Once per Day

Pseudo held the squirming and bloodied pony firmly with one hand while twisting the severed timber wolf claw to his hoofless foreleg. Just behind him, Blackbeard tore his attention from the small clusters of injured and terrified creatures filling the valley around him to look at his mystic assistant's handiwork. He hummed in approval, drawing a long puff of smoke from his pipe as Pseudo traced his fingers around the seam where the claw met the pony's leg.

"So, you can stitch folks together, eh?" Blackbeard mused, raising an eyebrow as Pseudo released the pony, who anxiously examined his new claw before Pseudo urged him to stand. "No thread?" The pony stood up and trotted in a small circle, before raising and clutching his claw with a wince. He then nodded at Pseudo who returned the gesture and stood to meet Blackbeard's gaze before the pair moved to the next injured party

"It is an innate gift for my kind, though now likely a lost art. The first of my race was a purely elemental being and formed itself a body from rock and stone," he explained as they walked. "As our kind grew, we learned to manipulate the subtle bonds holding our forms together, and thus learned to make changes as we wished or needed." The pair reached a moose who sat with a vacant expression cast at some point many, many miles away and with a red bandage tightly wound across his side.

"At our height, other species would seek out our best mystics to have them heal or mend them," Pseudo added as he removed the bandage and began working his magic upon the deep gash cut into the moose's side. "Even unicorns who had their horns severed believed we could aid them." Blackbeard narrowed his eyes at the comment.

"Believed? So you couldn't?" He asked, leaning forward to meet the stunned moose's eyes. Pseudo clapped his hands before rising and moving to the next victim.

"Oh, we could. But a unicorn's horn is unlike a natural appendage, like that fellow's claw," he explained, gesturing to the pony he'd just mended who was now experimenting with his new appendage by grabbing and throwing a few stones. "A horn is calcified magic, in essence. If it is destroyed entirely, a new one must be made using material drawn from one who shares blood with the subject." He paused for a few moments, drawing a curious leer from Blackbeard.

"Otherwise, the protrusion will be purely decorative," Pseudo finally added before glancing back at the pirate. "You said you were assailed by Goldflame?" Blackbeard hissed a wisp of smoke through his teeth.

"Aye, that's what he called hisself," he groused, stomping up beside the prophet. "Blueleaf called him 'Uncle.' You know the name?"

"I am acquainted," Pseudo replied.

"How well?" Blackbeard pressed with a hum as he inhaled more smoke. "Well enough to know where the bastard might've slinked back to?"

"Canterlot most likely," Pseudo offered with a hand on the chin of his mask. Blackbeard grunted at the suggestion, drawing a nod from the prophet. "But I also know of a private villa his family keeps outside the city, near the northern Everfree."

"As fine a place to start as any," Blackbeard replied with a hearty sigh, before swinging his fist-clenched pipe at the rest of his followers who were too distraught or wounded to notice. "Whole crew's been bawling and squawking since that little jack rabbit got the drop on me. I aim to prove to them it was just a fluke."

"As you wish," Pseudo said with a nod before looking off toward the north. "I wonder how his daughter is doing?"

As I slowly drifted back to consciousness, I was immediately aware of something off. There was a weight on my chest. A warm, ball-shaped weight that was quietly breathing.

"Fuck's sake, Honeysuckle," I groused, wrestling my arms free of my blanket to grab my glasses.

"She's still asleep," the shape replied, causing me to pause. Looking down at my chest, I saw a blurry yellow figure looking back at me. Then, looking to my left, I saw a blurry white figure curled up a few feet away. As the gears in my head spun out, my glasses suddenly slipped onto my face, aided by a golden magical bubble. Slowly I looked up to see Sunset Shimmer sitting on my chest with a knowing smile aimed my way and one of my books hovering in front of her.

I froze at the sight, and in response, she returned to, as I assumed she had been previously, reading my book. "She's going to be out cold for a while," she said, turning a page. "I think she really needed the rest." As I swallowed, she snapped the book shut and smiled my way.

"Which gives us a chance to chat," she added, nodding back at the bathroom door. "In private." My eyes darted to the door and back to her before narrowing. I wrenched one of my hands free and pointed at her.

"Know this, creature," I hissed, causing her smile to vanish. I clutched my hand in a claw at her. "If you lay so much as a single hoof upon me, I will-" She carefully and deliberately extended a hoof and gently rested it upon my outstretched hand.

