Archive never dreamed ordinary dreams. There had been a time long ago when the pony princesses of Equestria sent messages to Earth in their dreams, but that time was long gone. The unconscious world had no rulers now, and no guiding intelligences. By no means was she the only one to experience strange dreams; yet few ponies dwelled in them so consistently.

Into the void of Archive's sleeping thoughts formed a great library, with shelves that curved in ways the three spatial dimensions could not explain and books that were more her memories than they were paper and symbols. The library was always busy, packed with billions and billions of waiting souls. Each human face was a reminder of one more pony yet to come, perhaps thousands of thousands of years divorced in four-dimensional space. None came to her as more than outlines, though some came in far more clearly than others.

Whenever Alex stood in this library, her goal was always the same: find her family. Yet few of the ghostlike people were coherent enough to answer her questions, and those few who could never contributed anything helpful to her. They told her how frightened they were, they told her they were confused and wanted to go home. A few had found her books and were reading. None could tell her where to find her mother. In these dreams, Alex was never motionless. Always she moved, through throngs of many who parted for her with bows or fearful glances.

She would find them here if she looked long enough. Somewhere in the vast reaches of time were her loved ones, living still. She never ceased to move when in her library, and eventually she would find them. Such things were not the strangest things she saw in her sleep, though. There was nothing strange about the ghostly figures in their confusion, or the way some of them started to look like ponies before they vanished.

What seemed strange to her was that sometimes, very rarely, she stumbled into a fully realized, fully human figure. That night, it was a bronze-skinned man, with a breastplate of bronze, along with a leathern skirt and a mighty shield. He towered over her, armed and armored and fierce. Did he know her? "I was sixteen too," he said, running a hand through her mane. "Though I venture I had the better tutor."

"I never had a teacher like yours," Alex responded, feeling very much unequal to this macedonian spearman. "But I never tried to rule the world."

He sat down, reclining on a rough wooden stool. "Someone will. You may not appreciate what they do."

"There's nobody to conquer. No conquerors."

"Not yet! We make war to live in peace."

"You mistake me for Ares. We share much, but not that." She glared. "Is your tutor around here somewhere? I think I'd rather have his company."

Alex didn't hear anything else, because at that moment she woke, twitching a little as the bed's other occupant rolled out of it and onto his hooves. She looked sidelong at him, forcing her mind back to the realm of gross matter.

Oliver noticed her before she could collect her thoughts. He walked over to her edge of the bed, his head less than a foot from her. "Sunrise, little princess." She tried to rise, but he pushed her gently back with one hoof. "No, don't get up. Get the extra sleep for both of us." She opened her mouth to argue, but Oliver quieted her with a kiss.

It was pretty awkward, she was still only partially awake. But that didn't matter. She felt his affection, and that meant far more. Mayor of Alexandria she might be, and perhaps she was far more. Yet in love, she felt constantly at a disadvantage. Oliver was so big, so mature! Moriah's magic seemed to have done more than make her smaller. She felt like the relationship itself was always something new, something exciting and forbidden and furiously important. Aside from the fate of Alexandria itself, nothing in the world mattered to her more.

"Mhmmm." She didn't try to get back up.

"Do you need me to take Cody, princess?"

She thought, and of course the memory came back instantly despite her tiredness. Exhaustion did not dim her ability to recall with clarity. "No, he... I've got a pretty light day. I can handle him."

"Sure?" He stroked her mane, brushing the unruly bedheaded mess out of her eyes. "Don't just tell me that."

"I'm not!" she insisted, leaning closer to him. "I'm going to the power plant today. Cody would be very upset if I didn't take him."

"Alright." He let her go, turning away. "Call me if he gets disruptive, and I'll send someone to pick him up. Goodnight princess."

"I wish." She closed her eyes, pulling the covers back over her head. She slept another few hours, though this time she did so without dreams. Her alarm went off at eight, and she didn't fight it. She paused as she got up, exchanging a morning hug with Huan at the foot of her bed. He rose when she did, following her as she made her way to the RV's shower.

He sat down right outside, turning to face the open doorway. She didn’t bother shutting it. What was the point of closing the bathroom door while bathing when you were naked all the time anyway?

She cleaned herself off as quickly as she could, conserving the water and the soap as best she could. Soapmaking was a simple craft that had been revived since the Event, though nothing she used these days ended up as smooth as the wonderful gels and fruity shampoos she could've bought in any pre-Event grocery.

