smoke settled, revealing a hole large enough for two ponies to fit through. The changeling was gone, disappeared in the confusion.

"Is everypony alright?" Rarity asked.

Applejack surveyed the scene. "Other than lookin' like some ponies lost a fight with Bloomberg, I'd say we're just fine."

"AHEM" somepony coughed from beneath the blonde maned farmpony.

"Oops. Sorry, Twi," Applejack sheepishly appologized, helping her friend to her hooves. "This is bad, innit? We've gotta find out what that phony pony did with Silky!"

Twilight shook her head. "I think that was Silky." She explained the evidence to her friends, the most damning being tied between the blood and the use of high-level transformation magic, the various ponies in the room leaving for home as she did so. Several tried to see if they could follow her, but stopped dead in their tracks when they were led to Everfree's edge.

Applejack gulped. "So, who's gonna break the news to Fluttershy?"

Rarity volunteered. "I'll tell her. Pardon me for saying so, but the rest of you lack a delicate touch."

Twilight and Applejack nodded in solemn agreement. Pinkie, on the other hoof, seemed to be spacing out. Twilight raised an eyebrow for a moment, but since the pony in question was Pinkie she lowered it two heartbeats later.

"So, where do you think she's run off to?" AJ inquired.

Twilight shrugged. "I don't know. To return to the rest of them? One of my atlases had a place labeled the 'Changeling Marshes' and a warning saying not to go there, but that's all the information I have on them that we don't already know. I checked!"

Rarity frowned. "I'm not so certain, dear. I've heard a little rumor floating about Ponyville," she said. "I'm certain I told this to Rainbow Dash, but supposedly on the night your brother got married, some pegasus had a few too many of Joe's doughnuts and got angry that the changelings had blown a hole in his shop's wall in the fighting." Rarity gestured a hoof to the makeshift exit Silk had produced. "So he decided it would be a wonderful idea to fly over to that swamp and give them a piece of his mind."

"That couldn't have ended well," Twilight added.

"Actually, Twilight, that's just it. When he got there, it was totally empty. Nopony in sight. Nothing at all, though Lyra swears she heard that he had seen emerald blood staining the branches of several trees."

Applejack scratched her head. "What do you reckon that means, Rarity?"

"I couldn't begin to guess, it's just a rumor I'd heard. Anyway, I should go speak to Fluttershy. I think it's best that the poor dear hears this from one of us first."

Pinkie was still very much with her head in the clouds, either blissfully unaware of the situation, or blissfully unaware of its gravity. Either way, it was probably best to bring her back to reality, or what counted for reality in Pinkie's world.

Twilight sighed. "I guess the rest of us will go tell Rainbow Dash. Won't we, Pinkie?"

Pinkie broke out of her reverie. "Huh? Oh, sorry, I was thinking about socks."

"What?"

"Yeah! I mean, how would Silky put on socks? They'd get all snagged on those holes, and it would be all lumpy and wouldn't fit right!"

Twilight was confounded. "But Pinkie, we... oh, nevermind."

With that they split up and left the party.

What did you expect? Emotions only bring pain. Those ponies? Those "friends" of yours? They only liked you because they thought you were one of them, Silk scolded herself.

She was wandering about Everfree, looking for the area where it parted and turned into a marsh... her marsh. She was now getting close, walking about for a few hours. Despite her sense of direction and logic saying she was going the right way, her instincts were telling her that she was wrong. She had never had to find her way home before, and had nearly gotten lost a couple of times. Still, it was the only place she felt was safe now, so she pressed on.

She had come under attack once by a manticore, but she was in no mood to play the intimidated foal and had simply blasted the creature unconscious, her spell luckily knocking it against a tree, probably breaking a rib or two as it ragdolled into unwilling slumber.

She was normally led to the swamp very easily, simply flying in the general direction of the swarm's thoughts. Even when she was watching the dragons in the Scorched Lands it was comforting, to always know that home was right over there, the thoughts of her people ever present to guide her. Now all that existed was that ringing and the sound of her own thoughts echoing into nothingness. She had begun to ignore it these last few weeks, but now it seemed deafening. Haunting. Maddening.

Her hooves hit murky water. She had arrived. Around her stood a collection of empty trees, a vast collection of them. Silk did not know what else she had expected to find, but the sight of it drove the facts home. Every changeling, every single one of them, was gone, damned to perdition forever... even the children. It had never been a wonderful place, it had indeed been a place of hardship, but now it was simply a cruel mockery made real.

Silk would have held out hope that there might be an excommunicated changeling out there, but she knew that that would be a foal's hope. Even cut off from the swarm, their presence could still be felt, like somepony who was silent in a conversation. Shortly after Discord broke free, queen Chrysalis had invited the only two exiles back in, so they had been present when the invasion took place. They had been cut off for a reason, though. Their thoughts were disturbing, disgusting, twisted and sickening; such thoughts could not be allowed to taint the minds of the collective group. Even if there were exiles left, Silk would likely not have found any solace in them.

Silk kept trudging, and passed the central tree, the largest in the area. That was where the queen slept, where she shepherded and guarded them all... only that shepherd had sent them all to the slaughter for her own gain.

Silk kept going, lost in her own thoughts. Love? tolerance? Friendship? Hah, what a foal's notion. Ponies had affection for each other, but that was as far as it went. It was not that long ago when they could hardly stand anypony outside their own breed, and dragons? Griffins? Zebras? Changelings? They rarely tolerated them, let alone accepted or love them, and feared them instead.

And in Silk's case, she knew, with good reason. After what she was prepared to do, what she was going to do in Canterlot? She knew she didn't deserve it. Applejack's accusations were true: she was a monster.

Silk soon found it. Her own tree. In truth it had been Skitter's, but he had let her stay there as well. Space was scarce here, the swamp an unbearably small territory for a swarm so relatively large. For a few moments she beat her broken wings in vain, but stopped once her stationary position reminded her. She cried and walked over to a thick root sticking out of the water. She crawled up on it, curling up and lying down as she sobbed to herself.

Silk told herself otherwise, but she was caught in a negative feedback loop. Her own misery formed a poison and made her sick, which caused her to feel even more depressed, causing even stronger poison, sending her even further into depression. This was colloquially known as a "death spiral". Eventually, this cycle would kill her. If the swarm was still there, they would keep their distance for fear of the emotion radiating from her, but they would console her with their thoughts.

But Silk was alone, completely and utterly alone. There would be no words of comfort to save her or to ease her passage. With her emotional barriers down, she only had about two days, rather than a week. This poison would kill slowly, slowing and eventually stopping her heart.

Alone and unloved, sad and hated even by herself, Silk began to pass out. Before she lost consciousness, she thought she saw a number of large silhouettes converging on her from above.

Her dreams this night were as dark as those that the night mare touched.

"Do you see her?"

"Nope. Wait is that her?"

Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack were looking for Rainbow Dash, though that was proving increasingly difficult with all the clouds the weather team had been bringing in all afternoon.

"I don't know. Do you think you could cast that wings spell again, Twilight?" Applejack asked.

Twilight looked apprehensive. "Well, I don't know. You're not going to repeat the story of Icarus like Rarity did, are you?"

"Who's that?"

"The pony who invented the spell. He supposedly got so cocky he asked Celestia if he could lower the sun for her once, and she humored him and let him try. His wings burned up and she wound up saving him."

"Ah, I see. I'll make sure I don't fly too high then."

A voice from above them said "I'd actually like to see that." The trio looked up and saw Rainbow Dash flying above them. "It'd give me a chance to beat her in a flying race." She'd only been there a few seconds.

"Okay, that squares it. Do it, Twi, I can't wait to beat the pants offa-"

"Now's not the time, you two!" Twilight interrupted. "Rainbow Dash, we've got some news for you. It might not be easy to take."

Dash looked unimpressed. "Okay, shoot! Lay it on me."

"You know Silky?"

"Uh, duh?"

"She's... a changeling." Twilight wasn't sure what reaction she was expecting, but the one that followed certainly wasn't it.

Dash laughed. "Hah! Sweet Celestia, I'm awesome! I so totally called it! You owe me fifty bits, Pinkie!"

Pinkie looked sour at this. "Shoot! I was so sure you were wrong, too. Oh well, a Pinkie promise is a Pinkie promise," she said, reaching into her saddlebag.

Twilight was shocked. "You KNEW?!"

Dash made a motion of brushing off the question. "I didn't really KNOW, but after she said she didn't know about the Wonderbolts this morning, I kinda figured it out. It was kinda obvious, and I had a hunch before that. I mean, the hair spell, the way she looks at clouds so desperately, that passion when she talked about flying, the fact that she's a totally clueless about every other thing she sees? So I made a bet with Pinkie at lunch. I didn't expect it to pay off so fast, though!"

"And you didn't tell anypony else?"

"Hey, that's her business. She'll tell us when she's ready. You didn't tell anypony, did you?"

Twilight gulped. "I, uh, kinda exposed her... to half the town..."

RD was startled. "What?! Why did you do that?!" she asked, landing in front of Twilight

"Because she could be a spy! Or an assassin sent to get close to the Elements of Harmony!"

"What are you TALKING about?! What, did she attack somepony or something?" Dash pressed, genuinely surprised.

Pinkie Pie laughed. "Nope, that was Twilight! She lit up her horn all glowy and ZZZEOW! Hit silky with a bright pink laser beam and turned her back into a changeling! Not that she wasn't a changeling before, but now it was obvious! Then Applejack asked her 'What're you doin' here, ya consarned monster?!' Then everypony surrounded her and she broke the wall with a big green spell and everypony got splinters and she ran away crying! It was pretty sad. I guess she couldn't fly away with her wings all smashed up like that," she blabbed, telling the whole story very bluntly.

Dash was shaking. "I... I can't believe..."

Twilight walked up to Rainbow and consoled her, moving to put a hoof on her shoulder. "I know, it's hard to believe that she's a-"

Dash smacked the hoof away. "I can't believe you would do that!!! How could you?!"

The student of Celestia was taken aback. "What? I-"

Rainbow Dash was seething mad. Madder than the three had ever seen her. Angrier than she'd ever been. "She's your friend, isn't she? She's my friend! How could you just betray her like that?!"

"I- I thought she might be here to hurt us!"

"Are you STUPID!? We found HER!!! Fluttershy found her on that riverbank totally busted up, remember?! And if she was going to hurt us, don't you think she would've done it by now?!"

"But she's a changeling, so-"

"So WHAT?! Spike's a dragon and I don't see you hurting HIM! What's next? You going to attack me because I don't have a horn?!"

Applejack stepped in. "Settle down, Rainbow, she didn't mean ta-"

"And you!" Dash said, spinning around on her hooves and pointing a hoof accusingly at the orange farmpony. "How could you call her that?!"

The farm mare found herself on the defensive, right in Rainbow Dash's crosshairs. "Hey, I didn't even think that was actually her right then an' she's been lyin' about who she was this whole time!"

"After the way you treated her when you found out?! I don't blame her!"

After that viscous tongue-lashing, Twilight and Applejack were feeling incredibly guilty. "... you're right, Rainbow. I feel lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut," AJ admitted.

"Where is she now?" Rainbow demanded.

"Oh, she's right over here, Dashie! Or Twilight thinks she might be there, hard to tell." Pinkie replied, producing a map out of thin air and pointing a hoof to the swamp.

Dash smiled and took the map. "Thanks, Pinkie. I'm glad some of us are still looking out for our friends," she said, shooting a glare over her shoulder. Dash took off like a rocket, blazing a multicolored trail behind her.

Twilight Sparkle and Applejack exchanged guilty looks. "What do you reckon we do now?"

"Well," Twilight answered, "I guess we figure out a way to apologize, and figure out a way to get the town to accept her."

Pinkie jumped up and down. "Ooh! Ooh! I know! How about a party!? I mean, it worked for Princess Luna!"

Twilight shifted a bit, feeling antsy. "Well, Luna had Princess Celestia's good word going for her. I could ask her for a pardon or a few good words or something, I guess, so that'll work for the town, but I think we'll need to do something more personal to apologize for this mess when she gets back."

"If she comes back." Applejack remarked grimly.

The purple unicorn sighed, not knowing how to make this right. Even Rainbow Dash was mad at her, and she had taken the whole Mare Do Well thing in stride. "Come on, Girls, we've got some work to do."

Dash zoomed into the swamp, navigating around the Everfree Forest to do so. She could easily outstrip anything that could come from there, but the place still made her uneasy. She slowed her flight down as she entered so that she could search without missing anything.

"Silky? Silky, where are you?" she called loudly. There was no response. She flew about for several minutes, calling and calling before she spotted something standing in the water.

She flew down and reached in for it, hoping it wasn't an alligator (with teeth). She pulled out a saddlebag, which was fairly weighty with bits. She looked inside, seeing a few odds and ends, and a large brown feather, too large to be a pegasus. Fearing the worst, the pegasus checked the front, and sure enough, there sat a bed stitched into the flap.

"Silky, where did you go?" Dash whispered as she stared out into the empty marsh, not seeing a pair of golden eyes watching her from the shadows.

Chapter 6: Captured

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Celestia sipped her tea. It was lunch time, or at least she was just sitting down to her meal. She normally ate a couple of hours before now, but her meeting with the zebra envoy had gotten sidetracked.

This meeting was the annually held water negotiation, which had been done for the last six hundred years. Every year, about a month before the Summer Sun Celebration, the zebras would send a delegate to speak with Celestia and ask for aid. The practice had started during the great drought, which hit the already semi-arid region hard, and even the Neighl river was unable to provide the water they needed.

The meetings these days were primarily a tradition, though Celestia would still send aid in the form of rainclouds and a weather team during dryer years. The year so far had actually been very wet, relatively speaking, so the conversation went quickly from work to more of a friendly conversation about each others' cultures, speaking for longer than she had expected. At one point Celestia had even teased the envoy, nearly tricking him into ending a sentence in "labyrinth". Though he took the joke well, he simply hadn't fallen for it.

And so here she was, sitting in the royal garden, enjoying a simple lunch of oats and tea instead of the usual extravagant affair. Lunch was the meal she least looked forward to, as it afforded no opportunity to speak to her sister, who slept at this hour. After a thousand years, a terribly long thousand years, every conversation she had with Luna felt like a blessing. This left her luncheons feeling quite dull in comparison, but it was still nice to enjoy a quiet moment alone. Of course, "alone" was relative, since the ever vigilant solar guard often had a couple ponies acting as her bodyguards, including now.

Celestia placed her cup back down and looked up to see a little spiral of ash and green flame coming towards her. It flew up to her and unraveled, the ashes forming into a sealed scroll.

The princess of the sun smiled. "A letter from Twilight Sparkle" she affirmed to herself. These she always looked forward to. It was a wonderful thing, to see how much her student learned and grew. Scholastically, of course, but especially as a pony.

She unwrapped the message and read. "Dear Princess Celestia, it has come to my attention that the unicorn I have written to you about, Silky Sheets, is in fact a changeling. I do not know what steps you should take, you would know better than I would, but after what happened to Princess Cadance, I implore swift action in this urgent matter. I will be taking steps to ensure that no harm comes to myself, the other Elements of Harmony, or anypony else. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle... oh dear."

This was troubling news, but at the same time Twilight's previous missives had lead her to believe that she considered Silky a friend. Still, she had told Twilight Sparkle to trust her instincts, and in relation to a matter very close to this one, too. Celestia was torn about what to do, but decided to let events play themselves out.

However, in addition to two solar guards, there was one guard who went unseen behind the hedges, hiding in the shadows. A unicorn mare wearing a darker set of blue and black armor. Her pupils were slitted, her irises colored gold. "I should tell Luna," she said, stepping into the shadows and disappearing.

The guard stepped out of the shadows and into Princess Luna's rather underused wardrobe. She opened the door and walked into the alicorn's room. She spoke loudly so she could wake her up and be heard. "Princess, I'm sorry to disturb you but-"

"Oh, give me a moment." Luna yawned, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Waking up in the middle of the afternoon was not her idea of a restful day's sleep. "Ugh, four hours of sleep again. This better be important this time," she complained.

The guardsmare nodded. "I was out in the garden-"

"Taking a nap on duty again?" the blue princess interrupted, eyebrow raised.

The guard looked flustered for a moment. "Well, you see, I was just... yes, ma'am."

Luna sighed. At least she was being honest with her. "Continue."

"Anyway, I was out in the garden, and I overheard a letter Princess Celestia received." The guard explained the note in as many details as she could remember.

Luna frowned at this news. "I guess one of them slipped the proverbial net. An exile, perhaps?" she asked, mostly talking to herself. "At any rate, Shadowdancer, I'd like you to go over to Ponyville and keep an eye on this changeling, if you can figure out where she is. When you've got a fix on her location, report back to me. I'll probably be in Ponyville in an hour."

"Oh, uh, right away, Princess" she said, snapping to attention before walking around behind her. She looked for a large shadow, finding a suitable one being cast by a bookcase, and stepped into it, disappearing into it as if she was descending a staircase.

Shadowdancer had a particularly useful magical talent, the ability to travel any distance almost instantaneously so long as she has a shadow to go into and step out of. It wasn't teleportation so much as it was opening a portal, as other ponies, including pegasi and earth ponies, could step in as well as long as she held the spell. It certainly had its limits, she had to have been in the area at least once, and she has to figure out where a shadow would likely be before she could even attempt the spell. This made her a very capable messenger and a fast responder.

There were a great number of places she had been to, using her "quick travel" to go to anywhere she had been previously and go even further. The mare had formerly been a very accomplished explorer and cartographer, having idolized a certain grayscale-haired archaeologist when she was just a filly.

Luna herself got herself ready, hurriedly going through her waking routine. She stood in her room and sighed. "I guess I've got a mess to clean up," she said, teleporting away with a flash.

Luna popped out in the garden, looking about for Celestia. She soon spotted her, and the two were wearing similar looks of concern. She spotted two solar guards, who bowed when she looked at them. "The two of you are dismissed. I wish to speak with my sister in private."

Celestia spoke first. "I take it you've heard, Luna?"

The smaller alicorn nodded. "You've picked up your student's habit of reading aloud, and Shadowdancer overheard you."

"Really? I didn't think I was speaking that loudly," Celestia said abashed.

"It might have been her more than you. With all the dangerous places she's been to, I suspect she's always had an ear to the ground."

Celestia sighed. "So, little sister, what do you think we should do?"

Luna walked over and sat down beside her sister, another soft yawn slipping past her lips. "Well, one lone changeling wouldn't be much of a threat, so we don't need any grand magics to help. Simple imprisonment would suffice, maybe letting her go if we can find some way of magically tagging her so that she won't be able to fool anypony again."

Celestia gave Luna a concerned look. "I don't know. Something isn't right. Twilight Sparkle mentioned finding odd things about this friend of hers, and I suspect they eventually led her to this conclusion, but until now she never suspected her of treachery, or at least never told me such."

"So what do you make of that?"

"I think my faithful student would have found out much sooner if she had malicious intent. She was the only one to suspect Queen Chrysalis when she posed as Cadance."

Luna shook her head. "I have faith in Twilight Sparkle's abilities, but you'll remember what happened with Firefly all those years ago."

Celestia shook her head at the sad memory. "I know. Just promise me you'll look into things first."

The younger alicorn agreed. "I promise, Tia. I've already sent Shadowdancer to keep an eye on 'Silky'; she knows how to keep her head down better than most. I'll take Maria Breeze with me and keep watch over Twilight Sparkle."

Celestia smiled. "You always have liked taking matters into your own hooves."

"Yes, well, we can't all sit in the throne room all the time eating cake with our hooves" Luna teased.

"That was an edited picture of my birthday cake and you know it!" Celestia defended.

Luna smiled, rolling her eyes with a shrug. "Whatever you say, Tia. At any rate, I'll go retrieve Maria. She's probably asleep right now. The sooner I leave the less of a chance of something happening to Twilight."

Shadowdancer watched the barn from a distance, peering through an apple tree. Judging by the sounds coming from inside, there would be nowhere to hide in there.

She had traveled to her home in Detrot to put away her armor and put on a pair of yellow tinted sunglasses in order to ask around for the whereabouts of "Silky Sheets". She had to in order to avoid drawing attention to herself; a lunar guard asking around might give somepony the wrong idea, or worse, alert the pony (or changeling) that she had been tasked to track her down. Without the armor, a Lunar Guard's coat and mane would revert back to normal, as would the wings of a pegasus, but once the armor was donned, one's eyes were forever changed, becoming golden and draconic.

She was directed to the barn, since supposedly a large proportion of the town could be found there. From the sounds coming from inside, it was probably quite a party, but she did not have to wait long. The barn grew unusually quiet for a few moments, and then there was a sudden, loud bang.

A plume of smoke burst out of the left side of the barn, and not a moment later a changeling ran through it. Shadowdancer followed her. The creature was running through the field, and wasn't stopping. She was heading into Everfree Forest.

This would be where most ponies would stop, halting in their tracks for fear of what lurked in such a place, not to mention the forest's eerie unnatural qualities. Few things were worth a trip into its depths.

Shadowdancer, however, had been in far worse places all across Equestria and beyond. It came with the job, both before her recruitment and after. You couldn't be a good explorer or cartographer if you never took any risks or ventured into the unknown. She'd been to the scorched lands of the dragons, through the diamond tunnels, and crossed the mild west. The only things that had ever stopped her were the oceans and her inability to explore in all directions at once. Everfree? Please, that was a walk across the street. There were very few lands where she feared to tread, especially with her ease of escape.

Shadowdancer followed her suspect by using her spell to step silently behind the trees along the changeling's path. At first she was using her pseudo-teleportation every few seconds to keep up with Silky's galloping pace, but the changeling soon slowed to a walking pace, allowing the unicorn to stalk more strategically, placing herself a ways ahead of the changeling each time.

Unfortunately, all teleportation has its risks. After following Silky for an hour, she mistakenly stepped out of the shadow portal and right into a Manticore's den. Startled, she went right back through the poral, but the manticore was alerted to Silky's presence. It attacked her, feeling its territory had been intruded upon.

For a moment, Shadowdancer was going to assist the changeling against orders. This had been her fault, after all, and an angry manticore was a dangerous foe. However, Silky blasted the manticore with an explosive spell, sending it into a nearby tree. The attacker ragdolled, clearly and utterly knocked out. Silky, much to her tail's confusion, stood there for a moment, looking away from the creature as if in shame. It was then that the guard noticed something wrong.

Silky appeared to be crying.

This was the enemy? This was the same creature as those feral, parasitic attackers that she had fought a month ago? The same evil that had tried to take over Equestria, the same ones that tried to have her princess killed? Something wasn't right.

"I'm bored."

"Stakeouts aren't supposed to be fun, Maria," Luna yawned.

"Well why not?!"

Luna and Maria Breeze stood watching Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack from a rooftop, using Maria's invisibility spell to observe totally unnoticed. They were far enough away that they wouldn't be heard. Unfortunately for the hyperactive unicorn, the trio had been staring up at the sky for the entire time.

"Just watching something or somepony is always boring. Don't tell me in your time as a thief you never observed something. The security? The alarms?"

"Well duh, but I did stuff when I did! This one time, I put a whoopee cushion on that Solar Guard captain's chair!"

"Wait, you mean Shining Armor?"

"Yeah, that guy!"

Luna snickered. "I have to admit, I would have loved to have seen the look on his face."

Maria stared at the ponies they were watching. "What are they looking at, anyway? It's totally cloudy!"

Luna thought for a moment, then slapped her head with her hoof. "Oh yes, that's right, Rainbow Dash heads the weather team in this town. They're probably looking for her. Wait here."

Luna went down to the ground and picked up a pebble. To the observer's eye it would look like the stone was floating. She took off and went above the clouds. She looked about and noticed a multicolored streak speeding in her general direction, pushing a grey cloud along with it. She took careful aim and tossed the rock in a way to hopefully bump into the speedster at a relatively low speed.

The rock tapped the mare lightly in the head, a result that Luna knew was more of luck than skill.

"Huh?" the pegasus asked, looking around for whatever had bumped her. It certainly didn't feel like a bug. She stuck her head through a cloud and saw her friends looking around for her.

Luna went back down and observed the results.

It was deathly quiet as Shadowdancer watched and waited. It had occurred to her a while ago that this would be Silky's destination. The changeling was now trudging around in the muck of the swamp where the Lunar Guard had engaged the changelings in a suppression. Even for the explorer, the grime and the stench of the place was revolting. She felt sorry for the earth ponies who had been ordered to use the water as cover. It was dark here, almost completely shadowed by the trees, but with her moon blessed eyes it may as well have been a cloudless day, in a field, at noon.

She waited in the shady leaves of a large tree for few moments, hiding in the shadows until Silky came into sight.

What is she trying to find? Are there changelings that we missed, plotting for revenge?

But the changeling didn't show any signs of such. No others came to greet her. She simply looked up at a tree for a moment and sputtered her wings helplessly. Then she climbed up on a root. She was sobbing the whole time. As long as Shadowdancer had been watching, she hadn't stopped. Now it seemed she was about to cry herself to sleep.

The whole ordeal was not what Shadowdancer had expected. She was about to quick travel to Ponyville when she noticed that the silence had been disturbed by something other than the changeling. Wingbeats, two of them.

"Sergent, I've spotted one!" a voice came from above. The unicorn looked up and saw a duo of griffons.

"You better not be pointing me to a log, Kuper."

"No, sir! Right down there, on that root!"

"I'll be damned, one of them showed up. Looks like it's asleep. Grab it, we'll take it back with us, see what we can get out of it."

Three griffons were more than a match for the unicorn, who could only watch helplessly as they gathered Silky Sheets up. They took off back toward Eagleland, the Griffon Kingdom.

"Sir, this bag's heavy."

"Then get rid of it, Kuper."

"Yes sir" the enlistee replied, slipping the strap over Silk's body and into the dirty water below, snagging on his wing for a second. "Ow!"

"Well be more careful next time! Do you want your wings clipped or something?"

She was about to follow when she noticed another pony zipping into the area at an unfathomable pace. The pony slowed down and started looking around. Shadowdancer recognized her as one of the elements of harmony, Rainbow Dash.

This was bad. On the one hoof, she had to make sure that the element bearer didn't come under attack by any more griffons; they were operating well outside their territory and who knew what they might be capable of. On the other hoof, she had been ordered by Luna herself to get a fix on the changeling's location, which was changing rapidly now.

She decided to keep an eye on Rainbow Dash for now. She could teleport ahead of them and keep an eye out later. They were going to have to enter a wide open area in about ten minutes if they kept on that course at that rate.

Rainbow Dash kept circling about at a modest pace, calling out to Silky, whom she had missed by not a minute. After a few minutes she spotted the saddlebag, which was now utterly ruined by the marsh waters. The pony whispered something and stared out into nowhere for a moment before taking off back towards Ponyville, bag in tow.

I hope I haven't lost them, Shadowdancer thought, quick traveling to the northern edge of the field they would likely cross.

Fluttershy was upset. This was entirely predictable, and Rarity had the unfortunate role of being the bearer of bad news to the flaxen pony. She was much better than she had been at first, having bawled a practical jet of water upon hearing about what had transpired.

"Why didn't she tell us?" she asked, punctuating her question with a sniffle.

Rarity shook her head. "I wouldn't know. Either she really was plotting something, or she was afraid... of us, of how we'd react."

"But why? I wouldn't care if she was a changeling..." she said, looking Rarity in the eyes.

"Really, dear? You wouldn't have treated her any differently at all, the day after they attacked Canterlot?" Rarity asked, quite serious.

"No! Well... maybe a little at first... but I couldn't have left her hurt there even if she was!"

"And what would have happened then? Do you know how to treat a changeling?"

"No," Fluttershy whispered, her ears drooping. She probably would have brought her to the hospital and never seen her again.

Rarity put a hoof on her shoulder. "I think the longer she kept up that disguise, and the more we got to know her, the harder it must have been to show us what she was. Now, I'm not saying things worked out for the best, or the worst, and I'm not saying that Twilight was wrong, or right, but this is how it is."

Fluttershy sniffed. "But still..."

Just then Rainbow Dash landed next to the two of them, seemingly out of nowhere. "Hey," she said disheartenedly, looking at the ground.

Rarity looked at her normally energetic friend with concern. "I take it you've heard, then."

"Yeah, I heard. How could Twilight do that? And AJ, calling her that name!" she said, stamping her hoof, a little of that fire back in her.

"I'm sure Twilight was just doing what she thought was best."

"Well she didn't think hard enough," RD muttered bitterly.

Rarity noticed the swamp-soaked saddlebag Dash was carrying. It was utterly filthy; she was amazed she hadn't noticed it before. "Ugh, where did you get THAT?!" she asked.

Dash put down the saddlebag so that Rarity could see the front. "Changeling Marshes," she answered simply.

Rarity gasped, as did Fluttershy, whose eyes watered at the sight. Though utterly ruined, there was no mistaking this bag. Rarity could recognize her own hoofwork anywhere, and Fluttershy knew that Silky hadn't put it down since she got it except to sleep.

"Is that?" the pink haired pony squeaked, though she knew the answer. Rainbow only nodded.

Rarity switched subjects slightly. "Rainbow Dash, have you any idea how dangerous going there was? The changelings could have-"

"Actually you were right, mom" Dash said, deadpanning on the last word. "That rumor you told me was true. There's nopony there at all. All of the changelings disappeared. They're all gone, completely vanished."

Fluttershy's eyes widened in realization. She remembered something Silky had said, and now knew that it had meant something more, something terrible. "Please don't leave me alone..." she whispered in horror.

Rarity and Rainbow Dash, upon hearing this, had similar reactions, though Rarity recalled something equally terrible. Suddenly Silky's distraught ramblings that evening a fortnight ago made more sense. "Everypony I ever knew is gone where I dare not follow... oh dear Celestia... what in Equestria happened?!"

Shadowdancer had caught a break, managing to catch the griffins passing only about a tenth of a mile off of where she had guessed they would. So long as she could keep slipping from shadow to shadow, she could keep pace with the two. It was taxing, but she could keep pace for quite a while; she had very good endurance.

Shadowdancer kept playing her one sided game of hide and seek for hours. The weather got progressively colder as they worked their way further north, ever deeper into the mountainous land of the griffons. Added to the couple hours she had followed Silky, this left her completely exhausted, but she figured out where Silky was being taken: the capital city of the Griffons, Vigil. Once she figured it out, her mission was accomplished, and she took one last trip to Ponyville to brief the princess.

The sun had set a while ago, and it was a little past midnight. Twilight Sparkle stood outside of Fluttershy's cottage. With her were Fluttershy and Applejack. The elements of harmony had all decided to wait for Silky to return so they could welcome her back and offer their apologies, except for Rainbow Dash who was determined to keep searching. She was stubborn like that sometimes, and she was still mad at Twilight and Applejack. When nighttime rolled around, Rarity and Pinkie Pie had gone back home.

AJ walked up to the violet mare. "It's gettin' late, sugarcube. We ought to head back home"

The element of magic shook her head slightly. "No, you go ahead. I'll wait here a little longer."

"Come on now, worryin' about it won't make her come home any quicker."

Twilight frowned. Home? She lost her home, and I went and drove her out of her new one, she thought guiltily. "I just think I should be here to say I'm sorry when she gets here," she said, putting a hoof on the token of apology.

Applejack sighed. She actually wanted to stay, too, but she needed some sleep. She had apples to buck in the morning. "Well all right. You just be sure to tell her that I'm mighty sorry about what I said. Heat of the moment's no excuse. Goodnight, Twilight"

"Goodnight."

Princess Luna watched as Applejack left the area. Maria's invisibility spell wasn't active anymore, so they simply watched from afar. The hens had taken issue with their choice of location, but a quick application of Luna's sleeping spell had silenced their protests.

"Where is Shadowdancer?" the demigoddess of the night asked rhetorically. Twilight Sparkle was perfectly safe, but the same might not be said for the portal using pony. Even if she didn't know exactly where to look, she should have found the princess by now.

"Why don't we check the park?" Maria suggested. It was a public place, plenty of space, and nopony would look twice at somepony waiting on a bench.

"Alright, let's go."

The two walked the distance to the park. It was a quiet evening, and only one pony had actually noticed the two, looking out his window and rubbing his eyes, undoubtedly wondering if he was seeing things, or just what one of the royal sisters was doing here.

Sure enough, when they arrived, they found Shadowdancer, passed out on a bench.

"Sleeping on the job again, are we?" Luna teased. The mare was always a stone's throw away from her bed, so she had a hard time adjusting to any sort of actual sleep schedule.

The sleeping unicorn groggily replied, "I dunno, are you?"

Maria burst out laughing at the wisecrack that had made it past Shadowdancer's sleep-addled inhibitions. This woke her up and sent her right into apology mode.

"Oh my gosh I am SO sorry, I didn't mean you, we, you, and I-"

"Relax, guardsmare," Luna said, slightly amused by the joke (and more so the apology), "I just want to know where Silky Sheets is, and what took you so long."

"Actually, ma'am, that's kinda why I'm so tired. I found her and followed her to the changeling marsh. Just as I was about to go tell you, a couple of Griffons swooped down. I followed them all the way to within sight of Vigil," she explained nervously. For all her bravery in distant lands, she did have one thing she feared: angry authority figures. Luna sometimes wondered why she had taken her up on the offer to join the Lunar Guard, but she always proved herself capable.

Luna grimmaced. "I can't believe I didn't anticipate this."

Maria looked at her questioningly. "Why not?"

"Because it's completely obvious" she explained. "By removing the changelings, we've taken a weight off of the balance of power. Even though nopony wants that land, it's still neutral territory now that nopony has claim to it. Other world powers have to have taken notice by now; a changeling attack on Canterlot, and then the changelings all disappearing at once? Everypony will be scrambling to figure out what happened, and possibly use the marsh as a forward outpost for dealing with Equestria."

"So, what do we do now?" Shadowdancer asked.

"Now," she replied, "I need you to go get Fletch and come back here. We've got a prison break to orchestrate."

At least I caught my breath.

"Wake up."

Silk was shocked awake by a sudden splash of cold water. Now conscious, she coughed and hacked at the terrible taste in her mouth, but the disgusting emotions she felt were still too strong and she turned to vomit.

The first thing she saw was a griffon with grey feathers holding a now empty bucket in his talons, which he quickly moved in front of the retching changeling. She regurgitated water mostly, but small swirls of a very dark violet could be seen inside it. Black magic.

"Are you ill?" the griffon asked.

Misery and irritation were not mutually exclusive, and being awakened by a bucket of water and then asked a stupid question certainly irritated her. "No, I normally puke like that, it's so much fun," Silk grumbled disparagingly.

This earned a frown. "Well, I apologize for the rude awakening, but you proved unresponsive to other methods. I am Argentis of the High King's air force, changeling, and you are?"

Silk tried to gain a sense of where she was. It was a decent sized room, neither well lit nor pitch black. Torchlight simply provided a dim grey illumination. She'd heard of these torches, some kind of material that Griffons used in them to cause them to burn white instead of orange. From what she could tell from the torchlight, the walls were masonry, and yet the rock had a silvery shine. She looked behind her, and saw that she was bound by the hoof to a metal chair she was sitting on.

"You're in Eagle Hold, if that's what you were wondering," the officer said.

Even in her despair, Silk was figuring out the situation. She now knew that she had been shortsightedly naive. While the most significant, Equestria was not the only power that would take an interest in the last changeling. Since they wouldn't be looking for revenge, they'd probably be after intelligence.

When trapped or cornered like this, changelings normally transformed into whoever they saw. It was instinct, a natural defense mechanism designed to make it harder to harm them, taking advantage of the discouraging feeling hurting themselves that most creatures would have.

Transformation, however, had its limits. The difficulty of transformation went up if one were to change size, and as such a changeling could never transform into, for example, an adult dragon. It was also harder for females to copy males or vice versa. If a creature was too different, transformation into that creature was impossible, and for a changeling to transform into anything but a pony or zebra required months of training.

Copying somepony directly was also less difficult than creating your own disguise. Even if all those factors were perfect, the changelings only moved similarly to ponies; any other creature might notice that something was off when the changeling flew or walked.

As such, despite a powerful urge to try to transform, Silk could not. Even if she was as skilled at the physical transformation as Cocoon was. It wasn't just hard because Argentis was a male griffon, it was impossible; he had wings, and for all intents and purposes, she didn't.

"Tell me, where are-"

Argentis was cut off by the opening of a door. A brown griffon walked in. "Sir, Chief Titania told me to tell you she's on her way and is taking command of the prisoner. She'll be here in ten minutes."

Silk could taste a number of emotions on Argentis, none of them good. Shock, anger, a touch hatred, and a lot of disgust. "Tell her to buzz off, this changeling is under my jurisdiction."

"She said 'he's welcome to try butting heads with me. I'd love it if he tried to go as far as to try and pull rank, I could use a laugh.'"

"Did I say I was using rank? I'm pretty damn sure I said 'jurisdiction', and last I checked, that psychopath only has control in Ironclaw's terrtory."

"Sorry, sir, you'll have to deal with her yourself," the messenger said as he left.

"Damn it," he said with a swipe of his talons, leaving a scratch on the wall. He stood there for a moment, before turning to Silk. "You need to tell me now, before she gets here: where are the rest of the changelings?"

Silk looked down to hide her face, a teardrop falling to the floor. "Gone."

"Gone? Where?" he asked.

Silk could not bring herself to say.

"Holy horseapples it's cold here!" Fletch yelled over the wind. The pegasus stallion shivered in the frigid winds.

"Oops," Luna said, "I forgot about that. Sorry, this should take the edge off of this gale." She cast a quick spell, and the trio of Lunar guards accompanying the princess felt a warming sensation, who gave their thanks to the alicorn.

"I know it's mountainous, but it's just so cold here," Fletch commented. He was used to cold weather, having been on the team well known for giving Chicacolt its chilling winters. Sure, it was no Stalliongrad, but it was cold enough that he was no wimp. This, however, was unnaturally bone-chilling. The griffons must have been hardy folk indeed.

"Yes," Luna said, staring into the clouds, "that's why we left, after all."

Shadowdancer looked to Luna, a bit confused. "What do you mean, 'left'"?

"Oh, nothing, nevermind. Just an old memory," she said with a shrug. Maria Breeze frowned at this. "Now Fletch, I need you to scan the city of Vigil for anywhere secure enough to hold somepony. Take Shadowdancer with you if you can, I'll need a map, since it's been over... well, quite some time since I've been there and the city may have changed a great deal."

"Uh, I'm sorry," he said, scratching his head, "but I don't see a city."

"It's on top of that cloud," the princess and the explorer said in unison, pointing to the cloud Luna had been looking at.

"Wow, 'Owl-eye', how'd you miss a city?" Maria teased.

"To be fair, the cloud covers the buildings completely at this angle," Luna said.

Fletch looked at cloud. It was a great tiered dome that capped a colossal mountain and rose high into the sky. "Well, I guess I'll go take a look."

Silk was lying down awkwardly on the chair, trying to fall asleep. She felt dizzy and lightheaded, and was having some trouble breathing as deeply as she would need to to be comfortable, her breath shortened. She was miserable and soul-crushingly lonely, and now imprisoned in a room too bleach to be cheerful, and too bright to be restful. All she wanted to do was sleep so she could ignore the pain for a while... just a little while.

And yet her efforts were in vain. The seat was not large enough to lie down in, and the irons clapped to her back hooves, while providing enough leash of chain to allow some freedom of movement, were still cold and unyielding. She had the benefit that her shell allowed her to ignore the deceptively painful chafing that the irons gave most creatures. She didn't know when her captors would return, and she didn't really care

The door opened and a griffon walked in. Their feathers were almost always a shade of gold, brown, or silver, and this one was silver. Silk's eyes were closed, trying to ignore whatever was going to happen.

"I take it you heard Chief Master Sergeant Titania was coming? That's me. Well sorry to say, I'm not going to be as polite as that half-wit," she said plainly. "So, why aren't you transforming? Every single changeling I've had the pleasure of 'interrogating' copied me instantly. Sure, none of them could hardly capture my grace, but then who could?" She had only ever captured two changelings that specialized in Griffons, and as such was unaware that her species was beyond the capability of most to copy or mimic.

At first she seemed to be putting up a front, but then Silk got a taste of glee. From an interrogator. Silk sat up, not liking the implications of that.

"Oh," the female continued. "I see. Those pathetic, frail little wings of yours are gone. All of that mighty armor, and your wings can be rent asunder with such ease," she said, walking up to her. "Still, there are other ways of getting to the good stuff without those sorry sheets of rice paper you call 'wings', and unless you want me to show you some, you're going to tell me exactly where I can find them."

"They're gone" Silk repeated.

"Don't lie to me!" Titania snapped. "After that attack on Equestria, you all suddenly disappeared. Every single one of you. All resistance in your disgusting little swamp hit zero, leaving the way to and from Equestria wide open. Neither hide nor hair of your wretched kind was seen for a month, and now you just show up out of the blue. Now, you're going to tell me where your people are, how I can find them, and what they're planning."

"Go to hell..." Silk muttered. Titania struck her in the face with an outstretched claw.

Silk tried to fire a blast of magic, but it didn't work. "Sorry, insect, but this room blocks all offensive spells. Standard equipment, we can't just have prisoners doing what they want. That shackle there also prevents teleportation, but that's a unicorn thing now isn't it?" she rhetorically asked, striking the changeling again. "Tell me what you know!"

Silk wasn't in pain, but she felt trapped and in danger. The urge to copy the threat was overwhelming, even though she couldn't. The Griffon laughed and struck repeatedly, until the instincts to transform overwhelmed Silk's inability to do so.

Silk's horn glowed, and she was covered in magical flames, but the fire could not allow her to grow wings where she had none. Instead of a flash of flame, the fire lingered, swirling and billowing around her. Silk's horn burned like hellfire, being forced to try to cast an impossible spell, causing her incredible pain. The grey room glowed a bright green as Silk yelled in pain, before gritting her teeth to try to endure it. The flames were not hot, quite fortunately for her.

"There it is," Titania said, reveling in her handiwork, "an Achilles' heel. For all the power magic grants, it's like carrying a loaded crossbow, and if you can't aim it, you'll just shoot yourself in the claw. Or hoof, in your case."

Silk's grunting suddenly stopped. The sound of the crackling magical fire engulfing her was the only thing that could be heard. Then, the flames began to die down. Silk started giggling, losing her sanity temporarily.

"I told you, go to hell! Right down to Tartarus! That's where all the monsters go!"

"You're saying they're dead?!"

"Nope, not dead I don't think, or at least that's what the moon said... just in Tartarus! I guess you really don't piss off the moon, huh? We really had it coming! Did you see those green flames? It was totally like that! I must going there too! Ooh, I know! You could come with me! You'd like Scarab, he's a sadistic ex-exile! Isn't that funny? I love that word. Ex-ex-ile, ex-ex-ile, ex-ex-ile! Oh wait, somepony might miss you. That's okay, though, nopony will miss me! I'm a monster after all! But... but..."

Silk's manic expression wilted over the course of a few seconds, becoming woeful as she got control of herself. Her vision blurred "... but I don't... want... to be..." she said, passing out from the exertion and her weakening heart.

Titania glared. "Tch..."

"So what was this structure?" Shadowdancer asked, having made a very accurate map of the city in the snow. She couldn't see the details, though.

"That was probably just a large aviary. I could see a nest through a window," Fletch answered. Even from miles away, his vision was obscene.

"Alright. Anyway, that's the layout, princess," Shadowdancer answered.

Fletch looked at the layout, it seemed very familiar. "It kind of looks like Canterlot."

"Well yes, that was Tia's grand plan, after all. Personally, I thought it was a bad idea, but she had been very insistent on that," Luna said offhoofedly.

"Okay, now she's not even being cryptic, she's just not explaining anything," Maria muttered.

Luna thought for a moment. "You can go home now, Fletch. Shadowdancer, you wait here at the extraction point . I'll infiltrate the city alone under Maria's invisibility spell. This is an extraction mission, classified even to the rest of the Lunar Guard. If Midnight Cloak has a problem with that, you can tell him to talk to me."

The guards gave their confirmations that they understood their orders. Maria cast her spell as Fletch moved back through Shadowdancer's portal, following her as she made her round-trip. Luna took off, soaring through the cold night sky.

Rainbow Dash streaked across the night sky. The colorful trail she left behind was muted somewhat by the softer light of the moon.

"Darn it, why does night time have to make it so hard to see?" she asked herself. The pegasus was checking all over the place, even daring to make some passes over the Everfree Forest.

Still, she refused to give up the search. The others could just sit around and wait if they wanted, but she would not, could not just stop looking while Silky could be in danger. She was tired, but was determined to sleep could sleep when she knew Silky was safe, and not an instant before.

Luna flew a couple of miles to get to the city, teleportation would draw too much attention, as well as break Maria's invisibility spell. She knew where to go to most likely find Silky Sheets. The first stop was the stockade of the castle of the High King, Eagle Hold.

Luna spotted the entrance, guarded by two griffons. Foal's play. She simply flew down and hovered a few inches from the ground, flying into the castle unhindered and taking the first path down she could find.

The castle in the clouds was oddly intuitive in its design. Bars of white metal lined the walls like brick, held together by mortar and illuminated by bright white torchlight, which caused the castle to shine like a mirror. There would be no shadows to hide in here. That meant no magic, and no coming into contact with any griffons. If she touched anypony, the invisibility spell would make her shimmer brightly for several seconds. If she cast a spell of her own of any kind, the spell would instantly break.

The doors were open, and yet these torches carried a mundance form of magic, similar to chemistry and the potions and herbs used by zebra herbalists. A certain compound added for the flames to burn, giving it a magical shield against the elements and a bright white glow.

It might take some time, but aside from Celestia's stifling white box, every dungeon or interrogation room Luna had ever seen was underground. That was metaphoric in this case, since the castle was built into a lenticular cloud. All she had to do was keep looking for ways down, and doubling back if she got turned around. She still had to avoid the patrols and sentries that dotted the halls, but Griffon hearing was relatively poor. So long as she didn't land, they wouldn't hear her. If she did, they would pick up on the characteristic sound of hoofsteps, but a hovering wingbeat was for all intents and purposes completely silent. She was like a ghost, a draft running through the halls.

She turned a corner and heard an argument.

The first voice was feminine. "I'm amazed that you think you can stop me, Argentis."

"Then you're easily impressed. General Quicksilver's the one in charge here, and this part of the facility is under my authority. I don't know what General Mercuria sees in you, but here in the capital, we conduct ourselves with honor." The second voice was stern, and belonged to a male.

"Yes yes, honor this, honor that. What a pointless concept. 'Honor' only benefits the enemy. Now if you'll recall, it was my soldiers who brought this little plaything here."

It might be her Luna thought.

"Well then it was your mistake to bring her here to kiss up to the High King, because I'm not letting your sadistic ass anywhere near her, Titania."

"Oh, a wonderful boast, really. Shame it's nonsense. Your own traditions dictate that if an enemy is captured, then it falls to the captors to interrogate it. Now, pardon me."

Luna began to follow, but once Titania moved into the room behind her, the princess met with any invisible infiltrator's arch enemy: the closed door. Titania had shut the door behind her, and the door hit Luna in the horn, causing it to spark with an unintended bit of magic. Luna realized what this would mean.

Horseapples.

Luna looked behind her quickly. There was only one griffon in the room, and it seemed he was still caught off guard at the sudden appearance of a slightly larger than average pony with wings and a horn, seemingly popping up out of nowhere.

"What the-"

"Too slow" she said, casting a spell around the room. The walls and doors shimmered with a soft golden yellow, the glow clashing with the already mirrorlike walls and pearly flames.

"INTRUDER!" Argetntis yelled, no longer caught flatfooted. He shifted to an offensive stance, about to lunge at the alicorn.

"Oh don't bother," Luna said, levitating him with her magic, "that's one of my sister's spells. This room is now completely soundproof, no sound can get in or out. I could cast a concussive spell and the walls would absorb the report. She uses it for private discussions, but I improvised just now."

The griffon was struggling against her telekinesis, but his efforts were fruitless. Against a typical unicorn he would have been able to easily break free, but against anypony with a knack for magic (or telekinesis itself), he didn't stand a chance.

"Let me go!"

Luna walked over to a nearby desk and pulled out the chair. The seat was made of straw, grass, and twigs.

"Typical, really," she sighed. "Now then, I suppose that since I've got you here, I'll ask you a few questions." Argentis only glared. "First off, do you recognize me?" she asked. Her cover was probably blown, but this question was important to figure out how she was going to deal with him.

"You're pretty arrogant, huh? That's a heck of an assumption to make." he answered. He, like much of the world, had forgotten her existence. He had heard Equestria's military strength had increased in the last couple years because of the return of one of the pony 'goddesses', but he didn't recognize her on sight. To him, she was just an enigma.

Princess Luna had mixed feeling about this answer, which seemed to be truthful. On the bright side, he didn't recognize her as the infamous Nightmare Moon, but on the down side, this was yet another sign that the world had forgotten about her existence. Still, that meant she still had a slim chance of getting Silky Sheets out of here with nopony being any the wiser. "I'll take that as a no. Second question, I overheard you mentioning a prisoner. By any chance was this a changeling?"

Argentis was surprised, though he supposed he shouldn't have been. "Why?"

"Answer the question, please. I'm sure you realize the position you're in."

The silver griffon deadpanned. "The irony of this situation is not lost on me, I assure you. Yes, she's behind that door that smacked you in the face. At least I think it's a she, the voice was high."

Luna sighed in relief. "Well consider this an off the books prison transfer, and consider her under the protection of Equestria after your unlawful invasion of changeling territory." Luna knew she bordered on hypocrisy here, having invaded said territory herself during a war. Still, having been attacked first, and being co-regent of the defending nation, her counterattack was perfectly legal.

Unfortunately for Luna, while he might have been slightly below average in intelligence, Argentis wasn't stupid. A larger than usual blue pony with a horn and wings, whose hair flowed as if in the wind, who suddenly made a declaration for Equestria itself? That could only mean one thing. "Wait a second, you're that pony princess, you're Nightmare Moon!" he said, a growing fear running up his spine. All sentient, sapient creatures who could dream knew of Nightmare Moon, the cruel, dark being who delivered stark horrors to the sleeping. "You're not taking that changeling anywhere if I have anything to say about it!"

The alicorn was frowning. "I suppose I pressed my luck with that statement. A few things. First off, I'm not Nightmare Moon, that is who I used to be. Second, you don't have anything to say about it, lest you have forgotten. Third, I assure that I shall not harm her without fair observation, and even then only what is just and necessary. Her supposed behavior has been erratic."

"You don't want to harm her, even after the changelings attacked your city?" he asked, staring the pony princess in the eye.

"No, justice has already been met." Luna had mixed feelings about the whole nasty affair, but there was no hesitation in her reply.

"Then you'll want to bust that door down, a minute ago. That Chief in there is a savage, who knows what she's doing to the prisoner! I was going to inform the general when you popped out of nowhere. If you- WAH!"

