Fear is a disgusting emotion; I hated fear with all my heart. Bitter, rancid lemons and feces - that was what fear tasted like. But, for all my absolute loathing of the emotion, I did not think I could bring myself to live completely without fear. There was a reason it existed, after all. On an academic level, I completely agreed with and understood the reasons behind fear; it was my survival instincts telling me, ‘Something is wrong. FLEE, you fool!’ But, as I stood bloodied and panting from the exertion, I found, for perhaps the first time in my life, that I liked my fear; terror is one hell of a motivator. How strong is it?

I just powered through six feet of reinforced concrete in one punch, albeit with a little magical help.

Standing in the middle of our warehouse, emptied of our food stores and converted into a makeshift training ground, I was surrounded on all sides by rubble, weights, and exhausted warriors in training. My knuckles bled freely, spilling my crimson lifeblood on the floor; the magic in my body was being diverted to heal and reinforce more important things – namely, my muscles, tendons, and bones.

The premise of all of our activities here was simple: we break down the muscles and bones of our true forms, and then build them up again. It was exactly the same thing as normal exercise, except it was taken up to eleven. With numbing magic to remove our bodies self-imposed strength limits and healing magic to repair the insane damage, I had practically reduced my limbs to jelly and rebuilt them eight times over in the past four days.

For the first time in either of my lives, I literally poured sweat, blood, and tears into my physique; as William Ross, I just had not cared, and as Alvarium Rex, a sexy body was a wish away. And, for the first time in my life, I wanted a body for function, not form.

And it was all because the Shadow Prince had arrived.

“Again,” I called. Wrath and Greed leapt, their wings propelling them forwards as they set their fists on an impact course with my body. I contorted far beyond what my joints should have allowed; the magic in me pulled at my limbs like strings on a marionette. My joints screamed, my bones creaked, and the twin punches passed over my head without contest.

I was not the only one who had taken on the ‘training regimen from hell’. Klika too had decided she wanted fighting power, as well as about sixteen other changelings from outside my personal guard. Of that group, only Klika had opted to become the bearer of an experimental strain. Rather than augment the strength that she already possessed, Klika wanted something new and very, very dangerous.

At the end of Wrath and Greed’s assault, I looked over to where my firstborn daughter was training her new ability. “Hey! Watch where you point that thing!” Pride screeched, jumping away from a rapidly expanding, smoking, hissing hole in the floor.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Klika yelled back, her new appendage twitching to and fro, working out the kinks in its many joints. From the tip of her segmented, scorpion-like tail, a drop of a green liquid formed; it fell to the ground and ate its way through the floor with only a slight hiss. One of the scariest parts of her ability was that the color of the acid perfectly matched her binding gel, so if you saw it flying towards you, you did not know if it would immobilize you or remove your head.

“Well keep it pointed away from me until it stops firing all the time!” Pride shouted angrily. “Bah! I’m going over here!”

“Hey, Klika,” I called out to her. “Stop putting magic into it. That only makes the acid stronger!” She nodded in agreement and refocused on the task of striking her target with her tail’s barb.

I turned and limped over to the cloud where Selene sat. Unlike the rest of us, her body was still that of a child. At her age, and especially without the ability to speed heal, the physical aspect of our self-improvement would do no good, and might actually harm more than benefit. Instead, she was working on training her magic reserves and focus.

About seven feet away from her, I had to stop; the magic surrounding her was far too intense for any of us changelings to get physically closer. I could certainly see why she had earned the title of a goddess; no mortal magic user could ever channel three spells of that caliber and hope to survive. Surrounding this building were a high-powered Notice-Me-Not, a potent Remember-Me-Not, and a force-field that was as hard as diamond and stronger than steel. Selene single-handedly channeled more magic than I had ever experienced in total in my life. And though she could not concentrate enough to move from that spot without disrupting the spells, she assured me that she could hold it for a while longer.