As it turned out, getting soap that nice took lots of chemistry and often lots of animal fat. But there was no meat industry anymore, nor any processing of animal corpses short of burial. That left the world with inferior plant sources, and Alex with rough-feeling skin whenever she scrubbed too hard. She could only pray one of the next few ponies to return would be one of those hipster soap-makers, or a prodigy of biochemistry. Either one really.

Though it had been only five years, Alex had stopped bothering with clothes much in spring. Surviving post-apocalypse was sweaty work not made easier by maintaining large wardrobes. To say nothing of having to keep all of it washed and clean, which took either lots of time or lots of electricity. The unfortunate reality of her choice as Mayor not to dress in warm weather generally meant others would imitate it, which was fine by her. In this one way at least the Equestrian custom seemed better suited for their situation, and so she had adopted it.

Formal occasions and inclement weather still demanded clothing, of course. But removing several whole classes of garment from her wardrobe meant she could live a lighter, slimmer life. Alex restricted herself to the scrunchie that kept her braided mane from getting out of control, as well as a wide-brimmed summer hat that served to help her stand out more in crowds as well as feel less like she was completely naked. Other than these two, she needed only the HPI cybergauntlet, secure on her right foreleg.

Her little son slept in the RVs little bedroom, buried in a mountain of blankets and pillows. She had to dig him out, fighting to dig faster than he could as he realized he was being woken. In the end, that meant just turning the whole lot onto the floor, and lifting the squirming and giggling foal with one careful foreleg. "That's it, you!" She set him down on the floor in front of the bed, glaring. "Stop fighting, or it's hay for breakfast and you can't come with me today."

Cody whined, grumbled a little, then stopped squirming. "Fine." He drew up his hat from somewhere on the ground, and then he was dressed. Some parents forced their children to dress as much as pre-Event children had. Alex wasn't about to force the foal to do something she wouldn't do herself, so a hat was enough. "What's today again?"

Alex turned away from him, heading down the hall. "The CHP plant." She felt more than heard Huan’s paws on the ground behind her, diligently shadowing her.

"Oooh!" She heard the sound of drawers being opened and shut as he struggled, though she didn't stop to watch him. Instead she made her way to the kitchen. Oliver had apparently taken the time before leaving for work to make them breakfast. She microwaved the waffles back to warmth, set out the fruit, and sat down to eat while she waited for Cody.

When he emerged again, the foal had switched out his cardinals cap for a plastic hardhat and a reflective vest, probably from the same halloween store he had picked out his "human" costume from the day before. He moved with all the assurance of a child who was certain he was prepared for anything. He even ate with dignity. Far be it for Alex to tell him how adorable he looked.

"It's probably going to be a long day," she announced, when they had both finished and they were heading for the door. "I won't be able to take you to see Aunt Sky and your friend Amy until tonight. I hope that's okay with you."

He nodded. "Amy just wants to read books. She forgets me when I'm not there."

"That's not true! I've talked to her, Amy likes you!"

"Of course she says that when you ask." He rolled his eyes. "She says yes to anything grown-ups say. She's 'fraid of grownups!"

She didn't argue, just waited for him to climb down to the grass before turning to face Huan. “I’m sorry boy-” she began. His ears started drooping before she got any further. “We’re going to the power plant today. I’ve already got one pet. They’ll throw a fit if I bring you too.”

He whined, then turned to look over at the RV beside theirs, where Sky and Adrian lived.

She stepped out of his way. “Yeah… I suppose you can spend the day with Sky. You keep an eye on her until I get back, okay?”

That was enough. The dog hopped down, pausing as he recovered from the impact. He nipped playfully at one of her legs, then trotted off.

“Alright Cody.” Alex shut the door, then turned. There was no point in locking it. “Let’s go.”

They didn't drive to the plant. Alex was one of perhaps a dozen ponies who had a working vehicle and could call upon it for any reason, a function both of her personal wealth and her important duty within the colony. Automobiles were superfluous within the city, however, when any destination, including the more distant farms, could be reached in under an hour at the best walking pace. Most destinations were less than ten minutes away, though having little hooves along would stretch that time somewhat.

Just as she could not set an example of taking up more space than she needed, her austere life was meant to be an example to the city's many citizens. So it was, and so she would walk. Through her walking, Alexandria could put its mechanical skill into long-distance vehicles for trade and farming equipment to keep food on ponies' tables. Her Toyota Mirai would just have to sit in storage, until she could have the pleasure of driving it again.

