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The Celestia Code

by iisaw

Chapter 17: 17 Filling in the Gaps

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Chapter Seventeen
Filling in the Gaps

The next morning, all my scheduling was thrown into disarray when I woke to the sound of Sesseressia screaming in horror.

Sometimes, I wonder why I even bother making plans.

"My legs!" Sesseressia shouted. "My legs!"

I scrambled up and stared at her, shaking with an adrenaline rush. I hadn't separated us with a shield before going to sleep. The changelings had been even more shocked at that than they had been to discover they'd actually gotten nourishment from Jigsaw and I without noticing it.

The general had gotten to the heart of the matter with her usual directness. "Why?"

"Because friends trust each other," I said. And because I'm taking a calculated risk, I did not say out loud.

With all the possible ways my choice could have gone wrong, it was pretty surprising I had slept as soundly as I had. Maybe it was Jigsaw humming a bit of the Hearth-Warming Carol just as I was drifting off: The fire of friendship lives in our hearts... Of course, the rude awakening to panicky yelling wasn't the best capper to a restful slumber I could ask for.

Sesseressia was staring down at her own legs in horror, skittering around like she was trying to shake them off. It was weird, because I couldn't see anything wrong with them. They were smooth and whole and—

Oh, wait. Whole, not hole—or holes. There weren't any. Holes, I mean. The general's legs no longer had the decayed-looking gaps in them that seemed to be a common feature of the changelings. A quick glance at her wings told me that they were also—whole.

"Sesseressia, stop!" Jigsaw said, rushing forward and taking hold of her shoulders. The general's head jerked up, her eyes still wild with fear but she stopped dancing around. "Are you in pain?"

"I... I... no." Her breathing began to slow. "It doesn't hurt. But look at them!"

Jigsaw glanced down. "Nice," she said. "Long, strong... very nice, actually."

"W—what?" Sesseressia stopped moving, and stared at Jigsaw. "This isn't funny!"

Jigsaw nodded. "No, you're right, it isn't, but it might not be a bad thing, either."

I had looked over Csharreee, and she seemed perfectly normal—well normal for a changeling, that is. "General?" I asked. "May I examine you? I might be able to—"

"Did you do this?" Sesseressia whirled on me, pulling out of Jigsaw's grip. She lunged forward, horn-first—and pulled up at the last instant.

I hadn't moved. I could have stopped her with a tiny fraction of my power, but I let her make her own decision. She had made the right one. "May I?" I asked again, quietly.

Her jaw muscles tightened, and she nodded.

I probed her with my magic. The lack of holes wasn't an illusion. The changes were real and physical. Her chitinous hide seemed softer and more pliable as well, and her horn, while still not straight, was merely wavy instead of jagged.

"Hmn," I considered for a moment. "Csharreee, could you stand next to the general, please? Put one of your hooves next to one of hers."

The captain was obviously a bit wigged-out by the whole thing. She had even carefully checked her own limbs for signs of change as I had examined the general. She walked stiffly forward and lowered her hoof to the floor, taking care not to actually touch her superior officer, as if the lack of perforations might be catching.

"Yes," I said. "There's a color change as well. You're now a dark charcoal gray instead of jet black."

"Why is this happening?" The general asked. "And what, exactly, is happening? Why am I changing like this?"

I turned my snort of laughter at a changeling asking why she was changing into a clearing-my-throat noise. "That's something else we should check. Can you try changing into somepony else, please?"

She managed it, but only barely, and it took her much longer than it should have.

"Still," Jigsaw said, no doubt trying to lighten the situation. "Great legs."

Sesseressia had taken on the form of a tall, willowy unicorn mare. She looked down at herself and hissed in dismay. "This is not the body I was trying for!"

I made another mental note and then said, "Okay, you can change back now." The word I should have used was "may," instead of "can," because the general nearly couldn't. It took her almost thirty seconds, and she was back at the edge of panic before she finally managed it. Her changeling form still lacked holes.

"Take a few deep breaths," I told her. "Then tell me what you were actually trying for. Maybe there's a reason you were forced into that form. Who was it you were copying?"

