Fireflyingby MeziphChaptersLetterManehattan HiveUnderground CityCastleMeetingMagicLetterCelestia held her guard’s report in her levitation, her face had a mask of serenity and calm, but inside she was confused, and somewhat afraid. Two weeks ago her kingdom had been invaded by the changelings, a week and half ago her guards caught scent of a hive inside her borders, a week ago she prepared her guard to go to said hive and try to arrest the changelings. She didn’t know much about their society, but if Chrysalis claim to be their Queen was true, then every changeling would be under her orders, and by proxy, every changeling would be and antagonistic force, she was not going to allow their kind inside her borders, she wouldn’t let what happened two weeks ago happen again. However, when her guards had found the hive, nearby Manehattan of all places, they found it deserted.Every trap was disarmed, with said’s trap components lying nearby, every cell, room, hall and corridors were devoid of changeling life.It was only in the main chamber that they found something different from trap components; a Letter. Said letter went like this: ======= Celestia This outpost has been evacuated, every Changeling inside here has been relocated to a secure position, of which there will be no disclosure.I’m sorry, but this is for the better. I assume you have found the de-activated traps, the components of each trap and their effects are listed below. The letter then went into a complete and detailed disclosure of each substance and object, of which there were in total twenty six different substances, five methods of activation and six methods of application.They ranged from incapacitating an enemy to outright killing them. I also assume that you may be thinking about what, and who I am.I’ll tell you this; I’m a helper, I’ve been roaming your lands from time immemorial, and you may have heard of me, many times perhaps.These recent altercations between Yours Estate and the Changeling Queendom have gotten my interest.You’ll be hearing of me again. I expect to meet you face to face sometime in the future, I may or may not be building my own City.It would be improper to not declare it’s existance, would it not? In the twilight the Firefly appears. PS: I rather like the old way of finishing a letter, you should make it popular again. ======= Celestia let out a long sigh, she had read the letter many times, and still she had no idea of who this “Firefly” was, and how old was he or she.That style of signing was something that was used almost a millennia ago, these days it wasn’t even taught in school, the only way to know about it was to either find books that were as old as dirt, or to be alive in said time frame. If this “Firefly” was that old, then it was by no mean a normal pony, or a pony at all.Celestia had hypothesis of what this being could be, but she was certain that most of them were too outlandish to consider. The fact that “Firefly” was also building a city was not helping. She decided that it was best to let it rest for now, she was going to need to consult her sister in this. Manehattan HiveThe hive was in absolute chaos, Drones flew to the storage cells, where their Gel was being hold.The Knights tried to protect their HIve, without avail, the strange being kept on advancing, deflecting blows and striking with enough force to knock out, but not to kill. They knew that the Princesses of the Sun and Moon knew of their location, they also knew that they were sending a patrol to deal with them.They didn’t expect said patrol to be a single unit, and to arrive a day before they were supposed to. The last line of defence fell, and the strange being had gotten to the main hall.Every drone there stopped to watch it, fearful of what it was, of how it had dispatched a squad of the best their outpost could provide. It had the form of a pony, shorter than the average Equestrian.A creamy brown coat, legs that went from said color to a more dark one, in a gradient fashion, a fluff of white, like a lion’s mane covered it’s neck, and on the back two brown wings were extended outwards.The head had two oval eyes, insectoid, like, their own, etched into a frown, and on top of it’s white mane were two antennae. It turned to them. “Did you really have to attack me?” The question was not what they were expecting, but before anyling could do anything the strange being continued talking. “I mean, I know you all were on your toes ‘cause Sunbutt and Moonflank are trying to get you all, but that doesn’t mean you have to attack anything that moves and doesn’t look like a changeling! really, this is like the third time this week...” She, or at least they assumed so because of her voice, calmed down after breathing slowly. “Whoever is responsible for this outpost, come here now! I have an offer for your.” One of the Knights, one of the few that was still standing, limped over to her, they seemed to strike a conversation for a few seconds, before the Knight turned to the rest of the hive and told them to continue with the evacuation plan. ======= Firefly, that was the name of the strange pony that had appeared.Knight Captain Blackshield had been guiding her towards a usable room that they could use for conversation, the female had yet to speak again, probably waiting for the right moment to tell him that she was going to kill them all or something equally as terrifying. He liked to think that he was courageous and strong, a trait needed for the his job of Outpost Knight.He was supposed to keep the entire hive alive if something went south, and today he had learned that even with all his training there were things that no one could deal with. They had entered a living chamber, his living chamber.It was easily one of the biggest ones, he tended to spend more time increasing it’s size, something that most changelings didn’t do, at least it would help.Maybe impressing her would spare him. “This is the first time I’ve seen a chamber so damn big, not counting those of royalty of course.” She turned to him, eying his form before sitting on the ground, close to a table “you must’ve spent a lot of time building it.Uncommon, but then again this hive’s changelings are all strange in comparison.” “What is your purpose here?” “Straight to the point I see,” there she laughed, a strange laughter even in changeling standards, “You see, I’ve made a deal with your Queen, she was rather dead at that point you know? happens when one falls from the troposphere.Since she wasn’t in a mood to talk, and I didn’t want your entire race dying off because someone was too thick-headed to understand that these ponies are tougher than they look.So I decided to gather all the changelings that are stil alive and offer them someplace to stay, I would rather like having a City, and to have one I would need citizens.” He was confused, to say the least.She was certainly not telling the entire thing, but even then her offer was quite good.Chrysalis had died that fateful day, and since then the entire Hive had been in complete disorder.Their collective mind was deteriorating, without a “hub” it tended to fall to pieces, and without their Queen they were completely directionless. “Where’s the catch?” “The catch is that you follow Me, My orders and that you do not, under any circumstance, attack other sentient life.Yes that include ponies.You have until sundown to collect all your vats of Gel, meet me here.” when she finished speaking her hoof moved to touch Blackshield’s head, information was forcefully shoved inside his brain; a location, a time-frame and a password. “Why are you doing this to us?” he asked, his head hurting from the sudden mind invasion. “I like to help, and as I said, I want to build a City.” Underground CityThe Manehattan’s hive changelings were all in the Everfree Forest, their designated leader, Blackshield, stood in front of over five hundred changelings, leading the way to where the stranger, Firefly, had told them to go. The directions were simple, find the Castle, follow the ravine, find a big tree.And a big tree it was indeed, towering over the trees of the Everfree, the behemoth was unnaturally large, and for some reason it kept making him and his fellow changelings think that it wasn’t there. There was a password as well, clearing his throat, Blackshield spoke in a even and loud voice. “I acknowledge the problem in front of me, and take it as my own.” The tree cleared, details that weren’t exact suddenly became nitid, the feeling of non-existence also faded, leaving behind something that most changelings could identify, a Notice-Me-Not spell. “I hereby