Fertile Soil

"It wasn't always this way"

She still remembered the time before. The Crystal Empire hadn't disappeared into nothingness, even if the rest of Equestria had seen it that way.

Rosecut pawed at the tilled earth and frowned as her translucent hoof turned up frost. "It used to be more mild here," she said, "more livable."

She sighed and stepped away from the patch. "Mark grid 630-A-25 as unusable for this year's rotation."

The creature next to her chittered an affirmative and scrawled onto a clipboard with a quill held between his fangs. He tucked the quill into a portable inkwell and trotted after Rosecut toward the next grid.

"What changed?" he asked, his voice somewhere between a hiss and a buzz.

Rosecut scoffed. "What didn't? It's been a thousand years. My theory is that Celestia used to send more light northward, and when we 'vanished' she no longer had a reason to."

She scowled up at the low-hanging sun, just a few degrees above the horizon. It would be there for another few weeks at best, then plunge them into another several weeks of twilight. At least she had plenty of time to catalog the rest of her fields before planting needed to start.

"Has anypony petitioned her to raise it higher or keep it up longer?" Veltrax asked, trotting up beside her. His dark green chitinous exoskeleton clicked and vibrated softly as he moved.

"Plenty of us," she replied. She only glanced at him out of the corner of one glittering eye. "Apparently changing the relative position of massive celestial bodies 'takes time' so it's a 'work in progress' or something."

They arrived at the next grid. Immediately Rosecut's mood brightened as her hooves pawed through the soil. "Dry, but unfrosted. Mark 630-B-25 as a good candidate," she said, trotting to random spots and checking for frost.

Veltrax looked back at the previous grid. He could barely tell where one ended and the other began, aside from a small uneven berm. "What's the difference? Why is it so… drastic?"

"The focusing crystals," Rosecut said absently. "They can't refract onto all of our croplands at once, so the operators rotate them through the course of a daylight cycle. Maybe there was a wisp of cloud in front of the sun for a few hours while that grid was in focus, and that was enough to let the frost set in."

"Rosecut!"

They both turned to see another crystal pony waving from the edge of the grid.

"It's Pearly Facet," Rosecut said. "Probably wants our progress report."

They trotted toward the pony, but when they got close Rosecut stopped. "Um, lemme take this one," she said, holding out a hoof.

Veltrax cocked his head curiously, but passed over the clipboard with one translucent veiny wing. Rosecut took it over to Pearly Facet and started itemizing their progress. "60 percent checked so far, 50 percent usable."

"Better than last rotation," Pearly huffed, using his horn to magically flip the pages. "Make sure to get me a copy when you're done and I'll correlate it with the weather team and focusing arrays to see what we can bring up before we lose the light."

"Will do," Rosecut said, marking off a checklist.

Pearly looked sideways at Veltrax. "You doing okay?" he asked quietly, his words not directed at the changeling.

Rosecut followed his gaze and looked back at Veltrax, then back to Pearly Facet. "I'm fine," she said, just as softly. "He's actually been really helpful."

"Alright." Pearly passed a few pages over for the clipboard and turned to leave. "Let me know if you need… anything."

As they walked toward the next grid in uncomfortable silence, Veltrax finally cleared his throat.
"Why are some of you like that?"

Rosecut's neck tensed. "It was a different time, you have to understand."

Veltrax shook his head. "I'm not sure I do; changelings don't keep history like ponies. I know Chrysalis has given us a bad name but I haven't been a part of her hive for years so I'm not sure why I get treated like I've got the strangles or something."

"It's not history, it's experience," Rosecut said darkly. "In my time, changelings were…"

"What?"

She squeezed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Sorry in advance, but… changelings were pests. Worse than pests. Having an entire empire built on love, literally beacons of love shining into the sky, we had entire teams dedicated to… keeping that problem… under control."

Veltrax's blood ran chill. "And you remember that."

"Like it was yesterday," Rosecut said. She stopped and looked at him head-on for the first time. "I'm not going to lie, it's been difficult being assigned with you today."

"I've noticed."

"I'm sorry," Rosecut grimaced. "I meant what I said, though. You've been super-helpful, and you're really nice. I just… it's a lot to get used to."

"It hasn't been easy for me either," Veltrax said. "Canterlot was … difficult. I was hoping for a fresh start out here, but it seems I've just traded one kind of mistrust for another."

They looked at each other quietly for a few moments.

"Well," Rosecut said finally. "I'm willing to try and make a change. Things are different in Equestria now, and the Crystal Empire isn't going to grow into the modern age without some growing pains."

"Thank you," Veltrax said. He shifted, and felt something different. Glancing down, he saw his hoof sink into rich, warm soil, and smiled. "Mark grid 630-C-25 viable. Looks like there's a lot of potential here for growth."

Rosecut smiled back.