Path of a daughter

It took Guiding Light some time to recall writing down at least her name so that she could sign the official contract of her working as Gem’s bodyguard, but Gem was helping her every step of the way. Besides, the two had almost a whole day to spend before it would be safer to head off to scout out the scene of Steaming Cauldron’s murder in Lower Canterlot. It didn’t take the dreamling Queen that long to reliably sign her name, so a good portion of the time was spent by listening to the radio in Gem’s guest suite of the castle - no reason to waste the precious energy she gained from the bar ambush and split among her kin. With evening eventually creeping in, however, the changeling-turned-zebra and her now official dreamling bodyguard got on their way.

Now, after a roughly hour and a half long trek from the castle to the mountainside quarter of the lower city, the two are watching two Royal Guards taking a smoke break in front of Rare Remedies from the safe distance of an alley two blocks away and with the help of evening gloom. Unlike the Royal Guards whose glowing horns are making them easy to spot, Gem and Guiding are mere shadows squeezed between trash containers.

“Let’s go over the plan one final time. You’re going to stay here, so that in case anything goes wrong you can just say I dropped you off here and told you to stay, which is what I’m doing so it should be technically true enough to fool some truth detection spells. What I’m going to do is transform into a pigeon and get in through the chimney-”

“There’s an alarm spell around the upper floor,” Guiding interrupts Gem, “I’m guessing it’s not on the bottom one as well because of the patrols. I can turn it off, but not from this far.”

“You can wha- huh?!” Gem leans back, making Guiding realize she overshared and needs to hide what she can really do immediately.

“I can sense the spell from here. It’s a weak one, I think, and that’s why I should be able to turn it off for a moment at the right time,” Guiding downplays her previous statement. In reality, the two city block distance is the only factor limiting her from absolutely ruining the spell and anything or anypony responsible for it.

“Magic manipulation,” Gem nods, impressed, “From what I heard, only some old changeling Queens could do that. Didn’t you say you could just put ponies to sleep last time?”

“The sleep thing is something innate from Nightmare Moon that’s related to our feeding. This… is different and limited,” lies Guiding, “I shouldn’t have mentioned it in the first place, I just didn’t want you to fly in and get caught immediately,” Guiding isn’t great at reading ponies, that’s never been her job, but the way Gem briefly looks at her makes her think she sees through her lies immediately. However, dreamlings need all the advantages they can get, and the extent of their abilities must remain secret as long as possible. To deflect, she asks, “Hey, don’t you alchemists add magic to potions or something? It’s not just chemistry.”

“Oh they do, but that’s just to transform the material in a way that a chemical reaction wouldn’t. If you can make the material via a different process then you can skip the magic part-” Gem immediately launches into an excited lecture, proving that despite seeming like a social butterfly, she doesn’t really have a close friend to open to. She catches what she’s doing, blushes, and finishes with: “But that’s neither here nor there.”

To improve Gem’s mood and to avoid her thinking too hard about dreamling magic manipulation, Guiding suggests:

“I don’t mind learning something new that might be useful, I just don’t think now’s the time. When we return, maybe you can teach me how to brew something simple or narrate while you work?”

Gem’s eyes light up despite Guiding’s usual flat and non-committal tone of voice. When the Queen nods towards the Royal Guards patrolling Rare Remedies, Gem reminds herself why they’re here.

“Right, the ledger! So, if anything goes wrong and we have to split up we meet outside Rising Passions - remember the glowing pink sign with a lot of Xs and a pony wearing fishnets that we passed on the way here? That’s the place. Our story is that we wanted to shop there for some clothes to help you with feeding.”

“And that’s going to survive the potential truth detecting spell, how?” Guiding raises an eyebrow.

“Because we are going to stop there to buy you something sexy to wear,” Gem wiggles her own in response.

“That’s bound to go swimmingly…” comments the Queen, “The full story, then, is that I escorted you here, you told me to what? Wait a while and then visit the weird clothes shop?”