Luna dropped the griffon unceremoniously and magically flung the door open just in time to see "Silky Sheets" slump over unconscious, with the griffon that had been called Titania standing not far from her.

A small trail of ebon smoke could still be seen emanating from the changeling's horn, evidence of a magical rebound or misfire. While harmless in the long term, Luna knew firsthoof, from a spar with Celestia gone awry, that this was an excruciatingly painful injury that lasted for about an hour. Any shouts that such an injury would have elicited would have been drowned out by the alicorn's own spell. What's more, such things very rarely occurred by mistake. Even newborn foals having the ability to cast stable (if random) spells. This wasn't an accident.

It was torture.

The griffon spoke, apparently unaware of the moon goddess' presence. "Tch... figures the first one I find is barking mad. I'll have to put the screws to this one. Or the nails, either one could get through that shell with a hammer."

Magical darkness fell upon her, snuffing out the torches as it was cast. In the next instant the wind was knocked out of her, something striking her hard in the side of the chest. "Ugh... okay, I've been polite, but if you're really resorting to something as petty putting out torches, you've officially gone from your typical zealot to an irritation. For assaulting an officer, I'm going to make your life a living hell."

"Oh? How amusing, I was about to say something along those lines to you," Luna said. Luna cast an illusion spell on herself in the darkness. "It's almost a pity, after a thousand years your prisons still only block telekinesis and overtly offensive spells. That's not much defense against me," she said. Luna could see the Titania quite clearly, but all Titania could see was a pair of very dark cerulean eyes with black slits for pupils. She had seen them once before, several years ago: in her worst nightmare.

"Y-you're-" Titania stammered.

Luna kept up her half-bluff. "Nightmare Moon? Correct, more or less. So tell me, if I could deliver powerful nightmares whilst upon the moon, what do you suppose could I do now that I'm in the very same room as you?"

"I don't know" the middle aged griffon replied, a number of horrifying possibilities dancing in her head.

"How about this, then? I shall take your prisoner, you shall retire immediately, and you shall never speak a word of this to anypony. Or any creature, if you take the common pronouns literally. In exchange, I shall let you keep your mind, and shall not mete out your well earned punishment."

Titania gulped. "That's very generous of you," she said.

Luna glared angrily at the interrogator. "The key," she demanded. She was immediately handed the key, which Luna used to unlock the shackle. Without the bonds to hold her in place, Silk fell limply to the floor.

"Leave, and know that nowhere in the world is safe from my gaze, and that you have to sleep sometime."

"O-okay, I'll-"

"BEGONE!" Luna snapped in the Royal Canterlot Voice. She would have punctuated with a lightning bolt, but the antimagic room blocked it. Titania bolted away into the silenced room, leaving Luna alone with the sleeping Silky Sheets. With Titania out of the room, Luna dropped the act. "I might have overdone that one... oh well, she might have deserved it as well."

She sighed, undoing her illusion. She felt dirty whenever she performed that particular illusion spell, but it was useful as a boon to her intimidation, and after a thousand year long mental struggle with her, she knew exactly how the nightmare thought.

"Just what am I going to do with you?" she asked, more to herself than the slumbering shape shifter. She looked at the changeling closely. "As far as I know, you alone remained here after that day. Twilight Sparkle was suspicious of your queen right away, while it took her a month to discover you, even the day after the incident. Why are you such an aberration?"

She studied the changeling for a few moments. Something wasn't right about her, but she couldn't place what. Then she noticed that it wasn't something that she had, it was something that she didn't have.

That dark magic, that malevolent presence, it's gone. She double checked. Sure enough, there was no shadow behind her, and the only dark magic the starry maned pony could sense seemed to be choking her.

"This isn't right. The changelings have shown tangible evil without exception for two and a half millennia. What are you?" Luna asked, thinking of some scenarios.

She could be a time traveler, but so far only three ponies had ever been known to have truly mastered that nigh-forbidden school of magic, and changelings could not even cast moderate level magics. She could be a throwback to the ancient changelings, born or hatched (Luna had no idea which) as the changelings were so very many years ago. But the timing didn't make sense, why now? It was far too much of a coincidence. She tried to puzzle this out quickly.

Oh no... no no no no, that can't be. The changelings all showed malignity when I sealed them. The queen's evil was even stronger than theirs, but I know for a fact that when I sealed them they were protesting in my mind with a terrible darkness... a disturbingly familiar darkness.

She'd think about this later. When she wasn't trespassing in the capital building of a foreign nation. She looked at the changeling sleeping, and could tell that she was having nightmares. Luna cast an ancient spell of her own design.

"Sleep for now, poor thing, and may your dreams no longer haunt you this night. If I'm right, it's the least I can do... to help undo a small piece of the damage I have done. If I'm wrong... your fate won't be much better than it would be here."

The last changeling's sobs slowed down and eventually quieted. Silk would not wake up for a while; such was the nature of the spell. Luna slung her onto her back and returned to the room where Argentis was getting back on his paws and talons. "What did you do?" he asked. His head was spinning from landing skull-first on the floor, but he was pretty sure that he had seen Titania run out screaming, which was utterly unlike her.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Probably not. So, what is it you're going to do with me?" he asked, ready to accept whatever fate awaited him. He was a witness, and judging by the normally cold, manipulative Titania's reaction, that wasn't a good thing to be.

"I'm not certain," Luna replied, "that barbarian will likely retire, if I pulled off what I think I pulled off, and I doubt she'll breathe a word to anypony. It's a bit of a quandary, but I'm guessing she was hit particularly hard by the nightmare some time ago, and I opened up some old wounds. But you, on the other hoof?" Luna paused. "I cannot simply harm you for doing your job, but I'd much prefer this doesn't become a scandal. Far too much paperwork," she joked. The griffon didn't break a smile, though it was hard to tell on a beak.

Stupid beaks, I can never read them.

"... if I were to let you go, what story would you tell to your superiors?"

Argentis wanted to spit in disgust at this entire situation. "I dislike lying, it's dishonorable, but... if I know that sadist, she's brought greater shame on Eagle Hold. I'll inform them of her... behavior, as usual, and tell them that the changeling escaped as I stopped her madness. That's if she doesn't say anything." If things got too far out of talon, knowledge of this incident could cost lives. Even if he would be found out, a lie would be preferable.

Luna nodded. The Griffons had always put honor above anything else. Even with their usual distaste for ponies in general, they maintained a high standard of integrity. "Very well. I'll be leaving now."

Luna disappeared in a flash of light, teleporting most of the way back to the extraction point. Argentis sighed. "By the spirits, what a mess. And here this day started out so routine."

"For Celestia's sake, where is she?" Rainbow Dash said in frustration. She was skimming the Everfree border in her search now. If she came back towards Ponyville, she's pass through there. Dash was tired. It was very late and she had been flying for hours, but still she didn't stop.

A sudden flash of light blinded her for a split second. She turned around to see a shooting star streaking behind her, seemingly landing in the distance, but there was no boom from an impact. Dash took off to find the source. When she arrived, she saw a black lump lying on the ground. A changeling. The pegasus approached quickly but cautiously until she saw that she had broken wings, just like Pinkie had said. It was her.

Dash practically ran into her, grabbing the changeling and shaking her. "Silky! Where'd you go, you had me TOTALLY freaking out! Silky? Wake up!" she yelled. A moment of panic struck her, fearing the worst, but the changeling was breathing. "Ugh, either shaking doesn't wake up changelings or she's completely out of it." She was too distracted to even wonder where the flare had come from.

Just then, Silk stirred.

"Or she's just slow. Wake up already!"

The first thing Silk saw when she opened her eyes was a face inches from her own. "WAH!" she yelped, bucking in startle. Rainbow Dash was sent bouncing across the ground.

Rainbow Dash's eyes were spinning. "Ugh, was it something I said?"

Silk rapidly snapped her head in multiple directions, her scenery having changed once again while asleep. She wasn't in some drab dungeon, but if that had been a dream, wouldn't she be waking up in the swamp? She seemed to be just outside of Everfree, not that far from Fluttershy's cottage. It might be possible that they would have released her after having gotten nothing out of her, though she was having a hard time remembering exactly what she said. The only memory that was clear was a massive hornache.

Silk then saw it was Rainbow Dash that she had knocked over. Her first thought was that she was worried that she had hurt the pegasus. Her second thought, however, was that she had to get out of there. Silk started cantering to the treeline when a flash of light popped out in front of her, a purple unicorn appearing out of thin air. Twilight Sparkle.

Silk hit the breaks and skidded to a stop. Oh, what's the use she despaired, sitting on her haunches. A magically gifted unicorn that could teleport? A pegasus that was unbelievably quick even by pony standards? Even if she could somehow elude them, a slim chance at best, she had nowhere to go. Getting captured in her old home had proved that. The world was out to get her, literally. She sighed in defeat and cast her transformation spell to resume her previous guise, though she did not think it would help. Her horn stung a bit as she cast the spell, still sore from overloading previously.

Twilight turned and saw Silk sitting down and transforming back into her unicorn form. It was still a bit off-putting to her, but she was relieved to see her alright. "There you are, you-"

"Oh no you don't!" Dash interrupted. In a blur of motion she picked herself up, flew inbetween Silk and Twilight, and landed facing the pony. She struck a pose eerily similar to an angry wolf, growling a warning not to come any closer.

Twilight was taken aback a bit. "I..." she started. This was going to be one really awkward appology. "I know I messed up, and... I'm sorry. I hypothesized all sorts of worst case scenarios and... I thought I was protecting my friends, but all I did was hurt one of them... and jeopardize my friendship with all of them." Twilight looked down, shuffling her hooves guiltily.

Rainbow Dash huffed out one indignant breath. "For the record, I forgive you," she said, shifting into a more normal posture, "but it's not me you should be apologizing to." She flapped her wings and hovered over to the side, still watching her friend carefully.

Twilight took a few steps towards Silk, who was looking down and crying. Clearly her feelings were hurt, but the element of magic was unsure of what to do. She glanced over at Dash, hoping for some kind of prompt, but the pegasus only shook her head and pointed a hoof at the ponified changeling. "Um, silky? Are you okay?"

"No... I'm not. I... I trusted you. I can't believe that I trusted you... if you're going to kill me, just do it already."

"What?!" Twilight said in shock. "Why would I-"

"You hate me," Silk interrupted. "Everypony hates me."

"I don't hate-"

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Silk snapped, "I could taste the hatred! If you ponies were dragons, you would've started breathing fire!"

"You're... you're an empath?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow Dash was confused. "A what now?"

"It means she can sense others' emotions."

"It's not just me," Silk said, "all changelings taste emotions... oh, then again, I guess that IS just me."

That explains why she kept beating me at cards Dash thought.

Twilight decided not to touch that particular tangent at the moment. "I... I'm sorry. I thought you might be a spy sent by Queen Chrysalis to get close to us. I wasn't thinking... I'm sorry."

Silk grumbled. "Well you don't have to worry about that anymore. That, that traitor is gone, just like the rest of them. I'm the only one left."

"Yeah... I heard." Twilight didn't know the details, but from what Rarity told her, Dash had confirmed the rumor.

"Do you know what it's like," Silk growled, "to lose everything, everything, in just one day?! Everything you ever were, everypony you ever met, everywhere you called home!? Don't bother, of course you don't!" Silk's anger broke, her voice beginning to waver. "I lost it all. I tried to make the most of it. I tried to find a new home, a new identity, a new life, but you... you took that away from me too."

"... you're right," Twilight answered.

Rainbow Dash was startled. That definitely didn't sound like an appology. "What?!"

"You're right. I don't know what that's like. I don't think anypony could ever know what that's like, and I nearly did take your new life away from you... but I didn't. Your home with us is still here, waiting for you."

Silk scoffed. "Some home, living in a place where everypony hates me? I'd rather live full time in the marsh."

"Silky, if you're empathic, then tell me: do you sense any hate?"

Silk blinked. No, she couldn't. She stuck her tongue out a little bit. There was guilt, sorrow, concern, some mild annoyance and frustration, and definitely some uneasiness, but the anger and hatred that had been there that afternoon was gone. "I... I don't understand."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Jeeze, I'm not sure which of you is the bigger bonehead!"

"What?" Silk and Twilight chimed in simultaneously.

"Don't you get it?" Dash asked. "Real friends stick by each other, no matter what. You don't hold grudges, or hate them because of how they look. You forgive them... even when they hurt you. You do it because they're your friends. I'm not going to not forgive Twilight because of some really stupid stunt she pulled. I'm also not going to hold a grudge just because of that little scrap last month."

Twilight Sparkle grimmaced at the double negative.

"And we're not going to abandon you just because you're a changeling. Are we, Twilight?"

Twilight shook her head. "No, we're not."

Silk couldn't process this. "But... that rage."

"Like I said, I wasn't thinking. I know I hurt you, in a lot more ways than one... can you forgive me?" she asked sincerely.

Silk sat there for a moment. Twilight's emotions matched up with what she was saying. "I... yes. That's what friends do, right?" Though still fraught with the demons of her past, Silk found hope in a brightening present. She had not truly left the death spiral, but this hope granted a stay of execution. At this rate, it would be a few weeks before she hit the bottom.

Rainbow Dash grinned. "There you go! I was starting to think I'd have to bash you over the head in order to get this into your thick skulls!"

"So," Twilight asked, "could I ask a few questions?"

Silk rolled her eyes. "You will anyway."

Am I really that predictable? Twilight thought. "Okay then. What's your real name?"

Silk gave a wry smile. "Not as different as you'd think. It's Silk."

"Well that makes sense," Twilight remarked. In hindsight, that was kind of obvious.

"Um, you can call me Silky if you like." Silk added. That name had grown on her.

"Okay, Silky Sheets."

"Drop the 'Sheets'." That one hadn't.

"Oh. Well... second question, what was the cause of that starfall phenomenon?"

"What are you talking about?"

Twilight began her habit of explaining things. "A phenominon is a-"

"I know what that means, I was a dracologist!"

"I'll take that as a 'no idea' then." She'd be sure to ask for more details on dracology later. Silk might know a lot more about dragons than anypony but a dragon did. "The next one might be a bit hard... what happened to your wings."

Silk sighed. "I was wounded in Canterlot. I didn't lie about that part."

"Do they grow back?"

Silk sighed again. "Yes, but it takes years."

Dash was struck particularly hard by that revelation. No flying for years? She'd nearly gone nuts after a week!

Twilight felt sorry for Silk as well. "Last question... what happened to the rest of the changelings? How do you now they're all... gone?"

"Out of order? What you might call telepathy... and I don't want to talk about it."

Twilight nodded grimly. She couldn't expect anypony to talk about something like that when they weren't ready, and she couldn't expect somepony ever to be ready. "Well, let's get you home. Fluttershy's been worried sick. Oh, and that reminds me," Twilight said, pulling something out of her saddlebag with telekinesis and floating it over to the changeling.

Silk took the object telekinetically, but winced as the stinging in her horn came back a bit, nearly dropping it. It was an old book. "'The Mare in the Moon'?"

Twilight nodded. "That's the book that brought the six of us together. Even though you're not one of us, I'd like you to have it, as a token of our friendship."

Silk had mixed feelings about this. She still didn't know that Twilight was referring to being element bearers, and assumed she meant that she wasn't a pony. The gesture was touching, but the subject of the story caused her a great deal of suffering. She was a fairly good actress, though, and it was the thought that counted. "Thank you. But... what about the town's ponies?"

The purple pony smiled. "Oh, I'm sure Pinkie's got that covered, and you're welcome. Now, let's get going."

Luna watched from nearby as the trio moved away. "Rainbow Dash. She was still looking for her friend. Probably since you saw her in the marsh, Shadowdancer. Element of Loyalty, indeed."

"So after all that, all we did was bring her back?", Maria asked.

"Yes. She'll be safe here."

"Well, if you say so, Luna. I think you might've overdone that spell, though."

"I cast it for a reason. If she had woken up and seen us, it would've been quite contrary to the objective. Not only did it make it very hard to wake her up, but I also eased her slumber. She won't have any nightmares for a day or two, though her dreams won't necessarily be good so much as neutral. It's also very handy as a medical anesthetic."

"Too much information, Luna."

"Too informal, Maria, and it was relevant. Silk was forced into a magical backlash and would have been in severe pain if she was woken up before I ended it."

"Oh, ow! Sorry," Maria said sheepishly. She viewed Luna a friend first, a princess second, and a boss as a distant third, and was usually very casual as a result. Luna was fine with this for the most part, since she was never truly insubordinate, but sometimes Maria had to be reminded who Luna was.

On the other hoof was Shadowdancer, whose borderline paranoia of upsetting her resulted in her interactions being a little bit too formal. "If you don't mind me asking, ma'am, what was the objective?"

"Truthfully? I still don't know... but whatever happens, 'Silky Sheets' and I will have to talk. When I'm ready. When she's ready. In the meantime, I'd like you to continue to shadow her closely, just to be sure." Luna looked Shadowdancer in the eye, "If she makes a single unprompted aggressive action... if she puts one hoof out of line... if you notice anypony that seems abnormally sluggish around her... you are to make sure she can never harm anypony again, by any means necessary."

Shadowdancer gulped. "Lethal force?"

"If you have to," Luna said coldly. "Now I have some... research to do. I'd appreciate a portal back to my chambers."

Chapter 7: Confrontation

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Celestia sent a letter down to Ponyville to match a request that Twilight Sparkle had made of her for her changeling friend. She turned to her sister. "Are you certain you don't wish to write a letter, Luna?"

The younger alicorn shook her head. "I'm sure. I fear my opinion on this matter is uncertain at best. If it was certain, I'm sure it would not matter."

Celestia gave Luna a reassuring nuzzle, garnering a shallow smile from her. "Come on, Lulu, you worry too much. I know it would make a difference, the ponies trust you," she said encouragingly.

"Perhaps..." Luna trailed off, but I still don't trust myself.

Okay, it's official, these ponies are absolutely, certifiably, unquestionably, completely and utterly NUTS!

Silk was overwhelmed, practically freaking out at the scene at hoof. In order to get the town to give her a chance, Pinkie had thrown a party. No, not just a party, a massive party. Even more than that, she practically had a PARADE going on. The only thing that flabbergasted her more was the fact that it was working.

This was all way, way too much. She had spent her entire life trying to stay low-key and out of sight. If she had drawn any excess attention to herself researching and listening to dragons, she probably would have been flambéed. Just transforming into a dragon youth didn't mean she was fireproof, after all; that was a magical quality.

Now here she was, in the middle of town, right in the center of attention. This was far, far out of her comfort zone. And to top things off, even the sun princess had apparently taken notice of her. She had sent a letter that had read something along the lines of "My little ponies, open arms, blah blah, give her a chance, yada yada, something terribly cheesy, Princess Celestia." The whole thing left her-

"Embarrassed?" Twilight asked, seeing how tense Silk had gotten.

"Embarrassed, overwhelmed, shocked, freaking the hoof out, mortified... yeah, let's go with 'mortified'," Silk replied. "All the ponies in this town are-"

"Crazy? Yeah, trust me I've been there."

"Oh, really?" Silk asked, a smug smile creeping along her face.

"Yeah, like when-"

"Your words, not mine," Silk teased in interruption, stifling a giggle.

It took a moment but Twilight Sparkle soon realized her self-deprecation. "Hey!" she said with a small chuckle.

"Will you two pay attention?" the pink party pony asked, suddenly face to face with Silk, albeit upside-down.

Silk blinked a couple times in confusion before putting on a poker face. "... Pinkie?"

"Yes?"

"Could you, maybe, GET OFF MY HEAD?!" the changeling snapped. "Honestly, that's the third time this week!"

Pinkie gave an upside down smile as she hopped to the ground. "Okie-dokie-lokie!"

Silk had given up trying to understand how Pinkie did many of the things she did, including how she managed to stand on her head without her noticing.

After a few hours, the party wound down, much to Silk's relief. She might have been new to this, but "fitting in" didn't seem compatible with "standing out" to her. The town moved on, apparently and strangely accustomed to random parades thrown by the resident hyperactive baker, leaving her simply standing there with Fluttershy and Twilight. Fluttershy, as usual, seemed content to observe.

Well, that was disturbing. What just happened? What the hay was that? That's it? Everypony gets over me not being a pony, just like that? And... she thought, moving her hoof to her temple. "Ow my head," she whined.

"I thought you knew not to think about how Pinkie does... whatever it is she does." Twilight reminded.

Before she could respond, a trio of fillies ran up to Silk. Scootaloo was the first to ask. "Hey, Silky, how'd you get your cutie mark?"

Silk blinked. "Well, I just made it. It doesn't really mean anything like a pony's does. It's actually only aesthetic and completely arbitrary for me."

"Huh? You're makin' those words up!" Applebloom said accusingly.

"No she isn't!" Sweetie Belle argued, who, having Rarity for a sister, definitely knew what aesthetic meant.

"Showoff," Scootaloo grumbled at Sweetie Belle, who was once again playing the dictionary.

"Okay okay, calm down," Twilight said, interrupting their argument before it got any further. "'Aesthetic' means something is only for looks, and 'arbitrary' means it's subject to whatever someone judges it to be. In this case, Silk is saying that her cutie mark is only for show and that she can change it or remove it completely whenever she wants to."

"Aww, really?" Sweetie Belle said, disappointed. She knew Silk had fibbed about not knowing what her cutie mark meant, but she had thought it still meant something, since she had the same cutie mark the whole time.

"Mhm," Silk confirmed, deciding to give a quick demonstration. A flash of green flames appeared on her flank, and when they receded, there was a cutie mark of a childishly-drawn house. A moment later, she cast the spell again, and there upon her flank sat a trio of bees. She kept making changes with a whoosh of flames punctuating each change, making them more quickly each time.

Fwoosh. A bunny.

Fwoosh. A bowl of soup.

Fwoosh. A photorealistic view of Sugarcube Corner.

A copy of Twilight's cutie mark.

A copy of Applejack's cutie mark.

A copy of Rarity's cutie mark.

A caricature of the faces of the crusaders with buck teeth wearing dunce caps.

"Hey!" the three protested in unison.

Silk gave a small laugh. "Sorry, I couldn't resist." One more flash of flames, and her bed was back. "Anyway, I've gotten kind of attached to the bed, as silly as that sounds."

"Yeah, that is silly," Sweetie Belle said.

Well that's a bit blunt.

"I mean, you could do anything you want! You could get good at all sorts of things," the white unicorn elaborated.

"I'll remember that," Silk said. She didn't think this was some profound word of wisdom, but somehow she suspected she'd be thinking about it in the back of her mind for some time. "So, is there anything else?"

"No, thank ya for showin' us," Applebloom said sincerely.

"She wasn't any help, though." Scootaloo muttered, only to be lightly rapped on the head by Sweetie Belle. "Ow!" she exclaimed in a hushed yelp, more because it was the expected reaction than because it hurt.

"Oh, wait! My sister said she wanted you to help her with somethin' on the farm when you were done with the parade," the yellow filly recalled as the other two crusaders ran off to do something else. She followed immediately.

Silk shrugged. "I guess I'll see you later, girls," she said. Clearly it was best not to think about how Pinkie had pulled that off, as usual. Twilight and Fluttershy gave their short farewells and went about their business as well, Silk leaving for Sweet Apple Acres.

Silk's tongue was hanging out of her mouth, trying to see if she could locate Applejack by taste. She was getting a general direction, but she could hardly be called a bloodhound with the degree of error she was getting. She wandered a fairly large patch of hilly orchard for a few minutes trying to zero in on her. A sense of direction didn't help for finding ponies, after all.

After a few minutes, she came upon the farm mare working on applebucking. Silk at first questioned how apples were ready for harvest in late spring, but shrugged it off. Applejack then spotted her as well. "So, Applebloom said you needed help?" she queried.

"Eeyup," she said with a smile, "I want you to help with applebuckin'," she answered.

That wasn't too much a problem. "Okay, I can do that" Silk said. She had gotten very used to doing odd jobs around town by now, and picking apples was easy when you weren't at risk of being attacked by an angry farmer for being a thief. Silk's horn lit up as she reached out for a few apples.

"Hold your horses there, sugarcube," AJ said, "I wanna see what ya can do without magic."

Silk stopped. "Huh? But I'm not as strong as you, I'd barely get any apples down at all!" Silk complained. This seemed completely pointless, and using magic was one thing she used to comfort herself, since she hadn't lost that ability. Sure, it wasn't as dexterous as a Worker or Scavenger class', and wasn't as powerful as a Soldier's, but it was still her magic. It wasn't a big deal not using it for this, but it was enough to take her aback at the strangeness of the request.

"That doesn't matter ta me. I just want to see what you can do."

"Well, okay," Silk compled with some apprehension. What was she trying to get out of this?

Silk lined herself up with a nearby tree, reared up on her hind legs a bit, before lowering them to the ground rapidly and delivering as strong a buck as she could to the apple tree, shaking a couple loose. "Just two," she confirmed to herself, looking at AJ, who only gestured for her to keep going.

After fifteen minutes of bucking apples, she had only gathered a couple bushels full. She breathing heavily from the exhertion. She still didn't know why she was doing this this way, when suddenly her hooves were swept out from under her, eliciting a loud "EEP!". She then noticed that her hooves were all bound together by a rope. Specifically, a lasso. She looked up to see Applejack holding the other end. "Is this about the hole in the barn?"

"You and me gotta have a heart ta heart, Silky," she said in a serious tone of voice.

Silk could taste steely determination, suspicion, and concern on the pony. "You know, you're really not my type," Silk joked, "I mean, at least take me to one of those movie things first. Is that right, 'movie'?"

Silk's jests added a slight bit of fluster to the flaxen-maned earth pony, but she was far more determined than that. "I'm serious. You're my friend, or at least I think ya are, and I'm sorry 'bout what I said, but you still lied about who you were, and that don't sit well with me."

Silk sighed. Did she really have to tie me up? She could easily just blast the rope apart without harming herself, but she'd humor Applejack for now. "Just tell me what you want," she said in annoyance. This was the second time in two days that she had been tied up now, but this time it was less threatening and more simply rude.

"Everythin'," she stated.

"You might want to talk to Twilight about that," Silk answered.

Applejack stamped her hoof in frustration. "You know full well what I mean! I want to know why y'all attacked Canterlot, why Pinkie kept sayin' you came from a 'rock farm'-"

"'...Or someplace like a rock farm'," Silk interrupted with a correction.

"-or someplace like a rock farm. I need to know the truth, Silky Sheets," she said, earning a growl from the changeling for using that wretched surname. "No more lies, no more fibs, no more games or changin' the subject. The whole and honest truth."

Silk could tell that Applejack was determined not to let this go, but she really didn't want to talk about anything in the past. "Do I have to?" she asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

"Eeyup."

Hmm, I got the word choice wrong. I was expecting a 'Darn tootin'' or something like that. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Let's start at the beginning."

"Well, some say that the universe began when-"

"What did I say about changin' the subject?"

"Technically I didn't," Silk grumbled. "Fine. I take it you don't want to know about folk-tales?"

"Nope, just your tale. From the start," AJ replied.

Silk sighed. The story was going to be awkward enough without the rope involved, with it it hit a whole new level of uncomfortable. "I was born to a pair of Scout Class changelings, and like most of such a coupling, I was born into the same class."

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "So you're born? You're not hatched, and you're not laid by the queen?"

Silk glared. "I'm not a bug, you racist!" she snapped, genuinely offended.

Now that accusation actually got to Applejack. "Woah, sorry, I reckon that was way outta line."

"Yes. Yes it was," Silk said, giving an indignant "HUMPH!"

"So," Applejack lead off, trying to get back on track, "y'all said you were 'scout class'? What's that?"

"Could you let me go first?" Silk asked, the idea of blasting the rope becoming more and more appealing with each passing second.

"You promise not to run away?"

Silk rolled her eyes. "I'd Pinkie promise, but I kinda need my limbs for that, don't I?"

The farm mare untied the changeling, pulling the lasso off.

Silk could explain this one comfortably. "Changelings come in classes, much like how Ponies can be Unicorns, Pegasi, Earth Ponies, and the rare Alicorn. There are six classes: Worker, Soldier, Scout, Scavenger, Chevalier, and Queen, though some don't count the queen and more don't count the chevaliers. Each class has a different role in the swarm and can be told apart by different physical features. Workers are... were... the most populous class, and it's their job to take care of education, medical services, construction, and overall the widest variety of tasks. Soldiers aren't as numerous, but they're physically the second largest class after the Queen, with very tough shells and have particularly powerful blasts from their horns, and their fangs are actually longer. Scavengers, there were only a dozen of them, tasked with gathering resources and distributing food as best they could... it just wasn't enough; they had larger horns than usual. Scouts, such as myself, have smaller fangs and weaker magic, but the largest and fastest wings; it's a scout's job to gather information of all sorts, and as such we acted as spies or scientists or, well, scouts, each training to specialize in another race."

AJ was struggling to get all that. It seemed that if she really got going, Silk could be almost as talkative and nearly as boring as Twilight. "So you're trained in Ponies?"

Silk snorted in a stifled laugh. "Hardly. Haven't you seen how much of a foal I make of myself? Ponies and zebras are just the easiest to transform into. I was a dracologist." AJ was scratching her head in an easily sensed confusion. "Dragons," the changeling clarified, taking the nonverbal prompt.

"Alright, so skippin' ahead, how were your folks?" AJ asked.

Silk didn't answer, she just looked up. The skies overhead were clear blue, but to the south were large rainclouds pouring over the land. "... I hate the rain."

"Pardon?" Silk was changing the subject again.

"I said 'I hate the rain'. Nothing good ever happens when it rains, it only leaves misery in its wake," she said. "I don't remember much of my parents, they died when I was young."

Applejack sat there for a moment without saying anything. "What happened?"

Silk flared up irritably. "Oh for Chrys' sake, what is this, twenty questions?! How's that any of your business? How's any of it?" she nearly yelled in a biting tone.

The orange pony sat down. "Normally? It ain't none of my business, but Twi said you live on emotion?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well," she said, tilting her hat back on her head, "I reckon if good feelings are food, then bad feelings gotta be the opposite." Applejack paused, but all Silk did was break eye contact. "I'm right, aren't I?" she questioned, only for Silk to remain silent. "That's why I had ya applebuckin', to see if you were feelin' alright. I know how much you can do normally, or I think I do, and that wasn't near as much as you've been doin'."

"Are you getting to a point to all this nonsense?" the blue "unicorn" asked. That explained why she didn't care about the actual strength of the bucks; she had set up an endurance test, and apparently Silk had failed.

"Yeah, all this stuff? If ya don't get it out in the open, it's gonna eat you alive. It's killin' you, in a way far too real for my tastes. So I need you to tell me everythin', even though it's hard. Because it's hard. Please."

Silk could taste that Applejack was being sincere. She sighed again. "Fine, but I don't like it."

"That's all I'm askin'. You said you lost your parents when you were little?" Silk nodded. "I can relate. I lost my parents when I was little too. There was a fire in the barn, and... well, they didn't make it." Applejack had had her time to grieve over this, and while it wasn't the most comfortable subject, she had accepted it long ago.

"Oh I doubt you can relate," Silk said, her face excessively grim. She wasn't sad, or rather, she was doing her best not to show it.

"Yes I can, I just said-" Applejack began in protest, only to be interrupted.

"Oh really? Did you kill your parents, too?" Silk asked in a monotone, her face stoic.

Applejack was shocked, and somewhat horrified. "Wha- what?"

"Life was hard in the marsh. Starvation and death spirals were the most common forms of death. The only way to survive was to cut off your emotions as completely as possible, lest you succumb to a death spiral yourself, your emotions poisoning you, becoming stronger from the poison, and poisoning you ever more thoroughly, until you died, nopony daring to come near you or be caught in it themselves." Silk spat, a vile, bitter taste in her mouth from remembering this. "I was never the best at suppressing my emotions. I was just... sad. All the time. No food? No light? No warmth? Living in some rotten bog, with Everfree encroaching ever further? Why wouldn't I be sad? I got that from my mother, I guess, because when she saw me so... dead... she became depressed. It got so bad, that she went into a death spiral herself."

Applejack was just sitting there, unable to respond yet.

"She died in less than a fortnight. I couldn't even see her, my father wouldn't let me because I'd just go into a death spiral too," she said. Silk was becoming angry. "Not that it did anything, no. I just went right down into a death spiral myself because I got way too emotional when my mother died. And then my father..." Silk said, pausing. "... you know we eat emotion? Well, if we 'gorge' ourselves on one individual, we leave that individual completely drained of that emotion for a time. And my father?" Silk yelled, giving an incredulous chuckle. "The moron actually went and gorged himself... on me. On my own stupid misery! That idiot went and died because of me!" Silk stopped, realizing she had stood up and started shouting. She sat down again, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "It was raining that day... raining so hard... but for once, I wasn't sad. Just outraged... and yet indifferent. I couldn't be sad, he took that away. After that, walling off my emotions was so much easier. That answer your stupid question?" Silk asked bitterly.

Applejack kept waiting for a moment, trying to take it all in, but was having a difficult time comprehending what was said. It looked like Silk was finished talking for a while. "Sorta. I reckon I get why your folks did that, but there are other things I'm just not gettin'."

"Yeah, you go ahead and say what you're going to," Silk scoffed.

"Your folks musta loved ya a lot, an' they couln't bear watchin' ya so sad. Watchin' ya made your ma even sadder than you were, and that got her. Your father didn't want you to die, so he gave his own life to save yours."

"Pitifully weak, the lot of us," Silk nodded.

"Uh, what?"

Silk rolled her eyes. Ponies often did not have the same values that changelings did, which she was constantly forgetting and equally being reminded of. "We have a saying, or had one. 'Apathy is the road to strength'. If you don't care about something, it won't matter to you when it's gone. If you don't get your hopes up, you can't have your hopes dashed. Why aim for the stars, when you never miss when you don't aim at all? Caring can get a changeling killed."

"You don't sound like you don't care," Applejack commented.

Silk shrugged. "Yeah, well, I gave up trying to be strong. I'm weak, and I'm done pretending otherwise."

"Well yeah, nopony's strong on their own," Applejack said. Silk raised an eyebrow. This coming from somepony as physically fit as her? Not only that, but her brother was downright frighteningly strong, or would be if he would be if he wasn't so mellow. Still, Applejack continued. "No, I'm not, either. Do ya think I could harvest this whole orchard on my own?"

"Eeyup" Silk replied, mimicking Big Macintosh's voice.

AJ chuckled. "Well thanks for the vote of confidence, but I can't do that, I just ain't that strong, not on my own. Believe me, I found out the hard way. I tried once, but after a while I... kinda went nuts. You know what I did?"

Silk squinted in annoyance. "Are you going to keep waiting on answers for questions you're just going to answer in a few seconds anyway? Those are supposed to be rhetorical!"

AJ scratched her head. "Red-yer-whatnow?"

Silk rolled her eyes. Lovely, I have to explain rudimentary terms even some dumb soldier class would know. Again. "It means 'a question that doesn't actually need a response', such as one you're going to answer in a second anyway."

"Well no need ta get snippy 'bout it," Applejack said. "What I did was I let my friends help me. You get your strength from friends and family, not from not carin' 'bout anythin'."

Silk blinked a bit. "You... sound like Skitter."

"Friend of yours?" Applejack asked.

"I considered him more of a partner than a friend... but I guess... in hindsight... he was."

"I'm sorry. Is he-"

"Of course he is. All of us are either dead like him, or gone. You're looking at the only exception."

Applejack waited a while, the two of them just staring at the sky in silence. "What was he like?"

The changeling sighed. "That's a good memory. Not happy, never happy, but..."

"Hey, are you okay?"

Silk looked up to see another changeling scout about her age looking at her. "Skitter, right? Been worse. Been better."

"Sorry to hear about your parents." he thought.

Silk got a tiny twinge of bittersweet pity from the boy.

Silk scoffed. "I'm not. I don't care about my mother anymore, she's dead, that's all there is to it, and frankly, my father was an idiot who got himself killed."

"He was saving you."

"Exactly. If I was weak enough to die, he should've just let me."

"I... nevermind. What'll you do now?"

Silk shrugged. "Beats me. I'll probably find a cloud or something to sleep on. Nothing's changed."

Skitter frowned. "Anypony ever tell you you're a bad liar?"

"Nope, never had a pony tell me that," Silk replied sarcastically.

Skitter laughed. "Okay, miss literalpants. You're welcome to stay with me, if you want."

Silk raised her eyebrows before putting on a devilish smile. "Bringing a stray home? And a girl, too? Oh what would your parents say?" she teased. Also, 'literalpants'? What are we, two? she thought to herself.

"Not much, considering they're dead too," he said, eerily relaxed about it.

Skitter was very weird. Silk could tell he was having fun with this, and was hoping she'd take him up on his offer. If the two had been ponies, they would have been sent to an orphanage, but as changelings there was no such thing. Fortunately, Skitter still had his parents' tree-house. "You're certainly a chipper one."

"I guess I am, aren't I?" he answered with a smile.

"Then you're even weaker than I am. How exactly are you still alive?" she asked.

Skitter tapped his cavatied hoof against his chin. "Hmm, I would say it's because I just look at the bright side. But if you think that makes me weak, then how about we lend each other our strength?"

Silk pondered. "Well, what have I got to lose?"

"Oh my gosh, what're we gonna do, what're we gonna do, what're we gonna do, what're we gonna do?!" Skitter thought in a panic. It had been several years since then, and he and Silk had been tasked with the study of the dragons, with emphasis placed on long-term patterns. They'd only been there a couple of weeks, but already they had drawn the attention of some more aggressive dragon youths. They had ducked away into a small cave that the two had claimed as a home base.

"Oh would you relax? We were transformed, it's not like our cover is blown. They were just being territorial and trying to show dominance, and they would have backed off if you weren't so rife with fear." Silk thought that he was being a scardy-shell, though that fear was rational enough that it couldn't be called a phobia.

"Then they aren't looking for us anymore?"

"Oh, no, they're definitely looking for us, and there's a good chance they'll attack us on sight now that we've shown ourselves weak targets."

"Oh, gee, thanks a lot. That's really reassuring," Skitter remarked sarcastically, shooting her a dirty look.

Silk pressed her hoof between her eyes. Sometimes it really felt like she was foalsitting him. She put her hoof back down and approached the mouth of the cave. "I'll protect you."

"Wha, huh?" Skitter thought, stunned.

"I swear, I'll die before I let harm come to you. After that, though, I don't really have much say in the matter," she responded, joking on the second part.

"... Thank you..."

"You're welcome."

"... but I told you, didn't I? We'll lend each other our strength." Skitter's fear was gone.

Silk could taste confidence and determination coming from her companion, and also just a hint of something sweet. She chuckled. "Okay, fine then, mr. tough guy. If we have to, we'll defend ourselves together."

Silk sighed. "He died a month ago in Canterlot. This huge monster hurt him really badly. He got me too, kicked me so hard I went flying out of the castle and into the forest. I guess that's why I'm still here. Skitter tried to tell me to run, but I didn't listen. I told him I'd protect him, what else was I supposed to do but try to get him away? I was a pretty quick flyer, but that... thing... he was unbelievable. I've only ever seen two things move that fast, Flit and Rainbow Dash. I was lucky I reacted in time, or my injuries would have been far worse, but still... I broke my promise to him."

"Good. Now, just a couple more things."

Silk groaned. "Oh for the love of Chrys, still?"

The pony nodded. "Mhm. Just two more. Why did you attack Canterlot?"

Uh oh. That's not a good subject, Silk thought. "That's obvious, isn't it?"

Applejack just shook her head.

Silk got up and started talking quickly, not wanting to discuss this and feeling guilty about it. "We were told to. Nice talk, gotta run, things to do, places to-" She had begun waking away, but was interrupted by a rope yanking her hind leg, not causing her to fall but halting her advance. I swear, one more time and I'll break this darn thing she thought.

"Why did y'all go along with it? I don't get it."

Gee, there's a shocker. Silk huffed. "If one of your pony princesses told you there was a way to save all of Equestria from famine, darkness, and death, wouldn't you do anything she asked of you for that goal?"

Applejack had to admit to herself, if that was why, she could understand, but... "Just how was attackin' Canterlot supposed to help you?"

"I'd have to ask the queen, oh wait, I can't. All I know is that we thought it would make her happy... if she's happy, then we're happy. It's her role in the swarm to love us... and from that love, we could feed and be happy. But she wasn't happy. She was never happy, just like the rest of us. We would have done anything, taken any risk, made any sacrifice, if it would make her happy. But no... she wasn't. That was our last gambit, and we failed. In the end, we all paid the ultimate price, in one of two ways. Every one of us either died, or was sent to... there, except me."

Applejack looked sad for a moment. "Naw, I reckon you paid a mighty high price too. Losin' everypony you ever knew? I can't think 'a a higher price than that. But why didn't y'all just do what you're doin' now? Livin' offa' other races' feelin's without hurtin' anypony?"

Silk shook in anger. "Because we were betrayed. We were betrayed, and I'm the only one who knows it. That... THING does not deserve to be called a queen! We were lied to... for thousands of years at least we were lied to, by her, and her predecessors. We were told that the ponies and griffons and everything were evil. Love and joy were 'rare commodities.' That they were filled with arrogance and greed, spite and envy, that they were gluttonous and vain and wrathful. Some claimed they learned to feed off of hatred, anger, and rage. They could thrive on loathing and spite. I never could. Most of us couldn't. Two of the chevaliers, Scarab and Cocoon, said they could keep going just on their own hatred. I believe it. Scarab was actually so twisted by his hatred that he was exiled until recently. I guess that makes us the monsters, doesn't it?"

Silk had echoed Applejack's accusations, leaving her feeling guilty. "I didn't mean it when I said that," the mare said apologetically.

Silk shook her head. "No, you were right. We were monsters. Do you know what I was doing in Canterlot?"

AJ scratched her head. "I reckon y'all were scarppin' with somepony. Heck, I lost count 'a the number 'a changelings that tangled with us before they got us."

Wait, she was there? Silk thought, before shaking it from her mind. That wasn't important right now. "You were probably up against the worker class. The Soldiers were ordered only to target the military. The scouts... we had a different objective. We were ordered to find anypony fleeing, and capture them. We were going to enslave you, harvest you like you were just a bunch of these trees. To trap you and take away both your land and your freedom. We didn't know exactly how we were going to get love and happiness out of that, and the worst part? We didn't even care." Silk became increasingly manic. "I didn't care about it, I would have done anything to please the queen! We all would! We were starving, dying, why wouldn't we? I would have killed without hesitation if I had been told to! Don't you get it, I could think for myself, but I never did! None of us did! What does that make me if not a monster, some feral beast?!"

Applejack nodded. "I guess you were monsters then..."

Silk laughed. "See? You were right, I-"

"... but you're not anymore," Applejack continued, interrupting Silk's breakdown.

Silk was caught offguard. "What?"

"You're not a monster. You might have been, but not anymore," Applejack stated. "You changed."

"What do you mean?" Silk asked. She didn't think she was that different.

"Well, you tell me, then. Would you still hurt somepony? Would you do whatever that queen 'o yours told you?" Applejack questioned.

Silk responded frantically. "No! No, I wouldn't, never again!! If I-"

"Then I don't see the problem. A monster wouldn't feel bad about it, or try to forget about it. A monster doesn't feel guilty or sorry, and wouldn't care 'bout doin' it again. But I think there's an easier way to tell," Applejack explained. Silk lowered her head a little, trying to avoid eye contact with the farmer, but Applejack put a hoof over her shoulder. "Monsters don't cry, especially for others."

"Damn it..." Silk said, trying to avoid crying. There was no reason to, and it wasn't rational. It made her feel so very, very helpless. Still, she couldn't help but feel a powerful mixture of sweet happiness and bitter sadness, which brought tears unbidden. "Damn it, damn it... I'm so... pathetic," she said, a couple drops of salted water escaping from her eyes.

"Ain't nothin' pathetic 'bout cryin' after goin' through what you've gone through," Applejack said comfortingly. Silk's troubles had finally been laid bare, all but one, and a wave of forgiveness and sympathy from her friend began to heal those old wounds of the soul.

Still, there was one trouble left. "One last thing," Applejacked asked, "what happened to the rest of the changelings?"

Silk shook her head. "No, I can't... I can't answer that. I don't even want to think about it! I wish I could scour it from my memory, but I can't! It would be easier if I knew they were dead, but what happened is... unspeakable. I'm sorry, I just... can't."

Applejack sighed. "Okay. You alright?" she asked.

Silk noded. "Just... just give a minute." Applejack complied, taking a few steps back and giving her a little space.

The two sat there wordlessly for a time, just watching the sky. It was a lot less fulfilling for Silk than what she was used to. The clouds did not typically float of their own accord here, and those did were swiftly brought into line. She could not touch the sky as she once could, and as such it felt distant; she felt somewhat detached from it. Still, sometimes the simplest things were the most comforting. The sun was beginning its descent into the horizon, the sky slowly changing from blue, to amber, then going into orange and finally a brilliant rose.

"I should go."

Applejack turned to her companion. "You okay?"

Silk paused. "Yeah. I think... I think I am. Thank you," Silk said sincerely, giving a faint smile.

"Anythin' for a friend, and I'm a might sorry 'bout callin' you that yesterday."

Silk gave a sheepish grin. "Uh, call it even for the hole in the wall?" she asked.

The earth pony chuckled. "Sure, ya still did less damage than Rainbow and Derpy do in a week." Silk didn't doubt it.

The two bid each other good bye, and despite the pain of recalling those memories, Silk felt better for having done so.

Silk did not return home to Fluttershy's cottage right away. Instead, she took a detour, going a couple hundred feet into the Everfree Forest. Eventually she stopped in her tracks. She frowned.

"So, I guess you're not just following me to eavesdrop, are you?" she said, turning to her eight o'clock. Whoever it was didn't get the hint. "Are you going to come out or what? I know you've been following me all day." No answer, but Silk could taste a quick flash of panic. At this point the faux-pony was getting irritated, and fired a blast into the treetops, sending a couple of small branches falling somewhere into the brush. There was an audible thunk.

"Ow! Fine, I get it!" A dark forest-green coated unicorn mare stepped out from behind the shrubbery rubbing her head with her hoof, a simple map sextant adorning her flank. Her mane and tail were pitch black, and she was wearing a pair of yellow tinted sunglasses. It was Shadowdancer.

Silk glared. "Why are you following me?"

"I can't say."

Silk raised an eyebrow. There was no curiosity on this mare. "Well then, allow me to hypothesize. I know you're not here to ask me a question, and since you haven't tried anything, you're not trying to do anything to me, at least not yet. You're watching me. Why?"

"Sorry, I still can't say," Shadowdancer replied. Her cover was clearly blown, but Silk wasn't hurting anypony, so she clearly wasn't supposed to detain her. Well, she had just knocked her on the noggin with some tree branches, but that was clearly an attempt to flush the cartographer out.

"Fine. Then stop," Silk stated.

The sun had set now, and the moon took its time in the sky, and shadows were all around. Retreat would be a simple matter if needed, but the question was what to do. The Lunar Guard was tasked with far subtler missions on par than its solar counterpart. As such, the princess herself had given some general orders in the inevitable event that somepony got caught.

If in danger and you have the upper hoof, strike. If in danger, and at a disadvantage, retreat. If not in danger, and exposed to an enemy, strike. If not in danger, and exposed to a friend or third party, depending on the situation, either redeploy from another angle, retreat, or substitute another member of the guard.

The problem was, just what was Silk? Friend? Foe? Somewhere in between? Shadowdancer didn't know, but this changeling did not seem like an enemy, at least not from what she had seen over the last day. Shadowdancer took a guess. "I'm afraid I can't do that."

Silk stamped her hoof. "Well what can you do!? Leave me alone!" Silk shot a small blast of magic at the pony, just enough to swat her on the nose. However, as the spell went off, it did more than make Shadowdancer wince. The sunglasses were blown apart at the bridge, drooping down on the guard's muzzle.

Silk gasped. There were those eyes again. Those same golden eyes that she had seen so vividly a month beforehoof. She stammered, "Y-you're-"

Just then, a blinding flash of white light blasted through the trees behind Shadowdancer, cloaking her in shadow, lingering for a few moments, accompanied by a deafening thunderclap. Silk was forced to shut her eyes, and Shadowdancer took the opportunity and opened a portal back to canterlot to report back to the princess.

When Silk opened her eyes, her mystery stalker was gone. She stuck her tongue out to try to get a taste of her, but she was nowhere near her. "Did she teleport away?" she asked herself aloud. She looked around, searching for the source of the lightning bolt. It was way too unlikely that the timing of that was a coincidence or a random act of nature, but there were no clouds for miles.

Unnerved, Silk headed for Fluttershy's cottage at a quick trot.

Shadowdancer knocked on the door to Luna's chambers, having opted not to travel directly in like last time in an effort to lessen the inevitable chewing out that she was about to recieve. Luna's voice came from inside. "Who is it?"

"Shadowdancer, ma'am!" she yelled through the door.

"You may come in," the princess stated, more commanding than offering, and Shadowdancer obliged.

It was dark in the room, save for a quartet of candlesticks glowing upon the princess's desk. The princess was hunched over, a number of seemingly ancient tomes lying open upon its surface. Pieces of parchement lay scattered in a disorganized clutter in and around the books, Luna frantically scribbling notes inside. "Your report?" she asked, not breaking her focus on her work.

Luna had been spending much of her time these last two years at her desk in an attempt to bridge the painfully long gap in her knowledge of the world. She sometimes even joked that her medical license was only 998 years past due for renewal. Still, the clutter was odd. The Princess was always fairly organized in her studies, though not obsessively so. This did not go unnoticed by the unicorn entering the room.

"I, uh, about Silk?"

"Yes, what about her?" Luna asked hurriedly.

Shadowdancer shuffled her forelegs guiltily, sweeping a hoof along the ground. "I, uh, she found out I was following her. I'm sorry, I failed you."

Luna lifted a hoof in a dismissive motion, still staring at a tome. "You didn't fail me, of course she discovered you, that was to be expected. How did she react?"

SD's jaw dropped. "What do you mean that was 'to be expected'?!"

Luna sighed and turned around, finally looking her subordinate in the eye. "Naturally when I ordered you to follow her closely, I knew that the emphasis I put on the aforementioned adverb would cause you to overcompensate actual physical distance you'd tail her at, due to your semi-compulsive desire to avoid displeasing me. At that short a range, any changeling would easily be able to tell that he or she was being followed. That's why I sent Fletch to watch her, and provide means of escape and cover fire if necessary. With his eyes and accuracy, he can observe her from several miles away; out of reach, well out of range for a changeling's sense of 'taste', invisible to the casual observer, and able to strike at a moment's notice if she attacks somepony. I told him to stay just three and a half miles away and told him to use a telescope just to make sure. You were there to get an accurate picture of how hostile she would be to somepony ambiguous as to whose side they were on," Luna explained. Looking back to her tome, the ruler of the night sighed. "And now I've lost my train of thought. Well, in that case, I'd like you to describe everything that happened today."

