Angels and Demons 3: Winds of Destiny

Chapters

Part I/Broken Spirits
Bonding Moments
The Test
Secrets and Lies
Trials and Tribulations Part I
Trials and Tribulations Part II
Trials and Tribulations Part III
Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It
Suspicious Minds
Part II/Day One
The Night that Ends at Last
Dreams and Nightmares
Evodia!
Just Peachy
Cancelled

Part I/Broken Spirits

Proud oaks surrounded the Ponyville Schoolhouse. Swing sets and play pens were filled with cheery fillies and colts as the classes were enjoying a small recess. Cheerilee was still the teacher there, although a bit older, and at the moment she stood aside from the happy little ponies with a much smaller group. Each species would get special classes to encourage their natural traits. For the three pegasi in the class a special instructor came from Cloudsdale. Canterlot had an elderly unicorn who came by to give magical instructions. And Cheerilee worked with the earth ponies.

"You don't have to rush at it." Cheerilee instructed with kindness, as three fillies were moving between the trees. They were supposed to find seedlings that could be used for replanting trees. "Don't be afraid to sniff the soil, sometimes you learn the smell be-" Her instruction was interrupted by Thyme, who pulled up another seedling adding to her already impressive dozen.

The firstborn of Silver Key and Angel Wing was in this class, and her hooves were soiled with dirt. Her name was Sarah, and she had found one seed. Exactly one. And that was only because Thyme had been moving in that general direction, and she had left several pock marks and holes to get it up. Cheerilee, who was about the kindest pony in the world, hadn't remarked on the seedling having gotten badly damaged in the process, but had urged her to find more. She trotted up next to Sarah, tapping the soil with the hoof a little.

"Don't worry you're getting warmer. You don't have to rush it, Sarah. Just take all the time you need to do it. This isn't a competition." Even Peppermint was pulling seeds up now. And she was the slow learner.

Sarah was not normally one to get easily discouraged. She excelled at her schoolwork. As far as paperwork, exams and reports went, she was in the top percentile. But field work was approximately 40% of their quarterly grade, and she worried if she didn't figure this out, she'd be held back again. It was already embarrassing enough that she was one year older than all the others, made even more humilating by her apparent lack of ability. Sarah scrunched her nose with renewed concentration, and dug her hooves into the ground.

"I got one! I got one!" She exclaimed. She pulled backward as hard as she could, and a huge root pulled free of the soil, sending her tumbling backwards.

Cheerilee brushed it off, it had gotten a little mangled. "I think we can plant this, we'll be starting our lesson on planting in a few weeks. All the oaks around you were planted by this school." Sarah was fairly weak for an earth pony, she didn't have the endurance that her peers had. "You'll get credit," Cheerilee assured her, seeming to pick up on her train of thought. Peppermint gave Sarah an encouraging smile. "There's nothing to it, I'll show you Sarah. Don't worry." They had gotten used to her name. It was new ponies who reacted with a mild confusion to it. Silver had told her the name had special meaning to him, but had never told her why.

"I just wish I knew where they were," Sarah said, but Cheerilee gracefully sent her off.

"Its not always equally easy for all ponies," the teacher said.

Sarah knew that Cheerilee was only trying to make her feel better, and sat her rump in the grass, sighing. "It's not fair, how come I can't do it? I was out here for hours last week and the only thing I found was an antler." Sarah prided herself on that moment, none of the class had ever seen a deer before, although a few wandered out of the Everfree Forest now and again during the night. For a few short minutes, she wasn't Sarah the pony who couldn't use the soil, but Sarah who'd found something incredible. She wanted that again. "I try, Miss Cheerilee, I really do." She insisted.

"I know you do, and you're making it hard for yourself. There's a seedling, and you can be there to dig with the others." She said as she bagged Sarah's spoil of the day. There was a bright flash near the entrance of the school. A creamy white pony of a special kind appeared near the entrance, looking around for a bit. It was a daily spectacle, even though her classmates had gotten used to it. The alicorn who didn't want to be a princess was here. At least she wasn't wearing her hospital uniform, this time she came plain, wings folded against her body. The bell rang, recess was over. "Alright my little ponies, Jaunt will teach you Equestrian History now, I'll be in there soon." It was obvious that Cheerilee wanted a talk with Sarah's mother.

"Hi Sarah, I'll be waiting outside the class when you get back," her mom said, nudging her daughter towards the door.

"Remember to wash your hooves before you go into the classroom!" Cheerilee called towards the stampede of equines racing for the schoolhouse.

Sarah wanted very much to sneak around and hear what they were talking about, but knew she couldn't be late for class. Being a role model had a delicate balance with being sneaky. She approached the history teacher, asked to use the restroom, and promised to be back in a minute. There wasn't any reason why they wouldn't let her, she was a good student. But she was also a child, and children were often mischievous. She hurried around the small building, squeezing into one of the few empty classrooms to try and catch a snippet of the conversation through an open window. The schoolhouse had once only been a single room, but had expanded to accommodate the growing numbers of colts and fillies.

The Ponyville School had such a wonderful energy to it. Watching young fillies and colts with no cares in the world, seeking to find what talents they had and learning useful lessons about Equestria, playing with each other and being encouraged was a world of difference to Angel's childhood. Strict separation, duties and hard training had been her yoke. Here ponies were free to be themselves to their hearts content. Cheerilee had wanted to talk to her in private, a parent meeting. She always did them on a pony to pony basis.

"I'm glad to see you, Angel," The teacher said kindly, while she was walking over to some trees where the earth ponies had obviously been going through some exercises. She felt the vitality of the trees around her, and could almost sense the roots burrowed into the ground. "You have a wonderful daughter, she works very hard." She began. "And she's very bright for a filly her age. However, I'm starting to get concerned about her ability to keep up with the others in the earth pony classes."

Back inside, Sarah cursed her luck. They were moving away from the window, and she couldn't quite make out what they were saying. She slipped out the door, trying to slowly follow them. She was tired of the deception, everyone always told her 'Good job, Sarah. You're doing great, Sarah.' But she was beginning to feel like they were talking down to her. She tried her hardest, but her hardest never seemed to be good enough.

Angel stood with Cheerilee, listening to her concerns. She had absolutely nothing but love and faith in her foal. "My daughter has always been a little slower than most children when it comes to ability, I regret to admit that she has shown no spectacular talent in any given field as of yet." This was a time when most children at the very least had found one or two things they excelled at. "Her intelligence is impressive, so there's no signs of cognitive delay." She said gently. "I've been encouraging her with all sorts of things at home, I don't have it in me to hold her back again."

Cheerilee nodded. "And I don't want her to be held back, that wouldn't help her. She's developing a good bonding with other fillies, and holding her back would isolate her. But its something I noticed today that alarmed me." They went over where the students had dug for seedlings, and Cheerilee explained what they had done. "Usually, when an earth pony searches for a seedling they'll go at it like this," she imitated one of her pupils, walking around, hoofs searching across the ground, sniffing occasionally. Angel could easily follow what she was doing, it was how she would have attacked the problem herself. "And if I dug down here I'd find one. Your daughter did it like this." She walked around a bit, jabbing hoofs into a prospective area, lifting the soil and prospecting a little into the mulch, walking over to another area. There were indeed a lot of tell tale pock marks. Cheerilee came back, her ears lowered and her voice as well. "I'm afraid I've only seen this when a unicorn tries to do this task. I sometimes do that to show pegasi and unicorns that there are things they can't do. She's simply not sensing it." At birth the doctor had noticed her lack of weight for an earth pony, she had filled out quite a bit as she grew up and had made up for it with extra exercise, but this was different.

Sarah had stopped in her tracks. She'd heard enough, and ran back inside the building before she was seen, having already surpassed a believable leave of absence to the restroom. She made her way back to the History lesson, and planted herself in the back of the room. Outside, Angel looked increasingly concerned.

"She doesn't sense the soil at all? So she's not a unicorn, a pegasus, OR an earth pony?" She sounded upset. "Next you'll tell me that she'll never get a cutie mark." She stamped her hoof. "She's my daughter and I love her, I don't care what kind of pony she is. She just... needs some extra help. Maybe a lot of extra help. But I'll quit my job to give it to her if that's what it takes."

Cheerilee looked touched. "I'll help her as much as I can, and I'll encourage her, but you might have to consider getting her tested at Canterlot. If she really doesn't have the ability, then it doesn't make sense to try to teach her to do it in that way. I don't teach pegasi how to flap their wings. She can still learn botany, and growing skills, and she can learn to hunt for herbs and things where her strengths can be used. Her eyesight is just fine, I'll teach her by her abilities." She said. "The grade for the physical classes that teaches her about being an earth pony can be wavered if there's legitimate reasons. She'll pass and her grades will be reflected by how she does on papers, and the other assignments I give her. We encourage our pupils strengths and help their weaknesses."

Angel proceeded gently. "I will of course not tell her of our conversation here, but may I pull her out of school for the day? Perhaps the encouragement we give her just needs a mothers touch," She offered. "She's my daughter, damn it, I love her more than words can ever explain. Silver has tried to teach her magic, to no avail. I have tried to teach her aerial navigation, which failed even worse. We need to stop thinking about what she can't do, and focus on what she can."

"I agree. There's a lot of things she's good at." Cheerilee was on the same wavelength as Angel. "She's well ahead in her history teachings, so I don't think it would hurt, as long as it doesn't become a habit." She reminded. "She tries very hard, and she succeeds a lot more than she thinks. Despite all the shortcomings of not being able to innately sense the soil, she still found two seedlings. Most unicorns and pegasi give up at the task once they realize that they can't sense these things like their earth pony mates can."

"Let me take her home." Angel said gently. "I'll wait here for her to be properly dismissed. Even a broken clock still gets the time right twice a day." She said confidently. "My Sarah is smart and resilient, if there is anything she can do, I swear to you, we'll find it."

Bonding Moments

That day in Ponyville seemed like such a long time ago.

Sarah could remember the day they had moved from Ponyville to Canterlot. The most expensive houses had wonderful views as they sat near the perimeter that overlooked the hills. Theirs was a bit of a compromise, it was fairly large and roomy and for the first time each of them had their very own room. If you went up into the attic there was a small tower spire with a window, and from there you see out across the south of Equestria. See Ponyville as a colourful arrangement on the curving green landscape, and the bluish hue that marked Everfree forest. And a garden! They had a garden! Trees were there, but the grass had been rather unkempt and overgrown when they had come. It must have awakened the earth pony in their mother, because she took a loving to that garden and Sarah soon followed. Trimming the grass, picking weeds. They were planting flowers left and right together. Come next year they would see them bloom together. Dreamfoils, torqouises, rosehearts, windblossoms. Before the move, Cheerilee had at some point taken her aside and explained that while Sarah wouldn't take part in the typical earth pony activities, she was encouraged to take up a botany and growing project instead.

Sarah was starting to be at the point where you wouldn't be able to call her a filly anymore. She was one of three left who didn't have a cutie mark in her year. Blank flank, and by extension a Canterlot-branch cutie mark crusader, though she didn't come to the Canterlot clubhouse too much anymore. Peppermint had earned hers, the herbs she had been aptly named after. The funny thing was that Sarah had known that this was exactly what her friend was meant to do. It was a knack she had, though knowing this hadn't given Peppermint the cutie mark that Sarah thought it would get. It wasn't that hard for her to figure out what a pony could be. Rolling Wave, the second oldest sibling, was going to be an explorer. A pegasus, he had a good second sight, he knew when danger would be coming before anyone else, and though he was still a scaredy colt, that would change one day. Too bad Sarah couldn't turn those powers of observation on herself. After Rolling Wave had come a unicorn, named Emerald. Finally Quick, the youngest, another pegasus.

The only other thing Sarah had as a talent was getting things to grow. Her mother seemed able to get things to grow faster, and seemed to know intuitively what plants needed, but what Sarah didn't have in intuition and instinct, she had in sheer experience.

"Not a bad project to choose. What are you going to grow? Herbs?" Her dad, a blue unicorn with a silver heart and key on his flank asked as he read the manual for assembly. The greenhouse they were building (at her mothers insistence) was all metal bars and glass plates at the moment. These days he was home one or two days each week and he had taken off the entire afternoon for her. Her young siblings, Rolling Wave and Quick, both pegasi, were doing wing exercises with mom. Neither could fly, but they still needed to train their wings. Her little unicorn sister Emerald was at school. Her father levitated a few bars. "Mind holding the lower one with your hooves, Sarah?"

Sarah didn't get to see her Ponyville friend Peppermint as much as she would have liked anymore, not outside of school. The city was not a place for children to be running around by themselves, though it was safe, there was still a degree of common sense. Sarah had an unrelenting determination, she had been to over a dozen cutecineras already, each time arriving with her bright smile and pride for her friends. But it was beginning to become embarrassing to go out in public without a cutie mark, ponies would stare at her in concern, she knew not having a cutie mark was downright unusual. And those who didn't know her could only judge her based on her flank. Was she stupid? Did she not care? Neither of those things were true, but a nearly grown mare without a cutie mark? Something was surely wrong with her. Out in public, she would frequently wear long gowns to cover her flank, but at home, at home she was herself.

"Sure thing, dad." She said with her usual enthusiasm, and placed her weight down on the bars. "Like this?" She couldn't wait for the greenhouse to be finished, she'd heard stories from out west that they had flowers that grew as tall as Princess Celestia, and she wanted to grow them herself or die trying.

They had already laid the foundation, now it was a matter of putting all the things together. Very gently he lowered the sheet of glass into the lower frame that Sarah was holding. It slid in smoothly and the other bars were put in place one by one. "This design isn't Earth pony friendly, you can't just built the metal frame and slot in the window panes. Its a show off design. A challenge to see how many bars can you levitate at once." He remarked with a grimace and focused, lifting up four more and a window pane, eyes almost closed in concentration.

Sarah just shook her head. Magic seemed like such a complicated thing to use, and often gave headaches to the user if it was used too heavily. Her dad had spoken of having a medical condition which gave him frequent headaches, and she presumed that was why he didn't use magic as much as Angel did. "Daddy, if I do extra chores around the house, could I have a raise in my allowance? There's a travelling magic show coming to Canterlot in a few weeks, and Peppermint and I really want to go together." She asked sweetly. Once the pane was in place,she slowly let go, ensuring that it would hold together. If it wobbled at all, she'd latch back onto it.

A few more panes were slotted in. "Hmm, we might be able to work out a raise, if you babysit the your brothers and sister over the weekend." He was fair, but the good thing was that the allowance was never lowered again. "There's actually interesting magic involved in seeds." He said, changing the subject as he finished the metal framework and put in the shelves. Urns already filled with soil littered the lawn, ready to be put inside. He got a small seed from one of her many bags. It was tiny and orange. "This little seed, his tiny little thing contains all the trees that can come from the world. All its children, and its children, all those possibilities inherent, right in this seed. This is..." He sniffed a bit and wondered. "What kind of seed is it?"

To an earth pony, every seed smelled different, and was usually fairly recognizable. To Sarah, she may as well have been trying to smell air. She took the seed from her father, and held it in her hooves. She sat on her haunches for a good five minutes, tears filling her eyes, but gritted her teeth with renewed determination, the teasing of some of her less kinder classmates ringing in her ears. But Sarah never gave up, that was the universal remark that all of her teachers had brought home in the many concerned notes to Silver and Angel. Sarah refused to give up, and often had to be coaxed away and gently told to try again later.

"I know this." Sarah said firmly. "Um... Hickory?"

"I think so. I'm not that good at telling seeds apart from each other." Her father smiled proudly. "Using your eyes, good thinking. But it would have been even better thinking, if you had noticed the bag I had taken it from." He went over close and nuzzled her with his snout. "This little seed, Sarah, can become a tree, and all the trees in the world once started from seeds as well. I can't be a tree, even its leaves get strange because of something that happened." His arms enfolded her from behind and he pulled her onto his belly, lying there together and looking up at the sky. "And you came from us, so you're a pony through and through. Remember that. Even when it seems like you fail at everything else and the world is against you, you can't fail at being a pony.." The clouds were drifting up above them. A few pegasi flew overhead. "You're a smart filly Sarah, heck soon you won't be a filly anymore, and you won't be able to fit like this on me. Learn everything you can, use your cleverness." He considered something and seemed to have an idea. "I know you don't have a horn.. but I think I can let you borrow the use of mine for a bit. I don't know if I can give you all the feelings of having it, but you'll be able to learn about magic that way."

Sarah had frowned when he told her to look at the bag. "But in school we were never allowed to see where the seeds came from, Cheerilee said that defeated the whole purpose of the identification test," She said, a bit confused. "What good is a challenge if you know the answer?" She was quiet for a moment, listening to her father, offering her own thoughts as well. "I've been thinking about my cutie mark too. Maybe.. maybe I don't need one. Maybe my special talent is NOT having one. Maybe my super special talent is not being all that special at all. Instead of being really good at one big thing, I could be kinda good at lots of little things." She said brightly.

Her father nuzzled her a bit and then she heard the glittering sound of his horn. As close she was to it she could feel some of her mane standing on end. The glow connected with her. "Lie still Sarah... this is a spell used when one unicorn has to lend its horn to another who knows a spell but can't cast it. Relax and breathe slowly." The field of magic could always be felt when her mom was using a powerful spell, or when you were levitated. It was a warm soft sensation, and she felt it this time.. against her. And then all of the sudden it was the other way around, she didn't feel the magical sensation going towards her.. she felt it going out from her. There was a distant sensation of some dense long hard rod that was the focal point of her power. It was muted. She was feeling her father's horn. "Breathe slowly, rein in the field, don't over exert my horn, just relax."

Sarah felt her whole body tense up, she had never used magic before, quite obviously, nor ever sensed it. "Dad... I'm scared..." She said quietly, laying against him, shivering just slightly. "Is this how you feel all the time?" She asked.

"Don't worry Sarah, I'm in control.. and, no, I think it was only like that when my magic really started blooming." He said with fondness. "You're the smartest foal I have, and I think you can learn about magic if you want. I know you don't have a horn of your own, and I can't give the ability.. but you can learn about magic. Now try easing the flow.. right now you're radiating energy all over the place." She was noticing the sound now, of his horn cranking out power, the grass around them was ruffling and the air seemed to shimmer.

Sarah always enjoyed learning new things, she soaked up books like a novel soaked up a sponge. She was frequently rushing back and forth to and from the Canterlot Castle Library, which although the majority was open to the public, there were a few closed off and locked sections, which she'd often seen a purple alicorn going in and out of. "Okay, I can do this." She said confidently, and focused her mind, desperately trying to channel the magic onto one of the seeds. "If... I could just... redirect it..." She huffed.

It was the seed she had worked on before. Her intentions weren't clear, but she knew the seed, because she knew the tree. All haricots came from that seed. The connection seemed clear and suddenly magic surged out of her. "Augh.. you've done a spell!" Her father gasped. Power streamed out of her into the seed, it fell directly into the soil. She was aware of white light coming from behind as energy surged out of her horn. which was her father's horn. And suddenly a little tree had sprung and bloomed. Green energies... green... not blue like her father, but green energies tended the leaves that grew, encouraged the branches to grow. She connected with the tree, knew all its possibilities, all the nourishing gifts it could have. And all of the sudden it ended, her connection with the magic was severed quickly and instantly. "Huff... sorry Sarah, the spell was out of control, it was draining me." Again she became aware of herself, the wave of magic she had ridden was over. There was only her five senses. She noticed that her father was sweating and shivering. The energy to do all that had been done there, had to have come from somewhere after all. As she got off he stood up, his legs barely carrying him. He looked at her, wondering about something, and then nodded with a smile. Had he been testing her? "Well done Sarah.. we'll try next time, a little more carefully. Only.. don't tell your mother about this."

Sarah gasped. A spell. A stubborn little earth pony had done a spell. She took a few steps forward, poking at it with her hoof, her eyes wide. "I did that? I did that!" She said excitedly. Even though her father had helped, her spirits were boosted tremendously, it was the first time she'd truly done anything at all extraordinary. Her eyes immediately moved to her own flank. "Did I-..."

Her father studied her flank with equal fascination. No cutie mark, despite all that, no cutie mark. She heard her father mumbling "Of course." And then he stepped closer nuzzling her. "Now you know why Emerald's horn kept doing spells all over the place when she was a baby. I'll teach you need to work on intention and focus, and then I can teach you magic. You won't tell it to your brothers or sisters, and you won't brag about it to your friends. Most importantly, you won't tell it to your mother. If you do any of those, then my lessons will end immediately, however you can learn and I think you should."

Sarah's face fell, she had been so sure. Her ears pinned back against her head. "I won't tell, daddy. I won't tell a single pony. I Pinkie Promise." She had heard her mother use the term before, but hadn't any clue what it meant, only that it was a big deal. "Do you think I could learn to fly, too?" She asked eagerly.

"The only spell I know that can do that, isn't good for the kind of flying that pegasi do. Sorry Sarah, but you're as grounded as I am." He took a few steps and nearly fell over and shook his head. "Lets take a pause, and finish the greenhouse. I think I'm good for levitating a bit more, but next time I'm home we'll practice." There would be refreshments inside. The news of getting to learn magic, even muted like this, and not with a horn of her own, almost drowned out getting to see a carny show with Peppermint.

