A Shadow of Myself

Mystic Decorum, or simply, Miss Decorum, as she was most commonly addressed, had found the newly appointed headmare as abnormal and abominable as she had anticipated an Earthling to be, if not more so. Headmare Blessing's reforms were only a few days in, and already she had admitted two kirin students as if she had not heard the school's name to be The School for Gifted Unicorns. Her inclusion of a non-unicorn teacher to the staff only further confirmed that the Earthling failed to recognize this elemental concept, and in Decorum's humble opinion, what that newly installed web-winged mongrel professor spoke of bordered on treason against the crown! Blessing even added insult to injury by parading around most regularly as a human, only reverting to a proper unicorn form to conduct some lessons.

Sunset Blessing was in her proper form at the moment, marching through the hall towards the auditorium with Decorum far behind, and the vice headmare for once found herself oddly wishing Sunset Blessing was in her human form. A human couldn't drag the bundle that the headmare was levitating behind her.

Students, slowly making their way to the impromptu assembly, stopped and gaped at the headmare and her prize.

"Is that–?"

"How did she–?"

"Sweet Celestia!"

Sunset Blessing didn't look at them nor break her stride as she addressed them. "Move along, students! I expect everyone to be present and accounted for when I begin my presentation and lesson. Your questions will be answered during the lesson."

The bundle, tightly bound and gagged with Blessing's magic, struggled against the bonds.

"Oh, stop that," Sunset Blessing scolded the bundle. "I'm being extremely nice and kind to you. My normal policy for those who attempt to attack me is immediate termination, but I'm allowing you to help me with a lesson instead. You should be honored. Decorum, I know your legs work perfectly well; please keep up your pace. You are falling too far behind."

Decorum picked up her pace slightly but was wary of getting too close to the beast bound in Blessing's magic. "Headmare, is this necessary? We could call the guards to take this foul miscreant for judgment before the princess and a swift trip to Tartarus. All this seems very unorthodox."

"It is a rare opportunity to give the students instruction on a possibly important field of magic that I won't waste," the headmare answered. "Plus, I don't like being attacked, and this one is not going to get off without learning how foolhardy the attempt was and making sure this is the worst experience they ever have so they know never to attempt such a thing again. We can call the guards afterward."

The vice headmare gave the headmare's prisoner a worried look. "This will not only be a defeat for her but pure humiliation. She's known for being vengeful. Aren't you afraid of the repercussions of what you are doing right now?"

Sunset Blessing paused and looked up and behind her at her bound prisoner. "Well, then our dear Queen Chrysalis would learn what I'm like when I decide not to be nice. There is a body count of those who have attempted to assault me, my household, and my family. I do not take lightly those who attempt it. She is only breathing right now because I am making a committed attempt to be a kinder and gentler person and came to Equestria to escape the cycle of violence. Still, I can easily slip back into old habits if violence decides to follow me to Equestria and not give me the peace I desire."

The changeling queen's eyes briefly widened in fear at this declaration, very much at odds with the normal policies of Equestria. They then just as quickly narrowed into a hateful glare. Decorum would never speak up in favor of it, but she privately found no fault with the headmare ending this once and for all. How long had this insect been a menace to Equestria and how many times had she gotten away or been captured only to escape shortly thereafter? How many pony lives would have been saved if Princess Celestia had executed the changeling queen after the first encounter? Reform was all well and good, but this beast had clearly shown herself beyond reform. A thousand years of war with her proved as much. It would be better to put a permanent end to it all– not on school grounds, of course; that would be abhorrent! The parents would pull their offspring from classes immediately if such violence was committed on school grounds. It was already going to be a nightmare calming them with Sunset Blessing doing this display. The only solace being that it demonstrated without question that a mage of the highest caliber of skill and power was running the school, one who could protect the students from any danger and instruct them on how to be great mages; that was probably the best way to market this fiasco.

Headmare Blessing opened the doors to the auditorium using her magic while not seemingly loosening her grip on the changeling queen. She then paused and gestured to the students in the hall to enter. "Shake your tails and put some pep in your step! I do not approve of students being tardy for lessons. This is a prestigious school, and you need to take your education seriously, which includes being prompt in getting to your lessons. Come on in, I'm not here to be your doormare."

The students, probably not wishing to displease the pony who was currently treating one of Equestria's most long-standing villains as a piece of luggage, suddenly began to move with a great deal of haste through the auditorium doors. Despite the entrance consisting of large double doors that opened wide enough that they could easily admit a carriage or a reasonably sized dragon, all the students veered off to the right side of the doirs as the entered, practically dragging there fur against the corresponding door as they went. Sunset Blessing was standing to the left, and so was her bundle.