It took some time, but Shadowdancer explained the day's events, from the simple morning to the flamboyant parade, to as many details as she could remember overhearing, all the way up until Fletch's arc of lightning. At the end, Luna nodded. "So, only one half-count against her."

"Is that good?" Shadowdancer asked.

Luna shrugged. "Yes and no. Yes, it means that so far, Silk is proving to be deserving of a second chance. It also means that evidence is mounting that I'm right, and.. I don't know if I want to be. All the same, I'll keep her under observation until I can sort this all out." After what happened with Firefly millenia ago, and her own actions, she did not know who she trusted less. Even now it felt like Nightmare Moon was haunting her.

"What is it you might be right about?"

"... you're dismissed, guardsmare. I have a lot of research to do," Luna said, turning around and looking at her tome again. Shadowdancer glanced down at what the princess was working on, gleaning the title of one of the books.

Encyclopedia of Darkness, Volume 2. Second Revision

Luna must have had eyes in the back of her head, because she addressed Shadowdancer's growing concern. "Relax, Shadowdancer, it is an encyclopedia, not a grimoire. Now, I believe I said you're dismissed." The guard gave a salute and walked out of the room quickly, leaving the demigoddess staring at her tomes. The flames flickered on her desk, casting a long shadow behind the alicorn, full of doubt and fear.

Chapter 8: Acceptance

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Silk knocked on the door to Fluttershy's cottage, looking warily behind her. Her unease after her encounter with Shadowdancer had only increased into paranoia thanks to her walk through the forest, the idea that she could be behind any tree extremely unsettling. She tapped her hooves on the ground in a nervous tic. After a few moments, the pink-maned pegasus answered the door.

"Oh, hello, Silky. How was your-"

"TALKINSIDE!" Silk blurted, blazing past Fluttershy in a blur of blue and sending her spinning. She swiftly jumped onto the couch, eyes darting between the doors and windows.

Once the room stopped spinning, Fluttershy saw how Silk was acting. "Um... are you okay?"

Silk thought for a moment. "I... guess I am," she said, rationalizing what had just happened and calming herself down, her heart still beating fast.

"Oh, that's a relief."

That pony in the woods had certainly spooked her, as had the arc of lightning, but aside from that Silk was completely unscathed. She was silent for a few moments before she spoke. "Hey, Fluttershy?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know anything about ponies with... dragon eyes?"

Fluttershy made an incorrect assumption and, despite her misgivings, was repulsed by the idea. "Dragon eyes? Like, they hurt a dragon and-"

"No no, I mean, like this," Silk replied. She closed her eyes for a moment and cast her spell, and opened them, revealing a copy of the eyes that she had seen.

"Oh, no, I don't know anypony with eyes like that," Fluttershy answered.

Silk's ears drooped as she reverted her eyes to their typical, blue disguised form. "Oh. I see."

Fluttershy, seeing this reaction, decided to make a suggestion. "Twilight might, though. Would you like to see her tomorrow?"

"Could you come with me?" the changeling asked. She wasn't panicking, but a disappearing stalker would unnerve just about anypony.

"Oh, sure, I could go with you. If you want to, that is."

Silk nodded. "Thank you. I appreciate it," she said, sighing with relief. The sigh turned into a yawn. "I think I'm going to bed a little early. That parade really took it out of me. Good night, Fluttershy."

"Good night, Silky," Fluttershy bid as her friend walked up the stairs.

Silk yawned as she lay down to what would surely be another, semi-restful night's sleep, though the night's sleep before hadn't been that bad. More weird than anything else. The next day she'd ask Twilight about the ponies with the dragon eyes.

That night, memories opened up from her conversation before, and nightmares still blocked by Luna's spell the night before, Silk could only dream of one thing. She dreamed of the past.

"Oh what's the point?!" Silk thought, throwing a stack of papers in the air melodramatically, "We haven't learned anything new in months. Months! Two hundred and eighteen days, give or take a few hours!"

Silk and Skitter had hit a dead end in their observations. It had gotten to the point where all their notes were plainly obvious, and redundancies were getting all too common. The two were still given supplies every few months, basic essentials of the job. Paper, quills, ink, simple instruments, even a pair of binoculars for some reason. Wasp, their scavenger and supplier, was tasked with foraging supplies from ponies and griffins (typically by theft) and delivering them to scout teams. Still, those supplies were running scarce.

To make matters worse, even with the generalistic nature of their studies, the two were not the only scout team in the area, and as such they sometimes wound up stepping on each others' hooves.

Skitter shrugged. "Want to go find some food? That spot last time wasn't too bad," he suggested.

Silk groaned. "Yes, but if we get caught impersonating that dragon's children we're in serious trouble," she reminded. There was a dragon mother about twelve miles due southeast, near what the changelings called the steam fields, but last time the two had tried they had almost been caught. "This stinks," Silk stated.

"Well, look on the bright side," her companion suggested.

"What bright side? We're hungry, tired, and accomplishing absolutely nothing!"

"Well, yeah, true, but there's always a bright side. What you need to do is think of one, and hold onto it. It'll keep you going. That's what I do."

Silk sighed. "Just come up with one? It's that simple?" she asked.

Skitter nodded enthusiastically. "Yup, it's that simple."

Silk looked up at the sky and sighed. "I guess... at least it isn't raining."

Skitter started laughing. "That's the best you can come up with? Yeah it doesn't rain much here, but that won't work too well when it actually is raining!"

"Oh yeah? Well, what's yours then, genius?" she demanded aloud, already frustrated and further irritated by his ridicule.

"I... I'd rather not say," he said, suddenly avoiding eye contact with her. There was that tiny trace of sweet on him again.

Silk woke up the next morning and looked out the window. It was overcast, but no precipitation was falling. She had taken a peek at the weather schedule a week ago and there wasn't any scheduled for two days. "Yeah, at least it isn't raining," she said to herself.

After her usual morning routine, she walked down the stairs to the first floor to see Angel Bunny reading a newspaper and eating a carrot. "Morning, Angel. Any idea what Fluttershy is doing today?" she asked.

Angel didn't even break away from his paper, but pointed in the general direction of the otters.

"Thanks," she said. "Seriously, that is one smart rabbit," she whispered to herself as she walked out the door.

Angel, of course, overheard this with his long ears and, as usual, put on a smug grin. She muttered this almost every time she "talked" with him and, being a somewhat vain creature, he enjoyed having his ego stroked. As a result, his disposition towards her was more relaxed than that of most of the other animals.

When Silk found Fluttershy, she was searching the stream for rocks for the otters to use, having already found a number of clams for them. "Morning, Fluttershy."

The pony looked up. "Oh, good morning, Silky, did you sleep well?" she asked before recalling Silk's chronic nightmares. "Oh, sorry."

Silk stopped and considered the question. "Hmm, actually, all things considered, I slept pretty well last night. Best night's sleep for... well, about a month."

"Oh that's wonderful!" Fluttershy beamed.

Silk smiled a bit. "Anyway, need any help feeding the animals?" she asked. Except for yesterday, when she was passed out from her ordeal the night before, she had taken to helping Fluttershy with her morning rounds, if just a little.

"Oh, uh... no. Sorry. I think it might be best if we let the animals get used to you again. Sorry."

Silk thought for a few moments before an idea popped into her head. "Well, maybe I could stay in changeling form and accelerate the process? I could feed them without any danger," she suggested while making a mental note to avoid larger animals just in case.

"I'm not sure that would be a good idea, you might frighten them. Maybe give it a week? If you don't mind, that is..."

Silk frowned a bit, but then shrugged. It wasn't like Fluttershy hadn't had a handle on things before, and she had only started helping out this last week. All she had ever really done was speed up the process a bit. "No, I don't mind, I'm just sorry I can't help out."

Maybe I'll just drop by Sugarcube Corner while I wait, Silk thought, absentmindedly looking to her lower right to make sure she had some money to do so with. However, as she looked down, she noticed that her saddlebag was missing. "Wah! Oh no," she fretted, unable to remember when she took it off. "Fluttershy? Have you seen my saddlebag anywhere?" she asked, very distressed. The bag was a gift from Rarity, and what's more, she had put a lot of work into acquiring its contents.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry, I forgot to tell you. Rainbow Dash found it in the swamp."

Silk was relieved, and a little touched. "Dash found it? In the marsh?"

"Mhm, and Rarity took it back to Carousel Boutique."

"Okay, thanks. I guess I'll stop over there first." Very, very carefully, she added in thought.

There was a knock on the door. Rarity knew that, since the boutique was open and most ponies would just walk into the shop, that could only mean one individual. She sighed, placed the gem she had been working on down, and walked over to open the door.

"Hi Rarity," Silk said, looking over her shoulder for some reason, tasting the air with the tip of her tongue out.

"Really, dear, you don't have to knock first when a shop is open," she reminded.

"Oh, I know, but it's your house too, right? It just feels... wrong barging in on somepony's home unless you have to."

"Ah, yes," Rarity explained, "but some ponies live and work in the same place. It's quite common, really. Pinkie Pie lives with the Cakes on the upstairs of Sugarcube Corner, as does Twilight in the library with Spike. If the workplace is open, it would only be impolite to enter the the living quarters without permission."

"Oh. Well, while we're on the subject of your house, why do you have carvings of ponies being impaled through the chest outside? I've been meaning to ask about that."

"Oh my!" Rarity exclaimed. To an outsider like Silk, that must have looked simply dreadful, both literally and figuratively. "I do apologize if that unnerved you, but it's based on the design of the first music box, which was named the carousel. Come, let me show you."

Rarity walked behind a screen an pulled out a square box. "Here we are. This is a miniature replica, mind you. The real one was about the size of this building," she explained, pulling the lid off.

Inside was a ring with a number of tiny pony figurines on sticks. Rarity used her horn to turn a little key on the side, and when she stopped, the little figurines began to rotate around the center and spin individually. A little tune played as well. The music started out fast, but got slower and then stopped, the spinning slowing down in turn. Rarity closed the lid and put it away.

"Neat," Silk stated simply. It certainly explained a lot.

"Now then, I doubt you came here to discuss architecture, but I think I know your actual motivation..." she led off, "... unfortunately I fear your saddlebag was unsalvageable."

"Oh." Silk's ears drooped a bit. "I'm sorry, Rarity, I didn't mean to lose it. I don't even remember putting it down!"

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "You've been spending too much time around Fluttershy, darling. It was a gift, you weren't borrowing it, though you really should take better care of your things in the future."

The changeling nodded. "Sorry. Oh, sorry about... gah! Maybe I have been spending just a bit too much time with her!" she exclaimed.

The designer let out a small laugh. "Well, anyway, I thought it would be best if I made you a new one." The white pony then lit her horn and produced an indigo bag seemingly out of nowhere, bearing Silk's cutie mark of choice. "I stitched this together last night, I hope you don't mind."

Silk's face lit up. "Oh, wow! Thank you!"

"This little thing is hardly high fashion, though with the number of bits I moved from one to another (after cleaning them thoroughly) you could certainly afford a designer saddlebag."

"No thanks, I'm sure this one will do just fine. Thanks. Anything I can do for you while I'm here?"

Rarity had hoped she would ask. "Hmm, now that you mention it, could I take a rain check on that? I have an idea of how to use that transformation of yours later."

She didn't really have a use for the money, but nonetheless Silk decided to help her friend out. "Sure, more hair stuff?" she inquired.

"Something like that..."

"Okay then," Silk agreed, having no idea that she would regret it later, "see you later, Rarity!" she said, about to make for the exit.

"Oh, one last thing before you go, are you going to attend Rainbow Dash's little soiree this afternoon?"

"Oh that was today? It's a game of cards, right? That's always fun. I'll be there, thanks!"

Rarity nodded and the changeling walked out the door. "Ta ta, Silky."

"See ya!"

Sugarcube Corner was a frequent pit-stop for Silk. The absurdly sweet confections was part of the reason, and every few days she would buy something. It was about all she actually spent her bits on, really, but another part was that Pinkie always seemed to have an extreme amount of excess happy. So long as she didn't gorge herself, Silk could feed off of that without any measurable side-effects.

Silk walked in to see Carrot Cake manning the counter. "Morning, Mr Cake," she said absentmindedly, looking around the display case for whatever looked the sweetest.

"Good morning, Silky," he greeted.

Silk's eyes fell on an apple pie with sugar on the crust. "I'd like that pie, please."

"That'll be nine bits," he informed. Silk nodded and took out a few golden coins, counting them one at a time with her hoof like a filly. Mr. Cake decided to ask a question he'd been curious about. "So... I'm curious."

"Yeah, I can tell," Silk replied, having tasted that on him already.

"Does it actually matter what you pick?" he asked, trying to ask the question indirectly.

"I'd think that's up to me to decide, wouldn't you?"

Clearly he had failed. "I mean, do you taste the same way we do?"

"I can taste emotions if that's what you're asking," she said, beginning to wonder what he was getting at.

The pony was getting a bit flustered, which both bemused and amused his customer. "What I mean is, if I eat a cherry pie, and you eat a cherry pie, do we taste the same thing?"

"Yes, the pie of course. You kinda answered your own question there," Silk replied.

"No! I mean our sense of taste. Like, how all ponies have the same taste."

That question clicked, but Silk decided to have a little fun with him. "Really? You're saying all ponies have the same sense of taste and like the same foods? Fascinating!" she responded with a teasing sarcasm.

"No, I mean, that's opinion. I mean, do your taste buds work the same way on food that ours do?" He was struggling now, trying to phrase this in the right way.

Silk doubted it, but she still teased the stallion. "Oh, I doubt I can prove it one way or another. You see, everything is subject to observational bias, and we cannot assume that the way our bodies react to one thing is the same as another. What I call "purple" might be how you see "green", and what I call "sweet" might be the same sensation that you call "salty", but you're simply programmed to react to the sensation the same way I do."

"... what?"

"Any observed phenomena must be relative as absolutes do not exist, and absolute certainty of any such hypotheses becomes nearly if not completely impossible due to our own imperfect forms of observation."

"... so is that a 'no', then?"

Silk started laughing. "Hahaha! No, I doubt it's the same, I think ponies are able to tell the flavors of their food apart a lot better than I can. I can still tell things apart, for the most part, but any subtleties are completely lost on me."

Carrot's hoof hit his forehead, silently cursing himself for simply not mentioning flavor in the first place.

"Have you seen Pinkie, by the way?" Silk inquired.

"Yeah, she's in the kitchen. We've got a big order from Canterlot and Cup is out getting more supplies."

"I see. Mind if I lend a hoof?"

"I don't see why not," he answered. Silk had helped out a couple times before and, while she didn't display any knack or intuition for the art for now obvious reasons, she followed recipes to the letter, which was perfectly acceptable for these bulk orders.

Silk nodded and trotted into the kitchen, her pie floating behind her, and was greeted by the sounds of whirring eggbeaters clanging cookware, and ringing alarms. Pinkie was zipping about so quickly that, if she didn't know better, Silk would have sworn there were two of her. "Wow. Need a hoof?" she asked, putting her pie down on the table.

"I would, but you can't taste right right now, right?" the party pony replied, not missing a beat as she rushed between taking cakes out of the oven and putting icing on desserts.

"Huh?"

"Sorry but if you can't taste right, you wouldn't know what's left to add, and you might not get the right thing right then, right?"

Silk could figure out what she was saying, but was having a hard time keeping up with the homonyms. At this point she didn't even question how the pink pony had heard her discussion with Mr. Cake (despite all the noise). "Hey Pinkie, you might want to use some synonyms."

Pinkie stuck a clean spoon in some batter quickly and licked it. "See? This doesn't need any cinnamon at all! Sorry, Silky, but I'm super EXTRA busy right now! See you at Dashie's party!" she said, shooing the changeling out into the shop and shutting the door.

Silk blinked a couple times. "... you know I can follow a recipe, right?" she asked Carrot, who wordlessly shrugged. Then Silk realized something and yelled through the door, "Pinkie! My pie!"

"My middle name isn't Mai, silly! That's almost as silly as my real middle name, and why are you calling me with a middle name when you're using my nickname in the first place, cause that's just weird!" Pinkie blabbed from the kitchen. "You might want to get some more sleep, you're talking all gobbletygookie!

Silk stamped her hoof, clearly irritated with Pinkie. She glared daggers at the door before turning and looking at the stallion out of the corner of her eye, who in turn put on an uneasy smile. "Uh, that was the last apple pie," Mr. Cake said nervously. "We could bake a new one for you tomorrow, though!"

"Why thank you," she smarmed, putting on a false smile that sent shivers up his spine.

"I, uh, am I interrupting something?" a voice squeaked from the front door. "I could come back if you need more time..."

Silk turned around and saw Fluttershy standing in the doorway. "Not at all, it seems. I was just about to leave. Thank you, Mr. Cake," she said, trotting off with the pegasus to the library.

The stallion breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently what they said about a mare scorned applied to Silky as well.

"Dragon eyes?" Twilight asked skeptically. That sounded more like a myth than anything else.

"Yeah. I can't copy the stallion, but the mare I saw looked like this," she said, transforming into an identical copy of Shadowdancer. She was somewhat glad that her secret was out in the open, it made it a whole lot easier to show ponies who and what she meant.

Twilight looked at Silk's eyes closely. "You're sure she looked like that?"

Silk raised her eyebrow and looked at Twilight Sparkle expectantly.

"... oh, Changeling, right. Stupid question," she apologized with just a hint of embarrassment. She cleared her throat and regained her composure.

"Hmm... I've seen this before. What am I... oh!" Twilight exclaimed, suddenly gleeful with recollection. "I know where I've seen those before! Nightmare Night! She must be one of Princess Luna's guards! I thought that was a costume, though."

Silk resisted the urge to glare. I should have known. Those fiends could only possibly be her subordinates. Silk would have to keep an eye out, but couldn't afford to make herself a nervous wreck about it. It was no different than her time in the scorched lands. "That's probably it. Thank you, Twilight."

"Don't mention it! Now, would you like to help me with some experiments?" Twilight asked with a frightening twinkle in her eye.

"E-experiments?" Fluttershy stammered.

Silk was a bit more calm, but calling Twilight "overzealous at times" was an understatement

Twilight nodded excitedly. "Oh sure! We still need to figure out how your transformation spell works, how your cells construct genetic code without deoxyribonucleic acid, why your blood turns green when it gets old, and if your blood type really is compatible with ponies!"

Well that hardly sounds pleasant, Silk thought. "Erm, thanks, Twilight, bu-"

Twilight wasted no time. "Great! Nice seeing you, Fluttershy," she rambled, shooing the pegasus out the door and closing it. "Let's get testing!"

Fluttershy stood outside the door. "Um, okay, I, uh, I guess I'll see you later, girls," she whispered, departing back into town.

As she departed, Silk pressed against the glass of the treehouse window. "Help me?" she whimpered, before sliding down the window under the influence of Twilight's telekinesis.

"Spike!" the violet unicorn called.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" Spike's voice came from upstairs. A few moments the young dragon showed up at the top of the stairs. "Yeah, Twilight?"

"I've got a hunch, so I need a blood sample."

Spike's eyes widened in horror. "WAAAGH!" he yelled, trying to run away, but he too was immobilized by Twilight's magic.

As Twilight chipperly walked down to the lab, the two floating behind her grimaced. "This is going to suck, isn't it?" the changeling dryly queried the dragon.

"Probably."

Oh, fantastic.

"Yes, we're done," Twilight said begrudgingly. Five hours of Silk whining in Rarity's voice had certainly given her the motivation not to dawdle, not to mention cut most of the joy out of the process. "Honestly, you're a scientist-"

"Past tense, dear," Silk reminded, still not having dropped the white unicorn's tone.

"I'd think you'd be used to a few-"

"... dozen..."

"...non-invasive procedures."

"Non-invasive my hoof!" Silk retorted in her usual voice. "I'd think the number of broken needles would have told you that."

While collecting blood samples, Twilight had tried to take a control sample of Silk's original form, but had underestimated the durability of it and bent a few syringes. Eventually she figured out a spot where the shell was thinner and switched to a titanium needle, and Silk was still griping about how much it hurt.

While most of Twilight's experiments hardly yielded any results, and the magical genetics (if there were any) study would take quite a bit of time, she had learned a few notable things. Still, there was one experiment that she did not have ready access too. Even if she did, she would not dare to attempt it, as if her hypothesis was correct, doing so could have lethal consequences.

Silk had always been an observational scientist. Her tasks were varied, ranging from cultural and behavioral dracology, to sociopolitical studies, to a very rudimentary psychology and the physiology of the scorched lands in general. However, direct influencing of her subjects had never really been part of the agenda, and was actually an indicator to her that something had gone wrong. As such, this very pokey-prodding science Twilight had performed was very uncomfortable to her, especially since she was the test subject.

Twilight sighed and started walking out of the lab. "Well, I guess I can make it to Rainbow Dash's card game after all."

Silk perked up. "Ooh, that's fun!" she chirped.

The student of Celestia tensed up. "Oh, uh, about that..."

"Yes?"

"I was talking with Rainbow Dash and, well, we don't really think it's a good idea to let you play, with you being a changeling and all," Twilight nervously informed.

Silk tilted her head inquisitively. "Why not?"

"Well, it's just... with you being empathic and all... it's sort of... cheating."

"But... but it's not like I can turn it off, and besides! You're a card counter!"

"That's not cheating!" Twilight retorted defensively.

"It gives you a statistical advantage, and you can't help it, just like I can't help if I have a tactical advantage." Silk stated as a matter of fact.

Twilight shook her head. "I'm sorry, not today, Silky. Look at the bright side, you've got all day to do odd-jobs, or whatever you want, really." Twilight walked out the door.

The changeling sighed, looking at Spike. "How do you do it?" she asked.

"Do what?"

"How do you fit in with all these ponies?"

Spike scratched his head. "Well, Twilight hatched me, and I've spent my whole life around them. Why?"

"It's just..." Silk began, trying to figure out how to phrase it, "I'm not a pony, and all day everypony's been treating me... differently. Well, except Rarity I guess."

"Yeah, isn't she perfect?" Spike asked dreamily, exuding puppy love which Silk took as a quick snack.

The blue unicorn rolled her eyes. "She's certainly nice, but the question, if you'll pay attention," she stressed, snapping the dragon out of his reverie, "is what do you do differently? You're not a pony, either, maybe you could give me some pointers?"

"I don't really think it matters," he informed. "Yeah, you're different, so what? It's not what you are, it's who you are that counts. Come on, I'm not doing anything today, and I think I've got a few ideas to help you out."

Silk turned around and stared in a wide-eyed surprise. "I thought somepony had to watch the library?"

"Pfft, please, it's Sunday," he said dismissively with a wave of the hand, "but I would like a favor or two in exchange"

Silk raised an eyebrow. "Such as? I'm not that good at finding gems, and it is topaz season."

"Nah, I'm not in the mood for topaz, it's a little sour. Instead," Spike mischievously grinned, "tell me what you'd think of me if you were still studying dragons!" he said gleefully. The fact that he finally knew somepony who actually knew something about dragons was very exciting for him.

"Are you sure you want me to? I might get technical and come off as rude," she hesitantly warned.

Spike chuckled. "Please, did you forget who I live with? Just try not to ramble."

"Point taken." Silk inhaled and prepared for her spiel.

"Subject: male, purple scaled dragon with green ridge line and green iris. Approximate age: toddler. Name: Spike. Extra growth stunted as typical."

Spike was fearful. "Stunted?"

"Relax, Spike, I said 'as typical'. Most dragons don't get to complete their hoarding phase."

"Phew, that's all that was," he sighed with relief.

Silk cleared her throat. "Subject shows very high intelligence, possibly genius level given his age," Spike puffed out his chest with an inflated ego. "Abnormal lack of aggression in a dragon, reminiscent of the runt of a clutch. Distinct lack of predatory instinct to the point of anomaly, strikingly evidenced by presence of a phoenix chick. Strength in base state well below norm." Spike's ego deflated a bit. "Displays abnormally high skill with manipulation of the magical properties of fire for his age."

Silk had stopped talking. "So, the verdict?" he asked.

"You're really weird!" she answered gleefully.

"Oh, gee, thanks," Spike said sarcastically.

"Hey, you asked!" she laughed, now in a much better mood for having gotten to analyze a dragon like that.

"Point taken," he echoed. "Now, the second thing: I want to know what you look like as a dragon!"

"Anything I want, really, so long as I don't try to imitate one too old."

"Oh come on! Just turn into what you usually did!" he insisted.

Silk sighed. "I can't. All dragons are either too small, such as yourself, or have wings, which bar me from transforming without mine. Why, haven't you ever seen another dragon?"

"Yeah, but the only dragons I ever hung out with were a bunch of jerks." They had also all been male, but he decided not to mention that.

"Let me guess, teenagers?"

"Yeah!"

"They're teenagers, almost all teens of all races are jerks, though I suppose I would give the ones I saw five stars for pigheaded boorishness." Spike had a curiosity growing and Silk could tell. "So, let me guess, one last question?"

"How'd you know?"

The changeling only raised an eyebrow, looking at the dragon expectantly.

"And that was another stupid question, wasn't it? That wasn't the question. I'm just wondering, what does your real voice sound like when you're not copying anypony's accent?"

"Like this. Now I'll just give it a moment..."

After about ten seconds, he opened his mouth. "Are you gonna say any.... oh. Very funny."

She chuckled, "Well, I thought so. So, what was this little plan of yours?"

"I'll tell you on the way."

"Hold onto your cards!" Silk announced, dramatically flinging open the door to Rainbow Dash's lowest floor.

"We haven't drawn any yet," Pinkie said.

The group was stunned. Twilight gasped. "Silky? How did you get here? How are you standing on clouds without magic?" The rest of the non-pegasi had taken Pinkie's balloon up and were using Twilight's magic to stand on clouds.

"I'm a changeling, I can stand on clouds! Which, by the way, is how I got here. I used telekinesis to form a cloud bridge. I just had to find two, one to move and one to stand on, to get higher. After that I just walked. It's overcast, remember?"

"That's... actually pretty clever," Twilight admitted. "But what are you doing here?"

"Well everypony, if I can't be a player, I can be an observer. A judge, if you will," Silk grinned. "Here are the rules. If somepony other than myself catches you cheating, you're disqualified and are on the bottom tier. If I catch you cheating, you're placed into the middle tier after the game. If you aren't caught cheating at all, you're placed into the upper tier."

"Well what if nopony cheats at all?" Rainbow Dash protested.

"Well, I guess you don't have anything to worry about," Silk chuckled.

"Ah reckon that sounds fair. Whaddaya say, y'all?" Applejack asked

"Perfectly reasonable."
"I, uh, I think that sounds fine."
"Yay! Bigger party!"
"I guess that's alright."
"Eeyup."

Silk smiled. "One more thing, I've got an extra player," she said, levitating Spike into sight. "Twilight, would you mind? He doesn't weigh that much, but this is a bit distracting." Dragons could fly, but no cloud could hold an adult normally, and Silk hadn't done any experiments to see if the youth could cloud walk. So, to be safe, she had levitated him the whole way here, much to his chagrin.

"Spike?!" Twilight exclaimed, casting her cloudwalk spell on him. "What about the library? What are you doing here?"

"It's Sunday," he said, rolling his eyes as he landed on the puffy floor. The library closed early on Sundays, or rather, closed early on Sundays whenever Twilight remembered. She had a life, too.

"Oh," the bookish unicorn answered sheepishly. She couldn't say no here, this wasn't her game, and it wasn't like they were playing for actual bits. "Your call, Rainbow Dash."

"Hah! Just one more player to beat! Fine by me! Now," Rainbow boasted, pressing the button on the card shuffler, "let's start this thing!"

Twilight and Rarity were the last two left, each holding their expressions as still as possible. "I'm all in," Rarity said, pushing her collection onto the table.

"I'll match that. Now, let's see what you've got," Twilight said, putting down three fives and two eights.

Rarity sighed, revealing a hoof of diamonds. Specifically, a two, a three, a four, a five, and a ten. "I was rather close, too."

Silk grinned. "Not so fast, everypony, I'm afraid I've caught a few of you. Now, here are the places."

The changeling cleared her throat. "Only one in the bottom tier, Rainbow Dash," she said.

The rainbow-maned mare grumbled. "I still say I wasn't cheating!"

"You were caught leaning over to take a look at Fluttershy's cards, Dash," Silk reminded.

"Yeah yeah, fine" she muttered.

"Now, for the middle tier, the ponies I caught cheating. The order is simply how well they placed, not when I caught them. Now then, in seventh place is Fluttershy."

Everypony stared. Fluttershy was surprised. "What? How did you know?"

"Let's just say a little birdie told me. Or rather, told you," Silk grinned before pointing up. A bluejay had flown in earlier.

"Oh my. I'm sorry. I didn't ask him to, honest. Sorry," she apologized in a whisper, clearly feeling guilty.

Twilight patted her on the back reassuringly. "No need to be, it's just a game for fun between friends, and my book says five-card draw is a game about not only statistics and reading your opponent, but also who can be the sneakiest," she said.

"About that, both of our top placers are also in the middle tiers. So Rarity, Twilight, you're in sixth and fifth places, respectively."

The fashionista got flustered, and Silk could see it, let alone taste it. "What? But I never-"

Silk smirked and raised an eyebrow before pointing behind her. There was a glass cabinet behind her, just close enough for Rarity to have looked at Spike's cards.

"Oh, that. I did hope that nopony had noticed that. It was just a peek, really."

Spike actually had noticed but, given who it was, hadn't said anything. Silk smiled, "yes, I know, for the most part you played fair, unlike Miss Sparkle."

"Okay, so how was I cheating?" Twilight asked, acting quite well with her false skepticism. This was all just another part of the game, keeping a straight face. If Silk couldn't prove it, she'd be in first place after all. Silk herself had said that card counting was fair.

"Simple: you were using a spell to look through everypony's cards, as well as the deck. I couldn't figure it out at first, but then I noticed how often you were staring directly at somepony's hand, and whenever you were deciding how many to discard, you looked intently at the deck."

"Oh yeah? Prove it."

"Your horn is still glowing and you're not holding any cards anymore."

Twilight went cross eyed for a second to look at her horn, then facehoofed. However, a second later she giggled. "Okay, you caught me."

"Now then, time for the top tier, the ponies who either didn't cheat, or didn't get caught. Pinkie, I'm quite sure from the emotions I was getting off you you that you were doing... something... but I can't prove a thing. In fourth place is Pinkie Pie."

"Yay!"

"In third place, Spike."

"Naturally," Spike said, huffing on his fist and rubbing it.

"In second place, Applejack."

"Darn tootin'!"

Oh now she says that. "Which, of course, means that our big winner is Big Macintosh!"

"Eeyup."

Applejack was grinning. "Ah reckon y'all just can't beat the Apple clan!"

Twilight walked up to Silk. "Well Silky, I have to admit, that was a lot of fun. I'm sorry we didn't let you play."

"Yeah, sorry, Silkster" Rainbow said.

Silk squinted in annoyance. "What have I told you about nicknames of nicknames, 'Dashieo'?"

Rainbow Dash recoiled at this awful example. "Yeesh, that's what that sounds like?"

The changeling shrugged. "Probably. Anyway, I don't mind if there are a few things I can't do. It's the things I can do that matter."

"Ooh! Like maybe like Mr. Cake was saying! You can cook and I'll tell you what it needs!" Pinkie yelled, bouncing up and down unusually high with the springiness of the cloud flooring.

Fluttershy walked over and whispered. "And I guess you could still, uh, help me feed the animals that are still comfortable around you."

A lightbulb lit up in Twilight Sparkle's head. "I think I know what I'm going to write for my next friendship report! Spike, take a letter!"

Aside from noting the fact that Twilight wasn't writing a letter so much as orating it, Silk wasn't paying attention. The tip of her tongue was sticking out of the corner of her mouth, looking out the window for something. Even now, though she couldn't see or taste it, she couldn't shake the feeling that somepony was watching her.

And she was right.

Weeks passed. It was now the middle of June, and Silk was helping Rarity with that task of hers.

"Really, dear, hold still. I can't get the measurements right if you're squirming like that," Rarity said, manipulating a piece of measuring tape.

Twilight walked into the boutique. "Hi Rarity, I brought that book you wanted. Oh, hi Octavia, I thought you were in Canterlot."

"Help me," Octavia said in Silk's voice, looking like she was about to cry.

Not Octavia, then. "Rarity, what are you doing and why is Silk posing as Octavia?"

"Oh, I had this marvelous little idea. A client sends in their picture, and with the help of our dear friend Silky, I can tailor their dress or what have you to them without them even stepping into the boutique!" she responded with glee. "Now if only she could stop fidgeting."

"I'm telling you, I can't help it, my bones are aching!" the Octavia-changeling whined.

Twilight was a bit concerned. "That doesn't sound good. Maybe we should take you to the hospital, if you don't mind that is. Your anatomy is close enough to a pony's when transformed that they could probably help."

Silk shook her head. "It doesn't seem like... I think I might just have to..." she trailed off, suddenly blushing beet red and mumbling something. "I just need someplace private, and secluded, for a while."

Rarity placed the tape down. "It's just as well. I just finished the last of my measurements. This should wrap up the trial run."

Silk gasped in horror. "'Trial run?'"

"Of course, dear, I couldn't offer a new service and charge full price for it just yet, it's still in the experimental phase. I'm quite certain that this will work, but that doesn't mean my clients are. Once the first few are delivered, if word of mouth goes well, the orders will come flying in! Mind you, I'll have to make it a limited offer every so often so that I don't monopolize all of Silky's time, that would be rude."

Oh joy. Days on end of corsets and a disconcerting lack of concern for personal space, but at least there's a limit. Because otherwise that would be rude! Silk thought with sarcastic apprehension before her look softened. "Hey Twilight... do you have it ready?" Silk asked.

The mare's expression changed. "Yes..."

"Could we go there when I get back? I think I might need a friend with me."

"Of course, but where are you going?"

"Everfree," Silk said, moving her head about and cracking her neck and rolling her shoulders. "It's the only place secluded enough. I'll be fine... I think. One way or another it can't be avoided."

With that she cantered away.

A couple hours later, Silk walked into the library carrying a long box, back in her usual blue form. Twilight looked up. "So, what was it that you couldn't even do in ponyville? Or anywhere safe, for that matter?"

Silk blushed and started muttering. "I w.. ...t..g."

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

The blush got more pronounced. "I was .ol..ng."

Apparently Silk had been taking lessons from Fluttershy on how to be inaudible. "I'm sorry, one more time?"

Silk's face turned bright red. "Molting! I was molting, okay?!" she snapped.

"Aah! Eww, gross!" Twilight exclaimed, repulsed at the thought.

"YOU asked!" Silk yelled in embarrassment. It was a private matter in the first place, but the immature reaction just made things worse.

"Sorry, sorry," Twilight said, calming down. That certainly explained why she needed seclusion, having a pony-sized pony-shaped shell around would be really gross (though somewhat fascinating). "But why would you molt? You're an adult, aren't you? Wait, aren't you?" she asked. She had no idea how old Silk was, or how old a changeling got before reaching adulthood.

"Yes," Silk said, turning into her changeling form with a flash, "but I finally regrew part of my wings, see?" Her wings were damaged still, and there certainly wasn't enough there to fly. At most she could reduce the rate of a fall by a measurable, yet impractical amount. Still, they were undeniably longer than the tiny little stubs that had been there.

"That's great!" Twilight said, happy for her friend. "Are you sure you're done growing, though? You seem a just a little bigger than I remember."

The changeling shrugged. "Pretty sure, but it's not unheard of to grow a whit after you're an adult. Anyway, the last changeling to lose his wings like this took nine years to grow them back."

Twilight produced a ruler out of nowhere, measuring her wings. "Well, how long are your wings normally?"

"I'm a scout, so normally? About the middle of the hip."

"Hmm... well, actually, I think it's only going to be a year and a half at this rate!" Twilight said.

"What? No way, that's impossible! That's not even a good joke. A little mean, too."

"Well, the changelings were in a state of long-term famine, right?"

Silk could taste her own hot anger. "Not that there was any actual shortage," she said bitterly.

"Well, malnutrition greatly reduces the healing process. You're a lot better fed than you used to be, so your body has what it needs to repair itself more quickly."

The changeling blinked, unable to think. "You're saying..."

"That you'll be flying again in a year, and back up to full speed (though maybe a bit rusty) in seventeen months, give or take a couple."

Silk sat down wordless for a few moments, stunned. Then, suddenly, she started beaming and ran into the purple unicorn with a hug. "Oh my gosh, are you sure? That would be so amazing!" she said, blabbing with Pinkie level excitement. "I really miss my wings and do you think everypony would mind if I started going around as a pegasus, because I prefer flight to magic anyway and I don't really mind one or the other since I think everypony would totally freak out if I started imitating an alicorn and I'm not so sure that I want to walk around untransformed because it might make ponies uncomfortable, not that I blame them after the Canterlot incident and oh I can't wait!"

"Silky... can't... breathe..."

Silk let go. "Oh, uh, sorry Twilight. I guess I got a little worked up there."

Twilight gasped for breath. "That's alright, eighty three point three repeating percent off the time it would take for me to use my horn would excite me, too."

"You know, you can just say five sixths. Or heck, seven and a half years."

"Well I could, yes."

"You just wanted to sound smart, didn't you?"

"Kinda," Twilight admitted.

"Hmm, what would be an appropriate response... ah yes," Silk began before doing an Applejack imitation, "y'all ain't foolin' nopony, sugarcube. Besides, ah know you're smart, you're the only one I haven't had to explain mah fancy schmancy wordin' to. Heck, y'all knew what that picture box was."

"A television or a computer?" Twilight asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, one 'o them. I ain't-"

"Stop that."

"Oh, you're no fun," Silk said, dropping the impression.

The sky outside was getting dark, and it wasn't the time: it was high noon. Twilight looked outside. "I'm sorry to ruin the mood, Silky, but do you still want to go today? It'll still be there tomorrow if you don't, and it's going to rain in-"

"Three hours, yeah, I know. Big storm that'll last all day, that's why. I'll probably be in a foul mood tomorrow, and I'd just like to get it out of the way."

"Okay, let's go."

The two walked out of the library and started making their way out of town. Silk would keep her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, and her eyes would dart around on occasion. She didn't feel in danger, and it had been long enough that her nervousness had become minimal, but Shadowdancer's words still creeped her out.

"So, are you trying to taste the air like a snake or something?" Twilight asked, fishing for conversation to keep her companion's mind occupied.

"Well, I hadn't really thought of it like that, but I guess you could say that. Still, watch the animal similes, will you? They can get pretty insulting. How would you like it if I compared you to a monkey or a dog all the time?"

"Okay then, so anypony you're looking for?"

"Well, not really, just keeping an eye out for anypony new," she said, not wanting to tell anypony just why she was worried about the dragon-eyed ponies. "I'm still new at this whole thing, my taste wasn't quite this acute a couple months ago, but I think I can tell the usual residents apart for the most part. Still, there's a lot of ponies that come by, but they usually don't stop here long enough for Pinkie to throw her parties for them. In fact, I don't think I've ever noticed anypony new sticking around at night."

"Well, we don't have an inn," Twilight explained.

"Hmm, well I guess a lack of social connections would be contributory to nocturnal habits of nonresidents," Silk noted.

Twilight also took note, but of the fact that Silk had just shown her scientific and naive tendencies at once. "No, Silk, not that kind of an 'in'. I-N-N. It's a building where ponies go to sleep in a town where they don't live, since most ponies aren't used to sleeping outside. They usually serve food, too."

The changeling was a bit intrigued. "Why don't you have one? Ponies seem to have everything."

"Well, simply put we don't have an innkeeper. It's a business, ponies pay to rent a room for the night, and in return the innkeeper makes sure that the amenities they listed are provided. They have to make sure the rooms are neat and clean. They also provide protection from wild animals in the more remote places of the world, though that wouldn't be a problem in Ponyville."

"Well, okay, I'll do it," Silk stated.

Twilight stopped walking. "Huh?"

Silk turned around, noticing that her friend had stopped. "I could be an innkeeper, I think. I'm not afraid of any animals. In fact, they're usually more afraid of me."

"But you don't know the first thing about being an innkeeper, and you don't have the talent for-"

Silk looked Twilight in the eye. "Now you listen here. It's true. I'm not a pony. I've got no clue what I'm doing half the time in this town. I've screwed up roughly 31 percent of the jobs I've done, and the rest I've been so-so at. I don't have one of your intrinsic, oft-touted 'special talents' permanently emblazoned on me. I won't be able to fly again for quite some time still. My magic is only good for lifting medium-size objects, blowing things up, and knocking creatures on their duff. I don't even have the ability to do what I was born to do anymore. Not without a partner, not without my wings. But one thing that I do have, even if slowed without the presence of the swarm, is effort and learning. Don't you ever imply otherwise." By the end of that speech, Silk was pointing a hoof accusingly a half inch away from Twilight's eyes.

The unicorn went cross-eyed, looking at the hoof. She grabbed it and put it down. "Well if that's how you feel about it, maybe you could try it. I didn't mean to imply that you couldn't do it, I was just saying that it would be hard."

"I don't need easy, Twilight, I just need... something."

Twilight smiled. "Well, in that case you have my support. Still, the startup costs are expensive."

Silk was a bit crestfallen. "Aw, really? Well, can you tell me how much more I need?" she asked, taking off her saddlebag and telekinetically handing it to Twilight Sparkle.

"Sure, I can GAH!" she yelped, almost dropping the saddlebag. She hadn't expected to be lifting something that heavy. "What do you have in here, lead weights?!"

"No, just a few essentials. Zebra Navy Knife, one of those cool portable lightbulb things that timekeeper gave me when I asked for a torch, an apple, and my bits. I didn't want to keep these in there since they might get crushed", she explained, indicating the box she was carrying.

Twilight looked into the container to see it over half filled with bits, looking like a miniature dragon's horde. "Silky... where did you get this?"

"Jobs around town. I know it's not much," Silk explained.

Twilight was trying to think of why Silk would still, after several weeks of hard effort, not know what the value of a bit is. Then it hit her. "Ugh," she groaned, as if somepony had made a bad pun, "Silk, you do realize that the typical measurement of value isn't nearly as low as it is to a dragon, right?"

"It isn't? But they've got huge piles of these things!"

"Yes, but they never spend any of it, so that doesn't reduce the scarcity. In fact, since they take bits and never recirculate them, they actually increase it. Remind me to loan you Economics for the Uninformed later. Anyway, you could definitely buy an inn with this."

Ponyville, with its tendency to be demolished once a month or so, and its perpetual damage from Rainbow Dash and a certain blonde pegasus, had developed the capability to build structures quickly and cheaply. Admittedly the quality was lowered a bit as a result, but by now the construction ponies were very skilled.

"I'll have to give that a read," Silk said, a bit embarrassed, taking back her saddlebag and walking again.

Twilight made a suggestion, "You might want to think of amenities you'll offer, where you'll get supplies, what the layout would be-"

"A bedroom," Silk interrupted.

"Well, obviously, an inn would have a number of them."

The fake pony shook her head. "No, I mean someplace for me to sleep. You live at the library, Pinkie lives at the bakery, Fluttershy lives with her animals, Rarity lives at the boutique, Applejack lives on the farm, and Rainbow Dash lives in the clouds. I think I would want to put a bedroom in there. Maybe get supplies from Sweet Apple Acres and Sugarcube Corner, and a room for Pinkie to throw all her wild parties in. I don't suppose you know a soundproofing spell?"

"No, but I know somepony who does... we're here."

Silk stopped and looked down. They had arrived at the shore of a gentle stream that ran along the bottom of a number of rolling grassy hills. Here the noon sun would illuminate the area, and the water would shimmer, casting a million little lights across the land.

On the bank, just high enough that it would not wash away with a storm, sat a piece of simple granite. Etched into its surface was a simple carving of a dragonfly, and a single word.

SKITTER

Silk stood there wordlessly, staring at the simple piece of rock. Her entire people, now represented with only a rock. Dozens, perhaps hundreds dead. All save one gone. She couldn't help but feel that they deserved more. Perhaps that was wrong. Perhaps it wasn't. It certainly didn't matter now.

"They lied, you know," Silk said. "They always said, whenever one of us died, that the swarm would always be there comfort those who remained." She silently cursed the moon. "What a joke, and I'm the punchline."

Twilight just stood and listened.

The changeling opened up her box, gently taking out a number of freshly cut purple hyacinths and placing them next to the stone.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. So very... very sorry," she whispered sadly as her words left a bitter taste in her mouth, but no matter what she said, it would never match how she felt. She had never even said goodbye, to any of them. She began to sing a song she heard one fateful day.

"Hush now my dear, it is that time I fear, when we must say our goodbyes before too long.
Sweet little foal, I have to pay the toll, remember me and please listen to my song.
and I do not wish to but I must, we will soon go separate ways,
Lay down and sleep, my dear, and dream of better days.

Please do not cry, it is my time to die, it will not be long before I am gone.
You have to see, you mustn't cry for me, for though I must leave it's you who must move on,
it has always been like this, you see, one must go the other stays,
please carry on, my dear, and wait for better days.

Please have no fears, now wipe away your tears, even now as my life comes to its end,
I wish you the best, but now I lie and rest, but first I have one last thought that I must send.
You cannot simply dwell on the past, wrapped inside a bitter haze
I'm sure of one thing, my dear, you will find better days."

"...I will find better... days."

Even Twilight was sad now. "Nopony ever accused my mother of being a poet," the changeling joked, but her voice was choking.

Just then, a thunderclap was heard in the sky, and the heavens opened up in a rainstorm. "We should get back, Silky, the pegasi must have started the rain early by mistake," she said. Twilight had a feeling that somewhere overhead Rainbow Dash was probably yelling at Ditzy Doo.

"No."

"Do you need a minute?"

"No, it just isn't raining," Silk said, turning around. "If it was raining, I-I'd be upset, but I'm f-fine, see? I'm just fine so... so it can't be raining!" she said, giving a big grin as the water streamed down her cheeks, but her sobbing voice belied her.

Twilight gave a halfhearted smile "... yeah. Clear, blue, and twenty two."

Silk nodded and sniffled. "Uhhuh. Let's go."

As they made their way back, a letter twirled out of the distance, stopping in front of Twilight Sparkle. "What's this?" she asked. The letter was sealed with the royal seal, and laminated with magic. The unicorn opened the envelope. "Eight invitations to the Summer Sun Celebration in Canterlot?"

Chapter 9: Guilt

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The car shook. "Ugh," Silk moaned, "I don't feel very well."

"Yeah, we get it, you're trainsick. You've been saying that the entire trip! Put a sock in it already!" Rainbow Dash said unsympathetically.

The invitations Twilight had received the previous week had all been labeled individually. Namely, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Spike, and Silk.

Fortunately their train fare was paid for in full by the invitations.

Unfortunately, Silk was having a bad case of motion sickness.

"Rainbow Dash, how uncouth! Leave the poor dear alone," Rarity scolded.

"Hel- urk, help me," the changeling begged.

"Sorry," Twilight said, "but my spell might just make it worse for a non-pony."

"But it might not!"

"But it might!"

"I don't care! Do it!"

Twilight reluctantly cast the spell. Silk sat up. "Thank you, that's much better. See? I told you it'd... oh no," the changeling said before putting her hoof on her mouth, leaning out the window, and proceeding to lose her proverbial lunch.

Pinkie and Spike started giggling while Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes. Fluttershy tried comforting her, though. "It's okay, Silky, you can do it, we're almost there."

"Ugh, that's what Applejack said twenty seconds into this trip," she retorted.

"Well she's right," Twilight remarked. "We should be arriving in approximately ten seconds. Eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two... one..."

Right on cue, they rolled into the Canterlot station as the train finished slowing to a stop. "Finally!" Silk said, leaping out the open window. The others just stared.

"Uh, Silky? Ya know there's a door, right?"

"The window was closer."

The celebration was both larger, and smaller than the one in Ponyville two years prior. While the populace still hustled and bustled with the usual business of an urban setting, the decorations and festivities had been set well in advance. This was Canterlot, the capital of Equestria. The City of the Sun, some called it, though Celestia had never called it that herself. Or, rather, had never done so after it was built. As such, this was by far the most revered holiday to the residents of the city, so they took pride in their celebrations.

There were lustrous golden streamers hanging between the buildings, and there was not a cloud in the sky to mar the sun's radiance. The towers themselves seemed to gleam in the sunlight, golden clad rooftops shining brightly. There were sun-shaped cookies and cakes, balloons and tacky, gaudy hats which repulsed the fashionista in the group.

"Ugh! Why WOULD one wear such a thing? Yes it fits the theme, but the design is atrocious!" she remarked.

"Now girls," Twilight addressed, "we all learned our lesson last time we had a celebration in Canterlot, right?"

"Keep a DJ stashed away, in case of DJ emergencies?"
"What do you mean 'we'?"
"A gala dress doesn't match with a bridlemaid's?"
"Sonic rainbooms are twenty percent cooler than fireworks?"
"Tell the crows 'no thank you' when they offer to help sing?"
"I'm not a girl."
"Ah reckon."

Not quite the response I was looking for, Twilight thought. "No, I meant the one BEFORE that. You know, the Gala?"

A collective "OH!" sounded out, save for Silk who was left clueless, and Spike who was still protesting the way Twilight had addressed the group.

"We sure did," Pinkie said.

"Good, then we'll all be on our be-"

"Break everypony out of their stuffy-shoes and kick this party into high gear! WOO!" she yelled as she, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack all sped off in different directions.

"That's not what I meant!" Twilight yelled back in frustration. She turned around to see Spike on the ground laughing and Silk looking around the crowd. "Well, I guess we'll meet up with them later, assuming that they don't get into too much trouble that is."

The three stuck together. Twilight had to keep Spike out of any trouble he might get into, and Silk was still uncomfortable with their setting. The changeling wasn't much fun to have around window shopping; everything was "interesting" to her and yet she was actually interested in nothing. She'd be a hard one to shop for come Hearth's Warming Eve.

Twilight glanced up at a nearby clock as it chimed. The moon was high in the sky, and the clock said twelve. "It's getting late. I'm sure Pinkie has the night party all set up."

Silk nodded. "So where's the inn we're staying at? I've been wanting to take a few notes down about more specific operations than that book of yours described."

"Well, all the inns are booked solid, but it seems a few strings have been pulled for us," Twilight answered.

Silk raised an eyebrow. "What then, a hotel?" she asked.

Twilight smirked. "Better, the best view of the sunrise in Equestria."

"You mean Cloudsda-" Silk inquired, but before she could finish, Twilight Sparkle lit her horn and cast a teleportation spell, whisking the three off in a flash of purple light.

"-le?" Silk finished, and blinked in confusion. "You mind warning a girl before you teleport her somewhere?" she asked, a little annoyed. Few things could truly throw off her sense of direction, but teleportation was one of them. There was a full-blown tumult in the room they were in, ponies everywhere. "Where are we anyway?"