An interesting side effect of those spells was the leakage of magic into the surrounding environment. Since said spells are all defensive in nature, they all draw from the will to defend, which in turn draws from love and happiness. So while she alone was not enough to feed the appetites of dozens of changelings burning magic like there was no tomorrow, her power did feel like a soothing, empowering breeze on our chitin, giving us the strength to push that much harder.

In another part of my training, I was testing how hard I could kick. My leg whipped around, encased in an emerald flame. Earth pony-style magic coursed through my veins. “Fore!” I yelled as my leg descended. The magically augmented kick connected with a block of concrete, explosively launching it across the warehouse. In the same instant, the tibia, fibula, and every bone in my foot shattered like glass. Balancing on one foot, I ignored the magically-muted pain in favor of watching the block disintegrate on impact with Selene’s shields, over fifty yards away, which barely wavered in response. Selene herself merely grunted, effortlessly bearing the sudden extra load. By the time the applause came from the changelings who could still move their arms, my bones were already starting to knit back together again.

Though I smiled to my people, I shuddered on the inside. I’m terrified of what Victor could do to us if he tried. But worse than knowing what he could do was not knowing what else he could do. If the situation came down to it, I would rend the world asunder if it meant protecting my family, regardless of the terror in my heart; however, I fear that my strength may not be good enough. Yet, as I looked around, seeing and feeling the determination of my family’s faces, I started revising my opinion. Maybe, though, just maybe, my family might grow strong enough that they have no need for me.

I drifted gently through the dim, micro gravity environment of hammerspace, guided only by the light of a few lamps attached to the jerry-rigged scaffolding. So long as at least one changeling remained outside at all times to serve as an anchor point, I could venture into my pocket dimension at will. Looking down, I checked the oxygen gauge on my respirator; until we got our hands on a set of high-volume carbon dioxide scrubbers, we had to bring our own air or run the risk of carbon dioxide poisoning. Even bringing plants would not be practical, as it would take a significant amount of light and infrastructure to support them. Satisfied that I had another good three hours of air, I drifted further along the path of lights.

The reason for my particular route was fear, fear that Victor would destroy our crop of humans for love harvesting in a fit of rage. Mere hours after the Shadow had been confirmed to be on an airplane bound for the Lone Star Republic, the former state of Texas, every single cocoon had been transferred into this void for safe keeping. Beyond that, every single possession, resource, weapon, et cetera, we owned and did not immediately need was transferred here.

By the next day, a few of my OCD changelings were in here organizing our horde. On day two, a framework was constructed to make storage and lighting easier, giving our common space the skeletal appearance of a new building. But by the third day, things started getting strange. Sal had discovered that is was possible to teleport straight into hammerspace, as it was merely a folded extension of our own universe, isolated but not severed.

There lay the problem; although it was never done in practice, seeing as most owners of a pocket dimension rarely had enough volume, it was possible for a unicorn to barge into the space. The volume of our own worked against us in that regard. So, to counteract this, I had folded the space into hyper-origami.

A left, then a right I flew, careful to only follow the green lamps. Though I could navigate this false world without the lamps as the spell that sustained the world gave me a mental map, the lights were just easier to follow. I came to a red light and allowed myself to sink kata to the direction I had been traveling; such a movement would have been impossible in three-space, like on Earth. Here, however, was another story.

Within the false world, geometry bent to my whims. I could fold space up like a pretzel and then some. In some places, three ninety degree turns added to two hundred degrees. In others, it was possible to travel in a perfectly straight line on a geometric plane and end up back where you started. In still other places, it was possible to move in the fourth spatial dimension, which exists at a simultaneous right angle to all three other directions. Even time, to a lesser degree, was in flux within this space; what was designed as a long-term preservation method was bastardized into a defense. For anywhere off the green lantern path, time spent there had only a slim correlation to the actual time that passed. Long story short, if you were not in the know, navigating this maze was downright impossible.

