Chapter 14

"For you, LORD, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living."—Psalm 116:8-9

"Hold it right there, halt, stop! Back up!" Screwjob squinted one eye at Twilight. "Are you saying our mystery guest has been one of the changelings all this time?"

"I know it sounds wild, but according to the tests I just ran on both sets of DNA ... yes."

Highflyer looked toward Bonfire, his wings fanning out and his body dropping into a familiar pre-attack stance...

Only for Fluttershy to suddenly place herself in his path.

He blinked at her. "Shy?" he asked, the syllable a clear stand-in for What-are-you-doing?

What am I doing? Fluttershy wondered to herself. Why am I trying to protect her when I just heard Twilight—?

"What's going on?" The group looked up to see Skywishes approaching them.

Twilight moved to meet her and quickly filled Skywishes in on what she'd learned about Bonfire. While this was going on, Fluttershy cast a quick glance in Highflyer's direction. His stance hadn't relaxed but he also didn't seem to be in any particular hurry to get past her.

Suddenly Screwjob reached over and planted a hoof softly on top of Highflyer's masked skull. "Ease up, you pint-sized pistol shrimp." he murmured, sliding the hoof back and forth in a gentler variant on a noogie. Highflyer kept a wary eye on Bonfire, but his stance loosened, and his wings lowered to hang at his sides.

This gave Fluttershy the courage to turn her attention from the tiny wrestler to Twilight and Skywishes. But even as she did this, she found herself still questioning her own recent actions.

Why are you shielding her?! You heard Twilight! She's one of them! All this time she's been one of them!

And you were the one who begged Skywishes to let her stay.

By then Twilight had finished explaining things and Skywishes turned from her to Fluttershy. The timid pegasus braced herself, expecting to see harsh accusation in Skywishes's eyes. But if there was any, those flat dark green eyes concealed it as effectively as Highflyer's mask if not more so. Skywishes studied her without comment for several seconds that felt like hours to Fluttershy before turning her gaze on Bonfire's small twitching form.

"Twilight, can you make it so that she—" Skywishes bobbed her head in Bonfire's direction. "—and the rest of our hostages for that matter, can't hear us?"

"Uh, sure." Twilight's horn flashed, briefly filling the room with magenta light. "There," she said when the lighting returned to normal.

"Good." said Skywishes. "Though we'd better be careful just in case any of them know how to read lips." she added, turning her face away from Bonfire to demonstrate.

Fluttershy felt her stomach drop at this. "Does ... does that mean you think she's been their spy all this—?"

"I'm not sure. And until I am sure, I don't want us taking any chances." She grimaced and shook her head, one ear twitching in annoyance. "On the first hoof, why did one of our hostages attack her if she were working for them?"

"When did that happen?" Highflyer cut in, perking up and sounding surprised.

"While the two of you were tussling." said Skywishes. "We were tending to the changelings when one of them woke up, caught sight of Bonfire, magically snatched her up and bashed her head against the floor several times before we were able to stop it. Opened a wound in the back of Bonfire's head, which is why it's patched up now."

"Ahh."

"Doesn't sound like something you'd do to a teammate, does it?" said Skywishes. "But on the other hoof, if that teammate were undercover—"

"Attacking that teammate would be a good way to throw your enemies off the trail?" Highflyer guessed.

Skywishes nodded, though from her expression, she didn't seem wholly satisfied by this conclusion. "There is that to consider. But then again that injury Bonfire took to the back of the head seemed pretty high risk just to stay undercover..."

Highflyer shrugged his wings. "It could have turned out that bad by accident."

"If it was a feint, they sure played for real. That changeling seemed pretty intent on bashing Bonfire's brains in." Skywishes's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Twilight, can you do that invisibility spell on Bonfire's bandages? So we don't have to unwrap them to see the wound."

"Um, sure." It only took Twilight a moment to perform the spell. Once it was done, Skywishes twined a wing into one of Highflyer's, and shouldered Fluttershy aside with the other as she led the masked stallion around so he could see the back of Bonfire's head.

"Look at that," she said, releasing him and gesturing toward the now-exposed wound. "You too, Screwjob. You're both wrestlers. You've seen injuries before. Does that one look accidental to you?"

Screwjob zipped around to join his fellow stallion. The two of them looked at the wound, then at each other, then back at the wound, then up at the other ponies before Screwjob finally gave the verdict.

"Well ... yeah, actually it does. Look accidental, I mean. You see, when we're working a wrestling match, the goal is to make it look like we're clobbering each other when we're really not. But sometimes accidents happen and wrestlers get busted open or otherwise injured for real.

"So if we were looking at the results of a wrestling match, I'd say that wound was definitely an accident. But we're not exactly dealing with a wrestling match. We're dealing with several slippery enemies."

Fluttershy mentally groaned at this non-answer of an answer.

"But as to the question of whether our little mystery guest is a spy for the changelings," he continued. "I'm inclined to think no."

Fluttershy felt a cautious flicker of hope. "You do?" she asked.

"Why?" Skywishes asked at almost the same time.

"Well ... look at her." With an elaborate flourish, he waved a hoof in Bonfire's direction. "If she were a changeling spy with her pick of disguises, don't you think she'd choose something a lot more pleasing to look at? I mean, I know it sounds tacky, but let's face it she's ugly with a capital UGH! She doesn't even make the so-ugly-she's-cute category."