"The commons of Canterlot Castle," Twilight happily informed. This was a section of the castle that was frequently used for celebrations and other festivities, including the Grand Galloping Gala.

"WHAT?!" Silk yelped. She looked around, and saw herself in a large room, the largest she'd ever seen. How had they even gotten there?! Silk thought and knew that Twilight's range on teleportation was not what she would consider extreme, but then she realized that she was only counting horizontal distance, thinking two dimensionally. Considering that Canterlot was a winding, tiered city, the distance that seemed to be miles must have been much, much shorter.

No no no no no no... she thought. Returning to the scene of the crime, huh? the proverbial devil on her shoulder taunted.

"Woah, girl. Sorry, I didn't mean to disorient you," Twilight apologized, misinterpreting Silk's distress as an offense to the changeling's self-described acute sense of direction.

"It... it's alright, Twilight," Silk said. Her panic quickly subsided as a thought came to her, replacing itself with a knot in her chest. She muttered under her breath, easily drowned out by the racket of the party. "Returning to the scene." She knew what she wanted to, no, had to do. "I'll be back, Twilight, I'm just going out for a bit," she said.

"Well, okay, hurry back! You don't want to miss the sunrise," the librarian replied.

Oh yes, I certainly want to hurry, don't want to miss something that will happen in just five hours, she thought as she rolled her eyes as she walked through the crowd, looking for the door to the castle proper. Once she spotted it, she cast a transformation spell, which made a nearby stallion do a double take, but quickly shrug it off.

Silk strode boldly through the door, the well lit room casting an outline of light into an otherwise dark foyer. There were a pair of solar guards standing watch, making sure things didn't get too crowded in there. One of the guards perked up when he saw her. "Oh, hi Shadowdancer! A little too noisy in there for a nap, huh?" he asked, following as Silk moved off. From what Silk could taste as they distanced themselves from the party, he had a crush on this "Shadowdancer."

"Yes," Silk answered, mimicking the lunar guard's voice. She had only given short responses, so Silk decided to do the same.

"So, I was wondering, I'm off duty in a couple hours, so... want to maybe... watch the sunset together?" he asked, forcing himself through his nervousness.

That was going to be a difficult question to answer. "I've got something to do right now, how about you ask me again when you're off duty?" she more told than asked as she walked off, leaving the guard standing there both hopeful and a disappointed.

The other solar guard walked up to him as she disappeared down a hallway. "You'll get her some day, Glint. She's warming up," he said.

"Yeah, at least she didn't shoot me down right away, huh?" Glint said. "That's a step in the right direction."

"Well, I'd say you just don't know how to take no for an answer, but it wasn't a no for once. Still, something's bugging me."

"Yeah?"

"Where in that room was there enough shadow to cover a pony?"

Silk climbed a cold staircase, her flashlight hovering beside her. She was meandering a bit, only having a general idea of her location. At the top, she finally saw a sight she recognized. There in front of her was the window she had entered when she... attacked Canterlot. Moonlight shone through the new window, which replaced the one she had destroyed in her entrance, shedding a silvery light onto the ground before her. Her destination, however, was down a darker path.

She turned and walked into darkness once again. The castle twisted and turned like a maze, but she had already been here. She turned with precision and purpose, navigating the corridors as if she had built them herself. After a few minutes, she turned once again to see open windows. She was now well away from the party, though it had only been a half an hour since she had left.

Silk walked forward a bit and stopped. It had been here. This was the spot. This was where she had been the instant her fate was determined. This was the place where she had seen him, and tried in vain to save him. This was where she had been wounded, sent careening into the landscape far below at an unfathomable pace. This...

"This is where I let you die," she thought to an absent listener. The area had been cleaned, thoroughly. She didn't know why she wanted to come here. She caught herself looking for even a trace of her friend; a shard of chitin, a tiny bloodstain, something. She knew that if she did find it, it would only distress her, but she could not help herself. All that remained was a single cracked tile.

Where had they taken him, whoever they may have been? Surely that cursed spell hadn't reduced his body into nothingness. Still, it was a foal's idea that he would still be here, that she would find him... to hope in vain that he would be there to greet her. "I should not have come."

"No. You shouldn't have."

Silk whirled around to see a pair of golden eyes staring at her, and out of the shadows emerged a huge stallion. The same stallion that had stood here all those weeks ago. The one who had taken her wings and broken her hoof. The one who had mortally wounded Skitter. And here they were, standing in the same spots as they had before like some cruel joke of destiny. Only now, the tone had changed. This time, instead of the predator, she was the prey. Her eyes widened in pure fear, but she did her best to keep her equanimity. She was transformed; if she played her cards right, she would be safe.

Unbeknownst to the changeling in disguise, this was not just any guard. This was one of the four highest ranked ponies in all of Equestria: Captain of the Lunar Guard, Midnight Cloak. Unfortunately for her, this pony was no fool. He knew exactly who and what she was, and there was plenty of evidence supporting it, albeit all circumstantial.

No lunar guard, with their moon-blessed eyes, would ever need a flashlight. She had been seen wandering the hallways, which had given the information he needed to find her, but the guards often joked that Shadowdancer would teleport anywhere further than ten feet; while that was an exaggeration, there was no way she would walk somewhere for at least twenty minutes. Most of all, though, she had been expected.

He was clever enough to know how to handle the situation. "Not without your armor, anyway. What were you thinking? Let's go back to the barracks before the captain sees you," he said, feigning ignorance. This was going to be a chess game, and he knew it. She would try to remain hidden from him, and he from her. If she caught wind with that damnable sense of taste of hers, who knew how she might react?

Fortunately for him, Silk couldn't tell the reason for his emotions. His wariness and confidence matched up with a story of trying to sneak something by a superior. "Okay, I guess I forgot."

Midnight Cloak walked off towards the barracks, the changeling in tow, and hid a quick smirk. Even more proof, then, not that he needed it.

"Pinkie! Get off the chandelier!" Twilight yelled. The party was already a lot more lively than the Gala, Twilight thought, it didn't need to turn this wild.

Rarity sighed. "She never has had any intuition for more formal events."

"Hey," Rainbow Dash called from above, "who're the suits?" She pointed at a pair of guards who were coming up to the group.

Twilight Sparkle was mortified. "I am SO sorry about this, sirs! She doesn't... that is... please don't arrest-"

The mare of the two spoke first. "We're not here about that, Miss Sparkle, though I have to ask, how exactly DID she get up there, with a whole cake?"

"Don't ask," Applejack stated.

"But I just-"

"Don't."

"Oookay... anyway, the presence of the six of you has been requested," she said.

"What? But there were eight invitations!" Spike protested.

"Not our decision," the stallion shrugged.

At that moment, spike belched out a flame, which caused those nearby to hop backwards, bumping into other ponies. A letter fell out of the flames. "Uh, excuse me."

Twilight picked up the letter and opened it. "It's from Princess Celestia. She wants to speak with me in private before she raises the sun," she smiled gleefully.

The two guards exchanged looks. "Very well, if you would, the rest of you come with us."

Silk felt like she had a loaded crossbow pointed an inch from her eye as she donned a piece of heavy armor. Apparently the helmet was optional, and of course she opted not to wear it.

"You gonna trim your ears, Shadowdancer?" the Captain asked, giving yet another test, mostly for fun.

"Of course not," Silk answered. She felt confident in this guess; both of the lunar guards she had seen had noticable tufts of hair on their ears. Still, one mistake could be fatal.

"Yeah, 'distinguished' or not, it does show pride in the Lunar Guard," he said offhoofedly, dismissing her correct answer. He had to give Silk credit, she wasn't stupid, and used what information she had well. Of course, while her mane was naturally black, her coat should have changed colors to match his, as the armor was enchanted to do. He figured the princess' transformation enchantment wasn't on the same level as what came naturally to a changeling. "Come on, let's go. The 'captain' is probably waiting for us."

Silk followed, still busy trying to think of a way to wiggle out of this situation, but this monster hadn't let her out of his sight for a moment. Even if he just turned away for a few seconds, she could round a corner, transform, and pass herself off as somepony from the party who just got lost. She just had to wait for the right moment. If she had been a pony specialist, she probably would have found a way out by now.

She still might have been able to if she had not been scared out of her wits. She hated this pony, hated him for what he had done to her, orders or not. But right now her hatred was overwhelmed by a controlled terror, which also caused her to think less rationally despite her best efforts. It was hard work just to keep from making faces from the taste of her own fear.

The two kept walking as Silk kept blinking, like she got some sand in her eye. With so many things to keep track of, she did not notice that the two entered a large room.

"You can drop the act now, Silk," Midnight said.

Silk gasped when she heard this, transforming into her usual pony form and backing away slowly. She had been caught, but when? How? How did he know her name? "I-I-I-..."

"Hiya Silky!" a voice called from in front of her. Silk snapped her focus on the source. Behind the stallion were Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity.

"P-Pinkie!? What are you doing here? What are all of you... why are you?" Silk stammered, her mind racing.

"I requested their presence," a voice replied. Silk's pupils shrank, her ears standing straight up, her body tensed. She dared not take a breath as she slowly trained her head around to the source.

There, sitting upon her throne, was the dark goddess, the ruler of night, and the source of all her nightmares: Nightmare Moon.

Silk screamed.

Celestia looked out over the city below. The ponies were happily celebrating, waiting for the dawn of the longest day. It was wonderful to see them in such high spirits, so joyful and carefree.

And yet, she had mixed feelings, as just as such a sight warmed her heart, so too did it trouble her. Yes, it was a celebration of her day that they waited for, but none the less it was Luna's night that they waited through, and they spent that night indoors, as they had for over a thousand years. They did not watch the sky like they should until the sun was about to rise, for such a short time. Such a scant few hours. There was no nighttime equivalent. Well... that wasn't quite true.

She had, one thousand and one years before, created a holiday for the night, but in the end it had failed spectacularly. Not only had it only changed dates to make way for an ill-remembered holiday from a terrible time, but it had devolved into a twisted farce; a cruel mockery demonizing and ridiculing her sister's memory even while Celestia grieved. Even if Luna had come to embrace it, she could not. It was painful... so very painful to watch.

After all, she was to blame.

"Princess!" an enthusiastic voice called from behind her. The princess smiled and turned around.

"Twilight Sparkle," she greeted in kind. The two had a relationship that was not easily labeled, but went beyond that of a normal teacher and student. Not quite as a mother and daughter, and not sisterly. To call them master and apprentice might be more apt a description, though such terms had been largely outmoded. The loving connotation of such a relationship had changed somewhere along the line.

"Thank you for sending us those invitations," Twilight Sparkle said graciously.

Celestia declined her student's thanks. "I'm glad you got them, Twilight, but Princess Luna sent them to you." She looked upon the city below once more as the smile ran away from her face. "That is why I asked you here tonight."

The unicorn gazed up questioningly. "Princess?"

Celestia was solemn. "Come with me, please. There is much I wish to tell you," she said. The princess walked off, slowing herself slightly to help Twilight keep pace with her far longer stride. The two walked the short distance to the princess's relatively unused study.

The room was well lit, practically shining and immaculate. Unlike Luna's chambers (which doubled as her study for now), hers were cleaned by the staff, due to a stigma that her sister still regretfully carried. This was one of the places where she would teach the young unicorn about magic, to the best of her abilities.

"So, why did Princess Luna send us the invitations?" Twilight asked, immediately wishing she had phrased that differently for fear that she implied that the ruler of night was selfish. She had only intended to ask because it seemed odd that she would invite them for the Summer Sun Celebration in particular, especially since she would have expected Celestia to send the invitations, if anypony at all.

Fortunately, Celestia saw her question for the innocuously intended curiosity it was. "It was more for your friend Silk's benefit than for your own, though she had reason to invite you as well. I fear she's taken an unhealthy level of interest in her, and in changelings in general, for nearly a month now," Celestia answered.

"Wait, does that mean that she knows where the changelings are?" Twilight questioned hopefully, but the day mare simply nodded.

"They aren't lost, Twilight, simply displaced," she replied, "and Luna definitely knows where they are, just as well as if not better than your friend does."

"Where?"

Celestia did not answer. "There are... things you must know first. Shortcomings on many parts, including you and me. Silk is somepony whose tale begins well before her time. Thousands of years before."

The changelings were once counted among Equestria's greatest friends, and closest allies, in both a literal and figurative sense. Five thousand years ago, they were instrumental in keeping this world from tearing itself apart, though that is a tale for another time.

Their kingdom at that time was simple, but at the same time it was beautiful. A gigantic, pristine lake of crystal clear waters. At the center grew many tall, vibrant trees, whose leaves never seemed to fall, even during the coldest winters. The waters had an almost magical quality to them, the temperature both warm and relaxing, and cool and soothing, and would never freeze.

The changelings were not as numerous as ponies, but then they never have been. To see one of their foragers was considered a blessing back then; a sign of happiness, good fortune, and only the truest of love. In fact, they were often asked to taste test somepony who seemed a little too head over heels, to test for love poisons.

They would even play matchmaker for those who had feelings for each other, but were too shy or hesitant to know it, sneakily setting things up. Due to this tendency they were often referred to as "love bugs", a term which most changelings would roll their eyes at and begrudgingly accept as fitting. That is where the phrase "caught the love bug" comes from, not from a joke of love spreading like disease.

I sometimes wonder how they would react to Cadance's love spell. They always claimed that love, true love, is something pure, something special, not something that could be bottled up or made with the wave of a horn. That would be quite the conflict of morals... but I am getting off topic.

The changelings back then, their horns did not resemble a gnarled root, and their manes and wings were not so moth-eaten, though they did have cavities on their hooves. But, a little over two and a half thousand years ago, something happened.

At that time, the queen became ill, or so we were told. The changelings began to withdraw themselves over the course of a few years. Their soldiers soon barred all access to their lake, much the same way a doctor would bar somepony from visiting outside of certain hours. Even Luna and I were granted no audience with her at that time.

Their foragers and scouts became increasingly antisocial during this time, turning depressed and bitter. In time they ceased conducting themselves openly, relying on disguise and subterfuge rather than diplomacy. The soldiers and workers hunkered down, becoming numb to the world. After fifty years, they were exceedingly territorial, attacking anypony who got too close, friend or foe, unless it was a changeling.

This was not normal. Changelings share a consciousness, in a way. I cannot imagine it, but "the swarm", as they call it, kept each changeling in sound mind. Even Discord at the height of his reign could at best muddy their thoughts. The changelings had... changed, somehow. I could always sense something wrong with them, as could Luna; a dark presence behind them, like some unseen puppeteer. A dark, foul magic behind all of them.

Then, one day, a forager came to us out of the blue, though by that time they had been redubbed "scavengers". She claimed to be a former chevalier, a rank similar to that held by your brother, with abilities on par with his. Somehow she had been exiled, for deposing her queen. Her name was-

"Firefly, your highness," the girl said. Her face showed an unbearable sadness. Every now and then she would move her hooves to her ears, as if trying to drown out the voices in her head, but for her it was the opposite.

She was trying to get rid of the unbearable silence, the ringing in her head that refused to go away. She could still sense the swarm, but the queen had exiled her. It was like being sentenced to the silent treatment forever, for everypony she had ever known.

Both Celestia and Luna were here, as the changeling had requested an audience at dusk. She was the first changeling that either had seen, or rather, had willingly made herself known to them, for well over a century. The younger sister asked the next question.

"Why hath you shown thyself before us now?"

"I... I cannot believe what my queen hath proclaimed. I spoke out, why must we spy and cheat to get what we must have? For what reason must we e'er skulk through the streets as rats? Her majesty doth proclaim that thee and thine sister, thine subjects, and all the denizens of this world to be mad and sinful. I proclaimed that this was a fool's notion. Why should we not bargain with politics, rather than petty thievery? Even with the Griffons' ill wishes for our kind, stray thought still linger amongst our kind, memories of those long gone, that we were allies once.

For my insolence, I was sentenced to exile, and humbly come before you now, your majesties. Lest you think me a charlatan as well, your graces, might I ask of thee a boon?"

"I would first know what you would have me bequeath, Firefly, changeling exile," Luna said. While it was tradition to make proclaimations in the Royal Everfree Voice, and to use the royal we, those rules only applied when speaking to her subjects. Neither her sister nor this changeling were such, as a an equal and a being of no current nationality respectively.

"I ask only a chance to prove myself. Even in exile, my queen can still hear me, even if others cannot. If I could prove that we can cooperate as allies, in symbiosis rather than parasitism, then surely she will be swayed for the good of my people... for both of our peoples."

Luna looked to Celestia, who nodded. "There is an ill air about you still, changeling. To what proof to you point as evidence of your good intent? Your kind has attacked innocent ponies in the past-foals, even!-for merely wandering too close to your waters!"

Firefly merely looked at the floor. "I can offer naught but my condolences for what we have done, and can speak for the intent of none but my own. If you would not have me, then I wholly understand. My kind has done much to earn such mistrust, as our mistrust begets yours, but if we wish to put aside our quarrels, somepony must make the first step."

Celestia looked to Luna and nodded as well. Luna made a declaration. "Then we shalt see what you make of yourself, Firefly. HENCEFORTH, THOU SHALT BE CONSIDERED A CITIZEN OF EQUESTRIA."

Firefly recoiled at the volume, thinking she was being yelled at, until she realized what was said. "You would have me, then?" she asked, hope returning at last.

"WE WOULD," Celestia declared, "BUT WE WOULD ASK THAT YOU REMAIN WITHIN THE CASTLE PROPER, SO THAT WE MIGHT KEEP WATCH O'ER YOUR ACTIONS; YOUR SUCCESSES AND SHORTCOMINGS. SHOULD YOU PROVE TRUSTWORTHY, THOU SHALT BE ALLOWED TO COME AND GO AS YOU WILL." At this time, she too spoke in this manner.

Firefly's face lit up like her namesake. "Oh a thousand blessings unto you, your majesties! You shalt not regret this, this I swear!"

And so Firefly became a fixture around the castle. At first she was not quite a servant, and not quite an apprentice, but something in between. Firefly would often remark how much she loved it there, saying every day that the queen would surely change her mind after hearing of how "benevolent" we were, myself in particular. I wish I could say that I did not let this feed my ego, but I would be lying to say such a thing.

She worked hard to prove herself, even in the most mundane of tasks. She would help the staff clean, or fetch the latest findings of the Guild of Magi for Luna, or even polishing the royal guard's armor. Often she did these things without asking. Like her class would suggest, she was particularly gifted at gathering supplies, finding things that were considered rare, or collecting numerous items from a list with extreme speed and ease. Such things came naturally to her.

Luna and I came to love her as a student, much like yourself, and soon we promised to open diplomatic relations with the changelings, as soon as their queen would will it. Like it or not, the queen held the sole political power of the changelings, unlike Luna and I, who shared equal power, so we had to wait.

My sister in particular soon saw her as a close friend, and already friends were becoming harder and harder for her to find. Even so, Firefly gravitated towards me, rather than her. I thought nothing of it at the time, but after seven years of earning our trust, something happened that tore my sister's heart apart. To this day, I do not think she has forgiven Firefly, the changelings, or herself.

It was a cool April night in Equestria. A light mist hung in the air, almost glowing in the moonlight. The land of Everfree was not forested, as it was a thousand years from then, but a great collection of valleys, fields and farmland that stretched from the capital all the way to Heaven's Peak, where Canterlot would later stand. Near the northern border stood the capital city of Everfree. Though modest by modern standards, hardly twice the size of Ponyville, it was a shining jewel at the time, one which only the Griffons would boast better. At the heart of this city lay the castle where the royal pony sisters dwelled.

The skies were clear. Luna's shining moon and countless twinkling stars shed a soft, silver glow across the land. At this time, the ponies with crepuscular or nocturnal habits were in the minority, but still, a few souls roamed the land. This month, Luna brightened the moon for the earth pony farmers, who harvested their crops before winter under the harvest moon. Fillies and colts laughed and played in the streets. Lovers would sit and enjoy the serenity, happily basking in the starlight and in each other's company.

Princess Luna stood atop her tower, responsible for and glad of it all. She crafted the stars into their eighty eight images, each dancing and interacting with each other as if alive, actors in an unheard play. Even with her artistry, she kept the stars in just the right spots in the sky, so that one might look up and know where they would go. It was a delicate balance she struck each night, as she poured her heart and soul into her sky. This was a happy time for her, a wonderful moment that she would have remembered fondly.

That is, if this eve had not marked for her the end of such halcyon days.

The princess of the night sighed contentedly. Everything was as it should be. Everything was right. It was by no means perfect, but then, what is?

The alicorn resembled her sister far more than she did shortly after her banishment, nary an inch from her height. Her dark, ethereal sapphire mane perpetually flowed in some hidden wind, tiny stars alight with transparent silver streaks of moonlight. She was a full grown mare. She was thousands of years old, after all.

Princess Luna turned with a smile and began to walk off to night court. Night court no longer saw the surplus of ponies that its counterpart did, which made Luna just a little jealous, but she played it off by teasing Celestia about how much spare time she got now.

"Your highness!" a male voice cried out. Luna saw her captain running up to her.

She rolled her eyes. "YES YES, HOOFSTRONG, WE ARE ON OUR WAY. THERE IS NO NEED FOR CONCERN AS WE SHALL TARRY NO LONGER THIS EVE."

"No, princess, your sister has had an attempt made on her life!"

Luna only blinked a couple times, thinking she must have misheard him. "WHAT? WE MUST HAVE MIS-"

"Princess Celestia has been wounded, your majesty!"

Fear struck the alicorn, in an instant teleporting directly into her sister's chambers, dragging the captain along in a bright blue flash.

The princess arrived in her sister's chambers, which were crowded with doctors looking over her. When Luna flashed in, they all turned around, startled by the bright light, but when they saw that it was Luna they went right back to work, foregoing any formalities that a princess' appearance would normally demand.

Luna rushed to Celestia's side as the lunar guard's captain got his bearings. "Sister! Speak to me! Art thou wounded?"

Celestia was lying in bed, a clean (by the standards of the time) bandage wrapped around her side. "I am fine, Luna, fret not. 'tis but an irritation."

"'tis true, your grace, but were you an ordinary pony, you would not fare so well. The knife has punctured your lung, and were you not yourself, your breath would be labored. 'tis good fortune that it did not strike your heart."

"Who has done this most heinous deed?" Luna asked in anger, speaking softly out of concern for Celestia's condition.

Celestia stayed silent. Nopony said a word for several seconds. Then, Captain Hoofstrong spoke. "It was... Firefly, your majesty."

"Hoofstrong..." Celestia growled. She knew what the changeling had done, but still was sentimentally attached, and did not know why she had done it.

The guards had let her pass, as they often did. They had trusted her, as they all did. Seven years of hard effort, of desire to prove herself, of friendly conversation to grow accustomed to her. Using her empathic nature, she had even set a few of them up with their lovers and spouses.

When she entered the room, she had been tense, shaking and nervous. Celestia had woken up when she entered, and was about to ask what was the matter when a knife sailed into her side by use of telekinesis. By the time the white princess had recovered from the shock, Firefly had bolted off.

"He is fine, sister," Luna declared. She had the final word with her guard, as Celestia did with hers. "I shall find Firefly."

One of Celestia's guards piped up. "Your highness," he said, "the punishment for this is-"

"WHAT WE SAY IT IS." the dark alicorn snapped, a thunderclap accompanying her words. The guard was cowed by this display.

"Sister, wait!" Celestia urged, but she was too late. Princess Luna had teleported away before she could get the words out.

"FIREFLY!" Luna called out, swooping like a hawk down through one of the castle's windows. She closed her eyes to avoid getting glass in them, as the shards left small nicks on her coat and tore a few feathers.

The changeling had been hiding, scurrying through the corridors, but had not transformed. She had been distressed, far too distressed to think rationally enough to even make the simple realization that she would need to transform to blend in, acting only on her fight or flight instincts; in this case, the latter.

Luna could see now how the normally eager changeling looked. In a word, awful. Her eyes were wide, her pupils small. Her breathing was irregular, hyperventilating with short, racking sobs in every other breath. Her hoof pressed against her chest, her heart must have been racing. Even though at this time, changelings resembled what they would during a certain wedding, her hair was particularly unkempt, looking like one half had been slept on, and the other half struck by lightning. She was shaking like a leaf, and her face showed an inner turmoil, as if the world had come to an end. Horror, regret, fear, and sorrow. She looked as if she was nauseous, and as a changeling showing such emotions, she probably was.

"P-prince-ess... I-I... I," she stuttered, choking on her words.

"Firefly! Why have you done this?!" Luna asked incredulously, skipping the formalities of the Royal Everfree Voice in light of the situation.

"I-I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't have a choice... I still don't have a choice," she sobbed.

"What are you saying?! Why would you-"

"Queen Arachne... she-she finally spoke to me. She said... she said..." Firefly swallowed hard. "She said the only way she would speak with Equestria is if I... if I-"

"Killed my sister?! How does that make any sense?!" the princess asked incredulously.

"I DON'T KNOW! I HAD TO... I had to... have to... no," she said, her face displaying higher levels of horror now. "No, no please! Not her too! I don't want... I-I have to..."

In an instant, a thousand shards of glass rose and fired at Luna, whose eyes widened in shock as she threw up a barrier reflexively as the shards flowed around her like water. It's me, too! she thought.

Still crying, Firefly fired a concussive bolt at each window in sight, shattering it and bringing it in closer, forming a swirling sphere of razors around her. This was how a scavenger fought; their telekinesis was the most dexterous of all changelings, their spacial awareness on par with a scout's. It was not an uncommon feat to be able to strip a tree of all of its leaves and manipulate each leaf indivudually in different directions, and never to touch them.

But Firefly was a former chevalier. She could manipulate all the leaves on a small orchard, perhaps more. What's more, she could manipulate the non-physical. Each of the torches that illuminated the halls lost their flames, which were drawn in along with the glass, leaving balls of fire hanging in midair. The light of the flames reflected off of the glass, like lightning bugs in the darkness.

"Firefly!" Luna yelled. "Do not do this! We can help you!"

"I... I just" she stammered. "I have to help my people! They are dying! It's a scavenger's job to provide for the swarm! I HAVE to do this!" she yelled, hurling her sphere of glass and flame forward.

The glass would not harm Luna with her barrier up, at least not at speeds that Firefly could achieve. However, those flames were mixed in with them and could harm her if she came into contact with one for any longer than a brief moment.

Luna ducked and dodged, ignoring the crystalline hail even as it bounced right in front of her eyes, trying to keep the flames from doing anything but grazing her. However, in a moment she slipped up, touching one of the miniature infernos. To her surprise, the flame bounced away.

It was a reflection of a fireball off a larger shard of glass. She's fighting with mundane illusions! the Alicorn realized.

Luna's eyes darted around in the jagged snowstorm, looking at each glowing spot to see if it was a reflection or not. She charged through the storm and one flame that looked to be only half there, even as it moved to intercept her. It simply bounced off her repeatedly, another shard of glass. She did so with another as it moved to intercept, but as it lingered, it singed her right wing, and a few feathers briefly caught fire. Luna winced and rolled out of the way, realizing that she had been tricked into running through a flame that was simply smaller, but no less real.

The alicorn's eyes lit up white. "ENOUGH!" Luna yelled, firing a duke blue bolt of magic down the center of the corridor. It was her rendition of the changelings' spell, with her own power behind it. It was unrefined and imprecise, discharging its energy constantly outward instead of only forward on impact, but few soldiers could ever hope to match its intensity.

The spell displaced the glass and blasted it out of the way like a bullet through an apple, the shockwave shattering the shards in the center into a fine powder and snuffing out the flames, leaving only darkness.

Firefly was stunned, literally. The attack had hit her squarely in the chest, slamming her into the wall at the end of the hallway, knocking down a painting that hung there. The fight had instantly turned into an unwilling stalemate.

The changeling was now dizzy and disoriented, possibly concussed as well. While she suffered no true physical injuries, she would not be able to fight effectively, especially given her style of combat. She would be lucky if she could juggle two grapefruits with her head spinning like it was, to say nothing of her devastated mind.

The pony, on the other hoof, could see clearly. Her wing had some burn marks; the skin beneath would have second degree burns. Nonetheless, she was far better prepared than Firefly was. Or, she would be, if her heart was in it.

"Firefly, calm thyself! Listen not to thy queen, she surely whispers foul lies to-"

Luna was interrupted by sudden loud rumble above her. Firefly had fired a bolt above the princess, sending masonry collapsing down upon her and forcing her to jump backwards as the air filled with dust, clouding her vision.

By the time the dust had cleared, Firefly was nowhere to be seen. The princess flew out the window and into the skies, unsure of where Firefly had flown off to.

She searched. For several minutes she searched the air and the ground for any sign of her. Firefly was not in her right mind. There would be consequences for her actions, to be sure. It was inevitable, but still, she of all ponies could help her. For Firefly's sake, for the changelings' sake, for the sake of Equestria and herself. She had to.

Searching for a changeling was difficult, to say the least. They were simply the stealthiest creatures in existance due to their ability to transform. There were limitations, of course, and only scouts were known to be widely capable of transformation into non-equine forms, but this was not a griffin population. Most changelings would still give themselves away unless they were scouts trained to be pony specialists, by subtle quirks in their gait if nothing else, but after seven years amongst ponies, Firefly would certainly be among the exceptions.

Princess Luna had a few things going for her, though. She was both talented and skilled enough in spellcraft to be able to sense that dark presence that Firefly still harbored. She also knew each of the ponies who would be up at this hour, as they were fewer in number than at any point in the past. The castle was now on lockdown, and if she was right, she was the target. This meant the culprit had to be in the city, and she had to transform into somepony Luna would recognize. If the ruler of night could spot the same pony in two different places, or somepony she did not recognize, she would have her mark.

In the end, she did not need to. Out of a house emerged two figures, one small and one larger, a dozen long objects floating around them. Upon closer observation, it was Firefly, untransformed, walking behind a filly she recognized as Cereus.

Luna flew down and landed in front of them, but before she could speak she saw something that rendered her speechless. The objects that were flying about were all heavy knives, all but one trained on her. The one remaining was pressed against the filly's throat. "Princess! Help me!" the frightened girl cried.

"Firefly... do not do this," she said, "let her go. She is but a foal!"

This was the worst possible situation. For all her millennia of practice in the arcane arts, almost all of her spells were either too weak to get past Firefly's natural armor, carried collateral effects that would harm Cereus, or could be lethal. If her hoof was forced, things would not go well. Luna could think of only two that could possibly fit the situation, and one of those two could still harm the hostage if she slipped up in the tiniest way.

"I-I'm sorry," the scavenger repeated, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Luna cast the first spell. "Please, just lie down and rest. We can discuss this on the morrow when you wake," she said, trying to compel the changeling to sleep.

Firefly was suddenly fatigued, but shook herself awake. She couldn't afford to sleep. "No! We can't! I already have blood on my hooves! I-"

"Celestia is injured, yes, but she yet lives! We can help you! You need not-"

"I failed, then? I have sacrificed everything and could not even commit the deed?" the changeling asked herself in disbelief. "No, no! I have come too far!" she yelled.

In that instant, knives were hurled and a spell was cast.

Luna dodged all of the blades but one, grazing her front right leg, but her spell struck true. She conjured a bolt of lightning from the air and struck Firefly in the side, sending her skidding across the ground. Cereus scampered away as the changeling's shell smoked from the hit, as Luna had not skimped on the power. Even with all that was going on, Luna was thankful that the filly had not been hit by a stray branch. Magical lightning was a hard thing to control.

The changeling shakily got to her hooves. "Stay down, Firefly. It is over," Luna commanded.

"No," she answered defiantly. She had a new hole in her wing. It was burned in such a concentrated area, and so quickly, that it did not have time to cauterize, leaving her bleeding profusely onto the ground. She drew up one of her scattered blades and ran uneasily at the princess.

Lightning struck again, hitting her in the neck. "STAY DOWN!" Luna yelled.

"I can't!" the changeling said, recoiling from the literal shock before she drew closer to the princess.

Another strike in the small of the back.

Tears formed in Luna's eyes. "Please... do not do this..." she whispered as she began to realize what was happening. "DO NOT MAKE ME DO THIS!!!"

Another lunge, and another bolt from the blue striking her hoof, another branch hitting her in the flank. "I-I must" the changeling said, gritting her teeth in one final lunge.

A flash of overwhelming white was the last thing the changeling saw before the world went black. Her horn burned like fire and she collapsed, having been struck in the horn, which acted as both a lightning rod an amplifier due to its magical qualities.

The knife dropped to the ground, and so did Firefly. Wisps of black stained the air above her, and emerald the ground beneath.

The fight was over. Finally, definitively, permanently over. Luna rushed to her side. "Firefly! Speak to us, please!" she cried.

Firefly's world was black. Her eyes were useless, as were her horn and ears. It was hard to breathe, and her chest hurt. Even blinded, her eyes still would not stop shedding tears. She felt only the cold ground beneath her, and then she felt something warm pick her up and embrace her, shaking like a leaf. The taste of Luna's bitter sorrow and guilt, but also her love. She felt small, warm impacts against her back and knew them to be teardrops. Even after everything she did.

With that last thought, Firefly was no more.

Luna kept bawling. "You fool! Why would you do this to me? Why did you not think?! You had deposed her once before, why... WHY COULD YOU NOT HAVE DONE SO AGAIN?! WHY... why did you have to go and... and..." she cried.

She wept silently for hours. Just before sunrise, Celestia flew down, finally fed up with the guards and doctors telling her to remain in bed, and saw what had happened. Luna's mane had ceased flowing, and now resembled a patch of still space resting behind her shoulders. Her tail suffered similarly, and would have been muddied if not for its ethereal nature.

"Lulu..." Celestia said, trying to swallow her own sorrow for now.

Luna did not turn around. "Tia... I... I... I have never killed anypony before," Luna whispered. "I know I have given orders that have allowed for such. Even so, I have never directly told anypony to take another's life, and I... I have fought battles and wars and gods, casualties are to be expected, but this... this did not have to happen!"

"You did not have a choice," Celestia comforted.

"OF COURSE I HAD A CHOICE! THAT IS BUT A FOAL'S EXCUSE!" Luna yelled, spinning around to face her sister. "There is BLOOD on my hooves, Celestia! BLOOD! And it shall never wash away! This was not a war! This was not even a battle! 'twas MURDER, sister!"

Celestia maintained control, but a tear slid down her cheek. The two stood silently for a time, delaying the dawn.

It was Luna who broke the silence. "They are evil."

"What?"

"The changelings are evil, Celestia. They are wicked, terrible creatures. She was the best of them, and look at what they had driven her to! She tried to kill me. She tried to kill you! She held a foal hostage! I dare not think what the rest might do!"

Celestia stood silent for a moment. "Come, sister. We shall treat her remains as proper. "

Luna nodded sadly and followed her sister, sparing one last glance to the fallen changeling as a young filly looked on at her savior.

My wound healed up in a few weeks, good as new, but in the end, Firefly did leave scars on my sister. Not on her body, but on her heart. I do not think there is a day since that has passed where she truly trusted anypony but me, not even herself.

When Celestia had finished speaking, Twilight offered a simple reaction. "That's... so awful," she said, "but what mistakes were you talking about?"

Celestia sighed. "Mine was the first. You know of Everfree Forest, and the unique properties of the flora within?"

Twilight grumbled. "I can't seem to duplicate them, but yes."

Celestia gave a small laugh. Unicorns and pegasi, even well educated like Twilight, had the intuition of rocks when it came to agriculture. "Well, normal plants require water, soil, care, attention, sunlight, and moonlight to grow," she explained.

"Unicorns and pegasi lack the right touch for farmwork. Normal plants will not readily grow for those who are not earth ponies, even with the right conditions. The plants in the Everfree Forest, however, were bred by those who both wished for an easier, more reliable form of plant... and those who hated the night. They created plants that would grow with sun alone, without anypony needing to lift a hoof beyond planting and harvesting. What is worse, I lent a hoof, accelerating their growth. Worse still... I used dark magic to do so."

Twilight was shocked. "What?! But why would you do that?!"

Celestia broke eye contact. "I was... not the same at that time. It was shortly before Nightmare Moon's banishment, and it may have contributed to..." she trailed off. "I am not proud. I believe I told you of the changelings' lake?"

"Yes, princess."

"The changeling homeland has not moved, Twilight. It is a marsh now; a foul bog of rot and decay. The only thing that prevents it from becoming part of Everfree is whatever trace remains of the magical purities it once had. When I banished Nightmare Moon, I could not bear to stay in Everfree any longer. Canterlot was already being constructed, and the castle and much of the surrounding landscape was badly damaged in the battle, so I quickly moved the capital here.

Little did I realize that these plants would continue to spread out, further and further, becoming a forest tainted with traces of dark magic. It quickly spread to the changelings' lake, slowly corrupting and fouling its waters, causing its trees to rot and die. It is only in the last thirty years that we have realized the damage it has caused there, thanks to a cartographer now in Princess Luna's employ.

If I had not helped create those plants, the changelings may have stayed where they were. They might not have been driven to such desperation."

Twilight was not shocked by this, more enlightened. "What about me? You said I made a mistake, too."

"The mistake you made is one shared by many, including myself. Luna and her guards are the exception. When the changelings invaded Canterlot, and were expunged from the city, we all simply assumed that they were beaten and commenced, rather hastily, to throw a second wedding. Or a first, I suppose.

Shining Armor, you, I, and many others were so engrossed in festivities and our victory that we did not even consider that Queen Chrysalis might be regrouping her forces. From what Luna tells me, that is most certainly what was happening.

If not for this oversight, things may have played out quite differently."

"Why? What happened? Tell me!" Twilight demanded like a little filly. She was right, they had simply jumped to the conclusion that the changelings had been beaten. If Luna was the one to beat them, how had she done it? What was Celestia explaining all this for? How had she "displaced" all of the changelings, except for Silk? It couldn't have been good, given how she refused to even speak of it.

Celestia frowned and sighed. "To avoid a bloody war, and potential genocide, Luna tricked Queen Chrysalis into ordering all of her subjects into a trap. She sent out a trio of equinculi and led the changelings on a chase, and the queen gave an order to them all, aloud even, to pursue them. Even changeling foals mimic and follow their parents, guardians, or simply the nearest adult when they transform, and they all transformed into her decoys. When she withdrew the spell, she sealed them temporarily within herself. Then, she asked Cerberus to open the gates of Tartarus..."

"...and with the power of their own magic, flung them into its depths," the princess of the night explained. Her face was stoic, trying her best not to show anything she felt. If things went well, she would soon be able to end this charade.

Fluttershy's hooves flew to her mouth in a gasp, tears in her eyes. Rainbow Dash was horrified, but she did her best not to show it. The color drained from Applejack and Pinkie Pie's faces, their jaws hanging open. Rarity nearly fainted. This is what happened? This is what Silk had meant by "gone"?!

Silk was transformed back into her usual form, though still wearing the Lunar Guard armor. She was shivering, cowering in the corner, her hooves pressed against her ears in a vain attempt not to hear the horrible truth spoken aloud as the memories, their voices, came screaming back to her. She had recovered from the initial, absolute terror that had gripped her, but had understandably relapsed into post-traumatic stress. Or, rather, she had mostly recovered, but a trigger had been pulled.

Luna's understanding of psychology was a thousand years obsolete. Her studies since her return were of history, law, language, politics, and more recently, dark magic. As such, she had yet to learn the potential damage such a blunt method could do, but still, she had a plan to carry out.

Even so, Celestia was making her own move. Luna had not expected her to send Twilight Sparkle a summons, and did not know what she was up to. This could either foil them, or bring one of the few variables under control.

Fluttershy quickly flew over to Silk, trying to calm her down, feeling so, so sorry for her.

"Why- how-" Dash stammered, trying to find the words. "Do you have any idea what you did?!" she yelled at the alicorn.

Luna glared. "Do you? Tell me, what do you know of Tartarus? I would love to know."

Dash held up a hoof as if she was about to speak, but fell silent.

"I thought not," she scoffed. "The fact of the matter is, NOPONY knows what is inside that place, because nopony has ever gotten out. It is merely a common misconception that Cerberus keeps those inside from escaping. We have only heard of what is inside from a single second-hoof source, mentioned in passing by one to whom place means nothing. We have seen the eternal emerald flames emerging from the gates, but beyond that nopony has seen a thing who can speak of it.

Had I not done so, thousands of lives would have been lost, both changelings and ponies. I had a choice: the unknown of death, or the unknown of the so-called 'realm of the dead'."

"How many died anyway?" Silk asked shakily, standing up and looking at the princess pleadingly.

"... we recovered the remains of seventy-three changelings in Canterlot, primarily scouts. Fifty-eight in the marsh, primarily soldiers. There were... zero Equestrian fatalities. I would guess your queen issued capture orders."

Silk sat down stunned, her mouth hanging slightly agape. A hundred and thirty-one changelings died that day, and not a single pony? It was a dark, terrible thing to think, but surely they should have killed at least a few? That was no war; no battle. It was a rout. A massacre. Queen Chrysalis had thrown them all into a wood chipper, all on her own whims.

"You're a monster," Silk sobbed. No, "monster" was too kind a term. "No, worse than a monster. You're a demon."

Luna did not reply to this accusation. "You, however, thorough sheer chance, escaped this judgement. And as such, I have three sentences for your transgressions."

"No!" Applejack yelled, moving on Luna, only for Midnight Cloak to block her path. "Can't ya see she's sufferin'! Ain't this more'n enough?! How could y-"

"THE FIRST. Silk, last remnant of the changelings, you are sentenced to be subjected to the Elements of Harmony."

"What? Why would we do that?!" Twilight asked defiantly. "We can't just use the elements on our friend!"

"Twilight Sparkle!" Celestia scolded as a mother would scold a child, "Please, let me finish. It was I who suggested this, not Luna. Even though she once bore Honesty, Loyalty, and Magic, the elements now scare her... and for good reason, given what they have done. Even so, do you realize what the elements do?"

"They're a weapon. The most powerful magic in the world, used to fight only the most evil things in the world," Twilight answered. "But Silky isn't evil! I don't care what stupid 'dark magic' changelings have! She is not Firefly!!"

Celestia nodded. "Correct, but I'm afraid I can't give credit for partial answers."

Twilight panicked. "Oh no! I... wait, I'm not taking an exam."

The demigoddess of the day let slip a small giggle. Though Twilight was a grown mare now, she had always found that trait of hers adorable. "The Elements of Harmony have been used exclusively on evil beings, true, and you're right, your friend Silk is certainly not Firefly. She's the first changeling in thousands of years who does not show the corruption that permeated her kind. The elements wouldn't harm her, as they cannot harm those who do not harbor evil in their hearts."

"Then... then why would we use them on her? That doesn't make any sense."

"Because, Twilight, they may help to heal her broken heart. Even so, they might have no effect if she suspects it. The Elements are mysterious, and not fully understood by Luna and me. I ask that you tell nopony of this. So that she thinks on the past, Silk will be taken to an antimagic cell to await the elements. I wish for you to use them just before the sunrise, so that we could play all of this off as a part of the celebration."

Twilight nodded. Then something struck her. "Wait, an antimagic cell?! Princess, her genetic code is made up of the primary magical elements! Antimagic could kill her!" she yelled.

"Calm yourself, Twilight. I may not have understood why before you made your discovery, but we do understand what effects such things have on changelings. Absolute antimagic, in which no magic can exist, would certainly prove fatal, but such spells would only be needed to hold those who are particularly gifted, such as you or me. Milder antimagic is sufficient to hold a changeling, and would merely cause her to feel nauseous and lightheaded."

"I... I see. That's a relief."

"There is... one more thing I would ask of you, my most faithful student. My sister has become obsessed in the past few weeks, ever since she rescued Silky Sheets from the griffin capital Vigil."

"Ever since she WHAT?!"

Celestia put a hoof over her mouth at this slip of the tongue. She sighed, having to explain this as well. "When you first discovered Silk was a changeling, she ran and hid in the marsh, but was captured by a griffin scouting party searching for changelings and taken to the capital for interrogation. She was not there long, but she was... tortured. Luna personally extracted her, leaving only two griffins any the wiser, and she claims that neither are likely to speak of it."

Twilight was wracked with guilt. That was HER fault. If she hadn't flown off the handle like she did, that would not have happened.

"Please, Twilight, put aside those thoughts for now," the princess said, getting her student's attention. "You must help me. It means everything to me."

"Anything, princess."

"Please, before history repeats itself... save my sister. Help me save Luna, before she destroys herself! You have done so once before, and I have faith in you, so please..."

Silk stood in her cell silently, her borrowed armor removed, listening to a clock ticking out of sight. The Elements of Harmony would be used on her soon. The same weapons that dethroned gods, banished demons, and cowed her entire people for centuries, would be directed at her personally. Such power would be enough to destroy her, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

And yet, she could not help but feel at peace about it. Still, she felt sick to her stomach. It was simply surreal to her, as if she couldn't wrap her head around it. The familiar, ever present ringing in her mind somehow seemed to match her situation perfectly.

The cell she was in was sterile; it was a nearly blinding shade of white, with powerful, equally white lights illuminating the area. From her cell, she could see no other cells, as they were all evenly spaced out in the pattern of a zipper's teeth. It was, in a word, stifling, and invoked the sensation of claustrophobia.

A door opened somewhere, followed by the sound of heavy hoofsteps getting closer. A pony soon came into view.

Captain of the Lunar Guard, Midnight Cloak.

Silk was silent. "It's you," he asked, "isn't it?"

"Well duh, who else would it be?" she snarked.

Lady's a bloody wiseass, he thought. "You're the changeling I booted right out of the castle."

Silk nodded. "You hurt my friend and took my wings," she said bitterly.

"Nothing personal, it was war. I may not have seen war before, but I sure as hell fought battles." Midnight Cloak had been a mercenary before he was recruited into the Lunar Guard. He was given a choice, sure, but it was practically blackmail: either join, or go to prison for life after being caught. Mercenary work wasn't always strictly legal. "Anyway, that's not quite what I came here to say."

"Spit it out, then, I literally don't have all day."

"I just thought you'd want to know your friend's last moments."

"Oh?" she asked, growing angry in anticipation of some horrible comment. Of how he begged for mercy, or how he died squealing like a pig, or something equally sadistic.

"Yeah."

Skitter flew through the corridors, looking for the scouting party. A number had fallen asleep somewhere nearby, their dreams flashing bursts of sound in his head. They had a mission to do, they wouldn't just randomly fall asleep. He had to get to the bottom of this.

He and Silk had split up to cover more ground. This place was like a labyrinth, dark twists and turns in every direction, the only light coming from his horn.

As he flew, the world suddenly tilted as he felt a sudden, incredible pressure on his side. In an instant, he slammed into the ground, shattering a tile beneath. An incredible, unbearable pain in racked his body. He cried out, both aloud and in public thought.

"That's another," a voice said in the shadows. Skitter rolled over to see a large pony looming over him as some demon of the night, his wings not feathery, but batlike. His pupils were slitted, his eyes a brilliant gold that shone in the dark.

The changeling heard the buzzing of wings getting closer. He looked for the source, Silk came into view, her horn alight. No, no please, not her.

"Silk! Get out of here!" he pleaded. If this pony could do this to him, there was nothing she could do.

"Skitter!" she cried, making to fly to him. But in that moment, the pony saw her. Before he could blink, the pegasus was upon her, smacking her away and out the window as easily as he would a fly on his tail.

"NO! Noooo," he moaned aloud as his eyes watered up. "Silk... please no," he cried, getting a small taste of his own bitter sadness. The pain in his shell was nothing compared to the pain in his heart.

Midnight Cloak looked out the window. "Like the princess would say, 'I may have overdone that one.'"

"You callous... how could you do that to her? She was just... she just..." he said before he started crying. Not for himself, but for her.

The Captain responded. "Sorry, but I'm under orders. As bloody stupid as this sounds, we didn't start this war, and as long as you attack innocent ponies, I'm always gonna work to help 'em."

Skitter found he didn't care about his reasons. He had hurt her, possibly killed her. That, above all things, was unforgivable.

The changeling got a flash of sound and emotion from far below. Silk had been knocked unconsious and was just waking up. She probably didn't even realize she had lost consciousness. She was hurt, but she was alive. "She's safe... thank goodness... at least..."

He did not finish before he slipped into unconsciousness.

"The greenhorn's spell crushed him after that. After the attack the princess insisted we gather up all of the changelings who died and build rafts, sending them off on that river that runs through Everfree. Something about the way changelings showed their respects."

Silk nodded sadly. Changelings did not have room to build graves in their waterlogged land. Instead, they sent their dead adrift on crude rafts, placed in an ocean-bound stream, never to be seen again.

"Just thought you ought to know," the stallion said, walking out of sight. Silk, for what it's worth, was glad to know.

"Hi girls," Twilight said, walking into the room where they were waiting.

"Twilight! There ya are!" Applejack said frantically. "You gotta go back and talk to Princess Celestia! Princess Luna arrested Silky and she's gonna make us use the elements on 'er!"

"I know."

"You know?!" Dash asked incredulously, flying up right in Twilight's face, "and you're not gonna do anything about it?! You can't possibly agree with it!"

Twilight squinted. "I know, I'm not, and I do. Princess Celestia told me all about it. I probably know more than you do."

"Twilight dear, you can't possibly expect us to use them on her! She's done nothing wrong!" Rarity said. "After all she's gone through, don't you think she's been punished enough?"

Twilight shook her head. "This is all FOR Silky, Rarity. You have to trust me."

"I think we should do it!" Pinkie said chipperly.

Everypony stared.

"What? My belly is tickly. That means we should go along with whatever crazy thing is going on!"

"So," Twilight asked with a smirk, eyebrow raised, "are you going to ignore the Pinkie sense?" She ignored the irony of using the pinkie sense to her advantage while her friends were reluctant.

Applejack was uncertain. "I reckon not... if you, the princesses, AND Pinkie's Pinkie sense are sayin' to do it... but ah don't like it. It just ain't right! I'm gonna trust ya on this one, Twi, but... I better not regret it."

"You won't," Twilight said definitively. I hope.

Luna hated this strategy. As much as they needed a pretense for using the elements of harmony, this was going too far. She was playing the role of a cruel despot, and the bearers the unwilling executioners. It was disturbing, and their intent no better.

She knew the elements would help, yes, but it was HOW they helped that was worst of all. She knew, better than anypony who could speak, what it was like. The lines were blurred about whether or not it was actually her they were used on, but they had a tendency that was... awful.

"It's almost time, Luna," a caring voice came from behind her. Celestia walked into the throne room. She looked concerned. "Are you alright?"

"I do not know."

Celestia could tell that she was troubled. "Luna."

"I apologize, sister. It's just... of all the dozens of things we could do, the refinements of psychology, the reasons we could give, why this?"

Celestia tried to to reassure the smaller alicorn. "This situation is outside the knowledge of anypony, even the most gifted psychologists. Even if the stresses from being the last of her kind were understood, she is a changeling. Her situation is unprecedented. The effect that the severance of her constant mental link, the ramifications of her empathy, and simply always wearing a practical suit of armor would have on her psychology is completely unknown."

