The Light Within Us

“Well, is she here already?”

“Calm down, Pharynx. It’s a long way from Equestria and she isn’t known for being late; I’m sure she’ll show up any moment now!”

“She’d better. I have more important stuff to do than sucking up to pony officials.”

“Didn’t this whole thing start out as your idea?”

“So?”

“So one might expect a degree of patience in regard to the procedure that could turn that idea into reality, don’t you think?”

“Bah. That’s your job!”

“Mine?”

“Yes, Thorax, you’re the sickly-sweet one with an insatiable desire to befriend and please everyone. Me? Something doesn’t go the way I think it should, I punch first and ask questions later, which isn’t the kind of approach that would work here. We need someling who thrives on chatting and sweet-talking, and we just happen to have one standing right here.”

“Hey, I’m just being polite! That doesn’t mean I enjoy conversations with every living creature! Some are boring and some are terrifying! But I show some manners even when I don’t like my collocutor and entertaining them is the mother of all chores, and frankly, Pharynx, I think you should make an effort this time, too.”

He grit his teeth and said nothing more as we stared at the edge of the wasteland.

“Where have you been, anyway?” I asked.

“Setting up the security teams. Just in case.”

“Are we expecting trouble?”

“Hopefully not, but you never know.”

“Well, at least you seem to have thought to keep Ms Harshwhinny safe from harm-”

“I’m not trying to keep her safe from anything. I’m trying to keep you and the drones safe from her!”

I facehoofed. “Pharynx, I know she has a reputation, but you can’t seriously expect her to attack us if we fail to meet her expectations!”

“It’s not about the inspection! Yes, she stated that as a reason for showing up, but how do we know she won’t see it as an opportunity to get some retribution for our actions under Chrysalis? I agree, it’s a stretch; she was never captured and neither were any of her family members or associates, save for one coworker she’d barely interacted with during the couple of weeks they’d known each other before we took him, and we’re unaware of her having any ‘friends’ that fit your definition of the word, but she could still hate us on a principle and decide to act on it at the slightest of provocations, even if she has decided to try to be objective.”

“Well… okay, I understand your caution, but I really don’t think she’d do that…”

“Alternatively, she could have been replaced by Chrysalis. What we’re doing isn’t exactly a secret.”

I gasped. “You think this is how she’ll attack?”

“It would make some sense. As a good host, you plan to show Harshwhinny around, answer her questions, cater to her wishes, and so on and so forth, and Chrysalis would expect that. She could easily take advantage of the situation, if not to outright attack, but at least to scout the changes from the old days while hiding in plain sight and use that information to plan her approach at a different time.”

“Will you be able to recognize her if that’s the case?”

“The idea is to attempt that, or if we fail, to shadow her after she leaves until we’ve established who she really is. But leave that part to me. You just be a good host and pretend we’re not suspecting anything. Can you do that?”

“I think so…”

“Good.”

We stared into the distance some more. Eventually, a speck appeared above the treeline, getting gradually bigger until I could discern two pegasi pulling a carriage. They landed on a clearing in front of the hive, where Pharynx and I had been waiting, and a mare in a business suit stepped out. Her facial muscles were tensed up and her glare sharp, which wasn’t a surprise given the infiltrators’ descriptions of her, but so far, there was nothing in her posture or aura to suggest she wasn’t who she appeared to be. Just in case, I glanced at Pharynx, who gave a barely-perceptible, noncommittal shrug.

I approached the visitor. “Ms Harshwhinny, I presume? We’ve been looking forward to your visit! I am King Thorax, and this is my brother Pharynx, the head of hive’s defense forces and my second-in-command. We wish you a warm welcome in the name of all changelings! I hope your journey went well?”

“My journey was pleasant enough,” she said with a hint of impatience in her voice, “but I can’t imagine everypony competing or spectating will be able to do the same, assuming you’re selected to host the Games. There aren’t enough air taxis in Equestria to cater to all of them, and some may not even be able to afford it. How are you planning for everypony to get here? Are they supposed to trudge through that jungle?”