"Screwjob!" Fluttershy chided, but deep down she had to admit he had a point. Why try and lure somepony in with something ugly when it would be much easier with something attractive?

"Unless she was going the so-pathetic-that-you-just-feel-even-more-protective-toward-her route." Highflyer pointed out.

Considering the way she had instinctively sprung to Bonfire's rescue on several occasions—one of them mere moments ago—Fluttershy couldn't argue with this logic either. Had her soft heart caused her to play right into Bonfire's—and by possible extension the changelings' hooves?

"Actually she might not have had much choice in her appearance." said Skywishes. "She looked like this when Fluttershy and I first found her. If she suddenly dropped this disguise for a prettier one, it would definitely have given away the fact that she was a changeling."

Twilight suddenly cleared her throat. "Well, about that..." She paused as the other four ponies all focused on her. "When I was running those DNA tests, I actually got the results on Bonfire's blood a lot faster than I did with the other changelings because there was no disguise to work through."

The four ponies looked at Twilight, then Bonfire, then back again. "You mean..."

Twilight nodded in Bonfire's direction. "That's no disguise. That's what she really looks like."

"Wait," said Skywishes. "Does that mean all the changelings actually look like that?"

Twilight shook her head. "No, and that's what puzzles me about her. First there's the fact that she has no horn or wings. Normally changelings can hide those features if they disguise themselves as things like earth-ponies, but they can't hide their wings and horns while in their base form.

"Then there's the fact that she has no lips and next-to-no-tongue. That along with the lack of horn and wings could possibly be put down to simple physical disabilities—like a pony being born missing a limb—but it doesn't explain why her exoskeleton looks so much more like a corpse than it does like an insect. Or how she's able to spit fire."

"You sure she doesn't have a dash of dragon DNA floating around in there?" Screwjob asked. "That might explain the flaming."

"I'm positive she doesn't." said Twilight. "Her DNA is absolutely identical to that of our hostages." She drew a deep breath. "Which brings us right back to the question of how that's even possible when she's so physically different from them."

"And the question of whether or not she's working with them." Skywishes added. "If she's been somehow leaking information to them, it seems that they'd have invaded the HAB long before now. But then again, maybe she's been trying to get information to them but can't thanks to being trapped in that bubble in a TreeHAB that's currently so invisible you likely wouldn't find it unless you knew it was there even if you crashed into it."

"Well," said Screwjob. "Even if that is the case, and she couldn't be too choosey about her appearance, I'd think a spy would at least put a bit more effort into ingratiating herself with us. I mean, I don't know about the rest of you, but all her snarling and snapping hasn't exactly endeared her to me."

"It hasn't exactly gotten her kicked out yet either," Highflyer pointed out.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Fluttershy massaged her forehead with a hoof. Why did it seem that every argument against Bonfire possibly being a spy was promptly checked by a counter-argument?!

"Argh!" she heard Skywishes groan, followed by a frustrated flap of wings. "I hate changelings. They're so conniving and duplicitous that whenever you try and figure out anything about them, you just end up tying yourself in knots. No wonder Applejack just ran away and hid all those years." Highflyer and Screwjob both made rumbles of concurrence.

Was I right to beg Skywishes to let Bonfire stay? Fluttershy silently fretted. Or did I just sabotage all our plans in doing that? Should I keep obeying that instinctive urge to help her? Or were the changelings counting on that to manipulate me?

Opening her eyes, she felt them settle on Bonfire, who was twitching about in one of the restless dreams that constantly plagued her. Fluttershy had often wondered about those dreams' subject matter, but now a never-before-considered possibility occurred to her. "Is that why you've been having so much trouble sleeping?" she wondered, feeling equal parts pity and suspicion. "Have you been worrying about us somehow finding out you're one of the changelings—?"

At this Twilight let out a sharp gasp. "That's it!"

"What's it?" asked Screwjob, but Twilight ignored him, continuing to mutter to herself.

"That might be it. It might work."

"What might work?"

"It's worth a try."

"What's worth a try?" Screwjob demanded, clearly getting annoyed.

Twilight blinked and looked over at him, as though seeing him for the first time. "Total Recall's spell."

The tall wrestler blinked back at her. "Your enlightening is pretty low on the lightening. What's that spell have to do with anything?!" he demanded yet again, this time whisper-shouting the last part.

"I'm thinking about trying Total Recall's spell on Bonfire while she's asleep to find out if she's dreaming about actual events."

"Twilight, are you sure about this?" Fluttershy asked. They'd tacked a large roll of Skywishes's drafting paper onto a nearby wall to form a make-shift screen, and between them and that screen lay the still-sleeping Bonfire.

"As sure as I can be. Recall's spell was good—very good—so I didn't need to alter it much. I just needed to change the area of the brain that it reads to active dreams instead of stored memories. I've worked with Princess Luna enough over the years to better understand the dream realm and how she's able to travel and control it that I should be able to apply those principles to Recall's spell, using it to give us a live window into what's going on in Bonfire's mind. With her asleep, any conscious defenses she has would be down as well. After how much of a failure the lie-detector was, I don't want to give any changeling a chance to put up defenses if it can be avoided."

"But what if her dreams muddle things up? Or what if she doesn't have the right type of memory?"