The Test

A few weeks had passed since the incident in the garden.

Angel had made sure Roll, Quick and Emerald each had their lunch bags packed. Emerald went to a school in Canterlot, and she was escorted there when her filly friend when her father arrived. Roll and Quick were teleported to Cloudsdale. And Sarah, she would naturally have gone to Ponyville that morning to Cheerilee's class for special lessons. However today both of her parents escorted her into the Canterlot Testing Facility. To one of the spires that rose around the castle. Each one an institute of learning. Magical institutes. Some studied the arcane arts themselves, some studied all the aspects of ponykind and the world of Equestria. If anypony knew it, then you'd find a pony knowing it in there somewhere. And they wanted to test her? Of course it wasn't Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, but they still wanted to hear from her. Had her father told them about the growing spell she had performed? And how she had managed to master levitation, and even unlock one of her father's puzzles? Her mother was tight lipped.

"Its just a test sweetie, and there's no right answer."
Silver, he looked distant and contemplative.

They had to go up a few stairs. It was a dizzying tower, inside the spiral starcases allowed you to see all the way up through the central column. Auditoriums, labs, libraries, workshops and were located in its sides. Eventually they got to their room and her parents greeted two old looking grey unicorns, both male and both sporting good beards. They were cloaks. They both greeted her.

"Hello Ms Sarah, my name is Sapient." The first time she had meet a pony that pronounced her name correctly, and didn't ask what it meant.

"And mine is Menta." Her parents were already gone from the room. As if to answer her Menta assured her. "Don't worry, your mother and father are waiting for you outside the door. Once the test is over you can go and see them."
Sapient added clarification following the announcement

"Your parents presence would effect the outcome of the test," he said.

Angel had hugged her parents, and promised she'd do her very best. They of course had assured her that they loved her no matter what happened, but not to underestimate the importance of the test. This was the real thing, the test that would truly define whether or not something was wrong with her. Sarah was just as filled with determination as she always was, and stood up straight like Angel had told her.

"I understand. I'm ready." She said confidently.

Menta and Sapient were kind and efficient. They presented the tasks and explained them to her, asking if there was anything she was unsure of. Notepads levitated next to them. The first was humiliatingly simple. There were ten urns, each one filled with soil.

"All of these turns are exactly the same size, in them are exactly the same amount of soil, of the same eact type. And one of them has a seed in it. You're allowed to touch the soil, and inspect them with any of your senses, but you can't dig into it. Can you tell us which of the urns has the seed?"

Sarah slowly circled the small testing area, glancing uncertainly towards the judges.

"Am I allowed to pick up the urn?" She asked, trying to think outside the box like her father had told her.

"You may pick up the urn, but you must not disturb the soil inside the urn." He instructed calmly, watching her. They looked as exactly the same as they had been described. The soil in them looked equally disturbed, there was no tell tale signs of manipulations. Lifting an urn between her hooves gave no sign of a weight difference, not even a minute one.

Sarah was already embarrassed, she'd seen foals do this within seconds. She sniffed each of the urn, gently placing her hoof upon the dirt but not disturbing it, trying her very hardest to sense any sort of change at all. There had to be something. Think, Sarah!

Sapient and Menta conversed a little. Sarah could not hear what was being said.

"Okay, I think this is enough." Sapient said to her. "Pick anyone you feel confident about, or take a lucky guess." They were all the same, to her senses. Nothing distinguished them.

Sarah did her absolute best not to protest, and picked the third one from the left, pushing it forward. "This one." She said, her voice swelling with confidence and hope. One in ten chance. Maybe she'd get lucky.

They stood up and approached, and a letter appeared.

"Tests like this one are double blinded. Neither you nor us know where the real seed is, so you couldn't accidentally read it from our expressions." Menta explained while Sapient checked the letter.

"Third one from the left... good job." Another unicorn appeared in a flash. She looked about as young as Sarah. "Starshine, reset the test." And the two elderly unicorns escorted her into a room nearby. More of a closet really. They didn't have to explain to her what was happening, but they did anyway

"We need to redo the test to confirm that it wasn't a fluke." And she was back, with the same same minutes in which to find the seed.

Sarah entered the room with renewed confidence, maybe she wasn't stupid after all. Again she sniffed all the urns, and THOUGHT the furthest one on the right smelled funny, so in half the time of the previous test, she tapped just that. "This one." She said firmly.

Again, Menta and Sapient summoned the letter and approached her. "Fifth one from the left." Sapient said unceremoniously. And that was that. Starshine appeared again to set up a new test. They didn't even give her a second chance.

"There's no need for that." Menta assured her when they were back in the closet, but he wouldn't comment on the reasons for judgement. The next test was similar, she was given five tree sprout and she had to tell which had been given more water from least to most. In some tests she had to be blindfolded and asked to tell the difference between various scents. They seemed find new things she had never thought she never could do. A test she thought she would do well in but failed, was about which plants before her were growing the fastest. They were each of a different type, but from her knowledge about plants, she could recognize which one tended to grow quickest. Only these plants had been modified magically. She didn't have the ability to tell that simple from being near it. Then came physical tests, they pushed her endurance on running tracks. Had her lift weights. They weighed her, measured the size of her legs. All the failures were starting to form a complete picture in her mind. She knew exactly what they were testing her for. It wasn't an illness they seeking, it was a whole. A whole she didn't have. She wasn't an earth pony.

"Okay, I think this is enough." Sapient said sympathetically. "You can go outside now." It had been two hours. She was exhausted physically and mentally.

She had been born without wings. She had been born without a horn. She had been born without fertility or strength. Sarah took a side route out of the building, without bothering to wait for answers. She already had her results. If there was anything of significance, then Sapient or Menta would tell her parents. She had been so strong and so confident for so long, and it all just came crashing down. Silver would likely know where to find her, at the top of the tallest slide at Canterlot Playground. She was too old for it now, but when she was little he used to take her out. She'd slide down the metal ramp into his waiting hooves, and they'd collapse in a heap. Sometimes they'd go at night and look at stars, but she had long ago crossed off the possibility of an astronomy cutie mark. Now, it was where she went when she wanted to be alone, and Silver often knew to find her there. She collapsed at the top of the ladder, and just cried.

It was early enough that all the fillies and colts were still at school. Though as soon as recess came, she'd probably have to content with squeals to move her flanks. The good thing about Canterlot was the number of magic users and all sorts of subtle charms put on homes, making finding a pony with a search spell a goose chase. She needn't worry that her mother would find her soon. Instead he came. She heard his hoofs fall in the sand of the large sand box. Wooden toys knocked aside by his hoofs. From her still water filled eyes she saw his blurry silhouette at the foot of the slide. He said nothing for a while.

"Sarah? Do you need to be alone?" He asked respectfully.

A question brought up from the depths of her throat, one that she had pushed away for so very long, always denied, always hoped, always been the beacon of light, standing aside and letting others have their moment. But she wanted hers. "Wh... whats wrong with me?" She sniffed. "I know you and mom talk at night... I know the teachers talk about me... always sending me outside thinking I don't notice, or won't notice... what did I do wrong?" She sniffed.

He hesitated for a bit, obviously thinking about something, but it what it wasn't clear. "Sarah, you did nothing wrong. You got born like this. We found out when you were a filly. You weren't growing as an earth pony would. That's why we had you exercise and eat so much." He explained. "Your mom loved you regardless and I'm the same. You're my daughter and that's all that matters there. Angel was guilt ridden though. Blamed herself for not having diagnosed you in the womb. She doesn't talk about things that hurt her, but I can tell." He sat down by the foot of the slide. "I think she's blaming herself in vain, even if we had known we couldn't have done anything about it… I'm sorry Sarah. Don't be afraid to cry. If any pony in Canterlot has the right to feel sad, its you." He beckoned her to come down.

Sarah stomped her hoof. The bell in the schoolhouse rang, if she didn't come down now, she'd have to come down in a moment. "I don't want to be sad! I don't like feeling sorry for myself! I keep myself busy, trying, hoping, but I'm always the one standing on the side, being happy for everyone else. I don't mind that, I really don't. But I want a turn too... just once... just one chance to do something great." She hung her head. She slid down the slide, pushing past Silver. "I can't keep pretending I'm okay. Not forever."

He was about to say something. "When I was your age…" And then it was obvious that colts and fillies would soon get their turn at the slide she blocked. Already filling into some of the swing sets, rushing out from the nearby school. Almost all of them unicorns. "Sarah you're not powerless. You're as smart a pony as any pony can claim to be. And that's the greatest power in Equestria.. well, other than friendship of course." He smirked at her. "Do you think your father got to be the advisor to Novaria because he can do flashy tricks? I use almost no magic there. Just my wits. And you've got them Sarah, that and you can be as kind as your mother. You see into ponies in ways I never will be able to, but you won't be able to sense the earth, or fly, or do magic on your own. I'm sorry that you had to see those doors closed right in your face today, but don't undersell your abilities. Now come down... I'm calling work, I can have a day off, your mom can't. Lets spend it together."

Sarah turned on him. "You said it yourself. I can't sense plants, fly, do magic. So give me one thing, just one thing, that I CAN do." She snapped. "Might as well stick my head underwater, I've exhausted all other options, maybe I'm a seapony." She stormed off of the playground, not so much feeling angry as she was completely and absolutely alone.

He followed her out of the park. "Sarah!" He called as he caught up to her. There was a quick blink and he appeared ahead of her. Wincing apparently from a strenuous head ache of making that jump. "Stop." He said blocking her path, huffing a bit. "I can't solve all your problems in one discussion, or ease all that emotional turmoil. I wish I was your mother, she'd be better at that… but I can tell you the truth, Sarah. You're not like other ponies in more than one way. Look into my eyes when I tell you this." He looked under the weather of one his bouts of headache, and her eyes caught his. She knew that he was hiding some dark and terrible secret. That much she could read, it wasn't directly about her.

"You have an ancestry that includes severely intelligent and ambitious ponies." Why did he say that last word so oddly? "Your brothers and sisters don't, and no I won't explain how that works. You come from Angel and you come from me, but unlike your brothers and sisters you share in a heritage they don't. If you want to know what you have that sets you apart from other ponies, I can tell you that. You've got an ambitious drive and an intelligence that sets you apart. Don't even start to undersell that." He was surprisingly firm with that. "I've seen ponies do things with those abilities that would curl your mane. Great things, wondrous things and utterly terrible things as well." He clearly wasn't himself, his legs were starting to buckle. It was a severe migraine attack. "I don't know if this ancestry is why you were born without wings or horns. I don't think so." He looked up at this own and back at her. "But I do know that you're not powerless. You're a kind hearted pony, and you're smarter than you realize, and you'll be able to go through thick and thin to get wherever you want to go… you have no idea how much I love you for turning out so kind as you do. You're..." He grimaced as a sharp contortion of pain hit him. "...like a little angel. A little... get Angel..." He grimaced closing his eyes.

His vision was starting to blur, Sarah's voice was distant and faded. "Daddy? Daddy!" And then everything was gone.

Secrets and Lies

Silver wasn't sure how long he was out, his eyes cracked open to find no less than eight unicorn children leaning over him.

"Izzee dead?"

"No way, he's movin!"

"He's a zompony! Run!" The children took off squealing, as a kind bright green pegasus appeared in his vision.

"Don't try to sit up yet. You'll trigger an aftershock." She said gently.

"Sarah?" He asked opening eyes and looked around. He hated dramatic finishes, but he should have known that he'd have gotten an attack from that. Without Angel at home or Lucy at work he was practically a cripple. "Have you seen my daughter, green, almost out of fillyhood... no cutie mark, earth pony?" Even if she wasn't, earth pony was just short for "No wings and no horn.".

"She was here, she couldn't find your wife, and brought you to the school nurse. She's a very bright young girl." The nurse said. "I believe she went home, she was going to search your things for painkillers." She said. "You were out for almost an hour, has this happened before?"

Silver smiled, however bad that speech had been, and how little comfort his fainting must have been to him, he knew that she was capable on her own.

"Yes, usually when I get agitated. My wife can cast a soothing charm, and at work I have someone to assist me with that." He had explained this many times before, but he was glad. He knew that Sarah would realize eventually that she was capable of many things. Little did he know that he was right.

Canterlot was no bigger than any pony being able to go from anyone building to another in less than half an hour. Sarah made the trip back to their house in record time. In her memory her father had never gotten an attack quite like that. Her mother had told her about them, but she'd never seen them herself. There was no one at home, but the magical door knew it was her and opened as soon as she pressed her hoof to it. The most logical place to search was in the bedroom, but there was nothing in all the drawers resembling vials for pills. Nor was there anything in the bathroom.

Silver was hurting, not dead, no, but hurting, and she was filled with guilt. Sarah had gotten the nurse immediately, the nearest qualified medical professional. Mentally she kicked herself for something that couldn't possibly have been her fault. "Stupid, stupid! Why couldn't I have been born a unicorn?! I could have sent a telepathic message to Mother... I could've gotten help faster!" She was raiding the room, drawers being flung open, desk being nearly turned inside out, checking under the bed, even under a loose floorboard that they used to hide emergency bits under. "Come on, come on!"

Nothing in either the bedroom or in the bathroom. Nor the living room, or kitchen, or in her mothers study. There weren't any stashed away in the hallway, or down in the basement. There was only one room that seemed to have any chance of holding them. Her father had never clearly worded that nopony was supposed to be in there period. The door was simple locked most of the time, magically. They had to knock to get him out, and when he did he rarely let anyone see inside. This time the door was ajar.

Sarah frowned. She was honest to a fault, she was a good filly, well almost a mare now, and normally would never think of intruding on places that she wasn't supposed to be in. But he hadn't technically said she wasn't supposed to be there. Huh. She slowly slipped inside, and closed the door behind her, flicking on the light. Maybe just a peek.

It was wall to wall, with.. blank pages? Blank pages mounted on on a board with stickers, blank pages in piles across the floor. There was a typewriter, with forty keys. And reams and reams of blank pages. Nothing readable on them at all. Not even a hint of ink, though there was an ink house all right. There was only a single sheet with anything written on it in the room lying next to the typewriter. She spotted a pill glass next to the typewriter.

Sarah had learned several tricks at sending coded communication with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She'd spent so much time with them as a blank flank she'd already turned down two offers to be president. She just didn't feel right taking the position. She picked up the ink brush with her mouth, and slid the brush across one of the pages. Maybe it was invisible. Or lemon.

She drew a large thick wad of dark ink across the page. It lingered and then all of the sudden it fainted from being visible. Evidently what was in the ink house was ordinary ink. There were no means in the room of making the writing visible. There was however a fairly readable letter that had already been finished, lying next to the typewriter. The opened pill jar stood next to it.

Sarah paused, and moved over to the piece of paper with writing. She had an idea about the rest of it, but for now, start with the easy stuff. "Alright, Step One, lets see what we have." She was filled with guilt for not bringing pills to her father, but she was sure he was alright. he'd been having headaches for years, and curiosity was overwhelming.

The letter, having obviously been written on the typewriter was of a different sort of paper than the rest in the room. The texture was subtly different, more grainy and rough. She recognized it as a page from of the sort that she and her siblings would draw on. Her dad had probably run out of invisible paper, or maybe this was simple a draft.

From Silver Key, head of Evodian defense projects, to Iron Jaw:

First of all, I think we need to step up the security further. You're in the Evodian black ops, you don't get to think that something can be too paranoid anymore. While the invisible writing spell works fine, blank pages simple stand out and the spell is not invisible. We need to find a way to disguise secret documents as harmless documents. Getting back to the matter at hand I disagree entirely with your opinion about this. Whether a useful agent can be made out of someone so young, is something we can only find out by trying. No I won't tell you what the mission is for, but I know what the requirements are: No cutie mark. I can't underline this enough. It won't work with a cutie mark. Find someone who has been unable to get one, that should already narrow the list of candidates down. I'm not interested in race specifics, find someone with drive and motivation, who can be told a goal and pursue, and who's intelligent enough to follow through. I'm enclosing a list of candidates. They have already been sent a letter informing them of once-in-a-lifetime chance to serve. We've rented the Tragic theater's old decommissioned rooms as the training ground, and we'll advertise it as a training camp for aspiring actors. Set the whole thing up so that the candidates will arrive there in twenty days. Its short notice, but both Novaria and I feel that its time to step up this project. Stay sharp Iron Jaw, we might be trying to infiltrating them, but they've been at this game for a hundred times longer and they're ten times better at it."

Enclosed at the bottom was a list of names, with room to spare. He had never asked her if she wanted to be part of this. He hadn't even offered it in her moment of grief over her uselessness.

Sarah stared at it for a good long while, debating making up a fake name and address to add to the list. It wouldn't be that hard. She could just add an unused mailbox from the apartment complex, or something of that nature. Make up a fake name, get in on the project. She was angry that her father had never asked her, she would have accepted. Even if meant possible death, she would have accepted, anything to be part of a cause.

Now the sneaky part of her was kicking in. Writing invisible, paper not. Alright, so she just needed new, unenchanted paper. She left the closet, propping the door ajar to retrieve a few pieces of regular paper from her room. She took a pencil in her mouth, and placed her paper down over the enchanted paper, rubbing with the long edge of the graphite. "Unenchanted paper, lets see if we can't get a rubbing off this." It was worth a try.

It didn't work, the paper was different from whatever paper that particular draft had been written on. There was no sign of indentations from either key strokes, or from a pen. Her experiments gave no results, there was just the single drafted letter. It invited a fake name and a fake address. And this was her only chance to add it.

That had been her only idea, and she made no further hesitation in adding an address to a mailbox that she knew had been vacant for years, something about a horrible tragedy taking place in the house the mailbox belonged to. In moments, she had a name down.

Tumbleweed.

Sarah thought it was appropriate, she was always blowing aimlessly down empty roads, and had no real use. Maybe that could change now.

Trials and Tribulations Part I

"Mom, stop! I'm too old for this!"

Sarah's protests fell on deaf ears, she got a good and firm hug. Angel's dainty hooves brushed Sarah's muzzle slowly. "I know Sarah, but both you and Emerald are starting to become mares. It wasn't long ago that I had you hiding between my legs when we went to that camp and I had to coax you over to them. And now you're running off on your own like your sister. Is there anything you need?" She asked and started opening Sarah's steam bag magically.

"Hey! Mom, I've got my diary and saddle stuff in there!" She shrieked, and dove upon her bag, immediately zipping it back up. "I'm too old for you to be going through my stuff!" She insisted, sitting on the bag. "I have everything I could possibly need, I can do this mom, I'm not a foal anymore." She promised.

"I know you can, but are you sure, you.. no?" She stepped away from the bag which Sarah guarded so jealously. "Well alright, I can teleport you to the train station if you don't want to walk. At least let me do something. You're a grown filly, but I don't like seeing you running off all alone. Have you said goodbye to Roll and Quick?" She asked shifting her wings slightly. "Emerald is meeting me at the spa today, I'll tell her goodbye for you."

Sarah rolled her eyes. She didn't want to appear suspicious. She WAS at that fiercely independent age. "I'll be fine, mom. Really. I can do it by myself." She insisted. "I didn't say goodbye to the boys, I don't want them getting all emotional." She made a face. "I'm gonna be back in a few weeks, it's no big deal. It's just a four week summer camp. You know, trying to get my cutie mark and all. I love you, mom. I'll be back before you know it."

Angel gave Sarah another hug for good measure, adding to it with her wings. The feathery sheets practically enveloping Sarah in a cocoon. And then she let go, folding them neatly back onto her back where she kept them mostly. It was easier for Roll and Quick to coax her into showing them the wings, because they needed to learn how to use their own. She nuzzled Sarah. "Good, now that's enough, otherwise I'm going to put you in a crib and sing you lullaby's. You're still my little filly. Now you go and have fun at the camp."

Sarah kissed her mother on the cheek, and hurried out the door. She took several twists and turns in order to lose any followers, and the first stop she made was the mailbox which she'd submitted for a false address several weeks ago, just to see if she had been sent any further information. After that, she'd make her way over to the Theater for orientation.

There were no further information given at that address. The house looked as abandoned as before. No one seemed to have come by to check up on her background, quite possibly because the list of candidates her father had submitted had already gone through a vetting process. On the way to the theater she had to make the stop for the coat change. Emerald was already there, but she managed to avoid her sister. It took just about all her bits, but an hour later she emerged orange, with a peachy coat, keeping her red mane. The Theater consisted of two parts. The very most old part which was where the shows were performed, and some studios and workshops which recently had ceased to be of use as Luna's donations had given them the ability to move to larger locales. They had been situated out of sight behind the theater.

The few times Sarah had been near the place, they had looked decrepit. Situated inside an alley away from the main street, the buildings looked dusty and cobweb ridden. Thankfully they no longer had the appearance of disuse. There was a sign over one of the entrance doors announcing this as the "Drama Camp for Aspiring Young Actors." A brown pegasus filly landed not far from Sarah, inspecting the sign on the building, reading a slip of paper she had. Lighting the paper on fire and throwing it onto the pavement. She then proceeded single mindedly towards the entrance. This was the place.

