February 1503: Strains threaten to tear apart Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. They have loved each other since they were fillies -- but might they be incompatible? And what of Fluttershy's own dark secret, the one she's never been able to reveal?
February 1503: Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy have loved one another since they were fillies, and in the last few years, they have consummated their love. They want to remain together forever.
Yet incompatibilities are starting to appear between them. And Fluttershy has a major secret she has never quite managed to tell Rainbow Dash. After years she hopes that she may never have to tell her.
Unknown to Fluttershy, a dark Queen is rising in the south, and massing her forces against Equestria. And the time in which Fluttershy may still voluntarily reveal her secret is fast running out ...
Deep in the Badlands is a hill crowned by a ring of age-worn menhirs, raised millennia before the sky flared and the world shook and the seas slopped across the lands. Some of the menhirs have fallen down in the intervening ages. They have been carefully replaced.
Leering down on it is a mesa, its face riddled by cavern mouths, like that of a maggot-eaten corpse. Of course no maggots ate out those cavities. Maggots cannot tunnel through solid rock, an act perfectly within the capabilities of the members of the Tunneller subcaste of the Worker caste of the beings who actually dug them.
High above, a condor lazily circles. It is a huge example of its species, huge enough to glide on its vast wings without need of any telekinetic flight field, such as might have drawn the attention of Pony observers. Its body mass is equivalent to that of a small Pony, and it is high enough to see the ground for many miles around.
It orbits high and with very little expenditure of energy. It is just in sight range, interestingly enough, of three other condors, similarly orbiting at three points of a triangle many miles from center to each vertex, in such a way as to create an enormous, roughly-triangular zone in which nopony and nothing can move without being noticed. Its eyes systematically sweep the territory which it could see but its fellows could not, and checked to make sure that the other three condors in view were still present.
This is an odd behavioral pattern for condors, though it was one which would not have been easily noticed by Ponies, if there were any Ponies of the Three Kinds at liberty anywhere within dozens of miles of the mesa. Which there are not.
Not of the Three Kinds -- and not at liberty.
1. Dashie's Embarrassing Question
"Say, Applejack -- do you mind if I ask you a sort of embarrassing question?" asked Rainbow Dash.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were out together in the snow-covered Southeastern Fields, one of the more dangerous parts of Sweet Apple Acres, as it bordered directly on the Everfree. The Apples had erected obstacles to "what might come out of the Everfree," of course: stone walls, the oldest of them built by Dawnflower Apple and Pokey Oaks a century ago, progressively reinforced and maintained by generations of Apples down to Big Mac and Applejack. None of them would really stop a determined monster; they could be climbed, leaped or gone around, and something like a Great Wyrm could simply shove them down with its vast strength.
But such actions would leave tracks, marks which experienced Apple eyes might read, and give them warning of the monster's presence. Thus, it was a good idea to patrol the walls regularly, to ensure that no creatures wandered north to menace the farm, let alone the town lying beyond. This was a routine chore for the Apples, just one of the duties involved in protecting Ponyville. But it was always safer and less boring with a partner, and Applejack was glad of Rainbow Dash's company.
Applejack had to fulfill her responsibilities, in any case. As with all her responsibilities, Applejack took this one very seriously.
As she also did her responsibilities toward her friends.
So, though her every instinct warned her that anything Rainbow Dash considered "a sort of embarrassing question" would likely be either very embarrassing or very strange -- really, of all her best friends, only if it had been Pinkie Pie might this have been a worse sign -- Applejack simply shivered once, looked away for a moment to render her facial expression unreadable, softly sighed to herself, then turned back to her friend, smiled and said "Sure, Sugarcube, you can always ask me any sort of question."
This was not a lie. Dashie was one of her closest friends in all the world, and Applejack would have suffered far worse than an embarrassing question for the sake of such a friend.
"Are you sure?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I mean, it's really embarrassing ..."
Dashie might have said more, had not Applejack lifted one snow-flecked, cold and moist fore-hoof and gently touched it to Dashie's muzzle.
"Ah'm sure," Applejack said. "Ask away."
Rainbow Dash fixed her with her her cerise eyes. Those eyes were beautiful, and as far as Applejack was concerned, effectively guileless. Dashie would very occasionally attempt to lie, but even before Jackie had become Honesty, let alone had gazed too long into the Pool of Truth and activated her deeper connection with her Element, Dashie had never been able to directly and successfully lie to her. The fact was that Rainbow Dash was, despite any of her delusions to the contrary, a very honest Pony.
Which was one of the many reasons why Applejack deeply loved her hot-tempered friend.
Dashie gulped, gathered her courage, then blurted out:
"What do you do when somepony wants to do it with you -- all the time?"
Well, Dashie had warned her.