Twilight waved that away. "Dream abstraction shouldn't be an issue. Total Recall designed the rest of the spell to specifically filter out abstraction and obfuscation, pulling only memories formed while awake and their content. Dreams are often made from memories, so the spell should strip away everything that isn't actual memory and show us the underlying truth of what she's remembering in her dreams." She gave a snort and shook her mane out. "At least if everything functions the way it should. The biggest unknown right now is if photographic memory is truly a requirement. Total Recall didn't specify what happens when he tries to use his spell on subjects without it. My hope is that with Bonfire dreaming, and her conscious mind not working to distort or override memories, the spell will be able to function as intended and show us those underlying memories. Ultimately though, we won't know until we try."

"Whelp," said Screwjob, "here's to long shots and fancy science. Have at it, Twilight."

With Fluttershy and Skywishes leaning in on her left, and Highflyer and Screwjob leaning in on her right, Twilight lowered her head, letting her horn press down into the bubble's membrane until it came into contact with Bonfire's head.

Fluttershy looked up at the make-shift screen, waiting to see what, if anything, would appear there. Suddenly the screen darkened. But just as it did, Fluttershy was overcome with an unexpected sensation. Her whole body was seized with paralysis and she was instantly rooted in place, unable to even twitch or look away from the screen.

What's happening?! she silently panicked inside her head. But with this understandable fear also came some unexpected extra emotions: a mixture of impotent rage and resigned despair. As if she had endured this paralysis not merely for a few seconds, but hours ... days ... possibly months or even years.

Then she noticed movement in the darkness on the screen. It was choppy like poorly done stop-motion, but Fluttershy could still follow what was going on.

She saw changelings. Not the semi-transparent ones she'd been forced to become acquainted with over the past year, but the black more-insectile ones she and her friends had encountered over a dozen years ago. Still, in the current darkness these changelings were nearly as invisible as their transparent counterparts. It was only the figures they were dragging along with them that stood out against the darkness: six ponies whose photos she had seen tacked on a map covering a cabin wall only a year ago. Their colors (as well as the rest of their surroundings) all seemed to be covered with an odd yellow overlay, but she recognized the ponies all the same.

Cotton Candy. Glitter Glide. Sparkleworks. Strawberry Swirl. Triple Treat. Sunny Daze.

As the names automatically rolled through her mind, she also felt an alien confusion not her own. A sense that she had no idea who these ponies were or why they were there, despite just listing them by name.

Am I experiencing what Bonfire felt during these memories? she wondered. Was this why Bonfire had been so fixated on that photo of Sunny Daze and Skywishes? Because she had recognized Sunny Daze from before?

The ponies were dragged out of sight and Fluttershy was forced to stare at the dark empty screen. She wasn't sure how long this lasted, but suddenly the yellow overlay covering everything seemed to jitter, then vanish.

The instant it vanished, Fluttershy felt a sharp stab of fear drive into her, and flinched reflexively. What?! She could move again! Her earlier paralysis had disappeared. She looked to her right and saw Skywishes, Highflyer, and Screwjob all shaking themselves, their expressions a mixture of relief and bafflement she was sure mirrored her own.

"Twi—?" Fluttershy paused mid-question as she noticed the alicorn was still leaning over Bonfire with her eyes closed, apparently too deep in the spell to notice what had happened to her fellow ponies. "Twilight?" Fluttershy put a hoof on her friend's wither, intending to shake it, when she was hit once again with that bolt of fear she'd felt earlier. She looked up at the screen just in time to see six ponies shoot across it in that choppy stop-motion way. Scarcely had they disappeared from the frame when Sunny Daze popped back into view, looped right up close to the camera and seemed to lift it. The camera spun away from her, and with a rush of dizziness not her own, Fluttershy caught glimpses of the other ponies racing below her toward a bright light up ahead.

Suddenly everything on screen was covered with a green overlay and once again Fluttershy felt herself seized by paralysis. She tried to shout a warning to Skywishes, Highflyer, and Screwjob, but she couldn't utter so much as a groan. She couldn't turn to see what they might be doing. She could only watch with helpless horror through Bonfire's eyes as the six ponies were stretched out—this time by changelings who seemed to be of the transparent part-windigo variety—and had the life strangled out of them. She shared in Bonfire's helplessness as Sunny Daze seemed to try communicating something with her eyes before the light disappeared from them forever.

The camera moved away from the dead ponies and the green overlay was replaced with the yellow one she'd seen before.

Then the scene abruptly changed. The green overlay was back, and there was a terrible searing pain in her mouth. She was surrounded by black insectile changelings and they were laughing at her. Fluttershy instantly felt as if she had been thrown back to those painful days when she was that awkward long-legged filly being taunted for her poor flying skills.

But with that memory also came the realization that no matter how bad the bullying had gotten, she'd always had Rainbow Dash ready to defend her. She'd still had a friend. She'd still been loved.

There was none of that in the alien emotions that now rolled over her. Only the feeling that she was utterly worthless and undeserving of love as both cruel mockery toward the pain in her mouth—Did ... did Bonfire somehow accidentally burn off her own tongue?! Fluttershy wondered but of course could not actually ask—and relentless loathing at her many deficiencies poured from the changelings surrounding her and bombarded her to the point of almost being physical. Please stop! Fluttershy begged inside her head, wishing she could curl up, hide behind her mane, anything to shield herself from this experience. But she was still just as paralyzed as Bonfire must have been in the memory. All she could do was endure it.

