I paced nervously in the dim candlelight of my temporary bedroom. It was getting to be late in the evening, late enough that I had had time to watch the sun set through my window and to have crossed the room a few hundred times over since then. Many would soon be heading to bed and I was running out of time to confront Celestia about that one particular issue that I had failed to bring up before. What had really happened with the previous changeling envoy that had attempted to negotiate peaceful relations between our two species? What happened to the king of the changelings?

I severely doubted that she had actually killed him, or at least that she had killed him unprovoked. That didn’t stop the loud, frantic voice in the back of my head saying that I didn’t truly know her despite the knowledge attained from the cartoon. It screamed at me that it’s possible that if I brought up what she had done she could kill me too, simply to hide her past crimes. I didn’t really believe that. She had been reasonably kind to me so far and had shown willingness to pursue peaceful coexistence, but fear isn’t always rational. No matter how much I should have known it would be okay, the thought of accusing Princess Celestia of murder terrified me.

As much as my fear wanted me to just pretend I had forgotten and go to bed, I knew I couldn’t do that. It was a major issue that could have drastic consequences on any attempts at peace if it wasn’t addressed. Celestia needed to know about this, especially if it wasn’t true.

After a deep, tension relieving breath, I stepped out of my room. Pupa looked up from a book that he was reading from beneath the blankets on the couch.

“I thought you’d be going to bed by now.” He commented.

I shook my head. “I need to speak with Princess Celestia. I’ll be right back.”

“I’m not letting you go anywhere near her by yourself.” Pupa announced as he set the book down and threw off his blankets.

“Fine.” I conceded. I had no desire to argue with him, if he wanted to come, then he could come.

One of the guards left outside of our guest suite guided us willingly to Celestia’s chambers. I was quite glad for his assistance, even if I suspected that his primary reason for escorting us was to ensure that we didn’t cause any trouble. I had little doubt I would have gotten lost with simple verbal directions several times before reaching our destination.

We came to a stop outside a large, wooden door that was engraved with an emblem of the sun. Two more guards stood vigil by the door and stared at our little procession with suspicion. It would appear that even with Princess Celestia’s blessing, changelings openly walking about were still going to treated with mistrust, not that such a thing surprised me in the least. Our escort knocked upon the door and, after a few long moments, it opened to reveal the celestial alicorn.

“Good evening, Princess Visage.” She acknowledged me with a slight bow of her head. “What brings you to me this late in the evening?”

I glanced over to the guards that kept a very close eye on us. I didn’t really want to be responsible for rumours getting around that Celestia had murdered anybody, even if it was a changeling.

“Could I speak with you in private? I have something to say that may have drastic implications on pony-changeling relations.”

Celestia followed my nervous gaze towards her guards and gave me a courteous nod. “Very well.” She indicated towards the guard that had accompanied us. “You may return to your post.”

“But, Princess—“He began, but his objections were swiftly cut off by Celestia.

“I think I can handle two changelings. You are dismissed.”

The guard’s mouth twisted with displeasure, but soon he bowed towards his ruler and trotted away. With him dealt with, Celestia stepped aside from the door frame and beckoned us to come inside. We accepted her invitation and entered her chambers.

The room was primarily shades of purple and blue. A bed large enough for an alicorn was positioned against the far wall and draped with royal purple blankets and a long, singular pillow made of a golden fabric. The crackling of a fireplace in the wall opposite the bed filled the air and the glow of the burning logs within it gave the entire place a warm feeling. Tucked into a corner was a sizeable desk covered with a myriad of papers. From the looks of it, Celestia had been going through them before we had knocked upon her door.

“I’m sorry if we interrupted something important.” I quickly apologized for our intrusion.

“Do not worry yourself with that, I was trying to dig up the appropriate paperwork on establishing diplomatic relations with a new species. It is tedious work and I am glad for a break. Besides, if what you have to say truly has an impact on future relations with changelings, then it holds equal if not greater importance to what I was doing.”

“Right.” I stated nervously as I gazed up at her face.

The anxiety I had felt over this entire situation seemed to only be amplified by such close proximity to the Princess. What if she didn’t take this well? She dwarfed me in both physical and magical ability and could crush me both literally and figuratively if she so chose. The panicked voice that frequently told me what I was doing was a bad idea was clawing desperately at the gates of my mind. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t starting to freak out.

