You know, it's funny the situations your mouth can get you into. Took the girls up on their offer to stay with them at the Crystal Brighthouse. I even asked if they minded me transforming a little space beneath the house, assuring them that neither the foundation of the building nor their own personal spaces would be impinged upon. After explaining what I was going to do and assuring them that I could revert everything if they decided I should leave, they consented.

I put my plan into action after two nights of crashing on the couch. I made various calculations, consulting old notes, crafted a few spell-engraved slates and anchor stones—magically charged stones with a specific mixture of runes and moon-glyphs capable of being targeted at long distances—and finally answered questions as to exactly what I was doing. The first spell targeted the area directly beneath the living room; dirt and stone compacted and transformed into a hollow concrete cylinder half as wide as the main room in the Brighthouse, complete with ceiling joists.

When that was done, my next transmutation connected the room to the building's duct-work so that it had multiple points of airflow. While that spell was completing its process, I took one of the anchor stones, labelled Brighthouse-Living-Room-01, over to a free space in front of one of the walls. The directional mark had to be pointing away from the wall at a ninety degree angle, but it wasn't too important to perfect that just yet. Next, the spell plate targeting that stone and the other anchor stone I'd created, specifically labelled Brighthouse-Anon-Alpha, were placed them into my saddlebag I moved over to the centre of the room, where the second-to-last spell plate was situated.

Izzy, Pipp, Sunny, and Zipp all watched in a mix of anticipation and worry. This next bit was particularly fucky, and I'd only done this spell once before, and for very good reason. Oh it was perfectly safe; there were two separate safeguards built in and I'd run the numbers several times myself. Hell, the spell was even configured to do those same calculations on its own. I just hated the way it made me feel.

"Well, ladies," I said, placing my chitinous hoof against the spell plate. "Catch you on the other side."

Several things happened in quick succession. The front door swung open, revealing Hitch and his ~~baby fire hazard~~ dragon hatchling. The girls all looked from me to them. Hitch stared at me and started saying something. Sparky, bless his little infant brain, saw the weird bug pony that'd spent a few nights in his dad's jail cell and wanted to say hello by way of hug. At that same time, I'd just triggered the spell and begun sinking through the floor, so of course the baby dragon came along for the ride.

I shivered as I felt myself literally slipping through the spaces between all the molecules in the floor and the ceiling of my newly-created room. The moment I was through, I spread my elytra and buzzed my wings to slow my fall. The moment I touched down, I summoned up the array for the light spell on my leg, illuminating the otherwise dark space with a dim blue orb of light. Although the little dragon babbled like a little gremlin, he didn't seem at all perturbed by the experience.

Judging by the screams of "Sparky!" in Hitch's voice coming through the vents, he was probably freaking out because the secondary spell on the slate. A spell like that one was particularly dangerous in the hands of the stupid or greedy, so as soon as I'd dropped through the floor, the primed shatter spell broke the slate into tiny shards. Even if Hitch could've figured out how to activate runic spells, he could't really do anything about me slipping through the floor, nor Sparky coming along for the ride.

Rolling my eyes, I levitated the baby dragon onto my back, even as the items I'd just packed away flew free of my saddlebag. The ringing of my phone went ignored as I set out the anchor stone, pointing it to the centre of the room. Once that was done, I grabbed the other slate in my hoof, and stepped back a few paces.

"You wanna see something cool, kid?" I asked the little dude. Pulsing some mana through the slate with the Spatial Fold spell in my hoof, I watched as a rectangular tear in reality formed a few centimetres above the anchor stone. Immediately, light streamed in from the other side, bringing the room into light as I set the spell slate down on the floor. Even as I started walking through the tear, I laughed. "Pretty slick, right?"

The gateway shut behind me a few moments after I stepped clear of the fold in reality, and Hitch was already storming over. The girls were calling out to him, but I don't think he could hear them over his own angry muttering. With the fear and anger roiling off him, he was probably not listening at all. The strangest thing was that it seemed unfocused, as though he wasn't sure if it should be directed at me or himself.