The scene changed again. This time the overlay was yellow and the changelings semi-transparent. Fluttershy felt contempt flowing from the changelings, and seething hatred rushing from Bonfire. Anger at her captors for dangling the promise of freedom before her, and anger at herself for daring to hope they might follow through. Had she learned nothing from all the other times they had used this tactic on her? Suddenly she was overwhelmed with exhaustion as the anger, hatred and crushed hope was drained out of her to fuel her captors' power.

This was just one of many similar scenes in which Bonfire was subjected to torment via the other changelings, their queen, or both.

Though Fluttershy had often speculated on what had caused Bonfire's constant nightmares, nothing had prepared her for trauma of this magnitude. No wonder the little one had been so resistant to Fluttershy's attempts to comfort her. Given what was happening in these memories, was it any surprise she could now only see acts of kindness as potential traps? It was understandable, but it still made Fluttershy's heart ache. And for the first time since meeting Bonfire she began to wonder if this was a case that kindness could not heal. Had all the pain, neglect, and rejection the little one had been forced to endure left her truly broken beyond repair?

Fluttershy was shocked out of these musings when who should flash into existence on the screen but Discord. Terror not her own flooded Fluttershy at the sight of him—with blood covering his face; fragments of stone stuck in his fur, feathers, and scales; and smoke rising from his charred right shoulder and left hip—as he slammed his hands into the nearest wall, sending his magic tearing through the room. Suddenly the yellow overlay vanished once again and Fluttershy felt the paralysis on her body loosen. Her relief at this was promptly overshadowed by a disbelieving amazement from Bonfire, followed by fresh terror at the chaos erupting all around her. The terror was so strong, Fluttershy recoiled, and fell backward. This time Twilight came with her and Fluttershy felt herself fall against other ponies, causing her to wonder if they too had been under the same paralysis as Fluttershy had, and like her only now been released.

As the five ponies collapsed in a heap, Bonfire's whole body spasmed, then arched as she let out a throat-rending screech that brought Spike, Applejack, Dinky, and Amethyst all running to investigate.

"What's going on?"

"Are you okay?"

"The changelings!" Skywishes broke from the group and sprinted to the alcove where they'd stashed their prisoners. After several seconds she returned, looking visibly relieved. "They're still out." she reported. "I think Twilight's sound-blocking spell kept them from hearing Bonfire's scream."

"Well, that makes one spell working fully as intended," groaned the purple alicorn as she rubbed her forehead with one hoof.

At this all attention turned to Bonfire. Her skeletal sides were heaving and her orange eyes bulged in their bony sockets, but she didn't seem aware of her surroundings. Fluttershy remembered when she and Discord had examined some of her own more traumatic memories and how shaken she had come out of them. Had Twilight's alicorn status somehow magnified her power and caused Bonfire to experience past situations in a similar way?

"Well," Skywishes breathed, clearly trying to collect herself. "Unless it's some desperate attempt on her part to earn their favor, I highly doubt Bonfire's working for the other changelings."

This of course sparked fresh questions from the one dragon and three ponies who had just joined the scene. Which in turn led to the remaining five ponies filling them in on what they'd recently discovered.

Bonfire was indeed the creature they'd seen in Discord's memory. Somehow his magic must have freed her and flung her into the Everfree where Fluttershy and Skywishes had later found her. She had witnessed the six murders Applejack had later stumbled upon, meaning that age-wise she must be at least eleven years old. But there was still that mystery regarding why she was so different from the other part-windigo changelings. And why did the other changelings seem to regard her with such hatred?

All this time Bonfire still seemed stuck in her dazed state.

"Twilight, can you take that sound-blocking spell off her?" Fluttershy asked. When Twilight obliged, Fluttershy moved closer to Bonfire, murmuring soothingly in hopes of gently drawing her out of her shocked state. But Bonfire only responded by flinching away and snarling at her. Though her efforts had been met with this reaction many times before, it had never filled Fluttershy with the sort of despair it did now. After all she'd just seen and felt through Bonfire's memories, she was now more desperate than ever to offer the little one the love she so clearly, so desperately needed. But what hope was there of that when Bonfire spurned her every effort?

"I think we should try questioning the other changelings about her." Twilight said suddenly.

The other ponies sent her incredulous looks, and Screwjob vocalized what they were all likely thinking. "The other changelings? The very ones that just lied their way through testimonies and cross-examination without your lie-detector even catching them once? Are you nuts?"

"No!" Twilight snapped. Either she was still as off-balance as Fluttershy herself still felt or Screwjob had really touched a nerve. "Of course I know that! Of course I know they'll lie at every opportunity!" She took some deep breaths and made an effort to speak more calmly. "But I'm not saying we should just blindly trust anything that comes out of their mouths, okay? If we question them, we'll take everything they say with a whole shaker of salt."

At this, Skywishes cleared her throat. "In that case, I say we all act like we just stumbled across Bonfire recently. Maybe as recently as just a few hours before our hostages showed up. Don't mention her name or gender. Make them think we know absolutely nothing about her. Give them a completely blank canvas to work with, then compare the picture they paint against what we know about her for sure."