"Wal," Applejack said slowly, turning the question over and over in her mind, "Ah cain't rightly say that Ah've ever been in that precise situation mahself. Only Pony Ah've ever been with that way was 'Scape, and we each pretty much wanted to make love about the same as did the other. Not much quarrel there. Ah mean, he was a stallion, so before we Intended, he sometimes wanted to go a bit further than Ah was comfortable with at the moment, but he was pretty good at letting me set the pace." Applejack's ears drooped. "Then, he was gone -- wish Ah knew if he were dead or alive -- Ah'm sorry, Dashie, Ah'm supposed to be helping you with yore problem, not frettin' over mine."
"S'okay, AJ," said Rainbow Dash. "He was a good stallion." The Pegasus had known Landscape Carrot for a year, the last year that he had lived in Ponyville, before he wandered off, two years before Luna's return, to seek a fortune to lay before his beloved -- and vanished from the ken of Ponykind, five years ago. They had been casual friends, mostly because Dashie had become Jackie's friend.
"That he was," Applejack agreed in a heartfelt tone. She thought a moment. "Now, Ah reckon that you're talking about somepony who is already yore sweetheart, right?"
Rainbow Dash nodded.
"So, you're talking, specific-like, about Fluttershy?" Applejack asked.
Rainbow Dash nodded again.
Applejack stroked her own chin, considering this new information. It shocked her less than she might have thought it would: she'd long known that Dashie and 'Shy were lovers, and certain signs in their observed public conduct together had made her already aware that Fluttershy was probably more passionate than was Rainbow Dash. She hadn't realized the difference between them was sufficient to be a problem, though.
"Ah guess still waters really do run deep," AJ mused aloud.
"Yeah," said Rainbow Dash. "And warm. Hot, really, when she really opens up to somepony. And wet! I mean, even when she's off-Cycle ..."
AJ gently touched Dashie's muzzle again. "Ah think Ah get the picture," she said. She thought a moment. "So, sometimes she wants you to make love to her and you're just not in the mood?"
"Well," said Rainbow Dash, drawing herself up proudly, "it's not as if I'm not the most amazing lover in the history of the world and ..."
"All right." said Applejack. "What does she say when you tell her that?"
"Well," said Dashie, squirming, "it's not like I actually tell her that.
"Wal, then," said Applejack, patiently, "what do you tell her?"
"Um ..." Dashie said, looking away sheepishly. "I mostly just say that I have to do something else, or that I've got a muscle strain or a headache or something -- that was actually true that time I crashed through that tree headfirst -- stuff like that."
"Rainbow Dash," Applejack said, fixing her friend with a stern expression, "Are you saying that you lie to yore lover?"
Dashie hung her head in shame. "Maybe?" she said. "A little bit?"
"Dashie ... you know why you shouldn't do that," Applejack said, softly. "Lies pizen everything, 'specially between best friends -- or lovers. And 'Shy is both to you."
"I know," said Rainbow Dash, her voice starting to break a little. "I just ... I didn't want to admit to her that I'm not as much into sex as she is. I never really have been -- you prolly think of me as some sort of great seductive sex machine ..."
Applejack choked down a snort-laugh, her muzzle and mouth wrinkling with the effort. Fortunately, Dashie was paying no attention to Jackie's expression at this moment.
"... but I'm actually not," continued Rainbow Dash. "The truth is I never saw much point to doing anything mushy with anypony other than Fluttershy. I never more than kissed anypony else, and not very often. I just ... talked like I did ... cause I didn't want anypony to think I was lame. I'm not as experienced as you might think. Don't know if you'd noticed."
"Mebbe a bit," answered Applejack. "But Ah never thought you were lame. Not even a mite."
"Oh," said Rainbow Dash, smiling. "Um -- thank you."
"But, Dashie --" Applejack's expression was very serious now. "You have to play it straight with Fluttershy. You're in love with each other. How do you think she feels when you make excuses for not wanting to make love to her?"
"Hmm ..." thought Rainbow Dash. She frowned. "Pretty bad, I'd guess." A look of realization dawned on her blue face. Oh, horseapples! I've been making her think that I'm falling out of love with her, haven't' I! Crap! I've been really terrible to her!" Her face fell. "I"m a rotten lover!"
"Not that terrible," Applejack said reassuringly. "It's jest a misunderstanding, something you and her can work out between yoreselves. You can be a bit more affectionate. And she can be a bit less demanding. Compromise. It's worth it, ain't it, to keep what you have with her?"
"Of course it is!" said Rainbow Dash. "Gee, AJ, thanks for talking to me about this mushy stuff. I know you're probably not comfortable with it, but you're a true friend. And you're really wise about things like this!"