"Do what?" She asked, jutting her chin at me. I could feel that my face was frozen in the snarling scowl I was speaking with right up until she made contact. When my brain finally caught up, I cleared my throat, clamped my mouth shut, and gently gripped her hoof.

"Honk, honk," I said, giving it a squeeze before snapping my hand back under my blanket. She withdrew her hoof as well and fixed me with an unimpressed leer. Seconds later, she shut the bathroom door behind us as I scrambled and curled up away from her in the corner. "What do you want?" She eyed me carefully before smiling.

"I've never seen a creature quite like you before," she said before stepping just before me and sitting down. "So I decided to do some snooping among your followers." I shivered at the thought she was evidently skulking around the cult this whole time.

"You've got a talent for screwing things up, huh?" She said, nodding at me with a smile that caused me to curl up tighter. "I think I can appreciate that." A few seconds passed in silence.

"Huh?" I finally managed. Her smile widened as she looked me up and down before she gestured at me with her hoof.

"You just slid right in and screwed up Celestia's whole plan for the Crystal Empire, seemingly without even meaning to," she said with a nod. "I like that." A drawn frown worked its way onto my face and I tilted my head away from her.

"You do?" I asked, at which she nodded again with a curt laugh. "Why?"

"'Cause I've more or less decided to spend my days screwing up everything Celestia's trying to pull off," she said with a snort and a tone that suggested it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh," I brilliantly replied. I narrowed my eyes at the sight of her. Her smile seemed sincere and warm, so I decided to tread unsafe water. "Is that why she has such a huge reward out for you?" When I saw the warm light in her eyes vanish and get replaced by something dark and malicious, I tensed up.

"Kinda. It's also 'cause I know too much," she replied, still with a smile. Then she shrugged. "And I was born wrong."

Well, bitch, you ain't killed me yet, so-

"Man, I'm sorry, but uh," I cleared my throat and looked off to the side with a meager shrug. "It's not super often the answer to a question I asked answers nothing at all." Even looking away, I could feel her eyes locked onto me with an intensity that betrayed how fake that smile she was wearing was.

"You know what? Fine," she finally replied, scooting closer and leaning to forcibly meet my eyes. "I've learned plenty about you by hypnotizing your followers. I don't mind sharing some things about me." I audibly shuddered as she gently rested a hoof against my knee.

"As a sign of trust," she added with an absolutely bitter smile. I recoiled slightly and grunted.

"Trust. Right," I huffed with a nod. She purred a laugh before sitting up and sighing.

"I got picked out for my magical talent at a young age and was whisked off to the upper league of the School for Gifted Unicorns," she began, her bitterness and malice melting away into that genuine, warm energy she had moments ago. "I got to train under Celestia herself." She began to pace away from me.

"Yeah, I'd heard something like that from Honeysuckle," I murmured as I sat up.

"She gathered a whole bunch of little unicorn fillies and told each of us that we were special," she continued, seemingly ignoring my comment. Her eyes were cast down, but she still wore a smile. "She taught us all about magic and politics and junk, just like how she taught Cadenza." She paused once she was on her second lap pacing the bathroom.

"She practically raised a few of us," she said in a low tone before her smile vanished and her eyes narrowed. "But it wasn't 'cause she actually loved us or anything. It was all a scheme." She clenched her eyes shut and jerked her head to the side.

"She was looking for a very specific little filly who was related to some hoity-toity old mare from ages ago," she continued, enunciating her words with a snarky, venomous tone. "Some special little filly who had proper noble blood in her veins." She reared up and waved her hooves this time before she whirled around, stomped a hoof, and jabbed the other at me, causing me to flinch.

"And when she finally found her? Suddenly, the rest of us were given oh-so-convenient assignments to other parts of Equestria," she spat in an increasingly violent tone. When she continued she first spoke in a tone that seemed to be a mockery of how Celestia sounded. "'Where our talents would be most beneficial.' Yeah, and it definitely had nothing to do with giving her more time to dote on her new favorite." She snorted and shook her head. She stood there staring off to the side for a little bit, giving me time to find my courage again.

"Why'd she want-"

"To be her successor," she snapped in an even tone, still staring off. "She wanted to groom one of us to appreciate all the values of friendship and harmony and all the other crap she's so proud of so that Equestria would finally have a natural noble ruler who actually cared about the common pony." She finally turned to me with a weary, angry smile.

"Then there wouldn't even really be much the noble houses could do to interfere with all her plans for improving the quality of life for everypony," she sucked in a deep breath and heaved it back out. "Something like that, I guess." She suppressed a bitter laugh, almost flinching as she did so.