Not wanting any trouble, I quickly levitated the happily babbling baby down onto the floor and took a step back. "Sorry about the scare," I said, raising a hoof in a placating gesture. I'd seen my share of scared parents—especially scared of me—and I knew people weren't always rational when it came to their kids, so I prepared to take a hit. "If I'd known you and the little fella were gonna come, I might've waited so that could've been avoided."

Maybe it was the fact that I had backed myself right up to the wall, or the way Sparky seemed to be getting a bit spooked in response to the way Hitch was looking at me, but all the fight drained out of the clearly worried dragon dad. Instead, he sank to the floor and pulled his adopted kid into a hug. I wasn't trying to listen in on his whispering, but pony ears—and by extension changeling ears—were good at accidentally eaves-dropping. He was asking himself, or maybe Sparky, why he'd run up to a relative stranger like that. After all, this was only like the third time the baby dragon had even seen me outside of the times I slept in the jail cell.

As I watched the scene unfold, I was a little surprised it took me this long to notice the little dragon's wings. Spike was older than I was when he got his wings, I recalled, moving over to the pair. "Want a bit of advice?" I asked, taking on the form of a slender teenage dragoness I remembered meeting at Twilight's school all those years ago. Although I wondered if Smolder—and Ember and Spike by extension—was even still around, I thought she'd probably appreciate me doing what I could to see the hatchling receive the best care he could. When I stopped just shy of them, I took a seat on the floor beside them, my legs folded beneath me.

Everyone stared at me, even Sparky. Hitch didn't even resist when I took his aquamarine bundle of fire and joy in my now orange-scaled arms, or sitting him on my lap, entertaining him with the magenta frill on my tail. Slowly, Hitch nodded. "I'm no dragon expert, but I knew a few back in the day," I explained as I watched Sparky try to grasp and nip my tail. "Most dragons were omnivores, but they also tended to be geovores. To keep him healthy, you might wanna get some fish in his diet, but you should also find out if he can eat gems and adjust accordingly. He'll probably be that small for a decade or so, but when he hits the molt, he'll start growing pretty quick."

With a cry of pain, my focus on my transformation gave out when the little tyke successfully chomped down on my tail. Even as I returned to my original shape, I passed Hitch back his kid. "Just don't spoil him, and watch out for hoarding behaviour," I concluded. "Too much too quick and he'll start getting greedy... and then the greed growth kicks in. If you think he's hard to manage now, just wait until he's a sixty-metre tall toddler."

At that, I moved around them and over to the girls. "I know you've gotta get to work, Sunny, but do the three of you have anything you needed to do today?" I asked with a smile. "I could use some help picking out some furniture for my room. I also need a place that'll sell me about twenty pillows in bulk and a large plastic sheet."

~ 06 ~

It wasn't until several hours later that we'd gotten the last of the furniture for my little lair. They were kinda surprised that I didn't want anything that couldn't be battery-operated, but acquiesced after I pointed out that I would have to run conduits before an electrician could run any cabling through. Besides, I had myself some ideas on alternate lighting that leaned in heavily to the mad mage tropes. More than a few, actually, and some of them required Izzy's help to combine magic and tech.

"No, no, pivot!" Pipp cried out as Zipp and I tried to manoeuvre a workbench through the portal I'd conjured outside the hardware store. Izzy was already on the way home with some supplies we got to make a pair of door frames and a single door, leaving just the three of us. So she was currently flitting about above me, while several ponies were gathered around staring in wonderment. "Turn it to your right!"

I gritted my sharp changeling teeth as I marehandled the piece of furniture from my end. Zipp was on the other side of the portal, and I blamed her for us getting wedged. "Just tell us clockwise or counterclockwise," I hissed. The thing was damned heavy, and I was starting to wish I'd never been turned into a changeling. The earth pony strength would've come in real handy right about now. "Please!"

