//------------------------------//
// Chapter 23 
// Story: A Unicorn and an Alicorn Walk Into a Library 
// by Damaged 
//------------------------------//

Lyra had done her best to be hands-off with the situation. Even though Twilight had planned to go to Wonderbolts HQ, fate had decreed that there was a friendship emergency and had dragged Rainbow along too.

Even when it seemed to all come crashing down, with both Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail looking to drop out, she'd not felt the pull to interfere. "They'll save the day."

Glaring at Lyra, Spitfire rolled her eyes. "They'd better, Washout. You want to know the stupidest part of all this?" She didn't actually want Lyra's nod, but was willing to make concessions to conversational norms. "I want Vapor Trail in the 'Bolts precisely for that technique of hers. We're a team, being able to support each other without compromising our own flying? She's a natural."

"What about Short Fuse?" Lyra asked.

Shaking her head, Spitfire hated saying the words. "Washout. You can't make up for that with skill—and don't get me wrong, he has skill, but being born like—"

"It's an injury. He was attacked by a monster that left him like that." The string of bad words Spitfire let loose would have blistered Lyra's ears if she weren't born and raised in Australia. "Is there anything that can be done?"

"Unless you can magic him up something, no. He's determined, has an attitude that could see him be the best, but he doesn't have the wings for it." Spitfire, now, felt worse. It was already bad seeing an otherwise good flier not make the grade because of how they were born, but this was the second time it had been something changing that stole a Wonderbolt from her. "Have you thought about taking him into the Friendship Guard?"

The question took Lyra by surprise, and this time she felt the touch of harmony prodding her to make a difference. "He'd need to go through the Guard." Seeing Spitfire's eyebrow rise, Lyra groaned. "You're right, but it'll take some doing. First, he needs to know he can't be a 'Bolt."

It was one thing to tell a cadet that they couldn't be a Wonderbolt right now, and another to tell them they would never be. Spitfire would be happy for that duty to fall to someone else. "If you lay that one on him, I'll help figure out a way through the Guard with minimal fuss."

"I can handle that myself, Tailstrike, but I'll help anyway." Holding out her hoof, Lyra got a clop when Spitfire met it with her own. "Come on; better now than later."

There was so much about a pegasus that Spitfire could fix with training. So long as they had two properly proportioned wings that worked, and the drive to become the best they could be, she would take them. "Have I ever said I hate turning down anypony?"

"I figured. Normally, you don't quit until the other pony does. You shout and blow your whistle all day to make everypony fight back against you and anypony that tells them they can't make it. Those with a heart or thick head will break through, those who don't walk away." Lyra's eye was on the sky above as they neared the edge of the field. "There he is."

Blowing hard on her whistle, Spitfire brought herself to full voice and shouted, "Get down here, Short Fuse!"

Banking over into a dive, Short Fuse could read faces well enough that his ire was rising before he touched down. Both Spitfire and the strange "pegasus" looked upset—and his last few days of training had told him what it would be. "I'm out?"

"Of the 'Bolts? Yeah, I—" Lyra widened her eyes at the flood of angry words. He was inventive and had bigger lungs than his size would hint at. "You're done with the language lesson?"

"No, but I don't care anymore." Turning and spreading his wings, Short felt something grab him—refusing to let him fly. "Hey, wha—?" He stopped. The weird thing about alicorn blindness was the moment when it was shattered. "You're a princess?"

Snorting, Lyra shook her head. "I should hope not. Not now and not ever. But I am looking for brave ponies who can help me in my most important mission. Do you know anyone who's brave enough to come back from being attacked by a vampire to join the Wonderbolts?"

The words hit Short like a jolt of lightning. His eyes widening, he found himself without an adequate curse for how he felt. "You were there— You were with the bat ponies when they found me and— You helped kill it?"

The stare on Short's face might have been directed her way, but Lyra could see he wasn't seeing her. "Yeah. I helped some friends find it. It shouldn't have ever been in Equest—" During her conversation, Lyra had released her grip on Short. Now he surprised her by rushing over and hugging her. Used to hugging a smaller pony. With one leg around his shoulder, she squeezed him against her. "Are you okay?"

The question broke Short out of his surprised show of thanks. "You didn't have wings back then!" he accused her.

"Ponies change. Turns out harmony needed another alicorn for something."

Without anything else to do but take her word for it, Short straightened back up and rubbed his eyes to dry them. "So, what are you doing here, then? It doesn't take an alicorn to kick somepony out of the Wonderbolts, right?"

"Hardly," Spitfire said, rejoining the conversation. "She has a job for you."