At the end of the lantern trail, I entered the makeshift room which housed our food stores. I checked my respirator gauge once more; only fifty-eight percent left. That gave me another two hours, if I stretched it. I shifted my lung capacity down in order to make the most of my supply, though the sudden drop in my blood oxygen levels resulting from that change left me dizzy.

Jak drifted over to me, having been performing his duty as head of the love collectors. “I hope you’re not here for lunch, your majesty,” he said, his voice muffled slightly by his more expensive and powerful rebreather. “That training session of yours has been killer on the supply.”

I shook my head. “No, I was just here to see how it was doing with my own eyes. What’s the loss?”

He drifted back towards the cocoon he had been tending to when I had arrived. “Ah, we’ve lost three and are in the process of losing two more. Exhausted the poor fellows, we did.” He tapped the cocoon with his knuckles. “This big guy probably only has a few weeks left in him. I’d be really surprised if he lasted the month. I’ve eased back on his venom dosage, thinkin’ maybe we could get more time out of him if we cut what we draw from him. We’ll see where it goes from here.”

Jak waved his hand to beckon one of his assistants over. She passed him a chart, and then went back to tending her pods. “Mahh…” Jak grunted, “down ‘bout forty percent from where we ought to be. I’d say cut back on your training-thingy, authorize a few captures, or both. Any way you chose, though, we’re gonna have to ration for a week, minimum.”

I winced at the thought of rationing. Morale was already lower than it had ever been. Several times in the past few days I had had to step in to quell rising panic. Many changelings of the Atlanta colony had chosen to flee to the branch colonies, or even abandoned the hive cities all together. I was running my Atlanta operations on a skeleton crew; though the love collectors could work from anywhere, the loss of the manpower in other places was starting to ache after only a few days.

On the flip side of the spectrum, I had changelings that wanted to train, to fight. Those changelings were the ones that had started training with me. We were the ones consuming far more than our fair share of the love supply.

Imposing a ration on either group would cause morale to plummet. For me to cut training would be similarly disastrous, as it would appear that I was giving up. The only thing to do would be to increase the time spent hunting out in the real world, or to bring more humans back to the false world for harvest. Suddenly, I thought, ‘That is, unless…’

“Jak,” I asked through my respirator’s mask, “where were you when Victor arrived at the Beehive?”

“Hmmm,” he hummed as he drifted away from the cocoons. “I was doing my early rounds at Livewire Club. Why?”

“Then you have not tasted the love of the Crystal Cursed, have you?” I inquired.

“No, I haven’t. Do you…?”

I nodded. “I want you or one of your subordinates to meet up with R&D. I’ll tell Sal that you’re coming. In this safe deposit box…” I passed him Taruke’s memory of storing Victor’s gift, “…exists a crystal that contains both hate and, well, it’s almost love. The Crystal Cursed produce a sort of synthetic love at will and at, as far as I can tell, no detriment to themselves.”

Jak’s eyes widened. “You mean… could that be the answer to our love shortage?”

“Possibly. R&D hasn’t studied the two versions of the curse in enough detail yet to determine how that works. Right now, they’re looking to hijack control of the loyalty and empathy-transmission components and to develop the counter-curse to completely disarm and remove the thing in the event that Victor gets the bright idea of placing the curse on one of us,” I explained. “I don’t even know if that love is any good to us. I don’t know if it was the false love or Victor’s hate that caused me to get sick after the meeting. If it did nothing harmful, then I can’t remember if I actually benefited from it.”

I put my hand on Jak’s shoulder. Looking him straight into his compound eye, I said, “This is why I need you. I need you to find out if that love sample he gave me is any good. But there is a reason why that crystal was isolated from us; it’s a summoning crystal. If the love content hits zero and the crystal breaks, he will appear right there. DO NOT SUMMON HIM!” I roared. “I cannot stress this enough; do not go near that man. If you do summon him accidentally, you are to flee. You will not return to hammerspace for a period of no less than two full days. You will not stop running for no less than two days. You will split up and run away from all other changelings. You will assume no less than twenty different human faces and six different animals. Do not stop to feed. Do not use magic if you can avoid it. And, if he does capture you, tell Change.lng this: ‘I think it’s time for the grand finale.’ He will give you access to the suicide spells in the archive… Use if needed.”

