Path of a daughter

Only a singular crystal torch above the door of the dreamling suite is bathing the main room in soft, blue light, illuminating Guiding Light and 1 lying side-by-side on a queen-size bed, both absorbed in a book.

“Pa-ra-lyzed,” Guiding reads out a word and closes her eyes. She knows the word, she can read the word, she knows that she knows the word, yet her memory fails to come up with its meaning on the spot. After a couple seconds, she shakes her head and looks at her companion who is writing the word in the air from memory with a claw, “1?”

“It’s that… that condition when you can’t move, I think,” replies 1. Guiding looks up in frustration and scowls. The fragmented hive mind seems to work much better when she’s talking about something or listening to someone, but understanding the written word is much more difficult, likely because most interactions between dreamlings were based on their mind links, and talking was for everyone else. Still, reading and writing shouldn’t be this difficult, even most mid-ranked dreamlings wrote a report here and there and read orders and mission briefings, “You’re distracted,” adds 1, “And it’s not just hunger.”

“The two of us put together are barely able to progress through a book,” Guiding puts her face into her claws. Hooves are great for movement, but the manipulation ability of claws wins in every other situation, “In a couple of days, we’ll be scattered all over Equestria. I’m worried for everyone.”

1 chuckles and pats Guiding’s shoulder.

“You may be the most powerful of us, but we can take care of ourselves. It’s nothing new - just another paired assignment behind enemy lines.”

To her own surprise, that point of view does wonders to calm Guiding down.

“You’re right. I got so overwhelmed by losing so many before we escaped the old world that the idea of losing any more of us-” she chuckles, “-paralyzed me. None of us are strangers to danger-”

As if on cue, the walls shake, the open door to the bathroom rattles, and the porcelain tableware useful both for decoration and snacks on a shelf with a glass pane in the front clinks. Even before the strange tremor ends, 1 is already opening the suite door for Guiding who bursts into the castle corridor.

Faint plumes of acrid smoke are coming from the cracks around the door of the next suite, accompanied by heavy coughing and stuff falling on the ground that’s easy to hear in the silence of the late evening castle. Whatever is going on can’t be natural or desired, so Guiding doesn’t wait and slams her foreleg through the wood around the lock before ripping it out entirely and kicking the door in with her other foreleg. Her nose immediately stings and she starts coughing when black cloud hanging inside pours into the hallway. As she lowers her head to the floor to take in a deep breath through her mouth, she notices an equine shape on the floor. Darting into the suite immediately, Guiding drags the equine out where 1 has already opened a window in both directions of the hall to stop the smoke from spreading.

What’s a zebra doing here? Nevermind! What now? We’ve never done any field medicine.

Fortunately, once moved under the window, the zebra mare recovers on her own and takes in a lungful of air before bursting into a coughing fit. Neither of the dreamlings have any idea what to do to help, but there’s still one unanswered question, and Guiding leans down to her and grabs her by the shoulders.

“Is there anyone else inside?” she asks in a slow, firm voice.

The zebra shakes her head which sends her into a new but thankfully weaker coughing fit. With nothing to do but wait, Guiding observes the zebra. She’s young, likely in her late teens, and slim like a twig. Her mixed pink and grey mane is short just like her tail, and when she finally opens her teary eyes, Guiding can see they’re pink as well. Overall, an uncommon color scheme for a zebra but nothing with pointing out, and yet… something feels off about her, but Guiding can’t put a hoof on what.

Her observation gets interrupted by a duo of Royal Guards rounding the nearest corner. They immediately rush in and point their spears on the duo of dreamlings near what to them is a barely conscious royal guest. Another pair gallop into the hallway and pincer the dreamlings from the other side.

“Step away from her!” orders one.

“What did you do?!” calls out the leader of the second group.

“It’s the new monsters,” Guiding hears a guard whisper and frowns.

Blazing’s words flash through her mind -you’re going to have to take it up the tailpipe for a while- and she takes a deep breath while 1 glances her way.

“We didn’t-”

The zebra gurgles loudly, interrupting her, and wildly waves one raised forelegs before trying to push herself up and failing until Guiding helps her sit up.

“They-” she hucks out a black spit and gasps for air, ”-pulled me out,” she points vaguely towards the door, “Experiment… gone wrong. I’ll clean that up,” finally pushing herself back on all fours, she looks into her suite and winces, “Oof. just give me a couple of hours.”