"Light an' Life," laughed Applejack. "Ah'm shore no love expert -- all Ah really know is how things worked between 'Scape an' me, an' what Ah've seen watching others. But Ah am yore true friend, Dashie, and Ah know that love's a lot like true friendship. Lies never make things better between friends. Honesty's always the best policy. You just need to start telling Fluttershy the truth about how you feel. Ah'm shore she'll understand. She loves you powerful, you know that."
"I know ..." said Rainbow Dash huskily. "I'm ... I really care about her too. That's why it's hard sometimes, to admit that I'm not ... agh, I'm no good with talking about this sort of thing. But I'll try!" she said. "I just gotta stop being such a wimp about this. I don't want 'Shy to stop loving me."
"Why would you think Fluttershy would stop lovin' you?" Applejack asked. "Whole time Ah've knowed you, 'Shy's always wanted yore company. Yore the best friend she's ever had. Only other one comes close is Rarity, and Rares ain't into mares the way you are. You got no real competition."
"I know," said Rainbow Dash. "Maybe that's the problem." She scratched her neck.
Applejack lifted an inquiring eyebrow.
"Nopony's really at her best without competition," Dashie explained. "'Shy and me have been friends ever since I started protecting her when she was just a little filly back in Cloudsdale. We were both little fillies together. Long before I ... well, wanted anyting mushy with her, I had a sort of idea about her ..." Dashie blushed slightly "You're gonna think this is stupid ..."
"Oh, Ah don't know about that," said Applejack, smiling encouraging at her friend. "Try me."
"Okay," said Dashie. "But you gotta never tell anypony about this!"
"Secret's safe with me, sugarcube," Applejack reassured her.
"All right," said Rainbow Dash. "See, when 'Shy and me were fillies, we used to play a kind of game. A pretend game. And 'Shy would be --" she blushed again "-- a High Lady. You know, like from before the Unification, when the Clans all had their own armies and fougt wars with each other and stuff like that. And I'd be, um, her sworn Bannermare. Not just one of her Clan's warriors, but one of her trusted warriors, pledged to serve her above all others, unto death." She blushed more deeply. "Sheesh, I can't belive I'm telling you this. You must think I'm, like, terminally soft."
Applejack regarded her friend warmly. "You're not soft, Dashie, 'cept where it's right to be soft. Yore good, an' kind, an' lovin'. There ain't nothin' wrong with that. Nothin' a'tall."
"Yeah," said Rainbow Dash uncomfortably. "Just don't let it get around." She licked her lips. "Thing is, in the game I was supposed to serve her, whatever she wanted me to do. And -- as I got older -- I understood more about the old sagas. Like, that sometimes the High Born and their Banner-Ponies were, um, really in love. You know."
"Ah have a good idea," replied Applejack drily.
"Some of those old Clan leaders really got around!" Dashie confided, her eyes huge. "I mean, they'd have more than one spouse, and concubines, and a dozen or more lovers on top of that!"
"Ah wonder how they kept it all straight," said Applejack.
"Sometimes they didn't," admitted Rainbow Dash. "Some of the wars started that way. There'd be secret seductions and spouse-stealing and slave-raids and duels and battles and tragic deaths. It was way cool!" she said enthusiastically. "Well, probably more fun to sing about than to live through. If you know what I mean."
"Ah reckon Ah do," said Applejack, smiling slightly.
"Well, it's just that it was when I heard those old stories that I first started thinking mushy thoughts, and then some spicy thoughts, you know? About, well, Fluttershy. I started thinking that maybe if I were her Bannermare and she was my Lady, she might want me to -- you know?"
"Ah get it, Dashie."
"No, see -- it's that if she wants me to serve her that way, then I should be able, you know? To do what she wants! And If I can't, I'm letting her down!" Her ears drooped in shame. "I'm -- not good enough. Maybe she deserves better."
"Dashie," Applejack said gently, "you're more than 'good enough.' 'Shy's a darn good Pony, but so are you. Why are you putting yourself dwn like this? You'd never do this regardin' anypony else."
"I don't know," said Rainbow Dash. "I've always felt that 'Shy was sort of above me -- sweet, gentle, noble -- almost like an Alicorn. She sort of looks like one when the sunlight catches her right -- ever notice that?"
"Not really," Applejack admitted. "Though Ah will say she's a purty mare. Cain't deny that."
"Huh," said Rainbow Dash. "Maybe I'm just more inclined to see it. Thing is, I've always felt 'Shy was gonna grow into something -- something really special and awesome. Don't know what she'll be, or how I know she's becoming someting else -- I just know it." Her eyes were shining with belief. Then, her expression returned to normal. "And ... you think I"m nuts."
"Ah think you have a really high opinion of her," Applejack said. "Which is fine, seein' as you're in love with her. But Ah'm afraid yore buildin' her up too high, higher'n anypony could ever really be. Ah mean -- Ah loved 'Scape, Ah still love 'Scape, but Ah never thought he was some sort of saint, or god. He was jest a real good stallion, if 'n you see what Ah mean?"