Cody walked far slower than she did, but that didn't matter much. With as often as ponies stopped her to chat, he was the one getting bored, grazing on wildflowers and sweet clovers wherever she stopped as though that was the most natural thing in the world. He wasn't the only pony to snatch up such treats where they grew, though Alex was not among them. She would bow before the biological realities of her new form, for that was natural. She would not graze, even if she would happily eat their products washed and trimmed in any salad.

She glanced several times at the digital clock on her gauntlet, keeping careful track of time. So long as she arrived during the first shift, it didn't really matter when she got there. Her schedule didn't get really busy until the city council meetings in the afternoons and evenings. Hopefully by then she could catch up with Sky, and leave Cody with a friend that would be more exciting than doodling on pads of legal paper while they talked about "water distribution" and "immigrant integration" for hours and hours.

They weren't even halfway to the combined heat and power plant before she got a call, however. She had a smartphone in her purse, everypony did, serviced via Alexandria's mesh-network of a few dozen distributed routers. If the call had come from her gauntlet, it would've meant an emergency, so she was grateful that it didn’t.

Her phone vibrated loudly until she dug into the satchel and answered it, holding it in front of her and using the speaker function like any non-unicorn had to do. "Alex speaking."

"Mayor!" The voice sounded agitated, frightened. "There's been an emergency!"

Alex's perfect memory recognized the voice at once as the foreman of one of several collective agriculture groups. "Hiram Young, isn't it?" The pony was one of those sticklers who hadn't ever bothered taking an Equestrian name, and anyway an occasion like this wouldn't have warranted using it if he had one. "What's the emergency, sir? Why aren't you phoning the police?"

"I did, ma'am!" the voice responded, urgent. "They've quarantined the whole area, put everypony on it they could! I just had a feeling you'd make more of it than they would."

"Perhaps, if you can tell me what the emergency is." Her number was public knowledge, or at least an alias that redirected calls aimed at the mayor was. She wondered if his next words would persuade her to have her secretary screen her calls along with his other duties. Poor Quick Learner had probably arrived at the CHP plant an hour ago and would be having a nervous breakdown without her.

"You know the details of Abundance Supernatural?"

She did, as clearly as she knew the 10,000th digit of pi (7), and the age Da Vinci had been when he died (67). "You're trying to combine Equestrian farming methods and magic with chemical fertilizers and modern farming techniques. You work mostly in wheat, soybeans, and corn." She could've quoted the exact acreage of each of their farms and the names of every citizen that had filed income working there too, but she didn't bother.

"We do that, yes. But we've also been experimenting with smaller scale stuff. Fruits and flowers. We've got a project going to design a fast-sprouting flower that can grow in winter, without ponies to take care of it. The details of the botany don't really matter... our three research technicians were in our experimental garden, when..." His voice shook. "It's terrible, mayor. The police were right to quarantine us. If this spread to Alexandria, it could be a disaster."

She glanced at Cody, watching him hop down from the sidewalk and into the road, then back up again. She shivered. "I understand. I think I'll come and take a look at this myself. Did anypony actually die?

"No," he said, hesitantly. "Though I think they wish they had."

"The effects haven't spread?"

Again he hesitated. "I believe they're connected with the field. When I saw them, I got a right bad feeling about it and didn't go in. But one of our drivers ignored me. He got them out just fine, but... he's showing symptoms too. I didn't go in though, and so far as I can tell I'm all right. We're taking care of 'em as best we can, the rest of us, but we haven't gone in. Police wanted to burn the field, but I wouldn't let them. There are years of research in those plants!"

"A self-serving decision sir, but wise nonetheless. We may need samples in order to cure whatever's afflicted them."

"I pray you can, Mayor. I don't fancy any of them have lives ahead of them like this. And if we can't cope with magical accidents, maybe we shouldn't be trying to experiment with it. How we handle this might change everything."

She told him to stay where he was and not change anything, then hung up and made another few calls. Five minutes of frantic pacing later and a police-truck arrived for them both, with a nervous-looking Quick Learner already inside.

Well, she thought of them as the police. Of course, they were really Alexandria's militia. It was a waste of resources to keep two separate armed forces about, for what little work they did. Most of it was responding to emergencies and looking gruff.