Almost disappointed, the guards raise their spears again and exchange a few words about sending cleaning staff with the zebra. After that, she runs back into the suite, upon which Guiding can hear clicking and humming of air, followed by the black cloud inside starting to slowly dissipate. Just as the Queen and 1 are about to return to their suite, the zebra rushes out again with a pair of saddlebags and shuts the door.

“Hey, guys- guests!” she trots over to them, “Ehh, sorry for the mess and thank you for helping me. My name is Gem, I’m a… trying to be an alchemist,” she raises her foreleg between the dreamlings to shake the hoof, or claw, of anyone willing to do so. When Guiding reciprocates, Gem continues, beaming, “It’s great to see more changelings trying to live among ponies.”

“We’ve been here only a couple days,” says Guiding.

“Sorry, I didn’t notice. I’m new here too and I don’t go outside that often,” Gem lowers her head apologetically.

“We moved to the guest suite only recently,” explains the Queen.

“Say,” Gem perks up, “Would you like to go for an evening out? I know a club where you might get some ambient love to eat. My treat.”

“We-” Guiding is about to politely refuse, but 1 clears her throat and interrupts her with:

“You could use both the experience and something to take your mind off our situation.”

“We still need to get an official escort. We’re not allowed to leave the castle grounds without one,” explains Guiding.

“No problem!” Gem waves her hoof, “I can take care of that. Let’s go see Miss Inkwell. If you want to go, that is.”

“I’ll take care of the others when they return,” 1 nods at Guiding.

“Alright, let’s see what this city is about,” the Queen nods.

“Yesss!” Gem punches the air so hard she stumbles.

***

Surrounded by muted music and the chaos of chatting ponies as Guiding and Gem sit on a pair of bar stools behind a counter of a lively club, Guiding finishes a quick summary of her origin and the events of recent days.

“Aww,” the young zebra sitting to Guiding’s right pouts into her drink.

If there’s something the Queen wasn’t expecting, it’s her story being disappointing. Gruesome? Yes. Off-putting? Yes. This? No.

“Were you expecting more?” she asks, “I didn’t want to go into exact details here in public,” she nods towards the bartender behind the counter.

“No no no,” Gem shakes her head and shoots the Queen a strangely sad smile, “I was just hoping to learn more about Queen Chrysalis’ hive-” she suddenly waves her forelegs defensively and almost spill her glass, “Not that you’re not interesting or, you know, terrifying,” she giggles.

“You don’t look or sound terrified,” comments Guiding in a factual tone that comes off as somewhat cold. She’s observant enough to have noticed ponies shooting her worried glances since the two arrived, even though most are occupied in groups, with partners, or simply by their drinks, yet she can’t sense any fear related to her from Gem, “That’s unique around here.”

“I have changeling friends who escaped the hive,” Gem smiles at her, “I know changelings have rarely had much say in what they’re doing. You may be the Queen, but your story didn’t sound as if you had much free will either. Besides, I live in the castle because I did something bad and I’m getting a chance just like you,” she shrugs, “I just don’t need a chaperone anymore, only to periodically check in with one of Princess Celestia’s paladins. On the other h- hoof, now that I’m not under what’s basically house arrest, Miss Inkwell has been gently nudging me towards looking for a place of my own. That’s one of the reasons I’m digging deeper into alchemy…” Gem laughs nervously, “It doesn’t always work, heh, as you saw for yourself. Speaking of - what’s your plan for the future?”

Guiding still doesn’t have an answer, so she takes a sip of some green, minty drink that Gem bought for her to give herself a moment to formulate an answer.

“It’s hard to imagine anything other than fighting or waiting for a new assignment,” she puts her glass down and waves her hoof around at the crowd, “but seeing what’s outside the castle walls is the first step. Thank you for giving me the opportunity.”

“Oh, well,” Gem blushes, “I’m sure anyo- anypony would escort you if you asked. You are allowed to leave, just with a chaperone.”

“True,” Guiding nods, “But you reached out yourself, that’s different,” before Gem can say something defensive again, Guiding returns to the original subject, “After twenty years of constant destruction, I’d like to build something. I’ll be happy if I don’t have to end lives and ruin futures anymore.”