“No, actually, a railway is under construction, extending south from Appleloosa. It’s a little to the east from where you flew in so I’m not surprised that you didn’t notice the break in the foliage. The costruction crew estimates it’ll be complete in a couple of months, well in time for the Games! The inspection just happens to be a bit too early for you to make use of the train, I’m afraid, but it will be done, so feel free to visit us again when it is!”

“I’m too busy to travel around on a whim like that, Your Highness, and the selection of suitable hosts can’t wait for your railway to be completed. My evaluation of you will have to rely on trust in your workers in that regard. Not the ideal situation, so the rest of what you have to offer better be satisfactory if you don’t want to be eliminated from consideration.”

“Of course.”

“Which leads me to another important point. Equestria Games, as is obvious from their name, originated in Equestria and have always been held in Equestria. In addition, there are plenty of cities in Equestria that are still waiting for their turn to host the Games. Why should the kingdom that used to be an enemy of Equestria take priority over Equestrian cities?”

“Funny how you’re forgetting the Crystal Empire,” Pharynx muttered, loud enough to be heard.

“I beg your pardon?!”

Uh-oh… Pharynx, please don’t mess it up…

“The Crystal Empire isn’t part of Equestria, strictly speaking, even if they are closely allied through family relationships and, prior to that, through political relations dating back over a millennium. The changelings have been around long enough to have records of that era, and as much as I’ve begun to dislike Chrysalis following my brother’s ascension, I still trust her to have kept those records accurate and as safe from harm as possible. She had every reason to, or infiltrations would have failed as soon as an agent’s cover integrity was to depend on that knowledge.”

“Pharynx-”

“I’m not done, Thorax. Those records state that even in its earliest days, the Crystal Empire has never been part of Equestria proper, not even after its return when an alicorn princess took the throne. Even Shining Armor relinquished his Equestrian citizenship in order to claim the throne alongside his wife. Therefore, your claim that Equestria Games have never been held outside of Equestria is either a gross omission, which I doubt considering your reputation as a strict perfectionist, or a blatant lie-”

“Please excuse Pharynx, Ms Harshwhinny,” I interjected, stepping in front of my brother with a quick control-yourself glare and hoping he’d get the message. “This attitude has always served him well in his role as a military commander, especially in the old days, but now he’s struggling with diplomacy as a result… he has good intentions and just doesn’t know how to show them…”

“I meant what I said,” he insisted, pushing past me to face Harshwhinny directly. “So, Madame Inspector, is this a test of how we’ll handle a tricky situation or are you trying to disqualify us based on racial favoritism?”

What?! “Pharynx, that’s enough! Ms Harshwhinny doesn’t answer to you and she hasn’t done anything to deserve this kind of treatment! Now, will you please start behaving yourself?”

“Whatever.”

“Ms Harshwhinny, please forgive us for this… incident… I should have talked to him before this-”

She held a hoof up. “While I don’t normally encounter such bluntness during my inspections of Equestria Games candidates, I… appreciate your honesty, Mr Pharynx, though I’ll reserve the right to not explain my reasoning for asking that question. Shall we continue, Your Highness?”

“Uh… yes, of course! Um, this way, please?”

She followed me into the hive, and Pharynx shadowed us from a distance, though still close enough to be noticeable and somewhat awkward, almost as if he wanted Ms Harshwhinny to feel under suspicion. Unless this was an attempt at keeping a respectful distance after treading too close to enraging the Inspector and possibly ending her visit before it had even begun?

“You asked why we should take priority over Equestrian cities in hosting the Games,” I said as we navigated the corridors. “I must admit that it never occurred to us that us hosting the Games could be seen as robbing Equestria as something that’s rightfully theirs, and if that’s the case, I apologize and am willing to withdraw our application to host. But from what I’ve learned about the Equestria Games, it’s meant to promote unity and friendship and was founded on the belief that anyone can shine if given the opportunity. The changelings are friendly now and we’ve been looking for every opportunity to let the world know it, and though we’ve come a long way, there’s still much that can be done in that regard, and one of the most direct ways to get there is to show everyone how much we’ve changed. Equestria Games will make it easier to forge friendships because there’s always so many athletes and spectators, and participation alone would do that to an extent, but we feel that hosting would allow more people to see us in a new light and realize what we’ve become in the past year or so, not to mention an opportunity to compensate for some of the cruelty we spread in the old days. In other words, this would be an opportunity for us to really shine and show the world they have no reason to fear us anymore.”

