"So what's on the docket today?" Rosecut asked.
"Grid… 630," Gemshine Glint replied, flipping a few pages on her reference folder. She turned it around and pointed to a spot on the farmland maps. "Out of sequence, but it's a little overdue for a warming cycle so we need to know what to prioritize."
Rosecut nodded, mentally noting the route to the indicated spot. She flipped the next page and frowned. "Where's the checkoff sheet?"
"Oh, that. Your new trainee already grabbed it."
"New trainee?"
Gemshine motioned. Rosecut turned to look, and froze in place.
Across the office in one of the waiting areas was a creature. Pony-shaped, but buglike, with a chitinous green-black exoskeleton and translucent veiny wings. It had a clipboard strapped to one foreleg. As she watched, it rubbed the other foreleg over a bulbous compound eye, like a cat cleaning itself.
The changeling caught her gaze, and waved.
She whipped back around, her inner light flaring. "Are you serious?" she whispered.
"Hey, don't blame me," Gemshine sat back and raised her forehooves defensively. "More and more are showing up from Canterlot as part of Princess Celestia's work placement program. I can have Pearly come down and reassign him, if you have a problem."
"No it's…" Rose cut herself off and took a deep breath. The shimmer in her crystalline body faded to a muted glow. "It's fine. I'll be fine." She took her own clipboard with the assignment info, and cinched it to her foreleg with her teeth.
"Alright," Gemshine replied. The clock on the wall chimed. "Better get going, you're burning hours."
Rosecut walked, rather than trotted, across the office.
The changeling saw her coming and jumped to his hooves. His wings fluttered with a slight hum. "Hey!" he greeted, his voice somewhere between a hiss and a buzz.
"Hi," she replied. She tried to make her voice genial and friendly. "Um… Ready to go?"
He nodded and chittered. "Yep." He stuck out one hoof. "I'm Veltrax."
She involuntarily hesitated before reaching out and touching his hoof with her own, and hoped he didn't notice. "Hi… Veltrax. I'm Rosecut."
"So, why build an empire in the middle of a frozen tundra?" Veltrax asked. He pawed at a spot in the field. "Frost."
Rosecut gritted her teeth at what seemed like the hundredth question, even though it was probably more like the fourth. "It wasn't always this way," she replied tersely. She pawed at the earth and frowned as her translucent hoof also turned up frost. "It used to be more mild. More livable."
She sighed and stepped away from the patch. "Well, that's enough here. Mark grid 630-A-25 as unusable for this year's rotation."
The changeling 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.
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 they had plenty of time to catalog the rest of the 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 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 more random spots.
Veltrax looked back at the previous grid. It was hard to 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, continuing to check the field. "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.
Veltrax waved back hesitantly. "What's Pearly Facet doing out here?"
"Probably wants to check our progress report," Rosecut said, rolling her eyes. "Like he wouldn't get it when we're back in a few hours."
They trotted toward the pony, but when they got close Rosecut stopped. "Let me," she said, holding out a hoof. Veltrax cocked his head curiously, but passed over the clipboard.
Rosecut took the report to Pearly Facet and started itemizing their progress. "60 percent checked so far this week, 50 percent usable. Less permafrost, but lots more dry. "
"Not great but 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.
She followed his gaze then turned back. "I'm fine," she said.
"Because you know I can move the assignments around…"
"I'm fine," she snapped. A wave of light shimmered through her, and Pearly raised one eyebrow.
Rosecut took a deep breath and made her glow settle. "He's actually been… really helpful," she admitted. "Asks a lot of questions, but that's not a problem."
"Alright." Pearly didn't look quite convinced, but chose to not to pursue the subject. He passed a few pages over for the clipboard. "You two have been at it for a few hours now. Why don't you take lunch? And let me know if you need… anything."
They walked off the grid in uncomfortable silence and made their way to a small covered rest area with cushions and tables. Rosecut nuzzled into her saddlebag and retrieved a small grain sack and an apple.
Sitting across from her, Veltrax dug into his own pack. He set out a hay sandwich, then paused, looking at her. "...What?"
Rosecut shook her head. "Sorry, I…" She'd been caught staring. "...I just wasn't sure what you'd be eating, I guess?"
"I need physical sustenance just like you." He took a bite of the sandwich. "Or were you curious about the other part?"