claim myself and mine affiliates to be subjects of the Potato Kingdom.” The spell went away, leaving behind an illusion, that slowly faded to reveal an hole on the tree’s trunk, warm air seeped forth from said hole, and sound could be heard from below.Everyone looked at the scene with wide eyes, they were sure that if they didn’t have the instructions they would’ve never found the entrance. The entire ex-hive walked forward, into the city. ======= Firefly was quite happy, another outpost had been saved, there were a total of ten around Equestria, and twenty two in Equestria-Dominion territory, the main hive location was known to her, but if the changelings were correct then it would be useless to go there. That was the eighth one, totalling five thousand eight hundred and a few changelings on her city now, all of them the survivors of their Queen madness.She had a lot to do still, and most important was the food issue, if she was going to make it so that ponies and changelings could live together then she would need to do something about their eating habits. Right now she was standing on the main road, watching as a confused troupe of changelings descended the stairs to her underground lair.Their “leader”, Blackshield, held his façade of indifference, but below it she could see the awe and fear that he was feeling. It’s not everyday you see an underground city the size of Canterlot. She moved to greet him, a small smile on her face.He recognized her, and walked slightly faster to come near quickly. “So you did came, fantastic.Tell your hive to go to the mess hall, there they can find information concerning where they are going to be staying and the rules and laws of this place.After that come find me at the Congress Hall, I suppose you’re their leader by now correct?” “Understood and yes, they named me their leader.” She nodded, turned and left.There were things that needed to be done, changelings to contact and an assembly to be held, after all, she wanted her city to be auto sufficient, and she also didn’t want to be in a position of power. The Congress Hall was quite the building, made of marble and granite, the place had an air of austerity and power.It was the home of politics, where the changelings would decide what happened, she wasn’t going to impede them from forming another Queendom or a Kingdom, but she was going to watch them and regulate if anyone got power hungry, there was no need for another Chrysalis. The representatives gathered quickly, every outpost had named a leader, and all of them had then been chosen by her to represent each outpost.Over the two weeks she had started this project there weren’t many scuffles happening, since all of them were more focused on surviving than anything else, but she was quite sure that when the dust settled things would begin to get interesting. “Good morning ladies and gents,” she said, now inside the building, together with the representatives and the newcomer, “today another one of the outposts has joine us, the Manehattan one.Blackshield, since you’re new here I’m going to explain to you what exactly I’m trying to accomplish.” She cleared her throat, “since your Queen has died, Equestria as a whole is chasing your kind.I can’t do much about the small hives and outpost outside of Equestria proper, but I can try to salvage the situation.In a month’s time I’ll be encountering the Princesses and revealing to them my plan, and in two, if everything goes right, I’ll be disclosing this location the them.” There was a murmur of consent, those who had come first had objected to the entire thing, saying it was against their nature and customs to expose themselves, but they were quickly silenced with a few words. Either you expose yourselves or you die, your choice. “There’s a law book I’ve compiled here,” she pointed at a small book that sat upon a table, “you gather your changelings and explain it to them.If you have any questions you ask them to these fellows here or to me when I’m not busy, anything you want to ask right now?” He shook his head, and she smiled. “Then this assembly is finished, go, and don’t make me regret saving your arses.” CastleTwilight Sparkle was quite anxious, to not say nervous.Her mentor had called them to Canterlot, again, in a span of less than a month, the letter she had received clearly indicated that whatever was happening was taking it’s toll on Celestia, the usual prim and proper way her mentor is used to write wasn’t present, instead the letter was short and to the point. She and her friends were to go to Canterlot, and the situation involved the changelings. The mention of those creatures sent a shiver down her spine, she still remember that day where Canterlot almost fell and her confront with their Queen.The only thing that wasn’t bad about the whole thing was that they had won at the end, thanks to her brother and Cadence. Despite her nervousness she smiled, she had her friends, and she would be supported by them, no matter what was going to happen. The entire trip was spent talking in small chat, none of the Bearers, save perhaps for Pinkie, were happy to see the changelings again.And the only reason Pinkie was happy was because she may be able to throw a party for them. Arriving in canterlot, they were quickly escorted by guards to the Castle, that was unusual, but they weren’t going to complain, if the pace of the guards was telling anything, was that they had to hurry. Soon enough, they reached the Castle, and right there on the entrance stood Princess Celestia. “Princess!” Twilight exclaimed, running to her mentor.A simple bow and a nuzzle were exchanged before she spoke again, “It’s nice to see you again, although the situation isn’t the best…” “It’s good to see you too Twilight, and you too Girls,” she turned to the rest of the Bearers, who were smiling at her, “Let’s go inside, our guest is supposed to be arriving soon, and it would be best if you all were there to be with us.” They entered the castle, the guards moving besides them to continue escorting them. “Our guest, who is him, her? is it another changeling?” Twilight asked. “Guards, you can continue your patrols, no need to escort us further,” saying that, Celestia returned her attention to Twilight, “Her, if the letters are anything to go by, and I’m not sure of which species she is.She is helping the changelings, on a way that she didn’t explain, and it seems that she is also trying to build her own city.” “Helping the changelings!? who the hay would help the changelings?” Rainbow Dash was almost hovering on Celestia’s face, who simply chuckled at the mare’s antics and Twilight’s disapproving glare. Her mirth however didn’t last long, Celestia’s smile turned into a frown, and she spoke with a twinge of sadness on her voice, “If what she wrote me is true, then their Queen died on the same day she invaded our palace.Without her, the changelings would surely die off, Chrysalis hadn’t left a heir, and only a Queen can give birth to a Princess.She seems to be acting as their Queen for now, gathering the stray changelings and housing them in her city, but she hasn’t told me all her ambitions and purposes, the only thing I’ve gathered from her is that she likes to help those in need.” The mood became quite bad when they heard that Chrysalis had died, she had invaded them, true, but they didn’t expect the Queen’s demise. “Did… did any other changeling die as well?” Fluttershy asked next, her voice wavering at the word ‘die’. “I’m not sure, the guard’s report was that their carapace was quite sturdy.Blows that should’ve crushed a Guard’s armor tended to be stopped by their chitin, and I’m sure you all saw they attacking by falling into the ground and high speeds.The report also disclosed that there wasn’t any deaths, I’m not sure how Chrysalis ended up deceased.” They walked silently, mulling over the news.Soon enough they reached the throne room, where Princess Luna stood, reading something.When she saw them however, her stoic face rapidly changed into one of happiness, and she walked to them. “Greetings! ‘tis good to see you again, Bearers.Although the situation could be much better…” the six bowed to her, which only made Luna annoyed, “no need for bowing and scraping, we are in friendly company.Now, Tia, when is this Firefly character supposed to show up?” “She said she would be arriving when everyone was present, so I suppose any time now she may appear.” Just as Celestia said that, a guard briskly trotted into the room, did a curt bow and spoke, “Princess, a… pony by the name of Firefly has appeared in the kitchen’s balcony, she said she had