Magicka Lager

Chapters

HELP!
I'm Fine
Flying
Dig a Pony
Not Quite
Yesterday
VI.5: In the Sky With Diamonds

HELP!

Twilight squinted her eyes against the sun streaming in through the windows, casting rays of light that filled the room. Rubbing her eyes with a hoof, she sat up in bed, preparing herself to get up out of the room and prepare for the day. As she stepped out of her room, her mane a complete mess, she contemplated cutting it again, as it was getting somewhat unwieldy, and she could feel it starting to get into her eyes. She was one of the only ponies in Ponyville with bangs, and most saw it as a pretty addition to her overall appearance, but too much of a hassle to use themselves. Twilight continued to rub sleep from her eyes as she entered the bathroom, and stepped into the tile floor of her shower. She allowed the warm water wash over her before applying a shampoo with a thick bristled brush, and proceeded to scrub down. As she finished her sower, she stepped out to dry off. Her mane was quickly dried with a hair dryer spell, and her coat was as well. She began to style her mane into her usual setting, and as she did so, brushed her teeth.

She finished her bathroom routine fairly easily, and now was fully awake. She saw Spike, still curled up in an adorable little ball. She gently prodded him with a hoof.

“Spike,” she whispered, “wake up.”

Spike waved a claw in the air. “Five more minutes...”

Twilight chuckled to herself. She poked him again with “Come on, now, you gotta get up! It’s Saturday. We've got stuff to do!”

Spike grumpily got up from his sleep, rubbing at his eyes with both hands, and said “Fine, fine. I’ll get up.”

As spike showered and readied himself for the day, Twilight stretched out in the recliner in the main lobby. She was reading a book on the magic of sentient non-pony beings, and the interesting thing was they could almost be classified as the pony races were. Gryphons were the fliers of the non-ponies. The minotaurs roughly represented the earth pony race. And the crystal ponies, while something like a pony, still were considered non-pony, and thus were the magic wielders. Twilight was engrossed in the book, and almost didn't hear the knock on the door. The knocking grew frantic, and Twilight looked up, set her book down, and crossed the room tho the oak door. As the door swung creakily open, she was greeted by the sight of a pony she had never seen before. Unicorn mare, the stranger had a dark green mane and light green coat. Her startling eyes were a dark shade of brown, and her cutie mark was a tree with something hanging off of it: a beehive. She had a small saddlebag draped over her back.

“Hello,” said the mare nervously.

“Hi.” said Twilight, and nodded to let the mare enter. The stranger obliged, and closed the door behind her.

The mare came over to face Twilight, who had crossed the room to the other side of the library floor. Her horn glowed a vibrant green, and a wave of magic washed over the library. Second and third magic waves followed soon after. “There,” said the mare in a satisfied tone. “alone at last. Twilight Sparkle, I need your help.”

Twilight looked around at the room and asked, “What sort of spells did you cast?”

The mare chuckled. “Simple wards, soundproofing, sight-block, and one that is set on a lasting effect. When cast, it records everything said and heard by the target, namely you. When cast a second time at you, it prevents you from mentioning, in any form or fashion, what I say or do.”

“Wait, why would you need to do those spells?”

“Word cannot get out about us. I’m going to show you something to you, Twilight. I will also give you an item that must be only seen and used by you, and ask you for something only you can provide. First, I will show you. Scream all you want, nopony will hear you.” With that, the green mare was enveloped in a sparkling ethereal flame. When the dazzling light had faded away, a changeling was left standing where the unicorn mare was. “Look, Twilight, we need your help.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. Her horn began to glow with purple magic as she said “Why are you here, changeling?” in the best threatening voice she could, which was pretty darn intimidating. But the changeling was unfazed.

“My name is Xrap. And like I said, the hive needs help, Twilight Sparkle. We are... dying.”

“Dying?” Said Twilight, discharging her horn into her magic reserves, sheathing the spell.

“We are dying, yes. Before we were driven out, we fed on the love of ponies. The love was collected by the drones, and sent back to the hive to be magically processed. Raw emotion is extremely hazardous to your health. It consumes you from the inside out. Normally, we had reserves of magic that we drew from unicorn targets, that never harmed the unicorns, of course, and we stored and used it for brewing drinkable emotion.” Xrap looked up at Twilight, to check if she was following, which she was. “But now, unicorns across the land are learning anti-changeling spells, detection, deterioration... destruction.” All of this was said bitterly. “We are running out of magic, Twilight Sparkle, and we need more. We are starving, and growing desperate for a solution. And no matter what we look like, we are creatures, sentient beings, and in pain. Chrysalis has been growing weaker, and is in no state or want of attempting anything close to the scale of what was attempted previously. And there is no reason for her to do so, anyhow. The amount of love in the general atmosphere has been increased since the restoration of the Crystal Empire, and we have no need of siphoning love off of ponies. But now, we need magic, or we die of starvation. Imagine having all the food you ever needed, and couldn't use it because you couldn't defrost it. It taunts us, Twilight, that all the food we need is there, but unusable in the state it’s in. That is why we need you. When a unicorn willingly channels and casts the spell, rather than a changling using unicorn magic, the product comes out better, and with much less magic consumed.”

Twilight looked at Xrap and asked with more than a bit of hostility: “Why should I help you?”

In answer, Xrap reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a small vial. In the vial, blocked by a cork stopper, was a thick, pink liquid. “Try it,” said Xrap. “I will drink some myself, if necessary to ensure it’s not poisoned. Try it, and then give e an answer. But let me say this. If you are to take the vial and do nothing, then you have killed us all. Take it, and answer. If you drink, and say no, then we will take no aggressive action, and attempt to find another way. If you drink it, and accept,” Xrap said with a weak smile, “Then come to the hive entrance outside of Ponyville. You will recognize it if you drink. So make your choice, Twilight Sparkle. Save us, or not.”

Xrap was gone in a flash of fire, leaving the vial sitting on the center table. Twilight stared at it, numb. Her brain should have rejected the thought of drinking the liquid at once. But she was strangely conflicted in her choice. There was possibility of something special in that little bottle, but she wasn't sure if the leap of faith would make it across the gorge. She sat there as the vial levitated in front of her, and the cork came out. She made no attempt to stop herself as the strange fluid went down the hatch.

Twilight was hit with a sensation that turned her legs to jelly, and she collapsed on the floor with her legs twitching to the beat of an insane drummer and her eyes dilated to pinpricks. She was assaulted by wave after wave of something so wonderful she couldn't describe it in words. Her body felt lighter, flying, and contentment filled her soul. She visibly relaxed as the blunt force of the love wore off, leaving a warm, fuzzy feeling that didn't seem to fade as she lay there, eyes half-closed, and a sigh of content escaped her lips.

‘W-what was that?’ She asked herself weakly. ‘Love? Is this what the changelings drink everyday? I can understand why, that was remarkable.’ Twilight was still in a dreamy half aware state and once again sighed. She slowly picked herself off the floor. ‘Well,’ she thought smugly, ‘at least that wasn't enough to convince me to help those changelings.’

Spike called from upstairs, and only then did Twilight realize that the barriers had worn off. “Breakfast!”

She made her way up to the second story to look down on her breakfast. Twilight gazed upon her favorite morning meal, apple pancakes, and realized how disgusting it looked.

I'm Fine

Twilight Sparkle was throwing up in the toilet.

“Hey,” called Spike, worried. “You okay?” No answer, however, was to be heard, as

the lavender mare was heaving air into the toilet bowl, her immune system attempting to

purge the abnormality from her body. The remains of her apple pancake grew cold on her

plate, and the immense capacity of Twilight’s mind struggled to find a reason for the oddity in

her gag reflex. The first, only, and correct answer came to her mind after she could focus on

something besides vomiting: love. She rushed t o the vial, and took a good look at it. As it turned in the light, she found something that confirmed her fears. Etched in the side of the vial, were six small hash marks. Six doses.

Twilight exited the bathroom after flushing the toilet and scrubbing the chunks of

pancake and bile from the floor, still with a sore throat and weak knees.

“I-I’m fine, Spike. I’m just a little sick is all...”

“Yeah,” said Spike. “You look it. And, no offense, you smell it, too. Like you vomited a

sewer, or something.”

Twilight made no attempt to object against Spike’s choice of words. There was no

need, really, to tell him. She smiled half heartedly, and said “I d-do, huh? Well, maybe I just

need fresh air. After I brush my teeth again, let’s go v-visit the others, kay?”

Spike nodded assent, and climbed up to the bedroom level to get ready. Twilight

entered the bathroom and started brushing. Her mind wandered to what happened that

morning.

‘No. No no no no nonononononono!’ she thought frantically. ‘What did Xrap do to me?

There is definitely something wrong with that vial. Gah! Why did I even drink it anyway?

Because there would be no harm? Wrong. I just did it. Only problem is, I can’t take it back,

not now. The stuff is already in me, my blood. I didn’t vomit it along with the pancakes, or my

bile would be tinted pink, right? But now, I... I need to know. What they did to me. Why me,

one of the greatest threats to the changeling hive? I have done nothing but harm them since

the beginning! But, still, no denying it... I want more. More of whatever it is. Love, some sort of drug, it’s addicting. Not consciously, of course. I know I won’t seek it out, try to get more,

because I won’t allow myself. But my body just needs to calm down for a bit, let withdrawal

take it’s course, and soon enough I will be back to normal, right? Right. Right. I can do this.

How much love was that even? Such a tiny bottle, I can work through it. Just tough it out,

Twilight. You can do this. No need to help out those changelings. They almost ruined my

brother’s wedding!’

Bolstered by the thought of her brother, Twilight finished brushing her teeth and

stepped out to the library. Spike was waiting for her. “Ready to go?”

“R-ready.” she affirmed attempting a brave face.

Even Spike could see how fake it was.

Twilight Sparkle was not prepared for what she saw when she looked up at Ponyville.

Everything looked the same, yes, but different. Everything was exactly right where it was

supposed to be, but it was wrong. She approached Carousel Boutique, and stared for about

thirty seconds and realized the colors were dull. In her mind, she knew the paint job was

exactly the same as it was yesterday, but the normally eye-popping colors were dull and

uninteresting regardless. She entered with a tinkling of a bell that sounded maybe just a tad

flat.

“Oh, hello, Twilight,” said Rarity, looking up from a mannequin that had more pins than

cloth in it. There were several scraps of cloth, spools of thread, assorted materials, and

gemstones strewn across the showroom floor. A large coat of arms hung from a wall.

“Pardon the mess, I’ve gotten a rather large commission from a Noble house asking for several coats and dresses of a particular style with this coat of arms on it, and I’ve been trying to get my embroidery right.” She sounded tired, like she had been up all night, which she probably had, given the probable size of the commission.

“No problem, Rarity. I-I only stopped by t-to clear my head for a minute.”

“Are you alright, darling?” asked Rarity as she approached. “You look pale. And,” Rarity did a quick sweep of her friend’s stature. She confirmed what she thought she

saw as Twilight entered the boutique. “You’re shivering from mane to tail.” She approached

Twilight and rested a foreleg over Twilight’s forehead as a look of concern spread across her

face. “You’re burning up, darling! You’ll need more than fresh air, dear, you need a doctor.”

Twilight stuttered something under her breath that Rarity couldn’t catch. “I’ll be fine. I g-gotta go, bye.”

And Twilight Sparkle walked out the door. Spike, trailing behind, mouthed ‘sorry’ to

Rarity as they made their exit.

They didn’t see Pinkie Pie until she almost collided with them, a silver tray of cookies

in tow.