"And because of this we defer to the 'wisdom' of the elements rather than speaking with her, and cast me in the role of the villain once more. I suppose that's your forte," Luna scoffed.

Celestia was wounded by this. "You know that isn't what I meant," she said.

And now Luna felt even more guilty. "I'm sorry, Tia. That wasn't fair."

"Neither is asking you to shoulder this by yourself, Luna! Whatever it is that's bothering you, you can talk to me about it! Please, tell me."

Luna shook her head. Her sister wouldn't understand. Not really. "I have much to atone for", she said, And I'll never be able to. Celestia looked to be about to interject, but Luna beat her to it. "I just pray that this works."

"As do I."

Silk walked through a pair of doors into an open courtyard, escorted by a pair of guards. If she had wings she might be able to escape, but she didn't. She dared not try anything, fearing that her friends might meet the same fate.

She wondered what would happen upon subjection to that nigh-omnipotent magic. Would she be destroyed outright? Perhaps she would be banished somewhere in complete isolation. Becoming stone would not be so bad, she thought. Maybe her friends would come visit her every once in a while? Still, it would seem a boring, lonely existance.

The moon was getting low in the sky now. Sunrise would be less than an hour from now, maybe a half an hour, or fifteen minutes, or five minutes. Her sense of time wasn't the best anymore; that was always a concept that she relied on the swarm to relay to her. A shame, really. She had hoped to see it.

More than that, she found she wished she had more time with her friends. Seeing Fluttershy's gentle smile. Enjoying Pinkie's parties while trying not to think about whatever mind-bending thing she was doing. Helping Rarity with those stupid dresses of hers. Arguing the finer points of aerobatics with Rainbow Dash. Working as a farmhand as she talked to Applejack. Talking about behavioral sciences with Twilight while being fascinated by everything that blinked and beeped.

She was directed to stand in the center of a square of marble tiles, which annoyed her. She wasn't stupid, obviously that was where she was going to be put, right where one would paint a bullseye.

The moon shone just behind a balcony, on which a half dozen backlit silhouettes stood. Well, five stood, one was flying. Those must be the bearers she thought. Intelligence from before the invasion had reported that, when Discord had been released, he had been sealed in stone by the same ponies that "defeated" Nightmare Moon, even though Celestia was still there.

The guards had already cleared out. They were hesitating, stalling. "Just get it over with" she said as she looked more closely.

"Silky, please don't say that," a soft voice said sadly.

Silk gasped. Her eyes widened as she recognized the six standing there. "No..."

Applejack, looking reluctant.
Pinkie smiling to herself, lost in her own little world.
Fluttershy, looking like she was going to cry (and probably was).
Rainbow Dash, angry at somepony.
Rarity, shaking her head.
And Twilight Sparkle, looking fiercely determined.

"What are you- why are you," Silk stammered. Suddenly something clicked.

Twilight Sparkle.

Student of Princess Celestia.

Sister of Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor

Element of Magic.

The one to expose the queen.

Which meant the others were also element bearers.

The changeling shook her head. She covered her flattened ears with her hooves, slumping forward, and squeezed her eyes tight, unable to bear looking. "No, no no no no no no no no no no, not you," she said. This whole time, she thought, am I really that blind?

"No!" Dash said aloud. "Forget this! I'm not doing it!" she said in protest. "I am NOT gonna use the Elements of Harmony on my friend!"

"It's alright, Dashie!" Pinkie chirped. "Everything works out peachy!"

"How could you POSSIBLY know that?!" the rainbow maned mare demanded.

"Well, I got an eye-twitch, pinchy-shoulder, tingly-hoof!"

"ARGH!" Rainbow groaned in frustration.

"It's okay," Silk said. "I guess... I guess my luck finally ran out."

She knew that they didn't want to do this. Even Twilight was putting up a front, judging by the conflicting emotions she could taste on her. Pinkie didn't seem worried at all, but trying to figure her out was an exercise in futility. Well, perhaps there was one thing predictable about her: Silk couldn't imagine that smile ever going away, not for long. She was glad she was still the happy-go-lucky pony she always was.

She offered a faint smile. "I guess after the worst luck in history, it turned right back around. I wouldn't have lasted a week if you hadn't found me... if you hadn't let me stay... if you hadn't been you... and I can't thank you enough for that. I know you don't want to do this, but it's okay. It really is."

"Aren't you scared?" Fluttershy asked tearfully.

"Yes I'm scared. Of course I'm scared. I'm shaking like a dragon just out of a lava bath, but still, it's okay. If I'm so marked, I couldn't bear it if you shared my fate because of me."

The element bearers exchanged looks of uncertainty and doubt, but also of confirmation. One by one they rose into the air, suspended by a powerful magic that even the magically unattuned changeling could feel.

Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes, now glowing a brilliant white, and her determined look was gone, replaced by one of doubt. I'm sorry.

Silk braced herself on basic instinct as a spectrum of colors shot at her with incredible speed, warping and twisting around her as the world turned white before her eyes.

Thank you... and goodbye.

Silk was nowhere. It was a pure white plane, and she had no sense of time or direction. Already it felt like she had been there for months.

"Hmm. Well, where am I?" she asked herself.

"Want a hint?" a male voice said behind her. She whirled around and saw somepony she did not expect.

"Skitter?" she asked in disbelief.

"Well who else?" he said with a smile.

Silk sighed. "So I'm dead, then?"

He chuckled. "Well, it's a possibility. How do you know I'm not a hallucination brought on by your life flashing before your eyes?"

"Well if you were a figment of my imagination you wouldn't ask that question since you'd already know what I knew! Hah!" Silk smirked, thinking she'd won that logician's duel.

"Yeah but if I knew what you knew and... and if you knew that... oh forget it."

"You never were very good at that," she said. He really was just like she remembered him. "Hey, Skitter?" she asked aloud.

"Yeah?"

"I'm... I'm sorry. It's my fault you died. If I hadn't suggested we split up... if I had just been faster, you wouldn't have-"

The changeling boy put his hoof up to the girl's mouth to quiet her. "It worked out for the best. If we hadn't split up, you would have been caught at the same time I was. You would have died there. I wish you didn't have to get so hurt, but other than that, I wouldn't change a thing."

"It should have been you, though! It would have been better if you had lived, not me! You were always so much better than I was."

Skitter just shook his head. "Even if I could have traded places with you, I wouldn't have. Do you know what my bright side was? My reason to go on, no matter how hard things got?"

"No," she answered. He leaned in close and whispered in her ear.

"There were two. 'At least she's safe.' 'At least I'm with the one I love.'"

Silk sniffled. "You really are a fool. You never said anything."

Skitter closed his eyes. "It's one of two regrets I have," he said. "It started when we were just foals. I had lost both of my parents. They starved to death, and I was moments from beginning to spiral. Then out of the blue you came and offered me your apple. 'It could always get worse', you said, 'so be glad since it isn't.' You saved me that day, and since then I always tried to look at the bright side."

"I... don't remember that."

"Oh? Maybe your subconscious is-"

"Shut it."

He laughed. "Well, after that day I developed an infatuation, which is why I asked you to join me after your parents died. I hated seeing you sad. But it wasn't until the day those dragons started chasing us that I fell in love with you. I wanted to be by your side forever, lending you all the strength I had. That's my second, and greatest regret," he said.

"What is?"

Skitter looked around a bit. "I'm not sure why, but I think our time is almost up."

"What? Why?"

He didn't answer. "I'm sorry I left you alone. So terribly, terribly alone. Nopony should ever have to go through that... especially you."

Skitter began to slowly white out, and Silk could see her own hooves doing the same.

"But you weren't alone for long, and I'm glad because of that," he said with a smile. "You've made some wonderful friends, haven't you?"

"Yeah... I have. Goodbye."

"No, not goodbye. Until we meet again."

And they too faded to white.

"Silky!" Fluttershy cried as she flew, at speeds that even Rainbow Dash would find impressive, to her fallen friend. The others followed a split second later.

Silk lied on the ground, still as could be. The overwhelming power of the elements had overloaded her transformation, snuffing it out as easily as a hurricane would a birthday candle, leaving her in her changeling form.

They feared the worst for a moment. Then, her eyes slowly opened. "Where am I now?" she asked weakly.

"You're okay!" Pinkie and Fluttershy exclaimed at the same time, all six of them picking her up into a huge hug.

"What's going on? I don't understand, how can you all be here?" Silk asked confused.

"You never left," Luna said, dropping out of an invisibility spell cast by Maria, "and neither did I." She had immediately dropped the harsh tone she had taken before. There was no need for that act anymore, if there ever had been.

She was thankful that the elements hadn't done anything she had feared, but still, she very much doubted that the only effect was making her pass out for a couple seconds and dispelling her transformation. "I apologize for... everything. This terrible charade, these false pretenses, leading you all on as I did. My sister thought that the Elements of Harmony might help to heal what wounds were left on your heart. What did you see?"

The rest of the group looked on her with scorn, as she expected. Silk, however, looked more shocked than anything else. "I saw... somepony who passed away. I'm not sure what it was," she said.

Luna nodded. "It's anypony's guess, but I know what the elements are capable of. Better than anypony, perhaps. They are an instrument of harmony, obviously, but the way they work is unusual. They cast a spell of good, and of order, and work on each individual differently. Their results are always fitting and just... but for something comprised in part of kindness, they are shockingly cruel. Turning a being of lively chaos into stone, the most predictable, boring, orderly existance imaginable. Sealing a mare of the moon onto its surface for what would have been forever. Destroying one who escaped completely, just as her victory was within her reach. Terrible fates, every one.

The elements are the most powerful magic known to ponykind, and few things are beyond their capability. They may have simply given you the illusion of speaking with this individual, but I would guess that for a split second, the elements sent both of your spirits to converse, and work out any regrets you had to give peace to both of you. Still, to see a loved one come back, and to lose them again so swiftly," Luna said, tears welling up, "the elements are cruel indeed. Though, not as cruel as I have been."

The princess began to cry. Teardrops fell one after another down her cheeks, dripping to the floor like a leaky faucet. "I am so, so sorry. I know what it is like, to lose everypony you ever knew. To have your dreams plagued by endless torment. The maddening loneliness. The terrible silence that becomes a roar. It must have been... still must be like pretending you're blind while you know that you're simply in total darkness. Trying to fit in where you feel you were never meant to belong, a red piece in a puzzle of clear blue sky.

I did all of this to you, and perhaps inflicted upon your people a fate worse than death. I could say that we were at war, or that it was better to seal them away rather than lose more lives, but that does not suffice. There is no excuse for what I have done. For this travesty. For the third greatest mistake I have ever made. Nothing I do can ever atone for this. I am truly, truly sorry."

Silk sat down, conflicted. She was the enemy. The cruel creature that sent everypony she knew to Tartarus, whose military killed scores of her people, Skitter among them. The one who had ordered her flunkies to stalk her, and practically ordered her execution mere hours ago.

So why was she crying? She was supposed to be the villain! Silk could taste her emotions plain as day. She was supposed to scorn her, to be a tyrant, a demon. This wasn't how she was supposed to act! She wasn't supposed to show guilt, sorrow or regret. She wasn't supposed to have such overwhelming HATE for herself. She was supposed to be a monster, but... monsters don't cry. Especially not for others.

"Stop that," Silk said. "Stop crying! You can't cry, you're supposed to be the bad guy! You're supposed to be mean and evil, and... and... damn me, damn you!" she shouted. Now she began to cry, out of sympathy. For HER! "Oh great, now I'm crying! You're not supposed to feel like that. It's against the rules! I... I..." she sniffled.

The others looked on, silenced by this sudden display. Pinkie had materialized a handkerchief out of nowhere, and was moments away from spraying tears like a firehose. Rainbow Dash pretended that this wasn't affecting her, muttering something about onions under her breath. Rarity had also produced a handkerchief, though one more decorative, and was a bit more restrained than Pinkie. Applejack didn't know what to think, and Twilight almost couldn't believe what she was hearing. This was the same frail Princess Luna she had known on Nightmare Night, only with most of her ancient equestrian accent gone.

"I can't forgive what you've done... but I can forgive you. I must be INSANE, but I can forgive you. I want to hate you. I want to hate you so much it hurts, but I can't! I hate what you've done to me, to Skitter, to us, but I can't hate you!"

Luna nodded. "You're a better individual than I am, Silk. Now, before I lower the moon, you have two parts of your sentence left to serve."

Everypony's expressions turned to shock, especially Silk, who was now at a complete and utter loss for reading this princess, moving her into Pinkie's "don't think about it" category in an instant.

"Silk, I sentence you to become an official citizen of Equestria, with permanent residence in the town of Ponyville."

Everypony's jaws dropped, save Silk who was still trying to process what the alicorn was saying. After a few moments, the girls rushed into a group hug with their friend, all beaming around her and offering cheers and congratulations.

Twilight was the first to break the hug. She walked over to Luna and bowed. "Thank you, princess," she said.

The nocturnal demigoddess shook her head. "It is nothing other than formalizing what was already practically there, though I suppose I should mention that I'll send some assistance with that inn she's been thinking of to expedite the process. At any rate, there is one final sentence, a hair harsher than the last."

Everypony started paying attention again, and waited on bated breath. The only noise was from the celebrating citizens of Canterlot, who were quite wowed with the light show the elements of harmony had given them minutes earlier.

She addressed the changeling once more. "It has come to my attention that you have had a difficult time adjusting to life in Ponyville, just as I have had difficulties adjusting to the new ways of things. My sister asks each of your friends to write reports on the lessons they learn about the magic of friendship, I think it is fitting that you do the same, but I also task you with another thing. You are hereby sentenced to write reports to me on adjusting to this new lifestyle. Like I said, a hair harsher: I am giving you homework."

Luna looked to the moon after she said this. "It is time," she said to herself. She flew up and connected with the moon, horn alight, as she guided the silvery orb down below the horizon to rest for the day. Not ten seconds later did Celestia take her turn, taking to the skies with the sun following perfectly behind her, her body dramatically silhouetted against its bright light.

Luna looked to the sun that no longer burned her. "Two years ago today, I was given a second chance that I did not deserve. I think it fitting that on this day, you get one that you do. I do not agree with the implications of this phrase, but may this be the dawn of a new day for you, Silk."

"Huh? Of course it's the dawn of a new day."

Luna sighed and Twilight rolled her eyes. And here I thought I did not understand modern phrases, the princess thought. "Oh, never mind, then."

A few hours later, the girls (and Spike, who was found at Joe's complaining about being ditched again) returned home on the train as Luna watched it get smaller and smaller.

Celestia walked over to Luna. "I take it things went well?"

"Better than I expected I confess, but it was still terrible, sister," she replied. "She certainly has no trace left of whatever foul magic tainted her race. Your nigh-literal trial by fire ensured that. Still, we do not know what it was, or what caused it, and I've only a theory on why it disappeared."

"Does it truly matter, sister? Whatever it was is gone as surely as they are gone," Celestia said.

"It matters to me," Luna said. "Good morning, Tia. I grow weary, and shall retire early," she said with a yawn as she walked off to her chambers for the day.

Celestia was worried. Why did Luna obsess so over whatever this was? Since her return, had shared everything with her, more so than ever before, so why would she keep silent about this? Why did she deflect each time her older sister asked what troubled her? The regent of day could not, no, dared not force her way through this matter, for fear that she would drive her sibling further into solitude.

She would have to trust that Twilight Sparkle would solve this problem, and discover what weighed so heavily on Luna's mind. She could not make a move without it being seen by many, but hopefully her faithful student could slip by unnoticed, and she had a good idea where to start.

Chapter 10: Stirring

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Silk tossed her heavy saddlebag unceremoniously onto the nearest chair as she strode into the cottage with a loud, exhausted groan. "Sweet Chrys, that was the longest day... night... whatever," she whined, walking over to the couch and collapsing there, her face sandwiching between the cushions. Not for the first time, she made a mental note to try to avoid that turn of phrase. She owed that tyrant no deference anymore.

Fluttershy quietly shuffled in silently behind her and gently closed the door with a soft click. She hadn't said a word since Princess Luna had revealed herself, but now, safe at home again, she finally felt like this ordeal was over. "Silky? Are you... are you okay?" she asked, certain her worry was plainly obvious to the empath.

Silk didn't budge. "In the last twenty-four hours I've been nauseated, sleep deprived, teleported, caught by the stallion that broke my wings, put on trial by the mare that banished everypony I knew to Tartarus, given what seemed like death sentence, locked in a blindingly white cell, hit by a supreme magic, given two more royal sentences, and nauseated again. Am I okay?" She paused. She turned her head and looked at Fluttershy out of her right eye. "Surprisingly... yeah, actually. All things considered, I'm fine. I'm just... fine. And Fluttershy?"

"Y-yes?"

The changeling wearily smiled at her friend. "Thank you. For everything."

Fluttershy's eyes began to water as a wave of relief washed over her and all her tension finally melted away. She sniffled, bringing her hooves up to her eyes. "I-I'm just so, so glad you're okay," she choked out. "I was so scared and worried. I can't i-imagine if anything had h-happened to you. I couldn't bear it!" she softly sobbed, tears running down her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I'm crying again and you're the one who... Silky?"

Fluttershy opened her eyes, futilely wiping away tears which quickly replaced themselves. The only reply Silk made was slow, deep breathing. She had fallen asleep. Still misty eyed, Fluttershy smiled. She fetched a blanket, draping it over her friend, who had more than earned her rest. She began walking up to her room, but turned around at the foot of the stairs. "You're welcome. Sleep tight, Silky."

As Fluttershy climbed the steps, Angel looked up from his morning paper. Ponies could be such drama queens sometimes. Still, maybe that's what he liked about them. With a shrug, he returned to his news.

Silk was surrounded by darkness once more. One by one, those she had once known disappeared into an emerald inferno, as if they had transformed into nothingness.

It was a dream: the same dream she'd had so often since that fateful day and, as ever, she was a mere spectator within it.

Once more she saw the queen, Chrysalis, looking at her disdainfully. "Useless," she whispered, as ever beginning to turn to dust and blow away

This dream again, Silk thought. A moment later, something clicked. Wait, dream? I'm dreaming. This is a dream, "which means...-"

Silk was lucid.

With this sudden realization, within this personal realm within her mind, she became infinitely powerful. This dreamscape, herself, and all she could see were hers to command in any way she could imagine. And she did.

"No." With a word and a thought, the image of Chrysalis solidified. She may have been queen once, but within one's own dream, one is as mighty as a god. Silk rounded on the mental image of her former ruler, the one who she had once been willing to die for. The one she almost had died for. Her expression was livid, as if she was going to make the wicked creature explode just with a look which, given the circumstances, was a distinct possibility.

"I've learned a lot in the last few weeks," Silk said. "I know how cold you are, how you, our own queen, didn't care about us."

Silk strode forward as Chrysalis backed up, her face wracked with fear, growing ever smaller as Silk gained ground. "I've tasted how much love and kindness the ponies have, the ones you and your ancestors accused of being our enemies. Even without you, I've seen that I'm not alone. I've found the good in feeling the warmth of those around me and the value I have on my own beyond being a cog in a machine. I know how to forgive others, and how others forgive me. I know how friends accept others for who they are, and despite my failings, I can forgive myself."

Silk now towered over Chrysalis, who had now shrunk to the size of a golf ball. She placed her hoof on the tiny queen and growled, "I'm not worthless. YOU are." Silk pressed down and, with a crunch and a puff of dust, the image of Chrysalis was no more.

Silk imagined herself taking a deep breath. It was over, and yet, she didn't feel it was complete. It wasn't time to wake up. Not yet.

She closed her eyes, and imagined. She opened them to see her thought come to life, at least as much as possible in a dream. She stood in the center of ponyville with her friends. Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Spike, Applejack, and Fluttershy all smiled at her. She smiled back and beat her wings, fly to them and hugging each of them.

Suddenly, she heard the sounds of water and birdsong coming from the north. Confused, she beat her wings and took off, flying toward the disturbance at a speed even Rainbow Dash couldn't achieve in the waking world. In mere seconds she saw it.

There, where the marsh should have been, was a serene lake of crystal clear waters. Despite its depth she could see all the way to the sandy bottom, where she could see fish swimming among the the seaweed. Off in the distance, in the very center, she could see a vast collection of leafy green trees, unlike any others in the world, and at the center of these stood one taller and grander than any other, holding a great many of the lesser trees beneath its branches.

Silk hovered there, eyes wide and mouth agape. She was awestruck. What's more, she didn't even know why she was awestruck. She'd never seen this before, but was as if something about this sight spoke to her, pulling at a memory she didn't know she had, like she'd found a memento of long forgotten friend.

She turned around and saw her friends behind her, but then noticed someone else. High above the dreamscape of Ponyville flew a dark blue pony. The pony offered a sad smile. She gave a tilt of her head, then disappeared. After that moment, Silk was no longer lucid.

Until she awoke, she only saw her friends, now flying alongside her or floating in Pinkie's balloon, and the unknown homeland before her.

Luna opened her eyes with a groan. It was early. Too early. "Ugh, what time is it?" she muttered to herself. To her surprise, she got an answer.

"One thirty-four in the afternoon, Luna!"

Princess Luna sat up in bed and looked in the direction of the chipper voice. Unsurprisingly, she saw nopony. She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Maria Breeze, I know. My sister and I govern something the rest of you use to tell time. It was rhetorical," she reminded. "And I thought I told you not to actually perform guard duty in my bedroom."

"Yeah, and Targe HATES that rule! Besides, I'm not intruding if you can't see me, right?"

I cannot help but feel talking whilst invisible defeats the purpose.

"If we are to be literal?" the royal asked as she got up, grabbing her sheets telekinetically as she did, as most of the canterlot staff was still too nervous around her. No, nervous wasn't the right word. They were scared.

The same, however, could not be said of Maria, who dropped out of invisibility mere inches from the princess, staring directly at her chest. "What's that?" she asked, poking with her hoof.

Luna looked down at her front and saw the same mark she'd seen since the founding of Equestria. "This is why I wear a peytral," she hissed in a whisper, grabbing her armored regalia and snapping it on over her neck.

"Sorry, Luna!" Maria giggled, never having seen Luna fret about her appearance before. "So, what are you doing up so early? Early for you, anyway."

"I had been following up on Miss Sheets in her dreams. I helped her face her nightmares and, after a token gesture, decided to leave before I overstayed my welcome, if I was welcome at all." The alicorn rubbed her right eye and flew over to her desk. She took her seat and magically opened one of the many books that sat in front of her. "And whilst I am awake, I should resume my investigation on what, if anything, was the cause of this."

The thief frowned. "You've been using all your free time to study those dusty old books," she criticized, snatching one of the oldest looking tomes off the bottom and causing those above to topple. "Look at this one, 'Vires Antiquis,'" the thief slowly sounded out before flipping through the first couple pages. "Okay, I can't even read this, but from the pictures I can still tell this was written by a cult," she commented.

If Luna took offense, she did not show it. "The Syndicate of the Immortal Eye, yes, they had some... odd beliefs. They were a group of earth ponies, the foremost experts on ritual magic circa the Three Tribes Era 1810's. Their expertise provided their tribe a powerful safeguard against magical attacks. It was a pointless read, though. I thought that book had a lead, but they just say the darkest magic comes from no one."

"Earth pony experts on magic, huh? Neat! I didn't... wait what do you mean 'Three Tribes Era'?"

The Equestrian dating system was the standard in most of the known world, dividing history into four generally accepted eras. The current era, the Era of Night's Return, had begun at dawn on the summer solstice two years ago. Before that was the New Dawn Era, which lasted almost exactly one thousand years. Most had known that that era began when Princess Celestia took full control of the kingdom; only now did everypony know why. Before that was the Classical Era, spanning four thousand one hundred and thirty-three years, beginning when Equestria was founded. Anything before the classical era was referred as the "Preclassical Era" and counted in reverse. Some places, most notably in the gryphon kingdom, used the same Preclassical Era notation and called the Classical, New Dawn, and Night's Return eras the "Modern Era."

She doubted the princess would cite a completely nonsensical decade, but two things were clear. Luna's date was not a standard one, and this book predated Equestria itself.

"Oh yes, I have taught magic theory to half a dozen earth ponies myself," Luna answered, chosing not to answer Maria's second question. "One does not need a horn to perform a ritual spell, though the practice with magic does help with its casting."

"Ooh, soooo... what happened to the Syndicate thingy?" the guardsmare asked.

"They lost most of their members in a strafing attack from Pegasepolis and never really recovered."

Maria frowned again, tossing the book aside like a balled up newspaper page. As she did, one book caught her eye. And she caught another book's eye. "Look, Luna, I'm worried. I don't know as much about magic as you but this stuff can't lead you anywhere good. Lu- your- for crying out loud, that book just blinked at me!" she exclaimed, pointing at a book with what appeared to be moving eyes on the cover as she pulled a sleight of hoof, grabbing the relatively new copy of Equestria's Most Infamous for herself.

She needn't have bothered; Luna didn't even glance up from the book she was reading. "I am not reading the specifics on such magic, merely the nature of them; things a prepubescent donkey could see if he or she was at the right place and time. Should the proverbial abyss stare back at me, which seems likely given the enchantments on some of these books," she joked, gesturing to the blinking tome, "I gave standing contingent orders to Captain Cloak to... in how to deal with it."

"Yeah, I know about that."

The Princess' eyebrows rose, as did her gaze, staring straight forward for a moment with a blank expression. "What? How did you-"

"Uh, duh!" Maria remarked, disappearing from Luna's right and then reappearing on her left two seconds later.

"Oh." She should have known. Between Maria's invisibility, Fletch's vision, Targe's hearing, Midnight's connections, Shadowdancer's portals, and the stealth-oriented training she'd given them, she had assembled some of the most capable snoops in Equestria under her. There may have been better out there, including one potential prospect from Ponyville she might have an offer for in a few years' time, but unless she remembered to be wary she was less likely to keep a secret from them than Celestia was to have a photo of her terrible cake-eating manners.

Luna sighed. "I presume you do not approve."

"Psh, like that matters!" Maria said dismissively. "I don't care about some silly magic feeling, you know more about that than I ever will. What I'm worried about is you spending all your time on this. I mean, you got up in the middle of the day and went right back to reading this stuff. That'll make you loopy no matter what you're reading! Just relax a bit and I'm sure it'll never happen."

The princess put the book down. "So you are saying it's not what I am doing, it's how much I am doing it?"

"Well I'm not sure I'm happy about it, but if you think it's something you need to do, then it's something you need to do, right? I mean, if you can't figure out the dark, who can?" Maria asked. She shot Luna a smile. "All I'm saying is don't lock yourself in this drafty old room all day!"

"All night. I sleep most of the day."

Maria slyly looked out of the corner of her eye as she retorted in singsong. "Could've fooled me-e!"

Luna blinked twice. The unicorn had a point, and not just the one sprouting from her forehead. "Very well, Maria Breeze, I concede your point. I suppose I could... manage my time a bit better," she admitted.

"Good! Maybe you can start by getting back to bed?"

Luna raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "And perhaps you can assist me by staying out of my quarters whilst I sleep?" she hinted.

Maria laughed. "Haha! Okay, okay, sorry Luna." She turned around, but was stopped before she could walk away.

"Wait. Before you go, I..." Luna thought. "Even with what I have done in the past, you seem to... trust me."

Maria smiled widely. "Of course I do!"

"Why?"

"Because you're my best friend, Luna. That's what friends do! You said it yourself once, you know: you're never alone."

The demigoddess of night sat silent for a moment. "Thank you. I... I am glad you're my friend, Maria."

"Wow! Was that a contraction, Luna?" Maria teased. "I didn't think you knew how to use those!"

"Oh, be quiet and get out of my room!" Luna demanded playfully.

The guard laughed as she turned around and walked through the exit. "Alright, good night, Luna!"

"Good day, Maria."

"Whatever!" the unicorn called back. The doors shut behind her. With a smirk, she opened the book and began searching for herself. "Daisy Dasher, no. The Demon of Shadows, no. Final Curtain, no. The Wishing Fountain Pilferer, no. Is this in alphabetical order or... oh, there I am!"

Back inside, Princess Luna shook her head. If she wanted to read the book, she could have asked. Oh well, I hope she enjoys it. she thought before returning to the problem at hoof. "A way to manage my time better," she thought aloud.

The first thing that came to mind wouldn't work. Personal time flow manipulation wouldn't help her with that. Even if she wasn't still recovering the vast well of magic she'd once had, such spells were far too tiring for such purposes. What's more, she needed help managing the fledgling second incarnation of the Lunar Guard. Her second idea was much more suited for that.

Sometimes the simplest solutions were the best. She summoned a quill, parchment, and inkwell, and wrote down a short order.

Midnight,

Your orders regarding our ongoing recruitment campaign for the Royal Lunar Guard are as follows

Continue to perform as you have been, but as of now your highest priority is to use our Black Book to locate and contact the foremost logistics expert in Equestria to offer an officer's position within our organization.

The princess read the orders she'd written down. She gave a short nod of approval, placed it into an envelope, applied her royal seal, and sent it to the officers' quarters with the cast of a spell. With that, Luna removed her regalia, slipped between the sheets, and fell asleep. If there was something out there for her to discover, it had lurked in the shadows for thousands of years, it would wait another few hours.

Or so she thought.

The swarm buzzed about in her mind, clear as a bell. It was unfathomable to her how any changeling should be unable to understand it all at once. She had once been unable to as well, of course, but clearly she had been nearly as dense as the rest of them.

The entire world was green and grey. The walls, the ceilings, the floors, the sands, the woods, the river and even the horizon past the river were grey. It seemed impossible, even with the many thousands of thoughts within the swarm, to find a spot without a view of the great flames of the gate without putting some object in the way. They were almost intimidating when she had come through. After a while, though, they lost their grandeur and became mundane.

Overall, a perfect place to set up her new kingdom, even if she had to crush every soul that lingered here.

Chrysalis smirked as Flit relayed a number of thoughts to her from a colossal distance away. Another territory added to her own, it seemed.

Distances were of no consequence to a queen. The only things that could sever the link between her and her changelings were death or, apparently, relegation to another realm. She suspected as much the moment that ancient freak had tossed her army into the chasm, but losing contact with scout she'd left behind confirmed it. Either that or it had died the moment she crossed the threshold. Oh well, no great loss, scouts were nearly as disposable as workers.

"Very well," Chrysalis thought, "I shall go at once to see this village."

She looked down upon the charmed creature beneath her. He was a lost soul, still afraid to take the ferry, licking her hooves with a smile on his wretched little gryphon face. A disgusting, worthless chimera. She smiled at him and he looked up, starstruck, as if she was the most perfect thing he'd ever seen. The love was positively oozing out of him. She reached out, put her hoof on his chin, and brought his gaze up to her.

She devoured his love.

Well, perhaps he was worth something after all. she thought as she shoved him on his back. The soul seemed to wither a bit as he collapsed. He, like most, certainly hadn't been much of a challenge. As of yet, only Shining Armor had put up any kind of resistance to her magic, and even then it was child's play; child's play she needn't have even bothered with if not for a mysterious tip off of her attack. If she hadn't needed Scarab to stay and fend off any opportunistic birdbrains that would dare cross into their territory, she wouldn't have even bothered.

Instead, she was now paying the consequences. She'd been careless and sloppy. When she figured out a way out of here, and she WOULD figure a way out, she'd certainly see him pay for it. She'd make him, and his goody two-shoes wife, and that damned sister of Celestia's... heck, she'd make all of them, love her. Make them adore her, right before she tore out their beating hearts.

Queen Chrysalis rose from her dark, wooden throne and breezed past past the fallen gryphon, not sparing a glance at it any more than it would a bone on its plate. "Pick that up," she commanded to a nearby worker.

The queen strode to the end of the dilapidated throne room and opened the door, which greeted her with a wall of flames. She scoffed as she walked through them, emerging exactly where she wanted.

She now stood at the edge of the river Styx. Which edge was questionable, as the gate never seemed to be more than five miles away. She had crossed in mere instants what had taken her fastest scout, her chevalier, several days of flight. If one knew where one was going, transportation was a simple matter of stepping through the native green fires and desiring to be there. Such was the bizarre geometry of the Infinite Crossroads of Limbo.

She almost felt grateful to that loathsome old nag; it was as if Limbo had been designed to be taken by the Swarm.

With the swarm feeding them information regardless of distance, she had all the reinforcements she could muster in any place, at any time, in a blitzkrieg that made Canterlot look like a casual march. When one saw someplace, she saw it. When she saw it, they all saw it. And when one saw it, they could get there. Despite already holding more territory than Equestria, her forces were nowhere near spread thin.

What's more, changelings' bolts were much more damaging to objects than living creatures, and apparently souls did not count as living. A single hit from even her weakest scouts would blast off a limb or splatter a head. A hit from herself or Scarab, well, not much would remain intact, and a damaged soul took seven long years to recover from any injury, large or small.

However, the souls that dwelt here were cowards, else they would have taken the ferry long ago. As such, they rarely put up much of a struggle.

The village she'd just acquired, made of drab grey wood and dull wrought metal, was half leveled, its populace brought to heel in mere minutes. What's more, they were already lined up to be placed into their pods for harvest.

Chrysalis grinned maliciously. "Perfect," she said. A blur flew out of the village directly towards her, only to stop on a dime just before reaching her. There, in midair, hovered Flit, her face expressionless. This was normal for many changelings. Those who could not master apathy, hatred or rage had been weeded out over the generations.

"Any difficulties?" the queen asked her, more for her own amusement than any real concern.

The chevalier's face remained stoic. "No, my queen," Flit reported robotically. "This village consisted primarily of donkeys and mules. The fighting lasted approximately three minutes and forty seconds. Zero casualties, one wounded. Population of eleven thousand and eighty eight."

"Excellent."

Chrysalis picked up on another one of her chevaliers' thoughts. "My queen, could you tell that moronic pushover there wouldn't be any wounded if she'd just eliminated their leadership first," Cocoon thought. The queen merely repeated the thought and directed it to the intended recipient, a privilege she granted to her chevaliers.

This elicited no emotion from Flit. "That may or may not be the case. It may have been more advantageous to aim for the population in general. Your failure to eliminate Princess Luna of Equestria led directly to our capture, evidencing-."

"OH no," Cocoon thought as he emerged nearby from a sudden flash of green flames, "If anything was directly responsible, it was your failure to catch those three circus clowns, little miss aerial ace."

"That was a contributing factor as well," the scout replied in a monotone. "You may have caught them yourself were you not trapped in the nightmare yourself at the time."

The worker class Chevalier snarled, accompanied by a flare of molten hot rage. "Why YOU-"

A cold chuckle emerged from behind them. "Such animosity," a large changeling stallion said aloud, emerging from the smoldering ruins of the town. A soldier class changeling, big and broad shouldered, with a shell thick enough to stop a halberd wielded by a typical earth pony without so much as a scratch. "If you're going to try to kill each other, figure out a way back to Earth first, you morons."

Flit didn't react to the insult, and merely replied "I do not hold animosity toward Cocoon, Scarab" apathetically.

The worker class chevalier just scoffed. "That makes ONE of us!"

Scarab sneered at the assassin's phrasing. "So you hold animosity toward yourself? Mor-on."

"You want to fight, exile?!" Coccoon snapped, baring his fangs as his horn lit up green.

As amusing as this was, Chrysalis couldn't have her most useful minions killing each other. "Enough, you three. We need to conquer a larger swath of land to use its inhabitants' power to pay those Equestrian princesses back. It would be much harder to do that with fewer competent changelings under me. If I was to punish you for failure?" she thought with a chuckle. "I would break each and every single one of you."

Another flash of flame, and the three chevaliers all turned their attention, preparing to strike first if need be. "Ugh," Chrysalis groaned in annoyance with a roll of her eyes. The one down side of this place was that she and those under her rule were not the only ones who could arrive somewhere without warning. Sometimes it turned into a veritable farce of uninvited guests crashing the parties of uninvited guests of uninvited guests. It was utterly vexing.

A stranger this time. A unicorn, and an unusual one at that; she was pristine white all around. It was as if no soil had ever clung to her, and yet she looked unkempt and restless. Her spotless alabaster mane was bedraggled, her bangs parted over one weary eye. "Magnificent," the interloper said in apparent ecstasy. Her cutie mark, that of a flying red banner, was obscured on her left side by a hairless, gem-shaped scar. "One day I've been free, and already I've come to find this! And from a changeling queen, no less! Oh how times have changed."

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. "Who are you and what do you want?" she asked.

The pony adopted a devilish grin. "Oh, I'm just here to... subjugate." What came next happened in a flash.

A wave of magic surged from her, but this did not stop Flit from connecting with a flying roundhouse kick to the temple. The mare reeled a bit and Flit peeled off as a massive bolt of magic collided with her foe. The earth pony was sent hurtling backward at breakneck speed, flipping end over end, but managed to catch herself, sliding to a halt with her hooves, her eyes facing the ground.

Scarab raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Oho," he interjected, "we've got a live one. That would have reduced you to slush if you were a spirit. Ironic, the first living thing we come across is the first that doesn't look like it."

"I could say the same," the stranger chuckled as an amusing thought came to her. "Nice shot, by the way. I suppose you changelings with your bizarre physiology would be immune to that, wouldn't you? Let's try again," she said, looking up with a smile on her face.

Coccoon scoffed from above and behind his target. "Okay, to hell with this," he said. He wreathed himself in changeling magic, a neon green cloak of destruction only the magical versatility of the worker class could create. He took off like a rocket from the pitch black sky, careening toward his target.

He crashed into the ground like a meteor, sending sand flying in all directions as a huge shockwave washed over the assembled changeling elites. The buildings at the edge of the village, on the other hoof, had their nearest walls blown out.

Coccoon took off again. "That's done," he said aloud.

"Indeed it is," a voice said from beneath him. He turned around to see the target had not, in fact, been eliminated.

"You missed," Scarab mocked. "That how the pony princess disabled you? Pitiful."

Coccoon scowled. "I swear I will kill you one day," he declared. He meant it.

"By all means! Try it."

The white mare turned to Chrysallis, taking her eyes off the chevaliers. "Bishop takes rook, knight, and bishop. Garde."

"Tch," the assassin grunted. "What is she yammering on about now?" Coccoon thought bitterly. His peers responded at the same time.

"Chess."
"Chess, imbecile."

"Oh SCREW the both of you!" he cursed. He didn't need sass from a world-wandering ex-exile and a pony specialist. He prepared to strike again, but the swifter Flit beat him to the punch, closing the gap in the blink of an eye.

Before she could strike, Flit's eyes widened in surprise, if only for an instant. She coughed once and broke off, completely reversing her direction in a split second. She landed fifty meters away as she began struggling to breathe.

Chrysalis looked on with annoyed displeasure as Flit sputtered and wheezed. Coccoon too began to hack up a proverbial lung.

Scarab glared as well. His chest was on fire, but he didn't particularly care. He brought a hoof up to his muzzle and coughed but once, looking at his hoof and seeing it covered in jade fluid. "I see. Some sort of contamination spell, probably a different kind than what you used the first time, since you said we were immune to that one. You hid the second one with the screwup's impact."

"Go to hell," Coccoon objected with a scowl.

"Wish I could, I'd fit right in, but Charon doesn't take the living, the damn thing," he replied before facing the pony. "Am I right, Miss...?" he asked, suppressing a veritable coughing fit as his lungs burned. He spat green on the ground as a bloody trickle ran down his lip. There was a distinct possibility he was screwed, but clearly whatever this was took time to work. The other two were neither as large as he, nor were their armored shells as thick. That might not have been the deciding factor here, though; the Soldier class had a certain tenacity to it, comparable to that of the Earth Ponies. It took a lot to put one down.

"Hm, tough and clever, huh?" the pony asked with a hoof on her chin. She turned her head, looking at him with one eye. "Cute, too, though the holes in the wings are new."

"Excuse me?"

She giggled. "I suppose I've always had a thing for 'bugs.' How about we get to 'know' each other after I'm done establishing my authority?"

Scarab couldn't hold back the coughing fit any longer. You've got to be kidding me, he thought to himself, but sure enough, there it was. That sickeningly sweet taste in the air. Absolutely disgusting. Even if he was still of the mindset to consume love, this creature's love tasted utterly foul, like spoilt mead made with too much honey. It was as revolting to him as the queen behind him. "Oh for Chrys' sake, spare me. I have no interest in 'love', let alone from the likes of you," he spat.

She sighed. "Oh very well, play hard to get. I'll just have to seize you another way," she said.

"Even were I interested I'd still want a name first."

"Names are so unimportant. Just call me..." she paused, glancing at the waters of the endless river lapping at the dark grey shore, the air snowing with ashes from the wrecked town, falling into the Styx. "... Quencher of Soots. Yes, I think that's fitting. Call me Quencher."

"And you're not so clever yourself, Quencher. 'Soot' is a mass noun," he said. "Hey, Chrysalis, mind giving the order already, or are you just going to sit on your queen-sized ass all day?"

Queen Chrysalis sneered. This disrespectful attitude of his was part of the reason she'd exiled him all those years ago. It was almost shame a changeling could not be exiled after being reinstated. "Watch your tongue, chevalier," she warned before issuing the command. "Now."

At her command, the surroundings lit up as, one by one, changelings emerged from all across Limbo. Dozens, then hundreds, then thousands appeared, surrounding Quencher with legions upon legions of Chrysalis' followers. The queen smiled maleficly. "Dispatching two of my chevaliers was quite impressive, but it looks like I win."

Quencher shook her head. "More of a stalemate, really. It would be a phyrric victory for either of us," she said. "I'd rather not kill of the vast majority of the army I'm trying to recruit. Besides, I doubt I've seen all of your chevaliers' tricks, and their affliction's already been nullified. They, uh, need a week or so to recover, though." Why others always assumed being cured meant an instant recovery she never knew.

"Oh? And you think to recruit MY army? What makes you think they would listen to you? A changeling obeys only the will of a queen."

"And a queen does well to listen to the advice of her generals," the alabaster mare replied. "I'll show you how to conquer Equestria once I get us out of here."

Queen Chrysalis was wary. However, the mare was either completely insane, or she was being truthful. Probably both. Her emotions matched what she was saying without a single slip. "Oh? So you're under me, are you?"

"In the short term that's what I'm offering, yeah!"

"And you think you can escape this boring realm?"

"I'll prove it. The cute one over there mentioned Charon wouldn't take the living," she began, earning a retch and a spit from the soldier, "and for the most part that's right. But you and me? We're the exceptions, one of the four on my end and seven or eight on yours. We'll take a little trip, the two of us; fortunately yours is the very first stop. It'll take some time, but I'll show you how I intend to do it. Call it my 'special talent.'"

"Interesting," Chrysalis admitted. It was a risk, but the rewards promised were just too good to pass up. "I'll take you up on your offer, for now, but make no mistake: we are not friends. The moment you outlive your usefulness in this, you'll be put to a very different use."

"Of course! Even assuming all goes according to plan, we'll still be on opposing sides at the end. Right now, though, I need an army, and you need power, strategy, and a way out. And maybe a little vengeance on the stallion who did this to you?"

The queen chuckled. "I take it you're no normal Equestrian pony, 'Quencher of Soots.' Are you some sort of demon?"

"Honestly you're actually not too far off, but I prefer to think of myself as... a horse."

Author's Notes:

After a long, LONG wait, the first arc finally comes to a close, but questions remain. Prepare to learn what happened all those centuries ago in Arc 2: Fall

Apologies for the delay, not going to lie, I greatly dislike the direction the show went shortly after chapter 9's release, for a number reasons of my own. Despite my best efforts, this tainted my enthusiasm for this story. However, I believe I can put that behind me for this next arc, of which the first two lengthy chapters are already complete. Incidentally, this chapter was originally supposed to be a short interlude between Arc 1 and Arc 2, but it sort of got away from me.

There are already two very large chapters completed, so this time the wait will not be too long.

In the meantime, have a teaser of some of the upcoming story in the comic Before the Fall being drawn by the talented SketchyJackie.

Oh, and having taken a look at the statistics on this: Wow. There were consistently views on this even with three and a half YEARS of inactivity? That's flattering.

Chapter 11: Information

View Online

ARC II: FALL

He hadn't been there long, but the dim lighting of the hall made the earth pony stallion wary of just what he had gotten himself into.

Three days ago he had received a royal summons from Princess Luna, requesting an audience. Request, he thought, taking a deep breath, usin' that word pretty lightly. Considering what ponies would say, he would have had to have been mad to refuse. For all he knew, she had counted on that.

The princess had been cordial to him when they spoke, even flattering. Maybe a bit too flattering, he thought to himself. She'd played off his pride in his work and made him agree before he knew what happened. Now he was sitting and waiting on his immediate superior, who was out on assignment.

Well, at least I'm moving up in the world a bit, and she did say I'm allowed to use my time to help out the family if I can get a spare moment.

He looked at the hall. It was black stone, pure onyx that shone with polish, but had obviously fallen into disrepair for a long period of time. The torches that lit the area cast a soft light that could be seen in, but no better than at night; he guessed he should have expected that from somepony who ruled over that time of day.

Suddenly, his ears perked up. A steady metallic clacking came from down the hall, unmistakably in the pattern of a pony's hoofsteps. Sure enough, in a few moments another stallion came into view, wearing the armor of the Lunar Guard, his helmet in his teeth. Judging by the scars on his neck, this was the pony he was waiting for: Captain of the Lunar Guard, Midnight Cloak.

“Northern Spy?” the captain asked, speaking clearly despite the helmet.

“Sir, yes sir!” Spy snapped into a salute, going rigid.

Midnight Cloak rolled his eyes. “Do I look like a bloody solar to you?”

Oh horseapples. “No sir,” Northen blurted.

“Then drop the sir sandwich, I actually work for a living.” Midnight growled, only to see the new recruit nod his head. He was obviously nervous, as was usually the case. It didn't really matter, that would change soon enough.

The pegasus pulled out a key on a chain around his neck, which had been covered by his armor. He put it into a nearby door. “This branch is a bit more... practical. C'mon in.”

Northern Spy followed the pony into the large, mostly empty room. A single plaque hung on the back wall, bearing a picture of the Equestrian flag and the symbol of the Lunar Guard, positioned a few feet behind an oversized desk. The walls were plain stone, cold and dimly lit by a candlelit chandelier, save for a single painting of a white ghost in the corner; likely a cutie mark, though he couldn't place who it belonged to.

“Take a seat,” the captain said, grabbing the attention of Northern Spy, who quickly sat down.

The guard looked through a number of papers on his desk, leading to a few minutes of silence. The only noise that could be heard were those of a desk clock ticking steadily away and the occasional ruffle of papers.

Finally, Midnight spoke. “Northern Spy, chief overseer of most non-local produce shipment and business for the Apple family north of Canterlot. So, you're the new logistics officer?” he asked, to which NS nodded enthusiastically. Captain Cloak let slip a small sigh of relief, as if a headache was beginning to fade. “'bout bloody time, that mare's been running herself ragged,” he commented.

“What do ya mean?”

“That's for the two of you to discuss,” the pegasus replied as he opened a drawer with a soft wooden thunk, pulling a couple items out of it. “Here,” he said, placing them for Spy to see. On the desk sat a key, a set of eight identical knives and several pairs of glasses.

The knives looked like combat knives, but the way they sat in their handles made it looks like they were meant to be thrown. There were five different styles of glasses, but all of them had deep amber lenses and were shaped in such a way that no angle provided a good view of the wearer's eye.

“Lunar Guard standard issue equipment. Pick one pair of sunglasses. If you need minor corrective lenses, you won't for long. Moderate, you're expected to wear contact lenses. Members of the Lunar Guard are expected to carry concealed arms at all times while on duty, and are encouraged to continue to do so off duty. Standard issue short swords and light crossbows are in the Lunar Guard armory. You are not to carry them outside of watch duty and combat operations. Given your position, you are authorized to approve use of combat arms, and are expected to show good judgement about this.

Arms and armor beyond standard issue are available for requisition should you prove proficient enough to warrant them. You'll find your standard armor, ceremonial armor, and recon gear in the barracks; you've been briefed on the effects of the enchantment. This key will open your equipment locker,” he recited as the recruit picked up a pair of glasses, putting them on and placing the weapons in his saddlebag. “Alright, you're dismissed.”

For several moments the two were silent, the only noise the ticking of the clock above them, which read two past midnight. “Uh, 's that it? I was expectin' somethin', I don't know, fancier.”

“Yeah, congratulations, you're now officially in the service of the once-forgotten crown. If you're looking for self-gratifying fanfare and pointless ceremony, go eavesdrop on the Solar Guard.”

“It- but, what about basic military trainin'?”

“Oh, you'll get it...” the pegasus said, hiding a smirk at the thought, “but in the meantime, suit up and get to work. Take a picture first if you want, last time anypony's gonna see those red eyes for a very long time.”

Spy perked up slightly, suddenly feeling less nervous. “The enchantment wears off when you retire?”

“No, when you die.”

“Oh,” he sighed, his ears drooping for a just a moment before he found his nerve once more. “Sir,” he said, giving a salute and turning about face, and walking out the door.

After he was gone, Midnight chuckled to himself, wondering how well he would fit in with the Lunar Guard. Still, if he was as good as Black Book said he was, he was going to prove invaluable in its day-to-day operations.

Alpha sixty-two Northern Spy thought as he stared at a bunk and a locker which, judging by the number the princess had given him, was his. It looked much, much newer than the room itself, and the quarters weren't as cramped as he would have thought. The room had several occupants, most of whom were fast asleep in their bunks.

He placed his key in the lock and turned. As soon as he did so, there was high pitched noise and a flash of light, startling him. The locker was apparently enchanted because the image of a calendar, his cutie mark, appeared on the front.

“Huh. Well, guess I won't be havin' any problems findin' it again,” he thought aloud, pulling the door open and setting his saddlebag down on the bed behind him.

Inside the locker were two sets of armor. Both were plate mail, covering most of the body, but one was more ornate than the other, made of a gleaming obsidian material (that actually might have been obsidian the more he looked at it), with silver filigree and a sapphire eye that would make a dragon drool. Obviously that one was for ceremonial purposes. Along with them was a cloak with a heavy hood, made of a thick material he couldn't recognize, and a relatively light chain mail shirt.

He took the regular suit of armor out of the locker and inspected it. Now, how in tarnation am I supposed to put this on? he wondered.

“Hey short-ear!” a voice said behind him. He turned around to see a unicorn mare, but beyond that he couldn't distinguish her from any other lunar guard. “I'm Maira Breeze, but you can call me Maria, happy to meet you! What's your name?” she asked.

“Uh, howdy, Maria. I'm Northern Spy, a plea-”

“You're a spy?”

“No, see, it's an a-”

“Not that there's anything wrong with that! We do a lot of that around here. Need a hoof with that?” Maria asked.

The earth pony blinked. “Uh, sure. Thanks, that's awful kind'a ya, Maria Breeze.”