"I do," Rainbow Dash said. "But it doesn't cange my opinion. 'Shy's special." Her expression was almost belligerent.
"Sure she is, sugarcube," Applejack. "She's special to you. And in another way, to all her friends, me included. Ah'm just worried that mebbe the reason yore having trouble tellin' her that she's more into makin' love than you is cause yore puttin' her on too high a pedestal, too far above you. When, really, youre just both together, both just tryin' to make yore love work." She paused, mustering her thoughts.
"An -- Dashie? One way Ah agree Fluttershy's special is that she's 'specially sweet an' kind an' nice an' understandin'. You need to talk things over with her. Ah don't think she'll get all mad at you, if'n you explained to her that you love her but yore just not as much into makin' love. Jest talk to her. That's what Ah'm sayin'."
Rainbow Dash thought about it. "Maybe you're right, AJ," she finally said. "At least that I should talk to 'Shy about this. I still think she's special."
"Ah think she's special too," said Applejack. "That's why Ah think you should make the effort to talk to her. She's worth a lot o'effort, isn't she?"
"Yeah," said Rainbow Dash. "She is." Rainbow Dash paused, screwed up her face. "AJ?" she asked.
"Yes, sugarcube?"
"Thank you for putting up with me getting all mushy. And stupid. And listening to me. And giving me good advice." Dashie just sort of stopped, clearly unsure of what to say next.
"Yore welcome," Applejack replied. "Any time for a good friend like you."
Dasie ducked her head, but she was smiling. "I sure hope that we find some creature from the Everfree," she commented. "I really need to fly fast and hit something, to make up for all this mush!"
Applejack laughed good-naturedly, and the two friends continued on their patrol, their hooves crunching in the February snows.
The Pegasus courses through the skies over the Badlands, making for the territory patroled by the condors. She is a very large smoky-gray Pegasus with long grayish-white hair and blue eyes. At close quarters, she would be quite recognizable to many Ponies scattered rather widely across Equestria -- her special friends in many towns where her business takes her. They would not be surprised to see her anywhere -- her business takes her to some very strange places, sometimes.
Nor would they be surprised to see her flying high and fast. She is a very good flyer, one of the reasons why she is well-suited for the job of a South Wind, a courier and liasion for the Weather Service.
They might wonder why she is flying into the Badlands, far beyond any known Pony towns. But then they aren't there to wonder.
And she isn't really there either, because this isn't really her. Just her form.
As she flies into view of the condors, an invisible challenge passes betwen her and the sentry. The sign is sent to her. The countersign given in return. The vast but simple mind which watches from below accepts her, classifies her on its situation display as "friendly contact," and appends her name: Courier-829.
For she is indeed a courier. Just not for Equestria.
When she gets to a certain distance into the protective circle of the airborne early warning system, she changes direction, diving directly for the tunnel-riddled mesa. She is in safe airspace now; there is no more need for deceptive flying.
She makes full use of her current form's superior wings and flightfields to bleed off the velocity of her descent. Then, when she is almost stationary in midair, she Shifts. Sickly green fire shimmers over her form, seems to burn it away to reveal her true self -- a black-carapaced, green-eyed, jagged-horned, pseudo-insectoid horror with rapidly buzzing membranous wings -- what Pegasus legends call a "buzzy."
Transformed back into her true shape, the Changeling Courier swoops into Hive Chrysalis.
As the Courier flies into the Hive, the psychic gestalt that is the Hive Mind reaches out, accesses, identifies and embraces her, recognizing her lifescent as belonging to its own Hive, and hence its possessor as a being with both right and duty to pass. Thus the Warriors at the entry-tunnel quietly and smoothly step aside, allowing the Courier to buzz right past them, going deeper into the Hive. Had the Courier actually been the Pegasus whose Mask she had originally been wearing, or a Changeling from another Hive, the reception accorded her would have been considerably more interesting -- and less friendly.
Checking lifescents is a major security function of the Hive Mind. Double-checking is done directly by the senses of the Warriors, who while no mental giants, are individually more intelligent than the Hive Mind on its best days. The Hive-Mind is about as smart as a sheep-dog, though with its ability to gather together and focus a tiny fraction of the combined intellects of the members of the Hive, it has considerable memory and raw power, available for use by its far smarter generators and masters.
It is thus quite capable, for a being so fundamentally stupid. No ordinary Changeling Infiltrator or Equestrian mage can fool it.
Given just what the Queen is planning, operational security is a paramount consideration.
The attack will only work given complete tactical surprise.