"A job? Wait, what do you do?" For the first time, Short took extra notice of Lyra beyond the wings and the horn. "And—uh—who are you?"

"Captain Lyra Heartstrings, commander of the Friendship Guard," Lyra said, bowing to Short. "And that's also the job I want you for. You're a powerful flier, you have guts and determination, but you don't fit the perfect image of a 'Bolt."

"Hey!" Spitfire and Short said at the same time.

"I think," Spitfire continued, "I'll head on over to the others so I can yell at them a bit. Give you some space."

Watching Spitfire leave, Short took a deep breath and turned back to Lyra. "So, I don't fit in here. What about it?"

"Have you thought about joining the Guard?" Lyra asked.

Glaring up at Lyra, Short snorted. "You think I can handle leadership and taking orders?"

"I think you could if they weren't stupid ones."

It got a laugh from Short. It was true that he had a problem with authority, but he'd hoped the Wonderbolts would see past it. "And what then? What's this Friendship Guard do that it could use another pegasus?"

"We don't have any pegasi yet. It'd be you, me, and my daughter's coltfriend." At the increasingly raised eyebrow, Lyra shrugged. "Firelance is a unicorn, I used to be a unicorn, so we have a spot for a pegasus or two. Do you know anypony else?"

Staring now, Short opened his mouth to say no but sighed and shook his head. "I do. I ran into her because she sounded like those bat ponies, but it turns out there's an island way down south where they speak like that too."

For Lyra, it didn't come as too much of a surprise, because she knew Scootaloo had an Australian accent before having a chance to contract it from her, but to meet another would be new. "Okay. Find her, if she’s willing, and enroll both your flanks in the Guard, do your training, and tell the sergeants you want to join the Friendship Guard."

"That's all? Sign my life away to the Guard for— Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You can resign any time you want. There's nothing that holds you in the Guard. You get a little more pay than everypony else, and you get some great armor." Lyra regretted letting Twilight talk her into not wearing it.

"What makes you think I can pass that if I failed here?" Despite himself, though, Short felt excitement. He had no idea what Friendship Guards did, but in a group of three—four if he could get Rolling Thunder—it would be easy to stand out.

"I've spent time training new Guardponies, and even wrote the book on unicorn training, but the one thing the E.U.P. Guard doesn't do? Kick anypony out who wants to be there. You'll learn to run until you can't talk, then you'll learn to do it until you can. They'll push you to do things you'll never believe you can do—until you do them. But they will not kick you out if you want to be there." For Lyra, it was a little odd giving such an inspirational speech, and she wouldn't have if not for the prod of harmony. "So, in?"

Given how he'd thrown himself into trying out for the Wonderbolts, Short didn't have to plan much to do the same for the Guard. He nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I will be. How do I sign up for this training?"

"So sign up and, if your friend is willing, sign her up too. Tell the Guard Lyra sent you. That'll be enough to make them take you seriously." After months spent training with the Wonderbolts, and more time spent with Celestia freeing as many books as they could at Skyros, Lyra was hit with a bout of surprise that she couldn't remember when the next Guard intake would be. "They run training regularly, but until you can get in I have a place you both can crash at."

Snorting, Short said, "I guess meeting you really opens doors then."

It took a moment for Lyra to register the pun, but when it hit—it hit hard. She broke into laughter and, spotting Twilight, gave Short the best farewell she could. "I gotta get back to work. Don't forget to tell them I sent you."

Unsure whether to try to salute or hug Lyra, Short settled for doing his best to keep his legendary emotions in check. "Sure. I guess I'll see you after that?"

"I'll head down after we're done here to make sure you find somewhere to stay and get settled in." Lyra waved after Short with a wing and was happy to get a wave back from him. When she reached Twilight, she could see her friend had a suspicious look on her face. "What?"

"You. What have you done, Lyra?" When her question only made Lyra smile, Twilight closed her eyes. "Lyra? What have you done, Lyra?"

"Calm down. I have arranged to swell the numbers of your guard. We will be getting some pegasi." Falling in beside Twilight, Lyra walked with her. "But let's forget about that for now. How did your friendship mission go?"

"That's just it, it went great. We helped Vapor Trail and Sky Stinger establish a healthier friendship without co-dependence, and they're both graduating into Wonderbolts training. But what I can't figure out is why. What makes them so important?" It was enough that it had Twilight's wings twitching and her instinct was to find something to graph to display her utter annoyance at the nebulous concept.

"It sounds like they'll have an important job to do in the future."

Twilight froze, then slowly turned her head to look at Lyra. "You did not just play a because harmony card with me. You tell me right now this isn't some—some butterfly effect thing that will result in Equestria being saved or destroyed."