Look gruff they did, arriving for her in their military truck belching smoke from its gasifier and forcing everypony out of the ordinarily clear streets. A single pony with a P90 stepped out and saluted. "Ma'am." She returned the mare's salute, then scooped Cody securely up into the truck and hastened to follow.

"I take it we won't be going straight to the quarantine zone, ma'am," the driver called back, once they were inside the covered cloth rear of the truck. It was empty, aside from the single policemare, her terrified assistant, and her son.

"Right. Drive us back to the trailer park. We'll drop my son and Quick Learner off, then go to the university."

"Aye, Ma'am!" They started driving.

"D-Day?" Quick Learner glanced down as his leather day-planner. "I'm going to be..."

"Taking my son to Cloudy Skies. You can meet me at the farm after that if you like, or... no, I've got a better idea. You won't be much good at the farm, but you could stand in for me at whatever boring meetings I have scheduled this afternoon. The council will understand. You can explain the emergency."

"I'm not aware of the emergency," he responded, and there was no deception in his tone. Not that she expected it. Learner was too simple a creature for deception. Like Joseph, he lived in patterns, though his were the patterns of administration and not magical or computerized research.

So she told him, albeit the condensed form. He took notes with a levitating pen as though she were explaining electricity usage quarterlies, and with as much emotion.

Cody, meanwhile, tugged constantly at her tail, until finally she was forced to turn around and glare at him. "Arithmetic, mommy is very busy right now."

"We're not going to the power plant?" he whined, looking so pathetic while he did so her heart nearly melted. She found herself hesitating as she shook her head.

"No sweetie, I'm afraid not. There's been an emergency, and ponies have been hurt very badly. They're going to need me to make them well again."

"I wanted to see the power plant!" he protested, a little louder.

"I know. And we will. I still have to do this inspection, I just can't do it right now. I promise I'll take you when I do go, alright?"

He considered that a moment, concentration evident on his four-year-old face. Eventually he nodded. "I guess." He deflated, his head sagging so much the plastic helmet fell off. "I won't forget!"

She embraced him. "That's a big boy. I won't forget either, promise. Hopefully we'll go tomorrow, but I can't promise that yet."

The truck stopped. "Trailer park!" barked the driver.

"You're going to spend the day with Sky after all," she said, rising and turning towards Learner. "Mommy's friend is going to take you, okay?"

They left, and soon the truck was on the move again. They stopped in front of the high school, or what had been. Several of the surrounding buildings had been appropriated and connected to the university, which now covered just over four full blocks. Nearly half of the population of Alexandria were involved with it at any one time, either as staff or as students in any number of the many offered courses. Joseph wore a sweater vest, tweed pants, and an angry expression. The truck seemed to alleviate at least a little of his anger, but he was still tapping one hoof when they stopped.

"This better be good, Alex. You interrupted one of my classes!"

She gestured impatiently at the empty truck behind her. "Get in Joe. Ponies could be dead tomorrow." He did. Only when they were driving did she add, "Besides, we both know you get a TA to do most of your teaching these days. You were goofing off in the lab."

"Goofing off in the lab," he repeated, glaring. His slight accent was still detectable after all these years, but the mistakes he had once made frequently speaking English were long gone. "We're trying to solve the biggest problems of our century, Alex! Unlock the secrets of the invisible world! Save humanity!" He glowered. "If you thought we were goofing off, why do you give us a budget?"

She raised one hoof, trying to mollify him. "Relax Joe. I didn't mean anything by it. You ponies do good work. That business with the library security a few months ago was impeccable. We'd be in some deep dung and out our books if it wasn't for your work with runes."

That did it. When the subject of praise, Joseph was transformed from an angry stallion into a preening feline. "It was nothing. Nothing more than what anypony could've extrapolated given all our resources. Are those thieves still in jail?"

"We never put them in jail," she replied, sitting down again in one of the seats, converted for ponies as it was. "You don't remember that?"

He looked panicked anew at this news. "W-We didn't?"

"No." She gestured out the open back of the truck at Alexandria speeding by. "Having a jail would mean paying a pony to sit around all day and guard someone who was also sitting around all day. Having other ponies working in fields to bring in food to give to a pony who didn't do anything to help the colony in return, even though they could have. That just doesn't make sense when there are colonies where ponies don't have enough to eat."