2. At the Ponyville Spa
The cold February weather made the Ponyville Spa an even more attractive place for the two mares to take refuge. For Rarity Belle, who had worked all day indoors in her Carousel Boutique, the need for warmth was essentially psychological -- her store was well enough heated, but the view outside her windows was chilly, and she preferred an environment in which she might be pampered and in the presence of a friend. And Rarity was, in any case, a confirmed hedonist. Even if a very hard-working hedonist.
For Fluttershy Wind, who had been out in the Everfree Forest looking after her animal friends, bringing food to those who remained awake in the dead of winter and ensuring that those who hibernated -- especially her dear friend Harry Bear -- were safe and sound in their dens, endangered neither by land sliding or waters rising ... for Fluttershy, the warmth of a hot bath and relaxation of a full-body muscle massage was an even more welcome relief.
Fluttershy was not that much of a hedonist, but she was no ascetic. And she had been raised High Born for at least part of her chaotic childhood, so she especially welcomed her little luxuries.
It was also, of course, for both mares an excuse to lounge around together and talk. They had engaged a private chamber; so the only other Ponies coming by at this time in the afternoon were the proprietors, Aloe and Lotus themselves. The two sisters who owned the Spa hailed from the northwest, from far-off Stalliongrad, where baths like these were originally but a practical way of recovering from the cold winds that blew off the Frozen Wastes, elaborated by traditions inherited from the long-vanished North-Realm -- the legendary Crystal Empire. As part of that ancient tradition, the Spa Ponies did not lightly reveal any information overheard from the conversations of their clients.
So Rarity and Fluttershy felt safe to speak freely, and share their secrets.
They were not, by and large, very terrible secrets. Rarity and Fluttershy were both good and honorable Ponies, with little they felt they needed to hide from one another -- though Rarity enjoyed the game of confidentiality; while Fluttershy, whether from her famous shyness or some deeper cause, was naturally-inclined to conceal herself from the prying gaze of Society, seemingly for the sheer love of privacy.
Rarity had, by some standards, a very rich and active social life, including affairs with members of the opposite sex. Though these affairs always stopped short of actual sex -- Rarity had learned from the terrible events of her early teens -- they sometimes skirted dangerously close to that precipice. These affairs were complicated and dramatic, but also inconclusive. Rarity knew that the reason why she bothered was because her image of a Fabulous and mysterious mare on the rise most definitely included romantic intrigue.
She always, at least at the back of her mind, had the hope that this time, she would find The One -- the handsome, sophisticated, wealthy and slightly-older stallion who would see into the depths of her heart, fathom and appreciate her grandest dreams; look into her eyes, sweep her off her hooves and bear her off to a future of eternal connubial bliss. That would be the Happy Ending she had desired for her love life ever since she had been a small filly: very innocent, but precociously-intelligent, devouring book after book of romantic wonder-tales.
Before she had gotten her Cutie Mark. Before had gone off to the Fillydelphia Fashion Institute. Before -- she shuddered at the memory -- Rush Rocks.
So she kept looking, and hoping, though most of the stallions she met were either nice but rather dim colts by her standards; or sharp fellows on the make, who seemed less interested in exploring into her heart than into quite another portion of her anatomy; the part that she generally kept decently concealed beneath her daringly-styled but expertly-wielded tail; and into which she was not about to admit any stallion with whom she did not feel considerably greater emotional connection than she did with those peepers and nosers. She would not degrade herself by permitting such intimacies in anything other than true love. Such behavior, she told herself, would be very un-Fabulous.
So she slept alone.
Though the truth, which she did not like to tell even Fluttershy in these tete-a-tetes, was that sometimes she got sad and lonely and then she hoped against hope that some stallion would be The One, even when she really should have known better. And then she permitted him perhaps a bit too much intimacy.
But she never permitted them the ultimate intimacy. She never had permitted anypony, since Rush Rocks. Since poor dear dead little Diamond, the foal she had been unable to bear alive. She never wanted to be in that position again: pregnant, with no stallion in sight. She still sometimes relived those terrible weeks, alone in Fillydelphia, barely fourteen, hungry and frightened and ashamed; relived them in her darkest dreams; nightmares from which she awoke gasping in horror, a worse horror because it once had been true.
Rarity much preferred to tell Fluttershy funny little stories about her encounters with rude and pushy dates who attempted various indignities upon her person, but whom she overcame with her usual wit and style, and sometimes a good hard-hoofed strategic shove, which was to say with her Fabulousness. The stories were even true: this was how a depressingly-large number of her dates really did end.
The stories not only had the merits of truth and self-flattery; they also tended to deliciously shock Fluttershy. This Rarity found rather funny, as she knew that Fluttershy had herself long been involved in a serious affaire du coeur with Rainbow Dash; an affair that they had fully-consummated half a year ago, and which had burned torridly between them ever since. In other words, Fluttershy was in some ways much more sexually-experienced than was Rarity; though Rarity had dated many more Ponies than had her shy, yellow-and-pink Pegasus friend.