"I can't, Twilight. I was talking with Spitfire before about Short Fuse. He's failed, you know. He can keep up now, but with the style of flying the 'Bolts need, he won't be able to adapt. Then I felt it." Lyra held up her hoof to forestall Twilight's impending interruption. Then, before she continued, she lowered her hoof. "You know, ask."

"What does it feel like?"

Closing her eyes, Lyra coaxed the source of harmony that dwelled within her. She begged it, promised it she would always love it and follow it where it led, and it washed out and over Twilight. "A little like this."

Twilight simply nodded. "That's exactly what the map does through our cutie marks when it wants us to go on a mission for it. Not all of us have a direct link with harmony." She finished up by poking her tongue out. Then she stopped. "Wait, you got me sidetracked. Why them?"

Lyra opened her mouth.

"And don't tell me because harmony."

Pausing, Lyra closed her mouth and thought for a moment. "Okay, but with it being literally because harmony, that makes it hard to come up with something else that's inspirational." She pushed on, ignoring the sigh from Twilight. "So I'm going to say this: friendships are literally your specialty. If nothing else, Sky Stinger finding out about all this without you and Rainbow pushing him would have ruined their friendship."

"I think I'm trying too hard. Like you said, friendship and harmony, plus I got to see more of how Wonderbolts training works."

"Not thinking of getting some training in, are you?"

Ignoring Lyra's waggling eyebrows, Twilight shook her head. "No, but I feel it's important that a princess—a leader—knows how those she's going to command can be best used. It means there are fewer losses should the worst come."

That stopped Lyra's eyebrows dead in their tracks. She gave a little nod. "Good answer."

"Is this some kind of test?"

"Maybe."

Her tone shifting toward joking, Twilight asked, "Did I pass?"

"Barely. B-plus."

"I didn't get an A?!"

"No. I don't give out As." Spotting Rainbow Dash, Lyra waved to her with a wing to get her attention. When Rainbow flew over, Lyra said, "I think we're ready to head back."  She glanced at Twilight and caught her nod, then turned to Rainbow. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah. Hopefully I can get back to Ponyville to get a little relaxation before I need to be called back." Looking around, Rainbow spotted Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail, gave them both a wave, then spread her wings. "Last one back to Ponyville has to buy lunch?"

"Wait, that's not"—Twilight could only stare as both Lyra and Rainbow took off like the literal Wonderbolts they were and left her behind—"fair." Sighing, she decided she'd just have to beat them both. It took a few moments more than normal to run the calculations, particularly with the range she was covering, but once she had a solution she plugged the patterned targets into a teleport spell and vanished with a pomf.

Appearing on the doorstep of her castle a moment later, Twilight looked up and back over her shoulder. Rainbow was beating Lyra, but it was going to be close. The pair were diving right at her, which would normally worry Twilight except she could always just teleport to the side—which she did as neither showed any sign of slowing.

Lyra, in Rainbow's opinion, cheated. Less than a second before Rainbow would have beaten her, Lyra teleported to the ground beside Twilight, leading to Rainbow grunting and stalling herself to land. "That's totally not fair!"

"You should have become an alicorn as well. Then you could do cool magic." Completely unrepentant, Lyra opened the door of the castle and held it open for the pair. "But to make it up to you, I'll cook lunch."

Walking in, Lyra closed the door behind the three of them and they made their way to the kitchen. A sound from a side hallway got her attention then, and just in time to see Twilight—or something that looked like Twilight—blast them with green magic.

Lyra staggered and tried to put up a shield against magic, only to have "Twilight" swirl with green flame to reveal Chrysalis—the changeling queen.

"The other two I need, but you…" Licking her lips and blasting away the strange alicorn's shield, Chrysalis nodded to Twilight and Rainbow. "Bind them," she told her escort, "and bind this one, too." Not one to spend a little magic when she could instead use a lot, she blasted the alicorn and robbed them of consciousness. "Now, our next target is the orange one."





Waking up from being blasted with an overwhelming amount of magic was a new kind of headache for Lyra. It was uniquely unlike anything she'd felt before, and she hated it. Looking around, she found herself struggling to turn her head and having even more trouble making sense of what she saw.

Only Lyra's experience in the Wonderbolts—and in particular on the dizzitron—let her figure out the reason things looked odd was that she was hanging upside down. The world was also green, which didn't seem right.

That's when the memory of what happened moments before she passed out returned to her aching mind. Changelings. She would have said the word aloud, but the fact everything was green and the "air" seemed about as thick as jello led Lyra to believe she was in a similar pod to what Celestia had been in during the invasion of Canterlot.