"Heck, she's even got this scheme for helping her little darling ascend to alicornhood," she added causing me to violently recoil. She nodded at my reaction. "That was the last straw for me." Before I could fully digest that Celestia had another super-duper pony in the works somewhere out there, Sunset growled and began pacing again.

"All the research and time and effort I spent learning about the transformation, just to find out she's practically engineering it for her golden girl," she growled, glancing at me as she continued stomping around. "I told her to her face how it made me feel. All of it." She paused for a moment and barked a laugh.

"I guess she panicked and thought I was planning to spill the beans on her plan to all the nobility," she stuck up her nose with another unhappy smile. "Hence the big bounty to have me restrained." The news of Celestia's up-and-coming superweapon had shaken my unease away for the moment.

"Why would it matter if they found out?" I asked, sitting up.

"I dunno. Maybe they'd try to have her golden girl killed before she became immortal?" She huffed with a shrug. I held my chin as I processed all of this.

"How'd you find all this out?" I idly pressed, mulling over if the Crystal Heart would be enough to defend me from whoever the new alicorn was. A noticeably long silence was my only answer. Looking up, I saw Sunset staring past me. Glancing back, I saw the rising sun through the bathroom window.

"I made her tell me. Explain it to me," she nearly whispered, drawing my attention back to her. She was still staring out the window, but God as my witness, there were tears in her eyes. "I finished up my special assignment way faster than she expected." She clenched her eyes with a giggle.

"I was really eager to impress her, you know? So I tried really hard," she added, pausing as her voice broke. Man, I just woke up. She stood there for a minute with her eyes shut before finally clearing her throat.

"I made it back and found another unicorn, just as skilled as the rest of us, but instead of being sent out to who-knows-where, she was right there at her side," she explained, huffing a sigh. "I might not have given it much thought if I hadn't seen Celestia's face." Her red, angry eyes opened halfway and she glared off to the side.

"She," her mouth worked for a moment before setting into a tight snarl. "She looked like she'd been caught cheating." The snarl overtook her entire face and she resumed pacing with angry little stomps.

"She tried to tell me that the special assignments weren't just a distraction. That they really were important," she shook her head. "But I didn't buy it. And even if it's true, I don't care." She glared over her shoulder at me.

"I gave everything to her. The best years of my life, spent trying to make her happy," she turned to face me fully, stomping up and enunciating her words by jabbing me in the chest. "And in exchange? I get passed up. Overshadowed. Ignored." I furrowed my brow as I held a hand to my chest.

"All for some ditzy, anti-social, less talented reject of a unicorn who happened to be born in the right family," she spat, shaking her head slowly. "Sparkles, Glimmers, Shimmers, Shines, and Flashes. All of us technically related to Evening Glint by some metric or other, but only one of us direct enough to appease some stuffy nobles." She stood with a firm glare fixed at the bathroom tiling, allowing me to rub my chin in thought. After a little while, she sighed and her expression softened.

"Anyway, I've been roaming around ever since, letting all my bitterness eat away at me. I almost got picked up by the Platinum Ponyhood at one point," she said with a laugh and a look of mild disbelief. "That was- That was kind of the point I realized I needed to do more than just wander and seethe, since even those guys were picking up I was ticked."

"Picked up by the what?" I asked, furrowing my brow. She waved her hoof at me.

"It's a bunch of old-fashioned unicorn extremists," she muttered, shaking her head. "I was angry, but I wasn't stupid enough to blame nonunicorns for everything bad that happened to me." A familiar malicious smile came to her features.

"But that doesn't mean the experience didn't give me a few ideas. Extreme ideas," she fixed me with a sinister leer. "I've been looking for a way to really screw up her plans and thought I might find something here that could do the trick, especially since getting Cadenza's fat ass on the crystal throne was another long-term scheme of hers." She turned to me fully and invaded my personal space, forcing me to retreat until my back pressed against the tub.

"And then I find you," she whispered, pinning her hooves to my shoulders. "And what do you do?" She tilted her head with a manic glint in her eye.

"You screw up her plans. Royally. Without even really trying," she leaned forward with her smile widening. "Then I do some skulking and asking around among your followers, and I find out that's pretty par for the course for you." Her eyes brightened as we touched noses.

"So, you know what I'm thinking?" She demanded with a way too eager tone.

"No?"

"I'm thinking we should be friends," she revealed, causing my frown to widen. "Best friends. So we can screw her plans up." She tilted her head to touch her horn to my forehead.

