Medicine beyond the Veil
The worries started with a ping. It was early in the morning, only a few minutes before Sunset would leave the house. Four days. It had been four days since the seven friends had unintentionally formed a small hivemind of their own.
Only four days.
Three days since Queen Twilight had shut down the portal, separating them from her and her link.
Yet Sunset responded to the ping as though it were second nature to her.
<Morning Rainbow, what's up?>
<I don't think I'll be coming to school today. I'm not feeling well.>
<Do you know what's wrong?>
<No idea. I'm just kinda feeling under the weather today.>
<Well alright, we'll take care of things at school for you.>
<Oh and Sunset?>
<Yes Rainbow?>
<Could you tell the others? I already told Fluttershy but you know how she gets, I think she's too worried right now. Make sure she doesn't worry too much.>
Sunset smiled, reminded of the oldest friendship in their little group. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had known eachother since preschool. Even in the dark days when she had ruled CHS, she couldn't ever keep the two apart for long. <Sure thing Rainbow, we'll take care of her. Get well soon. And let us know if you learn anything.>
And just like that, the worries started.
Sunset made good use of the link to inform the other four girls of the situation. All six of them met up in school, Fluttershy visibly downtrodden.
Over the course of their relatively short school day, the girls received occasional updates from Rainbow. Most of them describing the symptoms worsening or a doctor who had been called in to check up on her being unable to find anything particularly wrong. The symptoms, of which there were plenty, matched no known disease or condition. Once school was out they made their way to Rainbow's home, her mother letting them in, to check up on her themselves, after all there were some things about Rainbow Dash no doctor knew about.
Once they had gotten the greetings out of the way Sunset and Twilight went about analyzing Rainbow's condition. Given the matters they were discussing they decided to limit their conversation to the hive mind.
<Allright, your mind is definitely not affected, or you wouldn't be able to be so chatty in the hivemind.> Twilight's analysis seemed sound, and Rainbow agreed.
<Yeah, my head is kinda the only thing that doesn't hurt.>
<Well, I only have passive observation but that should be enough to find most magical ailments.> Sunset leaned closer to Rainbow closing her eyes and focusing on the magic that was coming off the girl. She took several minutes in which the others gradually approached and watched her work. <No, nothing wrong with her magic, if it was some kind of illness her magic would be weaker and if it was a curse or something it would be different somehow. But, no, if anything, it's stronger.>
At that moment Applejack jumped into the conversation, pointing at a small bit of blue skin poking out beneath Rainbow's shirt. <Am Ah seein' things or was that there purple a minute ago?>
Twilight took a closer look at the girl with a face as purple as her own, looking closely at the edge of the color. She took a moment, then she gasped. <AJ's right, the purple is receding.>
Sunset slapped her hand onto her forehead. <Of course! The doctor couldn't find anything wrong with her because on this side of the portal there is nothing wrong with her. Wait here, I'll go fetch the journal. We'll ask Queen Twilight about this.>
Before the others could even answer she was out the door and on her way.
Half an hour later, she returned, pulling the journal from her backpack. <I already sent her a message, but it might take her a bit to answer, we didn't have the time to find out what kind of differential we have this time.>
The seven sat around the room for a moment, keeping themselves busy in various ways. Twilight, happy to have found a fellow fan, was reading Rainbow a Daring Do book. Applejack and Fluttershy were keeping Spike busy, Sunset watched the journal, Pinkie was checking her phone and Rarity kept a close eye on the slowly retreating purple color along Rainbow's neck.
After about half an hour, all of them suddenly shuddered as a powerful signature entered into the hivemind. A moment later Queen Twilight spoke to them.
<Girls, don't worry I can explain this, hold on.>
Suddenly, all seven of them felt themselves be pulled into a linkscape. When they opened their eyes they saw Queen Twilight standing in a large chamber. Suspended in sturdy metal structures hung hundreds of purple wax capsules, shapes visible within them through their matte surfaces. Various pipes snaked throughout the entire structure seemingly feeding something into the capsules.
Sunset was the first to recover. She stepped ahead to embrace the changeling queen in a hug. Then took a step back looking around. "What is this place?"
The queen gave her and the others a pleasant smile. "This is the nursery aboard the Phoenix, or rather, a recreation thereof."
Her counterpart seemed to think on the matter for a moment. "Wait, isn't this supposed to be an airship? Doesn't feel like we're moving."
The queen smiled at her. "That's because we're not. I didn't bother to make it move. After all, it won't be moving much longer anyway."
Sunset looked surprised. "Huh? But that would mean- Wait! You found land to settle? Where?"
"Around the Tree of Harmony, near the Castle of the two Sisters."