“And what makes you think there are still people who hate you?”

“I don’t know if you’ve heard of the recent incident with Chancellor Neighsay closing down Princess Twilight’s school because a few students weren’t ponies?”

“I’ve heard of it. Wasn’t there only one changeling student?”

“Yes, and one griffon, one hippogriff, one dragon, and one yak. But the chancellor put us all into the same ‘dangerous’ pile even though none of those species is an enemy of Equestria and some have even spent their whole lives as its citizens, and I have a hard time believing he’s the only one who might still have a problem with us. Even if he is, some of my subjects have been reluctant to reach out to other lands out of fear they’d be met with the same hatred as in the old days. This would help bring friendly ponies to them, and the friendships they forge would build their courage to face the world and ensure they have more places to go if they run into difficulties.”

“Assuming that’s correct, what makes you so sure everyone who comes here will be friendly?”

“I’m assuming there will be enough friendly people to make it worthwhile. There could also be people still afraid of us, but we’re hoping to help them see their fears are unjustified now. As for troublemakers, we may not be able to prevent their arrival, but Pharynx swears he can deal with them easily. I’m sure he’ll be willing to discuss the details with you if you’re interested!”

We glanced at Pharynx, who looked all but interested in discussing anything with anyone.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Ms Harshwhinny said.

I led her through every public area in the hive Psycho and I’d agreed she may be interested in on the grounds of said areas being potentially appealing or useful to the athletes, spectators, or both, such as the library, the arts-and-crafts area, the feelings forum, a few infirmaries, and the nursery. Drones everywhere were the epitome of politeness and warm friendliness, sometimes up to the point where I almost thought them too friendly to appear genuine to a pony unable to sense their auras, but they were mostly met with curt replies to their greetings and offers to be of assistance and an ice-cold aura of indifferent professionalism. Wasn’t something like this stated in one of the scrolls I’d read in preparation for her visit? That she was annoyed by politeness? Oh, right; Blade had reported a rumor that the main reason why the Crystal Empire had been chosen for the last Games was how fed up with impeccable politeness she’d been and that was the only place she’d gotten to see the genuine spirit of the city due to some freak incident? It sounded ridiculous, but why hadn’t I bothered to verify that claim just to be sure? I was friends with the ponies who had made it happen, after all! But even if I had asked, would it have made a difference? I couldn’t exactly welcome her with chaos and insults just to avoid the ‘not the same old’ super-politeness! Maybe she really had preferred Pharynx’s bluntness earlier, no matter how grumpy… But would it be enough to win her over?

Eventually we arrived at the throne room, and recognizing its purpose, she abandoned the practice of waiting to hear what I had to say about the location I was showing her.

“Your Highness, why are we here? Your throne is adequate, but if you mean to suggest it’s something the athletes or their spectators could utilize-”

“It isn’t, and I won’t. I brought you here for the view.” As I led her to the southern edge of the plateau, I continued, “Down there are the facilities we built for the Games. The hive as you saw it upon arrival used to look the same from all directions. We started growing plants over it and the surrounding wasteland after I took the throne, but if you had shown up at any point more than a week ago, you couldn’t know which side of the hive you were looking at without being intimately familiar with the fine details or using the sun or the jungle on the northern horizon to orient yourself. It’s different now that we’ve added… this.”

Below us, beyond the edge of the plateau, a brand-new structure meandered through the scenery: a hotel stemming from the southern wall of the hive, with irregular, winding contours that mimicked the ones of the hive and followed the shapes of the rooms inside it and formed cascades with recesses that held the soil into which Antenna had planted sprouts of the same flowers and vines that adorned the hive itself. In several places along the length of the hotel were grapelike clusters of additional rooms shaped to match the style of the hotel’s main body and surrounded by shrubs and tree saplings; in the curve between the middle part of the hotel and Pharynx’s training grounds, now partly hidden by a rock garden, was a cozy little park with a pond and foals’ playground nearby, and far into the distance, at the tip of the hotel where it tapered into a ground-level-only lobby, was the stadium, connected to the hotel only by a wide walkway that circumnavigated the otherwise detached structure built in the same style as the hive and hotel. The stadium, too, was surrounded by vegetation, although like that planted over the hotel, it still had some growing to do before it could captivate the world with its full beauty.

