A Song Of Silk And Steel

Chapters

Orchid
Mulberry
Bruise
Violet
Byzantium
Mauveine
Palatinate
Amethyst
Thistle
Tanzanite
Heliotrope
Phlox
Pomp and Power
Wisteria
Grape
Purpureus

Orchid

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria...

There was an alicorn princess. A shimmering beacon of light, the embodiment of the sun itself, and possessed of ageless beauty. She vanquished the enemies of the newly unified nation of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, and fashioned herself regalia of sunlight to sit upon a vacant throne. So great was her reign, and so brilliant her glory, that her nation was blessed with a thousand years of peace.

Until it started to break.

A beast of shadow, fear, and rage descended from the moon, seeking to shroud the land in eternal night. Monster and mare dueled for a seven-day-long eclipse, and eventually the invader was slain, blood like tar soaking into earth and tainting it beyond what any known magic has been able to heal. With the nightmare's last gasp, it cursed the princess and her precious sunlight forevermore.

The princess withdrew into her castle in the days that followed. Many feared that she was stricken with a great illness, some remnant of the nightmare's power, but when she finally stepped out to address her ponies, she revealed the heart-wrenching truth: That the monster from the moon had been her sister, and she had just killed her own flesh and blood on the field of battle.

She wept for the loss, but there was no true time to mourn.

An old enemy of Equestria broke his bonds, chaos made flesh. He was a creature who could bend, twist, split apart and juggle his own body parts as if he were made of clay, and he warped and shaped the world around him into a similar image. He drove cities to their knees and shattered minds until there was nothing left that could cry out for help.

And so the princess fought for her ponies once again.

She could not hope to fight a chaos spirit head on, and so she lured him into a trap. He was tricked and dragged into Tartarus, where it's said that his screams of fury can still be heard from within if anyone wanders too close to the gates.

Again, the ponies celebrated victory, but again, the princess was solemn. This time, she would only admit in private among confidants that she had, previously, hoped that there may be a chance in him for redemption.

Then came the third, final disaster.

Two unicorns made their way through the forest, dappled by the noonday sun.

The elder didn't look to be many gallops beyond the line between filly and mare. Her coat may have, at any other time, been the pearlescent white associated with the nobility of Canterlot, were it not subject to so much sweat and mud. Whites, light greys, and pastel tones of yellow, pink, purple, and blue were most common in the shining jewel of Equestria, and those who looked at the noble unicorns with scorn tended to snicker and claim that they'd all bleached themselves from being on a mountain so close to the sun, along with having cooked the sense out of their brains.

The mare's mane and tail were a rich royal purple, and pre-invasion, it would have been considered an "in" colour. The hair was long, too long to be remotely practical, and there was some suggestion that it had once held curls before starting to submit to the force of gravity. The ends were ratted and uneven in the way that implied that it had been caught on branches--or perhaps grabbed in between opportunistic teeth--and the strands had broken to allow for escape.

Hooves were chipped, though she had the dubious luck that the state of them couldn't be seen through the caking of mud. False eyelashes had mostly been lost, and mascara smeared beyond all hope of recovery. There were no saddlebags, or any other garments save for the jewelry around her neck. The golden necklace was simple, and the single purple stone within matched the diamonds that decorated her flank in everything but colour, her mark instead matching the brilliant blue of her eyes.

The mare moved as if every hoofstep were an effort, which, with the clinging mud, it was. Yet she never faltered or flinched, constantly placing one hoof in front of the other. The filly didn't need to walk at all.

The younger of the unicorns laid on the elder's back, all four legs dangling. Her coat was equally pearly white, her mane and tail streaked with pink and a softer shade of purple than the mare's. The hair was less long, and retained some natural curl at the tips, lacking the damage that the elder had suffered. She was overall less battered than her elder, but she looked thin, the slow breaths of the half-asleep filly showing too-distinct ribs.

The elder unicorn was trying not to jostle her passenger, but fighting against the muck left her gait uneven. There had been rain recently, and the air still smelled of it. The air still smelled of smoke, too, from the fires that the rain had put out.

"Rarity...?" came the tiny, sleepy voice.

The elder unicorn paused, ears turning back to better hear the younger. "Yes, Sweetie?"

"Are we there yet?"

"I..." She looked around, staring at trees that had long ago blended together into a sea of brown and green. "I don't know. It's hard to find somepony when they don't want to be found. We may be searching for a while."

There was a span of silence, long enough for the filly to have fallen back to sleep, but then the small voice came again. "Rarity, I'm hungry..."

The mare closed her eyes, taking a shuddering breath that seemed to rattle her entire body. "I am too, dear. I am too..."

"This day has been just perfect..."

Smoke rose from the town, twisting as if in a dance as it rose toward the dawn-red sky. Homes and businesses lay as charred husks on either side of soot-tracked dirt roads, and in the distance, what had once been a grand oak tree was still ablaze, the flames licking toward the rising sun.

The mare walking through the town was not a pony, nor would she ever be mistaken for one in her current form. Her body was coated in jet black chitin, polished to a shine that could bring to mind an oil slick, and everything about her looked severe, from the spiky frill that ran down the back of her neck, to the sharp edges of the holes bored through each leg, to the hooked fangs that were on gleeful display a she sang a serenade to the destruction.

The other creatures that soared through the skies of the former town looked identical to the singing mare. Beasts with compound eyes and insectoid wings, their forms ragged and almost seeming moth-eaten, hissing, growling, and buzzing to one another as they rounded up every cowering or fleeing townspony they could find. Even calling the singing creature a mare would be a judgement made on voice alone, the body types of the invaders nigh-indentical.

"The kind of which we've always dreamed since we were small..."

However, while the invaders looked alike in many ways, there was something different about the singing mare. Despite her kind already being shelled, she had on armour, covering her chest and barrel alongside a helmet on her head. It looked like it had been ripped from some greater-sized creature and crudely shaped to fit her body, and right below her throat, a symbol had been etched, of a stylized heart shape broken in two.

The armour was built to allow room for her wings, but she walked instead. Or, it would have been more accurate to say that she pranced, like an excited foal on her way for a taste of her favourite treat. Pranced through the dusty streets as she relished the sight all around her.

"Everypony we'll soon control, every--"

"General?"

The armoured mare froze, and turned. The creature who'd spoken was slightly different in colouration, his frill and his ratted tail a deep red, and he only twitched slightly when teal met purple and he was fixed with the full force of her glare. "What have I told you about interrupting my singing, Lieutenant?"

"Something about turning me from a bass into a tenor?" The gravelly-voiced creature's tone was dull, as if he were threatened on a regular basis and couldn't quite muster a reaction. "General, we've got everyone rounded up that we can find."

The armoured mare huffed at the flippancy, but for the moment, let it slide. "Delightful. I'm famished, and some ponies grieving their beloved lost homes will hit the spot."

"It's more than just ponies," the Lieutenant continued. "This was a farming town. There were cows, sheep, pigs, goats... an old donkey, too."

"Hmmm... not as delectable as ponies, but I suppose the workers back at Canterlot will need to eat something." She flashed a fanged grin. "Go take your soldiers and enjoy the spoils, Lieutenant Pharynx."

"At once, General."

"And don't interrupt my singing again."

"Yes, General."

He flew off, and the mare looked out at the shadow of the mountaintop city in the distance. Smoke and flame continued its dance, and soon her voice was rising up into the air to meet it again.

"Everypony we'll soon control, every stallion, mare, and foal... As we watch the greatest pony kingdom fall..."

In one of the darkest parts of the forest was a village.

Small homes had been made from wood and grasses, a stream cutting through the centre of the cluster with a single earthen bridge for crossing. The trees around were so tight together, and their canopies so thick, that barely any light shone through, and willows and vines near the edges further veiled it from the prying eyes of other creatures.

There were barely more than a dozen ponies hiding here, adults and foals alike. Refugees who'd fled at the first sign of buzzing wings, risking a forest filled with the likes of poison joke and cragadiles because what was on the horizon was worse. Some chopped wood, others gathered water from the stream to treat it until it was drinkable, and a few were trying to coax vegetables from the damp soil.

A single zebra watched it all, with a bittersweet smile.

She would have been the first zebra any of the ponies had ever seen, and for those unfamiliar, she would have seemed incredibly similar to a pony herself, even possibly be mistaken for one. The stripes of black and white covered her from head to hoof, save for where they twisted into the stylized sun of her cutie mark on her hips, and her monochrome colour scheme was cut through by her choice of attire.

She'd always worn the earrings and neck rings that gleamed gold, but the green blanket and its matching saddlebags were new, as was the green-and-gold mask that adorned her face. More green could be seen on her charges, the ponies painted with the contents of a protective potion. The patterns varied, but more and more had started applying it in the shape of stripes like her own.

Quite the turnaround, when the townponies used to flee from her, repeating evil enchantress in frightened whispers.

It was just a shame that it had taken such destruction to find acceptance at last.

"Zecora?"

Her ear flicked at the tentative voice, and she turned to look at the yellow pegasus staring at her with worried eyes. She was one of the ones who had layered on the protection the most, creating a facsimile of the mask around her eyes and nearly covering her wings entirely. "Do speak, my pony friend. Is somepony hurt, that I may help them mend?"

"Um. I'm...I-I'm not sure, but..." The pegasus took in a steadying breath. "The animals saw two ponies headed our way. A mare and a little filly. They didn't say that anypony looked hurt..."

"But there is always a chance of injury..." the zebra said quietly, starting to head toward the largest of the makeshift homes. "Or worse, a chance that they are our enemy."

The pegasus trembled as she followed. "You... you don't think they're scouts for the swarm, do you?"

"I know how we may find out. Unless my methods, you have begun to doubt?"

"N-no! Of course not. Everypony owes you so much--"

"Then calm yourself, dear Fluttershy." She carefully drew out a single bottle from the cluster laying nearby, and once she'd tucked it into a saddlebag, she smiled. "And say 'see you later,' not goodbye."

The earth pony was surrounded by unconscious soldiers, her blue and pink mane in disarray as she stood protectively in front of the green unicorn she was guarding. A set of sunglasses lay nearby, shattered, and the mare's chest heaved with heavy breaths as sweat dripped from her coat.

One creature raised its head and hissed. A swift kick of the unicorn's hoof knocked it back out.

The unicorn nudged the earth pony slightly, then allowed her to lean on her. "Where to?"

The earth pony fought for enough breath to speak. "The Everfree... we can lose them in the--"

"Well well well..."

Both froze and turned, seeing the armoured general strolling toward them. The earth pony pushed off of the unicorn, falling into a battle stance. "Stay back!"

The general merely giggled, each approaching hoofstep stirring up ash and dust. "I thought I smelled some syrupy-sweet young love. Are you engaged? Newlyweds?"

The unicorn's horn lit, charging an unknown spell. "You won't--"

The heneral's sharp horn lit in turn, and the unicorn screamed as the bubbling, green magic struck her. The spell she'd been charging fizzled, and the knees of all four legs buckled as she was sent crashing into the dirt.

"Lyra!" The earth pony pawed at the ground, lowering her head. "You'll regret that."

"Will I? Will I really?" It wasn't merely a giggle this time, but laughter. "Oh, I do so adore love that flares hot when their loved one is hurt. Adds just a bit of spice."

"I'll show you spice!"

The earth pony didn't even reach the armour with her charge, as the general seized her in her telekinesis and yanked her up into the air. "That's the amusing thing about you earth ponies. You're forces of nature... so long as your hooves are touching the ground." She drew the mare closer lazily, as if reeling in a fishing line. "Now, this will only hurt for a moment..."

The jaw practically unhinged as it opened, and green light flowed from the pony in her grasp. The energy writhed, as if it were in as much pain as the mare it was being wrenched from, trying to escape its fate as it flowed into the waiting maw. It appeared to be more inhaled than devoured, the general never pausing until the final drop had been drained. Then she dropped the gasping earth pony, her colours left dulled and her legs scrabbling feebly in an attempt to stand as the general stepped over her.

"Don't worry, you two lovebirds," she practically purred as she advanced on the unicorn. "When you're dragged back to Canterlot, we'll make sure that you're kept together, so that your love is more easy to harvest." She wrenched the green mare's head up, whose eyes were still glassy with pain. "And while you're there, remember that it was General Vixen who put you there."

Progress through the forest was slowing.

It was no longer mud alone slowing down the mare. Fatigue weighed her down more with every step, sinking past fur and skin to infuse muscle and bone with the heaviness of somepony who had been going on for far too long. Legs wobbled, threatened to give out, and each time she pushed herself to stay standing and take one more step. The filly on her back had fallen asleep, but it wasn't a restful one, as she occasionally whimpered and kicked out with tiny hooves.

Then the plants ahead rustled, and Rarity stopped.

There were many things living in this forest that could have made such a sound. A few of them were species that would flee at the sight of a pony, because they were close enough to the size to creatures that preyed on them and none cared to stop and find out that ponies were herbivorous. Several were territorial, and would see something pony-sized as a threat to that territory, charging first and asking questions never. Some were large enough and not picky enough that they would see a pony as a bite-sized snack, though most of those found out the first time that ponies tended to be a bit too magically spicy to be worth eating.

Then, of course, there was the swarm.

Rarity closed her tired eyes and took a breath.

If it is the swarm, then I'll provide the spellfire for Sweetie to run.

Then...

Go down fighting.

She mustered the strength to light her horn, casting an eerie glow over the trees around her.

Nils...

My friend...

I'm sorry to disappoint you by meeting such an inglorious end...

The rustling grew louder, and what stepped into the light was a zebra, a mask across her eyes and saddlebags heavy. Her eyes gleamed golden with power as she took on a balanced battle stance. "Stranger, if a fight is what you want, you will find that, in these woods, I am the magical savant."

The light slowly faded, and with it came a deep exhale. "You can't blame me for being prepared, can you? You never know what you'll find in these woods." She took a single step forward. "But my sister and I--

The masked mare's hoof came up in a signal to halt, and Rarity froze. "Pony you may look like, but in times such as this, you can understand why I do not trust, on just that basis."

There was silence, and then Rarity took a step back again. "Yes. I suppose you're right to suspect us."

The zebra glanced at Sweetie's sleeping form, and then back to Rarity. "So should you, and now you have me curious. What has you so confident that, with me, there is nothing amiss?"

Rarity lifted a hoof, and nudged the jewel around her neck. "This... artefact, detects malevolent creatures. If you meant us harm, you're close enough that it would be glowing right now."

"I see..." The zebra's eyes narrowed. "Believe that, I wish that I could, but I have my own ways of detecting falsehood."

"Of course." Rarity nodded. "I'll submit to whatever test you wish. My sister and I have been on our own a long while, and I shan't shy away from a chance to get a roof over her head and food in her belly."

The striped head nodded. "Then test, is what we will. And if you are truly a friend, she will have food to eat her fill."

It'd been meant to be a joyous day.

The princess's adoptive niece would be marrying the captain of the Royal Guard, in a wedding the likes of which nopony would have ever seen. Security was high, but so were spirits, creatures from all corners of Equestria coming to Canterlot to celebrate the occasion, an array of VIPs the likes of which was normally only seen at the Grand Equestrian Pony Summit.

Nopony knows exactly what happened, only that the protective barrier surrounding the city shattered, and the nation was beheaded in an instant. The nobility was removed in one fell swoop, and the princess...

There's been no sign of the princess since. Not a single sight, not even as a prisoner for the enemy to parade around. But the sun continues to rise, and set, followed by the moon, and that gives the ponies hope that she is yet alive. Or, for those who have already given up, some say that the enemy queen may be alicorn-like enough that she seized control of the heavens.

No one had known what the creatures were, who darkened the sky with their wings, a countless swarm descending upon Canterlot. A swarm that turned their attention to city after city, town after town, swallowing up each like ravenous locusts. But in time, old stories surfaced, whispered between terrified ponies huddling in the dark, hoping that they would not be found.

Changelings.

The sun rises, then the sun sets.

The moon rises, then the moon sets.

The cycle continues, day after day, and but even with each sunrise following the last, hope is fading. Survivors retreat further and further into the wild spaces, trying to live one more day while hunters pursue them, and there seems to be no end to the advancing swarm.

The sun and moon chase each other through the sky, unable to care about the suffering below.

The world may go on, but Equestria, as it was known, is gone.

Mulberry

The new mare looked uncomfortable with the salve on, and Zecora couldn't blame her. For somepony who'd already been caked in grime, it was just one more layer of gunk in her coat. Even the ponies who'd grown accustomed to putting it on each day would admit that it sometimes itched and that moving the wrong way could have it pulling individual strands against the grain. Zecora, sadly, could do little about that, as the stickiness was part of the point; she'd been working on the best way to weaponize it, so that if the worst came to pass they could hurl it at descending changelings and disable their shapechanging for however long it took for them to clean themselves off.

The little filly was awake now, and was taking being covered in the goop with a bit more grace, in the sense that she was more curious about Zecora herself than anything. While clearly in need of rest and food, she'd mustered enough energy to start asking all sorts of questions. She'd asked what kind of pony Zecora was--the gentle correction that she wasn't a pony had been taken in stride--about how her magic worked, about whether her stripes were natural or something she dyed into her fur, what part of the world zebras came from, why she spoke in rhyme, what her mark meant...

"If you will permit, I have a question of my own," Zecora said softly during a moment when Sweetie Belle seemed to have run out of queries, at least for the moment. "About the two ponies who have found themselves in my forest home."

Rarity tensed slightly, and it was hard to tell if it was at the words or the wet squelch of mud as her hoof took its latest step. "Of course. I daresy it's only fair, after the recent interrogation you've weathered."

Sweetie's ears flattened in embarrassment, and she murmured a small, "Sorry, Miss Zecora..."

"It is all right, young filly." Zecora gave a gentle nod. "To want to learn is never silly." She paused, choosing her words carefully for more than their potential rhyming scheme. "It is a case of voices, something I did catch." She glanced from the elder unicorn to younger. "I wondered how it is that sisters have accents that do not match."

Rarity stared at her. "Ah. Yes, I suppose I do sound... odd, compared to Sweetie." She seemed to be choosing her own words carefully as well. "I've travelled a great deal in my adult life, and I tend to absorb speech patterns, including accents. Recently, I was in Applewood, and you can imagine what that does to a linguistic sponge."

Zecora considered that, then nodded. "I am the opposite, in that I find my accent hard to lose," she admitted, "Yet we are the same in that, how we sound, we do not fully choose."

Rarity smiled, and Zecora basked in the feeling of common ground. At least until she glanced at Sweetie Belle again, and felt sombre feelings reasserting themselves. There was another question she could ask, and almost did, but she already felt she knew the answer, and to give it voice would just tear open a wound that she doubted had even fully closed yet.

After all, why else would two sisters be travelling, one of them so young, without their parents?

And so, with the proper respect and compassion paid to the grieving, she simply kept leading the newest members of their herd home.

"You're back!"

Zecora had barely pulled back the curtain of foliage to reveal the village behind before the call rang out, and Rarity saw everypony in sight stop in the middle of what they were doing and look over. She suddenly felt very scrutinized, like a butterfly under glass, as a few of the ponies crept closer to stare and whispered amongst themselves at the sight of her. Being under so many eyes when she felt so filthy made her want to launch herself into the nearby stream until she was presentable again, and she had to fight to squash the urge.

There were mostly earth ponies here, she noted distantly. There were a couple of pegasi, including the yellow and pink mare--she was wearing so much of this green, and Rarity felt like she pulled it off so much better--who had called out in the first place and was making her way over. She thought she spotted one other unicorn, as well, but she didn't get a good look, because that pony decided to scurry into their home and hide rather than approach the newcomers.

An understandable reaction, really. Ponies reacted to the new and unusual with fear at the best of times, and right now was a time far from the best.

"Is anypony hurt?" the pegasus asked as she closed the distance. "Or sick, or..." She was suddenly right beside Rarity with a brief flap of large wings. "Oh you poor little dear. When's the last time you ate?"

Sweetie Belle ducked her head, trying to hide behind Rarity's mane in a fit of classic filly shyness. "I um..." Her belly then took it upon itself to answer, letting out a growl announcing its emptiness to the world. "...A while."

She then squeaked in surprise as the pegasus suddenly scooped her up in her forelegs, wings flapping as she hovered in an upright pose. "Oh, we simply must get you something to--"

Rarity's horn lit in a fit of instinct, and the sudden magic light around Sweetie Belle made the pegasus give a frightened whinny and jerk backward. Sweetie herself may as well have been a ragdoll cat for how quickly she relaxed into the hold, and Rarity gently drew her back to where she'd been laying, taking time to arrange the young filly on her back with care before she looked over and saw the pegasus hiding behind Zecora.

Another understandable reaction, when the swarm's magic took the form of similar light, and she would have apologised, were she not so rattled by the momentary separation. "She would appreciate a good meal, I'm certain," Rarity said, trying to steady her voice, "But I would also appreciate a lack of marehandling of my little sister, if you please."

The pegasus mare had her already-wide eyes widen further. "Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't think, I just--"

"It's... it's okay," Sweetie spoke up, softly. "I really would like some food, i-if that's okay with you."

"Yes, it's water under the bridge," Rarity assured with a smile. "I'm just a little... protective, as you can no doubt understand."

"Oh yes, I understand entirely. I just... get carried away sometimes, when someone needs help." She stepped out from behind Zecora, pointing herself toward one of the larger buildings and starting to trot, her wings kept folded at her sides. "Let's get you both some dinner, and then we can find a place for you to sleep tonight."

Rarity sent one more glance toward Zecora, who nodded, and smiled again as she fell into step behind the pegasus. "That would be lovely. We've been sleeping on the ground, out in the open, and it's been just terrible..."

"Oh I can imagine. I don't know what everypony would do if Zecora hadn't helped us set up shelter here. Now just follow me this way..."

Despite the misstep earlier, the new ponies had been gracious. They'd introduced themselves as food had been gathered, and conversation was light. Fluttershy still wasn't very good with other ponies, but she'd been trying to be there for any new souls who found their way here. When the future was so uncertain, everypony needed to be there for each other more than ever.

Being a unicorn, Rarity didn't have wings to shelter a foal under, but Fluttershy could tell just from how the two laid next to each other that, if she did, Sweetie Belle would be tucked safely under a blanket of white feathers. When she'd finally been placed on the ground--Fluttershy still flinched at the sight of a lit horn, but she was trying to remind herself that unicorn magic wasn't changeling magic, and that the glow wasn't going to suddenly morph into flame--Sweetie's legs had wobbled, and she'd lowered herself cautiously to the ground in order to eat.

Both unicorns were laying on their bellies, legs tucked beneath them, and their approaches to the offered grasses, vegetables, and berries were very different. Sweetie practically inhaled it, and even when she came across food that her expression said clearly that she didn't like, the hunger demanded she gobble it down anyway. Rarity, meanwhile, was barely picking at hers, nibbling here and there with a politeness that nopony had seen in a while.

"Is there anything wrong with the food, Rarity?" she asked gently, and the slow eating further slowed to a stop.

Rarity glanced at the food, then back at Fluttershy, and offered a small, apologetic smile. "Not at all, darling," she responded, "I just... It's so easy to taste something and find yourself nostalgic for a favourite treat..." She sighed. "And then the reminder that you may never taste it again..." At the words, Sweetie Belle moved that bit closer, leaning against Rarity, who gave a sad smile. "And here I go, being melancholic when we've finally found a safe haven. I'm sorry."

There seemed to be more to it than that. The bittersweetness to Rarity's expression and voice also seemed weighed down by guilt.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Fluttershy smiled gently. "I'm told that I make a very good listener."

"Thank you, but..." Rarity leaned her head down, gathered up a few sweet berries, and chewed, not speaking again until she'd swallowed. "I'm doing my best not to dwell on the past. It does nopony any good."

Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak again, but the comforting words on her tongue faded with the excited whoop that came from nearby. They'd been eating out of doors, to let everypony see the new arrivals, but nopony had tried to fully close the distance to speak to them yet. However, as she saw the familiar purple-pink mare headed their way with a gaggle of foals behind her, Fluttershy knew that that was going to change.

Rarity tensed as Cheerilee approached, and the way her eyes focused on the mare reminded Fluttershy a bit of a cat's. Tracking her movement, and preparing to spring to her hooves if she got too close. And just like she would with an uneasy animal, Fluttershy got to her hooves to intercept. Opening her wings to provide a bit more of a protective barrier, she stepped in between the once-schoolteacher and the new unicorns, offering a kind smile. "Cheerilee, it's good to see you. Did you need anything for the foals?"

"No no..." Cheerilee leaned to one side, looking past Fluttershy to look at Sweetie Belle. "I'd just heard that a new foal had arrived and thought I should introduce myself."

Rarity was getting to her own hooves, but before any of the adults could say anything more, a blur of orange and purple shot beneath one of Fluttershy's wings and practically pounced on the tiny unicorn, who squeaked as her horn let off a few startled green sparks. "Hi! Name's Scootaloo. What's yours?"

"I-I'm Sweetie Belle..."

"Nice t' meet you, Sweetie Belle," piped up another voice as less-blurred yellow and red ducked beneath Fluttershy's wing as well. "I'm Apple Bloom. You wanna play with us when you're done eatin'?"

"I..."

Sweetie Belle looked up at Rarity, who was silent for a few moments. She looked to the foals, to Cheerilee, then back to the foals, and finally, slowly said, "You may, just... don't push yourself too much, dear. This is your first big meal in a while, and you'll no doubt get tired soon."

Sweetie's smile turned to a broad grin. "I'll be careful! Promise." She then went back to wolfing down her food with even more gusto.

Rarity, meanwhile, took a few steps forward, the tension in her body seeming to have eased some. "And you would be?"

"I'm Cheerilee. I'm--" The friendly smile she'd been wearing faltered, and she looked down at some of the foals still gathered by her hooves. "I mean, I was one of Ponyville's teachers. My students and I evacuated during the attack, and since then I've been... something of an unofficial caretaker for the foals here."

Rarity looked pained, and without thinking about it, Fluttershy laid one of her wings along her back. She startled a bit at the contact, but then offered a sad smile to both mares. "It's lovely to meet you, Cheerilee. I'm Rarity... and I... I think it would be good for my sister to be around foals her own age again."

Cheerilee nodded in understanding, and Fluttershy felt a bit more tension leave Rarity. Whatever the two had been through, it had left its mark, but it looked like they would fit in here just fine once they remembered how to trust again.

Then a bird swooped down to land in Fluttershy's mane, twittering with urgency, and she had to turn away to let the other mares continue their conversation.

It looked like new ponies weren't going to be the only interesting thing today.

"I-It's okay, Rarity, he's my friend."

These ponies were insane.

The ponies of the village were entirely too calm right now, as they peered from all corners, watching as Fluttershy casually painted her friend in Zecora's concoction. Green stripes were zig-zagged through golden fur on a body many times the pegasus' size, the occasional blotch ending up in the red-brown mane by mistake. A few patterns were splashed across bat-like wings as well, but the long, stinger-tipped tail was left untouched, sedately curled at his hip as he allowed himself to be covered.

A manticore. Fluttershy had flinched away from Rarity when she was friends with a manticore.

Manticores were technically sapient. Technically. They had difficulty forming the right sounds to learn any language but their own, and it was a rare one who ventured out of the wild places to make such lessons necessary in the first place, because they were solitary creatures by nature. They didn't tend to spend time around anyone but immediate family, and so leaving the forest to live in a village, town, or city was out of the question for all but the most strange of outliers.

This one, apparently, when his name was translated into Equestrian, went by Manny Roar, and true to that tendency, wasn't part of the community proper. But he liked Fluttershy, so she'd been informed, and so he visited on occasion. And the ponies here were okay with that. Skittish by nature they may be, but Rarity supposed the old adage that one could come to consider anything normal with enough exposure held true.

Well, it wouldn't do to gawk like this. He was a guest of the village she'd just joined, and it was uncouth to stare.

"A... pleasure to meet you, Mr. Roar..." Rarity managed with a forced smile. "To what do we owe this visit?"

Manny made a sound that, were it scaled up in pitch and down in volume, could have been described as a meow, followed by several other sounds like it. Fluttershy's ears twitched as she listened, and she frowned. "He says that the last forest fire hit the deer village not far from here. There's a few injuries, and a lot of damage to their homes."

Speaking of creatures that rarely left wild spaces... Though, deer at least clustered into herds and tended to tame their surroundings somewhat, as much as they would take offense to it being described in such terms. "And they're looking for assistance?" Rarity guessed.

Fluttershy nodded. "They're aware that we're in here, but there hasn't been a lot of contact. I guess they knew Manny was a friend and asked him to pass along a call for help."

Deer asking for help from ponies. Rarity wondered if such a thing had ever happened before.

"Well then, it wouldn't do to keep them waiting any longer than necessary." She smiled, and gave a firm nod. "If you could point the way, Mr. Roar, so that we can go and extend a hoof post haste."

Fluttershy blinked. "You want to come?"

"But of course. You've welcomed in Sweetie and I so readily. It's only proper to pay it forward and lend what assistance I can to my new neighbours."

"That's very generous of you."

Rarity could hear the unspoken surprisingly in that sentence, and her smile simply brightened. "Generosity is something I aspire to, darling. If I don't, then in these trying times, who will?"

"If you are planning to meet with the deer," Zecora said as she strolled up, her saddlebags looking much heavier than they had before, "Then allow me to grant you the proper gear."

As Zecora started laying out objects of use, Rarity found it hard to focus, her gaze straying to Sweetie Belle. She was sitting near Cheerilee, and in conversation with three little fillies, the two who had introduced themselves before plus another earth pony with a curly red mane and thick glasses that looked like they'd seen better days.

This would be the first time they'd be apart since...

We found other ponies. She'll be safe now. Even if something does happen to me.