“Oops, sorry guys,” said Pinkie. “I was looking for some of my friends, anyhow.

Wanna cookie?” She held out the platter filled with sugar cookies with chocolate chips and

strawberry slices. “I need somepony to try them before the Corner can put them up for sale.

They’re called Fondue Cake Cookies, and they’re really soft and sweet. Try one!”

Twilight stared at the cookies, thinking of what happened earlier this morning. If she vomited that cookie in front of Pinkie... but she couldn’t exactly just say no, either. Pinkie Pie is persistent, no doubt.

“Sure, Pinkie. I’ll try one.”

Twilight quickly popped a cookie into her mouth. She chewed slowly, savoring the

flavor, and trying to judge if it was safe to swallow. The cookie was remarkable, really. And

delicious. But could she actually avoid vomiting? She made the attempt. As it slid down toward her stomach, she begged Celestia silently to keep the food down. A losing battle, perhaps, but a battle nonetheless. She managed “Wow, Pinkie, that was really-” before vomiting all over the tray of cookies and Pinkie’s left forehoof. Twilight collapsed on the ground, heaving and retching, and finally began coughing and picking herself up. “Horseapples,” she muttered to herself. “I really thought I could keep it down.” As Twilight looked up, Pinkie was gone, leaving the discarded tray of cookies and a small puddle of tears.

“Well, that could have gone better.” Twilight resolved to stay inside with a book the rest of the day. She entered the library and picked up the book she was reading, ‘Study of Non-Pony Species From Pony Perspective’, and noted to herself it seemed not quite as enthralling as it was earlier in the morning.

Twilight lay on her back in her bed, playing around with a small, multi colored rubber ball. A dull game, and not productive in any way, shape or form, she was content to lay there and play with her rubber ball. A knock on the door made her lose her concentration, and the ball bopped her on the nose. She rubbed muzzle with a hoof and trudged over to the door, annoyed that somepony interrupted her game. The door came open, and outside stood five concerned looking ponies and a worried dragon. One of them, Applejack, looked at Twilight for a good ten seconds before nodding. Rarity had her worried face on, and Pinkie was crying.Twilight and the others made no move towards each other for a good minute. Twilight’s mind was frantic, even as her face was calm. “They can’t come in, not now. Not like this...’

And, finally, a move was made. The door slammed shut between them. Twilight

uttered an epithet that has become all too common in her vocabulary these days:

“Horseapples.”

The glow near the exit of the Everfree was unmistakable. As Twilight checked once more to ensure she was not followed, she cautiously approached the rocks, where a small wolf was lying in the sun. He looked up wearily from his sunbathe, and nodded once. He leapt over the rock, and Twilight followed, to find a small cave on the other side. Glowing green, blue, red, and all sorts of other colors and hues, she entered with only a fool’s moment of hesitation. The tunnel was lined with small mushrooms that sent of a blue ethereal glow, and the walls were coated in a thin, waxy substance. She followed the tunnel to a huge, open cavern with many large niches on the inside, all of them still glowing.

“Hello, Twilight.” Twilight quickly looked to her left and saw Xrap looking at her with an amused expression.

“Xrap?”

“Please. That’s not my real name. Call me Emily.”

“Emily? What kind of a ridiculous name is that?”

“It’s my name, thank you, and if you are here, that means the deal is sealed. Right?”

Twilight was surprised, shocked, and appalled at the answer that came out of her mouth. “Yes.”

Emily smiled. Then we need a name for you, then. A real name, not a noun or an adjective or something gay. I’m gonna call you Victoria. Or Tori. Fine? Good. Noww, let’s show you the family.”

Flying

Twilight Sparkle was in awe. The little creatures fluttering around in cages with wings much too large for their bodies were remarkable. Their insect wings, akin to a dragonfly’s, glistened in the (un)natural light of the fungus on the cavern walls. The sound of flapping wings filled the niche they were in at the cavern floor.

Emily turned to Twilight. “These are called flits. They’re used to allow changelings with damaged or missing wings to move around the hive. They attach to the back, about where one’s real wings would go. Something akin to a parasite, but they’re harmless.”

“Parasite?” asked Twilight, a worried look in her eyes.

“Perfectly harmless, I assure you.” said Emily to reassure her. “Anyway, you’ll be getting one. They’re sentient, and can speak in any language the host knows. But only if they like you. Now, walk into the swarm there, and wait. If one takes a liking, it will latch, and will only come off if it wants to, or you ask nicely.”

Twilight stared into the storm of fluttering wings and swallowed nervously. “Well, here we go.” She waded into the flits, and waited. Light, gossamer wings beat on her from all sides, and something landed on her back. A small pinching sensation soon followed. Unsure of what to do, she stayed put, only to be pulled back out of the cage with a tug of magic.

“Don’t stay in there any longer than you need to. The others will eat you alive. Just the one is enough.”

Twilight stared at the small, round beetle nestled in her fur. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” said the bug. Not out loud, but in her head, like the flit was telepathically communicating. Twilight tried to do the same.

“Do you have a name?”

“Yeah. I’m called Wiz. And you’re Victoria, the big boss, eh?”

Twilight was confused, partly from the fact that the flit was calling her ‘the big boss’, and the fact that she was talking in such a casual dialect.

“I’m a guy, thank you.”

The confusion must have shown on her face pretty well, because Emily was busy suppressing a grin. She looked up at Twilight and said “Try to fly. Should be easy given that you don’t really have to fly much, just tell your flit what to do. But they’re never cooperative, so it may be a couple weeks before you’re really mobile.”

Twilight mentally shrugged. “Hey, Wiz. We’re going to try flying now, okay?”

“Got it, boss.”

Twilight felt herself being picked up by the flit, hovering in the air about five feet above the floor, the soft hum reverberating in the air. “Cool. Wiz, set me down, please.” She floated to the ground and landed in front of Emily, who happened to have a surprised expression on her face.

“Wow. None of the flits usually like obeying their hosts unless forced to. Maybe he likes you.”

“Yep,” said Wiz in Twilight’s head. “You’re delicious.” Twilight almost did a spit take, but, fortunately or unfortunately, there was nothing to spit. She could almost see the evil grin on his nonexistent face when he said “Kidding, kidding. Man, sometimes these ponies don’t know what a joke is.”

Twilight and Emily continued down the cavern/hallway into another large chamber. But instead of another room full of niches and hallways, what appeared to be a hospital room stretched out before them, clad in black, grays and blues. Two long rows of beds stretched down the floor in a set of parallel lines, and more beds were suspended from girders. Emily turned to Twilight with a grim line of determination on her face. “Starve bay. Sort of like sickbay, but all the patients here are dying of starvation.”

Twilight stared around the room, and noticed almost all of the three hundred plus beds were full of sickly looking insect ponies. “So, how much of the population of this entail?”

Emily grimaced and said “Almost six percent in this starvebay. Total in all the starvebays? Maybe thirty percent or more, barely surviving on apathy.”

“So I have to feed thirty percent of your population?”

“No, you have to feed all of us, including yourself.”

“Myself?”

“Uh, yeah...”

Twilight turned sharply to Emily, anger floating in her eyes. “Why?”

“Well, see... you drank the vial, right?”

“Yes, yes I did.”

“And you haven’t had any real hesitation so far in going with this setup, operation, terms, etcetera?”

“Um... no.” Twilight realized with a pop.

“Then you've accepted.” Emily said simply.

“Wait.” said Twilight, “Accepted what?”

“Your place here. You, changeling or not, are part of this hive now. And you've accepted the fact. Now come,” said Emily with a finality in her voice. “I have someone you need to meet.”

They entered a small door lined with a glowing pink goo into a small entryway that opened up into a huge rectangular room. Two long lines of metal vats, open at the top, sat silently like sentinels waiting to destroy intruders at a moment’s notice. In the corner sat an old-looking (if it can be called that) changeling. But most curiously of all, there was the lab. More specifically, the very young colt attempting to use the lab. Light blue coat and a solid gunmetal grey mane, a small flit on his back, and almost no tail. A unicorn colt, here? Twilight silently looked to Emily for an explanation.

“Samuel!” called Emily. The little colt looked up from his work suddenly, dropped a flask, and it promptly exploded all over his chest, staining it purple. He looked down in annoyance and closed his eyes, his horn glowing, and the liquid disappitated from his coat.

“Yes, miss Emily?”

“This here is Victoria, a unicorn here to help you with your work.”

The colt perked up and his eyes twinkled when he heard and looked up at Twilight with amazement. “Really?”

Twilight smiled at the cute expression in his eyes. She bent low to meet his eye level. “Really. I’ll help you if you need it.”

All of a sudden, the colt’s exited expression quickly became downcast, and he kicked one hoof at the hard ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust. “I really do need it, miss Victoria. I keep messing up.”

“Don’t worry, Samuel. Everything will be alright.” She turned to Emily. “Who are his parents?”

“Don’t know. Never found out, either, seeing as they’re dead.”

“...”

“Yeah. For now, old Elijah Nox has been taking good care of him. Almost like a grandfather. Elijah’s son, Jared, is much younger. Hmm..maybe your age? About there. Interesting fact about Eli: He had a pony wife. Jared is the result of that.”

Twilight mentally stored that tidbit in the back of her brain that stored tidbits. “Why is Samuel here, in this lab?”

“To see if he could solve our food problem. You know how I said the water purification spell would do the trick? Not exactly. The real deal, a complicated alternate to said spell, must be carefully tailored to the emotion chosen.”

Samuel got exited, and looked expectantly at the old changeling in the corner. He nodded slowly, and Samuel turned back to Twilight. “My name is Samuel. I've been trying to save the hive. And Iv’e found one reliable spell to get a pure form of apathy, which is like water. All I had to do was force impurity out with an array of alchemical lines arranged like a cube. But that’s it. A simple thing, but I saved lives, miss Victoria! Isn’t that great?”

“Yeah, it is, Samuel.” She asked Emily, “So am I to work with him?”

“Yup.”

“And where will I be living, then?”

“With the Nox family. Elijah, Rene, Jared, and the squirt, Samuel. Hospitable bunch, those.”

Twilight looked as Emily left the room with a ‘See you later’. She scanned the walls, the books, the tables, and realized that it was a respectable laboratory. Samuel looked up at Twilight.

“It’s time to go inside, miss Victoria.” He trotted away at a slow pace, and Twilight followed. They came across a small niche that slowly expanded, and Samuel opened a door. Twilight stepped inside, then startled from a soft voice behind:

“Welcome to the family, Victoria.” She turned to find Elijah standing silently in the entryway.

“T-thanks, I think?”

Elijah chuckled gently. “Oh, ho ho, you’re most welcome, girly. I hope you won’t think badly of us, our kind. The army nowadays is filled with meatheads. No real respect for life anymore...” Elijah drifted off for a minute, then snapped back into reality. “Oh, but where are may manners? My name is Elijah Nox, former Flying Fighters Second Division, Auxillary. Currently head manager of the food supply... and the crisis. And you must be Victoria, here to help the hive get back up, eh?”

“Uh, yes... nice to meet you.”

A loud crash came from down the hallway, followed by a rapid string of somewhat unappealing words.

“Hah, there he is,” said Elijah, straightening up. That’s me boy, there. Jared! Get your hairy flank down here!”

“Sure, pa.”

What entered the room was weird. Twilight quickly shut her jaw and made an initial appraisal. It was a changeling. With fur. Jet black like the hard exoskeleton of the other changelings, large insectoid wings sprouted from his back, but no flit was to be seen there. His eyes, not the luminescent orbs of most changelings, were still the same shade of sea green, but with pupils and irises like a pony would have. A horn, not changeling, not pony, sprouted from his head. It looked like a normal horn that was sharpened to a spear-sharp point. And it was long. Like, very long. Like, CELESTIA ON STEROIDS LONG. Twilight quickly turned her gaze.