an audition with you and the Bearers. The kitchen’s balcony? “Well, speaking of Cerberus… call her in, she is expected.” The guard disappeared behind the double doors.While they waited, they kept glancing at each other.The tension in the air was quite palpable, and it didn’t help that Pinkie Pie was bouncing around, happy that she was going to meet somepony new. Sooner than they expected, the doors opened, and from the outside trotted in a… pony.She was quite small, and had a light, creamy brown coat, her legs gradually went darker as they approached her hooves, which were a reddish brown color.A lion-like white mane covered her neck, and her back sported two quite large dark brown insectile wings, tucked inwards, pointing at her back which had a white, short tail.Her head sported two red eyes, not unlike those of the changelings, her mane was also white and two antennae sprouted from the top. She looked like a mix between a moth, and a pony. They heard her laugh, it was quite strange, possibly the strangest laugh they had heard in their life. “I get that look a lot.” It was then that they noticed they were all staring at her, mouth slightly agape, trying to salvage the situation, Celestia spoke. “Ahem, well, you must be Firefly then.It’s a pleasure meeting you in person, although you’re much more… different from what I was expecting.” She chuckled as she approached them, “I also get that a lot, well, It’s also nice to meet the rulers of these lands.Celestia, Luna, It’s an honor.” she did a curt bow, one of her forelegs held nearby her torso, “The elements as well, Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and finally, Pinkie.” They all waved a hello, Pinkie hopped forward, examining the newcomer. “Soooo… what exactly are you? and do you like parties? are there changelings with you right now? do they also like parties?” if it was thought to be possible to say all that in a second, then Pinkie Pie did prove it was indeed, possible. “Not sure, there wasn’t any information about me or my kind when I came to be.Yes, I like parties and no, no changelings with me.And they too like parties, there’s a lot of good emotions floating in the air you see.” Satisfied with her answer, Pinkie bounced back to her group, before anypony could start questioning her guest, Celestia spoke. “It would be best to talk over a cup of tea would it not? come, accompany me.” With that said, the entire group was led to the Princesses’ private dining room, anxious to have their questions answered. MeetingFirefly held back her grin, preferring to let out a small smile instead.It was an insteresting accomplishment to her, of sorts, seeing both Princesses and the actual Bearers live and in colors.The nine of them, including her, were now sitting on a modest sized dining room, a table with enough palces for all of them to sit down and already two kettles of tea and nine cups awaited them. She sat down first, letting the ponies choose where they would be staying.The two Princesses sat directly in front of her.Twilight, Pinkie and Fluttershy sat to her left, besides Celestia.Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity sat to her right, besides Luna.They all were still eyeing her warily, the reason wasn’t lost to her. She did say she was helping Equestria’s new biggest ‘threat’. A unicorn maid trotted over to the table, and slowly filled each’s pony cup with tea, she took her time eyeing her, but it wasn’t one of suspicion or fear, just mild curiosity.If this was the maid that tended to Ambassadors and Dignitaries of other nations her reaction wouldn’t be unexpected.After filling everyone’s cups, she bowed and left the room through a small door to her far left. “Well then, shall we start? to my right is Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.To my left, Princess Luna, my sister, Applejack and Rarity.” each one of them nodded when their name was spoken, “and your name is Firefly, am I correct?” “Yes.” Firefly looked at the cup in front of her, the sweet aroma of the tea tickling her nose.A sip, jasmine, and the cup floated down to rest on the table again. “You’ve come here, requesting an audience with Me, my sister and the Bearers.I know a little of what you’re planning, but most of them do not.Can you explain to them?” “With pleasure,” the cup landed on the table again, clinking softly, “A month and a half ago the changelings decided it would be a good idea to try and nab Equestria.They failed, as we all know it, and then their Queen went to changeling heaven,” the cup floated to her lips, another sip, “since then Equestria’s in high alarm.Instead of letting the changelings fade into non-existence again, I’ll be trying to make them live instead of survive.First step to that is to get them a home,” she stopped when she noticed that the cup was empty, scowling, she levitated the cup back to the table, “the city I’ve built oh so long ago is going to be used now, finally, and since it’s technically inside Equestria’s territory I had to come here and tell you that.” The kettle of tea lazily floated towards her, dipping downwards to fill her cup.That was when Twilight decided to shriek. “How are you doing that!?” Firefly looked at the unicorn, cocking her head slightly to the side, “Doing what, exactly?” “Telekinesis! How are you doing that?” she was quite certain she heard a few snickers, deciding to play a bit she answered quite simply. “Magic.” Hoof, meet face.Face, meet hoof.Play nice you two. “That doesn’t answer anything! You’re not even a unicorn!” “So aren’t the Princesses, and they can still levitate stuff can’t they?” she grinned slightly,she was quite certain that steam was rising from Twilight’s head now. “But they have horns! you don’t, or at least I think those things on top of your head aren’t.” “Well, I have hooves!” With a small flourish she showed them her hooves, who were coated in the same whitewashed red aura that covered the tea kettle, “Say, have you ever conjured a lightning bolt, wind, or rain?” The sudden change made Twilight stutter for a moment, before she answered, “Well, yeah, but what does that have to do with you?” She grinned, it was like that time in Alto Mare all over again, “Well, that’s Pegasus magic isn’t it? control over weather.Magic is magic, no matter what form it takes it is still made of the same base blocks, if you can reverse engineer a pegasus made lightning bolt and ‘invent’ Crackhorn’s Bright Lightning spell you can reverse engineer the common telekinesis spell and use them with your hooves instead, although it’s not as effective.” The two alicorns and unicorns were looking at her like she had grown a second head, yep, exactly like that time in Alto Mare minus the Royalty of course, she couldn’t help but let out a giggle.”Well, we didn’t come here to talk about magic nuances and things that you overlooked because reasons did we?” Celestia shook her head, before glancing at her, the look she gave Firefly was like saying ‘we will be speaking about this later’.”Well, your letter also mentioned that you would be giving the location of said city to us.” Firefly nodded and reached inside her neck’s mane, from there she procured a small topaz, and put it down in the table in front of her. “This here will have the informations about where to find it.Just use a simple scrying spell or memory reading and you’ll see what’s inside.” A dark blue aura covered the gem and Celestia simply nodded, “Well then, I suppose this finishes our official meeting.Now, we would like to keep company to all of you, but duty calls.This was, in the end, an unscheduled meeting, and I still have court to run and Luna has not slept yet,” there she looked at her sister, who simply smiled and nodded as if saying ‘thank you’, “we will be leaving you with the Bearers for now.” She nodded, and bowed slightly as the Princesses stood up and left.After they both went away, she looked at Twilight and smiled lightly. “Any questions?” MagicThe moment those words left her mout, Firefly knew she had given the rest of her day to a certain purple unicorn.She had just shown something ponies apparently forgot, and now the overeager to learn Twilight Sparkle was going to, no doubt, question her till her ears fell. The parchment and quill floating to her side wasn’t really unexpected. “Alright, I have a question.” for all of their surprise though, It was Rainbow Dash who was the first to ask.She took a deep breath, and then spoke, “Alright, we know how you’re going to help the changelings, but you still didn’t tell us why.” “Good question,” she leaned backwards, the kettle, floating in her aura dipped down