As magenta light surrounded her bubble and Bonfire felt it and by extension herself being pulled forward against her will, she fought the urge to shiver not from physical cold, but from fear. Though she had repeatedly and unwillingly revisited those memories many times in her dreams, they had never before felt so vivid, so real to the point where she actually found herself questioning if all her time at the TreeHAB had been the true dream. A desperate effort to somehow escape the true nightmare that was her existence. But now as she found herself brought in front of the pony that had suddenly attacked her without warning, the sharp pain in her skull assured her she was indeed awake.

And suddenly she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. For all the guard she had maintained around the ponies, she had still become complacent in her ability to trundle about as she pleased while locked in her captive bubble.

She looked around at the ponies, wishing she could somehow beg them to ignore her, to treat her like she didn't exist. Re-experiencing her old captors' malice now left her desperately longing for benign indifference.

Even though her attempts at comfort would likely be rejected, Fluttershy hated ignoring Bonfire's obvious distress, and treating her like an inanimate object. But she also understood they couldn't let the changelings know they had any emotional attachment to Bonfire. Getting accurate information out of them would be hard enough without giving them any extra ammunition.

It took a good deal of shaking and prodding at the captive bubbles to wake their three confirmed changeling prisoners. But once they were awake Skywishes went in for the first round.

"Why'd you go nuts and just attack this thing for no reason?" she asked the Mrs. Cake-changeling while jerking a wing in Bonfire's direction. At the sight of Bonfire, all three disguised changelings flared their magic only for it to bounce uselessly off the insides of their bubbles.

"Don't waste your time with that." Skywishes sounded bored. "Just answer the question. Why did you attack that thing, and why are you still trying?"

"Because she's dangerous to all of us!" said the Mrs. Cake-changeling, turning to face her interrogator. "I wasn't about to give her a chance to incinerate us or burn the place down around us."

"Really?" Skywishes turned to regard Bonfire, her muzzle twisted with bemused incredulity. She turned back. "How do you even know that's what it can do?"

"Oh, we've encountered her before." said the Rainbow Dash-changeling.

"Yes, we have reason to fear her." said the Mr. Cake-changeling as pale blue flames erupted around him before clearing to reveal Pinkie Pie in his place.

"And so should you, Skywishes—" said the Mrs. Cake-changeling as similar flames surrounded her and cleared to reveal a white pegasus with an orange mane and tail, and eyes the same dark green as Skywishes's. "—considering she's the reason you no longer have a twin sister."

Skywishes's expression seemed to tighten but beyond that she didn't react to the sight of her deceased sister. "How about you ... elaborate? Give us some idea of what we're dealing with?"

In some ways, this questioning session ended up being even worse than the one at the trial because the changelings spent the whole time transforming from the murdered ponies to family members to other friends seemingly for the sole purpose of unsettling their interrogators. Trying to keep track of possible truth and lies was hard enough without being forced to worry about the fate of the pony whose face you were seeing and whose voice you were hearing.

When the questioning finally ended, Applejack offered to continue her shift guarding them, and with a collective smirk the three changelings promptly turned into her grandmother and siblings.

At the sight of this, Screwjob promptly declared he'd watch with her. Applejack shot him a glare but before she could refuse his offer, he added, "I can knock them out if they get too mouthy and you'd rather not sock your family members."

Applejack suddenly looked torn between rejecting the offer simply because it had come from him, and acknowledging it would make at least one aspect of the current task much more bearable. Then Screwjob actually invited Highflyer to join them, which seemed to surprise the tiny wrestler as much as it did the farm pony. At least until Screwjob elucidated with "I'm counting on you to knock out the first one who desecrates my aunt's image by posing as her. I can gleefully knock out any other friends, coworkers, or business associates they throw at me. Phenom, sure. Brimstone, sure. Our Boss, of course. You, no problem. Uncle Screwtape, yes. Sparkleworks, yes. Playboy, Glamor Girl, and Centerfold, yes, yes, and yes. Hey, even old Slugs is fair game. But Moonshine ... No."

"Why'd you have Sparkleworks in there?" asked Applejack.

"Oh, forgot to mention. I dated her at one time, but she was a bit too obsessed with explosives for my taste."

While this was going on, the rest of the group had withdrawn to discuss the results of the interrogation.

"I have to give them credit," said Skywishes. "They sure know how to blend their lies with the truth. Considering what I've seen Bonfire do with that flame, and that bite she left on Fluttershy's foreleg, I'd almost believe their claims about how dangerous she is."

At this Fluttershy instinctively felt the foreleg in question—which was still wrapped in bandages under her suit sleeve—and looked toward where Bonfire stood in her captive bubble, eyes darting uneasily between their group and the trio currently guarding the hostages.

"But they went a little too far when they tried to pin the deaths of your sister and those other ponies on her," said Twilight. "Granted they didn't know we'd just seen who actually did the killing, but still..."

"What do you suppose was their reason for that?" asked Amethyst. "Why are they so determined to paint her in a negative light? Are they trying to turn us against her?"

"And have us finish the job they started when they first saw her here?" said Spike. "Maybe. But then again they probably know that we know that they can lie without any of the usual tells, so they might be counting on that to confuse us on how to feel about her."

"Knots and more knots." Skywishes muttered darkly.