...

“You like ‘im, don’tcha?”

“Shut up, Wiz.”

Dig a Pony

The Next Day

Twilight Sparkle rolled over from her position, blinking awake from the light streaming in from the window. She turned over and reached blindly with a hoof for the cover that probably fell onto the floor during the night, but felt air as far as she could reach down. Wondering mildly at this, she rubbed some of the sleep from her eyes, and looked over the edge of her bed. She would have fallen off of the edge and onto the floor six feet below if it wasn't for Wiz grabbing her mane and hauling her back in.

“Yo, Vicky, you up yet?” said Wiz in her head, and Twilight was up. She looked around blearily as Wiz lowered her to the floor with a thump. She looked around and realized finally she wasn't in her tree anymore. Wiz was nestled in her back, and the sheer walls of rock-hard chitin loomed as a hallway. Twilight blearily continued down the hallway until she came to a door. A light tap on her shoulder made her turn to see Samuel standing next to her.

“Miss Victoria?” asked Samuel, still sleepy and the small flit fluttering on his back.

“Yes, Samuel?” Twilight replied, smiling at the small colt’s expression.

“Are we going to the laboratory now?”

Twilight turned to look at the door, which she presumed led to the lab. “I think so, Samuel. Lead the way.”

They entered the small lab that opened into the food storage. She scanned the walls of books and found something relevant: Alchemical Effects and Entailed Available Alternates. She sat down to begin reading, but her mind began to wander from the book at hoof. An old book, she had read Alchemical Effects many times, and she found herself thinking about her friends. How would they react to her disappearance? She realized she never thought about her friends until now, something that, in Twilight’s mind, was a severe oversight that really shouldn't have been overlooked. But there wasn't much she could do about it now...

“Miss Victoria?”

Twilight looked at Samuel, holding a small vial in his magic grip.

“Yes?”

“Where are you from? I’ve never seen you before, and I know everypony here.”

“I...” Twilight struggled for an answer that would work. “I’m from Ponyville, see. Just outside here.”

“Really? That’s where we get food from!”

“Yeah...”

“Why were you in Ponyville, miss Victoria? Were you assigned there?”

Twilight smiled at the question. “No, I lived there. I ran a library in the town.”

Samuel’s eyes widened at that. “Then how come you’re here? Farm souls don’t usually come to the hive without getting eaten by the flits.”

Twilight blinked in surprise. “Farm souls? Eaten by... flits?”

Wiz piped up from her back. “don’t get all worked up. We don’t do flesh. We sap all the magic from their bodies. But that takes hundreds of flits. All of the flits in the hive probably couldn’t eat you at all. You’re so powerful and delicious, the flits could survive off of your sweat and tears, so to speak.”

“Gross, Wiz.”

The mental conversation unnoticed, Samuel continued. “The normal ponies that we feed on are sometimes called farm souls. They provide our food, so by extension, they’re our ‘farms’, if you will. We feed on love, kindness, happiness, apathy, anger, hatred, jealousy, sadness, even righteousness. All of it, filtered and purified, can be eaten and used to sustain the body of anything that can have access to it. Changelings have evolved to feed on this specific resource as there is no natural competitors to the food supply. If changelings were to be removed from nature, all the rampant energies leaching of into the air would be enough for the entire country to be seared off the face of the planet. Of course, that would never be witnessed by anyone but Princess Celestia, as the globe would be heated by the energy to the point where the life on the planet would have roasted a long time ago.”

Twilight blinked at the information. It seemed recited, almost burned into the colt’s brain like a propaganda piece, but underneath all of that, the magic and science was sound. Basically, what he said could be considered true, right? If one looked at it from a purely scientific standpoint, then changelings could be considered another link in the web of Equestrian life. But the fact that it came from changelings made the small sliver of doubt force its way into her brain.

She snapped out of her thought and turned to find a calm, piercing stare appraising her from across the room.

“Uhh... hi?” asked Twilight, clearly unsure about the way Jared was looking at her. Jared stepped a few paces closer, then smiled. He dashed over to the other side of the room like he survived on nothing but caffeine and nitro.

“Hey! I’m Jared. We never had a chance to introduce ourselves properly, so I’d like to just ask a few questions. I heard you were from Ponyville is that true?” he said in an extremely rapid pace that would have Pinkie reeling.

Twilight stuttered out her answer, flustered from the sudden intrusion. “Y-yeah! Yeah, I am.”

“That’s neat! But why are you here in the hive? Shouldn't you be up top with all the normal ponies? I mean, being down here’s cool and all, but why here? Cause there were always cool places to visit. This place is neat too, but going up there is neater! There’s more space, more ponies, more... more... stuff!” He smiled widely revealing what appeared to be a set of omnivorous teeth, with crushing molars and canines that made him look like a sugar-hyper vampony. Twilight edged back uncomfortably from the display. It reminded her of what Pinkie Pie would be like if she was evil.

“Wow... you're... hyper.” She turned to Samuel. “Is he always like this?”

“Yes. I’m sure you will find it funny eventually.” Samuel said in a deadpan serious voice.

Jared started rambling about something that Twilight found rather unimportant, until he started saying “All we gotta do is sleep in a stasis pod for a night, and we’re clear for a week or less. Stasis changes what we look like, disguises our magical signature, so that we don’t attract attention. It’s actually a very interesting process, concerning almost the same magic principles you ponies use, but using the fundamentals of the changeling energy-based magic. Energy manipulation, particle animation, among other things. You know, teleportation should be impossible. Like a bee flying. If someone disassembles the molecules of their body, making them intangible to every plane of existence as individual magically charged atoms, and reassembled on the other side, is the life force still there? I don't think it would be. The same thing happens in a nuclear explosion and alchemy. But nuclear bombs kill ponies in a fun looking violent explosion of raw, untapped non-magical energy, and life alchemy is a complete failure, as creating a Spark of life is entirely impossible. The thing about changeling magic, is that it acts as both a catalyst and a sort of magic glue for the Spark to stay in. It’s still you, but not. Harmless.”

Twilight quickly picked up the jaw that had been steadily making its way to the floor. She asked, “Wow, Jared. When did you start being smart, at all?”

“Yup!”

“Umm... okay. But what about all the research? All I’ve done so far is read a book!”

“We can go all together, then! Sammy’s coming too!”

Twilight said, “Sure... Wait, what?”

“Good!” And with that, Jared sped off into the bowels of the factory.

Twilight stared after the mega-excited pony/changeling thing, and shook her head slowly. “So, Samuel, what’s next?” she said almost hurriedly, wanting to get back to work. The sooner she was out of this nuthouse, the better.

Two Months Later

“YES! It worked!” Twilight cried as she held up a small vial. It took almost ten straight days working on the same alchemical grid, but the netting for the love formulas were ready. Samuel looked up with his “SCIENCE” face, which was adorable. “Now, we should try to filter as much as possible.” said Twilight as she picked up about a liter of the liquid emotion and running it through the glowing green grid in the shape of a sphere with a hole in it. The love flowed in through the hole in the top and fell through thousands of interlocking lines, cubes, spheres, prisms, and one detailed diagram of a nerve receptor. The nerve receptor was actually unnecessary, but Jared managed to fit it into the grid without damaging it. Jared was surprisingly bright, and did more than his share of the work available, when he was around. Otherwise, he was zipping all over the room, the chamber, the hive in general screaming with glee and possible insanity. At the time though, he was with Samuel and Twilight, and nodding silently at the work being done.

“Best one I’ve ever seen.”

Wiz spoke up. “It’s the only one he’s ever seen.”

Twilight ignored Wiz and asked, “What do we do with the liter of love we have now?”

Jared said, “Let’s split it. Victory drink for everyone!”

The love was divided into beakers of all things, and they drank to their fortune. The love went down like a thick beer, much tastier and filling than the apathy and honey cocktail that she survived on for the past few months. “It’s sweet.” remarked Twilight, looking at the beaker in surprise. “Not at all like that stuff in the vial. The vial didn’t taste like much, but it literally made me fall over and writhe on the ground for half a minute.”

“That wasn’t love.” grunted Jared, still focused on his drink. “Ecstasy. A long time ago the ponies found a drug that had similar effects to the body and mind, so they called it such. But the real deal is better. I’m a bit of a user, but not much. It leaves you all disoriented. Makes judgement hard. Easy to get hurt, so not the most fun time. Addicting, though. Very addicting. I had to stop because it interfered with work.”

Twilight looked over to Jared. “What kind of work?”

Jared lowered to the ground and stared into Twilight’s eyes. His eyes shone with a hardness that scared Twilight somewhat, like a war veteran or a warrior. “Not important.” The expressions, the mannerisms changed so suddenly, Twilight couldn’t find a way to describe it. “We need to get the news of our success to the Queen, along with some of the filtered stuff.” said Jared. He grabbed a large portion of the love from one of the vats and carefully pushed it through the filter. He deftly bottled it and corked the top in a bulbous wine bottle that he procured from nowhere in particular, started his way out the exit, then turned to the two unicorns. His gaze was steely. “Come. Let’s go save our Queen.”

The throne room was large, themed with the dark blues and greens that adorned the rest of the hive’s caverns and walls. When Twilight entered the chamber, she noticed a large drop in temperature, and there was a slight draft blowing through the area. The only thing in the throne room is the large throne in the center. No guards, no other changelings, nothing. They haven't encountered any changelings on the way there, and the past few months have been confined to moving from the Nox housing area to the laboratory. Most changelings never went in there, the smell was considered torturous to their starving stomachs and appetites. Queen Chrysalis of the changelings was sitting on her throne, looking bored. She lifted her gaze at the intrusion into her personal space, saw Twilight, and sighed dejectedly.

“Hello, Twilight Sparkle. How are things coming?” she asked in a voice that conveyed she couldn’t care less. Twilight was taken aback slightly at how the queen of the changeling race could be so defeated sounding, even if she escaped with her species mostly intact. It was almost as if she stopped caring...

Jared pushed forward. “My Queen, we have something for you. Months of research have gone into the production of a standing alchemical grid that is capable of filtering our food. If you would, try it.” He passed the bottle to Chrysalis with his magic. Chrysalis eyed the bottle with surprise, then swiftly uncorked it to reveal the pink liquid inside. She took a long drink from the bottle, then smiles, clearly pleased.

“This... this has saved us, Twilight Sparkle, Jared Nox, Samuel Nox. This has saved us all. I must ask, on behalf of my race, what can I do for you in return?”

Twilight looked up at the changeling on the throne. “Send me home.”

Chrysalis shook her head. “No, not possible. We still need you here, and no one leaves the hive. Ever.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “I’ve done what you've asked, Chrysalis. Let. Me. Go.”

“I can’t Twilight Sparkle, you know that as well as I. If you leave, this hive will perish. I cannot allow that. I will not.”

Jared stepped forward. “At least let her go up to the surface for a while. She deserves that much. Samuel and I will accompany her, for better or for worse. There are available stasis pods, so we should allow her that much. Let her have closure. Please.”

Chrysalis nodded slowly. “I trust you explicitly, Jared. Go, sleep in the chamber for tonight. All of you have surface visas for one week. Do not be late.”

“Thank you, Janet.”

“Don’t call me that. My first name shouldn't be used flippantly, Jared. You know that.” said Chrysalis with narrowed eyes. “And Jared,” she added. “Tell Twilight Sparkle about your past. I’m sure she will find it intriguing.”