Rarity took a deep breath, and looked back to Zecora, trying to force herself to listen to the explanations she was being given, and as she did, she nudged the necklace around her neck. She'd talked a big game about generosity, but now it was time to walk the walk, and show everypony what she could do. She'd need to, if she was ever going to convince them to help her with her own plans.

She was on stage, the curtains were open, and she knew her role. Now it was show time.

The sun-emblazoned throne was bathed in the light of the crimson sky.

Queen Chrysalis laid stretched across what had once belonged to the precious Equestrian princess of the sun, and she looked out at what remained of Canterlot with a fanged smile. This throne room had seen better days, to put it mildly; scorch marks littered the floor, tapestries were torn, sculptures shattered, and several windows only had a few shards of broken stained glass left of whatever they had previously depicted. Such is what happened when a changeling queen and an alicorn did battle.

Her drones were out, leading ponies and other creatures from place to place and feeding whenever their whims suited them. She'd instructed them to keep families, friends, and other loved ones together when possible, to keep their love alive, though a few of the bolder escape attempts had mandated some separations. Such were the troubles with being emotivores. Love tinged with hope was delicious, but could also drive their food source to do inconvenient things.

A careful balance had to be struck to make the most of Equestria's bounty during their occupation. The well would inevitably run dry no matter what they did, but each time, they would refine their methods to make each conquest last for just a little longer. And it helped that Equestria was so incredibly saturated with love, thanks to its benevolent princess.

She would need to thank Celestia for creating such a prosperous land, when next she saw the alicorn face-to-face. Her anguished reaction would no doubt be delectable.

"Your Majesty?"

The familiar voice was a welcome one, and the gleeful cackles she'd been falling into smoothed into a fond smile as she saw the armoured mare standing in the doorway to the throne room. "General Vixen! Just who I was wanting to see today." She glanced at the few soldier drones on either side of the room, and gestured with a hole-filled foreleg. "You all go off and join the feast. The general and I have something important to discuss."

"Of course, my queen," the eldest of the drones said, before all of them opened their wings and eagerly buzzed from the room.

Vixen watched them go, then stepped fully into the room and closed to the heavy doors behind her. "It's like watching grubs descending on their first love source. Morale is higher than I've ever seen."

"Like our first victory, years ago." Chrysalis agreed, pulling off her crown briefly to roll it between her hooves. "The broken King Orion fleeing, the overflowing love of the star-pegasi grieving for their broken city-state... We were on top of the world."

Changelings usually weren't one for a lot of creature comforts--luxuries meant little when starvation was a constant gnawing threat--but this crown was different. She'd warped and blackened it with her own magic, making it the first trophy she'd taken of a successful harvest. The crown, and the title she'd donned afterward, had become a symbol that the changeling horde would survive, and triumph.

She shook her head a little, placing the crown back on it. She was getting sentimental in her immortality, it seemed. "But enough about that. As I said, I asked you here for something very important." She spread her wings, and buzzed her way to the centre of the room, where she landed with a grin. Then, with a flash of green flame, there were suddenly several bottles floating in the air.

Vixen reached out with her magic to take one, and a red liquid sloshed behind gold-tinted glass. The label was incredibly faded, but she could still make out some words in a language not spoken for centuries. "Wine?" she questioned.

Chrysalis grinned. "The sun princess's personal stash of wine, from her wine cellar." She bounced her on her hooves as her voice briefly turned sing-song. "The spell's pass-code was the name of her sis-ter." She giggled as she plucked her own bottle from the cluster, letting it twirl in the air. "Effective for keeping most creatures out, but I'm old enough to remember that morose little foal."

A smile bloomed across Vixen's face. "So that's what this 'urgent business' was about?" She laughed. "As if you needed a pretense to get me to drink wine and celebrate with you."

"Appearances are important," Chrysalis insisted, as another flash of flames brought them two ornate glasses. "I can't have them thinking I've went and gone soft, after all."

"Of course." Vixen's telekinesis deftly opened the bottle, and the crimson liquid flowed into her glass. "The rest of the ranks would start thinking they can get snarky with me." She raised her glass. "A toast, Your Majesty?"

Chrysalis snorted. "You know not to call me that in private, General." She raised her glass as well. "A toast! To the prosperity of changeling-kind, and the brilliant leadership that has brought us there!"

"To prosperity and brilliant leaders!" The glasses collided with an audible clink, and neither were bothered by the wine splashing over to strike the floor. After all, there were plenty more bottles, and when they depleted the cellar, more to find elsewhere. Plenty of the Canterlot nobles had had wine cellars of their own to raid, and the other cities would have their own supply.

No matter how much they took, be it love or wine, there would always be more.

Bruise

Rarity dearly wished that there would be a day that she could look in any direction and not find trees.

It wasn't that she disliked trees. She'd gained a new appreciation for their beauty, in fact, and felt that she was beginning to build up a skill for telling the species apart and telling the difference between young and old or healthy and sick from sheer exposure. She just missed the many other sights she'd seen on her travels. There was a thrill to standing at the edge of an ocean, and quiet dignity to a desert, a sense of thrumming life to a sprawling cityscape, and something breathtaking about being among the clouds.

And there was nothing beautiful about the trees that she was making her way through right now. The beauty had been stripped away by flame, leaving only husks. She could no longer distinguish species, age, or previous health, because all that remained were hunks of scorched wood and ashes, dead branches frozen in agony as they reached toward an unfeeling sky.

She knew, in that distant way that creatures would recall knowledge they no longer remembered learning, that some fires were good for a forest. They helped clear out the organic debris that would build up over seasons, clear out the already-dead and turn it into minerals for the soil. In some nations, wildfires that sprung up would be allowed to burn themselves out so long as they didn't threaten any sapient life nearby, to keep the cycle going.

These fires hadn't been wild.

The swarm had something of a flaw, and that was that they operated best over open ground or sky. Infiltration could weaken a target's defenses, but when it came to the attack, they came up like a wave of shelled bodies, crashing over everything in their path. Canterlot had seen that the moment they broke through the barrier, taking over the capitol with descending raw numbers.

Places that broke up the swarm became ideal places to hide. Places that only permitted narrow passage. Individual changelings were still sturdy and had versatile magic, but a trained pony could deal with them. So two of the ways to escape the encroachment was to go underground into winding tunnel systems... or into a forest.

To try to find survivors, Rarity had risked the latter, because it was easier to survive in a forest for ponies than it was in a cave system. It was her best chance.

The downside was it was much easier to destroy a forest than a cave.

She's in the forest and she's alone. She hates the forest then, hates the sea of green and brown that still looks all alike. The forest goes on in every direction, and she can't be sure she's going in the right way, or if her destination is even in here, because this forest isn't just a forest. It's a forest soaked in magic and ponies whisper that it has a mind of its own, a mind that can decide in an instant that an intruder is unwelcome.

There are lots of whispers about this place, too many, and telling fact from fiction is nigh-impossible.

She's alone and she doesn't want to be alone anymore. She feels like she's drowning in the green, desperate to get out and see another living thing that isn't the animals of the forest. She doesn't even care what species at this point, she just wants company.

She would have left long ago, dismissed this as a fool's errand, but...

She pauses and gathers her wits. Tries not to think about the heat and dampness of the forest, the trees and mud, and just breathe for a while.

Nils had asked her to come here. Had entrusted her with the search.

She has to try.

Even though part of her would rather just raze the forest to the ground and hunt for her goal in the ashes.

There were four of them, in total, who had volunteered to follow Mr. Roar to the deer's settlement. Herself, Fluttershy--she was in constant conversation with the manticore leading the way, with nary a word left for the ponies--a second pegasus, and one earth pony. The other two had said little, keeping eyes and ears on their surroundings in fear of a waiting ambush despite their imposing guide. After what was the latest attempt to smoke them out, it was natural to assume that the company of a single manticore wouldn't dissuade attack.

There being deer in the forest meant that it could heal itself faster, and Rarity imagined that between them, and the presence of earth ponies and a zebra, this haven would hold together much longer than any other forest had under the assaults.

But longer wasn't forever.

She looked at the as-of-yet unknown pegasus, and studied her. Her coat was a beautiful dove grey, and despite the rough living and the protective green stripes, still had an enviable natural sheen. An endurance flier, if she could hazard of a guess from the overall shape of her figure, and with muscles that pointed to being accustomed to flying with a load. Her mane was a sunny yellow, which matched the eye that was darting around in search of enemy attack.

Eye. Singular. Because where the second was, or maybe was no longer, was a cloth patch. There was no sign of scar tissue surrounding the place the cloth covered, which pointed away from violent loss as the reason, but she couldn't be sure.

Rarity glanced subtly at the mark. Bubbles. A proficiency with water-oriented magic, perhaps, or something more abstract.

The earth pony kept especially close to the grey pegasus. The only stallion in the group, he looked right at home in the forest, as he was all earth tones, a paler brown in his coat and a darker brown in his short mane and tail. He didn't have quite the same height or mass of many earth pony stallions she'd seen before, a bit taller than the mares he was surrounded by but thin in the legs and neck, which implied that he hadn't done much manual labour before fleeing his home.

He was relying on his ears more so than his blue-grey eyes to scan for trouble, constantly rotating them toward the latest sound to catch it. There was a springy quality to his steps that reminded Rarity a bit of the deer they were seeking, as if he would bound off in a random direction if an enemy did leap out.

His mark was an hourglass. It could also be abstract, or she might have just found herself in the company of a pony who had the dubious honour of being the refugee village's resident former clockmaker.

Rarity took a breath, took a chance, and stepped over to the pair. "If you don't mind the new pony prodding with questions, have you met these deer before?"

The two looked surprised, and the stallion was the first to speak. "Well not... in a manner of speaking, no." Rarity's ears twitched, tried to identify his accent, and she found herself failing to. "There was a moment, at a distance, when a spotted what I thought was a doe and her fawn, but they're... not really one for conversation with the equine folk, you see."

"What my friend is saying," cut in the mare, turning her head slightly to glance at him with her one visible eye before focusing on Rarity again. "Is that we know the herd mostly through reputation. Their leader is referred to as the 'Heart of the Forest' and he maintains..." She let out a giggle. "I nearly said 'order.' It's more like harmony." She rolled her shoulders in a small shrug. "There's a bit of trade. I delivered to them when I was a courier. But they're usually self-sufficient. Pride themselves on it."

Harmony.

Rarity idly nudged her necklace with her hoof. "I see." She hummed. "So them openly calling for help would be rare?"

The pegasus mare bobbed her head in affirmation. "These are strange times, though, so I guess they're doing a lot of pride-swallowing."

"They are," Rarity agreed quietly, and looked at Mr. Roar at the head of the group. "Strange times, I mean. At a time like this, I'd normally be wining and dining with very important creatures... and instead I'm here."

"Well..." the brown earth pony shifted uncomfortably on his hooves. "Here's better than the alternative?"

Rarity winced as mental images of the alternative rushed through the space behind her eyes. "...True."

The mare swatted her friend with her wing, and stepped a little closer. "For what it's worth, welcome. To our group, I mean."

Rarity managed a smile. "Thank you. My sister and I are fortunate that we came upon such a kind community." She gave a laugh bereft of mirth. "I half expected, when we did find somepony, to be chased off with kicks at best."

"We have Zecora to thank for that," the stallion piped up again. "She can see through any malicious deception and see the truth of things. No need to fall into such self-destructive paranoia."

Rarity looked at the green in own white fur. She watched the light that filtered through the canopy to play along the strands and the invading gunk alike. "...Any deception..." Clearly that was hyperbole, since if this zebra could know the whole truth of a creature she touched with her magics, she wouldn't have had asked such basic questions, like about her accent.

Unless it would simply alert her if Rarity lied, about even the smallest thing.

No, she couldn't go down that road. Zecora had been kind. Fluttershy had been kind. She needed to let herself believe it was genuine. Ponies survived in herds, and herds needed trust to function. She would need to trust them if she was going to convince them to trust her.

"Is she your first zebra?" the mare asked, no doubt sensing her unease.

"The first I've had the pleasure of extended conversation with," Rarity answered carefully, still eying the green she was painted in with discomfort. "I'm well-travelled, so I've seen a little bit of nearly everything."

The mare nodded in understanding, her wings giving a brief stretch before settling back at her sides. "Some ponies get jumpy around her, but I'm guessing with you it's just being in a new place with new creatures, huh?"

Rarity allowed herself to nod. "Yes. I'm grateful, I am, but... a tad overwhelmed."

"And yet," the stallion pointed out. "You volunteered to come with us. That's very admirable, Miss...?"

"Rarity," she responded with a smile. "And you two would be?"

She's lost.

She has to be lost, because everything here looks alike. She's supposed to comb every inch of the forest to find the target of this mad quest, but she could have gone in several circles and not know it. She's counted the times the sun rose, and set, since she arrived and the number is working out to too many.

She hurts. Everything hurts, from the surface and deep into every layer. Every movement is more aches rushing through her body like ripples through a pond. Fatigue is weighing on her as if someone is placing stone after stone on her back, and she's so hungry...

The hunger is the worst part. Beyond company, she needs food, and soon, or she's going to go mad.

Her step is misplaced, and a root sends her tumbling into the muck. She doesn't care what hears the resulting shriek of anguished rage. Then, as the echoes of her outburst fade, she catches sight of something the distance.

The gleam of light through crystal.

Names had been exchanged, and with it, the conversation had meandered about at a comfortable pace. She learned that there were other unicorns in the village beyond the one she'd briefly spotted, but they were all Sweetie Belle's age and younger, and she wondered how many friends her sister would be surrounded by when they returned home. The little filly could be timid, understandably so, but true to her name, she was very kind and sweet, and would no doubt have other foals gravitating toward her even beyond the first few to approach.

It was good. Rarity had found Sweetie a new home, just as promised.

Talking made everything a little more bearable. The green in her fur, her hooves over the damp earth, all the little aches and pains that hadn't had the benefit of a night's sleep to ease them. It was all so much easier to ignore with friendly company willing to spend time with her.

The surroundings, however, were changing. The trees were still burnt, but something beneath the surface shifted, and Rarity felt the sense of age and the weight of power suffuse the air. Fire had ravaged this place, but there was a sharp scent of life around her nevertheless. Magic that spoke of indignation at the flame's intrusion, but also renewal.

It was a good sign, but is was also oppressive. Rarity walked beneath the gaze of countless invisible eyes, and so she tried to lift her head and smooth out her gait, letting light glint off of her necklace.

Then Mr. Roar stopped, and she heard Fluttershy gasp.

Past them were a set of gates. At a glance, they may have been mistaken as having been made of gold, but with a better look, as she took a few cautious steps closer, the transparency that revealed their true material became clearer, that of amber. Amber resonating with its own sort of magic, shaped into ornate patterns reminiscent of the branches of trees. In fact, it was right between two trees... or what was left of them. It had likely stood adhered to them once, but now it was laying on the ground, allowing an unobstructed view of what lay beyond.

The trees beyond were just as blackened as the ones they'd passed, but Rarity could pick out the shapes they'd once had, and it felt like she was looking at the ghosts of buildings. Homes not built from wood, but shaped from the living trees themselves, encouraged to grow in ways that created doors, windows, balconies, winding walkways...

It had been beautiful, once, of that she was certain.

A buck stepped over the broken gate and toward them, a bird perched comfortably on the top of his helmet. Said helmet, and the armour that covered his back and legs, was similarly made of amber, but its hue skewed more orange than the gold that littered the ground. He stood a head taller than the ponies, not counting the long antlers that came to several points. He was a handsome specimen, form lithe and athletic with burning orange eyes that matched his apparel, and he moved with purpose.

Rarity spotted the heart symbol etched in the front of his helmet, and then found anywhere else to look.

"Ponies of the Everfree Refuge," the buck spoke, with a sad sort of smile. "And noble manticore. I'm Blackthorn, leader in the absence of our king. Calvin told me you were coming." The bird tweeted in response to hearing what one would presume was its name. "We've been able to stabilize our wounded, but it will take time to restore our home. We hope... as fellow victims of the swarm, we could help one another."

Fluttershy smiled. "Of course. Gather everyone together, and we'll bring them back safe with us."

She's found it.

Or maybe it's found her.

It doesn't matter as her legs give out and she falls to her knees before twisting crystal branches. It doesn't matter as a thousand whispers of times gone by hiss out a cacophony questioning whether she is worthy. It doesn't matter as the flesh around her neck burns with cold.

It isn't supposed to be like this.

It isn't supposed to hurt.

The Thicket. That's what the deer had called their home.

There was so much more amber, and blackened wood. The shards littering the ground, she'd been told as she started to sift through the remains of homes, had been from magically crafted lanterns. Once completed and enchanted, they would glow from within not unlike giant fireflies. This would be the only illumination they normally had, as they had very little need for fire. Deer ate their food raw more often than not and so did not harness it for cooking, and they knew how to best insulate their homes to have little need of it for warmth even when winter rolled in.

Rarity imagined they would have even less love for fire after this.

The one telling her all of this was a small doe whose name she hadn't caught, who was searching for something in particular. Her pale pelt was splashed with the magical green, as Zecora has sent plenty with them to paint each refugee with before leading them back. Chatting about what everything used to be seemed to help with coping with the fact that it'd been destroyed, perhaps because remembering how it'd been put together also served as a reminder that rebuilding was possible.

Rarity didn't judge. Everyone processed their grief in their own ways.

Her horn lit and grasped at some of the dead wood, hauling it backward, revealing more amber shards. The doe carefully approached, nudging the shining bits as her nose twitched, and then sighed and shook her head. She looked at Rarity, opening her mouth to stay something--

Only to be cut off by a scream.

Rarity whirled around, and her eyes found the centre of the Thicket, where Fluttershy had been adorning each buck, doe, and fawn. One of the deer was recoiling from the hissing concoction on their fur, sending their fellows leaping backward in terror, long legs scrambling as confused shouts became a tangle of words with no coherency to be found.

As the screams morphed into incervid screeches and the supposed deer burst into flames, Rarity's horn burned with magic, and every piece of debris that she could reach, wood or amber, with a sharp enough edge, lifted up into the air.

"Oh darling... you were sent to spy on the wrong creatures."

And then the changeling had a lot more to scream about.

Eventually, she rises.

Permitted to live.

The metal around her neck is still cold. Heavy, with the jewel it carries.

One chosen. Five remain.

And now she has a new mission.

Wings first.

The thought came with grim clarity as the projectiles honed in. The drone hissed, and after the initial hiss upon a reveal, the next move was always to take to the air. It was taking advantage of the surrounding creatures' shock to gain an aerial advantage. So Rarity set dozens of tiny spears to work in removing that advantage, and the scattering of holes at the wings' edges suddenly had company. Shards of amber shredded the thin membranes, and one sharpened branch stabbed through and stayed there, dragging the changeling to one side and causing them to fall back to the earth.

Then the legs.

The bodies of changelings were covered in protective chitin, but the holes that covered their lower legs revealed softer, more vulnerable flesh. Rarity advanced on the grounded drone, and as she did so, she kept gathering up more ammunition. Whenever there was an attempt to get up, she fired several projectiles, focusing one on each hole in the leg trying to bear weight, and sent the drone back down again with pained cries.

Then the horn.

Green sparks danced along the drone's horn. Basic telekinesis and energy blast were all most were capable of, and it took a bit too much time to charge. Anyone thinking clearly would see it coming, and so when she did, she selected the largest amber chunk in her arsenal and traded the sharp precision for blunt force, the strike to the horn causing the magic to crackle and fizzle out.

Then the neck.

Rarity's hoof came down on the changeling's throat, and the struggling dropped. Limbs froze, and compound eyes looked up at her with fear.

She didn't take her eyes off her quarry. "Fluttershy, dear?"

"Y-yes?"

"Anyone who hasn't been given the salve, do it, now. We need to know if there's more than one infiltrator." She ground her hoof into the black shell with slow circles. "Can't have our own village going up in flames, now can we?"

That awakened some resistance, and holed legs kicked out feebly. "The queen will burn your entire land to the ground and feast on the love of your grieving hearts."

"Well then..." She lowered her head, her horn glowing, until the light of it was reflecting in the facets of the drone's eyes. "You can give her the regards of Rarity the unicorn when you see her again."

The drone was looking at her horn. It meant not seeing the other front hoof until it'd cracked against the side of the head, and the light of consciousness faded from the eyes, leaving only the reflections.

Rarity stepped off of the knocked out drone, and let her horn dim. The voices of deer and ponies alike, along with Mr. Roar's concerned tones--she imagined if she hadn't acted so fast, he may have done so instead and stolen her show--felt distant in her ears as she walked back over to where she'd been.

She ripped away another hunk of wood, and found what she'd been helping search for: a book with a cover that appeared made of leaves, its title in a script that she couldn't read. She wrenched it free and dusted with ash and splinters off of it as she heard the voices take a turn for the relieved--no further deceptive surprises, it seemed--then turned to the doe, who stood there, stunned. "Is this what you were looking for?"

"Yes... y-yes it was..." She obligingly took it in her mouth, managing a muffled, "Thk yu" around it.

"Anytime." She breathed out a titter. "I'm a mare of many talents, and an eye for detail can be very helpful in finding lost objects."

As well as helpful for other things. She just hoped that the demonstration would give some weight to her words when they returned.

This forest haven wouldn't last forever. It was time to fight back.

Violet

Deer were so delightfully easy to fool.

Their king had been at Canterlot for the wedding, and present when the swarm had struck. A friend of Celestia's, come to join her on what had been intended as a joyous day. It had left the deer even more disoriented than the ponies, as it could take so much longer for each individual pocket within each forest to finally hear the news that there was an invasion going on at all and that the king was anywhere but on his Everfree throne.

Forests were terrible for a direct assault, and so the approach had been an elegantly simple one. Dispatch a drone, or two, or three, in the form of a deer, and have them be found. Feign being lost, frightened, even delirious, and have them bring news of the strange creatures who'd descended from the sky to attack. With the contact with other species so infrequent, the infiltrators would only need to omit the fact that the invaders were shapeshifters, and they wouldn't know until it was too late.

After all, they'd never level suspicions at a fellow deer. It was unthinkable that they'd act against each other, and so the changeling could wait in the species' collective blind spot until it was time to set the fire.

A number of infiltrators had been sent to try to find the Thicket, but only one had reached them. The lone drone didn't know what had befallen the others, whether they'd given up or if the dangers of the Everfree Forest had picked them off. He'd simply done as he'd been ordered, waited for the right moment, and struck. It'd been an even better result than expected, in fact, because the deer had put out a call to ponies.

Anything that could think was capable of loving something, and sapient species had all the more potential nourishment. But all the same, no matter how far the swarm had roamed, they had never found a creature with love quite as delectably potent as a pony's. He'd been fighting the whole time to still act like a wounded deer, when inside he was giddy, already imagining how the swarm would celebrate him for bringing them such a bounty.

And then that unicorn had struck him down with such ruthless precision that he hadn't expected food to be capable of. Rarity. Ponies could have incredibly on-the-snout names, and there wasn't a better description of the beatdown he'd received.

He'd woken up several minutes ago, and hadn't moved a muscle. That wasn't by choice, but because he'd woken up to find his head and neck the only things capable of moving. The rest was buried in freshly-dug earth, and attempting to dig himself out by grasping at dirt with magic projected from an aching horn was moving at a snail's pace. By the time he got out, the trail would be cold, and he'd end up going back to the swarm empty-hooved.

If he went back. Maybe he could fly off somewhere else, try the desperate refugee trick again, and the second time to bring back food would be the charm. The queen would probably only throw him out of the palace window once if he still had something to show for it. Instead of however many times it took for her to get bored with hearing him holler and hit the ground.

Yeah, that was the ticket. He'd sweep it all under the rug and try again. He just needed to get out of the dirt first.

He managed to get one leg free before he heard the distant howling.

Night had fallen, and Rarity rested in the centre of the refugee village, watching ponies and deer chatting with one another around her. Mr. Roar had left after their return, off to roam the forest as manticores were wont to do. He hadn't seemed to know what to do with all the profuse thanks from so many creatures, and she imagined that he'd take some extended solitude to recover from so much social interaction.

But he'd be back. He had friends here, more than he'd had before.

She saw the other ponies she'd been travelling with speaking with a cluster of foals, and there was no mistaking who the dusty grey unicorn filly was the daughter of, not with that soft yellow to her mane and eyes. Rarity couldn't quite hear what everyone was saying, but that was fine, as the enthusiasm showed through in their tones. A little fawn soon approached, roughly the same size of the foals if one didn't take into account the long, spindly legs, and was promptly surrounded by the excited ponies talking all at once.

Sweetie Belle wasn't among the group, and Cheerilee had helpfully informed her that she'd laid down early, as had been expected. The body needed rest to process a large meal, especially after having been malnourished. Rarity was certain she'd be following her before long. The altercation with the drone still had her buzzing with some adrenaline, but that wouldn't last forever, and she'd been surviving on very little rest for far too long.

Her head drooped, eyes starting to close, finally feeling like it may be safe to sleep--

"Hey!"

Rarity's head jerked up again as one of the foals came racing toward her, and it took a moment for her groggy mind to recall that the little pegasus was the one who had introduced herself as Scootaloo. "Yes, dear?"

If the drowsiness in her voice deterred the enthusiastic filly any, she didn't show it, tiny wings flapping at such high speed that they almost buzzed. "Bramble said you fought all the changelings in the deer village! Is that true?"

Rarity glanced at the group of children, took a guess that Bramble was the fawn in the centre, and then smiled Scootaloo. "I most certainly did." After all, it still counted if all was one. Her smile widened as more foals perked up their ears and started to walk over. "Would you like to know how?"

Scootaloo's eyes widened. "Yeah!" The other approaching foals repeated the sentiment in a wave of excited voices, but hers still cut through to be audible above them. "Teach us how to be changeling-fighters!"

Rarity noticed several adults rotating their ears toward her as well, ponies and deer alike, and as she got to her hooves, she made a point to toss her head dramatically, purple curls bouncing as she said, "Then listen carefully, darlings, because you're about to learn from an expert."

Time for the encore performance.

She reared onto her hind hooves, finding her balance as she did her best to project her voice, so that even those who hadn't yet started their approach would hear her clearly. "What you must always, always remember, is that a changeling has three strengths: concealment, the ability to both fly and cast, and numbers. So to defeat them, you must remove these advantages, one by one."

She started to gesture with her front legs, making a grand sweeping motion with both. "Concealment, we can already undo thanks to our lovely friend, Zecora, but it's about knowing precisely what to do once they have been revealed. First, you need to ground them. Once those wings are open to fly, they're vulnerable, and if they can't fly, they can't signal the swarm. Get your hooves or your magic on whatever you can and aim for the wings the moment they open, and they'll shred like poor-quality fabrics. Then you..."

"And then she changed back right in front of the whole wedding, right at the moment that we broke through the shield! The pony princess tried to stop her, but our queen was too strong, and--"

"What are you doing?"

The drone yelped. He'd been on his hind legs, gesturing with his front limbs, and the sudden voice had him falling over in shock and staring up at the armoured changeling who'd been standing behind him. Compound eyes were bright with fear and hole-ridden legs kicked feebly at the air as he choked out a high-pitched, "G-general!" He'd been surrounded by grubs, and several of them hissed, huddling behind him as they glared at the new presence. "I was just... j-just..."

All the while, General Vixen's expression was blank and impassive. "You were playing with the grubs again when Her Royal Majesty needs all hooves on the ground to secure our latest conquest." She sighed deeply. "Thorax, I know you're not a soldier, but when we're on the attack, every--"

"Everyone has to do their part." He started to get to his hooves again. Multiple clinging grubs delayed the process. "I know."

The wreckage of an apartment building had become an impromptu hatchery, each individual apartment cleared of its furniture and coated in green resin. Burns, cracks, and other damage from the struggle of ousting the original inhabitants were well-covered by said resin and the broken remnants of several hatched eggs, and each individual grub was the same as the last, only their faces and underdeveloped front legs covered in black chitin while the rest was white, fuzzy flesh like giant caterpillars.

The influx of love from their systematic conquest had provided the resources for plenty of eggs, and they were filling the building, floor by floor, with the clutches. It would take time for these newborns to be ready to properly join the swarm, but when they did, their ranks would swell massively.

Once finished with Equestria, they would have the might to take on anything. Even to march on the Dragonlands and drive the Dragon Lord to his knees.

Not that the queen had much interest in such a place. Dragons rarely had love for anything but themselves, and that sort of love was practically empty calories.

"Thorax..." Vixen shook her head. "Stop looking like a kicked nymph. No changeling gets special treatment--"

"Except for you."

Her wings buzzed and gaze sharpened. "Excuse me?"

Thorax immediately cringed. "I'm sorry, General! I didn't say anything, General! I'll get to work gathering up ponies, right now!"

He opened his wings in record time and rushed past her with the kind of speed that could make one think he had a manticore on his tail. General Vixen caught the grub that had been thrown from his back in her magic, and carefully set them back down with the others. The entire group of them hissed at her, and she wasn't sure if it was purely hunger or because they were upset that their unofficial caretaker had vanished.

She could chase him down and reprimand him if she really wanted to. She could drag him out in front of as many other drones as possible and verbally eviscerate him in front of them. It would be more generous than the queen would have done in response to backtalk, as she had a penchant for making her displeasure known via high-speed impact with hard surfaces.

Or the time that she'd hurled a drone into lava, because he'd been a special kind of idiot and the lava had been available.

She shook her head. It was Thorax. The changeling with the world's softest shell. If anything, him having found a bit of bite was an improvement. Besides, Pharynx was good at keeping him from embarrassing the swarm too much.

So instead, she turned away from the pile of hissing grubs, opened her own wings, and went back to work. She had several more slackers to hunt down and kick back into action.

The grubs only had to care about eating and growing, but once they were old enough, their work would similarly never be done.

"You're very good with the foals..."