to full her cup once more, eliciting an eye twitch from Twilight. “The reason I’m helping them… well, I quite like helping those who do stupid things, I’m going to be completely honest, it feels quite nice when they look at you with that face that just screams ‘how did I not see that’.And well, they did lose their Queen, and I’ve had a good relationship with them for some time now, even if they didn’t know about it.” “The reason I’m helping them is because I can. Really simple.” The cyan mare nodded, and took a sip of her drink, making the best face to not show that she didn’t like it.Twilight took no chances, and asked before anyone else could. “Alright, you just told us that you can use magic without a horn, How? and what do you mean by saying that ‘magic is just magic’?” She nodded, and placed her right hoof on top of the table, the aura intensified, and all of the nine cups began levitating together with the two kettles. “This is almost the limit of my unboosted telekinesis.Horns are good for casting because their spiral design naturally lets Willed magic flow in a rhythm, hooves are second best as they are large enough and smooth.Feather’s are the worst conductors, you need a specific Foci to Will magic outwards, the most complex and smooth one is, the best it is to cast with.” She then dipped her hoof into the tea, and drew two circles in the table,one large and one small and linking them with four lines, placing the same hoof inside the smaller one, her aura flared brighter, and the circles soon started glowing the same way.A red tinted white aura involved Rainbow dash, who started to float, “This is a Array Circle, used to direct energy into a change matrix, who converts it into magic and then pushes it into the Foci, ancient Horn Battle Rings were made using complex Array Circles, making levitating a entire castle or moving the Sun doable with a good enough energy saturated environment.With enough of these you can make artifacts, such as the Elements,” She grinned, watching as everyone’s but Twilight’s face grew more and more confused, “I wasn’t there, of course, but I heard that the Cynogriffins were quite ingenuous with these things, they created a brand of Magic called alchemy, of which I’m still trying to learn.” She plopped Rainbow down on her pillow, “This the the how, and the why is simple.Magic is energy given form, Will is the key to most Magic, and some types you need Understanding to use, like alchemy, and then there’s Want with chaos and greed magic, but I’m straying and your ink is running low.” The sound of parchment being ripped drew everyone’s attention to Twilight, who was looking at the gash at the end of her pony sized report.She smiled sheepishly, and coughed before talking again, “Eh, I kinda of went into auto-pilot there, and… could you repeat that?” Four groans and a chuckle were her answer, “Well, I think Miss Sparkle is going to hog me for the rest of the day.In any way, I’ll be here tomorrow as well… since the gem I gave the Princesses can only by used by me, so… If you don’t want to hear a long explanation about magic you can leave.” Five hooves shuffled slowly outwards, casting glances at Firefly and Twilight, small See ya’s and Stay safes were spoken, and the two of them remained inside the room. “Well,” Firefly started, “I thought Fluttershy would want to stay, well, not that It matters now.So, what do you want to learn right now?” “Everything.” ======= Twilight let out a small sigh of happiness as she finished writing another roll of parchment.The day was nearing it’s end already, and since then she had not stopped writing.To her, Firefly seemed to posses an uncanny amount of knowledge about eberything related to magic. It was quite the surprise to hear that the unassuming ‘moth’pony had lived for so long that she had lost count of the years, her answer of “I was here before Discord even appeared.” when she was asked how old she was only increased Twilight’s questions.How had she lived for so long? How had she attained so much knowledge? Were Giraffes really the creators of the Telekinesis spell? That was another thing that bothered Twilight to no end.She thought she knew a lot about magic, in the end she did, Equestrian magic.There were so many different types of magic, so many different races around the world, ones that she hadn’t even heard existed, like the Polar Griffins and the Sand Dragons.Why Equestria’s Schools and Universities didn’t teach about these subjects? “Because they don’t know about their existence.” “What? are you mind reading too!?” “Don’t need to mind read when you’re speaking what you’re writing.” Firefly laughed, making Twilight blush with embarrassment, “For how long has Equestria been really, and I mean really interested in figuring out how magic works? since Starswirl and Clover.Those two appeared a thousand and so years ago, Equestria as we know has existed as long as Three thousand years, the only reason I know so much is because I kinda of travelled around the word when I came to be.” Twilight nodded, and reminded her of keeping her mouth shut while writing.That was another story worthy of it’s own, Firefly apparently was in a stasis spell of sort when she ‘Woke Up’, and her first family was a group of Zebras out in the eastern Savannah.She had spoken only a little about her… first millennia of life, only enough to know she didn’t remember anything about her own kind, and that she didn’t know how to use magic then. “It must have been though, living without knowing your father and mother no?” Twilight took a small sip of her tea as she watched Firefly’s face. “I had a mother and a father Twi, they were Zebras, they teached me what I needed to learn, and the first time I ever did anything with magic was making a tree grow out of a potion I made with my mother overlooking me.It didn’t matter to me that I was strange in body, I had their acceptance in soul, and that was all that mattered to me.” She looked at the page she was currently finishing, her theories about how to use Earth pony magic with either wings or horns were taking shape.Unsurprisingly enough, it seemed that ancient ponies liked to answer with questions and riddles instead of straight out giving her the knowledge. “Come on! why don’t you just tell me how you do it?” “Because it’s quite funny seeing actual steam coming out of your ears.” “ARGH! It would help so much to know how to use the other’s tribes magic, it could help us understand a lot of things too!” “Yes it could, it also could make it so that the Dark Ages happen all over again.Those times were quite terrible thank you very much.If you really want to learn how to use… I don’t know, earth pony magic as an example.Ask your friend Applejack what she thinks when she is casting it.She will probably say nothing, but then try to make her focus on it, who knows? maybe you will learn how to Will another magic aspect into your own and emulate it?” It made some sense though, if what she kept talking about Willing things and the such, all those abstract concepts made Twilight’s head hurt a little, she was used to formulaic spell casting, something Firefly kept saying that it was ‘a necessary evil for these times’, whatever that meant.It didn’t mean though, that she wasn’t willing to experiment, and these new ideas could revolutionize the field of magic. “Not revolutionize, more like bring back lost knowledge.That’s what happens when you burn The Library you know.” Twilight looked to her, one eyebrow raised, “Wait, you mean all of this is already known?” “Has already been discovered, I’m no inventor.All of this is knowledge that’s inside this thick skull here,” she poked her head with her right hoof, “the reason I remember is because I… enhanced so to speak, my memory.Other cultures were quite linked back then, and I’m quite sure Celestia is going seek you after we finish, probably to tell you to not publish anything you learn over this conversation.” “What!?” “She most certainly doesn’t want a reprise of the Dark Ages, I’m most certain that that is the reason she keeps a tight leash on magical research.You have things like Magic Microwaves and a Prototype Car-Cider machine thing, but Unicorns don’t know how to plant trees, Pegasi can’t teleport and Earth Ponies don’t make it rain when they want.Keeping everything interlocked means harmony, what do you think happens when someone knows how to do everything?” Discord. Twilight looked at her stack of papers with a different look, “Do you think we should stop then?” “Probably yeah.If she gives you the ‘go ahead’ you can come and look after me to keep this conversation going.” “Thanks.” “Heh, it was no problem.”