“Boop!”

I crossed my eyes to look at the spot on my nose that had just been lightly pressed with an oversized, gold clad, white hoof. Did Princess Celestia just boop me? My eyes returned to normal as I gazed up in confusion at Celestia, who giggled at my reaction.

“Calm down, there’s no need to be frightened of me. I have promised that you would come to no harm while under my roof, I will not break my word simply because you tell me something I do not like.”

I took a deep breath, gladdened to witness a reminder that Celestia truly is a reasonable person.

“Better?” She asked of me with an amused twinkle in her eye. I nodded. “Good, now what was it that you wished to tell me?”

“According to Queen Chrysalis, I am not the first changeling to attempt to establish relations with the ponies.”

She raised her eyebrow at my declaration. “This is news to me.”

“Yes…well…the previous envoy was supposedly killed during the negotiations.”

“I feel you are dancing around important details. What is it that you are keeping from me?”

“By you.” I squeaked out.

Celestia blinked, but otherwise made no outward appearances of surprise. The radiation of her emotions on the other hand displayed surprise mixed with a small measure of offense.

“Are you certain that Queen Chrysalis was telling the truth?”

“I think so. She seemed genuinely furious over the matter. The previous envoy had been her husband.”

Celestia’s eyes widened at this news, matching the surprise I felt emanating from her emotional aura. “That is indeed very troubling. I assure you I had nothing to do with it. I do not know who killed your sire, but it was not I.”

“That’s a relief.”

“No doubt. I can see why you would be nervous to bring this up. I’ll be sure to keep this in mind when we send delegates to the changelings. Is there anything else?” I shook my head. “I have much paperwork left to do. I trust you can find your way back to your room?”

Before I could inform her that my sense of direction wasn’t the greatest, Pupa interjected. “I remember the way back.”

“Then I bid the two of you a goodnight.”

I followed Pupa out of the room and past the two guards at Celestia’s door, gladdened to see that at least Celestia seemed to trust me well enough to let us wander through her castle alone, even if nobody else seemed comfortable with us doing so. I was equally glad that Pupa was better at remembering our prior path than I. All these hallways that we walked through looked the same to me, and I had little doubt that on my own I would get hopelessly lost.

“Do you believe her?” Pupa suddenly spoke up as we entered into a hallway devoid of any other ponies, either guards or servants.

“Don’t you?”

“Maybe it’s from a life of not trusting anything that couldn’t transform, but I have my doubts.” He answered while his eyes darted up and down the hall for any evidence of potential interruptions.

I thought back on the conversation I had just had and shook my head. “I think you’re just being paranoid. I felt her shock at being told that the previous diplomat was murdered. I doubt that she faked that.”

“I’m not saying she wasn’t shocked, but that doesn’t mean it’s because she was unaware of it entirely. It could just as easily have been over learning she had murdered somepony as important as the Queen’s husband.”

I thought his words over a few moments then shook my head again. “No, I don’t think that’s the case. If she says she didn’t know about it at all, then I trust her.”

“I hope you’re right, but just in case you’re not, I intend on keeping watch tonight.”

The conversation hushed as we approached our guest suite and the guards standing vigil by our door. Their eyes followed us as we stepped past them, the one who had accompanied us earlier in particular looked displeased. I reassured myself that Pupa was just paranoid and that these guys were here for our protection and not to sneak in after we were asleep to assassinate us.

As the door shut behind us, I let out a breath that I hadn’t realized I had been holding in. Pupa trotted straight for a chair in the corner of the room where he’d be able to see everything in the vicinity. As I reached the door to my own bedroom, he cleared his throat and I turned to face him.

“I just wanted to apologize for my behaviour earlier today. I went much too far and for that I am sorry.” He bowed his head in deference to me as he apologized. I sighed.

“It’s okay.” I answered. “I’m sorry I overreacted like I did. I shouldn’t have thrown you across the room.”

“What? That little toss?” Pupa chuckled and gave me a mischievous grin. "That was nothing. Visage would do far worse than that to me all the time, usually at my own request.”

I blushed intensely as images from those dreams of Pupa I had suffered through flooded my mind.