He was unconvinced. "You just let them go?" He moved closer, eyes narrowing. "Alex, I've got a child! My wife is at home right now!"

Joseph seemed to be learning how to respond to social situations from Moriah. As nice as it was to see he was learning, she wished he'd had a better tutor. "No, Joe. We let them choose: either a hundred hours hard labor, or banishment for life from Alexandria and its libraries. Only a few went for the second one... and for the rest, they got to pay their debt to society real quick. They didn't actually hurt anypony in the robbery, partially thanks to your excellent spells. They're not a threat to your family."

"Nothing to stop the bad ones from coming back..." he muttered, though he did seem to finally be calming down again.

Alex shook her head, expression growing dark. "Yes there is. If they come back, they'll be censored by all the Free Cities. After that..." There was no after that, or at least none they had ever had to do. In theory, a censored person was an outlaw, in the original sense of the word. In practice, there were perhaps three such people in the whole world, and none of them were near Alexandria that she knew of. None of the prospective thieves had ever returned.

"Last stop before the farm!" the driver called, with more than a hint of nervousness in his voice as he did so. Alex didn't blame him, even if she didn't share his feelings. To his credit, Joseph didn't seem upset by it either.

They had driven halfway to the next town over, into a tiny farming village that hadn't had but a gas station and half a hundred people to its name before the Event. Now it was... something else.

Blacklight the Changeling Queen had chosen this place for her hive, such as it was. Few ponies came out this far, fewer still had any conception of what the little queen did. Alex was one of those few. "Coming, Joe?"

He made his way to the edge of the back, then shook his head. His wide eyes took in the buildings and the state of the miniscule settlement, and he seemed to think better of it. "Can't get the HPI to send us a nonliving disposable drone?"

"I will if it comes to that." She lowered her voice. "Don't call them disposable around Riley. They're still her daughters. Imagine what you'd feel like if I called Richard disposable."

He didn't look angry, to his credit, just nodded and sat back down. "Right, of course. Sorry. I'll wait here. And be careful what I say when you come back."

"How long should we wait for you, mayor?" The driver asked, glancing nervously through the opening to the cargo section.

"It won't take more than ten minutes... but there's no chance of what you're suggesting. Riley is my friend, has been for years. Her drones wouldn't hurt anypony, but they certainly won't hurt me."

"If you say so, ma'am." The single militiaman took her seat near the opening, resting her P90 casually over one leg. She seemed a little calmer, but still clearly nervous.

Alex rolled her eyes and hopped the steps to the ground, turning her back on the truck. This wouldn't take long.

The little village of Vermilion had changed a great deal since it had come under new management of a changeling hive. Alex had very little context through which to understand the things its new management did. She hopped down onto the street, its pavement cracking from lack of maintenance. All around her, she saw evidence of changeling activity. Farmhouses missing windows or sections of roofs. Huge bites and entire doors missing from what few cars there were. It was as though a colony of gigantic ants was disassembling the entire place one tiny piece at a time.

That wasn't far from the truth. As she neared the center of the village, she saw what had become of all the missing materials. Where there had once been a church, the changelings had built a mountain. It was perhaps a single story taller than the building that formed its core, though only the smallest traces of the church within emerged.

Most of the structure was built from either shiny black plates, or slightly transparent greenish slime. Taken together it would have been horrifying, were it not for the bits of mundane detritus that had been worked into the structure. Entire windows, the hoods of old cars, sections of flooring and huge flat rectangles of housing sheetrock.

The hive had several openings, though most were above ground level. That made sense when every member of your species could fly. As it was, there was only one meant for visitors, and that was the one Alex had to use.

The house directly beside the hive had been left entirely intact, except for the tunnel of transparent green that connected it to the hive. If anything, the house seemed to be in better shape than homes merely left alone for the last five years, something Alex knew was the work of pony contractors and not the changelings themselves. Riley could do many things, but she hadn't ever mastered construction.

As she neared the hive, Alex was conscious of a constant low buzzing from within, a scurrying and labor in the pitch black unplumbed spaces beyond. She had been inside on more than one occasion, when the hive had been new and Riley had been eager to show her work. Even Adrian had been uncomfortable within.

Archive saw things differently, though what she saw frightened her. How could anyone raised in such a place ever grow to be a free, creative individual? The answer was obvious of course: they couldn't. Could anything of civilization survive in such a climate?