Holding still now, not wanting to show that she was awake, she looked around as best she could. Beside her, Rainbow Dash was likewise in a pod, and behind her, she just made out a hint of orange fur that would be Applejack. If nothing else, she felt honored to be held in such company.

Focusing herself, she centered her mind on the sources of magic within her and tried to coax them free—only to hear their cries of panic. She immediately stopped, her thoughts going to the source of that panic, and finding that she couldn't use magic at all.

She narrowed her mind down again, meditating into a focus she hoped would let her draw some magic—but still got nothing. Deciding it was time to figure out who would be coming to rescue them, she strained in the gooey pod to look around. Her heart sank when she spied Luna, Celestia, Twilight, and all of Twilight's closest friends. That wasn't everyone, of course, but it was the usual characters who tackled these kinds of problems.

"You are a conundrum."

The voice startled Lyra almost as much as the black face that took up all her vision. Chrysalis, queen of the changelings. Lyra pulled a silly face at her enemy.

"Who are you?"

Pausing mid-expression, Lyra thought about answering, but instead blew a raspberry as best she could in the pod. The furious expression on Chrysalis' face almost made the kidnapping worth it. She rolled both her eyes back and stuck her tongue out the corner of her mouth next. When Chrysalis reached into the pod—ripping through its wall—and dragged Lyra out, Lyra wasn't at all surprised.

It would have been the absolute best if Lyra could have made a witty quip but, with her mouth full of the thick goop, she instead managed a combination cough and sneeze that painted Chrysalis' front with the gunk. Not bad, she thought.

Groaning at the mess, Chrysalis used her magic to grab the strange alicorn's forequarters and lift her up to eye level. "What is your name?"

"Typical," Lyra said, coughing a bit more of the slime out before getting her voice working fully. "Last time we met, you didn't bother to even ask. What makes me more interesting now? The wings? The horn? My devilish good looks?"

Lowering her horn, Chrysalis blasted Lyra with potent magic, driving the mare to the ground under the force of it. "You think to make fun of me?! In my own hive?!"

The magic, Lyra realized, was completely unfocused and its intent seemed mainly to force her to the ground. When she lay there, the beam was cut off. "Look, I make fun of Celestia in her throne room all the time. I even hit her with a pie once. If you want me to not make fun of you, you shouldn't make it so easy."

"Just tell me your name."

"My name?"

"Yes."

"The name with which I am called? That being my name?"

"Yes."

Lyra relaxed and rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you say so? My name is Mike Robertson." The words were said with the full truth and honesty that she could muster. "You can ask Celestia if you like. She'll back me up on this."

Chrysalis, a consummate liar, couldn't detect anything but the truth. "You are lying," she said, regardless of her own gut feeling. "Tell me what your name is."

"Washout," Lyra said.

Again, it sounded like the truth to Chrysalis, and it seemed like it could be a pony name. "Well, Washout, it was quite a surprise to see a new alicorn. What is it you're the princess of?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Yes, I would."

"No, you wouldn't." Her own magic might not work, but there was something about comedy in Equestria that seemed capable of engaging no matter what restraints might exist.

"Yes, I would." The feel of something steering and controlling her ground Chrysalis' gears. This wasn't right. The pony before her shouldn't be able to force her to speak words she didn't wish to. "This isn't even a proper argument."

"Yes, it is."

"No, it isn't! An argument is a collected series of statements intended to present a proposition. It isn—" Eyes narrowing, Chrysalis glared at Lyra. "I don't know how you did that, but I think you are too dangerous to be outside a pod any longer."

For Lyra, the process of being stuffed back in the pod, and the pod itself sealing and filling back up with goop, and the worst part of her lungs filling with the stuff, was something she could have spent her entire life not learning the joy of. When Chrysalis inspected the pod, and caught Lyra's eye, Lyra stuck her tongue back out and crossed her eyes.

It was a long wait. Lyra hung in the pod, trying to collect as much information as she could. There was no sensation of emotional drain, like when she'd been fed on by the sirens, but she couldn't discount that something was making her not notice.

Luna, she spotted, looked asleep. It wasn't the peaceful sleep of a pony after a long day, but the sharp angled lines around her eyes betrayed effort. It struck Lyra that she might be calling for help in somepony's dream.





It was boring. Lyra's only communication, given she couldn't even so much as twitch her body, was blinking. Twilight was in a pond nearby, and bit by bit they had built a language based on blinking. It had been fun to do, but after each word started into the order of fifteen blinks at different cadences, it was growing unwieldy and annoying.

Then it was decidedly not boring. First Trixie and then Discord were brought in, both already sealed in pods, and both added to the array of them hanging already. Lyra tried to catch their attention, but Discord was crying, while Trixie was unconscious.