“Hmmm....thinking about it now, aren’t ya?” Pupa teased. “Wondering just what it would be like? You know, I could always show you.” He wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Pupa...” I growled in warning.

“Okay, okay, I get it. I’m going too far again. Sorry.”

“Just remember, even if I am in her body, I am not Visage.”

_____________________________________

“What I am about to teach you shouldn’t be used lightly. While it can be useful for obtaining information from those who are uncooperative, the side effects amount to nothing less than torture.”

I rolled my eyes at Mother’s warning. I doubted it could be nearly as bad as she was making it out to be. She had given me warnings about several spells she had taught me previously and none of them had proved to be anything near as bad as what she had said.

“I trust you have studied how to properly cast this spell?” I nodded at her question. What did she take me for? I always studied up on these spells ahead of time, ever eager to learn more magic. “Good. Then I want you to try casting it on me. I am thinking of a number, you are to search my mind until you find it.”

I smirked. Just a number? I had been expecting a challenge. Not only was this going to be a breeze, I concluded that there was no way the spell could truly be equivalent to torture if she was willing to let me use it on her. I charged up my horn, thinking clearly of the proper flow of magic to attain the desired effect, and cast the spell.

Nothing happened.

My smirk disappeared, replaced by a befuddled frown. In turn, Mother stood before me with a smirk of her own.

“Not as easy as you had thought, is it?”

I responded with a growl. I wasn’t going to let this stupid spell beat me! I hastily charged my horn again with considerably more power than I had before and recast the spell. Once again, nothing happened.

“This is a very intricate spell, you cannot simply force it with more power. It requires precise control of your magic to ensure you get the right flows. Take a deep breath and try again.”

I wanted to snap at her for treating me so lightly, but I knew she was right and that it was my impatient frustration that was truly preventing me from doing this properly. This wasn’t simple stuff like levitation, I should have known better. I took a deep breath as instructed and tried again, this time careful to direct the flow to weave the proper patterns of magic. Once I had checked and double checked to make sure the pattern was correct, I cast it again.

The next thing I knew, I was swirling through a black void. The simple, unadorned stone room that Mother used to teach me magic had been whisked away. Soon I found my hooves landing on something solid, though it appeared no different than anything else in my surroundings: just an inky blackness. I looked about void, but there was nothing to be seen, at least not at first. As the moments passed by, several wispy images began to materialize and voices drifted on a wind that wasn’t there, only intelligible if I focused on them. I had entered into my mother’s mind, now I needed to find that number.

I was distracted by a nearby scene of mother lying in bed and cradling a tiny changeling foal. By her side were my father, so small when compared to the queen that lay next to him, and an orange eyed doctor. My heart ached at the sight of my recently deceased father. As I focused on the memory, its wispy form solidified and their voices grew in volume.

“Congratulations, it’s a girl.” The doctor announced. “What will you name her?”

Mother stared down at the newborn foal, her body slick with sweat and looking downright exhausted. Despite her haggard appearance, she was beaming with joy, much like my father beside her.

“She’ll be my little Visage.” She cooed down at the infant version of myself, and then fed a green tendril of love from her horn into her foal’s horn.

“From that moment on, I knew I would do anything for you.” I jumped at the intrusion of Mother’s voice behind me, turning to see a vision of her that was faded of its usual colour and looked to be made of smoke. Her loving voice suddenly took on a hard edge. “And that I would crush anypony that ever sought to harm you”

“Mother?”

A slight smile graced her lips. “Not quite. I am just an avatar of Chrysalis here in her mind. Your real mother is still in the training room.”

From her horn she shot a ball of energy to the sky of the void which eventually exploded into a shower of light. In its place was an image of both myself and Mother in the training room, as she had said. I stood there with my horn glowing and eyes unfocused, but I barely noticed that. Mother was writhing on the floor, screaming in agony.

The shock of seeing my mother suffering in such a fashion caused me to cut the magic powering my spell and I was slammed back into reality. I barely waited to regain my senses back in the real world before I threw myself at my mother in an effort to help her.

“Mother!” I shrieked in fear of what I had done to her. She coughed as I helped her to her hooves and she gave me a wry smile.

“You didn’t get the number.” She commented.