"I don't know!" the general hissed through her teeth. "I've never seen a pony that looked like that!"

I turned to Jigsaw. "Maybe a fantasy mare of yours, that she... intuited somehow?" I was almost certain that changelings weren't capable of telepathy.

"Uhm," Jigsaw said, a blush coming to her cheeks, "actually, she spent a good bit of the day yesterday looking like Countess Coloratura."

Oh.

Okay—not thinking about that, I shook my head. "Well, I can't figure it out, exactly, but I'm betting it's connected with the feeding phenomenon we noted last evening. Maybe friendship—"

"But," Csharreee interrupted me, "I, too, was nourished by your friendship, and I am unaffected!" She briefly flashed into a copy of Jigsaw to demonstrate.

"Well," Jigsaw said, her blush deepening. "Unless you and Twilight were doing a different sort of multiplying than I thought you were, Sesseressia and I were being quite a bit more friendly."

Continuing to not think about that, I came up with a suggestion. "Sesseressia." Both the general and Jigsaw looked a bit startled that I'd called the changeling by name. "I can't be sure that whatever has happened to you won't continue to progress if you remain in our... well, in Jigsaw's company. Maybe you should return to your hive."

She hesitated and pawed at the ground, uncertainly. "No," she finally said. "I have my orders." She glanced up at Jigsaw briefly. "And I do not want to leave. Not yet."

"Perhaps Csharreee could carry a message to the hive?" I suggested. "Queen Chrysalis may have some knowledge about this phenomenon."

"But what about algebra?" the captain protested.

I couldn't help grinning. "Algebra will still be here when you get back," I reassured her.

= = =

I set Sesseressia and Jigsaw to searching the ruins again. With me for a chaperone. I'd pick out an area for them to go through and then settle down to work on my calculations. Thanks to the magic of multitasking, I was catching up on my original schedule.

Since they could concentrate on the job, instead of each other, Jigsaw and the general even found a few books. I destroyed the first two when the general wasn't looking. I might have been much calmer than the night of the bonfire, but I still felt my decision was sound—appalling and very possibly evil, but sound.

The third book was another ledger. It was most likely safe, so I hit it with a conservation spell instead of crumbling it to dust. It was very like the first one I had found except it had been kept by somepony who was interested in more than just names and figures. And so, I learned what the phrase "debt forgiven" meant. It meant death.

In a society that stole everything physical it needed, what could it possibly use for currency? Turns out it was magic. Not just spells, but pure magical energy. Each citizen owed a certain amount of it to feed the dark crystal, and so it could be used as a medium of trade. Unicorns who fell into debt, who had no way to repay what they owed, were—drained. Completely.

I silently raised my disdain for their whole racist culture another few notches and made the book fall to ashes. Then I picked up my notebook and went back to calculating how to destroy the last great artifact of their civilization.

= = =

The answer was appalling. I went back and did a quick recheck of my methodology and found nothing wrong. Then I did a very rough estimate using an alternative method and found the original answer well within the new margin of error. The dark crystal held so much energy that releasing it all at once would make my little meteor strike look like a wet firecracker.

I thought about burning it all away by looping something heavy through the cornucopia, like tons of sand or boulders. But whatever I chose to teleport would need to be removed from the pedestal before it could be used again. A few quick calculations told me that it would take seventeen months to deplete the dark magic by that method, and that was only if I could keep shifting tons of material twenty four hours a day.

There had to be a better way.

Before I had any more time to think about the problem, another one arrived: the Royal Majesty of the changelings herself. Csharreee followed in her wake, looking even more jittery than on the night I'd caught the general and Jigsaw together.

I carefully tucked my notebook away before rising and bowing to Chrysalis. "Your Majesty," I said, in a casual tone.

She nodded to me, but she was looking at Sesseressia. "Princess," she replied distractedly.

The general dropped what she was doing and approached her queen. Before she could bow or offer an obeisance, Chrysalis grabbed one of her forehooves in her magic and pulled it up to examine it. She dropped it and then circled the general, examining her in minute detail, her horn flashing to life occasionally.