"No." Soft as it was, Fluttershy's voice still caught their attention. She shivered as she remembered dipping into Bonfire's mind. "No, I don't think it's anything that complex. At least ... not when it comes to their feelings toward Bonfire. They deeply and genuinely hate her." After this declaration, her ears and even her whole posture seemed to droop. "But why?"

Based on the emotions in her memories, not even Bonfire seemed to fully understand why she was so hated, only that she was.

The group all exchanged helpless looks, feeling that they had gone through all the stress of that interrogation with nothing to show for it.

"Well," Spike finally said, clearly trying to lighten the mood. "At least we now know that she's definitely female."

Twilight snorted, then muttered, "I ran her DNA tests, I could have told you that."

Maybe so, Fluttershy thought, but there was still the fact that Skywishes had called Bonfire an 'it', only for the changelings to start referring to her as a 'she' without any form of prompting. Fluttershy had gotten so used to thinking of Bonfire as a girl that she'd almost forgotten that until now they had only been guessing based on her appearance.

Her appearance...

Fluttershy remembered how Screwjob had described Bonfire as ugly, and how though she didn't want to be cruel, she couldn't argue with him.

Did the other changelings hate Bonfire so much because of her appearance? Was it as simple as that? Suddenly she wondered: Would Discord find her ugly as well?

"Spike, can I have that letter to talk to Discord?" While Highflyer had given her permission to use the squatter still lounging in his chest, she was reluctant to pull him off guard duty just for that.

"Uh." Spike looked uncomfortable. "I'm afraid it got burnt up when we came through."

Fluttershy mentally berated herself for forgetting this. Spike may have come through his own fire unscathed, but the camo he'd been wearing and the contents of his jacket pockets hadn't. However, the next moment Twilight floated the main letter they'd been using at the TreeHAB over to her.

Fluttershy snatched it with a quick thanks, but her expression fell as she saw the words already written on it.

Rarity: "I have to go now."

It was at that moment Fluttershy noticed that the hooves emerging from her purple sleeves had turned from soft lavender to pale yellow. She wasn't sure exactly how long ago that had happened, but if her potion had worn off than clearly Rarity had been forced to return to their room before her potion did as well.

But that meant Discord was currently under far too much scrutiny for her to communicate with him.

I didn't even get to tell him goodbye. She wondered how he was doing, all alone in his cell, and wished she could somehow magically transport all they'd just learned about Bonfire directly into his brain. The caring side of her hoped it would have given him something else to focus on if only to take his mind off his current predicament; but her more selfish side also hoped that if he turned his chaotic brain on the information he could find some clue in it that had somehow eluded the rest of them. The more she thought about this, the more she tried to picture how he might see things. Given how much effort he seemed to have taken in making his own appearance as unsettling as possible to the average pony, he clearly had a different idea than the rest of them on what constituted attractive. She looked toward Bonfire, trying to view her skull-like face, skeletal body, and the sparse hairs where her mane and tail should be as Discord might.

Earlier Skywishes had guessed Bonfire hadn't changed her appearance because it would have given her away, but now Fluttershy suddenly wondered if Bonfire hadn't changed her appearance because it was literally impossible.

Was that one of her 'deficiencies'? A changeling unable to transform her appearance? A changeling missing what was arguably one of their greatest weapons? What a concept. But they'd mentioned deficiencies plural. What other ones might there be?

Fluttershy thought on the various abilities they'd seen the other part-windigo changelings exhibit. How they no longer fed only on love but also on emotions at the opposite end of the spectrum through their windigo-essence.

Opposite ends...

Positive and negative...

"Twilight, aren't positives and negatives supposed to cancel each other out?" she blurted out, the words practically leaping out of her mouth before she realized it.

"Uh, yes? Why do you ask?"

"Well, I just suddenly realized ... what if we've been looking at things the wrong way when it comes to these part-windigo changelings?"

"What do you mean?"

"Changelings feed on more positive emotions, while windigos feed on more negative ones. Which it seems should cancel each other out, right? And-and what if they actually do? All this time we've been viewing the other changelings as the natural result of combining changeling and windigo essence, and Bonfire as the one exception to the rule. But what if Bonfire actually is the rule and all the others are the exception?!"

For several beats Twilight just stared at her, long enough to make Fluttershy start second guessing her suddenly-absurd-sounding idea. Then Twilight suddenly whirled and raced off toward a section of the TreeHAB they'd unofficially dubbed the HAB lab since she'd taken to doing her research and experiments over there. The other ponies and the dragon quickly exchanged glances before hurrying after her. They got there just in time to see her toss a twisted up rag aside and begin dropping various ingredients into a mixing beaker. The final result was a scant mouthful of potion. Twilight eyed it apprehensively, then threw it back in one swift gulp. She shuddered, grimaced, then raced off to where the hostages were being kept.

As the rest of the group followed her once again, they saw her skid to a halt in front of the prisoners—nearly colliding with the startled guards in the process—and stare down at them, her eyes almost popping out of her head.

"Twilight," Applejack started to ask. "What's—?"

"It works!" Twilight crowed and the next moment she yanked Scout's bubble out from among the others, and tapped it twice with her horn, causing it to instantly dissolve.

"What are you—?!"

"It's alright, he's one of us," said Twilight adding in an aside to the pinto, "Sorry about earlier, but we couldn't take the chance of you being a changeling trying to trick us."