Can you see anything? Lyra asked Twilight, spending the time to blink a question mark, only because she knew Twilight would complain otherwise.

Look! Twilight replied, gesturing with her eyes toward the ground below where Starlight Glimmer had just been captured.

When Chrysalis shot Starlight, and Starlight turned into a changeling, it shocked Lyra. Then she remembered that there was one changeling in Equestria that would be on their side. The only problem was neither had invented a blink pattern for "thorax" or "Thorax."

The fight, the monologuing, and the final reveal of Thorax as more than just another changeling made Lyra's heart sing. The resulting blast from all the changelings following his lead not only destroyed the magic-suppressing throne but smashed the hive wide open and broke all the pods.

Shaking her head and standing, along with all the others, Lyra looked around for one particular creature. "Where's Ch—?" She was interrupted by Chrysalis revealing herself. "Oh, that ham. I'm going to blast her through a portal or something." Her own studies of magic had revealed quite a few portal-based-exile spells. She wasn't sure who had made them, but there seemed to be one for every occasion.

"Wait," Luna said, her eyes fixed on where Chrysalis and Starlight were. "It feels like this is a moment of import."

Focused on only one creature, Starlight held her hoof out to Chrysalis. "When Twilight and her friends defeated me, I chose to run away and seek revenge. You don't have to. You can be the leader your subjects deserve."

The world itself was quiet, as though a great tipping point had been reached. The wind, formerly gusting and blowing hard, had stilled to barely a soft breeze.

Chrysalis stared at the offered hoof, at the pony before her, and those that had been freed. In a way, it was sorely tempting. She'd always done everything for her hive, even warping her own plans of revenge so they would serve double duty to feed her children.

Turning her gaze slightly, looking at what had become of her children, it was less a nightmare and more relief. With her children now standing on their own, with Thorax guiding them, she felt the single greatest tie to them weaken and break.

Pure joy filled Chrysalis for a moment—joy at being able to do whatever she wished. Anger and fury flared next, no longer tamed by the need to support her hive. Reaching her hoof out to Starlight's own, Chrysalis felt perfectly aligned with her desires. She smacked that hoof away. "There is no revenge you could ever conceive of that will come close to what I will exact upon you one day, Starlight Glimmer!"

Watching Chrysalis fly away, Lyra looked up at Luna. "Now can I go zap her butt into whatever other realm a random portal spell will send her to? Look, she's not even flying that fast. I could catch her—mfffmr." A deep blue hoof shoved in her mouth told her exactly what Luna's opinion was.

Celestia rolled her eyes at Luna, only one of which was seen. "What my sister is trying to say is, everycreature deserves another chance. She may yet walk away without further attacks, and we have to give her that chance." Even with Lyra's desire to be proactive, it still made Celestia happy to hear she would have chosen exile over worse forms of punishment. "Follow me, both of you. Ah, Cadance is already over there."

Walking on Celestia's left, while Luna took her right, Lyra felt far too unimportant in present company but had no way to make an excuse to leave. The direction they were heading was to where Thorax stood talking to Cadance. She figured it was Thorax, at least, since he now looked nothing like the changeling he'd been.

"They're coming. What do I say?" Thorax tried to focus on Cadance because otherwise, he'd be staring at three alicorns marching toward him and—given what Chrysalis had just done—he could only imagine they were not happy.

"I can't see. Who is it?" Cadance asked, her back to the new arrivals.

"P-Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess… I don't even know who. Sort of green-blue—"

"That's Lyra. Don't worry about Lyra and don't worry about—" Cadance heard the hoof steps coming closer on the stone plateau that used to be the changeling hive. She turned and aligned herself to stand beside Thorax as the three reached them. It probably should have surprised her that he was the same height as her, but it would help him project the authority he didn't think he had. "Auntie, Luna, Lyra. It's always so good to see you, although maybe next time we could all go to the Crystal Empire instead? We have better catering."

Lyra broke first, snorting and letting out a laugh. "It's good to see you safe."

Never one to turn down a hug, particularly if it meant showing to Thorax that at least one other mare present would devour him, Cadance pulled her friend in tight and gave her a squeeze. "He's awkward and terrified," she whispered. "Can you please try to reassure him, because I don't think Celestia will."

"I'll do what I can. He did save my butt." Breaking apart again, Lyra stepped back to Celestia's side, but back just a fraction more.

"Thorax, as the new leader of the changelings, I look forward to discussing how we can improve our relationship in the future. Is there anything you need?" Celestia asked, putting on her best talking-as-equals voice.