“Yep. You're the hired muscle who doesn’t need to know things. The less you get involved, the less dangerous it’ll be for your kind.”

“Good enough, I suppose,” Guiding shrugs and points to a street parallel with where they’re hiding but one block closer to the shop, “You turn into a bird and wait for me to move over to that alley. I’ll disrupt the spell when you jump into the chimney.”

“Got it, hold onto this for me,” Gem gives the Queen her saddlebag.

As Guiding walks out to the main street again, the mission begins.

Moments later, Gem vanishes behind a dumpster and an inconspicuous pigeon flies into the air, heading straight for the roof of Rare Remedies.

Why can’t any plan just… work?

There’s a Royal Guard pegasus lying on watch in the middle of the slightly sloping roof who is completely invisible from the street level.

“Miss One? Any ideas?”

“Just put him to sleep, girl.”

“I can’t! None of the pheromone tricks you taught me work outside!”

“I feel extremely personally insulted by that insinuation!”

“I mean that I can’t make them work outside! Much less as a stupid bird.”

“You’re a changeling. Even if your sweat glands don’t work, your insides do. Now focus and stop waking me up for no reason. You can’t handle it.”

Just this short exchange makes Gem’s temporary body heavy and her head spin. She misses a wingbeat, loses the air current helping her fly, and drops on the roof near the pegasus guard who looks around and crawls over with suspicion. Gem needs time, and the guard looking upwards for what could have caused a random bird to drop from the sky is good enough. When he looks down again, the pigeon is standing on its legs, staring right into his muzzle, and coughs out a sweet-smelling cloud. The guard gasps but any thoughts of his current situation evaporate from his mind with a second breath of the sweet air, leaving him staring dazedly at the sunset.

Pigeon Gem flies into the air again, makes a circle around the chimney to signal to Guiding, and dives into it.

Seeing the bird plummet down, Guiding concentrates on the alarm spell and drains the magic from it. The spell is placed on the outer layer of the building instead of on the entire area, clearly to make it less tiring to maintain, and Guiding’s idea is to have it flicker off for a moment as Gem gets in. However, as she focuses and pulls at the flow of magic, the spell vanishes entirely, accompanied by a yelp of pain.

Guiding definitely wasn’t expecting the spell to be so weak as to unravel immediately and cause a feedback shock to the caster maintaining it.

What sort of an amateur unicorn did they hire for this job?

Of course, that causes accelerated hoofsteps to move towards the voice and the rays from lit up horns or helmets flashing into dark places. She could stay here and pretend she’s just walking by, but if these guards know about the dreamling arrangement, questions about her chaperone are bound to ensue. With a quick look around for anypony in the street looking her way, she squeezes into a narrow path between two houses.

I really hope no one saw me. Magic manipulation is one thing, but we did tell the royals that we can’t shapeshift with the exception of small changes to our carapace in order to grow weapons and change our armor. Technically, maybe changing my carapace to reflect light in a way that makes me seem invisible would fall under that category.

The guard rushing to help asks what’s wrong just as a second one walks into view and sees nothing but a couple ponies walking home after a day of work. With nothing more to do than to wait for the Royal Guard to take his search for any unnatural cause of the failed spell by his companion elsewhere, the Queen gets ready to head off to the meeting point.

Inside Rare Remedies, Gem, back in her zebra form, has to stop herself from looking around in nostalgia. She spent time here before, studying and practicing with the old alchemist and, just like that, it’s all gone.

Again…

She had a mom and a dad before, as much as that’s relevant for changelings. Both d- gone due to an insane puritan paladin who snuffed out her old life in an instant.

“They’re out there somewhere, Eight would have gotten him out,” says an annoyed voice inside her head, “Now FOCUS!”

Gem collapses on the floor from her love reserves quickly running out, thankfully with enough presence of mind to slow herself down and fold instead of crashing and alerting the guards downstairs.