Sarah was just about to ask if this was the right place, but the pegasus raised a hoof to silence her, and she was ushered inside without a word. She adjusted the bag on her back, walking quietly further into the building. She felt horrible for having lied to her parents, but this may very well be the only chance she'd ever have to really amount to something, cutie mark or not. She was tired of being laughed at, and being told she didn't truly belong to any of the three factions only made her determination grow. She'd show them. She'd show all of them.

The pegasus greeted her kindly as they both neared the entrance, though she seemed every bit as bold and determined as Sarah was. It was hard gauging her at such a short notice, but Sarah felt that this pegasus was in it to win. "I'm Blitz." She extended a hoof. "Wait till we're inside to chat." There was an earth pony near the entrance who silently took their tickets. Though he was casually dressed he stood rank and stiffly, like one of Celestia's guards.

"Follow the red line down to the open studio, you'll all wait there until you the Iron Jaw speaks to you." They were inside, following a corridor with a red marker laid out on the ground, it quickly went into a large empty studio. There was a table with some drinks on it. Other fillies and colts stood around.

"Two more competitors, that makes ten so far," said a blue pegasus sitting on the rafters up above.

Sarah was determined to make some new friends, but not to make them feel uncomfortable. "I'm Tumbleweed." She said, using the name she'd signed up with. She glanced around, there was a larger turnout here than she'd expected. She spoke briefly to the one called Rain Cloud, trying to keep conversation light. "So... um... come here often?" She joked.

He jumped, and fell towards the ground and stopped his fall with a dramatic flap of his wings, approaching Blitz and Sarah.

"You could say that. My father's in the Canterlot guard, and my mom served as well." Blitz raised an eyebrow, visibly unimpressed.

"Canterlot guards stand around and look shiny, it doesn't seem to have rubbed on you." Strangely she didn't comment on the fact that Blitz wasn't aware that this whole thing was run by the Evodian Special Tasks Force. Perhaps none except Sarah knew.

"Maybe you stand a chance after all." Blitz finished off her snarky response.

"Rain Cloud is is the name," said the colt. Whatever he was about to say was stopped as a stout looking earth pony wearing a blue military uniform arrived.

"Form a line!" He yelled. There was a short pause. "Are you all deaf? Form a line immediately!"

There was a moment of confusion as all the young ponies tried to form a line at once, resulting in several tripping over each other, but a line was formed rather quickly just the same.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Sarah whispered to Blitz.

"Shh!" He hushed her.

They stood side by side, he walked past them barely giving them a look. "You've been given a letter asking you to come and serve in the military in a mission that only you would be able to complete. What you haven't been told until now is that this is not the Canterlot military, but the Evodian." There was a lot ruffled feathers and Rain Cloud looked shocked. Blitz smirked. "Silence, I didn't give you the permission to move. Order in the line." He bellowed, and there was order again. "This is what the letter said to you, but I don't think a single one of you got it. I was tasked with determining if anyone of you could make it. Only a third of the candidates even showed up, the rest have had their memories modified. As will your own be, should you drop out. Oh don't worry, you'll have a nice set of memories of performing the Lunar Tragedy together. From now on no one gets to leave these rooms alone. You sleep where we and when we tell you to sleep, you eat when and only when we tell you to and only what we tell you to eat. You're all currently the lowest ranks in the military. Anyone with a uniform, insignia, medal, or anything of the kind should be treated with respect, and obeyed as it was Celestia herself who had commanded you."

"This is the first trial. You'll each be put in teams of three. You work together, and you fail together. If you don't have what it takes to hold together as a team, then none of you pass. So work to get your partner through." He explained.

"Sir?" A filly asked. He glared at her.

"You're quick, I didn't tell you yet that no one speaks directly to an officer unless spoken to. Consider that a warning." He read something. "Mayfly, you may speak, what is your question." She stood uneasily.

"There's ten of us, that makes for only three groups of three. And I haven't found anyone yet," she said. He looked kindly and sympathetically at her.

"Mayfly? Go to the entrance, left room on the right... this camp isn't for you. Don't worry, you're a good filly, but you won't have it in you." Looking shocked and a little defeated, she stood up, trotting past everyone, going into a full gallop tears streaming down her face. To the rest he barked. "You have a minute to form three groups of three. You get the ones you find, and there's no negotiations." Blitz immediately put her hoof on Sarah, looking at her. As the others were running around like headless chicken.

"I'll pull my weight, will you pull yours?"

Sarah looked shocked at the way he treated the child, but quickly straightened to attention when he looked in her direction. She looked at Blitz, and hoof bumped her.

"You have nothing to worry about with me. I'll pull my weight," Sarah said. She pulled up close to her, ensuring the two were partnered. "Who's our third? Should we get Rain Cloud? He seems like she knows a thing or two."

"Ten seconds!" Iron Jaw bellowed, and the ponies around Sarah and Blitz moved faster, two other groups and formed and within seconds Rain Cloud practically collided with them. Standing shoulder to shoulder to them. "No one else, without me you fail." And therefore logically he was in. "Form a line!" He bellowed and they all did, standing side by side. He inspected them all. "Today's schedule is simple, there will be hard physical exercises, followed by dinner and a test. Each day you'll be given a schedule to follow. A written copy will be sent to one of you each morning. You follow it or you fail. You make sure your partners know the schedule or you fail. You complete the tasks set, or you fail. And if one of you fail, you all fail. And expect every single group here to fail. Lunch starts now, you are allowed to eat. No snacking afterwards, and no sneaking food off the table." A table was pushed in featuring an inspiring selecting of bowls with uniformly grey alfalfa gruel. "Yummy." Rain Cloud said.

"I see Raincloud is eager to demonstrate a new lesson. You're all given points. They start at zero for all of you. Reprimands add points, failures at certain tasks add others. Get to a three hundred and you fail. His group just earned five points. The score never goes down so be careful, you've got a month to rack up a lot of points. Now... dismissed! Eat, you've got half an hour." Blitz waited till they were dismissed to backhoof Rain Cloud's head.

"Thanks a lot."

Trials and Tribulations Part II

The applicants were all woken up at exactly sunrise the following day, and were expected to be out of bed and presentable for inspection within a minute. Then came physical exercises which they were expected to perform in parallel. Sarah couldn't do wing ups, which left her with a little more breathing room. She became the groups ace in the hole for that reason, being practically the only earth pony in the entire test. Iron Jaw wasn't overseeing the next test. Even though the colts and fillies here, despite their age, had learned to be silent when presenting, some gasped when they saw who strode in. She was a completely dark furred pony, with cat like eyes. At first glance you would have called her a pegasus, except for the batlike wings on her back that marked her as one Luna's Lunar Guards. Was she working for Evodia now? "I am your drill instructor for the next test. I see only half of the groups survived Iron Jaw's tests. I won't be any kinder to you." Her hoofs clacked and echoed in the hall. Before them was a variety of items.

"Those with unicorns in their group. Present!" Three groups stepped forward. One was all unicorns, and was summarily excused from the test and sent to the next one.

"The groups without unicorns will have one assigned to them for this test. In order to beat this, only one of you have to manage to beat the exercise. This test will focus on your ability to handle something you don't have have any expertise in." Rain Cloud and Blitz looked confused, but didn't dare talking. Merely whispering would be found out.

Sarah was breathing hard and sweating, but did not dare complain, nor even mutter a single word. Her eyes widened at the sight of the Lunar Guard, but she maintained composure, difficult though it was. There were many things she wanted to say, many things she wanted to do, but she stayed right where she was. Her group remained in a perfectly symmetrical line, remaining at attention.

Captain Marenaris was her name. She instructed them in the task. They had to levitate objects, put balls through hoops, turn a cube. Very simple stuff. For any unicorn that is. She also explained what would happen; how they in turn would be tied to a unicorn and use that unicorns horn as if it was their own. Since Sarah's team had no unicorn one was assigned to them. Sarah suddenly recognized the white unicorn. It was the filly that had set up some of the tests. She seemed to recognize Sarah as well, but was too nervous about the whole situation to do anything. "At ease, go at it at whatever pace you want, but no more than half an hour will be spent with each applicant." They could talk again. Marenaris hovered in the background. The white unicorn filly turned around.

"Hi! Uhm... I'm Bright from Celestia's School of Gifted Unicorns." She almost stammered. Rain Cloud snorted, this wouldn't work out for them if she was nervous. "I'll be your horn today, I guess. I'm supposed to do the winged ponies first before you, S-" She was about to say Sarah's name.

Immediately, Sarah placed a hoof on Bright's mouth. "I remember you, though it's been a while since we encountered each other. I'm Tumbleweed, remember?" She gave Bright a look indicating that she should keep quiet. She wanted to assure Bright that she had done this test before with her father, but not only did she wager that doing so would immediately disqualify her, she might get Silver in trouble. So she opted to keep quiet about that. "Don't you worry, Bright. We're a team. We'll get through this. I need you to take a few deep breaths and calm yourself, understand?" She said firmly. "You WILL be my horn. Don't guess. Do or do not, there is no try. And I do not accept failure as an option." She said confidently.

Bright was mollified and seemed to compose herself more. It was obviously the military setting which had gotten to her. She nodded. Her order were to do the pegasi first, and this would be done. Rain Cloud was very excited, the very idea of suddenly being allowed to sense and manipulate magic put him on end, however all of them wanted to get through this test. If none of them could do it, they'd all soon be leaving with changed memories. Blitz put herself physically close to Rain Cloud, and soon her horn was crackling with energies while Rain Cloud was partially lost in the sudden burst of sensation he was feeling. Familiar instructions about controlling the flow was given to him. "Are you beginning to see a pattern in these tests?" Blitz asked Sarah quietly, while Rain Cloud tried to levitate an apple. It got squashed. "Physical exercises, gauntlets, sure that's just testing your will. They never fail a pony for not being strong here. And now this test?"

Sarah shrugged. "I don't know what they're planning. It's clearly not for something conventional or traditional, maybe even something that's never been done before. But that's alright. I'm excited, the prospect of being part of something that's never been attempted before is exciting, and makes me want to be a part of it all the more. Sure its hard, but look at it this way. Some of best rewards are the hardest to achieve. Just like cutie marks," she said brightly. "I'll try my hardest until I can't try anymore, and if I wind up going home with changed memories, at least I tried my hardest, right?" She whispered. "I didn't expect any of this when I signed up, at least not something so strict, but they seem to know what they want to look for."

Rain Cloud failed, much to his own frustration. Ponies were having similar issues all over the place. Blitz turn came up, she was a little more controlled than Rain, but similar problems came up. Bright was constantly giving directions, something the poor unicorn obviously wasn't used to, or she was used to talking to unicorns that were very skilled at what they were doing. "I wasn't sure what she was talking about half the time." Rain Cloud said. Marenaris was watching them for some reason. When Blitz failed it was Sarah's turn. Bright looked nervous again. "I'm sorry, I'm a powerful unicorn and its a lot of power to suddenly be given. I'm really trying as best as I can." She told Sarah. A minor explosion came from the nearby table.

Sarah whispered. "Don't try anything. Don't try to use magic, just relax. I think one of the problems is that the unicorn and their client are both trying to use the magic to do different things at once. Magic doesn't work like that, and we'll never get anywhere. Don't try to cast any spells, just relax, and let me use you. A horn can't handle different commands at once like that." She whispered. "I need you to just relax and trust me, can you do that?" She asked. "It's worth a try."

She nodded and breathed quietly a few times before settling next to Sarah. The mind meld was more subtle than what Silver had done to her. It was more thorough and deeper. Without a fanfare of oncoming energy she almost felt as if a horn now sat naturally at her forebrow. Bright's powers were formidable, raw energy started welling out of the horn and she did nothing to control it. Bright was Sarah's horn now. Blitz and Rain Cloud looked at her expectantly.

Sarah did what she had done with Silver. She closed her eyes, not trying to control the magic, but to let the magic control her. Sarah felt it flow through her, allowing it to become part of her, and focused her thoughts on her horn. She redirected the flow of energy, channeling it, directing it to do various tasks. To float a ball through a hoop, to change a colored cube so that all the sides matched colors, to thread a needle with a piece of thread. She had her eyes closed so she couldn't see if she was doing it, instead she completely trusted her body to react accordingly to her mental commands.

It felt natural and right, there was in her instincts that prevented her from doing it. She was unaccustomed to magic, but it didn't feel foreign to her. Eventually the magic flow was broken, and she felt again that a whole part of her had been severed again. The energies she had manipulated was gone. Opening her eyes she saw that her partners were smiling. They had beaten the test. Marenaris told Blitz and Rain to move on to the next test and with for Sarah there. "Walk with me." She told Sarah and proceeded off to a corridor. When they were away from the others she started talking. "Not bad done.. Tumbleweed." The lunar guard told her in a measured voice. "I did a personal check on your history, but I couldn't find you anywhere. Do you know something about this?" She asked.

Sarah remained at attention, and spoke with respect. "With all due respect ma'am, there was nothing in the application process that said I had to use my real name, and I hope you don't mind, but for personal reasons, I'd rather not be recognized, ma'am." She said confidently. "All my life I've been told what I can't do, and I finally have a chance at finding something I CAN do." She stood up straight. "And with respect ma'am, I'll succeed or I'll die trying!" She said stubbornly, with the tone of somepony who didn't know how to give up.

A smile played on her lips. "If this had been the guard, I would have pt'ed you until your hooves fell off for talking back to a superior officer like that." They turned down another hallway. "Picking youngsters like yourself for a mission. I understand the reasoning but you're undisciplined and I hope you understand this Tumble, because it'll soon be for real." They were in front of a door. The plaque said 'Executive Administrator - Silver Key'. Marenaris opened the door and Sarah found herself face to face with her father. He looked up. Even though she had given herself a fur dye to an orange colour, that wouldn't fool her father. "What?!" He barked. His eyes darting from Marenaris to Sarah and back., she seemed slightly amused by his powerful reaction. "Sarah?!" He practically yelled.

Sarah felt her ears pins back.

"Crap."

Trials and Tribulations Part III

The eyes of Silver Key were filled with shock, surprise and disbelief.

"Sarah!?" He practically yelled.

"Sarah?" Marenaris asked and then chuckled. "Ah, so that's why you wanted to keep your name a secret. I wondered about that."

Sarah tried to back away as soon as she saw the door, but couldn't get past the guard. Her eyes were filled with fear. The drill instructor hadn't gotten to her, the rules hadn't gotten to her, the threats hadn't gotten to her. This was what finally gave her the look of somepony truly terrified. "No! Wait!" She protested as she was pushed through the door. She gave a hopeful, innocent grin. "Um, no, I'm Tumbleweed, you must have me confused with somepony else."

Her father snorted, unimpressed. "Guards, remove the fur dye on the subject." A unicorn clad in the steel armor of an Evodian flashed his horn and Sarah was summarily reduced to her original colors. Marenaris kept quiet, observing the spectacle with detachment. "You lied to me and to your mother, and you signed a false name onto a list in my office!" He didn't ask this, it was an accusation and she had no defense.

Crap. Well, there wasn't going any back now. "I did what was necessary." She said. She didn't deny it. "I improvised in order to better myself. If I had asked you about the list face to face, you would have either denied its knowledge completely or forbidden me from joining." She countered. "Don't act like you wouldn't." Her voice rose a bit. "I've accomplished everything they've asked me to do here thus far. Do you know how proud I am of that? My entire life has been failure after failure after failure, and now I finally have a chance at something I'm good at." Her cheeks were tear stained now, she had NEVER talked back to her father like this before. "I swear to Celestia, if you take that chance away from me, I will NEVER forgive you for that."

His eyes narrowed. "Sympathy doesn't work on me here. You have no idea what this is, and I can't let you do it. Never forgive me? In about two hours you'll walk away with a happy memory of acting out the Pegasi of Pinenza." Marenaris strode forward.

"But I won't." Silver was taken aback by this. "You're not the only one with a hoof in this project, you don't have veto power. If you want this filly off the track, you'll need Iron Jaw's vote as well. She's got mine. She's a natural. Hayseed, she's what we've been looking for. I wouldn't give a bent bit for any of the other applicants."

Silver glared at her. "The tests aren't done yet." He said cooly. Marenaris was unaffected by his glare.

"You want to continue the circus? Fine with me. It'll be a nice delay."

Silver snorted again. "Fine."

Sarah went for the door, and paused at the guard. "Would you kindly return my coat to its dyed color? Unless you want to explain to the other applicants why I'm suddenly green," She countered. She turned her head to look at her father. In her eyes was a look of total and absolute hurt. "All I ever wanted was someone to believe in me, I thought I could at least count on you for that." She said quietly, and stormed out of the room.

Sarah's team was subjected to tougher trials than the others, which everyone discovered soon enough. With bitter determination they managed to complete them. During all that time Sarah didn't see her father at any time. The other teams fell away one by one, until they were put to fight each other in various small trials. Sarah's team was the only one left at the end. They were given a day to recuperate. Marenaris had presided over the tests, but hadn't talked to them, except to bark instructions. They were eventually ordered to come to comfortable room, next to the theatre scene. There were comfy chairs, snacks and beverages. Marenaris stood with them. "At ease. I won't judge you in the next test. I and Iron Jaw were ousted from the jury and two new ponies were appointed." Probably the machinations of Sarah's father. "The test will be unlike the other test.. but you should be used to that from now on. You will be tried individually. Only one of you will be able to make the final cut. The test lasts four hours each. Blitz you have thirty minutes, and a gong will sound, after that make your way through the door behind me. It leads to the prep room before you go face your test." She nodded to each of them and left. The air was bittersweet, the victory they had gotten felt half won.

"This is kinda sad." Rain Cloud said, scratching his neck. "I guess only one of us will be able to remember what we did together." Blitz smirked. "Lets make a deal, the one who gets through will make contact with the two others afterwards. Even if he or she will have to keep state secrets and won't be able to tell, I still want to be friends with you two afterwards."

Sarah looked up at Marenaris. "Do you think that even if we can't remember going through the trials together, we can at least request to be altered so that we remember going to camp together or something?" She asked. She did enjoy making friends, as anypony did, and hugged her forelegs around both of her friends. "I'll try, I'll really try. I don't want to forget you." She said. "And if I do...well.. I'm glad I met you both." She admitted. "We're a fantastic team, they can't take THAT away from us."

The gong noise came and they shared a quick group hug. "I've never been one for long goodbyes, you two have fun. You know where I live now. Ask me to go cloud diving if I've forgotten completely, its how I usually make friends!" And with that she was ushered into another small room, there were two friendly voices on the other side but it was cut off when the door closed. The minutes snailed by. There were no windows in the room, and only a small clock to tell the time. Rain Cloud snacked nervously. They hadn't been able to get even a gist of what the test was about. They chatted about what it could be, and what they would do in those cases. Suddenly a door opened, and a barely recognisable Blitz came in. She was wearing... blue paint?

"I failed." She said with a sigh. Two guards came out to follow her. "Goodbye you two... remember what I said. Take me cloud diving, we'll be friends again." She didn't get to say much more before she was escorted off. Blitz looked at the clock.

"It was a four hour trial, she failed after only two hours."

Sarah stood up with Rain Cloud, and followed him to the door. She rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. "Here. For good luck." She said, and kissed him on the cheek. There was no romantic implications behind it, it was the type of kiss which a filly might give a colt on the playground, only to cause that colt to go running to his mother screaming about having girl germs. "Try your hardest, even if you don't make it, if you try your hardest you can never truly fail." She smiled weakly.

Again she could hear two friendly voices greeting Cloud as he went through. They had all exchanged contact information, where they lived and how to reach them, and some befriending guidelines in case of no recollection. One hour dragged by. There were really no sounds in here to distract her, and she had fed herself on the snacks to the point of bursting long before. One more hour dragged by. Was her father keeping her to the end to make her more fatigued and more likely to fail for that reason. Too much on edge to nap. Another hour. He had beaten Blitz's time. Half an hour more. He might even be able to pass the test. Which meant that her father would probably pick him on the spot. Fifteen more minutes. He was almost there. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three... The door burst open and a Blitz wearing black paint and a bunch of stuff that fell off him almost ran out, looking shocked. Through the door she could hear her father hollering. "Useless!!! You're useless! I can't use you for anything now!" Before the door closed. He stood shivering on his legs. "I beat the test.. but I failed because... because..." He was surprisingly happy. And she understood why. On his flank was a cutie mark. It was a tragic and comedy mask. "I'm an actor! I'm going to be an actor, Tumbleweed!"

Sarah was overjoyed, she had seen dozens of her friends get their cutie marks, and this was no exception. Although she felt the usual pang of jealousy, she showed no sign of it, and promptly tackled him to the ground. "That's wonderful! I'm so happy for you, Rain. You deserve it, you really do." She gushed. "I'll come see all your shows!"

Two guards came to escort him out. "Well adios, remember what I said. You can probably rope me into cloud diving with Blitz, I've never done that before…" And he was out. Her father stood in the room, striding out from where the test had been done. "It had to be you. Of all the fillies and colts in the world it had to be you… the jury I picked thinks I won't be objective for the next round so I'm sitting it out on the sidelines." He said and sat his rump down on a chair. "…Sarah? I love you. I really do. This test, this mission requires me to be objective. And with you in it... I can't be that. Please, fail the test Sarah, or walk away now. I'll make sure you're reunited with your friends. Just please, don't go ahead with this." He reached out a hoof towards her. "Sarah I don't want to risk losing you and this mission is dangerous. Its not because I don't want to see you succeed."