Rarity had been laying with her legs tucked beneath her and chin resting in the grass, and Fluttershy flinched in regret when the words made her visibly startle and lift her head again. She reminded herself that the new unicorn would likely be jumpy for a while, and silently berated herself for forgetting. There was no upset in Rarity's eyes, however, and after a moment she gave a weak smile. "I wasn't always... but thank you."

She nodded at the spot next to her in invitation, and Fluttershy took it, carefully lowering herself down to lay next to her. Her folded wing brushed lightly against Rarity's side, and when there was no negative reaction to the contact, she didn't move it. "You could've fooled me. You looked right at home talking to them."

In another corner of the village, foals full of new changeling-fighting knowledge were proving difficult to coax into sleeping, as they instead chased each other around and argued over who had to play the infiltrator in their newest game.

Foals were so resilient. If she just closed her eyes and listened to them, right now, it would be like nothing had changed at all, instead of everything.

Rarity gave a small breath of a laugh, but there wasn't any real mirth in it. "I enjoy public speaking, but foals..." A look of deep regret fell over her features. "Well, I will just say that Sweetie Belle has some unflattering memories of me and leave it at that. We haven't always gotten along."

Fluttershy shrugged a little. "I think that's just part of being siblings. We lose patience with even the ponies we love sometimes."

Rarity looked at her for a silent moment, and Fluttershy quickly got the impression that she was being studied. "You sound as if you speak from experience, darling." The pain must been obvious on her face, because she hastily added, "You don't need to talk about it. I don't mean to pry into--"

Everypony carefully didn't speak of the lost, as they already knew that each of them had been cut off from somepony as town after town went dark. Nopony had asked her before now. And so the words fell out.

"My brother was in Cloudsdale." Fluttershy stared down at the ground, until the burning in her eyes of forming tears demanded she close them. "With my parents. We got on each other's nerves all the time, but I still... I don't know what happened to--"

Unicorns didn't have wings to drape over other ponies. They had to offer comfort in other ways. And with her eyes shut, she didn't notice Rarity moving until the weight settled. She opened her eyes, tears falling as she blinked, and realized that Rarity had laid her head across her withers.

"I'm sorry." They were only two words, but the sorrow within them had their own weight.

Fluttershy closed her eyes again, and the two mares laid in silence. Ponies, deer, and zebra alike left them be, politely turning away and busying themselves with other things. All of them were familiar with creatures in mourning, and so the two were given an illusion of privacy as Fluttershy silently wept.

It was usually advised to feed on pegasi first, with how much easier it was for them to get away. Keeping them as long term love sources was having a literal flight risk on their hooves every single day, and it was hard to take the fight out of such creatures when they knew that all it took was one slip from their captors to give them the opportunity to take to the skies.

Green resin bound the wings of several ponies, as they were led down the city street. The buildings were much like they always were in the places the swarm invaded, broken and burned husks, with more green holding together the places that had been determined as ideal shelters for the army, the newborns, or the herds of food.

There were also several places where a persistent fog lingered in the air, each droplet of vapour humming with magic. It was a different sort of wreckage, the kind left behind when cloud structures once reinforced into selectively solid forms were forcibly dispersed. It, along with the high number of pegasi being rounded up by drones, were the strongest lingering evidence that this had not been a conquest of one city, but two. Some more evidence were the numerous remnants of personal objects that looked to have shattered after a fall from a great height.

Vixen watched it from the highest vantage point she had, and did so amongst more burnt ruins. Where had once been a series of letters large enough to see from anywhere in the city was now ash.

How charitable Cloudsdale had been, for having been flying over Applewood when they'd arrived, and providing two birds--or rather, two pegasi--to strike out of the air with a single stone. Another absolutely perfect day--

"The blue one's loose!"

"Don't let her get away!"

Every colour of the rainbow streaked past Vixen's vision at once, followed by drones taking to the air in a frantic hail of buzzing. Her own wings opened as well, her armoured body lurching into the air to help intercept. Pegasi were faster than changelings, especially when it came to accelerating across open sky, which made outnumbering them in the air all the more important to corral them long enough to bring them to the ground.

It was the same of set of maneuvers, every time. Herd the pony toward clouds that they would need to punch through, or more solid obstacles that they couldn't. Cornering them was ideal, but mostly it was about slowing them down. If they rammed into a drone in the process, that was fine too, because the impact would be harder on the pegasus than the changeling. Then close in from all directions, including above and below, and go for the wings, so that they fell onto the drones below to be carried back to the ground.

One pegasus versus a dozen drones would stand no chance. It would just be a small taste of almost-freedom, and then she'd be bound again with the others.

But this wasn't an ordinary pegasus, and Vixen realized it only when the force of the sonic boom cracked the air.

The sheer force sent her hurtling back, and she flipped hooves over horn several times as every cloud in the sky vanished in a wave of colour. It felt like she could taste the magic that had been set loose, searing through with a unnatural heat, and it took time for her to tell up from down, or feel less like she'd had a full-body dip in a bath of hot peppers.

When she came to her senses, the mare was long gone.

Fluttershy had fallen asleep like that, and Rarity was in no hurry to move as she listened to her slow, steady breathing. There were worse positions to sleep in than using a pegasus as a pillow, even if the feathers did tickle a bit, and she found herself smiling as she closed her eyes.

Then they snapped open again, her head jerking upward with a sharp inhale of breath.

Rarity froze, her ears rotating, but no one seemed to have noticed that. Blackthorn had taken the first watch of the night--he'd insisted on it, and she imagined he considered it the first part of repaying the debt--but he was still as a statue, facing away from her, and so she let out a quiet sigh of relief.

She supposed she should have expected this. Sleep hadn't been a true reprieve for a while.

She just hadn't been braced for the memory of the drone, screaming as the disguise burned away, to replay itself so soon.

Rarity turned her head, her eyes seeking out the shelter that she'd seen Zecora walk into upon retiring for the night, and her gaze narrowed, as questions of what precisely the salve did flowed through her mind anew.

Just how powerful are you, my new friend?

It was a question that only time would answer, and so she slowly lowered her head again. Fluttershy made a small sound in her sleep upon resuming her pillow duties, but otherwise didn't stir.

The smile came back, if a slight one. She would sort out what to think about the zebra in time. But this one...

She had potential.

Byzantium

"It's beautiful..."

Fluttershy's words of awe had been expected, but they still made Rarity smile as she watched the pegasus slowly walk further into the cavern.

It had taken a much shorter time to find this place again, but the sunlight was still well gone before they arrived. The Everfree had many sudden, sharp drops in elevation that Rarity suspected were the work of subterranean creatures who made the woods home, and so she was always second-guessing herself on which cliff was the right one that led to the mouth of the cave. It had been obvious once they'd gotten down, however--Fluttershy had an easier time thanks to her wings, while Rarity had cautiously hopped from thin platform to thin platform jutting out of the cliff face, praying that her hooves wouldn't slip--that they were in the right place, as the shine of crystals danced before them.

It didn't help her navigation skills that Rarity rarely had need to come back, as even though she'd survived the encounter, she had the impression that the tree didn't like her very much. And as she kept back, at the entrance, the metal around her neck that much heavier as the air hummed with magic, feeling like it may suddenly rip itself away at a moment's notice, that sentiment was firmly mutual.

Still, Fluttershy was right. The tree was beautiful. Crystalline roots zig-zagged across the cavern, forming pleasing patterns, and from particularly thick ones, unusual shapes sprouted, mimicries of plants, animals, and objects sitting there like a garden of sculptures. Most appeared crude, half-formed, as if a sculptor had grown bored after rendering the basics of the subject's shape, but she noted that one of the boxy shapes near the back seemed to have formed a distinct key hole since she'd been here last.

All those roots let to the trunk, and it almost looked deliberately engraved, intricately-rendered symbols stretching across it, the most distinct of all being the stylized sun and moon near the base. Five branches extended from the trunk, and each one was weighed down by a crystalline fruit, save for one where the branch laid bare.

It would be two bare branches soon, so Rarity hoped.

Fluttershy had asked for no guidance on what to do, nor had she questioned why Rarity had brought her here. She just approached, awestruck, like a mare possessed, and the glow of the tree grew brighter, one of the fruits taking on a pink sheen. The gem on Rarity's neck briefly took on a swirl of rainbow colour, and from behind, she couldn't see her friend's eyes briefly shine with the same hues, yet she knew it they must be.

She watched Fluttershy rear up, and reach a hoof out. Then Rarity closed her eyes, turning her head away, as her friend cried out in pain.

I'm sorry.

"You saw it from way out here?"

Two mares laid together, only a threadbare blanket between them and the rocky soil. To call it soil would even be generous, as it was more like a fine gravel, but the one of the two who lived here her entire life had called it soil--the best possible soil for farming rocks, in fact--and so the other, who had barely ever seen the ground up close for most of her life, had accepted it as the proper term.

The mare who called the rock farm home nodded her head at the question, pink curls bouncing with the motion. Said curls were natural, voluminous, and looked like they ate brushes for breakfast. "It was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. The whole sky lighting up with rainbows. I couldn't help--" The words were cut off as giggles bubbled up, filling the air briefly with the sound of raw joy. "--but laugh, I felt so happy."

The blue mare let out a raspy chuckle of her own, and shifted her weight. Going from clouds to stony soil hadn't been an easy adjustment, and legs and wings twitched with a constant desire to go up. "Usually I'm looking for stomping and cheering, not laughs, but... I'm glad it made you happy." She stared up at the moon, even partially obscured by the looming stone; she'd gotten a Tartarus of a glare when she'd tried to perch on it, but the glower-happy mare within the house hadn't said anything about resting in the shadow of Holder's Bolder instead.

"I really needed the laugh," the pink mare went on. "We all did." Her head drooped with sudden sombreness, and the curls seemed to lose a bit of their volume. "We're so far out here, we didn't know what was happening for days. Then Dad tried to go out to town like he always does once a moon, and... saw it...with everypony gone..."

The blue mare shifted uneasily, then cautiously reached out a wing. "Hey..." The pink mare didn't hesitate in tucking herself beneath it. "At least he got back okay, and you're all safe out here."

"For now... We've been growing the rocks... well..." The pink mare tapped the soil with a hoof. "Mostly Dad, Limestone, and Maud. They were always better with stone magic than me. But they're making defenses." Her eyes glided down, to a set of balloons on her flank. "But there's a lot of changelings out there, and I don't think a party is gonna make us all best friends."

The blue mare sighed. "Yeah, probably not."

"Could you do it again?"

"Do what?

"The big rainbow..." She waved a front leg at the sky. "Boom, across the sky. If they come, could you do it again and send them all flying?"

There was silence for a few moments, until the pained words came. "I... don't know." Blue wings stretched, then settled again. "I think I overdid it the first time, and I don't know how I did it. It just... happened."

The pink mare sat with that. Then she nodded and smiled. "Then it'll happen again. When we need it."

"How are you so sure?"

There was a giggle. "Because, silly Dashie, the super secret weapon that the hero can't control so well always works when she really, really needs it."

She took that in, and despite herself, the blue mare laughed and shook her head. "Never change, Pinke."

Rarity cautiously stepped into the cavern, and to over the pegasus laying curled up on the stone floor. Fluttershy's legs were tucked close to her barrel, her wings tight at her sides, and that long tail wrapped around her body as if to shield it from the world. The fruit on the branch was gone, and so she knew her instincts had been right, but it didn't stop the regret weighting heavy on her heart.

Fluttershy had been kind to her. Incredibly so. She had outstretched her hoof of friendship, had confided in her, and had placed enough trust in her to come. She was perfect to trot next to her on this path, but even so, a pony who had suffered so much already didn't deserve to be thrown to such a harrowing destiny.

But somepony had to bear the burden, and the tree refused to trust her alone with the duty. No one creature could wield such power without help.

Rarity lowered herself to the stone, listening to Fluttershy cry, and she gently laid her head across her withers. There was a gasp--she had no doubt her friend had forgotten she was even there, but eventually the sobs slowed, turning to sniffles, and finally a strained voice let out a soft, "Rarity..."

"Yes?" she responded, barely above a whisper, and with a waver to her voice as if she may cry as well.

"I saw..." A swallow, and Fluttershy continued. "I saw... my family... and what happens if we fail..."

Rarity sighed softly. "I know."

"Is..." Limbs started to untense, and a wing sought out more comforting contact. "Is that what it showed you, too?"

"Yes." It was a lie, and one that Rarity spoke as easily as breathing. They were free of the salve for now, and so there was clearly no way that Zecora, if she could detect falsehood, would know. It wasn't even fully a lie. Fluttershy had seen the consequences for failure, and one could say that Rarity had too.

But to say the whole truth, would be to say that the tree had showed her something far more, and far worse.

In the low light of the cave, crystals reflected purple hues.

During the invasion, the crystal caverns had been where the changelings had placed anypony who jeopardized their plans. However, when it'd become time to feast, the tunnels had been abandoned. The shelters the ponies had been herded into were above ground, because that made it much easier to overwhelm their food with numbers. Cave systems were good for keeping things out of sight, but once stealth was no longer required, they became inconvenient, because once a pony was underground, it was difficult to catch them and bring them up again.

All the better for the mare now trotting her way along old minecart tracks, who intended to make herself as inconvenient as possible. There were so many unicorns in Canterlot that the rank-and-file drones rarely noticed one slipping away for a while to elsewhere, so long as she was back by the time that the higher-ranked bugs started a head count.

In fact, they didn't seem to notice two slipping away, either. Or three. Or four...

She'd scrounged a pair of saddlebags, and right now, one was weighed down by books. She'd been smuggling surviving tomes from the archives down, a few at a time, and had been finding, to her delight, that the preservation enchantments on most of them had been enough to withstand the flames. She'd tried to prioritize the spellbooks first, but sometimes she just needed to grab what was closest and bolt, hoping that it would be useful.

The other saddlebag, however, was weighed down by something much more precious. Something else that had survived the flames, recovered from a pile of rubble without a scratch.

The small unicorn mare hopped into an empty minecart, and her horn blazed with light, urging the ancient wheels into motions and sending it squealing down the tracks. It had taken some trial and error to learn how to steer it, but now she knew the motions by heart, able to practically leave it to magical memory. The only downside was the noise, but this deep, it would never reach the occupying force on the surface, and so only her own hearing suffered.

When the cart came to a stop, she climbed out again, and she sighed in relief as she saw the three other mares sitting amongst the piles of books. It was always a risk meeting like this, always a chance that their tiny force would be whittled down if anypony tried to slip away at exactly the wrong time.

The sight of her immediately had one of the mares leaping to her hooves, glasses nearly falling from her face and into the book she had open. "Twilight!"

"Moondancer..." She reared up, and the two embraced. And for just a while, the fear of the swarm above faded. They were here, they were safe, and everything would be fine, or at least that's what it felt like as they lingered in each other's warmth.

At least until an, "Ugh," escaped the blue unicorn currently flipping through a thick snakeskin-bound tome with parchment yellowed, so old that even the enchantments hadn't been able to keep it from showing it. "Can you two do that later, preferably when Trixie is back topside pretending to be a helpless prisoner?"

The last mare nearby shook her head, mane of fiery curls shining in the crystal light, and leaned over to bump shoulders, orange fur meeting blue. "Hey, lay off them, Trix. I think it's sweet."

"Oh yes, it's sweet all right. They're downright candy to all the drones up there." She snorted, and the old book slammed shut with a flash of horn glow. "Forgive me, Sunset, if I'm not in the mood for all this sappiness given the circumstances."

There was another shoulder bump. "Oh come on, what's wrong with hugs?"

"The fate of Equestria does not rest on hugs."

Ignoring the running commentary, as it was the same thing every time they all met down here, the two continued to hug, and when they finally parted, Twilight shook her head slightly. "Okay, I've kept you all waiting long enough..." Her saddlebag opened, and steadily the stack next to Trixie grew several volumes taller. "I brought a few more, from the restricted section. And you'll be happy to find out that I have more than books this time."

Sunset's eyes glinted with excitement, leaving the grumbling Trixie alone to get to her hooves. "You found it?"

Twilight nodded, and the second saddlebag opened. "It was at the school, like you said. Still in perfect condition, too."

All three watched as the single, round object emerged, floating with great care to eventually rest on the cave floor. It normally would have been hard to see, but in the gloom of the gave, it was clear that it was glowing from within, a small, pulsing light shining through the outer shell. It was also small, smaller than any of them had expected it to be for something with such potential power.

But every creature started small once, and so the little purple and green egg being so tiny possibly shouldn't have been so surprising at all.

"A dragon egg..." Moondancer breathed in awe, her glasses nearly sliding off her snout as she stared.

Sunset nodded, a proud smile on her muzzle. "It was orphaned years ago. Celestia had been studying how to hatch one using pony magic."

Trixie peered at the egg curiously. "It's still possible to hatch it, after so many years?"

Twilight nodded, with her own eager smile. "Dragon eggs can go dormant for decades, even centuries. Mother dragons will lay a clutch and then wait until just the right moment to hatch them, when there's plenty of food and low danger. Waking them up again is just about introducing the right magical spark."

"And that's where we come in." Sunset's horn lit, surrounding the egg with a warm glow. "Celestia showed me the spell she was going to use, and with all of us, we should have enough power." Slowly, the egg lifted into the air. "Each of you, come in one at a time, at my signal, and then I'll complete the spell."

Blending magic together for the same spell was a delicate art, as it was easy for unicorns of different strength to overwhelm each other, or casters with conflicting emotions to have their power clash. It took careful control and shared purpose to truly harmonize, along with somepony steering the spell who could handle directing it all down the proper paths.

The first was Moondancer. Her magic was tentative, touching at the spell as if afraid that the contact would send it all flying out of control, and when nothing catastrophic happened, the flow took on a more confident surge. Even then, the strength behind the magic wasn't too forceful, and it didn't take too much to herd.

Next was Trixie. Her magic came rushing in with far more gusto, and it took an initial bit of careful direction to keep excess from spilling out of the carefully-maintained channels. If Moondancer could be compared to a watering can, starting slow and picking up slightly, Trixie was more of a garden hose, starting strong and keeping steady.

Then came Twilight, and there was the most of the struggle. She was holding back, like Moondancer, but even then she threatened to overflow even more than Trixie had. Sunset had to work quickly, and channel what she could, and the air sparked and crackled with power as she let some of it bleed off just to keep the other two from being pushed out entirely.

And yet, it was working.

The light built, brighter and brighter. Horns blazed and eyes went white as they poured all they could, the spell matrix struggling to hold it all together and the air growing more and more alive with the energy. Sunset's legs wobbled, but she lifted her head higher and gritted her teeth, refusing to let it all unravel when she could feel they were close.

"Now!"

The cavern filled with a blinding flash.

All four mares sank to the stone floor, panting for breath as they blinked furiously, trying to recover their sight. Sweat soaked their coats, even Twilight, and the air still zapped with power. As the spots in their vision faded, they saw the shards of eggshell littering the floor, wisps of white smoke still rising from them as they glowed with heat.

And in the centre of the shells was a tiny ball of purple and green scales, the size of a newborn foal, the dragon hatchling curled up and grasping at his own tail, sound asleep.

Trixie crept closer. "It's so small..."

"For now," Sunset said simply, and she and Twilight grinned at each other with exhausted triumph.

Moondancer smiled softly. "What should we call the little guy?"

Sunset blinked, then looked to Twilight. "Well, Twi, you're the one who found the egg and brought it down here. What do you want to call our new dragon?"

Twilight blinked as well, and looked down at the tiny dragon, watching the infant snort out a puff of grey smoke and clutch at his tail that bit tighter. "I think..." She smiled. "I think I want to call him Spike."

"They're back!"

The two mares stepped through the veil of foliage, and at the excited call from the scout-doe, ponies and deer peered out of their homes to look at them, blinking sleep from their eyes. It may have been the dead of night, but a community who'd needed to be able to react quickly to anything that may happen had learned to sleep lightly, and so the longer they stood there, the more and more eyes appeared from windows and doors.

No one raced up to greet them, but that was to be expected. They'd been gone for some time, and so, from the refuge's perspective, there was no guarantee that they were who they appeared to be. Despite wobbling on their hooves from exhaustion, they obligingly stood at the edge, waiting for Zecora to come and confirm their identities, before they rejoined the herd.

Even as they stood there, however, they could hear the whispering starting. Because even at a distance, they were starting to notice what was different.

Around Rarity's neck was the purple diamond, where it had been since she'd first set hoof here. And around Fluttershy's neck was was a similar golden band, holding a pink butterfly.

Mauveine

Even the next morning after their return, the refuge was abuzz with conversation.

Rarity's strange necklace had become something that simply came with the mare. Something normal. But her leaving for a time with Fluttershy and returning with a second one around her neck had fired up the rumour mill, and now what she'd once said to Zecora about the necklace being able to sense malevolent intent was circulating. Especially among the deer, who she wasn't sure had all been aware of how new she'd been to the village when she'd assisted in answering their call for help.

Of course, the trinket could do far more, but with the set incomplete, its power was diminished, and so it would be until the rest were recovered. She just needed to get out of this forest, and search. She'd fulfilled her promise and found Sweetie Belle somewhere safe, but she couldn't stay any longer.

It was time to make her move, and take the stage again. Hopefully she'd remember each of her lines.

She glanced at Fluttershy, who smiled back kindly. Terrified of the journey ahead as she may have been--that could be seen in every twitch and tremour of the wings, every clear signal that her body was perpetually hanging on the edge of the instinct to bolt--but she'd had the same reaction to the tree as Rarity had. The only response that could be had.

Conviction to see the mission done, no matter the cost.

The two mares walked to the centre of the village, and as they did, conversation slowly silenced. Eyes turned to them and ears rotated their direction, the entirety of the Everfree Refuge seeming to hold its breath in anticipation for what she would say. Having such an attentive audience emboldened Rarity all the more, and as she took her place, she gave them all a brief smile. "My friends, if I may have your ears for a moment..."

Her hoof came up, brushed the purple diamond, and she continued. "I came to this forest a lost outsider, trying to protect my sister, and to my good fortune, found a community willing to give us a chance. Together, this safe place in chaotic times has grown, in defiance of those seeking to infiltrate and destroy it. I am grateful every day for having found you all, because without you, I don't know what I would have done."

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, her expression became much more grim. "But it isn't enough to just hide. The fires are getting more frequent, and eventually, we'll be caught in the blaze if only due to the swarm's sheer dumb luck." She stomped her hoof. "We must start venturing out, for more than scavenging. We have to find other survivors, and start turning the tides of this previously one-sided war."

"And how do we do that?" asked one of the deer, tossing his antlered head. "I am eager for vengeance as much as the next creature, but they are an unending tide."

"Not unending," Rarity said, with the smile of the one who would never allow others to suspect she didn't have every answer. "They're creatures who are born, age, and die like any other. We've already seen that they can be wounded and made to feel pain. Besides..." She took a deep breath. "To be rid of them, all we'd really need to do is get rid of their queen."

That set off a wave a fresh murmurs through the refugees, and Rarity let them simmer down again before she continued, "We've heard it from their own mouths, haven't we? Downright fanatical. Laying in the dirt, trying and failing to fly, and they'll still boast about their beloved queen. They have ultimate belief in her power, and in it, their victory."

Ponies weren't violent creatures by nature. Neither were deer. Both more than capable of it, when home and herd were threatened, but never wishing or thirsting for it. Yet in every heart there was grief, and grief turned so easily into rage, and so when the next words hit every last set of ears like a boulder into a lake, not nearly as many sought to rotate away as one would think.

"To defang the swarm, behead it."

Rarity then shook her head slightly. "But I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? As I said, first we'll need to find other survivors. Small pockets that the swarm may have initially overlooked in striking larger targets, and so have had time to bolster their defenses. Just like us." She scanned the creatures surrounding her. "And you may be asking 'how will we know where those pockets are?' Well..."

Her eyes landed on a single golden one. "Who better to know every tiny township in Equestria, but one of the mares who has stalwartly delivered to them for years?"

That gold eye shone brightly, paired with a determined smile. "I'll need some paper, and some ink."

"Pharynx, I've been thinking..."

It was late in the evening, which meant it was the time when the higher-ups took over watching the local food source. Headcounts had been done, and now it was just keeping the area locked down to stop one or more of the ponies from sneaking off under the cover of night. All the brightly-coloured creatures tended to blend together to the drones of the army, and so someone with a few more braincells and discipline had to step in to make sure there were no slip-ups.

It was necessary, but it didn't mean Pharynx had to like it, and he let out a long-suffering sigh as he glanced at his brother next to him. "Don't strain yourself, Thorax."

It took talent to for a drone's face to take on a recognizable pout. "I'm serious."

"So am I." He turned his head more fully, and glanced at the tiny drone half-hiding behind Thorax. "What's with the nymph?"

The little changeling was out of the larva stage, but still young, which meant she would have been born before the invasion but too young to have taken part. The nymphs had been kept back at the outpost just outside of Equestria, to await the time when they could rejoin the swarm. To have one skittering around out here meant that she must be about to start her training, and Pharynx was certain that the day that his brother was put in charge of preparing the next generation for raiding and conquest was the day their queen had well and truly gone insane.

Not that sane had ever fully applied to the capricious head of the hive, from his point of view.

"Oh, uh, I was just walking Ocellus over to the pen for dinner." He nodded toward the crude shelter where a group of listless, morose-looking ponies laid in a pile. The dozen-strong herd was huddled together in the burned-out remnants of what had once been a store of some kind, and what remained of its wares, and the broken glass from the shattered windows, had been cleaned away to keep any of them from getting hurt. "One of them tried to kick her the last time." He smiled a bit and puffed out his chest proudly. "So I volunteered to be her bodyguard."

Pharynx snorted. "You couldn't bodyguard against dust bunnies." He looked down at the nymph again, then jerked his head at the ponies. "Go on." The nymph stared at him silently for a couple of moments. "Go on. Eat. They won't try anything." Eventually the little one peeled herself out of Thorax's shadow and headed toward the corral, tentatively opening her mouth, and he focused back on the unwanted conversation to come. "So, thinking, huh?"

Thorax brightened. "Yeah! What I was thinking was... we've been spending a lot of resources trying to track down those last few bits of food, right?"

Pharynx shrugged. "Sure. And?"

"Well, it feels like we've kind of hit..." Ears twitched as he seemed to search for the words. "...Diminishing returns? Since there's only so much love in each individual pony, which only gives us so much power and energy, and sweeping potential hiding places takes a lot of magic and energy."

"Get to the point, Thorax."

"Well, what if, when we're done with what we have... we just move on? And leave the stragglers?" His wings buzzed with excitement, nearly causing him to lift off. "Those ponies would eventually come out of hiding and find the ponies we fed on, and nurse them back to health, and after a few generations there'd be something for us to come back to and feed on again. Like... like planting seeds and coming back to an orchard! What do you--"

Because it was Thorax, he made sure to pull the hoof strike. Severely. Anyone different on the receiving end would have dropped to the ground with cracks in the chitin of their snout, while Thorax merely jerked backward with a whine. "Pharynx, that hurt."

"It'll hurt a lot more when the queen takes you to the nearest ocean and throws you in it, you idiot," he hissed, baring his teeth. "Ponies aren't seeds, and the swarm doesn't leave behind food."

"But we've got nearly all of them alre--"

"And nearly isn't enough." He stomped his hoof. "When the swarm takes a nation, we crush it. We squeeze it for everything. Because you know what happens when you leave a few creatures behind?" His voice dropped to whisper, cautious of the twitching ears of the docile-seeming prisoners. "They grow back trying to hunt us. What do you think that creatures who've had a few generations to get ready for us are going to do when we come back? Throw us a tea party?"

"But..."

"You've got to promise me you won't say any of this to anyone else, and especially not to the queen." And for just a moment, his expression softened. "I won't be able to protect you if you do. Understand?"

Thorax rubbed his sore snout, then kicked a nearby bit of rubble with his hoof. "Yeah... I get it. Sorry."

He sighed. "The swarm also doesn't say sorry." He bobbed his head toward the ponies again, where the little nymph, now fed, was instead staring at the two brothers with wide eyes. "Go take the kid back to the nest. And stop thinking about things. You're just going to get yourself in trouble."

"Okay, okay... Come on, Occy." The nymph obediently glued herself to his side again. "Let's get you tucked in, and I'll tell you a nest time story about our glorious queen."

Pharynx watched them leave, then looked back at the small herd, only to find one of the mares having locked her eyes on him, gazing at him with newfound curiosity. He responded with a snarl that bared his fangs, and the pony's ears flattened as she averted her eyes again.

Good. Thoughts were dangerous, from his brother or from their prey.

"And... one here."

The map laid out in front of Zecora's home was crudely mouth-drawn, but Rarity counted her fortunes that it was able to be drawn at all. With fire being such a frequent tactic, paper had been in short supply even after scavenging, but their zebra friend had saved the day once again, able to provide the paper as well as the ink for the former mailmare to get to work.

The process of providing both of those materials had been fascinating, as she'd watched Zecora gather together half-ruined pieces of paper from various sources, and then had restored it. A mix of herbs to treat it with, and few rhyming words, and ink had flowed off of the paper to gather in an ink bottle as the scraps knitted themselves together into a single, large page.

It made Rarity wonder yet again how much power Zecora truly had.

Both front hooves pressed at the corners of the paper while teeth gripped the quill tightly--it was one of the diligent pegasus's own dove-grey feathers, and Rarity had been surprised about how unflinchingly she'd pulled it out--and the map had steadily taken shape, starting with Ponyville and Canterlot and spreading out in all directions as new small communities were marked with dots and names.

And with those few words spoken around her makeshift quill, she marked a final dot and finally dropped the feather, rubbing at her sore jaw with the edge of her wing.

Rarity peered at the dot. "No name?" she asked. A few of the places she'd marked hadn't had official names, but there had always been something next to them, be it a couple of descriptive words, or a name of one of the individuals who lived there. This was just a marking.