She stopped when she was in front of the general again and pointed to Jigsaw. "That is the pony you have been associating with?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Tell me everything about your relationship," she commanded sternly.

"Hey!" Jigsaw protested. "I'm standing right here, you know!"

"You can leave if you wish," Chrysalis said, still locking eyes with the general.

Jigsaw stomped to the corner of the building and then stopped and looked back at me. "Aren't you coming, Twilight?"

Under different circumstances, I wouldn't have wanted to hear details of what went on between Jigsaw and her changeling friend. No, actually, even then, I didn't want to hear them, but I felt I needed to. "I... I have to stay, Jigsaw. This could be very..."

Jigsaw fled without saying anything. I'm pretty sure she was crying.

The queen's questioning was very thorough and very embarrassing. It was also very enlightening. As far as I could tell, if it was love that had fed the general, it wasn't based on any sort of deception. From what she said, it was much more likely that it was plain old camaraderie, a budding friendship, that had wrought the change in her.

Chrysalis shook her head angrily. "What's the difference? Love of any kind feeds us no matter how we get it! Why should it do this?" She waved a hoof at the general.

It came to me in a sudden flash of insight. "It's all the difference in the world!" I went on as she turned her angry glare at me. "Without the exact ingredients, magic won't work properly, and a crucial part of friendship... true friendship, is honesty. Your people's way of deception can only take the most basic sustenance from the ponies they deceive. With open and knowing consent, the love of a friend isn't just nourishing, it's transformative![1]
----------
[1] Okay, so maybe I was waxing hyperbolic there, but I get excited when I'm on the trail of a new discovery.
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I expected a reaction, but I had no idea that my words would literally stagger her. "I... I could be..." She regained her balance and looked away from me as stopped speaking. Her last words were so quiet that I couldn't be anything like certain, but I thought they were, "...beautiful again."

"I beg your pardon, Your Majesty?" I asked quietly.

"Nothing!" she hissed. She waved Csharreee forward and snapped, "Rejoin the ponies and do not leave them again. Do whatever the princess commands of you. I will send two drones to bear messages if necessary, and will visit each morning in person." She caught herself, as if something had suddenly occurred to her, and turned to me. "Does that suit you, Your Highness?"

What would have suited me right then would have been a giant-crystal-sized garbage can, and two first-class airship tickets to Canterlot, but I learned long ago to work with what I had to hoof. "That's fine, Your Majesty, but I would ask one more thing of you."

"Yes?" she asked warily.

"We are here among our trusted inner circles and there is no need to be formal. Would you please call me Twilight Sparkle?"

I half expected her to protest, and she hesitated for a good while, but she finally said, "I will do that, Twilight Sparkle. And I ask that you call me Chrysalis... as long as there are no peasants or drones present."

Work with what you have to hoof, Sparkle. "Of course, Chrysalis!" I nodded happily.

= = =

We returned to the library and I took a few sheets of paper and drew up a review quiz and worksheet to keep Csharreee busy. Then I touched the magic trace to locate Jigsaw. She was out by the edge of the mesa near where we had watched the meteor hit.

"She's still pretty angry, so I don't think we should gang up on her," I told Sesseressia. "Just one of us should go to her now."

Sesseressia nodded. "It should be me. I think... I hope I can convince her to forgive me."

"I'm sure you can."

She made as if to go and then stopped. "I... I don't mind admitting that I am afraid."

"Of losing her friendship?" I asked. "Or of... changing more?"

Sesseressia laughed. "Both, I suppose."

"Well," I said, "seeing as how those two might be mutually exclusive, you're going to have to face your fear. One of them, at least."

She nodded. "Of all the things I had thought to face in the service of my queen..."

"Life's like that sometimes," I said. "In fact, life's like that a lot."

I walked out of the library with Sesseressia and watched as she tested her changed wings. "They don't work as well," she grumbled. "No holes, and they're less functional?"

"If it helps," I told her, "I promise to use any powers at my command to help you through—whatever changes you're going through." It didn't sound very reassuring, even to me.

"Thank you... Twilight Sparkle." She wobbled away into the sky.

= = =

=

Next Chapter: 18 Changes Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 19 Minutes
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