I didn’t answer her, instead choosing to embrace her tightly. How could she have let me use such a terrible spell on her? I never wanted to see anypony in as much pain as I had just witnessed ever again. I could only imagine what she had just gone through.

You don’t have to imagine. You know.

An unbidden thought wormed its way into my mind. What did it mean? It didn’t make sense, this was the first time I had ever seen the spell in action. I had certainly never been subjected to it myself.

Not yet.

The wall beyond my mother shimmered and reformed to show an image, much like how the one inside my mother’s mind had appeared before me. It was Mother and myself standing in front of a crowd of other changelings. She said something about concentrating on home and then cast the spell on the other me, who screamed in pain near immediately. This still didn’t make sense, why would Mother use such a devastating spell on me?

Everything faded around me except for that shimmering projection, which mutated into a new image. This one was bright and filled with green and trees. Obviously it was somewhere outside the hive, though I had no idea where it could possibly be. The other me was lying there on the ground.

I watched as she awoke and bumbled through a long series of events. She looked like a foal trying to feel its way through a dark room. Honestly, it was rather disgusting to watch as she was captured by the ponies multiple times, ultimately resulting in being trapped inside a cage and having a magical inhibitor placed on her horn. Had it been me, I could have gotten out of the situation several times before being saddled with an inhibitor. How could she possibly have let such a thing happen to her?

Something about that cavernous prison that my doppelganger was now trapped in caused an incredibly uncomfortable sensation in my chest. I don’t know what it was, but I didn’t want to look at it any longer than I had to. I turned away from it only to come face to face with my doppelganger through a set of bars.

“You were there.”

I jumped back out of shock, my rump hitting bars behind me. Somehow I had become the one trapped in a cage. I watched in terror as the face before me twisted into first Jade Flare and then into the creamy orange mare that had trapped the other me.

As the mare grinned malevolently at me, memories of the invasion of Canterlot and its aftermath flowed into my mind. Loathing, fear and despair stretching over a time frame I had long lost track of were compressed into mere moments as it all came crashing back into me.

My surroundings faded under the onslaught of images being crammed into my head, and when my vision returned I was strapped to a table while Nutcase danced around with excitement. She proclaimed with glee that today was the day. She would finally bring back her Musty.

The crazy mare cast a spell on me and a sudden and intense pain threatened to crack open my skull. It felt like somepony had repeatedly bashed in my head with a rock, and the pain only grew as time passed.

Before I could pass out from the pain, the world tilted in a nauseating manner and I suddenly stood a few meters away from myself on the table as Nutcase continued her experiment. Screams echoed through the cavern and sent tremors up and down my spine. Within moments, the screaming and struggling stopped and all but the two versions of me disappeared.

This is what happened to me.

This is what happened to Visage.

Two inner voices spoke in unison, at odds with each other and yet both seemed right to me. I tried to make sense of the contradiction in perspective, but found I couldn’t. I stepped closer to my still form upon that table.

This is how Visage died.

This is how I died.

The two competing voices returned, just as contradictory as before and bearing a chilling realization. I was dead.

A torrent of memories tore through my mind once again. The images of my doppelganger that I had watched from afar before were now seen from her eyes. All her experiences were now my experiences, from waking up at Sweet Apple Acres and being discovered by Apple Bloom to being imprisoned by Nutcase and then beyond. My heart ached as I stood before Mother as somepony other than myself and saw the subtle signs of her pain, no doubt caused by facing the facsimile of her daughter.

Within moments, I was completely caught up to the present moment and my transformation from Visage into Victor was complete. Yet, was that right? Was I really Victor? That didn’t feel right, not anymore. I wasn’t Visage anymore, either, was I? Was it possible to be both, and yet neither at the same time?

I stared down at my dead form once again. Most people only ever had one life, and yet here I was on my third life, staring down on my second corpse. I reached out and brushed the side of my body's face with a hoof. I wasn’t sure why I had chosen to do so, but it had a surprisingly calming effect on my nerves.

As I let my hoof fall, the corpse gasped back to life and stared right into my soul. Had I not already realized that I was dreaming, I probably would have run away screaming about the impending changeling zombie apocalypse.

“You need to wake up now!” My mirror image warned me, causing my brow to wrinkle with confusion.

“What? Why?”

“Trust me, the fate of both ponies and changelings depends on it, you must wake up!”