Sarah ignored him completely, and pushed right past his outstretched hoof. She gave no sign of having even heard him at all. She moved towards the door, wasting no time. She had always been told what she couldn't do. Not a unicorn, not a pegasus, not an earth pony. She was useless. But not today.

"Start the test!" She demanded.

A gong sounded. She was in a dressing room, there were two large mirrors in front of her. Two earth ponies cowered under her bellowing command.

"Eeeee, don't shout like that! We're just here to prep you for the test. I'm Painted Wings!"

"And I'm Gluon Wings. Now take a seat." The two mares put Sarah into a comfortable recliner and waited for a bit. A picture was brought out showing a filly from all sorts of angles. She was a beautiful azure blue with a dark blue mane. Immediately the mares started washing the dye out of Sarah and began to apply a new one, of the same color as the filly. "Our first job is to make you look a little like Glitter Shine, which is the name of that unicorn. She is a posh high class filly. Your job is to go through a room, and talk to her for an hour or so and learn who and what she is. Your final test is then to convince her family that you're her." Painted Wings explained as she fixed a dummy horn to Sarah's forehead with some theater glue.

Sarah's brain was already working in overdrive, trying different strategies, different methods of assimilation. Within minutes she had a fairly confident smile on her face. "Got it." She said simply. She had almost told Rain Cloud to call Tragic Comet, she could have gotten a jump start on his career. But that would require telling him that she knew Princess Novaria, and by extension Princess Luna. And that was a risk she absolutely could not take. Not that it mattered. He wouldn't remember her. "Don't you worry, girls. I can do this."

It helped that Sarah had a fairly posh little sister. She had always played the helpful earth pony side kick when she was little, but Emerald had gently stuck a candle stick on Sarah's head a few times and let her be a unicorn in those games. However this was going to much different, she would have to learn how to impersonate another pony quickly.

"She doesn't know that she's here for a test, she only knows that she's waiting for an interview." Painted said.

"I think she's getting tired of it." Gluon added. "You'll be another unicorn filly coming in for the interview as well. Use the time as you want to, after that you come back here and we dress you up like her."

"We can dress you up a bit. Do you want us to make you a unicorn like her, and little high class?" "We can spruce up your mane, to make you look like another candidate for the theatre job? Or do you have a specific idea in mind. The sky's the limit, only we can't change your size. So don't ask us to dress you out like Celestia." She laughed jokingly.

Sarah shook her head. "No, just make me a unicorn. I can fill in the rest." She said simply. "I am just concerned about a complete stranger suddenly trying to get information out of her, wouldn't that come across as slightly suspicious?"

"We're not allowed to give you any more information about her, sorry." Painted said. They couldn't tell her whether Glitter had a sister or a brother, or how that pony looked. She would have to roll with what she had. They fixed a horn to orange dyed coat and quickly painted it, matching it up to her fur seamlessly.

"You need to be able to act well enough that you can impersonate her to her own family without them noticing for two hours." She kneaded Sarah's hair, brushing out the tangles that Emerald always complained about. "Presto, you're a unicorn."

Sarah nodded. "Good. Let me in."' She immediately adopted her pose, taking on an aire of superiority. Her nose lifted higher in the air, and her moments became more fluid and graceful. She waved off the pair of makeup artists, and once they had gone slipped through the next door. Upon requesting materials to improvise, she was allowed a clipboard in one hoof, and a pair of glasses perched on her nose. As she entered the next room, she took a quick look around.

Both Blitz and Rain Cloud had been able to pass this part at least. Blitz had only failed once the big test had begun, and Rain Cloud had failed once he discovered his true talent. Inside she found a blue unicorn filly tapping the ground with a forehoof. "I have been waiting for over an hour, without a word of how long it will take. Wait till my father hears about this." She complained, seeing Sarah striding in.

"If everything goes accordingly, you'll be in a better position than your father, and you can have anything you want." She explained. "My name is Ruby Mist, I am the daughter of Chardonnay, the employer of whom you are applying." She said with a wave of her hoof. "I do apologize for long its taking, but the applicant process is extremely selective. We only take the best with the best qualities, and my father simply does not wish to waste his time with the inferior. I'm sure you understand."

The flattery went very well with her. "Oh I do, I do!" She said. Was she gullible? Many Canterlot mares had been accused of being that, despite their unicorn nature. "And I accept the apology given, for the future applicants I nerves could be eased by saying how long a test lasts."

"Well that would ruin half the fun," Sarah explained. "Of course I DID suggest the waiting room at least have some classical music piped into it or SOMETHING of cultural significance, but that's not an issue for right now. In order to avoid wasting your valuable time, there is a very new method of interviewing in place. I will be taking the interview for you," She explained. Sarah wanted to harness the skills she had learned, wasn't that the point of the previous tests? "You will be allowed to go on your way, but you will need to allow me to harness the energy of your horn. That way, while I'm doing all the awful paperwork and getting my hooves covered in ink, a disgraceful experience which I'm sure you don't regret avoiding, I'll be able to ask you any questions via a mental link that I may need. Birthday, personal experiences, things of that nature." She explained with a shrug. "Your time is valuable, after all."

Glitter seemed enamored and satisfied with Sarah's business vernacular up until the point where she asked for the use of her horn. Sarah knew she was taking a risk doing that, but she wanted to show boldness and the ability to improvise in the field. "Allow the use.. of my horn? Can you do that?" The thought seemed frightening to her. Neither Sarah nor Glitter knew how to do that spell, but as if on cue a unicorn which Sarah recognized as a guard out of uniform approached the two.

"I'm here to expedite this mind meld." It was obvious that he had been thrown in, the testers apparently accepting Sarah's gambit, and giving her the tools she needed. "I will complain to my father of this, this is awful." She said with revulsion, but none the less, apparently wanting the fruits of the interview enough that she'd subject herself to a private invasion like that. The tip of her horn touched Sarah's. The guard to his credit pulled off an amazing feat, managing to give Glitter the experience that she was touching a magical horn, and expediting a mind meld. She felt herself spilling over into Glitter's mind, hearing her thoughts, feeling them as if they were her own.

'She's invading me, this is horrible,' Glitter thought. Sarah felt the sting of it, felt like running to a dark furred unicorn for comfort, telling him how awful it had been once this sorry excuse for an interview is over.

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It

Sarah, who had introduced herself as Ruby Mist, rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't be so dramatic. Of all the worst things that could happen, there are far WORSE possible things. At least I have a cultured upbringing, daddy saw to that. You could be forced to mind meld with a chariot driver, or a commoner." She shuddered, laying on the tone of superiority. "I have everything I need from you to complete the interview. You're free to go, when the interview concludes the mind link can be terminated." She said. "May I suggest a trip to HoofBeatz? All accessories are 60% off this weekend, and some of them are absolutely fabulous." She stuck her nose up for a bit of extra flair.

It was hard to keep up appearances, Her mind had been practically bullrushed by all sorts of knowledge from Glitter Shine's mind. She knew how that filly felt about practically everything. It was complicated, she was aloof and a daddy's girl, but some of that was just facade, she was genuinely curious about things but all the while she was trying to imitate her mother. Her sister was one of the few fillies she had a genuine down unpretentious relationship with. Glitter Shine excused herself, and the unicorn guard severed the link and escorted her back to the dressing room. The two mares in her was calling someone a couple of times.

"Sarah?" Asked Painted Wings for the fourth time, and Sarah's addled mind became aware that this was her name after all. The guard didn't comment on what had happened, and neither of the makeup artists seemed to know what had happened except that Sarah looked a bit dizzy. "Ready to get dressed up?"

The whole point of the test was to become Glitter Shine, and as soon as she exited the interview room, Sarah was instantly in character. She didnt drop any names, although the pair of mares were given a slight wink. That was the only indication given that she was up to something. "Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting?" She snapped. "You're supposed to be professional, and I'm just standing here. What are you waiting for? A Wonderbolts flyover? Do your jobs!" She barked. She played it safe, for all she knew she was being tested at that very moment.

With what she had acquired, being Glitter Shine mentally was easy. The hard part was deeper down also being Sarah, and being convinced of both at the same time. Painted and Gluon went to work, brushing in a colourful fur powder than 'returned' the orange coat to its proper blue. As one fixed eyelashes, the other smeared something slightly shimmering on her face. Painted blocked the mirror for a moment as her hoofs massaged and caressed the face of Sarah. When she was done, the difference was striking, Glitter Shine looked back at herself, a little stunned for a moment but regaining a smug appearance soon enough. "Drink this, it will help your voice." Painted offered a small bowl with a glowing liquid. It had no taste, but her throat tingled.

Sarah knew who she was, there was no doubt about that. She wasn't about to give that up. The truly difficult part was being able to rapidly switch between personalities. When she was Glitter Shine, it took a few precious seconds of coaxing to get Sarah back. Those few seconds could mean the difference between mission success and mission failure. Sarah started coughing. "Ugh, could you at least have put in some sparkling cider or a lemon or something?" She asked. Her voice took her by surprise, even though she'd expected it, it was another thing entirely to actually hear it.

It sounded a little different hearing it coming out of her own throat, but it was Glitter Shine's voice. Satisfied they finished adding length and gloss to her tail and mane. They even fitted a tiny bit of horn extension on her horn. It was hard if not impossible to tell that it was there, but her new knowledge told her that Glitter Shine had gotten it not long after her mother had gotten hers. The rest of their work was unnoticeable, they brushed some powders in here and there, added some shadowing an fine detail in the fur. Making her look even more Glitter Shine like than before, without her being able to tell what exactly it had been. Finally they were satisfied. A guard came and escorted Sarah to the next part. "In the next room Glitter Shine's father and little sister are waiting. He's in conversation with some other ponies, thinking that he has a business proposal to make, which will give you some time. You've got two hours, if during those two hours they suspect you in any way the test is over." And with no further clarification he opened a door and let her into a room, that seemed much like the one she left.

Light classical music was playing the background. A trio of high society ponies were conversing in the back. A dark unicorn in a stunning outfit was debating something. A little filly yellow unicorn, in a dress opened her eyes wide and smiled when she saw Glitter.

Glitter decided that she gotten tired of waiting and gone to wander, as youngsters were always prone to do. She didn't want to make assumptions however, and strode towards the young filly. Her magic worked Glitter Shines mind, pulling out names and histories from an extensive memory file. "Hello, Ebony." She said sweetly, reaching her neck down to give the unicorn a slight nuzzle. "Getting bored yet?" She asked.

"Mhmm." She nodded. Her father smiled dotingly. "And this, gentlecolts, is my stunning daughter, Glitter Shine. We were here for an interview to a part she wanted. Welcome back, my daughter." Glitter Shine beamed internally with happiness, basking in her fathers comments. He leaned down and placed a tender kiss straight between her ears. Ebony received one as well, once she had pouted enough.

Glitter Shine stood right by her father, standing up straight and beaming with pride. "You should have seen the other applicants, daddy. It was embarrassing. But of course I wish them the best, even if their best isn't all that good." She said with a shrug. "I'm a lock for the part," she said with confidence, and turned her attention to her fathers guests. "A good afternoon to you, sirs." Her father had likely raised her to be polite, especially to the well-off. It could be advantageous.

When the gong went Glitter Shine for a little while had forgotten what that meant, but not quite, not deep down. Ebony and her had a little fun playing a quiet games, such as twenty questions and eye spy. The two of them had a long history together, and loyal little sister she was. But when the gong went Sarah had to be in charge again. Guard ponies came in much to the consternation of her 'father'. "What is the meaning of this. Get your hands off… Glitter?" One of the guards began to unceremoniously dry off the powdered color, Sarah's orange showing forth here and there. The face cream was wiped off and presumable her face now looked like it had before. Ebony screamed and ran to her father and the two were escorted off. Sarah felt a slight pang of heartbreak at the look on Ebony's face.

The room was cleared out by the guard, leaving Sarah partially covered in fur paint. A counter potion had been offered to her and her voice was restored. She was alone in the room that had been decked out as a waiting area. It was clear now that it had been completely monitored all the time. There were three mirrors in the room and they must have all been see through. Eventually a door opened and three ponies entered. All of them were of a dark grey color, and wore official Evodian attire. A fairly somber appearance. "Sarah Key. Step forward." The mare in the middle said her name.

Sarah immediately stepped forward. She did not protest, hesitate or complain. While she felt a pang of fear at the tone of voice she had been addressed in. Had she done something wrong? She felt a bit of heartbreak as Ebony was escorted away, the fear in the fillys eyes only momentarily stunned Sarah. She saluted the guards, and took her place foward.

"We are all impressed that you made it this far." Addressing her with her full name it was obvious that her father had filled them in on probably everything.

"Considering that the task of the test was explained to you while you were being tested, you quickly adapted. We were very pleased to see you adapt a technique as a gambit for the extraction of information. Though its unlikely that you will be able to use this outside of this test, it shows the kind of creative thinking we're looking for." The pony on her right, a pegasus stallion raised a hoof.

"You could have done more with what you had been given. You made no attempt to involve yourself in the conversation your father was having with the three ponies you knew were agents placed by us. They would have helped to include you in their subtle interrogation of him." The one in the center took over again.

"However as this was not what was tested, only what we suspected you'd be doing, we still vote that you completed the test as it was given to you. None of them suspected anything."

Sarah tried very hard to remain composed, for she knew that jumping up and down like a madfilly would be unacceptable. "Requesting permission to speak." She said quietly, for she had been warned in training only to speak when told she could.

"Permission granted." The one in the center said, and gave Sarah a smile.

"May I ask what will happen to the family? I assume they will be memory wiped. Especially the youngster, seeing her sister torn apart right before her eyes could be unbelievably traumatic." She had a soft spot for kids, and only wanted to be sure she hadn't done something that would ruin the filly's life.

"We aren't heartless, they had already been mind wiped when they came here. Glitter Shine's father consented to participating in the test, and having his mind wiped of having given that consent. Afterwards his memory of that will be restored, but his memory of what happened at the test will be blanked. Needless to say that Glitter Shine and Ebony won't remember anything, except spending a day with their father. Now as for you, this test marks you as a satisfying candidate for the mission. Follow the door behind us back to the waiting room you came from. Silver, your father, is waiting there with a contract and the mission profile…" She hesitated. "If he fails to hand these to you, you can call on a guard to assist."

Sarah smiled brightly. "I'll follow in just a moment. May I have just one minute by myself? This is the first time I've ever really accomplished anything, I just want the briefest of moments to take it in. I won't be more than sixty seconds." She promised.

They nodded, and she gave Sarah a smile again, and left by the door behind them back into the waiting room. It closed and she was left by herself. Wearing posh dress, half smeared in make up, physically and mentally exhausted. And victorious.

Sarah looked in all directions to convince herself she wasn't being watched, then did something she hadn't done since for years. She started bouncing up and down in circles. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" She squealed. She wasn't useless! Even better, she actually mattered, was actually important to a cause! It had begun getting to the point where even the Cutie Mark Crusaders were starting to feel sorry for, she was the oldest member, almost a mare. Sarah quickly composed herself, such behavior was unacceptable. She pushed herself through the door, returning to the waiting room.

Silver Key sat on a chair, a stack of papers lying on the table in front of him, and one next to it. The four hours hadn't made his disposition more pleasing. "I suppose it had to be you, Sarah." He sighed. "Congratulations on beating the gauntlet I set for the ponies. I was sure someone would fit the bill, and it appears that this is you. Sarah.." He looked at her. "I'm genuinely happy that you've demonstrated the strength of character and the cunning needed to do this." He shook his head. "And I'm not surprised that you could do that, I always said that you were a smart filly and that was your greatest strength… but will you please reconsider this. If there's anything in the world I can give you to make up for it just ask, as long as you don't sign that paper."

Sarah had already signed it while he was talking, and a cold defiance was in her eyes. "Why? So I can go back to being a failure at everything? That's not happening. You ALWAYS told me I'd be good at something one day, even if it took a while to find it. Well I'm good at this, and you owe me a mission briefing."

He pushed across a stack of papers. A script. He touched it with his hoof. "Its a disguise spell, to anyone but the ones initated in the spell, it will look like a manuscript for a play. Touch your own hoof to it."

Sarah frowned, there was certainly a lot of mystery to this entire thing. She lifted her hoof, and pressed it against the stack of paper.

"The contract signs you up as an agent of Evodia, so from now on you'll be following orders from them from now on." In some sense this made her a traitor as she had Canterlot citizenship, though since she wasn't in the Canterlot guard it wasn't a great crime. The papers changed before her eyes. The title was now Project Umbra, eyes-only secrecy, signed by Her Majesty Novaria. "Not long after I came to Canterlot, I had the opportunity to learn magic under the tutelage of Celestia. Something your mother gave to me once… it was around the time when Discord had broken free and had been reformed. You and your sister were little at the time. I was busy at the time researching projects for Novaria. Evodia doesn't have any form of great project akin to the elements of harmony, and while Novaria is a capable alicorn she's not the regal sisters, and she's not exactly overflowing with love."

"Ain't that the truth." Sarah muttered.

"There are several threats to Evodia's security and Novaria wants to be able to give that country the means to handle those problems on by itself. Not having to rely on diplomatic relationships with Canterlot. After the expulsion of the changelings from the Crystal Empire they became the number one threat. They've tried smaller attacks on Canterlot and the surrounding cities in Equestria on a small scale several times, but have been driven back. In one case by the elements of harmony again. This has lead to them making excursions towards Evodia. And while I'm sure that the regal sisters and the elements of harmony could provide the help Evodia needs, Novaria wants to accomplish this through her country's own means. So I proposed ways of defeating them. One of them, which is the one I will explain to you, is to infiltrate them." The purpose of the testing was starting to become clear.

"The changelings are by nature masters of disguise. There's almost no limit to the forms they can take, though they can't increase their powers by changing forms. They are by nature, fliers, they're fairly strong and they can do magic within certain limits. Placing an agent into their midst was a nightmarish idea, because unless that agent was an alicorn, and you can imagine how easy it is to find someone like that, then even the best illusion spells couldn't hide that the agent would lack certain natural powers."

"It was around then that I met Discord, through Alicia." Sarah remembered the draconequus who would come by from time to time when she and Emerald were fillies. Usually with hilarious effects. "Discord, seemed to know something about the origin of the changelings. He was key in making them, though the way he said it indicates that it wasn't intentional. There was once a village that he attacked. He said he 'took something from each of them at the heart of their being'."

"It was a vague comment, but it was a powerful clue to what had happened. It took years of consulting with unicorns to get to the bottom of this. All ponies Sarah, at their core, have a... seed, I think we can call it. This is what gives each and every pony all of the possibilities, all the potentials for what they can become. When you're born, some of the fruits of your seeds are actualized and that's then who you are. The seed inside every pony holds the potentials for all that any pony could ever by. When a mother gives birth to her children, they each receive a duplicate of her seed, that's then actualized into three new children with their own 'actual' abilities. There's pegasus wings, great powers, the ability to be a great chef, a master mason, and other things right at the heart of everyone. That's what Discord took from them... they became, I don't know what, but I imagine it must be like pulling the plug out on a filled sink. Whatever they were was slowly draining away."

"And with that they naturally started taking the actualities inherent in other things around them. They couldn't produce any of their own anymore. They had no seeds. I have reasons to suspect that they seized on some insects and managed to put some of their inherent seeds into them, though it wasn't a good match. And so the changelings received their form.. partially pony, partially insect, with a form that's slowly draining away, needing to take emotions, life, essence, all the things they don't produce much of on their own from others."

Sarah was very quiet for a moment, her brain slowly working. "Was that what Sombra did to the Crystal Empire? Took away their essence and everything that they could have been?" She had only learned about the stories in school, but as she understood it the ponies there had been severely changed until they were restored.

"No, Sombra didn't take away the seeds of the crystal ponies, but he did feed off their strength much like Changelings do. However the crystal ponies could still produce new things on their own, develop new talents, grow and change on their own. Changelings can't, they need what other living things produce to do that. The insect parts they incorporated a long time ago do produce a little bit, but its a trickle compared to the flood they need."

"However, this lead me to see if we could reproduce the effects. If we can turn a normal healthy pony into a changeling, simple by duplicating what happened. Removing the core of that pony, bonding them with the core of a particular insect.. then we have a changeling agent of our own making." He explained. "We've already done this, twice, once in some simple studies. When Discord removed the core seed of each pony, he simply threw them away and they're simply gone now. We do it in a controlled way and afterwards we're able to reinsert it. All the old actualities come back, both subjects were returned to their prior form and abilities."

"But there was a catch. In both cases, we could do nothing about the cutie mark. When a pony bonds mentally with their actual being... with the talents the seed has given them... it leaves a permanent imprint on their form. And becoming a changeling simple doesn't change that. I suspect its because the cutie mark is a mental imprint that simple manifests itself physically. We tried forgetting spells, but without causing permanent memory loss its probably unlikely that we could erase the cutie mark. In all of recorded history no pony, amnesiac or not, has ever lost his or her cutie mark. So we need an agent who doesn't have a cutie mark."