Eventually, Rarity figured out just what it was about her stories that Fluttershy found so shocking. It was not the sex, which in any case in Rarity's stories never went beyond heavy necking. It was the mutual rudeness being displayed; both by the pushy stallions, and by Rarity herself, in the ways she fended them off.
Rarity sometimes wondered if these were Fluttershy's High Born manners showing. Fluttershy was exquisitely polite, one of the things which had originally-attracted Rarity to Fluttershy as a friend, long before they had met Twilight Sparkle, and their own real lives became transformed into something out of a wonder-tale, with occasional moments of stark screaming terror. But that alone could not have been the case: Blueblood was as High Born as Unicorns came, and he was terribly rude; Cloud Kicker was almost as High Born as was Fluttershy, and her conduct was simply unspeakable.
No, it was something unique to Fluttershy; something which Rarity had never seen displayed by anypony else. It was as if Fluttershy had a much higher threshhold of trust than did other Ponies, but once she did decide to trust one, her trust was utterly-unreserved. Within that orbit of trust were Rainbow Dash, Rarity herself, Twilight Sparkle and the rest of their friends (including dear Spike, she thought warmly), and of course her animals. Fluttershy tried to interact only with those in that magic circle -- and toward those beings, whether Pony or other creature, she displayed a degree of love and kindness which Rarity found phenomenal. She had the complete love and loyalty of her animals; among them, she moved like a queen ...
There was some deep truth here, something implicit in the pattern by which Fluttershy lived her life, something akin to but subtly alien to the emotional patterns of normal Pegasi, just as Fluttershy herself had very clearly never been a normal Pegasus, not even for an eccentric scion of the highest of the High Clans. It was rather as if, to Fluttershy, there was some magic circle, some social definition deeper and stronger than the normal concept of Friendship, and her trust and loyalty to those within that circle was nigh-absolute. As if those within the circle were in a special sort of way her family ...
Those who thought Ponies obsessed with Society and Fashion to be naturally silly and shallow and stupid creatures would have found Rarity a revelation. She was highly-intelligent -- not quite on the level of Twilight Sparkle, or (in her very alien way) Pinkie Pie -- but in the top one percent of Ponykind in general. Her mind was diamond-sharp and multi-faceted, able to focus with laser-like intensity on a single problem, or spread her attention out to embrace a whole plethora of tasks. She was one of the most brilliant artists of her day. And she was a very, very good friend of Fluttershy Wind.
Through her friendship with Fluttershy, she had picked up a surprising amount of animal lore. And, of course, the Equestrians understood animals far better than might other Industrial Age civilizations at their level of technosocial development -- they had, for instance, for more than a millennium known about the evolution of species as part of their intellectual heritage from the Age of Wonders, transmitted to them through the Crystal Empire. Rarity had received an excellent general education, and fully-grasped most of it.
The concept that her mind was groping toward as she lay lazily in the bath, enjoying the play of warm water as it caressed the sensitive zones of her neck and the underside of her barrel, was "eusociality." The attribute possessed by some small swarming insects, such as ants and bees ... why were her wandering fancies lighting upon the notion of an ant or bee queen the size, and more importantly the intelligence, of a Pony ...?
Almost, in that moment, Rarity's powerful, pattern-sensitive mind touched upon the truth ...
In that moment, she came closer to it than any Pony who had ever seen Fluttershy, save for two Ponies who were over two and a half millennia old, and had personally known both the Flutter Ponies and the creatures they had become under the lash of the power of their own poor, mad former best friend. And even the Royal Pony Sisters no more than suspected, and suspected but a portion of the truth.
Had she hit upon it at that moment, things might have gone rather differently a few months in the future. History would have been changed. Wars might have been avoided; other wars might have been fought instead.
And, on a lesser scale, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy Wind might have been happier in the years immediately to come.
But she did not see it.
Fluttershy broached the subject in her usual indirect manner, by hints and circumlocutions which made it clear to Rarity that there was something troubling the mind of the yellow-and-pink Pegasus, until Rarity had little choice but to worm the truth out of her. It did not bother Rarity to play this game: it was no more or less than they had been doing ever since they first became friends, around a decade ago. Rarity had nowhere better to be, and she was more than willing to advise her best friend on any topic to which she might be able to provide a useful answer.
To describe this dance in detail would be to waste space in this story and the time which it would take you to read it. Suffice it to say that both were experienced and adept at this waltz, and -- in the end -- Rarity got Fluttershy to succinctly ask the question.
"Rarity ... you've been in all sorts of difficult romantic situations ... more than me, anyway ... not to say anything improper about that ..."
"I may safely say that, whether by sad personal experience or knowledge vouchsafed by others, I have some familiarity with the problems that may be presented by l'amour," Rarity replied, smiling roguishly. "Is there any problem on which you seek my advice?"