"Well— I, err— We might— Um…" Thorax was struggling. He remembered how things had gone during the invasion, and while Cadance having enough power to blast every changeling out of Equestria's lands had been impressive, he'd come to know that she would never do such a thing unless in the most dire circumstances. Celestia had almost bested Chrysalis while she'd been boiling over with so much love that it had almost hurt him to look at her. Luna, he remembered, was the mare Chrysalis absolutely didn't want to fight, because she would play dirty. That left Lyra. He had no idea what was the deal with Lyra except that she was Cadance's friend.

Looking around, Lyra could see a lot of uncertain changeling faces, not so much looking at each other, but the rubble of their once-home. Shooting a glance at Cadance, Lyra nodded.

"Maybe Thorax is a bit overwhelmed by his changes and everything that's happened." Cadance saw instant relief on Thorax's face the moment she'd started talking, and by the time she was finishing, he was nodding. "But it would be a good idea to leave somepony here that has the authority to speak on behalf of Equestria and help the changelings in any way they need."

Already overwhelmed, Thorax nonetheless liked the idea of reducing the amount of scary ponies so he could start to calm down the changelings that he could already tell were on the verge of hopeless panic. "I can feel what they feel…"

The look of help from Cadance would have been enough for Lyra to volunteer, but Thorax himself looked so lost—and Lyra was a sucker for a creature that needed help. "I'll stay, with your permission princesses? I can figure this out and do the job right this time."

"You're sure?" Celestia asked. At Lyra's nod, she smiled. "Thank you, Lyra."

"I promise, she can help." Cadance reached a wing out to spare Thorax a little hug. "Lyra is absolutely the perfect pony for this task, Thorax. You both share a lot in common, actually, but I'll leave you to find out what." 





Having passed her instructions on to Twilight, so that Short Fuse wouldn't be literally left out in the cold, Lyra waved to the huge group of ponies up until they vanished. She closed her eyes and gathered her thoughts for what was to come. Of the changelings, she had recognized some kind of military force among them, before they became changed, and hoped she wouldn't cause them too much friction.

"E-Excuse me," Thorax said, trying to steady himself. "I mean— Can I start over?"

"Well, this is now your home, so I guess that makes me the guest, and you the resident who gets to make the rules. So a start over is fine. Want me to go first?" The palpable relief on Thorax's face put Lyra at ease. "Lyra Heartstrings, hopefully a friend soon, and here to do whatever I can to help."

Thorax had a head full of crossed wires about Equestrian society, but he was fairly sure of one thing. "Aren't you a princess?"

"Hardly. If they made me be a princess just for having wings, I'd make them disappear—or fly away really fast." Relief came quickly when she saw Thorax smile and then giggle. "How much damage was done to your hive?"

"Quee—" Halting before he said her title, Thorax took a breath to calm himself. "When the throne exploded, it destroyed everything above ground level. I think the magic doors for the lower parts are broken, but we should have shelter down there." Speaking his way through the answer made Thorax realize what Lyra was asking, so he finished by saying exactly that.

"Good. Familiar places will help anycreature… Oh, do you have a preferred collective term?"

"Everybuggy."

"Noling says that." Stomping over, Pharynx glared at his little brother. "We don't need a pony. I can get everyling fed and—" He stopped, realizing he didn't have all the information he needed. "Do we need love anymore?"

"If you do, I can give what I can," Lyra said. The shocked look from both changelings made her shrug. "It wouldn't be the first time I've helped emotivores. You know of the sirens?"

"You let a siren feed on your anger?" Pharynx was a little disarmed by the statement and question, but he knew of the more distant creatures of Equestria. "Ugh, that doesn’t matter. We need shelter, food, and security. The plains aren't safe at night unless we patrol to make them safe."

"Exactly my thought." Despite herself, Lyra liked Pharynx's quick thinking, if not his abrasive attitude. "I should have asked Shining to put a shield up, but I could do something similar myself for a night—so long as I don't have to do too much tomorrow. Shelter is taken care of, food is still questionable, and water?"

"There are wells in the hive," Pharynx said. "Would you let me drink some love to test?"

Lyra felt, again, a nudge from harmony. She couldn't say no to that, but she wasn't completely crazy. "Go ahead. Not too much, though. I saw what it can do to a pony if you take an excess, and you still need me to raise that shield."

Of course, Pharynx had considered the possibility of draining all of Lyra's love, stuffing her in a pod, and sending back a changeling to replace her. That was literally the hive's standard procedure. He looked at his brother and saw the simple, trusting smile on his face and sighed. "Yeah, we do."

