Horizon Falls

Damn I got rusty.

“We are all prisoners but some of us are in cells with windows and some without.”
― Khalil Gibran

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“I thought we were going to the Library,” Andromeda said.

“We are,” Celestia said, “But there is first somepony else I think will be useful for our needs.”

Iron Gates glanced at the two guards standing next to him, “Not me this time?”

The three ponies plus the two guards walked into the Throne Room. Celestia stood in the center of the room and glanced to another pair of guards.

“Bring in the prisoner,” she said.

They nodded and left. A moment later, the doors at the far end of the room opened. Two ponies, holding animal restraining poles moved into the room. At the end of both of the poles was a struggling mare. She had a white coat and a blonde mane accompanied with emerald green eyes. She wore a look that combined incredibly irritation mixed with one part of the disturbed with a dash of murderous intent. Her cutie mark was that of a triangle with an eye that behind it had a pair of crossed daggers.

“Let me go!” she growled with a heavy accent, “I am zee kaptain in zee Germane Army! You have no right!”

“Silence!” one of the guards said, pulling her along. She raised a hoof to her neck.

“Zis is unacceptable!”

Andromeda turned to the princess, “What is this?”

The sound of struggling accompanied the Princess’s response, “This is a mare we caught infiltrating the Library.”

“When?” Iron Gates asked, still suspicious of the guards next to him.

“During the changeling invasion.”

“Wait, what?”

The mare stopped struggling against her restraints and turned to stare at the princess.

Celestia frowned, “We figured it out a long time ago, Heinrich Von Richthofen or whatever your name really is.”

The mare named Heinrich growled and stopped struggling. In a burst of green flame, the white and blonde mare vanished and was replaced by an insect looking creature. It had insect wings and, a chitinous skin and large bug blue eyes. A curved pointy horn sat upon its head and a pair of fangs sat in its mouth.

In a burst of green flame, the mare returned.

“Vhat do you want from me?” she asked.

Andromeda shifted uncomfortably, “Princess?”

“Yes she’s a changeling,” Celestia said before returning to the changeling, “You were attempting to break into the library during the invasion. Specifically a certain wing.”

“Ya,” the mare rolled her eyes.

“So it seems we’re on the same page here,” Iron Gates said.

Celestia ignored him, “So then it would be logical to assume that you know something about what’s inside.”

The blonde mare narrowed her eyes, “Vhat exactly are you asking of me?”

Celestia turned to the two guards holding her and nodded. One produced a chrome metal collar and placed it on the mare’s neck. It fit snuggly around her neck and magically tightened so it was incapable of being removed yet still allowed the creature to breathe and eat comfortably. The two guards removed the restraints from the mare.

The earth pony mare blinked and felt the collar around her neck, “Vhat is zis?”

“I’ll make a deal with you,” Celestia said, “You tell us everything you know I promise you won’t go back into that cell.”

“Is zhat all?” she spat, “A pittance. Zhere is nothing you kan offer me.”

Celestia turned to Andromeda, “Care to add anything?”

Andromeda gave a glance, “Are you sure?”

Celestia nodded.

The mare gulped, “Alright. We found a facility of some kind. You can study it if you’ll help us.”

“Hmm, is zhat all?”

“Asylum. You can have it tacked on to everything else,” The princess added.

“And Vhy vould I vant zhat?”

“Your hive is gone,” Celestia said, “They’ve been expelled from this country. In fact they’re so far away that even I don’t know where they are.”

“Ya right. I tink you just don’t have vhat you need and you’ll say anyting to get me to cooperate.”

“Maybe, but do you want to risk that?” Iron Gates spoke up.

“And just vhat are you?” The mare asked.

“I’m in the same position as you. But regardless, we’re clearly not all on the same team here but she is right. Your fellow hive mates or hive mind or whatever the buck you things want to call each other are gone. Even if they survived they are so scattered across the continent that they will likely not survive or at the very least will have a difficult time regrouping. In all likelihood however, your queen is dead leaving reproduction for your race a long shot at the best. So worst case scenario is your hive will be extinct and best case is that they’re all over the place that any hope of regrouping is slim to none. Now you’re free to take on those odds if you want, or you can take the deal they’re offering or you can go back to rot in that cell. Your choice.”

The blonde mare stayed silent for a few seconds before finally growling, “Vhat iz it you vant to know?”

Andromeda levitated her journal out of her saddle bags and opened the book to a certain page with a series of symbols.

“Can you read this?” she asked.

The mare stared at the symbols before looking up, “Yes. I kan read zis.”

“What does it say?” Celestia asked.

“Vell considering you just kopied random symbols onto zis page zere is no real coherence to anyting here,” came an irritated reply.

“Can you translate it anyway?”

“Alvight. Cup, Fish, House, Blue, Some, that’s not even a complete word, The green twelve doesn’t salad a gamma whale. Do you know anyting about vhat you vere reading?”

Andromeda frowned, “No. I’ve been trying to find a translation for months now. I haven’t had much luck.”

“Vell I kan’t say I expected anyting more. Zis language haz been dead for centuries. You von’t find any good translation in zis part of ze world. Even I don’t understand some of zat.”

Iron Gates added, “Then who does?”

“Not anyone in zis part of ze world.”

“Then where?”

For the first time since she appeared, the blonde mare smiled.

Andromeda frowned, “Should we move on to the library now?”

Celestia turned and started walking away from the group, “We should. Sergeant, please escort our guests, all of them, to the library.”

“Where are you going?” Andromeda asked.

“I have some other business to attend to. Don’t worry, I will rejoin you in a moment.”

“Alright.”

Celestia stepped out of the throne room and a few minutes later was in her private study. She summoned a piece of paper and began composing a latter. Once she was done she stamped it with the royal seal followed by another, far less abused stamp before levitating the letter into the air and incinerating it.