"None." The jaw-rubbing was followed up by a head-shake. "Deliveries were always just 'where the train stops.' Big packages would travel that way, but even pegasus-carried letters were left near the end of the tracks for everypony to pick up later. I only spotted the town itself once, at a distance, on my first flight there."

Where the train stops. Rarity traced the rough representation of train tracks with her hoof, right up the point where it just ended. She then looked at all the rest, each isolated little township and homestead, and gave an approving nod. "Thank you. This will be invaluable to finding everypony we can."

"Happy to help." She gave a small sigh, looking out at the village. "I didn't lose as much as some ponies. My little filly is what means to me most in the world, and she's safe. In that way, I'm pretty lucky. But I've still watched a lot of friends and neighbours mourning, and I think anything with a soul would feel for them." The golden eye gleamed with determination. "So for their sake? You give that bug queen Tartarus, Rarity."

Rarity smiled a sad smile. "I can't do it alone. But when I have the opportunity, I'll endeavour to give her a kick for each and every one of you."

"That's all I could ask for." A wing moved to beckon. "Now come on, let's get this started."

In the depths of the forest, the Tree waits.

Wait is an inaccurate word, as the Tree has no true sense of time. Creatures of flesh measure their heartbeats and breaths in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, moons, years, and so much more that means nothing to harmony's eternity. They can only see into the past, and only guess at a murky future. They only understand the ripples of their actions based on what is directly in front of them, and just trying to make them understand a fraction of the threads that spread out in every direction would make a mortal's mind break.

It is why the Tree has previously relied on the immortal to act as vessels. The sisters had been the first not to snap beneath the weight of duty placed upon them, at least not right away. The calculations had been made, and it'd known that the good done by the act would outweigh the harm.

It doesn't cry for the younger sister slain upon the ground. It doesn't feel for the elder who'd hoped for a thousand years that there would be a miracle only to have those hopes brutally shatter. It can't. It can only set up the dominos for the next generation, even if it now has no choice but to test mortals for their worthiness instead.

The calculations need to be made, because there is never a perfect answer, not when the Tree can not act by itself. But it needs to be that way. It has been planted to guide and empower, and is forbidden to dictate. It can choose the worthy, and it can revoke the choice, but free will has to be maintained at all times, or the threads of harmony will collapse.

The Tree does not wait, because waiting is done by creatures for whom the past and future are separate states. What it could be more accurately said to be doing is preparing, as possibilities rapidly fold into certainties and more possibilities spawn from the results.

The Tree can not worry. It can not be frustrated. It can not weep for the lost, and it can not fear for its own existence in a world with all harmony wrung from its corpse. It simply works toward guiding the world onto its most optimal track with the materials it has.

Light pulses through roots, up the trunk, and to the branches, and two of the remaining fruits glow from within.

"This one looks promising." Rarity's hoof tapped a dot in the west, marked Rockville. "What sort of place is it?"

"Barely a town," came the response of experience. "It's more like a few shops in the centre of a lot of homesteads. The ponies there have mostly been there for generations and largely keep to themselves."

Rarity nodded. "Isolated ponies, who know their land inside and out. If anypony is going to dig in their hooves and be difficult to remove, it's them." She looked around at those who'd started to gather; it was mostly ponies, the deer having kept back, but still regarding the proceedings with curiosity. She was certain they were considering their own pockets throughout Equestria's woodland. "I suppose it's a long shot to ask if anypony personally knows the locals?"

The gathered crowd parted as large red body stepped forward. Big Mac tended to have that effect, since as calming and gentle a presence as he had, most took one look at him and instinctively understood that giving them time to get out of his way was a courtesy to them. "Out there's rock farmers. Rock-attuned earth ponies ain't got much in common with plant-attuned, but the big family's've done some interminglin', all the same."

He stared hard at the map, and the labelled speck. "They've never come t' any reunions, but there's distant kin o' mine out there that I know 'bout. It might help with convincin' them t' talk t' us."

Rarity smiled. "It'd be appreciated, my friend. I imagine they're all very distrustful of approaching creatures, and understandably so." She looked over at Fluttershy. "What do you think, dear? Are you up for setting out for Western Equestria?"

Fluttershy's hoof came up, and nudged the butterfly around her neck. She then took a breath, and nodded. "I am if you are."

Rarity nodded back, with a smile.

It was time to start taking Equestria back.

Palatinate

Before long, Rarity would feel the sun on her coat again.

Saddlebags had been filled with preserved food, clean water, blankets, and other essentials. Big Mac had the lion's share of the supplies, but nopony was without their own load to carry. The three of them would need to take the trip, keeping the group small and primarily moving under darkness in order to not draw attention to themselves, and one of the most important essential of all was the map, which would be Rarity's to safeguard. The food would be unlikely to last the whole way, but an advantage to being a herbivore was that a pony driven to desperation could live at least a few days longer eating grass, so they'd do what they could to supplement the supplies with forage and grazing.

She kept giving the depths of the forest glances. She didn't like the tree--in fact, on a bad day, she wanted to say that she hated it--but the idea of being so far from it had her antsy. Her greatest weapon was going to be far from the source of its power, and while part of her understood that there was no finite range on the influence, the rest didn't like it, not one bit.

But it was necessary.

Ponies had been coming up and giving them things. A few deer as well. Pickled fruits, an amber lantern, other small gifts to help them on their journey. No one else had volunteered to join, and Rarity understood why. They had a home here now, and were reluctant to leave it, especially those with foals and fawns to look after. It made her all the more grateful that Mac had decided to, despite not wearing a mark of duty around his neck.

They couldn't linger much longer, however. The sun was falling beneath the horizon, and they would need to cover all the ground they could in the first night.

"Rarity!"

But she would always have time for one pony, in particular.

Rarity turned to see Sweetie Belle race toward her, and skid to a stop to keep from running into her leg. Both sisters stared at each other for a time, green and blue eyes seeming to try to bore into each other and communicate what needed to be said without words.

As neither possessed such telepathy, it was Sweetie who spoke first. "You're leaving."

"I promised I'd bring you somewhere safe--"

"And I want you to be safe too!" She stomped her hoof, and Rarity was left wondering when the little filly had found her boldness. "You're my sister. Promise me you're coming back. Promise me!"

"I..." Rarity took a breath, and lowered herself to the ground. Down at the same level, there was less neck strain involved in locking eyes. "I promise, Sweetie. I'll come back." She leaned over and nuzzled the top of her head, as an older sibling should, and the contact and familiar affection unraveled some of the tension in both of them. "I'll find the survivors, and then I'll come home."

"Good." Sweetie squinted a bit. "And no going back on it."

Rarity gave a mock gasp. "Sweetie, what sort of mare would be if I went back on my word?" When the look didn't let up, she added, more sincerely, "I kept my first promise, didn't I? I'll keep this one too." She slowly got to her hooves again. "Now, you behave for Cheerliee, and don't let any of your new friends talk you into anything you don't want to do, okay?"

"Okay." Rarity could see the tears shimmering at the edge of Sweetie's eyes. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too."

They stayed in each other's presence a little longer, as much time as they possibly could. Then Fluttershy and Mac stepped over, joining them at the edge of the green curtain obscuring the refuge, and Rarity knew that it was time to go.

Rail lines were very new to Equestria, because trains were a very new thing to the entire world.

Whenever a nation had its population of flying species over a certain percent, transportation innovation tended to start and end with "get someone to fly it there." Mail was traditionally flown to its destination by winged couriers, while sky carts could be pulled by one or two flying creatures to get a heavier load or a passenger somewhere quickly. If you couldn't get there over roads, you looked to those who could move through the sky, and in a place that was just in that sweet spot of winged creatures being a minority but just large enough of one, an adolescent could make some decent spending money with a part time delivery job.

Some places didn't have that luxury, however, and Minos had been one of them. Minotaurs could carry a lot of weight per individual, but were relying on bipedal, ground-based locomotion. They'd pioneered some of the first airships, but they'd also contemplated ways to get things along the ground faster, and from that had come trains. And as the possible benefits started to sink in for other places--and the screaming from the winged creatures who didn't like giving up any pieces of their pie died down--the technology had started to spread.

When the swarm had invaded Canterlot, the Trans-Equestrian Railroad had just barely been finished. Ponies were just starting to become accustomed to either having goods arriving by train, or traveling by them themselves. It'd been the start of a technological and cultural shift, with the full ripple effect yet to be seen.

Now the tracks were bare. Not a single train to spot in the distance, whistle to hear in the air, or whiff of smoke to scent. Just wood and metal, the road for an absent traveler, stretching off into the distance.

The map the three had was crude, and there had always been a chance that, despite their best efforts, they would stray too far and miss the correct town entirely. And so its creator had sketched out the rail lines as well, that she had gotten used to seeing below her as she soared from place to place. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Big Mac would follow the rails for as much of the journey as they could, to have the best chance of getting where they needed to be.

The moon has high in the sky as they walked, and they took turns looking upward, both to gauge the time by its place in the sky and check for anything that blocked part of its glow. Ears constantly rotated, hunting for the buzzing of wings, and conversation was sparse, kept to occasional check-ins to make sure each of them was okay with the load they carried.

They needed to cross as much distance on the first night as possible. They needed to get away from the Everfree Forest, and everyone in it, so that if they were caught, they wouldn't be recognized as being part of the refuge. After all, nopony wanted to be used as bait to try to lure their fellows out.

The moon was half-way across the horizon when Fluttershy brushed against Rarity, and the pair's eyes met.

Fluttershy lifted her neck, nudged at the butterfly around it, and then moved her head to gesture toward Big Mac with her snout.

Rarity followed the look, saw him staring at the sky in his turn to watch for wings, then looked back at Fluttershy, and all she could do was shrug.

Fluttershy drooped with a sigh, and Rarity nudged her back, before giving a reassuring smile.

It was possible they had their third member already, but she couldn't know for sure right now. She hadn't been entirely certain about Fluttershy either... until she was, and had known it was time. They would both just have to trust their instincts when the moment came.

To try to drag anypony to the tree before then...

There were things Rarity wouldn't wish on her worst enemy, and an audience with that tree when it didn't want company was the very top of the list.

All herds of food eventually came to Canterlot.

For some, it had been nearly right away, such as the haul of assorted creatures from Ponyville. With the city so close, ransacking and relocation had gone on one right after the other, ponies and other prey being driven along the rail-line to the conquered capitol. For others, it had taken longer, the swarm establishing themselves within the bones of other major cities and gathering together the populations from neighbouring towns. Those cities would become nesting sites, but once all eggs had hatched and the grubs could be more easily transported, the migration would start there too.

Everything had to be gathered in one place, because the queen's appetite was greater than any individual changeling's. The kind of power necessary to best an alicorn needed plenty of feeding, and every last one of them knew that if she ever was left wanting, they would never have another victory again.

Canterlot's streets were becoming filled with so many different ponies. Ponies of Cloudsdale, Applewood, Fillydelphia, Vanhoover...

A mare was being led down the street, one of the few prey creatures who still had clothing. Most had found their outfits growing torn and dirty, ripped by fangs and caked with green slime, and they would eventually discard the garments, leaving them in bare fur as they were chased from pen to pen. This mare had stubbornly clung to the dress she'd been found in during the attack, and even now that it was ripped and torn, smeared with mud and blood, it stayed draped over her body, and her head remained held high.

One drone, one who had only ever occupied Canterlot and had not seen the mare before, dove at her with buzzing laugher, snapping fangs at the train of her dress. A single kick sent that drone dropping to the ground.

The changeling leading her stopped and stared at the mare, and the mare stared back in a silent dare. The changeling flew a body length away, and the mare obediently followed. And so a simple nod was given, and the walk continued, the drone on the ground destined to have it pointed out to them that ponies kick, and so approaching one from that end was asking for it.

Eventually, the additional lesson would come from those who had occupied Manehattan, which was that, when it came to that mare, she would be docile enough for feeding on and leading around, but you didn't touch the outfit.

"Heads down and ears up, everypony. Wings."

Rarity's hiss had Fluttershy and Big Mac on their hooves, then their bellies to the ground, in moments. The sun had risen a few hours ago, and they'd been taking refuge in a line of trees not far from the tracks. Once their ears were up and searching for it, the buzzing in the distance was unmistakable, and all three ponies went still as they hunted as best they could for a visual of the incoming changelings.

Be calm.

It's what Rarity had told the others, and what she kept repeating to herself.

Be calm. Slow, steady breaths. Don't let your fear get the best of you, or your rage, or your grief. They won't sense you from proximity, but a big enough emotional spike will get their attention. Don't give them a reason to think there's something out here, and they won't actively search.

It was easier said than done, of course. Everypony had lost somepony, and so it was natural to have everything rise and surge upon seeing the source of all of this torment.

For Rarity, however, when she saw what was approaching the tracks, the reaction was more of a slowly sinking stone in her barrel, dragged all the deeper when she heard Fluttershy whisper, "They're... so much smaller..."

Indeed they were. One of the drones was full-sized, leading the group along, but the rest were only half-sized, following in the ordinary drone's wake like ducklings behind a duck. Rarity watched, and she counted quietly. Six little ones, all landing together by the tracks, and looking around with curious compound eyes as the drone spoke, their words lost over the distance.

"They're nymphs," Rarity managed to say. "Children. There were some in Applewood, during the occupation. They're probably..." Her heart sank all the more and she flinched. "...Around Sweetie's age. The slightly bigger ones are no doubt older, and the very small one sticking close to the adult may be younger."

"What would they be doin' out here, then?" Mac whispered, ears still twisting searchingly for the sound of more.

Rarity shrugged. "Something educational, perhaps? The adult teaching them about the rail system?"

"Or huntin' for stragglers..." Even so low to the ground, Mac still managed to paw at the dirt with his hoof. "What'd you say before t' us? Go for the wings first?"

"Mac..." Fluttershy said softly, eyes widening. "They're foals."

"They're changelings. They took my Granny an' tried t' take Apple Bloom. You think for one tree-kickin' second that if that were Cheerilee an' some o' her students they wouldn't still start swoopin'?"

"Big Macintosh," Rarity's voice was a low, dangerous hiss. "Look at me, right now." His eyes met hers, and as he stared down the full blazing fury of the mare next to him, she saw him flinch back slightly. "Think about what you've just said. Standing out there is the equivalent of Cheerilee and her students. Creatures too young to have hurt your family, and their guardian."

She continued to stare at him, hard, trying to make each word enter his ears and stick. "Do you think they had anything to do with your grandmother? With Ponyville? Do you think beating them into the dirt would help us find her? Do you?"

Mac's ears twisted backward, his eyes squeezed shut, and his head sank. "...No. I reckon it wouldn't."

Rarity softened, and sighed. "You're a good, upstanding stallion. I know you wouldn't say that sort of thing while in your right mind. Just remember, my friend: it's the queen we're after. And on our way to her, we should strive to be better than our enemy."

He nodded, silently. Then he and Rarity looked up as Fluttershy gave a frightened squeak. "Th-they're headed for us."

Mac's emotion surge. Rarity looked out to see two of the nymphs taking curious steps in their direction and sniffing the air, and cursed under her breath. "Fall back. Quietly. And try not to be afraid."

They both nodded, and the three started to slowly push themselves backward, deeper into the brush, trying to not even breathe too hard as they moved and watched the two young changelings hop into the air and open their wings to buzz closer. They got nearer to the tree line, were clearly about to cross over into it...

"I said no wandering off while we're out here! You two don't want a chimera to jump out of the woods and eat you, do you?"

Both nymphs froze in the air at the call, did a rapid about-face, and zoomed back over to the others, hasty apologies tumbling from them, and Rarity let out the breath she'd been holding in a long sigh.

The swarm had been experimenting with letting the herds mingle.

Ponies could be insular creatures, but that wasn't a hard-and-fast rule. Mix together ponies from two different locations, and you may luck into family members or friends who had drifted apart finding one another again, and that rekindled relationship under dire circumstances would provide more food for the changelings guarding them. Better yet, they may form new attachments, providing a rush of new love to dine upon.

As more creatures were brought into Canterlot, the groups that had previously been kept together were being split up, mixed into existing feeding-herds like drops of new paint on a pallet to make new hues. The orange mare was being taken from the cluster of Manehattan socialites she'd been thrown together with before, and put in with ponies who'd been acquired closer to Canterlot.

At first, she didn't react much to the shell of what had once been a high-end boutique, merely stepping inside when told to. A few of the exhausted, worn-down ponies in the group lifted their heads, finding the energy to rouse themselves at the new and unusual sight, but none moved toward her or spoke, simply staring at the newcomer with a tired sort of pity.

Then one voice did rise.

"Land's sake! Jackie, what'd they do t' those nice clothes o' yours? I ain't seen you that messy since y'were a filly."

The orange mare looked, found the ancient green mare among the cluster, and tears pricked at her eyes as she gave a slow smile.

"This? This is nuthin'. Y'should see what I did t' them, Granny."

The changelings were there for at least an hour, talking amongst themselves, before they finally moved on. The nymphs would alternate between listening to whatever the adult was saying, and playing amongst themselves. They were a lot like cats, stalking one another, pouncing, and tumbling, with the smallest of them tucking themselves beneath the adult drone to avoid the ruckus. Only once did the guardian intervene, and that's when they tumbled onto the tracks; while the words didn't carry the way the previous call had, the tone was clearly stern, likely warning them of the danger of a train coming while they played.

When they took to the air, finally, Mac was the one who watched them go, while Rarity, in turn, watched him. She watched a stallion weighed down by sorrow, and the realization of what he'd almost done.

Just when she started to consider getting more rest before nightfall, she heard him speak quietly. "Miss Rarity?'

"Hmm?" She straightened out her posture after far too long against the dirt. "What is it, my friend?"

"When we get rid o' their queen, are those lil changelings goin' t' starve?"

Rarity stood there, frozen. "I..." She looked down at her necklace, nudged it slightly, and took a breath. "No, Mac. Not if we don't want them to. No child should suffer for the sins of their parents, and... I'm certain somepony would be willing to love them."

He nodded at that, seemingly satisfied. But there was no question of who would take watch as the other two slept, because he never took his eyes off the sky.

Rarity hadn't thought she'd need to answer a question like that, at least not so soon. But she felt she'd given him the honest truth.

Nymphs were just children, and ponies forgave.

Amethyst

"A unicorn did all of this to you?"

The drone at the foot of the Canterlot palace throne buzzed ratted wings as he shifted from hoof to hoof. He looked at his scratched and dented carapace, along with the copious amount of splinters, his ears twitching nervously, and finally managed, "Well not... all of it. Some of it was the timberwolves."

"Timberwolves?" Queen Chrysalis repeated, from where she lounged upon her stolen throne--the best kind of throne there could be, for one whose royal title had first been won in conquest--her voice full of incredulity. "This unicorn could command timberwolves?"

"Well it's not so much that she... not so much that she commanded so much as..."

The story was told. Haltingly and flinchingly, but it was told. From the infiltration of the Thicket, to the pegasus and her strange green mixture, to the way that the unicorn had systematically taken him down as if it were nothing. Chrysalis listened, taking in each word with something that was barely patience, her occasional sneer and show of teeth making the words come a bit faster for a time with a trade-off of comprehensibility.

She let him get right to when the howling started, and then held up her hoof, making him hastily fall silent.

And then she laughed.

It was the sort of laughter that started as giggling, then steadily built until it was riotous bellows, the force of it shaking Chrysalis so much, she threatened to fall from the throne. It briefly sounded like she may choke, but the royal changeling never fully succumbed the threatened coughing, the laughter eventually fading away with a last, whine-like, "Haaaah..." and an amused shake of her head. "Rarity the unicorn, is it?"

"Y-yes, Your Majesty," the drone managed, "That's what she said her name was."

Rarity. Many ponies threw two words together to form their names, but occasionally, they would do things the way changelings did and choose only one. Short, simple, and sweet. Chrysalis approved, as much as she could care about anything that food did.

"How cute. Prey making themselves out to be so frightening, and yet she doesn't even finish the job herself--"

"I-I think she might have intentionally spared--"

"--Because no mere pony knows how to kill a changeling." She smiled in smug triumph. "If that is the most resistance the local prey can offer, then we'll have that delicious little village in our grasp in no time."

"But we can't infiltra--"

"Lieutenant Pharynx!"

The armoured drone to the right of her throne snapped to attention. "Yes, Your Majesty?"

Chrysalis bared her teeth in one of her widest grins. "Double your efforts on the Everfree. Smoke out those ponies and deer, even if you have to burn the entire forest to the ground to do it."

He nodded sharply. "Orders received, Your Majesty. It'll be done."

She nodded her own approval. Pharynx was an interesting individual, always standing out immediately thanks to his unique hues. Mutations didn't pop up often among changeling grubs, but when they did, those grubs either proved themselves exceptional quickly, or they found themselves equally quickly snuffed out as those mutations proved disadvantageous.

He'd been proving himself a former case, rising through the ranks as he had with admirably ruthless efficiency. The drones respected him, and would fall in line when he arrived. General Vixen would always sing his praises after a raid, and Chrysalis had never doubted a word of it.

Chrysalis's mirthful mood quickly evaporated, and she gestured at the drone with her hoof. "You're dismissed. Go clean up and make yourself look like less of a fool who crashed into a pile of old wood."

The drone didn't need to be told twice, zipping out of the room with haste. It left Chrysalis drooping with a morose sigh, and then, when she noticed Pharynx looking at her, huffing and straightening herself out again. "I believe I told you to double efforts on the Everfree, Lieutenant."

His ears twitched. "Right now, Your Majesty?"

"Yes, Lieutenant, I want you mobilizing more fire-spreaders RIGHT NOW!"

The sudden shout and bared teeth made him jump, and his wings opened instinctively. Even for such a battle-hardened drone, it took time to regain composure as she snarled at him, but he managed enough to fire off a salute before he fled her presence even more swiftly than the splinter-covered infiltrator.

Now alone, Chrysalis sighed again, sitting in her broken throne room and left staring at a pile of empty bottles that had taken up one corner, only half-hidden by the scorched tapestry that hung there. Some efforts had been made to clean the throne room up, but a few things had been kept, showing their damage. After all, it wouldn't do to polish it all up and forget that a battle had happened here.

She glared at the bottles. The wine cellar had long run dry, and raiding the former homes of the nobility had only yielded inferior vintages, which had similarly vanished all too quickly.

Few changelings truly understood the enjoyment of such luxuries. They sought to take the edge off their hunger, and little else. None of them had thought to bring anything with them other than the grubs and the prey, and the thought of going out hunting herself for some sweet red wine...

Distasteful. The queen shouldn't have to. It should be her reward. She had infiltrated. She had bested Celestia. She had brought her people a feast like none they had ever had before. She deserved to reap the spoils.

She deserved everything. Every single drop.

Rock farming was, by its nature, a ponderously slow art.

Earth ponies could rarely do anything that a given piece of earth wasn't going to do on its own, in time. Much like how a pegasus could form a cloud, make that cloud rain or set off thunder, but couldn't spontaneously turn the water vapour into cotton candy, it was all about nudges, and acceleration.

A plant-attuned earth pony could encourage a tree to grow faster, or make it produce fruit more times in a year than it normally would, while a stone-attuned one could encourage the minerals around to bind together in just the right way, much faster than they ever would on their own. The right nudges of the right materials could create everything from stone ideal for making buildings to some of the most dazzling jewels.

Faster than ordinary rock formation was still much, much slower than most other magics, and that was where numbers came in. In urgent situations, earth ponies acted as herds, each providing their own push that added up. To Rainbow Dash, as she watched the Pie family at work, she couldn't help but compare it to tornado creation. No individual pegasus could make one on their own, but combine the efforts of enough together, coordinate them, and the funnel cloud would start to take shape.

For the family, their funnel clouds were instead stones that rose up like walls at the edges of the property, curving inward at the top. Spikes, jagged and irregular, jutted along the top edge and the both sides, outward and inward, making the prospect of flying into the farm a hazardous one, and flying out all the more. Even the changelings who got past those defenses would not find the place welcoming, as piles of stones were placed everywhere, ready to be sent through the air with a well-placed kick.

It was like a giant bug trap. Appropriate, since they would be fighting giant bugs.

"How's it looking up there, Dashie?"

Rainbow paused, the forming cloud still between her front hooves, and looked down, meeting the smile from Pinkie with one of her own. "Really good! I'll have this done in ten more seconds, twenty tops!"

Her part in all of this had been a simple one. Below the majority of the spikes and above the stashes of projectiles, she was forming a cloud layer roughly three average pony heights tall, thick enough that there would be no seeing what was underneath until an invader punched through, and by then, there would be earth ponies assembled and ready to start kicking.

Pegasi could stand on clouds and, if they poured enough magic into them, allow other winged species to do so as well. The population of Cloudsdale had always had a tight-knit minority of griffons, because while they had no inherent cloudwalking abilities themselves, they could interact with pegasus architecture with the same ease its creators could. Changelings, presumably, would be the exact same way.

And Rainbow Dash, as she sculpted the layer, was pouring in just enough energy to start the effect.

The changelings wouldn't be able to stand comfortably. There would be no perching to rest, because they'd start to sink through, as if in very fluffy quicksand. There would also be no going through it quickly, as they'd have no magic to allow them to coax the cloud apart and so would be, at best, trying to brute-force fly their way through something with the consistency of syrup. It would slow them down, while having no idea what awaited them on the other side.

Not quite as awesome and just taking them all on single-hoofed, but Rainbow had watched Cloudsdale fall, and she knew when to set aside the action story set pieces and play it smart.

And with her boast made and audience now present, she set about making those finishing touches as awesome a display as possible. Swoops, dives, well-placed hoof strikes to get everything into place, and thirteen-point-two seconds later, she swooped back down, grinning at Pinkie's wide eyes and open mouth.

"That's so--"

"Awesome?" she puffed out her chest proudly. "What'd I tell you? I wasn't top of my class in weather control for nothing. Those changelings won't know what hit them." She grinned. "Got anything else you need?"

Pinkie shook her head. "Nope! I was just coming to get you for dinner. Mom made the rock soup with extra salt this time, to celebrate all the defenses being up."

Rainbow made a face. "Great..." The grin came back, much more forced. "Then let's go in and eat. Burning that much magic's got me starving."

Rest by day, move by night.

There hadn't been any incidents like the one with the nymphs since, and while part of Rarity was relieved, she would also spend each sunrise, as she settled down to rest, expecting the metal clang of a dropping shoe.

It was all going too smoothly. Scouts had to be patrolling the rails, as she was certain the swarm would have realized that ponies would follow the tracks even without trains. It was such an obvious move that, were she in their place, there would have been at least five skirmishes right now, maybe six.

Where are your resources going, then?

What are you planning?

Food stores were running low, as predicted, but they'd stretched them out by eating the scant vegetation. The first mouthful of wild grass had nearly made Rarity spit it right out again, and she'd spent a while watching Fluttershy and Big Macintosh eat with far less in the way of complaints. Then again, with the two of them, there was rarely much in the way of dinner conversation at all.

There were rare grasses that were thought of as delicacies, carefully cultivated, and she'd been open to the idea of trying them, but when it came to what nature had to offer, she'd be happy to never have to put such a thing in her mouth ever again.

The pressure of the depleting food, and the lack of patrols, had had the group starting to push their luck, and keeping going further and further past sunrise. Despite knowing the only way such risks could end, Rarity had gone along with it, taking every moment beneath the warm sun and savouring it.

It was on one of such mornings, sun already risen, that they heard it. With ears tuned for buzzing wings, there was a moment that Rarity was alarmed and looking up. Then, upon realizing what it really was, she relaxed again. For all of two seconds, when it fully sunk in what she was hearing instead.

Humming.

Some creature, out in broad daylight, was playing so fast and loose with their own safety that they were making noise for no other reason than to make noise. Rarity glanced down at her necklace, then when she looked ahead, she saw it.

A pony strolling toward them seemingly without a care in the world, not only humming out the wordless tune, but prancing their way along the rail line with eyes shut. A burnt yellow coat was paired with a brighter yellow shirt, and a voluminous brown mane bounced in time with the self-made music.

There were no signs of injury, old or recent. Nothing in his gait that suggested fatigue, illness or even simple hunger. Not even any chips in the hooves from excessive walking on wild terrain. There were no signs of any cart, any saddlebags, or any other way to carry supplies, either. Just a lone pony trotting along the tracks, happy as you please.

All three looked at each other, and Rarity gave a grim nod. Big Mac fell back behind the two mares, and they kept up their pace as they headed directly for the stranger. Ears continued to rotate, listening for more, and eventually, the humming ceased, and eyes opened.

"Well hi there!" the stallion greeted. "Didn't expect to see anypony else out here."

Almost close enough.

"Yes," Rarity said evenly, trying to keep her emotions from flaring. "These days are... troublesome, for traveling."

"But all the more reason to enjoy each and every day, am I right?" The smile was bright, cheery, and far too big, placing ice on Rarity's spine. "Where are you headed?"

One more step.

"T' see some family," Mac responded, patiently, his low drawl giving nothing away.

"Aw, that's--"

Rarity wished she'd been able to be pleasantly surprised. She'd wished that a trap would only have been so obvious if it weren't a trap at all, and she'd really just found one of the sunniest ponies on the entire planet. It would have been nice, to have one more companion along, one who may even have potential to appease that tree, since it seemed to think such traits as being able to smile at the worst of times was a virtue.

Instead, as they came close enough, everything went exactly as she'd expected. The diamond and butterfly gems lit up, and the fierce white glow made the stallion flinch and stumble backward. "What are--?"

They're here. Six--no seven--others. We're outnumbered more than two-to-one.

Rarity's horn lit soon after, blazing as she reared up and readied her spell. "It's an ambush!"

Which means I may actually break a sweat.

"But I'm allergic to at least half of the trees in there!"

"I don't care! The queen wants as many fire-spreaders as possible, and she's in one of her shouty moods. You can either come with me to the Everfree and deal with the sneezing, or you can find out what happens when she trades in the shouting for kicking! You understand me?"