Jared laughed. “Sure thing, Janet.”

Twilight Sparkle woke up surrounded by blue. She slowly emerged from her stasis pod and popped out onto the ground. Wiz, who was fluttering around the rafters, swiftly landed on her back. She looked down on herself. She saw a steel gray coat, with fiery orange stripes running through her spiky mane. Her eyes were a sky blue, which made for a strange contrast. Her cutie mark was also blue, what appeared to be an electric blue sunrise. She looked across to Jared and saw something so ridiculous, she burst out laughing.

Jared was a male Pinkie Pie.

His bright pink coat and dull pink mane were ridiculous to look at. His hair wasn’t curly, but jagged and spiky, pointing in all directions. His cutie mark was a pile of rocks and gems in red and yellow. His eyes shone with a disturbing dark red, like blood, and his crazy grin didn’t help much.

Samuel looked similar to Twilight, grey, with his normal gunmetal grey mane streaked with orange. His coat was a lighter shade of grey, and his cutie mark was a bottle wrapped in gauze with a cork in it and with a green liquid inside. He looked up with his golden eyes and said, “Let’s go, miss Victoria.”

As they made their way to the surface and began to approach Ponyville, Twilight asked what they’re stories were going to be. Jared came up with pretty clever names. Twilight was Event Horizon, Jared was called Pop Rock, and Samuel would be Singed Potion. Singed Potion would be Event Horizon’s son, and Pop rock is traveling with them all over the kingdom, doing research on changelings. As for a connection with Twilight Sparkle, Event Horizon was in the same class as Twilight in the School for gifted Unicorns. They approached the outskirts of Ponyville, and entered the property of Sweet Apple Acres with their flits carefully concealed with glamour.

“We need to be careful,” said Jared. “Our disguises will stand against most things, but a glamour revealing spell will tear it right away. But no matter.” He perked up considerably and started bouncing around. “Let’s go!”

Twilight sighed. “What an obnoxious colt. Let’s go, dear.” The role came so easily to Twilight, her imagination filling in gaps left from the discussion.

“Sure, Mom.”

Jared said, “What are we here for, anyways?”

“We need to go to the library, first of all.”

As they approached Twilight’s library, she noticed there was no light coming in from the inside.

Twilight knocked on the door of the tree. “Hello?”

“Go away.” Spike’d voice rang out through the door.

Jared spoke up. “We’re here researching changelings. Do you have any reference models, or some sort of sample of chitin or something? I’ve heard the pony in the library was quite knowledgeable?”

“She’s dead. Go away.”

Not Quite

Event Horizon could walk away from the door. It was all she had to do, really. Just walk away from the door and it could be over. Go back to the little cave in the woods and crawl back through the fluorescent tunnel, back to manufacturing the food that they needed so much. Just turn around and start trotting away from the tree, and breathe in the brisk autumn air one more time before going back and staying there. Go out and learn something. She could go out and be adventurous for two days, instead of walking inside and staying shut in the library. She didn’t have to be Twilight Sparkle anymore. She didn’t have to live under the stress of being a pupil to the Princess, saving the world every six months. No more stress. Just staying with Jared and Elijah and Samuel and Emily and being part of a family that works and plays like a family and doesn’t save the world every time math is done at a family reunion. She could walk away now and have something similar to a normal job, a normal life as Victoria Nox. Besides, she didn’t look like Twilight Sparkle anymore. Her mane and tail had changed drastically, with grey hair coming in stripes all throughout. The single, distinctive pink line was gone, fading away to a grey that was lighter than the rest. Her bangs were gone, burned off during the second month of experimentation, and she habitually tied her mane back into a second tail behind her head. She never had a chance to look, but apparently her eyes were different from before. She looked like a different pony, acted like a completely pony, sounded like a different pony, even her lingering scent changed from the smell of paper and fresh ink to the harsh undertones of raw magic and burning hair. The only things she could think of that were the same about her was her overall personality, her intellect, and the cutie marks on her flanks. Just walking away had a pretty good argument. But her friends still needed her. There was so much that she still was needed for, and she would be mourned heavily. She couldn't bear the thought of so much pain in the family and friends that raised and cherished her.

Event Horizon could walk through the door and drop the disguise. She could show Spike that she wasn’t dead, just captured by the changelings and forced into working for them. She could bring news that the changelings weren’t a threat anymore and that they don’t need anything else. She could be back with her friends, and could work out a way to survive on her new ‘diet’, or even make it so that she could eat real food again. Back home again, living in her tree with her family and friends. Hanging out and having the life she had for the past two or three years. Saving the world, being a hero and being a friend to the mares who were with her forever, it seemed. She could be Twilight Sparkle again. She could be the protégé of the greatest pony on Equestria. She could be part of a group that liked and accepted the nerdy shut-in that lived in the giant tree. She could open that door and feel restored, whole again. Opening the door had arguments that were rooted into her from experience. Besides, the changelings didn’t need her anymore. Nopony would miss her. Well, almost nopony. She had friends in the Hive, however few, and Samuel would almost certainly miss his mentor and ersatz mom. Also, her new ‘diet’ would have to be accommodated. She was a freak, and it made her uncomfortable. She didn't want to be any more different than she already was before all of this started. And it seemed Chrysalis was determined to keep her in the hive, keep her working, until

She wanted more than either of these two options, just to go back in time and reject Emily's offer. It was so stupid! She couldn't even resolve an identity crisis that would change her world forever! Twilight Sparkle, Victoria Nox, whoever she was, would be able to solve this, but not her. She wasn't either right then, just sitting on the knife's edge trying to choose which side to fall off from. And she knew with certainty that if she couldn't choose, if she stayed on that knife's edge, that she would end up dead, cut in half by the razor she was perched upon. It was almost as if she could feel the blade cutting slowly into her soul, and she would be dead to both worlds. Of course, that was an option as well. Simply vanishing like a wraith, a phantom. Becoming nothing. But that left too many abandoned friends, too many ponies asking, ‘where did she go?’. She knew that a choice one way or another was coming, and it would have to be made within… forty-eight hours. It looked impossible. All she wanted was to be normal again, even after the months she was in the hive. She wasn't normal in Ponyville, she wasn't normal in the Hive. She couldn't figure this out on her own. She needed somepony to talk to. She calmed down, especially now that she remembered who she could confide in. A smile finally formed on her face.

Princess Celestia.

Twenty two hours later, in Canterlot

"Day court is now in session!" A guard announced to the crowd of ponies waiting to petition their ruler. "Let the first petitioner step forward!"

A young mare came up to the dias, and began her speech about the one mining towns having too much rain, and that they could use the storm clouds elsewhere. According to the mare, there have been mudslides in the mines. Princess Celestia nodded, smiling at the young mare. "We can certainly use the rain elsewhere. Thank you, and I will have the local weather team redirect the storms, I don't need anything going wrong down there." Celestia giggled in her head at the young mare's sheepish face as she backed out of the throne room. The only physical sign of her mirth was a slight smirk. "Bring the next."

The next petitioner was young stallion with a tinfoil hat on his head and what looked like a radio strapped to his horn. He was holding a petition in his magic with exactly three signatures on it, the same ones that were always on every petition he came forward with. He opened his mouth; about to begin his long, complicated speech that he always started every other Sunday about the ‘aliens’.

“No.”

The stallion slouched and walked out.

The rest of the petitions in the next hour seemed to be completely made of nobles squabbling for land. She thought that at least one of them came in twice, the second time wearing a fake beard. The Princess settled in for the next petitioner after the ashamed young lord she had just shot down from a power grab sulked away from the throne.

The grey and orange unicorn mare that came in next looked extremely worried and haggard, ready to drop. Celestia looked at her hunched form and told the lone guard in the room to fetch a glass of water for the poor mare. She looked exhausted. "What is wrong, my little pony?"

The mare looked around. "Are we alone?"

The princess nodded. "What do you need?"

"Lock the doors. No one can see me but you. Please." The mare was looking around with her eyes, like she was nervous. She put her saddlebags down on the marble.

"You are safe here. What is wrong?"

"You sure?" She took something from one of her saddlebags: a bottle full of what looked like light blue-and-orange pills. She swallowed one and proceeded to collapse to the floor.

The Princess shot to her hooves with concern. What happened?

"I'm fine, Princess, but we needed to be alone, without the guard."

The mare slowly and shakily began to rise to her hooves, but quickly regained her composure. She looked much better, standing up straight with a confident, almost cocky look in her eyes. She turned to Celestia and let her horn fire up. The magic was a violent shade of emerald green, and it looked out of place for a mare that was orange and gunmetal like she was. But then, she started to burn. Her entire body was enveloped in a green fire that looked all too familiar.

Changeling.

Celestia backed up quickly and began gathering the sunlight in the room. Her horn began glowing as it rapidly started taking energy from the individual photons of light, the total work being collected by a thin magical membrane that coated her horn. The changeling would be blown to pieces before it could do anything more than transform.

A voice came out of the burning, and the shape began to show itself again.

"Wait, Princess! It's me!" An accent she didn't recognize, but sounded almost familiar, came up from the flames. She stayed her attack long enough to see who she might recognize.

Princess Celestia stared at the form emerging from the burning husk on the ground. The straight blue mane came out of the fire, followed by the rest of Twilight Sparkle. She shook to get the burning glamour off of her back. She looked different, her mane cut and tied behind her, and her bangs were gone. There was a grey stripe in her mane and her tail that seemed to have replaced her pink one, as well as several other darker grey streaks, and her eyes were off color, but it was still her. Definitely.

"Twilight Sparkle." It was not a question, but a statement. She started flinging possibilities through her mind, but they all read like bad fiction, every one of them. Capture, betrayal, spying, discovery, accidents, all of them seemed unlikely.

"At your service." Her accent was throaty, but still sounded something like Twilight's normal voice.

"You're not dead." She struggled to keep her voice neutral, but her heart was sinking. Her first thoughts were about Twilight. She wasn't dead! It was great! But her transformation, the type of glamour she was using, that was a changeling technique. She was almost afraid to ask. "How did you obtain that disguise?"

"I didn't choose it. Jared liked it, not me." What? She let Twilight go on. "I can only use it once, though."

"Why?"

"Because the stupid membranes in the disguise room take like all night, and it is not comfortable sleeping suspended in magic jelly. Of course, it did get rid of some wrinkles I've been getting. Worry lines do not look good on me."

"...Huh?" Twilight was smiling mischievously now.

"Oh, sorry, Princess." She looked like she was on the brink of laughter. "I forgot. I've been away, haven't I?"

Celestia put on a stern face. "Yes you have. Could you please tell me what's going on?"

"Sure, sure. But I'm starving. Could we sit down? It will be easier to talk about sitting down." Twilight was getting very odd very fast. "Let's go."

Princess Celestia turned to the guard, who just came back with the water. "It's time for lunch. Day court will resume at two." Her voice was shaking slightly.

"Yes, Princess." The guard made to go outside and announce it with the glass of water in his magical grip, while she went and followed Twilight to the dining hall. Twilight was already inside, looking up at the bright red and yellow tapestry, waiting for her. The noon meal was sitting on the arranged plates as well.

"Thank you," she told the chef as she made her way to the table. Twilight was being brought a salad as the Princess sat and looked down at the food before her. She began eating slowly; she was still trying to figure out how to begin the conversation that loomed in front of her, and noticed that Twilight was looking almost warily at her salad. Twilight slowly picked up her fork with her hoof, not magic, stabbed a tomato almost violently with it, and put it in her mouth, her eyes closed, her mouth a tight line of apprehension. She chewed, swallowed and waited, then visibly relaxed. Her eyes opened.