"You as well, Miss Decorum. Set a good example for the students,," Sunset Blessing instructed.

Miss Decorum hurried by, not scraping her own fur against the doorframe as had the most of the students, but still giving polite distance between herself and the headmare

The auditorium was the largest singular room in the school, and was actually three stories in height. It was a moderately-sized indoor amphitheater with seating for upwards of four hundred even though the student body rarely got past the low two hundred in number and currently consisted of one hundred ninety-one unicorn students and two kirin who wished to rise above their station. Besides herself and the headmare, there were thirty-two staff members, twenty of whom were instructors, three of whom were research associates, and the remainder were ponies who dealt with the various menial tasks that a well-maintained society needed to have performed that proper mages should not sully themselves by doing.

The students and staff were spread out among the seating. She was briefly tempted to join them, but she was the vice headmare, and her proper place was at the headmare's side on the stage– which would place her next to the enraged changeling queen. Perhaps it was time to reconsider her job. It had been an insult when she had been bypassed when a new headmare was needed, a greater insult when it was an Earthling appointed to fill that vacancy, and now it was a hazard since the new headmare was clearly insane.

She gasped and stiffened as she heard the doors abruptly shut behind her. Blessing trotted past her, Chrysalis in tow, and nearly clipping Decorum with the captured queen. Decorum shuddered at having almost touched that thing,and followed Blessing to the stage.

"Quiet down, students," Sunset Blessing instructed as she took center stage. The students had barely been making any noise, just hushed whispers, so the request seemed unneeded. "Today, I will instruct you on how to read thaumic disturbances. This involves a spell, although analyzing what you are seeing is a matter of skill. Can any of you tell me an application for this regarding our guest here?"

"It can detect changelings?" one of the older stallion students replied.

Sunset Blessing raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you asking me a question or giving me your answer?"

The stallion looked at his closest classmates, but they suddenly made an effort to migrate an extra ponylength away from him, leaving him even more on display.

He gulped as he responded. "Um…giving my answer, Headmare Blessing."

The headmare smiled at him. "You're correct. You should show more confidence when answering what should be a simple question. However, please raise your hoof and wait to be called upon before blurting out an answer in the future. Reading thaumic disturbances can indeed be used to detect changelings."

She turned and grinned up at the changeling queen, who continued to glare murder at her captor "Now, when I'm in human form I have a passive version of the spell going continually. That's my human magic. Our guest must not have been informed of that, because she tried to approach me while I was in human form in the guise of Professor Worn Page."

The headmare paused and looked around. "Who it appears is currently absent. I guess our guest has him bound up somewhere. I need to remember to alert the guard of that so they can find him. Anyway, any student who is due to attend one of his classes for the next week may use that time as they wish, although I recommend using it to study. I'm sure it won't take long to track him down, but he will need a few days to recover."

If this monster hadn't killed him. Decorum shivered as she considered it could have been her that the changeling queen captured and tried to impersonate to get close to the headmare. Worn Page had actually been discussing putting in his immediate retirement after witnessing the headmare's reforms. That might be why he was chosen. He could vanish suddenly, and there be a perfectly reasonable explanation for it.

The headmare turned her attention back to her prisoner. "You wouldn't happen to be willing to save the guard some time and tell us where he is and in what condition, would you? It is rather pointless to keep that information secret now that your plan has unraveled."

The magical gag left the changeling's mouth and Chrysalis immediately went on a tirade. "I would never tell you anything you lowlife, showboating piece of-"

The gag reformed, and the headmare shrugged in disappointment. "Pity. You are forcing the guard to do it the hard way. That is so petty, but expected. You know, I actually find Bursa the much more intimidating of the changeling queens, and I'm not saying that to merely mock you. You see, Bursa is not an entirely rational being, and she's a complete idiot. That gives her an advantage over you."

Chrysalis's eyes bulged in outrage at the insult. She struggled against her bonds, but Sunset Blessing held her too tightly.

"You see, you're predictable," Sunset Blessing continued with a sad shake of her head. "As a rational being with clear goals, it becomes easy to predict what you will attempt. You aren't going to do anything that puts you in a situation you can't get out of, and you're intelligent enough to identify obviously bad ideas like trying to storm the school and take me by force. You know how badly that would go for you. Your current predicament is a result of a lack of information, not a lack of care and consideration. This was your most rational avenue to achieve your goal, and as someone who was expecting you to make a move quickly, it was easy enough to anticipate the dozen or so most likely plans you would try. Bursa doesn't do things rationally, nor considers how badly things can go for her, so that makes her much more dangerous. I can't predict her. There are limits to intelligence but none to idiocy. Students, take note of that; it is an important lesson."