Move, you stupid, frail excuse of a body! Dad is holes-know-where because you were too weak to help him. Mister Cauldron is dead because you weren’t smart enough to keep a low enough profile. So at least STAND UP!

Her burst of anger works and, with her legs shaking, she gets back on all fours.

I should have been done already. I know where the stupid ledger is.

Moving several books on the bookshelf in the back aside reveals a safe. It’s not a combination-based one, and the keys to it are in the bottom drawer of the work desk by the window. She has no clue whether the Royal Guards already used a copy spell on the ledger and closed the safe afterwards, but she’ll need time to go through Steaming Cauldron’s business contacts in peace, so the thick book must go with her.

That’s not fitting through the chimney.

Her only option is to get out through the window and somehow close it by spinning a handle on the inside while hanging on the outer facade.

She carefully peeks out of the window, thankful for most Royal Guards announcing their presence with bright lights, tears out one of her hairs, and puts it into her mouth, transforming her saliva into a reinforcing agent based on changeling resin. That way, it’ll be strong enough but lose the reinforcement when she drains the love from the resin afterwards.

That’ll do.

She spins the long hair multiple times around the handle and thanks her luck when she sees a Royal Guard suddenly switch his patrol route to where Guiding should be for reasons unknown to her. She opens the window, looks around for anypony looking her way, finds no one looking up, and swings out of it, finding some support on a decorative wooden part of the facade. She closes the window and gradually pulls at the hair, watching the handle turn and close it from the inside until the hair slips out through a crack.

Unfortunately, she realizes that the effort needed to pull the reinforced hair was what was keeping her stable, and drops like a rock from the second floor right onto the cobblestones. The Royal Guard examining the area turns around when he hears the impact but, luckily, he’s now on the opposite side of the street and doesn’t have the angle to see the pavement that Gem is currently kissing. When he picks up his pace to return to patrolling the shop, still invisible Guiding concludes that there’s only one thing she can do for Gem, grabs the lid of a nearby trash can, and lobs it at the wall right behind the guard, giving him just enough time to see some weird reflection to explore as she disappears into the path between the houses and leads the guard on a brief chase before circling back to Rising Passions.

The rest is up to Gem.

***

Thankfully, the limping zebra finds her way to the shop shortly after, lets out a sigh of relief, and approaches Guiding who is staring at the ponnequins modelling clothes in the shop’s window with a mix of curiosity and amusement.

“Can’t you heal yourself?” asks the Queen quietly, not looking away from a red latex costume and wondering how one puts it on.

“I’m a bit low on love,” replies Gem, taking back her saddlebag from Guiding, “The whole operation was more taxing than I expected,” once the ledger is hidden from sight and the bag safely strapped to her side, Gem examines the piece Guiding is staring at, “Do you want that one?”

“I have no intention to parade around looking like a horny tomato,” Guiding shakes her head.

“Fine, we’ll find something with the same amount of horny but only half as much tomato, at most,” she beams when Guiding shoots her a glare, “Come inside, if only to get somewhere out of sight.”

They enter the dark, lavender-smelling interior lit only by pink lamps. The area is full of display pieces that are either on coat hangers or on more ponnequins, shelves of weirdly-shaped things which the Queen had never seen before are lining the walls, and there’s only one pony inside the whole shop - a chubby, grey-coated earth pony mare in her twenties with pitch-black mane whose worried eyes are now locked on Guiding. Gem waves at the mare who snaps out of it and waves back with a nervous smile.

“Do you know her?” asks Guiding.

“I shop here from time to time. It’s easier to change my body shape and buy real clothes instead of transforming entirely,” Gem says quietly, “Look around for something that you think you’d be comfortable wearing in a club or a more intimate setting. Don’t worry about the price.”

“I…” Guiding pauses, genuinely stumped, “I don’t really care as long as I can move in it. That red thing was stupidly restraining and would make me visible from Upper Canterlot. You’re the kind of changeling who deals in love and lust, you suggest something with maximal evocative value. When you need to figure out a carapace transformation that lets you punch through full plate armor and deflect solid projectiles, I’m your mare. Or possibly if you want to learn climbing,” she counters with a verbal jab.