My surrounding began to fade around me as I began to crawl my way back to wakefulness. I sensed an atmosphere of panic, fear and urgency that I couldn’t argue with. Those emotions dragged me from my slumber and would have done so even if I had wanted to ignore her warnings.

“Thank you.” The other me’s fading voice carried across the ether. “And please....tell him that I still love him.”

My eyes suddenly popped open and I was greeted with the natural darkness of night. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but I had a feeling that morning couldn’t be that far off. It took me a moment to reorient myself in the unfamiliar environment. With a sense of dread, I realized that the emotions of fear and panic that I had felt in my dream were still very much present, and they were coming from the guest suite’s common room.

I hurled off my blankets, threw myself out of bed and leapt at the door which crashed open as I barrelled through it. I hesitated as a pair of faces turned to me, one lined with fear and desperation and the other laced with loathing, both of which were affirmed by the emotions they radiated. I could barely believe what I was seeing. Princess Celestia had Pupa pinned to the floor beneath her greater bulk. They were both illuminated by their respective golden and green magical auras as they wrestled for control over a sword emblazoned with the blue star emblem of the royal guard.

My entrance proved to be distraction enough for Celestia to overcome Pupa’s defences and I watched in horror as the blade descended into his chest. His eyes bulged and his emotional output turned to one of pain and confusion. The green aura that had struggled for control of the blade faded out of existence. It had all happened over a span of a couple seconds.

The sound of Drymanid’s own door crashing open was nearly drowned out by my screams of rage as I threw myself at the one who had just murdered my friend. A golden aura effortlessly swatted me aside, tossing me into the room’s bookshelf and causing its contents to tumble down and painfully bury me inside a pile of books. Drymanid’s own attempt to take down the alicorn met with no more success than I had had as he was thrown atop the pile that I was under.

“So much for subtlety.” Celestia muttered as she cast a spell which left a layer of golden energy covering the door leading out of our suite. Within moments, the guards outside began pounding on it. I could hear shouting about how their key wasn’t working and that they were trapped outside.

I stood up, trying to ignore the pain my body felt from my flight into the bookcase. Why would Celestia lock out her own guards? I reached through my mind for any spell I could think of that might help me combat the intruder and began charging my horn, but was interrupted as both Drymanid and I were violently lifted into the air and slammed up against the wall by Celestia’s golden aura. My concentration breaking completely ruined the intricate weaving of my spell and caused it to fail.

“Why are you doing this?” I croaked out from my position held against the wall.

“You’re a fool if you thought that I’d ever let you changelings feed on my ponies. If I had wanted peace between our people, I wouldn’t have killed your father.” She hissed as she drew the sword from Pupa’s chest with her magic and brandished it in front of us, dripping with blood. “Once I’m done with you, your mother is next.”

I could never have imagined Princess Celestia this angry and filled with hate before. Her actions and the loathing I felt radiating from her flew in the face of the calm, caring and reasonable pony that I had dealt with up until now. It was like she was a completely different person.

A completely different person.

This wasn’t Celestia. More than anything else in the world, I knew that this thing couldn’t possibly be Celestia. This thing was little more than a monster that had murdered my friend.

I charged my horn once again, going through the relatively simple energy weave of a spell to counter her hold on us. Fueled by rage, the love of one overly excitable pink pony and the power of a changeling on the cusp of becoming a queen, I completely shattered the golden aura that held us to the wall.

The monster’s stolen pink eyes widened and shock emanated from its very being as my hooves clacked against the marble floor. Before I had even landed, I had begun channelling the intricate spell that had been interrupted before again. The Celestia impostor began charging its own spell to counter me, but was interrupted and thrown off balance by Drymanid as he rammed into her with a flying tackle. She tossed him aside, but that distraction was enough. A beam of green energy shot forth from my horn and struck our attacker right between the eyes.

I was suddenly sinking through an ocean of darkness until my hooves found solid footing on an invisible floor. My eyes wandered about the oddly familiar environment that I had just experienced in my dreams earlier this night. If I concentrated really hard, I could hear the screams of the one whose mind I was invading, though that may have just been wishful thinking on my part.