Maria smiled. “No problem, almost everypony needs help with it,” she replied, horn lighting up and beginning to apply the armor to the earth pony.

“So,” Spy asked as the barding clicked and clacked around him, “this armor's all enchanted?” He rubbed his eyes. It felt like something was in them, but he couldn't get it out.

“Some of it, yeah! The shoes make your hoofsteps quieter, breastplate changes your coat color, the croupiere changes your hair color. The glasses are a little tougher than normal, and when you put on all the required gear, this happens.”

With the final click of a steel fastener, the effect was instantaneous. The apple yelled in pain, closing his eyes tight and covering them with his front hooves. “YEARGH! MY EYES! Sweet Celestia, it's like starin' at the sun after two hours in a box!” he screamed.

“Yeah, it stings a little,” Maria admitted, failing to suppress her snickering.

“A little?! Iodine on a wound stings a little, this is-” he protested, but stopped himself short. The stinging sensation was much milder now. He opened his eyes just a crack, testing out the light, before cautiously opening them wide, stating “... not as bad as it was.”

The mare chuckled. “Things look a little different now?”

Northern Spy craned his neck, looking around the room. He could tell that the room hadn't changed, and that things were just as dark as they were before. He knew that, but at the same time, it all looked different. If he didn't know better, he would have sworn the room was in direct sunlight. Even the colors were bright and vivid. “Yup, I gotta say they do. Does this mean I can't see in bright light?”

“Nope! Not any less than you could before, anyway.”

“How does THAT work?”

Maria shrugged. “I know, it's weird, right? Luna made it, but I don't know how.”

“Right,” he said. He knew better than to think all unicorns knew a lot of magic, let alone enough to figure out a goddess' spellcraft. After all, he was an earth pony, and part of a family of well known farmers, but he was hopeless when it came to farm work.

His train of thought was cut short when Maria asked “So what kind of spy are you?”

“Ugh, I'm not a spy, that's just my name. It's a kind of apple that grows west 'a Detrot,” he griped. After twenty-seven years, that mixup had gotten very, very old.

“Oh, uh, heh... sorry. So what is your special talent, then?”

“Logistics and requisitions, I'm pretty darned good at it, too. So, what's your job, miss Breeze? If you don't mind me askin', of course.”

“I'm a procurement specialist,” she said.

“Oh, you're helpin' with requisitions? I thought I was the only one on that,” he asked, a little confused.

“Not exactly. Hm, most famous thing I've appropriated... oh, I know! Ever heard of the Pony Lisa?” she asked, grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

The stallion's mouth hung open. “You didn't.”

“Mhm! That was me,” she boasted, tapping her hoof on her chest with a dull metallic clang.

Northern Spy was taken aback. He'd definitely heard of that caper, it was all over the news. “You're the seven day snatcher?!” he yelped in shock.

“Yup! I never liked that nickname, though, it sounds stupid and makes me sound like a common thief.”

“Beggin' your pardon, miss, but yeah ya are!”

The mare turned up her nose, closing her eyes. “I was a gentlemare thief, and anything but some common burglar or pickpocket. If it wasn’t a challenge, I just wasn’t interested, and I use my talents to help Equestria now, thank you very much,” she humphed.

Northern Spy shifted his hooves guiltily. He had been warned by the princess that roughly half of the guard had a shady past. He sighed. “Sorry, Maria Breeze, I didn' mean to offend you.”

Maria opened an eye halfway, looking down at him silently for a moment. “Call it even for the name thing?” she asked, offering him a hoof.

“Sounds like a good trade to me,” he said, taking the hoof with a smile and shaking it. He saw her begin to smile back, but it turned into a yawn. “I didn't think y'all got tired at night,” he remarked, attempting to tease her in good nature.

“Of course we do. And you're part of the family now, too, you know,” she said. “Night, Northern.”

“Night,” he said as Maria started walking away. Before she got far, he piped up. “Hey, Maria!” he asked. She turned around. “What's a 'short-ear'?”

She smirked. “It means 'newbie', short-ear.”

“Alright, thank you kindly, Maria Breeze. That's all,” he said, making a mental note not to shave his ears as she walked to her bed.

With Maria gone, he turned his focus inward, observing what he could. The armor, while heavy, felt lighter than he would have expected steel plate would be. It was some kind of titanium alloy, perhaps. More expensive and likely less durable than steel, but much lighter. As he looked at it, he noticed a hidden slot, and upon further inspection seven others. He then recalled the knives he had been issued. He opened the bag and pulled out the weapons, placing them one at a time into the slots, where they fit snugly, disappearing from sight behind the armor itself, invisible to those who didn't know where to look.

Spy whistled, mildly impressed. “Concealed weapons... that's a nasty little trick,” he thought aloud. With his curiosity towards his armor sated, he focused his attention on himself. His eyes no longer hurt at all, but despite Maria telling him that it wasn't the case, he wondered if they would do so again in the sunlight.

He got up, walking to the latrine between the two dorm rooms, opening the door. It looked no different from a typical gender-neutral public restroom for the most part, save for being much cleaner. Fortunately, that included indoor plumbing, working sinks, and what he came for, a row of mirrors.

He walked up to one and looked at his reflection; he barely recognized himself now, as a grey earth pony stared back at him with golden eyes. Ponies' facial recognition, while passable, was among the poorest of intelligent species'. Due to the myriad of colors they were born with, they could normally tell each other apart by the color of their mane, eyes, and coat. With all these brought into uniform, it became much more difficult. With his armor covering his cutie mark, it became even harder to tell.

Well, that might be the point, he thought. I guess I better get to work. Sheesh, this is nuts.

After using the facilities and going back for his saddlebag, he left the barracks, heading to the officers' quarters to look at the schedule before running his thoughts on it by the princess.

A few hours later, Northern Spy strode down the hallway, his hoofsteps quieter than those of a newborn foal.

He had a good understanding of what he needed to do, he felt, but would need to check base with Princess Luna and get her schedule, too. There had been several pages of maps of the castle in the officers' quarters, enough to direct him to the Princess Luna's bedroom. He was getting close now.

He rounded a corner. He could see the end of the hall was a regal double-door with an ivory moon emblazoned on the front, with another corridor in front of it running perpendicular to the one he was in. In front of that, however, he noticed two ponies, clad in the same armor as he.

They were still a ways off, but one of them had already noticed him. His front leg snapped up and he turned to face him. The other saw this, and looked at the newcomer as well. He said something to the first guard, though Spy was too far away to hear what, and the first guard lowered his hoof.

As he got closer, he saw that they were both stallions. The one that saw him first one was an earth pony, wearing a shield on his back, and the other was a pegasus, both standard size. The earth pony was already turned back around and staring at the door, the other was looking him dead in the eye and waving.

It was another half a minute seconds before he got close to the two. “Uh, howdy there,” he said to greet them.

The pegasus introduced himself. “Hey. You're new, I take it? Name's Fletch.” Fletch looked at the other guard, who had a very serious look on his face. “That's Targe.”

“We're on watch, Owl-eye, we don't have time to deal with the short-ear.”

“Well with your ears, we'll be fine,” Fletch retorted. “Don't mind him, he's overprotective like that.”

“I'm not overprotective,” Targe muttered, to which Fletch rolled his eyes.

“Please, you attacked a schoolmare who got lost on a field trip when she got too close to Princess Luna's room and got kicked out of the Solar Guard because of it.”

“Considering what happened earlier that week, I was entirely justified. I'd do it again, too” Targe firmly replied.

It seemed odd to Northern Spy that Princess Luna would accept a pony who got kicked out of the Royal Guard before, but then again, most of the outfit seemed odd. “Well, before I forget to introduce myself, I'm Northern Spy. Pleasure makin' your acquaintances. I've got a couple a things to run by the princess.”

Fletch nodded. “Alright, Princess Luna's told us to watch out for you. Erm, in the good way, not the bad way. Whitelist, not blacklist.”

“Uh... thanks?” Northern Spy responded.

“She'll be done with court in any time now,” Fletch said.

As if on cue, Targe's ears twitched. “She just teleported,” he said, “go ahead and knock.”

Wordlessly, the new guard walked over to the door and raised a hoof, hesitating for only a moment before knocking. “You may enter,” Princess Luna's voice announced.

Steeling himself, Spy opened the door, walking into the moonlit chamber.

The room looked to be about what he expected from a royal bedroom, or at least one belonging to a princess of purported equal standing to Princess Celestia. Lots of space, large new-looking windows with heavy decorative drapes, a grand chandalier, a very large bed made neatly, a hearth without a chimney undoubtedly powered by advanced fire magic, a wardrobe and a personal washroom, the works. If one added a kitchen to it, it would serve well as a luxury apartment. The only thing that seemed out of place was the veritable mountain of old books that were stacked on a desk at the back of the room.

Princess Luna approached him from said desk. “Yes, Northern Spy?” she asked as he gave a respectful bow. “Have you come to assist me with the duty roster?”

“Oh, uh, I already did that,” Spy answered, standing up straight.

Luna blinked, putting a hoof up to her ear and twisting it. “I'm sorry, what?” she asked.

“The duty roster's finished up, I just need you to look it over and make sure everythin' checks out and to tell me when basic training is, Miss Luna.” he asked, pulling open his saddlebag and pulling out a clipboard with several pages attached. He gave it to the alicorn, who took it and began reading.

“It was a little quicker than I thought,” he explained. “The personnel file mentioned a 'Shadowdancer' that can open portals to most of the country, so I was able to use her to free up some time and patch that up a bit.”

Luna kept reading. Several long, silent moments passed, punctuated only by the flipping of pages. “I, uh, did I do somethin' wrong?” he asked nevously.

“Your manner of addressing me was a rather informal, and technically incorrect, but acceptable,” Luna said, finishing up the last page, “if barely. I must say I am impressed. I must commend Midnight Cloak on his recommendation of you; at this rate, you are likely to prove quite a windfall, provided you do not disappoint during training,” she said.

That struck him as odd. “Wait, the captain recommended me?”

Luna giggled. “He did indeed. He has his connections from his previous line of work, and they have proven useful from time to time, so I have no intention of severing them. Beyond that I cannot say what activities you've engaged in to put you... 'on his radio', I think is the modern phrase.”

Northern Spy scratched his head in confusion for a few seconds before it clicked. “Oh, you mean on his radar, not radio.”

“What is the difference?” she asked. Another awkward pause. “I am being serious. Forgive me for being a bit behind the times, it was a rather long... leave of absence, you understand.”

That's one way to put it, the stallion thought. “A radio is used to send and receive signals, and radar is used to track thing in the air, like clouds or pegasi or zeppelins.”

“I see, so the tracking is the key to that phrase,” Luna said. “At any rate, you still require a synchronization of my schedule with training,” she said, horn lighting up. A small book rose up from behind the stacks of books, surrounded by a blue aura, and floated over to Northern Spy.

“Yeah. I'll just...”

He never ended his sentence.

His jaw hung open. Princess Luna's agenda was a nightmare. Court every night for four hours, a list of legal volumes that could make up a small library, nobles of every sort seeking an audience, a formal breakfast and dinner (in the afternoon and morning, respectively) that took between one and two hours each, and a large block of time each day was just labeled “RESEARCH” in all capital letters, underlined twice.

“Your highness...”

“Yes, Northern Spy?”

“... do you sleep?”

Luna shifted awkwardly. “I technically don't require sleep,” she muttered.

Spy raised an eyebrow. He was no doctor, and she was practically a goddess as far as he could tell, but that was a defensive answer if ever he'd heard one. “And there's no ill effects to skippin' sleep?” he asked, pressing his luck as well as for information.

“Uh...” Luna said nervously. Not a moment later she groaned, head and shoulders drooping in defeat. “I cannot say so honestly,” she admitted. She knew from personal experience that she could survive extreme sleep deprivation, but it hit her nearly as hard as any normal pony.

“Well then, mi-Princess Luna, if you want me ta do my job, you're gonna have to work with me here. I can't do nothin' if you won't take at least some of my advice. Way I figure it, if a schedule doesn' make things easier, it ain't worth the paper it's printed on.”

“Oh very well,” the princess said with a heavy sigh. Even she had to admit that she could only do so much in a day.

“A'ight, we'll start with the basics. What's the most important thing on here? Don't rush it, jus' think it over first.”

After a few moments considering, Luna answered. “Breakfast and supper with my sister.”

“Alright, do ya need to spend that long with both breakfast and dinner?” he asked. He was going to attempt to insist that she get enough time for basic activities first, but two hours on a meal was time that could potentially be better spent elsewhere.

“I went a thousand years without seeing my sister, Northern Spy,” she replied. “I would rue missing the best chance I have to see her each night.”

“Each day,” Spy corrected, immediately clapping a hoof over his mouth; this was probably not the mare to correct, especially when it came to day and night. Sure enough, the blue alicorn was squinting at him in annoyance when he looked up. “Uh, sorry 'bout that,” he apologized sheepishly, clearing his throat and regaining his composure.

“Anyway, I understand, family is important,” he said. Even if they don't always get along, he added in thought. “Now, answer me honestly, how much sleep do you reckon you need each... twenty-four hour period?”

“Six hours, ideally. To the minute, once upon a time.”

“Standard for an earth pony, gotcha. Just had to make sure, you ain’t a normal pony after all. Now then, ya didn't leave any room for keepin' in shape.”

“Sadly true, though I do get some exercise whilst training the guard. Captain Cloak is an excellent dueling partner,” Luna remarked.

Northern Spy blinked as he tried to process that. He wasn't sure which he had a harder time wrapping his head around, the princess putting up a physical fight against that big galoot of a pegasus, or that he could put up a challenge against somepony who was more or less Nightmare Moon herself. “Oh-kay... next up is the list of ponies tryin' to get in to see you.”

The night mare sighed. “Yes, this is what has vexed me so. I have never had this many asking for an audience, but the majority are those who have been turned away for matters of greater import by my sister.”

“So turn down the ones who you think're wastin' your time.”

“But I could not do that, I am hardly taken seriously as it is! It would be rude to-”

“With all due respect, yer highness,” Spy interrupted, “it ain't bein' rude to prioritize. That's half of what I do for a livin' and that's what we're doin' here. There's a lot more ponies now than there used ta be, and your time gets more important because of it. You just said it yourself, Princess Celestia turns down things that ain't worth her time, and you gotta take yourself seriously first if you want other ponies to take ya serious.”

“It would be disrespectful of me to simply ignore them,” she objected.

“And it'd be disrespectful of them to take your time if it ain't important in the first place,” he countered.

Luna stood silent for a moment. “It is simply astounding how little respect is given when one gives 'all due respect'...” she began in a stern tone, eliciting a look of pure terror from her subject, “... but you are right. Though my sister can be flippant at times, flying off to who knows where without a moment's notice, there is a certain... pragmatism to this practice.”

Northern Spy held back a sigh of relief. So far it seemed that the princess wanted to be taken seriously as an authority, but was still pretty reasonable. “A'ight then, should I run down the list of names, your highness?”

“Please do.”

“Okay, first up, Cloud Chaser from the Spectrum in Los Pegasus...”

The list went on for over an hour, Princess Luna considering who seemed to need attention the most urgently. Slowly but surely the names went by, some being marked for form letters, others invited to a formal midnight luncheon and have their cases heard en masse, and a couple to be admitted at their earliest convenience.

Eventually they got down to the second to last name on the list, and the Apple was shocked at the response.

“Wait, you're turning down your great-somethin' grandson?” he asked.

“No, he is NOT my grandson, and though he often means well, he is a spineless narcissist who seems to believe that tact is a pin to place upon a schoolteacher's seat.”

“Wait, so he's your son? I didn't think unicorns lived that long.”

“No he is not, and no they do not,” Luna corrected with a frown.

“So hold on, you've got another sister or somethin'?”

The princess was officially annoyed with this line of questioning. Again. “No! I have no other siblings, neither my sister nor I have ever had children, Prince Compass Rose is not related to either of us by blood. Neither is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, nor any pony you could possibly point to.”

“But- but then why are-”

Luna smirked. “I shall simply say that, at times, my sister is an incorrigible dullard. Though she does her best to hide it, she does make mistakes, and I would be remiss to let her forget that easily. This line of questioning ends there.”

By this point in the conversation, Northern Spy had just heard more information revealed to him at once than he had had since he was a colt. Not only that, but he had NEVER heard anypony speaking so irreverently of Princess Celestia. He was just glad that he was almost finished; he needed to go lie down and process all of this.

“Okay, last name on the list is... oh wow.”

“Yes? Who is it?”

Northern Spy cleared his throat. “Twilight Sparkle.”

Silk walked into the main room. It was dim, but the twilight was enough to see by. The cottage always seemed to be as bright or as dark as it was outside. Though she could light a fire or any number of candles, she opted not to, as each time she had done so before she had gotten very irritated glares from Angel.

The sound of hoofsteps came from up the stairs as Fluttershy walked down. “Good morning, Silky. How did you sleep?” she asked in a whisper, careful not to wake up any animals sleeping nearby.

Silk grinned. “Eh, on a scale of zero to ten? About a.. Five? Six? Somewhere around there.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Oh, don't be, it's still a lot better than it was! For two months there were ones and zeroes everywhere. And I thought I saw a two. How about you?”

“Oh, I slept really well last night, don't worry,” the pegasus answered sincerely. “Would you like to help me with the nocturnal animals?”

“Happy to. Any in particular?”

“Well, there's a family of foxes that have been having a hard time finding food.”

“Erm, so you... want me to open the chicken coop or something?” Silk asked.

“Well actually,” the animal expert corrected, “some berries would be just perfect. A lot of ponies think foxes just eat meat but, like bears, they're actually omni-”

The cottage door flew open, hitting the wall with a loud slam and startling every creature inside. Twilight Sparkle ran in, a strong taste of worry and fear filled the room.

“Fluttershy! Silky! I woke up and there was smoke everywhere,” she blurted, eyes wide, “I thought about using a water spell, and I thought about asking Princess Celestia for help, but then I realized I COULDN'T and you two are the best in town and maybe all Equestria and it was too hot so I had to use my magic all the way here so you-” Twilight was muffled as Silk stuck a hoof hoof in her mouth.

Silk could tell that whatever had the bearer of magic so worked up was probably important. While she wouldn't put it past her to panic over something frivolous like a split infinitive in one of her letters, but neither she nor Fluttershy could do anything if Twilight kept babbling like that.

“Okay Twilight, I'm going to let go of your mouth, and when I do, you can tell us what's the matter without run on sentences and unclear antecedents. We'll help if we can, but we need you to make a bit more sense than Pinkie after she drinks a cup of coffee. Okay?” Twilight nodded, hyperventilating through her nose, and Silk removed her hoof.

“Something's wrong with Spike!” Twilight fretted. “He's burning up, and I don't know what to do! He's got a fever, and I can't keep him indoors, his temperature is so high that he's making whatever he touches start to smolder.”

“Oh no, that's terrible!” Fluttershy said. “Is that normal? How is he feeling? Where is he?”

“Some dragons do have body temperatures that high, 'scalding blooded' dragons, but this is probably not normal if this hasn't happened before his age,” remarked the changeling.

“He looks like he's in pain,” Twilight replied. “He's just outside, I had to levitate him the whole way here.”

Fluttershy was out the door before Silk could say “Okay, let's go,” and the horned mares quickly followed.

Spike was sitting in the lawn, leaning back against the metal wire fence of one of Fluttershy's animal enclosures. He was as awake, though his eyes were closed since really wished he wasn't at the moment. The scent of burning grass lingered around him. “Oh no, Spike, are you okay?” he heard Fluttershy ask.

“I've been better,” he moaned as Twilight and Silk arrived.

“I see what you mean,” Silk said. “Have you taken him to a medical worker- erm, doctor?”

“That's why I brought him here,” the librarian answered. “I don't have any books on dragons and the hospital can only treat Ponies, even if he wouldn't turn it into a smoking section. I know neither of you have any degrees-” Fluttershy decided not to mention her schooling in zoology at the moment. “but you're the closest to being a veterinarian in Ponyville and the ONLY dracologist I've heard of.”

“I'm not an animal,” Spike managed to protest.

The changeling and pegasus exchanged looks. Everypony there knew neither of them were strictly qualified for this. Fluttershy made a living selling and housing pets for ponies, and selling things like eggs and honey. While she provided aid and medical services to the less feral wild animals, she was still required by law to recommend domestic ones to licensed veterinarians elsewhere. Even then, as Spike said, he wasn't an animal in the classical sense.

While Silk knew plenty about dragons in general, a rarity now, she wasn't trained in medicine. She knew a few bare basics about first aid, but only workers and occasional soldiers received any formal training.

A cold truth of her former profession was nonintervention. She had seen a few dragons dying before, and not once had she lifted a hoof to help them. It didn't matter that they were an intelligent race, or how old they were, or whether or not she could help them, protocols designed to save changeling lives told not to.

Even so, they knew they needed to help as best they could. “We should cool him down,” Fluttershy suggested. “Can you bring him to the duck pond?”

“O-of course,” Twilight answered as her horn lit up and Spike was lifted slowly off the ground. “Where is it?”

“That way,” Silk pointed as Fluttershy said “It's this way.”

Twilight and Fluttershy started toward the water, but Silk lingered for a moment, trying to remember things that could cause Spike's body temperature to, well, spike. Hm. I'm sure there's something like that... Bombadier's phenominon? No, he'd be spitting up boiling water. A huge change in temperature could be Upis'... no, that's the opposite problem. Although-

Something hit her in the head with a thwack.

“OW!” Silk yelped, covering the back of her head with her front hoof. She looked to see what had caused that to see Angel holding a thin stick, wearing a disapproving frown on his face. “What?”

Angel snapped the stick in the direction of the duck pond.

“I know, I was just thinking what...” Her eyes fell on the the stick as an idea hit her. “... I'm going to borrow that for a bit,” she said, horn lighting up. She lifted the stick a couple feet off the ground and shook the rabbit off before running over to the pond as she muttered to herself.

“I swear, that rabbit is way too smart.”

Over at the pond, Fluttershy and Twilight carefully put the dragon into the water. “Not too quickly, now. We don't want him to go into shock,” Fluttershy reminded.

“Yeah, no shock please,” Spike answered.

“Just a little at a time, right,” Twilight repeated. She knew that, but wasn't thinking the most clearly at the moment. She lowered him slowly into the pond, like a foal skittish of a cold swimming pool, coming to rest for the moment at the hip.

Silk arrived a moment later. “Spike, could you hold your mouth open?” she asked. A stray thought called her a moron for asking a fire-breathing dragon to open his mouth, but was gone as soon as it arrived.

Spike complied, holding his mouth open. “Now be careful not to breathe any fire,” Silk cautioned, going against all instincts and slowly lowering the stick into the reptile's maw, careful not to touch anything. She looked closely for any sign of breath.

A flash of cherry lit the stick, which began burning of its own accord as the dracologist pulled it away.

“Spike, Silky told you to be careful,” the librarian reminded in a tone both concerned and scolding.

Silk, on the other hoof, just smirked with a soft chuckle. “He was,” she defended. “I think I know what's going on. I think. What has Spike been eating?”

“Well, the usual. Oats, gems, hay, a few sweets.”

“Well, eating pony food is unusual in and of itself, since there's not much precedent for it. Not that I'm one to talk, but I digress. What kind of gems has he been eating? Just in the last few days.”

“Well, rubies mostly. Rarity found a lot of them and-”

“Okay,” Silk interrupted. “Now I'm sure of it. It's what we called 'crimson flame poisoning'. A diet with excessive rubies or pyropes seems to cause it most of the time.”

“Oh my,” Fluttershy interjected. “What's 'crimson flame poisoning'?”

“Well, most magical fire follows the law of magical flame.”

“Fire created through magical means does not excite gaseous particles beyond the visible boundaries of the flame; particles are decelerated once they leave those boundaries, and excited when they enter them, but combustion from nonmagical objects ignited by the magical flame are still subject to typical laws of thermodynamics” Twilight recited. She saw Silk looking lost all of a sudden and sighed, remembering that Silk's scientific knowledge, while not insignificant, was very dated in some areas. She doubted changelings knew molecular theory. “Magical fire ignores traditional convection with air. It won't burn something unless it touches it, but it if it touches something and sets it on fire, that fire acts normally.”

Twilight's second sentence made much more sense. “Right, you can dodge it if you need to. Anyway, red fire is the exception. At least it is for dragons, I'm not the magic expert in the room. Red fire heats up anything that gets too close to it, including any dragon with an excess of it in its system, and anything that dragon touches. When a dragon does show those symptoms, it's usually because of a poor diet, the body unable to convert that fire into one of the less self-destructive forms before it's stored.”

“So, how bad is it?”

“Nothing to worry about. Even without their fireproof scales, dragons are very heat tolerant. For most dragons, who don't know how to use red fire and just breathe it all out in a minute or two, it's only fatal two to three percent of the time.”

The others stared at Silk, aghast.

Oh hell, Silk thought. “Oh, uh, but don't worry! That two to three percent were usually weaker, solitary youth who refused to eat anything else! Just stick to aquamarines, sapphires, and amethysts for a little bit and try to vary the gems just a bit when he's feeling better. Oh, and stay in the shade, sunlight seems to make it worse.”

“Um, it does?” Fluttershy asked nervously.

“Yes, why?”

“Well, uh, it's just that...” the pegasus pointed at the moon growing ever closer to the horizon. “I'll go get a cool bath going,” she said, returning to the cottage.

Twilight turned to Silk. “I thought you didn't know anything about medicine.”

“I don't.”

“But how would you know about this then?”

“Diet and illness are basic behavioral observations,” the scout answered with a shrug. “It wouldn't be very good information gathering if we ignored things that were out of the ordinary. I'm basically going off of observed results of folk treatments. Draconic medicine is some of the worst of any race.”

“Folk medicine,” Twilight parroted, realizing just now that Zecora might be able to help as well. “Alright, thank you Silky. I think I know what to do.”

“You're welcome,” the changeling replied.

“I'm glad to hear the poor dear is doing better,” Rarity said the following day. “I mean really, who could have known too much of one kind of gemstone could make him sick?”

“Well,” Applejack replied, “good as they are, eatin' nothin' but apples can make you sick as a dog, so I reckon it makes sense. Course then again, Silky Sheets can eat nothin' but love and be fine,” she said, realizing as she said it that it was still strange to think of something as intangible as emotion as food.

Rarity, AJ and Rainbow Dash were visiting Twilight. Spike was upstairs now, resting in Twilight's bed. Zecora had looked up an old recipe that worked on heartburn and fever and upped the potency appropriately, reducing his body temperature to a manageable level. His basket, while not unrecognizable in the least, was badly charred from the morning before. While she did know a spell that could repair it, Twilight had taken this as a final straw and placed an order for a new bed for him.

Pinkie had been by some time earlier, judging by the very sudden appearance of a massive number of “Get Well Soon” balloons. Silk was running about town again, performing odd tasks and pestering the mayor's office about available properties, which was giving a lot of mixed signals. It was a tossup whether or not she'd show up. Fluttershy on the other hoof was busy with her animals as usual but, being Fluttershy, was probably going to make sure Spike was okay whenever she had a spare moment.

“Hey, I wish I set things on fire when I got touched,” Rainbow remarked. “That would be AWESOME!”

“Rainbow, honestly, the poor dear was in a lot of pain and couldn't even go to bed. I rather doubt you'd want that,” Rarity countered.

“Oh come on, Rarity! It's setting things on fire when when you touch them! You gotta admit that's still pretty sweet.”

“Actually, though the process of combustion was still active, there wasn't anything most would call fire,” Twilight corrected. “No open flame, just a lot of smoke and charring and coughing up a little soot a couple times.”

The pegasus rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh. Killjoy Sparkle had struck again. “Yeah, yeah, fine. He's alright, though?”

“Yes, he was asleep upstairs last I checked. It's a good thing I already knew a spell to get rid of the burnt smell,” she said.

There was a knock at the door. The mares all looked at each other knowingly. “I did tell her she didn't need to knock when a business is open,” Rarity said.

“She wouldn't be her if she wasn't clueless once in a while,” Twilight said with a chuckle, walking over and answering the door. “Silky, you don't need to-”

Twilight blinked. It wasn't Silk at the door. Instead, there stood two ponies. One was earth pony stallion with a deep green coat and stripey red and green hair; he had a calendar as a cutie mark. The other was a unicorn mare with an even darker green coat and pitch black hair, with a sextant adorning her flank. Both wore a pair of tinted yellow sunglasses.

“Miss Twilight Sparkle?” the stallion asked in a southern accent.

“Yes? Can I help you?” the lavender unicorn asked. The unicorn looked very familiar, but she couldn't place where she'd seen her before.

“May we come in?” he asked. Twilight nodded, standing aside and eying the two warily. While the stallion had been polite so far, they were already acting suspicious.

As he walked in, the earth pony noticed the other three elements of harmony. “Oh, beggin' your pardon, I didn't know you had... hold on a second, cousin Applejack, is that you?” he asked, brightening up.

“Northern Spy?” Applejack asked. “Shucks, I ain't seen you since-”

“Cider season, 998 New Dawn. September 27th, twelve-sixteen in the afternoon,” Spy recalled.

“Yeah, heckuva bumper crop that year.”

“Friend of yours, dear?” Rarity asked.

“He's my second cousin from the northeast.” AJ answered.

Northern added “Big family. Endless support, endless grief.”

The farm mare grinned slyly. “Well if it weren' fer the braggin', the smugglin', and sittin' on your flank half the day, you wouldn't have half the clan bellyachin' about ya and the other half singin' yer praises,” she ribbed.

"Heh, and ah wouldn't have had so much time to kill if I weren't so dang good at my job."

“And the smuggling, Spy?” the bespectacled mare asked with a raised eyebrow.

Spy groaned. “Long story, Lieutenant Shadowdancer,” he grumbled. He had hoped to keep that under wraps.

That name rung a bell with Twilight. “Shadowdancer? The Shadowdancer that published the Atlas of Known Territories of the New Era?”

“And a good portion of the maps with any sort of accuracy published these days, yes, and I may need to update that in a few weeks,” Shadowdancer answered. “Anyway, we're here on royal business, Spy, you can catch up with your cousin later.”

“She got the letter after all? I'm sorry for bothering her, but Spike is doing better now,” Twilight said apologetically, jumping to the wrong conclusion.

“Actually, we're here because she didn't get a reply,” Spy said.

“Wait, a reply? Why would Princess Celestia be... wait a second,” she said. Something her mentor had told her came to her. A cartographer now in Princess Luna's employ.Suddenly everything clicked. “Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Is this about my request to talk to Princess Luna?”

Shadowdancer nodded. “The princess sent a letter asking when you'd like to meet with her. Since it's been a day with no reply, she asked North here to see why not.”

“I'm sorry, I never got it. Spike came down with something my friend Silky called 'crimson flame poisoning', the letter probably burnt up by mistake.”

“Well, that explains it,” Northern Spy said, pulling a clipboard out of his saddlebag with his teeth. “I've got a copy of her agenda for the next week and a half here. If you could put yerself down wherever you're both free, or where there's a group meetin' that suits ya.”

Shadowdancer let out a heavy sigh. “If you can't make the trip, I can make a portal for you to use,” she offered. She knew her spell was a dream for long-distance travel, but she wasn't thrilled about the idea of acting like a stagecoach for individuals, particularly those such as Twilight Sparkle.

“That's okay, thank you, I can take the midnight express to Canterlot,” she declined, taking a look at the schedule. The first thing she noticed was the inverted times, which made sense for the nocturnal princess. The second, however, was a bit more surprising. “Really? Anywhere open?” Twilight asked, blinking twice. Most of the schedule was blank.

“Yeah, she's schedulin' around your visit for some reason. Just do me a favor an' don't make it from 0700 to 1900 hours, alright? I've been tryin' to make sure she gets enough sleep, an' she wants to stay with her sister for breakfast and dinner.”

Rainbow Dash snuck a look over Twilight's shoulder. “Huh? Isn't that, like, months away? I thought you said that was a schedule for the next week and a half.”

“It's military time, Rainbow,” the bookworm informed. “It means seven in the morning to seven in the evening.” She took a pen off the clipboard with her horn, writing herself down in the early morning before dawn the next day.

The guard took the schedule and looked at it. “Alright, that looks fine to me. Much obliged, Miss Sparkle.”

Shadowdancer wordlessly went outside to find a shadow. The stallion made to follow, but Applejack stopped him. “Just a moment, Spy. I gather that you're in the royal guard now...”

“Just joined two days ago, royal summons outa the blue.”

“... but in that case, why aren't you gray?”

“'s part of the armor, AJ. Didn't bring it, Princess Luna thought it might give the wrong impression. Besides, there's one bit of the uniform I can't get rid of,” he said, taking off his glasses.

The element bearers gasped. “Holy moly,” Applejack breathed. His bright cherry red eyes were gone.

Her cousin chuckled . “Y'all take care of yourselves now, y'hear?” he said, snapping his cousin out of her stupor.

“You too.”

With that, Northern Spy walked out of the library and shut the door behind him. “What was THAT all about?” Rainbow asked.

Weighing her options quickly, Twilight decided to come right out with it. “You remember last week, when Princess Celestia asked to see me?”

“It's rather hard to forget, dear,” Rarity said.

“Well, it wasn't just to tell me about the plan to use the Elements of Harmony on Silky. She also told me that... that Princess Luna was acting strangely again.”

Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were all taken aback. “Oh my! You don't mean she's...” the seamstress trailed off, as if saying it aloud would make it happen.

Twilight understood. “I don't think it's that serious, but I'm not sure. All I know is she started worrying Princess Celestia after she rescued Silk from the griffin capital.”

“After she WHAT?!” the three blurted in unison.

Suddenly Twilight knew how her teacher had let that slip. “I had the exact same reaction. When Silk ran away, she ran into the marsh and got captured by griffins. I sent Princess Celestia a letter when I found out she was a changeling, and Princess Luna found out and had Silky followed. Her trail saw the abduction, and the gryphons...” she paused, making eye contact with Applejack and Rainbow Dash for a moment. She was thankful that Fluttershy wasn't there now. “... Princess Celestia used the word 'tortured'.”

“W-w-wha-” the farmer stammered. "H-how was she..."

Twilight shook her head. “Tortured? I don't know. If it left a scar, I doubt we'd see it unless it broke a bone. I don't really want to think about it. I don't know why she hasn't told anypony, but like I learned that day, putting ponies' secrets out in public can really hurt them. After all,” she said, looking at Rainbow Dash, “she'll tell us when she's ready.”

Anyway, Princess Luna snuck in and broke her out without her knowing, I'm guessing that was one of her stars that pointed to Silky's location. Ever since then, Princess Luna has been cooped up in her room, reading some really nasty things- head out of the gutter, Dash.”

Twilight having beaten her to the punch, Rainbow Dash changed her question. “Okay then, what kind of nasty things?”

“Old myths about ancient evils, lists of black magic, accounts of historical extinctions. It sounds like paranoia, I know, but after Nightmare Moon and the changeling queen, I don't want to assume somepony's jumping to conclusions when there could be a real cause for concern.”

“You mentioned extinctions?” Rarity asked. “Like what happened to the changelings, Twilight?”

The purple unicorn nodded. “It would make sense, yes, but correlation does not equal causation. I'm hoping to ask her about it. You saw how she acted after we used the elements. She might be afraid or ashamed to talk to her sister, so I thought maybe she might be okay talking to me about whatever it is.”

The hiss of steam blew through the air as the train to Canterlot came to a final stop. The sliding of doors heralded the hoofsteps of a couple dozen ponies walking through them, Twilight Sparkle among them.

She glanced up at a hanging clock, reading one fifteen. She pulled a roll of parchment out of her saddlebag and scanned it. “1:15- arrive in Canterlot Station. Check. 1:16- check schedule. Check. Hey, I'm ahead of schedule!” she smiled to herself.

A hoof from a tall figure behind her tapped her in the shoulder, causing her to jump in surprise.

“So does that mean you can pencil me in, Twilie?” the figure said.

There was only one pony who called her that. Twilight spun around. “Shiny!” she beamed, giving her brother a big hug. When she did so, she felt him wince a little. “It's been too long, BBBFF.”

“Two months is better than two years,” he said.

“Hard work being a prince?”

“Cadance is representative princess of central Equestria, and I only have that title from marriage; I'm hardly Princess Celestia. It's harder work being married than having a meaningless title,” he joked with a tired voice.

“Don't ruin the fun, Shiny,” Twilight pouted. Looking at him, he really did look exhausted; there were heavy bags under his eyes. One them was even black. It took a couple of seconds for that to click. “Wait, what happened to your eye?” she asked. It looked like he got into a fight, or maybe several fights, and lost. In fact, his coat had numerous red marks on it that looked like some kind of dye.

“Being Captain of the Guard has been even harder work for the last two months, sis,” he said. “After the changelings invaded Canterlot, Princess Luna chewed me out, big time. Princess Celestia did too, but she was nicer about it.”

“Why? That wasn't your fault! Queen Chrysalis had you under a spell,” she defended.

Shining Armor shuddered. “That's not why I'm in trouble. I got off easy.”

“What do you mean?”

“I'll tell you on the way to the castle, Twilie.”

“It was easily the among the most pitiful displays we have ever seen, and unlike thyself, we have been around for quite a while!” Luna scolded. “This is the third time in two years that Equestria has been threatened, and each time the Solar Guard under your command has performed abysmally! We cannot even begin to tell you how much of an utter disgrace this is to the very armor you wear!”

“Sister, try to mind your pronouns,” Celestia reminded calmly.

It was Shining Armor's first day back on duty after his honeymoon with Cadance. He still had a lot of leave time, but felt he had to return to help with the cleanup from the battle. What he hadn't expected was to be briefed that the Lunar Guard had removed the changelings, all of them, and to then be invited to the first joint court in many, many centuries.

Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as nice as it sounded. When one got right down to it, it was a military tribunal.

“This is not the time for pedantry, sister. This is a clear concern to the safety and wellbeing of Equestria, and this dismal performance of discipline beyond sophomoric tricks one could teach to a dog brings Captain Armor's leadership into question. Given the circumstances I suggest we, plural, dispense with the usual platitudes and begin rectifying this posthaste.”

“We cannot place the blame solely upon his back, Luna,” Celestia reminded.

Luna trained her eyes on her sibling, still scowling. “True, you are as much to blame as he, Celestia, and that is ignoring your foolish decision to cast Ray as your opening move against a changeling, a queen no less, and warn her beforehoof.

I know it is not my place to operate the Solar Guard, but the state of it is unacceptable. Not a single one of the changeling casualties has been attributed to any solar guard, excepting Captain Armor who crushed a few dozen scouts to death with his shield.”

Shining had been keeping himself as silent and stoic as possible to avoid (further) invoking his superiors' ire, staring straight ahead, but couldn't help showing his surprise for a moment. In a matter of seconds, without realizing it, he and his wife had taken dozens of lives. He knew that he was expected to do as he must the moment he joined the guard, but nopony in the guard had actually killed anypony for years, so that expectation had always seemed distant, ethereal. The thought of actually having done so sent an unwanted chill up his spine.

Celestia exhaled. “I hate to admit it, but that is a fair accusation, sister. I admit I've been negligent of the military in peace, such that we were caught nearly defenseless when war finally did return. The state of it is wholly unacceptable and highly embarrassing to say the least. However, as you said, Shining Armor was the only member of the Solar Guard who contributed adequately to the defense of the city, even after Queen Chrysalis' effects upon him. While somepony must be held accountable, does this not show that he at least should be shown leniency?”

“Following orders and prowess with such a spell alone would suffice only if he were but a low-ranking enlistee. I expect more from my officers, as should you,” the blue princess scoffed. A ghostly rumble of thunder sounded through the room. She took a deep breath, cooling herself down. “You have been very quiet, captain. Have you anything to say in your defense?”

The stallion sighed and shook his head. “No, your majesty. I realize now that the standards for practical training aren't good enough. Ponies would have died if the changelings tried to kill anypony. We're just lucky they didn't.”

“That is mostly true, yes, though apparently they thought me a threat, rightly so, and that I would make a poor food source, so they opted to send an assassin to remove me with permanency. Fortunately I can handle myself better than most, and the would-be assassin lost his plan's element of surprise with its subpar execution.”

In that moment, the three of them each thought something different.

Luna thought about her encounter with Cocoon, the changeling's self-titled “greatest assassin”, had put up only a mild fight; he was nowhere near the caliber she had come to expect from the race's elite. Perhaps the queen had underestimated her, not having seen fit to send a chevalier. Perhaps the chevaliers had gone the way of the original Lunar Guard and ceased to exist as an organization or, like the Solar Guard of this future era, paled in comparison to their forerunners. Perhaps still she had simply struck a decisive enough first blow to remove almost any chance he had had in the first place. Two things were clear in her mind: she would never know, and it would never really matter.

Celestia managed to resist a chuckle at her sister's choice of words. It was a serious situation, not something to joke about. Her sister was fine, true, but she never enjoyed hearing about another attempt on her life. It was not the first, and while she hoped otherwise, she feared it would not be the last. As an ageless being, it was nearly inevitable, especially with so many who still mistrusted her. One day, it may even succeed.

Had it been possible, Shining Armor's face would have paled. This was the third time he had heard of someone wishing the new princess harm had gotten close enough to do so. What would have happened to him should the worst have occurred didn't concern him, whatever it would have been would’ve been deserved. What did scare him was what it could do to Celestia, to lose her sister so soon after getting her back.

“Is that pertinent in this matter, Luna?” Celestia asked.

Luna placed a hoof on her chin. “Hm, yes, I suppose it is rather immaterial in this circumstance, even if he should be privy to it. My apologies. At any rate, are we still in agreement about the sentencing, sister? Neither new evidence nor an unexpected explanation from Shining Armor has been put forth as of yet.”

“Yes, it's probably best that we take care of this quickly, unless you have something to add, Shining.”

The staillion shook his head. “No, your highness. I'll go clear out my quarters and turn in my armor,” he said, ashamed of himself.

Celestia looked at him quizzically. “What are you talking about?”

“I'm being court marshaled.”

Celestia chuckled. “While you are welcome to resign your position given what happened, we decided that in these circumstances, you are not being fired.”

His jaw dropped in shock for a moment. “But then, what-”

“Nor are you being demoted, though if there were any promising candidates in the ranks I would have insisted upon it, I care not whom your sister is. Fortunately for you, Shining Armor, you are a mere incompetent amongst fools, buffoons, and utter morons,” the dark alicorn openly mocked.

“Luna...” Celestia warned in a low tone.

Her sister only rolled her eyes, replying in exasperation as she stood her ground. “Oh come now, Celestia. They are royal guards, not foals to be coddled, as they clearly have been. If they cannot withstand a much deserved insult they have no business in joining to begin with. While I do not like causing unemployment, it would be beneficial to... I believe it is 'remove the fat'.”

Celestia nodded and corrected the gryphon saying. “Trim the fat, sister, but I agree. Shining Armor, the Solar Guard will be required to undergo remedial martial training that I'll conduct personally, as well as joint training exercises with the Lunar Guard with frequency until my sister and I are satisfied with its ability to fill its intended role as Equestria's defensive branch. You yourself will also be required to undergo a personal training regimen devised by my sister.”

Shining Armor looked at Princess Luna. She was smirking, looking at him with an almost sadistic glint in her eye. A chill ran down his spine.

I am NOT going to like this.

The grassy terrace shimmered in the moonlight as dewdrops formed upon the blades. A collection of thunderclouds hung in the distance, raining over the farmlands and flashing bright white light on the city of Canterlot. Even here they could smell the sodden earth.

In the courtyard stood several dozen ponies, each with a coat of ash and raven hair. Some threw knives, others practiced with crossbows or swords. A select few who had proven their prowess with the preferred tools of the organization used more individualized equipment, such as shields or recurved bows. Most, however, were sparring directly with one another.

A few pegasi practiced dogfighting. Evasive maneuvers, leading an aerial target, airborne takedowns, use of cloud cover, and a host of other moves that had proven valuable in the past.

While it could not be everywhere at once, the Lunar Guard was designed to be more mobile than its sororal counterpart. At the moment, it was still a very small organization, so training was still on a nearly individual basis, and that included its captain.

Midnight hovered in the air, looking down at his regent. She didn't have her bow and quiver, but she wore her blunted practice sword in its sheath. “So, what's the handicap tonight, princess?” he asked. After over a year of these sparring matches, he had noticed that she rarely used everything she was capable of. He asked her to go all-out only once, and wound up utterly toyed with. Another time, she had used no wing, weaponry, or wizardry and was bested.

Luna raised an eyebrow. “If you think a foe would tell you what they are capable of, you are sadly mistaken.”

“Some idiots I've seen have,” he replied.

“A fair point. I shall pretend that does not imply that you think I may be such a fool,” she replied with a smirk. “Standard rules apply, now... en garde!” she said. She drew her blade, but he was already upon her, aiming a crushing blow at her side, throwing himself into the attack.

However, he slipped right through, sending him off balance. Damn, he thought. He should have known better; it wasn't like her to ready herself after she had told him to begin. It was another hologram-type illusion.

The next instant, he felt a solid blow on his back, knocking the air from his lungs and his body to the ground and standing on him.

“Round one to me, Captain,” Luna said from... behind him? But then who-

He rolled onto his back and saw a flight suit and goggles. “Shadowbolts?” he grunted.

“Indeed. Blackbird, let him up.”

The conjured mare nodded. “Yes, mistress,” she obeyed, stepping off of the pegasus.

In all honesty, he had only lost based on the potential kill rule. He got to his hooves with only small bruises on his chin, back, and ego. “You named your clones?” he deadpanned.

The shadowbolt sneered. “Watch whom you're talking to, you miserable-”

“Silence,” Luna commanded. Blackbird instantly cut her sentence short. “Unless they prompt me to cut them down, they have just under five years left one way or another. In the meantime they have enough intelligence and self-awareness to warrant a name, even without true autonomy. Unless you think I should treat them as less than pets?”

“I'm too busy thinking how to set you on your flank.”

Luna chuckled. “It shall take more than bravado to accomplish that. I am feeling sporting, so you may choose one to disallow, fabrications or the shadowbolts.”

“Shadowbolts. Illusions don't hit back,” he said without a moment's pause.

“Very well. Blackbird, Foxbat, Starbuster, I shan't be needing your assistance this eve,” she acquiesced, withdrawing the mare and the two hidden stallions as a chill went up her spine.

Captain Cloak only raised an eyebrow. “Was that a contraction, princess?”

“I am from the past, Midnight, not trapped there,” the alicorn retorted. An afterthought came to her. She sighed, casting another illusion as she did so, creating an image of herself, overlapping, and sending it flying away.

Midnight fell for the double bluff, thinking she had tried to gain higher ground using a stationary distraction. Shaking her head, she turned and walked behind a nearby statue, staying only just in sight of the courtyard. After creating a second image where she had stood a moment ago, she sat down, lost in thought.

Luna sat in thought, using telekinesis on the captain directly to mimic the resistance and force of her duplicate's actions. Even if she found it helpful at times, using machinations of her twisted alter-ego left a feeling of crawling through sewage. It was not the Shadowbolts' fault, she knew, even if they had personalities more akin to vipers than ponies, but she could not help but feel disgusted by them.

And yet she had used them, their intrinsic connection to her, as a means to commit an atrocity, one which she could blame none but herself for.

She looked at her captain. Even with his exceptional prowess, especially by today's deplorable standard, he had much to learn if he was to be able to play his role.

“Princess Luna?” a voice said behind her. She turned and saw Shining Armor had walked up to her. He looked between the three identical princesses. “Um, why are there-”

Luna cut him off. “An illusion spell, Shining Armor,” she said tersely. “I believe I asked you to wait for...” Twilight Sparkle walked into view. “Ah, Twilight Sparkle, it is good to see you. I had not expected you for another two hours.”

Twilight was startled that her brother had led her to the princess. “Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt you, I swear, I just didn't want to be late, and-”

“Nonsense!” Luna proclaimed, barely a whisper less noisily than her Royal Canterlot Voice. “I owe you and your friends much. I would not deny you my time unless in an emer-”

Luna suddenly careened away when Midnight Cloak landed a powerful kick. She slammed into the castle wall with enough force that the brother and sister could feel the ground shake as they gasped.

Twilight ran over to her as her brother stayed to confront his sole ranked equal.

“Oh my gosh! Luna, are you okay?”
“What in Celestia's name is the matter with you?!”

Midnight scoffed. “Combat training with the princess. It's not my problem you walked over in the middle of a fight.”

“And you didn't stop?!”

“Looking away in a fight only gets you one thing: a trip to the hospital or a trip to the grave. And I hate hospitals.”

“That doesn't matter in a... wait, you'd rather go to your grave than the hospital?”

“Visit a Stalliongrad hospital sometime and tell me you wouldn't, greenhorn.”

“I've been in the Royal Guard longer than you have, criminal.”

“Yeah, you're a lot better at staring contests and prancing about like a damned schoolfilly.”

“Why you-”

Luna's vision swam for a moment as the taste of iron filled her mouth. She could feel something in it. She raised a hoof and spat, thinking it crude the next instant, and saw crimson covering a back tooth. She stared, processing what had happened, only now registering the pain in her jaw. And then, she began to laugh.

“Hahaha! Splendid! Most splendid, indeed! A fine blow!” she praised. “It serves me right for allowing myself to be distracted. The second victory is yours, Captain Cloak. However, in live training, do try not to aim for the face unless holding back the force of your strike.”

“Yeah,” Midnight said, “sorry 'bout that. That could've gone better. You alright?”

Luna picked herself up off the ground, unfurling a wing and examining it. “It takes more than that to do me lasting harm. Now,” she said, horn lighting up blue to telekinetically preen herself, “I shall return to my chambers to converse with Twilight Sparkle, so for your third bout you will have to cross proverbial blades with Captain Armor. Just one bout, he does need to get his rest. When you're done, do help with aerial combat training.”

Shining Armor winced at the news, wearing an expression of mild dread. Midnight Cloak, on the other hoof, glanced over at the younger captain for a moment and smirked. “As you order, princess,” he said.

Luna walked back into the castle and Twilight followed, sparing a worried look behind her as the captains of the guard began fighting.

“Come on, kid, faster! You're never gonna hit me like that!”

“Argh!”

“Better. You gonna move that shield?”

“Of course not!”

“Your loss, then. Bloody shame you didn't figure this out from the last time!”

The ground shook underneath Twilight's hooves, accompanied a deafening shattering noise. “What was that‽”

Luna didn't even flinch. “Likely Captain Cloak breaking one of your Captain Armor's shields. They would be exceptional at keeping one another on their hooves, but Shining Armor lacks experience. His spells have great potency, but he has yet to develop any sense of how to use them beyond the most basic. If he knew how to use it properly, his magic would be the best possible way to counter Midnight's speed and striking power.”

So THAT'S why he's sore all over, Twilight thought. It boggled the mind that one pony could break one of her brother's shields when it required the changeling queen herself to weaken it beforehoof, but then again, there were lots of ponies who were capable of extraordinary feats. It could be that his smaller shields were weaker than his bigger ones, or that...