Even unfinished as it was, the sight left an impression on Harshwhinny: her eyes widened, her aura peaked into elated brightness, and she let out an audible gasp.

“You built all this in a week?! I don’t believe it…”

“There’s a spell that modifies the hive’s structure in accordance with the caster’s wishes. It’s an easy one, but I’ve only managed to make it work on the stone the hive is made of and nothing else, which is why the hive, the hotel, and the stadium are all interconnected. It would have been possible to just extend a narrow streak of hivestone to wherever I wanted to build something and then hide the connecting line underground or turn it into a road, but we ended up liking this design more. It’s not entirely finished, though; we’re still placing the doors, lights, plumbing, furniture, and so on, but some of the rooms are fully equipped for you to see how every room is going to look like in the end. It should all be done well before the Equestria Games according to the supervisors.”

“Seeing it up close is why I came here,” she stated. “Are we supposed to take the same route down or is there a shortcut?”

“There are many routes through the hive, some of which could be considered shortcuts, but they’re all similar to what you’ve already seen on the way up. I can cut it short by teleporting us to the hotel, or if you prefer to see where you’re going, I can levitate you along while flying to ground level or turn into a dragon and fly you down on my back.”

“...I had my share of various assumptions on what to expect of this visit, but riding a dragon wasn’t one of them,” she admitted. “Wouldn’t it undermine your reputation in the eyes of your subjects?”

“Yes,” Pharynx interjected.

“No,” I said simultaneously. “As one of the lowliest drones of Chrysalis’ time, if not the lowliest, everyling must have already seen me perform what was then considered the most demeaning tasks at some point or another, and they all know that I don’t believe any honest task to be demeaning and that no task that needs doing is below me. Besides, carrying ponies on my back would not be demeaning in any way! Unusual at most, but otherwise perfectly normal!”

A sour streak flickered in her aura for a moment. Had I offended her? Couldn’t I have phrased myself a bit better?

“Very well,” she said in the end. “I’m not a fan of teleporting, and I trust you that there aren’t many things left to be seen inside the hive, so I’ll let you fly me down to ground level.”

As I transformed and waited for her to climb on my back, I caught a glimpse of Pharynx frowning at her. Was he simply disapproving of this particular method of transportation, or was he suspecting her motives? I didn’t sense anything malicious in her, but maybe she knew how to hide it well… Unfortunately, this wasn’t a good opportunity to ask him about it, and I couldn’t see any coming anytime soon… I was just going to have to continue being a good host like he’d told me to and trust him to not make a mistake!

We landed in the small park, and upon reverting to my usual form, I led the Inspector through the nearest of the ground-level entrances.

“This will be the main entrance to the hotel,” I explained. “There are several others opening into every recess of the hotel’s ground plan and one at the stadium end, not counting the gateways connecting the hotel to the hive. The reception desk will be in this alcove, and there’ll be a sitting area between it and the main entrance. Also, smaller sitting areas at the side-entrances. The ground level is reserved for a restaurant and various communal areas that we haven’t fully settled on yet, but it’ll probably include a dancing area, a spa, and some areas for various games including one or two designated for foals. The guest rooms are upstairs; five levels in total at the tallest part, but the design of the hotel should allow adding additional levels or side-clusters if the need arises.”

“It’s a lot of work. Are you sure you’ll be able to finish it in time for the Games?”

“I believe so! The drones working on it are former infiltrators whose cover identities included being skilled in the kind of work we need here, such as plumbing and carpentry-”

Just then, a group of drones trotted by, carrying tools and wooden planks.

“Are they the workers you’re referring to?”

“They must be. I’m not personally familiar with anyling from that group, though.”

“I want to see where they’re going and what they’re going to do there.”

“Of course! They must be building the doors for every guest room. The hive itself doesn’t have any doors that close, as you’ve seen, and I have to admit I initially forgot about them until someling mentioned the guests wouldn’t appreciate not having a clear barrier between their rooms and public areas.”