Sarah was quiet for a long time. "So this whole test was to find a pony to become a Changeling?" She asked. It made sense to her now, why he didn't want her to be involved in it. He'd be losing his daughter, and there were a million and one ways in which she could be tortured or killed. "You say you've removed the seed already, have any of your tests actually succeeded in putting it back in?"

"In both cases yes, and all their actualities returned, their appearance, their abilities, everything. In fact... you've meet the second test subject. The first one was a simple extraction and reinsertion of the core. We went further with her, bonding her with the core of a certain insect which matched the changelings characteristics. She spent quite a bit of time as a Changeling, and we know most of what we do know about how they work physiologically through her. Marenaris, your instructor."

"Why is called Project Umbra?" Sarah asked. She was slightly afraid now, but wasn't about to let her father know that. She'd come too far.

"In Ancient Equestrian, Umbra means shadow," Silver explained. Umbra is the innermost and darkest part of a shadow, where the light source is completely blocked by the occluding body. An observer in the umbra experiences a total eclipse."

"I want to do this." She stomped her front hoof down on the ground. "But you still haven't told me exactly WHY you're doing this." She said hesitantly. "You only said there were threats. Are we simply gathering intelligence, or is there a bigger movement?"

He looked a little dismayed but continued. "Your mission will be explained in full detail. We know that Changelings are massing in the Everfree forest, planning to make a long trip to Evodia. It is very likely that this means they'll attack Evodia, but we don't know how. We plan to strike first, but we need to know how many there are, where they are, their movements and plans. You'll spend two months in training, we can't afford giving you more time than that, Marenaris will be your instructor again, your personal instructor. Then you will intercept a Changeling recon mission and capture one of their officers. You'll get a chance to study that Changeling for a while, and then you're expected to take their place and go deep undercover. You'll be given license to do anything that needs to be done to stay in that role undiscovered. We'll give you means to send us information secretly bi-weekly. That's the gist, the details are in the file... read them, it's all you'll read from now on."

"I'll make you proud, daddy." She said confidently, then a bit of coldness returned. "At least, I would if you had any faith in me." With that, she gathered up the materials, and left.

Suspicious Minds

Rain drops fell against the windows to the southward veranda. It was stormy outside, the winds howled in the dark. The old Canterlot house was stone, but it had its share of nooks and crannies. The winds made strange noises as they sought through the weaknesses in the building. This wasn't what had woken up Angel, nor the the fact that her light hind leg had slipped out from under the sheets, and was fairly cold and ache from it. Ever since becoming a mother her senses were on constant alert all night. It had taken only a few sniffles from one of her foals to wake her up. A sobbing and whimpering noise, that was aggravated every time a loud high pitched roar of wind was sent through the house, called her from down the hallway. Silver slept as soundly as a huge boulder, it was doubtful that Angel could wake him with any gentle effort, and he wouldn't be running on all cylinders if he did wake up at this time of night.

Angel was curled up tightly against her husband, her front legs around his waist, nose on his neck. Even when they were not involved in any intimate encounters, she loved nothing more than being with him, for his very presence assured her that everything would be alright. It took some very subtle movements and flexibility in order to make her way out of the bed without waking up. She kissed his cheek, and clopped silently down the hallway. She and Silver had discussed carpeting the floor to reduce the sound of hooves, but it would be much harder to keep clean that way. With a nudge of her nose, she pushed open the door to the boys' room, eyes adjusting to the darkness fairly quickly as she peered inside to see if any of her little stallions were awake.

Quick slept almost as soundly as his father, noise itself wouldn't wake him. A conversation wouldn't. If the wall of the bedroom fell out, it would at most cause him to turn over in his sleep. Quick didn't get scared anymore, not publically. She knew he could be frightened, but it didn't make him cry or retreat. Roll on the other hand was a softer boy. But something was wrong, because he was awake, she could see that much, but he hadn't turned to face her. He was sitting on his rump, his body twitching. Something was wrong with his eyes, but she couldn't see what. Occasionally his body would make twitching motions, as if acting out movements in a dream.

Instantly on alert, Angel entered the room and sat down on Quick's bed. The two had only recently been given their own beds on opposite sides of the room after sharing one as foals, which instantly elevated Silver and Angel to best parents ever status. Angel placed a hoof around her colt, a concerned tone drifting out towards him. "Roll? Roll, what is it?"

"She's coming after me! It's Sarah... she's hungry, and she looks like Sarah and then she doesn't, and I can't find you, mom where are you!" He was practically wailing the last part almost in desperation, his forelegs shifting a bit again as he ran in his dream. Angel could diagnose many magical ailments. Even pegasi could be magically afflicted, but Roll didn't show any signs of an evil dream spirit affecting him in anyway, or even one of Nightmare Moon's lingering nightmare strands. It was an especially magical dream she could tell that much, and it was an abnormal one. Yet she couldn't see anything apparent about it. Even though Roll was frightened, the magical energies felt... wholesome, good. Then she saw what was wrong with his eyes, there were tiny lights inside of them. This was an especially powerful dream. His body tensed. "The shadow goes deep! The war begins tonight! She'll bite fate with her teeth! One pony will challenge an army with his might. One white feather falls… the sun shines on a hill… a dark princess calls… and one heartbeat stands still." And with that it was over, he blinked. "Mom?"

Roll was being held tightly in the forelegs of his mother, her hooves gently stroking his mane and back. She did not wake him, or try to rouse him out of it, for she knew doing such a thing during one of his episodes could be dangerous. She merely held him, horn glowing and recording his words to be inscribed in her records later. It may be important, especially if the situation worsened and she needed to relay the transcript to a therapist or counselor. Alicia was a good family friend, but no doctor, and her help could only go so far. When Roll finally spoke, Angel breathed a sigh of relief, and looked down upon her son. She was never sure if he could remember what happened or not, and didn't want to bring it up to him.

Roll disarmed the situation. "You're squishing me." But he didn't mind her hugs in anyway, he was much more up for cuddling than his bigger brother. His little hooves pushed a little at her stomach, and hugged it. Luna would be the only one who could really confirm it, but it was likely that this had been a true dream of premonition. It wasn't clear, but some parts had been. Sarah; her looking like herself and then not, and then clear stanzas which were obviously part of a prophecy. Sarah... she had been gone for quite a while now. Cutie Mark Crusader senior member, a month of frolicking with other kids doing many crazy activities, and picking apples afterwards. Then she had written about going to stay somewhere and that Silver knew the details. After that she hadn't gotten much.

Sarah had been gone for almost four weeks now, and would be due to return home any day now. Angel had only gotten a single letter from Sarah, but had, a bit reluctantly, convinced herself that Sarah was busy making friends and had no time for her mother. Of course Angel was not okay with this situation though, even though Sarah was the oldest and her younger sister Emerald was out on her own. Angel had a deep attachment to her first born, and didn't want Sarah leaving the nest yet.

It didn't take long for Rolling Wave to slowly relax again, as usual he made no mention of the dreams he'd just had. The breathing he had slowed down, and his head slumped against her neck, resting there. He was asleep again, soundly and deeply. No more was made of it, even the winds outside had died down a bit. The storm was easing up.

It was quite a while before Angel left Roll again. She stayed with him for almost an hour, in case anything happened again. When nothing did, she tucked him back into bed, and kissed him. Angel returned to her room, and resumed her favorite position right next to Silver, nuzzling into his neck. "Don't worry Silver, house is just burning down, nothing to worry about," she whispered in a tease.

He had been snoring for while. The comment she gave didn't wake him up in any way, thought he mumbled a bit in his sleep. When she nuzzled his neck, he tensed a little and breathed a deep sigh, and then continued sleeping thought without the snoring, breathing slowly and contently.

***

A quick shower had freshened up both of them, though Angel had gotten distracted a bit during the preening, and brushing of manes and feathers. Oat toasts simmered in butter, apple jam spreads, cheeses, fermented fruit juice, made their morning spread complete. Silver had set up while Angel had busied herself with her lengthy morning routine. Quick was hovering out in the yard, Roll trying to follow suit. Though Quick tended to be loud in all his efforts, he was a very attentive big brother. Little Roll was in good hooves. Though that brought the premonition Angel had been witness back to the fore of her mind again.

Angel had cut her morning routine short. In fact, she would have cancelled it completely if she hadn't been planning on going to town that day. She needed to look presentable, after all. Silver had found Angel sitting in the middle of their bedroom, a very strained look on her face. It was a look she hadn't given him in years, in fact almost the same one she'd given him when she'd found out the truth about genocide on Earth. "Close the door." She said, her voice not even so much as hinting at playfulness. Breakfast was made, it could wait a minute or two.

Silver knew that look, and it caused him some moment of worry visible on his face. Horn shimmering, the door closed behind him. Breakfast could wait indeed. He sat down not far from her. "You go first." He said.

"It's Roll." She said with worry. Thank Celestia, Silver wasn't in trouble this time. "It's happening again." She had spoken with Silver about the colts active night terrors on several occasions before, but he had never sounded as worried as she did now. They didn't happen every night, usually only during strange or powerful weather.

"He's had another dream?" Years ago Silver, even though he had learned to accept fantastic things, and even embraced them with excitement, things like premonitions gave him pause. However she had seen his acclimation to the world over the years. Especially the past two under the influence of Novaria. His eyes were keenly interested. "What was it about?"

Angel began to pace. She was scared, although she had no idea of the things that Silver was involved in, and certainly no idea of the things that Sarah had gotten herself involved in. "It was about Sarah. He was muttering things, she was herself, and then she wasn't herself, she kept changing." She said. "Silver, I know you're against it, but I really think we should involve Princess Luna in this. She'd be able to see what's going in his dreams." She pleaded.

The mention of Sarah was a genuine surprise to him. She asked her to play the premonition back to him, and he got to hear it a few times. He closed his eyes and sighed with a grunt of dissatisfaction. "Symbolic and useless, all it really tells is that some awful is going to happen." He didn't pace, but was obviously weighing the words of the prophecy. "I think you should go to Luna about the stanza part. The part of about Sarah... the princesses shouldn't know about that part, if you want to protect Sarah." He said.

Angel immediately narrowed her eyes, a hint of suspicion flaring up inside her. She didn't want to think that Silver would lie to her, but something about it just didn't make sense. "And... why would Sarah need protecting?" She asked hesitantly.

"I can't tell you. Not all of it." He said first and foremost. "Your mothers orders, eyes-only secrecy. The documents are in my study but since you've abdicated, you're not a princess of Evodia and you can't read it." He explained, walking over to the window looking out. "I was doing a project that required screening for candidates for a mission among the pony populace. I had sent my list of candidates and set up a training camp. Sarah... it was around the time she learned she wasn't an earth pony. I had gotten a migraine attack and she ran home for the medicine. The door to my study was open. Usually my papers are kept on secrecy paper, but not this one. She read it, added a false name, and snuck out there in disguise… I can't say anything more than that. Not where she is, what the mission is. In fact I'm skirting the boarders even telling you this much."

Angel was quiet for what felt like hours. A mix of emotions ran through her. Confusion, fear, anger. Part of her wanted to strike Silver with her hoof across the back of his head, but that wouldn't solve anything, and she had never once, never ONCE hit him. What sort of example would that set for her children, for herself, for her mother? She sat in silence for a good long while, and eventually turned to face him. Her eyes were filled with hurt and betrayal. "I am not going to waste my energy becoming upset, I can tell that whatever you're doing. nothing I can say will get you to change her mind." She raised herself to all fours. "I will only tell you this. You bring her home safe. Because if anything happens to her, and you did nothing, I will not forgive you." She hissed the last part in a barely audible voice. "You bring her home, Silver." She pushed past them back out towards the kitchen, where breakfast was waiting.

Angel didn't say it out loud, but the 'or else' in her voice was impossible to miss.

Part II/Day One

Two weeks ago Sarah had passed the initial test. That time had been fierce, and hard and she had to face it alone. Marenaris was her mentor, teacher, lord and god throughout it. And had apparently decided that a year long education was to be packed into the next two months of training. She was learning rank and military discipline. Physical exercises took a second importance to learning how to sneak and think tactically. Though a head shorter than most ponies, she already had a rank and a uniform. Here she wasn't Sarah, she was special agent Umbra. The lunar guards that Marenaris came from had been espionage experts. They knew how to hide and make use of disguises and shadows. Those, Marenaris taught her in endless drills, which she mixed up with her being given the responsibility of leading teams of guards all older than herself. She failed a lot, yet Marenaris never looked frustrated. Umbra was a casual earth mare, and not a military expert, yet they were trying to teach her all those skills in as little time as possible. The big success last week in all of her failed training session, was having one of her team members 'survive' in the training game.

The mission outline was her bible now. It contained everything any pony had ever managed to learn about the changelings, both from the few mentions in history of them, and from eye witness testimonies and magical studies during the Canterlot invasion. Yet Marenaris had told her nothing about the time she had spent as one. Not when they would do the procedure, or what exactly it consisted of except the extraction of a pony's life seed, and adding the minuscule lifeseed of a particular insect. From the time the clock rang six A.M in her bunk, to her being in her dark uniform and cleaned, was less than fifteen minutes. She saluted Marenaris. Another morning in hell had begun. "This is going to be different. They're moving up some of the schedules, it seems the changelings are going to do their attack sooner than expected." The base of operations was a seemingly innocent looking farm, though a whole base had been dug underneath it. They walked through rough shaped tunnels, passing Evodian guards. The frequency of unicorns not in uniform was increasing here as they went towards the magical division. "They're going to make you a changeling today, and you'll train as one for the rest of the month. After that, I'll give the mission a go or no-go."

Sarah very nearly stopped in her tracks, in fact she did trip over her hooves quite suddenly, and only barely avoiding falling flat on her face. She quickened her pace to catch up to Marenaris, having fallen behind. There were a million and one things she wanted to say, but nothing that she dared to say. "Yes ma'am." She said. Her eyes reflected fear, but her voice retained confidence. She had been unusually withdrawn the last few days, but if something was bothering her, she had made absolutely no mention of it. "A few weeks ago, where you go, I followed. Soon I will lead, and others will follow. That is if I could stop killing Sage Brush in training," she laughed weakly.

They were being lenient with her, or perhaps Marenaris was showing off a maternal side. The pet some called her. She was allowed to be at ease around Marenaris outside of training. Thankfully her having an officers rank, but only just and practically only of symbolic meaning, meant she could speak freely around most of them. "You will make it Umbra, even if I'm gonna have to kill you to make you make it." She said. Two more lunar guards saluted Marenaris and Umbra as they went through a door. There weren't many of them, clad in dark iron armor. Were they here on Luna's behalf? That seemed enormously unlikely, but did that mean that these guards were here against her knowledge? The door opened up to a large room, unicorns of all sorts were everywhere. In the middle was a single crystal coffin standing vertically, and open. Next to it was a long silver lance that tapered into a thin point. A small jar was located nearby with a black and fairly aggressive insect inside. Many of the unicorns stomped their hoof in a welcoming clap. "Our test subject Umbra has arrived. We will proceed at once." Marenaris removed Umbra's uniform and emblems. "Being afraid is fine, use the adrenaline to stay focused, after the change you might lash out. I'll be right there to take it."

Sarah was confident that she could do it. Even if she wasn't doing as well as she wanted to do in her training, compared to all the tests she'd taken trying to define her talents, it was the mos successful thing she'd ever done. Even if she couldn't be an earth pony, she was convinced she could be a damn good soldier, enough to make her parents proud of her. She stood and looked Marenaris in the eyes, a little nervous perhaps, but definitely not scared. "I've come this far, I'm not giving up now. I can do this!"

The mission profile had told her what changelings were like, as seen from the outside. How they had acted, and what could be gleaned about their instincts and drives. Marenaris smiled with pride "Don't tell me kiddo, show me." Now was the time to see what it was really like, and finish her training. Two unicorn doctors gave her a health examination, before asking her to stand up on two inside the coffin. There was a small circular hole in the translucent crystal like surface. She was strapped in and made to relax. As much as was possible when they finally closed the lid. Outside, seen through the bluish haze that she could see through the crystal that surrounded her, she saw the silvery needle being brought closer.

Her mind was blurry, she knew they had talked to her through some of the steps. Asked her to answer simple questions, adding numbers, asking about events of the past few day. A long thin silver needle had been pushed through a circular hole in the coffin. It had penetrated her belly with a sharp pang, quickly dulled by anesthetic spells. Its cool length had slid into her being. And when it pulled out.. she felt like she was falling, all sounds seemed to quiet, the world seemed to darken. Substance-lessness. Her weak voice screamed not-quite sounds in the coffin. It had been taken from her, she was half herself, and not really there. Emptiness was filling her with a sickening sense of nothing-to-feel. Then some foreign entered her body, something that counteracted the nothingness that was eating away at her. All her limbs filled with its sensation, her jaw, her eyes, her tail, all parts of her got a sense of feeling back. A hunger burned in her chest, pure rage. Her pulse was beating quickly inside of her. She fought the straps with strength she'd never had before. The crystal coffin opened. Marenaris was looking at her as the straps were giving away. Spittle filled her mouth, around new sharp teeth. She was hungry indeed.

Sarah was confused, enraged, disoriented. This new being of hers was both complete and incomplete at the same time. For brief moments, there were lapses in judgement, as if she wasn't entirely sure who she was. She knew she had to feed, but food was in short supply. Her mind whirled. Meat? No. That wouldn't do. Her attention focused on a guard standing near Marenaris. A guard whom had a wife and three foals at home, a family who he'd give anything for. It was him that Sarah tried to lunge for, jaws gaping.

Wonderful unrestrained motion. It was as if she had been held back all her life, and was only tasting real freedom now. Movement has swift as reflex, and driven by pure instinct. It was intoxicating. He braced himself for impact. A loud female voice yelled something. Familiar. Sarah's entire body felt hollow as a bell, she needed to be filled. Hard dark exeskeleton impacted a hoof that came between Sarah and the guard. Marenaris wrested her with surprising speed into the ground, pinning all four hooves of Sarah against herself. "Agent Umbra control yourself. I got blood thirst when I got out as well, it will pass. Be at ease!" She commanded.

Sarah opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was an angry hiss. She had not yet asked if Changelings could speak properly, and hadn't seen it in the file. Of course, if she could, it would take a moment of adjustment, and she would find her words again. But for now, just an angry hiss. The voice was familiar, and Sarah struggled. But something inside her told her that this voice was one to be listened to. Eventually her struggling became minimal, then subsided altogether.

All struggles were futile against her captor. Some unicorns approached, perhaps to subdue Sarah magically, but the lunar guard ordered them to stand their grown. Slowly, the red hot aggression leaked out of Sarah. She remembered the proceedings, going in there, what they had been trying to do. She had turned into a changeling. Ready to spit something that was gathering in her throat at Marenaris, and... it wasn't clear exactly what her instincts wanted her to do afterwards. Feed, was the only part she understood. Her mouth felt odd, large sharp teeth had replaced her molars. The rage inside her lessened to the point where she merely felt like breaking something. "You will get something to feed eventually, soldier." Marenaris said. "Are you ready to stand up at attention?"

Sarah did not stand. She wanted to feed, and she wanted to feed now. These others had the ability to give her food, and they were withholding it from her. Sarah was slowly regaining her control, to the point where she told her new body that it would be unwise to spit at Marenaris. But the Changeling spat at her anyway. Her body was having minor seizures, as if it wasn't entirely in complete control of itself. Sarah was fighting back.

Marenaris ducked out of the way and only caught some of the large green wad of thickened ooze that hit her face. A pink unicorn got her face smeared in it, falling onto her back. The lunar guards grip was relentless, and she kept her head away from Sarah's. The anger was slowly subduing, turning into a deep sensation of frustration. Sarah had never felt a hunger like this in her life, even when she was her most ravenous. If you want on hunger strike you'd be hungry for the first few days, and after that the hunger disappears. This was hunger turned up to maximum, it resided in her belly like a beast. "Agent Umbra, are you at attention?" She asked again, gelatinous rubber like goo hanging from the right side of her face.

Sarah finally managed to get in control of herself. It was hard, extremely hard, but she was not one to give up that easily. At first, she merely stopped twitching. Then the resisting stopped. Eventually, a flare of recognition went up in her eyes. Her legs were shaking, but Sarah managed to raise herself to all fours. Sarah saluted Marenaris. She couldn't speak just yet, but was at least in control of herself.

She noticed the dark appendages she was raising to her head, and the three holes clean through it. The red hot fury was dying, blood lust it had been called. Fitting name. She'd could have bitten straight through Marenaris. The hunger was still there, but she knew that they'd soon provide her something to feed. Behind Marenaris was the large silver needle they had plunged into her. At its back was a small crystal vase. And inside that hovered a faint light, a little minute green spectre. "At ease Umbra, you did well. Are you in control of yourself?"

Sarah gave a few nods of acknowledgement. She was indeed herself, at least as much herself as could be expected in current conditions. Her eyes locked on the crystal vase, distracted, and for a few moments lost eye contact with Marenaris. She knew instantly what it was, but that didn't make it any less fascinating.