Actually, now that she thought of it, why had that been an issue at all? The changelings had taken them all by surprise, so how was it that they hand been warned first? Logically, the changelings shouldn't have had to deal with Shiny's shield.

“You are being awfully quiet, Twilight Sparkle. Is something the matter?”

“No, sorry, just thinking,” Twilight said. Looking up, she noticed the princess was walking on three hooves, her front left pressed to her cheek. Her shoe had frost on it.

As if reading her mind, Luna reassured, “I assure you, it is of no concern. My sister and I have modest regenerative capabilities, and the tooth will grow back in of its own accord in a few hours. The appearance can be covered up with illusionry in the meanwhile. I am not as adept at healing magic as I would like, but I have already treated the bleeding with a minor application of blood and ice magics.”

“You know blood magic?” Twilight asked, fishing for clues. Blood magic could certainly be used in dark magic far more easily than most, even if its usual applications were far more mundane. It was a restricted school for a reason.

“I am your senior many, many times over,” Luna remarked, mildly offended. “There are many spells I know, and I understand blood magic better than anypony I've met. Although... I can no longer confidently claim a greater knowledge of the practice than any in history.” Luna sighed.

A dead end. While she was curious about why Luna would claim to be so well versed in such a morbid form of magic, that meant she would not likely be researching anything on the topic, not if she already knew as much as anypony could teach. “Oh. I'm sorry.”

Luna sighed once more. “No, Twilight Sparkle, I am. It is... vexing, to be reminded so very often of how much time has passed, but I have little choice in the matter. The populace, the political climate, Everfree, Equestria, my sister, the Equestrian language, nothing at all is the same. Not even me.”

“I heard you used to be... bigger?”

The princess raised an eyebrow and looked at Twilight out of the corner of her eye. "Be certain to choose your next words very carefully, Twilight Sparkle,” she said half-jokingly.

AAAHH!!! I just called a princess fat! Twilight screamed in her head. “Aah! I mean, um, that is, what I meant to say was I heard that you used to be as tall as your sister!” she squeaked, stumbling over her words.

The next four seconds felt like forty. Twilight had a growing feeling of dread as Princess Luna silently stared, judging. The blue mare let out breathy chuckle. “I apologize. I should have known you would be less likely to believe whatever hearsay you encounter. You heard correctly, though I was just a bit shorter than my sister. Where did you hear this?”

“From Princess Celestia.”

Luna nodded. “Ah, of course, I should have expected as much from my sister's apprentice. Dirk Targe!” she said, suddenly shifting her tone. They had reached her room in their conversaion. “Return to the barracks immediately. I shall be discussing private matters,” she ordered. His hearing was good enough that she didn't take chances talking about anything personal or classified with less than two stone walls between them.

The shield-bearer objected “But your-”

Luna held up a hoof and stopped him. She smiled. “I appreciate your concern, Targe, but I am sure Fletch will be fine on his own, and miss Sparkle is no weakling herself. You need not worry.”

Targe was clearly still concerned. “Very well. At your order, princess,” he said, turning and walking down the hallway.

“Well, come in,” Luna said, walking behind a pair of large double doors.

Luna looked over to her hearth, narrowing her eyes in concentration as her horn began to glow. A moment later, a fire sprang into life, a courtesy for the diurnal pony in the room. Knowing a spell and having the power and ability to use it didn't always mean it was one one was talented at.

Around the hearth was what could be described as a small meeting area, far more casual than her desk, which faced the entryway, which possessed a much more authoritative air when it was not so cluttered with research material. Under the orange light she walked over to a silk cushion the size of a twin bed and sat down. “Please, have a seat,” she offered as the unicorn sat down on a sofa. “So tell me, why have you requested an audience? Not that I mind, of course, you are most welcome, but I find myself curious as to what would prompt this. Miss Sheets, perhaps? I do have something for her,” she said.

“She hates that name,” Twilight informed, “and no, not specifically.”

Luna laughed. “Does she? I shall have to remember that,” she said, turning to her desk, taking a large manilla envelope and giving to her. “I only finished this this afternoon. Sadly my sister has a greater patience for bureaucracy than me. I had much 'red tape to cut through.' I still believe I bypassed much regulation to accomplish this with expedience.” She magically handed Twilight the envelope.

Upon closer inspection, it had Luna's seal on it. If anypony but the intended recipient opened it, it was a serious felony, but its reluctance to bend meant there were two or three dozen pages inside. “What is this?”

“Mandatory legal registration, mandatory full naturalized citizenship waiving most of the application processes, a legal alias form for her assumed name, and a territory agreement for the inn she's planning. I ran into more red tape than I care to admit, and royal decrees must be used sparingly, so this land ownership document is written as more of a trade, so please have her read it before she signs it. I am certain I can acquire a better arrangement for her should she wish to withhold her signature, and she is welcome to decline royal assistance at all, but this was the best I could do with expedience without blowing through documentation with brute force.”

Twilight nodded. “Okay, I'll give it to her,” she said, taking the envelope, “thank you.”

“Now,” Luna said, “why did you come here?”

“Well...” Twilight began nervously, “to be honest... I'm concerned.”

“From what my sister tells me, that is nothing new,” Luna teased. “What troubles you?”

Oh dear Celestia, they were talking about me? How embarrassing! She quickly put that thought aside, steeling herself. “Princess Celestia is concerned about what you're researching, and how much you've been doing so, too. ”

Luna was taken aback. “I- we-” she sighed. “Has it been that obvious?” she asked halfheartedly. “I really have lost a step.”

“What is it you're looking for?'

Luna looked to the numerous tomes stacked carefully on her desk. She stared wordlessly, lost in thought.

“Princess?”

“So you are here to interrogate me, I take it,” Luna said.

“Well, uh... that's not how I'd have put it,” Twilight muttered sheepishly.

The blue pony raised a hoof to her chin, thinking about what to do. “Hmm... very well, Twilight Sparkle, I shall play along, but I shall only do so quid pro quo. There are certain things I would like to know as well, and it is possible that you help shed some light on them.

When you ask a valid question, I will answer honestly, but divulge no more than is needed to satisfy the question. You are to do the same to the best of your abilities. If you lie or fail to answer the question, I shan't answer a single query more. Are these terms acceptable?”

“That sounds okay to me, Luna,” Twilight agreed. “When do we start?”

“We already have,” Luna chuckled as Twilight slapped her forehead with her hoof, having missed her chance. “This is going to be fun.”

It was one of Luna's tactics for information exchange when somepony tried to put her on the spot. By forcing an equal amount of information, and making things equally awkward for both parties, she could ensure that nopony could turn a common courtesy into an unwanted confessional.

“What did you talk about with Celestia the eve before most recent Summer Sun Celebration?”

Twilight was thunderstruck. Luna had cut right to the heart of the matter already. “She told me you invited us to the Summer Sun Celebration, what happened during my brother's wedding, about your studies, and...” she hesitated. What happened between the princess and Firefly had sounded very personal, but if she didn't answer fully, Luna would cut her off right then and there. “... and about Firefly.”

Luna involuntarily flicked her ears. “I... I see. It is your turn.”

“What are you researching?”

“Advanced curses, historical extinctions, mythical curses, known magical objects associated with changes in mental state, and notable witches and warlocks.”

Twilight gave Luna a look. “Huh? Witches? Curses? Uh, not to be disrespectful, but those aren't real, Luna.”

“On the contrary,” the dark regent corrected with an undertone of annoyance, “they are once technical terms that for some reason have become culturally taboo. Witches and warlocks are living beings with supernatural abilities that cannot be classified as normal spellcraft or considered common to one's species and subspecies. From what I understand, your friend Pinkie Pie would be considered a witch.

Curses are enchantments or other sustained magical effects that have primary aspects that are predominantly negative. The condition of Everfree or Discord's petrification could be considered curses.

I am behind the times, not a needlessly superstitious fool. One might call that additional inquiry, by the way.”

“Sorry.”

“It is fine. What is the origin of any and all magic that affects the mind that you know of?”

“Discord, changeling consumption and telepathy, the Elements of Harmony, Princess Cadance, Princess Celestia, myself, and possibly certain potions: I'm not really sure if that kind of effect is chemical or alchemical, or both.

Why specifically are you looking that kind of stuff up?”

“The similarities between the changeling swarm's condition, which prompted the 'Canterlot wedding incident', and events surrounding... my incarceration... lead me to believe that there may have been something else at play. Although I feel I may be paranoid in this manner, I have a personal stake in making sure... one way or another.

Tell me: from whence was Master Spike's egg procured?”

“I... erm,” Twilight stuttered. She thought for a moment. “I have no idea.”

“I feared as much; that is rather queer,” Luna commented with a frown. “I shall have to confront my sister on this matter. It is not exactly a standard practice, nor an acceptable one, to take a child of any intelligent race and dole them out as reward for as part of some arbitrary 'test' that is not even taken into account for admission.” There had best be a very reasonable explanation for this.

“It ISN'T?!” Twilight yelped.

The alicorn looked at Twilight quizzically with a raised eyebrow. This was the first time she'd heard Twilight sound... dense. “Uh, no, obviously not. You do not see a great many dragons wandering about Canterlot, after all, and if that were a standard practice, one would have to. One could not even procure that many eggs from angry dragon parents without being cooked and possibly inviting the reprisal of numerous squadrons of dragons, not to mention the destabilizing effect on foreign policy it would have if it appeared we were condoning something as immoral as the trafficking of sentient races. The mere notion is absurd.”

“Ugh,” the unicorn groaned. She flopped down on her seat, nearly fainting Rarity-style. She had worried so much back then for nothing?! And it didn't occur to her until now that there was something funny going on‽ The embarrassment alone was enough to make her want to pass out!

The princess merely looked at her with an eyebrow raised. “If you are quite finished, it is your turn to ask a question.”

She stood up, even more embarrassed, and cleared her throat. She thought for a moment. “What similarities were there between what happened back then and what happened to the changelings?”

“Banishment, corruption, an ill presence, betrayal, and... death,” Luna sighed. “A great deal of death. I seem to have run out of questions for the moment. You may make one more inquiry before I insist we discontinue this topic of conversation.”

Okay, I have to choose carefully, Twilight thought, and find some common ground. Wait, common ground? That's it! “What were your friends like?” she asked.

The regent did a double-take. “I'm sorry, I- what? Why would you ask that?”

“Because you were the bearer of the element of Magic before me,” Twilight said. “You must have had friends. I want to know about them.”

“Element of 'magic.’ It was named something else back then. Much like three is odd and odd is not always three, friendship is magic but magic is not always friendship. I daresay you would not attribute Discord's godlike power to it. Semantics aside, yes, you are right.”

Faces flashed before her as she thought back on them. "Cereus Nightbloom, Rime Floes, Comet Tail, Ribbon Flyer, Ritmo, Nightshade, Ebon Sky, Olive Pit, Flicker Light, Aura Shine.” She smiled faintly with a faint, breathy laugh. “They were... themselves. Faithful, incorrigible, professional, free spirited, brave, loyal, perfectionistic, competitive... no, that doesn't do them justice.”

One of those names sounded familiar. “Rime Floes?” she asked. As she did so, she recalled she'd read about him in a book about obscure unicorn history. He was arguably the most accomplished ice magician of the New Dawn era.

Twilight watched as Princess Luna turned her back. "My apprentice," the princess replied in a whisper. Her voice wavered subtly, delicately, hardly slipping by her millenia of practice speaking, but Twilight could hear it. After all, she'd known a mare just like that most of her life. “I... I am done now, Twilight Sparkle. I am sorry. I owe you a debt, but the collector does not decide which coins the debtor gives her. You are welcome to stay for supper.”

Celestia's apprentice shook her head. “No, thank you. I should go make sure Spike is okay.”

“Very well. It has been a... well, it was good to see you, Twilight Sparkle.”

“You too... Luna.” Twilight said softly, turning and walking out of the room and towards the train station.

Twilight could try to help a little more easily, now that she knew Luna was at least attempting to be rational about whatever caused it. Luna had her reasons, and whatever they were, she would have to trust her; but if the unicorn wanted to help, she would still need more to go on.

“Lousy stuck up mare. What is WITH these ponies!? I can't figure out their command structure at all.” Silk thought to the absent public. “But at least it makes more sense than this 'dewy decimal' system!”

This must have been her fiftieth time reading through the many book titles. The order seemed completely random to her, an arbitrary smattering of extremely arbitrary topics into numbers that jumped illogically from one to the next. The overuse of alliteration didn't help, either.

Of course, she didn't really have any experience in the matter. Changelings didn't exactly have a public library; any books would have just molded in the swamp, and they needed living space more than anything else.

She yawned. “Daily Dose of Diamond Dogs, no. Classification of Chiroptera, no. Magical Monsters of Mayhem, no. Ugh, I'm still in the wrong section.”

She continued to browse when the library door opened. Twilight Sparkle walked in, not seeing the changeling as she let out a sigh. “And now to check on Spike.”

“He's asleep,” Silk commented, startling the pony.

“WAH!” she yelped.

“Shh, you're the one who keeps saying not to make so much noise in the library,” the changeling hushed.

“Silky, what are you doing here?!” Twilight hissed. “It's six in the morning!”

“Is it? Huh. Honestly, first I'm allowed in, then I'm not. I wish you ponies would make up your minds,” Silk deadpanned.

Twilight's volume only increased. “Answer the question!”

“Looking for the laws for this stupid land thing. The mayor keeps avoiding me!” Silk griped. “You know, I only ever had to worry about being outranked by chevaliers and the queen, this whole system you have here is ludicrous!”

“Dragons didn't have a command structure?” Twilight asked.

The changeling grumbled. “It's an anarchy; small groups with local leaders and two or three larger ones with the most powerful dragons on the national scale, Salamandra and Incendius last I knew; nothing official. It was simple. This,” she motioned to the shelves, “is just a mess.”

“Well,” the librarian interjected, “this might help.” She put the envelope she had been holding under a leg onto the counter. “Courtesy of Princess Luna.”

Silk walked over. “What is it?” she asked, opening the seal by ripping the paper.

“It's what she said she'd give you,” Twilight said. “If you sign these, you'll be a full fledged Equestrian citizen with all the rights and responsibilities, and you'll be able to legally operate under your alias.”

“'If', Twilight?” Silk asked with an eyebrow raised. “I remember being sentenced to sign these.”

“Well, she did use the word mandatory for that,” Twilight recalled, “but there's something else that isn't.”

“Like what?”

“One of these documents gives you ownership of land, and an inn completely funded by the government,” she explained, “but she told me that to do get this together as quickly as she did, she put it as more of a trade agreement. She said you should read it first, but I think it might be a good idea to have Rarity and Applejack take a look at it. Between them and me, we should be able to break them down for you.”

"Well, I should take a look at them for myself first," Silk said. She took the documents out of the envelope, reading through the first page. “The party of the first ... yeah, you're right, I can't understand this. Don't know how to write a letter, either. I mean, how do you write a letter to a pony princess, who happened to send everypony you ever knew to Tartarus?”

“Well, I do write letters to Princess Celestia, but Princess Luna? You're right, that's... different. She did say there were similarities between what happened to the changelings and what happened a thousand years ago, but I don't even know where to begin. None of the history books I've read give me anything solid on it.”

“You mean the nightfall?” Silk asked, eyebrow raised.

“The what?”

Silk groaned. “Honestly, ponies beat us in technology, mathematics, industry, food distribution, and leadership. Why you suck at history I'll never know. The nightfall! The last war between the ponies and the gryphons, the banishment of Nightmare Moon and... hm, come to think of it, it must have been the first Lunar Guard. Huh.”

“You KNOW ABOUT THAT?!” Twilight yelled, tackling the changeling and pinning her back to the ground in the heat of the moment. “What in Equestria happened?!”

“I don't know all the gory details, I'm a dragon specialist!” the scout yelped. “It was just part of the general education I got from the workers. Equestria was fighting the Kingdom of Steel for the umpteenth time (you really hated each other), nocturnal ponies went from rare to nonexistant, Princess Luna went nuts and got booted to the moon, Everfree got wrecked, and after that a big chunk of the Equestrian military was gone. Equestria didn't have another war until a certain traitor decided to attack it, and that wasn't much of a fight. That's all I know except for a couple disjointed memories of memories of memories of thoughts from scouts that were around back then. Now get off me!”

“Oh. Sorry, Silky. I got a little overexcited,” Twilight apologized, clambering off.

Silk stood up and brushed herself off. “Nothing new there.”

“So you don't know anything else?”

“Not really, I didn't pay close attention to things aside from changeling and draconic history, that event was-”

“Not exactly relevant to the field of dragon studies!” a male voice said from behind the two, startling them. “True, true. History's rather my sort of thing.”

The mares turned to see a light brown earth pony stallion approaching from the doorway, which Twilight had forgotten to close. They both recognized the pony with the hourglass cutie mark as Time Turner, owner of a clock shop in town. “What?” they asked at the same time.

The stallion, however, didn't seem to hear them. “I do love a good bit of history, rather difficult to sort out fact from fiction for most, but it is a special talent of mine. That and clockwork.” He paused, eyes moving up and to the left for a moment. “Yeah, not quite sure which is a talent and which is a hobby. Oh well, Earth Pony cutie marks, what can you do. Of course the job is the clockwork bit, but I rather fancy myself a better historian than just about anypony, barring Princess Celestia of course, not that Princess Luna isn't trying to-”

“WAIT wait wait,” Silk objected. “So you're a historian?”

“E-yes!”

“I thought you were a timekeeper, Time Turner.”

“Can't I be both? Rather sure I can, unless of course I'm kidding myself, but I like to think otherwise. Anyway, nightfall! Wonderful time. Bit grim, mind you; in fact, it's rather depressing. Quite a dark chapter of Equestria, actually. Not a wonderful time at all, forget I said that, dreadful business. Interesting, sure, but not very nice. Bit grim, oh, I said that already.”

Silk leaned over to Twilight and whispered, “Chrys', he yammers as much as Pinkie.”

“I'm just waiting for him to take a breath so I can get him out of my house,” Twilight whispered back. “The library doesn't open until nine.”

“Fascinating, though, big changes in Equestria but nopony talks about it. Rather odd, too, since it bridges the Classical and New Dawn eras, you'd think ponies would, but nevermind that, I'd be more than happy to make an exception and tell you about it. Help you get to know what's 'going down' as the kids are saying. I think. Do kids say that?”

“Nopony says that.”

Silk commented, “They do when something's crashing. Or facing inevitable defeat. Or moving towards a strong gravitational pull.”

“Very funny.”

“I agree.”

“Look, whatever,” Twilight said, getting back on topic. “Even if I believe you, why is Tome Duster, the royal historian, completely clueless about this. And more importantly, how did you know we were talking about that?”

Turner put a hoof behind his head and rubbed his mane. “Well, the mare's sources are a bit... out of sorts. Terrible lot of misinformation and coverups in that century, really massive amount of stuff to pick through. Takes me a bit to get my sources together, too.

I was just passing through, by the way, and happened to overhear a bit. Luna did bless me with excellent timing. Well, not Luna exactly. Not Celestia either, for that matter. More a figure of speech than anything else. Anyway, feel free to bring your friends, I insist on it, over to Turner's Tinkers tomorrow. We'll have hay chips!”

“Is that like 'cow pies'?” Silk asked, revolted.

Twilight gave her friend a grossed out look. “Eww, no! He's from Trottingham, he just means hay fries.”

“Oh, regional vocabulary... is that why you gave me a lightbulb thingy when I asked for a torch?”

Turner raised an eyebrow. “When I what? Oh, of course, silly me. That's right, wow, that brings me back. Well, anyway, please do come over at 2:04 PM tomorrow, though make sure you tell miss Dash to come over at 1:45, that should fit right in with her median for tardiness so you don't have to wait on her. I'm sure the others will be more punctual, so long as somepony reminds Silk here what time it is.”

“Oh come on!” Silk objected. “My sense of time isn't that bad!”

“Yes it is,” Twilight deadpanned, “but how did you know that, Mr Turner?”

Time Turner laughed. “Doctor. Doctor Turner, actually. Everypony in Equestria knows you lot, except for Silk here, who is still pretty well known in town. Oh the way ponies talk! Anyway, whilst I'm here do you suppose I could check out a-”

“Oh no, Doctor Turner. Library's closed, come back later.”

“I see your point, sorry about that... although the door's ajar so technically it's open.”

Twilight's eye twitched. “... get out.”

“Right, been a pleasure. Until tomorrow, Miss Sparkle,” he said a bow. He turned and walked out of the building and out of sight.

“So, anyway about those documents,” Silk asked, “I'd really appreciate the help.”

“We'll take care of them tomorrow after we talk to Turner, Silky, I need some sleep.”

“Oh... okay, I'm pretty tired myself. Good night, Twilight,” she said.

She left the same way Time Turner did as Twilight Sparkle replied “Not night anymore.” As Silk shut the door behind her, the pony yawned. “Well, this could be enlightening. Anyway, back to checking on Spike.”

She walked up the first couple steps only to hear Spike yell “Twilight, be quiet! I'm trying to sleep!”

Twilight groaned.

Chapter 12: Halcyon

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Silk stared down at the blank piece of paper. She’d had this problem every day since the Summer Sun Celebration, but just staring at it didn’t make writing the letter any easier. This was different from taking notes, and unlike researching in the scorched lands she couldn’t rely on others to get the concepts in her head just by thinking it. She couldn’t just jot down short, disconnected ideas like she could then.

Fluttershy walked up to her as she groaned in exasperation. “Are you writing a letter to Princess Luna?” she asked.

“Trying and failing to,” Silk replied. “How am I even supposed to address her? I hardly know anything about Equestrian royalty.”

“Well most ponies don’t know much about Princess Luna,” the pony said. Silky was hardly unique in that regard. She’d heard tales of Nightmare Moon as a filly (and been scared stiff every time), but everypony always dismissed it as a legend until she actually showed up. Nopony had even dreamed that she was not only real, but Princess Celestia’s sister. Well, nopony but Time Turner, apparently.

That nopony knew anything, however, was far from useful. “That’s not helping,” Silk said.

“Sorry.” The two were silent for a few moments. “Um, you don’t need to worry. We’re only supposed to write letters when we have something to write about.”

“That might be for Princess Celestia, but for Princess Luna I’m sentenced to. I’m just glad she never said how often.”

“Maybe it would be easier to write after we hear what Doctor Turner has to say?” the pegasus suggested.

The changeling sighed again. “Maybe. We’re supposed to go over there in a couple of hours, right?”

Fluttershy demurely replied “Uh, it’s just a few minutes actually. We, uh, really need to go. I just didn’t want to bother you. Sorry.”

Silk blushed in embarrassment. “Oh. Well, okay, uh, let’s go I guess,” she said sheepishly, standing up. “Hey, uh, please don’t tell Twilight about this.”

Fluttershy giggled. “Okay, I won’t,” she said. She turned to her pet rabbit, who was sitting in an armchair reading Fluttershy’s old high school textbook on physics and magical exception. “Okay, Angel Bunny, we’re going out for a while. Take care of the animals while we’re gone.”

The two walked out the door and, as she closed the door, Silk saw Angel give a nonchalant wave goodbye without looking up from his book. “That rabbit is way too smart.”

Angel smirked.

The two set off down the road to Ponyville at a trotting pace, but they had barely gotten out of Fluttershy’s yard when they noticed an orange and a white pony running up to meet them. As they did so, it became apparent they were arguing again.

“Of course you would, you can’t handle a little dirt!” Applejack accused.

Rarity’s nose wrinkled. “A little dirt doesn’t cover it, Applejack. It’s a massive pile of festering mud! It’s of absolutely no value to anypony!”

“Tch,” the farmer scoffed and grit her teeth. “Somethin’ doesn’t need to be pretty or fancy or sell for a lot’a bits to be worth somethin’! It’s more than just that, and she hardly needs the bits anyway!”

Rarity scowled. “We shall see, let’s ask her, shall we?”

“Yeah, it’s her decision.”

“I never said it wasn’t.”

The four ponies stopped when the groups met up. Up close it became obvious to Silk from how bitter their emotions tasted that this was almost personal for the two of them, so this was a bit more than the usual bickering between the rough and tumble AJ and the prim and proper Rarity. However, there was a note of concern mixed into the hot and bitter flavor they emitted.

“What are you two arguing about this time?” Silk asked, unsure if she wanted to know.

Rarity and Applejack gave each other a look. “Me ‘n Rars went to have a look at that little stack of papers Princess Luna had for you see if it's on the up 'n up.”

“You went without me?” the changeling asked with a frown.

AJ chuckled. “Heh, sorry, Silky, I guess we got a bit curious after Twi said she’d like us to take a look at it.”

Rarity continued. “In exchange for royal assistance building, giving ownership of, and covering the overhead costs of the inn, you would have to give up certain… how do I put this?” she explained, thinking of a way to abridge the document eloquently, unlike Applejack who had no qualms about being direct.

“Basically every area the Changeling Swarm had under their control would get annexed by Equestria.”

Silk did a double-take. “What? I don’t own the whole marsh!”

Rarity coughed. “Ah, yes well, it seems Princess Luna has decided to interpret international law a bit bluntly on this occasion. Since you are the only changeling left, she’s decided that means you’re the rightful owner of all of the territories generally accepted to be the swarm’s.”

“You’re kidding, the Barrier Range too?” Silk asked, stunned.

The ponies all just stared at her for a moment. “Wait, Silk dear, the changelings controlled the... Barrier Range?” the designer managed to eke out.

“Yeah. We made sure nopony could cross. Most of our Soldiers were deployed there.”

Silence. The only movement came from blinking.

The Barrier Range was, to Equestrians, twice as frightening as the Everfree Forest, and many times more dangerous. It was a huge chain of mountains that divided much of the pony kingdom of Equestria and the gryphon kingdom of Ferros, the Kingdom of Steel and served as a strong natural boundary. The range spanned two thirds of the continent, leaving only the northeastern territories of Equestria directly touching the southern and eastern portions of Ferros.

The air was cold enough to sap the life from even the hardiest of earth ponies, and the winds wicked enough to whip up fearsome blizzards and hailstorms on an almost daily basis, with ice cold downdrafts as intense as tornadoes. It was considered incredibly dangerous for Gryphons to fly across, and nigh-suicidal for any pony save perhaps the royal princesses, as these winds would suck away their strength and slam them to the jagged rocks below.

Climbing was no easier. The mountains were high enough that altitude sickness was a constant danger to any unicorn that dared cross without an air spell in place, and even earth ponies were affected by it. The terrain was steep and what few paths there were along the range were narrow and hazardous. One could be swept off a mountain with an avalanche at any moment, buried under heaps of snow. Of course, one could freeze to death just as easily here as in the sky.

As if the land itself wasn’t dangerous enough, there were all manner of terrifying creatures. Wolves, polar bears, yetis, abominable snowmen, ice giants, and even windigos were all known to inhabit the area, and quite probably many other horrors as well.

Save for a single mountain pass, the only way through it by conventional means was going around it. Now it seemed that yet another one of the dangers of the Barrier Range had been a race of shapeshifting pseudo-alicorns determined to stop anypony foolish enough to venture there.

Silk eventually broke the pregnant pause. “What?” she asked.

Applejack spoke after another two seconds. “Oookay, well, that’s a bit of an eye opener, and more of a downside than I reckoned before. That’s a lot of land, Silky, you’d be gettin’ the raw end of the deal.”

Rarity interjected. “It’s a colossal deathtrap, Applejack, and she’s a scout, not a soldier.”

Silk put up her hoof. “That’s alright, Applejack. I wouldn’t really know what to do with it anyway. I shared a tree with Skitter and had a small cave in the Scorched Lands, and the last time I went to the marsh…” she hesitated. She didn’t exactly want to make her friends worry about her, especially about something that was already over with which, for all she knew, could have been just another nightmare. She didn't know how she wound up back in the outskirts of Ponyville that night either way. “… well, let’s just say I wouldn't feel safe anymore.”

Fluttershy gasped. “Oh my, I’m sorry. Did the animals from Everfree move in?”

Rarity managed to keep a straight face, but Applejack was never very good at bluffing. Her eyebrows rose and her eyes widened as she exaggerated her frown, looking up and to the left. Fortunately Fluttershy’s question had drawn the changeling’s eye contact away.

“Well, something like that,” she said. “Anyway, I don’t see the point of keeping it.”

“Well, the marsh isn’t particularly large, but the Barrier Range is a very large territory. Even if you do want it off your hooves, you might be able to trade it for a fairly sizable sum… although the hazards in the region would make it less valuable than most places that size,” Rarity suggested.

Applejack thought for a moment. "The way I figure it, I guess ya got four choices. You can sign that agreement right now and get that inn but give up that land, you can wait and see how much more leverage the princess can get, you can see how much you could sell the territory for, or you can skip it altogether." She absentmindedly tilted her stetson back and forth on her head as her look softened. "I know ya said you don't feel safe there, but just... think it over some, y'hear?"

Silk sighed. "Alright, AJ, I'll think about it for a while."

"Um," Fluttershy said, "we should probably talk on the way. If that's alright."

Rarity agreed. "Yes, I'm not certain if Time Turner thinks one can be fashionably late," she said as they all began trotting into town.

The sounds of clockwork filled the shop, every tick and tock in perfect sync, an army of timepieces marching in step. It was a point of pride for the stallion, a small thing that left him feeling satisfied and content. A little thing, something that helped make the last thirty years living in Ponyville enjoyable. It certainly impressed his clientele, which helped him afford his costly repair bills, albeit barely.

He looked at an old wooden grandfather clock, the only enchanted clock in the shop. It was a relic from years past, but far from his only one. Three minutes and twenty-two seconds past two o’clock in the afternoon.

He reached to straighten his bow-tie, but found it missing again. Old habits die hard. With a chuckle he grabbed his sterling silver pocket watch from the store counter, another old habit of his, and opened it with the click of a button.

“Three, two, one…” In that instant there was a loud rapping on the door. “Hey, doc! Open up!” Rainbow Dash’s voice yelled through the door.

The doctor smiled to himself, flipping the watch closed with a snap. “Right on time,” he thought aloud. He walked over and opened the door, seeing each one of the element bearers there, as well as the Changeling remnant. Twilight sparkle greeted him. “Hello, Doctor Turner,” she said politely.

He beamed and stood to the side as his guests walked in single file. “Hello! Yes, welcome! Glad you decided to come!” he babbled happily, greeting them all by name. “Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Silky, Pinkie Pie,” he said happily, recalling he should skip Silk’s assumed surname. In an instant his face soured as if he had just mistakenly eaten a bug. “Applejack,” he said, not bothering to hide his irritation.

Applejack did a double-take. She didn’t know what his problem with her was, but she was no dumb hick. It only took her a moment to realize. “Huh? You’re still sore about that thing with Applebloom?” she asked, a bit taken aback. That had been almost two years ago!

“Yes,” he said bluntly. In a heartbeat his disposition brightened up again. “Right! Yes, let’s move down to my study,” he said as he closed the door. He trotted with bells on his hooves over to a door in the wall, opening it up and walking down a wooden staircase. “Do mind the decorations, they’re antiques! Some of them aren’t even mine. My wife inherited them from her mother, brilliant mare.”

The group followed him down the stairs. Pinkie hesitated, having the feeling that, for some reason, she shouldn’t go into a basement with Rainbow Dash. She quickly shook herself back to her senses, or whatever counted as her senses, and followed everypony else with a bunny hop.

“Where is Spike, by the way?” Time asked, flipping on the lights.

“He’s resting today. Silky called it ‘crimson flame poisoning,’” the purple pony replied. She frowned at the thought of leaving him by himself, but he had seemed much better when she left. The thought quickly left her mind when she saw the room.

The room looked almost makeshift, the wooden studs in the walls sticking out like a sore hoof. There was no dry wall, nor anything to hide them, as you would expect from a place somepony spent a lot of their time in. The floor was neither carpet nor wood nor tile, but cold concrete, with nary a rug in sight.

The concrete itself was pitted and cracked as if it were decades if not centuries old, but it didn’t look as if it had degraded at all. Rather, it looked damaged, as loose pieces of it could still be seen here and there. It almost looked like a changeling had struck it, repeatedly.

The contents, however, were astonishing. Antiques and artifacts all sat on display beneath gleaming glass cases. Some of them she could place, artifacts from the classical era, or from wild races like the Diamond Dogs. Most, however, she couldn’t. Statues, cups, a chess board, a huge ornate metal hammer, there was no telling how old some of these things were. Sandwiched between the studs in the walls were bookshelves filled with tomes as old as those in the most restricted of Canterlot’s archives, many preserved through magic well beyond their natural years.

In the center of the room he had arranged a number of seats. Eight of them were small, cushioned armchairs and looked perfectly comfortable, all facing a white board and a desk opposite the stairwell. On the far right, though, was a stool made of heavy steel, with a very cheap looking cushion on top.

The doctor looked back at Twilight. “Oh, too many rubies. That’s a shame, hope he feels better,” he offered in sympathy.

Rarity walked up to the doctor as the rest of the girls took a seat, avoiding the stool. “Darling, I didn’t know you were married!”

“Oh, naturally! Not naturally that I’m married, of course, naturally you didn’t know. I’m afraid we’re at best casual acquaintances, Miss Rarity. I’ll have to introduce you when she arrives, though I think you’ve met before.” He pulled out his pocketwatch. “In seven… six… five…”

“Have we? I suppose I’ll…”

“… four… three…”

“What are you counting for?”

“Two steps back please.”

It took a second for the seamstress to realize he had stopped counting and given her a warning. She hopped back, alarmed, as the brown stallion snapped the watch shut with a flick of the hoof and pointed at the cellar door leading outside. In that instant the door splintered open with a loud CRACK as a blur of grey and yellow streaked through the room, crashing where Rarity had been standing a moment before.

The mares all jumped back, startled by the sudden noise, and saw a familiar sight.

The color drained from Rainbow’s face. “Oh no…”

Time Turner just smiled warmly. “Hello, Derpy. How was your day?”

The town mailmare’s opened her crossed yellow-green eyes, got up and looked at him (as well as the desk). Her eyes set back straight and she smiled before flying from the re-chipped floor and hugging him. “It was great! I had a delivery in Canterlot today, I always like going there.”

It took every ounce of what little restraint Rainbow Dash had to keep from asking “You’re married to Derpy?!” Out of every pony in Ponyville, she was by far the most likely to get under her skin. It didn’t help that she was the only pony in town who caused more collateral damage than her and that they both constantly wound up fixing each others’ messes, which meant Dash got roped fixed three or four accidents for every one she caused.

He chuckled, hugging her back. “Well, it isn’t smoking at the moment, so enjoy it. Everypony, my wife Derpy Hooves. Say hello to our guests, dear.”

She turned around and beamed. “Hello everypony!” she said before her look turned sour. “And Applejack.”

The farm pony was stunned. “Wha-“ she stammered, getting the stink-eye a second time. She couldn’t figure out what could make the blonde pegasus react that way for a moment, but once again it hit her. “The muffins!?” she yelped. Apparently that had been Derpy Hooves who’d bought the baked bads, not her cousin Ditzy Do. Aside from the eyes, it was nearly impossible to tell the two apart at a glance, and Derpy’s eyes weren’t always crossed.

“Yes,” Derpy said.

“Aww,” Applejack groaned, slumping into her chair in defeat. “I don’t get counted in ‘everypony’ and the changeling does… no offense, Silky.”

“None taken,” Silk said with a shrug, getting a slight taste of depression from the bummed out farm pony’s bruised feelings. The amount of love coming out of the married couple was more than enough to drown it out, and it tasted mild enough not to warrant real concern. “Anway, I think that’s everypony, Doctor Turner.”

Twilight pried herself away from staring at one of the relics and agreed. “Yes, I’d like to know what happened in this ‘nightfall’ event you’re describing. I assume the name has to do with Nightmare Moon’s attempt to make an everlasting night?”

The doctor chuckled, walking over to a bookshelf. From up on the top shelf he took a pair of tongs and used them to grab a pale azure book with what looked like fern frost on its cover. The book coursed with a cold magic, emitting fog like it was made of dry ice. “You are a genius, Twilight. Absolutely brilliant…” he praised, causing her to chuckle, unable to resist her ego rising just a little before he finished his sentence. “… but I’m afraid you’re only partially correct.”

Twilight’s ego deflated again.

“To understand how Luna went mad, and why she’s so guilt ridden now, the first thing you need to know,” he said, walking over to the whiteboard and dropping the book on the desk with a clatter, “is what she’s lost.”

It was nighttime in Everfree, about six months before Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon. Magic coursed through the air as Princess Luna taught her apprentice. On this evening they neared completion of a magical experiment, one of many they submitted to the now nigh-defunct Guild of Magi. Amusing thing, really, it got its name when one of their signs… sorry, not the time!

“Hm. Let us see if we can increase the pressure,” Princess Luna said, a bead of sweat forming on her brow.

The freezing castle air became rife with magic as the two ponies concentrated, creating a powerful magical pressure on the ice. The force being used on this small patch of ice would surely be enough for magically-sensitive individuals to feel it throughout all of Everfree City.

The weight put into it was almost unbearable. Already they had exceeded the crushing pressure of the deepest ocean depths by a hundred fold, and yet they kept their experiment going.

“Just a little more...” the princess said, undermining the strain that would be put on the two of them for maintaining their exponential increase in pressure.

The colt groaned. The seconds ticked by.

Two hundred times. His horn burned with the strain.

Four hundred. He felt as if he was going to pass out. His vision swam as he began to lose his feel for the crystals making up the ice's structure. He couldn't keep this up much longer. Why couldn't his special talent have been generalist? He could still have an elemental school as a preference if it had been!

Eight hundred times. He collapsed.

The alicorn placed a hoof on her head, taking a step back as her horn shut off. Even for her, brute forcing her way through an unpracticed, untested, and experimental new spell was often very strenuous. It usually took time to refine magic into a conventionally useful form. Celestia always seemed to be better at that, though she did so less often as her interests usually laid elsewhere.“How do you fare, Rime? Are you unharmed?”

The pale blue unicorn nodded, panting as he got back to his hooves. “I'm fine, Mistress. I'm sorry, I did the best I could, and-”

Mistress, like its masculine equivalent, Master, was a title that was much more widely used. Its more risqué connotation was far outshone by the typical usage of the time. The princess was perfectly fine with him addressing her as such; she was a mare of many hats and as many titles. Princess, General, High Commander, (honorary) Archmage, her Highness, her Honor, her Grace, her Majesty, Lady, her Benevolence, and while she strongly discouraged it, a strong case could be made to call her a Queen.

This was to say nothing of less general titles she had accrued over her long life, which at this point had become tedious; the Princess of Night, Ruler of Equestira, Moon and Stars, Starpainter, Bringer of Balance, Immortal of Equestria, one of the Royal Sisters, the list went on and on. She dreaded to even consider some of the positions, both high and low, she held before recorded history.

As such, how others would address her varied from time to time, individual to individual, for more reasons than she cared to count. Sometimes they would, in an attempt to avoid insulting her, try to correct each other, but she herself thought nothing of it, and neither did anypony who spent enough time around her.

“What is there to apologize for?” Luna asked with a warm smile, turning to the stone table upon which their experiment lay. “You gave it your all, and I couldn't ask for anything better than that. Besides, who ever said it was a failure? See for yourself,” she encouraged.

Wait, Doctor Turner, the princesses didn't talk like that back then.

Hm, that's right, I suppose they didn't, Twilight. My mistake! I'm taking a liberty here or there, but... oh, I've got it! I could shout what they say! That could be fun!

NO! No, that's okay, I take it back! Uhugh, my ears are ringing just thinking about it...

Right! Okay, where was I? Ah, yes!

He stood on his hind legs and placed his front hooves on the tabletop, which was still just a bit too high for the 13-year-old to look down on. There in the center was a small cube of ice, but there was something different about it.

“Did we do it?” he asked warily, gingerly lighting his horn to get a feel for the ice in front of him. His horn still burned when he did so.

“I believe so,” Luna said. Until just a moment ago, the substance before them was only a theory. It would be still if she hadn't enchanted it to hold its pressure, though one failure and she could have created a tiny bomb with shards of ice shrapnel.

She watched him gaze, wide eyed, into the crystal in the middle. She smiled to herself.

Rime's brow raised, craning his neck back a bit in surprise. The air around the ice was shimmering. “Wait, that can’t be right, is that a-”

“Boo!” a feminine voice yelped from below them suddenly. Startled, Rime jumped and Luna snapped her horn in the direction of the disturbance before she saw a certain unicorn’s head sticking out through the floor. “I hate to interrupt, but just what are you two up to?” she asked, floating up through the floor, hovering for a moment, then falling to her hooves with four solid CLACKs, her horseshoes now as solid as the rest of her.

The alicorn sighed. “Honestly, Cereus, it’s the witching hour, you know what we're doing,” she complained, looking back to the table which now held a rapidly evaporating puddle, shrinking rapidly. “You could have consulted Olive Pit. He handles the castle’s affairs well enough.”

Cereus Nightbloom, her second name attained when she finally earned her station, was the Captain of the Lunar Guard. Even though she was over a century old, ponies hit a plateau in aging upon reaching adulthood, and this plateau lasted a hundred years, after which one began to age much more noticeably. Ponies between 100 and 120 years of age were considered to be in their prime: physically fit and youthful, but with a long life of experience to draw upon. She was no exception.

Rime had seen the captain without her armor on. She had a light green coat with white hair. She claimed to have originally had white eyes that shone in the dark like most night ponies, but he found it almost hard to believe a mare so brightly colored could be one of the last of her kind, let alone that her son had the darkest colors he knew.

Now, of course, her eyes were the same pools of molten gold as the rest of his mistress’ military branch. She was in uniform at the moment, and as such sported their usual colorations as well. Her haircut was shorter than usual for female ponies; if not for her chin, it would be difficult to tell whether she was a mare or a stallion.

“We were in the middle of an experiment, if you must know,” Rime quietly pouted in disappointment, throwing an accusatory glance at the captain, “until you messed up our concentration.”

Cereus chuckled. “I’m sorry about that, but the magic in that spell you two were cooking up was making all the unicorns in Everfree nervous. I had to make sure you weren’t going to blow something up.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “And if we were, you thought the best way to handle the situation would be to startle the ponies working with explosives?”

The captain smirked. “I waited until most of your spellwork was over, my lady, you know I’m not skittish.”

Rime Floes groaned, lightly kicking a leg of the table with his front hoof. “Well that’s great, but nopony’s going to believe me now!” he griped.

“I’m sure they will,” Luna told her apprentice, “we simply have to submit our procedure to the Guild of Magi and show them it’s replicable. They won’t dismiss my claims offhoof.”

“Yes, I know, mistress, but Flicker won’t care. She’ll just-" He sighed. "I don’t want to be a one-trick pony.”

Whatever his mistress’ gut reaction to this was, she didn’t betray it, but Captain Nightbloom looked taken aback and just a little shocked, if only for a second.

To be called a one-trick pony was a very strong insult. It was used by unicorns accuse unicorns with less varied magical abilities as being inferior. Generally speaking there were four classifications of special talent when it came to magic.

The most common were the specialists, unicorns who could only cast one spell, albeit often one very specialized to their passions or personalities, and sometimes this spell could be mastered to a degree that granted it more utility. There were some unicorns, telekinetic specialists, that couldn’t cast a single thing another pony couldn’t; though much rarer than any classification of unicorn, the sheer magnitude of their talents was something to behold.

The typists were next, ones whose magic could take any shape so long as it was limited to a certain motif. There were ponies whose magics revolved around shields or hearing, around celerity or healing or enchantment. Roughly one in ten unicorns born were typists.

Then were the schoolists, like Rime. Their abilities came from the primal schools of magic; from elements and sub-elements and pseudo-elements. Light and shadow, earth and wind, fire and ice, lightning and time, arcane and water. Like typists, one in ten unicorns were so.

Finally there were the generalists, those ponies whose special talents could be said to be any form of magic, or magic itself. Though able to learn nearly any spell, there were some that were advanced enough to be forever out of reach, or simply learn at a linear rate compared to the quadratic rate of those more focused on it. They were the jacks of all trade and, in all but the rarest of cases, the masters of none.

The princess closed her eyes. “You are not a one-trick pony,” she said, calmly and firmly.

“I am,” the Captain self-disparaged, amused by her own joke.

Luna playfully agreed. “Yes, and a marvelous trick at that,” she added. “You, Rime, are a schoolist. You may not be able to conjure lightning, teleport, transform objects or creatures, or light a hearth…”

You’re not helping, Rime thought.

“… but you can do anything you set your mind to with freezing, cold, and ice. Out of all the schools, I truly think the subschool of ice is the most versatile and imaginative. Tell me, rime, do you remember the four cornerstones of unicorn magic?”

“Emotion, Understanding, Imagination, and Willpower,” he recited from memory.

“Very good. Emotion gives our spells raw potential; a parent defending his foal is one of the best examples, as both an explosive blast of rage and a shining beacon of love. Understanding allows a wide variety of spell work, essential for generalists, and one’s magic becomes more balanced and stable if one understands it.”

“Like understanding what ice looks like, what it feels like, makes it stronger?”

Luna nodded, flashing an almost motherly smile. “Pre-cisely” she said with a short nod. “Emotion fuels it, and understanding steadies it. However Willpower is needed to give magic form, to bend the world to your wishes. This is most easily observed in telekinesis, as the basic key all young unicorns must understand to learn to move objects as they want them to. If telekinetically grabbing another living creature, that creature must either allow it, or be noticeably weaker of will than the unicorn.”

“I know all of that,” Rime said.

His teacher nodded. “Of course you do, you’re one of the brightest ponies I’ve taught, and I’ve been teaching for many, many centuries. Your greatest strength, however; the strength of your school of magic and my own greatest source of prowess, is something less tangible.

Any fool can feel extremely powerful emotion, but wasted potential is useless, and uncontrolled power can be dangerous, as you learned the day we met. Any spoiled brat can have a will as strong as steel, but lack the ability to use it, thank the stars. Griffins and donkeys can become some of the best scholars of magic, and can learn to understand it nearly as well as I do, but they cannot cast a single spell with knowledge alone, ritual spells aside. But for all the strength of those three cornerstones, I find the purest form of magic, the most crucial of the four, is imagination.

Imagination can allow you to vary a spell endlessly, or create new ones. To improvise or bring the power of artistry into a tangible force. The ability to do anything you set your mind to, everything you can envision, even if you don’t quite know how it works yet.

Your ice can take the shape of anything you can dream. It can flow through cracks like liquid water, or stand as solid as the mightiest bulwark. It can create the fury of a blizzard or the shelter of an igloo. As mighty as a glacier or as delicate as a snowflake. Anything you can dream, an ice schoolist can do, and you are the brightest one I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

Rime nodded, feeling more confident with the princess’ praise. She never lied, at least not directly or intentionally, but still he had his doubts. “Okay… but all the imagination in the world won’t make a fire in that igloo.”

Luna laughed. “That is true.” The mares looked each other in the eye. The larger one, smirking, lit her horn and started speaking to her captain, who suddenly looked apprehensive, but the words fell silent.

A whisper spell. It was an easy enough cantrip for generalists and those with a talent for sound magic, and very useful for quick and dirty silent communication. It was hardly perfect, of course. It was limited in range, couldn’t quiet somepony who didn’t want to be, wasn't useful in loud areas, and one’s lips still moved when using it. It worked well enough to keep Rime in the dark, at any rate.

Luna ended the spell, and Cereus rolled her eyes with a shake of the head and a heavy sigh. The princess watched her walk through a nearby wall before turning to her apprentice. “I’m due at court soon, no doubt to listen to further requests to cut winter short, if not out completely, so I’m giving you a list of tasks to accomplish,” she said, smiling devilishly. “I think it time that I visit vengeance upon my sister for the Mule Kick Sauce incident two months ago.”

Well that explains why Captain Nightbloom looked nervous! he thought, alarmed. “But mistress, the last time-“

“Firstly, I want you to put three drops of Poison Joke Extract into tomorrow morning’s tea,” she said. “Also, I want you to find a way to tamper with the water temperature in my sister's washroom. Finally, you are to place four vials of reekthistle in her mattress in a way that they will break when she turns over.”

Before he could plead to do otherwise, the princess disappeared in a flash of navy light. He placed a hoof on his head, scratching his snow-tipped hair; he really didn’t want any part in the princess’ prank wars, which were infamous for escalating to epic proportions. As loathe as he was to do so, he was even more reluctant to disappoint Princess Luna. He quickly committed the list of pranks to memory as if his life depended on it.

“Princess Celestia is going to kill me.”

Rime walked, horn alight, down a flight of dingy stairs into the castle’s dark underground. The walls were drab gray stone, the air dry but still somehow still smelling strongly of must. That and smoke from the stallion he was going to see.

He rounded a corner and saw a light coming form beneath a doorframe. He walked over to it calmly, hooves echoing off the bare stone, before knocking on it three times.

“Come in! But don’t touch anything,” a grumpy voice called out. Rime heeded it, pushing the creaking laboratory door open.

The expansive laboratory was filled with glassware of every shape and size upon shelves and tables too numerous for him to bother counting. Inside a great many of the flasks were a multitude colored liquids, less than a quarter of which were labeled. Most of the light came from the gas burners and cauldron fires dotted throughout. The smoke of the woodburning flames was ventilated out by a lightly wind-enchanted ceiling in the shape of a funnel, rising out of one of the castle’s chimneys.

Crazy old nag, Rime thought as he lightly coughed entering the smoke-filled room. Save for Princess Luna, he was one of the only four night ponies who lived in the castle. “Hello? Doctor Nightshade?” he called.

Nightshade, a middle-aged, dark purple earth pony with avocado hair and moon-blessed eyes, poked his head out. “Yes, yes, what is it, colt?” he demanded, lighting a cigarette with a Bunsen burner. He quickly turned around to look at a piece of parchment that looked as if a two month old had scribbled on it. He wore a white labcoat with a variant of the Lunar Guard emblem, a constellation drawn bow aimed upward and a dagger nocked instead of an arrow. In his case, the variation was that reserved for licensed medical practitioners, with a Caduceus taking the place of the dagger.

Doctor Nightshade, a Lieutenant First Class by rank in the Lunar Guard, was the apothecary and alchemist to the Equestrian Royal Family. He’d studied how to make medicines, chemicals, explosives and poisons from all over the world. Equestria, Zerahan, Ferros, and even the local medicines of certain tribal societies like the Buffalo. His expertise was unquestionable.

His sanity, on the other hoof…

“Erm, should you really be smoking with all the chemicals in here?” Rime asked. He’d studied the basics of his time’s limited chemistry with Princess Luna, and that certainly didn’t seem to meet safety standards.

“Lots of smoke anyway. Won’t make a difference,” he said. He took a puff of his cigarette. “What do you want?” he said, tapping his head with his hoof, zipping over to a roiling beaker, and sniffing the fumes twice. Directly.