“Same,” Gem pats Guiding’s foreleg, looks down into her drink, and says in a quiet tone barely audible over the ambience, “I know how it feels to kill a pony. I can still feel his hot blood in my mouth, in my nose-” her breathing quickens, “It was an accident -that’s what I keep telling myself but it’s hard to believe- and I never want to do anything like that again,” she shakes her head, gathering herself.

“Sometimes it’s inevitable-” Guiding shrugs.

“It’s never inevitable!” Gem growls suddenly.

“No,” Guiding’s tone, as always whenever she’s not talking to her dad, is firm and factual, “Take it from someone who spent their entire life fighting - sometimes there is no other way but to solve a problem permanently,” she raises her hoof to stop Gem’s next objection, “But I can agree with this - the instance of it being really necessary are rare. Sometimes you just can’t run.”

Gem takes a deep breath.

“No, you can always ‘not kill’. If you can’t run, paralysis potions exist, mind and memory control exist - you don’t need to end someone’s future, you need to change it. And to that, you don’t need to be strong enough, you need to be smart enough, I need to be smart enough,” Gem’s sudden thousand-yard stare ends with her whispering so quietly that only Guiding’s excellent hearing can make it out: “If I was smart enough, dad would still be around.”

Guiding doesn’t have the social experience to reach out and hug Gem or anything similar, so all she can do is say:

“I don’t think you’re wrong, I only think your view is incomplete, Gem. I don’t mind fighting, it’s the senseless destruction of futures, as you said, that bothers me. And if you’re strong enough to send the message that you’re not to be messed with, smart enough to know how to do so, and skilled enough to know when to stop to avoid killing, you’ll have the confidence to control any situation you find yourself in.”

“I…” Gem frowns. She can’t argue against what Guiding said but neither can she just accept it, “Can we change the topic, please? I don’t want to ruin this evening by getting stuck on something we can’t see eye to eye. How are you liking this place so far?” she looks around the bar and secretly points to ponies dancing and some kissing while doing so, “I took you here specifically because I know how difficult it is to feed in Canterlot for a changeling who can’t shapeshift.”

Unfortunately, that’s another area where Guiding is lost - despite Gem explaining on the way here that club ponies were more used to changelings and some might be interested and let her feed on their lust if Guiding played her cards right, the Queen’s feeding instinct just isn’t picking anything.

“How do you know so much about changelings anyway?” Guiding changes the subject because dreamling feeding is one thing she left out from telling Gem her story, which the zebra reads immediately.

“It’s that bad, eh? Well, you do come off pretty intimidating. Normally, since changeling citizens aren’t allowed to shapeshift unless their life is in danger, they usually at least enhance their physiques to be more-” Gem runs her forelegs over her body while tracing some more curvature in specific places, “-seductive. I’m not saying there aren’t ponies who would fall head over hooves for you, hol- hay no, they just aren’t the kind to approach first.”

“It’s not working for me, but thank you for trying.”

“That’s what friends are for,” Gem turns around on her stool and measures the crowd, “Hmm, where could we find somepony for-” she stops, noticing an earth pony stallion who splits off from an entering group and makes his way through the crowd towards them, “Maybe you will get lucky tonight.”

Guiding, having had the newcomers in view before Gem turned around, noticed them discreetly pointing and exchanging some words beforehoof. Something about it doesn’t sit well with her, but maybe she’s just paranoid.

“They could be here for you,” she comments.

“Sure. Zebras do have the exotic draw in Canterlot, but so do changelings,” Gem winks at her, “Let’s test that. I’ll pop into the bathroom for a minute and then see how things are going. If he’s here for you, I’ll find a quiet place to wait. If not, there’s enough of the night left for me to be your wingpony.”

As she slides from her stool, Guiding grabs her and whispers sharply:

“Wait, what do I do? What do I say?”

“Be nice, no talking about killing, hold hooves- claws. If you’re both interested, there are private rooms in the back. Ask the bartender! Don’t worry, I’ll be around,” Gem pats Guiding’s shoulder and quickly trots away.

When Gem vanishes from sight through a hallway in the back, the entering group goes that way as well. Guiding, though, can’t ponder the situation for long, because the earth pony stallion finally reaches her, sits down on the stool to Guiding’s left, and gestures first at the bartender, next at the drink menu written on a blackboard above the shelves with alcohol, and finally at himself and Guiding.

“What’s a muscle mommy like you doing in a place like this? Looking for somepony who would look good crushed between your thighs?” he smirks at Guiding who gives him a stare so deadpan it could murder a wok.