Three unicorns were actively scrutinizing it, measuring its size and shape, commenting on its brightness or lack there of, some of them seemed to be convinced that it was noticeably dimmer than Marenaris and what that might mean. Rolling up various instruments to examine the little amorphous lump of pale light. Her seed, this is what gave her all her talents and abilities. Extracted from her, it meant that she no longer had them permanently. At least not on her own. Her form still bore the imprint of Sarah. Yet as long as she was a changeling, she would not unlock anymore potentialities that Sarah could unlock in herself. She would have to unlock her changeling side instead. Put back into her, it should restore her. The unicorns shot off a champagne bottle. Sarah felt more and more unsteady on her hooves. "Walk with me." Marenaris ordered and took her out of the room into the hallway. "You'll always be hungry, don't think that the meal you're about to get will change that. You won't be dying from hunger, but its always going to gnaw at you." She explained to the new changeling.

Sarah walked, but tripped several times. She didn't like the feeling of air through her holes, and wondered if she would give off a whistling noise if she moved fast enough. She was unsteady but could walk, and followed her instructor obediently. She began to ask Marenaris a question, but all that came out was a rapid series of clicks, and she gave up her attempt midway through a long chirp.

"Speak slowly, don't just talk, you've got a whole new brain in there. Think about how your tongue used to move, you can do it agent Umbra." She said as the guards escorted them to a room. Inside was a unicorn standing ready to take notes. And a female guard without her armor. It was obvious that she one simple from her confident and almost defiant stance. Mild contempt went across her face as she saw Sarah. "This is Agent Umbra, she has just finished her change. Agent Umbra this is Star Burst, she has volunteered to be your meal… now we are not just going to let you go nuts and eat her mind. She is going to think of a very positive experience she had, this will be the easiest for you to feed on. Once you're finished with that, you're going to stop and back away. Don't feed until your hunger is gone, you'll always be hungry. Is that clear?" Marenaris explained.

Sarah nodded again. She was scared, but there was no room for error here. She had read her file and her mission briefing, and had a fairly good idea on how to react. It was just difficult juggling two personalities and two species in one body. At the same time. Sarah's tongue felt thick and heavy, but she eventually managed a weak "...'esssss..." She felt embarrassed, as if more was expected her and she'd been a disappointment thus far.

They worked quickly, she had barely been brought out of the chamber, or even gotten partly used to her body and they were already presenting her food on the new terms. The lust came back, her throat almost seemed to open up in readiness. Star Burst looked a little revolted, but consigned herself to it. "Do not put up a fight Star Burst, let her approach and do it on her own terms." As unnatural and wrong as it was, it couldn't have felt more right. She was just doing what was coming naturally. Her jaws opened, fangs gleaming, and she leaped upon Star Burst.

The Night that Ends at Last

Sarah couldn't quite remember what had happened, only that she had never gotten to feed. She remembered Star Burst being brought in, drooling, feeling powerfully hungry. She remembered being overcome by emotion and instinct, and then there had only been blackness. Marenaris later explained to her that she had attacked Star Burst, and as a consequence had not been allowed to feed until she'd gotten herself more under control.

Project Penumbra was reaching its deadline, a deadline which had moved closer every time new information poured in about changeling movements. Whatever they were planning to do, confirmed changelings living undercover as ponies were leaving towns and moving an undisclosed location in the Everfree forest. Which meant that soon they would be quitting operations in this part of Equestria, so the timeslot for inserting agent Umbra into their ranks was getting ever more narrow.

Sarah, codename Umbra, was finally getting into the swing of her new abilities. Instinct was another matter. She could climb on walls, and hang from rafters. It was no trouble for her to speak now, though they weren't sure yet whether changelings had a language of their own. A possible way to deal with this, if she couldn't learn it during the mission, would be to have her pretend being a changeling who had been undercover so deeply and for so long that she had forgotten her mother tongue. The training sessions became harder. All the tests required getting a team through some exercises, with her giving the commands. Charging on ahead on her own didn't work, and barking orders left and right didn't work either. The exercises were varying shades of unfairness, and the odds were always stacked against her. Yet Marenaris had the greatest confidence that she would eventually beat it. She had gotten better... but she was still no where near being a competent leader.

Her wings finished growing in during that month. Large wispy silk wings with a few unaesthetic placed holes, like most of her legs. The magic of them wasn't the same as that of pegasi, but it would still allow her to fly. First hovering, and finally she had done manouvers in the underground facility, trying to keep up with Marenaris who's batlike wings gave her a surprising agility. Flight was everything Roll and Quick had gushed and dreamed about, everything her mother had admitted in weak moments, and more. There was nothing to compare it to. No matter how bad your day had been, if you got to fly by the end of it all other cares seemed to melt away. She could be poor, without a dime or any honour to her name, but if she could still fly she wouldn't have cared for anything.

But this mission wasn't about flying. There were darker aspects of her changes. She was a changeling now. And changelings didn't live off bread alone. It was true what had been said, nothing really sprang out of her anymore. She was still bright and creative, but it was hard to think of an original idea that she hadn't already thought of once, or been trained in. If she didn't feed, her ability to be independent dropped. And she was whatever she fed on. When she feed from a unicorn, she would have an unusually sharp mind and magic come so much more easily to her. And the feeding itself... it felt disturbingly good. It was an instinct. A need. When her face got close to the subjects she could sense their emotions, their fears, their loathing of this, and behind that, the good memories... a father reaching down giving his favorite filly a nuzzle, or somepony's first time flying, the excitement of when a new recruit graduated from the academy. She felt them as if they were her own, soaked in their triumphs, their loves, their passions. Her face would part from them, when she stepped back, they'd look drained and tired. Eventually they would recover, a fact that Sarah had to be reassured of several times, and eventually the high she felt afterwards would disappear. They did constant personality tests to see if she had changed noticably, so far nothing had changed permanently.

Sarah enjoyed flying, although most of it was just the thrill of being able to do something that she'd always been told she couldn't. She had been trained in the flight paths of a pegasus for her wings, and trained in the basic usage of her horn for her unicorn powers. She wasn't technically an alicorn, heck, she wasn't even technically a pony. Most of her training had been on camouflage, integration and interrogation techniques. She rarely spoke of her family, of Silver even less.

She did well when she was just on her own. The camouflage magic which the changelings used to disguise themselves was cracked. Eventually she learned just about everything that could possibly be known about the changelings, especially from the invasion of Canterlot during the royal wedding ceremony. Yet she still could not get her team through enough tests to pass. Eventually she recieved a letter from her father. It was short

"Your mother knows. She wasn't happy. I'm trying to get back, so I can monitor the situation and get you out. We might see each other eventually." That was it. That's all the letter Umbra levitated in front of her said. It bore his signature. The door to her room opened. It was Marenaris, looking a bit less formal than she used to, wearing a scowl. Someone had obviously interfered with her plans. Sarah saluted as her instructor entered, immediately taking on a rigid posture.

"They've moved the deadline two weeks back, you're going in tomorrow." A bottle of strong cider was carried on her wings. "I okayed your mission, but you're not ready. I don't think I could have gotten you ready through training even if I had four months." She wrapped her lips around the cider bottle and took a huge swig, putting it back on the table. Oddly enough she didn't look disappointed in Sarah, she looked... as if she was working herself up to something. "Oh... at ease soldier."

Sarah cracked a warm smile. Angel was extremely persuasive, if anyone could get her out, it was her mother. But her smile faded at that thought. Wait, no! She didn't WANT to get out! She instructed several of her guards to be on the lookout for her mother, and to warn her immediately if she was spotted. She loved her dearly, but wasn't about to back out of this. Sarah relaxed, and fell to ease. "I AM ready." She said confidently. "Anything you want me to do, I can do!" Her several failed tests said otherwise, but her confidence was admirable.

"Oh stick a sock in it, you couldn't lead a mule to water… no offence Guff." "None taken." A mule said in the hallway as he pushed a trolley. Marenaris closed the door.. and then locked it. "You don't know how to get your followers to respect you, or care enough about them to know who has trouble with what." She took the bottle again and took another swig. Her breath smelled from it and she didn't look too steady on her hooves. Some light entered this little room from the outside, a vent in the ceiling led outside. Some moonlight fell into the room. Marenaris looked out along it. "You'd mess it up and get yourself..." She held back a burp. "Get yourself and other ponies into a lot of trouble you can't fix afterwards."

Sarah had been trained to take in everything, and question anything that seemed out of the ordinary. She paused and watched the mule for a moment. She'd never seen him before, and he seemed suspiciously close to the top-secret training facility. She made a note and whispered to a guard, asking if he had clearance. As for Marenaris, Sarah frowned, and shook her head in disapproval. "Why are you drinking? Do I disappoint you THAT much that you have to indulge in trivial addictions?"

Marenaris closed and locked the door, and threw the bottle into the corner. Drunk as she was she could still formidable, and she stared down the former pony. "You don't disappoint me, you're exactly what I picked out: Smart, fast, a little bit ruthless though you're not half as much as you think you are. What you don't have is any practical sense." She prodded Sarah's chest with her hoof. "And that's no surprise, it takes months and months of training to develop the basics, and then a year of field work to hone it. Your father was crazy, he couldn't have had terribly high hopes that this project would work, whoever he sent was likely to be discovered soon." She gritted her teeth. "But I won't let that happen. I can think of some original tricks as well. You don't have combat experience, and you don't have an intuitive sense of which actions are tactically dangerous... I do. And you can take them from me now... changeling." So that's why she had been drinking, working up a nerve to let Sarah feed off her talents, but it didn't answer why.

Sarah narrowed her eyes. "I will, but you're going to stop drinking at once. If I see you drunk again, I'm going to find Rain Cloud and Blitz and tell them all about the program they applied for." She threatened. It was a mostly empty threat, but Marenaris needed to know that her little Changeling had the guts to fight back. "You can threaten to wipe my memory, but we both know you won't. I'm all you have. Without me, this program is dead." She cracked a wry smile. And with that, she began to feed.

There was no need for cliche feeding techniques such as biting Marenareis' neck or drinking her blood. It was far cleaner than that. Instead she simply focused her energy on Marenaris, and the effect was similar to that of a dementor. Thoughts and energies began to spiral outward from her instructors forehead, funneling into Sarah's horn. Feeding was instinctual and easy, more so than using magic was. The problem wasn't starting. It was stopping.

Each pony was a smorgasbord of little victories, passions and loves. On top of Marenaris cider addled mind lay a canvas of disgust and fear, and defiant anger. Diving beneath this glazing was the mind of her. Sarah bit into the proud feeling Marenaris had felt seeing her well groomed unit of lunar guards move as one. Her little pride an happiness in each of their accomplishments. How far she would go to get everyone of them through to the end, no matter the task at hand.. and then... Luna. Marenaris had been new to command when the queen of the night had returned. With a fast beating heart and throbbing passion she had pledged herself to the Nightmare, taking part in ousting and overthrowing Celestia. But that was not the bitter mistake she had made. And Sarah saw it all.

Marenaris was leading her strike team through the Everfree forest. They hadn't been given any orders, except to make sure that Celestia wouldn't escape and they had failed. Time to strike first and independently, before the damage would be total. Velvet, and Swift were scouting ahead, and the rest of her ponies were lying scattered in shadow, watching the skies hidden. It took hours, but she was the first to spot them. An indigo blue hue and bright white light. Lifting magnifying goggles to her she saw her queen barely recognisable, weakened, flying ahead of the princess of the sun. She blew a whistle.

"Lunar guards to me, protect the queen!"

As one they lifted from the ground and attacked. She went directly for Celestia, hitting hard and hitting fast. Taking the formidable alicorn by surprise. It would give the others time to extract the queen and take her to safety. Ramming her head into Celestia's side, she bit the princess in the wing and forced her downward in a spiral.

"What is the meaning of this?" Celestia had yelled in defiance when they had tumbled to the ground. A witty retort was in her throat but it was silenced when she was hit from behind. Dizzy and barely conscious she fell down on her side, watching the now reformed Luna lift up the princess.

There was no trial for them. Effectively Equestria had been in a state of war. Luna had summoned Marenaris; fellow guards who had partaken in the action. "Obeying the orders I gave thee as Nightmare Moon, I can forgive you of, even if you gave of yourselves willingly. But battling Celestia under thine own command, I can't. I wish Equestria to see me not as Nightmare Moon forgiven, but as Luna returneth. Marenaris, I hereby strip you of the rank of captain." With telekineses she ripped the emblems off Marenaris uniform. "You're no longer a lunar guard." The helmet was sent flying. "You and your ponies are hereby dishonorably discharged from Equestria's army. Take leave, and find something better to do."

And with that the alicorn turned their back on them. She looked around seeing the men and mares under her command looking defeated and hopeless. The pony whose likeness they bore and whom their forefather had served had rejected. And Marenaris swore she would find a way to prove her worth to Luna again. She would give her ponies something to fight for, one way or another.

Marenaris lay a shivering wreck at the holey hooves of Sarah, there wasn't much recognition in the eyes of the lunar guard and it would be a while before there would be again.

Changeling Sarah was overjoyed to discover this story. Marenaris was weak and brittle, and she could take advantage of that. She continued feeding off energy, far past the point of her own sustainability. She didn't know when she'd get a chance to feed again, and would take every bit she could get even if it left Marenaris a hollow, broken shell. Pony Sarah fought desperately, but it was hard to break away from the host, especially a host who had given herself so willingly. Sarah had only just begun to wrap Marenaris' hind leg in a glowing green plasma when the guards caught sight of her and dragged her away from her instructor. Feeding time was over.

Dreams and Nightmares

Marenaris was put in the infirmary, and Sarah didn't see anymore of the lunar guards in the corridors, as they had been reposted. No one knew to where they had gone, but they had left not long before Marenaris had gone to see Sarah. The aspect of the former captain that she had absorbed stood in her. It felt like a tall regal column of inner strength and confidence. No one could stare her down. And with it was a certain intuition about the world. Sarah knew now how many ponies it would roughly take to infiltrate and hold down this facility. Though she also had a gnawing realization that she didn't have any troops to care for or command. The ponies around her had fear in their eyes, it was obvious that the last encounter with Marenaris had changed her. Certainly her changeling side had grown strong, much stronger. This was the essence of being a changeling, being able to make another ponies talents and feelings your own. The door in front of her opened, she was told to go there for debriefing on the mission outline. Inside, standing in front of a blackboard was Silver, her father.

"I got back in sooner than I thought I would, Sarah." He put down a clipboard. "I see you've been busy recently. How are you feeling?"

Sarah shrugged. She had changed beyond recognition in the last two months, both in physical appearance and attitude. Silver's little girl was long gone, and a mare stood before him, a strange mare who just happened to share his daughters name. "Ready for briefing and field work." She said confidently. She approached him, trying to get a peek at what was on the clipboard. Exhaust no options, every little thing might help in some way.

A quick scan confirmed that it just held some simple reports about her, charting her progress. Rookie mistakes were past her at this point, hand her a platoon and she'd lead them into war. "I guess you are.. they're worried they're going to have to teach Marenaris to talk all over again." He regarded her, with a little measure of fear.. she could smell that on him. There were hints of bitterness and disappointment as well, but she could detect what drove it. Not unless she feed off him. "Your mother should see you now." Sarcasm dripped off the comment. "Test: Your little brother Roll is afraid of heights, can tell me why?"

Sarah considered feeding, but did not. She had more than enough energy for now, and her mother would never forgive her if she turned Silver into a vegetable. Sarah frowned, and began to pace back and forth. Just once she wanted to hear her father say 'You're doing wonderful, Sarah' or 'I'm proud of you, Sarah.' But he didn't. "Mother took him out for flying lessons when he was young, didn't he get too close to a dragon flyover or something?" She asked. It hadn't been all that long ago, but she had never thought too deeply about the issue.

He tapped his hoof looking a bit aggressive as well. "Close enough, there's no real personality change, except that you're getting more caustic, and disciplinary…" He put down the notepad. "Why are we about to fight again? I guess I could order to stand at attention and you'd follow it now huh?!" He took a deep breath and let it go. "Sarah, your mom wants you to go home. A lot. I care deeply about you, and I want you to go home. Little Roll and even Quick wants you to go home." He looked at her sympathetically. "Is it about proving yourself? You've... you've really surprised me how far you're willing to go. I'm impressed Sarah.. no really I am. You've done and outdone yourself. Twice over."

This time it was Sarah's turn to look absolutely stunned. She honestly hadn't expected to ever hear her father say that about her defiance. She did something then that she hadn't done since before she left. She pushed forward into Silvers forelegs and nuzzled him. "I won't ever get up." She swore. "I love you, and I love mom, and I love my siblings. But I won't ever give up. You don't understand what it's like to grow up blank, to have everyone always staring and whispering. The teachers think I'm stupid and want to hold me back. Mom talks to doctors when she thinks I'm not listening. I HAVE to do this."

It felt different, felt through hard carapace, and her holey limbs smeared a film of goo on his chest, but a hug from your father was still that. "You don't, you can go from this mission, and keep your memory and you'll work with me on amazing projects." It was obvious he wasn't saying this to convince her, because that was clearly impossible, but to reassure her of what she meant to him. "Because I'm afraid of what going to happen to you. I never thought it would be, some pony else… Listen, don't become a monster, okay? Live with them, sleep with them, feed with them, act like them, but don't become one of them for real. Remember Roll and Quick, Emerald, me and your mom okay?"

Sarah looked at him, she had grown so much in so little time. To quote one of Angels favorite films, one of the few she'd seen during her few times on Earth with him, there was something there that wasn't there before. "I will NEVER become one of them." She hissed, an unnatural sound. "I get in, I shut down their battle plans, I get out, I go home. Easy."

"Easy... in fact even if you've only learned roughly how many there are, and there, that's enough. Learn their layout and their plans, then haul plot and get out. Now… here's the plan." He rolled out a large sheet of paper showing various roughly circular paths. "We know that changelings are stationed somewhere in the Everfree Forest, and they return to the pony settlements on occasion. They've made a few kidnappings, so they're obviously gathering up magic for an assault. One of their hunters is living in a small pony settlement. She lives as an earth pony by the name of Peach, the original was kidnapped a long time ago. We have reasons to believe that she'll soon join the other changelings. You'll infiltrate her house, knock her unconscious and feed her dry so that you can impersonate her."

"You won't be alone on the mission, two guards will be at your disposal. We're afraid that she'll attempt to escape if they see them coming, so it might be best if you play changeling who's cover is blown. Then when her guard is down you can subdue her and call in the guards." He looked at her, smirking a bit. "Can you do a changeling who's disguise is partially failing?"

"Of course." Sarah said. "Shifting was one of the things I excelled at." She said proudly. "So you want me to knock her unconscious, then run back to the other Changelings only half-shifted, and order an immediate evacuation?"

"Oh no you got me wrong, I think if you simple went in to her house and introduced yourself as a changeling that might work as well. However it might catch her off guard if you ran in looking like a changeling who's screwed up, she might tell you some useful things and get herself distracted with planning for a getaway. Knock her unconscious, feed as much off her as you can, take her role and carry out her mission profile. I'm sure it will have her returning to them very soon. They won't notice if her personality has changed a little, apparently it happens to changelings depending on who they've been feeding on."

Sarah nodded. "Gotcha, right, I can do that." She said. Then changed the subject slightly, a hint of regret on her voice. "Mom doesn't know what we're doing yet, does she? I feel like if she knew she'd come rushing in her by herself to get me out and somepony would get killed."

He chuckled. "Your mother knows we have lied to her, but not to the extend that the trail of deceit has buried itself. If your mother what we were doing, she'd lock me in a basement, instigate a military coup against her mother, ascend to regal alicornhood, just so that she could be in a position of authority to order you home. And after that she'd give both of our plots a whooping. Speaking of whom, I should get home again before she gets worried and forms a search party out of the entire Evodian Guard."

Sarah just smiled. "That sounds like my mother, alright."

***

Back at home, Angel had been taking a shower. The house was quieter than usual, a quiet which always disturbed her. The colts were in bed, Emerald was out with a friend, Silver and Sarah were Celestia knew where doing Luna knew what. She hated that, not knowing what they were up to. Not being able to be trusted with the whereabouts of her own daughter. She had retired to bed early, a bit upset, and fallen asleep with thoughts of betrayal in her head. When she had woken, an otherwise routinely normal act, she immediately felt a sense of disorientation. Why was light coming through the window? Since when had they been stained glass? And why were they so tall? Angel rubbed her eyes. The Silver she had talked to in her sleep had been replaced with a large luxuriously crafted pillow next to her. Finely embroidered silk sheets covered her. Tall crystalline windows with inset pictograms. Alabaster walls. She could recognize a royal suite in Evodia any day. What was she doing here all of the sudden? In fact it wasn't just any royal suite... it was hers. Only larger and more elaborately gilded. Stretching her neck she noticed something.. her neck felt long.. regally long. This was a fairly large bed, yet her hindhooves were touching the bottom as she stretched.

Angel was no stranger to unusual events, that came with the territory of living in Equestria. After a while you just tried to get used to such things. Seeing Silver missing immediately concerned her, and she sat up, more scared for him than anything else at first thought. "Silver? Silver!" She called. Angel rolled out of bed, hooves hitting the floor. She glanced out the window, frowning at the mountainous region. "I shouldn't be here..."