LetterCelestia held her guard’s report in her levitation, her face had a mask of serenity and calm, but inside she was confused, and somewhat afraid. Two weeks ago her kingdom had been invaded by the changelings, a week and half ago her guards caught scent of a hive inside her borders, a week ago she prepared her guard to go to said hive and try to arrest the changelings. She didn’t know much about their society, but if Chrysalis claim to be their Queen was true, then every changeling would be under her orders, and by proxy, every changeling would be and antagonistic force, she was not going to allow their kind inside her borders, she wouldn’t let what happened two weeks ago happen again. However, when her guards had found the hive, nearby Manehattan of all places, they found it deserted.Every trap was disarmed, with said’s trap components lying nearby, every cell, room, hall and corridors were devoid of changeling life.It was only in the main chamber that they found something different from trap components; a Letter. Said letter went like this: ======= Celestia This outpost has been evacuated, every Changeling inside here has been relocated to a secure position, of which there will be no disclosure.I’m sorry, but this is for the better. I assume you have found the de-activated traps, the components of each trap and their effects are listed below. The letter then went into a complete and detailed disclosure of each substance and object, of which there were in total twenty six different substances, five methods of activation and six methods of application.They ranged from incapacitating an enemy to outright killing them. I also assume that you may be thinking about what, and who I am.I’ll tell you this; I’m a helper, I’ve been roaming your lands from time immemorial, and you may have heard of me, many times perhaps.These recent altercations between Yours Estate and the Changeling Queendom have gotten my interest.You’ll be hearing of me again. I expect to meet you face to face sometime in the future, I may or may not be building my own City.It would be improper to not declare it’s existance, would it not? In the twilight the Firefly appears. PS: I rather like the old way of finishing a letter, you should make it popular again. ======= Celestia let out a long sigh, she had read the letter many times, and still she had no idea of who this “Firefly” was, and how old was he or she.That style of signing was something that was used almost a millennia ago, these days it wasn’t even taught in school, the only way to know about it was to either find books that were as old as dirt, or to be alive in said time frame. If this “Firefly” was that old, then it was by no mean a normal pony, or a pony at all.Celestia had hypothesis of what this being could be, but she was certain that most of them were too outlandish to consider. The fact that “Firefly” was also building a city was not helping. She decided that it was best to let it rest for now, she was going to need to consult her sister in this.
Manehattan HiveThe hive was in absolute chaos, Drones flew to the storage cells, where their Gel was being hold.The Knights tried to protect their HIve, without avail, the strange being kept on advancing, deflecting blows and striking with enough force to knock out, but not to kill. They knew that the Princesses of the Sun and Moon knew of their location, they also knew that they were sending a patrol to deal with them.They didn’t expect said patrol to be a single unit, and to arrive a day before they were supposed to. The last line of defence fell, and the strange being had gotten to the main hall.Every drone there stopped to watch it, fearful of what it was, of how it had dispatched a squad of the best their outpost could provide. It had the form of a pony, shorter than the average Equestrian.A creamy brown coat, legs that went from said color to a more dark one, in a gradient fashion, a fluff of white, like a lion’s mane covered it’s neck, and on the back two brown wings were extended outwards.The head had two oval eyes, insectoid, like, their own, etched into a frown, and on top of it’s white mane were two antennae. It turned to them. “Did you really have to attack me?” The question was not what they were expecting, but before anyling could do anything the strange being continued talking. “I mean, I know you all were on your toes ‘cause Sunbutt and Moonflank are trying to get you all, but that doesn’t mean you have to attack anything that moves and doesn’t look like a changeling! really, this is like the third time this week...” She, or at least they assumed so because of her voice, calmed down after breathing slowly. “Whoever is responsible for this outpost, come here now! I have an offer for your.” One of the Knights, one of the few that was still standing, limped over to her, they seemed to strike a conversation for a few seconds, before the Knight turned to the rest of the hive and told them to continue with the evacuation plan. ======= Firefly, that was the name of the strange pony that had appeared.Knight Captain Blackshield had been guiding her towards a usable room that they could use for conversation, the female had yet to speak again, probably waiting for the right moment to tell him that she was going to kill them all or something equally as terrifying. He liked to think that he was courageous and strong, a trait needed for the his job of Outpost Knight.He was supposed to keep the entire hive alive if something went south, and today he had learned that even with all his training there were things that no one could deal with. They had entered a living chamber, his living chamber.It was easily one of the biggest ones, he tended to spend more time increasing it’s size, something that most changelings didn’t do, at least it would help.Maybe impressing her would spare him. “This is the first time I’ve seen a chamber so damn big, not counting those of royalty of course.” She turned to him, eying his form before sitting on the ground, close to a table “you must’ve spent a lot of time building it.Uncommon, but then again this hive’s changelings are all strange in comparison.” “What is your purpose here?” “Straight to the point I see,” there she laughed, a strange laughter even in changeling standards, “You see, I’ve made a deal with your Queen, she was rather dead at that point you know? happens when one falls from the troposphere.Since she wasn’t in a mood to talk, and I didn’t want your entire race dying off because someone was too thick-headed to understand that these ponies are tougher than they look.So I decided to gather all the changelings that are stil alive and offer them someplace to stay, I would rather like having a City, and to have one I would need citizens.” He was confused, to say the least.She was certainly not telling the entire thing, but even then her offer was quite good.Chrysalis had died that fateful day, and since then the entire Hive had been in complete disorder.Their collective mind was deteriorating, without a “hub” it tended to fall to pieces, and without their Queen they were completely directionless. “Where’s the catch?” “The catch is that you follow Me, My orders and that you do not, under any circumstance, attack other sentient life.Yes that include ponies.You have until sundown to collect all your vats of Gel, meet me here.” when she finished speaking her hoof moved to touch Blackshield’s head, information was forcefully shoved inside his brain; a location, a time-frame and a password. “Why are you doing this to us?” he asked, his head hurting from the sudden mind invasion. “I like to help, and as I said, I want to build a City.”