If the events of my dreams this night hadn’t convinced me that they hadn’t really been dreams, then the fact that I had been able to cast a spell I had only know of thanks to those dreams would have confirmed it for me. A slight panic over who exactly I was began to rise in the back of my mind, but I pushed it aside. I had far more important things to deal with than a growing identity crisis.

Images and voices began to materialize around me, most of them carrying the distinctive appearance and sound of changelings. Central to nearly all of them was a green eyed changeling, one that I recognized from both dreams and my time in the hive. I realized rather quickly that I was in Jade Flare’s mind.

A familiar sight out of the corner of my eye caught my attention and I turned to face it. Nutcase’s subterranean laboratory solidified before me and I could see three horribly injured changelings locked up in three separate cages. An image of Jade Flare approached the cages and one of the changelings, Visage I realized, looked up to him.

“Please....help us.” Visage begged in an exhausted, barely audible voice. Jade Flare stared at her for a few, long moments, but ignored her pleas as he turned away and left her to her fate. “No...don’t...go...”

The scene twisted into another subterranean room, this one the much more opulent throne room of the changeling hive. Jade Flare stood before Mother. I mean Chrysalis. No...I do mean Mother. She looked nearly sick with worry.

“I’m sorry, my Queen, but your daughter is not in the Everfree Forest.” The two shimmered slightly and then continued on with a different conversation. “Chance is a menace! I know you don’t like executing changelings, but if you don’t she’ll just cause more troubles for us!”

“I will not execute my own daughter!” Chrysalis snarled back at him.

“She is not your daughter! Your daughter is dead!”

Chrysalis winced at his words and continued in a much more controlled tone. “I still won’t kill her.”

“She just betrayed you and has jeopardized the entire war effort, something must be done.”

“You think I don’t know that?” She replied flatly. “I’ll figure something out.”

The scene faded back into nothingness. So Jade Flare had known where Visage was all along and had lied to Mother about it, then when I had been taken to the hive he had pushed to get rid of me again. I couldn’t exactly say I was surprised. He had already made it blatantly clear that he had something against me what with having just tried to kill me.

Remembering what the book that my other self had read had said about this spell, I concentrated on what I wanted to see. What was Jade Flare doing?

“I must thank you for your continued service to Equestria.” A voice floated over a non-existent wind, one that I recognized as Shining Armor. “We are indebted to you for all you have done to bring the locations of changeling infiltrators to our attention.”

“It was my honour, captain.” A new, unfamiliar voice responded, one that I could only assume was Jade Flare in disguise.

I shook my head. This wasn’t what I needed to know. According to my dreams, my past self had already suspected he was divulging the locations of love gatherers and infiltrators. I needed something more.

This new voice seemed to be heard from within my own mind, as if it were my own thoughts. A scene grew into being before me. It was inside some kind of opulent bedroom with a definite crystal theme. Within that room was a small group of changelings, and Princess Cadance held within a yellow magical aura. A crystal pony guard, one that I had seen the previous day when I had met with Celestia if I wasn’t mistaken, staggered to her feet and killed two of the changelings before the image faded entirely.

I grumbled out of frustration. This wasn’t what I wanted to find. He was trying to undermine the changelings, I already knew that. I needed to know why!

I searched through the scenes that were materializing around me until my eyes landed on a familiar glow of green and purple energy. I brought that memory into focus and two changelings came into the foreground of the mindscape. An unknown, female changeling was channelling royal essence into Jade Flare.

“Mmm....how was that, my King?” The female changeling asked with a coy smile.

“Wonderful as always, Gold Shine.” Jade assured her with a content sigh. “I’m not a king yet, though.

“A few more of our little sessions and you will be, then you can take your rightful place as our leader.”

“No,” Jade shook his head sadly, “I cannot. Though that bitch of a Princess was eliminated thanks to that botched invasion, Chrysalis survived. I can’t afford to risk her finding out I’ve ascended to royalty. She'd destroy me.”

“But you’ll be a royal, surely you could take her on!”

“Chrysalis has had decades to develop as a royal. Unless I could keep it hidden for a couple of years or strike her when she is weakened, she would easily overpower me. Even if I could defeat her, I’d need to wait for the opportune moment that would allow me to avoid taking the blame for her death. The hive would hardly follow me willingly if I openly assassinated their current Queen. No...I will wait. Chrysalis trusts me, I can afford to take my time.”