“It’s something with my real body,” Gem sighs, “I’m a bit frail and uncoordinated. I think it has something to do with what was happening to my dad when he and mom hatched me.”

“You’re a changeling. We don’t suffer permanent conditions,” Guiding shakes her head, “You just need an activity that lets you adapt and enough time and energy. I suggest combat training.”

“Geez, you sound like Miss One,” Gem breathes out a whisper but out loud she says firmly, “I told you no.”

“Then try dancing. As a bonus, you can find a style that fits the curvy, seductive theme you’re going for.”

“I’ll think about it, but now we’re trying to solve your problem, not mine,” Gem changes the subject in a tone that doesn’t allow disagreement. With a fresh devilish smirk, she adds, “I’m not the best pony to say what would look good on your athletic figure, so I’m giving you a work order to go ask the nice girl at the counter what she thinks.”

“You can’t be serious…” says Guiding flatly.

“Think of it as a practice in social behavior,” Gem’s smirk turns into a smug smile, “Chop chop!”

“If we get thrown out, that’s on you,” grumbles the Queen and approaches the store clerk, both of them slightly more at ease when Gem walks over as well but remains quiet. Guiding clears her throat, “Hello, Miss. My ‘friend’ suggested this place as somewhere I can buy, um, intimate yet non-restraining clothes wearable in a club. It’s not my area of expertise so I’d like to know if you can think of an article of clothing fitting those specifications.”

“She’s not one of the changelings who attacked Canterlot. A totally unrelated group,” whispers Gem loudly.

“Umm, well, I-” the mare walks out from behind the counter, revealing that she’s wearing a not too tight corset coupled with a short, see-through skirt, “Are you looking to attract mares or stallions? From my experience, everyone looks at similar things but there are differences in details.”

Guiding glances sideways at Gem for help, but the zebra is entirely busy trying to keep her cool and not burst out laughing at the stiffness of the conversation.

“Umm, both are good, I think,” is the best Guiding can say, “The piece you’re wearing looks good and non-intrusive. The corset helps your curves and the black color draws my attention away from your barrel to the skirt, which you fill out more than well.”

The clerk blushes like a bottle of ketchup, Gem facehoofs and starts laughing so hard she sits down, and Guiding looks around for a secondary escape route.

“What? I was trying to be analytical!” she looks at Gem who raises her foreleg, pats Guiding’s side, and finally finds the strength to get up.

“And you wonder why she needs help,” Gem keeps smiling at the clerk, “Cream Roll, I know where your head is at the moment, but can you give us a professional’s insight? I don’t exactly fit the muscle mommy aesthetic so I’m not sure what enhances the right feel.”

Cream Roll, blushing even more at the comment, nods and begins circling around Guiding.

“Is it okay if I touch you, Miss?” she asks.

“Do as you please,” Guiding shrugs.

“Within limits!” adds Gem and winks at the mare, “If you’d like to see what you pick for her in action later, I’ll tell you when and where.”

“Mhm,” Cream Roll nods and prods Guiding’s carapace in a couple places, “I don’t think clothes can make any of this squish, so the best idea would be to brighten the dark coat- skin- armor in places we want to draw eye to. Pink fishnets come to mind and, I wonder, how comfortable are you with jewel plugs?”

“With what?”

Gem starts wheezing and running out of air while she laughs at Guiding’s more and more bewildered face as Cream’s explanation goes on.

“-and that’s an example of a small one,” the mare pulls out a box from behind the counter.

“Small?! What does a large one look like?” Guiding follows Cream’s pointing hoof, “No, now I know you’re making fun of me. That’s a traffic cone.”

“Hey, didn’t you say -wheeze- that changelings-” Gem keeps laughing.

“Don’t you dare…”

“-adapt to -wheeze- anything?”