“You’d better thank that someling, because such a blatant oversight would have disqualified you on the spot if the hotel didn’t have room doors in its finished state. What do changelings have against doors, anyway?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Your Highness. You said it yourself a minute ago the hive doesn’t have any doors, yet your kind used to have infiltrators all over Equestria and you yourself lived in the Crystal Empire briefly, therefore doors can’t be an unfamiliar concept.”

“Oh! That’s probably because the hive’s architecture shifted and changed autonomously all the time until shortly after I took charge. The spell that did it must have worn off… Anyway, gateways between hallways and chambers were constantly forming and disappearing at random, and so were the walls themselves occasionally, so having doors wouldn’t have made much sense because they probably either wouldn’t survive very long or wouldn’t remain attached very long. There actually were doors of sorts at the entrances to Chrysalis’ castle, which wasn’t prone to shifting like the rest of the hive, but we got rid of them along with security clearances. There was just no need to keep them.”

“And how do your subjects feel about the fact that anyone can barge into their personal areas and do whatever?”

“I haven’t gotten any complaints about it. We’re used to it, really, and it’s possible that living under a dictatorship and having clearances for every smallest thing taught us to respect boundaries. Probably the only good thing it ever did…”

“That and not being helpless against threats,” Pharynx quipped from behind us.

“What was that?”

“Oh, nothing, Pharynx just takes his role as head of defense very seriously. Oh, the drones are apparently working in this section today! You wanted to check on them?”

She nodded and entered one of the rooms, where a worker dropped his current task to give her an enthusiastic overview of what they were doing at the moment, how they were doing it, and what remained to be done. I used this opportunity to catch up with Pharynx.

“What do you think so far?” I asked.

“Blunt, no-nonsense, and perfectionist to a fault,” he said, “just like our intel pegs her. Keeps her emotions to herself but I’m not sensing any malice. Either she’s who she claims to be, or Chrysalis got a better grip of her aura while in disguise since we last saw her and I lost my touch around all of you.”

“You could actually tell her apart by her aura?”

“Sometimes, yes, if she was furious enough and her aura wasn’t getting drowned out by other auras, but it wasn’t foolproof. Don’t forget that she had centuries to perfect the skill.”

“So, you think we’re safe?”

“I think there’s a good chance we are, but I’m not letting my guard down just yet. There’s still plenty of chances for surprises.”

The drone who had taken over showing Ms Harshwhinny around for the moment led her towards one of the adjacent hallways, where I knew the work had been completed, in order to give her a preview of what the rest of the hotel would eventually look like. We followed, giving them enough space to look at everything without being obtrusive.

“Will you be able to handle her if… you know…”

“Who do you take me for, Thorax?”

“Fair enough. What about the inspection? Do you think it’s going well so far?”

“What I think doesn’t matter here. Though, she hasn’t stormed away yet and isn’t raising her voice as much as her file makes it seem to be her habit, so unless she’s completely disoriented by the hive’s layout and concerned that we might decide to suck the love out of her at the slightest of provocations, it could be worse.”

“That’s not very reassuring…”

“Take that to the feelings forum. I’m not here to be sappy.”

“I know; you’re too practical for that. But do you at least have any suggestions on how to improve the experience for her, now that you’ve seen what she’s like first-hoof?”

“No. You’re the one with the talent of indulging people, why do you need my help?”

“But she kind of reminds me of you! Can’t you at least-”

The worker had finished showing Ms Harshwhinny everything there was to be shown and gone to return to his duty, and she rejoined us.

“How did you like the hotel, Inspector?” I asked.

“It’s adequate, assuming your workers can finish everything before the deadline.”

“I have every confidence that they will!”

“We’ll see. But while important to the Games, these are all secondary issues. Are you going to show me the one thing the Games cannot take place without?”

“The stadium? Yes, that’s the next step on our tour! Follow me!”