"Together."

"I don't-" Before I could retort, she hopped back with a humph.

"You're not so awful and twisted and evil that you'd reject a pretty mare's offer of friendship, are you?" She asked, fixing me with an incredulous leer. "Some creatures might react pretty poorly to such a brazen act." Her horn lit up briefly and I felt my skin heat up for an instant. Rather than humor her antics with a response, I sat with my uneasy frown fixed upon her. Eventually, she leaned in again.

"So?" She tilted her head one way and then the other. "Bud-dy?"

Risk assessment.

Sunset Shimmer: Wildly psychotic. Wildly powerful. Full scope of her abilities: unknown.

Pros: She fucking hates Celestia, not me. We can use that!

Cons: She's a redhead with outspoken and verbose homicidal tendencies rather than the usual subtextual.

Assessment: It's too early in the morning for this shit.

"Okay," I slowly replied. When her smile turned warm, I reached out and gently patted her shoulder at which she closed her eyes. "Buddy."

"Mm, don't touch."

"Okay."

Honeysuckle murmured and rolled her head into the soft pillow she'd claimed in the middle of the night. Her murmuring turned to a happy sigh as she stretched her legs out and craned her back, basking in what had been the best and only full night's sleep she'd had in ages. Smacking her lips, she slowly opened her eyes before glancing over her shoulder.

"Goobèr?" She called.

"Is that what you call Vic? That's pretty cute," Sunset replied, as she was sitting where Victor had been the night before, with one hoof under her chin and studying Honeysuckle with a reserved smile. Honeysuckle blinked and allowed a lingering silence to pass between the pair.

"Quoi?" She finally squeaked.

"That's cute, too," Sunset replied.

I strode down the hall, unaware of anyone I might've passed along the way as I was too engrossed in my spell book. I'd left Sunset alone with Honeysuckle so I could 'patrol the realm' as I'd put it. She'd agreed and settled into my bed, deciding to read my tomes to pass the time until I returned and we could begin scheming together, she said.

"Shield, obviously. Polymorph Other," I murmured as I hastily set up my arsenal. I grimaced as I remembered Sunset was probably a top-tier unicorn. "What are the chances she can resist Charm Monster?" Of course, this was all purely precautionary. I wasn't planning to tussle with the new crazy unicorn. The last one only uses her magic for swords and she took my hand. This one uses magic for magic things. I don't want to know what she can take from me.

My hope was Sunset wouldn't blame me for the fact my books were bound to me and so probably snapped right out of her grip as she was reading them. If she did, well some friend she was! And that's exactly how I'd put it to dissuade her from blowing me up.

The chances of it working were greater than zero, I was pretty sure.

"Hi, Mr. Fremont!" Came a chirp that managed to snap me out of my focus.

"Hey, Scuttle, we were looking for you," I said upon spotting the happy little bug-horse at my side. "I was going ask you to lie low since we were going to be releasing Rusty the Racist." She, I was pretty confident, waved a hoof.

"Oh, that's fine! I doubt he'll be stupid enough to try anything once he hears this!" She buzzed her wings and clapped her hooves. "Mr. Fremont, she's coming!"

"Who?" I tilted my head and she leaped up almost to my chest height.

"Queen Apterygota! I contacted the hive about everything that happened and she said she wants to meet you!" She cheered. I slowly blinked and raised my eyebrows.

"Huh?" I huffed, slowly nodding at her. She clapped her hooves again.

"The queen of my hive! She's on her way to meet you!" She explained. My eyes shifted around as I processed her announcement.

"Is that-" I cleared my throat as my voice broke. "Is that good?" Scuttle recoiled with a snort.

"Of course it's good. How could it not be good?" She replied, shaking her head. "She's the queen! She can't do anything wrong!"

"Oh, cool," I assessed with a sage nod, before bending down to pet her head. "Hey, go find Snowpea or Violence or Sash, okay?"

"Okay!" She chittered before scuttling away. Once she was out of sight, I stood up straight and dragged my hand down my face.

"Fremont!" Came a yell followed by a series of stomps. As my hand left my face, I adopted a severely unamused frown. Turning towards the voice's origin, I raised an eyebrow as Cadance came right up to me and jabbed a hoof. "My guards delivered the supplies we brought from Canterlot to your sheep assistant, as we agreed."

She narrowed her eyes and stood on the tips of her hooves to glare at me. "Where's. Shiny." I maintained my leer before cracking open my book.