"But--"

"Move your carapaces before I move them for you, you bunch of whimpering grubs!"

Twilight Sparkle lifted her head, and quietly watched the argument in progress. She'd been watching that one in particular, the one with the purple eyes, every time he came near her group. Right now he was snarling at the cluster of other changelings who'd been watching over them, who all cowered back as they protested, and her ears twitched as she logged away the word Everfree for later.

Part of her curiosity had been purely pragmatic. He was better armoured than the others, and she'd heard enough snippets of conversation to catch his rank. She was trying to put together a model of their chain of command, to have a better idea of how the swarm operated. It was far too easy to fall into the trap of seeing them as interchangeable, but the longer she observed them, the more it was clear they were a society of individuals, and that was important knowledge.

Know thy enemy, as they said.

But some of the curiosity was just... curiosity. He looked different from the others, and while he was aggressive, there seemed to be a method to it. It seemed protective, like he was trying to be an insulating layer between his subordinates and his superiors. Barking at them so they didn't get bitten. It was fascinating, and made her wonder more about how their species' social dynamics worked beyond just how to exploit that system to free Canterlot.

She couldn't get too lost in her interest and speculation, however. This wasn't a research project or a cultural exchange. She was a prisoner, and she needed to slip away again soon, to get to the others.

Sunset Shimmer had told them last time that she was fine-tuning a plan. Tonight, it would hopefully be ready. It had been natural for her to take the lead, having been the princess's star pupil, and clearly knowing the city inside and out as a result. With the invasion throwing everything into chaos, she'd become a rock for them all to cling to, and they'd needed to do that clinging.

Twilight would get to see Moondancer too, soon, and despite it all, the thought made her smile.

The lieutenant spotted her staring, and soon his snarling face was focused on her instead. She quietly averted her eyes, for not the first time, and likely not the last. Trying to seem like she was meek in the face of her captivity. Though, it wasn't as if he could do much to her for it. The swarm needed its food, after all.

Twilight knew she couldn't let herself get too wrapped up in studying them. She couldn't equinize them too much.

She couldn't let herself hesitate when the time was right.

One the fruits on the Tree is purple.

All of them are the same size, and same shape. They were when the first potential bearer stepped forward, that way they remain. All equal parts a single set, all ripe and ready to be claimed. Only the colour sets them apart, and the colour has shifted over time as calculations are made. Preparing for just the right hoof to reach out.

The purple fruit has shifted a few times before landing on its current hue. Briefly, it'd burned orange like the setting sun, and in another moment it'd been an almost icy blue, but now it's settled on its lavender hue, unlikely to change further. Mortals are not ideal bearers and never have been, but the Tree watches all that has been, is, and can be, and sees everything arrange itself and make the path clear.

Nothing is perfect, but with its choices, the outcome is the best that can be hoped for.

Not that the Tree can hope, but it understands hope slightly more than many other emotions. Hope is important to foster, and keep alive, because without it, the threads wither and the connections collapse. When hope dies, much more follows, and it can not create heroes with nothing left that can hope.

That will not be permitted to happen.

These Bearers of Harmony will ensure that this world continues to have hope, one step at a time. They must, and they will, because the Tree is already certain of its success. It always knows that each bearer it chooses will further push the world away from disaster, and set things on a better path.

It can not fear failure, because it has already predicted victory.

It can not care about the cost.

Thistle

Those who only had a passing familiarity with ponies in combat situations tended to come to the conclusion that earth pony combat with all about physicality.

It was an easy conclusion to come to. Earth ponies were, pound for pound, the strongest variety of pony, and their tendency to be bigger and broader than other tribes meant that they had even more pounds to throw around. Earth pony skeletons were denser, their hooves harder, and they healed slightly faster, which meant that they also more easily built up muscle. An earth pony charging at anything but the most resilient of targets was going to do serious damage.

But there was so much more to it than that. Because the first tenet of earth pony combat wasn't physical power. It was home field advantage.

Granny Smith offering to hold off the changelings while her grandfoals ran hadn't been empty bravado. The farm had been her land, and when an earth pony had become attuned to their territory, they could turn their home into a fortress or weapon all its own. Some of the rules on what could and couldn't be done could be bent by a steady hoof on familiar land.

Big Macintosh was far from Ponyville, but for the right pony, home field could be a flexible concept. It was all about mindset, and it didn't pay to have too rigid of one.

There were two changelings swooping at him. With the group outnumbered, they hadn't been able to ground all of the drones before they took to the air, and so these two were flexing their supposed advantage by continually diving and snapping at him with their teeth. Trying to herd him and separate him from the others. And he played along with their attempts the whole time, firing off kicks he knew would miss, swinging his head wildly, even rearing once to strike out with his front hooves.

They wanted to exhaust him, demoralize him, and then pounce. That's what Rarity had told him about her own experiences with the swarm. They wore out and frightened their victims, because they only wanted to exert as much physical force as necessary to subdue, and it was so much easier if the pony stopped resisting.

He let them drive him away from the others, and toward the tracks. Tracks that they'd been following for days, that he'd been seeing all the time. Tracks that a certain sort of pony could start to get attached to, even protective of. Some pegasi got attached to a particular view of the sky, and so an earth pony could easily grow to see that a certain feature of the landscape, even a sapient-made one, was theirs.

Big Mac reared, striking out without any intent to hit. Then his hooves came down again, on the tracks.

His was a plant-aligned earth pony, and with an open enough mind, that could mean both plants living and dead.

The wood of the train tracks warped, and the changelings shrieked in the face of a hail of erupting splinters.

Applewood is burning as ponies scream.

She tries to run, but she doesn't know where to run to, not when the sky is dark with thousands of pitch-black bodies. Monsters are swooping from the sky, buzzing like clouds of angry wasps, sharp teeth in disturbingly equine mouths snapping toward manes, tails, anything they can grab hold of or just use to herd everypony. The pegasi are trying to go up, to find the space to fly away, but she can only gallop wildly among her fellow ground-bound, trying to find shelter from the swarm.

She can hear voices of co-workers, clients, friends. Crying out for help, trying to find each other, or just more screams of fear and pain. It's a never-ending tidal wave of sounds that will from then on haunt her nightmares, the sound of her home being devastated and ransacked by creatures like none she's ever seen.

Her entire life is dying around her, being snuffed out in an instant.

As she runs blindly through the streets, she doesn't know that part of her will die today with it.

Three had gone for Fluttershy, but she sensed they were more than a little confused by how the battle was going.

The first instinct for nearly any pegasus was to go up, either to escape a landbound threat or meet an airborne one head-on. And so when she'd opened her wings, the drones had opened theirs, no doubt intending to reach the air before her and try to force her back to ground. It only made sense, as her tribe's domain was the sky, and so keeping her away from it should naturally be the priority. However...

Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly...

Her wings opened up right before she slammed one of them into a drone's face.

Most pegasi were at home in the sky, but Fluttershy had spent her entire adult life on the ground. Not out of necessity, but because she'd chosen to go, to shed the clouds to live among the animals who made the land home. She'd learned things, and from more than just Rarity and her insights into fighting changelings. She'd learned from her animals friends that she'd cared for over the years, all the ways that they searched for food, made shelters, and, if need be, defended themselves.

If there's one thing she'd learned from Mr. & Mrs. Swan, it was wings could be weapons.

She didn't like hurting other creatures, but all of the animal caretaking had taught her many ways that creatures could be hurt, including by each other. Wings struck out, at angles meant to maximize their force. Her long tail followed sharp hip motions to strike out like a whip, bowling them over with the sheer weight of thick, voluminous hair. Hooves, front and back, made satisfying cracking sounds against chitin, and one drone drew back with a start when she flat teeth snapped shut inches from their snout.

The worst off was the one who made the mistake of meeting her eyes.

There was no fear in Fluttershy's gaze. They had no doubt seen pony eyes widen with fear more than once, the rising panic of a herd that found themselves surrounded by monsters and would soon devolve into mindless fleeing. Fluttershy's eyes were wide, but the only emotion behind them was a rage and determination that burned to look into. She had a stare that would make a creature do anything, cave to any wish, to just make it stop.

The changeling drone met her eyes, and they were the one to break. Wings buzzed with an uproar of terror, and the jet black body found speeds it had never reached before in a mad dash to get away from the fire in her stare.

And Fluttershy wasn't done yet.

She's lost in the twists and turns, the familiar made alien by smoke, debris, and terror. She can't even see the Applewood sign in the distance, the grounding nature of the iconic landmark gone and leaving her adrift. She doesn't know how long she's been running, doesn't know where it is, and it's too horrifyingly easy to take a wrong turn into a dead end.

"Well well..."

The voice is like poisoned syrup, the dangerously sweet tone rolling off an alien tongue, with a tell-tale buzzing edge like a looming swarm of hornets. The buzzing is purely in the voice, as when she turns, the creature is standing on the ground rather than airborne. The flickering of the flames dance off the armour, illuminating the image of a heart as surely as it reflects off of compound eyes and long fangs.

No escape.

Her sides are heaving with exhausted breaths, her coat soaked with sweat. But she rears up, her front hooves raised in the hope of defending herself.

The monster laughs as she closes in.

Rarity was laughing.

These battles were a grim necessity, just an obstacle between herself and true victory, but there was still something satisfying to showing these changelings that their prey was still dangerous. Anyone they'd ambushed before like this had likely been all the same, frightened creatures scurrying around at the fringes just trying to stay out of sight, quick to break and lose hope when it seemed like they'd join the rest of their kind in captivity.

They had subverted the Royal Guard, had crushed or compromised anypony who'd been trained to put up a fight in the early days of the invasion. They may have forgotten that ponies could fight at all.

Stones, twigs, chunks of dirt, and more whirled around her head, coated in the light of her horn, hurtling into wings, leg-holes, jaws, eyes, anything that would make them draw back and be thrown off-balance. She knew all too well how sturdy they were, and so threw everything she had at them to keep them on their back hooves.

Unicorns would typically try to cast spells when threatened, but those took too much time, and could be interrupted, especially for ponies who hadn't been given the training. Straightforward energy blasts and thrown objects, on the other hoof, were much, much faster. The worst interrupting those would do would throw off her aim, and with three changelings surroundings her, she was bound to still hit something.

They'd long dealt with all the soldiers. They didn't know what to do with a jewel-flanked mare who never ran out of things to throw at them.

Their prey was supposed to be harmless. Helpless.

And Rarity refused to ever be that way.

The hoof presses against her throat, and the fanged beast leans down, a cruel gleam in her eyes. The fight, if one could even call it that, had been over far too fast. After all, what could a pony, with no mark and no training for combat, do against such a creature, covered in armour both natural and artificial, with magic like none she had ever seen? She'd been tossed side with frightening ease, and roughly slammed into the ground.

Soon the buzzing voice pipes up again, directly next to an ear trying to twist away from warm, sickly-sweet breath. "You have spirit, but everyone breaks under the hoof of Queen Chrysalis. And when you're penned together with your friends and neighbours, for us to harvest our fill from... remember that it was General Vixen who put you there."

She'll remember. She will always remember this day, and those words.

And she promises herself that, someday, it'll be her own hoof on Vixen's neck.

Rarity's hoof came down on a drone's throat, and the word hissed its way from between clenched teeth. "Yield."

The changeling squirmed, front legs clawing at the dirt and hind legs kicking out. "When I get my teeth into you, pony--"

Rarity's horn lit, and the drone instinctively flinched away from the light. "I said, yield, unless you'd like this to become all the more unpleasant for you and your friends."

The drone hissed at her, compound eyes glaring up at her defiantly. "Changelings don't have friends."

Her hoof dug that little bit more into the protective chitin, watching thin ears pin back at the grinding sound. "Your cohorts, then. All of you are going to cooperate with us, because we're going to make doing otherwise very hazardous to your health."

The drone moved his head as much as he could, seeing several of his fellows being held down by Big Mac's bulk, while a couple more were being held down by Fluttershy, who had her wings raised in a menacing posture. But he still had some fight in him yet. "We don't yield to food."

Rarity tittered, and she leaned down, bringing her face close to his. "Oh? Food, are we?" She smiled, showing teeth that it was a crime didn't have the sharp points to match the words. "Well then, go ahead and eat. Take your fill. You're no doubt hungry after all of that. What's stopping you?"

Predictably, the mouth opened at the goading, jaw almost seeming to unhinge like a serpent. Then it suddenly snapped shut again, coated in glow, and there was fear in those compound eyes.

Rarity tittered again. "And now we understand each other." She raised her voice, slightly, to address them. "If any of you little dears try to feed, we will retaliate, and ensure that you shan't take a single drop." Her eyes glinted with menace, placing a bit of extra weight on her hoof. "We can stay here all day. Can you? When was the last time any of you ate?"

The drone snarled, the sound muffled by his forced-shut jaws.

"What was that, darling? I certainly hope it was a 'yes, we will answer all of your questions,' for your sakes."

She released the magic, and the drone carefully worked his jaws, before growling, "Fine. What do you want to know, pony?"

"Ah ah ah..." Rarity waved her front leg not occupied with holding him down as she tut-tutted. She then let it drop, the hoof hitting the ground next to his head in a silent threat. "Not 'pony.' You can call me either 'miss,' or 'Rarity,' or 'Miss Rarity.'"

He growled, but when she lit her horn, he relented. "What do you want to know, miss?"

She grinned. "We'll start with the easy questions..."

It's weeks later that she revises her promise, slightly.

She's penned together with a few familiar faces, and mostly strangers. Changelings keep approaching her, opening their mouths, and with each draining, the white-hot core of vengeance in her barrel burns that bit brighter. Love is stripped away bit-by-bit, and where the ponies around her seem to sink further and further into despair, she finds herself scorched by more fury.

General Vixen will pay, but this will be more than petty vengeance. She'll learn to fight back, and she will change this.

They just need to have one slip. Make one mistake. Give her a chance to get away.

And she'll make them regret ever coming here.

For a long while, the only thought in the drone's head was fly.

No changeling wanted to admit to the strength of their flight instinct. They weren't supposed to be afraid of anything--unless that thing was the queen, of course; no changeling was foolish enough to not flee the royal presence post haste after being given orders, because anyone who had been had long been kicked across the continent--because they were what their prey needed to be afraid of. Fearlessness, the willingness to charge at a beast several times their size if that was what the hive required, was a virtue.

None wanted to face down the fact that, on their own and isolated, they were a little bug with the drive to scuttle into the shadows away from what may try to swat them.

By the time that the fog in her mind lifted and the drone slowed to a stop in the air, her entire body felt like it was burning from exertion, and she sank toward the ground as it dawned on her what she'd just done. A pony, nothing but food, had just placed something in her head that made her abandon the others.

She laid on the dusty ground, wings buzzing uncertainly. Should she... go back? It felt like there wasn't much point. If they were okay, they'd probably kick her around for having been a coward. If they weren't, she'd be waltzing back into the gaze of that terrifying pony with no way how to stop from being taken over by it again.

She shivered. Food wasn't supposed to have that kind of power.

She looked around, and it dawned on her that she couldn't see the railway anymore. Even if she wanted to go back, she wasn't sure she knew the way. She was fairly certain that she'd flown in a straight line, but she'd been in such a blind frenzy that she couldn't be sure.

She was... lost.

She looked at the sun overhead. She was supposed go back to the town. That was the point, that she was supposed to alert them to any ponies that were traveling toward it, and hunt for any sign that they were looking for loved ones. But maybe she'd have a better chance getting back to the capitol, and reporting what had happened. Though, if she'd thought the kicking she'd get from her teammates would be bad, the queen would surely be worse.

They'd been out here for days without a single pony. They'd been getting so hungry. And then when a meal had landed on their backs, it'd all gone wrong.

We won.

She went up again, and flew a small circle, trying to spot any landmarks.

We crushed Canterlot. The princess was cast down. We have the ponies of Equestria in the frogs of our hooves.

Eventually, her wings buzzed harder, and she took off toward the mountains in the far distance. The others would be able to alert the town, she was sure. If she tried to find it herself, she'd just get more and more lost.

Or worse, meet the the pegasus's eyes again.

How did that pony make me feel like we're the ones who are doomed?

It was magic. Just magic. The yellow and pink mare had gotten into her head.

Food aren't supposed to have that kind of power.

An anomaly. That's all it was. One strange pony.

She'd return to the queen, and everything would be perfect again.

The ponies huddle together for sleep. A few of them are foals, separated from their parents, and they press to her sides. It doesn't matter that they don't know her, that she's a stranger to them. She's a pony, and that's all that matters right now. An adult who they can shelter near, when they need to feel as though somepony is watching over them. That somepony will protect them, when the monsters come back.

She will. She'll protect them.

No matter what it takes.

Tanzanite

Rockville was quiet.

It had always been a quiet sort of place. The ponies there kept to themselves, neighbours greeting each other with polite nods and small hums, with a flicker of a smile reserved for extraordinary times. Each day was much like the last in the dusty little place, and you could have set your clock by some of the townponies' schedules.

Jawbreaker hadn't grown up in Rockville, but she'd still been there more than half her life. She was a candymaker, and she would boast--she was a pony who'd grown up outside, and so she was allowed the eccentricity of desiring to boast--that she was the best candymaker in the history of Rockville. This was true, simply because the category had only ever consisted of the single mare, and was unlikely to rise in number anytime soon. She was the best and only candymaker that Rockville had ever known, because few if any ponies were so adept at their craft that they could cater to the locals' unique palate.

She had not only succeeded, but thrived. Her store would have display cases filled to the brim with every kind of rock candy under the sun. Garnet, beryl, citrine, feldspar, any flavour that the locals could imagine, she could render sugar into the likeness and flavour profile of the rock of their choice. More than one customer had tried to pry the secrets of her process out of her, but she'd always wink, look at her mark, and tell them trade secret.

Now Jawbreaker was in a Canterlot corral, and the drone wearing her face went through the motions of opening the shop. The samples that been out the day the swarm descended on the town still sat in the display case, glittering like real gems in the sunlight, nothing new needing to be added when there hadn't been customers since then. Just ponies to lie in wait for, be they locals venturing out in search of survivors, or wanderers looking for shelter.

Part of the charade was to step out at specific times, strolling through what passed through the town square. She would nod at the others, offer the slightest smile because the pony she was pretending to be was allowed that eccentricity too, and eventually reenter the shop.

Except at noon, when she would receive the day's update.

Her cohort, wearing the appearance of the local shoemaker, had put in the work to look appropriately scorched from his forge as he approached her. Heart Bar had always been the sort to stoically ignore a few burns in the course of his work. They nodded to one another, and rather than continue on, she turned to take a place at his side and chat a while. "So, what's the word?"

"There isn't one." He moved beyond the flatly stoic impression he was supposed to maintain and went in the direction of a proper frown. "We should have heard from the scouts two hours ago, and there hasn't been a peep."

"Do you think they ran into something they couldn't handle?" The question was out before she stop it, and she suffered the incredulous look.

"What, you think our scouts got beaten up by some big, scary ponies?" Her snorted and tossed his mane. Or would have, if his current disguise had had more than a buzzcut. "I'm not worried about them, I'm annoyed. My bet is that they jumped some travelers themselves and they're in a love coma from the gorging." He snorted again and ground his teeth. "Even though they're supposed to let them pass and let us round them up."

"Hey, cut them some slack." She nudged his shoulder with her own. "They're probably hungry stuck out there. If they can top up, let them."

He rolled his eyes. "If Vixen were here, she'd kick them up and down the railroad for compromising the flow of information."

"Then good thing she's not, huh?" She giggled. "She'd fry in the heat out here, anyway, loaded down in all that armour. I don't know why the higher-ups even wear it when we're up against a bunch of soft-flesh prey."

"It's intimidation. At a distance it's hard for them to tell we're covered in chitin, but wearing something overtop makes it easier to tell how tough we are."

"So dumb posturing to make the food even more scared. Gotcha."

"You really have a death wish, don't you?"

"Hey, like I said, she's not here." She traded the shoulder bump for a hip bump this time. "This post is already boring. One of the only perks is not having authority breathing down our necks."

He froze in place. "Do me a favour and shut up."

"You really are no--"

"Not that, just shut up and look."

She followed his gaze, and she froze as well, both drones staring at the three new ponies strolling into town.

One almost looked like he belonged there. Almost. The towering earth pony stallion was far too vibrant a red to be from this dull little town, and while she couldn't get a glimpse of his flank from here, she would bet just from that hue alone that it would be some kind of produce. Maybe a tomato, or a chili pepper. The other two, however, stood out starkly, and because of that, she felt that it was still in cover to stare. There were no pegasi in Rockville--what were they going to use their weather powers to help water, the latest crop of quartz crystals?--and no unicorns either.

However, the unicorn she could catch a glimpse of the mark of, and the diamonds made her wonder. Somepony who regularly purchased the town's exports, perhaps? It would certainly explain why she was waltzing in like she owned the place, the other two trailing behind.

"Well then." She smiled at her companion. "It looks like we've got some visitors to give a Rockville welcome, don't we?" She gave him a bump. "Come on. We'll explain our closeness as you starting to court me."

As he followed behind her, she pretended not hear his mutter of, "You wish."

Careful.

As Rarity walked into Rockville, she reminded herself that the intel they had was unreliable. The scouts they'd subdued had incentive to answer the questions, but not necessarily accurately. Every word would need to verified, which meant keeping up the charade that they had no suspicions about the place they were walking into. However, as they made their way up the main--not to mention only-- road in the town, she had no problem believing that the place was compromised by changelings.

The ponies out were too calm, milling about and talking to each other. Or at least they had been before spotting the trio. The stares were surprised, sometimes alarmed, but there was none of the skittish paranoia that should have been there. Nopony was fleeing and hiding. Nopony was coming up to try to accost them and accuse them of being changelings. It was like the overly-friendly scout on the road, only magnified; creatures acting too normal for the state of Equestria.

Spot the spies by the ones who could keep acting like there was nothing wrong, no matter the truth of the matter, because deceptive normalcy was what they were trained for.

Had there not been those scouts on the road, however, there was a chance that it could have worked. The town was isolated, and there was the smallest chance of that isolation being so complete that they had yet to realize anything had happened. However, the probability of that had been going down as time wore on, the efforts to round up all stragglers growing more intense.

Hopefully the homesteaders were still holding their own, and it was only the main town taken. She hadn't trusted the scouts to feed them any accurate information about that part, especially.

Two started their approach, and Rarity stopped, Fluttershy and Big Macintosh halting soon after, and she examined the two. Both appeared to be earth ponies--all of them did, which made sense in a rock farmer town--and sturdily built. The mare was a dusty rose colour with a slate grey mane, her mark some kind of black orb covered in red dots like an unusually spherical hunk of heliotrope. The other was sandy brown with a steel-coloured mane, what of it was left from the extremely short cut of it, and had a mark of a metal shoe within a stylized blue-grey heart. The mare was smiling, while the stallion looked decidedly sullen.

Rarity and Fluttershy's gemstones flickered, and both briefly shut their eyes against the power.

Not now.

It was hard to suppress. They had to know it was coming to have a chance, and it wasn't a casual act of will to make Harmony bide its time, but they managed it, and Rarity placed her own smile on her snout as she stepped forward to greet the false locals.

The mare spoke up first, "Well hello! Welcome to our sleepy little town. We haven't had new faces out this way in a while."

That seemed to confirm it, that they were going for the angle of acting as if Rockville had simply been cut off so severely that they didn't know about the invasion at all. She imagined what they were expecting, and could picture it perfectly. Three frightened ponies babbling about changelings and trying to beg the townsfolk for help, and mare would pretend to act concerned. She would lure them into the home of the pony she'd replaced, offering to let them wash up, or to get them some tea, under the pretense of listening to their story.

And then the others would strike.

Rarity could see the script, and so she made her first move tossing aside her lines entirely. "Oh? That's a shame. This is a lovely little township." Her smile widened ever so slightly. "But I'm sure you're tired of hearing that from me every time I come to visit, darling."

Ears went up. Eyes widened. Rarity watched the frantic gears turning of a spy who had just encountered somepony who supposedly knew their cover but they had no intel on. Then the expression melted into another smile. "Don't be silly, I'd never get tired of hearing compliments about home." She waved a hoof in the air as if to shoo away the thought. "Now, what brings you?"

"Oh, the same as always," Rarity said casually. "Checking up on one of my business partners. Igneous Pie has been working on some lovely geodes for me."

Gears were still turning. She wasn't entirely sure one hadn't already slipped out of alignment. The stallion-presenting drone opened his mouth to say something, but the mare-presenting one cut him off. "Good ol' Igneous! We're a little concerned about him ourselves. He normally comes by to buy candy for his daughters and I haven't heard a peep from him on that farm."

The gem flickered again. Rarity did her best to force the power down. "Oh dear, well, all the better that I've arrived to check on him." She turned slightly, taking a step in the general direction that Big Mac had indicated the farm would be. "I'll be sure to let you know how he's doing."

"Wait!" Rarity paused, looking at the mare-drone. "Maybe we should go with you."

She forced a titter. "If you're worried about my getting lost, I assure you that I haven't since the first time--"

"No no, it's just.." It was like watching a pony trying to get a jawgrip on a cascade of falling straws. "He really hasn't been to town in a while, and Bar and I have been very worried." She glanced at the stallion, who wasn't hiding the lack of patience well. "It'd be nice to see for ourselves that he's okay."

Rarity considered the revised script in front of her, and the part that she would be expected to play.

She smiled with what a pony would consider too many teeth. The changelings didn't seem to notice.

"Well, if you insist..."

"So does your dad ever like... smile?"

The clouds above the rock farm needed touch-ups, and Rainbow Dash was the best mare for the job. Anypony pointing that she was also the only mare who could take on the job was arguing meaningless details. She needed to maintain the exact thickness and magic level, or it wouldn't do what they needed to when the swarm came down on their heads. She preferred being out and doing something to being in the farmhouse, so she had no complaints.

The only one out of the family who would come out just to talk was Pinkie. Rainbow had a feeling that the rest of them didn't like her very much, even after she'd proved that she wasn't a changeling. She was something new in their quiet little monotony and that wasn't sitting right with them, which in turn, didn't sit right with her. Ponies should have loved to have a little more awesome in their lives.

Pinkie, at least, seemed to get it, and at the question, started to giggle. "Of course he has, Dashie! He's smiling in his wedding pictures, and the picture he has holding each of us as foals, and he smiled when all of us got our cutie marks!"

Finished with her tune-up of the trap, Rainbow swooped down, stopping just short of landing to hover a hoof-width above the ground. "And that's... seriously the only times?"

Pinkie nodded. "Pies only smile on special occasions."

"So... what's that make you?"

Pinkie's smiled widened into a grin. "Somepony who wants to make every day special!"

"Now you're speaking my language. Every day should be awesome!" She chuckled. "I guess I'm just not used to ponies like your family. My Mom and Dad were always celebrating every little thing. Got... kind of annoying, really."

Pinkie tilted her head slightly. "Annoying? Why?"

"Well it's... I dunno..." Her hooves finally met the ground again, mostly so that she could kick a nearby stone. She hoped that wasn't yet another offense worthy of Limestone snarling at her. "They hyped up every single thing I did, so I never knew if I was actually doing anything special. I didn't know what needed improving, or what to do to improve. And if I'm gonna be one of the best fliers that ever lived, I've gotta know what needs training, right? It was frustrating."

The words seemed to be sinking in, and when she spoke again, her voice was more subdued. "So... if I make every day a party, ponies aren't going to know when it's an extra special occasion?"

"Ehhh..." Rainbow raised a hoof and nudged Pinkie's shoulder. "I think you're good. There's a difference between giving every day a smile and what they were doing." Her ears drooped with a sigh. "And as mad as I got at them sometimes, I'd give a lot to see them right now and know they're okay."

Pinkie's ears drooped too, and Rainbow's only warning before she was yanked into a hug by deceptively strong front legs was the sniffle. "I'm so sorry Dashie. We'll do something to get them back, I pro-o-mise."

Rainbow closed her eyes, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes as she moved to hug her back. "Thanks Pinkie. You're a good friend."

A small gasp, and another sniffle. "We're friends?"

"'Course."

Hope crept into the watery voice. "Best friends?"

She chuckled. "Tell you what. If we last out here, and we do get my parents back? We'll be best friends forever. Promise."

Pinkie hugged her tighter, and the sobs got even louder. Rainbow's own tears continued to fall, much more silently, and she made no move to let go. Both mares were splotches of wild, bright colour against a dull, dark background shielded from the sun, standing out starkly in their own ways.

Rainbow had assumed that the rest of the family didn't like her. She didn't know--and wouldn't for a long time--what they said when she wasn't present. That she was what they called a gemstone, a bright pony who'd appeared among the duller stone-aligned ponies around her. That arrival could be a birth, like Pinkie, or from circumstance, like Rainbow, but the message of one's arrival was always the same.

Times would be interesting so long as they glittered among the rocks, but they would also bring gifts to the community that no other could.

The Pie family had treasured their little pink gemstone, and now she had found another to befriend.

They were happy for her.

And that's why they would have left them outdoors to hug, had Maud not needed to come and call them indoors.

Because there was only one single road to the farm, and there were ponies on it.

A unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony walked along the old road, with two more earth ponies behind them. That was what it would look like to any observers, until it didn't.

Suppressing was getting harder. No matter her feelings toward the tree that had gifted it, the gem sensed the malevolent intent of the two drones trailing in their wake, and wanted to protect its wielder. It was taking more and more effort to push it back, and Rarity saw Fluttershy nearly trip over her own hooves as she stopped and shivered from the effort of keeping her own necklace from going on the attack.

They couldn't risk the whole town seeing the light show, or hearing the combat that ensued. They'd taken care of the scouting party, but there were numbers that would be beyond their ability to fight, and just the ones she'd been able to count when walking down the street had been too many.

