Magicka Lager

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.