Jak gulped, as did the crowd of changelings that had gathered around us. “Do you really think it will come to that, sir?”

“I don’t think so, no,” I replied. “Victor doesn’t seem to be that type of person. He values an alliance between us and him far too much for him to do something so extreme. But ‘I don’t think so’ is short for ‘I don’t know.’ Jak…” I paused for a moment. The changeling in front of me shivered, his nerves were so wired. “…Jak, if things go F.U.B.A.R., take him down with you, ok? And if not, I’ll treat you to whatever you want when you get back.” I gave the nervous changeling a reassuring pat on the back; then I addressed the crowd with as much energy and enthusiasm as I could muster, “I promise that this will all be over soon. Now, get back to work, all of you!”

‘…While I go try to make sure this doesn’t blow up in my face.’

Pacing back and forth, my eyes darted between the disposable cell phone in my hand and the card in my other. ‘Calm down, Rex. He can’t hurt you over the phone. Nothing is going to- Nope, I will not finish that thought. You will not hurt me, Murphy.’ I stopped and flopped down into my chair. “Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on… you can do this,” I muttered. Then, louder, I added, “He wants to be allies. He wants to join together. I don’t trust him, but he didn’t lie about his offer…” My eyes found themselves glued to the floor; I could not bring them to look at the number. “Come ON! I can do this…”

Finally, I managed to pry my eyes off the floor and read the handwritten number I had gotten from Victor’s underling, the “Atlanta Regional Manager.” My fingers brushed against my throat as it shifted. “You’ve still have the games to play, Rex… Roxanne,” I said in a silky female voice. My fingers left my neck. I closed my eyes, and then opened them a second later. My thumb surged into motion, dialing the number before I could chicken out of calling a personification of hate and fear in order to set up the most insane gambit I have ever done.

The phone rang once, twice, and then, “Speak.”

In as close of an imitation of his secretary’s voice as I could muster, plus a heaping helping of sexy vocal mannerisms, I half said, half moaned, “Hello, big man. How are you, hmmm? I’m sure you remember me; you gave me such a big jewel. I wonder... no, you’d never let me suck your royal jewels. Still, a queen can dream, can’t she?” I had chosen my words to be disorienting by sheer absurdity. I would show no fear; instead, it would be lust.

“Stop playing games; why have you called me?” The voice on the other end of the line questioned. Is that annoyance and arrogance I heard? Belch… Perhaps I laid the sexy voice on too thickly.

“Straight to business, mmmmm? Very well,” I throw out the seductive tone for a more playful one. I don’t want him taking me too seriously, after all. I play on my terms; Victor will not dictate my life! “Roxanne the 'ling queen, at your service.” And now came the part I had been dreading. My voice became more serious at this point, though not nearly as serious as I felt at the time. “I want to discuss that alliance we talked about.”

“I’m listening, Shifting One,” Victor replied.

“We of the hive have come to an agreement regarding your proposition of a full alliance beyond our previously established trade agreement. For a few small, and I do emphasize small, conditions, we would be willing to establish a full alliance with you,” I explained. Standing up, I started to pace again.

“What are your terms?”

‘Let’s see. Do you like having fun? Do you want to play a game, Victor?’ I thought. Then, still with the female voice, I said, “First and foremost, you must promise never to use your dark magic on one of my changelings, even for the most innocent of purposes. I cannot stress enough how catastrophic your wrath, the very core of your magic, is to our bodies; it is a toxin like no other. Second, do not even think of touching Selene; she is my daughter under my protection and is an adoptive royal in my hive. The third is more of a request than a true condition. I propose a pair of... friendly games, let’s say, to help us get to know one another. What do you say?”

Victor replied, “I know full well just how my magic would affect you; I know more of changelings than you seem to think. I also consider myself a man of justice, a man with laws - laws I strictly enforce, no matter the perpetrator.”

‘Your laws? Not THE laws?’ I questioned silently.

“However, if you should so wish, even if one of your changelings should break these laws, I shall leave its punishment to you, so long as I feel it fits the crime.” I honestly did not expect that from him. Maybe this could work out after all.

“I also have no problem with leaving Selene out of this,” the shadow man said. “She was never part of my plans to begin with. I have full confidence in your ability to keep her safe. As for the games... what kind of games do you have in mind?”

‘Games that are not really games,’ I wanted to reply. He thinks of me as a child. While that may be true to an extent – I am still twenty and a bit of a hedonist, after all – I have over six decades of shared memories from three generations of humans for my direct use, as well as the potential for any quantity more should I wish it. I asked for two games, but I’m playing three. “That is acceptable. For the games, they are each a one-on-one game of wits. Every single move you can think of, every person, spell, and item you possess, you are free to use, no restrictions. I do advise not killing; it’s not that type of game. No, simply, I have two objectives I wish to complete by a finite date; let’s say... the day the Crystal Empire emerges.”

Despite what I made it sound like, that date was not arbitrarily chosen. Granted, my first plan had no real end date – as long as I keep trying, the odds progressively leaned more in my favor – but my second plan could be in motion long before that time and would only express itself upon the empire’s restoration.

“In the first game, if I fail, you will not be affected at all. If I win... well, that would be telling. It’s nothing bad for either of us, I assure you. In fact, you may even like what comes of my plan. I just know that you will resist the whole time; that’s just the way the board is set up, I’m afraid.” So, perhaps I lied by omission. Well, he could not be hurt by what he does not know in this case.

“The second game is much simpler. I have exactly three moves to set up a situation to which you must counter. All three moves will be made at some time within the next month. You have unlimited moves afterwards. The result of this game will become clear as the Empire appears.” Game two was the one I was more worried about. It had the highest chance of backfiring of the two games, which could be disastrous for me. But I could not stand idly by; one tyrant’s happiness was not worth the people of three kingdoms. I asked, “Is that acceptable?”

“I see nothing wrong with that. I accept. When would you like to get together to finalize this in writing?” Victor replied over the phone. I smiled. Even though I loathed the idea of being anywhere near that man, it was in my best interests to be near him to keep an eye on him; keep your friends close and enemies closer and all that jazz. More importantly though, I needed his eyes kept on me and only me. The question is, do you see too much of me to get the big picture?

I put my seductive tone back into my voice. “Ohhh, I would like that very much, big man. Shall I fly to you, or you to me?”

“If this is to be an alliance of equals,” Victor replied, “then let that set the precedence. Let’s meet on neutral ground this time. Cuba, perhaps?”

“I had thought of Las Vegas,” I suggested. “I have external affairs with my human contacts to attend to there in a few days, as well as my hopes of spending a few days at play.” I delivered a partial picture while creating the illusion of someone more interested in play than work, especially in the light of our recent encounter. “Though, since anywhere out of the state of Georgia is beyond my territory,” I lied, “Cuba definitely works. It’s your choice.” I wanted it to seem like he was in control, so I offered a choice. “Though I have to wonder, what would poker be like empath versus empath? No true poker face, after all.” I then offered a challenge as bait. If he takes, I’ll have an opportunity to set up a lie by hyperbole.

Victor replied, “I suggested Cuba because it is in neither of our countries. Afterwards perhaps we could fly to Las Vegas together to celebrate our newfound status as allies. I’ve always rather been weak to my vices, and the strip is so lovely this time of year.”

‘So you have hedonistic tendencies, too?’ I thought with growing confidence, ‘I can work with this.’ Aloud, I answered, “Cuba it is then. I shall be in touch. You know, I’ve always been a bit of a gamer; play well, sir.”

“Myself as well, though I play to win. I’ll be seeing you soon.” With that, the line clicked dead.

I hummed merrily to myself, dropping the feminine voice for my normal baritone. ‘Walk into my parlor, said the spider to the fly…’ I buzzed my tattered, gossamer wings happily. ‘…or is it ‘said the fly to the shadow?’ I wonder…’

Less than three hours after my phone call to Victor, I stood over my daughter’s bed. “Do you think you two can do that for me?” I asked Selene as I tucked her in for the night. I planted a light kiss on her forehead and ran my fingers through her starry hair.

She wriggled deeper into her bed sheets. “Yeah! That’ll be really fun, like having a big dream party. See, I can totally get everyone there!”

“Good, good. I can’t wait,” I replied before turning to the door. “See you in a few minutes!” As the door clicked closed behind me, I muttered, “Game two, round one: start.”

I came back thirty minutes later, when I was sure that Selene was asleep. Creeping into her room, I snuck next to her bed. Gently, I placed my hand against her shoulder and pushed.

With a twist of my body, I folded my form out of the real world and followed Selene into the construct of hammerspace. After strapping a pair of rebreathers that were purposefully left near the entrance to the realm, I drifted down the lantern trail, levitating the sleeping Selene along side. Right before the red lantern that marked the entrance to the storeroom, I made a normal left instead. A short while later, I came across a tent that had been set up as my temporary private retreat.

Gently, I let the sleeping girl drift out of my hands, staying airborne for over a minute in the low gravity environment before she settled softly on the ground. I lay down next to her and let the fatigue of the day finally claim me.

“It took you long enough,” Chrysalis said mere seconds after I arrived in the dream. The dreamscape around us was a completely white void; the only distinguishing features were the stone archway that had appeared with Luna and Selene’s partnership and the occupants of the room. For as far as the eye could see, thousands and thousands of changelings, the combined sleeping population of both of our hives, hovered within the void, each drawn into the shared dream through the link.

“Certain precautions take time,” I retorted. “I’m playing a dangerous game here. I will take no chances.”

“I see,” Chrysalis replied with a nod.

The moon carving on the archway flashed blue. Selene skipped through, humming merrily, while followed by Princesses Cadance, Celestia, and Luna, in that order. The three Equestrians gasped and backpedaled slightly upon seeing a veritable swarm of changelings. To quell their nerves, I said, “Relax, your highnesses. We’re just here to talk. Selene, go find Klika and play with her, Ok?”

“Got it! See ya!” She called out as she ran towards the hundreds of dreaming changelings.

“What is the meaning of calling us here?” Luna inquired as Selene wandered off. “‘Tis most highly irregular.”

“Sombra,” Chrysalis answered. Around us, the changelings hissed and spat and cursed at the name. Celestia frowned and Luna scowled, but Cadance just looked confused. “It seems that he is not as dead as we thought,” the changeling queen added.

“But he was sealed away months before my banishment!” Luna declared. “Surely no mortal unicorn could survive that long, let alone after being made an incorporeal shadow!”

“And there inlays the problem; if what I have seen is true, he was no longer a unicorn at all. Even his soul might be so twisted that the normal rules don’t apply to him,” I responded.

“And you have seen him? How?” Celestia asked.

“Can somepony please tell me who this ‘Sombra’ character is?” Cadance asked.

I looked over to the pink princess and replied, “Long story short, he’s the former tyrant ruler of the Crystal Empire who practically enslaved his entire population for his sick pleasure. And Celestia, no, I did not see Sombra himself; I met Sombra’s counterpart in my world.”

“There’s two of him now?” Celestia asked, and though her mask never broke, the emotions wafting off her body betrayed her gloom.

“Not exactly,” I replied. “Princess Luna, before I explain any further, I have a request to make of you. For all of our sakes, leave now and go searching for Sombra’s dream. When you find it, act as if you randomly stumbled across it. I am purposefully leaving you in the dark so that you do not have to feign ignorance; discover as much as you can from him. Meanwhile, I will explain the situation to Princess Celestia and Princess Cadance; they can fill you in after you make contact. If Sombra believes you discovered him on your own, then any actions your nation takes as preparation would seem to be of your own violation, rather than aided by me. With their eyes off me, I’m free to help you more.”

“I believe I understand why such measures are necessary,” Luna replied. Her form waivered and, as she faded out of the dream, she looked towards Celestia and said, “Fare thee well, sister!”

The moment Luna was gone, I said, “Victor DiVinci… that is his name. Assuming he follows the same pattern as the other Gatekeepers, neither can cross to the other’s world. The problem lies in the fact that the prison holding both Sombra and the Crystal Empire is weakening, and when both return to Equestria, Victor will be there to drop a brainwashed and magically augmented human army into Sombra’s lap. You’d have a fully prepared army drop on you with only seconds warning before the bloodshed started.”

“Faust no…” Cadance whispered.

“That is the worst case scenario,” Chrysalis added. “Rex showed me the memory of his encounter, along with everything he could gather on this Victor. That is why we are here; we want Equestria to have as much of a warning as possible. The Crystal Empire cannot fall to his hooves.”

“I must ask, why do you care, Queen Chrysalis?” Cadance asked. “I would not have expected you to care.”

“The Crystal Heart,” Chrysalis answered. “Even without being anywhere near that artifact, it single-hoofedly determines the fate of my entire nation. Should the empire prosper, then the love radiated across the planet is like a feast to us. Should fear and despair reign, then it strikes us like blight. Imagine, if you will, an artifact that can cause crops across the world to grow twice as big without any extra resources, or destroy half of all the crops in existence. That is what the Crystal heart is to us.”

“Beyond that, I cannot stand the idea of a conqueror bringing bloodshed,” I added. “What if Victor’s armies march south and start attacking other nations? What if the unicorns Sombra captures are enslaved and shipped off to Earth to augment Victor’s armies? I’m keenly aware of how the fusion of magic and machines increased power. Unfortunately, there is little I can do right now to stop it beyond giving you information.”

“But why not?” Cadance asked. “I’ve seen the weapons you gave Aunty Celestia and the Elements. Why not let us buy more to defend ourselves with? Or instruct us how to make such weapons?”

“Because… That would draw attention to me if I supplied you with weapons. If I taught you how to make them, Victor would know exactly who was helping you,” I replied. “Look, I had to enter an alliance with him to guarantee that he would not turn on my hive. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer and all that… By even speaking to you now, I’m betraying him. Besides, you have the Elements of Harmony.”

“Why are we meeting here in a dream anyway?” Cadance asked, looking around at the white void around us. “Why not send Beta Rex to meet us in Canterlot?”

“Sombra’s a minor clairvoyant, we think, or at least maintains an insanely powerful spy network even to this day,” Chrysalis replied. “Victor knew things about both worlds that neither he nor Sombra should have possibly known. He knew of Rex’s activities and the signing of the treaty. He knows of the griffin’s reaction. I fear how much he knows about me. And to think he figured all of this out while trapped in ice. If Rex sent his little meat puppet-” I shot Chrysalis a pointed look, “-then Sombra would know.”

I said, “Let me give you a quick rundown on what I know. Victor is aggressive, ambitious, arrogant, and a self-admitted hedonist. Am I correct that these traits are common to dark magic users?”

“Very much so,” Celestia replied. “Dark magic draws on the worst of a pony’s soul, corrupting them. Lust for power, lust for money, blood lust… regular lust, all of that is amplified in dark magic users.” Celestia looked away and muttered, “I should know…” Shaking her head, she returned to a normal speaking volume. “You should also see signs of megalomania, hubris, and vanity.”

“Wrath, pride, greed, and lust… So, four of the seven sins. Good to know.” I paused momentarily. “All right, in no particular order, Victor claimed to be a man of justice, though he said his laws rather than the laws. Given his criminal background, that makes sense. He has a spell, his Crystal Curse, that can augment a person’s abilities and make them completely loyal to him. Victor is extraordinarily wealthy and has a large portion of the world’s organized crime at his beck and call. He rose to such high power in less than three years, implying that he has been a gatekeeper for less time than I have. His paramilitary organizations are larger than thirty times my hive’s entire population, a small army. And he is Sombra’s personal student when it comes to magic, so anything Victor knows implies that Sombra can do it too.

“Then on Sombra’s side, Victor claimed that he had spent a long time interacting with Sombra, convincing him of something. Given that each gatekeeper spends the night with their counterpart in the dream world and that Sombra spent nearly a thousand years alone, it is quite possible that the Sombra of today is not the same Sombra of yesterday. That is part of the reason I sent Princess Luna to find him without this information. She will remember only how he was, so she can give us a good idea of how he has changed without my bias,” I explained.

“I see,” Celestia commented. “Very clever.”

“Thanks. Now Princesses, Queen Chrysalis, I have to ask you, have you noticed anything odd, especially concerning Chrysalis, Luna, or myself? Victor mentioned something he heard ‘in the whispers of the void’ and that he could ‘smell its stench all over’ me. I think it has something to do with my gatekeeper status.”

“No, I have not noticed anything. Luna, however, would know. The Night and the Void often bleed together,” Celestia answered. “However, much of what lives in the Void is subservient to Chaos or Harmony and tend to exist in the spiritual plane. If something from the void has infected your souls, I shall have Luna exorcize it. Even the weakest of Void beings are not something even us goddesses like to look upon, and the strongest have been known to shatter even the strongest of minds merely by being looked upon.” I glanced over at my counterpart, who had done the same to me. The sun princess added, “Luna, though not immune, just handles it better than most.”

A faint beeping sounded in my ear, signaling that my time was up. I started fading as my body started waking up. “Whoops. I’m out of time. We’ll talk more tomorrow night and decide on a course of action. Don’t do anything until Luna makes contact. Keep safe…”

I opened my eyes to the nearly black sky of the false world. The oxygen alarm on my rebreather beeped once more in my ear before I shut it off. I had just enough fresh air to make it to the exit before I needed to breathe the carbon dioxide rich atmosphere of hammerspace. Grabbing the still sleeping form of my adopted daughter, I drifted out of the tent. With a few flaps of my wings, I was homeward bound.

Author's Notes:

*Ding* have a chapter.

This one is a minor collab with InfiniteBrony and his story Gatekeeper: Prince of Darkness. His story has Victor's side of the phone call. Besides the dialogue of the call itself, I have no idea what he wrote and he has no idea what I wrote. Fun!

(IMPORTANT: I'm publishing this chapter ahead of InfiniteBrony's corresponding chapter, instead of at the same time. Be patient for his.)

I'm already 95% done with chapter 54 at this time. It is an interesting chapter, to say the least. I felt that Rex tended to dominate any situation he found himself in, so I'm writing a chapter in which Rex doesn't appear. Instead, it will be the other characters in the story. *Flutteryay!*

I do have to thank BeneathTheShade. His comment on my last chapter inspired some of the things on this chapter and my next chapter, so you have that to look forward to/enjoy right now.

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In this chapter, I mentioned 2 games that Rex is going to be playing. Well, he calls them games, but really, they are his plans for interacting with Victor.

In another part of the chapter, I said that Rex moved "kata." That is the equivalent of "down" in 4D. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-space

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Thanks to Alternate Madness for his proofreading skills.

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Any comments? Questions? Advice? I love responding to you all just as much as I like reading what you have to say. I probably would have not put in as much effort as I have if not for your response! Thank you all!