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The Celestia Code

by iisaw

Chapter 18: 18 Changes

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Chapter Eighteen
Changes

While I tutored Csharreee, I kept a bit of my attention on Jigsaw's monitoring spell. When her mood turned positive, I relaxed quite a bit. When it turned happy, I let my focus slip away, my own mood brightening considerably.

"Is this right?" Csharreee asked me, holding up her worksheet.

"Not quite," I told her, and made a slight correction. "Say! There's a really good way to remember this formula: You can sing it!" I hesitated, "Uhmn... you can sing, can't you?"

"Yes, it is part of our training."

O—kay. "I'll go through it once and then you join in, okay? We can even sing it as a round!" I took a deep breath and tapped out time with my hoof. "Neg-a-tive bee, plus or minus rad-di-i-cal, bee squared minus four ay-y cee, all o-ver two ay."

She sang it through and then I showed her how to come in after "radical". We flubbed up a couple of times, laughing, and then got the song going really well. We kept it up, grinning our heads off, until we were interrupted.

"Holy stars, Twilight! Are you guys actually singing math?"

We broke off and turned to find Jigsaw and Sesseressia in the doorway. "The quadratic equation, to be precise," I told her.

"You ponies are very strange," Sesseressia observed, dryly.

"Hey!" Jigsaw said. "Don't lump me in with the eggheads! I'm a jock at heart."

I made an attempt to apologize to Jigsaw, but she waved it off. "I understand, Twi. I was just embarrassed."

I didn't know what to say, so I just hugged her.

"So," Jigsaw asked as we broke off the hug. "What's the plan, Princess?"

"We only have a few hours until sundown, so I think you two ought to relax and enjoy yourselves."

"Yes, ma'am!" Jigsaw beamed.

= = =

The two drones showed up just after dark. Sesseressia explained to them about not needing to be fed, and while she was talking, one of them openly stared at her legs.

"Take a good look," Sesseressia hissed, shoving her hoof under the drone's muzzle. "And remember that even though I don't need to feed right now, I could still suck you dry just for fun!"

Jigsaw leaned over and whispered to me, "Isn't she cute when she's all forceful and menacing?"

The general was right. Ponies are strange.

We stayed up late, for several reasons. I think Sesseressia was nervous about what she was going to look like when she woke up; Jigsaw was having too much fun;[1] and Csharreee and I were called upon to repeat our musical performance, eventually convincing Jigsaw to join in. Sesseressia flatly refused. "I am the general of a great army," she said with immense dignity. "I don't do campfire songs."
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[1] I had no idea she had packed a flask of apple brandy. It certainly wasn't on any of the checklists.
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= = =

It wasn't surprising that I dreamed that night, but it was a bit odd that I knew I was dreaming right from the start. It had happened to me before, so I just went with it, curious to see what my subconscious would come up with. My good mood from the evening had certainly carried over into the Dream Realm.

I was in the Castle of the Two Sisters, back when it had still been completely in ruins. Nightmare Moon lounged on the dais in the throne room, idly swinging a hoof over the edge.

"Hiya, Black Snooty!" I called to her cheerfully. She looked up at me and, suddenly, I felt a lot less flippant.

"It's the little princess," she sneered. "Come to poke at me."

"Uhmn... I didn't mean to be disrespectful," I told her. "I meant it casually... like between friends."

She scowled, and her pupils slitted down to thin, vertical lines. "I think I will kill you now."

Despite the chill that ran down my spine, I replied calmly, "Sorry, but I know this is a dream. You can't."

"Oh, but I can! That is one of the few good things about being trapped in this realm." She rose slowly and paced toward the short stairs down to the floor of the hall. "I can kill you... not just once, but again and again!"

Oh. It was going to be one of those nights.

One of the most valuable things Celestia ever taught me is not to do anything without my whole heart behind the effort. So, when I decided that talking wasn't going to do any good, I flung a bolt of magical energy at Nightmare Moon's face in the very next instant. Without waiting to see if it struck, I teleported to one side, tripled the gravity around her, and then heaved chunks of the shattered roof into the top of the increased gravity field. The stones slammed down with horrific force, powdering on impact.

The dust fell out of the air with the speed of raindrops, revealing a perfectly unharmed Nightmare. She smiled. "I've always loved mares with fighting spirit. I..."

I fed momentum into the flagstones beneath her and enough energy to make them go semi-molten, then I flipped the gravity field and they leaped skyward in brilliant red streaks. The rock spattered off of her like it was mere frosting.