They needed to wait. They needed to strike at just the right moment, hopefully a few moments before the two decided to mount their own assault.

And pray to Celestia that Big Mac's kin were really still here to find.

Heliotrope

The living room of the farmhouse was small, for seven ponies. It had walls of a dusty colour that could charitably be called a greyish pink--less charitably, one could call it a shade of grey that had met the concept of pink once, at a distance, on a foggy night--with accents of unpainted wood, and the furniture was likely older than all inhabitants and showed the wear and tear to match. The three younger sisters of the family were piled on the couch, each parent had their favourite chair, and Rainbow Dash was left to stand--more often hover--as the eldest sister listened.

Maud stood with all four hooves spaced out, eyes seeming to stare directly into a patch of bare wall. Her ears were completely stationary, and not a single muscle twitched.

"How many?" came Rainbow's question, and Maud's eyes closed as her power stretched outward, through the farmhouse, across the property, and beyond.

Generations of Pies had lived on this land, stretching back to the founding of Rockville. They had been born within its borders, raised among the rocks, and even if they left to pursue their passions and talents--a Pie's heart always roared with passion, throwing themselves into it with all four hooves, ready to move mountains in both figurative and literal senses--they always returned eventually. Many ponies had been buried in the nearby graveyard, returned to the earth, and Maud knew that when her time came, she would be one of them.

She was the strongest magical talent of her generation, and so when she closed her eyes and reached down, the earth provided answers.

Four quadrupeds, all hoofed.

One of them moves correctly. Heavy steps, the kind that isn't trying to stomp, just leaves an impression in the earth due to sheer mass.

One of them is light. Steps barely touch the earth, and there's a sense of caution and care. The sort of steps that don't dare risk even crushing a bug underhoof.

Another is light, in a different way. Each planting of the hoof is deliberate, each push-off smooth. A gait of a creature who wishes to be able to change direction quickly when the need arises.

Two... light, but trying to be heavy. Hooves not just landing but striking down with force, like foals playing pretend and trying to mimic the greater steps of adults.

"Five," Maud said simply as her eyes opened again. "Three ponies and two changelings, if I have to guess."

Rainbow's eyes widened. "There's ponies working with the changelings!?" Pinkie immediately gave a GASP that seemed to require more lung capacity than a mare her size should have had.

Maud, however, merely blinked mechanically before saying, "It's more likely they're travelers, and the changelings tricked them."

"Either way, those bugs need swatting," Limestone demanded with a stomp. "Time to go on the offensive!"

Rainbow grinned. "Now you're talking! We've got our trap, so we've just gotta get them to follow us in." She opened her wings, giving them a few flaps that blew manes and made Maud's blinking occur point-zero-seven seconds faster. "And you can leave that up to me!"

Both parents looked at each other, lifted themselves out of their chairs, and nodded.

Nopony and no one could claim their family home but them. And to keep it so, they would fight to their final kick.

"And my clients simply insist on the finest taaffeite..."

The changeling in the guise of Jawbreaker kept staring at the unicorn, as she strolled ahead of the group, chattering away to the silent earth pony at her side and anyone else who cared to listen.

Her emotions were level. Discomfortingly level. The pegasus had emotions like a rabbit, spiking with fear at random intervals, while the the earth pony was roiling with all manner of emotions from anger to guilt and much more. But the unicorn felt almost as she were in meditative state, forcing anything that starting to bubble up back to a calm baseline.

She'd never encountered a pony who'd done that before. Ponies who appeared blank while their were emotions in turmoil, certainly, but not one who could smile and chatter while feeling nothing. Her empathy wasn't being blocked, either--unicorns were unpredictable, and there was always a chance they could come up with a trick like that--since she could sense each moment of almost feeling before it was pulled back.

"But not just any rock farmer can manage that feat. One thing wrong in the growing process and they'll end up with spinel instead, and we can't have that, can we?"

What are you afraid of, that you would do that, little pony?

Yourself?

...Or us?

It would explain her demeanor, for the little prey animal to think she'd outsmarted them, and she sidestepped over to her companion, her shoulder nudging his. She then twitched one ear, followed by the other, and swished her tail to and fro. His eyes widened at the signal, and he nodded quickly, eyes going back to the unicorn. The mare continued to stroll along the path with them, speaking to her companions, emotions deathly still.

"So I work with nothing but the best, darling, and the Pie family are the undisputed best."

I'm not sure what you're trying to do, but you're still leading us right to Igneous, and I've been wanting to get a taste of the patriarch's love for his family for ages.

So just keep on walking, unicorn, and bring us right to the rest of our prey.

Some ponies would say the ground was dead. He knew better.

Big Macintosh was a plant-aligned earth pony, but while that was where his talent lay, he wasn't ignorant of the rest of the power his kind could bring to bear. He'd always been the most scholarly of the three Apple siblings, and while he was most known for his knowledge of mathematics and engineering--Applebloom had been starting to pick up some of it from him, and he couldn't be prouder of her--he'd also studied magic.

He knew a lot of what the average pegasus could do, along with a few exceptional techniques that no living pony could perform. He knew of more spells than many unicorns did, even though he lacked any means to cast them. He'd learned because Ponyville had a little bit of each, and it only seemed practical to know more about one's neighbours, especially for times when the whole town had to work together to solve a problem.

It'd snuck its way into his dreams some nights, and he'd fly with wings, or cast with a horn, or sometimes both, only to be left disoriented when he woke up with neither.

But he'd also learned more about earth ponies, and so he knew that the land wasn't dead. It was just full of a different kind of life. It was alive with the magic of stone, and while he could not direct the flow, he'd taught himself to recognize the hum.

He wondered idly if Rarity could feel it too. A mark for gems could mean all kinds of things, but to him, the idea of having that affinity without ever having heard their call was strange. Perhaps he'd ask her, when the current task was done. Right now it'd be a challenge to get a word in edgewise.

"Diamonds are out this season, for the most part. There was a company really pushing them for wedding bands, but the fad died all too quickly. After all, a faceted gemstone so close to one's horn? A pony could blind themselves just lighting it enough to pick up a hairbrush! Much better to stick to a simple metal band."

"Eeyup."

"But all the same, it's still floating around as a favourite for certain pieces. So I put in an order for some purple diamonds, just in case. It never hurts to be prepared."

"Eeyup."

He walked the dusty path along the humming ground, keeping one ear pointed toward Rarity's words, to create the illusion that he was paying attention. The occasional vocalization and nod helped sell the illusion that he was at least making a token effort to participate in the mostly one-sided conversation. In truth, his focus was on the changelings following them.

Neither of them walked right, and he wondered if, without knowing already they were infiltrators, he would have noticed. Ponies could be easily spooked by the sudden or unusual, but when someone appeared to be exactly like them, it was so easy to overlook the small things. Other ponies were part of the herd, and the herd was safe. Few were equipped to search for threats inside of it.

He'd also studied some psychology. The magic may have taken root in his dreams, but those books had fueled nightmares instead.

They were in the company of the enemy, and part of Mac itched to start kicking. The chastisement he'd gotten for wanting to rush the nymphs and their caretaker was still ringing in his ears, however, and he kept himself in check. He would wait for the signal from the mares for when it was time to strike.

He hoped the family were still there. He hoped they would remember him. He'd been a very small colt the last time Granny had had the Pies over, and he and Maud had played a game of who could stay silent and still the longest. She'd won, and the bit of him that was still that young colt wanted a rematch.

The changeling had said daughters. That meant that there were other cousins he had yet to meet.

The land's humming grew louder, and that was a good sign. The magic took time to fade, so it wasn't a guarantee they were home, but that it was still strong enough that he dared a moment of optimism and hope.

Then he saw the walls of stone rising from the horizon.

"Oh my..."

The changeling in the guise of Heart Bar watched the unicorn stare up the titanic display of earth pony magic in shock, the two words tumbling off her tongue. The eerie calm was momentarily broken by genuine surprise, and he added that to the information given to him from his companion's signal. It was safe to say, then, that whatever reason she had for seeking out Igneous Pie, she wasn't expecting the fortifications.

So why are you here for him?

"This is why we worried," he said, mimicking the gruff monotone of the pony whose form he'd stolen. "He's holed up, and won't answer us."

Not that anyone had tried. The orders had been to stay in the town, and capture both travelers who came in from the road and any homesteaders who ran out of supplies and tried to make a scavenging run. A slow, boring post that meant being disguised as the same pony an agonizing length of time, but that at least meant they had very little oversight. A nice perk even if it led to certain individuals starting to get cocky and say things that could get them in trouble.

It also beat being a firestarter, or worse, combing caves for ponies who'd gone underground.

The unicorn tossed her head, and put the confident smile back on her face. "Well, he certainly won't say no to moi." She nudged the hulking red earth pony. "Go on, friend. The sooner we check on the dear old stallion, the better."

He bobbed his head in response, and walked over to the wall. He then raised a front leg, pressed his hoof against the stone, and closed his eyes.

The drone ground his teeth slightly. It was one of the unfortunate problems with wearing this shape. Pretending to be a winged species meant that he could use his own flight, and pretending to be a horn-casting species meant that he could use his own spells. But when he had to wear the skin of a species whose magic radiated out from their body, interfacing with the world that way... he mostly had to pray that the situation didn't require him to display it. He couldn't feel the land, couldn't tell what was being done right now.

Which meant they had to act, now.

The unicorn and pegasus were both turning toward them.

His companion was already in motion.

Rockville was full of gossiping changelings.

Word had spread like wildfire about the strange ponies who'd waltzed into the town, and posts had been abandoned as every infiltrator left the homes and businesses they'd stolen to gather in the centre of town. Each one was still wearing their disguises, but they spoke openly, voice taking on buzzing tones as they took turns speculating, arguing, and panicking.

"Why were they so calm?"

"They wanted the Pie family. Did they get a message out somehow?"

"Who cares! There's just three of them, and more of us."

"What if there's more coming?!"

"They're still just ponies!"

The stoicism of their identities was easily shed, and faces cycled between expressions as tails lashed and legs gestured wildly. In the dusty main street of the town, they reared, snapped at each other, and each one tried to shout over the last, the chaotic cacophony nearly shifting into a brawl.

"Did anyone hear from the scouts?"

"They didn't check in today. No one warned us they were coming."

"What if they were captured? What if the ponies raised an army and they're taking the town back!?"

"You're all crazy!"

"When was the last time we got word from the queen? The general?"

"THE SWARM LEFT US HERE TO DIE!"

Then all words died as the sky burned with light.

There'd been very few clouds in the sky for the last several days, a few patches of white hanging in a sea of pale blue. But as all of them looked up, a new colour joined blue and white. A beam of raw green soared upward, and erupted with a roar as if the sky itself had been set aflame. Every changeling stopped, and stared, the display of magic quelling the chaos in an instant.

Then gouts of flame of the same shade engulfed each of them, and wings buzzed in a cacophony as every last drone took to the air.

A lady wasn't supposed to curse, but Rarity allowed herself to hiss out a few as the signal flare went up.

The two drones had been sent tumbling by the blast of magic from her own and Fluttershy's gems, but they'd reacted just that bit faster, and now it was only a matter of time before the rest of the changelings were upon them. She glanced at Big Macintosh, his hoof still against the stone, and she didn't know if he'd found what he was looking for, but they were running out of time--

"Up here!" Her head snapped up at the shout, and saw a blue pegasus just above the stony barrier, her multicoloured mane immediately drawing the eye. "Come on! Hurry!"

Blue pegasus...

Multicoloured...

She was at--

There was no time for that. Fluttershy heeded the words immediately, and Rarity felt the rush of wind as her wings flared open and she took to the air. She'd rarely seen Fluttershy fly very high or very far, but it seemed that adrenaline was her best friend right now, as she streaked upward in a blur of yellow and pink, meeting the other winged pony in the air. Her necklace didn't react to the newcomer, and Rarity took that as reason enough to trust her, for now.

I'll just question how she ended up here later.

The two changelings were righting themselves, and Rarity's gem and horn both lit. Then Big Mac, next to her, broke contact with the wall and moved.

Rarity could safely say that she'd never seen an earth pony jump like that. His back legs sent him rocketing upward, well over her head and slamming his hooves into the barrier. The impact sent him springing even higher, and she watched him twist his body in a manner better suited to a feline than an equine to ensure his hooves met stone again. Hop after hop sent him up until he'd leaped over the top, leaving her as the last with hooves on the ground.

But not for long.

The drone who'd been disguised as the stallion lunged for her, jaws snapping, and was sent stumbling from a spray of dust and gravel into his eyes for the trouble. The one who'd been disguised as the mare lit her horn, only for a strike to one of the holes of her legs to send her blast off course. Then her own horn blazed brighter.

Unicorns could levitate objects, but the levitation of oneself... It was more weight than most could manage in a casual effort, and added the extra difficulty of maneuvering an object that one couldn't completely see. The pegasi looked like they were going to swoop down and try to grab her, but if either of changelings managed to ground either of them, then they'd all really be in trouble.

Rarity focused, let the magic flow backward, and envisioned flight.

"Don't let them get away!"

And she soared.

The stone was humming with the call of his kin. It was clumsy, similar to the way a foal would test their magic out by sending it out in a direction and then trying to detect its echoes. No attempt to shape the stone, and no real attempt to leave a mark on the magic it was saturated with. But despite it being far from a rock farmer's expert touch, there was something in it just a hair familiar.

Igneous Pie had felt it right before Rainbow Dash had soared up through the cloud barrier above them, and as his family found their best defensive positions, Igneous kept his gaze skyward, awaiting her return and signal. What he saw instead surprised him, enough to have his eyebrows to shift a fraction upward. A hurtling cannonball of red earth pony, passing through the cloud as it were naught but air--and to land dwellers like them, it was--and slamming into the ground, sending up a spray of gravel.

Shortly afterward was an unfamiliar pegasus, with much fewer bright colours to keep track of than Rainbow Dash. She landed with much more care, and then held out a wing to help the red stallion up. The last was a unicorn, bathed in magic glow, who maneuvered herself into a relatively steady landing. It was she who spoke first, offering him a smile. "Igneous Pie, I presume? Pleasure to meet you. We bring word from Ponyville."

The big red stallion offered a more understated smile, if still far wider than typical Rockville company. "Been a long time, Uncle Pie."

Thunder cracked beyond the wall, and they could hear Rainbow Dash's whoop, right before she went barreling through the cloud, keeping airborne and circling around the newcomer's heads. "There's more on the horizon. Looks like they're looking for a fight!"

Igneous nodded. "Big Macintosh. Thou and thy friends can grant us this message once these intruders hath been removed."

The unicorn's smile widened, to something still a few levels below what he'd grown accustomed to from Pinkamena. "Trust me, my good stallion, fighting changelings is our specialty."

"Then let us not waste any more time."

Phlox

The new pegasus had smoothed out the layer of clouds, and Fluttershy was doing her best to help.

All the while, Rarity stared at her.

She had to be the mare who'd escaped from Applewood. Everypony had seen her make a break for it that day, and then light up the sky with that strange rainbow. A splash of colour that had stretched across the sky, arresting the attention of all who could see it. Of all the places that that mare could have ended up, however, Rarity wouldn't have predicted that she'd end up bunkering down with rock farmers.

Then again, she hadn't seen herself in this situation either.

Big Macintosh had placed himself near one of the piles of stones--he'd said that, whether it was an apple or a rock, he was certain he could kick it with the same accuracy and force--and so had she. Six stones were already circling above her head, and she was ready to strike at the first target that made itself seen.

They'd heard it, before long. The air full of buzzing wings as the changelings from the town converged on the homestead.

The overwhelming tide of the swarming bodies, descending on the city. Blocking out the sun with a swarm filled with hunger.

And a mare lost among the streets, confused and afraid.

And then it'd stopped.

The rainbow mare's ears twitched this way and that. "Why aren't they--"

"They know it's a trap." When the pegasus looked at her, Rarity continued. "They're not mindless. They're just as intelligent as a pony, otherwise they wouldn't be able to infiltrate or lay traps of their own." She looked up at the layer of cloud; she was curious as to what its function was, if it had one beyond obscuring sight. "They saw us disappear over the wall, so they likely know that we're prepared for them to follow us."

The rainbow mare huffed. "Then I'll go shoot more lightning at them."

Rarity shook her head slightly. "And if they shot lighting at you, would you follow them into an obvious trap?"

"...Yes?" At the incredulous look, she huffed again. "They'd be asking for it, and it's not like some changelings could hold the Dash. I've already escaped from them once."

Well, that confirmed it. Rarity shook her head again. "Well, be that as it may, they're likely more cautious than that. They might be waiting for reinforcements, or looking for another--"

Thump.

Rarity froze, her ears rotating.

Thump.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump.

Oh no.

The wall closest to them was starting to shake, and she watched the mare who looked to be a eldest of Igneous's offspring approach, face blank and strides as smooth and steady as if she didn't see what all the hurry and fuss was and she'd investigate when she was good and ready. She placed her hoof against the stone, gave two small blinks, and reported, "They aren't using magic."

Rarity also left her defensive position, but the rocks already in her grasp bobbed along behind her like ducklings after their mother. "They don't have that kind of magic. They'd be ramming it, with their bodies." When the mare turned to look at her, she continued. "They did it whenever somepony tried to block them, either with something physical or magical. Their bodies are armoured, and so they can just keep hitting themselves against something until it breaks."

The mare blinked one more time, turned fully around, and kicked the stone with her hind hooves. Small chunks casually flew from impact. "I can hit things too."

The sounds from the other side stopped.

Then they started up again.

Thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump.

Rarity sighed. "Which lets them know we're still here. So long as they get a reaction, they'll keep trying. They want their prey on the other side, trapped, while they call for reinforcements and close in. They might try going over the top once they have the numbers that they're confident that no defense we count mount would be enough, but..." She dug at the earth with her hoof in frustration. "They were also probably hoping in the first place that they could starve you all out. Wait until you ran out of supplies."

High-pitched giggles erupted from one of the young mares, the alarmingly pink one among the duller hues. "Run out of supplies? That's silly! We have enough rocks to eat for months!"

Eat... rocks?

Rarity fought the urge to shudder. "Re...gardless, there's more than food to run out of. Medical supplies, for example. One of you becomes ill or injured and need medicine, bandages, disinfectant..."

The stoic mare struck the wall again, this time with a front hoof. Again the sounds temporarily ceased, only to resume with gusto. "So what do we do?"

"Preferably? If they can't be baited into fighting us now, then we get reinforcements before any of theirs can arrive." She nodded upward. "Fluttershy, do you think you can slip away to one of the other homesteads?"

She squeaked. "M-me? Well..." She looked around at the other ponies now staring at her. "Yes, I think I can. I'm good at being quiet and unassuming. That... possibly would help with being stealthy too?"

"Oh! Oh!" The pink mare spoke up again, springing straight up in the air not unlike how Big Mac had previously done, only waving her front legs in the air instead of finding a rock to ricochet off of. "I can go with you! Our closest neighbours are the Cookie family, and I haven't seen Tough Cookie in ages."

Rarity blinked, then smiled. "A local presence would be appreciated. They may distrust us otherwise, rightfully so." She glanced at the parents. "Speaking of, my thanks for letting us in."

"Thou art with one of our kin." Igneous nodded toward Big Mac. "His magic be known to us, and we trust that he hath not been deceived."

"Their necklaces detect changelings," Big Mac piped up, not straying from his own stone pile, just in case. "No one'd be able t' get close enough t' replace 'em."

The other pegasus' eyes widened, and Fluttershy squeaked as she was suddenly in her personal space. "Awesome! How do I get one of those?"

"W-well. I. U-um."

Rarity almost saw the family patriarch's eyebrows rise in his own reaction. "Truly? Then we shall trust thee gladly."

A nod, and Rarity looked up. "Then the both of you, seek out anypony you can find, and Fluttershy will be able to make sure they're who they say they are. And as for us... Dash, was it?"

"The one and only Rainbow Dash!" She pulled herself away from Fluttershy, pointing at herself with a front leg.

"A pleasure." Rarity's smile then widened. "How would you like to ensure that these changelings have great difficulty focusing on battering the stone, Rainbow Dash?"

"Now you're speaking my language, uhhh..."

"Rarity." The smile widened further. "Just Rarity."

Fluttershy didn't know anything about rock farmers.

At first, she'd thought it was the byproduct of her Cloudsdale upbringing. She'd known very little about what'd gone on below the clouds, in general, before she'd seen it all for the first time. She'd known what soil was, and flowers, because her foalhood home had had a garden, and she remembered spending time outside with the imported earth, helping her mother plant and grow each individual plant. It'd sparked her curiosity like nothing else, and eventually, her parents had taken her to the land below, and let her see the grass, the trees, and everything else.

Everything had included animals, especially butterflies. And with a flare of light and a new mark, she'd known that she would make the ground her home from then on.

Even years into her adult life, however, some things about living on land instead of in the clouds tripped her up. So, when she'd been left confused by the term rock farmer, she'd assumed that it was just a gap in her education, something that everypony else knew. Then Big Macintosh openly struggled to explain it to her, and it became clear to her that almost nopony knew what rock farming was, even if they might have heard the term before.

She'd gotten the gist, eventually. Rock farmers used their magic to modify stone into useful forms, though when Big Mac had started listing off technical terms and methods of rock formation, the pegasus who understood rock to mean the part of the land too hard to plant flowers in and little more had been left completely lost. But getting the very basic idea of what they were hadn't prepared her for how they might react to visitors in a time like this.

And it definitely hadn't prepared her for Pinkamena Diane Pie.

It especially hadn't prepared her for the pink mare being milimetres from her butterfly necklace, staring into her reflection in the jewel's surface, and making faces.

They were in the Pie family living room, the matriarch of the family--Cloudy Quartz, she thought she remembered her introducing herself as--was grabbing up things to place in her saddlebags. Supplies that their neighbours may need, in case they were having a harder time holding out. And all the while, Pinkamena was talking...

"So how'd you get them? Did you go down in a super old castle that nopony has been to in a thousand years? Did an old wizard come out of limbo and give you them? Oh! Oh! Maybe a magical kingdom out of space and time reappeared and you had to fight your worst fears to--"

"N-no, it's nothing like that..." Fluttershy said, the tentative words forming a reluctant interruption. "There was a tree--"

"That was gonna be my next guess! That they grew on a magic tree and you--"

"Pinkamena..." The single stern word from Cloudy Quartz was enough to stem the tide.

There was a sheepish smile. "Sorry! Sometimes I get a teensy bit carried away." She bounced on her hooves. "It's just not every day that I get to meet new friends! First Dashie shows up all zoom, and then you all, and I'm just so excited."

A gentle smile bloomed across Fluttershy's own muzzle. "Then maybe, once it's not so dangerous here, we can take you to meet all our other friends in Ponyville. There's ponies, deer, a zebra, and even my friend Manny, the manticore."

Pinkamena's eyes widened with overwhelming foalish delight. "A manticore?" She was no longer just bouncing on her hooves, but actively pronking in place, her legs being held far too rigidly to be able to spring up that high. "Are they as fluffy as they look like in pictures? Is it true that they're big enough to gobble a pony up?"

"Gobble? Oh, no no no. Well... I suppose a pony could fit in his mouth... b-but he'd spit them right back out! He'd never hurt anypony. He's just a little baby kitty at heart."

The chatter kept going, and Fluttershy could barely keep up with the breakneck pace. Before she knew it, she'd rattled off the names, birthdays, favourite colours, favourite sweets, and favourite music for as many of her neighbours as she could manage, and been bombarded with endless speculation on what the best possible parties for each individual creature would be. Even when she admitted that she didn't know or couldn't remember a detail, it didn't dampen the enthusiasm for more than a moment. It was a force of words stronger than any hurricane she'd ever been in, and she had no idea how to navigate the winds.

Then the final object was placed in now much heavier saddlebags, and it was time to go.

Every changeling remembered the siege of Canterlot, but not all with fondness.

Yes, it had been a major triumph for the swarm. Yes, it would go down in the history books as their greatest conquest. Yes, it had led to the finest feast the changeling species had ever seen. All of those were good reasons to be thankful that the plan had worked and their glorious queen had handed them Canterlot on a silver platter.

However, said plan had also involved the entirety of the army bashing their heads against a magical barrier, nonstop, until it broke, and while that was a strategy they could pull off, it was not one any of them found enjoyable. Reproducing said strategy with stone walls was even less of a fun passtime, especially when they had much fewer numbers. Along with the occasional kick from the other side that made hoof-sized chunks of rock suddenly jut out where they'd been bashing, turning it into a makeshift game of whack-a-mole with them as the moles.

Thankfully this wasn't their true Plan A. That was in the drone who'd taken off for the Canterlot, to relay the situation. Right now, they just had to keep the ponies on their hooves. Restless and paranoid. The more they felt the weight of the changelings closing in, the more likely they'd slip up and make a mistake.

They were prey. Herd animals. If just one of them spooked...

"Hey, ugly! Up here!"

Compound eyes went up. A very much not spooked pegasus was above them, holding a cloud, and wearing one of the widest grins they'd even seen. Several wings instinctively opened, right before the mare tapped the cloud with a hoof, and a sheet of chilling rain came down. Hisses of distress had them scrambling back out of the downpour, and cusses in several different languages were hurled up toward the pegasus.

Then they saw of the glow of the rising unicorn. And that was when the rocks started.

Fluttershy was, in many ways, an atypical pegasus. She was one who had chosen the ground, with all of its grass, trees, and animals. Even those who liked aspects of the land below, like flowers, tried to tame it and control it like they could the weather. They tended to be like her mother, bringing those portions up to the sky. Claiming it as their own. The one who went to the ground, lived on the ground, let it claim them as part of its ecosystem, were rare, even those who lived in what were technically land-bound communities doing so in cloud homes above their neighbours.

She'd met a few, in Ponyville. Mostly those who'd fallen in love with unicorns or earth ponies and so coming to the ground was the only sensible choice. None had had it written in their mark, like her.

Fluttershy had seen herself as unique, in having chosen the ground. But she was still a pegasus, and so there was a distinct difference between on the ground and under.

Pinkie was next to her--she'd insisted on "Pinkie" after a while, stating that only her parents called her "Pinkamena"--and she was merrily trotting next to her, humming a bouncing tune. The mare leading the way was the exact opposite, with a completely flat expression and a gait that exuded power in each planting of her hoof. Together, they where making their way through a wide, rocky tunnel, and Fluttershy was trying not to think too hard about the weight now above her head, when she was supposed to be above it instead.

One tentative thought later, that talking may take her mind off of thoughts of the ceiling collasping, and her voice piped up softly, "Um... I-if it's not rude to ask... Why haven't you gone looking for others sooner?"

"We didn't know there was anypony to find," came the monotone response from the front, "Our Dad tried going to town, and it was empty. We didn't know what was happening, and we thought that if we went out again, what got everypony else may get one of us next."

"And... Rainbow Dash?" It seemed like an obvious question.

"She dropped in." The deadpan tone was the thing of legends. "Literally."

"She's why we know about the changelings now!" Pinkie added, "She helped us setting up the defenses! Because there was still a chance that they'd come for us, and we couldn't help anypony we found if we didn't have a safe place to bring them back to."

Fluttershy nodded a little. "I guess the changelings didn't start living in the town until they'd finished rounding up everypony they first caught and bringing them back. And that's why it was empty when he first looked."

She thought about the changelings-turned-sheep, huddling in the destroyed town library in Ponyville. A trap set to catch ponies who wandered in, looking for survivors. If they hadn't had the salve to unravel the disguise, it may have worked, too. Yet there had also been real survivors, like the deer, or Rarity and Sweetie Belle. It was just like their hidden village in the Everfree, needing a safe home base, and a way to make sure it wasn't infiltrated.

And now that the Pie family had all of that, it was time to push out and save who they could.

The mare ahead stopped in her tracks, and Fluttershy stopped with her. Pinkie bounded ahead a couple of body lengths and halted just short of slamming into her. "We're here."

Fluttershy stared at the end of the tunnel. If she'd known much about rocks, she might have been able to pick out the individual types, and seen it for the buffet of minerals that it was, the kind of that would make a dragon salivate. As it was, she could see a number of very interesting colours and patterns, some of which she tried to remember if she'd ever seen flowers with similar hues, but with all of it overshadowed by the fact that what was in front of her was a solid wall of rock.

"But... um... how do we...?"

"Like this." She waltzed forward, reared up, and in the instant her front hooves launched forward, Fluttershy became acutely aware of the fact that she had been holding back when kicking the wall. Her front hooves moved with such rapidfire strikes that it was difficult to track the motions in the blur, and what could be clearly seen was chunks of rocks flying as the new tunnel formed before her eyes.

Pinkie bounded forward with a giggle, reared up, and joined her, her hooves moving even faster, to the point that it occasionally looked like there were more than two of the pink hooves striking at the rocks. Each individual strike dislodged less stone, but she was more than making up for it with the speed.

Fluttershy looked up at the cave ceiling above her, and instantly regretted it as claustrophobia closed in again.

Is this how they dug out all of--

They were getting too far ahead of her, and Fluttershy hurried to catch up, nearly snagging her tail on one of the more jagged hunks of rock in her haste.

It wasn't long before they met sunlight.

Pomp and Power

"You haven't seen them?"

"'Course not."

The two mares laid together, speaking in low voices. Applejack had shed her dress, finally, and folded it into something that her granny could more comfortably rest her aching joints on, and Granny Smith was leaning to one side, resting against her granddaughter. The rest of the thrown-together herd, having not needed to ask to know family when they saw it, had given the two what space and privacy they could.

Granny let in and out a deep breath, the kind that made the old mare's ribs sound like they were rattling. "I won't be seein' hide nor hair o' either of 'em, either, 'cause Mac was a good grandcolt an' got himself an' Bloom out while I held 'em off."

"But where would they even go--Yeouch! What the hay, Granny--?"