“So you’re just going to sit back and do nothing?” Gold Shine’s mouth twisted with displeasure.

Jade Flare smiled warmly at her, a rather unsettling sight considering the topic of their conversation. “Of course not. I will continue working to undermine her, to push her into situations where she is likely to get herself killed, or lure her into a position where I can get away with killing her myself, just like with her husband.”

Behind the pair, a silent image swirled into existence that displayed Princess Celestia slaughtering my father and several changelings that accompanied him.

I had seen enough. Jade Flare was trying to get the royal family killed so that he could assume the throne. I snorted. Could you get any more clichéd than having the royal advisor attempting to usurp the throne? I supposed the cliché made some sense. Those who try to gain a position with that much influence over a nation’s leaders would invariably be those that desired power.

Just as I dismissed the vision before me, I was struck from behind by something that knocked me off balance. I stumbled, but didn’t fall, and I soon saw a ball of green flame hurtling past me.

“Get out of my mind!” A low, dual toned voice growled at me.

I turned to face my attacker and was confronted by the smoky figure of Jade Flare, his horn glowing menacingly in the darkness. I knew immediately that it wasn’t the real thing, merely his avatar within his mind there to pester the one scraping through memories. Even if he wasn’t real, seeing him as more than just a memory triggered my rage. I snatched his wispy form with my magic and slammed it against the unseen ground, causing it to deform into a featureless cloud of smoke. Sadly, it wasn’t as satisfying as I had hoped.

“You can’t harm me here, not as a mere shadow of your true self.”

The cloud reformed itself. “Get out of my mind!”

I rolled my eyes. Was that all it could say? I could have sworn Mother’s avatar had been far more lifelike.

“I’ve already seen all I need. I’ll tell mother about your treasonous ways and your plans will all be for naught."

Jade’s avatar didn’t respond, opting instead to merely glare at me. Why would he want me to leave so badly when I had already seen everything? Unless....My eyes widened as an unsettling thought struck me.

“What are you still trying to hide?” I demanded. He bared his fangs at me and growled. I put more power into the spell I was channelling and focused as hard as I could on my question. Though there was resistance, the ethereal landscape slowly transformed into a familiar setting.

It was Celestia’s throne room, and an image of myself was standing before an audience of ponies, including the entire mane six and both lunar and solar princesses. I shuddered at the realization that Jade must have been there at the time.

From the looks of things, it was nearing the end of our meeting. Pinkie had already been fed upon and many of the ponies were leaving. One guard in particular, who I quickly realized must have been Jade Flare in disguise, trotted out of the throne room and the focus of the scene followed after him as he found a secluded place to hide in. Upon finding a suitable location, the horn upon his head glowed and the environment around him took a sudden, jarring transition to black, not much unlike the mindscape the scene was set against.

Inside the blackness were an undisguised Jade Flare and, more surprisingly, a somewhat disoriented Queen Chrysalis. Upon seeing Jade Flare, her eyes filled with hope.

“What news do you have of my daughter?”

Jade Flare hesitated just a moment before answering. “It was as you feared. Your daughter was heading straight for Canterlot. I confronted them outside the city and beseeched her to turn away. Before I could try anything else, one of her underlings blindsided me and rendered me unconscious.”

“Please tell me that she is okay.” Her voice wavered. Jade Flare bit his lip and looked away, putting on a show of being nervous over what he had to say. Given recent revelations, I seriously doubted the veracity of his gestures.

“Investigations after I awoke revealed that she had confronted Princess Celestia with an offer of peace.” He hesitated again. “The pony princess pretended to agree only to kill her later when her guard was down.”

Mother closed her eyes tightly and just stood there, trembling. Tears began to trickle from the corner of her eyes.

“I am so sorry...I have failed you.” Jade stated with faux shame.

“No.” Chrysalis declared coldly as she opened her eyes. “It’s not your fault. I will leave punishment for the ones responsible for this.”

“What are you going to do?”

“My vengeance will rain down upon all of Canterlot. No mercy. No prisoners. I will not stop until either Celestia lies dead, or I do.”

Jade gasped. “But our armies aren’t ready! They haven’t had enough time to feed off of the humans yet!”