"You can't hurt me," she sneered, advancing slowly. "My armor was forged in..."

Armor. Right. If that was the problem, then it was also the key to the solution. I hit her peytral with a surge of magic, sheathed in a blaze of force to conceal the true, analytical nature of the spell. I found that the armor was made of a magic-charged, crystalline metal-and-carbon lattice, insanely strong on a mere physical level, and when woven through with the right spells and thaumophobic traces, absolutely impenetrable. There was no way I could harm her while she was wearing it.

While she...

I teleported the armor off of her. 10,000 feet straight up put it out of play for a good long while, and was a place where she wouldn't be likely to locate and retrieve it. Not that I was going to give her time to do anything like that. I immediately winked in a five-point pattern around her and let loose blasts of fire, ice, electricity, cutting wind, and conjured spears each time I appeared for a fraction of a second.

Nightmare Moon gasped, "That's my girl..." as she collapsed to the floor.

I was appalled. I rushed to her side and picked her up in my hooves, but she was beyond help. My tactic had succeeded all too well. "I—I'm sorry!" I wailed.

"Never apologize for being strong," Luna said, as the body of Nightmare Moon melted away and sank into the stones of the floor.

"This is a stupid dream!" I shouted, whirling to face her.

Luna shrugged. "You conjured it, Twilight Sparkle, I am just here out of curiosity."

I stomped my hooves in frustration. "Why do I have to have anxiety dreams? I'm anxious enough when I'm awake!"

Luna tilted her head, considering. "Remember that the language of dreams is rarely direct. Perhaps this is more than it seems."

"Don't you dare go all pizza-mare on me again," I grumbled. "What I need right now are answers, not appetizers!"

Luna smirked at me. "But that is exactly what your dream has given you, Twilight Sparkle." And she vanished in a flash of moonlight.

I frowned in puzzlement for a moment and then turned my head straight up to see what was making the whooshing/whistling sound.

It was the empty armor.

= = =

I started awake, the clanging of metal on stone still ringing in my mind. It was full dark, and I had evidently not cried out, because everypony else was still asleep—and two of them were softly glowing.

Sesseressia and Csharreee were each surrounded by a pale blue nimbus. I slowly got to my hooves and moved closer to them, taking care to step as quietly as possible. Csharreee was closest, and I could see that the holes in her legs had become mere dimples. Sesseressia was behind her, and I craned my neck to get a good look at her. She was nearly completely equine, and she looked very like the tall unicorn mare she had imitated the previous day.

I stood and observed until the Eastern sky began to lighten and the glow around the changeling officers faded away. Then I nudged Jigsaw awake with a gentle push of magic, muffling her grunt of annoyance as she tried to roll over and go back to sleep. When she finally looked at me, I made a shushing motion and pointed at Sesseressia and Csharreee.

I touched Jigsaw's lips with a hooftip to keep her from exclaiming, and motioned her into the empty hall leading off of the rotunda.

"Okay," I whispered to Jigsaw. "Sesseressia is going to be upset when she wakes up, so you need to reassure her—"

"Upset?" Jigsaw whispered back. "Did you see those legs? And that rump! If the magic of friendship can do that..."

"Would you please be serious!"

"Twilight, I am deadly serious. I will reassure the living hay out of her!"

"Jigsaw, this is about more than your libido! How would you react if you woke up as a changeling?"

She held up a hoof. "Whoa, there! Twilight, she and I talked about this last evening before we came back for dinner. She's not stupid, and it was pretty clear where this... process might end up. She's not entirely happy about it, but... um... I promised her some things."

I nodded. "Okay. I hope you're prepared to keep those promises, because I have a feeling that if she completely becomes a pony, it'll be permanent."

She frowned at me. "Don't worry, I'll... we... will be okay."

"Okay," I said. "Good."

"What about your little study buddy?"

"I'll talk to her when she wakes up. I'll explain the options—"

"Suffering stars, Twilight! You're hopeless!"

"What?"

She sighed and then told me, "Okay... here's what you're going to do..."

= = =

"Sesseressia?" Jigsaw said softly, reaching out to stroke her cheek gently. "Sessi? You should wake up now."

I lay facing Csharreee, pretty much copying Jigsaw's words, but with a lot less intimacy on the physical side of things.