Underground CityThe Manehattan’s hive changelings were all in the Everfree Forest, their designated leader, Blackshield, stood in front of over five hundred changelings, leading the way to where the stranger, Firefly, had told them to go. The directions were simple, find the Castle, follow the ravine, find a big tree.And a big tree it was indeed, towering over the trees of the Everfree, the behemoth was unnaturally large, and for some reason it kept making him and his fellow changelings think that it wasn’t there. There was a password as well, clearing his throat, Blackshield spoke in a even and loud voice. “I acknowledge the problem in front of me, and take it as my own.” The tree cleared, details that weren’t exact suddenly became nitid, the feeling of non-existence also faded, leaving behind something that most changelings could identify, a Notice-Me-Not spell. “I hereby claim myself and mine affiliates to be subjects of the Potato Kingdom.” The spell went away, leaving behind an illusion, that slowly faded to reveal an hole on the tree’s trunk, warm air seeped forth from said hole, and sound could be heard from below.Everyone looked at the scene with wide eyes, they were sure that if they didn’t have the instructions they would’ve never found the entrance. The entire ex-hive walked forward, into the city. ======= Firefly was quite happy, another outpost had been saved, there were a total of ten around Equestria, and twenty two in Equestria-Dominion territory, the main hive location was known to her, but if the changelings were correct then it would be useless to go there. That was the eighth one, totalling five thousand eight hundred and a few changelings on her city now, all of them the survivors of their Queen madness.She had a lot to do still, and most important was the food issue, if she was going to make it so that ponies and changelings could live together then she would need to do something about their eating habits. Right now she was standing on the main road, watching as a confused troupe of changelings descended the stairs to her underground lair.Their “leader”, Blackshield, held his façade of indifference, but below it she could see the awe and fear that he was feeling. It’s not everyday you see an underground city the size of Canterlot. She moved to greet him, a small smile on her face.He recognized her, and walked slightly faster to come near quickly. “So you did came, fantastic.Tell your hive to go to the mess hall, there they can find information concerning where they are going to be staying and the rules and laws of this place.After that come find me at the Congress Hall, I suppose you’re their leader by now correct?” “Understood and yes, they named me their leader.” She nodded, turned and left.There were things that needed to be done, changelings to contact and an assembly to be held, after all, she wanted her city to be auto sufficient, and she also didn’t want to be in a position of power. The Congress Hall was quite the building, made of marble and granite, the place had an air of austerity and power.It was the home of politics, where the changelings would decide what happened, she wasn’t going to impede them from forming another Queendom or a Kingdom, but she was going to watch them and regulate if anyone got power hungry, there was no need for another Chrysalis. The representatives gathered quickly, every outpost had named a leader, and all of them had then been chosen by her to represent each outpost.Over the two weeks she had started this project there weren’t many scuffles happening, since all of them were more focused on surviving than anything else, but she was quite sure that when the dust settled things would begin to get interesting. “Good morning ladies and gents,” she said, now inside the building, together with the representatives and the newcomer, “today another one of the outposts has joine us, the Manehattan one.Blackshield, since you’re new here I’m going to explain to you what exactly I’m trying to accomplish.” She cleared her throat, “since your Queen has died, Equestria as a whole is chasing your kind.I can’t do much about the small hives and outpost outside of Equestria proper, but I can try to salvage the situation.In a month’s time I’ll be encountering the Princesses and revealing to them my plan, and in two, if everything goes right, I’ll be disclosing this location the them.” There was a murmur of consent, those who had come first had objected to the entire thing, saying it was against their nature and customs to expose themselves, but they were quickly silenced with a few words. Either you expose yourselves or you die, your choice. “There’s a law book I’ve compiled here,” she pointed at a small book that sat upon a table, “you gather your changelings and explain it to them.If you have any questions you ask them to these fellows here or to me when I’m not busy, anything you want to ask right now?” He shook his head, and she smiled. “Then this assembly is finished, go, and don’t make me regret saving your arses.”
CastleTwilight Sparkle was quite anxious, to not say nervous.Her mentor had called them to Canterlot, again, in a span of less than a month, the letter she had received clearly indicated that whatever was happening was taking it’s toll on Celestia, the usual prim and proper way her mentor is used to write wasn’t present, instead the letter was short and to the point. She and her friends were to go to Canterlot, and the situation involved the changelings. The mention of those creatures sent a shiver down her spine, she still remember that day where Canterlot almost fell and her confront with their Queen.The only thing that wasn’t bad about the whole thing was that they had won at the end, thanks to her brother and Cadence. Despite her nervousness she smiled, she had her friends, and she would be supported by them, no matter what was going to happen. The entire trip was spent talking in small chat, none of the Bearers, save perhaps for Pinkie, were happy to see the changelings again.And the only reason Pinkie was happy was because she may be able to throw a party for them. Arriving in canterlot, they were quickly escorted by guards to the Castle, that was unusual, but they weren’t going to complain, if the pace of the guards was telling anything, was that they had to hurry. Soon enough, they reached the Castle, and right there on the entrance stood Princess Celestia. “Princess!” Twilight exclaimed, running to her mentor.A simple bow and a nuzzle were exchanged before she spoke again, “It’s nice to see you again, although the situation isn’t the best…” “It’s good to see you too Twilight, and you too Girls,” she turned to the rest of the Bearers, who were smiling at her, “Let’s go inside, our guest is supposed to be arriving soon, and it would be best if you all were there to be with us.” They entered the castle, the guards moving besides them to continue escorting them. “Our guest, who is him, her? is it another changeling?” Twilight asked. “Guards, you can continue your patrols, no need to escort us further,” saying that, Celestia returned her attention to Twilight, “Her, if the letters are anything to go by, and I’m not sure of which species she is.She is helping the changelings, on a way that she didn’t explain, and it seems that she is also trying to build her own city.” “Helping the changelings!? who the hay would help the changelings?” Rainbow Dash was almost hovering on Celestia’s face, who simply chuckled at the mare’s antics and Twilight’s disapproving glare. Her mirth however didn’t last long, Celestia’s smile turned into a frown, and she spoke with a twinge of sadness on her voice, “If what she wrote me is true, then their Queen died on the same day she invaded our palace.Without her, the changelings would surely die off, Chrysalis hadn’t left a heir, and only a Queen can give birth to a Princess.She seems to be acting as their Queen for now, gathering the stray changelings and housing them in her city, but she hasn’t told me all her ambitions and purposes, the only thing I’ve gathered from her is that she likes to help those in need.” The mood became quite bad when they heard that Chrysalis had died, she had invaded them, true, but they didn’t expect the Queen’s demise. “Did… did any other changeling die as well?” Fluttershy asked next, her voice wavering at the word ‘die’. “I’m not sure, the guard’s report was that their carapace was quite sturdy.Blows that should’ve crushed a Guard’s armor tended to be stopped by their chitin, and I’m sure you all saw they attacking by falling into the ground and high speeds.The report also disclosed that there wasn’t any deaths, I’m not sure how Chrysalis ended up deceased.” They walked silently, mulling over the news.Soon enough they reached the throne room, where Princess Luna stood, reading something.When she saw them however, her stoic face rapidly changed into one of happiness, and she walked to them. “Greetings! ‘tis good to see you again, Bearers.Although the situation could be much better…” the six bowed to her, which only made Luna annoyed, “no need for bowing and scraping, we are in friendly company.Now, Tia, when is this Firefly character supposed to show up?” “She said she would be arriving when everyone was present, so I suppose any time now she may appear.” Just as Celestia said that, a guard briskly trotted into the room, did a curt bow and spoke, “Princess, a… pony by the name of Firefly has appeared in the kitchen’s balcony, she said she had an audition with you and the Bearers. The