“I still have most of the love from Cadenza. I doubt that what I could gather from the humans could compare to that. As for my armies, they will have to make do with what they have.”

“Yes, your highness.” Jade bobbed his head in submission. “Do you have any orders for me?”

Mother paused momentarily.

“Yes. I want you to find Nutcase and eliminate her. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an army to mobilize.”

I cut off the flow of magic to the spell keeping me in Jade Flare’s mind in a panic. I needed to warn everybody. The barren mindscape crashed around me as I was vaulted back into reality. Noticing the position of Drymanid, I could only guess that a few seconds had passed. A large crash echoed through the room as the door that had previously been barricaded by Jade Flare’s magic was broken down by a trio of guards. They swiftly levelled their weapons at the gasping changeling that was just now getting back to his hooves, his horn glowing.

“Give up, Jade Flare. You’ve lost.” I demanded.

The traitorous changeling closed his eyes and stood there for several tense seconds. Finally, the glow of his horn faded and he opened his eyes.

“I surrender.” He announced. “There’s no point in getting myself killed.”

I watched in surprise as he allowed himself to be escorted away. I didn’t have time to worry about that now, though. I turned to Drymanid.

“I need to find Mother.” I informed him.

He looked at me with confusion. “I’m pretty sure she’s still in the dungeons in the hive.”

Why would Mother be in the dungeons? Then I realized what he meant. “No, not her, I meant Chrysalis.” I explained.

“Chrysalis? What do you....wait...Visage?”

Faced with the question as to my identity once again, I thought on whether or not it was true. When I tried to remember my past, the memories of being Victor the human were the strongest images in my mind, but somewhere in there was also a lot of Visage the changeling too. I couldn’t remember everything of her life, not by a long shot, and what I did remember was generally a lot harder to focus on, but it was definitely there. Whether I thought of Victor or Visage, both had the subconscious label of ‘me’ plastered on them.

“I...sort of? Look, we can worry about my identity crisis later. Jade Flare lied to Mother, I mean Chrysalis, about Celestia killing me and now she’s on her way here with her entire army to try and get revenge.”

“Then we had better hurry.”

A hoarse cough interrupted us and my eyes were drawn to the sickening sight of Pupa, lying in a pool of his own blood in the middle of the room.

“Visage?” He forced out between coughs.

He sounded absolutely terrible, and he expelled blood with each wracking cough. I didn’t know how long it would take Chrysalis to get to Canterlot, but I knew that Pupa only had moments left to live, so I went up to him and placed a comforting hoof to his cheek.

“I’m here.” I dropped my emotional barrier so that he could feel that he truly wasn’t alone. “Thank you for warning us of the attack, without you Jade Flare could very well have killed us all.”

“Is it...really you?”

“Yes.” I lied.

He gave me a wan smile. “No...even now you’re the impostor.” He coughed. “At least now....I’ll get a chance to be with her again.”

He shut his eyes and remained nearly perfectly still. Only his shallow breaths and weak emotional signature told me that he yet still lived, and I doubted either of those would last much longer. As I felt his life slipping away, I remembered the last words of Visage in my dream. I didn’t know if it had truly been Visage, or just my mind guessing what she would have wanted, but either way I felt that it was only appropriate to deliver the message.

“Listen to me, Pupa. No matter what has happened, remember that Visage loves you, and always will.”

I felt absolutely ridiculous saying it, but it seemed to have done the dying changeling good. The edge of his mouth had curled up slightly, and the last vestiges of his emotional spectrum were tinted with happiness. Moments later, I could no longer detect even the tiniest amount of emotion and I knew he was dead. I took my hoof from his cheek and turned back to Drymanid, whose eyes were downcast with sorrow.

“We should tell Celestia of what I’ve learned, and then we need to leave immediately afterwards.”

“Understood.” Drymanid nodded.

Just as the two of us turned to leave our room, a huge explosion reached our ears, and several small objects rattled in our room from the ensuing shockwave. The two of us rushed to our window to see what could have possibly caused it, and in the distance we saw part of the city bathed in the orange glow of fire. Moments later, little dots of green light were flying through the sky, and soon so were a variety of other colours. Screams began to reach my ears.

The invasion of Canterlot had begun.

Author's Note

Edited by Astro-mancer.