Sunset Blessing turned and looked at the students, beaming a big smile to them. She then drew out several runes in the air and arranged them into a spell matrix. "Here is the appropriate spell. If you had the foresight to bring parchment and something to write with, please copy it down. I will leave this up. I want everyone to focus on trying to cast this spell. If you manage to cast it, check with your neighbors and see how they are doing. If you see them struggling, please assist them in figuring out what they are doing wrong. Once you all have it down, we will begin discussing how to make sense of what it shows you."

As the students began doing as instructed, Decorum got close to the headmare to whisper.

"Your pardon, Headmare Blessing, but did you say you anticipated an attack from this monster?" Decorum asked in disbelief

Blessing nodded. "I can't take full credit for that. The princesses alerted me to the danger the day after I took this job. They presumed, and I concurred, that our guest would try to make an attempt early, before my behavioral patterns were well known. She might have to masquerade as me for some time as she tried to coerce me into giving her the information she desired, and replacing me before you learned all my behaviors would make it that much less likely anyone would notice anything was off. It was also when she would have expected me to be at my most vulnerable since I wouldn't be able to pick up on oddities in others' behaviors for much the same reason. So I maintained using my human form far longer than I originally planned. This would give me extra ability to detect her and make me appear that much more a helpless victim waiting to happen. I doubted she was aware of my human abilities."

Decorum blinked. "That sounds like an excellent plan on her part, and it was masterful on your part to anticipate it. I still don't understand why you or the princesses anticipated she would try to make such an attempt to begin with."

Blessing nodded. "It isn't public knowledge, but I had a part in the creation of Bursa. Chrysalis might think Bursa is a waste of space, but she still represents a manufactured changeling. Tell me, what does our queen here lack?"

Decorum considered for only a moment before the obvious answer presented itself. "Subjects, headmare."

"Very good," Blessing complimented her. "In ancient times, she and her original drone were made by a mixture of insects, wood, essence of pony, and remnants of Grogar's wild magic. From then on she could breed, despite losing the key ingredient to make a changeling. Having lost all her drones she no longer has breeding as an option, and Celestia long ago tracked down and stamped out the last traces of Grogar's remaining corruption. Our guest is left with no prospects on getting new changeling subjects. It might not be well known, but it is known to Bursa that I finalized the design of the spell that made her. Chrysalis at some point learned from Bursa about her origin, since that is the one thing about Bursa Chrysalis cares about. When news broke about my appointment here, Chrysalis would have immediately started planning how to capture me and force me to make her a drone to breed with, and she would strike early."

The headmare was not the fool Decorum had first thought. This was a manipulator who could play with any of the noble houses. Decorum's respect for her new headmare went up just a smidge at hearing all this.

"Excellently planned, headmare…but why were you human on the first day?"

Blessing grinned. "To see who it bothered the most among the staff. I'm conducting what may be unpopular reforms with the blessing of Celestia. I need to know who is going to be trouble and who I can work with. With that said, tell me, are you my ally or do I need to accept your resignation? I prefer you stay, but not if you're going to be a thorn in my hoof."

Decorum looked at the bound changeling again. The headmare was a very formidable pony. She was obviously very skilled and very powerful when it came to magic, and her ability to strategize was also commendable. If this really was with Celestia's blessing, who was she to question it?

"May I be allowed to have a private audience with the princess for her to confirm your reforms are at her behest, and her tell me directly her reasons for allowing or endorsing such massive departures from tradition? I heard her speech back at the Crystal Empire, but this is all beyond what I could have anticipated back then. I wish to hear these things from her before making a final decision."

The headmare nodded. "That is fair. I shall see if she will allow a private meeting." Blessing turned her attention back to the students. "Alright, how many of you are still struggling? Anyone?"

There were a few, but not many, four. Blessing proceeded to ask them to try again with her watching. She then gave individual instruction to each student about where it was going wrong and what needed to be corrected. Decorum silently watched her do this and couldn't help smiling as the headmare praised each one when they finally achieved the spell. That family member of hers at the Galla had presented Blessing as a cruel and uncaring instructor, but none of that seemed in evidence. Perhaps there were many misconceptions about Blessing she needed to reevaluate. This headmare might turn out to be a good thing.