I AM a mother, I am muscular, and I am getting the feeling that his head would look good crushed-

No, Guiding! Be nice.

The bartender puts two drinks on the counter, one for the stallion and one for Guiding, who forces a smile before looking towards the hallway to where Gem went and pointing.

“I’m here with a friend who-”

Her ear twitches as she hears the faintest hiss from behind.

“-just ran off,” she faces the stallion again and, from the corner of her eye, notices that her drink, compared to his, is slightly more fizzy. He catches her looking and immediately starts talking again.

“Oh, the zebra? I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the most exotic beauties at the bar together and I couldn’t help coming over,” he laughs, “I’m coming on too strong, aren’t I?” he takes a sip of his drink, prompting Guiding to do the same, which she does to buy herself time to think of an answer.

“All this is new to me, but it’s nice to meet someone who doesn’t see me as a monster,” she says after a while.

“I see,” he waves his hoof dismissively, “I’ve met a free changeling or two,” winking at Guiding, he takes another sip, and so does she, “and not just in clubs. Normal guys just like me. I know all the talk about them cocooning ponies is nonsense… unless they ask.”

“Ponies ask for that?” Guiding tilts her head, puzzled, and finishes her glass.

Shouldn’t Gem be back? Bathroom breaks don’t last this long, and I can’t see her watching from anywhere.

“Roleplay can be fun,” he smiles. For some reason, Guiding is starting to sense fear coming from him.

“I never thought of it that way,” she admits and resumes drinking her previous drink, the one that Gem ordered, “Huh, between these two, I think I prefer yours,” she taps both glasses.

Calm down, Guiding. Even if you have to return alone, there are witnesses who know you left with Gem. No one can use you being in the city on your own against your kind.

“Another one?” he suggests.

“I wouldn’t mind. We can hold hooves afterwards,” she smiles, “and maybe more. I heard there are private rooms in the back.”

“A mare after my own heart. Bartender?”

Guiding turns around on her stool again and looks up at the ceiling, ears perked and intently listening. When she hears the hissing again, she turns around, now alert enough to notice something almost instantly dissolving in her drink.

You have no idea.

Again, the second her eyes stop on her fresh glass, the stallion makes his move, this time in the form of taking her foreleg into his hooves and looking into her eyes.

“I’m just trying to get a head start on the hoof- claw holding.”

“Good thing you left me a free one,” Guiding makes a show of the claws of her right foreleg before taking a long draught and licking her lips, taking care to show off her tongue. That’s tempting or something, right? “I like this. The more I drink the ea-” she yawns, “-easier it is to drink- oops!” the glass almost gets knocked over by her waving foreleg, “Better to finish it off so that th- dis dosn’t happen agen,” smirking into her drink when she hears him let out a relieved sigh, she finishes the glass off.

The stallion lets go and asks:

“How about we get a head start on the rest of the night? Have you ever been in the private rooms here?”

“Nah, it’s my first time,” Guiding slides from her stool.

“Then let me show you,” he steadies her with his body when she takes a little too long step forward and leads her down the same hallway into which Gem went. Thankfully, with dreamlings being larger than changelings but still overall the same size as ponies including the Queen, it’s easy. At the end of the hallway, past the toilets, is a locked door guarded by a muscular earth pony bouncer who nods at the stallion escorting Guiding, unlocks the door, and lets the duo inside.

“We got them both!” he announces the second the door closes behind them and the lock clicks.

Inside a circular room is the suspicious group of ponies surrounding what looks like a barber’s chair with leather straps tightened around the legs of a familiar young zebra whose face is entirely covered by a wet cloth. Gem looks sideways and the cloth falls off of her face with a wet slap into a filled bucket underneath, revealing her bleeding muzzle and a black eye.

With the outside noise so well muted, there’s no way anyone could hear anything that’s going on in here, which suits Guiding just fine as she straightens up and asks in her usual matter-of-fact tone, completely devoid of any effect of alcohol or whatever the drug she drank two doses of was supposed to do:

“Roleplay, Gem?”

All the zebra is able to do is mouth “No”.

“YOU LED IT RIGHT HERE, YOU INCOMPETENT MORON!” yells one of the ponies before lowering his voice, “Good thing nopony will miss a bug whore.”

Guiding grins and bares her fangs. Finally, a comfortable situation.