kitchen’s balcony? “Well, speaking of Cerberus… call her in, she is expected.” The guard disappeared behind the double doors.While they waited, they kept glancing at each other.The tension in the air was quite palpable, and it didn’t help that Pinkie Pie was bouncing around, happy that she was going to meet somepony new. Sooner than they expected, the doors opened, and from the outside trotted in a… pony.She was quite small, and had a light, creamy brown coat, her legs gradually went darker as they approached her hooves, which were a reddish brown color.A lion-like white mane covered her neck, and her back sported two quite large dark brown insectile wings, tucked inwards, pointing at her back which had a white, short tail.Her head sported two red eyes, not unlike those of the changelings, her mane was also white and two antennae sprouted from the top. She looked like a mix between a moth, and a pony. They heard her laugh, it was quite strange, possibly the strangest laugh they had heard in their life. “I get that look a lot.” It was then that they noticed they were all staring at her, mouth slightly agape, trying to salvage the situation, Celestia spoke. “Ahem, well, you must be Firefly then.It’s a pleasure meeting you in person, although you’re much more… different from what I was expecting.” She chuckled as she approached them, “I also get that a lot, well, It’s also nice to meet the rulers of these lands.Celestia, Luna, It’s an honor.” she did a curt bow, one of her forelegs held nearby her torso, “The elements as well, Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and finally, Pinkie.” They all waved a hello, Pinkie hopped forward, examining the newcomer. “Soooo… what exactly are you? and do you like parties? are there changelings with you right now? do they also like parties?” if it was thought to be possible to say all that in a second, then Pinkie Pie did prove it was indeed, possible. “Not sure, there wasn’t any information about me or my kind when I came to be.Yes, I like parties and no, no changelings with me.And they too like parties, there’s a lot of good emotions floating in the air you see.” Satisfied with her answer, Pinkie bounced back to her group, before anypony could start questioning her guest, Celestia spoke. “It would be best to talk over a cup of tea would it not? come, accompany me.” With that said, the entire group was led to the Princesses’ private dining room, anxious to have their questions answered.
MeetingFirefly held back her grin, preferring to let out a small smile instead.It was an insteresting accomplishment to her, of sorts, seeing both Princesses and the actual Bearers live and in colors.The nine of them, including her, were now sitting on a modest sized dining room, a table with enough palces for all of them to sit down and already two kettles of tea and nine cups awaited them. She sat down first, letting the ponies choose where they would be staying.The two Princesses sat directly in front of her.Twilight, Pinkie and Fluttershy sat to her left, besides Celestia.Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity sat to her right, besides Luna.They all were still eyeing her warily, the reason wasn’t lost to her. She did say she was helping Equestria’s new biggest ‘threat’. A unicorn maid trotted over to the table, and slowly filled each’s pony cup with tea, she took her time eyeing her, but it wasn’t one of suspicion or fear, just mild curiosity.If this was the maid that tended to Ambassadors and Dignitaries of other nations her reaction wouldn’t be unexpected.After filling everyone’s cups, she bowed and left the room through a small door to her far left. “Well then, shall we start? to my right is Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.To my left, Princess Luna, my sister, Applejack and Rarity.” each one of them nodded when their name was spoken, “and your name is Firefly, am I correct?” “Yes.” Firefly looked at the cup in front of her, the sweet aroma of the tea tickling her nose.A sip, jasmine, and the cup floated down to rest on the table again. “You’ve come here, requesting an audience with Me, my sister and the Bearers.I know a little of what you’re planning, but most of them do not.Can you explain to them?” “With pleasure,” the cup landed on the table again, clinking softly, “A month and a half ago the changelings decided it would be a good idea to try and nab Equestria.They failed, as we all know it, and then their Queen went to changeling heaven,” the cup floated to her lips, another sip, “since then Equestria’s in high alarm.Instead of letting the changelings fade into non-existence again, I’ll be trying to make them live instead of survive.First step to that is to get them a home,” she stopped when she noticed that the cup was empty, scowling, she levitated the cup back to the table, “the city I’ve built oh so long ago is going to be used now, finally, and since it’s technically inside Equestria’s territory I had to come here and tell you that.” The kettle of tea lazily floated towards her, dipping downwards to fill her cup.That was when Twilight decided to shriek. “How are you doing that!?” Firefly looked at the unicorn, cocking her head slightly to the side, “Doing what, exactly?” “Telekinesis! How are you doing that?” she was quite certain she heard a few snickers, deciding to play a bit she answered quite simply. “Magic.” Hoof, meet face.Face, meet hoof.Play nice you two. “That doesn’t answer anything! You’re not even a unicorn!” “So aren’t the Princesses, and they can still levitate stuff can’t they?” she grinned slightly,she was quite certain that steam was rising from Twilight’s head now. “But they have horns! you don’t, or at least I think those things on top of your head aren’t.” “Well, I have hooves!” With a small flourish she showed them her hooves, who were coated in the same whitewashed red aura that covered the tea kettle, “Say, have you ever conjured a lightning bolt, wind, or rain?” The sudden change made Twilight stutter for a moment, before she answered, “Well, yeah, but what does that have to do with you?” She grinned, it was like that time in Alto Mare all over again, “Well, that’s Pegasus magic isn’t it? control over weather.Magic is magic, no matter what form it takes it is still made of the same base blocks, if you can reverse engineer a pegasus made lightning bolt and ‘invent’ Crackhorn’s Bright Lightning spell you can reverse engineer the common telekinesis spell and use them with your hooves instead, although it’s not as effective.” The two alicorns and unicorns were looking at her like she had grown a second head, yep, exactly like that time in Alto Mare minus the Royalty of course, she couldn’t help but let out a giggle.”Well, we didn’t come here to talk about magic nuances and things that you overlooked because reasons did we?” Celestia shook her head, before glancing at her, the look she gave Firefly was like saying ‘we will be speaking about this later’.”Well, your letter also mentioned that you would be giving the location of said city to us.” Firefly nodded and reached inside her neck’s mane, from there she procured a small topaz, and put it down in the table in front of her. “This here will have the informations about where to find it.Just use a simple scrying spell or memory reading and you’ll see what’s inside.” A dark blue aura covered the gem and Celestia simply nodded, “Well then, I suppose this finishes our official meeting.Now, we would like to keep company to all of you, but duty calls.This was, in the end, an unscheduled meeting, and I still have court to run and Luna has not slept yet,” there she looked at her sister, who simply smiled and nodded as if saying ‘thank you’, “we will be leaving you with the Bearers for now.” She nodded, and bowed slightly as the Princesses stood up and left.After they both went away, she looked at Twilight and smiled lightly. “Any questions?”
MagicThe moment those words left her mout, Firefly knew she had given the rest of her day to a certain purple unicorn.She had just shown something ponies apparently forgot, and now the overeager to learn Twilight Sparkle was going to, no doubt, question her till her ears fell. The parchment and quill floating to her side wasn’t really unexpected. “Alright, I have a question.” for all of their surprise though, It was Rainbow Dash who was the first to ask.She took a deep breath, and then spoke, “Alright, we know how you’re going to help the changelings, but you still didn’t tell us why.” “Good question,” she leaned backwards, the kettle, floating in her aura dipped down to full her cup once more, eliciting an eye twitch from Twilight. “The reason I’m helping them… well, I quite like helping those who do stupid things, I’m going to be completely honest, it feels quite nice when they look at you with that face that just screams ‘how did I not see that’.And well, they did lose their Queen, and I’ve had a good relationship with them for some time now, even if they didn’t know about it.” “The reason I’m helping them is because I can. Really simple.” The cyan mare nodded, and took a sip of her drink, making the best face to not show that she didn’t like it.Twilight took no chances, and asked before anyone else could. “Alright, you just told us that you can use magic without a horn, How? and what do you mean by saying that ‘magic is just magic’?” She nodded, and placed her right hoof on top of the table, the aura intensified, and all of the nine cups began levitating together with the two kettles. “This is almost the limit of my unboosted telekinesis.Horns are good for casting because their spiral design naturally lets Willed magic flow in a rhythm, hooves are second best as they are large enough and smooth.Feather’s are the worst conductors, you need a specific Foci to Will magic outwards, the most complex and smooth one is, the best it is to cast with.” She then dipped her hoof into the tea, and drew two circles in the table,one large and one small and linking them with four lines, placing the same hoof inside the smaller one, her aura flared brighter, and the circles soon started glowing the same way.A red tinted white aura involved Rainbow dash, who started to float, “This is a Array Circle, used to direct energy into a change matrix, who converts it into magic and then pushes it into the Foci, ancient Horn Battle Rings were made using complex Array Circles, making levitating a entire castle or moving the Sun doable with a good enough energy saturated environment.With enough of these you can make artifacts, such as the Elements,” She grinned, watching as everyone’s but Twilight’s face grew more and more confused, “I wasn’t there, of course, but I heard that the Cynogriffins were quite ingenuous with these things, they created a brand of Magic called alchemy, of which I’m still trying to learn.” She plopped Rainbow down on her pillow, “This the the how, and the why is simple.Magic is energy given form, Will is the key to most Magic, and some types you need Understanding to use, like alchemy, and then there’s Want with chaos and greed magic, but I’m straying and your ink is running low.” The sound of parchment being ripped drew everyone’s attention to Twilight, who was looking at the gash at the end of her pony sized report.She smiled sheepishly, and coughed before talking again, “Eh, I kinda of went into auto-pilot there, and… could you repeat that?” Four groans and a chuckle were her answer, “Well, I think Miss Sparkle is going to hog me for the rest of the day.In any way, I’ll be here tomorrow as well… since the gem I gave the Princesses can only by used by me, so… If you don’t want to hear a long explanation about magic you can leave.” Five hooves shuffled slowly outwards, casting glances at Firefly and Twilight, small See ya’s and Stay safes were spoken, and the two of them remained inside the room. “Well,” Firefly started, “I thought Fluttershy would want to stay, well, not that It matters now.So, what do you want to learn right now?” “Everything.” ======= Twilight let out a small sigh of happiness as she finished writing another roll of parchment.The day was nearing it’s end already, and since then she had not stopped writing.To her, Firefly seemed to posses an uncanny amount of knowledge about eberything related to magic. It was quite the surprise to hear that the unassuming ‘moth’pony had lived for so long that she had lost count of the years, her answer of “I was here before Discord even appeared.” when she was asked how old she was only increased Twilight’s questions.How had she lived for so long? How had she attained so much knowledge? Were Giraffes really the creators of the Telekinesis spell? That was another thing that bothered Twilight to no end.She thought she knew a lot about magic, in the end she did, Equestrian magic.There were so many different types of magic, so many different races around the world, ones that she hadn’t even heard existed, like the Polar Griffins and the Sand Dragons.Why Equestria’s Schools and Universities didn’t teach about these subjects? “Because they don’t know about their existence.” “What? are you mind reading too!?” “Don’t need to mind read when you’re speaking what you’re writing.” Firefly laughed, making Twilight blush with embarrassment, “For how long has Equestria been really, and I mean really interested in figuring out how magic works? since Starswirl and Clover.Those two appeared a thousand and so years ago, Equestria as we know has existed as long as Three thousand years, the only reason I know so much is because I kinda of travelled around the word when I came to be.” Twilight nodded, and reminded her of keeping her mouth shut while writing.That was another story worthy of it’s own, Firefly apparently was in a stasis spell of sort when she ‘Woke Up’, and her first family was a group of Zebras out in the eastern Savannah.She had spoken only a little about her… first millennia of life, only enough to know she didn’t remember anything about her own kind, and that she didn’t know how to use magic then. “It must have been though, living without knowing your father and mother no?” Twilight took a small sip of her tea as she watched Firefly’s face. “I had a mother and a father Twi, they were Zebras, they teached me what I needed to learn, and the first time I ever did anything with magic was making a tree grow out of a potion I made with my mother overlooking me.It didn’t matter to me that I was strange in body, I had their acceptance in soul, and that was all that mattered to me.” She looked at the page she was currently finishing, her theories about how to use Earth pony magic with either wings or horns were taking shape.Unsurprisingly enough, it seemed that ancient ponies liked to answer with questions and riddles instead of straight out giving her the knowledge. “Come on! why don’t you just tell me how you do it?” “Because it’s quite funny seeing actual steam coming out of your ears.” “ARGH! It would help so much to know how to use the other’s tribes magic, it could help us understand a lot of things too!” “Yes it could, it also could make it so that the Dark Ages happen all over again.Those times were quite terrible thank you very much.If you really want to learn how to use… I don’t know, earth pony magic as an example.Ask your friend Applejack what she thinks when she is casting it.She will probably say nothing, but then try to make her focus on it, who knows? maybe you will learn how to Will another magic aspect into your own and emulate it?” It made some sense though, if what she kept talking about Willing things and the such, all those abstract concepts made Twilight’s head hurt a little, she was used to formulaic spell casting, something Firefly kept saying that it was ‘a necessary evil for these times’, whatever that meant.It didn’t mean though, that she wasn’t willing to experiment, and these new ideas could revolutionize the field of magic. “Not revolutionize, more like bring back lost knowledge.That’s what happens when you burn The Library you know.” Twilight looked to her, one eyebrow raised, “Wait, you mean all of this is already known?” “Has already been discovered, I’m no inventor.All of this is knowledge that’s inside this thick skull here,” she poked her head with her right hoof, “the reason I remember is because I… enhanced so to speak, my memory.Other cultures were quite linked back then, and I’m quite sure Celestia is going seek you after we finish, probably to tell you to not publish anything you learn over this conversation.” “What!?” “She most certainly doesn’t want a reprise of the Dark Ages, I’m most certain that that is the reason she keeps a tight leash on magical research.You have things like Magic Microwaves and a Prototype Car-Cider machine thing, but Unicorns don’t know how to plant trees, Pegasi can’t teleport and Earth Ponies don’t make it rain when they want.Keeping everything interlocked means harmony, what do you think happens when someone knows how to do everything?” Discord. Twilight looked at her stack of papers with a different look, “Do you think we should stop then?” “Probably yeah.If she gives you the ‘go ahead’ you can come and look after me to keep this conversation going.” “Thanks.” “Heh, it was no problem.”