"Well ..." Fluttershy blushed and almost hid under her mane, then blurted it all out in a single gasped question, "What do you do if you think that somepony isn't really all that attracted to you any more?"
Rarity's eyes widened. "Are you saying that the ardor of Rainbow Dash is cooling toward you?" she asked.
"Eep!" Fluttershy hid back behind her mane. "I didn't say that," came her muffled protest. "I mean it's not necessarily true. But, um ... maybe?"
"Fluttershy ..." Rarity was as close to being at a loss for words as she ever became in a purely social situation, which is to say that she was very briefly deprived of her usual verbal super-fluency. "I am surprised ... I would be shocked ... if Rainbow Dash no longer loved you. For what reasons do you believe that she is losing interest?"
"Oh," Fluttershy said earnestly, "I don't mean to imply that she no longer loves me. Rarity ... Dashie and I have been friends since we were little fillies together. We've always loved each other. We always will love each other. Our mutual affection is not at issue."
"Then what is --?" asked Rarity, momentarily mystified. Then she put two and two together. "Oh," she said. "You are speaking of the more physical aspect of your romantic relationship."
Fluttershy nodded.
Another Pony might have assumed, regarding the shy, gently-reared Pegasus, that Fluttershy meant that Rainbow Dash was being too sexually-demanding. Rarity, however, knew Fluttershy almost as well as did Rainbow Dash -- and probably better, if one excluded the specific sense of carnal knowledge. To be sure, Dashie had known Fluttershy longer, but Rarity had a far deeper understanding of equine character than did their bluff rainbow-maned mutual friend.
Rarity was well aware that Fluttershy's libido was greater even than her own, and far greater than that of Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash, as far as Rarity could tell (she was nowhere nearly as close a friend of Dashie as she was of Fluttershy) regarded sex as something one might do with someone one loved, but not a very important part of life. In contrast, while Fluttershy had to really trust somepony to even touch them, when she warmed to somepony she warmed without much in the way of reservations -- and she had a lifetime of suppressed desire driving her.
It had been Fluttershy who had decided to make Rainbow Dash her lover, and -- as far as Rarity could tell based on the things Fluttershy told her and what she observed of their relationship from the outside -- Fluttershy had always controlled the intensity and pace of the affair. Dashie was a boisterous, boastful athletic warrior in the noblest Pegasus tradition, but Shy? Shy was, in her own strange way, almost a queen; utterly dominant, when she chose to be.
Again, Rarity came close to some sort of realization; so close that she could almost feel her mind tentatively feeling around the completion of the pattern she sensed. It was a rather annoying sensation, and to pursue it would get in the way of helping Fluttershy, so Rarity forced her mind back onto the main topic of discussion.
"I presume," Rarity said slowly, "that you desire physical intimacy on a more frequent, and perhaps intense basis, than does Rainbow Dash?" She watched Fluttershy's expression carefully while she asked the question.
Fluttershy blushed deeper, and nodded vigorously.
"I see,"said Rarity, and she was perhaps starting to understand, though she needed some more information to complete the pattern she was sensing between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. It was not merely what Fluttershy was telling her now; it was the combination of those recent revelations with a whole array of data regarding the two lovers: everything which they had stated or she had observed or extrapolated, which Rarity's mind effortlessly assembled into a network of linked informational nodes, all affecting the others. With two Ponies she knew as well as she did Shy and Dashie, it was almost easy.
"Fluttershy," Rarity asked her, "forgive me for being so blunt, but exactly how do you indicate to Rainbow Dash that you wish to make love to her?"
Fluttershy couldn't possibly blush any more, so she didn't.
"Um, well ..." she began, twirling one loop of her long pink mane between a wing and a forehoof, "Usually I'll just start, um, hugging and kissing and cuddling her, um, rubbing up against her side and leaning into her, you know ...?"
Rarity did know. "And do you say anything to her, in particular?"
"Um, well ..." Fluttershy strove to recall. "We'll be talking about things when I start doing this and I guess we continue talking about things. And sometimes I smile at her and sort of giggle, and give her a look ... um, is that talking?"
"In a sense," affirmed Rarity. "But I mean, rather -- do you say anything to her to make her inclined to return your romantic affections?"
"Well ..." Fluttershy thought about it harder. "Well, I let her know I'm interested. And that I want it. And then she responds -- or, more often now, doesn't respond." Her tone, at that last part, was desolate.
"In what ways does she fail to respond?" asked Rarity, carefully watching Fluttershy's face.
"Um ... well she won't really make love back to me, or she'll only do so really, well, fast and not that well. Sometimes she says she has to go do something else. Or she'll claim she has a headache ... actually, sometimes she does have headaches, especially after she crashes into things ..."
"But sometimes she's just pretending?"