Rime winced and recoiled at the sight. That is NOT standard practice! he yelled in his head. “I, uh, Princess Luna-“

An egg timer dinged somewhere in the back of the lab, and the doctor seemed like he was there an instant later. “Yes yes, night mare, odd biochemistry, really should study that, what about her?”

“She wants me to take Reekthistle and Poison Joke extract, and then-OOF!“ he grunted as a vial and a jar were practically punched into his chest.

“Here: Carduus Foetidus, nonmagical. Mostly harmless. Prickly, though. Used as insect repellant. Poison Joke. Old Equestrian Viola Iocus. Alchemical. Enjoy. Don’t swallow, effects last 30 days. Cure… annoying to make,” he said. As soon as he did, his ears perked up. “Finally! It’s done!”

Rime almost didn’t want to ask, but couldn’t resist. “What’s done?!”

Nightshade was already at a large cauldron, looking like he was about to summon a demon with the flames lighting him the way they did. He took another drag of his cigarette and said “Lunch. Gumbo. Equestiran, no meat. Want some?”

“NO!” Rime yelped and sprinted out of there.

Nightshade shrugged, dipping a large metal ladle in and taking a long, loud sip. “Mmm. Good gumbo. Weird kid.”

Rime sat in the dining room with his little glass vial, watching the staff walking to and fro preparing for yet another meal in their nearly endless chain of formal dinners. He stifled a yawn; though he had mostly gotten used to it over the last six years, it wasn’t natural for him to be up near midnight. He wasn’t a night pony. Nopony really knew why, but there were very few night ponies born these days. Even so staff worked tirelessly, knowing that the night pony was among them.

He nonchalantly sipped from a glass containing a mixture of orange juice and coffee as he kept a close watch on the double-doors that led to the kitchen, waiting for a break to slip in. He knew he had no knack for hiding, but he hoped his timing would be sufficient to slip in unnoticed.

Before long a waiter stepped out of the doors, carrying a large silver tray of meticulously arranged fruit. Rime darted by so quickly he thought he might have left a scorch mark on the carpet before ducking behind a countertop.
He cast a spell, creating a small hoof-held mirror, which he raised up to peer above the countertop. However, he saw nopony notice him. A chef rounded a corner, causing Rime a moment of panic, but she was so focused on her job that she just walked around him.

He blinked twice. “O... kaaay…” he muttered to himself, feeling a bit embarrassed that he had overestimated the difficulty of this. Sheepishly, he slunk over to the wood burning stove, next to which a quartet of kettles sat. Nopony paid him any mind.

If it was this easy to spike a drink, he thought, it was a good thing the royal sisters had a resistance to most naturally-occurring toxins. It was also fortunate that Luna had only asked him to spike the tea, not that it actually find its way into Celestia’s cup.

He was about to unseal the extract when he realized a problem: he was told to add three drops, but there were four kettles.

“And just what might you be up to, young Master Floes?” a voice said from behind him.

“WAH!” Rime yelped, as he spun around. His face grew paler than it already was, face to face with an older earth pony stallion in quite possibly the finest suit on the continent: the castle’s head butler, Olive Pit.

Olive Pit disliked his feminine first name, preferring to be called by the more masculine “Oliver.” His eyes were golden, his pupils slitted; the mark of a former Lunar Guard member. He was taller than most stallions by a full inch, but was much sleeker of build, almost to the point of lankiness. His once olive-green coat had begun to lose its color, like his now grey mane and tail had many years before.

The stallion had aged very gracefully thus far, looking dignified even at an age he wouldn't have lived to had he been born a pegasus or unicorn. At a hundred and eighty years of age, he was the oldest pony that still worked within the castle that wasn’t an alicorn, yet there was not a wrinkle on his face to be found, even if that was likely to change rapidly one day soon.

“Oliver! Erm, I-I was just-“

“Attempting to spike the kettles with what appears to be extract of Viola Iocus?” he interrupted, finishing the colt’s sentence for him.

“I-I can explain!” No I can’t.

“Indeed?” the butler questioned. He paused. Rime had to fight the urge to let the short silence make him literally squirm. “I suspect the princess instructed you to do so, am I wrong?” Rime clenched his jaw shut. He closed his eyes tight and shook his head furiously, refusing to talk. The butler merely raised an eyebrow. “I see, I will have to have a word with the regent. Your loyalty to your mistress is commendable, young master, but you would do well to avoid involving yourself in the princess’ feuds. They have had millennia of practice with this kind of trite nonsense.

… I shall assist you, this once.”

Rime did a double-take. “Wait, what?”

“I will see that this substances finds its way into Princess Celestia’s tea this one time, harmless as it is, however if I catch you trying your hoof at anything nefarious again, I promise you there will be dire consequences regardless of whose bidding you are doing. Do we have an understanding, Master Floes?”

“Y-yes sir! Thank you, sir!” he blurted, sprinting out of the room in a blur and knocking a tray of plates to the floor.

Oliver grimaced. He had a suspicion about what Princess Luna was trying to accomplish with this charade, but this was going too far. “I suppose I will have to have words our august ruler of the night,” he thought aloud, looking at the kitchen staff which had stopped in its tracks. “What are you waiting for?” he asked. “Get back to work, and somepony clean this mess up! For goodness’ sake.”

The staff immediately started working frantically.

Rime skidded to a halt in the hall above, heart pounding in his chest. He swallowed hard, a shiver running down his spine. He breathed a slow sigh of relief then put his fore hooves on the back of his head. With a sharp inhale he yelped “AAAH! Luna’s light, that was SO CLOSE!” There were probably a half dozen ponies that could get caught as he did and get away with their life and their freedom; he was damn lucky to be one of them, and he knew it.

“What was close?” a voice said right beside him. Rime jumped away in a blue blur, startled, hair standing on end like a cat. Getting a grip on himself, he saw a unicorn his age sitting there, or at least the silhouette and eyes of one.

“Darn it, Ebon! You almost gave me a heart attack!” the ice colt snapped at his friend.

“Sorry! You know I can’t help it,” the inky black colt replied, and it was mostly true. The vast majority of ponies had at least some shading differences between their hair and eye color, but Ebon Sky’s color lived up to his name. His mane, coat, and tail were almost totally black; only the barest tint of red was visible. A cutie mark would make him a little easier to spot but, much to his chagrin, he was one of the last his age not to have one. The only feature that stood out were his bright, reflective green eyes.

“We should put a bell on you,” Rime griped, his heart still beating hard enough to feel. “Why aren’t you wearing your suit?”

“Oh come on, Rime! Clothes are so stifling, and that thing’s even worse!” the dark pony objected.

“They’re not that bad.”

“Then why don’t you wear them?”

“I, uh, I just don’t feel like it?”

“See?! You don’t like it either!” Ebon protested.

Rime stammered. “Uh, well I, uh, t-that’s not important!” he poorly defended, looking away and scratching his temple.

Ebon glared for a moment before letting out an exasperated sigh. “Well, anyway, what was close?” he asked.

“I, uh, was kind of caught messing with the food.”

“And?”

“By Oliver.”

Ebon cocked his head, eyebrow raised. “So?”

“’SO?!’” Rime parroted incredulously, completely forgetting to keep quiet. “What do you mean ‘so’?! He’s the scariest stallion in all of Equestria!”

“Have you ever actually talked to him? He’s a really nice guy.”

“Oh, of course,” he groaned, “you’re the last pony who’d get scared around anypony: your mother’s Captain of the Lunar Guard.”

“So? Your mistress is a goddess.”

“Yeah, and she scares the living starlight out of me when she’s upset,” Rime declared, adding a muttered “she makes thunderstorms when she yells.”

“And apparently she scares the day pony out of you, too,” Ebon joked. It had taken less than a year for Rime’s vernacular to change once Luna made him her student.

Rime rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah, Ebon. I have to get back to my mission, we’ll hang out later,” he said, starting to walk off.

“Mission? What mission?” his friend inquired.

“I need to find a way to sneak into…” the day pony trailed off. The answer was staring him in the face. He turned around, a devilish smile on his face. “Hey Ebooooon…”

Ebon’s face would have paled if it could. “Uh oh.”

“I need a favor.”

“Oh no.”

“I need you… ”

“I don’t like where this is going!”

“… to sneak into Princess Celestia’s room…”

“It is because I’m black?”

“… and plant this reekthistle in her mattress.”

“I knew it! I freakin’ knew it!” Ebon Sky complained. He breathed in only to let out a long groan as he contemplated whether it was worth the scolding to dye his hair. He waited a moment, thinking it over. “This is one of Princess Luna’s pranks, right?” he asked cautiously.

“Yeah.”

“And I take it she actually told you to do it?”

“She never said I had to do it myself, but yeah,” Rime nodded.

Ebon squinted, silently judging rime. “You owe me for this, Floes,” he relented. “Well, let’s get this over with.”

Rime grinned with a squee. “Thanks, Ebon.”

The night pony sighed. “I am so grounded.”

The Everfree Castle at night seemed to reflect Luna’s domain. The pristine stonework and colorful décor fell to silver and gray, with a great many small lights both magical and mundane dimly illuminating the corridors. Somehow, even though it had been millennia since its construction, it still smelled of the grassland it had been built upon.

When he had first arrived a half dozen years ago, this darkness scared Rime, but the colt was perfectly calm now. He had learned the black cloak of night wasn’t anything to be feared. Indeed, now it calmed him even though he couldn’t see as clearly as he would like.

“You’re lucky you’re a night pony,” he told his companion.

“Huh? Why’s that?”

“I can’t see in the dark like that, it’s like a superpower.”

Ebon shot a questioning look with a squint at Rime out of the corner of his eye. “Oh, that’s a superpower? If I walk around in broad daylight my eyes burn like the sun! Or at least like yours do when you stare at it. Besides, I wanna be a Lunar Guard when I grow up anyway, so I’m not really going to get anything out of them for long,” he added.

“Sorry, you’re right, I guess I’ve been considering being a guard too.”

“Really?”

“Well, maybe, I’m not sure yet. Mistress Luna says she’ll support whatever I decide to do, so it’s not like my options are limited. Royal Guard, magic researcher, artist, engineer, janitor, poet,” he said, with a more of a hint of distaste for poet than janitor.

Ebon grumbled. “Seriously wish I had your luck, Floes.”

“Give it time, Eb’. I’m the first pony Mistress Luna’s taught in a century, so maybe once you get your cutie mark she’ll apprentice you, too?” the azure colt suggested.

Ebon did a double take. “Wait, what? Really?”

“Well, maybe; she doesn’t lie, but she makes up for it by being really hard to figure out. I think she’s been dropping hints. Anyway, we’re here.”

The two peeked around a corner into the next hallway to see which guards were on duty.

Illuminated by a hallway of torches and a pair of sun-shaped braziers stood a pair of watchponies. “Noble Knight ‘n Shining Armor. Of course. We definitely have our work cut out for us," the moon’s apprentice observed, to which Ebon quipped “What do you mean, we?”

Solar guards named Shining Armor and Noble Knight were the Equestiran equivalents of a blacksmith named Smith and a tailor named Taylor. They were terribly common in the first place, and especially so in their respective fields.

Unlike Twilight’s older brother a thousand years later, this Shining Armor was a pegasus, and of average size. His eyes, unchanged by the gold-plated plate, were a light bluish-silver. His magically-blued mane was cut short, almost level with his whitewashed coat. His companion, also a pegasus, was naturally gold eyed, and sported a mane with bangs and enough length in the back to reach his shoulders. Both were part of Celestia’s unofficial but still recognized elite group, the Solar Corps, the equivalent of Luna's Zodiac.

“I’m definitely having second thoughts,” Ebon said.

“Hey, you might earn your cutie mark in sneaking.”

“A-pf-ch”, he stammered. “Cheap shot, Rime. Fine, you have an ideas?”

“I might. Would a distraction work if I can kill the lights?”

“Probably, if you can pull it off. Assuming Princess Celestia’s either’s sleeping or isn’t there.”

“Alright, let’s try it.”

Rime stepped into out full view of the two guards and faked an expression of being lost in thought. It wasn’t terribly hard, since he wore it a lot without realizing it. Knight and Shining Armor spotted him right away as he walked over to a torch and cast a freezing spell on it. The fire went out in a second flat. “Darn it. Maybe if I…” he feigned, walking over to the next torch and casting the same spell.

Noble Knight walked toward him as he repeated the process. “Hey Rime, what’re you doing?”

“Casting a spell,” he said. “Dang. I could try...”

“I can see that, what are you trying to do?”

The ice schoolist replied “I’m trying to see if I can freeze a fire,” as he snuffed out a third torch.

Shining Armor turned his full attention to Rime. “I think you’ve proven you can. It looks pretty easy for you.”

Rime continued walking up to and extinguishing the fires one after another as he talked. “No, I don’t mean extinguishing a fire, I mean freezing it,” he lied.

“Wait, what?”

“I mean making the flame turn solid and relatively cold.”

“We know what freezing means,” Knight objected. “You can’t freeze fire, Rime.”

“How do you know?”

“Because it’s FIRE! You can’t freeze it.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s not a material. It’s physically impossible.”

“You just described magic.”

Faced with an impossible, intellectually frustrating, and still valid point, Knight sputtered like the brazier Rime was now dousing and Armor took over. “Okay, look, Rime, I’m not going to pretend I know more about ice or magic than you or the night mare, but could you experiment somewhere else?”

“Yes,” he answered in exact words.

Wise to that foal’s game, Armor asked “And will you?

“Okay, got it,” Ebon said, suddenly appearing next to Rime before he could answer and surprising the guards.

Rime grinned. “Sure! I guess it was a pretty silly-“

“HEY!” a salmon colored pony barked, slamming the bedroom door loudly shut. She had scarlet hair with a pristine white stripe running off-center to her right. The teenage mare wore a frown and a pair of strapped reading glasses, which had been in front of her goldenrod yellow eyes not thirty seconds ago, dangled from her neck. The tips of her ears were missing. “What was your inky butt doing sneaking out of Princess Celestia’s room?!” she demanded.

Ebon spun around, alarmed. “Flicker Light! Wha-how did you- what are you doing here?“

Flicker narrowed her eyes. “I was studying for a test in Princess Celestia’s chamber with a Light of Glory spell, since I had a test tomorrow. What were you doing?"

“I, erm,, funny story really, uh, you see-“

A warm, hearty chuckle rang out hall along with the clinking of heavy plate. “I’d like to hear this story, Ebon,” a deep voice said as its owner stepped around the corner and into view. And just like that Flicker was the only pony in the hallway who wasn’t in trouble. Knight and Armor snapped to attention and gave a salute. “C-Captain Image, sir!” they said simultaneously.

It was like fate had set them up: they had been caught by both Celestia’s apprentice and her highest ranking officer.

Mirror Image was a strongly built unicorn stallion who wore a smile as well as he wore his ornate captain’s armor. He was physically fit and attractive, his features not detracted the X shaped scar that framed the bottom of his ocean blue right eye. Unlike most who weren’t on guard duty, he always carried his longsword and his shield, which was emblazoned with Celestia’s cutie mark. Supposedly he did this to show that he was always on watch, to lead his troops by example. Almost nopony doubted it.

Almost. Ebon Sky just thought he was a little bit paranoid.

"You two hold that salute! I may have words for you,” he ordered amusedly. He turned to Ebon Sky as the guards stiffened like they saw a cockatrice. “Well, Ebon Sky? Were you sneaking out of Princess Celestia’s room?”

“Well I wasn’t really sneaking.”

“Ebon…”

“Yes, Captain Image,” he admitted.

“And how did you get in?” Rime Floes tried to slink away quietly, only to be held back by his tail as Captain Image grabbed it with telekinesis. “Stay right there, Rime,” he said.

“I just walked.”

“When?”

“When Rime snuffed out the second torch.”

Rime shouted “What the heck, Sky?!”

“What? I’m not lying to a guard! Especially not Mirror Image!” the black pony said in self-defense.

The captain glared for a moment before cracking a smile. He tried to stifle a laugh, turning it into a chuckle before giving up, throwing back his head and guffawing loudly. “Haha! So it wasn’t even dark and you just waltzed right through the door without two of my supposedly best stallions, standing right there, noticing a thing?!” he laughed, rustling the colt’s onyx mane. “The Phantom would be proud. Alright, get out of here.”

Flicker Light’s jaw dropped, wiping the smirk she’d had just a moment before off her face. “Wait, what? He snuck into Princess Celestia’s room while she was asleep and you’re just letting him go?!”

“I’m sorry if he interrupted your late-night studies, but tell me: did he steal anything?”

“Well, no.”

“Did he hurt anypony? Damage anything?”

“Well no, but-“

“Then I don’t see the problem.”

“But he was trespassing!”

“And if I toss him in a cell, all that’ll happen is me getting an earful from his mother and the night mare. He wouldn’t spend a day behind bars and Luna would just wipe any criminal record we’d give him,” he explained with a grumble and a roll of the eyes at the thought of the hassle. “I’ll tell you what, you follow the two of them if you want to keep them out of trouble.”

Flicker sighed dejectedly. “I guess,” she said, lighting her horn and reapplying a stimulant spell to keep herself alert and awake for the next four hours. It wasn’t a perfect spell, as it had a tradeoff: a maximum of 3 days of sleeplessness and six hours of nigh-comatose sleep for every four hours of sleep she skipped.

“Good, now run along before they get away,” he urged, looking out the corner of his eye with a smirk as the two colts galloped down the hallway. “Oh, and Ebon!” he called after, causing the pony to skid to a stop. “That was trespassing. Do it again and you’ll spend a day in the dungeon, Captain Nightbloom's son or not. Is that clear?”

Ebon nodded quickly. “Y-yes sir,” he said, scampering after Rime with Flicker hot on his heels.

Within Celestia’s room, the princess of the sun cracked open an eye with a smirk and softly giggled. She didn’t even bother to lift her head from her pillow as, with a quick bit of magic, she opened a window, took the offending leaves from between her mattresses, tossed them out the window, and shut it once more. She then recast her quiet-room spell, causing the walls to shimmer yellow once again.

This was going to be a lot of fun.

Meanwhile, Captain Mirror Image turned to Noble Knight and Shining Armor. “Now, as for these two…”

A flash of brilliant white lit up the stained glass court window, right on schedule, followed swiftly by the clap of thunder and the dull roar of the scheduled summer rain. “Foreboding,” a particularly large stallion commented.

“You always say that, Rhythm,” Princess Luna replied without taking her eyes off of her newspaper. “For the ‘Prince of Courage’, you certainly seem to find a lot of nonsense to fear,” she teased in a bored tone.

She awkwardly flipped a page. More tensions along the border between the Ferros and the Northeast Territory. Not like that said anything that hadn’t been true for four millennia, Luna thought with a roll of her eye, but her scouts had reported that there had been a buildup of military personnel there. It seemed every twenty years or so, Steel tested the waters with a small war, and they were probably due for another invasion.

Still, the defensive force of the land was her sister’s, so typically all she had to do was stop any smaller fronts from forming and cut off movements with pincer maneuvers. It was almost a song and dance at this point. A horrible, bloody, tragic, revolting, and dare she think it, occasionally almost glorious song and dance. She shook her head at the thought. Folding her paper with magic and placing it down, she looked at her guest.

Prince Ritmo Amico Mio the First, usually just called Prince Rhythm, was a dingy yellow alicorn, and the seventh great-grandfather of Princess Cadance. He was positively massive; not including horns, he was equal in height to Princess Luna and a mere two centimeters shorter than Celestia. However, his stocky build made him heavier than either of them.

Simply being an alicorn was extremely rare. Besides Celestia and Luna, there had never been more than one alive at any given time in recorded history, and over half of them were part of the same direct lineage.

He chuckled. “Yeah yeah, Aunt Luna-“

“We are still not related” she inserted, lest he get get too familial.

“… and I’m sure your Element of Honesty prevents you from being tempted to lie.”

The night mare smirked. Most nobles either feared her or payed her no heed, it seemed. This was even true of most of the mortal alicorns before him. Ritmo, however, had managed to establish a rapport with her and her sister.

“I cannot say that it does,” Luna said, “but I am usually more tempted to blurt out blunt truths.”

“Such as?”

She frowned. “I nearly fail to see the point of court,” she said, gesturing to the room. “Most nights it has been as silent as the grave.”

“Then why hold open court? Why not just take requests for meetings?”

Luna shrugged. “One must keep up appearances, Rhythm. The fact that most are asleep is in itself enough to keep most away, so I must make a great effort to be more readily available than my sister, which is utterly exhausting. It is endlessly vexing that such efforts are largely in vain.

I would much rather be painting or teaching or researching; I am not the social butterfly Celestia is, as you know.”

Another blinding flash lit the room. The prince looked over and raised an eyebrow at the princess. Luna was unamused. “It was not me this time!” she defended. Ever since she screwed up an experiment with her pegasus magic 422 years after taking up the throne, small storms formed whenever she got sufficiently frustrated or similarly emotional.

Rhythm put a hoof to his temple, rubbing his three-toned gold-white-azure mane sheepishly. “Sorry, force of habit,” he said as the thunder struck. “It’s easy to forget sometimes that you’re not responsible for every errant lightning bolt.”

“Thank you for your vote of confidence,” Luna said sarcastically. “What brings you here tonight? Surely there are concerns for the Everfree region’s primary representative?”

“Canterlot.”

The word clicked. “Ah, yes, my sister’s pet project,” she recalled. It was a proposed construction of a large city upon the slopes of Heaven’s Peak just to the southeast of Everfree Castle. Celestia and Luna had voted on the issue three times without changing stances, leading to a tiebreaker vote in the Grand Council, which Rhythm was a member of.

The project would bring a great many jobs and, upon completion, become a symbol of Equestrian prosperity. Celestia certainly did like to show off.

Perhaps more importantly, it was further away from the territory of the gryphon kingdom of Ferros, the Kingdom of Steel, which hadn’t been a concern upon its founding. Ferros’ animosity had not been immediately apparent. It had come as a surprise, if not an outright betrayal.

Even then, for many centuries afterward, they had had a strong alliance with the changeling swarm to act as a deterrent. Given that the changelings had been more powerful than any single tribe of ponies alone, doubly so at the time, having Everfree situated on the opposite shore of their lake from the gryphon kingdom made it that much more secure than it otherwise would have been.

However, the changelings had been declining into isolationism and rabid xenophobia for millennia now, and were neither the force nor the friends they had once been. They could no longer be said to be keeping the capital safe. If anything, they were almost akin to parasitic, feral animals and, perhaps, an eventual threat to Everfree.

However, Luna had voted against it. The costs would have been astronomical, though they would have been able to afford it with a multiplicative 10% tax increase. She had usually been the one to deny the nobles’ excessive spending habits, so it would have been hypocritical for her to condone increasing taxes on a glorified vanity project. The plans included rooftops coated in actual precious metals, for pity’s sake.

What was more concerning, however, was the ire it would likely draw from Ferros. Heaven’s Peak was the original center of the Gryphons’ territory, much as Olympus had been the Unicorns’, before the subtle influence of a powerful, malevolent trickster had caused ponies and gryphons to, she could quote, “CHANGE PLACES!”

It was difficult enough in its time to dissuade her own peoples from taking grave offense when Vigil was built atop that peak, and she feared answering in kind would only lead to a war that rendered Steel’s past incursions trivial in comparison.

“What of it?” Luna inquired.

“The council has finished going through the primary legislature,” he said, unfurling a wing and grabbing a sealed scroll out of it. “I figured you’d like to see the final draft before the construction order goes out. Upon completion, as long as it holds up to the proposed standard, we’ll begin the process of changing it into the national capital.”

“I see,” she sighed. “Very well. Thank you, Rhythm, though you could have sent it with messenger’s flame. You did not need to come in person.”

He smiled. “I figured you could use the courtesy of a personal delivery. Besides, night court bores me, I figured you could use some interesting company.”

“Hey!” a mare’s voice objected from the shadows, followed immediately by the thunk of plate striking plate and an “OW!”

“No offense, Ribbon Flyer!” he shot at the hidden guard who was not allowed to speak during court unless necessary. Ribbon Flyer let out a muffled, growling pout.

“I’m sorry, your graces. My sister apologizes for her outburst, don’t you, Ribbon?” a hidden stallion scolded, as Ribbon began repeatedly tossing an object and catching it.

Luna lifted her left wing toward the shadowed stallion. “That is enough, Comet Tail, I think she got the message. Unless you’re vexed by it, Rhythm?”

The prince shook his head. “It’s alright with me as long as it’s alright with Princess Luna, Vice-Captain, she wasn’t interrupting anything important.” He half-frowned at the shadows, one eyebrow raised. “Though I do wish she didn’t play with knives.”

“They’re daggers!” she defensively insisted, then sheepishly added “It’s a nervous habit.”

Luna chuckled. “Put it away, First Lieutenant, you’re scaring our oh-so courageous guest.”

“Ouch, Aunt Luna. Ouch.”

“Fiiiine,” the guardsmare relented, accompanied by the woody rattle of a weapon being sheathed before it clicked into place.

“Now, was there anything else?” Luna asked.

“No, that was all, Princess Luna,” the yellow alicorn said with a bow, which he messed up as another bolt struck nearby, “I shall take my leave.” Luna nodded, and he turned to do just that.

“Very well. Send in the next citizen.”

Comet spoke up. “That was all so far, your grace.”

Luna sighed loudly. “Of course it was. Thank you, Comet Tail,” she groaned, picking up her newspaper once more. And there’s still seventy-seven minutes of this, she thought. It was the same every weeknight. She played it off as boredom, but deep down, she couldn’t help feeling unappreciated.

It would only get worse in the months to come.

A deafening thunderclap slammed into Flicker Light’s ears, causing her to wince as she galloped after the two up the spiral ramp outside Everfree’s tallest tower. The winds were light, fortunately, a sign of a very controlled albeit intense storm courtesy of the Everfree weather team. The city below was dark, hard to see through the pouring rain that battered the roves.

“What are we even doing here? This is crazy!” the young mare yelled over the storm.

“You’re complaining?!” Rime shot back incredulously. “You’re the one with an umbrella spell!”

“That doesn’t stop lightning bolts!”

“Oh come on, when has anypony ever gotten hurt by a little lightning?”

“All the time!”

“Oh come on! Cloud Skipper shocked herself three days ago and she’s just fine!”

“She’s a pegasus!”

“So? It doesn’t hurt Gryphons, either, and they’re not weather-resistant.”

“The reason lightning spells don’t work on them is because their armor makes a Fair Day cage!! Celestia’s sake, Rime!”

“Sheesh! Relax! What are the chances we get struck by lightning? Wild lightning only sort of senses charges within a few tens of meters of the tip. If you’re not high…”

“Care to finish that sentence?”

“I… uh.. not… really,” Rime said, shrinking from the point.

Flicker groaned. Once again Rime was running the three of them headlong into trouble. “Ugh, fantastic,” she groaned. “So why are we sprinting to the most lightning-prone place in Equestria during a thunderstorm?!”

Rime thought about lying for a moment, but came up with an idea. “Because Princess Luna wanted me to mess with Celestia’s water temperature,” he said.

Ebon piped up before Flicker could tell Rime that that was insane. “What? Then why am I here? I can’t cast thermal spells!” he excalimed.

The other colt replied with a question. “I don’t know, why are you here? You followed me on your own, Ebon.”

“And you can’t cast any spells, blank-flank,” Flicker quipped.

That struck a nerve with Ebon Sky. “WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” he yelled in a passing flash of red-hot rage as he gave off a brief pulse of potent magic which didn’t seem to do anything. He gave Flicker a death glare which, she had to admit, was somehow far more intimidating than it should have been.

Rime Floes, however, paid no attention. “Alright! Here we go!” Rime he said, sliding to a halt without losing his footing. The other two slipped a little on the wet staircase, but caught themselves. They had arrived at the entrance to Everfree Water Tower 1’s internal pipelines.

Even at a time when ponies hadn’t harnessed electricity or stable fossil fuels, and magically powered devices were rare and hard to maintain, Everfree still maintained an almost modern system of running water by means of its water towers, and this water tower was the largest in the world. Each tower opened at the top, allowing pegasi to fill them with rainwater. Since the towers were taller than any structure they were connected to, they supplied running water by simple means of gravity. That meant that, in order to function, this tower had to be taller than Everfree Castle itself.

The three now stood before a small but solid stone door. There was a keyhole in the center which the weather team and the maintenance staff could use to access the network of pipes within.

“Dead end?” Ebon asked, his innocent sounding voice belying the daggers he glared at Flicker.

“Not necessarily," Flicker said, looking at the lock. “Solid, but I think it’s a normal pin and tumbler design.”

“I could try making a key out of ice,” Rime suggested.

“I don’t know, I think it might break off in the lock.”

“Guys?”

“Freezing it and shattering it, then?”

“Maybe if it was made of iron, but that’s a solid stone lock, I don’t think anypony’s that good.”

“You guys?”

“Well if you’re here anyway, how about you then? I’m sure Princess Celestia’s taught you a lockpicking spell.”

“I only know one that works simple metal locks, not granite deadbolts. I could try altering the elem-”

“Hey! You two!” the black colt snapped with a raised voice.

“What?!” the apprentices asked simultaneously

Ebon put his hoof to the door and pulled. “Door’s open,” he said, swinging it wide to reveal the shadowy interior.

Flicker and Rime blinked and exchanged awkward looks. “Uh, I knew that,” he sheepishly fibbed.

“Me too,” she said, embarrassed.

Ebon rolled his eyes with a self-satisfied smirk. “I don’t need a cutie mark to out-think you two idiots,” he declared.

“Yeah…” Rime admitted reluctantly.

Flicker whispered to Rime. “He’s never going to let this go.”

“Hey, this one’s on your head,” he whispered back.

“He’s going to be insufferable for the next few days.”

“To you, maybe.”

Ebon strutted forward into the darkness. “It’s a good thing I came along. Even for me it’s dark in here, so you probably couldn’t see your hoof in front…” he paused as the room brightened. He turned around to see Flicker casting small, bright yellow orbs around the room, hovering in midair like fireflies and lighting the room like candlelight.

He let out a disappointed groan to himself. Flicker Light could cast any kind of spell, but she was particularly focused on studying fire and light magic. “… killjoy.”

Rime chuckled. “Well, at least we’ve got three pairs of eyes now,” he said, patting his friend on the back. “Come on, let’s find-“

“If you say ‘cutie mark,’” the night pony warned midsentence.

“… the pipe that goes to Princess Celestia’s room. Luna’s sake, Ebon, chill.”

Ebon sighed. “Right, right, sorry,” he said. The lack of a cutie mark was a sore spot for him at this point. He was all of two years away from breaking the record for oldest pony without a cutie mark in recorded history, and he really, really didn’t want to be in the running for that title. The bottom 2% was bad enough already.

The three spent the next several minutes clambering about the damp recesses of the tower. Unknowledgable of plumbing, the task took hours of crawling around piping and through tight spaces.

Flicker got stuck several times, only to teleport back and immediately check that neither of the boys had seen her screwing up. The door had been quite enough embarrassment for one day.

She expected nothing short of perfection from herself, let alone from her image, which she was adamant remained untarnished. She was the student of Princess Celestia, after all. The last pony to hold this honor was Archmage Aura Shine, the head of the Guild of Magi and most renowned mortal magician on the planet.

It was a big expectation to live up to. She had only let the princess down once, and she was determined never to make such a terrible mistake again.

Eventually Ebon called out. “Found it!” he said as the other two made their way over to him.

Rime’s looked up, accidentally banging his head on a pipe. “Ow! What? Are you sure?” he asked as he rubbed the lump above his horn.

“Yeah! I found some cloth tied around this one, pink green blue white, and sometimes the maintenance crew color codes stuff so they can figure it out. What else could those colors be?”

“Great work, Ebon!” Rime said, running up to his left while Flicker arrived on the right. It was fortunate that Flicker had arrived then as well, though if he guessed wrong… well, Princess Luna wouldn’t ditch him for messing this up, right? “Alright, well, maybe this’ll work,” he said, lighting his horn. As they watched, a centimeter-thick ring of ice coalesced around the narrow pipe. Mist fell visibly from the chilled ring, indicating just how cold it was. “Alright, there! Let’sgoEbon,” he said hurriedly, grabbing him and scooting quickly toward the exit.

“Wait, what did you do?!” Flicker called after him.

“Delayed action endothermic spell! Should reduce the temperature to just above freezing next time the water turns on!” That was a bold-faced lie, but he didn’t know how to go about casting something as complicated as that. It might even be impossible, he wasn’t sure, but regardless, that wasn’t the point.

It only took about ten seconds for Flicker to catch up. The three now stood in the doorway, rainwater trickling in through the door. Flicker looked down. “Uh, was the water tower always this high?” she asked with a nervous undertone.

“What, don’t tell me you’re afraid of heights?” Ebon commented.

“Well excuse me if I’m not a pegasus!” she snapped. “How are we supposed to get down from here?”

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Rime commented. “It’s not that high up.”

“You don’t get to talk. Your parents are pegasi,” she grumbled. If she had a problem with fear of heights, as far as she was concerned he had a particular problem with taking them too lightly. However, even as she said it she knew the type of his parents wasn’t directly the crux of the issue. The issue was the decision they made.

Pegasi who had earth pony or unicorn foals had an expensive choice to make. If they wanted to keep their children, as most did, they either had to move to the ground, which could be very expensive indeed, or take the option of getting Thunderforged shoes crafted for them.

Thunderforged metal was unique in that, like a changeling’s hooves, it could rest on a cloud but could not interact with it. Over the course of a foal growing up, this would be much more expensive than a typical house, but for some living in cloud cities and neighborhoods it was worth it.

Rime’s parents were dependent on living in the cloud district of Fort Laughterdale, so they opted to buy the Thunderforged shoes. Of course, that was hardly his fault.

“That’s not what I meant!” Rime said. “We could walk down-“

“Too slippery, it was hard enough on the way up.”

“- or you could teleport us down.“

“I can’t even see the ground!”

“I can,” Ebon added.

“Not helping, inkblot.”

“Then cast a light spell to look,” Rime suggested.

“I can’t cast a lingering spell that long a range.”

“A fire spell?”

“It’s pouring rain, you idiot!”

“Fine! You know the glimmerwing spell, right?!”

“Okay, there’s a whole lot of problems with that idea. A, I don’t like it-“

“Because of the heights thing?” Rime joked, immediately ducking a light smack aimed upside his head.

“B,” Flicker continued, ignoring Rime’s smirk, “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to mix a spell that exhausting with a spell that forces me awake, it could have really bad side effects. C, I can’t carry anypony with it, and D, most importantly, they don’t work when they’re wet.”

Rime considered a few options. They could wait until it stopped raining, but that wouldn’t be for several hours, and he was expected at breakfast. Or supper in his case. They could have Flicker try to signal a pegasus down, but that’d take time and might not even work with the downpour reducing visibility. However, he did have an idea, and said as much with a mischievous grin.

He breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly, a small cloud of water vapor emerging from his mouth. Closing his eyes, he listened to the rain falling around. Opening his eyes slowly, he lit his horn, turning the rivulets of water trickling around him solid and turning the raindrops into small hailstones, which hovered in midair like morning dew covering the grass on freezing autumn day. He turned his eyes to the ledge of the staircase and out toward the courtyard. The ice flowed together like liquid water, converging rapidly onto the ledge and forming a ramp which quickly spread out to the castle grounds below.

The ice pony turned to the others, grinning ear to ear. “Well? What do you think?” he asked with giddy anticipation.

Flicker Light and Ebon Sky exchanged glances for a moment before they replied.

Ebon replied simply. “No.”

“Heck no,” Flicker agreed.

“Oh come on, don’t tell me you scardie-fillies are afraid to go down a slide,” Rime said.

“A slide? No. That is not a slide. THAT is a luge,” she said.

“You want wait here to explain to Princess Celestia why you missed breakfast or walk down with stray lightning bolts?”

Flicker groaned. He had a point. She hated it when he had a point. “Oh, alright,” she said hesitantly. She walked over to the frozen ramp, looking down its slope, and Ebon joined her.

The ice seemed to disappear into the darkness. She couldn’t even see the end. “I’m having second thoughts,” she whimpered. “I can’t even see the bottom!”

Ebon, however, could. That’s not what unnerved him. “I don’t think the bottom’s the problEEEEMM!” Ebon answered as he and flicker were unceremoniously shoved onto the ice.

“Involuntary luge,” Rime giggled as he gleefully flung himself down after them.

Rime Floes, Ebon Sky, and Flicker Light rocketed down the slippery ice, all shouting loudly: Rime in excited delight, and Ebon and Flicker in surprise and terror respectively. Much to the mare’s horror, she soon saw the problem Ebon had: she had been more accurate than she thought when she had called it a luge. She and the boys went against curves, held to the sides of the slope by centrifugal force. The slide twisted and turned regularly, zig-zagging its way over to the main gate of the castle, until finally coming to a stop in the grass of the castle courtyard. Just before hitting the grass, a smooth sheet of ice formed over it.

The two slid forward quickly, hooves flailing about trying to find purchase as the slid toward the marble pathway. In their efforts to get under control, they collided with each other, tumbling end over end and finally coming to a stop and landing in a painful heap. Rime slid gracefully past them, adding a spin on his front-left hoof for the fun of it. “Honestly, don’t you two know how to skate?” he teased.

Flicker scowled, glancing at Ebon Sky out of the corner of her eye. “How long before one of us kills him again?” she complained.

He looked back at her out of the corner of his own eye and replied. “Ten years, twelve tops. Assuming he doesn’t kill us first.”

Flicker growled as she hopped back on her hooves. “You are absolutely insane!” she shouted at the pony with the snowflake cutie mark, her heart pounding in her chest. “I thought I was going to die. Why in the name of Celestia did you add those turns?!”

Rime raised an eyebrow. “I had to slow us down somehow. It was either that or a loop or a jump. Come to think of it, that actually that might be a lot of fun…”

Ebon groaned. “For crying out loud, it’s supposed to be the fire users who act out and the ice unicorns who’re reserved. You two dunderheads have this completely backwards.” he said, shaking the water out of his mane.

“Hahaha! That’s what you get for reading all those fairy tales,” Rime laughed. “Well, let’s go, that’s all Princess Luna wanted me to do.”

“Oh for Luna’s… yeah, fine, let’s just get out of this rain, I’m soaked,” Ebon said.

Princess Luna flew in place high above the storm. “Hrm,” she sounded to herself as she gazed out at the horizon, which was lightening before the moon had set. Tia is getting carried away with the twilight again, she thought. Celestia had always been proud of her sunrise and sunset, and rightly so. The way she could color the firmament of day was simply breathtaking, but every so often she would slip up and start turning the eastern night sky a dark violet. With a shrug as she gently tucked her charge in for the day.

A moment later, the sky grew bright as the sun hopped above the skyline. With a nod, Luna dove down, letting gravity pull her. She met resistance at the cloud’s surface punching a hole through it, enjoying the splash of rain as she streaked toward the royal balcony, where Celestia waited with an arcane umbrella.

Celestia giggled as her sister landed. She teased, “You know you can lower the moon without seeing it, Lulu.”

“Yes, sister, but the last time I missed a star you burned poor Alhena,” Luna replied with a smile.

Celestia grumbled. She looked over her shoulder for anypony listening. “That was fourteen thousand years ago, Luna,” she hissed in a whisper. “I think your track record is good enough.”

The blue pony smirked. “Yours could use some work, though. You were illuminating my night sky again.”

Celestia unfurled her wings and lightly blushed in embarrassment. “I-I just thought it could use a little color.”

Luna was unamused. “It’s raining, Tia, nopony without wings could see it. You know how I feel about fibbing,” Luna said, tapping her hoof expectantly.

“Oh fine,” the elder sister huffed. “I thought a stormy December night with a waning crescent moon was dark enough that the ponies could use some extra light. There aren’t many night ponies out there after all.”

The younger stared sternly at the elder, then groaned and hung her head, depressed. “Oh don’t remind me,” she moaned. “The last census we ran showed my Equestrian subjects have become so scarce that I’ve actually memorized the names of all of them.”

“Luna, everypony in Equestria is your subject except me,” Celestia reminded before she realized that meant Luna had memorized over three thousand names.

Luna rolled her eyes. “I wish they would act like it… and I was speaking about the night, not Equestria specifically. The day ponies seem afraid of it for the most part.”

Celestia smiled gently, putting a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “I’m sure things will get better. They always do in the end,” she comforted.

“Thanks, Tia.”

“Besides,” she added, “I can’t help it if everypony likes the day better, it’s just good taste!”

“Celestia…”

“Just teasing! Mostly. Come, we’re due for breakfast,” she said, walking inside. “And make sure to dry yourself off!”

Luna scoffed, following the larger pony indoors. “What are you, my mother?” she griped, casting a spell and throwing the water outside in a stream. “How many times do I have to say that six and a half years is negligible at our age?”

Celestia laughed. “Whatever you say, little sister.”

“I’m telling you, it’s good, Flicker,” Rime said, taking a large bite of his brie and jelly on rye toast.

Flicker held back a retch. “Blech! No thanks! You enjoy your freaky food as usual, it still looks disgusting.”

“Usually. It’s not bad sometimes. 20-80 I think,” Ebon said.

The moon’s apprentice shrugged. “Suit yourselves,” he said, tossing the last of the sandwich into his mouth.

“We will, pink-eye,” Flicker said, sticking her tongue out in disgust.

Rime swallowed hard. “They’re not pink!” he chirped defensively. “They’re strawberry red!”

“They’re pink.”

“They are pink, Rime Floes,” Ebon agreed.

“See? Even Ebon agrees you’re an albino.”

“I’m not an albino, I’m BLUE!” Rime argued.

“Your hair is blue. You’re white,” Flicker declared.

“That still means I’m not albino, and I’m telling you I’m blue!”

“He’s light blue anyway, Flicker.”

“Oh please! He’s no bluer than an egg,” Flicker insisted, not seeing the royal sisters enter the dining room behind her.

“A robin’s egg, I think,” Celestia said, startling her student as the room bowed before her in greeting. “What do you think, sister? You’re the artist.”

“Pale cyan,” Luna replied. “No yellow, magenta or black, and approximately one part cyan to four parts white, varying with lighting and texture. At least that’s how I paint him.”

Rime looked at his teacher. “You’ve painted me?” he asked.

“Of course I have, you’re my precious apprentice,” Luna said with a smile. “I’ve made a few paintings of you; some alone, some with other ponies, one how you might look in a few years.”

“But I’ve never stood for a portrait.”

She chuckled. “It’s not ideal, but if you’ve painted as long as I have, you don’t need to have somepony in front of you to capture their likeness, at least not if you know them well,” she said “Though that much practice might just mean you’re never satisfied with your own work so you’re reluctant to show anypony. I guess I’ll have to make an exception if you’d like to see one.”

Rime gazed awestruck up at the dark alicorn for a moment. “Uh-huh!” he chirped, giving a short nod and a wide grin.

Luna smiled. “Very well then,” she said as she walked to her end of the table. “This should be an interesting supper,” she announced, smirking with a glance at her sister out of the corner of her eye.

“Oh, certainly,” Celestia agreed, taking her seat at the closer end. “I’m told the summer harvest isn’t as high as it usually is, and the winters have been harsh this decade.”

Luna rolled her eyes as she took her seat at the far end. “If this is yet another attempt to convince me to extend the full moon, spare me. We have heard this every generation for our entire reign. The only exception I can think of was not pleasant,” she said. “Do you recall-?”

“’-What it was like when we were fillies,’ yes yes. That was a different climate, still has no bearing on the here and now..”

“Different climate or not, it is stable. I am not about to spend another thousand years cleaning up an ecological horror show with you just to attempt improve our already massive bumper crop.”

“It’s not like I’m asking for gumball hail,” Celestia reasoned.

Luna shuddered at the memory. “No, but you are asking me to defy the nature of my night. I cannot force the moon and stars to do as I please.”

“Cannot, or will not?” Celestia inquired sincerely.

“I will not. My harvest moon alone asks more of it than I am comfortable with,” she declared. While she sounded very calm and matter-of-fact to the guests at the table, those who knew her better could tell the very idea offended her.

A stallion cleared his throat next the dark princess, who turned around to see her butler with a tray in his left hoof. “Speak of the wolf and he howls at the moon,” she remarked with a smirk.

Olive Pit flashed her an annoyed look. He replied “You would know better than I, Luna. At any rate, the tea is ready,” as he pulled a teapot from the tray with his teeth and poured her a cup. Like most non-unicorn ponies, he had no problems speaking while doing so.

Rime watched anxiously as he rounded the table to Princess Celestia’s end. It was tradition that, while the food was placed for their arrival, the princesses were served first; a sign of respect to royalty. Doubtlessly his mistress had anticipated this when she had arranged this prank.

“Good morning, Oliver,” Princess Celestia greeted with a warm smile. “So, what do you think about extending the full moon?”

Olive Pit closed his eyes and shrugged before he started pouring her her tea. “I wouldn’t pretend to understand the consequences, your radiance, but I have learned a bit about artistry in my years. If I let every chef make whatever changes they wanted to a dish being prepared, it would be late to arrive and quite… unpalatable,” he said, pulling the kettle back up to the silver tray. “Too many chefs spoil the broth, and the same could be said for any masterpiece.

I may be biased, but the night sky? That is the greatest masterpiece of all. I would be hesitant to make changes the artist finds unwelcome.”

Celestia sighed in defeat. “Oh very well, I can see when I’ve lost an argument. We all have our accomplishments,” she said. With her golden magic she lifted her teacup to her lips.

Rime held his breath, staring at Princess Celestia as she audibly sipped on the teacup. What would happen? Would her mane’s proverbial wind whip into a frenzy? Would her massive size become titanic? Would she get the hiccups or set the castle on fire?

More importantly, just what would she do in retaliation? He’d gotten away without getting covered in leeches last time the princesses had gotten into a prank war, but this time he might be directly in her sights. Celestia was the superior prankster after all, though his partisanship would never let him admit it.

Princess Celestia let out a satisfied “Aah,” and set down the teacup. Her eyes turned upon Rime, looking at him knowingly and sending shivers down his spine. Any hope he’d had of keeping a straight face went out the window faster than a pegasus late for work. What came next left him stunned.

“And congratulations on your accomplishment, Rime. That’s two of the little tasks my sister had for you successfully completed, and now we’re just waiting for” she said as Cereus flew out of the wall behind her. “Ah! Cereus! Was the water ice cold?”

The Lunar captain chuckled and landed next to the princess. “Scalding hot, actually.”

“WHAT?!” Flicker yelped. She dropped her fork on her plate with a clatter as she realized her folly.

Rime sat still, wide-eyed and mouth agape. She knew? How did she know?!

The alabaster demigoddess went into a fit of giggles. “Oh my!” she sniggered. Luna had always had a way of influencing ponies to do what she wanted without telling them, and apparently Rime had learned this habit from her. “I’m sorry, Flicker, I think Rime tricked you. You can’t heat water with ice magic,” she said.

Rime found part of his voice. “Well, actually…“ he whispered, unnoticed by Celestia who continued speaking.

“It’s a little unorthodox, mind you. Does he pass your little test, Luna?”

Luna smiled and nodded. “Indeed he does.”

Rime shook his head. “I’m sorry, mistress, but… I didn’t actually do any of it. I just got other ponies to do it for me.”

The dark mare gave him a knowing look. “I’m aware, but that’s part of the lesson. Everypony has things they can and cannot do. You looked to get help from the grown-ups for the tea- I’m a bit impressed you got the dosage right, Oliver,”

“Of course, madame,” he replied.

“You let Ebon use his stealth to sneak past Celestia’s guards unnoticed, providing a diversion yourself before Captain Image even could. Flicker lit up the darkness in the water tower, and you created a quick way down from the tower. Everypony had something they alone could do, Rime, yourself included.

Nopony can do everything, Rime. Not you, not Flicker, not even my sister or me. What we do have is each other to rely on, to make up for the things we can’t do ourselves, and find a strength that surpasses the sum of our whole. That synergy, those bonds we share, that is more powerful than any magic we know. Do you understand?”

Rime thought for a moment. “I… think so,” he said. Flicker stared down at her plate, hoof on her chn, lost in contemplation.

“Speaking of bonding,” an amused Celestia said quietly.

“What, sister?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Cereus walked over to Ebon. “Finish eating and get your butt to your music lesson, Ebon, you’re late,” she told him.

Ebon sighed. He didn’t mind the music lessons, but he knew by now that his talent had nothing to do with music. “Sorry, mom,” he said, quickly eating a biscuit and walking away. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Rime.”

The rest of the meal went as normal. The nobles, as ever, rubbed elbows with Celestia and left Luna much to her own devices, speaking with the staff about the night’s events. At 7:00 on the dot the storm cleared up, and not long after the breakfast began wrapping up.

Celestia was the first princess to dismiss herself. She stood and thanked the staff, adding “I must be going. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

Luna made to stand, but suddenly her eyes widened as she put her front hooves on the table. “You DIDN’T.”

The elder sibling merely smiled. “I didn’t what, dear sister?” she asked, poorly feigning innocence.

“I gave you full warning!” the younger growled.

Celestia smirked. “Don’t blame me for your sticky situation. I let Rime Floes off the hook for you, but you still started this.” The others in the room turned deathly quiet in an instant.

“I cannot believe you! You insolent-”

“Good day, Luna,” she said, teleporting away in a flash and leaving her sister fuming.

Oliver walked up to the livid Luna. “The glue remover, madame?”

She nodded. “You do realize what this means.”

“War, madame?”

“War, Oliver,” she said, terrifying every pony in the room with the exception of the butler.

“Shall I fetch the buckets as well?”

“Please do.”

Princess Luna hovered in the hallway outside her sister’s bedroom, pouring the contents of a bucket in a hole she had made in the wall. The solar guards nearby looked at her out of the corners of their eyes, but dared not interfere lest they find themselves caught in the crossfire between two irritated demigoddesses.

She finished emptying the first bucket, but as she reached for the second a shout caught her ears. “Princess!” it cried.

A solar guard flew around the corner, banking just short of colliding with the wall. “Princess Luna, it’s… what are you doing?”

“Emptying a few buckets of spiders into the crawlspace around Celestia’s bedchamber. They should be coming out of the cracks for weeks.”

The pegasus flew back a bit, horrified, but shook her head to focus. “It’s war, your highness.”

Luna rolled her eyes. “Obviously. Don’t worry, they’re magic constructs, they’ll disappear in a month.”

“No, you don’t understand, I mean it’s war,” she said. The royal turned around, realizing what she meant. “The gryphon kingdom has invaded Stalliongrad.”

Remnant

by preaplanes

Chapter 1: Separation

Chapter 2: Alone

Chapter 3: Aloof

Chapter 4: Worthless

Chapter 5: Exposed

Chapter 6: Captured

Chapter 7: Confrontation

Chapter 8: Acceptance

Chapter 9: Guilt

Chapter 10: Stirring

Chapter 11: Information

Chapter 12: Halcyon