Granny pulled back the hoof that she'd just smacked into Applejack's pastern. "Jus' checkin'," she said serenely.

"What in Equestria would that be checkin'?" she grumbled as she rubbed her other front hoof against the sore spot.

"That you ain't one o' 'em changelings."

"How would--"

"You didn't notice that they tend t' change back when somethin' hurts?"

"They were mostly changed back already by the time was kickin' 'em." Applejack huffed. "Seriously, Granny, why wallop me?"

"You were askin' where they'd go. I ain't sayin' nuthin' if I ain't sure." She bobbed her head toward a couple of changelings nearby, engrossed in their own conversation. "Don't want t' go leadin' any o' these fellers right t' their hidin' spot."

"...Makes sense." She laid her head on her front legs, avoiding the throbbing spot, and looked around. Other than the low-ranking changelings grunts who'd been saddled with keeping watch over them, the only other creatures speaking were a green unicorn and an earth pony with a multi-coloured mane, curled tightly next to each other and trading hushed whispers. The occasional nuzzle they exchanged identified them as a couple. "You're sure they're alright?"

"Sure as sugar." And with a sly smile, she added, "They'll've found Zecora."

Ears perked at the strange name. "Who's Zecora?"

"She moved in a lil while back. Nice sort. Keeps t' herself, mostly, but she took a shinin' t' Appleboom." The smile took on the smugness of a pony about to casually blow another's mind. "Zebra."

Applejack blinked furiously. "There's a zebra in Ponyville?"

"Eeyup, that's what I said." She raised a brow. "I would hope a grandfoal o' mine don't have a problem with zebras."

The blinks continued, then turned to a quick shake of her head. "No no, I've met a few. Aunt an' Uncle have some Farasian business partners. They introduced me. I jus'... Ponyville's kinda..."

There was a careful hunt for the right word, but before she could find one, Granny snorted. "If you're goin' t' say backwater, jus' say backwater."

"I was goin' t' say rural."

"Which is jus' a prettied-up way of sayin' backwater." Granny shrugged. "Not like it ain't true. It's a little nowhere town sittin' in Canterlot's shadow. But it's where your roots are, and don'tcha forget it."

"...I didn't." The words are soft. "I never forgot the Acres. I... hated missing the Summer Sun Celebration when you hosted it. Was plannin' t' come out for a special visit t' make up for it." A deep sigh escaped her. "I guess I missed m'chance."

"Horseapples." She snorted again at Applejack's look of alarm. "Oh don'tcha look at me like that. I'm older than the orchard, I can cuss iff'n I want to." She gave her grandfilly a prod in the ribs, much more gently than the smack to the leg. "And more important, I ain't in the dirt yet, an' your brother an' sister are still out there. Once we're home, we'll have that special reunion, the four o' us."

There weren't any tears, not on the outside. But there was no mistaking it in Applejack's voice. "Thank you, Granny. Lookin' forward t' it."

"Darn tootin' y'are."

Changelings were starting to whisper.

They thought that their queen couldn't hear them, but Chrysalis's senses were sharper than a drone. She knew what they were saying about in her, when voices grew low. They'd started to notice that she was more behaving more erratically than usual--the fact that there was supposedly a usual level of erratic made her particularly incensed, and she'd kicked around few drones for that one, followed by taking out her anger on one of Celestia's surviving vases--and that she, more and more often, seemed melancholy...

Well, melancholy was her own word for it. When she'd first heard the treacherous whispers, the word of choice had been mopey, and she'd taken violent personal offense to that too. Queens did not mope, but they did occasionally feel the weight of melancholy pressing down on their withers. But she couldn't expect foolish drones to know the difference.

It was one of these fits of melancholy that had had her dismissing her guards, and pacing the throne room, the sound of her chitinous hooves striking the marble making an ultimately failed effort to drown out her memories pressing in on her mind.

"I suppose you'd be giving me that smug little smile right about now." The words met no living ears, and her gaze was aimed slightly to the left, at a half-ruined tapestry that depicted Celestia rearing up, sunlight gathered around her horn. "That way you look at everyone that makes it seem like you know everything that's going on and that you saw it all coming."

She glared at the burned fabric, baring her teeth. "You'd be asking right now 'so, Chrysalis, was it all worth it?' and you'd keep on smiling even as I kicked you in the jaw for daring to speak to your better out of turn."

She advanced on the tapestry, her own horn coating itself in eerie green. "You're always like that. For centuries you've been like that. Even after your own sister laid you low a thousand years ago, you never learned your lesson."

She reared up, briefly matching the tapestry's pose, and her hooves slammed into it, the jagged edges of her leg's holes catching on the fabric and making it audibly rip on the way back down. "After the siege of Trot, you stopped seeing me as a threat! Sealed away in that volcano, like the rest of your problems. I knew I'd make you regret not killing me when you had the chance, no matter how long it took."

Green flames burst from her horn, the scorched edges relighting. "I won! I watched you flee out of your own broken window, stripped of your power! I WON! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, SUN PRINCESS? I WON!"

The tapestry could not respond to her shout, and so she merely watched as the flames consumed the heroic figure, and her smiling face.

It didn't bring her any of the joy it should have.

She wasn't moping. She wasn't.

But she was... tired. Yes, she was tired, and should retire early tonight.

Chrysalis turned, and left the empty throne room. She'd been sleeping in the royal bedroom, after she'd removed and burned all but the bed, of course. This time, however, she took the longer path rather than the most direct one, again trying to drown out the thoughts with her hooves against stone.

There were drones in the halls, builder-caste ones who'd been cleaning the place up and making it more comfortable for changeling habitation. They pulled away when they saw her coming, vanishing into rooms with haste and starting up more of the treasonous whispering.

She'd driven out the alicorn. She'd seized the capitol, captured all major cities, and her supply of love had never been higher. She'd won. She would have paid a leg to see Celestia's look of despair as she cleaned out her wine cellar to toast to that victory. She would have kept the old mare in chains, and forced her to watch her pour the first glass.

Chrysalis had demanded the changelings bring her more, recently. But the vintages from all over Equestria didn't compare.

The builder drones thought she couldn't hear them. They all thought she couldn't hear them. They were wondering what was wrong, why their queen would be melancholy at the height of their victory. They didn't understand. Couldn't understand.

It would be good when they could move on, to the next target, but the conquest wasn't finished yet. There were still pockets of resistance, including in that infuriating backwater of Ponyville. It had taken so long to smoke out those ponies that one could start suspecting that her drones were slacking off on the job. And now Rockville was starting to fight back too, if the two idiot messengers who had arrived one after another were correct. How much work was it to ambush travelers on the road and starve out a bunch of stone cultivators?

Pharynx would sort out the Ponyville situation, and she'd find someone competent to sort out Rockville. This nation could draw out its dying gasps if it wanted, but it'd already lost.

She came to the door of what was now her bedroom. It'd been broken before, off its hinges, and had been hastily patched up with green resin. She pushed it open with a shove of her shoulder, and pressed on into the room, each hoofstep that bit heavier.

Just tired.

She hauled herself onto the softest bed she'd ever encountered, and let a long sigh escape her lungs as she settled upon it. She wasn't entirely sure what the mattress was made out of, but she'd bet her crown that enchanted cloud had been used in the construction to make it so soft. The pillow too.

She was sleeping in the bed of her hated enemy. Living her palace. Helping herself to her every little luxury.

That perfect moment will never happen again.

No wine will ever compare again.

They don't understand.

She closed her eyes, and as she fell asleep, the sun sank below the horizon.

The caverns had gotten a bit more lively, with Spike around.

Twilight Sparkle heard the whoosh and watched the green light flickering through the crystals along the walls of the old mine, well before she even reached the meeting spot. The little baby dragon could be a bit sneezy, but after the initial bout of ducking, covering, and screaming, everypony had mostly gotten used to that.

Watching him chewing through the surrounding rock was taking a bit longer to feel normal, but it did make her grateful they'd chosen here to hide him. Dragons were natural cave dwellers, and so long as they provided sources of heat to make up for a lack of his mother's flames, he was perfectly comfortable eating, sleeping, and playing with the strange hoofed siblings he'd found in his nest.

Speaking of playing, she was hearing a lot of stomping hooves and wordless whinnies, and Twilight couldn't help but smile. He'd figured out quickly how to climb up on their backs, and loved being carried around as they trotted between their piles of salvaged books. He had less patience for being read to, but took more interest when there were pictures on the pages, especially colourful ones. Stopping him from trying to chew those colourful pages, however, was a work in progress.

She came upon the meeting place right in time to see a rearing Trixie dramatically neigh, spin on her back hooves, and flop over onto her back, with her legs in the air, while Spike giggled and smacked his little fists against the ground in the closest thing a dragon could get to hoof stomps of applause. Sunset was curled up with him, the little drake snuggled into her warm coat as he cheered.

"Looks like you're all having fun."

Trixie instantly sprung to her hooves again, shaking dust from her coat and doing her best impression of a housecat who had just slammed into a wall trying to pounce on a bug. "You saw nothing."

Sunset smirked, tilting her head. "What about me?"

"You saw a moderate amount and are sworn to secrecy."

"And Spike?"

"Can't speak yet, so no promises are required."

Sunset chuckled and shook her head as Twilight lowered herself to the cavern floor on the other side of Spike. "So, how goes the research, Twi?"

Twilight shrugged. "As well as it can go when I can't just ask them my questions, but... I've been keeping my eye on that one differently-coloured drone. It sounds like there's been some strong resistance in the Ponyville area and he's pulling some of the swarm out that way."

"Ponyville?" Sunset tilted her head thoughtfully. "I've been there a couple of times, but it always seemed kind of..."

"Rural?" Twilight offered.

"More like backwater," Trixie commented as she settled down next to one of the book piles. "I performed there once and it wasn't anything to write home about."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Well, whatever they're doing out there, they're lasting longer than Canterlot did." She grinned. "And if they're diverting resources there, it might just give us an opening."

Trixie huffed. "Care to finally tell us what you've been cooking up in that in that brightly-coloured head of yours, then?"

"I want to wait until Moondancer gets--"

"Twilight!"

"Well, speak of the pony." Trixie allowed the two to go through their usual hug-filled greeting this time and waited until they were settled back onto the cavern floor, pressed close together. "Now can you tell us?"

Sunset looked around at the other unicorns, now plus dragon, present, and took a deep breath. When she spoke again, something about her voice had changed. She was no longer the easygoing Sunset Shimmer they'd grown accustomed to, who offered a steady presence and bits of playful ribbing during a dark time where it would have been so easy to give in to despair. In her place, there was something that felt... older, as if the mare were echoing a fraction of her ancient mentor in her precision and the grim heaviness of her tone.

"What I'm about to tell you, you can't breathe a word of to anypony. Under most circumstances, my telling you all would be a massive breach of classified information, but during dire enough emergencies, I can bring ordinary ponies into confidence. If things ever get back to normal, you'll be sworn to silence and there will be paperwork to match. This. Is. Top. Secret. Am I understood?"

Slowly, three heads silently nodded. Spike, having no idea what was going on, chewed on the end of his tail.

Sunset Shimmer took another breath, and continued. "I'm Princess Celestia's apprentice. That's public knowledge. What isn't is my second official position within Equestria's government, and my place in global security."

Three unicorns stared at the fourth, and barely any of them breathed. There was no magic in the air, not a one had casted anything recently save for routine telekinesis, and yet the air felt weighted down by something, pressing on each back.

"I'm the world's failsafe."

Sunset took her third, deep inhale.

"I'm not just an apprentice. I'm Celestia's heir."

The refuge was a lot quieter, without Rarity.

It wasn't fair. Sweetie Belle had barely gotten any real time with her before she had to go. She'd spent so much time talking to other creatures and helping them out, and then she'd had to get out, go even further away, and save ponies. And when all this was over, she would likely travel far away, leaving Sweetie--

No. Not alone. Rarity had promised Sweetie that her parents were out there, and she believed her. She'd have her mom and dad back, and things would be okay.

She still wanted her big sister.

She'd been getting physically stronger day by day, now that she was eating regularly and had a safe place to sleep. She was making friends with the other foals here, and it would hurt to say goodbye to them as well. She'd thought about asking her parents if they could move to Ponyville, but she knew that wouldn't fix anything, either, since everypony was always talking about where they would go.

Her new friend Silver Spoon called Ponyville too rural--her other new friend, Diamond Tiara, had used the word backwater instead, but Cheerliee had been very upset when she'd heard it, and so Sweetie had filed that away as a word not to say around grown ups--and so the consensus seemed to be that, once everyone had their moms and dads again, they'd go to better places. Big, fancy cities, or even lands outside of Equestria.

None of it was fair.

"Sweetie Belle, can you not sleep? It is strange to see you, into the night so deep." Sweetie jumped, and turned around. She'd been staring at the canopy, watching the beams of moonlight shining through the branches. Zecora was looking at her, head tilted slightly with a look of concern. "My apologies, my young friend. To sneak up on you, I did not intend."

"It's okay..." She settled back into the sitting position she'd been in. "I just miss Rarity, is all."

Zecora slowly walked over and sat down next to her, nodding sagely. "When apart from those we hold dear, rest can be elusive, I fear."

Sweetie looked up at the zebra mare. The first zebra she'd ever seen. "Must be harder for you." At the inquiring look she got in response, she elaborated, "You're from really far away. You probably haven't seen your family in a really long time."

Zecora smiled, but in the moonlight, Sweetie could see a shine of unshed tears. "It is kind of you to think of me, young filly, but I did not come to Equestria willy-nilly." A hoof came up, nudging the rings around her neck. "While this land was strange, even before the current threat, my choice to come here gives me no regrets."

Sweetie gave a small hum of thought. "Do you have any sisters or brothers, Miss Zecora?"

She shook her head. "I have always been an only foal, little one." She chuckles. "With the trouble I caused, for children, my parents were done."

"You could still have some someday." Zecora looked like she may speak, but Sweetie kept going, "This place is a little like a big family. I bet some of the ponies here would like calling you their sister."

It wasn't fair. They should all stay together, when this was over.

There was silence, and after a few moments, Sweetie worried that she might have said something wrong. Then Zecora smiled. "You speak of found family." She looked at the clusters of wooden homes, illuminated by flickering amber lights. "Ones of choice, made informally." Some mischief came to her smile. "Is that you asking me to join yours?"

Sweetie blinked. That last part didn't rhyme.

Then again, Zecora had said that she did that by choice. That she could stop, when the situation was important.

Sweetie smiled back. "It would be kinda nice to have another big sister."

A black hoof raised, and ruffled her mane. And it said more than any words could have, rhyming or not.

Sweetie slept a little better, that night.

Wisteria

There is a story often told, in many lands, in many ways, from many tellers.

It is a story that says that every creature were once all creatures. Every individual could have a pegasus's flight, a unicorn's spells, a dragon's fire, a minotaur's strength, a griffon's voice, and more, whenever they wished. They could see the world through every set of eyes imaginable, and never had to worry about envy or strife. They were every gender and none all at once, and new beings sprung from earth, sea, and sky whenever there was enough love to tell the world that the newly-arrived would never know loneliness.

These primordial beings, they say, lived in perfect harmony.

Until something broke the world.

What did it changes from telling to telling. Sometimes it is an outside force, a brewing evil from outside of the bounds of the perfect world. Something twisted, something Other that hungered to be part of something it could not touch without the world itself recoiling. Something rotted from the inside out with envy, and so would seek to destroy that which it could never have.

Sometimes it is the selfish acts of a select few who wished to be only ones who could be everything. Creatures who wanted to hoard the grandest powers for themselves and diminish the others. And they succeeded in diving the world, and driving wedges between what would have once been family and friends and now were so impossibly different.

It depends on the lesson that the teller wishes to impart who the perpetrator is, but no matter what, the shattering happens, and everyone ends up locked to a single shape forevermore.

"What do you mean, her heir?!"

Sunset Shimmer couldn't have said she hadn't expected that reaction, but she still flinched away from the volume. "There's no need to shout, Trixie."

"I think there's every need to--"

"But what does that mean?" Twilight Sparkle's shock had come and gone much more quickly, and now curiosity was burning in her eyes. "Princess Celestia is immortal."

"She's not immortal, Twilight. She's ageless. There's a difference. And she hasn't been sitting around for over a thousand years just hoping that nothing heavy ever falls on her head. " It felt like she'd said that so many times before, throughout her time as an apprentice, repeating the correction every time the word came up.

As she continued, however, she started onto topics she had never discussed with any pony but her mentor. "There's a series of mechanisms in place for if something happens to her, and under normal circumstances, Parliament can just... keep doing what it's doing. The parts of governance that usually go straight to the princess are distributed between various key positions."

Moondancer, who'd been sitting quietly in thought, spoke up. "So... what about you?"

"I'm not the heir to the throne." She shifted, twisting her head to look at the mark on her flank. "I'm the heir to the sun. Every generation, she finds a pony with a sun-shaped cutie mark, and takes them under her wing. She trains them, and prepares them to take over. If the worst happens, I make sure the next day comes."

Trixie's voice still held every last bit of incredulity, though thankfully had lowered several decibels. "You've been making the sun rise, then?"

Sunset shook her head. "No. That's how I know that Princess Celestia is still out there. And I think I know how to get a message to her."

The old airship tended to creak, then strong winds rushed by and made it sway back and forth. It was one of the things that Sunflower found charming about it.

The crew were a mixed lot. A few minotaurs, some abyssinians, a diamond dog or two, and she'd spotted at least one griffon. The captain, the strangest of all, was a young dragon, one who couldn't be more than half a century old. She was a serpentine breed who tended to slither more often than use her legs, and coil herself around furniture that was never built to be rested on in such a way. Her scales were mottled in a few different colours, extra glittery scales dotted over her hide like hidden gems, and her eyes were two different colours, one red and the other yellow.

She almost reminded Sunflower a bit of--

dragged through the gates screaming writhing cursing her his last words claiming he'd rather be stone

She didn't want to think about him.

She didn't want to think about a lot of things.

Lovesong was pressed against her side. Her niece had been quiet since boarding, only able to coax the occasional smile or word out when greeted by the crew. Sunflower had done most of the talking for the both of them, convincing them to let the two of them hitch a ride. There hadn't been a ton of protest; apparently the occasional pony would make the same bargain, wanting to see a slice of the world beyond Equestria, and the crew found it amusing.

Pegasi were the most frequent, wanting to go beyond where just their own wings could take them. But the captain had admitted that it wasn't often that one arrived with an earth pony in tow, let alone one who claimed to be her aunt despite looking to be barely older.

Sunflower kept claiming to be older than she looked. After the third or fourth time, she was starting to think that they may believe her. At the very least, she'd heard one of the feline crewmembers muttering that ponies all looked like children to him anyway, so what did he know. She could have taken offense to that, too, as she was slightly taller and more robust than the average mare, but given that she has still towered over by the ship's crew, she couldn't help but acknowledge that he had a point.

She wasn't used to being shorter than anyone.

Best not to think so much about that, either.

At least the two looked related, which was an extra bit of irony because the part that they'd kept to themselves was that Lovesong was adopted. The (comparatively) big earth pony mare was primarily white, a particularly dazzling shade of it that had made one of the creatures aboard grumble that she'd end up reflecting the sunlight and blinding someone, the uniform shade of her coat broken up by her sunny yellow cutie mark. Her mane and tail--both of them were long, impossibly messy, and she'd cheerily referred to them as the "twin hairbrush eaters"--were instead of a pale pink that could remind a viewer of candyfloss.

That pink was what Lovesong echoed, only in her coat and feathers. She was a bit tall and leggy for a pegasus, and had that candyfloss shade across her body, except for the tips of her wings, where it faded to more of a purple, and that pinky-purple also filled the curls of her mane and tail. Those wings were a bit oversized, too, and when someone had managed to rouse her into conversation about it, she admitted that she was more of a glider than a flier, but that with the right wind conditions, she could glide for a very long time.

Two ponies, one not the best flier and one without wings at all. Them catching a ship together to travel only made sense.

None of the creatures on the ship knew what had happened to the capitol. They'd only been visiting a port town, one that hadn't been hit yet, and word had yet to travel.

Maybe it would all be taken care of before the world at large did know, but she doubted it.

That's why they needed the ship.

The next question was obvious, and it came from Twilight. "How?"

"Princess Celestia taught me a spell," Sunset explained as she shifted her weight slightly. While the importance of her role's secrecy wasn't something she disagreed with, having told somepony felt like a heavy load being removed from her back. "A way to get a message to anypony that I personally know, so long as they're alive to receive it."

Trixie, still fuming, huffed. "And you haven't used it before because?"

Sunset just smiled at her. "Because it requires a special candle, one that's constantly lit. The paper with the message written on it needs to be burned by the flame."

They were on the deck that day.

They spent most of their time above deck, only going down to sleep. Sunflower would keep her eyes on the sky, watching the sun travel from one horizon to the other, while Lovebird would spend most of the time with her eyes closed, letting the wind flow through her hair and feathers, every once and a while opening her wings and almost lifting off. Sometimes they would talk, but most of the time they would just be, and the crew of the ship would be engrossed in their duties and would leave them to their business.

Most of the time.

"So what's you two's actual story?"

Sunflower turned her head, to see the captain eyeing her. She'd slithered over without making a sound, and had lifted her front half up off the deck just enough to comfortably look her in the eye. Lovesong didn't look, or speak, but her posture drooped, ever so slightly, and so it was up to Sunflower to smile and do the talking. "And what makes you think there's an actual story?"

"Because I wasn't hatched yesterday." She jabbed a claw toward Sunflower, then wagged in between the two of them. "An aunt and niece just up and deciding to go 'wherever the wind takes them' one day? Last time I heard an excuse like that, it was a pair of brothers, and I turned out to have some notorious con artists on my ship."

Sunflower's gentle smile never wavered. "My my, captain, that's quite the accusation." Her head tilted slightly. "Do we really look like criminals to you?"

The dragoness merely huffed. "You look like a pair of mares running from something. Whether that's the law or something more personal, I don't know, but--"

"...Personal." The captain blinked as Lovesong said that single word, and no more, her voice barely audible as her body drooped all the more.

Sunflower nudged her niece gently, and nuzzled the top of her head as a mother might do to soothe a foal. "It's alright, you don't have to talk about it." When she looked at the captain, her voice was more sombre. "She lost her husband. Recently."

The serpentine form drew back, as if physically struck, and she formed a few loop-de-loops of coiling scales as she wrapped around thin air. The small wings at her shoulders gave a few flaps to stabilize the strange posture. "Ah. That'd indeed fit as a reason to fly fast and far. And you came with her 'cause...?"

Sombre turned to downright grim. "I'm all the family she has left. We were always a small one, and... tragedy seems to find us."

I waited a thousand years for nothing

Slow breaths. Stop thinking about it.

The silence carried on for several moments. Lovesong had shrunk in on herself, and Sunflower was content to let the captain stew in the awkward situation she'd created. "I'll accept that. So long as you're not keeping any big secrets."

Sunflower managed one last smile. "Would you believe that we're really alicorns, and we just look like this temporarily because we used up most of our magic fighting an evil queen?"

The captain rolled her eyes, a motion that turned into an uncurling of her body. "Har de har. If that's your idea of a joke, lass, don't quit your day job. Whatever it is."

"I was a politician."

That earned a snort. "I think I would've preferred you turn out to be a criminal." The captain shrugged her shoulders, twisting and turning away from the mares and starting to leave. "But I guess at that point, it's all semantics. Just leave my ship with exactly as much silverware as it started with, and I'll be happy."

"Of course. Thank you for being understanding, captain."

Sunflower turned her gaze back to the horizon, and then closed her eyes, leaning against Lovebird. They both waited until the captain was far enough away, and then Lovebird started to cry.

"He was right there..." tumbled out between the sobs

Sunflower let out a soft sigh. "I know."

"He didn't recognize me."

"He didn't recognize anypony anymore. It isn't your fault."

"I should've... I..."

"There was no time to take a pony with us who didn't want to go."

"But we left, and he's still--"

"We'll get him back, Cadance." And briefly, Sunflower's voice got back some of Celestia's steel. "No matter what happens, we'll get everypony back."

Trixie crossed one front leg over the other, rolling her eyes. "So let me guess, Princess Sunset Shimmer, you need our help to break into the castle and find this candle?"

Sunset shook her head with a chuckle. "I told you, it's just the sun, not the throne. If I'd have a title, it'd be something like Celestial Steward. And nope, no break ins."

There was a slight grinding of teeth. "Sunset, I believe I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, speak for all of us when I say to get to the point."

Sunset shrugged. "The candle might still be in the palace, but I wouldn't have put it past the queen to have destroyed it. It's way too risky to go in there on a 'maybe' while she's camping out there. That's why I've been working on a replacement."

Moondancer's eyebrows rose. "And you made one?"

"No, we have better. The candle was something a unicorn can't make themselves, because it was a gift from the Dragon Lord."

She looked down at Spike, who was currently very preoccupied with the way that light reflecting off the crystal danced over his own scales. It took him several seconds to notice that everypony was staring at him, after which he blinked at them, gurgled, and hiccupped.

"The candle flame is dragonfire."

"Yeah, we've taken a trip or two to Mount Aris. Why?"

Sunflower smiled at the griffon crewmate over her meal. Half osprey, half ocelot, he didn't have nearly as much trouble squashing himself into one of the chairs as other griffons might, still being significantly bigger than the little pony across from him but not quite as large as some. Her salad was piled high with manner of vegetables, and his own plate had a hearty meat pie. Her lack of flinching as he dug in had earned some amount of respect, and she'd found over the journey that he was much more jovial and talkative than the sharp eyes and sharper beak could lead a pony to believe.

"I'm just curious, is all," she said, before leaning down to grasp a cherry tomato in her teeth and chew it thoroughly before swallowing. "My niece and I wanted to see the world, and barely anypony has ever seen of the heart of Hippogriffia for themselves."

"Ehhhh..." He shrugged, and gulped down another chunk of the pie. "You see one mountaintop city, you've seen them all. Besides, they're not big on visitors. They've given us the stink eye every time we pull into port, like we're going to swan in and rob them blind or something."

"Well, isn't that all the more reason to be friendly?" Sunflower gave her kindest smile. "If they're wary of outsiders, then it's up to us to show them that we're nothing to fear."

"And why should we do all the work?" He shook his head. "I get what you're saying. Someone needs to be the first to reach out. But I'm just doing my job." He gestured at her with a claw. "Now you? Of course I'm happy to spend the energy being friendly with you. You're on our ship. No reason to not treat you like part of the motley little family while you're here. But I'm not going to dredge up the energy to put on a happy face for creatures I'll be leagues away from the next day."

Sunflower nodded a bit, conceding the point. "Of course. We're not infinite wells of social energy. We do need to take care of ourselves and recharge." She gave a soft laugh. "After all, you wouldn't want to burn out and start resenting other creatures."

I'm sorry sister I'm so sorry

"Something wrong with the salad, Sunny?" He casually wiped his beak of meat juices, and wiped his talons off on his breastfeathers. "I can talk to the captain if the veggies have gone off."

Sunflower only realized then how much she'd drooped, and she tried to force her ears upright again. "No no, it's fine... Just struck with a bad memory, is all."

The griffon's eyes softened, as much as a griffon's eyes could. "You and your niece have really been through it, haven't you?"

"Yes." There was no point in hiding it, especially when she'd already told the captain some of it.

He nodded solemnly. "A lot of us started out the same way. Sometimes you've just got to get on a ship, fly away, and start over." He then tilted his head to one side, opening his beak in a smile. "If you ever wanted to stay on as crewmembers, I'm sure the captain would love to have you."

Sunflower smiled back. "Tempting." She shook her head. "But no, I don't think this is quite the the life for me, as much as I've enjoyed meeting you all."

He shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just know the option's open, if you change your mind."

Starting over. It certainly was a tempting thought. A new place, with new faces, away from all of her old mistakes.

Maybe she'd get another thousand years.

But even if she did, it'd all catch up to her eventually. And she'd never forgive herself.

She had to help make this right.

Ask a pony to continue the tale, and they may point to alicorns as the ones who have gotten back some of this perfection in their blend of earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn. Ask a dragon, and they may claim that they got the lion's share of the fractured power and will acquire the rest in time. Ask a griffon, and they might spin a story of some golden trinkets who will unlock the latent magic that still lingers in every creature's heart if gathered.

Ask the only and only draconequus, and he'd probably deny that anything had changed at all, before he morphed you into a species you had never heard of before and laughed himself silly at the look on your face, if you even still had one.

Ask a changeling...

Well.

Ask a changeling, and they will laugh at the idea that anyone but them could have changed form so easily in the first place. After all, how could food ever know such power? And the idea that they could have once been part of a perfect whole and diminished?

No changeling talks about the holes.

No changeling talks about the fact that they're scars.

Because they're changelings, and changelings are already perfect.

Grape

We can do anything in dreams.

We can be anything in dreams.

Sometimes, Rarity is an earth pony. She's tall, strong, and sturdy, with hoofsteps that make the ground tremble. She can be a farmer tilling the soil, a craftspony working with stone, a chef in a kitchen, or a million other hooves-on careers. Sometimes she can take the ways that she's heard their magics described and almost put it together in her imagination into the sensation of resonating with the earth.

Sometimes she's a pegasus, swooping and diving, whooping and hollering. She can be a weatherpony, a courier, a racer, an explorer of far off places, or anything else that has her touching the sky. Sometimes she aches for that sky in the depths of her soul, in way that only the phantom wings of her dreams can soothe instead of mere telekinetic levitation.

Sometimes she really indulges in her fantasies, and she's an alicorn, presiding over her own court. A herald of the heavens, or merely a force that touches mortal hearts. An embodiment of some grand ideal that changes from dream to dream. Sometimes she craves that sense of command and wishes to feel that crown on her brow.