By this point, Scout had managed to spit out his power tie-gag (which he seemed to have nearly chewed through) and was now shaking his head wildly to dislodge the section of tie currently blindfolding him from around his eyes. When Twilight took pity on him and lifted the remains of the tie away, he blinked rapidly as his eyes readjusted before settling on a point beyond her and widening. "What that?!"

Twilight looked in that direction and realized he was gaping at Bonfire. "Something very important." she responded, sounding quite giddy. "You were right, Fluttershy!" she added, swooping up Bonfire's bubble with her magic.

"I was?" Fluttershy asked, not following Twilight's line of reasoning.

"It was her all this time!" Twilight cheered, racing back to the lab with Bonfire's bubble in tow. "Her blood, her DNA, she's our missing ingredient!"

Bonfire scrabbled to find purchase as her bubble was lifted into the air and flown toward the area she'd seen Twilight working in many times before.

"I used the last of her blood for the potion I just tried myself. I need some more for the rest of you. Now where are those syringes?"

Bonfire felt her breaths starting to become short and rapid.

"It's going to be alright, Bonfire." Fluttershy said quickly, apparently noticing her agitation. "It'll sting a bit but it will be over quickly."

Bonfire did not believe the kind words. She looked past Fluttershy, trying to locate Skywishes. She met the flat dead eyes in that living face, and instinctively realized that this was it. The moment she'd known would come, and had been dreading all this time. The moment when her new captors dropped all pretense and used her just as her old captors had.

Twilight bustled forward, a syringe floating nearby. "Hold still now." she said even as her magic surrounded Bonfire, giving the little equine no real choice in the matter.

The syringe drew nearer. "This will be over real quick. I just need to..." Bonfire felt herself being turned as Twilight looked for the best place to insert the needle.

Bonfire closed her eyes, braced for the sting Fluttershy had mentioned. She could have tried to struggle, scream, or spray fire, but at this point it wouldn't even delay things.

"Ah, that should work, now let me just—"

"No!"

The sharp cry was followed by an equally sharp clatter, and the magic hold on her suddenly vanished.

"Skywishes—?"

"Don't touch her, Twilight."

What?! Bonfire's head snapped up, eyes wide to see Skywishes now positioned between herself and the other ponies, wings spread.

The group could only stare. They had all still just been adjusting to the fact that Twilight had suddenly found that elusive crucial ingredient; to the idea that it had been trundling about the TreeHAB all this time. And now they were being forced to wrap their heads around the fact that Skywishes of all ponies had suddenly lunged forward, struck the syringe out of Twilight's grasp, and positioned herself between the alicorn and the hybrid.

"Do you even remember what we just experienced?" said Skywishes. "She's been used all her life by the changelings, and now you're planning to do the same."

"It-it's only a little blood, Wishie." Fluttershy tried to reason, trying to convince herself as much as Skywishes. It's just one needle prick. It's not like Twilight was going to carve her open in some barbaric ritual. Really it's not.

"Sure, and what the changelings have been doing to her is only some light teasing," Skywishes retorted, her gaze never leaving Twilight's. "Them using her as a sort of emergency battery; us using her to create a potion. It amounts to the same thing!"

"It does not!" Applejack shot back indignantly. "We need that potion to help all our friends and families out there still at the changelings' mercy. Are you suggesting we just abandon all of them?"

"No, of course not!" Frustration was clear in Skywishes's voice. "I'm all for helping them, but not if it involves exploiting Bonfire."

Applejack snorted. "Sure, it's easy to claim you feel that way when you don't actually have anypony out there to lose." The instant the words were out of her mouth, Applejack seemed to realize she'd gone too far.

Skywishes's eyes narrowed, her hardened gaze leaving Twilight and turning cold ferocity upon the orange earth pony. "Nopony to lose?" she breathed, that ferocity echoed in her voice. "Is that what you think?" she went on, her voice rising with every word. "That I have nopony to lose? Do you think all of you are any less important than all the ponies out there?! I have plenty to lose!"

Bonfire could only stare at Skywishes as if she had never seen the pegasus before. What had happened? Why was the one pony who should have been fully onboard with using her, who should have jumped at the chance ... standing there and saying ... No.

Skywishes looked over her wither at Bonfire, and when she spoke this time her voice was low and firm. "Twilight, let her out of there."

"What?! Skywishes—"

"I said let her out!"

Twilight shook her head. "No! You said it yourself, we don't need her spitting fire all over the TreeHAB. Fire, might I add, that I can't put out magically. Mm-mm, letting her out is just too big of a risk."

Skywishes bowed her head as if conceding. Of course. Bonfire thought. It had all been a cruel trick just to raise her hope—

But at that moment Skywishes suddenly whirled and lunged straight for Bonfire's bubble, wrapping her wings around it. She thrust her front hooves forward, driving them into the bubble's side as if she were intending to pass a blanket or food into the bubble as she had done many times before. But this time her hooves were empty and she thrust her head forward right behind them. Both head and hooves burst through the membrane until Skywishes was shoulders-deep inside the bubble.