She knocked three times on the door. It took only a moment to answer, and Alex was face-to-face with one of Riley's drones. Despite their young age (none could be older than three years), the drones of Riley's little colony were about the size and shape of pony adults, with vague suggestions to their universal femininity. They were bald, though they had frills on their necks for a mane and something similar for tails.

Each one had holes in its limbs, though the positioning and size varied. She understood it was partially how they identified each other in the dark, though of course she had never been brave enough to actually ask. "Alex." The drone spoke in a robotic, memorized way, its insect eyes lacking all but the faintest spark of intelligence. "Please, come in." It lifted one of its forelegs what Alex guessed was a memorized amount, gesturing towards a sitting room lit by electric lights. It had to be, with the shadow of the hive looming so large beside it.

Alex nodded and obliged. "Of course. Please get your queen for me, I have urgent business with her."

The drone shut the door behind her, turning mechanically around. Alex didn't have to use any of her invisible senses to tell Riley was not actively controlling it. When she did, it behaved as lifelike as if it were Riley herself. Only in her apathy did they thusly behave.

"I've already told her you're here." Another voice spoke from the hall and Alex rose, meeting the eyes of the changeling male. He looked not unlike the drone, though his coloration was yellowish instead of blue and he had a wispy mane like a queen.

"Hey Chip!" She moved to greet him, meeting him in a brief hug. "How's supreme regent of all changelings?"

He laughed. "Busy as always. She'll be in shortly. I just took a cake out of the oven if you'd like a slice. Red velvet."

"You're going to destroy my figure, Chip. Get a healthier habit."

He laughed, returning a moment later with a levitating plate and a thin slice of bright red cake with creamy white frosting. "I would. Lucky me I can't gain weight eating pony food. Guess that makes one of us."

"Just punctuate it differently." She had to sit down to eat, though she looked up first. "Tell her it's important, would you? Like, life and death. I'm not sure a few minutes will make a difference, but they might." Then she let herself eat. She wasn't sure where Riley's first and oldest male got his ingredients, but damn he knew what he was doing in the kitchen.

She knew her appreciation for his work was feeding him far more than the cake did. She didn't care. If the latest "changeling plot" was to get ponies to love their work so much the whole hive got obese, she was just fine with that. So long as she could eat cake like this.

"It's real coco," Chip supplied, from one of the chairs across from her. "That's what makes it so good. Not the dried stuff. Real cream too."

"I'm..." she could only half speak with her mouth so full, but she didn't care. "Amazing Blacklight permits such frivolity."

Chip shrugged, though there was something sad in his expression. "The queen encourages individuality. I think she'd go insane otherwise. She gets to be conservative so the rest of us can waste resources on eccentricity. Well..." He looked down. "A few of us can."

"Any drones yet?"

He shook his head. "If there were, you'd hear the music all the way from Alexandria." His ears tilted backward suddenly and he sat up, becoming more rigid. He didn't say anything, but Alex knew exactly what he was saying, and that was all it took. She rose to her hooves just as Riley emerged from the back hallway.

Queen Blacklight had changed more than anypony she knew since the founding of Alexandria. She had grown tremendously fast, shooting up to a height easily equal to Oliver's without her horn. Her body was majestic and regal, not unlike an Equestrian Alicorn. She still had a "stringy" look to her that suggested she wasn't finished growing, though Alex would never have said so. "Lonely Day. I apologize I didn't get the chance to speak with you last night."

They shared a hug, Alex feeling very much like a child as they did so. "You were there?"

"A dozen of my drones were. I wasn't there personally."

"Really?" She hadn't seen- Alex cursed herself for not putting that bit of logic together, even for just a few seconds. "They were looking like ponies, of course. I'm guessing they were staff." Handling the nitty-gritty details of community events had fallen beneath Alex's notice over a year ago, once the city had really started running itself.

"Setup, assistant cooks, takedown..." She shrugged. "It was quite successful. I had meant to meet with you to discuss expanding our role with Alexandria."

"The one where you let families and businesses sign-up for drones?"

She nodded. "Simple appreciation for a job well done is nourishing enough. As I predicted, ponies who spend time around individual drones begin to develop an affection for them. My drones will be more than happy to do menial work in exchange for that."

Alex was dimly aware of Chip slipping out the back hallway, giving her one last farewell wave before vanishing into the hive proper. "I can't approve a proposal that big on my own, I'm not a queen. But I see no reason I wouldn't be able to persuade the city council. Something's come up that might help, too. We've got a serious emergency. Dangerous magic, might be fatal. There's no time to wait for the HPI." She gestured over her shoulder. "I need a few of your drones to help, and you too if you can spare the time."

"How serious?"

"Four ponies have been affected. An entire field has been quarantined. If it spreads, it could destroy Alexandria."

She didn't hesitate. "Then I have the time." The drone that had got the door for Alex abruptly stepped forward, along with its identical twin Alex hadn't even noticed was nearby. "Will two be sufficient?"

"I think so, yes." She turned and started walking without waiting another second.

The queen kept pace, with her drones falling into step behind them. Without Alex even mentioning it, Blacklight began to change. Shining chitin melted into soft black fur. Holes fused and sealed over, and her wings vanished completely. She even had a cutie mark, shaped like the crown-shaped growth that had only just vanished from her head. She was also several inches smaller, no larger than any other mare. The drones changed too, color identical to her own, though both of them were lacking cutie marks.

Soon they were outside again, marching towards the truck. "When you say serious, exactly what are you referring to?" Riley asked, her voice now lacking its strange reverberating quality. "What happened?"

Alex frowned. "I'm... I don't know the exact details. I just know it was different for each of them. The farmer who hadn't been affected seemed pretty shaken up. And if Lieutenant True Sight thought it made sense to quarantine the whole area, she would've had a good reason."

"Trust for your subordinates. It doesn't seem efficient not to gather all the information into one place for processing. Aren't you better informed than anypony else in Alexandria?" They approached the truck, though Riley didn't bother lowering her voice.

The single militia-pony sitting guard sat up hastily, lowering her gun and stumbling back. There were no questions, no phrase she had to use to prove she was herself. Blacklight's hive had never been hostile towards Alexandria, the city they considered themselves a part. Having such a policy would've been an insult, and so Alex blatantly refused it. It was going to hurt them one day if any other changelings decided to attack. But why would they? They were human too!

Alex shrugged. "Maybe."

"There is no uncertainty," Riley insisted. "You have read the entire contents of the Equestrian library, and you recall every word of it perfectly. You've read at least as many human books. You can synthesize disparate facts from these, and any observations you make, and all your previous memories, as quickly as I synthesize conclusions from the observations of my drones. This makes you clearly superior to the other ponies of Alexandria. In fact, you ought to be queen of all non-changelings. It's the optimal choice."

Alex rolled her eyes as she hopped up into the truck. Once the changelings had done the same, she called, "driver, to Abundance Supernatural. As fast as you can, we've got lots of time to make up."

They started moving at once. Her militia-pony took the seat beside her, seeming to hide behind her, not making eye-contact with any of the "ponies" that had joined them. Evidently this mare was new, Alex would have to make sure she got to spend some time with changelings soon, get that fear-reaction ironed out. "Optimal in some ways, perhaps." She sat down in her chair again. The changelings did the same, though only one of them had any life in her eyes. "But not in others. The human organizational strategy we use has merits too."

"Please explain." Riley looked as though she would've pulled out a pad to take notes, though of course she didn't. Her memory was, quite by nature, almost as good as Archive's was by virtue of her calling.

"My knowledge is superior, true. It grows every day more superior. Yet even so, I cannot possibly be aware of all the information that everypony is about their own lives. I cannot see through their eyes, as you can. I don't have superior intelligence either. The human organizational structures we use, personal freedom and democracy, allow each person to make what they believe to be optimal choices for their happiness."

"It requires trust, however. Trust that my 'subordinates' know their jobs better than I do, and will do everything they can to get them done well. Trust that, even if we sometimes make incorrect choices as individuals, the collective is generally good and will work together towards the collective self-interest."

This silenced Riley for several whole seconds, her expression becoming more and more downcast. "I wish... I wish I could." She looked up, and for a second Alex could almost see the little human girl that still lived inside her. "I trust Chip, but he can't handle more than half a dozen drones at once, he can't run the hive! Rob's worse, he can barely handle one!" She sighed. "I want all my daughters to be like regular ponies." She looked back at the drones, sitting as they were in their seats. They stared forward with blank expressions, seeming neither to realize nor care about what was being discussed.

"Maybe having drones living with regular ponies will help!" Alex suggested.

"Maybe." Riley looked down at her hooves, and nothing more was said for the rest of the trip.