Sometimes she's a griffon, a zebra, a minotaur... different faces, different places, different paths... living countless lives in her slumber.

But sometimes she's just... Rarity.

And sometimes she's Rarity, with her hoof on General Vixen's throat.

The circumstances vary each time. Some nights she starts out being chased, hunted as food, and turns the tables on her attacker. Some nights it starts with a hunt for Vixen, stalking her way through changeling-occupied territory in search of her prey. Some nights it's a prolonged fight, some nights she gets in a lucky shot from the start, and some nights she has some kind of secret skill or weapon that makes the battle a trivial thing.

In some of the dreams, Vixen's laughing right to the end. In some of them, she's hissing and spitting curses. Others are closer to the truth of things, and she's crying and begging for mercy, gasping the words out as the hoof's pressure gets harder.

And on the rarest of occasions, the dream lasts long enough for Rarity to feel a twinge of remorse after snapping her neck.

Rainbow Dash had never been very good at comforting other ponies.

Rainbow could mingle, certainly. Scoring a job in the rainbow-creation department of Cloudale's Weather Factory isn't something a pony could do if they couldn't navigate a social situation or two. Knowing which ponies to impress and then knowing how to really impress them was an important skill, one she'd been learning to hone. It wasn't just enough to make a spectacle, it was everything surrounding the display, all the little moving gears that led to the moment when she made the world stomp its hooves in applause.

Professional relationships weren't personal relationships, however, and that was where Rainbow faltered. Her closest friend in the world was a griffon, and griffons... reserved may have been a good word for it. There was a cultural inclination toward not showing pain or vulnerability, and while she liked to think that she and Gilda had known each other long enough that neither needed to put up a front like they would with a stranger or acquaintance, it hadn't given Rainbow much practice in how to comfort an upset creature.

Is Gilda okay? I haven't seen her since Cloudsdale fell...

It certainly didn't give her any idea of what to do when a pony was having a nightmare.

They'd started harassing the changelings on the other side of the wall in shifts, some going out there while others took power-naps. She'd been coming off-shift, and strolled into the Pie family's living room to see Rarity on the couch, hooves twitching in phantom kicks and soft sounds of distress leaving her muzzle, and couldn't help but stop short.

Her initial instinct said to leave the room, and go get somepony else. Pinkie's mother probably knew how to soothe ponies in this kind of state, even as stoic as the family acted. Moms had a sense for that kind of thing. At the same time, it felt wrong to just leave her as the thrashing intensified.

What did my Mom do when I had nightmares?

It took time to go through the memory, and then she cautiously approached. She extended her neck, and nuzzled lightly under the distressed unicorn's jaw, watching for any sign that her horn may reflexively light. "C'mon Rare, wakey-wakey..."

Rainbow pulled back as Rarity jolted, but thankfully there was no bright light around her horn. Instead, Rainbow stepped back and watched the blue eyes that originally looked hazy and unfocused gain recognition, and the pulled-tight muscles started to relax. Rarity had pulled back her lips, showing her flat teeth, but those relaxed too, and she gave a shaky, "O-oh... Is... it my turn again?"

Rainbow nodded slightly. "Yeah." With a moment's hesitation and a twitch of her ears. "You, uh... you looked like you were having a pretty rough time."

Rarity slowly stepped down from the couch, and when her horn did light, the glow rushed over her coat, smoothing out the strands of fur. "...Did I?"

"Yeah." Her voice got quieter. "I... know it's none of my business and all, but you looked like you were having a real bad dream. You kept kicking."

"Hmm." The glow moved to mane and tail, making minute adjustments to the curls in the long purple hair. "Honestly, I don't remember what I dreamed at all." The words reminded Rainbow of a young flier who gave 'honest' speed averages that had been carefully rounded up. She gave a small flick of her tail. "At any rate, get some rest, Rainbow. I'll take over from here."

Rainbow wasn't good with personal relationships, but she knew body language, and as she watched Rarity leave the room, she saw the twitches in her hindquarters. She'd seen it before in pegasi coming off an adrenaline spike, the restless legs of a pony who still itched to kick, because their body still thought there was something there that needed the kicking.

Not my business.

Everypony and everyone had gone through their own personal Tartarus, and the trot was ongoing, with not a single creature able to say when the herd would collectively reach the gates. For any of them to find any sort of peaceful sleep would be a miracle. They just had to take what they could get, when they could get it, and hope.

Rainbow stepped up onto the couch, tucking her legs under her body and folding her wings. She lowered her head, closed her eyes, and with the practice of a mare who had spent her entire life sneaking naps whenever she could during work hours, dropped into sleep.

Her dreams were no kinder.

Fluttershy had never been very good at confronting other ponies.

Her one and only coping mechanism for ponies doing something she didn't like, for so long, had been simple avoidance. If somepony was being too loud, or too aggressive, or too in her face, it was easy to either run away, or on the days when she needed that bit more speed--not much more, given her very little wing power--fly away. She never stepped into a public space without picking out several retreat routes, and she always knew the direction to go in to reach home the fastest.

Her skill for bolting home as fast as possible during a blind panic could be held up as evidence that pegasi had a homing instinct.

When she'd lived far on the outskirts of town, that had worked for her just fine. When they'd all moved to the forest refuge, she'd had to learn to be a little more assertive, because everyone was in so much closer quarters and there was nowhere to retreat to unless you wanted to take a walk through the nearby woods alone, risking attack. That didn't mean that it was her favourite thing, but she could put her hoof down.

"The wonderful thing about Pinkies..."

"Pinkie."

"...Is that Pinkies are wonderful things..."

"Pinkie."

"...Our manes are made out of rubber..."

"Pinkie."

"...And our hoofsies are made out of springs..."

"Pinkie."

In fact, managing to reach the volume and force to her voice that the other pony heard her after four tries was a new record. She watched the mare who'd been pronking along on the tips of her hooves stop in her tracks, then turn her head to stare at her and give several bewildered blinks. "What's wrong, Fluttershy? Should I sing a different song?"

Fluttershy gave the tiniest of relieved sighs, then steeled herself for the next part, explaining herself. "...No, there's nothing wrong with the song," she said, giving a slight smile that she hoped was reassuring. "It's just... shouldn't we maybe be... a bit quieter? Given that we're sneaking and all."

The two of them had left the tunnels behind, and were now traveling through an area where she'd been told the rocks had 'grown wild.' She hadn't been sure what that'd meant, until she'd truly seen it. The stones really did almost look like living things, the way they rose from the ground in all manner of shapes, some of which reminded her of the twisting of tree trunks and branches, as if they were in some kind of petrified Everfree.

It provided plenty of cover, to hide themselves, and Fluttershy had started to feel some tentative hope for their chances until Pinkie had started singing with sudden gusto.

Confusion was still written across Pinkie's face, as if Fluttershy had said something completely nonsensical, and her ears twitched in ways that made them flop around, in the over-animated auricular language Fluttershy had seen in creatures with much larger ears than ponies had. "But this is a song for sneaking!" she finally said with disbelief. "It helps make my hooves extra light and bouncy."

Before Fluttershy could process that enough to respond, Pinkie started to pronk higher, hopping a circle around her and then starting her way up some of the wild rock formations with agility that would be more at home in a mountain goat. And that was when Fluttershy registered that her hooves weren't making a single sound, the usual clip-clop of keratin on stone completely nonexistent, and her jaw silently fell open.

Pinkie did a swan-dive off the jutting stone, landing on her hooves at the last second, still barely making a sound as she did and wearing the biggest grin that Fluttershy had ever seen. "See?"

"That..." Fluttershy looked down at her own hooves, then up Pinkie. "...Really works?"

"Of course! Why would I sing all the time if it didn't work?" She let out a giggle-snort. "Well, besides the fact that singing's fun, of course." She started to bounce in circles around Fluttershy again. "Come on, you try it too. We'll do a different one!" Her voice rose again as she started to sing, "Secret... agent mare!"

"Secret... agent mare..." Fluttershy tentatively echoed, her hooves still clipping against the stone.

"They've given you a number..."

"And... taken away your name..."

As Rarity took her place at the wall, her magic seizing up several stones, Maud gave the wall one last kick and turned to head toward the house, seeking her own replacement for the next few hours.

She wasn't tired. She hadn't even been tired after digging the way out for Pinkie and Fluttershy. She couldn't recall the last time she'd been tired, even though she felt she had at least a vague understanding of what the state was. Fiction books--she did read novels on occasion, and the lack of books with geologists as protagonists had even had her considering writing as well--had their descriptions for the state, the heaviness in limbs that made them impossible to lift and the fogginess of the mind that made it hard to think.

Ponies of the stone tended to just keep going, whether that was the constant alertness and drive of Limestone, the bouncing perpetual energy of Pinkie, or Maud's own steady strength. Even Marble could stay still and quiet for ages when it was required of her, never once nodding off.

Still, not sleeping would catch up eventually. They could keep going on beyond when other ponies dropped, but the drop was still possible, and there were a thousand other small things that could be going wrong below the surface of a pony who seemed just fine.

Maud paused as the door opened, giving a single, slow blink as she saw Big Macintosh, already awake. "...Hey," she said finally. "It's time to change shifts."

"Eeyup," he offered with a small nod, and started to walk past her. "You have a good nap, cousin Maud."

She turned her head to follow him with her eyes, and she found the next words coming to her tongue. "It's been a really long time."

Mac stopped, and glanced back at her. "Eeyup, it has."

"Our families were both smaller back then," she commented. "No younger siblings yet."

"Eeyup."

"You really talked my ear off back then."

"Eeyup." There were a few beats of silence. "How's Boulder?"

"He's good." A few more beats passed, and Maud's voice dipped slightly in volume. "I'm worried about Pinkie."

A smile twitched at Mac's muzzle. The Apples always had been oddly expressive; maybe Pinkie had tapped into some far-back part of the family tree, where their branch met the Pies', and that's where she'd gotten it from. "Fluttershy's tougher than she looks. They'll both be fine."

"Okay." She gave a single blink, and one of her hooves shifted slightly. "Sorry for not visiting Ponyville."

Mac shrugged. "S'alright. You had your rocks an' we had our apples. Some ponies are jus' bound to only see each other once every few years. Ain't somethin' I blame you for."

Something about those words dug into Maud's heart like obsidian shards, and she struggled to figure out how to dig them out.

"...I'll come to the next reunion," she offered. If there is one.

Mac gave another little smile, bobbed his head, and started to walk away again. "See you there, cousin Maud."

Maud turned away, back toward the door.

Maybe she did know what it felt like to be tired. Just not in body. Because when she got inside, walked past the snoozing pegasus on the sofa, and reached her room, her heart felt weighed down in her chest. It was like something dense and jagged had replaced it, putting pressure on her ribs, like it might just fall through them to land at her hooves.

She fell asleep the instant she hit the pillow.

It was the end of the world, and Tough Cookie was the last pony left.

Most mares would have broken, that from knowledge. Her cousin Cookie Crumbles wouldn't have lasted a day, she was sure.

I should have written more.

Her sisters, Lemon Cookie and Molasses Cookie, would have broken within a week, certainly.

I should have hugged them more.

Any of her neighbours... Well, it was obvious that they would've gone mad before long.

I should have visited more.

But Tough had been able to hold it together since the end began, because that was what she did. When Tartarus came howling to her doorstep, she would keep on trotting, because somepony had to.

Does it still matter when everypony's gone?

Right now she was doing what she'd been doing every day: patrolling her territory. The stones outside of her property had grown wild, and were getting wilder, and so she trotted along the border each day, making sure that nothing was encroaching over that border. She would normally go out and try to trim some of that back, but... that's how Chocolate Chip had gotten got, and so Tough couldn't risk it.

I heard him screaming...

It'd happened over a few short days. Papa had gone into town to do errands and not come back. Mama had gone after him to find out what was holding him up, and hours later, she still hadn't come back either. Worried siblings had tried to reach town as well, or neighbours, to find out what had happened, and had vanished one by one.

Then Tough had seen one, buzzing above the stones. Equine shapes twisted, torn and blackened, with jagged horns, grotesque wings, and riddled with holes. Parodies of the pony form. And that was when she'd realized what had happened to her family. They'd become those things.

She didn't know what the vector was. Her best guess was a bite, given that the beasts had fangs. So she'd holed herself up, ready to hurtle rocks at any of the flying chompers that came near her. Patrolling her territory constantly to make sure none had slipped in, ready to go for her in her sleep. Being constantly vigilant, because she was the last one left.

What else can a pony do, at the end of the world?

Tough Cookie needed her routine. She couldn't deviate from it, even for a moment. After patrolling, she would go through her food stores and other supplies, counting it all and making sure it was all accounted for. She knew that she'd eventually need to risk the outdoors to try to get more, but the longer she could make the existing stock last, the better.

At least it lasts longer when it's just... one of me...

Patrolling, Taking stock. Eating. Sleeping. Surviving. There hadn't been room for much else, because it was in the spaces when she wasn't occupied that Tough's mind started to wander, and much like how it was dangerous to leave her property's border, it was dangerous to have her thoughts stray too far.

Maybe there's still somepony out there...?

A steady trot, along the border. Noting the overgrown rocks, trimming the ones that crossed the border with a stomp of her hooves--fresh rocks would add to the food stores, and every extra meal was precious--and trying to drown out the sound of her own thoughts with her hoofbeats.

What she didn't drown out, today, were the voices.

"Secret... agent mare!"

"They've given you a number..."

"And taken away your name."

Tough Cookie's head went up, ears rotated forward. Briefly wondered if she was going insane.

Then she recognized the intense coat hue, took in the erratic motions that ponies shouldn't to able to do, and realized that what was bouncing over the rocks was Pinkie Pie.

Maybe it wasn't too late for the insanity instead.

Purpureus

In the following weeks, the Everfree Refuge had flourished, and Rarity stood in the middle of the thriving village with a smile.

Not just having become larger, as more shelters had been constructed, but the construction had grown more elaborate, in a very real meaning of the word grown. The mixture of earth pony, deer, and zebra magic had been coaxing the forest into ideal shapes for habitation, turning what had once been hastily-built shelters into true homes. There were a few flourishes made from magic amber, but only a few; it took time for deer to transform the carefully-harvested tree sap, and more importantly, they didn't want to compromise their camouflage with too much of its glow.

There had been a few more fires, but they'd been scattershot, placed with no rhyme or reason. It was clear that the swarm had no idea where they were and were hoping to get lucky in the efforts to smoke them out.

It was several days since the last attempt, one of the moments where the survivors here could almost forget. They mingled, they talked, they laughed, and foals and fawns chased each other in the chaos of childhood. Sweetie Belle was one of the ones who shied away from the rowdier games, but she'd found her place all the same, currently chatting with a pair of earth pony fillies, one silver and grey and the other purple and pink.

As for herself, Blackthorn had been shooting her glances more often as of late. Rarity was still considering whether she should start letting him catch her looking back.

She spotted Fluttershy heading toward her, from Zecora's home. She was freshly painted in the salve, and her saddlebags hung at her sides. Slowly, ponies started to peel off from what they'd been doing and followed, one by one, contented expressions fading away as the grim memory of their circumstances reasserted itself in the face of the task ahead.

Rarity let her own expression slide into grim determination as Fluttershy stopped in front of her, and she nodded. She would, of course, be accompanying them all. After all, it was her idea.

It was time to finally pay Ponyville a visit.

It'd been so long since any of them had seen unobstructed sunlight.

The canopy let in enough light to know what time of day or night it was, but there was a reason that the deer had been so fond of their amber lanterns, because even the noon-day sun would be shining through tiny gaps between branches. Those of the refuge had grown accustomed to the low light, and so, as they tried to take their first hoofsteps out of the tree cover, everypony's first instinct was to draw back again into the shadows.

Rarity thought they must have been quite the sight, huddled together at the edge of the trees, squinting at the light and looking like a family of rabbits hiding from the swooping talons of a hawk. It wasn't just the light, but the very thought of being out in the open, when the forest had been their protection for so long.

They'd all known it would be a risk. It'd taken days of gentle nudges, trying to help everypony gather their courage, trying to convince them to try. And yet here she was, standing there with them, belly practically to the earth as the sunlight jabbed at her eyes.

The first to move was Fluttershy. With the tiniest, steeling breath and, "...Okay..." she peeled herself off of the group, took one hoofstep after another into the sun, and Rarity's breath caught in her throat.

She'd thought she had understood their hues, in the forest. For some, she'd practically memorized them. But that had been when only dappled by sunlight. Fluttershy stood there, beneath the direct sun, every shade of yellow and pink that had been hidden now shimmering, and it was beautiful.

Rarity eventually shook herself out of her stun, and looked back at the rest of the huddle. "Well, we can't have dear Fluttershy hogging all of the sun, now can we?"

It was possible to forget how startlingly white her own coat was, and Rarity was almost ashamed at having done so. Yet even half-blinded by her own fur, she stepped out to join her friend. She closed her eyes, not against the glare, but so that she could raise her head and feel it all shining down. And the others followed, one by one, until they were a herd, standing in the grass, warmed by the rays, out where ponies belonged.

A perfection that could never last, but that they could enjoy in the moment. No swooping hawks hungry for rabbits, no changelings seeking a feast of pony love. Just grass, and warm sun.

Then it was time to keep going.

It was Fluttershy who saw it first, and her little gasp spoke volumes. Heads raised as they heard her, ponies poised for danger, but when most of them saw it too, they understood.

For Rarity, who had come from the Everfree from elsewhere, it took her time to fully see what her friend had even spotted. At a first glance, it was just overgrown greenery, a somewhat irregular-looking hill covered in grass and shrubs with a few surrounding trees that still looked young. Then she saw the birdhouses, and as Fluttershy opened her wings and swooped toward it all, she found herself breaking into a canter to follow.

It was not a hill, but a home, and the closer she got, the more she could pick out places where there were likely windows and doors beneath the layer of green. Not quite the same level of botanical architecture as what their refuge had become, but likely some experimentation in that direction had been done, and the results had then been left to grow wild.

There was no sign that it had been burned. It was some distance from the town proper, seemingly overlooked by the invasion, because its sapient inhabitant had already fled, and birds were a poor changeling's meal. Birds who were now singing, and Fluttershy zipped from one little house to the other, flipping between greetings and introductions depending on how friendly the chirps sounded.

There was a path to the home, but it too was overgrown, the dirt being reclaimed by grass and wild flowers. The other ponies in the group caught up, but stayed at the edge of that path, leaving Fluttershy to eventually touch back down to earth in front of the home and Rarity to trot into place alongside her.

Lighting her horn, Rarity started to pull back the growth, and Fluttershy extended a wing to start brushing it aside as well. It took time, but a glimpse of wood revealed itself as a door.

A door off of one of its hinges, and dangling by the second.

Fluttershy's movements were suddenly much more tentative, and with a nudge of her snout, she walked in, Rarity behind her.

They first thing they saw was an overturned couch. A chair and table had been similarly disturbed, and baskets and animal bedding lay strewn all over the living room, alongside scattered books. The shelves those books had likely once sat on were intact, but only because they'd been built into the wall.

Fluttershy slowly stepped into the centre of the destruction, and Rarity continued to follow, waiting for when the first tears would fall. As she did, she spotted the kitchen. Pots and pans dented, more brittle kitchenware smashed, bags torn, food gone...

Food gone.

Not just a few luxuries taken, and the rest left to rot. All of it, that she could see from her current place. The torn bags looked to have had their contents siphoned away, rather than scattered around in the usual wanton destruction.

Changelings hadn't done this.

Rarity nudged Fluttershy's shoulder, silently, with her snout. She took the silent invitation and draped a wing over her back before leaning against her. "Thank you... for being here."

"Of course," were the soft words in response. "We do things whenever you're ready. Not before."

They stood together in the ransacked living room for a long while.

Then, they got to work.

Not as much could be salvaged as had been hoped, but their saddlebags still had some extra weight as they left the cottage. Some things couldn't be made with just wood, plant fiber, and amber, no matter the magic brought to bear to assist, and so even broken pieces of past belongings could be valuable in what they could be recycled into. Fluttershy had focused on that, while they'd swept the home for things of use, talking about how dented pots and scattered stuffing from torn pillows could be repurposed.

Rarity almost smiled a few times, at the thought of taking all of this and getting to be creative in recycling it. But she would be using a friend's broken life as the raw material, and that reminder had kept the smile from surfacing.

Now the herd was all together again, walking down the neglected dirt path, and the charred remnants of what had once been a town soon loomed on the horizon. A few ponies moved more slowly. One had to stop and breathe to steel herself again. Several more started glancing upward, having adjusted to the sun but now all the more afraid of hundreds of wings suddenly blocking it.

They'd all agreed that this had to be done. That they needed to reclaim what they could. But nopony could truly be ready. When they reached the end of the long road and crossed the threshold into the town, the herd split in several directions, each with an expression like they were seeing ghosts.

Haunted ponies walking through the bones of their homes, and Rarity could only do what she had been already.

Be there. And listen.

"This was my bar."

The red-purple mare sat by the ashes of the wooden building, near a half-scorched, half-rotted sign. Staring at the sign long enough would show a ghost of the shapes it'd once had, matching the grapes and strawberry on her flank.

Rarity quietly sat with her.

"Nearly everything was local. The farmponies here grew it, then brewed it. Anything that was from out of town... I got it from family. Folks who had gotten it from their own local farmponies.

"Every single glass had a name attached. Every drink had a story. I'd pour something for an out-of-towner, and I'd tell them something about where it came from. Who.

"You weren't just buying a drink there. You were peering into what made it possible. And now it's gone."

Rarity took a deep breath. She tried to pretend that she could still taste it on the breeze, what had to have been wines, ciders, and all manner of other brews. She tried to picture the crowded bar of regulars and newcomers alike, tried to picture herself as a newcomer, coming up to the bar and being greeted by a friendly smile.

All she could truly taste was ash, dust, and the scent from the grass of a recent rain.

Rarity sighed, and shook her head. "The bar is gone, Berry... but you are still here. And so are the stories." She smiled gently. "I would love to hear some of them."

A soft chuckle. "I wouldn't know where to start."

"The beginning?"

"There's a lot of beginnings."

"Then pick one at random, darling, and we'll get to the others after. We have time."

"This was our spa."

The pink mare with the blue mane spoke softly as she stood before the building. Even so thoroughly burned, Rarity could see the remnants of the swooping roof, and she had to be careful of her hooves as she approached because of the half-buried golden ornaments.

"My sister and I, we gained our marks at the same time." Rarity couldn't quite place the mare's accent, but now was not the time to ask. "We knew from that moment we would go into business together. We came to Ponyville and...

"It took time, to attract clientele. They saw spas as something for big city ponies, and many ponies here prided themselves on being anything but big city ponies.

"But they gave it a try, a few of them. And word of mouth carried us through." Her eyes closed. "Then the swarm. We ran, but... Lotus wasn't fast enough. I-I heard her scream..."

Rarity tried to picture the two, together. She'd been told, save for their coat and mane colours, that the sisters had been nearly identical. Tried to picture herself strolling up to the building, in its previous glory, and being greeted by excited smiles from ponies who treasured each new customer. Being pampered by ponies who loved their work.

Tears rolled down the young mare's cheeks. Rarity's horn lit, and magic wiped them away. "You did get away, Aloe. Which means that she knows you're out there, waiting for her."

"And what good does that do?" Eyes opened again, blazing in pained anger, and her voice rose to a shout. "I don't know where she is! I don't know where they took her! And I'm a beautician! I cannot fight an army--"

"You are a beautician," Rarity said evenly, then nodded at her own mark, "And I am a jeweler." Her tone grew more gentle. "We don't have to have a mark for it to fight, Aloe. We just need a reason."

The flames in her eyes dimmed, and slowly, she nodded. "Yes, you're right. I'm sorry... and thank you."

"Anytime."

"This was our farm."

The massive red stallion had barely spoken a word, during Rarity's time at the refuge. But as he stared out at fields long neglected and at orchard with trees picked bare--she caught sight of shapes flitting between them, and would learn later that they were fruit bats--it seemed he had a lot more to say.

"Our granny set up here before there even was a Ponyville, an' our family put down roots." His head lowered. "It was jus' the three of us, that day. Me, Granny, an' Apple Bloom. Our parents were... gone, an' our other sister headed t' the city a long time ago for greener pastures.

"It was a lot of work, for three ponies, one of 'em too old t' do much an' the other too young. We'd call on help from the neighbours a lot. From friends.

"When it started... Granny grabbed up the pots an' pans, an' she told us t' run. She'd hold 'em off."

Rarity stared at the fields, and imagined them full of crops. She imagined the trees heavy with fruit, and ponies coming from all over town to help pick them. She thought of how much her own power could help, with that. Telekinesis was perfect for collecting a lot of small objects at once, and the magic that she'd previously used to collect jagged shards of amber could just as easily pick apples.

Rarity nodded, slowly. "Given that you're here, sounds like she succeeded."

He breathed a huff of a laugh. There was no mirth in it. "Granny's fierce when she wants t' be." His head sank all the more. "I shoulda grabbed her an' made her come with us. I barely have any family left..."

"She's still out there, Mac--"

"For how long?" He looked right at her. "I know the changelings keep ponies alive. We're no good t' 'em dead. But she's old, an' her health's never been perfect. How much are they gonna go outta their way for one old mare?"

Rarity didn't have an answer for that. She just moved closer, leaned, and slowly, he leaned back, holding back just enough to keep from knocking her over with his greater bulk.

After a stretch of silence, he sighed. "Still, no point digging a grave yet. She'd have my hide if I did while she was still kicking. An' maybe our sister's out there giving 'em Tartarus an' waiting for us t' find her, too."

Rarity smiled a little. "Exactly. Giving up is precisely what the swarm wants."

He nodded. "Eeyup. An' I'm not about t' give 'em the satisfaction."

"That was the bakery, and there was the quills and sofas store, and..."

Rarity had been following beneath flapping, dove-gray wings for the last while. Being a courier meant knowing the town inside and out, and so when so much of it belonged to ponies who hadn't come with them, or had been taken, there was nopony better to point out the places that may be best for scavenging.

Then she froze, and she was so absorbed in staring that she didn't notice the single golden eye glancing down and noticing she'd stopped following. She was only alerted by the hooves landing next to her, having narrowly dodged the cutout of a pony with a pole through it laying in the dirt.

"That was the Carousel Salon," came the soft voice of remembrance. "The mare who worked there... sweet young pegasus, but you got the feeling she didn't get out much, and that she was better with the manes than the business side of things."

Rarity nodded. It felt like all she could do.

"There was some talk about her merging with Aloe and Lotus's spa... but..." A grey hoof tapped against the dented silhouette. "She was never a very good flier. There was something with her wings... the feathers..." She sighed. "I never asked. You don't pry like that into wing condition, not unless you're a direct relative or a doctor. But she couldn't outfly them when they came."

"Their queen has a lot to answer for," Rarity managed, quietly.

It earned her a nod. "Yeah. And there'll be line to start the kicking."

"Survivors!"

Both mares' heads went up at the shout, and soon wings and hooves were on the move. They weren't the only ones, ponies pulling themselves away from the remains of their old lives and similarly converging on the shout. A herd coming together, ready to help... or, if necessary, to defend.

They found the caramel-brown stallion--she'd been told his horseshoe mark meant luck, and it had almost earned a dark laugh that somepony with a mark for good fortune would have the misfortune to live through times such as these--next to what had, once, been a tree. There were signs that it had been magically sculpted. A door in front, what had once been a balcony. But it was mostly just part of a trunk, and a few scorched branches. Damaged beyond recovery.

Huddled in the doorway were several small, fluffy, white shapes, so close together that they practically merged into a single cloud-like mound. Sheep, all with eyes wide in terror and shaking like leaves, seemingly so frightened they couldn't even speak as they looked around in shock at all of the gathering ponies.

It was Fluttershy who stepped forward first, voice even softer than her usual tones. "There there, it's okay... You must have been out here for quite a while, but you can come back with us, where it's safe."

One of the sheep perked up, and slowly stepped forward. "Thaaank you. We've haaaven't seen ponies in so long. We didn't know whaaat to do..."

Fluttershy gave a gentle nod, and from her saddlebag, where it'd been near-buried under the scavenged resources, came the salve. "Just come here, and we'll make sure you're safe to travel..."

The hoof dipped in the green moved with such care.

Rarity wished she could have been surprised when the sheep recoiled with the first brush, and started to scream.

There had been time since the Thicket, time for the example she'd given, and the lessons she'd imparted, to take hold. While instinct reigned for a short moment, ponies pulling back in fright as green flames spread across the flock and left hissing drones in their wake, nopony broke enough to completely freeze, run, or to fly away.

Instead, as several gossamer wings opened, they were ready.

The sun was dipping below the horizon as they followed the path back to the forest, both saddlebags and hearts heavy. A few trotted with heads held a little higher, the catharsis of having had a target to take their grief out on brightening them for a time, but most just looked tired after having been kicked over and over by the reminders of just how much had been lost.

The drones had been left more-or-less where they'd been found, laying unconscious in a pile in the doorway of the scorched tree. Rarity had collapsed the said doorway for good measure, ensuring that they'd be fighting to get themselves free of the debris for some time even after they woke up.

Rarity looked to the setting sun. It may be a while before she got to see the open sky again, and so for as long as she could, she took in the colours that had been painted across it, brushstroke by metaphorical brushstroke. Blues, purples, oranges, and so much more swirling together with the heavens as a canvas.

Perhaps she'd have the chance to meet the artist, in time.

But she had work to do, first.

Rarity wove her way through colourful bodies, and brushed against Fluttershy, white and yellow intermingling with a touch of shoulders. "Can I ask something of you, dear, once we've finished bringing all of this back?"

There was an exhaustion like nothing she'd ever seen in those gentle eyes, but Fluttershy still smiled. "Of course. What do you need?"

"It's... hard to explain. Let me just say, for now... that I'd like to show you something."