Too shocked to spit fire or even snarl, Bonfire recoiled, crashing back-first into the other side of the bubble. Unwrapping her wings from around the bubble and tucking them tight to her sides, Skywishes now shoved her front hooves against the inside of the bubble's membrane, forcing her body further and further in until she suddenly felt the membrane snap seamlessly shut behind her tail and back hooves and she fell in a tumble to the floor of the bubble. Unfurling her wings, she drove them down, sending herself and Bonfire shooting up into the air, and propelling them forward to wedge them on a large cross-section of pipe near the ceiling.

Down below, the rest of the group could only stare up at the glimmer of bubble visible over the fork of the cross-section, convinced that Skywishes—who up until that moment had always seemed the most pragmatic of the bunch—had completely lost her mind. First preventing Twilight from drawing Bonfire's blood, then demanding Bonfire be released from her captive bubble, and when that request was denied, trapping herself in there with Bonfire. That last action had been so unexpected and happened so fast none of them had even had time to possibly stop her.

Well, most of them could only stare. "Skywishes!" cried Twilight. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Stopping you from using her!"

Purple light flared along Twilight's horn as she spread her wings, intending to fly up there after Skywishes. But before she could take off a pair of forelegs wrapped around one of her wings.

"Wait, Twilight!"

She turned to see Fluttershy restraining her.

"Don't go after her, Twi. Let her work." Fluttershy's admonishment was soft, but she did her best to put all her resolve behind it.

Skywishes is a survivor. Fluttershy had thought the instant she'd managed to shake off the shock at Skywishes's actions. She wouldn't just trap herself in that bubble with no way to defend herself.

And on the tail of that thought had come a sudden wave of shame at her own inaction. When faced with the prospect of finally having a working potion, and with it possibly having a chance to expose the changelings, and rescue Rarity and Discord, she had been willing to stand back and let Bonfire be used for their own ends. Had even tried to justify it to herself by writing the action off as no worse than giving somepony a medical shot for their own good…

She should have been the one that stopped Twilight, that stared her down and told her no. But she hadn't, and all she could do now was try to help Skywishes. "Let her work." she repeated.

Twilight looked back at her old friend for several seconds, seeming to recognize what was going through Fluttershy's head. Eventually she nodded, though her lips were set in a hard line with obvious apprehension. Still, she was willing to go along with it.

Fluttershy released her friend's wing, and they, along with the rest of their companions, turned their gaze to the bubble on the cross-section above them, watching the drama inside unfold from below.

Meanwhile up on the cross-section, Bonfire stared at her new bubblemate. Skywishes seemed braced for something. She must be waiting for Bonfire to attack. Yes, she must have something hidden in that camouflage to defend herself. At this realization, a low, warning growl rumbled its way up Bonfire's throat.

As if sensing this thought process, Skywishes slowly reached into her pockets one at a time, turning each of them inside out and leaving them that way to prove they were empty. Then she just as slowly opened her coat, revealing she had no weapons hidden beneath it, before slipping it off and gently setting it to the side. Fortunately the bubble seemed to have expanded enough to accommodate two occupants rather than its original one, thus making this possible.

Looking Bonfire square in the face, Skywishes slowly reached up, and just as slowly pulled the black watch cap from her head, revealing more than a few strands of pink-and-purple hair that were sweat-jelled despite the cold.

Standing there, weaponless, unable to flee her new confines, clearly defenseless against Bonfire's teeth or flame should she choose to use them, Skywishes raised her right hoof, still clutching the watch cap, and placed it over her heart. When she spoke, there was a solemnness Bonfire had never before heard in that flat voice. "Bonfire, I promise ... from this moment onward ... to do everything in my power to make sure ... you're never again exploited for personal gain ... and only loved at personal cost."

Bonfire's growl rose in pitch. No, no, no! This isn't possible! You can't be saying this! I trusted you! This was a trick. It had to be a trick. But what trick could possibly have led Skywishes to trap herself weaponless in this bubble? For the first time in longer than she could remember, Bonfire unbent the mental armor she'd put up to help shield herself from the constant loathing the changelings had always aimed at her. She would doubtless be opening herself up to great pain, but for once she felt she must risk it if she were to learn what was driving Skywishes.

She focused tentatively on Skywishes's emotions. After years of forced suppression, using the ability felt like trying to work a cramped, atrophied muscle. She braced herself to feel the familiar hatred she knew her existence inspired, but to her surprise it was not there. She dug deeper, searching for the deceit that must be leading Skywishes to act this way but found none of that either.

What she did find were fear, regret, and ... and...

The growl died in her throat and Bonfire felt her whole body tremble as she began to read the nuances in Skywishes's feelings.

Fear at the physical pain she would likely soon feel having just placed herself at Bonfire's mercy. Fear that she had just made everything more complicated for both herself and her fellow ponies. Regret that they didn't understand. Regret that her actions had likely turned them against her forever.

But overpowering both those feelings and all others was the unwavering resolve to follow this course of action and accept whatever consequences might occur. Whatever other fears and doubts might plague Skywishes, her heart and head were now united in the conviction currently directed straight at Bonfire: You are not worth sacrificing.

But you are worth sacrificing for!

You are worth saving!

In that instant Bonfire's whole world shattered.

Author's Note

Yeah, bit of a cliff-hanger there. I actually ended up splitting this chapter into two, meaning this story's chapter count will be an even twenty. Making it the longest story in the trilogy both in word-count and chapter-count.

As always, a huge thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing.