"So good to finally let her free." Dash sauntered along the street, twirling the collar she had taken from Moon Dancer. As she trotted, Rainbow reflected on who her two targets were to visit. "Gonna need my wits about me, and my wings. Probably best to train there and save my feathers for an emergency."

It was a moderate walk from where Moon Dancer was staying to the station, but Rainbow got a train bound north east. There was normally not one taking the old line to Manehatten, but for official business one could be arranged. "How long will it take to get ready? Her Highness, Princess Molestia, wishes few delays."

"Of course, we should have a train ready to go inside the hour." Princesses making demands was not the worst thing the poor stallion working at the station had to put up with. Writing out a request for a new train, he stuffed the note in a little cylinder and dropped it in the pneumatic tube. "You will be waiting, I take it?"

"Well, yeah." Rainbow Dash cocked her head. "That a problem?" She eyed up the stallion, trying to get a read on him.

"Of course not!" The stallion blinked and looked to the side. "Sorry, you just…"

"Don't seem like the sort to work for the Princess?" Dash saw shock blossom so fast on the poor stationmaster's face that she knew she had hit the money. "Don't sweat it, I am not going to go blabbing to her." The stallion looked to relax by miles and Dash decided it would be best to let sleeping diamond dogs lie.

Within the hour, as promised by the stationmaster, Dash was on a train heading down the mountain and then north-east. It wasn't far for her to go, but far enough that she would be tired if she had flown… well, a little. The tracks leading on to Manehattan were avoided and soon the train with just one carriage slipped into the dark forest that was part of the reason the dragons hadn't pushed deeper into Equestria's north.

"Begging your pardon, we don't go all the way to Hollow Shades anymore, Ma'am." The conductor looked nervously out into the forest. "And… uh, do we need to wait for you?"

"Wait two hours, no more." Dash got up, stretching her legs and wings. "How far are we from the old town?" She walked casually toward the end of the carriage, opening the door into the early morning air.

"Not far, you could see the town from here, if there wasn't that last corner that curved into the station." The conductor was already talking to empty air, a trail of rainbow mane and tail launched from the train.

Weaving and ducking around overgrown trees that now encroached on the railway, Dash soon caught sight of the green glow that dominated Hollow Shades. Shedding speed, she was gliding toward the edge of town when she felt a tingle in her mane. "Whoa, stop with that!" Rainbow dropped to the ground, but kept her wings ready. "You know who I am, cut out the magic!"

"You understand why we are cautious?" A soft voice in the trees to Dash's left side proceeded the shape of what looked like a pony, a green glow coming from its horn.

Dash knew better. "Yeah, yeah. Did Empress Lovebutt work out where you are yet?" Rainbow approached the figure and, when close enough, she lifted her hoof in greeting.

"Are you here with news or has another pony decided to let us decide their fate?"

As Rainbow's eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw the cloaked pony, or what had once been a pony. "Come on, you actually have ponies willing to come out here and join you?"

Flipping back their hood, the pony revealed a horn on their forehead, bearing holes that looked almost terrifying. The black chitinous hood covered a grinning face. "A few. Not all of them knew what we offered. I could ask them all to come out, they will tell you that they love their new lives."

"Are all of them like you now?" Rainbow stepped back a little, giving the strange changeling room.

"Ha, of course not. Not everypony is made of the right stuff to be a technoling. Come on then, I can get you a nice cloak to wear, if you like?" The strange changeling gave a devious smile to Rainbow.

This close, Rainbow Dash could see the tight mask the changeling wore. The mask was part of a full-body suit, and that was the sum total of Dash's knowledge on the things. "I think I am fine being a pony." She followed the odd changeling all the way into the town. Rainbow felt her protective enchantments flare again and again—repelling changeling magic—but she had to relax, no horns were lit this time, it was just their natural "tasting" of a pony.

Guided to the town hall, Rainbow Dash entered after her guide. Nearly all of her protective enchantments went off. "Okay, seriously, stop with the magic. You can't affect me with it at all."

A single creature sat on a dark throne, their body covered in the ubiquitous suit that all the technolings wore. Turning her head, the strange creature smiled at her new visitor. "The Great and Powerful Trixie has a new supplicant? Does this pony wish to become food or does she aspire to be a technoling?"

"Trixie, cut it out." Rainbow Dash felt her defenses tingle in her mane again. "I am here to tell you, two days and the plan goes ahead. Understand?"

The technoling flicked back her hood, revealing the tight suit covering her head to be covered in green-glowing patterns, almost like squared off veins tracing all over her. "Trixie thinks you would be the perfect agent for such an assignment." Trixie's horn lit green, but despite her best efforts not a single bit of magic could grip the rainbow-maned pony. "You are no fun."

"You gotta back off on all this stuff when you join Equestria, you know?" Rainbow looked up at the mare, remembering the blue showmare she had once known. "You really are great and powerful now, but are you still a pony?"

"Trixie is the best pony, but she is also much more than that now." Trixie stood up and a few clicks were heard as what looked like cables fell down from under her cloak. "You have protection against magic, or you would already be gladly putting on a technoling suit. The Curious and Inquisitive Trixie wants to know how you are doing this?"

"Back off now Tri-" Rainbow froze. The two big blue eyes of Trixie's had changed, patterns forming in them, flowing, swirling.

"Just relax, Rainbow Dash. Let Trixie worry about things." Trixie had engaged her hypnosis systems. "Normally this would work much better, with magic, but since you are oddly resistant to that I am simply going to do things this way."

The words confused Dash a little, they were big in her head, crowding out her own ideas. Ideas like "escape" and "fight." Rainbow Dash gave a sigh as the patterns in those blue eyes seemed to change, pushing at her mind and nudging it around.

"You can just be calm now, can't you?" Trixie smiled as she watched the mare nod. "You have to talk to Trixie, tell her what you know she wants to hear from you."

"I can be calm, Trixie." Rainbow Dash struggled for a thought that was her own but the patterns that her eyes were glued to seemed to seep into her head, crowding her head, making it hard to focus. But her thoughts were only part of Dash, she had driven her fanatical devotion to Luna into her body too. Standing straighter, flaring her wings, Rainbow Dash wasn't even sure why but she was about to run, fly, get away from the lovely pattern that held her vision and mind in its grip.

"Slow down, relax. Your legs are getting heavier." Trixie watched the skittish mare seem to wobble. "So heavy, very heavy. How you can even walk on them Trixie knows not."

Dash's attempted escape was arrested by lethargy. "What… what are you doing to me, Trixie?" She couldn't look away from those amazing eyes.

"First, Trixie would like to know how to are resisting our magic. You wear no enchantable equipment and you are not a unicorn. Not that that would help." Trixie changed the pattern playing through her eyes, adjusted it to something more imposing and intrusive.

Rainbow Dash fell slowly to the floor, folding her legs under her and staring upwards. "My mane and tail. Lots of threads of silk are woven in, bonded-" Dash froze, one such thread sent a spark and arced to life. Blinking and shaking her head the blue pegasus got her legs back under her. "I am leaving, Trixie. I am going to recommend to Princess Luna that you not be accepted into Equestria." She started to turn.

"Trixie is… Trixie is s-s-s...."

The apology halted Dash's turn. "You can't just go attacking ponies like that, Trixie." She looked at the mare, confident that her activated defense was protecting her. "What is going on?"

"Trixie is not just a pony anymore. This," Trixie gestured to her outfit, "makes me more, made me more. Sometimes Trixie doesn't even know if she is a pony anymore."

"Fight it, Trixie. Fight to control this… stuff. It is part of you but you don't need to let it win." Dash got to her hooves and stepped closer to the suddenly repentant mare. "You are about to do all of Equestria the greatest favor it has had in a thousand years. If you can get hold of your urges, you will be welcome to live in the Equestria we are building."

Taking a deep breath, Trixie nodded. "Trixie will still do this, if only because it makes Equestria better. It also provides technolings with energy… all the energy. We will release all ponies still captive." She looked at Dash.

There was the sense that the strange changeling wanted something. Dash lifted her hoof, holding it out to her. The speed at which Trixie's covered limb raised, and her hoof clopped to Dash's was astounding. "I don't know why, Trixie, but I trust you with her. You will take good care of her?"

"Trixie and her friends will take the best care of her. We will make sure she is so very happy." Trixie grinned. "Then maybe you will show Trixie how to make those strands?"

"Maybe, Trixie."

Rainbow Dash looked the mare in the eyes. "I need to go, there is another group of changelings I need to meet before my work is done, and I really hope that goes as smoothly as this did."

"Trixie is s-s-s… Trixie wishes she hadn't tried to trap you. We will do as Princess Luna requires but… the Princess can still do what is needed?"

"Princess Luna will have things under control, you will see." Dash grinned at Trixie. "No more converting ponies against their will. No more hypnotism."

"But…" Trixie gave a deep sigh. "Trixie will promise she won't. Other technolings…"

"Trixie!" Dash clopped a hoof on the hard floor. "None of you, you must not do that. You have your target, get into that room, grab her, get out." Dash turned and walked from the room. "Don't screw this up, Trixie. If I have to get others to do this, then our deal is not valid."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie will do this, for her hive."

Rainbow Dash spread her wings and took off, flying back out of Hollow Shades. "Moon Dancer, I owe you so much for what your protections did today. Let's hope they hold up again." Spotting the train, Dash glided in and landed beside the carriage. "Ready to go?"

"You bet, no way we are waiting around here any longer than we need to." The conductor gave a signal to the driver to start them rolling again. "Back to Canterlot?"

"No, Ghastly," as Dash was telling the conductor she could see terror in his eyes, "Gorge. Don't worry, we aren't going into the Collective's lands." She took a deep breath. "Only I am going."

"Ma'am!" The conductor stood straighter. "Whatever it is, it had better be important. I have never heard of a pony coming back from the Collective."

"Well, there is a first for everything, right?" She had to try to boost the stallion's hopes, after all, she needed to boost her own. "All I can tell you is that the fate of Equestria rests on me getting in and getting my message to the changelings in control of the place." A deep breath steadied her. "Getting out is preferred, but as it stands my mission doesn't require it."

Dash didn't want to discuss things anymore and walked down to find a seat in the middle of the carriage. "Princess, you have me playing a dangerous game, but it is the best game ever." Bravery and dedication swirled together inside Rainbow, the element she embraced burning hot inside her.

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ They will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

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