"Yeah, I got your shiny, right here," I said, memorizing and rapidly casting Light right in her eyes. She recoiled and began frantically blinking before her ears snapped back. I pushed past her and marched back the way I'd come initially. "When you're done being blind, go talk to Sash." I spent the rest of my return trip muttering and grumbling to myself until I finally made it to my door.

Knocking twice and pushing it open, I leaned in with a sigh. "Hey, Sunset?" Then I blinked as Sunset beamed back at me, gently petting a tightly curled Honeysuckle right in front of her.

"Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques," Honey quietly sang with her body so tightly packed that her face was completely hidden. "Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?"

"What's up, Vic?" Sunset chirped. What the fuck is today?

At any rate, I stepped all the way inside and shut the door behind me. "Okay. You mind if I cash in on our friendship real quick?"

"How you mean?" She asked, tilting her head.

"What can you tell me about Queen Apterygota?" I asked, causing her to purse her lips in thought.

"Isn't that one of the Changeling Queens?" She asked back.

"Is it?" I huffed with a bewildered shrug. She nodded in response.

"Pretty sure. We learned about changeling society during Celestia's tutelage but we also got more details on the bigger names among changelings," she explained, tilting her head again. "Why?"

"She's on her way here," I groaned, locking my fingers behind my head as I paced the room.

"Why?"

"I dunno," I muttered before turning to her and fixing her with a hopeful smile. "I was hoping a clever little thing like you could give some ideas."

"Ding-ding-dong. Ding-ding-dong," Honey interjected, still tightly curled.

"Especially since my previous knowledge tap is currently stun-locked," I added. Sunset tapped her chin with her free hoof.

"Hm, Apterygota, Apterygota," she hummed and then nodded. "I know Chrysalis hates her."

"Is that good or bad?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at which Sunset shrugged.

"Neutral. Chrysalis hates all the other queens," she said, raising her hoof at me. "And before you ask, there's five in total, one for each hive." She gasped and jabbed her hoof at me.

"Oh! She must be coming for the Crystal Heart," she declared with a bright smile. "She could feed her hive for basically forever if she had access to it." I heaved a groan.

"Aw, c'mon! I just got that thing!" I yelled, throwing my hands up. "What do we do?"

"We count our blessings it's not Ecdysis or Apolysis," she snorted, offering an uneasy grimace. "The latter is by most estimates the oldest living changeling and manipulative as they come. The former won her throne by ripping out the throat of the previous queen." I blanched at which Sunset nodded and gnashed her teeth at me.

"With her teeth," she whispered before shrugging. "Allegedly." I fixed her with an unsettled frown for a moment before it turned angry.

"You know all this but can't tell me anything about the only relevant changeling?" I spat.

"Sorry, Buddy. She's careful and reclusive, so nopony really knows much about her," she replied before humming with a nod. "We did find out that she completely relocated her hive to a more remote region of the changeling-occupied badlands if that helps." I flinched and furrowed my brow.

"Wait, what? Why?"

"Near as we can tell it was to get away from the other hives," she sat up, removing her hoof from Honeysuckle who immediately tensed up and then rolled away. "So hey! Maybe she's a pacifist?" There was a gentle thud as Honey hit the floor and then rolled under the bed. We both pondered her retreat for a moment before Sunset spoke again.
"If not, I think you might be able to take her," she declared, sending my head spinning.

"What?" I gasped.

"What level are you?" She asked, tilting her head and flash-freezing my brain.

"What?" I squawked.

"I was reading your books while you slept and got a pretty good idea of how your magic works," she explained, holding a hoof out to me. "So yeah, what level are you?" I stood gazing at her in stunned astonishment. Amazingly, despite how gobsmacked she'd left me, I was reminded of my time in Canterlot's prison system when Twilight popped up and was able to interpret some of what my book said. Thinking on it, Sunset had mentioned getting passed up for another, less talented unicorn by Celestia.

Suddenly, a vast sum of things clicked into place and allowed my brain to start ticking again.

"Level nine," I finally replied, drawing an appreciative hum from her.

"A sorcerer, right? Nice," she mused rubbing her chin. Her head swayed to and fro before she winced. "So, eh. It'd be close. But, you won't be fighting her alone." I blinked as she stood up and approached the edge of the bed with a confident smile.

"If it comes to that," she added with a curt nod. "Break out your books and let's start going over some battle plans for how best to approach fighting a changeling queen." She leaned forward with a warm smile.

"Together." I stared at her in wonder for a few seconds before finally nodding.

"Sure."