The probing of her defense, Lyra let slide. She relaxed and thought about Sweetie. She got so focused on thinking about her wife, in fact, that she almost missed Pharynx's annoyed grunt. "Is there a problem?"

"I don't think he can drink. That means we don't need to kidnap ponies anymore!" Thorax did an excited dance where he stood, even buzzing his wings in joy. "But then, what do we eat?"

"Did you eat anything at all before apart from love?" Lyra asked.

"Love is how we fueled our magic. We ate"—here Pharynx shuddered—"other things when we needed to grow a new carapace."

"Show me what you have that you'd eat."

Lyra had expected mushrooms or other bugs, but the bleached white gourds they grew in their hive were something else. She used her magic like a knife to cut one open, then applied some heat to cook a small piece. Chewing it, she smiled. "Try this and tell me if you like it."

Taking the piece of food from Lyra's glowing gold magic aura, Thorax popped it in his mouth and chewed. The flavor was intense and rich and completely unlike the gourds had ever tasted before. "What did you do to it? This tastes—"

"Good. How can it taste good? These are horrible!" Staring at Lyra, Pharynx narrowed his eyes. "Did you use magic?"

"Only to cut it and heat it. With a little spice, I could do even better. Here, you don't need to use magic. Make a fire for me, and I'll show you how to roast them on it." Sometimes, Lyra mused, she was asked to fight a battle or defeat a monster. Sometimes, though, she just had to show some new friends how to cook.

Fire, normal fire, wasn't a common tool for the changelings, but they figured it out quickly enough. Some bundles of dry, packed moss from the bottom of the hive were fine to feed it, and in no time Lyra had them roasting squashes around the fire while it spat sparks and seemed to snatch the gaze of the new changelings.

"All the patrols and foragers are in," Pharynx said, settling down beside his brother.

"I'm a bit rusty on this shield, but it will hold anything short of a dragon outside. Uh, you don't get attacked by dragons, do you?" Lyra asked, mentally working over the shield spell in her head. When she couldn't remember it well enough, she decided she'd have to make a new spell and deal with the inefficiency.

When she cast the horrid mess of a spell, she had to blast it with so much magic it left her feeling drained, but not overly so. Shaking herself off after the expenditure of mana, she tilted her head up at the golden dome above them. "I hope it's not too bright, but I couldn't work any invisibility into it without using chaos magic, and I don't think you want a shield made with chaos magic."

"Wait." Lowering her head from staring up at the inside of the shield, a changeling asked, "What do you mean, you 'couldn't work any invisibility into it'? What spell did you use?"

Raising a brow at the changeling, Lyra asked, "Where did you learn about unicorn magic?"

"I—" Hanging her head a little, she replied, "I worked at Princess Celestia's school for many years as their secretary. I didn't do any teaching, but there was a lot of love there that made it easy to provide for the hive."

"Oh." Timing and facts connected before Lyra smiled ruefully. "I think I helped train your replacement. Ink Blot. You were Inky Stamp, right?" When they nodded, Lyra thrust out her hoof. "It's nice to meet you. Is that your preferred name?"

Blushing, sampling the emotions Lyra was giving off, the changeling couldn't find any recrimination-markers among them. "Corpa Allata." She had never liked her name much, and felt it was a bit high and mighty to have a two-word name meaning bugsmarts, but Chrysalis had given it to her, and that was back when their queen meant more than a means to her own ends.

Tilting her head to the side a moment, Lyra smiled. "A pretty name. Well, Corpa Allata—"

"Corpa is fine."

"Okay, Corpa, I just made that spell specifically for right now." Lyra never got sick of seeing that mix of horror and shock on people's faces, when she explained that she did something that most ponies think is impossible. "It's not that hard, but it makes your spells use a lot more mana than normal if you don't spend at least five minutes refining the series of already forgotten patterns down a little. It's been a bit of a day, as you can imagine, and I didn't want to go through all that."

"But you made a spell!" Only realizing she was shouting when she finished, Corpa covered her mouth with a hoof. "Sorry."

"It's a pretty recent, uh, discovery. I found a foal whose special talent was making spells. The creator of a spell doesn't need to know the pattern of it to cast it. Bringing the name of it to mind lets you produce it as if you'd done all the hard work. As I said, I've already forgotten that mess of a shield spell, but I could cast it again— Okay, I could, but then I'd pass out." Never happier than when she was in teacher mode, Lyra moved through the mechanics. "That filly has grown up a bit more now, and she's studying at Celestia's school."

"Wait, I remember you now. You were that—" Eyes widening, Corpa covered her snout again. "Human creature, that then turned into a pony. Now you're an alicorn?"

"Yeah. Turns out if you eat enough boxed oats, you can find a pair of wings in the bottom of it. Or, something like that. Why'd you leave Canterlot?" Realizing after speaking it sounded like an interrogation, Lyra cleared her throat. "You don't have to answer. I was just curious."

"I was too good. Changelings are not normally allowed to spend more than a year in one position. Queen Chrysalis let me have twenty. She wouldn't have, but I sent so much love home that she made an exception." Her voice lowering, Corpa fought not to cry—and lost. "I loved my job there."

"You could go back to it if you want. The wings do give me a little sway with ponies." For effect, Lyra fluffed her wings and spread the outer four primaries before closing them again.

Shaking her head, Corpa said, "No I can't. Even if they'd accept me as me, there's already a pony doing that job. Oh, I hope I didn't leave the filing system in too much of a mess. When I started, I didn't know the pony language so well, so I filed everything by how it feels in my head when a pony says i—" Watching as Lyra giggled like a maniac, she asked, "What's wrong?"

Trying to rein in her laughter, Lyra managed to say, "Ink Blot was driven crazy by it. I took ages with her to fix it all."

Tucking her ears back, Corpa slumped to the ground. "I'm so sorry!"

"All in the past, and hilarious to look back on. But I guess you're right. What about a new job?" Offering a hoof, Lyra hauled Corpa back to her hooves and walked back inside the hive. "You see, I've got this friend who desperately needs an actual secretary—instead of a little brother acting as one—and you would fit in perfectly."

"By 'fit in' you mean as a pony?" Corpa's ears sagged at the idea.

"No, as yourself. You know my origin, at least a little. I was accepted as myself even before I became a pony." Leading the way to the first campfire where some changelings were practicing roasting squashes, Lyra nodded to them and sat down. She watched them a moment, some trying to roast theirs above the coals while another argued that it would be easier to dump all their squashes into the coals and then chip off the burned bits. "Ask me who the last creatures I welcomed into Equestria are."

"Am I going to regret asking? What could be worse than changelings, after the attack on the wedding?" The weirdness of talking to an alicorn, Corpa had discovered, was offset by remembering said alicorn when she couldn't work the simplest spell.

"A group of sirens is now part of Equestria, openly and without any regrets. I can even call them my friends." It gave Lyra warm and fuzzy feelings, and it had nothing to do with her friend being the princess of friendship, nor even that she carried a duplicate of the source of friendship within her. "Plus, I think your new style shows a deliberate change in your lives. You can no longer feed on love, but rather eat the same things as regular ponies."

"Diet matters?"

"Not to me, and not to a lot of ponies, but to some it will. You also look nothing like the changelings that invaded the royal wedding—that only the ponies in Canterlot at the time saw." Taking an offered squash, Lyra used her magic to carve it in half. The inside steamed and smelled amazing. "Here."

Taking half of Lyra's squash, Corpa felt herself remembering all the meals she'd eaten as a pony, all the times she'd faked an appetite. None of them smelled as good as that roast squash on an empty stomach. She wanted to reply to Lyra, she really meant to say thank you, but all she could focus on was food.

Manifesting a notepad and pencil (with a moderate teleport from her office in Twilight's castle), Lyra wrote down a list titled, Goods Required. The first entries were foods and spices. As she sat at the fire, enjoying her meal, she listened to the changelings eat and start to talk. They were mostly discussing how they felt, what the changes meant, and frequently she heard Thorax's voice as he wandered around to reassure them.

Almost without meaning to, Lyra drew pictures of the changelings. Depictions of them sitting around their campfires, and even some younger-looking ones. The idea that there would be children here warmed her heart and, when Thorax arrived at their campfire, she nodded to him and then to a group of the younger changelings. "They remind me of my filly."

Nodding to that, Thorax sighed. "One pony who had my side from the moment I met her was Flurry Heart." At Lyra's incredulous look, Thorax actually managed to laugh. "Cadance said you'd want to hear about that. When I looked into Flurry's eyes, she looked back and past my black carapace, blue eyes, and hissing tongue. She laughed and reached out for me."

The single biggest thing reassuring Lyra that sleeping in a hive full of changelings, led by Thorax, was safe—was the tears in his eyes. "Foals do see past a lot of things, don't they? When I found Scootaloo, she was terrified and alone. Her parents had passed on, and all she had was the house I'd arranged to live in. You know, I looked into her eyes, though, and there was hope looking back. I've spent the years since trying to make myself be who she saw."

Turning his head so he could see the changeling nymphs playing, Thorax felt what Lyra had said deep inside. He smiled and closed his eyes, then lowered his head and drifted off to sleep.


𝐹𝒾𝓃


To be continued in the next book: