The day was overcast and gloomy. Thunderclouds rumbled in the distance, and rain was already falling gently. Everything was tinged in shades of gray, but to Celestia, that worked out just fine for her. It followed her mood, after all. After recent events, she wasn't even sure she would ever be joyous again. The avatar of the Sun herself was decked out in full combat armor. Not a single speck of her pure white coat was visible, hidden instead under gleaming gold. Her torc of office nestled within the center chest plate, and instead of her usual crown, a full helm was tucked under one wing. Her expression, normally so calm and warm, was instead hard and cold. She watched more ponies filter into the Vault. Nobody had even set foot into this building since Star Swirl the Bearded had been laid to rest within, and Celestia had been rather surprised to discover that the machinery that opened the Vault to the sky had still worked.

At her right side, naturally, stood Princess Luna. Like her fiery sister, the avatar of the Moon was also in her personal armor. Unlike Celestia's intimidating gear, Luna was the exact opposite, sleek and graceful and silver. Also unlike Celestia, Luna openly carried her weapon of choice: a deadly glaive named Grace. While affected by the loss slightly less than her fellow ruler, Luna still felt it all too well. And really, so did all of Equestria. They all wept at the murders of Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash.

Even the mere thought of those two brave, wonderful mares sent Celestia's feelings into further disarray. Sadness, anger, hopelessness, and fear of an unknown future plagued her ancient mind. And underneath it all was a simmering ball of hatred towards the creatures that had taken her surrogate daughter from her. Revenge was sounding sweeter and sweeter every passing moment. It was almost ironic; for thousands upon thousands of years, the Sun Princess had been the very definition of peace and harmony. Murder her favorite student and one of the Elements of Harmony, however, and everything changed at once.

The Vault was completely packed now. Row upon row of ponies filled the space, from Pegasi lazily floating in the air to unicorns using magic to cram themselves into any available space. In the very front of the masses were the rest of the Elements and parents of both deceased ponies. Twilight Velvet and Nightlight Sparkle were leaning on each other for a little bit of comfort; the news had hit them every bit as hard as it had hit Celestia. Nightlight was wearing his standard silver Ranger armor, while Velvet displayed her Dragoon leathers. Cadance was still sobbing even now, and Shining Armour stood ramrod straight with a far away gaze, his Royal Guard armor seeming to physically weigh down his form. The other Elements were next to Twilight's family, still in varying degrees of shock. Celestia could only imagine what it would be like to lose two ponies so integral to their lives. Twilight's friends had to be hurting even more than she was. And then next to the other Elements of Harmony stood Rainbow's family. Rainbow Blitz appeared to have shed the most tears, while ex- Wonderbolt Firefly was as stoic as ever-- even though there was clearly a quaver in her wings.

Celestia came to the realization that her ponies were waiting for her to speak, so she stepped forward slowly, surveying those before her as she did so. The two caskets stood open beside her, and she took a moment to pass a saddened gaze over the two occupants. The team responsible for cleaning the mares up had done a good job. There were no signs of the fatal wounds that had claimed innocent life. Both ponies were still as vibrant now as they had been in life, forehooves crossed peacefully and manes creating a halo around their heads. Celestia tore her sight away before a sob could surface. She had to be strong, for her ponies. She lightly cleared her throat.

"Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. Two simple names for two extraordinary ponies. When those names are spoken, ponies recall the Nightmare Moon incident. They recall Discord, and the Assault on Canterlot. When I hear those names, I am reminded of the return of my beloved sister. I am reminded of one of the greatest minds Equestria has ever seen. I am reminded of a pony completely loyal to her family, her friends, and her home. And honestly, you couldn't hear about one without hearing about the other. Those two ponies were inseparable, and they warmed the hearts of many.

"Twilight Sparkle was twenty two. Rainbow Dash was twenty four. Entirely too young to go, when they should have had hundreds of years together. They leave behind family, friends, and every other pony they fought to protect. Twilight Velvet and Nightlight Sparkle, Shining Armor and Princess Cadenza, Rainbow Blitz and Firefly. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack. And all of you here this day, honoring the memories of the fallen."

Celestia paused to take a great, shuddering breath. "I took Twilight under my wing at a very young age. I had never seen a unicorn with as much potential as she, and her drive for knowledge was nearly greater than my own. She graduated as the best student the School for Gifted Creatures had ever seen, and even with the best degree anyone could offer her, Twilight was still the happiest as the Ponyville librarian, and later, my personal advisor. I met Rainbow Dash during Cloudsdale flight camp. I had never before seen such a natural with her wings, not since the legendary Commander Hurricane herself. It was almost as if the sky moulded itself to her wishes. And even though she was talented beyond measure, Rainbow was still happiest as the Ponyville weather captain, and later, a lieutenant of the Wonderbolts.

"The deaths of these two individuals are among the greatest tragedies of Equestrian history. On July 17th, Harmonic Age 4, the Saviors of Equestria were murdered, assassinated upon the Mane Street of Canterlot-- practically in my own back yard. Changelings had once more infiltrated Canterlot, and as a result of my carelessness, I lost two of the most important ponies in my life. And their families and friends lost far, far more. I can only ask that the rest of my ponies band together even stronger than before in the face of this new adversary. Remember Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, my ponies. Remember our Saviors."

There was a long moment of silence after Celestia's speech as last respects were given. The Solar Diarch waited a moment, to see if any family our friends wanted to make a speech of their own. However, when other ponies began filling out of the Vault of Heroes, family and friends started to follow, throwing one last glance at the caskets. Celestia turned to find her sister behind her.

"This wasn't your fault, you know. You could not have anticipated this."

"Couldn't I, though?" Celestia said softly. "If I had insisted on having them tailed by guards, this whole thing could have been avoided."

"But doing so would have taken away some of their freedom. And I know you never would have wanted that.” A pause. "What do we do now?"

Celestia was silent for a very long time, so long that Luna thought she was not going to answer at all. "When I first donned this armor again, the first time in hundreds of years, I was originally only doing so for the sake of tradition. But now, things have changed. We recall all of our combat forces from the Twisted Forest region. Equestria marches to war."

Luna stared at her second half, aghast. "Did I just hear those words come out of your mouth? Equestria has not fought a war in millennium. Even my Fall was not a true war. Is it wise for our forces to retreat from Twisted Forest?"

"I just lost my surrogate daughter and her marefriend. The chaos spawn in Twisted Forest aren't going to muster any real strength against us any time soon. I am going to call upon our allies. It is time Equestria marches upon another Crusade, just like we did against Discord's creations. The Changelings want a fight? They're going get one, and may Faust never have mercy upon their souls."

Pain. Painpainpainpain. It was all Twilight felt. Her entire body felt like it was on fire. The pain consumed almost everything. She couldn’t cry out, but she could feel her breath, feel it catching in her chest. The pain seemed centered around three areas. The first three, and by far the worst, were right next to each other. One of them seemed to have punctured a lung, while the third flaring spot was right smack in the middle of her barrel. The mare attempted to move a foreleg, but this only caused it to suddenly scream in agony. With a tremendous effort of will she snapped her eyes open, not that it really helped. Her eyesight was quite dim, and she couldn’t make out any shapes around her. Her ears, however, worked just fine, and they twitched as a voice Twilight knew very well cried out in suffering. Twilight redoubled her efforts to shove away the pain, struggling to get to Rainbow’s side. I’m here, Dashie! I’m here! The words would not come.

More voices sounded overhead. The first one she did not recognize. “She’s reacting to outside stimuli. Undoubtedly because she heard her pegasus friend.”

A second voice cursed, and it sounded rather familiar, but Twilight couldn’t figure out why. “Damn it. Get her another dosage. We can’t get her into a pod until she’s back under.”

“If I give her anything more it may kill her!” Twilight really liked the first voice. She rather enjoyed living, although everything was pure torture at the moment.

“If we don’t give her a stronger sedative and get her into a pod, now, she’s going to bleed out and everything we’ve fought for will be for nothing! Increase the dosage, and sedate Dash. Quickly, doc, please!”

A pregnant pause. Twilight’s vision began to fade to black and she felt her body relax itself as it stopped feeling. The last thing she saw was the worried face of Trixie Lulamoon staring down at her.

Some time later, a mind awoke, floating lazily against a backdrop of nothingness. Occasionally a stray memory fluttered across it's consciousness. Most of them disappeared before they could fully be comprehended. Others, however, lingered longer. Predominant among these memories was a breathtaking cyan face with beautiful rose colored eyes. The mind knew this face; this was Rainbow Dash. Memories started to come even faster, all of them featuring this visage. Their first date, a simple picnic full of hesitant glances and burning cheeks. Their first scientific experiment as a couple, proving that Rainbow was far more intelligent than she liked to pretend. Numerous happy days full of lab work, flying routines, and Wonderbolt shows. A few darker days floated by; the first argument, the first fight, the first time the two of them slept apart because of a disagreement. Growing, thriving, learning, and loving despite their differences and spats. Nothing could separate these two, because they were Rainbow Dash... and Twilight Sparkle.

The mind instinctively knew it's name was Twilight Sparkle. How it could remember this little detail when so many other things were fuzzy, it didn't know. But it -- she -- was Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash's marefriend. And for the moment, that was all that mattered. Eventually, however, the disjointed memories weren't the only thing present. First, came touch. She felt as though she was swimming in some sort of liquid, but she didn't seem to be moving; she was just suspend in place, all four hooves outstretched. Her hearing was the next sense to reawaken, but it didn't do much to tell her exactly where she was. All her sensitive ears could detect was vibrations, signaling that there was indeed sounds nearby, but impossible to make out through the viscous fluid. She couldn’t even feel her own ears. Smell was still out of the question in regards to her senses; whatever she was in didn’t have any sort of odor at all, although she did appear to be breathing. If Twilight wasn’t currently focused on other things, she might have been rather intrigued by this development. Taste was also kind of iffy; her mouth felt like sandpaper, and her tongue was oddly bloated. Then, at long last, came sight as Twilight suddenly remembered how to open her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was purple. Every direction her eyes darted to was covered in a soothing lavender color. After a few moments of complementation, she realized that she was facing an oddly transparent wall. It wasn’t completely clear, but cloudy, and it prevented her from making out anything from the outside world. All she really could make out was indistinct purple tinted shadows. She titled her head curiously, watching the shadows play against the wall of whatever she was in. She wanted to call out, to ask for help and to inquire to her current predicament. But her mouth refused to open, almost as though the muscles didn’t remember what their job was.

But then came the voices. At first, she thought her hearing had returned and she strained, struggling to make one of them twitch. But then in a glorious moment of realization, she discovered that the voices were within her own head. There were quite a lot of them, although it did feel like there were many, many voices missing. Twilight concentrated, trying to make sense of the words, but they were completely beyond her. No matter how much she concentrated, the voices refused to become clear. The remained there, just on the edge of her consciousness, a teasing murmur. Twilight frowned slightly in disappointment. It would have been lovely to figure out exactly why she was floating in the middle of a thick purple goo. Even as her disappointment grew, however, another mind touched hers. It was an alien presence, one she didn’t know, but at the same time it was oddly familiar. Then a voice spoke.

Awaken, my child. It is time for your hibernation to end.

For a moment, Twilight was full of overwhelming joy. The voice was so calm, so understanding, full of unconditional love. All for her. But then Twilight finally came to grips with her predicament.

Mother, she said, surprising herself with the moniker, How?

Your horn, my daughter. Use it to break free of your cocoon. Awaken!

Twilight hesitated, before she gave a mental shrug. By wiggling around a bit, she discovered she could practically swim through the strange liquid. She bunched herself down at the very bottom, before kicking upward with both rear hooves as hard as she could. She soared straight up and gored her horn through the unfamiliar object. It kind of felt like the skin stretched taut across a drum. Pausing to reorient herself, Twilight jerked her head forward. Her horn tore a large gap in her prison; she could dimly her the splatter of fluid hitting the ground outside. A second well placed buck, and Twilight split her pod completely, spilling herself and the rest of the purple goo onto the surprisingly warm floor. She took a deep, shuddering inhale of moist air, and immediately started heaving. She leaned to the side and noisily emptied her lungs and stomach of their contents. Twilight coughed wetly again, but this time there was nothing to throw up.

She glanced around slowly, her sensitive eyes adjusting to the soft lighting she found herself in. As she did so, eyes eyes lit upon a strange figure standing to her left. The figure easily dwarfed the hatchling, verdant emerald draconian eyes watching Twilight carefully. Barely even conscious of her action, Twilight tilted her head to the side as she studied the changeling before her in kind. Her mane was sea green, long and luscious, so long that it nearly brushed the ground despite her height. Her horn was the longest Twilight had ever seen, but it was also jagged, doubling back on itself until it ended in a sharp looking point. Two fangs protruded from her upper lips, even with her mouth closed. As soon as Twilight noticed them, her tongue flicked out to gently tap at her own fangs. The last thing the hatchling noticed was an odd little crown resting directly behind the other changeling’s horn.

Then the figure opposite her spoke, and Twilight trembled at the sound of it. It was unlike anything she had ever heard before, so melodious and full of an abundance of love. “You are finally awake, Twilight Sparkle. Do you know who I am?”

Twilight hesitated. She knew exactly who this was, but at the same time she didn’t. The hatchling knew that this was her mother, but she didn’t have a name to put to the face. Then it clicked into place as something brushed her mind with a name. “You’re my mother-- Queen Chrysalis.”

Chrysalis showered her daughter with a fang filled grin, warmth emanating from her being. She pulled Twilight to her hooves, where the latter swayed unsteadily. She took a single step forward, and would have fallen if her Queen had not caught her before she could do so. “Easy, my daughter. Do not try to rush things. You have been asleep for quite a long time. It will take a moment for your motor facilities to return to you. Do you know what you are?”

Twilight again tilted her head, like she couldn’t believe her Queen had asked that question. Still, she craned her head around to regard her body. She possessed a rather familiar lavender coat coloration, with a bit of the goop she had been in earlier still clinging to her fur. Now that she had something to compare it to, the stuff was actually a tone or two lighter than her body. Upon her flanks rested another familiar sight: that of a six pointed purple starburst surrounded by five more smaller white starbursts. Lastly, a pair of feathered wings rested at her sides, which ruffled slightly upon being regarded. Even though she looked nothing like her Queen, Twilight still knew the correct answer.

“I am a changeling. I’ve always been one, my Queen. Why would you ask that of me?”

The Queen chuckled a bit at that. “I was testing your connection to the Swarm. Although it has not been fully developed, the connection is strong enough to grant you basic knowledge.”

Twilight’s eyes brightened at finally having a name to put to all of those still unintelligible voices echoing around her head. “Is that what all of those voices are? The Swarm?”

Chrysalis nodded once, before gently nudging Twilight forward slightly. “Yes. Try walking a little bit. Your presence in the Hive is weaker than usual, which is part of the reason you’re having difficulties walking. Ordinarily the Swarm aids those who have been reborn in regaining their basic range of motion, but with your weaker connection it cannot.”

Twilight only focused on one word, knowledge suddenly bubbling to the forefront of her mind. “Reborn? Why was I reborn, my Queen? Was my previous form displeasing to you?”

Chrysalis began walking forward, nudging the purple changeling if it looked like she was about to fall. “Nay, young one. You were reborn to save your life from injuries that would have killed you otherwise.”

“But then…” Twilight trailed off as her suddenly chaotic thoughts tried to make sense of what she had just been told. More flashes of memories danced across her mind’s eye. There had been… some sort of ambush. Shouting, panicked voices. And then, only pain, labored breaths. Chrysalis could feel what was happening to her new daughter, and desperately tried to dissipate the agony through the Swarm. However, with only fifty-one changelings loyal to her instead of hundreds of thousands, the effect wasn’t nearly as noticeable as she would have liked. She bent down to nuzzle the distraught changeling, who had promptly fallen over again. At her touch, Twilight slowly calmed down and returned to herself. Chrysalis also reached out with her magic, soothing her daughter further and removing the rest of the sticky substance from her fur as she did so.

Twilight clambered back onto her hooves, panting slightly as she did so. “W-- What was that, my Queen?”

Chrysalis smiled sadly at her charge. “Memories from your past, my daughter. I’m afraid that pain like that is going to become rather normal, as you slowly recover your memories from before the attack. Ordinarily you would have inscribed your memories into a crystal or two, but there was simply no time before you would have succumbed to your wounds.”

The hatchling tottered forward on unsteady hooves. “Was it really that bad, mother?”

The Queen sighed, as though she hated the answer she had to give. “It was. But enough of that. Your memories will return in time. For now, I imagine you’re rather hungry. I have someone I’d like you to meet, and then we can go get some sustenance.”

Twilight followed her Queen as the former began to move forward, staring wide-eyed at the chamber they were in. Numerous pods lined the walls, and now that Twilight looked closely, they really resembled eggs-- including the purple one that she had escaped from. There were a few other differences, too. Her own egg was resting in the general center of the room, while the others all lined the walls. In addition, the other eggs were all the same luminous green as her Queen’s mane and wings. There had to be around twenty-five or so pods, with strange tubing crisscrossing the floor. Pausing a moment to examine said tubing, Twilight deduced that there was some sort of strange liquid being pumped through them. Queen Chrysalis could sense the burning question on the forefront of her newest daughter’s mind, and decided to take pity on the purple hatchling.

“We’re in my hatchery, Twilight Sparkle. This room is probably one of the most important things to me, as it is where I house all of my developing nymphs. Ordinarily I would have a couple of my interims in here to supervise my children in my absence, but today I wanted to be the first to see you after you awoke.”

Twilight could only continue to stare at her surroundings, even going so far as to cast a solitary look behind her before the membranous door sealed shut behind them with a muted hiss of displaced air. As Twilight turned forward to continue after her Queen, however, her eyes were met with an oddly familiar sight: A cyan blue figure, with breathtaking rose colored eyes and a messy chromatic mane. A horn jutted from under this mane, and for a brief moment, its presence threw Twilight for a loop. “Rainbow Dash?”

The changeling looked up, meeting Twilight’s violet orbs. “Twilight? Is that you?”

A goofy smile split Twilight's features. It was definitely her love. That rough voice, those sparkling eyes. But there was still something off, aside from the horn. Rainbow’s eyes… they were slitted, like Chrysalis’. But then the purple changeling pushed it from her mind and dashed forward, only tripping once over her still sometimes uncooperative limbs. She embraced the other mare bodily, taking in a deep whiff of her scent. The familiar smell of fresh rain and charged lightning lit up her senses like nothing else could. Rainbow, for her part, returned the hug easily. Twilight had always smelled of new books and something spicy, tart, that Rainbow had always assumed was the smell of magic. Today was no different. However, Twilight suddenly broke the contact, whimpering in distress. Rainbow recognized the signs of a returning memory and draped a wing over her counterpart, trying to comfort her. Queen Chrysalis could only watch helplessly as her first royal daughter comforted the second, even as Twilight spoke softly.

“Its… coming back to me. Some of it, at least. I remember you, Rainbow Dash. I remember… everything. But we’re different in those memories. You don’t have a horn, or draconian eyes. I didn’t have wings. Dashie, what happened to us?”

Rainbow could only shake her head. “I don’t know, Twi. Something bad happened. There was a fight, or something. I don’t remember either, and mother wants us to reclaim our memories on our own.”

“She’s correct, Twilight,” Chrysalis butted in gently. “If I try to jumpstart the process, there’s a strong possibility I could mentally scar you. And such scarring is irreversible.”

Twilight already had a new question lined up. “When were you birthed?”

“About a month before you. I believe your injuries were worse than mine, so it took longer to patch you up.”

The trio resumed walking, the two hatchlings following after their Queen. As they did so, Twilight slowly lost herself in her thoughts. Why does it feel like I don’t belong here? She glanced over to the chromatic changeling at her side. Dashie looks eerily similar to me. We both have holes in our limbs. We both have feathered wings, and straight, grooved horns. I don’t know if our eyes look the same, but if we already share so much in common I have to assume so. We have the fangs. Twilight then glanced over to Chrysalis. But our Queen is so different. Sure, she has the holes, eyes, and fangs, but that’s about it. She’s covered in black chitin, while we have colored fur. Her wings are gossamer, like an insect’s, and her horn is nothing like ours. Rainbow and I are changelings. Aren’t we? Twilight didn’t know the answer, but it felt almost as though she should have been something else.

Her musing was cut short, however, as the three of them approached an open balcony at the end of the hall. What Twilight saw was enough to take her breath away. Chrysalis noticed the reaction, and had to struggle to hide her grin. Even if she could remember Canterlot, Chrysalis knew that the city would be mind boggling for the former unicorn. The hatchery was one of the tallest structures in the city, so Twilight could easily see almost everything. As far as her eye could see, there were buildings. A number of them appeared to be factories, but there were plenty of homes and stores, too. What was even more impressive was the ring of trees that surrounded the city, as well as the leafy canopy high above. Twilight assumed magic had been used to make the trees grow like that, taller than any she had ever seen with branches that crisscrossed over the entire area. Shafts of sunlight filtered down from the leaves, which hit strategically placed reflective discs that cast the light into every area of the city. Even as she watched, one of the discs adjusted itself so that the beam produced by the midafternoon sun hit its surface again. Off in the distance, a mighty castle dominated the landscape, dark and foreboding but at the same time oddly familiar and welcoming.

“Welcome, Twilight Sparkle, to Mecha.” Even Chrysalis couldn’t keep the touch of pride from her tone.

“Mecha?” Twilight’s inflection turned the simple statement into a question.

“Yes. So named after the… rather specialized magics changelings are known for. While other nations are still using steam for a lot of their technology, changelings use what we call mechanical magic. Changelings, by nature, get most of their magical power from feeding on love, and not just from normal foods. When a changeling has plenty of love within their bodies, they produce quite a bit of excess mana that just kind of sits there, doing nothing. So instead of having all that mana just doing nothing, we devised a way for generators to suck it in, and use it to power things with magic. The mana gets sent along thin copper wiring to whatever object currently needs it. For example, the lights we use run off this magic. We simply create a glass globe and attach it to the wire, and as the mana fills up the globe, it creates a rather bright light because it has nowhere to go.”

“Fascinating,” Twilight breathed as she stared out across Mecha. “But why do there seem to be so few of my brothers and sisters about?”

Chrysalis was momentarily stunned at Twilights choice of words. She hadn’t even told her that the other drones were her siblings. The Queen shook it off to answer her daughter’s question. “Because there are very few of us within this Swam, Twilight. There was a split of power recently, and several other changelings renounced my rule and formed their own Swarms. It is also why over half of my city is currently dark. There’s not enough changelings to produce the mana needed to keep everything running. Only the most basic structures have power.”

Twilight was slightly appalled that any changeling could even dream about turning their backs on their mother. She shook it off as she turned to Dash, who didn’t seem nearly as excited about the city as Twilight was. “I take it you’ve seen this before?”

Dash shrugged. “I’ve seen all of the city by now. It was the first thing I explored after I awoke. Even so, it is still a magnificent sight.”

Twilight couldn’t help but to agree. She was about to comment further when her stomach decided to let off a rumbling growl. The purple changeling blushed at the sudden noise. “Apparently I’m rather hungry.”

Chrysalis chuckled a bit. “Rainbow Dash, why don’t you show Twilight to the food court? I have a few other duties to attend to, otherwise I’d join you. After, feel free to show her around the city.”

Dash inclined her head slightly to her Queen. “Sure thing. C’mon, Twi. There’s only the one food court open, but I know they’ll have some good stuff.” Barely waiting a moment, Dash stretched open her wings and glided away from the balcony. Twilight hesitated a moment, before opening her own wings and following her marefriend, like she had been flying all her life. Chrysalis watched them go for a moment, undisguised pride in her eyes. Those two would acclimate well. She knew it.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the delay guys. My life has been turned upside down as of late. My sister got herself pregnant, mother had to be put on anti-depressant medicine after a bad incident, and I completed my manager training at work only to discover I'm getting paid less than every other manager there. And I work overnights, and don't get a bonus. Joy.

Anyway, managed to finally sit down and get this one finished. As things kinda sorta return to normal, I'll be working on the next chapter(s).