After a moment's pause, she let out a quiet, drawn-out, "Ooh!" This was quickly followed by a much clearer set of instructions. "Anon, rotate counterclockwise. Zipp, clockwise." Following her instructions, we successfully got the workbench onto its side again, and from there, getting it the rest of the way through was child's play.

When the purple pony princess of pegasi and pop pursued me past the portal, she flicked on the flashlight setting on her phone. From there, she illuminated the chamber so that we could move the workbench past the huge pile of pillows atop the tarp, spread in the middle of the room, to the free spot on the wall. It took a lot of effort, but we even got it centred.

"Thanks for the help, girls," I panted, looking around. The room could probably use some wall decorations, but for the time being, it was looking pretty good so far. I had a writing desk complete with a swivel-chair, a sofa and coffee table, a bookcase with a locking glass cover for all my stored books and trinkets, a bedside table atop the same tarp as the pillows, and then the workbench we just hauled in. "Gimme a moment and I'll let you out into the house."

Once the portal snapped shut, I brought the pocket-dimension spell formula out on my foreleg and started removing things and sitting them in a circle around me. The first to come out were several picture frames and a huge coffee mug that proclaimed me #1 Changeling Daughter in old sun-glyphs. After that, out came a large wine cask magically enchanted to store and preserve love that I had to levitate over beside the sofa due to the sheer size of it. There were even several smaller magically active gemstones and some clay bottles that I levitated over to the workbench in a pile. Finally, a small library of books was stacked around me.

"Do I even want to know about the giant cask?" Pipp asked in a hesitant voice as she moved to stand by the sofa. "We've seen what alcohol does to you, so..."

I just rolled my eyes, snatched up the mug in my levitation magic, and carried it over to the cask. "Mom and Aunt Cadance didn't want me going off into the future without supplies," I explained as I held the mug under the tap. When the other two drew closer, I dispensed a glowing pink liquid. "Mom enchanted the cask to preserve the concentrated emotion inside, and Aunt Cadance and my cousin Flurry donated a whole bunch of love. Enough to last me two thousand days if I needed it."

Zipp raised an eyebrow as I levitated the full mug over to me so that I could take it between my hooves. "Five and a half years is a bit excessive, isn't it?" she asked as I sipped.

I nearly dropped the mug in shock. "Don't tell me..." I hissed, carefully setting it down on the coffee table instead. "We're on a twelve month calendar with three hundred sixty-five days, with an extra day in the second month every four years now?"

"Uhh, yeah!" was Pipp's almost sarcastic sounding reply. "What, did ponies not do that when you went to sleep?"

I didn't answer the question, but I think Zipp was already drawing the proper conclusion. Instead, I just sighed, grabbing my mug and draining it before hanging it from the tap. From there, I started levitating books and some of the photos over to the book case. "And of course Mom told me not to pack any bottled sorrow," I groused quietly. The only book I didn't levitate over to the bookcase was the copy of Your Horn and You: a Foal's Primer for Magic, which instead went to the writing desk. "Now I have to figure out my birthday again without the benefit of getting drunk."

Already my head was starting to hurt, because I was quickly reailising that from a chronological standpoint, I was probably as old as their mother. Sure, age isn't equal to maturity and all that, but I'm pretty sure I just got promoted to Team Mom. Guess I better start printing t-shirts showing me riding a surfboard with the words Bad Filly Coven, and start selling them.

The sporty, brainy pegasus quickly got distracted when she glanced at a framed picture that levitated past her. She quickly waved her sister over with the light so that she could get a look at it. When I drew closer, I saw that it was one from one of our trips to the Crystal Empire... I was accompanied by Emerald, Starlight, her at-the-time fiance, Sunburst, twin unicorn maids, and in the background was a grizzled looking unicorn who looked uncomfortable wearing little more than a black suit-jacket and dark shades.

"Aww, you had maids growing up, too?" was Pipp's comment upon seeing Refined Skill and Natural Talent.