"Good. I didn't-" Her sentence was cut off by the tomato coming up again, along with a small amount of bile, all over her salad. She retched again, wiping her mouth and quickly pulling out what appeared to be a whiskey flask from her bag and taking a drink. "Shit. It came up. Oh, well. Had to try." It sounded like she was talking to herself.

"Uh... what was that, Twilight Sparkle?"

But Twilight wasn't paying attention anymore. She was rummaging through her bags and pulling out several brown bars that looked almost like taffy, a green stick, and another whiskey flask. She bit on the green stick, and it snapped like it was made of hard candy. She chewed on the... whatever it was for about ten seconds before proceeding to put the stick away and swallowing. She was halfway done shuddering and gnawing her way through one of the brown bricks of taffy before she looked up again. "...."

"What are you eating?" Celestia felt her patience falter slightly.

"Lunch." Twilight said it almost brightly.

"What is it, Twilight Sparkle?" Twilight's cocky mood and strange form of secrecy was becoming infuriating.

"Oh, story time!" Twilight sounded strange. Again. "Well... let's start at the beginning. A mare named... oh! What was her name at the time...? Right. Doesn't matter anymore. Well, this mare came to Golden Oaks about... say... three or four months ago. When she came in, she added spells to the privacy matrix on the tree, something that was supposed to force my silence. Well, it didn’t work, as you can tell. Then, she dropped her disguise and boom! There was a changeling sitting there in the middle of the library. She gave me this vial, see, and told me that her people were dying. Then, she told me to drink it then decide whether or not to help them in their time of need. I drank the liquid in the vial, 'in the name of science', yeah, right.... and proceeded to collapse on the floor. When I woke up, I went… crazy. Very crazy. I felt sick, and nauseous, and all these other things that felt almost exactly a hangover, but not quite. It was insane. I vomited all over Pinkie’s new recipe-“

“Wait.” Celestia stopped her there. “How do you know what a hangover feels like? I never knew you to be a drunkard, or even to drink wine or anything at the formal functions.”

“Huh? Oh yeah… forgot. I really thought that it would be an interesting experiment. It was not, thank you.”

“Oh. Continue.”...

“Well, then after I recovered, I went to the area specified in the woods, and I was brought into the hive.” She finished the sentence with a smile and a wave of one of her forelegs.

“The hive?” Celestia was getting even more confused. Did she mean changelings, or something else?

“Yes, they brought me to the underground hive of the changeling horde.” She was smiling, and it was really off-putting. Celestia wondered at the news, but decided to hear the entirety of the story before coming to any conclusions. “I was… given a name, in their hive, and put to work creating magical filters to create food. Quite exhaustive work, and dangerous. A boiling flask set my bangs on fire, so I cut them off. I had several explosions, three fires, five acid burn incidents, and at least one accidental creation of non-sentient life.”

“At least one?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure about the second time, if it was alive, or if it was one of those weird reactive solids that we got sometimes. Super-repellants and other things.”

“W-what?” This was getting out of hoof. Twilight was acting too... happy. It was almost creepy, at this point, but Celestia wanted to hear the rest. She shook her head. “Continue.”

“Right. Uh, before that, I got Wiz. I almost forgot about Wiz.” That was when a sentient pair of insect wings somehow got into the throne room. They landed on Twilight’s back and fluttered lightly. Twilight suddenly looked annoyed and looked behind her. The wings then detached themselves from her back and landed on the saddlebag on the table. “Yeah. That was Wiz, my flit. He helps me get around places in the hive. After getting Wiz, I, uh, continued with my research with Samuel.”

“Who’s Samuel?” And what in Equestria is that?

“A unicorn colt living with me and the rest of the Nox bunch. Samuel is a little genius, and I’ve been teaching him alchemy and magic theory. Jared and Elijah, the others I’ve been living with, have also helped occasionally, but it was mainly Samuel and I making the weaves. It took most of my time away to perfect the weave, but it was a final solution, thank goodness. Apparently the filters work like a catch-all. As long as it is complicated enough, the correct layers are in place, the weave works on every single emotion. Love is really, really complex, and it took almost twenty-five different weaves to finish the filter, but it works on all the available emotions on the planet. So after I finished the weave, I was 'rewarded', let's say, with a weekend pass up top, and now I’m here. But I am slated to get back tonight, so that I can go back to work in the morning.”

“Incredible. How long did you say it took?”

“Most of three or four months. Why?”

“You aren’t even emancipated or anything. What have you been eating? Did the changelings ever bring you food?”

“No need. I ate what they ate. See?” She held out a hoof with one of the bars of taffy on it, and started listing off what she held in her hooves. “This is palatability. It tastes fine, but not exactly like anything. So, I added a little bit of kindness in there, and it tastes sweet. This,” she said, pulling out the bottle of pills, “was a blend of confidence and arrogance, concentrated with other calming and jolly emotional blends. It helps you perk up and is good for social situations, as you can see.” Finally, she presented the green stick and the whiskey flask. “This bar here,” she said, waving it in the air, “is calm that has been caramelized and hardened. It settles my stomach some, after I vomit or do something stupid.” She took a drag from her flask again, and then held it up in one hoof. “And finally, the greatest achievement in the Hive for the past two years: distilled and magically fermented love.”

Princess Celestia finally was caught off guard, and saw Twilight’s smirk as she blanched.

“Surprised? I thought so. The changelings have enough of the raw stuff that they could swim in it. But, raw emotion always has side effects, in the case of love, insanity and suicidal tendencies, as well as being violently explosive. So, that’s why they needed me. And now, I eat and drink emotion, just like them.” She took another drag and frowned. Twilight then pulled out what looked like a liquor bottle out of her satchel. The glass was clear and etched with what appeared to be a magical interlace with several layers in the bottle, and the liquid inside was a violent pink. She filled her flask again, drank deeply, then put all of her ‘food’ away, except for the flask. “But now, I can’t eat anything besides the emotions. I vomit anything else. However, I’m not really distressed about anything, it seems to you. ‘Why is she not crying or begging for help, I wonder?’ That’s what you’re thinking, right?”

…right…

“That is because I just ate. I’m currently feeling the effects of all the emotion I just consumed. And no matter how I want to feel, I can’t. I’m going to be in a permanent positive mood for about two hours, and then I will probably go back to being a senseless, nervous wreck with a split personality disorder, unless I keep drinking until my mind reaches a consensus. But for now, I’m here, and mostly sane.”

“This… what in Equestria?” This was borderline fiction! Twilight Sparkle completely different, but still the same as she always was. Like there was another pony that looked exactly like Twilight Sparkle she knew, sitting and talking with the Princess. She wanted it to be true, with a near desperation. But the (secret) magic scans and the conversation was completely Twilight Sparkle, it could be nopony other than Twilight Sparkle. There were only a few curiosities that still wanted answering before she left the table.

“What did they call you in the hive?”

“Oh yeah. They called me Victoria. Supposedly, it meant triumph. My full name, Victoria Nox, is in a language called Latin that roughly translates as Victorious Night, or Night of Triumph. Take your pick. I also think that there may be some sort of inside joke going around. Something about cheese?”

Celestia blinked. “And Wiz? Can you explain about him?”

“Wiz is a flit, a pair of wings that is sentient, and forms semi-empathic links with its host. Wiz on his own is a bit cocky, but he’s funny and more importantly, he’s powerful. I found that out only recently. Flits feed on magic, but apparently if I keep eating, then neither he nor I are going to die from malnutrition anytime soon. Wiz was called Wiz, which is short for Wizard, by the way, because he always needed more magic than the rest, and so had a preference for unicorns or changelings with a high mana capacity.” Twilight was still cheery and happy, even after explaining things that should have horrified her every step of the way.

“So he’s a parasite?”

“He doesn’t like that word, actually. He prefers being called a symbiotic organism.”

“Right… right.” Celestia winced at the migraine starting to boil behind her eyes. “I… I need to go think about this. May I ask you to leave me alone for the Day court session? Go home. Visit the girls and Spike. While you can.”

“Oh… sure, Princess!” Twilight smiled as she collected her saddlebags and Wiz clamped to her back. She was starting to leave, when Celestia stopped her.

“Oh, one more thing, Twilight?”

“Huh? Yes, Princess?”

“Why do you hold things with your hooves now?”

Twilight furrowed her brow in thought. “Huh. I never thought about that. I just do now, I guess.”

“I see. Goodbye, Twilight.”

“Bye, Princess! See you later, maybe.” Twilight gave a wave and proceeded to teleport out of the room.

In Ponyville

Rainbow Dash was flying overhead, cloud in tow behind her. She would be pushing the cloud, but the last time she tried to push a cloud the size of the one she was hauling now, she collided into a spire of Mayor Mare's office. So now, she was pulling a cloud using a harness over from the station to help clear the sky for the upcoming stretch of sun that was scheduled for the whole of the week. She wasn't sure why she was working on a Sunday at four thirty in the afternoon, or why for the past two months she really made some bits on the overtimes she had been pulling and the subbing she took for Cloudkicker. Rainbow Dash threw herself into her work. But however fast and awesomely she did it, or how slowly, it was distracting, and she really needed something to distract her from... recent events. She needed to be drop-dead tired when she was done with work. If she wasn't, then it gave her too much time to think.

"Right. Three more, then I can call it a day for this area. Then, dinner and back to work."

She was pulling along the cloud to a large bank that was headed for a long haul to Canterlot. Luckily, she had some help in the form of Cloudchaser and Sunny, the new recruit, to help her make the drop-off to the Canterlot weather patrol. She puffed the cloud and stuck it with the rest of the batch, then turned around for the next one.

The train was coming in to the station as Rainbow Dash grabbed the next cloud. The whistle was loud, but she ignored it in favor of grabbing the cloud floating above the coal deposit. She gathered it together and tethered it to the magical harness that Rarity outfitted for her, and began dragging it away. It was a large cloud, and the drag from the harness forced her to slow down considerably. She took a look down at the crowd of ponies flooding out from the cars on the train, then looked away to continue her tow... wait.

She looked back at the flood of ponies now in the open air pavilion. One pony popped out at her, the color of midnight and lavender, and a hood on her head. She flew down to get a closer look, and saw that there was a horn on the pony's forehead.

"Twi...?"

But then the pony turned and looked directly at her. How she knew that Rainbow was up there was anypony’s guess. Her eyes weren't the recognizable shade of purple, but almost a grey-blue color. There was a grey streak in her mane, and she didn't have bangs like Twilight did. Rainbow could only barely make out her mane from under the hood. Her cutie mark was covered by the saddlebags she was wearing, but she did have a liquor flask strapped to her hind leg. It wasn't her.

Rainbow Dash dragged the cloud away from the station, fighting tears and memories and the drag from the cloud the whole way.

In Town Square

Applejack was sitting behind the stall, patiently waiting for either a customer or closing time at five. She was looking around lazily at the ponies in the square, the last few before the market closed. She could see the other produce vendors sitting at the same level of boredom. There were a few ponies passing through, of course, and all of them were familiar. Rarity had just stopped by to say hello, and to pick up some apples for herself and Sweetie, as well as some fabrics that came in from the mail service from Canterlot. According to Rarity, they were precious, and didn't want to see them damaged. She showed them to Applejack, and they were beautiful, but they were all in dark blues and black. It seemed different for Rarity. Carrot Top was sitting by the stall, and the crowd of foals out playing before dinner was making a small racket on the other side of the square. There was only one pony that Applejack didn't recognize, a lavender mare quietly walking through the town square. She had a hood on, as well as a wide set of saddlebags, so Applejack couldn't tell if she was a unicorn, a pegasus, or an Earth Pony. But she looked familiar, somehow. Her tail was a strange mix of dark blue and a light grey, like Granny's aging mane. The next thing she noticed was the strap on the mare's far side hind leg. Applejack couldn't see exactly what was attached, but from the look of the strap, it was probably some sort of holder, possibly for a piece of medical equipment. She looked carefully at the figure as it walked past her stall, trying to remember if she met anypony that looked like that. She racked her brain, trying to remember...