I caught a muffled ‘finally’ as I trotted downstairs, but a few minutes later, after we passed through the southernmost exit into the area surrounding the stadium, the inspector’s strung-up flavor of aura evaporated completely as she laid her eyes on the most important point of her visit. The stadium matched the style of the hive and hotel from the outside, being somewhat hivelike itself except much shorter, and with wide entrance halls spanning the entire circumference of the ground level and just-above-ground-flight-entrance level, giving a sort of spider web feel mellowed by the abundance of moss, vines, and flowers planted in the connecting beams and all over the stadium’s outer surface. Walking inside, she was met first with spacious hallways and then with the arena carefully measured and arranged in accordance with the rules and instructions we’d found in one of the books in the library, completed with changeling-style decor in the spectator area and at the competitors’ entrances.

Pharynx and I waited for her to take it all in, upon which she cast us a suspicious glance and pulled out a large roll of measuring tape from one of her jacket pockets and proceeded to measure the arena. I looked at Pharynx as a wave of panic washed over me. Was this normal or had she found some irregularity visible to the naked eye that we’d failed to notice because we’d only been in a stadium a couple of times before? Had we made a measurement error? Were we about to get disqualified? Pharynx frowned at me to calm down, but that became impossible after she pulled some kind of an instrument from another of her jacket pockets and started to wave it around. What even was that thing?

Eventually she put the tape and the device away and rejoined us.

“The arena size and proportions are in accordance with specifications and the thaumometer only shows background noise,” she stated. Catching my blank stare, she added, “That means you’re not using magic to cheat.”

“Oh, good,” I breathed. “I mean, I knew that!”

I wanted to kick myself as soon as the words left my mouth. Wonderful job, Thorax! Now you’ll only look more suspicious! Did you just send your brain on a vacation? Luckily, an opportunity for distraction presented itself in the form of Ms Harshwhinny’s growling stomach.

“Gosh, I’m so sorry!” I gasped. “We didn’t even offer you anything to eat and the dining room was right there half an hour ago! A couple of drones have volunteered to prepare a meal for you; it should be ready by now… Do you like falafel?”

She nodded curtly but her aura screamed yes!, and we returned to the hotel, where a table in the restaurant had already been set. One plate, one glass, and one set of silverware, complemented by a vase of flowers, and that was enough, as Pharynx and I weren’t going to eat the food cooked for her.

Just as we sat down, a drone approached with a steaming soup tureen.

“Welcome to our humble restaurant!” she chirped. “It’s a pleasure to meet you! My name is Ecdysis and I’ll be your server today. Shall we start with some asparagus soup?”

“You seem to have brought it already, so obviously we shall.”

“Wonderful!” She filled Ms Harshwhinny’s plate. “Would you like a drink? We have orange juice, strawberry juice, apple juice, an assortment of teas, and water.”

“No coffee?”

Ecdysis cast a panicked glance at me. Had we really forgotten that?

“Nevermind,” Ms Harshwhinny said. “I’ll take dog-rose tea, if you have it.”

“We do! Coming right up!” She dashed away, leaving the tureen behind.

The soup smelled wonderful and I had no doubt the taste wouldn’t disappoint, but Ms Harshwhinny gave it a suspicious sniff regardless. Apparently satisfied, she grabbed the spoon, only to put it back sown with a scrunched face.

“What is this?” she muttered. “Ecdysis!”

The eager drone flew back. “The water for your tea is still boiling, ma’am-”

“Why is this spoon dirty?”

“...it is?”

“There’s some greenish grime on the handle!” True enough, some of it had remained on her hoof. “Don’t you know how to wash utensils?”

“So sorry! I’ll bring another right away! Um, here’s a cloth if you want to clean yourself up…”

While the Inspector scrubbed her hoof clean and Ecdysis was fetching another spoon, I caught Pharynx hiding a smirk. What was he- oooh… Wow, you never leave things to chance, huh, Pharynx?

The new spoon was satisfactory, and apparently so was the soup, as our guest didn’t pause even once to say anything. Unless she was just that hungry?

The tea arrived just as she was finishing up the plate.

“Your tea, ma’am,” Ecdysis stated, setting the tray onto the table. “Would you like more soup?”

“No, I’ve had enough.”

“I’ll bring the main course, then-”

“But I am wondering who cooked it.”

“Coxa and I cooked the whole lunch. Is something wrong?”