I kinda was expecting one of them to comment that me and Emerald were the only non-unicorns in the picture. It was quite the horny party. "Refined Skill, the one with the blue mane, and Natural Talent, the one with the pink," I explained. "Originally, they worked for Princess Celestia. Talent taught me a lot of how to pony when I first came to Equestria... When I got my own body, they ended up being transferred to Twilight's service, since now she had two foals in the castle. I was sad when they retired."

Zipp, on the other hoof, was looking at the dark unicorn in a suit jacket and dark shades. Her mane style and Zipp's weren't all that dissimilar, now that I thought about it. "Who's she?" the detective couldn't help but ask. "She looks like a total hardflank, but she wasn't part of that presentation you did at the museum."

I picked up the frame and gazed at the pony in question. "Believe it or not, she used to be the commander of an invading force that nearly conquered Equestria," I said with a sigh. I didn't like remembering the day that I first met her, because it was almost my last day on this world. "Tempest Shadow... In the end, she did the right thing and helped Twilight and the others. Nearly got me killed though."

When I set the photo back on the shelf, I started for the door. "Funny how friendship can bloom on the battlefield... how a former enemy can become a bodyguard and teacher." Opening the portal into the living room above, I cast one last glance at the pair of them. "C'mon. I'm cooking tonight, and I also wanna see if I can get copper wire to transmit magic."

The pair both looked alarmed. Evidently, none of them realised I knew how to cook. Or maybe they were worried that Sunny was gonna lose her shit at me 'stealing her job'? Nah, I'd already cleared it with Sunny. Joke's on them; I learned how to cook from one of the best dragon chefs in Equestria.

~ 06 ~

Two days later, I was seated at my writing desk looking down at the partial manuscript for Your Magic and You: A Modern Foal's Primer for Magic. In addition to translating the foreword left by the original author, a mare named Light Spinner, I'd added my own addendum explaining that, although this book was primarily intended for unicorn foals, there were several exercises within that all ponies could use, regardless of tribe or age. Other than that, I'd gotten through the first three chapters without having to add or remove much. Mostly it was just cultural references that needed updating.

It was definitely time to take a break, though. Looking at the clock hanging above the desk, it looked to be either half-past three in the afternoon... or three in the morning. I reached over to the battery bank into which my phone was plugged and woke the device to find that—thankfully—it was afternoon and not morning. That meant I wouldn't be causing problems by starting my video blog.

Yawning, I reached over and lifted a magically charged chunk of rose quartz off of a copper plate to my right, and the illusory flame that had been lighting my workspace went out. I'd managed to rig up some tablets that could be powered by a crystal with some gem-dust infused copper wiring and plates, but at present it was only a simple system that required me to remove the gemstone when I wanted to snuff the light. When Izzy started talking about logic gates for actual switches, I checked out mentally. She was willing to figure out the hard stuff, but we'd used up most of my gemstones in the process just creating three such lights and a way to interface a hoof scanner with the tablet operating the door in the living room.

I picked up my phone and started to leave the room. Slapping the tablet beside the door with some magic, I stepped through into the main living area of the Brighthouse. Nopony was currently around, so I figured this would be a good opportunity. Obviously, I wouldn't capture a whole lot of the living space out of respect for the others, but I only needed to capture the door.

Once the portal closed, I turned on my phone, set it to record, and levitated it so that it could capture me standing in front of the door frame Izzy built around the portal base. Facing the camera, I smiled. "It's been a while, hasn't it, everypony?" I said in my usual two-toned bug-queen voice. "It's your—hopefully—favourite changeling queen, Anonymous Flicker, and we're going to do something a bit different today." I gestured behind me with my hoof and smirked. "You're probably looking at the door that opens to an empty wall and thinking, 'What's the deal with that?' right?"

I turned around and walked over to a sensor pad similar to the one controlling the elevator up to the top of the Brighthouse. When my hoof was placed against it, it let out a beep and turned green. The space inside the frame warped and revealed the dark chamber that was my new room. "As many of you know, I was, until recently, staying at the Pony Delight motel," I explained, dragging the floating camera behind me as I stepped through the folded space. "Since then, I've been busy getting a place to live set up, getting furnished, and working on several different projects."