"Twi..." she muttered. “She looks like Twilight."

But the pony paid her no attention as she made her way to one of the stores on the main street: the glassblower, Crystal Clear. As she turned, Applejack caught a glimpse of what was strapped to her leg: a classic metal liquor flask. The stranger gone, Applejack went back to being bored, patiently waiting for either a customer or closing time at five.

On Main Street

After emptying the trash cans, Pinkie Pie made her way to the side of the shop, empty bins in tow. She dragged the bins back to the front of the store, placing them behind one of the many decorative fixtures that dotted Sugarcube Corner. She was walking back inside the store, getting ready to start icing a batch of cake tiers for a wedding party, when she felt the shudder and twitch that hallmarked her Pinkie Sense come in a way she had never felt before, and caught a glimpse in the door glass of a reflection behind her, coming out of the glassblower's shop. A hooded pony wearing dark brown saddlebags and a blue hood was carrying something in her magical grip. Pinkie, being bored at the time, turned to look at what the unicorn was carrying, and discovered it to be a glass bottle. It looked almost like a perfume bottle, rectangular in shape with an ornately shaped bulb that served as a cap, crisscrossed with thin lines. Pinkie noticed that the lines were being scratched into the glass by the unicorn, and they were glowing in pretty colors. The unicorn, luckily, wasn't paying attention to Pinkie rubbernecking at the spectacle, but was busy performing magic on the bottle. When she finally stopped messing with the bottle, she opened the lid and pulled an ugly, raw looking cider from her bag, then proceeded to fill the bottle. As the bottle filled, different colors flashed on the lines she scratched, seemingly being controlled by the unicorn. The contents of the bottle began to lighten, changing from an ugly brown to a light shade of wheat. When the color of the liquid was to the unicorn's apparent satisfaction, she put the bottle away. That was when she looked up and saw Pinkie Pie. Her blue-grey eyes seemed strangely determined as she turned away and walked down Main Street. Pinkie Pie walked back inside as she started thinking about the mare on the street. She started icing the bottom tier of the cake, looking out the window at the pony walking away, the strange magic bottle sticking out of her satchel.

In Carousel Boutique

Rarity was busy, very busy. She had just today gotten the fabrics required to finish the clothing line that had been commissioned for one Spark family, creating fashionable formal wear for the entire family. The silk was for the stallions' coats and the mares' outer trim on the dresses they would be wearing, and she sincerely hoped they would like the outfit design. The color scheme, they told her, was a midnight sky, and she did her best to keep it smooth and simple like the beauty of the inky darkness of the sky. The stallions had a jet-black blazer with a blue inner suit, along with a simple, blue and white bow tie to represent individual stars. The mares had a more complex but hopefully pleasing layered dress with each individual layer being made of either black or dark blue or purple cloth. The second layer was studded carefully with glowing yellow gemstones underneath the sheer outer layer, allowing them to be seen along with the other colors of the dresses. She was placing the gemstones on a tray to begin the process of getting them to glow, when the tinkle of bells announced a customer. The mare who walked in was wearing a hood, but Rarity could tell who it was immediately.

"Is that you, Miss Triumphant Star?" The name was awkward on her tongue, but the mare was foreign, based on her accent and clothing. She came in yesterday with an order of a single piece of cloth, about a meter long and twenty centimeters wide. It looked almost like some sort of head wrap to Rarity.

The mare looked up, smiling. "So you finished?" she asked in her deep accent.

"Yes, dear, I only received the last bit of cloth today, but I finished immediately. I really liked the design you gave me, and I made sure to make the stitching strong."

"Great." the mare smiled. She pulled bits from one of the outer pockets of the saddlebag she had with her, and placed them on the counter. Rarity, in turn, handed the black and green wrap of cloth to the mare. The pony looked over the flow of the cloth carefully, then said "Thank you, Miss Rarity."

Rarity nodded, smiling. "By the way, Miss Night, what do you want with such a small piece of cloth?"

"I will be using it in a... display in my homestead."

"Really, now? How nice." Rarity smiled at the thought. "I hope it is to your satisfaction. Please, come again!"

The bell tinkled as the unicorn left the Carousel Boutique, waving with a fore hoof without looking back.

In Golden Oaks Library

Spike was sitting on the ground floor couch, reading a book. He was still depressed, but he had a job to do, and he needed to be ready for when somepony came in looking for a book. He was beginning to nod off when a pony entered the library. He jolted up and looked at the pony, her saddlebags heavy and a hood on. She barely glanced at the shelves before pulling three tomes off of the lower shelves with a hoof, flicking through each of them quickly, and then placing them on the stand near her. She sighed, and began speaking in a near guttural, but scarily familiar accent.

"Still nothing..."

She walked dejectedly out of the library. Spike, still confused, went to check what books she pulled.

"Changeling Sciences and Magic, Third edition, Magic Theory for the Advanced Unicorn, and Affluent Members of the Prohibition Movement of 973?" Spike couldn't see how the books were connected. Maybe the mare could tell him what she was looking for. He went to the door and pulled it open, but the mare was gone.

At the edge of the Everfree

Fluttershy was feeding her animals their dinner. They needed to eat several times a day, and some only ate at night. So, she fed the animals a total of seven times on a cycle every twenty-four hours. It was relatively easy for her, because it was hard to sleep for more than three hours at a time, lately. She was on that cycle now, feeding Barry and the fish, as well as some of the birds that were ready to sleep. She was busy trying to get Woody Woodpecker to eat, when she saw a shape moving through her living room from her window. Being Fluttershy, she approached with borderline extreme caution, and carefully opened the front door to her cottage.

“H-hello?” No response.

Sitting on the table was a stout liquor bottle with a beautiful pattern etched into the face and sides, filled partly with honey-colored liquor. The bottom was wrapped carefully in a shining piece of black and green cloth, and surrounded with several crystal glasses. There was a note on a small piece of stationery in a loopy script.

Drown your sorrows ~T.S.

She looked around the back door and saw a pony walking calmly away into the forest.

At Wolf Rock

Victoria sat on top of Wolf Rock, waiting for Jared and Samuel to arrive. She sat, staring up at the setting sun, wondering if she made the right choice. Celestia's reaction confirmed her immediate decision in favor of her current lifestyle. But she still couldn't leave her friends behind. She thought back to the trail of breadcrumbs that she left for the girls, the sightings of the mysterious unicorn. If they went to Celestia, then they would know everything. If they followed the crumbs themselves, then maybe they could find her. But for now, this was her choice.

She made another decision, waiting on the rock: she wanted to look as close as possible to Twilight as she could. So, she started weaving magic and began dying her mane and tail. Her tail was easy, quickly returning to the dark purple it once was, and for the most part her mane was relatively simple as well. But the single stripe of pink seemed forever lost to her, remaining that shy light grey, no matter what she tried with the means of magic dye. So, after about twenty minutes of fussing, she let it go. She would settle for that. There was nothing to do about getting her bangs back but to wait, and her eyes were unchangeable without the risk of damaging the receptors in her irises. She didn’t want to go blind. Otherwise, she looked almost like Twilight Sparkle again, after letting her mane free. Almost, but not quite.

She knew that she would always be almost Twilight Sparkle, but not quite. Not Quite Twilight took her flask and made a toast to the descending sun.

Yesterday

Two Years Later

Like the Crystal Heart in the Crystal Empire, the Elements of Harmony represent the most fundamental value of Equestria: peace. Some thought, also like the Crystal Heart, without the Elements, Equestria would become susceptible to the powers of disharmony. Now, it seems that the theorists were correct for the first time in history. With the single most important part of the Elements of Harmony now not part of Equestria, the seeds of crime finally began spreading throughout the kingdom. Some say that the Elements, combined with the might of Celestia and Luna, were the only things stopping widespread crime from occurring in Equestria. Now, Celestia and Luna, separated from the power of the Elements, could do nothing but watch and admisister justice as disharmony began slowly leaching into everyday life. Ponies allowed greed to enter their hearts, and it slowly turned to theft. Lying and betrayal became rare facts of life rather than abhorrent evils. Ponies sometimes were unusually cruel and opressive. Depression and other mental illnesses began popping up like crabgrass in an untended lawn. Corruption and infighting began to spread, and for the first time in over one thousand years, organized crime began sprouting in the cities. In Canterlot, the suppressed nobles began grumbling and asking for land. The noble houses began banding and fighting each other, and some against the Princesses. In the cities, extortion and gang fees were uncommon, but crime rates went up over six thousand percent, from one small theft every month by a hungry orphan or a desperate fool, to B&E and trespassing, robbery and pickpocketing almost a dozen times a week. While over the scope of a nation, twelve crimes a week, not even one in every city every day, seems like nothing, especially compared to other nations. But for Equestria, the increase in crime was staggering. However, Equestria still looked like the picturesque haven of harmony that most outsiders saw it as. The individual usually did not feel the change in the air, the slow decline of the purest nation in Equis, but the Princesses certainly did. And so did the five mares and a dragon in Ponyville, crushed by the loss of a friend.

They gathered together that night, carrying memories and evidence, to the library. The loss was still fresh in their minds, and they all felt the chill of careful, barbed hope with the appearance of the hooded pony. The liquor bottle, the cloth, the books, and what they saw of her were all that they had to go on, but they tried. They tried to find the significance of the books, the contents of the bottle, the symbolism of the fabrics. They tried to piece together the visuals. The pattern of her hood, the saddlebags. Where the mare went that night into the Everfree, why she looked so familiar, but so foreign. They gathered several witnesses besides themselves to try to get together any possible detail that they missed. The first conclusion that they came to, and clung to like shipwrecked boaters in shark-infested waters, was that Twilight Sparkle was alive. Rarity was the first to suggest that Triumphant Star was Twilight Sparkle, but only Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash agreed. Fluttershy, Spike, and Applejack thought differently. But the evidence gave them no clue where Twilight was. The books, however, and the cloth, gave testament to who she was with: changelings. But that was where they stopped, where they were forced to stop. They could find no way of confirming her location, no method of knowing why she was with changelings, or could they form any method of communication. They sat around the table, disheartened and depressed, slumped over their evidence and their failure. Nopony objected when Rarity pulled the stopper on the bottle, and together, sans Spike, they shared a drink.

Meanwhile, Victoria Nox had smoothly slid her way into the lives of the Nox family and the Hive. She moved in permanently with the her supposedly temporary family, and in time, grew close to Jared and Samuel. Samuel readily accepted Victoria as a surrogate mother, with the Nox family providing a home. Elijah approved heavily of Victoria after her big discovery, saying that she reminded him of his wife. He pushed her closer to Jared and their relationship slowly but surely grew, then suddenly swept forward. Victoria herself compared their whirlwind romance to a cheap pulp fiction story. She did her best to fit in with the rest of changeling society as her inhibition and her sense of Equestrian normality faded slowly into the background. In less than eighteen months, they were wed, with Samuel and Elijah in their small family. Even Wizard became part of the family, slowly over the course of the next eight months, permanately attatching himself to Victoria’s spinal cord, growing a thick, dark purple carapace over a large section of her back. Wizard and Victoria’s joining marked her first year in the forest, and when Chrysalis officially assimilated Victoria into the hive. Victoria, along with Samuel and Jared, was sworn in and appointed to be a consultant to the Queen in matters relating the outside world. While Chrysalis began to speculate how the Hive might become a normal part of Equestrian society, and was faced with her emmisaries’ constant death, attack, and hostile capture, she allowed her consultants to become productive members of her society. Victoria learned the language of the changelings, Graah’tela, but still spoke Equish to Samuel alongside it.