She felt her cheeks glow a luminous red. "Sorry," she said again.
"It's fine," he said flatly. He reached into his pack and pulled out a small glowing gemstone. As she watched, he raised the gem to his fangs. A wisp of magic escaped and disappeared into his maw.
She couldn't say for sure, but it seemed like his compound eyes glowed briefly and his chitin shimmered.
He sighed, then pushed the gemstone across the table to her. "Donated love."
She picked it up between her hooves and examined the gem. It was pinkish-red, with complex internal structures like nested grown quartz. "Donated from who?" she asked, pushing it back to him.
Veltrax shrugged. "Random ponies, I guess. They have a couple clinics in Canterlot, and I hear Princess Celestia herself even donates." He put the gem back into his pack. "It's not as powerful as, you know, the other way, but it keeps us from starving."
"That's right," Rosecut said, tapping a hoof on the table. "I heard about that, they opened one here a couple months back, even with the—" she clamped her mouth shut, suddenly mortified.
"The protests?"
"I didn't mean…" she shook her head. "... I didn't go, for whatever it's worth."
"It's fine." He took a bite of the hay sandwich, and chewed slowly. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are some of you like that?"
Rosecut's neck tensed, but she took a bite of her grain, giving herself time to think. "It was a different time, you have to understand."
He 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. "The Crystal Empire wasn't just gone for a thousand years. It was displaced."
Veltrax froze mid-bite. "...Displaced?"
She chewed and swallowed. "Sombra sent us forward in time. We've only been here, in modern Equestria, for a few years. So I was there, a thousand years ago, and… in my time, changelings were…"
"What?"
She squeezed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Sorry in advance, but… changelings then 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, and… it wasn't pretty."
Veltrax's chitin seemed to pale. "And you remember that."
"Everypony does, like it was yesterday," Rosecut said. She stopped and looked at him head-on. "I'm not going to lie, it's been difficult being assigned with you."
"I've noticed."
"I'm sorry." Rosecut grimaced at saying it yet again. "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."
Veltrax didn't say anything to that. He finished his sandwich and stood up. "I'm gonna get a headstart on the next grid."
As he trotted away, Rosecut looked at her own lunch. It didn't seem so appetizing anymore.
She caught up with him a few minutes later, partway through checking the grid. He looked up and acknowledged her with a nod, and went back to pawing the earth.
Rosecut stood at the edge of the grid for a moment, indecisive. She opened her mouth a few times, but eventually settled on joining in and checking the grid.
They continued in silence for a few minutes and Rosecut startled slightly when Veltrax spoke up.
"It hasn't been easy for me either," he said. "Canterlot was … difficult. It was always a toss-up whether somepony on the street would smile, or sneer, or just follow me around waiting for me to slip up." He pawed one more spot and sighed. "Clay and rocks all around."
"Same," Rosecut said flatly. "Mark 630-D-25 off."
Veltrax marked the clipboard and started walking to the next grid. "Some days I couldn't take it. I wanted so badly to just put on a glamour and be invisible. I'd stand in front of the mirror and try out new faces, but I knew if I went out like that, I'd be doing exactly what ponies expected of me."
He stopped at the berm and looked at her finally. "I was hoping for a fresh start out here, but it seems I've just traded one kind of mistrust for another."
Her cheeks burned as they looked at each other quietly for a few moments.
"We're both… out of place here." she said finally, hoping the words were right. "But… things are different in Equestria now, and the Crystal Empire isn't going to join the modern age without some growing pains, I guess."
She stepped forward and offered one hoof. "Let's give trust a chance?"
He hesitated slightly, then raised his own hoof and touched it to hers. "Mutual trust," he replied, nodding.
They stood silently for another moment, then turned together and stepped into the next grid. But barely a moment later, Veltrax stumbled slightly and paused. He glanced down and lifted his hoof. Beneath it, Rosecut could see he'd stepped into rich, warm soil.
Veltrax saw it too, and smiled up at her. "Mark grid 630-D-25 viable. Looks like there's a lot of potential here for growth."
Rosecut smiled back.
Author's Note
Originally written for Quills and Sofas Crystal Pony Speedwrite, February 2025, where it tied for first place. Expanded for FimFiction.
Prompts used were:
- Dark history between Crystal ponies and Changelings
- Feeding a city in an icy wasteland
[original speedwrite entry]
"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.