With a separate instance of levitation, I grabbed a crystal sitting on the bedside table near my little nest, and set it on top of the nearby copper plate. Immediately, a large globe of illusory flame lit up the ceiling, bathing the concrete room in a soft yellow light. "Sunny, Pipp, Izzy and Zipp were kind enough to invite me to stay with them... but I didn't want to intrude into their own spaces too much..." I panned the camera around the room. "So I created my own little space underneath the Brighthouse—and don't worry. The inspectors that Sheriff Hitch brought in cleared everything."

Snapping the camera back to me, I walked over to the part of the room with the sofa and the cask. "This is where I chill when I'm feeling too lazy to do anything, and drink my morning cup of love." Turning to face the camera, I chuckled. "I might get a TV once I can get an electrician to wire the place, but for now, it's just a quaint little reading den."

Next, I walked over to the writing desk. I made sure to zoom in on the inkwell and stylus, the manuscript, and the open copy of Your Horn and You. "This is my writing nook. I mentioned in a previous video that I was going to start translating a magic primer to the modern writing system." Again, I snapped the camera back to me. "Gimme a couple of more weeks to finish it and get it out to a publisher."

Again I started moving, this time over to the workbench. I let the camera pan across the mess before focusing in on the smaller scale lamp spell. "This is where I've decided to make the magic happen, so to speak," I announced as I manually placed a crystal atop the required plate. A bright white false flame appeared above the crystal, illuminating the entire workstation so that viewers could see a slate I hadn't yet etched a spell into, a box of fine etching tools, a dish that looked to contain glitter—it was actually flakes of my last ruby—and a bunch of copper scraps. To one side, I even had a small smelting furnace that I'd been using to infuse the copper.

"I've been toying with some combination of tech and magic. Mostly just spell-lamps for the moment." I panned around the room again. "I need to get more gemstones, so I'm probably gonna be taking a trip to Bridlewood soon. Then I can get all the lights on a pair of switches, and start work on some other contraptions."

Finally, I pointed the camera at the hemisphere of black hive resin suspended by strands of black in the centre of the room. There was a huge pile of pillows almost overflowing from the suspended bowl. "That, fillies, colts, and nonbinary friends, is my crowning achievement..."I transformed into my tiny bug queen form, and dove through the air, landing in the big bowl of pillows. When I finally surfaced, I looked up at the camera with a toothy smile. "I haven't had a nest like this since I left home. Ever since I built this baby, I've been sleeping like a filly."

Just as I was about to sign off, the door portal opened. Pipp poked her head though and called out, "Hey, Anon! Sunny's making tacos! Do you—" She spotted tiny me poking out from the pile of pillows, smiling up at the floating phone. "Eeeeeee! That's so precious!"

"This is the tiny ancient queen who is about to get foalnapped for dinner," I called out as I levitated it in for a close-up. "Signing off!"

Author's Note

Next few entries will be story related, rather than mostly blog; we're running into the end of Make Your Mark Chapter 2, so any 'vlogs' she records aren't going to be the focal points. It's quickly becoming apparent that Anon is basically a walking plot derailment, so don't be surprised if things start to play out differently. Especially when Anonymous starts figuring things out... Then just become a matter of whether she genuinely thinks Opaline to be a threat, or if she'll decide the wily old alicorn is less threatening than the villains of her era, and just watch over the girls and step in in an emergency.

Additionally, expect to see some more Tell Your Tale references, like Sneaksy or Misty's locket. I like the idea of her having that instead of nabbing the mirror Opaline was using to spy on Sunny to make contact.

Are there any events you foresee Anon counting herself out of? I would like to imagine she'd be all over Nightmare Night and that Harvest and Hugs Day, but she might say "NOPE," to the Winter Wishday/Wishiehoof/Wishentine nonsense, especially after Zipp and Izzy roll out the Marestream. "I know it's a portmanteau of mare and jetstream, but it sounds like a niche pornographic magazine. Also, it's way to cold outside. I'll be... about."