Victoria’s relationship with Chrysalis was a strange one, at first. Originally distant, frequent meetings and her position in the court forced Victoria to become familiar with the Queen. When in a good mood, as the Queen was most of the time nowadays, Victoria was a friend, somepony to talk to. They slowly trudged their way to a mutually beneficial agreement: Real advice and a listening ear in exchange for truthful answers for questions regarding governmental structure and a staying hoof when it came to punishments inside the hive. They kept this relationship several months, and it slowly became a sort of relationship that Victoria never had with the Princess of Equestria. They enjoyed each other’s company, talked like friends. It was as if Victoria had a sister, less of a mentor/mentee relationship than a real, level friendship. And the more that Victoria changed, Chrysalis and the changelings did as well. An open door to those that could find the hive, a ‘tolerance policy’, ligher punishments, and festivities every few months helped build trust and a positive image of their Queen, who not a few years before attempted a large scale raid on one of the most peaceful places on Equis. The hive, trained for war, had to settle down for an incredible time of peace. With no needs and few wants, the changelings simply expanded in the undergrounds of the Everfree Forest, under the radar of most noble land claims and no Diamond Dog nests to be found. The changelings, after seeing the community wrought by Chrysalis and the advisors under her, specifically Victoria Nox, praised their achivements and allowed the changelings to spread their culture farther ito the arts and philosophy, creating a sudden wave of music, poetry, philosophy, and art forms and mediums of all kinds, including the fine art of casks and glasses, corks and the deep aroma of a good brew: the art of hard drinks.

Together, the Nox family converted the large laboratory and storage facility into the Triumph Bar, a famed establishment known for the incredible potions it could produce, as well as the range of the collection and the mood of the establishment itself. She worked that bar five nights of the week, with Elijah taking care of Samuel back home. For Samuel, it did not make a difference, as Elijah had been his caretaker for years already, and the two had plenty of company in each other; the bar was also attatched to the house through a backroom, so family was never far away. The bar was her achievement, her pride and joy, one she shared with the Nox family. Most days, she was one of the advisors to the Queen, and most nights, she was the greatest drinkmaster in the Hive. On the outside, at least, Victoria Nox grew a cultural shell as hard as any carpace found among the changelings. But the entire time, she was a scared and self-loathing Twilight Sparkle, trying to live a life she knew wasn’t hers, and attempting to forget a life she knew she shouldn’t have left, but was now so far away.

If a pony isn’t a pony, then what is it?

Discord was supposedly reformed, Princess Luna sat on a throne in Canterlot. Sombra, Sombra was gone, too far gone. But maybe here, she could share the magic of friendship with the Changelings, too.

Note: Most conversation, unless otherwise specified or implied, is in Graah'tela, the language of the changelings. Graah'tela spelling is imitative of no language. Mannerisms are New England(because people form New England are bossin’), accent based on generic, unspecified Eastern European.

Note: Changeling money in the Lager Universe is called flak, with about five hundred flak to the US dollar. I was unsure how much a bit was, so use your own head canon. Bills come in ten, fifty, one hundred, five hundred, one thousand, five thousand, ten thousand, fifty thousand. No coins.

Victoria Nox was standing behind a counter, cleaning it of spilled drink, ash, and spit. The Triumph Bar was just starting the late rush, with most of the regulars coming in from work. She nodded sharply to Charles and Butch, the brothers, as they sauntered in together.

"Sagh ve'el!" she greeted them.

"Sagh, Vicky!" said Charles, with a quick gesture of a fore hoof. Get us somethin' nice, yah?"

She chuckled lightly as she said "Yah, Charles. Bright pink and fruity, maybe a bit shorter than you, good at listening. Got it." As Victoria rolled her eyes at the playful word choice, she made her way to the back of the space, getting up to reach for several bottles in shades of green, white, and red glass. She pulled a tumbler from below the counter, and got to work. Even after all this time, she was surprised at how much the science behind mixing drinks resembled the alchemy and magic she worked on in the earliest stages of her tenure in the Hive. The science of the gourmet. Several seconds, two glasses, and a pretty pink umbrella later, two smooth, bright pink drinks sat in front of the waiting brothers. "Seventeen fifty, guys." Charles squinted at the glasses, a frown on his face. Butch just laughed as he took his glass in hoof.

"Come on, Charlie," he said, jest in his voice. "Lighten up." He took a sip from his drink. "And hey," he gestured to the glass. "It's not bad. Try it." He pulled the bills from his clip and slammed them on the counter, still chuckling from her light humor. The money then proceeded to disappear from the counter, apparated into a sealed, bolted box that only four ponies could open.

She called out at the pair headed toward the back booths. "Enjoy it, Charlie. Just for you guys." She laughed as she saw Charles' fuming expression and Butch spitting his drink.

Victoria turned from the two brothers as she went on to prepare the next order for the waiting customers. Simpler, cheaper drinks seemed to be the order of the Monday work night. The drink of choice, Triumph Bar's exclusive Victory Blend, as it came to be called, was passed around in foaming, ice cold mugs. Laughter and mirth, with no small helpings of debauchery and madness, spread through the bar, along with the low buzz of conversation. The feel of the place was happy and vibrant, especially with the warm, yellow light provided inside, in contrast to the moody shades of blue of most areas in the Hive. The mood helped her relax as she continued taking mugs from the cooler at the base of the counter and filling out orders for several different drinks. Some were common, others had specifics they wanted. Some just came in, grabbed and paid for a bottle, then left. But the foot traffic on the bar floor and in the air from the chandelier table sets never stopped. The sound of exoskeletons clacking on the panels of wood on the floor was random, but the clamor sounded almost musical. After all, it meant buisness.

Victoria continued filling out drink orders and the occasional meal for about an hour, all the while taking notice of the repetitive clamor of hoof falls. She listened as she went to the back of the store, collecting several bottles of liquor, as well as a replacement box of salts and a few glasses to replace the ones that had been broken that day. The bar had finally settled down, with the flow of new customers slowing to a trickle and the regulars grabbing their favorite barstools, swapping stories and downing their brews. Victoria laughed at the sight of Charles and Butch sipping their bright pink martinis, and Charles nodded and gestured at her with his umbrella as he took another drink.

She shook her head as she poured out a Victory Blend for a mare that had just walked in. She finished the drink, received the pay for it, and then sat back, relaxing, as the bar bustled around her. The crystal torches glowed merrily as they flicked their magical light around the room. She watched one in boredom, noting that the magic in the crystal was fluctuating in a non-regular, dimming pattern, meaning that she needed to charge it again. She watched the glowing rings inside the crystal dance around the center point, casting light in that particular corner of the bar. Having nothing else to do at the time, and not seeing any immediate orders coming in for the next minute or so, she walked over to the faltering light crystal, charging her horn as she walked. She fired her concentrated beam at the crystal from about ten paces away; scaring one drunken changeling slumped over in one of the side booths. She topped off the crystal, and the rings spun faster and glowed brighter, just like the others were. She checked the time, and realized that it was after midnight, her batch brewing in the back was done. Magic fermentation made the process of preparing hard drinks shorten drastically, from weeks or years of waiting to virtually hours. While she went in the back to prepare and bottle the new love brew, Jared stepped in to run the bar.

As Victoria began the task of bottling and stamping the collection of Deep Red, another unicorn was making her way through the maze of corridors called the Hive. Her destination: the Triumph Bar. The changelings looked at her warily as she passed, suspicious of another new face. She was frightened, yes, but overall, she knew that she needed to be there, moving in the tunnels with the disgusting bugs. The walls glowed blue, casting strange but beautiful patterns on her coat. She saw the signs, written both in Equish, as well as in a strange language that she had never seen before, pointing her way to a ledge in one of the cavern junctions, a tunnel about ten feet up. She teleported up the ledge, landing with a thump on the outcropping made for easy access. The dirt she kicked up on landing was quickly picked out of her fur as she walked towards the merry yellow glow of the Triumph Bar, pinpricks of light bouncing off of the hanging sign.

Each bottle of Deep Red, after being carefully bottled and sealed, was placed on a bottle rack in the back room. Five bottles, however, had a different destination: the liquor shelf at the front of the store. She was carrying all five bottles separately in her magic grip, checking each for color and consistency. There wasn't any sediment or suspension in the bottles, so she decided that they would do. Deep Red was to be served chilled, so she placed them on the ice shelf in the back. The ice shelf was maintained through magic, as were most things in the store, and Victoria took the time to ensure that the spell was holding. Four of the bottles went immediately to the shelf, but the last would be placed in the chilled display case on the back wall of the bar. She was there, in the back of the store, when the first new customer in the past ten minutes entered the store, announcing thier arrival with a jangle of bells. Victoria didn't bother turning to see, as Jared was running the wet bar for her, and she couldn’t see the front anyways, not through the crush of bodies. She instead took the time to break the ice buildup on most of the chilled drinks in the display case. With that done, she slid the glass closed, and started towards the front of the store, only to run into Emily.

"Sagh, Emily. I haven't seen you in a while. Why did you burn all that shoe leather to visit little old me?"

"Sagh ve’el, Tori." said Emily, a smile on her face. "I was in the area on an errand, and I saw the bustle coming in from the bar." Emily gestured widely. "You're running a pretty good operation here, Vic. Better than before, for sure."

Victoria laughed with her friend. "I made some improvements since you were gone, Emily. I would be doing more, but that would require paperwork." They sat down at one of the booths over a basket of sate fries. "Let's talk. Jared's up front running the bar, he'll be fine."

"I guess. Hey, Tori? What's up with you and Jared? Did something happen between you two? I've been hearing bits and pieces, and if that is any indication, they must be true."

Victoria glanced up at the band of silver cinched on her left ear, the hoop glittering in the amber glow. "Where have you been, exactly, that you don't already know about this?"

"I've been up top for the past half year or so, doing some work for the Queen." Victoria nodded at the explanation. " So, you married the nutjob?" Emily raised an eyebrow-imitative ridge.

"Yeah... I married the nutjob."

Emily nodded. "He's a sweetie. He's so innocent most of the time."

"I know. But then, sometimes, he gets all serious all of a sudden. I've always wondered about that."

“Well, at least he’s rich.”

“Rich?”

“Yeah, Tori. His family’s kind of rich down here. They hold most of the stock on the food supply, and with you now part of their family, they get control of almost all the supply of lager and liquor in the Hive. You run the largest proccessing center ever!”

Victoria rubbed the back of her neck. “Um, yeah.” she said. “I kind of forgot about that.”

“Forgetting that you own an entire sector of economy isn’t suitable for anyone, especially you, Victoria.”

“Look,” she said with a bit of a sigh, “I just run the bar. The rest of the family runs everything behind the scenes.”

Emily snickered.”You make it sound like a front for the mob or something.”

Victoria smiled. “With the way politics are now, I guess that’s not too far off the mark.”