Sessiressia's eyes opened and she smiled when she saw Jigsaw. Jigsaw put a gentle hoof under her jaw to keep her from looking down. "You've changed, Sessi. You're more of a pony now. A pretty impressive pony, in fact."

"Ah... I thought I might... " She pulled back a little. "Let me look. No yelling this time, I promise."

I helpfully summoned up a reflective rectangle in the air for her to use as a mirror, while I was breaking the news to Csharreee. She didn't take it nearly as well, but she didn't outright panic.

"It's all right," I told her, while wrapping a comforting wing around her. "I believe the change will reverse itself if you are away from my... influence, I suppose."

"I don't want to be a pony," she said so quietly it was almost a whisper.

It was weird. I felt bad about that. It was her choice, but... I mentally kicked myself. "When the queen gets here, I will ask her to take you back to the hive."

"But I like math!" she cried.

I chuckled, even though it wasn't funny. "Don't worry, Csharreee, I will send you lots of books to study."

"It won't be the same," she said shaking her head sadly. "I liked learning from you. I liked the singing. I... I liked... being your friend."

I was surprised to feel my eyes getting a bit misty. "I liked being your friend, too. And we can still be friends... just at a distance for now. There's no need to make permanent decisions yet."

"I suppose not."

"Twilight?" Jigsaw interrupted us.

"Yes?"

"Do you think one more day together will complete the transformation?"

I looked Sesseressia over. She still had little fans of wing material at her shoulders, ridged flesh where the flexible bands of her thorax used to be, and slightly jagged teeth, but most of the rest of her was entirely pony-like. "Yes, I think so... but there's one odd thing."

"What is it?" both Jigsaw and Sesseressia said together.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh for Celestia's sake, Jigsaw! Did you ever hear the expression about missing the forest for the trees? Have you really been so busy staring at the curve of her butt that you didn't notice she has no cutie mark?"

"Ah..."

"I'll take that as a 'yes.'" I smirked at her, and then said to Sesseressia, "I can see why you like her: She's really cute when she blushes."

"She certainly is." The almost-pony grinned back at me.

Jigsaw sputtered for a second, put on a show of annoyance, even though I'm sure she was secretly pleased, and then said, "What does it mean, then? Why no mark?"

That was easy. "A new life means a new destiny, and she hasn't found hers yet." I turned to Sesseressia. "How does it feel to have a whole world of possibilities in front of you?"

"Terrifying," she dead-panned.

= = =

Chrysalis arrived about an hour later. Once she saw Sesseressia, she went very quiet and still. The rest of us, even the drones, held our breath.

"She..." Her voice nearly broke and she took a moment to get herself under control. "Her wings are nearly gone. Why is that?"

"I don't know, Your Majesty," I replied, mindful of the drones in the room. "I don't even know why she seems to have an affinity for that particular body shape. She might just as well have become a pegasus."

"No," Chrysalis said, as if thinking to herself. "A unicorn is right, I suppose."

Huh? "How so, Your Majesty?" I asked.

"She is my spawn. My bloodline. It makes sense."

Not to me, it didn't, and I didn't think Chrysalis wanted to be pressed on the subject. But when has that ever stopped me? "I don't understand, Your Majesty. Could you explain it to me?"

She snapped out of her reverie to glare at me. Then she looked around at the rest of the room's occupants. "All of you," she snapped, imperiously. "Get out!"

I nodded to Jigsaw and she fled with the rest of them.

"You ponies value your word, do you not?" Chrysalis asked when we were alone. "Especially a noble princess such as yourself."

"That's true, Chrysalis."

"Then give me your word you will not reveal what I am about to tell you to any living being. Neither will you write it down, or..." She seemed to be grasping for some other way I could weasel around a promise.

I reached out with my magic, brushing her horn in invitation. She hesitantly called up her own tendril of magic and intertwined it with mine. "I swear to you on the sun and moon, on my own magic, and on my life and honor, that your words will be safe with me, Chrysalis. May the light in my eyes go out, if I betray your confidence," I said. The magic between us flared briefly and then went out.

She blinked at me, and then stood there, just looking at me for the longest while.

"I would not have asked that of you," she finally said.

"I just wanted to make sure you didn't feel any need to hold anything back."

"Very well, Twilight Sparkle," she said. "I will tell you how I came to be."

= = =

=

Author's Notes:

Yes, the quadratic equation really can be sung to the tune of Hey, Ho, Nobody Home... and several other tunes, I believe.

Next Chapter: 19 Metamorphosis Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 7 Minutes
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