"Wait, but that's right in the middle of-"
"The Everfree Forest, yes. The princesses actually gave me the rights to the entire Everfree. You won't find another place in Equestria that's so much like the jungles. Changelings strive by overcoming hardship, by changing to adapt. The Everfree is a hostile place, sure. But that's kinda the point." The queen's sly smile was by now reflected on Sunset's face.
"Wouldn't want the other queen's think you're going soft, huh?"
"Oh I don't think there is much chance of them thinking anything else. But they know to fear our technology. It's been over a century since Stripped Gear was part of a larger war and still our technology gives them pause. But that's not why we're here, now is it?"
Rainbow took this opportunity to jump into the conversation. "Yeah. You know what's wrong with me?"
The queen gave her a soft smile. "With you? Nothing more than usual. The problem at hoof – or hand I suppose – is with the local Rainbow."
Rainbow frowned deeply but held her tongue, letting the queen continue. "Remember when I told you about the PCE and their Cure-Ray machine that ended up doing nothing?" There was a round of nods prompting her to elaborate. "Well turns out it did do something, only not what they had hoped. Pretty much the opposite actually. It looks like it restarted the alchemical process that stopped when I took the circlet off her, but only at a small fraction of the original speed. It took several weeks for us to notice. And Rainbow spent a lot of that time drinking things that contain royal jelly, a part of which accelerates alchemical processes. At some point the alchemy started reforming her internal organs and leeching of her own energy to fuel the process. She would have died, so we had to put her in a chrysalis."
With a solemn gaze, she pointed a hoof at the faintly glowing, purple capsule behind her. The girls approached and could barely see an equine shape through the matte surface. "She's been in there for about two weeks, she's gotten to the meat of the changes. That's probably why it affected you."
Rainbow looked at the chrysalis before her. "So this world's me is becoming a changeling? Cool."
"Yes, though that is also the cause for your current ... discomfort. I don't know how the differential will set once the gatekeeper is shut down, but you should be back to normal relatively soon."
Sunset looked up from the chrysalis she'd been studying at those words. "That reminds me, how long has it been on your end?"
"About five weeks and a half, why?"
"I see, that would mean we had a differential somewhere between one to nine and one to ten this time."
"Wait does that mean-"
Already knowing what she would ask, the queen held up a hoof to interrupt Rainbow. "Yes, the trial has happened by now. The princesses sent her to the Arcmane Asylum for the criminally insane."
"I suppose that's about as mild a punishment as she could hope for." Sunset pointed out.
"Indeed. Well if there's nothing else, I have the foundation of a hive to oversee and I kinda need to get back to that."
"Right, of course, thanks for taking the time." Sunset once more enclosed the queen in a hug.
"Don't worry about it, you're my friends. Besides, it's only been a few minutes."
"She's got ya there Sunset."
"Very true, it's been good to see you again darling." With a smile and a wave Rarity vanished.
The others soon left in a similar manner, leaving the queen to go back to overseeing the construction of Phoenix's Roost.
Tuesday was calm, Rainbow was still at home and the others still took care of things for her in school, in the afternoon they visited again and by then Rainbow was feeling good enough to get out of bed and walk about the house. They had a fun afternoon as they'd had so many times before.
The next morning Rainbow was back to school and had returned fully to her normal, sky blue coloration, the students welcomed her back with open arms. Even the teachers seemed curious about what had caused her change in color and why it had reverted. The six girls that knew why were of course among those happiest about her return. The biggest revelation for them, however, came when a familiar humming and a soft glow started to emerge from Sunset's backpack during lunch hour.
Sunset pulled the journal from her bag and opened it. Soon enough she had reached the last page and the journal calmed down. Sunset took a few moments to read it. When she looked up she looked to the girls she had taken on a somewhat surprised expression.
"Everything alright Sunset?" Fluttershy asked cautiously.
That was enough to break the spell. Sunset shook her head and looked at each of her friends in turn, then she laid the journal out on the table. "See for yourselves."
She watched with a sly smile as the others started to read.
Dear Sunset,
a few things happened today. First the Phoenix landed in the carrying structure we built for it in the ravine that leads to the Tree of Harmony. Not too long after, Rainbow hatched.
The interesting part is that she hatched as a princess rather than a drone. Turns out royal jelly cider was a stupid idea. Who knew?
Hey there, this is Rainbow. So Twi and me decided that with everything that happened here the whole mother-daughter thing between a queen and her heir wouldn't really work for us, so we decided to act as sisters instead. We just thought we'd let you know.
Give greetings to our counterparts and to the rest of the girls,
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash,
Royal Sisters of Phoenix's Roost.
Rainbow Dash looked up from the letter. "Well, that just happened."