At the Front

Jared wasn't sure what to tell the unicorn that just walked up to the bar. She came in, asking about some 'Twilight' pony in very loud and whiny Equish, and Jared was sure that he hadn't met any Twilights recently. "Hey," he told the white mare in heavily accented Equish, "I just make the drinks. I don't know what to tell ya, but you're really disturbing the other customers.” He leaned in to whisper. “Can you speak in Graah'tela?" She shook her head in silence. "Well, I don't know. If you're looking for somepony, then a bar," he said, pointing to the racks of glass and cork behind him, "is your best bet. Tell ya what," he said in a lower voice, made private by the constant roar of conversation. "Maybe we can keep a look out for ya, while you go and wait right here on this stool. You're from up top, yah?" The mare nodded. "Well," Jared continued, "We do got some stock from Equestria that we save for occasions like this." Jared pulled out some of the real apple cider that Victoria kept as a way to get drunkards to vomit quickly, but the mare didn't know why they had it. To her, it was cider. He wiggled his eye ridges like he saw some ponies do topside.

He quickly poured her a glass, and was turning to put the bottle back under the counter, when she stopped him. "Can I see that bottle?"

Jared shrugged and passed the bottle of cider over to the mare. She took the bottle, wide-eyed, and turned it to and fro in her magical grip. She then reached over and took a sip of the mug that he had poured. She whispered a quiet "Thank you," then proceeded to down the whole thing and smile a small, content grin. "Do you know anypony who might have connections to anypony, uh, ‘up top’?"

"Yah, Victoria might. She was topside pretty recently."

She nodded. "Victoria.” The name was rolled around like an interesting flavor of hard candy. “Could I meet her? I have some questions."

"Sure, I guess. What's your name, by the way?"

"Me? My name is Rarity."

Jared shrugged again, still marveling at the... uniqueness of the mare sitting in front of him. He flew up to the second, chandelier level, and found Victoria sitting with her old friend Emily, having a chat. He called out in Graah’tela. "Hey Vic! There's a mare sitting here, asking for ya. Called herself Rarity."

Victoria looked up sharply at the name. "You sure?" she called up to him.

"That's what she told me!"

"I'll be there in a second." Victoria excused herself from the booth, and proceeded to fly up to meet Jared up top in the chandelier level. "Where is she?"

"At the front, drinking from one of your vomit bottles."

"The apple cider? That's good, dear. Thanks, by the way." He tapped her shoulder as she passed on her way past, and she did the same to him. In unison they said,

"Switch."

Victoria landed a few feet from the barstool where Rarity was pouring herself another glass of cider and Jared reassumed his position behind the bar. She circled around the bar and started mixing an Era Blend: taking small amounts of several different drinks, adding some soda, and shaking it quickly before pouring it out for herself and sliding into a barstool across the bar from Rarity.

"Hey," she said casually as she sipped her drink. "I'm Victoria. What are you here for?" She chuckled at the prison humor.

The mare turned to look at her, turned away, and started asking something. But her double take was almost instantaneous. She spat her drink and gasped. "Twilight? Is that you?"

"I," said Victoria, cocking her head and frowning, “am Victoria. I believe that there was already a funeral for Twilight Sparkle.” She took a sip of her drink.

"I was right, wasn’t I? You were that mare, the one that gave us that bottle of cider, that one day?"

"Yah, that was me." Victoria's frown started to falter.

"So you're alive, and they haven't harmed you at all? You aren't being enslaved or held captive or anything?"

"I work here." said Victoria, confused slightly at the mare's sudden look of horror.

"Oh, how horrid! What have they made you do? We must leave at once. At once! Oh, how simply disgusting. I am so sorry, Twilight dear, that you had to wait this long before we came to rescue you! Let's-" She was cut off by a smug Butch and an embarrassed looking Charles.

"Sagh, Vic." said Charles in Graah'tela, rubbing his neck. Butch was staring gruffly at Rarity. "Could you make us some more of those drinks we got earlier, at the beginning?"

"Sure, Charles. Two pretty pink drinks coming up." She kept her straight face. "Butch here looks like he needs cheering up." she replied, glancing at the even more appalled looking Rarity and the glaring Butch. She moved from the barstool and quickly opened the tumbler she pulled out. The glasses chilled and lined up, she started the preparations for the drink, pulling and pouring each ingredient while spinning the tumbler artfully. It was her policy to never pre-mix anything when it wasn’t needed for a specific drink, and mixing with magic only when the bar was in full swing. She finished the drink, rimmed the glasses, and poured out the cocktail for the waiting Butch and Charles. Quickly taking the 1750 that they paid, she turned back to Rarity. In Equish, she said, "That, Rarity, is what I do here. What in the name of Horatio were you thinking of?"

Rarity quickly closed her mouth and blushed profusely. "What? Nothing. Nothing... Well, now how are we going to leave here?"

Victoria frowned. "Leave? I can't."

"Why not?" Rarity looked worried.

Victoria checked the time. 12:14. “It’s not closing yet. Closing's at two."

"Why, that doesn't matter! We found you, and now we can escape this pit!"

Jared called out in Equish from the other side of the bar. "Don't call the Triumph a pit. We worked hard on it! The only pit around here is the landfill across the way."

"Yeah... worked hard. I guess we did, didn’t we." Victoria stared into her drink with a small smile, though it quickly faded as the conversation forged ahead.

"Twilight? Don't tell me you don't want to leave!"

Victoria looked up again, staring at Rarity's horn. She couldn't look her old friend in the eyes. "Look, Rarity. I'm fine where I am. I'm working, making money, having a relatively normal life. Can't I just have that for once? A normal life, with a normal family? I don't want to be anything special. Here, I don't need to be anything special. Here, I'm just a barkeep. That's normal. Here, I'm a daughter, I'm a mother. That's normal. I'm a wife.” She gestured to her earring. “That's normal. I'm just a pony here, Rarity. And that's all I want to be." She sighed and turned away. "It's normal, Rarity. And it's all I need right now. Back topside, I was some sort of prodigy, somepony who always had to be perfect. There isn’t some monster of the week popping up down here."

"Then... why am I here? Why did I come all this way to find you?" Rarity had tears in her eyes, but Victoria wasn't looking.

"Closure." She sighed again, and then asked, "How did you find me?"

"...the cloth."

"You didn't look too hard at the bottle, by any chance?"

"No." Rarity wiped her eyes.

"There was a fake map on the enchantment lines, led to a Dog nest. But you didn't find that map. You found the map on the cloth. I guess the clue on the card was a bit too much to hope for. But you would have needed my magic to find the map on the cloth, though."

"I poured some of the cider on it. I thought... I thought there might have been a clue. And, there was."

"Ah, that would do it. You kept enough of the cider to complete the map? You would have needed nearly half the bottle to cover the whole strip.”

“We refrained from drinking more than one third of the bottle, just in case.”

“Smart. By the way, where are the others?"

"..."

"They don't know about the map, do they?"

"..."

Victoria pulled a rag from the shelf and started cleaning the bar again. "They're not here, so why are you here?"

"I... I had to know. More than any of them, I had to know. Why," Rarity started crying again. "won’t you come back? We... we need you."

"Do you want the truth, Rarity? Because sometimes... the truth isn’t what you want to hear. Please, leave."

"...Tell me. I-I need to know the real reason why."

“Are you sure? ...fine.” She took a breath. “I, Victoria Nox, consultant and advisor to the Crown, am not permitted to leave, revoke, or abandon the oath of service I have sworn to my Queen, Chrysalis daughter of Cocoon, the Seventeenth Queen of the Halgest’aagh Hive, sucsessor by right of birth, defended by the trials of Challenge. Under said oath, I have severed all ties to any assumed identities I have ever held onto for all periods shorter than five years as not part of my life, including any titles and awards issued by any governing body in the self-governing country of Equestria. My life and body at the current time belong to my Queen, and any treachery of my mind or body may be punished through either public royal execution, or private ritual suicide. My name is Victoria Nox, daughter of Velvet Sparkle, advisor to the Queen, owner and bartender at the Triumph Bar, legally wed to Jared Clyde Nox, son of Elijah Nox, advisor to the Queen, owner and propetier of the Triumph Bar, owner and manager of the Nox Love and Alcohol Conglomerate. In any other country that I visit, I am to be treated as a foreign dignitary, hostile, or visitor, and not as a citizen of any country, state, or government that is not the Halgest’aagh Hive.” She kept her voice flat, devoid of anything resembling emotion.

“Does that make you...”

“Depends on persective. For myself, I am not a traitor, I simply... moved. It was nessecary for myself and for the Halgest’aagh Hive. In Equestria, according to law, I am to be immedialtely detained for reasons of treason, being a foreign agent of one of Equestria’s sworn enemies, and for defection.”

“You’re a crimin-”

“No.” Victoria felt the hot swell of tears building inside her. Rarity reminded her of everything she had lost, all of her stupid mistakes that led to this, everything she had done wrong, how se had been used... It was unbearable. “Not a criminal. I refuse to think of myself as a criminal.”

"Go up and tell the others. They may not need it as much as you do, but they still have the right to know." Victoria was surprised at the scorn in her own voice, but what was said cannot be unsaid.

Rarity nodded dejectedly, and slunk out of the bar. But before she got halfway out the door, Victoria said, "You've changed, Rarity." She gestured at her old friend. "You're here, the others aren't." She turned away as Rarity looked back.

Victoria sighed for the third time that night, thinking about the shitstorm about to hit, and finally letting her emotion out, sobbing into her glass.

Now, here was a good time to drink. After all, a good strong drink will always cheer you up.

VI.5: In the Sky With Diamonds

Rainbow Dash looked around at the tall buildings that surrounded her and made up the huge and distinctive harbor city of Manehattan. She weaved her way through the straight drives and winding alleys, through the rush of ponies that never seemed to end, even at the late hour she was here at. The moon shined harshly on her feathers, like Luna’s angry gaze, as she shivered as one unicorn brushed up against her side, even as other ponies sweltered the stiff summer air. She slowly turned down another alley, passing by one of the vendors, and found herself at the Docks. The note had told her where and when she needed to be, and she didn’t want to be late. She scanned the wooden piers and the ships lining the harbor, looking particularly at the warehouses behind the seawall. Magic lanterns carried soft light through the air, lighting the rusting fronts of the warehouses with a flickering and diluted yellow that made the grimy walls look even more disgusting. She paced down half the length of the Docks before finding the specific place she was looking for.

Number 5-B was a decrepit building, filled with pallets, dusty boxes, and one brown stallion carrying a small briefcase. He was an average looking pony, with a single tone of brown on his mane, and a lighter tan covering the rest of his body. His cutie mark, a fedora, did little to betray his business that night, although it was nothing short of sketchy. Rainbow Dash knew sketchy, and she hated herself for it. Because, like the last four times, she couldn’t stay no.

Rainbow Dash made sure that there was nopony around, then pulled the sack from under her wing. She gulped as the contents rattled in their cloth bag, wincing slightly at the sound. She approached the stallion, glancing warily at his case. From the look of the thing, it would be identical to the other four briefcases: cheap cloth and wood, brass tacks, filled with paper and cardboard. Paper, cardboard... and the last of her self-esteem.

”You have it?”

“Y-yes.”

The stallion nodded underneath his hat, smirking with his strange mustache. He placed the briefcase on the floor, handle up. Rainbow Dash took the bag in her mouth and placed it on a wooden pallet next to her, then walked to the briefcase and carefully opened the clasps on top. She spent almost half a minute taking in the contents, before nodding, shutting the case, and taking it onto her back. The stallion was already hovering the bag in his magic, hefting it, then opening the top and counting what was inside. He nodded back, and Rainbow Dash walked away into the streets of Manehatten, her lifeline bouncing on her back. She never took flight until the lights were a glimmer on the horizon.