"Yeah," said Fluttershy, ears drooping. "I can tell when she's not really interested ... more than she knows. I'm really sensitive to when somepony really likes me or not ... I can tell that she's saying it just because she doesn't want to ... you know."
"Hmm," Rarity stroked her chin with one hoof. "Does she sometimes still want to ... you know?"
Fluttershy nodded. "But usually now it's when there's something special ... when we have a lot of time before and we've been affectionate with each other for a while. It used to be almost all the time ... now it's just sometimes."
Rarity thought some more about this.
"I think I know your problem," she finally said.
"You do?" asked Fluttershy. "Um ... what is it?"
"The infatuation," said Rarity, soberly. "It has faded."
Fluttershy's face seemed to crumple in on itself. "You mean,"she wailed, "Dashie doesn't love me any more?"
"No, no," Rarity corrected her friend hastily. "Darling -- every love affair begins with infatuation -- but that never lasts more than a few years tops." Rarity was pretty sure of this: it both made sense in context of her social pattern recognition abilities -- and she'd read it in Cosmarepolitan.
"It's only been a bit over one year!" protested Fluttershy.
"Yes, well ... Rainbow Dash not exactly the most romantic mare in the world. You may perhaps have noticed that. A little."
"A little," Fluttershy acknowledged. "Though I think she still really likes me. She just isn't that much into ... you know ... any more."
"Oh," said Rarity, "Rainbow Dash loves you. I doubt that will ever change, no matter how your affair turns out. Whether you break up -- or get married, for that matter. I am not talking about that."
"Um ... I guess that's good," replied Fluttershy. "I mean," she said in a sudden burst, "Dashie's been my best friend since we were both small, so I'd be even more sad if she didn't like me any more!"
"Have no fear," Rarity reassured her. "Rainbow Dash loves you, and she enjoys your company. I've noticed that. What we must do," she continued, "is work out how to get her excited by you again."
And work it out they did, in a long and exceedingly-intimate conversation which made Rarity very glad that Aloe and Lotus, who occasionally came to renew the soaps and bath oils, did not repeat such secrets of their clients as they overheard.
When it was over, Rarity and Fluttershy were physically very clean and refreshed, but emotionally rather exhausted. But it felt like a good sort of exhaustion, to Rarity. The sort of emotional exhaustion that results from doing the right thing, from expressing things which had long needed to be aired.
She had, after all, given of herself to solve her best friend's most pressing problem. She had shown Fluttershy how to better communicate with Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy's shyness sometimes made it hard for her to open up to anypony, but now Fluttershy would be able to be a bit more honest about what bothered her.
From now on, the course of Fluttershy's romance with Rainbow Dash should run smooth.
It was not as if Fluttershy had any really deep, dark secrets after all.
Homecoming
Down, down went the Courier, down along twisting tunnels, lit only by dimly-fluorescing patches of greenish-yellow glowing fungi adhering to the walls, growing in a manner seemingly-random but actually rich with positional and directional information to the rightful denizens of this Hive. Down, down, on, and on the Courier went, now through great concourses where several tunnels met, up and down, down along ramps and along galleries that overlooked great hollow spaces deep within the Hive. Down and on past more Warrior guards, and through the halls where crawled the teeming throngs of the Workers.
To any of the Equestrian Three Kinds -- save for a very few who had been unfortunate enough to be made Captive, but fortunate enough to be trusted with a small degree of freedom within whichever Hive held them -- this would have been an eternally-shadowed world of subterranean gloom, the domain of hideous insectile horrors, whose vague resemblance to the equine form only made them so very much worse. Even most Trustee-Captives only adapted to such a place out of stringent necessity -- and the dark mistress of this Hive rarely allowed Captives to become Trustees.
To the Courier, of course -- and still more to his numerous siblings, half-siblings, and close cousins who never even briefly ventured Outside (for the Hive was, essentially, one gigantic extended family, with the selfish-altruistic bonds of eusociality rarely being strained past second-cousinhood, and most of that family was born, lived and died without ever having to risk themselves beyond its sheltering limits) -- the Hive was purely and simply home. All those things that made it such a terrible place by Equestrian standards, made it a veritable paradise for its rightful inhabitants.
This part of the Hive was indeed so pleasant by Changeling standards that the Courier wished that he might linger here longer, mingling with his siblings and cousins, and join with them in rustling dance and chittering, meeping conversation. Indeed, for a moment he wished that he might be once again a nymph, lacking serious social responsibilities beyond a rough requirement to mind his nurses and teachers.
But, of course, such was impossible. The Courier had been sent on a crucial mission. He bore important information. He had a duty to the Hive.
So he continued on to the end of the chamber, to the Warrior-guarded gates, beyond which lay the center of the Hive, the center of his world.
Beyond which lay the throne-chamber of Queen Chrysalis.