Her voice sounded recognizable enough, though it had gained some deeper authoritarian tones she had never noticed. At least not in herself. Her coloration was white, and the few locks of her hair she could see was golden. She was Angel, and neither Celestia nor Novaria. Her calls for Silver gave off some echoes against the walls. The room even smelled as remembered it had. Some of the furniture she recognized from her room, but she had obviously grown taller. There was her writing desk where she had done the correspondence part of her medical training. A diploma would be hanging somewhere as well, but she couldn't spot it. A door opened and an Evodian servant stepped in. Dark furred and with a blue mane.

"Your majesty is up, shall I summon the doctor?" He asked. Two possibilities presented themselves to her mind, having studied magical ailments. This could all be an enchanted dream, which would reveal itself if it was too good or too horrible to be real, the other possibility… was that she was a lot older than she thought, how many ailments caused amnesia? She noticed some medicine on the table next to the bed, fever quelling medicine and painkillers.

Angel was disoriented, and her brain was working overtime. Majesty. Doctor. Something was wrong with Novaria? The other alternative... no, she didn't want to consider that. "What's wrong with Novaria?" She asked hesitantly, afraid she was going insane. "Where is my daughter? Where's Silver?" She demanded.

This had to be a dream... his uniform was wrong. Servants didn't wear this kind of clothing in Evodia, it was too clean and close cut to his body. Growing nervous as she thundered, he backstepped a bit. Power welled and roared inside her, magical energies she had never had, arced from her horn.

"Your Majesty, please." A guard, wearing a strange close fit armor and goggles came into view.

"Your highness, Princess Angel, its me, General Swift. Don't you recognize me?" the mare spoke this time.

"She's asking about her daughter and... Silver?" The servant obviously didn't know who Silver was. The general obviously did, looking a bit sad.

"Your highness... your husband has been dead for… two hundred years." She didn't mention anything about her children though.

Angel simply stood there for a moment. It had been only last night that she had spoken to him last. That was impossible. She asked again, and only got the same response. She backed away from the guards trying to close in on her, and her horn began to glow brighter than it ever had before. Emotions swirled around inside her, confusion, anger, fury, sadness. Angel Wing screamed, a mournful, heart breaking, ear splitting shriek of despair that echoed down the hallways. An enormous burst of wind and fire rippled in all directions from her body, shattering the window, fracturing antique frames. Any pony in the vicinity would be (mostly harmlessly) slammed against the wall. Angel screamed until she couldn't anymore, and fell to the ground, the floor black and scorched beneath her.

She collapsed in a bundle, in a small dark crater of her own making, against the warm glowing rocks. Lost in her sorrow. It was so easy to see how it had all played out. When the dust cleared she saw the general, the only one standing. The mare's mane singed, but she stood resolutely with sympathy in her eyes. Only an old friend would care enough, to brave the wild energies Angel had unleashed. She reached a hoof into the crater. "You were having the dream about Canterlot?"

"It's not a dream!" Angel insisted. "It's real, I was just there! I was there yesterday!" She protested. "If this is a sick joke, I swear to Celestia, I'll have you all court martialed!" She was angry now. She sank to her knees, tears leaking from her eyes. "I want my family. I want them now." It was what had always kept her away from the life of royalty, she much preferred the family life.

General Swift stepped into the crater, minding some red hot glowing areas. "Of course it wasn't a dream your highness. You really did have a family, a family you told me on many occasions that you loved.. but it was so long ago. I asked, not because I think you never had a family like that, but because you've been taken ill.. and you often told me you dreamed of them." The pegasus mare explained, undeterred. "I've been leading your army for well over a decade, we've fought alongside each other.. you don't remember me?"

It was easy to see how her life could have ended up like this. Eventually she would have caved to Novaria's wishes, and become a princess again, and one day for some reason Novaria had meet her ultimate end and Angel had risen to take charge of Evodia. An immortal alicorn, forever preserving her country's ideals and best wishes. And Silver would have loved her through it, and she would have kept his aging at bay for as long as she could, and then he would slip through her hooves. The general stirred her, pushed her shoulder, not content to leave her in her agony. "It's alright, Angel. It's alright." The generals face became a bit distorted, Bats and demons burst out of the ground, The momentary comfort of the general becoming the tight vice grip of her own mother.

"This is what you wanted, Angel!" Novaria was laughing. "This is what you wanted!"

Angel Wing screamed.

"Angel!" Silver woke her, it was dark outside. Her whole body was sweating. "You were crying and whimpering in your sleep." It was unknown at what point during the night Silver had actually returned from wherever he went during the day. Most likely at some ungodly hour.

Angel pulled Silver towards her. She was sweating,and crying, and breathing heavily. "Silver..." She whispered, planting her lips firmly against his. "It was awful, you were dead, and I was a princess, and the children were gone..." She whimpered. "Don't you leave me, don't you dare ever leave me." Her love for him was immaculate, she just couldn't tolerate a life without him in it.

Evodia!

The next significant event was one which not only concerned Angel Wing, but her entire family as well.

Two things happened to Angel this day. The first was a simple stroke of good news. Her husband wasn't home. She had sent him on a mission to ensure that Sarah would return intact and unharmed, a task of which she was not about to let him shirk on. Roll and Quick were up their usual shenanigans, often resulting in a crying Roll and Quick being sent to his room. Emerald had lately engaged herself with unusual intensity in jewel making. And Angel… at the moment an older unicorn was with her. A red cross was his cutie mark and he sported a good beard. Dr Heart, was dependable as day and night, and had been her colleague in Canterlot hospital. His glowing horn stroked along her belly, which, at first glance, showed no sign of anything out of the ordinary. Eventually he was satisfied and nodded. "You are pregnant, twins. Congratulations Angel. They're both healthy, and yes, they both show signs of being one of the three pony kind. Would you like to know or do you want to be surprised in a year?" An unopened letter from Silver lay on her table.

Angel normally would have been bouncing, but a shadow had crossed over her usual excitement. Family life had been rough lately. Emerald was in the process of moving on, Quick didn't need her constant attention anymore, and soon enough Roll wouldn't either. She looked over at the doctor with a warm smile. She wished Silver could be here for this. "I think I'll be surprised this time, thank you." She said. Angel waited until the doctor had left before opening the letter, all the while giving a stern warning to the boys, who were trying to fly without her supervision. Something that happened more and more often, lately. "Rolling Wave! You get DOWN out of that tree this instant!" She yelled.

"But I can hover mommy, lookit! Look! Look mom! Hey! Look! ...mom you didn't look..." He complained as she turned to the letter. It was the usual format, and Silver's slightly clumsy writing was apparent. "Hello Angel, sweetie. Don't go on a rampage, but I think bringing our daughter back home is going to take a bit of doing. Her mission has begun and she is determined. She's a big girl now, and I could drag her home by her hind legs, but I don't want that and you don't either. I've told her get home as soon as the most basic fulfillment of the goals have been completed. However that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. Since its going to be a while before I'm home, I was thinking that you could take the boys and maybe Emerald on a journey together. There's a puzzle about you Angel, one that I've wondered about for as long as I've known you. I wanted to solve it completely, and hand you the answer, but the last two bits are outside of my reach. I think you can piece the answer together. Its about your past.. who you are, where you came from and why you are an alicorn. I know the story you've told me, because its the exact story almost word for word that Novaria tells me, and which is printed in the books. It always came off as deceptive, or rather not the whole story. I found two witnesses who were there on that day. The first is General Swift, who used to be a guard. He was with Novaria soon after you appeared. The other is an old royal wizard. Both practically refuse to deal with anyone outside of Evodian royalty. I'll disclose both their addresses. Take the kids with you, a good train ride and a boat trip, or if you want the teleporter is currently set for the Evodian capital. With love, your hubby, who misses you so much." His smell was on the paper, their bed had stopped giving off his scent. He was hardly in it anymore.

Angel sighed. She was worried, and if she hadn't been an alicorn, her mane would have started going grey by now. She tucked the letter away, and the first thing she did was set up a projection spell. It was simple enough, the Equestrian version of Skype. A call to a mare she had only talked to once or twice in the last couple years. In front of her was projected a static square, which would link to a sort of video screen if her mother answered. She was angry at Sarah, angry at Silver, angry at her mother. Angel didn't like this new side of her, before all this she was never upset about anything.

It took a while, and she had time to comfort a Roll who in his overconfidence had tried to jump/fly over over the hedge, and in stead had taken a good tumble, with a resulting bruise. Eventually the floating square had cleared and she saw her mother's regal appearance. As sombre as she remembered the mare to be. It was night outside where she was. "Good evening daughter, I didn't expect you to call. It is as always good to see and hear from you."

Angel gave a sharp whistle, which the kids knew meant she wanted them. Angels gaze softened, and although for years she had not backed down a single inch in regards to Novaria's requests, today, her mother would gain some ground, as Angel finally showed that spot of weakness that she had always so stubbornly denied. "Mom... I need to come home for a while." She admitted. "Is there a place for us?"

Seeing the two eager pegasi gather around her, and Emerald who approached with no small measure of curiosity, and growing awe as she realized who Angel was talking to, caused the ageless regal alicorn some surprise. She raised a hoof to her chest. "Greetings my grandchildren." "Grandma Nova!" Roll and Quick yelled in unison. "G-g-greetings Queen Novaria." Emerald managed to stammer looking uncomfortable and exited quickly. Novaria smiled. "Of course." She hesitated. "Do you want a room in a hotel in the city? Or we have plenty of room in the palace."

Angel had told her children vast stories of her grandmother, all of them making her sound regal and important. She didn't want to shed her mother in a negative light, not over a few disagreements. "The palace should be fine. I'll need access to the library, and I do mean all of the library," she added. "The children have never seen Evodia, I'm sure they'll find more than enough to keep them busy providing myself or a guard watches them. Roll likes to climb and jump off of things." She gave him a disapproving, yet loving look.

"You may not be wearing a crown, or take part in the royal duties." Apparently Novaria didn't mind stinging her a little about this, even when her children were watching, but there didn't seem to be the same anger in her eyes as there had been. "You're still counted as a princess of Evodia, you'll be able to go and talk to whom you please. I think your old room is still in a good state, but Emerald is such a big girl that she needs her own room." Emerald gave off a small whimper, her hooves kneading the floor. "We will put up beds for Roll and Quick in yours."

Angel narrowed her eyes. "I said I wanted access to the library, not a coronation." She countered bitterly. Angel paused a moment, and looked at the boys. She knew Roll was at that conflicted state of childhood, where he wanted his mother for everything, but also wanted to be treated like a grownup. "I think the boys are old enough to have their own rooms. They all are." She smiled a bit. "On the same floor, can you do that? And nowhere near the kitchen. The boys eat like timberwolves."

"That can be arranged as well. There's a big suite for Emerald, and two smaller guest rooms for your sons. I think if you arrive soon, you can avoid most of the press coverage. They certainly won't be able to follow into the palace grounds. Please brief your children on what to expect." She was about to leave. "Angel, I didn't mean to say that I wanted you crowned when you came home. I've come to understand that you don't see eye to eye with me on this. I was only reminding you that you'll always be a princess to the ponies of Evodia, and to me." Emerald had caught the tension and looked to her mother supportingly.

"Maybe we can talk about this later." Angel offered. "Not fighting like we always do, but... talk. Like we used to. I miss that." It wasn't an admission of defeat, but she was giving her mother a chance, and it was clear it had been bothering her for years. "You won't always be around, and there's no feeling more bitter than missed opportunities." She sighed and broke the connection. Novaria was likely stunned, Angel had never come to her before. Not like this. "Children, pack your things. We'll leave for Evodia tonight. The media will be looking for us, I'm sure, so let's have a little fun with it, shall we?" She nudged the young ones off to their rooms, then opened another communication feed. This one to a pair of well known disguise and makeup artists in Canterlot whom she had befriended. "Gluon, it's Angel. Up for a challenge?"

***

Evodia was a nation of a different style than Canterlot. Its countryside was full of tall cliffs, and a rugged breed of earth pony had managed to beat life into it. Covering terraces with fields of grain and rice. What they had in common with Canterlot was a love of spires. Reflecting in their city, and in the great palace which hugged the center of the harbor. Tall spires amidst gardens, with a large structure in the center. A unicorn family had been let in through the gate. Two little green filly pegasi that both looked cute as a button (but not too happy about it). Emerald had been given an earthy reddish color, and had her horn rubbed away with invisibility paint, and given fake wings of her own. Likewise Angel's horn was currently not visible. Emerald was awestruck as they approached the large palace passing through the garden. "This is much bigger than the Canterlot castle... its... I'm speechless." Roll and Quick were arguing among themselves, mostly because they had been disguised as fillies as punishment for their frequent misbehavior.

"No you sound like a girl." "

"No you sound like a girl!" Gluon had been tight lipped about the recipe for her voice changing potion. It worked like magic, as long as you didn't try to sing. From Angel's perspective the place had hardly changed, except the garden had been redecorate. She had some flashbacks of playing around with some friends as a filly, and of course endless parades of soldiers who had come to see her and whom she had given courage simple by being.

"You... grew up here?" Emerald could hardly believe it, and was desperately trying to see everything at once.

"Of course." Angel said. She tried not to give off too much pride, but couldn't help it. It was only now she was realizing how much she missed this place. "I've been trying so hard to separate myself from it, but it might not be as easy as I thought it was." She frowned. "Come, I'll show you the crown jewel of the garden, a gift from Celestia herself." She led them into a small hedge maze. It was designed mostly for the youngsters, so it was brain dumbingly easy. Only a couple of dead ends, almost completely linear. At the center of the maze was a large, empty stone pedestal, roped off on all sides. A friendly sign simply said Please do not touch.

The boys, still disguised as fillies, had gotten themselves lost anyhow, the pure unadulterated joy of running around in a maze being what they sought. Emerald in pegasus disguise followed her mother to the pedestal. "What is this?" She asked, looking around.

"A relic from what almost became the Second Great War." She said solemnly. "A reminder, to all ponies, that even when faced with our darkest fears, there is always room for redemption." She looked at it for a moment, before calling for the boys. "Come, we can use the back entrance to the palace. The main entrance is likely being watched. If we're lucky we'll be just in time for breakfast." The group had been up all day and all night, packing and traveling. The children had slept on the boat, Angel had not.

The guards greeted and saluted her all the way in, and the head matron quickly showed them their rooms. There were running hot baths ready for all of them. Roll and Quick were more than eager to get out of their makeup, and even Emerald was happy to see get her horn back. However, when she emerged from her own room, there was rapture in her eyes as well. "Its everything I dreamed of." A servant had dressed her in a simple summer dress. Not the gaudy stuff for formal occasions, and had done her hair. The servants at her beck and call, none that she could remember, but they were as friendly and courteous as usual. Exiting her own room she had seen a guard clicking his hooves and saluted her, Roll and Quick had copied his behavior standing on either side of him. He had chuckled.

"Sergeant Brill, I'll take care of these two your highness. Have two little brothers as home as well, its no problem." They looked up to him with, beaming. Things were looking good so far. "Breakfast is served, but your mother wants to have a private conversation with you in the garden. Food will be brought out for the two of you."

Perhaps the guard had expected her to turn it down or protest, but instead Angel just nodded. "Alright." She said simply. The children were in good hooves, and Emerald would be overcome for a while with wanting to explore everything. "I'll be back soon. Boys, behave yourselves, as I know you do." She said gently, and exited to the garden. She hadn't seen her mother in a long time, and a brief pang of guilt rippled through her.

There was a small secluded pavilion, where Novaria stood. A table with various small delectibles present. A small river running over round stones gave a comfortable gurgling sound. The way they had redecorated the garden was nothing short of brilliant. Angel's memories of the garden was off the huge wall that girdled the palace, visible almost everywhere. Now the garden had been filled with hills and trees, and she really couldn't see it anymore. Her mother wore none of her regalia except her yoke and crown. She smiled weakly. "Its good to see you again Angel." It was as simple as she said it, and she meant it.

Angel tried to hold herself back, but so many years of defiance and ignorance were hard to carry. Although she had no intention of changing her mind about royalty, she did break into tears, rushing forward to nuzzle into her mothers neck, as she hadn't done since she was a filly. "The palace hasn't changed a bit." She said. "And was that little Storm Wind as a member of the guard? The last time I saw him he was hiding in the pantries of the kitchen trying to get extra desserts."

Her large neck enfolded Angel's. Holding her in a soft embrace. "Many things changed, and others stayed the same. I've got grandchildren, and yet the two of us have hardly aged a day. And yes that, I think, is Storm Wind you were referring to. My grandchildren couldn't be in safer or kinder hooves." Still holding her in the embrace, she nuzzled Angel between her wings, as a mother pegasus would nuzzle her fledgling. Instinctive, and not as formal as she had used to be. "Angel... I've missed you something terrible."

Eventually releasing from her mothers grip, Angel sat herslf upon her haunches. She still had the posture of a princess, straight and proud, not slouched like she used to be. "You summoned me out here for a reason, mother. What is it?" She asked, rather curious. "Is something wrong?"

She didn't sigh, but broke gently from her embrace with Angel, and proceeded to table taking a few bites. Taking a her time. "Angel, I would love to know that you've come simple to see me, just to be with me, showing me my grandchildren, even if only for a visit. But I sensed that you'd come for something else, am I far off?"

That stung her more than anything, and Angel even recoiled slightly. She hadn't realized how much Novaria was hurting, they both hid their pain during their disagreements. "I did come for something, but I'm afraid I can't tell you. I'm afraid that if I tell you, you wouldn't tell me, or may even take further measures to hide what Im looking for." She paused. "I think I need to do this one on my own." She said.

The feathers on Novaria's wings rose a bit and then her wings settled back down again. In a measured fashion she took a few more bites. "I'll give you a measure of faith this time. The doors won't be closed and no one will follow you around. Whether you want to carry the crown stuffed inside the vault anymore, the ponies of Evodia still count you as a princess." Novaria sighed. "And this time... lets not let that sour our meeting. We are daughter and mother reunited. Lets just talk as we used to. Silver... is he treating you well?"

"Aside from apparently working together with you to put my daughter in deadly danger, oh, he treats me just fine." She said bitterly, then instantly looked as if she regretted it. "I apologize." She gave a weak smile. "I suppose watching my tongue was one of the training courses I missed out on." She looked at her mother. "I do love you, very much. You know that."

"I get reports on your daughter from time to time. She's done... impressively well. I can take a sting out between you and your husband, as soon as he learned that Sarah was in the project he asked me to pull her out." A cup with a strong tea levitated up to Novaria's lips, and she sipped the hot beverage. "And another officer on that project pleaded Sarah's case to keep her in. Both made good arguments, and Sarah, she spoke her own case, though not to me directly. If I hear bad news, I'll order her home, but she's an old to no longer be a filly. If you had her near you Angel, do you think you could have persuaded her to come home?" Novaria asked, offering Angel a cup.

Angel was quiet for a long time. "She was always so independent. I could get her to come home, but it would require a coronation and formally issuing royal orders." She laughed a bit. "I want her to pursue her calling, but I don't like being lied to. And lately it seems like everyone is keeping secrets from me. That HURTS, mother! I don't keep secrets! Not from anypony, so why is it I'm suddenly not good enough to be informed of my own damn daughter?" At her raised voice, a guard had come running, but a flick of her hoof pushed him away.

"It was wrong Angel, to have kept that Sarah was involved in the project from you for so long. But you'll have to understand that we never expected that she would complete her training. I hoped that she would simply fail, and be sent home with altered memories. And that would have been that. Would you like to have kept a secret from Sarah, that she had failed a special training exercise? Secrets tend to multiply, I have a habit of not spreading them around."

Angel lowered her gaze. "No." She said. "I don't like secrets. Especially ones that involve the safety of my family. I just want Sarah to come home safe." She sighed. "But I have to trust Silver knows what he's doing, I have no choice at this point. I can make him sleep on the couch all I want, but it won't bring Sarah back." She looked up. "May I ask you something, if you promise not to get all worked up over it?"

Angel fidgeted. "I'm not changing my mind, first of all, so don't get any ideas. But, maybe, while I'm here, I could attempt some of the courses that I dropped out of." She offered. "If for no other reason than to wipe some of the Incompletes off my record." She offered a weak grin. "I could at least meet you halfway instead of always pushing you away, right?"

Novaria looked a bit surprised. "I was expecting the old question of whether I could make you a regular pony." Of which she had learned, much to her own dismay, that even Celestia herself couldn't make her not be an alicorn. "But.. yes.. you had a course left on diplomatics, and gryphon politics. And some of defense and strategy. Hmmm... tit for tat then. I can grant you this, if you will put on your crown again. Not the coronation crown, but the one you used to wear. It can be requested from the vault."

"But I won't be a princess, right? The crown is just for... effect?" She asked.

"I can't ask the ponies to treat you as not a princess, but yes the crown will simple indicate that you're my family, and an alicorn. Nothing more and nothing less. It has no authority, except what you've always had, and no responsibility. It is not much to ask, and its not a heavy crown... not the one I thought you'd wear eventually." She said. "And of course, I don't expect you to wear it around the clock, even I take off this yoke and crown when I'm in bed, but whenever you present yourself to ponies outside of the palace, in training, or in visit, wear it."

Angel nodded. "Deal." She said. A little bit too easily, but she had other motives for wanting a bit more eased access around the palace. It would be easier to get information, for one, to find out the answers to the questions she had. "I think the kids would like to see you more often, maybe we could make our meetings more frequent." She said, a hint of a smile on her lips. "I miss you."

"You are all welcomed, any time of the year, for as long as you want." She replied in kind. It was hard to remember what sort of crown she had worn, all she could really remember was the gaudy and hefty coronation crown she was asked eventually to put on. It was around then that she had realized that after all she had goen through, she had wanted out of that kind of life. "Take your daughter Emerald with you, I'm sure she'd love to see the vault."

***

Emerald was having the time of her life. The Canterlot manners were barely contained, when she had gushed about her room, and the breakfast and that the guards were being well mannered to her, how friendly the other royals had been even though she had felt out of place, the fact that the plates were set beautifully and with the proper amount of forks and knives. "Mom, I'm not sure I'll be able to repay this. I'm having the time of my life." She wore a light and simple dress that accented her green fur.

Angel looked somewhat surprised. "Who said anything about repayment?" She asked. In truth she was only here to find out more about what Sarah was involved in, as well as seeking out answers about her her own past. But she didn't tell the children that, they didn't need to know. "I fully anticipated that you would enjoy yourself, this is exactly the type of environment that you love being around," Angel said. "I'm only sorry that we didn't come out here sooner. My own stubborn fault for that, I'm afraid. Have you seen the library yet?"

"I think I'm just getting into that age where you realize that you're being given things, and you start to feel a little guilty about it... don't let that stop you, I love this... and no I haven't seen the library yet. If it weren't for the guards, I wouldn't even have meet up with you, I was lost." She admitted, but the place was a lot bigger than it appeared, and many of the rooms in the palace weren't even in use. Large sections were unoccupied. A good place to hide if you were a sullen princess, wanting to be alone for a little bit. "I almost can't believe you grew up here mom. You've always liked small cozy houses.. and didn't you talk about living in Ponyville for a bit? I guess.. all this wasn't as enchanting to you as it is to me?" She asked sagely.

"Oh it was, Emerald. It really was. It was all this and more." She said wistfully. "But you have to understand, I didn't have the freedom to wander that you have. When I wasn't in classes, I was in training. When I wasn't in training, I was studying. When I did have time to myself I was always followed by guards. It was awful." She shook her head. "I guess after a while, the magic of it just went away for me, and I didn't want to have anything to do with it anymore."

More guards appeared in this area as they got into the heart of the palace. Twenty five years it had been since she had been in the vault. The last parts of her stint as upcoming co-ruler of Evodia, had been a series of formalia, culminating with handing in her regalia and packing something simple. But the vault had not changed its appearance. A huge metallic door stood before them. A guard approached, unicorn. "Excuse me princess, we check everyone now a days." Changelings; New precautions. A flap of her wings would have been enough in the past. He blasted her and Emerald with a small white flash, and when they both appeared unchanged, he gave the sign and the huge door swung open. An old grey looking unicorn, the vault inspector led them inside. In glass boxes were ornaments and regalia, relics and jewelry from over a millenia of crafting. Gems, jewels, crystals, gold and silver were pilled up. The head vault keeper led the two to a small glass box. "Your crown princess Angel." It wasn't the coronation crown, which was the only one she could remember for some reason. This was the one she had worn since she had been a filly. Back when being an alicorn meant that she brought hope and joy to ponies. It was thin and light, not a tiara, more like a wreath, wrought in silver and studded with a few stones. If she put it on her head she probably wouldn't notice it. The coronation crown in comparison had weighed two pounds, at least. When had she gotten it? She honestly couldn't remember, she had had even when she had been a little filly. On occasion it had been modified to fit her as she grew. The box would only open by her prodding. Emerald was silent, in complete awe of the place they were in. Her love of all things jewelry crafting in full bloom, and yet she regarded the crown with an odd look, a raised eyebrow. In fact she looked a little bit scared of it.

"Stay close, Emerald." Angel warned. At the first mention of being called princess, she merely gave the guard a look that could have melted ice. At the second mention, she looked offended. "Call me Princess one more time and I'll find a new place to put your horn," she warned. She wasn't about to have any of that. She turned to Emerald first, and placed the crown on her daughters head. Nothing significant, she just wanted Emerald to wear it first, since the young mare was looking at it so fondly. "What do you think? Acceptable quality?" She smiled.

Emerald smirked seeing the crown put on her. "Its not especially magical." Which was what her talent was. Making magical jewelry. With her horn glowing she levitated it off her head and turned in every which way. "I like the design, simple and light. I think it fits your head shape better than mine, it pinched me above my ear." She floated it onto Angel's head, and it slid gracefully and hugged the skull gently.. and then it barely seemed noticable. Except of course to ponies looking at her. "Its a little odd.." Emerald began but decided not to continue. "Uh.. I mean not that it looks odd mom, it fits its a really beautiful headdress." She smiled.

"That's exactly what it is. A ceremonial decoration. Not a crown or anything else." Angel insisted. She worried slightly that she was making a decision she'd regret later, but for now she was sticking with it. "I never thought I'd even see this old thing again, let alone wear it." She looked down at Emerald. There was sadness in Angel's eyes, but she didn't explain why.

"Mom, there's no reason to be sad, I can't be a princess because I'm not one. I'm a jewel maker." Emerald said, misinterpreting the fleeting look of sadness in Angel's eyes, putting a hoof against her mothers chest. "Besides coming here is more than enough. And as you said, princesshood comes with duties, and I wouldn't exactly be free to make jewelry if I had to do all that."

"Hey! I didn't say anything about princesshood!" Angel protested. "I just feel I at least owe it to my mother to finish the courses I dropped out of. Having incompletes on my record makes me look bad, and it makes her look bad." She said. "I never said anything about becoming a princess, I just want to finish school." She had graduated from medical school, yes, but had until now never admitted to having dropped out of training to her children.

Emerald rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright, you just want to finish your studies and complete some diplomas. Now a lady never pry's... but she does infer. With some occasional meetings with grandmother, working out the animosity the two of you have built up from a time before I was born. In two months you'll be done with those studies. You'll get a letter from Canterlot hospital informing you that they would love you back.." Emerald smiled. "I've learned something, mother, and that is that the big decisions you never really doubt, but you can spend a time settling down with that. I don't know what you've decided... but I do think you already have, you're just having trouble coming to terms with it."

Angel sat on her haunches. She was looking at Emerald with reverance and awe, and then simply said mysteriously, "And with that... it's gone forever." She sighed. "I'm proud of you, Emerald."

Emerald looked a little surprised seeing her mother sit down like that, and shine respect on her all of the sudden. "What's forever gone?" She asked. "Mom... you're acting strangely."

"You, Emerald." Angel said. "When we came down here, there was still a little bit of filly left in you. A little bit of innocence I'd hoped I could hold onto a while longer." She was crying now, tears trickling down her cheeks. "But it's gone. I see that now. There's a beautiful young mare in front of me, a mare I could not possibly be any more proud of. A mare with the whole world in front of her, nowhere she can't go, nothing she can't do."

Emerald blushed. "A mare.. I hadn't thought about it mother. I thought being grown up felt more.. somber." She said looking a bit uneasy on her feet, smiling. Seeing her mother gush her heart out, she put her head against Angel's. Basking in her mothers love. "I love you mom, that doesn't change just because I've grown up." It took a while, just feeling the moment. She broke. "Mom... as a grown up mare. I'm making my first adult decision right now. I'm staying here. I'll ask Novaria of course, but I don't think she'll mind having one of her grandchildren living here. There's opportunities to mingle with important ponies and ply my craft."

Angel seemed almost relieved to hear this. "You know, I would've actually been surprised had you decided anything else. I saw the way you've been looking at everything, the love for Evodia in your eyes. In fact... I have a present for you. In preparation of exactly this announcement." She winked a bit, and led Emerald back out of the vault, through the winding streets, and back into the room in which they were staying. Emerald of course demanded to know what Angel was up to, but didn't get so much of a single word as a hint.

Emerald felt liberated. She could set her own time from now on and go wherever she wanted to go. Her own mare. Hoping that some of Angel's grace had rubbed off on her, and a little anxious about how things would turn out from now on. It felt like an adventure, and of course... she would be living here if all went well. In the heart of Evodia. For once she had no idea what her mom was up to.

Angel's horn glowed as she opened the closet door, and a large metal box floated down between them. It was appeared to be made of silver, and shone with unequaled brilliance. "For you." Angel said, beaming with pride. It was locked, but only by a couple of latches which could easily be lifted up.

Emerald was wondering what treasure her mom had stored away for her. And undid the latches with graceful flicks of magic, opening it up without touching the box.

The material it was made from was symbolic, the silver was easy enough to remind her of her father, while the gold leafed paper covering the contents of the box was similar to Angels mane. Inside were four objects. A small hammer, a chisel, a magnifier, and a brush. Each was decorated with small inset emeralds around the handles. It was too perfect to have been a spontaneous gesture, this had been set aside a long time ago.

Emerald had a similar set, and of course many smaller specialized tools. These were from the heart, that she'd use more than the others. Her hooves flew to her mouth, and she shivered. For once she had no elegant words, or good manners to guide her. She wept happily at the gesture.

A smile graced her mothers lips as she watched Emerald open and close her mouth, but no words would come out. "I take it that means you like them?" She asked.

She nodded and dried her eyes with her hooves. "I... I wish dad was here to see this as well. I can't wait to talk to him when he gets home. They're beautiful mother, I'll put them to great use." Her speech was half choked. Emerald had been touched, moved and swept off her feet. It wasn't the implements in themselves. It was what they represented, that she was ready to start her own journey on her own terms. "Thank you mom."

"Silver and I have special gifts for every child upon finding their true destiny. One a cutie mark is earned, Silver and I start planning." She felt truly guilty about not getting one for Sarah, but she and Silver had not reached a compromise on that yet. "I love you, honey." She said, and nuzzled Emeralds neck.

Just Peachy

Changelings gathered their magical energies and sustained their beings by draining life out of other living creatures. Emotions, talents, drives, abilities, vitality, all that could be consumed as raw ethereal essence. Being able to mimic anything, they would take an unsuspecting pony, take that pony's place and then siphon off love in a controlled fashion, feeding it back to the hive on occasion. After the changeling invasion, spells had been distributed to unicorns who could use them to reveal any changeling. However there were still individual changelings that thought they were unnoticed. One of them had been spotted by Silver's espionage squads. She, her real name unknown, but her token name being Peach Harvest, lived as a yellow earth pony at a peach farm. It was unclear when the transaction had taken place that had swapped the changeling for the real Peach, but it had to be over two years ago. She was the best bet for getting into the hive, either by Sarah impersonating her, or by convincing her that Sarah was a forgotten changeling that had waited for orders that she had never gotten.

Sarah had drunk deep from Marenaris, who was still unheard from and recovering in the hospital. Whatever hesitation there had been in her sneaking was gone. If she wanted to, she would be one with the shadows. In any situation she knew just how to deploy ponies and play off their strengths to gain tactical ground. Years of experience harvested with a single sickening sweet kiss. Her last meeting with her father had been brief he had given her something he called a radio, which she tucked under the wing covers on her back. She simply had to extend an antenna using her mouth, be in a spot without trees, click her front hooves together and she would be able to speak to an operative. And it wasn't magical, he had insisted, but wouldn't explain how it worked. She was only to use it the few times she had something vital to report, or if she was in trouble.

In front of her sat a brick and straw house. In fields as far as the eye could see were rows upon rows of peach trees. Sarah sat in the bushes, obscured and hidden. Peach came into view again, happily nuzzling a little filly and sending her off with some buckets. Sarah was free to approach Peach anyway she thought best. There two hidden lunar guards here, in case she decided kidnapping was the better option. She was free to chose her plan of attack.

Sarah looked in both directions. She had followed quite an extensive dirt road to get to this house, so there weren't any other ponies around. The guards were there, of course, but they weren't about to reveal themselves to Peach, that would just be idiotic. Sarah took a deep breath and chose her disguise. She looked, for the most part, like a normal unicorn. Fairly pretty, a light blue mane and a much darker blue coat. But there were strange things wrong with her if one was to look closer. Her right foreleg and left hind leg each had a clearly visible hole in them, and while her left pupil was green, her right one was blue. A single white fang hung down past her lip. She emerged from a row of the peach trees, limping significantly, as if barely able to put any weight on her front right leg at all. It was only a matter of waiting to be seen. She had considered waiting until dark, but time was critical.

Peach kept working, a bit oblivious to the road for a while, busy with the act of rinsing and scrubbing the tangy sweet fruits. But when she looked up her eyes locked on Sarah, and studied what she saw quickly. She dropped the peaches and jumped over the fence, with a hiss and baring of sharp teeth that weren't in her mouth seconds before.

"Foolish! You could have hidden until nightfall. Don't answer. No time to think about what you could have done, get into the cellar with me. Now!" She supported Sarah, and quickly moved her towards a cellar which was flung open with a burst of magical power, a power an earth pony couldn't have had. Glasses and jars everywhere had peaches soaking in their juices. "You can let go now, I locked the cellar door behind us."

Sarah collapsed to the ground, panting heavily as if she was having trouble breathing. "I was stationed in the Everfree almost a month ago." She hissed. "They told me to wait for orders, told me to wait a day or two. Nopony came. Nopony ever came." She said weakly. She reached out a shaking hoof towards Peach, but did not advance on her. "I haven't fed... they told me to stay... I stayed."

"Who told you?" Peach asked with a raised eyebrow. Looking suspicious about Sarah, not sure what exactly had been dumped at her feet. "You're not changing back… how long have been stayed in disguise? Who did you replace, and how long did you live that role?" She didn't raise her voice, it was softening in some concern, even if there was irritation in it. "Someone.. told you to stay near the border.. what did you do before that?" Going over into the corner she levitated a black book out and started leafing through it.

Sarah had been briefed on several names of ponie who had been taken, it was only a matter of finding one which suited her purpose. She had chosen an ocean loving pony with no children. The less ties the pony had, the easier they were to infiltrate.

"I have not changed back once, so... at least five weeks." Sarah explained. "My orders were to remain in disguise and wait for orders. Orders that never came." She added a faint quivering to her voice that she was rather proud of. "My name is Seashell Shores, I run a pawn shop out of things that wash up on the beach."

Apparently she found an entry on that, because after a bit she put the book back. "Okay... your name is not Seashell Shores, and thankfully you seem to know that." She approached Sarah and nudged the body in various places. "Let go of yourself... try to relax and forget about Seashell. Here, like this." With a flash of green fire she stood replaced with a dark carapace and fangs. "Let your body remember that."

"I've been trying..." Sarah insisted. "You see what I've accomplished so far, this is all I can manage. I'm just too hungry. I can't focus enough to shift." She sighed, her stomach rumbling. That was convenient timing on her part, she hadn't eaten all day in preparation for this encounter. "There has to be something." She gave a semi vile grin, Changelings were known for being ruthless. "How about that child you were with? She'd make a decent appetizer."

"And I'm sure you'd feed off her until she was a shell of what she used to be. And then we'd have royal guards on our flanks. I'm starting to wonder whether you were intentionally left behind." Rubbing her temple with a hoof she thought for a bit. "Are you completely unable to change? Because I very well can't bring you into the building, looking like its Nightmare Night can I?"

"Let me try." Sarah made a face, scrunched up in concentration as if she was trying, really really hard. She was more pony than Changeling, so it would have been suspicious at this point if she managed to take on an entire carapace. The two holes in her legs filled in with flesh, fur growing over them. "It was not my intention to expose you, I made sure the area was safe first. I'm just so tired of waiting, it's not like them to just abandon me!"

"Now, I don't know who left you behind, or why, so I'm not going to guess. I'm leaving for the hive soon, and you trust me and I'll trust you and take you along. There's no time to integrate you into the family, and transact you with any of the members. We feed tonight, join up with my group and take what we find back to the hive. She nudged various parts of her again. "Remember the tail... and I can still see your wings. Just take it step by step."

Sarah nodded, and the fang that hung down past her lip shrank back into an enamel covered stump. Her wings... well she'd have to do that later, if she got rid of her wings now the radio might fall out, and it'd be game over. Her tail burst into a healthier shine, but the wings remained and her eyes were still different colors. "That's all I can manage for now. It should be enough under the cover of darkness."

"Good, stay hidden down here. I'll sneak down some food for you eventually, and let you out when its time to feed. After that we make a break for the Everfree forest." Peach explained, and turned back into the yellow earth pony with a green flash. Leaving Sarah down in the cellar. The mission had begun. Sarah had freedom to do whatever it took to stay hidden, but this was getting serious, she was expected to feed now. She wouldn't be able to hide it if she faked feeding, Peach would be able to tell.

Sarah paced back and forth, she had infiltrated the Changelings successfully. But now, all she had to do was wait. She explored the cellar, looking for anything that might help her in her quest, and of course tasting the peach juice.

The food was bland, it always was. She needed sustenance, but there wasn't any joy to eating the food itself. Feeding off someone who had memories of a fantastic meal was all the difference in the world. The two fillies didn't deserve what would be done to them. It was atrocious, it was necessary... and yet even then, the thought was starting to bring spittle to her mouth. Peach didn't come down with food. There was nothing in the room, except the ledger that gave quite an inventory of transactions and kidnapped ponies. It whether it was a complete manifest, but there was enough time to transmit the names and places via radio if she chose to do so in the interim of time. Eventually the moon had reached its zenith and midnight had come. Peach opened the cellar door. She looked a little weak. "Can you sneak about quietly?" She asked.

Sarah had spent a good amount of time on the radio with her father, dictating and transcribing as much of the contents of the manifest as she possibly could. When she heard the distant hoofsteps, Sarah quickly signed off, and resumed her normal look. She glanced at Peach with a look of annoyance. "Can Chrysalis take down Celestia?" She asked. A vague question that implied yes, she could. "Are you alright? You look terrible."

Peach didn't answer the question, except that her steps became silent as she walked, went in through an already opened door motioning Sarah to follow. There was quiet in the earth pony residency, except for a single grandfather clock ticking away. She hesitated in front of a door, gathering courage, and went in. There were two beds opposite each other, two caramel brown fillies were snuggled under the covers. One of them stirred as Peach entered and she knelt down. "Shhh, its just me Yogurt... want me to sing you a song? Okay." And she did, her voice a low sing-song lullaby. When Sarah entered she saw the filly cradled in Peach's arms being rocked slowly and gently, a white ghostly gas light seemed to flow from the fillies mouth into her own.

Sarah made no move to interrupt the act. A large part of her training had been simulated exposure to terrible, awful things, from orphans trapped in burning buildings to needing to feed from her own mother following a botched infiltration attempt. This sort of mission required heartlessness, there was no place for emotional conflict. Sarah approached the second filly, standing near the bed, and looking down at her.

"Good evening, little one." She said pleasantly, directing her attention away from what Peach was doing.

The little filly was blinking with its eyes, slowly becoming awake, partially lulled with the song that Peach had sung. When the little filly didn't recognise Sarah, she flung her eyes open and looked around, and when she saw what was happening to her twin sister, she gathered air to scream.

Sarah wasted no time, and pulled the young filly towards her. She let her Changeling mind take over, instincts which were usually very carefully kept buried. She did not assume her Changeling form, but did begin to gently shush the little girl, drawing forth from her memories and emotions. Removing from her the very essence that gave her energy. "Be still now, this will only take a moment."

Happy days running around the lake with Yogurt... The first time her mother had taken the two to a harvest dance.. Visiting Uncle Hayseed... when her cutie mark had appeared... the pride and joy of these things filled Sarah as she quickly drew the dreams, hopes and memories from the little filly, who merely sighed, her eyes rolling up into her head. Power surged inside Sarah.

"Put her down gently and tuck her into bed." Peach ordered, a hoof stroking the mane of the other girl who had fallen unconscious. She leaned down whispered something into the filly's ears and kissed her cheek.

She wasted no time in obeying, he had what she needed. The filly was tucked back into bed, very gently. Sarah mentally commanded her coat to return to its normal blue shine, up until now it had been faded as if someone had used too much bleach, an effect which made her look malnourished or sick. "I'll have a few choice words for my commanding officer." She growled quietly.

Peach sneered back. "What's it to you, grubling? I've filed and fed away more than you'll count. But Peach loved her fillies and so do I for the same reason." Shaking her head, wings unfolded from her back as she dropped her disguise, walking over to the window. She dug into the saddle bag, taking out the ledger and burned it with a quick spell. "Are you ready? Better keep up." And with that she jumped cleanly from the window sill, wings fluttering and trailing a bee line across the peach trees. The point of no return for Sarah.

Sarah waited only a moment after Peach had gone. She leaned down to kiss each of the fillies on the head. "I'm sorry," She whispered, and then took after Peach, silken wings materializing from her back and lifting her into the air. She wasn't quite as fast, but she was determined. "I'm coming!"

The hive awaited her.

Cancelled

I hate cancelling stories, but it's time to face facts. It's been an entire year. My friend and I wrote this story together, and it's been six months since he stopped writing. It just doesn't feel right to work on this story without him, and I can't bring myself to finish on my own. It was our project, and there's too many feels. Maybe someday I'll post the lost chapters that we wrote and never finished and I never edited, but for now... this is all there is.