“No. On the contrary, it’s surprisingly good, considering it was made by someone who probably never tasted it and wouldn’t have had the need to cook.”

“Actually, we both have experience in preparing pony food from our infiltrator days. I was a chef in a restaurant in Baltimare, and Coxa was deployed into service in a noblemare’s mansion in Trottingham but got found out early on. We both tasted pony food occasionally, too, as it was part of our cover.”

“Aren’t you breaking some kind of rule for telling me that?”

“I would be in Chrysalis’ time, but Thorax put an end to our exploitation of others, and that includes no longer lying about our past as there’s no need to keep secrets anymore and people deserve to know.”

I nodded. “Noling is required to spill the beans on what they did in the old days, though. How much they reveal is entirely up to them.”

“And how do ponies react to being told they were taken advantage of?”

“It depends on the pony, but overall they aren’t as furious as they used to be. Some even put two and two together after we disappeared when Thorax recalled us to the hive and had a whole speech ready when we came back to explain ourselves or wrote us letters when they heard mail delivery to the hive was a thing now!”

“Interesting. You may go.”

She obeyed and returned immediately with a tray of food. “Just your main dish now, ma’am: falafel with a side of potatoes and eggplant. Bon appetit!”

This time, Ms Harshwhinny took a moment to examine the fork before digging in. “Hmmm… nice to see at least some utensils are washed properly…”

“That was deliberate,” Pharynx stated as she took the first bite.

“I beg your pardon?!”

“The ‘grime’, as you called it, was actually an ointment that we came across on a mission a few months prior to Chrysalis’ defeat and took a sample for study when it turned out capable of collapsing a changeling’s disguise. We wanted to find a way to negate that effect but to no avail. The concerns about it being potentially used against us are no longer an issue now that my brother reformed us and is forging alliances like crazy, but one concern still remains.”

“What concern?”

“Chrysalis is still at large, and since the two of us have never met you before and therefore couldn’t recognize you by personality and shared experiences, I ordered Ecdysis to plant some changeling revealer ointment onto the spoon because it was something you were likely to touch.”

“In case it wasn’t clear,” I added, “you’ve passed the test.”

“I see,” she mused. “But Chrysalis was overthrown, what, a year and a half ago? How do you know she wouldn’t have found a way to work around it by now?”

“We don’t, but we paid close attention to your behavior and aura throughout the day and haven’t found anything to doubt your identity and motives. The spoon trick was arranged prior to your arrival, by the way, and I decided to go through with it regardless of our impressions of you for an extra layer of security.”

“I hope you’re not upset with us,” I said.

She considered this over a mouthful or two of her lunch. “I’m not. Normally I would be, but you have a potentially serious issue and you handled it adequately. Do you intend to subject the athletes and spectators to the same test during the Games?”

Pharynx and I exchanged glances. I knew what he’d want, but although I didn’t disagree, this was a matter worth discussing.

“We haven’t decided,” I told her. “There are advantages, but if Chrysalis is determined enough, she could sneak in and replace someone at any point during the course of the Games, so everyone would have to be tested repeatedly, and some might not like it even if they have nothing to hide. It could blow up in our faces despite the best intentions. We may get away with demanding it only from athletes or troublemakers, and the rest we’ll have to simply trust to be who they say they are. Another option would be to watch out for any aberrant auras and behaviors, which Pharynx’s security teams would probably do either way. All this is assuming she isn’t tracked down and captured before the Games, of course. What do you think?”

“I think each approach has merits and drawbacks, but the Games aren’t happening tomorrow. We have plenty of time to discuss the strategy and to rethink our approach if something changes in the meantime. But regardless of what we decide, you’ll have to ensure your security team is trained and up to date with all the protocols.”

“They will be,” Pharynx stated.

“Wait,” I interjected. “Are we talking hypothetically, or…?”

“No, Your Highness,” Ms Harshwhinny said. “I had my doubts prior to the inspection based on the changelings’ old reputation and have been preparing to announce Vanhoover as the next host, but not only have you swept away those doubts, you’ve actually impressed me by how much you’ve accomplished in such a short timespan! You’ve proved yourselves to be more than capable of hosting the next Equestria Games, and I have every confidence you will live up to the challenge!”